#8 Star Wars The Clone Wars IG-86

If you only buy one recently released IG series droid, buy this one! A few months ago, I bought the IG Lancing Droid. I mostly bought it for the droid piece it came with, which I needed to complete the R4 unit. The Lancing Droid itself was a disappointment, as it could barely hold its weapons, and its arms come out easily. By contrast, this IG-86 is great. It looks cool, and is well articulated. I think its animated stylization is minimal, so it would not look out of place among regular Star Wars figures. The guns can be clipped onto the back via a harness, which I find to be a surprisingly cool feature. IG-86 is probably one of the best figures from The Clone Wars, I definitely recommend picking one up.

#7: Star Wars The Clone Wars Asajj Ventress

Sith! Sort of. This is my second Asajj Ventress figure. The first one came in a comic two pack, but was lacking knee or ankle articulation, and can't stand by itself. So I decided to get another. Unfortunately, due to the animation style, she has really thin arms (I think this will be common for all females from The Clone Wars) so her elbows don't bend. Her forearms rotate, so that will have to be enough. Her knees and ankles are articulated, so at least she can stand on her own. Aside from her lightsabers, which can combine as shown, she comes with a tiny holographic Count Dooku. I would like to see a tiny holographic Palpatine at some point.

#6: Indiana Jones Grail knight

You chose... poorly! Unless I pick up the German soldier with a motorcycle, this is most likely my final Indy figure. I didn't expect to find any, but I finally did find them at Target on clearance, and there were four or five of them, so I was able to be selective about the best paint. Now I have a 3 3/4 inch scaled Holy Grail, which I think is a good selling point for this figure. The sword was unfortunately deformed by the packaging, I'm going to have to see if I can fix that. Otherwise, it's a good figure, although some ankles would have been appreciated. A soft goods cape might have been nice, too.

#5: Transformers Universe Dinobot

My first Beast Wars toy! Even though I loved Mainframe's Reboot, I never watched Beast Wars while it was on TV. By the time I did get into the show, it was too late for any of the toys. Well, there was that Optimus Primal, but I passed on picking one up. When I heard that there was an upcoming Cheetor and Dinobot, I was looking forward to picking both of them up. After seeing pictures, I wasn't so keen on the Cheetor.

I think Dinobot turned out well, although I wish they had recessed his head a little deeper into his chest cavity. Oh well! His little raptor arms end up on his back in bot mode, so he can scratch all those hard to reach itches without a back scratcher. That is the true beauty of having an organic alt form. One neat feature on Dinobot is that you can choose whether to display a Predacon or Maximal symbol on his chest.

I'd better watch out that he doesn't go around challenging my other toys to duels of honor.

#4: Star Wars comic pack Lando and Stormtrooper

Finally, Star Wars toys make an appearance! I have more Star Wars toys than anything else, so I'm surprised it took so long. It will even out when I start finding the new waves of figures for the year. I visited a couple Targets this weekend, and they had figures from the new Saga Legends wave, but neither of the figures that I actually want. Frustrating! I didn't realize until I was paying, but this was on clearance. Bonus!
Anyway, on to the toys at hand. Since these two figures came as a set, I am counting them as one toy for blogging purposes. This is one of the comic packs, and the issue it comes with is a reproduction of the Marvel Star Wars series, issue #44 which is an adaptation of the last part of Empire Strikes Back. The thing about these comic packs, for the Marvel series anyway, is that the figures reproduce, or attempt to reproduce, the funky coloring that comics back in the 70s and 80s had. Fortunately, Lando comes out unscathed, but the Stormtrooper has blue arms and a blue belt. It could have been worse. These are both good figures. I'm glad to finally have a modern Lando, although I wish he had proper elbow articulation rather than swivels. With the Stormie's funky coloring, I'm just pretending it's some sort of unit or rank marking like some clone troopers have.

#3: Indiana Jones Russian soldier

Clearances! I only got this guy because he was on clearance for three dollars. In a way, I am sad to see the Indiana Jones line dead, especially before the Temple of Doom wave. We had Temple of Doom on VHS when I was a kid, so it's the movie I think of when I think of Indy. Now I may never get a Short Round or Mola Ram figure. Things could have worked out differently, but I don't think the Indiana Jones line realistically had much chance of lasting too long anyway. At this point, I already had an Indy and a Sean Connery figure, and aside from the Temple of Doom figures, that was all I wanted. Well, I wouldn't mind getting a Grail Knight too, but I have yet to see one on the shelves. But with the clearance, having a communist was too good an opportunity to pass up. He and Tony Stark can sit down and have discussions about the relative merits of capitalism and socialism.

Oh, and not pictured is the artifact he came with: the Ankh of Osiris.

#2 Transformers Animated Swindle

Fred Willard! His voice talent, anyway. I really like the Animated toys, more than the "realistic" Universe line, even. To start with, Transformers Animated is a great show, the characters are all memorable, and the designs are interesting. The toys do a good job of capturing the look of their onscreen counterparts while still functioning well as transforming toys.
Anyway, Swindle here is another good Transformer. His vehicle mode is an SUV with a big gun on the top. It's removable if he needs to be more discreet. He's got a fun design, mixing an Optimus Prime chest with a Megatron style arm cannon. My only complaint is that he's so small due to being a deluxe class toy. That is understandable, given that he was in only one episode, so they have more important characters in the voyager class. But hey, he's voiced by Fred Willard, which I think is great.

#1: Transformers Universe Hound with Ravage

My first toy of the year! I picked this up yesterday at the Vacaville Wal-Mart. When it comes to Transformers, I'm the sort of fan that appreciates G1 characters, as I grew up on the original cartoon and toyline. I have no particular feelings on Hound as a character one way or the other, so I am glad that the toy version of him is good. He's got a nice look, poses well, and the transformation isn't annoying.

The main reason I picked up Hound was for the included Ravage figure. I never had the Soundwave and accompanying Ravage figure as a kid, but I was always fascinated that he turned into a microcassette tape. This is actually my fourth Ravage (including Alternators Ravage, Robot Heroes Ravage, and the reissued Ravage that came with Soundwave), and I rather like it. It even turns into a microcassette tape! Aesthetically, I think I prefer the original Ravage, but this improves on it by having enough width that it won't fall over so easily.

Introduction

I buy a lot of toys. Too many, probably. In order to keep track of all the toys I buy, I have decided to start this blog. Whenever I buy a new toy, it will be documented here. I do not plan to do reviews, exactly, but I will be posting a picture and some amount of commentary. For now, the plan is to cover all the toys that I buy for 2009, but as long as I continue to buy them, I will continue updating here.