A slightly belated set of condolences to the family and fans of Tetsuo Narikawa. Tetsuo was the star of the famous Ultraman-like show from the 1970's, Spectreman. Spectreman actually had it's entire series redubbed and aired on TBS here in America. The show was quite popular here in the states, although the fan base never quite reached the size of Ultraman.

The Spectreman show also became quite popular in Mexico and Spanish speaking countries. Tetsuo Narikawa not only starred as the title character, Joji Gamou, but he also appeared in several other Sentai style shows, including Ultraman Leo and Masked Rider.

Tetsuo Narikawa was the spokesman for Panasonic in Japan for many years and more recently worked very heavily in the martial arts community, even founding a tournament. He is wildly respected in Japan, not only for his screen work, but for his karate skills. Tetsuo Narikawa was only 65 years old. While Tetsuo may have left this Earth, his legacy as the immortal Spectreman will live on forever.

Sorry for the lack of updates this weekend at Infinite Hollywood, but it's been hectic here around HQ. I'm thinking of taking on a couple of additional writers, if anyone is interested in writing about toys, movies, video games, comics or pop culture in general, feel free to drop me a line. Not sure if we'll expand a bunch or at all, but it's something I'm considering. Meanwhile...


I stumbled across this cool play that's taking place "down under". It's called Robot versus World and it's a bit of a play off of the Watchmen but with a lot more tongue in robotic cheek. Here's the synopsis from their official webtsite:

Someone is killing off all the famous TV and film robots and the original Optimus Prime, the classic Astroboy and an 80s Dalek must form an unlikely alliance to try and solve the mystery, live on stage.

Some of it definitely looks hokey, but it also looks like a fun live show. There's a surprising amount of nerd content popping up in theatre/comedy shows as of late. And you have to give it up for our friends down under, the Aussies are in fact some of the biggest fans of sci-fi and general geek stuff around the world. If you're down there and are able to check out the show, I suggest it. Plus I total want that Optimus Prime costume. Meanwhile, here's a clip...

When it comes to the "nerd" lifestyle one of the first things that comes to mind is lack of physical fitness. If you collect toys, play video games or read comic books, you must look like "Comic Book Guy" from the Simpsons. However, not everyone who has an interest in these genres is lacking in the physical fitness area. Regular exercise and a healthy diet can produce people with peak physical conditioning. Just supplementing your daily nutrition carefully can make a big difference as well.

If you're not quite out of shape, but don't want to fall into the stereotype, you should check out the weight loss clinic at Lindora. They can help you get the nutrition, health, diet and exercise to turn you from geek to chic. Check out their website for more information.

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Remember just over a week ago when I pointed out that cool Rocksteady Mask and said it was an interesting time to be a Ninja Turtle fan? Perhaps I should change my words from interesting to "crummy". To be fair, I just bought a brand new TMNT shirt at Walmart of all places, showing that TMNT merchandise has probably penetrated the market more than ever before with it's retro program.


Sadly though, the world of Ninja Turtle toys is not so lucky. Back in October Playmates announced that they had secured the license for TMNT again and were going to produce exclusive Ninja Turtle toys for Toys R Us until the new movie and cartoon hit from Nickelodeon. They even announced a re-release of the Movie Star Turtles.

Things were even starting to look up with the 2nd Series of the TMNT 25th Anniversary products arriving on some online locations. Sadly, today news is trickling in that Playmates is putting a hiatus on Ninja Turtles as well as Star Trek (Big shocker there) indefinitely for 2010 with no real news on when toys may be made again. Whether this means that TRU will continue to stock the older figures for the forseeable future is unknown.


Unfortunately that also means that the Mirage style TMNT turtles, which first were previewed here all the way back in 2008 (FIRST LOOK AT MIRAGE TMNT) aren't coming either. That's a bit of a bummer, because while they weren't NECA figures by any means, they looked to be some of the best Turtle product that Playmates had made in a long time.


