5 Questions With > Rustin Parr

June 18, 2009 | Poe

Today we have an interview with a good friend of mine, Rustin Parr of OAFE. Rustin and I first met through OAFE in the early 1990s, and despite living on separate coasts, we’ve met in person many times since then. An passionate if idiosyncratic movie buff, Haunted Mansion enthusiast, and King Leonidas look-alike (well, maybe not the abs, but the face, anyway), Rustin has agreed to bare just a bit of his soul to us here at PGPoA.

338381890_lCode name: Scott McEachen, alias Rustin Parr, alias Gunstas von Artlefuasdensein, D.D.S.
Specialty: Dreaming Big and Accomplishing Small
Base of Operations: Monterey, CA
History: Began the adventure in gorgeous Hermosa Beach, California, whence an egregious lust for action figuring took hold. A lack of sculpting ability and painting prowess propelled him into the world of Motion Picture production whose frivolities spat the man into the cutting edge of Neuro Marketing during which a healthy imbibing of toys and movies keeps the life juices flowing. It was a hot and sunny day when a close personal friend, the self-titled Lord of the Nazgul, brought together Rustin with Yo Go Re and Poe Ghostal, all posters at the formerly awesome and important/relevant spawn.com message boards, the latter two being founding members of oafe.net. After one particularly long and laugh-riddled evening in which Rustin performed his then-constant desperate rage upon the unprepared Yo’n’Poe towards falsely accused inept waitresses and rightfully, if not righteously accused George Lucas and his modern films, Poe’n’Yo dragged the Froce’o’da’nature into the fold at OAFE where on Rustin continues to this day to be less entertaining than that first eve and less consistent in producing reviews than his editor would prefer. Rustin is survived by his collection projected to consist of over 2,000 individual action figures, 500 hundred vehicle and location replicas 9in varying scales) and hundreds of plus-sized and resin collectibles, not to mention a DVD collection of some 1200 discs.

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Odds ‘n Ends

January 13, 2009 | Poe

odds_n_ends_09

  • While you can’t order MOTUC Beast Man or He-Man off Mattycollector.com anymore, on Mattel’s Facebook page they wrote, “with only a few hundred units left, we wanted to close down sales so we can have just handful for NYCC and SDCC to help spread the word on this amazing toy line at the summer conventions.” I’m glad Mattel appears  to have met their sales goals with this line–it bodes well for its future.
  • The wait for my shipment of DCUC6 is just starting to get to me. After my ordeal with DCUC5, I knew I’d be OK for a while after wave six start popping up at retail. But now with the news that all we’re waiting on is for Mattel to get one last figure in, I’m getting a wee bit impatient, especially when I see all the great photos.
  • Just as the coolness of the Deathstroke figure got me buying some Teen Titans trades and back issues of his eponymous 1990s series, I grabbed Showcase Presents Hawkman and The Greatest Shazam! Stories Ever Told. I have to say, though, Hawkman has the most convoluted continuity issues of any character in the DCU (and that’s saying something).
  • There’s been a ton of speculation as to what the mysterious new Mattel 6″ property will be, but we now know a few things for certain: it’s not any of the Horsemen’s original properties, and it’s not Thundercats or WWE. Nonetheless, the Horsemen “can guarantee that there will be a LOT of excited fanboys.” They also say they bet we won’t guess it. According to Mattel, the first figure will be available at SDCC. I thought perhaps it might be Movie Masters Watchmen, but that wouldn’t really be a new line, since Movie Masters is pre-existing. After looking over Mattel’s previous licenses, I think it’s…I don’t know. But just to throw out some guesses: The Simpsons, Harry Potter, Captain Power, Universal Monsters.
  • Wow–quite a dogfight going on in this month’s poll. Everyone’s had the lead except poor Tytus (Megator led very briefly when I picked him after creating the poll). I do think the only way the Sorceress would work as an exclusive is if she came with Zoar, though–otherwise it would feel too much like a “regular” figure, which isn’t Mattel’s MO for SDCC.
  • Just forty-eight until Skeletor and the Starfire/Adam Strange two-pack go on sale!

Pic of the Day

January 9, 2009 | Poe

DSC03684 by he9er2o9

Poe’s note: I’ve been slowly making my way through The Dark Knight on my Ipod Touch all week, in 15-minute intervals on my bus commute, so I’ve kind of got the Joker on the brain.

News roundup, 1/7/2009

January 7, 2009 | Poe

newspoe

Odds ‘n Ends > Tokyo Drift

July 22, 2008 | Poe

ODD: For years now, Red Kryptonite and I have been exchanging 100-email Gmail threads. Around the 100th email, Gmail forces you to split off into another thread, so at that point we just start a new “volume.” I think we’re on the seventeenth or eighteenth volume now. Anyway, at some point we got in the habit of distinguishing them with sequel subtitles, and now I’ve decided to rip that off for future Odds ‘n Ends posts. Mostly because I hate trying to come up with those “Edition” titles.

END: Rumored line-up for DCUC Wave 6:

2601100194 DC Universe Wave 6: Dr. Impossible Action Figure
2601200194 DC Universe Wave 6: Hawkman Action Figure
2601400194 DC Universe Wave 6: Killer Moth Action Figure
2601000194 DC Universe Wave 6: Mr. Miracle Action Figure
2601300194 DC Universe Wave 6: Shazam Action Figure
2600800194 DC Universe Wave 6: Superman (Black Suit) Action Figure
2600900194 DC Universe Wave 6: Superman (Red Suit) Action Figure

Not sure what a “red suit” Superman is, but one guess is it may be a new “standard” Supes to replace the one from DCSH. I’d be more excited–Captain Marvel (Shazam) and Killer Moth are great news–but I’m too impatient from waiting for wave three.

Incidentally, my new must-have figure for DCUC is Deadshot. Given his appearance in Justice League Unlimited and the JLU line, I feel pretty confident we’ll see him in DCUC soon. Incidentally, in case you missed it, the Fwoosh has a sneak peek at a DCUC Blue Beetle (wave unknown). Congrats to VeeBee of Fwoosh, who’s been lobbying for this figure since day one. (more…)

Movie Masters Batman Begins Batman and Scarecrow

July 18, 2008 | Poe

(Jeesh, that title’s a mouthful, ain’t it?)

I’m not going to do an official review of these, since Michael Crawford’s does the job nicely. This being the Weekend of the Bat, though, I thought I’d talk about them a bit in honor of The Dark Kuh-nigghit, as an outrageously-accented Frenchman might say. (Incidentally, the word “knight” comes from the Anglo-Saxon word cniht, which was pronounced “keh-nikt.” At some point English speakers stopped bothering to pronounce the “k,” thus giving modern Batman writers their beloved “dark knight/night” pun.)

I already reviewed the Movie Masters Dark Knight version of Batman for OAFE (link), so I’ll just crib that review for my basic take on the MM line.

In 2005, Mattel’s line of kid-targeted 5″ figures held little interest for collectors (outside of a not-bad Collector’s Edition figure). Collectors wanted 6″ figures with the sort of articulation that was beginning to appear in Mattel’s DC Superheroes line. Well, guess what? Mattel delivered this time around.

For The Dark Knight, Mattel has created “Movie Masters,” a line of 6″-scale action figures featuring detailed sculpts by the Four Horsemen and featuring the extensive articulation found in their comic-based DC Universe Classics line. While the initial Movie Masters waves are limited to The Dark Knight and Batman Begins, Mattel’s license extends to all the DC movies, so it’s possible we’ll see a 6″ Christopher Reeve Superman or Michael Keaton Batman in the future. (more…)