Tag Archives: keychain

#0405: Footbot

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

FOOTBOT

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MINIMATES

Time for part two of my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates reviews. I have to admit, after the Comic Turtles last week, I kinda figured I’d be taking a break from TMNT. It’s not like they make up a particularly large portion of my collection. But, alas, Diamond had other plans. I can’t turn down Minimates, right? Today, I’ll be looking at one of the Turtles’ foes, the Footbot.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Footbot is a variant of the Foot Ninja, which is the quintessential TMNT army builder. He was released in the first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates. This figure is specifically from the K-Mart Blind Bag assortment, which means he’s got one extra piece to differentiate him. The Footbot is about 2 ½ inches tall and he features 20 points of articulation (those extra arms sure do help!). He’s based on the character’s design from the current cartoon. The figure is built on the standard Minimate body with non-standard upper arms, upper legs, and hand attachments, as well as an add-on belt piece with two duplicate arms attached. All of the sculpted parts are new to this figure (though the upper arms and legs are shared with the standard Foot Ninja) and they all work very nicely. Each of the hand attachments is different, which certainly adds some variety. Where the paint on Raphael was a bit of a disappointment, the paint on the Footbot is nothing short of exceptional. There’s plenty of detail work, and all of the lines are clean and crisp. The eyes in particular are a fantastic example of conveying dimension through creative paint. The Footbot includes a sword, a sheath and strap, and a spare set of hands, allowing him to be converted into a standard Foot Ninja, as well as a clear display stand and the K-Mart exclusive-ish keychain attachment.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like Raph, the Footbot was purchased from K-Mart. He’s actually the only one I knew I was getting ahead of time, as the package was slightly opened. If I’m honest, he’s my favorite figure in the series by far, and he may very well be one of my favorite Minimates, period. About the only downside of this figure is that the extra pieces kind of make the normal Foot Soldier redundant, but I’m hardly complaining!

#0404: Raphael

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

RAPHAEL

TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES MINIMATES

I think it’s safe to say that Minimates, as a brand, is on the rise. I know, it’s my favorite line, and there’s bias and everything, but really, I think they’re moving up. Diamond is pretty consistently picking up new licenses and they’ve really started to diversify and find ways to reach new audiences.  Sometimes, this goes beyond just new licenses and extends to how these figures are distributed. It seems that a number of retailers requested the blind-packaging method, similar to how the current LEGO Minifigures line is handled. I’m not a huge fan of the concept, but as long as they don’t go overboard with insane case pack-outs, it’s not the worst thing to happen to the line. The first license to have this method of distribution applied to it is the newly launched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Raphael is part of the first series of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Minimates blind bags. This figure is specifically from the K-Mart assortment, which means he has an extra accessory, but otherwise he’ll be the same as other releases. Raph is just under 2 ½ inches tall and features 12 points of articulation. This figure, like all the others in this line, is based on the character’s appearance in the current Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon. Raph uses the basic Minimate body as a starting point, with non-standard pieces for the lower arms, hands, lower legs, and head, as well as an add-on for his shell. The hands, arms and legs are new to this series of figures, and they are shared amongst the four turtles. They’re pretty well done, and they make the figure adequately unique looking. The head is done in three parts, with the upper and lower most parts also being shared with the other turtles and the middle mask pice being exclusive to Raph. The construction of the heads allows for the mask to be a three dimensional piece, without any worries of it slipping down the head if it’s too loose. The last piece is the shell, which is also unique to Raph. It’s well sculpted, and it even has slots on the back for storage of his Sai. It would have been better if the crack in the front had been sculpted, but otherwise the shell is nice. What’s not quite as nice is the figure’s paint. It’s not horrible, mind you, and the detail lines used for the eyes and mouth are actually very clean. The problem is that the base paint work is really only placed in the general area of where it should be. There’s a lot of slop and bleed over, and many hard cuts aren’t a straight as they should be.  Raphael includes his twin Sai blades (brand new to this figure) and a display stand painted up like a manhole cover, which is actually really cool. The K-Mart version also includes an extra keychain attachment. All you have to do is pop off the figure’s head, and voila, instant keychain.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Raphael was purchased along with several other blind bag figures from K-Mart. K-Mart isn’t my favorite place to go, but I ended up having some time to kill a few weekends ago, and K-Mart was close by. They had a strip of blind bag figures, so I went ahead and grabbed all they had. Out of the 11 I got, two ended up being this guy. He’s a pretty fun figure, even if he isn’t perfect.

Guest Review #0010: Wheatley and Turret

Posted by Christian Wilson in Guest Reviews and tagged with , ,

WHEATLEY AND TURRET

PORTAL 2

Wheatley1 Turret

HA! I knew someone was alive in there! Welcome back, everybody, to the final review of action figures in the Portal 2 series. It is a sad day, BUT also a great one! Today, I will be reviewing the small ones in the bunch, the Aperture Science Turret™ and the cuddly Wheatley (Pre-Machiavellian Transformation)!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

TURRET

TerretWilsonUp first is the Aperture Science Turret™ from NECA. These figure reviews have been released in order in which I received them, but since I got Wheatley the day of this review’s inception, Big Brother gave me the OK to do a review of both of them together. And since I got the Turret first (Or at the Same Time as Chell, because they were a joined birthday gift from Big Brother) he is up to be reviewed first!

Like I said before, this Turret is from the great minds at NECA! Many different incarnations of the Turret from Portal 2 have been made by other manufacturers, but this one is the cheapest, but one of the hardest to get. The Turrets were released in two waves (Open Turrets and Closed Turrets) with twelve different styles (The same styles, but, again, OPEN AND CLOSED). Here’s the catch though. You couldn’t buy what you wanted! You could buy either from wave one (closed) or wave Two (open), but they were bought at random for $6. This process of random figure buying is known as blind-boxing. This particular Turret is the plain, white, closed Turret from the 1st Wave of the Blind Box Turrets. This figure has NO articulation, but it doesn’t need any as, in the game, the Turrets can’t move on their own (except for their eyes, but that would be a very unnecessary and difficult articulation point). The paint job is perfect EXCEPT for the eye which has a little red run-off. Overall, for $6, this is a really great addition to my Portal 2 action figures and is really cool to pose and do stuff with.

WHEATLEY

WheatleyWilsonThis handsome son-of-a-gun is actually a KEYCHAIN/FLASHLIGHT. Yep. But he is in scale. So I bought him. DONE. In all seriousness, this is a VERY well-crafted figure. So here it goes.

Wheatley is an “intelligence” core that tries to help Chell escape from Aperture Science Laboratories in the video game Portal 2.  (SPOILERS AHEAD!!!) He later becomes the game’s second main antagonist and takes control of the facility only to be cast out into space. (SPOILERS OVER!!!) This figure was manufactured by ThinkGeek and retails for $8-10, but I snagged him for $6. Something about the number 6 is very relevant in Portal 2 Action FIgures….

This figure has an astounding 2 POINTS OF ARTICULATION and a blue LED Light for an eye. This figure also, like I said, acts as a keychain and a flashlight. Unlike the other characters in the Portal 2 series with LED Lights, Wheatley’s (because it is a flashlight) is VERY bright, as you can see below. The paint job is great and I can’t notice any blemishes. I really like this figure as a figure, but I wish there was an easier way to remove the keychain part.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I received these figures at different times. I got the Turret with Chell as a birthday gift from Big Bro and Wheatley off of ThinkGeek. I’ve wanted figures of both these characters for a long time and it is great to finally have them in my hands, EVEN WHEN THEY HAVE A GOSH DARN KEYCHAIN!!!