Page 2 of 3

Re: Spring and Summer 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Sun Sep 18, 2022 8:39 pm
by Sparky Prime
Went a little vintage for my birthday this year. I got the Thunder Assault Team from MMPR. I have the Red Dragon Thunderzord and White Tigerzord from when I was a kid, but never had the team to complete their Megazord modes. I managed to find a mostly complete set in good condition, only missing the helmet and sword/scabbard (which I have ordered separately). At least I can fully assemble the Mega Tigerzord in the meantime. Probably will order some reprolabels at some point to replace some peeling/missing (and thunderbolt) stickers at some point, but I'm very happy to finally have the Thunder Assault Team.

Edit: Got the sword and helmet, finally completing my Thunder Megazord! Now I just need the reprolabels to arrive to finish fixing the Zords up.
Edit 2: Got the reprolabels yesterday and spent a few hours applying them. Very happy with the results.

Also got the TMNT Cowabunga Collection. I was so excited when this was announced a while back, haven't played some of these games in probably close to 20 years, so it's a great nostalgia trip. TMNT II Arcade, The Manhattan Project and Turtles in Time/The Hyperstone Heist especially I played a ton of back in the day with my friends. Really missed being able to play them since my mom got rid of our NES after we got a Sega Genesis back in the day.

Re: Spring and Summer 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Sun Sep 25, 2022 5:54 pm
by andersonh1
Bought volume 5 of the Ruckley series "Horrors Near and Far" collecting Transformers 31-36, The Wreckers 4 parter, the annual and the Halloween Special. I decided that at only 6 volumes I'm going to finish this entire series in hardcover, even though I have most of the issues. I think I missed a Wreckers issue and the Halloween Special, so there are a couple of things I missed.

I'm still debating whether I want the two Phase 3 volumes from the first IDW continuity or not. Revolution is reminding me why I quit reading, but I may get them at some point.

Re: Spring and Summer 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2022 5:48 pm
by andersonh1
Bought probably the first Pop I've ever felt interested in enough to put down money for: Jazz. I've never quite understood the aesthetic of these figures with giant heads and usually cartoony styles, but Jazz essentially looks like himself (albeit with a giant head), and the packaging has the G1 box art and grid, so it hit some fun/nostalgia buttons for me. A little on the odd side, but a fun figure.

I got it from one of the local comic book shops, but here's a good image online if you've never seen one: https://www.bigbadtoystore.com/product/ ... vTEALw_wcB

I also got the 3rd and final Green Lantern by Geoff Johns omnibus, so I've got that entire run in collected format now.

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Sun Nov 06, 2022 10:19 am
by JediTricks
SS86 Sludge, again. Sludge has finally gotten a second run now that he's shipping alongside The Fallen and out from under the thumb of Starscream and chair, and this run has better tolerances on all the joints. Where my first one had a defective wrist and sloppy but not disastrous joints, this new copy has everything work smoothly and legs that actually stand upright. He's gone from being a disappointment to being nearly as good as Grimlock, with my opinion on Grimlock and Slag slipping a bit after some time, Sludge and Grimlock are low A's to high B's, Slag being a solid B.

Velocitron Speedia 500 Shadowstrip - this deco fixes a lot of issues I had with Drag Strip, the black plastic hides the gaps, the gold on the front of the legs and feet breaks up the monotony. This looks pretty good, although doesn't have enough blue for the G2 Drag Strip look, and it has zero Decepticon logos.

Velocitron Speedia 500 Crasher - has charms, the pink face doesn't look as bad in person as the solicitation photos, and it's nice to add another Decepticon to their ranks. This is my first experience with the Kingdom earth mode Mirage mold and it's a better car but still plenty of oddities and foibles, it almost feels like a different brand's toy. Crasher has no 'con faction logos in bot mode which is odd, I don't care that she was a Go-Bot, if she's got one in vehicle mode there should be one in bot mode.

MOTU Origins Mini Comic Trap Jaw - got this to transform into classic Trap Jaw since I missed out and have been loving this line, but Skeletor's minions feel incomplete without him and Kronis wasn't good enough on his own. I finally got MC Trap Jaw and the heads don't swap, so I carve the inside of his head and jam it over the Kronis torso for a so-so fit, it works well enough, and a few days later the Target-exclusive Trap Jaw listing that I found months ago turns out to be for a wave 2 and 3 exclusive reissue that's just started hitting Targets. Joke's on me!

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:13 am
by andersonh1
A year after it was originally supposed to be published, Golden Age Superman omnibus volume 7 has finally appeared. They've picked a thinner paper for this one, which annoys me while reading, but otherwise it's good to see another 700 page reprint volume that finally finishes up the 1940s and reaches August 1950. Having read both, I can say that Batman was the better series at the time, but Superman was still pretty good, if not as good as it was when it first appeared. Superman had become a very light-hearted, often whimsical series at this point, and there's not a lot of dramatic weight to most stories. I think Kryptonite appears for the first time in a story in this volume, and it's kind of amazing that something that's such a well-known staple of the character didn't exist for the first decade that he was published.

