Minimate Monday: Clerks box set

So the Clerks minimate set available at comic shops, online, and toy stores are in black and white, reflecting the original movie. I'm not a fan of b&w toys, even if I love the Clerks series of films/cartoons. But this Toys R Us set has repainted the figures in full color, meaning they look nothing like they do in any movie. Well... Randall and Dante kinda look like they do in Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back, but I prefer to think this is a Clerks the Animated series set of figures and they're preparing to do battle with Alec Baldwin as Leonardo Leonardo.

Lady Jaye

I swear I always thought her name was Lady Jaye until the internet corrected me about a decade ago. So anyway, I picked up this figure because 1) it was on sale and 2) I was wondering how Kre-O would handle a female Kreon. And now I have my answer: NOT WELL.

Whereas other block figures usually heavily emphasize painted curves or try to feminize the face, Kre-O has instead decided to pull back and apply those more subtlety, which is a problem on a tiny block figure. With no long hair piece (or any hair piece at all, which means Kre-o's Lady Jaye is meant to be rocking a bald head) this figure very much looks like "guy with really red lips."

Also, this is the first time I noticed the expanded ends of the arms to allow for the insertion of the hand pegs. It makes it look like the figure has flesh colored wrist bands... or a swollen wrist that really should be looked at by a medical professional.

Also: Why the hell do I keep getting Kreons? They're never satisfactory.

Lightning Gremlin

Sometimes you see something on Clearance and you know you're going to buy it.

Standor

So they made some official Stan Lee toys for the Comikaze convention. But I didn't go to Comikaze. But I did go to the local Wizard World convention where Stan Lee Collectibles was selling their overstock. And since I love it when they make action figures of writers I decided to get one.

I debated getting Standor or the Pop Vinyl figure. Ultimately though, there's just so much more amusing about the Standor figure.

1) He's a He-man figure of Stan Lee.
2) He's blue, so he's probably the FAKER version of Stan Lee.
3) His profile claims Standor is one of the ancient gods of Endor who created so damn much.
4) He looks a lot more like Stan Lee than the simpler Pop Vinyl design.
5) Mustache.

Ignore the glare from the flash. Or pretend it's Standor's divine light of inspiration.

A vs X, Toys R' US Poll set

So for the Toys R Us box set of A vs X, they had a poll where people could choose the 4 figures that would be included in the set. Of course they later just released the other two figures as their own 2-pack in a later wave of Toys R Us exclusive minimates, basically making the whole thing a sham. But I remember when they did it, I was insanely disappointed by the choices. Because really, I don't give a damn about a bunch of variants for characters that already have minimate figures. New characters: that excites me. So I pretty much wrote off this entire set.

Until it was on sale for under $10 because of how beat up the box was.

The figures still underwhelm me, although the number of insane extra parts for the Iron Man figure amuses me. But the rest of them aren't really amazing if you already have figures of the characters (which I do.) The Protector is the most different, looking radically different than the Marvel Boy figure that was released as part of the Dark Avengers set. Of course the character no longer looks like that so, what's the point. In fact, I think Scarlet Witch looks exactly like her old figure.

But I will say this, I appreciate the fact that they gave the characters accessories to make them all look different.

That extra bang for your buck is why I love minimates.

Hugo and Heihachi

A toys R Us exclusive pack from the Street Fighter X Tekken line of minimates, I only picked up this set because 1) Heihachi is one of the few Tekken characters I can recognize (used fairly effectively as both a comedic and dramatic character) and 2) Hugo is one of the bad guys from the Final Fight video game that was eventually inserted into the Street Fighter games. And I love the idea of Final Fight minimates.

There's also a Rolento minimate that comes with a bear from Tekken, but I don't really like the bear design and was never a fan of Rolento... or even knew who he was when I first saw him in a street fighter game. (And what I remember about him from the Final Fight games was that he was a frustrating enemy to fight. So screw him.)

I really hope we get some more awesome Street Fighter/Final Fight minimates from these lines.

Kyle Rayner & Kilowog (SDCC 2012 exclusive)

Having never been to a comic convention, I've long missed out on the con exclusive game. But luckily since college I've made friends who do attend such gatherings, and so for the last two years my friend Kelly has been able to pick up exclusive toys being offered at San Diego Comic Con for me. Last year she grabbed the Hasbro Indiana Jones six-figure set (I'm still rightfully apologizing for her having to carry a three foot-long box through the packed con floor), and this July she was able to snag the first DC Collectibles (formerly DC Direct) Green Lantern 3 3/4"-scale two-pack.

Well, the snagging was a little more difficult than it should've been. See, the deal behind this series of non-retail two-packs is that DC intends them to be exclusive to certain big-time conventions (the second set containing John Stewart and Atrocitus was exclusive to the recent New York Comic Con, for instance). The company further stated that the line wouldn't progress beyond the first two-pack if it didn't sell out at SDCC. Apparently DC anticipated astronomical demand, as it instituted a complicated voucher system to ensure people didn't buy too many, as they had done with DC Direct's multi-colored Hal Jordan figures a while ago. How complicated, you ask? So complicated that Kelly wasn't able to buy a set for me until the last day. And so complicated that when she went to the booth to see if she could finally give them money for something they want to sell, there were still huge piles of the set left over. Unsurprisingly, at that point scoring one wasn't all that difficult.

Despite the logistical foul-up that resulted in heaps of unpurchased Kyle Rayner/Kilowog sets, it seems sales were decent enough to warrant continuing the line. Anyway, I wasn't able to pick up my set from Kelly and pay her back until last month, and I haven't been able to write up my review until now, but I gots things to say about this pair of Lanterns and I hope you don't mind hearing about them.

Sam the Eagle as Obi-Wan and Gonzo as Darth Vader, with Camilla as a Storm Trooper

I didn't go to Disneyland, but I did go to the souvenir store outside Disneyland, which I was happy to see had some of the exclusive Disney Park Star Tours toys. And I was really happy to see that they had the Muppets as Star Wars Characters figures. Of the three sets, I knew I was going to get the Gonzo as Vader set. Because I love Gonzo. And it has a chicken in a Storm Trooper helmet. I am ambivalent about Sam the Eagle.

One of the great parts about this set is that Gonzo comes with interchangable heads. You can either have him  with the default "Gonzo face" head, or you can replace it with a Darth Weirdo head that looks like the character in the episode of the Muppet Show where Luke Skywalker, Chewbacca, C3PO and R2D2 showed up. (With special appearance by Mark Hamill as Luke's cousin.)

When I first saw these figures I thought they were PVC statue figures. But I was pleased to find that they have limited articulation. Sam has a ball jointed shoulder and elbow joints! Waist joints! Neck joints! Camilla is a PVC statue though. All in all, they're pretty nice figures. Sure they cost extra because they can only be bought at a theme park, but still nice figures.

EVAC

So what did I buy on my vacation? Well I didn't want to pay $25 for an Evac figure, but I'm willing to pay $13 for a Legion Class figure. Since Evac is a character created for the Transformers Ride, I pretty much expect he'll never show up anywhere else, so that's kinda neat. In the ride he never transforms into a robot, he stays in vehicle mode the hole time, although you do see his hand jut out a couple times. So really, this robot mode is theoretical rather than a representation.

More accurate is his vehicle mode. While they claim it's a car, really it's a multi-person amusement park ride transport. Fits 8. I love that he's essentially a roller coaster car. It makes me laugh. And since I was on the ride, I can use this figure to remember that time when I rode inside him. Sitting next to some middle aged French tourist. Good times.

Yeah, as a Transformer: not worth $13. As a souvenir and memory inducer, well worth it.