For those of you who are unaware, Bennett the Sage is a gamer who does reviews for thatguywiththeglasses.com. He also does these videos that focus on the “very best of the worst in Fanfiction” where he reads the worst fanfiction stories he can find.
In his tenth episode he reads some of the “classic” works of Peter Chimaera. These really have to be heard to be believed…
I thought I’d post a picture or two of my Freddy Krueger figure. Scary stuff. And yeah, I know, his finger broke off. And no, there’s no need for any “Freddy got Fingered too much” jokes or whatever. Anyway, happy (post) Halloween everyone!!!
Every so often from here on out I want to do a new feature called “Spotlight On…”
“Spotlight On…” will be articles that will focus on a specific sort of toyline or toy company. My first “Spotlight On…” article here will be…
Hell Yeah! The Toybiz Lord of The Rings figures!!!
The Lord of The Rings toyline by Toybiz is honestly what I’d consider one of the best toylines of all-time for the great detail and articulation of the figures. All other “Movie Toys” that are out now just look like a step-backwards in comparison. The toys were so detailed and they looked so much like the actors it was scary…
Just look at Saruman here. This looks just like Christopher Lee and it looks as good as Sideshow Bust or Medicom figure but…nope. It was an $8 Toybiz 7” figure.
Another great thing about the figures was the paint applications. Toybiz could have cheaped out and just given us solid colors for the figures armor and clothes but they chose multiple color tones and more beaten up and realistic color tones for the figures so things like the weathering in Gimli’s cape would look really believable:
And check out Aragorn’s boots as well:
And let’s not even talk about how beautiful and detailed the Sauron figure was…
Again, this was just an inexpensive Toybiz figure but it looks as awesome as the Sideshow Sauron bust or any Medicom figure out there.
And I love how they put in the little details here and there like how Sauron has his ring:
Hell, even Aragorn has his serpent ring:
And look at how amazingly detailed his costume is and how his hand is “dirty.” I love it!!!
So…yeah. Expect this “Spotlight Review” of the LOTR figures sometime in the near future. It’ll hopefully be followed by a “Spotlight On…” review of…MARVEL LEGENDS!!!!
By the way, you can see larger versions of these images if you click on them.
Photo credit goes to my friend Sharma, by the way.
Why is it that the most awesome movie-related Transformers toys are the toys based on characters that weren’t even in the movie? Seriously. Mindwipe look badass. Of course, this could all be photoshopped to hell like Prowl was (I still have nightmares over how fugly that figure was). Still though, I’m looking forward to Mindwipe. I will be buying him if I see him.
So I finally got around to buying the new Leader Prime yesterday. As I said before, I pretty much have zero interest in picking up any of the ROTF stuff because:
A) I hated the movie
and…
B) If you bought the figures from the first movie there’s no need to buy them again because you’re more or less just buying the same molds from the first movie but with uglier and more innacurate paint schemes.
That being said, if you’re avoiding the new Leader Prime thinking he’s the same mold from the first movie just with swords and a new head you’d be wrong. This is actually a completely different mold with more points of articulation and detail and actually looks a lot more like Bay Prime than the first leader figure did. If you’re like me and you’re one of the rare people who actually liked the Bay Prime design I really recommend picking this guy up.
As I said, completely different mold and is more screen accurate.
Overall he’s a really great upgrade from the first Leader Prime and that’s coming from someone who actually really liked the first Leader Prime and thought it was one of the best Prime figures Hasbro ever made.
…But I actually think Jeremy Jackson from Baywatch could probably play a pretty awesome Marcus Fenix.
And yes, you’re reading that right. Hobie. From Baywatch. The obnoxious, fruity kid you wished the ‘Hoff would drown. Sure he was annoying and swishy back in the day but the the thing is, meth and ‘roids fucked up his face enough to the point where he could pull off that look.
Also, he’s gotten really fucking huge. I mean…seriously…
If that’s not your Marcus Fenix than I don’t know Marcus Fenix and after three years of playing GoW…trust me…I know Marcus. I mean, I would prefer to see a good actor with some chops playing Fenix but after all the fan rumors of that idiot Batista from the WWE playing the part I think I’d rather see Jackson in the role. He just needs to learn how to do the badass Marcus Fenix voice and get some acting lessons and I think he’d be good to go.
Judge for yourself:
Jeremy Jackson post-Meth and (I’m assuming anyway) ‘Roids
Marcus Fenix:
I’m telling you, it could work and I think it would be cool. And I honestly mean it (that it could be cool). I, as much as I hated Hobie as a kid, would support that as a GoW fan.
An update for all my fans (all one or two of you)
I have an epic review I’ve been hinting at here and here that I want to work on. It might take me a little while to get it done but I’ll get it done.
In the meantime I’ve got a couple of other things I want to work on. I’d really love to do a quick spotlight on a couple of Toy Companies that I think deserve props and recommendations, I’m working on my first video review and I have a big LOTR spotlight review I want to work on as well. Stay tuned for all this stuff.
Anyone play it? Is it any good?
So I just finished Batman: Arkham Asylum and I have to say that I once again, am the only person in the world who dislikes a Batman project that everyone else seems to love (I don’t care what you say, The Dark Knight is NOT a good movie).
I can’t believe the rave reviews this game is getting. I actually think this is one of those kinds of games that pretty much fails on every level. Yes, the graphics are amazing. Yes it’s Kevin Conroy as Batman and Mark Hamil as Joker. Yes there is some brutal fight scenes.
Really though that’s all the game has going for it. While it is cool to hear Conroy as Batman again Hamil’s Joker just gets more and more irritating the more you play through the game and you just wish that Batman would break his one rule and murder the shit out of Joker (and no, I don’t know what murdering the shit out of someone entails but I’m sure it wouldn’t smell very good). The fighting also gets monotonous and boring as the game progresses and it gets less and less exciting to see Batman pummel Joker’s cronies in slow-mo as you play through the story mode.
You would think that it would be pretty easy to make a Batman game, right? You give him some badass gadgets, you give him the ability to beat the shit out of thugs and you throw in a level or two of some awesome Batmobile sequences where you can blow shit up. Toss in some crime solving here and there and you got a great game. Pretty simple right? There’s no way anyone could screw that up, right?
…If life were that simple I think I’d be banging Hanna Hilton on a mountain of money somewhere while Stephanie Myers scrubbed my toilet and was laughed out of publishing houses…but…I digress.
Batman in videogames is like the Punisher in movies. It really should be a no-brainer as to how one could make an awesome Punisher movie or a badass Batman game but we’re graced with shit like Dark Tomorrow or John Travolta as a Punisher villain in a Punisher movie where Castle plays mindgames with his enemies instead of just blowing everyone away left and right.*
To be the Devil’s advocate, the first third of Arkham Asylum does pretty much give you everything you could ever want from a Batman game (minus an awesome Batmobile level or two). You get to do a lot of puzzle solving, you get to sneak around and hang crooks upside down from Gargoyle statues and you generally get to beat the shit out of stupid, annoying, cliched thugs. So far so good, right? Thing is, the badass stuff gets really repetitive, really fast and the combat system never really evolves.
Basically combat boils down to two buttons. One button will counter the hits from the thugs and the other gives you the ability to just generally punch, kick and fuck up your enemies. And believe you me, that actually sounds a lot more awesome than it really is. Combat becomes annoying and monotonous because you really don’t have to do much to beat the hordes of enemies that come after you. I swear that you can just push the Y button (the counter button) every time Batman gets his “spidey sense” (and yes, I don’t have any good explanation as to why Batman has Spider-Man’s spidey sense) and that’s it. It’s either stupidly easy or ridiculously hard because the villains eventually get pipes and knives and stun batons so you have to counter their attacks in different ways which gets annoying when twenty guys with pipes are surrounding you. The puzzles, as I said above, are pretty cool but most of the good ones are few and far between.
The game tries to hide the fact that it’s padded with boring and repetitive combat by forcing you to suddenly switch genres and do some good old-fashioned platforming once you’re infected with Scarecrow’s fear toxin.
Thing is though, I fucking HATE platforming games so it pisses me off to be forced to play one when I signed on for an action/puzzle solving game and I hate how the Scarecrow is just turned into a cheesy third-rate Freddy Krueger ripoff.
Yes, this is probably how you’ll feel if you realized you paid $60 for this game
The lack of Batman’s most badass villains also really hurts this game in a lot of ways. Sure you get Poison Ivy, Bane and the Joker, but what about Two-Face or Mr. Freeze or even The Penguin? Nope, you don’t get them, you just get annoying, stupid, cliched thugs wearing Joker face paint. If I wanted to fight an army of big stupid people who look like Tammy Fay Baker I could just shop at Walmart on Black Friday. (Yeah, I know, not my best joke but it’s passable).
