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TMNT (2013) Toys – M.O.U.S.E.R.s and Rat King

Posted on September 9, 2013 by Walt

Whenever I’m in a Target or Walmart, I almost always “have to” check out the toys section. Over recent months, I’ve dwindled to a cursory glance at the Marvel/DC figures, and these last several weeks my increase has greatly increased with the TMNT toys.

Tonight I decided to take a peek in case the Target I was in had Leatherhead…but while they did NOT, I found what–for me–is possibly one of THE most awesome of all the new TMNT toys: a pack of MOUSERS!

mousers02mousers01

While I vaguely recall the 2003 TMNT line packing a couple Mousers with the April O’Neil figure, the only way I would have to get more than 2 was to buy multiples of April–not a truly viable option for so small a figurine! I think several may have come with some sort of playset…but again, far too expensive for so small a return on what I actually wanted.

This pack comes with SEVEN of the little robots…and I will happily purchase a couple more to have a small army of the things!

I also came across a Rat King figure…and actually put it in my cart where it traveled part of the store with me. Though I’ll PROBABLY come to regret it, I opted NOT to purchase it tonight: too many other recent expenditures and upcoming; so I’ll have to hope that he proves fairly common in the coming months.

Despite that, I made a point of photographing the carded figure:

ratking_front

ratking_back

The Mousers, of course, were just way too cool to NOT buy. I don’t much care for the look of this new Rat King (another factor in putting it back)…but I’ve wanted numerous little Mousers since my earliest days collecting TMNT toys!

mousers_front

mousers_back

While I’d love to see more inclusive galleries of the figures on the back of the cards, I am quite glad they’ve kept the profiles!

The Mousers:

mousers_profile

…and the Rat King:

ratking_profile

I’m also rather encouraged (so to speak) that these galleries do NOT include the turtle variants (ooze-flinging or stealth). Those don’t really–to me–“fit” with the general line, whereas these others do. Even the Ninjas-in-Training fit as they’re not just “costumed” variants.

mousers_assortment_goodguys

And though I’m not a fan of the random mutations, it’s still cool to see the expanding line of villain characters. To me, that often seems to be the downfall of a single “line” of figures…endless versions of the main hero(es) but virtually no villains to offset. And in the Kraang and the Foot Soldiers, we have two generics that truly warrant several duplicate purchases. (I believe I have 3 Kraang and 5 Foot Soldiers at the moment).

mousers_assortment_badguys

I like the bulk of Dogpound, but am not at all a fan of Fishface…and the more I think of it, the more I think I’d prefer a new take on Bebop and Rocksteady to these two.

Still…with only recently discovering the new figures in Baxter Stockman and Snakeweed, it’s very cool to see all these others making it to the local stores’ pegs, not having TOO hard a time finding SOME new figures.

…even if that darned Leatherhead STILL eludes me!

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DC & Marvel Animation – My Collection

Posted on September 6, 2013 by Walt

I have an entire shelf dedicated to DC and Marvel animated features and series:

animatedshelf001

DC Animated Universe stuff. I’m missing one volume of Batman, all of Batman Beyond, and a couple of the Justice League seasons.

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I’ve kept up (so far) with the Warner Premiere animated films; I started out with the DVDs but eventually switched to blu-ray…sadly, I made the switch when they pretty much QUIT putting tons of extra stuff on the blu-ray that wasn’t on the DVDs.

So far, I think my favorites are probably Batman: Under the Hood, Wonder Woman, The New Frontier, and The Flashpoint Paradox.

animatedshelf003

My Marvel collection is significantly smaller…though I’ve contemplated getting some of the Marvel Knights things–Iron Man: Extremis, Astonishing X-Men, etc; can’t really justify that with those on Netflix. I do, however, want to get the other 3 X-Men volumes so that I don’t have to rely on Netflix and just have ’em.

My favorite of these is the Wolverine and the X-Men Complete Series set. I was extremely glad I waited and passed on the $15ish mini-sets. Got the full thing for only about $25! You may notice Planet Hulk‘s there TWICE…I got the blu-ray for 1/4 the price I paid for the DVD, but I like the “slipcase” on the DVD.

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TMNT Toys Through Time

Posted on September 4, 2013 by Walt

I recently discovered a new version of the Halftone app, Halftone2, which basically combines the original Halftone app with a frames app I had been using.

Rather than show off the various turtles in a bunch of individual photos, I had some fun messing around with the new app, with the results you see below.

The three different sets of turtles:

tmntfigures-all

And then the individual turtles:

tmntfigures-leonardo

tmntfigures-donatello

tmntfigures-raphael

tmntfigures-michelangelo

And then all the figures together by turtle:

tmntfigures-all-byturtle

Now, if only I had recognized the value in the figures a few years ago based on the original Mirage comics designs, I’d be alllll set!

