King of the Hill / Ghostbuster T-Shirt

Happy Halloween everybody. I've got to run up the the farm for another night at the Haunted Hay Ride, but wanted to share this cool t-shirt I got from PIPT Apparel not to long ago. It's the guys from King of the Hill as the Ghostbusters. I love Bobbie as Slimer. I wore this to school today as part of my costume. I was a "kid whose too old to trick-or-treat and not really wearing a costume". I wore this shirt, camouflage pants, cat ears, a black knit hat, and carried a plastic jack-o-lantern.

He-Man battles Concussions

Today after school I had to sit through a presentation on Concusssions with the students on my Bowling Team. This is a requirment for all coaches and athletes. I had to laugh when suddenly there were Masters of the Universe figures on the screen!

Basically the one kid was talking about trying to entertain yourself when you are resting after a concussion. You aren't supposed to read or play video games. The one kids suggestions playing with toys from your childhood. I think He-Man is from the person who made the videos childhood not the kids in the video. The video is on the Children's Hospital of Colorado's site.

SEO Halloween Special ft. Ninja Turtles

To go along with the kiddie toy reviews I've been doing for Super Excited Outrageous Toy Reviews, I created a Halloween Special.

It's a goofy story about the Ninja Turtles getting ready to throw a Halloween party and the chaos caused by the cleaning.

The Halloween Special is not animated, it just me playing with toys kind of like the SEO Reviews.

I think it ended up being pretty funny, and if you have little kids or nieces and nephews feel free to share the Halloween Special with them an let me know what they think.

Geldor - MOTUC

Geldor was the fan choice character released in 2013 as part of the Masters of the Universe Classics Subscription. Geldor's only appearance in previous MOTU Media was one of the original mini-comics. In the story he's searching for a way to extend his life. He finds a special elixir but the liquid is spilled in battle.

Geldor has white/gray hair similar to Mr. T. Pretty much the rest of his outfit is red. Geldor has a long loin-cloth, chest plate, boots and gloves. Some parts of his outfit are detailed in dark brown.

 As a fun accessory, Geldor comes with a small clear plastic "cup" of elixir.

Geldor also came with a huge but boxy looking battle ax. Geldor isn't my favorite figure, but he's not bad. I understand that probably many collectors always wanted this character since they read the mini-comic as a kid. I always wanted the Mask of Power Demons from one of the other mini-comics.

The Baroness visits the Secret Stash

Last night's episode of Comic Book Men featured a woman dressed up as the Baroness from GI Joe trying to sell the comic shop a carded Baroness action figure to raise money for cat charities. Well, that woman is a good friend of mine, and co-organizer of Retro Con, Rose Tuski. I was excited to see her on the show. You did a great job Rose.

The opening segment of the show was filmed on the same day. A few other friends appeared in the opening. In the background you can see my friend Mike Breaux, host of the Breaux Show.

Depending on if Mike Zapzic was leaning forward or backwards you could either see Mike Breux or Rose's husband and Retro Con Co-Organizer Tony Tuski. These guys weren't the first people I've seen on Comic Book Men that I've known. Red Bank, NJ isn't that far from where I live, and the toy and comic community isn't that big. This was the first time how ever the people on the show were close friends of mine.

Nimrod - X-Force - ToyBiz

Nimrod was released by ToyBiz in 1995 as part of the X-Force subline of their successful X-Men figure series. Nimrod is the leader of the Sentinels in the Future.


The red robot figure with with black details is a massive hunk of plastic. He has four point of articulation since his head is just a detail on his torso. For an action feature, Nimrod can fire a rocket from his wrist using a spring-loaded mechanism. He is able to store his extra yellow rockets on his wrist as well.I picked this figure up for $5 carded in beat up packaging at my local comic shop a while back.

Batman to Bruce Wayne - The Batman

I never really watched "The Batman" cartoon series, but I have picked up a few figures from the line at yard sales over the years. Bruce Wayne is dressed in a all black outfit and came with removable cape/cowl, gloves, boots, and utility belt. When I bought Batman he only included his cape/cowl and boots. He's a rugged figure with 7 points of articulation. He has the standard 5 points plus knees.

 I'm glad that they didn't bother to put a bat-symbol on Bruce Wayne's outfit. I also really like that the neither Batman or Bruce suffer from the design of the others outfit.

