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The Weekly Haul – Week of September 10th, 2014

Posted on September 10, 2014 by Walt

Another week, another haul.

This week…a HUGE one. Like…buyer’s remorse kinda huge.

weekly_haul_september_10th_2014

Four more of the unplanned-for DC issues. Batman and GLCorps I decided over the weekend I was going to get. I don’t know what it was about Batgirl that grabbed me with this cover, but it did. An d the Justice League United one was nice and flashy…and I was curious about a one-shot continuing into another one-shot, and figured that’d tie a couple weeks together in a way.

Then there’s the Wheedon Three-Way, collecting/reprinting Buffy Season Ten #1, Angel & Faith (series 2 #1, and Firefly: Leaves on the Wind #1), Archer and Armstrong and Armor Hunters: Harbinger #3, with Magnus thrown in for good measure. Prometheus #1 which I believe will be crossing over/tying in to a new Aliens series. Astro City, and TMNT New Animated Adventures…and the massive Legends of the Dark Knight 100-Page Super Spectacular #4.

More than I’d bargained for–especially with the LotDK volume…but it is what it is.

And there’s this “Free Edition” of the Marvel 75th Anniversary Magazine that was thrown in, so that adds some value to the week…being free, even if I only spend a few minutes browsing the thing, at least it’s not something I had to specifically pay for.

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On NOT Buying The Winter Soldier

Posted on September 9, 2014 by Walt

Captain_America_The_Winter_Soldier_3DBluRay_BluRay_Digital_Combo_PackWhen I first saw the second Captain America movie, The Winter Soldier, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I saw it twice in the theater, actually, and enjoyed it as much or more the second time through.

And as such, I decided I actually WOULD buy this one when it was released on home media. (where I have NOT bought the first Cap film or either of the Thor films).

But now Disney‘s changing “the rules.” I finally get “trained” to actually EXPECT a BluRay/DVD combo pack (maybe with “digital” thrown in as a 3rd option) and they’ve switched to 3D-BluRay/BluRay/Digital, leaving me from there to have to choose ONLY a DVD or ONLY a BluRay.

Yet this is a film that since my roommate and I have a BluRay player, I’d certainly prefer to watch in the HD format (plus I hardly pay attention to “extras” anymore but have been further “trained” to EXPECT there to be MORE “extras” on anything BluRay than on DVD). However, as I’ll be visiting my parents this coming weekend, I’d really enjoy the chance to have them see it, and share that experience with them.

BUT…because of the weird encoding and “language” thing with DISNEY BluRays (forcing one to choose between “English” and whatever else BEFORE ever getting to a menu otherwise) their BR player is incapable of playing Disney‘s BluRays (plays others, but can’t get past the Disney-specific stuff). As such, this is ACTUALLY a case where I could gladly “justify” the notion of a DVD being packed with a BluRay (even though if you have a BluRay player it should play DVDs, but if you have the BluRay player why would you care to watch the DVD on it?).

Then I saw that Walmart has “exclusive” box covers, each focusing on a single character. Truthfully, on looking at the “thumbnails” on the display of the various boxes, I decided “ok, let’s see the Scarlett Johansson one and go from there.” Alas, for all the copies across numerous different displays and locations in the store, that was the only one they did NOT have in stock.

So, grumpy as I am at present, that’s pretty much that. DVD will EVENTUALLY be available in Redbox, so I’ll just have to wait until some visit after it’s available in Redbox to rent and watch it with my parents.

Despite all that, I might’ve gone ahead and “settled for” DVD/Digital, accepting the Digital as added value to giving up the HD of BluRay…but Disney just HAS TO be different for the sake of being different, it would seem.

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TMNT Toys in the Wild – LARP Turtles and Dojo Splinter

Posted on September 8, 2014 by Walt

I recently started coming across the LARP turtles, and noticed “Dojo Splinter” as a similar variant as the second Shredder without the mask.

Here are photos of the characters as well as their profile from the back of the card…

LARP LEO

leo_the_knight_front

leo_the_knight_profile

LARP RAPH

raph_the_barbarian_front

raph_the_barbarian_profile

 

LARP DONNIE

donnie_the_wizard_front

donnie_the_wizard_profile

LARP MIKEY

mikey_the_elf_front

mikey_the_elf_profile

DOJO SPLINTER

dojo_splinter_front

dojo_splinter_profile

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Looking Back on August 2014’s Posts

Posted on September 5, 2014 by Walt

Looking back to August 2014’s posts, in summary:

Actual Reviews

The Weekly Hauls

Comics-Related Rambling

Toys

Movies

Misc. Posts

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The Weekly Haul – Week of September 3rd, 2014

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Walt

Much like last year, I allowed myself–against much better judgment and conscious advance-intent–to get drawn in with DC’s month of shiny-motion-3Dish covers…primarily on strength of these all being one-shots that I can jump into without much context and don’t really have to follow them out to anything ongoing.

weekly_haul_september_3rd_2014b

So I went with five issues…a huge jump over an already big week, but I keep telling myself it’s JUST for this one month. And at least the covers make up for the $3.99 price point, actually being cool and impressive in and of themselves, selling ME on something I’d been sure I was going to just avoid.

weekly_haul_september_3rd_2014a

The rest of the haul is a mix…a couple $1 issues, a new Turok, last week’s Batman Eternal (oops…still need to get this week’s), and the premiere of Doctor Mirage. The store owner gave me what turned out to be the SDCC preview edition as well with my purchase of the regular…so another nifty addition to my collection, and another reason I love this shop!

