Toys, toys and more toys...

Due to circumstances beyond our control, the Krew wasn't able to go to New York Comic Con this year.

So, I'm going back over my NDK experience and some of the things that I picked up in the Dealer's Room. My favorite purchase for this year was the Revoltech: Queen's Blade figure, Alleyne. Now, people who know me know that I absolutely LOVE Revoltechs and, as a lover of fanservice, this Queen's Blade figure was right up my alley.

Over the years, Revoltech has gotten better and better as I just love the fact that Alleyne's cloak has joints in it to make for "dramatic" poses.

Revoltech purchases come in bunches for me so when the Krew saw this figure, they were inspired to put together a group purchase on Hobbylink Japan. We all bought Queen's Blade figures with mine being my favorite character, Menace. I can't wait to get her...probably be sometime around my b-day...

Sticking with the toy theme, Card picked up some SDCC exclusives this year even though we were unable to go this summer. He has friends in the He-Man community who hooked him up. Among the things that he got was the new 8" Lion-O figure from Bandai. Very nice. In fact, I decided that I wanted one as well.

Going hand-in-hand with the new ThunderCats tv show, the "Classic ThunderCats" figures were a welcome addition to my toy collection.

If I could have only stopped with just the 8" toys, I would be better off however, the 6" figures were for the new series and I dig that size (from my Marvel Legends days).

These toys ROCK as I picked up all three of the first wave of 6 inchers...

It took a while to get used to the new design for Panthro but, I'm kinda digging his new look more and more each day. As for the Mumm-Ra, it's a very nice figure but it's legs are too short and it is missing the wings (you could tell that there was a place for wings on this figure...too bad).

Then there is the "crack" of the ThunderCats toy line....the 4" figures...

You know, I did NOT want to buy these...I mean, I'm trying to collect specific things. The 8"ers I like because they are the classic characters and the 6"ers are right up my alley as a collector but...it was the doggone "ThunderTank" that pried my money from my wallet and led to my picking up the entire first wave of 4 inch figures...

No control, whatsoever....still, the tank is pretty kick ass...

Just last night, I picked up my Marvel Universe X-23 figure and consider me impressed/happy. I remember the Marvel Legends version of X-23 was VERY disappointing. The sculpt was HORRIBLE as she was rocking a head that was too big for her body. Now, this figure....Hasbro got it RIGHT!!!

Proportions are right on, the sculpt is tight and it is an all-around fun/nice toy to own. As a fan of this character, I think I can say for all of us..."it's about time"...

Of course, Marvel Universe has been tearing it up lately with it's last two waves being outstanding. I mean, I've seen the new Steve Rogers and it is SICK. Honestly, I was seriously thinking about dropping this line but, if they keep this up, they will continue to get my hard-earned cash.

I'm pretty impatient...

Initially, the plan was to pick up the MPC Alphas when I hit Comic-Con. Pfft...Yeah, right...me being who I am, there was honestly no way that I was going to wait that long.

I got my MPC VFA-6ZX (Maia) just recently and I must say that I am quite pleased with my purchase. There has been a lot of chatter on Robotech-related sites about the Alphas and their poor quality. As it is, the only issue that I have with my Maia Alpha is a small gap on the left wing.

Speaking with Tommy Yune at NDK last year about the first release of the Maia Alphas, I really looked forward to seeing what they did with the re-released version 2.
We were told that the mold was going to be re-made and that the paint job was to be re-done as well.

Upon opening my Maia, the first thing that I noticed is that it looked as though the previous issues with the paint job had been corrected. No smudges!!! As for the mold, I didn't get the first version so I didn't really have anything to compare this one to. Having said that, I know a solid toy when I see one and, thankfully, I had one in my greedy hands.The joints were solid and the toy had good balance. I'm really looking forward to the Marcus Rash MPC Alpha. Hopefully, we don't have to wait too long for it.

Something that I got for Christmas last year was this VR-052F from Mospeada (MegaHouse). It was probably the crown jewel from Christmas for me.

It was kind of a pain to transform, though...

What I will be looking for during con season is Yellow's VR-041 which is also from MegaHouse.

This will probably take the place of the Alphas as the much sought-after toy (along with a Beta) at Comic-Con, for me.

