May 18, 2010

TDJ027 - Clear red Baron Karza and Andromeda

I've sat on this figure for years, keeping it in it's box packed away in a closet somewhere. When we recently got a storage unit, I pulled this box out and decided to throw it on the site. I really only grabbed it out of storage because I wanted to sell it. I'm still throwing it up on eBay, but now I'm a little upset because as soon as I opened the package, this happened:



The flippin' horse's back leg broke at the knee! I'm no stranger to figures breaking straight out of the package, or having loose joints or other defects - but this figure specifically bummed me out because I had plans on selling it once I was done with the pictures and review. Now I'm still probably going to list it, just have to show people the pictures of the broken leg and that I unfortunately superglued it back together for photos. Normally I would just sell it as-is and let the buyer just know that they have to fix it, but with the review, I wanted the horse to be able to stand. Ugh, I'm upset about the whole situation. I'll try to forget the horse's leg and the fact that I should have put it down instead of trying to mend it. There's another joke there about using glue to save a horse, but I'm too upset to figure it out.



I was never really into Micronauts growing up, and I was really only introduced to the mythos through the comics that were released around 2003 or so. The whole Baron Karza storyline seems really intriguing and I can see why it was a popular title both with the relaunch of the toys/comics as well as back when they were originally introduced. The design of the toys are pretty awesome as well and I've always liked, yet not really collected, the vintage Micronauts stuff. Most of the figures have interchangeable parts that you can mix and match with other figures from the line. This Karza figure is the same way and can have multiple body part switched around between him and his horse, Andromeda.



There's tons of extra parts and quite a few pieces that I have no idea why you really need them. There's four wheels, a blender, a couple missiles, a sewing machine, a backpack, an abacus and a couple weird black roundy things that I assume are for beating the crap out of someone. All of these things are made 10x cooler by the simple fact that they are cast in red translucent plastic. When I first started collecting toys again and selling at toy shows, I remember being very annoyed with figures that were either clear or done with some sort of clear colored plastic and even catching some flak for it from some of my friends at the time. Well since then I've learned the error of my ways and completely appreciate when figures are done in that style. I've had the solid black plastic Karza pass through my collection and while again the design is great - that figure can't hold a candle to how impressive this clear red figure is. But again, this might have something to do with the fact that I'm a sucker for repaints as I've stated numerous times before.



If you're an observant lil' bugger, you'll notice in the pictures that I didn't take too many pictures of Karza and Andromeda paired with other figures doing stupid stuff as I normally do with full reviews. This is simply because I took the pictures of this set with the intent of putting them up as just a Daily Shot. But after I realized I took over thirty pictures, that I should probably do a full review. If you're even MORE observant, you'll notice that I really do not like dark chocolate but will eat the dark chocolate pieces of candy out of a mixture if there's someone that's a lactard just to prove a point that people who eat the veggie option of something first when they're not a vegetarian sort of pisses me off. If you didn't notice that by these pictures of Karza, then I'd say you need to pay closer attention to detail.



So even after having to superglue that leg back together, I was still really happy with the figure. If I didn't collect about twenty other toylines, I'd probably be down with starting to hunt for vintage and repro Micronauts items such as this guy. But since we have no room for this guy, him and his broken little horse are going to see what they can fetch and hopefully it'll be enough to pay for my addiction to those twenty other lines. Stupid MoTUC figures and their stupid two hour sell-out time. I've missed the last two months and now I'm going to have to either pay 30% over retail or wait for reissues. Grumble grumble dark chocolate grumble.

Look for Baron Karza here and here.
_____________________________________________________________

Liz: So let me get this straight. Sam is trying to sell a broke ass toy, THAT YOU CAN SEE RIGHT THROUGH, on some internet website called ebabe?? Good luck, LOSER! HAAAA!

Oh btw-FACT: dark chocolate makes cramps go away. Maybe if you ate some once and awhile, it would cure you of the PMS you've had for the last 16 years. BOOYAH!

love you sweetie!

_____________________________________________________________

Plastic/Material – 2/5
Poseability – 2/5
Packaging – 3/5
Design – 4/5
Playability – 2/5
Price (value) – 4/5
Overall – 3/5









May 13, 2010

Daily Shot 116 - Sawtooth Starriors figure

One Sentence Review - One of the best toy lines from the 80s.