Monsters in My Pocket #2

So the power is back on, but there is a lot of clean up work to do. The school I work at is open tomorrow. So I've been off for three days and haven't been able to cut up the fallen trees becuase I have an electric chain saw. We'll see what I can get done after work tomorrow. I also talked to someone at the DMV and they said they were closed on Monday and Tuesday., so if I'm lucky my license will get set out tomorrow.

Monsters in my Pockets... Matchbox doesn't just make little cars. Here we have

 the Phantom, the Mad Scientist (Dr Jekyll/Mr. Hyde) and the Ogre.

No Power

Sorry guys, no updates for a few days. Sandy knocked out our power. I'm at my sister's charging my cell phone right now. I'll get back to posting when we get power in my town again.

Superman - Superman Returns

As many of my readers know, I like to make stop motion animated videos with my action figures. I mostly animate them for reviews these days, but I used to do video series that were more like tv shows.  (Animation Creation: the series & Action Figure Adventures: the series) So, from time to time I buy a toy, not for the figure but for one of it's accessories. It can be difficult to find toy sized props some times. This Superman came with clothes and a wig with glasses so he could be transformed into Clark Kent. I felt like the wig & glasses would make for a humorous disguise in a video some time.

So this movie Superman toy has nicely sculpted details and good paint apps. He has a cloth cape that is permanently attached to the back of his neck. He has decent articulation, swivels at the shoulders and hips and hinge joints at the elbow and knee. His Clark Kent accessories are in a box with other animation props and so I didn't dig them out to photograph. I display this figure as Superman with my DC Superheroes.

Flea Market Finds #8

I got home from work at the hayride last night a little after 11 PM and watched TV for a bit. I woke up on the sofa at 6:30 AM to my phone ringing. It was my buddy Dave asking if I wanted to go the the Flea Market. Let's do it!

I bought a lot of Master of the Universe figures. Prince Adam, Battle Cat, Sy-Klone, Man-E-Faces, Battle Armor Skeletor (feature still works) and a Remco knock-off (not pictured). I passed on a lot of Transformers that I saw the last time I was there. The guy wants to much for them.

 I didn't have a Prince Adam before. Battle Cat will go in my bin of toys for kids 

to play with when they come over with their parents.

Battle Armor Skeletor will replace the one in my collection because the one I had did not

have a working action feature. The broken one is going in the kids bin (so there is at least one MOTU villain). I'm not sure what I'm doing with my duplicate Man-E-Faces and Sy-Klone yet.

Headless Horseman - McFarlane

With the rains from Sandy (Frankenstorm) on their way everyone seems to think this will be the last night of the hayride for the season. So in honor of my last night at Sleepy Hollow for this year I decided to post the Headless Horseman from the movie Sleepy Hollow. This toy was produced by Todd McFarlane's toy company back in 1999 when the movie was released.

A good friend of mine who buys and sells retro toys and video games gave me this figure carded one time when he was clearing out inventory that wasn't moving. He's not a bad little figure and features a reasonable likeness to Christopher Walken.

The Horseman comes with three important accessories, and none of them are his horse. I'm not sure if they released a horse or a deluxe Horseman with Horse. This version includes his axe, his own removable head, and two trophy heads (attached to each other). As with all McFarlane toys the Horseman features awesome paint apps and a decent, yet oddly limiting articulation.

Our Headless Horseman is actually a 19 year old girl name Monica. She does a great job of riding her horse up and down both sides of the wagons wielding her axe or sword. People always seemed shocked that the horse is real.

Sword Slicin' Leonardo - TMNT

Sword Slicin' Leonardo is part of a "Wacky Action" line of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. These turtles came out after the standard versions of the characters had been sold for a while. The Wacky Action toys features wind-up actions and allowed Playmates to sell fans new versions of the main characters. Just like how toy lines always create multiple versions of the heroes like Batman, He-Man, and Snake-Eyes.

 I was lucky enough to own all four original turtles as a kid, although it took some time and hunting. When the wacky action toys came out I had mixed feelings. Some of them seemed cool, while others didn't apeal to me. I do not recall asking for this Leo, but I did own him. I probably got him as a present from someone (because I didn't buy him or put him on a wish list for my parents). Like almost all of my vintage turtles he was sold at a yard sale in a sandwich bag with his file card and weapons for a $1.50. At the time I was focusing on other toy lines and all the money went back into buying stuff I wanted at yard sales.

My Mom recently called me from a yard sale asking if I wanted a case with Ninja Turtles in it for $5. She said they were original Turtles from '87. I assume this is what the guy selling the stuff told her because she knows toys in general, but not what versions of toys she is looking at. So I said yes. She talked the guy down to $4 and bought me the toys. She told me it has all four original Turtles (she knows toys enough to know you need four different colored Turtles). I was disappointed that they were actually Wacky Action Turtles, but I told her she did good anyway because I would have paid $5 for just the case.

