Happy Halloween everyone! I love this holiday so much but the past couple years I've been too swamped to really celebrate. Or maybe I'm just maturing out of it, who knows. But regardless of my costume status, every year I still get very much in the Halloween mood. I get obsessed with vampy toys, I re-read my favorite creepy comics (like Courtney Crumrin and newcomer Girl from the Other Side), and I watch my classic favorites like Creature from the Black Lagoon or Nightmare Before Christmas. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Elvira at a big Halloween Ball she was hosting in my city. I rarely talk to celebrities because I'm no good at gushing platitudes and prefer to just observe. So yeah, I was the creepy Dracula lurking nearby as she greeted fans and solidified my notions of her being a badass super-talented rockstar. She's just so cool. I'm so happy Funko has jumped on board and produced so many Elvira items recently. Now we just need a Dorbz! Let's check out her Rock Candy below!
UNITING ALL WOMEN OF PLASTIC
Showing posts with label Vinyl Sugar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vinyl Sugar. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 31, 2017
Funko Rock Candy - ELVIRA!
Happy Halloween everyone! I love this holiday so much but the past couple years I've been too swamped to really celebrate. Or maybe I'm just maturing out of it, who knows. But regardless of my costume status, every year I still get very much in the Halloween mood. I get obsessed with vampy toys, I re-read my favorite creepy comics (like Courtney Crumrin and newcomer Girl from the Other Side), and I watch my classic favorites like Creature from the Black Lagoon or Nightmare Before Christmas. A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting Elvira at a big Halloween Ball she was hosting in my city. I rarely talk to celebrities because I'm no good at gushing platitudes and prefer to just observe. So yeah, I was the creepy Dracula lurking nearby as she greeted fans and solidified my notions of her being a badass super-talented rockstar. She's just so cool. I'm so happy Funko has jumped on board and produced so many Elvira items recently. Now we just need a Dorbz! Let's check out her Rock Candy below!
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Marvel Tsum Tsum - WOMEN OF POWER!
I can't say I really understand the Tsum Tsum trend. They started in Japan (of course) as a cute stackable line of plush Disney character collectibles. I always thought they were supposed to be gerbils or something, but apparently they are shaped this way just to be stackable. Either way, between the fact that they were plush, large (7-11"), over-stlyistic (in my opinion), and centered on characters I wasn't interested in collecting, they were just completely off my radar. Then the Marvel characters started and I began to pay attention. But I still wasn't tempted because of the plush thing. Then along comes Jakks with a license to produce small vinyl versions. I honestly wasn't planning to get any until I came across this 9-figure Women of POWer set at Walmart. Getting an instant collection like that was quite an incentive. I actually think I will try to get all the ladies in the collection now that I'm only missing a few. They're pretty cute little additions to my collections. Let's check out the Women of Power below!
Saturday, January 21, 2017
Classic Batman '66 Dorbz - BATGIRL!
I have extremely fond memories of watching Batman (in syndication) in the early 80s. My brothers and I would race home from the park, turn on the tv and sit as close as we could get to the screen (ignoring my father warning about color tv "radiation poisoning"). Anyway, I love all the Batman episodes, but there was a special added excitement when that cartoon of Batgirl swinging in for a kick was inserted into the opening credits. That meant she would star in the episode alongside Batman and Robin. She was only introduced in the final (shortened) third season, so she appears in less than a quarter of the episodes. And if your tv stations were as bizarre as mine and played things out order, then it was always a crap shoot. There are far too few Yvonne Craig Batgirl collectibles out there, so I was super excited to get this Walmart exclusive Dorbz repaint (Now I need a Catwoman though!). They announced a second wave of Pops for 2017 so I know we'll be getting a Batgirl there, too. Let's check out Batgirl below!
Monday, July 25, 2016
Rock Candy - HARLEY QUINN (New 52)!