Star Wars Prequels - Snow Patrol

Flashback to last winter... I spent a decent amount of time photographing toys in the snow on two different occasions in which school was canceled because of bad weather. Here we see a squad of Snowtroopers on patrol with an Imperial Walker.

Flea Market Finds #32

I've been super busy lately and I feel bad that I keep missing blog posts. Yesterday I came home from work with a really bad headache. I sat down in front of the TV and ended up sleeping for 12 hours (6 PM to 6 AM). I guess I needed it. If I try to have a normal life as well as work at the haunted hayride I really don't get enough sleep on the weekends. For instance over the weekend after getting home from the hayride after 1 AM (and not going to bed right away because I'm hyped up) I go up at 8 AM to go out to some yard sales on Saturday morning. Boy was I glad I did. I haven't been out to the flea markets on Sundays with my buddies in a couple of months. I was very excited to go out and to find some cool items.

I was at several yard sales in my town and then I went to a couple multi-family yard sales and communitiy flea markets 20 minutes or less away. I found a whole buch of 80's goodness.

 I got a Sectaurs character with his belt. Rowdy Roddy Piper with his cloth kilt from the LJN Wrestlers line. I picked up Extendar, Stratos, He-Man, Prince Adam, and one of the Rock People from Masters of the Universe. From the Real Ghostbusters line I picked up Dracula and Madame O from Bionic 6. I got a Visionaries figure, Captain Power bad guy and a villain from RoboCop. In addition I also picked up a mini-figure from Star Comm and a small bendy E.T. figure.

I also found a My Pet Monster Lunch Box complete with thermos. All these toys and the lunch box came to a total of $20.75. I'm pretty pleased. I have pretty much all the He-Man figures already, but I might use them for custom figures, or just to practice replacing the leg rubber bands before I try it on my broken Faker.

Disney Pixar Action Figures - SEO Toy Review

The Super Exciting Outrageous Toy Review project keeps on trucking. We are getting some views, but not quite as many as we'd hoped. I really like how these Disney Pixar reviews turned out. I think they show off the toys nicely and are still entertaining. Check them out, let me know what you think.

Cube 'n' Stack Wall-E



Search 'n' Protect Eve



Mr. Incredible

Zartan v1 - GI Joe '84

Zartan, the leader of the Dreadnoks is often considered to be the greatest GI Joe figures and has even been near to top of  lists of the greatest action figures of all time. Zartan may be tied with Sgt. Slaughter for the most popular GI Joe vehicle driver. He did not come on a card back like many GI Joes, Zartan was released in a small box that included his Chameleon Swamp Skier vehicle.

Zartan was a very important character in both the GI Joe comic book and cartoon. His figure doesn't quite match his appearance in the supporting media, but is close. Zartan included several accessories as well as an interesting action feature. Zartan's skin changes colors when exposed to sunlight. He turns a bluish color rather quickly when taken outside. Zartan also came with armor and color change stickers that were to be placed on the armor. He has a chest plate and thigh pads. In addition to his armor Zartan also came with a black pistol, black back pack, and a mask. Pictured above is a vintage Zartan with a weapon pack version of his gun and a Funskool mask from India. No other vehicle driver in the GI Joe line came with so many accessories.

In the photo above on figure's chest plate has the color change sticker while the other does not. I have an extra Zartan as a back up in case his o-ring ever breaks. As part of the color change plastic process Zartan's torso is fused closed. Removing the screw from his back doesn't allow you access to o-ring inside.

I didn't have Zartan as a kid, I bought my first one in High School from a toy dealer at a local  in-door flea market. I don't really have a great about when I bought Zartan, but I have two pretty good stories about times I didn't buy him.

As a kid I was able to buy one GI Joe at a yard sale and I looked through the bin of figures and was debating between buying Zartan and Lift-Ticket. I bought Lift-Ticket, thinking I might never get the Tomahawk. Well, little did I know that I'd get that helicopter that year for Christmas and that Zartan was an out of production figure and rather uncommon.

The second time I passed up on Zartan was when my Mom toook me to a "huge GI Joe yard sale" according to the newspaper ad back in the 80's. They had just about all the figures and vehicles from 1982-1985 for sale at this yard sale. I wanted Zartan, but I kept asking my Mom to get me the Flagg. I only picked out a few figures and just held out hope that my Mom would talk it over with my Dad and call them back, as she promised. How crazy would it have been if she bought me a Flagg with it's box for $20 back in like '89.

