2010 A-Team Van

Oh why oh why did I go to Target last night? Here I am trying to cut down on the toy budget (trying to recoup loses from Autobot Blaster), and I still go to a toy aisle. I guess a clearance sale doesn't count. The A-Team van was on my list of must have summer toys, and getting one for 12.48, was a steal!


It features lights and sounds, but lights are just head lights that blink on and off. The sounds are okay, but it would have been nice to have a button for sound effects, and one for quotes, instead of them mixed. Also missing is the quote, "I love it when a plan comes together!" Instead the quote is, "We'll need a plan" in a somewhat bored voice. Sound effects are nice; gun fire, tires screeching, zooming sounds.


Over all feel is pretty good. Its not your kids back yard toy, the doors are very weak, (the sliding door is easily removable), and some of the outside vehicle pieces are really soft. Other than that, its solid, and should hold up in a battle. It's nice that they have four chairs, but maybe instead of electronics, and back door with cannon would have been nicer? I looks so authentic, I guess extra features are unnecessary.


In some ways its the same toy from last years Rise of Cobra APV. My friend warned me that I already bought this toy once, and he's probably right. Thats why I bought another one, the look so good together.


I don't have any A-Team figures yet. Target didn't have any figures left, so for now here is my A-Team replacement team. The mainframe figure looked old for Hannibal, and Quick Kick is crazy enough to play Murdock, Roadblock is missing a mohawk but he's big like B.A. Baracus, and Flint can disquise up like Hannibal too or Face I guess.

I would give the A-Team van four out of five My Little Ponies.

The Claw Machine is back!

Is it actually true?...


Looks like the Claw Machines profits plummeted when they moved it to a different lobby. But now its back, and so am I, and as soon as payday comes, tomorrow, I shall play again, putting the vendor's kids, through college.


That's a cute little guy. I wonder who made that? Any ideas Eclecto-Tron?

Magnaboss this! Hot or Not?

Another fantastic night of blogging. It was either this, or going to the store to buy contact lens solution. Well actually its going to have to be both, as I need contact lens solution. I wonder if Magnaboss wears contacts. If he did, he would need to fit six eyes (His third pair not pictured, comes from the elephants robot head, which is on Magnaboss's butt at the moment. Bet you didn't think you would learn that today did ya?

So is Magnaboss Hot or Not?

Transformers Fuzor; Sky Shadow

For the lack of any better ideas today, it's Sky Shadow the Lizard/Dragon Fly Fuzor! One of my favorites, at least in Beast mode, his Lizard head is really quite impressive.


I bet I have owned this guy for about a decade now, and after all these years, I still remember how to transform him (mostly). His robot head is kind of silly, as it can vomit a projectile. I like his lizard head so much more, I would think to pretend his hand does all the talking, while his head just shoots stuff.


He has a pretty neat dragon fly weapon, with wings that open and close by means of lever. It's probably the best functioning gimmick of my many Beast Wars toys. It never fails in attack.

So there it is with that.

SDCC 2010 Blaster

Well I think I was able to secure a SDCC 2010 Blaster, I hope, I hope. You never know with these online stores. It looked like he was sold out earlier, but now is back on? I can't see him staying long. I bought mine early on in the morning, and the site was really slow. I hope I don't have to wait too long to get him. Funny that earlier in the year I thought, hey it would be neat to have a Blaster to compliment my Soundwave, but I didn't think that would happen so soon. Soundwave gets all the love in the Transformers world. I remember how big both Soundwave and Blaster were on the playground circuit. A boombox toy in the eighties is practically the decade toy mascot.

As for Sgt. Slaughter? No go, he must have sold our really fast. Not that I was going to get one, all my money was for Blaster. But, I would have really liked the chance for Slaughter as a regular toy too sometime. The way these toy companies do exclusives is really crumby in my book. I understand giving away something special for the fan who goes to a Con, but can't that just be a special carded version, or character that has less of a pull. I would imagine it would still have value. And why does the toy company care anyway that someone gets a toy that increases so much in value. That doesn't effect the toy company's bottom line, just the buyer. I'm just glad I got a Blaster, he's the better of the two choices.

