Spider-Rex

Spider-Rex, formerly mild mannered pterodactyl Pter Ptarker, is not only a real character in the Spiderverse and the comics that explore the spider themed multiverse, but he's also a toy!

 

Conceptually bonkers, I had to have this thing!

It's been noted that Hasbro apparently refurbished an old Jurassic World dinosaur toy from when they had that toy license. That said, there's enough 'new' on this guy to keep him from being a simple cash-grab repaint.

He makes a bunch of roaring and thwipping noises when you push his buttons, and when you push the legs down he launches a web missile from his mouth (not canonical, in the comics he shoots webs from his wrists like a proper Spider-Man.)

He's a bit expensive, running around $45 depending on where you get him, so you will have to really think about it before you decide how badly you need a Spider-Rex in your life. But he's a solid, fun looking toy and you can shoot the missiles at your kids or your cat, so it's probably worth it. 

I'm a big fan of "Super Pets" and animal versions of superheroes, so I really love this guy. It's amazing that he exists, not only in the comics, but in toy form as well! Hopefully we see more of him as time marches on.

Now I need to figure out a decent way to hang him from the wall or ceiling.

Imaginext Bat Tech "The Batman" Batmobile

I was on the fence about getting this Imaginext Batmobile for a few months. I saw it on Amazon and thought I'd make a commitment or not if/when I saw it at retail. Then I found out it's an Amazon exclusive, so I had to decide if I was willing to buy it sight unseen.

Well obviously I finally (bat)caved. And I'm happy I did!

This Imaginext Batmobile is obviously inspired by the new Batmobile appearing in the movie The Batman. It's not a straight riff, though, and I'm not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It's nice to see something with some originality, but I'd also like to see a cartoony yet more direct interpretation of The Batman Batmobile. 

There are some design choices that make this Batmobile a bit of a mash-up. The turbine barreled front end is an obvious '89 Batmobile component and doesn't really fit this overall design. It does light up and fire a bat signal shaped projectile though, so if you're into that kind of thing then this might be a 'plus' in your book.

In fact, the more I look at this Batmobile, the more I feel like it's as if the '89 and The Batman Batmobiles had a baby.

The rear flame element also lights up, and spins when the Batmobile rolls.

I'm usually anti-noise when it comes to toys, as they're generally loud and obnoxious, but I will say that this Batmobile sounds GOOD! The beefy roar of the engine is like music to my ears and was obviously something they paid attention to when they pulled their inspiration from the sound design in The Batman.

This Batmobile comes with a Bat Tech Batman, whos chest lights up via a lightbulb in the driver's seat. I don't like this Bat Tech stuff but it's their current go-to feature so if it keeps the line alive I guess we'll suffer through it. It doesn't come with Spider-Man but his Spider-Buggy ran out of gas so Batman is giving him a ride back to Queens.

This Batmobile is larger than most Batmobiles Imaginext has made, but it's also a two seater and that's always good. It's around $31 on Amazon right now (there was a four dollar coupon that brought the price down a bit) so it's also not "cheap", and the price is probably due to the noise and lights, which I could do without but whatyagonnado?

All in all, I'm glad I have it. I don't buy every Batmobile Imaginext makes, but I really like the movie inspired Imaginext Batmobiles, so my collection would have been incomplete without this one.

Spider-Hulk, Spider-Hulk, smashes whatever a gamma irradiated spider smashes!

First, let me apologize for not posting for the whole of March. I appreciate the three of you who are still reading. That said, I'm baaaaack!

And not only am I back, but I bring you today some fun pics of one of my Holy Grails that I finally added to my collection: Spider-Hulk!

Back in 2006, Toy Biz was reaching the end of their Spider-Man Classics line. They may have also been close to the end of their license with Marvel, which ended up (and still is) with Hasbro. I'm no Marvel expert, so don't quote me on that. What I do know is that one of the last Spider-Man Classics figures Toy Biz released was Spider-Hulk. I'm pretty sure, as the story goes, Peter Parker somehow gained the powers of The incredible Hulk for a hot minute (and this is not Bruce Banner/Hulk in Spider-PJs). I've not read this specific story in the comics, but I love that Toy Biz made an action figure of this...well...incredible moment!

