Adam Pawlus Has a Blog

More Junk: A New Podcast

2012-02-09T23:06:00.000-08:00

Some projects die on the vine, others... well, they're still growing. In addition to the Entertainment Earth podcast, I've started the Sunday Night Slog so I can complain about whatever in the wee hours between when the 16bit.com update goes up Sunday night and whenever it is I go to bed.

If all goes well, this week's will be about whatever I see in the first couple of days of Toy Fair.

The Band Project

2011-01-16T22:51:00.000-08:00

I was writing a blog post FOR THIS VERY BLOG that was basically a list of bands that I love that, for one reason or another, haven't released much in the past 10 years, or are related to those bands. Instead I decided to contact a bunch of 'em to see if they would be willing to answer questions, and here's a short list of the people who I'm trying to talk to for future 16bit.com content.

The Causey Way
Department of Crooks
Knodel
Marc Moreland Mess
Pilot Scott Tracey
The Pulsars
Supernova
Toenut
Tyro

Marc Moreland of Department of Crooks and the Marc Moreland Mess is, unfortunately, dead. This makes this harder.

In the off chance that you are magic, and also reading this, please let me know if you know anyone in Luxo Champ or Osama Bin Sars, please say "hi."

Toy Lines I Have Loved, 2010 Edition

2010-12-31T21:49:00.000-08:00

Here's what I think went well in 2010.

BATTLE BEASTS
Huge potential, big letdown-- Diamond Select only tooled up the Crocodile man and released it in 3 (soon to be 4) colors. It's a wonderful design and if Diamond Select did more of these, I'd buy them all. Within reason. If it gets to 300 all bets are off.

OUTER SPACE MEN
The Four Horsemen did a bang-up job on these. So far, there have been four figures released in four colors each-- it's a bit excessive, but I picked 'em all up. They're good. I'd suggest buying a few of these if I were you.

STAR WARS
A lot of stuff came out but it doesn't feel like it. Three waves of new movie figures is pretty pathetic, really... four, if you're feeling generous and count the delayed, exclusive Expanded Universe wave. Maybe we're going to see it wrap up soon? Hahahahahha. Ha. Seriously though, 2011 needs to step the hell up.

G.I. JOE
Went from "meh" to "wow!" The basic figures are wonderful, and the vehicles aren't bad. The Pursuit of Cobra Beach Head may be one of the finest G.I. Joe figures ever made, plus we saw a lot of hard-to-find exclusive show up on closeout. You really can't go wrong with that. I got most of these, minus a few vehicles. Just found wave 3 today and it will kick your ass.

TRANSFORMERS GENERATIONS
So good it's obscene-- 13 figures since June, 5 of which are from a new video game, and the rest include fan-requested characters who have no business having toys. Thunderwing? Straxus/Darkmount? Drift? Wow. And there's more on the way! I bought all of these.

TRANSFORMERS (Gold Boxes)
A mix of movie, classics, and all-new characters with tons of toys. I bought several, and I admire Hasbro's ability to mix in what essentially amount to new, classic characters.

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS
About as good as you can expect. It's weird, you've got a line where every figure is essentially perfect, it's hard to really talk about too much.

SPIDER-MAN (kids)
Wow, this is a WONDERFUL line if you skip about half of it. The basic Spider-Man is great, as are the Green Goblin, Venom, and Carnage figures. Nicely done.

IRON MAN 2
Another line where you should skip most of it. But the good stuff? Excellent. All the comic toys were wonderful, like Silver Centurion Iron Man, the original Vietnam-based armor, and Iron Monger were delightful. Well done.

MARVEL UNIVERSE
This year we got Ghost Rider, Iron Patriot, World War Hulk (which I still need to buy despite having seen 3 or 4 times), and a smattering of other good figures. It feels like another slow-drip release line, but hey, they made some great stuff here.

POP HEROES
Funko started a line of vinyl figures which are basically Hello Kitty meets Mighty Muggs meets Batman. I've got one on my desk and I want to get the Gremlins one and the as-of-yet- unannounced licenses too. More on that later.

Screw You Knight Errant

2010-10-29T23:47:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty open-minded when it comes to Star Wars in its various forms. Cartoons for kids? Comic books? Made-up characters just to sell exclusive toys? All fine by me, especially then they tie in to the era of the movies. While I'm not crazy about the pre-history, it has its place-- I really did love the original Tales of the Jedi series and its many sequels. The Knights of the Old Republic comic was hugely entertaining with characters that felt ripped out of an RPG-- take that as praise or a slur as you will.

In particular, I like the comics. Generally speaking, good or bad, you can get something out of them. I've read most-- I hesitate to say all-- because I'm missing some issues of Ewoks, one issue of General Grievous, and a few promotional odds and ends due to poor promotion and not knowing they even existed. Even the various prequel Jedi comics, where all the characters have the same motivation and values, generally you'd have taken something away from it.

I know this comes off as whiny, but there are very few series I actively disliked. Vader's Quest was a dull story where one of the antagonists was a pilot who got wasted, so Luke borrowed his X-wing on the fateful day the Death Star was done blowed up. Jedi Academy: Leviathan was, to my knowledge, the only time I've ever fallen asleep reading a comic series. Jedi vs. Sith, which brought us Darth Bane, had pretty ugly art and was really dull. And today? Well, today it's Knight Errant.

I don't keep up on fan reaction to comics much, basically I just read it all and whatever I like, I like. I liked Legacy, I thought Tales was a wonderful series of diversions, and even though I never really got into the New Jedi Order books, the new Invasion comics are fun. Knight Errant is not. It's another "let's tell a story about Jedi thousands of years before the movies" thing except this time there's not much in it to make me care up front.

Tales of the Jedi benefited from a strong group of characters, plus the fact that the backstory for the entire series was given away in the back pages of Dark Empire. You knew where it was going, but it was a great ride. Knights of the Old Republic had a good sensibility which helped drive it along-- it felt like a video game script, but the designs and personalities of the characters made up for any shortcomings. Knight Errant has people fighting with lightsabers, I guess, sort of.

One complaint I don't make enough is that Dark Horse's many reboots tend to squeeze the Star Wars out of Star Wars. There were many times recently where the stories included essentially no movie characters, which, while not a deal-breaker, really does suck out the fun. As a kid, I was reading these for more tales of Luke, Han, C-3PO, and R2-D2. Now I've got some other "new" Jedi fighting some other Sith empire and blah blah blah. It's the same damn struggle with new characters, and it's just no fun after a while.

Granted, it's my fault for buying every issue. I'm buying those The Old Republic comics based on the MMO but they're slightly more engaging as of late. It's rare that I immediately don't give a crap about a series-- even if I hate it, I want to know where it'll go-- but I'm considering giving Knight Errant he heave-ho.

Panel after panel of fighting close-ups and clumsy exposition with several characters and I don't know who's who or why. Comics aren't cheap-- you get about 10 minutes of entertainment for $3-- so shouldn't I be having some fun? Can I get something with Young Yoda or old Lando or some other post-prequel story about the survivors of the Jedi Purge? Please? And don't say Dark Times, that's going nowhere and it's taking years to get there.

Something That Will Interest No One

2010-10-25T22:18:00.001-07:00

OK, like one of you reading this MIGHT care. My current Top 25 iTunes list, which doesn't seem to have changed all that much since ever. I'm more or less surprised that the Mummies aren't up there yet, nor more Devo. I guess that's what happens when the same song exists on a dozen albums on live or demo forms.

It's all largely good stuff-- you'd all do well to check out most of this stuff. Although I don't think Oingo Boingo's Forbidden Zone soundtrack is really what any of you are looking for, I think most people should listen to more Blast Off Country Style.

FOTD2 Going OK, I think

2010-10-25T00:37:00.001-07:00

So in the past week and change, the column was launched and I even figured out how to rig up a comments section of questionable value. (Does it count if it's only two or three dudes posting?) I'm not even sure what to expect-- my Galactic Hunter Q&A columns get nearly 2,000 reads a week and nobody ever writes ANYTHING.

Also, Google seems to like it, or I know the exact words to type in to make Google like it. This is, of course, a big part of the point. If I review enough weirdness that nobody else touches, the two guys who want to know about it will eventually find my page. It'd be nice if more people clicked the banners and bought stuff... because, well, I don't get paid per article on any of these sites I write for.

I've got about 50 16bit FOTDs in the can (with lots more in various stages of completion) which sounded pretty good until I remembered that the Star Wars one I write is closer to 1,400. 1,424 actually.

I figure that soon-- and by "soon" I mean "after I get a house"-- I'll shift away from new figures and go back into the archives, writing about the weird stuff that I bought in college and high school nobody should ever see let alone own. You know, back when toys were still meant to be played with by kids. It's probably mostly going to be an excuse to tack on stories at the end of the reviews about how I found those figures which, for at least a chunk of them, will be more interesting than the toys.

FOTD 2 Launched

2010-10-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

16bit.com's Figure of the Day is live, right now. It's going to be 5 days a week and you should read it and click on all the banners.

A reminder, this is not going to feature Star Wars, nor is the Star Wars one going to stop because of the new one.

Somehow, it looks like you'll be reading a lot about Marvel and Transformers.

Meet the New Column

2010-10-07T23:09:00.000-07:00

Nobody reads this blog, so that's why I post announcements here.

On October 14, I'm doing something stupid. Since 2006 I've written "Figure of the Day" for Galactic Hunter, which has gone from 7 reviews per week to 5 because, well, who cares.

Starting October 14, I'll be adding a second daily Figure of the Day column. This one will be on 16bit.com and have no Star Wars content. It's a lot of extra work, but there are some differences which will make this one interesting.
1. I've already written 31 entries
2. If push comes to shove, I'm going to let myself skip a day (or three)
3. I'll review pretty much anything

The basic focus is "what can I get cheap?" or "what's on my desk right now?" rather than a unified focus. If I had to do "FOTD" as a concept over again, I'd have done it 7 days a week with literally any line rather than just Star Wars. Because, crap, I've written over 1,400 of the damn things. If you saw what I got paid for ad clickthroughs, you probably wouldn't do it. But hey, I've got toys, and I need more pageviews, so let's make some more pages.

What are we covering in the first 31? Marvel, Transformers, Masters of the Universe Classics, Funko Pop Heroes, LEGO Minifigures, and G.I. Joe amongst other goodies.

Eventually I might do a "guest week" or see if an open call for toy donations for coverage works out, but my guess is probably not. Although Mattel and Hasbro have already sent me stuff, so who the hell knows. They don't know it's for the column though. (Also: thank you very much, Hasbro and Mattel.)

Uniqlo Canned T-Shirts

2010-09-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

My friend Pete went to Japan recently and apparently is obsessed with Uniqlo, a company which sells a pretty diverse array of T-shirts in Japan. They don't stop at Japanese licenses-- apparently they had a lot of stuff like Marvel and Lucasfilm too.

This time around he got me a canned (I like the can, I must say) Neon Genesis Evangelion tee. You can see more images here.

I think more companies should sell their T-shirts like LEGO does Bionicle and like Pringles does potato chips. Clearly, a missed opportunity.

5 Surprising High Points

2010-06-21T22:35:00.000-07:00

So after moving back to Phoenix I'm still doing the eatery/toy store/record shop tour. Usually when visiting Phoenix I do this in about 3 days. (They're long days.) Here are some noted notables in the retail and food space.

Tokyo Express Now Kicks Ass
Stopped by for lunch to be greeted by a highly expanded menu with large boxes of meats. If you want shrimp, two kinds of chicken, and beef, you're covered. Congratulations, steadily decreasing Japanese food chain, you have a new customer for life.

There Are Rooms Of People Singing Along With Andrew Jackson Jihad
This is both awesome and terrifying. I like going to a concert with people who like the band, but the show I saw had a good half to three-fourths of the audience knowing all the words. That's just nuts. Or at least after years of going to see the Polysics or Man or Astro-Man or the Aquabats or something, it wasn't expected.

Despite Closing All Locations, Kmart Is Abundant
Pretty much every Kmart I went to growing up is gone-- as are most of the ones I shopped at as an adult. But somehow, there are still four within reasonable distance from me. Who cares? Well, they have this exclusive Jodo Kast figure, and...

Crazy Clearances Still Happen
I bought a G.I. Joe figure for $0.88. Just one so far, which is probably the only one I'll see. But this sort of crap makes my month.

Esplinade Is Dead
Wanna see a movie? Nobody goes to the theater hidden in the office buildings adjacent to the Biltmore. VICTORY. I hate crowds. Rot at Desert Ridge, you poor fools.

Malls

2010-06-14T00:03:00.000-07:00

So yeah, before moving to Los Angeles I spent a lot of time in shopping malls. Not for clothes or shoes or socializing, but for recon, for info, for toys and games. Phoenix malls were these strange pop culture buffets, and you were pretty much guaranteed to find some pretty cool stuff at some surprising locales. They closed those stores, so the malls have been increasingly not-worth-my-time as I visited. Now that I'm back, here are some complaints you won't want to read. (Go to the next post.)

Paradise Valley Mall
I lived across the street from here for over 2 years, at which point it was glorious. Hobby Bench, Kay-Bee Toys, and Suncoast Motion Picture Company made the place kick ass. All three are gone-- if you want toys now, you might find something in the board game store or GameStop. Maybe Sears. Nothing remains that's toy-specific. There is a new (to me) movie theater chain called "Picture Show" which, appropriately enough, opened where the old Harkins theater used to be near the food court.