While I understand the business end of it, since TMNT has no real merchandise tie-in like a TV show and the movie is at least a year or more away, it's a crappy way to end the 25th Anniversary of the Turtles. Playmates failed to deliver no less than FIVE announced lines in the past two years for TMNT without ever so much as releasing a figure. Even their retro figures, which should have been a shoe-in for easy sales were marred with horrible case packouts and slow distribution.

Playmates has had a rough year, with total bombs in their Star Trek and Terminator lines, but TMNT is the one area that they probably could have succeeded with if they'd wisely produced certain products. Not making Turtles Forever toys is a massive misstep, not re-releasing the Movie Star Turtles is money missed and even not releasing their Comic Style Turtles after NECA has so dropped the ball is another mistake. All three of those lines could have made Playmates money and kept the TMNT alive and vibrant.

For Turtles fans, now all we can do is wait and hope that Nickelodeon does the TMNT right and that with whatever new energy they bring to the franchise, so too comes great products and toys.

Bingo is one of the most beloved games around the world. Online Bingo is an exciting new way to play the game from the comfort of your own home. Stay at home Moms, Grandparents or even someone just looking to spend some free time and win some cash and prizes can check out Paddy Power Bingo and play online bingo! Paddy Power Bingo is an Irish bingo site that's trusted by millions around the world and it wins them over with it's light hearted approach and charm.

All the information at Paddy Power Bingo is safe and secure. What's even better about playing bingo there is that you can enjoy yourself without having to worry about any of the issues that other sites have had. Bingo is all about fun and Paddy Power Bingo brings it in a big way. My friends Grandparents love Bingo, but not as much as my friend's Mom. If you know someone who loves Bingo and wants a good place to play online, you can tell them to check out Paddy Power Bingo or try it out for yourself! Playing Bingo has never been easier now that you can play it online and potentially win big while having fun. It's modern technology at it's funniest!

So why hesitate? Check out their website for more information today and start letting the luck of the Irish shine on you, have fun, be safe and play BINGO!

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Yesterday we took a look at Sean Connery as James Bond, and despite my best efforts to make a case for him in the courts of people's opinion apparently, he's still not liked. Not that I care if people agree with the reviews or not, but I think he's a decent $10 figure. But some people don't understand that a Picaso and a coloring book can both be good, in their own right and don't have to be directly compared to one another.


Since we took a look at Connery yesterday, I figured it only right to take a look at Roger Moore today. Moore is perhaps even more famous than Connery for playing Bond and generally when it comes to Bond fans you are either a Moore fan or a Connery fan. Both men have played James Bond in seven films, making them tied in total number. Although Connery's last Bond film wasn't an official EON Films production, which has led to some folks to discount it.


Personally I prefer Connery's Bond, but when it comes to their action figure counterparts, I'm almost leaning more towards Roger Moore here. This figure is currently the rarest of the Bond toys from this line, with a hefty asking price of Over $300 on Amazon, which I can tell you now he's not worth. But for the $10 I paid for him? Well that's another story altogether.

Packaging:
Much like the previous figure of Bond that was based off of the Goldfinger feature film, this is based off of one of Roger Moore's biggest hits, The Spy Who Loved Me. This is the film that most famously introduced Jaws. As a package this one looks a bit more modern than the Goldfinger package, but follows the same formula to a slightly less exciting final product.


The front is still adorn with various movie pictures as well as some poster artwork. This definitely feels more like a toy package than the other and the bright mixture of colors really pays homage to the posters of the film from that era.


The back runs down the plot, it explains some of the stuff about the actors and the characters and once again shows off some highlight stills. It doesn't do quite as well of a job explaining the plot through the photos as the other Goldfinger package did, but it's still a nice package and would be best suited for collectors.



Sculpt:
Mego folks really should be these toys target audience, but as I said last time, Mego collectors apparently dislike these guys. I don't think I'll ever be able to get my head around that, but maybe there really isn't a logic involved. People like what they like and that's really all there is to it.


