Funko SciFi Mystery Minis

Funko's SciFi Mystery Minis have finally started hitting stores in my area. The thrill of finding them was almost short lived as it was in Toys R Us that I found them. They're pricing for the Guardians of the Galaxy Minis is around $10 and the Nightmare Before Christmas ones are $8. Which I don't get how they can have different prices, but moving on...

I was super psyched to find they were only $7, so I grabbed two.

Mini Robocop looks great and has a nice metallic paint job. Even though the mouth is just an itty bitty crescent, they managed to nail it. If I could pick any one I wanted, he wouldn't be at the top of the list but I'm glad I got him.

This guy! Rocketeer is definitely at the top of my list if I had a choice in which one I would get in my blind boxes! Yes, even ahead of Tron, if for no other reason than Rocketeer is the rarest figure in the wave. He's only found in 1 out of every 72 boxes! I didn't get a shot of his back side but his rocket pack even has the wad of gum on it! Now that is attention to detail.

Kudos to Funko for knocking it out of the park, yet again!

The blog will (most likely) be taking some time off so be sure to come back on December 1st as we start the 13 Days of Creepmas!

League Post - Hake's Auction 212

The League of Extraordinary Bloggers has teamed up again with Hake's Americana & Collectibles for this week's assignment. These fictional shopping sprees are always one of my favorite topics. There are always so many interesting pop culture items to pick and choose from. Even without these assignments, I can spend way too much time just looking at everything and dreaming I have a house big enough for all these treasures!

It also doesn't hurt that Hake's will pick a random blogger to win a $100 credit with them!

 

Set of four Monster Cereal Rings

Expected: $200 - $400

The first thing I selected was a set of four Monster Cereal rings. The other two were Boo Berry and Fruit Brute. I had a Boo Berry one as a kid so getting a set of them would be pretty neat. The character images are actually lids that open to reveal a small compartment that you can put something very small in. Hake's says their last set sold at $275 and it looks like this auction is already gone from the time I put my list together!

Mysterymen of America Prototype Ring

Current: $138 Expected: $100 - $400

Yes, it's those Mystery Men from the movie, which was based on comic characters. I'm not the biggest fan of the franchise but I love the retro pulp look of the ring. As you can see, it was made in 1992.

The Shadow Secret Society "Magic" Glow in the Dark Member's Button

Current: $300 Expected: $400 - $700

Sticking with the pulp theme, I picked out this Shadow button from 1939. It'd be pretty cool as just a regular button but it even glows in the dark!

 

Spookshow Window Card Trio

Current: $100 Expected: $200 - $400
I am completely fascinated with the whole spookshow thing. Nothing today comes close to the sensationalism used to advertise these midnight monster movie shows. They often had live entertainment like a magician or psychic to warm up the crowd. Sometimes the movie monsters would "jump off the screen" and roam the theater!

Shogun Warriors Boxed Figures
Current: $220 Expected: $200 - $400
I had a few of these as a kid and the bigger 24" ones too. Even though these guys are only around 5" they're mostly die-cast. These bots are heavy, man! Plus, most of them came out before they passed that "no more rocket firing toys" thing so they have real firing weapons! They were featured in the syndicated Force Five cartoon I used to watch after school. There were 5 shows, a different one airing each weekday.

Star Wars Micro Collection: Bespin Freeze Chamber Boba Fett 4-up Unpainted Hardcopy Prototype
Current: $1000 (no bids!) Expected: $2000 - $5000
Saved the best for last! For those that aren't up on their action figure production, a 4-up is an initial design prototype that is four times the size of the normal figure so they can get all the detail on it. But considering that this is from the Micro Collection series, which were mini-playsets, the prototype itself is only 5.5" tall. I've always wanted to have some kind of Kenner prototype in my collection and I'm one of those Boba Fett fanboys, so this would be an amazing piece.

Here's what other League members have their eyes on
Nerd Life of Mine likes sci-fi and superheroes
Megos, movie posters and comics at The Toy Box
Toyriffic goes batty!

Head over to Cool and Collected to see all the participating blogs.

Another Savers Score

I had an appointment with a job placement agency earlier in the week which is about an hour away. While I was on my way there, I happened to pass another Savers store. I made a point to check it out on the way home and found more cool stuff!

First up is a couple of interesting looking books. The graphics and title on the spine of River of Gold caught my eye enough to pull it and give it a looksee. While I continued to browse the shelves I found the first book in the series also.

I did a quick phone check to find out there are three books in the series but the last wasn't there. The combination of "in the spirit of Raiders" tag on the first book and the back covers sold me anyway. Especially River of Gold talking about the lost city of Amazon warrior-women, piranhas and head hunters! $2/each

Next was something I randomly found while standing in the checkout. A 1964 Disneyland souvenir book for It's a Small World! Despite the fact that I think this ride would be vastly improved by the addition of an infrared blaster system (or even paint or pellet guns), I'm fascinated by Disney Imagineering.

The first half of the book is packed with photos and a written guide of the ride.
The back half gives a behind the scenes look at how it was created and works.

Here's the center spread.

If this were Haunted Mansion or Pirates related, I'd definitely add it to the archives. Recent Ebay auctions have closed around $15-$20. Considering I paid 29 cents for it, I might flip it.

Lastly, I found another cool game but this one's even older than  The Phantom: Ruler of the Jungle game I found from 1966! Although I don't know exactly what decade it's from. The interwebs tell me Milton Bradley started producing it in the 1890s. In researching I've also seen plenty of different box covers tagged as being from the 1930s and 1940s.

The mallets are about 8" long to give you a size reference.

The box has a bit of wear and a couple of split corners but considering it could be anywhere from 70-120 years old, it's not bad! There's no parts list but it looks to be complete with the exception of a foot from one of the wickets. The directions are printed on the inside box lid. $2

There's something a little odd about the cover art that I didn't really notice until I looked at the large size image. Take a look at that guy on the right. The color in the photo is a little off, but he's wearing a purple suit, has green hair and thanks to his cheek blush, looks like he has a big red smile! I hope he doesn't ask anyone if they want to see a mallet disappear...

The Phantom Board Game (1966)

After not having been in a few weeks, I decided to hit up Savers thrift store yesterday. They always have an assortment of books, toys and games but I'd never found anything really interesting until yesterday. As I was browsing the shelves stacked with board games, I saw "The Phantom Game" calling my attention.

Being the Halloween geek that I am, I had to pull the box out and have a look at it! Well, it wasn't that kind of phantom but the pulp hero. I've never gotten into The Phantom like I have other heroes such as The Shadow or Doc Savage. I've seen both modern movies, read a few comics and saw him on the Superfriend-y Defenders of the Earth cartoon.

As I inspected the box I noticed it was from 1966 so I popped it open to check the contents. The rule sheet was right there with a list of parts. Excuse me, not parts, implements. That's what they call the contents. Everything was there (and musty!) except for The Phantom Ring. Yet I noticed one of the "implements" was clay which was still in the box. Yep, I said clay...more on that later. Most pulp heroes have their trademark that they're known for and as little as I know about The Phantom, I know his skull ring is how he leaves his mark.
Would the game still be playable without it? At $1.99 I didn't care.

For the most part, it's in great shape considering its age. The right side of the box has a ding/dent in it but it's nothing too major. The clay has been removed from the box and game pieces and thrown out.  You're probably wondering why a board game came with clay. Each player has to complete missions on the board. The way you mark them complete is by placing one of your colored tokens on it and putting a blob of clay on the token. You then press the skull-shaped Phantom Ring into the clay to leave the mark of The Phantom.

An original Phantom game ring. Image from BoardGameGeek

So you can play without the ring but you need something to replace it. Only one player can have it at any time but there are spaces you can land on to steal it. Since having it is the only way to score missions, it sounds like players will be fighting to be the one true Phantom!

Usually when I find something like this, I scope out Ebay on my phone in the store for fun. But this was so cool that I just grabbed it and didn't think to check until later last night. Come to find out, complete copies in decent shape are going for around $150! I don't think my copy would go into triple digits, but on the other hand, I don't know how rare it might be.

Book of the Moment - Lucky at Cards

Get Lucky at Cards by Lawrence Block (1964)

I've been a long time fan of pulp but haven't really dipped into the realm of "real world" crime pulp. Usually in the crime pulps I read there is a buff bronze-skinned super-genius, a mystery man that can cloud the minds of men or some other fantastical element.

The Salem Library has a table where they sell books cheap and I found this for 50 cents. Even though it's a modern reprint, it has classic pulp art from the 60s which immediately caught my eye and made me give it the once over. The brief summary on the back tells of an on the run cardsharp who falls for the wife of his latest mark and their hatching a scheme to get rid of her husband. Gambling, infidelity and possibly murder? That pretty much sold me on it.

