Repurposing toys into UF(I hope this is a suitable forum -- the following notion is creative, but not non-EPU; it applies to all EPU sagas; it's not precisely community chatter...)
Here's project, fun for the whole family, provided they're sad obsessed fans: collect existing toys and organize them to represent the cast of EPU stories (UF, NXE, etc.). No doubt Japan's toy companies have created action figures for every anime ever sourced by EPU, but most of them haven't reached North America. American source material ("Trek", "Star Wars", B5, etc.) are a little easier to find. Original characters, especially the kids, you won't be able to *collect* -- you'll have to kitbash.
(In most cases of my own toy collecting/harvesting, I wait till items sink to the discount racks.)
* BEC made a variety of 8-inch "Real Model" action figure versions of the Evas from NGE. Slap on some X-Com decals (eg, printed on your inkjet), and you've entered NXE. (Formerly available at various video game stores.)
* To crew IPO station "Babylon 5", use: Playmates made 6-inch "Star Trek" figures (TOS, TNG, DS9), some of them more articulated than others. WB Toys made 6-inch "Collectors Series" figures (low articulation) of Sheridan, G'Kar, Londo and Delenn (but no Ivanova). Unfortunately they're all probably wearing the wrong uniforms, and "Enterprise" figures aren't yet available (for Phlox and Malcolm Reed).
* Bandai makes a line of figures called "Anime Collection": each bubblecard features one mech and two figures. From "Cowboy Bebop" there's the Swordfish, with Spike and Faye; from "Big O", there's the Big O, with Roger and Dorothy. (Available at Toys'R'Us.)
* There are oodles of "Star Wars" toys, of course, but since Gryphon's _Daggerdisc_ is a YT-1312 with the cockpit on the *right* side, it might be easier to modify the LEGO 7190-"Millenium Falcon". One could try to rebuild the 7166-"Imperial Shuttle" in blue to recreate Truss's Network 23 _Morning Sun_, but I don't think all the necessary elements are *available* in blue. LEGO bricks could also easily recreate the Duelists' Castle on Jeraddo -- in fact, with some paint and decals, one could make minifig customs of *all* the characters. Human, anyway -- T'skaia might be a problem.
* Only a few "Farscape" species have wandered into the UFiverse, and no specific characters, so *that* action figure line isn't useful yet.
* "Robotech" toys circa-1985 are a bit rare nowadays. "Super-posable Veritechs" have been promised by robotech.com for months now, but they look pricey and non-transformable.
* Ditto for the few Transformers who've appeared (in non-"Cybertron Dreams" stories): Optimus Prime, Blaster.
Further ideas?
(Next sad obsessed activity: stop-motion films *using* the collected figures. It'll be like Nickelodeon's "Action League Now", but with fewer smashing dismemberments. Possibly.)
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Phillip Thorne
The Non-Sequitur Express - usually accurate, sometimes relevant, occassionally timely
"You dare agree with me? Prepare to meet your horrible doom!" --Invader Zim