Tag Archives: vinyl

Dec 13 2024

Pac-Man: SoftB Sonic Figure by Bellfine

Some quick behind-the-scenes talk before today’s review! As you’ve probably noticed the midweek reviews haven’t been happening. As much as I’m trying, the demands on my time right now are too great to keep them as part of the regular rotation. It was even tough for me to get back to do this review today, and the only reason I could is because it’s a quickie. And as I move forward, it’s only going to get worse before it gets better. In addition to fighting for free time, I am also contending with having more and more of my collection getting packed away not not accessible. So, please bear with me and I’ll keep doing my best to continue to get something new here each week, even if it’s just me stopping by to talk about how things are going. At some point in February FFZ will have to go on hiatus, but hopefully it will only be for a few weeks while I get moved and settled.

OK, so a while back I checked out a pretty amazing giant vinyl Sonic The Hedgehog figure by Bellfine and commented how their Pac-Man figure was undoubtedly going to wind up in my collection eventually. Well, it did indeed just a short while later and he’s been chomping at the bit to get his time in the spotlight here. Honestly, the reason it’s taken so long as that there’s only so many ways you can photograph this guy, making for a pretty short review. But, since I’ve been crazy busy this week without a lot of time for taking pictures, he seemed like a quick and easy way to end the week!

Here he is in his massive window box and it is indeed a sight to behold. I’ll definitely be displaying him in the box, as the interior tray creates a really nice environment with the maze pattern and artwork. I’m sure I’ve talked about the early 80’s Pac-Man Phenomenon here before, but it’s worth repeating just how ridiculously invasive Pac-Man merchandising became. Even if you never set foot in an arcade, Pac-Man was everywhere! There were books and stickers and trading cards, novelty candy, ballcaps and shirts, gumball machines and board games and puzzles, plushies and keychains, there were ice cream treats and canned pasta and breakfast cereals. Everywhere you looked, Pac-Man was there, heck he even had a hit record and a Saturday Morning cartoon. I can still remember my Dad taking me to a giant flea market in NJ and one of the sellers having a whole table of bootleg Pac-Merchandise. I walked away with a massive poster-sized die-cut sticker sheet reproducing a lot of the stickers found in the wax packs. Sadly there weren’t any decent toys and that always made me sad. I can even remember making figures based on the cartoon out of Play-Doh as a substitute. Since then we’ve had some companies step up with some toy-like collectibles, particularly SH Figuarts, but I wouldn’t really call today’s figure a toy.

Like their Sonic, this is just a giant vinyl statue and he looks great. He stands with one hand on his non-existent hip and the other outstretched with a big dot-eating grin on his face. The Pacster has been depicted a whole bunch of different ways over the years (look it up, because some artistic interpretations are quite surreal!), but this is based on what is easily my favorite official artwork. Apart from the big toony boots and mittens, the detail is all in his giant face. The eyes and eyebrows are sculpted as well as painted and you get a big red tongue inside his wide black void of a mouth. I dig how his eyebrows actually form peaks almost like cat ears and his long Pinocchio-style nose. Considering all the artists had to go on was a yellow pizza missing a slice, this is a delightfully creative and endearing rendition of the famous Dot Gobbler, and tends to be the official style NAMCO tended to use for marketing.

The vinyl holds the colors really well as he is a super bright yellow with orange mittens and red boots. The black facial features offer a nice contrast to the yellow and there’s really nothing to nitpick here when it comes to quality of paint or execution. He does have a large round seam on his back, which I’m sure is necessary for the molding process. I do think it would have been cool to have them put a power pellet or something in his outstretched hand, although I could probably just make something work with a yellow Ping-Pong ball.

And if you want an idea of scale, here’s this big boi holding the SH Figuarts figure!

Pac-Man merch will always tickle my nostalgia bone something fierce and I’m always happy to see companies putting it out there. And I have to say, this Big Daddy Pac is easily the showpiece of my modest collection of yellow chompers. This particular guy has been off the market for a little while, and I really couldn’t find any examples of what he’s selling for these days. I recall paying around $100 for him on Amazon back around June. But, Bellfine is releasing a half-sized version early next year to go a little easier on the wallet and on the space he takes up and who knows, maybe I’ll end up with that one as well!

