McFarlane Gets My Money

 

I don't know exactly what happened at McFarlane Toys, but for some reason they stopped packing in any kind firearms with figures that should have them. Which was kinda of a bummer for collectors of  DC Multiverse and Mortal Kombat figures, and raised the need to have to track down weapons in the correct scale to arm the characters. Three characters that hit me the hardest for being "incomplete" was Commando Spawn, Grifter, and Peacemaker, so when I got an e-mail saying an exclusive weapons pack was coming from the offical McFarlane store website I immediately pre-ordered it. As soon as I got the confirmation the perfectly named Munitions Pack was shipping out I ordered the three figures offline, and amazingly they all showed up at the same time.

Truly blown away by Commando Spawn, it's not just the previous released Spawn with a different head and added straps, he is almost completely new molding. The only reused parts of the cape, gauntlet, and cone boot are on a completely new body which is molded to look like skin tight hi-tech body armor with new spiked strapped left arm and lower leg, scarfed head, and wrapped hands. He comes packed with the same Necroplasm flames that came with Malefik Spawn, which if you read the early Spawn comics goes against the idea of this incarnation cause when Spawn goes "Commando" it's because he conserving he limited Necroplasm power, and falls back on his military training, and weapon expertise.

I'm sure I've mentioned on this blog that I am a huge Jim Lee fan, and by that extension fan of his Image Comics super-hero team WildC.A.T.S, so I was stoked when they revealed a 7-inch highly detailed and highly articulated figure of Grifter as he currently appearing in DC Comics. Please, please, please let this be the beginning getting the rest of the modern versions of the WildC.A.T.S team, please Todd. He comes with a sword and a knife, which isn't outside his skill set cause he is trained in the Coda martial arts and melee combat, but definitely looks much better with the modified 9MM Beretta handguns from the weapons pack.  

I love James Gunn's The Suicide Squad, and really enjoy John Cena as Peacemaker, and his solo show on HBO Max was the most insane, hilarious, and messed up comic-based extravaganza since The Boys to hit streaming. So color me surprised, and extremely disappointed along with the majority of all collectors that his action figure did not come with his signature gun, but instead a sword he maybe used in one quick scene in the film, but thanks to the weapons pack he now has his extended Desert Eagle with silencer which is movie accurate, I just wish the silencer was removable. Now I need to get Bloodsport to stand next to him, and fingers crossed for a Vigilante figure soon.

So with McFarlane's excellent offerings in DC Multiverse, and the resurgence of Spawn thanks to the milestone 300th issue which reignited the character's popularity in pop culture, and demand for new collectibles, Todd has been getting my money far more then any of the other toy companies as of late. In the latest comics not only are old variations of Hellspawns for across the centuries and multiverse coming together in the pages with the current Al Simmons Spawn, but also new Spawn variations are coming out of the woodwork, so now we have an actual team made of the various Hellspawn called The Scorched. As a huge Spawn fan who grew up playing with the original 90's Todd Toys Spawn figures, to once again be going to the store and searching for new modern renditions of characters like Ninja Spawn and She-Spawn is pure weaponized nostalgia hook, line, and sinker for me.

The Redeemer a.k.a. Anti-Spawn is my favorite Spawn villain, as much as I love the new winged version, I really hope one day we get the old purple cape first appearance as a modern figure, maybe in the future as a repaint/running change of Redeemer III a.k.a Reaper from The Scorched team. you can't have Spawn's rouges gallery without The Clown, and this hefty and craftily detailed figure scarringly portrays the menacing demon from McFarlane's artwork. My fingers are crossed and wish list in my head for villains like Chapel, Tremor, and The Curse to be expertly brought to fruition as the line continues.

 

Azrael was my very first DC Multiverse figure, and to date he is still my absolute favorite of them all, and in that picture is two of only three Jean-Paul Valley Azrael figures made, which boggles my mind for a Batman ally. Pretty sure Deathstroke was my second ever from the line, now he is betterly armed with the MP5 from the weapons pack, and sword from Grifter. The properly faced and colored Batman Beyond was on my hunt list for awhile, and was so glad to finally find him at the last convention I went to, just wish he came with a show accurate Batarang.