This really looks like Roger Moore to me. I think the face sculpt is much stronger than the sculpt of Sean Connery. This is definitely James Bond. It's a real travesty that this figure is only available in his "skiing" outfit from the film. There's a famous scene in the movie where Bond drops out of plane on skis via parachute. That's what this figure is recreating.


The ski outfit is pretty faithfully reproduced from the screen, but it's probably not super accurate if you get down to the gritty details. There's something about the yellow jumpsuit and head sculpt that screams Six Million Dollar Man to me. Even though Steve Austin wore red, I get the same vibe from this figure.


The parachute is really well done and although I haven't tried to use it, I would venture a guess that it would actually work to some degree. I've never been one to use these sorts of things, but it looks cool. The figure is a bit too rare for me to go throw him off the roof.


As I said with the previous figure, it's really the head sculpt that's the sell here and I think this one is quite good. It's certainly better than anything Mego ever put out in terms of head sculpts and since it's a similar market, I think that pretty much says all it should. I do wonder if these head sculpts would work on a Lion Rock style body.


Scale wise, he's still a bit of a misfit as he's too small for Megos and too big for pretty much anything else.

Articulation:
I fully expected this figure to have the exact same body as Sean Connery's James Bond, but much to my surprise he does not. The body is slightly different with different arms. Connery's Bond had a watch on his right hand, but Moore's does not.


The articulation as I said yesterday is pretty weak by today's standards, but not bad at all by 1997 standards. Of course the great Roger Moore deserves more respect than me pulling down his pantsuit, but what are you going to do? Someone had to get naked for one of these reviews.


The butt shot however, is totally unnecessary.

Accessories:
James Bond gets more accessories than anyone else in the series. For starters he has the parachute and backpack to fit it in. This is a really nice cloth product. It's not lost on me. Although I would have loved some skis or something too.


He also gets a black version of his Walther pistol, which still looks off to me, as well as a stand similar to the one that came with Connery Bond. However the stand does have a different decal on it, reflecting the movie on which the figure is based.



Value:
I think this guy is definitely worth the $10 I paid for him. If you're a hardcore Roger Moore or Bond fan, I think you could pay up to $20, but definitely no more than that. I wish he was a more general figure instead of being so scene specific. The orange boots and black gloves definitely take away from his overall use.


Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 8
Articulation - 7
Accessories - Walther Pistol, Stand, Parachute, Backpack
Value - 7
Overall - 8 out of 10


The Bonds are some of my favorites from this series. The Roger Moore Bond is one of the nicest sculpts in the line, but he's not the best. The best is yet to come! Check back in for more over the next six days and please feel free to leave a comment. Who's the best Bond?

So by now you've probably heard that Avatar has become the highest grossing box office film of all time. In just a matter of weeks, Avatar has raked in more cash than any other film in the history of the genre. That's a scary thought, isn't it? What's even scarier to me is that the overall consensus of the film seems to be "ho-hum" and that it's lots of great effects with a average plot. Some people even say it's basically Ferngully.


I personally haven't seen the movie and have no real desire to. Everyone keeps telling me "You gotta go see Avatar" but then when I ask them why, they just tell me it's got good special effects. I wrote months ago that the CGI looked cartoony to me, but I'm sure it looks better on the big screen. I just have no desire. I've never been one to go see movies based on their special effects.

What bothers me most is that this film is being touted as the movie that knocked off Titanic and will soon also probably hold the domestic box office records as well. There's one slight problem with that, in my view. Titanic came out in 1997 and movie tickets were like $7. Now it's at least $12 in most places to see a regular showing of Avatar, but the film is making 90% of it's money on IMAX and 3D showings which can range up to $25 a ticket.

So if you factor in inflation, Avatar isn't anywhere near the top. Not that I think Titanic's throne needs to be defended, but I was always okay with Titanic being the #1 film. It was a sappy movie sure, but it had good FX, great actors, a solid love story and at least some basis on a truly compelling human interest tragedy. Now the #1 movie of all time is Tall Smurfs. If the world blows up tomorrow, I don't want the human race going down with Tall Smurfs as it's biggest box office film.

