With all these pirate manufacturers developing toys with the Pokémon GO name, despite tying in more with the original Pokémon games, wouldn't it be interesting if there was a set actually based around Pokémon GO? Or at the very least gave us proof that at least one developer knows what Pokémon GO is? Wish granted! These are Pokémon GO unofficial minifigures from SL Toys, that actually contain elements from Pokémon GO! ...Or at least, they let minifigures play Pokémon GO on their cellphones. ...Which is more than I do...
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Name: Pokémon GO Minifigures
Brand: SL Toys
Model: SL8943
Pcs: N/A
Pokémon GO! ...Is a game I still haven't gotten around to playing, so I don't have much to talk about or reference during the look at these figures. I have tried to play it a few times since it came out, but every time I install it, it never quite works on the phone model I have at the time, usually crashing, glitching out, and/or having most of its features inaccessible whenever I try to boot it up. I guess I could stop being a cheapskate and get a phone or tablet that actually runs most modern apps without crashing every 5 seconds. ...But Pokémon GO isn't much of an incentive to make me cough up dough I don't have. I'm usually a very stationary person, save for the odd trip to the thrift or grocery store, and since the game involves a LOT of traveling and visits to specific locations to play, it sadly doesn't appeal to me. Maybe I'll try again if I end up with a job that requires travel, but I'm not seeing that happen in the near future. ...Besides, I like not running into traffic to catch an Eevee that just appeared.
Still, as with most games and franchises I've never gotten into, I can appreciate Pokémon GO's legacy and what it means to its fans. Since its launch in July 2016, Pokémon GO has become the closest thing we'll ever get to actually being Pokémon trainers, until some mad scientist starts genetically splicing animals to actually create Pokémon! Just like the main Pokémon games, players take the role of trainers, go out into the world to capture, train, and battle Pokémon against other trainers, taking home experience and other prizes for each victory. The difference here? You actually go out and look for Pokémon! Just like the main games, Pokémon will randomly appear in the wild, with some appearing only within certain terrains, requiring trainers to explore both inside and out of their immediate radius to locate and capture them all(if they have the luck of a dozen Clefairies)! Certain buildings also take the form of locations from the games, serving as PokéStops and Gyms to upgrade your Pokémon and battle against others! Just like the regular games, you're rewarded for exploring, as you go out on your quest to Catch 'Em All! And you get some exercise while you're at it!
Obviously, a game based around aimlessly wandering for miles, stopping in random locations to catch Pokémon and battle other trainers hasn't gone without some major issues. Many players have ended up injured or even dead when their focus on their phone rendered them unable to detect real-life hazards like traffic and cliffs. Players have even CAUSED injuries and death as they drove distracted, trying to nab that virtual pet! Many areas have received unwanted congestion from players loitering around, trying to find that elusive Pokémon, leading to many areas of political importance and religious significance, especially memorials and cemeteries, outright banning gameplay on the grounds. The game also favors populated areas, leaving rural and ghetto areas nearly free of Pokémon and PokéStops and discouraging players in those areas from playing. Add to those the issues of network connection failure due to overcrowding in community areas, the fact predators can track players through the always-on GPS, and the already existing issues with Pokémon certain countries and people have had since its inception, and it's no wonder why it's one of the most controversial games ever released, with several countries moving(unsuccessfully) to ban the game from their borders. In other words, there are sects that like to scream "Pokémon GO MUST GO!"
However, despite the controversy(or possibly because of it), Pokémon GO has seen major success since it was first released! It became the game with the highest number of downloads from Google Play, and the most active app, with over 21 million active users by the end of the first month! At the end of its first year, despite a slow worldwide release, it was downloaded over 500 million times! With its "freemium" model, the game has seen over $2,000,000,000 in revenue for Nintendo and the developer Niantic, as players spend real world money to grab more Pokéballs and other items to speed along their mission to become master trainers! It's become well known as exercise and social aid, encouraging people to get out, walk around, and meet others, which is sorely lacking in today's tech-obsessed society! It's won multiple awards, been lauded for its uniqueness and ingenuity, and has allowed legions of Pokémon fans to finally live their lifelong dreams of actually being Pokémon trainers!
With new generations of Pokémon being released periodically to the game, and with a spin-off/tie-in called Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee newly released to the Nintendo Switch, this is a game where growth has nowhere to go but up, and where innovation will likely improve until we're actually catching Pokémon in the wild! ...Boy, won't PETA have a field day when that happens...?
