fantastic_four

I stopped buying all discs from 2012 through about 2017, but this is why I bought an XBox One in 2017. I wanted 4K but wasn't sure I'd have all the superhero movies consistently available to me in that format over the next decade, so I'm sticking with discs for now. I would really prefer to just stream everything because it's so much more convenient and thought back in 2012 that it would be coming any year now. Five years later in 2017 the quality of the video and the availability of all titles I want just wasn't there yet, and it still isn't as of 2019. Disney's upcoming streaming service may be most of what I need since they produce most of the best superhero movies, but I'm not at all sure of it yet since their commitment to 4K is so lax and lame. Most of their movies aren't true 4K all the way through every current release, so I don't even know that their streaming service will support that resolution. Also I do like some DC films and Sony still has the Spider-Man rights, so Disney won't be streaming those and I don't know of great alternative options for them that I can rely on to still be there in a decade.

Will you be burying it in the backyard somewhere? That looks like an awfully large item to hide. Or does she pay no attention to your stuff, so when she asks "when did you get this and how much did it cost" you can just say "oh I bought that decades ago, you don't remember it? It was about $40 when I first bought it" and get away with it?

So are the Hoyts doing this to lots of girls, or only Julie? Since they've kept alluding to the idea that Julie's dad is someone else, it seems at least 50/50 viable that Hoyt is the father and that's his motivation for keeping Julie in his house, for paying off her mom, and helps explain why Julie's mom is so guilty all the time--because she helped her baby daddy take custody of the kid, killing off the other one in the process. Or maybe they're not at all related and he just collects girls for whatever reason.

Only ones I recognize are Robin, Darkseid, The Question, and that pig-faced Lantern guy, who I only recognize because he was in the Ryan Reynolds GL movie. They look great. Is the articulation better than or about as good as Hasbro? Looks like most of them don't have lower leg swivels like most--but not all--Hasbro figures do. They also seem to cut the upper leg swivel right above the knee, whereas Hasbro cuts it near the top of the leg.

I'm not much of a DC guy, but I'm interested in viewing one of these. Which iconic character that I'd recognize did they do a great job on? If this is them, they do look pretty good.

I'm waiting on all X-Men characters until I hear which characters will be in the first X-Men classic wave planned for this year. PLEASE let them put a Magneto, Nightcrawler, and Storm in there. Rogue would be nice too. The only classic Storm figure is from Diamond Select. It looks fantastic, but it's got that awful Diamond Select scale that makes her look 7' 2" next to 1:12 figures, and her articulation is truly awful. Like most Select figures the articulation is typically awful, but hers is doubly awful because she can barely move her arms and legs at all due to that huge plastic cape being in the way.

I love the Marvel Select Colossus so much I'm neutral on a Hasbro one, but if it looks good enough I'd definitely prefer Hasbro so that it's at a better scale and has better articulation. I also want that Juggernaut Rogue, but someone on Reddit claimed that Hasbro said at the last San Diego con that they'd no longer be using the Juggernaut Rogue body again because her breasts are too big and apparently #MeToo is inspiring everyone to reawaken the Victorian Age of modesty. No idea if that's true or not, but they've only used it one other time, on Scream from the Venom wave. There's a multi-page tangent about sexualization of males and females about that in a Fwoosh thread about the Toy Fair happening this weekend: http://thefwoosh.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=96&t=97951&start=270#p3236770

Oh god I hope not, I love Hasbro's work. But I'm not familiar with Mattel's, so ultimately I have no opinion. Who has done better work--Mattel with DC figures or Hasbro with Marvel?

Yes, I read about it from F For Fake a few posts above yours.

If they want to keep selling Coke in those countries, yes. Every country has the sovereign right to govern commerce within its borders. Pepsi could of course decide to stop doing business in a country who was placing unfair demands upon them, but for a company that big it'd mean millions or billions in lost revenue depending upon the size of the country. Brazil has over 200 million people, so I'm sure Disney wants to keep selling ESPN and/or Fox Sports to them if at all possible.

Because they sell their products in those foreign countries. I dunno how much revenue ESPN and Fox Sports generate in Brazil, but I'm sure it's a number in the tens of millions to hundreds of millions, so it definitely complicates things.

