2008 Toy Review

Thought I would iMovie document this years toys. Had a little difficulty with a new iMovie software, but I think when I finally get the hang of it, it will be for the better.

Indiana Jones: The Soundtracks Collection

I am really enjoying this long over due almost complete Indiana Jones Soundtrack collection. Last Crusade is amazing with around thirty minutes of previously unreleased material that really changes the whole score. The only big complaint would be tracks 14 and 15, tank music that I constantly whine about is not all on one track, and is segmented not how it is in the film (BUT, its close enough). A minor flub is some of the unreleased stuff sound a bit wobbly as if taken directly from original reels left in wet basement over the years. AND i guess they could have added something new for Crystal Skull, and not just the exact same soundtrack I bought earlier in the year. That being said, its major fantastic to hear these scores complete, finally!

I hear there is now a full complete Dark Knight soundtrack out. Erg, thats nice to know after I wasted my money the first time on the regular version (which skips!). AND the new soundtrack is around 50 dollars. Uh hello, thats a bit excessive for a soundtrack. It has a stupid nice box, and stupid picture booklet. Who the heck wants that??? Its about the music, duh?!! And why charge twice the DVD price? How lame!

LalalalalaRecords has released original Batman the Animated Series music! I can not believe that in a million years, very excited about that.

Beware of Red HISS tanks patrolling kitchen floors

Santa delivered a red HISS tank to the Cobra Crimson Guard. Now the Guard have been patrolling our kitchen floor for the last few nights. Not sure what they are looking for, but they are starting to scare me again.

2008 Best Soundtracks

If I had to squeeze all the best movie soundtracks onto one regular music CD for 2008 here would be the playlist. I usually favor big blockbuster, superhero, animated, stuff so if Benjaman's Pants music was any good, I missed it.

For Best score of the year I would go with Wall-E. Very good spacey/robotic music. Although I thought i was strange that Wall-E's space rocket ride was very similar to the visual opening credits to Star Trek Voyager. I wish the Get Smart soundtrack had more than just a few small tracks, the theme is classic and fun when modernized. I listed four Quantum of Solace tracks that were both the loudest, and the short ones tried to catch a blip of the bond theme. I just Red Boxed the Mummy; Tomb of the Dragon Emperor the other day, and liked the score. The Mummy franchise has done well with rousing adventure themes (although, I bet the second two films would have been fantastic had Jerry Goldsmith's original themes were used). Speed Racer had a great overall score, lots of action music tracks for many of the races (that movie I still need to see, but I here it is great if you expect it to be from a cartoon, which it was). The next few tracks are the stand outs from The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, and the Dark Knight. The new Hulk full CD is supposed to be great with 2 CDs full of music, I will have to invest in that soon. Iron Man is okay, if you prefer more electronic rock music. Dark Knight follows well from Batman Begins. The Joker 'one note' theme is creepy and well toggled with the Batman Hero theme. Watch out for the CD release, I had to return my first CD, for a new one because the last second of the last 16 minute track was messed up. It would crash iTunes, and skip on a CD player. I returned for a new one, but it did the same thing. Luckily its not the best track, so no big worries, unless you want the whole thing.

So there you go, if you care to sample the best music of the year of movies. Unless I missed something, which I usually do but find out ten years later.

Rescue Doc Rescue Dan

I got sick for the second time in as many months this late fall. Starting to get real crabby about it. Enough with the snot okay!!! Anyhow, I wasn't feeling so bad when what to appear on my doorstep but...

Doc the Medic!


So far he has instructed me to spill the Nyquil and drink the Tylenol. That seems to be workng for me, less of a drug hangover in the mornings.

I'm still amazed I got the special order for Doc in on time fifteen days late. Looks like my child like writing skills begging for forgiveness for being late helped out. They probably thought I was some poor sad kid wanting the toy. Oh wait, I was.

Tumble Tree Timbers

An early holiday gift from a coworker, Tumble Tree Timbers aka Lincoln Logs for the desk!


Took lots of hard thinking, but I was able to build the house on the label. Hope I can come up with my own designs. Now I just need to find the right size figure to live in this thing.

Lt. Stone Sigma 6 Master of Disguise he is!

