Feb 9 2012

Lego Alien Conquest: UFO Abduction (#7052)

Yes, it has been quite a while since I looked at a Lego set. In fact, I’m pretty sure the last time was also one of the Alien Conquest series. I’ve actually been hankering to build a set for a while now, but there’s been an awful lot of stuff out their vying for my toy buying dollahs. But, this past Sunday morning as I was out hitting Wally World early to get some snacks for the Super Bowl I decided to pick up a new set to give me something to do while waiting to see the Giants kick the Patriots’ collective asses. [Why yes, I am a prophet! -FF] 

And here we go. The goods come in a standard Lego box declaring that this is in fact set number 7052 and does indeed contain 211 pieces. That piece count includes three minifigs, one alien flying saucer, a couple of barricades and a missile launcher. It also points out that this set includes a light up feature, which is the first time I’ve ever seen this in a Lego set. I didn’t need much incentive to pick this one up, as I’m really digging this Alien Conquest series, but if at any point I was teetering on indecision, the light up gimmick surely had me sold. The Alien Conquest series continues to tap into that whole Mars Attacks aesthetic with the logo and artwork. Tearing open the box you find an instruction booklet, a sticker sheet, a loose clear plastic dome, and two decent sized baggies of Lego goodness.
As always, let’s start with the minifigs. You get one Earth Defense guy, one farmer, and one alien. The Earth Defense guy is pretty much the same thing we saw in the Alien Defender set (that’s number 7050 if you’re keeping track) although the head is new. These guys are basically just dudes in blue space suits, which is kind of strange because they seem to do all their alien fighting on Earth. I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned that before, so let’s move on. The farmer is the alien abductee, which is pretty funny because it’s usually some hick that the aliens kidnap (God, I love this series!). He’s a cool little figure and comes complete with a pitchfork. If you have any need of a generic farmer minifig, this guy can easily be cross purposed. And lastly you have the alien. I like these guys, but Lego’s alien minifigs do tend to blur together a bit for me. Both the Earth Defense guy and the alien each come with a pistol.
The bulk of the build here is the alien saucer, but there are a couple of barricades and a simple missile launcher for the Earth Defense guy to use. Seriously, gotta make sure those road barricades are up to defend that thing against the giant death dealing alien spaceship, right? Suffice it to say this isn’t even a fair fight, so you may want to make sure you pick up the Alien Defender set to give the humans a little more firepower. C’mon, it’s only ten bucks!
The saucer is very cool. I was a bit afraid its simple and very symmetrical design would make for a boring build, but there’s a lot of cool little details that help keep things interesting. The bottom hatch has an elaborate little system of teeth and claws that let you drop the saucer down on a minifig’s head and it will pick the figure up. Well, maybe seven out of ten times it will anyway. There are two articulated antenna arrays, the dome opens and closes to sit the minifig and oh yeah, did I mention it lights up? The build for the light up mechanism is very cool and the whole assembly sits in the cockpit. By pressing forward on the big green ball behind the cockpit the red brick in the cabin lights up and shines down through the hole in the bottom of the craft. It makes for a very cool effect and it casts the light down on the ground below the ship really well. Its kind of hard to show with my shitty little camera, but take my word for it, it’s pretty nifty.
All told, it took me a little over an hour to build this set. As usual, I took my time and I was watching some Doctor Who while doing it, so your build speed may vary. It’s certainly a fun build and the saucer turns out very nice and solid for play or display. The set costs just under thirty bucks, which is not bad, but somehow it doesn’t seem quite the value that the Tripod Invader set was at only twenty. Still, I highly recommend this one, whether you’re already into Alien Conquest or you’re looking to see what its all about.
Feb 8 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Collect & Connect Stel

Oh yeah, here’s the reason I suffered through this somewhat mediocre assortment of figures. It’s not that I’m such a huge fan of the Stel character. I’ve already said that I don’t read a lot of Green Lantern Corps so my exposure to Stel has been pretty limited. On the other hand, the fact that he’s a giant Green Lantern robot is just such a cool and bizarre concept. The rings feed off of emotional power so how did a robot get one? And more importantly how does he use it? If I read Corps will I know these answers? Well, hell, maybe I should. In any event, Stel is one of those fine examples of a DC Unvierse Classics figure that I absolutely adore despite not being all that familiar with the character.