The success of Pokémon GO is also responsible for the creation and success of other augmented reality games. If you enjoy Jurassic World Alive, The Walking Dead: Our World, Ghostbusters World, or Knightfall AR, they all owe their existence to Pokémon GO!
As does Garfield GO. ...Yes, that's a thing. ...Because the world's laziest cat is the best mascot to advertise a game meant to get players exercising! I haven't actually played it, maybe it's good, it's just the concept...
Because of the game's status as the most popular, widespread, and one of the more recent Pokémon games, it's become the new name for pirate manufacturers to profit off of. Some companies have made their own merchandise based on elements from the game, such as team pins, hats, bracelets, shirts, even a number of fake Pokémon GO Plus devices!
But for the majority of cashers-in, it's a simple case of "slap the name on and call it a day." Sure, Pokémon merchandise is timelessly profitable, but with a simple addition of "GO", now it's current and hip! We've already seen a few examples of needlessly slapping the Pokémon GO name on toys, both with the Dargo minifigures and LEBQ minifigures.
But it's also been used for other, more recent unofficial Pokémon toys. Including this statuette of Pikachu cosplaying as Goku! ...Where they missed the opportunity to give him a Dragon Ball painted like a Pokéball! ...Or a Pokéball painted like a Dragon Ball. ...Would there be a difference?
While nearly every other Pokémon bootleg set I've come across has used Pokémon GO as a bait-and-switch to pretend that the toy has something to do with the AR game, the line I'm featuring today actually DOES have something to do with the AR game! ...Sort of. They're clearly the same Pokémon trainer minifigures and Pokémon built out of mini pieces we've seen before. ...But with a gimmick! ...Which we'll get to in a minute. Can't break routine! ...Skipping ahead to when I mention it? Cool.
This line comes to us from a name that hasn't been mentioned here for a LONG time: SL Toys(SLToys?)
The first, and only, time SLToys appeared on this blog was WAAAAAAAAYYYYY back in my look at their unofficial Inside Out minifigures over two years ago! While their quality is on the lower end of brick bootlegs, they do have an eye for creativity and duplication, hence how they were able to pull off an impressive lineup of Inside Out minifigures just from images! ...And that's all I have on them, since there's still no information to be found about the company/proxy, so no further updates.
What I can update you on is that the Lego Ideas project failed and fell short by about 3000 votes. ...I'm ashamed of both the Lego and Disney communities right now...
The box artwork is comprised of a "realistically" drawn version of the Ash/trainer minifigure, the included Pokémon, and the exclusive accessory. All once again underneath the Pokémon GO logo lifted in a desperate attempt to convince people this is legit. ...You really don't need to convince me these are real. Either way, I NEED these in my collection!
The trainers and their Pokémon seem to be standing in front of... Whatever this is. It's a very sketchy style of artwork that's reused across all the boxes, with the contrast turned up super high! It's so busy, and there's so much in front of it, that I can't make it out!
I do know that the artwork is repeated a few times, as indicated by this cat creature appearing several times in the background, but it's too blurry with too much in the way to make out anything adjacent.
The ONLY monster I can make out clearly is this beast that wraps around the corner. At first, I had no idea who this was, so even a clear shot of one of the background creatures didn't help. ...But then, on a whim, I did a quick Google search. ...You know who this is?
This is Growlmon, a character from Digimon Tamers. ...Let me repeat that. This is a character from DIGIMON! Pokémon's main competitor franchise! They actually managed to commit the ultimate snafu and mix Pokémon and Digimon on the same package artwork! Even on the most obviously clueless photoshopped pirate artwork I've seen, nothing I've ever come across has mixed artwork of a franchise with one from their RIVALS! ...This is officially the best packaging I've ever seen for a pirate product!
Besides, it's kinder to this meshing of franchises than most other meetings have been...
Surprisingly, despite them not being to tell Pokémon apart from Digimon, they DID include the names of each Pokémon on the lower-right corner of each box! They didn't go for "Fire Lizard", or "Aquatic Tortoise", or "Evil Jiangshi" or even the original Japanese names for each Pokémon. Each one is here, AND spelled correctly! ...So they knew what they were listing, but they somehow entered "Digimon" into Google Image search and used whatever they found first as a background! ...Can I even make a joke? I think that's the biggest joke I've seen in some time! ...Almost as big a joke as LEBQ's figure quality...
