Real Steel
Metro
4-inch scale
By: Jakks Pacific
$7.99+ Retail

What the heck? Wave two of Real Steel figures? When did that happen?

Oh well, let’s take a look at one of my favorite bots from the flick, the almighty Metro!

Every Friday we're going to hop into our toy time machine and take a look back at a classic older toy. We already review a lot of older toys on the site, but starting today, Friday will be the home of one guaranteed classic each week. This week, we're hopping back to 1983 with the title character of his own comic and toy line... Crystar!


This is not a complete Crystar, but those are nigh on impossible to get these days without sacrificing your first born. Crystar was a little line by Remco that only lasted for a brief time. All of the figures can typically still be found, but for whatever reason, Crystar himself is harder to come by. A complete Crystar would come with a blue translucent sword, a translucent blue shield and a blue prism crystal. He also had a helmet that was red and you guessed it, translucent blue.


He's seen here with wizard Ogeode's axe/staff. It's the only other weapon I have that's blue and translucent. A lot of the weapons were interchangable in this manner because they were made of the same materials.


I absolutely loved this line. I'm a sucker for translucent figures and this one really takes the cake. There wasn't anything else like this out in 1983 and in fact, there haven't been many toys like this since! It seems unlikely that Crystar will ever make a proper return to the toy aisle, but the Working Class Villains crew are putting together their own fantasy line inspiried by Crystar. I can't wait until that project is active.


As a kid, my Crystar broke pretty early on. A fall from high altitudes caused his hollow chest to burst into a million pieces. It was like he was made of glass! I also think it didn't help that my brother and I used to put him into the freezer and make him cold. I'm not sure what that was about.

However he was one of the few characters we managed to "save". With a hefty amount of Scotch tape and using part of his prism crystal, we rebuilt his chest and Crystar lived on to battle Moltar! Of course he had to be pretty gingerly played with in battle... But it was worth it. I don't recall the battle that finally saw his death, but I'm certain it was epic.


Crystar remains one of my favorite figures (and toy lines) of those crazy days gone by. I think we must have lost his helmet right out of the package as I never recall him wearing it much. So aside from lacking his sword, this guy feels mostly "complete" to me. Crystar didn't need any fancy gimmicks to get by, he just looked so cool... Plus he had articulated knees! That made him more articulated than about 75% of the figures in the early 80s!


Although the line was being clearanced out by 1984, you could still find the remains of Cyrstar figures for quite some time at K-Mart locations. Much like the heyday of K-Mart and Remco itself, Crystar is a distant memory for many. That's why he makes a perfect first entry into Flashback Friday!

Welcome to a new column here at Infinite Hollywood, where we all get to put on our best detective hats and figure out details about a mystery toy line. If you have a toy that you'd like to see identified or to learn more details about it, send a photo (or photos) along to NewtonGimmick AT Rocketmail.com and we'll add it to the case files.


Submitted for your approval, our first mystery. This toy line was popular in the mid-to-late 1990s and featured dozens of characters. It was sold in packs of three, and featured weapons. I can't recall specifically where I bought any of these, but I'm thinking in places like K-Mart and the Dollar Store.


Please ignore the mysterious white substance on his chest, that's for a whole different branch of investigation. I remember collecting these guys for a year or so and trading them with friends. They were like M.U.S.C.L.E. or Monster in My Pocket, except they featured articulation.


The entire collection of figures were pocket sized. Most of the figures were in this dark black and purple color scheme, but I believe there may have been army men and such as well. I can find no markings stamped on the toy, other than CHINA, oddly spelled backwards and the number 5.


I had a dozen or so of these figures, but I do not recall what the name of the toy line was... Nor do I recall who made them. I believe the individual characters may have even had unique names! I can only find this one at present time, so any clues you may have to what this toy line was, will be greatly appreciated. Respond below or email me. Can you help me solve the mystery?! Let's get to sleuthing!

World War Robot Portable
Armstrong 0G - Shadow Guard
6 Inch Scale
By: ThreeA Toys
$40 (price varies on secondary market)
There are a lot of toy companies out there and a lot of product being made for both the retail and collector's markets. Sometimes there is a crossover and often, such as the case with today's review, the difference between the two couldn't be more widely divergent.

ThreeA Toys is the brainchild of Ashley Wood and it's the home for his multitude of concepts in vinyl form. Unlike most vinyl collectibles out there, Wood's creations focus more on articulation and playability, than just looks. Not that these toys don't look incredible, because they do. Wood's style is impeccable, with tons of washes, details and effects that transform pieces of vinyl into works of art.


The Armstrong is a new type of robot, which has appeared in a few forms. As is usual with these types of releases, there are tons of different versions, called colorways, that offer up various "clans" of sorts for the robots. Sometimes these figures are exclusive to ThreeA's Bambaland store and sometimes they are released to retailers. The Shadow Guard was an exclusive to the 3A website.

Huge news out of the video game world as a sequel to WWF WrestleFest, a remake of sorts, titled WWE WrestleFest, will hit all the Apple mobile devices as a downloadable game this week. I haven't been more excited for a wrestling game since WCW vs nWo Revenge came out in the late 90's. I am super stoked to check out the new iPhone WWE WrestleFest game! It's supposed to be a reimagining of sorts, for the classic game.


The original game was made by Technos Japan and is considered by many (myself included) to be one of the best mainstream wrestling games EVER produced and easily one of the best arcade games of it's time and all-time. WWF WrestleFest was a follow-up to WWF Superstars, which was also made by Technos. One of the big gimmicks of both games were the tag team tournaments. The original game had the nearly unstoppable team of the Mega Bucks (Andre the Giant and Ted Dibiase) in which Andre was basically invincible. WrestleFest featured the Legion of Doom, who although they were tough, were more balanced in that the both of them were super tough, but not invincible.

S.H. MonsterArts
Godzilla (Heisei)
6 Inch Scale
By: Bandai
$60 (price varies)
I could talk for days about how Godzilla influenced my life and interests, but I think you can just look through this site for more information on that. Suffice to say, I'm a HUGE Godzilla fan and a lover of then entire giant monster movie genre. Big G Money himself is the catalyst for all of that, so when Bandai unleashed the MonsterArts figures onto the world, I had to have them.

Bandai promised all kinds of articulation, excellent high quality sculpting and a (somewhat) affordable price. It's just about everything a hardcore kaiju junkie like myself could ask for. To top things off, Bandai was starting with what I consider to be arguably the best "basic" Godzilla design on the them all. The modern Heisei version. It's a perfect starting point for a new line of monster toys.


We've definitely come a long way from the old Imperial Godzilla, but does this Godzilla toy really prove to be the best action figure EVER of the big guy? Is this finally a fitting figure form for the King of the Monsters? Read on to find out, because the answer might surprise you!