Jun 14 2024

Sonic The Hedgehog: SoftB Sonic Figure by Bellfine

It’s been a little while since I checked out any Sonic the Hedgehog collectibles here. I’ve enjoyed the JAKKS Pacific line, but that has kind of dried up, or at least I haven’t seen any new sets turning up at Target. Nonetheless, The Blue Hog’s 33rd Anniversary is coming up FAST and I’ve been playing some Sonic on the SEGA Genesis this week, so… let’s dig into my backlog to look at something plastic, blue, and hedgehog shaped. And that brings us to the SoftB Sonic Vinyl figure by Bellfine, and I don’t know what most of that means. I thought Bellfine was some kind of trashy E-girl who sells her bathwater to simps, but apparently it’s a company that seems to produce mostly anime-related scaled figures. And SoftB appears to be their line of large vinyl video game figures. Sonic is the only one of these I knew about, but when I was researching it, I found out they did a Pac-Man SoftB vinyl, and I really wish I didn’t know that, because I can’t not buy it, so expect to see that show up here sometime soon.

This is a large figure, measuring in at about 12-inches tall, so it’s only natural that he that comes in an appropriately large box! And what a beautiful box it is! The front has a large window showing off the figure inside with a smaller window on top to let some light in. There’s a piece of diecut character art on the bottom right corner and some beautiful photos of the figure on the back and side panels. It’s an import, so a lot of the lettering is in Japanese, but you do get some smatterings of English here and there. There’s a thin cardboard insert behind the figure with some illustrations of the Green Hills Zone and blue checkering, which makes for an excellent backdrop if you want to display the figure with it on the shelf.

Wow, this figure feels great in hand, with a decent amount of heft for what is largely a hollow vinyl. I also can’t help but appreciate how amazing this character design works as a vinyl sculpt. I’m not always the biggest fan of this type of figure, but pairing it with retro game character designs is clearly a match made in heaven. In a pose ripped directly from the title screen of the first game, Sonic stands triumphantly, a vinyl god among hedgehogs, with his right hand on his non-existent hip, and his other scolding you with his pointy finger. It was an age of ‘Tude, and Sonic had it in spades. He chastised you just for loading up his cartridge and thinking you had the blue balls to challenge his game. This figure captures everything about Sonic perfectly, right down to the bizarre spiky back which still gives me a laugh to this day. It’s like an angle of the character that was never meant to be seen, but eventually the onset of 3D graphics and merchandising demanded it and the artists did their best. As a vinyl figure, this is decidedly a statue, with the only real points of articulation being swivels in his ankles so you can angle his feet. I’m not sure if that was intentional to help him stand, but he does that just fine without any tweaking.

The coloring here is excellent, from the royal blue of his smooth plastic fur to the pop of his giant red sneakers and yellow side buckles. His mouth, arms, and tummy are all flesh toned and you get plenty of clean white on his giant gloved hands, sock cuffs, and the bands on his shoes. The paint lines are overall pretty clean, but there are a few that could have been a bit sharper considering the price of the figure and the rather large canvas they had to work with, but it’s all still pretty good.

The portrait is a total slam dunk of ‘tudy spunk. His green eyes are perfectly printed on those vast fields of white, his black nose juts out between them, and his shallow line of a mouth forms a cocky smirk against his left cheek. The only blemish on the head is the seam that runs across behind the ears separating his face from the spikey back hemisphere. It doesn’t really detract from the figure much and I’m guessing it’s a necessary evil of working with such a big vinyl hedgehog noggin.

And if you’re looking for scale, here is SoftB Sonic towering over one of JAKKS’ 2.5-inch Sonic figures. SoftB Sonic could literally crush him under his foot like a hedgehog kaiju.

He also displays really well with the JAKKS posable Mario plush if you don’t mind putting rivals on the shelf together! Why can’t we all just get along and enjoy great games?

