Lego Marvel Super Heroes Spider-Man: Spider-Cycle Chase

Damn you, Lego Movie!

(Is it Lego or LEGO? I can never remember. I’m going with ‘Lego’, because I’m too lazy to type caps all through this review.)

Anyway, again: damn you, Lego Movie! Ever since I saw the first trailer, I’ve had a vague itch to play with some bricks. With the movie coming out in less than a week, it intensified. So I finally broke down and got a set: Spider-Man Spider-Cycle Chase.

Everyone knows me is likely not surprised that I went for the set with Venom in it.

These are the first Lego I’ve played with in about twenty years. While I had some Lego sets (mostly the Castle; I liked anything with horses), I was a Playmobil kid. But oh man, breaking into a box full of brand new bricks? Fun. As you can see from the lighting, I picked up this set during the evening and couldn’t wait until daylight to start screwing around with it.

Packaging is nice. Bright, colorful, good-sized box that shows everything in it and a nice action scene. Opening it up gives you bags, more bags in bag, instructions, and a mini-comic. It’s wordless, but it’s cute to see the minifigures continuing their little adventures. I may take some shots of the pages for the Venom site.

The bags are clearly labeled with 1, 2, and 3, so you can easily sort out which you’re working on. They tear open nicely, and the clear, colored, and simple instructions are a godsend. After years of dealing with Transformers instructions, anything that’s easy to see is wonderful. ...Of course, I still managed to assemble some things wrong on my first go, because even bright, simple instructions meant for six year-olds are too much for me, apparently.

The first build is for the spider-cycle. Think Spidey’s ill-conceived Spider-buggy from the 70s having a fling with a hefty motorcycle. The build is quick and once assembled, the cycle is surprisingly fun to fiddle with. You can turn out the wheels to make it a hover cycle, or you can do what I did and keep the wheels in the rolling position and amuse yourself by rolling it back and forth across your desk. I also showed it to the cat, who seems to like it best when it’s on its side, as then it spins nicely when hit. While it’s meant for one rider, I found that technically, you can fit two on there. However, it’s the most uncomfortably close two person ride since the Mongoose.

Bags 2 and 3 contain the parts for the SHIELD car. Bag 2 contains the basic body, while bag 3 fleshes it out and makes it look like a proper car. One thing that surprised me-the multitude of colors used here. A whole mix of different colors are used in the initial assembly, but these are all covered up in the end, giving a much more coherent look to the finished product. I’m not sure why the basic building pieces are in so many colors. Did they just have a whole bunch of these colors at the factory and decide it would be covered up in the end? It makes for some very piebald creations when you decide to try and build something else, as seen below. (It’s supposed to be a plane. I decided to mess with the bricks a bit, and it’s painfully obvious I need practice coming up with designs.)

The car, like the motorcycle is very nice, but there’s one thing that drove me nuts on both: the stickers. I’m terrible at applying stickers to toys; my Toys ‘R Us reissue Prowl and my Command Wolf both prove this. In the end, all my stickers are a little askew. I did get one license plate on perfectly...only to realize it was on upside down. On the plus side, all the stickers seem to be adhered firmly even after several repositionings, and I expect them to hold up. Also: does anybody have any clue if ‘MB 19 89‘ has any sort of meaning? It’s not ringing any Marvel in-joke bells for me.

The car has some more bells and whistles than the cycle does, being bigger. Unlike the cycle, you can’t really fit two minifigs into the seat, but there is a flip-out platform you can balance a second figure on. Only problem with this: it’s smooth, so your rider calling the backseat is likely to go flying once you actually get the car rolling. The grating there looks nice, but I’d prefer something I could peg a foot to. Also on the back half: a little missile launcher. I’m used to Transformers missile launchers, so the lack of a trigger threw me off a little. However, giving the end a good push with my thumb ended up shooting the missile farther than I’d expected. If you mess with it, try not to play with that feature where there’s plenty of things for small objects to get stuck under. Like beds, desks, large drawers...why yes, I speak from personal experience.

