It Came From The Toy chest: All Great and Powerful!

My next review is for a character known for her Greatness, Her Powerfulness and her Trixieness!


as you may have guessed it's The Great and Powerful Trixie!! Lullamoon?
Yes, Trixie Lullamoon is Hasbro's name for TGAPT... and I have one... My first Pony Villain... Sadly it's not the TRU pack with Nightmare MOON!! Enough about that, we need to bask in TGAPT's awesomeness!!

Seriously, who invited her...

For some uncanny reason that I cannot fathom, TGAPT was invited to the MY LITTLE PONY ROYAL WEDDING!! (Translation, Hasbro is using the MLPRW as an excuse to release more Background ponies, which I should not complain about until we get...)

The one and only Ditzy Doo!! (Real Name: Derpy Hooves)
 Again, back on to the Review of THE GRRRRRREAT AND POWERFULLL TRRRRRRRRRRIXIIEEE!!
(whose voice is 200X Evil Lyn)
She's a Unicorn buck, for further Reference you can go Waha-ha or send letters to Celestia and see moar Unicorns!!

What does the Great and Powerful Trixie has to bring to the game aside a comb? A gift...(Spoilers, tis' empty!)  she has no animal frineds (gee I wonder why...) and a MLPRW Invitation...
I guess they invite EVERYONE to these things...

Why is there a Human on Equestria? Must not make any Tori Spelling jokes... (Also, where's Applejack?)

The Great and Powerful Trixie has no Animal Friend!

I guess we should have a GREAT AND POWERFUL REVIEW!!
5 is How Awesome Trixie thinks she is and 1 is how crappy she is compared to Twilight Sparkle!

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Articulation:
As always, My Little Ponies only have 1 POA... cause of the rooted hair and all that. As an Action figure that would make her suck, but Ponies get Equestrian Treatment in here...
1.0 as an A-Fig, 4.0 Using the Pony curve!

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Paint and Sculpt:
The Trix gets her body from the Unicorn buck (Twilight, Rarity) and her paint is pure tampos where needed.
The long rooted hair makes her look inaccurate to her look on the show (needs a hat and her cape...)
4.0

THE GREAT AND POWERFUL Accessories:
Gift, comb and an Invitation... Which is just a blank piece of cardboard with a picture of Mi Amore Cadenza and Shining Armor and the MLP Logo. The comb is a comb, duh! and the gift... well Bow's head fits perfectly inside the box! 3.0
THE GREAT AND POWERFUL OVERALL:
Trixie gets a.... 2.67 as a figure, but using the pony curve she's bumped up to a 3.67  Which isn't THAT bad, but a hat would've made it better...

Ha Ha! The It Came From the Toy chest has been Doubled!

Tis a Lie! Thy Backside is whole and ungobbled! Cause I don't eat Pony butts... But I'm going to review a Pony that DOES EAT BUTTS... I'm talking about Princess Luna. Sadly she's not on Playful Pony Scale, she's more like a Fashion Pony scale... and would fit better with Celestiazilla!

There is something wrong here...

This doesn't look Like Luna... Look at the doll, now look at the video above... OK, now look at the Luna in the box...THIS IS NOT PRINCESS LUNA!! THERE IS SOMETHING AWFULLY WRONG WITH HASBRO WHO IN THEIR INFINITE LOGISTICAL COST-CUTTING WAYS THEY REUSED A TWILIGHT HEAD ON A RAINBOW DASH BODY TO MAKE THIS LUNA (AND THERE IS A CELESTIA LIKE THIS TOO!)

Hey! I was using the Royal Canterlot Voice too!

As you should know already, I'm taking her clothes off... Wait, that did not sound right... APPLEJACK HELP ME!


Let's get to the ratings part OK!
Articulation:
Same as ALL the other Ponies (Except Celestia-Zilla) Think the Playful ponies Mane 6, Cadance, Shining Armor, or the Fashion Pinkie and Dashie
1.0 in my normal scale and 4.0 (using the Pony Curve)
Paint and Sculpt:

THOU ART TWILIGHT SPARKLE! HOW DOST THEE FEEL ABOUT ME!?
Why is My head on Rainbow Dash's body?
TIS A LIE!!

The sculpt is Pretty Much Rainbow Dash's buck with Twilight's head... The paint is nice, due to it being mostly tampographs... 1.0 in both counts...

