Friday, June 27, 2014

Getting Ready for the Dawn

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

As I've said many times, I was never a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes. I saw the first movie, thought it was a decent movie, and understood it's social commentary, but never gave it much thought afterwards.

I didn't see the 2001 remake with Mark Wahlberg....guess I should consider myself lucky.

But then I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Obviously with it's very realistic CGI effects and the beginning of the story intrigued me as it took place in the present day. Loved that movie.

Then I saw the trailers for Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. It looks totally bad ass. I am a big fan of the post apocolyptic genre. So I ordered a case of the NECA figures and tried to recreate one of the scenes from the trailer. I also used the HIYA Rise of the Planet of the Apes figures and Ringwraith horses from ToyBiz Lord of the Rings 6 inch collection.


July 11th - you know where I'll be.

Wednesday, June 25, 2014

My Latest Addiction - Kickstarter Projects - HACKS, Cthulhu, and Elementals

I had heard of Kickstarter, but never really looked into it. I check out the forums on Rebelscum and CoolToyReview daily and saw two very cool action figure Kickstarter campaigns. Both are already successfully funded so now the goal is to unlock the bonus items.

First is the Vitruvian HACKS project from Boss Fight Studios. This is an awesome set of Greek Mythology figures - very articulated and parts that interchange. It started with 4 figures - Spartan warriors, and Medusa and her snake warriors.





The initial goal was 75K but they are now past 165K and if my math is correct, there are already 17 or 18 figures now unlocked with several more on the way. I'm totally loving the snake warriors in this line.

Help them get to 700 backers to unlock another amazon warrior figure,

The other project is based on HP Lovecraft Cthulhu books. Four awesome figures. The project is fully funded and they have hit goals to unblock some other figures. These are totally retro in style and packaging. For more info and a ton of photos, check out their site.




So if you want some really cool toys and don't want to depend on the big boxes anymore, check these out and support them.

Finally, this project was already successfully funded and finished but there are definitely some great projects to support on Kickstarter.

These are the I-Am-Elemental action figures for girls. I like the style and sculpting and I like what they are doing. My daughter played with Star Wars as much as Disney Princesses and loves LEGO. So would love to see her have a set of these and see how she plays with them.



Monday, June 16, 2014

League Assignment: John Hughes Pop Culture Road Trip to Shermer, Illinoiz





The John Hughes Pop Culture Road Trip

Since I grew up in the Chicago area and was a teenager at the time of all the John Hughes classics (Breakfast Club, 16 Candles, Ferris Bueller, etc) I thought a pop culture road trip to Shermer, Illinoiz would be perfect for this assignment. Of course, the road trip would be in Cameron’s Ferrari or Jake’s Porsche.

Ferris Bueller - High school student Ferris Bueller wants a day off from school and he's developed an incredibly sophisticated plan to pull it off. He talks his friend Cameron into taking his father's prized Ferrari and with his girlfriend Sloane head into Chicago for the day. While they are taking in what the city has to offer, school principal Ed Rooney is convinced that Ferris is, not for the first time, playing hooky for the day and is hell bent to catch him out. Ferris has anticipated that, much to Ronney's chagrin. Written by  garykmcd

Follow Ferris’ trek from Cameron’s house to Wrigley Field to the Sears Tower to the Art Institute.
Interesting tidbit – Cameron’s house is actually up for sale if you have a cool 1.25 million.





Planes, Trains, Automobiles All that Neal Page wants to do is to get home for Thanksgiving. His flight has been cancelled due to bad weather, so he decides on other means of transport. As well as bad luck, Neal is blessed with the presence of Del Griffith, Shower Curtain Ring Salesman and all-around blabbermouth, who is never short of advice, conversation, bad jokes, or company. And when he decides that he is going the same direction as Neal....Written by Murray Chapman

I wouldn’t want to follow this entire sequence but funny movie.



VacationThe Griswold family are on a quest. A quest to a Walley World theme park for a family vacation, but things aren't going to go exactly as planned, especially when Clark Griswold is losing all thought towards a mysterious blonde in a red Ferrari. Written by FilmFanUK

Headed to the Grand Canyon and Walley World. Don’t forget to untie the dog and what to do with Grandma?




Pretty in Pink - Teenager Andie is one of the not-so-popular girls in high school. She usually hangs out with her friends Iona or Duckie. Duckie has always had a crush on her, but now she has met a new guy at school, Blane. He's one of the rich and popular guys but can the two worlds meet? Written by Mattias Thuresson



Sixteen Candles - Samantha's life is going downhill fast. The fifteen-year-old has a crush on the most popular boy in school, and the geekiest boy in school has a crush on her. Her sister's getting married, and with all the excitement the rest of her family forgets her birthday! Add all this to a pair of horrendously embarrassing grandparents, a foreign exchange student named Long Duc Dong, and we have the makings of a hilarious journey into young womanhood.Written by Rick Munoz




Breakfast Club - They were five students with nothing in common, faced with spending a Saturday detention together in their high school library. At 7 a.m., they had nothing to say, but by 4 p.m., they had bared their souls to each other and become good friends. To the outside world they were simply a Brain, an Athlete, a Basket Case, a Princess, and a Criminal, but to each other, they would always be the Breakfast Club.



