Hellboy!

I likes me some Hellboy! With the Dark Knight going on and Batman / Joker week here on the blog I neglected to talk about Hellboy!



I was introduced to Hellboy through a toy, not this one, but the first one that looks like it stepped out of Batman the Animated Series. I knew he had his own comic, but I was drawn to the toy first. That attraction carried over into the comics, cartoons, movies, and these comic based toys from Mezco Toys. I immediately loved the look and feel of these things. They really look like they stepped out of one of Mike Mignola's pages.



This version of our big, red hero is a special edition that was sold online at Mezco's site and I believe one of the Comic Conns. Even though it was sold online it was hard to get. So one day I'm talking to our factory rep in China and we are talking about what we collect and it turns out we both had some Hellboy figures! Well months pass and I get an e-mail that one of his buddies works for the factory that produces these and he gave him a few samples, would I be interested. I said yes and in a few weeks the special edition Hellboy and a couple of others from the BPRD arrive on my desk at work!



Did I mention getting toys at work is just as cool as getting them at home? Hellboy came packaged with his usual Big Ass Gun, trench coat, and six disembodied vampire heads. Disembodied Japanese vampire heads to be exact. Straight form the funny pages!

Needless to say I was thrilled, I was expecting a regular Hellboy, but to open the package and find this guy, wow! So what were we talking about? Oh the movie. I saw the movie before Dark Knight and loved it, Hellboy never seems to take itself too seriously, and it was a steady moving story. It was a great Saturday afternoon flick.

So with this expect to see a few Hellboy posts here and there!

Space the Final Frontier...

1976 had to be one of the most wonderful years, as far as toys go, because it produced the Dinky Toys U.S.S. Enterprise. This Enterprise is actually my childhood one, you can see that I tried my hand at detailing this toy by adding black to the windows to make them stand out and I even tried to paint the detail on the shuttle bay doors, or what should be the shuttle bay doors on the back. Apparently I didn't have a thinner paint brush at the time.



Dinky Toys is an English company, so besides covering the American series Star Trek, it introduced me to some wonderful English properties. My Dinky Toy collection consisted of and Eagle from Space 1999 (yes it's somewhat American, but it's Gerry Anderson so it could be considered British), Thunderbird 2 from the Thunderbirds (via Gerry Anderson), The U.F.O. Shadow truck and missile launcher (another Gerry Anderson production), I even had this crazy little tank that could launch something like twelve little missiles (not sure where that one came from, assuming U.F.O. as well), plus of course my Enterprise.

Dinky's I still secretly wish I would have picked up along the way, the Aston Martin from James Bond, complete with machine guns, rotating plates, and a shield from pursuing gun fire, also the funny looking jet from U.F.O. that launched a big honking projectile from it's nose. I was close on that one.



Dinky Toys used to be kept in a special area of the toy store (at least all the ones I went to back then), usually near the cash register and in a glass display case. You could easily see all that the store had to offer and once you made your selection, the shop keeper (read employee) would unlock the case and from behind the display toys produce they toy of your dreams in a package. It was like magic. Now I have never seen Dinky Toys sold in any other way, always a glass case under lock and key, always packaged product buried within the case. If you remember seeing it displayed or sold any other way I would love to hear about it.





The U.S.S. Enterprise at the time was the toy to have, too young to build the models, and the shortage of "accurate" Starship toys to be had, the Dinky Toy version was as close to show as you were going to get. For the life of me this is one of the only toys I cannot remember getting as a gift for Christmas or a Birthday, I'm not saying it couldn't be, but I believe this came from either Toy Land at the Air Force Base Exchange or the Toy Box from Windsor Park Mall. It was more than likely the result of me begging and pleading for the pride of the Federation and the eventual purchase made by a parent. I never remember opening this on a Christmas morning or un wrapping it in a hail of birthday gifts, so it had to be from a toy expedition.





The Dinky Toys U.S.S. Enterprise was an amazing ship, not only did it come with a bottom that opened to reveal a little orange shuttle craft, but it came with these little solid "Photon Torpedos" that could be loaded into the main hull (the circular part) and with a twist of what would be the bridge you could fire them as fast as you could twist your little wrist. From what I remember these things shot rather far and hard. I think that was the best part about Dinky Toys, those little jewels could shoot missiles!







