3 Most Welcome Additions

Today, 2 of the 3 Ebay purchases I’ve made arrived in my mailbox(the third purchase is a box of hockey cards, so I’m sure you don’t care).  These were not impulse buys.  Rather, they were on my mental list, and the prices were fair enough.

First, here’s a character, who is more of an accessory.

This is Joe Eyeball.  Muckman’s sidekick(TMNT).  He’s one of only a few mini-sidekicks I had during TMNT’s domination of the world, which, of course, means I have a special place in my heart for this little guy.  He looks like he’d be a pretty cool guy to chill with.  Now all I need is Muckman’s garbage can backpack for Joe to be displayed perfectly.

But the next two figures are the ones I’ve been looking forward to most.

On the left, we have Six-Gill.  And on the right, we have Hammerhead(not very original on this one).  For those of you wondering, these figures are from Dino-Riders.  I had one or two of the dinosaurs, but I had 5 times as many of the figures.  You see, not only did these figures come with the dinosaur sets, they were also available in by themselves in 2 figure packs.  Six-Gill is the one I had most as a child.  I only remember this because he was paired with Orion(a good human), and Orion was my brother’s figure of choice whenever we came across the line(although my brother pronounced Orion as “Oar-ee-on”).  That was okay, because I thought shark people were far cooler than a generic looking human.

For so long I would always be outbid for just a single figure.  But I got lucky and found a by Buy it Now for this lot of 2 for the nice price of $6.00 + $1.75 shipping.  I’m going to try and get the other hammerhead shark figures(there are a few).

Reveal the Shield – Optimus Prime (Legends Class)

This is the lone action figure I received for Christmas(from the wife).

Like Megatron, Optimus is one of three legends class figures that I wanted from this line(the third is Starscream).  Of the few Optimi(that’s plural, right?), that I own, this is the most reminiscent of our beloved G1 Optimus.  That’s one of the big reasons why I want the three that I do.  Let me tell you a story…

When I was a child, my younger brother and I could not like the same toys.  Now, we could both like the good guys or bad guys, but we couldn’t like the same characters(I’m sure this was the reason my brother and I never had that many conflicts when it came to choosing toys on the fly).  Well, for Transformers, my brother was the first to claim Optimus Prime as his favorite(and as such, we would always refer to ourselves as our favorite  characters, i.e.- “That’s me, Optimus Prime”).  This meant that I could never own an Optimus Prime figure(now my brother and I never discussed this, but we just knew).  To this day, it is a figure that I long to have in my collection(some day!*shakes fist*).  And, c’mon, who doesn’t like old-school Optimus Prime?

This one looks just as good in vehicle mode as it does in robot mode(I tend to lean to the robot side when it comes to Transformers).

He also looks great in robot mode.

I’m actually torn between the two.

2011 in review – A.K.A.- Thanks Everyone, You Made it Happen!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 23,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 9 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Thank You Pancuco!

The package you see above was sent to me from Pancuco, over at Action Figs & Things.  Anyone care to fathom a guess??

Up first…

It’s Wingnut.  If you know your classic toys, you’ll know this guy is from the extensive line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.  He’s some sort of super hero bat.  He originally came with a little mosquito, who is his sidekick, Screwloose(I would love to find him, as well as Muckman’s sidekick, Joe Eyeball).  He is also missing his wings, but still looks pretty nice.

Up next is Groundchuck.  I don’t know much about him, other than the obvious…He’s a cyborg bull.  I think he looks pretty bad ass!

We have one more to go.  But I just want to say, that I never owned any of these figures before.  And that’s a good thing.  There’s also another plus…None of these figures are variations of the Turtles themselves.  While I would never turn down a Turtle I don’t have, my focus on this collection is the all of the other characters(and no variations of April or Splinter either, although I do need the O.G. Splinter for my collection).  Anyway, here’s the last one, and my personal favorite of the 3 Pancuco sent me.

