Tea with Lena: 1:6 Ultra Corps! Figures by Lanard

There are a lot of things that factor into what review I decide to write next.  First of all, I have a very long queue of dolls that have caught my eye over the years and are just sitting on a shelf, waiting for their turn.  Second, I try to have a bit of an ear to the ground for new items or brands that are being released--even though I'll admit to not being up to speed in that arena.  I'm also always excited to hear about which dolls all of you are noticing and interested in, which certainly influences what I buy.

However, sometimes it's my assistant Lena's priorities or social life that dictate what I do each week, which is exactly what happened this time around.  While I was in the middle of a different review, Lena informed me that Ian's brother Calum was coming to visit all the way from Texas, and so of course I had to drop everything to focus my attention on that.  And I'm glad I did.  For anyone not familiar with Lena's love life, this might be a good time to catch up.

1:6 Ultra Corps! Astronaut by Lanard (discontinued).

World Peacekeepers Sport & Adventure Diver by M&C Toy Centre

My husband and I had a huge amount of fun on our trip to St. John last February.  You might remember Lena's Spring Break posts from that trip, or the underwater photos of some Mattel mermaids.  We had such a good time, in fact, that as soon as we got home, we booked a trip for this February, hoping to re-create the magic.  Following through on that plan, last week we traveled to the small Puerto Rican island of Culebra, which is where I photographed my first Maru and Friends Mini Pal review back in 2017.  Culebra was rainy, but delightful, and of course I had Lena and a collection of doll friends along with me to share in the fun.

One of my guests was a World Peacekeepers Sport & Adventure scuba diving action figure.  The World Peacekeepers are primarily 1:6 military characters, similar to G.I. Joe.  Heavily-armed military dolls are not my thing, but fortunately there are also a few civilian offerings including police men, firefighters, athletes of various kinds, and even an astronaut.  The diving character's underwater theme seemed perfect for our island trip, and I also thought he was particularly handsome...something Lena whole-heartedly agrees with, as you'll see.

World Peacekeepers Sport & Adventure Diving figure, $19.99.

Nendoroid Figures by Good Smile Company

I was chatting about various dolls with my friend L last month, and when Calico Critters and Li'l Woodzeez came up, L mentioned that some of the furniture and accessories for those fuzzies can work for Nendoroid figures, too.  I had only a vague idea about what Nendoroid figures were at that point, so I did a deep-dive into the brand to see if it might be a fun topic for the blog; it most certainly is!

Nendoroids are popular four-inch tall hard vinyl figures with a Japanese chibi design.  The brand includes a wide range of characters that tend to be based on video games or anime series.  There are a lot of Disney-related figures, too, for those who aren't into anime or video games.  The Nendoroid interpretation of Rapunzel from Tangled is especially sweet.  Nendoroids are made by Good Smile Company, and since I'd just been talking about Good Smile in reference to the newest Blythe dolls, I figured this would be an interesting time to review something from this company.

Nendoroids are pricey--especially for such a small toy.  Most newly-released figures cost about $60, although some models are more expensive.  Characters that have sold out can go for well over $100 on the secondary market.  Because of this popularity and demand, there's an insidious supply of fake Nendoroids out there, tricking people left and right on platforms like Amazon and eBay.  In this review I'll take a look at one of my favorite characters--Link from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild--and compare him to a fake version that I found on eBay.  Here's Link:

Nendoroid DX Edition Link from Breath of the Wild, ¥6,600 (~$55).

Teen Version Hermione Granger by Star Ace

My youngest son is really interested in movies, so we've been watching a lot of films in the last few months, mostly when we're traveling for some type of college-related trip.  We tend to alternate between me introducing him to a classic romantic comedy (like When Harry Met Sally) and him showing me something new and noteworthy (like Get Out).  Because of his enthusiasm, I find myself thinking about movies a lot these days.  One of my favorite movie series is the Harry Potter octet.  I enjoy these movies because I like the story and the characters, of course, but also because my family watched them (many times!) when the kids were younger.