Okay so I mentioned the shuttle craft and it's landing bay... did I mention it was in the wrong place. Anyone who knows Star Trek knows the shuttles come out of the back of the Enterprise. Funny thing is years later the show "Enterprise" would show shuttle craft dropping out of the bottom of the ship, but that's another ship entirely. This little over sight used to bug the hell out of me as a kid. I would sit and wonder if I could modify this thing so that the shuttle would come out the back. I must have beat and pounded on this toy repeatedly try to figure out how to "crack it". But as a testament to the quality that is Dinky Toy, the Enterprise held, sure it's a little looser, but the damn thing held together. Eventually I gave up my quest to modify the toy. What I didn't mention is that the bottom shuttle bay actually has a duel purpose, the doors make a handy stand to display the ship. Now I knew it could do that, but I didn't appreciate that it could at the time.





Star Trek also had a Klingon Battle Cruiser, but I didn't care for that at the time, if it wasn't the Enterprise I didn't want anything to do with it. Besides who the hell wanted to be the bad guy??? The Klingon even came packaged in a set with the Enterprise and would shoot the Klingon equivalent of the Photon Torpedo, theirs happened to be white not yellow.

I remember for a while, when Star Wars hit, that they tried keeping the die cast vehicles from Kenner in the Dinky Toy case. That didn't last long, Dinky Toys were in a class by themselves, plus you know the clerk tired of open the case every five seconds to retrieve a TIE fighter of Land Speeder. I think this sort of confused me, because to this day I call the larger die-cast toys Dinky Toys, not so much Star Wars, mostly the Corgi and Ertl stuff.

Code name: Clutch

Boo Yaa! This Joe has one of the biggest accessories, a freak'n jeep! Not really it is one of the new vehicle sets based on older molds for the vehicle and new 25th Anniversary molds for the figure.

So here is Clutch and his V.A.M.P. (Multi-Purpose Attack Vehicle, don't you like how they reversed it?), sold at stores everywhere, or Target or something like that. When I saw this I thought cool a Jeep for my Joes! If I had took the time to inspect it a little further I would have seen it only holds two Joes, even still I like the looks of this mean, green machine (insert John Candy Stripes dialog here!).



I've read other places that these new vehicle / figure combos come with some, not all, of the stickers pre applied. I'm sort of anal when it comes to stickers, I get an xacto knife to help separate the sticker from the sheet and also to place on the vehicle , space ship, what have you. This helps to eliminate the finger print smudge or curled up edge, also helps to line up things. It took years of practice, I didn't start out like this, but I will say my son's toys always had the best stickers. Having said this please note that I did not place these stickers, these are the ones right out of the box. So it is something to look for if it bugs you, me only if I put them on and screw them up.



So it has two strikes against it, holds two figures, messed up pre applied stickers, but it does have some cool things going for it. One is huge ass free rolling wheels, this is how I envision my jeep instead of the Soccer Mom mobile that it is, two opening hood, movable gun, removable gas cans, and a removable shovel... okay that's several for two, I couldn't wait. Nice touches are the headlamps and tail lamps are not stickers, but transparent plastic... cool, and the gun on top has hoses that are attached to it. I'm not sure if the original had these, but it makes it look hi tech cool.

Looks like the V.A.M.P. also has a tow hook for a possible up coming accessory or something, the older ones sometimes came with a canon or large laser that it could pull behind it. Makes me wonder if we will see this re released with more goodies or not.




The figure on the box is called Double Clutch, but on his stand his code name is Clutch, that's how I've always heard him called in comics, so I'm sticking with that. Clutch has one of the coolest beards on a 3 3/4 figure, again reminds me of a small version of an Adventure Team Joe, plus he has one of the coolest, less than thrilled expressions. The body of the figure makes use of some recycled parts and has one of the oddest placed side arm holsters for a vehicle driver, the ankle. At least he keeps his k-bar at his side!




Still neck n' neck, Yo Joe!

G.I. JOE: 9
COBRA: 9

...and on Thursday the Mail man brought the Apolkolips!

About a week ago I received and email from fellow JLU Club member Rob Kelly, detailing his luck in finding not only a Grodd Six Pack but the newer Attack from Apolkolips Six Pack. He went on to say that not only did he pick up both, but he picked up another of the later for me! Sweet Elvis' Ghost! I had just read about this set that morning while trolling all the SDCC post of the day!

