April 2, 2012 | Poe
- This year’s MOTU-related April Fool’s gags had a distinct theme. He-Man.org provides a rundown of the history of the vintage Mighty Spector; Pixel Dan previews the upcoming MOTUC Mighty Spector; and even Mattel itself gets in on the joke by announcing a Mighty Spector and the Time Agents toyline and animated series: “Neitlich further added: ‘I really want to thank the fans. If not for them posting so much about The Mighty Spector online, management would have never been alerted to his popularity!'”
- ThinkGeek also had its usual run of fake products we all want them to make real. There seem to have been a dozen of them, but the best were the inflatable Star Trek captain’s chair (which I guarantee you will not only be made, but appear on an episode of The Big Bang Theory next season) and the Star Wars Admiral Ackbar Singing Bass.
- I can’t remember if I already posted this or not, but Mattel posted packaging pics and bios of Slush Head and Mighty Spector. Did we already know Slush Head’s tentacles weren’t bendies? That’s pretty disappointing, although I’m not sure his vintage figure had bendy tentacles either.
- Backyard Legends, the people behind the Prince of Crystal, have created a sculpted version of that weird monster pit sticker from the bottom of the original Castle Grayskull playset. It was available for sale at the Emerald City Comic Con this past weekend and will be sold online soon. One thing to note, it’s sold unpainted, at least so far. I have my usual reservations about items based on existing copyrighted products, but if you’re looking for something to display your MOTUC with – and have some painting skills (at least until they offer painted versions), this might be for you.
March 27, 2012 | Poe
March 23, 2012 | Poe
- Heads-up: Onell Designs has a Glyos drop tonight.
- This is a really neat idea: the Free Universal Construction Kit, which offers adapters between Lego, Duplo, Fischertechnik, Gears! Gears! Gears!, K’Nex, Krinkles (Bristle Blocks), Lincoln Logs, Tinkertoys, Zome, and Zoob. Unfortunately, it appears you’ve got to print the things out yourself with a 3D printer. Side note: when I was a kid, I had these building toys that connected via six-pronged cubes with little mushroom pegs on each side of the cube. What those were called?
- I received an email informing me PGPoA was chosen as a “top toy blog” by Frugal Dad. I haven’t the slightest idea whether this is an actual honor or a variation on the classic “Who’s Who in America” scam. But I guess it was nice of them, so there’s the link. There are some other familiar blogs on that list too.
- A fellow by the online handle of Yatkuu contacted me regarding Lego’s CUSOO fan-focused website. It’s a platform where fans can post their creations. The community can then vote for the ideas they like best, if a project gets enough supporters (we need 10k) Lego will consider making it a real set. Yatkuu has created a fantastic set based on Shaun of the Dead and is looking for fan support (and votes).
- Mattel took a break from hyping their non-hovering hoverboard replica (seriously, they couldn’t have come up with some sort of magnet gimmick for display purposes, like those hovering pens?) to mention they “know there have been some quality-related issues over the last few months” and “wanted to tell you we take them seriously and what is being done to address them.” To quote Hamlet: “Words, words, words.”
- I suspect it will be a while before I’ll have a sizable group of readers who will be interested in this as much as I am, but new photos of a brand-new Ultra-Act First Ultraman Hayata and S.H.MonsterArts Fire Rodan leaked this week. It looks like Rodan will come with some accessories for SHM Godzilla and MechaGodzilla, including a resculpted spiral beam for G. The revised First Ultraman annoys me a bit because I just bought the first release.
- Go Native Toys is offering a blank 3.75″ action figure buck for customizers. It includes alternate hands and an extra blank head. Rumor is a 6″ version is coming too.
- PGPoA Power Pal John Harmon has put his custom “Darth Knight” figure up for auction on eBay, while Joe Amaro put up two of his MOTU “Rock Monsters.”
- Notable reviews: OAFE reviews NECA’s Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games; Michael Crawford reviews DC Direct’s variant Mike Mignola Black & White Batman Statue; ItsAllTrue reviews Onell Designs’ Glyos Rig Runner; Infinite Hollywood reviewed Mattel’s WWE Elite Series 10 Big Show.
- This week on PGPoA, Poe reviewed Fisto and Demo-Man, discussed the bios of Hurricane Hordak and Icarius, and pointed out the Four Horsemen’s write-up in the New York Times. Figure It Out here.
March 19, 2012 | Poe
- Out of nowhere comes this super-articulated Caesar from Rise of the Planet of the Apes from Hiya Toys. It’s available for preorder at BBTS for $25. He’ll have alternate heads, hands, and other accessories.
- I was a bit disappointed in Art Asylum’s early Universal Monsters offerings due to their limited articulation, but it looks like they’ll be making up for that with their upcoming Metaluna Mutant and Phantom of the Opera figures. I’m seeing hip hinges there. The Mutant will come with an Interocitor, which will finally allow me to put those MST3K figures I got with my box sets into some sort of a display.
