A few weeks ago I trudged nine blocks through a foot of snow to visit Barnes & Noble and pick up the YA Graphic Novel Snowlands (I was impressed by the art at the NYCC Scholastic booth and marked the release date on my calendar. Then when the snow fell I thought I needed a new winter-themed book to read). Surprisingly, the store was crowded. But that meant I was stuck in the line for a while where I noticed this fantastic Bumblebee Girl LED Keyring hanging on a low peg in the impulse-buy gift section lining the checkout area. I've been obsessed with Lego minifigures featuring animal costumes for years. Plus I love bumblebee-themed ladies. And finally, I'm very fond of these 3" light-up keychains. I always stumble across them in odd places like museum giftshops, bookstores, or truckstops and they appeal to me greatly. I know it's an odd novelty item to post about here, but she hits a few key facets of my collecting experience so I'm making an exception. Let's check out Bumblebee Girl below!
UNITING ALL WOMEN OF PLASTIC
Showing posts with label Novelty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Novelty. Show all posts
Thursday, March 5, 2026
Sunday, March 23, 2025
Lego LED Keychains - BATGIRL & HARLEY QUINN(S)!
I have several things going on in my life right now. Firstly, I'm on sabbatical and have ample free time for the next month. Secondly, I have a new computer and I'm struggling with all sorts of software and operating system issues. And thirdly, I have been focusing on finishing long-outstanding unfinished art projects and also reorganizing my toy room. The larger effects of all these events is that I will have less time for blog posts this month and the posts I do make will likely be products and photos from 5+ years ago that were never finalized (I have quite a backlog). This post features the latest three Lego LED Lites featuring the Gotham Girls. I've always loves Legos, but collecting minifigures is a who different genre from my norm that I find intimidating. But these larger 3" figures appeal to me greatly. The larger scale lets them blend in with my traditional action figures much better. And the limited character selection is actually obtainable. That said, it's been eight years and I'm ready for more. Let's check them out below!
Tuesday, December 12, 2023
Youngblood Bendems - VOGUE & RIPTIDE!
The news this week that LooseCollector will be producing action figures from Rob Liefeld's Extreme Universe has me very excited. In the late 80s and early 90s I was a huge fan of Rob Liefeld. His work on Hawk & Dove, X-Factor, New Mutants, and X-Force is some of the most nostalgic comic art of my adolescence. (I still read both his Hawk & Dove runs every few years). When the Image exodus happened in 1992, I was immediately obsessed with Youngblood. The characters were colorful and seemingly pulled inspiration from every trendy comic trope at the time, but with that signature Liefeld flare that embodied the era. The issues were beautiful, but sparse. The release schedule was very slow and the story was forgettable, but the character design and lore of this world still has my attention 30 years later. I have always wanted true action figures. Previous attempts have been almost entirely male-centric. Hopefully the Extreme Universe includes Youngblood or some other costumed heroines.
Thursday, January 19, 2023
BendyFigs - HARLEY QUINN!
With all the popularity of Harley Quinn in the last decade, keeping up with her merchandising can be an unsurmountable task. There are so many versions of her costume now it's hard to keep track. Even this Bendyfig line from The Noble Collection has three very different Harleys in production. One positive side-effect of oversaturation though is that it forced me to pick a favorite look. And that is without a doubt her original jester costume. I didn't watch any of the Batman cartoons in the 90s so I was pretty unaware of her charms until I started reading her first solo comic series from 2000. Needless to say I was hooked. She was quirky, dangerous, unpredictable, and all-around fun. Plus I give her major credit for re-introducing me to Poison Ivy, who was a character I was very lukewarm about from her comic appearances in the 70s and 80s (but is now one of my favorites). This Bendyfig was my first classic Harley product in a long time. Let's check her out below!
Wednesday, January 18, 2023
BendyFigs - BATGIRL!
I find it very interesting that the "Burnside Batgirl" design has seemingly taken over as the evergreen version of Batgirl. It makes sense since it's a very utilitarian costume with clothing components that are believable for a young hero to have acquired. Plus it has all the classic Batgirl trademarks: Bat-cowl, red hair, height yellow bat symbol, and of course bright boots and gloves. What isn't always so standardized (but much appreciated) is the purple-hued color palette. We first saw Batgirl in purple in the 1966 Batman TV show, but then we didn't see Barbara wearing the color until The Batman in 2004 followed by the 2011 Batgirl comic reboot (and that was only a purple cape). But since then, the majority of her costumes have incorporated the color and I'm very happy. I like pretty much all Batgirl's costumes over the years, but I always prefer things on the colorful side. I don't normal buy bendy figures, but I somehow always end up buying these the Noble Collection Bendyfigs. Let's check out Batgirl below.
