League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Hake's Auction #212

This week's LOEB assignment: 'Hake's Auction #212.'

Hake’s Americana & Collectibles kicked off their latest auction (#212) on Tuesday, June 24.  And as usual, it is chock-full of extraordinary stuff that you can either bid on or keep your relationship with your wife in good standing!

Fortunately for LOEB members (and yes, YOU, if you want to become a League of Extraordinary Bloggers member) Hake’s will select one participating blog from this assignment to WIN $100 to use in this or a future auction!

So...what would I buy if I won, or if I had some extra cash just lying around?

Let's start with this tin, battery-operated Batmobile. As if the bat-symbol weren't enough to delineate this from your standard candy-apple red fifties Ford, Batman painted 'Batman' on the hood and door. Oh wait, did I say 'candy-apple red'? Yeah, this thing isn't very 'Batman-y.' I suppose it is a good thing Batman wrote 'Batman' on it after all!

Now THIS is more like it. Pretty much the pinnacle of '66 Batmobile toys, this is one clean looking Corgi Batmobile! I have one of these in pretty rough shape, so it would be nice to have a shiny clean one!

Speaking of pinnacles:

This Ideal Batcave Playset is one of my Holy Grails. I don't know what world the Batcave is labeled as 'Sanctuary', but it's a world I want to play in!

Oooh, or how about this Lily Ledy Batmobile! It's crank powered. CRANK POWERED!

Oh man, I would LOVE to own this sixties Japanese vinyl Batman. He looks like something Grant Morrison would dig up. Remember that time Batman borrowed Superman's underwear, boots and cape. ME NEITHER! but I love him anyways.

Sometimes the basic toys are the best. This Wader Batmobile is as simple as they get, yet still massively appealing (and way more expensive than I could ever justify!) It sure would look good in my Batmobile collection, though!

Sensing a theme here? Well stop it. Because I'd also love to own...

'Wings spread open' snicker-snicker

A mint on card Sorceress from the original Masters of the Universe line! I actually came really close to getting one of these for super cheap at a flea market once, but someone beat me to her. I can't complain, because I did come away with a Wonderbread He-Man, but still, the Sorceress continues to elude me to this day, and I'd just love to have her in my collection. And I promise you, I'd tear that card right open!

Well, that's my pile. Ok, I admit...I'd take anything and everything from Hake’s Americana & Collectibles auction #212 if I could. But these few items are some of my favorites and would fill some long outstanding holes in my collection.

Nerdy Life of Mine would buy some space stuff. From spaaaaace!
The Toy Box likes posters and comics and Hotwheels. From spaaaace!
And Cal's Canadian Cave of Cool already won once. From spaaaace!

Don't forget YOU can become a League of Extraordinary Bloggers member and may be selected by Hake's to WIN $100 to use in this or a future auction!

Custom Playmobil Harley Quinn(s) :: LOEB :: Look What I Made!

Today's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment: 'Look What I Made'.

Arkham Knight Harley Quinn

As frequent readers of my blog know, I am rather fond of making Playmobil versions of Harley Quinn. Thanks to the Playmobil Figures series, with characters like Geisha (for the white head) and Lady GaGa (for the domino mask) I have been able to do simple head-swaps and parts kit-bashes to come up with some pretty fun little Harley Quinn Playmobil figures. My latest is this Arkham Knight Harley Quinn, based on the trailer for the Arkham Knight video game, wherein she assaults a police officer and in usual Harley Quinn flair, steals his hat.

'Oooh heaven is a place on Earth!'

I also recently put together an Angel Harley Quinn. This one came about when I found about three Playmobil Figures packs at a Toys R Us while on a road trip. As luck would have it, one was a Series 2 Geisha. I also located a Series 4 Angel and figured 'What the Hell.' (get it?) So I slapped the Geisha head onto the Angel body and Voila!

'The Doctor is IN!'

My 'basic' Harley Quinn has gone through many iterations. This is where she's settled thus far, with mallet and syringe. Because, again. 'What the Hell.' (No pun this time.)

'Just another day in Gangster's Paradise.'

Lastly, my Hip Hop Harley. I just really like this one, so she'll probably stay around for a while.

So that's what I made recently...with Playmobil parts...and Harley Quinn themed.

Look what other League members made:
Cool and Collected made a final stand against his 1979 Alien
Pop Rewind made some slime(r) in the bathroom
GI Jigsaw made a moon playset. Wait, that's no moon.
DI Treasures used a three eyed fish in a most creative way.