No sir, I don't like it.

Do you remember Geocities? Yahoo shut down the popular Geocities program earlier this year. It's the latest in a long line of great first time website building sites that have went the way of the Dodo bird. AOL no longer houses it's Hometown and it seems that if you're just starting to get into web design there aren't any good free options left. I remember I setup my first website on Tripod, years ago. Now it seems that those days are all but gone... Or are they?

A new service called HPage.com has sprouted up to fill the void of all those previous sites that are gone. You can build a free website today with little to no experience at all.

I was asked to advertise the site and decided to give it a spin for myself to see what it would take. I went into this as I would have years ago, a total beginner. I was surprised at how professional a layout I could have in just minutes. Literally within an instant HPage will guide you through a painless and easy setup process and allow you to make a home page easily. Even if you have no HTML experience. There are tons of design choices. In fact, one of the things I loved about the service on my short trial was that it was easy as pie to set up the site and make it appear as though it was a special customization that I had worked hard on. Just check out this screen shot below of my sample HPage site that I whipped up in a couple of minutes.



It's just that easy. And what's even better is that your website gets a nice dedicated URL and isn't some long diatribe of backslash, colon, slash this, slash that like so many beginner programs are. Oh and did I mention that it's absolutely free?! All that appears on your website is a tiny advertisement. It's a great program for beginners looking to try their hand at website building or seasoned vets looking for a free alternative, so if you're thinking about dabbling in the web, check them out and build a free website today!

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

I don't know about you, but I am terrible with my sunglasses. I just bought some glasses to help me see better and I got to thinking about how I have to be careful with them because of my reputation for breaking my sunglasses. What I really need are some stylish and durable sunglasses at a good price. Like the ZZ Top song goes, I love me some cheap sunglasses. That's why ModeSunglass.com is a great place for people like me. They sell designer style sunglasses at a fraction of the price. What makes them even better is that they have tons of wholesale sunglasses at affordable prices for not only consumers but vendors as well.

If you're tired of spending way too much on sunglasses just to look cool, only to find out that you've broke them days later now you can worry no more. These sunglasses are top quality, look great and cost a fraction of the price of those designer sunglasses. Just check out their website for more information and find that special pair that fits you. With summer just around the corner, now is the time to order.


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Welcome to Six Days of 007! I don't know if anyone else remembers the James Bond marathons that so many stations used to run back in the day, but I used to love them. I believe it was TBS that usually had them, but eventually Spike ended up with them. I'm guessing with the proliferation of DVDs, those types of marathons are rare. Regardless, those old specials inspired me to take a look at James Bond and spend a week with the MI6 agent.

You might think that much like when I had Japanese Monster Week, that James Bond is a favorite of mine. To be quite honest I'm not a big Bond fan. In fact outside of the two recent movies with Daniel Craig I can't tell you the last time I actually sat down and watched a Bond movie all the way through. My appreciation of Bond comes more from those TBS marathons where I'd catch 20 minutes here, 15 minutes there, etc.


There have been a fair amount of Bond toys through the years, but not nearly as many as you might think. In recent years Sideshow have done all the Bonds but before them a much smaller, much less known company called "Exclusive Premiere" made a variety of James Bond toys. The company made these figures around 1997-1998 and information on them is quite scarce. Just Google Exclusive Premiere Bond and chances are you'll get 100,000 results and few if any will be about toys.

I remember finding these figures a few years ago on Ebay and thinking even then what a mystery they were. Nobody knows anything about these guys. There's no website for them. A travesty if I ever saw one. So over the next few days, Infinite Hollywood will become the new official home for these Bond misfits. What better place to start than Sean Connery himself!

Packaging:
There's really two famous Bonds. Connery and Roger Moore. Likewise, the Connery and Moore figures are the rarest of these toys. Each figure is based off a particular movie, in this instance it's Goldfinger. A quintessential Bond flick if there ever was one.