Metrocenter
I've heard this mall is dying since... geez, forever. It's still open but a lot of stuff is gone-- all the toy stores, the board game store, etc. It used to have 3 video game stores, now it doesn't. The remainging Point Of Interest is really the Suncoast, which may be the only one around in the state. I'll need to investigate. The mall has a lot of empty stores, which, I hope, means some wacky thing might open up as rents inevitably decline. Someone should open a cool record store or something you don't see every day. It's pretty silent when you get in it, though, and I've been twice since getting back. (Errands, lunch, you know the drill.)

Arrowhead
Not much for toys. Nor music. There's a GameStop and a 2-story sporting goods store where tackle boxes are too expensive for toy storage purposes. It's been dull for a while, and remains dull today.

Have not yet dropped in Scottsdale Fashion Square, Fiesta, Desert Sky, Superstition Springs, or ChrisTown malls. I've been near ChrisTown mall but it's been predominantly sucky for pretty much as long as I've been able to drive there, particularly since the Kay-Bee (and 60% of the mall) was removed.

I'm in the midst of a shit toy run season. There's always something to research and go after, but as far as action figures go, it's pretty dull unless you're in to the big summer movies which, this season, are either a) over or b) skewing younger than my interests. (Not gonna care about Last Airbender stuff.) But that starts in August officially, and if Kmart does more of what they're reportedly doing, it might start a lot sooner.

I Remain Old

2010-06-04T00:58:00.001-07:00

I'll point out that I also said "I'm so old" at many of the other shows I've been to, particularly every Aquabats gig I've seen since, let's say, late 1999. (And that show with the Hippos and Nerf Herder. Felt old there.)

I just came back from seeing a band that has been on my short list for a few years, Andrew Jackson Jihad at Trunk Space. I don't get out for shows much. Actually, this is the second show I've been to in the past five years that wasn't a comedy thing. AJJ were great, but what was particularly interesting was that it seemed that most of the audience was singing along with most of the existing songs and loved it. Which is great. I saw an Auburn Court show last week (hi ladies!) and they put on quite the show, and I noticed one dude who was totally feeling all the music. I would say that if a man could have an intimate, sensual experience with a setlist, he was somehow doing it. The AJJ show was closer to some sort of revival or cult, minus the bizarre sexual practices and suicide pacts. Either way, fun times.

As someone who generally isn't used to people knowing what I'm talking about regarding music, it really was surreal to see an entire room of dudes and ladies just belting out what essentially amounts to catchy folk tunes about how much people suck. (Were I to simplify it, I mean.) I'm generally not used to fans being quite that passionate about the music, particularly because most of the shows I saw over the years, I was convinced people were there more to be seen than see the bands. (And let me tell you, these were some great bands.) So yes, AJJ fans may be some of the most dedicated I've seen as of late, but maybe that's just a growing part of the increasingly specialized music taste people seem to sport as the Old Tyme Record Shoppe becomes a thing of the past and Top 40 radio seemingly loses some of its influence.

You youngsters have good taste. Or at least those of you at the last couple of shows I've been to do. The rest of you, who knows.

Also saw something called "Bikini Lounge" which Pete tells me is basically untouched since the 1950s or 1960s. If you look inside, with a few exceptions like a bowling game and some other things, I believe him. If I ever hear the place is getting shut down or abandoned I'm going to bust in and liberate some of the signage and murals they had in there, as they are beautiful. Still, after the "wow neat" factor wears off, it's a bar, and I don't know what to do with myself at those kinds of places other than leave a few minutes in-- which is what we did. I kinda wish I had a picture of the place for you though.

Moved

2010-05-31T23:51:00.000-07:00

I've since packed up and moved my entire stash to another state. So starting in about 7 or 8 hours, I'll be trying this whole home-office job thing. Right now my apartment isn't entirely set up, and I'm leeching internet as my connection that I pay for went down pretty much immediately on Sunday. Kinda annoying.

Since I'm working from a modest apartment rather than a house or an office, I've basically got everything crammed into a fairly small space. My friend Pete came by and I got to show him the rig thus far, which basically is a wall with my TV, stereo, video games, and computer all in one location. The advantage of this is that I can get to pretty much anything from my chair, and as luck would have it, I just got a new chair today. It's a lot better than my old computer chair, which I've had since 1998. It was a perfectly fine chair, but it wasn't exactly super-comfy nor was there room for it in the moving truck.

I'm also extremely glad I did a buffer for Figure of the Day to get me to about June 30. For those of you that have seen my collection of toys, you know that it's going to take a while to move. And we did it all in about two days. I'm quite literally bruised, tired, and generally not exactly feeling up to getting up early to greet the cable guy so I can work, and then continue unpacking after the work day ends. But it needs to get done, and well, I get to try working from home. It's all quite exciting.

If everything goes well, I might be able to consider myself "unpacked" in about 2-3 months. There's a lot I need to dig out, and right now I'd consider everything workable. Problem is, I found my Xbox 360, but not my controllers. Wish me luck, or I'll just play everything with an arcade stick.

Phoenix so far is about 80% how I remember it. The same toy stores are basically still around, there are some new places to eat, and it's also quite hot. I've been finding that every Wal-Mart I go to has something different that I've either never seen in Los Angeles or haven't seen in almost a year, once again proving that Los Angeles is a crap hole for toys.

So yeah, tomorrow morning I set up the work PC and cross my fingers that my internet connection gets restored so I can, you know, use it. Good night Austin Texas, where ever you are.

Mobility

2010-05-05T00:23:00.000-07:00

It turns out that I'm joining that ever-growing mobile workforce, working from home at my same job but from a different state. Should be interesting. I'm curious how long until I flip out and go all Howard Hughes.

Eisenhower, Hippies

2010-03-26T18:34:00.000-07:00

Mystery solved!

Many years ago when Napster ruled supreme, there was a song attributed to Man or Astro-Man called "Eisenhower & The Hippies." It sounded vaguely like them-- close enough, to be sure-- but where did it come from? Was it a cover?

Well, I finally found out. The track itself comes from the compilation Oh Canaduh which features 1990s bands covering 1970s and 1980s Canadian punk songs. Since they are Canadian, odds are you haven't heard of most of them.

The original band that wrote "Eisenhower & the Hippies" (also seen as "Eisenhower vs. Hippies") is UJ3RK5 or "You Jerks." Even Wikipedia had it wrong. Well, now you know! Ordinarily I'd dump on a band for using this sort of language in their name, but for something from 30 years ago? It's cool.

In Case You Missed It

2010-03-02T18:20:00.000-08:00

The 16bit.com offices got guinea pigs last weekend.

That's Glados. Nova (not pictured here) believes she is a cupcake.

Absolutely True Nixon Facts

2010-01-18T01:03:00.000-08:00

He was born on February 12th 1809, and died April 15th 1865 at the age of fifty six.
His home state is Illinois.
His party was Republican and he was president for four years from 1861-1865, when he was assassinated.
His vice presidents where Hannibal Hamlin and Andrew Johnson.
He was preceded by James Buchanan and succeeded by Andrew Johnson.
His wife was called Pat Todd Nixon, who was brought up into a very wealthy family.
Pat’s parents disagreed with her marrying Richard because he had a poor background.
Richard had four children, Robert Todd Nixon, Edward Nixon, Willie Nixon, Tad Nixon. Only Robert Todd Nixon survived into adulthood.
Richard was an unaffiliated Christian as he never officially acquired church membership.
He created a national banking system with the National Banking Act in 1863, resulting in a standardized currency.
He was the first president to be assassinated.
He had deep depression, even though he would frequently tell stories and jokes to friends and family.
He was the tallest U.S president at 6ft 4 inches.
He patented a system to alter buoyancy of steamboats in 1849.
His birth mother died from milk sickness.
His father remarried a widow, and Richard was very close to his step mother.
He ran a store in New Salem.
Even though he was strong, a talented wrestler, and proficient with an axe, Nixon disliked killing and harming animals, even for food.
Nixon proposed to Pat just one year after meeting her in Springfield 1839.
He was the first president to have a beard.
Nixon, one week before his death, had a dream of someone crying in the White House, when he found the room; he looked in and asked who had passed away. The man in the room said the President. When he looked in the coffin it was his own face he saw.
Nixon was fond of pets, and owned horses, cats, dogs and a turkey.

Stuff I Want In 2010 (Or, Unreasonable Demands)

2009-12-31T00:40:00.000-08:00

1. The alleged "Pinkerton" special edition album with bonus tracks and whatever needs to come out
2. Hasbro needs to make Sunstorm in its next Classics/Universe line (repaint of Starscream)
3. An official announcement of some substance for the live-action Star Wars TV show.
4. Darius Burst for PSP released in the USA. Failing that, any Darius game on Xbox Live.
5. "The Office" gets wind of Lost's plan to end the show and follows suit. Failing that, start hiring or firing people.
6. US release of Masterpiece Edition Grimlock, at or under $75
7. G.I. Joe's continued integration of non-Joe characters like Matt Trakker. Maybe Spike Witwicky or grab a new license just to throw 'em in the Joe line. Like Metal Gear Solid.
8. Mattel steals Hasbro's idea of "guest stars" like Matt Trakker and includes other licenses in Masters of the Universe. Lion-O's about due for a new toy.
9. Star Wars is released or announced for Blu-Ray.
10. Salamander gets released for Xbox Live Arcade.
11. Transformers Classics Kup. It's about time.
12. Hasbro announces an Oscar the Grouch action figure. (Hey, they got the license.)
13. Somebody makes a decent, fairly priced Samus Aran toy.

Yet More Movies I Have Recently Watched/Rewatched

2009-12-27T01:01:00.000-08:00

The Day The Earth Stood Still (original)
Surprisingly good-- it's a 1951 sci-fi flick that manages to look pretty good for its age. The same guy who directed this also did The Sound of Music and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, meaning he is a better man than you or I. The basic message of "stop fighting you idiots because you'll destroy us too" was used in other movies, "Plan 9 From Outer Space" comes to mind, to a fairly amusing end. Here, it's just part of the movie which was worth seeing.

The Day The Earth Stood Still (remake)
The original movie was fun, in part because it looks old but it's also pretty brisk and fairly golly gee-wiz in places. The remake? Awful. There are some great casting decision here but the effects are wonky and the reimagining of Gort was outright unpleasant. Keanu plays Klaatu as a humorless douche rather than a curious and interested outsider, and several scenes could have been cut just because they barely added backstory and didn't help the plot. Plodding, slow, pretty miserable. (We got it because it included the original film for cheap.)

Gremlins
Awwww yeah Gremlins. What's not to love? For the ladies, you have Gizmo. For the slasher nerds, you have killer green monsters. For movie fanatics, you have Robbie the Robot walking around in the middle of the movie. The effects mostly hold up well, the acting is good enough, and I'm quite pleased to have this one on Blu-Ray now. I wish Gremlins 2 was out too.

Santa Claus (via MST3K)
Uhhhh... hunh. The featurette was arguably more interesting than the film itself, as apparently this movie introduced Santa Claus to Mexico in the 1950s and was something of a known entity to boomers. This I find hard to believe-- the movie has Santa Claus fighting the Devil in places, but generally it's a bunch of surreal set pieces and what the 1950s probably considered political correctness with a bunch of kids from around the world doing native song things... which came off as more or less racist. All the more reason to see it, really.

It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia Christmas (arguably not a movie)
We caught this and it's generally pretty funny with some extremely disturbing yet funny images involving blood and hiding in furniture. I'd describe it in detail but that would ruin it for you. Also, it's got that Huddleston guy in there who you may remember as the old/real Jeffrey Lebowski.

The Omega Man
Never saw this one before, and I think overall I liked it. It's very 1970s in parts, specifically the music and some of the supporting players introduced about 50 minutes into the film. Heston was pretty great, the mutant bad guys were pretty flat (essentially smarter zombies/cultists), the look was mostly pretty good. It didn't feel like a particularly expensive flick, but for the five bucks I paid for the Blu-Ray I had a great time. Worth seeing, movie nerds.

I need to watch some more Apes movies this week.

Movies I Have Recently Watched/Rewatched

2009-12-20T00:19:00.000-08:00

My Internet and Phone went out for several days, which pushed along the large amount of DVDs and Blu-Rays viewed in my den of crap. Here's some of what I watched.

THX-1138
Bought this in like 2004 but never watched it. Caught it after midnight this weekend, which is the right time to watch pretty much any science fiction movie made in the 1970s. I don't know what it is, but it makes them all better. Which is good, because this was a bit of a drag. It looks like a very expensive student film, with tacked-on CG bits. But it's arguably worth seeing, just because it's really funny to see a movie with such a strong anti-consumer, anti-conform message from the guy who can owe his lifestyle to toy collectors. And, you know, tons of groundbreaking movie tech. But also toy collectors.

Inglorious Basterds
I missed this in the theaters and bought the Blu last week. Totally worth seeing. I look forward to rewatching it in the new year. If you can take a little bit of blood, it's a genuinely entertaining piece of work.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier
Haven't seen this in years. There were lots of neat costumes and setpieces, and the writers clearly loved writing the Kirk-Spock-McCoy exchanges. But man, Sybok sucks. And the desert guys distracted by the Uhura Fan Dance was straight out of Bugs Bunny.

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
I remembered this being awesome, and it was largely very good. Great composite effects, wonderful costumes, decent pacing. A lot of motivations were weird, but it was worth seeing again. And will be worth re-seeing again, again.

