Teen Titans GO! Robin...UNMASKED!!!

"Hello, ladies!"

Mattel recently released a line of Teen Titans GO! minifigures, which are a little bit 'super-deformed' and are also made up of interchangeable parts. They are being sold in multi packs as well as individually in blind bags. I'm not terribly impressed by them (I'm holding out for the Imaginext line of Teen Titans GO! figures and playsets!) and have ignored them up to now, but when I discovered this Robin was available as part of the blind bag Series 2, I knew I had to have him!

I mean JUST LOOK AT THAT MUG!

I watch Teen Titans GO! with my kids pretty often. It can really get my oldest daughter cracking up to the point of tears. I don't follow it episode to episode, but it has some hilarious moments and unlike a lot of children's programming, I can stand to watch it. I vaguely remember this episode, wherein Robin removes his mask to reveal he's super handsome underneath. I'm sure it'll pop up in a rerun soon as well, and I'll pay a little closer attention to the storyline next time.

But just the mere concept and execution are so silly and stupid that I couldn't pass up on a chance to own a figure of this Teen Titans GO! unmasked Robin. The blind bags have embossed number codes on the back, and Robin's bag ends in '09'. I found what appeared to be a fresh box, and went through every figure in the box, only to find one lone Robin. Not sure if that's the way every box is, but Handsome Robin may be shortpacked.

Regardless, I got one! Now I need a big stick to keep the ladies away!

LEGO Minifigures Series 15 Cat Burglar and Friends

What a bunch of pussies!

LEGO Series 15 minifigures are hitting retail now. There are a bunch of fun and clever additions to the blind bagged lineup this time out, but only one that I couldn't live without: The Cat Burglar!

I really wanted the Cat Burglar because she makes a great Catwoman goon as well as an alternate version of Catwoman herself.

Cat Burglar comes with a grapple hook and a diamond. I used the 'squeeze method' to find her (as usual), and I recommend if you employ this tactic that you feel for that diamond. It's pretty easy to shake it into a corner and feel for it's unique size and shape.

Cat Burglar's torso and legs are printed (front only) with plenty of neat detail, but it can be hard to see in certain light as it is dark blue printed on black plastic. She has only one face printed on her head, a missed opportunity for another expression for this cute domino-masked character, but the expression we do get does give her the look of a classic TV Catwoman...

...or a LEGO Tina Fey. Seriously, even the hair works for Tina - this minifigure is crying out to be made into a Tina Fey MOC!

Cat Burglar fits in well with LEGO Catwoman and her other minions I've amassed. I even have a LEGO Isis, snagged from the Series 14 Witch.

The Dark Knight Rises Catwoman is actually a bootLEGO...

...and the Tigress was recently released as part of the Series 14 Halloween themed wave.

Of course there's also Catwoman herself, which is actually LEGO's second Catwoman, released in 2012. I didn't collect LEGO when the slightly different first Catwoman came out in 2006. But at least I have this one!

While I doubt I will be able to afford/have space for the '66 Batman Wayne Manor/Batcave set, I will await the inevitable bootLEGO release of the '66 Catwoman, which seems pretty likely, and add her in with my four feline felons. And Isis.

Meow!

Batman LEGO and BootLEGO Minifigures :: We Are Batman!

I got it in my head this week to gather together my Batman minifigures and get a picture of them all together. Most of these guys are BootLEGO, a few are legitimate LEGO, and a couple are customs made up of LEGO parts from various minifigure sources.

BootLEGO Batman Beyond is one of the gems of my collection, because LEGO never made a Batman Beyond minifigure and I can't imagine there was a huge letter writing campaign asking the bootleggers to do it BUT THEY DID IT ANYWAYS!

This simple Keaton Batman custom is one of my prouder creations - a simple arm swap with the vampire bat minifigure from the blind bag series a few years back. A simple but extremely effective recreation of an iconic moment in Bat film history! I also can't get enough of the BootLEGO Batman of Zer-en-arrh on the right there - I have three different BootLEGOs of that guy!

Bruce Wayne is LEGO legit. This blue/grey Batman is BootLEGO and so is his spacey counterpart to his left (stage right.)

