fantastic_four

To go with Blackheart--and a few other figures too, particularly Thor--I'm also going to pick up the Bandai ground and lightning effects sets. Been wanting them for a while, and they should really make Blackheart, Thor, Storm, and probably a few others I haven't thought of yet really pop in displays. I've already got the Bandai burst effect coming in today pictured third below, but I'm still not sure how I'll use that yet, I just got it because BigBadToyStore had it in stock (but not the first two) and I was already getting a few other things from them.

Got another Toy Biz throwback figure a few days ago--Blackheart from 2006. I was skeptical I'd like it, but this thing is flipping awesome. For the most part, Hasbro's sculpt work and articulation are better than all the Toy Biz figures I've seen--particularly on most humanoid figures--but some of the Toy Biz figures are absolutely exceptional, and this one is an example of that. Fantastic articulation and sculpt work on this guy. Some figures really benefit from the finger and toe articulation that was standard for Toy Biz but Hasbro rarely does, and this one really benefits from both. The bendy-wire tail is also awesome, although it's really stiff and hard to keep in place once you form it. I did read his first appearance back in Daredevil 270 in 1989 when it was released, but he's mostly famous for being in the Marvel vs. Capcom series of fighting games.

It looked like they were going to do exactly that last season, but it never went anywhere, so I suppose they could try it. It was clear that Lauren Ambrose and Robbie Amell were slated in a few episodes to be the new Mulder and Fox.

What's more to offer? Season 11 was just out last year, and Gillian Anderson has already said she doesn't want to do more. Maybe another movie.

Wow, awesome work!

You created a mold for this and did some or all of the plastic parts yourself?

They're almost all co-produced by Avi Arad and Kevin Feige from Blade onwards, although Arad didn't promote Feige to be a producer until 1999 while X-Men was being made. The main quality difference starting with Iron Man and the start of the MCU isn't the films being with Marvel, it's Feige being in charge instead of Avi Arad. He's shaping these movies better than all of the other studio producers before him or since, which isn't a HUGE surprise, he's also the first fanboy who's ever been in that job. Geoff Johns is the second, but obviously it didn't work out for him. As far as I could tell Johns was never given the complete discretion and control of all the films that Feige was.

Yea, sitting on the Quinjet doing their best Jarvis impression. Or Hawkeye really just deserves to be in in some bad futuristic medieval-throwback fantasy film as its lame version of Legolas.

It's fair for the point that I've now heard about a dozen media pundits make--this is NOT the first GO GO WOMEN SUPERHEROES, FEMALE EMPOWERMENT! movie from Marvel. I assumed you knew about Elektra but just slightly overstated Captain Marvel as the first Marvel female film as opposed to just the first MCU female film, but I could tell at least two-thirds of the media pundits I've heard say that don't have any idea that's not the case. Nor was Wonder Woman that for DC, either, due to yet another movie I'm sure we're all also trying as hard as we can to forget:

Picked up the 2005 Toy Biz Apocalypse build-a-figure this week. There are blue and a black color variants, and this is the black version. I resisted buying this for a long time for the reasons I complained about a few months ago--I hate the big, dumb "A" on his costume, it just makes no sense for an ancient Egyptian who is thousands of years old to put an English letter on his costume--but I learned to ignore it. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this guy. Perfection condition with tight joints, and his paint detailing, articulation, sculpt details, size, and overall quality exceeds ANYTHING Hasbro does these days. The only way we'd ever get a better version of this guy is if Hot Toys did one, and I really do wish they'd do true 1:12 scale versions of Galactus, a Sentinel, and Apocalypse, because they each should be 2 to 4 feet tall even in that small of a scale. I've also got the 2018 Hasbro Apocalypse build a figure now--or at least all the parts save one that's coming later this week--but he pales in comparison to the Toy Biz version, although certainly not in terms of the sculpt or paint which are both excellent, he's just nowhere near as impressive in size, scale, or VERY surprisingly in articulation which is really great on the Toy Biz version. However since Apocalypse can change his size and form at will, having one version that's half the size of the other works for lots of poses, so I'm glad to have both.

