I did get one score I won't mention here, but I did get a couple decent picks at the most recent toy show. Like this giant Wookie!
Aw, that picture's a little fuzzy...sorry. Pretty sure that's a Star Wars Collector Series 12-inch Chewbacca in Chains, and it's more of a stuffed toy than an action figure. I don't think he really has joints! Back in the 90's, there were a ton of Star WarsandStar Trek 12-inch figures, that were super mass-market: they weren't exactly Hot Toys quality, but they weren't the hard plastic bludgeons with five points of articulation that you find on the shelves today.
This one was down to $20, so kind of had to: a Toy Biz Marvel Legends Destroyer! Back from series 15 in 2006, the Build-a-Figure MODOK wave. The OAFE review will break it down for you, and we've had a Marvel Select and a Marvel Legends of it since, but I had never seen one that cheap, so...I got a cheap and still carded Hallow's Eve from the same vendor, but he had a ton of old Toy Biz pre-Legends stuff up too. I was hoping to find a Madame Web, but no dice.
Still, it's always a bit of fun to wander around and see stuff. And of course, I did get a stack of comics! We'll maybe look at one tomorrow.
1. Still on 50+ hours a week, so if I seem a bit fried sometimes; I'm a bit fried. That and it's perfectly seasonable winter weather out, as in cold as all get out. Or at least it was when I started this! Between all that and the pitch blackness, and the general state of everything, these don't feel like super fun times; yet this silly blog continues, because of course it does.
2. A couple weeks ago, Pamela Anderson was in the Criterion Closet, and I guess her picks were pretty legit? I'm not a serious enough film guy to say: I used to watch more artsy, "classic" films for a while; but I think I watched just enough to get the jokes and references I'd see elsewhere. But what hit me on watching that, was, why don't I have a Criterion Closet of my own? A. Because I rent this crummy house and don't have a spare closet or whatever, and B. Do I even own any Criterion discs? True, but putting that aside...(Actually, I have one: early John Woo, Last Hurrah for Chivalry.)
I don't think Criterion is real strong on horror or sci-fi, which is largely why I haven't invested in (m)any: RoboCop would have been one of the few I could've been tempted on, but I think a lot of the special features from that have turned up elsewhere later. Also, a quick web search claims the Criterion Closet has 1500 DVD/Blu-Rays in it; although that probably includes duplicates for people to take. But, out of the 40 most commonly picked movies from the Criterion Closet, I've seen three, maybe four. Would like to pick up some more David Lynch, but I lowball a lot of these, and take used, plain DVD's as needed. (Got Dune a week or two back for like a buck!) Geez, there was actually a sale since I started this post; I did just order Lost Highway and Mulholland Dr. (I haven't seen either in years! I'm pretty sure I saw them both in theater with the same batch of co-workers; drinking before, during, and after the films, trying to piece together what we just saw...)
Anyway, I would like a set-up like that for my collection. Although, I wonder how I would arrange it? Reckon like most of you, I have a pile of discs that were either cheap as hell, or cheap enough they were worth buying to see; many of which I probably wouldn't watch again. (Or movies that were part of some bizarre deal, like buy this DVD, get a ticket to that movie.) That includes assorted low-end horror movies, but also stuff like Joker. Those would definitely go on the lower, filler shelves...I have a DVD rack full of DC animated movies, but that's about as organized as I get. (There were a couple stragglers on the bottom of that rack; like that Quartermass and the Pit DVD I couldn't find!) As I type this, I might do a little DVD shopping here in a bit: somebody posted a scene from The One, a movie I absolutely love. Jet Li vs. the multiverse, years before the latter was all over the damn place. Since my DVD's are spread across multiple racks...and a boxful somewhere...I dug around to see if I had it, and now I'm annoyed that I don't seem to. When I end up with two copies, this is why! Still, just something I've been gnawing on in my head. Digital and streaming is convenient, and there are a lot of movies I've seen there that I absolutely don't need to own, but you can't have faith in those services that they won't take movies away later.
