It's been quite some time since I did the old Drop The Wife Off At The Train Station And Do An Early Morning Toy Run, but it happened yesterday with some very good results...

First Target: Nothing

K-Mart: Teen Titans Robin/Starfire 2-pack from the latest assortment (needed a second Star for the T-Sub)

Second Target: Nothing

Third Target: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles General Blanque (the only figure with the new packaging on the pegs, and the only one of him. Very odd, but very cool as I've anticipated this figure for quite a while) and Rescue Heroes Collectors Series Gil Gripper (I want all these guys MIB as a sort of RH Hall of Fame. Bad news fans; the 2005 Collection pamphlet was packed with Gil and the stuff is all out already. If there are Rescue Heroes next year, I'll be shocked).

Toys R Us: Dark Galadriel (nice looking figure, and about as close to a Marvel Legends Nekra as we'll ever get), Fantastic Four Movie Series 2 Thing (promptly switched the head with Series 1 Thing to perfect results) and two Attacktix Booster packs (the only thing I had in mind when the run began).

Stop & Shop: Hot Wheels 1:64 Batman Begins Batmobile with Batman mini-figure.

So, I spent much more than I thought I would, but got a lot of great stuff.

Wheeeee, toys!

-JJJ

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

NEW TMNT?

'bout time! That line has been MIA forever!

Every since the tragedy of "I've got the worst action figure gimmick in the history of toys" Traximus and the disappearance of "Oh crap I have that gimmick too" Gen it seems like Playmates went from great to YUCK with TMNT!

Nice to hear that secondary characters still are beind made!

I wonder who General Blanque is shipping with? (for that matter, remind me buddy, WHO the heck was he?)

Don't like that RH news...

But the real question, which Attactix did you get and do you like the game!

(oh, and on the clearance menu BBTS has Attactix marked down. The Obi/Boga and walker thingy are like $7!)

SpyMagician

General Blanque is the military leader of the Federation, constant enemy of the Triceredons. He appeared in the four-part "Turtles in Space" arc, and later around the time Bishop debuted.

General Blanque and Karai are the only two figures out of Toy Fair I had much interest in. Hamato Yoshi, Gen and Feudal Shredder are shown on Blanque's cardback. The new packaging is quite nice, by the way, with seperate cards for the Turtles, their allies and their enemies.

I don't know who else is shipping with Blanque, but they had a couple Leatherheads on the pegs. I haven't seen him in quite a while, so there's a possibility.



I don't like delivering it, but my real problem is Fisher-Price's laziness since the Robotz line. It's been nothing but repaints with the odd new headsculpt since then. The new Police Patrol set has two "new" characters (Justin Time and Marshall Law) who are straight repaints of older characters (Telly Photo and Marshall Artz, respectively). I find that appalling in general, but particularly in a line so rich in imagination not so long ago.

I think the reason for Rescue Heroes's downfall is threefold...

First, it doesn't seem the Robotz line did nearly as well as the Mission Select and VoiceTech sets before it. The goobledygook gargling, tethered robots are not nearly as cool or fun (or, frankly, magical) as the Heroes talking to each other. Likewise, it doesn't seem there was much interest in the Robotz jet playset, though the awesome M.A.C.C. was impossible to top.

Second, I think Spider-Man & Friends has taken a chunk of Rescue Heroes sales. RH demolished Major Powers, but I think SM&F has successfully flanked RH by going for straight superheroism, complete with villains. This has lead, I believe, to the third reason....

The Micro collection, which I think is completely ill-advised. Fisher-Price has had the devil's own time trying to establish Imaginext as a viable brand and it's barely above water, I have no idea why they decided to dedicate as much of the 2005 Rescue Heroes collection to this concept. The environments are nice, but the figures and vehicles have no RH signature style and look, frankly, boring. I don't know of a Rescue Heroes collector more enthusiastic than I, but I won't touch the Micro stuff.

All that said, the seemingly Target-exclusive Collector's Series is very nice. Classic, iconic paint schemes of the core Heroes with simple, sensible accessories. Pat Pending just came out for the Collectors Series, which tells me someone at FP still knows what made RH great. As I said, I want all of these MIB as a sort of rescue Heroes Hall of Fame, but I fear they may end being my last RH purchases because, barring an innovative new technology like Mission Select or a radical depature from the brand's philosophy like villains, I think Rescue Heroes is on its last legs.



