In case you haven’t prowled the shelves of Wal-Mart, Target, or Toys-R-Us recently, here’s a list of just a few action figure lines available right now. I’m a figure collector, and to be blunt, besides some of McFarlane’s always-intricate and interesting lines (most of which aren’t even in regular toy sections– check Hastings or collector’s shops in malls for those) it’s been a typical year so far. You’ve got the same old Spider-Man movie line, trying to milk a little more cash out of the franchise even while it doesn’t have a movie coming out, and there’s alway a new Star Wars line, but they also usually look about the same. So here’s some of the new stuff, all of which can be found at Toys-R-Us.com if you don’t care to get out and find it yourself.

The Good

As I’ve said in previous blogs, Marvel’s having a really good year. Not only have they released two top-notch films in the same continuity, but that quality seems to have leaked over into their action figures as well. There’s nothing just brilliant about these figures but they’re nicely detailed, pretty realistic and come in brightly-colored, eye-catching boxes (important for collector’s like me who rarely open a new figure).

The Iron Man toys are immediately eye-catching because they’re not in your basic box. They’re on a flat card as usual, but at first glance, the plastic makes them look round, and the reds really jump out. These are 5.5-6″ figures, the perfect size to get a good amount of realistic detail and fun playability for kids who will take them out of the box. It’s hard for a figure to have much articulation if it’s too small, so when I was a kid, I never like my figures to get any smaller than this. The best thing about this line is that every figure looks like something out of the movie. All 3 of Stark’s various suits can be found, and there’s no obnoxious, weirdly colored versions. Just wait- we’ll get to those with Batman.

The Hulk figures look just like the Iron Man figures to me. Great articulation, great size, excellent box.

The toy shelves are looking a little more like they did when I was a kid with all the Ninja Turtles figures out, and it’s been like that for a few years now with the recent cartoon series, and now especially with the film last year. But for the first time ever, you can get a four-pack figure set of the original Eastman and Laird comic style Turtles. Beautifully colored like the original covers and wonderfully articulated, this is a very neat collector’s item and one fan’s have waited for a good long time.

The Not-So Good

These aren’t especially bad figures, but they’re not especially good, either. These represent the kind of mediocre toys I’ve seen every year since I was a kid. Some of them may even be worth picking up if you’re a big fan of the series, but more detail, thought, and marketing strategy really could have been used with these.

The new Indiana Jones line follows the Star Wars tradition of 3.5-4″ figures, and again, I think this is too small for much detail and definitely for much articulation. What’s neat about them is that they aren’t just from the new movie– a number of characters from all four films are included and it’s a very extensive line. I would guess the idea with these and Star Wars is the same: smaller figures so that more individual toys can be made. They can do more characters and keep their costs lower by using less material. That’s probably why 5-6″ lines usually have a dozen or less figures.

Worse than the size, though, is the package presentation. Somehow, this box manages to make it look like the figure doesn’t resemble Harrison Ford at all. He looks a little thrown together, and if it weren’t for the label, we might not even know it was supposed to be Indiana Jones.

But take a closer look at the figure itself. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with this packaging, but it’s managing to make the figure look much worse than it really is. Maybe they should have put the hat on him.

The Dark Knight line really looks pretty good– good size, excellent detail– but the box is lame and isn’t eye-catching, and the figures are really hit-and-miss. There are several versions of the figure pictured above, and despite my qualms with the new costume, these are great because they look like the suit you’re going to see in the new film. But every Batman line has a number of goofy, weirdly colored suits Batman himself would NEVER wear, and why do that with a darker film franchise?

I just don’t think Christian Bale would make a good Power Ranger. And I get it. The assumption is that kids like to play with brightly colored figures. Maybe that’s true, but I had an extensive collection of Batman figures growing up, I played with them all the time, and I always wanted to create stories with my figures that seemed authentic, at least to me. I loved Batman comics and I loved the films, so why wouldn’t I want my Batman to look like BATMAN?

Sometimes the new Joker looks cool, and sometimes he looks like this… anyone who’s been in a cave for the last two years might take a look at this and think Michael Keaton is playing the role. This doesn’t look anything like Heath Ledger or the Joker we’ve been seeing in the previews. It looks like a dumbed down, cartoon version when, looking at the detail of that first Batman figure I showed you, there’s no reason it couldn’t look more like this:

This is a 1:6 scale figure put out by DC Direct. Of course I wouldn’t expect vinyl or cloth clothes on a regular $9-10 figure, but look at the face. He doesn’t look silly, he looks creepy, which is the mood of the film as I gather it from trailers. But there are some other good figures in the line, including a new Scarecrow and a very good Bruce Wayne ninja figure.

