August Hauls!

[138 Scourge]

Aw snap. My lovely wife ordered the new Avatar:The Last Airbender comic for me before I even knew it was out. Super excited to get into this one.

Also, I decided to make Cosmos and Swerve show up in stores around here so I preordered them on BBTS. They'll be everywhere around here once this package ships.

[BWprowl]

Aw snap. My lovely wife ordered the new Avatar:The Last Airbender comic for me before I even knew it was out. Super excited to get into this one.

They're ATLA comics drawn by Gurihiru. The only way I could love them more is if Fred van Lente or Chris Yost was writing them.

[138 Scourge]

Aw snap. My lovely wife ordered the new Avatar:The Last Airbender comic for me before I even knew it was out. Super excited to get into this one.

They're ATLA comics drawn by Gurihiru. The only way I could love them more is if Fred van Lente or Chris Yost was writing them.

You and me both, bro. Pretty much the best artists continuing probably my favorite show? Yup, that'll work.

Also, hit up a Target today and spotted Roadbuster. No Sky-Byte, I assume someone must have staggered in there drunk and bought Sky-Byte to celebrate Shark Week. I decided to skip the customary thinking it over for a few weeks this time and grabbed Roadbuster right off. He looks really cool, the color scheme calls to me, and I really liked the version I had in the eighties even if it broke really quickly.

[andersonh1]

I got two more All-Star volumes, 3 and 7. I now have 7 out of 12 total, so I'm halfway to having the entire 1940s JSA series.

[JediTricks]

My point is, if you want new fans to be able to get a toy of the character, why even bother making a new one at all when the previous one is already just fine as-is? A Sky-Byte reissue would have worked perfectly in this situation; making that Generations figure instead is just insulting.

Reissues on old tooling can be disappointing, having not aged as well as one expects, or can be expensive due to refurbishing the tooling. And what avenue would it take, where would it go, how would it get released? It wouldn't have a traditional avenue at all, can't just put it out in the main line, doesn't have any other releases to go with it, it'd have to be an exclusive, and who would want that weird exclusive right now?

[andersonh1]

I'm looking forward to the new version of Sky-Byte. The old one has so much shell and kibble that it's a pain to transform without stuff falling off.

[BWprowl]

Picked up the Marvel Legends Star-Lord, because GOTG was cool, Star-Lord was cool, and this looked like a pretty nice action figure of the guy. Hasbro did an impressive job on the toy, packing in all the requisite detail and articulation (even if the very soft plastic used on the joints sometimes makes using them harder than it should be), along with some very nice accessories. The guns look good, coming with the Orb is nice, and the alternate head with the helmet is a welcome addition (and swapping the heads out is thankfully easy), but the real winner is the Walkman with wearable headphones, since the main thing you want this for is to have a Star-Lord to dance across your desk. Be nice if there was more storage for these things (somewhere to clip his guns when he wasn't using them, or the ability to peg the Walkman to his side somehow), but overall it's a remarkably detailed figure that feels like they actually expended some effort on it. At least worth getting on account of liking Star-Lord in the movie.

[JediTricks]

Digital kitchen scale (they sent my mom an extra one and told her to keep it, so she gave it to me)

TF: RID #32 - um... this was kind of a mixed bag, the overall story held up but the art wasn't that good and the dialogue was unusually clunky. Also, the cool subscription cover was a flameout. Nice homage early on to TFTM though.

Groo meets Conan - haven't cracked this yet, but it's part 1 of 4 or 6 and I can't imagine not buying 'em all.

TF: Primacy #1 - bought this because the friggin' main cover looked so good. WHAT?!? They handed me the subscription cover, and while Sarah Stone did ok with it, I just wasn't feeling it, when I put it back on the shelf I saw the main cover and it worked. Haven't read the book yet.

TF:AOE deluxe Lockdown - early birthday present. Not a great iteration of the movie character, but I like the figure for what it is. I'll detail in the AOE review thread.

Star Wars Black Series 6" Scout Trooper with Speeder Bike - early birthday present. Mostly a nice set held back by the figure's helmet visor sculpt problem, gummy joints, and 2 points of articulation that limit the poses the figure can hold on the bike. Good, not great.

SW Black Series 3.75" Snowtrooper Commander - nice deco, way too slight and sculpt is a little weird.

SW Black Series 3.75" Ep 3 Vader - despite the head joint coming off easily and the source material being prequels, I'd highly recommend this figure as its sculpting and articulation are light years ahead of any previous Vader, the cape for the first time in this scale actually looks right, and the figure's deco looks great too. Mine however has 2 defects - the mold cavity the head came from has a screwed up helmet, and mine has 2 left feet.

ReAction The Rocketeer - I don't normally go in for these vintage-style figures, but it's the Rocketeer! I don't know why they tapered the figure up towards the head, but other than that it looks really nice, and they included sculpt and paint of the chewing gum holding in the fuel. $10 well spent.

SW Clone Wars AV-7 Mobile Cannon - a buddy was giving away his vehicle collection so I took this piece as it's one of the few I don't have. The treads and fold-down trooper platform round it out enough to make it fun.

Reversible belt - my local clothing place gave me $20 free credit for my birthday, so I used it on a fancy belt since I haven't been liking my casual belt with my nicer pants.

[Shockwave]

Box of awesome from O6 containing Beast Machines Rattrap and Energon Shockblast. Shockblast is one of my favorite versions of Shockwave and I've never had BM Rattrap before so fiddling with this is new and different. Review in the appropriate thread after I have a chance to fiddle some more.

[BWprowl]

SH Figuarts Sailor Jupiter - Full Disclosure: I never watched Sailor Moon. But as a hopeless anime nerd, I absorbed a decent amount of it via pop-culture osmosis, enough that I've happily jumped on watching the new series that's been airing for the last couple months. And while Jupiter hasn't even shown up yet (she's set to debut this week, actually) she was always my favorite design of the bunch, and with everyone talking about these fancy new Figuarts versions of the gals, I decided I might as well try one out. Getting these things in plastic form at least drives home how leggy the Sailor Moon designs are; between those, the eyes, and the hair, this is easily the shoujo-est action figure I own (moreso than the more modern-cute Precure figures I have), but it captures the looks about Jupiter that I like well. Accessories are light, just bonus hands and faces, plus an extra hair piece with her lightning-rod attack, but given that, as I understand it, Jupiter's the brawler of the group, some no-nonsense ass-kicking poses are all she really needs to work. And Tamashii's getting better at this face-swapping thing, hers are the easiest I've encountered so far, we've come a long way since those terrifying-to-exchange faceplates on Cure Black and White. And it's hard to argue with an SHF that comes with a stand. Now let's just hope I don't end up hating her when I actually see her in fiction!