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Friday, December 24, 2010

Happy Holidaze!!!


Merry Christmas fellow toy junkies and Happy Holidays to those of you who doesn't celebrate X-mas! Taking a cue from fellow toy bloggers Reis from Hey! Look at my toys! and Bubbashelby from Toyriffic I decided to decorate the house with a nativity scene for Christmas. Due to the holidays I'll be taking a short hiatus but will be back for New Years. Hope all of you are enjoying your respective holidays and are getting tons of awesome toys!

Jedi, troopers and dollies... oh my!

So the past 2 days have proven to be fruitful also. Man talk about a streak!



Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Busy, busy, busy...

The past 3 days including today have been just a joy as far as actually finding stuff on the shelves go, so yet again I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

2011 Marvel Universe wave 1 and a TRU exclusive henchmen 3-pack
Yeah, I'm a troop builder.
Crap forgot to take a pic of the 2 Guardsman from Iron Man 2!
Oh well...

DC Infinite Heroes Doomsday 6-pack (National Wholesale Liquidators. Who knew!?!)
A GI Joe Pursuit of Cobra Alley Viper (from Sunday)
Carnage
3 Wal-Mart exclusive Hulkbuster soliders from the Incredible Hulk movie line (eBay)
The head to the R5 and leg to the yellow droid (eBay)
Ugnaughts and white droid form Power of the Force (local comic shop)

4 more Alley-Vipers (Monday)

Most of the new wave of Clone Wars figures except for the Zombie Genosian

Zarak from Dungeons & Dragons (eBay)

By the way, does anyone need a Ben Reilly Spider-Man, Rhino, or World War Hulk?
I have extra to trade.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Had a good day @ Target today.
I'll let the pic speak for itself.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Oh Iron Man... what will we do you with you?

Yes it's time for a review and today's pick is none other than Iron Man himself, but this is no ordinary Iron Man, this is the Iron Man of 2020! I really don't know much about him so I'll just post the blurb for the back of his card.


Arno Stark isn't quite the hero his cousin was, but he does his best - as long as the best is what pays. The world of 2020 is less about right and wrong, and more about the bottom line, which is why IRON MAN always works for the highest bidder. Of course, he's also got to answer to his Board, so he tries to keep his eye on the big picture.If a mission won't enhance Stark Industries' stock price, then he almost always regretfully declines.

Huh... interesting... Tony's cousin from the future, and he's kinda a jerk? Well this figure has potential as a villain! This notion is even mentioned in standard HAMMER file, so character-wise he's worth it.

Is the rest of figure worth it? Depends. Let take a look.

Iron Man 2020 is one cog away from being steampunk!


2020's body uses the classic body as a base so it's upper torso is sculpted with it "pecks" too high. Luckily this covered by 2020's extra armor which adds a slighter bigger repulsor and some wicked cog-like shoulder armor. There's also a new belt which covers up the low place crotch armor. What where thinking when this was sculpted Hasbro? Either way this belt also adds heft and replaces the hip discs with some kind of star and a cog. Arno sure loves his cogs!

The last new piece to this figure is it's head. While at a glance it looks like the like the original, it's not. It is a completely new head. The head is bigger and has a jagged mouth that gives it a ferocious look.






The rest is the same as the original Iron Man but with the new additions I think it a figure worth getting but not necessarily on the top of the list. Besides it's an Iron Man so this one will probably be clogging the shelves well after the holidays.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Friday, December 10, 2010

Meanwhile, at the Hall of Justice...

I wish I could blog about all the new goodies I got since the Tron Legacy review but unfortunately I am currently in the Dominican Republic for one of my many cousins wedding, best man no less too, but luckily for you I have some pics stashed of one of my many diorama/ action figure projects.

If you go through my blog or have been keeping up since day one, you notice I blog alot about Marvel Universe out of all the 3.75"/ 1:18 figures but that's not all I collect. I also collect Star Wars, GI Joe and DC Universe: Infinite Heroes. Infinite Heroes is good, notice good, not great but good, line from Mattel that I managed to acquire alot of by buying group lots on eBay. Having such population growth of figures prompted me to build something since I didn't  have a case or box to put them in and they were just hanging around on a shelf. The shelf itself was rather square so I came up with the idea to build a diorama of the Hall of Justice from the Superfriends cartoons. It also helped that I was in the middle of a Superfriends watching kick.

