Around The BLOCKhead

By: Erich Arendall

Episode 4: Working On The Qee Chain Gang

Not actually block figures, the Toy2r Qee (pronounced "key") figures can be a wacky inclusion into any block figure collection, as they measure a solid 2.5" tall. You may have noticed the boxes for sale in your brick and mortar comic shops. They're blind packaged key-chain figures. The only thing one knows whey the purchase them is they're in for a strange visual appearance.


Spacebot Qees
Toy2r has a number of different Qee lines, but, personally, I've been most enamored with its Spacebot line, with designs by a company called Dalek. In fact, it was the designer name that led me to initially investigate the line. Yes, I am a Doctor Who fan-boy.


Series 1 figs
The Qee collections in general are relatively simplistic, featuring simple leg, arm and neck joints. They offer limited articulation, but this may be due to the reasoning that they're also key chain figures and too many joins could cause the figures to break or become unwieldy in the pocket. However, despite the lack of articulation (normally a deal-breaker for me), the quirkiness of the figures alone has kept me hooked and I tend to pick up a box every time I visit a comic shop that carries them.


Series 2 figs
Each Spacebot Qee box includes a 2.5" figure, the means to make it a key-chain, a sticker of the figure, and a list of the figures available for that line. Each line has a mystery figure which is not detailed in the aforementioned list. To my sheer joy, I've actually obtained one of the mystery figures, though it did not glow in the dark like I had initially hoped.


Their milkshake does not
bring the boys to the yard.
At over two inches tall, the figures can be inconvenient key-chains, unless one carries a purse or man-bag--or, perhaps, wears cargo pants with baggy pockets. These are not key-chains to be used if one wears leather pants. Then again, when wearing leather pants even keys rarely belong in the pocket. And why are you wearing leather pants, anyway? Are you cute? Please send me photos.

ANYWAY, there's not much else to be said about the little figures beyond the fact that they seem to mesh "cute" and "disturbing" into a blend that I like to call "cuturbing." Feel free to use that word and spread it like a virus through the English language.


Qee OXOP Series 3 figs
For research/comparison purposes, I also picked up two figures from the Qee OXOP Series 3 collection. The OXOP line is a bit more animalistic and random in nature. Where the Spacebots are all bear-like cuturbances from, I'm guessing, space, the Qee OXOP seem to have no specific rhyme or rhythm. Like the Spacebot Qees (and, indeed, all Qee figures) they're blind-packaged and list a mystery figure in their description. I picked up a kitty-type figure and a bear with the word "Poof" emblazoned on its chest. Yes, it's a "Poof Bear." I can only guess the human-looking figure in the series 3 collection is named Christopher Ribbon.


Qees, Minimates and PALz, oh my!
The blind-packaged Qee figures tend to run about $5-$7 per box, depending on the friendliness of your friendly local comic/game shop. Because of the blind packaging, collectors can spend quite a few dollars amassing the entire collection and end up with an uncountable number of duplicates. With many figures, blind-packaging can be a death knell for the line, but I don't think many people will be pulling their hair out trying to obtain the entire set. The Qees seem best left as party-gifts or random impulse buys.


Qee Chain Gang
All in all, they're fun little figs. They don't offer a lot of play value, but they make a nice desk adornment or conversational piece. You can also use them to guard your keys. Just don't wear the leather pants, OK?

-erich

Erich Arendall doesn't wear leather pants, but the Vincent character in his webcomic Attercap.Net does. The characters in the Attercap.Net universe have yet to be visited by Spacebot Qees.

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Copyright © 2007 Eric Arendall