I’ve heard a couple of gushing fans claim they beat the game in a couple of hours whereas it took me a couple of days to go through. It’s not that the game is hard, see, it’s that it’s fucking CHEAP. There’s a difference between hard and cheap (insert gay prostitute joke here which is fitting when you consider how gay Batman and Robin really are) and Batman goes for cheap city so your rage is just barely subsiding by the time you beat the game. Your victory, in other words, feels pretty hollow. It’s funny how a game where you beat the living shit out of thugs actually GIVES you rage instead of releasing it but that’s how most generic, overrated third-person action games are these days (yeah, I’m looking at you Prototype). How is this game cheap? At one point you have to fight Joker’s Titan Soldiers (don’t ask, it’’s just as stupid as it sounds). These behemoths can’t really be beaten by you or your traditional weapons so you have to basically ride on their backs and pit them against one another so they’ll beat the shit out of each other until they’re exhausted and ready for you to finish them off. That, surprisingly isn’t really as hard as it sounds thanks to some idiotic AI. Problem is though, as you fight more and more of these monsters, you get to this point where you have to fight two of them as well as twenty or thirty Joker thugs at the same time so you really don’t have the time or the willpower to do the lame “counter your way to victory” fighting and take out the monsters at the same time so you’ll waste a good hour or two that you could be playing a good videogame on this cheap shit. The battle with Doc Ock at the end of Spider-Man 2, in other words, was hard. Getting raped by Joker’s armies of goons while you’re trying to battle giant thugs with supersoldier serum, is cheap. There is a difference.
While combat is boring and repetitive for the most part, I will say that the boss fight with Poison Ivy at the end is pretty awesome and it really saves the game from being a complete piece of crap. The problem is though, as cool as it is, it just feels like a ripoff of some of the monster fights that you have in games like Ocarina of Time (I won’t spoil it for you but let’s just say you have to fire your batarang at the “eye” of a plant and do a lot of dodging and shit like that).
For all of it’s faults and for all of the bashing I just did, I will say Arkham Asylum is a decent game. Not great. Not the worst piece of shit in the world. It’s decent. It’s worth a rental but you’re an idiot to pay $60 bucks for it.
So yeah, once again I’m on my own in disliking an overrated Batman media project that everyone else loves. That’s okay though, as far as Batman stuff goes I’m okay with living in my Keaton/90s Animated Series little world where Christian Bale never existed and we were never “treated” to the…uh…snicker…”badass” Batman voice we got from Bale in the Dark Knight. Bottom line, rent don’t buy. This will definitely be one of those games that’s just bad enough to warrant a video review sometime down the line once I start doing those.
So here’s a couple of Leader Prime pics that I hope will also be a part of the future post I alluded to earlier. Leader Prime, like Premium Leader Megatron, is not only one of the best toys from the movie line but one of the best Transformer toys of all-time in my opinion. One day I would like to get the Leader Prime from the new movie as he looks like he’s even better than Movie Prime 1.
Once again, click on the pictures to see larger versions of the pics.
After realizing that most of the toys in the Revenge of the Fallen line aren’t worth buying I thought about how controversial the toyline from the first movie was and how people either really loved it or hated it. This got me thinking about the toys I actually liked from the line and it gave me an idea for a post I would like to work on for this site in the near future.*
Needless to say, Premium Leader Megatron will play a major role in this post if I work on it.
Premium Leader Megatron is not only one of my favorite toys from that line but I honestly think he’s one of my favorite Transformers figures ever and I know that’s blasphemous to those of you G1 purists who hate the Bayformers line.
I originally hated First Movie Megatron’s design when I saw the concept pictures and I couldn’t believe he wasn’t going to be a handgun or a tank. I hated everything about the design and that didn’t change when I saw the movie. After I saw the movie I hated the way he was portrayed just as much as I hated the design. I loved G1 (and Beast Wars) Megatron because he was intelligent as well as powerful and that made him a major threat. Bayformers Megatron just seemed like a stupid indestructible warrior that was like “Me Megatron smash Prime!!!” Over time though and repeated DVD and Blu-Ray viewings, I really started to like the design more and more and I also liked the more vicious and brutish take on the character. Now I think the design is great and is one of the coolest Transformers designs ever. After I really started to fall in love with the design I deciced I wanted Leader Megatron. The only problem was Leader Megatron was given these lame-ass white and purple colors that he didn’t have in the movie. So I decided to go to Amazon.com and pick me up the Premium version and I have to say if you actually love the movie designs, Premium Megatron is the shit. Seriously. I mean, the level of detail is awesome. It’s almost to the Jin Saotome level of quality and detail. So I have decided to devote an entire gallery to him on my personal website sometime soon. For now though I will post a couple of the pictures here so you have a preview of what to expect from that gallery. As always, you will have to click on the pictures to see the full-sized version.
Megatron makes Prime his bitch
He's an ugly mutt but that's what I like about him
And this is just two or three of twenty or so pictures I took that I will put in a gallery on my other website eventually. So until I have that gallery up, check out these pics here.
*I will get to that review if I can find the time in the near future but that doesn’t always work the way I want it too.
So I, as I said before, am back with some reviews and mini-reviews of the plastic crack we all know and love (or loathe if you hate the Transformers movie line).
When the ROTF toyline was released I was really excited and I ran to my TRU to…not buy anything. Why? Well, here’s the deal: if you loved the Autobots from the first movie and you bought the figures, you really, with the exception of Leader Prime, don’t need to buy the new figures. Why? You would simply be buying repaints and inferior ones at that as far as characters like Ironhide are concerned. There’s nothing really new here. I mean, Bumblebee got a new head sculpt and some weapons and Ironhide got new weapons as well but if you already have the Concept Camaro mold of Bumblebee and the “Premium” Camaro mold as well as the “Stealh Bumblebee” mold from the first movie do you really need another Bumblebee just to get some weapons? Fuck no.
And it’s the same with Ironhide. I like the new weapons, they’re pretty sweet and all, but I’m not going to pay $20+ just for some new weapons. And let’s face it, that’s all you’re going to get with the new Ironhide figure as the paint job from the original movie Ironhide is actually more accurate to his ROTF movie appearance. Why they gave the figure an ugly grey paint job with wierd NEST symbols that actually weren’t on his doors in the movie is beyond me.
“So what about the new characters?” You may ask. Well, here’s the thing about those characters: the new characters, as far as the Decepticons are concerned anyway, suck. I actually really didn’t like Devastator. To me he looked more like a Demonic Megazord than Devastator. So that’s a definite “skip”, especially when you consider he’s $89+ and he’s actually not as big as Fort Max (even though Hasbro claimed he would be). The only Decepticons that are, in my opinion, worth buying, are Leader Megatron (though I would recommend holding out for a “premium” version if Hasbro is indeed going to do one) and Voyager Long Haul (the Green hulking dude who turns into Devastatorzord’s right leg at the end of the movie).
So what about the new Autobots then? Well, I might actually get Jetfire down the line. Though he was pretty cheesy in the new movie, the toy is pretty awesome. I’m also interested in getting Arcee and her “sisters” sometime as well. And, I went ahead and bought Sideswipe. And that brings us to the mini-review of Sideswipe:
SIDESWIPE
Sideswipe is actually a pretty cool figure. I really like the detail and the paint scheme. The silver colors are almost as nice as the colors from the premium figures from the first movie.
(You will, of course, have to click on the picture to see the full-sized version)
The articulation is also pretty awesome though I don’t want to get too far in depth if I do a more detailed review sometime down the line.
His “wings” are pretty cool and I dig the “door swords” as well.
The details in his face are really incredible as well. These pictures don’t really do it justice.
Now the alt mode, on the other hand, is pretty lame. I liked the way the car looked in the movie but the toy version just looks too cartoonish and it doesn’t fit in well with the more realistic and detailed alt modes for characters like Prime and Ironhide. I will, of course, take some pictures of the alt mode sometime down the line if I do a more detailed review.
Now there is also a “Human Alliance” Sideswipe that looks pretty cool and is Alternator size but I won’t be buying it. Why? I bought the Deluxe Sideswipe before I actually saw the movie so once I saw the movie and realized he ony actually got like two lines, I decided one Sideswipe figure would be enough.
