Don't Burn Your Wiener! :: Happy Labor Day Weekend!

I am a subscriber to the LEGO fanclub and in their emails they include instructions for fun little builds. They recently sent out instructions for a BBQ. I modified their build based on the pieces I have and came up with the BBQ pictured above.

And who better to warm their wiener on this fine three day weekend than Homer Simpson?

LEGO me

At LEGO Land they have bins of random minifigure bits, and allow you to build custom minifigures for purchase.

My intern went to LEGO Land a few weeks ago. I was otherwise indisposed (with SDCC!) so I was unable to attend. But I told the Mrs. that the best souvenir I could possibly imagine would be for my intern to make me a LEGO minifigure.

I was overjoyed with the result. While I only expected a random minfigure made by my intern, she literally made ME a minifigure!

She used a minifigure head with a beard and glasses (totally accurate) and added a hat (accurate when my hair gets too long), added a tie died t-shirt and vest (while I do live in Santa Cruz I own no tie-die) and red pants (ok, she lost me here)...and a shovel.

I can't explain the shovel.

But whatever. How awesome is this? My daughter made me a minifigure...by making ME a minifigure!

I will cherish this forever.

FX-7 Medical Droid

Can we say 'scraping the bottom of the barrel'?

Listen, I loved Star Wars as a kid. LOVED it. I had tons of action figures, vehicles and playsets.

I still love Star Wars. Even after the knee-capping the prequels gave us, I admit I am as giddy as a school-girl for the upcoming Episode 7. Luke Skywalker with a beard? SQUEE!

But what the hell is this? Seriously? Please, if you were a kid during the OT and you got this RX-7 Medical Droid for a present, or (impossible to believe) pulled this nugget off the shelves and told your mom you wanted it...please comment and enlighten me. Because...WTF?!?!

Trust me, this is an action figure you will never find with 'play wear.' Because how the hell did you play with this thing?

Seriously. I'm no Star Wars wannabe. I know my stuff. I know my OT Star Wars. I know toys. But I had to look up the name of this guy for this post.

I did not know it.

Not only that, but I could not tell you where tyhis end table shows up in the films.

If I had to guess, I'd say the Bacta Tank scene, but that's just a guess based on the fact that he is called a Medical Droid (a fact I needed the internet to enlighten me of). If I didn't know his name, I might think he showed up in the Jawa scenes. Because those scenes were full of junky cobbled together nobody droids.

Regardless: who cares? He's a lamp with a shit-ton of arms. LAME!

Oh damn, his head pops up. I take back everything I said.

Upcoming Original Comic Book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Playmates

Coming VERY soon: Original Comic Book Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Playmates. These guys are an absolute must-have for me!

These guys look great! I am really looking forward to getting all four Turtles.

According to Turtlepedia, the Playmates versions of classic comic book styled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles will be released in 2015, but chatter over at The Technodrome Forums (including an in-package picture from Playmates Toys' Facebook Page...)

...says they will be out as soon as September of this year!

NECA released a comic book styled series of action figures a few years back, and while awesome, they tend to be pretty pricey on the secondary market today. I have the NECA Leonardo but he's incomplete, so I am glad Playmates will be releasing their versions. Sure, they won't be as 'high-end' or collector aimed, but I like my Turtles as they should be: toys. In addition, these look to be scaled with the current line (and in close proximity to the original TMNT action figures) so they will look great next to the original Casey Jones and April action figures (and others!) The NECA turtles were much larger than Playmates standard TMNT action figures so they never blended well with existing figures. Of course they do work well with the new TMNT Classics figures, but that's a post for another day.

These pictures of the Original Comic Book Turtles are not of the final product, so the weapons may or may not be the same when the figures hit store shelves. EDIT: looking at the in-package pictures, it is clear the weapons are similar to the current TMNT turtle action figure weapons and cast in either solid grey (sais, katana) or solid brown (bo, nunchucks). But since articulation and paint applications appear quite basic (as they should be on these guys) I imagine they will look pretty close to these images. The only thing I could imagine them skipping out on would be black paint in the 'cross-hatching' of the sculpts. It would be a shame if they skipped that paint application, since it is part of what makes these guys look like the original artwork, but it would also be an easy fix.

Raphael was just released at SDCC in a 'black and white' exclusive version. I was tempted to pick it up but passed because I knew these 'colored' versions were coming and they look much better in my opinion. Plus, I will probably be able to get all four turtles at retail for the price of the exclusive Raphael!



They are also now listed on the Playmates website, so really hope we see them in stores soon. I will be lurking the TMNT toy aisles until I do!

Darth Maul Android Body LEGO minifigure

I made some trades with a local LEGO seller and acquired this Darth Maul with android body minifigure.

