Lord Dactus - MOTUC

Lord Dactus is one of the newst toys in the Masters of the Universe Classics line. He is based on a character created for the Mike Young Productions (MYP aka 200x) cartoon show. Darctus is made up of an interesting mix of new and reused parts. Dactus features new feet that give him an interesting posture. He has a funky extra bend at his ankles, like the hind leg of a goat or cat.

 Lord Dactus has new hands, head, feet, and armor. He reuses the wings from Draego-man. He also come with a very cool looking sword that matches his armor nicely. His tail is not articulated and is just part of the sculpt of his loin-cloth piece.

Lord Dactus' unique ankles and tall neck makes him much taller than the standard Masters figures. I love the sculpt of his talon like fingers. This figure is so large that he had to be packed without his wings and armor attached.

Hunchback - The Real Ghostbusters

Last year while making a stop motion animation video with my sixth grade Science class, the need for a hunchback arose. I started a series of Mad Scientist videos to help explain concepts to the kids that we were learning about in class. Then the kids got involved in writing them and doing some of the animation. The kids wanted to add a bunch of characters for the 3rd video so that way more of them could do voices. They really wanted an assistant named Igor to be in the video. The problem was I didn't have a hunchback toy. So I stopped by the local comic shop, but had no luck. I ended up picking this guy up off ebay.

 The Real Ghostbusters Hunchback was made by Kenner. He never appeared in the cartoon show. The Hunchback is dressed in a yellow shirt and green pants. He also has black chains and shackles on arms and legs. When you squeeze his legs together his arm flail and his mouth opens up.

If you want to check out the videos we made they are linked below. I wanted to try to crank out one or two more science videos this year, but they take a lot of time and with all the changes in my schedule I'm spending so much time preparing for class I haven't had time to mess with a video.

Thinking Like a Scientist

Scientific Inquiry

The Moon - Astronomy

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I saw the "Carrie" remake last night. I enjoyed the film, but it doesn't really compare to the original. It just wasn't anywhere near as creepy. The way she uses her powers made me feel like I was watching a Jedi use their powers rather than a high school girl who has amazing telekinetic powers that she can access when she is enraged. My Facebook status last night was: "If someone had dropped pigs blood on Anakin Skywalker at his prom, his transformation into Darth Vader would have been more believable than anything that happened in the Prequels.

Luke Skywalker - Vintage Star Wars

 I remember buying my vintage Luke Skywalker used at a local comic shop as a kid. I was kind of excited to have him because my best buddy Derek didn't have him. Derek's Star Wars collection at a time was much larger than mine.


Like my entire childhood Star Wars collection, I did not have Luke's lightsaber. I armed him with a blue toothpick. In the end, I think that toothpick was much cooler than the actual plastic lightsaber that was included with look.


A New Hope Luke (aka Farm Boy Luke) was my go to Luke figure until I got Jedi Luke. I never got the Bespin Luke until long after I was done "playing" with my action figures.

 Like the rest of the A New Hope figures that where armed with lightsabers, Luke has a channel up his arm for the little plastic weapon to slide inside. I picked up Luke's actual lightsaber at a yard sale one time with a Ben Kenobi figure. Like many used samples the small tip is a little bent.

Ninjas in Training - Nick TMNT

As part of the new Nickelodeon Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line, Playmates has released two packs of toddler turtles in training. These sets, similar to the 2000's Toddler Turtles are called Ninjas in Training. Each figure features limited articulation and some training weapons. They each have a unique skin tone that matches their teenage version.

The Turtles have articulation at the necks, waists, and shoulders. This allows for some pose-ability, but not a lot. I would have preferred that they had wrist swivels than waist swivels. Their shell's look odd if you rotate their waists.

One Ninjas in Training pack includes Donny and Leo.  Donatello looks a bit puzzled, while Leonardo looks very stern. Donny can only hold his staff with one hand. His other hand is sculpted open.

The second set includes Raph and Mikey with their training weapons. Note how Raph's weapons look like they are made of sticks taped together. Raphael looks angry, while Michelangelo has a big smile on his face.

