Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Schwag Brag is on the Phone, Says it's Urgent


MAN, I have not had the time I wanted to sit down and take pictures.  As usual, though, I have been taking pictures of new things with my phone.  I've missed two weeks by this point, so let's just put something up already!  Here's a quick Schwag Brag of phone pics.

First thing is something my Mom got for my boy Jake. 

...naturally, I opened it and played with it.  To my credit, I actually had my eye on this awhile back, but never bought it.  It's a neat rocket ship with two astronauts and a removable top portion - BUT - it's all made out of recycled materials!  It's a super sturdy and decently sized ship, so I'm looking forward to Jake (hopefully) playing around with it.  Until then, I'ma woosh it around the house a bit more.  Maybe ten or twenty more times. 

Before we leave space, let's see if I have anything else that belongs in the outer reaches of the galaxy:


GAH!  What IS that?!  Why, it's an Alien Xenomorph, of course!  Apparently, back when they were producing the original Alien, H.R. Giger had wanted the Alien to be translucent, so you could see veins 'n guts 'n stuff inside.  This is a repaint and recast of NECA's normal Alien figure to reflect that (my buddy Monte had his fill of it and sent it over in a trade). 


It's horrifying in all the best ways, and looks AWESOME under a blacklight (though we'll save that for another "After Dark" special).  The figure scratches that itch for concept figures AND translucent toys!  A two-fer-terror.

And speaking of Alien:


This is part of my Minimate pack for the year - for some reason I always end up finding at least ONE pack of Minimates that has something I want within a year.  This is a translucent green Alien that sort of glows in the dark.  I didn't even think it did until I noticed it super faint in the night.  I tried supercharging it with a blacklight but even that got minimal results.  So...he glows, I guess.  Just not like he should.


Since most Minimates come in twos, I also got Apone, who is super angry all the time.  They even gave him a hat so he can be super angry when he's relaxing!


I was informed that the TRU version has an angry head, so I guess the normal version has a more neutral head so he's not so angry about the hat.  The more you know!  Doesn't matter much anyway, he's probably gona sit in the "extra Minimates" bin.

Let's see, I think we still have some space stuff left...


I found Captain Phasma's Black Series figure, finally!  Just sitting there, out of the blue.  Like a beacon of shinning silver-painted-chrome-but-not-really light.  ...yeah, I'm sticking with that comparison.  Leaving it there.  Let it grow some moss.


This is also in space I think.  It's Superman!  The Batman Vs Superman movie toys brought back the old fashioned nonsensical variants that I loved so much, back in the day, so I bought the one that came with swords.  Green rocky swords that look like kryptonite!  Plus his helmet comes off, so who knows who will be wearing that later. 

Anyway, they're decent, basic figures.  Fun to mess with, though I see super clearances coming soon, because I highly doubt any child was able to stay awake through all of BvsS.  At this point it feels like poor Mattel backed the wrong superhero wagon, since they put SO MUCH effort into the high amounts of product, and the movies they're supposed to go with keep flopping around or are too adult for kids.  Then again, I came from the generation who had toylines for Aliens, Predator, Robocop, Terminator, etc.  What do I know?

Speaking of my generation:


I've taken the first step to forcing my kid into my own interests!  Yay for backwards progress!  He'll be well on his way to HATING all the things I love in no time.

And since we're on TMNT:


Mega Bloks, once again, blows me away with minifigures.  I've already shown some before, and this is more blind bagged stuff, specifically a Foot Soldier from the toon line.  No elbows, but he still moves great and is really fun.


The movie line is even better!  Once again proving that Mega Bloks can pull greatness outta anything. 


These two are from a totally sight-boxed line where you can pick what you want.  They're fully articulated and LEO IS TRANSLUCENT.  Stop the presses.  (His swords are too, which is what prompted the purchase before even the whole translucent figure). 

I was only gona focus on the classic line, but MAN the movie stuff looks good!  Better than the main bread-'n-butter put out by Playmates, anyway.

Speaking of which:


They're not bad!  Better than the previous movie stuff.  Not great, but not bad.  Krang is actually pretty sweet, but Krang himself is HUGE and barely fits in the hole provided, and I'm always worried I'll rub off an eye or tear off a tentacle (and he's got tons). 

The robot body is where it's at, though.  Look at that monstrosity!  He's too small, of course, but I don't care.  He just looks awesome!


If you buy nothing else from this line, though: Buy these two.  Great representations of the characters over all, and strangely well articulated for Playmates standards.  They could use more paint (which is right on par with Playmates) but I feel like they have a decent amount, with only Bebop's lack of eyes being the most disturbing thing (I realize there's shades, but you can STILL SEE HIS DEAD EYES). 


