Maybe if I scan this, I can read it without my glasses.

I typically don't have a lot of Christmas shopping: I don't have a huge family, and I give a lot of cash and gift cards and such. I did get a few toys for my grandkids, and then I had to make a Target run for Giant Sorry! Last year, my sister claimed--somewhat aggrievedly--that I used to beat her all the time at that, but she only lost all those games because she couldn't read. I...don't think that's entirely true, but that gets her a new game. It's pretty giant; I guess. Actually, now I want to see life-size Sorry! like human chess on the Prisoner; guys dressed as giant pawns taking runs at each other...

Anyway, I got a few of the World's Smallest blind-boxed figures: Masters of the Universe Orko and Teela, and Arcee from the Transformers. I don't love blind-boxes, but these came with wee little comics as well! The Masters are reprints that came with the figures back in the day, but of course the Transformers #5 was a Marvel book from 1985: I don't think I realized until after he passed, but that cover was from the great M.D. Bright.

Hmm, the paint looked better in hand than that picture; but admittedly my vision could be better. Still, I was glad to get Arcee: I like little Transformers, but they don't always get real deep into the roster. It took a long time for her to even get a figure, surprisingly; but I think early Arcee figures were "shellformers." She strongly resembles the 2020 War for Cybertron: Earthrise figure. 

Interior scan from "The Fastest Draw in the Universe!" Written by Steven Grant, pencils by Mike Vosburg, inks by Greg Brooks. Originally that came with the Rio Blast action figure, but World's Smallest includes it with Orko.

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"The End" Week: Masters of the Universe #13!

We saw part one earlier this year so why not the last issue conclusion? From 1988, Masters of the Universe #13, "Lifetime, part 2" Written by George Caragonne, art by Ron Wilson, inks by Danny Bulanadi.

After losing his Power Sword to the future, Prince Adam finds himself in the new timeline ruled by Skeletor; as the older Prince Adam, Teela, Clamp Champ and new Man-at-Arms are the last of the resistance. When Teela is captured, the heroes make a last desperate assault on Skeletor's forces, which seems doomed to failure until they find the Power Sword, mounted on a wall like a trophy. Both past and future Adams power up into He-Man, and the future Adam and Skeletor fight to the death as Castle Grayskull collapses around them.

Even with the sword, Adam feels that by neglecting his responsibilities he caused all of this; but he's trapped in the future until Teela finds a spare homing device for the time machine, left by Man-at-Arms just in case. Given a second chance, Prince Adam returns to his time, and to the mantle of He-Man. "He-Man is here to stay!" he proclaims...on the last page of his last Marvel issue. Well, he'd be back in comics later.

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In the cartoon, he could learn an object lesson without the deaths of everyone he ever knew...

Per Battlegrip and a buncha other places, Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics line may be ending after the next subscription year. Maybe? Or maybe rolling into something else, like a movie-based line or a new incarnation. Maybe they just wanted to use that Game of Thrones-styled ad and slogan. But, that means it's as good a time as any to look at another time MOTU was ending: from 1988, Masters of the Universe #12, "Lifetime" Written by George Caragonne, art by Ron Wilson, inks by Danny Bulanadi.

Prince Adam was facing the Clark Kent dilemma: his alter-ego, He-Man, got all the credit; while his friends and family were left to think Adam was a cowardly tool. Man-at-Arms Duncan tries to explain that the secret identity gimmick both kept his loved ones safe and gave them a tactical advantage over Skeletor, but Adam feels it's now a liability: instead of calling for help from Champ Clamp or any of the other heroic masters, everyone always goes crying for He-Man at the slightest emergency. Duncan seems to be proven right, though, when Skeletor attacks them in Duncan's workshop! Tying Adam and Duncan up, Skeletor explains that when He-Man comes to rescue them (don't ask why he doesn't recognize Adam as He-Man: say it's magic) his brainwaves will activate a bomb, that "will blast He-Man into the distant future and out of my hair forever!" Wait, Skeletor has hair? Um, I'm not going to think about that any further.

