Video Reviews Catch Up Part 7

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A Moment of Silence for our departed friend...

The long nightmare is over, once again I have a computer. My several years old laptop (a Dell Inspiron 9100) crashed a couple weekends ago, and refused resuscitation, leaving me without access to my games, the many, many pictures I had taken for posting here, and without my programming projects. It was a horrible nearly 2 weeks until the replacement machine arrived, but it's here now, and thus begins the long procedure of reinstalling everything, and getting everything set up to my liking. Hopefully I'll be able to revive the Inspiron for just long enough to copy the entire contents of the hard drive over to the new box.

And here it is.

It is a Dell Inspiron 15, which makes for my third Dell Inspiron, though this one cost about $1000 less than the last one I bought, and is at least 3 times as powerful. So far, I like it, though I haven't yet played any games on it, nor done any programming (that's where I get really picky about how the computer works, keyboard layout, shortcut keys, mouse behavior, and so one). The screen is very pretty though, and it's nice as fast (the previous laptop had only 512 MB of RAM, and with Windows XP that's not nearly enough). It has 3 GB of RAM, an Intel Core 2 Duo, a 250 GB hard drive, and the extra nice screen (1600x900 resolution). It also weighs half or less than the 9100, which was a beast that could be used to bludgeon a moose to death. I could probably kill a cat with this one, and though there are cats in the neighborhood I wish death upon, I'm not going to use my shiny new laptop to do it.

Now that I have computer with which to write blog posts, and to edit photos with, I can take pictures of the stuff I've received lately, this covers about the last 3 weeks or so. I sold a few Star Wars items a couple of weeks ago, and with that money I went on a little spending spree, mostly for comics, but I got a fair number of toys as well. Let's start with the toys.

My growing interest in Marvel comics is causing me to pollute my collection with Marvel toys. I still have little to no interest in toys under 6", so I'm not touching Marvel Universe (or DC Infinite Heroes for that matter), and I'm by no means interested in acquiring all the past Marvel Legends figures (how ever many hundreds that is), but there are a few I'm trying to get, and now I'm watching current/future releases with interest. To start out my Marvel toy collection (not really, but who cares?) I'm starting out where I started my Marvel Comics collection, with Astonishing X-Men (I've only read 3/4ths of the books Joss Whedon wrote, but they're some of the best comics I've ever read). At the moment, I only have the cheap figures: Emma Frost (Diamond variant), Cyclops and Beast. I really want to get Colossus and Kitty Pryde, but they're the most expensive ones to get. Blarg. I'll just have to be patient.

While I was in Las Vegas last weekend, visiting as many Walmart and Toys 'R Us as I could, looking for DCUC Imperiex wave and Marvel Legends 2 packs wave 2.5, I got frustrated with not finding anything. So I made an impulse purchase (somewhat fulled by a similar purchase the week before), and grabbed Scorpion Venom. And I'm glad I did, because it's an awesome figure. He'll go nicely with Iron Spider-man (last week's impulse purchase), and it prompted me to try to get the various Carnage figures, a regular Venom, and Spider-man 2099 (the only one of which I have managed to win on eBay).

Speaking of Marvel Legends 2 packs, I've been trying to get the recent ones, particularly Nick Fury/Red Hand Ninja and Maria Hill/Iron Man. My cousin had extras of a couple of them though, so he sold me the Ninja and Maria Hill, still need to find Nick Fury. And earlier this week, ToysRUs.com put the variants up for order, so I ordered 2 each of the Sharon Carter/Stealth Iron Man and Dum Dum Dugan/White Hand Ninja, they should arrive soon this week. My cousin and I made a huge toy run this week, hitting 14 Walmarts, again looking for the blasted Imperiex Wave. We found nothing, except a couple of clearanced Marvel Legends: the Cannonball/Domino and Marvel Girl/Cable 2 packs, and Nova variant Human Torch. I happened to have won Marvel Girl on eBay for a good price, only the day before, so I left that 2 pack, but picked up the Domino pack. She looks pretty good, although she has a severely distended left knee, due to the posing in the packaging. Not being the slightest bit familiar with Cannonball, he's going to eBay. And that covers new Marvel figures, for the time being.