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Looking forward to more new TMNT toys soon!

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Walt

In the packaging for the TMNT Classic Collection figures, Playmates included a mini catalogue of sorts, showing some of the existing and New (“coming soon,” I take it?) figures. Several stood out to me, outside of stuff I’ve covered previously in this blog based on the card backs of figures I’ve already seen:

upcomingtmnt-leatherheadandmousers

I saw Leatherhead at a Walmart a week or two ago, BUT the packaging was mangled, and the blister pack was actually TAPED to the card with clear packing tape. Granted, the figure itself was there, but if I’m gonna pay full price, I darn well wanna open the thing MYSELF! (Plus, I like having the cards–especially for the “profile” bit!.)

I don’t recall if there was ever a Mousers pack in the 2003 line, but I absolutely LOVE the idea of being able to get a couple packs and have a little mini-army of the things!

upcomingtmnt-battleshellturtles

While I’ve refused to partake in purchasing any of the ‘variants’ so far for the turtles themselves, I do fondly recall the “Storage Shell” TMNT figures from the original line (especially much preferring the sculpts and coloring!) so just for “old time’s sake” I could see “shelling out” for a Battle Shell Leo or Raph.

upcomingtmnt-ninjasintraining-leo-donnie

…and I QUITE enjoyed the “baby TMNT” 4-pack with the 2003 line…I assume these will be the counterparts to those, but split into two 2-packs instead of all 4 crammed together into one pack. I’ll probably get these if I see ’em.

upcomingtmnt-ninjasintraining-raphmikey

I’d sorta prefer a Leonardo/Raphael pairing and a Donatello/Michelangelo pairing. But since I’ll want all 4 whatever the case, and likely wait until I can buy BOTH 2-packs at once, it’ll be a sorta moot point in the end.

I really don’t care for any of the vehicles except the Shellraiser, which I have seen ALL OVER THE PLACE price-wise; it’s varied from about $22 to $35 offhand, and as I remember the original “Party Wagon” being about $20 and the 2003 Van being $20, I don’t much like the idea of paying the higher-$20s, though I’ll probably settle for the $23-24 range. It’s honestly the only vehicle that really “makes sense” to me or has any interest for me at all.

I also continue to have no intention of tracking down any of the random mutants; I’ve seen Snakeweed several times and have left it on the pegs…and have no interest in the one spider or cockroach.

Ultimately, I’m just thrilled to see the potential variety finally getting there…though I just hope I can actually FIND these, rather than pegs choked with endless “pegwarmer” variants of the turtles themselves!

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TMNT Classic Collection [Toy Review]

Posted on September 2, 2013 by Walt

The other day after work, I decided–on a whim–to stop by a Toys R Us to see if they, by some chance, had the new Leatherhead TMNT figure. While they did NOT…what they DID have surprised the heck outta me.

A new “Classic Collection” line of TMNT figures I’d not heard/known ANYthing about coming out!

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-all

Of course, I had to buy Leonardo…my “classic” favorite turtle…and typically, if I ever give in and buy “variants” of a turtle, I go with Leonardo.

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-leo

…But then, since these ARE re-issues of the original figures…and I can’t FIND my original figures…yet had my 2003 Turtles and 2012 Turtles here in my room…I splurged and bought the other three:

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-don

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-raph

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-mikey

The card back is identical on all the figures, with a mostly classic look…except for the Classic Collection blurb, a contemporary “About the Turtles,” the nickelodeon logo, and a lack of clip ‘n collect “profile card.”

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-card-back

The front of the card looks like what I remember from the original figures:

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-card-front_top

And the “origin” of the turtles also looks like what I remember from the originals.

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-card-origin

As said, this About the Turtles is new/contemporary:

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-card-info

I may yet opt to snag Splinter and Shredder for the heckuvit–to have all 3 versions of them as well. But for now I just wanted the four turtles themselves.

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-card-figures

I did NOT see the “Party Wagon,” though if I do, I fully intend to buy it (provided it’s–IDEALLY–NOT a $39.99+ item! I would expect $25-$30ish!).

tmntfiguresclassiccollection-card-vehicles

All in all, I’m mostly satisfied with the figures themselves. The belts are significantly looser than I remember, which is a big drawback–Raphael in particular is ready to lose HIS just standing around!

I do like that the weapons all come on the original “sprues” or whatever–the flimsy brown plastic–you have to bend/twist/break the pieces apart yourself! But this keeps with the classic-ness of the figures.

I also QUITE like that the packaging does NOT include ANY annoying twist-ties and such…the figures and weapons simply popped RIGHT out (with some applied pushing/pulling/folding the plastic inside-out).

