I have no idea how a "staction figure" with nothing but neck articulation and nothing to do with it other than a swappable set of legs inspired so many photos.  But since there's no way I can write enough paragraphs about Zuul to be comfortably able to couch a half dozen photos, here's a simple gallery.

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Can you believe I ordered this guy exactly a month ago?  That's how long it took for him to wind his way through the post office.  But after a several-week detour stop in Lexingon, Kentucky, Vigo the Carpathian is finally mine.

Hooray, sort of!

See, his index finger kinda got snagged inside the card bubble, and so it's permanently jutting off at an unnatural angle.  You can see it in the photo -- no, that's not his thumb.  And his articulation is really frustrating.  You'd think they'd want you to be able to replicate his stance in his painting!  But no, that's impossible.  All they needed were some elbow swivels so he could get his one hand on his hip and his other arm in position.  So close.  So close.

I am a little disappointed, but not surprised, that he can't do a crazy action pose.  That would tickle me in all the right places, but his skirt keeps him from doing much with his legs, even though he has the ankle articulation to support a wider variety of stances than are available to him.  So he'll just stand, arms awkwardly jutting off his torso in whichever direction looks the least dorky.

The sculpt itself is very good!  He looks like Vigo.  (At least, as I compare him to the painting replica.)  The painting replica is also a good accessory.  It's lenticular, so as you turn it back and forth, Vigo appears and disappears from the painting.

But he's no Walter Peck, that's for sure.

Don't forget, Shortpacked! Book 4 is still up for preorder!  It's still $1k short of our preorder goal.  If that goal isn't made, neither are the books!  Meanwhile, I'm still plowing through the nitty gritty of Book 4's creation, and it's going to be huge.  I mean, I said it was gonna be 200 pages, but 200 pages covers a lot of ground!  That's almost a whole year of strips.  (And it would be, if not for the additional content, such as the TNI strips.)

Also, oh, right, that Ethan statue is also still up for preorder.  Not to be confused with certain other statues.

Yay, I'm home!  ...and my desktop computer decided to stop finding wireless networks while I was gone.  WELL THAT'S FUN.  GOD DAMMIT.  Can I get home from a convention and actually have everything be normal?  Apparently not.

Anyway, me news -- The Laughing Ogre here in Columbus is having a FF #1 thing on Wednesday.  (Apparently it's just literally "FF" now, so trying to spell out what the acronym means is counter to informational purposes.)  The Laughing Ogre is having a sale with 15% off Fantastic Four trades and 25% off Fantastic Four back issues. And if you buy the FF #1 "blank cover" you will get a sketch on it from one of the local artists in residence.  One of those local artists is me! So if you've got a hankering for a doodle of HERBIE, I'm totally your man from noon to about 6 or 8.

I may also learn to draw the Thing.

Hey, look, it's Venkman!  (...one of two, as I explained yesterday, with the unwanted,  unexplainable duplicate order to be auctioned probably tomorrow or something.)  But this first one I'm keeping!

Of course they save Venkman for last.  Sure, Matty teased us with the slimed variant first before giving us the "real" one, but we all knew this day would come!  Frankly, I expected it to come a little later, after Louis came out, or something.  Is there gonna be a Dana?  There has to be a Dana.

(This arrangement has me wondering how Matty's gonna handle their Back to the Future line.  Is Marty gonna be last?  Will they release "Marty-dressed-as-'Darth-Vader'" earlier on, as a similar tease?  And how can they possibly be doing a Back to the Future line when the entire cast can't use the same body?  And which Biff will I buy?)

Peter's got one of the better likenesses.  Actually, I think he, Winston, and Egon all have pretty good likenesses, with poor Ray looking off somehow.  Ray needed a taller body, I think.  They tried to make him look taller by making his head tiny, and he just looks strange.  But, Peter, he looks great.  Affably smug.

The first thing I noticed out of the package, because I don't pay any attention to these things apparently, is that, oh my god, his body actually has different parts.  His pantlegs aren't tucked into his boots.  He's wearing gloves!  It was quickly confirmed by my roommate, Steve-o, that the untucked pantlegs are Venkman's trademark.  So, hey, cool, that was a nice attention to detail.  The gloves though, after some Google Images research, they upset my OCD.  Peter seems to wears gloves only when everyone else is wearing gloves!  And none of the other toys are wearing gloves!  Grarrr.

Ah well.  Let's not stare a gift-retool in the mouth.

Venkman comes with a stand.  It's dumb and unnecessary, especially since nobody else has one.

But he also comes with a proton pack stream!  Now that is sweet.  It's two pieces that snap together so that it can fit into the packaging, and it's super long.  It's so super-long that I had to crop it off in the initial photo so you could see Venkman better.  The thing is, man, I kinda wish one of the other guys had come with one, too.  To get the full Crossing-the-Streams effect, you'd hafta buy a buttload of Peters.  (hahaha buttload of peters)  And I did get shipped that extra one, but I don't think its cost is worth it to me just for the accessory.  Ah well.

Anyway, complete Ghostbusters power!  Woooo!

So here's Walter Peck.  The best thing about this toy is the smug grin they managed to sculpt into his face.  It really makes you want to punch him, in a Faz/Matty sort of way.  Which is appropriate!  It wouldn't be a good Walter Peck toy if you don't want to throttle it.

He's in the suited body that Mattel used on... The Dark Knight toys, I presume?  He feels less awkward than my Riddler and Two-Face, which makes me think he's not that.  (You know, I guess I could go up and compare, but I'm lazy.)  So if I had to guess, he's Harvey Dent with a new head.

Now, it's his "accessory" that really makes this a fun set.  It's the ghost containment unit door.  The best thing is, it opens!  If you push down the lever like a good EPA representative, the door folds down.  The door (or Walter) comes with a trap that you can shove in there, and the door can close back up with it inside.  The red on the containment unit is nice and glossy so it looks like painted metal.  (Well, truthfully, painted plastic and painted metal probably doesn't look all that different.)  It's a great setpiece for the existing Ghostbusters figures.

I was a little iffy on Walter at first because he's not one of the four Ghostbusters, but I'm glad I got him.  He's a great figure and he comes with a great backdrop.  And I want to punch him, which is more of an emotional reaction than I get from many of my action figures.

(The bio on the back of the packaging notes that he is "hypothesized to lack genitalia."  This is also awesome.)

Here's this week's Joyce and Walky!.

My Walter Peck arrived in the mail today.  I'm gonna save a proper write-up for later, but here's a photo to tide y'all over.

Man, he has a face you wanna punch.  (That means it's a good representation.)