As for the bad stuff HOLY SHIT SHREDDER IS A HOT BAG OF GARBAGE.  I don't get what happened!  You see the Foot Soldier, next to him?  Don't let the dumbass eyes fool you - he's VERY well articulated and a really neat figure!  The eyes are the only bad part.  For some crazy reason, Shredder is LESS articulated, and STUPIDLY articulated in super awkward ways, has no neck, ugly weapons that keep falling off his arms, and he can barely hold the crazy pistol he comes with. 

I'm putting an "F" on Shredder and handing it back to the sculptor and designer, because you done messed up.  Should have copied off the papers of the people who worked on the Foot Soldier, Bebop, and Rocksteady. 

Alright, what else?


It's Spider-Gwen, called so as a title of a comic, because it would be weird if she called herself that in-universe.  Technically she's another version of Spider-Man, but also another Spider-Woman.  Doesn't matter - look at that design!  Love it!  Colors, style, everything!  She comes with an alternate hood-down piece and an obviously-Emma-Stone-head. 


This is 90's Deadpool!  The second version.  I had the first one, back in the day, but I had no idea who he was back then, and he was annoyingly stuck with a knife in his hand.  This one came with a bunch of stuff and alternate parts!  And a removable mask, if the giant head didn't give it away.  I'll cover it more in-depth at some point.  One funny thing to point out is the alternate left hand: One is all fleshy, and the other is gloved....at least they were supposed to be.  The fleshy one has an unpainted gloved part, and the gloved hand is....painted flesh-colored.  It's crazy.


From my buddy Heli comes this piece of Kamen Rider machinery: The, uh....Auto Vajin.  That's what's it's called!  It transforms into a motorcycle, though I haven't transformed it yet.  It's quite articulated, but also an SH Figuarts toy, so I gotta be careful with it.


Also from Heli comes THIS beautiful beast that you'd see painted on the side of a van, ridden by a wizard playing a guitar.  It's from Skeleton Warriors, and it is AMAZING.  It's heavy, sturdy, and everything you'd expect from awesome 90's toys.  It'll be a little big compared to the new Skeleton Warriors stuff, but it'll match all the same!

Now, in terms of bones:


I saw the guy that came with this Imaginext set and had to get him.


Look at that grizzled son of a barnacle!  He's even got a metal hand!  I swear, Imaginext is where the 90's went. 


Here we have Shockwave, from Combiner Wars.  Great little figure, and he turns into a gun for your Combined creations!  Certainly a fine addition to the Shockwave ranks.


Finally, we'll wrap it up with video game stuff.  I recently found these at Barnes 'n Noble, though I hadn't planned on getting them for awhile.  Pretty much standard Figuarts Mario, but in new colors with new stuff, and then a bunch of enemies.  The enemy pack is neat, but could be better, since the Koopa Troopa is unarticulated.  I felt like they could have given him something, but instead he's stuck with having a stand shoved into his gootch.


Mario's fire is pretty cool, too!  I mean, it has to be, since that's the only difference besides color.  One is stuck in his hand, and the other is free to plug into stands.


This one is magnificent - ever heard of a Nendoroid?  I know it sounds like "Nintendo" but they have nothing to do with them, other hand having some Nintendo items.  The series is super-deformed, chibi, or whatever you wana call it.  They're cute little versions of your favorite characters from video games and anime.  Kirby, however, is normally cute - so rather than being a standard Nendoroid, this is actually just a plain PERFECT Kirby figure!  He's got multiple faceplates, the hands and feet are attached by magnets - which is brilliant, by the way - and he's got items for two different powers.  If you like Kirby, I'd buy him in a heartbeat, but I'll give him his own post at some point, so you can see all the reasons why. 


This is also a Nendoroid, in standard chibi form.  It's Mega Man!  All squat 'n little.  He actually kinda works as the classic sprite-based Mega Man, and even comes with parts to mimic some of the sprite's movements.  I probably won't get more Nendoroids, since EVERY pose you want to make requires swapping parts, but I made an exception for Mega Man (and Kirby, but he might as well not even be a normal Nendoroid). 

Alright, that's it for now!  I promise I'll get down to making a full-on post again, as soon as Jake isn't screaming at me.

....any moment now.

14 comments:

  1. It appears an articulated Koopa is CO!ing with World of Nintendo, so panic not! That skeleton-cycle is possibly the most metal thing ever! If it's ment for guitar wizards, where was guitar gandalf? Is he still around?