My Latest Obsession :: KRML :: A League of Extraordinary Bloggers Post

This week's assignment from the League of Extraordinary Bloggers: My Latest Obsession.

A tough question, considering I am obsessed with many things on a pretty consistent basis, and tend to follow obsessions that are decades old. So what would I consider a NEW obsession?

Then it hit me: KRML

I recently discovered the radio station KRML on my hour long commute to work. KRML is a community radio station out of Carmel. Film nuts may even recognize the call letters: KRML was the radio station Clint Eastwood worked at in the movie 'Play Misty for me.'

PLAY IT!

Anyways, the other day I was listening while driving, and between my commute to and from work I heard three, count 'em...THREE...songs from the Smallville Soundtrack!

Somebody SAAAVE MEEEE! - was, ironically, not one of the song they played.

In addition to listening on my commute, KRML streams from their website, so I can listen at work almost ALL DAY!

Their playlist is incredible. It is as if they went back in time fifteen years and borrowed my CD collection...and THEN went into the future and asked me what I liked in 2014!

Today they played, among other things:

Grant Lee Buffalo

Sneaker Pimps

Black Crowes

Led Zeppelin

Fleetwood Mac

Cake

Bob Dylan

The Raconteurs

Social Distortion

Dropkick Murphys

Beatles

Ray Lamontagne

Lorde

Of Monsters and Men

Neko Case

They also played songs and artists I haven't heard in decades, yet still knew every word.

Sure, they aren't completely perfect...they did play an REM song once...but all in all I am in absolute love with their daily song selections. And thanks to online streaming...I am now obsessed with KRML.

I'm a big fan of music and good radio, and of course non-corporate radio is always the best (ask me about KPIG someday.) So I am very glad to have discovered a local gem in KRML. Give them a listen yourself if you like good music!

Check out all the other Leaguers' Obsessions on the group post at Cool and Collected, and if you want to join the League click here for more info!

The Find :: A League of Extraordinary Bloggers Post

This week's 'League of Extraordinary Bloggers' assignment is right up my alley:

"What was your best/favorite yard sale or flea market find?"

Living in sunny California, I hit the yard sales and flea markets a lot all year 'round. Almost every weekend, weather permitting. And since my tastes are wide and varied, I tend to find a gem or two nearly every outing. I'm also cheap, so you know if I found it at a yard sale or flea market and posted it on my site, it's most likely I paid very little for it. Which makes the find all the sweeter.

So deciding my favorite or best find is a tough one. The longer I think about it, the more I will come up with! I could base my criteria on value, or nostalgia, or the plain old joy factor. Or all of the above!

The one that fits the bill on all that and more was this massive box of Masters of the Universe stuff I purchased at a parking lot flea market about five years ago. I got it for five bucks, which was a steal because it included  a ton of stuff, most notably Snake Mountain, Scareglow, King Randor...and a Wonderbread He-Man!


I initially jumped for the box for the nostalgia, and was overwhelmed with pure joy at the contents therein. Value? Yes, I admit I sold WBHM and some others and made my money back many times over. Even if I didn't, it was only FIVE BUCKS! That's just too cheap to pass on.

But even accounting for the figures I have since sold or traded off, I still have most of what I found that day, including Scareglow and Modulok, two of my favorite 'never-had-them-at-a-kid' MOTU figures of all time.

Not a bad find, one of my favorites and one I wish to re-create every time I head out early on a Saturday morning.

One more favorite before I go...this signed pic of Yvonne Craig as Batgirl! This honestly might be the most I've ever paid for a single item at a yard sale or flea market. I think I paid ten bucks for this one. Worth every penny.

What are other League members finding?
Jamie of Whatever I Think Of! thinks of cheap Friends
Erik Johnson Illustrator Bogarts the good posters
and Patrick at Nerd Out With Me uses the force to hold up his pants.

LOEB :: For Screaming (Yellow Zonkers) Out Loud...WHY?!?!

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment is simply 'Why? No really. WHY?'

My 'why' is a legitimate question, one that as yet has no resolution, but one that carries the weight of a million, nay a billion cries of 'WHY?!?!?!'. In fact, my 'why' brings forth a toy mystery so deep and wide that it may someday rival the legend of Wonderbread He-Man himself.

To wit: Why did Screaming Yellow Zonkers make their own version of the Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrosity? 

