Hasbro Transformers Generations Hot Rod 2010

If I cover a fair number of Transformers on this site, it's for two reasons. One, they were easily my favorite toys when I was growing up. By far, they were my toys of choice when I had the chance to choose any figure I wanted. Second, it's because I've only recently gotten back into the line. You can blame the Armada trilogy for that. Overly-steeped in anime stylings and seemingly made of cheap plastic, I just could not get into the designs or the feel of the modern toys. Recently, Hasbro seems to have decided that it actually wants to make figures that are more reminiscent of the original designs. It's no coincidence that they have been getting more of my money since making that decision.

Toybiz X-Men Bishop 1996

ToyBiz was in business for a long time. Before they started kicking articulation's ass, however, they produced more basic lines. It seems like they made about 25,000 X-Men figures in the 1990's, but it could have been a few less than that. Bishop here was released in 1993. This was the fourth series of their X-Men line, and Bishop was joined on the shelf with Apocalypse, Omega Red, Strong Guy (no, seriously, that's his name.. it's a long story..), Tusk (he didn't age well), Wolverine in black, Wolverine in blue, and Wolverine in green, produced for the no-longer-existent KayBee Toys. Let's just say it wasn't hard to buy a Wolverine figure in 1993.This figure is actually the repaint, "Bishop II" from 1996, but the paint was the only real change that was made.

Spider Monday - Amazing Spider-Man #5

After four straight issues of world building and brand new villains, things are shaken up with Issue #5 as the Marvel Universe is tied neatly together. Yes, the villain for this issue is Doctor Doom, a man both hilarious and frightening at the same time. A man whose ego knows no bounds. How does he do against the quips of the ol' Webhead? Let's find out, and see if we finally break our four issue streak of perfect issues!

Toybiz Marvel Legends Pyro 2006

Ah, Marvel Legends. It has a bit of a convoluted history. Started by ToyBiz, it was later taken over by Hasbro when ToyBiz went belly up and Hasbro bought the license. It was a rough transition, as ToyBiz put out its best work just as Hasbro put out its first work, making for a confusing time and some very disappointing figures. Pyro was actually put out in the "Onslaught" wave in 2006, a time when ToyBiz worked hard to find a balance between articulation and sculpt and began to get it right. In my review of Hasbro's Thor, I shared a picture of Spider-Man as an example of ToyBiz at its worst. This figure is them at some of their best. Let me show you why.

Mattel Masters of the Universe Classics Prince Fabulous

Don't get me started on MattyCollector. Don't get me started on Mattel, Scott Nietlich, or the overall mishandling of the Masters of the Universe Classics line. What should have been an astoundingly successful line was instead turned into a niche line for only the most serious of collectors. Cherry pickers and frugal shoppers need not apply. I started off with a lot of excitement for the figures, but bowed out after a year and a half and only a few figures bought. There is one rule I'm very particular about and never break.. I don't fight people to take my money. That's why I was thrilled to hear that a lot of "sold out" Masters of the Universe Classics figures were released to Big Lots and being sold for $10 each. I absolutely don't mind swinging by a store and buying a figure at a good price off of a shelf, so it was an instant win.

Spider Monday - Amazing Spider-Man #4

Welcome once again to Every Amazing Spider-Man Reviewed! This time around we're featuring issue number four, the debut of the Stupendous Sandman! Acting almost as a combination of The Thing and Mr. Fantastic, Stan Lee and Steve Ditko present the Sandman as another radioactive villain, but this time he can control the grains of sand that make up his body! Will Spider-Man be able to adapt and save the day, or will Sandman successfully terrorize an innocent high school principal? The stakes have never been.. er.. stranger!

Hasbro Transformers Generations Ultimate Gift Set Jazz 2012

A few months ago, I got an appeal over Facebook for assistance from my good friend, and Transformers uber-guru, AMD. Unable to turn down his call for help, I found myself going halvsies on an online-exclusive Ultimate Gift Set that included Jazz, a miniature Motormaster (called Motorbreath now for copyright reasons), an oddly colored Optimus Prime and a miniature Thundercracker. I cut Optimus Prime out and sent him to his new home and got to keep the rest. Talk about a nice deal! To fluff out the Transformers content on my site so that Menasor is not all alone, I figured I'd take a look at this figure, Jazz, originally released in 2012, based on a mold from 2010.

Mattel WWE Mankind 2012

There are some people in the world you can't help but love. They evoke a kindness and inspiration that makes you want to be a better person in return. I think I can safely say that 20 years ago I never would have thought that a professional wrestler would be the one to do that, much less Mick Foley. Then again, twenty years ago I hadn't read his first book, Have A Nice Day. Now? Now, I'm a fan.

Spider Monday - Amazing Spider-Man #3

Ah, Dr. Octopus, one of my favorite villains. Dr. Octopus is fairly unique in the world of comics. He's overweight, which is something that Marvel embraced far before DC, with characters such as Blob and Kingpin. He doesn't start off as a villain, either. In fact, it is the accident that gives him his abilities that also robs him of his sanity. It's an interesting dichotomy between him and Spider-Man, in that case. Spider-Man gains his powers from a radioactive spiders, but maintains his own personality along with the increased powers. What, however, would happen if he were driven insane from the radioactivity and became one of the greatest villains? Dr. Octopus lets us find that out!

Debuting in Amazing Spider-Man #3 as one of the best Spider-Villains yet, here comes Dr. Octopus!

Hasbro Marvel Legends - Mighty Thor

I swear, the timing of this review is entirely coincidental and not really meant to coincide with the release of Thor's second movie, The Dark World. That said, I don't mind the occasional happy coincidence! I happily take them when I can. Let's take a look at Thor from Hasbro!

McFarlane Toys - Badrock

1992 was a pretty exciting time for comics. X-Men and Spider-Man had enjoyed relaunches that were hugely popular, largely because of speculators planning on getting rich twenty years later, and stories were becoming more gritty and "extreme." And then Marvel lost almost all of its most major talent.

Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen, Jim Valentino, Marc Silvestri, Whilce Portacio, and Chris Claremont decided to form their own company in the interest of owner's rights, and founded Image Comics. Each of the creators would have their own company underneath the umbrella Image logo, and would control their own creations exclusively (although Portacio and Claremont did not create their own companies, ultimately). Easily the two most popular out of the gate were Rob Liefeld with Youngblood and Todd McFarlane with Spawn, although Jim Lee's Wild C.A.T.S. and Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon would be close in the running. McFarlane would soon create a toy line to capitalize on his creations (and not being happy with what existing toy companies could do for him) and later branched out to include some of the more popular Image characters. And that's how Badrock ended up in toy form.

Spider-Monday - Amazing Spider-Man #2

Every hero is, ultimately, defined by their villains. Batman wouldn't be nearly as cool if he spent all of his time hanging out at the local middle school scaring away drug dealers. Superman would probably be less impressive if all he ever did was rescue treed cats and the occasional frog in front of a lawn mower. Luckily for Spider-Man, this is something that Stan Lee understood very well. In his first appearance, his biggest foes were himself and the burglar that killed his uncle, and to be honest these would always be his biggest foes. To have these quickly followed in the first issue of Amazing Spider-Man with J. Jonah Jameson and the Chameleon is definitely a plus! For this issue, we get introduced to the terrifying, gravity-defying Vulture and the Tinkerer.