Sentinel & Rachel Summers

I'm kinda annoyed at how hard this was to find. I haven't really been into the X-men during the whole "Rachel wears Jean Grey's old costume" period. My prime X-men experiences involved this version of Rachel, when she was wearing the S&M brainwashed slave uniform (DAMMIT Claremont) from her post-apocalyptic future before she traveled to a history which negated her whole existence and decided to stay.

So I really wanted this version of the minimate rather than the Rachel Grey one. Also because I'm a collector and I wanted it to help complete my definitive Excalibur lineup. They haven't made a Megan yet, but she's a shape shifter so really any minimate could be Megan in disguise. Like the Hulk.

It took a few months to find this 2 pack for a price that wasn't about 4 times MSRP. So when I finally did you're damned right I snatched it up. I'm pretty pleased with it. The Sentinel is awesome and you can add or remove various elements of his costume to reveal details on the base pieces, thus allowing you to have Sentinel minimates from various eras. And Rachel has her Phoenix force base, so score there.

The Master

I've always wanted a Master figure, but the problem with the most recent Master is roughly the same issue with the recent Doctors. When you get down to it, the figures are just "dude in suit" which isn't very exciting. Although I found "hoodie Master" to be a little more appealing as a visual than "suit and tie master." Also, I liked the more manic portayal of the character in that story. I didn't buy the toy though. I didn't want any of the other figures in the set. Fortunately an Amazon gift certificate and a reseller selling the figure by itself meant: BAM!

I now have a Master figure.

And more Time Lord toys is always good.

The likeness is okay, and the frosted hair just makes him look silly (poor paint application there), but hell, the figure sort of works. Not worth $20, but it's a nice figure. (Maybe it's worth $9 or $10.)

Cyberman (Earthshock)

Hey, they finally made a figure based on my favorite Cybermen. These are the ones who were partially responsible for killing one of the Doctor's companions. They also were the first ones to have a real modern design rather than wear giant air conditioning units on their chests. I've been hoping for this toy ever since they started making the new Doctor Who figures and the popularity of the show turned out to be so huge that there was a real possibility that they'd make Classic Who figures.

After seeing the Cybermen figures from last year, this is everything I ever hoped for. Unfortunately the Silver Nemesis Cybermen figures they're making are just repaints of this guy rather than reflecting the changes they made (which are admittedly few.) I might end up picking them up, but we'll see.

Monkeyin' Around Figure

Because it was 25 cents. I got it out of a gumball machine because I was curious what I would get and I really like my other Monkeyin' Around figure.

Incidentally, I found a website where you can buy these toys in bulk. It's fun to browse through, but I don't see anything I'd be willing to pay $20+ shipping to get over a gross of them.

Neo Classic Iron Man and Stilt Man

Stilt Man!

Yeah, screw Neo Classical Iron Man, that's a ridiculous name. New Classic is an oxymoron.

But STILT MAN! He doesn't come with normal feet, because what would be the point. He just comes with stilt legs. Modular stilt legs.

I love it when the more ridiculous villians and heroes of the Marvel Universe get minimates.

Super Wrestler

Oh Europeans, it isn't a super wrestler, it's a luchador. Although coming from the company that also named other figures in the series "Mexican" and "Tribal Hunter," the accuracy of anything ethnic isn't shocking.

Yeah, this is part of the blind bag collector's series. But it wasn't until after I got this guy that I found out that if you go online there are secret codes you can use to figure out what's inside each bag. Fortunately the liberal policy of the toy store to paw the bags to get a sense for each figure's shape and my powers of deduction meant I was able to get one of the 4 figures I want from this wave.

Seventh Doctor & Electronic TARDIS

This is the 7th Doctor. There's two versions released, one is of his creame colored coat from his earlier stories. That one is packaged with a Dalek. This one is from the later stories, when he wore a darker jacket. They're esentially the same except the color of the jacket and the head sculpt is identical. But they were sold out of the other one, so I got this one. And it only is available with an Electronic TARDIS.

But I already have an Electronic TARDIS. Yes I do. But this one is different, for one thing it's a lighter color blue, but that's not all. In the classic Doctor Who series the TARDIS wsa lighter colored, but it also varied in size depending on which TARDIS prop they were using that year. Sometimes it was tall and skinny, other times it was very large. So it's difficult to say this is inaccurate. But it's easy to say that it's smaller than the one sold from the Doctor Who: the New Series of toys. Also, the phone panels are differnt. In the New Series TARDIS the phone was attached to the back of the sign and was essentially cut out from the door, so you saw the interior through the hole. In the Classic Series TARDIS the phone is given its own little cubby and has a rotary phone in there.

In the New Series TARDIS they put in a sticker on the interior to look like the TARDIS interior is within. In the Classic Series TARDIS it looks like a hollow plasic shell. Like in the episodes when the TARDIS breaks and it's not longer a TARDIS anymore.

Also, and this is a small thing: The spring loaded door which allows the door to stay open. That's broken on the Classic TARDIS I got. So that sucks. And as a final thing, I haven't put batteries in them, but the Classic Series TARDIS makes fewer noises, limited to the take off & landing noise. The New Series TARDIS is supposed to also do emergency sirens and various malfunctioning crashing noises. I haven't decided which TARDIS I like better. That broken spring on the door really sucks though.

UPDATE: I contacted the retailer and they sent me a new TARDIS for free, along with a SASE to send back the broken one.