The Articulated Monster, Episode 8: Nobody Likes Hal Jordan

Here's Episode 8 of the Articulated Monster Podcast, the toy/actionfigure podcast I do with Mario & James from A Year of Toys & All things Fett respectively.

Let's see if this works. Direct Download (Right click & Save Target As)

And here's something new: the links to the news bits we were talking about, so you can see what we were seeing.

Opening song: "Monster" by Meg & Dia.

Smurf Movie Basic Figure 2-packs
http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=137&itemid=17275

TRU Exclusive Joker/Harley 2 pack
http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=1&itemid=17277

Mezco SDCC Greenlanter Mez-Itz
http://toynewsi.com/news.php?catid=10&itemid=17278

Minimate Galactus Heralds poll
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/main/toys-r-us-herald-of-galactus-minimates-fan-poll

Mortal Kombat figure pics
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/main/mortal-kombat-pictures

Armored Daredevil & Moon Knight

Oh who gives a crap about Armored Daredevil. Why would a man without fear need armor? I'm guessing this was a 90's thing, because any time I hear "armored superhero costume variant" I think it's because of the 1990's.

But I did want the Moon Knight minimate. I guess the big thing these days is Moon Knight as a crazy dude with multiple personalities and a violent take on vigilante justice. But once upon a time he was a White Suit Batman who was tricked into fighting a good guy werewolf. Then he got bitten by the werewolf and gets stronger as the phases of the moon get closer to a full moon. Then the cult who worship the God who ressurected him give him moon based weapons from ancient Egypt designed by a time travelling Hawkeye.

Whatever, he'll always be the Marvel analogue to Batman who showed up in the background of crossover series to me.

And his minimate figure has a big flowing cape which is a pain in the ass because it's too big, inflexible, and screws up his center of balance and articulation. Not worth it really.

Especially when you're packed with armored Daredevil.

Buyer's Remorse: Memorial Day Weekend 2011

So I actually did return a lot of the stuff from last week's Buyer's Remorse post. Some of it because I could get cheaper, some of it because I realized I didn't really want it.

Of course, then I went on to buy new toys. Here's a picture of three items I purchased. I did get some other stuff, but I'm definately keeping it. These three items however are the ones I'm on the fence about and might return.

Wal-Mart doesn't care about toy collectors. (Imagine it in a Kanye voice.)

Just a thing to watch out for. I went to Wal-Mart and noticed that they had put back on the shelf some Green Lantern Classics figures that were missing the Build-A -Figure piece. No sticker on it, no price discount, just up there on the shelf.

It wouldn't be too egregious, other than the obvious problem of some dick buying them, pulling out the pieces he wanted, and returning them.

EXCEPT: These were the exact same figures that I had informed them, explaining it to 3 employees and a manager, of missing the BAF piece 2 weeks ago. They said they'd have to e-mail everyone to make them aware that stuff like this was happening. So they were aware of the problem and decided to put them back on the shelf without putting something out there alerting customers to the missing pieces. For full price.

And when I once again took them to Customer Service and talked to a manager her response was, "well, what do you want us to do about it. The only thing we could do is pull them from the shelf." Which she then DID NOT DO.

So seriously, watch out because Wal-Mart doesn't care if they sell you bad products and don't feel bad about not having any loyalty to Wal-Mart. (But on the same side of things, don't be a dick and return merchandise after you've stolen the bits you want out of the package.)

Which is kind of stating the obvious.

Suspended Animation Captain America

Oh lord, they made a minimate of the time that Captain America was frozen in an iceberg for 30 years. I love that they're making minimates of some damn ridiculous versions of popular characters. They made figures of 6-armed Spider-Man and Drunk Mess Tony Stark, but they're both eclipsed by this figure. Because this figure comes with a "Trapped in an block of ice" accessory.

Seriously, that puts it in contention for the best minimate figure ever.

Also, Happy Memorial Day.

Vet with Car

Out of all the Playmobil sets out there right now, I've been looking at the Vet with a Car and wondering if I should buy it, for a while now. Because it's the cheapest Playmobil car out there and I was wondering if it would meet my needs. I actually don't care about the vet, although I find it amusing that she comes with bandages for cats and a scalpel. I imagine this vet always has that scalpel, waiting for that moment when there are no witnesses and she can finally... well... that's a mystery for another day.

Now when I opened the box I was surprised to learn that you've got to assemble some of the parts yourself. I actually kind of like that. It gives me a sense of accomplishment to snap a few pieces of plastic together and get a perfect looking vehicle. It's like old GI Joe vehicles. There's also the added bonus that the roof isn't permanenant sot you can take the roof off and make it a convertible. That's very handy since there aren't any doors on the car.

