Comic Book Men: The Search for Mego Uhura

The cold open about the most horrific thing in comics was very funny. If the entire show was the boys talking comic and making fun of each other I'd be happy.

Just by chance Michelle Nichols, Star Trek's  Lieutenant Uhura, walks into the Secret Stash. She's got a couple hours to kill before catching a plane out of Jersey. Michelle bestows a quest about the staff of the Stash to find her a MOC Mego Uhura toy. It's kind of ridiculous, but fun at the same time. So they jump on the phone calling collectors and dealers they know. Walt name drops New Jersey Toy Dealer, Rob Bruce. It would have been really funny if they called the Toy Hunter, since he's from Jersey. Then again his show is on the wrong channel to do a cross over.

The next customer at the Secret Stash is a die-hard Jean Grey Fan. She asks about X-Men 101, the firs appearance of the Phoenix. I love when they highlight important issues from comic book history on the show. In fact it's my favorite part. They know comics inside and out. I've never heard anything about a comic that I didn't think was accurate on the show. Some  times the guys just aren't that educated about some of the toys and other pop culture items they talk about.

The next guy brought in the awesome 200x He-Man statue sculpted by the Four Horseman. Ming starts blasting He-Man. Mostly the goofy names of the characters and the fuzzy boots.Oh well, I guess we can't all be MOTU fans. Only the guy who brought in the statue seemed to even know that there was a relaunch of He-Man in the 2000's.

The episode ends strong with the return of Michelle Nichols looking for her Lt. Uhura action figure. There was a great bit between Michelle and Walt. This is only topped by a bit between her and Bryan. It was a fun episode with a little something for everyone. If you haven't seen it, check it out!

Pop Culture Valentine Cards

I have been sitting on these fine artifacts for a while now, and then I forgot to write up this post for Valentine's Day. Here is an array of Pop Culture Valentine Cards.from the past 20 years or so.

Mmmmm.... 90's.... X-Men... must be 3rd grade. I was obsessed with the X-Men back then. The Toy Biz toy line had just started, and I had every figure from wave one. I had a subscription to Uncanny X-Men comic book. Everyday at recess Nate Ballard and I played X-Men. He was always Wolverine and I was Iceman. These are a couple of cards left over from a Valentine long gone.

These Batman Valentine Cards are also left over from Elementary School. They feature great art by the late Jim Aparo. I remember giving one of these to my best friend's dad, bat-author Doug Moench. I know there were cards in the set featuring the Joker and Catwoman.

 I've been buying little kids Valentine cards and candy for all the other teachers at the school I work at each year. I fill out the cards and throw them with a piece of candy in each person's mail box. I usually buy them at the dollar store, so they are a year or so out of style. Not that anyone who is getting them minds.

Here are some 2000's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cards. The boxes bring back memories. They always had a couple of extra cards printed on the back of the package. When I was in school the cards came with little envelopes, but now they just get folded in half and held closed with a little sticker.

 Here are a few modern era Batman Valentines. Again these were bought for my co-workers. I didn't buy cards this year because I though for sure we wouldn't have school because they were calling for snow. We ended up having a two hour delay. I guess if I had bought the cards I might have remembered to post about these on the correct day.

Superman Returns, everybody loved that movie right? No, okay. Well Brandon Rauth still makes for some nice eye candy to be featured on a Valentine Card.

One of my closest friends at work is a huge Simpsons fan, so I bought a box of them the one year. I really wish one of them had a train on it and said, "I choo-choo- choose you."

Godzilla Valentines would have been a hit when I was in 1st grade. Everyone in my class was obsessed. I found a box of them a few years ago, but there were no Godzilla movies out at the time and all the art work features photos from the old films. What an odd set to be released in the 2000-teens.

This Jim Henson's Dinosaurs card is left over from Elementary School. I loved that show. I even had a few action figures from the show. I eventually sold them at a yard sale. "Not the mamma!"

I actually picked up a box of 90's Spider-Man Valentines at a thrift store a few years ago. I used them one year for my co-workers, but saved one of each design for my collection of comic related merchandise. These cards were released to go along with the Spider-Man cartoon which I watched every day after school in 5th and 6th grade.

I also picked up a box of Animaniacs cards at the same thrift shop. A couple of my co-workers got a real kick out of my retro Valentines that year. "We're the Warner Brothers. and the Warner Sister!"

Batman - '89 Movie Figure

As a kid one time my Mom took me to Toys R Us while they were having a sale and had just restocked the store. They had tons of stuff I was looking for. I begged my Mom for a bunch of things. She bought quite a few action figures for me that day, but hung on to most of them for my birthday a month or so later. The one toy I was able to convince her to give to me right away was Batman!

