Sunday, December 16, 2018

Some "Big Love" To End The Year

In 1987, the first full length G.I.Joe animated movie was released….to video. Just like the animated Transformers movie that came out a year earlier, one of the main objectives that this movie had was to introduce new characters based on the toy released that year. Cobra’s back story was expanded upon with the introduction of the Cobra-La secret empire. And the Joes’ ranks were bolstered by the addition of some new recruits collectively known as the Rawhides.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

A Story Arc for Angel

If you were to take the powers of the five original X-Men and ask people to rank them in terms of the usefulness and effectivity in battle, I think that it would be a safe to assume that the power of flight wouldn’t be on top of many people’s lists. I mean don’t get me wrong, flying is a cool power but I would take concussive energy blasts, telekinesis, ice generation and even enlarged hands and feet over it...ok maybe not enlarged hands and feet, but you get the point.

Monday, December 3, 2018

Recoloring From The Past

Like most things in life, toy production is an expensive business. Toy companies pump in a lot of money into their products and do whatever they can to maximize profits. Which is why it is a common practice in the industry to reuse as many toy designs/molds as they can, repackaging, tweaking or at the very least recoloring them in order to convince the consumer to keep buying more product while at the same time lowering production costs.

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Some Customizing Action

If you’re a regular reader of my blog, you’d know that sometime back in 2004 up to around 2009, I was really into modelling 3D Transformers on the computer. I don’t think it was an exaggeration that I modeled about 80-90% of all the Transformers characters released between 1984-86 and a little bit more beyond that. I just loved challenging myself and seeing how my favorite robots would turn out under my 3D modelling interpretation. Pretty soon I was running out of existing characters to model...so what was there left to do? Well I started creating my own.

Sunday, November 18, 2018

Hunting For Some Bounty

Considering the fact that they were literally on screen together as a group for less than a minute with hardly a single speaking line between them, it’s quite amazing how much of a cult favorite status the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back have achieved amongst the Star Wars fandom. Possibly the biggest reason was because they included in their ranks one of the most popular characters from that galaxy far far away, Boba Fett. And as a result the entire group most likely benefited from that close association.

Tuesday, November 13, 2018

Covering The Girl

Like most toy properties of the 80’s aimed towards boys, G.I.Joe wasn’t known for introducing a lot of female characters into the line. To their credit though, they did a pretty good job at making the very few women that they did create into pretty well developed and memorable characters. Now while Joes like Scarlett and Lady Jaye as well as Cobras, Barnoness and even Zaranna have pretty much become iconic names within the property, there is one lady that wasn’t featured as much even though she was introduced fairly early into the line and it’s this specific girl that I’d like to….cover.

Thursday, October 25, 2018

A Walking Fart Joke

No matter how successful a toy line gets, like almost anything in life, nothing really lasts forever. There are many reasons that toy lines end or get cancelled. Sometimes toy companies get complacent or focus their attention on a newer more lucrative property. Other times, media that the toy line is connected to doesn’t do well. And other times, they try to keep the ball rolling by introducing such outlandish new characters that literally well…..stink.

Thursday, October 18, 2018

Disappointing The Phandom

Fandom is a funny thing, especially when pertaining to a major franchise such as Star Wars. When presented with a universe populated by hundreds of unique characters, you really cannot tell exactly which of the of them will “stick” in the hearts of the fans. Sure there are obvious characters like Luke, Leia, Han, Rey & Kylo, you know the main heroes & villains of the story. But every now and then you get other characters who gain their popularity not for doing particularly much in the movies themselves but for something as basic as just looking cool.

Friday, October 5, 2018

The Best of 2018: Third Quarter

And just like that, another three more months have passed and my toy shelf has become home to yet another bunch of new plastic heroes, villains, robots, aliens and everything in between. So here we go with part three of the best of what 2018 has to offer.

Monday, September 24, 2018

Blue's Clues

Sometime in the mid 80’s my dad went on one of his regular business trips to the US. While I wasn’t particularly bothered by his constant travelling, what I always looked forward to would be the new toys he would bring home for me. For this particular trip, all I wanted was Transformers, which at that time were the “new” toys on the block. Even though I already had a few Diaclone robots, the original Japanese toys that Transformers were based on, as far as I was concerned, they just weren’t the real deal. Once I saw the Transformers cartoon, all I wanted were the “official” toys and on his return, my dad definitely delivered in spades.

Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Where To Buy...

I’ve been collecting toys for well over 12 years now. And while what toys I collect hasn’t changed too much over the years, how and where I buy my toys has. So I figured I’d spend some time to write about where I get my toys nowadays and at the same time give a quick shout out to all those stores and individual vendors I’ve dealt with and gotten to know through this never ending hobby.

Wednesday, September 12, 2018

A Monstrus Creation

Sometime around 2004, I got into the hobby of 3D modelling Transformers on the computer. To say that I got obsessed with this hobby would be quite the understatement as over a span of around 5 years, I created over 250 Transformers characters & designs all of which had the ability to transform into their respective alternate forms. Not to toot my own horn but i’d like to think that I got pretty pretty good at it.

