Bone Beast :: Countdown to Halloween 2012

Welcome to Countdown to Halloween 2012! In short, check out Toyriffic every day in October for another Halloween themed post as we count down to the big night itself, October 31st aka Halloween! For a longer explanation of what the hell is going on around here, check out this post. And be sure to check out all the groovy ghoulie contributors at the official Countdown to Halloween website.

Now on with the show!

Today we take a look at this spooky-cycle chillingly called the Bone Beast!

Bone Beast is a Hot Wheels Thundercycle from 2004. Interestingly, nowhere on Bone Beast does it say 'Bone Beast.' That was the name given this ride on the packaging however. On the cycle it is called 'Cybertooth II' and I have no idea why it was changed between casting and packaging, but there you have it.

This cycle is a bit larger and bulkier than the recent Batcycle and others in current Hot Wheels motorcycle releases; in fact it is probably from the first iteration of this concept/design. Like the Batcycle, it fits and rolls along standard Hot Wheels orange track. Unlike the Batcycle, Bone Beast has four smaller wheels on the side and undercarriage to help it glide along the track, similar to how a log plume ride is designed in order to scoot around corners.

Bone Beast appears to be a motorcycle crossed with a Rattlesnake skeleton. SPOOKY! But what makes Bone Beast particularly paranormal is that it includes a translucent ghost-like phantasmagorical rider...with a glow in the dark skeleton inside him!

Actually just the pelvis, ribcage and skull, but it does give off a very haunting effect when racing in the dark!

My Bone Beast has blue wheels; I have seen it appear more commonly with translucent purple wheels. Bone Beast is a fun toy that I've had since I found it on the pegs back in 2004. A skeleton-ghost riding a skeleton-cycle ...what's not to love?

Tune in tomorrow for more fearsome fun!

Vicious (Bat)cycle

I went out today searching for the Hotwheels 'dollar' version of 'The Bat' hitting pegs all over the world except in my town now, and although I did not succeed this trip I did finally score the Hotwheels Batcycle that has already been out for a few months!

The packaging of mine is different than the one I originally posted about way back in March, but the batcycle is the same and since I tore this bad boy open right away, that's really all that matters!

Upon opening it I was surprised at how much metal is in this thing. The whole bike (sans front cowl) as well as almost all of Batman (sans head, cape and arms.) It feels very solid and rolls nicely, maintaining balance with a little help from that wedge that also serves as a decent kickstand to keep the bike from tipping while on display.

The other bikes in the set are pretty fun looking, especially that Tron 2.0 wanna-be 'Light Rider.'

The packaging designates these as 1:64 scale, but that's true only in that these were designed for use on standard Hotwheels 'orange track.' They are actually quite a bit larger than standard 'dollar' Hotwheels, falling roughly somewhere between 1:24 and 1:43 scale.

I only found one Batcycle in among a bunch of newly shelved bikes, so they may be one per shipment, or maybe they ran out of room, or someone left one behind. Who knows, but having never seen this in stores before now I think the Batcycle may be the hard-to-find one of the set.

At my Toys R Us they are going for $3.99. Worth it.

See ya' later...but before you go, check out some other sweet small scale Batcycles in my collection!

Harley Qwednesday :: The Harley Quinn Sidecar-de-har-har

Shortly after purchasing the Lego Catwoman set I realized you could easily attach a sidecar to it, and set upon the task of building one for my Lego Harley Quinn. I built this thing ages ago but am just now getting it up on the blog.

I designed the 'Harley Quinn Sidecar-de-har-har' with a place to attach her hammer, rocket boosters for independent propulsion, and detachable trailer for Bud and Lou (which is 'back at the drawing board' for streamlining at the moment.)

Harley  is of course very safety conscious, so she's wearing an appropriate helmet for the ride. She also has a seltzer bottle and some TNT because...well..she's crazy.

"Call me 'Thelma' one more time, Harley, and I'm dumping you on the side of the road!"
"Geez Louise..."
"HARLEY!"

Before you go, check out these previous Harley Quinn themed Lego vehicle creations of mine:

The Quinntankerous
Harley's Christmas Slay
Harley's Butt Kickin' Bumper Car

This Lego is pure Evel!

Evel Knievel that is!

Any boy who grew up in the late seventies/early eighties (I dare say every boy) had a fascination with Evel Knievel. Who didn't jump their big wheel off the curb and imagine they were rocketing across the Snake River?

This new Lego minifigure from Series 7 captures those bygone days of daring-do beautifully. Evel also comes with a helmet and a 'scared' face.

But right now he's popping a wheelie like a boss.

Get on your bad motorscooter and ride

ActionFigurePics.com just posted some...well...action figure pics (surprise surprise) and one little set really caught my eye:


Bucky Barnes as Captain America, with a gun and a cutesy motorcycle. What's not to love? I can't wait to find this set, which will probably be hitting stores early next year. When I do find it, it'll look keen next to my Super Hero Squad Ghost Rider!

It's a bird, it's a plane...

...it's a Super GoBot!

Cy-Kill to be precise.

Although GoBots were well known as predominantly 1:64 ish scaled vehicles/robots, a handful were produced which were much larger and more in proportion with their major competition, the Transformers.

Both the Guardian leader (Leader-1) and Renegade leader Cy-Kill were produced as Super GoBots during the series' short run.

Cy-Kill, as his name implies, transfo...I mean Goes from Bot mode to Motorcycle mode. The Super GoBot version differs from his mini version in that his wheels and engine are integrated and do not detach from Cy-Kill at all. While this is an advantage in that you do not have any extra parts to keep track of, it detracts a bit from his design - part of what made Cy-Kill look so cool in robot mode was that his wheels were held on his shoulders.


Cy-Kill is pretty solid, with his torso/head being die-cast metal and the tires being made of rubber. His "change" is simple but effective, and of course his old school Japanese giant robot design is quite groovy.

With GoBots recently on my brain, I guess it shouldn't surprise me that I found him at the swap meet today, but good golly miss molly I nearly lost it when I stumbled onto him! I had the small Cy-Kill when I was a kid (and he had the green/grey/black color scheme) so although this one is a little roughed up, he's a great find and in good enough shape to happily be added into my slowly rebuilding GoBot collection.

Bat bikes bat bikes bat bikes!

I just picked up the Hotwheels Bat-Pod yesterday. Woohoo - what a groovy little bike! It is a great little representation of the upcoming Bat-Pod (at least from what little I've seen so far.)

The two pack set comes with an older Hot Wheels casting of an armored truck, painted up with a Joker theme. Cool, but not nearly as cool as the never-before-released Bat-Pod!



It's technically part of Hotwheels' standard 1:64 scale series, but looks to be closer to a true 1:50 scale. When I get the upcoming 1:50 Tumbler we'll see how they look next to each other, but I hope they are pretty close to the same scale.

I add the Bat-Pod to my humble die-cast Batcycle collection. Here's my Corgi Bat Bike, dated 1978:


Next up is a Hot Wheel designed Bat Bike put out in conjunction with Batman Begins. The bike is clearly based on the Dodge Tomahawk. There were two versions of the Batman figurine that this bike came with, one of him standing and this one with him riding the bike:







Finally, this animated Bat bike first came out during the animated series heyday in the nineties. The second release came with a Batgirl figure, which is pretty cool! From Hasbro, dated 1997 (although the Batgirl version came out a couple years after that if I remember correctly.)




Everyone dug the Bat-Pod. They all wanted to take it out for a little spin: