Exquisite Mini

Since I started collecting figures for Ankletown Station, I've stuck pretty close to my toy collecting mantra of getting figures for as cheap as I could manage. 

It's been mostly guys from Ross, and on occasion I've bought from the first run stores, but only the cheaper figures like Fortnite or Halo. Those figures only cost about $10 even brand new. 

On a few rare occasions, I've bought a full-price Star Wars Vintage Collection figure for $13 or $14, but I've never given in and bought the expensive (yet beautiful) JoyToy or Acid Rain World figures that I see on Empire Toy Works all the time.

I recently discovered a company called Hiya Toys, which does figures that sit in between Star Wars and Acid Rain. They're a little more expensive, but they're not bank-breakers. They're also really nice looking. 

They cost about $20, which seems like a lot to me. I've been buying figures for $20 for years, but those were Marvel Legends six-inch figures. In this case, we're talking about a four inch figure not a six inch one.

Hiya Toys has a couple of licenses that would be great on Ankletown Station though. One is Alien, the Fox property started in 1979 by Ridley Scott. Another is Predator, also Fox and started in 1987 with a film starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. They do AVP: Alien vs. Predator toys as well, because that's pretty natural. The last one I'm interested in is Robocop, which was a 1987 film by Orion Pictures...but may also now be owned by Fox or may not. I can't figure that out.

Anyway, I just thought it would be really fun to have Predators hanging out on the streets of Ankletown, acting just like any other people. Maybe sitting at the bar or getting some pancakes at the diner. Maybe they're bounty hunters...they're certainly good hunters, after all.

I'd love to do the same with Xenomorph aliens as well, and hopefully get a Robocop to walk the streets with the police officers.

I decided I'd give one of these figures a shot, and elected to buy a Predator first. I found one that was selling on Amazon for its original price of $19.99, and had them send it my way. It came today, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I love that they call them the "Exquisite Mini" line, but I think it actually lives up to that. Getting it in a box is already weird. Most figures this small come on a blister card. It already feels like it could be worth the $20.

Opining it up, it had a lot of accessories.

I like that the stand that it comes with is a grate. That should go well with some of the other ideas I had for flooring on Ankletown Station.

The detail and paintwork on this figure is next level stuff. It makes the guys I've gotten from other lines look really plain. 

I almost lost the shuriken that it came with. It fell out of the plastic housing it came in, and I only realized that it was ever there because I watched a YouTube video talking about the figure. I looked on the ground for several minutes before it finally showed itself to me, and I was able to get it into his hands.

His main accessory is this Xenomorph head on a pike, since this is a Predator from the AVP line.

Unfortunately, the plastic on the pike got pretty warped before it ever arrived to me, so the staff looks like it curves significantly on its way up. Not sure if I can manage to straighten this one back out. We'll see.

It'll be fun to put this guy together with figures from the various other lines that I've been collecting.

I'll probably have to get one or two more Predators, a few Xenomorphs too. I'd like an original movie Robocop too, but right now you can only get him after a significant markup, so we'll see how that goes.

I am happy with my purchase, but since these cost about twice as much as most other figures I buy, I'll have to keep them pretty infrequent.

Sure is pretty though, right?