Random Toy Pic :: Super Hero Squad Volcana

I now dang near nothing about Marvel's Volcana except the obvious, she has fire powers of some sort. Regardless, she's a neat transluscent flame-on female super(villain?) and is super cute in Super Hero Squad style.

I think Volcana was only available in a Toys R Us exclusive multi-pack. but don't quote me.

Yard Sailin'

A light weekend, we didn't go to the flea market, just caught a couple local yard and garage sales. The wife and baby made out the best, but I found a couple treasures:

I found a lone JLU figure at one yard sale around the corner. The Justice Lords version of Hawkgirl. One can never have too many versions of JLU Hawkgirl!

At another yard sale I found this Marvel Essentials Amazing Spider-Man volume 1. I am excited to read these first Ditko/Lee Spider-Man adventures!

Not much, but not bad for seventy five cents total!

Marvel Lego in stores NOW!

I was at my local Toys R Us and saw all the Marvel Avengers Lego sets (the base with Hulk, Hawkeye and Thor; the jeep with Loki and Iron Man, and Captain America's motorcycle with Cap, natch. Don't know which set had Black Widow but I'm sure she was in there somewhere too.)

I'm not as into Marvel as I am DC and besides, Toys R Us tends to run 20% higher prices than anywhere else, so while I may be tempted in the future I wasn't tempted today.

regardless, keep your eyes peeled, true believers...they are out there!

The Captain and Tennille Wolverine

"Hey Wolvie, check it out...I'm wearing America's hat...aka Canada! HAHAHA!"

Another set of figures I bought myself for my birthday are these Playskool Captain America and Wolverine figures. These figures are Hasbro/Playskool's answer to Mattel/Fisher-Price's Imaginext line, and sadly they just don't live up to Imaginext.

I really wanted Cap and Wolvie here after picking up Spidey and Gobby a while back. While I'm glad I have them, Imaginext has set the bar high enough for me to be mildly disappointed too. First off: scale. Cap is much smaller, proportionally, than Wolverine. That ain't right! I could get over the height issue, though, if it weren't for the fact that Wolvie's head and feet are also scaled differently than Cap's. It's like they were sculpted by different people in different rooms.

Wolverine is the best of the two, although the paint apps are slightly shoddy. Minor issues, but Imaginext figures are so clean and shiny, so it's pretty obvious these Playskool heroes are a little sub par in comparison.

Cap is really bad, paint-wise. His cheeks and right eye are just plain sloppy. None of the lines/breaks in paint/plastic are clean or straight. He is a cute little figure though, and the fact that Playskool has sculpted details like his chain-mail and stripes etc is cool, as some of these details could have just been painted on or ignored entirely. His shield is sculpted on, which is okay and understandable for a pre-school action figure.

I'm loving all the Imaginext super hero themed figures, and will gladly chase after third and fourth tier characters and costume re-paints of guys like Batman if they keep it up. But I doubt I'll get too excited about more Playskool Heroes now that I have the big guns (Cap, Wolvie and Spidey) if the QC doesn't improve immensely.

"Nice claws."

Avengers Assemble!

The final bunch of stuff I hauled away from the swap meet this past Saturday literally gave me the shakes, I was so excited to find them!

6" Marvel superheroes by Marx! Thor, Iron Man and Captain America - Avengers Assemble!
Made of solid plastic and molded like your typical little green army man, these toys were originally manufactured by Marx in 1967. I believe the first run of these guys was a silver/grey plastic, and that these colorful guys were a later release from some time around 1971 or so.

There I was at the swap meet last Saturday when I spotted a pile of six colorful toys from a few feet away. I casually made my way towards them and walking up to them asked the vendor how much he wanted. He said "$3" and I said "for all of them?" He said "Yes" and I could barely contain my excitement! Now understand the pile had six figures in it, so without inspection or any delays whatsoever I grabbed them all and payed and skipped away like Gollum having just secured his precious. I later discovered three of them were in pretty sad shape, with their fingers chewed to the point that they look more like Arthritics than Avengers. I won't show them here because treating toys as such is blasphemy here at Toyriffic, but they would have been pretty sweet if they (2 Spider-Mans and a Daredevil) weren't used as a teething ring for some dumb kid. I hope he got lead poisoning, whoever he is!

