Poe Ghostal's Points of Articulation – Page 74 – A blog about action figures and the toy industry in general by writer and collector Poe Ghostal.

Figure It Out #2 Winner

February 10, 2012 | Poe

As many, many, many (deep breath) many of you correctly guessed, the toy in this week’s Figure It Out was Bruiser the Berserker Baboon from Hasbro’s short-lived Bucky O’Hare line–a fun, quality line that I’ve always seen as an attempt to lure in kids who liked the Ninja Turtles, but that’s neither here nor there.

I ended up choosing a winner from the correct entries at random: Heli. Heli will receive a Poe Prize in the mail next week.

Gonna have to pick a harder one next time…but not as hard as the first one.

Review > Queen Marlena (Masters of the Universe Classics)

February 10, 2012 | Poe

When He-Man and the Masters of the Universe was on the air, the series often followed a pattern: a new character would be developed as a toy, then added to the cartoon. It was rare for it to work in the opposite direction, though it occasionally did: Prince Adam, Cringer, Orko, King Randor, and the Sorceress were all characters that were either created by Filmation or were best known through their depiction on the cartoon. It seems unlikely that Mattel would have created a Prince Adam or Randor figure–or perhaps even the Sorceress–without the character’s popularity on the cartoon to sell the toy; and Orko was created by Filmation, so he wouldn’t have existed at all.

There were a few glaring omissions from that list, though. One was Adora, from sister show She-Ra; and the other is Queen Marlena. Wife to King Randor, mother to Prince Adam, former astronaut and queen of all Eternia, Marlena appeared in many episodes of Masters of the Universe, yet she didn’t get an action figure until last summer’s San Diego Comic Con exclusive. (more…)

Pic of the Day > Doctor Who in the TARDIS by Infinite Hollywood

February 10, 2012 | Poe

Guest Review > ThreeA 2000 AD A.B.C. Warriors Mongrol

February 9, 2012 | Fengschwing

Pretty much every team of heroes has one: the big guy whose chief role is to lift stuff, smash things and hit people. The Avengers had the Hulk, the Fantastic Four has the Thing and the A.B.C. Warriors have Mongrolâ€¦

In the late 20th century a fascist uprising in the Volgograd area of Russia turns to a full blown coup and the Volgan Republic of Asia is born. Soon the Volgans begin a rapid invasion of the rest of Western Europe, including the British Isles, igniting a third world war.

The United States retaliates but quickly realises that 21st century combat requires a new kind of soldier to deal with the atomic, bacteriological and chemical threats on the future battlefield. The A.B.C. Warriors were born. (more…)

Odds ‘n Ends > Futuretro, Toy Fair, Matty Subs, Snout Spout/Stay Puft QC Problems, & a Plastic Granamyr

February 9, 2012 | Poe

Just a heads-up–for a variety of reasons, I won’t be attending Toy Fair next week like I did last year. I will, however, be offering my usual armchair coverage, and I will have someone representing PGPoA–JediN8–who will be taking photos and tweeting from the Mattel and Hasbro collector events, as well as the Fair itself.
I also won’t be able to attend the Four Horsemen’s now-annual show, this one called Toypocalypse II: Futuretro, on Friday night at Toy Tokyo in NYC. It’s looking to be quite an event, though. In addition to the Horsemen and Outer Space Men creator Mel Birnkrant, there are three visiting artists: Sucklord, who may already be familiar to many of you; Abdi Farah, who won the first season of Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” and Kymia Nawabi, the winner of the same show’s second season. As I understand it, all of them will be presenting their own Outer Space Men customs. Speaking of OSM, they will also have a set of four OSM with new paint jobs designed by OSM creator Mel Birnkrant himself, signed by Mr. Birnkrant and the Horsemen, as well as a print of the above painting by the superb Nathan Baertsch (you can get the whole shebang–figures and print–for $125). It looks like it’s going to be an awesome time, and I’m hatefully envious of everyone who gets to go.
Speaking of Toy Fair, Paul Nomad of the blog Idle Hands is doing his usual thing where he gets all the pre-Toy Fair scoops through whatever mysterious black magic (or maybe just blackmail?) he employs. There’s lot of interesting stuff there, so be sure to check it out.
Mattycollector.com has added the long-awaited subscription manager to their website, though be aware that it won’t really work yet, since–as was explained months ago–February subs can’t be combined. Be aware that (as far as I can tell) you actually shouldn’t have to take any action to combine your subs. That should happen automatically. However, if you want them separate, you have to adjust that in the settings. You can also update your credit card info for each subscription from this new section.
It seems that Snout Spout‘s foam trunk may have a tendency to break or tear. Of course this is unsurprising, and again, I don’t get why Mattel couldn’t just use the hard rubber from the vintage figure of twenty-five years ago.
In addition, it sounds like the foam giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Men are turning yellow. Mattel’s response was “Yes, totally aware of this issue and we have the CPI team looking into it. We hope to have an update soon.” This, after they just answered in December that “[a]ll of our figures, no matter what the material, go through extensive internal simulated aging and humidity testing. If product does not pass, we do not ship it.” Nonetheless, I give credit to Mattel for admitting to the problem, though I have no idea what they can do about it. Unless there’s a really easy fix for it, the only thing they could do would be to offer a refund, and I have a hard time seeing that happening.
Anyway, all of this QC/foam stuff led fans to create a thread on He-Man.org pleading for Granamyr to be made of plastic and not foam, to which Scott Neitlich replied that Granamyr would not be made of foam and would be made from the same plastic as Tytus and Megator. So, some good news there.
He-Man.org has posted the first part of an interesting interview with Nathan Bitner, the boy who invented this month’s MOTUC 30th Anniversary figure, Fearless Photog.

Pic of the Day > Star Wars Death Star Playset E by speedbreaker9

February 9, 2012 | Poe

Pic of the Day > Truckin’ by immaculatewang

February 8, 2012 | Poe

Toy Aisle Trolls > Total Bummer

February 7, 2012 | 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@poeghostal.com.

Submitted by: J T

J T writes: “Came across this in a zellers in Toronto. At first I thought it was a new Black Manta…then I realized it was something else I can’t identify.”

Karmic Payback: May the sun and the spring breeze warm you and caress you like an apple–as you hang from a tree.

Pic of the Day > spaceman by Johnson Cameraface

February 7, 2012 | Poe