Clearance on Villains aisle 77!

You have probably seen these things hanging around the Star Wars section at Target. This is one of three, 3-Packs from the Target exclusive Star Wars product. They have been hitting the clearance aisle the past few weeks. Though the price is still sort of high 18 bucks for the set, which for three figures is pretty good, but when you only need one of the three sort of high that's all I mean.

I have passed on this set before the Holiday, during the Holiday, and while picking up some Laundry Detergent and only seeing one left of this set I went ahead and picked it. So, what did I get?

First up is the "Sand People"! I guess Sand Person or Tusken Raider, the package was going vintage and that's what i believe they had them listed as back in the day. Shown above with his Gaffi Stick, he also comes with the rifle shown above. I am more of an old school fan with the Gaffi Stick, but will take the rifle in a pinch I guess.

The Tusken Raider was not really the figure I was after in the set, but as one of my buddies reminded me, you can never have too many Tusken Raiders to harass Luke.

 Next up...

Boba Fett! I do not know how many Boba Fett Figures I have, especially of this one style. I think Hasbro has been using this body for several years now.

I like Boba Fett, but this figure is really a deal breaker for me. I understand that in the original "Villain Set" he was included, and that is why he is here, I am just saying I could have lived without another one.

This is the Empire Strikes Back deco of Boba Fett, so that is a bonus in my book. This means he is going to have the extra little blaster pistol and the more subdued color scheme. I guess if worst came to worse I could use him as a tooth brush holder, maybe put him on the dash of the car, I don't know.

This guy! This guy right here! This is the one I was after. See, my buddy and I have been picking up the recent Vintage Collection of all our favorite Original Trilogy characters, sort of an ultimate version of each, I have been through a couple Vaders, revisited the POTF2 collection for my 3PO, R2 is constantly being replaced, but to date the best we had of this guy was an older version that was limited in articulation.

This guy will always be Snaggletooth to me as well, I am a child of the 70's, more specifically part of the first wave of kids to ever lay their eyes on Star Wars, back then the cantina patrons were known as Snaggletooth, Hammerhead, Walrusman, and Greedo (who turns out is actually Greedo).

So, those names have stuck with me. I like that old Snaggletooth also comes with the Han Solo Blaster, just like back then. Also, no holster, just jams it in the small of his hunched back, in his belt, Tatooine Ganster style!

Amassing the Fleet

So, I haven't been in too big of a toy buying mood lately, not sure why. There is a lot of cool stuff out there, just not feeling it right now. Anyway I decided to go through some of my loose totes to organize some more. I have been attacking them every once in a while when I can squeeze it into the schedule. The next tote up is what I refer to as the old Star Wars tote. This tote is mainly POTF2 (Power of the Force 2) action figures and the occasional oddity or two.

click to enlarge

I picked up a new tower of little drawers and set about sorting and figuring what's a keeper and what needs to go, side note this whole tote is a keeper, ha ha... anyway I sort of sorted them in little piles of Droids, Jedi, Scum and Villainy and a pile of Rebels. Then talking with a buddy of mine it made more sense to sort them by franchise (New Hope, Empire, Clone Wars, etc.) though that hasn't happened yet. As I unpack stuff I I tend to have little flash backs and start messing around, getting side tracked is easy with this tote of stuff. I noticed several little, heavy bundles at the bottom all wrapped in tissue paper, I unwrapped one and rediscovered a little Galloob TIE Fighter. A few more unwrapped bundles and I had my little collection of 90's era Die cast.

For the most part they are all Galloob, the exception being the Blockade Runner, which I think when Hasbro took over making these was it's first appearance, say around 2006. You may or may not know this, but Galloob, the Micro Machines Company, was bought by Hasbro and rolled under it's banner of toys. The Hasbro Titanium line was born from these Die Cast Micro Machines. I was always saddened that the smaller, almost rubbery, plastic Star Wars Micro Machines didn't make the cut. That was such a great line in itself.

So borrowing a cue from Collin over at Super Duper Toy Box, I labeled an image to help you sort what's what.

click to enlarge

A. Imperial Star Destroyer - One of my favorite all time Sci-Fi Starships.

B. Y-Wing -Can't have an X-wing without a Y-Wing. "Stay on Target!"

C. You know this one, it made the Kessel Run in les than twelve parsecs.

D. The Rebel Blockade Runner (Obviously these are way out of scale)

E. "Red Five Standing By", Luke's X-Wing, not big enough to be a threat to the Death Star... right?

F. The TIE Fighter that spurred this post.

G. Boba Fett's Slave I

H. A Jawa Sandcrawler, though this seems a little squatty, this is a fun one.

I. Luke's Landspeeder, another fun one. I am not sure if it's intentional or not,
but the wheels are off slightly on the axles and it
makes a cool,subtle wobble when rolled, like it's floating.

