Mini-Time Machine with Marty McFly

First things, first. The Marty McFly in this set isn't the same as the Marty in the original Minimate 4 pack. It's damned close, but there are slight differences in the paint application. Also, the orange vest is slightly different. In the end however, it's not enough difference to make you feel like you've got two versions of the same character.

There's another version of this that comes with Marty in a radiation suit. But I didn't get that one because the Mini-Time Machine is different, it has paint designed to make it look like it's covered in ice and forst, which it is how it's supposed to look post time drive. So screw that, give me this version and redundant Marty.



The minimate Delorean is pretty nice. It looks squished, sure, but the way the back is designed, with all the iconic Back To The Future mods looks pretty sweet. It's a little difficult to get a minimate into the driver's seat, since the steering wheel has a tendency to get in the way, but you can get them in there and they look... well they look right.


If there's one thing I'm going to complain about it's this, you have to put on stickers. I hate putting stickers on toys because my OCD means I never feel it's done perfectly. But if you want headlights, the "OUTATIME" license plate, dashboard controls, the time display, or even the flux capacator, you have to affix the decals yourself and getting your fingers in that tiny cabin space is not easy or fun.

In the end though, I really like this toy. None of the other minimate vehicles out there are appealing to me, but if they make an Ecto-1 in this scale I'll get that too.

Mariachi, Pharaoh, Karate Master

Which minifigure from Series 2 is a more racist depiction? Mr. Maracas (originally listed as "Mexican," and listed in Germany as "Mariachi"), the Pharaoh, or the Karate Master (known in Germany as "Judoki")?

In series 1 it was clearly the Indian (or as he was condescendingly renamed, "Tribal Hunter.") But I think in this wave it's a toss up. I'm probably going to go with Mr. Maracas.

Karate Master

I was initially kind of ambivalent about the Karate Master. $2 for a fairly plain minifigure didn't seem worth it. But two things brought me around. The first was his award which depicts a tiny statue of a lego dude. That thing is seriously awesome. And the fact that it came with two of them, so I can give another guy an award for something or other, means this set was totally worth plunking down the cash.

The other reason I wanted it? Because it amuses me when Lego depicts Asian characters. And this dude is definately Asian. You can tell because, hey, slanty eyelids.

Vampire & Witch

Okay let's do this.

So when I found out that Target had the blind-bagged minifigures they were going to close in 20 minutes. I ran home, grabbed my sheet of barcodes, and ran back. With 4 minutes left I didn't have time to try and find which bags had which figures, so I shoved a basket full of sixty bags and went home. I then spent the next hour figuring out what each bag contained, picked out what I wanted, and returned the rest.

It was expensive, because quite frankly, there were about 15 figures I wanted in this wave, and that means about $30 and then tax.

Here we see the vampire and the witch. It's been a while since Lego put out its monsters, so I'm glad I got a chance to pick some up. The cape on the Vampire took a little figuring out, since it requires figruing out the proper way to fold the cloth. The witch's legs are a solid piece used to depict dresses, which quite frankly I find annoying.

I really want the werewolf, mostly to re-create my Rock Band Lego avatars.

Bender

Hey, they're doing re-releases of the first few waves of Futurama, and they're surprisingly at Toys 'R Us, which I stumbled upon and so was able to get a Bender after wanting one for about a year. I was at the point that I was willing to go with one of the Bender variants like Bender made out of Wood or Chef Bender. But now I have classic Bender and I am happy.

I really like that he comes with exchangable eyes so you can change his expression. It's something that would probably only work on a Bender toy, but it really works.

The only downside is that his hands make it kind of hard to wedge things in there and get him to hold onto anything. The beer bottle sort of works, but I'm not even going to try the motor oil can. His stomach opens up and he's hollow inside, which means I can put the eyes in there and have a reasonable chance of not losing them.

AWESOME. 4 out of 5, and only because the only one left in the store had a smudge on his head. And it seems a bit small for $13.

Captain Jack Harkness with revolver

There's another version of this figure that comes with the Doctor's hand, but I didn't get that one. Which is okay, because I also got it for $5 less than MSRP. This is the first companion figure I've purchased. Partially that's because there hadn't been a companion I really liked made into a figure that I felt was worth the money. The Captain Jack figure that was released in 2005 looks horrible, like they sucked out all the stuff that was cool about the character and turned that into an action figure.

This though, this is Capt. Jack looking his most awesome. He's got his signature coat, which admittedly didn't become a signature until after the 2005 figure was made. Of all the companion figures that have been released so far, this is one of the best, if not the best. The likeness isn't perfect, but you can regognize the character, and that's good enough for me. If I was paying $20 for this instead of $10 I'd be a bit more peeved, but this is pretty good. The only bit that seems off is his nose.

The articulation is pretty decent. Cut neck, cut shoulders, cut wrists, cut biceps, cut waist, cut thighs, hinge elbows, hinge knees, and that weird quasi-balljoint/hinge thing at the hips. It gets a good balance between articulation and sculpting. I like this balance, it gives me enough articulation that I'm happy with the posing potential, but the figures actually look good and fairly acurate to their screen likeness.

Club Penguin Spaceship with Space Alien

What I love about toys in the clearance aisle is that it means I'm willing to pick up toys I wouldn't want to waste my money on normally. Case in point is this Club Penguin toy. I don't know anything about Club Penguin and I don't really care, but what I like is the design of this UFO toy, and for 75% off original MSRP it's at a price I'm willing to spend for it.

It's a nice toy. Solid plastic and it has a pull-back motor, so it has some play value. But even more importantly, with just a little bit of coaxing it's roughly in scale with a minimate!

Bam, suddely this toy isn't just awesome, it's super awesome.