Toy Bender

Lately, I’ve been trying to stop at more rummage and garage sales in order to see if I could find any cool toys. I normally don’t do this, because I figure that almost anything good has been long gone and the only things that I’ll find are junk and Power Rangers (which I guess they’re both the same thing if you think about it). Lately though, I’ve decided to roll the dice despite the fact I figure I won’t find anything. That’s why I was totally blown away when I found this (click to make bigger):

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You know, back when I decided to revive this blog I never thought I’d have so many “Hey, look what I bought” posts in short amount of time, but thems the breaks. Coming back to the Midwest has had it’s benefits for toy collecting. Northern California was a dead zone for me, so it was nice to return to a land where scalpers aren’t as big of a problem and figure swapping is a relatively unknown phenomena.

On a recent trip I decided to stop at what I like to call the “Magic Target”. The Magic Target has offered up plenty of great prizes over the years. This stop was no exception, because I finally got my hands on the G.I. Joe Sting Raider (a.k.a. Water Moccasin). I’ve been wanting this thing forever and I’ve never spotted it before, which isn’t any kind of surprise considering how crappy the hunting was for me.

The Sting Raider is every bit as cool as I hoped it would be. It’s big enough to fit a few figures, which is always a plus when it comes to my vehicle purchases. Another welcome feature is the extra storage spaces and removable engine cowl for “posing” figures in situations with mechanical difficulty. The movable fan and small torpedo are just icing on the cake. I didn’t need another Copperhead figure, but it’s nice that I have yet another addition to my growing collection of Python Patrol Cobras. Now if only I could get a Python Patrol Sting Raider…

Anyway, any thought I have about the Sting Raider is completely overruled by this video by Last Best Angry Man.

If there’s one thing you can’t do is take the toy collecting out of me apparently. In the final days of packing up everything I own in this world that’s not in storage at my dad’s house (mostly the bulk of my toy collection), I just had to stop over at Target to see what was in stock. To my surprise I found Marvel Universe 3 3/4ths scale Iron Man… classic style! Hells yeah, I’ll take a classic Iron Man over the horrid pile of triangles of the current suit.

Now there were a few other figures that I wanted there as well, most notably the Hulk and the Hand Ninja, but I was good and stuck to the one figure. The 7.99 price point also helped my decision. Seriously, lower the prices on these damn figures and you’ll make up the money, Hasbro.

Anyway, I’m really pleased with my classic Iron Man. I particularly like that he’s been painted in an actual gold color and not yellow. Still, being the idiot that I am I can’t say that I wouldn’t get a repainted version to more accurately reflect the comic. Anyway, Iron Man pretty kick ass. The only downside is that his open palmed wrist can’t be bent upwards to make a great shooting his repulsor pose. I’m also not a fan of the energy blast accessory. I’m not a fan of the oddly shaped energy cyclone, I’d prefer more of a straight on blast, thank you very much.

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This post is a little old, but since it was mostly written and laying unused and unloved I thought I’d give it a new lease on life. Anyway, here goes:

The other day when I got good news in regards to being employed I decided to go on my first Toy Hunt in a long time. It was a good old fashioned hunt, one where I went to five stores in the hopes of finding some sweet toy action.

The only place I found anything good was at Toys R Us. Apparently, they had just gotten in a shipment of DC Universe Classics figures. It’s the only explanation for there being so many of them on the shelves, unless all the legion of scalpers in the area were having a board meeting or something. I was ultra excited that I could pick up a Flash figure for a friend who had wanted him awful bad.

The only thing I found for myself was the G.I. Joe comic two pack featuring “Shockblast”, or rather Shockwave, and Pilot Destro. Shockwave is great, but he seriously needs more weapons. The original came with a cool backpack that had a removable knife, while this one gets a couple of pistols. It would have been nice if he came with a shotgun and (in my dreams) a riot shield. “Shockblast” does get is a great assortment of hats, though. You get his cool looking baseball hat, a tactical helmet, and a wicked as hell gas mask.

The lack of weapons could easily be solved by purchasing extra guns from a place like Marauder “Gun-Runners.” In fact, Shockblast is the character most likely out of all my toys to get some of the more realistic weapons,since he’s the closest thing to an actual military or police figure that I own.

The Pilot Destro is certainly interesting. He’s got some cool chest armor, but what’s with his backpack with the tubes that run to his arm or the friggen steel boot claws? This is certainly the type of figure that makes it into my sell or giveaway pile. Anyone want him?

It’s been awhile since I did a Toy Hunt and for good reason. Heading quickly into Unemploymentville, which is certainly not as fun as Margaritaville, and not ever being able to find anything worth a damn at retail are huge factors in the loss of this feature. However, I did have an exciting find if I were able to buy toys.

When the wife and I stopped at Wal-Mart to get milk, I made my usual toy run just to see what was there. The first thing that met my hunter’s gaze was a beautiful row of pegs that held DC Universe figures. Right next to it were pegs full of DC Infinite Heroes that I hadn’t seen before. This was a big first for me, because I have never seen a single DC figure on the shelves of my local Wal-Marts. They never even had pegs for them. That’s three Wal-Marts in a highly populated area of the country with no DC Universe pegs; talk about pathetic.

Anyway, I did pick up a Captain Marvel figure and walk around with him in my hands. It felt good. I felt like a real person with money that could by things, but better common sense prevailed and I put him back on the peg. That was the first true temptation and I’m proud to say that I have passed.

Now if they would of had new G.I. Joes there, this might have been a different story.