So there you have it, that’s kind of my take on the ROTF line in general. There are a couple of new characters here and there that are worth buying but the original characters from the first movie really aren’t worth a purchase if you have the toys from the first movie already. Leader Prime and Megatron are worth buying because the new Leader Prime apparently is an incredible “remold” that is more movie accurate and Megatron is a must (if you actually like the movie version of the character anyway) because has a new vehicle form but the other figures are pretty much the molds from the first movie and really aren’t anything special.
So I thought I’d do a review of the new Wolverine videogame but I think Angry Joe pretty much up summed up my thoughts perfectly:
And it’s not just the repetitive jungle missions that make this game unworthy of a $60 purchase. The thing that really makes this game a piece of shit is the total and utter lack of replay value. I’ll elaborate:
First of all this game pretty much FORCES you to use a strategy guide. Why? The villains in this game will ass rape you unless you max out Wolvie’s powers and abilities. The levels are so vast and there as so many puzzles in each level that you’ll HAVE to use some kind of guide to find everything and you, as I said before, HAVE to get everything if you want to beat the game. But guess what? You start a new game and everything starts over. EVERYTHING. You don’t get to replay the game with all the awesome abilities and powers you had before. So you have to play through the game and do all the stupid side missions and use a fucking strategy guide again. And the levels and side-missions are so long and boring that it’s just not worth it.
So bottom line, if you have a couple of days to kill and you can get a five day rental, rent the game, it’s fun. If you buy this though you may as well just get a Craig’s List hooker for the same amount. Sure you might get VD or Crabs, but it’d be more fun than the side quests and jungle missions.
Okay, so I know that I haven’t posted that often in the past year or so. Why? Well, real life got in the way of my hobbies, I suppose. When I first started working on this site I was painting houses with my father part-time for the most part. As time progressed, I started working part-time at this night-shift job I hated. I liked the company but I hated the shift. I, in other words, had plenty of time to work on this site as often as I so desired.
But then, as I said, real life got in the way of my hobbies. I started working 40+hours a week and my excitement and enthusiasm for the plastic crack was at a “meh” level for the most part.
Recently though I’ve decided I’d like to resume my work on this site but there are going to be some pretty big changes. I, in other words, don’t just want to write about toys. I’d also like to talk about comics, movies, videogames and other stuff popular in geek pop culture. I think I’d also like to do Vlogs in that kind of Nostalgia Critic / Linkara / Spoony style.
All this stuff won’t happen any time soon though but expect some updates in the next couple of weeks. Seriously. Swear to God.
So is anyone here looking to buy the RiD Brave Maximus? I’m looking to sell him but I want to do it outside of eBay because I’ve become increasingly paranoid about getting screwed over by buyers doing the whole “chargeback” scam.
I’m willing to let him go for $600 or so (which is what I paid for him). He’s in great condition and he has all of his parts and accessories. For more info on him check out my review here.
Just leave a comment here or send an e-mail to seandence@gmail.com or seandence@hotmail.com and we can talk sales. I’ll do the check/money order thing but not paypal because of the reasons stated above.
So I’m not dead nor am I quitting the “toy blog” business. I just have other things I’ve been busy with.
But no…I’m not dead (although I could be undead and I’m writing this from my new coffin in Pennsylvania) and I’m not going to quit this site.
If anything I really want to make some changes to this site. See, I don’t, as the title of my blog indicates, want to focus solely on Transformers stuff. I like Transformers but I also like superhero toys, sci-fi oriented toys, etc. I also like 80s-90s pop-culture stuff and comics.
So expect to see more random pop-culture related posts in the future as well as some comic reviews and stuff like that. I’m actually also thinking about doing another WordPress blog that focuses mostly on comics. I would like to call it Paper Crack but Nala over at Plastic Crack has, once again, beaten me to it. I think Superman and Other Paper Crack could really work though.
So I finally found Voyager Prime after months and months of zilch. The thing about these sorts of figures, I’m realizing, is that you have to go to a Wal-Mart or a Fred Myer or even a KMart if you want them. Target and Toys ‘R Us just have a million Leader Megatrons, Voyager Megatrons, Voyager Bulkheads and a ton of Ratchets, Bumblebees and Black Arachnias. It’s the stores that you really don’t think about that have a good variety of the figures instead of a billion of the same dude.
I have to say that, like the first girl I dated, the payoff wasn’t really worth the wait. I mean, Voyager Prime’s okay but he’s pretty underwhelming overall. There’s nothing really special about him. This got me thinking about all the various Optimus Prime incarnations that we’ve seen (and in my case bought) over the years and how they’re all pretty much the same damn figure. I mean, you can take away the mouthpiece or have him turn into different kinds of trucks and give him a more aggressive/futuristic armor design but in the end he still pretty much looks exactly the same with the red chest, blue legs and blue helmet.
You can bitch and complain and say what you want about the Car Robot/RiD Optimus Prime (or “Fire Convoy”) being radically different from the previous Prime’s but I personally think that’s what really made that figure one of my favorite Transformer figures that’s been released in the last ten or fifteen years. I mean, even Spider-Man got a new look from time to time. Sameness just equals lameness to me.
That’s also why I, unlike most of the other people my age or older who grew up with the G1 toys, liked the more “techno-organic” design Prime had in the Bay movie. They could have just pandered to the G1 Wankers by making him look exactly like he did in the cartoon (and this clip proves it would have worked if they wanted to go that route) but they decided to update him and make him unique and that’s something I really liked (though I, like most of the fanboys, hated the idea of changing Prime’s design initially).
I also really love the Ultra Magnus repaints as well. The convoy design might look pretty cool with the red and blue colors but the Convoy design with the white and blue colors is just FUCKING SWEET. A Black Prime (that isn’t Nemesis Prime) would be a cool reinterpretation of the character as well.
So yeah, all in all I think I’d say he’s maybe $15 cool but I don’t know if he’s $20 (retail price) or $40 (eBay price) cool. Maybe that’s just me though as I’m not much of a Prime wanker anymore.
Because Crazy Steve asked, here are some pics I took from the Toynami Booth at the SDCC.
First up is the Robotech New Generation/Shadow Chronicles stuff:
Here you have the “Ray” Mospeda Bike variant figure of Rand and his Cyclone
An Alpha Fighter
Scott Bernard and his Cyclone from Shadow Chronicles
Maia Sterling’s Shadow Fighter from The Shadow Chronicles (a movie I still haven’t gotten around to seeing)
A Beta Fighter (Yes, they really are going to sell these finally)
And an Alpha Fighter connected to a Beta Fighter.
While the New Generation stuff was cool, I never really liked NG as much as I enjoyed the Macross Saga. I mean, it’s better than the God-Awful Masters series, but it never really reached the levels of awesomeness that the Macross Saga achieved.
Which leads me to…
Oh fuck yeah. This is the shit right here. They’re going to be releasing the VF-1S from Do You Remember Love in the 1/100 scale. That might not mean much to the snobs out there who scoff at the size and quality of the 1/100 series but to those of us who can’t afford to shell out the couple hundred for the Yamato 1/48 VF-1S from DYRL, this is about the most awesome news ever. I will definitely be buying this guy when he becomes available.
Toynami also had the 1/100 figures with the new strike packs or whatever they’re called on display.
They also had some pretty awesome dioramas:
So there you have it. If you’re a Robotech/Mospeda/Macross fan like Crazy Steve and myself you might appreciate these pics but if you don’t know Robotech from Genetech it might not mean too much to you.
And yes, there will be more SDCC pics from other booths and events to come. Unlike the jerk dad in Hook, I do keep my promises so my word won’t be a “junk bond” (great line in the movie, by the way).
As usual, click on the pics to see them larger and in a better resolution.
So I’m back. To paraphrase Indiana Jones, “Like a bad penny, I always come back.”
So why no updates in a long time? Well, my subscription for my five gigs of webspace ran out recently.
See, I really don’t need the five gigs of webspace here at wordpress but I do need more than whatever they give you initially because I post a lot of pictures here. And, as I said, I post A LOT of pictures here. So I really don’t want to write posts without pictures but I don’t really want to waste the free and limited webspace I have here now that my subscription has run out either. So I guess I’m just going to have to eventually give in to “the man” and pay the $20-$30 for the extra gigs again. And I’ll do that. Just not right now.
Why? Well, I’m pretty broke right now and any extra money I have is going towards my Hot Toys Dark Knight figure so the extra gigs here aren’t really a major priority in my life at the moment.
That being said though, I’ll still cave in and get the extra space again. Just not this second.
