News round-up, 11/8/08

November 8, 2008 | Poe

—Larger photos of prototype Masterpiece Grimlock (Toynewsi)

—Packaged photos of DCUC Adam Strange/Starfire two-pack (Mattycollector)

—Gears of War 2 NECA figure photos (Figures.com)

—MTV wants a few good fanboys/girls (nycomiccon.com)

—Marvel Select Wolverine w/ First Appearance Variant (MarvelousNews)

—McFarlane’s Halo Wars Wave 1, still no sign of figures from first two games (Toynewsi)

—Hasbro Indiana Jones Q&A (CoolToyReview)

—Hasbro’s 63rd Star Wars Q&A (Rebelscum)

—McFarlane, NBA and Southwest want to send you to the 2009 NBA All-Star game (Spawn.com)

Odds ‘n Ends > The Hunt for the Blood Orchid

September 30, 2008 | Poe

ODD: I spent twenty minutes making a list of movie sequel subtitles before settling on this one. The things I do for you people!

END: October is Halloween Month at PGPoA, and I am so not ready. The site’s design is prepped, thanks to the hard work of Webmaster OB1 (sounds like one of those novelty geek rappers), but I’m having to work on bringing the mojo. But fear not, the mojo shall be brought, even if I have to draw it out with leeches. (more…)

Hasbro Makes My Short Round Dreams Come True

June 27, 2008 | Paul

shortroundfigure001.jpg

Recently Hasbro released images of their upcoming Indiana Jones figures and they’ve finally made my dreams come true. Way back when I first heard that they were going to make Indiana Jones figures, the figure I had wanted the most (aside from Indiana Jones of course) was Short Round.

Why you ask? Why? Short Round is flipping awesome. He’s only eight years old and he managed to save Indiana Jones life. Without Short Round the Nazis wouldn’t have found the Arc of the Covenant… or at least they would have found it and had their faces melted slightly sooner. Without Short Round the Holy Grail wouldn’t be in the hands of the Nazis, except now that I think about it the Grail couldn’t have crossed the seal anyway… Uh well, without Short Round saving Indy the Russians wouldn’t have been killed by the aliens? Wait a minute. Did Indiana Jones do anything in any of the movies that had any impact on the ultimate outcome of the film besides giving the Sankara Stones back to the Indian villagers?

Regardless, the rest of the figures in the Temple of Doom line up looks awesome, especially Mola Ram. Check the rest of them out on Toy News International.

Odds ‘n Ends > Krull Edition

June 3, 2008 | Poe

ODD: I saw Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull over the weekend. I’m trying to decide whether a longer review is something that fits in the scope of this blog, but the short version is, I had a great time. I enjoyed it much like I did Die Hard 4–it was like hanging out with some old friends (and featured some completely over-the-top stunts). Because Spielberg directed it instead of Lucas, it wasn’t a disappointing train wreck like the prequels, but rather a simple, fun adventure. I feel comfortable rating it above Temple of Doom but below Crusade (my favorite) and Raiders. For another perspective, check out this piece by my cousin Ed; he was quite troubled by Old Indy. Personally, I found it rather heartening; just because you’ve hit retirement age doesn’t mean life is over and you can’t bust a few more bad-guy chops. And while Ford has been showing his age in his more recent movies, he comes alive in Crystal Skull in a way he hasn’t since, well, Last Crusade. (more…)

Flippin’ Through ToyFare #131

May 22, 2008 | Poe

Again, all apologies for the scattershot posts this week. Between how busy I’ve been at work and my webhost’s endless problems with a file server on my cluster (causing significant slowdown problems here on PGPoA), it’s been hard to get through an update. But now I’m back and rarin’ to go, the site speed seems to be flying, and I’ve got content up the wazoo!

Today I’m going to discuss ToyFare #131, which hit comic shops last week (and will hit newsstands this week or next).

On the cover we’ve got the 6″ Target exclusive movie Hulk, which is a repaint of the Marvel Legends 1 Hulk with a new head. The ML1 Hulk mold doesn’t come close to the perfection of Face Off Hulk, and I can’t see Ed Norton in that head sculpt the way I can in the movie stills. However, if you missed the boat on previous 6″-scale Hulks, this one might be passable. He is the first 6″ Hulk to feature non-purple pants.

Page 3: Big ol’ ad for DCUC wave 3. Here’s hoping they ship before, say, the end of July…

Page 9: An ad for the new Indiana Jones toys, which seem to be selling well, though I’m not sure if they’re being bought by kids or Star Wars collectors. It was smart of Hasbro to include figures from all four films. (more…)

Taters of the Lost Ark

May 15, 2008 | PrfktTear

Hi! Power Pal PrfktTear here. While I am the resident Transformers Guru, I’m also nuts about a certain little spud. With Transformers news in a lull since BotCon ’08, and over a month to go until the first Transformers: Animated toys hit shelves, I have a distant cousin, Mr. Potato head. Okay, he’s got nothing to do with Transformers, well, except that he’s made by Hasbro! Good enough!? Lets move on…

(more…)

ToyFare #129 (May 2008)

March 15, 2008 | Poe

ToyFare 129 Picked up the latest issue of ToyFare this week. In the tradition of all uninspired stand-up comedians, let’s see what’s in the news this month…

Cover: Iron Monger from Hasbro’s Iron Man movie line. I have to admit, he looks totally awesome, though I’m wondering whether those hips are ball jointed. Haven’t seen any of these figures in stores yet, but that makes sense since the street date is the 23rd.

Inside cover: Ad for Diamond Select’s second wave of Battlestar Galactica figures. The Cylon looks badass–that’s going to be a hot seller. It looks like they may have fixed up Starbuck’s face a bit, but she still looks more like that woman from Stargate SG-1 to me.

Page 9: Who’s Mandalore the Indomitableâ„¢? I’m way behind on this Star Wars Expanded Universe stuff. Last thing I remember is Kyle Katarn and those badass Darktroopers.

Page 10: Ill-favored N2/Mirage Toys made a Mad Max line that actually wasn’t so bad. (more…)

Poe’s Point > Top Five Most Anticipated Movie Toy Lines of 2008

March 13, 2008 | Poe

Yeah, I could write a list of my most anticipated movies this year–and there are quite a few–but to stay more on-topic, I decided to list what I think are the five most anticipated action figure lines based on movies this year among collectors. Note, these aren’t listed in the order I’m anticipating them, but on how much I think the collector community is. (more…)