But, since Adam's brainwaves are the same as He-Man's, the bomb's countdown begins immediately! Getting loose from his bonds, Adam throws his sword into the bomb, short-circuiting it and sending the sword into the future! A pissy Skeletor claims he can't build another one of those, and didn't want to just send Adam's stupid sword into the future, so he'll get revenge on Adam...on some future date. He's busy now. But Skeletor doesn't realize he may have succeeded: by separating Adam from the sword, he can't change into He-Man! Which he didn't want to anyway, but since Duncan can track the sword to the future with his "dimensional early warning system," Adam feels he should recover the sword to return it to the Sorceress at Castle Grayskull.

Of course, when Adam arrives thirty years in the future, it's a totalitarian nightmare ruled by Skeletor, that's made up of equal parts 1984 and the X-Men Days of Future Past. Adam's parents were imprisoned, as was the Sorceress, who sacrifices herself to give Adam a weapon to escape. He finds the resistance, made up of Teela, who had taken the mantle of the Sorceress, an aged Champ Clamp, and Prince Adam. Wait, that would mean the younger Adam either got back to the past, without the Sword of Power and unable to transform into He-Man, or never went! To rally the troops, the younger Adam defaces the grave marker Skeletor put up for He-Man, proclaiming "Skeletor lies!! He-Man Lives!!!"

We may have to come back to the conclusion at some later date, but the story works pretty well so far...except for having two Adams.
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"Everyone's treated Uniformly."

If you're a fan of action figure, or action figure blogs, you've probably seen that Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation is going on hiatus. Which sucks, but I wish him the best.

It's the sort of thing that makes some wonder, how long do you plan on blogging? Or, as Battlegrip wonders, is there something else you could be doing, to make your blog bigger and better? For me, the answers are "for the foreseeable future, as long as I can" and "probably, but eh." I still enjoy what I'm doing here, and if you do too, then so much the better. But I don't see myself making any sort of concerted effort to drum up readers or anything. I've thought about taking some time to set up an ad at Project Wonderful, which is a good idea, but I don't know if I could or should use Nightcrawler and Deadpool for an ad, since I don't own them. (Speaking of, coming soon, an extra-length Nightcrawler and Deadpool story!)

Figure I'm just going to keep plugging along, as usual. I've often said, not entirely jokingly, that a good chunk of the reason I keep this blog is my personal hedge against senility; and the other reason is to make little comics that I'd like to see. So, we'll be around. See you then. Read more!

"Stand-In."

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My 2013 MOTUC purchases could be your 2011...

Even though I had purchased a few before, I was surprised in 2013 by Masters of the Universe Classics. Mattel sold a pile of back stock to clearance retailer Big Lots, where they were sold for ten bucks a piece--substantially less than they were sold to subscribers. I bought Vikor in 2011, for $31.20 shipped, and I'm pretty sure the price has gone up since then!

Of course, the Big Lots selection varied from store to store, and when you got there; so there was no guarantee you would get all or any of the figures available. I did pretty well, but then bought a Chief Carnivus off eBay because I never saw him locally and got him without too much markup. ($20.70, more than if I'd found him at Big Lots, but less than direct from Mattel.) I forgot Carnivus and Count Marzo for the picture up top, though.

Further shoring up the MOTUC ranks, I bought another Battleground Teela and an Eternian Palace Guards two-pack from Matty's confusing and not especially deep Black Friday sale. Together they were just under $54 shipped, which is the regular price for the guards, so I guess I could look at it as getting Teela and shipping free.

Finally, I mentioned getting a third DCUC Hawkman in 2013, but I already had him: he was in a MOTUC/DCUC two-pack with Stratos, for five bucks. They can argue it out over who is whose accessory...

While I'm pretty pleased with this lot, I don't know if it has sold me on future MOTUC releases. Maybe? When I can get a deal, anyway? I consider myself a casual fan, and prefer some of the ancillary characters over the leads. I don't know if Mattel will ever unload more stock like they did, but it has to be a pretty special figure to tempt me for thirty-plus bucks.

Still, the potential interchangeability of Masters figures has some appeal to me: third-party manufacturers are starting to make some aftermarket heads that look great. I love the idea of making a few changes and adding a new character to the shelf. We'll see...
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The Eighth Annual, Random Happenstance, Year in Toys!

Normally, when the end of the year rolls around, I'm more than able to give said year the big kiss-off. But 2013? A little bit of all right! Made even better, of course, by the ever-popular Year in Toys!

