Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Toybox of FAIL: Death's head VS Astronaut




Please take a moment and read the Toybox of FAIL Disclaimer. Thanks!
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Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the Toybox.

jing zhiwei Death's head vs astronaut box 2
Death's head VS Astronaut


Today we continue our look at Jing Zhiwei toys and their ongoing quest to distribute bootleg LEGO product as their own. Today's offering is what can best be described as a "battle pack" - there isn't really much building involved, but you do get two mini-figures and some accessories. According to the box art, the two figures are "Death's head" and "Astronaut". As one of them is a skeleton and the other is an alien, I leave it to the reader to decide which is which. It's really not much of a puzzle.

What is a puzzle, however, is the ever-present question of just what Jing Zhiwei designers were smoking when they came up with this set.

One figure in red on a white board. The other in white on a red board. It's Ying vs Yang, Good vs Evil, Crap vs Even more Crap.

Let's take a look at what you get inside the box...

jing zhiwei Death's head vs astronaut 3

Two minifigures. On skateboards. Who fight.

Sadly, the product colors don't match the box, but by now we know better to expect that. What is shocking is that all the parts shown on the box are actually present in the set.

Sure, the alien...excuse me...Astronaut...is LEGO-original teal instead of the martian red, but at least the spider attached to his back is the correct transparent yellow plastic. And he comes with two weapons that look like weapons.

Now, Death's head may be in for a bit of trouble. One hand is on fire, leaving just has a gem to try and hit Astronaut on the head with. Maybe he's secretly aligned with the scorpion and extra spider. Or maybe he has some other super power beyond just being an animated skeleton.

The only thing left to decide is...who will win? Who will lose? Who will end up regretting they have a crappy bootleg instead of actual LEGO mini-figures and weep bitter tears when the cheap plastic cracks and puts out an eye?

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The Toybox of Fail. Brought to you by people who really should know better.

Thanks to The Undiscovered Playthings for sending me this set to review.
Photos for this set © 2009 Alyska Bailey Peterson /PointyKitty Studios

9 comments:

Cancerkitty said...

So are these actual LEGO pieces repackaged, or are the remolded with shitty plastic?

Christopher Doyle said...

These are recasts. LEGO had nothing at all to do with the production, other than being an innocent victim of identity theft.

RJBT said...

What's up with the scorpions tail?

Katarina Whimsy said...

Honestly, I would totally play with those, were they actual lego. There are some pretty rad pieces in that set.

Anonymous said...

Can you start posting pictures of the instructions, like you used to?
I remember some of the instruction sheets used to be pretty funny

Christopher Doyle said...

@anon: I'll have to find them and scan 'em...but i'll add "instructions" to my to-do list.

Anonymous said...

Hmm... that scorpion tail does look strange, generally, they did pretty good on this set, you don't see many translucent elements in bootleg sets.

Anonymous said...

hey, did anyone notice that the box had a floppy armed skeleton and the set didn't?

Anonymous said...

its not all that bad