Hot damn, check him out. There have been plenty of cool Collect & Connect figures out over the years but this is without a doubt one of the most amazing sculpts Matty has thrown into this line. The sheer detail involved in all the little pistons and workings, mixed with the outstanding paintwork just makes this figure jaw droppingly awesome. Its a testament to the paintwork that we’ve seen the legs to this figure when we looked at the C&C STRIPE figure from Wave 19 of DCUC and yet they sure look different between the two figures. I’m especially fond of the inset Lantern Corps emblem in his chest plate. Brilliant!
Stel features great articulation. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, and hips; Hinges in the elbows, knees, and ankles, swivels in the biceps and wrists and waist, and a ball joint in the torso. Despite his bulky size Stel is capable of some great poseability.
There are plenty of C&C figures in my collection that I love more than Stel because of who they are. Darkseid, Bane and Kilowog all come immediately to mind. But in terms of sheer aesthetics Stel has no equal. He’s a drop dead gorgeous figure that made choking down some of the more mediocre figures in this wave a lot more tolerable. Even if I had no interest in the Green Lanterns or DC characters, I’d still be gushing over this figure. He’s just unbelieveably awesome.

So, I still have the rest of DC Universe Classics’ Wave 17 to look at, but I’m going to take a break from the DC stuff for a little bit in order to ramp up the variety around here. In fact, I’m going to impose a one week ban on any Marvel or DC figures, period. I’ve got some assorted stuff kicking around waiting to see the light of day, so let’s take a little detour before we come back to check out the Wave 17 figures, eh?
Feb 7 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Star Sapphire Carol Ferris by Mattel

Alrighty then, we’re up to the very last packaged figure in Wave 2 of Green Lantern Classics. This time up its Star Sapphire Carol Ferris… wait, didn’t I already do this figure? Oh, silly me, that was Star Sapphire Wonder Woman from Wave 17 of DC Universe Classics. Easy mistake. [And no, I didn’t forget. I’m going to be looking at the rest of Wave 17 next week. -FF] With the exception of Skallox/Nite-Lik this one was really the only packaged figure in this assortment I was looking forward to getting for reasons other than the C&C piece. Besides getting another Star Sapphire, I thought it was pretty cool to get a Carol Ferris figure in the DCUC scale, and let’s face it this is the only way that’s ever going to happen. Seriously, Mattel, if Hasbro can give us figures of Mary Jane (both Legends and Universe) and even Aunt May (Marvel Famous Covers, look it up, bitches!) how about a Carrol Ferris or a Lois Lane?

Yep, same packaging. I think I’ve said all there is to say about it. Carol’s packaged in an action pose, which thankfully didn’t mess with her joints too badly. What? No Lantern? Pfft. Let’s move on…
My, doesn’t Carol look smoking as a Star Sapphire? She’s wearing more on her arms and legs than she is over the important bits, but I doubt Hal is complaining. She’s a simple female buck sculpt with her scant purple garments all painted on and her fashionable white “V” collar sculpted. The lines between flesh and clothing are all pretty sharp, in fact there’s really no slop or bleeding on this figure’s paintwork at all. Carol’s head sculpt is a bit overly catlike, but its still attractive and perfectly serviceable and her tiara/eyemask is sculpted along with her long hair.
Carol’s articulation consists of ball joints in the neck and shoulders, universal movement in the hips, hinged elbows, knees, and ankles, swivel cuts in the biceps, wrists, and thighs, and a ball joint in her torso. All in all you get the same level of articulation here as in the male figures, except for the lack of waist swivel and the addition of the torso joint rather than just an ab crunch.
So, all in all Carol’s a great little figure. If you’re one of those that has issues with the DCUC female buck, then you’ll have all the same old complaints. I’m not, I think its fine. And now that we’ve closed the book on the individual packaged figures, I’ll be back tomorrow to check out one of the coolest looking C&C figures to come out of the DCUC lineup: Stel. Who woulda guessed?
Feb 6 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Green Lantern Sodam Yat by Mattel

Moving right along, we’re up to the fifth figure in my jaunt through Mattel’s second wave of Green Lantern Classics figures. This time around it’s Sodam Yat. Ok then. Sodam Yat. Yep. I tend to read a lot of the Green Lantern funny books, but Green Lantern Corps isn’t one of my regular reads so I really don’t know a lot about Sodam Yat and I can’t say as I would have picked him up if it weren’t for the C&C piece contained within the package. Nonetheless, I’m always happy to build up my forces of Green Lantern figures so I wasn’t at all peeved about having to buy him to build my Stel. Let’s see what he’s all about.