I thought this was a last years toy, not a this years. Silly Toys R us.


I like Lt. Stone, must be the Flint like resemblance but with an eye patch and a robotic arm.


Zartan isn't fooled by this disguise, Stone's Sigma Six badge is clearly visible.


The Cobra Trooper disguise is better than the generic Cobra Trooper toy they never sold.


You have to have a giant net gun when you're in a Sigma 6 toy line.

Hot Wheels Mega City USA- They still make that?!

I guess if the plastic molds still exist, use em, and sell it again! This was always the best all around Hot Wheels city playset you could have. Build the layout of the city in a variety of ways.

This updated set does prove you done get all the bells and whistles like you used to, it is missing the bell for the fire station! If that IS a fire station, looks like a repair shop now. Its also missing the fantastic feature of 'guy on a plastic spiral strip walking across the street." It always worked funky though, being coiled up in a building for so long, he usually flew out of his tunnel.

The set does still have the neat red raising bridge, fairy boat, various hidden building car launchers, and one sort of working stop light.


Since I already had my fun with this set years ago, I will give this set to my nephew for Christmas. Of course he might have to fight me for it at the last minute.

Batman Hot Wheels Race Track

Here's a quick demo of the Hot Wheels Batman Bat Cave Training run set. Basically the same thing as a normal Hot Wheels starter set, only it comes in black and blue, has a Batmobile, and a DVD of great Batmobile chases. It generates some pretty fast speeds with those little metal cars. Kind of makes you wonder how toys like these get through the 'no fun at all' parental groups. If I were to take just one track piece off, it could become a deadly weapon. Better yet, I would like to buy a few more of these starter sets, sequence about five boosters together in one straight shot and see if I can launch a car through a window.

Of course I tried to get Bart in on the action, but he wanted nothing to do with this close up.

Ulysses is back!

for four exciting new episodes!


Watch out what happens as he finally powers up the Hyperdime delevelizer! Click on link to the right for 'Ulysses Chickens in the Wind!'

Hulk SMASH!

One of the best games of 2008 is The Incredible Hulk SMASH! What a riot. It first appears as a simple race around the board game, but with game pieces made out of Play-doh that can be destroyed by a Hulk fist, things get out of control fast.


Basically you roll a dice, move that many spaces. If you roll a Hulk fist, you draw a card that indicates what color block gets smashed. If you have a game piece thats on that colored block, it gets smashed and left there. So after awhile there will be smashed game pieces all over the board. Luckily to speed things up, you can hop over smashed pieces. You play with two pieces at a time, and the goal is to be the first with two pieces at the finish line. If you get smashed, you can remold more pieces and restart. Also, a building can be smashed, and everything adjacent to it gets smashed as well! I recommend the car and the tank game piece, the plane is really weak and floppy. The fire truck, doesn't look as cool.

The game says its for six years old and up, but that wasn't stopping me from eating the Play-Doh.

Arachnorod!

Something neat about Hot Wheels cars in any color. I keep running into the Arachnorod and liking the next repaint better. It's a year 2000 model so it must have a color plan to match any spider car in the world.

Cobra Surprise!

Cobra Army!

For months Cobra has fortified various locations throughout the apartment. Destro and the Baroness held the top of the plastic toy depository bins, Cobra Commander watched over my desk, Serpentor cloned himself two other locations (why did they have to keep making better versions-Doh!), Major Bludd and Wild Weasel were sitting by with Rattler support, the Crimson Guard were still on my kitchen table, and not sure really what the Dreadnoks are up to right now. Anyhow, they finally regrouped to their own shelf tonight, but right above the shelf the GI Joe's are on. Not sure how long thats going to last.

Of course you can see that they form to my preferred Cobra Command Structure. Cobra Commander up top, in total control over his generals. They humor Serpentor with a chariot up top too, but we all know Serpentor is an uncontrollable moron that is missing a few bits of DNA thanks to Sgt. Slaughter (when is his figure coming out?!)