In a rare purchase, I picked up a couple of Star Wars figures. I wasn't entirely sure I would keep the comic pack, but I can't find the receipt now, so I guess it's mine. The comic pack is based on the Legacy comic series, which I was a big fan of, for the short time I bought monthlies. Someday I'll pick up the trades and read the whole story. Anyway, the Imperial Knights design is nifty.

I finally purchased a couple of Witchblade figures I've been looking at for the past couple of years, Ian Nottingham and Sara Pezzini (the Witchblade). They are of comparable size to Marvel Legends, and are nicely detailed, if not terribly pose-able. There's a black dress variant of Sara I'd like to get eventually, and a white suit variant of Nottingham. Someday.

And finally, a DC purchase. Barbie Supergirl, which I just barely missed the first time it showed up on ToysRUs.com on clearance a couple of months ago. She doesn't match with anything else in my collection (size- or style-wise), but she looks really good, so I'll probably keep her, until one of my daughters steals her from me.

On to comics. Let's start with misc stuff. Elektra: The Hand (which was really good, despite not being about Elektra at all), Tales of the Witchblade, and Checkmate: Chimera.

Some Superman and Supergirl comics: Superman: Man of Steel vol 2, Superman: True Brit, Supergirl: Many Happy Returns, and Superman: For All Seasons. I've previously read For All Seasons, it was a good story, though the art's not my favorite. I LOVE Tim Sale's stuff in Batman: Long Halloween and Dark Victory, but I don't think his style works as well for Superman. Plus, the guy's the size of a house, with a chin that Jay Leno must envy. I look forward to Supergirl, I really like Ed Benes' art, and True Brit was written by Kim 'Howard' Johnson and John Cleese of Monty Python, so it should be fun.

Got a bunch of JLA and related comics: The Tenth Circle, Seven Caskets, The Obsidian Age vol 1 (vol 2 was on the way, along with 52 vols 3 and 4, Justice vol 2 and more, but it looks like they're no longer coming, deadbeat seller), Final Night and The Tornado's Path (both of which are extras, and will go back to eBay), New Frontiers vols 1 and 2, and both the hardcover and softcover versions of Matt Wagner's Trinity (one of them will go to eBay, though I don't know which to keep), and Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC/Marvel Crossovers and Justice League: New Beginnings.

And I picked up most of the remaining Grant Morrison New X-Men books, 2-4 and 7, with 6 on the way, just need to grab 5. I still hate Quitely's and Kordy's art, but the stories are mostly pretty good, and the final book was drawn by Marc Silvestri, whose art is gorgeous. I've also been trying to pick up the House of M and Civil War series', and have started off my collection with House of M: Avengers, House of M: Civil War, Civil War: X-Men and Civil War: Iron Man. I look forward to reading them, once I have the complete sets.

And that is everything, that has arrived. There's a few more things on the way, but I'll deal with them when they arrive.

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X-Men, DCUC 5 Pack, DCSH Holy Grail

At the end of 2007, there was a little thing called New York Comic Con. Mattel thought it would be cool to make a couple of the harder to find figures from the ending DCSH line available as exclusives at that con - Specifically, Black and Silver Superman (wave 5), and Knight Shadow Batman (wave 8), along with a new Mr Freeze (repaint of wave 3 figure). I had just started collecting the line, and had been lucky to get Knight Shadow Bats and BS Superman pretty easily, and for some stupid reason, that I do not recall, and absolutely cannot fathom, I didn't think I needed a Mr Freeze figure. Now, Batman and Robin was a HORRIBLE film, a travesty like no other in the Super Hero genre, but Mr Freeze is one of Batman's most interesting villains. He's had several great episodes in Batman: The Animated Series (I'm still trying to get a new review up, I swear), and the first full length film from BTAS featured Mr Freeze. My point is, I love the character, but I didn't take advantage of the opportunity I had to get a new figure of him when it came out (through other collectors I know on SWAN, who lived in the area and were going to the con).

I have regretted it for two years now, as the price for the figure on eBay went up to 3 times retail. Sure, I could have gotten the DCSH Wave 3 version for roughly retail, but the NYCC version is FAR superior. Dubbed Tech Suit Mr Freeze, the NYCC Freeze has a much better paint deco. Predominantly black, with electric blue detailing and red accents, this suit looks much more technological, and like the modern comic book styles that I prefer. The wave 3 version had odd coloring on the lower torso of the figure and the forarms, that was nearly the same color as Freeze's skin, so it looks like he's wearing a high-cut shirt, exposing his midriff (rather like Supergirl). Understandably, it looks odd to me, and I wasn't keen on getting it. I set my sights on Tech Suit Freeze, and wondered how I would justify paying over $30 for a single figure.

