The Incredible Hulk

June 14, 2008 | Poe

So Mrs. G2B and I saw The Incredible Hulk last night.

I had a great time. Be aware: the film is not nearly as artistically ambitious as the 2003 Ang Lee film, but it doesn’t drag, either. If you went in wanting to see scenes of the Hulk destroying midtown in a battle with another giant beast–which I did–you’re going to enjoy yourself.

I think the best way to look at Incredible Hulk is to see it not so much as an adaptation of the comic (or a sequel to the Lee film) but as a big-screen adaptation of the 1970s television series. (more…)

Red Hulk vs. Red Hulk

June 13, 2008 | Poe

In honor of the release of The Incredible Hulk, I thought I’d toss up a Hulk-related post.

In the aftermath of the popular Planet Hulk and World War Hulk storylines, Marvel needed a way to capitalize on that success while offering something interesting for new fans who picked up the comic after seeing the new movie. The answer, it seems, was the Red Hulk, a villainous, ruby-colored version of the Jade Giant. So far, Marvel has not revealed the Red Hulk’s alter-ego, but he does appear to be as intelligent as the Smart Hulk of the 1990s. He’s also already killed the original Abomination with a giant custom revolver (shades of another big red superhero), so his motivations are as much a mystery as his identity. (more…)

Call for other weird promotional toys

June 12, 2008 | Poe

My article on the Heinz Burger Blaster has sparked a desire to find more weird promotional toys.

So, I’m sending out a call for help–if you can know of any weird promotional toys, preferably related to something that isn’t usually associated with toys (like the Burger Blaster or those Nike shoe Transformers), please let me know about it, either in a comment below or by email at poe@poeghostal.com.

(Note: I don’t mean stuff like toys that came in cereal boxes or Happy Meal toys. I’m talking about random promotional gimmicks, usually one-shot deals.)

Thanks!

The Caine Scrutiny

June 6, 2008 | Poe

Sunglasses of Justice

One of my worst-kept secrets (in that I talk about it without even being asked) is my love for CSI: Miami. And since I must have everything I love turned into little movable plastic idols of some sort, I recently commissioned a Horatio Caine custom action figure. The customizer is one Matt Hancock, and let me tell you, he did some excellent work. (more…)

Whippy Superpose

June 2, 2008 | Poe

One of the things I’d like to do with this blog is make people aware of some of the cooler things I come across. For a while now, I’d been looking for a way to pose my DCUC figures in flying or jumping positions. I have several of the so-called Doop stands from my Marvel Legends figures, but those only work if the figure has a hole in its back; not even the new Hasbro ML figures have that. So I perused the Web for another option. (more…)

Flippin’ Through ToyFare #131

May 22, 2008 | Poe

Again, all apologies for the scattershot posts this week. Between how busy I’ve been at work and my webhost’s endless problems with a file server on my cluster (causing significant slowdown problems here on PGPoA), it’s been hard to get through an update. But now I’m back and rarin’ to go, the site speed seems to be flying, and I’ve got content up the wazoo!

Today I’m going to discuss ToyFare #131, which hit comic shops last week (and will hit newsstands this week or next).

On the cover we’ve got the 6″ Target exclusive movie Hulk, which is a repaint of the Marvel Legends 1 Hulk with a new head. The ML1 Hulk mold doesn’t come close to the perfection of Face Off Hulk, and I can’t see Ed Norton in that head sculpt the way I can in the movie stills. However, if you missed the boat on previous 6″-scale Hulks, this one might be passable. He is the first 6″ Hulk to feature non-purple pants.

Page 3: Big ol’ ad for DCUC wave 3. Here’s hoping they ship before, say, the end of July…

Page 9: An ad for the new Indiana Jones toys, which seem to be selling well, though I’m not sure if they’re being bought by kids or Star Wars collectors. It was smart of Hasbro to include figures from all four films. (more…)

Marcus Fenix

May 17, 2008 | Poe

I’m back, baby!

Spent last week hopping about the country–first to Houston for a wedding, then to Los Angeles to make preparations for my own nuptials. But now I’m back in Boston just in time for the Celtics to have to go to Game 7…again.

When I got back, I made my usual toy rounds and picked up a figure I’d been waiting to see in person: Marcus Fenix from NECA’s Gears of War. NECA isn’t exactly striking while the iron is hot; Gears dropped in November 2006, and even Halo 3 and its subsequent McFarlane toy line has come and gone since then. However, Gears of War 2 hits this fall, so I imagine these figures will find plenty of collector enthusiasm. (more…)

Enter the Elephant

May 7, 2008 | Poe

ram2

(The Toybox is running late this week, but fear not, it should come out before I leave for vacation on Friday.)

As I mentioned, my replacement Ramathorr FANtastic Exclusive figure arrived last week. For those who don’t know the story, the FANtastic Exclusive is a project by the toy design team known as the Four Horsemen. On their FE website, the Horsemen present a number of ideas for action figures, and then fans vote on which action figure they want. Once a character is selected, the fans then get to vote on the figure’s size, articulation, accessories, and even packaging. The figure is then sold at conventions like the San Diego Comic Con and through the Horsemen’s online store. (more…)

A Dark and Stormy Knight

May 5, 2008 | Poe

Over the weekend I picked up the Dark Knight Batman from Mattel’s “Movie Masters” line. For those who don’t know, Mattel has two action figure lines for the movie: a five-inch scale, kid-oriented line and the MM figures, which were sculpted by the Four Horsemen, are about six inches (roughly–see below) tall and feature DCUC-style articulation. I paid $11.97 for the figure at Wal-Mart, which seems overpriced, especially when you consider the lack of any real accessories. But this may just be the new reality.

While the lack of accessories is disappointing, the figure is not. This is one of those figures, like the DC Superheroes Superman or Batman, that I can’t put down. I keep picking it up off the shelf and fiddling with it. (more…)

ZZOMBIE NOT MUNKY

April 30, 2008 | Poe

I was going to write this up as a Poe’s Point, but I realized I hadn’t really come to any sort of opinion on the issue–at least, not enough for an editorial.

Buried at the bottom of a TNI news article about Diamond Select Toys’ plans for its popular Minimates line was this bit of information:

Marvel has put a moratorium on any further Marvel Zombie merchandise of any kind. Marvel was concerned about the negative image seeing their major characters would have on the public so they pulled the plug on any further Zombie products.

(more…)