J. This is a all plastic version of Slave I, part of the X-Rays line,
showing the detail inside the ships. They came in two packs, this
may have come with Darth Vader's TIE Fighter, which I gave away
to my son or one of his friends long ago.

These were a great little find in the bottom of that tote and I found a few other things in there that may be of interest to Toy and Star Wars fans alike, you'll have to stay tuned for those.

I can't get Star Wars off my mind!!!

I do not often do this, but thought it might be fun, here's a weeks worth of Star Wars haul ending today, I guess you could call this a Star Wars Week... or Star Wars Weekending 03-13-2011... or too much Star Wars Swag... oh you get the point, let's see how this goes.

First these two arrived from Hasbro Toy Shop, I had been meaning to pick them up for a long time, they were stationed in the freezer until they climatize to the South Central Texas weather.

Then while looking for cheap AT-AT's I found Han Solo frozen in Vintage Style Packaging. No cheap AT-AT though.

Oh and if you are at Target and hanging around the Easter section here's the Star Wars LEgo set, I don't mean to brag but my wife even refers to it by it's nick name, the Chicken Walker... also if you are looking for those new DC Superheroes Funko Pop Figures, they have them there for 6.99, the Batman ones I saw were pretty bad on the paint so I will be waiting till the next trip to get one.

The finished AT-ST "Chicken Walker" on patrol in the backyard.

Last, I shouldn't have picked these up, but how cool is that Aqua Droid? Like something out of Gundam. Also my favorites from the Clone Wars Series, Obi-Wan and Ahsoka... I saw Ahsoka's Droid so maybe next time I will pick that up and I even might replace a Jedi Starfighter I gave away in a toy purge with Ahsoka's to complete the set.

I also picked up a couple of GI Joes, the first in a long time, since I think the movie came out. They are different versions of two of my favorites and they had so much equipment packed with them I couldn't pass, but you don't want to hear about those.

Rebuilding the Falcon

The one on your left is my 1995 POTF2 Falcon, the one on the right is my original Falcon from around the time Empire Strikes Back was in theaters. I remember the day I picked this up with my mom, but that is a story for another day... or blog. This is about rebuilding my old childhood Falcon, as I get more and more into it I plan on posting images of what I have and what I have done, this may take a long time, but that is okay just be warned that every once in a while it will pop up here on the blog.

Wee Little Batmobiles

Over a year ago on the Under the Giant Penny blog there was this post I made a comment on about having the whole set of Microverse Batmobiles loose and I would shoot some pictures for Brian B so he could see all the Batmobiles in the set.

Well, I found all my Batmobiles! Funny what you turn up when you are unpacking Batman toys.



Anyway,this is the set that Hasbro released back in the the nineties. Seemed like sort of an answer to the Galloob Micro Machines, who later Hasbro ended up buying. Like Brian's post on UTGP, they are supper small and the only action besides the wheels is each has a opening canopy with a little wee Batman inside.




Though mine didn't have Adam West... weird. There you go Brian, better late than never!

Happy Zartan Zaturday Everyone!

That's right! Zartan Zaturday! I was informed earlier in the week that the third Saturday (or Zaturday) in May was Zartan's. Also I was to honor said baddy of GI Joe:Real American Hero fame with a post featuring some Zartan love or hate, I guess, but who has time for hate when it comes to toys and Zartan...

I will admit, Zartan was one of those figures that eluded me back in 1984, but from what I have seen the one with the swamp skimmer and the color change was awesome and the one to have. When the 25th Anniversary line was released I had planned on filling in that hole in my collection with the newer Zartan, but again was foiled. He's slippery than a greased pig I tells ya! He's been released three times in the Anniversary line alone, once with the color change feature, once with a miniature of his swamp skimmer and the one I finally laid my hands on from the Cobra Box Set .

Enough about my Zartan woes, here's some Zartan to enjoy on Zartan Zaturday!

Here's the goods: A stand, two masks (such the master of disguise), a knife and a laser pistol! Oh and he is sporting a transparent pink vest, styling!

He can be a friend, Stormshadow...

...or Foe, Duke "Go Joes, or something like that!"

His backpack opens for convenient mask storage!

I was really bummed that this version didn't come with the mask with the the stache, you know he could get into all sorts of trouble with that look and the pink vest! Maybe next year my Zartan collection will expand? Who knows... maybe.

