Toy Bender

I enjoyed the idea of the Cobra winter and dessert themed internet exclusive packs as much as the next guy (which I gave away during the Toys for Tots contest this year), but I’m really digging on the next set of G.I. Joe seven packs as seen on Topless Robot:

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The good folks of Sideshow who generously donated to the big Toys for Tots contest are trying to kill me. How? Well, they decided to announce the pre-order date for their latest 12″ scale Joe figure and it’s the one I’ve been waiting for: Storm Shadow.

Gee, what impeccable timing! Storm Shadow is the one 12 inch Joe from this line that I was guaranteed to buy outside of a lottery winning and it comes just after I lose my job. If only it had been before December when life was all unicorns and bottomless bags of Sun Chips.

Seriously though, Papa friggen need this toy. I may have the line on a possible temp job that just might come in time for this thing. Besides, as a responsible toy blogger I really should buy Sideshow’s Storm Shadow right? I mean, for the good of blog and the you readers who I’m sure would be dying to know what it’s like owning one or something.

Man, my justifications are weak sauce. I’ve got to think of a way to get my hands on this lovely Storm Shadow… maybe I can convince some inner city kids to win a dance competition or something.

More and more stuff is leaking out as the G.I. Joe live action movie tie-in toys are being spotted. This last week saw this poorly photographed image of the product offering from the line:

There’s pics of what we’ve seen already, the standard roleplay items, and the obligatory Mr. Potato Head as a Joe. The thing that interests me the most is the huge Pit play set. It doesn’t seem to be getting very much loving from the collecting community and I’m not sure why. Is it the shape? Is it because it’s from the movie and not the U.S.S. Flagg? Further images have surfaced since the 2009 Toy Fair has kicked off and they’ve lead to even more arguing back and forth.

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Everyone’s favorite toy news site Wired… ah hem… recently revealed several G.I. Joe toys from the upcoming live action flick. The most interesting to fans is the reveal of the movie’s version of the Night Raven:

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There’s only one thing I’m kind of looking forward to during the Super Bowl, the G.I. Joe live action movie trailer. I really don’t care for many sports and I especially don’t care about football. Sure I’ll watch the occasional game or I’d even go to one, but if football disappeared off the face of the Earth I wouldn’t care a bit. Well there’s one thing that’s compelling me to watch the game and it’s the G.I. Joe film trailer (that and the fact I’ve been invited to a Super Bowl party and I desperately need to socialize). A ten second tease was aired already on the usually worthless show Entertainment Tonight to super tease the hell out of us, but here’s a 30 second trailer right here:

Look, I’m not someone who thinks this thing is utter dog crap without seeing it, but I really don’t have much hope. The Baroness looks cool, but I’ve had enough of Matrix-like missile dodging to last me the rest of my life. And I have to admit it, this trailer got me a little bit excited. I can’t help it, it’s friggen G.I. Joe!

Oh yeah and the Transformers 2 trailer will also debut during the “big game.” I wasn’t a super huge fan of the first film, although it didn’t dissapoint me very badly either. It was just kind of there. Hopefully this next film will have less “hilarious” hijinks.

Thanks to: /Film and The Braxcave

Images of the G.I. Joe Resolute box set are now out and hot damn, do
In the tradition of Hasbro doing something because it’s worked before comes a G.I. Joe Resolute box set, which is similar to the 25th Anniversary sets that were responsible for me being addicted to G.I. Joe again.

I’ll admit it, the figures look bad ass. Playing on the updated, yet familiar look first seen in the singled carded Resolute figures (of which I’ve seen only one stinking Duke in the store) this box set has a Cobra Commander, a B.A.T., two Cobra Troopers, and a Duke. Oh yeah, there’s also some bigger, spring loaded weapons in there that look like they are geared for the kid crowd.

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I recently got a case of Joes I ordered about three months ago that were delayed about four times and due to the fact that I’m not as excited about them as when I originally purchased them and I’m not hot on giving eBay an undeserving chunk of my change, I’d buck the system and simply give them away to you!

The winner will him himself (or herself) one Cobra Para-Viper or a Sergeant Airborne (your choice!). The loser will win a Pilot Scarlett figure. (Yes, the loser is actually second place, but I thought we’d put a fun spin on it.)

