Okay, so it wasn’t all that noticable where I am but there is just somethng freaky about having the floor move beneath your chair.  Got to say that was the strangest "coffee-break" I’ve taken at work in a long time, everyone was just looking at each other going "is the floor moving?".  I know that in many parts of the world a 5.2 earthquake is a semi-regular occurance, but in central Kentucky it just doesn’t happen that often and once you realize what is happening the first thought is wondering if the New Madrid fault is finally going to have "the big one".  Considering that most of the town I live near is built over a huge system of caves a large, sustained quake could literally put most of the town underground.  Luckily we only got a couple of small rumbles here and reports have only put a very minor amount of damage in the immediate area (in Louisville the facade of a building fell in the street and a water main broke).  I had to wonder what my collection looked like and it doesn’t seem to have done anything here (not even sure if my house moved in all this), I can’t really tell if the few figures that fell over from the rumbles or if it’s just a side-effect of the general disarray of my collection at the moment.

5.2 earthquake rattles skyscrapers, nerves across Midwest

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NYCC.  I started making plans to attend and cover NYCC as soon as we knew Mattel would show more stuff there.  Bus schedules deciphered.  NYCC programing analyzed for best exposure.  Business card and digital camera research were on my list of things to do.  But it was not to happen.

A project at work got crazy.  I ended up working both days one weekend.  Then feeling bad the following weekend when I could only put in a few hours on it.  The project had taken over my life.  Relatives called and said they could come to visit this weekend.  Saturday and Sunday at the con were gone…

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Doctor Who returns (at last) to American television tonight (Sci Fi Channel, 8:30pm) with the US broadcast premiere of the Voyage of the Damned (2007 Christmas Special).

Series 4 officially begins on the following Friday. This year we are only a few weeks behind the original UK airdates, which is awesome.  

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Do your bit.

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It appears that Captain Action will be returning  as an action figure again!  Most of you probably only vaguely  remember him.  But, being the old fart that I am, I have fond memories of the good Captain.  

Ideal came out with the Captain Action doll/action figure and his sidekick, Action Boy in direct competition to Hasbro’s G.I. Joe.  Where GI Joe was a true American Hero, complete with his fuzzy hair Ken hair, Captain Action became a quick-change artist tossing his cool costume,  sword and ray-gun aside and donning the duds of Captain America or Superman or Batman or Spiderman or Flash Gordon or The Phantom or a closet full of other really real super heroes.  Not just some dog face in fatigues. 

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Readers of my old AFI blog, Tales of a Would’ve-Been Action Hero know I’m a big wrestling fan, but you don’t need to like or know anything about wrestling to appreciate this.

This past Tuesday night, WWE installed former American Gladiators host Mike Adamle as the new lead announcer for their ECW brand.  It did not go well…

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I’ve loved GI Joe since the early 80s – I was a fan of the comics, the cartoon and especially the toys. GI Joe started me on customizing. GI Joe taught me not to play in a lake when a lightning storm was coming though or to hide in a refrigerator while playing hide and seek. GI Joe taught me about life… and love… ok, that last part is a flat out lie, but I don’t want anyone to underestimate the importance of GI Joe to my childhood. Some people had a guardian angel perched on their shoulder guiding them, I had a rotating crew of Joe, Cobra, Dreadnoks and Iron Grenadiers leading the way. So when the 25th Anniversary line was announced, I felt like Hasbro had reached into the rosy glow of my memory and pulled out the best parts of what GI Joe was. Perfect. Plastic. Awesomeness. Everything was perfect… except…

Except for that pesky quarter inch.

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     Well, it seems I’ve finally found a woman who accepts my inner geek.  She bought me a little present the other day, which I promptly affixed to my Jeep.  You’ll know you’re driving behind The Chipster, and if you’re an otter you’ll be jealous.   

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I’m sitting here switching between a Yankees/Red Socks game and the movie Big and thinking about the movie even as I watch the game.

 Was Josh the luckiest kid on the planet when he was changed into an adult?  I suppose people could write dissertations for their doctorates on the issue.  But I know that if, by some miracle, I was in his place I would NEVER have tracked down that machine and gone back. 

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If you’re a G.I. Joe fan or, indeed, a M.A.S.K. fan, you know the Interwebs is currently ablaze with buzz about the return of Matt Trakker in the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary line. 

