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!

Ooo ooh Here He Comes, He's a Manhunter!

This is the DC Infinite Heroes Manhunter Robot figure:



This Manhunter action figure is really cool. I like how, even though they used the standard DCIH body, they added a collar to give him more height and to also give him a more alien/robot look. His gloves and boots are also very well sculpted and bulky (as they should be) and allow this DC Infinite Heroes figure to stand very well unassisted in multiple poses (which is not always the case in the DCIH line.)



From Wikipedia:

"The Manhunters were the first attempt of the Guardians of the Universe to create an interstellar police force that would combat evil all over the cosmos. Their name and much of their code of behavior was modeled by the Guardians of the Universe on the Manhunters of Ma'aleca'andra (Mars). For thousands of years, they served the Guardians well. However, the Manhunters became obsessed with the act of 'hunting' criminals. Their code, "No man escapes the Manhunters," became more important to them than seeing justice done."



"No man escapes the..."

"...yikes!"

I discovered recently while reading the blog Random Happenstance that K-Mart had placed their DCIH on clearance. Well only one K-Mart within fifty miles of me had ever even seen the likes of DCIH, so it took me a while but I finally made it out that way. And lo-and-behold their DCIH singles were reduced to $1.50 each! So I got three Manhunter robots and a couple others too (to be blogged about later.)

Which brings our DCIH tally to:

Infinite Heroes: 11

Infinite Villains: 6

And the Winner is...

With the help of my daughters, we have thrown all the entrants into Toyriffic's "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Contest" into a hat and drawn a winner...


...and the winner is...






Jon K!!!!!!!





Jon won by posting a comment and telling us about the following Superheroic deed:

"Well, I suppose I've got the first shot at this, eh?

Superheroic deed? On Tuesday, my wife and I adopted our then-foster daughter, Desi, as we had done with our son Tristan a year and a half before that.

Perhaps that may not be considered a superheroic need, but so far as I'm concerned, giving these children love, home and a family makes me feel pretty darn super... and I'm pretty certain that, so far as Desi is concerned, I'm her hero, and that's good enough for me!"

Yay John! - Now email me at bubbashelby@gmail.com with your address and I will mail your prizes to you.

Thanks everyone for entering and especially for your good deeds - and stay tuned - we'll be doing more contests soon!

Ghostbusters: We put the "BOO!" in Boobies.

I usually don't post pics like this, but I saw it over at Cool Toy Review while looking at the SDCC Mattel pictures (I swear!) and I just couldn't resist - I mean seriously: the Ghostbuster/Bust jokes practically write themselves!

So in keeping with that theme, I invite all Toyriffic readers to Ghost-write a few jokes for this picture and post them in the comments section!

I'll get the ball rolling:

"Who ya' gonna' call? Bra-busters!"

"...and modeling the new "Stay-Puft" line of bras..."

and of course, the title of this post - "Ghostbusters: We put the "BOO!" in Boobies."

Okay, now it's YOUR turn!

Black Handed Compliment

Now a major player in the DC Universe, this DC Infinite Heroes Black Hand action figure came out in the first DCIH release, and pretty much nobody but the most die-hard comics fan had ever even heard of him (myself included.)



Which is why he's one of the peg-warmingest DC Infinite Heroes figures out there. If you can find DCIH figures, chances are there's at least one and maybe even a Black Handful of these guys hanging there.



But that's kind of a good thing, because I was able to get mine for $3.98 at Toys R Us last week when this series was on clearance.



Due to the lack of availability in many newer DCIH and the excessive peg warming of a select few that came out on day one, I worry that the DCIH line may be deader than the Black Lanterns. I hope I'm wrong and new news about this line comes from the San Diego Comic Con soon.



Regardless, Black Hand is one of the better DCIH figures and I'm glad I got him; especially now that I'm following Blackest Night.



"Talk to the Black Hand!"

Black Hand slaps one more baddy onto our DC Infinite Heroes tally:

Infinite Heroes: 11

Infinite Villains: 3

Google Goes Ga-Ga for GL (and others too!)

In honor of the San Diego Comic Con, Google has added a few good men (and a woman) to their Google logo today:



You can see the larger image by going to Google.com, and the smaller image shows up if you just do a search in the Google taskbar:



How cool is that? Way to go, Google, and as a DC fan I'm glad to see you went with the Justice League and not Marvel characters ;) (although that would have been cool too, I guess.)

From DC Comics' blog The Source:

...check out the lovely piece of Jim Lee art you see above inked by Scott Williams with colors by Alex Sinclair, featuring some notable DC faces - Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Batman, Robin and Plastic Man. They will be adorning the Google homepage as the doodle for the day, in conjunction with the first full day of San Diego Comic-Con and Google’s launch of their comic themes for iGoogle.

Click the image below to see the logo in full size:

Mysteri-O, I Need You So

This Mysterio figure came from the Spider-Man movie line in 2007.


