It’s Figure Friday…I assume. I haven’t been able to keep the days straight since I got back from Las Vegas and my first ever Star Trek convention. If you haven’t checked out my breakdown yet, go do that and come back here. I’m not going anywhere.
Back? Good. Like I said, I don’t know when it is that I’m writing this. I’m just going to do what I do; drop this in the queue for editing and hope for the best. Unless I’ve had a complete psychotic break and am currently typing this on a cardboard box with the word “computer” written on it.
Transformers Studio Series Deluxe Transformers: The Movie 86 Bumblebee
Gotta say, July was good toy month for me. I was absolutely on fire with finding stuff on the pegs in stores and I almost started to wonder why I even preorder stuff.
I stopped at a Target on a whim and was super pleased to find this Bumblebee just there for the taking. Initially, I had thought that I’d be hunting this toy for weeks, if not months, but I managed to track one down as soon as they hit Michigan.
The Series Toys for Transformers: The Movie are like catnip for collectors over 40. They’re almost entirely screen accurate representations of the characters we grew up with (some of whom were slaughtered wholesale in the first 20 minutes of the movie) and they’re arguably the best Hasbro figures to date. Seriously, each one is just a five-star figure.
You may have noticed above that I said “almost entirely screen accurate” above. That’s because this Bumblebee does not transformer into a VW Beetle. It’s still a small and yellow car…just not the one you remember. The reasons behind that are the same reasons Bumblebee was a Chevy in the 2007 Michale Bay film and also that it’s a trademarked design. It’s true that there was a figure from the Siege line of Transformers toys that turned into an officially licensed Beetle, but it seems that ship has sailed for this line.
Truth be told, it doesn’t bother me that much. Heck, if you look at the original Transformers episodes the quality of the animation is such that Bumblebee can barely pass for a car. I’ll also go on record that it doesn’t bother me that they can’t make Megatron a gun anymore. It wasn’t a great idea to give kids access to realistic looking gun toys 40 years ago and it’s an even worse idea now.
This figure checks all the boxes, it’s fun to pose and transform, it’s a great representation of the character, and it scales appropriately with the other figures from the line. Finally! A Bumblebee that’s just a li’l guy next to the rest of the characters!
Iconic Heroes Series: Captain Canuck
It may surprise you that Biff Bam Pop! is a Canadian website. Shocking, I know, because there are quite a few American writers in the bullpen. We just like to stay in your good graces…just in case.
In the interest of equal time, I wanted to feature a proper Canadian action figure. You know, kind of like how they have to play a Canadian artist every hour on the radio up there? Anyways, I give you… Captain Canuck! (Am I allowed to say “Canuck”? It kind of feels like I shouldn’t be saying that.)
Here’s the product description:
Created in 1974 by Richard Comely and reborn in 2015 under the Comic House Imprint, Captain Canuck is a Canadian comic book superhero who first appeared in Captain Canuck #1 on July 1975. Captain Canuck has stood as a symbol of the True North, strong and free for 50 years. This figure is an Executive Replicas collaboration with Loose Collectors and Lev Gleason Publications.
Pretty neat that ol’ CC is getting a figure for their 50th anniversary, eh? I’ll admit that I’m not terribly familiar with the character but damn if this isn’t a cool design. Sure $70 USD is a bit of a steep price but 1) when are you going to have another chance to get a Captain Canuck figure? And B) support a smaller toy company! They’re doing off the wall stuff like this and I am here for it.