The minifigs are extremely cute. They’re all simplified in the typical Lego way, but even so they’re more expressive than I’d thought they be. The fact that they do well at holding poses and can sit down nicely (a rarity in action figures, in my experience, where sitdown poses involve legs everywhere). Venom was the deciding factor for me in choosing this set; I love symbiotes and an itty-bitty Venom makes up for my current dearth of figures. He’s definitely set in the classic Eddie Brock or Flash Thompson teeth everywhere style, and comes with additional symbiote tentacles and globby...things. I prefer him minus the tentacle cape, and I’m really tempted to get a blank black head so I can make a proper Flash!Venom face for him. Spider-Man is definitely Peter Parker Spidey, with bright red and blue and big eyes. It makes for nice posing into flailing positions, which, if you’ve watched the little Lego Marvel shorts they did...pretty much fits. And then you have Nick Fury, who is armed and has had it with all these arachnid people on his flying car. He looks suitably cranky and I like having a tiny Nick Fury to pose yelling at everyone else. His gun is hilariously oversized; it’s as big as a minifig torso and I’m more tempted to refer to it as a handcannon. Unfortunately, Spidey's web accessories aren't quite as good; I can't really get them to stick to his hands well, which is annoying for photo-taking and play. But that's minor, really.

Overall thoughts? It’s cute, it’s not terribly expensive-a standard medium sized supers set, in between the little budget box or polybags and the larger sets that seem to go for $50 or $60+. The set is pleasant to build even for those of us who haven’t touched a Lego in years, and it makes me want more-I want more bricks, and more sets so I can try to build more things and so I have more minifigures to do silly little things with. As I said above, the minifigures are super-cute, and if you’re a fan of Venom or Nick Fury, this may be your only chance to nab them-while Spidey appears in a couple other sets, this appears to be their only one. I can see this set having a lot of play value for kids and for adult collectors who, like me, enjoy screwing around with their toys and could use very flexible pieces. if you’re considering getting it, though, I would hop on it soon. Based on what I’ve seen locally and online, this wave of sets is due to get replaced soon, and if you don’t want to pay secondary market prices for the full kit or just the minifigs you want, it’s better to buy now.

Now if only I hadn’t skipped over the Deadpool set when I saw it months ago, because now I want to have a tiny Thunderbolts team. But the one set I’m really eyeballing doesn’t come out for a few months yet-Benny’s Spaceship, Spaceship, SPACESHIP! A giant buildable spaceship piloted by an astronaut voiced by Charlie Day who has oxygen deprivation-induced brain damage and shoots missiles? YES PLEASE.

Bonus photos!

 

Squishables Shiba Inu Review

Squishables, the short review: they’re adorable. Go buy one.

The longer review:

I first found out about Squishables when I began seeing their banner ads some years back, when they were first starting. I thought the designs were cute, but I wasn’t terribly interested. None of the plushes really clicked with me.

Fast forward this month: while reading the back logs of the Toybox Philosopher blog, I came across this review for the Worrible Squishable. And then I decided to take a look, because I hadn’t checked out their site in ages.

Needless to say, they’re expanded their line a great deal, into four size classes, ranging from keychain-sized to animals that could be used as beanbag chairs. And the variety offered…kind of exploded. I immediately saw several I loved, and it took a few days of debating over which one I wanted for myself. I finally settled on the Shiba Inu, as I decided it was the cutest of my favorites and didn’t feel like taking a gamble on the discounted mystery squish for now. I ordered the Shiba for myself and another Squishable for my sister’s birthday in a few months, and waited.

In retrospect, ordering just before the Fourth of July and having to endured an extra day of mail waiting was a mistake, but they managed to arrive in time for my birthday.

The box was a little huge, and both Squishables were crammed in there. Upon pulling out a Squishable, they immediate start to expand somewhat-they are indeed very squishy. Remove the plastic bag, clip off the ear tag, boom, ready to go and squish. It’s always a good day when you aren’t fighting twist ties and rubber bands.

 (As you can see, that's one Squishable now sitting in the box and taking up the majority of it. Exploding fluffballs, whoo!)

