Swords and Spaceships

I'm not a big fan of statues and such in my collection, but for this, I might make an exception... It's one of the first images seen of them, so they're not up for preorder anywhere. I expect they'll cost the same as other Koto kits- $90-100. It's an impressive piece, and to locate a series of Hasbro's figures will cost me that much in gas. But I really don't want to start another series of uber-expensive Star Wars collectibles, after starting Sideshow's line last month. Koto's Slave Leia looks pretty groovy too: Kotobukiya has done a huge line of Star Wars vinyl model snap-kits for the last few years. Each kit is imported, which drives the price to about $100. But their work has to be seen to be believed. Their Darth Maul and ROTS Clone Trooper are freaking amazing works of art. And like all good art, it comes at a price. Those who own them dig them, but they aren't my cup of tea. I might break from that trend for R2 and 3PO, though.

Holy crow, I'm actually impressed with a Mattel product. The universe should be collapsing about now. I just received the second wave of these today from BBTS. Buy from them. They're awesome. This wave features all Superman characters- Supergirl, Bizarro, Doomsday, and Superman himself. The point of the DC Superheroes line is to capitalize on the high interest in superheroes right now, plus to get a line of DC characters out that can compete with Marvel Legends. Well, they don't really come close, and yet I find them better in some ways than the great ML line. I own nearly every figure that Toy Biz has made in the Marvel Legends line. I love that line, and it's easily one of the greatest toylines in geek history. But I do find the figures overarticulated, and a lot of the earlier figures had entirely too much paint wash. (This problem is very apparent on series 10's Cyclops.) The DC Superheroes don't have any of those problems. While they aren't nearly as a...

I'd show you a picture, but since this Blogger photo software sucks shit, you'll have to go without. I picked one of these up this weekend (let's hear it for tax returns and the squandering of them...) and, in short, I love it. It's shot right to the top of my single favorite Star Wars collectible. Which is hard, yet simple, to do. Most of my SW collection consists of Hasbro's action figures and other cheap knick-knacks. I decided to cut back on buying figures I didn't want so much, and to bring some higher-end stuff into my collection. I clearly can't afford prop replicas, but when I saw that Sideshow had sublicensed the 12" figure line from Hasbro, I was intrigued. I'd always wanted to collect Hasbro's sixth-scale offerings, and I have a few, but they were really cheap and sometimes, hideous. But Luke here blows everything Hasbro's ever done right out of the water. And he should, since he was three times the price of Hasbro's line. Luk...

I'll update soon, hopefully with a piece about 90s superhero toys. Mostly Batman movie toys and Spawn stuff. It's only been a month since the last update, what's a couple more weeks, right? ;)

I bought about $12 worth of 99 cent Funskool Joes through Smalljoes.com last weekend. I got them today, ad opened the ones I intended to. Buzzer's t-bar (the par that connects the legs with the o-ring) snapped at the hook, rendering the figure useless. Zarana's right arm seperated at the elbow, a common problem with Funskool Joes. I mainly bought this lot for accessories and carded figures, but that stuff just gets annoying. I have better vesions of Buzzer and Zarana from the recent comic packs, so it's not that big of a deal. It's just hard to resist Joes for less than a buck on vintage-ish cards. I did get all of Scrap-Iron's accessories, which kicks ass. I got Flint, Airtight, Zarana, Road Pig, Buzzer, Scrap-Iron, and Barbecue for my carded collection. Sweetness. If you're looking to buy old Joes, avoid Funskool's crap unless you need cheap accessories.

My passion for Star Wars toys has been rekindled. I've had a great run of luck finding them the last few weeks, and nothing beats the high of finding these and bringing them home. Thanks to a few Mega Buy packs at TRU, my Revenge of the Sith collection is close to totally complete. I wish I could have afforded to get some more carded figures, Obi-Wan and Anakin in particular, but this summer was pretty difficult, and I was lucky to keep my bills paid up, eat, and have a bit of money to get what I could from this line. The new Saga Collection has been difficult to keep up on, but there's only one figure I want that I currently lack, and that's not bad for three waves of figures. Here again, I'd like to get some carded figures, but the $6-7 price tag on each kind of kills that. Damn expensive oil. These things are still fun, so what the hell. The year ahead for Star Wars toys looks great, I just wish retailers felt the same way.

This is, quite possibly, the finest DVD set I have ever purchased. Six discs, two art cards, and a beautifully-colored package that lets you know whoever designed it had an obvious love for He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. I had an update about this a few weeks back, but it disappeared and I can’t recover it. But we’ll try again. This set encompasses the first 33 episodes of the first season of the Filmation show called “He-Man and the Masters of the Universe.” Filmation is a notable company because they were one of the last studios to keep animation in America instead of farming it out to Korea. In order to do this, they need a vast stock footage library, and that is one of the things you’ll notice while watching these cartoons- the repetitiveness of animation. The animators needed to build this stock footage quickly, so Filmation hired a bunch of bodybuilders to walk around and fight, and the animators basically drew on top of that. I guess it also explains why Teela has such ...

