PGPoA Turns 5

December 3, 2012 | Poe

Quietly this past Saturday, December 1, Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation turned five years old. I thought about doing something to celebrate this milestone, but I just didn’t have the time to get anything together.

Still, I wanted to meditate a little on having kept up a blog for five years. I’m the type of person with a million ideas and not much follow-through, and that impression of myself has become deeply ingrained over the years, so I really have to force myself to stand back and appreciate what I’ve done here. (more…)

Castle Grayskullman Review Extra > Interview with CGM Creator Daniel Benedict

December 3, 2012 | Poe

In preparation for my Castle Grayskullman review, I conducted a brief interview with CGM creator Daniel Benedict. Be sure to check out Daniel’s “ad” for CGM.

Poe Ghostal: How did you come up with the concept for Castle Grayskullman?

Daniel Benedict: I was sitting at my desk trying to come up with another character design to send in. I had already sent in three, but I still racking my brain trying to, if anything, scrape the bottom of the barrel and send in a stick figure with a sword if I had to. I had the vintage castle on my desk and was looking at it. I thought it would be neat to make the castle into a head. And I went from there. (more…)

Review > Castle Grayskullman (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

December 3, 2012 | Poe

In 1985, Mattel held the “Create-a-Character” contest, inviting kids to design their very own Masters of the Universe character. The winner was Fearless Photog, created by Nathan Bitner. For whatever reason, Fearless Photog was never produced back then; it would be another twenty-seven years before a Fearless Photog figure would become a reality. By comparison, it took less then twelve months for the winner of the second Create-a-Character contest, Castle Grayskullman by Daniel Benedict, to become a reality. (more…)

It’s Toys for Tots Season!

November 30, 2012 | Poe

Toy for Tots season always sneaks up on me so fast. Let’s get this out of way first: the deadline to donate to Toys for Tots is THIS WEEKEND. Well, truthfully it varies by location but most places stop taking toy donations this weekend. Anyway, after that you’ll have to just donate money, which isn’t as much fun but still just as important, if not more important!

Anyway, two different toy blogs are sponsoring Toys for Tots drives. (more…)

Going Postal > Poe makes do

November 30, 2012 | Poe

So, last week I asked you to submit some questions so that I could start a Bill Simmons-like weekly “mailbag” column. Well, hardly anyone asked anything, but I don’t care because I want to try this and dammit, I’m sticking to it. So I’m going to take the few questions I got, throw them together with a few comments from the past week I want to respond to, make some crap up if I have to, and hope that you guys get the gist of what I’m trying to do and submit some better questions next time. (I considered calling this feature “Poe’s Sack”.)

Oh, and to keep the surprise of it all, please try to submit them directly to me via email at poe@poeghostal.com, not in the comments. It’s more fun that way. That said, I will respond to comments, tweets, and questions on the PGPoA Facebook page. And ask about anything, not just toys. I figure most of them will be about toys, but you’ve got the option. (more…)