Robot 13 #1
Written by Thomas Hall; Illustrated by Daniel Bradford
One of the really neat little perks of the iPhone is all the free stuff. Apps are great and they have one for just about anything, but it's the oddball free stuff that I really enjoy. Take Robot 13 as an example. I likely would have never discovered this comic without my iPhone. Before I get to the comic itself, I have to give kudos to whomever designed the interface for Robot 13 on the iPhone. It's a rich reading experience that makes each page feel like a story teller is unfolding it for you. I've read a lot of comics on my iPhone but this interface was one of the best. Surprisingly better than many of the efforts by the major publishers.

As for the comic itself, it's hard not to notice the obvious Mike Mignola homage. Daniel Bradford's art is very much influenced by Mignola and maybe even a touch of Jack Kirby in there as well. That's one of the nice parts about the art is that there is a bit of a reminder that this is a new world and a fun one, if not also a dark grim one. Comparisons could be made to Eastman and Laird's early work on the TMNT comics. All things that draw me in immediately.


There's obviously not a ton to go off of in the first issue but the genesis seems to be there for something very entertaining. Robot 13 is a robot plucked from the ocean floor. He doesn't know his past, nor does the crew that find him. He looks like a classic old school robot or a spaceman that died in his suit. Perhaps he's a bit of both? There doesn't appear to be a lot of information on just where the title robot gets his power but the skeleton head inside seems to indicate he's a haunting of some sort.


The story unfolds with great precise panel narrative and again, this really pops on the iPhone. The story gives us just a hint of mystery but doesn't hit us over the head with it to hammer home the point that this is mysterious. I was reminded a bit of Savage Dragon in that sense. We also get a fight with a giant creature that would make Ray Harryhausen happy. It's a fun romp and this is exactly the kind of small comic you should be seeking out to read.

I'm very interested in reading more and if you're into robots, Hellboy or comics that are a little off the beaten path, this is one worth checking out. The actual comics are just $3.99 and the digital copies are a super value at $0.99! Blacklist Studios is currently working on issue #3 with the first two issues still available. Check out Blacklist Studios for more on Robot 13.

Mattel's "quality control" or lack there of is somewhat legendary around these parts, early last year during DCUC's first few waves I took them to task saying that these toys were not acceptable. That said, DCUC has improved and the MattyCollector MOTUC stuff has generally been top quality. (My King Greyskull that broke 30 seconds out of the package notwithstanding!)


However, this picture on MattyCollector pretty much says that Mattel still needs to work on this. How so? Pay close attention to Optikk. Notice anything off? Yup, he's got two right hands. This picture was altered in no fashion. If that's how the pictures of the toys on the website look, I shudder to think that we might be getting this kind of thing in the mail.

Huge news just breaking that Legendary Pictures (Batman Begins, Clash of the Titans) are working with Toho to bring Godzilla back to the big screen here in the US. Legendary Pictures have officially secured the rights to Godzilla from Japan's Toho Company. Reports say that Toho will handle release in Japan. Warner Brothers is aiming for a 2012 release date with, of course, early 3D rumors circulating.


Anyone who follows Godzilla, knows that Toho retired Godzilla a few years back but has kept the idea open for another Godzilla film. Most importantly, Toho wanted to do Godzilla in 3D (even before Avatar and other 3D films were hits) and originally had Godzilla versus Hedorah director Yoshimitsu Banno working on "Godzilla 3D to the Max". No word on if these two projects are related, but obviously Toho feels that 3D and Godzilla are a perfect match.


According to BloodyDisgusting.com, Thomas Tull, Chairman and CEO of Legendary had the following to say on the film...

"Godzilla is one of the world's most powerful pop culture icons, and we at Legendary are thrilled to be able to create a modern epic based on this long-loved Toho franchise. Our plans are to produce the Godzilla that we, as fans, would want to see. We intend to do justice to those essential elements that have allowed this character to remain as pop-culturally relevant for as long as it has."

