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TMNT Toys at Walmart (Early September 2014)

Posted on September 19, 2014 by Walt

I’ve been rather dismayed at times when it seems that Target or Walmart look to have given up on the TMNT toys. Other times, just a bit frustrated when it seems they’re simply not keeping up with stocking the darned things.

And this summer it’s been a strange feeling seeing all of the movie-branded “Ninja Turtles” toys along with the animated series’ toys, sometimes firmly intermingled as if employees of the stores have seen no difference in the lines (given the often same pricing, they probably simply haven’t cared…one “turtle figure” is the same as another, perhaps).

tmnt_toys_in_walmart

A couple weeks ago, I happened to notice just how full (with several pegs actually overloaded) the TMNT section of the action figures aisle was, and took a step back to “admire” it.

This still doesn’t compare to the HUGE sections at Toys R Us back in the day, or Children’s Palace (a toy store akin to TRU that didn’t last). I don’t look much at the non-“basic” figures, and sure don’t remember there being these multiple lines back in the day (or at least not in the oversized sizing of so-called “deluxe” figures).

I’ve also noticed the addition of a blimp vehicle, which has me torn: two years in, and I still haven’t gone ahead and bought the Shellraiser (this line’s iteration of the van toy). I had the original “Turtle Blimp” way back in the day, and am definitely curious about this new one. Trouble is that a large as it is, I haven’t a clue where I’d be able to store/display it at present, short of rigging something up to hang it from the ceiling somehow.

Still…it’s awesome to see all this green looking through the toy aisle, even though I”m not as fond of these versions of the characters as I was the 2003 line or the original 1980s/90s line.

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JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time [Review]

Posted on January 29, 2014 by Walt

jlaadventurestrappedintimedvd_0129While I’m not thrilled at the idea of the “classic” (for me, this means 1986-2011) DC stories being scrapped in favor of New-52-centric stories being adapted for DC‘s line of direct-to-home-media release, I’ve been looking forward to Justice League: War for awhile, if only just to see how they adapt the story to the screen, given it seemed like basically a lengthy fight scene to me when I read it.

There was no Fall 2013 new release (instead, we got a “special edition” that combined Dark Knight Returns parts 1 & 2 into a single feature)…so I’ve been looking forward to the next NEW film for quite awhile.

Imagine, then, my surprise when I came across JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time while browsing a Target Sunday evening. At first I mistook it for another Superfriends release, yet it had the “classic” JLA logo I’m familiar with from the ’90s/early-2000s, so it got my curiosity up. Target‘s had that “exclusive” line of DC figures under the Justice League branding; so I may have partially wondered if this was a new line of “re-presenting” Superfriends episodes through Target.

But according to the box, it was an original animated movie, albeit Target-exclusive. I wrestled with leaving it–after all, I’d NOT been looking forward to THIS one, and I’ve never been a fan of the Superfriends stuff, so I put it back. Then I picked it up again. And ultimately bought it along with my groceries and such.

In broad strokes, this reminded me of those mini comics that came in boxes of cereal several years back…fun enough, familiar-looking characters, passable stuff that’s fun as something different, but by no means anything special.

I liked the animation well enough…it wasn’t anything phenomenal, but it wasn’t terrible. My primary “issue” with the animation has to do with the character designs themselves–what fault I may have found with the animation probably comes more from this aspect.

The costumes are a blend of pre–New 52 and current…Superman’s lacks the ugly collar-and-armor look BUT has the red belt in place of the trunks. Truthfully–I have no issue here as I don’t know if I would have noticed if I’d not been looking for it.

Bizarro and Cheetah looked “off” a bit, while Black Manta, Grodd, and others looked ok enough. Luthor looks like a sleeker, higher quality rendition of something pre-1986 to me, or at least what I unconsciously associate with that earlier period.

Story-wise, this is fairly typical fare for superhero shenanigans. Heroes beat the villains, villains use time-travel to change a key moment in history and thus undo the heroes; “b-list” heroes not affected by the time change (um…wibbly-wobbly, time-wimey stuff) must emerge and put things right.

The use of the Time Trapper here is probably the most accessible version I’ve encountered of the character. Rather than being a known villain of the Legion of Super-Heroes or such, he’s just an entity released from an artifact in the LoS’ museum a la a genie from a bottle. Granted, this makes him/it more of a plot point than any sort of character with any depth, it works for the story. I’m sure my own lack of experience with the Legion–they’re a definite blind spot in my experiential DC knowledge–lends itself to my ready acceptance of this interpretation of the character, where those far more familiar with Legion stuff may well take issue with it.

