I've been seeing these make the rounds on some blogs and fellow Horde member, Jboy, sent me a pic the other day, letting me know they were in Target, so this past Saturday, I swung by my local Target to see if they were in and sure enough, there they were in all their black and silver glory...
Oddly enough, for someone who has started to build up quite the collection of KISS toys, I was never a huge KISS fan. You can read about my personal brush with KISS fandom HERE. I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I suspect that the sheer nostalgia for the image of the band, that undeniable 70s-ness, that draws me to them. Heck, I even made a Lite Brite Brutes series based on them.
Also, I am a sucker for minifigures, so I imagine that these could have been Men At Work or Huey Lewis & the News and I still would have bought them. Okay... maybe not.
It amuses me that they keep releasing KISS merchandise with the names Demon, Starchild, Spaceman and Catman. Having dealt with KISS licensing both with Mixo and now with Funko, I know that this is the only way that they ever want their names presented, and that mostly due to a) an attempt to further "characterize" their personas, and to b) never, ever, ever mention Peter Criss or Ace Frehley's names ever again. Such a shame.
Here's John, Paul, George and Ringo themselves...
The minifigures themselves, while upholding the proper level of cuteness required for any decent minifigure worth its salt, have some flaws. First off, those hands are... umm... not good.
They do come apart, thus upholding the proper level of "take-aprt-ness" required of a minifigure from a "building set". Having taken one apart, I got to take a closer look at the quality of the figures. They're not Lego level, for sure, but they do their best with what they have to work with. Actually, some of the design and engineering of the figures is borderline trademark-infringement, but that's not my problem.
This set gets major cute points from me for including their little '70s platform shoes...
One major problem with these is how easily the hair just falls off. And since I have no desire to see Paul Stanley with a shaved head, I'm thinking that I may just permanently glue the hair on.
The real prize in this set is the mini instruments. You get two guitars, a bass and an adorable little drum kit! Which is better than I can say for some KISS toy sets. Hell, this set is worth it just for these instruments. Who doesn't need a killer little drumset for their Lego minifigures?
Oh look... instructions...
Once the whole thing is put together, despite the flimsiness of the "stage", it's a pretty awesome little set. I mean, look how adorable these little rockers are...
Yes, they have some flaws, but for $9.99 (that's the price of three Lego minifigures!), you can't beat this set.
I guess in the end, although I'm not the kind of KISS fan that owns all the albums and knows every song (I'm all good with a greatest hits mix), I am, however, a fan of their era, their image and their legacy. Part rock stars, and part comic book heroes. When I buy these kinds of toys, I'm not so much reminded of their music, as I am reminded of my babysitter and her best friend back in '76 who couldn't stop squealing over their posters, or their Marvel comic book, printed in their own blood, or their TV movie battles against the Phantom of the Park or their amazing commercials hawking their 12" tall Mego dolls.
So, for a non-KISS fan, I imagine these won't be the last KISS items I buy.
