Review – Pop! Vinyl Mars Attacks

Please excuse the poor quality of these photos. There’s only so much I can do with a chair, two desk laps, a sheet, and a couple of moments before rushing off to a breakfast meeting. But unexpectedly getting my hands on this Pop! Vinyl Mars Attacks toy had me thinking it would be fun to post a quick review, so here ya go!

The Pop! Vinyl series (Amazon.com search*) strikes me as one of those lines that you’ve gotta collect to truly appreciate . . . by which I mean that buying just one or two toys in the series won’t have you itching for more. No, it’s the power of the toys as a group of five, ten, or even twenty or more individual pieces that really brings out the strength of the line. And as I get more and more of the Pop! Vinyl toys I find myself wanting another and another. It’s a terrible — but fun! — cycle.

A Martian Invader

In these awful photos you can kinda get a peek at what is probably the best Pop! Vinyl toy that I currently own (but expect that to change as I get more of the toys). The massive brain, big eyes, and giant clear dome all come together well and it’s that dome that helps set this guy apart from the other Pop! Vinyl toys. Fortunately, the dome is made of a pretty durable plastic — ABS? — and it feels like it will hold up quite well as long as I don’t drop the poor guy. I’d hate to crack his dome and allow our poisonous Earth oxygen to kill him.

As with the other Pop! Vinyl toys the paint isn’t perfect, with some sloppy lines where the yellow gloves and boost meet the green bodysuit, but the head details are pretty good and in general the toy’s paint is just fine for display purposes. Since the toy is under 4-inches tall you’re not likely to notice the paint problems unless you pick up the toy and examine it, but I do wish that Funko’s paint apps would get a bit tighter.

Closing Thoughts

Fun, but having only this guy on a shelf or desk won’t do. No, you want lots of Pop! Vinyl toys to really get the full benefit of the series, though I suppose that this Pop! Vinyl Mars Attacks toy as part of a collection of Mars Attacks toys would work fairly well. The lack of any articulation at all is a bit annoying — at the very least he should be able to raise his gun — and the toy is definitely more on the statue side of the scale than the toy side.

But he’s cute, fun, and he’s gonna look great in the collection once I get him home.