It came from the Toy Chest: Remember him... as Cedric Diggory

I must be a masochistic lion... I mean collector. Aside from dealing with the mattycollector.com hassle every month, now I'm gonna review a product from its sister site, Barbiecollector.com (No, I did not bought it from the site... I got it at Wal-Mart... The megastore that does not stock their own Exclusive toys...)

Here is Edward Cullen: The Doll in all of his glory. He is a Pink Label Barbie; in other words the lowest level of collectible, but slightly above the average Barbie doll. As you can see he looks really good inside his package. I kinda regret opening him cause now I can't put him inside the package... (Dolls and their security restraints to keep them in package... GRRR!)

Now I'll show you what he's got:

He has a nice stand, not that he needs it since he is really stable. A Certificate of Authenticity, and his clothes. They are removable but I'm not going to remove them... for a couple of reasons:

1) they're partially sewn to each other to keep them in place (don't want to mess with that)

2)why the hell do I want a naked Rob Pattinson doll!?

Yes, he does Sparkle. Not sure if it's on the whole body or only where its visible since I'm not going to take off his clothes.

His Articulation is extremely limited, since he's a higher end "collectible Barbie". (Even if he's in Pink Label) He has a great range of motion on his head (almost like a ball joint.) His shoulders have a ball-joint like articulation and his crotch only swivels from standing to a sort of This IS SPARTA kick.

No, That is not Bella. She does not smell of strawberries or whatever Bella smelled like. This one smells of cheap wigs, moonshine and a little bit of Achy Breaky stuff.

Now for Eddikinz score: As always, 1 = so crappy that the End fight of Breaking Dawn seems awesome compared to it. and 5 makes Eclipse's fighting scenes look like Super Mario Brothers.

Articulation: 3

For a doll he is slightly under articulated, but then again this doll is meant as a display piece and not a playable one.

Sculpt/paint: 4

There is not much to say here since the body is basically the Ken body, but with Meyerpire details added to it. (The glitter for the sparkle effect.) There is no slop on him since he's a "higher end collectible" Also Mattel has a higher QC standard on Barbie dolls.

Accessories: 3

He really does not need anything, but the stand is a nice touch. (He does not need it though, but its cool nonetheless) He has his clothes which are removable, if you dare cut off the ties that bind the clothes together.

Overall: 3.33

If you must have him keep him unopened. If you must have the Twi-dolls here's a small checklist:

Edward (Twilight)... Duh!

Bella (Twilight)

Jacob (New Moon)

Alice (Eclipse)

Victoria (Eclipse)

Seriously? No Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett, Carlisle, Esme, or James, Laurent, Jane, the rest of the Volturi or at least Tyler's Van...

Hordak: AVADA KEDAVRA!!!

I guess that Hek-Tor does not like Twilight...

BTW: Count Marzo is coming...

Odd news ans Ends: July 27th 2010

Wait a minute!
So now she's back!? But I said a couple of weeks ago that you retired... Oh Amanda! stop messing around with my mind!! I can't stand the "I Quit! No wait! I'm kidding! Okay Now I quit! Gotcha!" game... MAKE UP YOUR MIND!!


Luke, I have financial problems Darth Vader robbing a bank! Now that must be a very WTF moment... Now if Darth Vader mugged George Lucas; it would be awesome!

Ok! There was X-Men vs Street Fighter, then Marvel Vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom came along. Capcom then fought their longtime rival SNK in Capcom vs SNK and SNK vs Capcom. Tatsunoko wanted some of the VS action and fought Capcom in Tatsunoko vs Capcom. Now the latest VS Game that involves Capcom is...

Street Fighter VS Tekken!?
How will this work!? I can't see the SF characters stripped of their superhuman attacks to fit in with the Tekken people... or viceversa.

Ed Norton is out and seems that Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner might become a reality!? I dunno. He is good, but Edward Norton is better. Hopefully it won't suck... and BTW Miley's Asgardian-in-Law will have his helmet!!

What's the name of the Toyline that is coming back from the dead? Marvel Legends, baby! They're back for 2012!! One of the biggest news from SDCC... or it would've been if Hasbro hadn't killed the line. This reeks of jealousy of DCUC's current dominance in the Superhero figure genre... DCUC is currently on top because Hasbro ignored ML and forced their attention on the little guys. Still 2012 is too far away and MOTUC has all my attention now... Hasbro better come up with figures that are more poseable, have better paintjobs and with better sculpts than the MLs from Toy Biz... Which I doubt they'll do.

