Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Oh Yeah! This Blog is Still About Toys....

Before the dudes from Hasbro came back from Japan with a bunch of robots they would repackage and sell to Americans as Transformers, there was the original Diaclone line. And one of the first “car robots” made for the line was this robot that Transformed into a slick modified Lamborghini. Being one of the first robot designs made pretty much explains why despite having a cool car mode, the robot mode pretty much sucks balls.

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Every Single One of Them

Throughout the original cartoon and early Marvel and later Dreamwave comics, Sunstreaker wasn’t really featured much. He was usually overshadowed by his more popular team mates like Iron Hide, Prowl & Jazz, hell, thanks to the live action movies, even his twin brother Sideswipe has gotten more exposure. It doesn’t help being the same color as arguably one of THE most iconic Transformers, Bumblebee. I guess there is only room for ONE yellow Autobot.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

They Can't Beat The Best!

My first “Transformer*” was a blue F-15 jet named Thundercracker. My friend who lived across the street had a red Lamborghini named Sideswipe. And every chance he got, he would remind me that according to this new Transformers cartoon his car was a good guy and my jet was a bad guy. And more than that, he kept rubbing it in that in the show our 2 robots actually had a run in where his guy “supposedly” shot my guy out of the sky.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

More Logan Love?

One day I was listening to a podcast where the topic for the day was collecting action figures. The guest on the show was talking about his slow but gradual transition from a casual collector to a hard core collector. He went on to say that the number one sign that you have made the transition to hard core was when you start buying action figures of characters you despise. That made me think about my own collection and whether I had any action figures of characters I hated and almost immediately the numerous Wolverine figure on my Marvel Universe shelf came to mind….so yeah, I guess I am hard core.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Fred's Dead Baby, Fred's Dead

In 1986, Hasbro introduced one of the dumbest characters ever. Cloned from the DNA of history’s greatest rulers, conquerors and tacticians, Serpentor was created to be the ULTIMATE Cobra leader. Of course this meant nothing but bad news for the former leader, Cobra Commander who was relegated to comedy relief in the cartoons and well, exiled ex-leader in the comics.

Monday, February 24, 2014

FORE!

When it comes to the typical “group” or team in movies, comic books or cartoons, 4 seems to be the magic number. It’s not too little so that you get bored from seeing the same 1-3 characters all the time. And it’s not too much that each character’s personality shines through without having anyone overshadowed by anyone else. When it comes to toy collecting, one of the joys is being able to complete sets of characters. And teams of four are some of the easier and more satisfying sets to complete and display on the shelf. Here are some of my favorites.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Knockoffs In A Half Shell

Last June, my fiancee and I decided to brave the crowds and go to the 12th Annual Philippine Toy Con. Now anyone who’s been to one of these conventions can tell you that these aren’t one of the most pleasant things to go to. You got to really be looking for some great deals in order to make wading through a thick crowd of people worth the effort. I’d been to a few in the past, and I had decided that I was pretty much done going to these things. But we just so happened to be in the area (no…really!) and we decided….”what the hell”, we’d never been to one together so we decided to take the plunge and be one with the crowd.

Friday, January 24, 2014

It's Not Easy Being Gamorrean

Return of The Jedi will forever be known as the Star Wars movie that introduced us to those lovable (or hated, depending on who you ask) little furry creatures from the moon of Endor, the Ewoks. Whether you’re a fan or not, one can’t deny that the ewoks were a hit right out of the gate, finding life past Jedi through 2 straight to video movies and a Saturday morning cartoon. Because they were so big, many seem to overlook the fact that they weren’t the only unique alien species introduced in Jedi. In fact, you don’t really have to wait too long into the movie to meet this other…not so cute and furry alien.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Sci-Fi Feature

Back in the 80’s to early 90’s, neon was king, especially when it came to clothing. I remember proudly going to the beach sporting my one 2 punch of neon pink and neon yellow Maui & Sons trunks. Come on…admit it, we all had at least one pair of those. Neon colors were synonymous with cool and the future. I couldn’t get enough of neon. This is why when I first saw 1986 line of G.I.Joes, the new laser trooper, Sci-Fi immediately caught my eye. It was simply love at first sight!

Friday, January 10, 2014

Thirteen Too

Last year I predicted that Uranos would easily place at the top or near the top of my 2013 list. So it’s quite a surprise to me that as great as he was, he didn’t end up even cracking the top 5. That’s just a testament to how much great stuff came out in 2013. So what could actually be bigger that Uranos? Well actually in the case of #5, bigger doesn’t always equate to better….

Sunday, January 5, 2014

THIRTEEEEEEEEN!!!

So 2013 has come and gone and before we move on to the New Year, it just seems right to stop, pause and look back at the year that was. Unlike my top 12 of 2012, this new list seemed a lot harder to compile. At the start of the year, I made the resolution to cut back on my spending. Now while I admit I still spent a lot on this oh so addictive hobby of mine, I’d like to think that I was a little more selective on what I got. I dialled back the “completist” in me and passed on a lot of stuff I knew I wouldn’t really care much for months later. Long story short, almost everything I got this year was stuff I REALLY wanted (no really) so it was quite hard to choose the top 13….but in the end, I think I managed, so without further ado, let’s get this ball rolling.