Scraping The Bottom Of The Star Trek Barrel

Each year the San Diego Comic Con features a series of overpriced, limited edition "exclusive" action figures and toys for sale.

This year Mattel's getting in on the act, offering an exclusive Hot Wheels 1964 Buick Riviera. Oddly enough, the toy car comes with a tiny Mr. Spock figure, casually leaning against the hood. It sells for a whopping $20, which is quite a markup from Hot Wheel's usual $1.50.

Apparently this is from that little-seen Star Trek episode in which the Enterprise is captured by a race of alien hot rod enthusiasts, and Spock saves the day by showing off his awesome cherry ride, which shames them into releasing the ship.

Actually the exclusive is based on this publicity photo of actor Leonard Nimoy in full Spock regalia, leaning against the car he purchased during the first season with his Star Trek paycheck.

OK, so it's kind of an amusing photo (in that "Spock faintly smiles while slightly raising one eyebrow" way), but does it really deserve to have a toy based on it? It definitely feels like they're reaching here. 

What's next, an action figure of James Doohan polishing the five hundred piece Craftsman toolset he bought during Season 2?

As unnecessary as the Spock figure is, it's still not as silly as the Ice Cream Guy action figure from the Star Wars line.

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Doctor Who Light-Up TARDIS Kit And Dalek Collectible "Figurine"

Attention Doctor Who fans! More Who-related crap to empty your wallets!

I saw these a couple of weeks ago at my local Barnes & Noble bookstore. The set consists (so far) of the Eleventh Doctor's TARDIS and a Dalek from the Russell T. Davies era. Odd that the figures are from different periods of the show.

These are small scale figures-- the TARDIS is exactly three inches tall while the Dalek is just a hair larger.

The detail on both is very good, especially considering their size. The TARDIS features a molded wood grain, and the tiny instruction plaque and St. John's Ambulance sign on the door are readable (if you've got a magnifying glass).

I'm honestly not sure why the TARDIS' box labels it as a "kit," as there was nothing kit-like about it. It came completely pre-assembled. Maybe "kit" has a different meaning in England. You know, bangers and mash, torch, lorrie and  loo and all that?

The TARDIS features a light up beacon on top, which is a cool little feature.

It's pretty bright too. OK, probably not bright enough to use as a flashlight when you get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, but bright enough. Hopefully the battery is something common and not some weirdo English type that's nearly impossible to find here in the States.

By the way, why is it you can buy a package of four AA batteries at the dollar store, but those tiny wafer-like watch batteries are $8 apiece?

The Dalek looks good as well, and is properly proportioned as near as I can tell. Well, almost. That plunger arm looks a little too long. Hey Dalek, is that a plunger in your pocket or are you just glad to see me? Ah, we have fun.

Ten points from Gryffindor though for describing it as a "figurine" on the box. Argh!!! One of my pet peeves. Hummels are figurines. A figurine is a small, immobile statue. This Dalek is an action figure. Get it right, people! It ain't rocket science.

The Dalek's head turns and his provocatively elongated plunger arm swivels around, and... well, that's about it as far as articulation goes. 

Worst of all he doesn't even light up like the TARDIS does, but costs the same amount! Boo!

As I said earlier I found these at my local Barnes & Noble bookstore, which is now apparently in the business of selling toys. So far that's the only place I've seen them, but if your city doesn't have a B&N you could probably find them online with a minimum of searching.

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Doctor Who Korwin Figure

I first started buying Doctor Who action figures around 2007. The original plan was to buy the Tenth Doctor and Rose and maybe a Dalek and that's all. You can probably imagine how that turned out, four years and several hundred figures later.

This is my newest Doctor Who acquisition: the rare and elusive Korwin figure from the third series episode "42."

You're probably thinking, "What's the big deal? It's just a figure of a guy wearing a weird welder's mask," and you'd be right. But this has been an action figure Holy Grail of mine for years now.

See, pretty much every Doctor Who figure made in England in the past five years has made its way to American shores, but for some reason poor old Korwin never traveled across the pond. As near as I can determine he was sold only in England, and even then he was part of a 3-figure set exclusively available at Tesco, which is sort of the British version of Target.

Oddly enough the other figures in the exclusive 3-pack were Captain Jack Harkness and a generic Time Lord, which were available in the States. Why Korwin was never sold here, I have no idea.

You could snag yourself a Korwin on ebay of course, but sellers always wanted more than I was willing to pay. After years of searching I finally found a reasonably priced Korwin and was able to snatch him up. Huzzah! My Doctor Who action figure collection is now almost complete!

So scarcity aside, how does the figure stack up? Was he worth the wait? Actually, yes. He's very detailed and his iconic red helmet is sculpted spot on. He's also fairly well articulated; more so than the Tenth Doctor figures released at the same time!

Only two small complaints (you knew I'd have a complaint, didn't you?): first off, his welder's mask is not removable. Repeat, NOT removable. As you can see above they went to the trouble of sculpting the back of his head, but the mask is firmly glued into place and there doesn't seem to be a face behind it. It's not a deal breaker for me, but it seems a bit odd.

