Another summer of blockbusters is upon us, and with merchandise-heavy hits like Transformers: Revenge Of The Fallen and G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra you can bet it’ll bring a deluge of tie-in toys.
While we’re quite partial to shapeshifting 'bots and still have our old Sgt. Slammer figure with all the guns, what we’d really like to see are some less obvious – hell, all-out freaky – characters brought to plasticky life.
Here's seven to start with...
Frank Booth ( Blue Velvet , 1986)
On the box: ‘Ignore her at your peril!’
Who is she? Alex represents an ego-driven male fear – the rejected lover who won't go away, the secret that won’t stay buried.
She’s a contradictory monster, probably designed just to annoy feminists: one minute, a powerhouse career woman and sexually confident one-night-stander; the next, a psychotic stalker and rabbit-slayer.
Accessories: Emergency morning-after pill and razor-sharp kitchen knife (recommended age 17+)
Also in this set: Cooker unit with turnable hob switches and bubbling-pot sound effects.[page-break]
Travis Bickle ( Taxi Driver , 1976)
On the box: ‘Take me home but don’t tell mother!’
Who is he? Twisted mummy’s boy and peep-hole voyeur who runs the family motel.
On the box: ‘Passive-aggressive powerhouse!’
Who is she? The insipid mistress of manipulation who runs the ward of a mental institution in the stageplay-turned-Oscar winner.
Her cold control of the feeble men in her charge is disrupted by the arrival of bawdy, brawling Irishman R. P. McMurphy, who invigorates the patients for a short while before the heartless authoritarian has him lobotomised.
Accessories: Pullstring-activated emasculating voice, sedative syringe.
Also in this set: Chief Bromden with window-smashing water fountain and suicidal Billy with sachet of fake blood.