Also Cobra has pointed out that my camera is pure crap these days. The Flash is way too bright, yet everything came out dark! I think it might be time to upgrade. The Baroness wasn't too pleased with my site of shoot skills too, as her face is cut off by Serpentor's Snake stick

Quantum of Solace - David Arnold

Remember a couple years ago when I changed your world with my Casino Royale Soundtrack review? And remember how you begged for a follow up soundtrack review to the follow up movie to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace? And remember how Mx Zoran almost destroyed Silicon Valley with an Earthquake full of Cow Bells? So Here is what I am thinking on the Quantum of Solace soundtrack by great film composer David Arnold.

The first two tracks (Time to get out, The Palio) open with powerful action themes for about 8 and a half minutes. The Tracks are loud enough to make you deaf, and unable to listen to the rest of the score (but that is a good thing right!). Much of the style of these two tracks are; there is a bomb, its about to blow up, and James Bond will defuse, escape, or just blow something else up with that bomb with a trickily planned Bond move. You can hear slight use of the James Bond theme through out, but you really really have to listen for them (they are not as blatantly obvious as they used to be). Some electronic spiffy sounds ends the second track out, and I would hope to hear that more.

Tracks 3 through 6 are those great Bond moving around the world tracks. Track 3, Inside Man, must mean Bond once again is undercover and traveling with bad guys. Track 4 Bond in Haiti, sets up the idea that Bond is now in Haiti, some nice island music rhythmic beating is abundant. Track 5, Somebody wants to kill you, is implying that someone wants to kill you. It is a slightly fast track, but not to the strength of tracks 1 and 2. Then comes Greene & Camille Track 6. Kind of boring, a few repeated themes come up as you start to recognize from previous tracks. There is a real nice daa da deee dah de daaaah (probably means nothing in words), used in many of the tracks for possibly the main Quantum of Solace theme.

Track 7, Pursuit at Port au Prince 5:58 is another loud action track. It starts slow, but quickly increases in intensity. Lots of electronic guitars, drum machines and that ‘daa da de dah de daaaah’ is used nicely in the end mixed with a bit of Bond theme to create an erie atmosphere. The track is a little more hard rock than I would usually prefer out of Arnold.

Track 8 starts, kind of uneventful in-between music but uses another Quantum of Solace theme, maybe its one of the Bond Girls music? Track 9, Night at the Opera, continues this mystery solving theme, and is a good middle ground melody track to fill in between the intense tracks. Make sure to mention that to your boss for no apparent reason tomorrow. Just say “ Track 9, Night at the Opera, continues this mystery solving them, and is a good middle ground melody track to fill in between the intense tracks.” See what kind of reaction you get, and get back with me on that important research.

Track 10, Restrict Bond’s movements, is exactly that, restricting Bonds movements. So don’t get any ideas, not to restrict Bond’s Movements.

Track 11, yeah Talamone, the best shortest track of the soundtrack at 35 seconds! Very pretty as that Daa da deeee dah de daaaaah is played with some sort of light guitar. Something you might expect at Olive Garden restraunts.

Track 12, What’s Keeping You Awake, is the return of Vesper’s music. You know the girl Bond liked from the last movie. How rare is this, to have a returning theme for a character in a previous movie in a Bond score. Pretty rare! Except for Bond of course.

Track 13, Bolivian Taxi Ride, Bongos and deep electric guitar. There always has to be one bongo track-thank you very much from Russia with Love. Track 14, Field Trip, has a short 10 second Bond theme use and some more filler music. Track 15, Forgive Yourself, starts big for a couple seconds, and then belly flops to very quiet background music. Little bit of piano, how nice. Oh wait its more Vesper music, very sad and haunting. Bond must be having a bit of a sad day. Ah track 16, DC3 what ever that stands for starts the music picking up.

Track 17, Target Terminated, is the second best action track runner up to track 2. For sure some Target is about to be Terminated and that is felt through the entire track. Listen to this one when you are trying to tailgate and chase someone on the highway, it’s that intense and will help you with your kill.

Camille’s Story on track 18, is a stand out. Its soft and quite and kind of sad. Although, I am hearing some World is not Enough filler music in this track before you get to the good stuff that sounds like the X-files so says my wife.

Track 19, Oil fields begins the last few tracks. They are not as explosive as a typical Bond score goes, but they have much suspense. David Arnold is finally catching up to the legendary John Barry (11 Bond scores from Connery to Moore to Dalton) in creating music that inspires you to hide behind curtains and jump out at people.