I hope everyone enjoys their Zartan Zaturday and keeps the master of disguise, the sun fearing prankster of fun, and leader of the dreadknocks in mind this fine Zaturday. To keep the Zartan train a rollin' here's a list of blog that are participating in this year's Zartan Zarurday...

A year of Toys
Adventure in Nerdliness
Battlegrip
Branded in the 80's
Dan's Toy Museum
Geek Orthodox
Toyriffic

edit: I forgot one!
Revenge From The Cosmic Ark

and duh, me, chunky B of Eclectorama

Oh, almost forgot Mini Zartan! Go get em Mini Zartan! "Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!"

I wonder how many we'll have next year for Zartan Zaturday? I guess Zay Zuned Zo Zind Zout!

A special thanks goes out to Bubbashelby of Toyriffic and Reis at Geek Orthodox for including me in on the fun. It's been awhile since I posted about a Joe or Cobra, so for old times sake...

G.I. JOE: 17
COBRA: 15

Yo Joe! Hail Cobra! Zaaaaaaaartaaaaaaaaaaaaan!

How cool would this cop show be?

I thought this when I was opening these bad boys up and checking them out. It seems like it has taken me forever to get my hands on these two figures, but in reality it's only been since 2007. I feel a little guilty this year because I took some of my Birthday winnings and spent it on myself instead of doing the responsible thing like pay a bill or something. Some of the things I did pick up was a few items on eBay, on the cheap of course. More on this later, oh and I guess I'm behind on updating my budget posts as well.



These two came from an auction that I won for less than four bucks, plus as a bonus it came with another Concept Snowtrooper. Not the new one, but the one from 2007 seen here. Also the seller shipped it late and threw in an open Phantom Menace figure for good measure, LOL, it's pretty bad when they start using Phantom Menace figures for packing.



How cool is Concept Vader? So cool he comes with two different heads! The only thing that could be considered a draw back is that Hasbro didn't use ball joints for the elbows. That's not enough to not make it one of my favorite Vaders! Plus he's sporting a pistol, I guess if Concept Stormtroopers can have lightsabers then Vader can have a blaster. Speaking of Concept Stormtroopers, I have never seen one of these when they were released in the wild either. Good thing I found the older, but much less decorated one when it was released as a Fan's Choice #4 figure in 2003.



Now, I have been wanting a Concept Chewbacca for a long time, like Concept Vader, I have never seen them in stores. I did spy one at a LCS for a reasonable price, but it sold before I decided to finally buy it. That's how it goes when you second guess a price in a comic shop. made out better in the long run though... hee hee.


Chewie has not one, but two blasters. A pistol he can holster...sweet, and a huge rifle he can club you with. I often wonder if Chewie would have been as lovable if he looked like this in the movie, I'm thinking not so much.

That's it for my Star Wars eBay scores, the rest were some Spocks to boost the ranks of the Spocklection, I promise I'll get to those down the road.

Remember This?

That's right it's the 2005 re-released "Early Bird" Cardboard display. I had been talking with Brian from the Yesterville Toy Room and threw out my idea of collecting the original twelve figures from the backdrop, but the newer versions. Which Brian seemed to latch onto this rather quickly ( I hope I don't get him in any trouble and I hope he doesn't mind that I share this with you).

All this talk lead to us discussing the definitive figures for each of the characters. What is cool is we both have our preferences and while Brian has talked me into hunting down a new C3-PO and possibly a new Luke, the discussions have reignited my love for Original Trilogy toys.

So, I'm starting with this cardboard backdrop and will be updating my progress to complete this little display here in there. It's not a contest to see who can finish first and this may take a while, I may even have a slight head start, characters may be swapped for better versions, but in the end it just seemed like a fun thing to do. Isn't that what collecting is all about?

The List: February Report

I did a little better with my list in the month of February, though 99 % of my purchases were not on the list so I guess I should say my budget was a little better the list was not.

Here's what I picked up:

1) I started with a Star Wars Legends Sandtrooper, the clean version. I love Sandtroopers and I really, really needed this one. My wife had to ask "How many Sandtroopers do you need?", to which I reply ALL OF THEM!

2) Firestorm, another moment of weakness, but come on it's Firestorm, 3-3/4" scale.

3) The Mighty Mugs Wampa is on the list, check it. Plus I found this one online on sale, though shipping ruined it for me.

4) Okay I don't consider these next two little guys toys, I used to have a 914 Porsche, so anytime they make a die cast representation of that car I'm going to buy one, this case I picked up two, they were like 97 cents.

