Toy Bender

I used to collect only mint on card toys. I did that because I get more of a nostalgia kick out of carded and box toys than I do for ones that are opened. I also think that a toy in the package can be art. But as much as I like carded toys, I would never spend the insane amount of money I’ve seen go for vintage toys in the package. Take for instance this He-Man with a sled:

The seller is looking for $20,000 for this puppy. Egad! You know what’s even worse, though? The fact that he’s still charging twenty five bucks for shipping. Seriously dude? You can’t throw in shipping when you’re getting the same price some people buy for a new car? What a cheap ass.

I know that there are some of you nerds out there with enough cash to drop on a really expensive toy for no other reason other than it’s rare, but I have to wonder about someone spending this much in the economy we are currently in. Holy crap, I could only imagine buying a He-Man for twenty grand and then losing my job. Of course, I’m looking at this from the perspective of someone who doesn’t have a lot of money. The world may seem a bit different if I’m taking daily dips into a pool of gold.

The Masters of the Universe Classics Hordak has finally made an appearance on MattyCollector.com. He’s going to be available for order on June 15, 2009. Hordak’s accessories include a “magik” staff, a crossbow, and a bat. Price is twenty bucks.

Yep, as much as I like Hordak I’m going to have to skip this for sure. I can’t purchase a twenty dollar figure, much less one that has an eight dollar shipping fee tacked on. Hell, I can’t afford toys in the first place, but now that I’ve had a somewhat of a compulsion to purchase Marvel Universe figures and DC Universe Classics, I’d rather spend my little cash on those lines.

And no, I don’t have a problem with his “real” name. The whole fricking concept is ridiculous from the top down, so having silly names for some of the characters is pretty much par for the course.

Thanks to: Poe Ghostal

Mattel’s new He-Mans, I mean Masters of the Universe, are going pretty strong. At the New York Comic Con they showed of several new figures that certainly got me excited.

Man-at-Arms

I’m really digging this Man-at-Arms, because they did the fans a service by including both his “cartoon” head and the head that came on the toy. Man-at-Arms is one of those toys that holds a special place for me, because he’s one of the first action figures I remember getting and he as certainly my first Masters of the Universe figure. In other words, I hope this guy will someday be mine.

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For some reason I never put “He-Man” together with “Lego” in my nerdy man child mind. Thankfully, someone else did. Behold, the alliance of He-Man and Lego:

Bad ass.

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It’s Friday already? How did that happen?

Item: Sweet Chickens in heat, hrdwrkngxsoldier is a friggen machine. The WUMB regular has organized his workplace and several other local businesses to donate to Toys For Tots. So far they have 100 Joes to donate. I guess I inspired him or something. Thankfully, I’ve used my powers for good… this time.

Item: Also in contest news, it was featured as a news item on both Raving Toy Maniac and Toy News International. It’s really, really odd to see a link to ToyBender in any form on those sites. Odd, yet really cool.

Item: This is just plain weird. There’s a toy forum out there that deleted a thread I made letting them know about the Toys For Tots contest. I realize that they might have wanted to stop something that was spam-like, but they never deleted the SDCC Cobra Commander contest thread I made a few months ago. Out of the two, you’d have thought they’d have kept the one that ultimately helped a charity. I guess I learned my lesson!

Item: Finally on the contest front, please visit the sponsors if you haven’t already: Big Bad Toy Store, Brian’s Toys, Sideshow Collectibles, and 80sTees.com. I’d love to do this again next year!

Item: Poe Ghostal wrote an incredibly awesome article about how He-Man fans of the 2002 series are losing their shit over the new figures and how a few people actually like them. It’s the best article ever and I’m not saying that because he quoted me extensively.

Item: Great White Snark had a truly awesome wedding cake pic up the other day. Watch out for ninjas!

Item: I’ve been made aware that there’s a new toy blog in town called Articulated Discussion. I must watch it closely, for if it tries to challenge me I’ll crush it like a bug before they know what for. Muwahahaha! Oh yeah, he’s got a contest where he’s giving away a Batman Beyond DCUC figure.

Poe Ghostal recently found something cool on MattyCollector.com, the next exclusive Masters of the Universe Classics figure will be Faker!

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Continuing the He-Man related news this week (mostly because I have nothing else), He-Man.org has gotten new pictures of the next figures in the Masters of the Universe Classics line; Stratos and Mer-Man. Stratos is… well Stratos:

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Mattel semi-recently let He-Man fans know that both the new He-Man and Beast Man figures will be delayed. The reason is quality control. In order to provide a sculpt of the new He-Man line that is reminiscent of the old lines, they had removable armor. Apparently it sucked, so they are now re-engineering the He-Man figures to have armor that clasps on their backs.

I also saw that there’s a poll up on He-Man.org asking collectors when or if they’ll buy the figures. It seems like there’s a segment of the He-Man collecting community that isn’t happy with the current state of the He-Man revamp. They want more of the 2002 He-Man line styled figures and not the vintage. Personally, I welcome back an updated vintage line and not the over-the top 2002 line, but what do I know? I’m not really in the target audience since I’m very selective with my He-Man purchases.

Anyway, I’m interested to hear what you guys think. Do you like the updated vintage line or would you want to see a more 2002 look? Or do you not care at all?

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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