Monday, October 06, 2014

(Somewhat) a Review: Futurama Robot Santa/Series 5!


It's October, which of course means it's time for Christmas stuff; if you believe any store in America. So today we'll check out Toynami's Futurama figures Series 5, featuring the build-a-figure Robot Santa!

The Robot Santa first appeared in the episode X-Mas Story, where it's explained he was created to give toys to good boys and girls, but due to a programming error, his settings were too strict and he invariably found everyone naughty. (Mostly...) By the time Fry awakens on December 31, 2999; the Robot Santa had nearly two centuries of holiday-themed mayhem under his belt! He's a good sized figure in comparison to the others, but not especially heavy, and comes with an alternate arm with machine gun and an alternate spiky puff for the top of his hat. (I didn't want to force the regular puff, so I haven't changed them out; and I'm a little disappointed the gun isn't removable! Deadpool would've stolen it at some point...)

Since she comes with the alternate arm and puff, you could theoretically skip Amy Wong; but she's the only core Planet Express character this series in their traditional look. Bender, Fry, and Leela are in their (short lived) super-hero identities from the episode Less Than Hero: SuperKing, Captain Yesterday, and Clobberella. They're a little more static, but look nice; and the crown and cape are removable on SuperKing, leaving you with a bandit-masked Bender. (One other difference: SuperKing has a new signet ring on his hand.)

Nudar, the alien scammer from Bender's Big Score, is possibly the grossest figure I've seen since McFarlane Toys horror days. He has a weird articulation scheme but you won't want to handle him that much, I repeat, he's gross.

On the other hand, I love Calculon, the robot actor who makes multiple appearances on the show, and claims to have been all of history's great acting robots, like David Duchovny. During the episode Bender Should Not Be Allowed on Television, Calculon proclaims that he only does one take, and that Bender's audition was "so bad I think you gave me cancer!" Like his namesake, the figure doesn't have a great deal of range, but has enough to act as loudly and broadly as possible.

This was a fun batch of figures, but they've been out for some time, and I picked them up at Hastings, for $9.99 a piece! Probably at least a five buck saving per figure, but I didn't find them on their website right now! Still, you may be able to find them in stores; I know there were other stores in town that still had them, and possibly the URL and Wooden Bender figures as well.


2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

Nice figures, and yeah, that one pink fugly one really is gross-looking.
He looks like he has the body of a hairless, newborn pup with a fly/mosquito head. Eeew.

You know, as good as everyone says it is, I've really only maintained a somewhat passing interest in the show. Never quite liked like I did the Simpsons.

Then you have the totally weird dichotomy of hearing Katty Segal, yet realize she's also the manipulative bitch from sons of anarchy, and your mind's blown.

Anonymous said...

How much