Batman "Real Life" Rubber Mask

I'll be perfectly honest and admit that I've become just a bit obsessed with Ben Cooper "jigglers", costumes, and rubber masks during the past year.

I've always loved the Ben Cooper kid's costumes, but after looking over some old catalog pages at a favorite site, my fondness for cheap rubber figures and masks has really become a weird kind of... well... fetish.

And speaking of "weird" and "fetish", there's this rubber Batman mask that Ben Cooper put out in 1980. When I first saw the photos of this thing, I knew that I needed to have it, because it just seemed so incredibly eerie looking. And now that it lives on a mannequin head next to my desk, I can confirm that, yes, it is probably the single most odd looking Batman item that I've ever seen.

Return to the Black Lagoon

One of my favorite things about the month of October, is that someone is always releasing some kind of new Universal Monsters item or toy. This year the honor goes to Diamond Select and their line of classic monster figures.

I've been waiting for these to turn up since I saw the Toy Fair photos, and in particular, I've been waiting for the Creature from the Black Lagoon.



This first batch of figures are apparently exclusive to Toys R Us. It's nice to see the Universal logo at TRU again, even if it is buried between piles of lonely Bioshock 2 and Watchmen figures on the "collector" aisle.

The Gill-man is a good figure. Diamond isn't known for their articulation and play value, but they do promise a decent sculpt and a quality paint job, which is what you get with this figure for the most part.



The Creature does actually have a few points of articulation: shoulders, elbows, ankles; but the elbows are loose, which makes them a little pointless.

The sculpt is very nice, with lots of appropriate Gill-man texture and detail. The paint is solid, if not a bit thick and flat in places, but ultimately I think it's a worthy effort for the price. I'm happy to add this one to my little collection of Creature from the Black Lagoon figures.



All three figures--The Wolfman, Creature, and The Mummy--look really good, and since the price (around fourteen dollars) isn't terrible, I'm likely to pick up the others at some point.

Cootie

Given the current and seemingly nationwide bedbug epidemic, maybe it's appropriate to look back at the classic game of Cootie.



Cootie was first released by W. H. Schaper Mfg. Company in 1949, and it's been a classic ever since.

The game box is divided into six sections, and after you roll a die, you choose a Cootie part--body, head, antenna, proboscis, eye, or leg--until you're the first one to build a Cootie.



The packaging is great, and the Cooties themselves are ridiculous looking, so I'm always attracted to picking this game up whenever I see it.

I'd much rather suffer from a Cootie infestation, than bedbugs any day.

Top Gear

I'm a big fan of the British television show Top Gear, which tends to focus on extravagant and high priced European sports cars. As a complete contrast, I've also been known to glance at the pegs full of Hot Wheels when visiting my local grocery store, that tend to feature American muscle cars, and a wide variety of fantasy inspired vehicles.



It was a nice surprise to see that Hot Wheels is putting out a great selection of world class sports cars this year. Maybe it was just a coincidence that I'd found all four of these Top Gear worthy cars hanging near each other, but I couldn't resist picking them up to run around the imaginary test track on my desk.




Of the Porsche, Lamborghini, Ferrari, and Aston Martin, I'm most fond of the Hot Wheels Ferrari, though I'd probably go for the Aston Martin if I could choose one to actually drive.

But I can't afford any of these cars in real life, which is what makes collecting Hot Wheels so great, as it gives me a chance to own all four, and I don't have to worry about insuring them.