2010 is over... Let's recap!

Well another year goes away by the stroke of midnight...

Well, let's look back at some of the stuff I love (or love to hate) in 2010:

Masters Of The Universe:

Overall, the year was great for MotU. Logistics stopped me from getting Roboto and Carnivus. (My Logistics, not Mattel's) While it sucks missing out on Roboto, the pair of flaws and Mattel's no 200X head Dogma (that I'm starting to believe that it's the bean-counters idea to ban 200X heads for Mattel to release later down the line a 200X version of the characters... double-dipping?) Everything else has gone great with the line... Just don't Mention Castle Grayskull and the insane tentative cost of $300... Ah Lt. Spector WILL BE the butt of many MOTUC jokes in 2011... No news on the Movie.

Twilight:

Eclipse came to theaters. Mattel released Alice and Victoria dolls... No they won't come from the Toy Chest until they're on clearance.

GI Joe:

Well The Joes got a new show. GI Joe Renegades... Basically GI Joe's take on The A-Team. I really hate the art style of the show. Looks like a bad imitation of the Jackie Chan Adventures mixed with a bit of The Spectacular Spider-Man.

Transformers:

They got the Awesome Transformers War for Cybertron game, The Animated Series Transformers Prime (an amalgam of Bayformers and TF WFC) and the announcement of Bayformers 3 The Dark Side of the moon. On the good side there is no Megan Fox here.

Justin Bieber:

Still alive... So much for him being the "Kurt Cobain of his Generation" Never Say Never is still coming to Theaters in 2011.

Hannah Montana:

Today, Disney will air the Last Episode of Hannah Montana: Forever... Will she live on in reruns for a few years or will she be forgotten... We'll find out in the Future...

Miley Cyrus: Now that she's Hannah free she's going to tackle more mature projects... She's still trying too hard to get rid of her Hannah past... I've said it countless of times this will bite her in the ass...

Thundercats:

The show is coming in 2011 and Bandai America is making the toys... Crap.

Back to the Future:

There's a BTTF game coming and the guy voicing Marty sounds like a 1985 Michael J Fox... It's not Michael J. Fox... Christopher Lloyd is voicing Old Doc Brown... There's a rumor about a Young Doc Brown voiced by James Arnold Taylor (Harry Osborn in The Spectacular Spider-Man, Tidus in Final Fantasy X)

I'll leave you with the "Modern Kurt Cobain" struggling with glass doors... is he Half bird or something?

It came from the Toy Chest: Super Secret Surprise Review

Unrelated pic tricked y'all...

Sorry, but I couldn't reveal my review just yet.

It's the Toy Story 3 Buddy Pack Buzz Lightyear and Lots O' Huggin' Bear.

There is not much to talk about these guys. They seem to be partially Deformed (almost Super Deformed.) to look more cute. Similar to the Superhero Squad toys from Hasbro.

Buzz Lightyear has 3 Points of Articulation. Shoulders and waist. Lotso on the other hand has his POA on the neck and shoulders. He also has 3 Points of Articulation. That's 3 more than I expected.

On the paint department, this is Mattel we're speaking of, so there isn't that much. The paint on Buzz is pretty much flawless, except the green on his boots. On Lots O' The paint is flawless... I have nothing to complain there.

There are no accessories here... Probably because these are toys for young children and these guys are rather small. Small accessories on small toys for young children means that they're choking hazards.

As you can see The figures are very small compared to the MOTUC toys. Although not Photographed. I noticed that Lotso has some sort of 200X Technology vestige. On his right foot he seems to have an Action chip... (in the TS3 line it's called Action Links) Probably the playsets react to the characters... Kinda like 200X... Hmm... Oh yeah! Lotso does NOT smell of Strawberries!

Now for the Score part of the Reviews. As alwasy 1 = crap just like the toy remnants from Sid's playtime and 5 = Awesome Toys loved by Andy until the end of time.

Articulation:

I expected these toys to have ZERO articulation. The 3 points of Articulation don't give Buzz much to do... Mostly because of his pose, but on Lots O' they give the teddy bear a decent range of motion.

4.0

Paint and Sculpt:

On the paint department there isn't much to see here. With the exception of Buzz's boots it's flawless. The sculpt it's cutesy and simple. Lotso has a stylized furry coat while Buzz has sculpted joints simulating additional PoA that the movie toy has.