Things started looking up, when Fwoosher Poe Ghostal made me an awesome trade and I was able to acquire the 2007 SDCC Exclusive Man-Bat figure, it gave me hope that someday I would get Tech Suit Freeze for less than $30. And last week, it happened. In what seems to me to have been a fluke bit of bidding, I won Tech Suit Freeze in an auction for the piddly amount of $18. Another auction ended less than 24 hours later went for $32. I Win.

My cousin is a big fan of Marvel Comics, so we've discussed them at length. He has recommended that I read the Joss Whedon run on Astonishing X-Men, and hey, I'm a Joss Whedon fanboy, so I was interested. It was also recommended to me to read Grant Morrison's New X-Men, if I liked Grant Morrison. I do, I have his run on JLA, and have read half of his Batman stuff, leading up to Final Crisis, So, I picked up the 3 of the 4 Astonishing X-Men trades, New X-Men Vol 1, and since I'm always looking to finish my JLA and Justice League of America collection, I got JLA vol 9 and JLoA Vol 3. I believe I got the following 6 books for about $25 on eBay from various sellers.

Since I've had these for a couple of weeks now, I've read all the X-Men books and one of the DC books. I enjoyed the first of the New X-Men books (E is for Extinction, story by Grant Morrison, art by Frank Quitely). I think Grant Morrison writes good stories, certainly they're often confusing as hell, and this one also featured a bunch of characters that I'm only marginally familiar with, if that. But even his confusing stories have really cool elements to them (remind me to talk about JLA Vol 3: Rock of Ages sometime), so I can still enjoy them, and I did this one.

However, the art is crap. Quitely's art sucks, and I hate it. Everybody is ugly. Cyclops is ugly, Xavier is ugly (okay, he's also an old man, but he looks really old and ugly), Wolverine is REALLY ugly. Emma Frost is freaking supposed to be hot, not look like a fat, ugly 10 year old dressed up like a skank. She should have things like cheekbones instead of baby fat cheeks. I read comics firstly for the story, then I'll reread them later to notice the art more. I usually don't form opinions about the art in the first read through, because I get caugth up in the story too much to notice it enough. Except when it's really awesome (such as Jim Lee in Superman: For Tomorrow or Tim Sale in Batman: The Long Halloween), or when it's really horrible, such as Frank Quitely's art in this book. And unfortunately, he does the art for the first 4 or 5 books. Ugh. When I expressed this opinion on The Fwoosh, there were a few people who said they liked his art, and I think they were referring, at least in part, to stuff rather than the people, but they're SO UGLY that it was really distracting in a lot of places. Jean Gray is by far the most attractive person in the book, but she was still fat of face, and she had no bloody expression on her face. There was one page where she was talking to Scott (her husband) about the way she felt their relationship had been deteriorating, and in three panels where she talked about the different ways she felt (excited to be alive and with him, and then upset at the distance she felt from him). She didn't look like she was concentrating on the 8 things she was levitating, nor did she look happy, nor sad. She looked absolutely bored. But at least she wasn't ugly.

John Cassady's art in Astonishing X-Men, on the other, is awesome, and I should talk about that more at length, but I'll do so in another post (someday). Also, Joe Benitez's art in the second chapter of The Injustice League is also kinda crappy, excessively stretched and exaggerated. It's strange looking.

And finally, after three or more weeks of looking, including a huge 7 or 8 hour trip hitting around 10 Walmarts, I have at last found the Walmart DCUC 5 pack. Huzzah! Praise be to Darkseid!

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San Diego Comic Con 2009 part 2

Our good friend Michael Crawford's Review of the Week posted more pictures from San Diego last night. The guy probably kills himself during the day, fighting the giant crowd of filthy, unwashed nerds, and then rather than sleeping at night to prepare for the next day's battle, stays up to post all the great pictures he's taken. And so far, his are by far the best pictures I've seen, he's a great photographer, somehow managing to take excellent pictures despite what must be over 50,000 other nerds trying to look at/photo the same things he is.