They even added actual stolen Pokémon artwork on the top of the box! This time, it's from the Japanese poster for Hoopa and the Clash of Ages. So they DID do an image search for Pokémon artwork, yet still mixed up Pokémon and Digimon! ...Words sense make not do... Alright, I'm over it.
The back of the box simply depicts all the completed figures in the line, which we'll get to in a second, so we don't need to analyze them here.
But, on the bottom, we get the return of the old classic: "Specifications, Colors, & Contents May Vary From Illustrationas." I don't want any "Illustrationas" in these boxes, so I'm glad we have a chance they won't be! It's all the excitement of a blind box! ...Without the surprise...
We have another bit of stolen artwork with the heavily-used shot of Ash throwing a Pokéball. ...Except, since there's no Pokéball here, it looks like he tripped and is trying to grab onto the "GO" before he falls flat on his face! ...Which he does every fifth step, anyway, with how oblivious he is to the rest of the world...
One side reminds you again of what you'll get in the box
While the other side contains stolen artwork of the Pokémon contained in the box.
The bottom gives us all the boring text about how we shouldn't eat these because they're delicious and they want us to suffer. In several different languages!
And let's not forget the "0-6" warning
But the 6-12 recommendation on the... There's no gap...! They altered the "0-3" logo to a "0-6", so there's no purgatorial gap between the ages! It's a brick set, but I can't make my usual joke about the terrible consequence of playing between certain ages! A brick company that managed to mix up two different franchises actually took the time to fix the most common "error" on toy packaging! ...My incredibly shallow prayers have been answered!
Alright, Brick. You get a reprieve from humiliation this week. Go off and have some fun, and don't get into any troub-
I didn't even finish the sentence!
Once again, these are simply a bunch of minifigures, with a few buildable Pokémon, so this shouldn't take long. In fact, I bet I'll be done before I even comp-
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-lete this sentence! See? No jump cut needed! Hyphens? What are those?
Anyway, the gang's all here! It's mostly comprised of figures we've seen before, with a few new faces to avoid complete redundancy. And at SIXTEEN figures of trainers and Pokémon, this is the largest minifigure set featured here, so far! The quantity's present! ...Now how's the quality?
Bringing out the trainers, it's quite obvious nearly every design is again a copy job, with the first four figures taken from Dargo, and the next two ripped off from LEBQ. ...Or maybe LEBQ ripped them off? In the world of knockoff brick figures, nobody's blameless...
Speaking of, I'm pleased to say that these figures are better quality than what we saw with LEBQ! ...Though that's not much of an accomplishment. You could melt one of those figures, form it with your hands into a vague representation of what it was, and use a Sharpie to give it a face, and THAT would be an improvement! Besides, we're still working with SLToys' level of quality, so we still have to deal with the usual third-party minifigure defects...
Admittedly, the quality of these figures isn't that bad, knockoff-figure wise. I'm able to move the arms and legs with no difficulty, and they stay in place. There's still noticeable resistance when I do, but it's not as difficult or awkward as most other lines, including LEBQ.
However, as was the problem with most of the Inside Out figures, the heads will NOT turn! They fit so snugly around the neck, that it's nearly impossible to get them to fit flush with the torso, let alone get them to turn! And joining the heads as being frustratingly difficult to move are the hands! Every time I try to swivel them, I feel like I'm going to snap them off at the wrist! ...I guess everything being much stiffer is an improvement over SLToys' previous figures, where hands and accessories could be so loose as to fall off if you so much as breathed on them, but the other extreme does not a quality toy make...
The feet are molded slightly smaller than other minifigures, with a LOT of sprue and plastic runoff on and around the bottoms, making them harder to fit around brick studs and keeping them from being level with the rest of the brick/plate. I guess this could be fixed with a small knife or some other small, sharp surface, but I don't have the time or patience right now. We still have a lot of Pokémonth to get through!
While there's not as much plastic runoff as with LEBQ, the sprue holes are much more obvious... It's not essential for me to know where these were attached on the part trees...
Thankfully, I didn't have any problems with the hats, with each one fitting securely and popping on-and-off easily, so that's ONE accessory with some quality! ...And the hats are a good place to start comparing these figures to Dargo.
This is something I forgot to mention in my look at the LEBQ figures, but both LEBQ and SLToys use different hats than Dargo. Dargo's design looks much more like the baseball cap Ash wears, with a much more rounded body and bill and grooves in the top. LEBQ and SLToys seem to have more of a "trucker hat" style, with the top completely smooth and the body and bill a little more squarish than the other caps. Because I guess it was cheaper to rip off some other hat mold they had lying around instead of trying to mold Dargo's design. ...And then whoever ripped off that hat design was then ripped off.
