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<\/p>\nA couple weeks back I had the pleasure of spending some time in the greater Boston area. Not only did this mean the chance for some choice hunting across new-to-me grounds, but the ability to do so in a Pack (combining with the forces of Mr. Poe Ghostal and Mssr. Prfttear). We hit several of the \"first run\" stores (like Toys R Us and Walmart as well as some of the more regional favorites like Five Below and Newbury Comics) as well as a couple \"collector stores\" (most notably the fabulous Comicazi). Thus, a hearty haul of both old and new - all for you, my dear readers.<\/p>\n
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Art Asylum - Star Trek Minimates: \"Trouble with Tribbles\" Kirk<\/b> DST - Avengers Minimates: Maria Hill & Chitauri Soldier<\/b> DST - Avengers Minimates: Chitauri General & Soldier<\/b> Hasbro - GI Joe: Retaliation: Snake-Eyes<\/b> Lego - Exclusives: Lego Brand Retail Store Lego - Lord of the Rings: Gandalf Arrives<\/b> Lego - Lord of the Rings: Shelob Attacks<\/b> Lego - Lord of the Rings: Uruk Hai Army<\/b> Lego - Monster Fighters: Mummy<\/b> Lego - Monster Fighters: Swamp Creature<\/b> Mattel - The Dark Knight Rises: Batman<\/b> McFarlane - Sleepy Hollow: Ichabod Crane<\/b> Mezco - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea: Control Room Nemo<\/b>
\n![](\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/120613b.jpg\" "\\"Tribbles")
<\/a>Nostalgia... ain't it great? I miss the old the Art Asylum days, or at least the birth of Minimates. There's a lot to like about these 3\" tall 'mates and this was one of the \"rarer\" in that is was an online exclusive to Figures.com. The figure is in essence the same Minimate we all know and love, but the larger size allows for more robust joints and thus much better range of articulation. He comes with a phaser, a string of Tribbles (that's right - they're all sewn onto a string, which is an interesting concept but ultimately renders it more of a tribble-boa) and then puzzle-piece base common of all of those early releases. This a great figure and definite hole in my collection - now all I need is Mugatu and my set is complete!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>I thought Cobie Smulders was pretty good casting for Maria and while her performance was a bit bland (just like ALL S.H.I.E.L.D. personnel in The Avengers<\/i>) I'm quite looking forward to seeing her role expanded across (hopefully) the next series of Marvel films. This figure does a good job of capturing her look. She comes wearing a gun holster and the set comes with a handgun for her, a rifle for the Chitauri and one clear stand.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>The Chitauri were and interesting choice for the film if not a bit of a cheat, but they needed aliens and probably want to prematurely \"use up\" any of the more famous races, not to mention the Skrulls and Shi'Ar, etc, may be tied up in murky gray-area rights issues related to the X-Men<\/i> and Fantastic Four<\/i> rights held by other studios. These 'mates do a good job of capturing the overall look of the monsters, and I quite like the variant set having the General, to pad out the army. He gets a unique helmet, torso piece and not-supersoaker gun while the Soldier gets the ridiculously long rifle, and the set include a single clear stand.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Yeah... so that<\/b> happened. I'll still be getting the figures I was planning on anyway regardless of the false perception of rarity (well, the $10 pricetag has me being a far more choosier shopper) and started off with ol' Snakesy here. The figure is pretty nondescript, and actually fairly boring, in the pantheon of Snake-Eyes figures and as a result I have very little to say about it, almost to the point of regretting getting it. There's just nothing that feels new or special about this one. He gets his sword and a blue machine gun in addition to a winged backpack thing. I actually dig the the overall design of the (missile launching) wings, which are connected via balljoints and thus a lot of fun to pose. Alas, the thing is just so heavy there's no way he can stand while wearing it.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>OKAY<\/b>, so - I love micro scale builds, and I love models of real world things and I love just about any type of toy buying, so this set nigh on blew my mind when it was revealed, but of course something this cool comes with a substantive catch... it's only<\/b> available at a handful of Lego stores as part of their grand openings this summer. By sheer and utter dumb luck I happened to be in Boston when one of those stores had their grand opening and thus... it is mine. It's a fun build and more intricate (i.e. uses more bricks) than one would expect just from looking at it. It has all of the familiar attributes of a Lego Store, though scale, volume and orientations are sacrificed a bit. The roof is easily removable (it connects only by a single stud in each corner) and the \"doors\" don't actually work, they are simply built from transparent bricks. I just wish they have printed the Lego logo on the flat 2x2 panel rather using a sticker. This set was available, one per customer, on Saturday only and was free with a $35 purchase! Thats just... pretty much it's the best Lego deal ever!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Lord of the Rings<\/i> + Lego = broke Rustin. So far I've only picked up these two sets, but this could finally be the true diorama & army-building line that the other toy ranges never panned out to become. This is the \"cheap\" set of the first wave of products and $13 it's not that cheap. It does, though, have the only Gandalf available as of yet and a unique Frodo (well, not for long, there is a polybag coming eventually that has him as well). Gandalf gets a newly sculpted beard while Frodo has the new hobbit hair and comes with two alternate faces. Included is one of the new horses, now with rearing action, and of course, the cart. The latter is a more complex build that it looks, which helps justify the price, and the barrel'o'fireworks is fun (kudos for the red snake as the dragon). It's a nice set and a good starter for any LotR<\/i> fan you might know.