Flashback Friday, What Were We Playing With In April 2014?

It’s been a decade since April 2014 and yet it only seems like yesterday. We averaged 160 hours of sunshine across England and Wales and Daniel Bryan defeated Batista and Randy Orton in the Triple Threat Title Match at Wrestlemania XXX in New Orleans. Spiderman 2 premiered in London and the TV series “Fargo” (starring Martin Freeman and Billy Bob Thornton) premiered on FX. Radio stations had us singing along to Katy Perry and Pharrell Williams and our thumbs were aching playing Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate and Child of Light whilst snacking on an array of spiralized fruit and veg! All this nostalgia had us digging through our mental and physical toy boxes to see what studded and articulated joy 2014 brought.

INTO THE TOYBOX FROM THE PAST

LEGO produced over 500 sets (over 600 if you add the promotional sets) in 2014, some of which were in April, including LEGO Architecture, Bionicles, TMNT, Ultra Agents and The Simpsons. The LEGO 71006 Simpsons House cost $200.00 and had 2,523 pieces alongside six iconic LEGO Minifigure characters. This set is now a grail set to a lot of people and can be found on eBay, Bricklink and the like.

We also saw some more releases from the year-old theme LEGO Chima, one of our favourites being LEGO 70145 Maula’s Ice Mammoth Stomper, which retailed for £69.99, had a brick count of 604 pieces and included six LEGO Chima Minifigures. LEGO Chima was a brilliant theme as it had some creative characters and sets but unfortunately, it had a relatively short run; starting in 2013 and ending in 2015.

LEGO CMFs were in series 12 and included Spooky Girl and Piggy Guy. Talking Turtles - LEGO released nine Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sets and one promotional figure at this time. We managed to get LEGO 30271 Mikey's Shell-Raiser, a small set comprising 47 pieces and one (Michaelangelo) LEGO Minifigure for a decent price of £3.94. There were a few other smaller sets, a couple of medium-sized ones, and then three larger ones, our preferred one being LEGO 79121 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - Turtle Sub Undersea Chase. This set originally cost £59.99, with a brick count of 684 and six LEGO Minifigures included.

FROM BRICKS TO BENDS

Having spent a degree of time reliving the joy of April 2014's LEGO offerings, we move on to action figures, and there’s a lot. Todd McFarlane had been active in the creation of action figures for as long as we can remember and April 2014 saw the hilarious Chicken Surprise and Plunger Face Rabbids (with sounds too), Buttrub Rabbid and TWDs Daryl Dixon and Chopper Deluxe Set. We were surprised by the Rabbids as they are not something we would associate with McFarlane, but they are fun, accurate-looking figures and are highly entertaining on the TV or in video games.

NECA treated us to Jason Voorhees, Friday 13^th Part 2 Retro Clothed Figure, which was sold in a clamshell with blister card backing. The figure has cloth goods (a plaid shirt with denim dungarees) and the sack is removable from the head to display the disfigured face beneath - a must for any horror collector. We also can’t forget the beautiful Godzilla, who measures 12″ from head to tail and stands at around 6″ tall. Godzilla features over 25 points of articulation, perfect for some amazing toy photos or for creating an amazing display.

Jumping from NECA to Hot Toys, we were spoilt for choice, but a couple of the best have to be Bruce Banner and The Hulk MMS 230 and Thor (Light Asgardian Armour) MMS 225. Taking a look at Bruce and The Hulk first, they are both 1:6 scale. Bruce has over 30 points of articulation and a delightful face that replicates Mark Ruffalo extremely well. He comes with multiple pairs of hands as well as a Chitauri sceptre, spectacles and a watch. Hulk has slightly less articulation (20 articulation points) which is hardly surprising as he’s a big old unit but his head sculpt is a joy to behold. Hulk has cloth-ragged shorts and is accompanied by a couple of pieces of broken industrial steel beams.

Both figures have little diorama base stands. Thor also is a 1:6 scale and has over 30 points of articulation including seamless elbow joints. Accessories include four pairs of hands and a metal Mjolnir with a holder. Thor stands on a rocky diorama base plate. Hot Toys make exceptional figures and we definitely suggest checking them out as there’s sure to be something to satisfy virtually everyone.

TUBE TOONS

Cartoon Network was massively popular in 2014 with kids and adults alike. This was the era of crazy nonsensical worlds imagined by Pendleton Ward and JG Quintel. Adventure Time and Regular Show were everywhere and Jazwares were creating merch for both these properties. Obviously, Funko created a mass of figures for these shows and LEGO produced Adventure Time Dimensions. There was also a LEGO Ideas 21308 Adventure Time set but this retired after two years.

Comic books/graphic novels were produced by Boom Publishing for both of these shows. The Amazing World of Gumball was popular too, with a string of comic books made, but there seemed to be much less merchandise available for it (unfortunately), though there were McDonald's toys. Plus there was Clarence, Uncle Grandpa, Steven Universe and Teen Titans to name a few, these shows’ characters have cropped up in multiple video games over the years, and Boom produced comic books for all but Teen Titans who are a product of DC.