New Stuff, New Monsters, New Figures, New Toys

Busy week (or three) of acquiring figures without posting about them, since the birth of the child trumped everything else. But I have been buying stuff, quite a bit of stuff, and more importantly, I started collecting a new line. Read on to find out more and see pictures!

First off, I completed my second Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure, Onslaught, and I mostly completed blue Apocalypse, just waiting on one of the legs in the mail, I have all the pieces to the black Apocalypse, but the lower torso is connected to a blue upper torso, so I need to separate them before I can assemble him. But Onslaught is great.

Finally received DCSH Brainiac(!!) and Supergirl (see this post for Lex Luthor and Two-Face.

In other DC news Derek found some of DCUC Wave 3 for me.
Robin (Tim Drake)
Nightwing (Dick Grayson)
Slade Wilson, Deathstroke the Terminator, unmasked variant
Up close, because the face just looks amazing to me. He also found Green Lantern, but the paint's not great, so I'm going to try to find a better one, then I just need Sinestro to finish off Grundy.

New Line for me

Now, for the new line. I'd seen this line before in stores, but never really paid it any attention, because it was a G.I. Joe line, and I just have never been interested in it that much. There are two very awesome replica swords based on the two characters that have always interested me the most, Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes, and I've wanted to have a figure of each to go with them, but the 3-3/4 inch figures just haven't interested me enough to pursue them.

Then I was made to notice Sigma 6. Large, 8 inch figures based on a new GI Joe animated series. They're a great scale, reasonably detailed, reasonably priced, and extremely accessorized. And that last point was the convincing point for me. Each of these comes with so many accessories, weapons, gear, etc, that I could not turn them down. It helps that the figures are well articulated and priced. I've used a lot of money that was supposed to be set aside for DCUC figures buying them left and right over the last two weeks. Unfortunately, the line is currently on hiatus, but that means there's a limit to the number of figures and amount of money I can spent on it (unless they revive it).

So, what do they look like?
Snake Eyes
As you can see comes with two large swords, two sheaths for said swords, a short sword and sheath, and an uzi. What you don't see is that his visor is removable, and that he has two more visors. The large swords have a fold out handle that allows him to hold them parallel to his arms. He also has two suction cup things for his hands with which he can 'climb', a grappling hook with a nice long string, and another contraption that I can't find the words to explain. He also comes with a storage locker (with custom cut foam) to store his accessories. All for a retail price of $15, though in this case I got a group of 4 figures for $20 off eBay.

Storm Shadow
Storm Shadow has a katana with sheath, a wakizashi sword with sheath, two sai, a chest strap that holds either sheath and the two sai, a staff with open ends that the swords can attach two, a grappling hook, 2 hand climbing claws and 2 feet climbing claws, a small wooden stand for the swords, and nunchuks with fold-out blades. And cloth pants that I had removed for that picture.

So, the new ones from the last week. Snake Eyes' apprentice Kamakura.

Iron Grenadier

Cobra Commander Battlefield General

Sigma Strike Duke with Power Armor

Ninja Armor Snake Eyes (with extra accessories)

One of my favorites, and one of the more difficult rare ones to find on eBay, that I was lucky to find at KMart (on clearance no less) Dark Ninja Master

Now if you'll notice, Dark Ninja Master has a lot of yellow weapons. I don't know why they're yellow, why his giant cleaver has a plasticky yellow blade, but I didn't like it. So I began tweaking them a bit.

The Kanji on the two blades were already present, one recessed and one not. Those blades use flat black for the bulk of the blade, and the edged part is glossy, metallic black. I'm still going to do more to the ridiculously long blade, add some black and metallic red to the handle.

I really like these figures, they're a lot of fun to play with, and the bucket-load of accessories really helps sell these for me. I plan to get a lot of these figures, characters I wouldn't normally be very interested in, because of the great items they come with.

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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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There's nowhere left to run! This is the hour of Fin Fang Foom!

I've recently become interested enough in the Marvel Legends line (formerly by Toy Biz, currently by Hasbro) to start trying to acquire some. What really pushed me into following the line is the Build-a-Figure concept, started by Toy Biz with series 10. Each figure of that wave came with a piece of another figure. In this case, they assembled into a Giant Mutant-Killing Robot Sentinel. Sentinel is around 13-14 inches tall, which is nice and big compared to the 6 inch scale for the regular figures. He's kinda hard to put together now, but I'm working on it. I also decided I wanted a few of the other BAFs, such as Onslaught, and Annihilus (which I almost have completed).

I really like the BAF idea, as it allows us to get figures we wouldn't normally, like less likely to sell well as a single carded figure, such as a Giant Mutant-Killing Sentinel. A lot of people have complained about Hasbro's BAFs because compared to several of Toy Biz's they're quite small. Ronin is the size of a regular figure, Annihilus is a little bigger, but not 9-10 inches like Onslaught, let alone the Giant Mutant-Killing Robot. But, with Hasbro's latest Marvel Legends line they really tried to match up to Toy Biz's fame with a Giant Green Dragon Monster, by the name of Fin Fang Foom. Derek and I went shopping last night in our weekly toy hunt and found the complete set at Toys R Us. I had been planning to buy the pieces on eBay because I only like two of the figures, but after watching some of the pieces sell for over $15 by themselves I realized it was cheaper to buy all the figures at $15 a pop and sell the ones I don't want.