It's an okay looking car, perfect for the Playmobil figures. But what I really wondered was: Is it in scale for my other 2 or 2.5 or 3 inch minifigures. Let's find out.

Edgar Allen Poe: Yes!

John McClane and Sgt. Al Powell: Yes

Spock and Kirk: Yes

T-700 and T-800: Sort of.

Gandalf: Yes

Spider-Man Friends & Foes

Okay, Minimates, you win, I'm willing to pay over $20 to complete my set of Sinister Six minimates. Even if it does come with a stupid Spider-man variant and new versions of two figures I've already gotten in the past. But if the Excalibur Boxset showed me anything, it's that new versions can be kind of cool, so wow me.

Okay, I'm really liking the Vulture, so that's good. They used the same arm thingy they did with Blackbolt, but it works really well here. The only gripe I've got is one that's inherint to minimates as a whole. Without a nose you lose part of what makes the Vulture look so iconic.

Spider-Man looks... ugh, I hate when they do a Battle Damaged Spider-Man. I get it, he got beat up, do I need 10 variations of this? At this point I want them to follow the trend they had in the 90's with the regular action figures. Give me Crocodile Hunter Spider-Man, Dinosaur Fighting Spider-Man, Hip Wader Spider-Man. Ridiculous variants would be better than all these Beat-Up Spider-men figures.

The other two are updates of the Black Cat & Dr. Octopus. Any good?

Black Cat is a toss up. (New one on the left.) It's mroe realistic, but by losing the simpler caricature look of the older minimates they also lost some of the implied voluptuousness. Face facts, a square body is not a good way to express sexy. If you go simpler you allow the imagination to fill more details.

Meanwhile Doc Ock is an improvement. (New figure on the right.) The added detail makes him look angrier, more cranky. The old figure is kind of comical rather than threatening. So this is one time where the more detailed approach works. Also the arms are a lot cooler, even if they aren't really articulated. They have cut joints, but the pre-posed tentacles almost render that joint moot.

Captain Cold

I finally bit the bullet and picked up a Captain Cold. Yeah, I know, peg warmer, but that doesn't mean he can't be a good figure. I don't have a Flash figure, but as I've said in the past, I'm trying to build up my DCUC Villain collection and Cold here is a pretty neat looking villain. 

The costume design is simple yet effective, although since he doesn't have powers, just a guns that shoots cold/freeze ray, you've got to wonder about how he fights off heat exhaustion when he's just running away. Sure he needs to be warm when he turns everything around him into ice, but if you look at his comic book appearances, he doesn't do that very often. Usually he just freezes what needs to be frozen. I dunno, maybe it's actually a thin cotton blend lined with fur and just looks heavy.

Either way, not a bad looking figure. My only real gripe is that his freeze gun doesn't fit tightly in his hand, and as a result tends to droop impotently in his grip. And his holster doesn't close easily. Stupid soft plastic tabs and holes.

Also, it comes with Atom Smasher's head/ass.

Deluxe Light Cycle: Sam Flynn

Why would someone who has never seen either Tron movie buy a lightcycle toy from the new Tron movie line? Answer: 1:18 scale lightcycle. Who will drive it next?!

Danger Room Wolverine & Omega Red



Before we begin, can we just all agree that the amount of information they're trying to fit in the Minimate bios has reached ludicrous speed? It's impossible to read without a magnifying glass.

That's got to be a joke, right? About how convoluted the history of Omega Red is. I want to say that it is, but I can't tell anymore.

Anyway... This was the only set in the wave that was a MUST GET for me. I don't know why, but I really wanted an Omega Red minimate. I'm not a big fan of the guy, but he's a good X-men bad guy when they want to do mindless action stuff. And if there's one thing about the minimate line that I've begun to realize, they really need to up their villain : hero ratio.

So hey, 90's character with about a dozen powers to the point that they lampshade it in the comic books. Plus the tentacles are kinda cool. So sure, I'll get it, even if it does come with the 40th Wolverine variant.

Technically it's the 38th, but close enough. And if you're wondering, the last one to come out was released 3 months ago in a box set, and the one before that was in the last wave of these Toys R Us Exclusives 6 months ago. So, yeah, could they seriously not think of any other X-men characters to pack in here? If you're keeping tack, that's 38 Wolverines and only 2 Nightcrawlers, 2 Kitty Prydes, 3 Collosuses, 3 Xaviers, 3 Emma Frosts, 6 Magnetos, 5 Storms, 1 Blob, 4 Juggernauts, and 11 Cyclops. So that means that there are more Wolverine variants than the rest of the characters from the 80's cartoon "Pryde of the X-men" combined.

