Thursday, April 30, 2020

The Year of Joe - April - Part 1

April started off well with the hunt. I found a seller who had a lot of stuff for cheap, mostly because all the accessories were gone. I'm fine with that. Will fill those in later which will be just as fun. Plus, with the Covid19 stuff going on, best to maintain a bit of a budget.  So I bulked up both sides of the fight this time. Plenty of Joes and Cobras, and a used Killer WHALE which I will show in the next post.

From the Joe side, managed to get Keel Haul,  Flint, Spirit, Shipwreck, General Hawk, Tunnel Rat, Rip Cord, Lifeline, Falcon, Deep Six, Law and Order, and Bazooka.

From the Cobra side: Baroness, Tele Viper, Scrap Iron, Crimson Guard, Serpentor, Monkeywrench, Zandar, and a Space Viper?

From the Oktober Guard: Big Bear and Red Star




























Cobra!

Oktober Guard

Go Army! Beat Navy!

Yo Joe!



Navy (and Coast Guard) representation.  I was Army and always kid with my Navy friends that there were very few Joes who came from the Navy side compared with the Army. Here is a small sample, even throwing in a Coast Guard guy.


Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Star Wars - Solo - Quarantine Movie and Toy Review

Current rankings of the films I've watched in chronological order.

1. Solo - A Star Wars Story
2. Attack of the Clones
3. Revenge of the Sith
4. Phantom Menace



Solo: A Star Wars Story had the unfortunate timing of being released six months after the dreaded Last Jedi. The fans were still very upset. I can find 100 YouTube reviews criticizing Last Jedi - the reviews being longer than the movie itself.

I thought Solo was fun. It injected fun back into the franchise. I liked Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo. You'll never be able to replace Harrison Ford, but I think he did a fantastic job. He had the swagger, even if it was only 90%.

What I Liked About the Movie
1. The train heist - good old fashioned fun
2. Woody Harrelson as Tobias Beckett
3. Sabaac - and all the aliens around the card games
4. Donald Glover as Lando Calrissian
5. Dryden Vos being a real gangster, and not just an evil member of the Empire
6. Enfys Nest and her gang - the girl who played her was bad ass as well
7. Solo shooting first
8. Emilia Clarke in her red cape
9. The showdown at Savareen
10. The end scene card game where Solo wins the Falcon
11. The Trailer with the very cool western style music. The music wasn't in the movie unfortunately.
12. Toys - Happy they released the Mission on Vandor four pack that wasn't filled with repacks.
13. Toys - Happy that final series with Tobias, Val, Durant, and L3 were released. Never saw it on store shelves. Had to order online.
14. Toys - the Target exclusive six pack was a nice army builder.
15. The Raiders of the Lost Ark Fertility Idol sitting on Dryden Vos' table.

What I didn't Like:
1. How Han and Chewie meet was a little hokie, especially Solo knowing the Wookie langauge
2. L3's droid liberation
3. Toys - the Millenium Falcon was dreadful. What an embarrassment.  It was a real piece of junk.
4. Toys - could have used a lot more aliens.
5. The AT-DT was cool as hell but never saw it at stores.