The Incredible Shrinking 31 Days of Toy Terror: Spike & Sprout from MrBeast Lab Hybrids by Moose Toys

 

   I really like plant themed characters! Maybe it's because of my childhood love of Moss Man but I'm just nuts about the aesthetic. Plant guys, giant plants, plant women; I'm just sold on all of them. Fortunately, Spike & Sprout was one of my first pulls and I love this guy's (or these guys') crazy aesthetic. Remember the vintage Matchbox Con-Nec-Tors or the various Mashers lines that Hasbro puts out every few years? The Lab Hybrids by Moose Toys remind me of those, though the figures on their own are just quite good, too. Nothing earth shattering, but they're fun smaller figures (between 4 and 4 1/2 inches) solid in plastic Erlenmeyer (conical) flasks. The standard figures are in smaller flasks and are blind boxed, so there's a bit of a risk there. I did purchase a few of the MrBeast Lab Hybrids back in August and while I really like them, the blind boxed nature of them is just not conducive to going all in on, especially at $10 bucks a figure.$10 bucks a figure is decent if you know what you're getting, but not when you might pull a duplicate. Ready to check out the plant duo of Spike and Sprout? Oh, and why a duo you might ask? Because Sprout is presumably "sprouting" from Spike's head. Someone must have used some Miracle-Gro! Let's dive in to the frightening world of plant people after the break...

The Facts:

Height: 4 1/8ths

Articulation: Swivel/hinge knees, swivel/hinge hips, swivel waist, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel/ hinge elbows, and a swivel neck.

Accessories: 2 Piece Erlenmeyer flask packaging

Non-Scalper Price: $10-$11 dollars

The Packaging:

* Each release in this series comes in a transparent blue Erlenmeyer flask with some details molded into the plastic as well as the MrBeast logo. The single packs come with the pieces in individual blind bags inside of plastic flask that's about 7 inches tall. Inside the flask the pieces are in little bags attached to the lid which you pull out in a strand and tear open to reveal who you got (though the 2-packs and 5 pack are fixed releases). I can imagine after getting a few flasks storing these will grow old, but I do like the look of them. They're neat shelf decorations or a good place to store the figures and parts. The packaging warns you not to drink out of the flask, but that's the first thing I had in mind. How cool would it be to fill this thing with some apple cider and tote it around during the Halloween season? Well, Moose Toys says don't do that on a warning label. 

The Positives:

* Spike & Sprout is a cool figure. He's a weird mixture of a classic plant guy with brownish trunks (so a bit like Moss Man) and the spiky body of a cactus. One arm is a giant giant while the other is a flower or something like a succulent. There's not a ton of painted detail on the figure itself but the sculpted details are cool and Spike & Sprout is very pleasingly spikey. 

* I'm guessing that Spike is the large main head and Sprout is the smaller head. Spike kind of looks like Plankton from Spongebob Squarepants, doesn't he? I love how they each have one eyes, though there are two eyes since there are two heads. Two mouths, too. Weird!

* The flowering arm is cool. It reminds me of a succulent of some sort, or maybe the mouth of a carnivorous plant. Since you can swap parts around you can swap it onto another figure to arm them with a weird man-eating plant arm.

* The MrBeast Lab Hybrids aren't collector targeted figures like Marvel Legends or import quality figures; these seem to be meant for kids to open and play with and for Youtubers to open live for clicks. Still? These guys are really good! They've got swivel/hinge joints at the elbows, shoulders, hips, and knees with a basic swivel waist and head. They're durable figures and the body part switching gimmick doesn't really interfere with these guys being fun to play with and pose. They certainly have more articulation than most action figures I grew up with! They're really fun to just mess around with and swap parts around on.

* Each figure separates into five pieces: A head, 2 arms, a waist with legs attached, and a torso. There are figures in the line with multiple arms or wings, but Spike & Sprout don't have any of those. It's easy to swap the pieces and there doesn't seem to be any real wear or stress put on the plastic, so you can swap away and not feel at risk of breaking anything. It's simple, but it's quite fun and a pretty neat gimmick that makes for a fun toyline.

* Here's a shot of a figure from the back. There are attachment points for wings and such on the back of the head and on the back of the waist (wings, tails, etc.), but what is really kind of neat about these is that you press a button to detach the head and waist. See the little oval shaped button in the center of the back? Press it and it releases the waist and head, so no pulling necessary. It's an interesting feature and the shape of the button and the two holes nearby make me think that Moose Toys plans to release some sort of playset or accessory that allows you to swap the heads and waists as a play feature. I'm interested to see what they come up with for the line.

* The plastic flask is cool and I'm definitely going to count it as more than just packaging. It's fun and reusable. I do like packaging when it is meant to be kept and played with. 

The Negatives:

* The single packed figures are blind bagged inside which really aggravates me for a toy that costs this much. I'm not a blind box fan, anyway, but for a toy that costs over $5 or $6 dollars it just seems absolutely egregious. I'd be OK if they gave these figures numbers on the packaging so you could still be surprised if you wanted to be but you could also make sure you weren't buying duplicates of a $10 or $11 dollar figure. 

   I don't anticipate reviewing any more of these in the neat future just because the blind boxed sales method just pisses me off, especially because these guys are good enough to stand on their own. Imagine being able to go to the store and select from over a dozen figures, picking who you want (or maybe one of each?). Instead, I started picking these up, got a pair of duplicates, got aggravated, and then sold off most of mine except for a couple favorites. Now, as a figure? This is a Great and a 1/2 figure with a cool design and a super fun gimmick, especially once you amass a small collection. I just can't buy into the blind boxed sales pitch. 


This is the first figure of Spike & Sprout I've reviewed. For more MrBeast Lab Hybrids check out the following:
B3A5TBOT and Atomic Terrana-Claw