NECA Pacific Rim Battle Royale

It's been a long time since I took anything out of the package and photographed them. My dioramas are not that complicated. But it was fun posing these fighting robots (Jaegers) and monsters (Kaijus).

BREAKING NEWS: Farce Friday Star Wars Haul

Friday was dubbed "Force Friday" in honor of the release of all the new Star Wars toys for The Force Awakens. More later on why it was called Farce Friday.

Most stores opened at midnight. I had the opportunity to go, coming home late from a preseason NFL game but I ended up just heading home. There would be plenty left on the shelves tomorrow, right?

Anyway, I arrived at Target (which didn't do the Midnight Madness event the night before) right around opening time. About five us went straight for the toy section. An entire side of an aisle was dedicated to the Force Awakens.

I didn't take a cart. I should have. I wasn't planning on getting everything, but a cart would have come in handy for all the 3-3/4" figures. Everyone was polite. There was no hoarding like I heard on other forums.

I grabbed the new X-Wing and Snow Speeder.

I grabbed three 6" Black Series - Rey, Stormtrooper, and Kylo Ren. These are very cool.

Finally, I grabbed three carded figures - Rey, Poe, and Resistance Trooper. I should have grabbed a few more but I couldn't carry anymore.

I moved on to Walmart. I saw a kiosk stand in front, mostly Legos and Hot Wheels vehicles. The small section for figures was picked clean. I figured the larger section was in the toy section. There was nothing there. Odd. I still grabbed Rey's speeder.  By the way, the packaging artwork is incredible.

Then I went to another Target. It was picked clean of all figures. I did grab Finn's landspeeder and TIE Fighter. I had not noticed this landspeeder in the forums before, but the exclusive Finn figure looked cool as well as the vehicle itself.

I considered waiting an hour to go into Toys R Us, but figured I best get to work. I'd hit it on the way home.

Being Labor Day weekend, I released my team early and headed home. I stopped at Toys R Us. This is what the figure section looked like:

It still looked like this Sunday morning.

So, why was it a Farce. There was not enough product. Even if you lined up at midnight according to most reports, the first 5-8 people emptied it with no restock.

For families who weren't crazy enough to stand in line at midnight or opening on Friday, there is nothing left. Most collectors were polite but reports of rude collectors emptying everything into their carts regardless of posted limits, left many collectors and fans empty handed. Etailers were not allowed to preorder either. The big box toys monopolized the event and now they left collectors hanging. Pathetic.

A good review of Force Friday:   Farce Friday

Overall, I am happy with the new figures. The vehicles were better than expected. The packaging art is fantastic. I now ordered everything at Big Bad Toy Store. Everything was listed by Friday morning.

Also ordered some more Black Series at Amazon. So I don't have them on Friday. They'll be here soon enough. Hasbro has earned its share of wrath for screwing this up. The consensus among collectors are, they just don't care.

Oh well - it's still fun to collect and to get ready for the new movie.

McFarlane Walking Dead - Comic Series 4

Nice to see after the debacle that was Comic Series 2, McFarlane has been on a tear with Comic Series 3 and 4, bringing some iconic figures to life....or unlife, whatever it is you would use to reference a zombie toy.

Anyway, Comic Series 4 is a fantastic (though small) collection of four figures. Why can't we go back to 5-6 figures.

Included in this series are the Pin Cushion Zombie - though quite honestly - I don't recall seeing him in the comics. Hard to see with the thousands that exist but oh well. Also included are Carl Grimes, Abraham Ford, and Jesus. Carl comes with two alternate heads, including the one with the bandage covering his missing eye. He also carries the assault rifle with which he attacks Negan's lair.

Abraham comes as first seen in the comics with his tank top t-shirt, army pants, machine gun and pitchfork. Finally, Jesus (Paul Monroe) is in his post-All Out War-samarui style outfit. All he needs is a horse.

This is a great collection and I anxiously await to hear what is in store for Series 5.

Han Solo and Chewbacca - 6 Inch Black Series

It's been awhile since I wanted to photograph two of my favorite Star Wars characters. I could always picture Han Solo with his arm back and up...

As well as this iconic photo from Star Wars: A New Hope.

So here are my simple recreations. It was fun just to finally take them out of the package and photograph them.

I know there is a lot of swirl around the 6 inch versus traditional 3-3/4 inch scale, but I really like these.

And by the way, enjoy Midnight Madness tonight for The Force Awakens toys if you are going.

LEGO Big Bang Theory

The "Big Bang Theory" has been a phenomenal hit on television. The sheer number of pop culture/geek references are hysterical. LEGO pays homage to this show about science and sex with this great set of it's main cast. The environment is Sheldon and Leonard's living room. The figures include Sheldon, Leonard, Penny, Bernadette, Howard, Amy and Raj. The set caps the iconic living room in perfect scale and detail. Looking forward to putting this together.