This figure is a "what if" type of take on Mysterio, giving him a more "realistic" look ala the Sam Raimi movies. I think this version of Mysterio may have appeared in the video game based on Spider-Man 3, but I don't play a lot of video games so I am not certain.


I really like this figure because his design is reminiscent of an old sci-fi B-movie villain, with the bubble dome helmet and regal robes. Even if he wasn't Mysterio, or if you can't accept him as a canonical Mysterio, you have to admit he's still pretty darn cool!


I had seen this Mysterio figure in stores and really liked his look - Mysterio being one of my favorite Spider-Man villains and all - but I never got around to picking him up. I found this one at the swap meet a couple weeks ago and gladly nabbed him for just a quarter!

"Take me to your leader."

It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a Contest!

That's right Superman fans, Toyriffic is giving away a couple of very cool Superman items for free! A DC Superfriends Superman figure and the trade paperback novel "It's Superman" by Tom De Haven.

Wowee!


Both of these can be yours by simply answering in the comments section this question: "What superheroic deed have you done lately to make the world a better place?"

Have you held the door open for a little old lady, given blood, pushed a broken down car out of an intersection, thwarted a bank robbery, or saved a kitten from a tree? Tell us in the comments section and one person will be chosen at random on July 27th to win this cool Superman swag:


This DC Super Friends Superman is a cutesy kiddy version of our favorite alien and comes complete with a "Slam and Bam Wall!" Keen!


"It's Superman" is a novel set in the time of Superman's original creation (the late 1930s) and is like "The Grapes of Wrath" meets "Smallville." This version of Clark Kent is very much rooted in the times that created him and it's a neat and original imagining of a Superman in America during the Great Depression. It's a wonderful book and having just finished reading it, I'm eager to share it with someone who will hopefully enjoy it as much as I did. No Superman fan should miss this one!

And it's just that simple: submit a comment telling us how you have made the world a better place through your recent actions, big or small, and I'll pick one randomly on July 27th and then (after I get your address) I will mail these items to the winner!!!

(And yes, international submissions are welcome!)

With this ring, I thee DEAD!

I wasn't going to get into the newest DC Comics crossover event of the decade-century-week; aptly titled "Blackest Night."

I'm not really a horror/zombie/good-guys-gone-bad fan, and it's hard to feel pathos for dead superheroes when they fall and rise more often than (insert Viagra joke here,) but two things prompted me to pick up issue #1 of Blackest Night at the comic store today.



#1: With Batman dead, I'm hoping this storyline commences with Bruce Wayne kicking zombie butt while simultaneously rising from the dead and rescuing his fellow heroes who have succumed to zombiehood, or something along those lines. We know Bruce isn't really "dead," and we know no one stays dead in comics for long, but I was pretty sure without even reading a page that Batman will end up playing a pivotal role in restoring order as this story progresses.

#2:



The comic shop was giving away this spiffy Black Lantern ring with each copy of Blackest Night sold! I'm a sucker for that kind of thing, so I caved. Maybe I could have gotten it for a quarter, or for free if I just asked, but what the heck. The comic comes with a money back guarantee anyways, so if I don't like it I will just keep the ring ;)

The story itself is...interesting. It's a cool take on zombies (tying them into the Green Lantern/Rainbow Lanterns mythos via a black power ring,) and I'm sure when the dust settles there will be some new dead superheroes to mourn and more old dead superheroes will be resurrected. I love the Green Lanterns so it's good to see such an epic battle beginning which they'll play a huge role in. And of course there's Batman's role (whatever that may end up being) which will keep me tuned in. It's also extremely well drawn by Ivan Reis.

Blackest Night is not for everyone, with heavy gore and stuff going on that most folks unfamiliar with recent DC events would find confusing. But it was worth the read, and I think I'll stick with it for at least another issue.

BTW I realized I had failed to mention my "Super Good" comic shop by name. If you are ever in Santa Cruz be sure to swing by Atlantis Fantasyworld - the very definition of a Super Good Comic Shop!

That's one big puppet!

Thanks to John Rozum for directing me to this video via his blog - it's amazing and a bit freaky at first, but actually quite beautiful. Astounding engineering and puppetry!

Will the real Beast Man please stand up?

This is Beast Man.

No, not the Masters of the Universe Beast Man you are most likely familiar with, but the Beast Man from the Flash Gordon cartoon that predates Masters of the Universe by a few years, and not coincidentally a cartoon also produced by Filmation and from a toyline also produced by Mattel.

The late seventies/early eighties Flash Gordon revival was more of a Flash in the Pan Gordon revival, but Beast Man was smart and socked away a few bucks. In fact, he finally saved up enough to buy a house (the economic downturn helped) and he would like to show you around.


"Welcome to the Beast Mansion. Get it? HA!"


"I know it ain't much, (you should see the digs that steroid-swelled orange bastich is living in) but it's mine, and I earned it fair and square. I didn't make a lot of money off Flash Gordon, but the eighties were kind, and I got a lot of stunt work from those nice Smurfs."

