mako

My thing is a little different. There's still stuff out there I need, I'm just taking it slow. The Wendigo wave and the Jugs/Colossus set are at pretty good saturation right now. I snagged a Nightcrawler, got my Retro Storm, why be in a hurry for the rest? I wanna take it easy, enjoy the hunt for a bit. Maybe give the heat a chance to break, hook up with the sibs, grab some dinner, make a day out of it. I'm feeling uncharacteristically mellow, I think I'll run with it.

I see only good things coming from this. I mean, let's face it, Sony INVENTED the Spider-Man movie. Breaking this current iteration free of its MCU ties could really give them a chance to make it shine. I see a soft reboot, nothing drastic, just enough to distance Spidey from the current status quo of being Robin to Tony Stark's Batman. Maybe a little time-jump to take him out of "genius school," and into the private sector. Trade in the flying, AI, weapons laden Iron Man underwear for a real suit. Maybe a real Mary Jane? Bring in some of the past Spidey actors, and maybe a live-action Miles Morales, for a Spider-Verse story-line. A Venom cross-over? And for God's sake, let him do some stuff with his own series, not spend two hours reacting to crap that went down in every other Marvel character's films.

I just can't wait till someone figures out that 99 % of the plastic in your average ML packaging actually belongs to the figure inside it. Coming Soon!!! Marvel Legends, the paper doll wave! By this point in history the human race should be the smartest its ever been, but God help us, every day, in every way, we get just a little stupider.

Let's not forget the secondary market. Bio-plastics? Say goodbye to the MOC collector.

Wait, wait. So, to help the environment, Hasbro will no longer be using plastic in the packaging of their PLASTIC toys and games. Gotcha. Of course this will necessitate a move to more paper, metal, and cardboard products; thus INCREASING the amount of natural resources used. Gotcha. Increase consumption to help sustain what we already consume.

Actually, that makes no sense at all. Sony doesn't need Disney. They've been making successful movies since before Disney had anything to do with Marvel at all. They've been making SPIDER-MAN movies since long before Disney had anything to do with Marvel. Why would they sell for a single pay-out? They have a perennial, they can make Spidey movies forever. YOU may want Sony to sell so Fiege and Gunn and keep making super-fratboy comedies, but Sony has their eye on the big picture . . . not the crappy ones.

le-what?

Ah, sustainability. Another one of those words companies use to make themselves sound better, which only works because the public has no idea what it really means.

Even if I DIDN'T hate everything with the God-Awful stench of the MCU wafting about it, I'd still have to agree with Sony. Sure, Spidey is Marvel's baby, but he's a baby they were only to quick to sell off in the 90s when they were so desperate to get their movies made they would've signed away their own mothers. Maybe Disney did the heavy lifting getting the current "Spidey Goes to Genius School" franchise off the ground, but the franchise belongs to Sony. I wouldn't let the Mouse-House bully me over it either. And lets get real, with Dinks like the Russos and Gunn calling the shots, and coming up with crap like the Big Thorbowski, maybe it IS time Sony started ghosting them.

Never saw Series 2 of the Retro Figures in the wild, so there was no reason to think I'd find the X-Retros at one of the lesser Walmarts this afternoon. Still, after coming back from finding Nightcrawler in a tiny one-horse town this morning, I got back in time to snag a Storm at retail! Today, Mako got the bear.

Found most of the 80th Figures, including the Ghost and Enchantress sets, at Walmart today. Would've grabbed the Juggs/Colossus pack, but opted instead for 4 of the 6 figures from the Multiverse Killer Croc series.

A DIY-Guy huh? You should track down a copy of the "Woman's Day Book of Best-Loved Toys & Dolls." It was a hard-cover book collecting a bunch of DIY-Toy Craft articles that were published in Woman's Day Magazine back in the '70s. This where you can find the famous "Supercity" instructions as well as the infamous "Outer-Space Station." Granted, the end products look kind of primitive compared to some of the stuff these hard-core ACBA guys are doing now days, but inspiration-wise its still pretty useful. (And you can track down a beaten-up copy of the book for next to nothing.)

Anybody remember Palisades' Muppet Show line from a few years back? The figures were impressive by themselves, but the REAL stars of the line were the play-sets. The Back Stage, Swedish Chef's Kitchen, Muppet Labs, the Bridge of the Swine Trek, if Hasbro could pull together a few sets even half as elaborate as these, I'd be all over 'em. Typically, the line was cancelled and the company went belly-up before I even knew it was a thing. Fortunately, I was able to score a Swine Trek set in an unopened, but beat-up, box, off Ebay and it remains one of the jewels of my collection. To add insult to injury, Palisades was just gearing up for a similar "Sesame Street" line when they went under. There's your 1/12th street diorama right there!

I keep going back to the Mego days. Playsets galore! The Enterprise Bridge, the Fortress of Solitude, Batcave, Wayne Foundation building, even Fonzie's Garage; and all were constructed on a plastic frame work with laminated cardboard. Even for back then, they were brilliant in their simplicity. To bad we can't get the big companies to do these again.

These questions always seem tougher than they really are. A lot of people started out on ToyBiz and tend to look at that line through rose-colored glasses. Be that as it may, the 3-pack Mags blows all previous versions away, same with pretty much every other figure Hasbro has released.