Martha Jones

I've been picking up the Big Chief 1:6 scale Doctor Who figures, but the Amy Pond figure, despite some early excitement, was a disappointment once the production head sculpt was revealed. It was so bad that Big Chief had to offer a free replacement head with a new sculpt. It was better, but still not as good as the prototype they originally showed off. Unfortunately neither available head resembles Karen Gillan, and at $200, that was enough for me to pass.

But I still wanted a 1:6 scale figure of one of the Doctor's companions. That pretty much meant I had to go with this figure from Character Options only wave of 12 inch figures. (They still make RC daleks in that scale.) Impressively, rather than just making larger versions of their 5 inch figure, Character Options made an all new Martha with more joints than her smaller counterpart and gave her very impressive cloth clothing. The faux leather jacket is particularly impressive. And at 1/6 the coat of the Big Chief figures, much easier to bite the bullet and purchase. 

Han Solo and Slave Leia

There's some controversy amongst Star Wars fans because the only Princess Leia merchandise Disney was selling in Disney stores or Disneyland shops is the Star Wars Black Princess Leia figure in slave gear. It's easy to see why they're annoyed, Leia is a female character who embodies strength and courge, and who lead a rebellion, providing a strong role model for girl geeks as they grew up. But Disney thinks girls don't like sci-fi or action so they refused to put out any merchandise for Leia fans except for an action figure that depicts her as an objectified damsel in distress (and possibly a sex slave.) 

Theb Disney caved to fan preasure (and the ensuing bad press and realization of lost profits) and announced they would be putting out new Leia merch soon. Which means I can now own this figure without feeling like I'm supporting a toxic policy. I'm still weirded out that Hasbro decided that the first and so far only 6 imch female Star Wars figure they've released is Slave Leia, but I like Leia and if I have to be honest, I am a heyerosexual male so I like the costume on an aesthetic level. I just wish they had another Leia that I could also own and not feel like such a creep. 

Meanwhile in the same wave they released  a figure of Han Solo in his iconic look. So I picked that up as well.

Maybe I'd feel better if they released a Han Solo wearing a speedo, from that scene where he's putting himself through pilot's school by being an exotic dancer. It's where you learn that "Han Solo" isn't his given name.

Vending Machine

So it looks like MiWorld has expanded their playset line to include a Mrs. Fields store, a Sketcher's store, and a karaoke studio. But even more exciting, they've released some stand alone accessories: a photo booth and a vending machine.

A vending machine in scale with 5 and 6 inch figures? Sign me up!

The machine has some interesting play features. The middle column of bottles can actually be dispensed, but only if you use the provides bottles. There's a card reader and fake credit card that simulates the act of paying by card, and the machine opens up so you can put whatever you want in there. So, you know, if you want it to sell batarangs...

Cars 2 cars

I've found myself getting into the concept of the Cars 2 diecast cars. I shouldn't be surprised, considering how much I really liked the Cars 2 Lego sets. Of course those ended up proving too expensive for me to get all the ones I wanted. And the same can be said of the diecast cars, morseo considering how freaking many of these things they make. And really, I can't say I care for all the figures, hell, there's a reason I never watched either of the movies.

So I've decided to limit myself to really weird sets. So only really ridiculous cars that tickly my funny bone or irony ligament or whatever. Unfortunately I've come to this party way too late, so all the good cars are now hard to find. But I still stumble upon some that I want.

Which is why I got this Mater/Zen Master Pitty. Because look at Zen Master Pitty in all his Japanese glory.

They put him in a rice picker hat... how much more Asian stereotype can you get? You know what, this dude is getting this post labelled with the Toys depicting Asians tag. And actually, looking at the wikipedia he's supposed to have a fu-manchu-esque mustache

The other recent set I got was of a car that is a priest and two forklifts that are cardinals because WHAT THE HELL IS HAPPENING THIS MAKES NO SENSE! This either means that the Cars have accepted human Jesus as their savior or at some time there was a Car Jesus... THERE WAS A CAR JESUS!!!

So anyway, here's Father Burke and Cardinals Antonio and Angelo.

Mister Freeze

Oh, DC Multiverse, you're everything DC 4" figures should have been before they failed horribly and made me want to curse Mattel. But now you're here and even with your limited articulation, at least the toys look great and are in scale with.... okay actually they're not in scale with any other 4" figures but at least you look pretty good.

At least this Mister Freeze figure looks good. So with this and the Penguin, I think you're batting 1 out of 6 for me, which is still a hell of a lot better than the DCU Infinite Heroes which I believe was 1 out of 50. (That's my own personal satisfaction ratio. Which I think comes down to me saying there were three figures I liked in that line. Green Lantern Guy Gardner, translucent green Green Lantern Guy Gardner and the Ryan Choi Atom.)

Tankblast and Red Ninja

I've always thought the GI Joe microforce was too expensive for what you got. But since I found a blind bagged two-pack on clearance I thought I'd see what was up. And wouldn't you know, I ended up getting two generic characters which might as well be generic army guy and ninja. Seriously, Tankblast was a character created for this toy line. Which means they just had a plain army guy in green with a bazooka and had to assign him a name because they already had a figure called "Grunt." You know which GI Joe has a bazooka? Bazooka. The one with an actually distinctive look.

