Toy Aisle Trolls > KaraLoki

March 23, 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.

Poester Barbecue17 conjures up this mystery.

My wife and I were out at our local Walmart in Shelby, NC when we noticed this Loki figure from the new Thor line.  (Actually, we noticed the absence of the figure.)  My first thought was that this was just the work of some juvenile delinquent, but upon closer inspection I noticed that the figure seems to be simply missing from the packaging.  The packaging was perfectly fine and still neatly sealed, along with every other figure nearby appearing to be case-fresh.  This led me to a horrifying realization of Lovecraftian proportions: Either Toy Aisle Trolls have infiltrated Hasbro themselves, or they have started developing the terrifying power to simply remove action figures from sealed blister cards using the powers of their minds!!  Perhaps no blister card will be safe from their ungodly powers!

Karmic Payback: Unclear, as this may or may not have been the act of a human. But Loki is the trickster god, so this is rather fitting…

Poe’s Point > Perspectives on the King Hssss Shouldergate

March 22, 2011 | Poe

There is a lot of anger among fans about King Hssss’s reversed shoulders. I was part of a Roast Gooble podcast the other day in which this topic was discussed at length (it’ll be posted later this week), but I think it was Val “JVS3” Staples who most accurately described my own feeling on the matter: fatigue. I just can’t muster the indignation this time. Part of it is because I managed to correct the problem, but part of it is just being tired of the drama surrounding this line of toys.

I’m tired of the QC mistakes, of course.

I’m also tired of the discussions about the mistakes, the price, the subscription, the Mattycollector website, the character selection, and the 200X/MOTUC arguments, all of which have been so negative in tone (on He-Man.org, here, and elsewhere) that it’s made me consider quitting PGPoA so I can enjoy my hobby in peace. Or at least dropping the news and figure reviews and focusing on articles about vintage lines, childhood memories, interviews and so forth. (more…)

The King Hssss Shoulder Swap

March 21, 2011 | Poe

As you will know if you’ve gone anywhere near He-Man.org in the last few days, King Hssss, like the first-release He-Man and Roboto before him, has reversed shoulders. Like Roboto, the shoulders were assembled correctly at the factory; the problem is the left and right shoulders were incorrectly stamped “L” and “R” (i.e., the right shoulder was stamped with “L”).

First off, a mea culpa: I didn’t notice the shoulders in my review of Hssss. What’s more, if I hadn’t read about it online, I’m fairly certain I never would have noticed. This is arguably a fault of mine as a reviewer: I’m more of a “big picture” type of person when it comes to toys, rather than getting into the minute details of the aesthetics of a sculpt. When I do get into the nitty-gritty, it tends to make me feel like one of those stereotypical nitpicking nerds you see on The Simpsons or Saturday Night Live. It also makes the reviews run really long, and long articles are something I try to avoid (this post being a bad example). (more…)

Bastards of the Universe > “Bazaar, part two”

March 21, 2011 | googum


There was a throwaway line in an old ToyFare issue, where someone mishears the description of Man-E-Faces as “attorney and actor,” and for some weird reason, that’s how I think of him now.

Since I’m not a big MOTUC collector, I didn’t get the Palace Guard two-pack, although they look cool. So, the bazaar has non-union guards: Dirk from Dragon’s Lair, and a spare He-Man wearing Ares’ helmet from Marvel Legends. Figure there’s a lot of scab labor in Eternia…

If you recognized, or didn’t recognize anyone, let me know! More next week!

Toy Aisle Trolls > Gone-E Chavo

March 21, 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.

First off, I apologize for the post title. I’m not even sure it works pronunciation-wise.

I actually have a backlog of these T.A.T.s right now…sad really. Anyway, today’s comes from Poester 3B.

Writes 3B:

I found this one at Target. It appears to be a blatant in-house swap. The figure inside the box is Jeff Jarrett from Jakks Pacific’s TNA line. You’ll notice the figure is still in it’s original hexagonal bubble and was just stuffed inside the Mattel box. The odd thing is Mattel’s Elite figures have been on sale for $10 for several weeks now. That’s the same price the TNA figures sell for.

Scarabus Pre-Orders tonight at 9pm ET

March 19, 2011 | Poe

I know I really haven’t been covering the FANtastic Exclusive stuff nearly as much as I should be, but part of that is because the Horsemen have been doing such a good job of it on their own blog, Twitter, and Facebook.

Still, there’s a major pre-order tonight, so I thought I’d pass the info along. I’m in for the 3-pack. (more…)