Castle Crashers Totem Pole by Tengaport
Odds ‘n Ends
- I think it may be a relatively quiet day today here on PGPoA–I’m going to take a break after all those DCUC8 reviews and so forth.
- Since the eBay Hong Kong resellers/thieves once again forced their hand, Mattel has officially revealed the Warrior’s Ring that will come with Tri-Klops.
- I’ve got better photos of the DCUC Wildcat variant, but I’ve been asked to hold off on posting them until next week.
- It’s difficult to describe how excited I am that this summer I’ll get not one, but two Monkey Island games–an Xbox Live Arcade special edition of the original game and a brand-new one, Tales of Monkey Island, from Telltale Games. The Secret of Monkey Island is easily one of my favorite videogames of all time–to this day, I’ll still respond to some insults with, “How appropriate–you fight like a cow.”
- Other games I’m excited about: Metroid: Other M, Crackdown 2, Halo: Reach, New Super Mario Bros Wii.
- In one of their Q&As from this past round, Mattel claimed they might have DCUC9 on sale on Mattycollector in July. Maybe for preorder, but there is no way DCUC9 will be out in July. I expect the first collectors to get their hands on them (not counting samples) in late August at the earliest. I mean, DCUC8 hasn’t even shown up at retail yet.
It Figures #20
Review > Nathan “Rad” Spencer (Bionic Commando, NECA)
It’s rare that I’ll buy an action figure based on a movie, TV show, comic, or videogame unless I’m already a fan of that property. Sometimes I’ll become a fan of the property because of the action figure, but it’s quite rare for me to buy a licensed figure with no intention of getting to know the property at all.
Yet, that’s what I did last week when I picked up Nathan “Rad” Spencer, based on the upcoming videogame Bionic Commando, a sequel to the 1987 Nintendo classic. To be honest, the main reason I got him was that I had a gift certificate at TRU that could only be used on that day from 6-9 p.m. (weird, I know), and there was just nothing else I wanted. Rather than waste the gift certificate, I decided to grab “Rad,” reasoning that he might at least make for a good extra in shots of my various NECA figures of the Alien, Predator, Terminator, and so forth.
As it turns out, I almost wish I were a fan of Bionic Commando. (more…)
Lego Batman
I’ve been running a bit short on toy-related topics recently (the oft-mentioned backlog of posts that I have require a significant amount of writing and photo-taking, and so I’ve been a bit lazy about getting to them), so instead, today you get a review of a toy-related videogame.
Like most kids for decades now, I grew up with Lego, though all I ever had were the basic blocks. Since then, Lego has made a fortune licensing all sorts of brands, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones to Batman. In another brilliant move, someone came up with the idea of creating videogames based on the Lego sets, and lo and behold, they were lots of fun.
Some of the reviews for Lego Batman have been tepid, lamenting that the game offered nothing really new from the earlier Lego Star Wars and Indiana Jones games. Having only played one of the Star Wars games, I guess I’m not as burned-out on the concept as others might be. (I think IGN may just have felt obligated not to break Batman’s epic run of mediocre-to-terrible videogames.)
I think the game is a blast. I bought it on Thursday and have already spent a good six or seven hours beating the first half of it. Like the other Lego videogames, it’s broken down into “episodes”; there are three superhero episodes and three supervillain episodes. (more…)
Review > Castle Crashers Blue Knight
I mentioned I’d been enjoying the Xbox Live Arcade game Castle Crashers in an earlier post. It’s an old-school scrolling beat-em-up in the tradition of the Konami-era arcade classics like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, X-Men and The Simpsons. If you own an Xbox and have a Live account, you can download the game for about $15 USD.
The game was created by the tiny design studio The Behemoth, whose first game was Alien Hominid, a retro run-and-gun (think the original Contra for NES) that became a runaway hit on multiple platforms. I found AH to be a little too difficult to be fun (my thumbs ached at the end of every play session), but Castle Crashers hits just the right balance between being challenging and a blast to play. (more…)
Odds ‘n Ends > The Legend of Curly’s Gold
ODD: Again, apologies for the lack of updates over the weekend. Posting may be somewhat sporadic throughout this month, but for good reason–I’ve got big plans for October. Big, big plans. If any of you happened to be reading my other blog, Biggerboat, in October ’06, you have an inkling of what’s coming. (more…)
Odds ‘n Ends > Fire Walk With Me
ODD: As you may have noticed, we’ve made some changes to the site. For one, The Toybox is gone as a menu item. RK and I were just having too much difficulty keeping up with it; however, fear not, for we have other plans in store (particularly for October…) RK also whipped up that new menu image next to Poe’s Point–an “Alien Demon” from the old Blackstar toy line from the 1980s (more on that in a few weeks).
END: As of last week, I’ve got a brand-new home PC. It’s a Dell 530s, with a 22″ widescreen monitor. It’s amazing how much more defined and vibrant PGPoA is when your monitor isn’t six years old. Any recommendations for PC games? I’m thinking I might try Diablo III when it hits. I was addicted to the original Diablo for about three months straight, from June through August 1997. Then I was never able to play it again… (more…)
Odds ‘n Ends > Per Edition
ODD: CornerStoreComics gave an update yesterday on shipping for DC Universe Classics and Movie Masters; Mattel “should be shipping” DCUC3 “toward the end of this month.” In my grumpily pessimistic view, that means I’ll receive my figures sometime around August 15. Dwaltrip, it looks like you’re gonna win. I’d be very happy to be wrong, though!
END: Sadly, it seems Random Happenstance will be closing for the time being. Googum has some of the best figuretoons out there, and he will be missed. (more…)
Marcus Fenix
I’m back, baby!
Spent last week hopping about the country–first to Houston for a wedding, then to Los Angeles to make preparations for my own nuptials. But now I’m back in Boston just in time for the Celtics to have to go to Game 7…again.
When I got back, I made my usual toy rounds and picked up a figure I’d been waiting to see in person: Marcus Fenix from NECA’s Gears of War. NECA isn’t exactly striking while the iron is hot; Gears dropped in November 2006, and even Halo 3 and its subsequent McFarlane toy line has come and gone since then. However, Gears of War 2 hits this fall, so I imagine these figures will find plenty of collector enthusiasm. (more…)