Of course, to top this off, I have to watch Kevin Smith’s Dogma. Why? Because they go to Shermer, Illinoiz to meet John Hughes….

Jay: [Bethany, Jay, and Silent Bob are sitting in a diner; the guys are staring at Bethany expectantly] So what's up? You have a friend for Silent Bob or are you just gonna do us both? If so, I'm first. I hate sloppy seconds.
Bethany: You're a man of principle. Jersey's pretty far from McHenry, may I ask what brought you here?
Jay: Some **** named John Hughes.
Bethany: "16 Candles" John Hughes?
Jay: You know that guy too? That ****in' guy. He made this flick, "16 Candles". Not bad, there's *** in it but no ***. But Ebert over here don't give a **** about that kind of thing, 'cause he's like, all in love with this John Hughes guy.
[Silent Bob shakes his head with a "whatever" look on his face]
Jay: He goes out and rents, like, every one of his movies. ****in' "Breakfast Club", where all these stupid kids actually show up for detention. ****in' "Weird Science", where this babe wants to take her gear off and get down, but oh no, she don't, 'cause it's a PG movie. And then "Pretty in Pink", which I can't even watch with this tubby ***** anymore 'cause every time he gets to the part where the redhead hooks up with her dream guy, he starts sobbin' like a little ***** with a skinned knee and ****. And there's nothing worse than watching a ****in' fat man weep.
[Silent Bob blows out his cigarette smoke angrily]
Bethany: What exactly brought you to Illinois?
Jay: See, all these movies take place in this small town called Shermer in Illinois, where all the honeys are top-shelf but all the dudes are whiny ****ies. Except for Judd Nelson, he was ****in' harsh.
[he and Silent Bob bump fists]

Jay: But best of all, there was no one dealin', man. And then it hits me: we could live like FAT rats if we were the blunt connection in Shermer, Illinois. So we collected some money we were owed and caught a bus. But you know what the **** we found out when we got there? There IS no Shermer in Illinois. Movies are ****in' bullshit.

Friday, June 6, 2014

The Apes are Ready to Rise

I have never been a big fan of the original Planet of the Apes movies. In fact, I only watched the original one about two years ago. It was OK, but I just didn't get into it.

However, I loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It was done very well and the story seemed very realistic. I am totally psyched about Dawn of the Planet of the Apes which comes out July 11th.

NECA just released the new Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Picked up Caesar and Koba at Toys R Us. Maurice was sold out - have him on preorder though.

I also purchased the Rise of the Planet of the Apes figures released by HIYA Toys in Japan. The scales are about even. Looking forward to an ape army diorama in the near future.






Thursday, June 5, 2014

Hasbro GI Joe Confederate Soldier

While I am a Yankee, I did pick up this Army of Virginia - 1861 Confederate Soldier from Hasbro for one specific reason. I wanted the long grey overcoat for another custom project. I haven't taken the coat out yet but this figure and box looks pretty cool.






Wednesday, June 4, 2014

League Assignment: My Shelfies!

This week's assignment for the League of Extraordinary Bloggers.

Shelf Expression. Take a picture of your shelves, featuring a few of your favorite things.

Most of my stuff is in storage and I rotate collections and new stuff in and out, but here goes.

Top of my TV stand. A very eclectic mix.





The shelf that makes me think I am back in the 80s walking through a toy store.



Mostly new stuff...and once again, an odd mix.




The garage workshop where I do most of my dioramas.


More Leaguers show their shelfies.










Sideshow Storm Shadow

Been awhile since I purchased one of these but didn't want to pass this one up.

Storm Shadow - Cobra Ninja - in his camouflage white ninja suit and kick ass bow.

Will need to take this one out and set it up sometime soon.








Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Walking Dead RV

I've used the Tonka RV before in Walking Dead dioramas but at the time, I only had Rick and Daryl action figures. A few series later, I added Shane, Glenn, Maggie, Andrea, and Carl to the Season 2 "diorama." All we need now is Dale.


Andrea fights off the RV zombie with a screwdriver from the Season 2 premiere.



Monday, June 2, 2014

McFarlane Walking Dead Cast

A collection of all the Walking Dead figures from McFarlane Toys.


Sunday, June 1, 2014

Simpsons Celebrity Series 1

Oops! Just realized after posting Series 2, I never posted Series 1. Here they are with Hugh Heffner, Tom Hanks, Kid Rock, James Brown, and Yao Ming. Coach Homer was also in this series.