Toy Bender

The following article originally appeared on the Wizard Universe website. Since they purged their archives, I’m mirroring it here.

(more…)

I’m no Captain Planet and I hate the new trend to label everything “green”, but I don’t think our society should needlessly waste resources. There always is a bit of talk surrounding toys and their packaging in this regard, due to the fact that some toys create a lot of garbage. I don’t normally think about this issue, but I recently got a hold of of my first Star Wars Evolutions pack* and was pretty much disgusted with the amount of waste. First though, let’s take a look at the package before opening:

Not a bad presentation, but what always bothered me a bit was the size of the box. It’s incredibly long for only the figures. There’s a little note on the box showing that the big square to the left contains additional accessories. I figured with the size of that square you must get some neat stuff.

(more…)

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.

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.

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.

(more…)

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:

(more…)

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.

(more…)

As much as I have a huge man-crush on Christopher Eccleston, I was really hoping that he’d show up in G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra in a full on metal Destro mask at some point. Well kids, it looks like he will be if the toys are any indication.

(more…)

It’s the return of another old feature this week! The return isn’t due to the fact that I’m nostalgic to sift my way through dozens of nerdy questions for you, but because I really couldn’t think of what else to do today. Hopefully, someone still digs these things.

Galactic Hunter asks a question about the Big Millennium Falcon:

Galactic Hunter: We know that the BMF (Big Millennium Falcon) is getting cleared out at some stores as part of the post-Holiday clear-out, but it is an open stock item that will continue to ship, right? Are there any upgrades planned for this piece in the foreseeable future?

HASBRO: Wal-Mart and Target have taken to clearance out the Millennium Falcon since they do not have a home on the latest planogram. As of now, it’s likely that Toys ‘R Us in the U.S. will carry another run of them in the Fall in the new red/white packaging. There will be no upgrades to the Millennium Falcon if it does ship again; it’s likely that this version will be the signature version for some years. The good news is that the large vehicle program was indeed a success and we look forward to the first Turbo Tanks hitting shelves around August 1.

Awesome, just in time for me to not be able to buy them. What’s nice though it’s that Hasbro is finally admitting that the big vehicles of last year were a success. It took them awhile to confirm it. If they don’t do as well this year, I hope they factor in the economy.

(more…)

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?

There’s more complaining to be had about the Transformers movie, this time it’s been proven that Megatron is in the sequel and he is a crazy alien looking tank:

I wasn’t a super huge fan of the first Transformers flick, although it did turn out much better than I thought it would and in the end I found it enjoyable. Still, I detest the movie style Transformers. The one lone exception is Megatron. The fact he looked so alien really worked to make him look like a total bad ass. The fact that he’s going to be a crazy looking tank in this new film doesn’t bother me at all. It actually fits his character who is a robot that doesn’t feel the need to disguise himself as an Earth vehicle. He doesn’t have to either, he’s friggen Megatron!

Thanks to: Toplessrobot.com

Remember the awesome assortment of G.I. Joe vehicles that got canceled a few months ago? Well, now they are back and you can pre-order them at sites like Big Bad Toy Store (who generously donated to the Toys for Tots contest this year so perhaps you should pre-order from them?) In case you forgot about the assortment it includes:

Ghost Hawk with Lift Ticket
Arctic HISS with Arctic Driver
Claw Glider with Stratoviper & Flak Cannon with Outback
Stinger Jeep with Stinger Commander

It’s good to see these back again. With the live action movie, G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra, coming out it’s becoming clear that it pretty much ruined a lot of the momentum for the stuff that we really want. These wave 5 vehicles seemed to be the a victim to Hasbro’s new lust to push out mostly movie related merchandise.

Personally, if I had the means I’d seriously consider buying all of these. The only one that seems to be missing is the Water Moccasin. Did that come out already? I feel like such a moron, but the G.I. Joe supply sucks so bad around here that I never know what’s actually hit shelves or not.

Side Note: On the rare occasion that I could find new stuff, I spotted the Pilot Destro/Shockwave comic two pack at Wal-Mart yesterday. Hot damn, it took a lot of willpower to put that puppy down. The only thing that saved me was focusing on how dumb pilot Destro is.

The following guest post is by my wife, Diane. She’s a My Little Pony fan who has some issues with Hasbro. I find it interesting that the issue she has parallels the feelings of a lot guys have who collect toys like Joes and Star Wars figures, especially when the 25th Joes were in their first year:

Dear Hasbro,

As a collector of My Little Ponies, I am considerably disappointed in your recent My Little Pony offerings. The fun of the previous series was that each new wave of Ponies brought new characters with new special gimmicks. What you’re giving me now is the same 6 Ponies with new add-on crap (cowboy hats? surf boards?) and a slightly different paint job. It’s hard for me to get interested in buying the same ponies over and over again. Now, I know you may be gearing this line towards kids, so you really don’t give a crap that I don’t want 2 Scootaloos even if one comes with a tennis racket. But, when the toys were originally released in the early 80’s, I was a kid and I ate that shit up like birthday cake. Call me crazy, but I’m thinking it still works that way. You can keep releasing the play sets with the creepy Pony clothes for the kiddies, but keep up with the variety for the adults with money to spend.

Sincerely,

Diane M. Rudolph