I began to find the original title to be a little wonky, so I shortened it. I wasn't getting any submissions, so I dropped the 'You' part. I'll still accept anything, so fret not, true believers. Just remember you're paid in no-prizes that I forget to mail out. I went to my folks' house this weekend and rescued my brothers' Beast Wars Transformers. Their old toys aren't as well-kept as my collection (though I aim to change that) but I knew they'll want these, so rather than let them rot in a hot attic, I brought them to my place. I cleaned them up and tried finding their accessories, but they're missing most of them. They have some real gems like Optimus Primal, Scorponok, and Rattrap, who seems to go for an insane amount on ebay right now. For right now, these are going to chill with my other TFs, and maybe a group shot is in order. In other TF news, I finally bought and received that G1 Astrotrain. He's a pretty cool triple changer, though ...

Yes, it is. Rather than me blathering on about that fact, wouldn't you rather watch this 45 minute clip of geeks talking about it? They mostly talk about the games throughout the movie, but they hit on all the greats. If you don't mind the format of VH1's I Love the 80's format and have a high speed connection, I'd watch it.

First of all, I must thank all at Toy Biz for such a great toyline. Who would have thought that in this day and age, a line of six-inch action figures could have gone on this long, especially when the said line is based on a movie (or in this case, a trilogy.) I remember the first time I saw these at TRU in August 2001 in their big green half-moon boxes. I had never seen such well-executed toys. They had everything- great sculpts and actor likenesses, spot-on paint, and they even had action features! This line was clearly being marketed towards older collectors and kids who wanted cool toys. I bought the first two waves, except Strider whom I wouldn’t find until the next year. As I looked at them, I was just thinking “man, this trilogy is going to kick ass.” I was right about that. When the movie opened, lord help you to find these things at retail. Well, you could probably find stinkers like Newborn Lurtz and Orc Overseer pretty easily, but to hell with finding Frodo, Legolas, or Stri...

Some of my favorite stuff from this year's Toy Fair. All in all, an awesome year ahead, one that's going to make my bank account sweat. Firstly, some new GI Joes. I like the new Airtight, Night Viper, and Lady Jaye. I really can't recall who the rest are, though. It might have helped if Hasbro had put some tags in front of the figures saying who they were. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. There's some neat stuff here. It's really hard to get hold of locally, since no retailer sells them with any regularity. I have to order mine online. Plus these aren't very cheap, which is why I have less than half of what DST has issued. Star Trek. Finally, some Next Generation figures. I'll gamble these will be as hard to find as the Buffy line, since it's made by the same company, DST. It looks like Thomas Riker is a repaint of Will Riker, which clearly works, but I'd hate to see DST go overboard with this idea and do the Playmates Thing where the a lot of fi...

Well, I had a great update about the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe DVD set, but it appears to have disappeared. I mean, it only took me a fucking hour to compose the post. Stupid Blogger software. It's been fucked up all weekend, and it might be sometime until I get that post back together. But rest assured, it will be. Anyway, the next review is likely to be Marvel Legends series 12, since I recently scored half of that wave and the other half can't be far behind.

Finally, Stinkor makes his appearance in the modern MOTU form, but not as you'd hope. Here he is beside his vintage counterpart. The first thing you'll notice is that this new figure doesn't have the smell of patchouli oil, that hippie stuff that made the original figure have its smell that still hasn't worn off after 22 years. Instead, this new figure smells heavily of the resin and plastic used to make him. The paint apps are beautiful, and just about the only redeeming quality to this 'staction' idea. There's shading in all the appropriate places, and a dull finish all around except for his eyes, which has a glistening wet look to them. It looks great. This new Four Horsemen (the great guys repsonsible for most of the updated MOTU looks) design incorporates an oxygen tank, since apparently even Stinkor can't stand his own smell. His only detachable accessory is the blue shield, which plugs into a hole on his left arm. It stays in there pretty well, an...

He's big, he's expensive, and he's purple. If his name wasn't Galvatron and if he wasn't a Transformer, no one would care. This is the newest reissue from Takara, the Japanese makers of Transformers. I acquired this sample from Big Bad Toy Store, the best source for Transformers and the best prices I've seen, plus they're the best online store I've ever purchased from. (I wonder if I'll get a kickback for that plug. :) ) This particular reissue didn't come in one of those goofy white boxes with the Pat Lee art. This guy instead came in a long purple box nearly identical to his first issue in Japan, just this time with some art I've never seen before. I like this better than those white boxes, even if I can't read a word on the box besides Takara's logo. Galvatron is much, much bigger than his previous incarnation, Megatron. Galvatron does look better in robot mode than Megatron does, in my opinion. I think most of the movie-era Transf...

