Mutt Williams

Mutt Williams

Hasbro Indiana Jones 12 inch figure

I have an Indiana Jones collection in our guest bedroom.  Every once in a while, I will add a new piece to it.  Sometimes, this piece is found in the wild, but flea markets and thrift store finds for Indy gear are pretty rare outside of surplus VHS copies of The Last Crusade.  I usually hit Ebay for low-bid, random items or ones that fill gaps in a line.  I have several 12 inch Indy dolls...er...figures that are a bit on the high end from Sideshow Toys. (But nowhere near as high as ludicrous Hot Toys company)  Mutt here is on the lower end...mass-produced by Hasbro for the release of Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with a goofy action feature.

Knife-throwing, sword-slashing swashbuckling just like in the movie!  Er...sort of?  I mean, Mutt did some sword fighting while straddling two Jeeps and getting hit in the junk repeatedly by random jungle weeds.  Kids are gonna love recreating that one!  

His sword, belt, and sheath are nice accessories, but that "switchblade"...looks to be the size of a banana.  I assume this is as small as they could go without becoming a choking hazard.  You can really get him to launch that thing!

Hasbro cheaped out on us by not including the black leather jacket he wears through most of the movie.  I wish it had at least come with a tiny, plastic Mutt-haired monkey, but that probably wouldn't go well with the "throwing" feature.

While the sculpt isn't terrible, it looks a little more like a Christian Bale/Shia LaBeouf hybrid than it should.  He's got some decent "GI Joe" articulation that is only hindered by his throwing arm and huge button/level sticking out of his back and through his clothes.  Again, not terrible, but enough to keep me from buying it in 2008 for $20.  Well, let's be honest...that might have more to do with the universal dislike of this character than the toy itself.  I picked this one up for $10 shipped from an Amazon seller.

It's kinda sad seeing Mutt floating around out there like this, considering Shia went bat-shit insane shortly after with great career moves like getting arrested for jacking around in Walgreens, plagiarizing other people's movie scripts, and making weird motivational videos for Youtube.  It will be interesting to see if Mutt is even mentioned in the upcoming Indiana Jones 5.  Pass the torch...and snuff that flame.  

Mutt Williams is not quite Jar Jar Binks, but he shares a great deal of the same hate for being a part of one of George Lucas' brainfarts.  It's more than time to stop throwing them under the bus.  Embrace "the Beef," okee-day? Besides, Natalie Portman has always deserved it more anyway.

World of Nintendo figures

Star Mario, Blue Yoshi, Phazon Suit Samus, and Blue Pikmin

Jakks Pacific - World of Nintendo 4in figures

Jakks' World of Nintendo line is everything I wanted as a kid growing up with the video games.  The best we had in three dimensions back then were 2-3 in PVC figurines that I picked up at the local video rental shop.  They were great at the time, but these...this is the next level (articulation)! Close to 8 waves in and going strong, I understand they have to throw in some character variations now and then to cut costs and give new collectors a chance to nab the key players.  

Star Mario is a translucent version of series 1 Mario with a Star accessory, right?  Yes, but the plastic they used also has a pearlescent sheen to it to reflect prisms of color.  Pretty nifty!  Now Mario is ready to run through levels at lightning speed, toppling enemies and...oh, man!  The invincibility power just ran out as I slammed face-first into a turtle!

Light Blue Yoshi!  And he comes with *surprise* a blue egg accessory!  I'm not a huge fan of Mario's dino-pal, but for completion's sake, I will buy into the color spectrum.  So far, they have made the traditional green, pink, red, and this guy.  Okay, so Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island was great...but these figures would be much more desirable if they were built so  Mario figures to ride on them.  Some high-tech display stands or, at the least, a rubber band are needed to turn cutesy into a beast of burden.

