- I spent about an hour on the new Odds ‘n Ends pic, so I hope you like it–’cause you ain’t gettin’ anything else! I decided to go with a more vertical look this time around. You’d be amazed at how much I mess around with the positioning of the items until I’m satisfied with the look. As it is, I think there’s too much red/orange, but it’ll do.
- DCUC Wave 6 seems to be arriving everywhere–except here in the Northeast, of course. An eBay search within 200 miles of my zip code comes up with nothing. Of course, I have these pre-ordered through Corner Store Comics anyway, but seeing all the pics on the Web–especially this one–doesn’t make the waiting any easier.
- We’ve got an HDTV at the Chez Ghostal household, but no Blu-Ray player. I’m one of those people who thinks Blu-Ray is the new Laserdisc and within five years everything will be available via HD on-demand. But it still bugs me that I have to buy the regular ol’ DVD of The Dark Knight. I do like the digital copy it comes with, though, because…
- …I can watch it on the new Ipod Touch I got for my birthday. I also downloaded Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog, which I hadn’t seen because I am a lazy geek.
- Speaking of being a lazy geek, every day I get more and more worried that I should be watching the new Doctor Who. But there’s only so many hours in the day, y’know? I still have to get around to watching the last season of Buffy and the last season-and-a-half of Angel.
- This week’s question: What toy line will be the main focus of your collecting in 2009?
Cade
Main toyline for 2009, I gotta say DCUC. I will be getting all the MOTUC as well.
Rich
Only one? I'm feeling so much love for TF animated because its priced right, available, and awesome. OAFE's ToY Line of the year award winner. Your reviews of the new 4Horsemen MoTUs got me thinking I might dive into that pond despite the high price. I'm holding out for a Sale or for Skeletor to come available (15th)- then I can order the first 3 for one shipping charge.
googum
Unless more Marvel Legends start appearing out of the woodwork, probably DCUC.
Maybe 2009 will be my year for vaporware, cancelled, or delayed toys. Those bloody Wal-Mart exclusive waves (how long have I been waiting for Nova? Two years?)or that Nightcrawler Icons figure, maybe even Shocker Toys Scud.
chuck20
DCUC will be my focus as well. Seems like Mattel made great strides with wave 6. The only other thing i will get probably is a few MLs and series 2 of DST's Deep Space Nine figures, a prematurely ended line to be sure. Might pick up a few really good transformers, and a few watchmen figs, but i sincerely hope to cut back this year. Last year was a money pit.
Chris
Y'know….I see no point in ordering from Corner Store Comics anymore. They have the BEST customer service but like all the online stores, they get their cases late.
I believe they're the cheapest easiest way to get dcuc (although distribution appears to have improved with wave 6), but for me at least, my existing pre-order of wave 8 will be my last.
Not only because I believe the line is ridiculously poorly made (just opened an orion/lightray twopack…orion waist broke and left leg stuck) but because i'm tired of the generic repaint over the same body type. The same body type was cool to begin with since it reminded me of the Super Powers collection but then I just got tired of it all…Captain Atom seriously looks like a well made bootleg to me now. Pretty low quality with broken figures and simple repainted characters that don't warrant my completism.
Wave 6 looks great but they look a bit shiny and plasticy looking to me. As with the Ares figure and a ton of Aquamans I found, there's a HUGE issue of inncorrectly placed bicep pieces. It seems two of the same biceps OR switched right and left arm biceps are being found on many figures.
Lastly, in my opinion the new vendor seems a lot worse (in general) than the old vendor. I made a list of better painted figures from both figures.
Old vendor painted this characters better…
Aquaman, Grodd, Black Manta, Yellow Sinestro, Babes Gordon Batgirl from 2pk, Cyborg Superman
New Vendor painted these characters better…
Robin, Nightwing, Green Lantern, Captain Atom (silver)
Theres a few more characters from both vendors that have done that specific character better than the other but those come to mind at the moment.
Compare the new/old vendor
figures…you'll see the differences. I can tell you that the new vendor started on the tail end of Wave 3 production.
Aside from the look of the figure, you can tell from the cardboard insert on the bottom of the bubble. The new vendor uses brown recycled heavy paper stock. The old vendor used glossy white thin paper stock. You can check it out by looking inside the bubble without opening the figure.
PrfktTear
I plan to focus mostly on MOTUC and Transformers Animated this year. DCUC is going to have to take a back seat, though I'm still gonna collect. G.I. Joe will be hit or miss, and I'm not impressed by anything from Transformers 2, though I'm sure I'll end up picking from that line too.