So my thoughts on the Squishable itself? <i>Soft</i>. As in, the softest stuffed animal I’ve ever owned. The majority of the fur is a semi-long, shaggy type that’s super-soft and feels great. The best comparison I have to it is the fur of our long-haired cat, whom the Squishable outsizes. The chest, paws, and part of the face have a different, much shorter fur, more in line with what you’d expect on an average stuffed animal. It’s soft as well, but not as ‘touch this! Touch this now!’ as the rest of the body. Body-wise, I didn’t realize how big 15” by 15” would actually be; the end result is big, squishy, and an excellent pillow. The fill is soft enough to make hugging the Squishable nice, yet it’s stuffed with enough filler to act as a nice back support while laying down. 

Here's a close up of the face, so you can see the difference between the fur types.

I’ve also discovered that Squishables make excellent ways to cope with early morning noise. Just follow these simple steps:

1. Be woken up by birds warring over the feeder.
2. Apply Squishable to face. (Note: do not asphyxiate self).
3. Stay in that position until sleep returns, usually in five minutes or less.

To quote Anchorman, 60% of the time, it works every time! I’ve had good luck with it, anyway. But they do act as nice distractions/noise dampeners to help get back to sleep.

Look at the size of this thing. Is it any wonder it can be used to block noise out?

Really, Squishables’ own tagline sums them up the best: they’re giant round fuzzy stuffed animals. Hug them. And that’s the best thing to do with them. Hug them, because they’re ridiculously cute. Lean on them, because they’re more comfortable for back support than any pillow I own. If I ever go on a road trip again, I would want to take my Shiba with me, because of the excellent lap pillow potential.

My one concern is the fur; one of my favorite stuffed animals as a kid ended up getting his fur really matted down, and I am a little curious as to how that super-soft fur holds up to wear and tear over time, although that’s more of a concern if you’re giving them to a kid that will take them everywhere vs. an adult. Fortunately, they are spot cleanable, but apparently they’re not something you want to get soaking wet. I’ll admit that this makes me terribly curious as to what a Squishable looks like after a run in the washing machine, but I’m not about to test it.

If you’ve been wavering on a Squishable, I’d say take the plunge. They’re on the more expensive side for stuffed animals, but they do double duty as stupid-comfortable pillows, and I have yet to find a better lower back pillow for when I’m reading or gaming in bed. I haven’t tried using mine as a head pillow yet, but I’m sure that too would be ridiculously comfortable. And they’re really, really cute. If you have someone who’s hard to shop for, they might be something to look at-there’s something for just about everybody there, and the different sizes do mean there’s some flexibility in price points. I’ve found myself already eyeballing the minis, because I’m not sure how many standard ones the front of my bed can really hold. But I’ll probably get at least one more big one. See, I’ve named mine. (Because let’s face it. They’re the kind of toy that demands a name.)

She’s named Scully, as I’ve been playing catchup with the series on Netflix and started picking up the new IDW comic. (Dear IDW: please post your release schedule somewhere where I can freakin’ find it.) And what’s a Scully without a Mulder?

Review: Zoids Command Wolf

Time for the first in what will hopefully become a regular series of reviews. God knows I’ve got enough stuff lying around. First up: the Zoids Command Wolf!

Most of what I know about Zoids has been picked up through fandom osmosis (thanks, Zita) or through Zoids.us, a wonderful guide to all things Zoids, including all sorts of historical tidbits and photos of the ‘bots. It did, however, cause some disappointment that that awesome metal Pegasus I saw on TV as a kid is exceedingly expensive. Woe.

On the plus side, many of the other Zoids are not. I wanted to get the experience of building one for myself, so I hit BigBadToystore and picked up a blue Command Wolf, which apparently is one of the common and easy to find variants of a very well-used mold, so if you like 1. wolves and 2. robots, you’re in luck. The one I got is the 98/99 Japanese release, and the box proclaims it’s a Command Wolf, it’s on the side of the Republic, and a whole lot of other stuff I can’t read. Zoids canon kinda goes in one ear and out the other for me. ‘Blah blah government blah blah plant blah blah GIANT ROBOT ANIMALS.’

