Brace yourselves 2012 is coming!

Let's look back at 2011 before moving on to 2012!

-The Royal family of Eternos has been completed! Queen Marlena and Cringer made their Debut in MOTU... as toys.
-Speaking of Mattel, they finally got Filmation Rights! (and Shadow Weaver is the Frist Filmation figure but is a sub exclusive)
-Hannah Montana is Finally over!
-I became a brony.
-Gilbert Gottfried is no longer the AFFLAC! mascot
-Thor rocked, Green Lantern sucked!
-Thundercats got rebooted... and it is AWESOME!!
-We were all left behind, or Rapture did not happen (Hercolubus all over again...)
-Osama Bin Laden and Kim Jon Il Kicked the bucket!
-Beavis and Butt-Head made a comeback, it's like they never left!
-I caved in and bought Tri-Klops from a resseller, then Matty was selling him for $10...

2012 might be the last year of this world (or the Mayan Calendar...) so let's see what it brings! Happy New Year Everypony! In the Mean time here's Kim Jong Il!

It Came From The Toy Chest: The MOTU Jack Skellington

Scareglow: The Evil Ghost of Skeletor that has caused a lot of confusion for years... has finally arrived. He was originally released on November 2009 along with the Reissue of He-Man. Sadly I could not buy Scareglow... and was OK with it because I was still in a "Just get a FEW characters and call it a day" mentality. Also my Teela hadn't arrived, so I didn't know how Good these figs were... So here's the deal with Scareglow: He's like a Ghost Skeleton that Glows in the dark and induces fear... Like Scarecrow from Batman... In the Masters of the Universe Classics, he's the Ghost of a Bounty Hunter who was obsessed with penetrating Grayskull... The Castle, not the King... King Grayskull was already dead for a couple of hundred or thousand years... So that's pretty much Scareglow in a nutshell... I guess I should get on with the ratings part, but I cannot. I need to discuss what he brings to the game: A Skull head, a Cool Cape,Pole Ax, a key and a Grayskull Relic that holds the Key. Yes he does share the generic buck! Skeletor's to be precise.... So if you have a Skelly, you know what to expect with Scareglow.
Now I will do the ratings part, so 1 = crap and 5 equals awesome.

Articulation:
Same old, same old. Nothing new here... His joints are pretty tight, yo!
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
Look at Scareglow... Notice something weird? If you owned the Vintage Toy you will not see anything odd, cause he looks Just like you remember... Now, if you did NOT own one as a kid, like me, you Will notice something odd... His head does not match the body! His head is a nice rendition of a Skull... Even nicer than Skeletor's, the body? it reminds me of the Kobra Kai Halloween costume...

Oh look! Scareglow!
Well, the Skull is awesome, far more creepier than Skeletor's. The rest of him is pretty much Skeletor! His cape is frayed at the bottom and awesome!
Paintwise, well he's Glow in the dark "white" with the black areas tampographed on in order to simulate the skeleton body, so little paint apps on him. The cape is translucent and has a bit of a purple paintjob that fades into nothingness.
3.5
Accessories:
He's got the pole ax, the relic and the Key. The last two are new additions from the 4 Horsemen. The Mini Grayskull atop the Relic is AMAZING!!
4.5

Overall:
4.17 for Mr. Scareglow... He glows in the dark, looks a bit like Skullomania and is the ghost of an evil Dog the Bounty Hunter... What's NOT to like?

Christmas is already over.

Yeah!
We didn't get to celebrate together!
Yeah!

Sorry, I got a little carried away with that Shenmue Joke...
Scareglow will be the last It Came From the Toychest this year... Cause Mattel screwed up with Demo-Man... They were unable to release him from China on-time...
I'm one ranticle short out of completing the 120th Article of the year... (OK I'm 2 short, but Screglow's ICFTC will bump one off) but this December seemed a bit Off! Not too much Holiday Spirit this year!! Oh yeah! We're 362-ish days from THE END OF THE WORLD!!

Wha?? No video? No Ice Age 2 Reference?

Eh, that will do!

I dunno, but even Christmas movies this year were a little lame... The only saving grace so far was the Cleveland Show making a Die Hard Parody!


Filler Video Warning!!

Ooh! I almost forgot! Mattel also sent me a map of Etheria!! If it would've had a Hamburglar He-Man too it would have been an awesome Christmas Miracle!! So not all Matty's messups are bad!

