Crankstart and Galvatron

I decided to give the Kre-O transformer minifigs another chance, mostly because there was a two for one sale and Galvatron sort of impressed me when I read other people's look at the figure. I had hopes that Crankstart, who turns into a four wheeled vehicle, would look a lot better than the other minifigures.

Sadly I was wrong. He looks exactly as I feared, a figure tipped on its side. Just one that has wheels attached to his feet.

Meanwhile Galvatron was actually pretty good. And best of all, his transformation was more than just disassembling him and reassembling him in a different way. He actually sort of transformed without removing that many parts. And best of all, he doesn't look like someone just tipped him on his side.

And they did a damn good job with his robot mode. A friend happened to see it and could recognize him immediately.

Kyle Rayner & Kilowog (SDCC 2012 exclusive)

Having never been to a comic convention, I've long missed out on the con exclusive game. But luckily since college I've made friends who do attend such gatherings, and so for the last two years my friend Kelly has been able to pick up exclusive toys being offered at San Diego Comic Con for me. Last year she grabbed the Hasbro Indiana Jones six-figure set (I'm still rightfully apologizing for her having to carry a three foot-long box through the packed con floor), and this July she was able to snag the first DC Collectibles (formerly DC Direct) Green Lantern 3 3/4"-scale two-pack.

Well, the snagging was a little more difficult than it should've been. See, the deal behind this series of non-retail two-packs is that DC intends them to be exclusive to certain big-time conventions (the second set containing John Stewart and Atrocitus was exclusive to the recent New York Comic Con, for instance). The company further stated that the line wouldn't progress beyond the first two-pack if it didn't sell out at SDCC. Apparently DC anticipated astronomical demand, as it instituted a complicated voucher system to ensure people didn't buy too many, as they had done with DC Direct's multi-colored Hal Jordan figures a while ago. How complicated, you ask? So complicated that Kelly wasn't able to buy a set for me until the last day. And so complicated that when she went to the booth to see if she could finally give them money for something they want to sell, there were still huge piles of the set left over. Unsurprisingly, at that point scoring one wasn't all that difficult.

Despite the logistical foul-up that resulted in heaps of unpurchased Kyle Rayner/Kilowog sets, it seems sales were decent enough to warrant continuing the line. Anyway, I wasn't able to pick up my set from Kelly and pay her back until last month, and I haven't been able to write up my review until now, but I gots things to say about this pair of Lanterns and I hope you don't mind hearing about them.

AMP Episode 55: Castle Graysuck

After last week's technical problems, episode 55 is now here. AJ and Mario have technical problems of their own but they join in about halfway through.



Obviously we spend some time talking about Mattel's Castle Grayskull preorder, since it allows us to mock Mattel a little more.

Laser Bird with Space Egg

So I picked up one of the K'Nex angry bird single figure blind packs. I like the Mario Kart K'nex figures, so I figured, why not? Aside from the fact that I don't play the games.

Since it's K'Nex that mean you can just look at the codes to figure out what's inside. (Thanks internet!)

So since I don't like the game, I just went for aesthetics. Like something crazy, like a space bird. I guess its called a Laserbird. I just like the 1950's scifi serial look it has. Back when aliens wore capes and funky eyewear.

Nothing on the bird looks like it fits with building bricks, but the space egg does, but that's K'Nex for you. I guess the birds are only meant to be chucked at building bricks. Because destruction!

Please make better quality versions

I saw the Star Wars Angry Birds at Toys R Us today. There were some blind packed "figures," including the only available in blind pack version of Han Solo Yellow Bird trapped in carbonite. I considered getting it (very easy to use the feel method) but decided against it because looking at the figures in the boxsets made ke realize how small they are, how poor quality (looking like tiny, poorly painted erasers) they are and how they're made of weak, bendible plastic. They really seem like glorified erasers. I've gotten better quality figures from gumball machines.

Which is a shame since it costs $4 for two blind packed figures.

Aunt May, Shield Agents, JJJ

My order for the Marvel Minimates series 43 came in. I bought the whole wave because I wanted the variant figure, and it's pretty much the only way to get the variant at a reasonable price. Who's the variant figure?

Aunt May. They made an action figure of Spider-man's elderly aunt who has no powers or does anything even close to interesting. It's an action figure of a normal old woman. And that is amazing. (CRAP, That was not intentional.)

 She comes with a Shield Agent, who is the army builder in this wave. To make it seem like there isn't an army of clones, he comes with a second set of hair. It's a good solution. Works really well.

The other figure, the one that Aunt May replaces, is J. Johnah Jameson, editor of the Daily Bugle and anti-Spider-man fantatic. He comes with some great Daily Bugle accessories, a rolled up paper and one bearing one of the "Spider-Man a Menace" headline variations that always adorns his paper. It's pretty great. More than makes up for me feeling bad that my old school and extremely rare JJJ minimate is now worth less.

I would like to point out that even though this wave is supposed to be dedicated to the Jean DeWolf Saga, the back of the card has absolutely nothing about that story. We just get regular bios. Aunt May is old. JJJ hates Spider-man, Shield agents are generic. 

(Oh wait, I forgot, Spider-man made a deal with the devil to save his aunt's life, because what the hell Joe Quesada?)

Collectobot

I love Playmobil. Today I went to an Educational toy store and in their Playmobil section I finally found the Olympic sets. Unfortunatley they didn't have the ones I wanted, so instead I had to "Settle" for a Playmobil mech suit.

Playmobil made a mech suit. Also a flying car, but whatever, a mech suit! Sure they call it Collectobot but it's a fricking mech suit. And also:

ELVIS HAS DEMOLISHED THE BUILDING!

Thankyaverymuch.