Maybe if I say a few more prayers NECA will get around to releasing more TMNT figures. I'm also interested to see what Playmates has in store for us.
MP Grimlock is what I am most excited about though.
@Poe: Did you know at Arisia they are going to be performing Dr. Horrible a-la the Rocky Horror Picture Show? Also, have you seen or heard of a film called Repo! The Genetic Opera? Its a musical rock/opera directed by the dude who made Saw II-IV. Everyone in my cast is raving about it. I haven't seen the film myself, but I've been listening to the soundtrack and its really good. Who knew Paul Sorvino could sing!?
Newt
I feel the same way about Blu-Ray and I don't really feel like rebuying all my DVDs, either. I guess I'll be like that last guy clinging to VHS because I'm not upgrading.
YOU SHOULD watch the new Doctor Who. I just started it a bit back with my GF and it's great. Start with the first new Who, Christopher Eccleston, he's great. I haven't watched my first Tennant episode yet, but the other ones have been top notch and my GF actually likes them.
PrfktTear
I am hesitant to get into Blu-Ray. I admit the quality is excellent, but I've invested so much time and money into collecting all the films I own on DVD, I don't want to start over again.
Plus how many times in my life am I going to be forced to buy all my favorites just to keep up with the latest format?
Half the time I'll end up buying a movie, watching it once and if I'm lucky I'll watch it again. I used to buy too many movies. I had to come up with a rule that if I'm going to buy a dvd, it should be something I'd want to watch at least three times.
Paul
Oh don't get me started on Blu-Ray… oh wait you just did…
"I am hesitant to get into Blu-Ray. I admit the quality is excellent, but I’ve invested so much time and money into collecting all the films I own on DVD, I don’t want to start over again.
Plus how many times in my life am I going to be forced to buy all my favorites just to keep up with the latest format?"
I'd say four times, VHS, DVD, Blu-Ray and then digital download. hehe
To counter the whole, I don't want to replace my collection thing, my personal preference is to only replace some essentials and buy Blu-Rays for new releases. So I'll get T2, Aliens, Star Wars and that sort of thing, but about 90% of my DVD collection remains untouched. No need to replace something that either won't be that big of a deal in high def or I'm satisfied with the transfer. (Not to mention DVDs that may never make it… the Wraith anyone? Yeah, that might be a bit obscure)
As far as digital downloads go, that's fine if you want to wait five years or more for an excellent method to get true hi def movies to your and the infrastructure changes needed to get enough bandwidth for everyone and their mom downloading 20 gig movies all the time, but to me I can't wait that long. I want true high def now. It's just too sweet looking to put off.
elvis8batman
I'm going to be just getting DCUC and JLU. I can barely justify those two as it is, so there won't be any other lines taking my cash this year.
Poe
@Paul: But you're not taking into account HD streamed movies, such as what you can get via Netflix on Xbox. If I could get The Dark Knight in HD over Xbox Live, I wouldn't buy the DVD (or Blu-Ray disc).
That said, it will take a bit longer to get even HD streaming in a good place–but I think that'll be more like two years, not five.
I don't think the future of movies is digital download–I think it's digital on-demand. I'd much rather pay a monthly fee for access to whatever HD movie I want at any given time and let Netflix host the movies on their own servers.
Newt
For movies and shows that weren't filmed in HD, there is no reason for me to rebuy as Blu-Ray. Considering that's the bulk of my DVDs, it's a waste.
I think Digital Download will become the future as I already use it a ton on Xbox with Netflix.
I just doubt that Blu-Ray will ever kill off DVD. It's just not worth it. Some things look great in the format, but it's not the same difference as VHS to DVD.
Plus people have HUGE DVD collections. Much larger than people had VHS collections.
I just think DVD will always be around and Blu-Ray will be outdated by the time it's poised to become the "standard".
Paul
"For movies and shows that weren’t filmed in HD, there is no reason for me to rebuy as Blu-Ray. Considering that’s the bulk of my DVDs, it’s a waste."
Practically any movie filmed on film is in "HD". Film is a much higher quality than people think.
As for streaming, I'm not hot on it because it's compressed in order to stream. If they could work out a way to stream movies in full HD without compression I'd be all about it.
Also, I like owning stuff. I want to "own" movies like I own toys. I'm sure I'll be a relic someday, but I love having a physical collection.
