Why I haven't posted lately

The quick answer is that I'm lazy.

The detailed answer is that I've been busy doing other things, though many of them are just extensions of 'I'm Lazy'.

I spent a week's vacation visiting my wife's brother in Arizona (see my previous post), and since I routinely stay up until 2am, while everyone else goes to sleep around 11, I should have had plenty time to write up reviews of Batman: The Animated Series, or post some of the many, many pictures I've taken of my toys, because I couldn't spend the time watching movies or playing my XBox. But I didn't. Instead, I played a great deal of Poker on Facebook with my cousins. I read webcomics, I watched The Dark Knight, and I might have worked on my new collection wiki a little bit (but not nearly enough).

Then, the first week of December I went through Radioactive Iodine Treatment, which has left me isolated and home alone for a week. Though I did work from home two of those days, I didn't work full days, and I had the entirety of the rest of the week all to myself. And I still couldn't be bothered to make a post.

I spent most of the first day (like 16 hours or more) playing XBox (Bayonetta and Assassin's Creed II), then watched Predator (which is a damn fine film). Tuesday I got a box of 60 or so Transformers that I spent all day sorting through, matching up accessories and pieces, etc so I could decide which ones I'll keep for myself, and which ones I'll sell/trade on forums and eBay. I think I had some Buffy the Vampire Slayer episodes playing while I did that. That night I watched half of Predator 2 (another damn fine film). The following day was a mix of working on my collection, trying to sort stuff for sale, consolidate and put some of my stuff in storage for another phase of redoing my collection room (not that the first phase that I started last December ever ended, it just slowed down until I barely worked on it once a month, and a year later it's still not finished. Anyway, I mixed that sort of productive stuff in with playing games, and finishing Predator 2.

The next two days I spent some time working, and working on my toys and playing XBox, Saturday I spent a few hours hanging Christmas lights. I got the bright idea of hanging lights all along the roof, because last year we got a hundred or so universal outdoor anchors for like a dollar at Walmart's after Christmas clearance. Of course, I don't have a ladder that can reach, so I had to walk to my brother-in-law's house (my car wouldn't start) to borrow his, then right as I started climbing all over the roof (I thought it would be easier than having to move the ladder around every 30 seconds) it started raining a little bit, so of course my pants got soaked from sitting on the wet shingles. But it looks pretty good, if I may say so. It comes at the expensive of not hanging lights in the girls bedroom, or all over the downstairs living room like I normally do, but change is nice sometimes.

So I did actually get stuff done in all this spare time that I meant to use to do lots of blog posts, I didn't just play video games and read comics (oh, I did nothing but read webcomics all evening Saturday and all day Sunday - I highly recommend The Order of the Stick and Dr McNinja). Oh, and I re-watched Hellboy and Hellboy 2 this week, because they are awesome movies, and I watched the 3 hours of bonus features on Hellboy and started into the 3 hours of Hellboy 2 bonus features. And I finished Blade Trinity, which was a lot better than I was led to believe. Not as good as Blade 2, which was freaking awesome, but good nonetheless.

Actually, I wrote did a review of the next Batman episode while in Arizona, but I never cleaned it up for posting. I'll do that soon, I promise. And I have hundreds of new toys I should post quick pictures of, half of which I've already taken pictures of, but have yet to post. I swear I'll do that one of these days.

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Clowns are people too.

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More New Toys and Comics

As I sat down to write a post with the new toys I've received over the last two or three weeks, I realized there was an uncompleted post from before Halloween, that I apparently forgot I was in the middle of it. So finished up the photos and posted it. You'll have to wait a few days (or weeks probably) before I get around to write up a new one with the latest stuff.

Let's start with books. I started re-reading The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan, because there are 11 or 12 books out, but I've only read 8 or maybe 9, despite owning all of them (I think). I've really been enjoying it, reading the third book in 2 or 3 days. But when I went to start the fourth one, I couldn't find it! Oh noes! Turns out, last Christmas my brother was reading the books, so I gave him our copy of books 4 and 5. Curses! Of course, it took about three weeks to receive them from eBay/Amazon, and my local library had all the books EXCEPT 4. I had to steal my cousin's library card to go to the good library, that had three or four copies of the entire series. Anyway, point being, I bought books 4 and 5 of The Wheel of Time, slowly converting our paperback collection to hardback.

Comics!