Which is a pretty good indication that this type of set was totally not for me. Because blind bags suck ass. Unless they're under $1. But this was exactly $1 so it still sucks ass.

Incidentally, I think in a fight of bazooka vs. sword, bazooka has a pretty good chance unless they start the fight a few feet apart.

Princess Peach Birthday Girl Cart

Many years ago when I was really into the Mario Kart K'nex sets, I bemoaned the lack of variety in the car designs. Most of them were just recoloring a few basic cars, with no cars really capturing the spirit of the personal cars from the games. Then they released 4 of the personalized cars and I realized that for the price they wanted I couldn't be bothered.

Of course now they're on clearance and hard to find, but I picked up this Princess Peach set when I could. It's another Princess Peach figure for me to put aside, another banana peel, and a pretty neat looking K'Nex car. Oh sure, the motor is one of those "pull back and let go" engines but it's designed to be swapped out with a battery powered one so, yes, this baby will go on the Mario Kart tracks! And the body is one solid piece, with very few actual building block elements to any of the car, so it should be a pretty solid racer. Weirdly the crown emblem on the front of the car is a sticker you have to apply yourself, so I guess the idea is you could have gotten one of these and put the Donkey Kong sticker on it if you wanted to?

Meanwhile, who wants to discuss how problematic it is from a social and feminist standpoint that they made sure that Princess Peach's vehicle was the pink one associated with parties and cake? Or is that a discssion for another day?

AMP ep 98: Mario is a Cyberwrench

Oh look! The latest episode of the Articulated Monster Podcast is up: Episode 98: Mario is a Cyberwrench

Groot and Nebula

A friend of mine picked up some of those Guardian of the Galaxy bobble heads from Funko and gave me the ones he didn't want. (Blind boxes... they suck so hard.) The figures are basically mini vinyl figures except with a spring connecting their neck and heads, so that they bobble. The Groot bobbles much more than the Nebula since the space where the spring attaches to the head is very narrow, leaving only a minimal amount of bobble movement. Meanwhile Groot's head is barely attached to the body, so the spring gets a lot of freedom to bounce. It has the unfortunate side-effect of making it look like Groot's head is falling off if you look at it at the wrong angle, since the head is, as I mentioned, barely attached to the body, with only the spring connecting the two. Both my friend and I would have preferred these to be simple vinyl figures. The Bobblehead stuff is more annoying than its worth. Also, I prefer bobble heads to be more like the classic ones rather than the Funko design. Because without a base, when you push the head, you're just as likely to push the entire figure over.

Donkey Kong

Since I really like the Jakks Pacific World of Nintendo Link and Mario figures, I figured I would try to find the larger 6 inch figures. So far they've only been spotted at Toys R Us, so I was able to find them there.

I really like this Donkey Kong. The thing is massive, look how large it is compared to a pez dispenser. And the articulation is decent, with 10 points. The knees are locked, which is fine because it provides some stability when posing the figure as a bipedal. My only disappointment is that the head is a cut joint and not a ball joint. A ball jointed neck would have made this my toy of the year (so far). Instead it's just a really good toy.

Cyborg Spider-Man and Songbird

Look, the Cyborg Spider-Man is cool and all, I like that his headband and cybernetic eye are actually a part of the head piece and not some removable hat like thing. But the reason I really wanted this set was the Songbird figure that helps me complete my set of Norman Osborn era Thunderbolts. The energy bird wings is pretty neat, even if it's possibly the largest accessory/base of a minimate ever. Her hovering effect is accomplished by a peg on the base that plugs into a small hole in her back. It's not the most stable thing ever, and I expect it would snap off eventually if I left it like this, but hopefully it can stand the test of time if I only ever use it a few times.

And hey, Spidey comes with an alternate arm so he only looks like he's had his eye replaced..... geez, why even bother.

Link

His mystery accessory is a shield, because what the hell else would it be?

Pretty much picked this up to have a Link figure with decent articulation that doesn't cost an ungodly amount because it's a Japanese import. Or a Figma. Really, at about $10, this feels like a good deal. Also, technically he's kinda in scale with my Doctor Who figures.

Link vs. Dalek!

That would have been more impressive if I had bothered to take a picture of it.

World of Nintendo

Found the World of Nintendo figures at Target. Only 3 of the six 4 inch figures (totes not in 4 inch scale) and there's a hilarious gulf in articulation. Yoshi has 5 points, Mario has 11, and Link has 13. 

Poor Yoshi.

AMP Episode 97: Mario Can't Be Bothered with Comiccon

Episode 97 of the Articulated Monster Podcast is up. We talk about the news from SDCC 2014 and basically get exhausted because of how much there is that we don't really care about. Why are we talking about it? Habit.

Doctor Who 5" figures

I'm really digging the fact that they're doing small runs of 5 inch Doctor Who figures since it means that I'll finally have a Clara figure that's in scale with the rest of my collection.

http://merchandise.thedoctorwhosite.co.uk/doctor-who-the-impossible-set-11th-doctor-and-clara/

Yondu and Sakaar Trooper

A Toys R Us Exclusive minimate 2 pack for Guardians of the Galaxy, and one of them is a blue Michael Rooker? Damn straight I'm getting that. I gotta say, I'm digging the minimalist vibe of the Sakaar Trooper, but wonder how that messed up face is going to work in the movie.