Catman and Spider-Girl

I've begun to open a lot of the figures I've put aside in the last few years because I need to make room. Let's start with these two.

Originally introduced as Araña, the character Anya Corazon was rebranded as Spider-Girl because damned if Marvel was going to let a franchise go to waste. When she first debuted she got some press for being a teenaged latina superhero... and now she's a supporting player in the Spider-Man comics wearing a hand-me-down costume from the 80's Spider-Woman. Whatever. The character had/has some potential and that's why I'm celebrating that they made a Marvel Legends figure of her, even if it is in the Amazing Spider-Man Legends wave listed as "Skyline Sirens" so they could use the same packaging for the Black Cat figure. Ugh. Why would you call her a siren? She doesn't sing and no part of her powers has anything to do with music or noise.

Then there's Catman, which I got back when I was trying to build a comprehensive 6-inch set of Batman villains. I've given up on that and have moved on to trying to do that in the 1:6 scale, but I'm still amused they made a Catman action figure, so I opened the toy.

Larfleeze

Who better to unbox and talk about for Black Friday than the embodiment of greed!

And now I'm one step closer to collecting the best of the different Corps in six inch scale... Wait, no bicep swivel. Dangit Mattel!

Other than that, I'm fine with this. People say it doesn't look right, but Larfleeze varies so much depending on the artist that I feel it's good enough.

Now I just need some more Indigo tribe figures.

Red Arrow

As far as I'm concerned this is actually a 6 inch scale base that happens to come with a Red Arrow figure. Although I will say that it's a pretty good Red Arrow figure.

When the Young Justice 6 inch figures first came out, I remember being excited at the possibility of getting characters that we didn't get through DCUC. Then I was excited by the idea of diorama bases for six-inch figures. Then the rest of the 6 inch figures came out and I was disappointed by how character specific and undiorama like the bases were. Then they cancelled the line before the figures I really wanted had a chance to be released because they filled the line with Batman. Damn it Mattel. Of course if I see a figure at a discount store for a good price, I'll still consider buying it.

The rooftop base is very similar to the one that came with Robin. The differences instead of a gargoyle you get a smokestack, which has a wanted poster on it... destroying part of it's generic-use it any way you want to value. But in a nice touch the wanted poster has notches that the arrows can be placed in making it look like Red Arrow has been shooting at it as target practice.

Penguin

Hey, it's the Penguin. Old school comic book Super Powers Penguin, before everyone tried to make him dark and gritty because of the Tim Burton vulgarity version. This Penguin was just a wannabe gentleman who had some cleer umbrella/bird/monocle gadgets. 

But I have trouble justifying buying Mattel figures for full price these days. So good thingario got me this guy for my birthday!

Toy Sale

Went to a parking lot toy show. It was fun and I ended up buying a lot of Mattel stuff... I'm clearly a masochist. But I also picked up a mr Burns figurine with his brain scoop for a quarter.

2012 Birthday Haul

I've finally received all my birthday presents (thank you to all my generous friends), so here's a brief rundown of all the toys I got as gifts this year.

My present from Mario was a Gremlins 2 Gizmo. Who doesn't love Gizmo? People who hate joy, that's who. This version is a completely new sculpt that shares no pieces with NECA's first Gizmo from a few years back. The stumpy little guy boasts a surprising amount of articulation -- up to and including his ears and even his eyes, which can be moved via a dial on the back of his head -- though naturally the shape of his body restricts the poses he can be put in. Additionally, the eyes have a tendency to shift out of place, so if you want to set Gizmo's gaze into a certain position, make sure to keep the tab that comes inserted in the dial when the figure is sealed in the packaging. Said tab secures the placement of the eyes and is easy to remove and reinsert. In any event, Gizmo is as adorable as can be -- everyone should own at least one Mogwai!

