Odds ‘n Ends

March 3, 2009 | Poe

odds_n_ends_09

It’s Tuesday, and here in New England we are buried another yet another foot of snow. God, I hate snow right now. Snow is a nice surprise in November, charming in December, and a tolerable nuisance in January. By early March, it’s the thing you hate the most in this world. Yeah, The Waste Land is a great poem, but Eliot’s whole thing about winter keeping us warm, covering us in forgetful snow–sorry, Mr. One of the World’s Greatest Poets, but I’m not buying it.

  • The geek universe is on the edge of its seat for Watchmen, and I’m just not feeling the excitement. I think because of my reservations about Zack Snyder; I thought 300 was overrated, and his Dawn of the Dead, while entertaining, was just a horror-fied action flick compared to the original film. Up to now, I’ve seen Snyder as a somewhat better version of Michael Bay. It’s entirely possible Watchmen will change my mind–I kind of hope it does. I didn’t expect to like the Wachowski Bros’s V for Vendetta (I’m not a fan of The Matrix), but I did. We’ll see about Watchmen soon enough.
  • A lot of geeks piled on Warner Bros last week for floating the idea of a Suicide Squad movie. One prominent blogger who will remain nameless suggested the movie would flop because mass audiences wouldn’t know who the characters were. I told him to go ask any friend of his who doesn’t read comics who Dr. Manhattan was. Lest we forget, Marvel’s recent run of great superhero flicks probably wouldn’t exist without the success of Blade, featuring one of its most obscure characters. I think a Suicide Squad film could be successful as long as it was grounded in the “real world”–like Wanted or Blade–and not the DCU.
  • Had quite a geek weekend of movies–the Mrs. and I watched Flash Gordon, Get Smart and Iron Man. I saw Iron Man in the theater, but the other two were first times for me–yes, I’d never seen Flash Gordon before, I know. I loved Brian Blessed as the Hawkmen’s leader, and I still think he would have made an even better Gimli than John Rhys-Davies. As for Get Smart, it was better than I thought it would be, but it made me wonder–why has Dwayne Johnson apparently given up on being an action hero? The Rundown is one of my favorite action flicks ever.
  • Have you guys heard about this movie The Expendables? Holy crap, check out that cast. This will either be the greatest movie ever, the worst movie ever, or turn out to be a hoax and not made at all. Between this and Inglourious Basterds, are we seeing a return of the balls-out wall-to-wall action film?
  • CSI Miami keeps trying to sell me on the idea of P. Diddy as a big-shot lawyer, and I’m just not buying it. However, I do enjoy watching Caruso’s scenes with him–Caruso can make anyone’s acting seem subtle and nuanced. Also, what happened to the cold open one-liners? It’s like the show became really self-conscious about them. Thanks a lot, The Soup.
  • Anyone catch last week’s Batman: Brave and the Bold? It’s amazing how creatively mismanaged a lot of DC’s comics are these days, yet their cartoons are consistently great. Brave and the Bold has gotten better and better each week.

More DCUC mold re-uses

March 2, 2009 | Poe

Noisydvl5 over at the FANtastic Exclusive Fourm [sic] has put up a post asking for possible easy re-uses for existing DCUC molds. The Horsemen posted their support for the thread, so if you’ve got any ideas, go check it out.

I wrote something on this topic last week, but I stuck to the Gentleman Ghost/Joker body for that one. There was another one I had in mind, though, and I used the FE post to mention it: Doctor Destiny. He’s a Justice League villain who looks very similar to a certain Evil Lord of Destruction (although Destiny came first), but he’s probably well known enough to show up in DCUC, particularly since he made an appearance in the recent Justice League animated series. The character himself is cool, but I’ll admit his real appeal to me is his color scheme and similarity to Skeletor.

Here are a couple photos of Doctor Destiny, followed by my Photoshopped version of a potential DCUC version. Mine is mostly a repainted Red Tornado, with the tunic bottom of Darkseid and the head of MOTUC Skeletor.

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VM poll results and new poll

March 2, 2009 | Poe

Well, Vintage Month is over and it’s time to tally up our poll results.

In answer to the question, “Which 1980s property most deserves a revamped toyline?” here’s how you voted:

  • C.O.P.S. ‘N’ Crooks: 39 votes (28%)
  • Bravestarr: 30 votes (22%)
  • Sectaurs: 29 votes (21%)
  • Inhumanoids: 26 votes (19%)
  • Captain Power: 15 votes (11%)

While I think all these lines could make for an appealing update, I can see why C.O.P.S. won: like Masters of the Universe, it has a broad range of crazy, unique character designs. And so, with any luck, Hasbro will give us a new Buttons McBoomBoom in the near future. (Man, does that name sound NSFW…)

There’s a new poll up, this time asking what new features (if any) you’d most like to see if and when Mattel re-releases MOTUC Skeletor. Note you can choose up to three options in this poll.

Toy review roundup (via Fanmode)

March 2, 2009 | Poe

fanmode-copy Poe Ghostal reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Stratos Mattycollector.com exclusive figure. Excerpt: “…. he looks a lot better with the wings in front of his arms.”

Michael Crawford reviews the Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Stratos Mattycollector.com exclusive figure. Excerpt: “While Stratos might have his own individual problems, I have to say that this line is a tremendously fun series of toys.”

Michael Crawford (part 2) reviews the Sideshow Collectibles Indiana Jones Dr. René Belloq Sideshow exclusive 1/6-scale figure from Raiders of the Lost Ark. Excerpt: “Perhaps more interesting than the figure itself is the Fertility Idol Environment that the exclusive version came with.” (more…)