Comic Pack Trooper in Disguise!

This weeks Stormtrooper of the Week is really one of those Rebels in disguise. The Luke Skywalker in Stormtrooper Disguise and R2-D2 Comic Pack from Hasbro. I'm actually posting these out of order, one mainly because I have been buying these out of order and two this is the only one I have so far. So this is set four of the series to date. I like the concept of getting a comic book with a toy, I'm just not too sure about the paint applications on these figures. I understand what they are trying to do by making them look like they stepped from the comic, but I'm not entirely sure it's working. Again getting a comic is a great idea, I liked it with the Marvel Legends, I liked it with the Batman figures, and I likes it with my Star Wars figures.

What's cool about this figure pack is that Luke in this disguise has never really had this much articulation, which leads some to buy the pack and modify the figure by removing all the blue hi-lights. Which I'm not about to do, but it looks like Hasbro has decided to re-release these with out the hi-lights, meaning I better snatch up a Han Solo with the blue paint apps to match my Luke.

The Comic packs that are in stores now span the Marvel and Dark Horse comic runs, and it looks like besides the homage to the Marvel Comics, they are hitting the most popular Dark Horse stories. I'm more interested in these classic ones, so far besides Luke and R2, we have Han Solo in Disguise / Chewbacca, Grand Moff Tarken / Stormtrooper (thought I would start with this one, right?), and Darth Vader / Rebel Soldier. All come with one of the four re-printed issues from the Marvel Star Wars Comics. As was said here before in the comments, could a certain green rabbit be on the way?

American Dream

A few months back I started my sketch blog with a version of this character. Here's the toy that somewhat inspired that sketch. I made some changes, like the standard issue wings on Captain America's mask that I added to the sketch, along with some nods to the classic look.

This figure stands about 4" to 5" tall and has a giant shield, which I later read was handed down from Captain America, but still look at the size of that thing. I've noticed that the shield seems to be the hardest thing for toy companies to nail down, it's either too small or way too large. This would be considered a Toy Biz pre Marvel Legends meaning not a lot of articulation. Released to the specialty market, this figure did not see mass release, and was part of a set of First Appearance Women Figures that included Spider-Girl, Wild Thing, and Stinger.

Once I completed the sketch I went in search of this figure to compare and decided that even though the figure is cool, I liked the "classic" feel of the sketch and continued to finish it out from there. I've often thought about going back and trying to complete this four figure set as well as trying my own twist on the feminization of some other Marvel and DC Characters.

Saviour of the Universe!

Recently my wife had been going on and on about how this had just been released on DVD and she wanted to pick up a copy, so while walking through a store I picked it up so we could watch it later that weekend. I was really surprised at how much she liked this movie, more surprised that we actually had conversations based on the character of Flash Gordon as he appeared in this movie for a couple of days before even sitting down to watch it... and that I didn't start them.

Seeing this movie reminds me of those Saturdays where it had been raining all morning and you had nothing much to do but watch cartoons and whatever Saturday Morning Movie the big three networks were showing. We seemed to get Flash Gordon and the 60's Batman Movie more than often, which is perfectly fine by me.

Anyway after the showing of Flash Gordon here, I checked out the feature with the interview with Alex Ross and was surprised once again as he had mentioned, almost word for word, some of the topics we had discussed days before... weird. Oh, and Alex Ross really seems to enjoy this movie as well, always good to know that people in the biz have pretty good foundations in the world they work in, unlike a few account execs and editors I've had the pleasure to submit artwork too.

A little bonus is a black and white sketch post card inserted in the case by Mr. Ross, who also supplied the cover art for the DVD! Oh yeah, and wasn't Max Von Sydow the best Ming the Merciless hands down? Hail Ming!

Super Friends Sets!

Not sure if any of my readers hit Cost Co, but I had the opportunity to check one out and made away with this set! They have the set pictured above (which will be opened shortly) and one with Superman, the Flash, and Lex Luthor. I needed the Green Lantern and Aquaman, plus an extra Bats never hurts. I didn't think I would find an Aquaman, but they had a pallet full of these things!

So go forth and tell the masses the Super Friends are in sets now! And the price isn't that bad either! $16.99 for the set!

The Flying Fortress

I am not a Hot Wheels Collector, not that there is anything wrong with that.

Sure I have a few (mostly Batmobiles), and I've always said that Hot Wheels collectors have it made, let's face it a majority of the items they collect are about a buck. When was the last time you could say you bought a brand new action figure for a buck and some change?

Well all that said, I passed down the toy car aisle the other day and this one kind of jumped out at me. Because, not only does it remind me of a plane to truck conversion model a friend of mine built as a kid (yeah, we were a little special back then) but it is based on one of my all time favorite airplanes of WW II, the B-17, and not only that, the B-17G, my absolute favorite model of the B-17! I was pretty excited, and thought wow that's really cool, so I picked it up, made me think back to my younger days when I would build model airplanes and research all I could on the different versions.

Others in my shopping party were less excited.