4.0

Accessories:

Normally I'd ramble about the Lack of accessories like Lots O's cane (Must make a custom cane.)

but these guys, as I've said they're small toys for young kids. The alternative would've been a cane sculpted to his right arm and that would've limited his poses.

Overall: 4.0

While I'm not exactly super fond of Buzz... (Probably I will hide him in My TMNT Display as one of Michelangelo's toys) Lots O' on the other hand he will get more playtime... or be displayed with other characters...

It Came From the Toy chest: Wonder Woman hating edition

Cheetah (Priscilla Rich) is here!

I bought her mostly because she was on the Super Friends... Also I'm a bit lacking on the Supervillain department. Let's begin!

First thing I need to get off my congested chest... I think I caught a cold... not cool! Good thing I don't do video reviews. That's not what I was talking about...

It's the whole "Adult Collector"/ "Kids toys" issue.

Scott "Toyguru" Neitlich said this regards the lack of characters like Lois Lane, Jimmy Olsen, Commissioner Gordon or Alfred:

The DCUC retail line needs to appeal to moms and kids as well as collectors and kids just are not interested in these type of characters. The online packs would have been the channel to release these type of characters but based on the sales of all 5 online packs we put out on Mattycollector, collectors were not interested in buying their DCUC figures this way, so we had to revert back to a retail line for new DCUC figs.

If there had been enough interest in the online packs we would likely have gotten to some of these figures in time. But as said above, fans were just not interested in this avenue to purchase DCUC figures so we had to stop the online packs after the Animal Instinct pack.

Oh come on! Most of these 2 packs were overpriced or they lacked stuff that made it interesting to collectors (like too obscure characters... as in non mainstream characters that casual fans might not know, or lacking KEY characters/Accessories).

-I'll begin with the Wonder Twins: No Monkey, no Money! Lacking Gleek was the main reason WHY I SKIPPED IT!

-Adam Strange/Starfire: I bought it on Cyber Monday. I knew how much Koriand'r sucked, yet I bought it.

-Color of fear 2 pack: I'm not a fan of the Corps, but this pack seems good enough.

-Justice in the Jungle: I'm not a huge fan of DC so I don't know this guys that well. No real interest on them.

- Alexander Luthor and Ultraman: Alternate Earth Superman and Luthor? Not interested in YET ANOTHER SUPERMAN/LUTHOR...

I'm certain that Alfred, Lois Lane, Commissioner Gordon CAN sell. Those are characters that even Casual fans KNOW.Tossing them in a Multi pack, or a Deluxe Mini Diorama/Multi pack would be cool.

Just Picture a Small Diorama of the Bat Computer (Could be made by Mattel's In-House Team) and having an Unmasked Batman and Alfred figures. Or a Commissioner Gordon with a Bat-Signal small Diorama. A Frigging Bat Signal IS most likely to sell... With a "free" Commissioner Gordon to boot!

Civilians don't sell? Then why Toybiz Released J.Jonah Jameson, Peter Parker, Norman Osborn, Mary Jane Watson on their Spider-Man Line? Hell a new MJ was released for the Spider-Man 3 Line...

April O'Neil gets released with Every Turtle Line.

They might be a bit slow to sell, but all that is needed is something to make it more desirable.

Tossing in the same Superman or Batman ALL the time won't sell the product!

I don't know about you, but I'd buy a Lois Lane/Superman two pack If it included a Superman that can hold Lois Lane's arm and included two flight stands. (Hopefully a new headsculpt for Supes...)

Sorry for the small tangent, but it still is on topic. Mattel has no idea to who they're catering this line. I've yet to see a kid asking for DCUC figs. Pretty much all I see is collectors ruffling through the DCUC pegs... (Usually complaining about the awful QC especially with Martian Manhunter.)

Now unto the figure itself. Cheetah comes with a Leg of Trigon and the pin.

Her articulation is similar to a standard DCUC female, but the tail has an additional PoA.

She looks like somebody used some Mace on her... Just like First Release He-Man, or my Adam's Constipated He-Man head. Other than that the figure looks really good.

