Pic of the Day

January 13, 2011 | Poe

Night Climber Batman

Night Climber Batman by FranMoff

Pic of the Day

January 12, 2011 | Poe

Falconer Predator Figure by NECA

Falconer Predator Figure by NECA by thedot_ru

Review > Buzz-Off (Masters of the Universe Classics, Mattel)

January 11, 2011 | Poe

As a kid, I loved the Buzz-Off action figure. The colors were bright and appealing, the articulated wings were a unique feature (and looked a lot more flight-worthy than Stratos’s arm-feathers), and the claws were cool…to a kid. But I’ll admit that the 200X Buzz-Off was possibly the best redesign of the entire line, pushing the insectile aspects to the limit. MOTUC is meant to invoke the original line, not 200X, so I’m going to review Buzz-Off compared to his MOTUC brethren and the general concept of the line.

As much as I like Buzz-Off, he’s one of the MOTU characters whose name I see as a potential stumbling block to getting a movie taken seriously. As “codenames,” this sort of thing works in G.I. Joe; it works in Transformers because the Autobots are ostensibly replacing their Cybertronian names with Earth names that fit their character in some way. But I really can’t come up with an even remotely feasible fannish explanation for names like Buzz-Off, Two-Bad or Clawful. I suppose Mattel may be trying to get around that by using the “real names” on the bios, but if so, they’re not trying all that hard, since–well, see for yourself. (more…)

Toy Aisle Trolls > Mockgirl

January 11, 2011 | Poe

Toy Aisle Trolls is a feature highlighting acts of vandalism to in-store toy items. If you find a ruined package, a stolen figure, a swapped-out figure, or any other such acts, take a photo (cell phone photos are fine if they’re not blurry) and email them to poe AT poeghostal.com.

This latest travesty was found by Poester (and my longtime online acquaintance) Dark Angel.

Says DA:

Found in a Wal-Mart. I am well-versed enough in comic lore to know that the purple bird lady is an X-Men foe, though I cannot recall her name. Two things: One, this is pretty zen in its own way–I would imagine that the bird lady was a hot figure back in her day (thirteen or so years ago), and I (sadly) know this is the work of one of our fellow collectors as she is in absolutely pristine condition; and two, it amazes me that the person who returned it included at least part of Hawkgirl’s weapons (the mace may actually be broken) and the Gentleman Ghost figure itself! They must have really, really wanted that Hawkgirl–oddly enough, I had picked up a single-carded Hawkgirl and left one more on the shelf at a Target literally across this street from this Wal-Mart about two months ago!

That bird looks really familiar, but I’m way out of practice on my Marvel lore, so I’ll let someone else identify her below.

As for the jackass who did this, get a &%#^! life. That is all.

Keldor Swords are coming

January 10, 2011 | Poe

Never let it be said that constant campaigning doesn’t bear fruit:

But hey, to leave on a good note, we did just have our meeting with management to go over the 2012 line. We also discussed the 200X head design and weapon design direction. While we are still not going to explore 200X redesigned character heads in the online line, I did get some sway on the weapons and we are going to now find a way to do the “Keldor Swords” in Classic style. (despite what people say I am in there fighting the good fight!).

This isn’t indicitive of “rules changing”, I just made the case that enough fans want these and it doesn’t indicate a changed character design. So hey, chalk one up for a fan demand victory!

I was going to save this announcement for NYTF, but hey, you guy wanted a He-Man.org news break, there you go!

Guest Review > Battles Super Police & S.W.A.T. Police Super City Hero

January 10, 2011 | Monte

The following is a guest review by Monte Williams.

I recently joked with my wife that I am thirty-three years old, and I am finally set to have my first grown-up Christmas. Turns out I was mistaken…

I have lived and worked for eighteen months now in Asmara, the capital city of Eritrea, in the Horn of Africa. Last year, Poe Ghostal’s Points of Articulation hosted my unique if cheerfully irrelevant review of a pair of African tribal dolls we purchased here in Asmara for our daughter. While I’ve no doubt that you’re all chomping at the bit for analysis of the rest of the dolls in the series, I must regretfully confess that I have not purchased any of the remaining dolls. Sadder still, I have purchased no new G.I. Joe toys! As you can probably imagine, the Pursuit of Cobra photos at Generals Joes and Chase Variant haunt me, but I’ll have to wait until we visit the States next summer and hope that the prices on eBay for Spirit and Recondo won’t be too astronomical by that time. (more…)