Yet another instance when looking a subset of turtles that we decided that Don got the best treatment out of all of them. This Donatello is straight up creepy and if released as it's own figure outside of a TMNT toy line, would stand alone very well. 
The purple is amazing and the weapons (how creepy is rope as an accessory when paired with an ax and a sledgehammer??) make for a very menacing figure. And that's not even touching on the skull mask and hood. Oooooh - someone should do a Skeletor custom with this figure.

Mutagen Man here is actually the only figure in this best of list that we ended up using the repaint of instead of the original and the only reason we did that is because the original was packed away when we were taking photos for this list. This repaint is fun, but we intended the original be shown - though really the figure's sculpt is really what got it into this list. 
The original figure was released with a slight variant where the eyes were not painted, which was most likely just a change in the production run or samples from one factory that got the paint tampos wrong. We actually have the version without the painted eyes, which was kind of a bummer when we realized it - it looks better with the eyes painted on. 
Mutagen Man has a point of articulation that can easily be overlooked if you didn't know it was there, which is the body inside of the container can turn by moving the little knob on top of the container. I'm not sure if it's meant to open or not, but I know we got our original figure to open and were able to pull the inside out - which made for easy access to the container so that you can put ooze/slime inside of it and reseal it. 

Last and definitely not least is everyone's favorite pile of living garbage, Muckman! For a while we were close to not seeing Muckman (character design by the ridiculously talented Jose Garibaldi - who actually designed a bunch of the figures on this list) released as part of Playmates Nick TMNT line - but after some fans became pretty vocal about him being shown at a Toy Fair and then omitted from the line, Playmates eventually added him (albeit ever so briefly) to the line. 
He is, at the time of this entry, the most sought-after figure from the line gaining upwards of $300 on the secondary market.
Though he is still carded here, we have no intentions on keeping him packaged. Our Nick TMNT collection is loose, though some figures we haven't had the time to go through and open yet. And now with this figure hitting such large amounts I couldn't bring myself to open him just for this blog entry. But rest assured, he will eventually be opened to join the rest of the figures in our collection. 

Those of you that are familiar with Toy de Jour (or my [Sam] work history) are aware that we have some connections in the toy industry and mostly at Hasbro. So from time to time we'll get in some neat/rare pieces. A couple years ago a package arrived and included in it was a giant block-made display and a spattering of Transformers Kreo figures. That's about as much info I'm really supposed to give when it comes to who/how these came to us so you'll forgive me if I don't elaborate there. But if you've seen our eBay auctions or follow our Instagram feed you've seen that we get prototype and un-released stuff from time to time.

It took me a while to realize where I had seen this display before, but it was from photos of the Botcon 2011 where the Kreo figures were first shown off. The photos I saw were from www.seibertron.com and featured pretty much all of the figures that were included in this lot. Though some figures were shown in the Botcon photos that didn't seem to make it to me including Megatron, Shockwave, Skywarp and Sideswipe.

There's also a couple weapons missing; one of Thundercracker's blasters and the gun that Prowl was pictured with. I assume this came back to Hasbro after wherever it was displayed (I'll get back to why I'm now switching from saying Botcon 2011 in a moment) sat on someone's desk for a while and folks played with the figures, maybe took a couple back to their desks, and in the process caused the differences between what I saw online and what showed up in person. 

Here's the group shot from Seibertron.com: 

So while I'm certain this display was used for showing off these figures, I'm going to point out that the set I have is not the set shown here and here's the reasons why. 

• The Optimus I received is from the box set that was available through various Hasbro promotions during 2011 and features an open-chest with the Matrix whereas the one shown from Botcon is the first release Optimus that came with the first wave of building sets. (All of the figures shown above are from that first wave of building sets.)
• The display itself is a different build. I looked at these photos quite a bit to compare my figures and this display and there's a few things that give it away. The photo from Botcon has some angled pieces on the sides that cause a sleek look, but mine has squared pieces causing "stairs" that run along the sides. But what I spotted that cinched it for me was the gray stripes under each level. If you look below Mirage in the middle of the Botcon photo the lower level of the gray line has two pieces that meet right under Mirage's feet and pretty much directly in the middle of the whole display. Mine is the opposite and the top row of the gray has two pieces that meet right in the middle. Once you notice that you can spot other differences in the gray lines. 

