TOTAL RECALL

Things we’ve been playing with this month

Resident retro nut Nick celebrates those fabulous 1940s Fleischer Superman cartoons.

1 It’s appropriate that a Niffler’s been printed on this ceramic Fantastic Beasts trinket tray (FPI price £11.99; product code H7224) as it looks like something one of those greedy little creatures would want to steal, what with its gold trim and gleaming surface. You can use it to store fiddly bits that you always misplace, such as keys, spare change and jewellery. Or if you’re feeling elegant, you could serve up some cucumber sarnies on it instead. It’s also signed by the Niffler, so you know it’s legit.

2 Finally, an opportunity to start a crimefighting girl squad with this figure of Sailor Moon’s Sailor Venus (FPI price £54.99; product code H8760). It comes with a variety of facial expressions and hands, so she can instantly switch from sassy to sweet. To prop her up, though, you need to attach her to a plastic rod. While this means you can twist her into various fighting positions without her falling over clumsily, it does look like she’s been cruelly attached to some draconian torture device.

3 We reckon Funko products work better when they’re riffing on source material that’s already stylised – so we’re loving these Monsters, Inc Pop! vinyl figures (FPI price £9.99 each; product codes H7832, H7834, H7835). From left to right: slug-like administrator Roz, with a pencil and clipboard; child-scarer Sulley; and the octopoid chef from sushi restaurant Harryhausen’s (yes, we know he’s only got six tentacles – it’s an homage, okay?). Vietnamese factory workers are also bashing out figures of Boo.

4 The show may be a big enough deal that it’s just been picked up for a whopping 70 more episodes, but

we’re not convinced these Rick

And Morty plushes (FPI price £10.99 each; product codes AE1317, AE1318, AE1319, AE1320, AE1321, AE1322) are essential buys. Even hardcore fans are unlikely to be clearing shelf-space for Toxic Rick and Toxic Morty, weird cat-typething Squanchy, and Gromflomite assassin Krombopulos Michael – though Snowball and Freddy Krueger-with-a-heart Scary Terry bag surprisingly high cute points.

5 We reckon there’s a flaw with these Ready Player One action figures (FPI price £24.99 for the set; product code H8172): they’ve got way too many points of articulation (ie more than five) to be true to the era that inspired the ’80s-obsessed book/movie. There’s also a little too much detailing on the figures for us to be entirely comfortable – if we were going to be pedantic about this, Parzival and Art3mis should have the same steroidal build as Aech and I-ROK.

6 With only two promo pics of Jodie Whittaker released so far, the options were limited for these Doctor Who mugs (RRP £7.99). The Moody Silhouette shot doesn’t work too well, due to its large expanse of empty sky – honestly, she’s on the other side! No such issues with the other mug, which duplicates that shot of Whittaker’s Doctor showing off her Mork-esque fashion sense on a hilltop, resulting in a space-warping landscape with continuous Doctor-age all around.

7 Make every hot beverage a declaration of affiliation with one of these Harry

Potter mugs (RRP £7.99). Each features the colours of a particular House at Hogwarts, its emblematic animal, and three of its key values – so Gryffindor, for example, has the head of a lion and the words “courage, determination, bravery”, all repeated four times. The stylised artwork is rather neat – though Ravenclaw’s eagle does look suspiciously like, well, a raven. For a moment there we suspected a mix-up…