The package is really nice. These figures have a bad wrap in the only community they're really known in (The Mego Community) and I'll dissect that in a bit, but it's hard even for the biggest critic to complain about this package. The artwork is sharp, the package is nice and there's some great movie stills on the front.


The back is even more impressive. Not only did they fit in a ton of text about the film, the actors and concept, but they also have all the key elements from the film on it as well. Look at those pictures, the gold girl, Oddjob, the car, you can practically figure out the whole plot of the movie just by those few pictures. Really bang up job if I do say so myself.

Sculpt:
As I said before, there is next to no information about these figures on the internet. You might think that maybe this was a small line, but there were well over a dozen figures. Yet no one knows anything about them. Except the Mego community. As a recent Mego-convert I did notice that these guys are occasionally mentioned in Mego circles... Surprisingly with a lot of disdain!


At 7 inches tall, they're actually quite a bit smaller than Megos. I had to whip out the old measuring tape to make sure, because if you do find these figures listed anywhere they are said to be anywhere from 5 inches to 9 inches. I can confirm that they are officially 7 inches tall. These fit in almost better with 6 inch scale than they do 8 inch. I can't figure out if that's why Mego collectors don't like them or not. The few mentions I heard about these from Megoheads was all negative, which is quite surprising as the likenesses here is way better than Mego's best efforts.


Connery by no means is perfect and there is a tad of an animated stylization to him, but it's a fairly crisp sculpt overall. The paint work is more than accurate with really well painted hair and facial features. With toys like this, the key thing is the head sculpt and there's no denying that this is Connery's sly Bond. In fact if you look at one of the shots on the cover of the package, the two look nearly identical.

Sideshow did this Bond a few years ago and putting the two against each other I'd say that the flaws with this sculpt are less damning than the flaws with that sculpt. The Sideshow sculpt is probably better overall, but it's margin of error is greater in my view in terms of capturing Connery's likeness.


The costume, which I was led to believe would be ill fitting and out of scale is actually quite good. Bond's coat is made out of a pleather material which is an odd choice, but works well. As always these smaller scale proportions aren't perfect but even 1:6 scale clothes suffer from this sometimes. This is easily up to par with most Megos, so again I'm not sure what the complaints were about.

The body underneath isn't cheap. While it's certainly not as durable as a lot of bodies in the Mego scale, it's a heck of a lot more sturdy than others. This isn't a CTVT style body. It's considerably better.

Articulation:
I wasn't entirely sure what to expect on the articulation side of things, but I find that these guys aren't terribly articulated. When you factor in that this Sean Connery Bond came out in 1997, the articulation is pretty astounding. Articulation wasn't very good on many figures back then. Of course there were exceptions to that rule.


Bond has pin/post style ball joints in the shoulders and hips, giving his arms and legs a ton of range. The arm joints could be a bit tighter and it's a bit hard to get him to keep wild poses because of the clothes. His elbows and knees are hinged, as well as a cut waist and neck.


Certainly this figure isn't going to win any awards for articulation, but there are figures coming out today with less articulation than this. Right, Mattel? For 1997, this was pretty good articulation and it's only missing two points from making it just as articulated as a classic Mego.

Accessories:
The one area where these figures really suffer is the accessories. I won't go too much into it now, but as 007 week rolls on I sense that you'll figure it out on your own. Bond's clothes are all removable, except his shoes which are molded on.


Also he has a very basic stand and his Walther pistol. This looks a bit more like a Walther p-38 or a Luger, but it's supposed to be a Walther PKK with silencer. The gun fits in Bond's hands but his firing poses are limited because of the design.


All in all the accessories are pretty boring and rather uninspired. For Bond it's good though, at least you get his gun.

