Marvel Legends - Luke Cage, Power Man

That's right! My Marvel Legends 6' action figure collection has grown by one more! Maybe you're not as excited as I am....but there it is. This one came in the mail on Christmas Eve (got him for an awesome price on Ebay). I now have a grand total of 5 Marvel Legends. Considering that there are around 250 figures in this line (not including variants or 'Build a Figure'), my collection is about 2% complete.

I haven't had a chance to do much toy photography lately, but I do have a day off at home with my daughter tomorrow and we're planning on playing all day, so we'll get some great shots of the Marvel Legends figs as well as all the cool new toys that the girls got for X-mas. Chloe just got a Barbie Castle, so that should be fun...sort of a 'Hall of Justice' theme is running through my head....

LUKE CAGE, POWER MAN

I must admit, I don't know all that much about Luke Cage. I only own a couple of his comics, and haven't really read that many over the years. What I do know is that he's one bad mutha. You can tell that much from the chains alone. I also know that he was partnered with Iron Fist (a martial arts master) for some time. Together they battled the underworld as 'Heroes for Hire'. This was in the 70's, so that explains the open collared yellow shirt and boots. Power Man is sculpted with his left hand open so he can deliver a karate chop or bitch slap when appropriate - everybody was Kung Fu fightin'!

I did a little research, and found some interesting tidbits of info on Power Man. Luke Cage started his career (and his comic book) solo. He was only the second African-American character to star in his own eponymous comic book. (The first one was a western called Lobo.) The first issue of his comic was called Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, and he actually didn't take the name Power Man until later. Since at the time there was already a Marvel villain called Power Man, he had to go kick that guy's ass for the right to use the name.

Luke was a bad-ass in his younger days, and ended up in prison. He volunteered for an experimental procedure while incarcerated which gave him super strength, diamond-hard skin and enhanced endurance. First thing he did with these powers was to bust out of jail. He was wrongly imprisoned anyway, after taking the fall for someone else, so he went straight to that dude and beat the living snot out of him and cleared his name. From then on, he went into the Hero for Hire biz, and beat up bad guys to pay the rent. At one time, he was hired by J. Jonah Jameson to capture Spider-Man, but the two became friends instead. He also chased after Dr. Doom to collect on a debt, thus making friends with the Fantastic Four in the process. They even let him join for a while. He's also been an Avenger, a Defender, and as I said before, a long-time partner of Iron Fist. At that point, his comic was fittingly retitled Power Man and Iron Fist.

I haven't decided on any particular role for Luke Cage to play in my toy photography yet, but he does look great riding a horse (or a tauntaun). He looks pretty mean, and his poses are full of potential. I mostly bought him because he was cheap and he looks cool. I feel I need to have a more multicultural selection of toys. Let's call it my 'Affirmative Action Figure' collection. I need to work on getting some female figures as well - the She-Hulk and Phoenix are high on my list of wants. Next up, however, is Sasquatch. He's already bought and paid for, and on his way in the mail. Since Sas' is one of my all-time favorite Marvel characters, you know that his entry is going to be a long one....

The next few posts are likely to contain all different types of subjects, so you'll have to bear with me. It's been a busy holiday season, and there's a lot of stuff to talk about with very little time to sit down and write. In any case, I hope everyone had a good Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Ramadan or Solstice or whatever, and have a great New Year in 2010!

May the Force be with you...

All About Godzilla

There are three types of people;


TYPE 1 - People who love Godzilla

TYPE 2 - People who don`t like Godzilla

TYPE 3 - People who don`t know anything about Godzilla

My goal here is to educate - to change the TYPE 3`s into TYPE 1`s, and maybe even convert some TYPE 2`s. I preach the Word of Godzilla.

I consider myself to be a pretty discriminating movie viewer. I don`t watch a lot of movies anymore, because I just keep seeing the same things regurgitated over and over, year after year by the Mighty Gargantuan Hollywood Empire Money Machine. There are tons of remakes, oceans of sequels, adaptations from comics or TV shows or books, and a ton of other crap that is just so repetitive in terms of writing or direction or presentation that it makes me want to puke. So, one might consider it to be pretty ironic that I like Godzilla, since his movies pretty much meet all of those criteria, but there is a subtle difference. Godzilla is ridiculous. I know it`s ridiculous. Ridiculous and awesome.

You know....Godzilla....giant monster that attacks Tokyo on a yearly basis and kicks other, weirder monsters asses. Ring a bell? No, I am NOT talking about the 1998 American movie starring Matthew Broderick. I liked that movie, but that is NOT Godzilla. The real Godzilla (or Gojira) is a 200 ft radioactive mutant reptilian monster from the depths of the ocean. He kind of looks like a really pudgy tyrannosaur, but with longer arms and huge plates on his back like a stegosaur. He walks upright and makes the most god awful noise - more of a creepy high-pitched shrieking sound than a roar. In case you hadn`t figured it out, he`s really a guy dressed in a rubber monster suit.