What an epic action figure. He looked great on that gold card back. He had the cool newspaper looking file card on the back of the package. On a rare occasion, the figure inside the package looked better than the one photographed on the back of the box.

Batman is dressed in his all back batsuit. Bold yellow highlights in the form of his bat-symbol and utility belt break up the costume nicely.

Just like the awesome Super Powers figures of my early childhood, he came with a cloth clip-on cape.

Just the figure alone would have been enough, but this Batman came with bat-gadgets! Where does he got those toys? Batman came with a black grappling hook gun. The gun has lot of nice details sculpted onto it. Only one of his hands can hold accessories, the other is molded into a fist. Man, that fist punched a lot of action figures back in the day.

Batman also came with a rather large batarang. The end of the wings are molded so he can hold it in his hand. There is also a little clip molded into the underside so it can be attached to a rope.

Speaking of rope, Batman includes a bat-rope feature. The front piece of his belt can be pulled away from his body revealing a rope attached to it. There is a mechanism housed within Batman that causes the belt front (grappling hook?) to retract. There by pulling Batman up to where ever you have attached the belt front.

You can see some paint wear on my Batman's chest logo. He saw a lot of playtime over the years. At some point in time I touched up the ears and eyebrows of his cowl with a Sharpie marker because there was so much paint wear on him. He's a real classic and one of my favorite Batman figures in my collection.

Han Solo in Hoth Battle Gear

Over the years I have collected quite a few different Hoth Han figures. Of course there is the original Kenner figure, a true classic. Then there is Power of the Force 2 figure. I ways though he was kind of odd. He is wearing a hat with the goggles on top, but his hood is down. The final three figures are all from the newer collection of figures made by Hasbro. Each has his own little differences, and I guess that's why I kept buying Han. The figure on the far right has a crappy action feature activated by a button on his back. Their jackets range from blue to brown. The vintage figure has burned blue into our memories, but the actual prop was more brown. Other than Darth Vader (who wears the same outfit the entire time), Han in Hoth Gear may be the Star Wars figure I have the most different versions of his figure.

Toy Hunters - Giant Toys

So after last weeks episode that was a real hit with me, this weeks Toy Hunters was kind of a dud. The show started off at Jordan's store in New Jersey. A father and son team came in with trash bags full of stuff to try to sell Jordan. It was mostly all crap. He and Steve picked up a few items. They bought a Disney Channel Employee Mug and a Mighty Mouse Bobble Head.

The Jordan got a call from the guys at Gentle Giant studio. They are look for a mint Kenner Cloud City Play Set and 18" Kenner Alien figure with their packaging. They want to scan them to use for their Jumbo toy line.

Jordan and Steve head off to a toy show in Missouri to look for these items. They showed off a few Universal Monster products they bought. They also picked up a Mego Hall of Justice play set. Then they picked up a nice Alien figure with a beat up box.

The show wrapped up when they stopped by Gentle Giant to deliver the Alien. They showed off lots of toys and statues as well as their 3D scanner that they use to reproduce toys.This episode felt more like a commercial for Gental Giant's Jumbo Star Wars than anything else.

Random Animal Toys

today's post is a collection of random animal toys in my collection. Back when I used to do a lot of random stop motion animations (while making Animation Creation) I never really knew when a random toy would come in handy.

First up is the Elephant from the 80's Fisher Price Circus Train. The elephant is simple in articulation and sculpting, but lot of fun as a kid. Who didn't want an elephant toy. You can see that the plastic used for the body is different from the plastic for the legs and trunk. The appendages have yellowed queit a bit since my childhood.

 Now this Lion is also made by Fisher Price. I thought he was also from the train, but all the photos I found online show a different style lion.  I was able to determine that this lion came with the Adventure People Safari set. The set came with a jeep, trailer, tent, cages, and several animals.

 

This little PVC horse is actually an 80's Smurf toy. I don't really remember ever owning a Smurf who could ride the horse, but I remember owning it forever. I used to make a lot of other toy ride it, like MASK figures.

 I bought this black horse toy at Good Will several years ago. Burger King 1999 is stamped on the other side of the horse's neck. The horse has an action feature that causes the rider to be ejected from the saddle. With a little digging online I found out this Kids Club toy is from Wild Wild West and came with a Will Smith rider figure.

 The final animal getting spotlighted today is a Goat that came inside a Kinder Surpise Egg. These German candies are similar to Nestle Wonder Balls. Basically you buy a thin shelled hollow chocolate egg that contains a little capsule that contains a little toy. I love the funky toys inside Kinder Eggs and have bought dozens of them both times I traveled to Germany. My sister brought a few home for me from trips she has taken and a friend some how got some shipped in from Canada for Easter one year.

The goat came disassembled inside the capsule. It took minimal assembly to attach the tan head and legs to the reddish brown body. I must have be "surprised" by this goat some time in the 2000's.

