The Legends Return!

First off, I hope everyone is having (or has had) a great Holiday season! Mine was very good - got to spend lots of time with family and friends and of course my traditional X-Mas bottle of  Drambuie .... (mmm...sweet golden liquor...). Warmest wishes to everyone who helped make this a great winter holiday (you'll note I'm being non-denominational here), May the Force be with you, one and all..

And now back to the expected nerdy weirdness...

I've accquired a few new action figures lately, as well as having parted with a few old favorites. Power Man is gone, as well as Kingpin, both casualties of the recent Central Canada Comic Con this last October. (You've read all about that here already, right?) Theirs was an acceptable loss, since each went for a good price, and I brought home this awesome replacement:

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Marvel Legends

Elektra / Ronin

Two-Pack

I've never really followed the stories of these two characters, and I don't really know much about them, but I'll share what little info I've got on them. Of course, I could link you to their respective Wikipedia pages or their entries on Marvel.com, but nothing is more fun than reading a review by someone who doesn't know jack, am I right?



- Elektra is a former love interest of Daredevil. Where their relationship stands at this point, I don't know or care.

- Elektra first appeared in Daredevil #168, was killed by Bullseye in Daredevil #181. Since then, I'm sure that Marvel's writers and artists have resurrected/re-killed/re-resurrected her a bunch of times. (Comics do that a lot, eh?)

- Ronin is actually a bunch of characters who all apparently look the same and kill people with swords & nunchuks. This version is alias Clint Barton, better known as Hawkeye (the archer, longtime Avenger). Although I haven't been current with Marvel books lately, I've read that Ronin was at one time a deaf girl and also one of Moon Knight's multiple personalities.

Like I said, I'm not really a fan of these characters, but I couldn't pass up this deal. I wanted the Elektra figure so I could have another female in my collection. She's way better than the mostly non-poseable Wonder Woman that I have, and comes with all the cool stuff you see in the package above. I like that she can hold a sword as well as her trademark sais, but why they gave her an extra head with a different hairstyle is beyond me. Ronin is a pretty cool-looking figure too, complete with a katana and a pair of nunchuks (which I can't seem to remove from his left hand without breaking his arm). He's pretty much your standard ninja, and I definitely needed to get one of those.

These two were purchased new in the package, which is rare for a cheap-ass like me. As you've already seen in Everyday Heroes, there's a boatload of comedic potential with these two, and I'm very happy with them. 

So, as a note to Power Man and the Kingpin:

So long, suckas!!

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Marvel Legends

Ghost Rider

(Series 7)

This guy was on my list of 'Holy Grail' action figures - the most desireable and hardest to find characters; a list that also includes The Juggernaut (Ser. 6), Tigra, Savage She-Hulk, Vindicator, Brown Suit Wolverine and The Silver Surfer (see below). There have been a few Ghost Rider figures in the ML line, but this is the one I wanted most. I mean, check out those flames!!

The sculpt of this figure is amazing if you ask me... I love the detail of the skull and neck, and the realistic-looking leather riding outfit. His motorcycle looks pretty good and stands well on the shelf. You can remove the front shield portion of the bike so it looks more like a bad-ass chopper. I bought this figure mint in the package from a seller on Ebay, and though I considered keeping it this way to retain its value, I think I lasted a whole 5 minutes before I ripped the box open. Ghost Rider is just way too cool to be stuck in the package.

Here's some facts about the character:

-Real name: Johnny Blaze - motorcycle stuntman. First appeared in Marvel Spotlight #5 (1972).

-Made a deal with the Devil to save the life of his adopted father who was dying from cancer. He ended up dying in a motorcycle accident immediately after he was declared cancer-free, and Johnny was still indebted to Satan. (Just goes to show ya....)

-Transforms to the Ghost Rider when evil is present.

-Fights for the innocent and punishes the wicked.

- Was once a member of the ill-fated (and rapidly cancelled) super-team known as The Champions, which also included the Black Widow, Iceman, the Angel and Hercules.

