A Gross of Bootleg Pokemon Figures

If you've spent any time looking for Pokemon stuff on eBay, you've seen them. Bootlegs. Shipped out of Hong Kong in most cases, cheap bootleg stuff is copious on eBay, and Pokemon in particular is a VERY popular target. It doesn't help that Tomy charges frankly ridiculous amounts for their little officially licensed figurines. Of course there'd be a market for cheap bootlegs when a legit two-inch figure costs upwards of eight bucks to acquire! Naturally, these figures are smaller, poorly painted, often off-model, and made of cheaper materials, but that's the tradeoff you make when dealing with bootlegs.

For too long I've wanted to get my hands on some of these beautiful disasters. At long last, I have. They were being sold in 24-count bags for the pittance of $1.60. That meant each individual figure was a mere 6.66 cents. Ominous, but I can't deny the bargain! So I bought six bags.

A full gross of Pokemon figures for under ten dollars. Was it worth it? Let's find out.

Pokemania

If you've somehow missed the eighteen times we've discussed it in Chatzy, Pokemon turns 20 this year and is celebrating with lots of merch and a new event Pokemon every month from now until December. While it didn't hit American shores until 1998, Pokemon debuted in Japan two years earlier, in February 1996. Initially a quiet release, word of mouth was substantial, and by 1997 Japan was wholeheartedly embracing Nintendo's latest RPG. Reception was so positive that Nintendo decided the game was worth releasing in other regions. They took a gamble and made a big hype campaign for Pokemon's western debut - the anime and the game released together, with the trading card game launching a couple months later. This was definitely a risk - what sells in Japan doesn't necessarily sell in other places, and a big deal was being made out of this fledgling series that rested all its' hopes on a very buggy and unbalanced game that came out on a system many considered long past its' prime. Nintendo COULD have had this blow up in its' face.

But it all paid off. Kids flocked to the series like nothing else, and reviewers praised the game's strong points - as poorly-balanced and badly-coded as the game was, it was just plain fun and introduced concepts that were rare in 1998, most notably the complete party customization. Again, it took a little time - according to Bulbapedia, many stores were initially unwilling to sell the card game, apparently believing it wouldn't be popular, HAW - but it took significantly less time to catch fire in the US than it did in Japan. No doubt the big push from Nintendo helped. By 1999, Pokemania was in full swing.

And brother, what a time to be alive.

Before I go any further - the name "Pokemania" was coined by a number of outsiders looking in on the phenomenon (speaking of, some also called it "The Pokemon Phenomenon"). I'm talking adults who were watching in confusion as kids fell in love with 151 Japanese cartoon animals, folks like newspapers, magazines, and third-party groups who released unauthorized guides to the franchise that often had errors but always had heart. Pokemania began at the end of 1998. It built up throughout 1999, and in fall of that year it reached its' peak. It remained strong throughout 2000 and had a grand sendoff in the form of Pokemon Gold and Silver, then slowly began to ebb away in the early 2000s as Pokemon degenerated from a worldwide fad to simply a cornerstone of Nintendo, an established household name brand people always know. By the time Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire released, Pokemon was just another franchise - albeit a tremendously popular and successful one.

Some of you might be a little too young to remember Pokemania, others might be a tad too old and didn't really pay attention when it was happening, considering it just another kid's thing. But me? I was the perfect target audience. For the first year of its' existence, I didn't really notice, but circa September 1999, I finally got hooked and had the ride of my life.

There's a lot I could talk about. The cards, the social interaction, the Game Boy games. But for the purposes of this post, I'm going to zero in on the toys. I've taken photographs of almost all the Pokemon toys I own, the vast majority of which are from 2001 or earlier, and I'm going to go over them in detail here.

Note that for all my posturing and fancy talk, I'm not much of a collector. These are toys that I heavily played with as a kid, and a lot of them are dinged up. You're not going to be seeing pristine museum pieces here. This is a part of my childhood laid bare for your amusement. That said, on with the pics.

