Two Bad - MOTUC

I'll be the first to admit it, as a kid I hated the vintage Two Bad. He seemed so dumb to me. He came armed only with a shield and had those wacky shoulders that seemed pointless to me. I also didn't see the humor in having this two headed character arguing with itself, even though I loved the two headed monster from Sesame Street. I've grown to like Two Bad, and really enjoyed how he was used in the 200x cartoon. So the MOTUC classic figure has arrived, and I have to say I like him a lot.

 I'm glad he came with a second weapon, although I don't really care for the design of the mace. It just doesn't look lethal enough for me. It's so rounded and not pointy at all. The detailing on the figures body and armor are amazing. The little scales on the purple half are awesome. I love all the bumps and rivets on Two Bad's chest plate and boots. I found it interesting that Two Bad has one closed fist that can not hold an accessory, I think he might be only the second figure in the line to have this type of hand. Thunder Punch He-Man being the other.

Hercules vs Archfiends in the snow

On the arctic plains Hercules, son of Zeus, is locked in epic combat with Acromancer's Archfiend army. The cold handle of the Sword of Heroes stings in his hand. He know that were there are one or two skeleton warriors, many more must be near.

It's a cold day on the plains, but Hercules is sending the Archfiends back to Hades. The clang of steel echos for miles on the freezing winds. The hero struggles with every step he takes through the deep snow.

Realm of the Underworld figures are produced by Zoloworld

Star Wars & Super Powers - Winter Fever 3

I saved my favorite purchases from the Winter Fever Toy Show for my final post about the show. I previously showed off figures from other lines including Ghostbusters, Ninja Turtles, Captain Planet, Dino-Riders, and He-Man, but today I show off some new Star Wars and Super Power toys.

I'm extremely excited to finally complete my vintage Star Wars Beast collection. I've had Jabba since I was a kid. I bought the Rancor a few years back and last weekend I bought a Patrol Dewback and Hoth Wampa! The Dewback came with its saddle and a Stormtrooper rider. The Wampa is in pretty good shape, although just slightly yellowed on his torso. The yellowing on this monster is almost a given.

I've always liked the Super Powers line. They are great figures, I just never owned very many of them. Since a good friend of mine was collecting them locally, I never really wanted to give him competition. My good buddy John, from Clawful Punch, sent me two Super Powers about a week ago, and so when I saw a bunch at the show this weekend I decided, what the hell! I picked up Steppenwolf with his axe, Hal Jordan Green Lantern with his Lantern Battery, and Lex Luther in his power armor. I know Steppenwolf is one of the figures my friend Greg doesn't have. GL is a very interesting character to me, and I had Lex as a kid, but don't know what happened to him.

Winter Fever Toy Show Part 2

So yesterday I featured a few pictures of the Winter Fever Toy Show itself as well as a picture of a few of the random toys I picked up. Today's post shows off some more cool toys I picked up at the show. I'm very happy with my finds. First up is six figures from the Dino-Riders line from Tyco. I had a few Dino-Riders figures from my childhood, and I stored them with my MASK figures. Where they are now, I have no idea.

On the villain side I got two snake-men and their unusual  leader. Rasp is in the black outfit,  Krulos the evil leader in red with the dome helmet and Sidewinder in purple. I know I have Rasp somewhere.

On the hero side I have Mind-Zel, Sky, and the young Llahd. I think I got all the names correct, I'm not a Dino-Rinders expert. Mind-Zel was a blind mystic type and Llahd is the youngest character from the series.

 

I also picked up Masters of the Universe figures from three different lines released over three different decades. First up is Skeletor from the 200x line. Next is Rokkon and Blast Attack from the vintage line. I'm still wondering how they will handle Blast Attack for the Classics line. Will be be able to split apart like the vintage toy? In the front row we have Hydron and Spinwit from the New Adventures of He-Man.

Winter Fever Toy Show - Mt Laurel, NJ

So, yesterday I met up with a couple of my friends at the Winter Fever Toy Show. The show was held at a community college and as spread out between two rooms and a couple of hallways. I planned to stop at a flea market on the way, but they weren't open (I guess because of the snow yesterday). So I headed straight to the toy show. I paid the early buyers fee since I got there earlier than I intended to do so. I walked around and scoped out the place. Later on I met up with my friends Rose, Tony, Nick, and Mike.

The show had a lot of dealers including Robert Bruce, the pop culture expert from Kevin Smith's Comic Book Men show. The toys ranged from old metal tanks and trains to modern action figures. I saw quite a few carded vintage Star Wars figures, but not much in the way of carded vintage GI Joes.

I was totally blown away by the sight of this complete Eternia Playset. The box of course was beat, but it was still cool to see. I thought about buying the GI Joe placemat at the bottom of the table, but didn't. When I came back later it had sold.