There are two ways to enter. The first is by becoming a fan of the brand new ToyBender Facebook page. That’s right, your favorite toy blog is now on Facebook like everything else these days. Once you become a fan, that’s ten entries to the contest.

But that’s not all! If you comment on this here site, you also qualify! Each comment is one entry and you can comment as many times as you want, on any post, and you can even comment multiple times in the same post. Please at least provide a little substance with each comment, though. I will ultimately judge if it fits into the “spam” category or not. Spam does not qualify.

So there you have it, comment and/or be a fan on Facebook and you can win free stuff. Life is grand.

Extra Deets: If for some crazy reason you wouldn’t want a free toy sent to you for doing practically nothing and you win, you can turn down the prize and the next person in line will get it. The deadline for accepting entries is 2/13/09. Winner will be picked randomly out of all entries received.

So a couple of G.I. Joe Resolute comic two packs have been revealed on the internets and they are bringing Joe fans two most requested figures Tunnel Rat and Shockwave, but there’s a problem here. Take a look at this picture:

Now I know that Tunnel Rat is Asian, but don’t you think this is a little over the line? Maybe this is just a guilty white man alarm that’s being tripped for no reason or maybe this is a sculpt that really is a little too… um how to say this… racist World War II era caricature? You decide!

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The winners of the 2008 Joes for Tots contest have been chosen and I’m pleased to announce them!

The first Grand Prize Winner is: Sean Hayes
Second Grand Prize Winner is: Chuck Topley
Third Place Winner is: Andrew Swan
Fourth Place Winner is: Miles Akins

Congrats to all! Watch your mail box for the incoming loot.

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I’m pleased to announce that the contest to benefit Toys For Tots is now over. All that’s left is getting the winner picks from the official number picker. In the meantime, I’d like to thank everyone who participated and anyone that linked to the contest in order to help the tots out.

One contestant that I’d really like to thank is Sean Hayes who goes by the name hrdwrkngXsoldier on several different forums. Inspired in part by the contest, Sean took it upon himself to organize a drive to donate to Toys For Tots. He first enlisted his work place and then got a local comic shop Comic Evolution to match donations. Overall, they gathered about 10,000 dollars worth of donations!

I asked Sean a few questions about his efforts:

TB: What kind of items did you gather? Anything other than G.I. Joes?

Sean: I actually tracked all of the GI Joe Stuff, we got 15 Vehicles, 10 DVD packs, 20 Comic Packs, 6 combat heroes, 40 single carded joes, 2 sigma six 10 inch style Vehicles, 10 Sigma six figures, and a complete set of the Walmart exclusive 12 inch joes, 2 Dusty 12 inch and 1 Snake eyes versus red ninja. 2 Firefly vs Green Suits, 1 Air command Set. There were also donations of sports equipment, barbies, Hannah Montana stuff, even some Army Men. (I did see 1 Corps figure) Comic Evolution in Puyallup that matched us with our donations included more single carded Joes, tons of Spawn Figures, Marvel Legends, Spider man, Iron Man, DCU, and Hulk Figures. He also had some cases of Polly Pocket playsets and Dolls for the girls.

TB: Was it hard to find others to help you toward your goals?

Sean: It wasn’t hard to get support at all. When I was looking for a local shop to match my clinic, I called a couple of the owners I knew and Chuck at Comic Evolution was very glad to have his customers and his store participate. It all started with just my small clinic, but the word had gotten around to everybody in the department and we gained the support of the rest of the Dept of Family Medicine Clinic.

Sadly here in the Seattle-Tacoma Area we had a bit of a snow storm that made it hard for people to get around. We aren’t used to snow up here and don’t have the equipment or crews to maintain the roads. Many people also take leave for the holidays. I think if we had started earlier and the weather was friendlier that we could have done at least twice as much.

TB: Do you think you’ve made anyone into new collectors?