So after some research (watching the Superfriends) I came out with plans to build the first part of the Hall; the TroublAlert computer. This is the computer, that just about every episode would feature because this was how they found out what was going on in the world. Heck, it was even featured in the new Young Justice cartoon.

I started out by cutting out the sides and base out of foamcore, which is cheap and light but not as thin as styrene sheets, which I cut out for the console and monitor areas. I also used foamcore because if I made a mistake it wouldn't bother me as much as styrene. Taped them all together to make sure I cut them out well and viola, the beginnings of a TroublAlert Computer.

Unfortunately this is as far as I got with this project. More work has to be done such as planning the console's layout and etching in details for underneath the console area. I also have to glue in some slotted styrene for the monitor. I'm making it so you can switch what is showing on the screen. All in all a good start and Superman seems to agree.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Friday, December 3, 2010

Tron Legacy - Sam Flynn review

So I final broke down and got a Tron Legacy figure. And I say this because since these figures started popping up about a month ago or so and I was intrigued but skeptical. Mostly because while I love the original movie, it's sequel had yet to prove itself to me. Once the new trailers gave us some more story about the film it was just a matter of finding it for right price as I've seen them priced as high as $11.49.

I never get lost in the dark!
The main feature of the Sam Flynn and most figures in the collection is the light up feature. This is done to emulate the look of the film. It's a neat feature and it's super bright. So bright as a matter of fact that it could be used as a mini flashlight. Seriously it can, I tried it myself. Unfortunately this feature uses 3 small watch batteries, so the figure loses its torso articulation.


The rest of the figure however, is fully articulated at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees and feet. If you're familiar with Mattel's DC Universe: Infinite Heroes line then you know how the figure is jointed together. Which is nice and well done but i prefer Hasbro's style of joints. Oddly these figures are made by Spinmaster, which amazes me that they landed such a property. You would think Disney would have their favorite toy makers Mattel make the Tron Legacy toys.

Can you see me?
Out of the 6 figures in the collection only 2 figures have and real scuplting to talk about. This stems from the fact that the other 4 figures are wearing helmets despite the fact that Clu, a character both films, is shown NOT wearing a helmet. I suspect that Spinmasters did this as to not spoil some of the mystery of the movie but astute fans would know what Clu looks like under the helmet. Either way, Sam has an okay face sculpt. It's hard to say much more because his face is partially obscured by the clear part of his helmet. I know this sounds weird but it's true.

Sam also has accessories. He comes with an identity disc, baton and stand. Not much to say here as they just make the figure complete but offer none to very little playability. It also doesn't help that the baton doesn't stay very well on the peg to place it on the figure and the ID disc has nowhere else to be held except Sam's hand. Pretty lackluster...

At the end of the day Sam is an okay figure with a nice light up feature. From what I've read on various message boards, I'm inclined to agree with the popular consensus and wait for the rest of the figures to go on clearance. Well except for the Light Cycle, because who DOESN'T want one, real or just a toy?

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Indiana Persia...?



Thought this Indiana Jones background would look good with Prince of Persia figures.
What do you think?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Black Friday finds

If you managed to get out of the turkey induced coma you probably went shopping.
Lucky I did and I finally got a personal mini holy grail. Now you have to understand, I don't scour stores on the reg for new toys, I just walk in on any given day and see what they have. So to find ANYTHING that I'm looking for on a Black Friday is pretty amazing, and my find is pretty amazing.
DOOM!

Yes my personal mini holy grail is the Marvel Universe Secret Wars 2-pack with Dr. Doom. While MOST people seem to have him, I had yet to get him. I've never seen one in the "wild" and I check 2 Toy R Us' whenever I get the chance. Obviously scalpers and kids usually found them before me but that was okay because my patience paid off. I just walked in, saw that TRU had NO new figures other than a Team X Wolverine (yay..., ANOTHER Wolverine... ) and a peg full of 2-packs with a Hulk/ Cyclops in the front. Feeling that they MAY have something I decided to check the peg and there, lo and behold was the mighty Dr. Doom with his pal Absorbing Man. I quickly took him off the peg and I was off to acquire my find. So now not only did I find Dr. Doom but I've completed my Marvel Universe Secret Wars collection, something I'll never do with the Greatest Battle 2-packs. After all I really don't need more Iron Man and Wolverine figures.
Who is this Zod?
Kneel before DOOM!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

The evil that lies within

Guess what I got in the mail today?