I will go so far as to say the Galaxy Laser Team Lobster/Turtle hybrid alien monster is one of the coolest unsung aliens of our generation. First appearing in the late seventies or early eighties, this turtle lobster alien has taken on legendary status with toy collectors, being the only original (read: not Star Wars or Star Trek knock-off) character to appear in Tim Mee's Galaxy Laser Team - a set of cheap monochromatic plastic figures who all had very obvious Star Wars (or in the case of the lady, Star Trek) analogues.

That alone would be enough to give the Lobstrosity legendary status for kids who grew up in the height of the original trilogy madness, but it didn't end there. Somehow the design also made it's way into a line of freebies released in the mid eighties inside the Cracker Jack wannabe Screaming Yellow Zonkers - in the form of an alien named 'Zip.'

(For those not saavy, the Galaxy Laser Team Lobstrocities are on the left and right, and the Screaming Yellow Zonkers' Zip is in the middle.)

I don't know how or why this design made it from GLT to SYZ, but I would really love to find out. Was the same toy designer involved in both productions? Was the Screaming Yellow Zonkers designer a closet fan of Galaxy Laser Team? Or was he a rip-off artist who had a deadline to meet and no fresh ideas? My money is on the same designer being involved in both, and figuring no one would ever notice or care that he used the same design twice. Well he was wrong, I CARE!

I wouldn't even know where to begin if I thought I could solve this mystery myself, but I would sure love to someday know why the GLT Lobstrocity ended up chibi-ized in the Screamin' Yellow Zonkers' line-up as a critter named 'Zip.'

At least he finally got a name.

Other LOEBers ask why? Why? WHY?!?!?!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Plastic Fantastic!

Editor's Note: I am going to cheat a little and update this post as a League of Extraordinary Bloggers post, since the new assignment is 'Comic Books' and I just posted this a few days beforehand. So there!

I have already mentioned my recent score of Plastic Man Archives Volume 1 for the incredible price of $20. The used bookstore where I discovered it had all eight volumes, but at first I was content with just nabbing Volume 1 - a book I have wanted for years.

Well, yesterday I returned and nabbed Volume 2, also for the low low price of $20.

Part of the DC Archive Editions, Plastic Man Volume 1 came out in 1998 and Volume 2 in 2000. Neither has been reprinted or gone to paperback, so if you want to own a comprehensive look at the early adventures of Plastic Man, these are really your only option (short of finding the actual original comics themselves!)

Volume 1 re-prints Plastic Man's appearances in Police Comics #1-20 and Volume 2 re-prints his appearances in Plastic-Man #1 and Police Comics #21-30.

I love Plastic Man, and am fascinated by his creator Jack Cole, so each of these volumes is a gem in my collection.

Volume 1 contains the first ever appearance of Plastic Man (natch) as well as his partner in comedy Woozy Winks.

Volume 1 also contains this hilarious sequence where Plastic Man is captured by a gang of female mobsters; their plan? Mold Plas into the likeness of gangster Eel O'Brien, (his own alter ego, unbeknownst to the gang of girl no-goodnicks), force-feed him some 'reefers' and send him off on a mad rampage through the city in an attempt to frame him!

'Whee!! I'm a Killer!!' BAM! BAM! BAM!

Hahaha it just doesn't get any better than this!

I'm absolutely LOVING these early Plastic Man adventures. Having scored both volume 1 and 2 so much lower than they generally go for on the secondary market just makes them all the sweeter!

What comics are other Leaguers flipping through this week?

Nerd Rage Against the Machine eats a Desert Peach
Fortune and Glory (Days) is faster than a speeding Mullet!
Traveling_Pics has El Hombre Que Rie! (Whatever that means)
and Goodwill Hunting 4 Geeks gets all David Letterman on us.

League Post :: A Real American ZERO!

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment:

"What piece of pop culture did you HATE as a kid?"

Me? I hated GI Joe.

Okay, maybe 'hate' is too strong a word. I wasn't entirely averse to the toys. I had a soldier who you could peg onto a little glider and toss through the air, and that was fun, and I had an Lt. Torpedo that some kids left at a construction site next door to my house that I 'findered keepered.' The toys were fun, I understood the appeal, and even have a handful of modern Joe toys today.

What I really hated was that insipid cartoon.

First: Lasers. WTF?!?! Where are the live rounds? The hot lead? The full metal jackets?

Lasers. Pfft.

