WWE Stackdown Wrestling Ring

A building brick wrestling ring? I've wanted this ever since the WWE Stackdown sets were announced. Of course it's ridiculously expensive.

So first things first, this is C3, which is the Art Asylum building bricks that they created to make vehicles the first time they tried their hand at DC Comics minimates. Then as now, the bricks didn't feel as solid or strong as Lego bricks, but that's a complaint that can be leveled at almost all brick building sets.

In this particular instance though, it's a real problem. You see, the larger plates have a tendency to warp a little, so trying to stack a plate on top of another plate results in frustration as one corner keeps popping up, no matter how hard you try to flatten it or make it stick to the plate underneath. Which wouldn't normally be a problem except that this ring build requires you to place four plates on top of four other plates and the end result was I just removed an entire layer of plates from the build to get the bricks to stay attached to one another. So the base isn't as solid as it should be.

Actually, nothing sticks to the plates very well. Those steps keep feeling like they're about to pop off on their own.

And that's my main problem with this set. The bricks don't feel solid once you connect them. They feel flimsy, like they'll break apart if you just leave them there. The final build doesn't feel strong. This could also be an issue with how the build is constructed, the placement of bricks doesn't feel like they're forming a strong foundation to build off of.

On the bright side, once it's all put together, it looks nice, even if I have ignored using the provided cardboard bunting for the ring. It's just too branded for my tastes.

The minifigures are very basic. They lack the iconic look of Lego minifigures, or the Lego feeling of solid plastic. They're more like Mega Blok figures, but with a surprising amount of articulation. Even so, I've ignored most of these in favor of using minimates. (The first waves of DC Minimates came with C3 sets, so their feet were designed to plug into building bricks. Since that time all minimates have what are called "C3 feet" which means they can be plugged into any traditionally designed building brick.)

Jokey Smurf

From the Mega Bloks blind packed Smurf figures. I wanted one ever since I saw these guys on the All Things Fett blog. At about $2 a pop they're overpriced but at market value. I went with Jokey because I liked the character when I was a kid since his gimmick was exploding presents. Everyone knew the prank but they still fell for it, proving that Smurfs are stupid. I think there was a great episode where Jokey was cursed by magic so all his gifts were exactly what the person wanted and that made Jokey depressed.

Which kinda means Jokey is a dick. And they made a minifigure of him before Handy, Hefty, or Baker. Good for him.

Like all the blind packed Smurfs he comes with a character specific accessory, in this case an exploding present. Good call. It also makes him pretty easy to find using the squeeze and feel method.

Ah man....

Ah man, Hot Toys announced on Facebook that they've got an Alfred (Michael Caine) figure and he only comes with a ridiculous Batman Armory set, so the whole thing's going to be mad expensive. Especially if they make you also buy a Christian Bale figure too. The way they worded the posts makes it unclear if the Armory comes with both figures or if you can also get it with only one of the two figures.

I'm willing to pay good money for a Hot Toys Aflred, but not $600.

Deanna Troi

Oh man, the Playmates 1:6 scale Star Trek figures. I wish I had been into 1:6 scale when they originally made these. Depending on when in the production line you got them, they could be pretty good or ridiculously crap. (I remember rumors of a 1:6 scale Mugato which was just a giant plush figure with no internal plastic to let it hold a pose.)

What's even better, is that the 1:6 series were based on themes rather than series. So Troi here is from the "Women of Star Trek" wave. The back of the box doesn't talk about Troi at all, just about the history of the Star Trek franchise. So weird.

The figure itself is pretty impressive for something I assume cost $20 when it originally was released. The uniform is pretty amazing for a cheap 1:6 scale figure, certainly much better than the one on the Dragon figure of Data I looked at earlier this week.

The articulation is pretty basic, but serviceable. Ball shoulders, hips and waist; Knee and elbow joints; Cut wrist and neck. The neck joint is made moot by the hair though.

Sculpting is good, with a decent likeness and sculpted hair (which, as I said, prevents the neck joint from doing anything). Her boots are sculpted onto her legs, but I don't care. It's not like I'm going to dress this up in anything other than this uniform. For a basic 1:6 scale figure this is great. I really want more like this. But for that I'd either have to scour e-bay or have a time machine to take me to 10 years ago.