Once again, its the DC Universe Classics package with a twist of lime. Sodam Yat is packaged in a pretty dynamic action pose, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that it didn’t wreck his joints too badly. He’s also posed with a terrible looking green funnel of energy shooting out of his ring, but fear not, if you look closely enough you can see a replacement hand in the package.

Out of the package Sodam Yat is exactly what you should expect: A standard DCUC buck painted with a Green Lantern costume. The head sculpt is pretty good, and while this guy is an alien, its only really hinted at buy his eyes. The costume itself is well painted, but I’m not a fan of this deco at all. I definitely prefer the old school look with a little white to break it up. The emblem on his chest is pretty blah too. Still, for what he is this figure is a solid effort.
The energy blasting ring hand is just terrible. Its not at all convincing and it just droops down toward the ground. Its disappointing since other Green Lanterns have come with cool constructs and Sodam Yat here just got robbed by getting this ridiculous thing. It reminds me of those phasers that came with Playmates’ Star Trek TNG figures that had the terrible orange “beam” emitting from them. I used to snip those things off as soon as I got the figures out of the package. Fortunately,  you don’t have to do that here, as I just swapped on the regular ring hand and tossed the energy ring hand into my bin of extra DCUC figure parts and accessories and re-buried it in the backyard.
Sodam Yat features standard DCUC articulation, which everyone should have memorized by now, but just in case you don’t let me cut and paste it in here and have a sip on my adult beverage while y’all get reacquainted with it. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders and universal movement in the hips. The elbows, knees, and ankles are all hinged. You get swivel cuts in the biceps, wirsts, and thighs, a swivel in the waist and the usual ab crunch hinge in the torso. …and I’m back.
Its not uncommon for me to fall in love with DCUC figures even when I’m not terribly familiar with the character, but this isn’t one of those cases. Sodam Yat is a perfectly fine figure, much better than G’Hu, and I’m more than willing to add him to my Green Lantern shelf, but I can’t say as I would have bought him if not for the C&C piece. Granted, if you’re a regular reader of the Green Lantern Corps comics, your mileage is likely to vary.
Feb 5 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: Green Lantern G’Hu by Mattel

So, I still haven’t seen last year’s Green Lantern movie all the way through and at this point its doubtful I ever will. It can join the ranks of Ghost Rider as movies where I absolutely love the property, but simply can’t make it through the Hollywood movie treatment without wandering off to do dishes or clean out the grout in my bathtub for want of something more interesting to do. Needless to say, I didn’t collect the movie line of figures, but thanks to Mattel sneaking one into the Green Lantern Classics, I had to buy one in order to complete my C&C Stel figure. Mattel may be bastards, but they’re pretty good at forcing me to buy stuff I don’t really want.

Same packaging as last time. Its basically the DC Universe Classics style only given the lime slushy treatment. G’Hu sports something of a slight build so he’s packaged in a dorky action pose to help him fill out the card a little better. You’ll note the sticker on the bubble that reads“Sneak Peek Movie Figure!” so at least Mattel is announcing their chicanery to the buyer, because just one look at the figure inside and you can tell he doesn’t belong in this lineup.
One thing I did like about what I saw of the movie was the way it emphasized the alien nature of the Green Lantern Corps and that aspect of the movie seemed to work its way into the figures really nicely. Thus far, even the alien Lanterns we got as figures still tended to be rather humanoid, but the movie figures introduced some really wild looking aliens. I applaud that and just wish they were better figures because once I got this guy in hand it just felt like total crap to me. The sculpt is really soft, particularly in the face, which looks like it was modeled directly off of some really shoddy CG effects. Actually, I guess it was, so bravo, Mattel! The head includes a series of soft plastic tendrils that flow off the head and down the back like tentacle hair and G’Hu stands on two legs that terminate into a set of tripod feet. Surprisingly, he can stand pretty well. G’Hu has two fairly conventional arms and two smaller insect like arms coming off his shoulders.
I’m still on the fence over the reflective green used for the Lantern costumes in the movie. On the one hand, it has an ethereal look to it that emphasizes the alien nature, and that’s cool. On the other hand, it just looks junky on the figures. Even G’Hu’s flesh parts feature a purple glossy plastic that looks like it belongs on a My Little Pony figure. Either way, the glossy movie look makes this figure stick out like a sore thumb on my Green Lantern shelf, so he’s pretty useless you have other movie figures to display him with.