Second, they never shot SHIT! Ok, they shot planes down all day long (while the director made sure to show us the pilot eject and the parachute open every. single. time. EVEN FROM HELICOPTERS!) but they never shot a single PERSON.

THIS IS WAR, NOT TIDDLEY WINKS! 

There would be a firefight, seven Joes on one side hiding behind a boulder while fifteen feet away sixteen Cobra soldiers hid behind a similarly sized boulder. Eightseventhousand laser beams are flying through the air bouncing off rocks and cactus and firing in every direction including those that only exist in the fifth dimension and no one ever hit anyone.

Ever.

LAME!

At least Transformers and GoBots got blasted in the arm or leg or shot out of the sky on occasion. Sure, they are robots and they can be repaired and there's no blood, but at least they ran the risk of being hurt! But watching an episode of GI Joe was like watching Stevie Wonder and Ray Charles play darts by moonlight. Actually, even that would have been more entertaining than an episode of GI Joe.

So there you have it. I hated the GI Joe cartoon.

What other hatemongering awaits?
Henchgirl hates Hermione, for fu%* sake!
Geeky Vixen hates your little pony, gawddammit!
And Retro Toy Safari hates dollies that are full of $#!t!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Seeing Red

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment was a simple one: 'I'm Seeing Red.'

What better way to represent Red than with one of my favorite action figures: Dex-Starr from Fisher-Price's Hero World line!

Dex-Starr originally came with Atrocitus, he was actually more of an accessory than a companion figure, but I got the set specifically for Dex-Starr and therefore I got rid of Atrocitus long ago, as I had no emotional attachment to him. I kind of regret doing so, because I never saw this set on shelves more than once and never see them pop up on eBay or anywhere else. They appear to be a bit rare. It's like they made a handful of them and POOF they dissapeared from toy shelves never to be seen again. Weird.Oh well, at least I still have Dex-Starr, the star (haw haw) of the pair!

Are your corneas burned out yet? If not, look around elsewhere in the League for more crimson coolness...
Flashlights Are Something to Eat sees something Redd AND Foxxy
Nemesis Complex ist shpeaking uf der Red Shkull's kinderhood, ja!
Henchgirl gives us Dex-Starr's origin, in case you were wondering
and least but not last, The 30ish Year Old Boy sees red EVERYWHERE!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: I Love...

This week's League assignment: Write a stream of conscious post listing the things you love and hold dear.

First and foremost, I love my daughters more than anything in the world.
I love my wife.
I love Batman. I love Robin. I love all the Robins!
I love superheroes and what they stand for.
I love comic books.
I love Harley Quinn.
I love swap meets and flea markets and garage sales and thrift stores and digging through other people's junk to find new treasures to love.
I love my Schwinn Scrambler.
I love jokes. I love laughing, and making people laugh.
I love the scene in Strange Brew where Hosehead sprouts a cape and flies off to save Oktoberfest and I will never not be brought to tears laughing at that classic moment of cinematic comedy gold:


I love my sisters, but don't tell them I said so.
I love the fact that I had such a wonderful childhood that it has defined my adulthood, in all my likes and my interests, and in the person I have become.
I love my parents for having given me that childhood.

I love drawing cute girls.
I love listening to The Be Good Tanyas with my headphones on and getting lost in the sound:


I love to read.
I love cartoons. I love Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry and Droopy and Popeye and a million others.
And as this blog stands testament: I LOVE TOYS!


Want to read about more League loves?

Reis at Lair of the Dork Horde publicly admits he loves dollies.
The Goodwill Geek loves a different Bubba and I'm not jealous at all.
Monster Cafe Saltillo loves wearing ice cream almost as much as he loves the taste!

LOEB :: Cowboys

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers theme this week is a vague one, so my response is equally vague.

The assignment: Cowboys.

My response:

Do you see it? No, not those Space: 1999 or Buck Rogers (EDIT: The green one is a Flash Gordon starship made by Tootsie Toys - thanks Brian! And the silver one is Thunderbird-1 from The Thunderbirds, but manufacturer is still unknown - thanks CB!) or whatever vehicles on the left, not my sister waiting impatiently for a piece of cake or my pals Wayne and his brother Justin who's subconsciously mimicking my epic candle blow-out skills.

It's not even that sweet-ass Tweety Bird cake I'm talkin' about.