I remain carefully optimistic. The last American made Godzilla film had all the makings of a classic. The hype was incredible and the movie made a lot of money off the idea... Unfortunately the movie itself was pretty terrible and uninspired and as a Godzilla film, there was next to nothing that resembled Godzilla. Of course, that was really before Dean Devlin and Roland Emmerich had been exposed as the hacks that they are.

3D could be the perfect forum for Godzilla. However it'll need to resemble the classic Godzilla movies both in scale and scope, not rely too much on CGI and most importantly feature other monsters. The world doesn't need another Godzilla origin movie.

Fred is back and today he's looking at the mysterious land known as K-Mart! Back in the 80's, man K-Mart was the place where I bought all my toys. Well, Children's Palace, Zaires, Aimes, Woolworths and Toys R Us too... But that's besides the point. K-Mart used to be the main place I bought figures. In recent years they've made a bit of a play to increase their toy awareness. How's that working out? Well Fred stopped by on the search for clearance specials. Watch and find out:



Don't forget to visit Fred's YouTube channel and subscribe to him there. It's a virtual FredTube of fun. And Fred, be careful video blogging and driving. You gonna kill somebody!

As we head into the final week of March of the Robots month, I'm having issues with the website. Despite all that, I'm working through to continue to provide the content. I hope you keep coming by during this time and continue reading and commenting. We appreciate it, wholeheartedly.


Star Wars Empire Strikes Back Saga Collection
IG-88
3 3/4 Inch Scale
By: Hasbro (Kenner?)
2007
$7.99
Back in 2007, Hasbro was working hard on revamping their Star Wars line with Saga Collection packs that recreated old figures. They went the full gamut with it, offering retro Kenner packaging just as they had in the 1980's when these figures originally came out. Instead of just repacking the vintage figures, they offered new versions of old classics with better sculpting and articulation. This would actually be the genesis of the 25th Anniversary GI Joe figures.

IG-88 was an assassin droid line designed by Holowan Laboratories. The IG-88 line was a derivative of the IG-100 MagnaGuard droids used as bodyguards by General Grievous and the IG Lancer Droids used by Durge during the Clone Wars. IG-88 later became one of the galaxy's most infamous bounty hunters. However, the bounty hunting was just a cover for the droid's grand plan—the Droid Revolution.

Hearing that, you'd think IG-88 was a big character in the original Star Wars trilogy or at least some of the prequels. Nope, instead he was basically just trash propped up in the background for a few shots. Lucas (with a heaping of help form Hasbro) has made sure that anyone who appeared in even a single glancing frame of the Star Wars films has a novel's worth of backstory. It's pretty amazing on one hand and utterly lame on the other. IG-88 thankfully retains a lot of his coolness though, since he was one of the early Kenner figures to strike a chord with many people. How is his updated figure?

Packaging:
The more of these old packages I look at, the more I realize how much better packages were in the 1980's. No twist ties, no rubber bands and great simple designs. I think that's part of the reason we're seeing so many toylines do this "retro" packaging in order to recreate the image.


I've been sitting on this figure (not literally) since K*B Toys was going out of business a year or two ago. I bought this as they were clearancing their shelves, but at the time you can see they were charging $7.98 for it. Anyway, these came in out protective clam shells. To preserve the integrity of the card and figure underneath.


Presumably you can remove that outer shell without tearing it up, but damned if I could figure it out. I had to hack through it with a pair of scissors. I thought they were just supposed to open? Oh well. The inside card takes you right back to Christmas morning 1982! Well, not me, but some people.


The back isn't as retro, but it shows off the other figures in the series and the classic figures. It also explains what the purposes of these cards are. Notice that the figure's peg hole is unpunched as well. Nice touch.

Sculpt:
I'm a fan of the IG designs. I loved the IG-86 figure, I liked the original IG-88 and I have a couple of IG Lancer droids as well. It's just a neat looking robot. This one is just like the one from Empire Strikes Back. It's a classic!