But it’s a nice box and I like it. It’s sturdy, it holds all the extra bits and bobs in there, and it has some nice shots of a legion of Command Wolves on the hunt. I think Zoids may be a toyline where armybuilding is encouraged. Inside the box, you’ll find the sprues that make up the parts of the Wolf, sticker sheets for the details, an instruction sheet, and a ‘Zoids fanbook vol. 5’, which is basically a sheet that shows off the other toys available. Unfortunately, I don’t read Japanese. Fortunately, I can follow basic picture instructions and the guide in the instructions was easy to follow, even if I didn’t understand anything it said. Hasbro could take instructions in how to make clear instructions from these guys.

All my sprue construction prior to this had been with Tyranids for 40k, so I was familiar with the basic concept but was pleased to find how much easier it is to keep track of things when all your pieces are so much larger. The Wolf’s main colors are blue and black, with the accessories in shades of grey, and it’s pretty easy to keep track of what you’re working on by checking out the letter and number marks on the sprue. My one concern with the sprue is that when you trim a piece off, the resulting trim mark, due to the stress on the plastic, is a different shade of blue. I tried to trim and gently buff it down the best I could, but I didn’t want to file too hard for fear of hitting the rest of the plastic, which is a metallic blue. When the toy’s in good light, you can see the sparkles in the plastic. 

The end toy turned out to be a nice size; comparing him to my Prime Predaking (my closest toy for reference), it looks like he’s just a few inches bigger, which would put him into about the Voyager size class. (Some people use imperial measurement, some people use metric. I use Transformers.) He’s got all sorts of nice little molded details, with the gear/joints/hoses/etc sticking out nicely despite the dark overall colors. He also a ludicrously huge gun option, which is fun just for the entertainment value of seeing a giant metal wolf with a gun almost as big as the robot strapped to it. The real action feature, though, is the little wind-up motor you assemble. Crank it up and watch him go, with the speed determined by the position of the head. It works nicely once it’s cranked, but the Wolf seems to run out of juice quickly, or at least until you start poking him in the rear leg with a finger. But considering it’s powered by a twisted knob instead of batteries, it’s still a cool feature.

My one complaint with this toy is the stickers. I <i>hate</i> dealing with stickers on toys, because I can never seem to get them on straight, and they end up half on, half off, always in the process of trying to peel. At best, they tend to end up uneven. I tried putting the detail stickers on the Wolf…and promptly took all of them off, save the flower symbols and gun decals. Why is the Wolf decked out with pretty red flowers? I assume there’s some kind of canon to this, but without context, it’s a little odd. 

But to summarize: the Wolf is a neat toy for robot fans, especially robot animal buffs. He’s a nice size, he has an action feature that’s satisfying to play with (crank him up and watch him go!) and there’s a sense of satisfaction to be had from knowing you built this neat little moving model with your own two hands. Plus, for collectors there’s scads of variations of this thing, and the fact that it’s common makes it easy to track down mint for if you want to actually have the experience of building it, rather than buying somebody else’s work.

Speaking of building, I still need to see about part hunting for a later review…

An introduction: welcome to toy talk

Welcome to the blog side of Phylum Machina. I intend this to be paired with the Tumblr side of things ( http://phylummachina.tumblr.com/ ) as the wordier, reviewer-y side of things. Because Tumblr is great for comics and quick pics, and not so much for largish reviews of 'HEY GUYS LOOK WHAT I FOUND IN MY CLOSET.'

This is going to be a toy blog. There are going to be a lot of things dredged from the closet toy bucket, along with newer things I happen to pick up along the way. My focus is toys, but the actual toys I'll look at post stuff on, etc. are varied-I've been collecting Transformers for a little over a decade, I have an enormous fondness for robots (see the blog and Tumblr titles), and I've recently gotten into dolls due to my online buddy Hat.

Thanks, Hat.

(Poor Hat will probably get some fistshaking at her, because she shows me so much cool stuff. The upcoming Tonner doll review? Totally her fault.)

Also along with the reviews, I intend to do toy photocomics. Because what's the point of having toys if you don't play with them? Expect to see them on the Tumblr account, for great reposting.

First toy review soon!