Ironically, the "trucker hat" makes the LEBQ/SLToys figures look more like Red from the older Pokémon games! ...Though if you asked me if it's just coincidence or they intentionally did this because the lead designer wanted to make the outfit as accurate to the games as possible, I'm placing money on "coincidence." Better odds than the slot machines at the Celadon Game Corner.
SLToys even included their own takes on Pokéballs! ...Sorta. ...Kinda. ...If "take" is interpreted as "gave the figures regular solid-color orbs as opposed to the red-and-white ball Dargo minifigures have and that were promised on the box art!" ...And to think, I gave Dargo grief for not painting their Voltorbs...
Oddly, they included two different colors of orb in this line, with five of the characters given red orbs, and three given white. ...It's not even symmetrical. I'm guessing there was a miscommunication in design and someone ended up yelling at someone else "NO! I asked for the balls to be two different colors, not two different colors of balls! ...Eh, whatever, we're getting paid either way. Just get the Photoshop flunkie to fix the artwork on the boxes before we send these out."
Compared to the LEBQ figures, these figures do a MUCH better job copying the decals from Dargo(top). It's been printed slightly too high on the torso, slightly cutting off the collar at the top, raising the details a little bit, and leaving a slight blank area at the very bottom, but it's a MUCH better paint job than LEBQ, without any scratches or splotches to ruin the illusion it's a shirt. However, it's still a cheap copy, with some of the details being slightly or even wildly different, and the paint being a little faded. The plastic of the body is also a lighter shade than Dargo's figures, but, in this case, I'm not sure if that's a result of cheap decal work.
While LEBQ tried to match Dargo's color scheme exactly, SLToys seemed perfectly happy to just use whatever colors they had on hand at the time. Blues are lighter or darker, a few shades in the decals are changed, the shirts can be completely different colors, it's obvious they weren't concerned with 100% accuracy. All that matters is what's on the box, and the customer being just stupid enough not to notice the difference until you've packed up shop and set up somewhere where they can't find you to return or sue!
The pants, especially, are considerably different than what the Dargo figures have on. Dargo tried to have the shades match the outfits Ash wore at certain points in the anime, as well as jeans in general. SLToys, however, appears to be under the impression Ash either wore pajama pants or had a brand new pair of pants every day, with how dark blue the shades are! My favorite is Ash in his black-and-white-striped shirt with TEAL pants! If Steve Cojocaru is reading this, he's weeping into his hands right now...
Something SLToys DOES share with LEBQ? A lack of detail on the back of the shirts...
SLToys' figures also lack gloves, which even LEBQ had! ...I'm glad these lazy clone-of-a-clone companies exist. I need a reason to appreciate the little things...
However, SLToys does manage to one-up LEBQ by remembering to include each hat's logo! Just like Dargo, each symbol matches the outfit of the period in the show it was featured!
...Obviously, the paint jobs on the SLToys figures are inferior to Dargo's. Dargo had much more room to work with on the rounded hats, and they had a much more professional painter on hand to accurately recreate the symbols. SLToys, on the other hand, looks like they swabbed a bit of White-Out over the front of the hat and quickly drew the symbol on with a marker. It's embarrassingly amateur. ...But it is there. Again, it's the little things to appreciate.
That also means that the unknown trainer figures get logos on their hats! ...And since they're just copies from The Original Series and Diamond & Pearl, I'm nowhere closer to finding out where these outfits came from! ...From the deepest part of the subconscious, probably, which is shared throughout the world using the telepathy we don't know we have. ...If you're into that theory.
Speaking of outfits, let's go over which trainer getups SLToys has Mystery Gifted us with! We have the designs we've already seen, with The Original Series, Advanced Generation
Diamond & Pearl, and Best Wishes.
Also the two mystery outfits LEBQ introduced us to, which I'm pretty sure are an alternate Best Wishes outfit, and Red's trainer outfit from the original games. The logos they included with these outfits add a bit more credence to this theory, but there's still not enough to be sure.
And SLToys added their own "originality" to this line with Team Rocket minifigures! And not just Team Rocket, but THE Team Rocket duo of Jessie & James! ...Sort of. They're still obviously based on the same face design and accessories as the other Ash/trainer figures, but they're both given Rocket uniforms with a big, red R in the middle!