It's funny but until you actually hold an Inhumanoid figure in your hands you have NO idea how big these figures are. Makes me wish I still had Krusher. Does anyone remember Krusher?

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Deep Cover update

Awhile back I mentioned that was working on a custom of a
Japanese Transformers exclusive Deepcover.
So I thought I'd share some of the progress.



















Here are the pieces I cobbled together from the Sideswipe that I ended up warping when I attempted to dye him black and the currently available Red Alert. As you can see I still had an undyed roof from Sideswipe.



















After applying 91% Isopropyl Alchohol to the red paint areas It came off REALLY easily.
After awhile I got to this point.



















Next update: black paint applied.

Friday, September 24, 2010

Blood for the BARON!!!!

After getting the 2010 GI Joe Con Action Force attending exclusives, I figured I need a villain for them. So who better than the Baron himself?

Can't wait for him to show up in the mailbox!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Pity the foo'!

This is a retro post which have been posted back in June but for various reasons I've been sitting on it. 



When Jazwares announced that they were making figures for the new A-Team movie I was pretty excited. I have the original 80's team from Galoob but they used tooling exactly like the 1982 G.I. Joes, no arm swivel and swivel neck. It didn't help that the sculpting was average and were made worse by have all of their lips painted red. Yes. The 80's A-Team figures wear lipstick! All kidding aside these new figures are pretty cool by today's standards.



Unlike the 80's figures these are sculpted really well. While they are not totally spot on with the likenesses of the actors they are done well enough to recognize who is who, and this isn't even for all the figures. The worst figure sculpt-wise is for Murdock and that's because his cheek bones seem rather high. But as I mentioned before the likenesses come really close. Even their clothes details are excellent. Murdock has pockets that have gravitas to them, Hannibal's shirt has folds, Face has suit has buttons and and even the folds and wrinkles in B.A.'s jeans, all little details which help to breath life into these characters. One other minor thing is that all their arms seem a little thin to me but I can work around that.




Now while the sculpting was terrific on these figures the painting is a crap shoot. I say this because the painting is either really good on the whole figure, partially good, or just non-existant. For example, Murdock is painted extremely well and what I believe is drybrushing, really helps to accentuate the details of his jacket and pants, but Hannibal is lacking any of this detailing from the waist down. And his shoes are even the same color as his legs. And to take it even further Face is pretty much naked as far as detailing with paint goes. Even BA has some excellent drybrushing on his jeans but his lacks any depth. Either way overall the painting is pretty good just sure to check the figure before you buy them. My score is a 7.



I'm not gonna say much else because the articulation is pretty standard compared to a Star Wars figure but also borrows swivel wrists from G.I. Joe and ball and socket joints from Marvel Universe. Overall, not bad.



I gotta say, I'm impressed that Jazwares made such excellent figures. Not to knock on them or anything but I've never really bought, let alone looked at (I think) any of their figures, so as a first time purchase of any of their products, I am impressed. I feel as if they put out quality product on par with Hasbro and really hope they put out more like this.

Saturday, September 4, 2010

OMG! Have you seen the size of your butt Cosmos?

Sunday, July 4, 2010

Happy Birthday America!!

Happy 4th of July. Nothing says patriotic like new GI Joes.
I'd have Gung-Ho stand but he needs a O-ring!


Tuesday, June 1, 2010

The Sands of Time

So I finally broken down and bought some Prince of Persia figures. I was skeptical when they announced them because they are made by McFarlane Toys, who for most of their lifetime, has made, in my honest opinion, limited articulated statues as opposed to action figures, but with these figures it's quite the opposite.

These figures surprise me as they have 14 points of articulation, which is 9 more points of articulation than any other McFarlane Toy I've ever seen. On a side note; while I know it sounds like I'm bashing McFarlane, I'm not really. I actually have a great deal of respect for the man and the company. I just think they should stop calling their products "action figures". If anything they are more like statues with odd, unnecessary points of articulations. These points of articulation are accompanied by the wonderful, detailed sculpting which they are famous for. See, I can say nice things about McFarlane Toys! The sculpting is very detailed even down to the rubber capes, which are not so heavy that they make it fall back. Though I do have a few quibbles in this department. Prince Dastan's neck seems to be a bit thick, otherwise, a great figure. On all the figures they have a ball and socket hip joint which makes it difficult to position them to sit. So on a scale of 10 I give these figures a 10 for scuplting and a 8 for articulation.

