Epic Lego Super Hero Battle Royale!

This epic Lego Super Hero Battle has been a waging work in progress since I acquired the Lex Luthor Mech Suit set for Christmas in 2012. Every time I get (or customize) a Lego Super Hero I add it to the battle. I have yet to add any villains - it's more fun to imagine Lex, in his hubris, thinking he can take them all down on his own.

Currently in battle with Lex are the Superman and Wonder Woman minifigures that came with this set, as well as Batman (from the Catwoman Catcycle City Chase set) Iron Man and Thor each from individual poly-bag releases, a modified Robin from a poly-bag set, Aquaman from the Batboat set, and my custom JSA Sandman and JSA Flash to round out the mix.

Lego Thor and Cosmic Cube minikit

Available now at fine Lego retail establishments everywhere is this new bagged minikit including the Thor Lego minifigure!

And thank God! Because I love Thor and I love Lego minifigures, but I'm not terribly interested in any of the Avengers sets.

For around five buck this set comes with Thor (sans helmet, sadly) and Mjolnir (a Lego Mjolnir is almost worth the price of admission alone!) and some...rocks. But wait, there's more!

Turn a lever and a rock falls away to reveal...a clear brick...I mean.. the Cosmic Cube! WOWZERS!

Whatever. I have a Lego Thor and he's hanging with my Lego DC Superheroes now because he knows a winning team when he sees one.

Avengers Assemble!

The final bunch of stuff I hauled away from the swap meet this past Saturday literally gave me the shakes, I was so excited to find them!

6" Marvel superheroes by Marx! Thor, Iron Man and Captain America - Avengers Assemble!
Made of solid plastic and molded like your typical little green army man, these toys were originally manufactured by Marx in 1967. I believe the first run of these guys was a silver/grey plastic, and that these colorful guys were a later release from some time around 1971 or so.

There I was at the swap meet last Saturday when I spotted a pile of six colorful toys from a few feet away. I casually made my way towards them and walking up to them asked the vendor how much he wanted. He said "$3" and I said "for all of them?" He said "Yes" and I could barely contain my excitement! Now understand the pile had six figures in it, so without inspection or any delays whatsoever I grabbed them all and payed and skipped away like Gollum having just secured his precious. I later discovered three of them were in pretty sad shape, with their fingers chewed to the point that they look more like Arthritics than Avengers. I won't show them here because treating toys as such is blasphemy here at Toyriffic, but they would have been pretty sweet if they (2 Spider-Mans and a Daredevil) weren't used as a teething ring for some dumb kid. I hope he got lead poisoning, whoever he is!

But I digress. Let's turn our attention back to the three great examples I got - still more than worth the three bucks I paid for them! 

First up is Iron Man! Stark is showing off by breaking a chain in an awfully strange manner. Yeah that was impressive in 1938 when Superman did it first, dude.

Iron Man is a little roughed up around the head but is otherwise in great shape. It's fun to imagine this toy being one of the first toys of Iron Man back then, having been sculpted a mere four years after Iron Man was introduced in the comics! And what a sculpt - you can even see Tony Stark's eyes inside the mask's eye holes! What must kids have thought of this strange metal man, and what could they have foretold of his pop culture destiny at the time?

Next up is the good Captain America. The Cap gets a pretty sweet sculpt here too, with his shield being held out in front of him in a defensive posture instead of stationary at his side, which would have been a lot easier to pull off I imagine.

If I had an old car I'd cast this in chrome and make it my hood ornament.

The final of the big three and the figure that is surprisingly (given some dumb kid's penchant for sticking his toys in his mouth and all the nice chewable parts sticking out of this one) in the best shape of them all is the God of Thunder himself, THOR!

I love how all these guys are not overly musclebound, reflecting the art and aesthetics of the times the toys were were made. You will never see a skinny Thor in this day and age, that's for sure! Plus, whosoever holds that version of Mjolnir, be he worthy, is probably hanging a picture in his girlfriend's apartment or repairing a broken wheel on a small wooden toy duck, not calling down thunder from the heavens! I love it!

These Marx plastic superheroes have amazing sculpts and are a fun look at the type of toys kids of yesterday would have played and cemented their love for superhero lore with. They were before my time, but I know some of my readers are a little older than I am; I'd love to hear from those of you who had these or remember them from your youth!

The Mighty Thor!

This, folks, is my first ever Thor action figure!

I bought this Marvel Universe Thor for myself as a Christmas present to, well, myself, a few days before Christmas.

I have an interesting history with Thor. My subconscious tells me that the first comic book I ever read was a Thor comic book. I'm not sure if that is a fact, but I do know that Thor is probably the first superhero introduced to me solely via the comic book medium.

Batman, Wonder Woman, The Hulk, Spider-Man, and even Captain America were all gracing the silver and small screen before and during my earliest years. I was most likely aware of all of them before I was ever handed a comic book representing any of those colorful heroes. Yet I know I saw Thor in comic form long before seeing him in any other format - in fact my only exposure to Thor in 'real' form was when he appeared in a Hulk tv special years after that series' initial run (having never seen any of those cheap sixties limited animation Marvel cartoons until adulthood.)

So as a child I knew Thor and I liked Thor, but I spent my entire youth with him existing solely in the world of comics. If not the first comic book I ever read, he has at least ingrained himself as the epitome of the 'comic book' superhero. Gaudy outfit, huge flowing cape, a strange way of speaking and phenomenal powers. The stuff of pure imagination, without help of special effects or animated magic.

All that being what it is, I have never liked any Thor action figure released before now. None of them could stand up against what my mind molded and fleshed out into a real entity as one of my earliest super hero idols.

I admit that even this Marvel Universe Thor falls a little short, but only a little. I would prefer something more in line with Jack Kirby's earliest Thor art, but this Thor figure is the best yet and certainly the first Thor I ever felt compelled to own: true Viking aesthetics, imposing stature, a rugged and manly yet handsome face, and of course a skull smashing Mjolnir forged by the gods themselves, this Thor is an impressive hero that I am glad to have finally added to my collection.