Wario

Hey, I found the final figure in the first wave of the Nintendo figures, and it's Wario. And he's huge, with 9 points of articulation, most of it in his arms. His feat are stuck in one pose but he has some cut joints at his ankles, so keeping him upright isn't impossible. But I am shocked that they made a Wario figure. And I really like this series, so I figured it would be worth a purchase.

His secret accessory is a coin that he can't hold and can barely stand on its own. But hell, under $9! Not bad.

Weird things I've seen on shelves

What?

Grimlock Potato Head

Actually this one I'm considering getting some day so I have a 1/6 scale Juicebar. But I feel like I own too many Skipper Dolls because they come with the more realistic looking Barbie playsets and accessories. (For the record, I own 1 Skipper Doll. If I ever have a daughter she's going to instantly get a bunch of cool toys.)

Minimate Monday: Munster Coach with Herman Munster

I'm not huge into minimate vehicles. I was once, but after having some in my hands, I realize that they're pretty serious shelf-space hogs and don't contribute that much to a display. That said, I will still pick them up if they come with figures I want.

Such is the case with the Munster Coach which comes with the only Munster minimate... well there's the black and white variant but I'm not counting that. Basically they only made Herman Munster, the patriarch of the clan and who has so many accessories hanging around his neck that his head won't stay on with any reliability. Shame, it's a nice head sculpt and the alternate head is nice. But overall... the inability of having a head stay in place kinda kills my enthusiasm.

Minimate Monday: Survivor Rick and Shot Zombie

I like to call this set: I can't believe they made a minimate of Rick after his hand was cut off . He doesn't even come packaged with an extra hand, just that bandage to represent his stump. He does come with an ax, in case you want to recreate the scene where his hand is cut off and holy crap that's sadistic of the toy makers.

As for the shot zombie, which is the real reason I got this set, they cast his torso, placed strategically under his shot up shirt, in transparent plastic, so you can see the light go through his bullet holes.

Minimate Monday: Prison Lori and Shoulder Zombie

One reason to get this set even if you don't like the Walking Dead is 1) it comes with a minimate swaddled baby and 2) the base body is of a woman in a tight fitting convict uniform and you one day hope to do a Babes Behind Bars minimate custom.

Also, I can't figure out a good way to get the shotgun to fit into her minimate hands and look like she is actually wielding it.

Incidentally, this set depresses me. Unlike the tv show, in the comic books that baby was killed in a gruesome way because Robert Kirkman... kinda a sadist.

Dinobot Slug

I'm suddenly interested in Hero Mashers now that they're making figures of the G1 Dinobots. Unlike all the other Hero Masher Transformers the Dinobots only appear in their dinosaur modes, which is smart because that's the part everyone loves.

Since the triceratops was always my favorite, I picked him up. It's pretty awesome. Now instead of having a robot triceratops that turns into a robot but which I will never transform into a robot because I prefer the look of a robot triceratops I instead have a robot triceratops.

One whose mouth is jointed like in the original toy. Actually most of his joints are ball joints so you get a surprising amount of possibility here. And his limbs are designed to be interchangable with Spider-Man figures, so they're pretty versatile too.

The arms leave a little to be desired.

He comes with a stegosaurus tail so you can try out the Masher/interchangable body part feature, but for me that's kinda an after thought. 

Mongolian

I'm at a point where $4 for a Lego minifigure seems like a lot to pay. This the 12th wave, so the novelty factor is almost completely gone. But one thing Lego still produces in these sets that I'm compelled to search for, squeeze to find, and then purchase is minifigures depicting over-the-top portrayals of Asian people that could potentially border on the racist end of the spectrum.

This wave that honor goes to the Mongolian. Is it racist: not really, it plays into another ongoing theme in these waves: warriors theoughout history. Still, gotta love any Asian action figure with Asian facial hair.

(A quick reminder: I am an Asian American and I find toys depicting Asians to be fascinating in what they potentially say about how Western culture views Asian people.)

Alien

My friend Bruce gave me a ReAction alien figure. Not sure if I'm going to keep it in the box or not. Unlike other Reaction figures the lack of articulation is more than made up for in design. Also, there's an action feature. If you pull I the top of the head there's a switch that can deploy the inner mouth proboscis. It's why the head has a rubber band around it, to prevent that piece from popping off and flying everywhere this giving potential customers the impression that the toy is broken.

Minimate Monday: Prison Hershel and Farmer Zombie

Okay, quick ground rule for Minimate Monday: The answer to Why Did I Buy This Toy ™ is always going to be because they're minimates and they're either of a property I have a minimal appreciation for or because I think the figure looks cool. That's all the thinking that usually goes into why I buy minimates. That said, if there's something of unique interest that made me REALLY want a minimate set then I will bring it up.

That said,

I sometime wonder if the reason they package Hershel with the Farm zombie is because they're both farmers. Seems like kinda the easy way to go, like maybe they're running out of steam. Not that I can blame them, when you're doing variants of the Hershel character your creativity reserves are probably exhausted and in desperate need of a break.

Video Games

No toy blogging, playing Disney Infinity and Super Smash Bros.

Interesting note though, after reading comments disappointed about how few female heroes you can play as in the Marvel sets (2 out of 18 total) I decided to look at Disney 1.0.

So yeah, that's 8 female characters out of 29. And only 4 out of the 18 characters that come with playsets so they get plots and dialogue. Disney 2.0 is 7 out of 30!characters are female and The breakdown for playset characters: 2 women out of 21 characters.

That is pretty screwed up considering how many iconic female characters Disney has, and how large the segment is of Disney Infinity players that are women, girls, and men who like female characters.