"I could be bitter, sure. Some orange monkey steals my name and my schtick (and probably some of my rotoscoping as well,) and goes on to be loved by a generation of toy geeks. But I'm over it. Besides, check out that cool dangly thing hanging from my roof! Pardon me while I go swat at it."

It was developed for the military...

Back when my blogs were in a holding pattern, I had the opportunity to play with the most expensive toy I've ever had the pleasure to operate:

The da Vinci Robotic Surgical System is used to perform heart surgery, prostate surgery and others. No, I didn't undergo any heart surgery, but I did attend a show that had this machine on display - and they let me play with it!

This part is the robot itself. The arms have removable components that can be switched out for different surgical tasks. On this day it was fitted with little tiny claws, kind of like the tips of Dr. Octopus' tentacles in Spider-Man 2. The claws, or pinchers, had full rotation capabilities just like our wrists and emulated the natural movements of our own hands. .

Small incisions would be made in a patient, and these claws are inserted...

...while the surgeon sits at this control area. In many cases this machine can be used instead of sawing the patient's chest in half and opening it like a set of shudders (my Dad had that type of surgery almost 20 years ago,) and cuts hospital stays, recuperation time etc. exponentially.

In the center of this picture you can see the "handles" - the surgeon straps their forefingers/thumbs in and the robot pincers mimic their every move!


In addition, the surgeon looks into the world's most expensive ViewMaster (Brian will love this!) and sees a "real 3-d" magnified image of the claws doing their business.

The machine was set up with rubber pillars and rubber bands, and you had to try to manipulate them around. It was surprisingly realistic and easy to do. Considering what we can do now, and what we couldn't do ten years ago, this machine makes the mind boggle as to the implications of the future of robotic assisted surgery.

Here's a view of the tiny claws and the rubber band set-up.

And here's a closer shot. For size reference, that is a penny on the right.

Here's another shot from above. Were this an actual surgery, the patient would likely be laying on their side horizontally along that picture.


The monitor to the right of this image would be viewed by assisting surgeons or nurses or other surgical assistants.

I was told this machine was created by the military, and their intention was to create a mobile device that could roll into a war zone and perform surgery on the spot while a surgeon remained safely out of harm, but making it mobile and bullet proof etc proved to be a bit difficult, so the technology was developed for the rest of us.

Which got me thinking. The history buff in me thought of how war has always led to tremendous leaps in medical technology. The comic book nerd thought that we are so very close to artificial intelligence and God help us all when these things rise up against us!

So in closing, this machine is your ancestor and my friend. Don't hurt me, robots!

I Am Iron Man!

Tomorrow is Super-Hero day at work (I work with kids,) and I wanted to do it up, so I picked up an Iron Man mask (which also comes with a disc firing gauntlet!) - and yes, I got it at Ross, for $11.99. (side note, I'm all set for Halloween.)

The mask is very cool, but I wanted to do a little something extra.

So I bought one of those battery powered push lights and threw on an undershirt. Now I'm Tony Stark becoming Iron-Man!

Since I work with kids, the martini glass will have to stay home ;)

But I think I'll throw it in on Halloween!

Leonardo De-Chep-eo

Ross comes through again! I posted earlier about DC Infinite Heroes three packs showing up at Ross for the dirt cheap price of $4.99. Ever since finding them, I've checked Ross frequently for more goodies, and today I found this:

The 25th anniversary TMNT re-issue series - for $3.99 each!

Now if you're like me, you saw these at retail and went "cool!" then you saw the upwards-of-ten-dollar price tag and went "waitaminute...maybe not."

Well $3.99 is probably close to what these went for when first released decades ago, so there's no walking away from it this time! I was able to score Leonardo and Donatello (more on him later) and passed on Bebop and Rocksteady (whom I have recently picked up original versions of.)

I've been scoring a lot of TMNT stuff at yard sales and swap meets lately, but I have yet to bring home any of the original four turtle figures. They're always missing their weapons and belts, and although I am usually okay with that when it comes to vintage figures, the weapons are such an integral part of the Ninja Turtles' various personalities that I've not been able to bring myself to pick up any incomplete figures.

Which makes this Leonardo so much sweeter. Ahh, the minty freshness of his sleek green hide and his uncut weapons rack!

See, what I mean - Leo without Katanas is like...well...a turtle without his shell!

"Slice and dice, baby!"

The re-issues are exactly like the originals, however their heads are hard plastic like the rest of the figure (not rubber like the earliest releases,) and their copyright information on the base of their shell indicates "2008" - something to be aware of if some unscrupulous toy dealer tries to pass one of these guys off as original!

Leonardo was my favorite when the turtles first burst on the scene, but since then I've grown much fonder of Raphael. Looks like I need to check as many Ross stores as I can find yet again!


Also, as a bonus, each figure comes with a DVD episode of the original cartoon. Leo came with episode 1 - a nice place to start if I do say so myself.