Sentinel and First Appearance Ryu

There are some uncomfortable implications made by doing a  Sentinel / Ryu two-pack. Since Sentinels are designed to only hunt mutants, does this mean that Ryu, maybe even all the Street Fighter characters, gained the ability to shoot fireballs and whatever because they're mutants and not because they've trained and mastered martial arts? It makes sense, after all, if fireballs could be created by anyone who trained long enough, you'd probably see more people attend martial arts classes. And Karate Kid would have been a much more exciting movie.

I already have a Sentinel minimate and I already have a Ryu minimate, so why get this set? Answer: The Sentinel looks different enough from the Sentinel I have that it's pretty much a new figure.

As for Ryu, this figure is pretty much a HUGE improvement over the Ryu minimate that was released in the old Street Fighter wave of minimates. And yes, this Ryu has the wrong colored hair (which I assume has something to do with the first appearance part of his title) but then so did the old Ryu minimate with its light brown hair. So I'll take this minimate and the red shoes that kinda look like ladies slippers. Also, a fireball so big it comes with its own stand to hold it up. The old Street Fighter minimate came with a fireball, but when you used it the figure would tip over because it was too heavy.

Improvements, yay.

AMP Episode 41: Cosbaby with Boobs

Hey everyone, it's another episode of the Articulated Monster Podcast: Your favorite-esque toy and action figure podcast.

 

 AJ and Alan, from France, are with us this week. We talk about even more SDCC Exclusive news and a bunch of Dark Knight Hot Toys, both Cosbaby and 1:6 scale figures. Then we talk about video games we want to see toys of.

 Man, we really talk about Batman a lot. You will not be happy about that by the end of the conversation.

Cliffjumper (Robots in Disguise)

When the Transformers: Prime toys first hit my local Target a few months back, I’d thought I’d give the line a try -- being a hardcore TF fan, after all -- and decided to pick up a deluxe class figure.  Of the available offerings, I narrowed my choices down to the Prime versions of Cliffjumper and Wheeljack.  I ultimately went with Cliff because I had acquired the Generations Wheeljack not long before and, hey, The Rock voiced the character in the series.

Before even getting into the finer details of this particular figure, note that two factors make the Robots in Disguise subline less appealing than past Transformers deluxe assortments. Firstly, these figures are regularly retailing for about $15, a noted increase from just a few years back when 10 bucks was been the norm (and had been for over a decade). Secondly, these figures are noticeably smaller in robot mode than what buyers are typically used to for this scale. Those two factors can make it hard for buyers to rationalize picking up some Robots in Disguise deluxes on a whim.

Taskmaster and Nathan Spencer

Nathan Spencer? Oh, you mean Bionic Commando. Which would explain why he has the giant metal arm in place of the normal minimate arm. I picked up this Toys R Us Exclusive "Marvel vs. Capcom" set for the Bionic Commando minimate because I think it's a pretty interesting minimate design. (I don't give a crap about the character. I even think he's one of the worst playing characters in the game.)  Taskmaster I am ambivalent about because I already have the Taskmaster minimate that came with US Agent so many years ago, and I don't think there's a GIANT leap in improvement. It's a better designed figure, yes, but not so much so that I felt the need to get the new figure.

Although I will admit that the new version has a better cape.(Similar weapons though.)

Hex Bug, gift card

So there's a new Target gift card and it includes a free Hex Bug attached to it. So I figured, why not, free Hex Bug. It's designed to look like a caterpillar and includes wings to turn it into a butterfly.

If you've wandered the toy aisles you've probably seen Hex Bugs. I sure have. Of course I also had no idea what they were. Well now I do.

It's basically a Zhu-Zhu pet but much smaller and faster. I turned it on and it began vibrating and moving and I almost lost it because it went so fast that I could barely keep track of it. I was only able to pick it up because it got lodged in a pile of junk I had at the end of the table. If I had turned this on in my kitchen, I'm pretty sure it'd be under the fridge right now.

So yeah, I see why Hex Bugs wants you to buy their little bug tracks.

Avengers Box set

People have wanted a Kang figure for a while. Now it's available. But only at the Disney store! Packaged with figures you can get in the upcoming Avengers wave of minimates. So really that means people are going to be selling Kang on e-bay for the exact same cost as the entire set. Which really, is the best reason to buy a set with 3 minimates that you already have since the Avenger figures are the exact same figures from wave 44.

 Does that mean I just bought this whole set for the Kang figure?

Yes. Yes it does.

Fortunately this has the new version of Ant Man, and I'm digging the figure even more than the original Ant Man figure. Also the Hulk figure comes with some cement he apparently ripped out of the ground. Although really, this is just me trying to justify buying 4 figures when I just wanted Kang.

On a similar note, I'm NOT buying the other Avengers Disney Store exclusive box set that features the exclusive Grim Reaper figure. Because the Grim Reaper is a dude with a scythe where his hand should be. Oh sure, it's a high tech scythe, but it's a silly gimmick and that's why he only shows up when they need to give some angst to his brother Wonder Man.

Meanwhile Kang is a time traveller and time travellers are awesome. And that's why I got this set.

AMP Episode 40: Well that got erased

 Oh man. So this week's episode of the Articulated Monster Podcast vanished because of a technical glitch. So to make up for it, AJ, Mario and I re-recorded a quick news rundown. I also included something that was deleted way back from our first episodes: AJ, Mario and I talking about playsets. Sorry about all that.