For new readers: next to my desk at work is a little yellow notebook, in which I have been keeping a running total of every action figure or toy I buy. I started December 2005 and haven't filled it yet, so apparently I'm not buying enough figures. Hopefully, each entry has the figure, the line, the price, and where I bought it; and possibly a link to a cartoon or strip that toy was used in. (Unless that figure's unloved or unphotogenic, I guess. Or I'm lazy...) Totals will usually include postage and tax. Usually. This is by no means a "Best of" list or anything, just what I bought.

As always, most of this list was kept up at OAFE.net, and here's links for 2012, 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006. Eight years of data...of my spending habits, which probably tells you nothing, but still.

1-5 DC Direct Stel, $7.50; Man-of-Bats, $4.50; gohastings.com.

1-11 JLU Superman (with Kandor), $8.77; DC Direct Superwoman, $12.77; Action Figure Nexus. Free postage!

1-31 Star Trek Art Asylum Gorn, loose, $10.49 shipped, eBay.

2-2 Marvel Legends Red Hulk right leg, $14.99 shipped, eBay. 51 months from the first figure to finishing Red Hulk.

2-12 DCUC Matter-Eater Lad, loose from Legion set, $10+$3.54 postage, eBay. Apparently I'm buying my Legion on the installment plan...

2-13 DCD JLA Red Superman, $5.40, Hastings. McGuinness style body. Bought mostly 'cause he was cheap and I hadn't found a figure locally yet this year.

2-14 Ultimate Spider-Man Human Rocket Nova, $12.99, Wal-Mart. Kinda disappointing.

2-14 DC Direct Black Lantern Firestorm, $4.99 with $5.80 postage, eBay. Deathstorm.

2-26 DC Unlimited New 52 Batman, loose, $13.50, eBay.

3-5 DC Signature Collection John Constantine/Hellblazer, loose, $11.50, eBay.

3-15 Marvel Legends Red She-Hulk, Protector, and Hyperion; $19.99 each, Toys R Us, total $65.18. Complete Build-a-Figure Hit-Monkey!

3-27 2 Marvel Battledice Nightcrawlers, $2.00+$2.50 postage, eBay.

3-28 Marvel Spider-Man Squinkies crane, $6.48, Target.

DC Direct Dragon Age Duncan, $5.94, Hastings.

4-5 Loose DCUC: Adam Strange, Black Adam, Mr. Terrific, Beast Boy, Riddler (suit&derby), Joker, Luthor (purple), Brainiac (green), Batman (90's black), Flash, Kid Flash, Steel, Deathstroke, Atom (Indigo), Green Lantern (GA) and Bronze Tiger; and a ML1 Captain America. $45+$9 shipping, eBay.

4-11 NECA Jonah Hex (movie), $2.99, Hastings.

4-18 Batman Unlimited Dark Knight Returns Batman and Planet X Batman (with Bat-Mite!), $21.99 each, $47.63 total, the Comic Book Shop. Great!

4-20 DC Unlimited Hawkman, $18.99, Toys R Us.

5-1 Marvel Select Nightcrawler, $19.80, the Comic Book Shop.

5-14 Iron Man ML Ultron, $14.96, Wal-Mart.

6-1 ML Red Skull (modern, from the Toy Biz Face Off 2-pack) $2.50; Thor, $2, Spokane Comicon.

6-8 Yard sales: Spider-Man, Spider-Car, Captain America flipbot, $.75.

6-9 Movie Masters Superman, $11.19, Fred Meyer.

6-15 McFarlane Movie Maniacs Aliens Hicks, $2, yard sale.

6-28 Young Justice Sportsmaster, $14.04, Ross.

7-5 The Hobbit Tauriel, free, K-Mart.

7-12 Incredible Hulk movie Abomination, $3, yard sale.

7-13 NECA Pacific Rim Crimson Typhoon, $14.99; NECA Predator Jungle Extraction Dutch, $15.99; Toys R Us.

7-14 Mega Blocks Havok, Magneto; free, K-Mart.

7-30 Batman Power Attack Blast&Battle Batcave, $20.98, Target.

8-7 Amazing Spider-Man movie Spidey with Andrew Garfield head, $9, Wal-Mart.

8-8 Marvel Legends Judith Chambers, aka Satana; $23.40+$8 shipping, eBay.

