Harley Qwednesday :: Elf on Harley's Lap on a Shelf

It helps during the holidays around here that Harley Quinn's costume colors are so close to festive, with all that red and white and diamonds and all. So while some of my toys are relegated to the other room to make space for the tree and lights and stars and tinsel, Harley actually becomes part of the fun!

"Tell Santa Quinn whatcha want, kiddo. Wait...have you been bad or good, cuz if you've been good, I'm droppin' ya!"

So while other boring houses have a lame old elf on their boring shelves, we have an elf on Harley Quinn's lap...on a shelf!

Harley Qwednesday :: Merry Quinnmas!

I hope everyone had a splendid Christmas yesterday! To finish off the celebrations, here's Ryoko-demon as Harley Quinn!

Ryoko-demon on deviantArt
pic by Kifir

Random Christmas Pic :: Merry Christmas and a Beep Boop Whoooowooooo!

Santa and his helper R2-D2, along with everyone here at Toyriffic, wish everyone out there in internet land a very Merry Christmas!

We hope you got a lot of toys!

Random Christmas Pic (and overdue review!) :: Santa Kalibaklaus

"Merry Christmas, filthy Earth worms!"

One of the few DCUC 'Collect and Connect' figures I was actually able to complete is the second favorite son of Darkseid Kalibak the Cruel! I have been reading Kirby's New Gods lately and my love of all things Kirby has been re-ignited, so I dug out my Kalibak and realized that I have yet to review him on Toyriffic! Crazy but true!

I'm so far away from DC Universe Classics now that I honestly can't remember which wave Kalibak appeared in as the 'Collect and Connect' figure...checking Google...ahh, it appears he was part of wave 6 which included black suit and mullet Superman, Mister Miracle, Hawkman, Killer Moth, and Captain Marvel. That was a nice wave, and explains why I wanted them all to complete Kalibak. But truth be told, I would have completed a whole lot of waves had Mattel had any inkling on how to distribute these things...but I digress. The only other DCUC Collect and Connect figures I was able to complete are Metamorpho and Gorilla Grodd, so owning Kalibak is somewhat of an accomplishment. 

Kalibak is a massive figure and a great likeness of Orion's half-brother. When I dug him out of the box he was stored in I forgot to grab his Beta Club, so I'll have to go back for that soon. In the meantime Kalibak is going to serve as a Santa stand-in at home because he's awesome, as are pretty much all things Kirby.

Random Christmas Pic :: Bat Santa

It's Bat Santa and Vampire Elf, along with a reasonable approximation of Frank the Bunny from Donnie Darko.

They know when you've been sleeping because THEY ARE IN YOUR ROOM WATCHING YOU!!!

Lego Batmobile and Target Holiday Batman

Thanksgiving is over and, if you haven't already been thinking about it since Halloween ended, it is time to start planning for Christmas (or your yuletide holiday of choice.)

Target has swept out the literal and figurative cobwebs of Halloween 2012 and now has their Christmas stuff all bunched up in the corner of their stores, including some great new stocking stuffers:

Up first is Lego set 30161 which is a polybagged mini-kit Batmobile!

Consisting of 45 pieces, this is a cute little Batmobile that sadly does not include a mini-figure.

You will just have to be content with a Batmobile.

And if you aren't content with a small Lego Batmobile that cost you $3.99 you have no soul.

It is interesting that there is no Bat indicia on this vehicle at all. That's rare for such a marketing juggernaut as Batman!

And speaking of marketing juggernaut:

Target has again released a holiday themed Dark Knight Rises Batman (just in time for us all to get the DVD or BluRay for Christmas!)

Like the Halloween Batman, this Holiday or Christmas or Winter Batman comes packaged to theme. Batman appears to be in a snow-globe and although more subtle than the pumpkin bubble of the previous Target exclusive, the look is both effective and fun.

Batman is garbed in his standard Dark Knight Rises costume but is cast in winter camouflage - white plastic with sparkly silver/grey splotches. Batman also sports a white cloth cape. I'll open him up when I start decorating the house for Christmas but until then he remains safely ensconced in his faux snow globe. In the meantime, he's $4.99 at Target and hopefully not too hard to find for those of you interested in this neat Target Exclusive variant!

