Toy Bender

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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Shocker Toys revealed their line of independent comic book based heroes at the New York Toy Fair and since there’s no other hot toy news out there right now let’s talk about it, shall we? (Also, their showing has created both positive and negative buzz so as long as people are talking about it…) And if you don’t keep up on such things you might be asking yourself right now, “Hey, isn’t there an independent line already from Marvel Toys aka the ghost of Toy Biz?” Well there was and now it’s dead thanks to almost no one buying them.

The first wave from Shocker Toys consists of five figures with a couple of repaints. Here’s their proposed first wave:

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Okay, I’ll admit this really isn’t “madness”, but I figured like I’d put it in an eBay Madness because it, much like Richard Gere in an Officer and a Gentleman, has no place to go. I’ve been a little more interested in Super Powers figures recently, mainly because of the announcement of a new 3.75″ DC Superhero line from Mattel. I have a soft spot in my heart for the Super Powers line because it gave me my first opportunity to have Batman and Superman figures. I specifically remember being in love with their Metallo. This metal guy with a brain held a lot of mystery for my developing mind.

In addition to the above named characters I’m also interested in is Dr. Fate, because I just love his yellow helmet. It’s while taking a gander for Dr. Fate figures that I found this guy:

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I guess it wouldn’t be any surprise to a regular reader of this blog to say I’m a total whore for the 3.75 inch scale. Hey, my most beloved toys from childhood are in that scale so it kind of makes sense. That’s why I’m pretty excited about Mattel’s new line shown at the ‘08 New York Toy Fair, DC Infinite Heroes. I really like the idea of the DC Universe line, but the six inch size and really limits how many of the figures I’m going to get. Aside from a few that would be my must buy characters (Power Girl, Dr. Fate) I have no real interest in a new variant of Batman. However, this DC Infinite Heroes line which clocks in at a petite 3.75″ inches looks fantastic. At that scale I can collect a whole slew of figures and not have to worry about limited shelf space or budget.

One of the coolest things about the line is the wide selection of figures shown at the 2008 Toy Fair. Not only do you get your power hitters like Batman, but you get lowly members of the Gotham City Police Department and Commissioner Gordon. What’s not to love about that?

Here’s my top wants for the line (thank you TNI for the pics):

Captain Marvel:

I love me some Captain Marvel. Did you know he used to outsell Superman in the comics department? He sure did, then at one point DC bought him. He’s been losing fights to Superman ever since. Coincidence? No.

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For those of you still wondering what’s going on with the Justice League Unlimited figures, the future of Mattel’s Justice League Unlimited toy line was finally revealed in the pages of the latest ToyFare.

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It’s been awhile since the last Toy Ads that Time Forgot and even longer since I had a comic book ad as some fodder, but no longer! I made a trip to my local comic book shop (Treasure Island Comics), dug through the quarter back issue boxes, and came up with a few issues of comics that contained several good toy ads in them. To reward you for waiting so long for a new TAtTF, I’ve included not one, but two ads in this update. Here’s the first:

Remember when it was acceptable to have an illustrated image in a comic book instead of a picture of the real deal? You could never get away with that now. This ad, of course, is for some Secret Wars action figures. If you have no idea what Secret Wars was or don’t have any clue what the toy line was like, be sure to check out the previous TAtTF post that went into these details (it also includes my favorite image based joke on this site ever that nobody noticed… sigh). Regardless, this ad is great because even though most of the figures are drawn much like the toys appear, Wolverine has decided to ride Dr. Octopus like he’s a cowboy breaking a wild bull.

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If you’re not interested in my used crap, then stop reading this post now. If you are somewhat interested in the things I’m trying to sell in order to crawl my way out of debt, then this is the perfect post for you to check out. You see, my Rock Band obsession doesn’t pay for itself. I’m in desperate need for a quick fix of downloadable content, so I’ve decided to show off my current round of eBay auctions for y’all in the hopes I might be able to sell something and get me some hot Wonderwall action.

Pimp Daddy Destro

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For those of you who dig really cute and tiny superheroes, MarvelousNews.com has images of wave 5 of Marvels Superhero Squad.

I’ve never been a big fan of Wolverine without his costume, but this Logan is fantastic. Just check out his kick ass (yet highly adorable) motorcycle.

The Ultimate version of the Marvel Universe makes an even bigger dent into the Superhero Squad line with one happy ass pairing of Captain America and Nick Fury. What are they so happy about? Killing Nazis and Communists, of course!

Be sure to head over to MarvelousNews.com to check out the rest of the wave.

toy, toy collecting, Hasbro, Marvel, comic book, superhero, action figure

I like the Justice League Unlimited figures a lot, but they’re really hampered by the fact I can rarely find any of the interesting ones and the multi-pack special sets are made up of 90% of figures I don’t want. This JLU Target exclusive set is a bit different, but still contains some undesirables. (Check out Toy News International for dozens of pics of the set):

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I saw this on Bat-Blog the other day and I had to share. In total opposition to the My Little Pony inhabited by the spirit of Satan, I present to you the Batman inspired My Little Pony:

I have no idea where this custom came from or what insane mind spawned it, but that woman or exceedingly homosexual gentleman deserves a beer.

Thanks Bat-Blog

toy, toy collecting, eBay, My Little Pony, custom, comic book, Batman, DC

It looks like Mattel emulating Hasbro’s openness when it comes to answering questions from fan sites. Somehow this missed my radar, but they’ve been having Q&As with some toy collecting websites just like Hasbro does. I collected what I could find and am sharing the best ones here much like I do for Hasbro’s Star Wars and G.I. Joe questions. I do this as a service to you. Well, I also do this because it’s kind of easy to do, but let’s put the focus more on you.

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Holy crap balls were there a lot of toys at San Diego Comic-con. It was my first year going and due to the limited time I had there, I barely got to see all the toy sweetness I wanted. Ironically, I hardly got to look at anything comic book related at all. Ahh, such is life. Here are some are some miscellaneous pics of toys that didn’t get their own posts. There’s some great stuff in here (including some girl’s toys for the ladies), but I couldn’t justify stretching my SDDC coverage any longer.

The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass had a really cool booth with props of the film and a huge fake armored Polar Bear beside it. I don’t know much about the movie, but I did see airships in the trailer and there is a talking polar bear with armor, so I pretty much have to see it. While I didn’t get pictures of all the figures, they all seemed to come with a animal buddy which is almost reason enough to buy them. Here’s a couple of the more notable figures:

Polar Bears rule.

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While Mattel didn’t have as big of a draw as Hasbro’s booth which was practically next door, they did have some pretty awesome stuff at the show. The coolest stuff Mattel had was of course their DC super hero lines, especially their newly required license to make figures from across the DC Universe.

Feast your eyes on these pics my pretties:

This is DC’s newest version of Batgirl, a mute who is a martial arts expert. She’s also a bad guy now or something. Oh why can’t DC just stick to one version of a hero at a time?

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My good friends (Hey, at least I can pretend) at Wizard Universe.com got an exclusive interview with Mattel about their plans for their brand spanking new ability to make figures based on characters from the entire expanse of the DC Universe… well, almost the whole line, but more on that in a minute.

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My last installment covered Lego’s space battling Mars Mission sets and the mind blowingly cool Castle sets found in the 2007 Summer Lego catalog. Now it’s time for some licensed Lego action!

First on deck is Batman. While there weren’t a lot of new sets that got me excited, the new Bat-tank is pretty awesome. (Click on the pic to make it super sized)

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