I would want that figure!

From rebelscum, The thrill of the hunt; it’s one of the most exciting aspects of the hobby. What can be better than walking into a store and finding a shelf full of brand new toys! But lo’, what’s this? Amongst the plethora of new figures there’s something there you’ve never seen, or even heard of before. It’s a Han Solo in Hoth Gear on a Bail Organa card! What could this be? A rare variant perhaps? Maybe a miscard?

No. There’s only one thing that this is - a scam where the original figure has been swapped out and replaced with a common figure from days gone by.

Unscrupulous collectors have been buying hot items, switching out desirable figures and returning the tampered with product back to the unsuspecting stores for years. Unfortunately, the packaging style Hasbro has employed for the Revenge of the Sith line has made it all the easier for this to happen. Collectors need to be especially diligent in order to ensure they don’t fall victim to this scam. We here at Rebelscum have put together a guide chalk full of helpful reminders that will ensure you don’t get burned.

Read the full article here

Droid Attack on the Coronet (whatever the hell that is)

I have been increasingly disappointed with Hasbro's Star Wars output over the years but every once in a while a set comes out that looks interesting. I like the look of this probe-droid-ish figure (not enough to purchase, $25 give me a break!). I hate spiders in real life but I'm a sucker for robot spiders. what do you think?

Lego Super heroes!

From aintitcoolnews, Lego will bring both Marvel and DC Super heroes to toy shelves in May of next year. Construction sets, minifigures and buildable characters will feature fan favorites like Spider-man, Superman, Captain America, Batman and more. Lego has already launched a website for the new wave of figures at www.LegoSuperHeroes.com, but so far it only features three DC heroes (Superman, Batman, and Green Lantern) and information about several of their Super Hero-themed contests. Here are some pics courtesy our good friends over at From Bricks to Bothans of a few of the figures shown off at San Diego Comic Con.

10 Undeniably Nerdy Burger King Kids Meal Toy Sets

From toplessrobot, Like Coke and Pepsi, McDonald's and Burger King are locked in a seemingly-eternal battle over their slice of the food galaxy. Of course, that extends past their bland, factory-made burgers to their toy offerings, too. McDonald's struck first with its Happy Meal and its accompanying goodies (you can check out our favorites here), but Burger King was quick to respond with its own brightly colored cardboard box full of greasy kids' grub and equally greasy, cheap plastic toys once they realized kids will happily psychologically torture their parents for them.

Of course, even though they were cheap, that doesn't mean that some of their Kids Meal toys still weren't pretty darned cool. Indeed, the King gave his subjects a lot of great figures and figurines over the years, especially when it came to the DC animated universe.

See them all here

Cool stop motion video with awesome song

I dig this dude

Tons of new Star Wars products shown at Comic Con

Check out more here and
here

Comprehensive history of the Simpsons action figure line article

Set aside 20 minutes and read it here

Spike Jonze Directs Beastie Boys Action Figures in Video For ‘Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win’

Impressive Toy War Between Father And Son

From geekology, If you haven't already seen it (and even if you have seen it that doesn't actually change what it is), this is a video of a father and son locked in an epic toy battle, complete with special effects AND sound effects. It's pretty cute and definitely worth a watch. Now I can't actually remember being five years old anymore, but in my mind this is exactly how I pretend-played with my toys. In reality though it was probably much, MUCH sadder. Just sayin', an imagination only goes so far when your coolest toy is a stick with a face painted on it. Isn't that right, Branchy? BRANCHY? There you ar-- OMG WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR FACE?! It looks...chewed. "I was playing fetch with the dog." Dammit, what did I you about that?! "He licks his butthole with that mouth." And? "And I was just in it." Exactly -- now go wash up, we're playing space-rangers this afternoon.

Upcoming McDonald's Star Wars toys stink

From carsthetoys.yuku, Purple sabre extendable, blue sabre with light, green sabre with sound, red sabre with light, black starship with a red light beam that reveals the secret on the card, Yoda lifts the rock, Y Wing fighter with sound, C3PO with some stickers, R2D2 moving legs and with sound, tank with moving action.

