Hey, Mr. Postman!

That's right- it's time for another installment of Hey, Mr. Postman! here at the Super-DuperToyBox! If you are beginning to wonder, if you are starting to get the impression that there are always parcels of toys arriving at my apartment faster than I can write about them, well... you would be (laughs) correct! I'm WAY behind, LOL! Things get more and more fun here by the day, I swear! I got this haul about nine days ago:

*I won a set of four D.C. Direct 1st Appearance action figures on E-Bay for the paltry sum of $31.01 (price included shipping)! This was an exceptional deal Friends, due the well known fact that the Robin figure alone can go for upwards of $25.00 alone, and I've seen people asking for way more. 1st Appearance Superman can fetch the same kinds of prices. I had to E-Snipe some poor fool at the last second to win them, but all is fair in love and toy collecting...  I have six of these retro-cool series action figures now- I love their styling and fabric capes! They make me feel like a kid again!

*D.C. New Frontier, Vol.1.  I'll confess: I LOVE Darywn Cooke's artwork. This is a GREAT story that I enjoyed immensely! See my entry on the New Frontier action figures I got before I read the book- FUN toys!

*Hasbro Marvel Legends 6" Scarlet Spider came loose in his own box- I had two other Marvel Legends Spidermen that I love, and I like this guy too... I like the reworking of the red and blue suit and the metallic wristbands. I had recently read a 1996 comic featuring this Spider-Man (Ben Reilly, not Peter Parker) teamed up with Gambit & Howard The Duck- the artwork was great!

DOUBLE BONUS ROUND of Hey, Mr. Postman!

Yes, because I'm behind on these, and this delivery was somewhat related, let's take a peek at what arrived just a few days later, m'kay?

*D.C. New Frontier, Vol.2. I finished this two volume series just a couple nights ago, and I must say it was a great ride! It would behoove you to check into this great story of these classic D.C. heroes set in the Cold War Era. Check out D.C. Comics New Frontier page! I was cheering out loud by the end of it! GREAT, I say!

*Related to another fun graphic novel I read just last year, Alan Moore's seminal tome Watchmen- D.C. Direct Series 1 Nite Owl. This character appeals to me for a very specific reason- he's a lot like Batman. His nocturnal alias, reliance on gadgetry, inherited wealth, and scientific background bears an uncanny resemblance to the Dark Knight. The outfit featured on this figure is based on the updated Nite Owl from the 2009 motion picture Watchmen rather than the 1986 comic book version- he'll fit right in with my other 6" D.C. figures!  

Well, I was feeling somewhat blue today for some reason, but writing about toys seems to have lifted my spirits... that and news that known dolly persecutor BubbaShelby had purchased a "larger-scale action figure that features a cloth outfit"! Shiver me timbers! ...Boy, was I ever (laughs) delighted! I am CERTAINLY looking forward to seeing a picture of this toy!



Tabletop Tron Video Game by TOMY, 1981

As mentioned in my previous post, I dug out some of the old toys that survived my childhood when I was visiting the folks over Thanksgiving weekend. One of these survivors was a tabletop Tron video game, produced by TOMY in 1981. I thought this would be a timely post due to the brouhaha surrounding the highly anticipated 2010 Tron: Legacy motion picture coming out in December. My younger brother played with this the most, beating all of the levels of difficulty it offered quite easily- he was a smart cookie, that boy! Released at the height of the video game craze, this simple game was a relatively advanced toy for it's time. My brother and I were feeding quarters to the machines at the local arcade regularly in the early 80's, so this was right up our alley.

There are three levels on the game:
1.) The lightcycle game- Tron (you) tries to cut off the Sark light cycle path before he cuts off your path. You get four tries.
2.) The ring game- Tron and Sark pass the ring back and forth until one misses his catch, much like a game of frisbee. Again, you get four tries.
3.) The MCP game- Tron (you) must throw his disc through the MCP barrier that's moving up and down around it- a simple game of timing.

All these levels get faster each time you master them, until you achieve 2,000 points when you gain an additional Tron for each level (5 total). The highest possible score is 15,995 points to completely master the game.

The game is powered by four "C" batteries, but can also be powered by a 7.5 volt AC adapter. I don't remember if the game came with an adapter, but I was lucky enough to have a roommate that has a bunch of spares. He had to reverse the polarity in the adapter's wiring however, as most modern adapters now run on positive polarity as opposed to negative. We plugged in the modified adapter and the game came on and played just fine! A special thanks to my pal Mike, one of my biggest supporters- he's always enthusiastic and a good sport about my growing piles of toys all over our apartment! And because of Mike's electrical knowledge, this fun game came back to life! Hooray!

