Well, by now we’ve heard and read eulogies to the passing of Wizard and Toyfare magazines ad naseum. Regardless, I felt remiss in not sharing my thoughts on the matter.

Basically, I find that the cancellation of these two magazines saddens me. Quite a bit, actually.

The ironic thing is that I hadn’t read either one in years.

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I consider myself rather misanthropic. Or at least I try to be. I find most people annoying, especially when you get to know them. Don’t get me wrong I can hate people on a purely superficial level but where’s the fun in that? You can’t really bad-mouth strangers? Well, you can, but I’m pretty sure that’s just racism.

One thing I do like is film. I love movies, I go to the movies often, as often as I possibly can. So far this year I’ve watched some lovely films, such as: The Illusionist, Biutiful, and a handful more that I’ve quite enjoyed. But, when it comes to movies and people, one thing I hate, is people complaining about how terrible movies are or how terrible they can be. You know what, don’t go. Don’t go, please. Because if you can’t tell a movie is going to be terrible going into it, then really you shouldn’t be judging movies.

You hear people complain constantly about how movie trailers ruin the movie, telling you too much information or giving away the ending or “twist” or “spoilers” or whatever geeks get annoyed about. But you see that’s a good thing, I can usually tell how terrible a movie is going to be by watching the trailers, that’s how I avoid terrible movies. When I first saw the trailer for the film “No Strings Attached”, I knew instantly, “I’m not going to see this.” When you watch a trailer and you make the now classic “I can’t wait.” or “I’ll be the first in line.” sarcastic comment, hopefully you are sticking to your insincerity. If not, then you sir(or madam) are a moron.

I mean when we all saw this:

We knew it was going to suck. Hard. Come on, you don’t deserve a refund if you saw the movie. If you watched it in irony, then you had a better reason than anybody else. It is after all a movie about Scientology (although one cannot accuse them of not having an imagination). Inversely, when I first saw this trailer:

I was pretty much right about how awesome it was going to be, some may disagree, but then again you’re probably some form of autistic that can’t process film aesthetics and prefer to watch window treatments.
There are those that firmly stand by the “You can’t judge a book by its cover” argument. To them I say, I’m pretty sure you can. If Fabio is on the cover, the name Faulkner is not. Plus, I usually judge my books by page and picture count or if it says Nicholas Sparks or Holy Bible on it.

My point is, I think, that if we all became harsher movie trailer critics, maybe, just maybe, we wouldn’t have bad movies and in turn would have more intelligent people. Now I understand if that may seem like a stretch but it could work and in my purview the world would be a better place. A place where I would be kinder to people. I wouldn’t be so judgemental and more open and maybe forgiving. Dare I dream, a world where the name Tyler Perry may never precede the title of anything be it movie, play or book. Although, I would LOVE to see a Tyler Perry video game, like a Grand Theft Auto where Madea pulls people out of cars and takes them to church. What a wonderful world this would be…

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If you’ve been looking at action figure prices lately and thinking, "These things shouldn’t cost that much," guess again. Far from paying too much, we’re really not paying enough. It’s time to get over being so tight, break out those wallets, and prepare to pony up for your preferred plastic playthings.

G.I. JOE makes the case pretty easily. Prices for Hasbro’s A Real American Hero line of 3¾" figures generally ranged from $2.00 to $3.00 in 1982, but stores like Macy’s sold them for as much as $4.00 (yep, just 88 cents less than Wal-Mart’s original price for 25th Anniversary figures in 2007). We’ll go with the average of those lower amounts and say a JOE cost $2.50 in ’82. Using the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator, we discover that $2.50 in ’82 dollars spends like $5.65 in 2010 dollars (2011 isn’t available yet). But inflation doesn’t tell the whole story. While a dollar goes a little less than half as far as it did back in 1982, that year began with oil prices at $30.80 and ended at $28.02. Inflation would account for a price of $66.46 per barrel in 2010 dollars, but the current price of $89 per barrel is around 35% higher than our adjusted-for-inflation price. As we all know, the plastic used in production of action figures is a petroleum product, never mind the rising fuel cost for moving freight from China.

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I’m in Toys R Us yesterday.  Woman and her kid, let’s say he’s seven, dawdle ahead of me.  "Oh, are these the action figures?"  The mother peeks as though there might be consequences.  "Let’s look here."

Not wanting to trail them through the collectors’ aisle, I swing round to Transformers/Star Wars.  Woman and child round at the far end and the kid sees something he wants.

"No.  You’re not getting that.  No guns."  Mom slips into a familiar declaration.  "We don’t have guns in OUR house."  

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Red Tornado is one of those characters I go hot and cold on.  Loved him in the Satellite era of the JLA.  Then he disappeared.  Young Justice (the comic) brought him back in an interesting way.  Apparently he started out as a plot to destroy the Justice Society.  And joined the JLA before I met the team.  The most recent JLA comic featured him heavily in the beginning. 