Accessories:

Now we have about the same amount of stuff as the fashion Ponies... She's got a LOT of stuff! Perfect for Little girls but useless for this brony. Sadly no accurate Luna Tiara or Bridle...

But she's got all of the Girly Pony fashion stuff...

That nets her a 4.0

The Monster Pony Princesses of the Sun and Moon!

Overall:
As An Action Figure Luna nets a 2.00 as a Pony on the other hand she nets a 3.00
Her Low Score is due to her being NOT ACCUARATE TO ANY VERSION OF PRINCESS LUNA!!

Hopefully a Playful Scale Luna will show and Share Cadance's buck... Cause we need an Accurate Luna and a Small White Celestia! 

Review is over and no HA HA! THE FUN HAS BEEN DOUBLED CLIP!? Spike You're slipping!

Action Figure Woes: Grayskull Experiment

I did mention the Castle Grayskull experiment on a previous post... Y'know the one where I posted the Grayskull I WOULD make if I had resources and was in charge.
Obviously Mattel's Grayskull is a bit Less Ambitious, and at a slightly decent price. $250 Dollars + Shipping and Handling. It's available for pre-ordering right now!!
It's Roughly 26" x 25" 28"and based on the vintage Prototype...
It is like the Vintage Playset in Steroids! Heck! It even can display the Wind Raider on it!
If it's so awesome, why am I posting an Action Figure Woes on it?

A Couple of things:
I'll begin with the Time window to pre-order this set:
It starts on October 16, 2012 and ends on November 10, 2012*... That's less than a Month. Sure! they won't charge you anything until the Castle is ready (nearly a year from Today) but,that's IN ADDITION to all the MOTUC Product that is going to be available NEXT YEAR... Remember that October-December are the Wallet Slaying Moths when dealing with MOTUC... The Mysterious 2 pack that people speculate are Horde Troopers, whatever else Mattel throws at us (Extra Mad Matty sales, Black Friday/Cyber Monday, etc.)

*=They get an Expansion till the end of 2012 IF and ONLY IF We make it past their "Stage 1 Goal"


The other reason is: Shipping Price IS incredibly Awful for International Fans.

This is what Grayskull costs to International Customers.

I mean look at that picture... That coupled with the fact that this is a very small line directed at a niche group makes it seem as if This Experiment was set-up to fail. Heck Mattel didn't even had a 3D Model of it when the Pre-Order was Suggested. Why is that last sentence important? Well, Mattel usually says: "something something must have figures sculpted before showing (Covering our backsides legally yadda yadda)".
where is Grayskull... The Microscopic pics that they have on Mattycollector won't help sell it... The insane wallet raping International shipping costs won't help either... I'd love to order one but for now I will not, due to my mysterious status as customer... (waiting for my Matty October order to arrive before I consider pre-ordering the Castle.)

But, there is something... gnawing at the back of my head... no, it's not head lice, I shaved my head for kicks! It's not razor burn either. The Part of me that loves to wear tinfoil hats is screaming at me... It screams that this "experiment" is a LIE... Conspiracy Theorist is screaming:


 This is all part of Mattel's evil Masterminds... Using this "experiment" to make themselves look like heroes trying to bring THE Ultimate Piece for MOTU  Classics Collectors to our hands. The Ludicrous shipping charges and short window of time are the genius part of this plan. Having them ensures the failure of this "experiment". If it indeed DOES FAIL as expected, the blame lies squarely on those who did NOT Purchase one... Cause Mattel tried, y'know? They may even find a way to lower the shipping costs to seem heroic, but the real intention is for the experiment to fail... If they were so committed to it, why not wait a bit longer until they had something more concrete than a few drawings.

 With that said, I WANT to make my inner conspiracy theorist to shut the hell up!! The only way to do so is by preordering Castle Grayskull! I really hope it gets made and that it beat the crap out of the obstacles mentioned above. If you have the resources to order one, you should do so... If we make it you'll be getting your very own MOTUC Compatible Castle Grayskull!!


Picture That, but possibly Sculpted by the FourHorsemen...
If you want it, go get it at Mattycollector!

It came from the Toy Chest: Finally it's longer than 2 inches!!

I am talking about Mekaneck's neck... Remember him? Twist his waist and his neck rose like a periscope...

Seriously Mattel missed an obvious joke by not giving Mekaneck the real name: Perry Scope...
Also they stopped the inevitable Phineas and Ferb "Where's Perry?" joke/reference I would have made with a picture...