Creature Cantina

When we were kids I wish they had made some of these figures!

The 10 Greatest Star Wars Toys That Hasbro Hasn't Remade

#5 Dagobah Playset


See the full list at toplessrobot

Rather amazing Hot Wheels museum exhibit

As you know, gentle readers (reader), I've never been such a fan of the popular 1/64 scale car toy. I had some Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars when I was little, but very few have survived my life's various toy purges. This is largely because my tastes moved away from terrestrial cars to more science-fictiony and fantasy stuff. I will occasionally buy something I find interesting, but even when toymakers furnish 1/64 scale examples of sci-fi, the scale itself doesn't appeal to me and I often get it just so I can make a bigger one out of Lego down the road (whether I get around to doing that is another story).

Zack, on the other hand, LOVES the little cars, and often has one in his hand. I've been meaning to chronicle the growth of his collection (mostly Hot Wheels), but suffice to say, since I've been frequenting that part of the toy store I'm constantly bowled over by the sheer volume of product. Sure they're only a buck, but there seems to be a new batch of stuff every month. I pity the folks who are completists with these; surely their lives are hectic, exhausted affairs.

Since I've only been paying attention a short time, I've also been surprised to notice how many car designs I've already seen cycled through twice with different paint jobs. I'd certainly noticed Hot Wheels repaints in the past (and after all, everybody's doing it), but for the first time I realized how quickly castings were revisited.

Which brings me to the very cool Hot Wheels exhibit I saw last Saturday at the Petersen Car Museum in Hollywood (credit to Julie for the idea, and of course Zack loved it). Like its subject, the exhibition space is not very large, but you do get to it through this wicked cool giant tire.

When you walk through, the strip lights light up and engine noises come out of the speakers. The inner loop is decorated with a ton of Hot Wheels that -- I swear I didn't notice this until I was uploading this picture an hour ago -- seem to be mounted on genuine orange Hot Wheels track (and suddenly I wish I had some now).

Of course the main feature is the dreamy display cases of cars, which I was having a great time gawking at when I read the sign below and my brain really blew a fuse...

Pretty amazing, right? Now look at how big the wall is:

Even with all the repaints, it seemed impossible to me that they could all fit on that one wall. But I guess the math actually works out: if you count rows, you'll get a number around 1,250, which divided by forty years of business comes out to a new car model every 12 days. Multiply that by the number of different color schemes and... whew! I'm glad I don't collect these.

Still, the exhibit was great to see, and I'll probably have to go back.

10 Ridiculously Rare Action Figure Excusives from Around the World

Check out all of them at toplessrobot

Lady Builds LEGO Pirate Ship In A Bottle

From geekology, This is a LEGO ship in a bottle built by Julia Morley. There's a worthwhile time-lapse video of its construction after the jump, which is pretty impressive. FIRE THE CANNONS! Just kidding, there aren't actually any cannons except in my imagination. Also, buttass-naked mermaids. Which -- did you know mermaids actually have barnacles for nipples? FACT. Some people think they have starfish but those people are idiots AND HAVE OBVIOUSLY NEVER GONE DEEP-SEA FISHING WITH DYNAMITE.

Julia says she took a week to plan the ship, using Bricksmith software, all the while being careful to make sure she could "build it back to front using only bricks that were able to fit through the neck of the bottle." Building it took three days.
That reminds me -- did I ever tell you about the time I found a message in a bottle on the beach? Just kidding, it wasn't a message it was a genie. He told me he'd been sealed away for over a thousand years and would grant me three wishes if I just gave him an HJ. "Well?" WELL HE F***ING LIED.

Hit the jump for the worthwhile video. No clue why she ended up deciding to remove the second mast, I was digging it. Also, you may want to watch the video on silent depending on how you feel about Donovan.