Rose bought a carded McCoy figure from the Star Trek Movie line. Tony got a cool Buck Rodgers Pop-up books. Mike bought two GI Joe Collector's Club subscription figures and Nick got a carded GI Joe Renegades 3-Pack from back in the day. They each bought other stuff, but this isn't their blog.

I'll be posting some of my other purchases through out the week, but here are a few of the random toys I picked up. Hoggish Greedly the pig man bad guy from Captain Planet in the tan military suit. A 90's Toy Biz Nightcrawler figure. Frankenstein's Monster from the Real Ghostbusters. Bizarro from the animated DC Justice League cartoon. Michelangelo from the 2000's TMNT line and a Robotech figure.

Icer vs He-Man - MOTUC Battle

I thought a few pictures of Battle Cat in the snow would be cool. He was kind of hard to pose in the snow because the toy is so solid he sort of sunk in a lot. I figured Icer made the most sense as the villain He-Man would be battling in the snow. To help give He-Man a little bit of his 200x Ice Armor vibe I switched his normal chest harness for the one that came with Vykron that features the sculpted fur pelt on the back.

I would have really loved to have been able to pose Battle Cat like he was rearing up or pouncing, but I just couldn't make the pose work in the snow.  I tried reposing Battle Cat a couple of times, but I also should have changed the stance of the other characters as well, just for variety.

I hope everyone enjoys the snow pics. I'm off to a Winter Fever Toy Show in New Jersey today. I'm going to meet up with a bunch of my toy collecting friends. Rose and Tony, the organizers of  Retro Con as well as Mike and Nick who I have mentioned in previous toy show posts will be there.

Ame-Comi Power Girl

I can't exactly remember when DC launched their Ame-Comi comic book, but it's basically an anime version of the DC super-heroines. Later they released little PVC figures of the most powerful women in the DC Universe. Power Girl and Supergirl are my favorite female DC Heroes. I didn't really like the design of the new Supergirl, but I had to get Power Girl.

 The Ame-Comi Power Girl is very cute and sexy in that anime style. She is wearing her typical white uniform complete with small red cape and cleavage window. Her gloves look a little more armored than usual, but that's part of the anime style.

While Power Girl never wears a full cape like Superman, this version as a very skinny but long cape that is sculpted to look like it's blowing in the wind. Her high boots remind me somewhat of the New 52 Supergirl boots with the open knees. Power Girl's chain is a real chain, which is a nice touch.

My only real complaint with this figure is that her stance is bigger than her display base. I have a hard time getting her to balance. The base has one peg on it, and she only has a hole in her one foot. So you can sort of spin the base around to move where the extra base is positioned (like a cam), but she still falls over easily on some surfaces.

Tauntauns of Hoth - Vintage & PotF2 Star Wars

Here is another set-up I photographed on my recent snow day. This set of photos include the 90's Luke Skywalker on Tauntaun and Vintage Han Solo and Rebel Commander on Tauntauns. I've had the Tauntaun in the background without a saddle for years. My Sister bought it for me at a flea market and gave it to me for Christmas when we were kids. I recently bought the other vintage Tauntaun with saddle and reigns at a yard sale.

I really love the sculpting on Power of the Force (2) Tauntaun  It has incredible details and a nice stance.I had a ton of fun with the vintage toy as a kid, but the PotF2 beast looks like it is jumping right out of the movie.

My original Vintage Tauntaun had the hard belly, so it is technically Luke's Tauntaun. The newer one that I picked up complete with saddle is the soft belly toy that you can shove a figure inside. Therefore it is Han's ride. "...and I thought they smelled bad on the outside."

Phoenix - Toy Biz

Jean Grey was the original female X-Men as Marvel Girl. Unfortunately Stan Lee tended to create female characters with weak powers. Later writers on the X-Men series developed the character further and when she was replaced by the Phoenix Force Jean became one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe. As a kid in the 90's I didn't have any versions of Jean Grey despite her being such an important character.. I always liked the character, and so at a recent sale at my local comic store I bought a carded figure of the Phoenix.

 Phoenix comes with one accessory, a little orange catapult. You can stand a figure on it, tap the button and magically knock down the figure. The Phoenix, like most of the Toy Biz figures, has an action feature to simulates her mutant power. There is a small button on her back that makes her hair and eyes light up like they are on fire. The batteries in the figure are dead, but by putting a light behind her I was able to simulate the effect.

Below you can see the card back Phoenix came on, but I believe she  was available on a couple different styles of card backs. This particular figure also came packaged with a trading card. Phoenix is dressed in her green and yellow outfit. She has a large Phoenix logo on her chest. Both of her hands are sculpted in an open position. One hand is positioned  cupped towards her body. The other hand is cupped 90 degrees and looks great for casting spells / using mutant powers.

