Masters of the Universe: Eternia Minis (Wave 1)

 Another 80's toy staple is making it way back to retail toy shelves in 2020, but these are of a smaller scale. Masters of the Universe Eternia Minis are small, super stylized versions of classic MOTU characters. Each figure measures just over two inches tall. Wave 1 come blind packaged in these awesome Castle Grayskull boxes, while wave 2 will come in Snake Mountain blind packaging.

Retailing for approximately $5 each and exclusive to Walmart stores, wave 1 contains 8 characters for you to chase. However if you only want a certain character(s) you are in luck as there are letters printed on the bottom of each package. Look for the letter that corresponds to each character and you're ready to go.

A = He-Man  B = Skeletor  C = Man-At-Arms  D = Trap Jaw  E = Ram Man  F = Jitsu  G = Buzz-Off  H = Horde Zombie He-Man (chase figure)

For blind packaging I have to hand it to Mattel as the level of detail on Castle Grayskull is amazing. I really don't need 8 of these, but they are so cool that it's making it hard for me to toss them!

The two halves of the packaging attach via hinges on each side. This also allows multiples to be attached to one another.

Crack open the packaging and you have the figure on one side and a mini catalog with the figure's accessory/weapon on the other side.

The included catalog features the entire wave 1 line with some great artwork. These are the same across all the figures.

All of the figures feature a similar body build. There are 5 points of articulation - head, arms and legs. I wish He-Man came with his shield (or battle axe), but I assume the figure will receive a redeco in a future wave so maybe the additional accessory is coming.

Man-At-Arms looks great, his orange armor featuring all the detail that it should. His face sculpt is a little odd and I miss the mustache.

I never was a big fan of Buzz-Off and unfortunately this figure doesn't help. I don't care for the head sculpt, even though it's pretty accurate to the original toy. At least his wings are cast in a nice yellow translucent plastic that shows off the sculpted detail.

Ram Man is perhaps my favorite of Eternia's heroes. Always like the character and this new stylized design looks great.

Skeletor looks fantastic, but I kinda wish his mouth was sculpted open more like the classic figure.

Trap Jaw looks very menacing. His claw can be removed from his right arm. Here's hope we get different accessories in future waves. I would say he's my favorite character from Skeletor's side.

I'll be honest - I don't know a lot about the character Jitsu. I know his arch nemesis is Fisto, but that's about all I know. He's well sculpted and the included orange sword makes him look like someone I wouldn't want to cross paths with.

Horde Zombie He-Man is the chase figure of the wave and I believe falls roughly one per retail display box. I just happened to luck out to find the entire wave the first time I found them locally.

At $5 each and with a way of determining which character you are buying, these are an easy purchase for even the casual MOTU fan. I'm very please with the first wave and anxiously await the Snake Mountain wave.

Transformers: Adventure - Psychobat TMC-06

Hasbro and Takara Tomy decided to do a little something with Mini-Cons in their Robot in Disguise (2015) / Adventure series. Instead of just being smaller robots that could aid other Transformers they transformed into various projectile like objects. Think cassettes with Blaster and Soundwave from the original G1 era, the Mini-Con toys interacted with larger Deployer toys such as Fracture. These new Mini-Cons came in various shapes, such as discs, round spheres or torpedos. Psychobat falls in the latter category.

Mini-Cons in the Adventure series came packaged in small window like boxes. Takara Tomy always did package their TFs in cooler packaging than what we received in the West courtesy of Hasbro...at least in my opinion. This packaging allows you to see the actual toy along with the Energon armor bits in the rear.

On the rear of the packaging you get some simple transformation instructions, along with a view of the Energon armor bits and how you can attach them to the figure itself. I believe there is a bio/tech spec of sorts in the blue box, but since I can't read the language this is just an educated guess.

Windra is based on the Robots in Disguise toy Ratbat. Outside of the obvious color change, a clear 5mm port was added. This port allows Psychobat to be attached to other toys or even to be wielded by another Transformer.

In traditional Takara fashion there are more paint applications to the toy than the US version. Psychobat's colors resemble Ratbat's G1 self more so than the toy named Ratbat. Personally I like the light purple more than the maroon that was used on the US release.

