New DC Action League 2-packs

I've seen only one set of these new DC Action League figures in one dumpy K-Mart across the county- no where else. At $8.49 a pop, up from seven bucks when I first started collecting them, they had understandably lost my interest (ouch). These two were too cute to pass up however. The packaging has been updated, which I am quite fond of. The previous design, was fine mind you, but these have a likeness of the "main" character included across the front, warmer colors, and an even splashier, open feel. The character/characters are announced as part of a titled adventure, like in a comic or animated feature, with no further elaboration or explanation. In my opinion, Mattel/DC should include a mini-comic with these a package set, perhaps detailing Atom's escape with Plastic Man against "the Flying Creature of Doom",  especially if they are going to charge $8.50. 

Mattel's corporate machinations aside, this Atom/Plastic Man 2-pack is a triumph! Plastic Man in form of a hand glider, his tiny partner latches tightly onto his arms to ride out and save the day. This set could not be more whimsical and fun!

Plastic Man's arms move on a swivel at the shoulders, and his head is on a ball joint that also enjoys an added swivel at the neck, allowing him to look in almost any direction. I was pleasantly surprised by his expressive quality. His sculpt is simple but thoughtful, the bands at his waist actually incised into the sculpt, not just painted/tampographed onto the plastic.

I've come to appreciate both Plastic Man and the Atom a lot more as an adult comics reader- they aren't marquee heroes in the DC Universe, but their function is important. Their powers are as unique as their personalities, the Atom bringing his fluency for sub-atomic science, and Plastic Man providing comic relief.

Atom enjoys hinges in his shoulders in addition to the swivel joints like some of the newer Action Leaguers have, which he need to hitch a ride with Plastic Man. Other than that, his neck and waist are the only other points of articulation- very simple. His buck is also smaller than the standard Action League male, which was thoughtful, and an atomic symbol is neatly tamped onto this forehead and tiny belt buckle. While these are atrociously overpriced, they are wonderfully designed and cuter than a bug's ear! Love!

Atom has the dynamic running pose like the DC Action League Flash does, whom he pairs quite nicely with...

 I have a couple other Atom figures, including this very cool Justice League Unlimited Atom. I love action figures with a fun, cartoony sculpt and color as much as those with a realistic treatment. Mattel's JLU line was a lot of fun...

Larfleeze has a fun sculpt, clutching a small orange lantern to his chest. He doesn't have shoulder hinges like the Atom, so his insignia are not uninterrupted. He has neck and waist swivel, and a left elbow swivel that really adds to the lanky arm gesticulation his character is known for. Nice! And word to DC Direct: DC Action League Larfleeze has a neatly tamped lantern symbol on his tiny orange ring.

And though the holidays are behind us, I was reminded of the Larfleeze Christmas Special (Feb. 2011) in my collection when I started playing with him. Cheezy, but still fun  :D

Larfleeze's 2-pack partner is Glomulus, one of Larfleeze's creepy bouncing minions that bring Slimer from Ghostbusters to mind. He's bigger than Larfleeze which is fine because of their elastic physicality, generated by the orange Lantern's energy. He has no articulation, made of an translucent orange plastic with rubbery arms. He has a, ummm... cavity in his posterior where Larfleeze can put his ringed fist. Hard to get him to stand this way, plus it's embarrassing  :D

DC Action League Larfleeze & Glomulus 2-pack with DC Direct's Blackest Night Larfleeze & Glomulus...

And finally, Larfleeze with the rest of my DC Action League Lanterns- see more of them at all these embedded links. Freshly back into comics as an adult around the time of Geoff John's Blackest Night story line, I became a huge Green Lantern fan, a character whose toys and books I now own a great deal of.

More Later- Make It FUN!

Recent Marvel Universe Pick-Ups

I've managed to pick up some more 3 3/4" Marvel Universe figures in the last month, the holiday rush finally emptying some of the peg warmers, and either making room for either new stock or older cases that had languished in the stockrooms. I found the new Hulk, Beta Ray Bill, and Kang, but lucked out on an earlier Yellowjacket and Colossus during this seasonal flood of action figures. I'm annoyed at how they no longer come with the numbered bases while Hasbro has hiked the price 40% in the last three years, and distribution in these parts seems worse than before.

I'm still crazy about these little action figures by Hasbro, and have a ton of them opened and carded. Pictured below are most of the carded singles I own, and there are dozens of posts here on the Super-DuperToyBox about them and other Marvel 3 3/4" figures.

Here are a few carded Marvel Universe figures from my collection that I'm particularly fond of...

