Toy OTD: View Askew/Graphitti Designs Dogma Inaction Figures: Bartleby And Loki

Kevin Smith shows that George Lucas also inspired his marketing, as the "inaction figure" line includes characters that were never on the animated Clerks show. As usual, they're great!

The sculpts are strong - I never pictured either actor caricatured this way, but the likenesses read, and are fun. Great poses with lots of contrast, personality and asymmetry. It's a nice touch to make the 'clipped wing' version of Loki, and push the designs as far part from each other as possible.

The bloodied armor could've looked awful, but the paintwork really pulls the effect off nicely.

There's balance issues, but nothing a little museum putty can't fix. It might have been cool, though, to look at the figure bases available on the market, and try to make the line work with them (I know the members of C.L.I.T. from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back have their own bases - and they're awesome - but they don't work quite as well as you might hope).

You can still get both of these figures for $9.37 + shipping each at Jay And Silent Bob's Secret Stash web store, or all of the Dogma figures as a set for $44.99 + shipping (coming to $9.00 each).

There haven't been any new additions to the line in a while, so here's hoping we'll see new figures at San Diego Comic-Con '08!

Toy OTD: Diamond Select Silver Age X-Men Statue: The Angel (2003), Marvel Girl (2002)

I'm generally not a fan of Diamond Select products, but I think this line of statues is quite good! The sculpts have a slightly rough-hewn quality that evokes Kirby's early drawing style (at least, to me). They're posed well, and the bases are nice and simple (completists will be encouraged to get the whole team, as all the bases include lettering that together spell out "X-Men"). The paint work is tight, and the colors are on-model. The only real minus of the line is Marvel Girl's face, which could use a little more delicacy (easier said than done, I know).

These statues sold for about ninety dollars each when they were first released, but it is possible to find them for considerably less now. I bought most of them for about forty to fifty dollars each (sometimes the boxes were damaged or the logo lettering was missing, but the statues themselves were fine). Mile High Comics has an Angel available for $100 + shipping, and I can't find a Marvel Girl statue online anywhere. I think if you keep your eye on eBay, though, you can get better prices with some patience.