They are very cute, and look cool with the Teen and Baby versions I already have. (The babies came with the ooze canisters)

Monsters in My Pocket #5

Time for some more rubbery monster goodness. More little mini monsters from the Monsters in My Pocket toyline released in the 90's. Here is the Mummy, Triton, and a Skeleton. One odd thing about Trition is that he is pictures holding a two pronged trident weapon in the promotional images for the toy line. The actual toy did not come with the trident.

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With the end of the Marking Period coming up at school and my side job at the Hayride, It's been crazy lately. I wish I had gotten around to posting yesterday. It just didn't happen. I have included a promotional video I put together for the farm.

Color Mutation Boardway - Burger King

In 1995, to go along with the successful kids show Disney's Gargoyles, Burger King included Gargoyles toys in their kids meals. The only one I has was the Color Mutation Broadway, which I bought at a yard sale. In the show, stone Gargoyles would come to life at night only to be frozen as statues again when the sun rose. This toy captures that plot point perfectly.

This PVC figure of the character Boardway is made of a grayish plastic that turns green when put in warm water. I used to have fun warming up his face with my thumb and watching it slowly turn to rock. I liked the cartoon show, but was a little too old to collect the toys. I picked this guy up cheap at a yard sale and mostly used him as a Gothic decoration with my Castle Lego figures.

Godzilla Toy Battle

I have posted before about my my buddy, Derek, and I used to love to arrange all our monster toys into little scenes with props and environments. Then we would snap pictures of them with a 35mm camera back in the early 90's. We called this a "Set Up". Long before Articulated Comic Book Art or any of the other toy photography trends. We were posing and photographing our toys. This particular Set Up was a battle between several monsters on a small island out in the ocean. The white towels are the land, while the blue carpet was the water. Two Godzilla figures, Battra, Anguirus, Mothra, Mecha King Ghidorah and several Ultraman monsters are all invading the small island city. The city is made of Micro Machine play sets and Lego skyscrapers. F-X7 from Star Wars can be spotted on land in the middle of the photo. The Cobra POGO from GI Joe is serving as a missile silo with a large green missile inside from the 1982 MMS.

Street Hawk - Funskool GI Joe

I never got around to posting about my final purchase from the New Jersey Collector's Con (NJCC) a few months back. I picked up the Funskool Street Hawk set sealed on card. Street Hawk was a short lived TV show. Kind of like Knight Rider, but with a motorcycle. While Funskool (in India) has a bunch of Hasbro GI Joe molds, they released an unlicensed Street Hawk toy. It's not screen accurate, but it is still pretty close. They repainted the RAM Cycle in black and kitbashed a figure using T.A.R.G.E.T.S.'s head and other figures body parts.

The package is emblazoned with "The Man, The Machine, Street Hawk. The front also features unique card art for the toy. The back of the package has a little bio for GI Joe and shows off card art for other figures and photos of some vehicles from the line.

Toy Hunter - Halloween Edition

Toy Hunter on Travel Channel was back this week with a special Halloween Edition. Jordan was buy for a Horror Convention in Ohio and for the Guitarist from Metallica. I'm not a huge fan of how he's always buying for a celebrity client this season, but at least this time we got to see Kirk's collection. That makes it more worth while, if the client is a true collector  (like Gene from KISS). It's a little more fun that when he shopped for the guy from the Partridge Family or the nerd comedian. I enjoyed the first stop in the episode. The guy they were buying from had tons of Filmation Ghostbusters including the Ghost Buggy and Head Quarters. Jordan bought some Blurp Balls off the guy. I had to laugh. My buddy, Derek, growing up loved those weird toys like Blurp Balls and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. He also bought some Super Natural figures. Later on he bought some horror movie posters and masks.

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On a side note, the Haunted Attraction I work at got a great review this weekend. I figured I'd share it.
The location has three attractions. I work for the farmers that own the property and we run the Hayride and Field of Fright. Another group of people run the Haunted House.

The Crone - Sleepy Hollow

A while back a buddy of mine that buys and sells toys at conventions and shows gave me some figures he had in stock forever and didn't want to drag around with him anymore. This wretched woman from the Johnny Depp film Sleepy Hollow was one of them. Below you can see the Crone with and without her veil She came with a handful of smaller accessories that I didn't dig out. Some of the extra items include an animal skull, a burning candle, bowls of food, and a necklace.

