Minimate Monday: Plants vs Zombies box set

I wasn't going to get this set, but I have a weakness for minimates when I see then in person. I don't even play this game but c'mon, minimate zombies with minimate plants. 

No, really. I thought the plants were just static figures but they're actually unique minimate bodies that will fit any minimate head... So like this:

Beautiful.

Toy Show haul

Went to a toy show and bought some stuff: here's what/why?

Hot Toys Iron Man Mk4 from the Iron Man  2 series. Guy was selling some Hot Toys for original asking price. So I finally got an Hot Toys Iron Man in the classic suit design, which I've wanted for years. Something about the intricate machinery design at this scale is appealing. The big selling point was the articulated fingers.

Guy had some insane deals. Black Widow Hot Toy for $100! But I could only afford this guy. Glad to have him.

Also picked up a used Storm Shadow to fill out my 1:6 scale Cobra army. Some times the cheap Hasbro figures are a better value than the $200 Sideshow ones. Especially when I don't actually want the Sideshow Storm Shadow, I just want to collect a cobra team in 1:6 scale.

A Meanie Babie because I thought it was cute/amusing. No animals were harmed in the making of this blog.

And I also got Virus Attack Mr Freeze, which is Mr Freeze's internet crime avatar. Or.... You could pretend, like I plan to, that he's 1:6 scale Mr. Freeze post-losing his body. 

That show could be so weird when it wanted to.

AMP Episode 100: 100

Episode 100 of our Articulated Monster podcast is now up. In the end the only thing we did for this occasion was invite Ani to join us. You remember Ani. Probably.

Yoshi

Look, I've picked up the other 4 available Nintendo figures, might as well pick up the other one, right? It helps that Yoshi is a green dinosaur, which is a thing that I like. The bits that make me sad: he only has 5 points of articulation and he's not designed so Mario can ride him. Actually no one can ride him... That's the whole point of Yoshi! Make him so other figures can ride him!

Oh, and his bonus accessory is an egg. A perfectly round Egg that won't stand up on its own because it's too round. Weird.

Disney Infinity 2.0

I didn't love the first Disney Infinity but there were parts I liked. The game designers promised they fixed all the problems I had and then made it all superhero based.

End result: I bought all the figures on day 1.

I may have a problem. It helps that the figures can double as vinyl collectibles and cost roughly the same as some vinyl collectibles but aren't blind boxes.

Pig Costume

So hey, Walgreens has series 12 of the Lego minifigures. This wave was kinda uninteresting to me, but there are a couple I want. The main one was this guy: man in a pig costume. Fortunately he's one of the few I could identify through the squeeze method.

It's a nice figure. One note, the apple doesn't have a hole at the bottom to fit on any Lego pegs, so the figure has to hold the apple by the stem. Minor quibble. Because really the main feature is that this is a man in a pig costume. Or a hybrid pig-man, like island of Doctor Moreau style. Probably the pig costume considering that previous waves have had people in costumes before. Apparently Lego has some weird Halloween costume fascination. And in that way Lego and I are the same.

Ash and Pikachu

I played Pokemon X/Y through to the final boss and then gave up from doing any more because of how frustrating the game became to me. I don't want to fight another low level pokemon, thanks. I've already caught a dozen of that Pokemon. WHY CAN'T I GET A PSYDUCK! But from what I remember, you play a generic character that isn't named Ash Ketchum. But hey, they did make a Pokemon X/Y Ash Ketchum figure wearing some Pokemon X/Y style clothing that I bet he wears in the cartoon if I still watched that. (I'm not that young. Yes I used to watch the Pokemon cartoon, but I used to watch the show in high school and college out of a weird love for all things Psyduck.)

So in a confluence of events: I had a coupon that expired soon and a desire for more Nintendo figures when I spotted this 4 inch Ash Ketchum figure. Hey neat, I thought. I've wanted an Ash figure in the past but they've either had horrible articulation or looked horrible or were out of scale with what I was collecting at the time. This one is decent and has a surprising amount of articulation. There's ball jointed hips and shoulders, some knee and elbow joints, and a ball jointed neck. Unfortunately there are no ankle  joints, so posing becomes a little difficult. Is it too much to ask for cut joints at the ankles so that I can balance what I can do with the ball jointed hips? Also, why can't he hold a pokeballs? Why is there no pokeballs accessory?

The Pikachu is not articulated and only can sit on Ash's shoulder because the backpack has a hole to plug-in his foot.