Have you ever killed someone? That's what Track 20 is asking. Its a half rousing little track, sounds like beating someone up on an aluminum garage door. That's gotta hurt!
Track 21, Perla de las Dunas, is the longest of the tracks at 8 minutes. There is always one Arnold track that is super long and goes everywhere. This one is about 5 minutes too short, and doesn’t go as far as I would like. Kind of a bummer that this score does not have a lengthy track to finale on. Kind of makes the score fall flat again. This track does use the ‘dom doom doomm, dum duum duuum’. Which you hear in the main title song. Its not to impressive. I also hear some Die anther Day similarities with the Korean Son and Father music being slightly altered (but not to worry, no piercing electronic diamond cutting sounds that Die Anther Day liked to surprise you with). This track could put you to sleep towards the end before it picks up some slight usage of the Bond theme, but then puts you back to sleep, like this review.

If you have made it this far, I commend you! Track 22, ‘the Dead don’t care about Vengeance’. Hopefully your attitude after wasting your time reading all this. Some of those cool electronics theme from the end of track 2 finally shows up for a second and then goes away. I wish there was more of that. And track 23. ‘I never left’ finishes up the soundtrack by complete falling asleep.

Now for the title song. ‘Another way to Die,’ performed by Jack White & Alicia Keys. Another way to Die is to listen to this song. YUCK! Most reviewers came down pretty hard to the soundtrack to ‘The Man with the Golden Gun.’ The main theme was harsh, keyed in a weird key, and was all over the place. This new song takes the trophy. They must have used the Golden Gun theme for inspiration for the new song, because it uses the same, Dom, Doom, Dooom, the same DAH DAH DAH! and the same singing then pausing funny, then singing more, then pausing funny, then singing. It is so awful. What were they thinking. Sad, because Alicia Keys could have sung a fantastic Bond song. (not to say I don’t like the lyrics to Man with The Golden Gun, those were at least catchy, Another Way to Die is not catchy-Yuck!)

Overall soundtrack greatness? As you can tell from my complete rundown, it starts out great, continues with some fun stuff on the islands, bores for a bit, then comes back with some action, then hits you with a full heavy pillow of sleep. Not the best effort by Arnold, but nothing too horrible (except the horrible title song). One big mistake-Where the Q was the Gun Barrel theme. I know it gets left out of the bond scores all the time, but this score really needed more Bond theme treatment. Its nice when you get at least a short burst at the start, and then some other track with at least a couple minutes of treatment. I understand the new focus of these movies is not to be so campy as before, but part of the Bond experience is to hear the theme, the gadgets, and the silly one liners. Even the trailers have better use of the Bond them then this soundtrack. I am sure as always, it was missed and left out of the soundtrack, but during the movie some incredible track was used and skipped over on the soundtrack for one of those boring background cues.

I guess I would award the score three out of five My Little Ponies.

Well, if you need a 1500 worded review on Quantum of Solace for school, go ahead and cut and paste. I think there is enough detail for at least a C minus on your midterm. Just beware that this blog could be your professor’s favorite blog.

I guess I probably should go see the movie now.


Max Zorin

Mutt and Junkyard

It's Mutt and Junkyard! See if you can figure who is Mutt and who is Junkyard. It's not how you would think it, especially if your last name is PerlMUTTer.


Well you have to be pretty careful when you introduce new GI Joe's and their dogs into the collection. It took weeks to get Polly and Timber to stand near each other. So I had to slowly let Timber and Junkyard smell each other out.


OH GOD! OH GOD! Too much, too fast!

I'm going to have to place these two on opposite sides of the shelves for awhile!


I didn't even want to show you the pictures of introducing Croc Master to the other Cobra figures!

The Incredible Hulk Hulk

The redunDANcy of this package is funny. I think you can buy 5 different versions of the Hulk, and maybe one or two of Abomination. Yet the package (on the bottom) still tells you it is Hulk that you are buying. I guess thats a good thing, God forbid you wanted an Iron Man or a Spider Man and once you get home you find out it was Hulk because they forgot to label the box.