Those things lead me to believe that this isn't the exact same set that was displayed at Botcon (unless there was more than one display there) but possibly another base that was made at the same time for display either internally at Hasbro (if you've ever been you know that they display quite a bit of their current brands throughout the compound) or possibly at another convention such as SDCC or Toy Fair where they'd need to show the same figures but not have to worry about getting the display from one show to another in once piece. It's quite possible that a few of these bases could have been made and designated for various shows in 2011. 

So all that aside, and just being happy knowing that this display came from Hasbro and I got some free Kreo figures without having to get the big sets that I was never interested in - I displayed this with the rest of my Transformer Kreo figures and went about my happy life. 

Sometime later I was doing a bit of cataloging of my figures and came across this base with the figures which was now no longer displayed but rather now in storage. That was when I realized that one of these little dorks actually never made it to retail though shown off by Hasbro originally.
That would be the mean, green machine - Hound. 

So, every other figure that was displayed at Botcon saw release in those building sets, but old Hound here got the boot. It's possible that he was planned to be included in one of the other sets and not necessarily in his own set since some Kreon figures were included in sets that they weren't the focus of (Shockwave was released in the Megatron set) - and may have been pulled at the last minute. 

Hound did get a couple Kreo/Kreon releases one as a part of the 'Class of '84' boxset released at SDCC in 2014 and as a 'Battle Changer' in 2015. Both of these releases are far off from this design shown originally. The Class of '84 Hound is much more detailed and a darker green and the Battle Changer Hound doesn't follow the same format as the traditional Kreon minifigures with buildable/moveable arms and legs. 

So while this design is much simpler than the other two that did see release, the design is much more in line with the first series figures and a pretty neat piece that unfortunately, with the Kreo line overall dying off in the past few years, will probably never see the light of day at mass retail.

This whole display including the unreleased/cancelled Hound is currently up for auction here.

Went looking for a toy archive of Spinjas recently and found out that the internet only has mentions of them usually in the form of "I totally forgot about Spinjas!" so I figured since we just got in 18 of the 24 that were ever made that we should archive them for other folks out there searching for more info. These were released in 1987 by Parker Bros and from what I can tell didn't make it passed this first series. Definitely seems like a precursor to Hasbro's Beyblade by putting characters on top of tops that "battle" one another when released into a controlled arena. 

I was finally able to find a list of all 24 from a photo on the back of a sealed set on eBay so let me put the list here. I'll bold the six that we don't have which we won't have photos of - somehow we are missing exactly three of the good guys and three of the bad guys. Something to note is that all of the good guys have dark color bases and the bad guys have gold bases. 

First up (since we're missing who we assume is the good guy leader - Emperor Gar) is Champion Shotgun. He looks as though his name should be Champion Shogun since he looks a lot like a Shogun Warrior figure. He has two red horns off of his helmet and his eyes are yellow while most of his body is blue along with some blue on his helmet. The helmet is angled above his eyes making him look angry.

Stalker Tangle looks like sort of a robotic knight (as do most of these figures) with a weird almost antenna looking device on his left. Or I guess it looks a bit like he's doing an Ultraman pose, which wouldn't be far off since he resembles Ultraman quite a bit. His three paint colors are yellow, silver/gray and blue.

I'm giving a Steve Harvey/Family Feud look at the camera right now as if someone just gave "Stalker Gash" as their response to "Names You'd Find on a Toy Package". I'm assuming someone thought 'gash' sounded cool like 'wound' or whatever. It doesn't. No one takes this dude serious. Which is sad, cause he's my favorite out of all of the Spinjas we have. I've said it before and I'll say it again, you can't go wrong with a blue and purple color scheme. Something that comic creators figured out in the early 80s. 
Mr. Gash looks like yet another knight and less like a ninja. Yellow eyes which seems to be commonplace among the Eliminators. 