In other news, I was checking my blog stats today and I saw that I got like 50 people from some forum called overclockers visiting this site from some link in a thread in one of their forums. So I click on the link to see what it’s about and I get to this page that says I have to register or something before I can view forums. So I try to register but I get this thing that says something along the lines of “No free e-mail accounts allowed” so I send the administrators an e-mail basically saying “Okay, I’m actually okay with not being able to view your forum. Just please tell me why my toy site is being linked to a computer software/hardware forum.” As Nala would say, “Bad craziness.”
Seriously. What about this site screams “software/hardware junkies, this is THE place for you?” I mean, I don’t write about computer stuff. The closest I ever got was this post where I ranted about how the spacebar key really sucks on cheap laptops.
After looking at the stats for the day in question again, I’m realizing that I got like fifty people from the forum coming here and fifty people looking at my Alternators Prowl review so I’m guessing that someone at overclockers posted a link to my Alternators Prowl review. Again, I have to ask…why? What does Alternators Prowl have to do with computer hardware/software? I guess they must have an “off-topic” section in their forums so people can post things about “Jean Chaps Prowl” or whatever. Still though, it’s really irritating to see that my site is obviously being mentioned somewhere and I don’t get to see what they’re talking about.
It’s like fifty people in your high-school talking behind your back and you have no idea what they’re talking about and/or saying.
And my final topic of the day has to be this:
Anyone else here simultaneously amused and offended by this? I mean, there’s no two ways about it. Bumblebee’s obviously flashin’ a space dildo. There’s no way in hell anyone can be like “it’s not a dildo, it’s his laser gun.”
I’m sorry but that is NOT a laser gun. If that’s not a dildo than Ron Perlman isn’t Hellboy. I mean, there’s no way you can say that the end of the “gun” doesn’t look like a circumcised wang (albeit a blue, robotic looking circumcised wang).
It’s hilarious but it’s also offensive in the way that the Archie “I had to beat these guys off” cover is offensive because you know that the illustrator knew what he was doing when he made the cover, yet I’m sure he’d be like “no, I really meant he had to physically beat the guys up” if he were confronted about it. And I’m sure the toy designers would be the same way and be like “we honestly didn’t try to make a space dildo for Bumblebee” even though it’s incredibly obvious that that’s what it is. In short, if you’re going to make space dildos or masturbation references in your stuff that’s supposed to be geared to kids, at least have the stones to admit it and call it what it is.
Right after I posted my last entry I went back to BBTS and it appears they do have more Dark Knight Hot Toys figures available for pre-order again.
It’s great to look like a jackass sometimes. Oh well though, my opinion of the quality of the figure still stands and I was going to post those pics sometime anyway…but still. Way to steal my thunder BBTS.
Was anyone here in a situation where they were looking for the Hot Toys Dark Knight figure (in the new costume from TDK) and were crushed to learn the pre-order’s sold out at BBTS? That happened to me recently.
That was pretty crushing to see that it sold out at BBTS because the only other places you can go to find one is eBay or Action HQ (and Action HQ ships from Hong Kong if I recall correctly). eBay’s not too bad but you’re still faced with the same shitty problem that you’d have with Action HQ: Most of the sellers are from China or Japan.
As I’m sure the goody-two-shoes Adam West era Batman would say, “Never fear!” CornerStore Comics has the Hot Toys figures up for pre-order now.
It’s a pricey bit of crack but it’s soooo worth it.
Now, I know what you’re going to say. “You should know better than anyone that the prototypes usually look a million times better than the actual toys.”
While that is true, it doesn’t seem to be the case for the Hot Toys Dark Knight stuff. How do I know this? Well, Hot Toys is selling two different 12” Dark Knight figures, you see. They’re selling the figure with the new costume from the new movie (the one I just preordered) and they’re selling a Batman Figure with the original suit from Batman Begins. There are a couple of sellers at eBay who have the 12” Batman figure in the Begins costume on hand and they took pictures of the figure in the box and the figure actually looks almost EXACTLY like the prototype pics. The 12” Batman in the Begins costume also has the extra Bruce Wayne head and it looks EXACTLY as it does in the pics here. So if the Begins Batman looks just like the prototypes I have no doubt the Dark Knight suit Batman will as well. And even if it doesn’t, I have a feeling it will look pretty damn close, seeing as how the more high-end toys usually end up looking more like the prototypes than the retail store toys do.
But yeah, get on over to CornerStore Comics and pick yours up if you’ve been looking for the figure furiously and were frustrated by the lack of US choices to purchase the figure. And don’t say I didn’t do anything nice for ‘ya!
As promised, here are the rest of the pics of the SG1 cast from the third day of the con.
More pics behind the cut!!!
So it’s been five days since the end of Comic Con for me. SDCC08 was the first SDCC I’ve been to but it’s not the first comic convention I’ve been to. I went to the Emerald City con a couple of months ago and had a great time there as well.
Overall the SDCC was pretty cool and I’d do it again. I think I’ll bring three suitcases though and just pay the fine so I’ll have an extra bag for all the plastic crack I’ll acquire. Cramming all my stuff into two suitcases really sucked and was not that fun of an experience.
So yeah, the comic con was pretty great overall, but there were still a couple of things here and there that I wasn’t thrilled with. I really didn’t like the rent-a-cop Marine volunteers who screwed me out of my Rose McGowan autograph and I didn’t like how Sideshow’s Comic Con exclusive was an “Online only” thing that you couldn’t just buy at the con (you had to preorder it online first and then pick it up at the con). Well, I couldn’t track down Rose McGowan after the whole autograph thing and ask her to sign my Charmed book but I did get some redemption of sorts for my failure to preorder Aayla Secura from Sideshow before the con. After I found out that Aayla Secura was a “you can’t just pick it up at the booth” kind of exclusive I was pissed off and jaded but I didn’t walk away empty handed because I was given some solid advice from a woman working the booth: “Come back here Sunday afternoon and you might be able to get one because there’s always people who are too late to pick up their preorders. We might be able to sell you one then.”
So I did that and…
Allow me to sing a song (though not as good as Bob Marley would sing it). A little…redemption song.
So I was super thrilled to get my Aayla Secura and it gave me the chance to redeem myself as a collector for being ignorant over the fact that AS was a “preorder and pick up” kind of figure, but this whole thing doesn’t redeem Sideshow Toys and their shitty policies in my eyes. If anything, this actually makes me respect them EVEN LESS than I did before. I mean, it’s bad enough to do the whole “preorder it before you pick it up so it will be an EXCLUSIVE exclusive,” but doing the whole “pick it up by Sunday at noon or we’ll give your shit away” thing just makes Sideshow seem even more like assholes to me. Fuck Sideshow, I say. After I get my Indy from them in October I’m done with them.
Er…anyway, SDCC 08 was pretty cool overall and I will be posting more pics of my swag and some of the neat stuff I saw there pretty soon. Until then…may the horrible preorder and pick up policies be with you always…
I have to say that the panels I went to today were awesome and they really made the trip worth it. The Stargate SG1 Continuum panel was the most awesome thing of all-time and I’m not just kidding around or being sarcastic. Richard Dean Anderson rocked. He was incredibly funny and entertaining and was very O’Neillesque. Seeing Anderson in action really made me realize that O’neill is one of those rare characters that was modeled more on his respective actor’s personality than by a writer’s imagination. That made his participation in the panel really fun to watch. The other actors were really great as well. SG1 has just about the greatest cast you could ever get for a sci-fi series so the panel was an excellent experience for me overall. Definitely one of the best things I ever experienced at a convention. I bought my tickets to the con solely to see this panel so it was not a letdown.
Pics behind the cut!
There was something I neglected to mention in my last post and that is the fact that I almost had an incident with this dumbass security guard at the Mattel store at the Con last night (preview night). I was trying to find my friend Rob so I decided to go in the little Mattel hut to find him when this dumbshit asshole working the event jumped in front of me, almost put his hand on my chest and stated “THIS IS NOT AN ENTRANCE!” in the most threating/militant voice he could muster. He pointed to this incredibly long line and said “You want in you go there.”
When I talked to my friend Rob later on he said “they let me right in,” meaning that the guy was probably just trying to be a facist asshole on a power trip.
After the thing with the security guard, I noticed that most of the employees at the Comic Con were treating the convention-goers in a similar fashion throughout the night. I mean, it’s one thing to be an asshole to the convention-goers if they’re an asshole to you, but there’s no point in being an asshole to the convention-goers if they’re polite and respectful to you. I mean, most of the interaction that I’ve noticed between the employees and the convention-goers has gone like this:
Convention-Goer: “Oh, is this the line for the autograph signi-”
Con Employee: “YES THIS IS THE LINE!”
I mean, it would be understandable if the employees were indeed military commandos but they’re far from that. They’re the rentiest (and yes, I am aware rentiest isn’t a word) of rent-a-cops ever. Even Wal-mart security guards are more menacing and credible than them.