Oh, and here's a look at the difference between Dragon's Star Trek accessories and Playmate's, keep in mind these were both made for 1:6 scale Star Trek figures.

AMP Episode 84: Mario Doesn't Know Anything About Calculus

Episode 84 of the Articulated Monster Podcast is up. The other James hosted, we talked about toys, and Mario proved he doesn't know jack about calculus.

Data

So Dragon made some Star Trek The Next Generation figures a while back. For $35, they look pretty good, although these days you'd be lucky to find them for that much. And for $60 the likenesses look horrible.

Except for Data, so I picked him up for about $30. Data's pretty simple to get down, a blank expression, and if you make him less detailed, it works for a character that isn't supposed to look quite human. Unfortunately as a 1:6 scale figure this thing kinda sucks.

Let's start with the accessories. The holsters for the tricorder and phaser, as well as the comm badge, all are meant to be placed on the uniform using adhesive backing. Basically these are stickers. At this scale I don't mind if you sew them on, but nope, you better hope the adhesive is strong enough and won't wear away. And holy crap is it difficult to get the sticker back off the tiny comm badge. I dropped it and thought I lost it a couple dozen times.

Also, what's with the horrific 1:6 scale version of Data's pet cat Spot?

Onwards! The uniform is ill fitting, and if you raise his arms it causes the mid-drift to be exposed because this  isn't a poorly fitting 1:6 scale jumpsuit, but a poorly fitting shirt and pants.

The articulation is pretty good, with plenty of joints, but the figure seems predisposed to this weird slumped over pose. And the plastic feels pretty flimsy. I'm afraid its going to snap on me.

Overall, not a bad 1:6 scale Data figure for cheap, but you better be willing to live with the downsides.

Skylanders Saturday: Grilla Drilla

Why did I buy that toy/skylander?

He's a Gorilla with a drill body. In the game he burrows underground and punches people. What more do you want?

Articulated Monster Episode 83: Why would we buy toys?

Are you subscribed to the Articulated Monster Podcast on iTunes? No? I don't blame you! But here's episode 83!



We talk about how we didn't buy toys on Black Friday! Timely!

Family Guy K'Nex and Mickey hulk

Saw these at Toys R Us recently. Can we just agree that these look grotesque?

Okay, the Meg/Brian figures look decent, but the rest look horrifying.

Meanwhile, this is a thing of beauty.

They couldn't just produce a green Mickey Mouse, they had to use a regular plush doll with new hands/feet and give it a green body stocking. 

Ace

I figure December is a good month to start looking at toys I never got around to opening this year. Like Ace, which was a comiccon exclusive, so I've had this toy since... July?

That sounds about right.

I gotta say, the updates in articulation on their 5 inch figures makes me hate that they went to a 3.75" scale for the regular figure line. But here in the classics we get ball jointed shoulders, Bicep swivel, cut wrists and interchangeable arms so you can do jacketed figure or not. (Sadly the extra arms have no wrist articulation) The legs even get ball and socket thighs with a large range of movement and a swivel mid-thigh joint. But frustratingly, this line never fives figures an ankle joint so the figure is difficult to balance some times.
The accessories are pretty right on for the episodes the figure is referencing, complete with every weapon she uses in the episodes: Nitro-9 explosives,rocket  launcher and baseball bat infused with ancient Time Lord powers so she can kill a Dalek with it. She even gets her over sized rucksack. The only other thing
I can think of her having is either a giant boombox or racist 60's sign for her to look at with disgust.
As for the jacket, they do an amazing paint job.

Larfleeze

Who better to unbox and talk about for Black Friday than the embodiment of greed!

And now I'm one step closer to collecting the best of the different Corps in six inch scale... Wait, no bicep swivel. Dangit Mattel!

Other than that, I'm fine with this. People say it doesn't look right, but Larfleeze varies so much depending on the artist that I feel it's good enough.

Now I just need some more Indigo tribe figures.

Black Thursday

I'm totally against Thursday Black Friday sales... although I was mighty tempted by one this year at Toys R Us. Their Skylanders deals are pretty good, buy 1 get 1 70% off. Thursday only. I had to remind myself that it wasn't worth  betraying my principals... especially after I did the math and realized I'd only be saving $5 since Toys R Us  pretty regularly does Buy 1 get 1 40% off on Skylanders.

