Category: ToyBox

As has probably been painfully apparent lately, I really off of the sci-fiaction figure collecting bandwagon in 2008, largely thanks to Doctor Who. (Hey, there are worse hobbies/habits to have, and in all likelihood there are less expensive and more “mature” ones too. At least my practice run for a midlife crisis involves little bits of plastic.) Now it’s looking like next year’s Star Trek movie is going to make 2009 a hell of a year to have fallen off the wagon. … Read more

More visual experimentation and general-messing-around associated with this post. … Read more

If you have any strenuous objections to Doctor Who or an incredibly silly bit of creative geeking-out, best not to click this link: … Read more

In case the Screaming Angel in the previous post didn’t tip anybody off, I actually opened a few action figures that have been piled up in a corner of my room tonight. Much like I’m the antithesis of a game collector who has to have all of his Atari cartridges in the box and in the shrinkwrap (never mind the fact that the shrinkwrap will eventually damage the box), I’m the antithesis of the toy collector: I open the bloody things and put them on a shelf. I just don’t have the room to keep the original packaging around anymore, except in very special cases or the very, very small handful of dupes I own. So out they come.

The odd mention of a stack of still-packaged figures in the corner, however, is a particular quirk of mine: I keep a few of my latest acquisitions in their packaging for a rainy day. As silly as it sounds for someone who’s a couple of weeks away from being 36, one of the greatest joys of my childhood, and still a guilty pleasure now, was cracking little Star Wars guys off of the card and out of the bubble. I’ve found that having a couple of these around, waiting to be opened, is a nice tonic for my soul when I’ve been down in the dumps.

But man, have things changed since Star Wars was in the theaters. There’s no more “just tear the bubble off the backing” anymore. Now the bubble has two components: the front (the outside) and the back, which is molded to hold that specific figure plus whatever goodies come with it. And these days, more often than not, it takes either a machete or an act of Congress to get the figure out of the package. Or every member of Congress wielding a machete. All the better to cut all those flippin’ plastic twisties with, my dear.

It’s my understanding that these are seen as an anti-shoplifting measure – as easy as it was in the old days to break a new figure out of the bubble at home, it was also that easy to do it in the store, leave the card and the empty bubble on the peg, and slip the figure into one’s pocket. Obviously, that’s less likely to happen with 6+ plastic twisties restraining the figure like it’s a wild animal on an operating table. But it annoys me to no end when I’ve bought the thing and I can’t even set it free. Makes me want to suggest something more along the lines of buying a CD – put it in a case that has to be unlocked at the register or something. C’mon, guys. You’re stealing my moment of joy.… Read more

Can you tell I’ve fallen off the wagon with my Doctor Who figure collecting? I suppose there are worse habits to pick up again. You can spare yourself the toy talk by not clicking here. … Read more

…you think you could do me a solid? Character Options is doing a SDCC exclusive Doctor Who “Time Crash” action figure set, featuring what they claim will be the only version of the fifth Doctor sporting celery on his collar. There will only be 3,000 of these two-packs at the event, and proceeds will go to the Children In Need charity, which is kind of appropriate since that’s what “Time Crash” was done for in the first place. If anyone reading this (who I know and trust, that is – people who I don’t know and trust probably couldn’t find anything interesting to read about here anyway) is going, I can paypal you in advance for the figures and of course for shipping ’em to me once you get home. Assuming you don’t get terribly attached to them in between. Which, actually, I could see happening, because how awesome is plastic Davison + his plastic celery?

Now, a bit of funny commentary about this set: the irony of doing a “Time Crash” set in the U.S. is off the scale, because, of course, you haven’t seen “Time Crash” in the U.S. unless you downloaded it. If you want to see some pissed-off Brits, hit up any Who forum and look for the thread about these figures. The British collectors are – quite rightly, in my estimation – furious over this, because while they’re likely to have been the people who donated money during the telethon-style broadcast of which “Time Crash” was one small part, we’re the ones getting the figures. The UK collectors were already up in arms about the wide-release fifth Doctor sporting no celery, so they view this as a slap in the face. Now, the money all going to charity = a good thing, but it seems like someone’s marketing logic is a little askew here. So, my thanks to Character Options for announcing something which has cheered me up a little bit after a craptabulous week, and…I guess…thanks for rewarding us Yanks for…technically speaking…illegally downloading…that little Doctor Who special?

If CO can get permission to legally show TC at the con, that might make marginally more sense. But still, the basic assumption in place is that the target audience has got hold of the thing somehow, by hook or by crook, and knows why the tenth and fifth Doctors would be packaged together. *shrug*

So yeah, if anyone I know is headed for SDCC, hit me up here.

(Sorry if this seems like an awfully trivial thing after all the Othello angst – you can almost hear the mental gears being stripped. If you were to accuse me of trying as hard as I possibly can to find anything to distract myself and snap out of it…well, you’re dangerously close to being right on the money.)… Read more