I'm no big fan of the Star Wars prequels, but if they had a bright point (that they were sure to snuff out quickly) it was Darth Maul. The concept that Darth Maul was not eliminated when Obi Wan Kenobi sliced him in two - that he in fact had some android legs built and now stomps around on said robot legs with a vengance-on for those damned Jedi - that's pretty cool.

He came to me with dual light sabers. Not sure why one is black, I did get him second-hand, so this may be canon and it may be just a random addition tot he figure. Feel free to enlighten me in the comments.

Not only do I now own a Darth Maul minifigure, but more importantly I now own a pair of LEGO android legs. Expect these things to show up on unsuspecting minifigures in the future!

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Warduke Action Figure by LJN.

I finally own a Warduke action figure!

He has a little wear but is in pretty good condition. And he only cost me a dollar! To top it off, I used to have his sword, which I got along with some random toy find. I need to dig into my stuff and see if I still have it.

After a little research, I discovered this version is the 'Battle-Matic' Warduke, because he has a lever on his back that makes his sword arm go up and down. Keen!

Probably the most iconic action figure of the entire 1980s LJN AD&D toyline, Warduke somehow evaded my grasp back when he was originally available.

I wasn't into Dungeons and Dragons at the time (I'm still not) but I did own a couple of the toys: namely the Fire Elemental and Bullywugs of the Bog. I was also into the Dragonriders of the Styx action figure line, and had the Wizard and Dragonman. So why didn't I ever get my hands on Warduke?

My only guess is that I never saw him on the rack, because if I had I would have grabbed him in a nano-second!

Warduke is pretty much the perfect Medieval Fantasy/Sci-fi amalgam that permeated toy store shelves in the early eighties. The mysterious glowing red eyes, the dragon-winged helm, the mix of equal parts barbarian and knight. What's not to love?

My intern also says he is a loving and attentive Manny!

"I'm so embarraaaAAAH DID YOU JUST PEE ON WARDUKE?!?! Sigh. Let's go get a nappy for your widdle bumcheeks."

TMNT Shadow Leonardo Bootleg LEGO Minifigure

This is the bootleg version of a LEGO Shadow Leonardo minifigure that was a comic con exclusive a few years back.

The official version is way out of my (and probably your) price range, but the Chinese LEGO bootleggers have come through for you (and me) and this guy is super cheap on eBay right now.

He comes with two bootleg LEGO katana and a bootleg LEGO shadow skateboard too!

To get him, I had to buy a lot of bootleg TMNT minifigures:

The whole lot was dirt cheap, but beyond Shadow Leonardo kind of...meh.

Other than Shadow Leo, the rest of the turtles are lame variant versions of relatively easy to get ninja turtle minifigures; divers and stealth turtles. Nothing to write home (or an entire blog post) about.

The Kraang robot and Shredder are nice to have though. And they ALL come with skateboards - that's pretty radical! Shredder is supposed to come with two claws, but one was malformed junk - the first issue I have yet had with my limited Chinese LEGO bootleg experiences.

Fun stuff I suppose, and totally worth it just to have Shadow Leo (and a pile of random minifigures) for incredibly cheap!

He's a Radical Rat :: Nickelodeon TMNT Splinter Action Figure

This fellow here is the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles iteration of Splinter: father of the Teenage Mutant ninja Turtle brothers.

I found this guy at a thrift store and paid fifty cents for him, so mine is missing the walking stick he was originally released with. I replaced it with a much cooler katana (whose origins are a mystery to me) I found in a playmobil lot I picked up at a garage sale.

I didn't originally feel the need to own this guy, but for fifty cents I couldn't pass him up.

I don't know that I would pick him up if I had to pay full price. His Nickelodeon animated design is a bit on the bland side and lacks the charm of the goofy-looking original Splinter action figure. And he certainly could have benefited from the inclusion of a few weapons; the original came with a sweet hidden sword in his cane, a bow/arrow, and a couple throwing stars.

Giving him this katana does help.

Also, as a rule, a soft-goods robe would have been preferred over this molded plastic outfit. It limits the movement of his legs, although Splinter probably isn't going to be twisted into a bunch of acrobatic poses anyways.

I'm sure Splinter is still plentiful on store shelves, and a new 'Dojo Splinter' (with removeable helmet), which I think looks pretty cool, has just been released. Had I only been given the chance to own one of them, I would probably opt for Dojo Splinter as he has a little more 'oomph' than this bland Splinter. But I am also a purist and like to have 'original' versions of main characters, so if I would have owned that one first I would have probably then felt the need to track this guy down too.

So I guess the moral of the story is that I am glad to have this Splinter and any fifty cent action figure is better than no action figure at all.