3. OK, real talk for a second: most of you have probably noticed, things in America aren't great. And while it sucks, there are things you can do: a simple one, is to contact your senators and your representative. Call them, email them, go down to their offices and boo them. (If they're on the right track, let them know too; but what are the odds of that?) Keep an ear out for protests in your area: if nothing else, it'll make you feel better to see other people that also see things aren't what they should be. That said, be careful out there: I went to one recently, and was safe as houses, because it was almost entirely middle-class and/or senior citizen white people. Depending on where you are, it might be less friendly; which also sucks but do what you can. Every little bit helps, I think, like chipping away at stone.
4. Hey, my Serpent Society got another member!...sort of.
I really enjoyed Captain America: Brave New World, although not without quibbles: Giancarlo Esposito is a get, but his Sidewinder is just a gunsel, his "Serpent" is a mere militia, hardly a Society. That feels like a waste, especially since the Cap movies did that already with Batroc, sucking all the character out of him and just leaving an angry French thug.
5. There is a candy store in the local mall, that I seemingly only visit when some candy I like is discontinued forever. First it was Atomic Fireballs, then those Super Mario Wonder Balls: ugh, we used to be a country that made things. Both of those still might be available, if you really dig and/or pay through the nose; but by and large have gone the way of Crystal Pepsi, or Big Lots. I don't know if anyone reading had the latter in their neck of the woods, and the selection really varied from time to time or by location, but over the years along with a lot of discontinued or semi-expired food I did get a fair number of figures and DVD's from Big Lots: a bunch of the old Masters of the Universe Classics, for instance, or those aforementioned DC animated movies or box sets. I know it's just another faceless, soulless corporate entity, but I don't like seeing something like that go under, because it feels more and more like there's only two stores to buy anything from, and one of them's Amazon. (I still get a few things from there, but I don't love it and could probably get less still.)
I suspect more of you have an Ollies nearby, or a Five Below; for all your discount crap needs. Lucky!
6. Right this second, I have one of the Marvel Legends Nemesis Build-a-Figure wave: Fabian Cortez. "Yay, my Fabian Cortez figure came in!"...said no one, ever. I don't know why these seem to be a staggered release, instead of opening a box and the whole wave's right there: I'll probably have Marrow and Husk this week, and I've seen the latter and the Ultimate Wolverine at GameStop so far. For some reason...and I feel like you should drink every time I say that...the X-Factor Cyclops is late, like it won't show up until weeks after the others.
I pre-ordered ROM and Spider-Man '77...in fact, I ordered two of each of them. "One to stay, and one to play," an old boss of mine would say. I have done virtually no serious planning on this, but I do have the half-assed notion of opening a shop in six or seven years. Which is a good excuse to horde--er, I mean, collect duplicates!
The above picture, of my mini Micronauts collection, includes the new Super7 ReAction Biotron; who I thought I would be a good size to go with the little ones from...um...eBay? They were part of a Hasbro Comicon thing a few years back, which I think included a 3-and-3/4 inch ROM. And the below picture, um, I pretty much bought that Fortnite motorboat for one joke. No regrets!
7. Ooh, it might be bike weather next week! I'm hoping my tires are still good, but I'm probably going to be sticking close to home for a bit: I wrecked my foot a little last year, although oddly, now it's the other one that seems to hurt? Getting old blows. Go have fun now while you can!
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Mobius and Thena are both Target exclusives, but locally didn't arrive at the same time or at the same store: I picked Mobius up Sunday, Thena yesterday. I don't think I'm all in on the Eternals figures; I'm not even sure I'm all in for the movie. It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't seem to have the bold color of Kirby's comic; and I think Marvel went with a director who used a more naturalistic, outdoorsy palette? I feel like I'm going to get the Eternals with some comic presence, like Sersi and Ikaris; although I'd kind of prefer comics figures.
Anyway, out today, so have a good weekend!
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It took a bit of looking, and the one I bought was the only one I've seen so far, but Saturday we picked up the newest Marvel Legends Nova! Granted, I'm more excited for the upcoming Quasar from Walgreens, but still neat.
This is like Nova's third Legend; and the younger version got one as well, but yet another Nova will be getting a figure: Frankie Raye, herald of Galactus, will get a Marvel Legend with the Haslabs version of her boss. I chipped in for that over the weekend as well, before it hit 20,000 or whatever to unlock Morg. Is Morg a deep cut now? He got the push back in the 90's but I can't recall if he's been seen for years. Also, I was trying to confirm if Ron Marz sprung for one, since I'm pretty sure he created Morg. (It may set a bad precedent, but Haslabs should just give him one!)