Star Wars Rebels: The Movie

I finally got to check out the CGI animated movie that kicks off the new Star Wars cartoon series. Often times refereed to as Spark of Rebellion the Rebels movie seems to be on Disney XD constantly. This new series is animated similarly to the most recent Clone Wars show.

Odviosuly this show is aimed a kids, most likely 8-12 year old boys.So I have to give some aspects of the show a pass just because I'm not in the right demographic. Some shows for kids, like the Nickelodeon Turtles are incredible, this show seems okay at best. The movie had a lot of action in it, but not a whole lot of story. Spark of Rebelion does little more than introduce the new characters and have them all coincidentally meet up.

It's hard to identify the "main character" because the show seems to have an ensemble cast, but Ezra, the Force sensitive youngster that has been crafted for the kids to associate with instantly reminded me of Disney's Aladdin. At on point during the movie he was even refereed to as a street rat (just like Aladdin).

Bascially the movie sets up Ezra as a steal to survive kid who meets up with a crew of people, aliens, and droids who act like Robin Hood. These guys steal from the Empire and give food to people displaced by Imperial activities. Most of their adventure in the movie involves the crew trying to free some Wookiee prisoners.

The Crew of heroes that Ezra joins up with includes a human Jedi, an alien tough guy, a female Mandalorian, a female Twi'lek and an astromech droid named Chopper. The Alien, Zeb, looks a lot like a character from some of the early production art for the original Star Wars film.

Zeb, Ezra, and  Kanan

 Things I like about the show...

I like anything that tries to keep the Star Wars brand moving. If you aren't putting out new media the brand is dying. This is a problem with series like GI Joe. Star Wars and Transformers seem to get that.

I loved the music in the show, it was fanastic. It took all its cues from  John William's original Star Wars score. I love hearing those themes.

To go right along with the music, the sound effects also scream Star Wars. The speeder bikes, TIE fighters and blasters all have audio straight from the Lucas Archives. There is something magical about the hum of a speeder bike that takes me back to seeing Return of the Jedi for the first time.

Chopper the astromech droid is entertainig, although his sound effects aren't as enjoyable as R2-D2.

Things I don't like about the show...

I felt like the voice acting was kind of disappointing. Just about every character has a British accent. Pretty much all of the aliens also spoke normal English without even an interesting voice. I understand not wanting to use sub-titles in a kids show, bu don't have the aliens sound like generic British guys just like the imperial officers and heroes.

Multiple times Stormtoopers were called bucket-heads or their helmets were called buckets. I can appreciate having nick names for the bad buys. Cartoons always seem to do that type of thing with their bad guys, but Star Wars never really did it. The Stormtroopers were always shown some level of respect even if they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. I wish they would just sort of easy in humor like that. If they called them Bucket-heads once during the movie and then slowly brought the term in I probably wouldn't have minded it so much.

There was a scene where a Star Destroyer was hovering within the atmosphere. I understand a large ship sort of floating in space, but it doesn't work at all having a ship "parked" outside a building.

Ezra also seems to be really good at using the Force for someone who has received no training.

Martian Manhunter - Super Powers

Martian Manhunter was a DC Comics character I knew little about as a kid. I wasn't real big on the design of his costume either. It wasn't until much later that I came to appreciate this shape shifting alien. At Retro Con I saw a loose Manhunter at a good price and had to grab him. He includes his cloth blue cape with high collar. My Super Powers collection is slowly growing.

Marshmallow Mess Ray Stantz

At Retro Con I was able to score a carded Marshmallow Mess Ray Stantz figure. This repaint figure was the Club Ecto Exclusive figure for the Ghostbusters subscription. I only paid $10, which is a steal. Since I already have the clean Ray figure I think I'll leave this guy carded.

Ray comes with a Proton Pack, Neutrino Wand, Ecto Goggles, proton stream, and marshmallow covered figure stand. All the marshmallow mess on Ray is paint work, there is no new sculpting on this figure.

Guardains of the Galaxy Mystery Bobble Heads

Not too long ago I showed off Rocket and Star Lord from the Funko Mystery Mini Figures. These little blind box figures are actually bobble heads. I was given 10 blind boxes to review for Super Exciting Outrageous Toy Review. Out of the 10 packages I got 6 unique figures of 5 different characters.  Check out the video review to see who I got.


I gave one of the Rocket figures to a young cos-player known as the Little Doctor at Retro Con. I knew he was planning to attend the show dressed as Doctor Who on Saturday and Rocket Racoon on Sunday.