 Here`s a picture:

and another:

and another:

and one more, just because Godzilla is so awesome:

OK, so you may have noticed a few changes, but that`s because Godzilla has been around for a looooong time. More than 50 years, in fact. It seems as though every time they make a Godzilla movie (each and every one a treasure, in my opinion), the monster looks slightly different. He`s starred in a staggering 29 movies in Japan so far. Here`s a complete list of his films, all produced by Toho Studios:

Godzilla (1954)
Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
King Kong versus Godzilla (1962)
Godzilla vs. Mothra (1964)
Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
Godzilla vs. Monster Zero (1965)
Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster (1966)
Son of Godzilla (1967)
Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Godzilla's Revenge (1969)
Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971)
Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972)
Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)
Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)
Godzilla 1985 (1985)
Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991)
Godzilla & Mothra: The Battle for Earth (1992)
Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993)
Godzilla vs. Spacegodzilla (1994)
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995)
Godzilla (1998)
Godzilla 2000: Millennium (2000)
Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000)
Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001)
Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002)
Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003)
Godzilla: Final Wars (2004)

Okay, so there are a lot of movies. Yes, I’ve seen them all. If there’s one thing I’m a sucker for, it’s giant monster movies. I know it always comes off super hokey, and even big-budget special effects can’t really save the genre from being slightly outrageous. But that’s the fun part – you know it’s fake, and usually looks fake, so you can enjoy it for what it is.

I really like the newer Godzilla movies (post – 2000). Yes, the Toho company still uses actors in rubber suits and miniature sets, but they seem to have perfected it. Looks better to me than the CGI-produced American Godzilla.

In Godzilla’s early years, in the 50’s and early 60’s, he was pretty much a brainless evil monster bent on worldwide destruction. Even if there were other monsters in the movie, he was the bad guy in all cases, whether he was just acting on his own or controlled by Aliens or whatever. Somewhere along the line he became a good guy, and seemed to get a little smarter as well. His 70’s movies were more than a little ridiculous, with Godzilla staging tag-team battles with former enemies against crazy-looking giant space monsters. Things began to get truly silly, and the movies were pretty much made just for children. (Luckily, I was a child at the time, and I thought these movies were awesome.)

He took a break for about 6 or 7 years and came back as a bad guy again. Then stuff got really weird. Having been menaced by Godzilla countless times, the Japanese tried every trick in the book to defeat him. They tried cloning him a couple of times, tried using psychic powers to control his brain, lured him into a volcano with the sound of birds, stole a Godzilla egg, built a couple of Anti-Godzilla giant robots (Mechagodzilla II and Moguera) to use against him and even traveled through time to destroy him when he was but a wee dinosaur pup (the bastards!). Nothing worked of course, because he had to be back for the sequels somehow.

Speaking of sequels, Godzilla movies aren’t really sequels in the truest sense. There are only a couple of movies in the series that actually continue from where the previous one left off. More often, the writers will completely ignore most of the events that occurred in the past, unless it is relevant to the story being told. Sometimes the same actors would return, but there are only a few who actually played the same characters more than once. But come on, this is Godzilla we’re talking about! Nobody cares about the humans!

Obviously, I could spend all day talking about Godzilla. His movies are just that good. I think it’d be better at this point to check them out for yourself. Try the following films on for size:

Godzilla vs Mothra (1964, aka – Godzilla vs the Thing) – My favorite of the 60’s. Godzilla and a giant monster egg (Mothra’s) are washed ashore in a typhoon. Godzilla tries to eat the egg and Mothra and her babies stop him from destroying Tokyo. A bunch of people run around and scream.

Godzilla vs Hedorah (1971, aka – Godzilla vs the Smog Monster) – Godzilla is now a good guy. He defends Japan from the horrors of Hedorah, a nasty blob-like creature spawned from too much pollution. The film is intercut with weird animated segments of the Smog Monster eating people. Also features a groovy musical number performed by a group of hippies at a peace rally on the slopes of Mount Fuji (at least I think that’s what was supposed to be going on). Utterly stupid.....and stupendous.

Godzilla 2000: Millennium (2000) – Not a lot of good science in this one, but it seems to take itself pretty seriously. There are some pretty cool special effects and rubber monster battles going on here. The movie starts with Godzilla attacking the city (Tokyo, duh!), which is kind of rare, since usually you’d have to sit through at least 35 minutes of boring, badly-dubbed dialogue before you even got to see a monster tail or a shadow. Basically, in Godzilla 2000, Big G fights a constantly mutating alien that crash-landed on Earth millions of years ago, and kicks it’s ass. This film is also notable in that it was the first Japanese Godzilla movie to be released after the American version in 1998. In my opinion, this blows that movie out of the water. The Godzilla suit looks really cool in this one. Oh yeah, and he’s a bad guy again.

Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) – If you thought Godzilla was bad in 2000, he’s twice as bad in 2001! This is my recent fave. Godzilla rises once again to menace Japan, and 3 Guardian Monsters rise up to defeat him. Yeah, that’s right, it takes 3 monsters to take him down this time! Godzilla looks cool in this one too, and has scary unblinking white eyes. Lots of destruction and chaos in this one. They basically re-vamped the entire Godzilla mythos for this one. But who cares - it’s fun. And it has a long funny name. Highly recommended.

**********

That seems to be enough about Godzilla for now. Please feel free to ask any questions, and I will readily lend out any of the above movies for your viewing pleasure (for a price). The title of this post is somewhat of a lie. I could never write all there is to know about Godzilla in one article. I’ll just have to get back to this subject later.....but for now....

GO, GO GODZILLA!!

And May the Force be with you...

Old Movie Reviews

I promised last time that I'd post some movie reviews, but since I'm fundamentally a pretty lazy person, what I'm putting up here are some old reviews that I posted on Yahoo Movies over the years. I don't actually get out to the theatre very much lately and I don't rent as many DVDs as I used to, so everything is pretty outdated. Just try to keep my opinions in mind when you go out to rent something you haven't seen yet or browse the bargain bins for those last minute X-mas presents. I've tried to put a wide range of stuff in here, so there's some good ones and some bad ones too. Everything is given a letter grade, just like in school.

  Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah (2004)

"Alternate reality" Godzilla is a refreshing change

(Oct 7, 2006)
I love Godzilla. I loved this movie. I don't really care all that much that the story has nothing to do with all the other films. Godzilla looks awesome, and he has always been cool as the bad guy.......and he is WAY bad in this film!! The story is a little silly, but no more so than the Matrix trilogy, IMO. The monster fights are some of the best I've seen in a Godzilla movie. Yes, I realize that they are just men in rubber suits, but I still like the special effects style. If you want a couple of hours worth of silly monster brawling, this movie is for you. If you like it, check out 'Godzilla:Final Wars" or "Godzilla vs. Destoyorah".

Overall Grade: A


Story: B+
Acting: A-
Direction: A
Visuals: A

The Incredible Hulk (2008)

WTF?

(Oct 22, 2008)

Waaaaaaaaaaay disappointing. Even the effects and action sequences (which I was told were AWESOME) were drawn out, boring and predictable. Not one single moment in this movie made me go "wow". The Hulk is a character that is supposed to wow you. I don't see any reason why this movie was even made, other than as a summer cash grab. I felt that the 2003 version was better than this, even with that movie's slow start and weak ending. At least there was some meat in the middle of that Hulk. There was maybe 20 minutes of Hulked-out action in this version, and what little there was left me unsatisfied. I don't really care how much time they spent digitally redesigning his muscles....at least they could have made him DO more. In the other movie, he hitched a ride on a fighter jet, used a tank like a tennis racket, shot down helicopters with their own missiles, and even fought a death duel with a trio of mutant dogs...... In this one, he just throws a bunch of cars around and gets wailed on by some bigger, uglier dude. Nothing in terms of story or character development was accomplished with this film. If they were attempting to erase the mistakes they made in 2003, all they've done was make more, even worse mistakes. I guess its all about getting more Hulk toys on the shelves at Toys R Us. Way to go, Stan! Keep that money machine rollin'!



Overall Grade: C


Story: C
Acting: C
Direction: C-
Visuals: C+

Hot Rod (2007)

Don't even bother

(Dec 14, 2007)

I feel truly sorry for people who would find this funny. I really do. Even Balls of Fury (which sucked) was funnier than this. Is this the caliber of talent that comes out of Saturday Night Live nowadays?

Overall Grade: D


Story: C
Acting: D-
Direction: D
Visuals: D

Beerfest (2006)


If you like beer, you'll love this movie!!

(Mar 10, 2007)

Crude humor, naked women and gallons and gallons of beer.....What more could anyone ask for? Better than Supertroopers and Club Dread, and if you don't find something to laugh at in this movie, there is something seriously wrong with you. If you don't like beer, this movie may make a believer out of you!


Overall Grade: A-


Story: B+
Acting: B+
Direction: A
Visuals: A

Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny (2006)

Not nearly as funny as it SHOULD have been

(Mar 18, 2007)

Sure, Jack Black is a funny guy, and a great singer. Too bad he's so wrapped up in himself, and he says motherf***er way too many times for it to be funny or shocking or anything but ridiculous anymore. Kyle Gass is a wicked guitar player, and at least this movie showed that well. I have listened to Tenacious D for a few years now, and I really wish they had played some of their better tunes in the movie, because the songs that are in the movie mostly suck huge. There are some really funny parts, and some parts that came off as being way too stupid or downright offensive to be funny. Still, I laughed at it, and it was at least 50% better than Nacho Libre (which sucked big donkey balls).

Overall Grade: B


Story: B
Acting: B
Direction: B-
Visuals: B+

 

The Big Lebowski (1998)

One of the funniest movies you'll ever see!

(Nov 28, 2005)

This movie was the biggest surprise to me in many years. The acting is superb - seemingly off-the-cuff and completely natural. Jeff Bridges and John Goodman are a great pair; both deserve Oscars for their performances in this film. I'd go as far as to say that this is the best film that either will ever star in. Strangely enough, I found this movie listed under the 'Crime/Gangster'category of this site, a category that I generally avoid, but this movie is not really a 'Crime' movie at all. There is definitely some illegal activity going on in this movie (drug use, assault, kidnapping, rug-peeing) but it's not a Criminal-Glorifying film like Reservoir Dogs or The Italian Job. I am disgusted by these kinds of movies, which attempt to reconfigure the American (Hollywood)dream into 'get rich quick and break the law if you have to'. This movie isn't like that at all. The Dude just wants his rug back.... The story is a little hard to follow at times, but this is a reflection of the characters inability to fully comprehend the situations that they find themselves in. It's not like you'll be wondering who the 'mystery' villan is...you'll be laughing so hard that you won't care. I do have to point out that this movie is not for kids. Not that it's full of sex or violence (there's a bit of both), but just that the humor probably wouldn't make much sense to kids anyway. Watch it when they go to bed... Take a trip to "the Dude's" world....you'll be glad you did.

Overall Grade: A

Story: A-

Acting: A+

Direction: A

Visuals: B+

If you've read this far, congratulations! Not many people would want to listen to me ranting for quite this long...

I'll get back to movie reviews some time in the future, maybe after I've actually gotten to see see a few new ones. See you next time.

May the Force be with you...

3 Good Reasons (part 3)

My blog suffered some setbacks in the month of November, and I won't bore you with the reasons why (life - y'know?). In an effort to boost my post count, here are some new words of wisdom for you to ponder. As I said before, if you can't give 3 good reasons to do/like/believe something, then you shouldn't be doing/liking/believing that thing. Keep in mind that if you follow these instructions, you might turn out as awesome as me.....or maybe I was just born that way...