Excalibur

Ever since this set was announced I was of two minds. On the one hand I REALLY wanted the Megan figure to complete my Classic Excalibur line-up. On the other hand I didn't like that the other three figures in the set were characters I already had Minimates of. Sure Juggernaut looks like they've made a lot of improvements since the character's last minimate figure (aside from the movie version) back in 2004, but was that enough to justify the boxset price? Particularly since Captain Britain had been released with a superior look with the Shadowcat figure just a short while ago.

As it turns out, kinda, yeah.

See it turns out that Juggernaut is really... REALLY improved. (New one on the left.) And the Nightcrawler isn't too different from the last version they made, but damn it's a neat figure all the same so having two of them isn't that bad.

Meanwhile the Captain Britain is ass, but 3 out of 4 ain't bad. (New one on the right.)

Lil' Ludwig Van Beethoven

You remember Lil' Ludwig from my big Accoutrement Toys bag from way back? Sure you do. Well he's a three inch figure, a scale I'm slowly building an appreciation for thanks to Playmobil and-

HE BRINGS YOU A SYMPHONY OF PAIN!

YOUR CRIES FOR MERCY FALL ON DEAF EARS!!

Buyer's Remorse: Weekend of May 21-22

Time for what might be a regular feature here on Why Did I Buy That Toy? I call it "Buyer's Remorse" and it comes down to this:

I take a picture of the toys I purchased this weekend that I'm thinking of returning because I'm not certain I should have spent the money on them. At the store it seemed like a good idea, but now that the initial thrill has worn off, I don't know if I should have spent that amount of money on something I'm feeling a little so-so about. Invariably some of the items will be returned, possibly all, but I might decide that something is worth keeping, and it will eventually show up on this site. Probably in a month or so.

If there anything on here you think I ABSOLUTELY should keep, let me know and I'll take it into consideration. So here's this weekend's photo!

Gorilla Costume

Hey look, I finally bought the Series 3 Lego minifigure of a guy in a gorilla costume.

Because it's a Lego minifigure, dressed up in a gorilla costume.

Sometime the answer to "Why Did I Buy That Toy?" answers itself.

10th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver & 11th Doctor's Sonic Screwdriver

They're both fun, but if you have to choose between them, go for the 11th Doctor's screwdriver. It has more action features, is more fun to play with, the light that is activated is green instead of purple and so looks more unworldly, and the sounds it makes are more varied. Whereas the 10th Doctor's screwdriver extends by pushing the inner tube up, the 11th Doctor's is a press a button unlock a spring loaded transformation which feels more "sci-fi" for some reason.

The only real advantage that the 10th Doctor's screwdriver has over the 11th's is that the 10th Doctor's screwdriver doubles as a pen, and comes with an invisible ink nib that can be switched out and seen using the light up feature. The light in the 10th Doctor's screwdriver is a UV light, so go while if you want a weak blacklight on a stick.

The Yellow Ranger Shows You How To Ride Like A Lady

It is important to maintain proper posture at atll times.

"World of the Psychic" Peter & Vigo the Carpathian

Man, their insistance of having a human in every box of this wave lead to some really hard stretching. I mean, "World of the Psychic" Peter? From that bit at the beginning of the 2nd movie where he interviews the people with doomsday prophecies and then holds up a psychic cat. (Hence the prop included with the package?) Who really cares about "World of the Psychic" Peter?

Well if you want the big bad from the 2nd movie, Vigo, THE CAPATHIAN! then you better at least be okay with owning that Peter variant which is too long to type out but would still be shorter than whatever the hell I'm doing right now. Fortunately for Peter, my desire to have Vigo finally overcame my reluctance to own stupid variants. And Vigo comes with his demonic head. Wouldn't Ray have been a more suitable choice to come in this box? After all, Ray does briefly play host to Vigo and get to wear the big demon head.

Radiator Springs Lightning McQueen

So I have no interest in ever watching the movie Cars. That said, I am interested in Cars 2 because of the secret agent/international spy movie plot with Michael Caine as a gadget laden James Bond car.

Also, I like Legos. So when I saw the Cars 2 Lego sets at Target I decided to pick one up. It felt weird to pay around $6 and not get a minifig with the car, but when you think about it, the car is the minifig... BRAIN HURTS! Stupid movie about anthropomorphic cars.