Vaguely Dinosaurian Plastic Things

UPDATED JUNE 30, 2024: It took a long, long time, but a comment outside our community from someone who stumbled onto this post and wanted to see the broken images got me to finally go back and fix this old thing up after Dropbox's stupid changes years ago broke all the images. As most of you know, my "dinosaur collection" has taken a dramatic turn since this old post as I am now specifically a Jurassic World collector, with hundreds of Mattel's figures added to my collection since 2018. I only have interest in generic dinosaurs if they're cheap and nostalgic (as in, they look like the old inaccurate figures of the 20th century instead of modern renditions), so almost no new figures have been added to my collection in the past nine years besides Mattel's offerings (and some old Kenner figures based on the first two Jurassic movies).

 

The text of the original blog has remained unaltered, but trust me, I know a lot more about Chaos Effect now.

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Dinosaurs! I've had many major "interests" that figured very heavily into my life for a year, or several, or many, and dinosaurs (and other prehistoric creatures) were among the first. Alongside living animals (particularly bugs, reptiles, and amphibians) and Garfield, dinosaurs were the movers and shakers of my earliest memories. I spent endless hours playing with my ever-growing dinosaur collection, which continued to expand in size regularly until the late nineties, and later experienced a revival period in the early-mid 2000s when my interest in dinosaurs was reinvigorated for a time.

For the most part, my collection has been dormant for a full decade, only very rarely being added to in the form of the occasional old toy I'd find at a yard sale, which became my number-one dinosaur toy hunting ground years ago. This week, though, I've been inspired to excavate the collection and take a look back. What follows are photographs of some - but far from all - of my collection.

My dinosaur collection is very different from my kaiju collection. While I like my Godzilla figures to be fairly true-to-screen, pretty much all of my favorite dinosaur toys are outdated depictions, scientifically inaccurate, or simply wrong. I am fascinated by old-school dinosaur designs. I like tripod tyrannosaurs and inexplicably toothy Triceratops and things that never existed shoved into "REALISTIC DINOSAURS" playsets. It's not to say I don't appreciate the new discoveries made since the eighties... but the old stuff just makes for fun toys! We'll be seeing a lot of that in the following photos.

Toy Review - The BattleBots McDonald's Collection

BETCHA DIDN'T EXPECT TO EVER SEE A TOY POST ON THIS BLOG AGAIN, HUH?!

Ten years ago, BattleBots was my life. Absolutely loved watching these fancy RC toys beat the snot out of each other every week. I got into the robot combat scene unfortunately late in the game, missing out on the first three seasons of Battlebots and the first four seasons of Robot Wars. But I was early enough to get in on the ground floor of the BattleBots McDonald's promotion. And I took this thing seriously - I went back to eating Kids' Meals and requested to look at the available toys before making my selection. I HAD to collect them all.

But it was not to be.

In a tragedy for the record books, I was unable to get all eight toys before the promotion ended. I wound up with six different toys, most of which had at least one duplicate. However, thanks to a garage sale and an eBay auction, I finally collected the full set in early 2011. Let's meet the bots!

Toy Review - Moguera

This is Mobile Operation Godzilla Universal Expert Robot Aero-Type, or Moguera for short. Based on a giant robot from space called Mogera that attacked the Earth in the old film The Mysterians, this updated manmade version appeared as a major "character" in Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla. Moguera is actually a piloted mecha with no artificial intelligence or sentience of its own. Although I rather like him, he's one of the more frequently ignored members of the Godzilla cast.

The Moguera figure is nicely detailed and accurate to the film, two details which are true for the vast majority of Bandai's toys (there's a reason I have so many - these guys know their stuff). There are two minor issues with this figure I'd like to point out, though. Firstly, the waist doesn't turn, although there's a seam there. Since the real Moguera can turn its waist around and it's a fairly natural movement for a robot shaped like this, they missed out on some neat posing opportunities by leaving out this ability. The other issue is that, at least on my figure, the feet have become a bit warped, so the toy does not stand perfectly flat on his feet. This may just be an issue of age, however, since this toy is over a decade old. It's another solid effort from Bandai, and a worthy choice for fans of the robo-penguin.

