Bear with me

I will try to post more, once I get this lion off my ass.


These two Robot Heroes will have to tide you over for now.

General Toy Comic Cartoon Geek Ranking System or GTCCGRS

Going through all the pictures at Comic Con tonight makes me a bit bummed I never go to these things, but after hearing how many people go to these things, I'm glad I skip out. SDCC does make me wonder what my General Toy Comic Cartoon Geek Ranking is in the whole collective. Someone needs to make an application or online site that factors geeky things so that I can see what level I'm at. I think the field questions should be something like this;

-How many toys one owns
-How many comics one has read and or owned
-How many comics one has wrote
- How many cartoons one has watched and or owned
- 100 question multiple choice test involving comics, toys, geek shows etc...
- How many blogs made on topic
- How many online geek forums one belongs
- How much cash one has invested
- How many Cons visited
- How many Lego bricks in large bin or bins
- Hours of transformation time of Transformers
- How many models or toy customs and repaints worked on
- How many video games one has played and or owned and hours played
- How many fine art projects made inspired by all the above

Miss any? It would probably take me a working week to figure the exact answer (or even ballpark) to all those questions. Not sure how one would even start with a ranking system that would take into all these variables. Perhaps simple a point for each single toy, comic, cartoon, Con, Lego brick, etc? I would think one who invested the money to travel to a Con would out weight one 3 3/4" action figure, so maybe certain things or events would be worth more points. The whole system would have to be updatable with user profiles as well. It would be fascinating, and completely useless information, to find where we all fall when it comes to this geekery.


Or, if this all ready exists, please someone send me the link.


Or, if someone wants to make this happen, please include me in the millions made.

GI Joe tRoC wish

TV, Youtube, HISS Tank.com, and blogs all over have plenty of trailers to look at for the new GI Joe movie. I am getting more excited with each trailer, and pretty sure the movie will easily top Transformers 2 as a more enjoyable to watch. When I saw the exclusive clip on director Stephen Sommer's blog here, I think I could hear a bit of the soundtrack in the background by the great Alan Silvestri. Silvestri has written exceptional action movie scores for awhile; The Mummy Returns, Back to the Future Trilogy, and Predator being my favorites. What I heard in the exclusive clip as short as it was, sounded so cool and I am hopeful for a good score. What I really would like to hear though, to make the movie perfect, would be the classic first few notes from the original cartoon being played at the start of the movie. You know the 'Da-da Da Daaaa', followed by Duke or Flint's "Yoooo Joe!" I believe that intro is an important GI Joe sound trademark much equal to the James Bond Gun barrel sequence or the Star Wars intros. I understand they probably will shy away from the cheesy song, or need for an elaborate music video to begin the movie, but all Silvestri needs to do is add the 'Da-da Da Daaa" at the opening to make it pop. Several different composers did this successfully for the main Star Trek theme before the rest of the new music intro begins for several of its movies, so why can't GI Joe keep that alive?

The main reason I bring this up is when I was playing with Accelerator Suit Duke at Target, it included the sound file to that original cartoon into, and it sounded waaaaaay cool! I couldn't believe Hasbro placed that in there. That was a huge wink to the fan base, and I HOPE that they add this to the movie. If not, maybe I will just hum it myself before the movie starts. I do have that mini sound player that came with the first 25th Anniversary sets that plays the intro briefly. In fact I challenge all fans to bring that and play it just before the movie starts.



Well, maybe not. You might get kicked out. But at least try on the fifth viewing.

RoC GI Joe SGT. Stone

I set up camp in the toy aisle today trying to figure out who to get next for the RoC line up. I don't want to replace all my classic figures with the new designs, so I'm trying to build an off the side team. Sgt Stone, had a good look and lots of accessories, so I finally put the Cobra Commander down.

I don't believe he Stone in the movie, he wasn't listed on IMDB, but you never know. On the card he kind of looks like Joey from Friends! Which makes me sad, because Joey would have fit in the team well for some reason. Ever see him in Lost in Space?

So here he is still stuck to his packaging Borg station. Me likes the gun on a stand thing more now that I understand its a gun on a stand. I was a bit worried he was going to carry it somehow.


The cannon has a small cable control. Nicely playable,but falls over easily.


He stands well with Shipwreck and my future Delta blue camo team.


Still not strong enough to take on the Mole Pod. Need a few more Joes for that fight.


I also like Stone as he could be Flint. Very similar look.


Especially when Stone steals Flint's armor suspenders.


Stone can't steal Flint's girl Lady Jaye though, but he can try with old school Lady Jaye if he wants to continue with his Flint stealing identity ways. Hmmm maybe he is Zartan.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701-C Micro Machines

Eclectorama showcased a nice USS Grissom the other day, which got me digging for my mini Star Trek ships. Most of the fleet are still on a mission to dodge Ping-pong balls at my parents house, but the Enterprise C got to stay close captured in a plastic baggy!


