DCUC Hawkman gets a new mace

February 19, 2009 | Poe

While I like the mace Hawkman came with, it sits a little too loosely in his hand, so I went looking for a replacement. On eBay I found a range of approximately 1/12th scale diecast weapons under the brand name “Mononofu.” I ordered the mace, which also came with a shield and a little stand.

The price and shipping were surprisingly cheap (particularly since it was coming from Hong Kong). The weapons are well-sculpted and look almost tailor-made for Hawkman. The mace head is made from diecast metal, while the shield and the haft and handle of the mace are made from plastic.

The shield also has a handle, which unfortunately means Hawkman can’t hold it properly, since his right hand is a fist. However, the mace fit in his left hand like a charm, and I think it looks even better than the mace he came with. But don’t take my word for it!

The weapons came in a box that features one of the finest examples of Engrish I’ve ever come across:

Leave and go up! It has weapos in your hands.

For justice, I keep honor of the soldier who came through a battlefield of 100 training for a person, and the thing which I defeat an enemy and defeated may say with true arms.

I inherit will of a great brave man, and I can revive with thunder now, and it is “MONONOFU.”

I think that about says it all, don’t you?

Marvel Chicken

February 19, 2009 | Poe

Good morning folks!

A lot of you have probably already seen this, but for those of you who don’t visit any other geek-oriented websites, Marvel has produced its own Robot Chicken-like video featuring MODOK bawling out an A.I.M. henchman, Christian Bale-style. It’s apparently the first of a series titled Marvel Super Heroes: What The–?! It’s funny, largely due to the top-notch voice work on MODOK (and the way his little arms and legs flail around). The production values are pretty good too.

Vintage Month > The California Raisins (Applause, 1988)

February 18, 2009 | Poe

raisins

Back in the late 1980s, the California Raisins were huge. Like so many pop culture characters of the decade, they began as a marketing gimmick. Within a year or two they had toys, albums, TV specials, and they were even awarded that epitome of 1980s pop culture adoration, a (short-lived) Saturday morning cartoon. They even got a freakin’ videogame, although it was never actually produced. My personal favorite Raisins-related production was Meet the Raisins, a clever Beatles send-up which, sadly, remains unavailable outside of old VHS tapes.

Of course, young Poe had some of the Raisins toys–mostly just the little Applause figurines. They weren’t articulated, but they served their purpose of offering Poe a plastic totem of some beloved marketing icons.

Vintage Month > Homer Simpson (Mattel, 1990)

February 17, 2009 | Poe

Playmates’ run of Simpsons action figures back in the early years of the decade is the gold standard for toys of the show. They produced (almost) every major character from the show, and a whole heck of a lot of minor ones too. More recently, McFarlane Toys offered a different take on the license with dioramas depicting famous Simpsons moments.

But as much as I enjoyed these lines (particularly Playmates’), I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for Mattel’s early effort in 1990. The short-lived line still offers the most articulated figures of the Simpsons ever made.

The sculpting isn’t as spot-on to the show as Playmates’ work, though, and the figures had an odd feature–they came with little plastic word balloons that could be plugged into a hole in the characters’ soft, hollow heads. You could swap out the cardboard cards with different sayings, and best of all, the cards were blank on the back, allowing you to write in whatever classics Simpsons bon mot you wanted. Homer’s other accessories were a radiation hood and an inanimate carbon rod.

The line included the Simpsons family, as well as a “Bartman” figure and a Nelson Muntz (who represented the typical action figure line “villain,” I guess). There was also a purple couch and TV playset. I used to have them all, then stupidly sold them sometime during college, in the early days of eBay. I’ve since picked up a Homer, and someday may try to track the rest of them down.

Pic of the Day

February 17, 2009 | Poe

gumby by Morgan 🙂

Poe’s note: I’ve always loved Gumby. One of my favorite MST3K episodes  features the guys mocking a Gumby short before the movie. “Thank goodness for the internal genitalia!”

(On a side note, people who take photos of Gumby seem disproportionately protective of their images on Flickr. I had to go through almost twenty pages of results before I found a good one I could use.)

Review > Kalibak (DC Universe Classics)

February 17, 2009 | Poe

Kalibak is the son of Darkseid and Suli. Suli appears to have been a relatively normal-looking woman, so apparently Kalibak’s good looks come purely from his father’s side of the family.

A member of Jack Kirby’s New Gods, Kalibak is a bruiser who is constantly seeking his father’s approval. He hates his half-brother Orion, whom Darkseid admires despite the fact Orion has sworn to destroy him. Most appearances of Kalibak, in both comics and cartoons, involve him getting into a knock-down, drag-out battle with Orion or Superman, with lots of property damage. One of my personal favorite fights is in the Justice League episode “Hereafter, Part 2,” where Lobo piles car upon car on top of Kalibak until he cries uncle.

Kalibak is the Collect-and-Connect figure for DC Universe Classics Wave 6. (more…)

Poe’s Point > A Reviewer’s Manifesto

February 17, 2009 | Poe

che_skeletorRecently, I was taken to task in the comments section of one of my figure reviews. The commenter believed I am generally too lenient on the figures I review, and that my grading system did not reflect the actual quality of the figure. In my response, I explained I review figures based on the idea that I’m reviewing it for those who would be interested in this particular figure, not objectively against every action figure ever made.

The analogy I used was movies: can a movie like Finding Nemo be objectively compared to Citizen Kane? One could try, but if I wrote a movie review where, in my head, I’m constantly thinking to myself “Would someone who thinks the Citizen Kane is the greatest film ever like Finding Nemo?” the end result would be pretty damned weird, and probably unreadable. No matter how great a film it is, Finding Nemo is a film intended for a young audience, while Citizen Kane is not, and trying to review one based on the other for the purposes of making a recommendation to someone strikes me as silly.

(more…)