Paul – Page 8 – Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation

You Sunk My Movie Themed G.I. Joe Vehicle

April 9, 2009 | Paul

You know what sucks about G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra aside from almost everything revealed about it so far? The fact that there’s all these new G.I. Joe tie-in products that have almost nothing to do with the Joes that I love. They’re filled with all this newfangled Joe movie stuff that certainly does nothing to bank on my nostalgia and therefore my insane desire to buy anything beloved from the days of my youth. Take G.I. Joe Battleship for example. It’s a cool update to one of my favorite board games of all time, yet there’s nary a classic vehicle or character on the box. Of course, there is the updated Night Raven, but it’s not THE Night Raven.

gi-joe-movie-battleship

Hot damn, now I know what it’s like to be one of those old guys who only collects the classic 12-inch Joes. It sucks.

Thanks to: Toy News International

Soundwave in San Diego

April 8, 2009 | Paul

Hasbro revealed this last week that the G1 Soundwave would be their exclusive Transformer at this year’s San Diego Comic Con. Everyone’s favorite tape recording Decepticon will come with plenty of friends. He’s going to have Ravage, Buzzsaw, Laserbeak, and Ratbat along with him at the show.

soundwavesandiego09exclusivetransformer

Personally, I’ve never been too terribly impressed with the Transformer exclusives. They just seem like simple repaints most of the time, but I’m not a huge Transformers fan so I guess I don’t have my finger on the pulse of what’s desirable. This Soundwave seems a hell of a lot more interesting than the usual offering, but I’ll definitely be skipping this one too. I managed to get a hold of the exclusive Toys R Us “reissue” from a few years ago. Yeah, I know that Soundwave had a different chest piece that held two mini-figs and that the San Diego version is the “true” one and he comes with extra cassettes, but I can only have so many Soundwaves. Anyone looking to get their hands on this guy?

Original Source: Transformers Collector’s Club

Sideshow Shows Off How Awesome They Are

April 6, 2009 | Paul

Sideshow Collectibles recently posted a picture featuring several of their Stormtroopers, a Darth Vader, an Imperial Officer, and a couple of very unlucky Rebel Fleet Troopers. It’s flipping awesome sauce and makes me wish I was amazingly rich so I could set up something like it.

Sideshow, please more dios like this. If I can’t own them, I’d at least like to drool over some mighty fine pictures. Or maybe you can just send me and Poe your figures to make our own pictures to promote your stuff. What do you say? Huh? Huh?

Lego…uh, Female Parts

April 3, 2009 | Paul

Lego mini-figs are great and all, but if they’re anything there are blocky. This is fine and good for most figures, but when it comes to female characters like Princess Leia in her signature metal bikini there’s… something lacking. Well in comes Brick Forge and their extra enhancement for female characters:

Yeah I’d make some sort of joke here, but these things kind of speak for themselves. I mean, really you can’t say anything more about Lego boobs that the picture can’t convey.

Thanks to: Brothers Brick

TAtTF: Talkin’ about the Talkboy

April 2, 2009 | Paul

toyadsthattimeforgot

Ahhh the days when a simple tape recorder could bring joy to a mischievous youth. If you’ve ever seen the movie Home Alone 2, you might just remember that our hero Kevin sported a Talkboy as one of his tools to defeat the nefarious thieves who want to brutally murder him. The Talkboy was actually made up for the film. According to Wikipedia, the real life toy version came about from a massive letter writing campaign by fans of the movie. I really hope that Wikipedia is wrong, because otherwise I may have to kill myself knowing that those fans are still out there.

One of the strangest aspects of this commercial is the kid’s tireless and relentless campaign to stop his sister from getting laid. If that isn’t some sort of exercise in the realm of Freud, then I don’t know what is.

And that slowed down devil voice? That’s just friggen scary.

Sideshow’s Recon at Waypoint 12

March 30, 2009 | Paul

For those lucky enough to get a one of the radical Sideshow Snake Eyes figures, be prepared to be at least tempted by their mini-dio that comes with…wait for it…Timber!

sideshowencounteratwaypoint12

As much as I like little pieces to add flavor to a toy collection, I could live without the wall section if I had the figure. Still, the prospect of owning a Timber to go with the crazy cool Snake Eyes would be hard to pass up. I wonder how many collectors will be willing to drop $129.99 in this economy for what boils down to an accessory. I also wonder if they’ll ever make a Timber that looks a little less menacing for Saturday picnic dios. Maybe one that included a Frisbee in his mouth? Is that too much to ask for?