All of his pictures can be found at the Main San Diego Comic Con 2009 page, I'm going to repost a few pics of what are the highlights to me.

Toynami has what appears to be a poseable figure of Christopher Reeve as Superman. Let me tell you, this is 12 kinds of awesome. The first image I saw of it (probably at ActionFigurePics) looked EXACTLY like him. Michael Crawford's pics make him look not quite perfect. There's something wrong with it, it looks a little gaunt to be Christopher Reeve, but it still looks cool. I have no idea about price, but I'm guessing it's out of my range.

To go along with Toynami's Christopher Reeve Superman, why not get Mattel's 12 inch Terrence Stamp General Zod? (pictures from Cool Toy Review)

Toynami is doing the two most important vehicles from Tim Burton's Batman film (1989), the Batmobile and the Batwing. I've alwasy loved the designs of these, so I'm quite interested in these. However, I don't have any idea what the price will be, or even what size they are, so I don't know if it's even remotely feasible or not for me to buy them.

Tonner makes some Barbie-like DC figures that run for a couple hundred dollars. I think the female figures look great but I'll probably never own one. Poison Ivy, Wonder Woman, Super Girl.

After taking 2008 off from being collosal jerks, Genlte Giant jumped back on the exlcusive bandwagon, this time making it even harder to complete a h1ghly demanded, even more integrated group of characters than the Clone Commanders of 2007. This year's world tour exclusive: Delta Squad, from the popular game Republic Commandos. In 2007, the five Clone Commanders were available: three in the US, one in Japan (more limited than the rest), and one in UK. This year, they're each available in a different country, I don't think any are available in the US, but at least this time there are the same nubmer of each. There are/have been online stores that have offered one ore more of them for fairly reasonable prices (considering their exlusive nature), but since I don't have enough money to buy them at retail I haven't really been paying attention. I believe you can get any of the four at Entertainment Earth. Scorch and Sev are the best looking, in my opinion, but if money was no object I'd be gettin all four.

Hot Wheels recently started a line of die-cast metal ships from Star Trek. Already released (and owned by me, with reviews half written) are the Entprise D, the (TMP, WoK, SfS movies) Enterprise Refit, Reliant, and Klingon Bird of Prey. Upcoming ships include the Enterprise and Narada from the 2009 film. (pictures from ActionFigs.com)

Hot Wheels were also showing some sweet Batman vehicles, the ones of particular interest to me were those from the 90's Batman films. I'm going to have look into those and learn more about them, I've always wanted a Batmobile from the four 90's films, plus the shielded Batmobile from Batman and Batwings from Batman and Batman Forever, and if I recall the pictures I saw but didn't save, all of those were on display at SDCC.

One final thing for this post, when doing the last post with Sideshow Collectibles I forgot to put pictures of their Aliens and Predator statues. Behold.

I LOVE that statue of the crouching Alien, unfortunately, it's freaking $700, so even if I sold one of my kidney's I wouldn't be able to afford it.

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Pic of the Day 47 - Super Heroes Week 1 - Superman

Cyborg Superman, DCSH by Mattel

Cyborg Superman is also from the Reign of the Supermen/Return of Superman story, and he is one of the three Supermen who claimed to be the original Superman, saying he was injured so badly that he had to be joined with Kryptonian technology and become a cyborg to keep alive. In fact, Cyborg Superman is the villain of the story, and engineer of the cataclysmic event that cause Hal Jordan to become Parallax. Cyborg Supes has great power over mechanical equipment, and can transfer his consciousness to any machine, which he has to do to escape the returned Superman and his allies (including the aforementioned Hal Jordan).

I think Cyborg Superman is the coolest looking of the Supermen from this story, and I'm glad he wasn't totally destroyed in this story. Later, Parallax catches up with him and destroys him with constructs of all the people that died in Coast City when it was completely and utterly destroyed. Apparently that didn't do the trick either, as he later joins the Sinestro Corps in the Sinestro Corps War. I don't know what happens to him after that, as I haven't yet read SCW.

I'm telling you we're dealing with a Kryptonian Cyborg. Our Superman reconstructed.

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Superman, from Superman/Batman: Public Enemies wave 1 by DC Direct.

