Excerpt from Dazzler #22
Alison Blaire is my kind of woman
17
Jul
Unrequited Plastic Love
Growing up I had a literal armies of Star Wars figures. I could’ve re-enacted the opening scene of Jedi on the under-construction Death Star with the amount of storm troopers I had. I even had the Death Star playset that I would purposely leave out one of the levels to make it look like the uncompleted Death Star in Jedi.
So just what the hell am I going on about here? I’ll tell you it has all to do with what I encountered at my local Wal Mart the the other night.
The Legacy Collection Millenium Falcon playset. The thing was on an endcap with like 7 others and the fine people at Wal Mart wanted $149 for it. It’s two and a half feet long, has lots of lights and sounds and the interior looks like a minature replica of what we all know as the Falcon’s interior.
And son of a bitch is that thing heavy. It is the ultimate toy I would’ve have dreamt up as a kid. I had the Falcon back then and it always bugged me that there was no way to move them through the faux hall ways and into the cockpit. I’m sure this one does. Now, I’m pretty burnt out on Star Wars these days (no thanks to the prequels sucking and Lucas’ wankiness), but the SW toys I’ve been seeing lately have garnered a bit of my interest again. And it all comes down to even if I had $149 to spend on something as big and elaborate as that Legacy Falcon, I just couldn’t do it. However, if it harkened back to my childhood white whale, perhaps I would.
That white whale was none other than the Cantina playset. Yeah, it was a piece of crap, really. Just a plastic base with a cardboard art background but damned if I didn’t lust after that thing as a kid for some reason. Even to this day when I recall all the Star Wars shit I had, this one remained elusive. In truth, the Death Star playset kicked the crap out of the Cantina, but I still kind of want one. Perhaps if they ever make a Legacy edition of that, I’ll scrape up the funds. But $149 can get you a pretty damned good toy robot.
I guess it all comes down to the addiction a lot of the kids of my generation were fed. You never, ever, have enough toys. And as I’m now on the cusp of obtaining toy robot number 100 for my collection, I realize that I’ll never have enough. My poor, poor wallet. I’m doomed.
11
Jul
Mighty Muggs Lando
I’m pretty sure there isn’t another Star Wars figure as awesome as this. I think I’m picking one of these up this weekend.
……Transformers I’d love to see produced as toys, but there’s little chance in hell of ever being made!
There's little chance in Hell of a proper toy of him, is there?
Now that with the Universe 2.0 line coming out, it appears that Hasbro is finally righting some more wrongs from G1, like for instance, the new Ironhide that actually bears some resemblance to his G1 animation counterpart. He finally has a head, a body, and all the things we’ve come to expect from a toy robot. I’ve hated the G1 Ironhide and Ratchet molds ever since I was a kid and the Encore reissues of those two did little for my nostalgic sense of repeatedly wasting my money on toy robots. That said, he looks pretty awesome to me.
But what I find especially perplexing is the Hasbro double-edged sword of releasing something as cool as this, then simultaneously releasing something as half-assed as this.
So, in the interest of wishing they’d make some more awesome G1-y goodness, I thought about G1 characters that I’d LOVE to see produced in more animation accurate toys, rather than just cop out repaints, ala Classics Blaster. What a waste.
So, here’s what I’m thinking:
1) An original, newly designed Springer mold. No Cybertron or Movie repaint, a NEW FRIGGIN’ TOY!
I thought people liked his character? And he’s an Autobot triple changer no less!
2) A Classics Brawn. Why not? They did a Bumblebee and Cliffjumper as Deluxes. Hell, I’d even settle for a G1 anime sculpted head like they’ve recently done with the G1 Bumblebee reissue minibot. Reprolabels has kind of done this already, but I’d love to see a proper head.
3) Classics Stunticons giftset. Need I say more?
4) Classics Shockwave. Once again, why not? People would buy him by the droves.
5) Last, but certainly not least—Wheeljack. Trust me, who wouldn’t want him. Even Cybertron Downshift with all his 70’s vinyl top goodness is hardly a substitute for the G1 role-model for Italian toy robots everywhere.
So there really is little chance of these toys ever being made, is there? But that’s what dreams are made of.
That’s right. It was about one year ago that I decided to do the blog thing and it’s been fun. So fun in fact, that I figured I’d celebrate by having one of the best ales I’ve ever had the privelege of consuming, Gulden Draak.
Hooooooollllly shit is this stuff good. It’s so delightfully rich and sweet and FULL of alcohol, 10.5% by volume to be exact. I love this stuff. It’s the kind of beer that I envision a viking coming back to the tavern after a long day of skull splitting to kick back with this stuff. I will say that after drinking just one of these 11.2 oz opaque white bottles, if I drank three of these in one night, I’d easily be piss drunk. And want to go out splitting skulls and laying waste to all in my path.
So here’s to one year of me documenting my geeky obsessions. It’s been fun and thank you to all who have read this site. I’ll have another one for you.
He’s as cool as I thought he’d be
Man, has it really been a month since I last posted on my own blog???!! I been commenting on forums and generally reading what others have to say about things, so it’s high time I got back into the act, I guess. It seems as though I’ve been so consumed in my toy robot collecting that I’ve neglected something I’ve really honestly enjoyed doing.
Well, not that in the year or so I’ve been doing this geeky blog thing that I haven’t had some long absences, but even I’m finding it a bit old. I apologize to anyone who keeps checking back here looking for a new post perhaps, and then just seeing the same boring stuff I posted last time. So in the spirit of halfassedness that you’ve probably come to expect from DOOMblog, I will attempt to sum up exactly what the hell I’ve been up to.
