fantastic_four

So having ruled out a Hot Toys Hulkbuster for now, I think I'm going to grab the Target Hulk and Hulkbuster set. Looks really cool, albeit not mind-blowingly cool like the Hot Toys model.

After being on the edge about Hot Toys for over a year now, I think I've finally ruled out buying them for one overriding reason--I don't like the 1:6 scale. Most statues are 1:6, and they take up SO much space. The 1:12 scale is fine and easily allows for you to display large battles in a far more compact space. I was looking last night at the Hot Toys Hulkbuster figure for an hour or so, and while it's an absolutely mind-blowing and incredible item, I'd really need a 4000+ square foot house and a huge man cave to display all of the Marvel heroes and villains I love if they were all at the scale of that guy, and I'm not willing to buy a new house just to display 1:6 scale figures. It becomes particularly problematic with large characters like Hulkbuster, and it gets ridiculously untenable when you realize that Galactus or a Sentinel would have to be 3 to 4 feet at minimum and ideally 6 to 8 feet at the 1:6 scale. The 1:12 scale just allows for far more space to better realize both average-sized and jumbo-sized heroes. Think about an everyone versus Galactus battle at the 1:6 scale...it'd take up most of the space in any average-sized room! That's just not practical, and I love the idea of scenes like that, so 1:12 seems far more ideal.

Fear of blowing her cover? Exactly, that's what makes the daughter angle even more appealing, it explains why she didn't want to share.

My biggest question about Elisa is why she was so hesitant to share information with Detective Hays. If she's got no personal axe to grind why not share what she knows with him?

I'm starting to think it's likely. Elisa's similarity in appearance and the age of the actress makes it too big a coincidence. You could brainstorm dozens of reasons why she'd keep it secret for now such as her mom did something bad and she doesn't want it to come out, she's using resources from her show to do this investigation and if they know she's her mom it makes it impossible for her to continue, and I could keep going.

Given how fast the barge fundraiser reached its $2.5 million goal I'm surprised they haven't ramped it up for other projects faster. Surely that amount covered the development costs. There are thousands of high-end Star Wars and Marvel collectors they should be able to sell to.

Really thinking towards getting some Tamashii lightning effects to wrap around Omega Red's cables to add a lot of drama to the electric charge he sends through them. They should be nice for other figures too like Thor, Storm, Magneto, and perhaps a few others.

Played around with Omega Red's cables last night. They're REALLY nice, haven't had one pull out of the port yet and they wrap around other figures really nicely. Here he is holding up Wolverine and X-23 without much problem (his legs are taped to the glass shelf).

Just read about this for the first time, missed it the times you mentioned it earlier in 2018. You keeping it or selling it? Is there any word on a next Haslab project yet?

Could be her daughter, but it isn't her. We saw her face on the Walgreens surveillance camera in episode 4 shown below and it wasn't the reporter, plus she's far too young to have been born around 1970 (the actress playing her was born in 1987). Julie looks similar enough to the reporter to possibly be her mom though. If she is her mom, the odds are the reporter was already born at the time of the Walgreens theft, and maybe she's stealing something for her young daughter in the video? Did they say what she stole, or can we tell which aisle she's going down in the video? Let's play that out a bit. If she is Julie Purcell's daughter, then she was born to her long after her mother's disappearance and probably knows a lot--or everything--about what happened to her. What, then, is her motivation for doing a documentary about it? She just thought her mom's story would be a great idea for an episode of her show?

The key I eventually found in posing is that the flames jutting off of the base fit into the peg hole in Torch's foot. If you get that hole into a pointy flame that alone can support him. The two flames jutting off of the base then can be positioned on either side of him to keep him straight, or they can be twisted around him to get alternate poses. You don't even necessarily need to put a leg in the main loop designed for a leg to go in if you use the peg hole, but if you do use that as I did in the second pic he's rock solid. I haven't tried fitting both feet peg holes into flames, but it occurred to me later to try that next time, I'm guessing it should work. And it really is a perfect color match. I'm amazed at how similar the translucent reds are between the figure and base from different eras. That base matches the new Torch FAR better than it did the old one!