Now I'm going to go in depth into the review. As always 1= Crap... Disappointment of Starfire levels and 5= Battlecat being Ridden by The Old Spice dude while The World's Most Interesting Man, Neil Patrick Harris, Dolph Ludgren AND David Hasselhoff carrying Battlecat to battle.

Articulation:

3.5

My biggest gripe with the articulation is: WHY IN THE HELL does Mattel keep using soft plastic for the piece that holds the legs to the crotch. That soft plastic has my WW's Right Leg frozen in place. (Can't move it for fear of breakage.) The same thing applies to Cheetah. While she doesn't have any joints frozen, I'm afraid of moving her legs much, due to the soft plastic in there.

Paint and Sculpt:

4.0

Aside from the Reddish area around the eyes, I don't see any paint flaws on Cheetah. The sculpt is pretty much standard fare for the 4H The crotch is probably new to accommodate the tail.

Accessories:

3.0

Well She comes with Nothing for herself, but the C&C Piece and the pin are her "accessories".

I'm not into assembling Trigon, but I want 2 more figs from the Wave (Wonder Girl and Superboy)

Overall:

3.5

The soft disc joints on the Crotch/Hips ruin the figure for me. I really bought Cheetah to boost my Villain ranks. She does that, but I can't say much about her.

There are rumors that DCUC wave 18 is Superfriends themed... I hope that Apache Chief makes it to the line... "Inyuk-Chuk!"

Raiding Lara

Last time I spoke about change I touched the subject of videogames. There's a character who HAS changed a lot in the last 15 years: Lara Croft. I played TR, owned TR2, played 3 and 4, owned Chronicles, played Legend and skipped pretty much everything else.

Somewhere somehow, Lara Croft didn't click with me...

Lara, like Miley Cyrus (You know I had to sneak that one in...) has tried TOO hard to change their image. While Miley is trying to get rid of the child-friendly Hannah image' Lara is trying to get rid of her shallow "Sex-appeal" superficial look.

Now I give you the New Lara Croft!

You can read a whole article from Game informer if you click on Lara's name. Way up there!

The GI Magazine talks about how this new game is more survival story than "classic Tomb Raider" blah blah blah! I'll believe it when I see it. TR has tried too hard to reinvent itself, yet it remains too close to the original (or is incredibly buggy that its nearly unplayable).

Problem is that Lara has cried "change!" too many times and I've been so far unimpressed. Until now. The first thing I noticed on the new Lara is the lack of "Hyper Sex-appeal" from past Laras.

For the first time ever I've been mesmerized by Lara's eyes. Then again, pretty eyes a decent game do not make. It's highly unlikely that I'll play this game. Even if it seems to take some steps in the right direction, I'm not interested in Tomb Raider. Right now Crystal Dynamics NEEDS to wow me more to TRULY gain my interest.

The High Mile(y) club

♪I'm so high! I could hear heaven!

I'm so high! I could hear heaven!

Oh! But Heaven, no heaven don't hear meeeee!♫

You heard the one about Miley Cyrus getting high?

George Lopez and Mila Kunis take a potshot at Miley... pot shot... I crack myself up some times...

Thank you Peter.

Now I can start my rant...

Miley allegedly was using Salvia not weed. Salvia is legal, weed is not. Now Billy Ray's Achy Breaky heart seems to be broken once more... I find it kinda awkward that Miley suddenly got so high before she finished taking a hit. Part of me thinks that she's overacting and trying to play into her "Ooh look at me I'm a bad girl! Not the innocent Disney pwincess that Hannah Montana was!" act. If it was salvia (which is legal) I still think that Miley shouldn't have taken a hit, much less with someone recording her. This was one big mistake that might come and bite her in the ass eventually. Then again, Nobody's Perfect... (I had to put that one in... It's Miley we're talking about... Yes I know the song is Hannah's but Hannah is Miley... SHUT UP!)

I've said it before. The whole Killing Hannah in the least subtle ways will be the end for Miley.

Only time will tell.

I was expecting her trip to be something more like this...

It came from the Toy Chest League of America

This It came from the Toy Chest is a very special one... but not like those very special episodes of Blossom...

Of all the images Youtube HAD to use for the preview... I hope Apache Chief wears underwear...

It's a DCUC extravaganza!