 There is a small snake tall in her hair on the back of her head that activates her disgusting action feature. Her eyeballs pop out and her snake tongue extends. The figure, like many McFarlane toys has great detail and texture, but limited articulation.

Ultra Action Pack - Power Rangers Megaforce

In recent episodes of Power Rangers Megaforce, the Rangers have found new Zords that activate their Ultra Modes. Bandai released single packs of these Ultra Mode Rangers with really cool shiny foil armor. They have also released a Toys R US gift set called the Ultra Action Pack that contains the five Rangers in their Ultra Armor along with the bad guy Vrak. This gift set contains Rangers with gold plastic armor, but it's not foil/chrome like the single pack release.

Each Ranger comes with their identical Ultra Swords, Blasters, and Morphers. Even though the guys and the gals share a lot of tooling, they each have their unique Ultra Zords on their chest. As compared to the previous release the normal rangers, these figures have the same heads and upper legs, but because of the armor they have new torsos, arms and boots.

 

 

Vrak is the leader of the alien bad guys from the series. He has some interesting blue and silver armor. He has yellow wings on his back as well as a silver staff. Vrak and the Ultra Rangers have some limitations to their articulation due to their armor. Their shoulders can not be raised as high as a standard figure because the armor gets in the way. Vrak has less articulation that the Rangers because he doesn't have twists at his gloves or boots.

 

 

Go...go...Megaforce!

 Here is a closer look at the Red Ranger's Ultra Sword and Ultra Zord. The Zords are removable, but I don't know if it was exactly planned. I think they really just come off so they could tool one male torso, one female torso, and then five small Zord heads. I was kind of disappointed that the little Morphers can't connect to the block on the handle of the Ultra Swords as they do in the show.

These pictures are here to show off the similarity and differences between the two different release styles. The comparison between the normal Rangers and Ultra Rangers. I have also included an image of an Ultra Ranger next to Robo Knight so you can see the difference between the shoulder armor.

Earth's Defenders Never Surrender!

 

R.I.P. Lou Scheimer

At the age of 85, Lou Scheimer passed away yesterday. Lou was the founder of Filmation Studios, an American animation studio that created many cartoons in the 70's and 80's. Some of the cartoons they produced include The Lone Ranger, Star Trek, He-Man & The Masters of the Universe, She-Ra: Princess of Power, Brave Starr, Ghostbusters (not "The Real") and dozens of others. Along with heading the studio Lou was also involved in developing the world and mythology behind the Masters of the Universe. Lou even voiced characters in many of the Filmation shows.

Along with wanting to make quality cartoons and keeping the entire process here in the United States, Lou also wanted his cartoons to have a conscience. Many Filmation cartoons ended with little morals or lessons to give kids something to take away from each episode.

Above is an original animation cel from the He-Man cartoon show. The cel features Orko, the little comic relief side kick to He-Man. Kid friendly characters like Orko were common in each Filmation show. Orko is one of the many characters voiced by Lou Scheimer. His voice was pitch shifted somehow to create Orko's unique voice. If you look at the writing on the cel, you can see it's from Masters of the Universe (MU) and is a Stock cel (STK) meaning that it is part of a common action for a character that was pre-animated and used in several episodes.

Monsters in my Pocket #4

Today's post is three of my favorite monsters from the second series of Monsters in My Pocket. This toy line was a collection of small rubbery monsters molded in a single color. Monsters ranged from classic mythological creatures to urban legends to eastern gods.

The Loch Ness Monster, the Minotaur, and a Gargoyle. Nessy is a Scottish Urban Legend. The Minotaur lived in the Labyrinth in Greek Mythology, and Gargoyles were sculpted on European Churches and other buildings for protection.

Catwoman - DCU Mystery Minis

It seems like every brand is getting in on the blind bag mini figure fad. I've bought some from a few different lines. Today my Nerd Block (a monthly grab bag of nerdy pop culture items shipped to your door)  arrived and it contained mini-figs from three different brands: Batman, Spawn, and Portal 2. The only one I really care about (the problem with Nerd Block) was the DC Universe figure. I cracked the little box open to find a crouching Catwoman inside.