It happened this way…

Hasbro just posted a poll in which fans can vote for essentially the Best Of the new 3 3/4" Joe line to be released in special packaging with special decos next year.  Number 58 of the 62 figures on the eligible list is "Specialist Trakker", a figure no one’s seen.  However, the Intranets work swiftly and someone over at the RTM ToyBuzz juxtaposed this information with a recent listing in Wal-Mart’s computer stating a figure called "Mask" would be included in G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary Series 11.

This is ALL UNCONFIRMED, though a mysterious poster on RTM implied it is tentatively the case. 

So, we may have the beginnings of a M.A.S.K. resurgence on our hands.  Perhaps we’ll know more after New York Comic-Com.  Perhaps not. 

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001 Black Manta

 Hey all, and welcome to the inaugural post of "Get to know me!" – see that triple digit right before the name "Black Manta"? That’s my overly optimistic way of showing you that there will hopefully be more than one of these - especially if you like it, so don’t be afraid to comment!!

Since the one thing I know more about than toys is comics, I thought I’d combine my love of the two and give you a brief "who’s who" on some of my (and yours if you request them) favorite action figure characters including their appearances in print and plastic form. OK, enough blabbing, of we go!

Besides having the coolest voice on the Superfriends, Black Manta has had the destinction of being a) being the only Aquaman villain made into an action figure and b) being the first baby-killer in comics.

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Back in the early to mid 80′s I was a Marvel Comics aficionado. My tastes developed over that time in such a way that eventually I would only buy comic books if I liked the artist. This means I followed John Byrne pretty closely. I remember being blown away with the art in his short run on The Incredible Hulk in 1986. Soon thereafter John Byrne left Marvel and began working for DC writing and pencilling Superman (not bad for your first gig at DC!) Up until that point I had very little exposure to the DC universe but if it was good enough for my hero, Byrne, it was worth a shot. Although DC comics had a different taste than what I was used to I quickly came to love this new world.

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Call me crazy, but I often keep buying the same characters over and over.  If it’s one of my favories, I collect and customize endless variations of the same the character.  I know.  It’s a bit odd.  My good pal FreshMonkey has a much saner approach to collecting.  He simply gets one "definitive" version of each character in a collection.  And looking at his amazing Marvel Legends shelf, I often think, "Man, that’s the way to go…."

 But me, I like to keep buying the same character over and over.  Maybe it’s the artist in me, but seeing different interpretations of the same character just fascinates me. 

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Three years.

I realize three years isn’t the longest stretch of time, but it’s still hard to believe this place called Action Figure Insider has already been on the Interwebs for three years.

It’s been a blast being a part of the crew here, and in many ways a dream come true.

I first met Jason Geyer, our illustrious Toy Otter back in the mid-90s after he and Eric G. Myers relauched Raving Toy Maniac. Eventually I started writing for that site shining a much deserved spotlight on the small, independent toy companies that were springing up every other week back then in my Independent Toy Newswire section.

Around that same time (‘though I confess I don’t remember the year) I first met Daniel "Julius Marx" Pickett at the San Diego Comic Con. He was a regular poster on RTM’s Toy Buzz message board. 

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Wow!   

Me blogging, and for AFI no less!  Either the people in the corner offices have lost their minds or the patients are now running the asylum.  In any event I am overjoyed to be here.  And, i want to say "Thank You" to everyone at AFI.  It is an honor and I truly appreciate the opportunity to get on the cyber-soapbox.

Lately, I’ve been wondering about luck.  Do you ever wonder about such things?  I seem to do it a lot on the commute back and forth between work and home.  I listen to NPR, but often find myself drifting off into inner thoughts when the audio article doesn’t suck me in like a black hole.

Anyway, about luck.  My most recent toy find was the JLU Fire/Ice/GL 3 pack.  I walked into the new Target in Tulsa and it was the front package on the peg.  Behind it were a couple of the Batman/Black Canary/Joker, but nothing else new.    LUCK.  It was luck that told me to stop and check out the store and luck that resulted in my getting the elusive trio.  But, what is luck?

Luck is what happens beyond a person’s control.  At least according to Wikipedia. It is also said that it is probability taken personally.  Sounds acceptable to me. 

Now, luck has given me another opportunity.  To bore you with my ramblings here.  I hope, with a little more luck, that you will enjoy the things I toss out for your edification… 

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