In my second-hand hunting I have only ever found two Batman LEGO bits, the body shown here from the original Batman LEGO run of the early 2000s and the white cowl shown stage left. Without a head or cowl, I turned the Batman body into Old Man Bruce with this (I think) Star Wars face that looks like Frank Miller's Bruce Wayne pre shaved 'stache in The Dark Knight Returns. The white cowl I added to a Stormtrooper body and gave a clone trooper jetpack and a grapple gun to make him into Bat-Trooper.

Also a BootLEGO is Batfleck. I really like the new cowl design with the shorter ears! You can also see Batzarro on the right, that one is legit LEGO, but I have a BootLEGO version of him too.

Here's my line-up (so far) of Batman LEGO and BootLEGO minifigures, for those of you keeping score at home:

Bat-Trooper (custom LEGO)
Batman Beyond (BootLEGO)
Electro-Suit Batman (LEGO)
Bruce Wayne (LEGO)
Blue/Grey Batman (BootLEGO and LEGO with cape, LEGO with extended wings)
Space batman (BootLEGO)
Batman Begins (BootLEGO x2 with cape and BootLEGO with extended wings)
Batzarro (BootLEGO and LEGO)
Old Man Bruce (custom LEGO)
Keaton Batman (custom LEGO and LEGO)
Batfleck (BootLEGO)
Batman of Zur-En-Arrh (BootLEGO x3)
Scuba Batman (BootLEGO)
The Dark Knight Batman (BootLEGO) Green Lantern batman (BootLEGO)
Arkham Knight (BootLEGO)

With the Batman v Superman movie on the horizon and the BootLEGOers seemingly losing no steam whatsoever, I am sure there are many more to come, so stay tuned. Same Bat LEGO time, same Bat LEGO channel!

It Came from The Dolly Aisle! Monster High Venus Mcflytrap by Mega Bloks

This blog is being overrun by dollies! Be afraid, be very afraid!

Actually this Venus Mcflytrap (Hello, Mcflytrap? Hello!) came from the Mega Blok aisle, not the dolly aisle, but that doesn't sound nearly as scary.

I wonder if she has a brother named Marty?

And she's not a dolly, she's a buildable minifigure! She's a Monster High buildable minifigure yes, but a buildable minifigure nonetheless. So I get a free pass here, ok?

Also, she's a pretty good stand-in for Poison Ivy. If only her hair were red and not pink. Oh well, perhaps Poison Ivy went through a punk phase in High School.

These Monster High minifigures are pretty cool. The parts interchangeability really enhances the monster theme. Collect them all and make your own wacky creation!

Venus Mcflytrap breaks down to a hairpiece, head, torso, vest, skirt and legs/hips (the legs seem like they'd pop on and off the ball joint pretty easily too, but that's not an advertised feature.) She also came with a tomb shaped cell phone or journal or whatever, a bracelet and a base piece to stand on. Quite a nice dolly minifigure for your dollar, since at the same price as LEGO minifigures you're getting quite a bit more bang for your buck here.

If you like Monster High dollies, you pretty much have to get some of these. If you like buildable minifigures, you'll have to decide if you're man enough to admit you need some of these.

I am.

Monster High Ghouls Skullection Series 1 Minifigures

I recently heard about these Monster High Ghouls Skullection minifigures from Mega Bloks, but only just found them at retail today. My older daughter went through a Monster High phase and I always liked the concept, even if the dolls could benefit from a couple sandwiches.

I found a whole fresh box at Toys R Us and picked up Spectra Vondergeist and Venus McFlytrap. The former because if I had to pick a favorite 'monster' it would definitely be ghosts, poltergeists and general spooky apparitions - no movies ever scare me more than ghost movies - and the latter because she might as well be a teenaged Poison Ivy.

The figures translate well into this pseudo-LEGO-Friends aesthetic. And even though they are only inches high, their limbs are about the same thickness as their larger dolly counterparts. Just kidding. A little.

Spectra is especially awesome because her arms 'fade' to clear plastic at her wrists down to her hands. She was also only packed two to the box, so she may be short packed but I don't know how shipments across the nation are panning out. I didn't count how many of any other figures there were, the only reason I did so with Spectra was because the first one I grabbed had some scraped paint so I wanted to find a better specimen.