With all of this on my mind, I guess it's no surprise that I chose a movie-related doll to review this week, specifically, Star Ace's Teen Hermione Granger from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.  This is a doll that I preordered back in September of 2016, about half a year after I wrote a review of Star Ace's Sorcerer's Stone Hermione.  My positive experience with the first Star Ace Hermione doll made me very excited and optimistic about this version (especially because Prisoner of Azkaban is my favorite of the eight Harry Potter movies) but the reality did not turn out to be what I expected.

1:6 scale Teen Version Hermione Granger by Star Ace, $239.99.

Forces of Destiny Rey and Leia by Hasbro

Star Wars is everywhere these days.  The Force Awakens still feels relatively new to me, and yet there's another movie coming out this year (The Last Jedi) and there's still a 2016 movie that I haven't seen yet (Rogue One).  When I was a kid, I had to wait three years between each of the original movies.  Now, granted, three years felt like too long to wait, but this recent deluge of media is overwhelming.  And it's not just the movies, either.  There are trailers, video games (Battlefront 2), and even short YouTube cartoons (Forces of Destiny) to fill the time between films.  While the onslaught of Star Wars media might be too much for me to keep up with, I suspect most fans of the franchise are thrilled...I know members of my family are.

Star Wars merchandise is everywhere, too.  Hot Toys releases new ultra-realistic sixth scale figures regularly, Hasbro has a variety of The Last Jedi action figures out already, and of course there's always a great assortment of Lego sets.  The toys I'm most interested in these days are Hasbro's highly-articulated 10.5-inch dolls from the Forces of Destiny cartoon series.

In this review I'll look at two of these dolls; Rey and BB-8 from The Force Awakens and Leia and Wicket from Return of the Jedi:

Forces of Destiny "Endor Adventure" Leia, $34.99.

Figuring Out Phicen (Part 2): The Phicen M33 Male Body

Welcome to the second of three posts about the fabulous Super Flexible Phicen bodies!  I started this series with the intention of simply finding a head for a pale female Phicen body.  However, my choice of body (the S01A--which you can read about in Part 1) was far too similar to the only other Phicen body I own (the S01--which you can read about here).

So, in an effort to learn something new about Phicen, I went a little overboard and purchased a male body and two of the newest female bodies.  Today I'll take a quick look at the male body I chose, the M33:

Phicen M33 male body with an Eleven head (left), Phicen S01A female body with a Dreamer head (right).

Figuring Out Phicen (Part 1): Finding a Head for a Phicen S01A Pale Body

I had my first experience with a Phicen Super-Flexible Seamless body back in the winter of 2015.  Ever since my review of that doll (Leila, a stainless steel S01 figure) I've been considering another Phicen purchase.  In fact, I bought another doll while I was reviewing Leila, but I sent her back immediately because I did not like the body shading or the head sculpt.  I always assumed I'd give the brand another try, but there have been some obstacles along the way.

The first obstacle was that my older Phicen body is not holding up very well.  I was never able to get the pencil stains off her leg, and her soft body has continued to separate along the side seams.  Another hurdle is that the newer Phicen bodies do not come with heads...and Phicen doesn't sell heads separately.  In theory, I was happy to purchase a head from a different company, but it's not so easy to tell which heads will go with which bodies, and the Phicen pale bodies seem particularly difficult to match.

My mission for this review was to order a new stainless steel pale body and then find it a head.  Sounds simple, right?   However, I'm not very good at keeping track of all the different types of Phicen body (or all of the different brands of heads, for that matter).  My inexperience led to a few blunders that took me off on some unexpected tangents.  By the time I figured out what was going on, I had way too many photographs for one post.  I decided to split my discoveries into several short parts: Part 1 will be my quest for a decent head for an S01A body.  Part 2 will feature a Phicen male body (and the selection of his head), and then Part 3 will look at two of Phicen's 6th generation female bodies...and a few more heads.  It's going to be a full-blown Phicen overload.

Phicen S01A body with middle-sized breast...and no head ($74.99).

