Lego Ideas: Doctor Who

Oh what, I'm not going to buy this? The only thing that would make me more certain to purchase it is if the Dalek figures had Fu-Manchu mustaches. 

I'm also really thankful that this set probably got the ball rolling on including Doctor Who in the Lego Dimensions game.

But I gotta say, the booklet inside about how the set came about is a nice touch.

Playmobil Series 8

Female gladiator! Pretty awesome. I'm not sure if the weird B-exploitation movie armor makes is a knock against the figure or makes it better. But it's a figure of a woman with a badass face tattoo. And that shield is an awesome Playmobil accessory.

19th century soldier! I don't know what army this is supposed to be. Anyone? But I love that it came with a bayonet.

Grem In Trouble and Acer In Trouble

This two pack should really be called "Grem and Acer are sad." I guess. I've never seen the movie, I just like the toys of the Lemons. For some reason I buy every variant of them.

Batcave

This is a thing? Adam West head? Shakespeare bust that flips open to reveal a button?

Wind-up Cyborg toy.

There's a joke here. I know it.

Imaginext series 4

Oh look, an Imaginext astronaut. The last Imaginext figure I got had a Walter White surprise under the good, so whose under this hood?

OMG! It's a Sasquatch astronaut! What?!

Scratch

Buying Scratch was problematic for me. 

See, when I got into Skylanders with the game Skylanders: Giants I fell in love deep. I purchased a figure of every available figure. I did not buy every figure, since there were a lot of repaints and many characters were given a new figure with each wave. And since the variants and whatnot don't add anything to gameplay, I feel fine ignoring them. 

So when Skylanders: Swap Force came out I assumed I would collect all the new characters too, because collector mentality. But that turned out to be problematic because by the time the new  game, Skylanders: Trap Team, came out it had become clear that they had underproduced figures of Scratch. No store had it. Skylander collectors grumbled about how no stores ever got them It was on ebay, but for about 3x the MSRP, and I refuse to pay more than MSRP for Skylanders because that way leads to bankruptcy.

When Trap Team came out I realized that Scratch had broken me of the need to collect them all. If it was impossible to get every character why try. When I finally started buying Trap Team characters I only picked up characters I really wanted. I ignored a lot of figures and my wallet was glad for it.

But now... My local TRU got a Skylander restock and it included a bunch of Scratch figures. This figure that collector's couldn't find for 2 years and suddenly I see a woman and her 6yo trying to figure out Skylanders holding one. I literally gasped and asked her if there were more. There were.

So I've finally finished getting all the characters in the first 3 games. Now I wonder if I should just go and buy all the characters I skipped for the fourth game  to complete my collection.... Or would that be a waste of money. 

I should probably point out that I already have 70% of the Trap Team characters.It turns out that I really like Skylanders.

Batroc

They made a 6"  figure of Batroc the Leaper with double jointed knees? Well, you know me. I'm a sucker for any toy of a French stereotype who is considered a credible threat to Captain America because of how hard he can jump on things.

BATROC!

Don't let them fool you by their claims that he is a threat because of his savate (french kickboxing) skills, Batroc's power is that he has really strong French legs that he can French kick or stomp you with.

Marvel super hero mashers

Well, if anything was going to get me into this line it would probably be a Beta Ray Bill figure.

An alien horse head you can put on other Marvel characters! But I resisted. For now.

Marvel figures

Wow. Why is Hawkeye so maniacally happy?

And I found both versions of Beast... but who really wants Gray Beast? Does that version of the character have a fan base?

Super Mario K'Nex wave 5

Maybe it's because I've started collecting Amiibos, or maybe it's because the whole wave is variants of already released figures, but when I saw the new wave of K'Nex Mario figures I realized I did not want a single one.

And I had a gift card, so I wouldn't have even needed to spend real money.

Payback Wolverine and Classic Sentinel

Payback Wolverine is from when he lost his healing powers and went to work for criminals. Or something like that. I dunno,  I wasn't reading X-men then. Anyway, Wolverine's dead for now so it's weird that there's merch from that period.

But hey, new Sentinel minimate! That's what I like.

Gorn

Found this dude at the Dollar Tree. I've been hovering around these Kre-o Star Trek single figures in the past but never felt that it was worth $3. But for $1? Sure.

The Gorn never appeared in the Star Trek movies, so I'm assuming this design is based on the horrible cgi version from the Entrrprise tv show.

I like the uniqueness of their legs and the ball jointed hips. Otherwise.... Meh. The tail piece prevents the torso from staying steady on its peg and the head looks nothing like the dinosaur lizard from the classic tv series.

Weird Al

Remember when we all thought that the Transformers Animated Wreck-Gar figure would be the closest we would ever get to a Weird Al Yankovic figure?

Well that's no longer the case. Continuing my pattern of only getting one figure per wave, it's the Weird Al figure of the Simpsons 25 greatest guest star line. I considered the Buzz Aldrin figure, but like every time, I decided that I couldn't justify paying for more than one figure so I had to go with the one I wanted most.

