Figure Friday is upon us once more and I know that while some of you are reading for hot takes on toys, others are here for the delightful slice of life pieces that I occasionally serve up. It’s been quite the week.
It started off with the mild annoyance of one of my turntable speakers crapping out on me while I was listening to Songs in the Key of X (the record, not the podcast. You should all listen to the podcast. If it was released on vinyl I’d listen to it twice). Thanks to the timely arrival of an Amazon gift card, I was able to replace those speakers with almost no out of pocket cost. Like I said, “mild annoyance.”
I was having a pretty good day on Saturday. The weather was not disgustingly hot and I was out and about when my car began to make a noise that was decidedly not normal. There had been nothing in my path that I was able to see but it sounded like I was dragging something. It just so turned out a piece of rebar had magically embedded itself into the sidewall of my tire. The silver lining here is that I now know for the first time in 30 years of driving that I can indeed change a tire.
Within a day of that, I noted that the air conditioning in my house wasn’t quite conditioning the air as it should. I went outside and took a look at the unit and, since it wasn’t actively aflame, I had reached the limits of my HVAC knowledge. The fan inside wasn’t moving like it should (or, you know, at all) so I turned to Google and read that the problem could either be tens of dollars or thousands of dollars to repair. I decided to tag in a professional at that point and luckily for me the answer was somewhere in the middle.
Truly, I have been throwing hundreds when I should instead be throwing ones. This is all to say, I haven’t had much time for toy hunting or buying this week but there’s plenty of great stuff on the way!
Ghostbusters Stay Puft Marshmallow Man Soft Vinyl Figure by Star Ace
Who doesn’t love the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man? Not me, that’s who. My kitchen is decorated in kitschy ad icons of yore, cereal mascots designed to sell sugar and the like. Stay Puft has an honorary spot atop my fridge since he wasn’t really an ad mascot when I was a kid but I desperately wanted him to be.
Presently, I have my O.G. figure from The Real Ghostbusters line, a carded version of the same figure from re-release line (for what it’s worth I have a Fearsome Flush figure next to my commode), and a couple of Funko Pops. Not a bad selection, I feel. But what if I really wanted to up my Stay Puft game?
Star Ace has entered the chat with the answer to the question, “do I really need that?” with their 30cm tall Stay Puft vinyl figure and it’s honestly pretty impressive. You may choose the form of your destructor with both “normal” and “deluxe” versions for $175 and $195 respectively.
You can preorder now for an estimated 1st Quarter 2024 delivery.
Transformers Missing Link Optimus Prime
1984 is SO hot right now!
I’ll spare you the handwringing and garment tearing over two iconic bits of pop culture turning 40 next year. I’ve run that bit into the ground. Just like Optimus Prime, who has been near infinite versions of a red truck for decades, Hasbro never seems to tire of finding different ways of doing the same thing over and over again. It’s pretty impressive when you think about it.
For the big bot’s big 4-0 they have gone back to the well and re-made the original Optimus Prime toy (or Convoy if you want to get Japanese about this). This time, they’ve given him a full range of movement that the original sorely lacked. I remember getting my first Optimus Prime toy for what was likely Christmas 1985 and I was totally stoked to transform it from truck to robot and back again because that’s pretty much all you could do with it. It was still great and I played with that thing until the leg snapped clean off.
Some blurry pics of this figure leaked about a month or so ago and TF fandom was split as to whether or not it was real or a clever fake. We were all collectively shocked when it was revealed as real. We’re all wondering if they’re going to do a remake of the original Megatron somehow.
In an odd parallel with Stay Puft, this figure also comes in two different versions (one more cartoon accurate and one more closely resembling the original toy) priced at $70 and $120 respectively. The more expensive of the two will get you Prime’s trailer and a ton of accessories, some of which weren’t included with the original toy…but should have been.
While I’m not completely sold on either edition, I have to admit the nostalgia hits hard for this one. It would be a neat addition to a collection that ties right back to something I had as a kid.
