Out of the Box: Kotobukiya ArtFX Star Wars Poe Dameron & BB-8

Up for today's unboxing is the two figurine set of Star Wars' Poe Dameron and BB-8 from Kotobukiya's ArtFX line.  I've had mixed experiences with Kotobukiya's figurines. I loved the single-piece figure of Tali from Mass Effect from their Bishoujo line but was disappointed by the assembly-required Hawkeye from their Marvel Now line which fell apart within hours of opening it.

I've been cautiously enthusiastic about the Star Wars line: the amount of detail on this figures is impressive, but the fact that they have the same multi-piece construction and magnetic base as my Hawkeye figure worried me.  But then a sale + a gift card overruled my caution and I brought this one home.

The PVC figures are 1/10 scale and are labelled as a "model kit" rather than as a statue or figurine, which I found interesting.  While the Poe figure does require assembly, BB-8's head and body are held together via magnet, which worries me (I can imagine it falling off and getting lost easily).

Discount Shopping Adventures, May 2017

It's been a while since I checked out the local discount chains (in this case Tuesday Morning and Big Lots), so last week I decided to pay them a visit.  I took some photos of the toy aisle offerings and thought I'd share them with you guys!

Doll shelf at Tuesday Morning: Fashion dolls and play doll outfits.

It's May the Fourth...

So it's time for a day of Star Wars puns! Whether they make you smile or make you roll your eyes, I hope you have a good one!

Funko Friday: Rogue One's Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus

Every time I say I'm not going to pick up any more Funko figures I end up eating my words! This time it was the nostalgic Star Wars joy that I got from watching Rogue One that led to my bringing home this pair.

Since these figures are fairly standard POPs I won't be doing a full review, but I did want to share some photos.

The Canadian Tire Wow Catalogue's Toy Section

It's been ages since I've posted now - I'm still staying with my mother as she's recovering from surgery (and thanks to everyone who sent her well-wishes! :)) - I did manage to fit in a holiday in during November (which will soon be highlighted over on Project Evil Bunny), but instead of going home, I cam back to Toronto. And since I'm here, I thought it might be fun to share the toy pages from the annual Canadian Tire Wow Catalogue (90% of which isn't toys, so just a few photos here).  So here they are!

The Front page

May the Fourth Be With You (opening up the Star Wars crochet kit)

My sad attempt at crochet from 2008: Yoda is not impressed

It's May the fourth, which means you can expect a day filled with Star Wars puns!  Rather than inflict more of them upon you, how about we take a closer look at the Star Wars crochet kit that I mentioned in last month's project post? Nothing wrong with two days in a row of project updates, right?

Back in 2008, I actually found a free crochet Yoda pattern online and gave it a try. Unfortunately (probably since I'd never crocheted anything before) I didn't manage to complete it (as I recall, the end result looked more like a tangled blob than anything else).  But since then I've taken a class (although to be honest, the blanket I made for the class assignment was no work of art either), and this time around I have a book that promises step-by-step instructions.

I haven't gotten very far with it yet, but let's take a closer look at the kit itself, shall we?

Retro Week: E.T. in a Snow Speeder

I'm in Toronto this week and as usual, that means I'm posting less than usual, but I also have access to my mother's basement full of toys.  So to give you a taste of what's to come, here's an ET mini figure riding in a Star Wars: Empire Strikes Back Snow Speeder.

In the Box: Wicket the Ewok and Princess Leia (Kenner's Return of the Jedi)

Princess Leia & Wicket the Ewok

A sort post today, but something I still wanted to share.  As it turns out, those die-cast vehicles were not the only still-carded Star Wars toys that my mother somehow managed to find.  She also gave me this pair of figures from  Return of the Jedi: Princess Leia and Wicket (or as the boxes say, "Princess Leia Organa in Combat Poncho" and "Wicket W. Warrick").

As with the vehicles, these still have their original clearance prices ($2.00, reduced from $3.88, which was reduced from $4.69).  Adding to the vintage fun, they're also from a now-closed chain, although it's K-mart this time (K-Mart still exists in the US, but they went out of business in Canada 20 years ago).

The back of the box.

Wicket up-close and personal

As with the vehicles, I'm going to try to find a way to keep these protected but also on display - maybe in a shadow box?  I'm still working on that part...

In the Box: Vehicles from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back Series II

As regular readers will know, I'm not much of an in-box collector, but every now and then an exception pops up, and I think this set of old die-cast Star Wars vehicles from Kenner may be one of them.  I didn't buy them (they're one of my mum's random finds - she brought them along when she visited at Christmas), but I definitely think they're a fun thing to have.

These two vehicles (the Slave I and Twin-Por Cloud Car) are roughly the same length as the height of the action figures of the same vintage, so they're clearly not in scale with those figures even though they're packaged in nearly an identical way to the action figures (although being metal rather than plastic, they are noticeably heavier than any on-card figure is).

The Cloud Car.