And sadly, this is not in scale with the other Nintendo figures I own. I mean, looks how Ash towers over Link... I know Link is supposed to be part elf or something, but no.

Doctor Who, Series 3

So after my little bout of buyer's remorse I opened some of the Walgreen figures I picked up. Specifically the 10th Doctor figure, the Asylum Dalek, and the Genesis of the Dalek exclusive.

The 10th Doctor is pretty good for this scale, although I'm disappointed that the stripes on his pinstripe suit are implied by carved lines on the plastic and not given any blue paint, but I'm sure it would have looked horrible if they had done it. This is him in his coat, which was never my preference for 10th Doctor Toys (I preferred the suit) but it's pliable enough to allow plenty of movement, and hey, 3.75" scale 10th Doctor. It's a surprisingly good likeness for the scale, much better than the 11th Doctor figure which hinted at the idea of the 11th Doctor rather than trying to recreate his face in this scale.

The Asylum Dalek is pretty much exactly like the previous Dalek from this toy line, but with a red marking on it to designate it as "insane." The paint also gives it a grungier look to imply it's inattention to Dalek grooming.

I was surprised by the Genesis Dalek, rather than a repaint, it's an entirely new sculpt. Everything on it is simpler to reflect the lower budgeted time the character represents. I'm wondering if they just used the models for the 5" line and had the manufacturers shrink it to scale. It's pretty dang nice.

Buyer's Remorse: Dalek Edition

Finally found the third series of the Doctor Who 3.75" figures, only at Toys R Us rather than Walgreens. It's cool to see Toys R Us carry Doctor Who stuff, but they're charging $5 more than Walgreens... Although Toys R Us is still cheaper than other places I've seen previous waves at.

And unlike Walgreens, Toys r Us is carrying Wave 2 and a wave of 5 inch scale Daleks. The 5" Daleks cost the same as the 3.75" ones, which is... I don't even have the words.

But it allowed me to finally collect the last of the rainbow colored Dalek designs from season 5.

Of course buying all this stuff ended up pricier than I had expected. So I'm probably going to return some of it, especially if I find the same figures at Walgreens for cheaper. Seriously, some Walgreens have the figures on buy 1 get 1 half off, which makes the average figure half the cost of what Toys R Us is charging... Of course it's difficult to find any at Walgreens so it's a tad moot...

Oh, but I did find two Daleks after checking 5 Walgreens.

Amy Pond

Walgreens is going to carry Doctor Who toys. Part of me thinks this was part of their plan to reclassify thaelves as a British company to avoid paying taxes. But now that the tax dodge was cancelled due to fear od mass boycotts, I can look forward to being able to buy Doctor Who merchandise in a physical atore that isn't Hot Topic.

So far all I've been able to find are some aonic screwdrivers and 3.75 inch Amy Pond. Surprisingly, she features more articulation than her 5 inch counterpart or any other Doctor Who figure in this scale. She has a bicep swivel, ball shoulders, cut wrists, knees, cut ankles, and a head that isn't hampered too much by te sculpted hair. It's a shame that so many joints on plastic in this scale makes the figure feel very flimsy. i keep expecting to tear it apart every time I twist a joint. I feel like half the cut joints are falling out of their sockets. That's the biggest downside. As a plus? The face sculpt isn't horrible.

Fair trade-off? You decide.

Pikachu

Ionix Pokemon figures are out. These are pretty much just Tenkai Knights transformable bricks except they turn into Pokemon (or Ash Ketchum) instead of generic warriors.

Pikachu doesn't transform from a regular brick but rather from a round ball thing that unfolds into hemi-spheres which you can attack Pikachu parts to. Kinda disappointing for $6.

But I'm a sucker for Nintendo licensed brick figures... As my continuing purchases of Mario K'nex can attest to. 

The Impossible Set

I love that Character Options/Underground toys is continuing to produce 5 inch figures, albeit irregularly. It means I get a Clara figure in the scale I prefer. Sure, she comes in a two pack with ridiculous packaging that is basically two cards glued back to backso it  takes way too much space and wastes so much cardboard and plastic in order to justify packaging together these two characters; Oswim from the Asylum of the Daleks episode and the Doctor wearing a costume he only wore in the Snowmen episode. 

Whatever, the fact that there's a headsculpt of Jenna Coleman means we'll probably get more Clara figures. After all there's already been 2 Ace figures, 3 Leela figures, 2 Jo Grant Figures, 3 Brigadier figures... If they can get away with getting more use out of a headsculpt to create new box sets, they will. I'm guessing we'll be getting a 12th Doctor / Clara set eventually. After all, they already did a 12th Doctor headsculpt for the regeneration figure coming out soon.