-Was (horribly) portrayed in the (half-assed) 2007 film by Nicolas Cage. I've just read that there is a sequel scheduled for release in 2012, for reasons that are beyond my understanding...

- Has often worked with Marvel heavyweights like Spider-Man and the Thing (Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One, respectively).

There's lots more history and stories about him, but basically, he's a flaming skeleton on a motorcycle - and that's about all you really need to know. 

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Marvel Legends

Silver Surfer

(Series 5)

w/Howard the Duck

What these two guys are doing together, I don't know. One is the cosmically-powered sentinel of the spaceways and a former herald of Galactus; the other is a three foot anthropomorphic waterfowl. As far as I can recall, the Silver Surfer and Howard never appeared together. The toymakers decided to package them together for some reason, but the Silver Surfer packaged without Howard the Duck (and otherwise exactly the same) is actually worth a lot more. I really only wanted SS anyway, but when I ordered him loose, he still came with the Duck.

- Silver Surfer first appeared in Fantastic Four #48 (1966) and has been going strong in Marvel Comics ever since, having had at least 3 ongoing self-titled series. Often teams up with the Fantastic Four and the Avengers, and was once a member of the Defenders along with Namor the Sub-Mariner, the Hulk and Dr. Strange.

- Howard the Duck first appeared in Adventure into Fear #19 (1973), alongside the Man-Thing. Howard himself is not at all fearsome in any way, but he can sometimes be dreadfully un-funny.

- The Silver Surfer has battled Thor, the Hulk, Spider-Man and many other Marvel characters, but is for the most part a good guy - just misunderstood.

- Howard the Duck has battled no one in particular. I don't think I've ever seen him throw a punch. Most of his comics are concerned with political and societal disapproval, and there's not a lot of action.

- The Silver Surfer travels the universe on his Cosmic Surfboard.

- Howard the Duck lives in Cleaveland.

As you can see, these two are as different as night and day, and have no business being together. I guess that they really wanted to make a Howard the Duck Marvel Legends figure and couldn't really sell him on his own. I think he would have been better suited as a sidekick for the Man-Thing, since they've at least been in comics together. Either that, or they should've packaged him with a figure of Beverly Switzer, his longtime human female companion. His actual figure is a bit disappointing too - his feet aren't very stable and he falls over all the time. His beak is stuck wide open, and he doesn't come with his trademark cigar (but then again, you don't see a lot of toys with tobacco-related accessories). Actually, since he's in the proper scale, Howard the Duck looks kind of cool next to the other Marvel Legends figures that I have, and I have to admit that he does look pretty funny riding Ghost Rider's bike.

The Silver Surfer rocks. He comes with a cool stand and his feet are actually magnetized so he sticks to the metal on his board. He's well sculpted and painted, but I wish he had poseable fingers like some of the later figures, such as Spider-Man, Power Man and Moon Knight. Still, he's pretty awesome.

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I'm sure you'll see all of these figures in on this blog in the near future. I've also just recently got a 6" Superman figure as well, but since he's just a lowly DC character and not from the Marvel Legends line, he's not worthy of being in this blog entry. (Calm down DC fans, I'm only kidding...)

Happy New Year, and

May the Force be with you...

Stumblin' Through the Flix

If you were hoping for some more zany action figure comic strips this time around, sorry to disappoint you. I do have a life, you know... As much as I love doing stuff like that, it is somewhat time-consuming, and time is a valuable commodity for me, especially during this holiday season. I don't want my blog to become a barren wasteland (though it might already be so intellectually), so I've got to write something. Movie reviews are always a good filler...

My wife just recently set us up with Netflix to play through our Nintendo Wii, and while I don't want to endorse either of these companies too heavily since they're not paying me anything (yet), I have to say that I'm more than happy with it so far. I don't see a lot of newer stuff on there - certainly not as much as you'd see in the local video store - but while browsing, I've stumbled upon a whole boatload of great movies and TV shows that I probably wouldn't see otherwise, unless I was specifically looking for them, which I wouldn't if I had to pay minimum $3 a pop to see them on DVD.