Block describes how the main character cheats at cards with the same skill Ian Fleming would talk about any card game Bond ever played. Even if it's not something you'd normally be interested in, he makes it interesting. The lingo is dealt out in such a way to make you feel like you're part of the scene instead of just reading a book.

The rest of the text is exactly what I'd expect in a hard-boiled crime novel: plenty of smoking, drinking, the occasional roll in the sheets and of course, the best laid plans falling apart. There was also the laugh out loud use of the phrase "genital gymnastics."

Here's another sample:

"Joyce walked toward me. Gears locked within me. I didn't move toward or away from her. I stood very still and she came closer. Her breasts jutted out like mortar shells. I could smell her perfume mingling with the hot animal scent of her body. She came closer, and I felt her body heat, and her lips were inches from mine. If I raised her face or lowered mine I could have kissed her. I didn't."

They don't write em like that anymore! Of course I enjoy the usual larger than life heroes and crazy things that tend to happen in other pulps but they all share a unique language which is something that keeps me coming back for more.

Prior to this, I wasn't sure if I'd enjoy this type of story firmly rooted in our mundane day-to-day world but now I know better. I'll definitely be checking out more in this genre. You can read a sample chapter on the Hard Case Crime site.

Rating: 4 out of 5 marked cards

Christmas Past & Present

I hope everyone had a great couple of days no matter what you were doing or celebrating. Christmas Eve we visited with my brother-in-law's family and my 3 year old nephew and 6 year old niece. They both got early gifts in the form of kid-friendly Nabi tablets.
Let me tell you, for a "kid's" tablet, it looks pretty good under the hood!
My niece and I had fun playing Vs. Fruit Ninja.

Back in my day (pipe down old man!), the equivalent gift of the time would have been an Atari 2600. It's crazy to think how tech savvy today's kids will group up to be. Speaking of Christmases long, long ago, here's a Polaroid from 1980 of me opening a still mint in box 12" IG-88 action figure. If you squint really hard, there's an Atari 2600 under the TV back there.

Here's a little visual rundown of the goodies from this year...

An Adventure Time calendar to replace my 2012 one and lots of magnets! I have the large Finn and Jake ones on my car now but they're sun faded so I think I'm going to replace them with the one of them together.

A very cool Doctor Who calendar and pen. As you can see, this calendar is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Doctor in 2013. Each month features a large head silhouette of a Doctor containing images related to him. The month of December is a TARDIS silhouette with all the Doctors in it.

The Halloween Kid dons a mask to keep Trick or Treaters safe from monsters.
I talked back in February about Liō and I can't wait to go through his latest book.
The subtitle of The Stupidest Angel reads "A heartwarming tale of Christmas terror."
That Halloween book is a monstrous anthology weighing in around 520 pages.

Yay! I'm so excited to finally get to see Cartoon Lagoon! From everything I've heard it's supposed to be a great tribute to all things Saturday morning.
I'm equally thrilled (and chilled) to be able to dive into Spine Tingler! The William Castle story. If you follow my monthly movie recaps, you know I'm a fan of Castle's films. This guy was the P.T. Barnum of movies. There's also some footage from the premier of Vincent Price's The Tingler which should be interesting as well.
I've seen American Graffiti more than a few times and I love it. I have a crazy love of 50s/60s hot rod culture and music.

Ghost Castle is the newest in a long line of remakes of the game Which Witch? from 1970. I've had a thing for board games with traps since I picked up Superstition as a kid at a yard sale. I have a copy of the 1985 European release of this, also called Ghost Castle. You can read a history of the game's incarnations over at Monsterfink's blog. I'm sure I'll do a post in the future about this game and if I'm feeling ambitious, compare the two Ghost Castles.

EDIT: I just realized I forgot to post the stuff I got from my parents! Oops! 

The Tales of the Red Panda books are based on the podcast of the same name from Decoder Ring Theater. If you enjoy old time radio shows of pulp heroes and hard boiled noir detectives, check out their shows. They're all free!
Zombie Pulp is an anthology.
The Logan's Run tv series will be interesting to check out after all this time. I'll have to see if I can snag the movie BluRay for $10 at Target now.

League Post - Shelf Expression

This week's League assignment is a fairly simple photographic request:

Post a photo of a shelf of items that displays your love for pop culture.

It's a little cluttered but if you click for a larger view you can find all kinds of stuff here.

And I couldn't just let it go at one. Here's the top 4/5 of another bookshelf.