Remember to click on the pic to see a slightly larger version!

Here they are: Power Girl, Martian Manhunter, Starfire, Adam Strange, and Superman (pronounced: SYOUPERMAN! like the Announcer from the Superfriends!)

First up is Power Girl from the All Star Wave (Reissues of Popular characters... My Flash, GL Nightwing and Batman are from the All Star Wave...)

Power Girl is the Supergirl of Earth-2 (In the DC Universe there are multiple Universes... or were. I'm not too much of a DC fan so I'm not that up-to date with the DCU.) Long Story short Power Girl is the same thing as Supergirl but with bigger boobs and shorter hair.

She's got a nice sculpt... 4Horsemen made her and all that... Her insignia is rather distracting. She's got the same articulation as any male DCUC Character... More than the spiritual ancestor line DCSH (Where Super Girl is from)

Since this is a DCUC toy, accessories are non-existant (Unless you're Batman, or Cyborg... Vic Stone, not the Cyborg Superman)

All the scores will be at the end of the article...

Second on this review is Martian Manhunter. J'onn J'onzz is like a Martian, form Mars and he's basically a Poor man's Syouperman!

His sculpt is really good! 4Horsemen and all that. I believe he's got a few new parts... Still he's not saved from errors.

His right Bicep is a lot bigger than his left Bicep... I want to avoid many masturbation jokes about MM and this common error. He comes with two pieces for the Validus Connect and Collect. The head and the crotch. My Validus head has a loose brain cover clear thingie. Martian Manhunter is part of the KMart Exclusive Validus Wave.

Next one up is Syouperman! Before reviewing him I must admit that I'm not a fan of Superman. He's too Powerful and I can't see him as a man who struggles against great odds and succeeds... Then again I'm a huge fan of He-Man and She-Ra... Maybe its the whole Clark Kent is the disguise thing that makes him unrelateable to me. I may not like him, but He's THE MOST ICONIC COMIC BOOK CHARACTER. Period... Not Batman, Not Spider-Man, Not Ironman or Green Lantern. Superman IS THE Superhero. Also any self respecting DC collection MUST have a Superman.

His paintjob is really clean. No smudges or anything. Sculpt-wise He's pretty much the same as most of the males. (IIRC the Male body "Type 1" is based off Superman's body.) The Four Horsemen are awesome at their job and with a few tweaks here and there can make a bunch of figs that share the same sculpt look different enough. Supes comes with a stand... Then again DCUC figs are always lacking in the Accessory department

The last two items are Starfire and Adam Strange from the Mattycollector.com Exclusive... Now Sold Out (Possibly gone for good!) Now IF Mattel was kind enough to reissue the Wonder Twins WITH GLEEK! I'd buy it...

Hoo boy! Where do we Start... This pack is a mix of success and failure.

Adam Strange was NOT the reason I bought this pack, yet I like him a lot!

He has a gun! and an unremovable Jetpack! He probably uses the standard male body, but the attached armor with Jetpack, the gun holster and the intricate designs tampographed on him make him stand out. There's a small bit of blurrysplotch of paint on his leg where the tampograph wasn't perfect, but it's only noticeable upon close inspection.

Starfire on the other hand...

was not so lucky. Aside from being called Coriander... I mean Koriand'r, being a sex slave, the toy SUCKS! She came with a super warped Right Leg paint globs on her arms and right hand. The base body used for her does not suit her. It looks like she's wearing an orange and purple full body leotard. Her body is very soft and she keeps falling ALL The Time! She should be called Failfire! I wonder how many years it would take Mattel to fix her... (Maybe tossing a fixed Starfire with a repaint of Cyborg and the Bane Wave Robin while reissuing Beastboy, and Raven in a Teen Titans 5 pack...

Now for the Scores:

as always The range is 1-5 with one being maximum suckage and 5 being super-mega-awesome!

Power Girl:

Articulation: 4.5

Paint and sculpt: 4.0

Accessories: 2.5

Overall:3.66

Again, The lack of accessories hurt the DCUC PG is an amazing toy. Well sculpted, her boobs are not ridiculously big. has a decent range of motion... Better than Supergirl's!

