Hulk-out!

I finally saw The Avengers yesterday, and, as expected, it blew my shorts off. Seriously great film... if you haven't seen it, do it now! If you have seen it, go see it again!

I saw a while back that Hasbro was going to be putting out a series of Walmart Exclusive Marvel Legends (1:12 scale or 6 inch scale) figures to coincide with the release of the film. Knowing that the toys would be hard to find and cost an arm and a leg, I tried to narrow it down to just one figure I wanted from the line... and naturally that one figure was the Hulk. With me, it's always the Hulk.

I knew these would be beast to find, but I was fortunate to have one of the luckiest toy spotters I have ever met as a friend, and he picked one up for me the other day. Thanks, Eric!!!

Toys have been going up and up on prices-- just in case you hadn't noticed (I bet you have!). I can remember just a few years ago when a Marvel Legends figure was around 10 bucks and was so sturdy and heavy you could beat an elephant to death with one. Times have changed. These Avengers figures cost $15.99. I can understand why things are going up... but my issues are with the fact that it seems Hasbro is skimping on quality at that heightened price. I'll get into that in a bit. Here are some pics and my thoughts about the Incredible Hulk figure from this line. Click any of the thumbnails to see bigger pics:


First of all, let me say it right up front: this is a gorgeous toy. It looks fantastic and is quite poseable. The colors they used are nice... not as dark as the smaller scaled figures that have been popping up for a while. Hulk has a nice olive green color, and the few paint apps that are here are done really well. It's pretty obvious that this isn't an "on model" depiction of the movie Hulk. I'd go so far as to say that the body style on this figure is closer to the Ed Norton Hulk than the Mark Ruffalo version. It's very lean and wiry in comparison to the thick, ape-like Hulk in The Avengers. With a little work he can be posed in the hunched over stance that the Hulk in The Avengers usually held, but it's pretty obvious that it's just not quite accurate. I don't really care, because the figure looks so darn good.



The poseability is great! They used a little bit better hip joints than some other recent Hasbro figures in this scale, but they're still a little bit of a pain in the rump to work with. The good thing is that the joints are ratcheted, so they'll hold a pose quite well. One really nice thing is the addition of rocker joints in the heels that allow the foot to tilt to the sides. This allows for a lot of really dynamic wide-legged stances.

The Hulk has around 30 points of articulation, which is very welcome! Some of the joints don't have a great range because of the bulk of the figure, but they work well enough.


The head sculpt is really impressive... it doesn't look 100% like the face of the Hulk in the film, but it's a nice Hulk sculpt nonetheless. You can see a bit of Mark Ruffalo in there if you turn it just right.


So how does the Hulk stack up to other figures size-wise? He's really freaking tall, for starters. Although he's a lot leaner than the Toybiz Face-Offs Hulk and a bit more muscular than the Toy Biz First Appearance Hulk, he seems to fit right in with figures in this scale. This new Hulk is the tallest Marvel Legends scale Hulk I own right now just edging out the Face-Offs Hulk by a smidge.


As you can see, this Hulk towers over smaller scaled figures. This 3 inch Glyos figure barely makes it past Hulk's knee!


Might want to be careful about your next few words, Thor.


And here's the Hulk with the older movie Hulk figure that was scaled to fit with 1:18th scale figures. Kinda neat how different and yet similar the two movie figures are.

So there you have some thoughts-- the pros mostly. So what's my beef with the figure?

Quality. The figure looks great-- no arguments there-- but the problem is that the figure just feels cheap. It's made with an extremely lightweight plastic, and seems a lot lighter than it should be. That's not really a huge deal, but I do kind of worry that the hollow parts will be more prone to breakage. Again, not a big deal, because I treat my toys extremely well, but it's kinda crappy when a toy company raises prices and skimps on quality. Along with that issue is the issue of the flimsy joints. The elbow and knee joints are made of really rubbery, flexible plastic. It's so flimsy feeling that you can shake the figure and watch the limbs wobble. Again.. not a huge issue, as I don't really play with my figures anymore, but it is an issue when we're paying more for something that is less than top quality.

