Little Lulu was created by Marge Henderson Buell way back in 1935, when men were men and women had to put up with a whole crapload of their stupidity. Buell keep creative control over the character until the 1960's, when she sold it all for some serious bank. But Lulu has lived on, with her various friends, including an animated show on HBO for kids with Tracey Ullman as the voice of Lulu. Dark Horse Comics picked up the license in 2004, and started with reprinting the classic comic books (not the Post strips). They are releasing two 8" vinyl figures next week as well - Lulu and her sometimes boyfriend, the Rubenesque Tubby.

Tubby is an interesting character, usually the foil of Lulu's story. He's kind of a cross between Spanky and Wimpy, running the local "no girls allowed" Boy's Club, but always on the lookout for free food.

I'll take this moment to make a plug for the Friends of Lulu, a wonderful organization dedicated to promote and encourage women in comics. They've done a tremendous amount for women in the industry over the last decade, and I'm sure Marge would have appreciated what they are doing.

If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, you can always reach me at mwc@mwctoys.com. If you enjoy this review, take a minute to check out my other site at Michael's Review of the Week, and let me know what you think. Now on to the review!

"Little Lulu and Tubby 8" vinyl figures"

As I mentioned, this pair comes out at comic shops on the 19th, or so says the last Diamond distribution list I saw. They'll retail for around $15 - $20 each, depending on the shop.

Packaging - ***
The Lulu boxes are fairly straight forward, and a little thin to hold up to much shelf wear. Still, the graphics are great, and it's a very nice touch that Lulu and Tubby have unique boxes rather than identical.

The boxes are somewhat collector friendly, with only two twisties each. If you want to store the figures back in the boxes later, it would be easy enough to do.

Sculpting - ***
I have to admit that vinyl toys always remind me of those squeaky dog toys you find at Petco. However, this pair uses a much thicker material than usual, which helps get away from that feel.

The sculpts on both are designed to look like the comic book versions (which is slightly different than the cartoon strip versions). They've done a nice job matching up to the 2-D art for the most part, although I always have a few nits.

The hairline on Lulu does seem a bit off to me. Rather than have the two front curls be part of her top hair, the hair line ends in the same jagged pattern that you see on the sides, only well behind the 'buns'. This makes them look completely disconnected from the hair, sort of like big breakfast pastries stuck to her forehead. I don't ever remember the art looking quite like that, but perhaps I'm not a big enough fan to remember.

The rest of her sculpt is great though, and I like the proportions and design. Her expression fits the character well, and she stands great on her own.

I have very little bad to say about Tubby, as his sculpt also matches up with the comic artwork nicely. While that two dimensional art isn't particularly complex, getting it from paper to plastic can be. But they've done a nice job here, and fans of the comic should be please.

I particularly like his expression, as though he is tremendously smart and far above you. The left hand pose is a little odd, as though he just rubbed his finger nails on his jacket and blew them off in self satisfaction (you know what I mean - think about it!), but it ends up looking like he's eating an imaginary hamburger. Still, the overall appearance is solid, and he also stands great on his own.

Paint - ***
The majority of the paint ops are clean and neat, with a nice consistency to the broad colors. Lines between colors are clean, which means the masking was done well. It's not perfect by any means, and there is some bleed and overspray on some of the smaller details, especially when they are against the body colors. But in general, the work is good, and on par for what you'd expect in this type of collectible.

Articulation - Bupkis
This are vinyl toys, remember? They generally have zero points of articulation, and while it might look like they should at least have neck joints, they don't. But then again, if you go into the situation understanding that's the nature of vinyl, you won't mind all that much.

Accessories - Bupkis
That's another big goose egg there, good buddy, but it won't be one that detracts from my overall, since again, that's the nature of vinyl. It's worth pointing out though, just in case you were expecting some accessories and found zip in the box.

Fun Factor - **
These don't make particularly good toys. They're pop icons, cool for the shelf, but not really toys. Unless you're a Doberman. Then you'll have a good time!

Value - **1/2
Now, you might wonder why I'm being so leniant on an $18 rotocast toy. Actually, you can find these as cheap as $15 - $16 if you look around, and compared to most of the rest of the vinyl market, where figures often go for $25 to even $40 each, they are a decent deal.

Of course, I'd like to see something like this down around ten bucks, but considering how low I'm betting the production run is, the price tag isn't all that surprising.

Overall - ***
The keys to great vinyl are sculpt and paint. Things like accessories, articulation and fun factors don't really weigh in much, simply because they aren't even trying to fulfill those more toy-like categories.

When it comes to paint and sculpt, they've done a nice job, with solid designs and better materials than some other vinyl figures. Big fans of the old comics will enjoy these, and now you have something you can buy grandma for Christmas. These two will go a long way to my goal of buying a 'toy' for everyone in my family for Christmas. Hopefully Grandma isn't reading this right now.

Where to Buy -
Comic shops should have these in within the next week or so.