DCUC 3 variants

January 3, 2008 | Poe

Action Figure Insider has posted the first pics of the variants for wave 3 of DC Universe Classics: an unmasked Deathstroke and Sinestro in his “Sinestro Corps” uniform.

These variants continue the DCUC trend of not particularly interesting me. If I got the Sinestro Corps variant, I’d probably keep it, but I wouldn’t deliberately track it down. I’d trade the unmasked Deathstroke for the regular version.

I’m kind of glad there isn’t a Robin variant with the earlier Tim Drake red/green costume…it saves me from having to buy two Robins and then agonize over which to display.

Sinestro

Deathstroke

IMotherBoxPod

January 2, 2008 | Poe

Finally came up with a caption I liked for this pic.

IMotherBoxPod

“Dammit! Infinite processing power and I still keep getting that damned sad face! DESAAAAAAD! Come fix this!”

2007: The Year in Haulage

January 2, 2008 | Poe

Happy New Year! I’m working on a very big review of the first wave of DC Universe Classics figures, but in the meantime here’s a quick post to tide you over.

Inspired by Googum, I’ve decided to try and post a list of all the toys I bought or received in 2007. I can’t go into quite as much detail–I don’t have dates and I certainly don’t have receipts (and part of me doesn’t want to know how much I spent). This is mostly from memory, so there are undoubtedly a few holes–I’ll update as I remember things.

Looking it over, it’s pretty clear I became a fan of (read: obsessed with) DC Superheroes.

DC Superheroes/DC Universe Classics

  1. Quickfire Joker
  2. Bane (international variant)
  3. Scarecrow
  4. Mr. Freeze
  5. Blue/gray Batman
  6. Azrael
  7. Bizarro (purple)
  8. Supergirl (blue)
  9. Lex Luthor
  10. Darkseid
  11. Brainiac
  12. Man-Bat
  13. Cyborg Superman
  14. Mongul
  15. Two-Face
  16. Clayface
  17. Catwoman
  18. Gray/black Batman
  19. Classic Detective Batman
  20. Red Tornado
  21. The Penguin
  22. Orion
  23. Etrigan the Demon

Hellboy

  1. Abe Sapien (Mezco)
  2. Hellboy Animated (Gentle Giant Best Buy Exclusive)
  3. Abe Sapien Animated (Gentle Giant)
  4. Movie Hellboy (Gentle Giant)
  5. 12″ Movie Abe Sapien (Sideshow)

TMNT

  1. Leonardo
  2. Donatello
  3. Raphael
  4. Michelangelo

Legendary Comic Book Heroes

  1. Savage Dragon
  2. Judge Dredd
  3. Ripclaw
  4. Ann O’Brien
  5. Marv
  6. Judge Death
  7. Star
  8. Madman
  9. Witchblade
  10. Superpatriot
  11. Conan
  12. Wraarl
  13. The Darkness
  14. Stryker

Marvel Legends

  1. Tiger Stripe Wolverine
  2. Blackheart
  3. Wolverine/Sabretooth Face-Off
  4. Hydra Soldier
  5. Silver Surfer (Hasbro Comic F4)

Halo (Joyride Studios)

  1. Brute
  2. Spec Ops Elite
  3. Master Chief (series 4)

Nightmare Before Christmas (NECA)

  1. Santa Jack
  2. Santa Jack II
  3. Cyclops
  4. Experiment Jack

Miscellaneous

  1. Street Gear Clubber Lang (Rocky III)
  2. 7″ Indiana Jones (Disney parks exclusive)
  3. Fox Sports Robot
  4. Frosty the Snowman (Round 2)
  5. Godzilla 1975 (Bandai)
  6. Identity Crisis Batman (DC Direct)
  7. Hush Joker (DC Direct)
  8. Special Forces Accessory Packs (Resaurus)
  9. Jonathan Papelbon (McFarlane MLB)
  10. Creature from the Black Lagoon (Toy Island)
  11. Pig Cop (Duke Nukem – Resaurus)
  12. Grimlock (Transformers Titanium 3″)
  13. Snowman (Twisted Christmas – McFarlane)
  14. Alien Warrior (Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem – NECA)
  15. Ramathorr (FANtastic Exclusive)

Partly cloudy

December 31, 2007 | Poe

Despite my reservations regarding tag clouds and their aesthetics, I realized there was no easy way to browse this site for specific content, so I’ve added a tag cloud below the Recent Comments box. If you hate it, let me know–I can explore other ways of making the site easier to navigate.

Poe’s Point > “…its wings were stretched from wall to wall…”

December 31, 2007 | Poe

Jason “ToyOtter” Geyer has a blog post about the online action figure collecting community, explaining why they recently banned a forum member (I don’t know who, nor does it matter). It occurred to me that I’ve been a member of said community for nearly ten years now (fifteen if you count my early days on the Prodigy bulletin boards as a member of a Transformers fan club).

My first real online action figure community was the Spawn.com boards. Eventually those boards got a little too contentious for my taste and, as Geyer suggests in his post, I founded a website (or rather, was talked into joining the founding of a website) with two other Spawn.com expatriates. Over time, I found I was less interested in writing toy reviews than I was in just commenting on the industry as a whole (plus I’m a control freak and wanted my own site), so finally, at the beginning of this month, I unleashed this blog upon an unsuspecting and uninterested public. (more…)

Christmas & birthday haulage

December 30, 2007 | Poe

Now that both Christmas and my birthday are over and done with, it’s time to catalog the loot.

(NOTE: All the product links below and elsewhere on the site are via my partnership with Amazon, so even if you don’t order the thing you click on, if you could click on one of my links first and then buy something else, I’ll still get a little kickback from Amazon to help me pay the bills for this site.)

Action figures

Comics

Videogames

Miscellaneous

  • New digital camera
  • Isotoners!

Whoops…almost missed a day!

December 29, 2007 | Poe

And on my birthday, no less!

Yes, this is a cheap entry, but at least I got it up before midnight…

My Gentle Giant Hellboy finally arrives…

December 28, 2007 | Poe

…after months and months of delays, and I get the dang variant! The figure looks awesome, but I prefer to own the iconic versions of characters, so it looks like I’ll have to sell or trade this guy and wait for my other order to arrive.

Still, he looks fantastic. He’s looks to be in a six-inch scale, has Marvel Legends-style articulation and great sculpting, and comes with two alternate hands and his giant revolver (which fits in the holster).

Hellboy

Poe’s Point > An Appreciation of the Ball Jointed Neck

December 28, 2007 | Poe

When I was a kid, most action figures had the same articulation: swivel joints at the neck, shoulders, and hips, and maybe a twist at the waist. That’s what you got with Star Wars, Masters of the Universe, Super Powers and Secret Wars, and later, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (though MOTU and the Turtles featured somewhat ball-jointed hips). Some lines were an exception; the 3 3/4″ G.I. Joe figures were heavily articulated, with the aforementioned articulation plus ball joints at the shoulders, head, waist, and hips, and swivels at the biceps in the later figures. But usually, you were stuck with the basic joints. (more…)

My new Batman figure review is up at OAFE

December 27, 2007 | Poe

My review of the black-and-gray repaint Batman has been posted over on OAFE. Be sure to check it out–my editor, yo go re, added a nice effect with one of the photos that shows what some other possible repaints might have been.

Batman review

On a related note, I was reading The Dark Knight Archives Volume 1–one of my Xmas gifts–when I came across the following panel from an old 1940 comic. The context is that Batman has figured out that an old woman is actually Catwoman in disguise and is taking off her make-up. When she resists, he says the obvious thing. (I swear this isn’t Photoshopped–this is the real panel. And keep in mind, Robin is standing nearby–way to set an example, Bruce.)

Papa spank