- In other Art Asylum news, they revealed pics of their Avengers Hulk, and again, he’s looking great and well-articulated. Even better, due to the Hulk’s imprecise size, he’ll fit in perfectly with other Art Asylum figs or your 6″ Hasbro Avengers figures.
- There’s something interesting cooking up over at Onell Designs…namely, some sort of new vinyl variable hub-system.
- MOTUCFigures.com has an interview with Scott Neitlich about the Mighty Spector.
- On a more personal note, PGPoA recently regained the average number of pageviews/visits it had before Poe’s Great Ennui of 2011 began last spring. I want to thank you all for sticking it out during that dull time. I hope you’ve been enjoying the site more as of late – I know I have. And I’ve got some fun stuff planned ahead. Keep reading!
March 9, 2012 | Poe
- Mattel revealed two new Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters figures: Alfred and Officer Blake. I remember being very excited for the MM line in 2008, but I’m not quite as enthused this time around – maybe because I’m just not as into Batman at the moment, maybe because an action figure of Joseph Gordon-Levitt wearing a cop outfit just isn’t that exciting. It’s great that we’re getting Alfred, though, and the new packaging looks a lot more dynamic than the DKMM stuff.
- It seems the Flash and Larfleeze have been removed from DC All Stars Wave 1 and the new lineup is JLA Superman, JLA Batman, Red Robin, and Superboy Prime. No word on why this has happened; perhaps they’re just shuffling around the lineups.
- On a related note, you may or may not have noticed that Hot Toys is doing Arkham City figures. Given that I can’t think of a single Hot Toys figure that wasn’t based on a movie character, I’ll be interested to see how these turn out. I won’t be getting them, though, because I don’t make enough money. Or collect 12″ figures.
- I didn’t put up a post about the passing of Ralph McQuarrie, mostly because better tributes have been posted elsewhere and this isn’t really a Star Wars site. But it definitely deserves to be noted, given the legacy Mr. McQuarrie’s designs have had for all of us, especially toy collectors.
- This somehow flew under my radar until now, but C.S. Moore is apparently getting back into the action figure business. First up is a line of articulated 6″ figures based on the Zenescope comic Jurassic Strike Force. You can see in-design pics here and preorder them from BBTS here. They’re also making articulated Monster Hunter figures from the Monster Hunter Survival Guide. I am all aboard for a 6″ articulated Sasquatch. ALL aboard.
- Weekly Roundup: This week in PGPoA, Doc Thomas reviewed the Star Sisters, Poe reviewed Hurricane Hordak, Shadow Weaver and the Mutant Gorilla from Papo, and discussed the bios of Megator and Leech. Toy Aisle Trolls here and here, Odds ‘n Ends here, and Figure It Out here.
March 6, 2012 | Poe
- Joe Amaro has posted an incredibly cool custom MOTUC toy, the “Manta Raider,” based on an art piece by the incredible Rudy Obrero, who did much of the vintage MOTU art as well as the recent Wind Raider box. Let’s all “thank” Joe for continually making and showing off awesome MOTUC stuff we’ll never own.
- Although if Mattel had any brains, they’d include this Manta Raider with one of the 30th Anniversary figures.
- Does anyone else wish this year’s sub pack-in had been a poster of the Wind Raider box art instead of the Preternia map?
- It looks like Thundercats will be back sooner than anyone expected – namely, March 24, when the second season begins. Hooray!
- BigBadToyStore now has the 2012 Ninja Turtles and Hobbit stuff for preorder.
- I’ve been upping the number of guest reviews lately. As of right now I can’t really remunerate anyone for them (aside from plugs and publicity), but if you’re interested in writing a guest review of anything (but particularly of the new Marvel Legends 6″ stuff) shoot me an email.
February 27, 2012 | Poe
- After last week’s surprisingly swift arrival of Fearless Photog, who shipped out on 2/16 and arrived on 2/22, my second sub–the one with the Sorceress, Fisto, Shadow Weaver and the map–has been listed as “in transit” from Nevada since 2/17. A cursory check of He-Man.org’s forums shows other people in the same boat. I like the take by Rob from Topless Robot: “It left Vegas on 2/20 and is now roaming the countryside, on some kind of adventure to find itself.” Once the option to change shipping is available with the subscription center on Mattycollector (whenever that gets fixed), I am switching back to UPS.
- Over on his blog, Joe Amaro has posted an amazing MOTUC custom of the “Protector,” that bizarre “astronaut” cardboard cutout that was part of the original Castle Grayskull playset. He also posted new pics of his Ram Man custom.