-TOMY Tron on HandHeldMuseum.Com
-TOMY Tron on RetroThing.Com
-New Tron: Legacy Impulse Projection action figures at Nostalgic G- COOL!
-Hot Toys Movie Masterpiece Series 1:6 scale Sam Flynn Collectible Figure with Light Cycle from the Tron: Legacy movie at ToyHaven!

Mattel Kraken, 1981

I managed to dig out some old toys from my childhood over Thanksgiving weekend at Mom & Dad's- a lot of the toys we had were destroyed or lost because, well... we played with them. We had some fun stuff back then- Lord knows I'd love to see all those toys new again!

When Clash of The Titans came out in 1981 I was nine years old, and was really into knights, swordplay, dragons, and the like. My little friends and I would wage war against one another with crudely fashioned, homemade weapons in the backyard or at the creek on the edge of town, lost for hours in our play, lost in our imagination. Those were fun days! The Christmas after the movie came out, we got the Perseus, Charon, Thallo, Calibos, and the very cool and now rare 15" Kraken!

Mattel had planned to release a second wave of toys for this line, including a playset for Calibos' Lair. Unfortunately this didn't come to fruition, eclipsed perhaps by the merchandising phenomenon of the Star Wars toy line by Kenner, in full swing at the time.

Depicted as a giant squid in 19th century literature, the great special effects artist Ray Harryhausen reimagined the creature as a four-armed, reptilian monster for Clash of The Titans.

I have no idea how this totally awesome toy survived my childhood, how we had not managed to break off one of his four arms, two front flippers, or lose his removable tail. Mattel either made a really durable toy or we some how held the sea monster in higher regard than some of our other toys.

I've yet to see the 2010 remake of Clash of The Titans, but I would be willing to- while I'm sure the new special effects would eclipse Ray Harryhausen's stop-motion photography and "dynamation" technology, as a child I was fascinated by the 1981 version.

*Take a closer look at Mattel's Clash of the Titans toys at Action Figure Archive!

I hope you have been able to hold on to some of the joy and imagination from YOUR childhood- maybe this blog is helping you do just that, as it has for myself. I personally believe it's healthy to enjoy toys, especially if you are an adult- we love toys because they are FUN!  Do yourself a favor and take a peek at some of the "Blogs of Note" on the sidebar of this blog- these like-minded people bring me a lot of happiness, inspiration, and laughter. And friends, that is both rare and beautiful- it's something the world really needs, perhaps more now than ever. I want you to remember:

-You deserve to be happy- don't ever let anyone tell you any different!

-Help others achieve happiness whenever you can, they deserve it, too :)

-Play with TOYS and have FUN with your life!

Hey, Mr. Postman! Marvel Legends Black Bolt

After a long night at work, I came home and found that a parcel had arrive for lil' ol' me- sweet! And who was inside you ask? Why it was the guy I had just been reading about in Marvel Essential Fantantic Four Vol.3- Black Bolt! While he can go for anywhere from twenty to thirty bucks, I scored this 6" figure for $13.50 (price included shipping)... he came like this:

Unlike my Marvel Legends Hulk made by ToyBiz, the Marvel Legends Black Bolt was produced by Hasbro. While there are some articulation issues, and his cloth "accordion" wings don't come off quite right, I like the sculpt on this guy and was thankful to have a physical representation of a somewhat obscure Marvel character that I'm currently reading about- that's FUN! I enjoyed playing around with him and taking his picture...

Black Bolt's first appearance was in Fantastic Four #45 (Dec. 1965).  A member of the a super-human race, the Inhumans, Black Bolt had been exposed to the mutagenic Terrigan Mist prior to childbirth, empowering him with the ability to manipulate electrons. Vowing never to speak after a childhood of isolation to protect his race from his calamitous voice and harness his great powers, Black Bolt rejoined his people as a young man.

Soon after, Black Bolt leaves his homeland of Attilan to explore the world, but soon returns to defeat his evil brother Maximus with the help of the Fantastic Four, rescuing his love Medusa and the Royal Family (Triton, Gorgon, Karnak, and Medusa's sister Crystal). Assuming the crown and kingship of his people, Black Bolt defends his people from the Kree race (who genetically developed the Inhumans), the evil super-robot Ultron, and Blastaar among others who deem the Inhumans an abhorrent race.

Through Black Bolt's electron manipulation, he transform matter, fly, and channel concussion blasts or forcefields. His quasi-sonic voice can level a city though, making this Black Bolt's primary offensive tactic, which he used to defeat the Hulk. The fork antenna attached to his head helps control this very dangerous power- a power that took extensive training to harness, for the mere utterance from his lips could mean death to any mere mortal caught in the path of his devastating voice.