James gave me two figures, the first of which was Grapple Blast Black Widow. Given my collection of Marvel movie action figures is focused on the 6" scale, I've refrained from buying any 4" Avengers toys up to this point, though I have considered picking up that new 8-pack featuring all the characters. Well, now that I have the best figure from that line, obtaining the set is kind of needless now. The sculpt is really good, and unlike a lot of the 4" Avengers, Black Widow suffers from almost no budget-induced articulation cuts (the lack of a waist joint is the most glaring omission). Due to the way one of her pistols was shoved into her hand in the packaging, my Black Widow is perpetually wagging her finger at naughty supervillains. Sounds like something a Russian would do.

James said his intention in giving me a Golden Age Atom was to get me a DC Universe Classics offering that he knew I wouldn't buy myself. His judgement was astute: the original Atom is one of the few JSA characters I care absolutely nothing for, and the implementation of typical lazy Mattel reuse (his shirt is painted on, for chrissakes!) made him a very unappealing purchase at retail price. Having him in hand, I must say he's pretty fun to play around with, as many Mattel 6" DC figures are. But then every one in a while I look at it and remember that his shirt is painted on and that the company decided to approximate the character's Rudy-like short stature by merely producing him on a regular-sized body with slightly-shorter shin pieces, and then I feel really bad that the Four Horsemen's talents has been so wasted on this line. But yeah, this Atom ain't too bad after all. Still wouldn't have bought it myself, but that's what friends are for, right?

Aqualad

Oh hey, Aqualad from the Young Justice cartoon.

He's the son of Black Manta who has turned against his father's evil ways and become Aquaman's new assistant/sidekick/protege. He's from the Young Justice cartoon and once was in the comic books, but they got rid of him so they could do the New 52. Because why have a comic book that is easily accessible to millions of television viewers to sell a comic to a few thousand readers?

Yeah, not a fan of the New 52.

Meanwhile this figure is a typical DCUC figure, with warped legs and stiff joints. As with other Young Justice DCUC figures, this comes with an elaborate base. The water plume is attached to the large pipe in the diorama. Which is a shame, it's done the near impossible task of making me hate a generic diorama for figures. I don't care about this diorama now, that water plume prevents the base from being a useful diorama for other figures. That's a shame. It's not even water just shooting out of the pipe, it's water that's clearly being manipulated by someone with water powers. Batman can not stand in that diorama and have it make sense. Batman doesn't have any villains that are invisible water magicians. Not unless New 52 is stupider than I thought.

Really, if you can't get this figure for 1/2 off, don't bother.

Getting this in my hands has convinced me not to get that $50 Superboy/Miss Martian set on Mattycollector. With no accessories there's no way they'd be worth the price. Especially considering I hate the costume they put Miss Martian in.

Starman (Kingdom Come version)

Continuing my confusing decision to collect all the DCUC figures depicting the Starman legacy, something which I am only now realizing I've never actually written on this blog... So yeah, I've been picking up some of the Starman figures. I did write about the Buyer's remorse I had when I picked up a Jack Knight Starman, but since then I've picked up a Ted Knight Starman at Tuesday morning at 1/2 MSRP and a Stargirl because I was just kinda excited to find one. I'm not opening any of them, just putting them up on my wall in their packaging. I think I'm doing this because I loved the James Robinson series from the 90's, but it's also possible that I'm confusing my mild enjoyment of the Jeff Bridges movie for my mild enjoyment of these characters.

And then I bought the Starman from the Mattel Subscription line off of AJ because he said he didn't want it. Actually the cost wasn't too bad, and the fact that THIS Starman is also a character from the Legion of Superheroes means I'm not feeling too much Buyer's remorse on this purchase. Even if the packaging makes him look out of place.

One of these things is not like the others.
One of these things is not the same.

Actually the lack of accessories disturbs me a bit, although it's not like the character actually has an iconic accessory. Maybe a sloppy joe. See, when Starman traveled to the past from the 30th century, the medicines of the 21st century were unable to treat his mental illness. So he spent his off hours in a mental institution where he loved to eat sloppy joes. That's why they included an alternate head, he takes off his mask to eat sloppy joes.

