Rustin's Spoils of the Week #5

Once more unto the breech, dear readers - further fun filled facsimiles featuring finds from fastidiously fabulous figure foraging, forthwith!

Diamond Select Toys - Battlestar Galactica: Off Duty Apollo

Finally the most pointless figure from DST's ill-fortuned BSG line is mine, thanks to it being marked down to a reasonable $5. This completes my BSG collection, save but for the controversial and unnecessary Razor Kendra and Gina figures and the impossible to find TRU s1 Galactica Patch Blue Uniform Apollo. So you ask, why is this figure pointless? Apollo never wore this outfit once - even the little character photo on the front of the package shows a different outfit. Essentially what happened was TRU wanted figures fast, so DST didn't have time to put anything new together, so they grabbed Chief's body and Apollo's head and then couldn't figure out why sales went down. Accessories include Chief's launcher gun thing, machine gun, handgun, gun belt, and Adama family lighter. Considering what characters and figures we don't have its pretty offensive we have this. I understand this wave already had a woman in it (the great New Caprica Boomer) but this slot 1,000% should have been Blue Uniform Starbuck (Starbuck's head + Kendra Shaw's body). Not only is it a significant costume variation, it's easily one of the very most popular characters of the show (it's between her and Baltar, I'd contend [Tigh is my favorite, since you were wondering]). Just another example of how DST "just doesn't get it."

Hasbro - GI Joe Pursuit of Cobra: Beachhead

One of the freshmen entries to one of the very best toylines of all time. This is my second Beachhead because... good god look at all those accessories! What can I say but you owe it to yourself to pick this and other POC figures immediately! I just wish I had more 4" lines that these accessories could go with. Too awesome... go you huskies!

Hasbro - Star Wars Clone Wars: Clone Trooper Heavy

I love me some troopers, especially when they're semi unique in sculpt. There's just something about this figure that I really dig, it kind of has a classic SW / '70s vibe to it, with the green element and translucent yellow faceplate. The giant gun is also neat. Basically, this is a good example of what I like about the Clone Wars figures, fun explorations in Expanded Universe designs.

Hasbro - Star Wars Clone Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi

This is essentially "Season 3" Kenobi. At first I thought it was just a new torso on the original figure, but this is actually an all new sculpt and is much more in line with the angular style of the show. Sadly though, it's not a very interesting design. It's just Episode 3 costume with inexplicable (well, explicable in that the models for animation already exist so it's cheaper) clone armored forearms and hands. Ultimately I bought this figure cause I like Kenobi; it catches the style quite well and it was on sale at TRU. If it were full price, I would totally pass on it. Twelve points of articulation and one accessory - yawn.

Mattel - DCU Classics: Hourman

Finally, I'm able to track down one figure from the grotesquely hard to find Walmart exclusive series 14. And fortunately it's my second-most-wanted figure from the series - long live Golden Age JSA! It's a good figure, nothing to complain about, but nothing to boast of either. One down, six to go - daddy needs an Ultra-Humanite.

Mattel - Toy Story 3 Buddy Packs: Evil Dr. Porkchop & Alien

Two of my very favorite concepts from Toy Story 3 wrapped up in one two-pack (The Evil Dr. Porkchop comes from one of the best prologues ever put to film, and captures why I love toys so much; the Alien favorticism is too long winded for this place). Guess how many points of articulation exist in this set. Go on, guess. Here's a hint, its less than the number of accessories - and there aint no accessories. Oh well, at least these are two all-new figures in a single pack.

Spin Master ­- Tron Legacy: CLU Light Cycle

Shockingly, I found this at Walmart. Go figure. With the exception of Castor, this completes my collection (at least of the lines I'm collecting). Much like the Sam Flynn Light Cycle, this one lights-up, the internal engine/axel rotates as the front wheel turns and it has three "stopping" flaps. Likewise, it includes an exclusive CLU figure in "biking" position. However, due to the nature of the cycle design, the figure isn't really removable. The "light stripes" on the costume are fully painted and definitely highlight the better aesthetic (and cheaper price point) this approach would have brought to the standard 4" line.

Spin Master - Tron Legacy: Ultimate CLU

I flipping love CLU so hard that I spent $40 on this junk. He stands about 12½" tall and essentially duplicates the 8" figure. The torso lights up and the face within the mask does the "face projection" thing but sadly it does the same lines as the shorter figure but the face seems to spend more time on the "ooo" mouth, which is just kind of goofy looking. The light-up feature does continue down into the thighs , which is neat, but all of the LEDs are relatively dim, so the overall effect is pretty underwhelming. Accessories! Identity disc, baton, staff, and nunchuck-batons. The disk and all of the baton are diecast, which is a weird choice. The baton though (i.e. the rod used to create Light vehicles, etc.) has a magnet on it and can attach to the right thigh, which is pretty cool. You are asking, though, about articulation and we are looking at 18 points: hinged toes, ball-and-hinge ankles, peg-and-hinge knees, balljoint hips, ball-and-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel wrists and a hinge joint for the four fingers. And none of it really operates especially well. Overall it's a cool figure - however for $40 it feels like a bit of a ripoff.