Sean: I know for sure I did. This whole thing started because I was a collector and desperately wanted to have a chance to win the GI. Joe Extreme conditions sets. So I have GI Joes in my office at work here on Ft. Lewis. I just decided that I could do something bigger. I remember when my co-worker was helping me make the donation boxes people asked us about what was going on. I would take a minute and explain that GI Joe has come out with a re-release of most of the 80’s toys in a super articulated style and that I think the less fortunate people of our military community would like to have a GI Joe at home, especially with so many children in the area that wont get to see their life size Joe during the holiday due to deployment missions.

I would bust out my Snake eyes, Breaker Para-Viper and custom Peyton Manning to show them off. There was a great consensus among the soldiers I serve that they needed to get some for themselves or for their children. I know on Special Forces medic that I work with went out and picked up some Lt. Falcons for his two kids. Two to keep sealed and two for his kids to play with. I’ve even had people ask me what figures are out there with their MOS (military specialty) and inquire about customs.

Lots of stores here had shipping problems due to the weather, but the PX, all the Wal-mart and Targets are still pretty empty in the GI Joe section. I created competition for myself that is for sure.

That’s some awesome work by Sean and Comic Evolution and it’s more than I could ever hoped for when thinking up this thing. If you combine Sean’s amazing effort and the other entries I received, I’d have to say that this was all worth it and a lot more kids had a good holiday season because of this. I’m hoping I can do this again next year, only bigger and better. Oh yes, I have plans…

I also want to thank the sponsors again, 80sTees.com, Big Bad Toy Store, Brian’s Toys, and Sideshow Collectibles. Without their prize donations there wouldn’t have been any prizes to give to those kind hearted souls out there.

Finally, be sure to check out the following links if you haven’t already. I promise the sponsor spotlights are actually entertaining to read as opposed to painfully boring like you’ll find on lesser quality bloggidy blogs.

80sTees Spotlight
Big Bad Toy Store Spotlight
Brian’s Toys Spotlight
Sideshow Collectibles Spotlightt
Pictures of Some of the Contestants

Have you gotten in your contest entry for the Toys For Tots contest? Why the hell not? You better get on that, Mister or you’re going to miss the chance to win sweet toys and help a child in need. And speaking of sweet toys, not only did 80sTees.com, Brian’s Toys, and Big Bad Toy Store donate to the contest, but Sideshow Toys did as well. Let’s check out their stuff!

Sideshow is known for having high end merchandise. They truly make “collectibles” and not “toys”. Okay, they totally make toys, but you can’t find them at the local Toys R Us or Wal-Mart. Their G.I. Joe line is particularly interesting to me and here’s the full reveal of their Cobra Soldier:

Hot Pants! Good God Y’all!

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Target is going to get some more exclusive G.I. Joe vehicle action in the guise of a Conquest fighter jet and a Rattler. What’s that? They already had both of those vehicles? No, my friend. You are mistaken, as these vehicles are completely new!

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Sideshow Toys (who generously donated to this year’s Toys For Tots contest) has announced their newest 12″ G.I. Joe figure, the Cobra trooper and it is bad ass.

Compared to the last two releases, Sideshow’s Cobra Trooper is a steal with the asking price of 80 bucks. It looks like Sideshow has also lived up to their attention to detail and quality, the fellow in the picture looks fantastic and a real threat to the Joe team.

Now here’s my open request to Sideshow: For the love of Crom, please release a Storm Shadow next. I realize it’s not cool to like him because everyone else does, but by all that is unholy I will buy him. I’d also like to recommend a Alley Viper… although I do realize that will never happen. I even got permission from my wife to buy him… if we have enough money for groceries in the same month he’s released.

Thanks to: Toy News International

Big Bad Toy Store stocks a lot of cool ass stuff and they were both generous and super nice to donate two fifty dollar gift credits to the big Toys for Tot contest. Let’s take a look at some of the cool stuff I’ve found on their site:

Optimus Prime’s Little Buddy

MP Optimus Prime Roller. Seriously, this is so bad ass that it hurts me to look at it. If you’re lucky enough to have the MP Optimus Prime and trailer combo, you’d be a fool not to buy the Roller parts to go with it. A bloody fool!

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With the lack of children in the house, it makes it a little easier for the wife and I to spend a little extra on toys to donate for kids. We got together our pile this year and in the spirit of bragging about how good we are, I thought I’d share them here:

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