Meanwhile I love Fry's Electronics approach. CLOSED THURSDAY but you can go online starting 9am Thursday and buy any of their black friday items for black fridays prices if you do local store pickup, basically doing your black friday shopping online and just picking it up at your leisure on Friday. No staff required to work Thursday except for a couple IT guys on call to keep the servers from crashing.

Today I'm thankful for...

...blogger erasing the beautiful post I just wrote and wait, no... No... I am not thankful for the blogger app on iPhone being a piece of crap and forcing me to bust out a laptop to rewrite a post.

But I am thankful for luck. What kind of luck? Toy luck.

Hot Topic had one of their regular Buy 1 Item get 1 Item half off sales. And as a reward card member I got an extra 15% off the sale price, which means, HEY! Blind boxed vinyl figures are no longer the slightly higher Hot Topic prices but rather are cheaper than MSRP!

In my mad quest to get a Second Doctor Titans vinyl figure I bought 14 blind boxed figures from the Doctor Who Titans 50th anniversary wave. The plan was simple, weigh the boxes in my hand, try to figure out how much vinyl was packed into the box, and hope I was right about the contents within. Keep going until I got a double,

With no context of how much vinyl each figure used and uncertain how much weight the accessories would add, I never correctly guessed what figure was in each box I opened. But luck was still on my side for a while, as I didn't get a double until Box 8. (Some cheating in that Box 6 was from a different wave and would have been impossible to produce a double.)

As I opened the boxes I revealed: 9th Doctor, 6th Doctor, 2nd Doctor. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED. But in my hubris, I wanted to see if I could get any of my other favorite Doctors. More boxes: 4th Doctor, 1st Doctor, Adipose, 7th Doctor, 1st Doctor.

And that's when I stopped, because it was a slap in the face. Who wants two 1st Doctor figures? Not me.

But of course that means I only need the 5th and 11th Doctors for a complete set. But should I buy them on ebay or open the rest of my blind boxes knowing that the odds are not in my favor and I could end up with a bunch of toys I don't want in boxes that can't be returned because you can't just can't return open blind boxed items. (Unless you're returning it to a ruthless merchant who knows that you're trying to return the rare variant and wants to resell it for a huge profit.)

Dinosaur Skeleton

I feel like most boys either wanted to be a paleontologist or astronaut when they were growing up. I was totally in the former class.

Saw this in a gumball machine at Toys R Us for fifty cents. I wanted a T-Rex but got a... I want to say Styracosaurus. My dinosaur knowledge is not as good as it was when I was seven. Back when I had the Dinosaur Dictionary and wanted to be a paleontologist. 

It's still pretty neat.

Skylanders Swap Force

Black Friday price matching has all Skylanders Swap Force sets at $37 at WalMart so I picked it up. So far the figures are decent and the game is the same as its always been. I am worried that the magnet gimmick may fail one day, rendering all figures unusable, but for now I'm enjoying it. It's 100 times better than Disney Infinity in the sheer scope of what its trying and in terms of sheer videogaming fun.

Although, I must admit that right now the biggest thrill has been WashBuckler, voiced by John DiMaggio, saying "8 legs, no pants."

Articulated Monster Ep 82: James is Lazy, James is Forgetful, Mario is a Jackass

New podcast is up. And we are starting to solicit ideas for stuff we make Mario talk about for a minute without interruption. Leave your ideas in the comments:

Link to podcast!

The Mystery Machine

The Character Building Mystery Machine. Normally $35, it was on sale recently for $20.

I can't recommend this set. Do not buy it. Do not buy anything from Character Building if it has decals on it.

Character Building sets always have this one issue that I can't get past, they want you to put stickers over the brick seams. This means that once you've put a set together you can never take it apart. And some stickers are meant to cover 3 or 4 bricks. It feels cheap and unstable. Maybe I might feel different if they used plastic clings as the decals instead of paper stickers, but I feel like adding the stickers makes the build permanent and that removes some of the fun that is inherit in brick construction sets. Why go for a clunky model if you plan on removing the rebuilding aspect? And why remove the rebuilding aspect if on the box you point out that you can use the bricks to build a completely different model? Well, no I can't. Not if I've put the stickers on, because now those bricks can't be taken apart without destroying the stickers and then I can never build the mystery machine again.

