Swords and Spaceships

I'm going to own one of these.

Have you ever encountered something that, until you saw it, you didn't know you needed to see and couldn't possibly go back to your old life after having seen it? This, friends, is one of those times. Super Mario Crossover Play the original Super Mario Bros. game with Mario, Mega Man, Link, Samus Aran, Simon Belmont, or the guy with blue pants from Contra. This game is crazy fun. I just wish I could find I way to use an old NES controller with my computer, so I could beat this game. I suck with the keyboard controls, but I never was a PC gamer. So, check it out. Bask in its 8-bit brillance.

I’ve kind of thrown myself full-bore into GI Joe collecting lately. I always told myself that I’d collect GI Joe if I wasn’t collecting Star Wars toys, and since I became officially bored of that, I decided to finally do what I always wanted and have those kick-ass Joes and Cobras my seven year old self always wanted. In a lot of ways, I was closer to GI Joe as a kid than anything else. Star Wars was of course there, as were Transformers, and I’ve pretty much purchased everything I wanted from those lines. However, Joe and He-Man, not so much. So here we are. I received this vintage vehicle this week, and man, is it fantastic. The HAVOC featured heavily in the second season of the cartoon as well as the movie, and it’s easy to see why- it can hold a lot of figures, it has big guns, and it features a little one-man hovercraft that can lift off the back, so it’s like getting two vehicles for the price of one. Plus, it came with Cross Country, who as far as vehicle drivers went, actually ...

I was one of the few MOTU fans who was lucky enough to score both Trap Jaw and Battle Cat from the MOTUC line from mattycollector.com last month. How are they? They kick more ass than I ever thought possible. Firstly, let's look at Trap Jaw. Trappy here was one of those guys I always wanted when I was a kid, but never found him, for some reason. It wasn't until I was an adult (more or less) that I acquired one. His 200x toy was my favorite figure in that line, and that is again true with this new version. Trap Jaw moves in all the right places, has all his original attachments for his right arm (claw, hook, and laser gun) as well as some new pieces from his 200x incarnation. Those are a new head and a non-mechanical right arm, which was his appearance before Skeletor pwned his ass and left him for dead. According to his bio that appears on the back of the card, Tri-Klops rebuilt Kronis into Trap Jaw, and now the broken zombie man serves Skeletor, forever his bitch. Kinda sucks...

Last-ditch effort I've made mention here (several times) about my increasing disinterest in Star Wars toys, and after seeing these cards they're using for packaging, it's obvious I'm not the only one who feels this way. Line failing? Run those things out on 'vintage' packaging! Five years ago, I'd have been absolutely batshit insane over this, but now, I don't know what happened. I've been collecting this line for like fifteen years, and I'm bored as shit with it. I've contemplated purging almost all of it, for instance. Part of me just wants the SW stuff gone. It's not that I don't enjoy Star Wars anymore, it's just there's too much shit, and I'm loathe to add more to it, even if it is on packaging reminiscent of what I bought as a kid. I did that with GI Joe a few years ago, but those were like $5, whereas these SW toys this year are $8. And then there's buying two of each, and it's no wonder I'm thinking ...

Hasbro CEO Brian Goldner Admits Rise Of Cobra Toys Were Overpriced And Speaks On The Future Yes, yes they were. Though I can't complain. I picked up most of the line on clearance. These were all very neat toys; I think they're the best, most unique Joes Hasbro has produced since 1990. Had the missile launchers and other gaudy accessories packed with the figures been dropped, and the price kept closer to $7, they might have had better luck. As it is, there's no new Joe stuff till the end of 2010, and it's really unclear how heavily the retailers will buy into the Pursuit of Cobra line, which looks damn fantastic. By the way, I just bought this figure on ebay since I couldn't hold my wad until September. So, in three or four weeks, I'll tell you what I thought of this guy, aptly titled Arctic Threat Snow Job.

I was really looking forward to this particular Masters of the Universe Classics figure. While it's OK, it's really left me cold. This is Battle Armor He-Man. The Battle Armor version was the only version of He-Man I had back in the day. I got him in a rare giftset with Battle Cat. That figure saw much playtime until his arm broke off at the shoulder, taking the piece that connects the arm to the body with it. (If you've ever taken an arm off a vintage MOTU figure, you'll know what I'm talking about.) However, a short time later, I came across one at a garage sale (the same one I got Zodac at) for 50 cents, and even though this BA He-Man had white-out on his feet for some reason (and still does to this day) it was easier than trying to find a new He-Man in the wilds of 1980s retail, which I can tell you wasn't an easy task. Battle Armor He-Man, along with its counterpart, Battle Armor Skeletor, are legendary toys. If you were to meet anyone who has seen or playe...

