We've been trying to keep the Halloween spirit alive all month this year with our 31 Days of Halloween, but we're not the only ones celebrating October's spookiest night. Plenty of my pals out there in the pop culture and toy world are putting out content as well. So today we're checking in with a special


Halloween Edition of The Best of What's Around!

Philip Reed has been taking a look at all sorts of Halloween related goodness this week and you'll definitely want to check in there for some ghastly features on this final night of All Hallow's Eve. Battle Grip: Halloween Week

Over at Articulated Discussion they're celebrating 7 Nights of Halloween and they've been working hard to make figures celebrate the holiday. Articulated Discussion: 7 Nights of Halloween

OAFE is one of the oldest toy review websites out there so they get a pass for dusting off some old reviews this season. It's like someone giving you old candy, but it still tastes good. They got some spiffy new content mixed in too. OAFE.Net Halloween

Ever wondered where the nonsense about Scare Glow being Skeletor's Ghost came from? Well it started as a Halloween post over at X-E and took on a life of it's own in a Halloween Meme kinda deal. Check it out Evil Ghost of Skeletor as well as their 2009 Halloween celebration. Because honestly, it's not Halloween without X-E's Halloween Countdown and the rest of us are just posers to it's awesomeness.

I haven't carved a Jack-O-Lantern in years but I've been wanting to for some time. I finally got my girlfriend on board to the idea as this is the first Halloween in a long time where we're actually going to be home. So tonight we carved some pumpkins for tomorrow's big Halloween celebration.


The pictures turned out a tad blurry, but suffice to say they're both really cool. She did the one with the scarecrow deal and I did the slightly more traditional Jack-O-Lantern. Pretty cool as I always liked the creepy Jack-O-Lantern heads.


Hopefully we get a pretty good turnout of kids and some cool costumes.

Every year kids head out looking for great Halloween grabs on October 31st. You can get just about any kind of candy on Halloween. I always liked getting Smarties and other sweet and sour candies. I enjoyed 3 Musketeers as well, but chocolate was rarely my favorite. However without fail each year you'd come across a house that was giving away candy from the dark ages. As I've gotten older I can appreciate a nice Bit-O-Honey or something of similar ilk, but I'll never forget the dreaded... Orange and Black candy!


Does this crap even have a name? Seriously I think it's the only candy that's sold in bulk under no name. I think it might be called "Crap you can buy in mass quantities and kids won't eat" or some such. Year after year this would always be the last candy I ate. Usually I wouldn't even eat it. I'd know how much real candy I had left by the ratio of orange and black that showed up in the bottom of my bag. Eventually the last Tootsie Roll would be gone and I'd be left with this crap.

Part of me is charmed that this stuff is still around. Part of me feels sorry for the poor kids who end up getting it. Might as well get a bag full of dirt.

What's your least favorite Halloween treat?

Today I'm taking a look at something a little different. It's a Halloween Mr. Potato Head known as "Trick or Tater". I had seen this guy on a few different places and was hoping to buy one. I haven't seen him in any stores but tonight I stumbled across him at Target and figured I might as well get him while I still could.


I'm going to do a full review but it'll be more brief than normal because of the nature of the toy. I haven't messed around with Mr. Potato Head in probably 20 years, so let's see how he shapes up after all this time.

Packaging:
The package is about as basic as you can get. When I was a kid Mr. Potato Head came in a box, but it seems like he's gotten a smaller package over time. This one is pretty good with a card backer and the whole front encased in a bubble.


I was able to get the package open in a way that allowed me to even repackage it back up if I wanted. So that's a plus. It's not really a collector friendly package but it was nice that I didn't have to tear it up to get him out.


The back (as well as the front) give you a couple of ideas for costumes as well as lists all his parts. I don't think Mr. Potato Head's arms used to come out of the sockets, but I could be wrong about that. I'm fairly certain the one I had as a kid had them made in there though.

Articulation:
He's a Mr. Potato Head... I mean really.


He can move his arms with a swivel and his feet can pivot a bit. All his eyes, ears, etc also can swivel and pop out.

Sculpt:
If you don't know what Mr. Potato Head looks like, you're one sad dude. This is basically your standard Potato Head with special Halloween accessories. The sculpt is essentially timeless. He's been virtually the same for decades now.