One thing I did like was that the graphics were actually printed on the Legos, you know, like they used to do. No stickers this time, which means no constant reapplying of the stickers to get them positioned properly. Hooray. The down side to this is that the whites aren't bright white due to the thin layer of paint they used. They're more of a dull white with the hue of the red base piece bleeding through a lot.

It's a good looking mini-car, and happily in scale with the Lego Racers cars. I might have to pick up a couple more of these. Not the big sets, but the smaller ones that give you two cars for $15. Maybe. I'll need to look at my finances.

And just as I thought, they are in scale with the Lego Racers mini-cars. So that's cool. I like that line.

Copperhead

So I was looking around Tuesday Mornings, trying to find some deals (I found a marionette for under a buck!) and I stumbled across a couple DCUC figures. One was the Metal Man Iron (not gonna happen) and the other one was Copperhead. Now I've got no particular attachment to Copperhead, I've only seen him in a couple comic books, and they were both in his post Underworld Unleashed Snake-man hybrid. But he did appear in the Justice League Cartoon's version of the Injustice League where he seriously inconvenienced Batman. And I do like the way this figure looks.  And I do want to broaden the range of my DCUC Villain collection. Okay, that's three reasons, I'm sold.

What is there to say about this guy? I really like the way his snake hat works. There's something that amuses me about the fact that he looks like a guy wearing a Halloween Costume. He also meets my main criteria for liking a DCUC figure: he doesn't have a cape.

Accessories? Well he comes with a button I'm not going to dignify with a picture since it doesn't even feature Copperhead on it. And he comes with Darkseid's head and ass. Because... uh... the company want Darkseid to kiss his own ass? Hmm.

You know what you can do with that head?

AQUAMAN WILL F**K YOU UP SON!

Marvel Universe Squinkies

So Squinkies are essentially capsule toys that you buy yourself and put into personal vending machines that look like trees, tea kettles, or skulls (for the boys). They're like tiny, tiny vinyl figures you buy in small plastic balls. For some reason this whole "home gumball machine" aspect of it means that you can buy small figures you normall would pay a quarter for, but now they're like $1 each. In blister cards, blind packs, and what have you. I've been intrigued by them, but not enough to pay for it... But then I got a coupon that sort of made the price palatable, so let's squash that curiosity.

One of the licensed boys version of the Squinkies is Marvel. I picked up a bag of Series 2 (2 squinkies packed blind bagged) and I guess the licensing fees are prety high because it's two for $2.50. When I opened it up I saw that I had recieved... Doctor Doom and the Silver Surfer. Thank god, Doom was the only one I would have been happy about. They're both... weird... which is sort of the point i guess. But they're also made of transparent plastic, so... I don't know. I think all the figures in this line are supposed to be made of transparent plastic with some paint applications.

How the hell are you supposed to review these things? They're clearly not worth $1.25 each. But I refuse to buy the playset dispenser which might make the whole experience worth it. Ah well.

I'm keeping Doom and putting the Surfer into Claw Mania. Someone can win it one day.

Alien Striker

So I guess Alien Conquest is the line that's taking over for the Space Police Lego line. That's cool. I can pretend that it means that the Space Police failed utterly in their mission. Especially since sets in this line include farmers being abducted by aliens.

But the set I got is the smaller $5 set, and I've got to say, the fact that they included minifigures of one of the Alien investigators and an alien is kind of impressive. And there's a tiny vehicle made up less than 36 pieces, but you know what. The vehicle is awesome. I wasn't certain I'd like it, but after putting it together and placing the alien in there, it's realy neat. It really looks like something I'd expect an alien to ride in a schlock alien invasion movie.

The alien itself is much nicer than any of the creatures from the Space Police line, which I've got to admit I wasn't a fan of. As to the alien investigator: the neon blue suit and helmet makes him look like one of the Visionaries. I like it. A lot more than the Space Police look. The Space Police looked like corrupt bastards who were oppressing the aliens in the neighborhoods they patrolled. These ADU (no idea what that stands for, so let's say Alien Dispersal Unit) guys look like they're advanced, but still not certain what they're doing.

Space Moon Buggy

Man, I've been waiting for this set for a while. The information about it has been out for a while, I guess it's been in Europe though. Which is weird since from my understanding the whole point of the City: Space series was that they had an okay fron NASA, so you know, USA! But nope. They finally released it in the States and now I have it!

