Superthings - NEBULAXIA!

Superthings: Rivals of Kaboom - Evolution - Nebulaxia (GITD) - MagicBox 2023

When I travel to other countries, I love to hunt down toys I've never seen or heard of here in the United States. Last year I was in England for a week and annoyed my travelling companions by stopping by every toy and candy shop we passed. I only found a single solitary "unknown to me" toyline the entire time though. Superthings is a kid-focused franchise featuring toys, merchandise, and a cartoon with a ton of fun vibrantly-colored characters. I believe the toyline was first and spawned the rest of the franchise. Googling now, I can see a handful of cool female characters (my favorite is Sourbette). But when I was there, the only lady I could find was Nebulaxia, a space-y adventurer with a UFO-shaped helmet, a cool space blasters, and a sidekick (Star Explorer) that looks like Saturn with wheels. Plus she glows in the dark, which is my favorite gimmick in all of toydom. I was very happy to find a figure so weird and quirky. Plus she could easily fit in my luggage. Let's check out Nebulaxia below!

NECA GITD Retro - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!

Universal Monsters  -  SDCC Retro GITD Bride of Frankenstein - NECA 2025

The 70s and early 80s were a dark time for female action figures. Despite some iconic ladies in pop culture like Wonder Woman and Princess Leia, they had almost no merchandise. You could fit all the female action figures in existence into a shoebox (I'm excluding soft Mego figures). With Universal Monsters, it seems there was always toys around (notably from AHI and Remco), but the Bride was always excluded. In fact, I believe (with the exception of an old Aurora model kit) she was never represented in plastic until 1998 when both Hasbro and Sideshow released figures. The TMNT April O'Neil as the Bride (1994) has such notoriety, because it was the first time her image (even in homage) was in action figure form. Since 2023, NECA has been gifting us with Remco-styled redeco's of the Ultimates figures on vintage cards. I had assumed this line would be limited to the original 6 Remco characters. But then we were surprised by the inclusion of The Invisible Man, Nosferatu, and of course, the Bride.

NECA Ultimates - BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN!

Universal Monsters Ultimates -  The Bride of Frankenstein - NECA 2023

I don't know why I waited two years to open this figure. I was very excited to get her back in 2023 and faked an appointment to leave work midday when my local toy shop posted that they got her in. But then time got away from me and I never circled back to her until I picked up the SDCC GITD version of her this Summer. She is really a great action figure. I especially love a Bride figure when there is an alternate mummy look to display, I think the last mummy head included was way back with the 1998 Sideshow figure. When I first saw this NECA Ultimates Bride, I was confused by her brown hair. I always assumed her hair was black in the (black and white) movie and every piece of Bride of Frankenstein merchandise I own sports raven hair with a shock of white hair. But I've come to terms with the fact that the true color is auburn (Elsa Lanchester's natural hair). Plus I really like how it pairs with the off-white color of her robes and her brown-hued makeup. She looks great. Let's check out the Bride below!

Hocus Pocus - THE SANDERSON SISTERS!

Funko Minis - Disney's Hocus Pocus - Five Below Exclusive - Funko 2025

Hocus Pocus is a movie that was almost completely off my radar until very recently. It was released in 1993, when I was in high school, but I was only vaguely aware of it. I gather that it flopped at the box office but gained a massive cult following through continual airing on the Disney Channel and Freeform in the three decades since (neither of which channels I has access to until the last 5 years or so). I even worked at video rental stores for many years and we just didn't stock it. I was forced to watch it a few years ago for the first time. This was by friends who had a deep nostalgia for it from their childhood. Without that wistful slant, I honestly wasn't a huge fan. It was very over-the-top and silly with caricatures I found too childish (and I am very immature). But that said, I was glad to finally see this cult hit. I loved the colorful design of the Sanderson Sisters as well as the actors playing them. I've wanted to add them to my collection in some way, but none of the product so far felt quite right. 

POP Funko - MELANIE DANIELS!

