Super Mini World

One cool thing about big movies is all the cool media mix that comes with it. Well, for me anyway. The new animated Super Mario Bros. movie is a pretty cool example of this. There's all sorts of fun goodies and toys available, but so far my favorite is the Mini World toys that I'll be talking about today. I've been buying the Super Mario Micro World and PVC toys by Jakks Pacific for years now. They make a solid product that really brings the characters to life in a fun way. Micro World was a great keshi style mini figure line with great play sets that didn't take up a lot of room. Mini World is close to that same idea, but with articulated figures and cool transformable play sets. It's a small difference, but a fun one. I haven't tried it yet, but I do think they're cross compatible as well. Just maybe a hair off in scale. So if you've got some Micro World stuff, you could probably incorporate it.

On the subject of Mini World, like I said the figures are articulated. Not as much as the larger figures from the movie by any stretch, just a little bit. Arms move at the shoulders, it's basic, Usually this style of toy is very basic... if it's your thing... you're digging it. These are new sculpts to match the characters as they appear in the movie, but still 100% faithful to the characters as you know them. Realistically, I can see these appearing in newer packaging in years to come. They're just right for a blind bag at Five Below or in a gashapon capsule. Seeing as I've been buying Micro World figures via blind bag at Five Below for the past few years... it'd be something I'd be all for. 

The transformable play sets are pretty neat as well. Individual figures come of cards with a basic play set. This play set comes as the blocks you're used to seeing in Super Mario Bros. video games and open up to reveal a simple little place for your figure to have an adventure in. So far there is two larger play sets available. The Mario Bros. van (they're plumbers after all) unfolds into multiple areas based on settings from the games and movie. Personally I'm all about this van thanks to the cool teaser set as a commercial for the Bros plumbing service. You'll notice a familiar tune and the original voice of Princess Toadstool (before we started calling her Peach here in the states) voice from the classic cartoon.

The other play set is a larger one of Princess Peach's castle. Even if you take issue with the new movie for one reason or another... it's still a pretty faithful representation of her castle from the games. All I see when I look at it is Super Mario 64. It's a pretty large unfolding play set as well. I really hope more figures come along, because you'd need more than whats out currently to fill that thing with. I guess those Micro World toys would work. I'm pretty positive about these cool toys... as you can see. I'd hope for more games to get realized in this format (I could see Ghouls N' Ghosts easily working).

Weekly Halloween~ Won't you take me to Spooky Town?

Real ones know Halloween doesn't end. Oh, sure, the actual holiday comes to an end... but everything that goes into it never stops. November 1st is the clock resseting for next year. January is when many companies start soliciting their wares for the upcoming season. Octobers maybe 10 months away, but it takes alot of early planning to get all that scary stuff in stores by then. It's a lot of fun for somebody like me who loves and breathes the holiday all year... and I'm assuming you reading this as the spooky stuff gets the most site hits.

Leemax has recently unveiled their 2023 Spooky Town lineup. Spooky Town is a Halloween tradion for most that is part of the early seasonal kick off that starts showing up late summer during Code Orange mania. This year looks to be a banner year for the town where all things are spooky.

I'm particuallry intersted in the 'Trick or Treat, if you dare' house. It's a wonderful suburban house decorated for Halloween with a home haunt in the garage. Simple, but perfectly represents the holiday. The 'Full Moon Diner' is a resturant staffed by werewolves. It's a silly take on those greasy all night joints straight out of an episode of Goosebumps. 'Skeleton Cottage' is a simple shack, like the ones you might find on the side of a rural road. However excellently themed with pumpkins and constructed partially with bones. It's a pretty artistic design is impressivley well done. There's a lot to see on the site and I'm sure more will be unveiled as the year goes by. I'm pretty fond of the smaller figure sets meant to populate your own Spooky Town with scary civilians. It's just the beginning of the year as I'm writing this, but Halloween is already off to a great start.

The Galaxy is Smaller than you'd think

 

It's clearly a good time to like small toys. In the spirit of the ultra cool Lightyear Hyper Speed Series toys is the new Star Wars Micro Galaxy Squadron! These are small scale Star Wars vehicles with pilots that can be taken out of the vehicles and used in others. While I don't know exactly, they do look to be around the same size as the Lightyear toys. That means they'd be compatible with other inch men style figures. Like your Diaclones and Zoids. Luke Skywalker could drive Optimus Prime. There's a few different size classes, but I'm most excited for the blind boxed smaller vehicles. Not just because I'm crazy about such things, but they're just right for a little fun whenever. You get a small vehicle (like a Speeder Bike) blind packed with a pilot. That's got the potential to be a lot of fun!