Toy Bender

You know, I don’t mean to turn this into an all Star Trek blog up in here, but hot damn Dragon toys has got some great 16/th scale toys coming out based on characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation that are friggen awesome. I also feel justified in that Star Trek is a little cool again, so it’s okay to talk about it. Shewww. The last thing I need is jocks beating me up again.

First up is Captain Jean-Luc Picard:

Make is so, indeed. I think if I got this Captain Picard I’d carry him around the house and hang out with him My Buddy style.

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Playmates released images and details on their new Star Trek figures and I’ve got to admit, amazingly some of them don’t look like total crap!

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McFarlane Toys keeps surprising me with their Halo line. In amongst all the things I don’t want to buy like the stupid Halo helmets, they sneak in something that just begs for my unemployed dollar. First there was the in-scale (to their line) Hunter and now they’ve got an in-scale Mongoose!

Better yet, I checked on Big Bad Toy Store (sponsor of the 2008 Joes for Tots contest!) and the Mongoose is only going to cost twenty bucks. Yeah it’s a small vehicle, but considering prices on toys these days it’s not too shabby. This is especially true for a toy that’s got some neat features like a folding rear seat so you can have some capture the flag action in toy form. Sweet.

I hadn’t heard that McFarlane was planning on making vehicles for the five their five inch Halo line. I’m thinking that the Mongoose and possibly the Covenant Ghost might see the light of day, but its hard to imagine that their are enough people buying these toys to support bigger vehicles at this point. Maybe a few years ago an in scale Warthog might have been feasible. Remember when those huge vehicles and accessories were coming out for twelve inch Joes? Perhaps in the right time something large for the Haloverse could have been a reality, but its doubtful to me that there would be one now. Then again maybe this is a test. Buy as many as you can Halo fans!

The Mongoose is due out in October, so maybe it will cash in on the release of the new Halo expansion game, Halo: ODST.

Marvel Universe wave five info is out and it’s a bit underwhelming overall. Fans of Marvel Comics super heroes will be able to finally get their hands on another villain in the classic looking Electro. I realize there’s a lot of heroes that people want, but why the huge lack of villains? More villains please!

Out of all the figures int his wave I would like to get my hands on a Guardian. I know nothing about him, but I always really dug the Canadian costumes that about four heroes have variations of. Other than that, I really don’t need a modern Sub-Mariner, a refill of Spider-Man, or a repaint of Iron Man. In fact, the repaint bothers me because when I saw that there was going to be a Silver Centurion Iron Man I didn’t think he was going to be a lazy repaint. I want the Silver Centurion Iron Man, not that horrid looking current armor in any form.

Thanks to: Marvelous News

The Marvel Universe figures all come with info from Marvel’s infamous character Nick Fury. But where is Nick Fury himself? Well, he’s the Mail-away figure for the line and Marvelous News got the scoop on how to get him. Instead of having to collect some sort of token like with G.I. Joe or Star Wars, there’s a special method if you want to get your hands on Mr. Fury. It looks like you’ll have to sign up for Marvel’s Digital Comic book service in order to get him. The service comes in two forms, $24.99 ($8.33 a month) for a 3 month subscription or $59.88 ($4.99 a month) for an annual subscription.

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You know what I don’t buy any more? Star Wars vehicles from the original movies. There was a period when I went nuts if I found a B-Wing, Y-Wing, TIE Bomber, etc., but once I had them in the early ’00s, I was pretty much set. I’m not one to buy several versions of the same vehicle anymore. I’ve somehow grown an unruly lot of Hoth Speeders without really trying and I don’t want to do that again. However, my policy may change when I see a “new” TIE Fighter in stores which is currently in the works. Hasbro has finally gotten around to changing the interior of the classic fighter of the Empire to better resemble the movie model.

They’d made the change to the wings awhile ago by making them much bigger and thereby more movie accurate, but I didn’t want to shell out 40 bucks for the wings. This interior change to the classic TIE is just what it needed. Combine it with the wings and you have a sure fire purchase. The price better not increase for this change though. The TIE isn’t as value packed as many other toys of the same size.

And while we are on the subject, let me share with you with some sadness from my childhood. Even though I had tons of Star Wars toys when I was a kid, I didn’t have a single TIE fighter. It’s strange and very sad to think that I had hours and hours of Star Wars play time without a single epic X-Wing on TIE fighter battle.

There should be some sort of government mandated reparations for that level of suffering.

When my readers are in trouble what do I do? I slap on my mask, mount my trusty steed, and ride into town and shoot every hobo I see. I also go out of my way to a store in order to see if they have a figure that that reader is looking for.* In this case, it was Last Best Angry Man who did me a good turn when I had been unemployed (the first time). You see, he’d gotten me a figure that I needed desperately at that time. In a previous post he said he was looking for both Ms. Marvels. I had seen them at a Target the other day so I thought I’d make sure they were there or if they’d been purchased. Well they were still there and I felt like a hero when I bought them… until I came home and saw his comment saying he found them on the exact same day I picked them up. Oh well. Maybe I’ll have better luck for Double Dumb Ass.

