I heart dollies :: I HATE DOLLIES

Do not adjust your monitors. It's true. I bought a dolly yesterday. NO I DIDN'T! Yes I did! NO! NO! I DID NOT!

I got a little birthday money this past weekend and had seen this Retro Action Two-Face at a local Toys R Us express last week. I seriously considered buying him at the time but didn't - I was lucky that he was still there when I returned. A lone Two-Face among a bunch of Batmans and Aquamans.

Apparently Black Manta is also part of this release, but there was no sign of him. And although I was tempted to get Batman, I could only get one and Two-Face is a way cooler toy - partly because he never actually appeared in the original Mego line this Retro-Action line is based upon.

He's also one of the best silver-age looking Two-Face toys ever made. Look at that suit!

Sweet tie, Dent. And look at that split face! So comic booky and awesome - I like the green! What a cool dolly.

I AM NOT A DOLLY! I AM AN ACTION FIGURE!

My pants are removable. I am a dolly. Case closed.

As many others have reported regarding these Retro Action dolls, my Two-Face dolly also has the hunched back and super loose hips these guys tend to suffer from. Fortunately for Two-Face, his clothes are thick enough to support the loose joints and cover the other physical maladies.

And I'm glad about that, because he's a very fun toy! Very old-school looking in both sculpt and toy design. Two-Face truly lives up to the 'Retro' moniker.

I am a changed man, people. NO I'M NOT! I love this dolly. IT'S CRAP! I really think Two-Face is a cool dolly toy and recommend him to everyone. I HATE HIM!

I will hug him and squeeze him and call him Harvey. I WILL KICK HIM AND STUFF FIRECRACKERS DOWN HIS PANTS AND CALL HIM AN AMBULANCE!

Pinks: Flat Out

Whenever my family gets together I bring along my orange Hot Wheels track and we race for pink slips!

We head to the store and buy a few new Hot Wheels for everyone. Then we all draw numbers for positions, flip a coin for lane choice, and race - with the winner winning the loser's car. Or we'll challenge each other mano-a-mano style and best two out of three wins the loser's car!

Eventually we just race for fun, but the pink slip races are always the funnest because you've got something to gain and/or lose. And sometimes a cool car loses because it rolls off the track or because of a bad lane choice, not necessarily because it's slow. There's more to racing than just speed!

Here's my dad's Cadillac CTS-V (right lane) barely beating my Corvette Grand Sport while my nephew and daughter watch. A true photo-finish.

I'm gonna miss that car.

Here's my daughter watching my Enforcer come in last too. I need to pick faster cars next time!

Harley Qwednesday :: My Little Quinny

My little sister had a ton of lame 'My Little Ponies' when we were kids. I never saw the appeal. But I would totally collect the shtick out of 'My Little Ponies' if they were anything like this:

Custom Harley Quinn 'My Little Pony' by Jodi K. Moisan

(Thanks for the tip, Super Duper Toy Box!)

Teen Titans Aqualad

This Aqualad figure doesn't belong to me, it belongs to my youngest daughter. She has picked up quite a few Teen Titans figures over the course of a few Swap Meet trips.

Not much I can say about this one, except that he's a cool looking unique figure of a pretty obscure character. It also tickles me to no end when my kids create adventures with their superhero collections. It gives me hope for the future.

Which is kind of the point of these kid sidekicks, when you really think about it.

Gone, gone, oh tiny man...

...rise itty bitty Etrigan!

I got this Etrigan in a set of Batman the Brave and the Bold Action League figures from a co-worker for my birthday.

As I said last week, I hadn't been collecting Action League figures before, but I now know that they are pretty cool little toys; and I do loves me some Etrigan!

It's pretty amazing that my co-worker, who only knows I like Batman, would pick out the one set I have considered jumping into the Action League genre with due solely to it's inclusion of Etrigan. Of course, she had and still has no clue who Etrigan is, so some greater force must have been at play here.

Hmmm...

Could it be....

Satan?!?!?

The set was a two-pack of figures that also included Batman in his armor from the Brave and the Bold episode this set is based on.

Dark Knight indeed!

That's DOCTOR Harleen Qwednesday to you!

It's often forgotten in discussions regarding Harley Quinn that she is in fact a highly educated doctor.



The perfect woman - brains, beauty, and a wicked sense of humor!

Action League POW!

Today is my birthday, but since I won't see most of my family until Thanksgiving, I haven't much new swag to brag about (although I did get an epic Batman coffee mug, a JLA magnet and some superhero pins from my oldest daughter! Woot woot!)

