Brother Warth

I totally thought this dude's name was Brother Wrath in a nod to some sort of Irony since the dude is one of the Blue Lanterns, a lantern of hope. My Mattel splurge at the toy show had me jonesing to build up my 6 inch Lantern Corps collection, so I finally bit the bullet and picked up Warth after years of fence sitting. Idioms, gotta love em. Warth is a solid piece of plastic, although the skirt is made of that soft rubber that has that weird sheen toys made of soft rubber eventually get.

Also, his tiny feet on the thick legs worry me a bit. Otherwise, a solid figure with a fairly good set of articulation. I mean, no knee articulation, but cut feet.

Toy Sale

Went to a parking lot toy show. It was fun and I ended up buying a lot of Mattel stuff... I'm clearly a masochist. But I also picked up a mr Burns figurine with his brain scoop for a quarter.

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.

Parking Lot Sale Purchases

I went to a Parking Lot sale at Toy Fusion, something AJ had tipped me off about a while back. It was an interesting place, full of vintage toys on sale by vendors who either knew what they had and what it was worth, or people trying to clear out their garages. That means there were a lot of boxes with miscellaneous toys in various condition on sale for cheap.

It also meant I got to see toys I've never seen before. It was like a mini-flea-market for toys. Except the toys weren't all 50 cents or 3 for $1. But I mean look at the obscure stuff you could find!

I'm pretty sure that's a Peter Pan from the Disney Store line of articulated action figures. Aside from a waist joint, this thing had the same, possibly more, articulation than a Mattel figure. *rimshot*

So let's go over what I ended up buying, and why, since that's the name of this blog.

Movie Masters Isamot Kol

It's a Green Lantern Movie Masters figure. After the debacle that was the Ryan Reynolds Green Lantern figure in this line, I vowed not to get another Movie Masters Green Lantern figure unless it was Isamot Kol or really, really cheap. (Like under a dollar cheap.) This figure meets that criteria by being Isamot Kol. Like all Movie Masters figures, this is poorly designed. The way the limbs are designed, it's really difficult to have him stand up unless he's on all fours. However the articulated tail and mouth mean I really like this figure because his massive jaw opens. Actually all the problems I have this figure could have been solved by adding articulated ankles. There's articulated wrists! How can articulated ankles be that much harder?

Oh, also, trying to distinguish a green ring on a green hand: Not so easy. It took me a minute to figure out what hand the ring was on.

Kobra

Look, I'm not calling him Lord Naga. TRADEMARKS BE DAMNED!

I wanted this guy for a while now, mostly just to broaden my DCUC villain collection. I didn't want to pay full price because he has a plastic cape, which I hate, and because DCUC figures are too expensive these days. Fortunately, loose, without his build a figure piece, the dealer was willing to bring the price down to something I can live with. His legs are a bit warped, but that just be the way he's designed.

Hot Seat

Mario pointed this car out to me, and I decided to get it. It's a Hot Wheels car designed to look like a toilet. With a plunger as the steering wheel. And the seat has a hinge, so you can have all the fun cliche jokes about leaving the seat up.

What do you want, it was $1. I thought that was well worth the limited amusement value that I get out of the thing.

Cyclops

After seeing all the loose Marvel Legends figures, I thought I should get one if I found it at a good price and I really wanted it. So that's how I chose Cyclops here. I love Cyclops and all his repressed, weird back-story insanity. I skipped this figure when it first came out, and I've sorta regretted it once I began picking up some 6" figures.

The dealer was willing to cut the price a little, so it was an easy decision. Especially once I saw that his fingers were articulated and he has double jointed elbows so you can pose him doing his iconic visor-touch. I'm still not in love with Marvel Legends, especially when the thigh doesn't have a cut joint to supplement the ball jointed hip-thigh, but I really like this figure.

12-inch Luke & Han

These aren't even the collector's series. They're the really bad, early 90's Kenner figures. I pretty much only got them so I could cannibalize them for the costumes and because the guy cut me a huge discount if I got both.

