As the year comes to an end, it’s been tough been trying to decide who will make my short list of Top Ten Action Figures for 2012.  It’s been tough to pare it down to ten, with some really great toys just missing the cut.  My criteria? well, the web has enough articulate, detailed, and fantastic reviewers – this is just what I thought looked cool on the shelf, and gave me that “wow!” feeling when I opened it up and played with them.

*ahem*

Yes, I open and play with my toys.

Anyway, instead of my usual overblown pontification, I’ll keep it short and just post the pics…

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Ah, December 31st. We meet again.

In a few hours we fall headlong into a new year. 2013. Still no sign of flying cars.

2013 has been a year of change for me and my family. We’ve had a major shift in the focus of our lives, which led to a move cross country from the Columbus, Ohio area to Portland, Oregon.

2012 also showed a marked decreased in toy collecting for me for a variety of reasons. A combination of just not having the money to spend on toys, preferring to spend what little disposable income I had on tabletop games like Warhammer and Warmachine, and some pretty poor toy distribution all added up to a lack of new figures on my shelves. (more…)

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Just for the holidays, I’m reposting one of my favorite Times Past recollections…I hope you all had a safe and happy holiday. Enjoy!

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With the holidays here, this seemed like a good time to share my memory of receiving one of the greatest gifts ever. Read on!

1985.  Arguably the greatest toy year ever, with Masters of The Universe, Transformers and G.I.Joe at the heights of popularity.  During that spring I had received the G.I.Joe Snow Cat vehicle, and with it came the extensive fold-out catalog showcasing all the new G.I.Joe products that would be released that year.  I poured over the photos of the new figures and vehicles, circling the ones I wanted to get.

And then I saw it.

There, at the bottom of the page.  The single greatest thing I had ever seen up to that point in my life – the U.S.S. Flagg Aircraft Carrier.

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Teen Titans HeroClix

Wow.  Titans across the ages.  We already knew that the 80′s Perez Teen Titans and the modern nu52 Teen Titans were in this set.  Now we can see that the whole spectrum of Titans history is in the set, from the earliest team.  And this preview also shows us a new team base, the four characters on one base.  Yeah, I could get very excited about this release (Currently enjoying the Batman set and about to start buying Streets of Gotham).

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Spiderman HeroClix Classic Monsters

The Spiderman set due out in February will include a sub theme of classic monsters.

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Wolverine and the X-Men HeroClix by WizKids

Wolverine and the X-Men is a set which is due out sometime next summer.  The big draw is that it will focus back to the costumes of the 90′s, while the last set which featured the X-Men (Giant Sized X-Men: GSX) was geared more towards modern looks.  As I was taking a break from the game when GSX came out and many pieces from GSX are expensive on the secondary market, and I am a fan of that era of the X-Men, I am looking forward to this set.

I really like the idea of a Professor X and Magneto duo figure.  There is enough history to justify them working together cooperatively.  Also, WizKids earlier this year added a mechanic called “split” which allows you to take a duo figure and replace it mid game with figures of each character that is on the duo.  This is great here in that storywise it would represent getting to a point where these two leaders disagree and go their separate ways.  The classic Colossus is also very welcome as the last version was a duo with Wolverine and a super-rare figure making it harder to get.  Yeah, this is going to be a good set.

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Iron Man HeroClix

My initial reaction was that this was the Iron Man movie set.  Apparently it is a comic based set.  But it must be very far off.  Spider-man, Teen Titans and Wolverine and the X-Men sets are coming before this one.  Glad to see Iron Monger and War Machine represented.  War Machine was conspicuously absent from both the Avengers Movie set (it felt like the Iron Man movies should be represented) and the Chaos War set which was heavily Avengers filled.  I still hope that the Iron Man movie set includes characters from all 3 Iron Man movies.

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The End is Nigh!

ok, ok, maybe you were expecting that from me, being the resident AFi Conspiracy Theorist and all.  Of course I couldn’t resist referencing the upcoming(?) Mayan Calendar Event.  But within our hobby, there is another End-of-Days Scenario unfolding.

It’s the end of the (collecting) world as we know it…but do you feel fine?

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Huntress

Today, at gaming stores across the land, table top miniatures enthusiasts got an early Christmas present.  A new release of WizKids popular HeroClix game, Streets of Gotham (SOG).  SOG is a sister set to the recent Batman set with many themes from Batman carried across into SOG.  Birds of Prey characters are a new theme in this set which continues the Justice League International, Wildcats and Batman Family themes.

Batman Superman Wonder Woman

Previewed figures for this set include: Black Canary, Blue Beetle (Ted Kord), Fire, Ice, Calendar Man, Mr. Zsasz, Dove, Huntress, David Cain, Lady Shiva, Deathstroke, Robin (Tim Drake) and the usual Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman.  This set also includes both pre and post nu52 versions of characters including new versions of Arsenal, Starfire, Katana and brand new character Starling.

Katana Starling Black Canary

Follow this link to all the previewed figures and their previews.

the Question

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