The evil Count Potato Famine.
His butt does open and can be used to store all his extra pieces. Personally I think this is a cool "candy dispenser" during Halloween. Just stick some treats in there and open him up to take them out.


The ears and teeth have a fair amount of detail. He has some sort of pointy goblin ears and there's even a worm in one. CREEPY! He also has a little candy bag deal that he can carry but it's only got one side. It'd been better if it was a real mini pumpkin.


If you remove all the extras he's a pretty normal Potato Head. So you can use him all year round if you want.

Accessories:
Compared to the normal Potato Head he's pretty under equipped. He comes with his hat, shoes, one set of glow in the dark eyes, his candy bowl, his ears and his teeth. He also has the ghost sheet, which is the coolest part. Unfortunately the ghost sheet only has eye and hat holes. It'd been cool if I could plug a nose or teeth in as well.

Value:
He was $6.99 at Target. Not a bad value at all. You can pick one up at Entertainment Earth for $7.49.



Score Recap:
Packaging - 6
Sculpting - 7
Articulation - 5
Accessories - 7
Value - 8
Overall - 7 out of 10

So this is just an average Potato Head. He's pretty cool for the ghost costume, but there isn't a lot else you can do with him. Sure, you can mess with him a bit and if you have other Potato Head parts the combinations are endless. With what you're given here though you can only do a few things.


Potatonormal Activity.
The glow in the dark eyes work pretty good and this would be a lot of fun for kids as a decent little gift during the season. Mr. Potato Head is a classic and Hasbro has managed to keep him more fresh and relevant in recent years. I wonder why not a Mr. Pumpkin Head though? Then it could fight my Lance Hendrikson figure.

Life has a funny way of throwing stuff at you in a curveball. I've had a trying couple of weeks, not super bad or anything but mentally taxing ones. As a result I was headed out to Toys R Us today to pick up a few 6th Doctor figures for my fellow collectors out there (Don't say I never did nothing for ya) and I was fully prepared to spend a few bucks on something for myself. Mostly just to "feel better" and I had pretty much determined what I was going to buy in my head.


Then I walked into TRU and right next to the Doctor Who figures was the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I sort of felt like Ray Stantz at the end of the original Ghostbusters. Here was something from my childhood that I loved and it totally caught me off guard. I've wrote at some length before here at Infinite Hollywood about Childhood Memories and over at Poe Ghostal's about how when I was really young my brother and I used to have "Monster Wrestling" where our two favorite gladiators of the time, Wampa and Stay Puft, would battle it out.

When my parents got divorced a decade or so ago I had to give up most of my childhood toys as I moved away. They no longer were going to keep my junk at there separate houses and I had to essentially watch as tons of my toys were sold off or thrown away. I did get to go in and have my own personal version of Schindler's List where I saved a certain few figures and despite being one of the oldest and most beat up toys there, I saved the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. I just loved that toy as a kid, even if it was basically a dog chew toy. So when I saw this figure in TRU today, he called out to me.


EVEN THOUGH, way back on August 10th when Poe Ghostal reviewed this figure I said I wouldn't get it because it wasn't articulated enough. Despite all that was working against this figure, it had a lot going for it too and as a result I'm the proud owner of a brand new Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and it's glorious.

Packaging:
The package here is pretty simple, akin to the Bandai large scale Godzilla figures. I also have no idea what you call this package. It's not a clamshell, it's not a bubble card, it's not a box. Since I lack the vast knowledge of terminology I'm going to call it a Puft-a-Back. I even cheated a bit and tried to find out what Poe Ghostal called this figure back when he reviewed it and guess what... HIS DIDN'T COME PACKAGED LIKE THIS! So it's a Puft-a-Back. It's official, everyone call this that from now on.


Apparently this wasn't something that Diamond had originally intended for stores. Since they decided to get it into stores they've added this full package and it's nice. Like I said, it's a little plain but the back of the box literally has every other Ghostbusters product from Diamond on it. They did a nice job here cross-selling. You might also notice that the word "bank" is absent from the package. It does say it in a few places but it's pretty carefully hidden. This is a lot more toy than bank.