Justice League Movie Review

                                                             Warning: Spoilers!
 
First off, I loved it, I really did, I came out of the theater very happy. Was it one of the greatest movies of all time? No. Warner Bros. seems to have listen to the fans and made a more brighter and light hearted film, but at the same time you can't tell if that is what they were originally going for at the beginning of writing and filming, because you end up leaving wondering which scenes were Zack Snyder's originals and which were Joss Whedon's reshoots. We will never know the truth, no matter what any one person from production says, to me personally the film almost felt director-less with only a handful of scenes here and there that felt like that had either director's personal touches.

My two favorite stand out characters were Cyborg and Superman, it was very joyful to see Henry Cavill's Superman smiling, and saying heroic quips again. Ray Fisher's portrayal of Victor Stone, a young man fused with alien technology to save his life, and finding a purpose to use those new abilities was a great centerpiece to the story. You could almost call this Cyborg's movie, he is the one character that I felt truly had a character arc, and can't wait to see the extended cut blu-ray with all his cut scenes put back in.

My two favorite scenes were with Superman, his throw down with the other heroes after he comes back to life showing he is the most powerful being on the planet and you better be damn grateful he's an actual good guy was phenomenal to see on the big screen, and then of course him joining the final fight, flying around saving people, dropping true to comic Superman lines, helping and working with his teammates, and look like he's having fun doing it. As to the rest of the League, Gal Gadot still really shines and owns this version of Wonder Woman down pat being her third time around, so no problems there, but Flash and Aquaman are really the less fleshed out, but I'm pretty sure that's because WB dosen't want to retread what the Flash TV series has already done, and Aquaman is getting his own movie. Another thing that bugs me with the two characters is Ezra Miller's Flash waling his arm weirdly when running, hopefully they'll fix that in future appearance along with a better designed costume, but more importantly not one single scene showcasing Jason Momoa's Aquaman use of aquatic communication, come on!, I was waiting for a scene of Aquaman protecting people leaving the final battle location by boats in the ocean by calling up sharks and giant octopus to take out Parademons.

Then there's poor Ben Affleck, I really loved him as Batman/Bruce Wayne in Dawn of Justice, but in Justice League he just seems so nerfed, I don't know if it was the writing, his state of mind when filming scenes, or the direction given to him, but I just felt we didn't get the proper amount and attention giving to the Cape Crusader this time around. I mean in the final battle he didn't even fight Steppenwolf, he was left on a ledge firing a Parademon laser rifle, WHAT THE HELL! This is Batman, the goddamn Dark Knight himself, human and powerless or not he would still be down there throwing every gadget in his belt helping his teammates to stale the Apokoliptian from getting back up to the Mother Boxes, just like he would be in the comics, WB missed an opportunity to continue to have Batman looking badass.

Two things I really wish they could of done better for the movie, number 1 being: Who approved the color palette for Steppenwolf?, he was two different shades of gray, that's all, his armor and his skin tone barely a hue away from each other, it was like people were fighting and talking to a stone statue not a cosmic warlord. Would it have killed them or the budget to add some red stripes to make him more vibrant or something, geez. Number 2; I know Snyder does a lot of green screen shooting, but this movie was damn near Star Wars prequel level, if it wasn't in Metropolis, the Batcave, outside Wayne Manor, or inside the Flying Fox, every other scene was CGI added background, and then there's during the final battle when we watched a video game cutscene of the Batmobile driving through buildings and shooting Parademons. The two things bugged me the most, but there's also the issue of scenes and dialog from trailers and other scenes cut out to make the film under two hours, which apparently was a Warner Bros. board mandate which I think hurt the film more than it helped you move plot point to plot point at break neck speed, like going down a studio approved predetermined checklist they think the general audience would need.