$12.99 is a bit steep for these–they’re slightly smaller/lower “quality” than either the 2003 or 2012 line (the current 2012 line being about $9/ea). BUT for being classic, and NOT carried in Walmart or Target or such that I have seen, the extra $4 is still worth it on the whole over paying higher premiums for original or 2010 25th-anniversary editions of the turtles themselves on the card.

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Supermen, Batman, and Thanos

Posted on August 22, 2013 by Walt

Several weeks ago, I came across the Injustice Superman figure at a local Walmart. The thing looked pretty darned cool, and with the sheer LACK of quality 3.75″ DC figures, splurged and bought it.

dc_supermen_batmandkr

Later, looking for the Injustice Batman figure, I came across this Dark Knight Returns Batman. I opted to go ahead and buy it, figuring it’s way cheaper than trying to track down the older DC Direct figure.

And last week I found the much-less-cooler-looking-than-I-thought-I-remembered Superman in New 52 mode. Still, not wanting to have to HUNT for the thing later or pay a premium online, went ahead and bought it. I mainly hate how small the “S” on the chest is for this figure….pretty much everything else looks fine to me.

While on the figure-hunt, I decided to also get another one I’ve had my eye on for YEARS: the Marvel Select Thanos!

marvel_select_thanos

I’ve been interested in this figure for a number of years now, and happened to see it at a couple different comic shops, for what I believe is “retail price” for the Marvel Select line.

And with the character’s mounting popularity of late, I did not want to get “shut out” of being able to acquire this figure at retail price, so went ahead and finally pulled the trigger on buying him.

I think Thanos is now competing with Galactus to have the most “versions” in my collection–in addition to this, I have the 3.75″ Marvel Universe figure from a couple years ago, and the Thanos from the line based on the ’90s Silver Surfer animated series.

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TMNT (2013) Toys – Baxter Stockman

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Walt

After about 10 months of casually “keeping an eye out” and pretty much thinking this line had been given up on, I FINALLY found a new TMNT figure that WASN’T just a variant of one of the four turtles themselves!

I happened to be in a Toys R Us looking to see what DC Unlimited/Batman Unlimited/DC Classic figures they might have and at what price, and happened to notice unfamiliar-looking TMNT figures (some sort of camo/zip-line variant). But when I looked on the back of the card for THOSE, I noticed a couple other new characters as well…so actually looked through all the figures on the pegs.

Other than the zip-line turtles themselves, I found Baxter Stockman…and bought him on the spot, despite Toys R Us typically having a significantly-higher pricing than Walmart or Target (turned out to only be a few cents, though…I later saw Stockman at Target).

baxter_stockman_front

Offhand, this is probably my favorite Stockman figure to date…sure, he’s got that crazy battle-suit, but it sure beats the mutant-fly of the ’80s line or mechanical spider-body/human-head of the 2003 line.

baxter_stockman_profile

The profile fits what I know of the character from the current animated series.

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No new TMNT-allies that I’ve seen, which is a shame…not that I really can consciously think of any from episodes I’ve seen so far that would particularly qualify. Here’s hoping Casey Jones shows up in season 2 and gets a figure soon, though!

tmnt_badguys_assortment_baxter

One of the other cards showed a Rat King figure and some other random mutant in addition to the figures shown here. I have no intention of buying Snakeweed, and really have no particular interest in other randomish “mutation-of-the-week” mutants. Rat King is a possibility for an impulse buy. I’m looking forward to a Leatherhead figure, though, if they actually put that out!

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The Value of Infinity?

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Walt

Infinity #1 has a $4.99 cover price, and includes 45 story pages–10 of those previously available (to customers, at least) “free” in the 2013 Free Comic Book Day Infinity issue.

The day that I paid cover price for the issue, I also snagged a number of 25-cent bin issues.

Which means that Infinity #1 was an especially poor value to issue quantity and page count!

comicsvalues

For less than the price of Infinity #1, I was able to purchase:

  • single issues of Batman: Year One (Batman #404-407)
  • the 1989 Catwoman mini-series (I believe this was later collected/reissued as Catwoman: Her Sister’s Keeper)
  • Invisibles #1
  • Spider-Man #1
  • an extra-sized, foil-enhanced Incredible Hulk issue
  • the original first printing of the first Gen13 mini
  • both prestige-format History of the DC Universe issues
  • the foil-enhanced anniversary issues Spectacular Spider-Man #200 and Web of Spider-Man #100
  • the chromium Valiant #0 issues for both Shadowman and Bloodshot

Yet another reason my enjoyment of older/’90s (and even ’80s!) comics is increasing while my enjoyment and interest in current comics continues to wane.

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A Look At the Bookshelves

Posted on August 15, 2013 by Walt

The last several years I’ve been keeping “recent” books separate from the main collection–they’re more convenient this way for me. Until this week, they were in any which order, and I kept finding myself wondering where, exactly, I had stuck something…so I finally got around to organizing three shelves’ worth of graphic novels.