I really like the bio on the back. Not just because it mentions a lot of stuff specific to Stay Puft and has the text from the Ghostbusters commercial, but it specifically makes reference to Stay Puft becoming a good guy and helping the Ghostbusters. Something he did indeed do during the Real Ghostbusters cartoon.


The Marshmallow Puft Man has three simple twist ties holding him in. My cat Roscoe loves to play with these things and since Puft Daddy is so big, the twist ties are large enough to give my kitty without fear of him thinking it's cat sized spaghetti and pulling a Garfield.

Articulation:
So technically this is a "bank". However if TAO from Articulated Discussion doesn't include this on his weekly action figure roundup I'm going to seek him out and do bad things to him. Why? Because this IS an action figure. He has ONE full point of articulation and despite what I said back on 8.10.09 that's OKAY!


Stay Puft has a cut neck, that techically is removeable so he can do his "bank" action. By action I mean nothing, he's hollow. At first I was certain that Puft needed articulated arms. I think if I did a little heating with a blowdryer I could probably crack the arms loose and move them, but it's a moot point... WHY?


I own the Kenner Stay Puft and his arms are articulated. Do you know what pose they've been in for 20 years? The same damned pose they're in now. Swivel arms do nothing on the Puft man. Even NECA's slightly larger Puft man has swivel arms that do NOTHING because the sculpt just doesn't allow for articulation to be of any use. In fact I'd say this figure is BETTER than those other figures because of the lack of articulation in the arms. This Stay Puft has his arms out in the front as opposed to stupidly waving at the sides.

Sculpt:
For a while I thought the NECA gigantic Stay Puft was the end all and be all of Marshmallow Puft Men. Not enough to pay the 7 bajillion dollars he goes for on Ebay, but enough to call him the real deal. Oddly enough I passed on that NECA one because when I saw him in stores way back when, he didn't feel "right". I can officially confirm to you this one feels more than right.


Two banks not in need of a bail-out.
For starters, he's gigantic. When Poe reviewed him, he included some scale shots but I just didn't get it. This guy stands just a hair under 12 inches. That's nearly a full foot of Stay Puft freshness! I think that was one of the things that blew me away about this figure. I thought he was 9 maybe 10 inches and paltry. He's really quite big. He's not to scale with the Mattel Ghostbusters, but he's more to scale with the Mattel GBs than the old Kenner Stay Puft was to the Kenner GBs... So if that makes sense, GET HIM!


The sculpt is really the best part though. Unlike the NECA version that honestly looked nothing like Stay Puft, this guy is smooth and crisp all over. He looks just like the KENNER version but all grown up. If you had the Kenner Stay Puft as a kid, you need this one. Mattel is supposedly making one, but do we really trust them to do him right? They can't repaint Egon's body white and call him Stay Puft.


Even if Mattel makes the most awesome Stay Puft of all time, this one will still be worth it. He just looks that damned good, even if he ends up as a kid brother to the 10 foot tall one I hope Mattel is planning. His girth, his proportions, everything just seems right. The more I look at this one and the NECA one, the more I realize that NECA one was a big giant turd.


The paint here is pretty basic but it's nicely done. He's got a fair amount of blue wash to give him some shadowy depth. I do think mine has a tad bit of an issue with the wash around the eye brows but only when I really focus in on it does it look slightly uneven. The rest of the paint work is crisp (though to be fair there isn't a lot to paint) and the sculpt is very basic but beautiful in it's simplicity.

Still not everything is perfect. The sculpt does have a slot in the back to put in coins. This is technically a bank. That's the nature of the beast. It doesn't look terrible though all things considered.

Accessories:
Stay Puft doesn't come with anything unless you count twist ties for my cat, but he does give me that warm fuzzy feeling inside that I haven't gotten from an action figure purchase in YEARS and that's certainly worth more than any accessory would be.

If you're looking for a good accessory to this guy though, buy Mattel's Ray Stantz figure that I reviewed earlier this week.

