Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Review: Funko Pop Vinyl: Catwoman, Mahna Mahna, Slave Leia!

How the hell do you review figures from Funko's omnipresent Pop Vinyl line?! If you've seen a single picture of one of these figures then you kind of know everything you'll ever need to know. But you know what? It's Wednesday, and it's a slow news day, and Batman opens tomorrow, and why don't you and I just chill and relax and take a little tour of this eclectic trio of Pop Vinyl figures. We'll just shoot the shit about them. It'll be fun.


So take my hand - you know, you have real pretty hands - and join me... after the jump!


You cool? We're cool! We're just chillin' yo. First up is the most pertinent of all three of these. It's the Pop Vinyl figure of Anne Hathaway's Catwoman from The Dark Knight Rises. At the time of writing this I am a full 24 hours away from deciding whether or not this a worthy incarnation of the character, but I was intrigued enough to pick this up anyway, because a huge part of the fun of these event films is the hype!


Before we get too intimate with Ms. Hathaway though (before I HATH A my WAY with her) let's take a look at the back of the box and see the other characters that I didn't pick up (yet)... 


After three Nolan Batmans, the Batman is a little on the generic side, but the Bane stands out. I'm just a sucker for vinyl figures, really. And deformities.

Do you think when Anne Hathaway signed up for the film she thought that she'd be made into a figure with a giant inflated head and tiny body? Probably.


In this version there's really no sense that her "ears" are actually her fold down goggles. I wonder if this was put into production very early. In fact it's an incredibly simple figure - about as simple as you could possibly get - but I still kind of dig it. Will mean more (or less) to me once I see the film. What a sucker!

But one more thing worth noting - this isn't a bobblehead. I think I was under the impression that all the Pop Vinyl figures were bobbleheads but it seems that it may be only the Star Wars ones (probably due to a licensing conflict). I must say that I far prefer the free-standing figure to a spring-headed version. Go Batmangz!

Now onto Muppets, and I guess if you weren't alive in the seventies like this wizened pop culture commentator then you might not be too sure who this obscure one-hit-wonder is (although he was revived briefly for the recent film)...


Yes! It's Mahna Mahan, aptly named because he sings the song "Mahna Mahna" (which apparently originally appeared in a porn film!) (Aaah... god bless the seventies!)...


The Muppet line-up is very impressive and I'm a fan of most of these designs although I'm trying to stop myself from picking up EVERYTHING. I really like that Snowth though and would have grabbed one for sure if it was available. (I actually picked this up back at Supanova so they've been in my inbox for a while now).


Anyway it's a great standalone figure and really conjures up that crazy seventies vibe for me. Love this one. If you're as old as I am then this one punches you directly in the nostalgia button. And it feels great.

And finally let me be a walking cliche and satiate my Star Wars itch...


I feel like when they first made an action figure of the gold bikini Leia (and they didn't make one in the eighites, this would have been the late nineties) they called her "Slave Leia" and there was a little bit of backlash. (I could be completely confused here... maybe the controversy stemmed from the Disney mash-up where they released a Minnie Mouse as "Slave Leia"). Regardless, the idea of an action figure that "celebrated" slavery was a little off-putting as you can imagine. Plus we all know that Jabba forced himself upon her, impregnated her, and the hideous offspring that resulted was dubbed "The Expanded Universe". Well, by the looks of this package they've embraced the name now.


This is such a weird one, because here you have a version of the character who is best known for her body, but here her body is shrunken and her head is a giant balloon. Oh well... Any port in a storm. Back when I reviewd Pop Vinyl Jabba I said that I'd probably pick this one up if I got the chance and I'm a man true to my word.

As I said before, this one is a bobblehead which isn't quite as cool as the standard figures.

Awww... look at this...


And here's the three of them. Our pals at Australian online retailer Popcultcha were having a show special if you picked up three and I'm pretty happy with this mix... 


So there you go! Now give me a hug!

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