Hey Go-Readers! I’m officially taking over the Sunday Bloody Funday column. So now you will get 2 bi-weekly columns from mwah. With that being said let’s talk bloody horror.
Are you excited about the return of The Walking Dead? If not I hope a zombie horde shows up on your front door step and eats your cat! Just kidding! Seriously though what are you doing with your life if you are not a Walking Dead fan? Daryl, Rick, and the crew are back for another season of gory zombie drama. If you need to brush up on what happened at the end of first half of this killer season, check out the video “Where The Mid-Season Finale Left Off: The Walking Dead: Season 5” from AMC’s TWD official fan site.
Since becoming a Walking Dead fan I have begun to grow an interest in some of the toy lines especially the Mystery Minis by Funko and the new Mini Building Sets by McFarlane Toys. Funko has announced, by way of the company blog, that they will be adding a 3rd series to the popular Walking Dead Mystery Mini line. This set will contain 17 new mini characters in the usual blind package form. Some of the characters included in this set are Tyreese, Hershel, Carol, Glenn, and even Daryl’s Bike will make an appearance in this series.
I personally own almost all of the figures from the first 2 series of minis and absolutely adore them, so as you may have guessed I can’t wait until I can add some more of these super cool figures to my collection. This set is to be released this month so I assume we will be seeing them either right before the season premiere or a couple of days or so after. I’m hoping after because I’m broke this week from pre-orders and hunting and I want a case of these as soon as they are released. You could always pre-order a case at Entertainment Earth to make sure you don’t miss them (due to ship in March). Also, I’m not sure if Hot Topic will have another store exclusive set of minis like with the 2nd series, but I sure hope so.
This line is the next BIG thing in the Walking Dead toy franchise in my opinion. McFarlane Toys has released a series of Mini Building Sets and might I say they are in the words of my favorite bro Barney Stinson, “lengen… wait for it… dary!” So far 3 complexly detailed building sets have been released. Daryl Dixion with Chopper, Prison Tower with breakable fence to unleash your zombie horde upon the humans just like in the TV series, and the Governor’s fish tank room with glowing lights and little Penny in tow. A series of blind bag buildable 2” mini figures and a figure pack set of 5 buildable mini figures were also released. The mini figures come unassembled with a clear stand. The figures have minor articulation once put together but be cautious or you will be irritated rebuilding the figure and putting them together isn’t such an easy task.
Speaking of no easy task the building sets are nothing to sneeze at when it comes to construction and detail. Each set has over 150 pieces with the largest set (Prison Tower) having 620 pcs. The building sets start at $19.99 (and up) if you order online (EE has them up for preorder with an April release). The blind bags are just $2.99 but can become costly if you are really trying to deck your dioramas out. I personally am getting the figure packs (the 5-Pack is $16.99 and the wave 1 EE 6-Pack is $19.99 ). Oh yeah did I forget to mention you can only get them in-store or online right now at Toys R Us. So if you are in need of these sweet innovative building sets and can’t wait until they are released at Entertainment Earth head to your local Toys R Us store. Well I’m going to get some grub and get ready for the premiere it looks like it is going to be the best season yet! Take a look at the first 2 minutes of the Mid-Season Premiere from AMC. Until next time Go! Hard, Go! Fast, Go! Figure.
Catch the 1st 2 minutes of Mid-Season 5 right here.
Author’s Note: There are some new retailers set to join the Walking Dead building set family. Now you can get the building sets at Wal-Mart, Target, Walgreens, GameStop, and Amazon. The biggest news is that there will be 2 Wal-Mart Exclusive sets (Prison Tower and Prison Gate & Fence) both sets will feature new never-released figures. You can expect to see the sets appear nationwide at any of the local retailers listed beginning as early as this month or March.
Sources: Funko, Washington Times & Spawn.com