The Ladies of POWER RANGERS: NINJA STEEL!

Power Rangers: Ninja Steel - White & Pink Ranger Action Heroes - Bandai 2016

I'm really curious to see how well this current incarnation of the Power Rangers franchise does this year. On one hand, the movie merchandise and popularity could overshadow the Ninja Steel show. But on the flipside, kids might just be in non-stop Ranger mode and the show could act as a natural continuation of their excitement. I'll be interested to see which way it goes. I'm personally not super excited about the Ninja Steel series. Mostly just because I don't have a fascination with ninjas (Last year's constant Ranger coverage was because I do happen to have a fascination with dinosaurs). If the future powered up modes look interesting, I'll pick them up, but I highly doubt I will be a completist. In the Japanese version of the show, there was a female Green Ranger that joined the team. If she shows up in the American version and gets a toy I'll be ecstatic. Any females that aren't pink or yellow are totally appealing to me... like the awesome White Ranger in Ninja Steel! Let's check out Pink and White below!

January 2017 Collection of MARVEL MINI-MATES!

Marvel Mini-Mates Series Series 69 and Blind Bag Series 01 - DST 2017

This has been an amazing month for Minimates. It's uncanny how they come in such surges (at least the interesting female characters). We can go through an eleven month dry spell only to have six new figures come out within a week of each other. It can be pretty overwhelming. I'm combining the Marvel Series 69 releases with the first series of Marvel Blind Bag figures for this review. The Mini-Mates Series 69 is dubbed "Most Wanted" and is definitely impressive for including both an Enchantress and Tigra. (Indeed two of my most wanted figures). The Series 01 Marvel Bling-Bags offered us amazing figures of Silk and X-23 Wolverine, a cool unhooded variant of Spider-Gwen, and an unexpected Deadpool 2099. I'm really excited to see what other figures they squeeze into future blind bag assortments. I'm hoping we'll see a Gwenpool, Moongirl, and Riri Ironheart at the very least. Toy Fair always has a few fun reveals and I'm certainly looking forward to it. Let's check out all the ladies below!

Batman: the Animated Series FUNKO POP!

POP! Heroes BTAS #154 Batgirl, #156 Harley Quinn, #157 Poison Ivy - Funko 2017

It's interesting how a simple design motif can provide such a diverse group of variations on a single character. I have a ton of POP Harley Quinns, a bunch of Batgirls, (and one lonely Poison Ivy). And I can easily say that this new Batman: The Animated Series line has given us the best version of each of these characters so far. Actually, considering that Harley originated on the show, this POP could also be considered her first appearance figure. The Batgirl and Poison Ivy are so clean and bright that they really stand out in my collection. When I started prepping this post early last week, the BTAS Wave 2 lineup had not been officially announced yet and I was full of complaints about the lack of Catwoman. But the London Toy Fair showed us the design for her awesome figure and I am stoked. Now I just hope they can squeeze in a Mystery of the Batwoman at some point! These POPs are nothing short of spectacular. Let's check out Batgirl, Harley Quinn, and Poison Ivy in detail below!

ThunderCats Classics - PUMYRA!

ThunderCats Classics - Series 01 - Pumyra - Mattycollector Exc - Mattel 2016

Ever since Mattycollector was formed and the MOTUC series began, I have been wishing for the same treatment for ThunderCats. But the thing is, I wouldn't ever collect a ton of them like the He-Man/She-Ra stuff. I only really like the actual ThunderCats. Mumm-Ra, the Mutants, and all the secondary characters honestly never really interested me. So my ideal ThunderCats collection would be limited to maybe 15 characters max. That's why I was so excited that one of the first ThunderCats Classics figures announced was Pumyra. I actually like Pumyra a lot more than the main female cat, Cheetara, but she always plays second fiddle. It's all bittersweet though since the line ended after one wave anyway. I have faith that Super7 will pull through with more figures in the future, but we'll all have to be patient. They just announced the Hawke/Delora MOTUC figure, so obscure characters are definitely on their radar (fingers crossed for Lynxana someday!) I can't wait to see more. Let's check out Pumyra below!