When DC launched the New 52 back in 2011, I was left with a lot of conflicting emotions. On the positive side, some of my favorites like Barbara Gordon Batgirl, Amethyst, and Hawk & Dove were all making comebacks. But on the negative side were some really unfortunate costume changes. Some, like Poison Ivy's, really grew on me after a while, but this red and blue ill-fitting corset with clown collar and thigh-high socks is just about the most ridiculous outfit I've even seen on Harley. (Yet somehow it looks pretty cute on a Rock Candy). She only wore this in the 2011 Suicide Squad series which lasted about 30 issues and for the first few issues of New Suicide Squad in 2014 before it got phased out in favor of her Rollergirl costume. Funko made some good choices with their Summer Exclusives this year. Neither this costume nor the Purple Catwoman are iconic enough to be absolute must-haves for collectors, but they are really fun if you have the resources to hunt them down. Let's check her out below!
Sunday, July 24, 2016
Rock Candy - CATWOMAN (Purple Suit)!
I've never been a huge fan of the 1990's Purple-suited Jim Balent Catwoman. I didn't like much about superhero comics at all in the 90s and even a favorite character of mine like Selina wasn't an exception. I felt that her constantly gritted teeth, oversized chest, and impractical mane of hair was just silly. The gray catsuit that preceded it and the Darwyn Cooke version that succeeded it were two of my favorites, but the purple one always made me wince. That said, I think this SDCC/Hot Topic exclusive is too cute for words. I'm now a big fan of these Rock Candy figures. They don't really fit in with my collection, but that's never stopped me before - although I'm strictly limiting myself to Bat-family characters for real estate reasons. I expected these SDCC/Summer Exclusives to be impossible to find. But I was able to preorder one for myself easily, and then this afternoon I went into my Hot Topic and they had 5 or 6 of her. Hopefully all my future hunts go so smoothly. Let's check out Catwoman below!
Monday, July 18, 2016
Suicide Squad HARLEY QUINN Dorbz!
Dorbz are one of my favorite new collectibles of the past couple years. The size, character selection and price point are perfect. Plus they scratch a nostalgic itch because of their resemblance to the 1980's Little People. I think the only thing that is going to turn me off will be my inability to keep up with a complete bat-lady collection because of the SDCC exclusive Batman Returns Catwoman Dorbz this year. Nothing makes me give up on a line faster than having impossible-to-obtain "must-haves." I still have dozens of awesome female G.I.Joes, but they've been in storage for years since Hasbro started making the newer figures so impossible to obtain. I really hope Dorbz don't go the same route because they've barely started. This Suicide Squad Harley Dorbz also marks the first time I've been disappointed with the execution of one of these figures. I feel like the eyes and mouth are printed about 1/4" too high on the face. It changes the whole demeanor of the figure in my opinion. Let's check her out below!
Tuesday, June 14, 2016
Rock Candy - HARLEY QUINN!
With all the hype we are already starting to hear about Harley Quinn in the upcoming Suicide Squad movie, I really hope there will still be a presence of the Classic Harley in the merchandising world. I think there will be. Between this Rock Candy figure and the recent 12" Mattel Harley, I think the popularity of Dr. Quinzel is already creating many ripples throughout the collectible world. This Harley Quinn Rock Candy figure is pretty adorable. I'm really digging the style of these figures and I'm really hoping we get more. A movie version of Harley is probably a given, but I also think Poison Ivy and a couple versions of Catwoman are highly likely. Who knows, even less popular Bat-ladies like Huntress and Batwoman could enter the mix. I'd buy them all honestly. I've seen these figures at the variety of prices, but they're usually just under the ten dollar mark. Funko definitely has a knack for producing inexpensive but high quality products. Let's check out this classic Harley Quinn vinyl figure below!
Monday, June 13, 2016
Rock Candy - BATGIRL (CLASSIC)!
Batgirl's classic look is one of the most nostalgic costumes for me in all of comicdom. In the late eighties I lived in a small town with three thriving comic shops and even a baseball card shop with a few long boxes of back issues in the corner. In all my hours spent flipping through backissues, my biggest treasures were always old copies of Batman Family. These comics were about 50 pages each (a major bargain in dollar bins!) and included original stories as well as reprinted silver age stories. As the name Family in the title suggests, these stories all seemed to feature the secondary characters in the Batman universe. This version of Batgirl was a major presence in these issues and I was smitten over her. Of course, in the present-day comics on the the same time, Batgirl was being crippled by the Joker, so my discovery of her coexisted with my first bouts of nerd rage. Still, my memories are mostly fond ones, and this Rock Candy vinyl figure brings all those nostalgic feelings racing back. Thanks Funko!