GODDAMNIT!

Meanwhile the only good part of Character Building, the minifigures, are great.

Titans 50th Anniversary Wave

I fucking HATE blind packs. It's okay but annoying for $3 items. It's almost criminal for anything costing over $10. Especially if you're going to make certain figures in a wave rare.

I spent $40 trying to get a 2nd Doctor in the Titans 50th Anniversary wave. But because I got doubles of one of the "common" figures I feel like I wasted $10. I don't even hate the figure, but I don't need two of them and I know trying to sell or trade will not end well with me because it's a "COMMON" figure. And it doesn't help that it's near impossible to find these figures retail... ARGH!

The really screwed up part? I'm not even that huge a fan of the design. I like it, but a lot of the figures are hit or miss for me. I like the angles on the 10th Doctor, but the 8th Doctor looks a little generic and misses some of the nuance of Paul McGann's great face. And the 3rd Doctor needs a more wrinkled look, he needs to look old-young.

I'm annoyed at how this came about, but I know there's a fricking good chance that I'm going to buy more blind boxes to try and get the one I want, and I know that's even more annoying to me.

Rescue and Robot Hulk

So there's this thing about Marvel minimates, where every wave usually has to include an A-list hero because those sell more than the lesser known characters. It makes sense. But it kinda trickles down into every minimate release kinda weird. So the character "Rescue" is Pepper Potts. In the comics she has shrapnel that is threatening her heart in a replay of the Iron Man origin. Tony gives her an arc reactor to save her life and then follows that up by giving her personalize Iron Man armor that only has defensive and emergency rescue capabilities because she only wants to save people, not fight crime or save the world.

So when they make a minimate of her it's as "Rescue Armor Iron Man." If you didn't bother to  read the description on the back you would assume it was just a new Iron Man Armor. Of course they add a second "Pepper Potts" head, so it's very OBVIOUSLY the character "Rescue" but no one knows who Rescue is unless they're a recent comic book reader. Everyone knows who Iron Man is, who of course that's the name they put on the box. Love the figure though.

Also Robot Hulk. I know there's a comic book explanation, but I don't care. It's a robot designed to look like the Hulk. That's all I need. 

Of course if you want the comic book story, where there's a tiny dude driving the Robot Hulk body, this set includes enough alternate limbs to create that.

Halo avatar minifigures

I got these because the other James mentioned that the Dollar Tree had them for $1. And luck of luck, I got the ones I wanted despite being blind packed.

They look like bad cosplayers.

Batman

I don't know why I like cheap minifigures, but DC Grab Zags for $2 at Walgreens? Where you can easily tell which one is Batman?

Done.

Tiny batman!

Now I'm tempted to get a tiny Wonder Woman because they made it so her face looks like a character from Adventure Time. 

Stargate SG-1

Y'know what, I don't care what they really call it. Ever since they announced the Best-Lock Stargate brick sets the only thing I ever really wanted was a brick built Stargate. Of course the big costs more than I'm prepared to pay, so isn't it nice that at Target in their Stocking Stuffer section they have a smaller set with a smaller Stargate and control device.

Also, worst likeness of Macgyver ever.

Shit wait, is this the size of all the Stargates in all the sets? If so, that sucks. I was hoping for one that was fricking massive. Still, not bad.

It's a knock off Lego brand so the bricks aren't as solid as they could be and some of the connections are a bit loose. The Stargate is solid, but it's a loose connection. The plate is so flimsy that bricks won't stay attached to it. 

Also, all the Stargate symbols are printed on it, not a sticker. The control panel's a sticker, but not the Stargate. Neat!

Red Arrow

As far as I'm concerned this is actually a 6 inch scale base that happens to come with a Red Arrow figure. Although I will say that it's a pretty good Red Arrow figure.

When the Young Justice 6 inch figures first came out, I remember being excited at the possibility of getting characters that we didn't get through DCUC. Then I was excited by the idea of diorama bases for six-inch figures. Then the rest of the 6 inch figures came out and I was disappointed by how character specific and undiorama like the bases were. Then they cancelled the line before the figures I really wanted had a chance to be released because they filled the line with Batman. Damn it Mattel. Of course if I see a figure at a discount store for a good price, I'll still consider buying it.