The buggy itself is okay, very simple. But this is one of the smaller $5 sets, so I wasn't expecting much. It's a one of those vehicles that isn't too much more than a brick and some wheels. Does it look like something that might come out of a space program? Sort of. It looks a lot better when you put a minifig behind the steering wheel.

As to the big reason I wanted this set, the minifigure, that looks pretty damn nice. The printing of the Space uniform looks very official and cool. The helmet, despite being made of the same piece they make the Scuba gear in the Atlantis series out of, works. That's mostly thanks to the gold paint over the head. And I must say, I like that they included an alternate hat for the astronaut. It works pretty damn well.

Dear Santa...

Dear Santa,

This Christmas I would like an Amelia Pond as a little girl action figure, and a Silent with a closed mouth. The Doctor with Stetson, Open Mouthed Silent, and Nephew can eat it. You know what Santa, screw you. I think we both know I'm going to have to find and buy these things myself.

Sincerely,
James

Articulated Monster Ep. 7: Calico Jack's Supreme Contentment

Another fortnight another episode of the Articulated Monster Podcast.



Oh, in the podcast we talk about the upcoming minimate pirate line which is based around Calico Jack. I guess Calico_Jack and Charles Vane were real people.

Crazylegs

What? Dude comes with three small guns and that's it? For a Pursuit of Cobra figure that's pretty disappointing. For a 25th Anniversary figure (which, let's face it, that's what this really is despite what the packaging wants to tell you) that's par for the course.

I'm pretty disappointed by that. If I wasn't having mad Crazylegs nostalgia because the original toy was one of the few GI Joes I owned as a kid I wouldn't have gotten this.

But the nostalgia is there, so I did.

Claw Mania

It was only a matter of time before I got my own Claw Game. I've been into the arcade classic since the Mexican Grocery Store near my College Apartment had one which included a claw with a strong grip. Seriously after winning every other game, you begin to fancy yourself a pretty good claw game aficionado.

Fortunately this cheap plastic version was $10 at Tuesday Morning. (Discount Store ala Ross or TJMaxx, except they focus on tacky housewares.) It's pretty good, the claw mechanism is adequate, although the space is rather small. That actually makes it harder, since the claw is often times to large to get in the position you want it to, or the mechanisms that allow movement don't quite reach everywhere. So there's still some skill/luck involved.

There's a start button that you press which causes some carnival music to play. You use 2 levers to control the claw. One controls the direction of the claw, the other raises and lowers the claw. The claw is set up so that it opens when it is lowered and snaps closed when you raise it up again. You can raise and lower the claw as often as you want, but after a period of time the music stops and the claw freezes up. You can press the start button to continue, but your turn is up. The machine also stops if you open the claw over the prize chute (under the idea that you've successfully grabbed a prize). The machine toots out a little jingle and locks up so your turn is over. To go again you've got to press the start button on the machine.

You add the prizes through a small porthole in the back. You can't put anything really large in there, but that's fine, since the claw can't pick up much. There's a moveable piece of plastic that swings aside to give you access to the hole.

The only REAL downside is that it requires 3 D batteries to work. D batteries? Who the hell makes something for D batteries? Well, aside from Maglites.

But overall, this is pretty damn cool. I can't wait to get more prizes to put in this thing and invite people over to try their hand at winning something. The only question is how awesome of a prize do I want to put in there? Just bits of candy and party favors OR do I want to put Lego Minifigs and minimates in there?

Oh great, they made a hard to get Doctor Who figure

Let me just say I wanted this Amelia Pond as a little girl figure, featuring the young child seen in episodes 1 & 13 during season 5, a hell of a lot more before I found out it was out of scale with the other 5 inch figures.

I mean come on, an exclusive figure of a character I love that is only available in England, at the Doctor Who special exhibition? That's like telling me there's something amazing that I'll never be able to have... wait, that's not like it, that is exactly what's happening. And of course I'm going to want it then.

Ultra-Humanite (DC Universe Classics)

In all the time I've been collecting Mattel's DC Universe Classics line, Ultra-Humanite here (a DC Comics mad scientist villain that originated in some very early Golden Age Superman stories, but best-known these days as a Justice Society foe who placed his brain in the body of an albino gorilla) is the only Collect and Connect figure I've been able to complete. All six pieces pack with DCUC wave 14 were acquired thusly: I got the torso with Kamandi, an arm came from Mario's Zatanna, a leg from my brother's Golden Age Green Lantern, the head/crotch pair and the other arm from eBay, and the last leg was paired with Gold, which my brother bought for me because eBay prices for the limb alone were approaching that of the carded Metal Man figure, so why not just get it.