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>You're going to get this because you need Sam and Golum, but I gotta tell you - this Shelob rules. It is by far<\/b> the best Lego Spider ever done. Plus her web is winch which works via a gray dial on the underside of her... butt. It to is one of the best Lego gear\/winches I've yet played with. Pretty simple but innovative leg design too. Both Sam and Frodo get alternate faces (including Zombie Frodo) but I gotta say I'm none too keen on Gollum. Just a little too... narrow for me. Still a surprisingly great set.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Aaaawww yeeeaaaah. I've been trying to amass a substantive Helm's Deep Uruk Hai force ever since seeing The Two Towers<\/i> and now, at last, I might just be able to! This set is totally genius - you get all you need to stage a little battle\/siege, but it is modular allowing you to really stretch out that wall! The wall section actually a pretty complicated build because it's all done with bricks - no castle panels here! While this approach makes for a very pretty look I can't help but think that had they just gone with panels they could have knocked $5 off the price, or at least included another fig or two). The Uruks get a big ballista, which toys seem to insist was part of the battle, but I certainly don't recall it. It's a nice design and understandable for the \"play pattern\" but again I'd have rather had more figs or a lower price. There are four Uruk Hais, but only three helmets and two torso armors, which makes for an inconsistent army - a Rustin no-no. You also get a Rohan Solider and Eomer, both are great but<\/b> Eomer essentially ruins the set by being a specific character and thus notably lessening the armybuildability of the overall thing.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Ironically the two sets from Monster Fighters<\/i> I was least interested in were also the two cheapest. The good news is that they're better than they look. The problem here is the Mummy is a bland, poor follow-up to the excellent Egyptian-themed line they did a year or two ago. At least his chariot ended up being cool, plus it comes with a skeleton horse! The horse glows in the dark and it actually holds its \"glow\" surprisingly well (I recently noted it still shone distinctly over 2 hours after lights-out). The mini-fig has g.i.t.d. paint under his face and torso deco which means he only selectively glows, and that is weird. The Fightin' Female figure is pretty cool (she gets two faces) and I like the arrow in the hair gag. I had hated her helicopter up until I completed building it, and now I do kind of dig it. This is the most missable set mainly just because we have plenty of better mummies and while neat there's not that much special about the remainder of the set that we can't get elsewhere.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>This is the final monster never touched upon in the Collectible Mini-Figure line so I was waiting with baited breath (yes baited, not bated - 'cause he's a fish, see?) and now that I have him.... disappointed is the word. After the cool snakes in Ninjago<\/i> and awesome Space Police<\/i> aliens and Atlantis<\/i> mutants I'm fairly shocked that this<\/b> is the best design they could come up with. He comes with a bit of swamp... something (not sure if it's above or below water) which is nice enough. His fighter is a hokey Greaser who fortunately gets two faces so that you're not stuck with that terribly sunglasses and smirk nightmare in the press photos. Much like the helicopter above, I was loathing the airboat but have grown to like it once getting it in hand. This set runs for $7-8 which means you could armybuild a Swamp Creature army, were you of the mind.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Found this at Walmart for $6 and decided, \"what the heck.\" Of course, then I saw it at Target for $5 and in a much better Target exclusive five figure multi-pack. This is the same 4\" figure released with The Dark Knight<\/i> so in all reality I should have not got it. He comes with an oversized batarang and non-firing grapple gun. I'm very, very happy to see Mattel dropping their pricepoint on their B.S. figures and I'd love to see them expand backwards and fold in some Batman Begins<\/i> characters in this scale\/pricepoint too.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>This figure is 13 years old - now I bet you feel old. It's very remarkable that it essentially looks quite current in its sculpt and detail. You might expect a better Johnny Depp likeness, more malleable hands and some balljoints, but overall if McFarlane, or maybe NECA, put this out today you wouldn't really think twice about it. Of course I already had one from way back when, but come on - look at all those accessories! It's just obscene - well, technically what's obscene is that he can't hold any of them really. My favorite is by far the bag, which has fold-down flaps on either side and opens in the middle so that you can raise up the rack of bottles. So very cool. <\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Oh my god... I mean... come on. Come the heck on. On Judgement Day, when all us toy sites do the Best Toys of All Time lists this thing<\/a> will rank way up at the top for everyone. It's just unbearably phenomenal. I got it open to the point of laying out the base segments and just realized there was way too many pieces to risk loosing or breaking and the base was so big I just don't presently have room for it, but oh man, soon... soon... I also really, really like the packaging.<\/p>\n