Surprise! Whaddya' mean you're not excited?
You want it Longer? Give me a few minutes!

Well, The MOTUC version is finally here! And... he's REALLY Vintage... and I mean gaudy Silver boots and glasses vintage... Toygods, PLEASE Make a Snake Mekaneck like SMAA... cause I'm switching heads and necks faster than Toyguru can say robust! It's not that I HATE Vitnage Mek, it's just that I like his 200X Look better... 

He's 98.9% Vintage

Once we pop him out of the package we can see what he brings to the game.

See, Baby! Now I'm Bigger,Longer, and Uncut!
Stupid Vintage Blue Ring!!

 In a reverse Vintage Reuse Mek is the one reusing parts... He's sporting Stinkor's armor which was Mek's armor first in the 80s... Tri-Klops buck,  Vykor boots... Head, Mace and Neck(s) are the only things that are new.

Stinkor's Vintage Plug found a new home... Holes with nothing to plug-in bother me a bit...

So we should head into the review zone where 1 is crap like the Way Mekaneck sees himself and 5 is awesomeness made Eternian

Articulation:
Same old same old. Standard MOTUC Buck, nothing to add here... 4.5

Paint and Sculpt: As I mentioned before the Sculpt is the same as plenty of previous stuff... We've seen all the parts before. His Neck looks a bit like the vintage version, but seems more MYP Like with slightly less detailing... (not 200X Toy-Like) I KNOW that most of the figure is loaded with Blastic, but mine didn't have any paint chips (yet)... 4.5

"What's your name again, honey? Tallstar? They should have called you SHORT STAR!!"

Accessories:
Club and 2 Neck Pieces... The Little one for that vintage Feeling, a longer one for a less Vintage feeling...
Tallstar has stretch envy right now... Must avoid any "Mattel hates POP and secretly call POP fans POOP fans" conspiracy theories...  Male Enhancement jokes... Wonder how big Extendar will be...

He doesn't HAVE Much... He never came WITH MUCH to begin with... Just a club... I wanted to compare the MOTUC and 200X Mek, sadly, the 200X one broke. Only his club became Mek's SECOND weapon! Now Mekky can Dual wield!
Now, going back to the main topic. Mek has 2 neck extensions which are stackable, but look off cause of the blue rings!
I'd say a 3.5 they could've used this as a way to give something extra to say, uh Marzo... or another Heroic Warrior lacking accessories *cough*Stratos *cough*

Devintagizing Mekaneck... makes him better in my book

Overall:
Mr. Neck gets a 4.17!! It's a high score, but could've been higher by giving him some more "oomph!" and by "oomph!" I mean taking elements form other versions of him and making him be something MORE than a vintage Replica... The long piece is a step in the right direction... (King Hssss would have benefited from longer arm snakes!)

It Came From the Toy chest: My Little Skelly: Evil is Magic

Why the title? I think it's Rather Obvious... I'm talking about a Skeletor Variant that could be indirectly linked to My Little Pony... I wonder which Skeletor variant that could be...

He's going to Bronycon in 10 seconds flat!
Next year of course...

The only other being I know that carries a Dragon on her back...

"Evil Lyn!! Hurry up and release me!!"

Dragon Blaster Skeletor is finally here... and here's the deal... This along with BA Skeletor were MY Skeletors when I was a young boy... You can bet I was very excited when he was announced...

Sorry, couldn't resist!!
So what does Brony Skeletor bring to the table...
-The Armor
-The Dragon
-Padlock
Everything else is pure reuse... Whiplash Arms and Kobra Khan Boots...
The Chain's cuff comes from Scareglow... Which we all suspected from the beginning.

So, let's move on to the review of Skeletor and his nameless Dragon, but who I shall call  from now on "Pickle-Barrel Kumquat"

Articulation:
Same Old MOTUC Articulation. Sadly some of my joints were stuck due to the painting of the black plastic Arms and legs painted Light Blue.
4.0

Paint and Sculpt:
It's funny... I often complain about Mattel skimping on Paint application... Due to the Black Plastic they're using on the limbs Mattel is going overboard with the paint (as seen on Dalmatian Man... I mean Vykron)

The Legs are a bit of a PITA to photograph, but there IS a gash on his leg...
Sadly it doesn't photograph well...

The Arms on the other hand are easier to photograph.

This is as close as Vintage Accurate as we can get!

