Custom Famous Covers Thing

There's a guy in the UK named Nick who, back in the day, took Toy Biz Famous Covers action figures and customized the shit out of them. And man, he customized a lot of them. Even more impressive was the fact that the guy did such great work. Check out his custom Thing, above. Here's a link to his website which is still running.

I did custom figures like these back in 1999-2000 with the help of my wife. I designed the characters, sourced the materials and sculpted the heads, and she sewed the costumes. She did an amazing job on the sewing, just amazing. The figures weren't too shabby, actually. We sold them for an average of $100 each. Characters I remember doing included Black Panther, Luke Cage, Blizzard, Firebrand, Doctor Octopus, Tarantula, The Shocker, The Jackal, Morbius, Punisher, Carrion and Molten Man. One day I got an email from a doctor who wanted us to make him a custom Nova... and he was willing to pay something like $225 for it! I spent hours and hours fine-tuning this thing to perfection and sent it off for his approval. When he received it he was absolutely thrilled.

In any case, at one point I'll try to dig up some pics of the FCs we did, and post them here on the blog.

DC Retro-Action: Characters I'd Like to See

Once Mattel cranks out the familiars in Mego format, I would really like to see them produce some of the more obscure characters from the 70's. Yeah bitches, I'm talking OMAC. Here are the characters I would shell out cash for in a heartbeat:

Demon

Mister Miracle

Deadman

Blue Beetle

Firestorm

Machine Man

Black Lightning

Shade: The Changing Man

Swamp Thing

Dr. Fate

Red Tornado

Ikarus

Back From the Dead: Mego

Yes, after five months of hibernation from the blog, I am back from the dead — and ironically enough, so is something else. Check this out...


Took this pic at TRU on Sunday. I had no idea Mego style figures from the 70's were being relaunched. Yeah. I pretty much shit my pants right there in aisle 4. Although a TRU exclusive at brick-n-mortar, the entire line of DC Retro-Action figures can be purchased online through Amazon.

Microman Retro TV Commercials Are A Trip

Microman — better known here in the States as Micronauts — was an awesome toy line back in the day. I posted about Micronauts and the potential for a Micronauts movie a couple of weeks ago so click that one if you'd like. Yes indeed, it has been a dream of mine for quite some time, if you want to read more.

So I just tripped on some Japanese TV commercials and I thought you might get a kick out of them too.

"Me-curro-MAHHN!"

SDCC Report: Avatar Toys On Display

Wanna play with your own Sigourney Weaver? Maybe a crazy-ass panther/lizard creature? And there are more, oh lots more... from Cameron's upcoming film Avatar.

Loads of Avatar action figure pics over at io9

This Mego Star Trek Fan Film Is Just Plain Bizarre

It starts slow but gets progressively more bizarre by the second.

15 Worst Action Figures of All Time

These are honest-to-god real action figures. It's almost unthinkable that anyone bought these.

Ann Coulter

Is it a man turned into a woman, or a woman who used to be a man? Remove the little Barbie clothes and see for yourself!

Vanilla Ice

"Yo, Vanilla! Kick it one more time, boy-eeee!" omg this one is beyond stupid.

Li'l Tubby

Who is "L'il Tubby?" Does anyone give a flying f$#*?

"Beach Action" Spider-Man

One can only hope that the person responsible for this plastic abortion was fired from Toy Biz, and that they never get work in the toy industry ever again. There was also a "Babseball" Spidey in this line but I could not locate a picture. Unbelievable.

Sonny Bono (by Mego)

This was actually released back in the seventies when people gave a shit about Sonny and Cher. Personally, I think the real reason he hit that tree was because he wanted to commit suicide over this ridiculously stupid action figure/doll.

Snoop Dog

Wow. Yeah, this is the doll I want my kids to play with so they can idolize and learn how to be a pot-smoking gansta rapper

"Slalom Racer" Batman

Isn't it bad enough they have to keep raping all of our mainstream superheroes with terrible, dopey action figure representations like "Laser-Beam Batman" and "Battle Armor Hulk?" WTF is "Slalom Racer Batman," anyway? My GOD. 

"The Meat" (from Rocky)

The giant slab of meat Rocky Balboa punched. Winner of the "Action Figure WTF Award"

Obsessive Compulsive Guy

Complete with a tiny surgical mask and antibacterial moist towelette. When you grab one off the peg hook, do you keep checking to make sure you really took it off the peg hook?

Lunch Lady

Damn, I wonder if it smells like green beans and mashed potatoes...

MC Hammer

No, "you can't touch this," or the sheer stupidity behind this terrible rectal-smear-of-an-action-figure

Fisto (From Mattel's "Masters of the Universe" line)

Fisto. E-yeah.

Crazy Cat Lady

We all know some weird lady who has, like, seventeen cats, right? Here ya go!

Action Jackson (by Mego)

Look at the guy's face. What a dope. Damn, he reminds me of someone, a movie or television actor from the seventies, but I can't put my finger on him... if you know, be sure to drop a comment...

American Arachnid

Okay, this is where I draw the line. I'm going off so please excuse my rant. Talk about the plunging ass-rape of a childhood dream. For no other reason than to squeeze another dollar out of the superhero-loving public, someone dreamed up "amalgam" characters -- and this -- this rancid wreck. WTF is this?! Please say the people responsible are now working at Taco Bell... please. End of rant.

Bizarre Commercial For New Star Trek Toys

I have to say, this commercial is kind of weird. The transporter thing is pretty bitchin' though.

Lego Watchmen

Some custom Lego work here, by true creative geniuses. Check out more at Brothers Brick!

Toy & Action Figure Museum Will Make Your Collection Look Like a Pile of Poop

Seriously. It will.

The Toy & Action Figure Museum in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma

Where's My Friggin' Micronauts Movie?!

I'm serious. The Micronauts, one of my favorite action figure/toy lines as a kid, needs to be a movie. No, not the cheap animated one they released straight-to-DVD; I'm talking big-budget, Michael Bay lovin' Transformers stuff here. I am telling you, if they did it right, it would blow minds.

Micronauts Issue #1 by Marvel Comics, 1979

And what's to stop Hollywood from doing it? They've been making movies based on crummy properties for years. We're getting The Land of the Lost and GI Joe this summer, and rumor has it that Stretch Armstrong ain't far behind. There you go.

They made a legitimate film with a serious tone out of toy cars and trucks that turn into robots, for god's sake. If they can do that, imagine what they could do with Micronauts. It is true that back in the day when Micronauts toys and comics were hot (late seventies), they got out of control with some questionable characters (i.e; Baron Karza was pretty much a dollar store rip-off of Darth Vader), but for the most part, Micronauts kicked ass!

Micronauts by Mego

The 3 and 1/2 inch action figures were based on a Japanese toy line called Microman. American toy company Mego imported them from Takara Japan and repackaged them as Micronauts. The figures and play sets really caught on in the U.S. -- for the first time ever, you didn't have to live in Japan to have cool, bizarre action figures!

Many of the toy parts had little holes in various places where you could insert little plastic pegs which connected to attachments and whatnot. This gave a kid all sorts of creative freedom. Kind of like Lego meets action figures, I suppose. I remember having a blast building backpack rocket launchers and crazy armed assault vehicles for my little Micronauts.

So if you're by some chance a studio suit looking for an untapped, kick-ass license to rape... er, turn into a motion picture and you are reading this, go after Micronauts, I say. You could do worse (cough, He-Man, cough...)