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    1. Not sure how coming gets autocorrected to CO!ING, sorry bout that!

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    2. Yeah, this comment system is annoying and lacking an edit button.

      Anyway: YEAH, I'm looking forward to the Troopa! More and more it seems like World of Nintendo is the way to go, instead of Figuarts. Have you seen any reviews for the Figuarts Bowser? He's kind of a joke! Too small, barely any articulation, minimal accessories, and twice the price of the Jakks one (which is properly sized and somehow more articulated). I feel like I've been leaning more toward toys, nowadays, rather than collectables. They're just not as fun anymore!

      And Guitar Gandalf was planned, believe me, I just didn't have time to sit down and take planned pics (hence the phone-pic-post, here). Rest assured, there will be a place for him.

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  2. Agreed with the toys vs collectibles argument. The whole point of this hobby is that's it's fun! Some people get so wrapped up in details and articulation they forget the purpose of toys are to be fun! Like the Star Wars fans who complain about 5poa, despite star wars being 5poa for 3 years now and think they can change Hasbro's mind!

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  3. How's your Combiner War coming? I'm finishing out the line hopefully sometime soon, as soon I find a Sky Lynx. I'll end up with six complete combiners (Superion, Menasor, Defensor, Bruticus, Victorion, and Devastator), the central unit for several others (Optimus, Sky Lynx, Scattershot, Cyclonus, and Sky Lynx) and a number of the non-combining dudes (Megatron, Ultra Magnus, Bombshell...I think that's all). I didn't pick up Shockwave - I need my Shockwave to be at least as tall as Megatron!

    Anyhow CW has hands-down been the most fun G1 revival TF line in AGES. What they've really lacked was a cohesive play pattern, I think, and Hasbro is obviously keeping focused on that idea - I am so god damn excited for Titans Return. URRRGGG *intense flexing and teeth-grinding*

    Oh and I did pre-order one other Combiner guy, but it's from the Japanese Unite Warriors line, and it doesn't come out until August, so I don't consider it as technically part of CW. (It's Computron.)

    Also, on the robot front, I'm super excited for the Diaclone Diabattles V2 that's coming out this month sometime. I've had it preordered since Octoboer. Heard of that one? If not, Diaclone was the main predecessor line to TF, and it had quite a few very Japanese combine-y robots that were not used in the TF line. Diabattles was one of them, and Takara is releasing a Masterpiece-level new version.

    This month is also when the new Machine Robo (Gobots) figures are coming out, and apparently they're pretty damn good too. It's a busy month! (This is why I'm glad for the extra income I got from selling off most of my modern Joes)

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    1. Bah, I forgot to show off my Sky Lynx limbs! ...no Sky Lynx, though. Still looking for him. I did buy who I wanted for his limbs, though! I knew I wanted at least ONE custom Combiner, and I'm using Sky Lynx as the base, then went with Smokescreen, Sunstreaker, Ironhide, and Trailbreaker. I still have Rook and Streetwise, which were going to be for Sky Lynx originally, but I've since then wanted to blast some random eye-burning color into him (like classic Japanese super robots). Sky Lynx already has the colors I want, I just needed some yellow (Sunstreaker) and something obnoxious, but complimentary (Smokescreen).

      However...I think I want to narrow down my Combiners to three, so I'm thinking of getting rid of Menasor and Superion. I'd keep my Sky Lynx custom, then I'm still planning on G2 Bruticus, and now I'm seriously considering Victorion, because I don't think I can skip something so unique. Plus, video reviews, for some reason, make her look much better. Plus PLUS, I mean, she's mostly red AND has a sword, and I can't think of a time when that wasn't THE most important thing for me, in terms of Transformers.

      I have been thinking of the Japanese Computron, though. Lot of great parts there, and that version has a much MUCH better Lightspeed, who was one of the few G1 Transformers I had as a kid. I was hoping to get a hold of him, but now he's only gona be in two different complete sets, AND the US one is just...Streetwise, again. Boring. The Japanese one looks way cooler, but I highly doubt getting ahold of JUST him is gona be easy. So...we'll see what happens, I guess.

      And OH SHIT MAN, yes I am geeked for Titans Return! I haven't seen anything that I'm unhappy with yet. Which...is actually distressing, because I have a lot of Combiner Wars stuff, and now I'm going to have a lot of Titans Return stuff! Oh well, there's some absolutely fantastic renditions of characters I've wanted for a LONG time, so I'm in. I think they showed a prototype of Doublecross, and lemme tell ya, I NEVER thought I'd see that one come back! Heck, when I was a kid, I didn't even think he was a Transformer! So there's lots to love in Titans Return, so far (not to mention that I hope they take that alligator guy and repaint him as Beast Wars Megatron. Here's hoping!)