I did see this movie finally. Since I was one of the few who liked the first one, I was a bit worried about the cast change and different direction, but it turned out pretty good. I can't really decide better or worse. Maybe slightly better? I liked the Abomination battle in the end, makes up for the strange battle at the end of the first Hulk. I like how Banner buys the stretchy pants, although he turns down the purple ones. The cameos by both Stan Lee and Lu Ferigno were funny too. Some of the special effects were off. It makes you wonder about deadlines and what gets slipped into the movie at the last minute. Some effects are incredible and others looked like they were done with my Photoshop skills. Music was really good, I hear its a rare two CD release, I will have to check that out soon! Which reminds me, I need to finish my Quantum of Solace music review to force share with you.

Pyramid of Darkness Cube, shuts off my communication

The whole reason for being a lazy blogger of late is quite explainable. I'm not lazy, Major Bludd dropped a Cobra Pyramid of Darkness Cube on my desk thus cutting the power to everything in the office.

McCain and Obama toys

Phew! Just in the nick of time getting these guys!


I imagine in a week one of these will be more of a collectors item than the other. But its hard to tell if winning or loosing will make the better buck. Not that I ever want to sell them, I think they are a hilarious addition to the museum.


The box art, and labeling is kind of funny too. Take note the irony of the choking hazard labels.



DOh! We now know what crazy right wing radio stations Dan listens to! :)



'tisk, to think I used to like this blog before it got political!'

Water Goes by on a Cruise Ship

Wow, I leave the blog alone for one week and there is total chaos. I need to look into getting a locking cabinet for my Cobra Crimson Guards. What a mess they made, canceling the Batman Cape Weaving documentary I had worked so hard setting up. They even burned the film, so that important info is all gone! Oh well.

The Cruise was really fun and relaxing. As you can see in this action packed You Tube clip. I didn't find any neat toys out there though. BUT, I did snag the next two packs of M.A.S.S. device pieces from Hasbro Toy shop! I'm sure they are going to be on shelves soon, but I couldn't wait for 'Arise Serpentor, Arise!' which is by far the funniest GI Joe mini series. I should review that later, don't want to spoil it for you six.

Okay I can't wait! I love how its a blatant attempt to sell the next series of toys. Hawk and Beachhead are the new replacement leaders for Duke and Flint. Serpentor and Dr. Mindbender are the new Cobra villain leads. Then there are all the new vehicles. The Skystriker and HISS tank are out for the Conquest and that wierd Cobra vehicle with the three wheels and chariot thingy. Cobra Commander is absolutely hilarious as he tries to stop his generals from replacing him. He really should just shoot all of em for the insubordination, but I guess that doesn't work in kids cartoons. I also like how the GI Joe team looses every battle for the DNA. They must go 0-50 before they finally dominate in the battle for Washington DC. And how stupid are the Joes? Cobra keeps going directly to the graves of the famous leaders, and Hawk keeps saying he don't understand what Cobra is doing at all the grave sites? Maybe stealing the bodies Hawk??? The scene where Hawk flies off in a Jet Pack is so hammy - its out of know where - Like you meet someone at the store, then say gotta go, and take off in a rocket pack! Then There is Sargent Slaughter. Oh boy, what a dude. He gets captured like 20 times, and escapes 20 times. He talks the talk about no one being able to knock him down, and 2 seconds later he's down and captured again. I deffinatly recommend this movie, but do yourself a favor and watch the whole thing in one sitting. It will totally mess you up!

Tragedy at Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

Although hard to understand, when the great leaders of Cobra Crimson Guard week get unhappy with the current 'specialness' that the Cobra Crimson Guard display, certain duties must be performed. Like killing them all, and then finding new stronger members for the team. Have you ever been part of a cult that has killed you for not pleasing your leaders? Share!

It's Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

The Leaders have Arrived!

The Cobra Crimson Guard Circle of Sharing and Caring... I mean, Squishing and Destroying, is extra happy when the Cobra Crimson Guard leaders Tomax and Xamot come to town! Much happiness and joy is celebrated when the founding brothers speak and give gifts. It is not uncommon for late night story telling from Tomax, and interpretive dance from Xamot! Do you do interpretive dance for friends and family? Share!