But a stop at Big Lots today revealed some Batman: The Brave and the Bold Action League single packs, and I bought one for myself. Happy Birthday to me:

This Batman is clearly inspired by the Michael Keaton movie costume, which is irresistible to me because that's when my Batmania hit fever pitch.

Big Lots also had Batman in this same color scheme with a re-breather on his face (for underwater adventures) and a Plastic Man in Plas' normal colors. The pegs were full of a ton of each of the three, so I assume those are the only ones in the series that's hitting Big Lots but who knows.

I only grabbed this one, but will likely go back for the others soon. They are fun solid little toys and cute as all get-out. I don't know if this Bat figure in this color scheme is a new repaint or if he appeared in any set thus far (I haven't bought any of these Action League figures until now,) but he was only $2.80 so I consider it a pretty good deal for a cool little Batman!

This gets me right here *points at heart

I've always been a huge fan of Batman AND Robin - I see Bruce's fatherly relationship with his adoptive sons as a beautiful thing. As a son, and as a father and step-father, I can relate.

From (I assume) the most recent issue of Red Robin (I haven't read it yet.) Via Calvin and his Canadian Cave of Cool.

Batman Live Set in Miniature

This was just posted over at the Batman Live Twitter profile. Reportedly this is a model of the Batman Live World Arena Tour set - I can't imagine how this is going to translate to 'full size' - will the actors be playing around on the rooftops, or running around the streets like Godzilla - or will this be background for what happens in front of it all?

Stay tuned!

Darkwing Duck :: I am the terror that flaps in the night!

Back on comic book store shelves (or 'new to the comic book store shelves' - was he ever in a comic before?) the topic of a recent Nintendo game purchase of mine, and now mine in action figure form is that fine feathered hero himself Darkwing Duck!

When I got the Nintendo game I decided I should track down the action figure, and found him for a good price on eBay - Mint on Card!

Here's a look at the back of the card...

...and Darkwing's 'Intelligence Report' card. This toy was made by Playmates, who did similar bio cards for their more famous and successful Ninja Turtles toyline.

I've had this guy for a few months but finally got the opportunity to tear him open tonight:

Darkwing is a decent figure. Not terrible, not super excellent either. His physical representation is pretty much exactly like his cartoon look, so that's a high point.

He has a pretty lame 'action feature' though - his hat pops up and spins (or shoots off his head depending on if it operates right or not) with the push of a button on his back. Silly, and it makes for a loose, wobbly hat. It also makes for a lot of hatless loose Darkwing Ducks out there, which is why I held out for a MOC figure when I went searching for one.

His cape is also removable, which also leads to a lot of capeless loose Darkwing Ducks as well - but at least a cape is part of the action figure, they could have easily left it off completely.

He has two character accurate accessories too, but neither fit in his hands properly - in fact, the gas gun can't be held at all! LAME! But at least they are included. I guess I could always rubber-band them in place if I wanted to.

All in all a fun, cute action figure and a nice Batman analogue for a guy like me who likes his Batman wannabes!

"I am the terror that flaps in the night.

I am the milk that sogs up your cereal.

I...am DARKWING DUCK"

Harley Qwednesday :: Awesomest thing you will see today!

I would read the shit out of this:

Words cannot express my love for this image illustrated by Joe Quinones as a Jim Steranko tribute piece. So I will let the artist speak (via Joe Quinones' interweb-log)

"This weekend I will be attending the fourth annual Comics Festival in Lille, France. I'm super excited to go, as it'll be my first time in the country. Anyway, the show organizer thought it would be a fun idea to get a bunch of the guest artists visiting to each do a Jim Steranko tribute piece. I decided it would be fun to draw a variation of Steranko's 'Shanna The She-Devil' cover from 1972, substituting in Ms. Harleen Quinzell, a couple of hyenas, and the Bat-Family. It was. Ms. Maris Wicks, who will be joining me, was kind enough to supply colors for the piece, with some minor tweaks from me. She did a fantastic job."

Harley Qwednesday :: Sur-prise sur-prise!

I've got a couple fun surprises for y'all in today's Harley Qwednesday post!

First surprise - that anyone else besides me actually enjoys my Harley Qwednesday posts!

Kidding.

The truth is, it's undeniable - people love Harley Qwednesday. Tim Brannen enjoys Harley Qwednesday so much in fact he immediately thought of me when he saw the following picture, so he sent a link to the page he found it on (via manlyartjpc on Flickr.)

Well...he didn't immediately think of me when he first saw this picture...at least I hope he didn't!

Oh yeah baby, bring the hammer down! Ramona Flowers ain't got nuthin' on you , doll!