I'm endeavoring to acquire House of M and its tie-ins, along with Civil War, the newest arrivals are 5 Civil War books (Road To Civil War, Peter Parker Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, New Avengers, and Heroes for Hire) and 2 House of M (Amazing Spider-man and Uncanny X-Men (not pictured) ). My daughters were helping me take pictures. Also got a few JLA comics, one in particular that I've been trying to get for a while (without paying too much for it): JLA: Ultramarine Corps, for two reasons, the first being it's drawn by Ed McGuinness, whose art I LOVE. I generally read comics for the stories and then the art, but I wanted this one purely for the art, and merely hope the story is good too. But, Grant Morrison wrote it, and I'm a fan of his work in JLA and New X-Men, and what I've read of Batman, so I'm pretty confident it will be good.

Also, the 6th book of the aforementioned Grant Morrison New X-Men books (still lack the 5th) and for whatever reason I bid on and won Ultimate X-Men Ultimate Collection volume 2, which really only consists of Ultimate X-Men vols 3 and 4.

Toys!

Some Silver and Blue Batman figure from Legends of the Dark Knight, whose name I have completely forgotten at this moment.

Inexpensive Aquaman figures in armor: Justice Armored Aquaman and DC Armory Aquaman. Lots of people weren't big fans of the Armored figures in the Justice line, but I think armor is cool, so I like them. Plus, they were only $6 each.

More Misc Marvel Figures! Stealth Iron Man and Sharon Carter 2 pack! White Hand Ninja and Dum Dum Dugan (SHIELD Agent) 2 pack! Planet Hulk and the final piece to the Annihilus Build A Figure! Marvel Select Diamond Variant Emma Frost! Spider-man Classics Carnage!

Misc Marvel and DC Figures: Scarlet Spider, Marvel Girl, Earth 2 Alex Luthor, Red Son Wonder Woman!

More Wonder Woman! I finally broke down and bought some Wonder Woman figures I've been look at for a long time, the previously shown Red Son WW is from the Superman story Red Son which is one of my all time favorite comics, and definitely my favorite Superman story. Instead of landing in Kansas and being raised by the humble farmers Jonathan and Martha Kent, Superman's ship lands him in the fields of a Ukrainian farmer, where he is raised as a loyal member of the Soviet Socialist Party (Communist). It's a great story, and it's fun to see the characters we know and love in a Communist orientation. Superman is the Soviet symbol for Communism, and spreads Communist rule throughout the world, and Wonder Woman also believes in Communism.

Anyway, going back to Wonder Woman, I also finally got the JLA Classified Wonder Woman, based on Ed McGuinness' art (see the above JLA Classified comic). I'm excited for the new Ed McGuinness figures coming out later this year, or next, I'm not sure. And finally, I got the Justice League of America series 2 Wonder Woman. I like them.

And finally, my first taste of the Masters of the Universe Classics line, Teela. MOTUC is an online-only line by Mattel. There is a new figure every month, and they cost $20 each, plus shipping. You begin to see why I've never bought them before. Also, while I saw the show and played with the toys when I was a kid, He-Man holds no real nostalgic value for me. But one can never have too many female figures, so when I saw they were going to release a good looking figure with lots of cool accessories, how could I pass it up?

Teela comes with an alternate, helmeted head, a snake headdress, a snake staff, a sword, shield and a bird (named Zor or something like that, as if I care). She's a bit bigger than the DCUC line, about the size Big Barda could have been, but she's quite cool, and I think she was worth the price. If Mattel ever gets in to some She-Ra figures, I might have to buy some more.

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Sure I was...

I read Ra's al Ghul: Year One today, and I was going to write a post about that. I was going to try to finish the post I started a couple of weeks ago about comic art. I was going to finally work on the next review for Batman: The Animated Series and post that. I was going to mention that I beat Guitar Hero: 3 on medium, and that it was time to go back to Guitar Hero: 2 on hard (or maybe go back and do easy first). I was going to work on updating my DCUC checklists. I was going to take a bunch of new pictures and queue them up for the next week's Pic of the Day posts.

But now I can't.

I have to go into work at 3 am tomorrow. I normally do my blog posting from 12 am to 2 am since I don't have to get up until 8-ish. But not tonight, as I'll need to go to sleep by 10 so I can get up at 3.

Blah.

