It’s Figure Friday, and there’s a lot of toy news for me to cover and not a lot of time in which to do it! I still haven’t found a Transformers Cosmos, and morale will not improve until I do. Let’s get to it.
“Set phasers to NERF or nothin’.”
Thursday was the 56th anniversary of the premier of the original Star Trek, so of course, there have to be some toy announcements to go along with it! Surely, Playmates Toys has some new offerings…wait…Nerf is doing something? I did not have that on my Trek Announcement Bingo Card.
From the Hasbro Pulse website:
Engage! the 35th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation with these Nerf LMTD Star Trek Starfleet Type 3 Phaser and Starfleet Type 2 Phaser! They capture the look of the phasers handled by Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise. The Type 3 motorized dart blaster has light-up effects that simulate the look of being assimilated by the Borg—in homage to the film, Star Trek: First Contact—light-up phaser effects, phaser sounds, authentic First Contact movie sounds, an internal 5-dart clip, and fires 1 dart at a time. The Starfleet Type 2 Phaser fires 1 dart and has a pull-back priming handle. With their premium design details, the blasters honour Star Trek, the iconic universe that has sparked imaginations and engaged fans for over 50 years. The blasters come in premium packaging that’s perfect for display. Eyewear recommended (not included). Includes 7 foam Nerf Elite darts. Type 3 phaser requires 4x 1.5v AA alkaline batteries (not included).
I’ve always wanted a phaser rifle and one that shoots Nerf darts; that’s almost a done deal right there. While the phasers aren’t quite screen-accurate, it’s nothing a couple of cans of spray paint can’t fix (the phasers are coloured white and Day-Glo green so as not to look like actual phasers guns). The price point of $120 is a little bit steep for me to justify purchasing it, but I am completely enraptured by the fact that this thing actually exists.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2 S.H.Figuarts Spider-Man
While it’s billed as The Amazing Spider-Man 2, he’ll always be Peter 3 in our hearts. Preorders finally went live this week for Andrew Garfield’s take on the wall-crawler, and you’d better believe I smashed that order button as soon as I could.
Now, it was just a few months ago that I was singing the praises of Amazon Japan and how ordering from them allowed me to snag another Figurarts figure at a much, much better price than domestic retailers. Well, I’ve been hoisted by my own petard since neither this Spider-Man nor the other Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man has managed to materialize on that site. I’ve been searching for weeks now but have been coming up with NOTHING, so I’ve been “forced” to order them at a fair markup. A small price to pay for what I can later customize into an Under The Silver Lake action figure. Don’t think I won’t do it!
The Big O Moderoid Megadeus Model Kit
My enjoyment of Anime is on a case-by-case basis.
Of course, I love Cowboy Bebop; if you were in college in the ’90s. there’s no way you didn’t love it. Unless you were into sports or something. Of course, I love Akira, and I saw it at way too young when a friend’s mom rented it under the assumption it was just a cartoon movie. Of course, I love Studio Ghibli movies, I’ll take them over Disney any day of the week.
Rarely have I ventured off what is essentially the main path when it comes to Anime, but of course, I would pick one to go all-in on that has the most…unfortunate name.
Believe me, if you’re going to search for that, you HAVE TO add the “anime” modifier to your Google/Amazon/eBay search, or you will probably be on some kind of list. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way…
The series aired in Japan somewhat unsuccessfully before being imported to the US of A as part of the Toonami lineup late at night which was perfect for me as a college-aged night owl. I’ve read that the series was described as a mash-up of “Batman: The Animated Series and classic mecha-style anime,” and that’s not far off. Imagine if Bruce Wayne wasn’t Batman but had his own personal Voltron instead; throw in a dash of noir and a pinch of surrealism, and you’re 90% of the way there.
The series did well enough on Cartoon Network that they opted to co-produce a second season (the first series ended on an epic cliffhanger). Rumours abound as to why a third season wasn’t produced, most of which imply that a certain executive at Cartoon Network wasn’t pleased that the show was gaining in popularity when compared to some of the network’s original programming.
Following the show’s cancellation, I was able to procure both seasons on DVD and then a few years ago on Blu-ray which was good for me since it’s not available to purchase digitally to my knowledge. I think it may be on an anime streaming app, but I’m not about to subscribe for a single show.
In brief, merchandise for the show is exceedingly hard to find in the West. I managed to pick up an action figure of the robot at a Kay-Bee Toys back in the day, and about a decade later, I bought an animation cel off eBay, and THAT’S IT. So, I was pliantly surprised to see that a new model kit is coming next year and, while I’ve generally sworn off model kits…an exception had to be made.
Watch this space this time next year as I voice my frustrations over putting the dang thing together!