WWE Wrestling - BECKY LYNCH!

WWE Series 62 - WWE Divas First Time in the Line - Becky Lynch - Mattel 2016

I've been saying for years that I'm going to stop buying WWE ladies (I don't know anything about sports and I'm seriously low on shelf space after all), only to cave in again and again when I see a gorgeous figure hanging on the pegs with that tantalizingly low $9.99 price tag. This Becky Lynch figure was my latest temptation. I picked her up back in December because I was impressed with her rusty color palette and her steampunk stylings. She's actually very different looking from all my other WWE figures... and that's apparently all the incentive a weak-willed collector like me needs. In reading Becky's bio, I learned that she suffered a bad head injury while wrestling in Germany back in 2006 and took quite a long hiatus from the sport. She didn't wrestle again until 2013 when she signed up with WWE's developmental property, NXT.. She's been very successful since her re-entry into the sport and recently held the 2016 WWE Smackdown Women's Championship title for three months. Let's check out Becky below!

Jada Metals - Suicide Squad - HARLEY QUINN!

Metals Die-Cast - Suicide Squad - 2.5" Series 01 Harley Quinn - Jada Toys 2016

I'm very aware that most of my readers do not like the Jada Metals figures at all, but I still maintain that the tiny 2.5" ones are really cute. Now that they seem to be readily available in the new Funko sections at Walmart, you can go check them out for yourselves (Especially the Batgirl figure, she's my favorite). These Suicide Squad Harleys were on my radar since summertime, but I wasn't really planning on getting them until I saw them last week on the shelves. Now I'm just hoping they scale down all the cool Marvel ladies into this scale. I would love a Lady Deadpool and She-hulk at the very least. It's painful for me to pass on all the cool 4" character I see in the stores, but I'm steadfastly holding out for the smaller size. I think the Harleys in this Suicide Squad line are especially fun because they made multiple original variants. In the 2.5" series, the domino-masked and ponytailed hybrid is weird but cool. I'm excited to see what else they show at Toy Fair. Let's check out the Harleys below!

DC Collectibles Icons - ATOMICA!

DC Collectibles Icons #12 - Atomica (Forever Evil) - DC Collectibles 2016

This figure has one of the most gorgeous sculpts of 2016 in my opinion. I make similar claims alot, but this one can be taken a little more seriously since I don't know anything about this character and picked her up purely because she was stunning. I liked her so much that I wanted to assemble a small collection of other Atomicas to simulate her size-changing abilities. That's why it took me so long to get this review posted. Atomica is a modern member of the Crime Syndicate, the other-dimensional evil JLA. As a counterpart to The Atom, I believe she is the only gender-swapped member of the team. Atomica was brought into the main DC reality by the Outsider where she aligned herself with the JLA with the subversive evil goal of bringing the rest of the Crime Syndicate (along with her lover Johnny Quick) to our world. She succeeded (by hacking into Cyborg's programming) and the evil JLA reigned terror until, of course, they were defeated (thanks dc.wikia.com!) Let's check out Atomica below!

Classic Batman '66 Dorbz - BATGIRL!

Funko Dorbz #232 - Batman Classic TV Series Batgirl - Walmart Exc - Funko 2016

I have extremely fond memories of watching Batman (in syndication) in the early 80s. My brothers and I would race home from the park, turn on the tv and sit as close as we could get to the screen (ignoring my father warning about color tv "radiation poisoning"). Anyway, I love all the Batman episodes, but there was a special added excitement when that cartoon of Batgirl swinging in for a kick was inserted into the opening credits. That meant she would star in the episode alongside Batman and Robin. She was only introduced in the final (shortened) third season, so she appears in less than a quarter of the episodes. And if your tv stations were as bizarre as mine and played things out order, then it was always a crap shoot. There are far too few Yvonne Craig Batgirl collectibles out there, so I was super excited to get this Walmart exclusive Dorbz repaint (Now I need a Catwoman though!). They announced a second wave of Pops for 2017 so I know we'll be getting a Batgirl there, too. Let's check out Batgirl below!