So happy Whatever the Heck you celebrate!

Holy crap! GI JOE Retaliation looks like it's NOT Going to suck!

Holy crap! I CAN smell what the Rockblock is cooking!

The Joes are on the run, Cobra rules America, MORE NINJAS!! What's not to love!?

On the other hand not everything is great in Sequel Land...


Men in Black 3 is uh... looking a bit meh... Not sure if the disappointment that was MIIB has something to do with it, or the fact that it's been so long since the last MIB Movie (the aforementioned MIIB) that I no longer care about it... I need something to cheer me up...



OK, THIS WORKS as a perfect Pick me up!



So the entire trailer was a set up for a Urinary Tract infection joke?
I'll end this with a Dark Knight Rises teaser:



No more Mad Dog Bale Bats... Woohoo!

It came from the Toy Chest: SHORYUKEN! TIGER UPPERCUT!

Street Fighter 2 packs from Jazwares!! I know what you're thinking: Isn't that the same company that made some sub-par Street Fighter figs during the twilight of SOTA's tenure with Street Fighter? Yes, yes they are... Well This Two-Pack as you might have guessed is composed of Ryu and Sagat. Kinda based on the Street Fighter Animated movie than any of the games. It's been like what, 20 years of Street Fighter? Do I need to go in depth about Ryu and Sagat?
OK Ryu is the main character of Street Fighter... Travels the world in order to become a stronger Warrior. Sagat on the other hand was the Final Boss of the First Street Fighter. He was defeated by Ryu and that huge scar on his chest is a reminder from that battle. He wants a rematch against Ryu.

As always 1 = crap and 5= Awesome.

Articulation:
Both Ryu and Sagat have the same amount of Articulation Points:
-Head is on a Ball joint (Pops off easily, watch out)
-Arms are on a rotating hinge.

-Same thing for the elbows
-hands only rotate (No hinges here... probably cause they are removable.)
-Torso rotates on some sort of ball joint (gives Ryu and Sagat a Little back and forward movement) The joint is underneath the pecs.
-Legs are on a rotating hinge, but the range of movement in not that great. Also Legs tend to Pop off.
-The Knees are on a rotating hinge. (Both Ryu and Sagat's right knees are mega loose)
-The Feet are in a rotating hinge joint as well.
The Articulation in Theory is not that bad. 16 points on a 3 3/4" figure is NOT That bad. A bit less than a 25th Anniversary GI Joe figure. The Problem lies in the Execution. Some of the basic poses CAN be recreated, but others cannot be recreated either because the figure's range of motion does not allow it or because the figure's legs start to pop off and fall.
I'd have to give them a 2.5 for that.

From Nefty's House of Rants

Paint and Sculpt:
I am severely torn on this issue. There are a lot of details in some areas, like wrinkles and folds on Sagat's pants and on the joints on his fingers but at the same time his bandages seem way underdetailed. On Ryu's case his gi has folds, wrinkles and creases that give him a detailed look, but at the same time both the dangling parts of his belt AND bandanna lack the creases and detailing that the parts that are sculpted to the body have. Also what's with the Leifeldian Manboobs on Ryu?
Now the Paintjob is a bit problematic.
On Sagat's case there is a nice reddish shading on his body (that matches his scar) which gives his muscles some tone but it was applied erratically across the figure. Some his arms are more reddish than the biceps and it looks odd.
On Ryu's case his neck is a bit Orange... Almost Hogan Orange. while the gi has some nice light blue shading. It seems that my Ryu has a half painted Bandanna. On Ryu's belt there are some Kanji tampographed on it. (The same ones that the NECA SF4 Ryu has as well.)
Also on both figures the joints are of a different color than the rest of the figure (only on the flesh areas.) They tried to cover it up by painting the joints, but sadly the secret is revealed once you move the figures around.

As I said, this is where I am very torn cause the sculpt is Pretty good, not Perfect but pretty good, while the paints are a bit below average...
I think that for this review only I shall separate Paint and Sculpt.

