Toy Bender

Convention Exclusives are a strange beast. On the one hand if you get one you kind of feel a little special. On the other, it’s a huge rip off for anyone who can’t make it to the convention. The San Diego Comic Con exclusive toys seem to be the cream of the crop as far as exclusive toys go and after been through a few waves of them, I thought I’d try to predict which ones will be the hottest of this year.

5. April O’Neal with Mousers

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle comic inspired figures from NECA was a hit with collectors, so I can’t imagine anyone who got them wouldn’t want an April O’Neal for their very own. Plus, you get Mousers!

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In the interest of getting money in my pocket, I’ve gone ahead and decided to let some pieces of The Collection go up for auction. So far I’ve only got a couple of items up for your consideration:

SDCC King Greyskull:

Click here to bid on King Greyskull (pretty please)

SDCC Lobo:

Click here to bid on Lobo (Oh God, I’m begging you!)

Basically, both of these items were procured by me on a sort of a whim and I decided that I liked them enough to keep them. Unfortunately, bill collectors don’t accept toys as payment.

Why am I telling you all this? Well aside from the fact that you might want a genuine collectible that was once owned by an important historical figure (ah hem… me), I’m also throwing in some goodies to loyal or unloyal Toy Bender readers who win. All you have to do is to send me an email after you win (at paul.toybender@gmail.com) and I’ll find some cool extras like kick ass comics or even some freebie toys to chuck in your box before it heads your way. Hell, I may even throw in a free puppy!* Awesome hey? Yeah, I thought so. Now go bid!

*There’s no way in Hell I’m giving away a puppy.

If you’ve resigned yourself to buying DC Infinite Heroes because they’re okay enough, but wished they were better then you no doubt have collected a few “anti-monitor” points. What could you get for these points? Possibly some cool mail-away offer? Nope, Mattel revealed you can only redeem them at the San Diego Comic Con.

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You’ve read that title right. Toy Bender is now offering you the chance to get your hands on a San Diego Comic Con ‘08 Cobra Commander that is no longer available for purchase except from the secondary market. What, what! Why pay extra for one of these bad boys on eBay or from some shady dealer when you can get one for absolutely free for doing almost nothing?

In order to get your mitts on Cobra Commander, there are a few ways in which you can enter. I’m a big fan of the creative arts, so we’re going high school art/creative writing class on this one. Here’s what I’m accepting for submissions:

1. Short essay (50 words or more) on who your favorite G.I. Joe character is and why.

2. Short story (200 words or more) staring your favorite Joe character.

3. Poetry. No free verse. Points given for iambic pentameter. Haikus are cool.

4. An illustration of your favorite G.I. Joe.

Send your works of art to Paul.ToyBender@gmail.com with your name and address. All entries must be received by 8/24/08 in order to qualify. A panel of judges will crown the ultra-lucky winner.

Be sure to tell anyone you can to enter, if participation is low then it’s hard to give away stuff in the future, ya dig?

*Fine Printy Print: Winner will be notified via email. Winner has one week in order to respond before a new winner is chosen. By entering, you agree that your submission may be posted on ToyBender.com. All submissions must be created by the submitter and not have been used before for any purpose. All Toy Bender readers are qualified to enter, however if you are an international reader you must agree to fork over some extra cash for shipping. Hey, I’m not rolling in gold dubloons here. Please contact Paul.Toybender@gmail.com for any questions.

MattyCollector.com opened at 11:00 a.m. PST and quickly crashed while I tried to submit my order. If there’s anything that you’d like to get as far as SDCC exclusive figures go, then good luck to you. You’re going to need it if you want to try to get the likes of King Greyskull and Lobo.

Sigh, another day where I miss Comic Con. Bah humbug. Well, there’s still tons to cover. I figure that I can go over a few of the cool items that I’ve seen on the interwebs. I plan on doing more detailed posts on particular toys I really like if I can get some pictures of them later. If you noticed anything of note so far, drop me a line in the comments.

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You ever play that game where you strategically place pants into lines of Star Wars dialogue? Lines like,” I find your lack of pants disturbing” are something that only a true Star Wars fan can know. Anyway, Here’s a picture of Hasbro’s 2008 Star Wars Comic Con Exclusive entitled: Disturbance in the Force (Click the link to make the image much larger).

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NECA released news on another 2008 San Diego Comic Con Exclusive this week after their previous announcement that included a Gears of War figure and some Mousers from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Personally, this newest figure tops them all. It’s a Predator that is in half Stealth Mode, which gives us an excuse to have another clear figure! Go clear figures, go!

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NECA recently released their list of San Diego Comic Con Exclusives for 2008 and Gears of War and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle fans rejoiced. For Gears of War NECA’s figure of choice is Carmine. He’s the “innocent kid” team member that gets his head blown off, which is coincidental since he’s the only one with a helmet. Is it really a coincidence though? No probably not, I always assumed that they didn’t want to waste a character model on a standard trooper who was only going to get killed.

The other cool exclusive that they announced was a three pack of mousers for their comic book inspired Teenage Mutant Turtles line. The kit also comes with a San Diego manhole cover, which is pretty cool. For a pic of the Mousers and the opinions of someone who is actually collecting the NECA TMNT figures, check out Poe Ghostal’s blog.

If you’ve been eagerly anticipating the ‘08 G.I. Joe Comic Con Exclusive, then Hasbro has got what you want. Head on over to their website to see the unveiling via a short video. If you can’t wait for it, here’s a blurry image pulled from the video:

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