Photo: Iron Man Armor

I'm happy to say this is less complicated than it looks. What you're looking at is an upside down Hall of Armor Iron Man stand on top of a Halo 3 Cortana base. Both use similar blue LEDs, and they complement each other nicely.

When I bought that Cortana base for five bucks, there was a bin full of the damned things. And I only bought one. Yup. Kicking myself.

Assembly Line: Viper and Solstice

Apparently Toys R Us is getting ready to take inventory, because they've marked their clearance merchandise down to next to nothing. I found these in an Toys R Us express in Queens which opened for Christmas and for some reason didn't close down with the rest of them. I paid a little less than $4 each for these.

I should probably mention that I don't generally collect toy cars unless they're driven by either Batman or Speed Racer, and I'm not interested in starting now. I bought these because they came in pieces, making them ideal for custom projects. What sort of custom project? I don't know - bet I'll eventually come up with something, though.

That's the Dodge Viper above, which I haven't bothered finishing (I'd only have to disassemble it again). I did end up putting the Pontiac Solstice together, however. As I'm sure you're aware, the Solstice is car... built by Pontiac. I'm sure it gets gas mileage or something, and it probably has brakes installed. I hear all the best automobiles do.

Well, what did you expect? I live in New York City; I haven't owned a car in over five years. Plus, I've never had much interest in cars that don't fly, jump, or shoot missiles, and I'm pretty sure the Solstice does none of those things (pretty sure - I could be wrong about that missile launcher).

In terms of extras, they come with an extra set of hubcaps: again, good as custom bait, but I can't imagine they'd be all that interesting otherwise. You also get a small screwdriver to put everything together.

Regardless, the toys are pretty nice, but no more so than you'd expect from die-cast 1:24 scale vehicles. These are decent, all things considered, and are definitely worth four bucks.

Anyway, here's a comparison picture with a Batmobile.

Displayed: DC Universe

Two or three times a year, I pick up my DC Universe figures and reassemble the display shelf I have set up. Most of these are DC Universe Classics (or the Green Lantern Classics off-shoot), though there are also several DC Direct figures mixed in. About a third of the characters are wired up in flight: everyone else is either balanced, placed on a stand, or leaned against another character (or a Batcycle).

The flyers all stay in place; everyone else basically just topples over in time (which is why I decided to snap some pictures ASAP).

The big addition this year has been to the Lantern Corps. With the upcoming movie, I've been buying like crazy, and even trying my hand at a custom or two.

I know I mentioned this when I talked about the plastic appetizer swords I found in a party supply store, but I didn't have a photo available at the time. Here's Hal and Sinestro fighting (the yellow electricity on Sinestro's left arm came from the same Liada Shadowrun figure who donated her cape to the aforementioned custom Green Lantern I made.

Here's a quick shot of Batman and Catwoman hanging out in front of the Batcycle I repainted last year.

Let's Party Like it's Almost 1999

God, I love action figures from the 90's. No, wait - I hate action figures from the 90's. They had crappy sculpts and bad articulation: it wasn't until Marvel Legends came around early this millennium that they got better. Look at that toy: no knee or elbow joints... I'd know this was from the 90's even without this ad on the back:

Okay, so I'm not giving enough credit to trendsetters, like McFarlane Toys, which raised the bar on what toys could look like and who they could be produced for, but... that's not the point.

The point is, this isn't a great action figure, at least not by today's standards:

I don't even really know who he is. Sure, he's clearly some villain from Speed Racer, but I don't know much about the show. I'm a huge fan of the movie (incidentally, I was too hard on it in that review: in hindsight, Speed Racer deserved 5 stars), but I've only seen a handful of episodes of the original.

But look at that gun. Look at those binoculars. And that cape... God, that's a fantastic cape. And, damn... that bomb kicks ass.

Yeah, older action figures weren't much, but the toy companies didn't rip you off when it came to accessories in those days. I found this guy going for $5 at St. Mark's Comics, and bought him for the bomb alone. Unfortunately, the wire connecting the dynamite to the detonator broke when I removed it from the package, a common occurrence when you're opening 10+ year old toys. No big deal: some superglue should clean that up (I'll get to that when I'm done painting it).

I bought him for the bomb, but when I took a closer look, the cape turned out even more valuable to me. More on that in a later post....

To be fair, the sculpt here is actually pretty good, as is the paint work. It's mainly the lack of articulation that dates the figure. Still, this guy isn't keeping his accessories long. I've got plans.

Deluxe Medieval Castle Play Set

Do I really need a Deluxe Medieval Castle Play Set? No, not really. Is there room for this in my apartment? Oh, Hell no. Can I pass up a giant size play set marked down to $7.50?

Sigh. Apparently not.

In my defense, I did have a reason for picking this up at the Toys R Us Express that was unloading it. As is often the case, I was far less interested in getting this for whole than I was in getting the pieces. Specifically the walls, bridges, and planks: with a little work, could those be transformed into action figure stands?