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Small update

I changed out the music, so you could hear some of the new music I've been listening to. Well, not all of it is new to me, but Korn, Massive Attack, and My Chemical Romance certainly are. It's interesting stuff. Depeche Mode is in no way new to me, that's the band I've been listing to the longest of almost everything I still listen to, and I have nearly everything they've ever released. The Evanescence stuff is available to download free on the internet, as it was never released through a music label.

Anyway, I hoped to have a Batman post written and posted by this morning, but it didn't happen, because I was busy playing beating Guitar Hero II on medium, and starting Guitar Hero III on medium, which is freaking hard. I also meant to post something regarding a Batman comic I read last week, but I forgot to do that last night, so look for that to hit tomorrow sometime, and then hopefully by Saturday morning I'll have a new Batman: The Animated Series post up.

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Quote Factory

My sister and I didn't always get along well. While growing up in the same house we got a long even less. I'm told it's because we're too similar, but if that's so then we were both jerks and unpleasant to be around as kids. We do get on better now, still disagree about some stuff, but can usually talk about it in a more civil manner. And she has a pretty good sense of humor, which means it's twisted and somewhat morbid. I wish she updated her blog more often, because she's got a great sense of humor. Take the tag line, for instance.

Laughter really is the best medicine; unless you have cancer, then you should get chemo.

Or how about the title of the most recent post:

I will do anything to avoid doing what I actually need to.

I haven't even read the post, but I can tell it's a freaking gold mine.

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Batman: The Animated Series Will Return

One of these days. Seriously, I will get back to reviewing Batman: TAS episodes soon. I've just been too busy (by which I mean too lazy) to do any for a while.

I bought an XBox 360 a couple weeks ago, along with Rock Band, Guitar Hero II and Gears of War, so predictably I've been spending all my free time playing that, instead of watching cartoons. In fact, last night Marissa and I played Rock Band for about 4 hours straight. We already had a band setup, no shoes for tuesday (credit that name goes to Scott Kurtz of PvP, sorry for the blatant ripoff, not that he's ever published it, that I know of), with Marissa on vocals and me on guitars.

But Marissa wanted to play guitar last night, so we spent some time on creating a guitarist for her, then she formed a band with my drummer, we thought it would be fun to have another band name with a day in it, so we went with eccentric monday sprites. After we played with that for a while, Marissa created another vocalist and band for the fun of it, and I again had my guitarist join up with wicked wednesday.

After we had exhausted our selves, and heard the same beginning level songs at least 5 times each, we called it quits for the night so Marissa could go to bed. Normally I've been staying up between 2 and 3am, so I planned to play Gears of War for a while, but wimped out instead and was in bed before 1:30am. The point of all this is, that one of these days soon I'll motivate myself to watch and review a Batman episode, if anyone is even waiting for something like that. I may even try to get around to publishing one of the 5 or so toy reviews I have half written.

Yeah, right. And Duke Nukem Forever will be out one of these days soon, too.

In the meantime, I've added the followers widget to my blog, so I can track the one reader I have, although I noticed the list of blogs he's following is longer than the list of toys I want to buy, so I think he just added every blog he'd ever come across to his list. I also started adding the blogs I follow to my reading list, so you can check out other, better toy related blogs. In addition to mine.

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Quote for today: Heroes of Our Time

Lost in a dream,
Finally it seems...
Emptiness and everlasting madness.

See the sadness grow,
Watching as we know,
Long before our journey for the world!

Call for us,
The power in all of us!
So far beyond the blackened sky tonight...

Glorious!
Forever more in us!
We are victorious!
And so alive!

We'll all find our sacrifice tomorrow!
Our journey on towards a brighter day...
Silent tears we've left behind, still so far away,
Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair,
Free for all eternity we stand, yeah!
Rise above the universe tonight...
Starchaser...!

Fly towards the storm!
See the world reborn!
Feel the pain inside the voice of sorrow.

Cross the distant shores,
Find the open door!
Stand alone in judgment for tomorrow!

Years of pain still haunt us all,
We saw the last sunrise
Take me home in freedom for a lifetime...

Pray now for the silence and the last tears will blind!
So glorious, this fire inside, united we stand

And we'll all find our sacrifice tomorrow!
Our journey on towards a brighter day...
Silent tears we've left behind, still so far away,
Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair,
Free for all eternity we stand, yeah!
Rise above the universe tonight...
Starchaser...!

Free from this world...
Here for the last time...
Oceans collide inside of us all...