Numbers 6 - 9 are all part of the Fire Knights, one of the two elemental subsets for the good guys.
I'm not certain what qualifies you to reach "Stalker" level within the Eliminators ranks, but I'd like to think it means that you follow your opponent around the ring relentlessly until they give up or you both fall over out of exhaustion. Three colors again with white and red making up the most of the figure and of course yellow eyes. He's also got a cool mace on his back that he probably uses for stalking or scorching. 

Iron Top is the only character to acknowledge exactly what these toys are in his name. I doubt they're iron, but they most definitely are tops. Iron Top looks a bit like a samurai with the crescent moon and horns on his helmet. Red and gray are the majority and yeller eyes once again. Most of these dudes, including Iron Top look like they're fighting with their arms crossed. That's pretty badass to go into a fight like that but I guess if you have your arms out when you're spinning like crazy you may lose a limb.

Volcano holds the distinction of being the only Spinja that not only has no paint apps, but is also made of translucent plastic. He lives up to his name with the bright red making him stand out in a Spinjas party. When I saw him in the lot we got I assumed he was rare or like came in a play set or something, but no. He's just a dude just like the rest of us. Except he doesn't have yellow eyes like he should. 

Blowgun is the first of the three Ice Knights a subseries of the good guys. I dig the big eyes on this guy, and of course they're good guy-yellow. There's a little McDonald's pull back robot from the 80s that looks a lot like this character. That dude was always one of my favorites so I like this guy too. His three colors mix blue and dark blue which we haven't seen thus far on these guys. 

So Whip Shot is straight up just playing baseball. I'm not sure he knows what's going on, but these are battles to the death. Hopefully that futuristic baseball bat will help him out in the arena. Probably will help a bit more than an actual whip would, but who knows. I've never personally entered the Spinjas' arena and don't nintendo. (That's not autocorrect, I'm gonna start using "Nintendo" instead of "intend to".) Colors are gray, blue and yellow.

Okay so it's not 100% for your name to match your design at all if you're a Spinja. Meet Trident, the resident football player. I guess if 'Whip Shot' can play baseball, then Trident can play football. This is the last of the yellow-eyed dudes. And while his main colors are yellow and blue, his little football thingy is the only application of orange on the entire figure.

So I should mention again that the image I was pulling their names from was very low-res and I'm assuming that his name is spelled this way, and I guess that this is his name at all. So the photos are a bit washed out, but the king is light blue, gray and orange. He has an actual crown which helps identify him as the leader of the Dread Force. He's also apparently holding a book in his right hand, which when it comes to a toy line, what could be more evil?! His base, like the rest of the bad guys is gold.

I'm guessing the marketing team had a list of approved names and "beetle" wasn't one of them so this dude is Champion Switchblade. That's smart of him though, going into battle with the name Champion is sure to put you at an advantage against your opponent. And if that doesn't intimidate them, Switchblade is sure to drive them mad while they're looking all over expecting you to pull one out. He does look like he has a knight helmet behind those green fists. I'm starting to wonder if the term Spin-Knights was taken or something. There's like zero freakin' ninjas in this toyline. He's gray, green and yellow.

Oh! So the bad guys have 'Stalkers' too. Look at that! You'd think all the stalkers would be friends. This one looks like a dude wearing a cobra costume. The bad guys give zero fucks about what color their eyes are too. Some are yellow, some are blue and some are yellow. Stalker Mangle is dark gray, yellow and green. His favorite movie is Hope Floats.

Bludgeon is another badass that looks like she's going into battle with her arms crossed. Yes I just assigned her as female, as far as Spinjas go this site is cannon based off of the amount of information here versus any other so deal with it. She's orange and blue with black on her mask making her look like a tiger. Rad name, awesome paint job and a bad attitude makes Bludgeon one of my favorites. 

The best name yet. Can you smell what Odor is cookin?! It's friendship. Odor is dark gray, yellow and green with quite the impressive headdress. Arms crossed yet again. I'm starting to think it's less badass and more afraid to get their hands hurt when spinning like crazy.

We have a friend that's a butcher and he's a delightful human so one could only assume that this dude is as well. Getting a lot of green/gray/yellow with the bad guys and this guy is no exception. Butcher is the last of the Muckers, which I assume is a shortening of the words 'mother' and 'fucker'. Good team name guys! If I were a Spinja I'd ask to join. 