Additional Notes:
One of the things I just love about this figure is an intangible element. See, when I was a kid, my Kenner Stay Puft felt pretty huge in my hands. Not like "tall as me" huge, but like he was a really big figure. As I grew up and got older, he's really not very big. The NECA figure felt too big, it didn't remind me of the old Kenner figure at all. This one, it's grown to the same proportions I have. So now my hands fit around this figure the same way they did around the Kenner figure when my hands were half the size they are now. I'm not sure if that makes any sense to a lot of you, but if you've ever felt like the toys you had as a kid are now too small, then you know the feeling. Well in this case it's like they've just enlarged one of my favorite childhood toys to my current proportions. I know Diamond Select didn't tailor this figure to me, but they might have well had and God bless em' for it.

Value:
I bought this guy at Toys R Us for $19.99! That's not the cheapest thing out there on the market but in today's market it's not a terrible value either. Remember that Ray cost me nearly $30 with shipping. This guy is a lot cheaper in that regard. Even if he doesn't have a lot of articulation, accessories or paint aps he does what he does very well. Plus you can use him to save up for when Mattel rapes you for the next Buster.


I ain't afraid of no bank!
I really want to give Toys R Us a lot of credit. This store used to be complete garbage and now they've got a great selection of toys for kids, an entire section for collectors where I'm finding DOCTOR WHO and formerly online exclusives like this and the Back to the Future Delorean. I can honestly say that had I not seen this in person at TRU, I would have never bought it in a million years. Now that I've bought it, I love it.

Score Recap:
Packaging - 6
Sculpting - 8
Articulation - 5
Accessories - My Love and Admiration
Value - 8
Overall - 9 out of 10

Assuming you have no attachment to the Kenner Stay Puft or Stay Puft at all, then this guy is probably a 7 out of 10. When Poe reviewed this guy he said that he could only give the figure three stars (or Ravens as it were) but that he liked him a lot more than that. Here at Infinite Hollywood I've been known to tilt the scale if the figure is better than the sum of it's parts. In this instance this is a toy I've went on record saying I wouldn't buy and didn't like, only to be absolutely blown away by it in person. This is a toy that gives me one of those Chris Matthews' thrills down my leg, so I'm bumping him up. He didn't score a 9 in any of the categories but I'm giving him a 9 overall. This guy is nearly perfect in my mind, even if he's nowhere near my general criteria for perfection.


Marshmallow Awesomeness.
Finally I want to add that my Toys R Us only got a few of these in and I snagged the last one. So if you're on the lookout for him you might be diligent. I assume you can find the ones online at some locations still as well, but be careful some folks are jacking the price up. If I'd paid $30 or more for him I'd dropped the score dramatically as even childhood enthusiasm can be beaten into old man crankery with inflation. Also be sure to check back later for more of the 31 Days of Halloween.

PS - Mattel this does not give you permission to release a even larger Stay Puft with little to no articulation and claim it as superior. This one works for a very key few reasons, you've promised us bigger and better and you'll need to deliver that to wow me.

The wrestling industry is used to shakeups, but few are bigger than Hulk Hogan coming to TNA Wrestling. This has been a long time coming for TNA and it's something I've been calling for quite a while. TNA has finally gotten the deal together and Hulk is signed. Expect Ric Flair and others to come soon as well.

You can read my insane rambling thoughts over at TNAWrestlingNews.com.

When it comes to taking awesome toy photos, there are few better than TCM Hitchhiker. I could spend all day lining up the perfect shot, messing around in photoshop and it'd still look like dog poop next to TCM's weakest efforts. He's just got an incredible knack for making toys look good. All month long he's been highlighting awesome horror toys in celebration of Halloween and he's allowed me to show off a few of my favorites for the 31 Days of Halloween celebration here at Infinite Hollywood.


We start with Melvin Junko AKA the Toxic Avenger. This guy is not normally someone you'd consider a Halloween favorite, but for the past few years DirecTV has ran this movie along with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes like 100,000 times during the Halloween season. I guess they got a good deal from Troma. Oddly enough it seems like they aren't running it this year. The original Toxic Avenger is very much a horror movie though, even if it's a kinda crappy one. I'd be upset with myself if I didn't mention you should watch Toxic Avenger IV if you're into these sorts of things... It's really cool cheese. The making of documentary will make you love the movie even more.


Is there a creature better that embodies science fiction than the Metaluna Mutant from This Island Earth? The Metaluna Mutant is easily one of the coolest looking alien designs of all time.


I think I mentioned in my Sideshow Creature from the Black Lagoon review how I used to have this old Remco figure but he was missing a foot. I kept him for years and years. He's never looked better than when photographed by TCM Hitchhiker.