- BigBadToyStore has posted preorders (including singles) for DC All Stars waves 2 and 3. Wave 2, you’ll recall, will include Red Robin, Supergirl, New 52 Flash and New 52 Superman; but we now know wave 3 will feature Batgirl (version unknown), New 52 Batman, Hawkman (version unknown), and Steel w/ Hammer (I’m guessing it’s a re-release of the DCSH figure, but who knows?).
February 24, 2012 | Poe
- The winner of this week’s Figure It Out is none other than PGPoA’s own art director, Mecha-Shiva! Of the thirteen entries I received this week, eleven correctly identified the figure as the Forbidden from ArtFX’s Final Fantasy VIII toy line.
- Some quick plugs:
- if you enjoy taking photos of toys and would like to submit your photos as potential Pics of the Day, join the PGPoA POTD Flickr group. I’ve been able to pull most of my pics from there since I started it, but there are only 35 members, so I’d love some more variety.
- Don’t forget to check out the PGPoA Store. I’ve got some MOC stuff in there, and I’m looking to add some more stuff soon.
- Finally, I’ve restarted Poe Ghostal Unpegged. I just needed a place for all my non-toy thoughts, and I really prefer keeping PGPoA toy-specific. But by the end of today, the number of posts on PGU will have tripled. True, two of them are rehashes of old posts from my previous website, Biggerboat…
- OK, enough plugs.
- I’ll say this for the bloggers at ActionFigureInsider, they’re not afraid to express their opinions (though they can be a bit sensitive when others do so). JJJason has a post up, “What the Hell Kind of Masters of the Universe Fan Are You?,” where he extols the virtues of the early MOTU minicomics and the “sword and sorcery” conception of the MOTUniverse–an opinion I suspect is shared by many of you. This is a topic I’ve touched on a few times recently, and if you scroll down the post you’ll see my own comment on it. Basically, I’ve come to embrace the goofier and weirder aspects of MOTU since the advent of MOTUC, because I think that’s a big part of what makes it so unique.
- The Four Horsemen are looking for a few good sculptors and painters. Customizers, now’s your chance to fulfill your dream.
- Weekly Round Up: This week on PGPoA, I posted a guest review of Megator by Doc Thomas, reviewed Fearless Photog, interviewed Phil Reed of Battlegrip.com, examined the bios of Clawful and Queen Marlena, answered some fan mail about the identity of the new Marvel Legends sculptors, discussed another big new MOTUC QC issue, and posted a how-to article from amazing toy photographer Ed Speir. FIO here, Pics of the Day here.
February 22, 2012 | Poe
- Another day, another endemic MOTUC quality control problem. This time it’s a crack on Fearless Photog’s extending lens. Anecdotal evidence suggests three out of four Photogs may have it. Mattel says it wasn’t on the factory samples–which makes me wonder if the factory makes sure to do a good job on the samples, like a chef giving his best work to a food critic. Those of you with experience in such matters–are there any standard checks and balances to make sure that doesn’t happen?
- So if you’ve got a Photog coming, will you go through the hassle of returning it for a replacement that has a 75% chance of also having the crack? I probably won’t, but this is yet another addition to that “Cons” list for signing up for the 2013 subscription.
- How fast do you think McFarlane will push out a Jeremy Lin figure? I say it’s in stores in less than six months.
February 17, 2012 | Poe
- On their Facebook page, Funko posted the following note on Wednesday: “Today, I just feel like, “I have the POWER”!!!” Could Funko POP Masters of the Universe figures be in the works? I think it’s a definitely possibility, for two reasons. First, we already know Mattel and Classic Media are making a big licensing push for the franchise’s 30th anniversary. And second, I suspect it might only require a deal with Classic Media for the Filmation cartoon rights to make the POP figures. I’m thinking this is happening. And I’m thinking I will buy them all.
- Pixel Dan has an extremely early preview of Playmates’s new cartoon-based Michelangelo figure (not the Classic figures, just to be clear). I don’t think the figures themselves are due out until late summer.
- PGPoA sponsor DinosaurToyVault has a big lot of G1 Transformers on sale. He’s going to be doing a big marketing push for these, so be sure to buy what you want now before the rush. And don’t forget, I’ve still got plenty of stuff at my own e-store. Ahem.
- I was contacted by Plastic Dreams regarding a new Kickstarter project: Rise of the Beasts, a line of Battle Beasts-like figures that will have movement at the shoulders and removable weapons. They look pretty neat, though I remain a cautiously wary of these indie projects that look so much like licensed toy lines. Best wishes to them, they all seem like great folks doing good work, but I’d feel better supporting something more original. (Yes, OMFG is very similar to M.U.S.C.L.E., but it’s not like there weren’t little PVC figures before M.U.S.C.L.E.–e.g., army men or Marx figures. These other lines are clearly inspired by the iconic designs of Crystar and Battle Beasts.) I’m much more interested in Backyard Legends’ plans for figure dioramas.