5) I did get this guy on eBay...

Okay I needed him, I really did, besides I used it in a post for another blog. That's right I finally did a post on the Batman The Animated Toys Blog. I usually do not try and buy stuff just to post, but I made and exception cause I got this one at such a low, low price something like 6 or 7 bucks with shipping, that was less than when they were sold in 1992.

6) This one I do not know if I should count, I found this figure for Mario at A Year of Toys, so I thought I would help a fellow collector and pick it up, I'm not counting it on my list.

So, okay I went off the list some, but I didn't spend at all what I spent last month and so far March is starting out to be a good month, plus I'll celebrate a birthday so with luck I will not have to buy my own toys this month!

Marvelous Monday! Wolverine

Welcome to Marvelous Mondays! The What's Up Bub? Edition.

When it comes to Wolverine I run hot and cold, I loves me some brown costume Wolvie and I likes me some of the Blue and Gold costume, on the fence about the civilian clothes version, the leather was okay and meh about any of the others, if there are any left.



So with that I give you another 3-3/4 Hasbro toy. But look it's really not from the Marvel Universe line it's from the Wolverine Movie tie in line, this was the comic branch of that line. What I think is really weird on this toy is that they added ball joints to his hip articulation, but I have yet to see this in the Marvel Universe line, if they did add it I missed it. I really don't know if I like the added feature or not. Sometimes I like it simple, then sometimes I think wouldn't it be cool if Wolverine could do yoga.



This figure came with a red samurai sword and again I was like, meh who cares and it went into my bag of accessories I really don't care much about. I'm sure there is a reason he has a sword and a red one at that, but he's freaking Wolverine! He has claws to take care of his business, and brother business is good!

You know since we are on the topic of Wolverine, I liked the last Wolverine movie. It was what it was for me, an entertaining, rainy Saturday sort of movie. Was it the best of the X-Men series? No not really. Did it have some story issues and plot holes? Yes quite a few. But, I liked it enough that I would watch it again sometime. Then again I dug the Dare Devil movie, even with Ben Afflec.

Chuckles

Sure he's missing his accessories and may have a crack on his arm, plus his paint may not be the best, but a buck for this guy at a comic shop isn't that bad. Before you say anything about budgets, this was a purchase made years ago and has resurfaced thanks to organizing the collection.



Chuckles is from the 1987 series of GI Joe Real American Hero. My original Chuckles never made it out alive of the massacre at the hands of my son and nephew, but that's cool cause I found this one. What's weird is I can remember a friend of mine picking up Chuckles and Cobra's Crystal Ball for me for a birthday present. We were all in college and working part time at a lumber yard, but he found out I was collecting these and swung by and grabbed a couple before work that day. It was a slow day at work and we ended up taking these two and having battles in the lumber yard.

"Now that's a knife!"

It was kind of funny that Chuckles was made, cause that's what this friend would call me at work, so he was just as jazzed to get this figure as I was. Probably even more so. I never lived down that nickname, and this is one of those toys that reminds me of my friends back in 1987. Tiny little time capsule.

"Yo Chuckles!"

Utini! Clone Wars Style

Star wars, nothing but Star Wars! I have been watching more of the Star Wars Clone Wars Animated Series on Cartoon Network and have to say I'm really liking where it is going. There are some characters I enjoy seeing pop up in story lines, but what I really dig is seeing the new animated style applied to some of the original trilogy background characters.



That's why when I saw this set of Clone Wars Jawas pop up in the toy aisle last year it was an easy purchase. This is really a nice set of Jawas, probably one of the best. Sure they are not too much on the articulation side, but they do have some in key places and they do come with weapons that they can holster. I really am digging the clean design of these animated characters more and more.



I cannot tell you off hand which episode these guys appeared in, I'm thinking they were some background characters and just thrown into the toy mix for the line, but tell me how cool would it be to see an animated line based on A New Hope? Holly crap, my mind is just full of images of animated Sand People, Stormtroopers and Cantina Aliens. Please, someone make this happen!

Marvelous Mondays!

Welcome to Marvelous Mondays! I'm sure this has probably been done before somewhere, but it's a first for me so there you go. Every Monday, unless the weekend was too busy, I will try and post something Marvel from my collection wether it be toy, comic, book, collectable, ad, etc.