I still have this old Remco Dracula figure. As usual, TCM takes the figure and makes it into a piece of artwork. This could no doubt be a trading card or on a cereal box or something.


I love the beautiful contemplative nature of this photo. A lot of credit has to go to a great sculpt, an awesome design and of course wonderful photography.


Check out his awesome Svengoolie! That's just all kinds of cool. I really need to watch Svengoolie more. Maybe I can spotlight him before Halloween comes. We'll see if that comes to pass or not.


Finally we have Godzilla, Gojira himself. This is an impressive photo because it recreates some imagery from the classic film but does so with toys. That's really where TCM Hitchhiker shines the most. He can make simple toys look so lifelike. Most people get lost in the antics of the later G-Money movies that they forget the original film is a horror movie that actually struck a lot of terror into it's original audience.

So there you have it, just a peek into some of my favorites of TCM Hitchhiker's special Halloween photos. If you want to see more, check out His Flickr Photostream where he has dozens of cool Halloween pictures and albums full of pictures that are so awesome they'll melt your face.

What could be more Halloween themed than the Ghostbusters? Well probably plenty of things, but Mattel's new Ghostbusters line does manage to squeeze into the Halloween theme so we're featuring it here today on our 31 Days of Halloween. This is the first official figure in the line, although they released a special "slimed Egon" back at San Diego Comic Con earlier this year. I was broke back at SDCC so this is my first time handling a Mattel Ghostbuster figure.


As a kid I had a grand total of three Ghostbuster figures. My favorite GB Winston, Ray, whom I am reviewing today and the Stay Puft Marshmallow man. Those old Ghostbuster toys were made by Kenner and based off the awesome "REAL" Ghostbusters cartoon, whereas these new toys are made by Mattel and are based off of the feature films.

Packaging:
As I said above this is my first time handling one of these figures so the package is still new and exciting to me. It's got a very unique design with the Stay Puft Man in the background, the two terror dogs in the front and the Ghostbuster logo up and at an angle. I think it's a pretty beautiful package and way better than any of the packages Mattel currently uses for it's mass retail lines. My only complaint would be that the Ghostbusters' logo is a bit obscured, but it's a minor complaint at best.


The back of the package features a nice little bio and it's done in the form of a messy Ghostbusters' desk. It's got some pictures from the movie and it really shows that Mattel has some care for this license. They've put some nice work into the package here, both front and back.


Inside Ray is trapped by a couple of those clear rubber bands. I believe these things are a bit too tight and have warped Ray's legs some. The "Logo Ghost" also has a band on him so be sure to cut it as well. As always scissors is the best route for getting rid of these pesky things. Ray is jammed so far back into the package that there is absolutely NO point in the rubber bands being there.


Ultimately the rubber bands and the dynamic pose inside are negatives to me. Ray ended up with a couple of minor warping issues as a result of both. I don't understand why toy companies are so insistent on doing both. Apparently the SDCC Egon had a resealable package, but for no plausible reason Mattel changed the package on the standard figures to be a regular bubble card... So don't take him out if you want to keep him MOC.

Articulation:
Stantz has plenty of articulation but it's not without a couple of faults. Ray ends up with a bunch of pin/post style ball joints in all the key areas along with some surprising additions. For starters he has DCUC style hips which may or may not make you happy. I like these style of hips, so I'm not going to complain about that.


The ball jointed head gives you a surprising amount of range and the biggest shocker to me was the ball jointed hands. I really didn't expect that and they work quite well. I'm not sure why they have the addition of rocker ankles, but it's pretty cool. The elbows don't work quite as well as I'd like and you may have noticed that no one has posted any pictures of Ray touching his left elbow with his right hand to simulate him firing a blast from the proton wand, because he can't. A bit of a letdown in that regard.


The other minor buzzkill is that the DCUC style hips and the sculpting on his leg prevents them from fully functioning. He can lift his leg only so far. Surprisingly the side with the gloves on his belt don't impede the articulation as much as the side with the other gizmos.