Due to his alien form, G’Hu’s articulation breaks from the normal DCUC formula, but then he isn’t a DCUC figure, he’s only packaged as one, so this deviation shouldn’t be surprising. He has a ball jointed neck, and ball joints in the shoulders and a ball joint in the torso. I don’t even know how to describe the joints used in his hips, elbows and knees. In fairness, you can get him into a fair number of poses and even his little insect arms move about a little bit.
Ultimately, it all comes down to me not liking this figure, and not liking the fact that I had to buy it to complete my Stel, and not liking the fact that its packaged in this line at all. If I wanted to collect the Green Lantern movie figures I would have done so. I can sort of understand the thinking here as being, “Hey, let’s get them to buy one movie figure and they’ll love it and buy the rest of the line.” But this figure is so crappy it would have convinced me against buying any more even if I was interested. There’s a reason those figures are rotting on the pegs and being clearanced out everywhere, Mattel. Nobody wanted them.

And remember kids, No G’News is good G’News without Gary G’Hu.
Feb 4 2012

Green Lantern Classics Wave 2: B’Dg, Despotellis, and Dex-Starr by Mattel

It’s been a little while since I last looked at Mattel’s Green Lantern Classics. We last left off with Skallox/Nite-Lik and Medphyll/Naut Kei Loi and that leaves four more releases plus the C&C Stel figure. Apart from the aforementioned combo figures, I felt this to be a fairly underwhelming, rag-tag assortment of figures leading up to one incredible Collect & Connect, Stel. As a result, I’m going to try to rocket through these pretty quickly, partly because I’ve got so much other stuff to look at, and partly because a lot of these figures just don’t invoke a lot of excitement in me. Today we’re going to kick things off with this curious little three pack that I like to call Green Lantern Critters.

As odd as this three pack is, Mattel still managed to maintain the standard style of packaging. You get all three characters: B’Dg, Despotellis and Dex-Starr staggered on the card as if they’re fighting. Well, B’Dg and Dex-Starr are fighting, Despotellis is just kind of sitting there and trying to look as interesting as a translucent yellow plastic virus can look. As one might expect, Mattel chose to include Stel’s massive torso piece in with these little guys to kind of balance out the plastic content.
Ok, so B’Dg and Dex-Starr both feature excellent sculpts and paintwork, particularly for the tiny little figures they are. I was also happy to see that the figures actually do feature a respectable five points of articulation, with swivels in the shoulders, hips, heads and tails. Sure there’s not a lot of great poseability here, but its better than just getting completely static hunks of plastic. Dex-Starr also comes with a translucent red energy blast that can plug into his mouth. Nice effect.
And then there’s Despotellis. He’s crap. I can appreciate that there’s not a lot Mattel could possibly do with translating this character to plastic form, but maybe that means they shouldn’t have attempted it, eh? Seriously, he looks like a gummi candy. End of story.
I wanted to like these figures, I really did. Actually it would be fair to say that I really like B’Dg and Dex-Starr, but in the end these three figures don’t add up to one regular Classics figure, at least as far as I’m concerned. These guys would have been better bundled with a regular figure, or possibly this should have been a four-pack with something else included to give it more weight. Or maybe swap out Despotellis for a better and more substantial figure. I’ll freely admit that I’m really glad Mattel got these figures out to the fans, and I’m happy to have them, or at least two of them, but I don’t think this was the best way to do it, especially not at fifteen bucks the the three of them.
Feb 3 2012

Marvel Universe: Masterwork Galactus Figure by Hasbro

It’s taken me a long time to finally get my hands on this figure. I shyed away from ordering it online because it was so friggin expensive to ship. I had it in my hands at Toys R Us a whole bunch of times, but I always opted to pick up four or five figures that I needed over this one, single beauty. And then, naturally, when I was finally ready to buy him, he was gone. I hunted him at three TRUs and he had already been replaced by The Sentinal figures and he was starting to go for a premium online. Thankfully, an online retailer that I’ve done business with a bunch of times was able to set me up with one at the original retail price and didn’t beat me up on shipping too badly either.