It feels like Sonic’s 10th Anniversary was just a short while ago, which means I’m getting old and the years are just flying by. I’ll likely pose this figure alongside the coin and soundtrack portfolio that I got way back when. These SoftB figures seem to sell at around $100 a pop. Honestly, the only reason I bought this one was because it went up for half-price around Christmas time, and I was in full-on retail-therapy mode to get me through the crushing Holiday depression. And let’s face it, $50 for a full 12-inches of vinyl hedgehog is a lot cheaper than an hour at the therapist. It probably made me a lot happier too. So, yeah, this one has been sitting around here for a while, and I decided it was well past his time in the spotlight. A very nice figure indeed, and even nicer at half the price! Even with a fair bit of plastic Sonic representation on my shelves, this one is the stand out piece in every way.

May 4 2017

Robot Vinyl Collection: Vehicle Voltron by Toynami

I almost wasn’t going to do an update today. This week has been craaaaazy and time has been so short. Also, I am still without any new Transformers to look at on this increasingly inaccurately named Transformers Thursday. I will, however, promise here that I’ll have a new Transformer for next week. Cross my heart and swear to Primus! Anyway, at the last minute, I looked at my pile of shit unwanted treasures, that I’m slowly getting around to listing on Ebay, and realized there was something in there I hadn’t reviewed here… and it’s a combiner robot, so it sort of fits the Transformers Thursday theme! So, let’s take a look at Toynami’s Vinyl Vehicle Voltron! Holy cats, say that five times fast!

Voltron comes in a clear plastic box, on a clear plastic tray, and this presentation works very well for display purposes if you don’t want to take him out. In fact, as we’ll soon see, he’s probably better off left in there. I think I’ve only had this guy out of the package twice and one of those times is right now. Anyway, the packaging is very nice, albeit very fragile. You may note that the bottom of the box proclaims this release as Volume 3 in the Vinyl Robot Collection. I know that they did a Lion Force Voltron before this one, but I had no idea that there were other releases, including a Zentraedi Heavy Artillery Battlepod, which I kind of wish I knew existed before it hit an approximate value of all-the-damn-monies on the secondary market.

The back of the package features a nice write-up about the series and has a picture of the toy inside. Other than my forever undying love for Vehicle Voltron and the lack of associated merch, I can’t for the life of me remember why I bought this. I’m not a huge fan of vinyl toys to begin with and while this figure is not without its merits, it really never had any place in my collection. I do remember it was on clearance, so I’m sure that had a lot to do with it. And with that resounding vote of confidence, let’s open him up and check him out!

Standing about seven inches tall, this figure is every bit a vinyl toy. The sculpt is soft, but honestly I think it works well with the animated design. And make no mistake, this sculpt is a very animated look. The details are simple, and you’ll note he’s missing some pretty obvious features, like the propeller blades on his shoulders. The simplification of detail is particularly apparent on the back, although they did keep the tank treads for some of the vehicles. Keep in mind, none of this really bothers me, as its a stylistic choice, and one that certainly sets him apart from the other Vehicle Voltron figures that have been on the market. What does bother me is that for a figure that doesn’t do much of anything, he really can’t even stand straight. I want to say it’s from the legs warping in the package, but as I take a good look at the legs, it seems like they aren’t even and that causes the figure to lean a bit to one side.

The coloring on this figure is absolutely fantastic. Yes, if you get in close enough you can see some less than crisp paint lines, but just viewing the figure in hand with the naked eye it looks really good. The blue and red paint are both vibrant and when coupled with the immaculate white, and the silver and yellow, you get a figure that really pops on the shelf. Voltron has always been about bright and attractive coloring and this figure conveys that very nicely.

As a vinyl toy, one shouldn’t expect much in the way of articulation, and that is certainly the case here. The shoulders will rotate, the head will turn, but the rest of the articulation consists of various swivel cuts, which are probably more a byproduct of the figure’s assembly than actual intended points of articulation.

And that, my friends, is all there is to say about Vinyl Vehicle Voltron. If you’re a fan of vinyl toys, this may be a nice piece to have in your collection. I’m not, and to me this figure really misses on all points. Voltron toys are fun because you can either combine and separate them, or because they can be posed and played with, and this one does neither. I understand that isn’t the point of this release. But, if you’re going to make a figure that’s designed to just stand there and look pretty, well I think you should at least make sure it’s capable of standing straight. Since it’s release many years ago, these figures seem to be fairly collectible, so I’m hoping I can get back what I paid for him on Ebay and that’s where he’s going!

