Decapitron

So Decapitron is from the Puppet Master horror movies. His name isn't a reference to him decapitating people, it's a reference to his ability to swap out his heads. All the Puppets in the Puppet Master movies have the soul of a person the Puppet Master originally knew, and Decapitron, introduced in Puppet Master 4, is one of the most powerful because it houses the soul of Andre Toulon, the creator of the puppets.

Decapitron comes with three heads, because that's what he had in the movies. In the package he's got the head of the Puppet Master himself, Andre Toulon. The other heads are a robot head that allows Decapitron to shoot electric bolts at people and a blank "off-mode" head. I think. I only saw 20 minutes of Puppet Master 4.

The first thing I checked on Decapitron was the joints. Cut joint wrists were the first disappointment. The Cut neck joint was kind of disappointing too, but more common on this scale. Although once I began to play with the interchangable heads, the cut neck made sense. At first I thought the shoulder joints were cut joints, but after playing with it for a second I realized that it was actually the jacket restricting the joint movement. A little rejiggering revealed a more typical ball joint.

As for the interchangable heads. Unlike other 1:6 scale heads, where you're meant to pull them of a peg, these ones have a weird tab system. Well, look.

Oh, and incidentally, this is one of the smaller 1:6 scale figures out there. Here's what it looks like compared to a sideshow clone trooper.

AMP Ep 62: Titles? Something about 2012

Ep 62 of the Articulated Monster Podcast is up. It ends up being some sort of 2012 year in review, with AJ hosting a segment about the best and worst toys of 2012 when we look at the OAFE list.

AMP Ep 61: 2 Years in the Making

People get sick and then they record short intro to their podcast like we did this week. I just put together some of our old conversations that got cut. They're all from a couple years ago, before I stopped caring and just put our entire conversation up.

Longshot and Dazzler

Hey look, everyone, it's Longshot and Dazzler. From the 80's. Back when I didn't read comic books!

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The Queen

It's a Lego version of the Queen of England if she were an anthropomorphic car.

Eat that Kafka!

I'm not paying $60 for the entire set that the Queen comes from to shove it in Franz Kafka's face, fortunately it turns out eBay hates German writers too.

Toxic Avenger

Oh, Shocker Toys. The only toy company that makes Mattel look on the ball. And They were totally going to make block-style minifigures... and they kinda came out but no one noticed, probably because no one ever saw them in stores.

But give Shocker credit, they know that to get attention you need to actually have product available at comiccon. Hence they actually create a Toxic Crusader minifiure for Comiccon. And it came with real accessories! A mop! A barrel that's supposedly full of toxic waste!

Hey, who remembers seeing the non Comiccon variant in stores? Or anywhere? Anyone?

Yeah.

I got one through BBTS. Because I love the Troma ethic and well-articulated minifigs. Incidentally, Shocker sold the Indie Spotlight license to another company, which is desperately trying to get public sourcing for it. Previous attempts have failed... failed spectacularly. (Incidentally, don't pledge. Unlike Kickstarter, the sites being used recently automatically charge regardless of whether goals are met. They keep your money even if their goal isn't met and they can't produce anything.)

AMP Episode 60: Mario Large and in Charge

Episode 60 of the Articulated Monster Podcast. Mario hosted.

'Nuff Said!

Green Lantern (Lego)

Oh Galidor, what have you wrought. These Giant Superhero Legos are a mix of the worst parts of Galidor and Bionical to create what are essentially non-magentic versions of magnetix action figures with disturbingly normal heads. It's like someone cut off Hal Jordan's head and put it on a crude robot body.

Wait, that would make an awesome story line.

But this is not that story line, it's just a really lame mech thing.

I got this as a birthday gift though, so at least I know I was able to experience this because someone else bought it for me.

Kraaaaaaaaaang!

So the weird thing about the Kra'ang figure is that it's a weird plastic mask piece that goes over a minifigure head. It's not even its own minifigure head. I do bot understand that decision. At all.

But then again, I'm not a Norwegian toy designer.

Oh yeah, these

I found the TMNT Legos at Toys R Us this weekend. I keep forgetting that any Nickelodeon property is fodder for Legos.... Clarissa Explains it All Lego Friends sets, people. Make it happen.

Actually, even if there were no turtles, I might pick up the set for a Giant Alien brain driving a space ship.

Using the Hudson filter

Get it?

NYCC Alpha Flight Box Set 2

Only available at NYCC or exclusive online retailer, if you want to complete your Alpha Flight minimate collection you need this. What's Alpha Flight without Sasquatch, Essentially the Hulk if he was Canadian and turned into a cryptozoological creature? Also, possibly magic. And Snowbird the goddess of nature in the great white north and Shaman who... Okay, clearly this is the set filled with the Canadian Stereotypes. I'm shocked they didn't include a Mountie (aka Captain Canuck, he joined Alpha Flight in the early 2000's)

Instead they included the French Canadian who has MPD and spends half her time as a nun. The other half is a slutty femme fatale anti-hero. Is that a Canadian stereotype? I'm not well versed in French Canadian depictions. She comes with a special alternate hand though, to simulate when she used to hold hands with her twin brother in order to make their superpowers go into overdrive. It's kinda sweet.

X-23 and Felicia

I don't really go to comic book stores as often as I used to. And certainly not any that regularly carry the minimates I'm looking for. So to get the comic shop exclusives of X-23 and Felicia, I had to order online and ignore the She-Hulk/Chun Li set since I already own enough minimates of those figures.

And this is all about Felicia (although X-23 is a pretty good minimate too. KNIFE FEET!) She's another of the cancelled Street Fighter figures from a decade ago. And now that she's out I'm a little depressed that I have a minimate of a catgirl. It seems so Otakuish. And that's not even a real word..

Zangief vs. Marduk

Don't know who Marduk is, don't care. But Zangief... If not for Zangief, who will crush man's skull in thighs? He's a man Determined to show the strength of Russia through the power of grappling and wrestling, even though he's fighting people who can shoot fireballs out of their hands. He is Zangief!

AMP Episode 59: Mario's Comfort Zone

New episode of the podcast is up a lot of rambling and then we try to get Mario to talk continuously about potential Star Wars spin-offs for a whole minute. We might have to make that a regular segment.

Johann Sebastian Joust

I've tried not to do this kind of thing, but screw it:

Johann Sebastian Joust is a game that uses Playstation Move controllers, but is played without ever looking at a screen. In fact right now it's only available as an early test build that's only able to run on a Macintosh. The idea is that each player holds a move controller. You have to get the other players to move their controller beyond the acceptable threshold (determined by the pace of the music) while keeping your controller as safe as possible. Last player standing wins.



Go and fund the kickstarter to get this game made on PSN, Mac and PC. (It's packaged with other games with equally unique premises). If you don't have a PS3, you can fund it at a level where they give you the controllers. PSN has agreed that funding this game essentially counts as a preorder if the funding is successful. They're being very generous considering the developers are essentially making a game that must use Playstation controllers but can be played on non-Playstation systems.

But go fund the game so they can make copies and I can finally play this game.