Toy Bender

That cover is correct, fellow toy lovers. It’s the 10th anniversary of ToyFare. Well, Happy Birthday ToyFare and thanks for making me feel really old. I still remembering picking up my first few ToyFares during my senior year of high school and thinking they were the greatest thing ever. Of course back then girls didn’t talk to me, so it wasn’t much of a competition.

Now, onto my views!

Pages 6 and 7: Even though there really isn’t a lot to this spread of the ToyFare team being turned into Masters of the Universe figures, it still rocks pretty hard. I only wish I had a job that turned me into an iconic 80s toy line rather than a corporate slave.

Pages 8 through 12 - Fanfare: I realize that they can’t do this every month, but man this is great stuff. I envy the jerks that got their questions read by Spider-Man. I really should have send my bitching last month through the mail!

Page 14 - Hot Plate: Boy oh boy, the goodness keeps dropping like chocolate rain*.

*And my once a month pop-cultural reference that will expire in a week quota has now been filled.

Page 20 - Incoming: Batman looks friggen cool as a Green Lantern. That’s one of those ideas that’s so obvious, I can’t believe it hasn’t been done before. I should be reading these comics.

Page 27 - Incoming (con.): Big Boobs + Robert E. Howard character = Speech Ballon based joke of the issue. You can’t argue with math, folks.

Page 34 - Incoming (con.): Please, someone make these Disneyfied Star Wars characters go away.

Page 36 - Incoming (con.) By God, David Bowie’s mantoe is almost more disturbing than the horrifying Marvel Legends build-a-Blob figure.

Page 40 - Incoming (Con) Madballs are coming back? How can one of the most useless toys of the 80s make a come back? It is a sure sign of the apocalypse.

Pages 44 through 52: This is one cool retrospective article. I really enjoy seeing what toys were produced that ToyFare once wished for. It’s hard to believe that a few of them made it. Others? Well, a Jek Porkins figure was pretty much a necessity. (I own two). The unfulfilled wishes is also nice, so we can at least keep track of what properties we still need to beg for.

Pages 45 and 55: Shame on you ToyFare! You know somewhere there’s some 28 year old guy who mistakenly remembered a Bearriors cartoon and toy line and spent countless hours fruitlessly searching eBay for the figures for years until he gave up and had to seek professional counseling. And that man is me.

Pages 56 through 63: This “Lost Toys” article is pretty great. It’s funny how many figures we’re shown that never make it into production. Some of these are completely understandable… I mean… Opraman? But some of the others i can’t fathom why they got ditched. That Sakura Jr. rocks among a lot of the other ones here.

Pages 66 through 79: A list of the top 100 toys from the last ten years is guaranteed to spark debate throughout the toy collecting community. Or not. This is a rather excellent list and it really don’t come as any surprise that the 20th Anniversary Optimus Prime topped it. My only gripe is that Masterpiece Voltron should have been a bit higher on the list. Oh wait, my other gripe is that he should be in my collection and he is not.

Pages 80 through 92 - Twisted ToyFare Theatre: Out of the last several Twisted ToyFare Theatre’s, this one is the best. Up until this point the jokes seemed a little off, but this one really nails it. I don’t even watch the show Lost and it ruled. Hey, don’t look at me that way. I don’t pay for cable and I don’t have an antenna for TV goodness.

Ad Opposite Page 92: The aged Star Wars photo really creeps me out.

Pages 94 and 95 - The 10 Hottest Action Figures: Damn it, why can’t I ever find any JLU figures that aren’t the same four at retail?

Pages 96 through 103 - Price Guide: Big Shots are back!!! Sort of. I’m going to take issue with the reason given why they aren’t included anymore, that is there are more word balloons in the rest of the magazine. That is all fine and good, but the reason why Big Shots works so well is that the characters are set up in situations where comedy gold can ensue. Sure a one off bubble can be hilarious, but when you have the potential of several toys in a precarious situation, the comedy potential is nearly at critical mass. I ask that they be brought back… maybe one or two an issue? I’ve never heard of a magazine not doing a popular and heavily demanded feature. Hear our cry Lords of ToyFare!

Ad opposite page 105: Again, Hasbro has one damn fine ad agency working for them.

That’s all I got for this issue. Sorry I didn’t have a whole lot to say other than heaping fulls of praise, but this issue rocked my socks so hard I have to head to the store to buy a new pair. As always, I’d appreciate hearing how you felt about the issue. I know more than two of my readers read ToyFare and if you don’t, well you stink.

toy, toy collecting, toy collectors, hobby, ToyFare, magazine