Toy Review - Kamacuras Gashapon

"Dufe, what the fuck is a gashapon"
I'M GETTING TO THAT HOLD ON

"Gashapon" is the Japanese term for "vending machine toy". You know vending machine toys, right? Those little trinkets found in capsules, and you get one by putting in a quarter (or, nowadays, a couple of quarters) and turning the crank to claim a randomly selected prize. Well, vending machines are big in Japan. The Japanese people absolutely love 'em, and part of that is their appreciation of surprises. Apparently, not knowing exactly what you're getting is a big thrill there, because even some non-vending toys are sold in "blind boxes" - identical, non-windowed packages that could contain any one of several possible toys.

But you don't need to go to blind boxes for a quality random product - since vending machines are so popular, their offerings are a lot more interesting than what we get in the USA. Instead of tiny rubber frogs, sticky bugs, and superballs, Japan's machines offer some pretty cool prizes - not the least of which are these highly detailed miniature models by Bandai.

Godzilla gashapons are generally not for playing with - to fit in the vending machine bubble, they come in pieces. Perhaps you've seen the "3D Puzzle" toys? Not only is that exactly how most gashapon figures work, but some "3D puzzles" actually are gashapons, imported from Japan and upgraded to shelf items because our vending machines aren't fancy enough.

But enough about gashapons in general - what about this one? What we have here is Kamacuras, a praying mantis monster that is known for speed if not durability or might. He is smaller than most Godzilla gashapons because he came with a second monster - Kumonga the spider. However, I only have Kamacuras because I bought him off the internet separately.

For being so small (he's about an inch high and two inches long), Kamacuras is very well detailed and accurate to the film the toy inspired - in this case, Godzilla Final Wars. He stays together perfectly well, although if handled a lot he will usually split in half and you'll need to reattach his thorax to his abdomen.

Good Kamacuras toys are hard to come by. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get the mantis into your collection.

Toy Review - Sonic the Hedgehog

One of the first video games I ever played was Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Genesis. Thanks to that, I'm quite attached to the famous blue hedgehog, although I haven't played many of his more recent games (Many a bad thing has been said on the Internet about Sonic's later efforts). At least nobody can take his old Genesis games away from him - there are some true gaming classics there.

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sonic's first release, Sega released the shockingly well-received Sonic Generations, which takes the modern, redesigned hedgehog and has him wind up side by side with his shorter, stubbier, and cuter Genesis counterpart. Together, the two face both the classic Dr. Robotnik and the modern Dr. Eggman.

The great thing about having past versions and modern versions of a character in the same game is that you can release twice the toys. Jazwares has taken advantage with both classic and modern figures of Sonic the Hedgehog, Being a fan of the original design, I picked up this 5-inch figure.

Sonic can stand on his own and features many posable parts, but there are some issues with this figure. The main one is that big ugly seam on his stomach - it doesn't turn. There's no reason for it to be there. The figure looks great from afar but seems pretty cheaply made when you get into inspecting the finer details, which is a shame. Overall, it's an okay toy, but it could have been a lot better than "okay" if they'd made it worth the sticker price of around 12 dollars.

Toy Review - Zetton

Ultraman was a 1960's Japanese television show, brought over to the USA in the seventies. Each of the 39 episodes followed the Science Patrol as they attempted to keep Japan safe from giant monsters. Unfortunately, they were frequently overwhelmed, but on the plus side that meant Hayata, the Science Patrol's second-in-command, could transform into the giant superhero Ultraman to take out the offending monster or alien.

Ultraman, while not totally forgotten in the US, is incredibly popular in Japan, thriving even when monster films like Godzilla and Gamera were going into hibernation. New seasons of the show are still being made, and some of the weekly monsters have acquired fan followings and encore performances. A few even managed to become heroic.

Moving on to the actual monster this toy is based on, Zetton is one of the more well-known Ultraman enemies, and has the honor of being the final monster fought by Ultraman in the original season of the show - he was episode 39's antagonist. He went on to make a number of reappearances and is generally held as one of the stronger monsters Ultraman has faced.