Professor Zoom

At some point you have to wonder why the hell they call Professor Zoom the Reverse Flash. Okay, sure his colors are the opposite of the Flash's costume and he's evil, but that's about it. If he's the Reverse Flash he should be able to make things slow or something that is the opposite of being super fast at stuff.

The other thing you have to ask yourself is why the hell has it taken Mattel this long to do a figure of what is essentially a repaint. He looks exactly like the Flash, but he's yellow. This should have been the easiest figure they've ever made. It's even easier than Mullet Superman.

Oh wait, right. It's Mattel. Common sense should not enter into this discussion.

Arkham City Batman and Catwoman

Look, I liked the game and all, but I'll admit that if I had one of the other DCUC Catwoman figures I would have skipped this set entirely. But it turns out that those figures are near impossible to get at a decent price, so it was actually cheaper for me to get this 2-pack than a used Catoman figure.

Not that these figures are bad. Although the surface are on the bottoms of Catwoman's feet prevent her from standing up unaided. It's like a delicate balancing act, and you have to sort of lean her on her whip to prop her up. And she has no hole at the bottom of her foot so using a DCUC stand won't work either.  It's a little disappointing. But at least she has the same articulation as a DCUC figure. I was worried she wouldn't.

Oh, and yes, she's a little bigger than the rest of the DCUC figures, but it's not that noticeable. She just looks like a very Amazonian Catwoman.

Batman is awesome. But he's Batman, so of course.

Buyer's Remorse: Easter Weekemd Edition

It's time for another post in the semi-regular Buyer's Remorse feature, where I run down what I bought and tell  you why, and if I regret it enough to return it. The items this week are from this recent Easter Weekend. I also saw some Avengers Legos at a Target, but not the set I wanted, so I skipped them.

Pinypon
I have no idea what this is, but it was in the Target Easter clearance bins for $1.50 and the dude has a pixelated picture of a robot on his shirt. At least I think its a he. The packaging seems to say that all the other figures are girls. And the website is based in Spain. Weird.

The internet says its a new collectible doll with interchangeable hair, clothes, and other accessories. And they have two faces on their head? Probably like the Legos. For $1.50 I'm willing to see what's going on. That's cheaper than a Happy Meal toy.

Darth Vader
Dude, it's a tiny plush Darth Vader for $2. (Again, Target Easter Clearance bins.) The only thing I haven't figured out is if the Jelly Bean bag and associated ribbon is attached to his hands or can be removed without damaging the figure.

Batman Legacy: Arkham City Batman & Catwoman
Found these at a Toys R Us. They had these and the black and white ones which I didn't even consider buying. But this... They're a bit bigger than the DCUC figures, but it's the cheapest I'll get a modern looking 6" Catwoman with Mattel level articulation. Still... $30 for two figures... Wait, that's actually cheaper than Target.


Marvel Grab Zags
Based on jboypacman's posts I decided I wanted to get the Cyclops mini vinyl figure because Cyclops is awesome. Unfortunately it took me buying and opening a package with Spider-Man in it to figure out how to properly squeeze and feel for Cyclops. It's possible but you have to figure out what you're looking for. They're both open so I'm not going to be returning either of these.

Vanity
12-inch figure, or 1:6 scale. I've actually been considering getting this figure for about 2 years now. And I'm seeing a small resurgence of interest in the 12 inch figures from my brain, so I figured: Now or never. Ordered it online, so returning it is very difficult.

Well, that's it! Oh wait, there's also a Justin Bieber set that I bought for the accessories, but I might return that... if for no other reason than I think I can get it cheaper elsewhere.

