Mario, Luigi, and Yoshi

I've been wanting some decent Mario figures for a while now. And, to be fair, there have been options. The thing is, I also want to keep paying rent and eating food. Toys R Us doesn't seem to want me have it both ways: the store near me is charging $17.50 for what appear to be hollow, plastic figures.

These, on the other hand, ran me five bucks a pop.

To be fair, they look a little smaller, by maybe an inch or so. Quality control is less than ideal, too, particularly with Luigi, whose head's on crooked.

But given the better than $10 difference, I'll go with the cheap, imported option. I found these at a store in Queens that sells mostly toys and luggage. If you're not from New York, you'd be surprised how many stores like that exist in the city.

Articulation is limited, but it's good enough. Yoshi does pretty well in this category with arms, legs, and head joints. He can even sit down. Luigi has arms and head joints, and Mario just has moving arms. While I wish he could look around too, it's not the end of the world.

They came packaged in small, plastic bags with a cardboard heading. These were a pretty good find. For less than Toys R Us is charging for Mario, I bought both brothers and a Yoshi. Not too shabby, all things considered.

How Mario died.