Supertruck!

This is my favorite gift this year:

I received this Superman Monster Truck from my daughter for Christmas. It's large and imposing, and it'll stomp over anything that gets in it's way (as long as whatever is in the way isn't holding Kryptonite!)

This truck is awesome of course, but it is extra special because of the thought behind it. My daughter is only nine, and doesn't live with me full time, so I don't expect her to go out of her way for me for the holidays. But she remembered a trip we took to Toys R Us a few months back, where I was trying to get ideas for her Christmas gifts...I kept asking her what she liked and what she wanted etc. We walked past a remote control Batmobile which I thought was pretty neat. She finally asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said 'that Batmobile was pretty cool, maybe I'll ask Grandma and Grandpa for it.'

When she handed me this gift she said 'I looked for the Batmobile but couldn't find it, so I got you this.'

The fact that she remembered what I said I wanted and later went out looking for it fills me with more joy than any Batmobile ever could (even the real one!) and proves the old addage 'it's the thought that counts.'

I brought my Superman Monster Truck to work so I can look at it all day and remember how thoughtful and sweet my kid is.

Harley Qwednesday :: Christmas with Harley

I got my nine year old daughter this Harley Quinn beanie that was originally sold at the WB Store back in 1999 or therabouts. I had already given her sister a similar Batgirl and given her a Poison Ivy when her sister was born, so now she has a pair of perilous pals to keep her company and to harass her sister's Batgirl.

Here's a small sample of my daughter's Christmas loot, including the Catwoman City Chase Lego set and a Webkinz that Santa gave her.

Merry Christmas!

It's Christmas again kids! And you know what that means?

That's right...TOYS!

And you simply can't spell 'Toyriffic' without 'oy'...'riffic'...'if'...'yri'... 'TOY!'

You can't spell Toyriffic without 'Toy.'

So as we pick up the wrapping paper and bows and boxes and dismantle the tree and take down the lights and march head first into 2012 (mein Gott!) we are sure to have all sorts of goodies to look at here at your favorite blog*

I hope all of you (and more) continue to derive some semblance of enjoyment from this blog in 2012.

Thanks to everyone for being a part of all the madness around here for the past four years. (I started Toyriffic in December of 2007!) I have more fun with this blog than a man should be allowed to have on a family safe internet site. And although I'd be doing this with or without you wonderful viewers, it would be a hell of a lot more lonely around here without you.

So go, get off the damn computer! Enjoy a cup of coffee, open a present, watch your kids open their presents, kiss your family, unstuff a stocking, pretend to find your father-in-law's jokes funny...and try to look at something today, anything, the presents, the tree, the candy canes, some part of it through the eyes of that little boy or girl you used to be.

Christmas is magic. Life is good. Have fun!

*it better be

A gift for Megatron

This is just plain wonderful:


Found over at Topless Robot.

One Horse Open...Slay

Well, there used to be one horse...

...until Bud and Lou arrived.

I was finally able to find these two Playmobil hyena at the local educational toy store. I found out about them a while back and knew I needed them for my Lego Harley Quinn. They're the perfect size and style for her little Lego self.

When I finally found them I immediately ran home with the inspiration to do a Christmas themed display with them and Harley. What better than for them to be pulling a Christmas sleigh...sorry...SLAY!

With Harley at the helm. Don't worry, the whip is for cops and citizens and crime-fighting do-gooders. She'd never use it on her hyena! That'd just be cruel!

And since we don't want Bud and Lou to over exert themselves, the Christmas Slay is powered by a fully blown dual quad high-rise on top of a 351 Cleveland V8.

Of course it also has a ladder for Harley to climb onto the rooftops of the sleeping populace.

The 'slay' is full of gifts for all the bad boys and girls of Gotham: guns and axes and swords...and a sweet teddy bear for Cindy Lou Who.

It is also armed for defense against meddling BatGrinches. What's a Harley Lego creation around here without the butt-kicking booty?

In addition, the Christmas tree is topped with a missile to spread yuletide joy. Also, look: Missile...toe.

Get it?

HAHAHAHAHAAAA!

