Tuk Tuk

I wonder if Matchbox and Hot Wheels are managed separately or are run from the same department. Because I really like the random Matchbox cars I find in the Dollar Tree far more than I do the Hot Wheels I find everywhere else. They're just so diverse in form.

Some research tells me that Tuk Tuks are popular in Thailand, where Matchbox cars are produced and this was a special collaboration between Matchbox and the Thai factory that makes the cars. They even had to create a new type of wheel. 

Minimate Monday: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I wasn't eager to get my hands on the TMNT minimates, but I found some packs at Toys R Us, so why not? 

The first thing you notice when you open them is that these are marketed as keychains, but they're really not. There are key rings included, but they're attached to the minimates by a thin string around the neck which isn't looped or tied with a not. They're relying on the permanence of a neck joint in a toy designed to have the head come off. Oh and the string can be removed without taking the head off I you're trying hard enough. So I'm expecting some kid is going to lose their minimate if they do something like attach it to a bag zipper.  I'm going to assume this whole keychain thing is a workaround so that Diamond can license toys in this scale.

The toys themselves are nicer than I anticipated. I was afraid the Turtles would end up as glorified Battle Beast minimates with extra parts slipping over the minimate base humanoid body. But these are more sophisticated, with the animal body parts and ninja padding sculpted onto the body base. This means the feet aren't removable, but that's a small price to pay for slightly more stability in the figure.

Interestingly, Michelangelo's nunchucks are connected with metal chains. 

Oh and all the turtles have weapon holders sculpted onto their shells. And really the heads and shells are the unique bits since aside from color, the turtle bodies are identical, but they're minimates so you have to expect stuff like that. And I like that the figure stands for the turtles are sewer lids.

The human/robot figures that come with the figures are serviceable. The four arms of the robot foot soldier is pretty cool, and Shredder has a scarred face under his mask, but I'm not getting these figures for the humans. 

Couldn't find a Leonardo figure, which is odd. These 3 sets were the only ones onthe shelves so I snatched them up.

Minimate Monday: Black Friday aftermath edition

I got minimates on Black Friday because of course I did!

Look, as much as I enjoy the concept of All-New X-Men (which for the uninformed is that the original X-Men, early in their careers when they are still young and idyllic, are brought to the present and are horrified by what the X-Men and mutants have turned into) the series has kind of lost its way and their new costumes are ridiculous, so I wasn't really too interested in a wave of minimates of the characters in their new costumes with minimate designs that make them all look like adults, not young teenagers. Fortunately Iceman in ice form just looks like any Iceman and I have yet to truly get my hands on a good Iceman minimate. And it comes with a Sentinel, which, let's face it, is a good army builder figure. So an easy Black Friday buy if it's on sale. Also, metal tentacles!

The other set is Urban Yukio and Black Clan Ninja from the Wolverine in Japan movie wave. But if you ignore that it's Urban Japanese Girl minimate and Ninja minimate. So my desire to own more Asian characters as minimates is sated. Although the ninja comes with a slightly curved sword and his sheath is straight so the sword doesn't fit without tearing the soft plastic it is made of.

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.)

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.

Clearance Blast

Hey, the Toys R Us Clearance Blast is now at the stage where everything in the blast is at least 80% off. So a lot of things are under $2, which is a magic price where I realize it's cheaper than me buying a hamburger so why not. The downside is that what's leftover isn't very good. But here's some stuff I picked up this weekend.

Heroclix from those app games which also come with figures. Final price: $0.60. I pretty much just wanted these for the X-Men HeroClix, especially 90's Cyclops. Hell, I don't even play HeroClix, I just like them as tiny vinyl statues.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. K'Nex figure. I feel like I knew they made Nascar K'Nex, but they never appealed to me. But the chance to get a minifigure for under $0.50 was too strong a pull. I have no idea if this actually looks like Dale, but I doubt it. Meanwhile this minifigure sucks. The Pac-Man, Super Mario, and Angry Birds K'Nex figures are much better. I guess they need a video game license to make a good minifigure.

A $0.40 pez dispenser? Sure! That's how much 3 columns of Pex normally cost. So I'm basically getting a free Pez Dispenser. And it's a Muppet. Even better!

$0.80 for minimates? I already have two of this set, and I'm totally going to get it. That's like $0.80 for a Cardassian army builder. Score.

Hey, BattleBeast minimates! Better known as the minimate property that made me realize I don't need every minimate property because the more intricate with unique pieces the figure gets, the less like a minimate it looks like and the less I want it. But for under $2 I wouldn't mind seeing how they do a four legged minimate.

