Batman’s latest costume
Before we go any further, let me clarify: this is a rumor. I think it’s much too early to begin venting one’s spleen as if this were fact. I want no aneurysms as a result of my posting this, got it? (more…)
Batman’s latest costume
Before we go any further, let me clarify: this is a rumor. I think it’s much too early to begin venting one’s spleen as if this were fact. I want no aneurysms as a result of my posting this, got it? (more…)
Sunday 7/26
140,000 people, 4.5 days, 1 convention – it all comes down to this.
The morning was spent re-orchestrating all of the previous buys into a somewhat manageable series of bags, you see typically we bring down large boxes to fill up but all of box army fell in battle against Recycle-Or several months hence. Once in order we checked out of the hotel, loaded up the car, then headed back down to the Hall for the final hurrah. (more…)
Saturday 7/25
A very long day. Began with us futile-y trying to get in to Hall H for the Warner Bros panel. After realizing how pointless that was it was back to the dealer floor. Panels, especially big name panels or panels otherwise in one of the big room, are really hard to get into with the line at any given time being about 50% people for the next panel and 50% people for one later in the day, which just exacerbates the whole situation and makes it s far harder to get into panels to begin (this is why I came very close to missing the Mattypalooza panel, the line was massive and mostly people for the Marvel/Capcom panel the following the hour). Essentially, one must pick a large room and not leave in order to see the large panels. This has been a problem for several years (this is Movie Con, after all) so I’ve long since made peace with the fact that I’m not getting in to panels and that I will be able to read the news immediately online and see the movie/s themselves in a couple months. Still would have been neat to see the Avengers assemble, though. (more…)
Wednesday – 7/21
Preview night is always the worst and best day of the con. The first hour is being reminded of why you hate this place and how much better it used to be. Every company has a massive line for figures, the crowds are bigger than the Saturday horde a decade ago and all you can do is fight to survive. But once you find that first purchase (Batman and Joker Nlammoids for $3 each, in my case) the whole thing starts turning around. You get into the fun of the hunt once perusing seller booths and by gum you’ll see some really cool reveals at big companies. (more…)
In Part I of our feature, Doc Thomas examined “Simulated Attack” action features. And now…the exciting conclusion!
The next most prominent type of action feature is that which focuses on the look of the toy, and attempts to add more life-like or just more interesting dynamic look via an internal mechanism. A good example of this is Cortana from McFarlane “Last Hurrah” Toys’ Halo line, which in addition to being awesomely scaled to be about life size included several blue leds inside which made it light up, giving it that same luminescence that lightened our lives across the galaxy’s hardship in the excellent series of games.
A different approach to a similar end is the aforementioned Metalhead from TMNT, whose eyes glowed red when light was shined above his head to nifty effect. These kind of action features are comparable to other creative approaches to action figures to make them closer to a real life representation, like the awesome SOTA Blanka sculpted entirely in glow-in-the-dark plastic, representing Blanka in his signature electrified state, or nearly every feature in the Masterpiece Optimus Prime toy, including light-up Matrix inside his chest, and the button-operated “talking” mouth. (more…)