Tag: Diamond Select Page 3 of 6
I enjoyed the hell out of Captain America: The First Avenger. There seems to be a general consensus among geeks that Thor was a better movie, but I found Thor a bit mediocre–I walked out of the theater and forgot all about it. Captain America was a fun, funny period adventure. In a lot of ways it was a spiritual sequel to The Rocketeer, sharing a setting (WWII) and a director (Joe Johnston). Oh, and the Red Skull was ssssssmokin’.
Put another way: I had no desire to get any Thor action figures, but when I saw pics of the Marvel Select Captain America and Red Skull, I knew I had to have them. As you know, I rarely venture outside Batman for superhero-related toys these days, so clearly something about Captain America must have worked for me.
These figures arrived in comic shops this week. Diamond very kindly sent along these samples for review. And if you want to find out some behind-the-scenes info on the making of these figures, check out this featurette on Marvel.com.
- Here’s the first comment I’ve seen from Mattel on the DCUC subscription results: “The final tally was around 60-62% (I’ll need to ask the DC team for an exact number). We are literally reviewing the numbers to see if their is anyway to go forward now that we are under 100%. It may take another week or so before we will know an answer. Fans have been so passionate, but in the end it comes down to whether their are enough of them to move forward with this program!” I had been beginning to suspect late last week that a non-100% subscription rate might not mean an immediate cancellation of the sub. One idea a poster on the Fwoosh had was to raise the price of the non-sub sale day figures from $15 to $20 (while subscribers still pay $15). I think that’s a good idea. Had I not subscribed, I’d have happily paid $20 for Poison Ivy and not thought twice about it.
- Mattel also posted a lengthy explanation for Battleground Evil-Lyn on their Facebook page. I’m still not sure how I feel about BGEL. Initially this was exactly what I had expected a Millennium Evil-lyn to be (proof here and here). I had been expecting more only after this post by ToyGuru last year. So without that post by ToyGuru, I might not have been disappointed at all. I can certainly see why a lot of fans are unhappy. And I’m a bit confused by the tooling explanation: “[…] we felt that it would be better to go with this simpler version rather than sink a lot of tooling into a version that didn’t have waist articulation, better hip function, etc. If we used up the tooling now, it may have killed the chance to do a version that 100% satisfies all of the fan requests. Now that the 2.0 body has been created and worked into the line, the door is open to do this version in the future.” Which I think raises a significant question: why do a Millennium Evil-lyn now at all, instead of waiting to use the 2.0 body with new tooling? What’s the rush? I’d happily have taken, say, a minicomic Trap Jaw instead.
- Here’s a fantastic NECA-style Dutch from Predator custom using NECA Duke Nukem and Terminator parts.
- I need to get more into Minimates–check out the Previews-exclusive Knight Rider KITT with Super-Pursuit Mode parts.
Halloween may be over, but there’s still plenty of horror to be had.
For instance, here’s some rather bumming news from Diamond Select: according to their latest edition of Ask DST, they haven’t secured the likeness rights to Bela Lugosi. However, they’re still going to do a Dracula figure…just without any specific actor’s likeness.
- DST answered my Minimate question. Bummer, but not unexpected. Still, Hellboy MMs seem like a no-brainer to me. BTW, the ones above were created by Minimate customizer extraordinaire Bob Harris. Click the pic for more pics of his many customs, including Dr. McNinja and Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter.
- Mattel has posted some Shadow Beast pics on their Facebook page. Looks pretty neat, but I prefer Gygor.
- I’ve got a bunch of reviews I owe you, including, of course, Roboto. Planning to get to at least one of them tonight.
- I recorded a guest appearance on OrccaCast last night. It should be up shortly before Halloween, I believe. I’ve also got an appearance on another pretty big podcast fairly soon, but I’m going to save that news for now.
- Finally, I’ve received a test shot of the PGPoA-exclusive Spy Monkey Creations accessory. Some changes were needed, but once I get the revised test shot, I’ll go ahead and make the announcement.
- Question for today: what would you name a subscription for 6″ Back to the Future figures on Mattycollector? My submission is Club Flux Capacitor. Kind of a mouthful, though.
I try to maintain a minimal number of ads on this site, but I still do have to pay the bills to keep it running–and maybe make a little money to keep buying the toys you enjoy reading about. I write this blog out of love, but the truth is writing for free sucks and it’s a lot more satisfying if I can get something out of it.