Here goes:
1) The Transformers Animated toys finally came out and almost a month early…and I ran, not walked to my local Wal Mart to clean them out. I bought one of everything and it was Christmas in June…and holy shit do I love those toys! Then I promptly came home and cancelled my Hasbro Toy Shop “preorders.” (a term that must be used rather loosely when referring to HTS!) And all this about an hour before I went to work. It was a joyous day for my toy robot addiction.
2) A week later, I get an unexpected e-mail from Big Bad Toy Store, that tells me that the “WAVE 3 DELUXES!?! from TF Animated that I pre-ordered is now available!??!” I’ve never hit the “Ship My Loot” function on BBTS faster than that day. Animated Soundwave at long last would be here. A week later, and the great big box of plastic love arrived…and it was good. Oh…it was good.
So that’s been my collecting story for the last month. 18 toy robots in 30 days and my collection is now getting very close to the century mark. What will toy robot number 100 be? Stay tuned to find out.
And lastly, I promise, promise, promise to update this damn blog more. I do. Really. Honestly. I mean it.
And just as I write this entry, the TF Animated Leader Megatron is on it’s way from BBTS.
Pictures of my TF Animated of the last month is coming like a freight train to this same bat channel. It will be here. I swear it will.
I know, regardless of whether you, the reader, are a toy robots collector or not, we’ve all sniped or been sniped on Ebay at some time. And that is a very important detail that this article seems to have either missed or puposely failed to mention.
That, I firmly believe, is why “Buy It Now’s” are what many people on the internets want.
I get so sick of the sniping and hassle of waiting a week at times only to get outbid by 75 cents at 1AM.
And another practice that runs especially rampant with the Takara Transformers Collection reissues are those Buy It Now’s that have a decent to batshit crazy low price but the shipping is insanely high. Like $49 for a Reissue Blaster (Broadcast) plus $45 shipping from Hong Kong. For that price the damn thing better be at my doorstep in two days.
And damn it, I’m still feverishly searching for some blades for my G1 Springer. One of these days, I guess.
Robot Heroes, cool and lame simultaneously
With the fast approach of the Transformers Animated release, it got me thinking of next year even. I mean I’ve been feverishly awaiting these Animated guys since I first saw pics from last years San Diego Comic Con. I’ve pre-ordered most of them and all I can do now is sit back and wait some more.
That said, the 25th Anniversary of Transformers themselves will be coming out in 2009 and given the treatment that G.I. Joe has received from Hasbro this year, it made me give in to speculation of just what G1 toys I’d most love to see reissued or even in some cases, introduced for the first time. Keep in mind this list is what I’d LIKE to see, not what we probably WILL see.
So, here goes my robo-strabation:
1. G1 Devastator reissue gift set
2. Springer, with a metal chest, even
3. Dai Atlas
4. All the G1 cassettes, both Autobot and Decepticon
5. A proper, 1986 Movie-accurate Arcee that turns into a futuristic car.
6. Shockwave!!!!!!!
7. More great Robot Heroes (see above)
That is all for now. What do you think?
He’s still Prime to me.
I know I’m not alone in my feelings of how absurd the notion is in mainstream society for seemingly grown men to collect toys. Since I’m extremely guilty of such a thing (collecting toy robots), I feel ashamed quite often. But when I read threads like this, it is refreshing to say the least. I don’t post often in TF forums, mainly because I have this blog that allows me all the soapbox geekiness I need. But what is funny to me is the notion that the upcoming Transformers Animated toys are somehow less adult than the G1 stuff. Being a guy in my thirties, I’m quite nostalgic about the good old-bad old days of my childhood watching Optimus and company every afternoon after school. And while I didn’t have very many of the toys growing up, I had quite a few.
Let’s face it, toys, unless manufactured by Fisher Price or Playskool, are increasingly being geared toward the adult collector. Why else have toys stores like Toys R’ Us become shadows of their formerly awesome selves? Toy stores today seem to have gotten worse since I was a kid because THEY ARE WORSE. I remember the wonder of going into Lionel Playworld as a kid and that wonderful inhaled wash of chlorine-infused pool supplies as the large hydralic doors opened. I remember being overtaken by the warehouse-like feel of tall shelves, stacked to the ceiling with toys.
Nowadays toy stores are barren shelves and pegs with the newest-latest piece of crap that is perpetrated on our youth today. And that’s just for the kids who actually want to play with toys anymore instead of video games. My local comic store has a better toy selection than sadly three Toys R’ Us stores combined these days, at least around here.
So that leads me into the point of the upcoming Transformers Animated toys. From the get-go Hasbro was targeting 7 year olds and that’s great. Fine. Why not? That’s what the G1 toys were originally geared towards. But the constant bitching by “adult collectors” about the changes to the constant G1 homages present in the Animated cartoon and toys is ridiculous. These are for the new generation of kids. We the “adult collectors” are taken for granted and well, we should be. I know enough completists that will buy anything, even the crappy Movie repaints. I guess arguing the finer points of who toys are intended for has gone on for at least a decade, ever since the 1990s introduction of well-sculpted McFarlane statues.
The new Animated toys are trying to merge the best of both worlds. New Transformers for the new generation, meanwhile attempting to satisfy the “adult collector.” I think any other idea is missing the point. If Hasbro didn’t care at all about the adult collector, they would probably have no Optimus Prime or Megatron or a Classics/Universe line. But I can’t blame them for just expanding on a great idea from 20+ years ago. They don’t have better ideas, so why not just update and adapt from those previous ideas?
Kids really don’t care about the history of some toy line. They just want a badass car that turns into a good looking toy robot. That’s something that is ageless–at least for me. And though I may be ashamed at times to be a 32 year old toy robot collector and comic book reader, the seven year old within could care less.