Here are a few of the movies I've seen on Netflix lately. I've also watched a lot of television shows (mostly cartoons), but talking about those would fill another blog post entitrely...


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SEVEN SAMURAI

A lot of people have obviously reviewed this film before me - this is considered by many to be one of the greatest films ever made. Not my #1 favorite film ever, but it definitely ranks up there among my Top Ten. I just saw it for the first time recently and I'm scolding myself for waiting so long to see it. In case you didn't know, Seven Samurai is also known for being the inspiration for The Magnificent Seven, which is considered to be one of the best Western films of all time. (Unfortunately however, Mag. Seven in turn was the inspiration for Battle Beyond the Stars, arguably one of the worst Science Fiction movies ever made....).

Released way back in 1954, it's a classic storyline, and a great period piece. Seven Samurai also happens to have been produced by Toho Studios, the company that also brought us Gojira (better known to North American audiences as Godzilla, King of the Monsters) that very same year. What I noticed right away was that several of the actors involved in S.S. also appear in the latter as well, and keep re-appearing in many more (awesome) Godzilla films.

I realize that the above picture actually only shows six Samurai, but trust me - there are seven, even though the first guy gets killed relatively early on. The film tells the story of the poor peasants of a small village in feudal Japan who go to the city to seek out the assistance of Samurai to protect them from constant harassment by marauding bandits. Along the way, we meet a whole slew of interesting characters; far too many to mention here. Let's just say its a great 'ensemble cast' all working towards a common goal, a technique later emulated in countless other films to this very day, such as The Dirty Dozen, Magnificent Seven, Armageddon, Oceans Eleven (and Twelve and Thirteen), A Bug's Life, Star Wars, etc, etc....

I can't say enough about this movie. I am by no means a professional movie reviewer, but I think any film critic would agree that Seven Samurai remains to this day one of the greatest and certainly most influential films ever made. Do yourself a favor; turn off that stupid vampire sequel and watch a real  movie.

A+

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MEGASHARK vs GIANT OCTOPUS

OK, so this one is definitely not one of the greatest film ever made. This would perhaps be somewhere near the other end of the spectrum. That being said, I am a giant monster (or Kaiju) movie lover as well as a fan of campy films, so this is right up my alley.

As an intentionally 'so bad its funny' movie, it totally succeeds. The actors appear to be taking it all so seriously, even when spewing out the ridiculous, pseudo-scientific dialogue. The effects are intentionally horrible (the shark eating the Golden Gate Bridge shot is about as realistic-looking as it gets), and the plot makes little to no sense. A lot of shots are recycled over and over in the movie and the sets look like they were all filmed in the same room, just re-arranged. Megashark vs Giant Octopus also stars Deborah "Debbie" Gibson in the lead role. I was never a fan of her music, but I think she did pretty well for this movie. It must be hard to prove yourself as an actor in a film where your acting is supposed to be terrible. Oh, and Lorenzo Lamas. Let's not forget him...

On the flip side, as a giant monster film....... it's waaaayyyy disappointing. There's far too few scenes of the two title creatures, and what there is is hard to make out and mostly looks like two ugly puppets flopping around in the dark, or the lowest of low-grade CGI work... Sure, old Kaiju movies like Godzilla and Gamera look fake too, but at least we get to see a lot more of the monsters. I was expecting just a tad more in this department from MSvsGO.

Megashark vs Giant Octopus was the first movie we watched when we got Netflix. I was just that excited to see it. Overall, I guess it's sort of funny, but not 'monstery' enough for my liking.

C+

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KUNG FU HUSTLE

Now this - this is funny. It's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon meets Looney Tunes. There's a lot of truly amazing martial arts going on here, backed up by some really cool effects, extreme acting and crazy jokes. The action is completely over the top and super-fun. And did I mention that it's funny? ...It's like almost "s**t your pants" funny.