Believe who we are!
The phoenix will guide us!
Freedom will rise once again!

Save us tonight, the last hope for all of us!
Light years gone by, we're still holding on!
Save us tonight, a star shines in all of us!
Far beyond our lives, still our glory lives on!

And we'll all find our sacrifice tomorrow!
Our journey on towards a brighter day...
Silent tears we've left behind, still so far away,
Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair,
Free for all eternity we stand, yeah!
Rise above the universe tonight...
Starchaser...!

Starchaser...!

Our kingdom come, we stand as one
And we will live for always...
Evermore... 

        -- DragonForce

Lyrics from lyricwiki.org

Remember Kids: Across the endless sands, through the fields of our despair, free for all eternity we stand.

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Music to my ears, but maybe not yours.

I've thought about adding a music player to this blog on occasion, but never bothered to look into it. I've been experimenting with lots of music lately, and thought I might as well let you all hear all the shit I've been trying out lately, since I find I enjoy quite a bit of music that earlier in life I wouldn't have thought I would. It's all a pretty far cry from the stuff I usually listen to, like Depeche Mode, Red Flag, New Order and the Cure, and probably stems from the checking out the harder aspects of the Goth Rock styles (thanks to the Cure and Red Flag). Also, from buying an XBox 360, Guitar Hero 2 and Rock Band.

Remember Kids: Pain from the start, all my dreams are ripped apart

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Quote of the sometime...Sort of

"Why so serious, son?"

Okay, so it's actually more of a random vandalization of my brother's website, but hey, that's what family's for, right?

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Quote of the Every Once in a While

From my sister's blog:

"As I walked through [Ikea] I kept thinking, 'hey! I totally need a huge knife.'"

Be very afraid.

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Quote of the Cyclical-Timeframe

I read quite a few toy reviews. I usually find them fascinating, even for items I have absolutely no interest in, and when they are reviews of items I have, like or want, then they're almost as fulfilling to read as having the figure is. My primary sources for toy reviews are Michael's Review of the Week and Online Action Figure Entertainers. And of course the various forums I'm a member of (The Fwoosh and SW Action News mostly).

So I found a review of Clone Wars General Grievous figure from the new animated show line, and the author said Revenge of the Sith is the worst of the Star Wars prequels. Now, I'm currently not a huge fan of the prequels, but there are certainly enjoyable parts in all three films.

But this has to be the best statement explaining what's wrong with ROTS. And I quote:

"At least The Phantom Menace knew it was a kids' movie and behaved accordingly, so dumb as it is, it's actually quite entertaining to watch, like a kitten rolling around like a spaz trying to catch its tail. RotS, on the other hand, thought it was some kind of important war epic, so it wound up being like a middle-aged self-appointed "intellectual" rolling around trying to catch his tail, and then claiming it was a commentary on the superficiality of the audience. You know what, no."

Wow. Nothing I could possibly say can add to that. It's such an interesting visual that I'm now inspired to try and find similarly great quotes to post every once in so often, so look for more quote in the indeterminate future.

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I found a Salamander

One of the window wells filled with water during the last rain. Went to bail it out so it wouldn't run in the house and found a salamander swimming for his life. I saved him, let Katie see him, then fried him up and we ate him.

What? No, I mean I put him in a bucket for Rish.

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Buffy Animated Series

My similarly Buffy-obsessed cousin directed me to a promo episode of what would have been the Buffy the Vampire Slayer Animated Series. I am a huge fan of Animated Series' when appropriate (such as the Batman, Superman and Justice League Animated Series, and the first Clone Wars cartoon), and after watching this spot I think an Animated Buffy series would be awesome.

Watch it, then go sign the petition to get it picked up and produced.

PS,
"You sound like a poodle."

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Evanescence: Field of Innocence

I just learned that Evanescence material previous to Fallen can be downloaded, legally, and free of charge. See the Evanescence Reference Perfect Rip page for more info. This is a great resource as there are very few physical CDs of this music, and they all fetch high prices on eBay. If Evanescence were to re-release their earlier songs I would be first in line to buy them. But for now, I have the digital version.

Anyway, I love Fallen, and I LOVE The Open Door. And yet compared to Origin, Solitude EP and Sound Asleep EP, they're garbage. Okay, not really, they're very enjoyable. But I find the older stuff much more filled with emotion. Don't get me wrong, these are a bit more of a depressing emotion, but I cannot deny that these have had a much bigger impact on my soul than their later albums.