Here's what other League Memembers are showing off
Monster Cafe Saltillo has lots of pics!
Plenty more toys over at Goodwill Geek
Lair of the Dork Horde shows a glimpse of his work desk

Monthly Movie Recap - September 2012

Yes, technically the month isn't over yet but starting tomorrow, we're going into full-on Countdown to Halloween mode. Wow, I can't believe we're heading into October already! As always, clicking a title link will bring you to Amazon where you can purchase the movie (or anything else) and drop a couple coins in my pocket,

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
I'm really enjoying this series, even if Holmes gets a little outrageous with the preemptive things he sets up. Downey and Law have a great chemistry and it'd be great to see them do a few more of these.

Cool: More of what made the first one fun; Moriarty and Holmes facing off out thinking each other
Lame: As I said, some of the set ups are a little crazy in their planning
Rating: 7/10, I can see this going on like a Bond series

League Post - Flash Aa-ah-ssemble!

The assignment for this week:

Remake one of your favorite movies with a cast of current Hollywood stars.

I admit, I struggled with this one to the point of almost skipping out this week. I'm not so in tune with Hollywood that I necessarily know who the hot actors are right now that would make this project work. But once I stumbled on to Flash Gordon and recast the lead, the rest of the cast just kind of...Assembled. So, in honor of our movie hero, I took that ball and ran it all the way downfield!

You'll have to bear with me. I didn't have the time to make up fancy graphics showing the original actors with their reboot counterparts.

Flash (Ahh-ahhh!)
At first I went with who is seeming to be the League's go to guy for these reboots: Chris Hemsworth. But then I thought he's probably too big for this part, literally. Chris Evans on the other hand is ripped but not as physically imposing and we already know he can pull off the All American Guy.

Dale Arden
Colbie Smulders, she can do Girl Next Door and kick butt at the same time.

Dr Zarkov
Mark Ruffalo. Could go with Robert Downey Jr., but Ruffalo has got the grounded scientist vibe down without being overly snarky.

Ming the Merciless
Could Tom Hiddleston be made up to convincingly look old enough to pull this off? His daughter is only a few years younger than he is... (Sam Jackson could bring the crazy to this part but I don't think the world is ready for an African American Ming, is it?)

Princess Aura
Sultry seductress? Since there's only 2 main female characters in Avengers, it's got to be Scarlett Johansson. Yeah...definitely not because she would fill this out.

Prince Barin
Could go with Downey or Jeremy Renner here to replace Timothy Dalton. Renner's got the Bourne training but after seeing Downey's Sherlock, I think he could bring the needed swagger to this role. Hiddletson would also be good here, we already know he looks good in green.

Prince Vultan
Yes, we all get a kick out of the jolly flying Brian Blessed but I'm turning this around 360 and going with the God of Thunder himself. I imagine his outfit being very similar to DC's Hawkman but without the helmet. The ladies will love it!

General Klytus
Sam MF Jackson! Who better to play Ming's right hand man? Definitely have to rework/remove the mask so he won't look like Doctor Doom. Picturing Sam playing this mad crazy like the Octopus from The Spirit.

General Thun
Jeremy Renner. It's not a big part but you get to defy Ming's order to kill yourself!

Not sure where, but I'd have to work in a Clark Gregg cameo someplace too.

Maybe as Zarkov's assistant?

Check other League Members posts

Reis at The Dork Horde goes wild with The Beastmaster

One of my favorite 80s fantasy flicks, Krull, is redone by Goodwill Geek

That Figures! goes way passed Michael Bay with Doctor Who

Monthly Movie Recap - June 2012

Well, the good news is these monthly posts will be a lot shorter over the summer as I've landed a temp job. June was by far the biggest swing between amazingly awesome movies and amazingly bad movies. As always, clicking a linked title takes you to Amazon where you can order it and toss a few coins our way.

Under the Boardwalk: The Monopoly Story (2011)
It's almost like King of Kong but for Monopoly. One of the players is a grade school math teacher who breaks down probabilities of the game board to teach his class. The doc also discusses the history of how the game came to be which is pretty interesting. 

Cool: Narrated by Zachary Levi!; I could actually watch the full 40 minute video of the championship game and not be bored
Lame: Just like every other competitive game, there are some real weirdos
Rating: 8/10, if you ever wanted to be a Monopoly shark, watch the DVD extras

League Post - Fandom Assemble!

With the release of The Avengers, Disney/Marvel has pulled off something near impossible by combining popular characters into one movie and presumably giving them their moments to shine. I say presumably because I am not one of the people that contributed to The Avengers $200 million opening weekend, but I'll get there...

