I got excited when Nintendo introduced Amiibo - figures? With in-game items? That's awesome! However availability issues squeezed me out of completism pretty quickly - so when Hasbro announced Monopoly Gamer would have "Power Packs" like Diddy Kong I decided to give those a shot. So far it's mostly Mario and Donkey Kong stuff, but the figure quality is pretty good. You get a figure orbiting 1-inch tall, a sticker, and a game card for about four bucks. It's reasonable.
The tiny figure comes on a display base with printed-on, rather than molded-in, copyright information. Given how easy it might be to copy, it's a curious choice - but the figure has the tail, hat, and big weird eye of the character's 1990s design. More or less. I'm not familiar with the nuances of any Diddy Kong redesigns, so I can say I dig his red baseball cap, his red shirt with two stars on it, and his decision to avoid pants.
For a figure of its size, it's good - for the price, it needs to be. I remember when sidekick figures like this were made and at best, you'd have painted eyes. The brown molded figures has painted hands, a painted mouth, painted clothing, and painted eyes - given the size, I can't think of much else they could do to make it better at the price. The hands and feet are molded to the base, and it's on-model.
The "pack" part is the icing on the cake, because $4 for a mini-figure isn't terribly cheap. They soften the blow with in-game powers. Diddy can move forward or backward 3 spaces, or swipe coins from other players thanks to the instructions on his little card here. He also includes a sticker, which is just a nice thing to have.
The window-bagged toys let you get the piece you want, in a format not unlike Hasbro's very popular blind bag offerings. My biggest complaint about this line is the lack of subsequent series so far. Throw in any other major (or minor) players, or alternate costumes, and I'd buy them all. I like miniatures, so this is a nifty item for the price. Get 'em if you like, you can probably store them in the game box if you go that route.
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