I saw this figure at retail back in '06 and somehow talked myself out of it. I've regretted that decision ever since, and as is always the case in such situations, Spider-Hulk became a very hard-to-get figure, and has since held a ridiculously high resale value. I've kept my eyes peeled for him for over ten years, hoping to find an economical example, but I've never seen him going for a sane and excusable price...until now!

For some reason beyond my mere human intellect to interpret,  a couple months ago a Chinese ebay seller suddenly began selling loose Spider-Hulks. The auction end prices vary, but have been hovering around an average of $25 bucks for as long as I've been monitoring. Buying loose toys from China can be a risky venture, so I had to ask myself: was it worth tempting fate to get either a) a cheap bootleg, b) a Spider-Hulk with two left feet or c) nothing at all, in an attempt to get Spider-Hulk for a fraction of what he's gone for on the secondary market for the past ten years?

Well the answer was obviously 'yes.'

I'm glad to report that I bid, I won, and lo-and-behold, a couple weeks later a beautiful loose but perfect example of Spider-Hulk arrived at my doorstep! HUZZAH!!!

Of course there are a lot of questions this figure's existence raises. Did Toy Biz have a warehouse full of these gentlemen, just sitting in crates for a decade, waiting for someone to buy them up and liquidate them on eBay? Or did toy Biz themselves, or whatever manufacturer they contracted, find a crate ala the Lost Ark of the Covenant, and after they busted them open and their faces melted off, they decided to offer them up on eBay for us True Believers who never stopped looking and hoping and praying?  Or is he coated in lead paint and was held back from retail sale for safety reasons and I'm going to die soon?

Who cares. I HAVE SPIDER-HULK!.

One last thing: You too could own a Spider-Hulk: As of press time, they are still popping up on eBay and auctions are ending between $20 and $30 with free shipping. I can't guarantee your experience will be the same as mine, but I can guarantee that this is a great price for an otherwise hard to find figure. Search for SpiderHulk and search under 'free shipping', and you should find the auctions easily enough. Good luck!

Agent Venom BootLEGO minifig

Agent Venom. I know nothing more about this character than the facts that he is Flash Thompson, former bully, now friend of Peter Parker, former soldier, and currently fused with the Venom symbiote.  So he's a paramilitary Venom, and a good guy to boot.

Awe. Some.

The Agent Venom minifig comes with a couple machine guns - more AWESOME! - and is one of the higher quality BootLEGOs. And now one of my personal favorites!

Bootleg Spider-Man Parachute Kite, Bootleg Spider-Man Parachute Kite, Does Whatever a Bootleg Spider-Man Parachute Kite Does

By far my greatest flea market find in a long time is this Bootleg Spider-Man parachute kite. It was so much fun flying it with my little intern! She's a real kite flying natural!

Seriously, I've always been a bit of a Charlie Brown when it comes to kite flying. She must have inherited her kite skills from her mom!

It has been extraordinarily windy lately, which obviously comes in handy for nothing but generating energy and/or grinding corn via windmill or kite flying. And while I had my doubts that this cheap knock-off toy would fly it took to the air like, well, like a radioactively mutated teenager to parachuting!

I got this picture while reeling Spidey in, shortly before I lost hold of the line! Thankfully he caught on a soccer goal at the end of the field and I recovered him, or else these shots may have been all I had left of the great Spider-flight of 2016. Good 'ol Charlie Brown.

Here's how Spider-Man was presented when I found him at the flea market, all wrapped in cellophane like Superman had thrown his 'S' symbol at him. At first I thought he was just a bootleg parachuting Spider-Man, which, granted, is a pretty cool thing to be. But then I saw the reel of line and realized he was supposed to be a kite! I didn't believe for a second he'd fly, or that all the strings were attached or that the chute wasn't torn to bits by years of neglect or simple bootleggery. But for $2 (having talked the guy down from $4) I figured the plastic Spider-Man alone was worth the price of admission.

Here's Spidey post-flight. Although Spidey is about 12" tall this toy reminds me of the Azrak-Hamway parachuting superhero rack toys I had and loved as a kid. I still can't believe he held together for his entire inaugural flight! The wind was pulling hard, and his crash into the goal frame tangled him up a bit, but I am pretty sure I was able to sufficiently untangle him for another go. Time will tell, but even if he's a one flight wonder my intern and I got enough joy out of him to make it all worth while!

Next time I may even bring along more string. Spidey was ready to rocket into the stratosphere!