Well Slug looks like a Mantis so nothing in this world makes sense. I would have a done a whole lot better if I had realized that from the get-go. Green/blue/yellow. His eyes on on the side of his head so it's probably pretty easy to not get dizzy when in the arena. Slug is the first of the three members of The Rotters. They all look like bugs and have green as their main color. 

"Hey, Barb - we have this figure that is all green and looks just like a beetle, what should we call it?"
"Oh that's easy, call that one 'Maggot'."
​"Nice! That's why you're the president of stupid operations here at Parker Bros.!"
I mean, it could be a gray little maggot wearing a beetle coat of armor to toughen itself up. But I think I'm helping too much here. Maggot is dark green, light gray and yellow.

You know when you've got 24 characters to name and it's 4:56 on the Friday before the three-day Labor Day weekend and if you don't get these names out your toy line is going to miss the deadline for shipping to get to the states for the Christmas season? This fucking green bug dude? This is Sloth. SEE YA NEXT TUESDAY, FUCKERS!!
Black, green and yellow with crossed arms, fly-like bug eyes and he somewhat resembles Buzz-Off from Masters of the Universe. But as long as the folks at Parker Bros. had a good Labor Day weekend, who gives a crap about all that. 

It's not often that we get a chance to review an entire series of toys, but luckily for us the first series of Indiana Jones Temple of Doom figures from LJN contained only three characters. Since we had all three in the shop at the same time, we figured we might as well take this opportunity to showcase some rare figures that not everyone gets a chance to see in person. Finding one of these figures complete is pretty difficult, but getting all three is slightly more difficult than what was just mentioned. Maybe like three times as difficult. We shall break them down in order of $$$ below. 

These three figures were released in 1984, not to be confused with the larger series of smaller 3.75" figures released by Kenner in 1982. 

There was a second series planned for these 5.5" figures, but ultimately those were cancelled and Willie Scott and Short Round never made it past the prototype stage. There was also a prototype production piece made of some sort of train cart play set, but again never made it to retail. 

These three figures have pretty fun and unique sculpts and and accessories while suffering from lack of articulation brought on by the play features that LJN seemed to think their toys needed at the time. Each figure has a lever on it's back that when pushed down would trigger their arm(s) to raise up and drop down when released to mimic whipping/axe-ing/staffing. This is the same sort of thing that most fans disliked about LJN's flagship toy line from the 80s; The Thundercats. 

​While this may have been good for commercials showing each toys action feature, it really did a disservice to the toy itself as half of the figure's play pattern was dictated for you ahead of time. What if I didn't want to have Giant Thuggee thrashing his axe at Indy but rather wanted him to give everyone a hug? That arm flipping up in that motion while giving a hug is quite awkward and possibly lead to a misunderstanding that ultimately would lead staaaaight back to the fighting. 

Indy came with a whip with a handle that has a nice soft plastic handle that's easy to squeeze into his hand, a silver knife with a black handle, his trademark fedora and a bag with a strap that fits around his shoulder. He's our second favorite figure out of the three, but we'll let you guess which one is our fave.

Indy, just as the other two figures, had that weird "been sitting in storage for thirty years" stickiness to him and his accessories that was easily removed with a disinfectant wipe.  Although his skin tone is somewhat "sickly" he's a good representation of the actor/character and we would have loved to have this figure when we saw the films for the first time. 

Mola Ram has some pretty fun accessories, the cow(?) skull headdress, gold knife and gold staff with a skull molded to the top. He's the easiest to stand (not that the other two are hard to stand) with his robes molded solid down to his feet, but with the legs separate from one another so he can do some sick dance moves if need be. For a 5POA figure with thick sections such as those legs he does seem like he has a lot of playability to him. 

His head sculpt is a bit more spot on than Indy's and really looks like Amrish Puri as Mola Ram. More so when the helmet is off and you can see his entire head. 

Some how with a sash and a belt and a strap Giant Thuggee was still able to keep both nipple exposed. Well played, GT. Well played.

Giant Thuggee comes with a pickaxe, a scimitar and a strap/belt type thing that the scimitar fits in nicely for storage and intimidation. He also comes with an impressive beard sculpt. Not easy to do on figures without detracting from the movement of the head which is why a lot of times figures just have beards lazily painted on the figure. Which sucks because it usually ends up looking like the figure just got finished rubbing the lower part of his face in poop.

