Toy Fair 2012 Roundup

February 14, 2012 | JediCreeper

MOTUC Toy Fair 2012 1

Hey Toy Fans!  Nate here, in some circles, I’m better known as JediCreeper, on Twitter I’m JediN8 and to a tiny number of you, I’m the weird guy who won’t shut up on the Average Intelligence Podcast.  I had the good fortune of attending the 2012 Toy Fair and Poe was kind enough to send me to both the Hasbro and Mattel fan appreciation events, to cover them for him.  It is there I learned that even a native New Yorker is not nearly as pushy and shove-y as geeks with new toys.  Here are some of my thoughts on the stuff I got to see.

Poe’s note: you can check out a gallery of Nate’s pics from TF2012 here.

(more…)

Odds ‘n Ends > Wind Raider update, Demo-Man shipping delays

January 6, 2012 | Poe

  • NECA has posted a packaging pic of Deadite Ash, and he looks damned awesome. I’ve been waiting for this figure line since 1993. You can preorder the figures through PGPoA sponsor UrbanCollectibles.
  • Wind Raider update: as it happened, we were actually home when the UPS guy came. He took the box and gave us the tracking number. My wife then called the regular customer service number, as the Escalation Department had told her to do. The regular CS person took the information and then told DMG she would refer it to the Escalation Department with 24-72 hours.  The Escalation Dept. will then email us, presumably with the new order number. The only real question is, what will be wrong with the replacement Raider?
  • On a related note, I have yet to receive a shipping notice for my subscription Demo-Man and Battleground Evil-lyn. Some collectors are guessing that all the Demo-Mans didn’t arrive in one shipment, and Mattel/Digital River are shipping the figures out as they arrive. I suspect that’s exactly what’s going on.
  • Has everyone caught that Chevy Silverado ad with all the toys?
  • Sponsor News: BigBadToyStore has their exclusive G.I. Joe Slaughter’s Marauders and Dreadnoks in stock now. If you want to read a review first before ordering, check out GeneralsJoes. Meanwhile, Figure of the Day has the popular Marvel Select Deadpool for $20 with free shipping.

Odds ‘n Ends > Steve Jobs, Four Horsemen, & Reviews

January 5, 2012 | Poe

Odds ‘n Ends > Mattycollector News, G.I. Joe Photo Covers, FOC Dinobot Pics

December 21, 2011 | Poe

  • Mattel has announced the January Mattycollector sale, which includes the Sorceress and Fearless Photog, as well as the “Ready to Believe You” Peter Venkman. More interesting is the news that they will now have He-Man, Skeletor, Battle Cat, Panthor, and 6″ Peter Venkman and Ray Stanz on permanent sale throughout 2012. It only took them four years.
  • I have to pick a winner for the Arkham City contest–I’ll do that tonight. Apologies for the delay.
  • I’m intrigued by IDW’s photo covers of G.I. Joe toys for their comics (here’s one, and here’s another one). On the one hand, it’s awesome that they’re paying tribute to the comics’ toy origins. On other hand, the covers are pretty uninspired. A brief Flickr search will come up with better pics (check out Geek Creek and Ed Speir IV, for example).
  • Power Pal Joe Amaro sent along this touching video of James Sawyer of motucfigures.com reviewing the Wind Raider with his son. As a toymaker himself, Joe says “this is the sort of thing that makes it all worthwhile.”
  • Joe also sent along these awesome pics of the Dinobots (via Tformers.com, though they could have originated elsewhere for all I know) from the upcoming Fall of Cybertron videogame: Grimlock, “Slug” (Slag’s new name, apparently? Yuck. Damned trademarks), and Swoop. They all look awesome, and we had better get toys of them. (Preferably not assembled by sweatshop laborers–more on that later.)

Reviews > Snake Eyes (G.I. Joe: The Pursuit of Cobra, Hasbro)

November 21, 2011 | Poe

He waited.

He had been here for forty minutes, upside-down, one hand dug into the tree via a climbing claw, the other clutching a combat knife. The target was running late.

He waited. This wasn’t unusual, but if the target didn’t appear soon, he’d have to change position. He could feel the pressure starting to build behind his eyes.

A mosquito buzzed in his ear, landed on his arm. Its proboscis attempted to pierce the deceptively thin fabric of his suit; after a few seconds, it gave up and flew off to find prey that wasn’t wearing body armor. He hadn’t moved a muscle.

Then he heard it…soft footsteps, coming his way. He tightened his muscles, working out the stiffness and increasing blood flow before he had to move. Still, he didn’t move.

He waited.

Every so often, a toy comes along that is the plastic equivalent of a wildly successful, critically-acclaimed blockbuster movie. It gets almost everything right. It brings in people who aren’t even fans of the franchise. A few recent examples include Masterpiece Optimus Prime, MOTUC Battle Cat, and the Big Millennium Falcon. Well, you can add another toy to those ranks–the Pursuit of Cobra Snake Eyes.

As I’ve often noted, I am not, nor ever have been, a G.I. Joe fan. My childhood went from Star Wars to He-Man to Transformers to Ninja Turtles, more or less in that order and with few deviations. However, at the recommendation of a friend, I’ve recently read and enjoyed the old 1980s G.I. Joe: Special Missions comics, which focused on somewhat more realistic plots (fighting “real world” terrorists, rescuing diplomats, aiding defectors, etc.) than the more science fiction-oriented stories of the cartoon.

But I wasn’t immune to the appeal of certain characters, particularly the franchise’s Boba Fett, Snake Eyes. He was a ninja dressed all in black who used both guns and swords; like Grimlock, who was both a tyrannosaurus and a robot, Snake Eyes was ideally designed to appeal to young boys.

Hasbro has made a few Snake Eyes figures over the years. By YoJoe.com‘s count, this one is the 54th since the first one hit stores nearly thirty years ago…but it’s hard to imagine a future figure that surpasses this one. (more…)