 Leo is missing his whip accessory, but has his sword and mace. One thing I did like about the Wacky Action Turtles was that their belts were made from the molds for the original versions and could carry those standard weapons. I often equipped the Wacky Turtles with their standard weapons. The Wacky Turtles also featured new head sculpts. Some of them I liked more than the original heads. They had a little bit more of the cartoon vibe to them.

More Desert Assult Squad - Custom GI Joes

Today I'm posting the second half of my custom GI Joe sub-team I created years ago. These figures are part of an elite strike force called Desert Assault Squad (DAS).

Spearhead & Max - As a kid I always loved the figures that came with pets and Spearhead was no exception. This custom figure is Spearhead's head on a Duke body with all of Spearhead's accessories except the helmet. Spearhead's actual helmet never fit as nicely as I like, but the Duke helmet standard to most of the DAS figures fits well. His backpack and gun feature some painted details.

Oasis - is the second new character I created for the team and is a survival expert. He is a Deep Six v2 head on a Duke body. His head was a little to small for the helmet so it was glued on. I used some sculpty to add a cloth  piece that hangs off the back of the helmet like Dusty's. He has a custom painted Big Brawler gun and a weapon pack Recondo backpack.

Charboil - Another who like Spearhead only had one version in the actual line. I figures a flamethrower trooper would be able to handle the heat of the desert, so Charboil earned a spot on DAS. He is made using a Charboil head, Flint arms, and Duke torso & legs. He is equiped with a Duke helmet with a Rip Cord gas mask attached (I carefully cut out the plastic visor so you can see though the mask). and Chariboil's backpack, flamethrower, and hose.

Lifeline - As a kid I always though Tiger Force was supposed to be a Desert team, and so I included several Tiger Force member on DAS. Duke, Dusty, and Lifeline are featured on both sub-teams. Just like a communications specialist, every team needs a medic. This figure is a Lifeline v1 head on the Duke body. He has a custom painted Lifeline backpack and med-kit. I painted his gloves white like latex gloves.

As with many of my custom figures parts left over from one figure end up in the next custom. Spearhead's entire figure was used in this team. Big Brawler's accessories were sprinkled over two different figures. The extra Duke heads show up in some of my other custom toys like the Derek figure used in Animation Creation: the series. There are post of those figures on here already. If you keep reading, I will eventually post more custom figures. Don't be surprised if a few of them have Duke heads also. I really like this Duke head. He has nice features and a good looking haircut.

Desert Assult Squad - Custom GI Joes

Back in the late 90's and early 2000's I was cranking out custom toys left and right. I used to buy lots of GI Joe figures at yard sales and flea markets to us for this hobby. One time I came across a seller that had several of the same Duke figures. I bought them up with a plan to create a desert themed GI Joe strike force. My buddy JboyPacMan from Revenge from the Cosmic Ark recently posted his Duke figure and this made me want to post my Desert Assult Squad (DAS).

Duke - I had this version of Duke as a kid and really liked the sculpt. I just always wished he had better colors. Growing up in the 80's and 90's made me a fan of the "chocolate chip" camo from Desert Storm. My goal was to cover up as much of the red on the figure as possible. The sleeves were left red, because it's almost impossible to avoid paint chipping on that shoulder joints. So this Duke is the leader of DAS. He is equipped with this gun, helmet and a painted up Big Brawler backpack. Duke is the only member of DAS that I painted his belt buckle to look like the flag.

Dusty - DAS has to have the Joe desert specialist on the team. Dusty was actually one of the last figure I made for the team. I didn't have a spare Dusty to paint up when I first started creating these figures. This figure used Dusty v1's head, torso, and arms with the legs and waist of the Duke used for most of the team. He carries his usual gun and backpack.

Bazooka - one of my favorite GI Joes who suffers from having a goofy costume. This figure uses the Bazooka v1 head on Duke's body. He has his bazooka and a custom painted weapon pack Lowlight backpack. Due to Bazooka's usual uniform, the red sleeves almost seem normal.

Mainframe - This Marine Corps communications and computer expert fills an important role in DAS. He is made from a Mainframe v1 head and arms on the Duke body. He is equipped with custom painted versions of his computer and backpack. He is also packing a 2000's era pistol.

Sandstorm - is the first new character I created for DAS. He is a heavy weapons soldier with extreme environment training. He is made from a Spearhead body with the Duke torso, and a Storm Shadow v2 head. His gun is from a Kenner Robocop figure (Birdman Barnes) with an additional ammo belt. He also features a custom painted weapons pack version of Spirit's back pack.

I'll post the rest of the team tomorrow.

Gorilla Alien - Kenner

The Gorilla Alien is one of the Aliens toys made by Kenner in the early 90's. Many of these toys, although based on the movie, were not featured in the movie. Most of the Marine (good guys) looked nothing like they did in the movies. All the Aliens in the first two movies looked the same, except for the Queen. The Gorilla and Bull Aliens were designed for the toy line.