So... overall: I really like this figure. It suits my purposes quite well; he makes a fine addition to my growing Hulk collection! He's excellently sculpted and satisfyingly poseable. I'm not sure if the other figures in this line have the same wimpy joints or not, but it's a bit of an issue with this figure, so I think it's only fair to warn you folks who play with your figures a lot. I don't think they'll fall apart in your hands or anything, but I wonder how prone they are to stretching.

Was the figure worth buying? Yes, indeedy! It's not a 100% faithful interpretation of the movie Hulk, but it's VERY faithful to the spirit of the character.

So if you see one, grab it... and Hulk-out!!!!!

Eatmoretoys eats more toys... news at eleven!!!

My good buddy Eatmoretoys posted this awesome blog post about my custom toy work. The photos were edited by my other pal Krakit:



Monsterforge turns toys into art



Thanks so much, guys! You really know how to make a guy feel good about his work!!! Folks like you two are why folks like me keep making art!

BTW: If you folks out there aren't reading EMT's blog you should be ashamed of yourselves! It's a GREAT blog with all kind of crazy pictures and stories:

X was here

Make sure you add it to your feeds/following lists!!!

A Freaky Review

A big thanks goes out to Tom at Freak Studios... he just posted a wonderful review of the Golden Ticket Big Daddy Kawaiiju figure he won a few weeks ago. Click the pic to read his thoughts on the matter:



Thanks, Tom!

Moving Picture Fun Time Show!!!

My good friend Eatmoretoys (I love all these secret code names we all go by online-- it's like some kind of ninja spy club!!!) posted a review of one of my customs on Youtube! I gave him a custom painted Bellhedz toy for Christmas, and he really enjoyed it. He's making a series of 1 minute long toy reviews that are reallllly cool... check 'em all out!



The idea of quick, to-the-point toy reviews is something I like a LOT! Some toy reviews go waaaaaay too long!

Thanks, Eatmoretoys!

The Walking Read

In October of 2003 a black and white comic book with a small print run called The Walking Dead was published by Image Comics. The writer, Robert Kirkman, had a simple idea behind the series: he wanted to know what happened to the survivors of a zombie movie after the movie was over. The series quickly became a hit, and it is currently up to issue #66.

The story follows a small band of survivors of a zombie apocalypse. The group, led by police officer Rick Grimes, transform from scared victims to hardened survivalists to brutalized victims again and again. The horror element of the zombies, as present as it is in the story, is just a backdrop for the human drama that is all too real. We see that the scariest monster of them all is humanity unhindered by conventional morality or societal consequences. It is NOT a kid’s comic book—it is dark and humorless and deeply moving at times.

I’ve been reading The Walking Dead since the summer of 2005 when I picked up volume 1 of the collected series on sale. Since that time I have read 9 volumes of the books, usually picking them up as soon as they were published. The latest volume, volume 10, came in the mail Saturday. I was not prepared.



Volume 10 is hardcore. It is NOT for the weak-willed. There has been some rough stuff in the book up until this point, but this one is as bleak as the book has ever been. The survivors have been trimmed down to a skeletal shadow of their former group. They are weak, scared, and ultimately abandoned in a world of danger. While the wicked human element is still a forceful presence, it takes a back seat this time to the undead. Kirkman reminds us very suddenly why we fear death. When the big event in the book happens you’ll gasp. I know I did. It takes a good bit for me to get worked up over a comic book, but this one did it. I have been waiting since day one of this book for the zombies to make their debut as the true monsters of the book, and boy do they do it in this volume.

I hope I’m being cryptic enough to not give anything specific away. The Walking Dead is the kind of book you love to share. It’s a great book that demands you read it all at once—no stopping with this one! Once you start reading a volume, you have to read it until the end. One part of the fun of sharing the book with others is not spoiling any surprises for them. That’s one of the main reasons I don’t have any links in this blog to information about the series—almost every source reveals too much to potential readers who are coming to this fresh.

If you think the book would be your kind of thing, I suggest checking out at least volume 1. You can find it at a great price here:

The Walking Dead Vol. 1: Days Gone By (Paperback) at Overstock.com

It’s only $7.94 there and shipping costs $1.00. That’s 9 bucks for a collection of 6 issues of an awesome series you won’t regret reading if you dig gritty horror and extremes of human drama. It’s not for the squeamish, and it’s not for kids, but it’s great for adults who appreciate a good scare!

Mixed-up Monsters!!!

