Raving Toy Maniac

Enter the Marvel Select 10th Anniversary Contest to Win an Instant MS Collection!

August 2012 - Ten years ago, the first Marvel Select figure from Diamond Select Toys arrived in comic shops. Depicting Ultimate Spider-Man, the 7-inch scale figure came with a large diorama base (a criminal webbed to a wall), and it was packaged in an oversized blister card that displayed the figure and all of its accessories. Since then, DST has made nearly 100 different Marvel Select figures, and to celebrate the line's tenth anniversary, they want you to be able to win one of every figure they have in their office!

August 6, 2012 - (Sponsor Announcement) - Online retailer Urban-Collector has several new items of interest to collectors:

This week we are featuring new pre-orders including Arkham City Play Arts Kai Batman and Catwoman figures, Jeepers Creepers 1:4 scale statue and DC's Batman Beyond statue.

Featured Pre-Orders

• Dark Knight Batman Arkham City Play Arts Kai action figure
• Catwoman Arkham City Play Arts Kai action figure

August 6, 2012 - Pete from Fun Publications has let us know that he will be on the August 15th episode of Toy Hunters:

Hey all... Just a quick heads up.

I will be appearing on the Season Premiere of "Toy Hunters", Wednesday Aug 15th, 10pm on the Travel Channel. The episode premieres right after the "Best Sandwich in America" Finale.

Though the company I work for, Fun Publications, is not associated with Toy Hunters, the segment did take place in my office so viewers will get a look at where I work and we do spend some time talking about the Transformers Collectors' Club and the amazing Transformers fandom.

Toy Hunters site
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/toy-hunter

Sneak Peaks at Season 1
http://www.travelchannel.com/tv-shows/whats-new-on-travel-channel/photos...

K'NEX Announces August Mission: K'NEX 20 on 20 Contest

Contests Run Monthly Through December, 20 Chances to Win Each Month!

Hatfield, PA, August 2012 – K'NEX, the only US construction toy company focused on Building Worlds Kids Love™, announced its eighth in a series of twelve contests, Mission: K'NEX 20 on 20, monthly "hunts" for secret codes on various K'NEX related web pages.

Every month on the 20th day, through December 2012, K'NEX will be giving away K'NEX products to lucky fans! On the 1st weekday of every month a prize will be revealed and a new "mission" is assigned. Missions can be found on the K'NEX website: http://www.knex.com/20thanniversary/Mission20on20/ which directs participants how to find secret codes. Once a code is found, participants must return to the K'NEX site and enter the code. If correct, they are eligible to be entered for a chance to win a prize. On the 20th of each month, when the contest closes, winners will be randomly chosen from those eligible entries.

August 6, 2012 - (Sponsor Announcement) - Online retailer BigBadToyStore.com has several items of interest to collectors:

Hi - we sold out of this wave in under 12 hours last time. We have been able to secure a bit more stock - preorders are available again now at $119.99 - grab them before they are gone, this wave has limited distribution.

http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product.aspx?product=HAS22114&mode=re...

I opted to respond to some questions and concerns here in a blog rather than a forum post. The length made more sense away from the forum and this will let it stand alone better. It is more a case of providing insight rather than answering questions or debating ways to do things. This is just a look inside what drove the changes and why we made the choices we did.

I want to make it clear we made the decisions, just the two of us. We didn’t take a vote or anything like that. Since we run and own the site and do not have any staff beyond us, it was on us to do this. We have a couple of friends who help look over things when we travel, but that is it in terms of help on the site.

Go ahead and settle in – it will be a long one.

From my perspective I can say the change has been mostly positive. However I had different goals in mind with the change and upgrade. And my perspective is different than that of a reader.

August 5, 2012 - The boy saw a McDonald's commercial last month and decided that he needed the Ice Age toys, even though he's never actually sat all the way through any of the Ice Age movies. The service at our closest McDonald's is less than stellar, so after getting him one toy there, I bought a set via eBay and thought that was the end of it, but he convinced his grandparents to take him to McDonald's two more times. Lots of Ice Age toys in our house now - I can't complain, because the toys are actually quite nice.

The new promo at McDonald's is SpongeBob SquarePants, which the boy again learned about from a commercial, so we stopped on the way to the Bronco's Saturday Scrimmage, and he got a cute Gary toy. You push it along a flat surface and his eye stalks move.

Let's see what's out there in restaurants this month!

A quick check of the web sites for the more popular fast food restaurants reveals the following:

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Re-emerge To Battle Evil And Save The World In A Special One-hour Event On Nickelodeon Saturday, September 29, At 11:00 a.m. (ET/PT)

August 3, 2012 - Listed below are the toy (and child-related) recalls from this week; these links go to the official announcements on the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site.

- Stage and Riser Caddies Recalled by Midwest Folding Products Due to Risk of Injury or Death - Child died when stage stored on caddy fell on her

- Green Toys Recalls Mini Vehicles Due To Choking Hazard

- Liberty Mountain Recalls VAUDE Kenta Child Carriers Due to Fall Hazard

"Leave the real world far behind" with Pandoracon!

New Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention Comes To Cincinnati
September 28th - 30th, 2012

August 2012 - On September 28th, 29th, and 30th, fans of Science Fiction and Fantasy in the Cincinnati area and beyond will have a new reason to get excited: Pandoracon, a weekend convention of all things geeky. Guests of honor include Travis Richey from the leading Doctor Who parody Inspector Spacetime, British actor Jason Carter from the award winning TV show Babylon 5, and many other authors, artists, and creators of fandom.