Martian Manhunter:

Articulation: 4.5

Paint and sculpt: 3.5

Accessories: 3.5

Overall: 3.83

I shouldn't be too hard on J'onn, but The commonplace QC accidents with MM not having the correct biceps is not cool. He got a nice boost on the accessories area for including 2 connect and collect pieces...

Superman:

Articulation: 4.5

Paint and sculpt: 4.0

Accessories:2.0

Overall: 3.5

The lack of accessories hurt Superman a lot more than not being a fan of the character. I must admit that I'm liking the figure a lot... Shame that we couldn't get a sculpted S shield on him... (either by actually engraving it to the chest or gluing an extra sculpted piece) This is one of those instances that I despise Mattel's EXTREME PARTS REUSE POLICY.

Adam Strange:

Articulation: 4.5

Paint and Sculpt: 4.5

Accessories: 4.0

Overall: 4.33

I am Pleasantly surprised with Adam Strange. My knowledge of him was limited to the episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold where Aquaman was all sad and borderline emo.

Starfire:

Articulation:4.0

Paint and sculpt:1.0

Accessories: 0.0

Overall:1.67

As I said, Failfire is disappointing. Gummy legs that can't support her light weight. The awful top of her torso, the abysmal paintjob. and total lack of accessories hurt her a lot.

2 pack overall: 2.0 Starfire REALLY dragged down Adam Strange.

Someone described her to me as the WORST DCUC EVER. I'm really starting to believe it.

The MOTUC figure that I bought for Cyber Monday was He-Man... To turn into a custom Wun-Dar. I may post pics on another MOTUC ICFTC which will probably be Buzz-Off!

In the mean time I'll leave you with a less crappy Starfire.

Motion gaming... The rant.

Gaming has evolved. Now games can be controlled with your movements instead of just pushing buttons, We have come a long way from this:

To This:

Apparently motion gaming is here to stay. Is this the great, great, great (add a couple of more great) grandfather of Holodeck/Danger room total immersion gaming? It sounds awesome but the reality is that it isn't all that awesome... Once the "Look at me I'm controlling the action with my movements" rush wears out. I'll admit that it's fun, but it's not for every genre.

Also a HUGE problem with motion gaming is that it seems mostly catering to the casual gamer.

Many of these motion games seem like a collection of minigames. Oh yeah! let me choose between random mini game compilation A or B? Some of the "true games" that apply motion gaming elements have two huge issues:

-The motion elements are nice nearly useless easter eggs (Like MGS 4 and the six axis related stuff.)

-The flow of the game is a bit awkward due to Motion Gaming (Plenty of Wii games.) combined with old school gaming.

Now with the whole Kinect and PS Move wanting some of the Motion Gaming action; we're gonna see some crazy crap!

Just picture a GTA Game using Kinect... Jog in place to run, jump to jump... Hopefully they'll implement the OLD PS2 GTA cheat input system... Picture yourself flailing around like a moron to input a cheat.

I'm pretty sure I'd be tired and bored of the game after 30 minutes.

It's a cool idea to play some sports games like that, but sports games have evolved so much that motion gaming would be a step back. (Other motion gaming detractors would say: So you want to feel like you're swinging a bat at a ball? How about this crazy idea, GO OUTSIDE AND DO IT!)

Then again I'm sucker for games like this:

How come there isn't a Wii port of Mazan: Flash of the Blade?

Probably cause the game is old, but I digress.

Motion gaming will be stuck in mini-game mode for a long while until a way to play true games doesn't become too tedious.

Right now there are a few issues with motion gaming:

-Needs a lot of space. This one is quite obvious, but it needs to be reminded. Try playing multiplayer motion games in a small room. Either fights or rushing someone to the hospital will break up gaming night.

-Those systems that use controllers (Wii, PS3 Move) may cause damage to the TV if used improperly.

-It may require a dark room to play...(PS3 MOVE)

-Your skin may be too dark to use the face recognition.

There are a lot of hiccups right now, but we have evolved a lot from the Power Glove or the Power Pad. I am glad that we've gone so far with it but there's something that is bugging me.

Will the Motion Gaming craze bring forth Erotic Motion Games?

Just picture a... You know what? Don't picture it! just watch this Robot Chicken Sketch!

