Raving Toy Maniac

n/t

My new blog post on brief history and timeline of Star Wars action figures From Kenner to Present era is live on my blog. Read, like, and post your feed back on comments. Follow the link to read the post. Hope you guys are enjoying NYCC. Looking forward to exciting news from NYCC.

http://starwarsactionfiguresinfo.blogspot.com/2012/10/kenners-star-wars-...

I threw a some photos from my NYCC Instagram feed on my site tonight. Maybe some of you will be interested in them. Took hundreds more that we're digging through. They'll go up this weekend.

Anyone know if Hasbro has a booth this year? If so, I couldn't find it.

http://www.mylatestdistraction.com/?p=14776

I'm excited about this...

You may have seen the new Captain Action figure & his silver age Marvel costume sets. Cap Action was my first super hero figure when I was a kid in the 60s. The line was not without its problems, but it beat wrapping tin foil around a 12" GIJoe and calling him Iron Man.

The new Cap Action base figure itself has serious limitations, however, IMO. In many ways I prefer the original or Playing Mantis repro, "monkey arms" and all.

The new Cap Action figure has weird proportions and poor articulation for a 21st Century base figure. I can only surmise that they decided to "cheap out" with some knock-off 12" figure from China. Nice, new headsculpt, but that's about the best that could be said. The Cap base figure does come with a few nice, updated accessories. The base figure's Cap Action costume I got had some serious sewing issues. I gave the whole mess away to a friend's first grade son. He loved it. My advice is to skip buying the base figure all together.

Hi Mom Racer, I am not sure if you are still looking here, but I was wondering what you think oif the new set? I haven't bought them, but they look pretty much the same as last year, with new costumes. I hope things are well.

Speed Buggy

Masterpiece Thundercracker went up last night on TRU.com and is still available, one per customer, with free shipping for orders over 50 bucks. I know he's been spotted a lot more, but still none in my area, so I went ahead and ordered him. Unfortunately no Masterpiece prime, and while they show the TRU exclusive deluxes as "related" items, you can't add them to your cart.

I am not sure if anyone even seen this playset, all I have for information is what I remember seeing with the set. Around Christmas time, Walmart sells very inexpensive gift/playsets which are in thier own isles at Walmart. There were two sets that were released at the same time, one was a brown mountain military base that had a large rocket and brown uniformed miltary men which were app 3 3/4, and it had 4 buttons (I remember one phrase that said, Enemies are located), this set I bought and my son and daughter destroyed, but the other set was a bank playset with police men (3 3/4 tall) and a bank robber/convict with money or gold bags.
This set had 4 buttons in the set and could have been a police base which might have been motified. I remember being torn between the two sets and got the military mountain base, but I wish I had gotten the bank set instead. It believe its been like 10 years since the set was released, and if I remember correctly it was only sold at Walmart. Not sure if it was released under the Kidz connection or another name. I assume the characters from the set were Chap Mei knockoffs.

You might want to hit your local Marshalls if you passed up some leader class Transformers last year. I just managed to score a DOTM Sentinel Prime and DOTM Leader Bumblebee for $24.99 each. I'd had zero interest in Leader Bumblebee, but I picked him up on a lark. I'm glad I did.

I think he's one of the better movie Bumblebees they made, if you take that ridiculous weapon harness he comes with off of him. Luckily, it detaches from the figure and all the lights/sounds are in the harness, not the figure. He's somewhere between the Human Alliance scale and the Battle-Ops scale. The car mode is not that much larger than the Human Alliance one, but he unfolds into a much bigger robot. The DOTM 'Bee has a nicer chest design and the car mode has a spoiler on the back. He's got decent light-piping in the eyes, too.

The only strikes I'd give it is that the "wings" made of the car doors sit up way too high (that's why I have them folded down) and the car mode is missing some paint apps that make it feel kind of cheap. They really should have painted the rims on the tires.

Hello,

You have been invited to participate in the Mattel - UC Berkeley Innovation Challenge!

We are a team of graduate and undergraduate students in the UC Berkeley Haas School of Business, and we are asking your help to come up with innovative and game-changing ideas for Mattel Inc (the toy company). The official challenge is as follows:

What new and disruptive products, services and/or business models can Mattel pursue to grow its core brands, build new franchises, markets, and customer bases?

The top three contributors are eligible to win an Outstanding Innovation Award issued by the Center of Open Innovation at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. The award will be an acknowledgement of your innovation from a top Research University in the United States.

In addition, the the top contributor will receive a $200 Mattel gift card, and the second and third place participants will each receive a $150 Mattel gift card. We expect fewer than 50 participants, so you chances of winning are quite favorable!

A few seed ideas have already been posted. You are encouraged to develop these ideas further, as well as post your own ideas.

These FINALLY showed up in local stores. I picked up both series 2 and 3, but series 1 appears to be no where other than ebay scalpers.

Anyone know where to snag series 1 at regular retail prices?