So I was kind of pissed and offended by the rent-a-cop’s sudden uncalled for snapishness yesterday but the anger and frustration I felt last night had nothing on the anger I felt today at the con after dealing with the fucking Marine Security I had to deal with at the Rose McGowan/Robert Rodriguez signing earlier today.
So I’m not a fan of Red Sonja at all but I thought it would be cool to get Rose McGowan’s autograph seeing as how I really love Charmed and was once a big fan of hers.
So I think it would be great to get her autograph. So I flip through the schedule book I got after I get my badge and I realize that Rose and Rodriguez are going to be signing stuff after the Red Sonja panel. So I’m like “Great! I don’t have to go to some panel for a movie I could give two shits about,” and I head over to the booth she’s signing at an hour early so I can beat the line. So I’m in this line that’s pretty well organized and hassle free and I’m starting to talk to some of my fellow McGowan/Rodriguez fans when some more asshole security guys approach the line and are like “We’re going to break this line up. There’s too many of you here.”
So they put us in two or three different lines that are disastrous before deciding that they’ll put two-hundred or so of us in a roped off area and release us five or six at a time to get in the line to get the autographs.
You ever try to put 200 or so people in a 20 x 20 space? It has to be about the worst thing of all-time. You literally have zero room to do anything and it’s like you’re inadvertently dry humping/fondling everyone around you. Having a big backpack and/or “manpurse” and shopping bag while you’re in said cramped space makes it even more “fun.” It got really hot while I was in the line for a half-hour or so and I got really dehydrated and I honest to God felt like I was going to throw up/pass out. Seriously. I could feel that special “vomit taste” in my mouth. But that was fine. That was okay. I could accept that because I knew I was going to get my Charmed book signed and I knew I was going to get to talk to Rose McGowan. I mean, I’m not a major fan of hers now, but back in the day she was one of my favorite celebrity crushes, I mean, who could forget her bonerrific performance in the first Scream movie? The “nipple sweater” scene was classic.
So I finally get out of the cattle area and I can finally breathe again without feeling like I’m going to throw up and I get to Rose and…am handed a pre-signed poster by a fuckin’ rent a cop I had issues with earlier in the day. “They’re not signing the stuff you bring in?” I ask.
“NOPE AND YOU’RE HOLDING UP THE LINE. MOVE ALONG!” Was pretty much the fuckface’s response.
The thing is though, Rose saw me and smiled and held out her hand so I could hand her my book when the fuckass jumped in front of me and claimed they were done signing stuff the convention-goers brought with them.
So…yeah. Dumbass Rent-a-cop 2, Sean-Man 0.
So after that I had to carefully walk around looking like a nut carefully holding up the poster as I tried to find the stupid poster vendors selling the overpriced poster tubes.
So yeah, not a good day in terms of dealing with the security people at the con. After looking at the lowgrade Wesley Snipes lookin’ motherfucker who screwed me over a the McGowan/Rodriguez signing, I realized that he was actually a Marine the organizers of the con hired (the normal security assholes wear red whereas the Marine volunteers where these green shirts with the Marine Corp symbols on them). Now, I know I probably couldn’t kick a marine’s ass, but I know I could of have probably crushed the fucker’s testicle if I just kicked him in the groin as hard I could with my Doc Martinesque shoes. And yeah, I know I’d possibly be kicked out/beaten up/arrested for that but come on…I’d probably be the true superhero of the con. Geeky browbeaten virgins would probably run out and tearfully hug me.
So I was, once again, pissed off by the stupid idiots the organizers hired to manage the event but my faith in the con was restored shortly after that when this lady at the Tonner booth did a really nice thing for me.
So I was going to buy the “Pirate Elizabeth” doll at the Tonner booth (yes I am indeed secure enough as a man to admit to buying Tonner dolls because, dolls aside, they are really articulated and detailed figures) when the woman behind the booth said “that’ll be fifty-nine dollars.”
I reply with “I think the price is higher. The tag on the display (doll) says $150,”
to which she replies “Oh no! You’re right!”
See, the thing is, they were selling Elizabeth Swann in the dress she wore from the first Pirates movie
for $60 while the Pirate Elizabeth from Dead Man’s Chest was going for $150.
So she says “Well, I tell you what, since you were so honest I’ll go ahead and give you the doll for the fifty-nine dollars.”
I’m really surprised by her kind offer and am kind of stunned but I also feel bad because I don’t want the woman to get in trouble with her boss at the booth for that so I ask “Are you sure? I don’t mind paying the price on the tag. I don’t want to get you into trouble or have you lose out on any money,” to which she replies “It’s no big deal. I would actually get into more trouble if I had to ring you up twice” (the first thing she did before she handed me the doll was swipe my credit card).
So yeah, that was something to me. That made me feel a lot better about the asshole security guards at the con.
So all in all I had fun and got some cool toys today/tonight in spite of the security guard assholes. Earlier in the day I bought the Tomb Raider Tonner Doll.
I’m not going to take any pics of the Tonner stuff I bought today (I don’t want to take the dolls out of their boxes until I’m back in Oly) but I will be posting some pics later on though. You’ll just have to look at these prototype pics for now:
While they are indeed dolls, they are pretty articulated and super-detailed so I think you can still feel like a “manly enough collector” for buying them (if being a “manly enough collector” is something that’s important to you) and not a “dainty boy with Barbie issues” (not that emos “dainty boys with Barbie issues” aren’t cool). And lets face it anyway, most action figures are pretty much dolls, really. So make your jokes if you want, I think these dolls are cool. They’re super-expensive but they’re cool.
I also bought the awesome and badass “Cloud with Daytona” today as well and I’m looking forward to looking at/reviewing that one because I’ve wanted the FF figures forever and they’ve only been available via eBay before now. I mean, sure my local comic store would have one or two from time to time but not all of them at once.
I also had an awesome time at the Robotech panel but I will write about that another time.
So yeah, I suppose I’ll leave you with my “thought of the night” (rent-a-cops suck) and the only pic of Rose McGowan I was able to take:
More updates tomorrow.
So today was the “preview night” at the SDCC and I have to say that if the rest of the convention is like tonight, I’m probably going to make this my first and last SDCC.
Apparently 100,000 tickets were sold for the event. That’s fine and that’s to be expected but…damn. Did every fucking attendee have to come tonight? I mean, I know that the convention was going to be packed but I didn’t think the fucking three hour PREVIEW night would have like fifty or sixty-thousand people there. Needless to say, I wasn’t too happy about the crowds being there on a night where nothing major was going on.
In the end though I don’t think it was the crowds that pissed me off as much as it was Sideshow screwing the attendees over. I think that’s really what set me off and pissed me off.
I’ll explain: a couple of toy companies, as I’m sure you all know, offer exclusives to Comic Con Attendees and Sideshow was offering the 12” Aayla Secura that I really wanted to get. So I get to the Sideshow booth, I see a couple of Aayla Secura figures behind the counter and figure “Great, I got here just in time.” So I ask this woman if I could buy one and she said “We’re sold out.” She goes on to explain: “We actually aren’t selling these to attendees. You have to preorder the figures on our website before you get to the con and we’re all sold out.”
All I really have to say is this: WHAT THE FUCK? That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard and that’s a horrible thing to do to the attendees who didn’t know that you had to pre-order the figure and couldn’t just buy it at the con. Why even call it a Comic Con exclusive when really it’s just another bullshit “internet exclusive?” So yeah, that really pissed me the fuck off to the point where I really don’t want to have anything to do with Sideshow Toys ever again after I get the Indy figure I preordered a while ago.
So yeah, that just wasn’t cool to me at all. The lady did tell me that I could possibly get one on Sunday though because some people “just don’t pick up their preorders.” So apparently they’re equal opportunity “screwer over” people and are just as happy to fuck over the pre-order crowd as much as they are the people who just want to pay in person.
As much as I hate Sideshow for screwing me out of the one fucking exclusive I really wanted, I do have to say they had some cool busts there:
Still though, the whole thing about the figure just pisses me off and makes me feel a little sick.
I guess seeing Ultra Magnus at the Hasbro stands made me feel a little better though:
And yeah, I know, not the best quality picture in the world but there were a lot of pushy people around so I didn’t really have time to take a better shot. Maybe tomorrow.
So hopefully I will have some better luck with being able to buy the toys and stuff I want to buy at the con tomorrow. I don’t know. One can hope.
That’s right I’m heading out to San Diego in five hours for the convention. I’ll try and post some updates and pics here and there as I go but that might not happen if I get too busy/sidetracked.
