Out of the Box: MegaConstrux Monster High Clawdeen Wolf

I had these photos taken in mid-October and had every intention of having this post up the day of Halloween. What better day to post a werewolf, right? But I promptly forgot about that, so now it's better late than never!

Being unboxed today is another block figure in the form of one from Mega Construx/ Mega Blox' Monster High line, the werewolf Clawdeen Wolf.  These figures have two more points of articulation (for seven points of articulation in total) than the WellieWishers of the same style, and two fewer than the Assassin's Creed line (The AC line is aimed at the 14+ collector market, while the MH and WWs are marketed primarily for the child market).  Interestingly, these figures have the least amount of sculpted detail to their faces of the three.

The figure comes packaged with a simple half-block stand, a bracelet and mirror accessory set, and a multi-block stand that requires assembly.  The stand was not particularly sturdy or attractive, so I was unimpressed by that addition.

Random Toy of the Day: WellieWishers MegaConstrux Kendall

It's been a complicated summer, which is why I've been away. I'll probably post details in my annual wrap-up at the end of the year, but in the meantime let's get back into the toy chest!

I'm staying in Toronto at the moment, and I recently visited the Samko/Miko toy and children's book discount warehouse that's north of the city.  While I was primarily there to pick up books as gifts for friends, I did pick up a three toys for review.  The first of the three is an American Girl WellieWishers mini block figure from Mega Construx (a version of Mega Blox).

These figures normally retail for around $8CDN, but at the warehouse they were on for $2CDN.  So of course I had to bring one home!  I was tempted to pick up Ashlyn (since that's the full size doll I own), but I wasn't a fan of the way her long hair translated to the block format. So instead I brought home Kendall.

Let's take a closer look!

Out of the Box: Mega Bloks Assassin's Creed Adéwalé

This is one of those toys that I meant to post about a few months back, but hey: better late than never!

Dollarama is a Canadian discount chain, and while I was staying in Toronto in the fall I came across a few Mega Bloks sets for $3.00 CDN. Since I've regularly seen these selling for around $7.00 USD, I couldn't make myself pass one up, So I picked up Adéwalé from the Assassin's Creed line.

These sets include a simple base with a few decorative accessories plus one of the standard-style block figures.  In this case, the base included the floor piece, an upright mock-wood wall, a fern, and a barrel. In addition, the figure itself included removable clothing and two weapons.

Let's take a closer look!

New Blind Bag Minis (and experiments in video)

A Mega Blocks Halo Charlie figure

As part of my plan to do a more extensive cross-line mini figure comparison post in the future, I picked up two new blind bag figures yesterday: one from Mega Bloks' Halo line, and one from the Mighty Minis Batman v. Superman line (which reminded me of a Kinder Surprise toy).

I was impressed at the level of detail and articulation on the Halo figure in particular. And while the Superman figure can't really stand on his own with any ease, his ability to swing his arms goes a long way towards balancing that out (and letting you balance him out!)

A quick comparison: Lego mini figures and DST Mini-Mates

Lego Fly (L) and MiniMate Tali (R)

One of the most common questions around Dimond Select Toys' MiniMates line from people who haven't seen them in real life is how they compare to Lego figures.  To help answer that question, I've taken some comparison photos of a representative from each line.

Our representatives for the day are both blind bag figures. On the Lego side we have The Fly (they call him "Fly Monster", I assume because it's not licenced as a movie tie-in) from the Series 14: Monsters release. On the MiniMate side, we have Tali from the Mass Effect: Series 1 release. Both figures have the standard body from each of their representative lines, although they do have unique head sculpts: the standard heads on both lines are peg-shaped.

Random Toy of the Day: X-Men Minimates (DST)

It's a new year, so how about some new (or at least new-to-me) Minimates?

My first new minimates of 2016 are the X-Men Beast, Storm, Cyclops, Shadowcat and Colossus, and came to me via Gwen of the cooking/AG blog A Peek into the Pantry (Cheers, Gwen!).  As usual, Minimates are pretty standard block figures, so there's not much to say about them, so on with the photos!

Coming up after the move...

Moving day is just over a week away, so while I do have a few unboxed items to photograph, I'm going to be spending the next week putting things back into their boxes, so I think I'll wait on opening those up.

Still, before I get into the packing, I thought I'd take a quick photo of the toys that are newly arrived but being packed away immediately:

Coming soon...

It's not a huge backlog: just two Minimates sets (a Dragon Age set of four and a Marvel set of two) and two American Girl mini Dolls (Grace, the 2015 Girl of the Year and the new version of Samantha), but they'll just have to wait! ;)

Random Toy of the Day: Minimates Falcon and Winter Soldier

In the box.

Alright, I'm almost through the Minimates!  Just a few more posts and my whole collection of the little things will be documented.  Of course at that point I'll probably end up picking up a few more (there's a Dragon Age series coming out this summer that I have my eye on), but that's an issue for another day.

Today's pair are Winter Soldier and Falcon.  These two both have the standard Minimate body, but come with more than the average number of accessories - two stands (one standard, one "flight" version), multiple weapons, and even an arm-sitting falcon. I'd say that the stand out piece in this set are the broad wings on Falcon.

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!

Minimates Week: Mass Effect Blind Bags

Wrex, Liara and Tali

I've been on the fence about Diamond Select's Minimates line for a while now.  On the one hand, they offer a wide variety of pop culture figures which are generally very detailed for the size.  On the other, they're Lego-style figures (although slightly larger than actual Lego-brand people), which makes them challenging to display in a non-cluttered way.  That would make sense if they were sold as play figures, but they're very much aimed at the collector market.