Shish Kebob Beetlejuice - Kenner

As a kid I wanted Show Time Beetlejuice and Head Spin Beetlejuice so I could make a standard figure. For my birthday I got Head Spin and Shish Kebob Beetlejuice, a little bit of a let down. This figure is based on a quick scene on the table top model after the "Ghost with the Most" was released from his crypt. He wears a long coat and at one point makes spikes come out of his body. The toy is a little more colorful than the on screen costume. To make the toy a little more friendly each skewer has a little food item or something gross impaled on it. If you don't have the spikes going through him he has a ten holes in his torso.

Like the rest of the Kenner Beetlejuice figures, Shish Kebob Beetlejuice's head comes off revealing a smaller head. His small head is a little eyeball with a bushy eyebrow for hair.  I don't think this feature references any scenes from the film.

 As a kid I used to like putting all the skewers through Beetlejuice in the same direction so you couldn't see the little food items making it look like he just had the spikes sticking out of him. I also liked to stick him in my Ghostbusters Ecto-1 and pretend he was a ghostly cab driver.

Godzilla Chibi Super Deformed Set

A little while ago my buddy John, from Clawful Punch, told me about a set of Super Deformed Godzilla figures coming to Toys R Us. I kept my eyes peeled, and soon enough I found the set. I'm a huge fan of the Japanese Monster movies. My best friend Derek had a huge collection of monster toys, as well as lot of Super Deformed monster toys when we were kids. So, I was very excited to take a look at these little guys.

 Each one of these little monsters is about two inches tall and made of a hard plastic. They do not feature any articulation, but all have excellent paint apps. The set contains monsters from throughout Godzilla's history.

The set odviously includes a Godzilla. This little guy is based on his early 90's appearance. I always felt the 90's Godzilla looked more cat-like that many of the earlier films.

 Mothra and King Ghidorah were always two of my favorite supporting monsters. Ghidorah was such a great villain with his three heads that shot lightning from their mouths. I always thought it was a great design for a monster suit. Mothra was my buddy, Derek's favorite.

Gigan is the monster in this set based on the oldest movie appearnace. Gigan is decorated in light blue and gold like he looked in the 70's. The set also includes the early 90's version of Mechagodzilla. One of my favorite updates ever given to a Godzilla villian.

The final monster in the set is Destroya. He was the bad guy in the final film of the second generation of Godzilla movies. After Godzilla vs Destroya came the crappy American Godzilla movie. Then the "Millennium" series of Godzilla films started in Japan.

Killer Crab Alien - Kenner

The Killer Crab Alien is one of the many gimmicky Alien action figures pumped out by Kenner in the 90's to cash in on the popularity of the R-Rated Aliens movie. Starting with the first wave of figures and going all the way through, they seem to just randomly pick an animal or insect to mix with a xenomorph to create a new toy.

Over the weekend I went to my local comic stores' celebration of 24 Hour Comic Book Day. I left straight from the Hay Ride and got to the event around 12:20 AM. The owner of the store and one of the employees were starting the first round of competition to be the Mayor of the Comic Shop. I listened to the first trivia question, and then began rummaging throug the $5 action figure bins that were part of the sidewalk sale. I remembered buying a Crab Alien recently at a flea market, but I thought he was missing one of his accessories, so I picked up a sealed toy.

The Killer Crab Alien is crouched close to the ground. He has four legs, two claw arms, and two normal arms. The Crab Alien also has a very long tail that also features a crab claw on the end of it. His torso contains two spring loaded missile launchers that shoot "chest burster missiles"  I wish his tail included an additional point of articulation. His tail is molded in a tight arch which just barley clears his head when moved from one side of his body to the other.

It turns out that the one I had in my collection was complete. Now I'm not sure if I should keep the other one sealed, army build loose Crab Aliens, or part with my duplicate.

"Oh Baby. Hang in there. I'll write to you every week 

and I'll be waiting until you get out of this plastic prison."
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If you haven't visited Cool & Collected lately, go an check out Brian's announcement for his Kickstarter Campaign to his the first issue of the C&C Magazine Published. The layout and photos look great. I can't  wait to read the articles. I miss checking out toy magazines when I stop
by a newsstand or bookstore.

Monsters in My Pocket #3

Between playing Dungeons & Dragons and collecting Monster in My Pocket figures as a kid I had a lot of fun learning about lots of mythological creatures and monsters. My buddy Derek first found MIMP toys in the early 90's when we were kids. He had a decent collection before I ever found a pack. These little rubbery monsters that came blind boxed. Each package showed off one of the monsters you were getting while the rest were a mystery.