Paint:
Ryu: 3.0 Sagat 2.5
Sculpt:
Ryu: 3.0 Sagat:3.5

Accessories:
1 Extra pair of hands for each character. That way you can have both characters with closed fists or opened hands. The Ryu hands are meant to be Hadoken hands. the lack of swivel in them makes them a bit useless for that. Sadly no energy blasts or character specific accessories like Ryu's duffelbag.
3.0
Overall:
Ryu: 2.875 Sagat: 2.875

From Nefty's House of Rants

While they are a HUGE improvement over their past efforts, there's still a LOT of room for them to improve. At least they're MORE Accurate than the last time Street Fighter was in Joe Scale... made by Hasbro... Although Sagat was pretty Accurate... Now, the one positive thing I can think of is MK vs SF can be actually made at least in toy form since Jazwares also makes the MK figures... and these guys seem to have their limbs detached from their body so easily that Fatality displays could be easy to make!

It came from the Toychest: Bubbles of Power!

As spoiled by the Swift Wind Review, my Third Matty Item from the November sale is Bubble Power She-Ra! Or as Mattel tentatively called her: She-Ra 2.0!
What's so great about this She-Ra? Horse Riding Powers! If you bought Swift Wind and did NOT buy this She-Ra...

Exactly!
Also this is the First She-Ra Variant, like Battle Armor He-Man... But this time she is Slightly closer to the Toy design... but we're still far off from the Toy design... I guess Starburst She-Ra will be the one based on the toy... As it can be seen she's got additional armor, removable of course so you can take the Filmation head off the first She-Ra an pop it in this one to have a Filmation She-Ra that can ride horses... Or Green Tigers if you feel inclined to do so! She also has a Toy accurate Tiara to be worn on a holeless head! She also has the Second version of the Vintage Toy Sword... which was reused on Starburst She-Ra... (Not the one I was hoping for, but Whatever...) I'm forgetting the bubble blower that gives Bubble Power She-Ra her name...

I should go unto the review part where 5 is good and 1 is crap!

Articulation:
Unlike her 1.0 Counterpart this She-Ra has a Softer Skirt and slits on its sides that allow a Greater range of Motion. she also, like BG Teela has a waist twist! Everything else is standard MOTUC Female Articulation... (Still no ab crunch like the males, but it's more visually pleasing that way...) and her super soft cape does not get in the way when posing her on Swift Wind... unlike her red 1.0 cape which is a lot more rigid than this one.
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
The Four Horsemen did a LOT of improvements on She-Ra! Adding some Toy details on her bracers and boots, making her Leaf pattern smaller and less Weed looking... I wish I would have bought a Second one to Customize into a Toy Accurate She-Ra cause her "Leaf" almost looks like the Toy Spiral...

Paintwise She has no visible slop or paint chipping off. She's I'd dare say Perfect, but there is ONE small flaw, or huge flaw... Your Mileage may vary...

She-Ra is a Jabroni beating, lalala pie eating, trailblazing, eyebrow raising, heartstopping, elbow dropping electrifying rebel Etheria has seen!
My She-Ra has her right Eyebrow painted like she's doing "The People's Eyebrow" Suddenly Holey head She-Ra is starting to look more appealing...
4.5
Accessories:
Like I said, She-Ra has her Toy Sword, Her shield makes a comeback with a Pink Bubble Power gem and a cooler paintjob... The CombAxe makes a Comeback. I did mention the Toy accurate Tiara for her... Sadly this time you cannot Flip it over and have the Tiara work as a mask and stay there. Now The Bubble Launcher is the most intriguing thing. I Never had the Original Bubble Power She-Ra and I don't Recall my cousin having her... If she did she probably lost the Bubble launcher really fast... the same way she lost her sword of protection and most of my power swords... (Thank goodness for the Weapon packs!) Well I don't know if the launcher works, but it looks a lot like the vintage one... (As much as I love POP, that was a weapon that went straight into the parts baggie #2! Too frou-frou for my display...)
4.0

Overall: 4.33 for Bubble Power She-Ra. She is Not a bad figure on her own, but she's overshadowed by her intended purpose of swapping the Filmation head and cape from the First She-Ra unto this one to have a Filmation She-Ra that can Ride Swift Wind.

It Came from the Toychest: Whoa! That's one big Pony!

