Before I went offline I had a schedule. Monday was for media reviews, movies and the like. Tuesday was for tat, stupid useless things like toys. Wednesday was for web based reviews. Thursday was about weird news. And Friday was all about Fat Guys. Awesome Fat Guys to be exact. Things have changed. Monday is still about media but Wednesday is now for writing, but what about Friday? Starting this week Friday will be about Fat or Tat. 'Awesome Fat Guy of the Week' will be returning along with a new series 'Awful Fat Guy of the Week'. Those two will be alternating with random Tat reviews. This Friday I’ll be talking about Mini Figs, which fall under the Tat part of “Fat or Tat“.
I don’t collect action figures anymore. The last one I bought was probably over a decade ago. I still collect some toys, but not many. Nerf blasters are my main hobby with Glyos coming second. I don’t consider Glyos to be action figures, although I guess they are.
The reasons I stopped buying real action figures are two fold. Size and expense. Toys take up a lot of space and are very expensive. If they were smaller and cheaper, or had the cool, indie factor of Glyos, than I would.
There is also another reason. Interest. Most action figures are tied to either a show, movie or comic. Unless you are a fan of those things, you won’t feel the need to buy a figure. I stopped reading DC and Marvel years ago so Comic book toys don’t interest me. I enjoy the Marvel movies but not enough to buy the figures. I watch very few cartoons, although that is changing. Actually watching a cartoon is part of the reason I fell into this new hobby.
You know what are usually small and inexpensive? Mini Figs.
So what is a Mini Fig? A mini fig is an action figure that is below 2 inches in height. The most well known maker of Mini Figs is Lego. The Lego man is the classic Mini Fig. And rightly so. Those little guys have so much character it’s hard not to love them.
But this isn’t about Lego men. No, I want to talk about Mini Figs that come from a completely different building block line. Before that lets do a little background. Who doesn’t love needless padding?
As a kid I was a G.I.Joe guy. That was the toy line I latched onto more than anything else. A close second was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. As a child of the late 80’s and early 90’s I couldn’t help but love TMNT. Especially with all of those cool toys. Ace Duck being a personal favorite of mine.
Recently, while browsing 4chan, I saw a thread about Mini Figs. In that thread there were pictures of these very coo,l and highly pose-able Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle figures. A few days later I saw a box of blind bag TMNT figures by the same company and decided to pick a few up.
It turns out the ones in that thread were not the ones I got. The super pose-able ones are much more expensive and are based on the classic Turtles show. The ones I got are much less possible and are styled after the current series. Having said that I love these little guys.
So, who makes these guys? Mega Bloks. Weird, right? I had a few Lego sets as a kid, they were very expensive so I never had a huge collection. I knew about K’nex, Erecter Sets, and Lincoln Logs but never heard about Mega Bloks. They were always the cheap alternative to Lego. The much less sexy alternative.
Then a few years ago Mega Bloks picked up a couple Video Game licenses and started cranking out these amazing little figures. Halo, Assassin’s Creed, and Call of Duty Mini Figures are available, practically everywhere. The Call of Duty ones, even though I never played the game, are really calling my name. I have yet to get any of those figures, but in the span of 2 weeks I picked up 7 of the Turtle figures.
These guys are just oozing with personality. Not only do they all have unique paint apps on their shells but the little items they come with them are great. Let’s take a look at each one, of the 7 I have, in the order I got them.
First up was my favorite Turtle as a kid, Donatello. I spent a few minutes in front of the blind box display feeling the packages to get a Donatello. It was worth it. I was a little confused by his item at first. Donatello comes not only with his Bo Staff but with a little Mega Blok tile that has a picture of April on it. The heart on his chest, which I didn’t notice till I opened him, cleared the whole thing up.
In the Nickelodeon series Donatello has a thing for April. After picking Donny up I decided to check out the new series and it is fantastic. Not only is it a lot of fun, smoothly animated, and well written but it’s also smart and a bit dark. I highly recommend it (the most recent season isn‘t as good as the first three).
Donatello, like all of the Turtles, has a ball jointed head, his shoulders have a full range of motion, he has limited ball jointed hips, and single jointed knees. Sadly his elbows do not move but he does have wrists that swivel. The classic TMNT Mini Figures are much more pose-able but to my eye have less personality.
It’s the faces that make these guys. Donatello’s big gap toothed grin and wide eyes really convey emotion. He has this huge crush on April and his face sells that. That is the face of a guy who is head over heels for a girl. In a very innocent and pure way. It is his first love after all.
The second figure I got was Shredder. This wasn’t on purpose. I had Donatello and was walking away when I decided he needed a buddy. So I went back to the display and after some more touch testing, I took what I thought was Raphael. I really wanted a Michelangelo but I couldn’t find one.