I think the Matrix included with Galvatron is just a tweaked version of the one that was included with the New Year Prime a few years ago. I fit the Matrix into my Hasbro reissue Prime, and it's quite snug: Galvatron's alt mode is that of a futuristic (futuristic to 1986, anyway) Unicron-designed cannon, since a handgun probably wasn't a good idea. (Though he turns in to a child-sized handheld laser gun too, but it doesn't look nearly as real as Megatron does.) I say it looks like a cannon, but I'm sure there's some out there that think he looks like a marital aid. To those people, I pity you. Galvatron also features battery-operated sounds. One is a laser blast. Five more are Japanese orders in an angry voice. And the last is that great transforming sound. It's fun to bug people with it and make them think you're immature. This is a pretty kick-ass toy, I must say. It was mightily expensive ($80), but if you want cool foreign toys and don't want to ...

Yeah, it was never as good as the Sunbow series, but it still has its place in Joe history. (Plus it's better than the Sigma 6 cartoon.) Email homeentertainment@dicentertainment.com with your kindly-worded desires to see this series on DVD. More info and banners for your website can be found here. C'mon, man, you know you want to. Ninja basketball! Neon-clad soldiers! Range Vipers! Serpentor turning into a lizard! You know you dig it.

I'm going to wait until I get a camera for an in-depth review, but I just had to blather on about this thing now that I finally have one. First off, he's huge. Almost as tall as Ultra Magnus, which is pretty damn big. About a foot, more or less. He towers over most of my Transformers, but I really don't care. Part of the thing of being a G1 fan is you learn to forgive height differences and the fact that Megatron, who stood taller than Starscream in robot form, could be held in Starscream's hand while in gun mode. Scale is the second thing to go out the window after your money. I figured out the transformation pretty easily, even though the instructions are in Japanese. G1 transformations are easy. You just have to do it once, and you'll know it for the rest of your life. I could be 80 years old and forgotten how to control my bladder and bowels, but you can bet your ass I'd remember how to transform Optimus Prime and Soundwave. I love the battery-powered sounds...

I have never spent more money on shittier figures in my life. We'll start with Jayne, since I wanted this figure the most and was really let down by it. Mercenary Jayne's arms are completely immobile. Not just at the shoulders, but also at both elbows, upper arms, and wrists. His knees are pretty much fused as well. The only articulation points that work are the feet and the neck. He holds his myriad of weapons well, if you can get them in his hands. The head sculpt looks OK, better than Mal, anyway. All in all, I can't believe I spent $20 on this figure. Mal fares a little better, but not much. Both his shoulders don't move, but at least his elbows bend and his wrists twist. The legs and head move properly as well. His hands aren't sculpted well, at all. Only by the will of God is he holding his revolver as he stands here on my desk. The face sculpt doesn't even resemble Mal or Nathan Fillion at all. The paint on both of them looks OK (though it needs a little ...

Ah, yes. The birth of the handheld video game system. Who didn't covet this thing when it came out in the late 80s? I remember wanting one badly (I wouldn't get one until 1997 when the Game Boy Pocket came out and I paid for it with my own money.) It was initially packed with Tetris, a game that was lighting the world on fire at the time. I got the NES version, and got hooked on it like everyone else. I think that Star Trek: TNG episode "The Most Dangerous Game" was inspired by Tetris, but I digress. Those lucky little bastards who got this thing for Christmas loved to brag about it. Meanwhile, I got GI Joes. Seems fair, eh? There are hundreds of games available to suit every taste, and pretty much all of them can be played on the Game Boy Advance SP, which is awesome. (Game Boy Micro can play Advance SP games, but can't play any games from previous generations.) I remember bumming my friend's Game Boy for a trip once. I was playing Super Mario Land, and I bec...

I spent a shitload of money today. I bought a reissue Galvatron and a vintage Soundwave. Expect a review of Galvatron (with pictures this time) and a collection pic of all my beautifully expensive TFs all together. And I'm debating whether or not to spend the rest of my money on a Rodimus Prime reissue. I also bought a couple Serenity figures and some DTC Joes, so they might get a review. Someone needs to give some free press to the Serenity stuff, right? ;) Oh yeah, to those few of you who read this: I'm looking for a Decepticon themed banner for this site. So if you don't mind being rewarded for a couple hours of work with a free MOC Marvel Legends Phoenix, I'd sure appreciate your help. Just make sure it has Soundwave, Megatron/Galvatron (or both), Starscream, and Devastator in it, plus the site's name. Big props if you use the art found on the Hasbro boxes from the 80's. I'd prefer jpg, since that is easily hosted. LMK at bkral1@hotmail.com Thanks!