Back In Black

Back in the 90’s grim and gritty heroes such as the Punisher and Wolverine rose in popularity in the comic book world. As such, writers of more traditional heroes like Superman and Captain America were being pushed to follow suit in order to “keep up” with the times. Fortunately, the late great Mark Gruenwald, who at the time was writing the Captain America series didn’t buckle to the pressure and instead came up with an effective solution to his problem.

Cap No More

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier may not be the best MCU based series released on Disney+ to date. But for all its faults and shortcomings, what it does have in my opinion is one of the most unforgettable moments in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. And no I am not referring to the debut of Sam Wilson as the new Captain America.

Well...That Was Quite A Revelation

On July 23, 2021 the new Kevin Smith series “Masters of the Universe: Revelation” made its long awaited debut on Netflix. This was supposed to be a moment celebrated by all MOTU fans who grew up on the original cartoon and who had been starving for years for new content. Unfortunately, just like Two-Bad, this new series ended invoking the Spell of Separation and fractured the fandom right down the middle with many professing their love and approval for the new show and another equally vocal portion of fans outright hating it. Oh well….I guess you can’t please everybody.

The Best Of 2021: Second Quarter Part 2

Despite staying home about 99% of the time for over a year now, I’ve sort of returned to my pre-pandemic toy collecting ways. While weekly toy hunts in Greenhills and other malls have been replaced by a steady stream of deliveries to my front door, new toys have still managed to find their way to my hands on a regular basis. And so here we are at the midpoint of the year and it’s time for another update to my running list of top ten toys for 2021

The Best Of 2021: Second Quarter Part 1

We’ve now hit the midpoint of 2021 and it's time once again to take stock of what new toys have been added to the shelf. Things haven’t really slowed down at all these past 3 months so it was quite the challenge trying to figure out how my running top ten list would evolve for the 2nd quarter. But that’s really what I think makes this exercise fun. So let’s get to it shall we?

Thinking Bigger

As a toy collector, I never really saw myself as much of the diorama display type. I was perfectly happy having my action figures neatly standing side by side in semi dynamic poses on a neutral shelf. There was one character though that I felt needed more though, I mean just how exciting can a solitary giant slug look on display? And so that’s what drove me to start “construction” on my Jabba’s palace diorama.

Strike Up The Band

In the back half of 2019, I started up a new project of putting together my first ever diorama. By this point, I had amassed enough characters in my collection to put together a nice Jabba’s palace display. It was a really satisfying build and I got to work with materials I’d never used before like foam boards, joint compound and 3D printed elements just to name a few. I couldn’t be happy with the end result but I knew it wasn’t close to complete. So almost two years later, I decided to revisit my diorama and work on expanding it even more.

Game Set Match: The Black Order

One of the definitive highs in a toy collector’s hobby is being able to complete a certain team or lineup of characters. It can be a journey full of twists and turns and major frustration. But in the end, seeing a complete line up on the shelf makes it all worth it. With that in mind, I’m starting a new “sub series” of posts called “Game Set Match” where I’ll write about how I completed specific sets or teams in my collection. So let's get started on how I finally got to complete The Black Order.

I'm A Huffer Puff

When you look at the original crew of the Autobot Ark, you’d find quite the mixed bag of characters and personalities. Sure you have the typical good guys, like the noble leader Optimus Prime or the courageous Bumblebee. But peppered in as well are a few more nuanced characters such as the cranky Gears, the narcissistic Sunstreaker and the self doubting Trailbreaker. And then you had Huffer.

The Best Of 2021: First Quarter Part 2

As if making up for lost time, the first Quarter of 2021 has been pretty busy. There are a lot of cool new additions on the toy shelf to talk about. So let's get started on finishing up the quarter.

The Best Of 2021: First Quarter Part 1

Well it's a new year and time to get cracking at another series of “Top Ten” installments for 2021. Unlike last year, which started out pretty slow, this year has been more business as usual with quite a lot of new stuff coming in these past few months. So we're gonna go back to the four quarter format.  Anyway, let’s get started on the first quarter list for 2021.