Parking Lot Sale Purchases

I went to a Parking Lot sale at Toy Fusion, something AJ had tipped me off about a while back. It was an interesting place, full of vintage toys on sale by vendors who either knew what they had and what it was worth, or people trying to clear out their garages. That means there were a lot of boxes with miscellaneous toys in various condition on sale for cheap.

It also meant I got to see toys I've never seen before. It was like a mini-flea-market for toys. Except the toys weren't all 50 cents or 3 for $1. But I mean look at the obscure stuff you could find!

I'm pretty sure that's a Peter Pan from the Disney Store line of articulated action figures. Aside from a waist joint, this thing had the same, possibly more, articulation than a Mattel figure. *rimshot*

So let's go over what I ended up buying, and why, since that's the name of this blog.

Movie Masters Isamot Kol

It's a Green Lantern Movie Masters figure. After the debacle that was the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern figure in this line, I vowed not to get another Movie Masters Green Lantern figure unless it was Isamot Kol or really, really cheap. (Like under a dollar cheap.) This figure meets that criteria by being Isamot Kol. Like all Movie Masters figures, this is poorly designed. The way the limbs are designed, it's really difficult to have him stand up unless he's on all fours. However the articulated tail and mouth mean I really like this figure because his massive jaw opens. Actually all the problems I have this figure could have been solved by adding articulated ankles. There's articulated wrists! How can articulated ankles be that much harder?

Oh, also, trying to distinguish a green ring on a green hand: Not so easy. It took me a minute to figure out what hand the ring was on.

Kobra

Look, I'm not calling him Lord Naga. TRADEMARKS BE DAMNED!

I wanted this guy for a while now, mostly just to broaden my DCUC villain collection. I didn't want to pay full price because he has a plastic cape, which I hate, and because DCUC figures are too expensive these days. Fortunately, loose, without his build a figure piece, the dealer was willing to bring the price down to something I can live with. His legs are a bit warped, but that just be the way he's designed.

Hot Seat

Mario pointed this car out to me, and I decided to get it. It's a Hot Wheels car designed to look like a toilet. With a plunger as the steering wheel. And the seat has a hinge, so you can have all the fun cliche jokes about leaving the seat up.

What do you want, it was $1. I thought that was well worth the limited amusement value that I get out of the thing.

Cyclops

After seeing all the loose Marvel Legends figures, I thought I should get one if I found it at a good price and I really wanted it. So that's how I chose Cyclops here. I love Cyclops and all his repressed, weird back-story insanity. I skipped this figure when it first came out, and I've sorta regretted it once I began picking up some 6" figures.

The dealer was willing to cut the price a little, so it was an easy decision. Especially once I saw that his fingers were articulated and he has double jointed elbows so you can pose him doing his iconic visor-touch. I'm still not in love with Marvel Legends, especially when the thigh doesn't have a cut joint to supplement the ball jointed hip-thigh, but I really like this figure.

12-inch Luke & Han

These aren't even the collector's series. They're the really bad, early 90's Kenner figures. I pretty much only got them so I could cannibalize them for the costumes and because the guy cut me a huge discount if I got both.

Damn, they have big hands.

And that's pretty much it. Except for the 1:6 scale chainsaw I picked up.

Man I miss when Toys R Us had a wall of 12 inch figures. (Which is where I got Jesse Ventura... Actually I found him stashed on a clearance shelf, but only because the Toys R Us had carried him earlier. We never really appreciated the 90's.)

Spectre...

I've never been a big Spectre fan, so what would convince me to buy this figure? It's not like I'm going out of my way to collect all the DCUC JSA figures or anything. Nope, the reason I got it was because it was cheap and I wanted to remove the head and try and see if a simple custom head swap would work.

To make Hal Jordan: Spectre, which was pretty much the last time I thought the Hal Jordan character was interesting. Its not perfect, but it's probably the only way I'd be willing to put a Hal Jordan figure on my shelf. Unless they make a good DCUC scale Parallax. But they won't. Still, it would work better if there was a hood, or Hal's face was all white. But I'm not at the level where that's an option for me to do. I'd just break something and be sad. Still, as an experiment that cost under $5, I'll say this was a semi-success.