The rooftop base is very similar to the one that came with Robin. The differences instead of a gargoyle you get a smokestack, which has a wanted poster on it... destroying part of it's generic-use it any way you want to value. But in a nice touch the wanted poster has notches that the arrows can be placed in making it look like Red Arrow has been shooting at it as target practice.

Jack Skellington

The Disney Infinity game is actually a series of different games based on different movie properties. Each game can only be accessed with characters associated with that movie license, so your replayability is limited. That's because the big thing in Disney Infinity is supposed to be the toy box, which is essentially a level creator. In user-created levels, any character is accessible, which is good because...

Some of the Disney figures can't be used in any of the games. That's right. From the 2nd wave of 12 figures, only 3 can actually be used in actual pre-made game levels. The other 9 are only usable in the toybox mode. But hey, who wouldn't want to buy a figure of Jack Skellington even though if you want to play as him in the game you have to build a game level yourself... WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!

But I pre-ordered him because I was curious, and after having him run around my horrible pre-made level... I don't know if I'm going to buy any more of these non-game figures. Because really, without goals and objectives, it's all pretty damned dull. Which is insane, because the way they designed Jack's moveset, they could have just dropped him in the Monsters University game with no problems.

At this point, if Disney Infinity wants to become "fun," or at least justify its price, it needs to let you play as different characters from different properties in all the levels.

And leveling up doesn't get you anything. No increase to stats, no unlocked abilities. It's just leveling up to make a number go up. That completely ignores the addictive property of level grinding.

All these problems I'm mentioning here, they've all been addressed by Skylanders Giants, which is costing me more money, but which I'm having a LOT more fun with. When you level a character up, your stats increase. When you acquire money, it doesn't just unlock the next part of a game level, you use it to buy new abilities for your character. Oh, and EVERY CHARACTER CAN BE PLAYED IN EVERY PART OF THE GAME! Replayability is all there. And the game play is combat based and fun, it's not just a bunch of fetch quests or collectathons which is pretty much what most of the Disney Infinity Game feels like. (Although Skylanders has both, they're not required to advance gameplay, just to unlock bonus items.)

Skylanders Giants

So I've been struggling with whether or not to get Skylanders Giants figures for about a year. That's when I found out that Bobcat Goldthwait did the voice of one of the Skylanders. But to hear that voice in gameplay, I'd have to get the game starter set and then the figure. Too expensive, I thought.

Of course this year, in fact just couple days ago, they released the NEW Skylanders game: Skylanders SwapForce, which has an even more gimmicky (and more expensive) new feature for the figures. But as a result, there was suddenly a sale on Skylander starter sets that I felt very reasonable for a video game. (They were at Target for $40.) So I picked it up... and holy crap everything in the game is designed to make you addicted. You get in game bonuses for owning as many of the characters as possible. Want to be a little more powerful in game? You just have to have at least 12 characters... but with 16 you'd be even more powerful... You have 3 characters from the machine class? Then all your machine characters get a bonus... and if you had 5 they'll get an even bigger bonus...

There's even a bonus for having characters from the previous game that are retired and thus hard to get. What I'm saying is that the makers of the game get the collector mentality. Thank god the figures are decent enough that if you get them on sale the price doesn't feel like too much of a rip off. They're insanely more detailed than the Disney Infinity figures, but are all original characters from the video game developers.

Two things keep me from feeling to bad about this spending. 1) The game is decent and using the different characters actually extends the fun of the game. (The RPG leveling up aspect plays well to the collector mentality as well.) 2) More importantly, the voice acting in the game and for each character is really well done. And they've got some great voice actors... to the point that the majority of the figures I've bought so far are due to who does their voice. Also, NPCs include George Takei.

Those characters in the picture immediately above are voiced by Kevin Sorbo (Hercules the Legendary Journeys), Dwight Schultz (Barclay from Star Trek: TNG and Murdock from A-Team), and Bobcat Goldthwait (Too much to mention). I've also picked up figures voice acted by John Kassir (who does his cryptkeeper laugh), EG Daily, Kevin Michael Richardson, and hope to get some Tara Strong in there soon.

