Toy Report: Block City

I know I said Transformers were up next but since this was uncovered during the recent organizing project and I have plans for using them (I won’t say what in case it doesn’t work) I thought I would take a quick look at this set. Block City was a building block set that was introduced in the 1950s. In my admittedly short research I kept getting told the toyline ended in the 1960s and yet I remember getting these in the 1980s, late 1970s at best. So either my parents gave me one of their old toys for Christmas or they happened to find a store with leftovers.

With the success of LEGO and Lincoln Logs among other building toys a number of toymakers try to come up with their own building block sets. Some of them use licenses, like LEGO and Mega Blocks while other just hope parents won’t know any better or enthusiasts will want to try something new. Block City went through a few different owners in its time. My set was produced by Block City Incorporated out of Hopkinsville, Kentucky. (One of the previous creators also was out of Kentucky.) The original creators appears to be the Tri-State Plastic Molding Company, later distributed by the Chicago-based Plastic Block City Incorporated. The early sets came in tubes and boxes with names like “The New Yorker” and “The Chicagoan” (whether they were named after cities or magazines I wouldn’t know) and later less famous names like “Rolling Hills” and “Suburban”. I used to have a link here to a site that discussed it but it’s gone now and I couldn’t find a replacement. By my time we just get numbers based on how many pieces came with the set, so mine is in a reusable pail simply dubbed “B-680”.

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Toy Report: Marvel Vs. Capcom Mega Man & War Machine

It’s been too long since I’ve written a proper review for this site. And since my more needed clutter-cleaning project isn’t going to make for a good article, let’s do that.

Marvel Versus Capcom is a great fighting game series, featuring characters of Marvel Comics and the Capcom video game characters either teaming up or fighting each other depending on the players. The plot of the first game (at least under the MvC name, as smaller clashes had occurred previously), Clash Of Super Heroes, is that Professor Xavier needs the help of heroes from both realities to stop his overpowered, evil alter-ego, Onslaught. In the comics, Onslaught nearly killed a group of heroes that were saved only because Reed and Sue Richards’ son, Franklin, was able to transport them to a pocket dimension he created. Very long story, folks.

I’m not very good at the game (surprising nobody) but I do have a favorite team, born not out of gameplay mechanics but personal character preference, the team of Capcom’s Mega Man and Marvel’s War Machine. So when I saw a two-pack toy, released by Toy Biz as part of a brief line, featuring both characters I had to get it. So how do these figures hold up?