This wave is know as Hulk Legends and is comprised of eight figures relating to the Incredible Hulk. We've got things like Bruce Banner's cousin the She-Hulk, his son Skaar, Savage Gray Hulk, the Absorbing Man, and then we have more interesting things like Wendigo a demon spirit that possesses people and drives them to violent, mindless ramages until something stronger than it (like the Hulk I guess) stops them. This is one of the only two figures from the set I really like.

The only other figure I like is King Hulk, from the same storyline as Son of Hulk. Something to the effect of people (Superheroes) think Hulk is to dangerous and unpredictable so they put him in a rocket and blast him off into space. He lands on a planet called Sakaar where he finds he fits in great because everyone is violent and mean. He enters into some sort of gladatorial combat (whence comes the Planet Hulk gladiator figure in the Annihilus series, the only figure from that wave I want to get for something other than the Annihilus piece), I guess he wins, eventually kills the evil king, takes his throne and his queen and has a son. Then Earth's 'Superheroes' blow up the planet and kill everyone and everything on it, except Hulk who survives, comes back to Earth and is really not happy. Anyway, the figure is cool, that's why I'm keeping it. He also comes with an axe, but after helping me open several figures Katie was playing with it and I forgot to put it in the picture.

Katie and I spent a good while opening these figures so I could get the pieces for myself and list the extra stuff on eBay, and when we were done this is what we had. As you can see, Foom is comprised of several pieces - 11 spread out over 8 figures, especially compared to DCUC BAFs (Collect & Connect's technically) which only require 5 pieces. Even Sentinel, which is almost as tall as Foom only took 6 pieces.

Once assembled Foom is tall, the packaging says over 15 inches, which I take to mean 15-1/32 or -1/16 inches, but it could be more than that. It doesn't really matter though, because by far he's the tallest thing I have. He will be lots of fun to display against the smaller figures, be it the 6 inch DC and Marvel figures, be it the 5 inch Halo figures, or 3 3/4 Star Wars (and upcoming Marvel figures). In fact, I think the smaller the figures are the cooler Foom will seem. I'm definitely going to give the small Marvel Universe figures a try once they come out, since Wolverine and Iron Man should be some of the earliest figures, and it'll be exciting to set them up with the Star Wars figures and have them take on the Giant Green Dragon.

Okay, enough babbling, right? Let's see him once he's assembled. . Right, that's great and all but it doesn't really show how big he really is, so we've got some comparison pics. As always, click the image for a larger picture.

Fin Fang Foom is awesome. He's also the first Marvel Legends BAF I've completed. And the most expensive. There are a few nits to pick, and since I spent a ton of money on him we'll pick them. King Hulk's left arm is supposed to be silver, but is cast in a plastic that is gray, not shiny or metallic looking at all, and has a bit of a yellow tint to it. I plan to do some touching up of that arm to make it look like he's got a metal sleeve. His skin could use either a dark wash or dry brushing, but I'm not sure which so I'll probably just leave it. Derek thinks the leather stuff needs some work, probably a dark brown or black wash to make it look a little more real, or less like unpainted brown plastic. Some of Fooms joints don't look like they connected well enough, mostly the upper torso area. The arms don't look like they're in far enough, there's too much of a gap, and similarly where the lower and upper torsos connect the gap seems too big. Only the double elbow has enough movement. The ankles and wrists in particular could use more movement, to cover the joint the leg and arm extends too far over the joint, kinda like a sleeve. With some careful trimming the movement range could be enhanced. The knees also could use such tweaking, and maybe the mouth to get it to close a little more. I don't know if I'll make any of these changes though, because he's really great, and I am happy with how he is. He could just move a tad better.

Unrelated Addendum
I recently encountered Evanescence's (of whom I am a big fan) first CD, Origin, of which I am now a bigger fan. It is such a great album it is a damn shame that it is so hard to come by. Everybody deserves to hear it. So, I present for your listening pleasure the first part of the instrumental end track, Eternal.

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Blue Beetle is coming to town!

Toy Guru has given us a sneak peak of what we'll see at San Diego Comic Con in the DC Universe line, and so far it is plasticky awesomeness!

Blue Beetle! who I'd never even heard of until I recently read Countdown to Infinite Crisis, and in that one issue I came to care for an empathize with him, and wish I'd known him as well as Batman.
And then he died.

Thanks to VeeBee at The Fwoosh for letting us all know.

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New DC toys!

Earlier this month I picked up some DCSH figures from last year for a friend. Since I was to ship them to him loose, I got to open them, and took a few pictures before sending them on their way to him.

But I couldn't get them out of my mind. So I picked them up for me too, along with a couple extras. Parasite, Mongol, Scarecrow, Darkseid, and the The Dark Knight Movie Masters Batman.

I also found Piccolo from the Dragon Ball Z Ultimate Figure Series at Wallgreens for much cheaper than I've seen it on eBay.

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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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