Monday, August 27, 2018

The Purple Knight

I wouldn’t really consider myself to be a serious video game player. Sure growing up, I played a lot of games on my Nintendo Entertainment System, but I was never really that good at most of them. Sucking at a game would of course lead to me quickly losing interest and moving on to the next one. But I wasn’t bad at everything, and those few games that I did excel in, have remained favorites of mine to this day.

Thursday, August 16, 2018

A Nova Approach

When Marvel released The Guardians of The Galaxy movie in 2014, no one really knew what to expect. Far from the household names that they are today, back then, Starlord, Gamora, Rocket, Groot and Drax were mostly 2nd-3rd tier characters from the Marvel universe at best. But given Marvel Studios’ previous track record, people were open minded at best and for the most part, I think it’s safe to say that the movie delivered in spades.

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Going Down Another Doggie Hole

Before our daughter Cecilia was born, both my wife Caren and I were already toy collectors (although she’s not as crazy as I am). So even as a small baby we were already pushing our favorite toy characters onto her in the hopes that she would take a liking to them as well. So by the time she was around 2, we were the proud parents of a little toddler who could name all the main members of the Justice League, Guardians of the Galaxy as well as most of the original 10 Care Bears.

Monday, July 30, 2018

Token About Arcee

When she made her debut in the 1986 Transformers the Movie, with her “Princess Leia bun” shaped head and predominantly pink color, it was pretty obvious that the writers intended the Autobot Arcee to simply play the role of the token female in their new cast of characters. Fortunately for her, by that time, Transformer fans were so starved for a genuine and more fleshed out female character that she managed to make a fairly positive impression and since then she has become somewhat of a staple in most Transformers iterations moving forward.

Monday, July 16, 2018

Pretty in Pink

Back in the day, when it came to toys for boys and girls, things were much pretty black and white. Robots, soldiers, superheroes and anything that carried a weapon or sported an action feature were all definitely for boys. And on the flipside, dolls or anything cute and cuddly were for the girls.

Friday, July 6, 2018

The Best of 2018: Second Quarter

So this is where the fun starts. Another 3 months have passed and a whole new batch of toys have joined my toy shelf. Now it’s time to go over some of my favorite purchases of the last quarter and and see where they fall in my ongoing top 10 list of 2018.

Wednesday, June 20, 2018

A Shot At Greedo

Aside from Jedi Knights, Sith Lords & Droids, Star Wars if pretty much known for all the unique and mostly interesting looking alien characters that populate the universe. One of the first significant aliens we meet in a New Hope is a certain amphibious green skinned individual with a smooth melodic voice whose most unfortunate claim to fame is that he basically got himself killed.

Friday, June 8, 2018

What's On The Tube

Whenever we consider purchasing a certain product, no matter what it is, the first thing most of us do is try and learn as much as we can about said product. Whether it’s asking a friend’s opinion or reading user reviews on an online product page, a little research is always key to successfully purchasing a product we will be happy with.

Monday, June 4, 2018

Well Then, Too Bad

The original Masters of the Universe toy line of the 80’s will always be remembered for the hundreds of interesting and sometimes questionable character designs produced. Every year, the guys at Mattel churned out a new batch of new heroic and evil warriors in an effort to outdo what they released the year before or at least keep things interesting. And in 1985, as part of their 4th wave of figures, they released a character whose toy literally broke the mold.

Monday, May 21, 2018

Megatron's Hound

Way back in 2003, Transformers fans all around the world rejoiced when news broke that a live action movie was green-lighted for release in 2007. While it was still 4 years away, that did not stop excited fans from scouring the internet for any piece of information about the movie and speculating on what the actual finished product would be like. And most importantly of course, with hundreds of characters already existing in the franchise, everyone wanted to know exactly which of their favorite robots in disguise would ultimately make the leap into the big screen.

Thursday, May 17, 2018

A Knight's Tale

Whether it's an accurate assumption or not, when one thinks of the “black knight”, one often thinks of an evil or villainous character. To my knowledge the black knight isn’t an actual real historical person but instead is a popular literary stock character. They are oftentimes portrayed as knights with hidden identities and no public signs of loyalty to any liege. And they use this anonymity to commit dastardly and evil deeds. Given that, it would seem rather odd to actually create a superhero based on the concept of a “black knight”...but that’s exactly what Marvel did.

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

No, I Am Your Vader

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 5 decades, I’m pretty sure you know who Darth Vader is. Vader is arguably the most recognizable character to emerge from the Star Wars universe. While admittedly he isn’t my favorite character from that galaxy far far away, as a Star Wars toy collector, I know my display would not be complete without some sort of plastic representation of the Dark Sith Lord on the toy shelf.