Star Wars: The Force Awakens 1:6 "Jakku Rey" by Hot Toys

I was nervous about watching Star Wars: The Force Awakens, as I imagine many children of the 80s were.  The original Star Wars trilogy was such an important part of my childhood, I needed this continuation of the story to be good.  And it was good, I thought.  A bit predictable, certainly, but an awful lot of fun.  I laughed and cheered and even gasped a few times.  The thing on my mind as I was walking out of the theater had little to do with the plot or the well-loved older characters, though.  I was focused primarily on Rey, the new female protagonist.  She is awesome.  I think Daisy Ridley's  spunky and intelligent interpretation of this mysterious girl from Jakku transformed Force Awakens into much more than the simple nostalgia-ridden adventure than it might easily have been.  Because of Rey, I'm impatiently eager to find out what happens next in this new saga.

My reaction to the Rey character might be exaggerated, but it compelled me to immediately start scouring the internet for Rey paraphernalia.  I bought several of the less-expensive action figures (a few of which I'll show at the end of the post), but found their resemblance to Ms. Ridley disappointing.  When I saw the promotional pictures of Hot Toys' Rey online at Sideshow Collectibles, I wasn't convinced that she was the perfect tribute to the character, either.  However, after a few days' reflection, I decided that she was easily the best option out there, and so I placed my pre-order.  I ordered Rey in January--a few weeks after I saw the movie--and she arrived in mid September.

Let's dig in and see if she was worth the wait...and the price:

1:6 scale Star Wars: The Force Awakens "Jakku Rey" from Hot Toys, $224.

"Hermione Granger" by Star Ace Toys

In my post about Mattel's 2001 Hermione Granger play doll, I mentioned that I had another Hermione to review.  Several of you guessed correctly that it was Star Ace's new sixth scale figure from the My Favorite Movie series.  Aside from the fact that both of these Hermione dolls portray Emma Watson's version of the beloved character from The Sorcerer's Stone, they have very little in common.  First of all, the Star Ace figure costs about ten times as much as the Mattel doll: a whopping $210, to be precise.  However, Sideshow Collectibles has a great payment plan, and so I was able to make this purchase slowly over a period of almost half a year.  There are other differences--in size, quality and articulation to name a few, and also the fact that Star Ace's Hermione is not yet discontinued and can still be found for sale in several online locations.

The biggest difference between the two dolls, however, is that Star Ace's Hermione is strikingly realistic:

Sixth scale Hermione Granger by Star Ace Toys, $209.99.

"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" Figures by Hot Toys--A Guest Review!

I have collected and reviewed a few action figures in the past year, but am still a huge noob in this arena.  I really like my Walking Dead Daryl Dixon figure, but he's not very articulated.  My Phicen Seamless figure is the most beautifully articulated doll I have ever owned...but she's not super durable.  I'm still on the hunt for a happy medium in the action figure world: realism, articulation and durability all in one.  I've had my eye on the 1:6 scale figures from Hot Toys for a while--especially the gorgeous redheaded Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.  Despite my growing curiosity, I've had a hard time getting myself to plunk down the funds necessary to look at one of these Hot Toys figures up close.

As luck would have it, I got an email a few months ago from Gwen, who was hoping to review not just one...and not two...but three Hot Toys figures!  Of course I couldn't resist the wonderful opportunity to get another perspective on the quality of these collectibles.  Gwen is primarily an American Girl collector, but her tastes have wandered into the action figure realm.  It's fun for me to encounter someone who appreciates dolls at such different ends of the spectrum.  I used to assume that doll collectors mostly stayed loyal to one particular brand or type.  On the contrary, I'm frequently impressed by the combination of styles and sizes of doll that people enjoy.  This diversity is yet another one of the amazing things about the doll collecting hobby.  Anyway, Gwen is an absolute delight to work with and has done a fantastic job of reviewing three dolls in one post.  She did such a good job, in fact, that about half way through formatting her review, I broke down and pre-ordered my very own Black Widow figure from Hot Toys.  Finally!  Thank you for helping me make this momentous decision, Gwen.  My Black Widow review will have to wait for fall, but let's not wait another second to have Gwen tell us all about her three handsome men.  Over to you, Gwen!

Hello everyone! I'm Gwen, and while I usually spend my time blogging about American Girl, historic food and my attempts to cook it, I'm here today to talk to you about these action figures from Hot Toys that came out in conjunction with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. With the Hot Toys figures for Avengers: Age of Ultron almost all released and available for pre-order, I thought people might be interested in hearing some thoughts about these pricey-but-cool looking figures, and Emily was kind enough to let me take the chance to do so!