Harley's ever present hammer is also mounted to the side. Some homes don't have chimneys for easy access, you know.

Merry Quinnsmas! Happy Harleynukkah! And a festive Quinnza to you and yours.

Merry Quinnsmas!

I know it isn't a Wednesday but this little slice of Harley just couldn't wait.

In addition, here's my homemade nativity scene; and here's wishing you and yours a Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Season!

Pomplamoose and the Richmond Book Drive

I've posted about Pomplamoose before. I heart them. Deal with it.

Pomplamoose currently has a Christmas Album that you can get just by doing a good deed! Donate a book to richmondbookdrive.com and you will get some free Pomplamoose Christmas songs!

As of December 19th people have donated over $60,000 worth of books to the Richmond Book Drive! Awesome!

Christmas songs can get, how shall I say it, repetitive. But Pomplamoose is timeless! So rest assured you will never tire of these classics when delivered by the awesome Pomplamoose. Plus you can feel good about donating a book to a school. That's what Christmas is all about, right? Well, not specifically about books and school, but about giving - so do it! Santa is watching!

Top 10 Favorite Childhood Christmas Gifts

I was tagged by Brian A. of Yesterville Toyroom to do a Top 10 Favorite Childhood Christmas Gifts post. No easy task!

Here's what I came up with after many revisions and a few edits too:

10) 90cc Kawasaki:


One Christmas, I think I was 11 or 12, my Dad got it in his head that it's be cool for me to have a Motorcycle - even though he was notoriously accident prone on motorcycles, we lived where it snowed so I couldn't ride it until Spring, we lived in a residential area where I could not legally ride it at all, and my dad is notoriously anti-outdoorsy so the likelihood of us going somewhere so I could ride it were zero. But he had a friend paint flames on the tank and a helmet so it looked cool and that was cool enough for him.

That Spring he tried to teach me how to ride it and on the first ride up the road he pulled the front brake as I went into a turn. I remember his head (un-helmeted) smacking against my helmet as we slid (slowly) into the turn. We came out of it fine, but Mom was now even less thrilled than when he concocted the whole motorcycle idea in the first place.

Sufficed to say we didn't ride it much after that. The neighbor teenager helped me ride it a few more times, but the novelty of it soon lost it's luster since there were so many rules and schedules to coordinate before I could even ride it. But I have great quirky memories, and that's what Christmas is all about!


9) Slot Cars:


Being a hot-rod family meant there were always slot cars and track in our house. Christmas often meant new track or new vehicles. Often we would replace the iconic "train around the Christmas tree" with a slot-car race around the Christmas tree. The only thing funner than zipping those little cars around their electric track is hauling ass towards a turn at full speed and watching those little cars fly off at a hundred miles an hour!


8) Sectaurs Prince Dargon and the Dragonflyer:


I really enjoyed the Sectaurs when they came out, and the piece-de-resistance was Prince Dargon and his Dragonflyer! I loved the "puppet" angle of the ride-on beasts. Dragonflyer's wings also flapped and you could manipulate his jaws with your fingers as you emulated his legs with the rest of your hand. Cool!


7) AT-AT:


When it comes to original Star Wars playsets or vehicles, none were cooler than the All Terrain Armored Transport, or AT-AT! I remember getting to open an early Christmas present the year I got my AT-AT. I chose my sister's present - it was the AT-AT Commander. Later, when Santa delivered the AT-AT I couldn't believe I was so lucky my older sister picked the perfect companion figure - and neither could anyone else in my family! Christmas is magical like that ;)


6) Tyco Train Sets:


Like slot cars, there were always Tyco train sets at my house. I loved setting the trains up in my basement and leaving them up all year long - so many toys had adventures on my trains, from Tonto to MUSCLE to Tron - they all took a ride on the Bubba express!


5) Tron action figures/Light Cycles:


Speaking of Tron - the year the movie came out I got the entire action figure set and both light cycles! The figures were an awesome transluscent plastic and their disks (or staff) all glowed in the dark. The light Cycles were amazingly cool - they held a Tron figure and hauled ass with help from a zip-cord. The shape of the Light Cycle allowed them to fly off the curb, go into a front roll, land on their wheels, and speed away at light speed! I had so much fun with those Light Cycles!


