As you can probably guess from the
slowed rate of updates, I'm still working my morning job at the
Alzheimer home. It's only fitting that the place is driving me crazy
but I soon plan to have my time there wrapped up. Yes indeed,
depending on how a couple events play out I should be back to just
having the shelter job somewhere between next week and the end of
July. In the meantime nothing is quite as important as maintaining
some image of mental health. And what better way to keep ones mood
high than a big crate of mystery goodies?
As a big fan of Marvel's various super
ladies I was pumped for this month's theme. With so many options for
characters to use like X-23 (currently Wolverine), Silk,
Spider-Woman, Captain Marvel, etc how could this be anything other
than a slam dunk? Turns out avoiding spoilers this time around would
be quite the ordeal as the box took longer than ever to arrive. DHL
was the original carrier who sent the package all the way past
Michigan to Chicago area where they handed it off to USPS who
required four days to get it back here and another to get it to my
porch. To put this in perspective, folks in my area use Chicago for a
day trip, so what's the deal post office? Finally I got to dig into
this newest offering of Funko/Marvel goodness and for the first time
since subscribing, it didn't fully live up to my expectations. Don't
get me wrong, it's still a damn fine box, it just missed the mark a
little for my personal tastes.
First up is the small stuff. This
month's patch is current Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan and it does a fine
job of capturing her likeness. I've yet to read the girl's main book
though word is it's really something special. I plan on checking out
the omnibus coming this fall to catch up on her adventures. Maybe
then this patch will be a little more special. Pin duty goes to
Spider-Woman Jessica Drew, oddly in her old outfit. I'm a big fan of
Jessica and wish she'd gotten a little more attention than just the
pin. Still happy to place her on the ever expanding lamp shade pin
collection.
It's a little surprising to see Civil
War II as our comic as I figured we'd either get a stand-alone
super-heroine title or the all female A-Force. This still works for
the theme given Captain Marvel's large role with support from
She-Hulk and others. Does anybody else find it strange that Carol
Danvers is on the exclusive Funko cover twice? Last I check girl
doesn't have a clone. The book's pretty decent overall. The beginning
is a little off when the writing is trying to be funny but it comes
across as sort of awkward and stilted. The art's top notch and
there's enough here to keep me interested in checking out the full
story once it gets collected.
Next up is clothing. Gotta say these
Funko shirts hold up surprisingly well. They've all been comfortable
enough that I wear em pretty frequently and so far there's been no
major damage of any sort. This month's shirt is a bit underwhelming
when compared to the Civil War and Deadpool entries. Nothing terrible
mind you just a little bland. Weirder still is that the info card
shows three other concepts for the shirt that probably would've
turned out better. Why they switched to such a basic design in the
end is anyone's guess.
Now for the main feature of every box,
toys. The side toys this month are a two piece set of mystery minis
featuring Captain Marvel and She-Hulk. These are a nice improvement
over the Ant-Man minis from last year which forced coalitionists to
trade or shop eBay to complete the set of four. For me however,
mystery minis are one of my least liked Funko product lines. They
just plan lack the appeal of Pops or quality of Dorbz and Hikari. Not
to mention they have a greater tendency to tip over. She-Hulk has
tipped nearly once an hour since I got her. These two do have nice
sculpts so at least there's that. From the looks of it, I'm guessing
Funko still hasn't cleared the Marvel license for use with Rock Candy
or Vinyl Vixen lines since this would have been the ideal place to
premiere an item like that.
Last up is our newest exclusive Pop,
Squirrel Girl. Right up front, I haven't read anything with this
character other than her brief stint as Nanny for the New Avengers.
As you might assume I've got almost zero connection with her. Even
so, I can still admit to a top quality pop when I see one and this is
really nice. The detail is already great (just look at that tail!)
but when combined with her tiny squirrel friend, it makes for a
pretty awesome pop.
As I said earlier, this is still a
pretty good box but coming after the excellent Deadpool and Civil War
editions makes this one feel a little small and lifeless in
comparison. To a certain extent I blame the theme for being too big.
If they had narrowed it down to just women from the spider books or
members of A-Force or something along those lines it would have been
easier to keep expectations in check. Instead I'm left wondering why
characters who already have pops and merchandise on the way are
included while one like X-23 and Silk can't even get the shirt or
Dorbz treatment. The Squirrel Girl pop is absolutely the best part of
this box for that very reason. She's a character that doesn't get
much in the way of collectibles and they gave her the royal
treatment. That's the sort of thing I want to see more from this
service.
The theme for August is Spider-Man.
Looking forward to it as always. With the pop they've got options
such as his new glowy costume or maybe give us the Superior Spider
suit from doc ock's days. If we're lucky, maybe one of our web ladies
or Black Cat can sneak in on that one.
I might try out another box in July if
I can afford it. Depends on when I leave this job, ya know? As I
transition outta there you'll definitely see an uptake in my online
activities. Got plenty of stuff to post about on here along with
articles to edit and finish for Dread Central and a whole article
series I want to purpose to another site. Wish me luck on that. With
any luck I'll be back to living the broke, one job life soon.
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