COLLECTABLES

Things we’ve been playing with this month

You can just imagine the product meeting for this one: “Teapots are spherical… BB-8 is spherical… A BB-8 teapot would be THE BEST THING EVER!” Alas, something’s got a little lost in the journey from concept to execution, as this Star Wars BB-8 teapot and mug set (FPI price £14.99; product code F4365) looks less like Poe Dameron’s droid BFF than a Death Star with orange detailing, a handle and a spout. We even tried turning the mug upside down and balancing the pot on top to see if that would help this crockery pass for a droid, but no dice.

Zoinks! Those crazy kids from the Mystery Machine get an oblong-headed makeover in this new range of Scooby Doo Pop! vinyl figures (FPI price £9.99; product codes F4803, F4804, F4806, F4807). From left to right we have monster-baiting saucepot Daphne; ol’ Scoob himself (though the Pop! vinyl cuteness ray seems to have transformed him into pesky nephew Scrappy); jittery, work-dodging deadbeat Shaggy (complete with a handful of Scooby Snacks); and square - but fair Fred. If you’re wondering where Velma is, she’s been captured by the Spooky Space Kook. Jinkies!

Could there be any fate more humiliating for a legendary rogue and smuggler than being hung as a wall decoration in the palace of lecherous crime-slug Jabba the Hutt? You’d be surprised. The unforgettable cliffhanger of The Empire Strikes Back is immortalised in this Han in Carbonite glass cutting board (FPI price: £8.99; product code F5250). Yes, you too can chop courgettes and dice parsley while

staring at Han Solo in quickfrozen agony. And this time his friends aren’t coming to rescue him. Is that Jabba’s monstrous chortle we hear, booming above the sliced veg?

In real life, Elvira (real name Cassandra Peterson) is now of pensionable age, but this Pop! vinyl figure (FPI price £9.99; product code F4712) of the goth horror host recreates her in her ’80s pomp, all megatronically busty and sticking out a slender(ish) leg. Her splendid hair descends past her bum and her eyes are as huge as a curious kitten’s. Top fact: Peterson lost her virginity to hairy Welsh warbler Tom Jones!

These super-cute Rock

Candy vinyl figures (FPI price £12.99 each; product codes F5829, F5830, F5831) will confuse the hell out of grownups unaware of female-focused DC toon SuperHero Girls (which follows the likes of Batgirl and Supergirl as they attend Super Hero High School) – but they’ll no doubt delight young ’uns who are. From left to right we have big-eyed, mighty-maned takes on Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn (hard to imagine an interpretation further removed from Margot Robbie’s in Suicide Squad!) and Bumble Bee (we particularly like her bendy, translucent wings). A purple-haired Wonder Woman is also available.

There’s no way around this – these Star Wars: Rogue One buildable Lego

figures (FPI price £19.99; product codes F4946, F4947, F4948) are

well weird. It’s like someone’s grabbed the heads of Chirrut Îmwe, Baze Malbus and a Sand Trooper and grafted them onto mechanical bodies. These bizarre cyborgs are in the unfortunate position that they neither look like people nor Lego – in fact, the one thing they do remind us of are bad guys Doc Terror and Hacker in ’80s cartoon Centurions. Google it. Construction time? Anything from a breezy half hour (for a competent person) to a curseladen hour and ten minutes (if you’re our reviews editor…)