Spydor & Stridor - MOTU

I picked up some cool vintage Masters of the Universe vehicles at Retro Con. First up is Spydor. This mechanical spider vehicle features long red legs that when powered by batteries really walks. The guy I bought it from said it didn't work, but I might tinker with it a little. Spydor should also have two red guns mounted on each side of the drivers seat. They are both missing.

Stridor the mechanical horse was one of my favorite He-Man toys as a kid.  I bought this complete Stridor off my friend Nick at the show. It's a shame that his legs aren't articulated. Imagine if Stridor was battery operated like Spydor. That would be incredible.

________________________________________________________

Super Exciting Outrageous Toy Reviews kind of got off track two weeks ago, just after we got started. We're back to posting videos this week and one of my videos was featured today. Feel free to check it out.

Realm of the Underworld @ Retro Con

If you've been following Action Figure Adventures for a while you've probably seen my posts about the Realm of the Underworld toy line by Zoloworld. These retro style action figures recapture the magic of 80's toys made by Mattel and Remco. A few weeks ago at Retro Con I got to hang out with Mike, the owner of Zoloworld.. Mike showed me a bunch of prototype figures as well as some sneak peak photos of upcoming items.

Mike sold me one of very few remaining variant Achrterrus figures. When this Skeleton Sorcerer when into production Mike has shipped a bolt of 100 year old fabric to be used for his robes. Unfortunately there was not nearly enough fabric so the rest were made with a white new fabric that doesn't have the coffee scent or aged look of the original material My particular Achterrus has an unpunched card as well as a factory error. His name sticker was placed on his bubble upside down.

Here's a close up of the old fabric hat was used to create his robe. I have a loose figure of the more common white fabric Archterrus. This guy is going to stay carded with my "white-haired" Kry-sis variant.

Mike was also kind enough to give me this Test Shot helmet. It's pretty cool to have a pre-production piece. This helmet is molded in a white-ish plastic. It has officially been released in silver and glow-in-the-dark white.

New Adventures of He-Man @ Retro Con

I'm a big fan of Masters of the Universe, but the New Adventures can't hold a candle to the vintage or 200x toy lines but that doesn't mean I write it off completely. I give Mattel credit for trying to reinvent the brand. I have a handful of loose figures that I picked up at yard sales. I also have a few vehicles form the line with their boxes. At Retro Con I picked up a few carded figures to display as examples of this toy line.

I like these two packs that were put out to help introduce the line. This set includes He-Man and Flogg. The card back isn't perfect but it's still a neat piece.

I also picked up a boxed Sagitar the Galloping Battle Beast. This centaur like alien is one of the coolest figures from the line. I'm tempted to open him up. I might just look for a loose one on ebay so I can leave this one sealed.

Silverhawks & Thundercats @ Retro Con

At Retro Con I picked up some more Silverhawks. I've been slowly collecting figures from this line. They are hard to find in nice condition. I bought two figures and three birds. Copper Kid is one of the original characters with the spring open wings feature. Condor is a later character who has a spring-loaded missile launcher built into his arm.

Talley-Hawk (Gray) came with Quicksilver. Rayzor the blue bird came with Steelheart. Slybird who is orange came with Stargazer.




Three Thundercats voice actors were at Retro Con. Peter Newman and Larry Kenney were also voices for Silverhawks.

COPS 'n' Crooks from Retro Con

I picked up some awesome stuff from Hasbro's COPS 'n' Crooks line from the 80's. I bought three carded action figures from the line. The cool thing is that these are 3 of the first four COPS figures I had as a kid. Two of the three cards are unpunched... which is kind of cool.

Rock Krusher - Crook

I always liked the card art on the back of he COPS cards. The little file cards at the bottom were written by Larry Hama the man behind the GI Joe file cards. I always thought it was interesting he didn't write the comic book. Doug Moench wrote the comic, which meant it played an important role in my child hood. I grew up playing COPS with Doug's son, Derek, my best friend.

Dr. Badvibes - Crook

Officer Bowzer & Blitz - COPS

I also picked up this huge lot of figures towards the end of the 2nd day of Retro Con for $30. I already have all these figures, but the lot included a ton of accessories. I need to sort out this lot and my collection to figure out what I can use. I think this Big Boss is in better shape than my childhood figure. The real selling point for me was that Buttons McBoom Boom has his chest guns. He was always one of my favorites that I never had. I used to always try to play with Buttons and Longarm when I'd play with Derek.