I’m not going to discuss what happened with the various exclusives and so forth–Rustin has promised a rant later in the week, and I’m sure that will cover it all and more.
Instead, I’m just going to list the things that interested me the most. (more…)
Leonardo & Hellboy by Poe Ghostal
Poe’s note: Despite these figures being based on the styles of two very different artists, I think they look really good next to each other. The paint applications match particularly well, and I think the scales are fairly accurate (Leo’s 4′ tall and Hellboy’s 7′ tall in the comics).
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.
Code 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.
Jeff Parker reviews the Hot Toys Predator Major Alan “Dutch” Schaeffer and Private Billy Sole 1/6-scale figures. Excerpt: “Well, once again we are in the territory of Dallas and Kane’ where one actor/agent/lawyer has given permission to use his likeness and the other hasn’t …”
Newton Gimmick reviews the Playmates TMNT Mini-Mutants Exoskeleton Shredder figure. Excerpt: “… while it’s obviously inspired by Exo-Squad it has tons of little traits that definitely make it TMNT.”
Dave Van Domelen reviews the Hasbro Transformers Revenge of the Fallen Scout class Rollbar, Dead End, Knock Out, Dirt Boss, Depthcharge and Ransack figures. Excerpt: “… it seems like they used a much more brittle plastic in most of these than the designs would have worked best with.” (See also: 1, 2, 3, 4.) (more…)
Welcome to the first of what I hope will be many interviews with fellow collectors!
MisterBigBo, who comments here occasionally, is a real-life friend of mine who I’ve actually spent time with in person. He’s taken time out of his busy schedule as a brand-new dad to answer a few questions about his toy collecting.
Codename: MisterBigBo
Base of Operations: The Commiewealth of Taxachusetts
History: Regular ole suburban lower middle class kid who grew up in the 80s. Star Wars fan first, but like most boys of that generation I had a healthy action figure collection. I have gone on to become a teacher, a dad, and study traditional Japanese martial arts, but the toys are still there.
1.) What were your favorite toys or toy lines as a child?
Though I started with Star Wars, moved with the trends to Transformers and He-Man for a while, GI Joe was my favorite. The designs and the articulation caused me to stay with the line into junior high, after most of my friends had moved on. As a youngster I had a little of everything: a few M.A.S.K. vehicles, and one or two Sky Commanders, Army Antz, Silver Hawks, C.O.P.S., Centurins, Marvel Secret Wars and D.C. Super Powers, Captain Power, Chuck Norris Karate Kommandos, Battle Beasts, Starcom, Eagle Force. . . those are the faves that I can remember right now . I suppose my tendency these days to collect only one or a few of any given line is a continuation of that trend. (more…)
While a few of these (at least April O’Neil) have been previously revealed, NECA released the full list of their SDCC exclusives on their website today. (more…)
Artemis reviews the Diamond Select Toys Star Trek Deep Space Nine Chief Miles O’Brien figure. Excerpt: “This figure could’ve been better – and hopefully someday DS/AA will revisit him with a sleeves-up version, and give the head another try – but it’s good enough.”
Artemis reviews the Playmates Toys Star Trek Warp Collection Cadet Chekov 6-inch figure. Excerpt: “… there’s not a lot that says Star Trek about this figure, and aside from the lack of leg joints, that’s really the biggest weakness it has to deal with.”
Scott Rubin reviews the Playmates Toys Terminator Salvation T-R.I.P 3¾-inch-scale figure. Excerpt: “It’s got the looks and the size, just lacking a little in the articulation and accessory departments.” (See also.) (more…)
Props to Ninja Pizza for pointing me to this important nugget of information I completely missed:
I got an email from Steve Murphy yesterday, with some information which was sent to him from Randy Falk at NECA. Here are the pertinent quotes from Randy, along with an image:
“I just wanted to send over an image of our SDCC exclusive for this summer.
It will be a brand new April O’ Neil figure that comes with a Battle Damaged Mouser and a Regular Mouser with a new head featuring an articulated jaw.
This is the first non Turtle figure in the NECA TMNT collection.
This version of April will be available at San Diego Comic Con this July.
We are going to try to make arrangements to offer a small amount of figures online for those who can not attend SDCC.”
So maybe it’s not all “just wind in sails,” eh, Steve?