So, Field of Innocence (12MB), track 7, Origin.

I still remember the world
From the eyes of a child
Slowly those feelings
Were clouded by what I know now

Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything and knowing nothing at all

I still remember the sun
Always warm on my back
Somehow it seems colder now

Where has my heart gone
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything

[Latin hymn:]
Iesu, Rex admirabilis
Et triumphator nobilis,
Dulcedo ineffabilis,
Totus desiderabilis.

Where has my heart gone
An uneven trade for the real world
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything
Oh, Where

Where has my heart gone
Trapped in the eyes of a stranger
Oh I... I want to go back to
Believing in everything

I still remember.

Lyrics from http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/evanescence/fieldofinnocence.html

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Katie, Elayna, and Toys

We had a baby last week. She's pretty cute. Her name is Elayna.

Katie's suddenly looks a lot older, even though she's just over two. But having a tiny newborn again makes me realize just how much Katie has changed.

Got some new toys over the last week or so, missing a couple, but they're taking too long to arrive so I'll just post these. Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure pieces for Apocalypse and Onslaught. I'm now only missing the torso/shell piece to Onslaught, which I will be getting from Derek. For Apocalypse I have 3 of the 6 pieces for the blue one, and different 3 of the 6 for the black one. Two blue pieces are on their way.

My collection of DC Bad Guys continues to grow, with the addition of Lex Luthor and Two-Face. I probably didn't post that a few weeks ago I got Clayface and Catwoman (who plays with the bad guys as often as the good). I'll post pictures of them when I get Brainiac and Supergirl (Linda), who are also on the way. This means I'm only missing 3 figures from the DC SuperHeroes line - Man-Bat, Supergirl (Kara) and Bizzaro #1. If you're willing to part with any of those figures for good prices, feel free to contact me. Also pictured above are Marvel Legends X-23 and Wolverine from series 12 (Apocalpyse).

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Best Movie Ever - The Dark Knight

Some random spoiler-laden thoughts on Christopher Nolan's second Batman movie, The Dark Knight.

Honestly, I hated the Rachel character and was not unhappy she got blowed up. I hope she is dead and doesn't come back. As has been said, Katie looks better but Maggie played the part better, and was even a little more likable as Rachel, but I'm still glad she died.

I was suckered by some of the twists, I though Gordon was dead, I suspected the driver to be one of Joker's agents, since Gotham is full of dirty cops. I kept expecting him to pull a gun and blow the passenger away and drive off with Harvey.

But I knew that Joker told Batman the addresses wrong while he was on his way to save her. Thought it was awesome.

I though Two-Face looked Perfect. I do hope that they were faking his death until they can give him surgery and rehabilitate him a bit. I read a comic where he had plastic surgery and was doing better, and then regressed and CLAWED HALF HIS FACE OFF WITH HIS BARE HANDS. I wouldn't mind seeing something like that in a sequel.

Everything about the Joker was also Perfect. Everything he did, the way he acted, everything he said... Pure Awesomesauce.

I really like Tim Burton's Batman. I really like Jack Nicholson as The Joker. Or I did. After seeing The Dark Knight I don't know if I can ever watch Batman again. There wasn't anything wrong with Burton's Joker, but compared to TDK it'll just never stand up. I much prefer the darker portrayal of the Joker.

This quote from this TDK Review says it better.

When Tim Burton's Batman was released in 1989, it was lauded as a dark, serious take on the mythos of Batman. But watch it now, after Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins, and that movie is barely above an episode of the old Adam West tv show. It's campy, self-consciously over-designed and verges on parody, but it took Batman Begins to really show us that.

I would rather not see the Riddler in the sequel. I don't think the Riddler could be seen as anything more than a cheap knockoff of the Joker. Less violent, less creepy and scary, etc.

I think if done slowly, and well written, some of the more fantastic elements of the DC Universe could be introduced into the Nolan universe, such that it wouldn't be out of place to have Man-Bat or Killer Croc.

I think Talia or Harley would be fun to have in the next movie. Harley would be tricky, as they would need the Joker, and they would face the inevitable comparisons between Ledger and whoever the new guy would be. But if he wasn't in it much I think it could be interesting.

In summary: best movie ever, I want to see it again, I will buy the DVD on release day (unless I've spent all my money on DCUC figures), no movie will ever be the same again in my eyes.
I have seen cinematic perfection, and it is The Dark Knight.