Finally my critiques of the written story used to add to the DC Extended Universe, first off, Really!?, that's how you bring Superman back to life?; with a fricking Motherbox, when you already set up his possible healing and coma in the previous chronological installment. I couldn't of been the only one that was expecting them to find an empty casket and discovered Clark was alive but was wandering around the country as a nameless small time hero again instead, that would of been way better then easy buttoned back to life. Second, does any one in the world know a group of heroes came together and saved the world from destruction and enslavement, I don't think anyone outside of those Russian villagers truly felt the danger, everyone else on Earth was none the wiser just going on with their lives and not knowing about the formation of the Justice League.

Which brings me to my final gripe, we never get to hear them called The Justice League in the movie, not even as a joke, why is WB so afraid of their very own comic book source material names being said out loud? Wonder Woman never called Wonder Woman in three movies, Cyborg called "The Cyborg" once in dialog, one mention of Arthur Curry being called "The Aquaman", and correct me if I'm wrong but I sure never heard them say "The Flash" in the movie at all. Warner Bros. needs to realize yes these are million dollar motion picture adaptations of the characters but they are still comic book characters and they need to say them in the movies and we need to hear them coming out of the surround sound at the theaters, or they're just basically selling us the Trademark they own that they think we're only drawn to like mindless zombies, and not selling us on making a live action continuity connected super-hero universe like they should be doing.

Vacation Toy Hunt Finds

Just came back from a week long vacation in the state of Indiana, and my idea of an awesome vacation was hitting vintage used toy shops every day in a different town. My first day was in Chicago, Illinois where I got to hang out with two favorite podcasters from Optimusprimecast, Dale and Eric, who showed me, and my wife around town, taking us to all the great toy shops in their area, except Quake Collectibles that sadly closes on Tuesdays which was the day I arrived.

Our first stop was Namaka Toys, this was an awesome place, not a vintage store, but dealed in high end pricey imports merchandise, mostly Japanese imports including Gundam model kits, and Takara Masterpiece Transformers which had me drooling. Didn't pick up anything for myself there, but did find an awesome birthday present for a friend.

Toy de Jour was where I got my first find. Dale, and Eric was digging through a box of recently acquired Transformers, and who is sitting on top the pile to which I had to quickly pick up, and examine to check quality, and completeness, but Transformers: Prime First Edition Voyager Class Optimus Prime complete with both weapons and virtualy no damage or missing parts. What puzzled us, and the store owner was that his head was not what it should of been of Optimus with his face plate up, but a nicely detailed plate-less face, so we were thinking perhaps it was customized or a foreign variant we didn't know about. To find out after some research later that the head is a third party part swap: Dr. Wu DW-TF06 Sage Maskless Face.

We also hit another toy shop called Rad Vintage, a comic shop, and a gaming card shop called The Dice Dojo, where I did find two Planeswalkers cards I was looking for a very price. With only a few hours to hang with Dale and Eric, and to roam around Chicago it was time to drive out to Indiana.

Our first stop in Indiana was D's Toys in Indianapolis where I acquired my very first Beast Wars Transformer figure with Transmetal Optimus Prime, he dosen't have his weapons, but is in superb condition. My other great finds there was loose McFarlane Toys Youngblood Die Hard with all his accessories, and found the first three brothers of the 2003 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Leo, Don, and Mikey, all in fantastic shape, and complete with their weapons fueling the need to find Raph in my continued hunting.

Stop #2 in Indianapolis was The Toy Pit, which after much digging and deliberation I only walked away with a carded Playmates WildC.A.T.s Grifter, starting me down the path of having to complete the team, but did find another great addition to go with my present for my friend I got at Nakama Toys the day before.

  

Kokomo Toys in Kokomo, Indiana I can only describe as Vintage Toy Heaven, this was the shop I was at the longest digging through pegs of loose bagged figures, and probably spent the most money. Very happily here was where I found the Raphael to complete my 2007 TMNT team. I checked off two rare-hard-to-find figures I was looking for off  my list with Marvel Legends Commander Steve Rogers, and DC Universe Classics Green Lantern Kyle Rayner, both complete with their accessories. Surprisinly also found the recently released Marvel Legends Death's Head II, loose with his extra hand just not in the official package, and paid less then retail, Score!