Double Decker Couch

You know, considering the Lego movie minifigures cost $3 a piece if you were lucky, $15 for a set with 5 movie characters, a car and a ridiculous over the top movie prop is an amazing deal. (The double decker couch, not the waffle.)

Plus sad Unikitty is adorable. And she comes with a second head!

Minimate Monday: Captain Kirk and Khan

It was on sale for a ridiculously low rate and I never got the Khan minimate from the Star Trek minimates they made last decade. So easy buying choice.

It's young Khan Noonien Singh. Although I have too many young Kirk's to appreciate this minimate. 

Fun fact: on Enterprise it was revealed that Data's creator, Noonien Soong was named after Khan because his ancestor was a loyal follower of Khan's teachings.

MiWorld accessory set.

Oh hey MiWorld has an accessory pack for the Italia Pizza Shop. Why would you just buy this accessory pack of a pizza tray and 6 pepperoni pizza slices?

Because of awesome.

Minimate Monday: Officer Rick Grime and One-Armed Zombie

I find Rick Grimes minimates pretty boring, but when you add a crap loaf of accessories, include a bag that the minimate can carry the accessories in, and include enough alternate body parts to change the minimate's costume, then I can overlook the generic blandness of Rick Grimes facial design. Dude comes with a hatchet that can be carried by a loop in his belt, how can you say no to that?

His giant hat is weird though.

And the zombie comes with an extra arm in case you prefer a two armed

Zombie. That's the kind if customization that more minimates should feature since their design is perfectly suited to such interchangeability.

Kra'ang

I only seek out a Kmart these days for exclusive toys I really want. That isn't very often since, y'know, it's Kmart. That place imploded in the mid90s when it suddenly found its niche taken over by WalMart and realized it couldn't compete on price, customer service, or store design so they alienated their existing customer base to try and capture the upmarket Target crowd which didn't want anything to do with Kmart's stigma as a store for poor people.

But hey, minimate Kra'ang! Kmart is the only non-specialty store to carry the blind bags and Kra'ang is only available in the non-specialty store sets. He comes as giant brain in the torso of a robot, but the pack also comes with a minimate version of the disembodied giant brain version. You can pretend he's 80's cartoon Krang!

Minimate Monday: Captain Sisko and Jem'Hadar

I love Sisko and enjoy the Jem'Hadar, so this was a no brainer.

I love how Sisko minimates always come with great army builders so if you want a Jem'Hadar squad you end up with a squad of Siskos.

Batman and Super Angry Kitty Attack

New Legi movie sets? A year after the movie came out? Who says there aren't upsides to cynical corporate money grabs? 

The great figures in this set are happy Batman and Super Angry Unikitty. I've really wanted a Unikitty figure for a while but couldn't justify paying the prices of the other Unikitty sets just for Unikitty. Then this basic level set which only runs for $10. For 3 figures and a robot build, this set is actually cheaper than 3 blind bad Lego minifigures. Great deal!

Minimate Monday: Carol and Pole Zombie

I have no idea who Carol is. Those chapters of the walking dead weren't available at my local library. Or if I did read the chapters she was in then the character just didn't leave an impression on me. But I like that she comes with alternate parts so you can take off her hat and jacket in case you want Winter Carol or Spring Carol.

Also, kinda neat that the zombie comes attached to a pole. That's a cool minimate feature. I wonder if the zombie is meant to be a boy or girl. I think I missed that issue. Was it when they were in the prison? I skimmed over a lot of those issues. Wait, was Carol the lady who got bit by the pole zombie? That would make sense.

Snake Dancer

Oh look, new Playmobil blind pack minifigures. And one of them is an Indian snake dancer... I'm going to put this in the cultural appropriation category, which is a category of toys I tend to pick up: European companies that make semi-stereotypical figures of Asian cultures. She's got the bindi and the snake and I just realized I don't know enough about South Asian cultures to really be judgmental.

Sigh, whether it's racist or not, it's an interesting figure and at least Playmobil is trying by making figures of different races. Wow, this was nicer than I thought it was gonna be.

Zygon, smaller

A 4 inch Doctor Who figure! Also a Christmas present. The 5 inch Zygon was one of the best figures of the whole line and this is the same for the 4 inch figures. And with ball jointed shoulders, it has more articulation than its 5 inch, cut joint counterpart.

Minimate Monday: Big Bang Theory

They made minimates of the main cast of Big Bang Theory. All 7 cast members over 2 sets of 4, with variants of breakout character Sheldon in each set. I'm a minor fan of the show, but the chance to own a Mayim Bialik minimate is too tempting to ignore. Also, the acessories! 

Hands holding Chinese food, chopsticks, and sodas! Build-a-couch... Actually, the couch is weird. The back of the packages say to collect both sets to create the couch, but each set has a full 3 seated couch but it's designed to be modular so you can combine the 2 couches however you want.

The minimate designs are actually pretty great likenesses of the actors. And the clothing is very well designed. Even if I hated the show I could use these as nerd/civilian minimates.

These are Entertainment Earth exclusives, but I was able to save a few dollars and pay no shipping by getting them on e-bay. Hopefully that didn't screw up the chance for future series.