King of the Hill

 King of the Hill

 The Loyal Subjects and Sunny Days Entertainment

King of the Hill was a great show.  One that stayed consistent with it’s storytelling and characters through it’s run before bowing out at 13 seasons...both Simpsons and South Park could only hold up for about 8 before the cracks began to show.  It was always on the edge of cancellation, playing opening act for the Simpsons at a not-quite prime time slot, or being preempted by NASCAR or Major League Baseball.  I’m glad it endured, and that there are still fans out there now working on toys like these.

There were some KOTH figures produced a long ways back (Toycom...who?) that have since become pretty rare and expensive.  These may never get to give us a full roster of characters, but any Hank Hill is better than nothing.  And these $7 bendable figures wont break the bank either.

Bobby and Hank stand close to a 5-inch line.  They have all the mobility you could expect from bendys.  Since Hanky is more lanky, he’s the more flexible of the two.  Poor, rotund Bobby can really only move his arms.  Still, they look like decent 3D representations of their 2D counterparts, if just a lil too flat in the back.  Sorry, Hank...didn’t mean to bring up your flat butt situation again.

Sporting more articulation, albeit in a more bizarre, exaggerated form, comes the Loyal Subjects’ Hank from their Animation Collector Packs.  Hank is packed out with Bob’s Burgers, American Dad, and (barf) Family Guy characters.  There are Dale and Bobby figures in the line, but they are chase pack-ins...WTF?!

  

Even Hank is packed out less than some, but 1/24?!  1/48?!?!  Are you kidding me?!  Ugh...I guess I should be happy that they went with window boxes and not blind bags?  Shame...Hank is a fun little (about 3 inches) figure.  He comes with a propane tank, Alamo beer can, and collector card, all for about $10.

So, Loyal Subjects may be a dead end.  Perhaps Sunny Days can produce the rest of the cast...box set?  Here’s hoping!

Popeye and Bluto

Popeye and Bluto

Stormy Seas Ahead : Deluxe Box Set

Mezco ONE:12 Collective

Welcome back, Popeye!  It’s been a while since Mezco’s last offering took “toy of the year” right before the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve, and this set looks to take the competition by storm all the same.  The Popeye figure might look familiar, but he’ll need the change of duds after going toe to toe against his arch-nemesis, Bluto!

Since this is a re-deco, let’s talk Sailor Man first.  Here, Popeye gets a rerelease in more Navy/nautical colors.  He comes with the same accessories as the last (pipes, hats, alt heads, hands, spyglass, compass, peacoat, duffle bag (though in new colors), and of course, spinach cans.  You get the same stand and “flight” rod system (now white instead of navy blue...one for Bluto, too). Nothing has changed as far as sculpt or articulation...you can’t improve on perfection.  Other than the new togs, there are a few new accessories that will make this double dip all worthwhile.  More on that after a look at Bluto.

He’s large. (Laaaaaarge!)  He’s mean. (Do you know what I mean?)  He’s everything you could want out of an exaggerated, yet realistic take on these characters.  The grimace captures the big palooka picture perfect.  Just look at the weathering on those shoes and pants!  He has a fair amount of articulation in the head, arms, and legs...the most important to posing being the wrists for interchangeable hands and accessories.  He has some motion in his waist, but nothing for the chest.  This is not disappointing, as it’s true to the barrel-chested nature of the beast.

Accessory-wise, he comes with a removable hat (magnetic), three sets of hands, a boat hook, a giant wrench, and a 300 lbs weight.  I had no idea that the wrench and weight would be die-cast metal until I took them out of the package.  Not a necessary detail in the least, but very cool.  Really let’s your Bluto figure show off his heft, balance, and strength.

Now, the bonus.  Both Popeye and Bluto come with alternate, battle-damaged heads!  There are some really neat bumps (Boff!), bruises, (Wham!) and even a little bit of blood.(Un’erstan’?)  So, down some spinach for some knock-down, drag-out, Fleischer-esque fisticuffs!

