Swords and Spaceships

I have mentioned here that I'm getting pretty geeked for this new Star Trek movie. I picked this up recently, since I never did get the Transporter Playmates did for their TNG line in the 90s. I wanted this right away. I'm glad I got it. I haven't seen the movie at this point, so I can't tell if it's accurate, but who cares- it's fun. Want to know how it works? So would I. Here's what I can tell you: Take one of your 3.75" Trek figures and place it on the included blue base. You put the figure and base in the designated spot, put the transporter thingy over the figure. You press the delta shield, and lights and sounds, and your figure has disappered behind a mirrored piece of... something. Then you take the transporter thingy off the base, and place it wherever. Then, to make the figure reappear, you hold two buttons on the side of the thingy and press the delta shield again. You remove the thingy and your figure is standing there! It's like magic o...

At least that's what Mer-Man's eyes here say to me. Big, bulbous, soul-devouring eyes! Hideous. And such. I picked up my Masters of the Universe Classics Mer-Man from UPS on Friday. It's a great figure, and really indicative of what Mattel can do when they want to. Of course, this was a hard-won purchase. I battled for an hour on mattycollector.com, ended up with three orders which I had to cancel two of, and then I had to fight with UPS to arrange a Will Call to pick the figure up since they insist on delivering to my residence in the afternoon when I'm at work. As you can tell, Mer-Man's main feature is swappable heads. The Modern version is one of the Four Horsemen's interpretation of how the original cardback art looked. The Original version is how the original toy looked. Clearly, the modern version is more interesting to look at, but I'm glad to have to option to swap heads if I so chose instead of having to buy two figures. I will say the original ve...

Michael Bay Signs $50M Deal To Fuck Up 'ThunderCats'

I'm suffering from extreme hype build-up leading into the new Star Trek movie. I'm not quite as geeked as I was before any of the Star Wars movies, but I'm quite a bit older now. Anyway, I picked up Playmates' version of the redesigned Enterprise last night, and it's without a doubt the crown jewel of their roster of product. It's smaller than I expected. I thought, judging by the size of the box, that I'd have to put the nacelles and those arms onto the hull, but the ship came fully assembled, with every detail painted on, and no stickers. Which was great. It's substantially smaller than the Playmates ships from the 90s, but it does look pretty good with DST's ships. Hell, it's almost too big scale-wise for them, but if all these ships had a consistent scale from two companies across fifteen years, I'd be shocked. It looks great next to my DST Enterprise-E, so that's all I care about. I was a little annoyed that I forked over $30 for a m...

Clicky. It's awesome. Lots of death. Plenty of kick-ass to go around. I can see why Hasbro might have had cold feet about releasing this, though. It's pretty violent, though I do believe the audience that (currently) buys GI Joe stuff is my age anyway, but that probably won't be the case this summer when the (blech) live-action movie is released.

Y'know, I'm really becoming enamored with Hasbro's new lines of 3.75" Marvel figures. Even though they don't have the fit and nice finish that the Star Wars or GI Joe figures do, it's still pretty amazing that they manage to stick all that articulation into these little figures. I should also mention that these are much sturdier than any Toy Biz Superhero Showdown figures, which were terrible, terrible figures. I wish the Marvel Universe line was stocked better, though. I can understand that the Wolverine line has a bigger push, but dammit, I want a Captain America. I really missed collecting Marvel toys. After the dip in quality and higher price of Hasbro's first wave of 6" Legends, I quit, and it's great to buy these characters again, in a scale compatible to most of my collection. Plus I don't feel obligated to buy whole waves, which is a major selling point. (Damn BAFs.) If I were to recommend one figure, I'd suggest Modern Iron Man (pi...

GI Joe: Rise of Cobra Duke figure Seriously, does Channing Tatum NOT look like an assclown on the packaging? Granted, the guy could kick my ass nine ways to Super Bowl Sunday if he ever met me for saying that, but still- assclown. And here, Mr. Tatum practically admits the GI Joe movie is going to blow dogs for quarters. Clicky. After reading that, I hope this movie bombs so terribly that studios have no choice but to faithfully adapt classic cartoons for live-action movies, or, they call their movies by antoher name entirely. GI Joe could have been called something different entirely, and I'll gamble that would have helped them come August.

Here it is, Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics San Diego Comic-Con exclusive for 2009, He-Ro. Due to be released back in 1987 or '88 in the original Powers of Grayskull line, but Mattel ended the line before that got started, and ol' He-Ro (eeesh) and another figure, Eldor (just stop it) got shelved forever. Looks like the He-Ro concept got dusted off here, and now you get to pay a lot of money for it this summer. Hopefully, there's enough for both the con and Matty, but Mattel hasn't stated how they're going to sell this guy. As they say, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Get out there and knock 'em dead, sport. Geez, we must have been gullible as kids to fall for this being an impostor for He-Man. Sure, it was just a way to wring some more money out of molds to build equity early in the line, exactly the same now as it was then. Only when it costs nearly $30, you start to question how much equity do they need to build before I feel like an idiot. I knew what I was buying well before I placed the order, it's just that I would have liked a little extra in the package, like a damaged head, ala the Terminator, since Faker here is a robot. But it didn't happen. Mattel really needs to drop the con exclusive shit. Like, right now. But apparently, there's going to be one at SDCC this year, and odds are, it'll piss just as many people off as Faker here did, and King Grayskull last year, and Keldor in 2003. See a pattern? Just stop, for the love of God. Collectors don't enjoy them at all, they just buy them because you only offer it there...