If something like this gets made, I'm going to laugh. Not because it is funny, but cause my faith in humanity will be forever destroyed... I will probably play it out of morbid curiosity... The same type of curiosity that makes you look whenever there's a traffic accident. You know it's bad, but you can't help it.

For the moment I'm sticking to Traditional gaming... and still kick your ass in Mario Kart Wii with the Traditional controller...

It came from the Toy Chest: Extra furry Hordesman

Grizzlor is the Last Item from Mattel that I'll review until the Cyber Monday stuff arrives. No MOTU stuff I promise.

The Ferocious Figure with Fur! Try saying that 5 times fast.

Well he's here. He has fur "Just like I remember!" I'm not a fan of "realistic" hair and flocking on action figures due to bad experiences as a child with Grizzlor. One of them involved the Slime Pit... but I'm rambling. Yes Grizzlor is furry. His arms and legs are Beastman's (The lower leg is form Chief Carnivus) The boots are shared with Hordak's. The hands, and head are new. (There was something about interchangeable faces, but Mattel axed that.) The 200X Loincloth is NOT the 4Horsemen Logo. He's got a Horde Crossbow, a sword and a Machete. He also has the Horde Armband... "You're Nexus or against us!" thing going on here...

Now for the Review: As always 1= crap and 5 = awesome!

Articulation: Standard MOTUC Articulation. Ab crunch and waist articulation are hindered a bit because of his fur. Nothing to write home about.

3.5

Paint and sculpt: As I said, I'm not a fan of fur on toys, but somehow I'm enjoying it on Grizzlor! It might be part due to nostalgia, or who knows what, but it feels... right.

on the sculpt; he's pretty much Beastman. I've said that already. That works perfectly with him.

Incredibly enough Grizzlor's torso is nor the Beastman Torso. He's like a Reverse Zodac.

The new pieces look awesome, like the brand new hands. The head is an updated look of the vintage head. There was a 200X head sculpted, but Mattel didn't use it. (Logistics and all that.)

Incredibly enough I don't need the 200X head for Grizzlor. It's amazing what a few little parts can do in combination with the reused parts. (There should be more new parts, but that's a rant for another time.)

On paints, well Mattel takes a minimalist approach... (Logistics.) It works with Grizzlor. The fur creates a lot of the contrast on his body.

4.5

Accessories: He comes with the harness that works as a holster for his weapons. The 200X Loincloth looks cool, The weapons are awesome. (I wonder if they'll reuse the ax for Ram Man.)

4 Weapons and a place to hold them... Grizzlor is starting to look like the MAA of the Evil Horde.

5.0

Overall 4.33

I'm having a lot more fun with Grizzlor than I expected. The fur is better than I expected, the Horde is twice as big now. I must remember that Slime Pit + Grizzlor = $30.00 down the toilet! DO NOT PUT GRIZZLOR ON THE SLIME PIT!

Yes that is ME styling my Grizzlor and singing the theme song of she-who-musn't-be-named. This was made for the The Great Rebellion Club. A nice place for MotU/PoP fans on the chaos that is Facebook.

Hey What the!? The Puertorrican Gargoyle

I kinda HAD to use that video. It was the first thing I thought of when I heard about "The Gargoyle" since the name was inspired by Disney's Gargoyles. A REAL Gargoyle is:

a : a spout in the form of a grotesque human or animal figure projecting from a roof gutter to throw rainwater clear of a buildingb : a grotesquely carved figure

2

: a person with an ugly face

Well, none of those descriptions match the so called creature. In fact it would be more like a winged Chuppakabura!

Well now that we got that out of the way, Let me begin with this rant. Not only the Chupacabras made it to Japan, now we have a WINGED VERSION!?

To make things worse the Mayor of Canóvanas José "Chemo" Soto wants to hunt the "Gargoyle".

Oh great! He's going in "Chemojones" mode. He's going to hunt the "Gargoyle" He gonna find him. The Garygloyle's really dumb for real. Long story short: He will go, fail at it and waste everyone's time. If We're lucky, Puerto Rico, once again will be on the spotlight with ridculous stories about the Hunt for X "cryptid"... on the History Channel or Discovery.

The sketches of this Gargoyle look like a winged Grizzlor... whose review is coming up soon...

Tis the season to be jolly and stuff!