Well... maybe, but it's not ideal. Most of this is made of a soft, squishable plastic that lacks stability. The drawbridge is sturdy, but I'm actually a little reluctant to disassemble that: it's functional, and interests me more as a backdrop (assuming I'm ever willing to paint the damn thing).

This isn't a bad set, at least when clearanced, and there are some cool extras. The soldiers are pretty lame (they can't even stand on their own), but their horses are cool. The catapults are also neat, though I can't think of much to do with them. Oh well, I'm always happy having miniature fantasy props lying around. Same goes for those ladders.

I should probably mention that I'm not really giving this set a full opportunity to shine in the pictures. It comes with a number of decals I'm supposed to add. Also, there are tons of miniature weapons and figures I didn't bother to unpack or display.

Like the drawbridge, the siege tower has a pair of cranks that can lower a bridge. These work well, though it takes forever to raise or lower anything.

The honest truth is, had I known exactly what the set would look like, I don't think I'd have bothered. I might end up eating those words when I start disassembling and appropriating parts for custom projects, but for now, I'm a little disappointed.

Still, there's promise here.

Action League: Wonder Woman and another Superman

I've been collecting superhero figures in this scale and style since Hasbro began making Superhero Squad figures. I don't even know how many of these I have now between Marvel, DC, and even the Dark Horse Hellboy 2 figures (God, I love those little guys). I've really been enjoying the new DC figures, though there's been a major hole in my collection... until now.

I collect a lot of comics characters, but when push comes to shove, I feel like I'm missing something when I have any of the big three without owning all of them. If you're new to comics, by "big three" I mean the Trinity: Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman. At any given time, there may be characters more popular, but on some level it always comes back to these guys. When superheroes dried up in the fifties, three series never stopped coming out: this is the backbone of DC Comics, and debatably comics in general.

In addition to not releasing Wonder Woman until now, this is actually the first and only female character Mattel's released in the Action League line. I understand the logic: these are first and foremost kids' (boys') toys, and little boys think any female toy is a doll.

Too bad that logic's BS.

Here's the problem. Kids aren't buying these. Seriously. Mattel needs to figure out what Hasbro learned years ago - that these are being bought by collectors, like me. And, for that matter, like my wife. DC Comics has always had a relatively older, gender neutral fan base, and toys like these really appeal to us. We want female characters, as well as the male ones. We want Batgirl, Supergirl, Black Canary, and Zatanna. AND WE WANT THEM IN THIS SCALE AND STYLE.

While I'm thrilled to add Wonder Woman to my collection, I'm not as thrilled with having her packed with the first repeated figure in the line (yeah, there was also another Hal Jordan in wave three, but at least that's a repaint).

Also, she has some balance issues and could really use a stand like Superman's. At what these are going for, I'm sure Mattel could have afforded to include a second one.

The sculpt on Wonder Woman is absolutely fantastic, though the paint's a little weak. She came out nice in the photos, but in person she looks a little plasticy. She has articulated shoulders, as well as head joint. The head joint doesn't work too well because of her hair, but the arms are fine. I'd have liked a waist joint, as well, and was disappointed it wasn't included.

The Superman's a great figure. If you want my full thoughts on him - along with the rest of wave 1 - you can find a review here.

Despite my grumbling, I've been looking everywhere for this pack and am really excited to have found it. Like I said, having the Trinity completed brings a great big smile to my face. And, while I've already got one Superman, I've got a great place for the extra on my desk at work.

I've heard people have had luck finding these at Walmart, an option not available to those of us in New York City. I haven't seen them at Toys R Us yet, but they'll likely show up eventually. I found my set at a toy store in Queens, which was charging $12. I grabbed the Wonder Woman set in a heartbeat, but couldn't bring myself to get the others. There's a great looking Batman/Deathstroke set, but I'm all set on Batmen in this scale. The rest of the wave revolves around Green Lantern and includes an awesome Kilowog that killed me to skip. But I couldn't stand the thought of dropping twenty-five bucks after tax on these. I love GL, but for the time being I'm satisfied keeping my Action League collection relatively focused. If these ever go on sale, you can bet that will change.

By the way, The Super Duper Toy Box has reviews and some excellent photos of the rest of the wave - I highly recommend you check those out.

Green Lantern Stand

I'm not even going to pretend this qualifies as a custom. I think I can get away with calling it a kitbash, though even that's stretching it.

This was simple to make. Stupid simple. So simple a kid could do it entirely using things they're allowed to have.

All you're looking at is a small stand put together using blocks from one of the Trio Watchtower sets I bought for less than $2 each with a pair of "silly straws" I bought at a party supply store wedged in the holes.

By shifting the straws, I can get a good assortment of options for displaying a Green Lantern flying in wisps of green energy. The tops of the straws are a bit awkward - I could always trim them back, I suppose, if I ever settle on a pose. I kind of like how adjustable it is, though.