Odd news and ends 16th of July edition

After the incredibly smooth Matty day that was yesterday... (That cloned my Marzo order and now I have to return the 2nd figure for a refund, but at least they shipped yesterday, so we might get a Count Marzo It came from the Toy Chest real soon!)

Now unto the odd and old news...

Twilight Saga is deadly!!
Dude died watching Twilight Saga: Eclipse... I'm pretty sure it was not a Twilight induced death since the movie was not Breaking Dawn. Is it weird? yes... It sucks that the guy died watching a Twi movie... death amongst all that sparkling stuff. On the other hand Eclipse is the most violent Twilight movie!

Speed Racer's off and flyin' as he guns the car around the track
He's jammed down the pedal and he's never comin' back...
Peter Fernandez has passed away. He was the voice of Speed Racer and Racer X among countless other voices in different old school anime dubs.


The thing is that Historic Battle re-enactments is just the same thing as LARPing but with better budget and no fantasy elements.
Still it's pretty awesome...

A Sparkling He-Man? Ye sI mean Sparkling as in a Meyerpire wants to be He-Man... Before you grab your pitchforks, it's not Rob Pattinson, but Kellan Lutz (He's Emmet Cullen on Twilight) sounds a lot better than Ashton Kutcher as He-Man... Now Ashley Greene as Teela would be interesting... (yeah she sparkles too)

Villains part 1

It is said that every good Hero needs a good villain. On that makes us applaud the Hero for defeating.

I'll start this list with Doctor Octopus. One of the top two Spidey villains, the other one is the green goblin. (Who in my opinion is a bit overrated and Marvel has over-hyped him since the 90s... More on the green douchebag later.)

Doc Ock... What can we say about this pudgy mad scientist with 4 metal arms that would make him useful in the Japanese porn industry? He has beaten Spidey a couple of times. He created the original Sinister Six (Doc Ock, Electro, Vulture, Kraven, Mysterio, Sandman). He almost married Aunt May (To get an Island that she inherited). He killed Gwen Stacy's father, Captain George Stacy... (Ock Started the Trend of Killing Stacy family members, but everyone seems to remember that Goblin killed Gwen...)

Doc Ock even SAVED Spidey's life after figuring out his secret ID while curing him from Vulture's poison. (Of course, the Doc did it in order to kill Spidey himself.) Unfortunately for the insane doctor; Peter's mildly unbalanced clone, Kaine, killed the doctor with his "mark of Kaine"... A super enhanced version of Peter's Wall-crawling skills.

The Doctor was revived in a crazy ritual and now he's back and dying... He tried to take over NY using nanomachines to control all technology, but Spidey stopped him and the emaciated Ock got away.

The next bad guy on my list is one who has suffered from misrepresentation in other media. I am talking about the one man who broke Batman... BANE!!

While this Arkham Asylum video does not make him justice. That guy not only figured out Batman's Secret ID, but he released the inmates from Arkham in order to wear out the Bat. After making Batman wear himself out for months, Bane struck. HE fought Batman in the Batcave and broke the Batman's back. Eventually Bane and Batman do make a truce, but being the one who broke Batman is a huge achievement.

Now for the third villain on this list:
Big Boss...

One could argue that Big Boss is or is not a villain. The similarities between Big Boss and Solid Snake are incredible (ignoring the fact that Solid Snake is a clone of Big Boss). In some games Big Boss is a hero, while in others he's a villain. Even in the games that do not feature Big Boss, he still has an influence on the plot. Whether as a liberator or a madman bent on world domination (depends on whose side of the story you hear) Big Boss is still a force to be reckoned with.

Next on the List: Kefka Palazzo...

This is one evil clown. This guy right here makes Sephiroth look like a wimp.
Kefka has no shades of gray, but he is not evil for being evil... He cannot be redeemed, yet there is something that tells you that he is damaged.
He basically destroyed the world and rebuilt it in his image. To him life is meaningless and that the lives of mortal humans are purposeless. So it is his duty to destroy everything.

