Captain Marvel & Black Bolt

A two-pack of Marvel Cosmic characters. Sort of. While both have alien origins, they have a tendency to get involved with Earth matters a lot. Although for Black Bolt that's because he lives on the moon.

Who we get here are Captain Marvel, Kree soldier and weilder of the might Nega-Bands, who served for a while as a super-hero on Earth, gaining the respect of the Earth heroes until he died of cancer. His legacy lives on in the form of offspring, time travel, and Skrull impostors. This is a pretty good interpretation, although to be fair I had hoped we'd get the Genis Vell version of Captain America. (This Cap's son and weilder of the Nega Bands for a while in a very well written series by Peter David.) But this is the more iconic version of the character. Also, he had some buzz on when he was released due to the character's involvement with Civil War and Secret Invasion.

The other one here is Black Bolt. His wings are attacked to his fore arms, so they look like wings rather than a cape. Good show.

All-in-all, these are nice minimates, although the lack of real accessories, like say an unmasked head for Marvel, or a hair piece for Black Bolt, doesn't make these guys seem like 100% must haves. Get 'em if you like the characters, are a completist, or if, like me, you're trying to obtain the entire roster of a fictional 70's super-team made up of various disconnected Marvel heroes.

Professor Yana

I like the articulation. He has the same as most of the newer Doctor Who figures, although the joints were a bit stiff.

In my attempt to build up my Doctor Who collection, I've decided to try and get at least one version of each of the Masters. A fellow Time Lord, the Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes, the Master can regenerate into new bodies, so multiple actors can portray him. When they reintroduced him in the new series he had to take over the body of an old dude. Or something like that. I don't want to spoil it too much.

But this does mean that one of the greatest actors of stage and screen (Sir Derek Jacobi) ended up playing the Master for a brief moment. Again. (He voiced the Master in an old web-toon. Back when they thought Doctor Who was done forever on television.) And they made a action figure based on it. Originally part of a box set, then a single card, I got it loose on ebay. From England. I really wanted this guy. He's one of my favorite interpretations of the Master ever. (After Eric Roberts... Screw you, I'm allowed to have my own opinions.)

Even though this figure is called Professor Yana, don't make any mistake, he's the Master. (Although they already have a figure in single card called "The Master," so unless they called it "Pre-regeneration Master," this makes sense. Sort of. ) You can tell by the way they sculpted the eyes and expression. Yana (pre-Master) had a softer expression and wide, expressive eyes. When Jacobi played the Master he had a scowl and angry eyes, which this figure has. Also, the figure clearly feels a bond with my other Master figure.

Silver Nemesis Cyberleader & Cybermen

Silver Nemesis was a story in the 25th year of Doctor Who and served as the annivesary story. (Silver Anniversary, get it?) In it a bunch of different factions all fight for the Nemesis, Time Lord weapon of ultimate power. So you had the Doctor fighting neo-nazis, a 17th century sorceress who cast a spell to take her to the future, and as the big surprise cliffhanger of episode 1: Cybermen.

Interesting point, the original plot of Silver Nemesis would have revealed that the Doctor was actually God. But they decided not to go with that.

But yeah, the Cybermen. As with all Cybermen appearances, they made a few modifications from their last story. Not a lot of changes, their budget wasn't too impressive by this point, but a few. And again Character Options (and their US counterpart Underground Toys) do a bang up job of representing the new look.

Actually my only real gripe is that their blasters, while show accurate, aren't designed to fit in their hands. The hand grip sculpts are to wide and so the blasters just slip out of their hands. (It was a problem on the show too. A lot of the Cyberment looked like they were holding babies most of the time since the blasters were essentially planks.)

Darth Vader

This guy is from the Empire Strikes Back vintage line. So cool. I got it from AJ as a Birthday present. I've got other Darth Vader figures, but AJ remembered that I always wanted one that didn't have swivel elbows. And here he is. He's got swivel-hinge joint elbows, the best kind!

And his mask comes off to reveal a pasty middle-aged man inside! Unforunately the mask comes in two parts and falls apart easily, but whatever. I got it as a gift so it cose me nothing!

It's a neat toy.

Lego City Advent Calendar 2010: Not Buying

I don't think I'm getting a Lego Advent Calendar this year. Last year I was just getting back into Legos so it was very exciting to get all these figures and bricks. Now that I have a lot of Legos, the $35 price tag no longer seems worth it. (Even at $30 it's too expensive.) You don't get a lot of bricks for your money, and most of them don't stand out too much. Most of the figures and structures from last years calendar have been broken up and are in my Lego bin.

Although if I was going to get the Lego City Advent Calendar, it would be for the showering Santa.

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.