As far as exclusives go, I’ll buy the Aayla Secura if I see her but I’m not going to like, try and kill myself to get to the booth and buy one. Same goes for Nemesis Prime. If I’m around where he’s being sold and there’s still one to buy, I’ll get one. If not though? Well…that’s when I have to say “fuck that.” These days there aren’t any toys out there that are worth that kind of hassle.
Speaking of toys, I picked up Universe Prowl and Sunstreaker today. Prowl isn’t as crappy as I thought he’d be but he’s still nowhere near as beautiful as the prototype. Hopefully I’ll be able to write a more thorough review with pics later on.
Until I meet Vivian from MC Nudes, I’m going to have to say that this:
…Has to be about the most beautiful sight known to man.
Overall the Toynami Masterpiece Robotech set really isn’t that great compared to the 1/48 Valks or even the 1/60 Valks but holy crap do these guys photograph well…
I really like this last pic because it looks like the Valks have some kind of glow/aura about them. Basically what happened is I did the anti-blur setting and I was moving a lot when I took these.
I was telling a friend of mine that if there were ever something that could inspire me to write full-on reviews again it would have to be these guys. Shit, I don’t think I’ve written a major review since Medicom Spider-Man.
I’m really not going to make any promises but I think I very well may do a review for these guys with a pretty extensive gallery as well because they really are beautiful to look at. The LED light makes all the difference in the world, really.
As usual, click on the pics to see them bigger and in a better resolution.
You want to see the funniest episode of Seinfeld?
It’s right here:
I know this is a year old and it’s not as funny now that it’s been a year since Richards’ displayed his hateful ignorance but this parody of his foolishness is still great. Every couple of months I’ll find this video somewhere and laugh my ass off. George’s reaction to Kramer’s “apology” is hilarious.
Every once in a while someone will ask me what sites I go to to buy my stuff and what I consider to be the best online toy stores there. After finally getting an MP Roy Fokker from TISINC99 and seeing the care that went into the packing and shipping, I decided to finally make a “best and worst” list that may or may not be helpful to you looking for Transformers and other stuff.
And this is, by no means, in any kind of order.
The Good
#1. Bigbadtoystore. BBTS is a pretty cool site because the selection of figures that they have is really incredible. You want Marvel stuff? DC stuff? Transformers? Power Rangers? Power Ranger toys before they hit the US (the Japanese Sentai versions)? Odds are they have what you’re looking for. They also have really good customer service that’s really great to getting back to you right away. The only negative thing I could really say about these guys is that sometimes things will get a little overpriced ($26 for Animated Grimlock is a good example of this). Overall though these guys are great and are highly recommended. Check them out at BigBadtoystore.com
The Good: They pretty much have everything you could want from an online toystore, their shipping’s fast and reasonable and their customer service is good.
The Bad: Some stuff might get a little overpriced.
#2. Treasure Island Sports Inc. This site gets a LOT of shit. And I do mean A LOT. If you were to read some of the things that people say about them after doing a Google search you’d probably be pretty horrified and not want to shop there. TISINC’s bad reputation, as a matter of fact, was what really prompted me to write this post in the first place. See, I actually really like TISINC99. A lot. And you know what? I’ve never once had a problem with them. I got my MP Megatron from them as well as two Interactive R2D2s and the aforementioned Robotech MP Fokker. The thing that makes these guys really great is that you’ll get your shit incredibly fast. I ordered MP Megatron from them on a Saturday and got him the following Tuesday. I shit you not. I ordered my MP Fokker from them on a Monday, got him Wednesday. So yeah, I’ve never once had any problem with them. I guess they’re really good as long as they have what you’re looking for in stock. Most of the complaints people have about the site concerns the whole “they’ll charge you for items that aren’t in stock” thing. The thing is though, they will refund your money if that’s the situation. They might take a little time doing that and you might have to e-mail them or call them but you will get your refund. This situation has never happened to me but I’ve heard about it from other people and they’ve all gotten their refunds eventually. I guess there has also been some controversy over the company shipping out big orders in separate boxes at separate times so you might want to be leery of that if you have a big order from them.
But yeah, TISINC is a really great site and I highly recommend it. TISINC, like BBTS, has a huge variety of stuff so you can pretty much find whatever you’re looking for there. I, as I said at the start of this post, was really amazed by how much care went into the shipping process for my MP Roy Fokker. It really made it hard for me to agree with the negative reviews that are out there about the site. I actually think it’s one of the best places to go for Transformers, Star Wars and Robotech/Macross stuff. I don’t think there half as bad as some collectors will tell you they are. To me Toys ‘N Joys is a lot worse (but we’ll get to that in the “skip it” section of this post.
So yeah, you can find these guys at tisinc99.com.
The Good: Incredibly fast shipping, great care taken in shipping,
The Bad: Apparently they charge your card as soon as you order (whereas sites like BBTS won’t charge until your order is shipped) so that sometimes results in them charging you for stuff that they won’t be able to ship to you until it becomes available “in stock” again. (Damn, I’m not sure if that sentence was grammatically correct or not but it was hard to phrase and I’m feeling lazy, so, there you go.) Recently though they’ve been better about updating their site and letting you know what is and isn’t in stock, so, there you go.
3. Action Figure Xpress
These guys are really great if you’re looking for your more “high-end” stuff and they have a good selection of Buffy figures. Overall though they’re more about the busts and the high-end stuff than they are about the action figure selection (as this link to their “transformers action figures” demonstrates). They also were really bad about getting stuff to you if you had a PO box because they relied solely on UPS until recently.
All in all though they’re one of the best places on the ‘net for Buffy figures and are pretty recommened.
You can find them at this link.
4. Good Ole Crackbay. Ah, the loveable and often controversial eBay. Over the years I’ve really changed as a Transformers collector. I used to be the kind of guy who would pay the inflated scalper prices if I couldn’t find the figures in stores. Recently though I’ve gotten to the point where it’s like this: if I can’t find it in stores, it’s not worth buying. So why, might you ask, am I still recommending a place like eBay? It’s simple. eBay is obviously the best place to go to get the vintage G1 stuff. I mean, you can find a lot of G1 stuff at conventions but what if you’re like me and you really only go to conventions once or twice every couple of years? As long as you know your terms (terms like MISB, MIB and MOC and all that) and you’re familiar with the C1-C9 scale and you ask a lot of questions before you bid and you’re smart about the sellers feedback, you can find a lot of awesome stuff there. Most of my best Transformers stuff was purchased there. I was able to get Metroplex and Trypticon there and they were complete and in immaculate shape. I’m still amazed by how tight the joints were on Metroplex and how there was little to no paint wear on him.
People like to bash on sites like eBay as much as they can and they’ll bitch left and right about the poor quality of the figures they get from there and all that without actually realizing that it’s not eBay’s fault at all. If you’re a stupid buyer and you don’t check out the feedback and ask questions before you buy then of course you’re going to get crap. It’s not eBay’s fault that you’re a dumbass though.
I’m not totally naive about the crappier side of eBay though. eBay is awesome if you’re looking for G1 stuff (or Robotech/Macross/Marvel/PR stuff) but it’s a pretty shitty place to go to if you’re trying to sell some stuff and make a profit. I spent a couple of miserable months selling on eBay and not really making much in return. You can make a lot on eBay if you sell big “lots” of stuff but they really charge you out the ass for small sales. I’d recommend selling your stuff on forums instead (though the jackasses at Seibertron don’t allow you to do that anymore for some reason).
The Good: You can pretty much find anything there.
The Bad: You’re not going to make much money there if you’re just an average joe and not a legitmate business selling stuff there.
The Bad Sites
#1. Entertainment Earth. Yeah, I said it. Entertainment Earth, like BBTS and TISINC99, is a really great place to go if you’re looking for a big variety of stuff but their customer service sucks, they take forever to ship out your orders and there stuff is grossly overpriced because you can’t really get individual figures there that often (a great example of that can be found on their page for Power Rangers figures).
They’re also bad about letting you buy stuff that’s backordered. I mean, they do eventually get around to updating their site and letting you know that stuff is backordered but they’ll let you order whatever it is you ordered first and just not let you know what the deal is. In their defense though they don’t charge until the stuff ships so I guess they have that going for them.
