Doctor Who
4th Doctor
8 Inch Scale
By: BifBangPow
$20.00
It's a great time to be a Doctor Who fan, as the show seems to be reaching a high point in terms of popularity and that's translating into a lot of product on the shelves. For decades fans of Who were left with rather subpar toys and now not only do we have great import toys from Character Options, we also have for likely the first time ever, American companies making Doctor Who toys!

BifBangPow is a little company that has been making niche toys for several years now. BifBangPow teamed up with EMCE toys about a year or so ago to form a relationship where BBP would use the designs made famous by Doc Mego, but crank out a variety of new licensed product. The toys have had mixed success within many collectors circles and some of the license choices have frustrated certain sects of toy collectors.


However, BifBangPow has provided some incredible product and have slowly built up a catalogue of products and licenses leading to what ultimately has become a surge in the new Mego-like toys market. This has led BBP to arguably their biggest license to date, Doctor Who! This brand is not foreign to having Mego style figures as in the 1980's Deny's Fisher, a UK branch off of Mego made a short lived Mego Doctor Who line. However those figures were not in the classic Mego scale and were not readily available here in the United States.


Now twenty plus years later BifBangPow has given Doctor Who the classic Mego treatment and have brought Who to our shores in a way never thought possible before. I've fallen behind on Doctor Who figure reviews this year but it's where we've often specialized here at Infinite Hollywood, so let's close out the year with some more Who-goodness. Can this Who compare to the classic brands and is it worth your time and money? Read on to find out!

Sci-Fi Revoltech #033
Legion
5 Inch Scale
By: Kaiyodo
$50 (price varies)
What's this? Yes it's the 12th Day of Gamera... Better late than never. This is my final Gamera review for now and with this review, we at Infinite Hollywood can claim to have more Gamera toy reviews than any website on the net! Or at least English speaking websites. This Gamera is the Revoltech version of 1996's Gamera 2: Advent of Legion.


This Gamera figure is similar in many ways to the original Revoltech Gamera and yet, quite a bit different too. Kaiyodo continues to find new ways to make these figures stand out. As much as I love the 1995 design of Gamera, I must admit that the 1996 design and by proxy this figure, are quite awesome too. The 1996 design is a perfect marriage between the original Heisei Gamera and the final Heisei Gamera.


Is this Gamera big and bad enough to take on Legion?!

Vinyl Pop Holidays Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer
Bumble
3 3/4 Inch Scale
By: Funko
$5
MERRY CHRISTMAS! So although I didn't get everything up (stay tuned tomorrow for the 12th Day of Gamera!) we did get quite a few things up this holiday season. We'll conclude with an old favorite, the Bumble!

We've reviewed Bumble Mugs and Bumble Action Figures in years past, but when I saw the Funko Pop holiday characters, I knew I had to have the Bumble. While all the characters look nice, the Bumble is clearly the best and most popular. Target had these for only $5, but good luck finding the "Bumble" Abominable Snow Monster, as I had to drive all around to find this little guy.

It's all over but the crying now. Twenty four long days to get here and each and every day I've had a new post reviewing this crap. I deserve a medal or something. So now the first ever epic Infinite Hollywood Lego Advent Calendar (and my first Advent Calendar of my whole life!) comes to a close. Join us and leave a comment, won't you?

Sci-Fi Revoltech #032
Legion
5 Inch Scale
By: Kaiyodo
$50 (price varies)
To say that the modern Shusuke Kaneko Gamera trilogy was massively different than the kid friendly 1960's Gamera films would be an understatement at best. If 1995's Gamera: Guardian of the Universe still seemed a little men in rubber monster suits for you, Gamera 2: Advent of Legion destroyed any preconceived notions about the genre and the character.

What is Legion? The film never explains too much, he's simply an alien hybrid thing that comes down to Earth and unleashes hell. Not in the typical giant Kaiju way, but in a much more visceral, the entire planet is truly in jeopardy way. Eventually Gamera defeats him, but not before Gamera is nearly killed and whole cities are literally obliterated from the face of the Earth.

The Gospel of Mark, 5:9, describes the following:

And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

In short, Legion is badass in biblical proportions. Kaiyodo's Revoltech line seemed to be headed to the past, but now we're back to the more modern era with the release of supposedly the "biggest Revoltech yet" in Legion. It's an odd choice, in the sense that Legion isn't exactly a character that has a huge following, nor does he fit the typical action figure mold in any fashion.