I've really enjoyed the Superman/Batman series, and Public Enemies was the first that got me hooked on the idea. The art, by Ed McGuinness, was odd to my eyes at first, exaggerated proportions, especially the thighs (you should see the thighs on the girls, they're massive!), and the males' chests. But I liked the story, and the art really grew on me, and I was glad to see it again in S/B: Vengeance.

This figure is actually the first repaint of the original Superman, from wave 1, which had a deeper, metallic blue. I had it, but decided to keep this one (from a 2 pack with Batman and a copy of the story) because it better matched Superwoman from wave 4 and Supergirl from wave 5. It's actually being repainted again soon, being rereleased with Batman (yet again), Flash and Wonderwoman (the last two formerly of the JLA Classified line.

Remember Kids: All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him. - Superman

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Supeman Red and Superman Blue, DCUC wave 2 by Mattel.

These are from some story that almost nobody liked, or so I'm told. As is a common theme with these figures, I haven't read the story they're from. I have read stories with Superman Blue, but not how he became such. I do know that it has something to do with the story Final Night in which the Sun Eater ate the sun, and Superman was depowered for a long time. After Parallax sacrificed himself to reignite the sun, Supes's powers didn't come back. Somehow or other, he became a being of energy, and required a containment suit to keep his form. He was Energy Supes for quite a while I think, and I have several JLA trades with him in that form. At some point he had a split personality disorder, or maybe there was a transporter accident or something, but he became two people, Superman Red and Superman Blue, where Red was much more aggressive and emotional than Blue. It didn't last very long before they were rejoined. Eventually, his original powers and physical form were restored.

As I said, I've never read the story, so I have no bias against them, and I didn't mind the stories with Energy Supes. I acutally really like the designs, the angular look of the S shield, and the lines on the rest of the costume. Despite my great love for Harley Quinn, and the nostalgia associated with the Aquaman and Firestorm figures, these are the figures that had me most excited for DCUC wave 2. They were the first set of DCUC variants I wsa able to get, and I was really excited to get them, although Aquaman was so well executed that he's by far my favorite figure from that wave.

It's kryptonite, Superman. Little souvenir from the old home town. I spared no expense to make you feel right at home. - Lex Luthor

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Superman Dark, from one of the Elseworlds series', by DC Direct.

This is from an Elseworlds story, which used to be "What If?" stories, but I believe now most of them are all in continuity, each now occuring on one of the 52 universes. I could be wrong though, I haven't actually read Infinite Crisis yet. Anyway, several of the Elseworlds stories explore alternate beginnings for Superman, What if he landed 12 hours ealier? What if he landing near Gotham City instead of in Kansas? Or, in this case, what if he landed on Apocalypse and was raised by Darkseid? Well, I guess the answer is he becomes a super-powered conquering prince/son of Darkseid. There's also a Good Superman from this story, so I guess his innate goodness comes out at some point, I don't know, I haven't read the story, called The Dark Side, yet.

Remember Kids: You will kneel before me Jor-El! You, and then one day, your heirs! - General Zod

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Eradicator, DCUC wave 5, Walmart Exclusive, by Mattel.

This guy is from the Reign of the Superman/Return of Superman storyarc. I rather enjoyed this story. It introduced a few characters who took on them the emblem of House El to either replace or honor Superman, who had fallen in combat with Doomsday.

Eradicator though he was Superman, but had a sensitivity to light (hence the goggles) and was a bit more extreme than Superman in punishing criminals (he burned them to death with energy rays projected from his hands. He was quit disappointed to learn he wasn't really Superman, but sacrificed his life to save Superman from Kryptonite gas shot at him. I really like Eradicator's design.

The first picture from this Super Heroes Week is the actual Superman, after he regained conciousness and wore a Kryptonian Regeneration suit to speed of the return of his powers.

Face it, Clark. The last time you inspired anybody, you were dead. - Batman

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Superwoman, from Superman/Batman: Vengeance, by DC Direct.

I thought Superman/Batman: Vengeance was a very fun story, and part of that was the alternate dimensions and universes we saw. Among those alternate realities was a gender reversed universe. Batman was a woman, I don't know if she was Helena Wayne, as though Dr and Mrs Wayne had a daughter instead of a son, or if Helena Bertinelli became Batwoman instead of Huntress, but I think it was the former. And without checking I don't remember if they ever said Superwoman's name, but she was the female equivalent of Superman. I would really like to read more of this universe, it just seems so interesting to me to have characters like Miss Miracle and her husband Big Bard, and Darkseid is the Queen of Apocalypse, which I guess extrapolates to Gramps Goodness?