Dead Man Walking
@ Chris, I agree with all of your complaints regarding DCUC. On the one hand, there are a few awesome figures in the line. In fact, Ares may be one of my all time favorite figures. On the other hand, the majority of the figures have terrible paint apps, terrible matching of plastic colors to the paint, bent limbs, broken limbs and crotches, and are really just the same figure over and over with a few new parts.
I may continue to get a few select DCUC figures, but I will NOT be suckered into collecting MOTUC. I got the first 2 figures, and while Beastman is OK, He-Man is AWFUL. What a depressingly uninspired line in light of 200X….
Anways, as far as what I would buy–well, I pick and choose from a ton of different lines. At the end of 2009 I'm sure I'll have bought figures from Transformers Classics, TF2, MP Transformers, DCUC, DC Direct, ML, GI Joe, NECA, Sports Picks and other McFarlane, Japanese figures, etc.
Oh, by the way, are we supposed to be guessing on the odds and ends? (I'm kinda new here). It looks like the hood from Red Hood, the tire and axel from Bizzaro, nuclear plant Homer's…uh…rod and tool, a bone from Poacher, Red Tornado's tornado, Cy-Gor's hook hand, Sewer Samurai Leo's shield, and a few other things that I don't know.
Poe
Impressive! Yeah, there aren't really enough objects for a contest this time around, but I'll give some serious props to anyone who figures out where that bale of hay thing is from, because I'm not even sure.
You're semi-right on the inanimate carbon rod…it's actually from the original Mattel Homer, not Playmates' Nuclear Homer.
The sword, though, is easy–in fact, it could be right on this page.
MummaGhostal
Our OTHER child gave us a Blu-Ray player for Christmas, and a giant shopping bag of our old DVD collection went home with our niece. Our Netflix have been switched over to the Blu-Ray genre. I'm not sure I can commit to replacing our movie collection with Blu-Rays. It's not like the three times I replaced all of my Beatles albums ( skipped 8-track) , and if THEY ever go itunes, I will be putting them on my ipod one more time! Priorities, ya' know! But Poe is welcome to borrow the player-and The Blu-Ray Dark Knight that came with it ( that was mine, his Dad got " Enchanted")!
PrfktTear
oh dear lord! you mean to tell me you've got another child?
i don't know how well it does it, but from what i've read blu-ray players up-convert your regular dvds so they look better. i don't know if this is true or just something they tell you to convince you to switch.
MummaGhostal
We knew that they would play our old DVD's, but they just don't show in HD because they weren't made that way. They look " better", but not the same. We bought our 65" HD about 6 or 7 years ago and we are simply spoiled now. It's one of the projection models that is the size of a small room and it's showing signs of beginning to "go".
And our other child is a 25 year old daughter that has often been mistaken for Britney Spears ( the non-trashy version), who has as many shoes and handbags as Poe has action figures. Two dips in the same gene pool produced VERY different results!
Poe
Have I never mentioned Sister Ghostal? If not, it was only to keep you wolves at bay.
Ryan Aston
You are much, much better off without the new Doctor Who – one decent episode a season renders the whole thing borderline unwatchable. I'm sad to say that the current head writer Russel T Davies has been churning out awfulness for the past few years of the general standard of crappy fan fiction. The quality only rises when they do an episode by Steven Moffat, who has penned at two episodes that border on genuis – The Girl in the Fireplace and Blink. If you get a chance, watch those two episodes, but I wouldn't even try anything else. Next year Moffat is taking over the series, and hopefully that'll be something to take time out for.
Newt
You're trying to keep wolves at bay and your mom says she looks like the hot version of Britney Spears!? You guys need to exchange memos.
PrfktTear
@Poe: You may or may not have mentioned her, I can't remember. 😉
OB1
@Paul: I hear you on The Wraith. I actually spotted that in another friend's collection last Friday, so that's just bizarre!
As far as the Blu-ray purchasing goes, I am with Poe on this one. I was one of the idiots that bought the PS3 just to play Metal Gear Solid 4, but I'm keeping it to watch movies on. That said, I'm hitting up Netflix for them instead of buying. I stopped buying DVDs a couple years ago in preparation of the next gen winner, which was Blu-ray, but now I feel I might as well wait until I can stream anything I want in HD to my Xbox 360 on the 46" in the living room. No need to own if I can Netflix stream it on-demand for a small monthly subscription fee. I have only seen one HD movie streamed via Netflix to the Xbox, but it looked pretty damn good to me, but as Paul also pointed out, it is compressed. Once everyone has fiber straight into the house, it is a different story, unless you are lucky enough to already have FIOS.