Problem to this new technique is that when applied improperly paint will end up being all gloopy and have thicker areas prone to chipping. Now My skeletor doesn't have that, but the Black Plastic showed up when I removed his armor for the "Make a Vintage Skeletor" by using DBS and a Normal Skeletor Torso Armor... His right Shoulder has a black gash and his thighs have a few weird black "birthmarks". If it had been Molded in the appropriate colors, this figure would have gotten a 5.0! That's how awesome it looks on Sculpt and paint... Sadly the shoulder Gash and the Birthmarks require me to dock a point here... Not to mention the closed Mouth on Pickle-Barrel Kumquat... Something looks OFF with him... Still, I'd take a repaint of it in Purple with Green Fins... In a Faker Variant combining DB and TP from Skeletor and He-Man: Dragon Punch Faker... Honest... It's not ponies... Really! DP Faker
He gets here a 4.0

Accessories:
Power Sword... In a slightly Different color Scheme I must add...

Seriously, I wish that we get a Havoc Staff repaint on a
Weapons pack. Silver Ram, or White Ram with brown horns.

Dragon: I've Mentioned Pickle-Barrel Kumquat and now I must go in depth. Pickle-Barrel Kumquat can be released from Skeletor's back unlike the Vintage Version. He (or She, cause I'm not a dragon Veterinarian and I have no idea what this Dragon's gender is...) Then again the way you attach the dragon to Skeletor's back is by inserting the Male Connector protruding from Skeletor's back into the Female end close to Pickle-Barrel Kumquat's crotch... I'm resisting a huge urge to make a How to Train your Dragon joke here...
So, back on topic. Pickle-Barrel Kumquat CAN be freed from Skeletor's back, right? the Chain is non-removable...
I have to say a 3.5 I mean, Pickle-Barrel Kumquat is a nice addition with a beautiful sculpt (except whatever it is that is bugging me about the face) but being Non-Removable reduces it's uses...

Overall:
3.83 for DB Skeletor. I think that the potential for this figure to be awesome WAS THERE, but somehow Mattel dropped the ball on him... and dropped it again for good measure. The black Plastic, the uselessness of a removable Pickle-Barrel Kumquat while being permanently stuck on Skeletor's chain.

Pickle-Barrel Kumquat needed to be unleashed... but not like He-Ro!

Thanks Jean-Luc for expressing my feelings. Looks like the budding Customizer will have to strike again!
I made a few Mistakes when Releasing My Dragon. I opened the larger links instead of the smaller ones and scratched my padlock a little bit. Based on my Mistakes and some corrections done when explaining here's how to Release your Dragon! (Under $5)
Instructions:
-Remove Armor from skeletor

-Grab Needle nose Pliers and Open the LAST SMALL LINK ON THE CHAIN at each side.

-Separate chain from the large links in order to release the chain.

-separate open links from the rest of the chain.

-Insert Lobster claw to small link.

-Connect the "Lobster Clawed Link" to the Large Link (One for the Padlock end and one for the Handcuff end)

-Use the Lobster Claws to link the ends to the main chain.

-Remember to pass it back through the holes on Skeletor's Armor, if you removed it!


You can also buy chain and have a longer chain for your dragon.

Now DB Skeletor is 20% cooler... Cause removable Chain!

Or if you don't want a removable dragon or chain Superglue the sucker to the armor...

It Came from the Toy Chest: My Little Little Ponies!

I've got 2 out of 3 Pony 3 Packs for the blind bag pony scale... Still missing the Twilight Sparkle, Cadance, Shining Armor Pack... Meaning I got myself a Cloudsdale pack with a second Rainbow Dash in that scale...

If Derpy had been here, I would've been VERY excited!

No Dashie, you can't be a Wonderbolt...

But I have a Wonderbolt (neither Spitfire, nor Soarin... Apparently it's Surprise according to the MLP Wiki)
Wait... Surprise? Isn't that technically the G1 character who Current Pinkie Pie is the spiritual successor of?
holy Pony... I also got a Griffin in that pack... Mean old Grumpy Gilda!!

Then she made cupcakes... If you know what I mean!

Beastman was happy to get a Griffin... Sadly it's not on the scale that he wanted.

Must not do Redneck jokes...

And none of this is for Rainbow Dash...

Also I have the Apple Family pack... Sadly it contains no Applebloom...


But it has Granny Smith!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand Big Mac!! Well, I could say he's Little Mac...

I walked into that one...

