Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - PINKY!

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures - Blind Bag Series 1 - K'Nex 2013

Pac-Man and the Ghostly Adventures is a computer-animated re-imagining of the world of Pac-Man.  The animated series first aired in June of 2013 on Disney XD.  A basic run-down of the show is this:  Pac-Man is young and is the last of the yellow Pac-Worlders.  There are lots of other colors of Pac-Worlders as seen by his colorful assortment of friends.  Also, the Ghost Gang are now secretly his friends and help Pac-Man fight against the other ghosts.  So Pinky and her brothers (Blinky, Inky, and Clyde) are suddenly good guys -- plus Pinky is now a girl, and Purple Sue is non-existent.  There have been a lot of toys related to this series showing up in the video game aisle of TRU for the past few months, but I actually prefer these mini K'Nex blind bag figures.  They're small, they have more characters, and they're significantly cheaper that the larger Bandai figures.  Each Blind Bag actually contains two figures, too.  (The second figure is one of an assortment of generic bad ghosts).  Let's check her out below!

Blackest Night WONDER WOMAN!

Black Lantern Wonder Woman - Blackest Night: Series 4 - DC Direct 2010

Blackest Night was a force to be reckoned with in 2009.  The Green Lantern-centric storyline dealt with the supervillain Nekron (the embodiment of death) as he reincarnated all the dead heroes in a Black Lantern army to wreak predictable havoc.  It was basically a great way for DC to jump on the zombie craze and it was extremely successful.  There were eight series of action figures, several coinciding Green Lantern waves, and three waves from the follow-up series, Brightest Day.  Wonder Woman briefly became a Black Lantern after she and several other heroes were "killed" by Nekron and instantly turned into lanterns.  Her role as a Black Lantern was very short, and since she wasn't dead for more than a split second, she's not one of the rotting gory lanterns, but rather the same old Diana with a creepy color palette.  This figure is excellent.  The Karen Palinko sculpt is beautiful and this dark version of Wonder Woman is a great addition to your Amazon collection.  Let's check her out below!

Photos From NYCC 2013!

My NYCC Opening Night Runaround Documented for Your Viewing Pleasure

Welcome to the photo documentation of my second annual trip to the New York Comic Con.  This year I waited until early September to get tickets only to discover they were almost all sold out.  I was able to get a single ticket for 3pm-9pm on Thursday the 10th.  I'm typing this introduction a couple days in advance so I can just upload photos easily from my phone.  The pros of me going early are the 1) it's cheaper, 2) it will likely be less crowded, and 3) it will be unlikely that exclusives will have sold out.  The negatives sides are that there's less going on (special-guest-wise, etc) and sometimes the big-brand exhibitors save reveals till the last day (ie Mattel showing the Huntress prototype last year after I had left).  I hope to see lots of cool stuff but I don't have too many expectations.  I'm actually more excited about shopping than seeing new toy reveals.  But I'm sure once I get there I'll be like a kid at an Easter egg hunt.  Everything past this first paragraph break will have been written during or after NYCC.  My fingers are crossed!

The Real Ghostbusters JANINE MELNITZ!

Ghostbusters: Fright Features - Janine Melnitz w/ Tickler the Ghost - Kenner 1989

How could I have a Halloween month (however loosely based) without a Ghostbusters figure?  Last year I reviewed Gozer and Zuul, which are definitely the coolest ladies from the property, but Janine is arguably the most loved.  Originally played by Annie Potts in the original movies, the bored-and unfrazzled secretary saw a ton of character growth in the the later animated series The Real Ghostbusters (voiced by Kath Soucie) and Extreme Ghostbusters (voiced by Pat Musick).  In several episodes of these series, Janine would get pulled into the adventure and "suit up" in her own Ghostbuster uniform, often with a proton pack of her own.  Kenner produced a handful of Janine figures between 1986-1991, but this Fright Features figure has always been my favorite.  All the Fright Features figures had really cool dynamic action features (one of my favorite trends of 80's toys) and these gimmicks made them some of the most popular Ghostbusters toys ever.  Let's check out Janine below!