Magog

If you had told me a decade ago that they would make a Magog action figure as part of the DCUC line I would have thought you were an idiot. Magog was a one note character from the 1996 Kingdom Come miniseries where he played the strawman character meant to represent the Punisher and other gritty heroes that were popular in the 90's for their gritty natures and willingness to kill in the name of justice. After Kingdom Come he appeared once in a sort of follow up about a year later and then was never mentioned again.

But Geoff Johns has never met an idea from the 90's he didn't think should be reintroduced into the story 15 years later. And with that, Magog entered into mainstream continuity as the ULTIMATE LEGACY CHARACTER. Specifically the JSA is rounding up legacy heroes and decides to include FDR's great-grandson. He's got an alien weapon welded to him due to an accident, so it's not entirely unjustified, although why did he have to be a direct descendant of FDR? BECAUSE GEOFF JOHNS, that's why. (Although wouldn't it have been hilarious if the dude preferred to be remembered as the great-grandson of Eleanor Roosevelt?) Anyway, he's a hero and soldier, so he's got no qualms about killing for the right cause and then BAM, Gog shows up and uberpowerful god-like being who transforms the young man into Magog and OMG!!! KINGDOM COME!!! REMEMBER THAT?!!! GEOFF JOHNS LOVES HISTORY!!! So yeah, that's how Magog showed up in the mainstream continuity as a member of the JSA. During a time when Geoff Johns had written it so that the Starman and Superman from Kingdom Come had joined the JSA. Awkward!

Oh, and then Max Lord mad Magog blow off his own head with his power staff. And that's how Magog left the mainstream continuity. Violently. Because he was a Geoff Johns character and they have to die violently because Geoff Johns.

AND THEY MADE A TOY OF HIM! Now I could pretend that I got this Magog figure because I have fond memories of Kingdom Come, but I can't. Now when I think of this character I don't think of Kingdom Come. What I think of is the great-grandson of FDR Wearing that ridiculous armor without a shirt turning his power staff to blow off his own head because he was being mind-controlled. FDR's GREAT GRANDCHILD. You know, one of these guys.

Yeah, think about that and tell me the Watchmen prequels won't affect how you see the original story.

Sinestro Corps Sinestro

Dude, it's Wave 20 Sinestro! The one with more accurate scale body party and only available wearing his Sinestro Corps uniform. If you don't know, after Geoff Johns took over the Green Lantern comics he wrote a story where Sinestro started his own Corps to rival and attack the Green Lantern Corps with the idea that by doing so he would make the Green Lantern Corps into an organization that was better prepared to police the Universe since by facing a strong and dangerous foe the Green Lanterns would be forced to be more vigilant, more authoritarian, and less naive about things like the sanctity of life. (Incidentally that's exactly the same motivation that Johns gave his new Zoom Legacy character years earlier when he was working on the Flash. I bring it up because I love hating on Geoff Johns and his hubris.)

And way back in Wave 3 of DCUC they made a Sinestro figure with an alternate Sinestro Corps uniform variant. But I didn't buy DCUC back then so I never got it. And then I got hardcore into figures of the Rainbow Corps in the DCUC lines and oh man was I pissed at myself for not buying it when I had the chance... But now I have it, and it's supposedly a better sized version, so yay!

Sooo....Random  Pro and Con

Pro: Nekron's head from the Build-a-figure works as a disembodied head of Nekron.

Con: I got this figure more out of a desire to have a definitive Rainbow Corps set than anything else. Than and I want to increase the number of figures on my DCUC Villain shelf. Yup, Sinestro isn't going on the Rainbow Corps shelf. That's already way too crowded. He'll go on the villain shelf with Luthor, Cheetah, and Joker.

