Well, I sure did until photos of the final Shepard and Ashley figures hit the Interwebs. WOOF! The bodies look ok, but instead of going with in game likenesses, Square-Enix decided to go with transvestite Shepard and crack whore Ashley. We’re talking shockingly bad sculpting and paintwork. Garrus appears to be the only one that escaped the factories with his face intact, but then he was ugly to begin with. Zing! Of course, I’ve yet to mention there have also been some reports of unfortunate QC issues showing up on the initial production run. Thankfully, I was in time to cancel my pre-orders and I can always wait and see how Fem Shep and Tali turn out. In the meantime, I needed to look elsewhere for my Mass Effect figure fix.

And that brings us to Big Fish. Who? These are the guys that took over production and distribution of the more mass market orientated ME3 figures after the shit blew up between Bioware and DC Direct over delays in shipping. DC Direct finally got out the first wave under the Mass Effect 2 banner, before the whole show was handed over to Big Fish. But new name or not, these are still essentially DC Direct figures (only now released under the Mass Effect 3 banner), meaning that they’re aimed at a much more mainstream market than the larger and far more articulated Play Arts Kai figures. Now, personally, I’d rather have a less articulated figure with a decent looking portrait, but hey that’s just me. It didn’t hurt that I was able to get six of these figures (plus a Kotobukiya statue) shipped from our brothers in The Great White North for less than the cost of two of the Play Arts Kai figures. In fact, the only two I’m missing for a complete set are Legion and Garrus, and I have no qualms about hunting them down individually for a little more monies.

Usually, new weeks begin around here on Mondays, but with Thanksgiving and Black Friday ahead, I’m going to spend most of this week either crazy busy, crazy drunk, or asleep. There’s bound to be a few days this week, where I won’t have time to update, so I’m hoping that if I start today, I’ll still have a good chance of making it through all six figures before the end of the week.

So strap in, kiddies, and I’ll be back tomorrow to kick it off with the hero of the piece: Commander Shepard himself.