Snow Day! - GI Joe Arctic Strike Team

Well, we got a bunch of snow dumped on us again today. Luckily we got the call from work that school would be closed today last night. So what did I do... dug out a bunch of toys to photograph in the snow. I'll be posting snow pics mixed in with my regular posts for the next couple of weeks. Today's post is my GI Joe Arctic Strike Team which is all custom made GI Joes I cobbled together over the years.

 I have previously poster about all these figures (post 1 and post 2), so I'm just going to give a quick overview on them, Stalker is made predominantly using a Snow Job body. Stalker and all the early figures had a different style of neck that limits you on parts choices. Beach Head has Frostbite arms and Big Brawler legs. These figures have some small details painted on over top of the base colors the toys were originally molded in.

 Grand Slam is a mix of his '83 figure and Snow Job. His jet pack is actually a Cobra Eel backpack. Footloose has the torso from a Frostbite figure. Again some parts are painted while with little details added in other color paint. Snake Eyes is made using a few pieces from a v2 Snake Eyes along with Frostbite arms and legs. He needed a little something to jazz him up so I added the blue tiger strip camo pattern.

 I loved playing with my toys in the snow as a kid. I think that's why I enjoy making custom snow troopers. I had a lot of Frostbites laying around becuase he is one of the few figures to have no holsters or details on his thighs. So I buy any of them I find to us for customs of civilians.

Plastic Giant, Knights, & Demon by DFC

It's interesting how much fun a kid can have with a static figure like Green Army Men. I mean I grew up with GI Joe and Star Wars figures but still loved to play with little plastic knights and wrestlers. Toys like Army Ants at least had some  painted details.

 My buddy Derek always had the weirdest plastic figures. Goblins, demons, knights, and wizards all molded in a single shade of plastic. I recently found out that a whole bunch of little plastic fantasy figures I had as a kid were made by a company called DFC (thanks to Little Weirdos).
I think that all my DFC figures actually came from Derek, so I'm not sure where he got them. He had several other figures shown on Little Weirdos.

As a teenager one of my hobbies was to paint miniatures from table top board games. When I was in the mood to paint but didn't have money to buy pewter miniatures I'd paint my plastic figures. I can't say these guys are my best. They don't have the best detail, and I hadn't learned how important it is to use washes and dry brushing.

This guy is supposed to be a giant, but because all the figures are basically the same scale I just pretended he was a viking. I remember Derek having two variations of this guy. One with a detailed spiked flail while the other just had this less detailed ball flail.

Here are two knights from the same fantasy line. I think there were a few other knight figures, but these are the only two I have. I really liked the knight armed with the sword and shield. I also previously posted about a Wizard from this series.

I had all these guys lined up on the top ledge of the frame to a bulletin board in my bedroom for years.

Some of the best figures from this line of figures were the demons. Here is one armed with a flail. Again, I believe there were some figures with more detailed weapons that had sculpted details like chain and spikes instead of a smooth ball on a wavy stick.

I know I had one of these guys  holding an axe with two hands similar to the knight pictured above.

We used some of these guys along with a bunch of other plastic monster in a segment Derek cooked up for our stop motion show Animation Creation. I've included a link to the portion of Box O' Imps 'n' Demons that focus on these little guys the most. It' one of the weirder segments of the show. It used some live action bits and lots of weird lighting.

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Here is a link to some interesting photographs taken of a Batman figure I saw online. I though my fellow toy fans might enjoy them. Curious Wanderings of Batman in the American South West

Lando Calrissian (Skiff Guard Disguise)

Lando Calrissian in Skiff Guard Disguise was part of the Return of the Jedi line of Star Wars toys. I've had this Lando figure for a long time, but I only recently got his helmet. I think as a kid I would have been more excited by this figure if I had his helmet. Lando also originally came with a vibro-axe. As I've mentioned many times here on Action Figure Adventures, I never owned any vintage Star Wars figures straight out of the package and there for never had many accessories. I did have a vibro-axe accessory as a kid and thought it was so cool. The sculpt really captured the details seen in the film.

This figure really captured the look of Billy D. Williams. I've always wanted to do a boil and pop head swap with this version and the Bespin figure. Along with the great head sculpt, Lando has tons of great details in his armor and outfit.

Flea Market Finds #19

Well it was another cold Sunday at the Flea Markets. I went out hunting with a couple of guys and we went to three different markets. I bought a bunch of tools and looked at tons of comic books, but I didn't find any toys that sparked my interest until we went into Philly. I got a 2000's Tomax figure in his business suit. This figure was part of a Toys R Us exclusive GI Joe set from my college years. I liked that they finally released the twins in suits similarly to how they often appeared in the cartoon show. Princess Leia from Return of the Jedi, again a modern figure. I kind of hated how petite Hasbro made Leia for a while. She's just too tiny. The third figure is Mutt from the 4th Indian Jones movie. I figured he makes a good generic civilian if needed for a stop motion animation. I scored these three figures for a whopping $1.