Damn, they have big hands.

And that's pretty much it. Except for the 1:6 scale chainsaw I picked up.

Man I miss when Toys R Us had a wall of 12 inch figures. (Which is where I got Jesse Ventura... Actually I found him stashed on a clearance shelf, but only because the Toys R Us had carried him earlier. We never really appreciated the 90's.)

3D Thursday: Kilowog and Zilius Zox

It's time for a new semi-regular feature here at "Why Did I Buy That Toy," where we present some original 3D content. Today we've got some 3-D picks as I go over the Action League 2-pack of Green Lantern Kilowog and Red Lantern Zilius Zox. Just as a heads up, I'm not really a fan of these types of Galactic Heroes super deformed tiny vinyl figures. I've skipped over every other version of them in the past. But I got this 2-pack back in the height of my "Green Lantern" obsession when I desperately wanted new Rainbow Lantern characters. I figured this would be the only way I would get a Zilius Zox figure, so I bit the metaphorical bullet and bought the pack. A year later and I just got around to opening it.

They're everything I expected, which is to say heavier than they look and not very exciting. The limited articulation doesn't leave me a lot of play features, so I'm pretty much getting these to display Zilius. I don't know what I'll do with Kilowog. For what he is, Zilius is pretty good. he doesn't balance very well, but what do you expect from a giant solid ball supported by two tiny legs? I will say that despite his distinctive look, he almost fits in on my Rainbow Lantern Shelf.

All things said and done, I'm not impressed with this set, and it sure as hell doesn't inspire me to go out and get other similar styled figures. They cost too much for what they are and if I hadn't been in Lantern Madness last summer I would have skipped these entirely. As it is now, I only opened and displayed Zilius for completeness reasons. Kilowog is going into a drawer somewhere.

Okay, time for the...

Current Rainbow Corps Collection Display Count

Green Lanterns: 11 (I removed the Movie Masters)
Sinestro Corps: 7
Red Lanterns: 4
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Black Lanterns: 1.15
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1

Sinestro Corps Sinestro

Dude, it's Wave 20 Sinestro! The one with more accurate scale body party and only available wearing his Sinestro Corps uniform. If you don't know, after Geoff Johns took over the Green Lantern comics he wrote a story where Sinestro started his own Corps to rival and attack the Green Lantern Corps with the idea that by doing so he would make the Green Lantern Corps into an organization that was better prepared to police the Universe since by facing a strong and dangerous foe the Green Lanterns would be forced to be more vigilant, more authoritarian, and less naive about things like the sanctity of life. (Incidentally that's exactly the same motivation that Johns gave his new Zoom Legacy character years earlier when he was working on the Flash. I bring it up because I love hating on Geoff Johns and his hubris.)

And way back in Wave 3 of DCUC they made a Sinestro figure with an alternate Sinestro Corps uniform variant. But I didn't buy DCUC back then so I never got it. And then I got hardcore into figures of the Rainbow Corps in the DCUC lines and oh man was I pissed at myself for not buying it when I had the chance... But now I have it, and it's supposedly a better sized version, so yay!

Sooo....Random  Pro and Con

Pro: Nekron's head from the Build-a-figure works as a disembodied head of Nekron.

Con: I got this figure more out of a desire to have a definitive Rainbow Corps set than anything else. Than and I want to increase the number of figures on my DCUC Villain shelf. Yup, Sinestro isn't going on the Rainbow Corps shelf. That's already way too crowded. He'll go on the villain shelf with Luthor, Cheetah, and Joker.

Current Rainbow Corps Collection
Green Lanterns: 14 (I'm still thinking about removing the Movie Masters toys from the display.)
Sinestro Corps: 7
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Black Lanterns: 1.15
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1

Ultimate Construct Collection.