And thanks for the overwhelming response to my blatant ploy of getting a Blaster. The rampant fan following of this blog is relentless. Maybe next years Comic Con, I'll do my own exclusive giveaway.

Transformers Animated Optimus Prime and a SDCC request

While everyone else is gearing up for SDCC, buying and reviewing new and wonderously hard to get exclusives, I will get this Optimus Prime toy from like two years ago. This blog is so cutting edge!


I have passed on this toy a few dozen times. I almost picked it up during X-mas sales when it was discounted pretty good, but didn't pull the trigger. Today I saw it for 60% off, which made it about 9.00 which is pretty much inexcusable for me not to pick it up (possibly ruining my 100 dollar a week budget that my wife and I started (that includes food (so peanut butter and Jelly the rest of week))).


I'm not the biggest fan of Transformers Animated. I have season one on DVD, and still have yet to finish it. I think I am on the last episode though, so maybe if Megatron gets his body back, it will be better. The toy looks so-so in box. Since I already have a nice Prime collection though, I really needed this one for completion.


In hand though, I gotta say its way cooler. He feels stronger than he looks, and is very well proportioned. Fairly quick to Transform too, which is good. I think he will look good next to my other Primes, if I can find them to stand together some day. I guess I will recommend him, if it was two years ago.


I don't really care for his trailer only turning into a gun and battle axe, which looks like something you take camping to poop into.

So if you are going to SDCC this week, please pick me up an Autobot Blaster, I will pay you back and give you homage like no other on this blog for a week. My email is Solarsquirrelus@yahoo.com, and I expect at least ten emails tonight from my rabid fans who constantly shower me with love.

Plastic Depository III

Its bookcase #3 night. I spent about twenty minutes at Walmart deciding which box looked the least crushed. I went with the box, in the middle of the group, with little to no box damage. Should have went with the first one I had picked...


I did call for a replacement piece, but I built the bookcase anyway. Besides, with Grune the Destroyer in front, no one will ever know.

For scale, Bart has walked in front ...


Looks like I will need a few more bookcases for total toy containment, but for now I think I am good...

Star Trek II Space Ship Battle Tribute Animation

Yeah, a whole decade to complete this. One can't believe the time and energy put into this project, plus the enormous coordinating nightmare. So, I will summerize:

Started this in June of 2001 as a "quick" and silly animation of Star Trek Ships fighting. I believe I was using my old Micron 166MHz computer sporting windows 95. I think Paint Shop Pro was involved, but I can't remember what I used to animate it with. I remember I was making my computer overload with the maximum hurt as I maxed it in rendering the animation. In fact, I had to save it in two parts or the computer would crash. So for some unknown reason, I saved it to a floppy disk, for archiving I guess. I believe I had to shrink it down, loosing lots of resolution. Then I forgot about it.

Yesterday I found the floppy disc! How the hell did I get it off the floppy disc? Well my Dad, actually took out his old floppy drive and installed in his somewhat newer computer. I got the files transfered, but had no internet or flash drive, so I saved it to a CD. The files are in evil .AVI, and for the life of me, I can't get them into iPhoto or iMovie. I hate Quicktime by the way. I conference with a friend for about an hour trying all sorts of conversion tricks, but still no go. So finally, I find some free conversion softwear, but it leaves a watermark. Luckily I can crop it out as its on the top bar. Phew! So I add a couple more scenes this afternoon, some music, and walla! Done. Enjoy.

Goldar

It must be a slow toy year if I am buying Goldar action figures. Goldar. Funny that only the exclusives for Cons and overpriced internet stuff this year are better than what they are selling on the shelves. I really hate toy companies right now. They are sucking too much fun out of this.


Not much to say about Goldar. The toy makers have succeeded in recreating a figure with little movement much like the guy in the costume. He has the strangest knees I have ever seen in a toy. They look jointed, maybe for spinning, but the kneecap prevents that. I thought maybe it was a hidden knee bend, but I think it might just break off. Thats not a good thing five minutes after opening him. His shoulders do have joints, but the pads prevent any decent movement. It could have been worse though. His head boasts 2 degree movement. Wow.


