Toy Review: Return of the Living Dead Tarman (Amok Time Toys)

I preordered this Return of the Living Dead Tarman by Amok Time Toys all the way back in March of 2010. After almost two years of waiting, I had all but given up hope ever getting the figure, thinking that it had fallen into some sort of development limbo. Imagine my surprise when out of the clear blue it had shipped! I'm not sure why it took so long for Tarman to make it to production, but is he worth the wait?

Blu-ray Review: Star Trek TNG, The Next Level

I finally finished watching the Star Trek: TNG Blu-ray preview disc. The preview included three episodes: Encounter At Farpoint (Season 1), Sins of the Father (Season 3), and Inner Light (Season 5). As you might expect, the picture quality and sound are amazing, especially for those of us Trekkies who have been used to watching those awful pixellated DVDs for the past decade or so. The only blemish on the Blu-ray is a 13-second shot that had to be upconverted from video because the original film was lost, but even that upconverted scene is much better than the DVDs.

Toy Tribute: Galoob Star Trek: The Next Generation Aliens

With the release of Star Trek: The Next Generation on Blu-ray, it's a good time to revisit the too-often overlooked TNG line from Galoob. With excellent sculpts based on Season 1 character designs and a 3 3/4" scale that's relatively uncharacteristic for Star Trek, the Galoob line was awesome in its own right but was completely overshadowed by the insanely successful Playmates line. I've already covered the Starfleet officers released in this scale, but let's take a look at the super-rare aliens!

Movie Review: Star Wars The Phantom Menace 3D

When Lucasfilm announced that they were releasing yet another version of the Star Wars movies in theaters, this time in 3D, I swore that I would boycott them all. Especially the Prequels. Anything beyond the Original Trilogy is dead to me now and the whole 3D fad is overplayed, overhyped, and pointless. But the ghost of fandom past pulled me into the theaters and I succumbed.

Toy Review: Green Lantern Movie Voz and G'Hu (4"-scale)

Although the 4" Green Lantern movie figures were almost universally panned, I loved them. There was something about them that was inescapably toy-like, much more so than the supposedly “better” lines like Thor and Captain America. Besides, the alien designs were some of the coolest I had seen in years.  That added up to a line that was a load of fun... for this collector, at least.

Toy Pix: Lobot, Then and Now

My opinion of Lobot has changed dramatically over the years. The Bespin environment wasn't particularly exciting to me as a kid because it seemed to rebel against the distinctive "used universe" look other Star Wars planets. The costumes of its inhabitants weren't very heroic or science-fictiony, either. So I wasn't particularly interested in any Bespin-related action figures, especially Lobot.

Toy Pix: Care Bears Tenderheart Bear

Like many kids in the 80's, I was a Care Bears nut. Although my main concentration was the plush toys, the 3.5" action figures were also cool. I'm not sure if it was the vinyl feel of the plastic, or the bright and fun colors, or the fluffy-looking sculpt, but I loved those figures. I couldn't quite reconcile the look and theme of the Care Bears with other action figure favorites like Star Wars, GI Joe, or Transformers, so I couldn't justify buying more than a few. But they're great regardless.