Anyway, here Humanite is, in all his fully-assembled glory. Befitting the Collect and Connect concept, the figure is huge, looming over the single carded figures in the line by a few inches. Humanite reuses the arms of the line's other Collect and Connect ape, Gorilla Grodd, but the rest of the sculpt is brand new.

Unfortunately, the combination of pieces that doesn't really gel aesthetically. This is because Grodd was made to look reasonably like a real gorilla, while Humanite (arms aside) is inspired by Bronze Age comic book art, which renders him more like a hairy human with token ape features. From low angles the figure looks fine, but from above the disconnect between the old and new pieces is jarring. Also notice that the hair sculpting on his arms is far more detailed than that found elsewhere on the figure.

Aside from the visual disconnect and a sculpted pose that looks dumb if the torso leans forward as intended (I like to display my figure with the torso leaning back--which unfortunately leaves the ab crunch hinge on the stomach exposed--because it looks more natural and makes Ultra-Humaite appear more threatening) this is a pretty cool figure. The limbs are particularly fun to pose, and the red loincloth doesn't inhibit the leg articulation. He comes with one accessory, a control pad of indeterminable purpose, which is kind of difficult to pose with the figure pressing the keypad. Still, it's an intimidating and interesting-looking villain for your collection, and he looks very cool towering over assorted superheroes or assaulting them with his long, grasping arms.

There's a few other DCUC Collect and Connect figures I would've liked to complete first (still need a left arm for my Solomon Grundy!), but now that I finally have Ultra-Humanite assembled, I'm certainly not disappointed. Even with the reused arms, this figure is a great example of what the line's sculpting team the Four Horsemen are capable of if allowed to unleash their talents upon a largely-new sculpt. Worth putting together or buying as a whole from eBay if you want to add a striking change of pace to your DCUC collection of repainted and reused base superhero bodies.

Pink Ranger

Since I really like my Yellow Ranger figure, I figured I pick up another Power Ranger figure one day. When they were on sale. Then the day came where I saw them at a discount store, so I looked through the figures and decided that the Pink Ranger was the best sculpt of what they had. (Paritally beacuse all the dudes had Green Ranger shoulder pads for some reason, and really large hands.) After getting the figure out of the packaging, well, I dunno. For the most part it's almost as awesome as the Yellow Ranger, but that skirt restricts the leg articulation something awful. Which would be fine if you didn't want the figure to sit down, but half the reason I like figures in this scale is the possibility of puting them in vehicles and looking ridiculous.

The figure comes with a spinner top type thing with a battle coin that you can swap out. It's fairly ridiculous, but it works well in that when you pull the rip cord and launch the top it spins for a long time. It's kind of neat and a damn sight better than the weird eagle claw base that came with the Yellow Ranger.

But let's get to the real reason I picked up this figure. It was for pictures like this:

Mr. Squiggles

You know, I never really thought I'd ever buy a Zhu Zhu pet, but come on, it's a Hamster wearing a superhero cape. That's adorable.

Also, it was 39 cents thanks to the 75% off easter toys clearance. That was probably the deciding factor.

24 Season 1 box set

I've only watched one season of 24: the fifth season. I kind of know who the characters in this set are due to cultural osmosis, but I couldn't give you any real details. As far as I know these guys are: Nina the traitor, Jack Bauer the most badass torturing dude in the USA/Keifer Sutherland, the Black President who can now be seen selling insurance, and Elisha Cuthbert who is very pretty. Other than that I couldn't tell you anything. I don't even know why Elisha Cuthbert (who I'm pretty sure plays Jack's daughter) is wearing whatever she is wearing.

So, why did I buy these guys, aside from my overall minimate fascination?

Because the set is $5 on Amazon. That's $1.25 per minimate. That's cheaper than an apple. You know what, I'm buying another set of these just for the hell of it.

Freeco Speeder

To be honest, I didn't buy this, I got it as a birthday present. So I don't have to ask myself "Why did I buy that?" After putting it together, I have to admit, it's more fun to put together and look at than I thought it would be, but it still lands squarely in that generic "Star Wars Vehicle" category in terms of design. If you're into that then this wouldn't be a bad set, but I never got into the ship designs in the newer Star Wars properties.

I am really impressed by how well off the Snow Parka Anakin looks. The... whatever the alien is... that guy is a disappointing minifig, his head is just a large block which also engulfs his torso, so it can't move. It's similar in design to the way the Chewbacca head works.