Psychobat's alternate mode is a torpedo shape. These type Mini-Cons I feel are the idea versions for the deployer version of Fracture. Not only do these Mini-Cons look great when inserted into the spring loaded launcher, they also seem to launch better.

Like other Mini-Cons, the torpedo shape has an auto-transformation basically. Pull out on each side and you're done. Overall this design does a good job at concealing the robot bits.

The Energon armor bits come attached to a faction shaped symbol. The parts are attached via small plastic sprues. For the older Transformer collectors this harkens back to the days of the original TF toys where accessories had to be removed from little plastic "trees".

In addition to the new deco Psychobat received overseas, so did the color of his Energon weapons.

Some of the Micron/Mini-Con Energon armor bits look good when attached to the toy, but in my opinion this isn't one of those. The armor looks constricting on the toy and doesn't do much in the way of offense like some of the others. I don't care for the armor pieces for any of these Mini-Cons, but if you disagree with me that's alright too.

When the Transformer Adventure Mini-Cons were originally released in Japan they were affordable to import. On the secondary market (at the time of this post) the prices seem to be all over the board, even from Japanese sellers. I used to be a super collector of Mini-Con/Micron toys and that mentality re-surfaced when I learned that the Japanese version of the RID toys would feature different decos. These are fun little toys and I love the new characters and I enjoy them, but your mileage may vary.

Hot Wheels: American Steel - '72 Ford Gran Torino Sport

I believe this new series of Walmart exclusives debuted at the beginning of 2020, but with the current quarantine all sense of time has seemed to disappear! Called American Steel, this collection of 10 vehicles features classic muscle cards from the 60's and 70's. Today we'll take a look at this beautiful 1972 Ford Gran Torino Sport which is #06/10 in the collection.

The primary color used here is a metallic blue with yellow racing stripes down the side and hood/roof area. The wheels are a shiny bronze chrome. The interior plastic is cast in shiny plastic. Both the windshield and rear window are clear. The doors do not have windows. The mold has a copyright year of 2010 "T9672".

Personally I'm more of a Chevy guy, but I've got to admit that this car is beautiful, even more in hand. This series has some really nice cars, shame I didn't pick up more of them while they were still on the pegs.

Super7 Keshi Surprise: Transformers (Autobot)

While walking the massive sales floor of the Charlotte Convention center with my family during HeroesCon 2019, I ran across a dealer that had displays of these blind packaged Super7 Keshi Surprise Transformers figures. I had not seen these before at the time or really knew what they were...but the packaging grabbed my attention. Best I could tell these were chibi like PVC figurines. The back of the box stated there 6 different figures/characters in this assortment and came in one of 4 different colors. Priced at $5 each I grabbed one Autobot and one Decepticon box.

The boxes are small, colorful and looks like something you'd find in Japan. I love the artwork featured on the front of the box. The same artwork can be found on one side of the box showing each of the 6 difference characters - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Grimlock, Jazz, Ironhide and Wheeljack.

I ended up with an orange Ironhide. Immediately upon removing the figure from the black plastic bag inside the box I was reminded of the old Decoys from the 80's. Even the small square sticker reminded me of some of the bonus items found with select Transformers from my childhood. These stickers have a prismatic foil background and look fantastic in hand. The back has line art for the same artwork found on the packaging.

While the Decoys from the 80's were made of a soft rubber, these Keshi figures are cast in a harder plastic. The figures themselves stand at about 1.75 inches. I believe the 4 colors are red, purple, blue and orange.

I like this sculpt of Ironhide as it captures the classic animation look of the character. The head is especially nicely done. The fixed arm pose with fists ready to punch a Decepticon is fitting for this old warrior.

I was pleasantly surprised at how well the Keshi figures look side by side the old Decoys. They are different, but similar.

I love finding stuff like this and at $5 each they are cheap enough to take a chance here and there. I would have been nice to pull a red Ironhide, but that just means I'll need to try again sometime. Highly recommended if you like this kind of collectible.