X-Men First Class

My big order of Toys R US Exclusive minimates came in, so let's start with the X-Men First Class minimates. Based on the recent movie, I picked up these minimates because: Kevin Bacon as a minimate. So that's probably a good place to start. Please keep in mind that I haven't seen this movie and probably won't until it is released on DVD.

Xavier & Shaw

Both rather dull minimates. Sadly, Shaw doesn't really look that much like Kevin Bacon and his clothing sculpt has some damn sloppy paint and a lazy sculpt. The Xavier minimate does sort of look like whoever the hell plays him in the movie. Sorry, I can't be bothered to look it up in imdb. I was going to guess how many degrees away he was from Kevin Bacon, but then I realized it was 1, because they were in this freaking movie. Sometimes my mind moves slower than it should. At least they got Xavier's face right. He looks like a condescending dick and that means all is as it should be.

Magneto & Mystique

This set is a little better because it actually has an accessory, which was sorely lacking with the Xavier and Shaw set. Magento gets a helmet and a hair piece. And it's not an X-men movie if Magneto isn't accompanied by Mystique... because people loved it when she walked around naked. But in this movie she doesn't walk around naked. She's wearing an X-men uniform. And suddenly people are praising the actress who plays Mystique for being such a good actor. What are the odds, stop walking around naked and people stop ogling you and take you seriously. That's a life lesson you only get from movies people.

Beast & Azazel

I don't know what depresses me more, that they used Azazel in the movie or that his minimate is one of the better ones in this wave. If you don't know, Azazel was one of the worst ideas to be used in the X-men ever, that's all you need to know. I hear they changed him dramatically in the movie, which makes sense, because otherwise the movie would be the stupidest movie ever. I HATE HIM SO MUCH! And he comes with Beast who is blue because people can't let go of the 90's cartoon. Or maybe it's because its his iconic look. One of those. This is the other set in this wave to get an accessory, Azazel's teleport base. Because why not make him even more like Nightcrawler and remind me of the Azazel of the comic books and HE NEEDS TO BE RETCONNED AND NEVER MENTIONED AGAIN!

Emma Frost & Havok

They did it. Those bastards finally did it! They made an Emma Frost action figure that's isn't half-naked. I thought that was beyond the scope of man or god! I know there's no market for the haggard, sweat pants and loose sweater action figure variant of Emma Frost, but come on, it would be hilarious if they made one. As for Havok... I don't even want to contemplate how much it must screw up the continuity of the Summers family tree if Alex is around in the 1960s... wait, its the Summers family tree, that means it already makes no sense. So Alex in this movie could just be a time traveller, sent to the past to ensure that his parents hook up, but at the same time he will give his mother a blood transfusion that will give her the x-gene required to produce the powerful Summers children.... And you know what, that would actually be less insane than the Summers family tree in the comic books.

I'm trying to help here, Singer!

Age of Apocalypse Sabertooth & Age of Apocalypse Blink

Another set of character for the Age of Apocalypse minimates that... Wait a minute... Sabertooth & Blink join the Morph also in this wave... This isn't Age of Apocalypse wave at all... well it is... but its also an Exiles wave. Exiles, the Quantum Leap of the Marvel multiverse, or whatever Marvel's version of the multiverse is called. They just picked the AOA name because people would recognize it more than they would Exiles, which is kind of sad when you think about it. AOA was 15 years ago, Exiles was in print as long as a year or two ago.

But Exiles is one of Judd Winnick's better ideas, so let's celebrate it for that. Also because it finally allowed Marvel to publish a regular title with the ultra-popular Blink in it, finally rectifying their mistake of killing off one of the  X-men's most popular new characters... about a month after they introduced her. Whoops!

Wedding Piano Player

Oh hey, they made a piano playset for Playmobil. I guess it's part of the Wedding sub-series, but I don't care about Plamobil Weddings, so why would I want this? For the Piano? It's not like I have figures in this scale that are screaming out for a piano.

Oh wait, yes I do.

ROCK IT BEETHOVEN!

I love Playmobil sometimes. Not the figures, the accessories. The piano has a working key cover. And if you add batteries it'll actually play a song when you press the keys. How awesome is that? You can't hear it since I only took a picture.

Superman

So I was thinking about my ongoing mission to collect the DCUC figures of bad ideas of their biggest characters and create a sort of Bad Idea Justice League. I've got mullet Superman and Knightfall Batman, but then I remembered Electric Superman and I had to get this guy.

Because what's a stupider idea than getting rid of the popular look and symbol of your most iconic character for an entire year? Oh right, having him walk across America for an entire year after he's just spent an entire year away from Earth. Still, having him become a being of pure energy with even vaguely defined energy and reality warping based powers is right up there.

Thank god for ebay. Even though he's from an early wave I was able to get this guy for not too much more than current retail for DCUC figures. So that was nice. The lightning bolts clip to his hands, but not very strongly so they have a tendency to pop off. The one attached to his back is pretty firmly stuck there, although I thought it was weird that it had a traditional Superman logo on it. As if Superman was generating the energy that was emanating from him, but also manipulating it to display his logo on his back like a "Kick Me" sign. Or a corporate billboard.

Anyway, if you asked someone which was the stupidest redesign, Knightfall Batman or Electric Blue Superman, even if they were both meant to be temporary, what would they say? Well, there's only one way to really answer that.

IN THE RING!

Windburn with Darkray

Why would anyone buy a Power Core Combiners figure if it doesn't come with the pieces that make it a combiner?

Because it's a Transformer that only cost $2.50 when Target tries to get rid of them.

Other than that, there's no reason to get one of these things. Hell, I can't even think of anything particularly interesting to say about it other than that the minicon is actually useless and annoyingly doesn't fit into any of its pegs well. Wasn't the whole pokemon minicon thing over?

Skallox/Nite Lik

So time to start army building the Rainbow Corps. We'll start with the Red Lanterns since that was an easy one to get a hold of and it features skull guy.

I dig the design and all, but I'm having trouble getting over the idea that an alien race somehow evolved to have heads that look exactly like an Earth goat skull. Which is weird because I have no trouble with the bipedal space dogs from whatever planet G'nort was from. (G'Neecham?)

The figure comes with the Right Leg of Stel, the Build A Figure for Wave 2. I think I'm going to try and build Stel, although that G'Hu figure isn't something I'm inclined to go for. We'll see.

The figure also comes with swappable head & hands for Nite-Lik, the designed for this toy line character and then adopted by Johns who gave it a silly name like he does for all his aliens, I'm not even sure I want to include him in my Rainbow Corps. His profile says he collects the bones of his foes, which sounds more like a Sinestro Corps member to me, but then all his crap is red, so I can't just put his stuff on a Sinestro Corps body.  Also his tentacle hands and head look like a pain to deal with on the toy shelf.

It's all about practicality people. PRACTICALITY!

Current Corps
Green Lanterns: 2
Sinestro Corps: 1
Red Lanterns: 2
Star Sapphires: 1

Articulated Monster Question Post

We're going to record the next episode of the Articulated Monster Podcast on Sunday. If you have any questions, about anything, not just toys, that you'd like us to answer on the podcast, then please leave it in a comment here.