3 Good Reasons to Recycle

1 - You're saving the planet

2 - You'll be pacifying millions of left-wingers out there

3 - By recycling rubber, today's condoms could be tomorrow's erasers (make you think twice about putting the end of that pencil in your mouth, wouldn't it?)


3 Good Reasons to Drive a Station Wagon

1 - Doesn't cost as much to fuel up as a van or an SUV

2 - Excellent storage capacity and great comfort for long road trips with the kids

3 - I can refer to it as my 'party wagon'


3 Good Reasons to Go to Las Vegas


1 - 24/7 gambling!! And you can drink on the street (I guess I could do that here, but I'd have to get a trenchcoat and hang out on Main Street)

2 - It was cool enough for Elvis to write a song about - there's a reason why there's no such song as "Viva Regina"

3 - It's not Winnipeg


3 Good Reasons to Move to British Columbia


1 - Good weather with very little snow

2 - Mountains, ocean, big trees

3 - It's not Winnipeg


3 Good Reasons Why The Empire Strikes Back is the Greatest Movie Ever Made


1 - Chewbacca's amazing dialogue

2 - AT-ATs (All Terrain Armored Transport - you know, the giant metal dinosaur things....)

3 - Back in 1980, Yoda was still a Muppet, and we were all impressed


3 Good Reasons Not to Blog Every Single Day

1 - I'm just not that entertaining

2 - People are getting tired of hearing about my action figure collection

3 - I have a life, you know...


OK, that's it for today. I'm going to go now and take out the recycling, hop on the bus to work, think about booking a trip to Vegas and maybe watch the Empire Strikes Back when I get home from work (after I take a short drive in the station wagon). At least now you know I've got 3 good reasons to do all of these things....

Later this week, I'm going to do some movie reviews, talk about comics some more and maybe get some new photos up on the page. Later!



May the Force be with you...

Dad's Christmas List!

I've been thinking a lot about Christmas lately. It's just over a month away! Being a Dad, I realize that it's all about the kids and making wishes come true and all that stuff, but this blog isn't about that. Let's put aside all the expensive goodies and toys that the kids want and foucus on the real issue here - what Dad wants for X-mas! Thought I'd list it all out for you, in case you were thinking of getting me something....

(Kind of looks less like a Christmas list and more like a Price is Right Showcase.)

Ford Freestyle

Yeah, that's right. I'm a station wagon-driving dad who wants a new station wagon. Man, do I know how to dream big, or what? But this here Ford is not just any station wagon. No suh. This, my friend, is a Crossover vehicle. Supposedly it crosses over the lines between a station wagon and a sport utility vehicle, with a bit of minivan thrown in. Stylish like an SUV, roomy like a van and fuel efficient like a wagon. In reality, it's more like it crosses over the line between cheap and not so cheap. This sucker is loaded with crazy-cool features, like a V6 engine, sunroof, power windows/locks/mirrors/seats, 3rd row seating, bucket seats in the 1st and second row, DVD player for the kids, roof rack, tons of convertible cargo space, steering wheel mounted audio controls, MP3 capability, CD changer, AWD, traction control, leather seats and oh so much more!

Anyway, point is, this is the rockin'est station wagon on the market, and I want it. I don't think Ford is producing these anymore, so the Freestyle isn't technically 'on the market' anymore, but I see a bunch of used ones around here and there. We are actually in the position to consider buying a new vehicle soon (either one of these, or a van like a Montana or something), so this isn't really a 'Christmas List' type item. But I still want it.

Ibanez BTB Bass Guitar

Everyone who has seen and/or heard it agrees - the bass that I play right now is an utter piece of crap. Pickups are shot, volume and tone controls are crackly and noisy, it's plastered with cheesy old stickers that are all peeling off and there's duct tape holding certain parts of it together. It's way beyond time for a new bass. So, if I have to choose one that plays well and is in my target spending zone, it would be this one on the left.

 I don't want to bother learning to get used to a 5 or 6-string bass, so I'd stick with the traditional 4-string. This model has active pickups, neck-thru-body construction, all natural wood with a natural finish and a comfortable neck and body design with not too much weight to it. Again, it's basically an upgrade like the car would be. Pretty sweet looking instrument though, isn't it?

Puerto Vallarta

No, I don't want to own the entire resort town - but I think I could handle that -  I just want a week in the sun to get away from it all.....to become that drunk, sunburned gringo tourist that lazes around the beach sipping margaritas all day and stuffing himself with all-you-can-eat tacos at some cheesy resort. Remember the fat guy with the farmer tan in Lilo and Stitch that drops his ice cream every time a spaceship flies by? That's me, right there. Only difference is, I would drop my beer. At an all-inclusive resort, I'd just go get another one for free. I need not fear wayward spacecraft nor alien invasion of any sort.

My brother has been there a bunch of times and highly recommends it, and it looks like nice scenery with a lot of fun stuff to do. Even though I'm not really a 'beach' guy, the All-Inclusive Resort thing sounds like a relatively reasonable way to visit an exotic locale and get loaded out of my tree. Of course, I was hoping for this to be a kid-free adventure for Bobbie and I, since we never actually had any sort of honeymoon. I've never been to any sort of tropical destination before, and PV looks like a good Mexico 'starter city' for us.

