Avengers vs. GI Joe

I am loving the new cartoon series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After decades of being in the shadow of DC, finally Marvel does an animated series right. Avengers takes all that was great about Justice League Unlimited in terms of scope and story, but of course is rocking the Marvel Universe. And like JLU, Avengers packs tons and tons of superheroes and villains into almost every episode. The comic book eye candy alone is worth the price of admission.

I am more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy, so a lot of the subordinate characters are either new to me or I'm only barely aware of, which is a fun change of pace since my DC knowledge is pretty encyclopedic.

But beyond the Marvel Universe, the recent episode 'Gammaworld Part 2' featured a cameo I did recognize and was surprised as hell to see:

Piloting a helicopter and attempting to subdue the Hulk is none other than Wild Bill of GI Joe fame!

Okay so he never says 'Hi, I'm Wild Bill of GI Joe fame. Now you know...and knowing is half the battle!' but if that ain't Wild Bill I'll eat his hat!

Stuff like this makes me all giddy inside. Thank you to whomever was involved in bringing this little Easter Egg to the Avengers cartoon.

And if you haven't already seen them or need to watch again to catch Wild Bill's cameo, you can watch parts one and two of Gammaworld at Marvel.com

Hulk Smash Puny Skeletor!

The other Marvel Universe figure I bought myself for Christmas is this World War Hulk:

I absolutely love this version of the Incredible Hulk. The comic story was cool of course, but just the general concept of a barbarian themed Incredible Hulk is something to behold. I can imagine this guy appearing in some sort of Masters of the Universe/Marvel crossover or something.

Not only did Hasbro go all out for this guy by making him an all new sculpt (instead of just adding some accessories to an existing Hulk mold), but they gave him a shoulder armor/sword scabbard, a shield, a sword...

...and a battle axe!

Unfortunately Hulk's hands are sculpted too wide opened to properly hold his weapons, but all things considered that's a pretty small issue for such an exceptional toy.

I like the Hulk, but there are only so many pairs of purple pants in the world, so it's pretty fun to have him in this get-up.

Slush Head

When Mattel attempted to re-vamp He-Man and the Masters of the Universe at the end of the eighties I completely ignored the toyline. Primarily because I was too old for He-Man, focusing my toy collecting on all the cool new Batman movie stuff coming out. But also because of the stupid new direction the toyline took, giving He-Man and his pals more of a Buck Rogers/Star Wars type space theme and much less of the savage barbarian concept we had all grown up with.

Had I payed more attention however I may have picked up a couple of the cool looking villains in the line, including this guy named Slush Head aka Kalamarr.

I love that this guy has actual liquid in his helmet. A sort of reverse scuba suit, or more accurately a Scawba (Self Contained Above Water Breathing Apparatus) maybe?

And not only is his helmet full of liquid, but his head actually turns too! Keen.

I found this guy at the swap meet sans accessories. But for fifty cents, I couldn't pass him up. He's a little roughed up, but his helmet is still full of whatever carcinogenic poison Mattel pumped in there over twenty years ago, so that's cool.

The Joker watches Community?

I haven't picked up a Brave and the Bold Joker yet although I do intend to, but I may have to get this re-paint first if I see it in stores soon - both because of the epic giant brass knuckles accessory and for the name of the action figure: Kickpuncher Joker.

If you've seen the NBC show Community you may be familiar with one of Troy and Abed's favorite movies: Kickpuncher (along with it's sequel Kickpuncher 2: Punchkicker) as well as their own homage to the series:



I need a Kickpuncher Joker!