I've been thinking of getting this Kre-O Cityville set for a while, and now that it's under $1 I have no reason to not get it. I'm really impressed by the mechanics of the claw. I'm also really impressed by how well this building set works. I'd totally be up for buying more mechs in this scale, but they don't make them.

It's a World of Warcraft Pandarian on a mount. The Pandarians are a race in the game who have a mystical Far East kung-fu society which is why this post is getting a Toys Depicting Asian tag. I'm actually pretty impressed by the mount, especially since it's a giant turtle and you can take the shell off and put other bricks in its place. It's like a hermit crab, but with a horned turtle instead of a crab.

Oh, and I also picked up some Muppet Whatnot kits because at 80% off they're now $13. Well, the blue ones are. They're keeping the other colors the same price, and I think I know why. They're re-releasing them but with new accessories and new UPC codes. I saw one of the new one, instead of a black goatee you get a brown Magnum PI mustache. Instead of the black wig and green wig you get a white wig and rainbow wig. Stuff like that. Weirdly, based on the cost of individual eye and hair parts ala carte, it's still a better bargain to get the new set rather than the individual parts separately (parts that are near impossible to find online since FAO Schwartz doesn't like selling Whatnot stuff unless you buy a $100 custom made job from their New York Whatnot shop) since you get a free body with them.

Glen Rhee

It's Glen Rhee, the popular Korean-American survivor of the zombie apocalypse as depicted by Steve Yuen in the AMC television show the Walking Dead. I don't watch that show, but I've read the comics their based on and I don't care it's an action figure of a heroic Asian-American male. The fact that it's so rare in this culture is... you know what, rant for another day.

This is a Macfarlane toy, and these days that means a lot more than it used to. Pretty good aritcuation, everything I would want except the lack of a torso joint. But damn, this is a really good likeness of Steven Yuen. It also comes with some great accessories, like a bloody pipe and an alternate head of Glenn's beat up face for when he gets tortured and stuff.

He comes with other accessories, like a couple guns, a knife and a flak jacket, but what I really love is that these figures are actually in scale with the 5" line of Doctor Who figures, which means they can share accessories.

Peri is ready for anything.

Neca Simpsons figures

So now that I've seen the Neca 25th Anniversary Simpsons figures, the Celebrity Guest wave 1... I gotta  say, not impressed. For $11 (which seems oddly affordable due to the ever increasing cost of action figures... sadly) I wanted more. And I certainly wanted better sculpts.

The only figure I wanted from this wave was Tom Hanks, but now seeing the figure... it doesn't look like Tom Hanks... it doesn't even look like the Simpsons version of Tom Hanks. It looks like generic background Simpsons character in suit. Here's both the 5" version and the minifigure version.

I thought the Yao Ming figure was better done, even if you can only really tell who he is because of the basketball and the fact his sweater says "YAO."

Actually, the best sculpted figure was the James Brown figure, which I'm not talking about here because I actually bought it and might go over it at a later date. But knowing me, probably not.

Ultimately, I think these figures are a step down from the Playmates Simpsons figures. The Neca versions are too angular and sharp, losing some of the cartoon feel. Also, it's really only of interest if you want an action figure of a celebrity done in the Simpsons style, which seems like a really niche market. But these are nicer than the Macfarlane Simpsons, since these are actual action figures and not stationary dioramas with no play value.

Batgirl

I went to Stockton-con an found a guy selling one of my top five wanted toys for almost no markup. I'm so happy. I have the 6" Mattel interpretation of Asian Batgirl! And even happier to pay less than half what they go for loose on ebay.

Quick Kick

Man, Every time I think I'm not going to buy another Kre-o they come out with something like this: Quick Kick. You know the most racist G.I. Joe they ever made... probably, they made a lot of racist GI Joes, but this is the racist Asian G.I. Joe. The guy who goes into warzones not wearing a shirt or shoes because he's just so martial arts.

I just had to get it in all its ridiculous beauty. I don't understand why he comes with a chocolate bar but it's probably a reference to a G.I. Joe episode I never saw. Because damn there were a lot of episodes. Like the One where you find out his parents run a Korean grocery store.

Samurai and Union Officer

This is not a set. It's two figures I recently picked up from the playmobil website. The Samurai has the upturned, squinty Asian eyes, but I can't get mad because of how much I love the details on the samurai armor.

Meanwhile the Union Officer has a funny mustache. Historical facial hair is always great.