Picked up this fine figure on ebay for my Christmas gift to myself. I find it's probably my favorite figure in the line so far. This is the Masters of the Universe Classics Tri-Klops. I received the original version of Tri-Klops for Christmas in 1984, and it was obviously a wonderful gift. It's one of the few figures I managed to keep complete, though he only had the longsword as an accessory, so it was pretty easy. I of course lost the minicomic, and I'm pretty sure my original figure didn't come with the warrior ring. So therefore, complete. Trike here was one of my favorite figures. As one of Skeletor's lackeys, he was always battling He-Man in a swordfight while Skeletor did his thing, trying to take over Castle Grayskull. Mattel and the Four Horsemen were wise in keeping everything that made the original toy so great, yet adding little details that make this a truly modern action figure. It moves in all the places it should, though the ankles on my sample are ...

Here it is- that which is assumed to be the pinnacle of the Rise of Cobra tie-in line. And it's based on a design seen not in the movie, but the animation GI Joe: Resolute. Hasbro basically ran out of time to release all the Resolute figures they had designed before the movie stuff came out, so they've gone with the only option left to them: pepper the line with a few of them. (For instance, Roadblock was recently released in a Wal-Mart exclusive set called Outpost Defender.) Is this Snake Eyes worthy of all the hype? Sure, Snake Eyes kicked a lot of ass in the animation, and this figure looks spot-on to that design. The traditional visor was done away with, which I like to see. And the figure isn't all black, which is another plus. You have optional sword placement as well- you can place it high on his back, or lower at the waist, as seen in the animation. The figure features a nice selection of guns, fitting the commando part of the Snake Eyes equation. There's a larg...

I've purchased a lot of GI Joes in the last couple of months. Thanks to prices that are 30-40% cheaper than this summer, I bought all the figures I wanted for a tidy price of $5-6 each. One of those was this fellow here, Duke in the Delta-6 Accelerator Suit. A lot of GI Joe fans who saw these in the trailers didn't like them, and matters weren't helped any when, on the DVD/Blu-Ray special features, the director of the film Stephen Sommers basically admitted to putting the Delta-6 suit in the film to satisfy his own ambitions from a failed 25 year old script about a super suit that did pretty much exactly what these suits did in the Joe flick. I really liked the idea of such a suit, especially growing up as a fan of the old Sunbow GI Joe cartoon. I was glad to see some tech for the Joes that wasn't another damn box with a beam emitter. This 3.75" figure recreates the look of that suit fairly well. Hasbro are kings of this scale, and there's lots of sculpted deta...

Ah, yes. Scare Glow here is one of the figures I was wishing for when Masters of the Universe Classics began, and less than a year into the line, he's chilling on my shelf. Happy dance? Fuck you, I'm going to do it anyway. Scare Glow was a figure that came at the end of the original Masters line in the 1980s. He was in the very last series, just so you know. To be honest, I never knew/remembered he existed until 1999 when I discovered he-man.org. By the time he came out, I had pretty much moved on to GI Joe, and I knew that last series also had King Randor and the Sorceress, and I mainly spent my time looking for them. This Scare Glow character just didn't register for me. I had plenty of bad guys (most of the figures in the original line were villains) so I rarely looked for more. However, as a discerning adult collector, Scare Glow appealed to me, mostly I'm sure due to scarcity. That's just how it works for toy collectors- if it's rare, it's gotta be good...

Star Wars toys are coming fast and furious these days, thanks to a dicked-up release pattern by Hasbro. This summer was a drought, with Legacy wave 5 showing up in March/April, wave 6 I didn't see until June (and only sporadically), and wave 7 barely made it out here at all until October when Kohl's unleashed a torrent of that particular wave. In the last two months, I've seen figures from four waves in rapid sucession. I won't even be close to scoring what I want from one wave before the next shows up. This has been happening for a few years now, but it's no less annoying. For instance, I picked up this figure, Concept Art IG-88 from wave 11, a full week before I found and picked up the figures I wanted from wave 10. Based on concept art for The Empire Strikes Back by Ralph McQuarrie, I knew as soon as I saw this figure I had to own it. I know the art was merely intended for a background character from a galaxy far, far away, but I'll be damned if it doesn'...

Here's what Hasbro is doing with the GI Joe line this year. I know that if you roll through this blog, you have a little extra cash for luxury, so go ahead a buy a couple of these (or something else) and put them in a drop box. Even if you're buying Joes for yourself, Hasbro still donates something, so it's a win for everybody. I took advantage of Wal-Mart's current $5 price and threw a Duke and Destro in one of the boxes I found at Toys 'R Us, and I know you can swing that too. Help those kids out- they'd probably love to have a fraction of what us collectors have.