So, like I mentioned these are blindbag figurines with zero Articulation (Perfect to use as Props on other Toylines) Here we ARE getting some of the characters that the Playful Ponies have not made and probably WILL NOT make... I'm waiting for That cord... I mean DISCORD!!

IT's BONUS TIME!!

Call on the blind bag ponies! Open up, get your reward!!

No, that's not a normal Rainbow dash with 2 tons of glitter...
*hides glitter*

WHY CAN'T I GET A PINKIE PIE!?

Looking Back: Bullworth Academy is a pretty awful place for a teen!

Because that school seems to relish Bullying as a form of education.

I'm gonna do a review on the PS2 version of Canis Canem Edit (I prefer the alternate title over the Official US Title: Bully)
This is a game from Rockstar North... The same folks that brought us games as the Grand Theft Auto series and Red Dead Redemption among others. (yeah, I mentioned GTA and another GTA clone... cause THIS game IS a GTA Clone)
If I wanted to do a SUPERD SHORT review, I'd say the game is GTA Junior.

Here's the Story: You are Jimmy Hopkins, a troubled 15 year old boy stuck in a "Prestigious Academy" while your mom goes on a trip for her Honeymoon... The Academy is your sandbox, where you must win respect among the various cliques that "rule the School". At the same time you must go to school and attend classes (several mini-games to "stall" you between missions). As you climb up the Social Ladder, the town opens up for you to explore.

 There are no hookers, no murder, or any other horrors that certain disbarred lawyers tried to claim that the game had. Columbine Simulator this ain't. In fact, the "Police-types" (Prefects and teachers in-school, actual Policemen outside the School) are very eager to enforce the law. Hit an adult or a little kid and The Authorities go ballistic and hunt you down with a vengeance. You harass a person (Wediges for the guys, butt-pinching for the girls) and the Authorities will hunt you down. While you can do some "bullying", it's counter-productive due to the Nearly-all-seeing-eye of the Authorities. Now, it's not all peaches and cream, super duper peacful game... Sure, it's a LOT Less violent than GTA, but there IS some violence. You can do some melee combat and you have access to some projectile weapons like a slingshot, water balloons, potato cannons, firecrackers, etc. (No guns or knives here) Most of the alluring stuff comes from the world itself. The way NPC characters interact with each other. Some of the chatter from them can be amazingly funny, or it can have references to various genres that the game is poking fun/making a tribute to.

The writing is pretty good, as I said it does poke fun to a lot of stuff, especially about stereotypes from the different cliques. The music is generic, but at the same time it feels familiar. In a John Hughes movie kind of way... Also the voice acting is pretty decent.

The Graphics are better than the PS2 GTA Games, most likely because the world is relatively small compared to the GTA games. There is a limited number of characters that "teleport" often, but not two civilians are the same (unlike GTA and their clone armies.) One thing that looks a bit weird is that the character models can looks a bit deformed from some angles when speaking. Not sure if Graphical Limitation or Artistic Decision.

Controls are pretty much the same as in GTA. Of course there are a few differences, but like in GTA, the first few missions are a tutorial of sorts. I have to say that the Lock On can be a bit of a pain and the "Action wheel" when locking on CAN be a bit troublesome. Especially when trying to put a kick me sign on  a Little Kid's back. If the kid moves you might punch him instead and then the Prefects or the Po-Po can be on your tail.

There is something about this game that makes me come back to it more often than say, GTA 4... I can't quite put my finger on it, but there is something soothing about this game. While I tend to favor the game, it's time to do an objective analysis of it: Games I use a 1-10 scale. 1 bad, 10 good!

Graphics:
While not THE BEST PS2 graphics, they are way better than the ones on other Popular rockstar games *cough* GTA! *cough*
 I'd say a 7.0

Voice and Music:
Like I said before, there are no known tracks here like in GTA games where their soundtrack is borrowing a bunch of songs from the period. Here we get a soundtrack with songs that kinda feel familiar, but are not.
I'd say about a 7.5 
Controls:They are pretty responsive, but with slight lock-on problems and the "Distance problems" with the "action wheel" CAN be annoying at times!
I'd say a 7.0
Fun Factor:
The game has some flaws, I'll give you that, but it has some fun stuff. Then again in most of these sandbox games I spend most of my time fooling around with the world. The only thing I find a bit annoying is the whole "Mandatory Bedtime" even when you beat the game and enter "endless summer mode"... Nothing sucks more than passing out while pranking an entire town...
I'd give it an 8.5

Overall, Canis Canem Edit gets a 7.5
I have not played the Scholarship Edition with extra classes and missions (I think it was for either Xbox or Wii... and obviously PC)




and extra classes too!