When I got home and opened the bag I was disappointed. Even as a kid I wasn’t much for villain toys. I was always a hero guy. Aside from that slight prejudice I was also let down by the color of this figure. As you can see he is a translucent red. That’s cool but I would have preferred a normal Shredder. For a first series, although these figures and others are available with Mega Blok TMNT sets, you need a normal version of each of the main characters.
Color aside this guy is imposing when standing next to the turtles. He’s taller and very spikey. Shredder looks like a walking weapon, which I guess he is. He is a little harder to put together but does look great when he’s done.
A week or so later I went back to Target and picked up three more blind bags. I wanted to get all of the turtles and end my collection there but then I learned something. The Krang figure has a squishy pink Krang. I couldn’t pass that up. Unfortunately, the display was almost empty so I couldn’t get all of the turtles that day.
Before I go on let me tell you how I was able to figure out which figure was in each bag. On my first trip I was feeling for weapons. Donatello was easiest because of his staff. But this wasn’t a full proof strategy. I mistook Shredder’s arm blades for Raphael’s sai.
When I got home I tried to look up the codes for each figure but that didn’t help. Then I noticed that each Turtle comes with a unique item. That is how you can sort them out. Donnie has the picture of April which a small square, Michelangelo has a slice of pizza (triangle), Raphael has a tube ( I don’t know what it’s supposed to be), and Leonardo has a soft plastic comic book that is both rectangular and curved.
As for the bad guys that’s a bit harder. Krang is easy thanks to the squishy brain shaped alien, Shredder is a thicker bag like the turtles but doesn’t have an accessory, the Foot soldiers are very thin bags (the one with more stuff in it is the rare four armed one). It’s not as easy as the turtles, but it isn’t a complete crap-shoot.
The slice of pizza is a nice touch, speaking of which he has cheese and pepperoni on his shell. Further selling the idea that Mikey is a bit of a klutz and a bit of a slob.
Ralph was up next. Mine had a small issue. The belt was too big. I added a small dab of crazy glue to the sides of the figure to keep it up. (I only just realized that I put the belt on backwards. Ralph keeps his weapons on the front of his body, thanks to the super glue I can't fix that.) The other small niggle I had with Ralph is the tampo on his head. He has a small flame on his head that should be right over his mask. See his eyes are on fire, since he has a temper, and the tampo is supposed to add to that. On mine the flame is on the top of his head. Not a huge issue and one of rhe only paint mistakes on these figures. One of the really cool things about Ralph is on the back of his shell. The word “Mikey” is scrawled there like graffiti. It’s a small thing but it really adds to the figure.
Ralph doesn't know what that thing is either.
I still have no idea what his accessory is supposed to be. That could be a bit of a downside for the toy but you'd have to be looking for issues at that point.
Next up was Krang. Krang is the least possible figure of the bunch. He has simple swivel shoulder and hips. He still has a ball jointed head but does not have knee or wrist articulation.
He does have a squishy Krang and the laser rifle. I guess that’s an even trade.
Leonardo was a bitch to find. When I got to target there was a fresh box of figures and it took me a good 10 minutes to find Leo. He was worth it. Of all the figures he’s the only one whose eyes are not painted on the mask. Instead the mask has eye-holes and his eyes are painted on his head. It’s a cool look, even though Leo’s eyes are a little googly, and I wish all of the figures have it. The thing is the other figures are more animated. Leo is a stock standard figure. I don’t mean that in a bad way. Unlike the other three he doesn’t have a cartoony expression on his face or anything on his shell. I assume we’ll get a version like this for the other turtles in later series. Which means we should eventually get a more cartoony Leonardo. I look forward to that.
The printing on Leo's comic is amazingly clear. He can also hold it with both hands which is cool.
The last figure I got, a few days after picking up Leo, was a foot soldier. Oddly enough I think this is my favorite of the bunch. There’s something about his spindly arms and big bug eyes that I love.
There isn’t much to talk about with this guy he is a basic army builder that comes with just one weapon. I can really see myself picking up a few of these guys. I can’t help but smile when I see him.
There is only one of these guys left for me to get. The secret Robo Foot soldier with 4 arms. I’ve yet to find one but when I do I’ll be picking it up.
I am now, sadly, hooked on these things. I’m eyeing the classic Turtle figures, and have been looking into the Call of Duty ones. There is also a Halo Mega Bloks blind bag series out now. I don’t know anything about Halo so I haven’t dipped into that yet. The Call of Duty ones look generic enough, in a good way, that I can see myself picking some up.
Before I go here a few more pictures of the figures. I took all of the pictures with the white background and I’m sorry they aren’t very good. It’s the first time I ever photographed toys. Still they aren’t that bad.
The last photo is the Turtles facing off against some Glyos Krayboth. The look good next to each other. The other Glyos figures are really big next to these guys, but the Krayboth are the perfect size.
That’s it for this week see you next week for a little Fat.
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