Second, in the "42" episode Korwin was possessed by a living star. When he'd lift the visor on his helmet, blinding light would stream out. It would have been cool if the figure had a similar light up feature.

Minor complaints aside, I'm happy to finally acquire him. There are still a couple more figures I need before I consider my collection complete. One is the Amelia Pond figure that's available only at the Doctor Who Experience exhibition in England. Since it's highly unlikely I'm going to find myself in London anytime soon, that particular figure remains tantalizingly out of reach, mocking me. The second is the rare (in the States anyway) Revenge of the Cybermen 3-pack. Once I get those two items I'll be content.

In case you're wondering, I don't have every figure they've produced. There have been a few that I purposefully didn't buy, most of them slight variations of figures I already had. Unlike Waylon Smithers, I'm not re-buying a figure just because it comes with a hat!

Callisto

 

When I was a kid, my all time favorite toys were Mattel's Major Matt Mason line. America's space race was in full swing and MMM was Mattel's attempt at cashing in on the sudden interest in all things space related. I was crazy about rockets, planets and aliens, so the MMM toys were right up my alley.

I loved all my MMM toys and played with them constantly for years. The line started out with just Major Matt and several vehicles and accessory packs. Most of these early accessories were based on actual NASA equipment and plans. Later on Mattel added more fanciful, sci-fi hardware. They also added three more astronauts to the lineup, and then as Star Trek started to become popular, they included several aliens in the mix as well.

The first of the alien figures released was Callisto, the Man From Jupiter. That's my drawing of him above. I remember the package boldly called attention to his green transparent head, complete with brain that could be glimpsed inside. Of course his "brain" was just the post holding his head to his body, but I thought it was cool anyway. Callisto was a friendly alien, and he accompanied my Major Matt Mason on many dangerous missions.

Like Many of the MMM figures, he came with an air-powered weapon. You hooked a plastic bellows and clear tube to his gun, squeezed it and a yellow string would flick in and out of the end of his weapon. Simple but effective, and best of all, no lost projectiles. By the way, Mattel's official word was that the flicking yellow string was a "sensor line to gather planetary samples." We kids knew better-- it was a laser beam!

Most of the figures in the line were bendies; rubber bodies covering wire armatures. Unfortunately no matter how careful I was, the inner wires didn't hold up to too much posing, so after a while my figures had "dead" limbs that would no longer bend.

Each birthday and Christmas I'd get a few more figures and vehicles, and my little space program would expand. There were a few of the larger playsets that I wanted but never managed to acquire, but I still had an impressive space fleet.

Then as so often happens, I grew older and entered college and decided I was "too old" for toys. I boxed up all my Major Matt figures and equipment and sold them in a yard sale, no doubt for next to nothing. It's a move I've regretted every day since. It still makes me sick thinking about it. Why I got rid of them instead of leaving them in the closet, I have no idea.

You can still find MMM toys online, but mint condition copies are prohibitively expensive. I doubt I'll ever have any again. Excuse me while I go kick myself.

 

Here's my original digital sketch of Callisto. 

Callisto was drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

I'm A Grown Man And I Bought This: Little Terminator Bobblehead

I have a confession to make: I'm a grown man and I collect action figures. There. I said it. It feels good to finally say it out loud.

Note that I said I collect action figures. I don't play with them. That's for later on when I have to start wearing diapers again. I started collecting them as an adult around 1995. I'm not exactly sure why. It might have been because the big Action Figure Renaissance began around that time, and I decided to get in on the ground floor. Or maybe I'm just a giant dork. I even turned one of the spare bedrooms in my house into a toy room full of shelves where all my action figures are on display. By keeping them confined into one room like that, it helps make it look like a grown up lives in my house.

Anyway, with the recent release of the new "Terminator: Salvation" there's a ton of Terminator merchandise out there right now. As with everything in life, some of it is good, some of it is "meh," and most is not worth your time or recession-stretched dollars.

I found this little Terminator bobblehead a couple of weeks ago at Target. Normally I'm not much of a fan of bobbleheads, usually because they have to sculpt them "off-model" to conform to the bobblehead concept and specs. But this one was cool enough that I bought it anyway. It's an excellent sculpting job that manages to look cute and menacing at the same time.

Particularly impressive to me is the paint job. It looks amazingly like brushed steel and not the soft plastic in which it's molded. It's head turns and it's arms move as well, which as far as I know is pretty rare for a bobblehead.

According to the packaging material he's supposed to be a T-700 model of Terminator. In case you're not an uber-geek like myself, the model number that Mr. Schwarzenegger portrayed in all the movies is a T-800. Honestly, I can't tell any difference. I looked at photos of both endoskeleton models and they look the same to me. Maybe an even bigger nerd than myself can spot a difference, but if there is one, I can't see it.

One word of caution if you decide to buy one: Take a good look at the face while you're still in the store. The head is made of some pretty soft plastic, and after I got home I noticed the right side of my Terminator's head was kind of squished in. I had to soak his head in hot water, then mash it back into shape and run cold water over him to set the plastic.

Best of all it was only $9.99!. In this current dark period of out of control action figure prices, that's almost like I stole it!