Kill Bill Vol. 1
Still awesome. Especially the back half.

Planet of the Apes
I saw the entire series after midnight on the Disney channel many moons ago, which is, of course, the ideal time to watch them. This one aged really well. Some of the makeup could be better, but the cinematography was certainly decent and I'm looking forward to rewatching the sequels.

Gremlins is on the list for the week, can't wait to see it again.

Goodbye Cable, Hello Movies

2009-12-07T00:49:00.000-08:00

So we got rid of the cable (DISH network, specifically) a couple of weeks ago when our 5-year-old DVR box receiver finally died as the hard drive conked out. We've toyed with adjusting our package to nix a level of programming (which we didn't, due to GSN and FX) and then also considered dumping HBO (which we didn't, because it always had something good on.) So while I'm missing some stuff, most of it is on Hulu or an equivalent so that has been working out just fine.

The best part of all of this is that the massive DVD collection in our hallway is not only getting sorted, it's getting watched. Numerous Star Trek films, episodes of Pee-Wee's Playhouse, and other goodies are finally being screened in my home rather than the horrible stuff we tended to watch on the DVR. Which may or may not have included a number of shows on VH-1 that surrounded long-form dating game shows.

I think this says less about the state of TV programming than it does with my inability to say no to the pop culture stuff that won't help my job or general well-being in the same way as, say, rewatching the entire Planet of the Apes series. Which is a good idea, good for you, and good times.

So I guess my plan for the new year is to choke down every last one of these hundreds of movie DVDs or sell them off. There's so many movies I need to see again, or at all, that this should be a good way to spend a year. I may be less informed BUT at least I'll have a better catalog of references from which to laugh at MST3K DVDs. (I've already got the Mothers jokes covered.)

Toy Runs Are Great

2009-11-13T21:11:00.001-08:00

So Pete and I hit a bunch of stores Friday and I/we went to some other places too. Due to leaks of things that shouldn't be out and me not wanting to piss on anyone's parade, here's some of what I got.

CDs
Tom Waits "Glitter & Doom Live"
Melt Banana "Cell-Scape"
Les Savy Fav "Go Forth"

Movies
Fifth Element (Blu-Ray, $13, woo)

Books
TMNT Collected Year 1

Toys
DC Universe Green Lantern, Green Arrow, Black Canary set ($5.00)

Games
Xbox 360 LEGO Batman and LEGO Star Wars Complete Saga ($17 for the pair, not each)

Soda
Ruby Red Squirt (Fry's Marketplace)
...Pop Soda was all out of Jolt. Again. Tons of diet, of course, none of the regular stuff. WHY DO YOU MOCK ME SO.

Pete was looking for "Kill City" from Iggy Pop/James Williamson and we could not find a copy on CD. A pity. It's a pretty good album.

...in terms of "catch and release" finds, there were tons of Dewbacks, AT-ST, Geonosis Assault (Gun Pod) Battle Packs, Jurassic Park TRU toys (in short supply in my usual haunts), Masterpiece Skywarps, Legacy Wave 9, and other goodies in great numbers. As usual, Phoenix does not disappoint.

This Root Beer Is Totally Real

2009-11-13T20:57:00.000-08:00

Found this at Pop Soda in Tempe, AZ while I'm on assignment. (Otherwise I'd post this to 16bit.com first.)

It's Judge Wapner Root Beer. The label reads "I sentence you to drink my Root Beer." I haven't tried it yet, but it's from the same people that did Leninade and that was pretty good stuff. I'll be keeping an empty of this on my desk at work, too.

Bands That Piss Me Off With Their Hiatus

2009-11-09T01:20:00.000-08:00

Hey bands-- if you've ended your career, let us know, rather than making us wonder if you're still around or not. Not updating your web site? Bad form. Post that you're done or over or something. In particular:

Man or Astro-Man (no real updates since 2005, no releases since 2001)
Pilot Scott Tracy (last update ???, last album 2006)
Spoozys (last US release 2000, last release 2003, last website update 2003)
Tiki Tones (last update 2007, last album 2000)
Tyro (last update, album 2000)

Seriously, I'd totally love to give you people some money. I can't be alone here.

Also for a dishonorable mention, Supernova released a 7-inch in 2008 and let their web site lapse into expiration. Good job. Nerf Herder did not make the cut because, apparently, Nerf Herder IV was released in 2008. Which means that this has been the longest freaking year ever. Bah.

And while I have your attention, does anyone know if Jonny and the Shamen released a third album? I've got Adventures in Espionage and Operation: Twang!, but I remember seeing a third one, if memory serves, as some early digital-distro exclusive. I can't find any evidence of this. It may have been MP3.com or eMusic or something, but nothing seems to remain. Little help? There's basically no useful record of the band existing-- no official site, no Wikipedia page, nada.

Soda Marketing, 2009: Cats

2009-11-01T15:33:00.000-08:00

We went to Target to peruse the graveyard of Halloween items, as I was hoping to get a deal on the LEGO Power Miners sets in the polybags. No dice, but we did find this amusing artifact.

Each bottle has a different label, but one side of the packaging (and one bottle) seems to have grafted on to the internet craze that refuses to die (or stop being entertaining), LOLcats. Or people that dress up cats. Either way, there you go-- clearance Monster Mojitos, with a pirate cat.

I am a Narcissistic Snot

2009-10-26T01:05:00.000-07:00

I had something about bargain CDs I was gonna post then I proved myself wrong after overpaying for something by about two or three bucks, so blargh. Instead, here's my top 25 most played songs in iTunes. I don't think there's anything in here I'm particularly ashamed of, which is good.

So that's what iTunes tells me I love. It's pretty close to the mark, but I guess some stuff gets played more by virtue of the fact it got on this list early on. There really should be some Mummies on here at some point, but the highest played track of theirs is "Jezebel" at 22. Hunh. Also, "Make it Rain" is a lot higher than I'd have guessed, particularly as it isn't my favorite Tom Waits song by a long shot.

The takeaway from this:
- Andrew Jackson Jihad is awesome, and you should listen to them
- Inches is a pretty sweet album, and you should probably get that too
- Songs About Fucking? Also awesome.
- Blast Off Country Style? Also yes. (The band, not the album. I've never actually heard the record they took their name from. I should probably change that.)

I (think I) Miss Radio Dramas

2009-10-19T01:27:00.001-07:00

Not that I was really around to enjoy them when they were finally dying, but I actually very much dig the Star Wars and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio shows. I'd like more stuff like this, even though I am not what you would call a typical sci-fi fan in the sense that I'm not really receptive to most space things unless toys are somehow involved. The TV HHG2G was something my dad taped when I was like three or four to show me when I was 10, so that kinda stuck. I listened to the Guide before bed last year and am going for a second run-through nowish.

The whole format is really nifty because, well, it's cheap. It's like someone made a cartoon without the drawings. I hear there's a lot of Doctor Who stuff like this out there but I can't say I honestly consider myself a big fan of the franchise. And sure, there's a lot of audiobooks, but it doesn't seem like there's a lot of stuff out there quite like these shows, produced after the late 1970s, that I've seen yet.

If you've never heard these, they're pretty great. The downside of the Star Wars ones is that it's an incredibly long series. Star Wars is a hair over 6 hours, Empire Strikes Back clocks in at 4:22, and Return of the Jedi is the short one at 3:12. Keep in mind, these are based on films which run about 2 hours... so there's a lot of expanded background goofiness here. I hear there's a Dark Empire one but I have yet to find it. Maybe I should do that.

This is going nowhere, other than me getting at "I like this sort of thing." I'm a little surprised NPR or the BBC or someone isn't doing more of this kind of thing for podcasts, just for kicks, but maybe it's too expensive given the audience is probably old-time radio fans and about twelve nerds. There's gotta be more of a market for this kind of stuff. On that note, are they doing the sixth Adams-free And Another Thing for radio? I hear they're reading it over the air but I mean like some fancy-pants production with more than three voices.

...not that I could tell you what I'd be particularly interested in hearing in this format. If I had more time I'd research to see if podcasters were dong anything like this of interest, but if by chance you've heard of something good do let me know. Otherwise it's back to the 1970s for my ears.

Life Magazine

2009-10-12T02:21:00.000-07:00

My friend Zac made a crack about a picture I posted on Twitter. So here's what it'd look like.

BEHOLD YOUR FUTURE (six months ago)

Fishing

2009-09-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

One of the many duties in toy collecting is to remember to store your figures so they won't get broken. One of my regular runs is to Kmart, as Wal-Mart and pretty much every other store stopped carrying the appropriately sized tackle boxes my figures crave. For the record, the model today was the Plano 3700.

I cleaned them out. I pretty much always buy what they have-- generally, 5 units or so-- but today they had 15, so... well, you know how it goes. Star Wars toys don't store themselves.

The guy in sporting goods-- there usually isn't one-- took a big interest when I started looking at the boxes and stacking them all. "So, you're a fisherman?" "Nope." He kept asking a lot of questions, which leads me to believe that he might have noticed that about once a month someone comes in and buys all of the tackle boxes.

The checker lady also seemed incredibly amused. Next time it's "THEY'RE FOR SEVERED HUMAN FINGERS, DO YOU MIND?"

Really, Music Press?

2009-09-08T00:01:00.000-07:00

There are few things you can be sure of when the name They Might Be Giants have news that hits the music press. One, it's a safe bet the word "quirky" will be employed. This was a law up until about 2000, now it seems to just happen on occasion.

The new new law is that if it's a kid's album, it's going to say something like this, which we just happened to take from Pop Matters review of Here Comes Science:

This is the kind of record that parents won’t get sick of their kids playing nonstop.

In the off chance a parent is reading this, I'd like to invite you to comment on that sentence-- variations of which appear in most if not all reviews of the TMBG kids' albums over the past few years.

Other People's Music

2009-09-06T00:28:00.001-07:00

I am rarely asked to DJ anything, ever. Generally doing this is basically begging for me to make your life increasingly miserable as you complain about the music being played. As such, I was surprised to be asked to handle music duties for the Michael Metzger-Andrea Elberly wedding, and they picked the phat beats.

Playlist part 1
Playlist part 2

On the whole the entire shindig was great-- interestingly, as the night went on, a lot of people seemed to get a little too interested in the music. Sticking exclusively to the happy couple's playlist, it's interesting to see just how diverse a reaction you can get to the perception that you, as the DJ, may be going against the couple's wishes.

It was a lot of fun. If someone asks you to hold the mic and play songs, I suggest you give it a try. Being a wedding, audience-baiting was off the menu but I hope that there's a chance to do something like this again. And next time I'll bring my iPod so when someone who's had a few too many requests to hear something about Uranus, I and Man or Astro-Man will be prepared.

Michael, you're my oldest friend and I wish you and your special lady all the very best. Clearly, you've picked a good one. Andrea, take good care of my old buddy. I know you two are going to have a great life together, take care of him, walk him regularly, and turn him toward the light and water him daily.

Random Albums I May Never Get Sick Of

2009-09-01T23:28:00.000-07:00

I find most music is like fruit. After a while it'll eventually spoil. Good music is like a Twinkie-- it lasts a good long time, and may someday spoil, but not likely to be soon. Here are some albums that, for me, have pretty much always worked as great late-night companions to be played through in their entirety. And yes I'm under 30, I just like the older stuff. If I'm up working late, this is what I end up listening to a lot.

Talking Heads' "More Songs About Buildings & Food"
I got this on LP many moons ago-- well, maybe like 2001 or something-- and played the heck out of it. Your trash is my treasure, and this is a really good album that wasn't represented by a collection I had. "I'm Not In Love" is getting a lot of play lately, but the whole thing is great to play all the way through.

Pulsars' "Pulsars"
Surprisingly good. If you kinda like They Might Be Giants but would stab someone in the eye before listening to "Flood" again, you might like this. I found this in a ten cent CD bin, and saw it in numerous discount and cut-out bins since. Basically it's a couple of guys singing about tunnels-- like actual tunnels, not a metaphor-- and really old Macs being turned into fish bowls. (This also makes the packaging.) I ripped nearly every CD I owned at my first job for my work PC and this one was far and away the most played. It's good, but apparently it's VERY good when played at the office.

Alice Cooper's "Billion Dollar Babies"
People will tell you this is not the group's best album. These people are wrong. It's not that it's astonishingly clever, it's just very enjoyable. Pretty much everything I thought about the band is nicely encapsulated by this disc, and it's nice and noisy in places too. Can you name a lot of albums with a dentist's drill? I can't.

Wall of Voodoo's "Dark Continent"
Or, "good luck finding this, sucker." I bought it on vinyl because the CD was a limited-release in the 1990s and was worth $120+. Then I got the CD... a CDR bootleg sold at a Ridgway concert. It's their first LP and it's actually fantastic if you like their other stuff. "Back in Flesh" is a great ode to not working, and while I'm not sure what "Crack the Bell" is about I do love it. If by some reason you stumble on this, you're 18-22, and you enjoyed the likes of They Might Be Giants at some point in your life, do yourself a favor and get this.

Weezer's "Pinkerton"
You can probably blame the rise of emo on this one but dang it's good. Since it didn't get much play, and sales are less-than-stellar by Weezer standards, it's one of those things that seems to get both less and more respect than it deserves. Anyone that didn't enjoy "El Scorcho" is a damned liar.