If you have the IG-Lancer, this is made of a lot of the same parts. For whatever reason though, the few differences here do make it the superior figure in my view. Maybe it's just that the design is timeless, but I prefer this figure to the Lancer.


There is a ton of detail on this guy. IG-88 has never looked better. To be completely honest, the original IG-88 was one of Kenner's better works, so this guy didn't need an updating as bad as so many others. Still it's an impressive feat for a figure to look so screen accurate.


The paint work is surprisingly strong, with little bits of rust and flakes painted on. It gives IG the appearance of being battle tested and worn. Maybe a super hardcore purest could find something inaccurate about this figure, but for most of us... This guy is perfect. If you need one IG-88 in your collection, then yeah, this is it.

Articulation:
The original IG-88 didn't have a lot of articulation. Because of his design it was almost impossible to give him a ton of joints in the 1980's. Now we're able to give him quite a bit, though his structural design does still limit him more than many others.


You can create the exact pose from the card art though. That's pretty nifty.

Accessories:
Surprisingly, IG-88 comes with a fair amount of accessories. First he has both his blaster and his rifle, as well as a belt. In the back of his belt he has a holster and a cool knife blade. I can't get the guns to fit in the holster, but I assume one should.


It's enough to stop him from getting kidnapped by Jawas.

Value:
If my match is correct, $7.99 in 2007, before the crash of the American economy works out to about $3,000 now? Something like that. Either way, you can get this guy off of Ebay for about $10 which isn't bad at all. I don't know exactly what I paid for him, but I picked up a couple so it must have been cheap. Because I'm a cheapskate and I love robots.


Yeah... We went there, and you like it.
Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 9
Articulation - 7
Accessories - Rifle, Blaster, Knife, Belt
Value - 8
Overall - 8 out of 10


It's IG-88 and he's perfect. What more can you ask for? Whether you're an old school guy who just thinks IG-88 is a random bounty hunter or if you're one of the new kids who knows all about IG-88's hundreds of clones and time as Queen Amidala's personal massage wand, this is the IG-88 for you. Hasbro did good work with this figure and I can't imagine they can improve upon it.

It's time to venture into that land of the unknown. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind to the farthest corners of TJ Maxx. It's time once again to boldy go into the realm of the scalper and the soccer Mom, it's time for... TALES FROM THE TOY AISLE!


We start this week in the always loveable Toys R Us. TRU is still jammed to the rafters with it's special edition DCUC Batman, but nary a MOTUC vs DCUC pack in sight. The other interesting thing is that after selling through the first batch of DC Retro Heroes rather quickly, the restocked ones aren't moving very fast. I returned one I bought as well, the oddly misshapen bodies and general cheapness of the whole presentation just wasn't enough for me to waste $20 on. I respect my Jeffersons more than that.


Speaking of things I respect my money too much to buy... I've been on a bit of a vinyl kick lately, but I can't bring myself to buy these new ones from Jazwares. I like that they tried, I really do, but something just seems off about these JUVIs (Jazwares Urban Vinyl). Don't let that confuse you Jazwares, I do very much want a Mega Man line, just not like this.


Over in the "collector" section they had a couple of neat things. These Ratchet and Clank toys stood out to me as particularly cool. You'd think they would be marketed more towards kids. I almost wanted to pick some up, but passed.


Check it out! NEW JLU SINGLES! Nope, wait... That's Big Lots getting old stock of JLU figures. Sadly none of the Batman Beyond 3 Pack that I so desperately want and need. Of course yes, that is the exact same John Stewart that is in the new case packout for JLU at Target. More of Mattel's brilliant marketing strategy, repack figures that are currently in discount chains and charge $9 for them. I guess I'll pick up the new Firestorm and Aquaman when they make their inevitable run at Big Lots later this year.


Big Lots was also choking on DCIH figures. I'd have bought some of these, if I could care about the line... Sadly I can't.