Much like the character, Legion's figure is unlike anything we've ever seen in this line before.

One day left to go. This thing is almost over. Are we going to go out with a bang or a whimper? Or perhaps a bark?

In 1968, Daei studios commissioned a Gamera Christmas film with acclaimed stopmotion animation studio, Bankin-Rass. Unfortunately Bankin-Rass went out of business before the film could ever be released and no footage from the film has ever been released... Until now!

It's almost Christmas and this Lego Advent Calendar only has two days left. Today we get an actual winter item, but is it deja vu?!

Originally this year I planned a bunch of Christas themed reviews, as I usually do with my "Christmas in Hollywood" celebration each year. However, because of the damned Lego Advent and the 12 Days of Gamera, I've had to cut a bunch of that stuff out. Most of it I'm just shuffling off into things I'll review for next year, but some of this stuff I need to get up so that it won't be dated.

Such is the case with these two types of holiday M&Ms. I believe that they may both be new for the season, but I feel fairly confident that at least the cinnamon M&Ms are. So here's my brief review of both the new Cinnamon M&Ms and the Cherry Cordial M&Ms.


First up is the cinnamon M&Ms. Let it be known that I'm not really a huge fan of cinnamon, but for whatever reason as I was looking through the sales papers on Thanksgiving, I saw an ad for Cinnamon M&Ms at Target and I thought they sounded good. So I then began to search for them. I'm convinced that they are Target exclusives, because I went to every other retailer and local grocer in town and ONLY Target has them.


Anyway, when I finally bought them at Target (M&Ms were cheaper elsewhere, which is why I searched around) I picked up a bag of the Cherry Cordial ones too, because Target was doing one of those Buy 2 for $5 deals.

Cinnamon and Chocolate is not exactly a new idea. I'm pretty sure that the Aztecs or the Mayans or some other ancient civilization used to mix the two together all the time. Granted they also used to sacrifice babies and virgins and pierce their testicles, but hey we got Twilight, Rap music and Jersey Shore so no era of civilization is not without it's flaws. Anyway, it sounded like a interesting new way to eat M&Ms.

Sci-Fi Revoltech #027
Gyaos 1967
5 Inch Scale
By: Kaiyodo
$40 (price varies)
Just as it did with the first Heisei version of Gamera, Kaiyodo followed up it's 1967 version of the character with the 1967 version of Gyaos. Gamera versus Gyaos was the third Gamera film for Daei and was really the beginning of some of their better efforts. Gyaos is unique in that he appears twice in the Showa series, once in this form and later repainted as "Space Gyaos". Of course he shows up a few other times via stock footage.


The original Gyaos was weakened by the sun, an interesting plot that the original film had. Gamera's early Showa films often focused on unique elements, such as the effects of different elements on the creatures. Of course, because he's a monster, he shoots lasers from his mouth.


Obviously this figure goes great with the Showa Revoltech Gamera and I can't imagine anyone not buying both of them together. However, you could easily have this version of Gyaos do battle with a modern Gamera as well. His design is quite a bit different than the modern Gyaos. So does this figure fare better than it's predecessor? It's time to find out!

Only three days left. It's almost over. Christmas is almost here. Today's little Lego advent gift is sure to be a mind blowing experiance. I can just feel it!

Sci-Fi Revoltech #026
Gamera 1967
5 Inch Scale
By: Kaiyodo
$40 (price varies)
Today marks the first day of Hanukkah, also known as the Festival of Lights and it's also the 8th day in the 12 Days of Gamera! For the rest of the days of Gamera, the famous green turtle will be lighting the letters in his name. It's gonna be four more crazy nights of Gamera! The Festival of fire, if you will!


I'd be lying if I wasn't shocked when Kaiyodo first announced these 1967 versions of their famous Gamera monsters. I wasn't sure if the Gamera would be as cool as the Modern Gamera version. But sometimes I'm an idiot!


This Gamera figure kicks all kinds of ass. In fact it's even BETTER than the other Revoltech Gamera. As much as I raved about that figure, to be even better is a tall order of business. Somehow Revoltech delivers again and this is one figure that any classic Gamera fan should rush to have as part of their collection! This guy can do everything!

It continues. Like the Energizer Rabbit, it just keeps going and going. Today we get something that is totally not a Police station or a car part! It's the miracle of Christmas!

