It may not be one of those fancy nerd cakes of today, but it came from 1983 and it’s full of heart. In fact, I’m still looking for the cake pan that makes these cakes, but I don’t feel like buying one from eBay for fifty bucks. I like the fond memories of my childhood R2-D2 cake, but really not fifty dollars like.

As a favor to me, please be safe this 4th of July. I don’t want any readers losing their hands in fireworks accidents and I especially don’t want any G.I. Joes to lose their lives in a fireworks “accident”. They’ve fought to preserve your freedom, the least you can do is to preserve their tiny plastic bodies.

Finally, if you’re interested I posted the classic “Cold Slither” episode of G.I. Joe on The Robot’s Pajamas in order to celebrate the 4th of July via cartoons.

Thanks to the fine people at Krause Publishing, I snagged a copy of The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe 1982-1994 to give away to one fine Toy Bender fan (or ToyBendinite as you often refer to yourselves at the chapter meetings). That’s right, true believers! You could get your very own copy of the premier G.I. Joe collecting by Mark Bellomo. That’s a 26.99 value for free! I’ll be giving my impressions of the book soon, but here’s the quick and dirty version if you’re on the fence about entering the contest: It’s great and you should have it.

There are three ways to qualify:

1. Post a comment below stating what G.I. Joe figure or vehicle is your favorite toy from the line and why. Include your real email so I can get your address if you win.

2. Become a fan of the Toy Bender Facebook page.

3. Follow me on Twitter.

Each of the above items will give you an entry into the contest, so that’s up to three entries! If you already follow me on Twitter and/or are a fan on Facebook, send me a message to WinBigPrizesWinBigMoney@gmail.com telling me who you are so I can give you credit (sometimes nicknames don’t match up, so I can’t remember who is who).

One random person will win themselves a copy of the book! Winner will be announced July 17th.

Thanks again to Krause Publications, publishers of fine hobby books and magazines. They’re also located in Wisconsin like I am now, so Wisconsin pride… or whatever.

A special thanks goes out to Mr. Bellomo.

Here are some of the figures I’m looking forward to:

1. General Hawk - If you don’t want a Dennis Quaid action figure, you’re a Communist. This movie now has allowed us to have a Mike Brody from Jaws 3D. Or the dad from Yours, Mine, and Ours. You’re choice.

2. Ice Viper - This dude fits in perfectly with the G.I. Joe universe, crappy movie or not.

3. Snake Eyes - I don’t get the whole argument against him wearing “pants” considering he’s half commando so it kind of makes sense. I hate that he has lips. Still, there are some cool variations of our friend Snake Eyes that I’m going to have to get.

4. Storm Shadow - I’m really not that hot on how my favorite character appears on film, but he looks a lot better as an action figure.

5. Baroness - I don’t think I should explain why I need her. Some pictures I’ve seen show a bit of a man face on Baroness, but heads can always be swapped.

The biggest disappointment with the Rise of Cobra line (aside from the fact that if it tanks Joes might be done for) is the loss of the classic card art. I didn’t keep a whole lot of 25th G.I. Joes on card, but the few that I have I love them all the more for looking like the figures I picked up as a kid. Hopefully by next year maybe we can get more old school card art. Perhaps with the digital explosion in the background? I don’t know, just bring back what made us fell in love with the 25th Anniversary line after this G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra mess, Hasbro.

Anyway, what do you folks plan on collecting from the Rise of Cobra line? Anything? Some collectors have expressed interest in buying figures to keep G.I. Joe going. There’s no way I would spend money on G.I. Joe toys just to support the line even if I don’t like the figures. That’s insanity. Please tell me if you plan on doing that, so I can slap you.

Today marks a milestone for both the internet and the toy collecting community as a whole, because this is the 1000th post on Toybender. Please join me in a round of self congratulatory applause. I’m also giving myself the cool stamp. If any post deserves it, it’s this one:

Back when I floated the idea of a toy collecting blog to the 451 Press Blogging Overlords way back in October of 2006, I never thought that this place would be as successful as it has been. Sure it’s had it’s downs, but the good times have been really good. I’ve had several articles hit big on social media sites like Digg, Stumble, and I’ve even it a few times on Fark, which is really cool. My greatest achievement though has been the Joes for Tots contest, which I’m planning on bringing back this year, even bigger and better than before. I can’t begin to describe how good it felt when I got pictures of you guys and gals helping kids out.

Speaking of you cats, the existence of Toy Bender has led me to “meeting” a whole lot of people that I’ve glad to have known. I’d make a big list here, but I don’t want to leave anyone out. I’m glad that I’ve had the chance to establish friendships through here that I never would have otherwise had. I also want to thank you if you’ve ever left a comment or sent an email my way. Seriously, when you leave a comment an angel gets it’s wings. So thank you my loyal supporters and legions of unquestioning followers. I believe someone has a word that describes you:

Thanks, Rick.

Other 451 Blogs that Have Hit 1000: Fiction Scribe, Food History

Today, I present to you a commercial for the little known 1980s toy property known as Centurions by Kenner. I recently became reacquainted with the Centurions when I found their cartoon airing on the Boomerang network:

I had Ace McCloud and my cousins had a couple of the other guys. The Centurions were each themed by a particular environment. You had your sea guy, your air guy, and your land guy. You know, all the dudes needed to get the job done. The Centurions were cool mainly because they were modular, meaning you could switch their weapons and armor bits around via the plugs on their suits or you could even swap weapons and armor with the other characters. You could even buy weapons packs that were sort of like their vehicles for the line. It was kind of like having different Barbie outfits to put on Barbie dolls, but for dudes.