A lesson about eBay and carefully researching the items up for bid:

I won an auction for a 7 inch tall "Bandai" Godzilla from Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack. The only similar sized figure of the GMK Godzilla that Bandai put out in Japan was the 9 inch standard scale figure. It looks a little something like this:



That particular figure is pretty darn popular among Godzilla collectors. The fact that I won it for a lot less than it was currently worth tickled me pink. When I got the package in the mail today... I noticed it was a good bit smaller than I expected. I figured the guy was guestimating the size when he said 7 inches... he was. Turns out he was guestimating that it was made by Bandai as well.

This is what I got in the mail:



Turns out that this is the X-Plus rotocast GMK Godzilla figure.

It's not a bad Godzilla figure at all... as a matter of fact, it's a VERY nice figure. It's just not the one I had hoped I had won. I went back and looked at the auction and realize that the figure in the picture is the one I got in the mail... it just wasn't a very clear picture, and I was excited to find it at such a low, low price. Turns out I paid exactly what this figure usually runs for on clearance at most stores. So I'm not horrible disappointed... I'll eventually find the Godzilla figure I was looking for, but i hope this is a lesson to all those folks who are hunting for deals on eBay: know your stuff and assume the seller doesn't. I don't think the guy was intentionally trying to scam anyone. He didn't seem to be a Godzilla expert or anything, and he had a lot of other Godzilla figures for sale that were Bandai figures. I think he just assumed it was the same thing.

The figure is a nice, well-sculpted piece that looks JUST like the costume in the movie. The paint apps are extremely nice-- a LOT nicer than the paint apps on any of my Bandai figures. It's not so much a figure as it is a statuette... it has 1 point of articulation that isn't really a joint... he comes with his tail detached and the junction allows for a tiny bit of rotation. Overall a very nice addition to my shelf, and at the price i got him I can live quite comfortably with him. He fits right in with my smaller scale Godzilla figures.





A shot comparing him with the other 6 inch figures:




I'll still wind up giving the seller a positive, because he packaged it well and shipped it out as fast as humanly possible. I'm going to send him an email and let him know there was a mistake in the listing, though, because I know some collectors are not as easy to please as I am, and he could get damaging feedback in the future for similar mistakes. I know it was his responsibility as a seller to know what he was selling, but I just don't feel like he deserved a negative. I know what it's like being a seller.

So let this be a lesson... be aware of what you are bidding on and don't be afraid to ask questions!!! I usually do, but I let excitement get the best of me.

What's up, Armodoc?

What is an Armodoc exactly? This is an Armodoc. It is the latest release from Matt Doughty's toy company Onell Design. It is a roughly 5-inch-tall, soft-vinyl action figure that was first released in limited quantities at this year's San Diego Comic Convention. The first run of these guys was something of a smash hit-- not surprisingly, as the fanbase for Onell's Glyos series grows more and more each day it seems. When Matt made the figures available for the internet crowd they sold out within an hour or so. I know, because I watched the thread on the October Toys Forum and wept bitter tears. I was, as usual, broke, so I couldn't get one of these wondrous beasties. Priced extremely affordably for a limited run vinyl collectable of this size, the Armodoc sells for $25. The inaugural run of the figure had a little extra surprise for the dedicated fans. I'm not sure if it will be included with the upcoming release, but it was packed in as an extra. At any rate-- the cost of the Armodoc is quite justified without it.

I got mine in a trade with a friend from the October Toys Forum-- a trade for something that followers of this blog will get a chance to see step by step as I work on it. I think it will serve as the biggest custom I have ever made to date. Keep watching this space for something... BIG.



Cute little goon isn't he? Matt always packs a ton of personality into each one of his creations, and this one is probably one of the coolest I have been lucky enough to obtain so far! He's a stocky cuss, and he is a smidge wider than he is tall! This guy is one chunky little dude!

The figure is made up of 11 individual interlinking pieces, and it offers a world of possibilities for building crazy junk. For some awesome stuff Matt has built with the Armodoc, check out his blog! That man never ceases to amaze me with the way his mind works. I'm lucky if I can snap two pieces together!




The figure has 10 points of swivel articulation, but most of the pieces are cut at an angle, so you get a wide range of movement from each. You can pose him all kind of ways, and he looks great in any pose.