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10 Responses to Rustin's Spoils of the Week #5

  1. yo go re says:

    I saw Ultimate Clu marked down to $31 at Kmart today - is he better at that price?

    And just to be clear, you're kidding about DCU 14 being hard to find, right? Because this is the slowest-selling series in some time. Not "exclusive series," just "series." Which is why I had to ask; because if you're not kidding, and you think 14 is hard to find, then I'm sure any of the local WMs would be happy with me getting some of the figures off their shelves to send you...

  2. Monty Prime says:

    There's a ton of the Walmart DCUC wave here.

  3. Rich says:

    That clone trooper looks tight. I've been cherrypicking animated SW offerings for aliens, bad guys, and cooler concepts like that trooper. Good stuff.
    I only want the UltraHumanite BAF from evil Walmart wave DCUC. A scalper bud (if you can't beat 'em join 'em) is thinking of unloading his for $40 which would be sweet. I can't stand legging it into Walmart at all so this would be an easy hookup and 1/3 the price. Prices are all over now. $12.99 wave 13s at KMart and $20 Wave 15s at TRU...I'm guessing Walmart wave 14 is in the middle there somewhere. Matty is laughing all the way to the bank.

  4. Super1938 says:

    Dunno bout those Clone Wars figures, saw the movie and thought it sucked.......
    DCU classics are not on mainstream sale in UK as far as im aware, just need to pay rip off prices on ebay or Forbidden planet if you want to get a hold of them here. 🙁

  5. Rich says:

    One out of every 10 Clone Wars figures seems to fit in nicely with the Star Wars Concept or Comic aesthetic. But yeah I don't love Clone Wars so much to "buy 'em all" but it has been a fine line to cherrypick. Before the Clone Wars movie or the current Clone Wars cartoon there was a Clone Wars animated shorts (like 2 minute animated episodes) that was pretty decent. And giving us Cad Bane and his assorted minions has been a real treat for us longtime StarWars fans.
    DCUniverse Classics is a rip off here in the States just via regular retail. A couple years ago they were $9 figures. Now the full retail price (for DCUC and GL Classics) at big box ToysRUs is $19.99+tax. So you can add exhorbitant pricing to the long list of getting Matteled on this line (buck body reuse, sloppy paint, rubbery plastic, spackled over cape holes, stuck joints, sub-par articulation, crappy distribution for regular releases and especially store exclusives which has made DCUniverse synonymous with "scalper bait" since, well, the Mattel DCSuperhero days that preceded DCUC).

  6. Rustin Parr says:

    Clone Wars is all about cherry-picking for me as well - I've made peace with CW and the Prequels as just being fun Expanded Universe/Fan Fiction and a way to make cool looking toys. So, there you have it. No need for a thousand clone troopers with slight paint variation, but some time these guys just look too cool to pass up. Especially the various Bounty Hunters, Pirates, etc.!

    @Yo: $31 is a more fair price for CLU but its up to your own tastes. For intents and purposes he's identical to the 8" figure, just larger (i.e. no improved articulation, accessories or really even electronics). Also, I'll be hitting you up for some DCUC 14, then, because in the Chicago area we have but two things, "and Jack just left town."

  7. Rich says:

    Legged it into Ross Dress for Less (just love sayin' the "dress for less" part to make me even nerdier) yesterday for some GIJoe goodies. Spotted some of the cancelled Target vehicles and Walmart 2packs but the checkout line was too long for me to want to army build. Anyway, Ross had one of the 12" Clu's for $19.99 so you may want to check there if interested. If the blog review had been more enthusiastic I might have bitten but even at $20 it looked a bit underwhelming...rather it looks cool sculptwise but the subpar articulation and mediocre execution of the light feature had me passing. I dunno...if I change my mind it will probably still be there next week. Clu was all kinds of cool in the movie that's fo' shure...

  8. Zach says:

    I have at least 2-3 full sets of wave 14 here. BTW, Ultra-Humanite is awesome!!!

  9. PrfktTear says:

    Evil Dr. Porkchop always reminds me of Alex de Large from A Clockwork Orange... I think its the bowler. He just needs a fake eyelash and a milk moustache.

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