Review > Universal Monsters (Toy Island)

October 13, 2008 | Poe

(Click any picture for a larger version)

Some have called them the Marvel Legends of Universal Monsters. Others have called them crappy.

Michael Crawford wrote a comprehensive review of these figures way back in April ’07, and he sure didn’t like them. Here’s his summary of the review:

With poor sculpts and weak paint, it’s not too likely that you’ll be thrilled with any of these in person. The only thing saving them from an even lower score in the overall is the relatively decent articulation and the inclusion of the BAF. […] While some of the photos might not appear too bad, the cheap feel of the plastic ends up hurting these once you get them in hand. I’m disappointed with them, and it’s unlikely that any other than the Creature or the Frank BAF will end up on the display shelf.

Despite what was definitely a negative review–and I usually agree with MC’s opinions–I really, really wanted these. (more…)

Imperial Universal Monsters

October 10, 2008 | Poe

If you were a young boy in the late 1970s and early 1980s, chances are you were quite familiar with the crown logo of Imperial Toys.

From the admittedly limited perspective as a six-year-old boy, Imperial was known for one thing: rubber dinosaurs.

Imperial specialized in those solid rubber dinosaurs you’d find in convenience stores, pharmacies, and the metal floor bins of toy stores like Child World. They usually sold for about a buck. Those dinosaurs were tough bastards; you could throw them against the wall all day long and they wouldn’t get a scratch.

The sculpts and paint applications were crude even by contemporary standards and there was nary a point of articulation to be found on them, but when I was a kid that hardly mattered. The rubbery feel of the dinosaurs skin, coupled with their Godzilla-like indestructibility, made them the preeminent dinosaur toys of my youth.

A lot of the Imperial dinosaurs were of questionable paleontological validity. Tyrannosaurs with stegosaur-like plates and apatosaurs (which we called brontosaurs in my day) with pointy teeth were common. My particular favorites were a small yellow tyrannosaur (now residing in my Toy Shrine), a duck-billed dinosaur thing, and a black creature that was sort of a cross between a frog and an allosaur that I called “Bumpy.”

(more…)

Attack of the Living Dead

October 6, 2008 | Poe

Note: A slightly different version of this article was originally published on Biggerboat in October 2006.

A couple years ago, during the huge zombie fad of the mid-’00s, Mezco Toyz produced a short-lived figure line called Attack of the Living Dead. The figures are a combination of today’s advanced action figure design and those old gross-out toys of the 1980s (times ten).

Attack of the Living Dead isn’t based on any particular film, despite the “Living Dead” moniker (a quick check at the U.S. trademark office shows that Mezco was able to trademark the title, so it looks like George Romero and John Russo lose yet again, courtesy of the Walter Reade Organization). The line was originally going to be titled “After Life” (and Mezco had trademarked that as well), but at some point they must have figured out that the “Living Dead” phrase wasn’t trademarked and changed to the new title to capitalize on the name recognition.

That said, these zombies look more Return of the Living Dead than Dawn of the Dead. Romero’s zombies tended to look like pale-skinned humans (though they got a bit gorier in the last two films), whereas the Return of the Living Dead series offered a variety of zombie shapes and sizes.

While the days of long action figure biography text and power ratings seem sadly long gone, Mezco makes a passing effort at providing some context for the line. (more…)

Lego Batman

September 29, 2008 | Poe

I’ve been running a bit short on toy-related topics recently (the oft-mentioned backlog of posts that I have require a significant amount of writing and photo-taking, and so I’ve been a bit lazy about getting to them), so instead, today you get a review of a toy-related videogame.

Like most kids for decades now, I grew up with Lego, though all I ever had were the basic blocks. Since then, Lego has made a fortune licensing all sorts of brands, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Batman. In another brilliant move, someone came up with the idea of creating videogames based on the Lego sets, and lo and behold, they were lots of fun.

Some of the reviews for Lego Batman have been tepid, lamenting that the game offered nothing really new from the earlier Lego Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. Having only played one of the Star Wars games, I guess I’m not as burned-out on the concept as others might be. (I think IGN may just have felt obligated not to break Batman’s epic run of mediocre-to-terrible videogames.)