Value:
Value can be quite interesting. These originally retailed for $10. Finding them today is hard, but finding them today for $10 is even more difficult. I was able to get very lucky and found this guy where I was able to cost him out at $10, which brings him right back to what he originally retailed for. To me, this is an excellent value. I'm a fan of Bond, but not a huge one. I'll buy a $10 Bond figure, but an $80 Sideshow Bond is something I'm never going to own. So that makes this worth it to me. Of course this was $10 in 1997, so give or take for inflation, I assume this was like $400 bucks in 1997. Or something... Math never was my strong suit.

Score Recap:
Packaging - 9
Sculpting - 8
Articulation - 7
Accessories - Walther Pistol, Stand
Value - 7
Overall - 8 out of 10


Pretty high score for this guy. By no means is this a perfect toy. In fact the bulk of that score is for the fact that his head sculpt is reasonable and his clothes fit all right. He looks best just standing there. Which is mostly what I bought him for. As toy, he's not terrible, but he's not great. I'm not the biggest fan of these "doll" style toys, but you have to grade them at what they are. This is a good likeness, decent articulation and it's affordably priced and well packaged. This is more of a shelf line than a play line, but I could see some youngsters enjoying these as well as long as they kept their roughness down to a reasonable level. More 007 to come!

Thinking of planning a vacation in the upcoming summer? Looking to have one final winter getaway? Then look no further than Utah's majestic Wasatch Mountains, where you can find the quaint down home wilderness experience you've been dreaming of. At the Homestead resort in Utah, you'll find yourself smack dab in the middle of the coziest four season country resort you'll likely ever come across. From beautiful scenic views to rustic outdoors adventures to fine dining, the Homestead has it all.

Stop by Fanny's grill for breakfast, lunch or dinner and enjoy the view with outside seating. Try some of their exotic seafood or dig into a beautiful char broiled steak. Looking for a more romantic experience, try a Sunday brunch at Homestead's other fine dining restaurant, Simon's Restaurant. It's a scenic experience you're not likely to forget and is the perfect way to enjoy a warm Sunday morning.

The Homestead is a beautiful place to spend your cold winters or hot summers and has two ponds, a spa, luxury pool and so much more. Utah has been voted one of the nation's top vacation destinations and with spots like the Homestead it's not hard to see why. Check out their website at Utah Resorts and go on their virtual tour! Once you see the property for yourself, there's no doubt that you'll find this the perfect vacation spot for a wild adventure or a romantic getaway. It's all waiting for you, just around the bend.


This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Have you seen those ads on TV or maybe even on the radio about places where you can compare insurance quotes online? Chances are you have. What you probably haven't heard though is a website that allows you not only to compare auto insurance rates, but home, health, life or even business insurance online. Netquote.com allows you not only to look at auto insurance online, but allows you a ridiculously easy way to look at all sorts of types of insurance. You can start saving money today on auto insurance or life insurance. The choice is yours.

One of the biggest concerns of all Americans today is health insurance. With special interest groups and crooked politicians looking to derail any sort of real health insurance reform, you have to keep a mindful watch out for yourself. What better way to look at insurance than online where you can compare al kinds of insurance? The website is filled to the brim with easy to access information on a variety of plans for all types of insurance. It's the smartest way to save on insurance. Just visit NetQuote.com for more information. Start saving big money today!

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

This blog abides by word of mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content made in this blog. That content, advertising space or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

Even though the owner(s) of this blog receives compensation for our advertisements, we always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers' own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Every year Michael Crawford organizes the People Choice Awards for Toys, known as the Poppies. It's the most prestigious toy awards there is in my view. Michael's MWCToys gathers 138 industry professionals, from reviewers, to creators, to designers and has them vote on what they feel is the best. I was invited to partake this year and hopefully I'm not breaking any rules here, I thought I'd share what I voted for and why. A look behind the Poppies.