Wolverine on the loose

I liked playing with my Toy Biz X-Men figures in the snow as a kid. I even had an Iceman break in he bitter cold snow one time. Wolverine is one my favorite "winter" X-Men. I think it's because of the classic art of him escaping from the Weapon-X facilities. Speaking of which, here is a photo of the Weapon-X version of Wolverine. This figure originally came with a belt, helmet, and some extra hoses.  I always liked that this figure had knees and elbow joints. Not all the figures from the line were as well articulated.

 Here Sabertooth and Wolverine battle it out in the snow. I was kind of going for the image from the 2nd series of X-Men trading cards. That series had a some cool battle images that could be formed when two cards were placed next to each other.

Comic Book Men Returns

Kevin Smith's Comic Book Men  has returned for another season on AMC. I wish it had a better time slot... I hate waiting up for it. I mean couldn't they move up CBM and replay the Walking Dead in the later slot? No, oh that's right, the Walking Dead is a "main stream" comic book show.


The show starts off  highlighting an old non-articulated Clark Kent figure. The figure was still in it's original blister card packaging and had terrible sculpting and horrible paint applications.




In true "reality tv" fashion, the customer reminds Walt that Superman is turning 75. So the staff of the Stash begin planning a big birthday bash for the Man of Steel.

The next customer to come in bought an issue of Lois Lane in which Superman uses a krytonian device to transformer her into a black woman for a day. A pretty wacky plot, but I guess over 75 years writers have explored pretty much every possibility. How many times can Lois fall from some place high and still have the book be interesting when Superman saves her.

Walt, Brian, Ming, and Mike all dressed up goofy half assed costumes. Walt was Jor-El, Brian was a Kryptonite Rock, Ming was Jimmy Olsen, and Mike was Bizzarro. The big celebrity guest for the Superman Party was Superman himself from Lois & Clark The New Adventures of Superman, Dean Cain. As a present they gave Dean a gift certificate to the Secret Stash. It seemed kind of weird. Then they had Dean cut and serve the birthday cake.

The celebrity guests can be fun, but I prefer when Comic Book Men (and Toy Hunters) focuses on the history of interesting toys and comics. I feel like they burn up so much time trying to build up suspense before revealing the guest, that they barely get any screen time.

Arctic Threat Doc - GI Joe ROC

My favorite part of the Rise of Cobra movie toy line was that after they made all the movie characters they gave us dozens of other characters from the GI Joe universe. Carl "Doc" Greer was part of the Toy R Us exclusive wave of figures. He's dressed in a brightly colored snow suit and came with dozens of accessories. His orange and yellow snow suit seems a little goofy, but the vintage Lifeline wore a bright red jump suit as well. As far as I know, military medics wear normal uniforms. I'm not sure why Hasbro likes to make these guys so colorful... especially for battling in the snow.

 Doc has a blue helmet (UN Peace Keeping Force?), a white satchel, a pair of silver ice shoes, a flare gun, an injector gun, a white stretcher, and a gray blanket. Doc also came with an opening blue backpack with a black stand. The accessories that fit inside it include a multi-tool, a stethoscope, a water tank, and a flashlight. I like that the word Rescue is stenciled on the backpack like on the vintage Lifeline figures uniform and med-kit.

Snailiens & Lunarticks

I photographed these weird little toys a while ago, but was recently inspired to post about them becuase they were just featured on the Travel Channel's show Toy Hinters. Snailiens was a 90's toy line of un-articulated rubber figures. Each character came with a hard plastic suit of armor and a rubber shell. The shell could be turned inside-out to launch little weapons or smaller mini-figures into the air.

I had one hero and one villain as a kid. Both of them were given to me for my birthday by my best friend Derek. I can't say we really "played" Snailiens much. I mean, I don't remember really acting out stories with the figures, but he had a ton of fun shooting the little satellite weapons at each other with the rubber shells.

I had Lincoln the green themed Snailien. He's an orange alien wearing a green wrestling unitard. He came with a suit of green spiked armor, a pink shell, and a pink satilite to lauch at the enemy. The shells can clip on the back of the Snailien armor. The Satellites attach to a protrusion on the inside or outside of the shell, depending on how you are going to launch it.

The one evil Lunartick I had was named Drool. So the heroes are alien snails and the bad guys are ticks from the moon. He's a purple insect with black armor. Like the good guys, the villains also came with shells, satellites, and a little buddy mini-figure.

I always liked that Drool had a buzzsaw on the shoulder of his armor. He also has a little tick design on the torso of his armor near where his arms come out.

The bottom photo here shows off the little buddy/helper mini-figures. The blue alien is Drippy and part of the Lunartick army. The little green muppet-looking guy is called Charger and he came with Lincoln.