Toy Report: Spider-Man review set

Yes, another review set. This time featuring everybody’s favorite wall-crawler:

The Amazing Spider-Man!

For this review set, page 2 (page 1 being the opening page) will focus on the comic-based Spider-Man figures and page 3 the two movie figures. All five were produced by Toy Biz, now Marvel Toys. The comic versions came with a reprint comic featuring the first appearance of that particular costume (and Spider-Man as I’ll get into for non-comic readers) and wall-hanging displays while the movie figures came with a highly detailed display piece.

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Toy Report: Iron Man Mini-Figures

I totally want to reshoot the entire thing. Seriously, my camera isn’t very good for these close-ups I need for this site. Anyway, the last of the Iron Man specific toy reviews concludes here with these little guys. About half the size of the figures I reviewed last week, these little action figures share most of the posability of their larger counterparts. No ankles, folding wrists, or waist, but everything else is there; shoulders, neck, legs, hips, abs, spinning wrists, and knees are present on the figures. Released under the “Iron Man 2” banner, the two on the sides are from the “comic series” figures, while the center one is based on the armor from the second film.

As you can see, each comes with a stand and card set I’ll get into later. Hasbro has this for their other Marvel lines, Spider-Man and Universe, while DC has their own, and their perfect for the space-minded clutter cleaner.

Toy Report: Iron Man action figures

Definitely not getting the best pictures this week. I need a better photo-taking setup. Anyway, our trip to Stark Industries continues with two different Iron Men. On the left is an Iron Man movie figure from Hasbro. On the right is the “classic” Iron Man armor from Toy Biz. There was a point where I was hoping to have a version of all the Iron Man armors. Those figures never came out and some that did I missed because my Transformers obsession trumped all other toy collecting interests. So this is what I have. Let’s review them separately.

Toy Report: Ronin Warrior Cye

Ronin Warriors was an American adaptation of the Japanese animated series (or “anime”) Samurai Troopers, with surprisingly little editing. It’s a great show in either translation, and my favorite character was Cye of the Torrent. (Granted, it’s mostly because he had a cool accent, wore blue–my favorite color–and I’m a bit of a water baby–for a guy who can’t swim. Also, his symbol (although I believe this was one that was mistranslated) was “trust”, which speaks to me personally, but you don’t need my baggage.) So I really wanted the figure when it came out. I do like me some armored heroes, and the whole series is about a group of guys who can summon magical battle armor to battle with. (Even the villains could summon armor.) The story behind the armor is different and makes for a great story and I highly recommend this show. This is why I wanted the action figure and Big Lots had a whole bunch that they were able to find and sell for clearance.

I can see now why they didn’t sell.

Toy Report: The DC Comics figures review set

There they are, all five DC Comics action figures I own. Anyone who’s read my other blog is probably surprised that I have more Marvel figures than DC, since I’m supposed to be a bigger fan of the DC Universe, and yet that’s just how things turned out.

As we continue to clean out that box from the cubby hole, these five figures are the next to be reviewed. Two of them are from different lines, and two of them will be leaving my collection. Are they the same two? In the next four pages (since if I reviewed each of them separately it would take too long but reviewing them all on the same page would result in a very long post) you’ll find out for yourselves.

Toy Report: The Swan That Judges My Action Figures

As an adult with too big a toy collection, my criteria has changed from the days of my youth. When it comes to action figures, I collect to make a nice display or to even help me with my artistic skills. (I want to be a comic creator but knowing no artists and being tied to “my vision” I’m learning to draw on my own.) This results in having certain requirements when it comes to my action figures and even my Transformers, which I’ll be going through soon enough.

Before I begin burrowing through the rest of my “cubby hole” action figures, I thought you might want to see the standard by which I judge my action figures. Probably the coolest action figure in my collection, and anime fans will recognize the unintentional pun when I show you…

Cygnus Hyoga (the Swan)

Toy Report: Mega Man NT Warrior figures

The problem with using natural sunlight through broken blinds.

