All of my K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies Peashooter mini figures that I have (except for one of them which I still didn't have that yet) |
Can't believe it if I actually made yet another article that literally explained about one of those official Plants vs. Zombies mini figure sets that were once existed back in those days, and of course you definitely familiar with several of those ones that I have in my own collection since a while, which are those of the old K'NEX mini figure sets of themselves... However, I will spot some of my favorite plant characters that I always excited the most which they used to feature them in majority of those sets that they released back in those days, which are Peashooter and 4 of his following variants, respectively.
Even though I already made my article that briefly explained about them in general from roughly 6 years ago (based on their raw designs that they designed and manufactured them in general), but I decided to take another look at them again based on my own personal opinion about how come if I always excited over these mini figures for multitude reasons. Without further ado, let me answer about the aforementioned topic about them, shall we?
Before I begin, you probably remembered those of the very early days of K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies in general, right? If so, how about their first blind bag series that they ever released on the market from then? Well, if you still remember those good old times when they used to pack all 8 figures in each of their own blind bags, they literally packed each of them inside some sort of tissue papers (and so for some K'NEX bricks that were wrapped inside their own separate plastic transparent bag)... General traits of them aside, how about the appearance of those figures that they used to produce them back then though? Well, at first glance, they all look exactly the same as each of their own ordinary designs that they clearly featured in each of the sets that featured them, specifically between their dedicated graphic designs of themselves and the actual mini figures of themselves. However, after I somehow keep watching those of the old review videos of them from various YouTubers for many years since then, I noticed a bit of difference on those of the plant figures. It might be hard to compare between those of the newer ones and those of the first iteration of themselves, but it was somewhat noticeable for a bit on the Peashooters.
In case you've wondering about what are those traits of that K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies Peashooter mini figure that I'm referring to, here are my lists about it, right away:
- First iteration: Slightly thicker stem*, slightly larger eyes**, and had simple hexagonal (❔) hole design on each of it's own pea projectiles.
- Second iteration: Slightly thinner stem and slightly smaller eyes compared to the first iteration, but it retained the similar style of the hole design on each of it's own pea projectiles.
- Third iteration: Roughly similar to the second iteration, except with vastly different hole design on each of it's own pea projectiles compared to the first or second iterations (literally the same projectile's hole design that they used it initially on each of the Cabbage-pult's cabbage projectiles, and then it eventually shared into majority of the plant figures later on [including Peashooter and 4 of his variants]).
* means also applied sometimes with Fire Peashooter.
** means not sure if this was the case, because it sometimes had slightly smaller eyes similarly to both of it's newer iterations. This trait also applied sometimes with Fire Peashooter too, albeit it was somewhat inconsistent.
Example of the first iteration of K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies Peashooter mini figure (Courtesy: SquirrelStampede's YouTube channel) |
Of course the one that I own is the third iteration, it's because I purchased it NOS from somewhere in 2017, while it was originally packed inside it's own K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies Series 1 that literally lurked it inside... Although I literally have it since a while, but I always prefer the first iteration of it, simply because the design of that one was slightly beefier compared to any of those newer ones that I already mentioned above.
Now, how about those variants besides the original one that I mentioned just earlier? There were 4 of them that literally existed IRL after the original one, those were the Snow Pea, Fire Peashooter, Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare, and Plasma Pea from Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare... Among all of them, I liked the Snow Pea the most. It's because I simply enjoyed the in-game accurate design of it for it's size, unlike that one cheapo PVC mini figure of himself of the similar character... As for the rest besides the Snow Pea, that Peashooter from Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare is definitely my second favorite. Even though the design of it is slightly off compared to how he should look like in both of those Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare games, but I still excited over it too, thanks to the popularity of the Peashooter himself in both of those aforementioned Plants vs. Zombies shooter games (yep, because of his highly iconic in-game model of him and his highly memorable kazoo-y voice lines, thanks PopCap)... For the last two Peashooter variants (which are Fire Peashooter and Plasma Pea from Plants vs. Zombies: Garden Warfare), both of these are probably my least favorites. Even though I also own that Fire Peashooter, I decided to say so due to the way they designed it, they literally used the similar shape as the original one instead of the current one that clearly exists in Plants vs. Zombies 2 since a long time ago, except for the fact it used the transparent plastic materials instead of the usual solid ones (no wonder why I already cracked, chipped, and shattered most parts of mine already). Lastly, specifically for the Plasma Pea, although I still didn't have it yet until this day, it still shared the same traits in similar fashion about how I excited over that regular Peashooter too (even though it looked partially tacky to me in my own opinion).
Note: Even though those are always my favorites, they all shared their dreaded goof where the connection between the stem and the bottom leafy part of each of them were loose as heck (and so for both of those that were from the shooter game's counterparts too, which the connection between the stem and both of their pea pod arms were loose).
2 K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies Fire Peashooter mini figures... (one of them has slightly thinner stem compared to the other one) |
Well then, there you have it for what I could particularly say over those old K'NEX Plants vs. Zombies mini figures of themselves. Even though there are lot of those Chinese sets that are somewhat "inspired" their shapes from them nowadays by "enlarging" each of them (except for those from the shooter games), but those of the said mini figures of themselves were still my personal favorites to this day, even if the plastic quality of them weren't that great, however. Anyway, if you have your own thoughts and good old memories regarding to this exact topic, feel free to share your own story in the comments section if you're able to. That's it for what I could particularly say about this particular topic, and as always, thanks for reading this entire article.