Flying Mummy Attack

See, that this set is fricking awesome. You get a biplane, an obelisk, an adventurer minifigure and two mummy minifigures. And the Mummies have wings!

The obelisk is nice, the jewel at the top can be snatched off by a hook on the bi-plane. The Biplane is pretty nifty itself, it's more solid thatn I thought it would be. The only thing I dislike is the guns at the top of the plane. There's a couple pieces that form those guns that are looser than I think Legos have any right to be. But the landing gear at the bottom of the plane is amazing.

But hey, Mummies. The wings and helmet are seperate pieces. The wings are attached by a hook that goes around the neck peg before the head, so they wiggle around something fierce. The heads are actually double sided. There are exactly 2 Mummy faces in this wave, it would seem, one with one eye and one with two eyes. Each head has both faces printed on them. So if you want you can have an army of identical mummies, with loose fitting wings. But damned if those wings don't look awesome. Well worth the $20 price tag.

Toys R Us purchase

I haven't opened this yet, but I wanted to share it with you.

I went to Toys R Us the other day, possibly for the last time until after Christmas. I found a Lego set I didn't even know was coming out because I pretty much ignored all the news about the Pharaoh's Quest line.

Then I saw this:

And I'm sorry but that's pretty fricking awesome. Flying mummies. FLYING F*ING MUMMIES!

Also a bi-plane which I've wanted in Lego form for a while now.

Doctor Who ebay Lot: Amy Pond

And here we have Amy Pond, the second main reason I purchased this auction. She's hard to find as a single figure, and I really don't give a damn about the Roman Autons enough to buy the 6 pack with her in it. (Although a Dalek made out of stone is kinda cool.) Also, the loose figures were going for an insane amount on ebay, so this was actually a fairly good way to get her in my collection.

So far she's my 2nd favorite companion from the new series (possibly tied with Donna Noble.) Part of that is because damn they picked an attractive actress to play her. Also Scottish accent. The figure shares the actress' likeness pretty well, although the expression is a bit dull. Othrewise this is a great figure and a good compliment to the 11th Dcotor figure.

Now I want a Rory Williams figure and all will be well. And not in his fricking Roman armor, just a casually dressed figure. (He's my favorite companion by the way.)

Tow Truck

I love me some Lego trucks. I don't know why, so I probably knew somewhere in the back of my mind that one day I'd end up buying this tow truck. It was easy to put together and it looks good. I'm shocked how well the tow feature works, particularly since there's no knot to keep the string attacked to the pulley system. I had a little trouble with the tools coming out of their pegs, but I've got no complaints about this set. No hard praise either though. It comes with an unexciting City Maitenance worker minifigure.

Doctor Who ebay Lot: Face of Boe

Hey, it's the Face of Boe. Original MSRP $29.99, who knows what it goes for loose. This helped make the blow of how much the Lot cost go down a little smoother. It actually has an action feature, probably to make up for the complete lack of articulation. When you push a little tab on the back of the tank the Face of Boe's mouth moves. Which kinda means the articulation is incredibly accurate to the character. It also means this is basically a puppet.

For those of you in the know, it's been implied that the Face of Boe is a 5 billion year old Jack Harkness. It was a last minute retcon by Russel T. Davies, the writer and show runner for that period of the show, so the resemblance isn't perfect. Also, the Face of Boe didn't say anything that really implied he knew who the Doctor was.

Scary Cars

Hey, Target had a sale on Halloween items so I got 5 Hot Wheels cars for $2.50. Each one is designed to be Halloween themed. But are they any good? Let's find out.

This sucker is called Rodzilla. A silly name, but probably accurate given that it's a car with a giant dinosaur neck and head attached to it. It's Halloweenish because monsters are Halloween, right? I guess. I'd hate to drive this car in real life, the neck is a joint to allow it to turn it's head around, but it's also very loose, swinging around as it moves foward. It took a couple trips down the ramp before it even completed because the neck kept hitting the ramp as it was spinning around.

Next up is the '59 Caddilac Funny Car. This is Halloween because of the mummy, the pumpkins, and the flames in orange.

Since it's a funny car the body lifts up. I used to love that feature on toy cars when I was a kid. It's still a little cool now, but it also prevents the damn thing from successfully making the loop on the ramp. So it gets a DNF on the ramp.

I like the Halloween decorations on the body. The orange contrasts well with the black. Even if it didn't have the pumpkins on, the flames give it a "car from hell" vibe. It looks very inimidating... scary might be a better word.

Okay, coming up next is The Gov'Ner. No idea why it's called that. It's Halloween decorations is that it's bright orange. Also a skull on the hood.

This is a surprisingly light Hot Wheel. The entire body is made out of plastic. I like the design of the body, although the Orange on Orange flames make it look silly. The skulls help a bit, but overall I can't help but look at this and think, "That is a very orange car." Orange isn't a scary color for a car. Not really. Not since the Dukes of Hazzard.