Comics, Comics, & More Comics

Yes, I already own tons of comics. We all know this. Truth is, though, I don't even own a fraction now of what I did in the late 80's. Right now, I have about 900 in my personal collection. In my mid-teens, I think I was sitting somewhere around 6000. By age 20 I think I sold almost all of my collection for way less money than they were worth, because I needed to make the rent or go drinking or something. By age 28, I was down to zero. Two years ago (age 36) I decided to get into buying and selling on Ebay, and I've managed to accquire all of the comics I currently own in a relatively short amount of time, all the while selling off whatever would make me a decent profit...profit to buy more comics, of course. Some of the titles I'd like to hang on to (at least at this point) are THOR, FANTASTIC FOUR, HULK, AVENGERS and GODZILLA. I've got three-quarters of a long box of THOR right now, and I'm waiting until the movie comes out so I can cash 'em all in for as much as I can. I'm predicting that I'll be able to effectively trade my beloved THOR collection for two weeks in Puerto Vallarta....

Enough about comics. I talk enough about them in other blog entries. They really aren't an X-Mas list item either, since I'm sure I'll end up buying all the ones I want myself anyway.

Action Figures

Yeah, I obviously don't need any more of these either, but they're so freakin' cool! These pictures are of some of the ones I don't have (yet). I've got a bunch of Godzillas, and even a couple of Mechagodzillas (the robot version of Godzilla, for those of you who don't know), but I don't have the versions pictured below - 1976 Godzilla and 1976 Mechagodzilla, respectively.

I'd say I have about two dozen action figures that I actually care about, but surprisingly, I discovered that I don't even own a Darth Vader! I have a keychain version still in the package that's pretty sweet, and even the Hasbro Transformers version that changes into DV's personal TIE Fighter, but no regular old fully-(or even partially-) articulated Darth Vader. This oversight cannot be ignored. How can one claim to be any kind of action figure collector if one doesn't even own a Vader? Shame on me. And shame on you for not buying me one...

********

In all seriousness, the above list is not really intended to be any kind of suggestions for gifts for me. I am just contemplating the whole need/want dynamic of my life, and I am actually pretty content with the things I have right now. Christmas is, and always has been for kids, and even though it sounds cheesy, it's true that it's better to give than to receive....

 Except when you're a kid! It's awesome to receive! Let's just consider this post to be yet another moment of my inner kid shining through.

May the Force be with you...

ps. - All of the images in this post are taken from random web searches, and were not photographed by me - the images are property of their respective copyright holders. Please don't sue me.

Marvel Legends - Loki

In keeping with my current obsession with action figures and toys, here is the lowdown on a new figure I just got in the mail. I'm home sick from work today and I need something to write about so I don't end up laying on the couch all day watching Oprah or whatnot. Once again, the photo credit goes to ComicFigs.net , an awesome site that I browse regularly in my search for pointless things to spend my time and money on. If you aren't into comic books or action figures, then you should probably just tune in next time.

Loki

The Norse God of Mischief, God of Evil, the Prince of Lies, adopted son of Odin and brother of Thor, God of Thunder. Contender for the Marvel Universe's Most Cumbersome Headgear award (tied with Galactus). His figure comes with a cool rune-carved sword, though Loki detests physical combat and prefers to use his magic and cunning to battle his foes. The figure looks great, but I wish his cape and Horn Helmet were removeable so he'd be easier to work with in terms of photo shoots. At least they didn't make him look like he did in the 60's and 70's Thor comics, in his bright green form-fitting jumpsuit (still with outrageous horns). Loki is from the Onslaught series of Marvel Legends figurines, in the 6' scale.

He's one of the oldest recurring villains in the Marvel Universe, with a first appearance dating back to 1949, in Venus #6 (a comic I've never even heard of). Since he's an Asgardian God, he's pretty much immortal, and this makes it really easy for the writers to keep using him over and over again. He's been allied with Doctor Doom, Magneto, the Red Skull, the Kingpin and the Mandarin, and has set in motion a great deal of the wrong-doings in Marvel Comics over the past 40 years or so. Many are the evil pies that Loki has his fingers in.

Although he has the powers and stature of a God, Loki is actually the (relatively diminutive) son of Laufey, King of the Frost Giants of Jotunheim. Odin the All-Father slew Laufey and his kin eons ago, and discovered Loki hidden away after the battle. Taking pity on him, Odin decide to raise him as his own, thus making him half-brother to Thor. During childhood, Loki grew increasingly jealous of Thor, and plotted against him pretty much every chance he got. He is responsible for the Lady Sif  losing her golden hair and Thor's Hammer Mjolnir having a shorterned handle. As remarkeable as it sounds, he mated with the giantess Angerboda, who bore him three evil offspring - the Fenris Wolf, Jormungand the Midgard Serpent (a gargantuan snake that encircles the entire world), and Hela (Norse Goddess of Death). These things are pretty irrelevant in the comics, and don't make a lot of sense, but they're based on the actual Norse Mythology. In the comics, Loki is inadvertantly responsible for the formation of the Avengers - the World's Mightiest Heroes. I'm sure he regrets this. Strangely enough, he shows no regret for being father to a bunch of freaky monster-kids.

He doesn't have a magic hammer like his bro, but Loki is perhaps the most powerful sorceror out there. Like Thor, he can travel between worlds and dimensions at will. He is also superhumanly strong and invulnerable, but doesn't like to get his hands dirty. Even though he has tried (and sometimes succeeded) to subjegate and/or destroy Asgard and the Earth countless times, his fellow Asgardian Gods keep him around because he's family. That's not to say that he hasn't been punished, however. He's been imprisoned inside a tree, transformed into a powerless amnesiatic vagrant, been decapitated, had his essence scattered amongst the cosmos, and for his latest transgressions has been turned into a woman. OK, so the last one isn't really a punishment since he/she is still a powerful sorceror/sorceress, and is actually kind of hot in an evil Goth sort of way,  but hey - I don't write this stuff so give me a break. (At this point, we're still waiting for the female Loki action figure to be produced.)