*See the Marvel Universe visual checklist at ItsAllTrue.Net

More Later- Make It FUN!

Hey, Mr. Postman!

I don't get a lot of toys in the mail lately, but this box came a couple days ago from Lange's Sports in Michigan. I've scored a lot of older DC Direct figures from their eBay store over the years for good prices with decent combined shipping.

I just finished reading Avengers: X-Sanction limited series (2012), and really like McGuinness' unique art- these really capture his style. They're chunky and fun! Also known for his work on Superman/Batman title, Marvel's The Hulk, and of course JLA: Classified, the latter of which I've not yet read. His figures are robust, body-builder types that some might describe as steroid-enhanced. They certainly aren't everyone's cup of tea, and I'll admit I'm not crazy about all the figures from this line and the Superman/Batman: Public enemies line from DC Direct that pay tribute to this artist's style. I am fond of this pair however, and wouldn't mind having the Superman, Hawkman, or John Stewart Green Lantern from this series. I have a Martian Manhunter from this series that I love!

* Visit the DC Direct Action Figure Archive!

More Later-Make It FUN!

More Recent Marvel Now! Pick-Ups...

There is an enormous amount of reading going on here at the Super-DuperToyBox lately, so much that I haven't had time to talk about it all. In addition to Indestructible Hulk and Iron Man, I bit the bullet a couple weekends ago on some other Marvel Now! titles that have piqued my interest. I'm unsure how long I will continue each title due to the expense involved, but it's been hella fun so far. As I explained previously, Marvel NOW! is a 2012 relaunch of several ongoing comic books published by Marvel Comics following the conclusion of the Avengers vs. X-Men storyline (which I also want to read at some point). To attract new readers, publishing changes include new creative teams for each of the titles, new character designs and new storylines.

*Marvel Now! Thunderbolts
The cover art sucked me in on this, I admit it. Originally, the Thunderbolts were the Masters of Evil led by Baron Zemo in disguise, a successful marketing stunt that sold big time in 1997, after the Avengers were thought dead following the Onslaught Saga. A later incarnation was government sponsored, and led by Luke Cage. I was unfamiliar with all of this however, drawn in by this dangerous looking roster of Red Hulk, Deadpool, Elektra, Punisher, and Venom. Red Hulk assembles his incarnation of the Thunderbolts to be a strike team that is clandestine in nature, similar to X-Force, the members "conditions" incurable. I'm interested in the Red Hulk more lately, (General "Thunderbolt" Ross, the classic green Hulk antagonist), and have seen more of this paramilitary  version of Venom around lately.

*Marvel Now! Thor: God of Thunder
I kept hearing this was a must, and I have not been disappointed! There's been a God Butcher on the loose throughout Thor's life, and we get glimpses into his life across the millenia at points when this phantom from his past has reared it's head. Really different! Esad Ribic's art is outstanding, like a modern age N.C. Wyeth in it's illustrative beauty. Excellence, I say!

*Marvel Now! Cable and X-Force 

I'm a huge Cable/X-Force fan so I had to give this a go. Starts off with a bang, an immediate conflict with the Avengers. Cable's makes his obligatory, mysterious reappearance, followed by a hidden agenda, his obtuse lack of explanations to all involved, and of course he dying. And breaking his daughter Hope's heart. We'll see how it goes. Art is fantastic, dark & moody...

*Marvel Now! Captain America

I am crazy for John Romita Jr's art- it reminds me a lot of Frank Miller's sketchy line in The Dark Knight Returns, an influence I'm sure Romita would claim. I haven't picked up a great deal of Captain America, during my youth or my 2 year-old return to comics as an adult, but again, that cover pulled me in. Marvel is pressing a lot of the right buttons for me on these Marvel Now! titles. The story gets cosmically bizarre in a Jack Kirby kind of way, pulling Cap onto Dimension Z to protect a child from Arnim Zola and the murderous inhabitants of his desolate world. This has been fun...

*Marvel Now! FF
This book featuring Mike Allred's cool artwork is what originally brought the Marvel Now! titles to my attention! I loved the X-Force books I read recently, and his guest pencilling on Wolverine & the X-Men #17 was hilarious! She-Hulk, Ant-Man, Medusa, and Johnny Storm's rock star girlfriend Darla Deering in a Thing suit take the F.F. Mantle over for Reed Richards while he looks for a cure to his "condition" in another dimension. The Fantastic Four was only supposed to be gone for four minutes, but as expected, something else happens. This is turning out a lot of fun  :D

*Marvel Now! Fantastic Four

I'm a Fantastic Four fan I'd say, and in spite of the criticism I've heard about the title recently, I wanted to see the other side of the group's journey as it pertains to the Marvel Now! FF title. I just couldn't let it go. More fleshing out of the transfer of power, the temporary replacements, and Reed's condition are given in the first two issues. I'm glad to be reading them, and I think they do and will tie in well with the title above, but I'd imagine you could enjoy Marvel Now! FF without reading this.