Monday, August 1, 2022
BendyFigs - LT. UHURA!
I was very saddened to hear about the passing of Nichelle Nichols yesterday at the age of 89. When I think about iconic television women from my youth, she is right up there in the top (despite me never being a real Trekkie). My brothers and I had a weekly tradition of watching Star Trek on PBS every Saturday Night while staying up to for Saturday Night Live. But oftentimes when SNL would come on at 11:30, we would be too engrossed in the dilemmas of the Enterprise crew to turn the dial. Lieutenant Nyota Uhura was the communications officer on the bridge and I found myself fixated on her all the time. She was always calm and competent amid the perpetual chaos of the Enterprise missions, and her overall presence was just magnetic and comforting. I was a kid watching this in syndication in the 80s, so I had no idea of the cultural impact she had on the 1960's viewing audience. It was a huge ordeal to get a female character on the bridge at all, let alone a woman of color. It's was a different time.
Wednesday, June 29, 2022
BendyFigs - CATWOMAN!
For the past few years I've been noticing this great new series of bendy figures from Noble Toys at places like Barnes & Noble or the electronics section of Walmart. Ten years ago I would have completely ignored these with a "these aren't even action figures" snub. But then I discovered two great characters who were only available in bendy form (yet could still fit in to my collection nicely with the aide of a figure stand): Inque and Angel Jones. Quickly followed by my discovery of NJCroce and their irresistible bendies of Batman '66 and BTAS. So suddenly I wasn't such a snob. Until recently, I only saw these BendyFigs for movie tie-in product. Their Wonder Woman 84 and Suicide Squad figures in particular always caught my attention. The quality and scale was a noticeable improvement over past bendy lines, but I didn't find the movie licenses tempting until this comic-style Catwoman. It's an iconic look at this point but gets almost no merchandise. Let's check out Catwoman below!
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Real Life Action figures - RBG!
It's very difficult keeping this blog apolitical considering that women in a male-dominated arena is a strong political message in itself. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was a prime real-world example of just that. As the second female US Supreme Court Justice ever (after Sandra Day O'Connor), she spearheaded many advancements against gender discrimination and toward gender equality (among many other notable achievements). I found this action figure a few months ago while on vacation. It was in a beachside candy shop among a slew of other "novelty" toys. I thought for a second it was going to have a cheap "boxing nun" gimmick or something, but no, it's actually quite well produced and clearly done with respect and love. The articulated elbows and great face sculpt sold me and I was excited to bring her home. I was at the gym yesterday when the news of her passing hit. I saw her picture popping up on all the TVs one-by-one and knew immediately what had happened. What a sad day.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Pin-Mates SPIDER-LADIES and BAT-LADIES!
I'm kind of obsessed with these Pin-Mate figures from Bif Bang Pow! Throughout my childhood my home was littered with Fisher-Price Little People. My siblings and I had a ton. We had really old wooden ones and more modern plastic ones. But they were all in the simple peg-style of the time (not like the chubby vinyl things the line has morphed into now). And when we wanted to add more characters to our playsets, we would decorate one-piece wooden clothespins with markers and crayons to add to our ranks. When I first saw these PinMates, I half loved them and half hated them. But after I picked up a few and they continued to roll out cool characters, I'm definitely a fan. I have a handful of Bat-Ladies and Spider-Ladies, and now I want more. I've skipped a few cool movie-based characters (like Gamora, Nebula, Mantis, Hela, and Suicide Squad Harley Quinn) because I dig the retro and comic styles a lot more. But now I want Silk, Anya Corazon, Huntress, Poison Ivy, and a ton of others. Let's check them out below!
Monday, October 9, 2017
Bath Squirter - SPIDER-GWEN!
This is a pretty silly review to post, but I bought this random novelty item at Walgreens several weeks ago (I'm hunting at Walgreens daily these days) and I'm kind of obsessed with it. Walgreens has been known to carry lots of interesting exclusive action figures in the collecting world (Marvel Legends, Walking Dead, Power Rangers, PEZ, Star Wars, and every kind of Funko Product ...to name just a few), but they also carry an abundance of pop culture novelty items. This most recent purchase of mine is a pack of 5 rubber Spider-Man rubber bath squirters. My excitement of course came from the inclusion of Spider-Gwen. And while I'm certainly not taking a bath with her anytime soon (or who knows.. maybe pics coming soon?) I find that she fits in very well with my non-action-figure collection of Pops, Metals, Vinyls, etc. I also used to have quite a collection of rubber duckies when I was younger so this is an interesting merging of two hobbies for me. Let's check out Spider-Gwen below!
Monday, July 24, 2017
Strange Friends - MAGGIE SQUIRREL!
