Toy Report: Spider-Man Classics Rhino

Yes, I know I already did one of these fairly recently, but I reviewed a Spider-Man comic on the other site this week and I decided I wanted to look at the toy it came with.for this week’s Report. That toy is the Rhino, another of Spider-Man’s lethal foes. If you’ve seen the recent Amazing Spider-Man 2 you do not have an accurate portrayal of the Rhino. This guy is the original version. So let’s see how good the toy came out.

Advertisement

Mini-Comic report: MASK – “Flaiming Beginnings”

I mentioned in this article how much I enjoy mini-comics. (By the way I still need a good storage method.) Not the kind some cartoonists make, although I love a good story of any format and size. If you’re a Masters of the Universe fan you know exactly which ones I mean. These mini-comics used to be the only way to sell the world of the toys until the FCC, pushed by Ronald Reagan, allowed for animated series, like He-Man & The Masters of the Universe or Transformers. Even after that, Masters of the Universe continued to add comics in their toys, which continued in the “He-Man” spin off line.

However, it isn’t just toys that contained these comics. Drake’s Snack Cakes had two different series of Marvel Comics and DC has partnered with General Mills cereals on more than one occasion. (They even have a cross-promotion now, but not in either of the cereals I eat. Donations welcome.) I even remember a pair of sneakers I had as a kid had a mini-comic strip that told you how cool the shoes you just bought were. That’s long since disappeared by the way.

Since I need a little time and I’ve started reviewing mini-comics on my site, I thought I’d transport one over here so I at least have something to post. You might think I’d be starting with Masters Of The Universe, arguably the king of the pack-in promo mini-comics. This is not the case, as I was prompted to officially start this series after listening to the first episode of MASKast, a podcast reviewing the 80’s animated series M.A.S.K. (short for Mobile Armored Strike Kommand–no wonder Johnny can’t read). In it they mentioned that one of the three mini-comics, produced for Kenner by DC Comics–who later produced a mini and ongoing series–told the origin of M.A.S.K. and V.E.N.O.M. (the Vicious Evil Network of Mayhem), but they didn’t seem to know a lot about it. Since this was later made canon for the cartoon during the “racing” series of the show (where the two groups dropped crimefighting and crimedoing to take part in cross-country races–yeah, I don’t get it either), I thought it was a good one to start with, even if most of the Clutter Reports readers may not have seen either.

This whole thing started over choosing pizza toppings.

MASK comic #1: Flaming Beginnings

PACKED WITH: Not sure. I do know that only the first series of MASK vehicles came with this. I’m thinking my copy came with either Switchblade or Thunderhawk, both of which I still own. Note that not every comic I’ll review in this section is one I own. Some will be downloaded from the internet because the odds of reprinting them are rather low. (That’s why this is part of Comic Spotlight and not a “Scanning My Collection” series.) When I do know which specific toys or products these comics came in I will list them.

PRODUCED BY: DC Comics. Granted I only know this because there’s an ad on the inside cover to subscribe to DC Comics titles and they worked on the sold-in-stores issues. Some mini-comics were produced by the company themselves but like this one and MOTU the toy company would outsource to regular comic producers.

CREDITS: For this comic there were no writer/artist credits. I just want to have a layout for the review.