I know we're all still trying to forget this film, but I wince every time I hear that Captain Marvel is the first Marvel female film. This one doesn't count just because it's Fox? Avi Arad and Kevin Feige produced it, so while it's not a Feige-only project and we can mostly attribute it's inferiority to Arad's inability to manage Marvel film projects, Marvel's hands are all over it.

Well that's quite a change for one of the most iconic villains of the last century, but sure, maybe they do that for most of the film then he becomes a villain at the very end. So why not show him being that anti-hero in the trailer? I can't tell what the heck they're doing except showing him as a loon. I've seen dozens of movies about lunatics, and this one in the teaser didn't stand out from those. The only reason I'm even still paying attention after the trailer is because it's the Joker.

He was one of the best on-screen villains of all time across all genres. I rank Anthony Hopkins as Hannibal Lecter first, Ledger as Joker second, and Javier Bardem as Anton Chigurh in "No Country For Old Men" third. I enjoyed Jack Nicholson as Joker in 1989 Batman, but he never seemed like he could ever be a real person, he was cartoony in the same way that Tim Burton made most elements of that film cartoony. Ledger made Joker feel like he could have actually been a real lunatic. He converted me from skeptical of the entire concept of the character to a real believer in just how incredibly evil the character could be.

If the movie has Joker beaten down by life and then he rises up against it in the middle or towards the end to become a villain, it's got potential. All we saw in the trailer was him being crazy and getting beat up; we never saw him as a villain. Why leave that part out? Just a single scene where he started to become the super-villain we all know could have taken the trailer from "meh" to "WHOA".

Finally a voice of reason. I saw the trailer and my first instinct was I gotta go to the boards and see the fecal kicking the boards must surely be giving this...boy was I wrong. I want a refund already, and I haven't even bought a ticket. That didn't mean I thought it was bad, I just can't tell much from it so I ended up just as neutral about the film as I was before I saw the teaser. I finished the 2008 Dark Knight trailer thinking that Ledger's Joker seemed both crazy and bad-arse. I left this one thinking he just seemed crazy, but they never showed him exhibiting the trademark Joker skill or menace. It felt like they left the part out that makes the Joker so appealing as an arch-villain. From all we saw in the trailer this could have been a biopic of almost any crazy person...the only thing that made him resemble the Joker we all know is the clown makeup. The bit where he talks about realizing that his life is a comedy, not a tragedy, had the POTENTIAL of menace, but the teaser never showed it.

He was nominated but didn't win. Reese Witherspoon won best actress though.

Meh.

The ultimate example of this was in the first Avengers movie where Hulk is chasing Widow around the helicarrier. That whole scene was absurd...Hulk should have ripped Widow apart within the first few seconds of that chase, or at virtually any other moment during it.

I've never understood her as a member of the Avengers, period, regardless of writing. What good is she, or Hawkeye? They're unpowered heroes paired up with extremely powerful ones. I liked her paired up with Daredevil in the 70s because he's only a low-powered hero, but Widow paired up with Hulk or Thor is just a bizarre mismatch.

Surprised they didn't put out the trailer on April Fool's Day.

The only IMAX theater around here had about 40% of the stadium seats sold for the Saturday 3pm showing. I bet only floor and upper stadium seats are available later in the week.

I was wrong, I bought tickets for a Saturday showing on Fandango on the only IMAX screen in my area.

Theaters are selling tickets for Friday and beyond now? Never seen them sell tickets this far in advance. I checked Fandango and no theaters in my area are doing that.

There hasn't been one in ANY of the films. I've been considering doing dinosaur dioramas for years but never took the plunge. Most of the best figures aren't attached to Jurassic Park; the best ones I've seen are from a French company called Papo. Below is a recent tyrannosaur from them. Main problem with Papo is that they don't do articulation; now that I'm back into action figures I'd probably demand articulated dinosaurs now.