Chatter Teeth

It's a staple of bad comedy, but I've never actually seen a pair of these things in person. Then I did, at the Dollar Tree and decided to pick it up. It's made of cheaper material and doesn't really make the clacking noise you'd think it would, but for $1 it's a nice little novelty item.

It's a wind up toy, and for some reason it chatters at near hypersonic speed. (hyperbole) But it's more fun than you would think, so a good value.

Oh what hell, Character Building?

Character Building is Character Options line of lego-like block toys. They're most prominent for their Doctor Who figures, but they've begun making the leap into generic building toys. They have their own design for minifigures, as all building block toys usually do, and based on the strength of Doctor Who license they were able to do a series of blind packed Doctor Who minifigures. Since it's a Doctor Who Line, there's not a huge call for Character Building stuff in the mass market retail chains.

Which is why I was shocked to find Character Building minifigures blind packed figures at Target in their trading card section. For $2 you could get a blind packed generic Character Building minifigure. Which would be neat if the reason most Americans gave a damn about Character Building was anything other than Doctor Who toys. They don't even look like great figures, but whatever. I searched around for one of the UNCOMMON figures, the zombie with an exposed brain, and picked one up so I could ascertain whether the figures were good enough to be worth my while to seek out the Doctor Who figures.

And for $2 I can happily say, no, no they're not. Let's not even get into the part where the RARE figures are repainted versions of the COMMON figures so the ol' squeeze and feel method won't help you find a RARE figure. The things are not very detailed, the paint's a little sloppy, and hey, some of them don't come with any accessories. Like the zombie. I mean, sure, I think the Lego minifigures are over-priced, but at least they come with cool accessories and amazing paint decals. I dunno man, do I really want Cybermen if they're just versions of these figures.

Yes, but only because they're Cybermen. And I don't want to pay the going rate for them.

Things I saw sold in stores! What the H? edition

Did anyone else know that Imaginext was doing a preschool version of Dino-Riders?

And Hot Wheels designed tracks for you to play with in the bath tub?

Buyer's Remorse: Fake Poop edition

So hey, fake poop for a $1 at Target. But to keep it or not to keep it? It's only $1. I spend more on that on a candy bar. But that's a $1 I can spend on Green Lantern toys. And as Ben Franklin once said, "Dipshit, save your money so you can spend it on better things."

But on the keep it side of the argument, it makes a squeak noise when you squeeze it.

Claw Mania

It was only a matter of time before I got my own Claw Game. I've been into the arcade classic since the Mexican Grocery Store near my College Apartment had one which included a claw with a strong grip. Seriously after winning every other game, you begin to fancy yourself a pretty good claw game aficionado.

Fortunately this cheap plastic version was $10 at Tuesday Morning. (Discount Store ala Ross or TJMaxx, except they focus on tacky housewares.) It's pretty good, the claw mechanism is adequate, although the space is rather small. That actually makes it harder, since the claw is often times to large to get in the position you want it to, or the mechanisms that allow movement don't quite reach everywhere. So there's still some skill/luck involved.

There's a start button that you press which causes some carnival music to play. You use 2 levers to control the claw. One controls the direction of the claw, the other raises and lowers the claw. The claw is set up so that it opens when it is lowered and snaps closed when you raise it up again. You can raise and lower the claw as often as you want, but after a period of time the music stops and the claw freezes up. You can press the start button to continue, but your turn is up. The machine also stops if you open the claw over the prize chute (under the idea that you've successfully grabbed a prize). The machine toots out a little jingle and locks up so your turn is over. To go again you've got to press the start button on the machine.

You add the prizes through a small porthole in the back. You can't put anything really large in there, but that's fine, since the claw can't pick up much. There's a moveable piece of plastic that swings aside to give you access to the hole.

The only REAL downside is that it requires 3 D batteries to work. D batteries? Who the hell makes something for D batteries? Well, aside from Maglites.

But overall, this is pretty damn cool. I can't wait to get more prizes to put in this thing and invite people over to try their hand at winning something. The only question is how awesome of a prize do I want to put in there? Just bits of candy and party favors OR do I want to put Lego Minifigs and minimates in there?

