Odds ‘n Ends > Mattycollector News, G.I. Joe Photo Covers, FOC Dinobot Pics

December 21, 2011 | Poe

  • Mattel has announced the January Mattycollector sale, which includes the Sorceress and Fearless Photog, as well as the “Ready to Believe You” Peter Venkman. More interesting is the news that they will now have He-Man, Skeletor, Battle Cat, Panthor, and 6″ Peter Venkman and Ray Stanz on permanent sale throughout 2012. It only took them four years.
  • I have to pick a winner for the Arkham City contest–I’ll do that tonight. Apologies for the delay.
  • I’m intrigued by IDW’s photo covers of G.I. Joe toys for their comics (here’s one, and here’s another one). On the one hand, it’s awesome that they’re paying tribute to the comics’ toy origins. On other hand, the covers are pretty uninspired. A brief Flickr search will come up with better pics (check out Geek Creek and Ed Speir IV, for example).
  • Power Pal Joe Amaro sent along this touching video of James Sawyer of motucfigures.com reviewing the Wind Raider with his son. As a toymaker himself, Joe says “this is the sort of thing that makes it all worthwhile.”
  • Joe also sent along these awesome pics of the Dinobots (via Tformers.com, though they could have originated elsewhere for all I know) from the upcoming Fall of Cybertron videogame: Grimlock, “Slug” (Slag’s new name, apparently? Yuck. Damned trademarks), and Swoop. They all look awesome, and we had better get toys of them. (Preferably not assembled by sweatshop laborers–more on that later.)

Show & Tell > Eleven Best Finds at Church Fairs

December 21, 2011 | PrfktTear

Every year starting mid-November to early December local churches and synagogues start having their annual holiday fairs. These bazaars are usually quite the spectacle, drawing people from all over. As a child I had fond memories of going to these fairs and I decided I wanted to try and capture that feeling once again by hitting up a few — but what started as something innocent turned into a full-blown obsession.

It doesn’t matter whether you go to the fair at St. Joe’s, St. Michael’s or Temple Beth Emunah, all the fairs all seem to follow the same formula. When you first walk in there’s going to be a strong aura consisting of baked goods, pine needles , old people, and chicken pot pie, but don’t worry — the nausea usually quickly subsides. You’re almost always guaranteed to find the same things at these fairs; bake sales, raffles, hand-made items, and vendors hawking Avon or Tupperware products. (more…)

Toy Aisle Trolls > Not Yo’ Man

December 20, 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.

Submitted by: BP

What It’s Supposed to Look Like: This

BP writes: 

Hello Poe, I wanted to share my Toy Aisle Troll find here in Kansas City Ks. I was at the local Toys R Us and found this WWE All Stars set and thought that the Macho Man Randy Savage figure looked a little different. Turns out that someone swapped out the Elite Macho Man with a basic Matt Hardy. Whats even more messed up is that when I first found the package, we got sidetracked and I didn’t get to tell an employee. We came back probably a month later and it was still sitting on the shelf. This time I made sure to tell someone.

Illustrating Skeletor

December 19, 2011 | Battlegrip.com

I recently posted a rough guide to battlegrip.com  in which I outlined a process I’ve been using to create digital illustrations by pulling photos into Photoshop (or the free GIMP program). That rough guide sparked questions that, to properly explain, led me to create a new illustration. While trying to come up with a cool subject I remembered the photo of Skeletor on a throne from Poe’s review . . . and, as you can see, I elected to use that photo as my base. (more…)

Toy Aisle Trolls > Crime Syndicate of Troll-Land

December 19, 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.

Submitted by: RS

Location: Walmart in Fremont, CA

The Problem: Owlman and Johnny Quick have been replaced by Dr. Mid-Nite and a regular Flash. UPDATE: I missed the fact that Power Ring appears to have been replaced by a regular Green Lantern, Superwoman has been replaced with a Marvel Legends Valkyrie, and Ultraman’s head has been swapped for a 1990s mullet-haired Supes head. Ugh.

Poe’s note: I just realized that I used the same title for two different TAT posts–and no one even noticed.

Anyway, clearly this set is serious troll-bait. Meanwhile, you can get an Owlman off eBay for the price of a single DCUC figure.