Bonus bonus!  Which I guess adds to the “Stormy Seas” theme...both characters have some extra sea-weathering gear!  Popeye gets a rain slicker and matching hat, and Bluto gets a big leather peacoat.  While I usually get a Bluto-sized grimace when it comes to the struggle of changing out soft goods outfits on action figures, these weren’t so bad.  They don’t look too bad for soft goods either.  Popeye’s rain hat may have been better as a sculpted item, but it’s by no means terrible.

I jumped on the preordered for this set maybe a year ago?  If you didn’t do the same, you may have missed the boat:  sold out in most online retailers.  I’m happy that there are enough fans out there to want figures like these. I imagine more variants will be on the way...heck, Popeye has always been a new head away from his Poopdeck Pappy.  Not sure if they will do an Olive Oyl...not sure if I would want one, thinking about how freakish she could look in a realistic take.  Eh, I’d still buy it.

Take a look back at the previous adventures of Popeye:

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2019/01/mezco-one12-popeye.html

https://terribletoyman.blogspot.com/2018/07/popeye-and-pirate-ship.html

Hondo Ohnaka’s Slightly-Used Droid Depot

Hondo Ohnaka’s Slightly-Used Droid Depot

Disney - Hasbro

Times must be tough when Disney starts selling park exclusive merch to us fly over fans without us having to leave the state...or even the couch!  Some of these droid sets I have picked up at a local Disney Store, others on their website.  Some of them were deals...what?!  Who would have thought merch from “The Last Jedi” wouldn’t fly off the shelves?  Oh, Rian...still subverting our expectations....Anyway, Hondo Ohnaka (a recent Vintage Collection pick-up that I only really bought because of his neat animatronic at Galaxy’s Edge) is here to showcase these new droids...along with my entire collection of astromechs from years of collecting!

Two Frankensteined droids from extra droid parts. Droid: “Kill Meee....”

Let’s get Last Jedi out of the way...here are the all green and white resistance bots that came sold as a set.  Not sure where they appear in the movie.  Trailing Holdo, carrying her royal highness’s matched luggage in the background while she is scolding Poe, no doubt.

Next, some of the very few figures produced for Rise of Skywalker. (Thanks, again Rian...you too, Kathy!)  The blues aren’t that exciting, but the metallic sheen is nice.  Red and white has my fave color scheme...reminiscent of R5-D4.  D-O is a nice pack-in, but not when he’s taking the place of what should be a droid with more plastic to it.  Outside of these and returning characters, I think the only other new figure from this movie was Zori Bliss?  Sad...at least we have The Mandalorian, right?

BB-H20 was a Disney Shop online pick-up.  He’s different than the previous BBs from Target.  He has a port for customization on top of his head, but not much head motion due to a peg system.  The ball splits in two to reveal a removable silver do-dad.  This is his “Weeble-Wobble” system:  a weight that allows him to weeble and wobble but not fall down.  Because of this, he doesn’t have a flat spot on his ball for support like the others do.  Interesting...I wonder if this is the set up they have at the Disney parks’ build a droid area?

After complaining about missing out on them at Target in my area, two more Target stops way outside of town nabbed me the rest of their current exclusives.  Red has an extra dome I have misplaced.  Both the jets and serving tray have been borrowed from older R2-D2 releases.  The Halloween Special, as I call him, is obviously my favorite.  I dig his colors and his semi-translucent dome.

The rest of the Astromech gang comes from various points of the saga, collected from the Phantom Menace on:

The doomed crew of the Royal Naboo Starship - Red:  “Wait, you have the wrong Red!!!”

The guy with the triangle eye in the front might be my fave.

“It’s not the years, honey...it’s the mileage.”

Bucket was missing from the group because I covered him previously...and he’s on Star Tours Duty with Captain REX:

Bucket astromech droid

And you can look back at my ever-growing BB unit collection:

BB Units