This figure, created by Bandai in the eighties, does a nice job of replicating Zetton's bizarre appearance. His arms and head are posable. He is made of a soft vinyl that isn't widespread in my collection, giving him a unique feel. There are newer figures of Zetton, but they're all pretty similar, so this old one is perfectly acceptable.

Toy Review - Regigigas Model Kit

Although I love Bandai's vinyl Godzilla toys, they also make many other things - Bandai is a massive company and has the license to make toys and games based off a huge number of hot Japanese properties. Perhaps the biggest of them all is the merchandising juggernaut Pokemon. About twelve years ago, Pokemon was everywhere. Toys in every store, trading cards in every kid's binder, stickers on all of their notebooks, EVERYWHERE. It was a marketing tsunami the likes of which have never been seen before or since. And although Pokemon is no longer quite as visible as it used to be, it's still going. And it's still making millions and millions of dollars.

Here is just one of the tens of thousands of Pokemon toys out there - a simple model kit that allows anyone so inclined to build their own Regigigas. Regigigas is described in Pokemon mythology as a legendary demigod who used ropes to tow the continents of the earth into their current positions. That's incredibly awesome, especially considering he's only twelve feet tall. I would be honored to build the Pokemon who literally moved mountains.

And build him I did! This model requires no glue or adhesive of any kind - just a lot of patience and dexterity. Fitting together his body parts is a relatively simple affair, but look at the inside of the box very carefully so you don't do things out of order, because it's very difficult to wrench the limb halves apart after connecting them.

The real challenge comes from the sticker application. This kit does not require paint, but it does require every single stripe and spot to be stuck onto the body. The eyes are prepainted - everything else is stickers. The leg stripes have an annoying habit of not staying on all the way - I reinforced mine with tape.

When completed, the kit stands a bit taller than three inches and boasts posable arms, wrists, and legs, charmingly referred to as "regs" on the mostly-Japanese packaging. I'll be honest - I love the shit out of this stupid thing. One of my favorite toys.

Toy Review - Gigan (Also Christmas at the KoB)

Yo, Erebus? Alex? Cornwind? You dufes out there? We're having our RP holiday special at Zoofights. It's a very relaxed and worry-free affair. No drama, no epic plots, just general silliness and an opportunity for Christmas-flavored shenanigans. Personally I think it's a great chance to hold Feed Yer Mates. We'll see, I guess.

Here's another figure from my extensive collection.

Gigan, a truly bizarre monster perhaps best described as a "cyborg chicken", was one of Godzilla's most popular foes in the seventies. Debuting in the cheesefest Godzilla vs. Gigan and reappearing in the even more ridiculous Godzilla vs. Megalon, Gigan is a bully and a coward who likes to pick on outmatched opponents but runs away when he's in trouble. In both of his films, Gigan has an ally to help him fight Godzilla - and in both films Gigan ditches his "friend". Over thirty years later, Gigan made a spectacular comeback with a badass redesign that made him a very popular kaiju, and I've got a toy of that one too. But I digress.

This figure of Gigan was made by Bandai Creations, an American branch of the Japanese toy giant. Throughout the 2000s, BC has made a fairly good series of Godzilla figures, which has been great news for fans of Godzilla toys as it means that monster figures are being sold in the USA in big-box stores - most Godzilla toys are only found online or in specialty importing shops. The exposure to kids also helps Godzilla a bit in staying relevant. I fully expect Bandai Creations to take advantage of Godzilla's new film (which is releasing sometime in 2012 or 2013, I believe).

This toy features posable head, arms, and legs. The arms are positioned a little oddly, though - Gigan's left arm looks strange if it's moved out of the default position. The paint job is simple but effective, which I'm fine with - a really fancy paint job often means a more expensive toy.

This is probably the best 70's Gigan available. If you like the character, this is the toy to get.

Toy Review - Hedorah

 In recent years, mostly thanks to the current complete lack of Godzilla films, there have been very few new releases to look forward to on the toy front. One of the last new toys to be made was this sculpt of Hedorah, made in 2006. One of Godzilla's most threatening foes, the vile Hedorah made his only major appearance in the 1971 film, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, also known as Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster. The movie certainly makes it clear it's a product of the early 70s - a bizarre soundtrack, weird animated intermissions, and a moral to protect the environment run throughout. And don't even get me started on the scene where everyone's heads turn into fish.