Starscream

The backstabbing Decepticon that sounds like Cobra Commander... He's always trying to get rid of his leader, Megatron... Unfortunately for Starscream, not even death can stop Meg... Galvatron from ruling the Decepticons...


Now for the next Bad dude on this list: Keldor + Acid + Extra dimensional being (Demo Man)... I'm talking 'bout Skeletor you fools!

The guy is just awesome and I believe he is the first Villain I knew. I mean he started out as a sort of nice guy that was fighting against racism (but he was banished from Eternos for other stuff aside from being blue...) He meddled in dark arts and tried to burn his own brother's face with Acid. Now after a demo manic fusion Skeletor is trying to enter an old castle, gain ultimate power and rule the universe...

Co-op Gameplay blues.

I like videogames that feature cooperative gameplay. There's nothing better than teaming up with a friend and beating up the bad guys.

Games like Contra (a pain in the neck game EVEN in co-op mode AND the Konami code) are more fun with co-op mode, but beatable in single player mode.
Beat'em ups like Final Fight, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, etc. are great games for co-op gameplay.

Little secret that is unknown to some people. There are a few Final Fantasy games (Main games, not spin-off games with a subtitle) that have Co-Op Gameplay.

Now the point of my rant is: While Cooperative gameplay is cool; it should NOT BE MANDATORY!! Either if its for item completion like Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks

Oh come on! you mean to tell me that Characters AND/Or stages for VS. Mode can ONLY be obtained through Co-Op mode?


or games like Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker where the Co-Op mode, while "Optional" it's heavily encouraged. (Translation: You will be screwed playing in single player mode.)

I don't mind encouraging players to play in Co-Op mode, but to FORCE players into playing Co-Op mode, now that I'll complain about. I will not always have a friend to partner up for these games and I shouldn't be punished for having slightly more anti-social tendencies on gaming.

For the Honor of the Toy Chest!

For the Honor of Grayskull!!

I HAVE SHE-RA!!

Yes the MOTUC She-Ra deserved a video before her review. She is THAT special. She's He-Man's twin sister... and I've reviewed him like 2 times... well 3 if we count the He-Man vs Superman Theoretic review on the He-Man review, or the Wun-Dar joke review within the Weapons Pack review. 4 times if we count those two...

Here we have the Princess of Power herself: She-Ra! We should do like her Brother and Liberate her from the evil Mint on Card Prison.

Now that she has been liberated, we can see what She-Ra has for us:

-She-Ra with removable head (Based on the Toy.)

-Alternate Style Guide head (The one that looks like the Cartoon)

-Sword of Protection (Two shades of Gold. The color is a nod to the vintage toy sword)

-She-Ra's Shield

-A Battle Axe with peculiar indentations in the back (Kinda looks like a comb)

-Removable Tiara/Reversible (inspired by the 80s toy)

-removable cape

I have mentioned her 80s toy a couple of times and here's a small treat: Her 80s commercial.

First thing you might have noticed is how Girly the 80s toy was... Well DUH! It was a girls line!

and next to this, anything will look girly...

She-Ra's inclusion in the MOTU continuity through the cartoons was what made many male MOTU fans like myself like her. Now in the Masters of the Universe Classics line, She-Ra looks like she is part of the MOTU line. (Being in the same scale as the MOTU figures helps a lot.)

If you've seen the ad and the MOTUC pics you can see that the Vintage Toy She-Ra looks very different from the MOTUC She-Ra. Part of me is glad that Finally after so many years I can have THE She-Ra I remember from my childhood, but there is a part of me that wants a MOTUC-ized version of the Vintage Toy.

This is as close as possible that we'll get to a Toy Accurate She-Ra for now...

Now unto the Review:

As always 1 = waste of plastic not worthy of a Happy Meal and 5 = super mega awesome toy!

Articulation: As I said in my Evil Lyn Review, Female figures get the short end of the stick here.They lost the ab crunch and their abdomen and crotch are not as detailed as the males. other than that She-Ra can do anything He-Man can. Except spreading her legs for a kick... Stupid pretty rigid plastic skirt! The long hair also reduces the amount of doable poses.
3.0

Paint and Sculpt:
As always the Horsemen are amazing! They made a She-Ra that looks like she came straight out of the cartoon. Paints are once again kept to a minimum. and so far She-Ra looks Perfect.
4.5

(Not exactly crazy about the windblown hair, but since my She-Ra will probably be in the I AM She-Ra pose it's not a big deal... There is also the Head problems...)