Jun 10 2016

Rock Candy (DC Comics): Wonder Woman, Supergirl, and Modern Batgirl by Funko

What do you do when your Funko and have something like 1.5 million different Pop! Vinyl characters in circulation? You keep expanding, of course! And now Funko has introduced a new line of vinyl collectible figures called Rock Candy. Now, I’ve only dabbled in Funko’s Pop! Vinyls, but these roughly 5-inch tall, non-pose-able female figures feature a super cute style that I couldn’t resist. Currently the line is only featuring characters from DC Comics, and different versions of Barbie. Weird! Today I’m sampling half of the initial six DC Comics releases.

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The figures come in compact little window boxes that feel a lot more premium than the POP! boxes. They feature some nice gold foil lettering with each character’s name in her own particular logo on the front and again on the side panel. Oddly enough these aren’t numbered, so maybe Funko isn’t anticipating a lot of growth with this line. Like the Pop! figures, these packages are designed so that you can use them as their own display cases and still get to see most of the figure. Unfortunately, the front window on my Supergirl has heavy rubbing, so I haven’t decided whether to pitch the boxes, or maybe try to get a better Supergirl box. Of course, if you want to open them up, the boxes are totally collector friendly and you even get clear display stands with pegs designed specifically for each figure.

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Overall, I really dig the styling here. There are definitely some cutesy tropes at work, what with the big head and eyes, but I also feel like it’s something fresh and new and works well with all the characters I’m looking at today. Wonder Woman sports an adorably determined expression with hands on hips and I’m surprised at how much of her costume is fully realized through the sculpt. The belt, the chest emblem, her wrist bracers, all of these could have been simple paint apps, but aren’t. Even the coiled lasso is quite detailed! Only the stripes on her boots and stars on her super-panties are achieved with paint alone.

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And speaking of paint, what’s here is overall very solid. The original promotional shots of these figures looked very sharp and I can remember thinking that it was going to be a line that would live or die based on the quality of the paint and considering some of the hit or miss paintwork on Pop! Vinyls, I’m surprised at what we got here. Sure, the lines could be a little more crisp in some areas (particularly the stripes on the boots), but there’s virtually no slop and the shades of blue and red and gold all look so vibrant.

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Supergirl boasts a confident look with fists on display and ready for action. Once again, there’s a lot of sculpted detail here that could have easily just been paint or printing, including her belt and chest shield. The paint here is also very clean and I appreciate that they even used glossy red for the boots and matte for the cape and skirt. But most of all, the colors are just so bright and luxurious.

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And that brings us to Batgirl. This is the Babs Tarr, Batgirl of Brunside, version of the character and a look that I’m very fond of. The sculpt here is pretty impressive as it includes all sorts of little touches like the laces on her boots, the pulls on her zippers, her belt and pouches, she’s even holding a batarang in her left hand. I think I like Batgirl’s expression the most out of the three, as she has a lot of personality. Even the pose, with her one knee drawn in is just adorable.

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Unfortunately, the paint on this one is a bit disappointing when compared to the other two figures. The lines just aren’t as sharp, particularly around the yellow and black areas. I should qualify that by saying it’s still pretty acceptable for a mass produced vinyl collectible in this price range. I mean, they even made a go at painting the laces on her boots! I think this is more an example of the other two figures looking so exceptionally good, that it hurts the one that looks average.

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But, I don’t want to end this Feature on a sour note, because the truth is I totally dig all three of these figures and I’m definitely going to round out the DC assortment by picking up the DCEU version of Wonder Woman as well as Classic Batgirl and Harley Quinn. At $9.99 these figures are in the exact same price point as Funko’s Pop! Vinyls and I think you’re getting a lot more for your money here. They’re cute, colorful, and feel like a decent value, whereas the Pop! Vinyls to me feel like a dirty addiction that I should be ashamed of. In the end, it just feels like more work and personality went into these. While the Barbie releases aren’t my bag, I’m going to be really interested to see if Funko expands this line to include more DC figures or even other franchises. I sure hope they do.