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I love Mattel's DC Universe Classics line

Wow, it's been a while since I posted. Probably because the last one had so much thought and introspection that it used up all my insight for a while. But the time has come to post again, and it's actually mostly going to be ABOUT toys, instead of about TOYS. If that makes any sense.

But first, a quick preview. Wizard World Philly was this weekend, and we got to see previews of three figures from DCUC Wave 6 - Hawkman, Kryptonian Life Suit Superman, and Mr Miracle. The Four Horsemen do amazing work on these figures.

I think Mr Miracle, aka Scott Free (yeah, that's kind of a lame name, especially knowing his talents are in the way of being able to break out of and escape anything) looks awesome, and Hawkman looks very promising. Can't wait to see a painted version of him, and I hope that he comes will all the pictured accessories (sword, mace, shield). I quite like the Life Suit costume, and think that Superman will be cool, too.

I should also mention that a picture of Darkseid's firstborn son surfaced earlier this week. I'm familiar with this character from the animated series (Superman and Justice League) and I think this figure looks awesome (although, as you may have noticed, I say that about almost every single figure in this line). It hasn't been officially announced yet, so we don't know when we'll get him, but I'm guessing wave six, since we only know of three figures from that set. Presenting Kalibak.

Anyway, moving on...

The point of this post comes from a thread on my new favorite forum The Fwoosh - why do I like the DC Universe Classics line? This is a (hopefully) more coherent version of my response in that thread.

Character Selection

From the five and half waves and two 2 packs that have been announced, wave 1 is the only one that I'm not interested in 4 characters or more. I didn't care for Penguin and Detective Bats, and wasn't too interested in Red Tornado or Res - until I opened Etrigan, and saw how cool the C&C piece was. I pieced together Rex from friends and eBay, and absolutely love him, though I'd never heard of him before this (I'm actually not very up on comics). I will get Red Tornado one of these days, I just haven't yet, I'm sort of holding out for the modern version.

From wave 2 on, I love almost every single figure, even the characters I'm not familiar with or overly fond of. I want every single one. This line has made me the closest to a completist I think I will ever be. I was originally planning not to get Black Manta or Gorilla Grodd, but once my case arrived there was no way I could get rid of them. They were even on my desk at work this week so I could see them all day. From the responses in the Fwoosh thread, every time we see a new picture of an upcoming figure, someone says something like "I didn't know I needed this figure until this picture." There are hundreds or thousands of character in the DC Universe, most of which I have very little knowledge of, but seeing them in plastic form, sculpted by the fantastic Four Horsemen, makes me appreciate them more, and want to have them all.

There are so many cool looking characters they're doing, for example, Superman Red and Superman Blue in wave 2. I've never read the comics, I've heard it was a lame story, but the look is quite cool, and I was extremely excited to learn both would be available. And they're great figures. Deathstroke, kicks Justice League butt in Identity Crisis, how could I not want that figure? A giant Solomon Grundy, Despero, Batman Beyond - awesome characters that I know from the animated series' I'm so happy I will have these characters in such a great line. Eradicator, Lobo, Nightwing, Robin, I could go on and on, but I'd end up listing ever figure that's been announced. It's just awesome, the random and wide variety character selection we're getting. They're not just focusing on Superman and Batman, or other more well know characters. I mean, we're getting Lightray and a super-robot version of Metallo.

Sculpting

Rex Mason, Aquaman, Etrigan, etc. They're all extremely detailed, and really well done. I really like the way all of these look. They've gotten me to go back and pick up figures from the DCSH line such as Darkseid and Mongol (man, I wish I had been collecting DC over the last two years, instead of just Star Wars). I really hope that Brainiac, Luthor and Supergirl get re-released, and there are others that I would also buy if they were. These figures all look so good, that characters I don't care for I want to buy. Black Manta as an example mentioned earlier. Hell, I'd probably even buy a Jimmy Olsen figure at this point, and I really don't like him. I can't really say much more about this, other than to point you at my DCUC Wantlist post so you can see all the pictures of the figures.

Articulation

I've always been a bit of an articulation junky - sure these aren't as crazy good as the Halo 3 figures, but they're so much better than DC Direct's figures, or the old Batman figures I have. There are a couple points of articulation that I think they would benefit from, but at the same time, I don't really miss them much, either. And they're hellalot better than anything we've gotten in the Spawn lines for the last few years.