Spoozys' "Astro 99" EP
I enjoy the music of Spoozys. I love this EP. 5 songs, formerly Japan-only, I think it's on iTunes and a few other places now. "Surf Devolution" is one of the best instrumentals I've heard in a while, and "It's Only a Droid" may be the only surf-oriented song that features C-3PO's whines as lyrics. I daresay if you're also under 30 and can still be bowled over by music, this is worth picking up.

Andrew Jackson Jihad's "Candy Cigarettes and Cap Guns"
Angry, angry folk. Half of it can be downloaded from the band's site for free. It's essentially folk punk, which sounds crappy, but it isn't. There's a manic energy here that you find in early Polysics, minus the bleeps and Japanese-ness of it. According to iTunes I really, really love this album. I don't disagree. See also: "Issue Problems" album.

Blast Off Country Style, "In My Arms" EP, "Rainbow Mayonnaise Deluxe" album, "White Devil" 7-inch, "C'mon and Blast Off Country Style" compilation
I found them while digging for cheap Japanese imports in a bargain bin. Turns out they were a bunch of kids from Virginia. Very engaging, I daresay almost too cute for their own good. But it's one of those bands where I seek out side projects and the members' other work, so yeah, it's good.

I write a lot.

2009-08-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

Just not here. I've been cranking out stuff for about 14 years, which is pretty good for someone that spends most of his time thinking about small plastic men and old video games. I added another one to the roster officially last week, which is a lot of fun. So if for some reason you stumbled on this, here's where you can find more of my stuff that's active. And this is stuff outside my day job. (One of my High School teachers once insulted a chatty student with the phrase "Do you ever have an unexpressed thought?" I think that phrase now applies to me.)

16bit.com - Originally launched as a video game site, it has since morphed into games and licensed toys and stuff I think you should know about that isn't Star Wars. I write pretty much 100% of it, unless otherwise noted. Am waffling about adding more comic books or music to the mix.
Comedy Is Dead - Comedy blog, I write for it as well as two good friends from college, Zac and Shaun. The name refers to an in-joke of another comedy group from the University of Arizona which propriety prevents me from sharing here.
Galactic Hunter - Originally launched as a video game site, it has since morphed into games and licensed toys and stuff I think you should know about that isn't Star Wars. I do the Q&A, Figure of the Day, and random news updates.
Playmoblog - the only English-language Playmobil blog I know of, updated sparsely.
Topless Robot - this is a new one, I only contribute. Just search on my name to see what I've posted so far. I wrote two more submissions in the past few days, and two are up so far. One is on novelty songs, the other on McFarlane Toys.

And as far as social media stuff that I'll actually tell other people about (other than here)...

Twitter and Flickr. Warning/guarantee: it's pretty much all about toys.

Selected things I no longer do: Adam's Star Wars Newsletter (tyrant), go figure! magazine (columnist), HoloCroN/AOL Star Wars Fan Club (toy contributor), Auction Universe (freelance), ToyFare (freelance), Anime News Network (freelance, toys), Rebelscum (contributor), Fandom Menace (contributor), Yakface.com (contributor/schmuck-in-chief), JediNet (toys, collecting page)... I'm forgetting a few.

There's some other stuff I'd like to do but putting it all out in black and white like that makes it seem unlikely that I'll do it.

New Old Albums I Have Recently Heard: Volume 2

2009-07-18T00:42:00.000-07:00

More stuff I have only recently heard as a full album for the very first time.

Skafish's "Skafish"
I no longer wonder why a CD wasn't pressed of this one. I've been looking for this LP for about 6 or 7 years and found it. It turns out that encapsulates something Captain Beefheart once said about another recording entirely: "This album is not available to the public. Even if it were you wouldn't want to listen to it." I don't hate it but someone's trying too damn hard to be edgy and "outsider"y here.

The Cramps' "Songs The Lord Taught Us"
Rockabilly with too much echo, one of their earliest releases. If you told me the band was formed on a dare I'd believe you, it's very jagged but endearing. The cover of "Fever" on this album was featured during the "what the fuck just happened" sequence of the film The Hangover. The album immediately made me happy.

Sexual Milkshake's "Sing-A-Long in Hebrew"
I got this off eBay like two ago and my record player needle was screwed. Now that I heard it I don't think it was worth the fuss. It's noisy and fun to listen to but I haven't exactly had the urge to rip it to MP3. Great if you need something fun from the 1990s that you aren't sick of yet. Hardly worth the several years I spent tracking it down but if you have the chance to hear it and liked the other stuff related to this band, worth a look.

The Police's "Zenyatta Mondatta"
2 hits, 9 shits. I thought this was supposed to be good, it was pretty much a real drag.

David Bowie's "The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars"
Astounding fact: I almost made it to 30 without hearing a Bowie album in its entirety. I probably would've hated this a few years ago, and I didn't like it much on the first listen... but it's growing on me. I think that means it's basically good but it wasn't the kind of moment where you basically feel like your ears should give you a hug for finally hearing something great. That's reserved for The Stooges' album "Raw Power."

Talking Heads' "Talking Heads: 77"
I heard a lot of their stuff but missed this one. Pretty good. While some critics posted otherwise I don't think they put out a genuinely awful album, ignoring True Stories... which I got for like a buck on vinyl and think I got taken. The debut has "Psycho Killer" on it and a bunch of other stuff that you probably haven't heard unless you were paying attention to the band 30+ years ago.

Alice Cooper's "School's Out" LP
I heard a lot of this in various places but decided it was time to hear the group's work from the early 1970s in its full album format. If you've already heard the title track and most of the tracks elsewhere, like on the boxed set or a greatest hits collection, you can probably skip this one. It's not that it's awful, it's actually a fun "let's work and write all night" kind of album. And I freaking love Alice Cooper, particular pre-solo career. (I love the "Billion Dollar Babies" LP so maybe there's no accounting for taste.)

Klark Kent's "Kollected Works"
If you like The Police but want less Sting and more snotty nose-thumbing, here you go. This is Stewart Copeland's side project and it's been on my hunt list for years... now that I've heard it, I can safely say that I worked too hard to find it, but I knew that after hearing "Don't Care" on a collection of 80s stuff like ten years ago. I don't think you're going to want to play this for your friends to show off some awesome obscure find, but it's worth listening to. "Grandelinquent" sounds like 1980s Frank Zappa and The Police had a baby instrumental song. Awww.

Kraftwerk's "Trans-Europe Express"
People think this is their best album. It's a little harder to listen to, particularly because of Kraftwerk's decision to release albums in German (for Germany) and in English for other regions. The songs are basically the same but the fact that the tracks are sung in this German accent makes it almost sound like you're listening to Krafwerk perform thier own "Weird Al" Yankovic parody... I get why they didn't want to do it in just one language, and admittedly I'm new to hearing this band so I'm probably missing something, but it comes off as more goofy than great. (Perhaps more listens are required but I think if I put this on a loop for you that you'd ultimately kill yourself.)

Newish Albums I Have Recently Heard: Volume 1

2009-07-12T23:10:00.000-07:00

With toys I spend most of my life looking in all directions. With music, I generally look back. I try to find new stuff, though, because I probably should. I'm not old or anything, it's just that I prefer stuff that sounds like it was recorded awkwardly and doesn't involve someone's phone ringing.

Andrew Jackson Jihad's "Operation Stackola"
A couple of knuckleheads from Phoenix doing what is probably best deemed some sort of folk-punk, only it isn't annoyingly stupid, just pleasantly irate. This isn't going to make you feel any smarter but I can assure you that if you're a bitter fart from the desert you will enjoy it. Not as fun as their other stuff, much of which can be downloaded from their site for free. But most AJJ tracks are high entertainment, so.

Datarock's "Red"
This isn't out yet but people post things to their blogs and I have a habit of listening to them. Not as enjoyable as their debut, full of reference name-dropping. "The Blog" is a little too cute, my opinion of this album is inversely proportional to their actual command of the English language. If you haven't heard their s/t debut, give that a whirl, it's sugary but fun if you're a Talking Heads fan under 35. This album isn't for sale yet... but... uh... yeah. I keep my ears open and hear things.

Freezepop's "Form Activity Motion"
I genuinely enjoy this band's catalog but listening to this one all the way through was a chore. 8 songs which sound like they're probably better served to a certain kind of teenage girl, 1 new, 7 remixes/variant recordings. "Moons of Jupiter" is entertaining enough but there are four fucking mixes of "Frontload," another "Plastic Stars," and a pair of "Thought Balloon" revisions.

New Old Albums I Have Recently Heard: Volume 1

2009-07-03T23:00:00.000-07:00

You know how a lot of people say that as adults, they want to go back and read all of those books that everyone was supposed to read in school? Well, I'm doing that with records lately. Like, the stuff I probably should've heard in college or on the radio in high school. For the purposes of this article, music older than 4 years will be defined as "old." Here are 7.

Kraftwerk's "Computer World"
Damn krauts and their awesome music I missed out on. I'm slogging my way through various albums of theirs and most of it is actually quite fantastic, despite being 30ish years old, in German, and made on really old electronic equipment.

Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"
My friend Timmy once described this to me as an album "handed out to every boy when he turns 14." That's about right. I could've gone without hearing this one, listening through it was the sonic equivalent of doing homework.

The Cramps' "Gravest Hits" EP
Where have you been my whole life, beautiful? 5 tracks. Low-fi, too much echo, plus it includes a crappy cover of the already awesomely crappy "Surfin' Bird." "Human Fly" is also awesome. The sound is reasonably out-of-time, if you handed this to someone that never heard of them before and told them it was some new unknown punk act it's possible they'd believe you.

Avengers' "Avengers"
I heard a bit of this in a record store like eight years ago, and it's OK. It's seeing a reissue soon. San Francisco punk album from 30 years ago with female lead. Not a lost masterpiece but better than a lot of the stuff I'm subjecting myself to. "We Are The One" is cool but kinda corny, but the sound is great.

Ladytron's "604"
Heroin chic has never been more candylike and digestible. "Light And Magic" and "Velocifero" and subsequent LPs are helping to cure me of the notion that if I like a band I should own their discography.

Van Halen's "1984"
I have not heard any Van Halen LP in its entirety until recently. The first one is where I started, and like the Nerf Herder song says, it's fantastic. This one? Positively overrated. A couple of tracks are pretty great. "Hot For Teacher" is nothing special but sounds like someone injected it full of cocaine. Much like David Lee Roth.

Led Zeppelin's "Presence"
Why didn't John Bonham just die a few years earlier?

If by some reason you stumble on this, make me your guinea pig. What else should I have been listening to that you liked or hated?

Toy Season Is Here, Sort Of

2009-06-29T00:38:00.001-07:00

You may not know it, but you're in the midst of the big toy season for 2009 already.

The big Holiday Aisle Resets are going to start pretty soon-- as such, lots of new toys are already hitting some stores. Target's resets should be coming up in July/August, and Wal-Mart... is Wal-Mart. Nobody knows how the Hell they function, other than new stuff seems to magically appear on pegs from time to time. Hasbro is shipping out scores of new Star Wars merch, Playmobil's about due for some new shipments any day now, LEGO has a ton of recent new Agents and Star Wars releases, it's good times.

It's also clearance season, depending on where you shop. You might be able to snag some good bargains as stores drop dead weight-- so yeah, you're on your own there. As an added bonus to all these new toy shipments, Comic-Con is in July, which basically means everything you could possibly want to have announced, minus most of your wildest fantasies, will be previewed in San Diego shortly. I'll be going with my corporate overlords at Entertainment Earth to report for their blog and podcast, as well as on 16bit.com and GalacticHunter.com as always.

The next big line to drop is G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, which will be this coming weekend. In that line, the biggest toy will be The Pit playset, which I got a glimpse at in New York for Toy Fair. It's huge. Hasbro has suddenly found religion when it came to $100+ SKUs after the success of the Butterscotch Pony and, I can only assume, the AT-TE and huge Millennium Falcon probably helped.

The other giant mofo out of Hasbro this year is Constructicon Devastator, a $100-$150 gift set with six vehicles which become limbs of the large mega-bot. Interestingly, each limb cannot become an individual robot. Even more interestingly, Hasbro and Takara-Tomy are releasing a miniature 7-piece Devastator which features all robots with individualized robot modes in addition to the vehicle and combined mode. Don't say I didn't warn you.

Oh, and I'll be seeing Aziz Ansari tape his next special this week, or at least I got tickets. Watch Comedy Is Dead for more on that unless there's some wacky gag order.

One more, again

2009-06-09T00:16:00.000-07:00

I don't update this blog much but since it's a top result when you do a search on my name, well, it's probably a good idea to start.

As of tonight I managed to smack the server just right so that Playmoblog.com, my Playmobil blog/news/whatever site, now functions. It acted up a year ago and after two months I gave up-- but now? Functioning. So I'll try to do more there.

I'll probably start cramming more updates on the various articles I write, since I'm now writing for the Entertainment Earth Blog under the same name I use here in addition to Q&A and Figure of the Day for Galactic Hunter, game reviews and news for 16bit.com, and who knows what the heck else.

So. I guess expect more stuff all over the place. I prefer you go visit 16bit.com for everything but I guess the Google seems to like this page a little bit, so there should be more stuff being written on more places. Since nobody's commenting, my guess is that this means that this one goes unread. Which is fine by me as I put less effort into this than my other articles.

Playmobil Bender

2009-05-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in Phoenix, which traditionally means lots of hunting for toys. In the past 5 years, the town and its neighbors have had a substantial closure of its many massive Playmobil emporiums. Hobby Bench Paradise Valley, formerly the #1 spot to find Playmobil in the state, is gone. Kidstop closed one of its two locations, and Learning Express is down to a single Arizona outpost. Daydreams & Playthings is long gone, as is Zany Brainy, FAO, and even Target's selection is down the crapper.