Jessie even has the privilege of being the only minifigure with white gloves as part of her uniform! ...Despite her show counterpart wearing BLACK gloves! ...Still, it's a different hand color than the rest of the line. Little things!
They're also given unique facial expressions that aren't used with any of the other figures to make them seem more "evil" and "devious". As seen with James' scowl
And Jessie's bad guy smile. And look! They even gave Jessie lipstick, so now we know she's a woman! ...Oh, wait, it's an anime. We can't tell if she's a woman unless she has incredibly pronounced boobs!
Much better. And it's not Pokémon without an additional shot of James with big, bouncing melons! ...This show was meant for young kids, right?
While they don't have their trademark hair styles, their hats, which were also given the "R" logo, are color coded to their hair colors, so it's pretty obvious these ARE meant to be Jessie and James. I could imagine this is yet another Team Rocket scheme to catch Pikachu or the Pokémon-of-the-day! They've taken on the form of Ash, to convince our heroes that it's Ash Appreciation Day, and they're the guests of honor! And, despite them wearing the Rocket uniform, their hats bearing the Rocket logo, and their hats being the same color as their hair, the gang will be instantly fooled and party like morons while Team Rocket steals all their Pokémon! ...Remind me why we're supposed to relate to Ash & Co?
I DO have Jessie & James hairpieces from another knockoff minifigure line, that we may look at sometime in the future, so here's Jessie and James in full regalia! ...Yeah, they still look like Ash cosplaying as Team Rocket.
Not the first time he's done that! ...And most likely not the last, with how the show likes to reuse ideas.
In case you're wondering, no, they didn't include Team Rocket Pokémon with the Rocket figures. Jessie's given a Pidgeotto, while James is teamed up with Gengar. Two Pokémon that, to the extent of my knowledge, Team Rocket has never owned. ...Legitimately, anyway. They ARE Pokémon poachers and smugglers, after all...
And that's as good a place as any to segue into the Pokémon of this line. Gotta Look At 'Em All! Which was one of the slogans pitched for the show, but was declined because they included more than just bird Pokémon to watch. ...But they did consider it for Pokémon Snap!
At first glance, there's not much to say about these Pokémon. They're the same "mini-set" Pokémon we saw from Dargo, and that are usually the norm with knockoff Pokémon brick sets, so what is there to say that I haven't already hammered into your head harder than a Rampardos' dome?
Well, if you look closely, there ARE a few differences between these Pokémon and Dargo's original attempt, both minor and significantly MAJOR! So let's go through a few of them and play Spot the Difference! ...Not as fun or memey as Who's That Pokémon, but Ursaring with me.
The most obvious difference between these and Dargo's figures is that SLToys couldn't be bothered to make all the pieces match the Pokémon's color, as seen with Pikachu's tail, here. The rest of the figure is the same as Dargo's, but they couldn't find a yellow hinged piece in time, so Pikachu's stuck with a prosthetic they painted his tail onto. ...Or maybe he's charging up Iron Tail? ...Or more likely "Pewter Tail", with how dull the color is...
Squirtle is given a MUCH more accurate shade of blue for SLToys' take, and a cuter expression on his face! Honestly, if I just saw this figure from the front, I'd like this one better!
Unfortunately, they gave this Squirtle an ugly brown body, which clashes horribly with the teal the rest of him is. The brown shell would have been a better addition than the fin Dargo Squirtle has on his back, but the brown brick makes SLToys Squirtle look furry! ...And things in water that look furry are the reason I don't swim...
Charmander is almost the exact same as Dargo's. Maybe a slight shade lighter, but nothing major at first. ...And then you realize that SLToys' Charmander has a much worse and faded face paint than Dargo's, and you wonder how much longer you can stare at it until your soul is sucked from your body by those eyes that gaze into the infinite void! And once you're dead, enjoy taking on the form of one of the many Ghost Pokémon of the franchise and getting captured by a trainer strolling through the Lavender Tower! Personally, I'm hoping I become a Shuppet!
Like Squirtle, Bulbasaur's also given a much better shade of blue, plus a slightly taller and much firmer build with actual solid bricks as opposed to plates stacked on top of each other! It's the same flimsy construction with the bulb on the back being the only thing keeping the front and back halves together, but it's better looking, at least! ...Except for the face. As I gaze upon it, two words spring to mind: Herp and Derp.
Bulba Joe's also a Pokémon where they missed the memo that the body colors have to match.
