#106: Star Wars The Black Series (The Last Jedi) - Elite Praetorian Guard

Tonight's the night! In a few hours I'll be sitting in a theater watching The Last Jedi. For now though, here's the Elite Praetorian Guard figure. Clearly a First Order analogue of the Imperial Guard, these guys have crazier outfits. Seriously, look at those arms. I don't know what's going on there. Unfortunately, those crazy arms do hinder the elbows. Aside from that, it's a cool figure. Before I got the figure in hand, I thought the lower robes were soft goods, but they are soft plastic instead.

#105: Star Wars The Black Series (The Last Jedi) - General Leia Organa

We didn't get a General Leia figure in this scale for The Force Awakens, but we finally do for The Last Jedi. For me, that completes all the characters from TFA that I felt should have been made into figures, at least in this scale. I don't think the six inch scale will ever be anywhere as comprehensive as the smaller scale, which is both good and bad. Either way, I'm glad to finally get the general as a figure. She has a pistol and an expression on her face that says someone nearby just told her something worthy of disdain.

#104: Star Wars The Black Series (The Last Jedi) - Maz Kanata

Backlog update: I bought this figure in October, so now I'm only two months behind in my blogging. Smaller scale aside, there wasn't a Maz figure from The Force Awakens. Going by the bio text on the back of the package, this is a Last Jedi figure, but this definitely looks like a TFA figure. The coolest thing about this Maz is that the lenses on her glasses can swivel up like in the movie. Since the lenses don't actually magnify her eyes, they end up being too large when compared with her onscreen appearance. Oddly, Maz is packaged with her glasses in the up position, revealing her too large eyes. But it's a cool touch either way. For accessories, she has a blaster, and the chest in which Rey found Luke's lightsaber, as well as the lightsaber itself. Those are very definitely TFA accessories.

#103: Star Wars The Black Series (Revenge of the Sith) - Commander Gree

Hey, it's Commander Gree, who was beheaded by Yoda. He's a Toys R Us exclusive. I feel like I've bought so many clone trooper figures in the past 12 years that I have a hard time saying anything else about them. He's got some unique tooling, so he's not just a repaint at least. He's got the usual blaster and blaster rifle, as well as a set of macrobinoculars.

#102: The Nightmare Before Christmas - Lock, Shock, and Barrel

For the price of one figure, here are three figures. Lock, Shock, and Barrel are the three trick or treaters of Halloween Town who hench for Oogie-Boogie. Although they are semi-antagonists, I've always liked the characters. The gag about them looking similar to their costumes when unmasked is fun. These aren't particularly heavily articulated figures, and they are slightly screen-inaccurate but I like the characters enough to overcome any gripes. Accessory-wise, their masks are removable, and there's a lollipop that none of them can hold. Apparently the comic shop version of these figures include their walking claw foot bathtub. I bought mine at Toys R Us, and didn't even know there was an alternate version at the time. Alas.

#101: Star Wars The Black Series (The Last Jedi) - First Order Stormtrooper Executioner

I was thinking that the name of this figure made it sound like it's his job to execute Stormtroopers. Then I read the bio text on the box, and apparently, these guys punish traitorous soldiers. So, maybe Finn is going to have to deal with some of these guys, aside from his fight with Phasma that's shown in the trailer. So yeah, this is just a regular First Order Stormtrooper with a slightly different paint job and some sort of electro-axe instead of a blaster. We've got less than a week left to wait to see what role this trooper will play.

#100: Transformers Platinum Series - Optimus Prime and Megatron

The main reason I got back into Transformers as an adult was the Classics line, which was updated versions of the old school G1 toys from when I was a kid. For whatever reason, I never got the Optimus and Megatron toys which were released at the time, although I did get the repainted Optimus as Ultra Magnus. Ten years or so later, fortunately both toys were re-released for the 30th anniversary of the animated movie as part of the platinum series. Since those are usually overpriced, it was doubly fortunate that they were apparently not selling well, and I was able to get the set for a reasonable price from Amazon. Overall, Optimus is a good robot, aside from the chunks of his cab mode that just kind of hang off his forearms. At least in this version, they're clear blue plastic, so maybe they are like energy shields. Oh yeah, the clear plastic. To set this re-release apart from the original. there is a dramatic increase in clear plastic being used. It's really weird, honestly. Similar to Optimus, Megatron is overall pretty cool aside from randomly having wings. At least they look cooler than the bits on Optimus's arms.

Optimus mostly looks good in truck mode, although the blue clear plastic pieces here are really jarring. I dig that there's a huge Autobot logo on his roof. Megatron turns into basically a Nerf gun. Although slightly undersized for my adult hands, it's still really fun as a toy gun. The trigger even clicks when you pull it, which is a nice touch.

#99: Star Wars The Black Series (Rebels) - Grand Admiral Thrawn

One of the good things about Disney getting rid of the old Expanded Universe is that it allows us to ignore all the bad parts, while a lot of the good stuff gets to crossover into the new canon. So of course Thrawn is back. While it remains to be seen if he will still be an important presence after Return of the Jedi, he is now prominent during the rebellion. Judging by the bio text on the back of the package, this is definitely based on Thrawn's appearances in Rebels. Which makes sense, since he's otherwise only appeared in one novel in the new canon so far. For as long as I had to wait for an update to Thrawn in the smaller scale, I'm glad that Hasbro got one out in the six inch scale so quickly.

#98: Pokemon - Mimikyu and Poke Ball

Like much of the rest of the internet, I've been a fan of Mimikyu since it was first revealed over a year ago. Since this toy was released, I've waffled between definitely wanting to buy it, to not wanting to spend 10 bucks for basically a minifigure, to finally just buying it anyway. It's just a little unarticulated Mimikyu, with a Poke ball that opens and can clip on to your belt. It seems way overpriced for what you're getting. It would feel like a better value if Mimikyu was released in a two pack with another Pokemon. Which is probably what will end up happening now that I've bought this version. But hey, now I have a little toy Mimikyu, and that's the important thing here.

#97: Star Wars The Black Series (The Last Jedi) - Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master)

Like his sister Leia, Luke Skywalker did not get a six inch figure based on The Force Awakens. Sure, he didn't show up until the very end of the movie, and he didn't have any lines. But come on. Ah, well, since The Last Jedi apparently picks up directly after the end of TFA, this is functionally a TFA version of Luke, so it works. Luke's only accessory is his hooded cape, which is soft goods. Unfortunately, there's no real good way to keep it in place. There are two very short strings that can be tied together to hold it on. I blame the costume designers for not making it a proper robe, which would stay on a little better in this scale. Because I'm sure costume designers are very concerned with action figure reproductions of their designs.