"GIANT THUGGEE DOES NOT PUT HIS FACE IN POOP! GIANT THUGGEE HAS A BEARD!!" He wanted us to tell you that. 

All in all these figures are pretty great despite their built-in play features and despite sounding salesy here, would look great on your DVD shelf if you still have such a thing. 

Liz - hold up is that that dude that rips out hearts? throw him away.

I say it often; "I don't collect Power Rangers toys". And I usually find myself saying that right after buying a new Power Ranger toy to add to my non-collection. I don't know what I was looking for, but I know it wasn't Power Rangers and it wasn't this figure that I had no idea existed until finding in some seller's eBay listings. 

But once I saw it I bought it immediately. A translucent vinyl figure with sparkles in it?! I don't care what toy line this is for, I want it and I want it now. 

"Now" actually took about two weeks because it was coming from China, but I got him and he's proudly displayed on our mantle now, wondering why he's in our house as there's like barely ANY Power Ranger figures for him to hang out with. 

Seriously though, we grab villain figures when we think they're cool and the new Dino-Charge line or whatever is FULL of cool villain figures so this guy has a lot on his plate if he wants to keep our living room safe from danger. 

We also have the 12" captain doggy dude from the SPD series. I guess I really appreciate Power Rangers toys for putting out stuff that is accessible even if you're not a fan of the show or current storyline. It's also nice to be able to avoid trying to take home a mint-in-box Saba or Dragonzord when they come in the shop since I have zero attachment to the brand from a nostalgia standpoint. 

Oh, and I really like the Putty figures from most of all the various Power Ranger series. Sorry for a weird rambly review, but I'm bored and these photos have been on my phone for over a year now so I thought I should do something with them before deleting them. 

I guess I should give you some info on the figure... This is a Sentai Hero Operation Overdrive Red Ranger. He's about 5.5" tall, articulated in the neck and shoulders only and has a gun that fits in his hands or on the holder connected to his belt. He came in a two-piece box which is surprising since a lot of the figures this style and size usually just come with a tag. 

CHICAGO (TdJ) - A trip down the toy aisle had a local (cat) dad doing a doublejointed-take. He's furious over a popular Star Wars action figure sold in stores in our area. He says it's not appropriate for young cats, or anyone for that matter.

So... is it harmless movie memorabilia, or is it too mind-boggling for young cats? Take a look and you decide. We sent our stupidest genius to talk with the dad and do some digging.

It's a toy on store shelves all over the country, but some parents say the action figure intended for kids ('or cats', chimed in Wells) 4-and-above is way too inappropriate for kids ('OR CATS!', again Wells) of any age.

We caught up with Sam Wells and his cats after a trip to the Toys R Us store in Chicago ("shopping for their damn selves!").

"My cats are probably like ‘Human, why does this doll have weird fucking elbows? Humans don't have joints like that!’. I don't have any answers. I was just blown away looking at it," Wells said.

Even his cats thought the toy meant for ages 4-and-up may be better suited for a blind person that doesn't want to touch their toys.

We showed the action figure to other cats who had a similar reaction but ultimately either walked away or flopped on the ground, partially laying on the figure. 

"It’s a little weird, but it's a toy. Who cares? Has this company been making toys for a while? Maybe it takes some time to get these things right. Some joints hidden inside the arm would have helped," Liz McArthur said.

"It’s just a bit much for a cat. They don't really play with action figures. Plus this one is creepy looking. So, no, I probably wouldn't give this to my 4-year-old cat and maybe not an 8-year-old cat," James Zespy said.

"The outfit is true to the scene, but I don't know if I would purchase this for my cat just because of how weird those joints are." added Sean Dove.

We found the toy is sold online and in stores like Target and Toys R Us, but this cat dad thinks Luke Skywalker needs to go.

"But that kind of crap is in the toy aisles for me to see? Nah," Wells said.