Yet his most enduring quality is that he gets blown up on a regular basis.  Way back in JLoA 102 he was blown up sacrificing himself.  Luthor dismantled him in the current JLA comic.  Amazo blew him up on JLU.  Even in Batman Brave and Bold.  Starro’s ‘herald’, the Faceless Hunter, blows him up because he cannot be mind controlled.  But he always comes back.  I think it is his ability to come back that makes him such a target for destruction.

When Alex Ross played fast and loose with the JLA membership and Grant Morrison showed us why certain people belonged on the team (both of them adding in Plastic Man as an example), I realized it was OK to take off the rose colored glasses and re-examine the Justice League membership on my own terms.  One of them that did not measure up for a while was Red Tornado.

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Avast, me hearties! This is fair warning to you that over the next several months you’ll likely be seeing a lot of blogs from me concern Pirates of the Caribbean (or other thusly related topics). I’m a huge fan of the movies (or, as my 6 year old daughter likes to exclaim, "Daddy’s Pirate Crazy!") and am giddy with anticipation for the upcoming fourth installment, On Stranger Tides.

There’s been a ships hold full of merchandise based upon the hit franchise thus far, but one thing that has been sorely lacking is novels. Oh sure, there’s the Jack Sparrow series of kid novels, along with the Legends of the Brethren Court series. But, those are for young readers (which hasn’t stopped me from reading them!). But, I’ve been wanting a good, full-length novel featuring these great and colorful characters.

Well, this May that wait comes to an end with the release of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Price of Freedom by A.C.Crispin and I couldn’t be more excited.

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It’s that time of the year again. Toy Fair is just around the corner. The biggest event in the toy industry is being held this year from February 13 – 16 in New York City.

For the past couple years Mattel has been the company from which I was most excited to see their new products for the year. But, not this year.

In fact, the world’s biggest toy company has, this year, become practically a non-entity to me. I think the only things I am looking forward to seeing from them this go round are the Young Justice figures and what they’ve got planned for the 3-3/4" segment of the Green Lantern line.

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Hello to all you Super Powers nuts out there!  Today I’ve got a rather large chunk of meat for y’all to chew on, since I’ve decided to expand (in all senses of the word) upon my blog from wayyy back in July of 2009 and turn the spotlight back on the Colleccion Super Amigos figures released in Argentina from Cuick S.A. (Pacipa/Playful).  The blog sported a mere 17 photos, and two of those were place-holders for items that hadn’t even arrived in the mail yet.  Weighing in at a whopping 28 photos and containing some actual information, I feel that this was a better entry to have permanently here at AFi for those wanting to learn the small bit of stuff known about this (kinda) popular line.

Cuick, S.A.is the company that actually distributed the figures produced by Pacipa in early 1989 and then Playful in mid-1990.  As is common knowledge amongst collectors of the line, there are Super Amigos out there sporting both Pacipa and Playful logos in the lower right corner of the blister cards.  Pacipa was the initial recipient of the license from Kenner, and overall has better quality in the card printing, bubble strength and character selection.  None of the figures came with mini-comics, but all of them came with file cards.  Both companies are mind-boggling in what seems to have been actually released.  I’ll try and detail the major oddities before I get to the image onslaught later in the blog. 

The first and foremost glaring omission is the Pacipa Batman figure.  I have never even heard a whispered rumor of someone owning a carded Super Amigos Batman with the Pacipa logo in the corner, let alone viewed a picture of one.  Every single one I have seen has been a Playful release.  That is bizarre beyond words, yes?  To a lesser extent is the Playful release of Superman.  I have seen a (small) picture of one on a foreign public information site and do own a Riddler figure mis-carded on a Playful Superman card back, but other than those two examples I don’t believe there is one known in any collection anywhere.  Again, bizarre.

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Greetings to all, and thanks for checking out this latest Super Powers Highlight.  Today we’ll be taking a look at the four Signature Stamp Sets put out by Craftmaster.  Craftmaster was a really fantastic licensee for Super Powers.  They put out the Stamp Sets, Stain-a-Sticker Sets, Figurine Paint Sets, puzzles, the stained-glass Sun Shiner set, poster paint sets and a few other really neat random items.  A lot of varied product led to a lot of interesting package designs, making them a really eye-popping and interesting addition to the overall Super Powers display that seems to have taken over my entire condo.  LOL.

One great thing about the set right off the bat is the inclusion of Hawkman.  Yes, you’d expect every company that had the Super Powers license to include  the "Holy Trinity" of Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman…but Craftmaster managed to give good ol’ Carter his due.  Not only his own set, but with artwork that (to my knowledge) wasn’t used on any other manufacturer’s product packaging.

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I’ve been remiss in promoting one of my favorite games.  For the past year or so.  Playing HeroClix, WizKids super-hero (and villain) miniatures game really came to a halt around Jan 2009 when Topps, their parent company, dissolved the division.  It came back, but by then playing it had pretty much died around my area.  I’ve bought some since, but my schedule is such now that I cannot imagine having time to play on a weekly basis again.  In that time, they have released 4 sets (Hammer of Thor, Brave and Bold, Web of Spider-man, and most recently DC 75th Anniversary) and 2 theme packs (Blackest Night starter set and Brightest Day).  Plus a few others including the Watchmen and Jonah Hex.  Now that we are up to date, I bring you news of the first preview of the next set: Giant Size X-Men Preview 1 – Magneto For the full preview, follow that link.