I'm talkin' bout this:

At first I thought that was Tonto's horse Scout hiding behind that massive '5' shaped cactus. But this picture was taken in 1979, and those Gabriel toys didn't come out until 80 or 81. I remember owning Tonto from that series but don't recall ever owning a horse. Further research led me to a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid toyline from Kenner that was around in 1979. Could this be a horse from that line? Who has the markings of Scout?!?! I have no memories of this horse!

Maybe some mysterious masked man can ride in and solve this mystery for us!

UPDATE: I think I solved it myself: Legends of the West by Empire.

In the meantime mosey on over to these fine LOEB member's pages, pardner:
Cool and Collected collected a horseshit-load of Lone Ranger stuff
Branded in the 80s hops in the saddle with the Tonto I had (and others) from the Gabriel toyline
And Tupa's Treasures draws an actual 'cow boy,' baby (no word yet on if his top is let down and if the sunshine's shinin')

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Batman vs Timberlake

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment:

Merry Geekmas! Write or photograph something festive and pop culture oriented.

My wife is a huge Justin Timberlake fan. So when we spotted this JT marionette at Goodwill over Thanksgiving break I had to buy it for her.

But just because he's not my toy doesn't mean I (and Batman) can't have a little fun with him. Deck the balls with boots of fury! Falalalala lala la la!

"I'm bringin' steel-toe back. Yup."

Oh, and there are some jingly bells next to Batman there. Festive!

Other League members are also getting in the spirit...

Goodwill Hunting for Geeks throws toys at his tree and calls it decorating!
Ornament hangs tree on Christmas Yoda, Lair the Horde of Dork does!
And Green Plastic Squirt Gun squirts green vomit all over his Suckerman!

Transform and poopy pants! :: League of Extraordinary Bloggers

I admit, I'm a bit of a fair-weather Leaguer. I do the League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignments I like and skip over those I don't. Which means I haven't done one in a while. Oops!

I don't know if that's 'ok' according to League by-laws, but whatyagonnado?

This week's assignment, which I could not pass up: "Young Guns"

In the spirit of Young Indiana Jones, Young Frankenstein, or Young Einstein, come up with a “Young ___” prequel or series.

It seems like it's all been done before (to death) though, right? We've seen toddler turtles and Smallville and Young Sherlock Holmes - but what haven't we seen?

I decided to go with Transformers. Not just 'young' Transformers, because we've seen that already too (Wheelie, anyone?) but Transformers that Transform into kid's ride-on and pre-school toys!

Toddlerformers!

Imagine Optimus Prime as a Bigwheel towing a Radio Flyer wagon! Soundwave as a 'See-and-Say'! Megatron as a Super-Soaker! The ideas are endless, as would be the merchandising blitz!

I did some super quick doodles of vehicle modes to give you an idea. If I had more time I'd have done robot modes, but as I imagine it they're youthful looking G1esque robots, incorporating the elements of their new alt modes with design elements of their G1 looks and elements of young kids (ex: Bumblebee is most definitely clad in a striped onesie) to create a beautiful symmetry of design, form and concept. Or something like that.

Hey, it's better than anything Michael Bay has or ever will come up with, right?

Check out some other Leaguers and their youthful pursuits:

ShezCrafti reminds us how cute the aforementioned Toddler Turtles were
Cool and Collected wonders why Clark Griswold is so Vacation obsessed
and Lair of the Dork Horde ponders alone: Did Conan play with dollies too?

Mixtape Memories

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment:

What songs were forever being looped on your car’s stereo back in high school. A cassette could only hold a dozen or so songs, so that’s the magic number of songs to list. If your car didn’t have a cassette deck in high school, go ahead and pretend it did, you punk.

I started High School in Fall 1989 and graduated in Spring 1993, so I wanted to represent the entire four years here with a well rounded selection of actual cassettes I owned and played in the vehicles I owned and drove to High School (first, a 1981 Mercury Capri and second, a 1971 Torino Country Squire.)

Damn I miss that station wagon!

Sigh

So without further ado:

Poundcake by Van Halen:


Hair of the Dog by Nazareth:


Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf:


Cherry Pie by Warrant:


No Sugar Tonight by The Guess Who:


Wide River by Stevey 'Guitar' Miller:


Batman Theme by Danny Elfman:


Blaze of Glory by Bon Jovi:


Let it Roll by BTO:


Revolution by The Beatles:


Someone to Love by Blues Brothers:


Every Rose has it's Thorn by Poison:


Had enough? No? Then go check out

Goodwill Hunting for Geeks
Flashlights are something to eat
and Monster Cafe and Barfor more ear lovin' goodness!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Waterworks

I haven't been able to take part in the last many 'League' assignments, but this is one is such a no brainer for me that I couldn't pass it up:

Who cried when Old Yeller got shot? What movie, TV show, book, etc. turns you into a blubbering baby every time you see it?