Anyway, this whole thing made me reflect on how cool the internet could be. Before the internet, I wouldn’t know LBAM and I wouldn’t know he wanted a figure and I certainly wouldn’t have bought them for him. We’d all be isolated in our own little worlds, looking at newspaper classifieds instead of eBay, perusing catalogs instead of online toy stores, and reading ‘zines for all our toy collecting news. *shudder* How barbaric! You’re much better off with the internet and me. If not for the advantages of collecting toys, then for all the porn.

*Okay, I don’t do it for everyone, just you special guys/gals.

Fans of the Marvel Universe line (me) may look forward to seeing or most likely not seeing Wave 4 revision one at their local toy shoppe. Not only does it offer some of the more popular characters in the line that you may have missed before, but there’s some nice newer ones as well. May I direct you toward the awesomeness that is Moon Knight? Sweet chickens in heat, I’m going to need to get my hands on him. I’ve always been a fan of Moon Knight, but not really a dedicated reader of his comics until a few years ago. Even if you don’t like the character or what they’ve done with him, you’ve got to love that sweet ass costume.

Other figures I am on the look out for include black Spider-Man as well as the Hand Ninja, both of which I’ve passed on already. Seriously, the combination of not having steady income and these things being around eight dollars makes these purchasing decisions a lot harder. I know I’m a repeating parrot on this issue, but seriously eight dollars is too damned much for a three inch piece of plastic. I’m guessing that army building is a bit on the decline these days due to price and the economy. Anyway, I’m glad that I still have a little time before good old Captain America classic version is available.

It wasn’t really that surprising that Hasbro recently announced that it’s Titanium line would be ending after ‘09. They certainly haven’t seemed as hot as they were when they were first introduced. What went wrong?

I was really into the line when it first came out, but there were a few things that quickly became apparent. Number one was that there was an endless parade of repaints. Secondly, when the line started getting mixed together with Transformers and later Marvel ones by inept retailers, I was pretty much done with the whole thing. It was insane trying to find new Titanium vehicles in a sea of Beastmaster Optimus Prime peg warmers. Another nail in the coffin would certainly have to be price. At six to seven bucks a pop, comparatively speaking they are a pretty low value to other toys in that price range. I’d much rather have a G.I. Joe figure over a metal ship.

Is there anyone else who is going to miss the Titanium Series ships?

Out of all the characters we’ve seen from the upcoming live action G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra flick, the missing key figure was Cobra Commander himself. Well, here he is:

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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

All right I know some of you have a big problem with revealing characters that will be in Transformers, but too bad. This is a blog dealing with pop culture and toys and if you want to avoid super minor spoilers you should probably stick to knitting blogs until the movie comes out. However I will respect the other part of the spoilery Jetfire stuff, so that’s after the break.

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Hey kids, it’s Friday already! My how time flies… and how it sometimes slows to a painful crawl. It’s time again for some thoughts and neat-o links. Enjoy!

Item: Wow, having a job with extremely limited internet access sucks. I’m so behind on everything! I’m hoping I can figure out a schedule so I can keep providing fantastic posts for you kids. And yeah this also affects the amount of responses I can make to comments, so if I don’t respond to you in the comments I’m really sorry.

Item: Speaking of internet access, can anyone recommend a laptop in the 500 dollar price range, preferably one that could be purchased at Best Buy?

Item: I remember when I used to put effort into posts. Poe Ghostal has been on fire these last couple of days with this one on action figure stands and this one on the top ten mail-Away figures. I fear this young upstart might be contending for the title of Best Toy Blog ever, which of course I’ve held uncontested.

Item: As long as we are on the subject of top ten lists, this is funny. It’s, “The Top Ten Ways I Want to Die.”

Item: Well, well it looks like Lando the Pimp agrees with me.

Item: As Old Man Musings points out, the registrations for hotels at the San Diego Comic con have opened. Get your room now, fool!

I know I almost never cover DC Universe Classics figures, but it’s mainly because I can’t keep up with it and I know bloggers who do it much better than I could. Still, I couldn’t help having some thoughts about Wave 9 that I’d like to share.

As much as I don’t want to like him because he’s such a J-hole, I dig Black Adam. I just want to root for him the times he’s not being a total jerk, which seems to change on the whims of the writers.

You know, black Adam is one of the few times a hero or villain in comics has had “black” in his or her name and they aren’t, you know, black race wise. I’m just saying.

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The winner of the fans choice figures top five is out and I have to say that I’m really disappointed in everyone who voted, but first here’s the list:

#1 – Archangel

#2 – Winter Soldier

#3 – Havok

#4 – Mystique

#5 – Mary Jane Watson

First of all, they were going to make Mystique, Archangel, and Winter Soldier anyway. The point behind these things is that it’s a chance to get figures they wouldn’t otherwise make. Secondly, Mary Jane Watson? Who wants a figure of the completely worthless Mary Jane Watson? I think the only purpose she could serve is if I swapped her head with another figure to make her into a generic civilian. Here is where I say the unthinkable, so prepare yourselves: I’m glad they retconned the Mary Jane Watson marriage out of Spider-Man comics.

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