Cyclops

The Wolverine movie, from what I hear, isn't very good. But whatever. What I care about is the toy line and the fact that for some reason the movie waves include comic book versions of characters. (Even character who aren't in the movie.) However Cyclops was in the movie and so here's a toy of him! Yay! You gotta love a character everyone thinks is too reserved but is only that way because he realzies that if he loses control of himself for even a minute that people will die. Also, Cyclops can't control his powers because his father threw Cyclops out of an airplane as a child because it was being attacked by aliens. And he had to shoot his baby into the future to save its life after the baby momma (a clone of Cyclops true love who was dead for a while after killing billions of people on another planet) sold her sould to a demon. Oh comic books, how I love you.

This is his most recent costume, dubbed the "Astonshing" costume due to its premiere in Astonishing X-men. It's a new variation of his "International era" X-men costume which somehow seems more like a body condom than that one did. It's not a bad costume, it's just... well damnit, I grew up on the Jim Lee era costume. That one rarely gets a toy these days.

But whatever the costume, Cyclops might be my favorite X-Men character, so a figure of him is always welcome. Especially one in this scale. There's no wrist or ankle articulation, in keeping with this line, but he's still got a good heft of posability thanks to joints every where else you would expect a Hasbro 3.75" figure to have them. I also like how they simulated his action feature without doing the light up eyes thing from a battery powered light source or light piping.

Chun-Li

What I like about the microman line is it's high level of articulation at 3.75" scale. Also I like that you can find them for $5 at most conventions.

Hey look, it's Chun-Li. The last time she was in this scale it was a really bad Street Fighter Toy that was essentially classic GI Joe: RAH figures with day-glo street fighter costumes. Oh 90's, how I miss you. Partially because I was still wide eyed and innocent.

This figure is pretty bad ass though. It comes with translucent pegs to simulate jump kicks and floating. And you can pose it in pretty much anything you can dream up. Hooray for articulation! And for this scale it looks pretty damned good.

Shazam!, AKA Captain Marvel (DC Universe Classics)

When I sat down to write this post, I realized I had forgotten that I own the Infinite Heroes version of this character as well. How about that? Don't worry, though; the Infinite Heroes figure has nothing on this toy.

Due to Marvel Comics owning the trademark to the name "Captain Marvel", the original Cap here must always be referred to as "Shazam!" on merchandise. But make no mistake: this is the one true Captain Marvel, a comic book character that at the height of his popularity in the 1940s sold over a million issues of his flagship title Captain Marvel Adventures a month. Hell, he even outsold Superman.

What mainly attrached me to this figure was the amount of unique pieces created for it. Aside from the requisite new head sculpt, Captain Marvel also ultilizes a new torso, new shoulders, new forearms, and his snazzy over-the-shoulder cape to properly replicate his uniform. The biceps and everything below the waist is reused from previous DC Universe Classics body sculpts. The reuse of old parts does hurt slightly, as the biceps don't match the rest of the upper body. Scanning from the top of the shoulders to the end of the wrists, the figure goes from thick overcoat to skintight unitard to thick overcat again. It creates an inconsistant look, and I just reminds me how of how I really hate how cheap Mattel can be. The solid cape does limit shoulder articulation a bit, but it's well-sculpted and very dynamic. I'm sure a cloth cape would've worked just as well, though.

Nevertheless, those are minor problems. The unique pieces make this an excellent figure. It's definitely the best Captain Marvel figure ever made.

What?

Guys, please stop. I love minimates, I really do. But you're killing me here. Beverly Hills Cop Minimates? I'm still on the fence about the Godfather minimates, this isn't helping.

Although I admit that the Judge Reinhold minimate looks very accurate.

Free Comic Book Day Minimate 2009

Actually I didn't buy this toy. It was a giveaway that some comic book stores gave away on Free Comic Book Day. Unfortunately none of the ones I went to had it.

Fortunately a friend of mine works part time at a comic store where they did, thought of me, and gave it to me this week.

Which is the only way I would ever have gotten one of these, really. It's a nice souvenir, and certainly neat to have, but not something I'd pay a lot of money for or spent a lot of time trying to track down. It's not a character, just a basic plastic template with a logo on it. And not even a logo I particularly admire.

This is the kind of exclusive I like seeing. One where if you can't make it to the event, it just means you miss out on a souvenir that commemorates the event through a bland "you are here" declaration rather than missing out on a desirable character with a dedicated fan base.

Cannon Centurion Cylon & Lieutenant Boomer

So I'm not really a fan of Battlestar Galactica. Mostly because I've made a conscious effort not to watch the episodes because I'm afraid of getting sucked into another series. Maybe when Lost is over I'll get the DVDs. Actually, to tell the truth, I've watched 2 episodes of the BSG series, the last two episodes. I knew what was going on because even though I haven't watched the show, I have researched it using wikipedia.

That's just how I roll.

But since I'm not a fan, why get these figures? Well for one thing, they were on sale. $2 for 2 minimates. Good deal. But in addition to that, these are good looking minimates. The costume detail on Boomer is good, and the likeness is fairly well done. That's a plus, because I've not been impressed with the other designs in the BSG minimate line. They mostly look like generic males and females with a tenuous resemblance to the original actors. It's why I didn't get the Adama minimate despite my strong desire for an Edward James Olmos minimate.

Will I get any more from this series? Maybe, if they're really cheap and the costume design looks good. Otherwise, probably not.

And the Cylon design is pretty impressive/cool.

Ransack

I don't buy a lot of Transformers. If I do it's because the alt-mode looks awesome and I like the robot mode. I think I've bought 3 Transformers in the last 10 years.

I've completely ignored the move figures because I think the robot modes look like crap. I like the blocky robots designs from the G1 era. The Moving shrapnel look doesn't appeal to me. But Ransack is different. It's a biplane. And a Transformer that turns into an out of date technology is awesome.

It's a nice Transformer. If I've got any complaint it's that the wheels on the bottom of the plane don't spin, they're not actually wheels, just sculpted to look like them. It's disapplinting, I like to roll my Transformers across my desk. But it's kinda expected on the planes.

Rumors...

http://www.doctorwhotoys.net/rumouroftheday.htm

Rumors of a 3.75" Tardis console playset?

Score.

Glad it's in 2010 though. I think I've already blown this month's toy budget. Because the new Monkey Island game went on pre-order.