![](\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/120627a.jpg\")
<\/p>\nJust in time for my need to conserve funds for Comic-Con Toys R Us goes and gets in a bunch of new Minimates and cuts the MIB3<\/i> prices in half - what's a man to do but buy buy BUY!?<\/p>\n
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DST - Amazing Spider-Man: Gwen Stacy & Dr. Connors<\/b> DST - Amazing Spider-Man: Vigilante Spider-man & Capt. Stacy<\/b> DST - The Expendables: TRU Exclusive 4-pack<\/b> DST - Marvel: Daredevil & Kingpin<\/b> DST - Marvel: Rictor & Boomer<\/b> DST - Marvel: Spider-Sense Spider-Man & First Appearance Punisher<\/b> Hasbro - The Avengers: Skrull Soldier<\/b> Jakks Pacific - Men In Black 3: Agent J<\/b> Jakks Pacific - Men In Black 3: Agent K<\/b> Jakks Pacific - Men In Black 3: Boris<\/b> Jakks Pacific - Men In Black 3: Mr. Wu<\/b> Jakks Pacific - Men In Black 3: Stalk Eyes<\/b> Lego - Superheroes: Power-Suit Lex Luthor<\/b> Mattel - The Dark Knight Rises: Alfred Pennyworth<\/b>
\n![](\"http:\/\/www.oafe.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/120627b.jpg\" "\\"Gwen")
<\/a>The return of alternate costumes - huzzah! Oh how I have missed you. Gwen gets two hairs pieces (one in a ponytail one... not) and two sets of arms plus a removable torso jacket for coat-on and coat-off looks. Meanwhile Curt gets, you know, nothing... just a missing forearm. Sadly, most likely due to cost reasons, both figures have the same albino-blonde hair color. I wish Connors came with some alternate appearance to justify buying a second set for both Gwens, but maybe I'll just give him one of the scaly heads from the SWAT guys for a \"transformation\" look.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>I dig the idea of \"vigilante Spider-Man\" as depicted here, but it just further highlights how unlikely this kid would be to home-make the film's Spider suit. Stacy gets a great Denis Leary likeness and includes a fully painted torso under his SWAT Vest, plus a handgun, machine gun and SWAT helmet - super cool! Surprisingly we don't even get a Peter Parker head here, but I can probably grab one off of the other sets to, once again, warrant double-dipping on this set.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>This is a pretty interesting experiment for DST, releasing two mutually exclusive 4-packs, one to TRU and one to the Direct Market, rather than having some degree of character crossover. I hope it works for them (though I think I'll always prefer the two-pack format at TRU personally, they seem to move better). The figures all look good, plus Stallone and Austin get painted torsos under their covers, which is pretty awesome. I love that Stallone's vest is painted and not sculpted - this<\/b> is what Minimates should<\/b> be - but I'll confess it feels slightly out of place with the rest of Minimates' detailed sculpts. The thing, though, that will really sell this set is a truly, shockingly obscene amount of guns. Seriously, there's so many it's almost aggravating. Go DST, home of the accessories!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Ugh, Daredevil. If he's any different than the recent Jean DeWolf<\/i> series it's too subtle to matter. It also makes him the only figure in this TRU wave<\/s> series to not be new\/unique to it - an awesome development in the life of the line! Kingpin has been a long<\/b>ime coming, and was clearly inevitable once they introduced the bulky parts in the last year or two. He's pretty good, and gets his diamond cane. Looking at his new feet and hands all I can think is \"here comes Joe Fixit,\" which would be pretty darn cool!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Up until this was revealed I was, for some reason, convinced that Rictor was actually AoA<\/i> Gambit. I really, really like this set though I don't know the characters at all! It's just bright and colorful costumes, and that's when Minimates are at their best. I hope they go with an established team in Minimates, but if they don't then I'm more than happy to welcome them as harbingers of further goofy '90s fun! Boomer gets \"fireballs\" for her hands, which fit okay, with some effort, over her fully sculpted gauntlets.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>I know Chuck loves him but I could live my entire life without buying another Spider-Man Minimate. At least this one has new(?) upper arms with sculpted on web-wings. The real selling point here is the wholly ridiculous and equally geniuwesome \"Spider-Sense\" head piece. Super extra kudos for DST for going there - I smell an \"Accessory of the Year\" on the horizon. And then there's Punisher, and who would ever turn down Punisher? Not the best costume, but new to the format, so that's cool!