As well as Eevee's feet, here. ...Though I've just realized how much cuter Eevee would be with custom golden shoes! Nintendo! Make that DLC for Let's Go, Eevee! Watch how quickly the digital dollars fly into your digital pockets!
Actually, to be brutally honest, SLToys' Eevee IS the superior design! Most of the features are the same, but SLToys' mane is slightly bigger AND has hair, so Eevee doesn't have to cosplay as Friar Tuck Spock. SLToys' version even has a much more "alive" face, with smaller eyes, yellow highlights under the eyes, a smaller and cuter nose and smile, and an expression that's equal parts whimsical and "yeah, I know I'm adorable and you can't resist, I'm just that awesome!"
Even the tail's more adorable, with bricks acting as fur, as opposed to the regular brown brick Dargo's version has. So, congratulations, SLToys! Nobody makes brick Eevee figures better than you! You get one positive point! ...Against the few dozen negative points you've already accumulated... ...Alright, I'll give you THREE positive points to give you a fighting chance, it's worth that much.
Now we're getting into the obviously different figures, with Gengar! As you can see, while SLToys' Gengar is made out of the same bricks as Dargo's, a few details are different between the two. And I mean besides SLToys once again messing up the color of the feet... The most obvious difference is that SLToys' version has rounded hands, as opposed to the claw hands of Dargo(also, they didn't forget a piece with the box...) And while Dargo's expression is similar to the look of the sprite from the games, SLToys is more faithful to the anime, with smaller, rounder, more even eyes and larger pupils. Dargo's has a better mouth, but SLToys' actually has theirs drooling out the side of his mouth! "The dreams of young children taste exactly like candy! The process fills them with absolute terror, and the sounds of them running and screaming to their parents is like a symphony to me! ...If they wake up at all!" ...Ok, SLToys, you get another two points here. And another point if you keep this monster away from me!
And now, their version of Pidgeotto! ...Which is so different from the original, I don't know why I'm putting Dargo's Pidgeotto next to it for comparison. ...It doesn't even look like a bird! It looks like they surgically attached chocolate triangles to a camel and gave him a Chinese mandarin hat! I like the painted-on eyes, but this thing doesn't even look like it could get off the ground! ...The original didn't, either, with its brown "elf ears" they meant to be wings, but it had the shape of a bird, at least! Sorry, SLToys. Unless you meant for the wise men to ride this thing to Bethlehem, you have clearly never seen a bird in your life...
And finally, the only original figure of the line! Instead of Jigglypuff, SLToys has given us Mewtwo! What happened to Jigglypuff?
It's a tale too terrible to tell...
I... Don't know what to think of this brick figure interpretation. I think I like it, but it somehow manages to become to most accurate yet INaccurate of all the figures! I like the humanoid appearance, the bendable arms, and the head they painted a new decal for, so they clearly had an idea of what Mewtwo is. ...But it's also the blandest design. Everyone else, whether the builds were 100% accurate or not, I could instantly tell you who it was. With this guy, if I wasn't familiar with the first generation, I wouldn't know if it was a Pokémon or some weird guy you meet on your journey! It's TOO humanoid, with the proportions being more off here than any of the other Pokémon, so he doesn't look like something you pop in a Pokéball!
He looks at least as human-like than Mr Mime or Jynx! ...And, considering how humanoid those Pokémon are, are we sure the franchise isn't also about slavery and human trafficking? ...The further I delve into this franchise for children, the more disturbing thoughts I unearth...
I'm also not big on the spiked tail. In the actual franchise, he has a tentacle-like purple tail, not spikes that Groudon would be jealous of!
This is another case where not including an accessory would have made the figure look better. ...Sort of. Now it looks like a little puppy-dog tail. ...Of course, if you try to pet this thing, I'm pretty sure he'll telekinetically crush you from the inside-out...
So while I should be happy to welcome a new Pokémon to the family of custom Pokémon figures, there's just something about this figure that keeps me from heaping praise on it. I can't think of any way to fix it, so I think it's just a Pokémon that doesn't work in brick form. Or at least it's too ambitious to be made out of standard bricks. Sorry, Mewtwo, but I'm not giving you the highest grade out of the lot. Go off and try to destroy the world, then change your mind, then change your mind again, then reveal you have a twin brother who can evolve even further, then appear in an alternate continuity more based on the game series where you're somehow caught with only an Ultra Ball, then do whatever else the writers scraped off the bottom of the barrel for the next movie. ...Seriously, at this point, I think the franchise is running on fumes more than Weezing...
