Batman: Brave and the Bold was scary for many reasons: it had a light tone, it was not a Timm-verse Batman, and Oswald from “The Drew Carey Show” was BATMAN!!! The toys were even scarier, they weren’t in scale with JLU and they had crazy peg-holes, PEG-HOLES!!!!! The magic of the show won fans  over, its great stories and diverse cast had viewers of all ages coming back. And for some of us, the magic of the show managed to make the toys fun to collect.

Granted I only own 5 Brave and the Bold figures, but still much like they show I was surprised by how much I liked them. The toy-line is still going pretty strong and is much easier to find than other Mattel lines. New figures are hitting the pegs, and one in particular caught my eye. It has a removable cowl! Revealing Bruce Wayne is the Batman!

(more…)

Share:

Since ordering the 1/6 scale Blind Cowboy and Ghost Horse Super Set from threeA Toys many months ago, I have been anxiously awaiting the delivery of the enormous box…and yesterday it arrived.  I haven’t been able to stop messing with it and nearly took the day off work to play with it, so I thought I’d provide a quick review for those wondering what the big deal is with this magnificent beast.

For those wondering, threeA Toys (3A) produces limited-edition products based on the crazy-cool creations of the artist Ashley Wood and the universe he’s imagined with his paintbrush.  Blind Cowboy is part of the ‘Popbot’ section of the threeA universe.

You can read more about 3A and the various toylines here and here.

Here’s the specific entry on Blind Cowboy from the ThreeA wiki.

His family killed by a gang of deranged robots, his eyesight taken as payment for someone else’s debt. He now wears the rag reputedly used to mop the bloody brow of the assassinated JFK, the turgid rag now giving a clarity of vision, a clarity of justice and revenge to the Blind Cowboy. His is only friend, a horse named Ghost!

(more…)

Share:

Yes, you read that right. Apparently, I’m not the only nerd who thinks Bruce Lee and, in particular, Bruce Lee’s appearance in Game of Death is the coolest thing ever. Whoever is behind the Industrial Toy Werks Super Powers bootlegs is obviously a fan, too. Oh, for more about this kooky series of customs, please see Julius Marx’s blog about his ITW Mirror Master. I’m not a Super Powers collector but I do love weird kitschy stuff, and so these things have caught my eye on several occasions. I know you’re squirming, Chip. Well, seeing as how I’ve done everything but dress up as Bruce Lee in the yellow track suit, it was only a matter of time before I finally picked up one of these customs. (more…)

Share:

I’m hoping you didn’t come here looking for facts. Or statistics. Or anecdotes from former toy company big wigs. All you’re gonna get is a flimsy theory pulled from CantinaDanny’s Action Figure Observer’s Field Guide. But it is true that, from the early days of the little plastic people, action figure lines have been light on the lady folk. Granted, the Star Wars movies themselves were pretty male centric but its funny to note that out of 100 vintage Star Wars figures, six were female. Five Princess Leias and a Sy Snootles. Somebody is probably going to correct me by saying something like: “The Death Star Droid was really a fembot!”

(more…)

Share:

DC just announced that 6 of its titles are being replaced with 6 new ones.  Two of these, I had tried and dropped.  Partially because the story did not stick with me.  I like the characters enough, but I am also feeling the sting of needing to be frugal.  Due to money issues, I dropped all my comics a while back.  The “new 52″ at DC did what they had hoped.  It got me back in the store.  5 months later, I am still feeling my way through what I am buying.

When I decided which titles to try, I selected things that
1. I found the proposed story idea to be exciting.
2. Characters I wanted to read about that I had not in the past.
3. My old favorites.
4. Team books, which is what I started with 30 years ago.

I bought 12 titles.

Category 1: Stormwatch.

With Stormwatch, DC advertised this story well.  The Moon being alive and attacking the Earth.  The premise was classic old science fiction.  The characters are interesting – even though they do not wear costumes.  The story moves like a roller coaster.  I think it reminds me of Morrison’s JLA, where there were concepts which could have been entire mini-series which we only shown in a page.  Putting Martian Manhunter in here was a stroke of editorial genius.  It made people talk about the book and made JLA fans consider it.  I do wish the characters were a bit more instantly identifiable, and costumes would help, as sometimes I have trouble identifying who is who.  Four issues in, this is still my #1 comic. (more…)

Share:

  “From days long ago, from uncharted regions of the universe, comes a legend – The legend of Voltron, Defender of the Universe!”   I remember the days, rushing home and turning on the TV, waiting to hear those words. When Mattel first announced that they had obtained the Voltron license, I wasn’t sure what to think. I’m such a fan of Voltron (yes, even the one formed by 15 disparate vehicles, too)that I dared to hope for an amazing line of new toys. (more…)

Share:

Ryan, our fellow blogger, inspired me twice in the creation of this blog.  First, I wanted to show how easy it is to write a blog.  Second, he posted in the forums about something that made me want to respond.  I could have responded in the thread, but since Julius gave me this soapbox (and pays me 3 times as much as Ryan ), I figured I’d post it here.

Ryan was engaging in two of our favorite past times here at AFi.  Talking about how he hopes Mattel will make some of his favorite characters AND reviving long dead threads.  While I’ll leave the sleeping threads to others, discussing the merits of one character over another is not something I can pass up.  In this case, a DCUC version of the classic Silver Age version of Adam Strange.  My take is not that creating this is good or bad, but why not use something else until Mattel gets around to it.

The other current competing line of DC 6 inch figures is DC Direct.  To be fair, DC Direct is actually a bunch of lines, where they are often artist specific versions.  This might bother some collectors, but the various groups give us characters which we can use to fill in our Mattel collection until Mattel makes them.  Above we have Ryan Choi Atom, Elongated Man, Mera, silver age Adam Strange, Geo Force and Metron. (more…)

Share:

…

Five blog entries in 2011.

Really?

Seriously?

It can’t be that hard…can it?

I mean, there’s plenty to discuss over the past year…MattyCollector frustrations, the whole SaveDCUC effort, the slow death of JLU, the nostalgia of toylines like G.I.Joe and ThunderCats, the appeal of toylines like threeA and Hot Toys, the depressing debacle of the DCnU, the unavoidable mentioning of Tim Tebow, films, books, art…you would think that I could squeeze out at least a few simple blogs here and there over the course of twelve months, right?

Apparently not. (more…)

Share:

Please note the opinions and views expressed in this blog are my own and you

should agree with them.

(more…)

Share:

Someone once asked me to explain HeroClix.  After some practice, I have come up with this.

“Its like Chess with Super-Heroes, except that if you want to play with 4 knights and no bishops, that is not only OK, it is encouraged and expected.”  At this point, I should add that you can also use characters from popular video games (Halo) and movies (Lord of the Rings).

Just like in Chess, each piece has its own unique abilities.  It comes down to 6 values.  Movement.  Attack.  Defense.  Damage.  Range.  Cost.

(more…)

Share:

Today’s January 1st. New Year’s Day.

And, like any good little toy collector…one of my first thoughts, come the new year is…

…Toy Fair is next month!!

What are you looking forward to?

Oh, and by the way…HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Share: