Marvel Legends Archangel

It's ridiculous how much I paid for this toy, but let me tell you right up front, that I don't care. The near perfectness of its design just kills all regret for me. I just look at this thing on my desk and I don't care that it was marked up to more than 200% of its retail price.

That's how good Hasbro's version of the character is. You just marvel at it and ask, "Why can't all toys be this pretty?"

Hasbro's Masterpiece Optimus Prime

Okay, so I started a new job and find myself with a lot less "disposable" income than I had before. I've had to cut back on my vices in order to, well, eat. To celebrate my new found sense of fiscal responsibility, let's take a look at something that cost me more than I should have probably spent: Hasbro's version of the MP-10, otherwise known as Masterpiece Optimus Prime.

What I'm Watching in 2013

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Kreon Micro-Changers

So, the Kre-O Transformers Kreon Micro-Changers (that's a mouthful) have been out for a while now, but I've only gotten around to completing them this week. I had a bit of trouble getting my hands on a Galvatron, since the first few boxes I went through were sold out of him. Finally got him the other day at Toy Kingdom Express at SM Megamall.

I'm not sure if he's short-packed or what. No way to really tell with these $@#%ing blind packs.

The Shellraiser

The original cartoon Turtles, when they needed to get anywhere their skateboards couldn’t take them, drove themselves around in a beat up van that kind of looked like my old family Volkswagen Westfalia Camper. It’s funny since that old van was a bright, mango yellow that was weirdly similar to the yellow that the old Turtle Van was covered in. It even had a shell top, though it was white and not green. The Turtles never did take the stealth part of their ninja training to heart, did they?

For the new cartoon, it looks like Nickelodeon and the creators went for a more “realistic” look. Instead of the old VW (see a photo of the classic Party Van HERE), they've based the design of the new Shellraiser (is that an awesome name, or what?!) from a subway car. The Turtles have modified the unit, attaching various implements to it, slapping wheels on the ends so that it could go straight from rails to road.

GDO Generations Swerve

It kind of sucks that there were a few Transformers that never got screen time on the original show. In 1986, Hasbro made a few re-colors of their Mini-Vehicle sub-group of their Transformers available. Pipes, Outback, and Tailgate all came out in the third batch of the little robot figures, but the characters never got the same face time as their "original" counterparts, Huffer, Brawn, and Windcharger, got on the show.

The same thing happened to Swerve, the 4x4 truck patterned after Gears, who was one of the toys released in the first round of Mini-Vehicles. Poor bastard.

Generations Deluxe Wheelie

As far as I can find out, the new term being used to describe the line this figure belongs to on the toy forums is “GDO”, which seems to be short for “Generations Distributed Overseas”.

That seems appropriate, since Wheelie here is part of a set of 4 Deluxe Class figures in the Transformers: Generations sub-line that is only being distributed in Asia. The other three are Springer (a recolored Hunt forthe Decepticons Tomahawk), Swerve (a recolored Reveal the Shield Sergeant Kup), and Cliffjumper (re-released Transformers: Prime First Edition Cliffjumper). All 4 come with brand new heads, which makes the re-use of the bodies far more tolerable than it might have been.

What also improves my reception of the figures is the fact that they’ve chosen four very good bodies to re-use.

Sea Ops Duke

One of my favorite toy lines of all time was G.I. Joe Sigma 6. Based on the cartoon of the same name, it ran from 2005 to 2007 and featured Joes in not just one new scale, but two: the 2.5" Mission figures, and the 8" Commandos.

Being a "joint junkie," I gravitated towards the bigger of the two, as they had more joints and more accessories. That combination beat out the presence of vehicles in the Mission playsets. The Commandos were big and chunky at 1:9 scale and featured weapons and equipment that you could mix and match between figures, giving you a ridiculous amount of play value.

The line managed to last about two years and around 80 figures, give or take, before finally throwing in the towel. If you'd like to look at the list of figures they released, there's a great site called Joebattlelines.com that has detailed reviews of most of them (I think they're missing one or two exclusive re-colors like the Red Ninja), or check that old mainstay of Joe fans, YoJoe.com (though their list seems less complete). CoolToyReview.com also has an image gallery, though again, it's not as complete as the one at Joebattlelines.com.

Of those 80 figures, I've got about 50, including this one called Sea Ops Duke.

6th Annual Toy Kingdom Warehouse Sale!

IT'S THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN BOYS AND GIRLS!

Yup, it's 4th quarter and Toy Kingdom is sweeping up it's warehouse, cleaning out all the old junk that's been lying around in corners, gathering dust. According to the SM Megatrade Hall's website, the annual Toy Kingdom Warehouse Sale is scheduled to take place on November 2-4 of this year in Halls 1 & 2!

Whoo hoo!

Negative Man

It's a slow year for me, which means that buying toys has taken a back seat to things like eating and paying for electricity. Since I've blown my wad for the next few months on the Modern Nickelodeon and Classic Collection Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles figures, we're gonna go over some of the older figures that I never got around to reviewing.

In light of that announcement, here we have DC Universe Classics (DCUC) Negative Man.