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Toys & Collectibles

‘Tater Skins: Super Impulse Poptaters Offer an Array of Fan Favorites

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Hot Mash…

Super Impulse, famous for their line of impossibly small replicas of iconic toys, games and products, showed off a basket full of their Poptaters at the recent Toy Insider Sweet Suite Event.

Poptaters are a mash-up of Hasbro’s Mr. Potato Head and the world of pop culture personalities. A bit bigger than SI’s usual licensed collectibles, Poptaters feature characters from fandoms both obvious and surprisingly obscure. There are also generational leaps from Boomers to Gen A giving the product a wide appeal. 

The Spud Abides…

At the Super Impulse booth, Lucky Trolls (aka Wishnicks) and Garbage Pail Kid Adam Bomb sat next to Child’s Play’s Chucky and Sonic The Hedgehog. Painter Bob Ross seemed prepared to render a happy little portrait of The Office‘s Dwight Shrute and there was even Kiss’s Gene Simmons replete with axe bass and dragon boots. 

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My favorite in this series is the perfect presentation of Jeff Bridges as “The Dude” from the film The Big Lebowski (1998). It’s the piece that made me laugh out loud.

super impulse, sweet suite, toys, hasbro, mister potato head, the toy insider, the pop insider
These boots are made for rocking. Gene Simmons’ dragon boots are just one of the fun details found on Super Impulse’s Poptaters Mr. Potato Heads.

I was a Pre-Teen Couch Potato…

National Toy Hall of Fame inductee Mr. Potato Head has gone through many revisions since its launch in 1952. I have fond memories of sitting on my living room couch (circa 1959-1960) happily pushing combinations of various eyes, noses, brows, and mouths into a variety of vegetables. Unfortunately, the original kit had a fatal flaw in requiring that kids raid the refrigerator for suitable noggins.

Tuber or Not Tuber…

I don’t think my parents realized when I convinced them to buy the toy that it would lead to a daily attack on the family food stock. Honestly, finances were tight and food security was the number one priority in my house. Finding me mangling the contents of our vegetable bin became contentious. 

In the mid-1960s Hasbro rolled out a revamp with the inclusion of a plastic potato surrogate to host the facial parts and accessories. That likely saved innumerable pounds of produce from the waste bin and allowed for safer rounded points on the pieces.

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The ever-mellow Bob Ross prepares to paint a happy little vegetable garden..

SkeletonPete Says… 

Getting a chance to relive a legacy play experience while celebrating a favorite franchise is the lure of Poptaters for me and I assume other collectors. Super Impulse keeps growing the options.

Just announced at San Diego Comic-Con and coming in the fall are Poptaters of Star Trek’s Mr. Spock, Sesame Streets Bert and Ernie, Silent Bob, and Vocaloid virtual popstar Hatsune Miku. They’ll also be starchy renditions of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

super impulse, sweet suite, toys, hasbro, mister potato head, the toy insider, the pop insider
Due in autumn 2023, Poptaters Series 3 will include Vocaloid Hatsune Miku,
Sesame Street‘s Bert and Ernie, Star Trek‘s Mr. Spock, and other pop culture faves. (image courtesy of Super Impulse)

Poptaters figures stand approximately 4 inches tall and come with a selection of 11-14 interchangeable pieces. They come packaged in clear cylindrical display cases to show off on your collector shelves but don’t leave ‘em boxed up. Mixing and matching the various face and body parts is where all the fun lies. 

The Pricing by item runs from $14.99 – $17.99.

super impulse, sweet suite, toys, hasbro, mister potato head, the toy insider, the pop insider
Mind Blown: Oppenheimer scion Adam Bomb of Garbage Pail Kids fame
is easily triggered.
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Toys & Collectibles

Figured Out: A Mezco Toyz 2016 “One:12 Collective” Gallery

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Punch Drunk Love: Marvel Comics’ Punisher gets Mezco’s detailed One:12 Collective treatment.
Toyz Story…
I’ll keep the chatter down since this post was promised as a gallery of prototypes for Mezco Toyz‘ burgeoning One:12 Collective series first revealed at their pre 2016 American International Toy Fair event. Take a look, the details speak for themselves. Having had hands on experience with the Dark Knight Batman and the Star Trek Mr. Spock I can say that the production models are as refined as the prototypes.

I recommend you make a point of checking out Mezco’s website for information on each character, it’s accessories, and the pre-order schedule. Many are selling out early.

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Mezco Toyz Space Ghost and Blip One:12 figures have just gone on pre-order. (Photo Courtesy of Mezco Toyz)

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Toys & Collectibles

Resistance Is Futile: Diamond Select’s Star Trek Line-Up 2013

Mr. Spock Administers Some Pre-Natal Care to the Horta
Mr. Spock Administers Some Pre-Natal Care to the Horta
Slipping Into Darkness…
Set your frontal lobes for the final frontier. With the warp engines revving up for the release of Star Trek: Into Darkness it seems the perfect time to show you what Diamond Select Toys has in store for us old school Trek folk in the coming months.

