Johnny Cupcakes Midnight Delights SITCM Volume 7

A wee trip to London this weekend brought a very welcome surprise!

I've been a fan of Johnny Cupcakes for a few years but never managed to get a hold of any of the t-shirts. Friday evening at 6pm the Carnaby Street store in London were opening to sell the Something in the Cupcake Mix Volume 7 box set of three exclusive Halloween tees. I didn't expect this to be a thing, but when I walked past at 17.20, there was a queue running down the street. It was only about 15 people long at that point, so I joined and waited. And I'm glad I did! Stock was limited and plenty more people joined the queue after me (shout out to the friendly guy that chatted with me about Adventure Time! My wife went to look at Christmas decorations in Liberty...).

They come in this excellent box, which is detailed brilliantly and lots of fun. It opens like a book and gives you the name of the three shirts that are inside.

I love the tees that were made for this year, all in the style of old school pulp horror novel covers, or old horror comics. There are 2 black shirts and one grey (the grey being my personal favourite).

First up is The Baker's Bones. The screaming woman in the blade of the knife being held by the zombified baker's hand is a nice image. The tee also has a small wrap around tag at the seam in classic orange and black colour scheme and the Johnny Cupcakes cupcake and cross-bones logo can be found on the back, just below the neck, in a nice red colour.

Next is my personal favourite, Terror Rises, which is a cupcake blob monster attacking a woman in the lake. I just really love the image on this one, and the grey sets it off nicely.

Again, this tee comes with the tag at the bottom seam, and the JC logo on then back.

And finally, we have The Cupcake Corpse, with the image of a melting skeletal woman trying to give her beloved a tasty treat!

This tee is my wife's favourite of the bunch, and it's definitely a close second behind Terror Rises for me. This shirt, of course, comes with the tag, and logo, just like the other two tees in the collection.

I'm really glad I got to pick these up and they're a good price for three Johnny Cupcakes shirts. If you're interested you can visit Johnny Cupcakes here and check out the full range of shirts.

Go Figure!

NECA Aliens Xenomorph Warrior

Next up, I'm going to be looking at the Xenomorph Warrior from NECA.

I love the Alien franchise (yes, I even have a soft spot for Resurrection) but I'm gutted about this figure. And I'll tell you why.

Firstly, this is a gorgeously sculpted figure and the blue black shine that's on it makes it look slimy and wet. Incredible stuff from NECA.

I hate to do this to such a lovely looking figure, but I want to get these negatives out of the way.

My problem's are hopefully issues with my figure and my figure alone. Firstly, the waist joint is super loose and there's a big blob of glue on the back of the figure which is a real shame.

The top fin, the one under the head, is only sitting in place, it's not glued in and falls off easily.

One of the feet is glued in place and doesn't move.

The jaw is off centre, difficult to open, and you can't take out the small inner mouth.

And finally, one of the small tubes leading from the jaw to the back isn't connected like the other one.

All of these things mean the figure doesn't stand properly which makes posing it almost impossible. It's a real shame for such a great looking figure.

However, let's have a look at the positives.

Like I said, this is a great looking figure. Beautifully sculpted and brilliantly creepy.

The joints that work are good. The wrists have nice full articulation, the head moves up and down a little, there's a hinge at the shoulder (which doesn't work on my figure), a ball joint at the elbow, ball joints at the hips and a double joint at the knees... Well, only the one knee on my figure has a double joint. The other knee has one joint glued shut. The feet also have a mid foot hinge.

One of the nicest pieces on this figure is the tail. It's creepy, serated, and bendable, which would make posing this guy much cooler!

I have to say though, that I've used a little bit of heat and I've managed to loosen the stuck foot and knee joint, and this did help a couple of issues. I'll also glue the top fin back into place, and I'll need to glue the small hose into place. This isn't really expected on a NECA figure, and yeah, it's pretty disappointing.

In saying that though I would recommend this figure. I'd really hope you didn't end up with one like mine though.

More Alien goodies will be on the way before the end of the month so stay tuned!

Go Figure!

Photos by Fezbongo - you can see his Tumblr here!

Minecraft Mini-Figure Series 1 'Grass'

I was in Smyths Toys today and was having a look through the blind bag section when I saw these guys. I don't like Minecraft, it's just not my kind of game. I did however pick one of the boxes up to have a look at the kind of characters you can get.