The next category is accessories. While these figures are full of rich sculpted details they are really lacking in department, especially at $7.99 a figure. The prince comes with two swords, different from each other but well detailed and nothing more. I was rather disappointed that the Dagger of Time was NOT included and is only available with Prince Dastan in his desert garb (w/or w/o the horse) and not his warrior version which I purchased. Zolm who is a the lead Hassansin (Idk what this means I just read it off the box), comes with a simple but detailed sword and an odd snake shaped dagger or something of the sort. It doesn't seem like much of a dagger but the details... whoa! I forgot to mention that both figures have scabbards to put away their swords, always a nice touch. And lastly Setam who is also a Hassansin. He is supposed to come with a sword but to be honest, I think someone messed up and he doesn't come with one as it says on the box. There's no molding for a weapon on the plastic tray which hold the figure in the packaging and not scabbard to put a sword away into. VERY disappointing McFarlane... AS far as accessories go, I give them a 5 because they're nice but the fact that one figure has nothing just brings the group score down.

Lastly we have packaging. I know what you're thinking: why packaging? And the answer is simple. The packaging is part of the appeal for any toy. It grabs peoples attention on the shelf or pegs and it helps describe the world that the toy exists in. It explains what a character in the packaging does and what where they are going. Without this explanation it's just a hunk of plastic. Unfortunately, these figures are pretty much that until I see the movie. I mean yes, I've see the trailers, so I know a thing or two about Prince Dastan but Setam and Zolm are absolute mysteries to me. Are they allies, are they villains? Who are these guys in the world of Prince of Persia? As for the design/ attention grabbing of the packaging, it's not so bad. They don't have any information about the characters themselves, the world they exist in or even about the movie itself but it does show you the whole collection of toys. It's a small collection but it's all there. This is the only highlight to the packaging as the blister card and bubble are rather blah. Yes, I just used blah as an adjective. To me it looks like a lazy designer decided to take a standard card and just have cut at angles to make it look more exciting and failing at that objective, same with the bubble. It's kind of a shame since I have seen packaging WAY more visually interesting with their other figures. Perhaps Disney has something to do with this? I don't know. Overall packaging score, a 5.

After all is said and done this line, from what I own, which is most of the line, has an average score of 7. Which means they're not bad figures, they are actually great figures, they just lacking in accessories and in packaging. Which if you take your figures out of the packaging gives the a score of 7.66 (taking out the packing score) but just to make it even I'll say an 8. Well done McFarlane Toys, well done. Now make some Spawn figures like this and we'll be in business!

Monday, May 31, 2010

Memorial Day

Just thought I'd salute, with the newest additions to my GI Joe collection, all the men and women who have fought in the name of liberty and justice for all. Thank you.

Friday, May 14, 2010

I love it when a plan comes together...

YES!!! Finally Jazwares Inc. has released images of the movie action figures!!!
If anyone wants to send me some my birthday's in August. lol XD

Image from Toy News International

Friday, April 30, 2010

Destro = Nazi?!?!


As any hardcore G.I. Joe fan knows, this weekend is JoeCon, the annual official convention. Looking through pictures for upcoming products I notice something peculiar about the new Destro which I believe is from the Resolute animation. This version and the Rise of cobra figures have very Nazi-ish look to them.

I find it interesting because while Destro is not a Nazi, customizer, myself included, see Destro as a great base for Captain America's most dreaded enemy, the Red Skull. The hardest part of making the Red Skull is finding a suitable head or making one yourself thanks to the great Nazi-like bodies that Hasbro has created.

Image from HISSTANK

Monday, April 12, 2010

I'M JOHN CONNOR!!!

My Terminator: Salvation display. All that's missing is the Hunter-Killer jet.

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Randomness

Just random pictures for reviews I meant to put up but that time has passed. So, enjoy!

These are NOT the droids you're looking for!





Hey, that's not right!

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Yes Mr. President... Luthor?

Been slowing things down as far as eBay goes but here's the latest batch of purchases. Mr. Luthor and his cohorts Gorilla Grodd and Major Force are part of a 6-pack exclusive set available @Target. Of course I'm sure you're wondering "Well why don't you just get the 6-pack I saw it in the stores?" Well, I would but 1) it's like $30 and 2) I already have the other 3 figures which are Superman, Batman, and Hawkman. So buying them like this was a good deal.

















I also got some more Star Wars droids. I don't know why but I like them.






And finally but not least, I'm one step closer to building my Cantina scene with the band!