The next surprise came to me today (Harley Quesday) when I was digging through an old box looking for something completely unrelated to Harley Quinn...and suddenly I found this poster:

I got this poster from a WonderCon I attended in, I guess it had to be 'in the year two thousaaaand' (that being right before the Harley Quinn comic debuted.) It's pretty big too, a little under 3'x2'

I've never actually hung it on a wall and had thought that it was long lost, due to my moving around so much in the last ten years.

But there it was in that box - and now it's hanging on my wall above my drawing table! If that isn't incentive to sit down and draw, I don't know what is.

So there you have it folks. Another exciting and surprising installment of Harley Qwednesday.

Good times!

Happy Happy Hawkman Flappy

I'm pretty sure this is the happiest Hawkman you will ever see.

Released back in 2007/2008, this Hawkman was a rather tough catch at the time.

The DC Superfriends line was coming to an end when Hawkman was announced, and Target had acquired exclusive rights to their distribution.

Well it seems someone at Target took exception to Hawkman's mace. They felt it didn't pass certain safety guidelines and was too likely to cause a kid to choke (even though the mace did pass government safety guidelines.)

This was all happening around the time Mattel was getting major flack for lead paint and other safety issues, so I'm sure there was a lot of extra nervousness floating around.

Anyways, Target decided not to sell Hawkman, and other figures in the set even had their packaging modified to show Hawkman was unavailable or canceled or however they termed it.

Here's the mace attached to this claw-grabber shield/jet sled type thingy Hawkman came with. The mace launches when you push that button up top there, and the claw grab mechanism on the flip-side grabs as you push the lever on the bottom left.

So anyways, a year or so went by and Target dropped the DC Superfriends line. Rite-Aid (in my area - maybe other stores in other areas) ended up with the line. And apparently Rite-Aid aren't as big a bunch of safety Nazis as Target, because they had no problem selling Hawkman. I don't know if there was a limited production run on Hawkman due to the original refusal to sell him, but he did make it into my hands - ironically as the only DC Superfriends figure I own! I don't even have a Batman from the line!

Here's that claw-grabbing part I mentioned earlier.

Hawkman was later released as a MattyCollector.com exclusive in a different color scheme (more Hawkworld-like) and without the mace.

But this JSA/JLA looking Hawkman is absolutely the superior of the two.

'An airshow AND a gun show! Don't ever let it be said that Hawkman doesn't deliver the goods!'

'And remember kids, a mace is a terrible thing to shove down your own throat. Now shoving it down the throats of your enemies...well that's a whole different story!'

Sixy Beast

My only real exposure to Spiral has been the Marvel vs. Capcom video game from years ago.

I'm not as big of a Marvel guy as I am a DC guy so I really don't know anything else about her, except that she looks so damn cool!

A six armed multiple sword wielding assassin. What's not to love?

Spiral was released a couple years ago as part of a Target exclusive Red Hulk 'Build-a-figure' series. I would have gotten her when she was on the shelves, but I never saw her at all. I did get Silver Savage at the time, however, which the one I wanted the most.

So when I found her at the swap meet recently mint on card, for only $5, I snagged her up like a six-armed woman grabbing pumps at a shoe sale!

Spiral came with two swords and a sheathed (non-removable) sword that hangs over her shoulder.

Her helmet is also removable. Helmet hair!

Spiral is a fun toy, with six fully articulated arms and two swords, she's tons of fun to pose and a visually unique addition to any superhero display.

Harley Qwednesday :: Brave and the Bold!

Harley Quinn made her 'Brave and the Bold' animated debut on the recent episode entitled 'Emperor Joker' which, as of writing this post (Harley Quesday night) is available for viewing on Cartoon Network.

If you haven't seen it yet, DO IT!

Harley appears as a Betty Boop-esque silent film comedienne as Joker and some other goons (all dressed as silent film comedians) rob a comedy museum. Joker later gains Bat-Mite's power and hilarity ensues.

You can see Buster Keaton goon and Charlie Chaplain goon in the background. There were also Harold Lloyd and Fatty Arbuckle goons. How cool is that?! And my daughter couldn't stop laughing at Joker's whoopie-cushion crown. The concept really tickled her funny bone, I can't imagine where she gets her sense of humor from!

Similar to Harley's Batman: The Animated Series debut, Harley's personality plays a bigger part than her costume in this episode. In fact, she never wears her 'usual' duds in this Batman: The Brave and the Bold - although they do appear...

...on Bat-Mite! And get a load of Joker-Mite looking all Jack Nicholson. Love it!

Well, that's it for today's Harley Qwednesday. Say 'goodnight,' Harley.

"Goodnight, Harley!"