I smell savings!!!

It has been a while since I did one of my Cheapo Toy Reviews, so I figured it was high time I did another one!



Yesterday I had to go to town to run errands, and I ran across some fun stuff on the cheaps.

First up is this Hot Wheels Custom Motors Batmobile Starter Set from Mattel



I had been wanting one of these sets, but I'm too cheap to buy one for 8 bucks. There was something about the way it looked in the package that made me wary of paying over 5 bucks for it. If the building gimmick wasn't all that great, I'd essentially be buying a small Batmobile toy for 8 bucks. But 5 bucks is a bit better. Thank God for Walmart's after Christmas clearances!



"100+ Combinations!" "Easy-Snap Customization! Build and play your way!" How can you go wrong with that intro?



These are certainly some interesting combinations! I particularly like the second one down on the first picture up there-- the "wheels in the back, tank treads in the front" version. I was all psyched to build that one!



So you basically get this roughly 4 inch long plastic (it looks diecast in the package) Batmobile "Tumbler" from the newest Batman movies and a buttload of extra parts to customize it.



You can have the tumbler in its standard open windowed version...



... or in its hatch-closed, armored version. It's a subtle difference, but it's really cool that you can do it this way.



You can see here that it's a beefier toy than the standard Hot Wheels vehicle.



That the Batmobile from the Hot Wheels 2010 series by it. Both of these are nice toys in their own right.




You can see that the Tumbler is a really nicely detailed toy... not quite worth 8 bucks by itself, but pretty nice indeed.




This is the fully armed Tumbler. It has a turning cannon on top with what appears to be an additional cockpit and side-mounted missile launchers. They too can pivot, if only slightly. This is a really fun configuration. I imagine this is the "riot control" version of the Batmobile!




This is the tank version of the Batmobile. The treads don't really move-- there are tiny wheels under the treads to suggest movement. I found that kinda lame, but so few toy companies make toys with working treads anymore. I miss the old tank I had when I was a kid. It had rubber treads that really rotated. This version is really cool looking, all things considered.



BEEP BEEP!!!

So I decided I wanted to make the "wheels in the back, tank treads in the front" version from the back of the package. This is where my disappointment began:



The tread parts are totally incompatible with the wheel parts... the wheels rely on the vehicle being flat, and there is no way to elevate either end of the Tumbler when it is connected to wheels.



What you end up with are weird "up in the air" treads that don't even let you use the tiny wheels under them. The treads are locked in the position they are in, and you can't rotate them down to better touch the ground. I was pretty hacked off when I found out about this.



It's the same story when you reverse the set-up. Again you have floating treads that don't even roll.

I'm pretty angry at the people at Mattel for putting pictures on the back of the box that show something that you can't actually make. To me, those pictures are a selling point, and playing with a buyer's wants to sell a lackluster toy is the lowest of the low. But, honestly, I should have expected something like this from Mattel. They didn't get the name of being the most corrupt toy company in the business without working for it.

Still... I'm glad I bought the toy at the price I got it. $5 is a very nice price for a well-made Batmobile that you can reconfigure several ways. Just don't expect to make that many different types of vehicles with the set. The way it is configured doesn't give you many options for building random shapes. You're pretty much bound by the wonky way the thing is made.

So... worth it? Not for $8, but definitely for $5!

Now... onto the other thing I found:

Right now Family Dollar stores are having an after Christmas clearance on their toys priced $10 and above. You get 50% off any of these toys! So when I snagged this Megabloks 6" Magnetic Buildable Iron Man 2 War Machine Figurine for $5, I was all kinds of happy!



I had had my eye on this set for a while, but I'm a cheap, cheap, horribly cheap person, so I just couldn't make myself part with 10 bucks for it. When I saw it for 5, I grabbed it faster than a ninja.



So basically you get the Terminator and some armor. Woo Hoo!