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Rock Candy - BATGIRL (BURNSIDE)!
Vinyl Sugar has a lot of interesting product lines in the Funko arsenal. Up until now, the only ones I have been buying are Dorbz, but the Vinyl Vixens were always very tempting to me, basically because the character lineup seems specifically tailored to me. All my favorite Bat-family characters in one female-centric collector line. However, the design of those figures is very off-putting to me. The scale and proportions reminded me of Bratz a little too much. Not to mention the eyes with their creepy sexy gazes (imo). I would always stop and look at these figures in stores but would walk away wishing they were smaller, had more proportionate heads, and looked cuter. I honestly never expected such a product to exist, but then a year later here we have Rock Candy, the smaller, cuter Vinyl Vixens. While this is still not my ideal collectible, I am really excited about this line. I'm especially impressed that the first wave has two distinct Batgirls. Let's check out the first official Burnside Batgirl product below!
Friday, April 22, 2016
Marvel Dorbz - SCARLET WITCH!
Scarlet Witch is one of those characters that I always overlooked in my youth, but that I really love as an adult. I was never a reader of Avengers in the 80s and 90s, but X-men (and Batman) were my jam. I was peripherally aware of Wanda and Pietro as the mutant kids of Magneto in those other books. But I just didn't have the energy to investigate them. I also couldn't stand her outfit. Pink and Red just did not work well together in my young fashion-confused mind. But then sometime in my 20s I realized that I loved monochromatic color schemes and I read House of M and Children's Crusade and realized that Scarlet Witch was an all-around kick-ass character. I think the rest of the world has taken notice, too, because she's received a decent amount of merchandising in the past 10 years. And her role in the Avengers movie franchise has only increased her plastic presence. These Dorbz have really won me over. I only have seven so far, but I see a lot more in my future. Let's check out Wanda below!
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Batman Dorbz Series 1 - POISON IVY!
Poison Ivy is the Batman character that has grown on me the most over the years. When I first started reading Batman comics in the 1980s, I found her kind of annoying and boring. In retrospect though, I think her character was just not well fleshed-out yet. In fact, I did some investigating and I count only 17 comic appearances that entire decade (in the 1990s she had about 80, and it's been escalating ever since). I credit a huge part of her character development to her roles in Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures (and even more mainstream recognition through Uma Thurman's portrayal of her in Batman & Robin). Now she's an A-List villain with a role in every video game, cartoon, and toy line. I love how we all now know her as a complex, disturbed, ruthless character, but we still empathize with her flora-vs-fauna fanaticism. She's quickly become one of my favorites. Plus I'm really excited for her solo mini-seires this January. Let's check out the Poison Ivy Dorbz below!
Saturday, December 5, 2015
Batman Dorbz Series 1 - CATWOMAN!
I'm totally smitten over the Funko/Vinyl Sugar Dorbz line. I was a little iffy when I fist saw them at Toy Fair earlier this year. Sure, they were cute, but I didn't know the price point and wasn't sure if I wanted to take the plunge into a new collectible line. But once I saw the first wave hit the stores this Summer, I knew I would be in trouble. The one saving grace for my wallet and my shelfspace is that I don't know how diverse the line will be. My main four favorite DC characters are already out and I seriously doubt the second-tier players like Huntress and Batwoman are on the agenda. Still, I'm very happy with the selection so far and I'm excited to see what the future holds for this line. I think at the very least we'll see a few more Catwoman variants: Batman '66, Classic purple, etc. I'm glad they started with the modern comic version though, she tends to get left out a lot. The same treatment could also be applied to Harley and Batgirl. Only time will tell. Let's check out the new Dorbz Catwoman below!
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Guardians of the Galaxy Dorbz - NEBULA!
I'm pretty amazed that this is my favorite Nebula collectible from the slew of Guardians of the Galaxy products we've seen in the past year. I love the insane cuteness of the Dorbz style contradicting with her creepy cybernetic head gear. The metal pieces on the left side of her face look positively menacing with that innocent smile. I'm sure once we see a Marvel Legends scale Nebula that that figure will take first place, but in the meantime this creepy little lady takes the cake. Hopefully she'll play a role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 due out in 2017 because she's definitely a cool enough character to warrant more toys. I would love to see her in Hasbro's (already established) 2.5", 3.75" and 6" scales. I know it's a pipe dream unless she plays a major character in the sequel, but my fingers are crossed nonetheless. We all need more blue-skinned evil ladies on our shelves. Let's check out the Guardians of the Galaxy Nebula Dorbz in detail below!