Guy Gardner & Bloodwynd - Infinite Heroes

Today I'm posting about two figures from the DC Universe Infinite Heroes Crisis 6-Pack: Prelude to Doomsday. Infinite Heroes never had the same magic as the Kenner Super Powers line, but did have a great selection of characters. To be honest I only own a hand full of figures from the line. I got Batman and Powergirl on single cards. Then I bought the Prelude pack because I wanted Doomsday. Most of the other figures in the pack I didn't care about. I previously posted about Fire & Ice here on AFA. Today Guy Gardner, and Bloodwynd finally get a turn.

Guy Gardner is dressed in his street clothed style costume which consists of jeans, boots, and a blue jacket with a gold "G" on the chest. This is a costume he wore after giving up being a member of the Green Lantern Corps.  Guy even has his yellow power ring sculpted on his hand. Bloodynd is a powerful necromancer, and a DC character I know little about. It's kind of a shame that the gem on his chest, arms, and leg are just painted on. I feel like this is where the Infinite Heroes line kind of fell short. Many details that deserved sculpting were painted on so that molds could be more readily reused His cape does have some nice sculpting to it..

Raph the Space Cadet - TMNT

Like most toy lines, eventually we get handed some ridiculous variants of the main characters. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was notorious for this. Today's post is about the hot headed turtle, Raphael in a space suit. Why would a turtle want to go to space? who knows? Raphael originally came with a silver blaster, silver sword, yellow hose, and a clear plastic fishbowl helmet. His astronaut outfit is nicely detailed an included a large sticker  on his torso.

I think I've had three Cadet Raph's in my collection over the years, and none currently. I got him new in the pack back in the day. I played with his some. Then a friend from church, who was a little older gave me a handful of Turtles he'd outgrown. I got a second Space Cadet Raph with some of his accessories. The second one I used to like to take in the pool. I wouldn't use the original figure in the pool because of the sticker, but once I had a second one... he looked enough like a deep sea diver to have lots of summer adventures. The thought had also crossed my mind to paint all his red parts purple to make a custom Astronaut Donatello. Eventually when I was down sizing my collection I sold both figures.

Later I got the third copy, which is pictured above in a lot of TMNT figures my mom bought for me at a yard sale. After photographing him and having Raphael sit around her for a bit I sent him to one of my blogger buddies in a care package. His helmet was really his best feature.

Clawful "Packs" a Punch

I recently sent off a couple of packages to blogging buddies of mine. Mainly stuff I picked up at a recent sale at my local comic book shop. John from The Clawful Punch returned the favor and sent me a package back. What a package... it had all kinds of stuff in there.

From a Superman Lunch Box to action figures, trading cards, buttons, and mini-figures, all included in the package. Two GI Joes, two Transformers, two Pez Dispensers, two Eraser Airplanes, and a barrel of slime.

I'm really excited about Aquaman and Flash. These guys are both really cool retro toys. I have a collection of Pez Dispensers and Lunchboxes, so I've got the perfect spot for some of the items John shipped over.

I also really love this Megatron figure. He's nicely articulated. He doesn't transform, but that allows for him to be a better action figure because he doesn't need articulation points for transforming. Thanks John, you didn't have to and that's part of what makes it so special.

Retro Pictures - Godzilla Set Ups

I've mentioned on AFA several times about how in the 90's my buddy Derek and I used to make little dioramas with our toys and take pictures of them. We called these Set Ups. We did a yearly Godzilla Set Up as kids around Christmas time. We occasionally did set ups with other toys as well. At some point in time Derek's Mom started taking a photo of us before or after we took our toy photos.

This is a photo of Derek and myself at his house. We are each holding a monster figure and wearing matching Godzilla t-shirts. Derek has a cast on his arm from a Red Rover accident at Boy Scouts.

I know it's basically impossible to read the sign Derek is holding in the photo above. With a little Photoshoping I've made the sign slightly readable. It says...

"Godzilla Set-Up 1/2/1995

 Deco & Buzz Chuck"

I pointed this out because it proves just how long I've been using the name Buzz Chuck. At the time, I had probably only been using the nickname for a year.

 

I'm not sure if this photo is from the following year or two years later, but I think this was the 2nd to last year that we did a set-up. If you look carefully you can see Fire Rodan hanging from fishing line from Derek's finger. We often times dangled flying monster into photos. Unfortunately we occasionally got our hands or legs in the photos in the process. If we had digital photography and Photoshop in those days these set-ups would have been an even bigger production.