Poe Plays Favorites 2008

January 8, 2009 | Poe

Tired of all those “Best of” blog posts that purport to survey the entire annual output of our hobby and then objectively single out a few for praise, when really the writers are probably just picking the stuff they liked? Fie on such pretense, I say!

Welcome to Poe Plays Favorites 2008 (PPF08), in which I list my favorite items of the year. Do not consider these awards or even miniature reviews–they’re just my favorites.*

*In some cases, I just added the word “Favorite” to the title when really favoritism has nothing to do with the category at all. (more…)

MOTUC Faker and Stratos advance reviews (via Fwoosh)

January 8, 2009 | Poe

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Good morning, faithful readers! With any luck, I’ll finish up the 2008 “awards” post today that I’ve been working on for the past week, but to tide you over, head to the Fwoosh and check out their advance review of MOTUC Stratos and Faker. I’ll be here, stewing in my envy.

The best tidbit I learned (from the discussion forum, actually, not the review) was that Faker’s chest-robot decal is actually a tampo print this time, not a sticker–meaning it’s grafted on like the chest symbols on DCUC figures.

For you JLU fans, Fwoosh also has a preview of the Criminals of Gotham set.

(Is it me or does that pic, with Stratos up top there, look like an 1980s rap album cover?)

Beast Man (Masters of the Universe Classics)

January 7, 2009 | Poe

motu-ba-beast_man_illEvery supervillain in the 1980s had a member of his entourage who served a special purpose: whipping boy. For Megatron, it was Starscream. For Darkseid on Super Powers, it was Kalibak. For Shredder, it was Bebop and Rocksteady (though Shredder was arguably the whipping boy for Krang). For Darth Vader, it was the Imperial Admiralty.

But arguably the most-whipped whipping boy was Beast Man, the orange-furred, half-ape henchman of Skeletor. Like Mer-Man, in the early days of Masters of the Universe (MOTU) Beast Man was one of an entire race of similar creatures, whom he led. But when the Filmation cartoon came around, Beast Man was dumbed-down and demoted to being both Larry and Curly to Skeletor’s Moe.

Despite his lowly status, Beast Man (I refuse to refer to him as “BM”) is the second figure (not counting the exclusive King Grayskull) in the new Masters of the Universe Classics. The first is He-Man, whom I reviewed here.

I suspect Beast Man was produced this early in the line to show fans and collectors there will be some unique, significantly detailed sculpting in the MOTUC. The next figure, Skeletor, will be available on Mattycollector.com starting on January 15. (more…)

News roundup, 1/7/2009

January 7, 2009 | Poe

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Pic of the day

January 6, 2009 | Poe

A038 Killer Moth by HamSalad

Poe’s note: Every pic I see of wave 6 makes me more impatient for my CSC order to ship…and I thought I’d be OK for a while after getting the Walmart wave. Anyway, Drury Walker here looks awesomely goofy.

Odds ‘n Ends

January 6, 2009 | Poe

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  • 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?

The 2008 Poppies

January 6, 2009 | Poe

I just submitted my judge’s picks for the 2008 Poppies–the pop culture collectibles awards organized by Michael Crawford, now in its second year. Even if you’re not a judge, you can still participate in the People’s Picks by filling out the form here.

News roundup, 1/5/2009

January 5, 2009 | Poe

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  • Studios tell toy stories (Variety) – So, is the He-Man movie on track again? Last I heard it had been condemned to development hell.
  • Playmates 6″ Terminator: Salvation figures up for pre-order (CSC) – Not sure about the humans, but the endoskeletons and the tank look cool. There are 3 3/4″ figures too for those of you who prefer that scale.
  • Mattel posts JLU update for 2009 (Facebook) – For those of you who aren’t on “The ‘Book,” Mattel writes that at Target they’re planning 20 singles, 8 3-packs, and 4 6-packs, and on Mattycollector.com there will be 4 4-packs (one per quarter) and 1 Convention Exclusive.
  • New Masterpiece Grimlock images (Seibertron) – Me Poe want.
  • Voyager Leader-Class ROTF Optimus images (Seibertron)