Ugh, way too much flash today, sorry. Sometime next month my Sentinels from Haslabs should show up, which leaves me with a quandary for my Year in Toys numbers: they were paid for last year, but didn't arrive then. I think they are going to be "charged" on arrival date then. Which I'm not doing consistently, since I had some pre-orders where some figures arrived earlier than others, but I may have just counted one total. I'm never going to be 100% accurate, but still want to keep it in the ballpark.
Let's see...currently on pre-order, I have a couple Ultrons--all the other Ursa Major figures are here! That's always a killer, but it's easy to see he'd be a star of that wave. (And probably reissued at some point.) Tigra is arriving sooner than I had expected, and I have the Watcher wave and Web-Man (Bizarro Spidey!) ordered from GameStop. Ah, I almost forgot, I pre-ordered the reissue Marvel Select Watcher as well!
I think Legion may have already shipped from Target. I did miss the Mobius pre-order, though. I was expecting Legion later, though, because I preordered him with the 1Up X-Men arcade game! (Because I wanted it and by God I deserve it!) I don't think I'll be tempted by Legion's Age of Apocalypse wave-mates; and Legion got the buy because he was the second lead in the Nightcrawler-centric Way of X. (Which is over already, setting up some Onslaught crossover or something; but had a hard misstep the third issue, that I could natter on about for ever.)
I have a tendency to spread out orders and pre-orders, even before exclusives are involved. I think he's a Wal-Mart exclusive: the Compound Hulk was down to just over $20 at one point; so I ordered him and Winter Soldier: Bucky is here already, CH is still over two months out. From Amazon, I pre-ordered Psycho-Man and the High Evolutionary: I don't know if either will be hugely popular, but both look really sharp, and I do love expanding the character roster. Still, they maybe aren't coming until March 2022? I say it all the time, but that seems like a million years away.
Is that everything? Probably need to add some more.
Shoot, I may have to do that several times: I made a hefty, for me, purchase the other day; which started with a ten-dollar figure that hasn't turned up yet, then snowballed into pre-ordering a bunch of stuff I was probably going to get anyway, right? Like the new M.O.D.O.K. and Xenmu/villain Marvel Legends wave.
And Jar Jar...I don't know. I think I thought he would be fun, or funny, or I would be sorry if I missed getting him. But he wasn't as wacky or happy-go-lucky seeming as I expected. Even the back of the package seems like a dark and foreboding reading before Biography goes to commercial: "A clumsy, well-meaning Gungan outcast on Naboo, Jar-Jar Binks struggled to prove his worth throughout his life." That sounds like he got into drugs, didn't he?
Be that as it may, while we're here, we may as well justify another purchase: a quick bit with the new Marvel Legends Firestar!
Spidey's right, she doesn't really have fire powers, you know. Just don't mention it to her, or question her on it, or anything.
All right, I may be overthinking some of this, but some recent pickups:
The Walgreens streak continues, with the new Silver Surfer figure with Mjolnir. I have not read those issues, but I do believe that's for future-Thanos-fighting. Is he absolutely necessary? Not really, but he's nice. I would've almost preferred the Keeper look from Valentino's Guardians of the Galaxy, where future Surfer was still silver but also had Quasar's quantum bands--and Hasbro did just announce a Walgreen-exclusive Quasar, coming after their Nova later this year.
Also: Fortnite's 8-Ball! Pretty nice figure, although the jointed hands continue to be somewhat annoying. Still haven't played the game, but I could probably be persuaded for the upcoming Kit and Midas figures. (I kind of want Midas for a custom, which I rarely do; but it would involve swapping out those hands anyway, so...)
I really wanted this Hot Wheels "hover pram" Grogu/the Child/Baby Yoda vehicle, but was surprised how close it was in scale to the Star Wars Black figure. Neat.
Every time I get all the pieces for a Build-a-Figure, I take a picture of them before putting it together. If I was smart, I'd have put all those pictures in the same folder...