Super Imaginative Chogokin
Stronger and Tackle (Vol. 55)
7.5-inch-ish scale
By: Bandai
$48.99+ Online

Well, I’m not dead. So there’s that.

Bandai sort of has the market cornered on awesome toys. Kiwami Tamashii, Armor Plus, S.H. Figuarts and now MonsterArts, SoC, SRC—there’s truly something there for everyone, regardless of whether your interest is in anime, kaiju, or tokusatsu.

A line of theirs I’ve recently become aware of is called Super Imaginative Chogokin, which is basically a line of tokusatsu figures (primarily Kamen Rider) centered on re-designs of classic and modern characters. Do these figures capture the essence of great tokusatsu, or do the re-designs fall flat on their collective faces? Let’s find out!

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Viras
4 Inch Scale
By: Trendmasters
$13.99 (price varies)
This is my final Trendmasters Gamera figure (toys I began reviewing over a year ago) and it's our seventh day on the 12 Days of Gamera but I assure you this one's a winner. Viras is my favorite of the Trendmasters Heisei designs and easily the best "toy" of the Trendmasters Gamera series. Heck, I'd say it's probably the best Viras figure ever made!

Fusing together, hideous space squids from a distant water world from the mega-monster Viras,a beast with the power of mind control! Using his six thrashing tentacles to squeeze the life out of his monster foes, Viras plunges his spear-like head into his adversaries to finish them off. Can Gamera ward off the awesome mental powers of this alien menace who's bent on taking over Earth

As usual, Trendmasters has a fantastic bio on Viras and of all the kaiju that they suped up for their Gamera line, Viras is far and away the most fantastic. Viras just screams evil and with just a few tweaks, he's able to become something awesome.


This figure is a perfect compliment to Dark Horse's Viras character and a great little toy regardless of if you're a fan of Gamera or not. Trendmasters, I love what you guys did here. If the guy who designed this figure ever visits the site, just know, good going bro!

We're six days away from Christmas. Do you think Lego has finally decided to ramp it up for the big conclusion? If your guess was no, have an eggnog drink!

So here's some fun Gamera facts that you may or may not know. Just in time for the holidays! So learn some more about your favorite turtle for the 12 Days of Gamera!


A lot of people know Gamera from his days on on Mystery Science Threatre 3000. What some folks may not know, is that Gamera debuted on the original Mystery Science Theatre 3000 back when it wasn't on cable, but local TV in Minneapolis. What's interesting is that these were "holiday" episodes, airing during the month of December.


Gamera versus Barugon, Gamera the Invincible and Gamera versus Gyaos all aired during December and the guys were in a particular festive spirit. In fact Crow was transformed into a Christmas tree and did not participate in two of the shows.

Things are really starting to get strange in this advent calendar. It's clearly not a Christmas calendar. This I'm convinced of. I think perhaps this is a Oz advent calendar. Not like the Wizard of Oz, no like Oz, the prison rape show. Seriously, things get, uh, awkward in today's advent.

Gamera: Guardian of the Universe
Guilon (Guiron)
4 Inch Scale
By: Trendmasters
$13.99 (price varies)
We're 5 days into the 12 Days of Gamera and what better way to show that than with the fifth Gamera villain, Guiron! Guiron is perhaps the most inspired design of all the Gamera foes, as he's really not like anything else. He's part dog, part shark, he can walk on all fours or stand up, he has a huge knife for a head and he can shoot throwing stars out of his head. He's all kinds of awesome.

The protector of a race of brain-eating aliens, Guilon massacres the enemies of his ravenous masters with his cleaving butcher knife head and firing shuriken stars! Even the most devistating blasts of Jiger, Gyaos, Zigra and mighty Gamera are deflected by the gargantuan blade of the saber-beast! As a battle of monstrous proportions rages, Guilon seeks to split Gamera's portective shell and bury his blade!

That's the actual bio from the back of the package and it does a good job of explaining Guiron's story, even mentioning the crazy brain eating aliens from the film. It adds a little bit, talking about battles we haven't necessarily seen and it's done with some great language. Kudos to you Mr. Trendmasters bio writer.


For some reason, perhaps the pronunciation, Guiron's name was often spelled "Guillon" in the United States. Trendmasters has went with the spelling "Guilon" to confuse things even more, I suppose. Gamera and Guiron do battle on the frozen planet of Terra in the movie and they actually have some snow scenes. It's a perfect compliment to Christmas!