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>I didn't even know this figure existed until yo casually mentioned it last week. Indeed, as he predicted, all I found from this series was this guy - no sign of Black Widow or Hawkeye. Thanks, Hasbro. He's a pretty good figure with solid sculpting and the now-standard Hasbro articulation. I'm not sure what era this costume is from, probably \"right now,\" but it's a little too... I'm don't know, un-threatening for me. Plus all he gets is a lame repaint of a Thor<\/i> movie-line axe. The blades pop off but get be held very well. Had this dude a rifle he'd be a great new army-builder, but as is he's merely neat. I will say this though - the head sculpt is mindnumbingly excellent! It's worth the $10 alone and is the best Skrull sculpt I believe I've ever seen.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Oh Jakks, single-handedly killing the Toy Industry one brand at a time. The only thing more shocking than the original $10 pricepoint on these is that, once in hand, they're not really even worth the $5 I paid for them. The figures are pretty bland but get better articulation than last year's Pirates of the Caribbean<\/i> line, with ball-and-socket head, balljointed shoulders and hips, swivel wrists and hinged elbows and knees. J gets a space rifle and a spring-action ring...<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Men in Black<\/i> is just a cursed franchise. Cursed. Three companies have tried across the three movies and each have failed remarkably. Jakks probably came the closest, by attempting \"normal\" figures, but their unbelievable anti-quality stance again killed the line. The only reason to see MiB3<\/i> is Josh Brolin as \"Young K\" and astoundingly we get no figure of him! This is clearly Tommy Lee Jones, which is fine enough because now we finally have our long anticipated pair of same-body-using, weirdly square-torso-ed figures with weak paint and unnecessary pack-ins.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Though unnecessary, the pack-in's are oddly fun - moreso than the figures. Each is a ring that, though the modern marvel of Spring Activation, transform into a thing. For instance, Boris here gets a rocket pack. You can do the transform while wearing the rings (which each have hinged finger-clasps so that fat adults and figure waists can wear them too) for added novelty. Boris is a disappointingly unmemorable villain from a disappointingly unmemorable movie. He get's too of his silly crab minions and a rarity for the line, almost a fully unique sculpt!<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>The most \"alien\" of the line, and an INCREDIBLY odd choice for a toy Mr. Wu gets a reasonably likeness-ed toy of character actor Keone Young (I'm confident this is a different Mr. Wu than his character on Deadwood<\/i>), which is pretty darn awesome in its own right. Like Boris, he's almost wholly unique in sculpt, sharing only his arms with J, K, and Stalk Eyes. His shirt is soft PVC over a unique, highly textured torso - weird. I wonder who that torso was intended for in the never-to-be-released Series 2? He gets a butcher knife and springy ringy.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>Aaaaaand what the hell. This character appears on screen for, in my estimation, five seconds across two shots in Mr. Wu's restaurant, and in one he's hiding behind a menu and the other he's diving to the floor. So... why!? Because he's a kitbash no doubt... His head is new, but the torso is Boris' and everything else is Men in Black. It's super lame they made this character rather than ANY number of the awesome Rick Baker Retro Aliens. But I suppose it's even lamer that I still bought it.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>I don't play videogames but I love Power-Suit Lex so I figured I was screwed on this \"free with Lego Batman 2<\/i>\" mini-fig but fortunately I was able to trade with a friend for it! It's an awesome figure that includes a lot more than just the figure! He's get the recent Space Marine armor as well as parts to build a too-long-for-its-own-good kryptonite gun plus three black 2x2 bricks. Most amazingly, his torso is fully painted under the armor! This is such a cool figure it's really sad he didn't get released in the regular line, but man oh man is he worth getting.<\/p>\n
\n<\/a>I can't believe I found him! But I did! Alfred turned out better in person, I think, than in the prototype. The head's sculpt and paint turned out \"softer\" which better fits the look of Movie Masters<\/i>. Other than the pretty good likeness this is essentially a figure you already have (multiples of). He comes with the center portion of the Batsignal so it's a pretty crucial BAF piece. Get him if you find him.<\/p>\n