Mega Man: NT Warrior was an anime and manga series based off of the Nintendo game Mega Man Battle Network, created by Capcom for the Game Boy Advance and later the DS. Although it shares character names with the original Mega Man games, this is a completely new continuity. Instead of robot battles, you take on the role of Lan Hikari, a kid who likes to play virtual combat with his “Net Navi”, Megaman.exe. Mattel released an action figure line based on the animated series, which had been imported to the US to help promote the Battle Network game (although they gave it a different name from the games).

When I had asked for Mega Man action figures I had meant ones from the toyline where last week’s figure came from. However, I forgot that my parents didn’t keep up on all the latest info on the toys from when I was a kid, much less a bunch of figures that their “Peter Pan Syndrome”-burdened 20+ year-old son wanted. So I ended up with one figure from the “right” line, and the three figures pictured above. So where they any good, and will they stay in the collection like the last two figures?

Toy Report: Mega Man

Image via Wikipedia

The second in this series of toy reviews before I move to something else for a post or two (seriously, I could make weeks worth of posts just reviewing the action figure box unless I go daily, and I don’t have the time) features the original Blue Bomber, Mega Man! Now this one of two action figures I have featuring the classic version of Capcom‘s game character. The other was from the “Marvel Vs. Capcom” line that came with a version of War Machine. I’ll review those two together, so for now you get just the one.

Let’s be honest, I suck at most video games to begin with, and that includes the Mega Man games (known as Rockman in his native Japan, which is why his non-hero name is “Rock” in both translations). So if I were to not like a game because I couldn’t breeze through it, I wouldn’t even be a casual gamer. Mega Man is one of my favorite games and thus one of my favorite characters. I also like the cartoon (at least when it came out…and I still kind of like it now) but wasn’t able to get my hands on the action figures from those lines. Sadly, I wasn’t able to get any of the action figures from the Jazwares line, based off of the video games, except for this one figure. I’ll tell you why this is a sad thing during the review.

Toy Report: Daffy Duck figure

Image via Wikipedia

Last week I went through the cubby hole and straightened up a few things. Now it’s time to start the “purge reviews”, as it were. If you noticed, there were so many action figures that I couldn’t fit them all in the box. Well, I grouped them into a series of reviews. Having nowhere else to put him, I was planning to put my Daffy Duck figure in a review set with my various Mega Man figures since he wouldn’t go into any of the other slots and this was the shortest set. However, pictures for the latter came out unusable so I can’t post any pictures of their review. (Remember, one article per week is my goal here, and time is almost up.) The Daffy shots were at least salvageable, so it looks like he’s getting his own review.

I think he’d want it that way.

The First Report

I own too much junk. Seriously, look at my living space.

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I’m tripping over my videos to get to my games, Transformers and other action figures are all over the place, and my comics and old mail are getting in the way of my art space. And that’s just for starters.

Additionally, my place is one big mess, my records are disorganized, my computer desktop is full of links, and I have trouble finding things when I want them. In other words, I have a lot of clutter, digitally and physically.

I run a storytelling critique blog called the BW Media Spotlight, and for some reason, despite not getting paid to do it, I have this urge to write an article every day. So my thinking is that if I have the mindset where I must write at least one article a week about going through the clutter, organizing or removing it, then maybe I won’t procrastinate as much about it and actually do it, just to have an article.

The best part is that when I review a video, comic, or even some video games, I can cross-post it to the Spotlight and give myself an easy article there. It’s a win-win for me, provided I actually go through with it. In addition, some of the stuff I review will be going away, which may mean selling, auctioning, or just giving it away, depending on my needs. (I know a former co-worker who wants first shot at any NES games I plan to give up.)

It won’t be just about reviewing all the junk I own, mind you. Some articles will be devoted to organizing, and seeking tips on better organizing my living space. This is a side project, but hopefully one that will get my butt in gear, and by necessity will probably be a bit more formal than what my BW readers are used to. Hopefully, we’ll all get something out of this.

Weekly updates will be a bit sporadic as I try to figure out when is a good day to schedule an update, but I still want one article per week minimum. So welcome to the Clutter Report, where I review all the crap I own and try to own less of it, or at least stop tripping over it.

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