A couple of years ago I ordered a Buffy standee from them and they charged the debit card and they didn’t ship for like a week. Not only that, it was like they chose the fucking slowest shipping method ever and when the item arrived I got…an Angelina Jolie Tomb Raider standee instead so I had to go through a lot of hassle and shit to return their standee and get the Buffy one. As bad as they are though, I will use them as a last resort and they’re nowhere near as bad as…
#2. Toywiz. Incredibly slow to ship and horribly overpriced. $60 for a Stargate Series 1 Daniel Jackson? I mean, the figure is rare and that’s what he goes for on eBay but the difference between a site like Toywiz and a site like BBTS is that when BBTS occasionally gets the rare guys like O’Neill and Daniel back in stock for a short time, they’ll actually sell them at the retail comic book store price: $12.99-$14.99.
Also, their markup on Medicom Vader is unforgivable. So I’m to understand I should pay $500 for a figure that’s A) inferior to the Episode III remold and
B) pretty easy to find for $140-$200 at Crackbay? Eh, no. How about I do my business somewhere else?
Mostly a skippable site but I guess they’re okay if you have the money and can’t find what you’re looking for elsewhere. I mean, they’re great compared to what I would call THE WORST toysite of all-fucking time…
#3.Toys N Joys. God what an awful site. Being punched in the dick for four hours would probably be better than dealing with them. If Satan and Hitler got together and made a toystore it would probably be better than Toys N Joys. If you type in “Toys n Joys awful” at Google you’ll find out why they suck as hard as they do. There are a LOT of results there.
So a couple of years ago I decide to get the White Dragozord from Power Rangers Dino Thunder. I’m excited to get it and I’m looking forward to it until I hear that it was rumored to not get a US release. So I decide to just get Killeroh instead (the Sentai Japanese version) from Joys because they sell Japanese import toys. Now I bought a Navy Thunder Ranger from them before that and didn’t have any problems so I figure “okay, they’re pretty good” and I order it from them. So I get an e-mail with my order confirmation and then…nothing. They charge my debit card but…nothing. No “your item has just shipped” e-mail or anything like that. So I reply to the confirmation e-mail so they can see that they did indeed send me one and…nothing. So after a series of unreturned e-mails I fill out a form with the Better Business Bureau and then I finally hear back from the bastards. And their solution? “Fax us your statement and we’ll give you a refund.” After four months of nothing that’s their response (a forced response at that). If you Google search them though you’ll find hundreds of horror stories about them. As a matter of fact, at the time of this posting, it looks like their website has finally been shut down. One can only hope that the BBB had enough complaints and just said “okay, you’re done.” For more on how much they suck just check out Steve’s blog post that details how and why they suck as much as they do.
So there you are, these are my pics for the best and worst online toystores. There are a lot of other sites I go to to buy my stuff but these ones really stand out on my “best and worst” list. I’ll be doing a followup in the future with some more “great and awful sites” so be on the lookout for that.
So I was in a pretty shitty mood before I went to bed the other night and I was looking to find something to cheer me up. So I took a look at some Robotech fan vids on Youtube and somehow I came across this Batman/Superman/Marvel series this really brilliant fan made.
The idea of the series, titled “Marvel/DC: After Hours is that Spider-Man, Batman, Superman Iron Man and a couple other heroes hang out in this club and they talk about their respective movies and careers and things like that. (There’s another series by the same creator that parodies the Mac versus PC commercials with the idea being it’s “I’m a Marvel and I’m a DC”.) The series is written to be a parody but the sad thing is that even as a parody it’s still actually a lot better than the real Batman/Superman title and there are actually a lot of serious and even heartfelt moments in the storyline. I watched the end of this multi-part storyline the creator did and I was just really blown away by how fucking good it actually was. I could actually see Marvel and DC using the storyline for a crossover sometime in the future.
Basically the plot of the mini-series goes like this: the Iron Man movie is about to get released and everyone at the club is really excited about it. Superman overhears Nightwing compliment Tony on how great the preview looks and he starts to doubt himself (because Superman Returns is considered a “flop” among the fanboys. He realizes that the age of the perfect hero is over and that audiences find him irrelevant now because he’s not as relatable as the more flawed and realistic Marvel heroes. Lex Luthor starts to develop this complex as well so he sets about altering time to make sure Stan Lee never creates Marvel comics.
So Batman, Spider-Man and Superman team up to take Luthor out and stop him before he can alter the timeline. There’s a lot of funny bits of dialog here and there in the mini-series but there’s actually a couple of thoughtful and heartfelt messages in there as well.
So, for your viewing pleasure, you’re about to see the best Superman/Batman story to actually come out in the past couple of years.
DC should seriously be watching this guy and taking notes. This guy really nails Batman and Superman’s relationship and character quirks a lot better than the jackasses who write the Batman/Superman comic do.
This is part 6 and seven of the series. You don’t have to watch 1-5 to get what’s going on as the creator is good at catching his viewers up on what’s going on.
Without giving too much away I do have to say the scene with Cap and the scene with Stan Lee at the end almost brought a tear to my eye. And the argument between Batman and Superman…as I said, the creator really understood just what makes the characters tick and their dialog really rings true and seems more authentic than the scenes they share in the Batman/Superman comic.
…If you have to create a “how to fix it” guide right after the product you enjoy just got released, the product isn’t worth defending, isn’t it?
I’m just having a good laugh at all the idiots who had to run out and buy the new Transformers: Animated stuff the day it came out. Did they learn nothing about the horrible “quality control” issues the first wave of the movie line had?
See, this (news that the new toyline is pretty shitty after all) is crushing to me on one hand and really a major relief on the other because I’ll be able to save money this summer after all. And that’s a good thing considering I’m considering getting Medicom Bruce Lee, Sideshow Indy and the second wave of Stargate Atlantis figures.
I’m also going to the San Diego comic con and I’m going to shell out some big bucks for good seats when The Phantom of The Opera hits Seattle in September so…I’m grateful for Hasbro for sucking, for once. Thank goodness for cheap quality shit, eh?
Something you probably don’t know about me is that I love Sir-Mix-a-Lot. There’s no one better than Mix. I really don’t like modern rap but I love the old-school stuff from the time before rappers were rapping about things like being in gangs and killing people and drinking forties and things like that. And as a kid I really loved Sir-Mix-a-Lot because his rap was really comedic. I personally think Mix was intentionally going for the whole “So bad it’s Good” (or in his case, “So bad it’s Awesome”) thing back in the day. I have really fond memories of listening to his music on the way to the movies when I was a kid. My older brother, you see, had this friend Jason Finley who really loved Mix’s stuff. He had this really awesome surround sound system in his car so he’d blast Sir-Mix-a-Lot’s stuff all the time while we were heading out to see a movie or two. And what’s a better way to spend your time when you’re a kid in the early nineties? Going to a movie with Mix blasting and then going to Toys ‘R Us or Kaybees after that? Nothing can top that when you’re a kid.
But anyway…I really love Mix-a-Lot’s Iron Man song because the lyrics were just really cheesetastic, even for the time. I mean, he ACTUALLY HAS A LYRIC that goes like this: “Hate pet llamas, met Clint Eastwood slapped his momma!”
Errr…hate…pet…llamas? I mean, that’s the weirdest, goofiest rhyme I think I ever heard.
But yeah…I thought the song was great and then I saw…The Video!!!
Wow. That’s all I can say. Wow. For “early nineties nostalgia cheese” this is gold, Jerry, gold!
Nothing could ever be more awesome than the “Girlies in the house, watch your blouse” part of the video. Nothing.
So I saw Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull today.
Okay, let me start off by saying I’m not like the other people who watch these movies. I, as a matter of fact, am probably the only straight guy I know who was never really into the Indiana Jones movies. I loved The Last Crusade but I always thought Raiders of the Lost Ark was boring as shit when I was a kid (I saw most of it again the other night and I still feel that way) and I’ve only seen bits and pieces of The Temple of Doom so no, I’m not a huge Indy fan overall. So I’m not a huge fan of the Indy movies but I still really love the character a lot and I do think the movies have a lot of great scenes that are a lot of fun to watch. I mean, who doesn’t love that part in ROTLA where Indy is pretty much like “Fuck this,” and he just shoots the master Swordsman? That was one of the only parts of that movie I really liked.
But anyway, I saw the new movie with an open mind because I wasn’t a diehard thinking “This has to be as good as the originals or I’ll never forgive Spielberg!” and I wasn’t a “I hate this gay shit anyway so this new movie will suck no matter what” kind of guy either.
So what are my thoughts on the new movie? (Spoilers ahead for the whiny “I can’t be spoiled!” people):
Well, I’m reminded of one of my favorite scenes in Roseanne.
Dan (John Goodman) comes home from work to see that Roseanne’s friend Nancy is crying in their living room. Dan asks “What’s wrong?” Roseanne hands Dan a note.
