Rogues' Roundup! Truckstop Queen And Gas Station Duchess??

 

For today, it's another adventure of the Truckstop Queen. I've found out more about my favorite reference model recently, including the fact that she was made not by Macfarlane but an outfit called Moore Action Collectibles. I had previously known and documented that she is "really" Cordelia from the Buffy/ Angel series. One more thing I had figured out early on is that here was another version of her, sometimes identified as a prototype, which had shorter hair. Over the last week, I finally ran that lead down and came up with not one but two new figures. First up in our lineup is a figure in box, which I managed to get entirely with bonus points on my Amazon account.

What I discovered was that an alternate version of the figure was created from an Angel episode titled "Over The Rainbow", where the character becomes a slave to creatures from an alternate Medieval/ fantasy universe, which sounds like exactly the kind of adventure I might have come up with. It was sold both on card and in box. As seen above, the picture on the box clearly shows a different hairstyle that was evidently the basis for the Truckstop Queen. The figure came with two accessories, a shovel an a sort of wicker bucket, and a slave gown made of actual fabric. I opened the box to examine the accessories and figure. Here's some more pics.

"You see here a shovel from the Middle Analog period..."

You can look, but don't touch the... packaging.

Obviously, the accessories were a bit of a bust. I had particularly hoped there might be a stand, but had no such luck. I also quickly confirmed that only the right hand would hold either accessory, and fitting the shovel in particular made me honestly afraid of damaging the Queen. I also quickly gave up trying to figure out what they were thinking  with the garment, particularly since a clip from the episode (the only Buffy-related viewing I plan on) showed the actress in modern denim clothing. To investigate that further, I waited for another acquisition, a figure out of the box that actually cost a bit more and came with an extra accessory. Here's some pics of the next new arrival with the Queen.

What is that thing, anyway? Medieval hospital gown? Post-apocalyptic lingerie?"

The next step was to get the slave gown on, something I knew others had done. It became all too clear that it wasn't going anywhere on its own. After a few minutes, I resorted to a pair of nail scissors, which did the trick well enough. What this revealed was an obvious "recolor" of the original figure's body, which was good enough for me. Both the pants and top are blue, maybe running toward purple for the latter, apparently to match the denim outfit from the episode. Here's some pics of the pair, plus a closeup of what the gown was like when I got done with it.

"If it bleeds, we can kill it. And make fun of dreadlocks."

"We look good coming or going..."

The obvious difference is that the short-haired sculpt has a movable head. There's also a little extra detail visible on the back, as seen above (and of course that's what we were all looking at). However, beyond a certain point, the turned head starts to go a little "uncanny valley". Here's a closeup to show what I mean.

"What, haven't you seen a lady with a letter opener before?"

One more thing I figured out is that there was one more sculpt with a bright red top. This was the one I recalled seeing sold as a "prototype". By the most detailed account I could find, it was in fact released in 2002 as a comic-convention exclusive, a year after the other figures, clearly as a further recolor of the short-haired "slave" figure. Regardless, it commands a higher price than I would care to pay. And now, the story pic you knew was coming (because I said so last time)....

Double date!

That's all for now, more to come!