An Update/Schwag Brag

"Wait a second, where was Alexx for the last two months?!  I've been coming here EVERY DAY in hopes that he would bring his bright, shining comedic brilliance and winning personality right through my retinas and into the joy center of my brain!  How am I supposed to achieve spiritual nirvana without pictures of toys edited in Paint?"

Oh man, how many times have I been asked that since my last post?  Like, a bunch.  All by my dog.  She didn't say it directly, but you could see it in those little beady black eyes.  "Why don't you take pictures of toys?" she would say.  Also: "Dude, where's Grayskull?"  And I'd all be like: "it's in the toy room, why?"  And she would say: "Are you going to make a sandwich?  Because I got a serious jones for ham, bro."  And then things would kinda go off topic from there.

But seriously: I've been in a slump, and I'm sorry.  I just have not felt the get-up-'n-go for finishing off the Grayskull pics....until last night!  I finally finished off the photography process, with a grand total of TWO HUNDRED AND EIGHTY PICS.  Before editing, that is.  I take lots of extras from different angles, you know.  Still....I end up using a lot of them, so it's gona be BIG, and the editing process will be arduous.  It's possible it will be separated into two posts, but we'll see.

So that's in the works, and much closer than previous times I totally said I was working on it.  You have no reason to believe me, but you don't have to!  Just trust me instead.

In the mean time, here's a Schwag Brag of junk I've been buying to further my addiction!

First, there's the Shredder from the new TMNT movie toyline.  The turtles are hit and miss for me, but Shredder was a must-buy!  I always wanted a figure I could REALLY call "Cyber Shredder", and this guy fits the bill!  Why do I have a need for a Cyber Shredder?  Well, in the SNES game, TMNT: Tournament Fighters, Shredder is called Cyber Shredder for no reason I can ascertain.  His fists glow blue when orcs are present when he punches, but that's about as "cyber" as he gets.  So I always wanted a Shredder that actually looked "cyber."  Bam!  Wish granted.

He's also a decent figure, albeit with those stupid forward-facing hip joints. They don't really get in the way of basic poses though, so I like the figure.

This guy is called the Robo Knight (Gosei Knight, in Japanese), and he's from Power Rangers Mega Force.  This one in particular is from the S.H. Figuarts toyline, and is an exclusive!  For some reason.  Usually you'd think exclusives should be repaints, but not this one.  Whole new guy!  He was only a minor interest, but someone was getting rid of him for a nice price, so I went for it!  I'm glad I didn't pay exclusive prices either, 'cause I like him, but he's not a knockout.  The shoulders limit his poses a tiny bit, so you can't get him in extreme action shots 'n what not.  He's supposed to be a robot, though, so perhaps he should move a little Robocopy, ya know?

These are called HumAble models.  I have no idea why.  Maybe because they have human-able poses available to them?  'Cause they do!  The articulation is CRAZY.  These things are prizes in crane machines in Japan, so they're not easy to come by.  It also makes their prices on ebay fluctuate; as if people aren't sure what to ask for these.  I was looking for just the GM (orange guy) but I couldn't find him for less than 40.  Then I found the two of these guys together for 25!  That worked for me.

I took some other pics of these guys for Gundam forum, so I may make a separate post out of these guys.

I got into the DC Total Heroes toyline, recently.  Mattycollector sells deluxe sets, and Black Manta, here, is one of them.  20 bucks and you get a figure and a bunch of accessories (whereas the regular figures in stores are 10 bucks with maybe one small accessory or two).  I like 'em!  Nice value, cool animated style, and I can FIND them!  A huge step up from the impossible to find waves of DC Universe.  I'll be getting more, for sure.

Japanese candy box figures! These are Joe sized figures from Kamen Rider Gaim; a show with armor based on fruit.  Yeah!  Honestly, I love the idea.  Here we have Gaim himself in orange, and Kamen Rider Sigurd with cherry armor.  They kinda model-ish, though you only have to put the armor together (it goes on them, or you can remove it and put it into fruit form).  They come with a ton of stickers, but so far the stickers have stayed on well (even if they were hard to do).

This is from the Transformers: Rescue Heroes line, for the little tykes.  Some of them have caught my eye, but this little one did the trick!  I like how simple his transformation is, and that there's a button to make his wings flap.  It's the little stuff that matters!

S.H. Figuarts Mario!  I'm sure some of you have already seen this guy around every toy site by now.  All the parts you see are a combined collection of Mario himself, and two different extra sets of items.  If you were to buy more extra sets, you could build a sizeable Mario level!  Mario himself is good enough, but you'd be missing out if you didn't get the other items.  I really like him, but he could have used different faceplates ('cause the smile is odd in some poses) and better neck movement.  Otherwise, I highly recommend him!

I think I've spoken about Hasbro's Mashers line.  If not: They have marvel superheroes, and Transformers.  The Transformers ones are the real kings here, though!  Perhaps it's just my love for robots.  Anyway, you can pop them apart and make what you want, so that instantly gets points in my court.  Because this:

You can see the potential, I assume.  Anyway, I've got a few superheroes, then Grimlock and Megatron up there, and finally:

A deluxe Optimus with a light-up arm and SUPER ARMOR OR WHATEVER.  I like 'em!  Only problem with him is that his hip joints are confusingly built with rubbery plastic (unlike all the others I have) so moving his legs forward risk tearing them right off.  I had to heat them up in hot water to move them, but I just moved 'em forward and left it at that.

And speaking of Transformers:

Bought a two pack of movie Grimlock and a repaint of Energon Grimlock in classic colors.  He's neat, but makes for a bit of a chunky T-Rex (though the more expensive Grimlock makes for a  LOOONG T-Rex, so you don't have a lot of great choices).  Makes a neat robot, but his mace weapon is kinda boring.  Thankfully, this set comes with a sword!  It's supposed to be for the other Grimlock, but PFFFT, I don't care.

I also bought this guy, though I don't know why there's a tiny Kamen Rider on top.  I really like this guy!  Highly suggest him, among all the movie toys.

Went to Barnes and Noble recently, and the impulse buy section had this little box with a tiny Enterprise that lights up!  Couldn't leave it un-bought.

In that same Barnes and Noble run, I tried out a blind boxed Transformers thing.  Sadly, I got none of the ones I know, and instead got one of the special chase figures!  Bah!  The only time I didn't want a chase figure...

Next is a M.A.R.S. figure.  If you haven't seen them: They sell 'em at Dollar General (most of the time) and they're cheap little guys.  Fun, though!  They're all held together by ball joints and can be swapped.  Check 'em out if you see 'em.

AAAND, to finish this off: More Tenkai Knights!  These are the current(?) wave of blind bags, and I assume Target found them in back by accident, because they were on clearance!  Probably to get rid of the first wave, but I doubt Target could tell the difference.

So there we go!  I DO take pictures, but only ones that don't take any work!  Rest assured though, I AM moving on to the process of editing the Grayskull pics, so keep your eyes peeled.  While I work on that, I'll see what else I can put up to keep this thing alive, rather than let it wilt while I slave away.