So I guess that's enough about Loki. His above history and description all sounds very Epic in scale, but I'm sure that when I start taking pictures of him, he'll be reduced to riding a stuffed puppy dog and wielding a pink umbrella instead of a sword. Behold! The Norse God of Evil, in all his terrible glory!

Til next time;

May the Force be with you...

More Superhero Fun

Superhero Fun

Marvel Legends - The Collection Begins!

I once stated that this blog would be updated every day. OK, so that wasn't 100% accurate. It's been like a week since the last post, and that's pretty far off of the original estimate. Going in to this thing, I thought: "How hard can it be to jot down a bunch of pointless crap every day?" Turns out  that it's not that easy. Truth is, I feel I've let you down, and I'd like to apologize and try to make it up. Don't get me wrong - it's still going to be pointless crap, but I need to get more of it out there, because the world obviously hungers for more and more pointless crap on a daily basis. So, without further ado, here is today's installment:

A while back, I wrote an article called How to Speak to your Action Figures. As stated there, I have a pretty good selection of toys to work with when doing toy photography. Unfortunately, a lot of them are pretty kiddie-ish, and I want something cooler. I decided that I would turn to Ebay to stock up on my 'cool' figures. Although I have a lot of  Godzilla toys and a handful of Star Wars figs, I needed some superheroes. The Marvel Legends series seems to be the best quality, and is full of tons of characters that I love. Here's what I've got so far (it's a tiny collection, but it'll grow quickly if my Ebay store sales hold out for a while or Santa is good to me.):


The Mighty Thor

He was given to me as a gift by my family. This version is from the "Giant-Man" series. Thor is, without a doubt, one of the most iconic Marvel characters, and one of my personal favorites. The Norse God of Thunder, Defender of Midgard (the Earth), longtime member of the Avengers and an all-around kick-ass long haired dude. With his trusty magic hammer Mjolnir, he can fly, create mystic portals to travel between worlds and dimensions (even through time), call lightning from the sky and thoroughly smite evil wherever evil need be smitten. Sometimes travels in the guise of Donald Blake - a skinny, wimpy doctor with a bum leg who transforms back to Thor by tapping his cane on the ground. Son of Odin, the All-Father and the Earth Goddess, Gaea. Half-brother to the treacherous Loki, God of Mischief. Thor has fought everybody from the Absorbing Man to Zeus and whooped 'em all! Except...

Beta Ray Bill

This horse-faced alien was the first being to best Thor and prove worthy of wielding Mjolnir (Thor's mystic hammer - keep up, will ya?). This explains the matching outfit that Bill wears. The enchantment written on the hammer says that "Whosoever holds this hammer, if he be worthy, shall possess the power of THOR". So, while battling Thor on the surface of an asteroid in deep space (Thor #337 - classic issue!), he knocks Mjolnir out of Thor's hand. Sixty seconds later, Thor turns back into Dr Donald Blake and the hammer turns into Blake's walking stick. Beta Ray Bill picks up the stick and is given an instant Thor-over, cape and all. Turns out he's worthy, since he's defending his race, who are all asleep in Hyperspace or something. Odin transports Bill and Thor back to Asgard and they duke it out (Thor #338). Bill kicks Thor's butt again, and Odin decides to give Mjolnir back to Thor (he's apparently learned humility from the ordeal) and commisions the forging of a new hammer called Stormbreaker, which he gives to Beta Ray Bill to aid in his mission to save his people. From then on, he's pretty much a good guy and pops up repeatedly in Thor comics and even has a thing going with the goddess Sif, Thor's former squeeze (she doesn't seem to mind that he's literally got a face like a horse). Now you know. Although he has kind of a stupid name, he's another of my favorites. I got him from Ebay about a week ago. In the same shipment, I also got:

The Thing (in disguise!)

Ben Grimm, aka - the Ever-Lovin Blue-Eyed Thing. If you've seen the Fantastic Four movie or read any of the 1000+ comics featuring him, you know what he's all about. Experimental rocket-ship, cosmic rays, invulnerable orange rock-like skin, super strong, yadda, yadda... Not as strong as the Hulk, I hear, but he's been around a little longer and doesn't fly into berserker rages (at least not nearly as often). His whole shtick is based on the fact that he's real ugly but has a heart of gold and could rip your head off if he catches you doing something he doesn't like. Also noteable for making wisecracks in the middle of earth-shaking battles and shouting his favorite catch-phrase "it's Clobberin' Time!" just before he lays the smackdown on villains. Although I like this character, I wouldn't say he's one of my favorites. I bought the figure mainly because of his outfit. The trenchcoat, hat and sunglasses are removable and are loaded with comedic possibilities for toy photography. I think I'm going to try the coat on some other figures. I wonder how Godzilla would look with this on? He's from the Fantastic Four boxed set, but I got him seperately.

Anywho, this is just the beginning of my Marvel Legends collection, such as it is. Other figures I'd like to get are Spider-Man, Wolverine, Sasquatch (my favorite Marvel character), Captain America, Guardian (the Canadian answer to Captain America), Silver Surfer (w/Howard the Duck sidekick!) and the Hulk. There's also a cool Ghost Rider figure out there that I want (Series 7), but he's pretty rare and would cost me a lot. He does have a pretty sweet motorcycle though...