The Bizarre

These are figures that are really weird and probably shouldn’t have been made. The Mighty Muggs line is trying to be cute, but I think they’re just kind of disturbing.

As far as I can tell, they’re just doing Star Wars and Marvel figures for now, but if they catch on, there could be more. I think these are supposed to be funny in the same way Legos or Minimates are, but somehow I’m not getting it. They’re round, they have giant heads, and they’re huge hunks of plastic that can’t possibly be any fun to play with. If they were plush, that would be different. There are a TON of these, and they’re all a little creepy.

The one exception is Dr. Doom. For some reason, this one cracks me up. Maybe it’s the slanted mouth on his mask. Then again, I’ve always thought Dr. Doom was hillarious.

LLAP

-Cap’n Logan

I was digging through some of my old Game Boy games the other day, rehashing the past a little, when I suddenly came across Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins – quite possibly the greatest Game Boy game ever and, to make an even bolder statement, quite possibly the greatest 2-D Mario game ever made. It’s been over a decade since I’ve played this piece of Mario history, so I could be missing some of the negative aspects about the game, but I really can’t recall not liking anything about this hidden gem.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins was released in America in 1992. At the time, it was one of the largest Game Boy games (4 megabits) and it even had a battery backup save. Players could scroll left and right on the screen – it didn’t follow the traditional linear stage work, and the game also had an overall world map where players could pick and choose what level they wanted to play (similar to Super Mario World). There were also several hidden exits in the levels that would lead to other hidden stages and etc. Not to mention it starred the first appearance of Mario’s fat and greedy arch-nemesis – Wario.

The plot of Super Mario Land 2 depicted Wario stealing Mario’s castle and casting a hypnotic spell across the land. The spell caused the inhabitants to turn against Mario as Wario sat gloriously in his newly stolen castle. The only way Mario could get his castle back was to travel to 6 different themed zones to get the 6 Golden Coins needed to unlock the gate to his castle and defeat Wario. I think this might actually be one of the only Mario games where the plot is NOT to rescue the princess.

Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins introduced a lot of new things into the Mario franchise, but unfortunately outside of Wario, none of them carried over to later installments. The music in the game was superb, as nearly every Mario game can attest to, yet I have never heard any of the music from either Mario Land or Mario Land 2 in any future Mario games – ‘tis a shame. Super Mario Land 2 was also the first game to introduce the carrot power up, in which Mario sported a bunny suit (similar to Mario Bros. 3’s raccoon tail) and also the feather fire suit which allowed players to destroy specific blocks with fire balls.

The six zones in the game included the Tree Zone, Space Zone, Macro Zone, Pumpkin Zone, Mario Zone, and Turtle Zone. Each one of the zones brought a unique element to the Mario franchise and it’s a bummer that none of them really transferred to later Mario iterations. Although Super Mario Galaxy could have gotten its motivation from Mario Land 2’s Space Zone, which depicts Mario floating through space dodging stars, etc. – it’s a stretch, but hey I have the right to speculate. Many of the zones are pretty self explanatory, in the Tree Zone Mario witnesses several stages involving a tree – the ground around it, inside it, a beehive on its branch, and its top. Other zones, however, are a little more complex such as the Macro and Mario zones. In the Macro Zone, Mario is shrunk down to fit into a little house where he goes through its various rooms. In the Mario Zone, Mario is faced with fighting toy look-alikes of himself and the end villains are… the three little pigs – weird right? Definitely, but hey, it is Mario, and when you think about it the whole idea behind Mario is whack – a fat, Italian plumber who jumps high and eats mushrooms to get stronger. Yep, definitely whack.

It’s a real shame that Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins will never be released on the Wii’s virtual console since it’s an old Game Boy title and not an actual console game, but it’s even more of a shame that I no longer have my Game Boy to play it again. This game is the real successor of Super Mario World (1991). It is based largely off the popularity of SMW and had Super Mario Land 2 been an actual console game, people wouldn’t be discussing which game was the best 2-D platformer between Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World. They would be discussing which is truly Mario’s greatest adventure between all three of them. As always, thanks for reading.
-Dillon (D-Dub)

P.S. if you have never played this game then you’re missing out. You can get it off of Amazon.com for $9.95, and if you have a Game Boy I highly recommend that you check this hidden gem out.