So I was instructed to wait by the mailbox on Thursday for a package. Packages from Rob always have some sort of cool sticker or something on it so I think I was anticipating what heroes he would use to deco the outside along with the JLU goodness. That's a sign of someone who loves their superheroes! Not to be let down, Rob has made a new mailing label with his favorite right on it!

Suddenly the sound of thunder and where my mailbox once was a giant Boom Tube opened up and spit out the Mail man and a package. But holy cow the package was huge, he sent the whole thing boxed! I wasn't expecting it to come packaged, so I thought in honor I would shoot a couple of package pictures.






Mr. Miracle, Superman, Forager, Mantis, Darkseid, and Lashina make up the six pack. I'm familiar with three of the six, so I'll add the box copy for the rest.

"Mantis, an evil resident of Apokolips, decides to lead an invasion of Earth after the apparent demise of Darkseid."

"A member of Granny Goodness' female furies, Lashina fights in the name of her master Darkseid, against all who oppose her"

"A "bug" who lives on New Genesis, Forager meets up with Batman and Wonder Woman and helps them save many of his friends from attacks by Darkseid."



I never even saw that episode, not sure what the reference is to being a "bug" unless it's what Darkseid regards the citizens of New Genesis.

Back to Thursday, while sending Rob a thank you email, I turned on JLU on Boomerang and what was it about? An attack from Apolkolips! Crazy! Well Rob, thanks again, I hope now that Target is supporting the line I can find some to return to you, and as always... Viva JLU Club!



Scooooooooooooooooooooorrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrre-a! Probably the coolest next to Mr. Miracle in the set!

Galileo Shuttlecraft

1996's Playmates Toys Galileo Shuttlecraft staring James T. Kirk himself! Captain Kirk was a pack in with the shuttlecraft toy, sporting his "Where no man has gone before" costume, and early version of the popular Starfleet shirt that the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise would make famous.



If it's one thing I like it's the classic shuttle craft, I don't know, it must be the retro box design. I've just always dug this ship. Another thing I like is that Playmates Toys went out of their way to produce just about every ship you could think of from the series, and the shuttles were doe at a similar scale as the figures. I say similar because it isn't actually to scale, the shuttle would be about two and a half times longer and a couple times higher to be in scale, but kids don't care as long as you can jam Captain Kirk, Batman, or He Man in there you are good to go!



I tell you when I was a kid I soooo wanted a shuttle for my Megos. I even thought about building one, but it was little more than a cake box that I later turned into a square version of the Jupiter 2. So jump to 1996 and this guy hit the market, at the time it seemed that Star Trek toys were sort of on a decline because when I first spied these they were already hitting clearance aisles, when I went back to the store on payday they were all gone, so about a year ago I found this guy online and beamed my payment right away.



Besides being out of scale it's a pretty cool little playset type vehicle, there are all sorts of compartments that you can open up for Spock and Scotty to make repairs. A couple of seats (with seat belts, huh?), open cockpit and cargo door (which the original shuttle didn't have), and the coolest the side door opens up! Along with the good captain the shuttle comes with a little missile firing Phaser Cannon for shooting at Klingons, Romulans, and Gorn (oh my!).



Now, this next opening hatch (shown above) I have no clue what it is. Looks sort of like missiles or something, though I like to think it's something scientific. My only guess is that it's an homage to the concept designer, Walter "Matt" Jefferies from the original series, and it's a G.N.D.N. hatch. G.N.D.N (Goes Nowhere Does Nothing) was what they would label those pipes and other set dressings in the original series, the ones you would see as the characters would walk down the hallways. Another fun bit of trivia, the Jefferies Tube was named after Matt, this is that section of the Enterprise that Scotty would crawl up into to make some sort of critical repair.



The Galileo here is the first shuttle to carry the name, it was lost in the episode The Galileo Seven, and later replaced with another shuttle bearing the same number designation, but named the Galileo II. While it's cool that it came with a Captain Kirk, I think this shuttle would have been way more cooler if it came with a Mr. Spock and Lt. Boma so you could have them fight it out like in the episode, teeeension.