Universal Monsters Minimates, Wave 2

So last year they release minimates based on the Universal Monster movies the Wolfman and The Creature from the Black Lagoon. This year it's Dracula and Frankenstein, so they're pretty much blowing their big load right now. As with last year there are direct market releases (Comic book stores) and Toys R Us releases. The Direct Market gets two sets, each devoted to a different movie and containing four figures each. Toys R Us gets four 2-packs, including the black and white variants of the main monsters. I got the other three packs.

Dracula and Van Helsing: Van Helsing looks a little dull, like an old man who wants it to be warmer. Fortunately Dracula is looking rather iconic. He will seduce your fiance and drink her blood. Because, you know, swarthy foreigners... man... historical xenophobia. Am I right, folks?

Frankenstein's Monster and Doctor Frankenstein: The doc's surgical gown is surprising detailed, but other than that, he doesn't look like anything but a generic dude. Sadly he's also taller than the Frankenstein's monster minimate. How does that work? They even gave the monster bigger shoes to match the movie design. Dang. I hope they make Munster toys and get it right.

Bride of Frankenstein and a Villager: The villager is the exclusive in this wave. Sadly, no hunchback was released this time around. But on the upside they gave the villager a pitchfork AND a torch! Everything you need to build up an unruly mob. Of one guy. A mob of one guy. Igor could have taken him out. Actually because of the hair, I think the Frankenstein's Bride might be my favorite character in the set. You can't beat that hair.

Articulated Monster Episode 17

Break Room with Pat

I don't know when it was that I got into the Cubes line of action figures, but I've had a tendency to buy them and not open them. But no longer. The Cubes are 3 inch scale figures that are of office drones. They each come with a cubicle and accessories depicting the world of a generic office. The kind that was in the movie Office Space. Or Dilbert.

Let's start with Pat, who comes with the Cubes break room. After the initial offering of interchangeable cubicles, set 5 (this one) began showing other depressing parts of the corporate office world. Like the break room. Seen here with a water cooler and whatnot. I love this stuff. I've worked in places like this. I've seen the bulletin board with the minimum wage information. I've seen the donuts.

Look, clearly the figures aren't that impressive, but holy hell those accessories are awesome. Where else other than Playmobil are you going to get a 3 inch scale coffee pot? That I can then try to wedge into Captain Kirk's hand?

CYBERMATS!!!

OMG! They're making lifesized cybermats!

Well, I know where 25-60 of my dollars are going.

Big Time Spider-Man and Iron Fist

Seriously, why did I buy these?

For Spider-Man? I've got a ton of Spider-man minimates already. And this costume only appeared in 4 issues. Sure Marvel's really gotten into this costume, putting it on a lot of the faux Spiders from Spider-Island and as alternate costumes in video games, but the costume itself has had minimal impact on the comic. (Not like the black costume.) But I will admit that it looks cool. (In the comics it has tech in it that makes the wearer invisible and sound proof. So no one can detect him.)

And I've already got an Iron Fist minimate from the original Iron Fist/Power Man 2-pack that featured the characters in their iconic 70's garb. Sure this is the new Iron Fist design with the whole "Mystical Hong Kong Fantasy Martial Arts Action Epic" vibe that Matt Fraction created. You can tell he's bad ass because his fists are taped up and he's not wearing the plunging v-line spandex or the baby booties anymore. This is a grimmer and gritier Iron Fist for a new era.

Am I that much a sucker for cool costumes that I'll buy two figures of characters I already have in my collection already in much more iconic costumes? Am I really that superficial/a collector?

Doctor Doom

Now, you see, this is why I hate plastic capes. They don't allow for much articulation and as a result, when you get a toy like this Marvel Select Doctor Doom it means you can't have him sitting in his throne while he's wearing the cape.

It almost makes the throne a pointless accessory. Fortunately the cape slips off in this case, so you can have him sitting down. More toys need to have removable capes. Hell, the Super Powers line that everyone fetishizes all the time had both cloth capes that were removable! I also like Doom's alternate hand, the one that has him holing up a grail to toast to his victory.

But what is Doom without his cape? So I chose to pose him standing up, with his cape on. That does mean I'm left with a giant Throne with emblazoned with the letter "D." I wonder if I can repurpose it with another character.

Hal Jordan... still sucks...

As I've said on multiple occasions, if I had to get a Hal Jordan figure and display it, it would probably be the Movie Masters version since you can pretend he's actually Ryan Reynolds given a power ring. Having said that, I found one clearance, picked it up, and I can now say that the toy is shit and you shouldn't buy it if  you have the chance.

Where to begin? To start with, since this is a Movie Masters figure its smaller than the other DC 6 inch figures. Next, the articulation on the arms is crap. It has cut wrists, hinge elbows, and ball and pin shoulders, but the range of motion you get out of them is almost non-existent. I tried to get the figure to do a bicep curl and here's as far as I could get it.

That's as far as I could get that elbow joint to bend. Oh, and I was trying to get the shoulder to rotate so the arm stuck out 90 degrees from the torso. As you can see that did not happen. Yeah, the shoulder joint didn't really work either. It's like the figure as the illusion of joints. Lame.

Skip this one if you can. Unless you want it as a statue. Although then you'd be better of just buying a statue.



Current Rainbow Corps Collection
Green Lanterns: 14 (I'm seriously thinking about removing the Movie Masters toys from the display.)
Sinestro Corps: 6
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1
Black Lanterns: 1