Superman/Batman CORRUPTED SUPERGIRL!

Apokolips Supergirl - Superman/Batman: Series 2 - DC Direct 2006
 
This one is even in Halloween colors!  The girls sculpted in DC Direct's Superman/Batman lines are some of the most criticized collector figures of all time.   The sculpts by Big Chief are really good and truly representative of the late Michael Turner's art.  Michael Turner's art, however, is exaggerated and ultra-sexy.  But those same exaggerations that work so well in two dimensions tend to lose their illusion when rendered in 3-D.  The lanky torsos (in both the male and female characters) look dynamic on the page, but positively deformed from the plastic perspective.  The version of Supergirl came about when Darkseid kidnapped the newly-arrived Kara Zor-El from Themyscira where she was being trained by Wonder Woman.  Kara was brainwashed to lead Darkseid's Female Furies and donned this "corrupted" look.  I wasn't a fan of this story when I originally read it, and I was even less of a fan when these toys originally came out.  When was I finally sold?  Read on below..

Voltron: The Third Dimension - HAGGAR THE WITCH!

Voltron: The Third Dimension - Haggar the Witch - Trendmasters 1999

Sometimes there's nothing worse than a bad reboot of a property that you love.  Voltron: The Third Dimension was a CGI continuation of the 1985 animated Voltron series done in the style of ReBoot and Transformers: Beastmasters.  Maybe it's just early CGI that I have an issue with, because in researching this review, I discovered that this show received a decent amount of awards during its brief tenure.  I just have trouble watching it.  One positive note though was really cool character designs and some fantastic toys.  Just the Stealth Voltron and Voltrex the dinosaur Voltron were enough to win me over, let alone the human characters.  I loved how all the pilots now had cat-shaped helmets, and that Allura was now wearing blue instead of pink.  But most of all, I loved this toy of Haggar.  Haggar's look in the show seemed to be almost identical to the original design, but I figure at some point in the series she transformed into this "Sorceress of Doom."  I love the look of this figure and her cool face-changing action feature.

Vintage Goodness: Voltron's HAGGAR THE WITCH!

Voltron: Defender of the Universe - Haggar the Witch - Panosh Place 1984

I can still remember my first reaction to Voltron like it was yesterday.  I grew up in the boonies with three staticy television channels.  One year we all spent the Summer with my Dad on an army base.  There we had an apartment with air-conditioning and cable (both were luxuries I didn't know existed).  I remember eating cereal on one of the first mornings there and my Mom turned on the TV in the middle of an episode of Voltron.  I was instantly intrigued.  Multi-Colored heroes who rode gigantic robot cats?!  A princess who is friends with a bunch of alien-looking mice?!  Blue-skinned bad guys in space?!  and.. wait.. what?  The lions are assembling?!  This can't be.  My 7-year-old mind was blown.  I became obsessed and was showered with Voltron toys that Christmas.  I won't even mention my reaction when I discovered Vehicle Voltron either.  Haggar was the typical cackling evil sorceress I had come to expect from my villainy.  Truly a classic 80s baddie.  Let's check her out below!

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - SHE-DEMON!

Hercules: The Legendary Journeys - She-Demon (Stone Strike Tail) - ToyBiz 1996

Welcome to the first of my Halloween reviews for 2013!   I'm not going to stress out about finding a new vampy lady every day like I attempted last year.  But rather, I've been saving my creepier reviews all year for the month of October.  She-Demon was always my favorite monster from Hercules.  She's essentially a hybrid of Lamia and Medusa, but presented as a child of Echidna and Typhon.  Unlike this toy, the TV version of She-Demon looked like a supermodel (played by Nicky Mealings), with a really bad CGI serpentine tail.  I guess the CGI was actually pretty good for a mid-nineties television show, but looking back now it's kind of laughable.  I also loved how this character was seductive instead of outright malicious.  I always love characters like that.  The toy leaves a lot to be desired, but it also it pretty fun.  Anytime an expressive face finds its way onto a toy the results can be hairy.  But the more I photographed She-Demon, the more I appreciated her.  Let's check her out below!