Sarah Jane Smith and the Graske

Look what I found for $5! Man, I love conventions. This is a two pack of Doctor Who characters, but it's from the Sarah Jane Smith Adventures line. SJS Adventures is a kids show (a lot of it is on the level of Power Rangers) which is a spin-off of Doctor Who that follows Sarah Jane Smith and a bunch of local teenagers as they solve mysteries involving aliens. But unlike the Torchwood figures, all these figures are made by the same company that does the Doctor Who figures so they're actually in scale!

First up is Sarah Jane Smith, a companion of the 4th and 5th Doctors. (Edit: right, 3rd and 4th Doctros, ugh, gotta stop writing these when I'm exhausted.) She started hanging out every now and then with 10, and once met 11. This is her in her... I guess in her fifities or late forties. Either way she's got that more mature look that is different than her look from the 70's. Of the three different versions of Sarah this has the least garrish looking outfit. The articulation is almost identical to the Doctor Who figures and if you didn't know better, you'd swear it was from that toy line. The same could be said of the Graske. While a smaller figure, it is surprisingly articulate, with 14 points of articulation.

The Graske are... well I don't know. They've made minor cameo appearances in some Doctor Who episodes, but they weren't fully used until the Sarah Jane Adventures, which I don't watch because I'm a grown ass man and I don't watch shows where adults shove a bunch of teenagers into situtations so they can save the world and be identifiable with today's youth market. Both figures are awesome, and work 100% with my other Doctor Who figures, so I'm loving this set.

Although it would be nice to know how anyone is supposed to hold that weird mini-computer palm pilot accessory. Since the Sarah Jane Smith figure in the regular Doctor Who toyline is so hard to find, this was more than a great substitution, since it comes with a Graske, an alien not available to the regular toyline.

Lego Minifigures: Viking Frankenstein's Monster, Wolfman

Continuing on, these guys are pretty awesome.

Viking: Is a viking. Yeah. Good figure though.

Frankenstein's Monster: Why doesn't frankie get an accessory? His head thing doesn't count. They all have hair.

Wolfman: Really? Wolfman gets a bone? Because he's a wolfman, not a dog. And dogs are the ones obsessed with bones. I'm also a little disappointed that this doesn't use the classic wolfman Lego head piece, which was a piece molded to look like a wolf.

Lego Minifigures: Cavalier, Hockey Player, Punk Rocker

Cavalier: I was originally going to get 3 and try to do a 3 Musketeers thing, but I decided it was too expensive for what it was. However this is a really good figure. The hat is awesome.

Hockey Player: I don't like hockey, why did I get this? Other than the fact that by wearing a hockey uniform this dude looks like a low level flunky for a supervillian.

Punk Rocker: The guitar is pretty neat, but the gem of this figure is the mohawk. It fits onto the head piece, not using the traditional stud method but instead, since the punk hair is rubber, a circle is placed into the hollow crater atop the lego minifigure head. Also, for a punk guy, dude seems to be wearing way too much Ed Hardy.

Staff Strike Batman

Man you gotta love those pointless Batman toy variants. Fortunately once you take off the staff strikers, or whatever they're called, the toy becomes a straight Batman figure. With no silly colors or whatever added to his costume. Pure black and whatever color his utility belt is.

It's a good representation of the Dark Knight movie costume, with the bat insignia barely visible, what with it being black on black. It features a cloth cape (which is great since I hate plastic capes on toys) and also a hole in that cape. At first I thought I had ripped it when I was opening it. But based on the placement and symmetry of the cut, I deduced that it is a hole built into the figure in order to allow back pack accessories plug into the hole on the figure's back. Now whose the world's greatest detective? So what possessed me to buy a Dark Knight toy a good 3 years after the movie? Well it's because the 5 inch figures from this line are in almost perfect scale with the 5 inch Doctor Who toys. Which means... CROSSOVER!

Lego Minifigures: Geisha, Painter, Hazmat Suit

A local Toys R Us had Series 4 of the Lego minifigures out. I picked up 9. Geisha: She has the triangle dress block that I hate. Other than that the white skin and unusual hair piece makes her seem so very unLego-like. As a depiction of an ancient culture it's pretty cool. Unfortunately I suspect that it's mostly been chosen for the superficial aspects of the Geisha and the West's continual fetishization of Asian women. WOAH! Political! That's right, sometimes "Why Did I Buy That Toy" gets deep! Painter: The wooden palette is pretty genius in how they pulled it off. The paint brush, which if its to scale would be about the size of your forearm, is kinda weird. Also, talking about stereotypes: the beret and hipster expression of disdain: someone doesn't think too much of painters. Hazmat Suit Guy: No comment necessary.

Dragon Fight

It's Easter! Almost! And as we've seen before, that means it's time for Target to put out some promotional Legos for your stocking/trick or treaters/easterbasket/valentine. Another one of this year's offerings is a Ninjago, Master of Spinjas, set. Although like all the sets in this line under $10, it doesn't come with the top battling system for the mini-figs, which means it's a poor way to get people into the central "game" conceit of the line. Instead it just becomes a Ninjas vs. Skeletons series. Which is surprisingly not that interesting.

2011: Ninjas are played out. Who woulda guessed?

But this set doesn't have a skeleton. Instead it has the red ninja (Kai) which looks a lot like the ninja from the 1st series of minifigures, but red. There's also a bird thing that they say in a dragon. But look at it, it's a bird. A BIRD!

Overall, it's hit or miss if this is worth the cost. Considering a ninja minifigure in the blind bag minifigure line cost $3, this is pretty much getting that bird thing for another buck. So if that's your thing, totally get it. Me, I'm underwhelmed.

It does have an interesting lego piece that I've never seen before, but is that really worth paying $4 for? No.

Cyberman Pandorica Guard

Yeah, I got this a while ago, but I held back for Cyberman week. When they announced this figure I knew I wanted it. The New Series design isn't my favorite, but I like the idea of a Cyberman with a removable head. It was one of the cooler parts of the last season.

This isn't the first Pandorica Cyber guard. There was an exclusive at a UK store that came with... I think a TARDIS set... which featured "stab through the chest" action feature. Personally I prefer this detachable head feature with tentacle snap on. (Yeah, the head snaps onto the neck and the tentacles the same way. There's a slot and peg system at work here.)

I am disappointed that the detachable head, with open helmet, doesn't feature hinges. Those parts of the helmet, they don't snap shut, which I really wanted to do. I don't know why, I like toys with opening and closing features.

So headless Cyberman? While I want that helmet to close, I'm going to put this in the win column.