With that in mind, The League poses this conundrum:

What pop culture heroes or stories would make for the ultimate crossover–think along the lines of Han Solo meeting up with Firefly’s Mal on a smuggling run.

This is another one of those "hard to pick just one" answers because it's a topic that kids have been talking about on the playground probably since the invention of movies.

I'd like to see a well done Indiana Jones and Doctor Who crossover! I imagine Indy and a guide hacking a trail through the darkest part of Africa when *clunk* a machete hits something solid. Clearing away the vines, they find a familiar blue police box. Indy is obviously perplexed at how this ended up here and is studying it when the door swings open.

I tried to write the rest out as fiction but it came out really cheesy...Anyway, Indy meets the 10th Doctor and Martha Jones. In my story, it has to be Martha so when the Doctor introduces her to Indy (of course he knows who Indy is!) there is an obligatory "Doctor Jones, meet..uh...Doctor Jones." line. Martha has a few moments trying to come to grips with the fact that Indy is a real person and they get on with saving the world.

Why is the Doctor there? A small group of Cyberman crashed landed there and are trying to find a crystal skull which will somehow power their ship. But of course, the Nazis are also looking for the skull. What's worse than Cybermen or Nazis? Cyber-Nazis! Forget the skull, what better way for the Nazis to win the war than to steal the TARDIS? Hijinks ensue...

I think this would be an interesting pairing as the Doctor isn't usually paired with someone as smart as Indy and they'd be able to compliment each others knowledge. Then of course Indy can get physical with the baddies while the Doctor sonics something to save the day.

It was a lot harder than I thought finding an appropriate mashup image

Check out some of these other bloggers

Fiji Mermaid at Sideshow Cinema wants to see the ultimate hunt

An incredible gang of computer geeks hack into Branded in the 80s

Memories of Toymorrow orders up some roses for Ultimate Bachelor

For the full rundown of bloggers this week, hit Cool and Collected

Friday Funnies - Dexverse Issue #1

Hey there, faithful blog reader! I'm starting a new...uh, segment? Do you only call it a segment on a show? Column? Section? Feature? Whatever the heck it is, I'm starting a new one for a couple weeks!

Unlike some of my fellow geeks, I have zero aptitude when it comes to drawing. I dabble in photography and Photoshop so I do consider myself to be somewhat artistically inclined with a decent eye stylistically. I'm also not very good at writing stories but think I'm okay at coming up with ideas for things. What this new series is going to cover are various characters I've created for MMORPGs. If you don't know what that stands for, you probably missed your exit on the information super-highway. There will be some info and images showing the evolution and/or costume variations of the characters over time.

When I started playing City of Heroes way back in 2004 I struggled for an idea for my first hero. Sure you can just pick a couple of power sets and create your costume, but if you know me when I get into "create mode" you know I am crazy about detail! I didn't just want to make any Superhero #1138, he needed to BE a character. The brain started firing and I remembered one of the comic characters I created in middle school when I was 13. His name is Captain Blaze.

Check out that school-issue math paper!

Real name Douglas Shaw? How lame is that for a hero?

Who Knows What Evil Lurks in the Hearts of Bricks...

Series 6 of LEGO blind-bagged minifigs have been out for a little while now. I love collecting these little guys and usually stay focused on the horror/monster/sci-fi figs. But when I first saw the preview for this series, I knew I had to customize the Bandit into one of the greatest pulp heroes, The Shadow!

Image from Brickpedia

From the original minifig, I only kept the kerchief, head and hat. I thought I could get away with turning the torso around to make it solid black, but the bandoliers are printed on the back too! This was actually a good thing as it made me get a "suit" torso which looks much better than solid balck would and it has black hands which are better than the brown here. I also ordered a black cape, black legs and a pair of pistols that look more like The Shadow's .45's. They were originally yellow but a little silver paint transformed them to complete the silver plated .45 look. The cape is a tiny bit problematic because of it has to fold under the kerchief which causes one side to flair out.

All in all, getting the parts cost more than the figure itself but the results are better than I could have hoped. I bought all my parts from eBay seller sammy36496 and they get a high recommendation from me! They have a Facebook page where they encourage you to post your customs.

I went a little crazy taking pics of The Shadow because I was having fun with a couple of different flashlights and camera effects. Enjoy! And if anyone can clue me in on the trick of getting more than one photo on the same line, please let me know, it's driving me crazy.

The first one was backlit with a flashlight and enhanced with the ThumbaCam app on my Windows phone to get that smoky look.

This last one is my favorite because of the shadow being cast