I must make a statement regarding a past article.

Apparently, I must retract a previous statement... remember my past Action Figure Woes?
I mentioned that Escalations would contact me, and they did!
What they told me was that whatever the first CS representative said was wrong information. They STILL SHIP TO PUERTO RICO!! My order had an issue, it was labeled as an order from the US Pacific Islands and not normal US... According to the CS Representative from Escalations, the issue was that it was labeled as an order from the US Pacific Islands. Now that the address issue has been cleared up I should be able to order stuff from Matty as normal.

Hopefully this is true and I can be able to order from Matty and can keep reviewing these amazing toys! We shall find out this Monday with the Frosta Day...

FINALLY A MOTU VIDEOGAME!!

And it's not a weird dance game or anything weird like angry MOTU birds!!
It's a brand new game seemingly based on MOTU Classics Continuity (Hopefully Spector Free) 
Only catch is that it's for iOS... So, there's no next gen He-Man game yet... But still a He-Man game is a He-Man game...



Thanks for reminding me of that Nightmare, Spike!!


We haven't seen that many He-Man games...



Intellivision looked a bit better...



Hopefully the iOS game will NOT suck...
I'm surprised that they ARE doing this, I mean, Mattel is not exactly one to let others mess around with their properties... Hopefully this may mean that a True Console MOTU game may show up soon!

Action figure Woes: Matty What the heck!?

Oh Matty! If it isn't one thing, you always find some other way to screw me over...

Mekaneck and Dragon Blaster Skeletor's road trip!

This is not a rant on how having the figures molded in one color (black) and painted in another color creates chipping that decreases the quality of the figures. This is not a rant on how Reversed limbs do not make characters "Pop" on the shelves... This is far worse.

This is a rant on How Mattel/Digital River have sucked the fun out of collecting MOTUC... well they've sucked out 75% of the fun...

After nearly 3 years of shopping on Matty Collector, they NOW DO NOT SHIP ITEMS TO PUERTO RICO... I'm surprised... This "issue" was not notified to any customers, it just happened.

So, I ordered my September order and was no Longer an International Customer. I tracked my order through Newgistics' tracking system and I "followed" The Package by using Google Maps... as shown on the Picture above.

Of course I'm providing the music for the Journey...

This is the other possible journey, assuming that the Ludlow, CA that they're speaking of is the one on San Jose

Here's the Journey:
-Package Leaves Ontario, California:
-It goes to Sparks, Nevada
-It goes to West Sacramento, California
-Kettleman City California is the next Stop. Package is heading South East.
-Ludlow, California: this next stop is tricky because it COULD BE one of two things:
a) it went to the Ludlow in San Bernardino (Which according to Wikipedia it's pretty much a Ghost Town) and that's moving Further East
b) it went to the Ludlow in San Jose which means that the package is heading West
- Flagstaff, Arizona is the package's next stop... We're eastbound! That's good!
-Albuquerque, New Mexico is the next stop.
-Amarillo and Bowie, Texas are the next two stops, cause everything is bigger in Texas or something.
-One quick visit to Shreveport, Louisiana (Hopefully without encountering Sookie and pals) was the next stop for Mekaneck and Skeletor
-Richland, Mississippi was the next stop, Everything is looking Fine and Dandy!
-Montgomery, Alabama came next and I was super stoked, cause the package was reaching Florida pretty fast!
-Valdosta, Georgia was next... I'll be honest, I was feeling a bit nervous, the package was so colse I could almost feel it, but something on the back of my head was gnawing at me, this is far too easy!
-Jacksonville, Florida, the home stretch!
-Opa-Locka, Florida: OK this is IT! I know that Opa-Locka's airport is used as a transport hub for packages and stuff... Next Stop, Cataño, Puerto Rico (The location for the USPS Hub in Puerto Rico, IIRC)
Package was stuck 3 days in Opa-Locka... No updates... what's going on?
-Package was back in California, City of Industry to be precise... That's when I lost it... I was checking Matty every few hours to see if it was a returned order or if this is a weird turn that "international" packages take and I was unaware of it due to no tracking for "International" customers.
This morning, I check Matty and to my surprise, the package was returned.