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Above: the full “DC Shelf,” which includes the handful of non-big-name stuff.

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Vertigo and Batman stuff…

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Superman…

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The rest of the DC stuff, primarily Flashpoint and Green Lantern stuff.

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These are recent non-DC/non-Marvel (and non-TMNT/non-Valiant) books…

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The “Marvel shelves,” primarily Marvel but also my IDW-TMNT and Valiant stuff. The GI Joe, Dark Horse Heroes, and Aliens book got moved to join the Transformers and Highlander books so I wouldn’t need to use bookends.

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I love the TMNT Ultimate Collection volumes…just waiting for the fifth/final in that series to come out. I have yet to snag the Valiant Classics Shadowman volume, and may “upgrade” the current Valiant when the hardcovers for those start coming out later this year (if I recall correctly).

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I continue to be amazed at how much Marvel I get in bookshelf format, and how much of it is “older.” A lot of Marvel volumes I’ve bought for anywhere from 50/60% off cover price to a mere $1-$3 apiece.

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And I think part of why I have so many Marvel books compared to DC is the seeming constant “liquidation” of Marvel stuff, and the sheer plentiful-ness of cheaper volumes pretty much anywhere I go. Good and bad, but that’s a topic for another post.

marvel_03

Though not all that much a fan of the Ultimate line these days, I don’t mind checking ’em out when I can get a $25 hardcover for $3 or so. However, I’m actively looking to fill in my Ultimate Spider-Man run…just need vols 6-9 and I don’t know if there’s a 13 yet.

marvel_04

I’m definitely interested in tracking down other “major” X-event volumes…most specifically the Age of Apocalypse Omnibus and the Fatal Attractions volume…along with X-Force vol. 2.

Lately I seem to be back on the single-issue bargains train, working on filling out a number of “sub-collections” like DC ’90s Events (Armageddon 2001, Zero Hour, One Million) as well as Classic Valiant and Ultraverse, ongoing Bat-family books from ’86-2011, and ongoing X-titles 1990ish to 2003, with Uncanny X-Men to 2011 or so. But again…that’s for another post.

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Completing Action Comics…and the Regular Wednesday Haul

Posted on August 7, 2013 by Walt

The other day I considered driving across town to check another comic shop in my eagerness to “complete” my “From Crisis to Crisis to Flashpoint” run of Action Comics.

I reviewed Action Comics #890 just over three years ago, but with other stuff going on at the time, that wound up being my last issue of the title; I took the plunge and just dropped all the Superman titles altogether, gravitating toward non-DC (and non-Marvel) books. I returned the next year for #900 for the sake of it being the first-ever legitimately-made-it-to-900 American comic, and then stuck around for 901-904 as the series’ end heading into The New 52.

action890891

Of course, three years’ time means #890 is buried somewhere in one of many longboxes, and to expedite reading the entire Black Ring saga in one go, I simply purchased a new copy of the issue (satisfyingly enough, these several years later, at a mere PENNY above cover price…WITH a bag and board!).

#891, though–the “treasure” (so to speak)–completes my run. I now own #583 (Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?) through #904 (Reign of Doomsdays) and the end of the pre-New 52 DC Universe.

gambitxternalsbargainbin

I still flipped QUICKLY through the bargain bins to see if anything “new” or interesting caught my eye. I did spot a couple of the Age of Apocalypse minis, but as usual let ’em go (I’m not interested in hunting individual issues). However, seeing all 4 of Gambit and the X-Ternals I pulled ’em. Not bad, considering it’s an entire mini-series for a whopping $1!

Assuming I can do so for 25 or 50 cents an issue, definitely interested in seeing how quickly I can build another full set of the original Age of Apocalypse…though I might go as high as $1/issue for X-Universe, as I rarely see either of those issues in bargain bins.

august072013haul

…and the main haul of the week: Higher Earth #9 (final issue), Cyber Force #5, Legends of the Dark Knight #11, Shadowman #9, and Quantum and Woody #2.

I’m rather non-plussed at Higher Earth…this issue was (based on original solicitations) due out in January…7-8 MONTHS ago! Even Hypernaturals has since ended at #12, and I believe IT got its start after Higher Earth. Until very recently when #8 showed up, I actually thought these issues had already come out, as I pretty much put them aside in frustration at the cancellation.

Cyber Force I’ve been picking up but not reading…I believe this issue completes the first arc, so now I’ll read. (And given the series has been pushed as “free,” or in the case of Kenmore, 50 cents, I’m all for a ~$2.50 5-issue story!).

I’ve decided to jump on the print editions of several of the DC Digital-First titles…caught up on Legends of the Dark Knight #s 8-10 this past weekend (a shop had all 3 at cover price), just in time for this new issue.

And of course…I get all standard-cover Valiant issues.

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