In short, Phoenix is no longer a great Playmobil town. Los Angeles isn't really either, but Phoenix used to be fantastic. In the off chance you're going there to look for this stuff, here's what I found.

- Kidstop (Shea & Scottsdale)-- closed both times I stopped by, but still supposedly open. No idea what's there.
- Hobby Bench (West Bell Road)-- a few 1996 items that weren't there before, but largely the same stuff they had a year ago. (No Dinosaurs, divers, etc.)
- Hobby Bench (Northern & 19th Ave)-- didn't get in, but last time, they had basically jack squat.
- Learning Express (101 & Tatum)-- best selection I found on the trip. Almost the entire Nautical Expedition line (I got the whale and the reef sets), but no Specials and pretty much nothing under $10.
- Fry's Marketplace (various)-- Nothing special
- Toys "R" Us (various)-- Nothing special
- Target (various)-- Basically nothing

I don't mean to come off as spoiled, and odds are I'd have been happier had I hit up Kidstop, but it's disappointing to see how few outlets there are for the specialty Playmobil line these days. LA has a few, but "few" is the key word-- they're quite often out of the way and hard to get to. Ah well.

I'll say, though, that the whale is pretty much as awesome as you might think. I'm quite pleased with it. The Manta Ray, Swordfish, stingrays, and the rest were all pretty slick, but it's hard to top the whale.

MAS Systems Super Pro Joystick for Xbox 360

2009-04-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

I might do an actual writeup on this but I just got this and felt like showing it to you, the anonymous masses. Also, my two friends who might care. It's pretty big.

The guys who makes these have a terrible web presence and as such, sell them via eBay. It's a heavy board construction with Happ buttons and a bat-top joystick, and no, it isn't an officially licensed Microsoft product. It does, however, use the guts from a standard controller and retains the USB cable to connect to the Xbox 360.

It really, honestly, and truly feels like a chunk of an arcade machine. When you tap on it, it sounds right. The response is great-- I've been playing on the basic wireless pad since February and my hands cramp up after a while. (I get grip-happy.) I just got this stick yesterday (technically today) and I've since got a new high score in R-Type II, won more Street Fighter IV matches in a row than I've ever been able to do before, crushed Seth on regular mode, and managed to do absolutely nothing of value with the Flock demo as it for some reason decided it didn't want to play Flock. Already, the stick is showing better judgment than I have. (It may soon become self-aware.)

Since it has the guts of a basic Microsoft wired Xbox 360 joypad, that means it's also compatible with the Macintosh (with the right driver) and Windows platforms. So if for any reason you happen to have the means to play games which might benefit from a stick FORGED BY THE FUCKING GODS then this might be a worthwhile purchase.

Despite being roughly $160-$200 and made of high-quality, actual arcade machine components, it's surprisingly no-frills. It's not wireless, there are no turbo (or other non-standard) functions, there's nowhere to wrap the cord, and there's no microphone port. (Honestly, most of these aren't dealbreakers. Most of the time I'm playing games online I don't want to talk to anybody.)

I guess if you take one thing from this post, if you are considering buying an Xbox 360 arcade stick, I'm telling you to bite the bullet and do it.

Gaming Kick, Continued

2009-03-10T00:34:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, I'm a toy guy. I like buying action figures, it's a blast to track down super-cheap Playmobil toys, and who doesn't like stumbling on the odd figure marked only a penny? It's good times. Lately, though, I've been getting more valuable game time in, which sucks away the time I have to write about toys (bad) but keeps me from going out and buying lots of new toys I may not soon have the space for (good). The key enablers for this change aren't just the parade of above-par software. No. It's because they managed to get "collecting" into my gaming, damn them.

Toy runs-- that is, the long drives to multiple stores to attempt to score cheap clearance toys or new releases-- were spectacular training for game runs. Lately, numerous retailers (specifically, big box ones) have started to reward patience with obscenely low prices. You say you want to try Virtua Fighter 5 but don't think it's worth more than five bucks? You say you you don't think anyone should pay more than $9.98 for The Orange Box? Well, apparently someone out there agrees with you. I'm now seeing recent games like Soulcalibur IV for as little as $15 on the Xbox 360 and $34 (and falling) on the Playstation 3. The game came out about seven months ago.

So now there's a "collecting" aspect in just running around to score a good deal. I was curious to try LEGO Indiana Jones, but not at $50. So I waited around and got it last November for $12.50. And yes, that's new. Also, I blame achievements for giving me a sort of a meta-game on top of the normal games. If you've got weird little compulsions to unlock everything in a game, this is a painful experience as some of these are nearly impossible to get, but I guess the good thing about them is that getting them won't take up any extra space in your home.

Unfortunately, I still have yet to find a good (or any) fighting stick, so Virtua Fighter 5 seems to be borderline unplayable.

5 Unreasonable Video Game Demands for 2009

2009-03-01T02:30:00.000-08:00

I've got my video game itch back. I had it pretty bad before college and it's been coming and going since I got the Xbox 360. (I'd have it more if Konami had more Castlevanias or Nintendo did more 2D Mario games.) Here's what I want to see released or announce in 2009, dammit.

5. New Super Mario Bros. 2 (Nintendo DS)
The original New Super Mario Bros. was a 2D game with 3D graphics, and it came out in 2006. It sold millions of copies worldwide and continues to sell very well at full price nearly three years later. So where's the sequel? Nintendo has been downright awful at cranking out Mario platformer sequels since the early 1990s-- there was never a second Super Mario World, and the portable Super Mario Land series stopped at #2 before Wario took over. This is not really an unreasonable request.

4. Gradius (Something new, please)
Again, not really all that unreasonable. Gradius Rebirth was released in Japan last Fall, and there's no US release of the Wii Ware game. There haven't been any announcements of Xbox 360 or PSN or Wii games in the USA, and I'm particularly pissy about the lack of the Salamander games on online-enabled consoles. Why the heck aren't these available?

3. Bring Back Vs. Fighting Games (any, Xbox preferred)
Japan gets it-- specifically, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom. There have also been "dream match" games featuring Optimus Prime (Convoy) fighting various Japanese heroes and villains. You may even recall the various Marvel vs. Capcom games and, to a lesser extent, the Smash Bros. series. What happened to this awesome level of creativity? The best we've seen is Soul Calibur and its myriad guest stars, which included the likes of Spawn, Link, and Darth Vader. These are nothing to sneeze at, but we need more. Why can't I get a game with Spider-Man, Batman, Shredder, Lion-O, Skeletor, Ryu, and the German Mechanic from Raiders of the Lost Ark all wailing on each other? I love my Street Fighter IV, but I want it to get absolutely nuts next time.

2. 2D Castlevania, Metroid (any)
The last 2D Metroid we got was Zero Mission in 2004. Castlevania got its last classic outing on the PSP in 2007. MORE PLEASE. Interestingly, Capcom seems to be one company consistently performing here with the Mega Man series. Between the two PSP titles and the amazing Mega Man 9, things have been good. I'm old, I like my games in two dimensions and want more.

1. A Retro Collection I Care About
There haven't been all that many collection discs I get genuinely excited about. The classic Super Mario All-Stars was and remains a shining example of what to do-- give people good games at a good price, without being annoying about it. Capcom's Mega Man 20th Anniversary Collection was also great. The various "Intellivision" or "Atari" collections largely suck, if for no reason other than I see these games as having zero actual appeal once the novelty of booting them up wears off. Where's Metroid All-Stars or The Complete Donkey Kong Collection? Why haven't we seen some sort of collection of the classic Dragon Warrior (or Quest) games since the GameBoy Color's bundle of I and II? Is it too much to ask that video games get some sort of box set treatment like some of the more popular classic bands out there? Probably. But I can't be the only one who'd shell out for the means to play classic or even slightly updated versions of the original few Zelda games in a big box with an action figure and let's say a few maps, right?

Macindeath + Cheap FM Adapter

2008-12-14T23:10:00.000-08:00

Tonight's Sunday Night Slog is special, because the computer which has been the core of my projects for the past three years up and died last week. Last Sunday, my G5 tower started to act up. And die. I got to spend most of the last week troubleshooting and fretting rather than writing or, heaven forbid, sitting around and having a good time. This is particularly troubling as my Apple hardware is traditionally pretty sturdy. As far as I know, the Apple II+ at my parents' house still boots. The Macintosh IIsi I had worked fine for its seven years, ultimately getting traded in for a G3 tower (which is still here and still boots), and seven years, later, I got a G5 tower.

Which freaking died in less than four years. Very disappointing.

My iPod's FM transmitter broke the other week. (I kinda cracked it open and enhanced the antenna in 2005, and it just snapped off a few weeks ago.) So it's been fuzzy driving around, and I was more than a little surprised to see an iPod FM adapter at Target in their cheapo gift area for ten bucks. I bought it and early quick tests seem that it's actually just fine. Interesting. I'll post more later, I want to know if I should hate it or not yet.

Star Wars Comic Pack Figures Wave 4 Video

2008-12-02T12:11:00.000-08:00

I really like this one. I'm using a Playmobil potted plant to act as "forest". At some point I need to actually try making something like this that isn't an ad.

Target Revises Scanners

2008-11-26T22:37:00.000-08:00

While on my travels today, I am going through different cities and made a fun discovery for toy fans-- Target now has updated price scanners. There are two models you may have seen-- one with a tiny LCD screen, and another with a larger screen and number buttons 0-9. The latter allows you to punch in various codes to check the stockroom.

A new third version has shown up, and here's the kicker-- the screen is positively huge, and it lets you search for things. Like, I can punch in "Transformers" and it will show me every DPCI with Transformers stuck to it. No joke. I was trying to find the as-of-yet unseen Transformers Combiner gift sets, but was not able to do so-- but you will be able to find Hasbro Wolverine toys and some other stuff I haven't yet seen talked up much.

So this holiday season, be on the lookout for this. Given how much data is leaked via DPCI, like new names and new secret products, I can't imagine a greater gift to the toy collector and rabid consumer this holiday season. Thanks, Target, for reminding me why you get more foot traffic from me than other plastic retailers. (And "thanks" for having those very expensive exclusives showing up today.)

Fire

2008-11-17T00:04:00.001-08:00

LA is presently on fire. This is one reason I'm looking forward to going out of town for a few days. I just got 16bit.com and GalacticHunter.com update for the night, and it isn't even midnight yet. Aside from the fact that I feel and smell awful due to the burning, I'm pretty happy about this.

My various buzzings-around online have resulted in something interesting-- it's entirely possible there will be two Target-exclusive Black Friday or post-Black Friday Transformers 25th Anniversary sets. (Knowing Target, this means they'll be out by the first week of December.) That, or they're 2009 items, but it's looking like it's a 2008 rush job. Being a sucker, I'll likely get them if the price is right (it's 4 $7 toys and a $10 toy per box, so I'd shell out $30 without too much complaining. But in this market, that's unlikely.)

But yeah, we went out and about today because it was unpleasant at home, so going out didn't seem like too big a hazard. For November, the 90-ish weather isn't entirely unexpected but the overall feel in the air right now is not unlike staying up for two straight days while someone dumps sand in your eyes. And that's before you stop to consider the parade of misery that's going on just miles up the road.

As you can see, my priorities are in the right place with blog postings about toys meant for small children and the horrors of losing one's home in a fire. I don't personally know anyone who has been evacuated but I know a couple of people that are likely in miserable places, and so far they seem to be OK. It really is astonishing how awful it seems to get at least one or two times a year here with just the fires alone.

Star Wars Ecliptic Evader TIE Fighter

2008-11-04T12:56:00.001-08:00

The latest video I made for work. Oh, those rascally giants, always knocking things over...

Star Trek Tribble Toy Video

2008-10-31T16:38:00.000-07:00

I've been REALLY bad about posting these... or anything. But since nobody reads...

Diamond Select sent my employer a prototype, meaning I got to play with it. I'm not entirely convinced the electronics in it were final, but it's a pretty sizable ball of fluff with a switch that allows you to select "off", "purr," and "ZOMG KLINGONZ". The actual toy is due out in 2009, so this one seems to have been lacking any tags or what have you-- but it's pretty slick, and significantly larger than any other Tribble toy I've had the chance to see in person.

Lost & Found: Console RPG Love

2008-10-12T01:21:00.000-07:00

I hate RPGs. Let me back up a little bit-- I used to love RPGs, along with every other holier-than-thou gamer who, in high school, turned up their noses at anyone who bought the original PlayStation for Madden and not Final Fantasy VII. Clearly, the unwashed masses were missing out on the greatest thing ever.

Flash forward a few years later and well, it seemed the genre was getting boring-- and it was spilling over into another favored genre, the adventure game. (Or "action RPG," if you will, and I won't.) Final Fantasy VIII I played through to the end twice without seeing the ending-- damn that last boss/my not having enough magic. Final Fantasy IX, I loved, and Final Fantasy X was more or less tossed on the "play later" pile for a couple of years. (And XI could suck it thanks to its monthly fee.) FFX was the last RPG I bought (not counting GameBoy Advance ports of NES and Super NES games, of course) and later the new Zelda for Wii slammed the coffin shut on adventure games for a while, too. (As neither Wind Waker, Ocarina of Time, nor Twilight Princess held on to me long enough to beat it.) Obviously, I was flushing money down a toilet.