Heavy Metal Noise! :: Nickelodeon's TMNT Metalhead Action Figure

This is the modern iteration of Metalhead, from the Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toyline by Playmates. I've had this guy for quite a while now, but realized the other day that I had never gotten around to blogging about him! The nerve!

Design-wise, Metalhead is a real gem. I love his skull-knee-pads and the nuts/bolts at his shoulders, knees, and the sides of his head. I didn't take a picture of it, but his shell is an NYC sewer lid - a real genius design component!

Metalhead's 'weapon' is a simple flame/missile that you place within a hole in his right hand and 'flick' from the back of his elbow to send it flying. This action feature limits Metalhead's right arm to a perpetual 90 degree bend but it doesn't encumber his aesthetic too much when the missile is removed. And since he's a robot, a limited range of motion is acceptable.

His shoulders are a basic swivel and his wrists rotate. His hips and knees are the more dynamic ball hinge, and his head is on a ball joint, which gives him a large range of emotive head poses.

His elbows do not have any articulation, but I'm ok with that. The only issue I have with his arms is that his bent arm and his straight arm are the same length - were he to extend his right arm it would become longer than his left! If I had to guess why, I would say Metalhead's initial design probably called for some sort of action feature or interchangeable hands/weapons on his straight arm, and that feature was cut for costs. Leaving Metalhead with mis-matched arm lengths. Honestly it's not really that noticeable, but I noticed it and it bugs me just a little bit.

That said: Metalhead is so cool I recommend him regardless of any dumb old stumpy arm!

As for scale, Metalhead is a tad smaller than the Turtles, which is in line with his animated appearance.

I picked Metalhead up many months ago. I'm sure he's still easy enough to find at retail, my experience with the TMNT toyline is that they are plentiful and easy to find (I applaud Playmates and retailers for keeping it that way - no under-packed rarities or retailer exclusives!) but I can't confirm it myself as I have not looked for him recently. If you have, let us know in the comments!

Robin Williams

I love Robin Williams.

People who know me in person know me as a funny guy. I don't know how much of that translates on this blog or any other digital media you may 'know' me from (Twitter, Facebook, Craigslist's 'men seeking...') but I hope it does to some extent.

Regardless,  I am the guy who perfected comedic timing in elementary school in order to guarantee one milk-from-nose incident per lunch hour every day. I wore rainbow suspenders to the sixth grade. I made sure my little sister knew who Buster Keaton was before she even went to school. Once at dinner I said 'I can make anything funny' and when challenged to make the food on the plate funny I immediately channeled Chaplin and danced the breadrolls at the end of a pair of forks. And it was funny.

I literally cried myself to sleep when I heard the news that Peter Sellers had died. I was seven.

I am older now. And jaded. I did not react to Robin William's passing with the same innocence lost abandon as I did when I was just a boy. But I have shed tears. And I will continue to do so for some time.

I am older now. I know life is fleeting. Death visits the great and the shit. I know. I get it. Peter Sellers had a heart attack. Mitch Hedberg died of an overdose. Johnathan Winters of old age. It's sad, but it happens.

But Robin. Mr. Williams. He hurt. He was sad. And that is so terrible. Words cannot describe how painful that is, to have taken so much joy from one person only to find they hurt so badly that they felt worthless.

He had kids, he was a father. I'm a father. I cannot imagine the pain one must feel to think that their own children aren't enough of a tether to life to keep them from severing said tether.

But...

Sometimes when you are funny. It's a shield. It's a suit of armor. It keeps people out. It keeps them at arm's length. It gives you total control of any situation. It is the perfect camoflauge.

I started this post with the line 'I loved Robin Williams' but I removed the past tense. Because my love for Robin Williams did not end when he did.

Through his comedy he is immortal but goddamn it he left us way too soon.

TMNT Newtralizer Action Figure :: 'She turned me into a newt!'

'I got better.'

Newtralizer! Another brand new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figure release (along with the new Slash reviewed yesterday.)

Although I have not seen the episode in which Newtralizer appears, his design had me captivated from the second I saw it online, and I am glad to be able to add him to my action figure collection.

Fist of all: 'Mutant Newt.' There is not one single part of that  two word sentence that isn't slopping over with 'awesome.'

Second, this guy's look just screams his 'nineties EXTREME!!!!' superhero comics influences. From Punisher to Judge Dread to all those idiot 'superhero' creations with more pouches than personality, Newtralizer is one modern TMNT design that hits on all cylinders.

Newtralizer is a Kraang killing bounty hunter (he even has the Kraang tentacles hanging from his belt to prove it!) and of course any child of the Star Wars generation knows there are few things cooler than bounty hunters.
 

