Toy Bender

I’ve got a quick couple of notes to send out this Friday. I don’t want to make a regular habit out of this, but sometimes I can’t justify making a whole post out of one line items.

Item: The Wizard Universe Message Boards (run by the company that publishes magazines like ToyFare and Wizard) is having it’s annual WUMBIE awards. I was nominated for two things, biggest nerd (of which I obviously don’t deserve) and in the “Outside Projects” for ToyBender. If you are a member of WUMB I strongly encourage you to vote for me, because I’m so awesome. I’d say don’t vote for Esbat, but you actually can vote a few times in each category so you can throw him a bone as well.

Item: I’m thinking of trying to get people to donate G.I. Joes to Toys For Tots this year, like a drive to get Joes into the hands of the younger generation. I wanted to do it last year, but there weren’t any friggen G.I. Joes around in stores. In order to encourage donations, I was thinking of running a contest. If you own anything Joe related that you think would make a great prize for a good cause, let me know, even if it’s just a spare figure in a package or some loose army builders or something. If you’re a retail store, you’ll get props and lots of plugs. Free plugs! Good cause! What more could you ask for!?

Item: Poe Ghostal has been putting up a cool toy pic of the day. So far it’s been pretty awesome. Go check them out.

Item: I’ve fallen in love with a new, non-toy related website. It’s Trophy Bomb and it’s a essay site of the type you’d read in the Onion… or something like that. Just go there and read. It’s got some hilarious stuff. I’d have to say I’ve been leaving some funny comments, so that enough should compel you to check the site out.

Item: If you own a website/blog and you’re a big fan of this site… well I’m sorry but I ran out of room to link to you. I only get so many links now and unless you guys want to battle to the death with someone who already has a link in the tiny blog roll section, have at it. This is all due to the fact that I only am allowed a short list of sites to add to my blog roll, because I don’t own this site. It’s owned by The Corporation. Now if you excuse me, I have a Death Derby game I must compete in.

Evil King Macrocranios has a hobby that would seem strange to some, but to the future society of our Robot Overlords he’s providing a tremendous service. You see, Evil King Macrocranios has a blog called Please Save Me Robots where he chronicles the history of toy robot sale ads in a highly entertaining manner.

This week EKM has mixed things up a bit and is posting ads from different types of toys. He’s got some ads for He-Man, Secret Wars, and G.I. Joe on this most special of weeks. I’d definitely recommend checking the site out if you want to know how much a Skystriker used to cost back in the day, if not to put yourself into a dark depression since you can’t go into a store and buy a vintage He-Man for two bucks. Plus, EKM is damn funny.

I’m man enough to know when I’m licked and I’ve been licked hard and often. I’ve recently discovered a site, and by happy chance gotten a few comments of the perpetrators of said site, that is so awesome I’ve contemplated both suicide (albiet a hilarious suicide involving horseradish and a monkey) and retirement. The blog I’m referring to is called Broca Blutch and it deals with G.I. Joe and how awesome they are. It’s mostly character centric pieces with pics of the toys thrown in. Here’s an example of their most excellent post discussing the best couple in G.I. Joe:

The real key to success here, though, is Lady Jaye, and I’ll let you in on a secret: Lady Jaye is probably like the best G.I. Joe ever. You have so many guys who are just like ‘well I have a machine gun and love cooking,’ ‘I have a stretcher and am from Massachusetts,’ ‘I’m a firefighter and the Vipah is coming,’ blah blah blah. Lady Jaye has a baseball cap and power javelins. That’s right: POWER javelins. If you’re firing your gun up at a Cobra Rattler and glance over to see this girl huck a big stick up at it so well that the plane explodes, well, you’d probably feel like a real piece of shit, I bet.

Not only are they dead on of their assessment of Joes, there’s comedy gold going on like it’s the California gold rush. I’d recommend checking out Broca Blutch if you’re a Joe fan or just would like an extra laugh or two during your work day.

If you’re a frequent reader of ToyBender (and why wouldn’t you be?) then you might know the commenter that goes by the name of Poe Ghostal. Poe is a writer on OAFE.net and he’s also had several articles published in everyone’s favorite toy magazine, ToyFare, including three in the latest issue. God I’m so jealous I could poop.

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Some of you have my Lootist badge on the side of the page. Most you haven’t. Well, in case you wondered what that it is, then let me be your guide for something completely awesome. If you’re a reader of this site you’ll no doubt be familiar by the witty commentary provided by Great White Snark. GWS (as his mother calls him) came up with Lootist.com.

Lootist is at it’s simplest description is a wish list. There’s more too it than that, but that’s one of the main features that I enjoy. I’m a big fan of Amazon.com’s wishlist, but of course their wish list is limited to what’s for sale on Amazon.com. Lootist works by letting you add stuff as you cruise around the internets. It’s not limited to any specific category, but I choose to stick mainly to toy purchases. What’s cool about it is it has a bit of a social networking aspect that lets you see other people’s lists and you can search for things you might like based on what they say. All around its a pretty nifty app and well beyond anything I could ever come up with. If you want fart jokes, I’m your man. If you want complex web applications look elsewhere. Anyway, if you like what I do here and want to see what kind of products I recommend or don’t then check out my profile on Lootist.

And if you think you’re some kind of expert on something, then you can pick out an expertise and start looting and sharing your opinions on whatever it is you know a lot about like comics, videogames, or troll dolls. Others will recognize your greatness and you’ll get chicks.*

By the way, if this sounds like a commercial for Lootist, I’m sorry. I’m not being paid anything by anyone to do this, I just think it’s a cool website and since GWS is a friend to the site I thought I’d let the ten or twelve people that read Toy Bender know about it. You can’t ever say I don’t try to help my friends.

*You will not get women or baby chickens.

toy, toy collecting, wish list, start up, web 2.0

I recently ran across a blog this last weekend that, besides having one of the coolest names ever, is a great spot on the internet for toy collectors that you should go to. Right now.

The Fortress of Testicular Fortitude contains a ton of pictures of toys that blog owner Shaun Wong has collected. Yeah, there are a lot of people that post pictures of their stuff online, but Shaun’s got some really great, dare I say, mouth watering pictures of TONS of great figures. Checking out his blog is like taking a trip to the musuem, the Fuggen Awesome Museum.

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While wading through the internet looking for toy info and news, I found a great blog that I’d like to highlight. It is Bat -Blog, a Batman Toys and collectables blog. While I’m not the world’s number one Batman fan, I was completly and utterly obsessed with Tim Burton’s first Batman film as a kid, so old Bats has a special place in my heart. Bat - Blog is great, because it features some of the best, most interesting, and some times craziest Batman related items and happenings I’ve ever seen.

I don’t cover superhero toys as much as I’d like to and this blog covers Batman more than I’d ever hope to. If you’re a Batman fan head on over to Bat - Blog to catch up on tons of great Batman stuff.

Take for instance:

This nifty Batman serial poster with a rather inneudo filled line about Robin.

Or these guys:

European Club DJs that dress up like Batman and Robin.

Simply Bat-tastic.