Review > Orion and Lightray TRU Exclusive

December 11, 2008 | Poe

(Click on any photo for a hi-res version.)

Don’t you hate it when you buy a DVD right when it comes out, only for the “super special director’s cut mega edition with a free puppy and a coupon for a bikini wax” to come out for five bucks more a few months later?

Wait, that needs some set-up.

Mattel’s DC Universe Classics two-packs are finally showing up at retail. They’re a Toys ‘R Us exclusive, but so far they seem much more plentful than Walmart’s borderline-mythical wave. The four packs are: Cyborg Superman and Mongul, Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) and Azrael, Hal Jordan (first appearance) and Abin Sur, and the subject of today’s review, Orion and Lightray. The first four are re-releases of DC Super Heroes figures.

This was the only pack I was interested in. I’ve got the first four figures and didn’t feel like I needed another Hal Jordan or a figure of Abin Sur, who was alive for about five minutes in the DCU before giving his ring to Jordan. But Lightray was a brand-new figure, and while Orion is mostly a re-release of the DCUC1 figure, he has a spiffy new removable helmet–hence my labored DVD metaphor that began this review! (more…)

Kids and MOTUC

December 10, 2008 | Poe

I’m not going to suggest this story is representative of how kids might react to MOTUC were it a normal retail line, but this story warmed my already-pretty-fuzzy heart.

Back in 2002 my son quickly fell in love with the relaunch of MotU but due to not being able to find anyone other than He-Man and Skeletor variants he also quickly fell out of love with it. Now he’s 11 and here comes the MotUC. I showed him pics of the upcoming exclusive and he never seemed to be interested but when he saw the actual King Grayskull figure he flipped out saying that it’s the most awesome figure he’s ever seen and that he wants one now. I go on the internet and show him pictures of the other figures coming out and he’s all excited saying he wants 1 of each too. I also had to go online and disappoint him by showing him that King Grayskull is sold out and that you can only get him by paying around $75. I also had to disappoint him even further by explaining I’m not about to pay $75 for a figure and that he may have to wait for Christmas. Well he wanted it now. I had to go to Atlanta with my girlfriend this past weekend and when I got back to my parents’ house to pick my son up he shows me the receipt from where he purchased it for $68. Turns out he wanted it so bad he washed and vacuumed family members’ cars for $20 each and he raked and mowed my parent’s yard. All that for a King Grayskull figure. Makes a father proud!

PGPoA’s Holiday Contest

December 10, 2008 | Poe

I’d been thinking about doing this, and a few of the comments in my last Odds ‘n Ends have sealed the deal.

The contest is easy, and I’m not even going to bother with a bunch of rules and so forth: the first person to email me with a complete list of every item in my holiday Odds ‘n Ends photo, along with the action figure it originally came with, wins a free Santa Spud (seen here). Anyone can enter except me (obviously), OB1, Red Kryptonite and Dr. Mrs. Ghostal.

To help make things fair, I’m going to edit or delete every previous comment in which someone has identified an item.

For reference, I’ve posted the Odds ‘n Ends holiday photo after the jump.

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News round-up, 12/10/08

December 10, 2008 | Poe

Wow, where did yesterday go? Anyway…

10 Questions with > The Four Horsemen

December 9, 2008 | Poe

The Four Horsemen are special friends of PGPoA, having opened the site with an interview a year ago and again appearing at the six–month mark. As befits their special status, they get to answer ten questions instead of just five (whether this is a privilege or an extra obligation is subject to debate, but I digress).

Once again, the Horsemen have taken time out their extremely busy schedule to collectively answer ten questions from PGPoA. (more…)

Odds ‘n Ends

December 9, 2008 | Poe

As always, feel free to add your own odds ‘n ends in the comments!

ODD: This week’s issue of ToyFare features at least two awesome things: photos of Mattel’s next Mattycollector-exclusive DCUC two-pack (Ultraman and Alex Luthor) and an interview with Geoff Johns by yours truly. Buy it at your local comic shop tomorrow, or I’ll come to your house and smash all your fine china. (more…)