Check it out at Sideshow’s site.

Hasbro Makes My Short Round Dreams Come True

June 27, 2008 | Paul

Recently Hasbro released images of their upcoming Indiana Jones figures and they’ve finally made my dreams come true. Way back when I first heard that they were going to make Indiana Jones figures, the figure I had wanted the most (aside from Indiana Jones of course) was Short Round.

Why you ask? Why? Short Round is flipping awesome. He’s only eight years old and he managed to save Indiana Jones life. Without Short Round the Nazis wouldn’t have found the Arc of the Covenant… or at least they would have found it and had their faces melted slightly sooner. Without Short Round the Holy Grail wouldn’t be in the hands of the Nazis, except now that I think about it the Grail couldn’t have crossed the seal anyway… Uh well, without Short Round saving Indy the Russians wouldn’t have been killed by the aliens? Wait a minute. Did Indiana Jones do anything in any of the movies that had any impact on the ultimate outcome of the film besides giving the Sankara Stones back to the Indian villagers?

Regardless, the rest of the figures in the Temple of Doom line up looks awesome, especially Mola Ram. Check the rest of them out on Toy News International.

Star Wars and G.I. Joe Round Up: A Big Week

April 14, 2008 | Paul

Paul here again with another catch up on the week’s events in the G.I. Joe and Star Wars toy worlds. This last week was actually exciting compared to the previous few weeks of news drought.

Star Wars

The big thing this week (and perhaps one of the biggest events in Star Wars toy collecting history) was the leak of images of the long rumored Millennium Falcon redo. The pictures appeared on Galactic Hunter.com and sent Star Wars message boards on fire. Why all the commotion? This thing is two and one half feet long and has a long, long list of features.

Ironically, the image appeared after Hasbro had stated that the images of the Falcon that has surfaced before were all fakes. This thing hasn’t been confirmed by Hasbro yet, so I’m still trying to maintain my loose grip on sanity.

Another vehicle came under the radar to hit Toys R Us shelves this week in the midst of all the Falcon hubbub. It’s a white colored large winged TIE fighter, to better match the vintage TIEs and the ones seen in the first Star Wars film. And by first Star Wars film, I mean the good one and if you don’t know which first one is the good one then I feel sorry for you.

G.I. Joe

While G.I. Joe news wasn’t as big, it was pretty notable. Wave 5 images of the 2008 Joe releases came out on the G.I. Joe Club’s website. Head on over there and check them out, because this is a great wave. The figures are Hawk, Bazooka, Barbecue, B.A.T., Snow Serpent, and a black Storm Shadow. Barbecue and the B.A.T. seem like the stand out figures is this batch and probably the two that will be the hardest to find.

There was also a round of questions Hasbro answered related to the line. While the answers were posted all across the ‘net, you can find my take on the best ones on Toy Bender.com (my site) or look around your favorite Joe sites for the answers. Good luck if you go that route, they’re all over the place!

Star Wars and G.I. Joe News Round Up

March 28, 2008 | Paul

Hello all, Paul here again with another Hasbro update. There’s been yet another week of almost no new G.I. Joe or Star Wars news of any import. Still, I’ve gathered what I could for fans of Mr. Poe’s site and here we go:

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Star Wars and G.I. Joe at Toy Fair 2008

February 25, 2008 | Paul

Poe Ghostal here. Look, I’m awesome–no one’s disputing that. But the fact is, I’m just not into every single toy line out there. Therefore, to make sure I’m providing you, the discriminating action figure collector, with the comprehensive toy industry coverage you deserve, I’ve recruited a few special correspondents to give you the lowdown on these neglected toy lines. First up is my respected colleague Paul from ToyBender.

Hello all. Poe Ghostal knows a lot about toys, but since he’s a bit tied up (and safely hidden in the trunk of my car) he’s enlisted my help as a special Hasbro correspondent to update y’all on Star Wars and G.I. Joe. You might know me from my “5 Questions” interview Poe posted a few months ago, or the toy blog ToyBender that is my fiefdom. But enough about me, let’s catch up on Hasbro’s Toy Fair 2008 showing.

During the 2008 Toy Fair Hasbro announced so much product goodness that I believe they were trying to give me an aneurysm. Their tactic almost worked, but I struggled through my overwhelming excitement to provide you an up-to-date list of all the product announcements for Hasbro’s Star Wars, G.I. Joe, and Indiana Jones toy lines.

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