So the other day the postman dropped him off outside my door and when I went to retrieve him I was pretty taken back by the sheer weight of the package. Yeah, like I said, I had him in my hands at the store a couple of times and still every time I pick him up I’m impressed by the heft on this figure. He was shipped to me in the original Hasbro casepack, which holds two, which means it must have required super strength just to get it from the stockroom to the shelves. Yeah, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it is a weighty figure. In a perfect world, dealers selling this toy would have to mail you the Silver Surfer figure a few days ahead of time so that he could herald the coming of Galactus to your home. But, alas, no.
The packaging is a thing of beauty. It’s a massive slab of a box littered with gorgeous Marvel artwork. Lift up the flap and you can see Galactus and the tiny, by comparison, Silver Surfer in all their splendor. Naturally, there’s a “Try Me” hole so you can hear the mighty Galactus threaten and taunt you without even having to take him out of the package. Honestly, the speakers are mostly located on the back of the toy, so he does sound rather muffled when he’s still boxed up, so let’s get this sum’bitch out and witness him in all his glory. The box is very collector friendly and you can slide the whole tray right out of the package. A bunch of twisty-tie untying later and I had a figure that is not big enough to devour worlds, but big enough to send FigureFeline running for his goddamn life. Seriously, he was terrified of this thing for a while and then was just content to nest in the tray that I discarded on the floor.
Let’s get the Silver Surfer out of the way first. He’s a great figure, but let’s face it, by definition there isn’t much to him. He features a pretty standard and early version of the MU buck painted with a nice, shiny silver. There are some black paint apps around his eyes, but that’s about it. I actually picked up this figure carded a while back but opted to leave him in package because I knew one day I would have a loose one when I bought his oversized cosmic master. The surfboard isn’t the same shade of silver, but rather more like a matte grey. It has two pegs for Norrin to stand on, which brings us to Surfer’s articulation…
Norrin sports the older degree of articulation from the MU line. He has ball joints in the neck, shoulders and hips, double hinges in the knees, hinges in the elbows and ankles, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. He also sports that ball joint in the torso. The problem is that his lack of swivels in the legs and rocker hinges in the ankles makes it a little tough to get him to peg onto the board with both feet. Peg one foot in and the other one wants to pop out. You can still get him on some nice poses with the board, but he always seems just a bit too precariously balanced.
As for Galactus… holy shit. To place him in proper scale, your average MU figure comes up just to the top of his boot. But besides being a whopping 19-inches tall and weighing a ton, he features a really amazing sculpt, particularly in his bucket of a head. The helmet is magnificent with translucent bits that show off the light up features nicely. The small portion of his exposed face is also beautifully sculpted with an appropriately smug impression. I particularly love the detail work on all the bits coming off his helmet around his chin and the sides of his face. Stunning! The rest of the body is packed with little striping or interlacing bands that give the figure a lot of depth, and the chestpiece and skirt are both sculpted separately in softer plastic. All the details on the figure are sculpted in, rather than rely solely on the paintwork as Hasbro often does with the regular MU figures.
Of course, Galactus is an electronic figure. Press the central disc on his chest and his eys light up, as do all the clear bits on his helmet, and he speaks one of his 10 phrases, which include….
  • You serve me now!
  • Who is so ignorant as to confront Galactus?
  • You will witness the end, for I am power incarnate!
  • Behold! The world eating machine!
  • I hunger!
  • Know me mortal. Know me and know fear!
  • So speaks Galactus!
  • Who dares defy Galactus?
  • I am the devourer of worlds!
  • Tremble at the might of The Power Cosmic!
Sometimes electronic features can hinder a figure, but I don’t think that’s the case here. Galactus speaks a nice smattering of phrases and the voicework is particularly well done. Bravo, Hasbro!
Ah, but Galactus may be a brick in size and weight, but not in articulation. In fact, he actually has better articulation than Silver Surfer and many of the older MU figures. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, wrists, and hips, double hinges in the elbows and knees, hinged ankles, and swivels in the biceps and forearms. What’s more the joints are all nice and strong to support his bulk and allow him to retain the poses you put him in.
It takes balls to put out a toy at mass retail and refer to it as a “Masterwork Figure.” You’re setting expectations pretty high, and yet I really think Hasbro stepped up to the plate and knocked it out of the park with this one. I’m sure few Marvel collectors ever expected a better Galactus figure than the Marvel Legends Build-A-Figure, but there’s no doubt in my mind that Hasbro delivered it here. The sculpt, the coloring, and the sheer size do this magnificently terrifying character justice. Now granted, he set me back $70 when you factor in shipping, and I still think he was well worth it, but if you happened to not hesitate like me and got him at retail at more like $50-60 than I think you really got a deal. Galactus is an awesome figure and a great centerpiece to any Marvel Universe collection.
Feb 2 2012

