Pulp Arcana Studios: Accessory After the Fact

Spicing Up Your Figure Display

Well hello there Planeteers! Today, we’ve got something a little different for you. You see, one of the coolest things about being a figure collector is posing. However, once you start getting some of your favorite figures into those just-right poses, your imagination starts to grow a little bit. You get the desire to take it further. Add a little more to it and craft a little scene to bring a moment to life. Whether you are just spicing up a shelf display or going for a full Articulated Comic Book Art moment to photograph, the right accessories can make a world of difference. 

I’m not talking now about the accessories that come packaged with your figures. No, instead, today we are looking at some third-party accessories that can add a ton of flavor and fun to your display. 

Flavor is the operative word for our first two packs, as we will look at some great food options for your figures from 5 Below’s Teeny Tinies line. Then, we’ll play around with a pack from the best in the business at this kind of thing, Super Action Stuff, and their Cosmic Convenience pack.  And helping us accomplish this will be one of the unsung heroes of the toy photography art form. The figure with the most useful face in action figure history: Marvel Legends The Hook.  

Let’s have some fun.              

A PULP ARCANA FIGURE FIELD REPORT Mission Brief:  

Artifact Identified:

 Gamer Essentials and Watch Party, Cosmic Convenience, and The Hood

Teeny Tinies, Super Action Stuff, and Marvel Legends

5 Below, Super Action Stuff, Hasbro

Teeny Tinies:

I stumbled across these packs while on a trip to 5 Below with a friend, preparing for a “Scholastic Book Fair” party at her home. When I saw these sitting on the shelf, I was blown away by the potential for toy photography in these packs. There were two available, and I am definitely hoping to see more in this line.  

Watch Party is themed around a Super Bowl watch party, and comes with a ridiculous amount of plastic food scaled pretty close to the 1/12 of the majority of figures I collect (and review). In this pack, we get:

2 soda cans

Buffalo chicken dip

A fruit platter 

2 hot dogs

Veggie dip

Nachos

A fast food soda

Bag of chips

Chicken wings

Helmet chip bowl

A pretzel

Pretzel bites

A veggie platter

A plate of football themed cookies

A pot of chili

A bag of ice

A cooler and ice block that fits inside. 

This a huge amount of stuff, and for the most part, they look fantastic. There is enough detail that the individual foods actually look like what they are supposed to be. The cooler is especially nice, as it gives a larger, scenery piece for us to build a scene around.  

Gamer Essentials on the other hand,  gives college dorm room vibes. There are some really cool little touches in this one as well. Included is:

A gamer headset

A game controller

A hot pocket

A ketchup cup

French fries

A pack of gum

Protein bar

Energy drink

Gummies

Bag of chips

Beef jerky

Chicken sandwich

Sports drink

Box of corn dogs

Pack of takeout noodles

Spicy nuggets

Lunchable

Nachos

Mini-fridge

Sticker sheet for the fridge

The standouts here are the fridge and the video game gear. The fridge can hold a good amount of the food and drinks included. The only real disappointment here was the sticker sheet, as the majority of the stickers peeled off with a part of the backing and would not adhere. But this is a small matter, considering how much stuff you get here.  

Both packs give a great variety of food and a number of set pieces. While these might not be the accessories you would normally associate with the super-heroes and soldiers of fortune that are frequently reviewed here, they give us the opportunity for some whimsical fun, playful scenes, and real creativity and I absolutely love that.       

Cosmic Convenience:

So, a little history. I got my start in toy photography when my son showed me a YouTube video by one of the greatest toy photographers out there, Sir Dork, and he was reviewing the Casket of Cruelty from Super Action Stuff. The combination of amazing photography and cinematic effect pieces on the figures was just so cool, it lit something inside me. 

Super Action Stuff makes amazing accessory packs for action figures, and he keeps doing things that are cooler and cooler.  His latest is this Cosmic Convenience pack. The package is actually the key element of the pack: a 1/12 scale vending machine. This looks excellent, and comes with 3 adjustable shelves and a clear front. There is great detail on this and it makes an awesome set piece or prop. 

The back of the vending machine opens up and inside is a completely insane amount of cool stuff.  Seriously, the amount of goodies packed into this thing was kind of shocking. Here is the full list:

For weapons, we get a Mega-Man style wrist blaster, a realistic-looking flamethrower, and a delightfully retro space pistol. We also get four laser swords with swappable hilts and blades in red, yellow, blue, and green, and slash effects in each color. 

The rest of the items are other effect pieces and they all look incredible. We get a sonic blast, and energy blast, a rapid fire stream of bullets, an electrical blast, and a flame blast. All of these can be used in the wrist blaster, the flamethrower, or the space pistol by using the included pegs. The flame blast especially looks awesome. There is also an energy shield effect that is very cool. 

For damage, we get a red blood effect and a purple blood effect, three metal damage bullet holes, two laser burns/cuts, and some blaster holes. 

As if that is not enough, we get four smoking weapon effects, where two are keyed for the peg system included here and the other two have posts that will plug into most Valaverse, GI JOE Classified, and Operation Monster Force weapons. There are two wrist energy effects that can go over the post on a figure’s fist when you plug it into the arm. Finally, we have a well-sculpted explosion effect with great hits of red and yellow color. 

The colors are vibrant and the sculpts for everything are crisp and detailed. This set gives so much for us to spice up our displays. 

Marvel Legends The Hood:

This guy. This is the figure I refer to as the hardest working figure in toy photography. Now let me explain. You see, as a figure, The Hood is…not great. He is in simple civilian clothes. His hood accessory, arguably the most important part of the character, is frankly pretty terrible. It is a single piece of molded plastic that doesn’t fit on him very well.  

And yet, none of this matters. Because of his face.  

Look at that face. What an absolute money-maker. And that’s what makes this figure magic for photography. That face, combined with the civilian clothes, makes for the perfect scene extra. He can be a horrified victim of some super-villain. He can be the shocked bystander watching a crazy fight. He can be chowing down on some of the nachos or hot dogs from the previous set. His expression is so dramatic, yet so weirdly versatile, that you can find no shortage of uses for him in a display or a photo. No other single figure offers so much background goodness. I love this guy.  

FINAL RECKONING:

There you have it, Planeteers. If you are looking to add some fun to your displays or spice up your toy photography, it’s hard to go wrong with these additions. They’re inexpensive and they add so much to anything you can think to include them in. Check these out, or find some hidden gems of your own, and let me know. I’d love to hear from you.                      

Filed by Mark Gelineau of Pulp Arcana Studios for Fanboy Planet

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