Remember Kids: I think he's coming, Mr Luthor! - Otis

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Regeneration Suit Superman, DCUC wave 6 by Mattel

Remember Kids: Deep down, Clark is essentially a good person. And deep down, I'm not. - Batman

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Bizarro, by DC Direct, based on Ed McGuinness art from Superman/Batman: Vengeance

Remember kids: Christmas is a time for family, and since I don't have one of my own, I decided to steal one. - Joker

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At Long Last: New Stuff

As the long wait for DCUC 7 continues, I struggle to save my money to pay for my pre-order. However, I got such a good deal offered me a couple weeks ago on The Fwoosh, that I had to take it, and I also saw too good a deal to pass up last night at Walmart.

Lets start with Walmart. I found more of the Marvel Legends Ares wave figures last night, and though I already have Ares (and sold off all the figures but Iron Man and Crossbones) I had to buy Human Torch. Sure, it's not the variant I prefer, but it's still a really good looking figure, and the best part was the price. Check the picture below.

Click it for a larger view. Can you make out the price tag between Joker and his thug? It's $2. Yeah, I'll take it at that price. Heck, I'd buy all of them again at that price, but this was the only one I found.

The loose figures came from the Fwoosh deal, the remaining Movie Masters figures I couldn't afford to buy at full price, Scarecrow, Joker and Gotham Thug. I look forward to the next wave, which will hit sometime this summer, but I doubt DCUC will let up enough for me to get any of them. Also present is Commissioner Gordan from the Dark Victory line, missing his glasses, but he was thrown in for free, so who cares. He came with a much needed gun for Joker's goon. Also, DCUC 4 Ares, to replace the one I bought that has a melted forearm.

The second part of the Fwoosh deal was some Batman comics. The last bunch of Batman comics I got was from this same guy, and these are the ones I had to pass up because of insufficient funds. I wish I would have passed on all of them and waited until he gave me this super great deal, because they were all about $1 each. For trades that retail for $12-$20. Total cost for the figures and trades: $20. Super killer awesome deal, wish I could find more like that.

On the off chance that anybody cares (or for my own records, the comics are:

• Batman: Night Cries
• Superman: Emperor Joker
• Batman: Haunted Knight
• Batman: Tales of the Demon
• Batman: Officer Down
• Batman: Evolution
• Batman: Blind Justice
• JLA: Tower of Babel (which I really like, since I already have this one, this one will be a gift)
• Batman: Death in the Family (DIE, Jason Todd! I really only like Tim Drake as Robin, although I like Spoiler, so I'll probably like her as Robin, when I get around to reading War Games)
• Batman: Broken City
• Batman: As the Crow Flies
• Batman: Sword of Azrael

Remember Kids: Sure, it's just stuff. But it's MY stuff.

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Toy update at long last

Well, that was quite the hiatus, much longer than intended. Since I'm a fan of coin collecting, I took it upon myself to organize the production of a challenge coin for the Alpine Garrison of the 501st Legion. They look great, and we're quite pleased with them, but it meant that most of my free time for 2 weeks was taken up mailing them out to the various members around the world that ordered some.

Now that I'm done with that—for a while anyway, I was asked by the Imperial Gunnery Detachment to head up a run of coins for them, so we're currently taking orders and over Christmas I'll probably be shipping coins out like mad again, but my processes will have improved—I can get back to talking about toys and Batman: the Animated Series. First up, Toys!

Ninjas are cool. Very cool. One of the first Marvel Legends figures I was really interested in was Ronin, from a 2 pack with the assassin Elektra, because he was a neat looking ninja. When the 2 pack finally came out I roamed all over the county with my cousin in search of this particular pack, and was eventually rewarded with finding it. I don't think I ever posted pictures of it, so I'll have to do a review in the near future.