Sculpt:
This is a nice sculpt no doubt about it. If you're interested in collecting this line, you'd better come to love it too because the foursome will all have the same sculpt. I don't care for that, I'd like a little bit of pudge on Ray Stantz. I realize he wasn't that chubby in the original Ghostbuster movies, but a new torso for Ray would have went a long way towards making these guys seem more individual.


Evolution of a Ghostbuster.
There seems to be some debate on his head. For starters his neck looks a bit large and fat. His head seems a tad small for the body. Apparently he looks a bit silly next to Egon, but I thought Egon's head was a little too big from the pictures. I'd do a comparison for you, but I never landed an Egon because he costs close to $60 on Ebay and it's just not worth it to me to get a slimed variant.


The sculpt is all pretty solid though with lots of little details throughout. If we're going to see this body reused ad nauseam, at least it's a good one. I was impressed with the little zippers just above the boots that show how the body suit works. Although I have no idea if that's accurate at all as it doesn't seem logical, but it's a nice touch.


The head and face definitely looks like Dan Aykroyd. It's probably not a perfect likeness, but it's definitely a good one. I have no real complaints with it. If anything it's the neck that's throwing the head sculpt off.


Mattel probably could have gotten away with sculpting a lot less of the little details and some of the extra hoses and doodads, but they included them. They should be applauded for making a really nice body sculpt here. I'm sure hardcore Ghostbuster fans may have some grievances but I doubt the common fan will have many issues.


The proton pack is obviously the biggest highlight and it's been done really well. Again, I'm sure if you've studied the proton pack day and night you may not think it's 100% screen accurate, but for regular folks it's perfect. I do wish it was removable though.


The proton wand is rubbery and warped all to hell thanks to the dynamic packaging. The hose that's connected to the wand is made out of a semi-rigid plastic but seems pliable enough. I have heard reports of it snapping though and the docking station on the proton pack is screen accurate but a bit convoluted in terms of location so it increases the chances of it breaking somewhat. Since the proton pack and wand are connected to the figure I don't consider them accessories.


I'm pretty curious what Mattel will do with the Real Ghostbuster figures. Those are the ones I'm looking forward to the most, but who knows if they'll ever actually produce figures from it.

Accessories:
Egon came with an awesome translucent Slimer figure. Ray gets the slightly less cool "Logo Ghost" which is exactly what his name implies. He's the ghost from the Ghostbusters logo. It's a decent figure and it glows in the dark.




One kinda neat element about the logo ghost is that you can take him apart and remove the "NO" portion. This makes this figure a pretty cool accessory as he's not the most traditional looking ghost you can imagine. I do tend to think he'd looked better casted in all white instead of glow in the dark, but I bet Mattel will toss that in with a later figure.


The ghost also comes with a clear stand to simulate the idea that he's flying. He doesn't have any articulation but this stand certainly helps with the playability. I'm sure most people will just use him as a logo, but I like his actual ghost potential.



Additional Notes:
The Ghostbusters line looks like it could be a limited line for Mattel, but so far they've managed to create some pretty decent figures. Ray is still available at MattyCollector.com and assuming they don't screw anything up you should be able to get the figure for a bit longer.

Value:
The figure is listed at $20 but with shipping he works out to be about $30. Depending on how you look at it, this guy is either a $20 or $30 figure. Either way he's not worth either of those pricetags, but he's good enough that I'll continue buying the Busters for the foreseeable future. I'm not sure why Mattel didn't just make a Ghostbusters 4 pack right out the gate but I suppose they think staggering the releases is somehow better.


Bustin' makes me feel good!
I can definitely recommend them if you're already buying MOTUC or something else monthly from Mattel anyway. That softens the pricetag and makes him about $25 depending on how much MOTUC crap you're suckered into buying. If you're a hardcore Ghostbuster fan, then obviously you need this as well.

Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 8
Articulation - 7
Accessories - Logo Ghost
Value - 7
Overall - 8 out of 10

I quite like this Ray. I think the likeness is better than Egon, who to me looks too much like Dustin Hoffman. I'll be picking all of these guys up and I can't wait to get my hands on Winston. As a kid I always had to borrow my friend's Peter (Something you shouldn't say aloud) and I've never had a complete Ghostbusters team. Now is finally my chance.


Invisible woman sleeping in your bed? Probably.
Also be sure to check back later for more of the 31 Days of Halloween.