The bad guys were pretty boss on their own, because they were evil cyborgs. Both of the ones my cousins had could be basically split in half, one half was their human side and the other was their robot. It was gross and cool at the same time, so it kind of fit into our whole boyhood worldview at that time.

Sadly, the Centurions never caught on. I’d imagine that their size alone didn’t help. In a world where 3 3/4″ scale figures were king, the Centurions were 12″ giants. It certainly made it hard to integrate them into my play world with Captain Power, Star Wars, and my G.I. Joes. Speaking of Joes, it would be neat to see a Centurion inspired Joe like they did with MASK, but that will probably never happen. Still, with all the tech that the Centurions had, it certainly fit in the world of the Joeverse. What do you say, Hasbro?

By the way, if anyone reading this has some Centurions stuff they’d like to get rid of, let me know. I’d like to fix up my old Ace McCloud as well as get my hands on some of the other cool weapons and figures.

If you want to check out an episode of the Centurions series, I posted an entire one on Robot’s Pajamas.

I’m really not hot on the name, but I love me some Gunship action. What’s great about this gunship, which will be a Toys R Us exclusive, is that it has been retooled a bit. It’s got doors that fully close now as well as new missile pods in the wings. I’ve never opened the one gunship that I have, so I guess perhaps it’s time to let that one go and get this one. Now that a battle pack is going to come out that comes with a gunner pod, I’m totally all about opening up a gunship and loading it with troopers for display.

By the way, does anyone know if someone is making repro stickers for Gunship art yet? I’m going to need to get rid of the Salacious Crumb and replace it with a sexy Twi’lek or two.

The other cool Star Wars vehicle due out is the Clone Wars style Y-Bomber:

They sure do look different when they aren’t in use by the rag tag Alliance. I’m probably going to pass on this one, but I know there’s a lot of fans out there that would love this thing. I really dig that old school bubble canopy though… damn it, now I want one.

It’s been awhile since I did one of these! Anyway, with the release of Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen steaming up the theaters as we speak and G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra soon to lay a big on our our chests, here’s what some other movies inspired by toys might look like. Overall they’re pretty good, but I’m not sure if Alf really counts as a “toy” film, since he was more of a television show than a toy property. Out of all of them though, I think I’d pay good money to see My Little Pony vs. the Care Bears. That has a lot of potential right there.

Oh yeah, if the video doesn’t play just go to the Atom films website via the embedded video. That’s what I had to do when I first saw this thing. I like the video and all, but I’m not real fond of Atom films. There’s reasons why YouTube is so popular and one of those reasons is it’s not 99% ads.

And if you wanted to know my thoughts on Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen I posted my “review” on The Robot’s Pajamas.com, so you can check it out there if you’d like. Here’s the short version if you’re too lazy to click on the link: It’s not very good.

Item: Speaking of cool things that I wrote on Poe Ghostal’s site, I did another Show and Tell over there showing off my super awesome AT-TE. I love his Show and Tell feature. Anyone can submit something, so why don’t you go over there and email him some pics of your favorite toy to show it off to the rest of the world?

Item: One of the winners of the Snarf Giveaway contest, a fine upstanding citizen named Newt, posted a review of said Snarf. It’s entertaining to see someone actually review these things.

Item: Hasbro has got some new Star Wars Wal-Mart exclusive three packs. I wrote about them on Poe Ghostal’s site, so if you’re interested in seeing what they are and what I think about them, then by all means check it out.

Item: Over on Robot’s PJs I ask, “What Will Suck More? Transformers 2 or G.I. Joe.” Check it out and tell me what you think. I don’t know when I’m going to see Transformers Revenge of the Fallen, but it will be reluctantly.

Item: Ten more Geek Arguments. Read and argue away!

Just looking at another persons collection may be boring particularly if you’re not interested in the figures that the person has. What’s neat about this is Bellomo’s commentary on both the items and his thoughts on collecting in general.

What I came away from this is that while I want a lot of the stuff he has, if I ever need that much storage space for it I’m doing a massive sell off. If Mark didn’t have an outlet for these things like his books, I think it would be fair to say he would have a little too much.

I also learned that I like Mark a lot more through these videos than I do of the other, more famous toy collectors like Steve Sansweet who just comes off as pompous and/or smarmy. Mark appears to be a genuinely nice and down to Earth guy. It’s kind of nice to see, and I dare say, perhaps a bit rare in someone that has a huge mega collection of toys.

To see the entire series you can go to either YouTube or here.

The reason I bring Twilight up now is to point out these Twilight inspired Barbie dolls:

Unlike other internet bloggers, I will not make fun of them. I will talk about what I like about them. I really like the fact that Bella Barbie isn’t as Plain Jane as the actress that portrays her. In fact, she’s kind of cute which is a nice change of pace. I could actually believe a vampire would fall in love with this girl. I also like the fact that everyone’s favorite Dracular Edward Cullen isn’t as ugly as a rotten stump. I mean, he’s pretty ugly, but by far not as ugly as Robert Pattinson. Granted Dracular Ken is not the most handsome Dracular in the universe, but he’s not as hideous as his real life counterpart and that makes all the difference.

See, I can play nice and clearly not say mean things about something that has people rabidly defending it. Heck, I may even some day make peace with the ICP crowd and say something nice about ICP.

Heh, probably not.