The Outer Space Men – Xodiac: The Man from Saturn by Ed Speir IV
Poe Plays Favorites 2010 (The Awards Post)
Wow, am I late with this thing. Frankly the only reason I’m even doing it is to placate my obsessive-compulsiveness–there must be a PPF for every year, even if it takes me three months into the following year to do it.
Scarabus goes up for pre-order this Tuesday, March 1
The 10-pack of the long, long-awaited Scarabus figure from the Four Horsemen’s FANtastic Exclusive goes up for pre-order this Tuesday. (I own the black/white variants from the Toypocalypse event, and they’re on my long, long list of backlogged reviews.) Looks like the figures themselves will arrive in June.
Details after the jump. (more…)
Toy Fair 2011 > The Experience
(l-r: Poe, H. Eric “Cornboy” Mayse, Joe Amaro, Cornboy’s wife Corinna, and Val “JVS3” Staples)
It’s been over a week now, so I should probably try to wrap up my Toy Fair coverage. We’re getting there!
For this post, I’d like to give you a description of my general experience at Toy Fair. This was my first trip to NYTF, and I thought it might be fun to show you what it’s like. (more…)
Odds ‘n Ends > Procrastination
- Man, I still have so much stuff to get through…reviews of Buzz-Off, King Grayskull, the Outer Space Men, the new NECA Alien vs. Predator 2-pack, the second Weapons Pak, a few Retro Action figures, and a few other surprises…
- PGPoA was included in a list of the “Top 40 Doll Collecting Blogs” on the website OnlineCollege.org. Fellow blogger Newton Gimmick of Infinite Hollywood also made the list. I won’t bother with the whole “action figures aren’t dolls” thing, mostly because I’m not that self-deluded, and will just be happy with the publicity.
- I haven’t updated about or even mentioned the big news that THQ picked up the general Mattel license. Of course, the only salient question for most of us is whether we’ll see a MOTU videogame. I say it’s unlikely except in a movie year, unless we’re talking some sort of XBLA game (perhaps a 2D fighter or a TMNT Arcade-style brawler?). But at least THQ didn’t say no outright, and I know for a fact there are some THQ employees who are MOTU fans and will push for a game.
- You’re all following the daily updates about Scarabus from the Four Horsemen, right? Man, if they can get the QC on these things on par with Xetheus (as opposed to the various Ramathorr variants), they’ll be incredible action figures.
- Speaking of the Horsemen, this looks interesting.
- I watched Predators last night, and really enjoyed it. It’s incredibly faithful to the original film…perhaps a bit too much so, to be honest…but it’s fun and pretty well acted, and features the craziest and possibly best Laurence Fishburne performance in a career full of crazy performances. He’s come a long way since Cowboy Curtis…like 80 pounds long, I think. But still the movie wa–WHY THE HELL DID I COME ACROSS THIS WHEN DOING A SEARCH FOR COWBOY CURTIS IMAGES? What is WRONG with people?! The horror, the horror…(quick, connect that quote back to Laurence Fishburne!)
Outer Space Men: Galactic Holiday Edition on sale TONIGHT
I haven’t been covering all the awesome stuff coming out from the Four Horsemen recently, for two reasons: 1.) there’s only so much time in the day, and 2.) they’ve been doing a damned good job covering it themselves. If you follow their new blog at FourHorsemen.biz, you’ll get all the 4H-related info you need.
That said, I thought it prudent to mention the limited edition Galactic Holiday Outer Space Men will go on sale tonight at 9pm ET at StoreHorsemen.com. Featuring vac-metallized ABS accessories, these figures are expected to go fast, to grab ’em if you want ’em!
More info after the jump. (more…)
The Third Annual PGPoA Four Horsemen Interview
PGPoA’s anniversary was December 1, and you know what that means–another interview with the Four Horsemen!
As always, I want to thank the fabulous Foursome Horse-some for taking time out of their extremely busy schedule to answer a few questions. In case you haven’t been following it, the Horsemen have been updating their website, FourHorsemen.biz, with frequent shots of the next Fantastic Exclusive, Scarabus. He’s looking incredibly awesome, and he might just be the best FE since Xetheus! (Not a knock on the other FEs, I just love Xetheus…like, a lot.) –PG
POE: For those who may not know, what is the concept behind Symbiotech? Do the figures work together in some way, or does the “symbiotic” aspect have it more to do with the “world” behind the toys?
