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

8-Bit Tron Legacy

First Look at Ryan Reynolds/Hal Jordan ‘Green Lantern’ Action Figure

From screenrant

New Star Wars figures?

Lately when I see pictures of new Star Wars figures I feel old. How are these "Star Wars"? I know they come from the universe of prequels and cartoons but my brain refuses to accept this idea. I don't recognize anything outside of the original trilogy as cannon and when I see figures like these it just feels weird to me. I'm pleased that Hasbro sort of "gets" that "new" Star Wars is off-putting to the older audience, which is why we're getting the new "vintage" line with old card-backs like this;



I admit that I feel a certain comfort level when I see racks of these vintage card-backs adjacent to the new "foreign" Star Wars figures. I picked up a couple for the great sculpting and because I'm a sucker for the old packaging. Sigh. I guess I have to accept that the Star Wars universe will forever include all the post-trilogy stuff. I don't have to like it though.

Kackel Dackel, The 'Pick Up Dog Sh*t' Game

From geekology, Kackel Dackel is a f***ed up German game that encourages children to feed a plastic dog Play-Doh and then pick up the rainbow turds it craps out (you know how Germans feel about playing with doodie!) Plus the patties are non-toxic, so you can eat them. Alternatively, I'll let you walk my dogs and you can play the real game. Bonus points awarded for catching turds straight out of the butt before they hit the ground! Points deducted if you let my dogs eat stray cat shit and get worms.

Watch the commercial,

Huge Rare Vintage Kenner Star Wars Collection 1977-1985

Price: US $110,000.00 Buy It Now

See more pictures here

Ben's Lego haul this year!

NinjaGo!!!!!

Lego has gone crazy with this new theme. I hope to post more on it later but for now just look at the leader of the bad guys in the Ninjagoverse.

Iron Man is flipping me off!

More "vintage" figures on the way

See more here

New C3PO figure is cooler than I thought

More shots here

Cool Star Wars customs site

See oodles of more examples here

Looks like Pirates of the Caribbean Lego sets on the horizon...

This happy fellow caused a stir amongst the Lego freaks at Comic-Con. He was stuck in the corner of a Prince of Persia display but that's clearly Captain Jack Sparrow. Ahoy and all that.

Picture credit goes to Ace at From Bricks to Bothans.

Plastic PEWs!: Stop-Motion LEGO Shootout

From geekology, This is a video of a stop-motion LEGO shootout. If I didn't know better, I'd swear it was pulled straight from a scene in a Hollywood blockbuster. And that I was on acid and my girlfriend's cat was telling me to kill the couple downstairs. DON'T YOU POUND ON THE CEILING WITH A BROOM HANDLE WHILE I'M FANCY FEASTING! Anyway, it's similar to THIS Matrix LEGO stop-motion, but with less recognizable characters. Like walking into a dark bar and thinking you recognize somebody, only to realize too late it's a guy dressed as a woman but you don't care because you're lonely and haven't had a kiss in nine months. Yes, just like that.

I'm digging the retro look of these 'new' figures!

From rebelscum