Toy OTD: Tomy Magical Collection Figures: 'Runaway Brain' Mickey, Pablo The Cold-Blooded Penguin, Bullseye

I'm generally not a big fan of small PVC figures, but this line is so well sculpted, a lot of them are too good to resist! Here's a few stellar examples.

The sculpts are typically very strong, with good posing and a nice sense of the character's personality. The paint work is also pretty tight, especially considering the size of the figures. If the character needs it, it'll be packaged with a small stand.

Some mini-figures get a little carried away in an attempt to create a background, the result becoming cluttered and busy. For the most part, though, the Magical Collection line ignores backdrops completely, keeping things nice and simple.

The best thing about this series is that it has no focus - any character from any Disney film (feature or short) could be made into a figure. While there's not a lot of really obscure characters, there are plenty of unintuitive ones.

These have all been out for a little while, so you'll have to do some digging to find them. Runaway Brain Mickey is for sale on eBay for $26.99 + $7.99 shipping - yikes! There's a monochrome version of Bullseye available at Toyzz.com for $11.99 + shipping, but I can't find the regular version. I can't find Pablo anywhere, so warm up those eBay Favorite Searches!

Toy OTD: Jidousports PVC Figures

The dog Jidou is the lead character in a sports-themed animated series. It appears from the studio website that they have a television, internet, and merchandising presence; and that the series has aired in various formats in Asia. Whatever. What counts is that he's super-cute!

There's a bunch of figures available depicting Jidou and his friends playing various and sundry sports. As usual, these little guys have great sculpts and nice, tight paint work.

I can't recall how I got a hold of these toys; I thought I ordered them online from the company, but they don't seem to be available that way any longer. When I bought them, they were about $8 or $9 + shipping each. I think eBay is going to be your main hope on this one!

Toy OTD: Plastoy Tintin PVC Figures: Thomson And Thompson

I'm constantly impressed by the quality of Plastoy figures - the sculpts are on-model and well-posed, the paint work is strong, and they have good taste in licenses.

I don't often get figures this small, but I was struck by the subtle differences in the two brothers, and I'm a big Tintin fan in general.

I bought these at a store in San Francisco called Karikter - both of them are available at their online store for $7.50 + shipping each.

Toy OTD: Strangeco, Super 7's Neo-Kaiju Figures: Seonna Hong's Kara Kara Tako Girl (2004)

Today I'm featuring another figure from this great, artist-filled toy line! All ten characters are great, but this is one of my particular favorites. Super-cute, but with a nice, offbeat quality to it. Nice sculpt and paint apps for a capsule toy - each came in its own beautifully labeled egg.

These have been out for a few years now, so they may be tough to find. They do show up on eBay, priced between $8.00 - $20.00 each. You can get this figure right now at designertoystore.co.uk for £7.99 (about $16 USD) + shipping.

Toy OTD: Dark Horse Mutts PVC Figures

A little while ago, Dark Horse released a four-figure set of characters from the Mutts comic strip. Earl and Mooch are both available in larger sizes, but there's two other characters (Guard Dog and Shtinky) included that you can't get any other way. So of course I bought it!

The sculpts and paint apps, while not as good as many imported toys, are still nice for the figures' size. The poses also stand well without bases, not as precariously as the larger vinyls.

These haven't been out all that long (since last October), so you can still get the set for retail - reduced, in fact, to $13.49 + shipping from Things From Another World.