Then it was off to Walmart to see what they had! Well, yeah... Here's the DCUC section. This is pretty sad. I know I'm beating a dead horse here, but how come Hasbro can replenish their toys but not Mattel? If you're wondering why I quit DCUC, well here's part of your answer. This is also the answer to the question as to why Hasbro ends up with more shelf space than Mattel.


To be fair they also had some other DCUC and DCIH figures... In the clearance section. Poor Cyborg. I can't believe people aren't snatching up those DCIH Alex Luthor figures by the truckload at the $7 price tag!


Then it was off to K-Mart for some blue light specials... Looks like the Blue Light means new toys this week. They had a bunch of new DCIH figures, including this ugly Earth 2 Robin. Not enough to make me want to buy it, but they appear to be the only store carrying new DCIH in my neck of the woods.


I almost pulled the trigger on these two though. Seriously. Then I came to my senses. Two-Face comes with nothing. Joker's cane has some sort of weird thing on it... It looks like an ashtray I made for my Mom in second grade. So I passed, but I was pretty close. I guess it's my love of Batman.


Sadly this Hal Jordan with mutated hand grip did nothing for me. I'm still baffled that Hal and Robin have new articulation, while Joker and Two-Face have old articulation. It almost looks like two completely different toy lines. Both that suck, mind you.


Hasbro and Marvel weren't doing much better with stale X-Men Wolverine Origins figures. They did have the special pack with Deadpool and I've heard that this Deadpool is different than the single card release. Sadly I don't care enough about Deadpool to pick this one up. No Colossus though.


We conclude our journey at the Dollar Tree (Where everything costs only $1) for the absolute WORST toys ever. Check out this UFC knock off figure. There's actually just random loose plastic and broken bits of the figure everywhere inside the package. I have to wonder what the poor Chinese slaves that are making these toys conditions are.


Then I saw the Astro Boy Peacekeeper and got excited! I loved this figure and for a $1, I was about to buy 100 of them... But sadly this isn't that figure but a poorly painted, less articulated knock off. Damned bootleg toys. Sorry for the blurry picture, some fat chick wouldn't get out of my way.


They had a whole selection of pretty crappy bootleg Astro Boy toys. Some of them were completely different than the real Jazwares ones and some looked like they used parts of the same molds. I almost picked a couple up for the lolz.


Would anybody like to actually see reviews of some of these $1 bootleg toys? Let me know!

That's it for this time, but beware that just around the bend, lurking in the darkest corners of the department store is something your wildest dreams could never conceive when we venture into TALES FROM THE TOY AISLE!

If you grew up in the 1980's, chances are you collected Masters of the Universe figures. Even if you only had a couple, you were bound to have had a couple of knock-offs as well. Remco, Galloob and other toy manufactures made plenty of off brand He-Man figures. Sometimes they were subtle, sometimes they weren't.


I had a ton of these guys, mostly because they were almost identical to He-Man figures (except the usually bad head sculpts) and they were considerably cheaper. In the mid to late 1990's, many of these molds started showing up repurposed as wrestling figures. It's led to some creative stuff, like Poe Ghostal's Onan the Barbarian.

However, nothing seems cooler than what He-Mike did over at the Fantastic Forums. He took MOTUC figures and made them into Sparkle Toys old Defenders of the Planets figures.


It looks like he's made Orion, Weaponsmaster and Canis Major. I love these customs. They're of incredible quality. Wouldn't it be great if a bunch of companies started making decent quality MOTUC knock-offs? Man, that would rule.

All pictures credit to their original owners.

One of the very first posts on toys here was a highlight on the awesome Iron Man movie figures, Iron Monger. Back then of course, the figure was in 6 inch scale. Now for March of the Robots we take alook at the brand new Iron Man 2, 3 3/4 scale Iron Monger.


Iron Man 2
Iron Monger
3 3/4 Inch Scale
By: Hasbro
2010
$6.99
Iron Monger is a classic Iron Man villain, but one that wasn't quite as popular as some of the others. He made a for a good choice of chief villain in the first motion picture though and the role helped bring Jeff Bridges back into the Hollywood spotlight. That seems to have worked out well for him, with Tron 2 on his plate and a shiny new Best Actor Oscar on his mantle.