It turns out the figure I got was one of the more rare figures. This style Catwoman is packed 1 out of every 144 figures. There is one style  of Batman and one style of the Joker that are also that rare.  Crouched down the figure stands 2" tall. The body has a nice amount of sculpting, but the head is decorated entirely with paint apps. Catwoman has one point of articulation, and its a swivel at the neck.

* I buy nerdy t-shirts from a site called Shirt Punch from time to time. This Nerd Block product is a spin off company, so every month the Nerd Block includes a t-shirt and several other small toys or trinkets. I've gotten Funko Pop figures, blind boxed figures, stickers,  trading cards, and other odds and ends. This is the second month for Nerd Block and myself. It sounded cool in the introductory email so I signed up right away.. It's kind of fun but also a huge waste of money. I figured it would be fun for a little while, and then I will probably cancel my subscription. A Block costs $19.99 plus shipping. It's a great value if the majority of the stuff in the block is up your alley.

Star Wars Episode III - Candy Boxes

Several years ago, right after Revenge of the Sith came out, Mars Candy licensed Star Wars for their Halloween promotion. The fun size candies came in glow-in-the-dark wrapers and featured images of Anakin and Darth Vader. I went to Wal-Mart that year to buy candy for the students in my classes. A few of the cases were almost empty, so I carried them up the register and asked the clerk if I could have them as he rang up my purchases. He told me to help myself and I've had these Snickers and M&M boxes laying around ever since. I don't really know what to do with them. I also don't really think they will ever be worth anything, so I don't really know why I hang onto them.

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On a side note, I hate that fact that I am so addicted to Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classic toy line that I consider using sick days on the monthly sale daysso I can order the figures I want before they sell out. I have a subscription, so I get pretty much everything from the line, but on days like today, when the Horde Troopers were on sale, I wish I could buy extra sets. Unfortunately I have work and can't use the internet for personal things. I also don't have a job with a lot of flexibility even if I were allowed to do as I please online. I'm busy teaching classes when these figures go on sale. So shortly after school was out I popped online only to find out that Manteena and the Horde Troopers were already sold out. I don't know if my niece will be a She-Ra fan or not (she's 2 years old) but I have been buying extras of some of the most important Classics figures just in case. I really wanted to pick up some extra Troopers since they are the generic bad guys I also was going to scoop up an extra Manteena. Oh well. The fast sell out times are kind of a pain in the butt for collectors.

Batros - MOTUC

This year Matty Collector has offered a special "add on" subscription to their Masters of the Universe Classics line. The extra figures this year are all inspired by the Filmation He-Man and She-Ra cartoons. While Batros looks like he should be a member of the Evil Horde (which are the villains in She-Ra) he is actually one of Skeletor's Evil Warriors.

Batros is a mix of man and bat. He has bluish bat-ears and fur on his head. His skin tone is a pinkish purple. Batros wears blue furry underwear and boots (I think, but it might be his fur? gross). He also wears a harness with a red bat in the center, similar to the Horde logo. He also has small red and black batwings growing under his arms.

 

Batros came with a single accessory. It is a recolored version of the spiked mace  that came with Spikor. This time it's painted black with read spikes. Batros has some interesting parts. I think his feet are new, and it makes me wonder if Mattel has other plans for them.

Battleground Teela - MOTUC

In true fantasy/sci-fi tradition Matty Collector has given us the babe in a metal bikini. According to her bio this is an outfit Teela wore while training with the Sorceress to become the next guardian of Grayskull. This time around Teela has blonde hair and a furry loin cloth like most of the guys in the Masters line.

 Teela is armed with a sword and a blaster. Battleground Teela was the first female figure to use the new and improved female body design featuring more articulation in the hips and waist. She's a great figure, but not really Teela to me. Like many other collectors, I like to display this figure along side Vikor, He-Man of the North.

GI Joe Retaliation Dog Tags

During the first few days of sale for the GI Joe: Retaliation Blu-Ray, Paramount ran a promotion giving away custom dog tags. The movie came with a code the be entered online. The code gave you access to a form to fill out the info you wanted printed on your dog tag. My customized dog tags just arrived in the mail today.

The first tag just includes the GI Joe: Retaliation logo. The second tag contains the personalized information that was entered online. You could include your name, birthday, blood type, rank, and code name. The form was filled in a list of code names of characters from the movie, but there was also the option to enter your own. So naturally I went with Buzz Chuck.