Outdoor Adventure

So I returned that tiny 1:18 motorcycle to Wal-Mart and picked up another Adventure Wheels vehicle, this time the unnamed ATV which I'm going to assume should be called what the only other TITLE FONT words on the box say: Outdoor Adventure, Off-Road Adventure. Whatever, it's an ATV and it's supposed to be in the proper scale. And it damn well better be. I saw a GI Joe ATV at Ross the other day and I realized that it was actually just a repainted vehicle from this Adventure Wheels line. Well, they added a gun, but other than that, exact same. So really for you're paying an extra $5-10 if you want GI Joe coloring. Oh, and I guess it comes with a GI Joe figure, but is that really worth the extra amount of scratch? No. (Unless you REALLY like Leatherneck.)

Because this ATV comes with a figure too. It's a generic guy in a helmet (helmet doesn't come off) who looks sort of like the Stig from Top Gear dressed up to be a Midwest forest guy. I guess, I don't have a lot of experience with Midwestern people. Either way it's a pretty bland figure which is sadly a better constructed and better articulated figure than anything in the new Green Lantern 4 inch line. (Those things suck. Possibly even more than the DC Infinite heroes which they are clearly based.)

As for the ATV, it does what I want. Which is to say it's a damn ridiculous vehicle for my 3.75" figures to be riding.

Two Wheeler (No seriously, that's what it's listed as.)

It's a motorcycle made by Maisto. This one's from Wal-Mart so they've placed it under Wal-Mart's proprietary line "Adventure Wheels" but I've seen identical looking motorcycles with different paint jobs at Target... also made by Maisto. But what's important is that this is 1:18 scale, so in theory it should be perfect for any 3.75" figures you have.

Or I have. But it turns out that previous few of my 3.75" figures have the articulation to properly get their legs and bodies on this thing. And it turns out that the few which can, are too big.

Sure they're not tooooooooooooo big, but the scale is slightly off. Fortunately the motorcycle is cheap, so there is that. Still, kinda disappointing.

Dollar Store Visit

I always browse the aisles of the Dollar store for toys, because hey, they're a dollar. As long as you don't get too much you can usually absorb the impact of a couple purchases. On my last visit I picked up the following: Star Trek Trading Card Game Booster Pack: I used to love these in high school. In fact this is from the same edition that was available back then. I never got any rare cards, just generic crew dudes. And that streak did not end now. I love that Youth is considered a skill. Uh oh, this challenege can only be defeated by someone under the age of 30. Guess they're dealing with a lot of late night partying issues on Away Team missions. Also, how weird is it that the espionage guys all have skills in regular professions. I guess that was what they studied in Undergrad before deciding to enroll in the world of espionage. I also picked up this punching Frog Pen. It's a pen with a punching frog puppet on it, you know, like the punching Nun puppet that's so insinuated itself into pop culture. Kinda cool. Although I don't know why they put a pen on it. Who is actually going to use it for that?

Wind Up Robots

I have no freaking idea how to properly tag these guys. I found them in the clearance shelves of Target's Party/Art section. They're clearly meant to be gift bag goodies, but I saw them discounted to a dollar and decided that I really liked their retro design. Because it turns out I enjoy classic looking robots. Their wind up action is actually rather fun to play around with. They walk across my table, their arms pumping up and down, their heads nodding back and forth in what I can only assume is a scientists attempt to humanize their android creations but which only resulted in an uncanny valley situation that unnerved the workers that served alongside the robots.
You know, for what is essentially 25 cents each, I love these guys. Worth every penny, even if their paint job isn't great because damn, 25 cents.

Arcade Prizes

Hey look, it's some crap I won at an arcade by exchanging my tickets and the tickets given to me by a dude who didn't give a crap!

Let's see what we've got.

A plush Octopus keychain by Russ, the stuffed animal juggernaut company.

A plastic Indian from one of the hilariously out of date and completely historically inaccurate Cowboys and Indian themed plastic figures.

A toy spider that is sure to eventually to cause me to mistake it for a real one someday during a night when I'm not wearing my glasses.

A small plastic lizard which is pretty neat.

An toy ice cream cone that fires its foam "ice cream" when you press a small lever. "Would you like a lick from my obviously fake ice cream?" BOP! Ha! Fooled you!

One of those rubber cup things that you turn inside out and then place it on a table so it snaps back, causing it to be propelled into the air for a few seconds.

The end.