I didn’t recognize any of the voice actors offhand…but this honestly doesn’t bother me at all. Perhaps largely for not even expecting this movie and having no vested interest in its particular version of the characters (it’s not based on/adapting anything I’m familiar with specifically nor is it a continuation of the ’90s Batman, Superman, or Justice League/Justice League Unlimited animated series or previous direct-to-home-media film).

Since I’m not expecting the “traditional” voice actors for Superman, Batman, or Luthor and had no expectations for any of the other characters, I took stuff at “face value,” wherein all voices fit if only for the fact that none of them particularly DIDN’T fit; no one “sounded weird” to me or had odd voices coming from an otherwise familiar appearance.

In the end, this is–to me–a rather mediocre thing, though. It’s not bad, but it’s not wonderful. Ultimately it’s rather forgettable. JLA Adventures: Trapped in Time is enjoyable in the moment, having watched it…but on the whole it doesn’t strike me as anything worth rushing out to buy. A rental would be an adequate way of scratching any “curiosity itch” one has regarding this for now.

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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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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.

tmnt_goodguys_assortment_baxter

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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New Super-Toys

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Walt

Over the last several years, most of my action-figure purchasing has tended to be Marvel–I’ve mainly avoided the 6″ or whatever the “Legends” scale is, having come to GREATLY PREFER the 3.75″ scale. I won’t get into all my gripes about the lack of DC figures in that scale just now, though.

I’d recently posted about spotting a new line of Justice League figures at Target, and I believe I’d planned to avoid them entirely. Of course, seeing them every time I’d visit the toy aisle, I grew a bit weak and eventually gave in since they were recently on sale.

newsupermantoys

Along with Batman and Superman (I might snag Lex Luthor if I ever see that figure again), I also picked up a General Zod and Superman from Big Lots.

I’d almost bought a Zod and Superman a couple times several weeks ago, but I was rather irked at the pricing of the figures as well as wanting “standard costumes” and not any of the many Superman variants or a General Zod special-suit variant that I didn’t at all recognize from the few trailers I’ve seen.

Big Lots often has ‘scaled down” versions of the “main” toy lines…they LOOK like they’re basically the same figures as what you can buy at Target, Walmart, and Toys R Us…but more generic packaging, smaller bubble on the pack, and it’s just the figure, no accessories. AND they’re $2 cheaper than Walmart‘s Man of Steel figures, and HALF the price of “regular” Marvel figures at all three of the big retail stores.

Since I don’t even WANT any of the accessories offered…Big Lots won the day. I’ve not seen ANY other villains offered in the line…which continues–as always–to be one of my biggest disappointments with the movie-tie-ins. The Marvel toys are done better, having the “movie series” and “comic series” in the mix, allowing for figures that may not technically have anything direct to do with the film, but that add variety to the overall toys available.

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Justice League Toys at Target?!?

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Walt

justiceleaguesupermanTonight while walking through Target, I actually stopped short at the sight of some toys I hadn’t even had a clue were coming.

A new line of Justice League figures.

Of course, I was immediately disappointed at the larger size of these figures–I’ve come to MUCH prefer the 3.75-inch variety, and to this day have still never found any news or anything about the official cancellation of the Infinite Heroes line (nor the reasoning why it went away…though I have some ideas, as listed in a post last Friday).

As far as I can tell, there are only FOUR figures in this line: Superman, Batman, Flash, and Green Lantern. There are no other characters shown on the backs of the cards, anyway. I saw no vehicles/playsets, nor any other accessories other than what comes with each figure. There are no villains. AND the line is Target-exclusive (at least based on that sticker on the fronts of the packaging).

justiceleaguesuperman

justiceleagueflash

justiceleaguegreenlantern

About the only thing really going for these to me offhand is that even at the bigger size, they’re “only” $7.99 (compared to, say, the $9.99 of the various Marvel (Avengers, Amazing Spider-Man, Iron Man 3) figures or Star Wars or $10 GI Joe: Retaliation figures. (Granted, less detail and articulation surely helps keep the cost down).

Still…I was sorely tempted by the Superman figure; but on closer inspection it looked rather sloppily put-together, with a gap in the shoulders where the cape is held in place (on the figure). I tell myself now that I’ll wait until I can 1. afford to and 2. buy both Batman and Superman in the same purchase to really strongly consider actually buying these. (Tonight the Target I was at had 3 of the 4 figures, missing only Batman).

Next to the Batman Unlimited/DC Unlimited $16 figures I’ve seen several times, this is the first “kid-affordable” instance I’ve noticed of the New 52 versions of things making it into general/common toys’ appearance, 18 months after the comics’ relaunch.

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Toys as a driving force for cartoons???

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Walt

sameoldfigs_smallI read an article on Bleeding Cool the other day about how the lack of toy sales seems to have killed off the Green Lantern animated series. I’m not sure I want to get into the stuff about how the (lack of) toys affect the continuation of a series.