I believe the only time this ship shows up is in the Next Generation Episode 'Yesterday's Enterprise.' Which I read somewhere just recently (?) that it would have been saved for a feature film had the producers known that Next Gen would make movie stage. What a great movie that would have been.


The designers of the ship did a good job bridging the gap between an Enterprise B and D. It looks like it fits right into the line. Although the engines are a little stumpy! I am glad they started making them long and dart like with the E. If you have no idea what I am talking about, consider yourself lucky.


Darn little bugger was hard to shoot with my old 4 MP camera with the over the top flash.

Croc of a uniform exposed

Actually, it looks like the pants are different.

Sharing RoC Shipwreck

Here are some pictures of the new Shipwreck from Hasbro.


Polly's talons can grip the two backpack posts, Shipwreck's gun, or with the help of his tail feathers, he can sit on his arm.

He has flippers! Always check the water temp before jumping in!


Race to the Heavy Water!


Meeting of the two Pollys. Looks cute now, but can you believe the 'Hellos' went on for twenty minutes!


Meeting of the three Shipwreck figures, who will compete for power at the Toy Museum.


Of course, no one wins against the Big guy.


This Shipwreck has a weak wrist, which Polly took full advantage of.

GI Joe RoC toys!

Rise of Cobra toys are just itching to get into stores and into my collection. I am pretty impressed with what they made after so many ugly preproduction photos leaking out. From my first store viewing, at least 1/3 of the figures are great, 1/3 are so-so, and 1/3 are Ugly. Thats good stats for a healthy wallet. I think I will focus on the commando fatigue look figures vs the accelerator suits, as those are too plane. I don't think ShipWreck is even in the movie, maybe a cameo, he's in the video game. He is the best figure though, with Polly and a bunch of accessories. Their display bases are awesome, dog tag textured like. One might replace the Episode 1 display base thats been on my keychain for years.


The Cobra Mole Pod is 100 times beter than I thought it would be. Mainly because of the shiny drill, and watching the shiny drill spin while you move it. Its so retro, I love it! I will even forgive the 25th anniversary Croc Master repaint. The figure isn't all that bad for a mindless driver. I will post more photos of that shortly.

I hope to get the Cobra SUV next, a Hawk figure, and a few others. Cobra Commander looks pretty cool actually. Yes his head is chewing gum in a dome, but maybe in future movies he will adapt a more familiar helmet. Those action battlers look neat too for a larger and less breakable Joe to play with. I am on the fence with the Cobra Night Raven. Its no original, but it has some nice features. The Giant PIT playset looks horrible though! It doesn't DO anything, other than look like Noah's arc and then transform into a bunch of 'levels'. Ok actually the 'levels' are great for figure displaying, I will give them that. But if you look at old GI Joe bases they had so much more to them. Where are the giant cannons? The giant missiles? The glass canopy drive stations? Detachable ships? It just looks so boring for 100 bucks. Ok if the Ping-Pong table was plastic, maybe then I would be more interested. Again though it will save me 100 bucks.

Dreaded Deaths, part 1

Not suitable by children, even though a children drew these pictures below.


Look at that great typography! To think I went on in the field of graphic design.

In response to Geek Orthodox's Art by a 10-year-old geek I submit my Danny's Dreaded Deaths. I believe these were inspired by a bad dream originated from Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, thank you very much Lucas and Spielberg for corrupting my life. I drew these in fifth grade after lunch, during quite reading time. Apparently if I had read, I might have learned how to spell some of the words in DDD. I also like to point out, if these were drawn in today's times, I would be locked up right now. So lets take a look at the first episode, Death Chain...


Wait for it...

Wait for it...

Wait for it...


Wah-Bam! Very disturbing! I remember really wanting to capture the dark stealness of the ball, so I worked hard at graphite scribbling. Also an important note not to give a fifth grader a red pen.

The favorite of the comic was 'The Step, Ouch, and Die!"


It involves a spiked floor, and moving spiked wall to force the prisoner to walk forward.


What amazes me to this day, is that the prisoner's head spawns little legs to continue walking!

Then there are more technical death schemes, like the Volcano Dip


The logistics of this torture must have a high price tag, left only for the really bad captive.

I give you this moment of rest, so that you can readjust from these terrible images.

Old Toy Museum Photos

I found some fun old pictures of my ISU residence hall room today. I am thinking this is fall of 1998, amazing how antiquated photos are of that time. It looks like the 70's, just wait until the last photo. I really wish digital cameras were cheaper and easily integrated with computers back then. Oh, the lost shelf toy displays lost to time. So the first shot is from the door looking in at the bed. I had a scaled back collection in those days. Some toys not bought yet obviously, many toys in storage at the parents, and some toys in drawers and bins in the closet. I had to keep a study atmosphere in mind.