The first category is best overall company. This is probably the hardest category because you're not judging one particular item, but a whole plethora of toys and products. Little companies like Cast-A-Way have an almost impossible task here in creating a couple of products so good that they outshine bigger companies that make hundreds of toys. In the end I went with Hasbro. I wouldn't say it was an "easy" choice, but it certainly was a convincing choice. Hasbro put out a ton of product this year in Star Wars, GI Joe, Marvel Universe and a handful of other brands. All of their product was easily found at retail and often provided the best "bang per buck" of any toy company out there. Some other companies did particular individual things better than Hasbro, but no one is even close overall.


I don't buy a ton of high end figures. So when it comes to judging them, I have to only go on my impressions from the photos I've seen and the reviews I've read. That said, I think Hot Toys is far and away the best company out there in the 12 inch market in terms of likeness. Their work on the Iron Man movie line had me wishing I could spend that kind of money on toys.


In terms of low end, I've dealt with nearly every toy line up for debate. It was a very tough choice for me. I really like Mattel's MOTUC and other companies like Mezco and NECA did some cool stuff as well. Had Character Options made the final cut here, I would have voted for them because I think the Doctor Who line is one of the best out there, but in the end I went with Hasbro's ROC GI Joe line. As I said in my recent GI Joe review, they were able to draw me in on Joes that I had no nostalgia for and buy guys I never thought I would. That's a mark of a successful toy line.


Probably the weakest field and the most uninformed choice. I quite like the Abe figure though and I went with him. There wasn't a lot of logic behind it, just seemed to fit.


There are a ton of great options in this category. Hot Toys regularly makes the best figures in this scale with Sideshow right behind them... But I defy you to point me to a better figure than that Bruce Lee. He has a great sculpt, tons of articulation, multiple outfits and accessories. Plus his hair comes off and you can choose a couple of hairstyles and HIS EYES can even be positioned. Tough choices, but clear winner.


I own, have reviewed or played with just about every toy in this category. It turned out to be one of my hardest choices. I lobbied hard for some Doctor Who figures to get into this area, but sadly none made the final cut. Regardless, MOTUC is probably the star here. It's tough to pick just one, but for me, Mer-Man is the best choice.


Choosing the best figure under 5 Inches wasn't easy either. I went with Firefly, but I expect Snake Eyes to win. It's a personal preference thing. One thing is for clear, Hasbro OWNS this category. Thankfully no one was foolish enough to lobby for any of Mattel's lackluster 2 2/4 DC efforts.


I wanted to vote April, but NECA has screwed the turtles line up so bad that I feel a little resentment towards them. Mattel put out quite a few great female figures this year, but I can only really judge the ones I was able to buy and that's why I voted the way I did. Something I've had leaves a bigger impression on me in this field.


The AT-ST is probably the better toy, but the Back to the Future Delorean wins out in my book. I reviewed it back in October (Delorean Review) and I still think it's a really cool toy. Even without a toy line to support it.


Mattel took a commanding lead in this category this year, but ironically I haven't been able to complete a single one of these BAFs because of their inability to get the products to retail. Judging purely on what pieces I was able to get of different BAFs, I went with Atom Smasher. PS, still waiting on the Giganta wave to show up at retail around here.


As a kid I spent countless hours recreating the chest busting scene from Aliens. To be able to have this to recreate that would be golden.


Looks like she has the best bust to me. See what I did there?


The Brambles are great so I hear, but I also hear they break pretty easily. And given that they're impossible to find and some are way overpriced, I went with the Stay Puft Man. I reviewed this guy Around Halloween and I love everything about him. He's a perfect rendition of what he's supposed to be.


Life size, 90% accurate C-3PO "figure"... SOLD!


I'm not sure why Buzz didn't fit into another category, but I'm almost glad he didn't. Thinkway's Buzz Lightyear deserves some credit as one of the coolest toys made this year and I suspect he'll sweep this category. It's an excellent toy for all ages. To infinity and BEYOND!

So there you have it, that's my ballot. Be sure to stop by MWCToys and vote in the peoples Poppies picks yourself. The results should be up sometime after the 25th. Hope you enjoyed my look inside my ballot and my thought process.