This is the core figure frame that holds the armor. It's actually my favorite part of the whole thing! It's poseable as heck, and the waist, shoulders and neck are all magnetically connected, so you get a really nice range of movement. The only drawback is that the waist and neck are REALLY loose. The shoulders have rubber resting cups for the metal balls and keep them from flopping all over the place-- the waist and neck needed these same cups to keep things from going all goofy. Still, it's a super awesome looking figure, and the ball joints allow for some crazy action stances.



Magnets rock.



So here he is all armored up. The set has 10 armor pieces and two weapons. The plastic is really sturdy and should hold up to lots of rough and tumble play.



The backside of the figure is kind of lacking in the armor department, however. They really needed at least a piece to cover up the back of the torso. But it's still a pretty cool looking figure without the back stuff.



He's still pretty poseable all armored-up, but the movement in his hips and waist are really hindered by the torso armor. Still... he looks nifty with his armor on. You can get some neat poses out of him.



AGGHHHH!!! IT SEES ME!!!

So... is the figure worth buying? Certainly not at $10... but if your Family Dollar store has him for $5, I'd say to definitely snatch one up! If nothing else, that crazy Terminator core thing is worth the $5 alone!

Until next time, happy bargain hunting, kids!

NEW RECRUITS!!! Say whaaa???

I've said before that I grew up with modest means. That pretty much means that if there was a cheap, knock-off toy line I probably had more of those than the real deal. One toy line I had several of as a kid was The Corps! from Lanard toys. They were cheap, simply made, crudely sculpted military action figures constructed almost exactly like the G.I. Joe figures of the 80's. As the Joes evolved The Corps figures pretty much stayed the same. All the way into the late 90's Lanard was pumping out copies of the same figures they made in the 80's. You gotta love a company that just sticks to what works for them. In recent years, The Corps line started to slowly evolve. Gone were the rubber O rings holding the torsos together. There were no more ball-jointed hips. The Corps figures started being made with simple cut joints at the waist, hips, and neck. This limited the articulation, but the focus started moving toward better sculpts and paint applications. The packaging was starting to reflect the company's dedication to the line-- awesome illustrations of the characters by comic book artist Leinil Francis Yu started covering the fronts and backs of the cards. Suddenly the characters had personalities and backgrounds-- there were clearly defined good and bad guys. The figures still weren't up to the standards of the Joes of the same time, but they were getting there. The bodies of the newer Corps figures were a lot bulkier than Joes-- they dwarfed the Joes, and the accessories and the hands that held them were massive compared to the smaller Joe weapons and hands. Being a custom action figure maker, I liked where the toys were going, but I still couldn't use a majority of them because the parts just didn't look right mixed with Joes.

That all changed today.

I was in Wal-Mart checking out the action figures, picking things up and putting them back because, honestly, everything costs too darn much. Then I happened upon a section I usually ignore when scoping out potential custom fodder. There they were... The Corps! figures with their bright packaging featuring Yu's artwork. I started to walk past when something struck me as odd... there were NEW Corps characters...



These are the "New Recruits." Evidently there are 6 new characters in the line, and the figures are pretty darn exceptional for a toy line that has always played second fiddle for the Joes. I only picked up one pack, because I wanted to see how they were.




It appears the artwork on the profiles of the new characters isn't Yu's, but at least it's nice stuff. Good packaging art is always a plus in my book (I'd rather see artwork than pictures of the toys... I don't know why-- I guess Mattel spoiled me back in the He-Man years). There's a whole new team known as "Shinobi Squad" with new characters "Rain," "Mirage," and "Decoder" ; The "Flying Force" gains "Spade" ; The "Covert Commando" unit gets "Bolder" ; and the bad guys known as "The Marauders" add "Roadrash" to their roster.

Now... how are the actual figures? Not bad at all!



In my pack I got Slash (mysteriously he's called "Decoder" on the back of the package) and Bolder. Slash is a ninja type guy with big arm blades, and Bolder looks like the road warrior. I guess he's supposed to be some kinda ex-cop or something. The sculpts on these guys are really darn good for what I've come to expect from The Corps. There is a lot of sculpted on detail, and the sculpts are surprisingly sharp. The faces are nice touches as well, because they each have their own personalities that come through. Slash has a really sly, crafty look on his partially exposed face while Bolder looks suitably brash and cocky. He has a smirk that Harrison Ford would be jealous of.