8-9 Masters of the Universe Classics Adora and Moss Man, $9.99 each, total $21.80, Big Lots. Plus my girlfriend got me the Faceless One!

8-15 Star Wars Black six-inch Luke Skywalker, $19.99, Target; Masters of the Universe Classics Icarius, Catra, Count Marzo, and Syklone, $40, Big Lots.

8-20 MOTUC Megator, Grizzlor, Orko/Prince Adam, Mo-Larr/Skeletor, $40, Big Lots.

9-4 MOTUC Clawful, $10.80, Big Lots.

9-11 DC Unlimited Vampire Batman, $21.99, the Comic Book Shop.

9-15 Batman and Robin Classics '66 Wall-Climbing set, $25.60, Amazon. (I don't usually buy from there, but got a deal on a slightly dinged-up box!)

9-28 Star Wars Black R2-D2, $15, K-Mart.

Imaginext blind-bag Spy with Jetpack, $2.99, Wal-Mart.

9-30 Babylon 5 Commander Ivanova, eBay, $3+6.45 postage.

Another MOTUC Adora, $10, Big Lots.

10-1 MOTUC Chief Carnivus, $13.85+6.85 shipping, eBay.

10-2 Rescue Bots Optimus Prime bag, $2.99, Target.

10-3 Imaginext blind-bag Robot, $2.99, Wal-mart.

Marvel Legends BAF Giant-Man left foot, $2.99+1.90 shipping, eBay. The right one is going to be the killer...

Babylon 5 Marcus Cole, $3+7.15 shipping, eBay.

10-12 Lego Galaxy Patrol bag, $3.99, Target.

10-14 Zagbag Batman, $1.99, Walgreens. Felt the ears in the bag.

10-15 (or thereabouts) Ultimate Spider-Man Fighter Pods, $4.23, TJ Maxx.

10-18 Zagbag Catwoman (2) and Cyborg, $5.97 total, Walgreens.

10-25 Toy Biz Age of Apocalypse Weapon X, $30.47 shipped, Amazon. Ow. But finally completed Giant-Man, after seven and a half years!

10-26 Toys R Us exclusive Dark Knight Trilogy set, $20.47, Toys R Us.

11-9 Hive Wars Predator, $16.99; K-Nex Pac-Man and blue ghost (2), $6.38, Toys R Us.

11-12 A Big Box from Big Bad Toy Store! ML Ultimate Cap, $6.99, ML Scarlet Spider $8.99, DCUC 19 set (Kobra, Magog, GA Hawkman, GA Atom, Stargirl, Sandman, and C&C S.T.R.I.P.E.) $64.99, Mech Ideas Long Blast upgrade kit (with Shockwave and Megatron guns) $15.99; total $112.21 shipped.

11-21 Kre-O Soundwave, $0, Toys R Us. (Bought some Christmas presents with some coupons.)

11-27 Movie Masters General Zod (black outfit), $4.96, Target.

12-7 MOTUC Battleground Teela, $10; Eternian Palace Guards two-pack, $27; $53.48 shipped.

12-13 Star Wars Black Slave Leia, $16.29 shipped, HasbroToyShop.com.

12-14 MOTUC vs. DCUC Stratos vs. Hawkman, $5 (plus another for Toys for Tots!) and Mass Effect 3 Miranda, $5, Toys R Us.

12-16 Star Wars Black Han Solo, $16.29 shipped, HasbroToyShop.com.

12-17 Lego blind-bag Barbarian, $3.23, Wal-Mart. I know I bought more of these...

12-21 Heroic Age Iron Man, $8.10, Target.

12-23 Star Wars Black Boba Fett, $16.29, HasbroToyShop.com.

12-24 Marvel Now! Captain America, $16.20, Target.

2013 Total: $1101.93. 2012: $706.32. 2011: $564.71. 2010: $966.10. 2009: $558.16. 2008: $555.16. 2007: $426.00. 2006: $620.00.

If you can believe it, there was actually a stretch this year, where I wondered if there would even be anything for me to buy in 2013! In my defense, DC Universe Classics was dead or as good as; Marvel Legends were barely distributed in stores, and I was more interested in getting new characters than a bunch of variants or new costumes of the same guy. You can see how that turned out...