Since this is one of the first release figures it came with a bonus extra figure. If you play the Passcode game that is on the Onell site, you will see this shadowy, ghost-like Pheyden appear briefly when an Armodoc is destroyed. According to Matt's story, the Armodoc is a creature or robot that is tasked with capturing every Pheyden in the multiverse. When it finds a Pheyden, it defeats him and absorbs him into itself. The result are these burnt out husks of Pheydens. Pretty darn cool extra, if I do say so myself!




As I mentioned before, the Armodoc figure is made of soft vinyl, so it is quite easy to take it apart and build with it. A standard Glyos figure fits nicely inside the chest of the figure, and I'm sure someone with enough skill could make a spaceship out of the body parts that a Glyos figure could drive.




One of the coolest things about the Armodoc is its compatability with the Glyos system parts. The sockets in the Armodoc fit the ball portion of the Gobon blaster like a glove! Once you discover this little tidbit, your building possibilities go up even more!!!

The Gobon is still my favorite Glyos figure, but the Armodoc is definately my second favorite! This is one cool-looking, chunky little guy! He looks good standing next to my Glyos figures, and he's super fun to goof around with. He's very, very, VERY well-made, and, as with all Onell products, he is quite durable and play-ready!

Keep an eye out on the Onell Design store, because the new wave of figures, including several new colorways of the Armodoc are coming VERY soon!

Slice like a ninja

I'm going to ramble a bit, but I promise there's a point to this madness. If you don't feel like reading me gripe about comics, movies, and other things, skip on down to the toy review.

During the Christmas season of 2004 I worked at the Toys R Us on Harbison Boulevard in Columbia, SC. One day after work I drove over to Heroes and Dragons, a pretty awesome comic book and toy shop in the area. They were having a sale on their backissues for $1 a piece. Buck comics rate pretty highly with me. I completed a lot of runs of books and started collections of others that I still haven't finished-- I don't like to spend much money (anyone who knows me will attest to this fact), and finding comics for a buck is rare anymore.

One of the series that I started collecting on a whim was G.I. JOE: Reloaded from Devil's Due Press(DDP).



G.I. JOE: Reloaded was an experiment in gritty military fiction written by a guy who knows about as much about the military as I know about nuclear physics. John Ney Rieber started writing the series, but was clearly... distracted. The individual plot lines were very clouded, his artistic direction to the various artists of dissonant talents was confusing, and the overall direction of the series was just poorly planned. Then... suddenly... in the middle of a story arch... Rieber decided that he was a pacifist and would never write a military comic book again (he's been writing military books ever since then, so go figure). Thanks, John! I read several of the books you wrote for DDP, and I am certainly glad you stopped writing when you did. Transformers/G. I. JOE? EUGH. EEEUUUUUGH! What a miserably confusing clusterpuke of a comic book.

Around issue # 9 of Reloaded it was announced that Chuck Dixon would take over the book. Dixon attempted to pull the book up from the nose dive it had been put into, but it was too late. The title lasted 'til issue 14, which was wrapped up about as quickly and clean as could be managed with the short timeframe. It was really depressing to see the book plummet, head back up, then get cut off just as it was gaining ground.

Now, I say all this to make a point. I started collecting the book from the starting block... I was there for the issue before the first issue that kicked the whole thing off. I collected it past the $1 sales stuff and into the "3 bucks-an-issue" territory and even into the "let's-pay-8 bucks-for-rare-backissues-online" territory. The series was bad. No... BAD. Horrible. Terrible. Gag-inducing. But I kept coming back for more. Why? Well... it's as simple as one character: Snake Eyes. Rieber took an interesting route with the silent ninja/commando: he was freaking nuts. It was never revealed what did it, but something in Snake Eyes' past had driven him quite beyond the point of sanity. He had become a killing machine, pure and simple. Emotionless, cold, deadly. It was suggested (somewhere in the senseless babble that Rieber chose to call a comic book script) that Snake Eyes had worked for Cobra Commander at some point. He had decided, for some unknown reason, to be a good guy, but he sure didn't work like a good guy. He was a shark trapped in a man's body. Rieber has said that his favorite character to write was Snake Eyes, and it shows.

I say all this to make a point. I promise I'll get there in a minute.

