Toy Aisle Trolls > Tony’s Latest Suit Kind of Sucks

February 17, 2011 | Poe

Toy Aisle Trolls is a feature highlighting acts of vandalism to in-store toy items. If you find a ruined package, a stolen figure, a swapped-out figure, or any other such acts, take a photo (cell phone photos are fine if they’re not blurry) and email them to poe AT poeghostal.com.

Nerdbot sends in this fine example of human behavior.

Writes Nerdbot:

I found this gem at a Toys R Us in Queens, New York. It was, as you can see, a Marvel Legends two-pack that was supposed to contain the stealth Iron Man. In its place is… well, I have no idea. Maybe a bootleg Iron Man? Or knock-off Power Ranger? For all I know it could be a cool Japanese import. (With some of the strange swaps we’ve seen lately, anything is possible.) I like that the troll inserted the mystery figure’s throwing star accessories, too. A real mensch.

I shudder to think I may have been within a few miles of this travesty this weekend. What the hell is that thing?

Note the bastard swiped the alternate Tony Stark and Sharon Carter heads, too–it seems all he was willing to leave was Sharon herself. And consider this: slime molds are better practitioners of a moral existence than this petty thief.

Masters of Destruction

February 16, 2011 | Poe

Today’s Teefury shirt is so awesome, my head bulged momentarily from near-explosion. While I go see a doctor about that, you order this. It’ll be gone in thirteen hours, so order soon!

Review > King Hssss (Masters of the Universe Classics)

February 16, 2011 | Poe

I’m fairly certain King Hssss (then known as harder-to-trademark King Hiss) was the last Masters of the Universe action figure I owned as a child. I have a distinct memory of playing with him at my family’s first house, which we moved to a year or so after I’d mostly lost interest in MOTU. Somehow, King Hiss had an appeal beyond being part of the MOTU universe; I think it was the sheer awesomeness of the three-snake inner body. I was also quite fond of the green color scheme and the generally reptilian looks.

I know this is blasphemy to some, but I was never all that fond of the 200X King Hiss. From a design standpoint, they turned him into the standard D&D mummy-lich creature, a tenth-generation photocopy of Xaltotun from Robert E. Howard’s Hour of the Dragon (200X Hiss also has quite a bit of Mumm-Ra in there, though obviously Mumm-Ra has quite a bit of Xaltotun as well). As the brief comic strip on the original card art shows, the play pattern of the original King Hiss figure was that he was an evil snake-creature masquerading as a heroic-looking character (note the similarity of his mask to another famous master of disguise). Even the first minicomic to feature King Hiss played on this idea, and his packaging referred to him as the “dreadful disguised leader of the Snake Men.” 200X King Hiss, though? You see him coming, you reach for your sword hilt.

Again, I know many of you are going to disagree with me on this, but I actually prefer this look for Hiss. Er, Hssss. (more…)

Toy Fair Day 2 > Masters of the Universe Classics

February 15, 2011 | Poe

DSCF0248

First off, just so you all know, I only went to Toy Fair for Saturday and Sunday. But I’ve got plenty to write up about–so much that I’ve decided to break it down. I’m going to discuss a few topics, like MOTUC, in its own post; others, like NECA’s licenses, I’ll group into one post.

First up, we have Masters of the Universe Classics (you can see my pics gallery here). Previously unannounced/unrevealed figures:

Before we go any further, be sure to vote on the Man-E-Faces color issue (this is an official vote by Mattel). What’s all this then, you say? Well, the original Man-E-Faces figure had a blue-and-orange color scheme. But anecdotal evidence, such as the vintage packaging art, suggests the orange parts were actually supposed to be flesh-colored. The figure on display at Toy Fair had a sort of in-between coloring–orange-ish pink–and I thought it was a great compromise, so I voted for that. But you should vote as you think best. (more…)

Bastards of the Universe > “‘Toy Fair Week’ is not a federal holiday, sadly”

February 15, 2011 | googum


While I’m looking forward to this year’s Toy Fair coverage, I’m really curious what’s going to jump out and grab me. The deluxe Thundercats figures looked good to me, while I’m not as excited for the 3 3/4″ lines like Thor and Captain America. (They look nice, I’m just trying to get out of that scale!) I’m hoping to see new Marvel Legends and DCUC, and maybe a line or two to come out of nowhere. I guess we’ll see…!

Happy Bow Day! (+ contest)

February 15, 2011 | Poe

I have no idea what made me use this pic. Other than it obviously being funny, while not obviously riffing on the usual Bow-is-gay cliche. Which I don’t buy, by the way–look at that ‘stache. Dudes with his build and facial hair hanging around extremely hot chicks all the time screams “porn star” to me.

Oh Bow. Why can’t we all just leave you alone? (BTW, in that shot above, I can hear Bow making the Peter Griffin “purring walrus” noise.)

Anyway, it’s Bow Day, though it’s also Shadow Beast Day, Keldor Reissue Day, Tytus Reissue Day and Grayskull Stands Day. No non-MOTUC items this month. Here’s the link to the all-in-one page.

And hey, to make it interesting: I’ve got a MOC WWE Mattel Randy Savage for the person who guesses closest to the exact time Bow sells out (guess a particular minute of the day). Entries must be submitted by 12pm ET. Everyone’s eligible except me and my monkey. Good luck!

Toy Fair > Day 2 Coverage Coming Soon

February 14, 2011 | Poe

Apologies for the lateness of my reporting, folks. I’ll have more for you tomorrow. For now, feel free to peruse my Toy Fair pics and post your comments here. Feel free to ask any questions you may have about the toys, too–I’ll do my best to answer them.

Toy Fair 2011 Report, Day 1: Hasbro Collector’s Day

February 12, 2011 | Poe

At this moment I’m sitting in one of the tiniest hotel rooms in Manhattan, my laptop balanced precariously on a window ledge as I sit on a bed. The other side of the room–really a glorified closet–is about eighteen inches to my right.

I’ve just finished uploading about ninety pics from Hasbro’s Collector’s Event today, available on my special Toy Fair Flickr page. Hopefully you were also following my tweets. They’ll be the swiftest form of coverage over the next two days (hence the addition of the Twitter feed to the site–thanks to OB1 for putting that and the Flickr gallery together so swiftly).

And so–as for what happened today. I took the Bolt bus down from Boston; thanks to wifi, it was a relatively swift four hours to Manhattan. After dropping my stuff off at the hotel, I headed to the Times Center in Times Square, where none other than Optimus Prime himself sat parked outside. I spent about four years of my young life looking at cars and trucks and wondering if they’d transform; sadly, even though this was the likeliest moment for such a thing in my entire life, it was not to be–Optimus remained in vehicle mode, caring not how many people grinned as their friends took pics with him.
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