Marvel Universe: Cable by Hasbro

Holy crap, I’ve been trying to track down Marvel Universe’s Cable figure for ages now without having to pay a premium online. In the end, I sort of caved and wound up getting him off of Amazon without getting beaten up too badly in my wallet. But, honestly, if I knew just how great this figure was going to be once I got him in hand, I would have been a lot more willing to pay a premium.

Standard Marvel Universe package with some really kick ass character art on the card. Between his sheer size and his embarrassment of accessories, Cable really fills out the bubble beautifully. As with the newer figures, you get a standard, personalized figure stand.
And there’s Cable, folks, and he is one awesome figure. In a line where we’re used to getting the same standard buck over and over again with a few tweaks to the tooling and a painted costume, Cable shines like a rare gemstone. Starting with the head sculpt, as far as I’m concerned it is one of the best Hasbro has put out in this line to date. Cable’s grim, chisled look translated to this figure perfectly. His chest harness, shoulder armor, belt, and holster are all sculpted in separate pieces. Yes, you’ll note my figure is sans Baby Hope, and I’m perfectly fine with that. The holster holds his pistol perfectly and there’s a peg on the back of his harness to clip his rifle onto. When you look at all the beautiful work that went into this figure, it really puts a lot of the other figures in this line to shame.
Accessories aren’t usually the MU’s strong point either, but once again Cable flies in the face of convention by coming packed out with his own little arsenal. You get his pistol, assault rifle and spear. The weapons are really nicely sculpted and as mentioned you can store both of his firearms on his person.
Cable features the more modern level of MU articulation. You get the ball jointed neck, with an additional hinge so he can look up and down better. He has ball joints in his shoulders and hips, swivel cuts in his biceps, wrists and upper thighs, double hinges in his knees and hinges in his elbows and ankles. Cable also swivels at the waist and features the ball joint in the torso. Nice!
Yes, I gave a lot of the other MU figures a lot of shit over how great a figure Cable is, and I realize that’s not entirely fair. A lot of Marvel’s characters are little more than people in colored costumes and there simply isn’t a lot of unique sculpting needed. On the other hand, Cable has a really detailed and unique outfit that demanded a lot of new sculpting and Hasbro stepped up to the plate to deliver. All that having been said, Cable really stands out on my MU display shelf. He just looks so damn good that its almost like he’s a figure from a completely different line.
Feb 1 2012

A Wee Bit of Filler… I mean, News…

Generally speaking, I don’t cover industry news here because there are plenty of sites that can do it far better than I can, but I wasn’t able to get a proper feature in today and so I thought I’d just duck in under the gun and point out a couple of really interesting items…

First off, it looks like Hasbro’s new Marvel Legends are showing up at retail and boy are they looking magnificent. I’m really digging the packages and the figures look pretty solid too. Considering how badly Hasbro mucked up this line when they took it over from Toy Biz, I was a little worried about seeing these things, but now I’m actually starting to get excited to get them in hand.

Secondly, Hasbro’s Avengers figures are also starting to show up in promo photos around the web and, well, they’re not looking so great. That SHIELD helicarrier on the other hand, I may need to pick me up one of those.

Thirdly, Hasbro has shown off pictures of some of the action figures from the new GI JOE: Retaliation movie, and holy shit do they look amazing. Cobra Commander’s new design is damn near perfect in my book and the new Cobra Troopers look pretty cool as well.

And lastly and most important, Playmates showed off their new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles line and I was completely blown away. I wasn’t so impressed by the Classic style turtles, but the ones based off the upcoming cartoon look amazing as do the vehicles, not to mention a playset that is so enormous its hard to believe it’ll actually be released.

You can check out photos of most of this stuff over at www.toynewsi.com

And that’s all I got for today. I’ll be checking in tomorrow with a look at Marvel Universe’s Cable.