Ant-man

It's okay, I guess. When the highlight of the movie is cameo of another character, what other compliment is more appropriate?

The best part of the movie is the appearance of Falcon and the fight scene between him and Ant-man. Of course, the lead character of the movie wins. This movie is all about making the viewers like Ant-man after all. Had Ant-man been a stand-alone movie with no tie-up to the Avengers, it would have been a flop. With the help of the Avengers, it has been doing okay in the box office, although it's still one of the lowest earning Marvel movies.

That fight scene made me take my Falcon doll out of storage and re-enact the scene. I don't have the movie version of the Ant-man doll but the red suit (of the comics version) makes the small figure pop out. 

I'm still on the fence about buying the 4-inch doll of the movie version Ant-man. I don't like the giant ant it is packed with. It's bigger than the doll so it probably the main contributor for the high price. I'm expecting the Ant-man doll to be re-issued along with the toys for the upcoming Marvel movies like Captain America: Civil War or the third Avengers movie. I may have to wait until then. There is no rush. It's not like there are other good scenes in the Ant-man movie to re-enact with toys, right?

Avengers: Age of Ultron All Star 3.75-inch Scarlet Witch

I love-hate this action doll. There is no other movie Scarlet Witch action doll in this scale, so there.



I'm looking forward to Hasbro's quarterly sales report. A lot of people who liked the 4-inch action dolls have been ranting and cutting their purchases. I don't know how this reaction affects Hasbro. We'll see.

*You're not even two-faced...grrrr!!!

At least, I didn't have to make my own. Her look is temporary, anyways. She'll have a new look in her next movie. I hope she gets a better action doll in this scale by then.

I thought I'll have a hard time buying her. Luckily, she was a lot easier to find than Black Widow but more difficult than Hawkeye. I got her at SM department store just this weekend. That's 3 months after it was released internationally and about 2 weeks after it was released locally.

A broke girl in the making

Barbie sales is still falling but it is no surprise, really. All that fluff about diversity, well... it wasn't as successful as planned. Barbie is really a big problem for Mattel now. I wonder how low the sales have to drop before they drop the doll from their roster of toys so they won't go broke.

I'm not worried about the end of Barbie. Some other doll will emerge eventually. Plus, sometimes I think I have enough dolls already. I have too many dolls that I plan to customize and they keep on piling. These days, it's hard to find a Barbie doll that's acceptable as is.

It's hard to be inspired to work on a doll these days. Like this Max Black (2 Broke Girls) doll I'm making. I kinda like her now but she needs more work.




I know it's ironic to take a character like Max Black who is so unlike Barbie in every sense and turn her into a Barbie size doll but then she has a friend who is like Barbie so I guess it's okay to make her a Barbie-friend doll.

Enlighten (No 128) Police Riot Tracking Truck

I wanted a trailer truck that can hide a control room and a motorbike for a vigilante character I have in mind. I was willing to build it from multiple sets but I was lucky enough to stumble upon this Enlighten set. It is what I had in mind, except for the color scheme and the "police" prints. I was hoping they would just be stickers that I'll just keep unused. Sadly, there are no stickers. All the prints are printed on plastic.

Front of the box

Enlighten is one of the better bootlego brands although I can't be sure if they are indeed bootlegs. Lego's patent for the toy brick design has expired years ago and I don't think you can patent a basic truck design. Sheng Yuan are bootlegs since they don't have licenses for the superhero characters. This set doesn't have that. Enlighten is also sold at major toy stores (making it look legit as reputable stores will avoid selling illegal items) while Sheng Yuan isn't.

Back of the box

Enlighten has a series of police sets. I have bought smaller Enlighten sets (not police) and I was satisfied with the quality so I was not worried about this set. I got this set for about US$10. It just has a pair of minor parts missing, a piece to make the smoke stack fit properly. No big deal.

Smoke stack with missing piece

I do like the printed pieces for the control room. I can also use it in the X-mansion's control room. The set came with a trike. I want cool vigilante motorbike instead. For now, I'll just keep it in the trailer.

The truck will be modified later on. The objective is to make it look inconspicuous. I wanted this to be a mobile hideout for a vigilante so it shouldn't attract attention.

Lele Sentinel (No 78087B)

The box could have been smaller by half. There were no extra piece except for Magneto's hand.

Lele is not as popular as Sheng Yuan (SY) with bootlego collectors because of the quality. There some leftover plastic flash in some pieces. The printed lines are bold compared to SY's. The triangles on the chest is a little off-center. The pieces are also a little darker in Lele's.

Guess which is which.

Since Lele is the only one offering a stand-alone (without the Blackbird) Sentinel, it's a practical choice when building a Sentinel army.

It cost for PhP150 in Cubao. I'm guessing this will be about PhP75 in Divisoria.

Back of the box shows an image from an X-men movie.