Jealous of Tony Stark's success, Obidiah Stane creates the Iron Monger armor to destroy him. It is bigger and far stronger than Iron Man, but sill incapable of defeating the hero: For the real difference between the two suits is the man inside them.

A lot of people seem to be skipping this figure and Hasbro has short packed it, possibly because they feel the larger 6 inch version is better. So if you already own the original, should you take the chance on this version? I'll tell you why and why not.

Packaging:
The Iron Man 2 figure packaging looks a lot like the Iron Man 1 movie packaging, but it has been redesigned. Obviously it's considerably smaller thanks to the change in scale, but it's generally been cleaned up and polished to perfection as well too. I like the look of these packages.


Iron Monger is nicely on display in the front of the bubble. Some folks may confuse this for the older Monger though if you don't look carefully. Obviously the size and difference in logos should be the key things to look for. Just be careful on Ebay auctions and whatnot.


The back of the package has the nice bio that I reprinted above and shows off the figure in a nice light. As I've said ad nauseam though, it's confusing that only a couple of figures are listed on the back of the package in a checklist format. There are nearly 30 figures released in the first batch of toys hitting shelves now, but this package barely tells you any of them

Sculpt:
When pictures of this figure first started showing up, people assumed this guy was just the original 6 inch Monger figure. As more pictures surfaced, they showed that this was in fact a smaller version of the character. Some questioned why Hasbro would make a new version of this character, given that the other Monger tended to linger on shelf space right up until these new figures hit.


There was also a lot of speculation that this was simply the larger figure shrunk down. Making the original Monger a 2-Up as it were. Well I'm happy to report that, that's incorrect. While there might be some parts from the original Monger shrunk down to this scale, for the most part this appears to be a new sculpt.


Almost incredibly, there is MORE detail on this figure than it's larger counterpart. That's a pretty impressive feat since the trend tends to be the other way around. The paint work is a lot sharper too, with some nice metallic blues mixed in with the silver and gray.


I still love this design. I find it to be one of the more iconic robot designs, even if it's not identical to the original comic Iron Monger. There's just a lot to like about this robot. It's the exact kind of thing that I could see Tony Stark having to do battle with.


Scale wise it is considerably smaller than the original 6 inch Monger, but it's still quite a bit bigger and bulkier than the other figures in the Iron Man 2 series. That gives him a good size advantage, but to be perfectly honest the original Iron Monger figure is almost perfect scale with 3 3/4 inch figures.

Articulation:
The articulation has been pretty good with these figures so far. The original 6 inch Iron Monger was quite articulated as well. I'm pleased with the articulation in this figure as it appears to have just as much, if not a couple points more than it's larger version. It's always good when articulation gets better, not worse. Kudos Hasbro.


This allows you to get a pretty wide variety of poses with this figure. Still, he's a giant robot and that means he's going to be more limited than the smaller guys in robotic suits. I think Monger's articulation will be pleasing to most though.



Accessories:
Sadly Iron Monger comes with nothing but the stand and card gimmick that the other Iron Man 2 figures have came with. If you're unfamiliar with that, I covered it in a bit more detail during my War Machine and Crimson Dynamo reviews. It would have been nice if they'd thrown something else in here. I don't know what exactly, but even a reuse of the old animated Colossus I-beam would have been cool.


Value:
These figures run about $6.99 which is a pretty good value in this day and age. Iron Monger is a bigger figure than most, which makes him feel even more valuable. The only real problem with Monger is that there was a bigger version out and it ran only a couple bucks more. If you like having some robots for Iron Man to fight, I think spending the $7 on this guy is worth it. If you only want a figure for the sole purpose of having a Monger though, you might be more interested in the bigger version. I'm actually building a Hall of Monger Armors, so I like this one.