Holy shit, have I neglected this blog or what. It wasn't intentional, it just happened. Anyway, I've really put aside the Star Wars collecting in favor of GI Joe. After picking up the recent Return of the Jedi wave, I was left very underwhelmed. I think it had more to do with buyer's remorse than anything. I figured if I hadn't bought a few of those figures, I might have been happier. So I ended up returning half of the figures I bought, and took that money and picked up a set of Joes I had my eye on, the Rescue Mission set that is exclusive to Target. (pics from Generalsjoes!) Yeah, this set rocks. It was $20, and included two Neo-Vipers (didn't have any of those!), a Duke in regular battle fatigues (the Dukes so far in this line all have some kind of specialized armor), and most awesome, a unique version of Snake Eyes. This SE uses the Resolute/City Strike mold with the Paris Pursuit SE head. Since I have yet to find a City Strike SE (very, very, very popular figu...

This is what you can build if you buy all five sets. I would have done so, because I really like Darktrooper action figures, but Wal-Mart (the chain these packs are exclusive to) decided to charge $17 a set for them, so it seems like I won't be doing that after all. I haven't been buying much from the Star Wars line in the last year or two, and things like this are why. It's just a bank-breaking chore to keep up, which begs the question- do I need to keep up? Hasbro really did everything I could have possibly wanted, and that was two years ago, so it's kind of been a strange relationship with this line since then. And now for something completely different: my vintage Star Wars collection.

I received my MOTUC Man-At-Arms this week. As impressed as I was by Hordak, MAA is even better. Of course, Duncan was always one of the better figures in any incarnation, due to the armor and the colors used on the toys. Like Mer-Man, the contrast is quite striking, and makes you pay more attention to the figure than you would otherwise, so you notice more things about the figure in turn. Like his finely detailed and well-painted armor, or the intricate detailing on the helmet on both heads. Yes, you get two heads with this figure, one clean-shaven to represent the original figure's appearance, and one with a 'stache, to represent either his Filmation or MYP/200x appearance. Duncan also features more accessories than any other figure thus far, befitting his status as Eternia's master of weapons- his classic mace, a small laser pistol, and two swords. One is a regular-issue Eternian sword, and the other is a new version of the sword He-Man carried in the 200x line, now retco...

unmitigated awesomeness Man, I'm over the moon with these new figures. This line is really taking off now. I'm a little worried that they're really running through their big names so soon, but you never know when the heat on this line may die off, and since this Matty thing is an unproven business model, this line could end in three releases from now. So I'm glad that Scare Glow is in November. Trap Jaw looks great too, but I'm pretty sure the 200x figure is still my favorite rendition. The rest, are neat, but I think Zodak or Adora will be the first figures I pass on.

My Joe collection continues to grow. It's more movie stuff than anything, but I did get a few Generation 3 items- the Resolute 5-pack, Cobra Diver, the Joe 5-pack (on clearance!), and the SHARC w/ Deep Six. The movie stuff I've acquired since the last post- Shipwreck, Boob Armor Scarlett, Destro, Desert Ambush Duke, Elite Viper, Ice Viper, TRU exclusive Firefly (beyond awesome), and the Pit Commando, who is also awesome. I had written this movie line off as bunk, but Hasbro really could reconquer the market with this line of GI Joes. Quite a few collectors like this line, but the real question is will kids dig it. It doesn't seem like kids ever got into the 25th/G3 line, and how could they with guys like me buying everything? But I just think back to the JvC days when Hasbro last tried to market to kids, and not doing so well. Maybe parents just don't want to buy war toys for their kids anymore. Especially at $8 a figure.

I only own four figures so far from the line- Storm Shadow, Snake Eyes, Baroness, and the Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes, but I have to admit- I'm very impressed by them. Whether or not you like what you've seen from the trailers about this movie, if you like great GI Joe toys, I'd suggest picking up a few of these. They're great, and they're in scale with the 25th Anniversary line you may or may not have been buying for the last couple of years. I humbly suggest either Snake Eyes figures, but if I had to choose one, it would be the Paris Pursuit version (pictured above). The trenchcoat is a new thing for Snake Eyes, and even if you don't like the movie line, it'll fit in well with your 25th collection. Your best bet right now is Target, since Wal-Mart and TRU seem to be waiting for the weekend even though Hasbro gave the OK to start selling them on the 6th.

Well, the man part is obvious. The bat part is obvious in the ears and the Horde symbols. The pig is less obvious. It's in the nose, and if you ever saw any of the She-Ra cartoon, you'd know that whoever Filmation cast to voice Hordak gave him this awful snort that sounded like a pig, so that's why I picked the title. Anyway, UPS dropped off my Hordak figure today. Apparently, since I don't live in what they consider a war zone anymore, they just leave it at the door. Works for me. I gleefully opened it when I got home from work, and there it was- the first new Hordak action figure I've owned since my fourth birthday in 1985 (which is also in June. Huzzah.) Hordak is a great action figure. All the things that made Hordak back then look so great are present, and there's a few added flairs- namely, the staff that the 200x incarnation carried. It's the best of both worlds. He also carries a meaner-looking crossbow and little bat dude that the vintage version ha...