South Park Cartman's Basement

South Park: Cartman's Basement

The Fractured but Whole

McFarlane Toys Construction Set

I picked up a playset for the Kidrobot South Park: The Fractured but Whole mystery figures I featured in a previous blog.  This is a construction (read "fake LEGO") set from McFarlane (yes, they do make more than sports and zombie figures) Toys.  Cartman's basement scales well with these 3-inch figures.  It also came with Cartman, Kyle, and Token figures, but they are too elongated with the brick features to match the aesthetic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a South Park fan, I was interested in these sets, but I knew I should hold out initially.  There have been too many figure lines of the like in the past that have petered out before completion.  This 333 piece set was the biggest and most expensive set of the lot that started at $50.  I waited...Gamestop marked it down to $30...I waited...and hit them on one of their clearance sales for $15.  It's certainly not as well-executed like LEGO, but it was an hour or two of construction fun and still makes a great display for the mystery figures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



The Rookie

 The Rookie

DC Multiverse Collect-n-Connect figure

Mattel

 

Yeah, I scoffed at the idea of Jim Gordon taking over as Batman.  But then I read the collected "Superheavy" storyline...and now I wish he had more time in the suit!  For the robot's sake as well!  The design of the Rookie much took some time to grow on me... mostly the rabbit ears.  But seeing it in action, the writers really made it work. 

Like most bigger figures, you have to buy a whole series to assemble the bonus.  In this case, you had to buy 5 figures at $20 each.  Better than the standard 6 or sometimes 8 figures stretched over two waves!  The only real dud in this wave was the TV Atom figure, mostly because he stuck out like a sore thumb amidst the rest of the Bat-related wave.  

Shiny blue paint, shock cartridge pistol, shoulder canons, removable chest plate, and decent enough articulation for a  big, lumbering robot.  Speaking of the chest plate, you really need the Jim Gordon Batman from the King Shark wave to make this work.  You can see the yellow bat symbol underneath on the human chest.  You can pop the robot head/helmet off easy and apply the masked or unmasked Jim heads. Superheavy, supercool!

This figure is a lot of fun and a great addition to the ever-growing Bat-family.  Do yourself a favor and read up on "Superheavy" as soon as you can before you decide too far down the line you want this figure and have to pay out the wahzoo for him.

DC Multiverse - Rookie Wave

 "Rookie" Collect and Connect Wave

DC Multiverse - Mattel

A Batman-centric wave may sound a bit disappointing considering that's about all we got from Mattel over a decade ago, but stay til the end... it's worth it!  We get 2 new Bat-family characters, a fairly current-to-the-comics Batman, a classic villain, and an awesome Collect and Connect figure... oh, and one made-for-TV dud.  Wah wah!

Duke Thomas is a new Robin in the "Superheavy" storyline.  No spoilers here... you should definitely read this one.  Anyway, this figure is a completely new sculpt/body type for this line.  One that I don't see them getting much reuse/repaints out of, so Mattel is treating us.  The look and paint is spot on.  He gets a fair amount of accessories:  nunchucks, a gas grenade, and an unmasked head.  The articulation is decent, but could always use a bit more in the elbows and knees.







Rebirth Batman takes some warming to...especially in continuing the "no trunks tradition.  I do like the yellow-gold outline around the bat-logo to match the belt and the purple on the inside of the cape is a great nod to the original bat-suit.  I also like the cape being draped over the shoulders a bit, but this does hinder the range of movement here.  The plastic is just a little to rigid to make it work.  The head sculpt, with artist specific/accurate, may be a lil cartoony to fit in with the larger part of my collection.  Like with Duke, the new knees here are strange.