The Captain America: The Winter Soldier Captain America and Steve Rogers Set by Hot Toys, $339.99.

Phicen's Super Flexible Seamless 1:6 Scale Figure with a Stainless Steel Skeleton

Ok, so here in the Northeastern United States we have been getting quite a lot of snow.  I think Maine has had 25-30 inches of the stuff over the last few days...with more to come.  I very much hope that all of my fellow New Englanders are faring well in these storms.  The weather has certainly made my week strange--with a mix of snowed-in days and hectic catch-up days--but I did get the chance to spend some time with a very unique action figure doll that I've been admiring for quite a while.

I am a relative newcomer to the world of action figures, but lately this style of doll has become increasingly appealing to me.  One of the reasons I'm drawn to action figures is that many of them have excellent articulation and balance.  This flexibility can come at a price, though--some of the figures I've purchased (like my Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Otaku figures) have unsightly joints and/or bizarre, exaggerated proportions.  I also admire how action figures can have such realistic faces, and both my Daryl Dixon figure and Séverine's Avenger's Black Widow are great examples of this.  With all of these things in mind, I set out to find a 1:6 scale action figure with a good blend of articulation and realism.

In my quest for this ideal action figure, I spent a lot of time browsing BigBadToyStore, Entertainment Earth and several of the big manufacturer's websites.  I also lurked around on the information-packed forum, "One Sixth Warriors."  After all of this research, the company that stood out to me the most was Phicen.  What makes Phicen figures unique is that they are extremely well-articulated, but they're also "seamless"--meaning that they have very few visible joints.  The skin-like covering on these dolls can make their bodies look startlingly real in some photographs.  In fact, the body on the Phicen figure in this review is so realistic that I left her partially clothed for most of the pictures.  Even so, I would like to start off with a quick warning:

WARNING: The realism of this doll might make some photographs inappropriate for the workplace or for young children.

1:6 scale seamless Super Flexible Phicen body with stainless steel skeleton, $105.

The Lammily Doll

Lammily is a unique new fashion doll who was released at the end of December.  The mainstream media is very interested in this doll, and has been since her conception in early 2013.  In fact, I didn't learn about Lammily through the usual doll collecting channels, but rather from my brother-in-law, who saw an article about her in The Atlantic last May.

Lammily was designed by graphic artist Nickolay Lamm, and the reason that she has captured such widespread attention is that she was designed to have the body proportions of a typical American teenager.  Unlike Barbie (and most other 12-inch fashion dolls) Lammily does not have an impossibly tiny waist, large chest, oversized head or spindly legs.  Mr. Lamm used body measurements published by the Center for Disease Control to ensure that his doll would not only be realistic...but would be average.  The word "average" does not tend to conjure visions of loveliness, but Mr. Lamm challenged this preconception and branded his doll with the inspiring logo, "Average is Beautiful."

I pre-ordered two Lammily dolls immediately after reading the article in The Atlantic (the dolls are $25 each).  This is exactly the kind of crowd-funded, vision-driven project that I love to see in the doll world.  I was inherently enthusiastic about the Lammily concept, but an email I received from Nickolay Lamm last May added to my excitement.  Mr. Lamm wrote seeking some advice about the doll's articulation--and you guys can probably guess that I, uh, had a fair amount to say on that subject.  Conversations back and forth with Mr. Lamm over the past few months have given me a fascinating glimpse into the creative process behind this unique new doll.  I have been on pins and needles to see how all of Mr. Lamm's ideas came together in the debut doll, and am beyond excited to share my initial impressions with all of you:

The Lammily doll makes her entrance.

McFarlane Toys' 10" Daryl Dixon Figure from "The Walking Dead"

I don't review action figures very often, but since tonight is Halloween, I am going to look at McFarlane's 10 inch Daryl Dixon figure from The Walking Dead.  Daryl (played by actor Norman Reedus) is my favorite male character in this gritty, gruesome and addictive television drama.  When I saw how accurate this figure is to Daryl's character, I knew he'd have to join my collection.  As an added bonus, it's nice to have this fearless crossbow hunter around to patrol my woods on such a spooky night....

10" Daryl Dixon meets a Gentleman.