Next up: Phantasm. As you can see it's a translucent green and it has ghost decals all over. Because it's translucent it's made entirely of plastic, making it feel even lighter than the Guv'Ner. I think the only metl of it is the axels. The translucent green looks cool, you can even see the seats through the top and sides. It's not scary, but it does convey the ghost theme well. And those decals help remind you in case you ever forget. Like huge educational aids for stupid people.

This is an insanely light car, it has no heft to it whatsoever. I feel like I could shatter it if I dropped it. When you roll it it moves as though it has no weight to it whatsoever... like a ghost. Oh man, that totally makes sense now.

And finally we have "Torpedo Jones." It's another ghost car, although this one is actually diecast metal, with a plastic driver figure in it. What makes it ghostly, aside from the ghost decals (the same seen on the Phantasm), is that the driver figure glows-in-the-dark, toy shorthand for a ghost.

I like it. The Glow-in-the-dark feature isn't overstated and actually works. The car looks old-fashioned and so promotes the "car from the past" element. Not my favorite Hot Wheels car ever, and not one I would ever buy if it were sold individually, but not a bad car.

And if you're wondering how they all did on the ramp, well take a look.

As noted before: the '59 Caddilac Funny Car did not finish. Rockzilla performed poorly, barely making it past the Batmobile. Ironically both the Phantasm and Torpedo Jones were able to surpass the Ecto-1, and as you can see, the Gov'Ner became the car to beat as it sailed past every other Hot Wheels car I own.

2010 Birthday Haul

I got a couple of figures for my birthday a few weeks ago, but since I've got a backlog of toys I've actually purchases in need of reviews (Deathstroke! Transformers Universe Onslaught! Crimson Dynamo!), I'll just discuss the two highlights here.



There are few figures that are still absolute must-haves for me in the DC Universe Classics line, and Martian Manhunter topped the list. He's just hitting stores now, and like a good friend Mario got me one as a present. Except when it arrived in the mail, it was the variant version--the one with the Martian head and the unremovable blade-hand. Luckily, the buyer he obtained it from on Amazon.com exchanged it for the regular version.

There are plenty of DCUC figures I would have normally acquired (Spectre, Mr. Terrific, Wildcat) if not for the blanding, homogenizing effect Mattel has wrought on the line by using the exact same base bodies over and over. Knowing Mattel, I was aware that Martian Manhunter would reuse as many parts as possible, but because he was one of the few truly essential figures for me in the line, I decided long ago that I could live with that. Aside from the all-new head, belt, harness, cape, and boots (which cleverly add height to the figure to replicate the character's towering stature), the lower body is the exact same thing you get with all but a select few DCUC male figures, while the upper body comes courtesy of Hawkman.

Despite the reuse, you could count on it being a great-looking figure, right? Well, kinda--there are some definite issues. The longer shin pieces do make J'Onn J'Onzz appropriately tall when placed next to other figures, but they don't look all that proportionate on the figure itself; the net effect is that his legs end up being too long. Furthermore, the length of the legs and the bulk of the torso piece makes the midsection look too skinny and the arms look positively puny. The figure looks alright in certain poses and these issues do not impact the fun aspect of the figure at all, but I still feel disappointed that Mattel's cheapness has restricted what line sculptors the Four Horsemen can do within the company budget, and has consequently prevented this figure from being the ultimate toy representation of the character.

Despite its faults, I still like the Martian Manhunter figure a hell of a lot. But it's not the most impressive toy-related gift I received this year. No, that honor goes to . . .



Leave to to my brother to present me with the American release of Masterpiece Grimlock as my primary birthday gift this year. Part of the Masterpiece line that deals with creating large-size ultimate interpretations of iconic Transformers characters, the arrival of the Dinobot Commander finally provides me with a figure that can go toe-to-toe with my Masterpiece Starscream. Now, I am a massive Transformers fan, but I've felt progressively let down by Hasbro and Takara's joint efforts on the line in recent years, particularly when it comes to updating old figures, my main gripe being unnecessary changes that end up making the new figures come off as subpar (see Titanium Soundwave's massive crotch piece and Classics Mirage's weird lanky torso with wheels sticking in the air). No such problem are to be found with Masterpiece Grimlock, though: he's a straight update of the original figure from the 1980s, with alterations made to enhance its resemblance to the character's cartoon representation. As with all modern Transformers figures, the new plus-sized Grimlock boasts loads of articulation, and the larger size of the toy accommodates tons of intricate sculpted details. He comes with two weapons--his trademark double-barreled rifle and sword--and features a Dinobot crown (not pictured) that's exclusive to the American release. The figure is loads of fun, and it's one of the few Transformers toys I have where I struggle to decide which mode to display it in.