Johnny 5

 Johnny 5 from “Short Circuit”

Etsy model

For whatever reason, “Short Circuit” is often lost in the sea of 1980s nostalgia.  Somewhere below “Who Framed Roger Rabbit”, but above “Crocodile Dundee.”  Two movies and it’s still somewhat forgotten.  Well, not for me.  Seeing the fictional, miniature Johnny 5 toys in “Short Circuit 2” drove me bonkers as a kid.  How does that not exist?!  My dad helped me build a wood-and-garage-parts robot, which was great, but still didn’t scratch the itch.  30+ years later, and there are still no Johnny 5 toys to be had!  C’mon, Fisher Stevens is sorry for the problematic Indian thing.  No disassemble my fond memories!

Thank goodness for die-hard fans and 3D printing…Johnny 5 is alive!  There are actually a number of model kits available on Etsy.  This one was $18 for a non-moving, six inch scale figure.  It’s a pretty clean print, requiring little to no sanding.  DIY Paint was pretty minimal…just a couple coats of silver spray and some details here and there.

 

He fits in great with these Marvel Legends.  I figured Tony Stark wouldn’t mind having him as keeper of his armory.

 

The first model I ordered was damaged in shipping.  The seller sent another one out, easy peasy.  With some patience, glue, and a Dremel tool, I was able to repair “Number 4.”  I’m still trying to decide what to do with him.  He’s got a couple of cracks here and there, so might be a prime candidate for the damaged, punked-out Johnny 5.  A quick gold spray job, and he could be “US Citizen Johnny 5”.  Or, I could spend a little more time with the paint brush for a “Los Locos” variant.

The same Etsy seller (Ryan’s Print Shop) has this model in a smaller size.  I mean to get one to go with 3 3/4 inch Star Wars droids.  If you’re a fan of the movie and the character, I highly recommend picking this up.  And even if you don’t like the movies, he’s still a nicely detailed robot figure.   

More input!  May I have these, craphead?

BB Units

 BB Units

Galaxy’s Edge Trading Outpost

Target Exclusives - Hasbro

While I’m probably never going to get to visit Galaxy’s Edge at Disney World (due to admission price, travel time/distance, excessive crowds, TSA hassles, Coronavirus, etc) the overlords at the House of Mouse (Barf) have graciously allowed everyone’s favorite exclusive retailer, Target (Double barf), to bring park merchandise to their loyal subjects in the flyover states.  Now you can buy the same, 2008 large Millennium Falcon for over twice the original price!  Or maybe some BB Units?  If you can find them! I found all three two-packs of BB Units.  Missing in the same assortment were three Astromech Droids.  What does that tell you about the sequel trilogy?  

Anyhoo, more droids is more droids.  They’re cute, colorful, and non-offensive (that sass-bot from “Solo” is another story).  Also, 3.75” figures in this day and age are becoming more rare and rare...

There are apparently more body/ball designs than there are head models.  With heads you only get dome or cylinder.  Hey, sequel trilogy, what happened to the more triangular heads?  Disney was probably afraid sharp angles might be deemed too aggressive or something...

I wish there was more color variation among these six.  I mean, two share an orange deco, and two others share black and white.  They are made so you can swap heads, but that can only take you so far.  The old Droid Factory Astromechs had, what, five swapable parts?  Sigh...

That’s a lot of complaining for something that doesn’t quite break the bank.  Still, priced at $10 a set, I would have liked to have paid at least $2 less for what you get.  But, hey, more background fodder for play as I re-write the further adventures of Luke Skywalker and company with my action figures.