7/30/09

Smilodon, darn ya', Smilodon!

This little kitty is a Smilodon, more commonly referred to as a Saber-toothed Tiger.


He was manufactured by Marx sometime in the sixties and was originally available in boxed or bagged sets of prehistoric animals. Any boy who grew up in the sixties, seventies and eighties had tons of little plastic dinosaurs all over the place, and I imagine future excavations of our civilization will ironically yield tons of toy dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures.


The Sabre-Toothed Tiger was always my favorite prehistoric animal, next to old T-Rex himself. I mean, who wouldn't marvel at a giant feline with fangs the size of butcher knives!


Toys like these also remind me of the "good old days" when we thought dinosaurs walked upright, dragging their snakelike tails, lumbering like giant slow lizards. I recall hours and hours of play in the house and in the yard with handfuls of colorful plastic creatures. My era was a heyday for cheap plastic toys - army men, knights, fantasy creatures, dinosaurs, aliens - we had it all. If you can even find a set of cheap plastic toys nowadays you're lucky if they're army men or dinosaurs, and they have little charm after having been cast and recast and copied fifty thousand generations after the original molds.

Also, kids today seem to prefer the squishy rubber toy frogs and bugs and stuff which were solid or hard plastic in my day. Sheesh - kids!


"I want tuna, I want liver, I want a Mastadon, please deliver!"


No, he didn't roll over for a tummy rub - I'm just showing his markings which read "Smilodon" and "9' Long"

See, in my day toys even taught you something!

7/1/09

Teen Titans GO!

I posted earlier about select Ross stores selling Infinite Heroes three packs for dirt cheap.

I was heading to my new home the other day and discovered a Ross mere blocks from my house, so of course I stopped in to see if there was anything I hadn't found at the last Ross. Well Ross comes through again with another $4.99 three pack - this time with a Teen Titans angle!

The three pack I found this time includes two good gals and one villain. Let's start with the villain; Captain Boomerang:



This isn't the original Captain Boomerang; I'm no Flash rogues gallery expert, but I did read Identity Crisis and I believe that was the storyline that brought the original Captain Boomerang's son into the role.

This dude has got a lot of boomerangs. Seems excessive for a weapon that's supposed to come back to you - I mean it isn't like they're ninja stars fer chrissakes!

Crikey, that's a lot of boomerangs, mate! But regardless, it makes for a pretty cool design and a nicely sculpted figure.

Along with Cap. B. came two Teen Titans; Raven and Starfire!

I actually saw Starfire recently as a single, and nearly bought her.

Starfire is well sculpted and painted and appropriately larger than her other female counterparts. But what really sets her apart is her hair:

Not only did they do a great job representing Starfire's famous locks, but they painted them with a fade to represent her flaming hair powers or whatever her schtick is in the comics. Keen!


Last but not least is Raven. I know little more about Raven than what little I saw on the sometimes tolerable Teen Titans cartoon, but I like her look and her Infinite Heroes figure is really cool too. The only problem I have is that she has a raven on her chest, and I don't think that is comic accurate, but I could be wrong. Regardless, she's very cool and another fine addition to my ever growing Infinite Heroes roster.

I would have gladly paid $4.99 for any of this set individually, so finding them at that price for all three is awesome!

This new set brings the Infinite Heroes tally to:

Infinite Heroes: 11

Infinite Villains: 2 (Hush finally has a friend!)