I've always had a fondness for Accoutrements toys. When I first moved to my city from the boonies 15 years ago, there was a real boom of novelty gift shops happening. I swear there were greeting card and souvenir shops on every corner and all these shops had an assortment of Accoutrements products. The big action figures at the time were the Avenging Unicorn sets and all the quirky historic figures like Edgar Allen Poe, Jesus, and Jane Austen. I highly enjoyed them all, but the only ones I ever purchased were the historic ladies. Then recently I was checking out Archie McPhee (the website for Accoutrements) and saw these amazing Strange Friends figures. This is the same company that makes the rubber animal masks (that are all the rage these days), so these toys are a perfect cross-marketing scheme. I also have a serious obsession with animal-headed humans. My own art involves a lot of this imagery, so naturally this Maggie figure needed to be mine. Let's check out the Strange Friends below!
Friday, July 14, 2017
World's Smallest BARBIES!
I come from a family of collectors. My Dad Collects Coins and Bank Notes, My Mom and sister collect dolls, my younger brother collects Peanuts and Classic TV, and my older brother is into Star Wars and Rock and Roll. (I put them all to shame though with my myriad of collecting obsessions. I only dwell on the action figures here, but I have an abundance of unrelated collections active right now. But I digress). This past Christmas I was back home and my Mom was sharing her newest obsession, World's Smallest. For those unaware, World's Smallest is a line of tiny collectible miniatures of classic toys. She had a handful of nostalgic Fisher-Price toys, each about the size of a quarter, and we were all very enthralled and ready to all start our own collections. Since that first exposure I see them everywhere: Toys R Us, Target, Cracker Barrel, and every little novelty store I come across. There are even blind boxes at Claires! But I wasn't too tempted to buy any until I saw these two Barbies in TRU a few weeks ago.
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
DC Comics Bombshells Keychain - HARLEY QUINN!
Check out this tiny little beauty! It's amazing how much detail they can cram into a 3" tall keychain these days. If these existed in my school days, I totally would have been one of those kids with a tricked out backpack that jingled and rattled as I sprinted late to every class (tardiness is forever one of my biggest flaws). These keychains from Elephant Gun are amazing to me. I really enjoy Ant Lucia's DC Bombshells designs. I have an affinity for pin-up art, and regular readers will know I'm gaga over my DC ladies. So this property seems like a perfect fit for me. However, I never even considered buying the Bombshells statues due to price and lack of display space. I have kind of made it a habit to ignore anything related to the Bombshells during the past three years for just those reasons. However, these tiny keychain versions are well within my budget and they can easily squeeze into any of my shelf displays. I'm very excited to buy them all as they come out. Let's check out Bombshell Harley below!
Friday, January 22, 2016
PEZ Batman v Superman - WONDER WOMAN!
I'm a collector of many many things. I usually just tell people that I collect hobbies. My first collection of things that I paid for (ie.. not rocks or bugs) was PEZ dispensers. I started when I was in middle school by buying a Smurf dispenser for 79 cents at a drug store in the mall. In a matter of months I had a line of them on the windowsill by my bed. Skip forward 25 years and I have a little over a thousand with custom display cases. I'm still really into them, but I stopped being a completist about 10 years ago. I still buy almost every new dispenser I see, but I don't go crazy with exclusives, chases, and foreign releases any more. It's pretty rare when two of my hobbies overlap, but when they do I get very exited. Just like every other plastic medium, female characters often get unfairly left out out of the mix. Sure, there are lots of girl-centric lines like Princesses, Barbie, My Little Pony, etc. But the girl characters in most of the other licenses never see the light of day. Let's check out Wonder Woman below!
Saturday, January 16, 2016
Arkham Knight Figural Keychain - HARLEY QUINN!
These new figural keychains from Elephant Gun are going to be a fun new obsession of mine. I knew they were on the horizon but didn't realize how nice they would be until I saw them in person at Hot Topic last week. The detail in the sculpt and paint apps is pretty impressive. Elephant Gun has historically been known for amazingly geeky car decals. I you want a superhero family lined up on the rear window of your minvan, Elephant Gun is the place to go. I'm especially excited about the DC Bombshells series of keychains that are already starting to trickle out. I'm not a big enough fan of the Bombshells design to splurge on a statue, but for a 3" tall little figurine I'll gladly accept them into my collection. This Harley is smaller than an Eaglemoss, but larger than Heroclix. It's an interesting size. Last year at Toy Fair NY they showed off some product in the Wonderland Toy Co booth so hopefully I'll find some new goodies on display next month. Hopefully a Catwoman and Poison Ivy in this style at the very least.
Tuesday, January 5, 2016
Lego Flashlight HARLEY QUINN Keychain!