Let's get this over with...here's the least exciting figure in the wave:  The Atom from TV's "Arrow" and "Legends of Tomorrow."  I gave up on collecting most screen-accurate versions of comic characters, as there will inevitably be a dip in the show or movie's quality at some point that makes you regret your purchase.  It's not a bad design for a real-world Atom (though maybe a lil too Robocop reboot?), and I am glad to support Brandon Routh, who I think got a raw deal as Superman.  "Superman Returns" was pretty bad, though it's probably a good thing that story didn't continue, as at some point behind the scenes, "that version" of Lex Luthor might have forced himself upon our hero.  Wait...is that worse than a Ledger-wannabe Luthor that gets off on tricking people into drinking a mason jar of pee?  Anyway, the look of the figure is fine, but the articulation is stiff and limiting.  The mini-Atom figure was a nice touch, but...still bought it for the Rookie.

Batwing is another fairly new Bat-family addtion.  The very Tony Stark-esque son of longtime Wayne Enterprises frontman, Lucius Fox, Luke Fox joins the fray in a sleek-looking version of the Alex Ross/Kingdom Come armored Bat-suit. The suit is mostly shiny black, with some nice blue highlights here and there to make it a little more exciting. Even with some minor armor detail, this figure is a bit plain to me.  The removable wings look to be reused from a Batman Beyond figure.  Not sure why Luke didn't get an unmasked head here when Atom and Duke did.










Lastly is probably my favorite and most anticipated figure in the wave, the Reaper.  Man, for Batman having one of the biggest and most beloved Rogues gallery, Mattel sure likes to have them outnumbered in the action figure offerings.  The Reaper comes with two mace/reaper hand things, but I like to display him with one hand exposed, like the titular character he inspired from "Mask of the Phantasm."  He's pretty spot on to his Year 2 design.  The spikes and lines on the costume are perfect.  He's pretty much a flat, two-tone color scheme, but it is accurate nonetheless.  If there was one gripe with this figure, I guess it would be that the sickles look more plasticy and less metallic.  Maybe a different shade of grey in the plastic?  As long as it's not that fakey, vac-metal stuff they used to use on old Transformers and stuff.



All-in-all, not a terrible wave.  Even with some misteps, its good to see Mattel trying new things with some of these sculpts to try and keep up with Marvel Legends.  If you can look past the odd knee articulation and the Atom to the Collect and Connect Rookie figure (coming up in the next review), it's worth going all in.

The Goonies

The Goonies

Mezco - 2007

 

In showcasing the pirate ship I picked up at a Toys R Us closing sale, there were so many display options with figures I have collected over the years.  Popeye won out, but some runners up were Indiana Jones (Indiana Jones and the Sargasso Pirates), Bowser and the Koopa Kids (Doom Ship, World of Nintendo), and the Goonies.  Mezco made a line of 7-inch Goonies figures back in 2007 so I thought they should get a chance to see the light of day again.  And who doesn't love the Goonies? (Maybe delusional "Monster Squad" and "Explorers" fans?)  They're good enough for me! Ya-ya-ya-ya-yeah!  Damn, I should have put some of my wrestling figures with these!

 

"Hey, you guys!!!"

The figures are a bit caricaturized and more display statues "than action" figures.  You get some head and arm movement at most, everything else is frozen in place.  Even so, they do look nice and come with a decent amount of accessories from the movie. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Down here, it's our time."

 

"Do you think your mom is gonna notice?"

 

"No. It's your top score on Pole Position."

"Pinchers of Peril!

 

 

 

 

 

Brand, Steph, and Andy got left behind, but Mezco did make a nice, resin replica of the Copper Bones that was a comic convention exclusive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I can't remember what these cost when they came out, but they are pretty pricey on Ebay today.  For a die-hard fan, they're still worth tracking down over settling for crappy Funko Re-Action throwbacks.  More like "throw ups!"