      I saw the Gobots guys too, and though they look cool, I'm gona wait and see if they get to any of the ones I had. They seem fairly priced for how they're made and all that, so I could splurge for one or two, somewhere down the line.

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    2. Sky Lynx looks pretty fantastic with the G2 Aerialbots, actually. Although that just means you'd have to buy another set of dudes! As for Computron, if all you wanted was Lightspeed, I bet you could easily sell off the rest of the guys individually and probably make back what you paid for the set. I'm sure there will be people who want to mix and match with the Hasbro set. But yeah the Hasbro Lightspeed is easily the worst of that set. Doesn't resemble the character in any way.

      What were some of the Gobots you had?

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    3. Yeah, the problem with Computron is that I like ALL of him, so if I got him, I'd probably keep him, and then I'd have four, unless I don't buy Victorion, and GAH...ya know. I'm constantly fighting with what I want and what I have room for. Hell, I'm sure I can convince myself to let go of most of Computron. We'll see.

      As for Gobots, I gotta look those up! My main one was apparently "Spoiler"

      http://www.toyarchive.com/Gobots/Regular/Spoiler.html

      He was one of the reasons I didn't like most Transformers - he was simple and fun and transforming him was a matter of seconds! It didn't help that my only G1 Transformers were Grapple and....Ironhide. I'm sure you understand. Actually, while looking at the other Gobots, they ALL look delightfully simple! There's a lot of great stuff there! Especially how most of them are Hotwheels sized, so they really ARE in disguise, compared to my other cars at the time.

      Anyway, beyond that, I had possession of this, at some point:

      http://www.toyarchive.com/Gobots/Regular/Creepy.html

      But it's long gone now, and it's possible it wasn't even mine? Hard to say, that one is WAY back in my memory.

      I also have this awesome one-step guy, which I now just found out was from Wendy's:

      http://toyarchive.com/Gobots/WendysGuideStarComp1b.jpg

      I always loved that one. So simple.

      Then, of course, I have Tux, but I sought him out a few years ago because I found out there was a fancy old car that turned into a robot wearing a top hat, and YES PLEASE.

      This one is also familiar:

      http://www.toyarchive.com/Gobots/Regular/RestQ.html

      But I swear it was the same van and transformation, but not an ambulance. Like...I dunno, something blue? Probably a knock off or something.

      Anyway...I didn't have a lot.

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    4. You're totally right about the Gobots having that magical simplicity - it's a shame this got translated as "cheap and worthless" to a lot of 80s kids. Most of the Gobots figures are very high quality, with lots of die cast, chrome, and rubber tires. Not the sort of thing you see in knock-off junk.

      What will dictate characters appearing in the new line is if they appeared in the "Revenge of Cronos" anime, since that's what the license is for. I don't think Spoiler did. But Tux certainly had an appearance - and if we get him in this line, he'll be all black, rather than all white. I'm not sure if Creepy showed up, but several of the other "monster" figures did (Vamp, Scorp, Pincher).

      Your van dude might have been Scratch or Van Guard, or it might have been one of the Convertors mini-bots:
      http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/MiniBots.html

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    5. HOLY CRAP IT'S THIS ONE:
      http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/Voyager2a.jpg

      I was wrong, it totally was white! I remember him clearly, now that I see him. He was missing an arm.

      And while we're on that Converters page, I apparently had these as well:

      http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/SpiesCash2a.jpg
      http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/SpiesSpin1b.jpg
      http://www.toyarchive.com/Convertors/Tenticus2a.jpg

      Anyway, yeah, one thing I loved about Spoiler was the rubber tires. I freakin' loved that for the very few Hotwheels they used it on as well. As for Tux - I don't care what color he is; if there's a fancy car that turns into a robot with a top hat, I'll be there.

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    6. Those casino dudes are the beeeeeeeest

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    7. Those were some favorites! I remember them well: my mom picked them up for me from the drugstore when I was sick. I think they're what developed my love for Transformers that just turn into stuff, and not always vehicles.

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  4. nice. did you know they are making a meta knight and megaman x nendoroid as well?

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    1. OH YES, I'm aware of Meta Knight! It's just a matter of waiting for the proper announcement and place to preorder it. With how awesome Kirby is, I have big expectations for Meta Knight!

      As for X, I may end my standard Nendoroid buying with Mega Man. They're neat and cute, but hard to mess with when you have to replace whole limbs to get them in different poses.

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