Swords and Spaceships

I scored a set of GI Joe wave 7 at my local Wal-Mart tonight. (Yay late-night toy runs and knowing when your local store stocks toys!) I'm impressed to say the least. Let's start with the bad- the Viper really isn't all that great. The goggles slide off too easily, and I was disappointed about that until I realized he looked better without them. Then, I was bothered by the weird angle his hands were at, but since it helps him hold his weapon better, I let that go. What really sucks about this guy is the fact that the hands pop off at the point-of-articulation between the elbow and the wrist. Every time I try to get a new pose out of this guy, the friggin' hands come loose. That's really annoying, especially on a figure I would have liked to have bought five of. As it stands, I'll be hard pressed to buy two since these things are $7 a whack at Wal-Mart and Target, with TRU undoubtedly waiting to raise their price. Severely disappointing, but maybe I just got a ba...

This is possibly the most meaningful post I'll ever put on this site. Believe me, I had tears welling up when I scanned these photos. They didn't turn out so well, but the point is there. This is me, at three years old, sitting on my mother's lap having just unwrapped my first action figure ever, Skeletor. This was my birthday in 1984. This guy is still standing on my desk, beat to hell, but something I'll never part with. Christmas of 1984. Some of my earliest memories involve this Christmas. I received a Tonka dump truck full of Star Wars and MOTU toys, and the Roton pictured here. I remember my dad telling me to find my Skeletor figure and put him in there, and here's the pic. I find it amazing that my parents still remember the names of all these characters, even now, 24 years later. Halloween of 1985. Who doesn't remember those Ben Cooper costumes with the vinyl bodies and cheap plastic masks? They made you sweat like crazy, and they only lasted that one ni...

1987 GI JOE DEFIANT SPACE VEHICLE LAUNCH COMPLEX - MIB A GI Joe Defiant, still Mint in Box. That's phenomenal. If I had the cash, I'd have bought this thing in a heartbeat. I can only imagine the carrier's reaction when he delivered the box to my door. For one thing, the outer box on this thing is about four and a half feet tall, half that wide, and weighs fifty pounds. Damn, you know? Check that link out, you probably won't see another one of those.

Awesomeness beyond your imagination Man, oh man, I wish I could buy these. These are so much more awesome than another Clone in different colors. Alas, the Star Wars name will never be applied to something that radically reinvents it, so this is all we get. Though I would pay good money for that little R2-D2 boiler.

Here is your competition, from the 2009 GI Joe live-action movie. As you can see, it is patently ridiculous. Folks at Warner Brothers, you know you can do better than Paramount, the entity producing GI Joe. Just because it's based on a cartoon from the 1980s doesn't mean it still has to look ridiculous in a different way. I beg you, Warner Brothers, to look at what made the original property so charming in the first place, and not "update" or leatherize it. Some people say it worked for the X-Men franchise, but the only thing that time has proven about that is that copying that idea is bringing down genre films as a whole. I know you are worried about profits, since it's expensive to make movies, but not everything has to appeal to teenagers. Yes, they have money, but people who actually played with He-Man toys in the 1980s have lots more money, and some of them even have kids. Please, think of the twenty- and thirtysomethings and their children instead of the low...

Yes, I did find the only bad thing to say about the new MOTU line- that I have to wait until San Diego Comic Con to see the full rollout. But, everything else I've heard is great news. It's a collector-focused line, so that alone is wonderful. There is no news about who is going to be carrying this line, but since it's Mattel, these have to be sold at mass retail, so I assume it's everyone but Wal-Mart since WM doesn't carry the DCUC line, I doubt they'll go for MOTU. There will be an SDCC exclusive to kick this line off, that being King Grayskull: I know absolutely nothing about this guy, but I hope I'll be able to get my hands on one. I'm not fond of SDCC exclusives for MOTU, but I do like to think Mattel has learned something and that there will be a way for fans who can't go to buy this.

GI Joe movie pics! They're showing pretty much everybody except Cobra Commander and Destro. So far, I actually like what I'm seeing. I doubt that those black suits all the hereos are in will be the only thing that they wear in the flick, so I expect some more traditional garb at some point in the movie. I did notice they went out of the way to show the three female cast members in a lot of pics. Edit- pics removed due to obvious damage control. As if there was anything to lose.

BBTS linky! So, one of my favortie e-tailers is having a 15% off sale, so I took advantage of it. I picked up Darth Maul's Sith Infiltrator vehicle for $14, and some vintage Star Wars figures- Bespin Han, Bespin Lando, Leia Boushh, and Rebel Commando. The best part? They were 15% off too, so I got Han and Lando for $10.20 each, Leia for $9.35, and the Rebel for $6.80, which I might add is cheaper than a modern figure at retail. They are all complete and in great condition. Check the sale out, yeah? Since I have nothing Star Wars-related to buy until July, I suppose I'm going to try to complete and update my vintage collection. I never had the Bespin Han, so that completes the ESB line for me. Now all I have left are 16 of the last 17 figures, and some ROTJ Ewoks. Though these are all very expensive, which is why I don't have them. When I was looking for the MOC Jedi Luke, I had my eye on a Endor Luke from the POTF line. That guy ended up selling for $43. This is why I'm...

There's what I blew 1/4 of my quarterly bonus on. I won this beauty today, and will likely be the only vintage MOC Star Wars figure I ever own. But if I could only own one, this is it.

OMG Fantastic all around. Besides the black Storm Shadow (seriously?) this wave best personifies what GI Joe was to me as a kid. Putting on Barbecue's backpack upside down all the time; losing the attachments for my BAT shortly after opening it, then having the chest hologram fall off, all before the o-ring broke; seeing this version of Hawk in the cartoon; and searching high and low for Bazooka and Snow Serpent toys that were long gone in 1987. This wave is much, much better than the bullshit wave 8. In other news, the Target exclusive vehicles are starting to show up. My local Target put their stock out tonight, so I picked up a HISS and an AWE Striker. I have the 2000/2001 releases of both these vehicles, but the Striker is in its proper green color this time, and c'mon, $10 for a HISS tank? That's too good to pass up, especially since a single figure will cost you $7 at Wal-Mart these days.

Unofficial images of the newly-updated Millenium Falcon at Galactic Hunter This is friggin' sweet. Of course, for something that's in scale to your 1,000-plus Star Wars action figures and is rumored to cost $150, it has to be amazing to coax that kind of reaction. Check it out before Hasbro has it taken down.

New Doctor Who toys! I have a passing fancy for the Who toys based on the adventures of the 9th and 10th Doctors, but I'm totally buying the Tom Baker (4th) Doctor.