I really feel like I caved on this one: I bought the Gamerverse Atmosphere Iron Man and Stealth Captain America, just because I got a bee in my bonnet to finish Joe Fixit. Who could really have used alternate hands, but okay. Atmosphere is an okay armor, with an alternate unmasked head that's closer to Adam Pally than Tony Stark. (Go watch Iron Man 3 again.) I just took the leg out of Stealth, then put a Spider-Man figure from a Kinder egg and a five dollar bill, and that will go to Toys for Tots towards the end of the year: that struck me as a cheat, but some kid would probably enjoy him more than I would, but they probably wouldn't be able to build Fixit, right? If I see him on the pegs somewhere in January 2022, then I know it didn't work...
The Hand Ninja, well, it was the first one I'd seen in the wild, so I had to, right? Due to the Conservation of Ninjutsu, he's probably a bad-ass; if your Stilt-Man is three feet tall your ninjas are weaksauce...I still haven't seen a Gwen/Spider-Ham figure, though; and it seems like the Peter Parker and Frogman figures might be building up a bit?
Coming up next: I guess the House of X figures are soon, and...meh? I'll probably get Moira and whatever the Omega Sentinel girl is. I'm probably all in on the villains wave so I can build Xemnu, even though I'm not super-loving the whole line-up. Hood as a yelling d-bag seems about right for him, and Arcade seems well put together; but Dormammu I was fine with the BaF version, I don't really need the A.I.M. Scientist Supreme unless I wanted to put together an army of them. (And I don't, I just like Amy!) I feel like I've bought more than enough Red Skull figures over the years, I don't have any attachment to Lady Deathstrike, and that Doom is event specific and awful: it gives the impression of a bare torso, which would be weirdly showy for him, like wearing Destro's v-neck and medallion or something. I'd have preferred Doom 2099, or Walt Simonson's sadly forgotten look for him. But I don't think I can pass on Xemnu, so...
I could conceivably talk myself into or out of a couple of Mezco One:12 figures: Christopher Reeve movie Superman, or Morbius. They also announced a Fantastic Four, that looks like it's going to be a set; and I've already seen people trying to puzzle out how to just get the Thing. Good luck! The One:12 stuff, if you think you maybe might want it; honestly, bite the bullet. Odds of the price going down later aren't good, and the availability could dry up in a snap. Worst case, you're probably going to recoup a lot of your costs if you decide to sell down the line. I think. None of anything I ever say should be considered "advice."
It's white suits all the way around today, as we glance at some more Fortnite figures: from McFarlane Toys, Fortnite Wild Card Black; from Jazwares, Fortnite Legendary Wild Card; and... From Mezco, One: 12 Collective Moon Knight. As always, the Amazon links are for reference only: if you're interested in the figures, please buy them somewhere someone cool gets a kickback.
The two McFarlane Wild Cards I'm not sure I had seen before finding at Ross, which was like getting two for one. The Jazwares figures have been easier to find; Heart there was from a Fred Meyer with a double-coupon bringing him down to under five bucks. Moon Knight is running about $80--for now. Some of the One: 12 offerings might hang out for a while, others disappear quickly and more than double in price. The earlier crescent edition MK is already creeping up; so if you have any interest it had best be sooner rather than later. (I used points to get mine about half-off, so roughly the price of two new Marvel Legends.)
The McFarlane Wild Cards came with two heads, Club or Spade. Heart and Diamond are in another box, with alternate accessories: Club/Spade have the suction-cup grappling-hook gun and a blue llama backpack that probably means something if you play the game. Heart/Diamond have the crowbar and briefcase, and both have a plain black base. Jazwares comes with alternate faceplates for each suit, along with the briefcase (and dangling handcuffs), crowbar, and a gun that resembles a Desert Eagle. I didn't take a picture, but comparing them both with an average-sized Marvel Legends figure--the most recent Mr. Fantastic--McFarlane is about half-a-head taller, Jazwares about half-a-head shorter. It's up to you if they play well together!
Likewise, Moon Knight scales well, with the top of his hood a bit taller than Mr. Fantastic. I know some might not care aesthetically for cloth outfits with other figures; again, up to you. There is a lot of cape, but it's pleasantly light compared to some of the hard plastic shells you get with Legends sometimes. I do feel like I have to wash my grubby little paws constantly to play with him, though. As usual for the line, he has a ton of accessories: alternate partially-unmasked head and hood piece, a staff, grappling-hook, nunchucks, crescent blade, eight alternate hands, and a stand with very elaborate cape-posing pieces. The One: 12 slipcase packaging is also collector-friendly--you could pack it back up for resale easily enough--if overly fancy for my tastes. But I'm cheap; I wouldn't mind if Mezco just threw it all in a bag and tossed it at me.