Mousers

Mousers! Because Mousers!

Each one has 4 points of articulation, and their Center of gravity means they can only stand with both legs, but that ball joint head allows for some cool poses and ARTICULATED JAW!

So awesome. I bought 2 packs, one of which I'll probably give as a gift to someone I know will appreciate Mousers as much as I do. Or maybe I'll open it and give 7 people 1 Mouser each.

Santino Marella

I didn't buy this figure, but holy crap did I want to. Not because I know the character or follow wrestling, because I don't, but it's a 6-inch wrestling figure with a sock puppet on his hand.

Shy Guy

I've bought 4 of these guys. Any time I see a sale I pick one up. I get why I might buy one or two but four?

They can't hold anything, they barely have articulation, but I love them so much...

And I don't know why.

Never has the name of this blog been so accurate.

Buyer's remorse, This weekend In buying toys edition

Spent way too much on costume accessories this week at Target, but that's a blog I gave up a while ago. But toys...

 

Picked up a Hot Wheels car of a rocket powered school bus, which is an odd way to power a school bus, and speaks to a growing trend toward fantasy that I'm not entirely comfortable with for Hot Wheels, but I suppose that's what they use the Matchbox line for. Meanwhile, I wanted a Hot Wheels school bus.

Also picked up a Walking Dead minimate pack because it has a good minimate zombie and a comicbook version of the Governor with bonus eyepatch head. Mostly for the minimate zombie.

Then theres a TMNT lego polybag set which I only picked up for the minifigure with a krang image printed on the torso, simulating the awesome giant alien brain in a robot body torso idea.

 

Also got a Daphne minifigure because some asshole opened all the blind bags so I could look inside them and find the ones I wanted. Kinda mixed feelings on this. On the one hand I got what I wanted, on the other hand this is just a huge dick move. If I saw whoever did this I wonder if I would have yelled at the person doing it, adult or kid. I told a store clerk... And they just walked away and I later saw them working an empty cash register. (The box holding the blind packs had been moved to another part of the store too, so they weren't even near the other Scooby Doo building sets.)

 I also picked up the Voodoo Man becuase he's actually the Freak of Crystal Cove from the recent Mystery Inc. series. In that continuity he's actually Fred Jones' father and town mayor who in realitty kidnapped an infant Fred Jones from his real mystery solving parents in order to extort them into staying away from his criminal plans. In an ironic twist, Fred Jones sr learns to love his adopted son and when Fred'ss real parents return The Freak is also revealed to be a better parent and more loving than Fred's real family who are now corrupt adventurers. Man that was a good show. Anyway, they made a figure of the Freak... And then gave him a new name which makes absolutely no sense.

Of course if you check the Character Building website you realize that in the UK, where CB is located, they do things differently there. Like have all 5 members of the Mystery Inc. gang available through the blind packs. It also turns out that 7 of the monsters aren't part of the Scooby Doo line in the UK. For the US Scooby Doo Character Building release CB folded in minifigures from their Monsters vs. Zombie line, possibly to fill out the Scooby line but more likely because it was the only way to get those figures into US stores. 

Borderlands 2 Swag-filled Limited Edition Diamond Plate Loot Chest

What a long ass name for this product. Basically, it's a replica of a Loot Chest from the Borderland game filled with various Borderlands memorabilia. You've got some trading cards and a mask of a Borderlands baddie, all of which have codes that can be entered in the game to unlock those items in the game. Which is pretty cool since the drop ratio of those items in the game naturally is about 0.05%. I actually got one of the guns once, but a power failure corrupted my save file and it was lost forever.

 Other items inside the chest include wanted posters for all the Borderlands 2 playable characters (including the DLC ones, which the previous chest did not). There's also some pretty neat crumpled up newspaper pages that act as packaging materials but you quickly realize are even more bonus content, since they're actually from a newspaper written by characters in the game. Also, some window decals.

The chest itself is pretty solid. Which is good, because the cost for the whole package is $100. If this was some flimsy plastic (like the mask) I'd be pretty  pissed. But this thing could probably survive a few drops and I wouldn't mind using it as a toy chest for some collection or other.

Even cooler: the box the chest comes from simulates an in-game shipping box with additional jokes scrawled over it by various characters. It's pretty great.