Toy Bender

While I don’t really count myself as a tried and true He-Man fan, he does hold a special place in my heart. I’m really hoping Mattel’s new attempt at making He-Man fans for collectors is really successful, not so much because I’ll be collecting them (due to a high price point and previous toy line commitments), but because I love a world where He-Man is in production.

There are a few characters that may tip the balance from admiration to a purchase:

Rio Blast

Rio Blast is not only a cowboy in a sci-fi/fantasy world which is ultra cool in itself, but he’s also loaded with enough firepower to take down a city block. This guy has guns hidden everywhere, and I mean everywhere… wink wink. I can only imagine how hard a modernly sculpted Rio Blast would rock with all of his hidden weapons that could flip out to transform him into a killing machine (I wasn’t a big fan of the gigantic gun arm on the statue, I prefer the lower key approach.). Just make sure he comes with a removable hat. Every cowboys needs a hat like they need a sad, sad song.

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Many people cite songs like Run DMC’s “Walk this Way” or Blondie’s “Rapture” as some of the hallmarks of the mainstream world’s acceptance of rap. I’d say it was really the appearance of rap in toy commercials. Take this He-Man commercial for example:

I almost feel my sanity slipping away when I hear that gravely voice associated with so much of my childhood rapping like old school is back in session. Why was rap used in a He-Man toy commercial? Why not, the kids love it! This video fits perfectly with the rapping Transformers commercials I posted awhile back.

As a toy, there’s not much to say here aside from the fact that a motorized spider named Spydor seems like the most logical choice of mount for a living skeleton faced man right after an armored purple panther.

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.

Here’s another round of quick news items that have come out of the San Diego Comic Con. If you require more of my patented in depth opinions, don’t worry. I’ve got picture posts on the way that are loaded with all kinds of sweetness for your reading pleasure. Until then, enjoy these links!

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This last weekend was the big old New York Comic-con and there were some updates for any He-Man fans out there. The toy news was a little sparse, but gave some insight into the future of everyone’s muscled up barbarian whose name isn’t Conan. The toy line will be independent of the new live action He-Man film in development (yes, I said FILM not movie) and will be called Masters of the Universe Classics with the first wave hitting stores this Fall. The Four Horsemen are again sculpting the line which will be in scale with the DC Universe figures Mattel is currently producing.

What should send He-Man toy fans into a frothy mess is that at this San Diego Comic Con there will be an exclusive He-Man figure, King Greyskull along with a King Greyskull statue. I’m not familiar with the character, but I do know that if you aren’t one of the lucky people attending the con expect to pay big bucks for him on eBay.

Other He-Man related news included info on the release of Volume Two of the 2002 He-Man cartoon on DVD and that Mattel is considering releasing the mini-comics that came with the vintage He-Man line in trade paperback form. That’s a graphic novel or a fancy comic book for those not into such things.

Thanks To: Toy News International for posting the image of King Greyskull.

*Yeah, I don’t know what the F is up with the title of this post, but it makes me laugh.

I’ll tell you, it’s not as fun doing these Nerd Questions features for toy lines that aren’t Star Wars. For one, I know where I can find all the sites that have questions for Hasbro. For another, the questions aren’t as terribly stomach churning. Oh well, I suppose my non-Hasbro coverage has suffered a lot lately so let’s see what I can dig up…

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