Now, finally! The moment you've all be waiting for! The accessory that ties an otherwise standard set of unofficial Pokémon brick figures into the phenomenon that is Pokémon GO! The thing I have yet to see any other line produce, and that gives this line a look all unto its own! Ladies and gentletrainers! Kanto and Johto residents alike! May I present to you:
Smartphone stickers with Pokémon GO footage! ...Totally worth the buildup! ...Unless you're someone who just skipped to this point to find out what was so special about this particular line, in which case, you're probably just passively internally thinking "Oh. That's what's special about this set. ...Well, let's see what Top 10 video WatchMojo's made today."
So, yes. The gimmick of this figure line is that they grabbed an image of an iPhone 4, slapped a background and Pokémon on each screen, and printed it out as a sticker to slap on a brick with a smooth surface! Now your minifigures can walk around, catching Pokémon on their phones! ...Or you can bank on your kids having too much imagination and give these to them instead of an actual phone! ...Expect therapy bills later in life...
Obviously, they're not very good stickers... They stick alright, but the image has obviously been squashed to fit on the tiny rectangle, resulting in very chubby iPhone 4s... They also made no effort to cut out the phone, leaving each sticker with a distracting border around it, so it looks more like a painting of a phone than a phone accessory! ...Why do I suddenly want to paint Campbell's Soup cans?
The border makes the sticker too big for the brick plate it's stuck to, with runoff all around the edges making it obvious they didn't measure the brick before they printed the stickers. Or maybe they did, but they didn't want to bother taking two minutes to specify a more accurate cut around the phone.
Either way, it makes it difficult for minifigures to hold these without ruining the screen...
I'd just like to reiterate that this is indeed how the stickers arrived. Each one came on a tiny sheet marked "Pokémon GO", and each one is square, with a lot of border included with each. I guess it's a fixable problem, but only if you have a very tiny pair of scissors and a free afternoon.
But the most surprising feature of these stickers that are supposed to cash in on Pokémon GO is that none of them even HAVE Pokémon GO screenshots! They just took a standard location wallpaper, slapped some PNGs of stock Pokémon and Pokéball artwork on each, and included a few random buttons too small to make out to make it seem like a game! ...Normally, I applaud when bootleggers don't just steal artwork and instead make their own, but, in this case, why? You're trying to make it appear like you're playing Pokémon GO on the phone, so why not use Pokémon GO screenshots? That would have probably been even faster than your quick MS Paint editing job to fake screenshots! Or if you're in an area where Pokémon GO isn't/wasn't available, I'm sure Google would have had plenty of screencaps to steal! No sense in reinventing the wheel!
Though China DID reinvent Pokémon GO, since the official game is banned in their territory. ...And with the 3D models they designed for what's basically just a tutorial on throwing Pokéballs, I really wish they didn't... If your kids are begging you incessantly for Let's Go: Pikachu, show them this picture and watch their interest in Pokémon instantly fade...
And there you have SLToy's contribution to the world of knockoff Pokémon brick figures! While their main gimmick is disappointing, they did bring us a few "original" designs, and a couple more Pokémon to add to the collection! And while their phablets they designed are unwieldy with a badly applied sticker, minifigures CAN still play Pokémon GO on them! ...Or Chinese ripoff Pokémon GO, anyway. ...Hope they installed a good antivirus program on these...
And since they've finally been given a method of playing Pokémon GO, let's hand the gang some phones and see how it goes!
...Yeah, pretty much as expected.
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Quality: The quality is slightly better than LEBQ's attempt, but that's not saying much. The arms and legs fit more securely and can be moved much more easily than LEBQ's, plus the hats don't wrap too tightly around the head and the paint jobs don't have horrible scratches and splotches like LEBQ's poor copy job, so these figures already have more effort to them than the previous attempt. However, the heads fit around the neck TOO snugly, to the point where they refuse to sit flush with the torso and turning them is a Herculean effort! The paint jobs are also still lazy copies of Dargo, with lighter color schemes, misplaced decals, and STILL no pattern on the back! Add obvious sprue holes and plastic runoff in a few places, and you have some pretty cheap figures you wouldn't want to give to your kids. The Pokémon, being made of standard bricks, fare a bit better, since there's less to mess up. There's the common problem of bricks not fitting securely together, and a few decals not being very well painted(especially with Charmander), but, if you were to see these from a distance, you probably wouldn't notice. On the whole, while the quality's better than other bootleg brick lines I've come across, it still follows standard knockoff standards.