And this Pony is not small or mine... OK I own this Pony but it is not one of the 'My Little' variety... I'm talking about Swift Wind everypony! Wait... I just received a Letter from the Royal Palace of Eternos! OK, let's see...
Apparently I cannot use the following terms in this review:
10 seconds flat, 20% Cooler, everypony, somepony, anypony, and any other thing that references My Little Pony... So no She-Ra weed/Leaf thingie as Swift Wind's cutie Mark...
Swift Wind what can I say about him: He's Basically She-Ra's Battlecat, but in winged Unicorn form... Ah! I know what I can say... Remember the Trollestia Review? Sorry Spector, but I made a Swifty Reference there, so I must link to that to explain the whole Swift Wind thing...

In the 80s Swifty was White in the Toon, Pink as a Toy... Mattel later made a variant of Swift Wind called Royal Swift Wind! He was White, but not the Toon version. Fast Forward to the MOTUC era, with a Filmation She-Ra made due to it appearing on the Princess of Power Style Guide, but the Filmation Swift Wind not appearing meant that we were getting Toy Swift Wind... The Pink One... Mattel in their Infinite Wisdom decided to Make a Swift Wind Poll to choose Which version of Swift Wind would show up in the Line... Classic Pink or Royal White.
Royal Swift Wind vote... Probably due to some people fearing that a pink horse would make them "less of a man" or something... Then Mattle threw that result out of the window and Made Filmation Swift Wind instead!Looks like I've talked about it already...
So let's see what Swift Wind brings to the table:
Horse Body, Wings, a saddle and his mask with the horn attached to it...
You can ALMOST make a Spirit out of him if it wasn't for 3 things:
The wing holes, the lack of the small headdress Spirit wears AND the non-Removable "Necklace-like thing" Sorry, my terminology on horse related stuff is very limited... but in any case, you JUST can't strip down Swift Wing and call him Spirit... Either a Mattel oversight or a trick to sell you more horses...

Now unto the ratings part: 1 =bad 5 =good... I bet you already know this, but I have to mention it in case of new readers...

Articulation:
This probably will be the Standard on MOTUC Horses... but let's discuss it in depth:
Head moves up and down, so does the neck, but it also has a little side to side movement.
His wings are one a hinged peg that can rotate 360 degrees AND the wings can flap due to the hinges. His tail is on a hinged joint that kinda functions like a ball joint. His legs have 3 POA Each. (a hinged joint) So let's see: about 16 POA Not bad for a horse that used to be a statue!
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
This horse is veiny! You can see a LOT of veins in this sculpt, which is very important because there's a QC issue plaguing Swift Wind... Incorrectly assembled legs (Two right legs or 2 left legs) and the veins are the key to noticing this flaw. Also his feathers are very detailed and I think each feather is different from the other... Oh and his hair is Windblown like his rider's...
Paintwise Swift Wind is almost flawless... with a bit of paint rub on his neck, due to the necklace-thing...

Special thanks to Eric DeLima for the pics with the flawed Swifty legs.
4.5*
Accessories:
Technically that would be the saddle... which is part of Swift Wind... I have to admit that Mattel dropped the ball here. Here was the perfect chance to make a 2 in one figure, cause unlike Battle Cat, a 100% Naked Swift Wind could have worked as a Spirit (even if he did Not have the headpiece...) Two removable pegs of white plastic and making the neck thing removable...
On the other hand with the excess of wrong legged Swiftys, I guess it's a good thing that they did...
3.0

Overall: 4.0* for Mr. Wind... I know what you're saying: Wait a minute he hasn't mentioned She-Ra in all of this! Of course not! I'm saving that for her Bubble Power Review!... and yes, BP She-Ra CAN Ride Swift Wind in a lady-like manner and in a manly fashion... Something that Miss Rigid Skirt cannot do!

*=Assuming that Swift Wind has no QC issues...

Mandatory Godfather Joke... Neitlich started it when he said that Swift Winds's head was NOT removable to avoid this joke...

It came from the Toy Chest: Follow my Hose nose...

Snout Spout has arrived, it's true it's true! The Etherian/sometimes Eternian Firefighter is here... A product of Horde Science... Basically capturing a random dude and doing experiments on the poor sucker... Well Snout Spout is one of those Horde Experiments...
Before I start with the review, I must say one thing. I ABSOLUTELY and completely HATEHATEHATEHATE! Snout Spout. Part of my hate towards him is the sad dopey elephant look on his face. The 200X Version of him made this loser a badass! MOTUC obviously went back to vintage, but some tweaks were made... He doesn't look as dopey as the vintage figure. His Backpack, while Mostly Vintage inspired got an extra element added to him (a side tank.) His Fire Axe got no real update but he got his own Hydraulic Spreader? (Jaws of Life) that kinda looks like an Elephant's face... and his trunk is Bendy!