I think the game is a blast. I bought it on Thursday and have already spent a good six or seven hours beating the first half of it. Like the other Lego videogames, it’s broken down into “episodes”; there are three superhero episodes and three supervillain episodes. (more…)

Review > Castle Crashers Blue Knight

September 24, 2008 | Poe

I mentioned I’d been enjoying the Xbox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers in an earlier post. It’s an old-school scrolling beat-em-up in the tradition of the Konami-era arcade classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men and The Simpsons. If you own an Xbox and have a Live account, you can download the game for about $15 USD.

The game was created by the tiny design studio The Behemoth, whose first game was Alien Hominid, a retro run-and-gun (think the original Contra for NES) that became a runaway hit on multiple platforms. I found AH to be a little too difficult to be fun (my thumbs ached at the end of every play session), but Castle Crashers hits just the right balance between being challenging and a blast to play. (more…)

Review > Skeleflex Skullkor

September 18, 2008 | Poe

First off, allow me to give credit where it’s due: I first read about Skeleflex in a post by edcomics over at the FANtastic Forum. Manufactured by Wild Planet Toys, they’ve only recently arrived in stores.

What is Skeleflex? Here’s the rundown the official website:

Skeleflex is a creative ball-and-socket building system that puts kids in control. Its interchangeable bone-shaped pieces can be combined to make aliens, dinosaurs and other fantastical creatures that move in a lifelike manner.

Rigid parts rotate at the point of connection and motion is enhanced by inserting bendable joints between bones. Form the skeletal framework then add small, flexible connectors to give heads, limbs, tails and torsos realistic movement.

Build predators with dropping jaws and flapping wings, or assemble aliens with wavering tentacles and swaying spines. Kids can make exact replicas of the creatures in their Skeleflex idea books, or they can design their own unique models. Construct a multi-headed, moving martian-asaurus, or follow step-by-step instructions for a more recognizable masterpiece.

(more…)

It Figures > DC Universe Classics Wave 3

August 21, 2008 | Poe

Poe here with another installment of It Figures! By popular demand, as determined by a reader poll, my guests today are the six members of DC Universe Classics Wave 3–namely, Robin, Nightwing, Deathstroke the Terminator, Hal Jordan, Sinestro, and last but certainly not least, the vegetative zombie known as Solomon Grundy. Welcome, all!

Robin: Thanks for having us, Poe. This is pretty cool.

Nightwing: Yeah, this is neat. I’ve never had Thai food before.

Sinestro: I specifically requested not to be seated next to Jordan. It was a rider on my contract! A rider!

Hal Jordan: Oh, let it go, Sin-bad. By the way, the Leader called. He wants his fivehead back.

Sinestro: How dare you–! (more…)

It Figures > King Grayskull

August 12, 2008 | Poe

My guest today is one King Grayskull, ancestor of Prince Adam (a.k.a He-Man, though you didn’t hear it from me) and the very first figure from Mattel’s new Masters of the Universe Classics (MOTUC) line.

Thanks for being here, Your Highness.

Thanks for having me, Poe.

So tell me a little about yourself. Who is King Grayskull?

Well, I was a character created for the 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon. Hundreds (maybe thousands) of years before Prince Adam was born, I built Castle Grayskull and protected Eternia from Hordak–and let me tell you, that guy is an ass. He makes Sauron look like the Purple Pieman.

Anyway, when I died in battle, I transferred my power into what’s now called the “Power Sword.” To me it was just a sword, though. I think I got it in a yankee swap.

You’re looking remarkably healthy for a dead man.

Thanks. You know I’m just an action figure, right?

Of course, of course. Speaking of which, how does MOTUC differ from previous MOTU lines?

Well, unlike all three previous lines (Masters of the Universe, the New Adventures of He-Man, and the 2002 Masters of the Universe), MOTU Classics is targeted specifically to collectors, not kids. (more…)