There's just something about the way Playmobil does figures from history that tickles me in the right place. Now if they'd just do some figures from less violent professions, I'd be super thrilled.

Kung-fu guy

Hai-ya!

Continuing my ongoing quest to get action figures of Asian people, I ended up getting the Series 3 Playmobil figure of this Asian dude. Playmobil figures don't really have names, so I'm calling this dude Asian Kung-Fu Guy.

I know I like to ironically collect unintentionally racist action figures of Asian people, (I'm Asian, I'm sensitive to this kind of thing, especially when the toy manufacturer is from Europe) but this guy is even more racist than I usually expect. He's not just a martial artist. He doesn't just have the slanted eyes that all Playmobil figures of Asian people have. He's got a fu-manchu mustache. Oh, and angry eyebrows so you know his fu-manchu-stache means he's evil.

Which is funny, because if the television show "Kung-Fu" with David Carradine taught me anything, it's that the practitioners of Kung-Fu are supposed to be peaceful people. Oh wait, I didn't see the dragon on his clothes. He's clearly evil.

I don't really think this guy is all that racist. But then I look at the mustache and I don't know. I just don't know.

The Sacramento GI Joe show was taken over by a local toy store this year. I went to the show for the last hour. Oddly enough, I'm glad I went in that hour because I was able to pick up some free toys people were trying to get rid of. Here you can see some of the free toys I picked up. They include a knock-off Leo Convoy figure, a broken Phantom Stranger DC Direct figure (neck peg is broken), a gobot, a plastic airplane model kit, a poor condition GI Joe vehicle, a couple Green Lantern McDonalds toys and most impressively, two plastic assemblable Transformers statues.

This one is Terrorsaurus.

And I have no idea who this is. But the hard plastic with the pointy bits made trying to get the pegs to snap into the corresponding holes a pain in the ass.

So what did I actually pay cash for? Well I picked up a Puppet Master 12" figure and the guy threw in a Jackie Chan figure for free because he couldn't give it away. Except he did give it away. I'm actually interested in seeing what it can do. It boasts triple jointed arms and legs so I wonder what that really means. I also picked up a base bbi 1/6  scale figure to see if the brand is any good.

Also, I got a Black Widow figure because I put in a bid in an auction to get Mario a Nick Fury figure.

Oh, and hey, my Big Bad Toy Store order came in. 6 months of toy orders, finally here!

We'll go over that another day.

New Warriors set

Why'd I get this set? Well, it was cheap and I've already got a couple New Mutant minimates from previous Toys R us waves. And you know me, once I collect a couple members of a team I want to complete the team. Of course now...

The original New Mutants have taken to wearing their old uniforms again, but this is them when they were teens, at the start of the New Mutants series. We've got Wolfsbane (werewolf), Karma (can project her mind into other people), Sunspot (energy charged solar powered super body), and Cannonball (unstoppable flight propulsion). They didn't include Mirage (illusions) even though I'd say she's arguably more important than Karma... although this was probably the only way they'd make a Karma figure, so I guess that makes sense. They'll probably make a Mirage figure sooner or later. That'd be cool, there's so few Native American superheroes whose powers aren't somehow based on their heritage. But hey, Karma, the Vietnamese mutant whose powers aren't martial arts based! Awesome.

So one of the things I love/hate about this set is that two characters are in their New Mutants uniforms but the other two, Wolfsbane and Sunspot, are in their transformed forms. But they also spent some time in their un-transformed uniformed states. So they included spare heads so you can put them on the basic New Mutatnt uniformed bodies of the other figures. It's a neat feature, but now I want another pair of bodies for these heads, which means I'd have to buy another set... It's diabolical.

Wyplash

Why don't Lego Skeleton's know how to spell? Unless his parents named him this, which I don't think is how the magical skeleton thing works. But yeah, clearance Ninjago figures means I can finally see how the spinning top mechanic works and also get a Lego rice-picker hat. (Is that what they're called officially? It's just what I've been calling them. I'm Asian and I don't know the answer to this. Hooray American homogeneity!)

I think that means Wyplash is Asian. I'm going to just assume it does. The other option is the Skeleton is a non-Asian who is just wearing the hat because he's fighting Ninjas. Or its the only hat in the quasi-Asian land this franchise takes place.

Incidentally, not at all impressed by the spinning top mechanic and the game looks arbitrary and silly. I may have lost my ability to enjoy toys... says the man with a toy blog.

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...

No Playskool, just no.

So I got a giftcard from Kohls, or maybe it was a coupon, basically $10 off anything over $10. So I went over there on my lunch break and looked around. They had a pretty good sale on the toys (40% off certain items) so I ended up buying the mildly racist Potato Head set.