What will you see? Well, glad you asked. As you can tell I have no real focus in my collecting habits. Some people only collect a certain character or pop culture property. I'm all over the place. When it comes to Marvel here's a list of characters I like in order of favorite to least favorite:

Number 1: Silver Surfer, Captain America, Iron Man, The Thing, Spider-Man, Hulk

Number 2: All the rest

Short list huh? Needless to say I never really completed one line of toys or story arc in comics, I just floated around the marvel Universe like the Watcher. I only hope I have enough Marvel stuff to keep this going for a while, cause I only plan on maybe adding two more pieces to my toy part of the collection. Well, I hope you enjoy!

Ole Shell Head

Today's Marvelous Monday entry is from the Hasbro Marvel Universe 3-3/4 line of toys. None other that the comic version of the modern armor Iron Man. You know I really cannot tell you if it's the comic version or some armor that they just made up because like Batman in the DC Universe, Iron Man has so many versions of his armor. I really dug the look of this armor so I picked it up. Sometimes I think I'm going to collect nothing but Iron Man toys and then I take a look at some of his armor and forget about it. I generally like the classic version of his armor, but again this looked sort of cool, and it was new and at 3-3/4 scale.

Marvelous Detail!

This was released early last year when Hasbro debuted the Marvel Universe line at this scale. Finally an Iron Man to help out the GI Joes in their fight against Cobra! My only complaint, and I may sound old here, is the price. When these first hit the were in the 8 to 9 dollar range. I remember when larger toys cost less or about the same, so I was sure not to collect them all. They are not too heavy on accessories either. Iron Man came with an energy blast (not pictured), basically a transparent piece you snap onto his arm so it looks like he's using his repulser ray and some little paper file card. As you can see both were tossed aside.

"Fight with repulser rays!"

What really amazes me is that the first Iron Man movie toys were larger and had some of the poorest quality control in my opinion than this guy. Well, at least every Iron Man movie toy I purchased seemed to have issues, this guy really had no problems. Funny how the same company can vary with different lines. I will say Hasbro is probably the king of 3-3/4 scale articulation, something Mattel has not caught up to, and that surprises me.

Hope you enjoyed my first installment of Marvelous Mondays, and hope you return for more of my wandering Marvel Toy Collection.

Excelsior!

THANK THE MAKER!!!

It was announced last night and is now official! Big Freaking AT-AT, Baby!

Check this out!

Holy Mother of the Force!

I'm not the only one excited to see this coming.

Heeeeeeeres Mola!

If you are seeing Mola Ram here it means it didn't snow in San Antonio (or at least enough to look like Hoth), which means the hour I spent digging out my Snowtroopers, AT-AT and Wampa were for nothing. Maybe next year : (



That's okay I'll talk some about my good buddy Mola. When Hasbro released the new Indiana Jones product for the fourth movie I went whole hog trying to find all the single pack figures, to date I never found any from the Temple of Doom set and a couple from the Last Crusade set. So when I saw the Mighty Mugg of ole' Mola Ram here hit the clearance aisle I thought why not. He stayed in his box for a couple of days until I got around to freeing him and true to Mighty Mugg form grew to be one of my favorites.

If you have read my thoughts on Mighty Muggs you know what I'm talking about here, if not, in a nut shell, the goofier the expression the better the Mighty Mugg. Who couldn't love this face? He doesn't look scary at all like in the movie, matter of fact he looks a little excited to see you.



Bonus, Mola's headpiece is removable which means anyone in the Mugg Universe can be a high priest! He even has a little flaming heart accessory so you can recreate all the heart ripping action in your own backyard!



Kali Ma, Kali Ma!!!

Alien Surfing

Since I am on the road till the end of the week, I thought you might enjoy surfing with another alien this Thursday. I should be back for a quick post Friday afternoon after some rest, I guess I should make an announcement of the winner of the popularity poll, huh?

"I wield the POWER COSMIC!"

Until then here's another great little Mighty Mugg from the House of Hasbro. I haven't been on board for all the different little Muggs Hasbro has produced, mainly picking up characters I like or are interesting looking, that all said I really dig this Silver Surfer.

"Come to me, my board."

He is a lot shinier that I originally thought. He's basically just silver paint, so I'm guessing it the shape that is helping to give him some glares. This little guy would have been way cooler in chrome!

Whooooooshhhhh1

I've been debating on ordering Galactus from the Hasbro online store, but then I have my eye on another Mugg from a galaxy far, far away. I think if I only get one more Mugg this year I might have to put old Galactus off until the next year, still the pink helmet (if removable) could be comedy gold.

"Ah crap, it's Mola Ram, let's get out of here...

Oh Jeez, better get going, tomorrow the winner of the poll announcement (like you can't look to the side bar and figure it out), Mola Ram will have to wait for another post, see ya!