Phazon Suit Samus is another "dark" repaint, but with shinier black, metallic silver, and a bit of red.  This variation is from the game "Metroid Prime" that features increased defensive shielding, hyper mode, and the Phazon Beam needed to defeat Metroid Prime. Samus comes with color-matched morph ball accessory.  Samus and Link are two characters in this line that people feel are underscaled and should stand closer to 6 inches tall to Mario's 4 inches.  Gimme and Jakks a break...we're talking 3 different humanoid characters that all have different styles and proportions.  I mean, look at Mario's head, scale-Nazis, and suspend disbelief!

What's with all the black and blue this round?  Oh well...here is a Blue Pikmin from the 2.5inch scale line.  He's the only Pikmin produced thus far with a flower on his head.  This type of Pikmin is the only one to feature a mouth (to breath under water) which makes him extra creepy.  His head can turn and he comes with a tiny clear stand.

Sting, Lex Luger, and Macho Man

WCW Bash at the Beach 1996 Three-pack

Sting, Lex Luger, Macho Man

Mattel WWE elite - Then, Now, Forever (Wal-mart Exclusive)

July 7th, 1996 - These WCW superstars were set to face off against the Outsiders (WWE turncoats, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash) and a mystery sixth man at pay-per-view, Bash at the Beach.  The reveal of the sixth man would set up story-lines for years to come.  Am I allowed to mention his name?  To be safe, let's just call him "Hulk H."  No, that's too obvious...let's say "H. Hogan."  Anyway, Mr. America (spoiler! Doh!) turned heel and the NWO (New World Order) was born.  That nugget of information is what makes this 3-pack noteworthy in the history of wrestling, but not as exciting as it could have be had it been released as a 6-pack with the Outsiders and Suburban Commando.

This is the first release of this look for the Stinger.  It was kind of short lived, between surfer-blonde Sting growing his hair out to become Crow Sting.  Anyway, its a new head scan, and it looks pretty good.  There have been some complaints out there that his head is a lil over-sized and that he has no neck.  Still, the eyes and paint are great.  The painted rainbow scorpion on his pants is great, too!

Another new head sculpt for Lex Luger.  All pony-tailed and smug looking!  The only strange thing is the face paint.  While it is accurate to the match, it was a one-time thing.  Some sort of team solidarity with Sting as the leader?  No worries.  I'm sure that this head will be used again sans paint very soon.  Mattel: "Don't like it?  Well, here...buy it again!  And again and again!"  Also, the boots should be white to be accurate..."Buy it again when we make a running production change!"

Oooooh yeah!  He's back in the blog again!  Another Macho Man for the ever-growing collection.  Like Luger, the face paint look is lost as a fleeting moment in time but still looks great.  I just wish that he had picked a more colorful bandanna to go with the rest of the outfit.  It is the sole accessory in this set.

Another Wal-mart exclusive, this may be a hard one to find in the wild.  However, since it is a very match-specific theme, it may be an easy one to pass on for even hardcore wrestling fans.  Price might also be a deciding factor.  It retails for $49.99, which is ten dollars cheaper than buying three separate elite-articulated figures.  On one hand,  it only has the one accessory.  On the other...it's a new Macho Man.  Sold!

LEGO E.T. and B.A. Baracus

E.T. and A-Team Fun Packs

LEGO Dimensions minifigures and accessories

LEGO Dimensions continues to bring together the best properties of today with those of yesterday in one big nostalgia-fueled, crossover video game.  While the story is convoluted (get the magic shards or something causing the rifts in the universes), we're getting some LEGO figures that would most likely never have seen the light of day any other way along with a few more hours of game content.

E.T. comes with a plant accessory and themed game tag that allows you to connect him to the video game and access "E.T. World." There are many areas in this world hub straight from the movie to explore:  Elliot's house and neighborhood, the school, the forest, and E.T.'s spaceship.  Other characters from the movie also appear in LEGO form: Keys, Michael, Gertie, Mary, and even science lab frogs (along with a nod to Principal Ford!)  The phone accessory, which also has its own game tag, helps E.T. perform different functions in his world and can be rebuilt into his makeshift radar to "phone home" and some sort of rideable laser canon.