10 Incredibly Rad (and Nerdy) Happy Meal Toys

10) Changeables


See them all at Toplessrobot

The 15 Most Unintentionally Hilarious Bootleg Toys

[Octo: I don't care to acquire bootleg toys; I rarely save packaging (which is 2/3rds of the fun with bootlegs), and after the initial giggle it's kind of annoying having such junk around, especially when I hardly have enough room for the good toys. But they are hilarious, and the examples in this article are beyond anything I would have the stamina to research. So I'll turn it over to the good folks at Cracked.com...]

#15.RobertCop

Yes, it's RobertCop. It looks like a silly photoshop, but pictures abound of the same box in various settings (it's something of an internet sensation -- fans of RobertCop have even given him his own Facebook page).

The beauty of this is that when tweaking the name for their bootleg knockoff toy, they could have went with "Robo" anything and it would have made perfect sense as a toy. RoboDetective, RoboWarrior, RoboMonster -- this is the world's easiest thing to rename. But instead, they replaced the Robo part. With Robert.

Robert is a good officer, but he almost never murders an entire warehouse full of drug dealers.

That's awesome because it doesn't in any way explain why he is made of metal. It almost implies that cops are all robots in America, and that RobertCop is what happens when a robot gets killed in the line of duty and they resurrect it by fusing it with a guy named Robert. He's part cop. Part Robert. He's RobertCop.

Three.

See the rest here.

Playmates To Do Family Guy Figures & Playsets

From toynewsi, Playmates who achieved great success with their Simpsons toyline in the 90's appears to be trying to recapture some of that magic with a new line of toys based on another Fox animated series, Family Guy. Like with their old Simpsons line it appears they will be releasing figures and interactive playsets based on episodes from the series.

The first series of figures will include:

- Stewie
- Peter
- Brian
- Cleveland
- Quagmire
- Halloween Stewie

Vintage Toys R Us

Remember when Toys R Us looked like this?



It was a seemingly endless aisle of possibilities. The recent TRU redsign, let's face it, sucks. Here's an example,



Go to retrojunk for an excellent article on the matter.

I Think I Saw Boo Radley!: Amazing 60K-Piece 'Abandoned Victorian House' Out Of LEGO

From geekology, This is a sickly amazing LEGO build by Mike Doyle of an abandoned Victorian house that's been crushed by a tree. And speaking of getting crushed by trees: people who have sex with Ents. TIIIIIIIIIIIIIIMBER!

5' x 3' x 2'

50k - 60k pieces

Black, white, dark and bluish gray, clear trans and black trans colors used.

No foreign materials (wood, glue, paint or otherwise) were used - this is pure Lego.

Second in my series of Abandoned Houses

WOW. I posted a couple closeups after the jump, but you really need to hit Mike's website for the higher-res versions as well as shots of the first house in his 'abandoned' series (also worthwhile). He has a ton of info and in-progress shots of his builds as well. What he doesn't have is a bunch of pop-ups and porn banners, which is a shame because I would've clicked them.

JLU final figures revealed!

See more shots here

Awesome Lego Toy Fair coverage at FBTB.net

If you head over here you can access an easy and extremely thorough rundown of the goodies Lego put on display for Toy Fair last weekend. A ton of stuff to get crazy over, but I'm especially gaga for the Alien Conquest line, pictured above.

10 Exclusive Action Figures You'll (Probably) Never Own

10) "Save Blinky" Bart from The Simpsons (Mattel, 1990)


See the rest at toplessrobot here

New JLU

See more shots here

R.I.P.

I must confess that I don’t spend money on magazines these days. There was a time when I would drop $12+/month for Action Figure News and Toy Review and Tomart’s Action Figure Digest. I purchased these glossy magazines for years and stored them in boxes. It occurred to me at one point that I never went back to look at them again. Believe it or not I finally threw them all away (I kept a choice few). With the advent of the internet and bookstores like Barnes and Noble, I can now look at all this stuff for free. I never purchased too many issues of Wizard Magazine or Toyfare, but with the recent announcement that they have ceased production I find myself feeling nostalgic about it. I haven’t looked at these magazines in a long time but I was always comforted knowing that they existed. I imagine most physical magazines are going to fold over time. Goodbye old friends, you will be missed.