This is Walkabout.   Like Wingnut, he also came with a mini sidekick(Kid Kanga).  The one difference I noticed with Walkabout from the other figures in this line are the legs.  If you look, you’ll see that his legs aren’t on ball joints like every other figure in the line.  His hips are sockets, and he has hinged knees.  I don’t know why this was done, but he is able to stand really well.

Again, thank you Pancuco!  You’ve given these guys a great home, and you’re welcome to come see them whenever you want. 

Thundercats 2011 Cheetara

I snagged this one while I was doing some Christmas shopping last month.

So far I have been pleased with the figures I have purchased from this line.  And, while I like this figure, it does have a few outstanding flaws.  And those are what makes this figure my least favorite of the ones I have bought, so far.  I’m sure you should be able to figure out one of the flaws in the following photo.

Now, can you see anything that’s not quite right?

First, Cheetara’s staff isn’t anywhere near straight.  We had this same problem with Lion-O’s Sword of Omens.  Also, from the knee down, her legs seem to made of the same material as the staff.  This makes her legs bow out to the sides, making her stance seem a bit awkward.  Those are my only gripes with this figure.  There is another issue, but it doesn’t bother me as much as the first 2.  Her hair is molded to her back, rendering her neck immobile.  Meaning she can only look forward.  While the figure is very accurate looking show-wise, it falls short because of the aforementioned reasons.

While this may be my least favorite figure in the line so far, I’m happy to be one step closer to having the full team.

Speaking of which…

One of My All-Time Favorite Figures

This here is Fat Frenchy.  He was part of the Refrigerator Rejects, from the Food Fighters line.  While not as wildly popular as many other 80s toy lines, they are some of the coolest and most interesting looking toys from best decade for action figures.  I would love to get more from this line, or actually, get the complete line.  I scored this guy on the Bay about 4 years ago, for like, $3.00.  Expect to pay no less than 10 bucks most of the time.  The figures came with guns and back packs(like G.I. Joe), which mine is sadly missing(alhough he is now holding that sweet Lamb of God guitar pick).  Fat Frenchy is one of my favorites because I love the idea of anthropomorphic food.  And this was the one and only Food Fighter I owned when I was a kid.

Food you can play with. 

Easy Go, Easy Come

I reversed the “come” and “go” in the title for a resaon.  It’s actually quite fitting, you see.

Recently, I sold most of my Lego stuff(one of my smaller collections), on Ebay.  The only thing I kept was an AT-AT pilot.

At work, we had our annual Christmas party, and had a Chinese auction-type gift exchange.  I ended up receiving a $5.00 Wal-Mart gift card and some scratch-off lottery tickets.  I went to Wal-Mart a few days after Christmas and looked all over the store for something.  There was nothing in any section that peaked my interest.  And the toy aisles are pretty much a let down.  But I did find something.

I only had to pay short of two dollars out of pocket for this.  How could I pass it up?!

George(the AT-AT pilot), is going to help his new friend put together a shrine.  The Venomari Shrine, to be exact.  86 pieces of awesomeness!!

Here we see George introduce himself to the man he is about to help.  His name is Zane ZX(he’s since been renamed.  He now goes by Ernest, or Ernie for short).

George and Ernest toiled for 5 hours(about 5 minutes our time), to erect the shrine.  But the results were really cool(which is the reason why I bought something from a line I just cut down drastically).

Maybe I’ll just have to be a little more particular when it comes to Legos.  Because I find little sets like this to be pretty sweet!  I would love to find one of the smaller pirate Lego sets from the early to mid-ninties.

Christmas Fallout 2011

I hope that everyone had a merry Christmas!  I must have been good, because I did very well this year!  Here’s everything(minus gift cards and cash).

I was like my kid-self this past Christmas.  I love opening presents, and I’m sure a lot of you can relate to that.  I got most everything I wanted, and some other stuff that wasn’t on my list, that I’m happy to have received.  Let’s look a little closer.

