Here is another from the Big Box of Disappoint. Though I kind of expected it in this case. I am not entirely sure what Mirrorverse is, I think it’s some sort of battling mobile game, which is why all the figures in this line look a little different from their standard incarnations. This Genie is sort of a combo of Genie and Jafar I think. He is kind of cool looking and there aren’t really any articulated Geniue figures that I know of.
Except there still aren’t really any Genie figures. Because this guy is so incredibly limited. It’s basically arms only, and the elbows don’t so much. There is a neck and wist but they both seem to only have a few degrees of motion.
And here I was thinking MacFarlane had gotten over making statues with useless articulation. He’s nice looking at least, but these pictures are basically it for what he does.
Just in time for Christmas, Fresh Monkey Fiction has put out the first wave of their first wave of their holiday themed Naught or Nice Collection. I had the Cyborg Santa on order but cancelled it because I decided I didn’t really need it, but I did keep the “Classic Santa”. Classic Santa, as the name suggests, if generically regular. The whole line has several themed Santas, some straight recolors, some with different heads (like Cyborg Santa having a damaged robot head) as well as some Elves and Nutcrackers.
I pretty much just stuck with the basic Santa. He’s useful for making holiday themed photos with and I can stick him out with the Christmas Decorations like I do every Halloween with my monster themed Marvel Legends.
Speaking of Marvel Legends, the box for this guy looks essentially identical to the standard ML Window Box, which has some distinct curvature to it.
He also has a nice collection of accessories. A plate with a couple of cookies and some milk, a removable hat, a Naughty or Nice list, an alternate Winking head and some hands. My only real issue is that while his articulation is decent, he can’t put his pointing finger on his nose, as Santa Clause does.
So, wow. I feel like I am pretty good at picking out good parts of figures to keep my disappointment levels down, but this figure… I just can’t. And I am not sure how this happened. One of the worst signs that a figure is a mess, is when it breaks, doing basic actions, almost right out of the package. Which happened here. I have gone through tons and tons of figures, and very few just break, right out of the package, with basic operation. Especially on a “Premium” level figure like this, the Disney Ultimates Robin Hood from Super 7.
In this case, it was swapping out the head. Give it a little back and forth and a pull, and as expected, as I have had happen with thousands of figures before, the head comes off. What wasn’t supposed to happen, is the peg sheered off and was stuck inside the head. Just for a contrast, in the same BBTS Box, I got another figure I’ll cover later, the Japanese Spider-man, Marvel Legends, and his joints were super stiff for a Marvel Figure, but they didn’t sheer off upon trying to move them. They just stuck, so I stuck it near the heat vent to warm it up and loosen it a bit.
No luck here, now, not only will the head not stay on, but the other heads can’t be attached. I have sort of “fixed” this by sticking some sticky tack on the neck peg, which I have done sometimes when swapping ill fitting heads. But it’s not the same.
The head isn’t the only problem though, the whole figure feels very cheap on the plastic, particularly the tail and I’m worried about losing hand pegs like the head peg. He also can’t hold his bow at all. None of the hands work, it only can be “held” by letting it sit loosely in his hand and sort of, resting it against his body or the floor. The arrow on the extra head is also severely bent out of the package. His quiver also does not want to stay in place, at all. I get that they don’t want peg holes or anything, but a slight bit of clever sculpting on the shoulders or strap could have created a little nub or catch that would keep it somewhat in place.
The sculpt is nice at least. The stork costume is interesting, and basically replaces 90% of the figure, but I’m worried about more breakage so I’m just, not going to bother. In test fitting the Stork Legs to the Squatting Bottom Legs, I couldn’t get them to even stay on well anyway.
This is such a disappointment. This figure was delayed by almost 2 years and the previously released Prince John figure, is really really nice. Like, “top figure of the year” nice. It’s also extra disappointing because the only halfway decent Robing Hood figure ever is a 25 year old McDonald’s toy, and it seems like this may still be the case.
