COLLECTABLES

What we’ve been playing with this month

1

Is this Harry Potter coffee mug (FPI price £8.99; product code DS873) racist? As humans with no magical ability, we take offence to being labelled “Muggles” – especially since the term’s being used here as a substitute for the word “bastard”. Why are we being blamed for “getting people down”? It’s hate speech! We should start a petition. A parliamentary enquiry is called for. Or maybe we’ll just have a cup of tea instead. Yes, that’s simplest.

2

The needle on the cuteness dial lurches perilously into the red with Funko’s girl-friendly new range of Rock Candy vinyl figures (FPI price £10.99 each; product codes F2291, F2292, F2293, F2294, F2295, F2296), but these daredevil dames could still kick your ass (well, they could if they weren’t dinky 5” statuettes but listen, empowerment). The female frontline of the DCU includes Batgirls both classic and 2015 style, Harley Quinn in trad jester mode, Supergirl, classic Wonder Woman and her Gadotastic Batman V Superman incarnation.

3

This Batman coaster set from Half Moon Bay (FPI price £4.99; product code D5732) is one of the neatest we’ve seen, for two reasons. Firstly, it uses original comics covers from the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s (specifically Batman issue 251 and Detective Comics 280, 395 and 566) – all that’s missing’s the Comics Code Authority logo. Secondly, they’re generously proportioned (15cm by 10.5cm) – something you welcome when trying to negotiate a successful bottle-to-coaster landing after your seventh beer.

4

It’s a cultural reference that dates us, but it has to be said: the Wilson Fisk component of this range of

Daredevil Dorbz (FPI price £8.49 each; product codes D6282, D6284, D6285, D6283) looks more like ’70s cartoon icon Bod than Vincent D’Onofrio’s crime boss. The three jolly incarnations of Matt Murdock (in civilian, “masked vigilante” and full-on Man Without Fear garb) are better likenesses – good news for Daredevil fans, not so much for Bod completists still awaiting that Aunt Flo figure.

5

So far we’ve barely glimpsed the Twelfth Doctor’s second sonic

screwdriver (FPI price £14.99; product code F2372) on screen. The design’s in tune with the TARDIS exterior, with navy blue colouring and a light-up section bringing to mind the Police Box windows. Pleasingly, it has more lights and sound combos than previous models – four in all, activated by pushing an “activator” button at thumb level up or down, either once or twice. The high-pitched pulsing of “double up” is our favourite – slap a breakbeat on it and you’d have a real head-nodder.

6

Jabba’s pet Kowakian monkey lizard didn’t look this cute when he was chewing out C-3PO’s eye on the gangster’s Sail Barge… This Salacious Crumb talking plush

(FPI price £14.99; product code C7429) is more Mogwai than Gremlin, a cuddly Fraggle-like critter you’d happily give to your kids to play with – if only he didn’t make a godawful cackle every time they give him a cuddle. You have been warned.

7

Sith artefacts are extremely collectable these days, and perhaps none more so than this Darth Vader lightsaber

handle cheese grater (FPI price £9.99; product code D5949), which surely came in handy in the Death Star kitchen. Yes, the sinister Force cult may have spurned the peaceful ways of the Jedi in favour of using their abilities to grasp for power, but they flippin’ loved a bit of cheddar sprinkled on top of their space bolognese.