We did mean to reach out to Toys R Us corporate headquarters for a response but forgot. In a statement they'd probably say:

“We have not received any other guest complaints about this product. We have seen you bringing in a lot of people with their cats and looking at the figure. What's the deal? We don't allow pets in the store. Where are you finding these people? Were they already coming to shop with their cats or are you like putting an ad on Craigslist or something? Please stop. Seriously, it's weird. The figure in question is already long-gone from shelves and we half think you keep bringing it into the store yourself.”

We also really wanted to reach out to Hasbro for a comment on the story. We have not received a response.

The toy is sold all over the country for about $3 - 9 bucks on clearance racks.

Rarely am I surprised walking through a toy aisle, what with every new figure previewed and revealed online months ahead of time with complaints following shortly thereafter. However today while walking through Walmart it was a completely different story. 

The Corps! figures had some new faces on the pegs where it's normally the same dudes hanging out in different packaging. In fact, the new faces weren't dudes at all. These three packs featured what I believe are the first female members to join the ranks of The Corps! since the line started back in the early 80s. While the comic we (DDP) published back in 2008 or so had some female members, there were never had figures made of those characters.  But it looks like the first offerings from Lanard by the way of lady troops was done with some real thought put into it. 

While the two female figures share the same body, we're given two different headsculpt. The villain (member of The Curse) is done in dark red, brown and black and sports a bit of a pomp with a ponytail. The heroine is in gray and drab green with some camo on the pants and has one side of her head shaved. She looks a little more punk than the villain but that might just be Lanard breaking down good/bad stereotypes. Could have even been a decision made after the sculpts were done to give the eviler looking of the two to the good team and the nicer looking one to the villains. 

The cards make mention of The Corps! member, Snake Bite (above on the left) but the card for the other three figures didn't have character names on the back and no mention of the characters' names anywhere else on the packaging. While we know the packages came with Rain, Snake Bite, Buckshot and Dozer from The Corps!, we have no way of knowing who the members of The Curse are. Which may be a way to add to the everyman/woman idea of evil, keeping names out and making it vague, but I think might be something that was overlooked when it came to the packaging. 

Each package came with a mix of figures meaning which side of the battle they're on and what era they came from/articulation they have. The two female figures are done in a style similar to the modern era Joes, commonly seen on Hasbro figures since the 25th Anniversary line for G.I. Joe, Marvel Universe and Star Wars included. Then there's one figure in each package from about 2010 who were listed as "new recruits" at the time of their first release and found in single packs and double or triple packs like these. In these packs that's "Rain" and the bad guy with a skull on his clothing. The last two figures are both good guys and have little to no articulation and have been recently released with playset packs at stores like Family Dollar, Walgreens and Dollar General. This includes "Dozer" and "Buckshot". 

So each pack came with two good guys and one villain, but where the articulation and body style fell within faction was random. There were other new three packs done in this manner with newly sculpted figures, but these were the only two with female figures and thus the only ones I picked up. Each pack is a Walmart exclusive and cost just under $7. 

I don't doubt we'll see multiple repaints of these two characters as we do with all other figures from The Corps!. That is unless the cost of assembly does these figures in too. The cost of assembling figures in Chinese warehouses far exceeds the price of all the sculpting and producing of multiple molds for all the various parts. Which is most likely the reason the majority of figures from Larnard have such limited articulation. And definitely why we saw such decline in articulation in G.I. Joe figures released with vehicles from the movie toy lines to date. 

The articulation on these two is the focus here, they have ball jointed heads (and thus I see a lot of use for Joe customizers with these heads), two points at the elbow, one at the shoulders, mid-torso, knee and surprisingly; ball joints at the hip for both legs.  

I'm guessing the characters are pretty equally matched since they come with the same accessories, but what's neat is that Larnard has been doing a good job at giving the figures exactly what they can carry. So the figures have notches on their backs for both knives, a holster for the gun with the silencer and a hole randomly in their lower back for the crossbows. Where one will probably have an advantage over the other is when it comes to whatever terrain they're racing their motorcycles on. One is more of a dirt bike and will do well off-road and in the desert, the other looks to be more for street racing and drifting in Tokyo. 

I suggest picking these figures up and soon because customizers are going to be scooping them up as soon as they see them. While we will most likely see these repainted as I stated before, there's really no guarantee that will happen.