Picked up the recent Hasbro Marvel Legends Human Torch, and I also bought a 2002 Toybiz Human Torch just to get the cool flame base it comes with. It's tough to figure out how to pose the figure on the base at first, but eventually I got the hang of it and it works great. The red also matches the Hasbro torch PERFECTLY with the same pliable translucent red throughout both the figure and the base. The torch was the first ToyBiz Marvel Legends I've ever held. WOW, the articulation is SO much better on Hasbro figures. They've really taken articulation and durability to a new level.

Oh, and I can see myself liking Mark 50 as well, but I've only seen Infinity War once so I have no opinion for now. My initial impression was I didn't like how minimalist it was, but I could probably get past that. I somewhat prefer bulky Iron Man armor knowing that even the bulkiest suit isn't even possible yet, so seeing him refine the suit down to an impossibly-thin level is so far advanced that it's hard to appreciate.

I'm partial to the ones in the movies I've liked the best, so that means Mark 3 (Iron Man) and Mark 7 (Avengers). I kinda like the all-silver Mark 2 from the first film as well.

Whoa, so the Mafex Wolverine doesn't come out until November? That's the availability date that Big Bad Toy Store lists for it.

Yea, posing that Marvel Select Juggernaut is tough. He stands up well--at one point with that setup I had Colossus hanging from one arm and Spidey from another--but whereas most Legends figures weigh about 1/3 of a pound, he weighs about 2 pounds. I really love that about him because the weight makes it really feel like he should demolish any other character, but it means that while posing when he falls it's a big cracking boom on my glass shelves. So I tend to pose him standing up or laying down and in-between poses are tough.

I'm just totally over the moon now on action figures over statues. Posing them is just so much more fun than having them locked in the same position for eternity.

Dunno. I like the looks of the Revoltech better, but you really cannot judge figures without having them in hand to see how solid they are and how fun the articulation is. Still waiting on video reviews for the Mafex to see it in action.

What about it made you dislike it?

A significant part of the reason I do it is because I know that local theatres make the vast majority of their income from the concession. I could easily smuggle in a reasonably-portioned bag of Sno-Caps that cost me $1, yet I buy the ones there for $5 because I like having movie theatres to go to locally, so I feel compelled to support them.

Finally set up a good Colossus/Wolverine fastball special with some of the new figures.

Got four new figures yesterday. Not pictured is the Legends Bullseye which looks great. The other three are pictured below: Recent Wasp figure. Liking the look of that one. 2016 Sandman series black suit Spidey figure in the hands of the sentinel. The 2005 Toybiz build-a-figure sentinel. This thing is AWESOME. Not sure which of the two sentinels I like better; I like them both a lot right now. The one on the left is classically styled and the new BAF version is based upon Silvestri's rendering of the characters in the early 1990s. The BAF sentinel looks far rougher and more battle-damaged, but that's intentional and I like it. LOVE the uneven brush-stroked paint job and the visible cables running around all the joint areas. It has two cables that port into the hands with bendy wires in them, and they're great for wrapping up a figure as is shown in the pic. I'm showing Spidey in the sentinel's right hand in the pic, but he also easily hangs on his own while wrapped in the cable with no stability issues. The BAF sentinel articulates much better because it has abdominal crunch to tilt the upper torso back and forward, a far greater range of motion on its arms and legs, and all five of the fingers on each hand are individually articulated. Those articulated fingers are GREAT for helping to support a figure in then. In all, this sentinel is the absolute best build-a-figure I'm aware of in the history of Marvel Legends, LOVE this thing.

Wow, had no idea that existed. Looks awesome! How much do those run?

By the way, if you don't know what happened to that old Flash Thompson since he's at best a D-list actor, he ended up winning life by marrying Sofia Vergara.

It worked because of when they timed it to happen during his origin story. This scene was timed to take place on the morning after he was bitten by the spider and before he even realized he had powers. Had this encounter happened after Uncle Ben had died and he realized he needed a secret identity then yea, this would have never happened, but doing it before he learned that "with great power comes great responsibility" made it fine. MORE than fine because you feel the surge of adrenaline of him learning about his power right along with him--wow, I just took out Flash Thompson, a guy a foot taller and 70 pounds heavier! How did I do that?