Hasbro is releasing a line of Marvel's 80th Anniversary figures this year, and rumor has it one of the two-packs they're releasing is Juggernaut vs. Colossus. I've already got the build-a-figure Juggernaut, but I'm hoping they do a classic Colossus, although I'm not sure it will be better than the Diamond Select version. It inspired me to pose Juggernaut laying Colossus out last night...MAN do I love these two figures, the details on both are just sick. The Deadpool 2 fight between them was fun, but I can't wait to see these guys in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film together. They did such a good job with them in Deadpool I don't expect it for a decade or more though.

I'm not familiar with their work...have they done something particularly great? I don't buy statues anymore, but if I did, I would want this one by them: Given that they've had the contract for years what do you mean by Hasbro making a play?

After some deliberation, I think I'm going to try the following from ClearBags: 4 mil 5" x 8" bags with hanging hole for regular 6" 1:12 figures 4 mil 10" x 12" bags for large 6" 1:12 figures (my biggest is Hulkbuster who should fit into these) 26" x 19" bags for huge figures (Sentinels and Galactus) Going to skip smaller bags for accessories for now because I'm not sure yet I'd even use them, accessories will just float in the bag with the figure. My main concern is accessories scratching the figure, but I may be overthinking that. I'm also not even sure what size to get since different figures often come with dramatically-differently sized accessories. For example, Marvel Select figures often come with huge bases or background scenes whereas most Hasbro figures just come with a few tiny hands, heads, or guns, so what size would I even get to cover the range of accessory possibilities? More than anything else I'm looking forward to this for accessories management. Right now I've got them all in one freezer ziplock bag, and rooting through that for the right item really sucks.

Cool, thanks for asking them! Polypropylene doesn't degrade and release its own acid that I know of--which means yes, it's acid-free--but unlike Mylar it does degrade and discolor over time, so I've always bought Mylar for comics so I don't have to eventually replace it. However, Mylar is quite stiff, so it really doesn't seem great for something irregularly-shaped like an action figure. And as long as you store it in good conditions, polypropylene shouldn't visibly degrade, either. I think I'm going to go ahead and get some polypropylene bags. Since I'm only buying one or two versions of characters I shouldn't ever need more than 100 to 200, and even replacing them eventually shouldn't be hard. Now I just have to decide if I want vented or unvented, a separate small bag for accessories, and dimensions. For most regular 1:12 scale figures, 5" by 8" seems ideal, but I'll need something bigger for the bigger characters, maybe 7" by 10"...need to mull it over. What did you use for Joes, 3" by 5"?

About two months ago I bought ten Tamashii Act 4 figure stands from eBay at about $1.50 apiece from a Chinese seller. Normally the stands cost $10 to $15 apiece, so the super-low price coupled with the fact that they're coming from China is about as clear a sign they're knockoffs as is possible to have. I figured I wasn't risking much at $15 for ten stands when I would otherwise sink that into one. They took about a month to arrive, and I didn't get a chance to set them up fully until today...and I LOVE them! FAR more configuration options than with the Obitsu stands, they're my new go-to stand, except that Obitsu stands do go a few inches higher off the ground, so I'll still likely use those in crowded scenes with multiple flying characters. I've assembled six of the ten stands and haven't found any noticeable quality issues that you'd expect with knockoffs, but I don't have genuine Tamashii stands to compare them to so I wouldn't recognize the differences. One of the best things about the stands is that you can interlock the bases together, and when they're interlocked they provide a LOT more support for each other than any single stand does. Before today, I wasn't sure if I'd ever use the interlocking, but then something occurred to me...the support provided by multiple interlocked stands allows you to mount individual limbs on heavy characters that normally don't fit into any existing stands because their weight either tips them over or would break the plastic. Below is an example of four knockoff Tamashii stands interlocked together with the recent Marvel Legends Thing mounted onto it with each stand holding a different limb. Two of the stands are using two height extensions, and the front two are using all three height extensions that come with each stand. Using three in the front and two in the back allows Thing's front to elevate higher than his back, something you normally wouldn't be able to do with Thing because he's REALLY solid and weighs about 1 to 1.5 pounds. I've tried mounting all of my big figures on them. Monster Venom, Thing, Legends Juggernaut, and Legends Hulk all fit fine onto four stands with absolute rock-solid stability. The two 20" sentinels (Marvel Universe and ToyBiz Legends build-a-figure) I own were far too heavy and long to fit well without feeling like I'd break the plastic in the stands, but it was actually holding them up for about a minute, although I fear the plastic would have cracked after an hour or two. I was able to successfully get the Legends Hulkbuster and Select Juggernaut onto all four and feel relatively sure they wouldn't collapse, but it took a LOT of fiddling and both of them weigh about two pounds each which felt too heavy with limbs that were too thick to fit well inside of the holding hooks that come with the stands.