As for the toy, Hedorah looks fantastic - well, as fantastic as a pile of mutant sludge can look - and has a stellar paint job that accurately captures the onscreen monster. Due to his design, the articulation is limited to just his arms, but that's better than nothing. I wouldn't have minded a posable head, however.

The only major problem I have with this toy is that it is too small. Like many of my Godzilla toys, Hedorah is part of the 6-inch scale. This means that the Godzilla toys in the series are about 6 inches and all the other toys are scaled to fit that. Unfortunately Hedorah is closer to five inches than six, and he towered over Godzilla in their film. This results in a serious scaling issue. It's the only flaw in an otherwise wonderful figure.

Overall I consider this 2006 Hedorah to be the best of the many Hedorah toys released, even if he is a little short. The nice detail and relatively low cost compared to some other offerings make him a great choice.

(Got a new monitor at last! The resolution is huge. I love it!)

Ten Things For A Dime: Top 20 Misses

As I mentioned in my post concerning buying ten things for ten cents, I had to lose a lot of auctions before I managed that victory. Here's a quick list of some of the more outlandish things I bid on just because they were one cent with free shipping. Items are selected for their sheer randomness and for how ridiculous it would be to only pay one cent for them.

20: Plush Snivy
19: Namco Museum for the N64
18: A Japanese 5 yen coin
17: A pair of 3D glasses
16: 17 plastic toy tanks
15: Magatama pendant
14: Plush Angry Bird
13: Two card albums containing a total of 74 gold-plated baseball cards
12: Wii Remote and nunchuck set
11: A bootleg Pokemon Emerald cartridge
10: Halo Reach for the Xbox 360
9: An Agent Smith action figure
8: Beyblade Battle Stadium
7: $25 Petco gift card
6: Plush Mr. Krabs
5: Xbox Live card for 4000 Microsoft Points
4: A Hello Kitty comb
3: Dog flea medication
2: A listing called "hotwheels" with the description "hotwheels" and no photo
1: Microsoft Office 2010

Ten Things For A Dime: The Ten Cents Challenge

Last winter I had an eBay gift card. After buying a bunch of stuff with it, I was soon left with a balance of exactly ten cents.

This would not stand.

It was my mission to begin searching eBay for items that started as one cent auctions with free shipping, bid on them, and hope and pray nobody else was interested. It was a long and hard struggle, but eventually I prevailed. The gift card was completely used up. But what exactly can one buy for a penny? Let's find out. My Hedorah and Baltan four-inch figures will be modeling the goods.

1: Digital Camera USB Cable
The most useful of the ten items, this cable was purchased to serve as a backup in case the original, identical one our digital camera uses ever went missing. We go back and forth between having two cables and finding only one, so I'd say this was a great buy.

2: Europe-To-USA Plug Converter
Can you say Crazy Prepared? On the off-chance I ever fly to the UK or France, I can bring along the home electronic of my choosing!

3 and 4: Rubber Fishbone Cable Winders
 The second-most useful item I purchased was the blue fishbone there. I had a pair of headphones with an unusually long cord, and the fishbone saved the day by making the cable shorter! However, those headphones broke a while back, so the fishbones remain in reserve until I once more have a long, thin cable that needs shortening.

5: Online Wi-Fi Pokemon Trade
The user's name was, I believe, "Pokemontrainer2000". The auction name was "Certian Kind of pokemon over wifi" (yes, he misspelled "certain") and boasted of Mewtwo, Dialga, Giratina, and other Pokemon available to trade. I won a trade from him and sent my Friend Code along with a request for a Mewtwo. He never responded, even though I paid, and a week later his account was closed. HOPE YOU CHOKE ON THAT PENNY, PUNK.

6: Butterfly Pins
While that last one was a bust, THIS worked out better than my wildest dreams. I entered a butterfly pin auction and lost, but was given a "Second Chance Offer" to purchase a one-cent pin outright. Hell yeah, bro.

