Uncanny X-Men Box Set

The problem I have with the Minimate Box sets is that too often I'll only want one or two of the figures, which means I have problems paying $15 for the set. Especially if like this sucker, it's a SDCC exclusive. I wanted this set for Jubilee and Bishop, but it wasn't until I was at a toy show where I could haggle the price down from $10 to $8 that I picked it up. Thank you toy show.

First up is Battle-Ravaged Wolverine and Asteroid M Magneto. Battle Ravaged because there's already a couple figures named Battle-Damaged Wolverine. Meh. Then there's Asteroid M Magneto wearing a what is a very un-intimidating costume from the 80's. Which makes sense, that was the emasculating era of Alan Alda talk about our feelings manliness. Or so I hear, I was 5. This is from Magneto's short lived period of being a good guy when he lead the New Warriors and joined the X-men after helping them out during the Secret Wars, when the Beyonder kept lumping him together with the heroes. It's a bad 80's costume design and should never have been made into a figure. Seriously, just give me another X-men.



Yay, 90's Bishop and Jubilee. Also known as the iconic looks of these characters because everyone stopped reading comic books in the 90's when it imploded on its own hubris... Or something like that. There's been a Bishop figure before, but it was the 2000's Bishop, when Bishop became boring and Marvel had to keep trying to revitalize him because he had been in the present too long to be the "Guy from the distopian future that is stuck in the past." So 90's Bishop is a welcome addition. Although considering we've gotten X-Force Cable and this 90's Bishop, that old Cable/Bishop 2-pack is looking mighty sad.

Also, we get our first Jubilee minimate, and yay, because Jubilee is awesome.



Oh, and they did the thing where they printed Jubilee's non-sunglasses face on the back of her head so you can turn it around.



I dunno, why give the Asian character an Anime face? Is that a comment? It feels like a comment on something.

Ghostbusters: The Video Game Box Set

In order these guys are: Chef Demassi, Architect, Black Slime Monster, Azetlor. As you might guess from the name of the box set, these guys are ghosts from the Ghostbusters video game. They were originally supposed to be an exclusive with the collector's Slimer edition of the Ghostbuster video game, but then they dropped it. Then it was an Amazon exclusive. But I picked it up at a toy show for a good deal.

$5.

FUCK YES! I've been meaning to get more ghosts for the Ghostbusters, but I never felt it was worth it to pay $7 to get a ghost and another Ghostbuster minimate. Thanks, I've got the four, I don't need them again in new outfits I don't give a crap about. So this set, this set is awesome.

Dinosorb

From the Grayskull Wiki:

"Meteorbs were originally a Japanese toyline of transforming eggs from Bandai called Tamagoras (タマゴラス) and were released in the USA by Mattel as part of the Masters of the Universe toyline."

I've been looking for one of these all year, trying to indulge some childhood nostalgia. As a kid I had Dinosorb, who turned into a dinosaur and Tuskor, the wooly mamoth. Then today a friend of mine gave me his old Transformers from the garage he was cleaning out and in the middle of it I found this guy!

Hooray! Nostalgia accomplished! Of course the original was purple, not gray, but I'm good with this. I don't know if this is one of the Japanese toyline or not, but I don't care.

Ghostbusters II: "We're Back" Set

Like most young men of my generation, and all generations hence, I love me some Ghostbusters. But damned if the Ghostbuster toys coming out of Matty Collector were way to expensive. Which is why I was pretty much focusing on minimate Ghostbusters, but then Toy R Us put out this 4 pack featuring the boys in their Ghostbusters II outfits and a purchase was made.


I gotta say, out of all the likenesses, Egon's was the best. Technically Slimer's was the best, but of the humans, Egon's was most on target. Unfortunately on mine the Glasses are a bit skewed, and it's difficult to get them in the proper place. Egon is also the one with the most accessories, since he's the one packaged with the Ghost Trap.

The four are also packaged with Santa hats. There are actually 2 types of this set out there. One where the hats are already placed on their heads, and one where they are not. Slimer is placed in the packaging differently in both, but the contents of the boxes remain the same. If you can find it, and you want the hats on, get the one where they come with them on already. It's a bitch to get it on some of their heads. Winston's the easiest. Again, it's a pretty good likeness.

With Peter we're getting into tricky territory. The likeness isn't as great, the feet do that weird Mattel feet bend thing, and the hat is a bitch to fit on. (It's hardest on Egon.) Peter looks vaguely like Bill Murray, you can kind of see the similarities, but it's not anywhere near a dead on simulation. Also, I've posed Peter with Wonder Woman to show that these figures are clearly in the Movie Masters scale of the Mattel 6 inch line, which is a wee bit shorter than the DCUC figures.

And then there was Ray. Poor, poor Ray. It looks the sculptor really hates Dan Aykroyd. That's the only reason I can think of for why Ray looks like he's missing a jaw.

Also Slimer, which you saw in the background of the Egon figure. For $60 it's nice to have some larger Ghostbuster figures, but on the whole, I wish they could have all been the same quality as the Egon and Winston figures.

Martha Jones

It's Martha Jones, the Companion from the 3rd Season of Doctor Who. So of course they made a figure of her, and it turns out to be a pretty good one. The outfit they picked is pretty iconic (although to make it look glossy they painted it in a way that feels sticky to the touch, as if it's still half-wet. I swear I'm making finger print impressions every time I touch it and I'm afraid it'll smear or rub off if I'm not delicate.)

I picked Martha up to add some variety to the "Good Guy" shelf of my Doctor Who figures. I'm quite pleased with the figure, although I notice all the companion figures seem to feature this bland non-chalant expression, like they're a little bored.

One thing I like about the sculpt of her wide bottom jeans is that they result in a larger "foot" that serves to balance the figure more when standing up.

I'm really loving the articulation on the Doctor Who figures. If they had ball-jointed shoulders they would be about perfect.

Vashta Narada

Forget the name of this blog folks. I didn't buy this toy. I got this for my birthday from Mario. Considering my birthday was 3 months ago, I really should have gotten to writing about this earlier. But you know what, that didn't happen.

Clearly.

Hmmm, this is kind of becoming a Doctor Who week. Another one. Screw it, I love Doctor Who.

But hey, it's a toy based on corpse in a hazmat suit being controlled by spores that look exactly like shadows. A corpse that was stripped to the bone and eaten by those same spores. Doctor Who, folks. A kids show. Cheery! Let's see Disney make something like that... oh wait, they probably did. They were much darker back in the 60's and 70's.

Cyberwoman

Lord, I can't believe I own a Torchwood toy. Yes, I have a Captain Jack Harkness figure, but that's from the Doctor Who line. This is from a completely seperate company (kinda. Different in the UK, in the US it's distributed by the same company that does the Doctor Who stuff.)

I'm not a fan of Torchwood, but they did a godawful episode that sort of involved Cybermen, and then they made a toy of the half-naked, half-converted Cybercharacter... and I'm a big Cyberman fan and want to collect as many of the 5-inch Cyber figures they make so... I bit the bullet.

Man, this makes the line-up look weird. I've got a Cybermen army lined up and in the middle of them all, a half-naked Cyberwoman. It's like someone is doing a Crossplay swimsuit calendar. Sheesh.