Collectables
Will Santa bring any you of these in his sack?
1 Here’s something appropriately festive! Well, if you’re a goth that is… Funko’s latest plush range continues with these ever so cute and cuddly The Nightmare Before Christmas Mopeez (FPI price £8.99 each; product codes D4227, D4229, D4233, D4234). From left to right we have: the villainous Oogie Boogie, a yellow-eyed vampire teddy bear, the two-faced Mayor of Halloween Town (turn him round and the loon’s grinning insanely!), and Jack Skellington’s love interest Sally. Mopeez of Jack and his faithful ghost-dog Zero are also available. Each stands about 15cm tall… well, sits actually, on a bottom specially weighted to prevent them falling over. 2 Four new Doctor Who 5.5 inch action figures here (FPI price £29.99 for the Curator/others £14.99; product codes D2878, D4411, D2874, D2875), and they’re a mixed bunch. Best is the Curator, Tom Baker’s enigmatic character from “The Day Of The Doctor”; well detailed, he comes with a walking stick and a (slightly rubbish) lenticular “Gallifrey Falls” painting. Clara is good too, but Peter Capaldi’s Twelfth Doctor, which comes in black or purple shirt variants, could be anyone! Do what we did by playing a game of “people this looks more like”.
3 Lest you think these Gremlins Re-Action Figures (FPI price £8.99 each; product codes D1175, D1177, D1179) are suitable for children, the box makes it abundantly clear that they are an “ADULT COLLECTIBLE – NOT A TOY” – so hands off, kids! A fully poseable Billy Peltzer, Christmas Gizmo with keyboard and Gizmo with Barney the dog are pictured above, while Stripe and three
types of Gremlin are also available. Built to look like classic Kenner toys, they’re charmingly retro but have trouble staying upright, so you might want to leave them in the box.
4 You’re entering dangerous territory writing “What A Piece Of Junk” on the side of a piece of merch, but this Star
Wars mug (FPI price £5.99; product code D2885) gets away with it because: a) said hunk of junk is the fastest in the galaxy and b) a picture of the Millennium Falcon improves pretty much anything it’s slapped onto. A Princess Leia mug bearing an “I love you” slogan is also available – perfect for a quick cup of cocoa before you go into deep freeze for several months.
5 It may look like a miniature Batarang – and looks lethal enough to sling at some crims in a Gotham alley – but the
Batman Multi-Tool (FPI price £4.99; product code C7389) is intended for everyday household chores rather than the coldminded pursuit of justice. There’s a bottle-opening function for those crafty Bat-brews, a crosshead screwdriver and a flathead screwdriver for urgent repairs to the Batmobile, plus a handy keychain to clip it to your utility belt. Note: may also be inserted into your nostrils as a hipster ’tache. Note: not recommended. 6 This Cyberman Attack
Toy (£29.99; product code C6738) is great fun. Press the “start” button on the side of the horribly-lime-green blaster and he starts lumbering slowly forward, saying things like “Prepare for upgrading!” You’ve got 30 seconds to blast him with an infra-red beam. Shoot him in the face (!) three times and his left arm drops off – which is kinda hilarious. Three more and it gets increasingly Monty Python And The Holy Grail as the other arm goes. The gun doesn’t have much of a range (2.5 metres), and you have to be pretty low to the ground for your hits to register. But then, that shouldn’t be an issue for the ankle-biters this is aimed at.