Accessories

Aquaman and Black Manta have really neat tridents. Scarecrow (DCSH wave 1) has a crazy cool scythe. Superman Red/Blue have neat energy effects. Harley has a crazy big old mallet AND a gun. She can't quite hold the hammer, but still. DCSH 3 Batman had 7 batarangs, he also couldn't hold them, but seven's a lot. The Amazon figures come with cool weapons - Artemis with a bow and quiver of arrows, Wonder Woman with an axe and shield and Ares with an axe and a big old sword. Deathstroke comes with his own armory - a staff, sword, pistol, machine gun, and possibly more. Rex, the C&C for wave 1 had three accessories, that's more than EVERYBODY else in his wave (I think).

Price

Before discovering this line I had been buying DC Direct figures to get all the great DC characters. Frankly my dear, they cost too damn much. Especially some of the older figures - the Return of Superman figures are crazy - $100+ for Cyborg Superman? Holy Hell No. I only had to pay $25 for DCSH Cyborg Superman, and the new ones are $10-$12 (Target-CornerStoreComics.com), versus $16+ for DCD at FYE, the only place I can get them locally. I also quite like Spawn figures, but $13+ for a plastic statue is really grating. I much prefer an articulated toy for $10. And Star Wars figures are up to $7 each, and that's for a figure almost half the size of these.

Look and Feel

They have a cohesive look. They will all look great next to each other, rather than looking like they're from different toy lines. I love the animated series, but haven't been happy with the animated style figures, and I'm not crazy about movie figures either (excluding Iron Man). With DC Direct, each line is in a specific artist's style, which is cool and has it's own merits, but it's rare to get an entire set of Justice League figures, or villains, such as the Legion of Doom, in the same style, or even scale. The only lines I can think of off the top of my head are the 2002/2003 Superman and Return of Superman line, but most of those are prohibitively expensive, and the current Justice League of America line, which after wave 3 will have the entire, current Justice League membership in plastic. But at $15-$17 each. Oh yeah, and between the JLA Classified and Superman/Batman lines you can get the Justice League in Ed McGuinness style, and I'm only missing three. But where that's only the Justice League, with DCUC I can have the Justice League, presumably someday I can have the Teen Titans and Justice Society and Legion of Superheros as well as all their villains in similar styles.

In conclusion - I love DCUC

All that to say, I love this line. For the foreseeable future I will be buying every figure, and I will be more than happy to do so. I guess it boils down to something somebody said on The Fwoosh.

I love DCUC because all the characters I loved as a kid and still love as an adult are finally getting the figures they deserve.

And I get to discover new characters to love and buy figures of.

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Who do you want to be today?

I read several gaming oriented blogs, my favorite being Shamus Young's Twenty Sided. He participated in a round table 'discussion', which led me to a few other blogs. Reading around I found a post I wanted to comment on, but it required that I login to post. Since I am a member of far too many forums and communities as it is (more than I can maintain a good participation in) I thought I might as well make a non-collecting post.

Scorpia asks if we are what we play, prompted by a separate article (which I haven't read yet).

I found Scorpia's post rather interesting, and upon self-examination found that I am (not surprisingly) different than her, and those that commented on her post. While I will play a good character, more inline with my personality, it's usually not until after I have played through as someone opposite. Read on, if you dare.

To answer the question, Am I what I play, or do I play what I am? I tend to not play what I am. I like to experiment with character types that differ from my own. For example, when playing a game where the main character has some sort of mystical or superhuman abilities/powers I usually think it would be fun to be an all-powerful galactic ruler that doesn't really have to worry about the consequences of using and abusing their powers.

Take Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic as an example, or SW Jedi Knight/Outcast/Academy. I almost always play as an evil, dark side character first. I find it's more fun and interesting to act in ways and do things that I could normally never do in real life: force choke that jerk that took my parking place, fry the guy that's making me wait in line, punch the annoying guy that asks me for money everyday, take over the galaxy, etc.

Now, these are things I would never actually DO in real life, but I can't say I've never fantasized about doing some of them when confronted by some people. I do go back and replay these games as a more virtuous, or at least inherently good/helpful person, more inline with how I really act, and it's fun too, but I usually play games to experience things different from real life.