Hilariously, they still have their original price tags: $2.47, reduced from $2.80 (at Woolco, which went out of business in Canada in 1994, although I understand that that the chain had disappeared from the US and the UK a decade earlier).

The back of the box.

I'm not 100% certain what I'm going to do with these, although if I can find a way to display them, they may end up on the wall of my guest room/nerd cave.  I've heard there are display boxes for carded toys, maybe I should look into that?  We'll see!

Random Toy of the Day (Mace Windu - SW Black Series) & Daisy Chain Blog Award

I've talked about this size of Star Wars figure before, and this Mace Windu figure is standard for the line, so I'll just show off this photo and leave it at that (he joined the collection when I happened to be browsing for Spiderman figures for my nephew and somehow he jumped into my basket as well ;)).

But on to other things!

A big thanks to Traci of A Wild Review Appears for the Daisy Chain Blog Award Nomination!  It's an answer-some-questions/tag-another-blogger game, and here are my answers to her questions (there's an American Girl focus to these):

1. What's your favorite aspect of doll collecting? 

I think my absolute favourite part of doll collecting is watching how things evolve - both my own collection and the general trends in the toy industry.  But a close second is definitely the community!

2. How do you feel about changing aspects of dolls who have personalities that are pre-set by the company? 
I feel like it's inevitable.  Once a doll comes home, it's hard not to have them become their own character.  It's more immediate for the BJDs (since most of the pre-sets - when there are any - tend to be fairly superficial), but even character dolls like the American Girl historicals end up evolving (although for me, some of that may be a lack of familiarity with those bits of US history - I know next to nothing about 1850s Louisiana, so Cécile evolved into someone else because of that.  Similarly, my Samantha stayed in the same period, but since my perspective on the generation that became adults during WWI is more familiar with the Canadian, Belgian and South African history, my version of the character's future is coloured by that angle.

3. If you could buy just one (AG) doll's entire collection, which doll would it be and why? (retired ones too!)
Samantha's!  I always wanted that wicker table and chair set.  And the brass bed!  And the trunk!

I do have her school desk, and it's one of my favourite pieces of doll furniture - AG or otherwise.  I'm looking forward to seeing what new items come out when she's re-released.

4. Who is your favorite Girl of the Year?
Confession time:  I wasn't following AG's releases from about 2003 - 2012, so I've never actually read any of the GotY material.  That said, I do like the Jess mold in medium-skin, so I'll go with Kanani!

5. Do you collect things besides toys? If so, what, and if not, would you like to?
I own an embarrassingly large number of comics. I'm not a completionist, so I tend to think of myself as a reader more than a collector, but I think once you have more than a couple of longboxes (which I passed years and years ago) that's not a distinction that matters.

I also have a collection of thimbles, although I don't actively acquire them anymore (people who know about it do send me new ones fairly regularly though).

6. What pets do you wish AG would make that they haven't or don't?
Because I'm an egomaniac, I'll say I'd like the pets that I've had - so a California Giant rabbit, a German Shorthair Pointer, and a white Pit Bull with natural ears! ;)

7. Are there any partnerships you wish AG would participate in, for the cool swag/collecting purposes? (AG and Disney, AG and Marvel, etc.)

Don't know the MI:13
characters? This is them.

I'd go with Marvel because I'd love to see an AG-sized MI:13 gear.  Like the Captain Britain costume. And Faiza Hussain's Excalibur gear!  Pete Wisdom's mod suit! The Black Knight's costume!

Of course realistically, if it ever were to happen, they'd probably stick to characters from the Avengers movies.  I can dream though!

8. What's the one question you always hope no one asks you about your toy collection?
"I don't have to replace this if I break it, do I?"

And that's it! Thanks again, Traci - this was fun! In response, I'm tagging Barb the Evil Genuis of My Little Doll Corner.  In a twist on the Q&A, I'll ask you to answer the 8 questions that you wish someone would ask about your doll collection and your doll blog (if you have the time, of course.  No pressure!).

Out of the Box: Star Wars - The Power of the Force Luke & Coin

In the box.

One of the fun things about moving frequently is that unpacking is a little like opening presents while one of the less than fun things is that it's easy for things to get misplaced.  Clearing out my guest room closet this past weekend (which had become a bit of a dumping ground for things that should have gone into storage), I found an example of both of these things.

I have no memory of buying this "The Power of the Force" Luke Skywalker in Endor Gear with Display Coin, and yet here he is. In fact, he's apparently an old enough release that it's entirely possible that he's made every move with me since leaving my mother's house (I suspect that was a gift from some of my old school friends, since they had a habit of buying me Star Wars toys).

The coin.

Luke Skywalker.

In any case, I decided to keep and unbox him.  He's a standard Kenner figure, but the base and coin give him enough presence that it feels like he'd be easier to display than most figures of this size.  I have a decent number of figures in this size range that I've never found a satisfying way to display, but the stand really does make this one feel substantial enough to sit on a shelf on its own.

Return of the Jedi-style Luke on the stand, with a coin