I don't think I'll bother buying any of them M.O.C. (mint on card for you laymen out there), since they're way more expensive and I'll just open the packages right away anyway. Loose figures are always  cheaper and easier to get. On the other hand, when you buy them new, you get additional pieces to build other figures, like the right leg of Galactus or the lower torso of Giant-Man. These spare parts can also be available seperately on Ebay too, so I'm not too worried about missing out on those.

I'm looking forward to 'working' with these figures. All of the above pictures were obtained from a site called ComicFigs.net. When I get some more figs (and batteries for my camera), I'll update again. I'm wanting some more of the vintage Star Wars 4" figures too, but alas, that is another tale...

May the Force be with you...

Hallowe'en / Comic Con Weekend

It's been almost a week since my last post. Forgive me, I'm a busy guy. This last weekend (Oct. 30 - Nov. 1) was full of a lot of fun and interesting (and expensive) stuff. There was Boo @ the Zoo on Friday, Central Canada Comic Con (C4) on Saturday afternoon, and of course Halloween on Saturday night. I snapped a lot of pictures along the way, and I've already posted a bunch in Flickr.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Boo at the Zoo, let me explain. Every year in the week leading up to Halloween, the Assiniboine Park Zoo hosts a family event featuring kiddie rides, haunted house type attractions, lots of scary/funny displays and over-priced concessions. You don't see any animals because they're all hiding in their enclosures from the noise and chaos. It's definitely not free, but my wife wouldn't tell me how much we paid for our family to get in, because she knew I'd complain about it. Anyway, Bobbie and the girls dressed up in their costumes, but I went in my civilian garb. It was a lot of fun for the kids, and I did manage to get a handful of good photos. Coolest thing was the fire juggler, and I guess the Haunted House was pretty neat too.

The next day, being a Saturday, we of course had Chloe’s swimming lesson first. She is as strong a swimmer as I’ve ever seen for her age. Her favorite thing to do is to jump in the water. Over, and over, and over again. Who can blame her? Oh – and she lost her first tooth while she was changing after her lesson. Exciting! Way to go, Chloe! The tooth fairy would also visit late that night and left a note and some money for her.

After swimming was the Comic Con. There was a lot of stuff going on there, and lots of cool stuff to look at. Hundreds of people in costumes, literally millions of comics, action figures, t-shirts and toys for sale, neat displays, tabletop gaming demos and tournaments going on, and celebrities to boot! I ran in to a lot of people that I knew, and to those of you who saw me and I didn’t say hi, I’m sorry – I was pretty distracted with all the colors and sounds all around me....

I spent most of our time there looking through the $1/comic bins. Hours – literally. I did manage to snap a far-away pic of Adam West, but I didn’t really see any other celebrities. There were huge lines to see them up close, and they charge for their autographs nowadays, so I steered clear of that area of the con for the most part.

I won’t waste time complaining about the prices of everything, but rest assured that we dropped a lot of cash there and didn’t even do one tenth of the fun things we could have done there. Still, it was a good con!

We headed home for dinner (steak & shrimp stir-fry that I made – and it was awesome!) and got ready for the main event – Halloween! Our pumpkins were lit and ready, the girls all dressed and ready and things pretty much going as planned. Daphne had to wear her backup orange and black Witch costume, since the zipper got broken on her lamb costume at Boo @ the Zoo the night before. She wasn’t very happy about it, either.

The girls went out for Halloween and I stayed home to give out candy to all of 6 or 7 kids that came to our house. At the end of the night, all that was left was to root through the mountain of candy on the floor.

A successful Halloween weekend had come and gone – I got lots of candy, and I didn’t even have to dress up at all!



That’s it for now. Later.

May the Force be with you...

3 Good Reasons (Part 2)

The first installment went rather well, so I thought I'd follow up with the sequel. Any posts after this upcoming Halloween/Comic Con weekend will likely be full of lots of pictures and updates, so I'll get this out there before it leaves my brain entirely. Here are more reasons to see the world the way I do, and why you're living your life just plain wrong if you don't.



3 Good Reasons to Take a Bath Instead of a Shower

1 - You can't make fart bubbles in the shower. If you could, I'd be astounded.
2 - The shower drowns out the sound of your amazing singing voice.
3 - You can't lie down in the shower. I guess you could, but that's just weird.


3 Good Reasons to Own a Cell Phone (***sarcasm alert***)

1 - In an emergency, they can provide a vital link to assistance.
2 - You can reach your customers/clients/business contacts anytime, anywhere, thus making the process of doing business much smoother.
3 - You can call your friend while you're on the bus on the way to their house and ask them what kind of beer you should pick up at the vendor. Or you can call them from the vendor and ask them if they prefer Moosehead or Brewhouse, even though you only have enough in your pocket to get a 12 of Brewhouse. Make sure to try and persuade them toward the cheaper beer while you've got them on the phone, and make sure you're right at the counter and there's at least 2 people waiting in line behind you. If your friend wants Moosehead, he'll have to kick in, and come down and meet you. Also, if you're friend has to look around his house for extra cash, it's OK - you can wait on the phone - so can the vendor guy and all the other people behind you in line. (After all, you have a cell phone - you're important). Or you could wait until after you've bought your beer and you're standing outside your friend's house at 2 am on a Monday night. I'm sure that his wife wouldn't mind you stopping by for a few beers....



3 Good Reasons Not to Own a Cell Phone

1 - People can reach you at any time, and therefore, you have no excuse not to talk to them.
2 - One monthly payment will, on average, cost the same as a two-four of beer or a comparable amount of the recreational substance of your choice.
3 - Brain Cancer. OK, so I don't know if this is true or not, but my poor brain has suffered enough abuse (see #2, above).