They're fully detailed from head to toe with all kinds of interesting gear and doo-dads sculpted onto their uniforms. Bolder's sculpt is a bit soft, but Slash's sculpt is almost as nicely done as anything from Hasbro or Mattel in the 1:18 scale. The paint apps are nice and clean with very little slop or overspray. A few of the lines are weak, but I found similar if not worse paint apps on the Iron Man 2 figures I saw a few feet away from these figures.



The package claims that the new Corps figures have 15 points of articulation, but I have yet to find point number 15. No problem, though, because the newer articulation is a MAJOR improvement.

The articulation breaks down like this:

-cut neck
-pin and post shoulders
-pin and post elbows
-cut waist
-cut hips
-hinge knees

They've managed to trim down the joints on the figures so that they can have slimmer limbs. This allows for a lean, dynamic look that older Corps figure lacked. The older figures had big, wonky joints that required the rest of the figure to be bulked up to match-- this is one of the main reasons why the older figures looked so bizarre next to G.I. Joes. Now you get a much more streamlined figure that fits in much better with G.I. Joe figures. I had JUST been talking to someone last week about how the Corps figures needed to be trimmed down... my wish is granted!


Each figure comes with two accessories: Slash has his two arm blades that clip onto his wrists, and Bolder has a nightstick and a sawed off shotgun. The coolest thing about Bolder's design is that both of his weapons can be attached to the figure when he's not using them. NICE! Slash's arm blades can be turned around on his arms to give the appearance of being folded back-- not quite as nice as having a holster, but it works for me.



As you can see, these new guys look pretty good with other 1:18 scale figures. They're still a bit bulkier than G.I. Joes, but they fit in really well with Star Wars and Marvel Universe figures.

Are they perfect figures? Not really. Are they worth buying? You better believe it. This two-pack cost only 3 dollars. 3 bucks for two decently made, 1:18 scale, fully-articulated action figures with accessories is pretty much unheard of. Combine that with the fact that they have improved the design to fit in better with other lines, and you have a winner of a toy. I'm going to grab the other new guys when I go back to Wal-Mart. The guy called Mirage looks so insanely weird I have to have him. A ninja with a coolie hat? Oh, my!



If you see the new guys, give 'em a try. You just might dig 'em enough to collect 'em all!

Clearing OUT!

I just got back from a trip to Columbia. I was house and puppy sitting for my brother. On the way home I stopped by a few places and picked up a few things.

Of course they were cheap... you all know me!!!

You may recall this Skull King figure I got when I was in Georgia...



Now... watch my monster GLOOOOOOWWWWW!!!!



How did I do this? I stuffed him with glow in the dark Airsoft pellets.



You can get a big bottle of 5,000 of them for 10 bucks at Walmart. I still have over a third of the bottle left. I wonder what I'll use them for.... mwaaaa haa haa haa!!!!!



I have so far resisted buying any of the Transformers RPM (Robot Powered Machines) toys from Hasbro. For one, they're really not that impressive. Second, they cost too much. Are they worth 3 bucks? No. Are they worth 2 bucks? Nah. One? Yeah!



I stopped at a Dollar Tree on the way home and snagged this Optimus for a buck.



They're basically Hot Wheels style vehicles of the Transformers movie characters.



On the bottom of each one there's a sculpted representation of the robot form. See Optimus looking at you from the bottom of the truck?



They had a TON of these suckers. The characters were Optimus, Bumblebee, Ironhide, Ratchet, Sideswipe, Jolt, Megatron, Long Haul, Mix Master, and Sideways. If you dig 'em hit up your local Dollar Tree... you might get lucky! I already have a nice die-cast Optimus Prime vehicle, so I'll keep mine in the package... it's a swell looking package!