Harpy, Roc, and Kali

The Harpies were winged beasts from Greek Mythology. Rocs are enourmou Legendary birds that are often depicted carrying elephents in their talons. I had a Roc molded in red as a kid that I pretended was a Phoenix. Kali is a Hindu Goddess with four arms.

Vigo - Ghostbusters II

Vigo was the main villain in the Ghostbusters sequel. The tyrannt and sorcerer who comes out of a piece of ancient artwork to haunt New York City.  Vigo was one of the few villains to be made for the Mattel Ghostbusters line. He was originally sold on MattyCollector.com, but I picked him up on clearance at Big Lots when I was hunting for Masters of the Universe Classics figures.

Vigo has a great sculpt, but I have a pretty big problem with his articulation. For starters his outfit really hurts the range of motion in his shoulders. My real problem with this figure is that he has no elbow or bicep rotation point. He can't put his hands on his hips. Not this pose may not be a requirement for all action figures, but the guy is seen in that pose in a painting for like half the movie.

Vigo came with a cool lenticular card featuring the painting of him from the movie. When you look at it from one angle you can see Vigo, and from another angle he fades away... just like when he is released from the painting in the film.

The back of the lenticular painting features the painting of the Ghostbusters from the end of the film. The back is not lenticular, but was a cool inclusion. I'm actually thinking about framing the Vigo side of the card and hanging it somewhere in my house.

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I'm not doing an official Halloween Count Down, but I do plan to post a lot of creepy, scary, monstrous, and ghostly toys this month. There will be some normal toys post this month as well. Below is the my favorite photo I took at work this weekend at the Haunted Hayride. This is Henriette our fire breathing dragon. She's been part of the attraction for 20 years. She got a makeover last year.

Nightmare Batman - Infinite Crisis

Infinite Crisis is a new online game featuring many alternate versions of DC Super Heroes. These are the cool characters that used to star in Elseworlds books before DC cleaned up their universe and ended the Elseworlds titles.. Now these characters have been pushed off to different Earths in the Multiverse.

Vampire Batman from the books Batman vs Dracula: Red Rain, Bloodstorm, and Crimson Mist has been updated and renamed Nightmare Batman.

 DC Direct released a really cool statue of Nightmare Batman, and since I'm such a huge fan of Doug Moench and Kelley Jones' work on the Batman Vampire books I had to get him. I still remember Doug showing me a copy of Batman vs Dracula: Red Rain as a kid. He asked me if I though my Mom would let me have a comic book like it. I flip through a few pages and saw busty girls, vampires with blood dripping from their teeth, and lots of crazy action. I wasn't really sure, but I wanted to read the comic so I said yes. He signed the book and sent it home with me. I was so glad my Mom let me keep it. I read it dozens of time and eventually had is signed by Kelley Jones (artist) and Malcolm Jones III (inker).

The bio for Nightmare Batman on the Infinite Crisis sight follows along with the story from those dark and moody Elseworlds books from the 90's and early 2000's.

"Having succumbed to vampirism while hunting Dracula, Nightmare Batman’s unnatural speed and strength make him one of the most formidable and terrifying assassins in the Multiverse.

Initially, Bruce Wayne controlled the hunger, augmenting his skills with his newly gained vampiric abilities to fight his war on crime. In time, the hunger became too great and he brutally murdered the Joker, gorging on his blood. His control snapped, what remained was a wild killing machine, unpredictable but efficient. 

 

Nightmare Batman isolates enemies with short-term stealth and multi-target slows and can lock down vulnerable foes for the kill with his ultimate."

 This statue has an insane amount of detail. He is covered in rippling muscles and veins. Unlike the Vampire Batman in the comics, the video game version has huge clawed hands and clawed feet.

 The statue features a base with the Infinite Crisis logo and translucent wings.

Mothra Attacks or Caterpillar in a Toy City?

In the 90's there was a show called "Ultraman: Towards the Future" filmed in Australia. It featured Ultraman Great battling many classic Ultra-Monsters. The short lived show also had a short lived toy line. One of the accessories from the toy line is a miniature city play set called the Trash and Crash City. The set came with a play mate, collapsible buildings, a train, plane, truck, and high tension lines. My buddy Paul bought the set sealed at a yard sale, but gave it to me after he found out it didn't have a very good resale value. I took the set to school opened it up and used it in Photography class one time.