Want: Vintage Collection R5D4

Head over to Yakface for more pictures of this "new" figure!

10 Most Ridiculous Toy Biz Wolverine Action Figures

From toplessrobot, If you were a comic fan and a toy fan in the '90s, there was pretty much only one company to turn to: Toy Biz. The company not only made the first Batman movie figures, but they'll always be bets remembered for having the Marvel license during the years of the mega-popular Spider-Man and X-Men cartoons (as well as the many Marvel cartoons that weren't that popular).

In the years and years that they had the Marvel toy license, Toy Biz made a significant portion of the Marvel universe -- but they kept coming back to popular characters like Wolverine, since they actually made money (shockingly, the Sugar Man figure was not a hit). Since Wolverine was the hottest character for most of that period of time, Wolverine figures account for probably 20 percent of the toys the Biz made, which means he, had both good figures made of him... and bad figures. Putting aside the slightly goofy-looking ones, and the ones that represent legitimate(-ly bad) comic book appearances, these are the 10 that made us scratch our heads the most.

See them all here

Colorforms!

When we were kids my siblings and I would spend hours playing in our grandparent’s attic. They had a very large attic and it was chock full of toys and stuff that once belonged to my father and his siblings. I wish I had the foresight to grab up some of that stuff that has now been lost to time. At one point my grandmother hired some guy to come in and “clean” out her attic. I’m sure he was just tickled to find all this stuff that my grandmother regarded as “junk”.



One thing we played with was Colorform sets. I remember that there were a few different ones although I’m at a loss to recall any of them (Peanuts?). Colorforms were a fun diversion on a rainy day. Of course it’s possible that I’m remembering them nostalgically rather than accurately when it comes to their play value. I recently picked up the Welcome Back, Kotter Colorform set from The Toy Vault. I purchased it partially because of my memories in my grandparent’s attic and partially because I find any product related to Welcome Back, Kotter to be hilarious for some reason. I mean, what kid wants to play with the Sweathogs?

It turns out that Colorforms aren’t much fun. In fact, they lose their “stickiness” over time. Fortunately there is a way to revive them, check it out. I also have the Pee-Wee set pictured at the top of this post. It runs out that many, many properties were turned into Colorform sets. I’m trying to track down the KISS and Space 1999 sets.

My latest toy obsession

I’ve been hitting 3 of the Toy Vaults rather frequently of late. The newest store is the best (and largest) one yet and it has inspired me to focus my collecting efforts on the Kenner Indiana Jones collection.

I largely ignored the Indiana Jones figures/play sets when they were originally released, most likely because I was still collecting Star Wars figures and in comparison the Indiana Jones figures were less exciting. Over the years I have thought about the Indiana Jones figures from time to time but I’ve never made any serious effort to collect any of them. The closest I came to starting a collection was to pick up an Indy for $25 a year ago. For whatever reason, perhaps my disgust at the current state of toys or maybe just boredom, I’ve become obsessed with picking up everything from the Kenner collection.

On an impulse last week I dropped a ton of dough and grabbed the following items;

The Well of the Souls playset



The Streets of Cairo playset


Cairo Swordsman


Belloq (Ceremonial Robes – mail-away)


Sallah


Indiana Jones (from the Map Room playset, which I do not own)


I still need the following items;

The Map Room Adventure play set


Desert Convoy Truck


Arabian Horse


Toht


Indiana Jones (German Uniform)


Belloq


Marion Ravenwood


German Mechanic


I am very charmed by this collection and I want to acquire every piece. I just love the old Kenner stuff and this collection dovetails nicely with the Kenner Star Wars stuff. The problem is that the items generally range anywhere from $30-$100 each so I’ll have to take it slow and look for bargains. I’ll keep you updated on my progress!



All pictures come from Cool Toy Review and you can see even more here