Monday, July 20, 2015
Guardians of the Galaxy Dorbz - GAMORA!
I'm running out of things to say about Guardians of the Galaxy. One thing is for certain through, Marvel definitely has another unlikely female superhero to merchandise out the wazoo. People forget how much of a random choice Black Widow was for the Avengers roster. Sure, she had a legitimate place on the team, but she was far from the obvious choice for the sole female. Spider-Woman, She-Hulk, Wasp, or Scarlet Witch were much more prominent (and more super-powered) Avengers who were passed over for the role. But everyone loved her on the big screen and now she's one of the most merchandised Marvel ladies ever. Gamora (and the entire GOTG team for that matter) was a very unlikely candidate for inclusion into the Marvel cinematic universe. But the success of the film has been undeniable and there are plenty of green-skinned beauties on the shelves to prove it. Plus I'm sure we'll see another wave in 2017 when the sequel is released. I think it's inevitable. Let's check out her Dorbz below!
Tuesday, July 7, 2015
Batman Dorbz Series 1 - HARLEY QUINN!
I had an embarrassingly delayed realization that Dorbz is the current hip vernacular for adorable. I'm neither hip nor young nor internet savvy so that is my excuse. I like to pretend I'm young, but the moment some new verbal trend emerges my facade crumbles. So, yeah, forgive any previous "Dorbz are adorable!" repetitiveness. I get it now. I'm really excited about the future of this line. The simple designs and minimal decos lend themselves to a great collector line. I foresee a wide selection of characters and variations on the shelves in the next few years. There have been statements made that these won't see wide distribution like other Funko products, so hopefully the sales will be enough to bring future waves. So far I've only seen them at Hot Topic and FYE record stores. If anyone sees them elsewhere, let me know where I should be hunting. I'm expecting they'll show up at Barnes & Noble and Comic Shops eventually. (Poison Ivy and Catwoman should be out shortly!) Let's check out Harley below!
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Batman Dorbz Series 1 - BATGIRL!
I think Dorbz are going to be a major problem for me. In the past week I've bought four of these cute little figures and I'm sure there will be more in my future. When these figures were first teased before Toy Fair this Winter, I was apprehensive about their size and cost. The Vinyl Vixens series turned me off a bit when I saw how large and pricey they were. And these Dorbz had the potential for the same disappointments. Then at Toy Fair I saw the size first hand and I really liked it. They stand about 3/4" shorter than a POP figure with heads just slightly larger than a golf ball. The price was still a mystery to me, but luckily now that they're showing up in stores, I know that they're anywhere from 8 bucks (DC ones at my record store) to 10 bucks (Guardians of the Galaxy at Hot Topic). So, yeah, I'm hooked. I'm excited for the upcoming Catwoman and Poison Ivy (as well as Mystique and Scarlet Witch). And I'm predicting tons of variants. Black-suited and '66 TV style Batgirls will be a welcome addition. Bring them on!
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Friday, January 30, 2015
Funko's Vinyl Vixens HARLEY QUINN Released!
This figure was a surprise to see in stores before Toy Fair A few months ago, I noticed a pinned post on a Funko forum asking people not to discuss or post pictures of the Vinyl Vixens before they were officially announced. I was clueless so of course I googled it and found these really cool glam shots of Catwoman, Harley, and Ivy in a new style from Funko. Then I hadn't heard anything until this morning when one popped up in my eBay feed with that little telltale "Hot Topic Exclusive Pre-Release" sticker. I hopped over to my local Hot Topic and sure enough they had three right on top of the new Harley display. I'm a little shocked at myself because I left the store empty-handed after some serious mental anguish. I love Harley. I love Harley even more when she's with Catwoman and Ivy. However, there were a couple aspects of this figure I was unprepared for (which turned me off). I'm still amazed that I overcame my temptation and made a rational collecting decision. I guess I'm growing up (a little).
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