Pizza Planet Truck

Remember the Pizza Planet Truck from Toy Story 2? Well now he's a Cars character! Combining your favorite Pixar series with your most hated Pixar series! 

Look, I only like Cars for the resulting toys, and when the toys are as ridiculous and inside jokey as this, it's almost enough to justify giving Larry the Cable Guy a paycheck. And I hate that guy.

Pulp Fiction

I'm not sure if I like the other Pulp Fiction minimates, but I do like the ones of Jules and Vincent, so this two pack is perfect for me. 

The only downside is that Jules' burger and shake are molded in his hand and there are no alternate hands. Lame.

Blue Beetle

I have some Gamestop credit, so I thought I'd try my luck with the Scribblenaut  Unmasked blind box figures. They only had 1 box from Wave 1 left, and it was already half opened. But Wave 1 has some very appealing figures (like electric blue superman) so I just bought the thing. To my delight I got one of my favorite DC characters ever: Blue Beetle (Jaime Reyes).

So that was awesome.

Doctor Doom

They made a Titans figure of Doctor Doom, even though he doesn't have a movie tie-in! A cheap 1:6 scale Doctor Doom is great, even with the Titans series limited to cheap plastic and 5 points of articulation.

I figure I can pose him next to my Marvel Legends Icon figure and pretend he's a Doombot. You know, a crude imitation that is easily identifiable but very much a primitive version.

Waluigi and Bowser Jr.

Man, I hate Bowser Jr. His existence seems to erase the Koopa Kids from SMB3 and Super Mario World. But other than that I don't care about him. Still... Original character in this line with completely new tooling, so that makes

me want it. I still would have preferred one of the Kooplings. Roy, Iggy, Wendy, Ludwig, Lemmy, any of them.

Meanwhile I love Waluigi because of how blatantly ridiculous he is. Evil Mario is popular? Let's introduce Evil Luigi! Evil Mario is named Wario because "W" is "M" upside down? So Evil Luigi should be Tuigi or Puigi, right? No! Waluigi, so he's forever associated with Wario. And no, they're not brothers. What the hell is going on? And why the hell are both of these guys so hard to find? 

They're packaged like one per box. And the codes on the back are deceptive. Waluigi isn't denoted by an line under one of the 7 numbers on the back, but rather a double line under a number which is already used to denote another figure if it has a single line under it. They've done that in the past when there were 8 figures in a wave, but this time there are only 7 figures. Each one could get its own number! But no, instead you can easily mistake Waluigi's code for Mario's code.

Boo blind bagged anything!

Beast Boy

Teen Titans Go is a great comedy series that play upon the already humorous and deep mythology established by the original Teen Titans cartoon. By making the characters broader it made them even more fun to watch.

Which is why fan favorite Beast Boy is now hilarious and why I'm so happy they released a toy of him depicting his Teen Titans Go look. And bonus! It comes with a version of him as a tiny pig, which is what he turns into in order to eat mass amounts and underline what a horrible slob he can be. EXTRA BONUS He comes with a fridge that opens and has many empty shelves for you to put things on.

Seriously, this is a great set. And the figure has a surprising amount of articulation for a 2.25 inch figure. Which is to say it has articulation. Yes, the legs are connected and must be moved together, yes the head is heavy making it difficult to stand some times, yes none of this matters and this figure is still great.

AMP Episode 99: Mario Hosts Again

New episode of Articulated Monster Podcast. No insult of Mario  in the episode title because he's hosting. Hooray?!

Stephen King

Series 3 of the Simpsons 25 Greatest Guest Stars is out. I've been waiting for this wave since they announced the line-up, and while I'm tempted by Penn & Teller and Leonard Nimoy, it was the Stephen King figure that originally got me excited and so of course that was the one I purchased today.

Making an action figure of an author is rare, usually it's done ironically. (I'm looking at you Accoutrement Toys.) Potentially it's done for a very small but dedicated collector's market. But you know what never happens: releasing the figure of the author in a mass market line. But the most popular and prolific storyteller of the modern age changes that. And I am glad.

Also, he comes with a book. Which is meaningless to me since I have no plans of opening this thing. It goes on the wall with my other 2 figures from this line, which is really setting up an odd trend for me. I wonder if I'll buy a single figure from Wave 4 not because I want it but out of habit.