I finally got a Wii!!  This was the big gift from my wife.  This Wii is black and came with New Super Mario Bros.(as well as a music cd, which I haven’t checked out yet).  My wife also got me Punch-Out!!, and her parents got me (The Legend of Zelda) Skyward Sword.  My friend Mike got me the Genesis games you see, as well as Kung-Fu for the NES.  It looks like I’ll be busy for a while! 

In the clothing department, I also did well.  But most of these items were things that I needed.  I got a pair of Dearfoams moccasins(slippers), driving gloves, socks(you can never have too many socks), sweat pants and a couple of t-shirts( one from The Nightmare Before Christmas, and a really sweet “Facts You Need to Know About Chuck Norris” shirt).  Although clothes weren’t really appreciated(you all know what I’m talking about) on Christmas during my childhood, they are greatly appreciated now!

The Walking Dead, Book 2, was my secret Santa gift from the X-Entertainment gift exchange(thank you so much velouria_78!) that a few of us who post  on X-E took part in.  This is the hard cover edition, and I can’t wait to start reading it!  While I’m up to date with the tv show, I have only read the first collection(Book 1).  Next to that is a Reveal the Shield, Legends Class, Optimus Prime.  This line has been scarce in my parts, but my wife, somehow, found a place that still had some.

And here’s everything else.  We have a case of Saranac “24 Beers of Winter”, of which I am on my second Chocolate Lager as we speak(it’s pretty good, not too chocolatey or sweet, it’s quite strong though).  I also got a nice Old Spice gift set.  This has everything to keep me clean and smelling good for a little while, plus maybe it’ll turn me into that cool guy in their commercials(and I’m not talking about Ray Lewis either).  My wife(she’s so awesome!), also got me a Remington(they don’t make just guns), grooming kit(I hinted that I wanted this, but didn’t think I’d get it).  You’ll also notice some Slim Jims, a head massager, Werther’s Originals, a few rubber bracelets, some car air-fresheners, some vhs Transformers episodes, Paul Mitchell shampoo/conditioner and a Snoopy toothbrush holder and rinse cup(which is in my bathroom right now, but will end up going into storage with the rest of the Christams decorations in a week or so).

Also, between my wife and myself, we got $160 in cash, a $25 Applebee’s gift card and a $25 Regal Cinemas gift card.

I hope you all got what you wanted, and had a great time as well!  Please feel free to discuss your Christmas in the comments, as I love to hear about stuff like this.

Vote for Me!

Recently, I submitted a picture of an action figure nativity scene over at Hey! Look at My Toys!, for a contest.  At Reis’ suggestion, I am asking everybody to go over to Hey! Look at My Toys!, and vote for me(if you have not voted yet).  You can click on the link above, or you could click the link on my side bar.  The 3 submissions that get the most votes, will win toys!  As of right now, I have 4 votes, and will need a lot more to place in the top 3.  Reis misspelled my name on his side bar.  It reads Lason L., instead of Jason L.  But if you have any trouble, here’s what my submission looks like.

TMNT Days #4, The Finale

I saved the best for last.  Not only is it my favorite character, but it’s my favorite representation of that character as well.

My wife bought this for me(at my request), for my birthday back in 2008.  I believe it cost around $14.99 at the time, which is a bargain compared to what some people are now asking for them.

TMNT is one of my favorite toylines as well as my favorite comic series(the early Mirage stuff is the best).  And these figures are the nicest representations of the Turtles I have ever seen.  Don’t get me wrong…I got into TMNT the same way most of you did.  I was about 9 years old when the cartoon and subsequent toyline came about.  It was when I started to get heavily into comics(when I was around 11 or 12), that I was introduced to the real Turtles.  And these figures are spot on from how they looked in those old comics.  Each Turtle came with their trademark weapons, a few accessories(like extra hands etc.) and a piece of a base that, when all connected together, made a nice diorama of a city street.  I’d like to get the other 3 and open all of them.  But as of right now, I don’t see any reason to open it.  It looks nice in the package(NECA did a great job on this as well), and I really don’t have any more room to display stuff(I may have to start swapping out figures every now and then).