Toys R Us had this set, and all Green Lantern toys, on sale, do I picked it up. I'm doing what had always been my, and most people's plan, ever since it was revealed that the 4" Green Lantern movie toys constructs could be attached to the DCUC Green Lanterns by using the blast piece that came with larger Green Lantern 4" figures like Kilowog. Which means i could get rid of the Hal Jordan figure. Because screw Hal Jordan. It's pretty representative of the entire 4" DC figures. 6 points of articulation, weak plastic, boring sculpt, boring paint, very meh.

As for the constructs themselves, they're fairly solid. But when you connect them with the connector piece, they stick far out there. It's like the Green Lanterns only wanted to affect things far away from them. Like they don't want anything to violate their personal space. I'm also a little disappointed by the variety. I know there were only eight constructs, but three of them are essentially claws and two of them are spinning blades. That leaves shield, rocket launcher, and bow/arrow.

Hal Jordan... still sucks...

As I've said on multiple occasions, if I had to get a Hal Jordan figure and display it, it would probably be the Movie Masters version since you can pretend he's actually Ryan Reynolds given a power ring. Having said that, I found one clearance, picked it up, and I can now say that the toy is shit and you shouldn't buy it if  you have the chance.

Where to begin? To start with, since this is a Movie Masters figure its smaller than the other DC 6 inch figures. Next, the articulation on the arms is crap. It has cut wrists, hinge elbows, and ball and pin shoulders, but the range of motion you get out of them is almost non-existent. I tried to get the figure to do a bicep curl and here's as far as I could get it.

That's as far as I could get that elbow joint to bend. Oh, and I was trying to get the shoulder to rotate so the arm stuck out 90 degrees from the torso. As you can see that did not happen. Yeah, the shoulder joint didn't really work either. It's like the figure as the illusion of joints. Lame.

Skip this one if you can. Unless you want it as a statue. Although then you'd be better of just buying a statue.



Current Rainbow Corps Collection
Green Lanterns: 14 (I'm seriously thinking about removing the Movie Masters toys from the display.)
Sinestro Corps: 6
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1
Black Lanterns: 1

Blue!

G'Nort

So let's talk about my second favorite Green Lantern. His name is G'Nort. Back in the day he was a giant talking Dog who was incompetent and a green lantern. Actually that was the point. You see there was a group of people with power rings who called themselves Green Lanterns who were giving the corps a bad name. Some of them were incompetent, others were idiots using their powers to move furniture. And it all turned out to be a plot by the Qwardians to ruin the Green Lantern name by giving unwitting aliens Green Lantern rings and letting them loose on the Universe.

Guy Gardner stopped them, but he ended up befriending G'Nort and recommending him to the Green Lantern Corps. G'Nort was accepted as a rookie under Guy's supervision and thus became one of the great comic relief figures of the DC Universe. Because he always defeated evil, just not very well. And everyone found him annoying. So he fit right in the JLI comic books. And then DC Direct made some figures based on the JLI comics.

The thing is, G'Nort has been drawn differently by every artists. He's always a giant dog, but the way that is depicted varies wildly. So any interpretation is as good as another. The one this figure is based on is the one by Kevin Maguire, and is not my favorite. But it's a G'Nort figure. Who cares whose favorite it is.

Articulation is pretty slim. No wait, leg, or feet articulation. But in exchange for that you get a tail that can sort of be spun around in its peg and a mouth that can open and sort of look like a tongue panting.

Current Rainbow Corps Collection

Green Lanterns: 13
Sinestro Corps: 6
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1
Black Lanterns: 1

Go Hastings Haul pt. 1

Hey, so I got an insanely good coupon from Go Hastings.com. From what I can tell it's a mid-west Media store. I'm assuming it's like a Sam Goody or a FYE. Or a Borders? I really don't know, but they have an online store which actually sells Doctor Who toys, so hey, let's jump in that!

I picked up a bunch of stuff like...

