The Atom (Infinite Heroes)

Ryan Choi is the Atom. He's the successor of Ray Palmer, who went on a hiatus from heroics after his ex-wife went crazy and killed some people. Ryan Choi is actually pretty damned cool. Aside from being one of a handful of Asian-American Superheroes in the DC Universe (seriously, you can count the number on one hand and still have fingers left over, Asian heroes in the DCU don't tend to be Americans), Choi's exploits included fighting an Invasion of Heaven by Hitler with a Jetpack. Oh, and Giganta kept trying to get into his pants.

So it's sad to say that his brief reign as a hero will soon be over now that they've decided to bring Palmer back as part of DC's fetishization of nostalgia. DC, where the illusion of innovation is good enough! But they made an action figure of him (well actually two: the Batman: Brave & the Bold's Atom is also Choi) and I found it for a good price, ($2.99) so I decided to get it.

The figure has all the same problems as the other DCU Infinite Heroes. Sloppy paint, small for the scale, joint issues, mediocre sculpting, etc... But for $3 it's nice to have a Ryan Choi figure before he's completely forgotten.

Something Strange...

Guess what came in the mail! In seperate packages despite being shipped from the same place and at the same time? And are both from the same order. But it doesn't matter, because they didn't charge me for shipping!



Who ya gonna call?

Battle-Damaged T-800 & T-1000

When the Terminator 2 minimates were announced I decided early on that I really only wanted a T-800 "Arnold" minimate. The others I could take or leave. Then after seeing them in the store, I realized that I wanted a Robert Patrick T-1000. The only problem is that they're not really making a straight T-1000.

There's T-1000 all in silver liquid metal form. There's T-1000 as motorcycle cop (with helmet and aviator glasses). And there's this T-1000. The one with a big hole in its head and optional blown apart torso. This happens to be the only one not wearing aviator glasses, so it's sort of the best "Robert Patrick" minimate that will be available. (For now. Unless motorcycle cop comes with an alternate head.) I don't like the big hole in the head. Well actually I do, but I'd like a non-hole in the head version of this face.

Meanwhile Battle Damaged T-800 is sort of disappointing. The glowy transluscent legs aren't doing it for me. And the lack of an arm makes me feel like I'm being cheated out of a couple cents worth of plastic. That's a stupid way to feel considering that this set comes with an extra torso of blown up T-1000 liquid metal. And a shocked secondary T-1000 head that looks nothing like Robert Patrick.

ROBERT PATRICK ROBERT PATRICK ROBERT PATRICK ROBERT PATRICK ROBERT PATRICK

What would you like me to review?

I haven't been turning out as many reviews lately as I would like, but I hope to change that in the coming weeks. I have a pretty broad toy collection, so I wanted to know if anyone has particular preferences as to what I should review. Keep in mind I'll be focusing primarily on items that have been in my collection for a while, as my new toy acquisitions have been very low recently. Here's a few ideas/suggestions:

*DC Superheroes/DC Universe Classics
*Transformers (G1/Beast Wars/Beast Machines/Unicron Trilogy/Classics/Animated)
*Star Wars (1995-present)
*GI Joe (restricted to stuff from the last decade)
*Marvel Legends
*Indiana Jones
*Toy Biz 5-inch Marvel figures
*Kenner/Hasbro 5-inch DC figures
*Justice League/Justice League Unlimited

So, anything in particular you want to see more of? Speak your mind in the comments section.

Trypticon

In more recent Transformers toy lines, Optimus Prime and Megatron have typically been the "big ticket items"--oversized high priced toys that people shell out for only on special occasions. The problem is you need Optimus and Megaton in your collection. They're the main characters! What a big-ticket item for for a toy line should typically be is a playset. But how do you accomplish that with Transformers, where by design every toy is both a vehicle and a unique character?



Trypticon here was released in 1986. He's a triple changer: his modes include dinosaur, battle station, and city. That's right: city. One of the most desired types of Transformers for the line's fans is the Generation One city robots, which essentially function as playsets for the other figures. It's definitely something I wanted to get my hands on for years. I was glad to have found this for sale one day in a local comic book store for $100 complete with the original box and all accessories, which was a huge bargain.

The problem is in base mode Trypitcon isn't big enough. I took some pictures of the city mode when I first bought it to show my brother, and I could barely balance my Starcream and Classics Megatron figures on the top. This a problem that also plagues his 1986 Autobot counterpart Metroplex (if you want a city-bot that can actually accomodate a number of average-sized Transformers figures, you're going to have to shell out $500 or so on eBay for the 1987 behemoth Fortress Maximus, the biggest Transformers toy ever made). Since the battle station mode is just a subtle modifcation of city mode, it faces the same problems. The irregular shape of both modes also makes it hard to display on a shelf. Dinosaur mode is fine, and it features a nifty walking action, but I didn't get this thing for that mode.

So Trypticon didn't turn out what I expected it to be. In the year I owned it, I took it out of the box twice. Still, it was fun to transform it between different modes, which is the purpose of a Transformers toy anyway. I recently had to sell this on eBay to raise some cash (I got nearly twice what I had paid for it), but I'm not too upset to have parted with it. Still, it was nice to have this big set piece in my collection if just for a short while.

Mole Pod with Terra-Viper (Rise of Cobra)

Mole Pod is a stupid name. They can call it whatever the hell they like, but this is the only thing in the GI Joe Movie line that I saw and immediately said, "I'm getting that." And the reason for that: It's a Giant Drill vehicle. The kind used by Mole Men and other subterranian dwellers for decades.

I would prefer an actual drill tip over a blunted drill-tip missle, but I can understand why they didn't go for that... sort of. (Safety concerns etc. Use soft plastic and a dull point Hasbro.)

The Terra Viper (Earth-viper?) isn't anything to write home about. He's pretty dull. The breathing aparatus gives it some character, but his vest is covered in rocks for some reason that makes no sense whatsoever.

But screw it, I've got a Giant Drill that any 3.75" scale figure with proper hip articulation can ride in.

Cyclops

The Wolverine movie, from what I hear, isn't very good. But whatever. What I care about is the toy line and the fact that for some reason the movie waves include comic book versions of characters. (Even character who aren't in the movie.) However Cyclops was in the movie and so here's a toy of him! Yay! You gotta love a character everyone thinks is too reserved but is only that way because he realzies that if he loses control of himself for even a minute that people will die. Also, Cyclops can't control his powers because his father threw Cyclops out of an airplane as a child because it was being attacked by aliens. And he had to shoot his baby into the future to save its life after the baby momma (a clone of Cyclops true love who was dead for a while after killing billions of people on another planet) sold her sould to a demon. Oh comic books, how I love you.

This is his most recent costume, dubbed the "Astonshing" costume due to its premiere in Astonishing X-men. It's a new variation of his "International era" X-men costume which somehow seems more like a body condom than that one did. It's not a bad costume, it's just... well damnit, I grew up on the Jim Lee era costume. That one rarely gets a toy these days.

But whatever the costume, Cyclops might be my favorite X-Men character, so a figure of him is always welcome. Especially one in this scale. There's no wrist or ankle articulation, in keeping with this line, but he's still got a good heft of posability thanks to joints every where else you would expect a Hasbro 3.75" figure to have them. I also like how they simulated his action feature without doing the light up eyes thing from a battery powered light source or light piping.