The storyline is pretty far-fetched but cool, all about Kung Fu masters and gangsters in 1940's China. Written and directed by Stephen Chow, this is sort of a follow-up to the hugely successful Shaolin Soccer, which is also "s**t your pants" funny. Personally, I preferred this one, mostly because of the Landlady (pictured above). She's got to be the best charater in this film by far. Since I highly recommend this movie and don't want to give anything away to those who haven't seen it, let's just say that she steals the show. Look at her picture again - you don't f**k with that lady...

The movie loses a bit of steam around the end, but that's only because you were so blown away with awesomeness earlier in the film that the awesome ending loses impact.

I love this movie! If only there were more like it!! It's no Seven Samurai, but it's the second-best movie I've seen on Netflix so far. BTW, Kung Fu Hustle is subtitled, so if you don't like to read while you watch movies or don't like foreign movies at all, then too bad - it's your loss.

Dirty pants aside, it deserves a solid A

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So that's all I got for ya today. Take care and Happy Holidays!!

...and as always,

May the Force be with you...

Nunchuks and Cactus Juice

Been a while... seems like every other post I'm saying that. I've got a lot on my plate right now, and a lot of stuff in the works for this blog, but without further ado, here is this week's installment of my web comic. Hope that you like it. Any questions can be directed to me via email. Any complaints will be directed to my Spam folder.

Enjoy!!

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(click on the pages to view larger)

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May the Force be with you...

Trashed!

So I promised you some new action figure stuff this week, and here it is. I had the day off from work today, so I spent it alone at home with my camera, my laptop and my superheroes.... and this is how all that ended up. It's a bit wordy, but I was having fun with it. If you don't like it, at least the entire day wasn't wasted - I still got all of the laundry and the dishes done and all of the garbage taken out....so there.

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( click on pages to view larger )

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In case you were wondering, I shoot everything on a Pentax k200d, with a Tamron 90mm f2.5 manual focus lens. It's all then edited with Adobe Photoshop 7 and Comic Life. (I really need to upgrade my Photoshop, BTW) Focus is a little loose on some shots, but I actually think it enhances the mood. It's all shot hand-held at ISO 1600 in Aperture Priority (Av) Mode. Although I make it sound complicated, it's really a matter of tweaking a button, framing the shot and releasing the shutter when the focus indicator beeps.... 

So what if you don't know much about photography, and you weren't wondering... Well in that case, just consider this to be free lesson #2 in my series on action figure photography. You can view free lesson #1 here. I like to think of my blog as being both entertaining and educational. Don't say I never do anything for you.

Even though this blog rarely ever has anything to do with Star Wars; until we meet again,

May the Force be with you...

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Jerk

So I mentioned before that I had just recently gotten a program called Comic Life that makes comics from photos yadda, yadda... Here's something I whipped up using photos from about a year ago or so....again, I apologize for recycling the same photos and jokes over and over...like I said last time, new stuff is on the way.

All of the photos (and comics) are from me - by me - property of me, Andy Bailer, using my toys, that I own, my camera and software that I paid for....I'm not trying to make money off the backs of Marvel Comics, Disney, Microsoft, Lucasfilm, DC Comics, Nickelodeon, Hasbro, DOW Chemical, Coca-Cola or any other megacorp that actually owns the rights to the likenesses of the action figures and/or characters in my photos and/or comics.

The depictions and portrayals of said character or characters expressed in this blog in no way represent the actual actions or opinions of that character or characters as intended by their parent corporation(s).
 That is to say... Marvel might flip out and sue me if I try to ruin the reputation of, say...Spider-Man....who just so happens to be the focus of my 2nd ever comic via Comic Life.

Hope you like it! This is what I think your friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man might do with his free time - when he and the other heroes are not fighting crime. If you ever wonder what happens to the Avengers on their days off, this is the comic for you. This is:

(click on the image to see it somewhat larger)

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If you like my photos and/or comics, feel free to link to them and pass them around. Just make sure you mention my name (Andy Bailer) and remember that I will be expecting a gigantic cheque in the mail if they become an overnight success. When I hit the Bigtime, I'll remember y'all - don't worry.

May the Force be with you...