Thursday, April 19, 2018

Taking Names & Sl#*!ing Throats

One of the biggest reasons why the original G1 Transformers cartoon made such a lasting impression on me was that it was full of visually interesting characters with uniquely distinct personalities. From the noble Optimus Prime to the treacherous Starscream, almost every single character from this rather large cast had at least one trait or quirk that made them instantly identifiable to their target audience.

Friday, April 13, 2018

The Best of 2018: First Quarter

No this isn’t a mistake. I know 2018 is far from over but like I said in one of my previous “best of” posts, I promised to change things up with regards to my best of lists because at the rate I was going, I was looking at doing a top 25 or 2025. So I figured this would be a good time to try something different.

Friday, April 6, 2018

Let's Try Something Different

If you are a regular reader of my blog, I don’t think it will come as a surprise to you when I say I buy a sh*tload of toys every year. Every January, I go over my toy display wracking my head and trying to figure out what my favorite purchases of the previous year were. And considering the amount of stuff I buy in a year’s time, that definitely isn’t an easy task. So this year I resolved to diligently take note of EVERY toy I buy in an effort to make writing next year’s top of list easier to compile. Anyway, heading into April I have faithfully kept track of every toy that has joined my toyshelf since the new year began and this gave me an idea of something I could do different from my usual “best of” list.

Monday, March 26, 2018

After The Band…..Not The Bug

Ok I know this blog is supposed to be about toys and my hopeless addiction to them, but ultimately it’s really a blog about me and my life. And speaking about my life, something unfortunate happened unexpectedly last week that I felt I needed to write about it as a way to give a proper send off to my boy.  Just a word of warning..this will be a much longer post than usual....

Tuesday, March 13, 2018

The Doctor, The Demigod & The Great Beast part 2

The second part of this story starts several thousand years ago, in ancient times, where there was an ongoing battle between the Eskimo Gods of the North and the Mystical Great Beasts for control of the world. In the end, both Gods & Beasts found themselves exiled from the Earthly plane. In order to insure the Earth’s safety though, the Eskimo Gods sought to create a hero to battle the Great Beasts should any of them manage to return.

Sunday, March 11, 2018

The Doctor, The Demigod & The Great Beast part 1

Dr. Walter Langkowski is one of those examples of a well rounded “you can have it all” kind of characters in the Marvel Universe. He was an honors student at the University of Calgary and went to Pennsylvania State University on a football scholarship, earning a degree in physics. After that he became a professional football player playing for the Green Bay Packers and earned a ton of money. And if that wasn’t enough, after retiring he continued his graduate studies at M.I.T. Yet for all his educational and professional accomplishments, in the Marvel Universe he is best known for his big orange furry alter ego.

Monday, February 12, 2018

Looking Back at Fodder Times

As extensive as Hasbro’s 25th Anniversary line was, it was pretty unrealistic to expect them to do modern updates of every single character introduced in the original toyline. And so for those characters that Hasbro didn’t update, a completist like me was left with only one solution, to make them myself.

Thursday, February 8, 2018

Playing Frankenstein

As a young collector, G.I.Joe was MY toyline, unlike Transformers and Masters of the Universe, Joes were much cheaper so I could actually get more toys using just my allowance. I amassed quite the collection as a kid but unfortunately sold off most of them when I started getting interested in other...stuff.

Thursday, February 1, 2018

Singapore Sundays

After living in Manila my whole life, sometime in 2007, I felt it was time for major change in scenery, I had been working the past 3 years in the same company as a web designer and longed for a new adventure in a foreign land. I had no real game plan and was rather idealistic and naive and figured I could just go travelling to some nearby country and apply for job and “tada” new life! I mean that’s how it goes right?

Saturday, January 20, 2018

The Best of 2017 part 3

If you’ve read the first two parts of my top toys for 2017, you will notice a trend with what kind of toys I focused mainly on this year. Well…*spoiler*....my final five won’t really shake things up too much. Despite a lackluster movie toyline, 2017 will go down as one of the best years for Transformers collectors between all the 3rd party company releases and Hasbro and Takara themselves stepping up their game as well. Star Wars toys also had a pretty strong showing over the excitement over The Last Jedi. Luckily though, there still is some room at the top for one more surprise purchase. So with that, let’s go and close out my top 2017 list.

Monday, January 15, 2018

The Best of 2017 part 2

Ok so I know this is getting a little ridiculous adding another number to my “best of” list to coincide with the year (top 25 of 2025?) but with the sheer amount of purchases this year, it really is hard to whittle everything down to a proper top 10...and well..I’m lazy. I promise i’ll try and figure out something in the near future. But in the meantime….here’s the next installment of my top 17.

Monday, January 8, 2018

The Best of 2017 part 1

Another year has passed, and with it came a whole new bunch of toys to add to the toy shelf. While I started off the year with the same annual resolution, which was to not spend too much money on toys, things obviously turned out differently. With so many great toys coming in 2017 and four(!) trips out of the country, it was pretty impossible for me to be “good”. Well with a new year comes a new chance for renewing old resolutions. But till then, here is a rundown of my top 17 toy purchases of 2017.