Note: The movie’s been out for nearly a month now, so I’m not going to bother worrying about spoilers. If you haven’t seen the movie, don’t click on the jump. You’ve been warned. –PG
Sightings > Making the Mosquitor Mask
As you may recall, Pixel Dan wore an awesome Mosquitor mask for this past San Diego Comic Con. He’s got an interview up on his site with Glen Coleman, the fellow who made it. Mr. Coleman is also working on a pretty badass-looking Skeletor mask.
The interview includes downloadable patterns to create your own Mosquitor mask.
The Power-Con Secret Accessory
Apparently there’s going to be a secret Mattel-produced MOTUC accessory for the first 1,000 fans who register for Power-Con. No one knows what it is. Odds are it will be a repaint/color variant of an existing accessory, but there’s no guarantee it’s not something new (for example, Spector’s green whip). In any event, Fantastic Plastic Toys is offering the item for $18.50, the cost of a Power-Con ticket and shipping.
It’s worth noting that the text on the Power-Con page says that this accessory will be “first available” at Power-Con, which suggests it will eventually be available through some other means.
Pic of the Day > jaws 3d movie poster by billypolard
Sightings > MatthewK’s Tale of Vykron
Holy crap. As if I didn’t have enough reasons to be jealous of MatthewK‘s gorgeous dioramas and photography, he can evidently make a gripping figuretoon without any dialogue at all and make Space Ace and Tank Vykron seem, well, kinda cool.
You can see the whole thing here: MOTUC Feature – Vykron and Free Fwoosh Giveaway
Reviewing Samples Addendum > Thoughts from a Toy Company Rep
You’ll recall my Reviewing Samples series from a few months back, where I interviewed various toy reviewers about the practice of reviewing samples sent by toy companies (apologies for that terrible repetitive sentence). In the process of that series, I contacted a few toy company press reps to see if they were interested in answering some questions from the other side of things. One recently got back to me with the following answers.
For obvious professional reasons, the subject of the interview wishes to remain anonymous. Suffice to say, this person works for a major toy company and has been responsible for distributing free samples to reviewers in the past. –PG
1.) When your company provides samples to a toy reviewer, what are your expectations regarding the review (i.e., positive, objective, fair, etc.)?
I certainly want the review to be fair, but you need to focus on the positive as well as the negative — you can’t just run down every single thing you think is wrong with it without ever mentioning a a good point. (And no, wrapping up a list of negatives with “It’s still a good purchase” does not make everything okay — it makes me wonder what in the hell you liked about it, because you certainly never mentioned it.) If you can’t say anything nice about the product at all, let me know, and we’ll kill the review. You can complain as much as you like about a toy you buy, but to utterly eviscerate a toy I sent you for free is not cool. Just say “I can’t review this. It sucks.” Done. (more…)
Pic of the Day > Custom Batman (Animated Series Style) Action Figure by MCcustoms
Toy Aisle Trolls > Hall of Fame Edition
A few of you sent me the story about a mother-and-son team who stole more than $2 million in toys from various retailers across the country.
Michael Pollara, 46, and his 70-year-old mother, Margaret Pollara, were charged with stealing merchandise from 31 Toy R Us stores in Florida alone.
Authorities alleged that the pair would shoplift using the “box stuffing” method that involves emptying the box of a cheaper item in the store and filling it with more expensive goods.
They would then pay the box’s lower sticker price at checkout.
Authorities charged that the son usually switched the toys while his mother acted as a lookout, the Associated Press reports.
The goods were then allegedly sold online, the AP reports. At the time of the arrest, according to court documents, Pollara had more than $900,000 in eBay and PayPal accounts.
Authorities said they were able to track the son’s movements across the country because he used a Toys R Us rewards card for his purchases.
He used a rewards card? Seriously?
Anyway, here’s the silver lining to this story: maybe getting fleeced to the tune of $2 million will finally encourage big-box stores to create some policies to minimize toy aisle trollage. I mean, probably not, but maybe.
Sponsored Review > Hero Ash and Henrietta (Evil Dead 2, NECA)
NOTE: The toys in this review were provided free of charge by NECA Toys (though I also bought a second set). –PG
This has been an interesting year for me. It has seen the advent of two things that young Poe wanted more than anything: super-articulated Godzilla action figures, and Evil Dead 2 action figures.
As you may or may not be aware, my “Poe Ghostal” handle was born when I joined the Spawn message board back in 1999. And why did I join? To urge McFarlane Toys to add Ash to their Movie Maniacs line. They did, and it sucked, and also it was from Army of Darkness and not my favorite of the trilogy, Evil Dead 2, but I’ve covered this before so let’s move on.
While Army of Darkness is the film most casual fans know, my favorite has always been and always will be Evil Dead 2. I’ve seen it dozens of times on video and at least twice in special Halloween theater showings. I do somewhat miss the time when the film was still a true cult favorite; for Christmas one year, my parents had to contact a store in Canada to track down a copy of ED2 on VHS as a gift. Nowadays the Evil Dead trilogy is big business, with tons of comics, videogames, DVDs, and toys, but as with Lord of the Rings, part of me misses the time before the Internet boom when Evil Dead fandom was still the provenance of in-the-know geeks and horror hounds.
Sightings > Troops of Doom webcomic
Collector Kraig Furtado sent in a note about his webcomic/figuretoon Troops of Doom. In the comic, “G.I. Joe battles Star Wars for Lego technology. Check it out for a laugh. Started back in February 2008 with over 400 episodes. Updated as often as possible Monday to Friday.”