Last week I scored a $15 copy of Lost Odyssey, and so far I'm liking it. It feels more like a Final Fantasy than VIII or X, in both the good and the bad ways. It's deeply flawed and as a storytelling medium, a little scatterbrained. Yet it's actually making me want to play it for reasons I can't quite figure out yet. As I approach what I presume is the end of the first disc (of four), the real story has yet to be revealed. The first combat takes place when the game starts, and the next is over two hours later. There's a lot of background and introduction, and the title is highly indulgent. Let me explain how, and this falls under the schizo storytelling I mentioned before. (And yes, I know this game came out months ago, but you're reading this still so blah.)

In Final Fantasy I-IX, the story was told with text-- there was little or no recorded dialogue in the game. X introduced limited dialogue for many of the major events, and that's exactly what we have here. Some of the story is told with the standard text windows-- like in the 8-, 16-, and 32-bit games. Some is like on whatever the Playstation 2 was. And the weird thing is that more still is told in the forms of these "dreams" you have to unlock-- the main character's life is told in flashbacks, which are actually short stories. Really, they come off as more or less parables or novels, in that they involve the main character and "a man" or "some guy" and no other named people. I don't know if I like it, but it's an interesting way to eat up game time and extend the narrative with nearly no extra storage space being wasted-- and since it's on 4 DVDs, there's a lot of storage space, much of which likely being wasted.

A significant portion of the game so far is cut scenes. I've probably watched 60% of the play time, as there is a lot of story being crammed down my throat. In old generations, this sort of time would be spent wandering an overworld and leveling up, something this game seems to discourage. It really wants you to advance the plot, and as such, random battles aren't always easily available to you. As of yet. Like I said, I'm on disc 1 here.

Despite being from Mistwalker (founded by ex-Square, ex-FF people) this game is more Final Fantasy than Final Fantasy. A mysterious brooding hero with memory problems? Line-up combat with limited animation? A bizarre system of learning new abilities? Chicks with bare midriffs everywhere and a queen with a thong of sorts? It's all here. Heck, there's even a sequence when you get stuck in a dungeon and have to escape-- if ever there is a Square drinking game, this should be one of the main components. That and "..." as dialogue, which this game has as well.

With the advent of the downloadable arcade game, I've figured that game value can more or less be quantified thusly: $0.25 for about 10 minutes of fun is basically fair. With lots of getting my ass handed to me by the first boss, I've probably clocked in about 8 hours, and paid $15 for the game on ye olde clearance rack. This means I'm extremely close to getting my money's worth, which is fantastic. I'm told by reviewers that the entire game is 50-70 hours, and I'm currently going to shoot for it. I said the same thing about Twilight Princess last year and haven't touched it since, so who knows. Wish me luck, as now I'm going back and forth between Lost Odyssey and Mega Man 9 and I gotta beat something soon.

Pushing Buttons

2008-10-05T00:48:00.000-07:00

If you told me, in 1998, that my console of choice in the 21st century would be a DVD box made by Microsoft, I'd call you a liar. I've been posting a little less everywhere because in the past few months, Microsoft's Xbox 360 has managed to be consistently entertaining to the point where-- *gasp*-- games are preferable to working.

This month's two big draws were Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, which took me 4 days to finish, and Mega Man 9, which is at 4 days and counting. (Didn't get to play much on Friday and I spent much of Saturday fixing my Mac.) Both are big draws on my childhood-- Star Wars is obvious, and I went back and forth between action figure collecting and parking my butt in front of an NES and Super NES for most of my pre-high school years. So The Force Unleashed gave me more of that Star Wars video game action that I never quite got, and Mega Man 9 is proof positive that someone, somewhere, understands where I'm coming from as a gamer.

Much time was also spent with the Mega Man Anniversary Collection, as I was itching to play the originals. I beat 1 and 2 and need to go back and finish the others.

I also picked up Scene It? for $15 at Target this week. It's a board game for movie trivia, and it doesn't seem to require too much movie trivia-- a lot of it is "here's two minutes of a movie and some questions." It's like a game show, complete with buzzers to answer questions.

I'd like to point out that I'm a Nintendo fanboy and I also own a Wii, which has not been switched on since I got and lost interest in Wii Fit this past summer. I'd like to get Wario Land: Shake It but based on the reviews, that ain't gonna happen at full price. As someone with pretty much every Nintendo platform, including a Virtual Boy, it's a little disappointing that Nintendo isn't really churning out the titles to turn my crank-- although Capcom and Konami sure seem to be doing a great job. But where, WHERE is my next 2D Metroid? Where is my sequel to New Super Mario Bros.? And why hasn't Nintendo introduced a new mascot character worth a damn since Wario?

Soul Calibur IV and Civilization Revolution are on my short list to try, but at $60, it's going to be a while. In my old age I'm finding that if I pay full price for a game, or if I get it for under $20, I get about as much fun out of it-- so better to wait it out. Especially given The Force Unleashed and its length, which I must say would have made a top-notch $30-$35 title. As far as I can tell, the less I pay for a game, the more I tend to like it. Well, except The Force Unleashed, I enjoyed that a tremendous amount.

Oh, and I'd be a bad old fart gamer if I didn't also mention that Contra 4 for Nintendo DS was pure awesome. It is to Super NES gaming what Mega Man 9 is to NES gaming.

Games and Games and Games

2008-09-22T00:50:00.001-07:00

As a kid I spent nearly every free minute with a controller in my hand if I could help it. I got to revisit this part of my life last week with a slog through Star Wars: the Force Unleashed on the Xbox 360. Overall, I'd say the experience was a good one but I did get annoyed at a few spots. The game wasn't sufficiently debugged and some of the difficulty feels quite uneven, but still, I can't deny that I enjoyed the experience as a complete package.

After that, I pulled out (and am close to finishing) Mega Man 1 and 2. (Just need to do the Dr. Wily stages in both.) I'm pretty excited that Mega Man 9 is coming this week, but it's only for the Wii and PlayStation 3. Since the Xbox 360 version is next week, I'm going to wait-- not because I dislike the Wii (and don't own a PS3), but because as a fiend for achievements, well, I at least want a shot at them. Even if they are seemingly impossible. (Seriously read the list, tell me if you think you can get 40% of those.) It should be fun, though, and I'm really hoping that it's an excellent game that sells well. Anything to encourage more game development that might result in software that seems like it fell out of a time warp from an alternate 1991.

Anyway, this week is going to be a big catch-up week since Saturday was mostly spent playing video games for the first time in a while. Oh well. I will say, though, that it certainly beats working.

Birthday Stuff

2008-09-14T23:25:00.000-07:00

It was my birthday today. We went to a bunch of toy stores and basically didn't find much, although we did discover a posthumous comedy album from Mitch Hedberg called Do You Believe in Gosh? from Comedy Central records. Apparently this was recorded in 2005, two months before he died. If they're releasing a live set not meant to be made into an album for one of the greatest comedians that never really managed to be all he could, it can only mean one thing. They're making a ton of money from those other two albums. (Also, it's probably very funny, I haven't listened to it yet.)

Also, the Ontario LEGO store has the classic LEGO figure 5-pack-- you know, with the old-timey red astronaut, a classic fire fighter, and some other figures. At $19.99 for 5 figures, I passed. I thought it was going to be $10, and it wasn't. Thankfully there was a Fazoli's nearby so at least dinner would be about as exotic as one might hope.

I also didn't notice Rock Band 2 at any of the many places I went. I did see the massive Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise strategy guide, and a lot of presell tags for this week's Star Wars: The Force Unleashed release. Which I still look forward to, despite an almost certainty that it's going to be (at best) average.

We also hit up this one area to check out a used book store (which we opted not to peruse) and a little CD shop (which was closed) in front of a giant dirt pit. I think it was in Pamona. Pamona sucks.

Am now working on the various blogs and pages for the Monday readership. I'd rather be playing Dig Dug some more.

Galactic Heroes: A Movie (as opposed to The Movie)

2008-09-09T22:52:00.000-07:00

Next to the main action figure line, my favorite thing about the modern Star Wars endless ocean of toys is the Galactic Heroes line. If you don't collect it, allow me to give you a brief history.

1999-2001: Hasbro comes up with idea, unpainted prototypes leak to eBay. Company is hesitant to release any. A line of kiddie-friendly Jurassic Park Jr. toys is selling seemingly well, but they're a little bit smaller.

2002: First batch of "Playskool" Star Wars toys are released. 6 products in all, each include a vehicle or creature and an array of mini figures. Prices are awesome-- $6 got you 2 figures and 2 vehicles, $15 got you 3-4 figures and a big vehicle, and $30 got you the Falcon with 4 figures. The line ended before 2003 was up, but product was (un)sold through at least 2004.

2004: Line returns as a series of 2-packs and some repackaged vehicles, this time called "Galactic Heroes." The vehicles are basically dropped by the end of 2005 until reissues start in late 2007.

2008: Vehicles galore, a Slave Leia, Grand Moff Tarkin, and other bizarre choices make Galactic Heroes one of the most consistently interesting toy lines. I shot some of the vehicles-- the X-wing and the Darth Vader's TIE Fighter-- in the video below.

If you're a fan, Hasbro expanded the line to include Toy Box Heroes (Toy Story, 2008), Robot Heroes (Transformers, 2007-present), Combat Heroes (G.I. Joe, 2008), Superhero Squad (Marvel properties, 2006-present), and there will probably be more.

The most fascinating thing about the line to me is that from 2002-2008, the line has had a basically uniform look, however it appears the facial sculpting is going to start changing as Hasbro releases figures from The Clone Wars this Fall. Well, it was fun while it lasted, now it's going to look different. Still, it's a fantastic line.

AZ Food Round-Up: The Chuckbox

2008-09-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

As the month started, I made it a point to hit up a number of eateries while I was in Arizona. You may not believe this, but the state is surprisingly packed with unique places to eat in addition to being the single greatest place for toy runs, ever. Near ASU in Tempe, AZ is a place called The Chuckbox.

Inside, the garbage cans look like recycled barrels, you sit on a crate, and there are a couple of cocktail cabinet arcade games in varying stages of decay. Also, two flat-screen TVs. Outside, it looks a little run down. Inside, it also looks a little run down, but they've since repaired some cracked glass while maintaining its rustic appearance. The look is meant to evoke an old west feel, which is something you see less and less of in Arizona as it ups its California-wannabe-ness.

The cuisine varies from meat on a bun to a bun with some meat on it. Also, there's a variety of fried sides, like fries, onion rings, and zucchini. Booze and soda are also served, plus there's a big salad bar-esque array of toppings for your food.

And it's good. Did I mention that? Well, it is. The burgers are about $4-$6, with your choice of white or wheat buns-- unless they run out of wheat, which they frequently do. Sides sold separately. I've tried a few dishes, and would suggest trying the BBQ Chicken Sandwich or, if you're particularly hungry, a Great Big One. The burger is indeed great and big, and since you have to dump your own stuff on it you're probably going to like it better than if you couldn't.

After you order, there's a big sign saying "wait here for food." Due to lines, a lot of people may be waiting there as they grill your food right in front of you and manage to fully cook it in just a few minutes.

As burger joints go, this is one of your best options if you're in the area. The food is fresh, the service is quick, the pricing is decent, and most important of all, you'll probably be ruined for fast food hamburgers once you try it. Mostly I just wanted to show you the sign in the photo, but I'd suggest making it appointment eating if you're in Arizona.

LOCATION: 202 E University Dr, Tempe, AZ 85281
POINTS OF INTEREST NEARBY: Arizona State University, Eastside Records, Ash Avenue Comics & Books. Eastside Records is another place you should stop if you're interested in artists not carried by the majority of music stores and new or old vinyl.
NOTES: There used to be a second location in Scottsdale, but it closed a few years ago and is now an upscale pizza place.

The Zip Cola Challenge (in LEGO-vision)

2008-09-06T15:49:00.000-07:00

A while back, I was in a comedy group. From that comedy group, we tried to spin off a podcast. It didn't come to be, but one of the sketches we've recorded has been animated with some toys (as animated by Shaun Clayton). It has the most spectacular brick-based special effects you'll ever see.

Doll, Toilet, Urine, and More

2008-08-29T17:40:00.000-07:00

I am not posting a plug for my work. No, I'm posting this because I think it's funny.

If you like unusual dolls-- and I mean really like the strange and unusual-- check out the Little Mommy Gotta Go Doll pictures at my employer. Why are they so funny?

Look at the picture. That kid needs to drink more water. I think she's ridding her body of rich creamy butter.

I has a Radio

2008-08-27T14:45:00.001-07:00

Just got interviewed by KTAR in Phoenix. I'll be on the radio at some point tomorrow about the McCain/Obama toys that Entertainment Earth sells (as that's where I work, you see.)

Droids and stuff

2008-08-11T00:53:00.001-07:00

This guy "Shadowboro" has posted a few hundred (or thousand) videos to YouTube. Like every episode of Captain Planet, Droids, Ewoks, Scooby's Laff-A-Lympics, and all kinds of old television shows in varying quality.

I'm mostly interested in the old Droids cartoon, mainly because the uncut originals have never been released on DVD and unless you had cable, these have gone unseen since 1986.

For those of you not lucky enough to have been 5 or 6 when these aired, this is the first part of the first episode. The series was divided into three arcs, each of which have unique villains and heroes with the two droids R2-D2 and C-3PO as the only unifying elements. I'm getting through these as quickly as possible in case someone sends YouTube a cease-and-desist-- after all, this is copyrighted stuff on here.