When Reloaded was shelved, I was pretty sad, because no other book or cartoon had characterized Snake Eyes quite like that book had.

Then... I saw this:



Whaaaaa? Bloodthirsty, butt-kicking, killing-machine Snake Eyes? How dare they????

G. I. JOE: Resolute was an 11 episode mini-series that aired in 5 minute installments on Cartoon Network. It was written by Warren Ellis, an actually talented (GASP!) comic book writer. It kicked all kinds of butt all night long, Sweet Suzie. I could go on and on about it, but let's just say that Snake Eyes was the main reason almost everyone watched the thing. He did NOT disappoint. He was a brutally efficient killer, and he showed almost no emotions doing the dirty work he did. He had a driving force behind his violence, but there was no super-well-defined origin for it. They showed his youth in training with the Arashikage ninja clan briefly, but never went into anything else.



I then heard there was going to be an action figure line... YEAH-YUH!

Then I heard the Resolute figure line had been cancelled due to Hasbro's promotion of the live action movie. I will not get into the many ways and reasons for my hatred for that movie, but let's just say that killing the Resolute line did NOT help things.

But... BUUUUUUUUT... there was a bright shining star in the field of turds that fell out of that movie (the action figure line from the movie is actually a really, really, REALLY nice toy line-- I just hate the movie): They were going to release the Resolute Snake Eyes in the movie series! Oh yes. OH... YES...!

Well... I found him tonight. I now hold in my hands little Mr. Slashy McStabbington himself!

How is the figure? Read on:


Packaging:



One thing I can say about the G I JOE movie line packaging is that it is very pretty. No different here. The figure and accessories are showcased quite well, and there is tha standard JOE filecard on the back. One thing that really made me smile is that they didn't even bother trying to make the character picture on the card look like the movie character. This is a totally different kind of character, and he deserves to be spotlighted as such. It's really weird seeing the Resolute Snake Eyes in the movie line, but I'm happy as a hog in crap to have him.


Sculpt, articulation, and paint:





Simply beautiful. The guy is ripped, but lean enough to look like he's capable of killing ten men in ten seconds. He has some nice gear sculpted on his belts and the cartoon's aesthetics are translated into 3D quite well.

He's articulated out the wazoo, much like all the figures in the 25th Anniversary and movie lines. He has what appears to be 22 points of articulation. Not too shabby for a 3.75 inch tall figure. All of his joints are really well made and durable. His ankles are VERY tight, and I've been having to deal with getting them just right to keep him standing. I'm sure it has more to do with the newness of the figure to me than the actual articulation. I'm still learning how to best pose him for stances. Each figure has its own little quirks, so I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt here.

The paint is just fine as well. Little to no slop and clean lines. Mostly he's molded in plastic that matches the color of the character, so that cuts down on paint wear and excess paint applications. I'm usually not find of gray Snake Eyes figures, but there's something about this one that just works. It matches the look of the character in the cartoon, so I'm very happy.

Accessories


One thing that can be said about the movie line: they come with a LOT of stuff. Each figure I've purchased from the movie line for custom fodder has come with a crapload of accessories-- way more than any of the 25th Anniversary line came with and way more than you get with almost any other figure of similar scale. Snake Eyes here comes with 11 accessories:

1 backpack
1 climbing harness
1 sword
1 sword sheathe
2 assault rifles
1 pistol
1 knife
2 ice boots
1 stand

The climbing harness is kinda junky and unneccesary. However, it is well-sculpted and I'm sure kids will love it.
All of the accessories fit his hands perfectly, and the sword fits nicely in its sheathe. One really nice feature is the fact that the sheathe REALLY attaches to the belt... I mean I had to pry that sucker out after I put it on. I think it's going to stay there from now on-- but it's nice to have an accessory actually stay put on a figure for a change.

One annoying thing about the accessories is that there aren't really any places to store them on the figure. It's not a huge issue, but if a figure is going to come with 5,000 guns and sharp things it helps for him to carry them on his person. It doesn't really matter... his sword is on his back and he can double grip his rifle, so I'm good.




I guess I've talked enough. I'll let the pictures do the talking for me:









City Strike Snake Eyes is a REALLY nice figure with a load of articulation and accessories. Kids should dig him and adults should adore him. He's easily the coolest Snake Eyes figure I've ever owned.