I grabbed a couple of civilian clothes Wolverine figures from the Walmart next door for $2.50 each to use for customs. They're really nice bases for regular dudes.

I was getting ready to head out on the long trip home when I heard a little voice in my head say "Go to K-Mart." K-Mart isn't exactly on the way home, but I decided to go anyway. Boy... I am so glad I listened to the little voice!

They were having a HUGE clearance sale. I don't know if this is a nationwide thing or not, but this one had all their regular clearance prices slashed in half! I grabbed some stuff I would never have paid full price for.

Here's the recent Mighty Morphin Power Rangers Goldar figure I had wanted when I first heard about it but changed my mind as soon as I saw it. It's a horrible, horrible toy if you pay 6 or 7 bucks for it. But when you pay the $2.50 I did... well... it's still a crappy toy, but it's a little bit easier to justify owning it.



See those shoulder pads and that skirt there? They're solid, hard, ABS plastic. That basically means that the ball jointed shoulders and hips are pretty much frozen in place. Sheesh! On top of that, he has no knees or elbows. He's pretty much a statue... a really static, neutrally posed statue.



The sculpt is not totally bad with some nice little details here and there, but this guy is still a horrible, horrible toy. I mainly bought it because it was Goldar.



See how good he looks with the other Goldars I own? OK, so he still looks bad, but I'm glad I found him!



Another toy I'd never buy at full price: The Wolverine Stasis Chamber.



It's basically the big glass box they used to put the metal in Wolverine's body. Right. More custom fodder. I dunno how much this thing cost originally, but it's freakin huge.



It has a wheel on the side that you turn, and Wolvie smashes the glass out. Sure. It's going to be dismantled and used for custom projects. It cost me $2.50. Yay, K-Mart!!!



Here are the other Wolverines with the derpy looking Wolverine that came in the stasis set. He has a nicely sculpted body... I might make a small He-Man with that body.



I'm not really a Pokemon fan-- I never have been. I find the show to be annoying and the cards to be vomit-inducing. What I do like, however, are some of the character designs. Let's face it... some Pokemon are just darn cute.

I picked this little guy up.



His name is Mantyke, and he is A-FREAKIN-DORABLE.



His retail price was 6 bucks. I paid 99 cents for him. Booyah.



I love how he has the option to display him on his big stupid water base or on a smaller transparent one. He was well worth the price. I dunno about 6 bucks, but 99 cents? Oh yeah, baby.



And then there's this guy:



I have been looking for a decently priced Optimus Prime Mighty Mugg since before they ever hit stores. I never was crazy about paying 10 and 12 bucks for these things, but seeing how hard it is to track down a regular Prime I would have been quite happy paying full price for him. When I saw him in the clearance section I literally yelped. There was a lady at the end of the aisle with her daughter-- she grabbed her by the hand and pulled her out of there faster than I have ever seen a human being move. I ran over to the price checker and this is what I saw on the screen "CHECK SHELF TAG FOR PRICING INFORMATION." Whaaaaaa? I hunted down someone in toys for some help but I couldn't find a soul (go K-Mart!). I brought the little guy up to the service desk and asked the lady to check the price-- I wanted it, but I'm cheap... sue me (don't! I don't have the funds!). She had to go find a manager who wouldn't answer the calls to the service desk (go K-Mart!), and told me that if I wanted to keep shopping she'd keep the figure at the desk until the manager surfaced. I went back and grabbed a few more things that I can't show here (Ooooo! Secrets!!!) and made my way up to the desk a few minutes later. I asked the lady how much it was, and she said the manager had priced it at 5 bucks. I almost yelped again, but kept it down this time. The best part of this whole deal? When she scanned it it automatically applied the clearance discount... that's right: I got it for $2.50 (YAY K-MART!!!)!

Looks nice standing there in my Optimus Prime collection, huh?



Yeahyuh!

I love deals.

The moral of this story? Keep your eyes open right now... there's a lotta clearing going on!