Action Figure Line-Up…
June will see release of Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock in 7” action figure representations, both offered in stand alone and Select diorama versions. The dioramas capture peak moments in key episodes with Leonard Nimoy preparing to mind meld with the “Devil In The Dark” Horta and William Shatner engaging in battle with Khan Noonian Singh as in the “Space Seed” episode. Expect those in June. Next Generation Captain Jean Luc Picard will arrive in the fall with a great diorama base that features a battle battered Borg.

Capt. Jean Luc Picard 7" Action Figure Arrives This Fall
Capt. Jean Luc Picard 7″ Action Figure Arrives This Fall

Mini-Mates…
On the Mini-Mates front DST adds the Star Trek Legacy Series 1 Set, pairing Captains and their adversaries. I love mini-mates. It always makes me smile to see how DST makes these simple little forms exude the essence of their real life counterparts.
Star Trek II Movie – Captain Kirk and Kahn Noonien Singh
Star Trek: First Contact – Captain Picard and Borg Queen
Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Season 7 – Captain Sisko and Jem Hadar
Star Trek: Enterprise – Captain Archer and Xindi

Diligent collector’s will keep and eye out for Toys R Us (TRU), Entertainment Earth and Action Figure Express (AFX) exclusives on many of these goodies. TRU will have an exclusive Legacy selection, AFX will sell a “Mirror, Mirror” version of the Mini-Mate Starship Enterprise, while Entertainment Earth offers the vessel in “Trouble With Tribbles” mode.

Courageous Star Trek Captains and Their Foes Get Mini-Mated
Courageous Star Trek Captains and Their Foes Get Mini-Mated

If Seven Turned Out To Be Nine, I Don’t Mind…
The Diamond Select Femme Fatales collection which already includes striking sculpts of some of fandom’s most celebrated ladies will get a Star Trek oriented addition with a deliciously sleek sculpt of Geri Ryan as Seven of Nine from the Star Trek: Voyager series. This figure measures 9” tall and is cast in PVC.

Cyborg Beauty 7 of 9 joins the Ranks of DST's Fatal Fems (Photo Courtesy of Diamond Select Toys)
Cyborg Beauty 7 of 9 joins the Ranks of DST’s Fatal Fems (Photo Courtesy of Diamond Select Toys)

Everything Is Ship Shape…
If spacecraft are your focus DST already offers a full line of electronic USS Enterprise models representing the entire Star Trek timeline. There’s also the beautiful Klingon “Bird of Prey”, which comes in a translucent green “cloaked” variant exclusive to AFX.

SkeletonPete Says…
DST is currently preparing Star Trek characters for the popular Bust Bank series. Be sure to hit the link above and check out Diamond’s site for their extensive line of full sized replicas ( communicators, phasers, tricorders, Klingon disruptor) for your role playing delight. Some trouble with a “sound and motion” tribble may be in your future.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed for a Michael J. Pollard Mini-Mate to play a game of “bonk-bonk” with. I’m not feeling like a “grup” yet.

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Toys & Collectibles

The Dark Knight Rhizomes! Hasbro Potato Personas Abound

Batman gets the Hasbro Potato Head Treatment

Some totally tube(r)ular Mister Potato Head personas have just been released or are on their way. As you can see from these images, Hasbro Toys has plenty of new personalities to adorn your root cellar this coming season. The ability to morph the old spud into a plethora of popular characters has kept the franchise fresh – and tasty.

I Was A Pre-Teen Tator-Tot…
I’m old enough to remember when the kit came minus a potato replica and my parent’s refrigerator was regularly raided for real food to bring the gent to life. Depleting dinner menu items wasn’t really high on most Mom’s lists of great things, but the inclusion of the faux-tato in the early 60’s did limit your ability to make recombinant DNA stlye creations.

Mash-Ups…
The members of rock band KISS are available separately and in a limited edition collectors set that includes 3 parody album covers. Elvis is depicted in both white Las Vegas jumpsuit version and ’68 Comeback Special black leathers. The newly minted Three Stooges were a perfect choice for spud characterizations and come with their own weapons of mass disruption, a wrench, clobbering mallet, and ubiquitous pie. Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and Lt. Uhura join the already available Captain Kirk and are an absolute scream. Hasbro has just announced that Superman and Wonderwoman will hit the stores this August.

Battle Ready Batata…
Toy Fair 2012 also afforded a sneak peak at the Batarang wielding Dark Knight which will appear around the time of the third installment of the Batman trilogy The Dark Knight Rises. Makes me wonder… if Batman is represented in potato form is his alter ego Bruce Wayne being played by Christian Kale?

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