When I saw that you could get a zombie villager, and more excitingly, a snow golem - which has no meaning to me, but he has a jack-o-lantern for a head! - so that made me want him! These guys were £2.99 each so I figured I'd buy just the one, and since there was really only a couple I wanted I cheated a little... I looked around the packaging and found a code above the barcode. You can kind of make it out in this picture.

So I looked online on my phone and discovered that the code that ended in F was the snow golem. I really don't usually use the codes to "cheat" like that but I really only wanted the little pumpkin headed guy! It also meant I could include him in Shocktober!

So I opened it up and found a small bronze bag with the minifig inside.

And inside that bag?

Yay! The internet didn't lie to me!

It's a relatively neat figure for it's size, but holy crap is it small! Like really.

It's about an inch tall - the box is positively over sized compared to the toy. I really wouldn't recommend such a tiny toy to anyone but serious fans of Minecraft, because really, even though they're cheap, these are not worth the money.

Go Figure!

Strange Hill High Gooey Figure

Next up in this month of Shocktober we're having a look at a new mini figure I spotted while out and about, and it comes with goo!! I'm assuming that Strange Hill High is a new show on the BBC - not only because it says BBC on the packaging... - but because one of the girls, called Becky according the package, is wearing a Blue Peter badge!

As you can see, there are three characters that you can get: Becky, Mitchell and Templeton. I thought I'd include this in Shocktober simply because it's weird... I mean come on, it has goo!

Underneath the packaging is a sculpted blue school locker with an 'SHH' crest sculpted on it. And on the back is a vortex with cracks in the locker forming.

Popping the locker open, you find your figure and a sealed bag of bright green ooze.

I got Becky!

The figure is glow in the dark, so is mostly a solid light blue, but gets small white paint apps on her mouth and Blue Peter badge, green glasses, and a messy yellow hat.

No articulation in this little toy, and really, it's not great looking... The locker's better to be honest.

As far as the goo goes it's also much better than the mini figure!

It comes as in a small sealed plastic bag, is really sticky and thick!

I quite like the locker and the goo, though the figure is pretty crappy, though I might like it more if I knew anything about the show.

If nothing else though, this is now some kind of goo coffin, which is pretty fitting for Halloween!

Go Figure!

Living Dead Dolls Figurines Series 2 & 3

Kicking off SHOCKTOBER (see what I did there?) I thought I'd take a look at a couple of horror blind box toys - namely the Living Dead Dolls Figurines.

The blue box is series 2 and the red box is series 3, and I picked them up for pretty cheap at Forbidden Planet. These guys are 2" horror mini figures that I've always liked the look of, and I love me some blind boxes, so I went ahead and picked up one of each.

These toys are from Mezco, and the Living Dead Dolls have been going for a good few years now.

You can see on the back who you can possibly get, with the likelihood in percentages underneath

Out of Series 2, I was hoping for the red Walpurgis or maybe the black Schitzo.

And out of Series 3 I was hoping for the 4% Ember (I'm a sucker for translucent plastic!) or Dee K.

Inside my series 2 box was a silver blind bag, with the logo on the front

And inside that shiny bag?

Grace of the Grave! I wasn't too bothered about getting her, but actually seeing her in mini fig form? She's quite a creepy little toy! It's the "over the shoulder looking back" look that does it. A nice simple sculpt and paint job, until the face. The face has several small bullet holes sculpted in, with trickles of blood running from each of them. Some nice shading on the hands too, and some almost rusty red/brown highlights on her robe. A really nice little piece.

Again, the same silver bag inside the red Series 3 box

And inside this bag?

Posey! A mini fig made entirely of translucent plastic! She even has an accessory.

A small white rose, with bloodied petals. Nice and gruesome!

This is a beautiful little figure. Nicely sculpted again (worth noting that neither of these are articulated), and some nice painted highlights, like her eyes, blood, and white detailing at the fringes of her dress. The thing that really makes Posey pop is the light white dry brushing they've given her, which gives her a nice ethereal look. I'd be tempted to pick up more these but in no real rush.

Stick around for more horror and Halloween related goodness through the month of Shocktober! Go Figure!