This is my first Marvel One: 12, but I've had a few of the Star Trek figures for a while. The joints take some getting used to, since you can't see where they are under the cloth outfit. The head and hands all pop on and off easily enough; but I have heard complaints the staff and nunchucks are sharp! Don't poke yourself and bleed on him, I don't know how you would clean that off.
I hadn't read the Mr. Knight version of Moon Knight in a while, from the Warren Ellis relaunch. I forgot that it was all white--tie, gloves, everything--and there was a moon-symbol on his mask. I did try both Mezco heads on the McFarlane body; but they are just sitting there: the neck-peg is actually part of the head.
So far Hasbro hasn't announced either a "Mr. Knight" or a classic Moon Knight; and if they don't this year I suspect that will be it until the Disney+ series comes out; which is scheduled for what, 2022 or something? Another date that seems both a million years away and optimistic as hell, but I suppose will be here soon enough. The clickbait sites had indicated Daniel Radcliffe from the Harry Potter movies was a front-runner; which could be either wishful thinking or scaremongering depending on if you're a fan or not. I don't think casting is even that far along, yet.
I was out for a bit this weekend and hoped to randomly stumble across a McFarlane Heart/Diamond, to finish the hand, as it were. Maybe later. In the meantime, I'm still using the last Hasbro Marvel Legends Moon Knight in strips, because in-story I haven't hit a point to swap off! One:12 may get more play later.
I still haven't played Fortnite either, but my oldest son does. He played a few games while doing laundry a bit ago, and got second twice! Which is pretty good, but also like getting tackled on the goal line as time runs out. I'd better ask if he's gotten a win yet!
OK, pretty good toy haul Friday and Saturday! Starting with the new (She-)Hulk and Shang-Chi!
Next, the Walgreens exclusive Marvel Legends Stepford Cuckoo! I don't think I realized she was out yet; so yay! Three heads and a Cerebro helmet with her. I don't know if I have any plans for her character, but it keeps my string of Walgreens figures going.
Also that haul: this mini-Megatron! Someone had posted notice of these on Twitter, but so far he's the only one I found; and even that was a stroke of luck: his package was alone, on the back corner of a shelf. Very pleased to have him; I love miniature Transformers. Still tempted to buy a full case, though. The Dollar Stores also came through with multiple DC Animated DVDs, like Justice League Action and Batman vs. Robin; and a little Toy Story 4 Forky, because my son finds "Forky Asks a Question" hysterical. I don't know!
Saturday, we hit the next town over, for Doctor Doom! Doom's two per case, but moved pretty quickly here; yet I still feel like he should be more available later. That completes the Super-Skrull, although a warning: his legs were really tough to peg in! Out of the Spider-Man Demogoblin figures, I nearly picked up White Rabbit but haven't yet; and didn't see a single Vulture.
In case all that wasn't enough: I got the most recent Crisis 100-pager, a good stack of dollar comics, a Legion flight ring, a Hot Wheels Batwing, an Iron Man novel I hadn't seen before: that's a haul that's going to be tough to beat!
At a local Wal-Mart at the crack of early yesterday, I found the latest Marvel Legends Invisible Woman and Thing--actually, looking at the packaging in the recycling, they're "Marvel's Invisible Woman" and "Marvel's Thing." Presumably to distinguish them from anybody else's Invisible Woman and Thing. Only those two (and one of the Gamerverse Spidey's) and I think they may have been left since the aforementioned packaging wasn't completely mint. I may have hesitated for a moment before buying them; since I don't necessarily need the FF in every outfit? But I do need a Super-Skrull, so there you go.
Since Ben is huge--a right hefty package! Ladies... Um, he comes with two Skrull heads, but nothing for himself. If you have the Walgreens exclusive Thing, you could of course swap the heads and hands, but they may or may not look right for you: Walgreens Thing had a darker paint wash filling in his rocky crags and cracks; new Ben is lighter. New Ben's orange isn't consistent, either...my camera is charging, let me try a picture with my phone.