Design: Once again, we're dealing with cheap copies of what were already cheap figures. It's the standard minifigure body, with most of the paint jobs and figure builds taken straight from Dargo, except made with, at most, half the effort. The only "original" designs in this set are the Rocket uniforms, Mewtwo's build, and the phones/tablets, and they're all rather "meh." The uniforms look nice, despite not having a back to them, but they're too generic if they were meant to single the figures out as Jessie and James. Mewtwo's a mess, trying to be humanoid and a Pokémon at the same time, and coming across as more of a golem or elf NPC than Mewtwo. And the "phablets" are simply smooth bricks with an oversized sticker of an iPhone 4 stuck to them that permanently displays wallpaper crudely edited to include Pokémon stock images. There's nothing much to praise, because most of the elements that DO deserve praise belong to other companies. So while there's an interesting idea present, the cheapness and painfully obvious ripoff jobs do nothing to make the line stand out that much. You're better off printing your own stickers and sticking them to your Lego sets.
Creativity: Funnily enough, while the quality and designs are slightly better than LEBQ, the creativity took a tumble. Again, we've seen nearly all these patterns and designs in other lines, so there are few points for originality. I guess the wildly inconsistent color schemes are pretty creative, but I don't know if the differing colors were intentional, or if they were just the colors SLToys had on hand at the time. And while the gimmick to actually tie the line in with Pokémon GO was interesting, the accessories are comprised of two standard bricks and an oversized sticker, which are difficult to actually use with minifigures.The most creative this line gets is in their slight redesigns of the Pokémon and their addition of "Jessie & James" minifigures. While not all the right pieces are present for each Pokémon, some of the designs I'd consider superior to Dargo's initial attempt! Bulbasaur, Gengar, and especially Eevee are all given slightly different builds and color schemes that work better than the original figures and make the Pokémon more resemble their official counterparts. And while I don't quite like the Mewtwo figure, it was creative of them to attempt a recreation! However, I'm not a fan of their attempts at Charmander or Squirtle, and their Pidgeotto figure makes me wonder if the designer had 5 seconds before the line went into production! Still, I'm glad I have some Team Rocket figures, and a better quality "Red" minifigure, so now my Pokémon Yellow stop motion can commence! ...If I was planning one, anyway. So while most of the stuff is straight-up copied, and I already own better quality copies of most of the figures, I have to give it creativity points where they put in creativity. ...As sparse as it is.
Readability: No instructions. None needed.
Packaging: While it lacks the airbrushed art-feel LEBQ's boxes gave us, the artwork still looks pretty good, if a bit standard. Each of the trainers are posed differently, with a shot of their brick Pokémon and the tablets right next to them. I'm especially impressed that they knew the name of each Pokémon(though it would have been funnier if they gave us phonetic versions of the original Japanese names), and correctly applied it to the front of the box in the right position, which is more than I can give Dargo's attempt. The rest of the box is pretty standard, with pictures of each figure in the line on the back and some stolen artwork scattered around to find and identify. However, what REALLY makes these boxes for me is that the background images are of DIGIMON! The fact they could make that mistake, especially since they would have had to know what franchise they were copying, is HILARIOUS, and a prime example of the joys of collecting bootleg toys! ...Or maybe it was intentional, showing that Pokémon will always remain at the forefront? ...Whatever the reason, it's worth getting just the box so you can laugh at this minor, MAJOR mistake! Pokémon. Pocket monsters. Pokémon are not Digimon!
Compatibility: The minifigures are regular minifigures and the Pokémon and phone tablets are made with standard parts, so they'll have very few issues with any other brick set. ...Just don't pose them in anything that requires their heads to turn.
Overall:
Despite being slightly higher quality than LEBQ, these figures score slightly lower for lack of creativity. They're much easier to move and keep together than LEBQ, the addition of the Rocket uniforms and phablets are interesting, and the slight redesigns of each of the Pokémon are mostly for the better, but I still find myself liking LEBQ's line of custom-molded Pokémon a bit better. Still, if you want some Pokémon minifigures, and you'd like to compare and contrast them with other lines yourself, these are a good addition to any collection. Especially if you're making a stop motion fan film. It's finally possible to recreate Red's journey in the original games! ...If he were also playing Pokémon GO in universe on an oversized tablet! ...In which case, the universe would probably fold in on itself due to the anomaly! ...Don't let actual Pokémon trainers play Pokémon GO.