Dan’s silent for a minute as he studies the note. He glances up at Roseanne and asks
“Who are the Allens and why are they out of spice?”
(The joke is that Nancy’s husband Arnie (played by Tom Arnold) is an idiot and he couldn’t spell Aliens from outer space or write it out very well).
“Who are the Allens and why are they out of spice?” I don’t know why but I consider that one of the most hilarious things from Roseanne. The timing and the setup were just great. But anyway, I’m reminded of that exchange when I think about the new Indiana Jones movie. Aliens? I mean…seriously…Aliens? Why? For the love of God why? Aliens?
I mean, Indy’s friend Ox (spoilers ahead) explains “they’re not Aliens, they’re interdimensional beings” but…come on. We all know that they were aliens.
I can accept magic being a part of the Indy universe but…Aliens? To me that’s just too much even for an Indiana Jones film. I was also bothered by the fact that (spoiler) Indy’s dad died. That was like “wow, did the screenwriter even watch The Last Crusade?” How could Indy’s dad die if he was rendered immortal by drinking from the Holy Grail? I’d bitch more about that but that can be forgiven to an extent thanks in part to the explanation I found here.
So all in all I thought the movie was great and lousy at the same time if that’s even possible. It was great because I really loved the characters and the acting and I thought the action sequences were just as fun and exciting to watch as they were in the original films. And Karen Allen reprising her role? That was great. Karen Allen’s chemistry with Harrison Ford and the aforementioned “death of the swordsman” scene were the only things that really redeemed ROTLA for me so seeing her make a comeback in the new movie was really awesome. And it was (spoiler again) great to see Indy finally settle down and get married at the end. And Shia LaBeouf was a welcome addition to the cast. I, unlike a lot of other people, really actually like Shia LaBeouf as an actor and thought he was really entertaining (and that’s really something for me because I used to really hate his guts and was initially horrified when I found out he was cast in the first Transformers movie). I would definitely see Indy movies with his character as the lead.
So it was a great movie because of all the things I listed above but it was also really lousy because the story was crap. Utter crap. Aliens (final spoiler) posing as Gods was great in Stargate but it just doesn’t work at all for Indiana Jones. What’s next? Indy battles cyborgs? Clones, perhaps?
So all in all it’s a good movie if you love the characters and the actors but if you’re looking for a decent story than this one might even be worse than the Temple of Doom if that’s at all possible. I just don’t know what it is about Spielberg and his Aliens fetish. Shit. I wonder if he watches “Debbie does Area 51″ while he’s laughing over the fact that people pay $10 a head to watch his overrated movies.
One of the cool things about being a crack buyer is that I have a couple of friends who are in the “crack buying business” as well.
Anyway, this buddy of mine told me “You better get Stealth Bumblebee from a Collectibles show or online because he’ll never see retail release.”
“Why is that?” I ask. So my friend launches into an epic explanation that goes something like this: “Hasbro isn’t going to send the last waves of the Transformers movie line to retail stores because the retail stores have boxes and boxes and boxes of unsold Transformers toys in the back and Hasbro isn’t happy about that.”
Apparently my friend heard this from a vendor at this collectibles show he goes to every weekend. I, being the cynic that I am, pretty much said “I think the dude’s wrong. I’ve heard about people getting Stealth Bumblebee and the last figures in the Transformers movie line.” My friend, however, didn’t agree. It was almost as if he thought finding Stealth Bumblebee in the stores was an impossible mission along the lines of finding evidence that proves Michael Jackson is straight.
So I’m strolling through the Target the other night and…what happens? What do I see?
Yeah, that’s right. I found him. I mean, I don’t like to be an “I told you so” guy but, then again, I love to be an “I told you so” guy. I don’t know why. I guess I’m a jerk in that respect. I don’t know.
I don’t really blame my friend here or think he’s foolish for pretty much saying the mission was impossible. No, I blame the vendor and the other people online at different Transformers sites for perpetuating the “Hasbro won’t send the retail stores the last figures” rumor (and I’ve heard that rumor a couple of times now and there’s something about the sheer stupidity of it that just kind of annoys me).
So…yeah. Here at Transformers and Other Plastic Crack we aim to do the impossible. Name a figure in any of the latest Transformers line that’s impossible to find and I bet you I can probably get ‘em for you.
When it’s all said and done though I’m not going to be opening Stealth Bumblebee seeing as how I already have two variations of the 09 Camaro mold (Bumblebee and Cliffjumper) and I’d rather just take advantage of the good markup he’s getting on eBay someday and sell him there.
And, as the lame expression goes, so little time.
So I moved into my new place. I said I’d have some photos of the new place and I usually do what I say I’m going to do so they’ll show up here eventually. Probably.
I also went to the Emerald City Comic Con this weekend and I felt that was worth blogging about here. This was my first ever comic convention but it was the second convention I’ve been to in my life (I went to a Star Trek Convention when I was in the fourth grade). Thankfully there weren’t as many freaky/creepy geek stereotypes there so I didn’t have to feel too weirded out (the full-on stereotypical “Comic Book Guy” kind of stereotypes just seriously freak me out for some reason and I’m really not kidding you there). The really cool thing about the convention was the fact that it gave me the opportunity to meet one of my heroes JMS (J. Michael Straczynski) and it gave me the chance to get a photo with Julie Benz (Darla from Buffy and Angel), one of my favorite actresses from the Buffyverse.
(More pics and info behind the cut)
Seibertron.com has some images of the Transormers Universe/Classics Prowl.
While he truly doesn’t live up to the awesome promo photo he’s better than the crapperiffic photos that were released a while back. As cool as he looks though:
I’m still reminded of how lackluster he looks once compared to the initial photos that were released a couple months ago.
I guess he’s still pretty much the most accurate G1 Prowl we’re going to see though so I’ll still buy him
when he’s released but I still can’t forget or forgive Hasbro for what could have been. Oh well. At least he’s more accurate than Jean Chaps Prowl.
So I have a week left at the current apartment and then we’re heading over to our new condo/house. That means I’ve been packing up the shit left and right and my room is in total disarray.
The living room is also turning into a crack warehouse of sorts:
And that’ just a small sample of what I have boxed. When I finish clearing my place out and setting up the new crack den I will have another update.
So I’m going to be moving to a new apartment in a couple weeks so my bedroom/crack room is in total disarray. The nice thing about moving though is it will give me a chance to cut down on the plastic crack because I’ll be able to box the toys that I’m tired of up and have my dad take them back to my parents’ place after he stops by to help me move in a couple of weeks.
And I do have to say that I’ve really been looking forward to getting rid of some of the crap that’s just been cluttering up my room the past couple of years. There is, in fact, a small part of me actually considering sending pretty much everything to my parents’ place and just not having toys in my bedroom for the first time in five years or so. In the end though I think I’ll keep what I consider “the best of the best” up and on display and send everything else home. So what will I most likely keep around?
Well, I’ve been really getting into the Stargate SG-1 figures lately so I think I’ll be displaying those. I have a couple of them on the first shelf in my bookcase right now:
(I have more SG1 figures but I’m not going to remove them from their boxes until I move)
I’m also going to continue to display my MP Ultra Magnus as well as my MP Prime, Ultrazord and Megatigerzord:
And I’m also considering continuing my “Power Rangers and Ultimate Bumblebee displaying:”
Most of the other toys I have in my room will probably just be boxed up and sent to my parents’ place or remain in boxes in my new closet (I have a HUGE closet in the new place with closing doors so I can fit most of my toy boxes in there). Some stuff will be sold though. So what will I be selling? Well, if you’re into transformers…you’ll actually probably be disappointed. I’m considering selling my Marvel Legends “Build a Figure” Apocalypse as well as my Marvel Legends “Build a Figure” Sentinel.
The BAF Apocalypse and Sentinel (not pictured) are in excellent condition and have great joints as I only used them for display. If you’re interested leave me a comment here and I’ll get back to you about selling them to you. They go together or not at all though so the sale would be for Apocalypse and Sentinel for $80 (and that’s $80 all-together and not a piece). I’m also considering selling my Marvel Legends Mr. Sinister (again, not pictured) and my Marvel Legends Sasquatch (and the White Sasquatch variant) as well as some other Marvel Legends so leave a comment here or whatever if you’re interested in buying that crack from me.
But…yeah. As I said, everything is in disarray because of the cleaning and boxing stuff up so here’s a small example of the mess on my desk. And, sadly enough, the mess on my desk is just a small example of the giant mess in my room right now:
So…yeah. It’s going to be a new day for toys and toy space and toy displaying for me so you’re all welcome to follow this exciting journey with me if you want to.