At the very least he's a common villain for the Green Ranger to throw down with. The wings are a plus too, as I can pretend he can fly. Hmmm, get out the Zip-line...

Plastic Depository II

Had some time today for phase II of my plastic depository. I hope when I say "plastic depository" people don't get the impression that I will circulate my toys like a library. That would be a cold day in hell, ha ha hah.

So building bookcase number 2 reminded me how craptastic these Walmart shelves are. The holes are off, the backboard had crush marks on it, and the kick was completely off. The overall height is just about half an inch taller than the first! I am hoping thats just a carpet issue, and it will settle to level. Actually after all the crap I listed above, it turned out better than I expect. You don't really know until you lift it off the ground to see how it will look, as you build it face down on the ground.

Bart was unhelpful on the install. He did crawl into the bookcase box at one point, which was pretty funny.



So there's phase 2. I'm thinking about upping the number of cases to 6! That way I can almost surround the room. It might be overkill, but I have a lot of toys to look at. We will see, if I can find bookcase number 3, and if it matches well with 1 and 2.

A Herculean decorating tip

Some of the most greatest Herculean events happen in the bathroom, that is why ours is decorated with Hercules giving anyone strength beyond strength in any situation.



I think I crossed the line two days in a row now.

Duke like his Hot Dog Bubble Gum

I found some "Hot Dog Bubble Gum" at Walgreens during lunch this week. When you see something like this, you have to try it. The killer package design really takes it to the next level. And the tag line "Blow your Lunch!" is somewhat questionable.

So does Duke like it?


He is the closest scaled figure for it.

Nope, too big. Will have to find one of those 1/4 scale figures.



Hmmm. So at what point did this post cross the line?

Building my Plastic Depository

After months of sitting on the fence about what to do with my official Toy / Geek/ Plastic depository room, I finally decided on some really nice premo bookcases. These things are the real deal, made of compressed particle board, with high grade toxic glue, and less than paper white coating skins. These shelves are far better than my old dreams of glass, lights, hinges, sliders, remote controlled bevelers. I decided why should I spend more on shelves than on toys? That would be stupid, it would mean less toys. Also I don't have to drill into the walls with these, which was really starting to irk me about standard shelving.

This is the first of three built. I found the second one tonight, and will have to get the third in a few weeks. I think three will be enough to cover a GI Joe themed bookcase, s Star Wars bookcase, and a Transformers Bookcase. Of course I will probably need a He-man, Power Ranger, and Xevoz bookcase too. All together it should be less then 100 bucks, which is fine by me. I can get everything back up to display speed and feel good about my accomplishment of collecting all that crap.


Oh and I need to remove that hideous baseball wallpaper trim, God I hate those.

Some leftover Ranger Thoughts...

You know you have action figure problems when you can't support the weight of all your accessories. I wonder if there is an insurance plan for action figures?


The Lunar Wolf Power Ranger was an unexpected surprise. So were his purple accessories.


Another angle to a very awkward ride.

Don't attempt what Heavy Duty is about to attempt...

Heavy Duty is headed to the park for free fireworks this year, so he'll have to make due with some leftovers from last year, and a nearby propane grill. Don't do what Heavy Duty does, he's a professional. Have a save 4th of July.

But I was going into Nampa to pick up some Power Rangers Wild Force converters!

Fate played its hand this week making me look up toys on Craigslist. The first thing I saw was a Power Rangers Wild Force deluxe collection for a good deal. I made the sale and took the afternoon drive over to Nampa to pick them up.


All four Rangers were in great shape, with all their accessories included! Their weapons form a powerful battle tank, which was much fun to build.


There was instructions to build the tank, but nothing detailing how they ride the tank. I can only imagine it was something like this?


A really impressive Blue Savage Ranger. I like his shark helmet. All four have a 'slot machine' chest feature. When you place their battle pack on, the slots change from gold to a finger claw pattern. The gold claws on their chests also move. They are fairly detailed, and jointed figures, missing maybe elbow and better shoulder joints.


What a great find!