The A-Team pack comes with B.A. Baracus, his wrench, and his van.
The van can be rebuilt into other vehicles: The Fool Smasher, a kind of sports car, and the Pain Plane.  The A-Team world that you access with these figures is a mini Los Angeles, complete with several locals from the show: Face's apartment, BA's garage, the veteran's hospital (Murdock), and a movie set (Hannibal).  Once you visit one of these locations, you can choose to play as any member of the team.  There are several rescue mission locales to explore, all the while, the theme song blares!  I love it when a plan comes to...well, close but no cigar.  The one thing lacking in this set is the voice work.  It's not Mr. T...not even close.  I pity the fool!

These have been out for several months now at $11.99 a set.  I picked them both up "buy one, get one 40% off" at ToysRUs.  On sale or not, it was all worth it for this 2+ decades-old Simpsons joke:

Funko Retro Video Games Mystery Minis

Funko Retro Video Games Mystery Minis

  

I already expressed my dislike for the blind bag/box gimmick a few posts back with DuckTales keychain.  Luckily, you get to avoid another tirade with the way Funko is bringing us these classic video game characters!  First off, I wanted the whole set, so I bought a whole case.  No chance I was gonna miss out on any of these with 12 figures coming 12 to a case.  Second, characters are packed in corresponding video game cabinets, so its not a total mystery.  Its a dead giveaway for some (Mega man, Frogger, Centipede) that are alone in their game series.  Some games have 2 or 3 characters in the same cabinet design, so when you pick up a Dig Dug box, you may get Dig Dug, Fygar, or a Pooka.  So, save yourself some trouble and just buy a case... you know you want them all!

It's a Pooka!  Dig Dug's Goomba...only instead of stomping him flat, imagine Mario jamming a tire pump into his forehead and inflating him til he pops!

I have a feeling that Mega Man is going to be the hardest to get for collectors that aren't going the whole case route.  It's a bit confusing on why he's even in the mix.  I mean, he never had a classic arcade cabinet.  Oh, well!  He's still a lot of fun!



Ms Pac-Man and her styling heels and bow make the leap to the third dimension alongside "Ms Pac-Man Ghost." What?  I thought they all had names?! Aren't they just the same ones from Pac-Man?  Well, he's pink, so let's call him Pinky.  He does feature different sculpting (nose, cheeks) than the ghost paired with Pac-Man to better resemble the artwork from the cabinet.

Fygar from Dig Dug was the first of these I opened.   I was surprised by the size of this figure.  Definitely bigger than other offerings in Funko's mystery lines.  Bigger bang for your buck.  Speaking of bang, go get him Dig Dug! 

Probably the most impressive sculpt of the line is the Centipede.  Big, scary, and coiled to perfection!

Frogger might be one of the most exciting characters from this line for me personally.  I never thought there would be a Frogger figure, let alone one that stands out from a regular frog by featuring his necktie and briefcase from the cabinet art! 

Can't have wave one of a retro video game series without a big gun like Pac-man.  Unfortunately, my figure came with a broken hand in package (insert Pac-dying music and "game over."). Disappointing, but a lil dab of glue will do him, and he'll be shoveling in the strawberries and cherries and power pellets again in no time!  Watch out, Blinky!  Or is it "Mr. Pac-Man Ghost?"

Last but not least, a duo from Q-Bert...Coily the snake and our favorite foul-mouthed hero!  Probably the only satisfying player death from any video game ever...he does your swearing for you! 

This is how my case was packed out:
(top set, back to front, left to right)
Ms Pac-man Ghost, Frogger
Blinky, Pac-Man
Fygar, Centipede

(bottom set, back to front, left to right)

Mega Man, Ms Pac-Man

Q-Bert, Coily

Dig Dug, Pooka

The figures vary in size from 2-3 inches tall, and 2-3 inches wide. Below are some comparison pics with Jakks Pacific World of Nintendo figures. Mega Man and Dig Dug might be on the small side next to Mario and crew, but I think the others stack up nicely.

A sealed case ran me $70 shipped from an online retailer. Considering the WWE minis I collect from Funko run $5.88 each and are a bit smaller than these, I think its a pretty good deal... especially if you love classic video games!