Saint Walker

With the realization that the likelihood of getting DCUC figures of characters I want for a reasonable price has basically bottomed out, I'm now more willing to fill gaps in my collection with DC Direct figures. Which is why I picked up this ultra cheap Saint Walker. (Under $5.) Now I have the main representative of the Blue Lantern Corps. Sure he's only got 9 joints (neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, t-joint hips), cut shoulders, and the lantern comes apart really easily, but I'm not paying $30 for him. At least the sculpt is in scale and pretty good. Although the lack of joints is starting to get to me. Not even cut wrists. Hell, I'd probably have taken the waist cut.

Current Rainbow Corps Status

Green Lanterns: 12
Sinestro Corps: 6
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 2
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1
Black Lanterns: 1


Dalek Strategist

I have been wanting more of the candy coated rainbow Daleks from Season 5. Something about how garish and sleek they are appeals to my sense of ironic appreciation. Especially with all the people decrying how much they hate the design. SCHADENFREUDE! So if you're getting one of the iDaleks then you've got to complete the primary color pallet and get the blue one. Something about it just shouts, HEY KIDS! BUY THIS TOY!

Ironsides Dalek

Military green Dalek. Undercover Dalek. Awesome.finally, a must have Dalek variant.

Green Lantern Comics 3

Toy Show Haul (pt. 2)

Let's continue on our little tour of what I picked up at the San Jose toy show on Saturday.

Another thing I forgot to bring up in the gashapon box was a Green Lantern miniature. It's Hal Jordan and his arm falls off fairly easily but it's a build a kit, so an easy fix. What's most interesting about the figure is the angry grimace the figure has. Almost like he's pissed off that he's constipated or something. My animosity towards Hal Jordan means I find this hilarious.

Next up was a Superhero Showdown Doctor Doom. This is essentially Marvel Legends in the 4-inch scale, which is awesome because 1) I'm not so enamored with the Marvel Universe 4-inch figures, and 2) it's cheaper. It even comes with better accessories than the Marvel Universe figures. That's a real firing cannon strapped to Doom's wrist. And a stand that holds him up by plugging into a hold in his back.

And of course the reason I'd want a 4-inch doom? Because of all the ridiculous accessories that are available in this scale.

Moving on, I was shocked to find a couple 3-inch minimates in a vendor's clearance box at the price of 3 for $5. Well there were two of them anyway, so I had to get a regular sized action figure to fill out the quota. But that does mean I was able to get a Dr. McCoy 3-inch minimate to round out my big 3 of the Star Trek crew. I didn't know that they came with Star Trek puzzle piece bases, but cool!

The other 3-inch minimate was an Ozzy Osbourne werewolf, which is awesome because it's both a minimate of Ozzy and of a classic monster! I haven't even opened it because of... well it's actually pretty awesome but it's also something I might consider giving to someone as a gift or possibly to hold onto in its new status. I expect this to last maybe a month.

And last, for this installment anyway, is a... is it a Marvel Legends toy? I'm not sure. But it is a Marvel toy of Movie Spider-Man. I picked this up loose, but it came with the original diorama and a billboard that doesn't fit with the base but I think I could nail to a wall. Meanwhile this figure is pretty awesome, featuring the full articulation of the best Spider-Man toys from the Legends line. It also has some pretty damn awesome accessories. A newspaper machine! Street signs! Traffic lights! A sewer grating!

Seriously, it's pretty damned awesome.

Naut Ke Loi

The Movie Masters Green Lantern figures are kind of... stupid? Due to the way that the Green Lantern movie went out of its way to make the aliens non-humanoid the toys are over the top and possibly too alien to be enjoyed as an action figure. You end up with something like Naut Ke Loi.

The majority of the figure is made of soft plastica which makes it feel not unlike the fish toys you can get at an aquarium painted green. The back tail is semi-articulated in that the skeletal plastic under the surface can be moved from left to right in order to better prop the figure up. Sure the arm flippers move, but they sort of need to be placed in one position in order to keep the figure from flopping over on its side. The mouth opens but is that really thrilling?