Scott Pilgrim vs the World is probably my favorite movie, though the books are much better. However, it is decidedly lacking in figure based merch. I was pretty excited when I came across these figures from Bottle Neck Gallery. The site seems to specialize in limited run sort of niche merchandise, a lot of which is prints. Like the prints, these figures came in some mass release colorways, and a few limited color versions. Despite ordering on day one, I missed out on the limited versions, though I was more interested in the limited Scott, who had the PLUMTREE logo on his shirt, but otherwise seems to be the same as this one. The Ramona variants were mostly hair colors, but I prefer this color.
While they are “action figures” they are lacking in the “action” part a bit. I imagine this is partly to do with them being more art figures than straight action figures. Both Ramona and Scott sport the same articulation. The site lists it as “5 points” but its actually more. Both have ball socket head joints, which lets them look up and down and side to side a bit, and ball wrists, so they can swivel and bend a bit. The elbows have single joins, though the range of motion isn’t great and the shoulders are limited universal joints. There is also a waist swivel but it doesn’t really seem like it wants to go all the way around. The legs have no articulation, but both figures stand solidly, including Ramona on her skates.
Neither is going to be fighting any evil exes with any finesse, but that’s ok. The sculpt and paint make up for it a bit, they both look really good and the paint apps are solid all around. Each comes with some swap-able hands and accessories. Ramona fairs a little better than Scott in this department. The hands are relaxed, gripping, and fists for both, Ramona has her shoulder bag, and Scott has his guitar, both of which are removable. Ramona’s bag can slip on from the bottom but Scott’s guitar has to open the strap to go around his body. The head may come off, but I’d rather not risk breaking something, the strap has a removable peg for the strap. Ramona also comes with a bat and a package from Amazon.ca that she delivered to Scott when he was trying to meet her. The bat is from when Ramona battles Roxie in the comics (in the book she uses the Subspace Hammer to battle Envy not Roxie). This outfit doesn’t match that fight though at all, though it is one she wore.
Anyway, both figures are really nice, and I’d definitely be game for some other characters, maybe Knives and Gideon. The other members of Sex BombOmb would be fun, though I’m not sure Kim would work without her drum set, which means she gets to sit or maybe an alternate set of legs.
Mr. Lee, you’re needed back on set!Vegan Powers include uh… shrinking?
After enjoying Jon Snow and The Night King, I decided to keep up on the Game of Thrones line with Arya Stark. For what it’s worth, I probably won’t pick up Daenerys, the likeness is just too off in the face and she is overall too large. Maybe if I found her for cheap but at the moment, I don’t plan on it. I am looking forward to potential future waves of these figures, despite the disappointing series finale.
There isn’t really anything to add about the line in regards to Arya that hasn’t been said already about the previous two figures I’ve talked about. She shares most of the same high and low points. The detailing is really nice on her sculp and accessories, though, her likeness is a bit off on the head sculpt. Jon, Arya, and Dany all have this weird slightly squished look going on and the noses all seem a little too large. John fares the best, Arya is ok, but it really shows on Dany, which is why I am skipping her.
Arya does have a few issues not as present with Jon though. Her skirt isn’t as forgiving as Jon’s long coat, so her hip articulation is pretty useless. This also means all of her leg articulation is pretty useless. I may run some slits up the sides or something on mine just to let her legs have some freedom. Jon Snow’s outfit has opening and some layering going on so it allowed motion. The Night King also had slits up the sides of his skirt piece by design.
Arya also has nowhere to store her weapons. None of the figures do, actually. Some scabbards would have been nice on Arya and Jon. Jon sort of got away with this because his dagger could be slipped under his belt. the Night King barely uses his weapons in the show and seems to just pass them off to lackeys when he isn’t using them so he didn’t really need anything. Arya doesn’t get the luxury of a belt or any sort of scabbard or a zombie follower to carry her sword, so she has no way to just stand in a neutral pose while still armed.
If you are a fan of this show but not really super into the figures, Arya isn’t awful but she would be an easy pass in favor of Jon or the excellent Night King. Like I said, I am still looking forward to more from this line, but I worry the much hated finale will kill any chance of more being made.