While it's more a Star Wars-y blog post, I put it here because for me this was a really big influence on, well, everything. I got up early every week to watch this show. I taped several episodes. The characters from the first arc are on my short list of most-desired figure updates in Hasbro's action figure line. I know it's a goofy little show, but it's an rare first non-Ewok glimpse into the worlds of Star Wars outside the film during the rise of the Empire.

I haven't seen most of these for at least 20 years. As such, I've got a little distance between me and them, but I have to say I'm actually really enjoying them all. The animation is pretty great, and if you compare the show to the Snorks or other 1980s programs, I think it looks pretty amazing. While R2-D2 and C-3PO may not float your boat, I can say I haven't been quite as giddy as I have been in ages-- it's a real treat to see these again. The reason I'm telling you this, whomever you may be, is that there's a whole galaxy of stuff out there that, for some reason or another, is still available for the viewing.

It really is amazing to see what has aged well and what hasn't. (For example, season 2 of Transformers? Not so great.) Dare you see how well your favorite cartoons have aged?

Star Wars AT-TE Video

2008-08-05T21:34:00.000-07:00

Today's day job video was the AT-TE from The Clone Wars. I got a bunch of pics and will probably do a writeup if/when I finally edit them down. Here's the video.

I especially like the masterful explosion effect near the end.

Discount Assassin

2008-08-04T19:44:00.000-07:00

My good friend Shaun makes a lot of funny movies. One of them, Discount Assassin, is getting some decent buzz and it was just written up in the Phoenix New Times. The movie was played at Samurai Comics-- a great little store, I must say-- and it's great to see it getting eyeballs in print. I presume, I live in California now and I can only stalk my friends online rather than in the weekly freebie newspapers.

As to the movie, just watch it.

Earthquaking

2008-07-30T00:24:00.000-07:00

I meant to do the rounds this evening and do a lot of posting, but a large-ish earthquake and the cleanup necessary to the toy areas kinda killed that. So stay tuned for more soonish.

SDCC 2008: He-Man and the Masters of the Universe

2008-07-28T03:53:00.000-07:00

If you're a He-Man fan, and who isn't these days, here's the scoop from Comic-Con. In a departure from what you would expect from one of the major toy companies Mattel has confirmed figures will be sold from its web site, direct-to-consumer, for about $20 a pop. King Grayskull, on the other hand, will be about $30. Each figure is super-articulated (or as close as you're going to get) and feels big, chunky, and like a real toy. I got a King for my stash and I can say that it's almost a shame these won't be at retail. It feels solid, and despite being based on a character few fans are going to clamor for based on name recognition alone, it's a wonderful toy.

Starting this Fall, one figure will be released for presale (and presumably sale) per month. The line kicks off with He-Man, and will be followed by Beast Man and Skeletor. How long this will go on for is hard to say, and the direct-to-consumer market is really tricky to get right. But as one of the many fans who bought into the 2002 offerings who had no intention of attempting to collect them all, I can't deny that these are some of the finest figures I've had the chance to play with. I hope it lasts a while and performs well enough so that we can get to all of the important figures, which basically means I want new Trap Jaw, Orko, Hordak, and Evil-Lyn figures.

Important links:
Gallery at Altered States Magazine
Masters of the Universe at My Flickr Gallery
Matty Collector

Better late than never: Comic-Con 2008

2008-07-27T10:56:00.000-07:00

As the show was a whirlwind of insanity, I did not get to update the blogs as I went. But I did a little twittering with some big announcements and other goodies.

Everything I shot at the show (and can show you) is now available here. 674 photos, mostly toys, lots of booths, and the Sci-Fi era MST3K guys.

The show was... it was a lot. Hasbro showed dozens of new Star Wars toys, including a toy featuring the Pit of Carkoon. Mattel showed off its first new He-Man figures. And yes, we at Entertainment Earth got to reveal a number of things like our new Gentle Giant and Hasbro exclusives, which was fun. And I'm not just saying that because the new Joker Squad sets received actual, significant applause at the panel either. Nosiree.

But yeah, I'll post more news to the other blogs as time and energy permits.

Comic-Con This Week

2008-07-21T00:17:00.000-07:00

Comic-Con is this week, and in a way, it's going to be a test run for the whole blog thing. I haven't yet announced any of this stuff but I'm hoping to post crap to my various blogs from the show and see what happens. It's going to be different, and most likely not work well. But if it does, it's going to mean that my life online is going to get a whole lot easier. For me. Who knows how it'll be for you people, you're on your own.

...seriously though, if anyone out there is reading and sees this please email me/leave comments for requests of what you want to see from Comic-Con. Due to work I can't do a lot of panels (OK, maybe 2 or 3) but I will be there with my camera ad my little notebook to ask questions if happenstance permits, so hey, use me as your roving reporter if you'd like.

I'll definitely be podcasting for work, so you'll hear shows either this week or early next week. Again, there's a lot of tools that are going to be tested, and if it works it'll work nicely.

Oh yeah-- my good friend Shaun-- and when I say "friend," this is someone I actually hang out with when we're in the same city, and we went to college together-- put up a great short film called Discount Assassin. The whole idea is a guy will kill on the cheap. He also writes for the comedy blog Comedy Is Dead, so be sure to see his movie as it beats doing nothing.

Game Stuff

2008-07-18T01:33:00.001-07:00

The Magic Box and a bunch of other sites have a lot of game news from E3, some of which is really good.

I'm thrilled to see WiiWare getting a new Gradius game called Gradius Rebirth. It looks very 16-bit. It thrills me in all the ways that the Wii game Castlevania Judgment, a new fighting game, doesn't. But Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia looks pretty sweet. I'll buy that. It looks solid enough to warrant... well, whatever it'll cost. 2D rocks.

LEGO Architecture = Yes

2008-07-18T00:52:00.000-07:00

The Brothers Brick has some images and info on this newfangled Architecture set they're doing. Actually, it looks like two-- the Sears Tower and the John Hancock Center. No idea where you can buy these online just yet, but if executive toys are your thing, these should be perfect.

LEGO 7036 Castle Dwarves Mine Video

2008-07-08T18:22:00.001-07:00

This week I went ahead and made a video of a LEGO set I bought and finally got around to assembling. It's a gold mine! Also, a silver mine.

Yeah, I know I have a voice for silent films, and the dialogue was basically made up on the fly as much of the time went into trying to shoot it and edit down a ton of footage. But hey, it was a fun one to put together.

LEGO Space Invaders

2008-07-05T15:35:00.001-07:00

I don't want to work on writing a Figure of the Day so I instead decided to make this.

Click here to view LEGO Space Invaders gallery on Flickr

Simple, small, just took a few minutes to do. I think pretty much anybody could do this one if you have a couple of brick buckets so you get enough of any one color to work with. As I do these I'm finding out I have very, very little black.

LEGO Simon Belmont

2008-07-05T01:18:00.000-07:00

I was really busy this week, so I wanted to do something to take my mind off of work... and blogging. Naturally, the results were something I had to share with you all.

Click here to view LEGO Simon Belmont gallery on Flickr

Basically, I did something pretty simple-- take the sprites from the NES game Castlevania II: Simon's Quest and make it out of LEGO. I had some pre-sorted buckets so after a couple of missteps and one gross mistake, I managed to crank this out in just under a couple of hours. (Odds are if I weren't tired, it'd be quicker.) So there ya go-- easy stuff!

Devo Sues McDonalds

2008-06-29T20:41:00.000-07:00

In its American Idol promotional toys, there's a "New Wave Nigel" character that's essentially a ripoff of Devo's costume in the early 1980s. And guess what? They're going to defend their trademarks. Gerald Casale has not been quoted as saying such but it's a safe bet that someone in the media will ask if they will whip it, and if so, if they will whip it good.

Comedy is Dead

2008-06-29T01:54:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine has been posting stuff on a new blog that's early in development called "Comedy is Dead," a name whose origins are best left unsaid. He's been reviewing all sorts of shows and albums, and I've been meaning to pitch in as well.

On that note, I watched the new Dana Carvey special on HBO and I didn't much care for it.

Droid Factory

2008-06-22T21:07:00.000-07:00

I just posted a big post with lots of junk in it regarding the new Droid Factory stuff from Wal-Mart. I've got shots of the PDQ display, the built C-3PX figure, and all that jazz. Check it out.

I was not able to find the new comic packs, sadly, so the hunt continues for those. And I saw a ton of unsold Lugnuts-- like, dozens-- meaning that Grimlock (which ships in the same proportions) is insanely popular.

Buy 2 Get 1 Free DS Games at Toys "R" Us

2008-06-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Toys "R" Us is running one of its popular buy-two-get-one-free Nintendo DS game promotions this week. Since Arkanoid and Space Invaders Extreme came out last week for $19.99 a whack, there are some good new opportunities in there.

LEGO Vintage Minifigure Collection

2008-06-18T01:10:00.001-07:00

I keep forgetting to post this, also to go out and get it. The Vintage Minifigure Collection has 5 classic figures, including a red classic Space figure, a fireman, a mad scientist, and other goodies. Totally awesome. Do go check it out.

Videos!

2008-06-18T00:32:00.001-07:00

Made some new videos for work yesterday morning. Basically they're just short demos. They are as follows:

Robots & Invaders from Space

2008-06-17T00:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday (earlier Today) was an exciting day! Diamond/Previews announced three new exclusives, including new Mighty Muggs, a new Star Wars: Empire themed TIE Fighter, and a Funko Commander Gree Bobble Head. I posted about some of it here.

I also shot up more impressions of Cybertron Mode Optimus Prime, complete with pictures. The short version: it's great. The long version: it's really great, and there are 23 photos of it for you to check out if you like such things.

This week's downloadable Wii and Xbox 360 games weren't thrilling, but I'll complain about those later when I post the next 16bit.com update. Oh, Space Invaders Extreme for Nintendo DS comes out today. I'm very much looking forward to trying that.

Oh yeah, and the new Transformers Animated DVD with the pilot comes out today. I hear the Target bonus disc should be interesting.

Sunday Night Slog

2008-06-16T00:17:00.001-07:00

Oh, the fun of Sunday nights! I'm getting all my sites in order, so you may notice things like a personal Twitter on this very blog (NEW), and updates to 16bit.com and Galactic Hunter. Q&A is shorter this week because the one question everybody wants to know-- "What Star Wars stuff will be out July 26?"-- has no answer.

A number of new photos were shot and are being edited-- and more still need to be edited to keep on top of everything. There are a lot of toy pictures to deal with.

Transformers Animated A-Plenty

2008-06-15T01:39:00.000-07:00

This weekend, I saw Transformers: Animated has hit Kay-Bee and Toys "R" Us, meaning 4 of the big 5 chains now have them on sale at a few locations, if not more. Also, if you're checking my Flickr photostream, you'll be noticing lots of updated and new additions to the Transformers Animated area.

More pics are coming, I'm just trying to get more stuff up in big batches. And there's a lot of batches, let me tell you. I'm also sitting on thousands of unuploaded images from 16bit.com over the years which will probably eventually go up to Flickr so SOMEONE can see them. It's really amazing how much stuff I never finish.

Wall-E Basic Figure

2008-06-13T23:14:00.000-07:00

Thinkway Toys put out a fairly robust line of Wall-E merch, which I mentioned a few weeks ago. I bought this little guy for about six bucks, and he comes in packaging very similar to that of the Titanium Series line from Hasbro.

The little bugger stands about 3-inches tall and has articulation at the shoulders, neck, wheels, and hands. Basically, his hands can open and close to grasp things.

I picked up one other Wall-E item which I'll get around to shooting eventually, but this is a fine little robot toy for about six dollars. It's from Thinkway Toys, and so far I've seen these only at Kay-Bee stores and select Toys "R" Us stores. Distribution is a little thin so far, but odds are it'll expand in the coming weeks.

The Incredible Hulk Toys at Burger King

2008-06-11T21:32:00.001-07:00

I walked to lunch at Burger King again today, hoping to score another Indiana Jones toy. Well, they're all gone. But they did have this.

It's called "Hulk Smash." How original. You pick it up and slam it down, hearing a springy smashing sound. I guess it's kind of neat, and should give any child literally minute of fun. (That's not a typo.) The other toys looked pretty good, as there were a lot of little figures and other gimmicky things. I'll post more if/as I get them.

Oh, and if you're reading the tags, I recently found out "QSR" stands for "Quick-Service Restaurant" in the toy world, so it seemed a decent way to start categorizing these little toy posts until I make a fast food toys blog. Which is probably going to happen soon.

Grimlock Video

2008-06-10T12:45:00.000-07:00

Another video I cranked out for work in my back yard this morning. It helps I live next to a noisy warehouse.

More Goodies

2008-06-10T01:19:00.000-07:00

More robots in disguise. I snagged Starscream from Transformers Animated, and it's a great toy-- but mine was literally missing a few screws, and as such, could not hold himself together. So he had to go back to the store earlier this evening, and I am now without a Starscream. Woe is me. It's a nice toy, though, and I'll probably post about him more on the Transformers blog soon.

I also picked up the deluxe toys Bumblebee and Lockdown on the way in to work on Monday, and am now trying to get some of those packaged shots edited and posted.

Bumblebee is a figure I wish I liked more. He's colorful, but his yellows don't match and he's a little clunky with panels hanging off his person. He's lively and has a great personality, and as many a wise man said, a little personality goes a long way. Unfortunately, those bits hanging off him don't do him any favors, and the deco is frankly bad. Hasbro could probably swing a "premium edition" figure of this one.