I wish had bought this from a vendor selling a bunch of these things (so I could go back for more), but it was just one random item in a family's possession. No idea if he's new or old or easy to find south of the border (pretty confident he's a Mexican bootleg) but I'd buy a dozen of them if I could find them (especially if they make different parachuting superheroes!)

Flea Market Finds - Think of the Children!

My kids scored off my flea market trip today - my oldest daughter is big into Star Wars thanks to The Force Awakens, so I grabbed her a handful of modern era Star Wars figures, mostly consisting of characters from the prequels: An Episode 1 Yoda and an Episode 2 Yoda, that chef alien from Episode 2, a female Tusken Raider and child and two of their dogs (I love all of these, I even had them back when they were new; I'm glad to have them again to pass them on to my daughter!), a Cantina alien named Djas Puhr (I might keep this one for myself as I love everything about and everyone in the Cantina scene!) and a Boba Fett with removable helmet. Sadly Boba Fett is missing his jet pack but he does have Jango Fett's jetpack in it's stead.

I also picked up that wacky bootleg Spider-Man on a parachute, which is supposed to fly like a kite...we'll see, I can't wait to try it out with my youngest daughter who is excited about kites lately.

And lastly I picked up the three disc set of Darkwing Duck Volume 1. That will be a lot of fun to watch with the kids next Saturday morning!

BootLEGO Silk Minifigure by Sheng Yuan

Three of my favorite things about BootLEGO minifigures:

1) They are inexpensive as f*%(k.
2) You can get obscure characters that LEGO will likely never make.
3) Did I mention how inexpensive they are?

To wit: This Silk minifigure cost me a grand total of thirty eight cents. That includes shipping from the other side of the planet. INCONCEIVABLE!

Also: Silk. I don't know much about Silk, other than she's a Spider-Man ally with the same powers as Peter Parker (apparently she was bitten by the same spider that bit Petey shortly after he gained his extraordinary powers.) Silk is a pretty unlikely minifigure to ever grace an official LEGO set, and I am always down for female superheroes, especially female Spider-verse superheroes (Silk being the first one I am aware of) so I simply could not resist adding her to my collection.

Did I mention she cost me a whopping 38 cents?

Silk is manufactured by Sheng Yuan, a bootLEGO company that has, in my experience, always produced a quality product.

Silk comes with your standard Sheng Yuan base (not shown), a spider and a simple web stand/build. I really like the spider and web piece as they fit well into any Spider-Man themed build. It's nice to get accessories/extra parts that aren't random and useless.

Silk's hair piece is a bit rougher than usual, not the smooth/shiny quality of a standard LEGO hairpiece but more a rough/muted plastic type. It does give her hair a nice dulled texture, although the piece also has an extra hole on the right side - I assume this hairpiece may have been derived/ripped-off from the LEGO Friends line and has that extra hole so a flower or bow or other hair accessory can be added. I don't know and I really don't care; It does little to detract from the piece and if it did bother me 1) I could replace it with any other countless LEGO/bootLEGO hairpiece I have lying around or 2) I could GET OVER IT BECAUSE THE FIG COST ME 38 CENTS FERCRYINOUTLOUD!

BootLEGO Iron-Man Black Spider-Man Armor...

Just top off the fluids, Jarv old buddy

...or maybe Venom armor, or maybe Agent Venom armor. I don't know, but I know I dig him!

The BootLEGO companies have had a field day with the Iron-Man minifigure, painting him up as everyone from, well, Iron-Man to Robin to Green Lantern to Wolverine and everyone else in between. You have to admit, it's a pretty genius move on their part.

But as much as I love BootLEGOs, I had yet to own any of the Iron-Managerie until I picked up this Iron-Black-Spider-Man minifigure which arrived this week. He was just too cool  to resist...and being sold as a single minifigure. I have passed on obvious choices for me like Iron-Batman and Iron-Robin because they are usually sold in multi figure lots and I am just not that into Iron-Man. But I'm enough into Spider-Man to have bid a few pence for this guy, and I'm glad I did.

Iron-Venom is made by the company 'Elephant', and this is my first experience with that particular bootLEGOer. And he's just as good as the Sheng Yuan and Decool I have in my possession.

Iron-Agent-Venom comes with a stand and a few parts to build a Jarvis arm.