Anyway, I was even more pleased to learn there was a variant (apparently, a running change as opposed to a chase, thank the maker) with a slightly differently deco-ed Ronin, this time with a brighter, lime green instead of the dark, dull green before, and gold trim instead of bright yellow. A pal from the Fwoosh who lives up in Salt Lake found a bunch early this week and offered me Ronin, I having been vocal on the forums that I wanted him. Ronin was shipped yesterday and arrived today, and he's every bit as cool as I thought he would be, and is as much cooler than the original Ronin as I thought he would be. I'm even more tempted to get a second lime/gold Ronin than I was the original, and I'm even more looking forward to the upcoming re-release of this figure with a new hooded head (as a red Hand Ninja Assassin) in the second wave of 2 packs. I fully intend to get two—since the other figure in the set comes with an alternate head that turns Nick Fury into a generic SHIELD agent, so I need two of that figure as well—of the red ninjas, and if finances work out I can easily see myself grabbing four of them, because I can always use more ninja figures.

Extra Large Picture

Evil Cousin Rish Outfield took time out from his busy schedule of doing nothing to get himself a holiday job at Toys R Us, and was kind enough to help me out with one of the TRU Exclusive DC Universe 2 packs. I was able to get the Lightray & Orion pack thanks to him, which I was starting to get worried about finding, since they've been out for all of two weeks. There have been numerous complaints about these 2 packs, which I hope to go into in a quick review post about this set soon, but mine are mostly okay.

The Evil One also helped me obtain the entire set of Walmart Exclusive Marvel Legends Ares figures, of which I previously posted pics of Heroes Reborn Iron Man and Crossbones. I finally decided I wanted to build the complete Ares, so I did. I've arranged sales and trades for the figures I didn't need, so I don't feel I paid too much for him. He's a big boy, too, with a big ass sword.

Speaking of Walmart Exclusives, I finally obtained my first of the five elusive figures that make up the Metallo wave. Metallo is tied (with Kalibak) for the coolest Collect & Connect figure so far announced in the DCUC line, so I've been pretty worked up about finding this wave. I sincerely doubt I'll see them locally (at least soon enough to matter), so I've been begging and pleading with people on my forums (Fwoosh and SWAN) to help find me these figures. So far, I have the Riddler, who is one of my most looked forward to figures from this wave. He looks pretty cool, though his cane needs a nice coat of gold paint.

Returning to the DCUC TRU 2 packs, one of the other four sets in this first wave was one I was originally planning on getting, because it had a rerelease of Cyborg Superman, one of the hardest to find figures from last year's DCSH line. However, I didn't particularly need the rereleased Mongul, although he looked really great, and I think the blue of his pants was darker, and his boots more metallic pink, and really I would have been fine having a second.

But, some kind soul from the Fwoosh offered to send me the original DCSH release Cyborg Supes, and thinking of the many problems people have been experiencing with these two packs I jumped at the offer. He's paid more for shipping than I would have preferred, but it's probably worth it to have the original version. I have not yet released it from it's plastic prison to beat the crap out of Green Lantern, Steel, and Superman, but have no fear, I will soon.

Katie helped me open the shipping box, as she likes to do, and when we had Cyborg out, I asked her if we should open it. She looked at it and said, "No, I don't like him." "Why not? He's cool," I said. "No, he's scary." And I looked at him, and he does rather have a Terminator-esque, skeletal face, and I guess he is kinda scary.

And the final DCUC update today (since I'm ignoring the fact that my case of wave 4 arrived from CornerStoreComics a couple of weeks ago) is regarding the almost not produced variant from wave 2, Jason Roush as Firestorm. The modern version of Firestorm was suppose to be a running change when wave 2 originally shipped, but factory changes, and other delays cause Mattel to skip the second case assortment of wave 2 and jump ahead to wave 3, though they promised we would see the Jason case in December, and they delivered. He looks really cool, and I like him more than the classic Ronnie version, despite having a bit of nostalgia for Ronnie, since I had the Super Powers toy as a kid. Jason is a repaint of Ronnie (or rather, Ronnie is a repaint of Jason since it was sculpted with Jason in mind) with a new head, and knee pads. The deco differences between the two make the modern version really stand out, and I'm glad to have got him, even if he cost me about $3 more than Ronnie did. If only I hadn't sold my long haired, modern version of Aquaman I would have a complete set of wave 2, and as such I am looking for the modern Aquaman.

And for some reason, these scenes created themselves in my head, and I had to let them out.

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