Category Archives: Toys
Ladies and Gentleman, There Will Be a Phil Urich Action Figure
I like collecting superhero action figures. I loved it as a kid, and I still love it now. They’re neat to put on book shelves and just be on display. It speaks to the geek collector in me. Unfortunately, most of my favorite superheroes are pretty obscure characters, and they don’t get made into action figures very often. I could care less about the latest Spider-Man or Wolverine variant. Give me a Multiple Man figure!
Well it seems the impossible has happened. Phil Urich, one of my all-time favorite comic book characters, is getting an action figure. As part of some upcoming Marvel Legends line, we will get Phil’s awesome Hobgoblin figure.
Dreams do come true
Holy crap, that looks awesome. That will be the pride and joy of my collection, people. I know it’s a little bit insane to like action figures so much at my age, but who’s judging? Don’t be a Judge Judy. Get on the cool train!
The figure comes out sometime in 2015, I think. There are some more pictures here. Sweet Georgia Brown, I want that toy.
The 6 Greatest Long Lost Toylines
Ladies, brace yourselves, because you’re reading the blog of a 30-year-old man who still collects action figures. Oh yes, oh yes. Take a few breaths if your hearts are fluttering too much. But I kid. I love toys. They’re such a wonderfully wacky and colorful part of our world.
And I only sometimes take my action figures down off the shelf to play battles with them.
No school like the old school
But not every toyline is as successful as the Transformers or LEGO. And not every toy can stay popular like the Ninja Turtles or superheroes. Sometimes, in this unfair world of ours, some truly great toys are lost to the ages. I’m as much a fan of nostalgia as the next person, so what say we spend an afternoon reminiscing about the great toys of our youth and wondering where it all went wrong! Join me after the jump for my six favorite childhood toys!
Stop the Universe, There Are Glorious Forces at Work Here
Theologians will be debating the existence of a higher power until the end of time. But this weekend, I received evidence that there is indeed a greater power at work here. And apparently, they’re watching me.
It is as if the universe coalesced into a single item that now exists solely for me. I can perceive no other reason why this toy exists other than some cosmic force peered into my brain and made it a reality.
How else can you explain Hasbro making a legitimate, fully transforming action figure of Dispensor, the Mountain Dew Transformer from the first movie.
Do the Dew!
I’m speechless. Both because of the awesomeness of this toy and out of fear that someone really is reading my thoughts. Why else would Hasbro make a Dispensor action figure seven years after the first movie came out?! He was on the screen for 10 seconds! And it’s not like he’s some new commercial tie-in.
They changed the name from ‘Mountain Dew’ to ‘Mood Whiplash’ on the toy, so it’s not like Hasbro is getting any advertising money.
Dew It, To It!
So why make this action figure unless someone had recently read my List of the 6 Most Underrated Movie Transformers!? Dispensor is #1 on that list! But I only wrote that list a week ago! Someone knew in advance how much this character makes me giggle! His mere existence is cause for such giddiness!
And now he’s a real toy!
What are you trying to tell me, universe?! That you’re listening to me, you’re really listening? Well then, message received! Loud and clear!
The 6 Most Underrated Movie Transformers
Because money makes the world go round, we have once again arrived at another Transformers movie! This one is entitled ‘Age of Extinction’, the logical follow-up to ‘Revenge of the Fallen’ and ‘Dark of the Moon’. Why the new film isn’t called ‘Age of the Extinction’, I will never know. But all these titles raise the obvious point: how are future generations supposed to figure out the viewing order? Will it even matter by that point? Who cares! Explosions!
“I forgot to mention the Dinobots is all…”
The big draw this time around will be the Dinobots, and I’m personally looking forward to some robot stegosaurus action. Major characters like Optimus Prime and Bumblebee will return, but Shia LeBeouf, who played the part of the human, has been replaced by Mark Wahlberg, playing the part of the new human (the part he was born to play, baby!). So if there’s one thing we’ve learned over the course of the franchise, it’s that the characters are easily replaceable, especially the Transformers themselves. There have been countless bland and indistinguishable Transformers stuffed into each movie – but not all of them are so bad.
In fact, there are more than a few diamonds in the rough. Half a dozen, to be exact. Join me after the jump to meet the unsung heroes and villains of the Transformers movie verse!
The New LEGO Contest Winner is the Bee’s Knees!
Remember Cuusoo, the LEGO design competition that selected models from the public to turn into real sets? Cuusoo gave us the Back to the Future LEGOs and the upcoming Ghostbuster set. Well they’re at it again with a new winner – and a new, much easier to understand name.
It’s a female scientist! And that is fantastic news! Rather than just grab another pop culture touchstone, LEGO are taking the world’s advice and making a legitimate, reasonable LEGO model starring a female character. Because LEGO are usually terrible when it comes to girls. Instead of just making LEGOs for everybody, they keep trying to make girl-specific sets that are more colorful and feature sets about shopping, haircare and other insanely sexist ideas. So this is a damn good sign!
Henchman-4-Hire 