I hear KISS needs a new drummer

The paint is simple but well applied. And yes, he's painted on his back. I always forget to take pics of the backs! His original headpiece is your basic BootLEGO rehash of the LEGO Tony Stark face, with only one expression painted on it, but I had other plans for this minfigure, so I swapped Tony for...

I Am Spidarmor-Man!

...a Spider-Man headpiece I have from another bootLEGO  minifigure. Because it makes more sense to me this way, and is far cooler than the actual Iron-Spider armor from the comics.

Random Toy Pic :: Spider-Man is a Jerk

"I'ma let you finish, but Rocksteady is the best Rhinoceros themed villain of all time!"

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from your friendly neighborhood Toyriffic.

Unmasked! LEGO Spider-Man :: Countdown to Halloween 2014

Having used the head of a DeCool Bootleg LEGO Spider-Man to make a custom Scarlet Spider, I decided to put together an unmasked Spider-Man with the body and a spare head and hair piece from my vast stores of LEGO pieces.

Very Dr. Frankenstein of me!

Scarlet Spider LEGO Minifigure Custom

My recently acquired batch of Decool bootleg LEGO minifigures included a Spider-Man, and since I already own an official Spider-Man LEGO minifigure, I decided, what better use of a clone-brand Spider-Man than to make a cutom Clone Saga Spider-Man aka Scarlet Spider)!?!?

I haven't read a single issue of the Clone Saga, but I was deep enough into comics in the nineties to be aware of the concept. Basically, there was a clone of Peter Parker named Ben Reilly and he ran around as Spider-Man for a while, then as the Scarlet Spider, and then he probably died or something.

Anyways, his costume consisted of an all red leotard and Spider-Man mask, and a blue hoodie (sleeveless - nineties style!) so although I do not have a blue hood, I do have a black one, and I was able to use the Surgeon minifgure for the torso, and red legs and arms from random minifigures. Only the head is from the Decool bootleg.

I had to settle for white hands, because the bootleg red hands wouldn't stay in place, and I have yet to scrounge up some official LEGO red hands.

But the overall effect of a LEGO Scarlet Spider minifigure is passable enough for my needs!

Random Toy Pic :: Spidey Likes Redheads

Spider-Man digs Raphael's new do!

On the first day of December, the Flea Market gave to me...

Oh, California. Gas prices are insane. Living costs are through the roof. Want to own a home? Sure thing, Dr. Rich Moneybags, Esquire, with your double income and life savings you qualify for a loan on this nice little studio apartment. 500 square feet of pure luxury!

But the weather. Ahhh the weather. Perfect Flea Market weather year round. So here I am on December 1st, sweating in a t-shirt in the 70 degree sunshine, digging through other peoples' junk and buying nostalgia for a quarter.

Life, it's full of trade-offs.

Anyways, here's what I scored today - some or all of it may or may not be looked at in detail in the future, because it's my blog and I'll do what I please. But all of it is fun and deserves to be mentioned here, because it's quite the eclectic pile of loot.

Starting in the back we have a little Tomy wind-up toddler on a wagon. I remember these from when I was a kid, it's late seventies or early eighties. I'll have to look into it further.

Then there's Megavolt, a Darkwing Duck villain. He's supposed to have 'sparking' action - on his back is a wheel like a lighter with an internal flint. It's jammed, but I might be able to clean it up and make it work. Regardless, I do have a Darkwing Duck action figure already, so it's nice to have a villain for him to battle.

Next is a Funko 'Where the Wild Things Are' monster. Yay, another Funko! See, I told you I'd end up with more Funko! I'm sure this monster has a name, but that will require more research.

Next to him is 'Killer Bee', a TMNT original series ride-on figure/vehicle. He's missing all his accessories, and the headpiece to his electric chair, but is otherwise in excellent condition and is the first of these larger TMNT mutant rides that I have owned (of which I think there were two - this guy and a mosquito.) He's very cool, and will definitely get his own post soon.

In the middle is a Mega Bloks Wolverine and Captain America. These are Duplo sized and fit with those types of toddler sized blocks. I got these for my intern.

Next to those guys is a Skeleton Warrior, another first for my collection. He has one accessory, a knife and scabbard on his left leg. Otherwise he's in great shape minus all the other accessories he would have come with. I will have to look up his name too.

Lastly, in the front row is a Super Hero Squad Spider-Man and a little green plastic Aquaman from the eighties. I know I have seen him online before but I will have to do some research again to figure out his provenance.