This one was easy (and I thought I had posted it in the past, but maybe not?)

I first saw this animated short at an animation festival around the time my first daughter was born. It may have been close beforehand, or when her mother was pregnant with her, or possibly shortly after she was born. Regardless, I cried like a baby in the movie theatre when this played and am now father to two daughters and this little animated short makes me cry just THINKING about it.

Every.

Single.

Time.

I'm choking up right now as I type this.

'Father and Daughter' by Michael de Wit.



Now grab your Kleenex box and check out a few other League members and what gets them misty eyed:

Green Plastic Squirt Gun
She's Crafti
Flashlights are Something to Eat

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Prized Posessions

This week's League of Extraordinary Bloggers Assignment: "What is the one item in your collection you would save if your house was being swallowed by a sink hole, carried off in a tornado, and then swept away in a flood."

I've said it before here on Toyriffic and I'll say it again: If I could only hang on to one toy/collectible/piece of childhood ephemera in my collection as the world opened up and tried to swallow me whole I would hop on my bad motor(less) scooter and ride!

The Silver Bullet. My steed. My sidekick. My ride. My Batmobile. My Enterprise. My 'Last of the Interceptors.'

My '78 Schwinn Mag Competition Scrambler. My first bike ever, I got this beauty for Christmas 1980. My Dad worked with a guy who's teenager was selling it, Dad bought it off him and tinkered and polished it up better than new.

I remember peeking down the stairs Christmas Eve night and seeing it by the fireplace.

I remember Christmas day; my first attempt to ride a two-wheeler - Dad letting go of the seat as I drifted straight into his work truck and SLAM! I bounced off and onto the street, leaving a massive dent in the truck's fender...and Dad didn't get mad at me!

I remember riding it to school a mile in the snow - not uphill both ways but close enough to be a badass by today's sissy kid standards.

I remember all the dirt tracks and trails and jumps and curbs and scrapes and scars (still have one or two) from going over the handlebars.

I remember wanting dice valve stem caps and not being able to find any in stores, so Dad took a pair of dice to his drill and voila - and they're still on the bike to this day!

I remember my Dad always saying "Use the kickstand; Don't lay your bike on the ground; take care of your bike and your bike will last you your whole life." And he was right, it has.

I remember hanging my bike up in the rafters when I got my first car, and not taking it down until over a decade later when I needed a project, something good for my body and mind and soul after my first divorce. Dad and I together in the garage, repacking the bearings and replacing the tires and tubes. Polished it up to a beautiful shine. New pedals and a new seat.

Just a little maintenance and the Silver Bullet, like my soul, were good as new once more.

Yeah, things can be replaced. Toys and action figures, no matter how rare or hard to find, are not one of a kind. If they all burned up or melted or were stolen by some thief with awesome taste, I'd get over it. Eventually.

But my Silver Bullet is a part of me. My trusty steed. My friend. And I wouldn't give her up for anything.

And check out a few more from the League:

Lefty Limbo talks about his old school BMX ride too!
Life with Fandom talks about the (and his own) one and only He-Man!
and Branded in the Eighties talks about a very well loved Wicket!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Holy Grail

I've been remiss in my League duties of late, having skipped over quite a few topics over the past weeks. But this is one I couldn't pass on:

"What is a holy grail item you hope to find at a flea market, toy show, or comic convention?"

My current 'holy grail' is a toy I owned and loved as a kid and sadly let go many years ago: the Shogun Warriors (or World's Greatest Monsters) Rodan!

This toy was epic. It was HUGE - it could gobble up anyone from Transformers to Star Wars characters to Masters of the Universe. NO ONE COULD STOP RODAN! At least not in my toy collection. This guy was invincible.

He's super hard to find nowadays and probably pretty expensive if you do, but I've found both Blue Snaggletooth and Wonderbread He-Man in my adult life for way cheaper than I can admit and still retain your respect, and of course there was my now legendary pursuit and re-acquisition of the mythical Rabbagator, so I am sure I'll stumble onto this guy someday, and hopefully for a good price too!

Read more from the League via this handy dandy guide by Reis of Lair of the Dork Horde.

Pics via Collectiondx.com and Plaid Stallions

League of Extraordinary Blogger :: Where are they now?

This week's League assignment: "The 80′s and 90′s were filled with kids and teens in the movies. Which movie would you like to see a sequel made in 2012 with the original cast members, who have aged the same as you and me."

Hmm, this might prove to be a tough assignment. There's the obvious 'Breakfast Club' and 'Goonies' and 'Ferris Bueller' answers that are sure to seed the entries from other blogs, but I am never one to go for the obvious. I also wasn't really into kid team/teen movies back in the day. I liked space movies and superhero movies and sci-fi movies. If I wanted to see a bunch of stupid kids go out and do stupid stuff I'd go outside with my friends (I grew up at a time when we as kids could do so. Sure, there wasn't a dead body to see or hidden pirate treasure to discover, but that didn't stop us from looking!)

So I'm going to cheat and say in 2037 I'd like to see a sequel to one of today's greatest movies about, well okay they are in their twenties, but twenty is the new 13 nowadays, right?

In twenty five years I'd like to see a  'Scott Pilgrim vs. The World' sequel with all the main players. I imagine Scott and Ramona will be long broken up or divorced or something. Maybe Scott now has seven evil ex-wives. Maybe Scott and Ramona have seven evil kids. Or Scott eventually marries Kim and has to deal with seven evil step-children.  I don't know, but there's bound to be a great story in there somewhere.

The same...but older.

For more info and to find out how you can join The League of Extraordinary Bloggers, check out this post over at Cool & Collected.

And for a re-cap of last week's assignment, check out the following links:

• Christopher Tupa :: One Eyed Willie’s pirate ship from Goonies.
• TL at Flashlights are Something to Eat :: The trolley from Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood.
• Nat. Not Nate. Dot Net. :: The Thunder Road ship from the movie Explorers.
• Iok from That Figures :: The Tardis from Dr. Who.
• Gina at MercanStyle :: Miss Piggy and her bicycle from the Great Muppet Caper.
• Matt Can Draw :: The map used in Time Bandits.
• Dex at AEIOU and Sometimes Why :: The Lightcycle from Tron.
• Shawn Robare at Branded in the 80′s :: A full-size AT-ST Scout Walker from Star Wars.
• Reis O’Brien at the Lair of the Dork Horde picks a few famous cars.
• Monster Fink at the Midnight Monster Spookshow :: The exclusive rights to all of the Universal monsters.
• Justin at GeneralsJoes :: A Cobra Commander prop.
• Michael May’s Adventure Blog :: Tarzan’s Treehouse.
• Brian at Cool and Collected :: A Planet of the Apes soldier ape.
• Jboy at the Revenge from the Cosmic Ark :: A bunch of ideas.
• The Sexy Geek’s House of Swag :: The 1966 Batmobile.
• Jason at I Fart Online :: The Green Hornet’s Black Beauty.
• Kevin at Team Hellions :: The Monster Squad Tree house.
• Stacey from the Pendragon’s Post :: The set from Pee Wee’s playhouse.
• Fiji Mermaid of Sideshow Cinema :: The DeLorean from Back to the Future.
• Jeremy at Geek Chunks :: The ED-209 robot from Robocop.
• Colin at FairPlay Things chose an actual person!

League of Extraordinary Bloggers :: Hollywood Memorabilia

Cool & Collected recently spearheaded a cross-blog weekly writing assignment, and Toyriffic is in for the fun!

This week's topic:   

You have an unlimited budget and space is not a problem. What piece of Hollywood memorabilia would you want hanging around in your batcave?

Hmm...well I suppose the all too obvious answer is the Batmobile from the sixties TV show, but that answer is such a no brainer that if I had an unlimited budget and unlimited space I would already own about ten of them on the first day I came into my money - a normal one, one with a truck bed, one stretched like a limo, a jacked-up monster truck version, a floating version, a hovercraft version...you get the idea.

Leaving the garage behind, let's stretch back in time a bit further (and also stretch the term 'Hollywood' to include...Berlin...) for inside my home I would have recreated in full size:

The robot Maria from Fritz Lang's Metropolis.

The original costume used in the movie was destroyed in a fire years ago. Below are pics of a full size replica built in 1976 by effects artist Bill Malone.

Original or replica, this would be an awesome thing to have in the living room!