Today the French Teacher was trying to take a picture of a big caterpillar she and the kids found in the court yard. She lamented that it didn't look as big in the picture. I told her she needed some miniature buildings and a low camera angle to make it seem big. The reference when over her head, having never seen Godzilla vs Mothera. I went over to my classroom to start my Woodworking class. A few minutes later she showed up with the caterpillar climbing a little souvenir Eiffel Tower. She snapped a few pictures in my room and showed it to the kids. I remember my Trash and Crash City, so I got it out and snapped some photos. Not exactly what I expected to post about today, but I figured why not.

Clawful - Vintage MOTU

Half man and half crab... and all bad attitude. He's Clawful the evil warrior! I never had Clawful as a kid, but I have some very vivid memories of playing with him at a neighbor's house. The girl up the street was in my kindergarten class, and I loved going to her house to play because all her older brother's He-Man figures were stored in a collector's case in the family play room. I specifically remember an adventure I played out where Clawful was married to Barbie (and I'm talking about the famous original Barbie, which was from the neighbor girl's mother's childhood). Each day he'd go off to work to battle He-Man and then come home to his wife for dinner.

 Clawful shares his legs with Skeletor and his one arm with Buzz-Off. His head, armor, and big claw arm are unique to him. He also came with a green mace that is identical to the gray one from Castle Grayskull and brown one from Moss Man. Clawful's armor is some of the most detailed armor in the line. Clawful's big action feature is his large pinching hand. The hand is spring loaded and snaps shut once opened by the little button on the bottom.

Princess Leia - Vintage Star Wars

It's always tough to be a girl action figure in a boys toy line. But then again, Princess Leia proved to be a tough chick over and over again during the Star Wars Saga. As a kid my best friend Derek and I played Star Wars almost every weekend in about 2nd an 3rd grade. I'm talking about 1991 or '92. Long after the vintage Star Wars toys were out of retail stores. Most of Derek's collection were hand-me-downs from his Uncle who was a toy collector. Most of mine came from yard sales We found a comic shop that sold figures and both our collections grew over the years. I remember paying $8 as a kid (more than a weeks allowance) for my "A New Hope" Princess Leia. She was in pretty good shape, but not as nice the one pictured below. Eventually I picked up this almost mint Leia and gave her the cape from the one I bought many year ago. The slightly yellowed childhood Leia eventually was turned into two different custom figures for a stop motion show that we never completed.

 I remember owning this Leia and Bespin Leia long before my buddy ever owned a Leia. He eventually got the super cool Boussh Disguise Leia from Return of the Jedi. I still need to pick up a Leia blaster so this Rebel can zap some Stormtroopers. I'm still a little sad that Leia didn't rock the "star puff" hair style in any of the sequels.

Traded for some Kre-o figures

My buddy Tony from Action Figs & Things  contacted me recently to see if I wanted to trade for some GI Joe Kre-O figures. He had a couple figure I really wanted and a couple I already had. He didn't really propose what he wanted for them, so I made him an offer based on some of the stuff I know he collects. We talked about it a little bit more and as usual with blogger trades we each planned to throw in some extras. My package arrived today, and one of the extras stole the show.

The package arrived today wrapped in comic book covers. This is pretty cool, but felt a little sacrilegious to me. I have a ridiculous amount of comics and I take very good care of them. On the other hand it did make the package fun. I remember the Wolverine First Class issue seen on the front of the box.

The package contained all the agreed upon Kre-O toys, as well as a couple of bonus military mini-figs and weapons. The item that stole the show for me is the South American International Sgt. Slaughter.

 We have Law & Order, Quick Kick, Scarlett, Firefly, and Blowtorch.

 The International Sgt Slaughter is loose, but includes his cardback with partcially attached bubble. He uses the same mold as Sgt Slaughter v1 & 2  from here in the USA. He has a unique paint scheme including the oddly pink skin tone seen on many South American (Argentina) figures. I have the Sarge tucked in his bubble and displayed in a Zoloworld case next to an International Ripcord figure who was also released from his package. Both figures are missing all their accessories. When Tony originally posted the Sarge on his blog I thought he was a sealed figure. I got very excited and mentioned to Tony that I'd buy him if he ever decided to part with him. So when he was included as an extra in a trade I was blown away. I think he's so cool because Sgt Slaughter wasn't a carded figure in the US until the Slaughter's Marauders version.