The main things I hear people complain about so far with the Mafex Wolverine appearance are that the black wings off his hood are too big and flaring, and the claws are actually longer than his forearm and therefore would never actually be able to retract into that arm. But those seem like fairly nitpicky complaints, he looks impressive overall. The Cyclops looks solid. Hope he comes with eye beam effects and that he fits with other 1:12 scale figures.

Finally finished my Kingpin build-a-figure, and I recently picked up Daredevil, Bullseye, Elektra, and Typhoid Mary. Not a big fan of most of the figures in the Kingpin wave, but I freaking love Kingpin himself. Main complaint is that his articulation absolutely sucks...it's Marvel Select-level bad articulation. No waist swivel, he can't bend over at all, his arms and legs don't even get to a 90 degree bend but only about 60 or 70 degrees, his ankles barely pivot because the pant bottoms get in the way, and the pose below where I have him body-slamming Spider-Man is about as dynamic as it gets with him. But he looks absolutely amazing, and he doesn't fight much, anyway, so that alternate head is great for making him look plenty imposing behind the guys he hires who do.

What type and dimensions did you use for Joes?

Finally finished it yesterday. The finale was sublime, definitely the best season yet. Really loved how they finally made Vanessa complicit in Fisk's crimes like she was in the comics. And wow, that actress Ayelet Zurer playing Vanessa, SMOKIN!

Viserys Targaryen as Professor X!

This site has tons of sizes. Just make sure they are actual archival (says in the list of specs for the bag). Also different MIL sizes, but even a smaller MIL is pretty sturdy. The clear aspect is pretty crazy when you compare to typical bags. They were quick to send out too. https://www.clearbags.com/bags/clear-bags/premium Patrick Thanks for the link, that company looks great! A few questions: You said you use an accessory bag inside a larger bag. Which bag dimensions did you buy for accessories, and what size for figures? You said you collect Star Wars, Joe, Transformers, and He-Man, so I'm guessing you bought a smattering of different heights and widths for different figures, but I'm guessing you went with a more consistent size for accessories? They seem to have a TON of bag options. Do you recall which type you went with? It's somewhat intimidating at first to decide which of their bags to choose from since they've got vented and unvented, zip or no zip, handle or no handle, hanging hole or no hanging hole, etc etc. Any idea what type of plastic they use for their archival bags? I looked at several bags they described as archival, but I didn't see them say what plastic they use. This 4" by 8" zip bag with a vent hole and hanging hole looks nice, but I'm skeptical of how archival they actually are. The reason that Bill Cole and Ernie Gerber never made ziplock comic bags is because you can't form Mylar into something like a ziplock mechanism; it's too rigid for that. The archival alternatives to Mylar like the Barex CGC used to use for their slab inner well are similarly rigid, and I have yet to see one that can be formed into what the bag below looks like. https://www.clearbags.com/4-x-8-crystal-clear-zip-euro-vent-hole.html

Why do you like the clamshells? Accessories bag in bigger bag seems like less risk of accessory loss, zero risk of accessories scratching paint, and FAR more space efficient. Those clamshells look like a space hog and I'm having trouble seeing any advantage to them.

This is the setup I'm considering the most, accessories bag inside a figure bag. Where do you get your bags from?

Love that Hela figure by the way, and the knee isn't bad at all as is, I'm just worried my kids might yank it off. Got it in a few weeks ago. It's interesting in that it's scaled to be the size of the comic Hela, where she's about 7 feet tall and Thor is 6' 6", whereas in the movie they kept her scale at Cate Blanchett's height of 5' 8" relative to Hemsworth's 6' 3". This figure is bigger than almost all of my regular-sized Marvel Legends at a bit over 7" tall.