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January 4, 2013 | Poe

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Poe’s Pick of the Week

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TG01 – Optimus Prime – Fall of Cybertron

So for anyone who doesn’t know, these are Japanese-made repaints of the Fall of Cybertron-based figures that have already been released here in the States. They feature shinier (and more detailed?) paint jobs.

I’ve been trying to convince myself not to buy this – I don’t have the Hasbro version, and that paint job just looks so damned nice. I’ve got the game but haven’t started playing it yet…once I do, I may not be entirely able to resist this bad boy.

Anyone who does have him – what do you think? Worth owning? Is this version overpriced, even with the nicer paint job?

And for anyone who’s wondering, yes, I would love to own the TRU exclusive Optimus, but it doesn’t quite hit the proper ratio of price to desire for me. If I could get it for, say, $80, I’d probably crack like an egg.

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NECA & Sideshow get Pacific Rim

January 4, 2013 | Poe

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(Thanks to TNI for the heads-up.)

I don’t think I’ve been as excited for a movie since The Dark Knight as I am for Pacific Rim. One of my favorite directors doing a movie about giant monsters fighting giant robots? I’ll admit that I worry a bit about this film suffering from audience fatigue with movies involving aliens and robots (Transformers, Battleship, Battle: Los Angeles, Avengers, etc.). But I’m hoping director Guillermo Del Toro’s reputation will allow critics and moviegoers to judge it on its merits rather than dismissing it as a dumb blockbuster. And…I hope it’s good.

Anyway, GDT himself posted a note on his website about the film’s merchandising:

NECA is doing toys and a ton of apparel / accessories. SIDESHOW is doing a couple of diorama statues and there are two downloadable games in progress. This plus the comics and book novelization and a few etc

Very good for an unbranded, non-sequel original property!!

I knew about NECA, because their name popped up on a licensing expo list (which I kept quiet about in consideration for NECA, who seemed to really want to spring this at or around Toy Fair). I have no idea what NECA’s toy plans are, but I’m willing to bet we’ll see 7″ figures of the main characters and perhaps the robots and monsters, as well as much larger toys of the robots and monsters.

I’m excited to see what NECA offers, but I also continue to hope Bandai gets the license for S.H.MonsterArts as well. Speaking of, how crazy is Japan going to go for this movie?

And speaking of giant robots…

Toy Aisle Trolls > Transformers Crime

January 1, 2013 | 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@poeghostal.com.

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Submitted by: IM

Another swapped Ratchet. He’s supposed to look like this. Ratchet’s an interesting character…nothing more than the equivalent of a D&D Cleric in the 1980s cartoon, while practically the hero of the first dozen or so issues of the Marvel comic at the same time (particularly the Dinobots issue, #8, which I probably read a hundred times as a kid). He also got melded with Megatron and turned into this.

Anyway, whoever did this needs to get a life. –PG