4) Transformers Trypticon:


I couldn't decide if this slot should hold Trypticon or Metroplex. Both were equally awesome, but Tyrpticon's motorized walking ability tipped him over Metroplex. I remember every Christmas I would stealthily peel back the tape of my Christmas presents to see what they were before Christmas. My Mom caught on and started placing my presents into dark Hefty bags beofre wrapping so I couldn't see what was in them.

Trypticon was so large he was placed against the wall, and knowing he wouldn't be moved until I opened him Christmas day, I decided to just rip a huge "window" out of the paper in back and see what was inside, replacing the box against the wall, window side in. It worked, and when I got up Christmas morning Trypticon was the first present I opened - being sure to begin tearing him open from where he sat ;)

No one was the wiser.

3) World's Greatest Monsters Rodan:


I had this giant Rodan terrorizing every toy I owned for years. You held him by finger holes in his back and by shaking him up and down his wings would "flap." His jaw cranked open by way of a lever behind his head, and his claws clamped shut with help of a couple rubber bands. This guy was huge and awesome.


2) Castle Greyskull:


The coolest playset of my generation, Castle Greyskull had it all. A trap door, an elevator, a weapons rack chock full of extra weapony goodies, a lockable "jaw-bridge" and it was A CASTLE THAT LOOKED LIKE A SKULL! What more could a kid want?

I remember one year my Mom and I flew to California to visit Grandma and Grandpa. I wanted to take Castle Greyskull and all my figures, so I wrapped it in tape and off we went. It was too big to be a carry-on, so I reluctantly handed it over as luggage. You should have seen the airport patrons at the other end when in the midst of Samsonite and Sears luggage a Castle Greyskull popped onto the rotating conveyor belt - no worse for wear I might add.


1) '77 Schwinn Competition Scrambler:


I got this bike on Christmas 1980 - my first bicycle. I still have it and I still ride it. I've ridden this thing to school in the snow, on dirt tracks, in fields and in cities. I've crashed into my Dad's work truck with it, ridden it with mismatched pedals after Dad backed into it (entirely his fault,) used the kick stand EVERY TIME even though all my friends threw their bikes down and leaped off them thanks to Dad's insistence that I always use the kick stand and I keep it nice (Thanks Dad!) I've polished it and re-packed the bearings and changed the tires and the chain and the tubes and the seat and lost the original pads and maintained the original grips and I love my Scrambler more than any toy I have ever owned.

Merry Christmas everyone - I hope 2009 brings you and yours as many wonderful memories as Christmases past!

Be sure to check out Brian A's Yesterville Top 10

and Brian B's What My Dad Saw Top 10

and hopefully soon Charles will post his Eclectorama Top 10 :)

Space Goofs in Christmas Disguises from Carl's Jr.

Get a load of these three wise...um...men?
Beneath these three yuletide exteriors...

Beat the hearts of Halloween whatzits - these ain't no ordinary Christmas baubles!

Actually these guys are called Space Goofs or Stupid Invaders or Les Zinzins de l'espace depending on what country you see them in. A cartoon that flew completely outside my radar, I had never heard of them before finding these Carl's Jr. fast food premiums at a garage sale last weekend. Released in 1998, they're marked "Gaumont" and "Saban," which was the only way I was able to track down who they are.

Dressed as a Christmas tree is Gorgeous Klatoo.

The two-headed snow man is Stereo Monovici's disguise.

Etno Polino rounds out the trio as jolly old St. Nick himself.

Their disguises clip together in two plastic halves, encasing solid pvc figurines inside. Here's nude Stereo.

Gorgeous Klatoo. Hubba hubba.

And last but not least, Etno. Pucker up, buttercup.

Apparently there are two more Space Goofs, and two more toys in this series: Candy Caramella and Bud Budiovitch. I'd love to add them to my collection; I have a spare Gorgeous Klatoo and a spare Stereo Monovici, so if anyone out there wants to make a trade email me!

In the meantime these guys make the ultimate fall decoration - I take them out for Halloween and don't have to put them away until after Christmas!