I like Squinkies. I remember trying to avoid them for a while, because it's a line of random little weirdo characters and I new I'd want a bunch if I cracked. Well, I cracked. And while Squinkies are fun enough, I think these new Squinkies Zinkies are pretty great. I mean, how often do you come across an entire army of cool-looking toys these days, all on a simple blister card? With these guys you get a whopping 36 figures, a pull-back action vehicle, a base/container, a magnifier to see your troops up close, and even a set of tweezers to hold your troops for magnifying inspection!
So far it looks like there's only three sets: The Space Alliance, Robot Force, and Military Crew. Each team has a commander, a few higher ranking officers, and a bunch of grunts. Only the Military Crew seems to have it backwards, with a small selection of "soldiers" and a army's worth of "captains". Each group also has a "top secret" character (which can be seen clearly with their teams on the back of the package) that comes hidden in a mini version of the typical Squinkies ball.
The Space Alliance
The weirder the characters look, the happier I am. So naturally my favorite set is the Space Alliance! The majority of the aliens are bright red with black eyes. Their commander is gold and seems to be in a sitting position, so he looks perfect riding their vehicle, the Battle Interceptor. The top secret character is simply called "Alien Race", and in blue he really stands out from the rest. I don't know what this alien race has to do with the red ones, so I just picture him as some kind of elite trooper. Their base is a purple and green pod thing that can surprisingly fit almost their entire team. It may even be able to fit them all, but I've set aside one of each figure that I deemed the best looking of their groups. I don't want to mix these ones with the others, so I'll never know if they all fit in the pod or not. The aliens' tweezers look like some kind of vehicle or machine. They kinda remind me of the Geonosian fighters from Star Wars, so I'll use them in a similar way.
Space Alliance Commander and battle interceptor
Space Alliance Commander, "Alien Race", and captains
Space Alliance warriors
Space Alliance container
Space Alliance tweezers
The Robot Force
The Robot Force is ALMOST as cool as the Space Alliance. If the aliens were a 10 out of 10, the robots would be a solid 9. These robots are weird-looking alright, but robots have to be designed weird. Aliens are born weird! Any way, after I had taken my original Zinkies shots, I realized that I had the pods of the robots and the aliens mixed up. Stupid mistake. I then had to redo my second shots because I realized I also had the commanders and their vehicles mixed up! That's an easier mistake to make though, as the Robot Commander doesn't look all that robot-y. He's just a guy dressed in a gold robe with one red eye showing. He could easily be an alien in a mask. Plus the robots' Battle Drone is red like the aliens' and the aliens' Battle Interceptor is silver like the robots! The robot's top secret figure is also easy to confuse with the aliens, since he's done in the same red color. The Cyborg stands out among his robot brothers, but he'd blend right in with the aliens. Luckily there's only one of him, so you shouldn't really lose him during your battles. The officers are "Fighters" and the grunts are "Tanks", and in all cases my favorites of the teams seem to be one of their heavier looking troops. In this case I'm totally digging the three-eyed heavy duty tank. Unlike the alien tweezers that could easily be used as a small ship, the robot tweezers look more like a claw or lifter, and are therefore much less useful as anything other than tweezers. On the other hand, while the alien pod seems like a troop transport, the robot pod could easily be used as something that builds and pumps out the robots right there in the battlefield!
Robot Force Commander and battle drone
Robot Force Commander, Cyborg, "tank", and jet "fighter"
Robot Force "tanks", and a "fighter"
Robot Force container
Robot Force tweezers
The Military Crew
The Military Crew is my least favorite of the three sets. Not because it's not a cool set, but they just seem a little more standard army man toy while the other sets are more unique. All of the figures are pretty bland looking next to the aliens and robots, with a few odd exceptions. The commander is silver and looks like the boss, but he's still just a guy. The top secret Special Ops frogman trooper is pretty neat, being the lone water-based member of the team. As mentioned early on in the spotlight, for what ever reason the smaller numbered officer types are labeled as "soldiers" and the numerous grunt types are strangely called "captains" in the package. I suppose I could have gotten a pack with the titles accidentally switched, but I'm just going to assume it's lazy attention to detail. Either way, I'll be switching their titles in my head. And remember how I said this team had the odd exception for cool figures? Well the double gatling gun wielding "soldiers" are pretty bad ass. And the Military Crew needs all the bad ass it can get when it's taking on the Space Alliance and Robot Force. Another area where the Military Crew really shines is the vehicle and tweezers. The vehicle itself is a pretty standard tank-looking thing. Not bad, but not as much fun as the vehicles on the other teams. However, the tweezers appear to be a pair of large cannons that can be fit onto the tank! The other teams can't do that! Sadly, their container is neither a base nor a transport. It's just a giant hand grenade. It looks cool, but you can't really fit it into their world like the other containers.
Military Crew Commander and battle tank
Military Crew Commander, Special Ops, and "soldiers"
Military Crew "captains"
Military Crew tweezers work with the battle tank!
Military Crew container
As with a lot of the stuff that interests me, I don't know if these will appeal to your typical toy collector. But they are fun sets, and with their handy containers one could easily take all three on vacation, camping, where ever, for some impromptu travel toy fun (which is a whole other topic for me!). Just don't lose any of your figures. No man gets left behind!
Or alien.
Or robot.
No one wants an incomplete team.
The magnifiers work better in real life.
The Bazooka Monument?
Man, what a long post for such small toys! Not the most photogenic things though. They're so small it's hard to focus on them, never mind missing all the little hairs and stuff that cling to them.
ReplyDeleteStill cool toys though :)
Fantastic sets! I can't find a single thing to disagree with here; I think I'd be saying the same things. Best I can say for something different is that - overall - I feel like they need a direction to really sell these. They're cool enough as they are, but the grenade thing with the military guys is just as you said: it's out of place with the other items.
ReplyDeleteI think these should be sold as the armies that they are! There should be pics on the back of two armies set up and being knocked over by stuff! On top of that, the grenade should have totally been a tall building - like a base or something - to match the other containers that could easily be pods or robot factories.
But you pretty much said all that! I agree. I hope they end up selling these the right way, because I think this stuff is cool and we honestly haven't seen things like this since the late 80's early 90's.