I just hope next week is a bit smaller, but we’ll see what DC covers catch my eye and are enough to entice me into purchasing the random issues for the week.

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Axis Checklist – Act One: The Red Supremacy

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Walt

The Avengers & X-Men must unite to stop Red Skull, the greatest evil the Marvel Universe has ever known!

October 2014
Avengers & X-Men: Axis #1
Avengers & X-Men: Axis #2
Avengers & X-Men: Axis #3

Axis Tie-Ins
All-New X-Factor #15
Axis: Carnage #1 (of 3)
Axis: Hobgoblin #1 (of 3)
Axis: Revolutions #1 (of 4)
Deadpool #36
Loki: Agent of Asgard #7
Magneto #11
Uncanny Avengers #25

Source: Promotional Postcard (pictured below)

axis_act_one_checklist_red_supremacy_front

axis_act_one_checklist_red_supremacy_back

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Nice Try, Amazon…I call that “Wishful Thinking!”

Posted on September 2, 2014 by Walt

Usually, when I’m browsing stuff on Amazon, I find the “Frequently Bought Together” has some rather reasonable combinations, such that I’d ALMOST believe people actually do go through the entire purchase process for all three things.

But I know that it’s really gotta just be some “algorithm” showing several very “similar” products in the hopes of “upselling” me when I’m looking at something specific.

Amazon's Wishful ThinkingBut when recently checking out the various options for this November’s release of the 1966 Batman series, Amazon fumbled. I was looking at the first season, and as I scrolled down I figured I’d see if it most likely showed all three seasons, where I expected to be able to compare the formats.

I was rather shocked at their “suggestion,” so much that I call shenanigans.

I mean, REALLY?!? Who is REALLY going to buy season one, WITH the COMPLETE SERIES on DVD…WITH the complete series on Blu-ray?

If I’m going to buy the complete series, I’m only buying one format, not the complete thing in two formats! And if I’m buying the COMPLETE series…what the heck would I have to be thinking to then buy “just” the first season? (Especially when I believe there are bonus features exclusive to the complete series sets that won’t be on the individual seasons, and probably stuff exclusive to the blu-ray set over the dvd set).

Nice try, Amazon.

Talk about wishful thinking.

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From the Archive: TMNT (IDW) Reviews

Posted on September 1, 2014 by Walt

It’s interesting (to me, at least) to look back and consider how many full reviews I’ve written of IDW‘s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series to date.

tmnt(idw)001bannerwraparound

Offhand, I believe we’ve had:

  • 37 issues of the main series;
  • 16 issues of Micro-Series (8 heroes, 8 villains);
  • 4 issues of The Secret History of the Foot Clan;
  • 3 issues of The Utrom Empire;
  • 2 issues of Infestation 2: TMNT;
  • Annuals 2012 & 2014;
  • 30th Anniversary Special;
  • 3 (of 4) issues of Turtles in Time

That’s 68 issues of new story content in this current continuity…which certainly is not bad for “only” 3 years (averages to about 23 issues per year, or roughly 2 per month).

Of these 68-ish so far, I’ve reviewed 28 of them…not quite half.

So presented below are links to all of my IDW-specific TMNT reviews as of the start of September 2014.

Main Series:

Heroes Micro-Series:

Villains Micro-Series:

Misc:

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$2 UltraForce Jackpot

Posted on August 29, 2014 by Walt

I think I went into the comic shop looking for a TMNT comic I missed. Found a newly-purchased collection, and some extremely well-priced UltraForce toys. $2 apiece!

ultraforce_end_of_august_2014a

I’m usually NOT a fan of “variant” figures. Polar Prime? Nighstrike Prime? Yeah, kinda dumb. But then I realized that hey…the character can generate a different body every time he “Primes,” so this actually works! And that Night Man just looked cool.

Plus…given I’ve only really this year been coming across these, PERIOD…I’m not gonna pass one up for only $2!

ultraforce_end_of_august_2014_NMEa

The “gem” tonight, though, was NM-E. Even the packaging is in better condition than the other figures (though eventually that won’t matter, as I’ve every intention to have these all outta the package once I find the proper display space!)

ultraforce_end_of_august_2014_NMEb

I still think NM-E looks like an Alien,but hey…still one of my favorite (and more “iconic” Ultraverse villains. I just wish there was a Rune figure.

While I wouldn’t mind getting the whole set of these, having the “regular” Prime and Night Man already and now NM-E, I’m mainly going to be looking for Hardcase and Prototype.

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The Complete Calvin & Hobbes…finally on a shelf!

Posted on August 28, 2014 by Walt

A few years ago, a friend gave me this box set. And it’s a sort of “forgotten favorite” in a sense, as I rarely think of it when I think of other big things in my collection.

complete_calvin_and_hobbes_august_2014

But it’s really one of the most meaningful items in my collection, being from a friend, and being Calvin & Hobbes. And it now sits in a prime spot on my new bookcase.

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