I call Matty, where I was told that Matty DOES NOT SHIP ITEMS TO PUERTO RICO... Even though they have the info and have been shipping me MOTUC (and DCUC Figures) since 2009. I must assume that  Magical Flying Ponies were delivering me the MOTUC Figures I own (Aside the ones I've ordered from resellers, or received as a gift from friends and relatives bought at a con... most of the TGR contest items don't count since they were bought from Matty and sent to me straight from the Matty warehouse.) No notification about this change, but I DO get ALL the other "Buy XXXXXX Product on Matty" e-mails...

Now I have to wait and see IF The Escalations Department will help me or basically tell me that I'm NOT worthy of buying MOTUC from Mattycollector.

Hopefully I will be able to get my Mekaneck and Dragon Blaster Skeletor, but looks like this collector may have to go the Resseller route if I'm not "worthy" of buying straight from Mattel. The effect it will have on this page is less It Came from the Toy Chest reviews... or at least a LOT LESS MATTEL PRODUCT BEING REVIEWED... The theory that Mattel is the one that Kills MOTU and not the lack of support from fans seems more sensible with each passing day.

The worst of it all is that I campaigned to save He-Man both online (posting on FB, through the Council of the First Ones Podcast, etc.) and offline (Dropping over 2000 flyers with info on how to save the MOTUC line) and this is the thanks I get? Now I feel bad about the possible new customers I might have brought in that are in the same pickle as I am... It's things like this that suck the fun out of collecting MOTUC... A lot more than Reversed limbs or figures molded in black and painted in the appropriate colors.
How can I plead to people to save a line that keeps pushing me away!?
How can I be excited and happy about a line that I'm not able to buy through the normal channels?
How can I be stoked for a toyline where the costs have increased a lot, but the quality has decreased proportionally to the cost increase?
For a while I've been thinking that 2012 may be my Final year for MOTUC... Mattel seems to be hellbent  in making sure that I keep that promise.

Mirror Mirror on the back...

Kristen Stewart prettier than Charlize Theron? Man, you on crack!

This is a review for Snow White and the Huntsman. There will be spoilers to a movie based on a Fairy Tale that many should know already... I wasn't feeling well today so as I was laying down on my bed I popped this movie and I'm not sure if it's the fever talking, but Kristen Stewart was a LOT better than I expected. She could possibly do a decent Teela... Yes, I just said that. Cause that's what I thought after watching this movie. (but then again, it could be the fever talking)

So, this is basically a retelling of Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs...
K-Stew is Snow White, Charlize Theron is the evil Queen, the Huntsman is Chris Hemsworth. I actually feared this movie...

Mandatory K-stew = One Trick Pony joke

 She managed to surprise me. She had 1.5 more expressions than Normal (not sure if real or CGI). also Whiny Charlize Theron was the best thing from this movie.
The Mighty Huntsman did not disappoint... Although I fear he might end up being type-cast into Thor-Like roles... Mental note: Do not suggest him to hold aloft a Magic Sword.

So this is the Same old Snow White Story, but made a bit grittier and "realistic". We now have a background story for the evil queen. (who has a brother that sports a Page Boy cut... Something that we should keep as far away as possible from a certain man who has the power) She takes over and keeps Snow White as her Prisoner (Younger Snow White was a lot better character, far more range than K-Stew)
so, now that we got K-Stew as Snow White, she's escaped her captors (Charlize Theron and her Page Boy brother)So, we've got the Huntsman tossed into this story. We meet the Dwarfs who are not real dwarfs, but full-sized actors that are SFX'd as Dwarfs...

One of the dwarfs really needed one of these...
Man, Power Mushrooms look really creepy IRL

Yes, Bob Hoskins is one of the Dwarfs... There is a nod to Miyazaki and then we followed the story.

This is a nice picture of K-Stew and Robert Pattinson...
OK, the joke doesn't work in English, but google cornuto and you might get it!

K-Stew + Weird Pale creatures that sparkle in the sunlight...
Where have I seen that before?

OK, I'll stop with the Twilight jokes... Now the whole Snow White thing plays out, the Dwarfs help her, the Evil Queen tricks her with an Apple. She dies, a kiss revives her... Now, K-Stew grew balls, rallied troops and went all LOTR or Narnia and stormed the castle...

What, It took me a lot of time to do a reference to THIS Snow White...
OK, so we've arrived to the final Battle: Teela vs Evil Lyn... Come on! You knew this was inevitable! I already referenced Teela, it was to be expected an Evil Lyn Reference since Charlize Theron is playing an
evil witch...