Accessories:
She-Ra's got a couple of them mentioned already. The problems lie on the heads:

First the Heads are more annoying to swap this time. I needed to use a hairdryer to warm the Style guide head so I could attach it to She-Ra's body.

The Toy head (Which I'm less likely to use thanks to the whole Head attaching problems.) has a huge hole in the forehead to place the Tiara.

While the hole on her face is not THAT big of an issue the problems around the headswapping are reducing the amount of use on certain accessories.
3.0

Overall score: 3.5

I am disappointed in She-Ra. I love the toy, but most of her flaws lie in two problem areas: The rigid Skirt AND the Problematic neck peg.

Mattel claims that this is not a defect:

Kastor's Korner: Recently you issued a press release that She-Ra's neck peg is still not perfect, meaning subscribers are now stuck with a possibly defective figure. Why not push back figures with issues like this till they can be correctly made?

Matty: The figure is not defective, it just is not working as perfect as we will like. As fans we also hold very high standards on how we want products to look. She-Ra still does everything she is promised to do and the heads are removable, they just don’t swap as well as we originally intended. If we held her back, we would not have had a June figure to deliver to subscribers who bought into a program offering one new figure each month. If there really was a defect we would certainly hold her up, but as stated, all of her features do work, just not as smoothly as we would have hoped.

Ok... Just to be clear:

Main Entry: 1de·fec·tive
Pronunciation: \di-ˈfek-tiv\
Function: adjective
Date: 14th century
1 a : imperfect in form or function : faulty [a defective pane of glass] b : falling below the norm in structure or in mental or physical function [defective eyesight]
2 : lacking one or more of the usual forms of grammatical inflection [must is a defective verb]
— de·fec·tive·ly adverb
— de·fec·tive·ness noun

Ok... So She-Ra is not working as good as Mattel expected, thus falling below the norm in the physical function of Head Swapping , or being imperfect in said function. The heads cannot be attached properly unless heat is applied... This is the First MOTUC Figure I've had to do that in order to swap the head. It's a defect, Mattel.

Finally I got this ICFTTC mini MOTUC marathon done! Now to rearrange my MOTUC display...

It Came From the Toy Chest... Another Blue Man Edition.

Keldor is Here!! The Eldest son of King Miro has plans for the Kingdom of Eternos and they do not involve Randor.
Let's see The Randor Hating, Hordak Serving Soon to be a Boneheaded Overlord of evil... out of the package.

Does he look Familiar? He's almost a Skeletor Reissue, but with different hands and feet and he's got a Cape... an Acid Vial and 2 half swords. I already complained about them on the last Action Figure Woes So I will not talk a lot about them.

Now Unto the Review itself:
As always 1 = Crap waste of plastic and 5 = Ultra Awesomeness.
Articulation: Same as every male MOTUC so far. Longer hair diminshes the ability to look up a bit. Nothing new to add here 4.0

Paint/Sculpt:

Again nothing to write home about. Paints are used sparingly. One cool thing is that the crossbones are grey but have a light metallic drybrush and it makes them shine. THe only new sculpt on the figure is the Face which is a work of Art. It has this dashing heroic look, but at the same time has a devilishly look to him that captures Keldor really well.

4.0

Accessories:

Ok Here's where things go south With Keldor. First he's a Bonus Figure, which means he's going to get less stuff than a normal figure.

His Accessories: The Removable Armor, The Cape, The Acid vial, and the 2 half swords.

The Half Swords... I'm trying to do this as impartially as possible.

The Keldor half swords tend to join properly, as seen on the left half of this picture. A few minutes later I decided to see if Faker's half sword would join with Keldor's... Nope they don't join. Not only they don't join, but now both of Keldor's halves will not join at all!

My Keldor has to be stuck with non accurate weapons and they don't work properly.

3.0

Overall 3.67

Keldor is not a bad figure, but he was doomed thanks to Mattel's stubbornness. The flat out refusal to add his accurate swords that split mildly better than the "vintage" Power Sword halves. The Lack of certain Keldor-Specific Accessories, like the Melty face alternate head, or a reuse of the Skeletor Head. I mean what's the point of adding the Acid vial if you're not going to give Keldor the Melty face Alternate head.