3 Good Reasons Why Being a Rock Star is Better than Being a Porn Star

1 - It's 100% legal to perform a 'solo' in public.
2 - People everywhere recognize you from the neck up.
3 - The public pays millions a year to see Aerosmith or the Rolling Stones, but no one wants to watch a 65 year old porn star doing his thing.



3 Good Reasons to Live in Canada

1 - Free Universal Healthcare.
2 - People don't sue each other all the time or legally carry guns in public.
3 - Every Canadian kid can know the sensation of having his/her tongue stuck to a metal pole in the winter. You just can't get that in Florida.



3 Good Reasons to Stop Writing and Go to Bed

1 - It's 3 am.
2 - The cat wants something.
3 - I've run out of things to write about.


'Nuff said!


May the Force be with you...

3 Good Reasons

Opinions are like........well, you know the rest. I figure that if you can’t give 3 good reasons as to why you do, like, think or believe something, why are you doing/liking/thinking/believing that thing? Here’s a few things I can give 3 reasons for....in most cases I can give more than 3, but then people tend to get sick of listening.



3 Good Reasons Why Pearl Jam is the Greatest Band in the World

1- Their tour is Environmentally Friendly and Carbon Neutral (it's true-look it up). They are also socially active, politically left-wing and intelligent about their music and their careers.

2- Eddie Vedder is the most gifted male singer alive today. And he writes awesome lyrics. If I ever grow up, I want to be just like him.

3- They just are. Deal with it.


3 Good Reasons Why Cats Are Better Than Dogs
1- Cats don't kill or severely injure children. Dogs do.

2- Cats bury their droppings. Some dogs are inclined to eat it.

3- Dog owners cut off ("dock") parts of their dogs' bodies for esthetic purposes. Cats are perfect and need no alterations.


3 Good Reasons Why Liv Tyler Ruined Lord Of The Rings

1- Her character never appeared in the books. She did not rescue Frodo from the Black Riders at the river. She was not in Rivendell during the forging of the Fellowship. She did not convince Elrond to reforge Aragorn's sword. She did not marry Aragorn at the end of Return of the King. Arwen Evenstar appeared briefly in an Appendix after the main text of Return of the King and was not featured in the actual novels at all. I realize that a lot of things were altered in the movie adaptation, but her expanded role is one of the few that bothers me. This move by the directors seems like a very ‘Hollywood Boardroom’ type of decision. Yes, it did bring more of the female perspective (and thus more female attention) to an otherwise male dominated story, but LOTR is a classic piece of literature, and great literature will be a reflection of its’ time. It was written 60+ years ago when we were all at war and not quite so politically correct. Edit all you like, but adding major characters to another’s story shows a lack of respect for the original. Sorry Peter Jackson, the movies are otherwise great, but she didn’t belong.

2- Her scenes were overly long and boring, did absolutely nothing to contribute to the story and were horribly acted (at least by her). Looked more like a Whitesnake (or is it Aerosmith?) video than a classic fantasy story.

3- Her fake accent is annoying, and she doesn't look one bit like an elf.


3 Good Reasons Why Star Wars is Better Than Star Trek

1- Nobody ever wore color-coordinated spandex in Star Wars.

2- Nobody ever sang Showtunes in Star Wars. (You hear me, Data fans?)

3- Darth Vader could snap Khan's neck like a twig.


3 Good Reasons Not to Watch Television

1- Moronic Reality Shows (ie: all reality shows. Yes - all.)

2- It`s 80% recycled, repetitive, plagarized or just plain pointless. The remaining 20% is advertising.

3- Avatar:The Last Airbender isn`t on TV anymore.


3 Good Reasons Why I Hate Thanksgiving

1- Turkey

2- Pumpkin Pie

3- Football



I kind of enjoy this format. I think I’ll use it again in the future. I’ve ranted enough for now, and I apologize for going off about Liv Tyler for so long. My brother thinks I have a problem with that.



Later

May the Force be with you...

More Photos....

I don't have a lot to say at the moment, so I thought I'd post some more photos. I've been very busy lately and this is all I've got time for. I promise that the next post will be a little more exciting.

May the Force be with you...

The Newest Bailer (Part II)

Couldn't be happier with the new cat! He's super-loveable, and doesn't mind being followed around and harassed by little girls all day. Chloe is totally in love with him....Daphne shies away a little bit still (I think the cat freaks her out when he runs and jumps all over the place), but she's definitely fascinated by this little black purr-box. Last night, we had trouble getting her to bed because she wanted to know where the cat was all night.

After much discussion, we picked a name for him. His name is Pepper. Although I actually suggested this one, I had other names in mind that I liked better. Some of the ones we tossed around were: Sokka or Momo (after the Avatar characters), Panther (Chloe's idea), Eddie (Eddie Van Bailer! Also, my Dad's name is Ed) and Lando (from Star Wars of course). I think Pepper is a fitting name, even though I think it's a little wussy, and it's easy for Daphne to say: 'Peppa! Peppa!'  A wussy name works since he is a big wuss anyway. Loves to have his belly rubbed and be petted all day.

Just like any other cat, he's incredibly curious, but he hasn't really been into too much trouble - at least not yet. He's a bit of a scaredy-cat at this point - I guess he's just getting comfortable with his surroundings. I'm sure I'll catch him doing something I don't like soon. At least he doesn't jump all over the counters and shelves yet. First time he messes with my Godzilla collection, he's going to get an earful. Of course, cat hair will be an issue, but so far so good.

Welcome to the family, Pepper!

May the Force be with you...