Visit WizKids! own site here!

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Howdy howdy!  Welcome to another edition of the Super Powers Highlight.  Today we’ll be looking at an oddity, for sure : the Golden Pharaoh figure mis-carded on a 33-back Dr. Fate card back.  Two of these surfaced a couple months ago on eBay from the same seller, but apparently it wasn’t a completely unknown entity.   There are now four known to exist at this point in time.  The other two appeared previously in the hobby with the initial one popping up over seven years ago in Australia.  All of them have the same basic characteristics…what seems to be a standard production Golden Pharaoh figure (with copyright information stamped on the inner thigh) machine carded on a full production quality Dr. Fate 33-back card back. 

The reason why it’s such a significant piece is that, while definitely scheduled to be re-released on a 33-back card (as all the figures in the line were), Dr. Fate was never released at retail on this card back.  Further adding to the mystery is the fact that this piece is NOT a carded sample, at least as far as it’s been defined with every other 33-back example.  It would have had to have been hand-carded to a proof card and those differences are obvious to the experienced eye.  The easiest & quickest way to tell is via the hanger hole punch on the top of the card.  All 33-back proof cards have a thin punch similar to the Kenner Canada released figures, and production release 33-back cards have the thicker "balloon" punch that is apparent on all 3rd Series MOC examples such as Orion and Cyborg.

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Hello everyone, and welcome to another edition of the Super Powers Highlight.  Up for review today is one of the kinds of things I love to find related to this wonderful hobby…the "behind the scenes" ephemera.  This was a promotional flier given to Kenner accounts probably either by a representative, salesman, or directly at Toy Fair.  It showcases all of the various giveaways and purchase incentives that customers would have when buying Super Powers (as well as other) product put out for sale by Kenner Toys back in 1984.  

There were a few surprises when I looked through it, which goes along with how Super Powers is in general to collect.  It seems like every week something new pops up (product- or information-wise), and even almost 4 years in I have found that continues to hold true.  You’ll see probably the biggest "news" to be revealed by this on the 4th interior page, so enough waiting…on to the content!

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Welcome to the first Super Powers Highlight of 2011.  I’m going to try and produce more blogs this year by writing less and just taking excellent detailed photos.  I’ve found that I’m a little more apprehensive to blogging when I’m forced to write a lot about items that really have no documented history other than what can be gleaned by examining the item or possibly tracking it’s provenance.  So, I hope you enjoy the greater frequency and general increased diversity of subjects being covered.  My collection has nearly doubled in size from this point last year, so there’s lots of enjoyment to be had from both my end and (hopefully) your end.

Today I’m highlighting the set of four temporary tattoos produced for the Warner Brothers Studio Store in 1993.   I was lucky enough to score all four at once, which is fortunate because I think I’ve seen one single example for sale on eBay in nearly 4 years.  They were originally $3 each as evidenced by the WBSS price tag.  The set of four consists of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman and Flash.  If others were produced (Green Lantern and Robin come to mind as other logical possibilities) then I don’t know about them at all.  One interesting feature of these is that the logo actually says "Super Powers Collection" which was supposedly only designated for the Kenner action figure line.  I have found a few other WBSS items that also have this. 

Enjoy the photos!

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Since the great resurgence of 1984, Godzilla fans and collectors (like myself) have had only a few offering annually , and the vast majority of those toys have been the Bandai vinyl figures. Dubbed “The Godzilla Collection”, it became a line of toys that, for the most part, satisfied that niche left cold and empty from years of growing up in the 1970’s, watching Saturday Matinees of Godzilla vs. Megalon, The Sea Monster, Mechagodzilla, well, you get the point.

As time has gone on, these offerings have sputtered to an almost non-existent drip. Aside from the rare and expensive garage kit, there only existed a dark and empty void.

Then emerged the little company that could – Y-MSF. Unlike other smaller action figure companies, this tiny operation got the Toho licenses, hired some talented sculptors, and did what no one else has been able or willing to do – Make cool Godzilla vinyl action figures. In the past year, we’ve gotten some of the most fan requested, empty shelf space filling, obscure characters from the Godzilla movies. Each figure has improved upon the last, with better paint apps, sharper sculpts, and faithful scales.

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It was a real treat to be asked to review the second edition of Mark Bellomo’s amazing visual chronology: The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe 1982-1994. My own childhood Joe collection only goes up to around 1987’s series IV but it was a passionate and memorable 5 years! Straight-armed Rock ’N Roll started it all. Thereafter, I clearly recall having a paper route which garnered me about $10 a week. And each week I’d go to Child’s World in Wayne, N.J. and buy three G.I. Joe figures. Good times. But this blog isn’t about me, its about a book that brings back those cherished memories.

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