But I’ve had some observations, where I myself wonder at factors that make or break a toyline…at least for me.

#1 – If there are only a few figures constantly on the pegs with no true assortment (i.e. only 2 figures out of a 6-figure wave and the other 4 are never present), that would suggest TO ME that the stores would see that as a line not selling. Maybe those other 4 figures fly off the pegs…but especially if stock is automated, the sale of whatever instances of the other 4 figures may not be enough to trigger a reorder…and the lack of sales on the 2 most common figures everyone that wants ’em already has might suggest no one is interested (when it’s actually that no one is interested IN THE PEG-WARMERS).

#2 – Ten years ago, I was buying the 6″ Marvel Legends–large, hyper-articulated figures with cool packaging including a comic book–for $6-$8 apiece. I know prices go up, the cost of materials has gone up, etc. But $9.99 for a 3.75″ figure nowadays? HARDLY appealing, especially for the vast majority of the figures out there. I know I personally would prefer less articulation for cheaper figures. The Marvel Universe line, Avengers movie tie-in figures, Amazing Spider-Man movie tie-in figures, and I think the Iron Man 3 figures run $9.99 or so. These days I’d rather pay a couple dollars more for a Lego set with a mini-figure and something to build (and some of the $10 Lego sets are about the same SIZE or bigger than these 3.75″ figures).

#3 – I don’t want six different costumes for Spider-Man, or 11 different costumes for Batman or 17 different armors for Iron Man. Yeah, the hero’s name is in the films’ titles…but darnit, I’m NOT looking for umpteen variations on the hero. I want more variation in there being a bunch of different characters that are available.

#4 – I don’t want to have to “chase” “basic” figures. Take a character and their standard costume, make the costume a different color and pack that as a “ratioed variant” if you must. But don’t make the CHARACTER itself a “chase figure.” Don’t short-pack certain characters likely to be popular while over-packing other characters. If there are 6 figures in the wave, pack them equally.

#5 – Well, when I started typing I had more than 4 points. Perhaps a follow-up post will finish things off when they come back to me.

Final for now – When a store is obviously over-stocked on what seems to be massive quantities of the same figure and “clearance” is less than 15% “off” (less than 50, even)…I’m probably still not gonna buy, where 50% off I might give in.

sameoldfigs

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TMNT at Walmart and Target (2012)

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Walt

After seeing bare-bones presence of the new TMNT toys at Target, they seem to have finally joined the ranks of the “regularly stocked,” as I’ve now seen these multi-peg displays at 5 or 6 different Targets.

I still don’t care for the “sound FX” figures, and would actually be sorta interested in the “TMNT Classics” line (at least for Leonardo).

The photo below was taken at the Target in Willoughby, OH:

tmntattargetwilloughby01

I was actually fairly surprised when I saw the following in the Eastlake Walmart recently. Though “late” to the party, that Walmart had a better stock of figures than most of the Targets I’ve seen–though not all visible here, all 9 unique “basic” figures were on these pegs.

tmntatwalmarteastlake01

At the “Super” Walmart in Brimfield, OH, the aisle tag isn’t quite appropriately placed, but it caught my attention, so served its purpose. I was beginning to REALLY doubt Walmart’s support of these new TMNT toys, but I guess I didn’t need to.

tmntatwalmartbrimfield01

And I’m not quite sure what to make of these bare pegs…the “display” looks pretty shoddy and bare…but that’s hopefully because the things are actually selling.

I’ve often had an “issue” with toy lines for their “peg warmers,” and it does seem like the turtles themselves are filling that role so far: it’s Shredder, the Kraang, the Foot Soldier, and April O’Neil that seem relatively rare–and even Splinter.

tmntatwalmartbrimfield02

The ancillary stuff–the role play kits, the talking/FX turtles, and the vehicles seem pretty common–for what little attention I’ve paid. Continue reading →

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TMNT Action Figures 2012: Clip and Collect Profiles

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Walt

The new TMNT figures based on the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series are out…and after scouring local Toys R Us and Target stores, I’ve managed to snag the entire first wave of basic figures. Here are the profiles from the back of the cards:

Profile(Leonardo)

Profile(Donatello)

Profile(Raphael)

Profile(Michelangelo)

Continue reading →

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

TMNT Action Figures 2012: The Bad Guys

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Walt

The new TMNT figures based on the 2012 Nickelodeon animated series are out…and after scouring local Toys R Us and Target stores, I’ve managed to snag the entire first wave of basic figures. Here are the bad guys:

TMNTfigures(Shredder)

TMNTfigures(FootNinja)

TMNTfigures(Kraang)

Filed under: NON-REVIEW CONTENT, The Toy Chronicles | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment »

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