I really like this particular mech as it was, actually, my favorite Mospeada on the show. Plus, it was the mech used by my favorite character Yellow Belmont. (Gotta love those cross-dressing bishonen singers, LOL)

Something that I have really enjoyed on the comic book front has been X-Force and the Necrosha X event.

One of the neat things has been the variant covers like the above cover parodying "Interview With A Vampire". Makes sense, no?

I have always liked Selene the Black Witch and felt that she should be featured more. Probably has something to do with my vampire kick. Honestly, though, she probably works best in small doses. Anywho, the story is basically about Selene having millions of dead mutants come back to life in order to use their power to make her a goddess. So far this event has been good but then, X-Force has been something of a personal fave of mine ever since it's re-launch.

Speaking about kicks.

This movie was a VERY pleasant surprise for me. Michael Jai White stars as Black Dynamite a man who, as the title says, is 50% supercool, 50% Kung-Fu and 100% Dynamite!!! You know, if you have a love of spoofs, you have got to see this movie. Blaxploitation has NEVER been done this well...

Forum Watchin': We have been watching the final Inu Yasha arc for a while and it finally came to an end, for us, just this past Monday. While the ending was predictable it was what we have come to expect from a Rumiko Takahashi manga/anime and as someone who has been watching/reading Inu Yasha religiously for years, I (personally) was VERY happy with it. People ended up with who they were supposed to end up with...but...the biggest question was, "Where will Kagome and Inu Yasha end up"? Of course, we are still getting the manga from VIZ (currently at volume 46 out of 56) so my Inu Yasha journey is not over just yet. Then there's the DVD release....

StarFest (and ComicFest for that matter) are just over two weeks away...Here we Go!!!

DECULTURE!!!

Moving sure is a pain...

I absolutely hate moving.... Since I have so much...stuff...I found that I had a lot to pack and that I will be unpapcking for quite a while. The neat thing about my home is that I have a lot of room for storage. My garage has lots of shelves and my basement has both a crawlspace and a storage room as well.

It looks like my office upstairs is going to be geek central as I have broke out some of my older toys and most of my anime collection will be housed there along with my favorite comics.

Speaking of favorite comics, I am a huge X-Men fan and something of a Romy (Rogue/Gambit) shipper. So, when X-Men #224 came out recently, I was quite pleased with the outcome of the Australian arch of Xavier's odyssey. For fans of the Rogue/Gambit relationship, this comic was a MUST read as it pretty much centers around Rogue and her attempt at learning how to control her powers. At the end of the book, we all get a pleasant surprise.

Then there was the X-Men Origins: Gambit that came out last week. Remy's story has been told before but it was nice to see everything put together as a summary in one issue.
Truth be told, I wouldn't mind if this was turned into a 3-issue mini-series.

MISC COSPLAY

Spotlight on one of my favorite anime of all time, Gatchaman. This is one of the shows that was my EARLY introduction to Japanese animation (anime). These cosplays were done to the updated Gatchaman that was released back in 1994.

Ken the Eagle

Jun the swan (my earliest anime crush)

This OVA totally rocked! I only wish that it was longer than 3 episodes. A little bit of trivia: Maurice White (Co-Lead singer for the R&B group Earth, Wind and Fire) helped with the music for the OVA.

Gatchaman got a remastered release from ADV back in 2005 which featured what was perhaps one of the funniest dubs ever. There were quite a few, "Can you dig it's" and some "Right on's", too. You could tell that they were having a good time with the dub making for a good watching experience. Currently, I own eight of the nine volumes that have been released. Finding that ninth volume is going to be like finding gold. Looks like it might be an Amazon purchase.

So, we broke out episode number 5 of Hellsing Ultimate recently at forum. It has been soooo long since I have seen or read any Hellsing, that I forgot where we were in the story. Let's just say that there was a lot of blood. LOTS of blood. I really don't want to give any of the store away but I will say that it takes place during the events that occured in volumes 5 and 6 of the manga.
The really cool thing about Hellsing Ultimate is that it is following the manga pretty much to the "T" which makes me happy as the manga happens to be one of my favorite reads right now.