Other figures in Series 1 are: Frankie Stein, Ghoulia Yelps, Lagoona Blue, Clawdeen Wolf, and the twins Meowlody and Purrsephone. And in addition to the single packed minifigures, there are larger buildable playsets too!

The best part? These aren't blind-bagged/boxed! You can see who you are getting right there through the clear plastic bubble. What a concept!

Bootleg LEGO Cyborg and Batzarro

Rounding out the six Bootleg LEGO minifigures I just picked up is this modern take on Cyborg.

this latest bootleg Cyborg comes with a gun that shoots single LEGO disc pieces. I have yet to see one of these in their offcial LEGO version but I know they have recently been popping up in some Star Wars sets.

I already own a bootleg LEGO Cyborg, but the previous one is a more classic take on Cyborg. I kind of prefer the older version as he's a bit more cartoony, but both are pretty awesome.

I also already own the official LEGO Batzarro, but this set included a bootleg LEGO Batzarro and who am I to say 'no thanks' to any version of Batzarro.

Both minifigures have two faces, and Batzarro comes with a batarang (Batzarrorang?) which is more than his official version came with!

Bootleg LEGO Hawkman

Another bootleg figure included in my recent bootleg LEGO minifigure acquisition is Hawkman! Like the official LEGO version, Hawkman comes with two set of thin plastic wings. 'Wings in' and...

...'wings out.' The material in the bootleg's case at least is very thin and tends to curl up and not hold a flat form. I doubt official LEGO Hawkman wings do that but I have yet to experience them in person to confirm. Regardless, bootleg Hawkman is pretty nice for the price. Hawkman has two faces: angry and normal, and also comes with a morningstar.

Bootleg LEGO Supergirl, Superman and Brainiac

I picked up another batch of Bootleg LEGO minifigures off eBay in order to get my hands on a Supergirl minifigure. Supergirl is currently officially available from LEGO in a set along with Superman and Brainiac (and Brainiac's spaceship.) It's an awesome looking set that I'd love to own, but for the 'pennies on the dollar' cost of these bootlegs I couldn't resist grabbing them now even if I someday have the real thing.

Of note on this latest wave of bootlegs: Supergirl's torso is sculpted with 'hips.' Something the bootleggers have taken it upon themselves to add. This type of design decision fascinates me, because the bootleggers could just straight across rip-off LEGO (and do,) yet every now and then they throw something in that they thought of entirely on their own. Those sillies!

The bootleggers also included those new jumping bases that LEGO has introduced this year. They're kind of lame but for flying figures they do give you a nice little 'invisible' base to pose them on.

Both Supergirl and Superman have two faces, 'normal' and 'heat-vision.'

And then there's Brainiac. Bootleg Brainiac comes with a cool Kryptonite gun.

Brainiac does not have dual faces but they did print those...USB ports?...on the back of his head.

As always the cape quality is lower than regulation LEGO, and the plastic is slightly lighter. But if your not playing with these things too heavily you just can't go wrong for the price.

LEGO Goodwill Find :: Traitor Transport

I made a great LEGO discovery at the Goodwill this weekend by getting my hands on this bag of 'LEGO Misc.'

You never can tell all of what you are getting in these types of bags, but there was enough good stuff visible to make it worth way more than the asking price of four bucks and twenty nine cents!

The bag turned out to include the entire LEGO set 6047 Traitor Transport (including instructions!)

This is a fun medieval set with a creepy prisoner transport cage. But what makes the set even more wonderful is...

...Basil the Bat Lord! I have wanted this minifigure for years due to his Knight/Batman look. I plan on using that helmet to make me a Medieval Batman minifigure.

The set also comes with this sweet dragon! I just love LEGO large figures and creatures, so it's great to finally add a dragon to my collection.

In addition to the complete Traitor Transport, the bag also had a complete moon rover in it's box, as well as these minifigures (dig that crazy red mask on the right!) and a bunch of other pieces that include spaceship parts, police car parts and some construction vehicle pieces.

Some of the traitor transport pieces are discolored due to age or sun or whatever, but none of them are terrible and all the minifigures are in excellent shape. Not a bad haul for under five bucks!