The next step is to pelt her with Applejacks or Honey Nut Cheerios
Maybe also some mmm... bananas!

Obviously, since this is based on Snow White, you can guess who won. Now you're asking yourself: "when is Nefty going to do the ratings, cause he didn't do it on Avengers." I'm NOT going to go with a scale like I do toys.
Now, I must admit that the film had some flaws. the pacing is a bit awkward when we get to K-Stew until we meet the Dwarfs. Kristen Stewart gets to do more in here than most of the Twi-movies, she shows a bit more range in her acting... but at times she reverts to the "Wooden Bella" mode... Doubly funny when in the forest. Charlize Theron and Chris Hemsworth are the two that carry this film.
If I were to rate it I'd say a 6.5 out of 10! (But your mileage may vary...) I was expecting something a LOT worse...

My final thought: Kristen Stewart is NOT prettier than Charlize Theron... That's asking for too much suspension of disbelief!

Should we Shellebrate the new TMNT?

Cowabunga!!  wait... they no longer say that now they say:

yeah... they replaced Cowabunga with Booyakasha! Cause they're hip, trendy and all that!

Even the intro has nods to the Original Toon... (before a smartass mentions the TRUE Turtles from the Eastman and Laird comic, I'm talking toons here... as in Splinter = Hamato Yoshi! and Multi-colored bandanas!) but at the same time it tries to be hip and Trendy... I'll be honest, I kinda like it...
THERE WILL BE SPOILERZ!!!
Now let's get a few things out of the way... Yes they have 3 toes.

Would you look at that! 3 toes!

Even the 2002 toys had a third toe... Nothing new to see here...

Next thing that we have to get over... Insert old and overused Leonardo is voiced by Jason Biggs... No it's not the PIE LOVIN' scene... but it's from American Pie!

Raphael happens to be obsessed with Elijah Wood...

Donatello, who is into some interspecies lovin', no seriously, he has a crush on April! Sounds a lot like Yakko Warner! Now that's pretty cool, but here's the obvious secret to a TMNT Fan HE WAS THE ORIGINAL RAPHAEL!! I still need to wrap my brain around Yakko being Donatello.
And Michelangelo is Kevin Levin from Ben 10... or Iron fist in Ultimate Spider-Man... the last two don't bother me as much, but it took me the entire episode NOT to think about the Sexual Congress with the pastry whenever I heard Leonardo... I still need to get used to Donattello's Yakko voice... Then again, I can't wtch Drawn Together without thinking about  Miss Sparkle every time I hear Princess Clara speak.

The last shocking thing would have to be Teen April...

Did I get everything that was shocking? Let's move on to the review of the show.
This is another Origin Episode. The Turtles have been living underground for 15 years since their Mutation, trained by Splinter... who unlike the comics and his 2002 show was actually HAMATO YOSHI!!
So, the Turtles get to go out and see the Surface world. They meet April and discover the KRAANG... Whose way of speaking can seem a bit tedious to those who are doing the voice acting but at the same time it can become tedious to those who are listening to those who are doing the voice acting. Yes, I enjoyed it...

Oh yeah, the turtles twirl their weapons almost like it was 2002 on Eternia... The Twirling, it never stops!!
It sounds like I'm being NEGATIVE about the show, but I actually ENJOYED it!! I'll admit, there's some things I DON'T Like, like the twirling, or Mikey being a mega idiot...(cause he's the youngest), or Teen April... no offence to her VA, but I don't like the idea of April being a teen... she's pretty much the closest thing they've gotten to a mother and now she's "fair game" for them feels a bit awkward...  Everything else was pretty cool... It does have a bit of the "Eastern animation influences" with some reaction shots and the Twirling... and making April a teenage girl... Now it DOES take a bit to get used to if you're a fan of the ultra campy 80s toon or a fan of the darker Peter Laird Wet Dream that was the 2k3 toon...

I think that the show is trying its own thing taking the elements from multiple TMNT universes, here's hoping for more characters from the Old Toon (Namely Rocksteady and Bebop) and just for kicks add the 5th Turtle... no, not Zack!

I guess I must return my TMNT fan badge now...
Sure, everyone's OK with the possible interspecies relation between Donatello and April, but one mention of  Venus and It's like I've killed everyone's family! this is the only chance that we have to get a non-sucky Venus!!

Seriously now, should we Shellebrate the new TMNT? Heck and yes!! this is a way better celebration than TMNT Smash up!