That's Karate Chips Potato Head, complete with butter knife sword and peeler-chucks. And a headband with a Japanese Caligraphy-esque design styled on it. That's not racist in and of itself, although it certainly is on the edge of it. But there are plenty of non-Asians who practice Karate and wear stuff like that. No, what gets me playing the race card is that on the packaging the figure is placed in front of a digital backdrop of bamboo. That is definitely playing up the Asian-ness of this figure and whatthehell? As I've mentioned before, I'm disappointedly frustrated when the only depictions of Asians in a toyline are Martial Artists.

So yeah, I bought it because stereotypical depictions of Asians in toylines is fairly hilarious to me because of how lame and sad they are, while at the same time exposing the possible ignorance of the manufacturer.

Oh well, at least the face pieces didn't include squinty eyes or buckteeth. Also not included: A Potato head. This is just the pieces to expand whatever Potato head you already have. That's perhaps the most disappointing part of all. (Although it's also probably why I was able to buy this for less than $10.)

Lego minifigures series 5, part 2

BRITISH: Graduate, Queen's Guard, Detective
You gotta get the Detective. He's clearly modeled on Sherlock Holmes. And his magnifying glass actually kind of works. I particularly like the deerstalker cap (which is how you know he's Holmes). Now you can have him solve all your Lego mysteries.

The Queen's Guard has a neutral expression (or as my sister called it, "pissed off") because the guards aren't supposed to show any emotion while on duty. He's actually one of the easiest figures to find (and by that I mean determine what figure it is in the blind packs) because his hat is so prominent and the texture so unique.

As for the Graduate, I was shocked to realize his cloth gown wasn't in that cardboard protector that you usually get with Lego cloth capes and such. I only figured him out because he has that smooth plate block for a diploma. His hat is pretty awesome though.

MANLY MEN: Lumberjack, Dinosaur Costume, Boxer
What surprised me about the Boxer was that the gloves aren't really an accessory. They've replaced the standard Lego hands you usually get with a figure. Fortunately wrist articulation is still there. I don't exactly know why, but I love this guy. He's got a secondary face on the back of his head with a beaten face and tears. Hilarious.

The Lumberjack is pretty easy to figure out in the blind bags thanks to the axe. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the white trash vibe I'm getting off the dude, but that might be based on my own prejudices. I don't actually know if the flannel and trucker hat is a stereotype or not. If it isn't, then my bad. Although I want to say that if you want to go with a standard lumberjack they should have included a snow cap, a hard hat, or a lumberjack hat.

Then there's Dinosaur Costume. If I could have only one figure from this wave, it would be Dinosaur Costume. Because I love Dinosaurs and costumes. The tail is actually ingenious in its implementation, it's actually a neck piece like a Lego backpack. Look at it, it's glorious.

Finally there's the Eskimo. I was going to skip him until I realized that he's an Eskimo. And as such he counts towards Lego's Asian Stereotype figure for this wave. It's a pretty good eskimo figure, based on everything that mass media has taught us about Eskimos. And I have to admit, I don't know much more than Lego about Eskimos. So for all I know this could be pretty accurate. But I'm gonna guess it's not.

Asian DCUC figure?

So I was reading this article at Comic Alliance about how DC Comics trend of restoring the status quo of superheroes to pre 1980s levels has lead to an unintentional lack of diversity in the superhero community, particularly the regression of making the Atom Ray Palmer instead of Ryan Choi and it got me wondering...

Has there been a toy made of an Asian character in the DC Universe Classics line?

A quick look says, no. There's one scheduled for Wave 18, but its Samurai, the Superfriends character creatd specifically for the cartoon and who was a walking stereotype. Seriously, he had wind powers but he was called Samurai. Oh wait, I forgot, he also had access to ancient Asian martial arts techniques that let him be invisible and crap like that.

So that means that in 17 waves, a number of exclusives, and the Green Lantern Classics line, that there have been 24 aliens (not counting the New Gods), 6 robots, and NO Asians. The other minorities groups aren't represented very well either, 1 hispanic character and 5 black characters.

And if you say it's only because there aren't a lot of minority characters in the DC Universe in general, let alone ones with enough exposure to make a toy of, well that's a whole other problem right there.

I mean, crap, I just want a DCUC figure of an Asian character that's not a sterotype. Is that so wrong/hard?

The Yellow Ranger Shows You How To Ride Like A Lady

It is important to maintain proper posture at atll times.