I had so much fun this year--figure-wise and otherwise! That I think the rest of this week is just going to be expanding on this post, perhaps. Hope you had a great year as well, and stay safe!
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"Best Intern Ever."

Still sort of out? Looking like Thursday we'll be back to our usual schedule. Regular strip tomorrow, the start of a new Nightcrawler and Deadpool serial!
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"And now, Grizzlor's Lament."

More out than usual, so have a good weekend!
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"Double Date."

I didn't find Chief Carnivus in the Big Lots Masters of the Universe Classics sales recently; but got a good deal on him on eBay. That could be the last one for a while, since it looks like the supply is drying up, for the time being anyway. He looks very Thundercats reminiscent, especially the red orb on the sword.



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I probably could've used Namor in this strip, too...

I know Aquaman was paired up with Mer-Man in the Masters of the Universe Classics/DC Universe Classics two-pack, but I could definitely see Clawful giving him the hassle.

Out today, so have a good weekend!
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"They Were Giants in Those Days..."

Sigh. I thought I was oh so clever with that title...and Walt Simonson used it in Thor already! Which is probably where I got it, I'm not sure I knew it was a biblical reference, but oh well.

Anyway, my girlfriend found Megator at a Big Lots a couple of weeks back, and was kind enough to suffer the shame of buying action figures for her shifty layabout boyfriend! (Actually, she's game to pick them up herself, since she claims that's faster than me doing it...) For ten bucks, he is a goodly lump of plastic, if slightly limited on the articulation front. Then again, our old friend Frostilicus, the Hasbro Marvel Universe Savage Frost Giant, has a couple of articulation hang-ups--his hips are blocked by his loincloth-thing, so mine stands a bit wide-legged.

The alternate heads for Megator are kind of nice, though. I know there were Masters fans who bought more than one to display both; or to army build. One giant, good. Two giants, better. Two giants at $10 a piece rather than $40 or whatever he cost originally, great! (I only have the one, right this moment, but he would be tempting if I saw another!)
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Constantine's looking for, um, "Holdin' Caulfield."

Keeping in mind I'm not a huge Swamp Thing or Hellblazer fan, I'm still 95% sure there's at least one story where Swamp Thing gives John marijuana. Something they probably couldn't get away with in the new 52 versions of the characters, yeah. Over at the Hurting, Tim O'Neil has a pretty good post about DC's current house style, where John Constantine and Captain Marvel can crossover, but the charm and innocence of "Shazam" and the dark humor and adult nature of Constantine have both been diluted. Which brings to mind the old saw about mixing ten gallons of ice cream and ten gallons of manure...well, not that either Captain Marvel or Hellblazer were manure by themselves, but maybe you get my point.

Oddly enough, as Tim also pointed out, the Masters of the Universe are going to be crossing over with the Justice League and Justice League Dark; and dear lord, they don't call themselves 'Justice League Dark' in-story, do they? Sounds like a bad M&M flavor. I usually give Keith Giffen a lot of rope, but the new 52 designs and unnecessary and terrible redesigns in the same vein for the He-Man characters...I don't know.

In other news, Masters of the Universe Classics Moss Man was a 2010 figure, that I just picked up at Big Lots recently; and he still has his pine-scent. Like, a lot. Super-piney.

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Luke and Icarius, BFF's.

Sometimes, the simple act of buying two figures on the same day is enough to link them in my mind. Like these two! The new Star Wars Black series Luke Skywalker and the 2011 Masters of the Universe Classics Icarius, or Flipshot.

Luke is in six-inch scale, but more normally proportioned than a super-hero action figure, so he seems more slight. And then compared to Icarius, who's on a He-Man style body, well...

I think Luke will probably be OK, though.

I'm pretty definitely going to cherry-pick on the Star Wars Black figures, but so far? Great! He's going to be a strong contender for figure of the year on a lot of people's lists, and while I don't know if Hasbro is going to get deep into the roster--like every creature in the cantina or anything--I think the 6-inch line is going to do well. I really want to dig up those old Force Battler figures I have, but I suspect the Chewbacca and the Darth Vader will just tower over this Luke. (I really like those figures, too.)

Bonus: that last picture, so Luke could be reasonably close to Adora's height: he's standing on my DVD remote.

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