POP! Movies #1788 - Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds - Melanie Daniels - Funko 2025

The Birds had a powerful impact on me as a child. My Dad loved Alfred Hitchcock and we would always tune in to his (often wildly inappropriate for kids) films when they aired on TV. The Birds was always my favorite. But ironically. this was because I loved birds so much. You might think that a bird lover would hate a movie where all the birds are portrayed as violent unpredictable antagonists, but I was fascinated. I also loved the open-ended mystery of the attacks (fun fact: years later they discovered that the real-life incidents that inspired the film were caused by toxic algae). But when I was a kid, I was left wondering if my birds might suddenly attack me, too. The star of the film was Tippi Hedren (mother of Melanie Griffith and grandmother of Dakota Johnson). Her character, Melanie Daniels, was beautiful, smart, and mysterious and really made the movie great. In 2008, I missed out on a Barbie of The Birds. This Funko Pop 17 years later finally let's me add a piece memorabilia to my collection. Let's check her out below!

Five Nights at Freddy's - TOY CHICA!

Five Nights at Freddy's - Toy Chica (Jump Scare Action) - Jazwares 2025

It surprises me that the first Five Nights at Freddy's game was released just eleven years ago. I feel like I've been seeing these character designs and toys for decades. And the genre of innocent-turned-twisted jumpscare games that were seemingly influenced by this franchise is overwhelming. In the beginning, I wasn't a huge fan of that bulky character designs. I was frankly shocked to learn that Chica was female. It wasn't until much later that the female FNAF characters actually looked female. This is one of those tricky scenarios where I try to not limit my appreciation of the female form to only svelte hourglass proportions. But when you have anthropomorphic animatronic characters with bulky genderless bodies and faces (or even decidedly male bodies and faces) the decision to finally include some stereotypical feminine traits is very appreciated. This figure is little odd since essentially naked except for a bib and underwear, but I thought she looked pretty fun. Let's check out Toy Chica below!

Toony TV Classics - J.B. FLETCHER!

Toony TV Classics - Murder, She Wrote - Jessica Beatrice Fletcher - NECA 2024

Murder, She Wrote is an iconic show from my youth. I didn't have cable in my early years and it was a staple on one of the four television channels we had access to. It started when I was 6 years old and ended when I graduated High School, so it was quite literally a constant presence in my formative years. But the funny thing is, for zero reason, my siblings and I hated it. We would be gleefully watching the A-Team or Knight Rider but would utter a collective groan when that tinkling piano music began and a waving Angela Lansbury glided by on her bicycle. But as an adult, I find it quite comforting. Jessica Fletcher is a famous crime fiction writer who constantly gets pulled into real life murder investigations in her sleepy town of Cabot Cove (or when on the road for book signings - a frequent occurrence). This Toony Classics figure is the first non-horror Toony figure I've purchased (although she's kind of an honorary spooky character). She is delightfully kitschy and I can't wait to see what characters NECA makes next.

Bendy and the Dark Revival - AUDREY!

Bendy and the Ink Machine (Dark Revival) Wave 1 - Audrey - Jakks Pacific 2024

Jakks Pacific seems to have cornered the market on video game action figures. Their Nintendo (Mario) and Sega (Sonic) figures have been staples of the toy aisles for a decade. So it was interesting to see the first wave of Bendy figures last year. In short, I was unimpressed. The female character is the first assortment was Audrey, a new character introduced in 2022's (delayed) Dark Revival sequel game. This figure had awkward-looking articulation, a (too) blank expression, and glossy paint job that looked cheap. This was especially interesting because the last Bendy figure I purchased was this same character in a 2019 Wave from PhatMojo, which looked great (albeit with limited articulation). Luckily Jakks Pacific kept improving with every successive wave and the current figures on the shelves (Wave 3) look great. But, still, I think this figure is surprisingly lackluster from such a well-seasoned company (which is a shame since the character is pretty cool). Let's check out Audrey below!