Lockdown is pretty neat, but also suffers from flaws-- at least on my sample, the legs keep popping off during transformation. In robot mode, he's incredibly tall, taller than the mighty Grimlock. He has two snap-on weapons, a hook (which makes him a "pirate") and what I guess is Ratchet's EMP generator as seen on the cartoon. It actually plugs into a socket in Ratchet's arm, which I have to say makes this toy worth buying just for that. The little add-ons really make this toy exciting, otherwise he'd be pretty flat and fall-apart-y.

If you're short on cash, I'd say I like Blackarachnia and Ratchet more, but hey, they're all good for different reasons.

Today's Haul

2008-06-07T23:37:00.000-07:00

I was feeling punchy so I went on a toy run today. Here's what I found (and for the most part, purchased.

G.I. Joe
Comic Packs wave 4. (Copperhead, Red Star, etc.) Still just $9.99 a whack at Target. They look great.
All of Toys "R" Us' 5 exclusive sets. Did not buy these, but at least they're continuing to ship.

Transformers: Animated
Blackarachnia and Ratchet. Bought both. Both are really good for different reasons. Ratchet is a great character on the show, and the toy is solid in both modes. (His wrist-mounted weapons are a little touchy though.) Blackarachnia has a good transformation, a stunning robot mode, and a decent spider mode. All in all, I did good.

More on these on the specific Joe and TF blogs as I can take shots and post them.

Hitchcock's The Birds + Mattel's Barbie = This

2008-06-04T01:58:00.000-07:00

Part of my day job is reviewing and adding items to my employer's web site. This particular item really made my month, because it shouldn't exist. When you think of collectible dolls based on licensed properties, perhaps you think of Cher, or Grease, or perhaps even Supergirl. You don't think of Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 horror classic The Birds, but apparently someone at Mattel did and will no doubt reap the benefits of an entirely new audience of Barbie collectors. I mean, I don't do dolls at all and I can't help but be delighted by this image of Barbie being attacked by three black birds.

It's entirely possible this may have something to do with the Michael Bay produced 2009 remake supposedly staring Naomi Watts, but we really hope not.

Transformers Blog Launched

2008-06-04T00:34:00.000-07:00

...I figured it'd be easier just to launch a specific blog than dump the content here. So Go here for the super early beta of my new Transformers blog.

Animated Grimlock: First Impressions

2008-06-04T00:08:00.000-07:00

Since I have a flight really freaking early, it made sense to stay up, photograph, and open new toys. It's either that, or try to sleep for a couple of hours. First up: Grimlock! (Boxed images below. More images may be added as time permits, this will be obvious as you will look at the widget and you will see images.)

"Where are DECEPTICONS? Me GRIMLOCK getting hungry!" (Quote from back of packaging.)

The figure is a decent size, sporting a massive lower jaw in both modes. By enhancing this feature, the character has a meaner, more active appearance where it almost looks like he should open up his mouth and talk to you. Sadly, he's only going to talk if you provide his voice, and his robot mode jaw does not move. (It's worth noting that it's so big, you'll probably think it should.)

Our hero's lone accessory is a big flaming sword. If you put it in his wrist and twist his appendage, additional flames will pop out. It's a decent feature, certainly not stunning, but neat enough. In robot mode, the instructions don't really say where the sword should go, but the box implies that it can act as "flame breath." I guess you can cram anything into the dinobot commander's mouth, but it doesn't mean it's going to look good there.

Packaging has been a hallmark of Hasbro's marketing, and they seem to be going out of their way to do a more stunning job in each subsequent generation of toys. Animated is no exception. The box is absolutely gorgeous, with halftone patterns, bright colors, and character-specific illustrations from the series. I don't collect packaged toys as a rule, but I love these boxes so much I may get one or two pieces to leave sealed, just because it's so nice.

The toy costs $19.99 (or so), ships in a case with Lugnut, and is pretty good. Grimlock's transformation is similar to his Generation 1 toy, with a few differences. The tail still splits, the back still forms the leg, and the head and neck still essentially act as a backpack.

PROS: Nicely sized toy, looks a lot like the cartoon. Fun dinosaur "chomping" mouth, awesome flaming sword of death, articulation above and beyond what is expected from a toy of this nature. Solid construction, stiff joints. Good ability to balance in many poses in either mode. Shoulder articulation is well-engineered. Transformation is mostly solid, with many of the folding panels and pieces sculpted with tabs and slots to fit together to ensure the robot doesn't have loose, flailing bits of kibble.

CONS: Autobot logos are silver-- the animation model (and box illustrations) show red symbols with white outlines, which are cooler. Arm transformation is a little awkward, and the figure looks best with his elbows bent.

VALUE: It's not a lot of toy for $20, but odds are if you found my blog you're either a close personal friend or a big toy fiend who already is inclined to buy such things. As such, you should totally buy one of these IF you like Transformers as a whole or the new cartoon.

OVERALL: Grimlock is largely inspired by the toy of old, given new life with design elements of the 21st century. I squealed with glee when I saw this in the store (in a case, partially sealed on a palette, which I cracked open) and am presently having much fun with it. Kids should adore this toy, and older fans will get a lot out of it too.

ZOMG NEW STUFF BLARCH

2008-06-03T21:32:00.000-07:00

Just found a stash of some Transformers: Animated at Wal-Mart... and bought them. Also found Nerf Herder IV. Will be posting images and impressions as time permits, I've got a business trip at 6:00 AM and will be pulling an all-nighter for you. And me. Mostly me, I want to play with this new Grimlock.

Ahead of the Game

2008-06-02T00:23:00.000-07:00

As you have no doubt figured out, my web projects will all be undergoing some sort of facelift over the next few months. This means I have to not only continue my daily and weekly columns, but shift stuff over, make new layouts, and try to figure out how to wrap the whole thing together.

Last week, I was out for a few days due to a road trip. This week, I'll be gone a few days due to a business trip. I'm testing (and taking) new equipment to work on this stuff, so hopefully I'll be in good order to further entertain my literally tens of readers even sooner.

16bit's updated, and so has my SW Q&A-- which is now at Galactic Hunter and my Star Wars News Blog, and it's likely going to be in both places for the foreseeable future.

I also had the good fortune to spend some time with Nintendo's Wii Fit, and I posted some rough impressions on today's 16bit.com update. It really is a unique piece of hardware with a piece of software that's essentially Wii Sports II with Yoga. It's not a bad thing, and these new input devices have lots of potential. I'm hoping to see someone say they figured out how to connect a Wii Balance Board to a Mac so I can use it to copy/paste things, or perhaps set it to certain keystrokes so I can increase my number of Zerg rushes.

Oh yes, and I also hit up Gregory's Toys in Encino. The store now has a massive sale going on, which they generally didn't do in the past. I started hitting them up for Playmobil, and while their prices are frequently more expensive than my favorite spot in Phoenix, that place closed down so I'm sort of out of luck. It's about on par with Playmobil direct, so I suppose I'll be checking them out in 2009 when the good stuff starts to hit. Today they had a new Pirates Super Set, some Specials, and the Water Zoo collection which FAO had many months ago.

I've got two days ahead of me before hitting up the airport for this trip, so odds are it's going to be slow posting for a few days. Which means, I'm sure, lots of exciting news will start to come out as soon as I turn my back.

Indiana Jones Tricky Treasure from Burger King

2008-05-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

Guess where I went to lunch today? Yup, Burger King. Take a look at what I got.

The crate itself is roughly in scale with action figures, so you may have fun with it as a display piece. Other than that, it's a cheap little gag toy, but it has a decent sculpt and above-par paint job. Of note are the little legs, which are actually rope. Nice stuff for next to nothing.

Just got back...

2008-05-27T21:36:00.000-07:00

...from the road trip, which involved a great many toy stores. Like dozens. If you can name a better way to spend your prime years, I'd love to hear it. I managed to score a few goodies (which you may see if you read the various blogs) including the newly released Star Wars Force Unleashed Battle Rancor, the slick Indiana Jones Cargo Truck, and some other goodies.

It's worth noting Indiana Jones stuff-- like nearly everything-- is on sale at Target stores this week. If you've been holding off on the vehicles or Adventure Heroes or any of the products that aren't painted badly, now may be a good time to buy.

Thinkway Toys Wall-E Hitting

2008-05-24T00:59:00.000-07:00

I hit a Toys "R" Us today to find numerous toys from Pixar's Wall-E available, including tiny $7 figures, medium $10 figures, a big $20 transforming figure, and some small figure sets. I picked up the $7 figure, which is packaged similarly to the Hasbro Titanium Series toys. If you like robots, you may not be able to resist snapping up one or two of these.

(I'm out of the office and do not have my camera, stay tuned for more.)

Star Wars FX Lightsaber Construction Set

2008-05-21T23:28:00.000-07:00

As part of my day job, I do some wacky low-budget videos. Here's another one.

It's for the Master Replicas (who no longer has the Star Wars license, by the way) Star Wars Force FX Lightsaber Construction Set I just got. Well, I, we, whatever. I have one, and it's in the video. It's a lot like the regular FX Lightsabers, although the light-up sequence is slightly different, the handle is customizable and made of metal and plastic bits, and you can switch up the colors.

The item was originally sold at Radio Shacks, but in my neck of the woods they're long gone. And rightly so, this is a really fun big item. It's not quite as heavy as the regular versions, and it does lack the ice-cold all-metal feel of the other releases, but it's a fair trade-off for the blade's color changing abilities. That alone makes this far more entertaining than it should be. If I had the means, I'd buy one of these for pretty much everybody I know. It's just a weird fun item to own.

Hasbro recently confirmed they would be reintroducing some of the FX lightsabers later this year, but did not give any information on if this would be one of the ones remade. It's a fine item, and it makes Hasbro's customizable lightsaber a whole lot less exciting-- the big H will have a new one out this July with parts of various Clone Wars and Force Unleashed characters' weapons.

Day Job, Don't Quit It

2008-05-21T00:02:00.000-07:00

While I get asked literally tens of questions a year, one of the ones people don't ask about is what I do at my day job. This is good, as most of what I do is all over the place. Like making this video.

Is it a joke? Is it serious? Wouldn't you love to know.

Devastating

2008-05-20T00:26:00.001-07:00

After like a year of not seeing it in the wilds, I got this nifty Constructicon Devastator in the mail in a trade with Seth, one of the many wonderful toy collectors in the world today. This Wal-Mart exclusive hit about a year ago and I've never once seen one in stores, despite a lot of looking. (And yes, some exclusives hit Los Angeles six months later than the "first sightings" elsewhere.)

I like it. The two shades of green are weird, I need to see what the deal with that is. It appears they're all that way, which is kind of a shame, but oh well. It's a recolor of the five Constructicon toys sold during Transformers Energon, but in more Generation One-esque colors to appeal to people like me who can and will buy the same toy twice because of color improvements. We're not very smart.

The entire package sold for $30 and seems worth it. It's 4 $7 toys and 1 $10 toy, so if you bought this piece by piece-- and if you're like me, maybe you did-- you can see there's an obvious benefit to getting them as a boxed set. If you don't have any of the Devastator toys, this is a decent one to get. I'm still messing with it and am telling you about it now only to test some blogger features, but I can say I enjoy it muchly and you should get one too.

Sunday Night Slog

2008-05-19T00:24:00.000-07:00

I'm in the middle of my Sunday Night Slog. It entails doing lots of work before the work week starts, like making sure any packages are ready to go out, updating my Q&A Column, updated 16bit.com, and working on stuff for the future on both sites. Also transferring over some content from GH to Blogger for ease-of-searching.

If you ever run a daily column for three years and decide to mirror it elsewhere, let me just say it's a bad idea if you're also cranking out new content for said column. It's going to be a few months to do this. I should probably try to do a few more of those. On the bright side, if you've ever wanted to just read Figure of the Day by Sith Lords or Jedi or whatever, you're going to have some handy keyword tags. It's neat to revisit it like this because now it's really easy to sift through and reread some older stuff. But at the same time, I have to recode and reformat most of these, and by most, I mean all. So it'll be a long time coming. You can see the feed on the side of this blog page, so keep an eye on my progress. I predict it'll be done by September's end.

Oh, and I finally saw Iron Man today. If you haven't seen it, it's as good as everybody has been saying.

Figure of the Day Blog Live

2008-05-17T17:38:00.001-07:00

Due to popular demand, I'm going to be putting Figure of the Day on Blogspot. Why?

1. Search works
2. RSS-enabled
3. Why not?

It's going to take some time, but I'm pretty pleased with how it's turning out in its ultra-beta stage.

Another project

2008-05-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

It's never too early to spend your life writing about stuff. I've been writing online about toys and action figures in a semi-professional capacity since 1995, an am now trying out a few blogs. Like, more than one. I presently write for 16bit.com and GalacticHunter.com, as well as the Playmoblog. My day job is Toy Evangelist for Entertainment Earth, where I do a lot of merchandising things, YouTube videos, podcasts, and other exciting things that the kids call Web 2.0. Or rather, they don't, just the people in their 40s.

I'm now playing with Flickr and YouTube from a pure publishing perspective. I think there's a lot to gain by giving a lot away, for example just biting the bullet and putting all your photos on Flickr for the world to use as they see fit. (Maybe with a credit on the image.)

Hopefully you'll like this little experiment in quick, dirty content. I want to write more but spend less time doing it-- let's see if it works. I'm betting on "no."