My Toynami 3rd Wave Futurama figures arrived today -after the usual minor issues and obligiatory feud with the Royal Mail of course. They'd been on pre-order for a few months now, and while I think they were scheduled to be released in August, i'm well chuffed the date was brought forward and they arrived today.

 
Wave one and two was Fry and Zoidberg, Leela and Zapp, while the third wave sees the arrival of Bender and Kif- TV most infamous robot and the ever depressed green space sidekick. As with the previous figures there's a range of props and accessories -again annoyingly, most of them can't be held properly- and they compliment the character and maybe even add to the figure's appeal. Bender comes with extra pairs of eyes for 'angry face/sad face' lark, while Kif comes with his hat from Where The Buggalo Roam, and one of the sphere 'enemies' from the War Is the H-Word episode. There's also a framed photo of Amy, but this is a weak addition, second only to the possibility of an actual Amy figure.

Out of the two, Bender is undoubtedly the better figure, and perhaps even the best out of all those released so far. Even better, is the fact that his head can be unscrewed and replaced with Nixon's head-in-a-jar, as depicted in, A Head in the Polls, the best episode ever, fact. Wave Three also means that the Robot Devil figure is finally completed. The figure is all long and skinny compared to the rest, but it matches the character, and he's still a lot better than the horrible Fry release from earlier. And he's got a magnetic top hat, so, win.

The fourth wave of figures (which I think are already out?) is a Fry reissue, this time with superhero attire dressed as Captain Yesterday, and Nudar, from the recent DVD film. I'm passing on them both, but future releases include a Leela as Clobarella, Lrrr and Calculon. All must haves, and if they're anywhere near as good as the existing figures, fans are in for a treat.

A delivery came today, at 9.30, following a momentarily earlier wake-up from some Jehovah's Witnesses at the door. They brought bad news, but the delivery man brought good news- the Futurama figures I ordered a while back, finally arrived.

The figures are produced by Toynami, with the first wave consisting of Fry and Zoidberg released September last year, while the second wave -and the Leela and Brannigan figures- was released in January. I'm late to the party sure, but once i'd discovered them I was pretty intent on getting a set for myself, and overall, i'm pretty pleased with them. By and large the figures aren't really posable, with the obvious exception of the Fry figure, interestingly, the worst of the lot. The design and painting is kind of ruined by the numerous articulate joints, and even though he can move his limbs, you can't have him standing unless those legs are in the default position. Additionally- why include props if the figure can't hold them? Poor show.

The other three are thankfully a lot better, especially the weighty Zoidberg and Zapp figures, generally devoid of posing, but at the same time, the figures that look most spot on with their animated counterparts. Leela's great too, but unless i'm mistaken, i'm pretty sure she was a lot 'curvier' than what she is here. No biggy. The figures come with props too though -in the case of the Zapp figure it's an awesome Nixon head- but also components to build another figure, the Robot Devil, voiced by Dan Castellaneta. It's only half completed currently, with the remaining parts coming with the Wave 3 release of Kif and Bender. Understandably it's not as well built as that of the regular figures, but I know i'd still prefer seeing an Amy/Hermes/Farnsworth figure instead, or even in the future, though that may mean waiting a while. Presumably the number one fear of the distributors is that these characters won't sell as well, but I know that beyond that i'd love even more 'obscure' characters like the Hyperchicken and Elzar. Ok, maybe now i'm getting a little ambitious.

With the Futurama TV series prematurely dead, and only the remaining promise of DVD movies it's undoubtedly the case that as great as Futurama is, the franchise is regrettably past it's prime. That said, i'm already planning on pre-ordering more of the figures, and i'm sure, it's something that numerous other fans will be doing as well if these first figures are anything to go by.