The Big Bang Theory (Bif Bang Pow)

 

The Big Bang Theory
Big Bang Pow
2014 

When the pandemic started, and we were all relegated to house arrest, I started watching The Big Bang Theory on HBOMax. I'd never seen the show, but my boss swore to me that not only would I like it, but that these characters were all right up my alley and relatable to me.

Well, while I disagree with his assessment of them being relatable, I did end up enjoying the series quite a bit. So much so, that since working from home, I've actually watched all twelve seasons twice, and seasons one through three of Young Sheldon once. It was really good. It was one of those shows where the characters become your friends, so to speak. You're rooting for them, you want them to come out in the end, and you're sad to see them go when the series ends. I can't honestly think of a show I've ever seen, at least not off the top of my head, where I felt that way. Maybe Aqua Teens. : )

Anyway, during a moment of downtime, I thought I would track down any type of toys that may have been released based on the show. Boy was I floored when I found Bif Bang Pow's line.

This isn't the first time the company has produced a series of figures I missed that I was kind of bummed out about. The first was their fantastic Flash Gordon line. I'm still disappointed in missing that one. Those are so rare and expensive these days.

Again I'm off track...

Though the company released over twenty figures, it's unfortunate to see that eleven of them are based on Jim's Parson's Sheldon Cooper. I get that he's the star of the show, but come on. No Professor Proton, Barry Kripke, Bert Kibbler or Leslie Winkle? Blaring omissions.

Taking a closer look, some of these sculpts are really bad for some of them. Penny stands out as the worst, looking nothing like actress, Kaley Cuoco.

To round out the series, Bif Bang Pow released an exclusive SDCC wave. However, these are just the same figures all over again. This time in Star Trek uniforms. Eh, not exciting for me, but whatever. Not everything has to be for me...I guess.

The final pieces in the series were two box sets. The first was the only way that collector's could get their hands on Stuart. Unfortunately, it came packed with another Sheldon.

Last up is a four pack of the gang in their Star Trek cosplay getup. These are actually different from the above SDCC versions, and are based on their season six appearance in episode thirteen, The Bakersfield Expedition.

If you haven't seen the show, I definitely recommend it. With all the episodes currently available on HBOMax, it's a convenient way to binge watch the series. As for the toys, they're hit or miss. With the over saturation of Sheldon figures, and the poor likenesses, I'm certainly not as excited about these as I was for Bif Bang Pow's Flash Gordon line. I suppose they're not horrible though.

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The Venture Bros. (Bif Bang Pow)

The Venture Bros.
Bif Bang Pow
2010

Go team Venture!

As of 2016, The Venture Bros. is the longest running animated show aired on Adult Swim, and there's good reasons for that. For starters, it can be pretty funny at times. It has villains such as The Monarch that you can't help but feel sorry for, and wish he would just catch a break and win. Then of course there's the over the top violence of Brock Samson as he goes on a rampant rage of destruction in any way possible. Now that we start listing this out, really every character has a unique life of their own which comes with funny quirks. We could honestly list something about everyone.

As we've seen with prior Adult Swim related action figures, it can sometimes be a challenge to find a strong foothold in the market even when you have such a popular source material as your canvas. Bif Bang Pow started off with a hug bang (no pun intended), hitting the market with seven unique figures, and a handful of variants.

Bif Bang Pow produced both a 3 3/4 inch line as well as an 8 inch line. Today we're going to take a look at the 3 3/4 inch line.

Brock Samson* Brock Samson (Bloody / Naked Entertainment Earth Exclusive)*Brock Samson (Bloody SDCC / Entertainment Earth Exclusive)

The series launched with pretty much everyone in the main cast being present - Brock Samson, Hank and Dean Venture, Doctor Venture, Phantom Limb and of course Mr. and Mrs. The Monarch. The series also included numerous exclusives variant - Most of which were based on Brock Samson.

Dean Venture*Hank Venture*Dr. Venture

The Monarch*Dr. Mrs. Monarch*Phantom Limb

In this day and age, toy developers love giving fans something to chase after. Bif Bang Pows answer to this was the yellow unpainted test version of The Monarch. The figure was limited to just 500 pieces, and released in retail cases as a chase variant.

The Monarche Unpainted Test

The final items released to date in the 3 3/4 inch line were the G.I. Joe / retro style cards of Brock Samson variants. The black shirt version was released as a convention exclusive for Entertainment Earth, while the white shirt version was released in retail.

Brock Samson (Bloody Black Shirt Entertainment Earth)*Brock Samson (White Shirt)

The beauty of these figures is that they're all relatively cheap to obtain. If you're buying individually, you can expect to pay $15.00 to $20.00 each. However, when buying multiple figures at a time, the price can equal out to as little as $5.00 per figure when dividing the total price by how many figures you're getting. If these are figures you've been interested in getting, now is definitely a good time to jump on them.

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Flash Gordon (Bif Bang Pow)

Flash Gordon
Bif Bang Pow
2007 - 2010

This post is sadly more so a want list for us as we never have been able to track down a full set of the 2007 - 2010 Flash Gordon series from Bif Bang Pow.

The line made its debut in 2007 with the red carded series one. It featured two versions of Flash Gordon, and two versions of Ming the Merciless.

The differences between the two Flash figures are subtle enough that they are easily missed by casual glances. The first version of Flash featured a black and red tank top with a sword accessory. The second featured a red tank top with a blaster. The difference between the Ming figures is rather obvious with one featuring a red robe, and the other a black.

These days the figures are incredibly difficult to come by. However, oddly enough when they are found, they aren't all that costly. An autographed Flash figure sold for as little as $26.00.

Though series 2 is far more commonly found than series one, it's still not in abundance. Oddly enough the SDCC versions seem to be the easiest to obtain.

Series two featured four new characters, Klytus, Prince Barin, Dale Arden and another Flash Gordon - This time in his white shirt from the first 1/4 (or so) of the film.

As mentioned above, this particular series featured a few SDCC exclusives. Interestingly enough, while series two initially was released in 2008, it wasn't until 2010 that the convention exclusives were produced.

Each exclusive was a slight alteration of their series two counterpart. Klytus no featured popped out eyes from his death scene in the film. Prince Barin featured whip lashes on his wrists from the scene leading up to Klytus' death, and Dale now featured a white wedding dress.

While the movie was amazing for its time, and still lives up to fairly good standards these days, probably one of our most favorite things to come from the 1980 film is the soundtrack. No, it doesn't feature a lot of Queen's finer pieces of music, but it does work well with the film. Who doesn't love to sing along with, "Flash, ah ah!" Not only that, but we simply have to give it a shout out because Queen is definitely one of our all time favorite bands here at The Toy Box.

The film had all the makings of a sequel, but unfortunately performed so poorly at box offices that it was soon destined for cult classic status as opposed to popular franchise. Making just 27 million in the USA based on its 20 million dollar budget, it was definitely considered a blockbuster bomb. While we are among the people that would have loved to see a sequel, we at least can live with the fact that as a result of performing so poorly that the franchise wasn't run into the ground with awful sequels made simply to cash in.

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