With all that said let's move on to the ratings part where I say 1 = bad and 5 = good
Articulation:
Same old from your average MOTUC... Joints are pretty tight and all that... You're all waiting for me to give you the scoop on his trunk... I wouldn't fool around with it too much if I were you... The Material seems rather soft almost Foamlike. (found a small crack on the trunk...) 4.5 (not counting the crack...)

Paint and Sculpt:
Same old same old here. Basic He-Man buck, new gloves loincloth and boots... Aside that, the head is very vintage Looking, but as I said, the slight changes to his brow make him look a lot more cooler!
Paintwise Snouty is flawless... OK mine had two flaws: Due to his loincloth being ultra soft, some black paint chipped off his belt (already fixed) also he lacked some of his muscle shading, which I fixed by giving him a new paintjob:
4.0

Accessories:
The Ax and the Jaws of Life!
What can I say about the Ax: It's an Ax/Pick/wrench that can also be used to hold Snouty's trunk when firing the water... (If he HAD an action feature) Now the "Jaws of Life" They are kinda cool, but I probably won't display him with them for 2 reasons:
#1 It Makes Clamp Champ less interesting and for #2, see #1

3.0

Overall: Snout Spout gets a: 3.83 ( +.25 for free Stickers)
While he IS an amazing figure... which is a huge triumph for Snout Spout due to my hatred towards him, he still feel like he needed some more "oomph!" in him... I'm not saying they should have made him like the staction, which I would have liked. Yes the did made the brow to make him slightly more fierce and the backpack was updated... WITH THE VINTAGE BUTTON AND CAP where you filled him with water. (Which work pretty well on him.) but I still feel like he Lacks "something"... I dunno how to describe it.

12 Christmas Movies and/or Specials. Let's see...

Which movies I'd love to watch on Christmas... Since it's December and pretty much everyone is with a little Christmas Spirit inside...

Let's Start with #12:

Jingle All the Way... It's Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Sinbad in a Holiday rush that many of you had gone through... Last Minute Christmas Shopping Spree... It's like a shark frenzy... and while the movie is kinda crappy it does have its moments...

#11:

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas...
As you can see I'm talking about the Animated special and not the Jim Carrey Movie. My eart grows 3 sizes every time I see this special!

#10:

The Nightmare Before Christmas: I bet that all the emo kids at Hot Topic have stopped cutting themselves long enough to pay attention... Yes, I like the movie, yes I still hate the TNBC fandom... I knew I should have gone with Batman Returns instead, even if it's almost cheating...

#9:

Gremlins!
What, it's setting IS on Christmas... OK I guess Phoebe Cates knows how to ruin a good Holiday...

#8:

The Santa Clause:
Tim Allen Kills Santa, now he IS Santa. Since I've been Santa Claus before, I can relate to the movie... and I don't LIKE Tim Allen...

#7:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: The Rankin/Bass Special.
Of all the Rankin/Bass Specials, Rudolph's is the one I remember the most... I'm not a fan of Frosty the Snowman.

#6:

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York...
Or the Talkboy commercial movie...

#5:

Surviving Christmas...
I know it's not a well received movie and Most of the time I want to punch Ben Affleck in the face, but it kinda brings me a warm fuzzy feeling inside...

#4:

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus:
I should hate this movie... It's Basically Zack and Cody (playing the same character) having a war against Santa... Like a crappy Home Alone knock-off... I think it's that it's so crappy that it's good the reason why I kinda like this movie.

#3:

The He-Man, She-Ra Christmas Special... I know that you're not surprised to see this, since most of my rants involve Masters of the Universe somehow... Full of filmationy He-Man and She-Ra goodness, with a touch of Christmas!

#2:

Home Alone... No, it's not cheating... this one is in Chicago while the Last one was in New York... There are only 2 Real Home Alone movies... nothing more... Trust me on that...

#1:

Yippie Kay-yay Mother****er! Die Hard IS my Number One Christmas movie!! Action adventure and tons of Alan Rickman with his Snapey voice long before being Snape! Some people would say, hey! that's cheating! I say... I don't care... Watching Die Hard right now!