Rescue Bots Optimus Prime

"Cuteness is the right of all sentient beings"

I first spotted this Transformers Rescue Bots Optimus Prime figurine over at Battlegrip. Non-transforming and possessing limited articulation but as cute as all hell, this small almost Imaginext sized Autobot is a must have for any G1 Optimus Prime fan!

Newly released by Hasbro and Playskool as part of their Playskool Heroes Rescue Bots series, what I didn't realize until I found mine is that he is available individually bagged, (the set shown at Battlegrip includes a useless-to-me human figurine.)

I found this guy at Toys R Us last night. Bagged (but not 'blind-bagged,' you can see the figure right through the front window!) each bagged figure cost $2.99.

Chase the Police-Bot, Heatwave the Fire-Bot, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee are all part of this release. They're all cute but only Optimus Prime had to go home with me. If Bumblebee looked more G1 than Bayformer, I'd have grabbed him too. Here's hoping for more classic characters in the future!

Prime is articulated at the neck, 2 points at each shoulder, and one point for both legs (they move in unison.) He also has a wrist joint at his hand and saw-blade.

The saw-blade is very cool, giving Prime a weapon/tool without creating a separate piece for little kids to lose. At first I thought I might be disappointed in the saw/lack of a gun/left fist, but it has grown on me and I actually think it's a super cool weapon - especially in case of a zombie outbreak...

"Lock and load and prepare to roll-out!"

Here's Prime with Double-Barrel Carol to give you an idea of his size, and to serve as a portent of things to come!

To be continued...

SLUG Zombies Velma Dinkley...I mean 'Double-Barrel Carol.'

I haven't been collecting Jakks Pacific's SLUG Zombie minifigures, but I have to admit that they are pretty neat looking. What appeals to me the most as a non/casual collector who generally just looks at them on the toy store shelves are the 'inspired by' figures. They've done everyone from Superman (or should I say 'Bizarro?') to Elvis to Abraham Lincoln to Moe Howard; and the 'normals' or 'Zombie Hunters' are often based on pop culture zombie hunters like Sheriff Rick and Shaun of the Dead, or simply mere pop culture icons like Chuck Norris and Crocodile Dundee (neither of whom fought zombies to my knowledge.)

While perusing the sets at stores and on various blogs, one figure caught my eye in particular: Double-Barrel Carol. She's just awesomely geeky cute, but I had no idea who she was 'supposed' to be so I passed, but always looked over the sets that contained her whenever I was in stores.

Target currently has all their SLUG Zombies sets on clearance, and I was lucky enough to find the Series 3 12 figure set that Carol is part of for $4.98 and could pass no longer, especially since I only recently discovered over at That Figures who Double-Barrel Carol's inspiration is:

Velma Dinkley! This piece of Scooby Doo fan art by Travis Pitts has made the internet rounds for a while now. Double-Barrel Carol is so close to this Velma (while being nothing like any other zombie hunter of pop culture fame) that she simply must have been inspired by this piece. Which makes her even more awesome than without a reference source, if that's at all possible!

While not an exact duplicate, the translation is close enough for me to imagine Velma fighting off the rest of my 12 pack Zombie horde, and that's worth every penny of the $4.98 I spent for these guys. Not to mention the fact that I just wrote the synopsis to what would be the greatest film of all time. Make it happen, Hollywood!

"Jinkies!"

Now to find an in scale Scooby Doo figurine!