Eric Treadaway: Symbiotech has been an ever-transforming property story-wise since it’s inception. We originally wanted to create a world where the characters that inhabited this world could look like nearly anything you could possibly imagine, and they’d be set up in pairs that would depend on each other in many ways.
Chris Dahlberg: Then, over over a decade ago now – before we even began making prototypes of the figures, we decided that it’d be cool to not only make an awesome action figure line of this property, but to also incorporate a game into those figures.
Jim Preziosi: That’s where the “tech” part of the Symbiotech name came in. The large characters – the Goleth – would have removable armor that would connect them to the smaller characters – the Pygma – to create a symbiotic link between the two. There were also various weapons and accessories that you could attach to the armor and other weapons and accessories to prepare your characters for battle. A spinner dial connected to the armor would decide movement and battle stats during the game portion, and the armor and accessories would have various values that would allow a character to become more or less powerful during battle.
Cornboy: Since so many other action figure/game hybrids have come along since then and most have failed, we’ve decided just to approach Symbiotech from the “awesome action figure” standpoint for now. If demand is there, once it’s released, who knows, maybe the gaming aspect will make a return in some form or another. There have been LOTS of technological advances since those early days that would allow us to have a lot of fun with that now.
ET: Wait… what was your question again? Haha… (more…)
Review > Outer Space Men Alpha Waves 1 & 2 (SDCC Exclusive)
I had intended to write up a basic introduction to Glyos before writing this review, but life gets busy and for one reason or another, I was never able to get around to it. Mea culpa. You’ll recall I did a two-part interview (part 1, part 2) with Onell Design founder and Glyos creator Matt Doughty a few months back, after the announcement of the Four Horsemen‘s acquiring of the Outer Space Men license and the news that the figures would incorporate Onell Design’s “Fit Function” joint system, making them entirely compatible with all Glyos figures.
So I didn’t get around to that introduction to Glyos, but as often seems to happen these days, NoisyDVL5 over at ItsAllTrue.net took the initiative. Check out his article to find out what Glyos is all about, then come on back for my review. (more…)
Mer-Man by Baena
I don’t visit Baena’s blog nearly often enough, because I completely missed his beautiful update of the original Mer-Man card art. Imagine if art like this was on the back of all MOTUC packaging?
On a related note, you can buy a copy of this lovely Four Horsemen-themed poster, also by Baena, at Store Horsemen.
SDCC 2010 Odds ‘n Ends
This was definitely the year for me to go to SDCC. Shoulda tried harder.I’m terribly jealous of everyone’s who’s there. Crowds, stink and all.
Anyway, the big Mattel fan panel, which will reveal all the new MOTU & Ghostbusters figures, will be at 4pm ET. I’ll have my thoughts up, hopefully w/ pics, soon after.
In the meantime, here’s a list of the things I’ve found interesting that has come out of SDCC so far:
- Guillermo Del Toro’s first post-Hobbit project is…a Haunted Mansion reboot? Rustin Parr: “Why can’t this man stay away from everything I love?” (Rustin is one of the few people I know who dislikes everything GDT’s done, including Pan’s Labyrinth). Personally I like GDT’s work and am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe Mignola will do some design work for it (frankly that’s almost a certainty, if he has the time.) Still, though, has there ever been a reboot of a movie franchise this soon after the previous movie?
- The Tron Legacy trailer is awesome. I wasn’t quite as amorously invested in it as Rob at TR, but it looks great. I’m starting to think this could be something of a Wizard of Oz for the 3D revival. Anyone not rooting for this movie to be good is a registered Commienazi.
- Though I haven’t played the game in six months, I can’t wait for NECA’s Claptrap from Borderlands.
- OK, Mattel…I’ve been iffy on your Ghostbusters stuff lately, but I may have to get that PKE Meter. Then I’m going to walk through the streets of Boston with it prominently held out before me, occasionally stopping near high-traffic public buildings, waving it around, and then rushing off with a worried expression.
- Lots of Magma Corps on display at the Four Horsemen’s booth, along with the expected Symbiotech and OSM. Scarabus is still looking great…hope we get to own that guy soon.
- It’s cool that The Walking Dead is getting a TV series, but holy crap, if it’s at all true to the book, that show is going to give Battlestar Galactica a run for its money for Most Depressing Show Depicting Humanity At Its Nadir Lifetime Achievement Award.