In Mishawaka I ran in to Tom's Vintage Toys, which i almost walked out with nothing until I came across a Playmate Star Trek: The Original Series Tricorder, but it wasn't until I pressed a button and heard that 60's tv show sound effect that I knew I couldn't leave without it.

Added another Playmates WildC.A.T.s member with Zealot at Corn Coast Comics in Huntington.

My final hunting spot was the furthest to get to, but what I found there was truly worth the travel time, because at Sewer Lair Toys in Terre Haute I found one of my Holy Grail Transformers: Generation 2 Laser Optimus Prime. He's not 100% complete, missing the disc launcher form the tanker, ripped stickers on the chest, the sword has part of the handle broken off, and some paint scraped off his hands, but damn did I pay a fraction of what I probably would of paid for a similar condition off Ebay. Just got to get some replacement stickers, track down a disc launcher,and hopefully maybe a replacement sword, and he'll look great along with my G2 Megatron.

DC Rebirth Batman & JLA Review

DC Universe Rebirth Batman One-Shot & Batman #1-6

At  first I wasn't gonna pick up this series cause I didn't know anything about the writer Tom King, but then I started hearing how good the the second story arc "I Am Suicide" was, and regretted not getting it from the start. So I hunted down the one-shot and the first six issues, and I have to say I really enjoyed it, it has a nice balance of action, drama, and humor, and David Finch's art wasn't too extreme as it's been in the past. All-Star Batman is still the superior Bat-book, but I can't wait to read the "I Am Suicide" arc, and see the return of classic worthy intelligent Bat-villain Bane.

Justice League of America (4th Series) #1-4, 6-10

Oh yeah!, I waited to read this storyline until I had every issue, and it was a wait, cause of delays there was months between issues, taking a year and a half to gather all nine parts of the arc. To me it was worth it, I love Bryan Hitch's work and I know he likes to do year long stories, and with how fricking good this story was; it would of killed me reading and waiting through the delays. By waiting I just picked up every issue as I finally saw it on the shelf and put it in a box cherishing the thought of one day reading an epic 12 part Bryan Hitch Justice League run, though in the end it turned out only to be 9 parts probably cause the story had to be changed to fit in with DC's Rebirth launch.

I really loved that the team was split for most for most of the story, and that there were parts in the past , present and future all happening at the same time with some issues just focusing on one member at a time. Sucks Hitch couldn't draw issue 10, but he was probably too busy starting to write the new Rebirth Justice League ongoing at the time. Solicitations still shows two issues, and an annual are coming out, so hopefully we'll still get those cause I love getting more League action with Hal Jordan still on the team.

Comic Reviews 12-31 Pt.2

Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Pink #4-5

Boom Studios' second dose of MMPR love a month is the almost over, and like the main ongoing each issue keeps on rolling with more and more surprises. Issue #4 adds two more temporarily powered Rangers bringing Kimberly's team up to the standard five to battle Goldar, his human transforming monster, and his War Zord built out of previous destroyed Zords. What's great though is after Kim and her team saves the town and it's people in #5 there's still one more issue left and they have to go rescue Tommy and the main team, awesome. 

Suicide Squad #5-6-7-8

I don't use this word often, or even type it for that matter, but Uhg! It's becoming a real pain to read this comic, I almost threw issue #8 across the room. It takes alot for me to say I hate something, and I have been giving this writer a chance, but I'm gonna come out and say it: Rob Williams is a horrible fricking writer. This whole last eight issues reads like it was written by an 8 year old, which by me saying that is a disrespect to an actual 8 year old that I think could of actually written something better. 

Even worst is what was told in these eight issues could of been easily told in four, cause each issue is only half the pages with the other half being a back-up solo story, way to stretch it out there Rob. I really hope we get another writer soon, cause I hate giving DC my money and they thinks I actually like the writing when I'm only buying it for Jim Lee's art and Romita Jr.'s art when he comes on board. It truly pains me too, seeing Lee drawing out William's most likely badly described so called "action scenes", I know William's narrative is severely hindering Lee's great potential.