 

 

 

DuckTales

 DuckTales

5-Inch figures - PhatMojo

Sometimes a line completely slips under my radar.  I missed the news from NYC Toy Fair in February about a fairly new company, PhatMojo, producing a line of DuckTales figures.  Very few pictures leaked out, and even then, they were promos and prototypes.  Then, last week, these started to hit Target stores.  They popped up on the Target website, but they bungled it by not allowing you to select individual figures from the assortment.  It would have been ordering blind!  And even though I wanted a complete set, I wasn't going to take the chance to end up with four Launchpad McQuacks!  After some time issuing my complaint about this process with online customer service, the figures showed as "in-stock" at my local store.  Now, I don't know if I have complained about it before, but I loathe my local Target.  Restocking and supplying toys is inconsistent and the place is always packed with awful, uppity southsiders. (Springfield peeps know what I'm talking about)  I took a chance, drove down on my lunch hour, fought the hoards, and came out on top!  A full set of figures and accessories!  They were so fresh in the system, that a nice store associate pulled them from the back for me.  So, there's one plus for my Target.  Even if once I got to the checkout, it took three more associates to get them to ring up!

 

The first wave hits all the key players.  The adult figure assortment includes Scrooge, Glomgold, Launchpad, and Donald Duck.  (So great to see Donald in this series as a lead, just like in the comics!)  The kids come in 2-packs:  Huey and Dewey together, and Louie with Webby.  Each figure comes with one or two accessories and tops out at 5 points of articulation.  I have already seen collectors online complain about the articulation and scale.  Chill, dudes...you aren't the demographic for these toys.  And even so, smaller size (some wanted them closer to 3.75 inch) and more articulation would not only make them as fragile as all get out, but would affect the overall look of the figures in relation to the show's aesthetic. 

Collectors also complain about the scale of the plane, the Sunchaser, and the Money Bin.  Chill, dudes...its not like you've had to sacrifice scale for play factor and budget with vehicles and playsets before.  (There's a little movie that's been around for a couple of years that has some toys based around it. Maybe you've heard of it...Star Wars?)  Yes, the plane is a bit shrimpy, and wish it could seat at least two figures and had some sort of joystick or steering yoke.  It has rolling wheels, spinning propellers, and includes a Launchpad figure (you can skip on the single-packed figure going this route)...which is fine for this size and price point.  It's funny that the box advertises assembling the plane as an action/fun feature.  It made me wish that, keeping in line with Launchpad's gimmick, it had some sort of spring-loaded, button feature to make it bust apart. (like the old-school TIE fighters)

The Money Bin is, of course, way under scaled.  What? You expected something like a $500, crowdfunded Jabba's sail barge that doesn't even fit Max Rebo's keyboard?  Chill dudes...it works fine for a display piece/backdrop and the pop-open interior is a key location with play value.  I think it was made more to display the smaller PVC figures, but the 5-inchers do fit on the "shelves." It will look even better filled with all the spoils from Scrooge's adventures.  I'm probably going to throw in a lot of Hasbro Indiana Jones artifacts to fill it out.  It comes with a lucky dime replica, which fits on a pedestal in one of the rooms.  There is a vault dial on the back that you turn to make the playset pop open, but that's it for features.  At $30, I wish it had included a figure or at least more treasure.  Still, it looks pretty darn nifty and I cant imagine having the figures without it.

In getting my crack at fresh cases, I have to note that there are some downsides when it comes to paint apps.  There are some areas of bleeding and sloppiness, as well as scuffs and imperfections.  Also, be careful with the joints on the smaller figures.  I had to give the kids a hot water bath to loosen them up or they would be stuck in place or broken.  Other than that?  Quacktastic!

 

I couldn't be happier to have these.  It's one of those lines (like an articulated Word of Nintendo/Mario line) that we could only dream about as kids.  Now here they are in full force.  If the line stopped here, I would cope, as PhatMojo has already delivered what others could not. (I'm looking at you, Funko.)  I do have my fingers crossed for one more wave with Magica De Spell, Beagle Boys, Gyro Gearloose, Gizmoduck, Fenton Crackshell, Mrs. Beakley, Gladstone Gander, Goldie O'Gilt...so many Duckverse figures on the wish list!

 

 





 

 

 

"Oh, by the way, Launchpad...you're fired."