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 6:32 am
by Shockwave
andersonh1 wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:13 am A year after it was originally supposed to be published, Golden Age Superman omnibus volume 7 has finally appeared. They've picked a thinner paper for this one, which annoys me while reading, but otherwise it's good to see another 700 page reprint volume that finally finishes up the 1940s and reaches August 1950. Having read both, I can say that Batman was the better series at the time, but Superman was still pretty good, if not as good as it was when it first appeared. Superman had become a very light-hearted, often whimsical series at this point, and there's not a lot of dramatic weight to most stories. I think Kryptonite appears for the first time in a story in this volume, and it's kind of amazing that something that's such a well-known staple of the character didn't exist for the first decade that he was published.
That's interesting about the Kryptonite. I've always found that to be an amusing aspect of Superman's mythos. Because, like, it's just a chunk of his home planet, right? And that weakens him to the point of almost killing him in some stories? I mean, what if that's what's keeping us from being superpowered, the fact that we're just constantly that close to our planet? Like, that's basically the ground that Kryptonians walked on, right? So yeah, what if the ground WE'RE walking on is keeping US from being superhuman? It's just funny to me once you start breaking it down in any sort of practical context.

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Fri Dec 09, 2022 2:47 pm
by andersonh1
Shockwave wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 6:32 am
andersonh1 wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 4:13 am A year after it was originally supposed to be published, Golden Age Superman omnibus volume 7 has finally appeared. They've picked a thinner paper for this one, which annoys me while reading, but otherwise it's good to see another 700 page reprint volume that finally finishes up the 1940s and reaches August 1950. Having read both, I can say that Batman was the better series at the time, but Superman was still pretty good, if not as good as it was when it first appeared. Superman had become a very light-hearted, often whimsical series at this point, and there's not a lot of dramatic weight to most stories. I think Kryptonite appears for the first time in a story in this volume, and it's kind of amazing that something that's such a well-known staple of the character didn't exist for the first decade that he was published.
That's interesting about the Kryptonite. I've always found that to be an amusing aspect of Superman's mythos. Because, like, it's just a chunk of his home planet, right? And that weakens him to the point of almost killing him in some stories? I mean, what if that's what's keeping us from being superpowered, the fact that we're just constantly that close to our planet? Like, that's basically the ground that Kryptonians walked on, right? So yeah, what if the ground WE'RE walking on is keeping US from being superhuman? It's just funny to me once you start breaking it down in any sort of practical context.
I've read the first Kryptonite story, but it's been a long time, so I forget how they explain why the radioactivity specifically affects Superman. I'll be curious to see the explanation again. I think the story is also the first time Superman learns that he's an alien, something he's also not been aware of up to this point.

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2022 10:24 am
by JediTricks
Legacy - Blitzwing, Clampdown, Core-class Optimus, Armada Starscream, BW Inferno

Studio Series - Ironhide (not bad), Exo-suit Spike (silly but kinda fun)

Masters of the Universe Origins - reissue Trap Jaw (yaaaay!), Man-e-faces (good, better than expected), and Orko (also better than expected but not that great).

Star Wars - TVC Obi-Wan Kenobi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Wandering Jedi) on sale for $7 (nice figure, very easy to loose tiny accessories and parts so watch out); TBS Archive TFA Han (decent updated head), TBS Archive Chewie, TVC The Child; Micro Galaxy Squadron Boba Fett's Starship TBOBF (not that great); TBS Gaming Greats Flametrooper (double-clearance, not great not bad, mostly reuse of snowtrooper), Nightbrother Warrior (double clearance, pretty good

GI Joe Classified - Serpentor (good but for the price it should be), Crimson Guard x2 (ok but not quite great), Mindbender (defective hip so sending back for refund, watch out for cape dying fleshtone parts, not super impressed with this entry), Sgt. Slaughter (pretty good)
Shockwave wrote: Fri Dec 09, 2022 6:32 am That's interesting about the Kryptonite. I've always found that to be an amusing aspect of Superman's mythos. Because, like, it's just a chunk of his home planet, right? And that weakens him to the point of almost killing him in some stories? I mean, what if that's what's keeping us from being superpowered, the fact that we're just constantly that close to our planet? Like, that's basically the ground that Kryptonians walked on, right? So yeah, what if the ground WE'RE walking on is keeping US from being superhuman? It's just funny to me once you start breaking it down in any sort of practical context.
We have mercury, lead, arsenic, polonium, and plutonium in our soil, so why not something similar in theirs?

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2022 5:32 pm
by andersonh1
And the other two books that got delayed about six months arrived today: the Starman Compendium vol. 2 and Silver Age Batman Omnibus vol. 1. They jumped ahead with Batman, they still need one more omnibus to finish up the Golden Age, so hopefully I'll be able to fill that gap on my bookshelf sooner or later. With Starman volume 2, they've finished collecting the entire 90s series plus various one-shots and mini-series in two volumes. I had always intended to get around to reading Starman someday, so now I will finally be able to without resorting to back issues or the out of print hardcovers.

Re: Fall 2022 Hauls!!

Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2023 8:51 am
by andersonh1
Got another big non-Transformers haul: the complete Gunsmoke on DVD. That's a massive box set that will take me forever to watch all the way through. Started watching a few of these on some of the free streaming channels and decided it was a great series that I'd love to see more of, and it was ultimately going to be cheaper to just bite the bullet and get the whole series at once rather than go a few seasons at a time. The only problem I'm finding with a lot of the early episodes is that they're remakes of the radio episodes, so I already know the plot and the plot twists, but still, it's interesting to compare and contrast the two formats.