I'm a bit of a Monger monger.
Score Recap:
Packaging - 8
Sculpting - 9
Articulation - 7
Accessories - Card, Stand
Value - 8
Overall - 8 out of 10


Don't let the fact that there were several other versions of this figure out there already fool you... This is in fact the best movie Iron Monger yet, albeit smaller than the rest. In terms of paint, articulation and sculpting this one is superior to the previous releases, but the size and the fact that the other figure was pretty good, might make you think twice about picking him up.

Years ago there weren't many choices when it came to long distance providers for international calls. Thankfully those days are behind us and it's become easier than ever to communicate with our friends overseas via long distance calling cards. Now with many phone cards available there are more options to choose from. These phone cards offer the best rates to speak to loved ones internationally.

One of the best parts about international phone cards is that you can call across the globe for pennies a minute. Take India as an example. With calling cards you can call India for about .2 cents a minute. That means you can speak with someone in the beautiful Indian countryside for 2,000 minutes for just $20! I can't think of a better value.

What's even better is that many rates are even cheaper. It's under a penny a minute to speak to someone in Argentina. It's just over a penny to place a call to Israel. The bottom line is, no matter where you're planning on calling, calling cards may help you get the best international rates available.

Visit the links to the 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.

Just a few years ago I was moving out of my old apartment and trying to find somewhere new. I knew that I wanted to move into some Luxury Apartments but the choices were not easy to come by. There were a few websites out there, but none offered access to the pricing of different floorplans or gave enough choices in the neighborhoods I was searching out. It was frustrating. Thankfully there is a website now that can help you avoid the hassle that I had to deal with back then.

That's why you're being invited to try the New Lux Score® and see what luxury is near you! The website offers easy to navigate apartment listings, pulled from all across the country. The apartments are all top quality and have plenty of photos and information to prove it. No more headaches of not knowing what a property looks like and having to drive all the way across town to find out.

Check out the Seattle Luxury Apartments and see if you don't think this is one of the best ways to get listings from many sources all in one convenient and easy to use website.

With so many luxury options to choose from, you're bound to find an apartment in the listings from the neighborhood you've always wanted to live in. Visit the links to the 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.

Welcome to a brand new weekly feature called Ebay Bandits. What are Ebay Bandits? Well, they're jerks on Ebay that are trying to rip people off. Typically these will be focused on Toy Bandits, but there might be other types. We've all seen these guys before, posting up something to Ebay and either misleading potential buyers or overcharging for something "rare" in order to play the system. I'll use this forum to expose these Bandistards and welcome you to send in your own Ebay Bandits. If you see unscrupulous action on Ebay, help me fight the Bandits!


We start out with an incredible example. Above is a perfect example of what this will be all about. Check out this bio from the Bandit's listing.

UNIDENTIFIED ACTION FIGURE
WHICH RESEMBLES A CROSS BETWEEN THE TOAD AND DEADPOOL
MISSING IT'S HEAD & HANDS
UNIQUE IN ITSELF!
YOU MAY NEVER SEE ANOTHER FIGURE LIKE THIS IN YOUR LIFE-TIME AFTER IT'S SOLD!
COMES WITH WEAPONS & ACCESSORIES!
FROM HASBRO & MARVEL COMICS!

Not only are the caps annoying, but this guy is trying to pass this off as a rare unmade action figure that's presumably a Toad prototype? Except it's pretty obvious that this is just a repack. It's a headless and handless figure in a Iceman package!

I can't quite identify the figure, but it looks like it might be a Star Wars figure of some sort. This guy has the gall to put this figure on Ebay for the low, low price of $799! But he's such a nice guy, because he offers a Buy It Now of $1,000 and free shipping!

Now, you'd have to be pretty dense to accept it, but this guy is seriously trying to dupe someone into spending hundreds of dollars on his crappy repack of a figure with no head or hands. He simply repacked a broken figure (notice it doesn't fit in the clamshell properly) and claims it's a unique character that never made it through to the Wolverine Origins line.

Help me fight the douchebags Bandits and send in your own auctions of miscreants!