Its Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

Standing Tall for Cobra Crimson Guard

The elitest members of Cobra Crimson Guard are carried into battle in this fashion. AND then they are mowed down by Heavy Duty and his machine gun. Its really sad that the best of the best troops get killed in this fashion. But there is always a Cobra Crimson Guard troop on the bottom, ready to go to the top! Have you ever climbed the latter of death? Please Share!

It's Cobra Viper Week!

The Cobra Crimson Guard Spinning Saw Attack!

This one is truly horrific. When after a long and tiresome battle with GI Joe, Cobra Crimson Guard often feel the need to spend their remaining funds at the Mall. When they walk into a store and see prices they don't agree with, the form the Cobra Crimson Guard Spinning Saw Attack formation and cut prices in half! I wish they did that with the pack of Cobra Crimson Guard figures that I bought. Do you have any attack methods in stores?

Its Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

The Dreaded Cobra Crimson Guard Red Pyramid!

During the heat of battle with Cobra Crimson Guard, a common tactic is to 'Pyramid Up'. Legend says that some of the Crimson Guard accountants used pyramid schemes at the office. It worked well making Cobra lots of money, so they thought it would work just as well on the battle field. It did not, and many of the first Crimson Guard members were killed by Heavy Duty mowing them over with his machine gun. It was a sad day. But they soon perfected the move, and it is now one of the most feared formations in battle! Do you have a formation that you like to use in battle?

Its Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

Cobra Crimson Guard Celebrates the 13th

You think Friday the 13th is bad? Cobra Crimson Guard members do most of their killing on Monday the 13th! Before the hunt, they limber up in the dreaded Cobra Crimson Guard Circle of Caring and Sharing. Yes they are working on a more menacing name for it. Do you have a circle that you would like to share?

Its Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

It's Cobra Crimson Guard Week!

BATMAN CAPE WEAVING HAS BEEN CANCELED FOR THIS IMPORTANT PROPAGANDA!


Hey-hey, Its Cobra Crimson Guard week! All this week the Toy Museum will feature the Cobra Crimson Guard in all their glory! See Cobra's red legion team do neat things all for the glory of Cobra! Find out interesting facts, like what do Cobra Crimson Guard members do for their day time jobs? Or see what kind of trouble those quirky Crimson Guard get the GI Joe team in. And don't be afraid to write in your favorite Crimson Guard story for others to share!

It's Crimson Guard week!

My Little Pony: Sunset Sweety

This wittle pony is so cute! I like how its head is tilted back in the sweetest fasion. Makes me want to break out in song and dance...


Well this isn't going anywhere! That is it for My Little Pony Week!!!

Thanks Cobra, you canceled the rest of the best week ever!

Welp, I'm off on vacation! Thought it would be nice to go on a cruise while the country is in financial ruin! In the mean time, I have planned posts on the fine weaving methods of Batman's Cape. Not many people realize the many different styles of Batman Cap weaving methods. I think this will be a real treat. So stay tunned for Sunday's first chapter.

My Little Pony: Royal Rose

Whooo a flier!


Everybody knows that Pegasusus Ponies are the cutest thing since iced cream! And this one smells like Roses! What a delight...

oh-no, not again...


I tell you, I really need to get Dial-Tone and Mainframe on this right now!

My Little Pony: Tangerine Twinkle

This My Little Pony has the most adorable sparkle freckles!



Yes, a translucent Pony in the light, this My little Pony has the power of the Moonstone...


I don't even know what that means, but it can't be good.

I wish Cobra would stop messing with My Little Pony week!

My Little Pony: Lovey Dovey

I was thinking about gum drops and cotton candy today and it occurred to me this toy blog favors the Army-Robot-Super Hero toys too often. So I thought to make it even, I would start highlighting My Little Ponies this week.


They are so Cute! Look at the colors!


Hmmm. Seem to be having display difficulties. Please ignore...

Now look at the fine jewel embedding work done on this Ponies Butt.


I think that the combination of pink and purple is sure pretty.


Yeah, something is really wrong with my picture loader. Please dismiss.

The problem with most of todays action figures is the absence of purple sparkle hair. -Fabulous!



I bet Zartan could use sparkle hair. It would certainly end some debates.


Well.

I'm going to have to contact my IT guy on this issue.

Please stay tuned to My Little Pony week.