Found in my old comics: Black Bolt's page from the Official Hanbook of the Marvel Universe series I had from childhood. Click on the image to read all about Black Bolt circa 1983:

*Black Bolt at Marvel.Com
*Review of the Marvel Legends Nemesis wave that included this toy at ActionFigurePics.Com.
*Marvel Legends toys overview at Wikipedia, first made by ToyBiz, then Hasbro.
*Custom Black Bolt Figures at FigureRealm.Com!
*Review of Captain Marvel and Black Bolt MiniMate figure set- Nice!

Hey, Mr. Postman!

I'll be straight with you, Friends: #1. this installment of Hey, Mr. Postman! doesn't involve the toys I got in the mail today, these came on Nov. 16th!  #2. My postman isn't a man at all, instead she's a rather attractive blonde beauty, I kid you NOT! In fact, just today this total babe delivered toys to my front door! What's better than getting toys in the mail? Having a hot blonde deliver them is what's better! LOL! Things get better by the day over here, Kids, I swear... Anywho, let's take a peek inside this parcel of FUN toys, m'kay?

Another mixed box from my  favorite E-Bay seller, Langes Sports- it's hard beat their great prices, fun toys, and combined shipping... I always make out great with them.

*D.C. Direct All Star Comics Superman. I know nothing of this very retro, "Re-Activated" Series 4 action figures other than I really enjoyed their styling, and I got them for cheap (about $5.50 each). I will have to investigate their origin at a later date....

*D.C. Direct All Star Comics Wonder Woman...

*D.C. Direct All Star Comics Hawkman...

*D.C. Direct Identity Crisis Series 1 Green Arrow- I've taken a new appreciation for Ollie, a fun and popular character in the D.C. Comics Pantheon. I haven't read the 2004 Identity Crisis series comics, but I like this action figure! I already had the D.C. Direct All Star Comics Batman to go with the other 3 above, so Langes was nice enough to substitute with this guy- great service!

*Marvel Select Dr. Doom by Diamond Select Toys... this Super-Duper toy has it's own throne... that's how great it is! He also has an interchangable hand with chalice, and a pistol! I got him for $12.95, a great value!

 All together with shipping included, this big box of toys was only $55.58... not bad at all, Kids!

Public Service Announcement... New Frontier Box Set

Due to the popular response of my last two posts on the D.C. New Frontier Box set, I wanted to make sure  you people got the best deal on this fun product... many of you were talking about getting a set for yourselves...
Pay ten dollars less than I did- get the box set on clearance at Mike's Comics N' Stuff: http://stores.homestead.com/MikesComicsNStuff/-strse-641/Justice-League-New-Frontier/Detail.bokMerry Christmas!

D.C. Direct New Frontier Outtakes

I enjoyed these toys so much that I thought I'd share some leftover photos from the the D.C New Frontier box set I reviewed in my last post- so retro-cool!

*My review of this D.C. Direct New Frontier box set!
*D.C. Comics NewFrontier page!
*Artist Darwyn Cooke's blog (author of D.C. New Frontier)
*Green Arrow figure from this series- had to rescue him, read about it HERE.

D.C. New Frontier Box Set

As proven in both my last post, as well as my toy collection in general, I obviously have a thing for retro-styled action figures. That said, I was thrilled to find out about this D.C. Direct New Frontier box set- Bitchin'!

The box set figure don't include the same deluxe base that the individually sold figures from this series, but it did include a fun comic with three short stories in it- it was really fun reading with both a lot of high adventure and humor throughout. I liked it and these figures so much that I went ahead and ordered Vol.1 & 2 books of the D.C. The New Frontier series- CANNOT WAIT to read that!

The figures from this series don't have the articulation you will find in a lot of modern figures, but they do have great style! They have wrists that swivel (except Batman ??), elbow, knee, and hip articulation, and their heads swivel side to side & up and down- pretty basic. Batman and Superman's capes are made of flexible rubber- I like cloth, but this works really good with the character designs. I appreciate how the simple design of these toys echo author Darwyn Cooke's artwork from the series, and how the outfit sculpts show creases around the belt and shorts area and where the torsos are twisted, as opposed to the ripped, body-builder look prevalent in both comics and action figures. Wonder Woman is a particular standout among these four with her sword, free-hanging sheath, and golden lasso- nice job on this buxom beauty! What FUN these are!

D.C. The New Frontier was a successful 2003-2004 six-part series published by D.C. Comics that was adapted as an animated 2008 film, Justice League: The New Frontier. Set at the end of World War II, the story involves Golden Age heroes like Superman, Wonder Woman, and Batman , teaming up with Silver age comic heroes like Martian Manhunter, Green Lantern, and The Flash. New Frontier ties the Golden and Silver Ages in the D.C. Universe amidst the fitting backdrop of the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, and atomic testing- the times these heroes are from.

*D.C. Comics New Frontier page!
*Green Arrow figure from this series- had to rescue him, read about it HERE.