Target Smitty and the Last Crusade

August 10, 2009 | Poe

target

Dr. Mrs. Ghostal was out of town over the weekend, so Saturday I hung out with Poesters PrfktTear and Ed Lee. We watched Green Lantern: First Flight (I thought it was fairly good, but not as good as Wonder Woman, and also, we’d just seen this story in an episode of Brave and the Bold) and played Turtles in Time: Re-Shelled, which I’m forced to admit has neither the play nor nostalgia value of the original game or even the XBLA release of the first TMNT arcade game.

In the evening, PrfktTear had to head out (though he had an encounter of his own later–perhaps he’ll post about it below) so Ed and I hit a couple of the local stores to see if there was anything interesting. (more…)

Flock of Moss

August 9, 2009 | Poe

More from Mattycollector on the Moss Man problem:

Thanks to so many fans for chiming in over the weekend on the Moss Man issue. As you know, those damn laws of physics just won’t let the flocking work on a figure that is so articulated. We did see some cool fan photo-shopped images of a partial flocked Moss Man and a repainted Moss Man with more paint ops to the face and hands. Both are interesting options. Remember these are fan images, not official images from Mattel of actual product.

Let us know what you think here on my Facebook page and on fan sites such Actionfigureinsider.com, He-Man.org and Fwoosh.com (among others). We’ll check back on Monday to see what everyone has to day! [sic]

Evidently we’re just not going to be able to get the figure fully flocked. I think the partial flocking is the best solution, as long as it can be done well–that is, the flocking sort of fades at the edges, rather than looking like a thick piece of topsoil glued to his thighs or whatever. That’s probably my preferred choice at this point.

Thoughts everyone?

Clusterflock

August 7, 2009 | Poe

Mattel appears to be having some trouble flocking the new Moss Man.

Hey He-Fans,

Just to let everyone know, we are working out some of the kinks with Moss Man right now. The flocking on a highly articulated figure is a bit tricker then we expected. There is a chance Moss Man may get pushed out to April and the “as-of-yet-unannounced” April figure will get bumped up to March (see why we have bonus figures in tow, stuff like this happens a lot!). This is not confirmed yet, just want to keep you all in the loop.

And along those lines, would fans be interested in Moss Man if he was not flocked? Or is this a make or break deal? We are doing everything we can to keep him flocked, but just curious what fans think?

If the only way to flock him would be to limit the articulation would that be okay also? Curious what you all think?

We want to hear your feedback!

Matty

Personally–and I know this may be sacrilege to some–but I can do without the flocking. Never cared for it, like cloth on smaller-scale toys. It can wear off and look shabby after a while. And I definitely don’t want to lose any articulation.

I’d be happy with a Moss Man made using the Beast Man body with a few newly tooled pieces to reflect the moss (similar to how ToyBiz built Man-Thing around a Sasquatch body–or maybe vice versa, I don’t remember).

Review > Egon Spengler & Slimer SDCC Exclusive

August 7, 2009 | Poe

egonWhen I came across NECA’s Slimer a few years back, I was excited–here at last was a Movie Maniacs-style Ghostbusters figure. The Ghostbusters themselves had been requested for ages by fans of McFarlane’s Movie Maniacs line, which by then (2004 or so) was more or less defunct, but NECA was already picking up the slack with their Cult Classics.

While NECA produced excellent versions of Slimer, Gozer, the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and Gozer (I own Slimer and the SPMM, but man, do I wish I had a Terror Dog), they were unable to secure the likeness rights to the four main actors.

Enter Mattel, who–five years later–are finally offering the realistic, movie-based Ghostbusters action figures fans had been clamoring for since the days of the cartoon-styled Real Ghostbusters. Thankfully, Mattel appears to have thrown the weight of the largest toy company in the world behind getting Bill Murray to sign off on his likeness. (more…)

Shrines, Temples, and Stations

August 7, 2009 | Poe

I know a number of you have admired the Moore Action Figure Display Base I’ve used to display some figures of my collection. Unfortunately, the thing is so rare as to be almost legendary.

However, I recently came across something that may serve in a pinch. It ain’t cheap, but your figures–be they 3 ¾”, 6″ or 12″–will look awesome on it.

It’s the Shrine of Dagon 12″ “figure environment” from Sideshow.

It’s designed for 12″ figures, but the nature of the design should look good with pretty much any sort of figure. After all, it’s the Shrine of Dagon, and we’re clearly talking H.P. Lovecraft’s Dagon and not the original Levantine deity, so the Cyclopean scale of the base compared to smaller figures is altogether fitting. (more…)

DCUC wave 9 found in the wild

August 7, 2009 | Poe

I think someone should create a pool where you guess where a particular wave of DCUC will show up first. BigBadToyStore? CornerStoreComics? Enchanted Toy Chest? Entertainment Earth? Specialty stores? Big box stores?

A specialty store won this round, it seems…interesting, because DCUC8 hasn’t had much big box store penetration so far. I’m not sure how well that bodes for wave 9, particularly when some Targets are still restocking with wave 4.

On a side note, the Marvel Legends 2-packs of Iron Man & Maria Hill, the Hand Ninja & Nick Fury, and Kree & Skrull are being spotted at TRUs.

Review > April O’Neil (TMNT, NECA)

August 6, 2009 | Poe

Most casual fans of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will remember April O’Neil as the buxom reporter who somehow retained her high-profile TV news job despite never changing out of her yellow jumpsuit (perhaps her inability to button it up all the way had something to do with it, I don’t know). But in the original 1980s comics by Kevin Eastman and Peter Laird, April was quite different.

The original April was a computer programmer and research assistant working for mad scientist Baxter Stockman. She got mixed up with the Turtles when she discovered Stockman was using his “Mouser” robots to rob banks.

It’s been more than a year since I reviewed NECA’s Ninja Turtles back in April ’08. Since then, the line has been declared dead several times. But April popped up at SDCC, and soon she’ll be available in specialty stores in green or yellow outfits (the yellow outfit hopefully drawing in casual fans who only know the cartoon). (more…)