Is that weird? It may be noticeable in-hand or super macro photos, and I wonder if this means New Ben's head won't look right on the Walgreens Thing. New Ben's face is very much the Thing, but a very glum Thing. He does have a bit of a Muppet-y look to him, doesn't he?
...why did Kurt need a horsy ride? Because Ben is the effing coolest and everybody's always glad to see him, even if he isn't. Kurt's also probably mangling the name of Don Quixote's horse; but at least 60% of what I know about Don Quixote is from Don-Wan Kihotay from Star Wars #10.
Also yesterday morning, I saw some of McFarlane's new DC figures, and I wish him the best but they did nothing for me. I think somebody else has the license for smaller figures, since there was a three-and-three-quarter inch or thereabouts Batman as well; and some fairly large Iron Giant and Robby the Robot figures.
I don't play a lot of video games of late, and certainly not current ones, yet I keep buying action figures from them, usually on the cheap. So far this year we've seen McFarlane's Destiny 2 line and their Fortnite Skull Trooper. Today we've got Hasbro's Overwatch Ultimates: Hanzo/Genji and Tracer/McCree.
I don't know much about Overwatch, but I do know these are probably alternate 'skins' for the characters. Back in the day, they would be the 'Player 2' looks, kind of like the difference between home and away jerseys; except I'm hoping these don't cost extra in-game. These two-packs were originally scheduled under code-names: Tracer and McCree, for example, were Chili/Mango. I don't know if Hasbro was trying to keep the lid on what they had coming, but I wonder if repaints were what fans wanted, or if the demand had been met with the single-carded figures.
These two-packs were $9.99 each at Ross, which works out to five bucks a figure! There were two other two-pack options, so I may have to keep my eyes open; but I was looking for seriously marked-down DC Multiverse figures. So don't necessarily make a separate trip looking for these, either; it's always a bit of a crapshoot. And we'll actually have at least one more video game figure before the end of the year! Read more!
Monday, August 26, 2019
Although lately I'm more likely just to buy the whole wave at once if I want the Build-a-Figure, sometimes I have the bright idea of holding out for sales or clearance. The trick then is to get any figures that might sell out before that point, which is why I sprung for Mr. Sinister now. (Using some points and whatnot, he was under nine bucks!) He does look pretty happy with his evil, I have to admit. I don't have all the Wendigo parts yet, but I really figure a couple will be dirt cheap down the line. (COUGH! Cannonball! COUGH!)
I bought Silver Samurai a couple weeks ago, but hadn't opened him until today. I thought he would be the tough one to find, but I hadn't seen Storm until now; and I didn't think I could count on seeing her later. I paid full price for Dazzler earlier and I also suspect she'll be discounted later; probably the Iceman as well.
Other recent purchases: DC Multiverse figures! Remember them? Depending on your area, you may or may not see these on the pegs; and Amazon thinks they'll be out mid-October. So far in this Batman/Killer Croc series, I've picked up KGBeast, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Alfred.
Alfred is the money figure: he comes with a drink and a tray--and four heads! Starting with a comic-based likeness. He also has a better neck joint than most Mattel DC figures, and can look up! (That joint is ugly as homemade sin from some angles, though.)
There's a Michael Gough likeness; he played Alfred in the movies from 1989 to 1997. Perfect for letting just about anyone into the Batcave! Interestingly, Gough was actually close friends with his predecessor: Batman '66 Alfred, Alan Napier! I had thought the fourth head was the ancient Alfred from the Dark Knight Returns, but Dale corrected me, it's Alfred as the Outsider! Or Riff Raff from Rocky Horror Picture Show. (I didn't even like that movie, but that's what it reminded me of!) Mattel has a Michael Caine Alfred head; and I wonder if they lost the likeness rights or if the neck peg didn't match these others. We've seen the Diamond Select Gotham Alfred as well. I wonder if that Pennyworth will get a figure eventually.
Ah, I did find Batman and Katana before posting this! Katana is...pretty blah, honestly. The Batman is Dick Grayson, and comes with an unmasked head and loose cowl accessory. I don't know if I love the unmasked, but it's not bad.
Killer Croc may be a bit oversized, depending on your tastes; but he doesn't look like a scary villain, he looks like a cheerful yokel that maybe lives three manholes down from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Maybe we'll see him more later. Read more!