Of course the Bandai SpaceWarp roller coaster above the bed doesn't help.


SpaceWarps are so cool. I wish mine wasn't missing a critical elevator gear component, or I would rebuild it somewhere. I recommend watching them go on Youtube, they are amazing fun. I had it poked into the ceiling tiles, which I am sure asbestos leaked out onto my bed, as the building had to remove asbestos after we were kicked out. Also it was perfect for hanging action figures on. I remember one night Beast from the X-man jumped off and landed on me square in the chest. It surprised the hell out of me, kind of hurt too, and is a lesson for toy ceiling hanging.


The desk area is showcasing hanging Beast Wars Transmetals, A fish tank I bought for five bucks, and a Playmates Star Trek scene. I was big on classic Trek that year, as the Sci-Fi network was replaying old episodes with extra stuff and interviews. Playmates also had a few figures in the stores to pick up at that time. The Transporter pad figures were a hit too.


So then there is this shot. Trying to remember what the hell is going on here. At first I wanted to say party, but then there are some serious situations going down; Kirk vs Gorn, Sulu vs Mugatu, Spock vs Mirror Spock, Traleen about to take a swing at Kirk, all witnessed by time travelers Sisko and Dax.

Civilization Revolution Nintendo DS

Yes I am a Civilization addict. If there was a chart that had my time spent on a game franchises, the Civ games would be on top, maybe followed by the Sim City games. Civ 2 and 3 alone probably have more study hours than did my real study time at Universities (with winks to Monster Truck Madness and C&C Red Alert). After the Civ 3 time investment/lost, I somehow avoided Civ 4. Oh I wanted to play it really badly, but I wanted to accomplish something this decade (which I'm not sure what that is yet). I am a bit behind on the console wars and can't decide on Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or Wii, so I am left with my trusty Nintendo DS which I can play for a few minutes (hours) before bed.

So you could imagine my excitement last fall when I picked up CIvilization Revolutions for my DS. I guess its a perfect game match for me because I can't stop playing it. I have played at least 50 full games now, and still want to play again and again. I usually stick with the medium level which gives a slight advantage to equal playing field. I like all nationalities, and favor the Magna Carta for Wonders of the World (it makes courthouses produce culture). I love building tank armies, and then unleashing them on poor neighboring civilizations. Basically this game is a shorter condensed version of Civ, with a full game taking about 3 to 4 hours in length. The game length is perfect for playing over an over and trying different strategies (my favorite being winning the game with only one city on medium easy). The only thing I dislike is there is no world map view to toggle to. Its sometimes hard to see where everything is and your location to everything.

Here is a shot of me playing the Americans vs the Germans.


So to sum up, I give this game five out of five My Little Ponies.

Ah, so that's how Destro...

IDW GI Joe issue 6, reveals why the modern Destro wears his iron mask. Interesting, but not sure how he is going to get intimate with the Baroness if that is anyones business. I should have bought cover B, as it has a big Destro face on it, but there is something about this drawing of Duke holding an upside down Scarlet. Unfortunately the A cover has nothing do do with the comic inside. In fact, I think Duke didn't even appear in the issue. These cover choices can be very difficult to go with.

Heavy Duty 4th of July Recap 3

Heavy Duty is back again this year to review the family fireworks. A pretty good assortment this year, probably a little more money spent than should. When Heavy looked back at last years collection, he remembered that their were some better unique choices than this years. Still fun was had, and lots of stuff blown up, here are HD's Favorites...

#1. Heavy Warhead. Not that special in show, but it looks like a real warhead so thats cool. I wish I kept the burnout peice now, but I guess it would stink up the house.


#2. Heavy Unicorn. If HD stands next to this, you know its going to be tough. It actually was one of the better ones. It was heavy so it had lots of powder inside, lasted about a minute and a half! HD wonders if it had My Little Ponies ground up in it.


#3. Heavy Grizzly. Not so great actually, and thats why HD is ready to punch it.


#4. Heavy Burnout. A pretty good show, it produced baby ground flowers and made a funny wooshing sound. It also smoked for at least 20 minutes after it was over.


#5. Heavy Vest. HD loves lighting ground flowers and throwing them.


#6. Heavy Joy. Well this one says it all. It was the finale piece, lasted a couple minutes, and did what all the other fountains did but longer.


Thats it for HD's report. Maybe next year HD will go to Caldwell and buy the kind that shoot into the air and take out Cobra Sky fortresses. Heavy Tanks for reading.