Random Toy of the Day: X-Force Minimates

Happy Friday!  I just realized that it's been almost a month since my last Minimates post. At that rate I'll never get through them all, so I think I'll try to post one per week going forward.

In the line-up today are the X-Force boxed set of Rictor and Boomer (or Boom-Boom, as she's sometimes called) and their teammate Shatterstar, who I picked up as a loose figure.  As with previously featured Minimates, the quality and level of detail are fairly standard, so I won't be going into a great deal of detail here.

Rictor and Boomer in the box.

Out of the Box: American Girl Kaya

In the box.

I wasn't planning on picking up another American Girl doll, but last week they had such a good sale that I couldn't help myself.  The AG historical dolls were revamped last year, and this sale -which offered a doll plus an extra outfit for half the regular price of the doll on its own seemed to be aimed at clearing out old stock.

I was surprised to be able to post about this doll today.  I've made a few purchases from American Girl over the past year, and every time the packages have taken more than a week to arrive.  But not this time: for the first time, I had a shipping notice within 24 hours and a package in my hands within a few days.

But enough about the logistics, let's talk about the doll!

Out of the Box: Union Jack (Hasbro's Marvel Universe)

I haven't had time to restring the Ginny dolls yet, so how about an action figure while we wait?

I've been catching up on the All New Invaders series recently (the final issue comes out next week), so it feels like the perfect time to share Union Jack, the Captain America equivalent from the UK (despite the name, Captain Britain has a very different role/history in the Marvel Universe).

This particular feature is labelled as the modern/Joey Chapman Union Jack (there have been two others in the comics), but given the face-covering uniform, you could easily put him on display and tell people he's the Lord Falsworth or Brian Falsworth character and no one would need be the wiser (unless they noticed the belt that looks exactly like the one from the covers of the 2007 mini-series).

Work In Progress: Ginny Doll Restoration (Part 1)

Tropical Adventure Ginny
Her head was only held on by the box tie at this point.

Being a fan of international-themed dolls, I've been debating picking up one of the International Collection dolls from the Vogue Dolls Ginny International Collection (a series from the late '80s) for a while now.  I'd always held off buying one though, because  I'd heard about quality issues and didn't want to end up overpaying for something that would fall apart as soon as I brought it home.

But then last month I found a lot of dolls from the series that had already fallen apart.  And that proved to be the one that I couldn't pass on, so now a semi-dismembered "Tropical Adventure", "Navajo Princess", and "Sari" are part of my collection, and my first project dolls of the year.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Clockwise from upper left: Shepard & Tali, Jean & Scott,
Apollo & the Midnighter, Mulder & Scully.

Sure, Valentine's Day is one of those holidays that seems to have been created primarily to sell flowers and greeting cards, but that's no reason not to make a collage of action figure couples to mark the occasion!


Whether it's a day you mark or not, have a great weekend!

Random Toy of the Day: Basketball Meets Superhero

The free figure.

One of the brilliant things about living in the DC metro area is how easy it is to get great tickets at reasonable prices to NHL and MLS games.  On the flip side, baseketball is more popular here than hockey and soccer, and so it's not quite as easy (or inexpensive) to get great seats on short notice, as we discovered two weeks ago, when my brother-in-law and his girlfriend drove down from Toronto (in a snowstorm, so it took them 12 hours each way!) to watch the Toronto Raptors take on the Washington Wizards.   We ended up way back in the 400 level, surrounded by glaring local fans (our guests may have been a little loud in their cheering, both throughout the game and when the Raptors finally won).

You might ask: What does this have to do with toys?  And the answer is that everyone at that night's game received a free action figure that very randomly portrayed one of the Wizards in a superhero version of the team uniform with a cape.

Out of the Box: Branksea Festival Lottie

Branksea Festival Lottie

I've had a few people (two in person, one on a doll forum) ask me if I had a Lottie doll.  Until last week, my answer was always "Nope", since they're not a size or style that I'm normally interested in.  But then I came across a sale which happened to coincide with a visit from a friend who was travelling with her 4-year-old daughter, and I decided that this doll would be a fun toy for her little girl to play with during the visit.

The Lottie dolls (which are from a UK-based company called Arklu) resemble non-fashion/sports type fashion dolls (like the Get Real girls) in that they generally have active themes (the dolls are dressed for activities like hiking, horseback riding, martial arts and festival-going).  That resemblance stops there as they're considerably shorter in that they're only 7"/18cm tall, and they're clearly designed to be children rather than teenagers.

Out of the Box: Kotobukiya's "Marvel Now" Hawkeye

I'd been catching up on Matt Fraction's run on Marvel's Hawkeye comics recently, and while I've been enjoying the series, I hadn't considered buying any tie-in products.  But then I read Traci's posts over at A Wild Review Appears about her Kotobukiya Nightwing and Green Arrow figures, and was taken by the amount of detail on them - so I started looking at Kotobukiya's back catalogue, and somehow (*cough*) this figure ended up in my cart.

Kotobukiya's figures are non-articulated, so it would be fair to call them statues rather than action figures, although I tend to see these as slightly closer to toys than decor (although they're clearly not designed to hold up to play, as I'll talk about later).  The figures come on a with a magnetic base (and magnets in his feet), which would be brilliant on an articulated figure since it increases the display options, but on this static figure, just means that the figure is never completely secure on the stand.

Random Toy of the Day: Mini AG Josefina

I didn't quite make it through all of the Minimates last week, so those posts will continue in a few days, but in the meantime I thought I'd quickly share a couple of photos of the newest addition to the doll posse: the mini version of American Girl's Josefina.

American Girl revamped their historical doll lines last year, and one of the changes was to change the style of their mini dolls from soft-bodied (like their larger counterparts) to full vinyl bodies.  Because of that, some of the in-stock older versions have been discounted, which is what tempted me to bring this end-of-line doll home.

Minimates Week: Captain Britain (Series 31 version)

Captain Britain

Being new to the Minimates line, there have been a few releases that I missed which are now either unavailable or which have doubled (or more) in price.  I was worried that the two Captain Britain figures would fall into that category, but I was lucky enough to find a loose one for a reasonable price (I, of course, needed them for my Captain Britain room).

This particular version was part of a general series of 8 Marvel characters, each of which was originally packaged with one other figure (this one came with Shadowcat).  He includes the basic MiniMates head, body, and limbs along with two option pieces - the Captain Britain facemask and a long, flowing mane of blonde hair.

Since finding this figure, I've also found the Excalibur series release on its own as well.  That one hasn't arrived yet, but I'm looking forward to having the pair on display together.  But that's for another day, so on with the photos of this one!