Current Rainbow Corps Collection
Green Lanterns: 14 (I'm still thinking about removing the Movie Masters toys from the display.)
Sinestro Corps: 7
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Black Lanterns: 1.15
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1

Young Justice Robin

Yeah, I didn't have a 6 inch Robin figure, but the real reason I got this was it was $10 on clearance and I really wanted that rooftop diorama. The Robin figure is just a nice afterthought, although I don't watch Young Justice so I don't know which Robin this is. I'm just going to pretend it's Drake and pose him next to Azrael Batman.

But yeah, that diorama is awesome.

AJ got me a potentially racist toy. Samurai

Oh Samurai, your powers didn't even have anything to do with the Samurai and yet that's what you called yourself. Should I be offended that you didn't wear a shirt, basically making yourself insanely vulnerable? Is it because of your wind powers? Or the ancient arts of superpowers that you learned somehow despite being a mild mannered History Professor?

I dunno, whenever I hear about an Asian Superhero who has ancient magic that he uses in battle, I always cringe. Even if he did get additional superpowers from a New Genesis ray from space.

I think this movie by YOU SAID YOUR DAMN NINJA COULD TAKE CARE OF ROBOCOP PRODUCTIONS, says it best...

Buyer's remorse: DC Universe Edition

You know, one of my New Years resolutions was going to be to not buy toys through January unless they were from a convention or special toy show. Then I went to a Target that had some good clearance deals and a selection of DC Superheroes Legos. And that resolution ended in less than 24 hours.

But since this is about my Buyer's Remorse, let's go over why I bought each item and why I might want to return them. Because the name of this blog is WHY DID I BUY THAT TOY?

1. Fisher Price Little People: Batman & Joker 
I got this for my young cousin who is going to get hand me downs of his sisters Little People toys, so I thought I'd give him a boys toy update. Then if he gets into Batman I'll always know what to get him for Christmas and Birthdays. Also, it was on clearance, so I got a little bit off an otherwise expensive toy. I'm not set to see my cousin for a while, so I might return this if I find a better present for him.

2. Catwoman's Catcycle City Chase Lego set. 
Even though they were hard to find at Toys R Us at Christmas, the prediction that these DC Superheroes Legos would be plentifully available at Target after the holidays has proven correct even sooner than anticipated. This is one of the basic sets, and I've wanted a Batman Lego ever since I got into Legos (which was long after they put out the Batman Lego toys.) But I'm still on the fence about keeping this set. I feel I'll make my decision after I see/get the big Joker's Carnival set which comes with Batman, Robin, Joker, Harley, Riddler, and thug. After that if I think $12 is worth a Catwoman/catcyle then I'll hold onto this.

3. Young Justice Aqua Lad and Robin 6 inch figures
I got these because they were half off. I don't have either character in this scale, but they're animated style faces are a sharp difference from the rest of my DCUC collection. That said, $10 for the Robin Rooftop base seems like it might be sorta worth it. And I'm pretty sure this may be the only 6" DCUC figure of this Aqualad ever made. And even if it's not, this one was $10, came with insane accessories and a cool looking diorama base.

On the other hand, $20 for figures I'm not even sure I really want just because I like the diorama bases? I need to think on this one.

Cyclotron

Because sometimes when you see a DCUC robot with removable chest plate that reveals the metal workings underneath and it cost under $4 new in box, you just have to say, why not?

Also, his eye visor makes him look like he's wearing sunglasses from a dystopian future.

Buyer's Remorse returns

So this weekend the only item I picked up which spurred the Buyer's Remorse is this guy. I'm not certain if I'm going to keep this Jack Knight DCUC figure, but I've never seen one before so I figured I should pick it up... just in case. So should I keep it? I don't know. That it has less articulation that most DCUC figures is kinda weird. But really, how much am I going to pose it?

And I love the character and I like that they printed the astrology star from the back of his figure.