Now that I've actually thought about how I play games, it's no surprise to me that I really enjoyed certain games, despite the negative light it may cast on me. Like Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, despite the fact that the main character is a completely homicidal sociopath, with absolutely no moral compunctions whatsoever, does whatever he deems is necessary to get a head (it usually involves killing someone or lots of someone's), who, if I knew someone like that in real life I would strongly be tempted to up and kill them, for the benefit of all humanity.

GTA: San Andreas was mostly more of the same, but in most ways, CJ was a better person than Tommy Vercetti, but he's still not the shining star of the community. But he does do a lot to clean up his neighborhood. He's very upset at the way the drug dealers have turned his neighborhood into a doped up slum, instead of just a slum. He starts a war on the drug dealers, and ends up killing two of his old buddy's because they're the ones that brought the drugs into town. He kills some really dirty cops. He gets himself and his sister and her boyfriend out of the slums, and improves their lives. And he balances it out by starting several gang wars, and bringing his gang out on top.

The GTA games are fun, in a do-very-evil-things-with-no-consequences sort of way, but they do have the draw back of being about people I can't really relate to at all. I never really felt like I was Tommy or CJ, that I was doing those things, but that I was watching (or participating in, I suppose) a movie about somebody else, and in Vice City's case, somebody that I really didn't like at all. Hitman on the other hand, was a lot of fun in a very different way.

Half the time I felt I was not a hired assassin, but a covert government special ops type person. The targets were almost always people that the world was better off without (which was often why you were hired to kill them). In the four games, the only mission I can think of that I actually regretted having to kill the target was when I was hired to take out a mafia stool pigeon. The rest of the missions – taking out the leader of a prominent drug-running, prostitution-ring, Chinese gang; rival assassins, ones that had been hired to kill the US President, by the Vice Pres so he could run the country; mafia leaders that kidnapped Catholic priests; dirty cops, etc, I really didn't have any problems with that.

Add in the fact that there are bonuses for completing the missions in as stealthy manner as possible, no extraneous kills (particularly innocent bystanders and law enforcement personnel), I don't have a problem relating to the main character. He kills people because he was bred to be good at it, and because he get's paid to. He gets no more joy from it than anything else in life (but then, he's also kinda like me in that he doesn't really have a lot of feelings and emotions).

I do usually prefer games that offer behavioral choices (such as the aforementioned SW games), because they usually have higher replay value since I can play both types of characters. However, "Choice" is not always all it's cracked up to be. Sometimes the choices look too much like this:

You meet a woman on the road who needs your help. Will you help, or murder her and steal her shoes? example by Shamus Young

I can't find the post right now, but Shamus once discussed the shortcomings of the choices system of Jade Empire. I haven't finished the game once yet (sorta got distracted by another game), and I was playing through as a good person, but his gripe is that the evil choices were less along the lines of Emperor Palpatine evil, and more like Billy, the middle school bully. You had the choice of helping someone, or punching them and taking their lunch money. Thinking back to Knights of the Old Republic there were some choices like that – you could save someone from being killed by loan-sharks because he didn't have enough to pay them off, and then turn around and take what little money they had – but it never felt as poorly presented, but it could be because I knew from the outset I was going to be a mean-spirited bastard and take over the galaxy (if the opportunity presented itself, which I assumed it would. What else would someone overflowing with Dark Side power do?) With Jade Empire, since I don't know if that's a possibility, I kinda feel like I'm just some random jerk picking on the less powerful, but with no larger goal in mind.

I think at this point I've lost my train of thought, or it's been derailed, or something like that. I feel like I've drifted off the topic, and I'm not sure how to get back, or if I should get back, so I guess I'll end it here. The point of all this was to say that I like to experiment with behaviors contrary to (or from the darker side) my nature, and that I'm glad there are games that let me explore my curiosity for such types of behavior, without the danger of trying to do so in the real world. Cause, Heave knows if I tried to ride a bullet bike like I do in the Grand Theft Auto games, I'd only get to do so once, which would terminate in a long reddish smear on the highway, or a splattered blob on the back of some truck.

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You named her what?!

For those of you who care, and don't read my wife's blog, we're having another baby in a few months, another girl. We're quite excited, and have started to come up with names.

I think we should name her Kaylee Jayne. And if you don't know why I will never speak to you again.

Feel free to submit your own suggestions.

Update: After a bunch of discussion, I have a new favorite - Summer Anne, followed by Tara Anyanka. I still like Kaylee Jayne though.

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