And then when it arrived they gave me a second one. HELL YEAH, BRO!

I don't know what it cost to make these pins, but it was probably more than half a penny. Deal get.

7: Tongue Scraper
Because why not. Its best function is actually as an action figure weapon, as helpfully demonstrated below.

Aw yeah.

8: SD Card Case
Hey, this could come in handy! I saw an SD Card lying around in the open when I ordered this, but by the time it arrived, I couldn't find the card anywhere. Probably it was placed back into the Wii or whatever. If I ever need to hold one, though, I won't be wanting!

9: Drawstring Pouch
This pouch's main function is to hold some of the other items, like the tongue scraper and the plug.

10: A Penny
(Note: Model penny is a different penny than the one I purchased)

Yes, I bought a penny for a penny. But my penny was eBay gift card money. Therefore, I managed to convert gift card money into cash, and everyone has wanted to do that at some point in their lives.

Plus, the penny was a "Lincoln log cabin" penny, talked up big time by the sellers despite them having 600 of the darn things listed simultaneously. My mom took an interest in the penny and bought it from me for a dollar, technically making this one of the biggest scores of them all with a 99-cent profit!

And so, that's the story of how, with a lot of patience and a little luck, you can get ten things for ten cents even with today's prices. Fun Fact: Everything except the penny, the failed Pokemon trade, and the cable is from Hong Kong.

Plushies!

Ah, plush toys. While many people have them, my collection trends a bit towards the... unconventional.

1: Garfield plushies aren't weird! One of the first series of any sort that I grew to love was Garfield, when I was just three years old. I'll probably deliver a proper tribute to the fat cat in a later post.

2: Sharks are pretty common animals in plush form despite not being particularly cute animals. They're pretty easy to make cute, though!

3: There's this shop near where I live that may warrant a post at some point, but in a nutshell it's a very "folksy" sort of novelty/gift store with things like candles, fabrics, and fancy-schmancy brand toys. Everything is hilariously overpriced so I don't know how they're still in business in this economy, but anyway. They had a major sale last year and I was able to buy the black spider and green snake for a small fraction of their usual price.

4: Giant microbes! I have the Brain Cell and Daphnia.

5: The yellow thing with swirly eyes is Kururu (Kululu) from Sgt. Frog/Keroro Gunso, a comedy manga about alien frogs doing a really, really shitty job of taking over the world (doesn't help that one of their number is distracted by a HOT ASS). It's the only manga I've ever "gotten into", although I've fallen way behind (only up to volume nine. I think they're on, like, twenty or something). This may be another future blog post.

6: Look in the bottom right corner and you'll spot the stuffed walrus I used to make my Berlin Walrus mockup back in May.

7: Bulbasaur and Jigglypuff!

8: Sideways Turtle only cost a quarter at a yard sale last year.

I own a plastic snail.

I would never lie to you. Certainly not about something this important.

Gezora welcomes you!

Gezora is master of all it surveys.

Do you have any idea how hard it is to find Gezora toys? There are a number of them out there, but almost all are stupidly expensive. This little toy was a mere five dollars with free shipping, so I snatched it up. Got lucky there, too - I see people on eBay trying to peddle this tiny plastic toy for twenty dollars. Completely unacceptable. No three-inch toy is worth that much.

Pity the tip of one arm came off, though. I have no idea how it happened - I just picked him up one day and saw he was damaged.

Gezora is aware it has a damaged arm. Gezora asks that you not worry, as it is not painful.

When it comes to Godzilla toys, you got two main camps - the Bandai crowd and the Bullmark crowd. The former toys are liked for their close resemblance to the movie monsters they emulate, while Bullmark toys are often wildly inaccurate with four-legged monsters standing on two legs and monsters that are supposed to be brown getting colored neon yellow with pink highlights instead. I love Bandai toys and loathe Bullmark, but with Gezora it was Bullmark or bust, and Gezora's inexplicable pink spots are relatively tame in comparison to his mostly-accurate body, so I rolled with it.

Gezora is considering frying up some lobster in celebration of Hardcore Prawn's victory. Gezora wonders if you will join it?