Well, there you have it. A ridiculous pile of random ridiculousness, all costing less than one single new action figure. That's how I spent my December 1st. You can keep your white Christmas, but I am jealous of your reasonable cost of living!

Xtreme Customz Batmobile

As a huge fan of the Batmobile in all it's representations I am always pleased as punch to discover a new Batmobile toy.

I tend to find out about these things early (thanks Internet!) and am able to haunt the toy stores (impatiently) for the toy's arrival, but I have to admit that this one caught me completely unawares:

This is the Xtreme Customz Batman Special Edition. Nowhere is this called a 'Batmobile,' oddly enough, but that may be due to licensing with other toy companies. But they can't fool me!

This vehicle is approximately 1:48 scale. It wasn't until I got this car and did some research that I discovered the company that makes these - Ridemakerz - have been making 1:18 scale vehicles for a while now. You may have seen their 1:18 Pixar Cars toys and accessories in stores, which gets me to one of this Batmobile's finest features...

"Oh Jason Todd, you scamp!"

...like the cars of 'Cars,' this guy looks like an anthropomorphised Batmobile! Fans of Cars and Batman have longed for such a thing for decades!

The Xtreme Customz's schtick is that you can customize your ride in dozens of ways. To that end, you can raise and lower each axle as well as remove the chassis and add any number of custom parts:

The Special Edition Batman set comes with all this!

The wheels are reversible, and my favorite look ended up being black rims with turbines on the side and a massive machine gun on the hood.

Because BADASS!

You'll notice this Batmobile is clearly inspired by the 1989 Burton film Batmobile. In fact, it's a near exact representation from the rear.

The front end is a little more stylized, but that's fine, especially if you want to think of this as a Cars-esque Batmobile. Which I do!

I must also add here that the piece of hood that covers the add-on hole (sorry, can't think of a more scientific term for that place at the moment) is a great design solution - you can have a nice smooth unaltered hood or pop a custom piece in there - either way you don't end up with one way or the other looking 'wrong.' Or, in Transformer terms: 'kibble.'

"I hate guns...except for massive rotating turret types that pop out of hidden compartments in all of my vehicles.Those I'm cool with."

All parts easily pop in and out and the plastic this toy is made from is sturdy and strong enough to do so often. I did accidentally over-stress one side-piece's attachment component by pushing too hard on first attachment, but it only bent; it didn't break or crack, which is nice.

But I do recommend you be careful when attaching the side-pieces.

I don't know what this piece is. Crowd-control tear-gas canisters? Binoculars?

When Batman cruises the south side of Gotham he likes to go in prepared.

You can buy the components of the 1:18 scale Ridez separately; I'm not sure if you can for the 1:43 scale cars (yet,) but if so I will surely buy some more parts for my Batmobile. It could really use side-pipes.

Ooh look, a Joker car is coming out too! Love it!

I have to admit I am more impressed with this "Xtreme Customz Batman Special Edition" (aka Batmobile) than I thought I would be. I knew the toy looked neat in package, but upon opening and playing with for a bit I am impressed also by the car's fun and functionality. The whole vehicle is well built, the parts go on and stay on strong, the wheels and tires roll smooth, the axles stay in position and pops up/down quite well. And when pieces are added on or removed they don't look like they are added on or removed. They all flow well with the vehicles design. Well, except for the spoilers, but I'm not going to remove the batfins for a spoiler anyways. The 'Bat-ears' are also removable but again, I want my car to look like a living Batmobile, so they stay.

But wait...there's more!

This Spider-Mobile is one of XtremeCustomz's "starter kits." There's a Batman starter kit too. The starter kits come with different pieces than the larger kits, and in Batman's case the starter kit has white eyes/windshields as opposed to the 'chrome' of the special edition.

But back to Spider-Man!

Spider-Man's ride comes with all you see here. Again, the wheels are reversible, and those web-shooters are just plain awesome!

They even rotate up and down! And fire! Great stuff!

With great power comes great MPG.

I slapped the Batmobile's blown big block into the Spider-Mobile to show that the parts are all interchangeable. Cool!

Toyriffic's intern gave the cars the Mr. Goodwrench once-over and was quite impressed...even though she's well below the recommended age range for these cars.

That's okay, I'm well above the recommended age. Between the two of us we average out.

"The Batmobile is my favorite, daddy. Can I have it?"