The figure is also pretty small, even by movie masters standards. I mean look at Movie Masters Naut Le Koi compared to its DCUC counterpart. Overall, I won this for free from Action Figure Blues and I still feel like I didn't get my money's worth. I think its because of the soft spongy plastic. That always makes me think its going to crack and fall apart in a few years.



There's also a Paralax BAF piece, but who cares about that?

Photo Funnies! Or some better title!

Guy Gardner

It's my third Guy Gardner figure! Actually I already had a Guy Gardner Infinite heroes figure, but this one had some clear green plastic and was on clearance for $2. And since I already joked about getting this and pretending its a light construct, why not?

Head swaping fish man

If you remember, I got a Hal Jordan figure in the lot I picked up from eBay. But since I hate Hal Jordan I took off his head so I could put another figure's head on it. Since then I haven't found any heads that would make it work, but the other day I realized that I actually did. In fact I got it just a little bit before I got Hal Jordan.

If you'll remember the Naut Kei Loi figure came with an alternate Medphyll head, but I preferred the Naut Kei Loi head. I've been looking for a cheap new body to put the Medphyll head on, but then I realized, hey, why not just use the Hal Jordan body.

Well because Medphyll is shown in the comics to have the two toed feet from the Naut Kei Loi/Medphyll figure. But then again, Naut Kei Loi is a character I have no familiarity with, so I figured, screw it Medphyll can have the two toes and I'll put Naut Kei Loi's head on the Jordan body.

And it all worked out swell. Even if Naut Kei Loi is a bit shiny... but you know I bet that works to his advantage on a fish world.

Max Charge Kilowog

So when it was revealed that the constructs from the 4 inch movie figures were compatible with the DCUC figures if you got the adaptor that came with Kilowog I knew I'd have to get a Kilowog. But then I realized I REALLY HATE the 4 inch Green Lantern figures (or really any Mattell 4 inch figure) so I was waiting for a sale. And then I saw a sale for like $1 off and I picked up a Kilowog.

Which makes it hilarious that I ended up returning that figure and instead bought this one for full price. Why? Because he is transparent green and that means he can double as a Green Lantern construct. (Which means he isn't going to count in my Corps count.)

So there is that.

The figure comes with a Green Lantern ring, but since its designed for children it's far too small for me. And since I don't have any kids, kind of a waste. Maybe I'll give it to my cousin when he's old enough to not swallow it. That should only be 5 years from now.

John Stewart

That's John with an "H." The one featured in the Justice League cartoon from the turn of the century. He's the dude that made test audiences who saw the Green Lantern movie ask why they made Green Lantern white. (Hal Jordan sucks.)

There's two DCUC John Stewart figures. This is based on the comic book costume that was based on the costume from the cartoon. It's also a figure I picked up loose, so hey, not accessories. (The original came with a couple constructs.) I kind of wish I had the accessories, but by ignoring them I was able to save about $15. So all things said and done, probably for the best. I had a chance to pick this up new back when it was in stores, but back then I didn't give a damn about Green Lantern figures. It's just one of those regrets.

Of course now that I'm trying to build a nice Rainbow Corps this guy suddenly became a must have since he's a human Green Lantern that isn't Hal Jordan. (Hal Jordan sucks.)

Current Corps
Green Lanterns: 11
Sinestro Corps: 5
Red Lanterns: 3
Star Sapphires: 3
Blue Lanterns: 1
Orange Lanterns: 1
Indigo Lanterns: 1
Black Lanterns: 1

Rejected Head Swaps

So if you remember yesterday's Sue Storm head swap, then good for you. Before I did that one, I tried out her head on a Green Lantern body. It wasn't bad, but it felt like it was missing something.

See, kind of dull. So when I went on to do the Star Sapphire I was much happier with the results.

I also tried out a Low head on a Hal Jordan body.

I dunno, a little too much nightmare fuel for a Green Lantern. Kind of hard to keep peace in the universe when you're making children wet their pants.