I think I'll give Keldor the Faker Half and the Female Keldor half swords so he looks slightly closer to his 200X version... until I find a spare Skeletor 200X Sword...

It came from the Toy Chest... Or in this case the Eternian Royal Dumpster.

Faker is here!! Yes boys and Girls the Bizarro Evil Robotic Doppelgänger of He-Man is HERE!!!

Yup! He's a Blue He-Man Robot with a Skeletor Armor in Orange. Rescued from the Eternian Dumpster Triklops tricked out this Robot into an Evil Robotic He-Man for Skeletor. Why is he so coveted? Well here's a little Faker Backstory.
Faker is one of the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe toys from the second Wave (1983) and was re-released on 1987 (This version is extremely rare to find.) I never had one as a kid.
He was made on the 2002 Reimagining of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, but the Toy was a Toyfare Exclusive...
Not only that but Faker was the fourth figure released in the 2009 Masters of the Universe Classics toyline, available as an exclusive at the New York Comic Con. Later released on Mattycollector because MerMan suffered a delay.

The Little Blue He-Man that was a pain in the neck to get until now.


As you can see he's a Blue He-Man with Skeletor Armor and an Orange copy of the Power Sword (and a half sword which will belong to Keldor soon)

Now for the review part itself:
Sacle 1 to 5. One being sucky toy that made me waste money on it and 5 being most awesomest toy in the history of toys?
Articulation: These guys have a lot of articulation compared to previous MOTU lines.
(MOTUC Faker has 28 PoA vs the 12 poa of 200X Faker vs the 6 PoA of the Original '80s Faker) It's not as much as the Marvel Legends, but it's way more articulation than what Mattel normally uses. 4.0 (I miss the Extra Articulation points from Marvel Legends like the wrist swivel, among others.)

Paint/Sculpt: The 4 Horsemen outdid themselves here. They've made a modern toy looking like the vintage 80s Faker. The paint is minimal (since Mattel is very stingy on paint apps.) but it works. The Tampograph of the robotic parts is better than the sticker of ancient times...
4.0 Faker is one of the blandest character designs from the line It's a Blue He-Man with Skeletor armor. Also this line is meant to feel like the vintage line (parts reuse to the maximum power) so Hyper detailed sculpts are out of the question.

Accessories: Here we have his armor (which is removeable) AND sword. Also we get another nod to the vintage toy with the half sword. If you join He-Man's Sword with Faker's Sword you get a second power Sword... a Third. (Kinda like some Frozen Yogurt machines. You get Vanilla, Chocolate and Half Vanilla-Half Chocolate.) 2.0

Overall 3.33
Yes this review is mostly HE-Man's but with a few Tweaks... kinda like Faker. My only gripe with Faker is that once Again Mattel stuck TOO close to the vintage Recipe. On some characters they add weapons or Alternate heads... Here a Terminator-esque Battle Damaged head or an Orange Axe and Shield would have been great.


Someone is getting the Weapons Pack Blue Axe and Shield...

Odd and Ends July 02 MMX

What in the blue Hell!? This Douchebag wants to have the Power? Nuh Uh! There's no way in Hell that HE should play He-man... I'd rather have Sean William Scott play He-Man...

Now on other news: Percy Jackson or Donald Glover (the black Spider-Man) ARE NOT going to be Spider-Man...
Just some 27 year old Brit is going to play a teenaged Peter Parker in the Spider-Man Reboot. Andrew Garfield, who turns 28 this August 20 is the actor chosen to play Spider-Man. In 2 years he'll be 30. He might be 32 by the time the sequel hits theatres. This guy's even OLDER than Tobey Maguire was when the first Spider-Man movie was being filmed. Does he have what it takes? I don't know, but his age has me worried.

There he goes again... Racist Mel on another hate-filled rant... This time it was against the mother of his child, Oksana Grigorieva. Dude take a chill pill!

He's not dead! wait he IS!? Sergio Vega murdered hours after denying rumors of his death. Irony at its finest...

This weekend is the 4th of July Weekend... If you're proud to be an American celebrate it, but please don't mess with fireworks while drunk or high... I don't want to have you on the odds and ends post 4th of July... for being an idiot.