The Gorilla Alien features long gorilla like arms. There are bones sticking out of his back that allow you to open and close his hands. His head is also made of soft hollow rubber. This can be used to suck up, and spray water. This alien also came with a little plastic face hugger accessory included with the alien.

The Gorilla Alien is the only Alien from the first wave I didn't own in the 90's. At one point in college a friend of mine game me some action figures he had at his parents house and this Alien was one of them.

Anakin Skywalker - Prequel Star Wars

Back when the only Clone Wars cartoon was the 2D animated version (that looked like Samurai Jack), I wanted to create a Clone Wars stop motion series or web comic. Another one of my plans that took so long to accomplish, it never happened. As a result of this idea, I collected many versions of some of the main prequel characters. I wanted my story to span the distance between Star Wars II and III. I also wanted to include some flashbacks that would take place before and after Episode I. So, below is the collection of Anakin Skywalker figures I collected to help portray the character throughout the story. ( I have had many major project ideas and some of them have taken forever to complete, like Action Figure Adventures: the series)

  

First we have "farm boy" Anakin. This version would be used occasionally for flashbacks to his life before entering the Jedi order. I also wanted to make sure one part of the story involved Anakin and Obi-Wan in a really bad situation and use a flashback of each of them talking to Qui-Gon during the time of Episode I to help them get out of the predicament.

  

This young Jedi version would be used in a flashback to show Yoda training Anakin with other young-lings. As well as one of the first times Obi-Wan takes Anakin on a mission. I thought it could give him good depth to show how he acts around other young-lings.

 Here we have Anakin around the time of Episode II and the beginning of the Clone Wars. I got one of these figures from the Evolution pack. The same figure was later reissued in a Wal-Mart set that came with fancy tins. I love that the flesh hand can be replaced with a robotic one, perfect for the project I planned.

This battle damaged Anakin came in a Clone Wars inspired battle pack. The figure is a nice (non-cartoon) version of the character based on a scene from the original cartoon mini-series. I planned to us him in the story somewhere along the way.

 Yet another battle damaged version of Anakin. This time he came in a comic book pack inspired by the Clone Wars comics, which I enjoyed.  I'm not sure if I would use both this figure and the previous one in the same segment of the story, but I wanted him to do a lot of kicking ass and taking names and that results in a lot of battle damaged scenes.

 As we get later in the Clone Wars and then if there were any parts that took place between scenes in Episode III this figure would have been used. Just like the Episode II Anakin, one figure came in the Evolution set and then the second with a Wal-mart tin pack. I really like the mechanical hand and had planed to show it off a lot in my story. I understand Lucas not wanting every frame of his hand to be an effects shot, but in the cartoon and in my story I'd love to see the hand un-gloved  a lot. This Anakin figure is one of my all time favorite prequel figures. The only thing that could really be improved would be to have nicer elbow joints. This figure came out when Hasbro was using the mitered (angled) elbow cuts that could look bent or straight. They aren't as functional as the more modern ball elbow joints.

 Here is another realistic (non-cartoon) Anakin figure based on a scene in the first Clone Wars cartoon series. I never could figure out how I'd use him in my series with the weird tattoos. I like the figure a lot. I especially like his mechanical and and broken mechanical stump.

 This last figure is technically Darth Vader, but I thought I might use him in the series as a battle damaged Anakin from the later part of the Clone Wars. This figure does not have very good articulation. He was a pack-in with the Mustafar play set. His shirt has a few nice rips, but they are a little hard to see.

23" Voltron! - Club Lion Force

Here he is... the new 23" tall Voltron released by Matty Collector via their Club Lion Force subscription service. He is huge and very cool. He blows the die-cast Voltron I had as a kid out of the water. He is so big I had trouble photographing him because my usual backdrop isn't really tall enough or wide enough. I'm still not a huge fan of the spring-loaded features, especially since the one leg on my Black Lion doesn't work correctly. I did get the emailed shipping label, so I will be mailing him back for a replacement one.

I love the detailing on Voltron's face and chest crest. He just looks so great. 

Finally all the Pilots are together. 

I'm not opening my sub-exclusive Sven figure, so he's not pictured..

Voltron with Sword and Shield

(He's  kind of  top heavy with is weapons)

Close-up on the end of his sword

 Another shot of the Pilots with Voltron

 Form Blazing Sword!

 To help everyone get an idea of scale, this is Voltron with the mailer box to 

the Star Wars Big Millennium Falcon

 Here is Voltron with the vintage Castle Grayskull and He-Man 

One last picture, here is Voltron on the deck of the GI Joe USS Flagg Aircraft Carrier. The Flagg isn't quite assembled correctly. The last deck section is laying underneath. The tower is also just sitting on top the deck not attached to the side. This actually makes the tower one floor taller than it should be. My dresser is not long enough or wide enough to assemble it completely. If the tower would be properly attached Volton would be a lot taller than the tower.