When I went home from forum, I decided to finally break out my season one boxset of "True Blood" and watch episode one. Now, anyone who knows me knows that I love vampire stories and having a vampire story set in Louisiana is right up my alley.
I was pleased with the first episode as it introduced us to Sookie Stackhouse (played by Anna Paquin), the main character. She works at a bar in a small (fictional) Louisiana town named Bon Temps. The story takes place in a world where vampires have "come out of the coffin" and live among us as a substitute for blood is invented.
Honestly, I'm surprised that I hadn't picked up any of the novels that the TV show is based on until recently. From what I have seen, and read, it looks like I am going to have to do some purchasing of Charlaine Harris' works. Since I prefer hardcovers, it looks like I'm going to spend some $.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

When I was at the gym just yesterday, there was a guy doing some lunges with a medicine ball. When he reached the bottom of his lunge, he would twist his upper torso with the medicine ball extended in front of him. Honestly, it reminded me of the Fusion Dance that Goten and Trunks from Dragonball Z did to form Gotenks. Man, I am a geek...

DECULTURE!!!

It's that time again...convention time!!!

Coming to you from StarFest, with the beautiful Scarlet Salem at his side, it's buffalostyle (aka: H Mike). If it's mid-April in Colorado, not only is it time for StarFest at the good 'ol Marriott DTC (Denver Tech Center) but, it could also be time for a spring blizzard. Hooray for wet snow!!!

Let's see... blizzard on Friday which tapered off on Saturday and all but melted away on Sunday. Gotta love that Colorado weather...

One neat thing about this year's StarFest was the addition of ComicFest to the festivities. Since most of us are comic book geeks, this brought some members of the Krew to this convention for the first time. The sucky thing was that ComicFest was taking place across the street at the Hilton and that we had to brave the snow to get there. Luckily for us, the snow ended while we were at the Hilton so we didn't have to worry about getting our newly purchased comics wet.

I went absolutely nuts over the $1 bins as I found quite a bit of Vampirella comics that I was missing in my collection.I love J. Scott Campbell's work so finding these comics was like finding GOLD. Honestly, though, I probably should have stuck with looking for X-Titles but I didn't have a wishlist with me so I would have been stabbing in the dark. As it is, I did pick up a couple of issues that I needed from the "X-Men: The End" series and the sorely missing "X-Men" no. 196.
Madarame went completely nuts over the $1 and .50 bins. He ended up with two boxes full of comics. I came in a distant second.

As we (Card and I) always do, we went to HorrorFest (with the rest of the Krew) and watched NFTS (Not For The Squeamish) Productions' new movie, "Terror Overload". It starred the beautiful and talented Scarlet Salem and Joe Knetter as the creepy truck driver. I honestly have to say that it was the best movie that I have ever seen at HorrorFest. Hands down...After the movie, we were treated to a question and answer session with all involved with the movie. From the left: Scarlet Salem, Joe Knetter, Ari Lehman (The Original Jason from Friday the 13th) and Jason Stephenson.

The thing that was really neat about it all was that they were all so down to earth and were just having a good time being in Denver. I can't wait to see what they bring next year.

Along with going to ComicFest and HorrorFest, this convention is fun for seeing what people come dressed up as. Above is Sailor Joe with a Felecia cosplayer.

With "The Watchmen" recently in the theaters, we had a few Silk Spectres running around.

And then there was "The Monarch" from "Venture Brothers". Well done...I was told that he actually glued the eyebrows on making for an interesting coming day.

Ari Lehman says, "Good bye from StarFest 2009"...

I had a blast (as usual) as we stayed pretty late and had a few...ahem...beverages at the bar. I'm seriously considering getting a room for Saturday night next year so that I can really let my hair down and PARTY!!! That said, it looks like this could be my last year staying at NDK the whole weekend. We'll see. I'm already locked in for Thursday night through Sunday morning so we'll see how the con goes. It does look like most of the Krew is currently only going for Saturday's events, though. Ah...could this be the end of an era???


WISHLIST ALERTMy new wishlist item: Kotobukiya Bishoujo statue of Rogue from the X-Men.Let me just say that Rogue is probably my favorite heroine in all of comic-dom as she was the character that brought me back to my favorite series, X-Men, after a long absence. I already have two statues of her already and this statue, which comes out in June, has risen to the top of my must-have list.

DECULTURE!!!