Swords and Spaceships

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.