In addition to these new titles by Marvel, I'm getting into Brian Bendis & John Romita Jr's run on Avengers: The Heroic Age from 2010, a stack of Future Foundation issues for that title just before it relaunched under the Marvel Now! banner recently, and John Romita Jr's run on the Mighty Thor with Dan Jurgens from the 90's. I'm also still reading DC's New 52 Earth-2 and World's Finest: Huntress & Power Girl as they are tied into the same universe, the latter of which I'm loosing my enthusiasm for somewhat. I'll try to touch on those as time permits. 2013 is starting out pretty busy!

More Later- Make It FUN!

Recent Finds In the Dollar Bins and Beyond!

Had a nice comics hunt on Sunday, finding some fun stuff in the dollar bins, and a couple other things that piqued my interest...

*Marvel Super Action #16, 19, 31

These are reprints of earlier Avengers stories, released in 1979, 1980, & 1981 respectively- see the series origin at this link. They looked splashy and fun, and only a buck- impulse buy...

*The Avengers #211 & Avengers West Coast Annual #4
The Avengers issue I picked up only because it looked like a pivotal moment in the title, and it had a lot of cool characters on the cover, including Dr. Henry Pym as Yellowjacket! The Avengers West Coast Annual I picked up because of all the great female characters on the cover, including X-Factor era Jean Grey/Marvel Girl and She-Hulk, and I already have the X-Factor "Atlantis Attacks" annual. 64 pages for a buck- half the the 1989 price, kids!

*Amalgam Comics Iron Lantern #1  & Super Soldier #1
From Wikipedia:
"Amalgam Comics was a publishing imprint shared by DC Comics and Marvel Comics, in which the two comic book publishers merged their characters into new ones. On two separate occasions, Marvel and DC co-published titles from Amalgam Comics. During the publication of Amalgam Comics, the companies treated it as if it had existed for decades, giving it a fictional history stretching back to the Golden Age of Comics, as well as retcons and reboots, such as the Secret Crisis of the Infinity Hour (an amalgam of Secret Wars, Crisis on Infinite Earths, Infinity Gauntlet and Zero Hour). The books even went so far as to have letter pages with readers talking about stories they had read for years from the company line. In the 24 Amalgam Comics printed, one-third of those printed included letter-columns by fictitious fans to give a larger background to the stories and to help give hints of what might happen in the next issue. The "fans'" hometowns were usually fusions of existing American cities."
This looked far-out, and the idea of  a Green Lantern Iron Man is just great! This is new to me and looks interesting and fun...

*Giant-Size X-Statix #1

I can't say enough good things about Milligan & Allred's 2001-2002 run on X-Force. The team turned into "X-Statix" afterward, none of which I've read. At only 30 pages thick, I'm unsure if the "Giant-Size" is supposed to be as sarcastic as the characters within, but for a dollar I could not say no. And for myself, 30 pages of Mike Allred's art is as good as 60 pages of a lot of other artist's work out there... I love it that much.

*Marvel-Super-Heroes 1990 Summer Special #2 &  Marvel Comics Annual #1 Spider-Man 2099
According to Wikipedia, Marvel Super-Heroes vol. 2 (May 1990 - Oct. 1993) published quarterly for 15 issues, and generally printed "inventory stories", those assigned to serve as emergency filler. I know the purpose of these, but I love a big 80 page blockbuster for a buck don't you? I love Spider-Man 2099, too, and for that matter, any thick annual I can grab for a dollar. I thoroughly enjoyed the Spider-Man 2099 Vol. 1 trade paperback I read last year, so this is a treat!

 *The Mighty Thor Vol.2 TPB & Capt. America # Namor #635.1
I love John Romita Jr.'s style, and according to what I've read, he and writer Dan Jurgens reinvigorated the needy title during the 90's. I grabbed this used for $9.99, less than half the price- I also found Vol. 1 & 4 for a steal on Amazon recently. Really excited! Also excited about finding the final issue I'd been looking for in writer Cullen Bunn's Capt. America team-ups with Hawkeye, Black Widow, Iron Man, and this #365.1 with Namor. Fun!

Happy New Year -Make It FUN!