I finally broke down and bought my first DC Infinite Heroes figures this weekend. I picked up the 3 3/4ths scale DC figures, because it was a three pack that was on sale and… okay I got it because the set contains Supergirl and I’m a Supergirl fanatic. Apparently Target is running a short sale on the three packs and I was lucky enough find the only Superman/Supergirl/Wondergirl power trio that I’ve seen so far.

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One of the few local events I look forward to in my adopted Northern California home is theSan Jose toy show. It occurs twice a year and is a great place to find a lot of toys that are hard to find or at a discount (and there’s no shipping costs involved). The event is also a comics and records show, but the main attraction is the many toy dealer booths.

While the event takes place in a fairgrounds that 1953 has forgotten, it’s not like it’s in an unsafe, just kind of ugly looking. It’s interesting to note that while we were there there was an announcement over the intercom saying that the city is putting it up to a vote to demolish the fairgrounds to make way for new development. Hopefully the event will find a new venue if it does get paved over, because the fairgrounds are a pretty big eyesore.

Anyway, I thought I’d share my purchases with you in two installments mostly because I know you have short attention spans and will be bored reading a giant list of things someone else bought. I also love to unreasonably stretch my updates. Yay!

Robocop Bubble Bath Container - $1.00

I’ve been on a bit of a Robocop kick after my latest article dealing with him, so this was an immediate must have. Sadly, this did not contain bubble bath, but the dollar purchase was well worth it in terms of kitschy value. It doesn’t hurt that it looks like an Academy Award either. Seriously though, how did an hard R rated icon get turned into a bubble bath? This is like having a Scarface electric toothbrush.

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I don’t know why, but I’ve been fairly lucky when it comes to finding G.I. Joe figures in stores. I recently spotted a few figures from wave 7 that I’ve been wanting for awhile. I swear the Wal-Mart that’s only a few blocks for me his horrendous for Star Wars figures, but has been pretty good to me for getting Joes.

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This weekend was a bit of a departure for me, because I spent a lot of money. Usually I’m a tight ass, but this weekend was the one where I had to buy the wedding bands for my upcoming wedding… now my future wife and I will be wearing the big fancy HD TV and new computer I want on our fingers. Huzzah!

In addition to that there is a comic book store in my area that was having a big sale. Now this place isn’t just a comic book store, it’s also a toy store of sorts. I don’t go there very often because I have the feeling that the store gets its figures through scalping… I mean how else did he get all the rare Star Wars figures selling at a high price without most of the common ones in stock? Well, because of the sale I finally broke down and bought a concept Boba Fett. I figured that it was better than buying one on eBay since I didn’t have to pay shipping at all. So yeah, I have one of those now.

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It’s my sad duty to relate on of my biggest toy hunt failures to date. Normally I like to hide my failures here from you dear readers (except for the obvious ones like my poor grasp on grammar and spelling), but this one was interesting enough in my opinion to share.

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Well, I finally found the mother lode after picking up the single carded 25th Anniversary Snake Eyes the other day. For this mission, I resorted to going to a K-Mart in the ghetto that had 30th Anniversary figures that I wanted. I figured I should try it again in case they had any McQuarrie figures laying around. Last time there was one of the ugly ass Chewbaccas that my roommate reluctantly ended up buying. By the way, when I say ghetto, I don’t mean Boyz in the Hood, but we did see an armed security guard there once and there’s about eight million liquor stores located on the same block so this store isn’t exactly nerd friendly. Still, if there are rare toys there, safety be damned.

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Oh yeah, we’re going old school Toy Bender… if old school was a couple of months ago. I finally had a toy hunt success in a retail store that I’d like to brag about. After months of anticipation and weeks of fruitless searching (which included major disappointment at the Hasbro Toy Shop booth at San Diego Comic-Con) I finally managed to bag a G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary figure at retail.

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You might be asking yourself, “Why am I looking at some poorly photographed pictures that some moron took of his stupid toy?” Why you ask? WHY!? This toy is super awesome, that’s why jerk. Now bear down for a face full of awesome, because it’s coming at you double quick.

The top down view.

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This rarely happens, but I had two successful finds in one week. While not as spectacular as finding the much craved for Boba Fett which I’m still on the prowl for …. I had been looking for this Cylon Raider for some time. Now I’ve got it to match my other Battlestar Galactica finds so I can appear even more geeky than I do now at work.

The Raider is a nifty representation of the classic flying disc/wing look established in the 70s series. The only feature it has is to look bad ass, which it does quite well. With this one down, the hunt is still out for the Battlestar Pegasus. To quote a line from the epic film Wayne’s World, “It will be mine. Oh yes. It will be mine.”

Crap, now I have that awful version of Ball Room Blitz sung by Tia Carrere stuck in my head.

Toys, toy collecting, Titanium Series, Die-cast, Battlestar Galactica

My hunting continues. This last week I managed to finally snag at least one newer clone figure, the Airborne Clone Trooper.

I’ll admit it, I only bought it after some hesitation. What made the decision tough was that I already have the figure, since a version of the Airborne Trooper came in the Mace Windu Battle Pack, albeit he was a bit more purple. I was a little less than impressed with it back then, because the helmet feels kind of cheap and doesn’t fit the best. Yeah, I realize I’m being Picky Toy Collector Pete on that one, but I can’t help it I’m a geek. However since this was the first 30th Anniversary clone trooper that I’ve managed to see in a store, I picked him up after the hemming and hawing.

Hasbro has done a fantastic job with these cards, they practically qualify as art and it’s even more of a reason for me to keep him unopened. Now if I could only track down… oh… all of the rest of them I’d be happier.

Toy, toy collecting, Star Wars, Action Figure, clone trooper