But I digress. Let's turn our attention back to the three great examples I got - still more than worth the three bucks I paid for them! 

First up is Iron Man! Stark is showing off by breaking a chain in an awfully strange manner. Yeah that was impressive in 1938 when Superman did it first, dude.

Iron Man is a little roughed up around the head but is otherwise in great shape. It's fun to imagine this toy being one of the first toys of Iron Man back then, having been sculpted a mere four years after Iron Man was introduced in the comics! And what a sculpt - you can even see Tony Stark's eyes inside the mask's eye holes! What must kids have thought of this strange metal man, and what could they have foretold of his pop culture destiny at the time?

Next up is the good Captain America. The Cap gets a pretty sweet sculpt here too, with his shield being held out in front of him in a defensive posture instead of stationary at his side, which would have been a lot easier to pull off I imagine.

If I had an old car I'd cast this in chrome and make it my hood ornament.

The final of the big three and the figure that is surprisingly (given some dumb kid's penchant for sticking his toys in his mouth and all the nice chewable parts sticking out of this one) in the best shape of them all is the God of Thunder himself, THOR!

I love how all these guys are not overly musclebound, reflecting the art and aesthetics of the times the toys were were made. You will never see a skinny Thor in this day and age, that's for sure! Plus, whosoever holds that version of Mjolnir, be he worthy, is probably hanging a picture in his girlfriend's apartment or repairing a broken wheel on a small wooden toy duck, not calling down thunder from the heavens! I love it!

These Marx plastic superheroes have amazing sculpts and are a fun look at the type of toys kids of yesterday would have played and cemented their love for superhero lore with. They were before my time, but I know some of my readers are a little older than I am; I'd love to hear from those of you who had these or remember them from your youth!

Happy Thorsday :: Free Digital Comics from Dr. Pepper and Marvel

As part of their Thor movie promotion, Dr. Pepper and Marvel are offering a one month free digital comics subscription!

I am always skeptical of these things, but you do not have to submit any credit card info beforehand, so you don't have to 'enroll and cancel' like many 'freebies.' Although it is an option if you choose to get a second month for only a dollar. But I'm a cheapskate and notoriously absent-minded, so I only opted in for the one month free!

You don't even need to buy a Dr. Pepper - just go to http://www.drpepper.com/promotions/thor/ and sign up!

Personally, I'm catching up on some She-Hulk. Because that's how I roll.

Avengers vs. GI Joe

I am loving the new cartoon series Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes. After decades of being in the shadow of DC, finally Marvel does an animated series right. Avengers takes all that was great about Justice League Unlimited in terms of scope and story, but of course is rocking the Marvel Universe. And like JLU, Avengers packs tons and tons of superheroes and villains into almost every episode. The comic book eye candy alone is worth the price of admission.

I am more of a DC guy than a Marvel guy, so a lot of the subordinate characters are either new to me or I'm only barely aware of, which is a fun change of pace since my DC knowledge is pretty encyclopedic.

But beyond the Marvel Universe, the recent episode 'Gammaworld Part 2' featured a cameo I did recognize and was surprised as hell to see:

Piloting a helicopter and attempting to subdue the Hulk is none other than Wild Bill of GI Joe fame!

Okay so he never says 'Hi, I'm Wild Bill of GI Joe fame. Now you know...and knowing is half the battle!' but if that ain't Wild Bill I'll eat his hat!

Stuff like this makes me all giddy inside. Thank you to whomever was involved in bringing this little Easter Egg to the Avengers cartoon.

And if you haven't already seen them or need to watch again to catch Wild Bill's cameo, you can watch parts one and two of Gammaworld at Marvel.com

Sixy Beast

My only real exposure to Spiral has been the Marvel vs. Capcom video game from years ago.

I'm not as big of a Marvel guy as I am a DC guy so I really don't know anything else about her, except that she looks so damn cool!

A six armed multiple sword wielding assassin. What's not to love?

Spiral was released a couple years ago as part of a Target exclusive Red Hulk 'Build-a-figure' series. I would have gotten her when she was on the shelves, but I never saw her at all. I did get Silver Savage at the time, however, which the one I wanted the most.

So when I found her at the swap meet recently mint on card, for only $5, I snagged her up like a six-armed woman grabbing pumps at a shoe sale!

Spiral came with two swords and a sheathed (non-removable) sword that hangs over her shoulder.

Her helmet is also removable. Helmet hair!

Spiral is a fun toy, with six fully articulated arms and two swords, she's tons of fun to pose and a visually unique addition to any superhero display.

Marvel Heroes Cars

MGA Entertainment has been offering Spider-Man and Marvel themed die cast vehicles for a few years now.

A decent superhero themed toy vehicle has always been a tough thing for toy makers to get right. Historically, they tend to be normal/generic cars with gaudy hero images and titles across their sides and hoods. Okay, Superheroes can be a bit gaudy, and tend to wear their names or symbols blazoned across their chests/heads/capes etc. - but if Batman, the king of superhero "mobiles," doesn't drive a car that says "BATMAN" across the hood and have his grinning mug on the doors, then no one should.

So I usually avoid these types of things, even though I am a 1:64 die cast AND Super hero aficionado.

I avoid them to the point of actually seeing AND avoiding some new MGA/Marvel die-cast at K-Mart this weekend. They were cars with comic cover images covering them like a car-cover from marketing hell. Their only saving grace was that they came packaged with mini versions of the comics they referenced. Cool, but still avoidable.

My tune changed later that same day when I went to the dollar store. And not just because the price was right.

I found these Marvel cars among the cheap lead-laced booty of the dollar store toy aisle.

First off - the Punisher car. Okay, this thing is perfect. And I'm not even a Punisher fan. But who WOULDN'T drive a suede black Camaro-esque with a skull on the hood/doors? Seriously. I can GUARANTEE the Punisher would! Also it is very reminiscent of the Nova in the recent movie Deathproof. Cool on so many levels you have to take an elevator to enjoy it.



And to top off the awesomeness of the design, there are BULLET HOLES! And not just holes on the sides and back, but bullet ricochet marks on the top of the fenders as well!

Okay, whoever designed this one is a genius of minimalism. Pure, unadulterated brilliance! And for a dollar!?!?! Get outta town!

Next up we have Captain America. As I was leafing through the pegs, I was thinking to myself "please be a Cap car, please be a Cap car..." and my prayers were answered. Maybe I need to aim higher with my prayers.



The same Camaro-esque vehicle as the Punisher, this one is painted no more or less gaudy than the Cap himself. But with no "Captain America" or pics of Cap throwing his shield on the car itself, it is perfect. I love it! I can see this car in that old seventies Captain America TV movie - it would have been great.



And look at the cardboard these cars are attached to. Each one had the character die-cut in the center. This one is too pretty to destroy.

Okay, so I was only going to buy the two. They are perfect. But hey, I was at the dollar store. So even though some weren't even worth that (the Spider-Man quad and Hulk Hummer to mention a couple) the following two couldn't escape my grasp.




The Wolverine car is pretty silly, but it is a wholly original design and reminiscent of the Batmobile from the nineties animated series. The Venom mobile is almost cool - as a Corvette-esque creation with the spider symbol on the hood and four headlights that look like a spider's multiple eyes. The only thing that makes it less than perfect is the previously mentioned character image on the side. Oh well, the cardboard is very cool and I am keeping this one carded for now.