Supergirl #3-4

Giving this series a chance to see where it goes after the Cyborg Superman incident, I'm still getting use to Brain Ching's artwork too, I don't hate it, it's just a little wonky to me. I hoping to see more of the angry Kryptonian Kara for the start of the new 52, I don't want her to instantly become the cheery, hope filled innocent minded Supergirl, I would like to see her struggle with her anger and gradually become a more clear minded hero. Can not wait to see how she defeats Cyborg Superman and his legion of techno-zombies, hopefully it's a good brutal showdown.

 Superman #9-10-11-12-13 & Annual #1

I'm really digging these quick two part story arcs, of course the Superboy and Robin story was goddamn great, teasing you what the Supersons ongoing is going to be like. The Annual was a great tale of Superman encountering Swamp Thing and them dealing with Superman not being from this Earth and how his very presence is actually harming it, setting up great narratives for future story arcs coming up. My favorite Rebirth title, still going strong, fun fun read.

  Trinity #2-3-4 

Francis Manapul's tour through the three heroes past and psyches is really really good. You can really tell this series is were these three are gonna come together and become the close friends who know each other extremely well and are the trusted teammates who form the heart of the Justice League. Holy shit! Mongoul, I know he's pop up a couple times in the New 52 so far, but this the first I've seen him since 2009, it's gonna be great to see the Trinity take him on.

Comic Reviews 12-31 Pt.1

All-Star Batman #4-5

The last two issues with artist John Romita Jr. concludes the "My Own Worst Enemy" story, it's sad to see Romita leave after only 5 issues, but that's why they're calling this series All-Star cause it's going to have rotating All-Star artist for every story arc. Romita is going over to Suicide Squad next, and our next All Star artist is Jock, who worked with Snyder on a run of Detective Comics before Flashpoint that was damn good. I know I haven't said anything concerning the actual comics, but I really don't know what to say that I didn't already say about #1-3, it's Snyder's great character driven writing, and fricking incredible Romita Jr. artwork, it is awesome. Perfect Batman tale in every way, period.

Captain America: Steve Rogers #6-7-8

Oh thank Thanos issue #6 was the last tie-in issue with Civil War II, no more unnecessary filler that didn't move the story along, and what's great is #7 picks up right where #4 ended like you didn't need #5 & 6 at all. I call this book my "Hydra-Steve Crack", it kills me waiting a month between issues, it's so good, every flashback of Steve's altered memories just keeps getting grander and grander. I hope this storyline goes on for a while, I can't wait to see what he does with Baron Zemo, who now in his memories was childhood friends with, and the upcoming showdown with Taskmaster, and how this is all going to end. 

Justice League Vs. Suicide Squad #1-2

I'm really enjoying this, it's so refreshing to read Suicide Squad written by someone other the horrible hack that's writting the main series right now, but more on that later. Enjoying and can't wait to see where Maxwell Lord and his Nightmare Army go, and what they know of the pre-Flashpoint timeline and see if we start to see more Watchmen connections. Loving the weekly release of each issue and that it's a contained story in the mini-series and not having to pick up Justice League or Suicide Squad with each comic being a different part.

DC Rebirth Justice League One-Shot & Justice League #1-2

Started picking up the new Justice League to get some more Superman action, really loved the one-shot with Superman finally deciding to join the League officially cause the League and the world need's a Superman. I loved Bryan Hitch's JLA run, and really glad he's still writing the team even  though he couldn't write and draw this time cause of the new release schedule. Glad to see the team is split up all over the world fighting the threat, what a group book done right can be, instead of eight heroes throwing all their powers at one focus we see individuals and pairs working towards the same goal.

Mighty Morhpin' Power Rangers #8-9-10

This comic right here along with Superman and Captain America is the main reason I have started going to the comic shop weekly again. Each issue just keeps on getting better and better, and with issue #9's reveal of who was behind the Black Dragon being an evil alternate timeline Power Ranger (most likely Tommy) was fricking mind-blowing. Again Higgins' add something to the Power Ranger mythos with out altering anything we already held as fact in #10 with Billy struggle to be a better Ranger with staying Morphed under his clothes minus the gloves and helmet, never thought of that before, amazing.

Part 2 with five more reviews coming up next...