 Newtralizer comes with two weapon accessories: a bladed disc...

...and a knife that fits into a sheath on his leg-strap!

The removable knife is a nice touch and one that could have been skipped by the manufacturer for a myriad of reasons, so it's great to get it here. In my humble opinion, a toy with a stowable weapon is better than a toy with non-stowable weapons any day of the week.

I suppose you could also count his wrist mounted 'guns' as weapons too (or even his unpainted tail blade), but they are part of the sculpt and not actual accessories.

As with Slash, there are two reported variations of Newtralizer being found - one with grey weapons and one with brown weapons. I've seen them both in person, and I think the grey 'metal' looking weapons are far superior to weapons that match Newtralizer's skin tone, but you are free to choose whichever YOU think is best when you are out hunting this guy down.

Nickelodeon's TMNT Slash Action Figure :: Turtle Power!

Slash has always been one of my favorite TMNT characters. I love the Edward Hyde/Bizarro aspect of the character, the mad twisted tweak on the cuddly loveable Turtle Teens.

So when I learned Slash would appear in the Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon, and that he would later appear as an action figure, I was pretty stoked.

At first I was unhappy with the action figure's shortcomings, and had decided to pass on him. But Toys R Us is having a 'Buy one, get one 40% off' TMNT sale, and since I was buying Newtralizer I decided to nab Slash anyways.

I am glad I did.

I admit, the pin-headed design isn't my favorite. And of course it has been said time and again (even by me) that Playmates' non-turtle TMNT action figures fall short in many ways (paint apps, articulation, accessories...you name it.)

But I took a step back from the toy collector mentality for a minute and realized a few things: primarily, if 'OtherToyCo.' was in charge of the TMNT license, they would be asking upwards of $20 plus for these guys. And while you might get slightly more articulation, or perhaps more paint apps, there would still be plenty of issues to complain about. PLENTY! And would you really be getting more/better for your more money? I say thee 'nay.'

So is Slash perfect? Heck no. But at BOGO 40% off he and Newtralizer came to about $6.30 each, and that's simply incredible in this day and age. Heck, $8.99 for a figure this size is incredible this day and age, especially for a licensed property. Playmates keeps these guys at around $8.99, sells them everywhere, has yet to release an impossible to find anything, and stores stay well stocked and have sales all the time.

All that considered, I just can't complain about Playmates handling of TMNT action figures anymore. I will continue to like/dislike character designs and whatnot, which is anyone's prerogative, but I'm absolutely okay with how the toyline is being handled and how many kids it is able to reach at this price-point while still (somewhat) appeasing old jaded toy collectors at the same time.

Nickelodeon Slash is scaled smaller than he appears in the cartoon, but his scale works well next to the original Slash. And having grown up a Transformers/GoBots fan, scale is just something you had to let go of. In the Transformer world, Semi trucks are larger than jet fighters, and cassette players are even larger than that! Scale, shmale - who needs it?

Modern Slash comes with one weapon: a nice, solid mace.

There are currently two paint variations on the modern Slash. The one I picked up has yellow paint apps on his chest. The other available version lacks this paint app and instead has the paint applied to small spikes on his left shoulder. I've seen both versions in person, and although it's a small thing, I prefer this one. Your mileage may vary, or you might not care either way, but something to consider if you are in the market for Slash.

"Paradise!"

2014 San Diego Comic Con :: Star Wars, Muppets, and Zombies. Oh my!

On display at the Mattel booth was this full size Darth Vadermobile, designed by Hot Wheels and soon to be a toy that you probably need to add to your collection.

Gonzo the Great! This is an actual screen used Gonzo from Muppets in Space.

And apparently Gonzo the Great made a great escape and busted loose from his glass case, because...

It wasn't until I was getting this picture ready for the blog that I noticed Gonzo in the background! He was on the floor perusing the Star Wars stuff and I totally missed him.

Seriously, that Gonzo behind the helmet wasn't a display - I don't know if that guy with him was carrying around a functional Muppet or what, but I wish I had noticed him when I was there.

Pepe Prawn was also on display.

Star Wars: Rebels had a bunch of life-sized characters on display. This sure-to-be spunky droid is named Chopper.

This Twi'lek took a liking to me and insisted I take a selfie with her. Her name is Hera Syndulla.

This Jedi Master needs no introduction. Or should I say 'No introduction, this Jedi master needs.' And notice Hera in the background checking me out. I think she was stalking me.

Comic Con is a huge place, and I got lost pretty bad. Fortunately there was this helpful map posted for those of us who had gotten confused by all the hustle and bustle.

Found it! Boy, I sure hope they have BBQ.