Gezora stands at about three inches in height and has posable arms and head.

Right Back Atcha

What with all the Kirby action in the Zoofights Bar lately, I figure it's time to show off my collection of Kirby merchandise. It's nothing impressive, but I've got a few neat toys.

The majority of my toys are from a Wendy's promotion in 2003. I've always preferred Wendy's to McDonald's, by the way. Burger King doesn't place since there are none where I live, so I've only ever eaten there once or twice. Anyway, the Kirby Wendy's promo was probably my favorite of their toy giveaways (but McDonald's was responsible for my favorite toy promotion EVER - more on that another time). I'm a few toys short of a full set, though. This here's Ice Kirby. He's a pullback toy - just as the name says, you pull the toy back and then let go and watch it scoot across the floor and into somewhere inconvenient.

Here we have Angry American Kirby on Warpstar. The toy is wheeled like Ice Kirby, but it's free-wheeling, like a Hot Wheels car, and does not possess a pullback motor. I have three of these thanks to a duplicate Kids Meal and a yard sale that was selling one for a dime. Why did I buy an Angry American Kirby on a Warpstar when I already had two? Because when Kirby merch is a dime, you don't ask questions.

I didn't get this Cook Kirby toy until I found it at a yard sale well after the end of the promotion. He is a fortune-telling toy similar to a Magic 8-Ball, which is why he's pictured with one here. Push down his spatula and the message in his mouth will spin a bit. Kirby has five different responses. It's a fraction of the variety an 8-Ball offers, but he does the best with what little he was given: "Yes", "No", "Maybe", "Ask Later", and "Zzz". So you have a 2 out of 5 chance of actually getting an answer out of Kirby.

Another quirk of this toy is that since it's lever-operated, you can, with a little practice, game the system so Kirby gives you the same answer every time. So if you ever wanted to force your wishes to come true, here's your ticket to chocolate fountains and gorillions of dollars.

Sarah is showing off the next toy, which is actually from a Burger King promotion, not Wendy's. It's also a year older than the others. This promotion was a sort of Nintendo All-Stars/Super Smash Brothers deal, and this was Kirby's sole entry in the lineup. Pressing the star lever on the front acts like a pinball flipper of sorts, sending little red pellets flying about. The idea, of course, is to feed Kirby. For added difficulty, wind up the toy with that knob on the side and Kirby will start twisting left-to-right, creating a moving target.

And lastly, by far the priciest of my Kirby toys is this quality plush from Banpresto. In addition to looking cute, he can also work as a makeshift pillow and iPod stand.

Oh, that's right. Kirby's got games, too. Here's my list of Kirby games:

-Kirby's Dreamland
-Kirby's Pinball Land
-Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards (My first Kirby game!)
-Kirby: Nightmare in Dreamland
-Kirby and the Amazing Mirror
-Kirby Air Ride
-Kirby Canvas Curse
-Kirby Squeak Squad
-Kirby Super Star Ultra
-Kirby's Dreamland 3 (on Wii Virtual Console)

That about wraps it up. I wonder if I'll ever find the other Kirby fast food toys at yard sales...

Vinyl figures. Vinyl figures everywhere.

Some people collect coins. Some people collect stamps. I have had several collections over the years, including plastic dinosaurs and (like every child at the turn of the century) Pokemon cards.

But for the last couple years I've mostly been rounding up vinyl action figures of giant monsters.

(click the photo for a larger view)

This picture is slightly out of date - There are several toys I have gotten since this photo, and a couple of the tiny ones at the bottom I have sold on eBay. There are also several small toys that were left out because they are on a little shelf on the other side of my room.

There are toys from the Gamera and Ultraman series, but for the most part it's Godzilla Central. I've been collecting since January 2008, and lately new arrivals have trickled to a standstill because A) I don't have the money, B) I'm not the sort of person to drop 300 bucks on a seven-inch-tall Biollante even if I WAS blessed with a gorillion dollars, and C) I've gotten pretty much all the lower-cost merch I can find.

Also I'm kinda running out of room.

I may go into detail about some of these guys in later posts.