Toy Review: Marvel Select Hulk (The Avengers movie)

After watching the awesome spectacle that is The Avengers, I rushed out to my local Toys R Us to pick up some toys... and I was thoroughly disappointed. The line was limited to the 4" scale, some figures had crappy paint apps, and the assortment was lacking with no Black Widow, Hawkeye, or Chitauri to be found. Fortunately, I did discover that two 6" lines would be available: one from Hasbro and another from Diamond Select. And Hulk, given his performance in the movie, was the clear choice to start my Avengers action figure team. But which to choose.. the Hasbro or Diamond Select version?

Toy Review: Nickelodeon Slime!

The 80's had its share of weird fads but one of the weirdest was slime, driven by gross-out shows like Nickelodeon's You Can't Do That On Television and Double Dare. Maybe kids liked the disgusting randomness of getting slimed because it was so unconventional compared with the normal constrictions of daily life. Maybe getting slimed was just comedic, like getting hit in the face with a pie. Whatever the reason, it was a decade of slime.

Toy Tribute: Playmates Captain Picard (non-4.5" scale)

I've covered the 4.5" Star Trek: The Next Generation line from Playmates ad nauseam. Although that line was pretty extensive, it wasn't quite all that Playmates had to offer. There were a few other lines that tried to capture the magic of the 4.5" figures in other scales. None were ever as successful but there were some great toys in those assortments for those collectors who who have maxed out on the 4.5" standard. Here's an homage to those often-forgotten Playmates figures with a Toy Tribute to Captain Picard, non-4.5" scale!

Movie Review: Avengers

While the Marvel movies up to this point have been good, they just haven't been good enough for me to totally dork-out on them. Sure they have great character development, but that's only one small part of the equation. For me to totally dork-out on a movie, it also has to have interesting production designs (character costumes, vehicle designs, etc) and exciting action. And the Marvel movies have, more or less, failed at those two points.