So far, I have the starter set and five booster packs. Highlights of the boosters have been Yoda, Palpatine, launcher Anakin and armored Darth Vader. We played the game Tuesday night and I love it. Extremely fun and, as I suspected, full of small subtleties. The highlight of our games was when my wife's Separatist Clone Commander blasted my Wookie Commando from across the table. Caught him square in the chest.

Yes, really fun game. My future is full of booster packs. I really want Nute Gunray and Count Dooku.

-JJJ

Hey JJJ!

Thanks for the catch up on TMNT, here's hoping that Playmates is going to pick up their game.

I hear ya on RH.

The micros were a real dumb idea.

I don't see why they didn't just to a subset of Imaginext as RH.

All they'd need to do is retool the head/bodies to make em actually look like RH and reissue the old police, fire and construction stuff.

Heck, the new King Arthur and Captain Hook lines are straight repaint lines.

I was intrigued by the idea of micros but in execution they sucked. The whole point is they should have been miniature RH and they look far too generic! And the the lack of characters is appalling. Come on, I know they are episode themed, but give more figures and do figure packs! Sigh.

I hear ya on the RH slump too. I've been mostly out myself. Not sure what they can do. As you say, Spidey and Friends has finally caught on and like you say, in no small part due to the villains.

Glad to hear you are enjoying Attacktix. I really hope it sells well enough to continue and that the TF line happens.

I like it more than most other miniature games now, as it's the only one that's fast, fun and not as simple as it looks on the surface.

And NO FIDDLY RULES AND DICE!

SpyMagician

Exactly. I'm not an Imaginext person but, if you want people to broaden their Rescue Hero horizons, give us something to WORK with, for heaven's sake. I know the number of RH collectors is minute, but I don't see anyone buying the micro stuff. The shelves are always full and some of the stuff is getting dusty.

Last time I saw that in the pre-school aisle was...*gulp*...Major Powers.



The only thing that may save the line now is another marquee set that does big business. The next logical step beyond Mission Select would have been the way to go, perhaps something using infared or some sort of signal where the figures would recognize each other and address their teamates by name. Unfortunetly, I doubt the desire or capital to invest in something like that is still present at Fisher-Price.

I think Robotz was FP's attempt to go in the direction I mentioned, but two things killed it. First, if the robots are tethered to the Heroes, how are kids supposed to send the little trash cans off on missions? They could untether, but then the robot can't communicate with its Hero, and that defeats the whole purpose of the gimmick. Second, what are the Heroes doing sending robots in to do their dirty work in the first place? The very concept of Robotz was not very Rescue Heroes.

I dunno...its all very sad.

-JJJ

You know JJJ,

Maybe RH could actually use the RF ID tag technology that SW EP1 Commtech and MOTU Action Chip (or whatever they were called) used.

Granted those gimmicks were pretty sucky for SW and MOTU, but for RH it might work.

You have lots or real estate in RH with the big backpacks and playsets, and you would have untethered interactivity which would be plus for little kids!

As long as they can make the voices clearer, it might be a good use of a technology that Mattel has already used with MOTU.

SpyMagician

Actually, while re-reading my post, I thought of something else.

What if, instead of selecting the mission everyone talks about, there was a wheel on the backpack for selecting the Hero you want your figure to talk to? So, instead of settings for fire, earthquake, flood, etc., there was a wheel with the other five Heroes in the set of six, plus one spot to respond to Warren Waters (since the VoiceTech Video Warren would STILL work in this case, as he did with Mission Select).

Two drawbacks. You could only have six characters in the set, and the missions would either have to be randomized (as with VoiceTech), they all talk about one mission ("What do YOU make of this fire, Billy?"), or they speak in somewhat generic terms ("Jake, those people need you!").

The set could be the old stand-bys....

Ariel Flyer
Billy Blazes
Jack Hammer
Jake Justice
Rocky Canyon
Wendy Waters

...or maybe five of them and a new character.

In order to save a little time and money, FP could just use the same voice clips the Mission Select figures used when addressing Warren Waters in the M.A.C.C. playset for that spot on the wheel.

I dunno, this sounds pretty cool to me. I'd buy them.

-JJJ