Random Happenstance

Sometimes, when I have a bad morning at work, the only reasonable thing to do is to buy a toy on my lunch break, from the Wal-Mart a block away. Although, judging from the mountains of toys on my desk, apparently I'm miserable at my job, and possibly have been for the last thirty-five years. But let's put aside that gloomy thought, and check out a fun trio of recent pickups!

Fisher-Price's Imaginext line has apparently been around since 2002, and many action figure fans are probably familiar with their DC Superheroes figures--yeah, looking up, a cheery Superman and Batman are waving from the shelf by my desk now! Recently, Imaginext got into the blind-bag game, with their first series of ten figures. With a modicrum of ahem, bag fondling, (ew, don't say it like that!) you can fairly easily find the characters you want. In my case, it was the Spy with Jetpack, and the Robot!

Just handling a bag I could feel the throttle-handle of the jetpack, and the robot's clamp-like hand, respectively. The robot and the spy have six points of articulation: neck, both shoulders and wrists, and the legs. The legs move together, so they can either stand or sit. The paint is pretty good for the scale, and the sculpt is chunky and kid-friendly, and fun. The robot has some nice details like the clamps, while the spy has an archly raised eyebrow and is wearing the hell out of that suit. Both have two accessories: the robot has a gun and a tool-disc with a hammer, drill, screwdriver, and wrench. The spy has the aforementioned jetpack and grappling-hook gun--you know, if you have one of those, do you need the other? Well, maybe. The jetpack, tool-disc, and the spy and the robot themselves, all have the Imaginext small-i logo on them.

Next, we've got the Hasbro Rescue Bots Optimus Prime: $2.99 at Target, and he is not blind-bagged. So, if you want an Optimus, you can pretty much just buy one! This may not be a new figure: I think these Rescue-Bots were previously released in two-packs with human characters from that cartoon. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think anyone, ever, has bought a Transformers figure of any kind and been "Yay, I got a human!"

Like the Imaginext figures, Optimus moves at the neck, shoulders, wrists, and the same both-leg hinge. He has the slightly modified Rescue Bots Autobots badge, and a circular saw in place of his left hand. I kind of like both of those, since I figure if Optimus didn't have to deal with Megatron and the Decepticons on a regular basis, Optimus would be perfectly happy to stay at home, maybe making birdhouses and getting the occasional cat out of a tree.

These aren't super-articulated or anything, but a lot of fun. And a good way to cheer up a grim afternoon at work!