It's pretty cool how the digital age has affected the toy world. The fact that we can have a perfectly enlarged Lego minifigure is a very cool feat. We see this pantogprahing technique used in very expensive ways with the jumbo Star Wars, He-Man, and GI Joes, but I think it's best used in fun novelty products like this Lego flashlight keychain. The first Lego keychain I bought was Catwoman who I stumbled across in a museum giftshop not knowing that she existed. This Harley however has been on my radar forever. I think I first caught wind of her over a year ago, but only first saw her last week in my local FYE record shop. I highly doubt they'll ever make a Poison Ivy flashlight, so I think my next (more realistic) wish is for a Harley Quinn or Catwoman Lego clock. That would make for such an interesting scale display. (I'm surprised someone hasn't posted any pictures of the Lego Wonder Woman clock/flashlight/minifigure comparison). Let's check out the Lego Harley Flashlight in detail below!
Monday, January 4, 2016
The New Batman Adventures - Bendie POISON IVY!
It's such a good feeling as a collector when you feel like you've completed a set. A constant trio of characters I'm always trying to a assemble is Catwoman, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy. When these characters came together in the cartoons and comics, it was just instant magic. Their personalities blend and clash in an entertaining and addictive ways and toys of any single one of them just seem incomplete unless you can get all three. Luckily most toy companies seem to feel this way as well. Lego, Mez-Itz, Funko Pop, Imaginext, and even Polly Pockets have all made the effort to complete the group. Now NJ Croce has joined the fray with this Poison Ivy bendie. I know Catwoman was released at the same time, but she was likely to be produced no matter what. Ivy is almost always the odd woman out, so her inclusion in a toy line is always a reason to cheer. Although bendies are usually not on the radar of collectors, I think these figures should not be overlooked. Let's check out Poison Ivy below!
Sunday, January 3, 2016
The New Batman Adventures - Bendie CATWOMAN!
I'm becoming a huge fan of these NJ Croce Bendie figures recently. The character selection is fantastic, the prices are reasonable, and the sculpts are spot-on. The only problem is that they aren't actually action figures. I've never owned any bendie figures until a few years ago so I don't know what to expect from this medium. My paranoid imagination foresees them crackling, melting, discoloring, or becoming sticky for no discernible reason. But those random anxieties have proven to be baseless. I now have 8 bendies displayed with little Kaiser doll stands and they all seem perfectly fine mingling with the action figures on my Ikea bookshelves. I'm excited to see what future characters they'll show at Toy Fair. I'm thinking that they'll probably delve into the Arkham video games series next, but secretly my biggest wish is for a companion "Good Girls" box with Batwoman, Huntress, Batgirl, etc. (The Mystery of the Batwoman design is sorely absent from all merchandising). Let's check out the Catwoman below!
Saturday, July 11, 2015
The New Batman Adventures - Bendable HARLEY!
Bendies bendies bendies. I'm becoming inundated with these little amorphous beauties. About an hour ago I was showing my collection room to a very excitable five year old and her favorite thing by far was the Batgirl '66 bendie (that I reviewed last month) -- "because it's the sparkliest." I would add that a major factor in her choice was probably its placement at her eye level, but that's just nitpicking. It is a stunning little figure. A few years ago I would have never ever considered including bendable figures in my collection, but the quality and character selection of these recent NJ Croce figures has completely changed my tune. I'm greatly looking forward to adding more of these ladies in the coming years. Animated Poison Ivy and Catwoman are the logical next contenders, but I'd buy pretty much anything honestly. This Harley is a nice placeholder for the upcoming BTAS figure from DCC. I'm dying to compare these two when she finally comes out. Let's check out this bendable Harley below!
Sunday, July 5, 2015
UNKL DC Comics Heroes & Villains - HARLEY QUINN!
My Harley Quinn collectibles hobby has been booming lately. It seems like every time I head into my comic shop or Hot Topic there is another little red and black jester taunting me. I first saw this UNKL Harley Quinn a few years ago in the Toynami booth at ToyFair 2013. For me it was an easy pass. I thought these figures looked like a bizarre cross of Funko Pop and Mighty Muggs with the facial stylings of Beavis & Butthead. Then I waited for her to show up in stores (just to solidify my criticisms in person). She never appeared. The preorder dates on websites kept being bumped later and later. I started getting mildly obsessed with finding her. Then finally a couple weeks ago I was picking up a few Dorbz at Hot Topic and I saw the UNKL blind boxes. There was a sale. It was destiny. I bought one with fingers crossed. It was my lovely Harleen. Now I'm kind of obsessed with this odd little addition to my collection. She's definitely ugly, but in a quirky way that I can get down with. Let's check her out in detail below!
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