Toy Fair 2015: Gashapon a Time – Bandai and Banpresto Bring Back Memories

Posted on February 17, 2015 by geelw

Back in the mid-80’s and up to about 1994 or so, I was OBSESSED with Gasahpon and Shogukan figures thanks to a few shops in Chinatown that stocked them and the prices being so inexpensive. I partially blame Cracker Jacks for exposing me to fun toys in a box of candy when I was a kid, then over time getting rid of those toys in favor of lousy paper goodies far less expensive to produce. I guess I was unconsciously looking for a substitute one fine summer day when, while waiting at a checkout line at a large Asian market I saw that colorful anime art on those small boxes and picked up four or five of them at under a dollar each.

Soon thereafter, a friend told me about a shop in the area that had what seemed like hundreds of figures for sale from too many manga and anime and I was introduced to higher end, higher quality figures from Bandai and Banpresto. The combination of low to reasonably acceptable price points and the variety of different types of figures lured me in deeper and soon, I was snapping up anywhere between five to ten Shogukan figures a week or every other week. Continue reading →

Toy Fair 2015: Wabbit Season Coming Soon, Courtesy Mezco Toyz

Posted on February 16, 2015 by geelw

So, Mezco Toyz has this rather massive Bugs Bunny figure coming this year:

and I couldn’t be happier. Not because I have the room for a two-foot tall cartoon rabbit in the collection (I don’t). Its because they got the license to the RIGHT Bugs from the era he was his funniest. it also (probably) means well see the more insane (yer perfect) versions of Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, and Porky Pig with the possibility of more on the way. Excellent. On the other hand, I could just be jumping the gun here with my guessing who else the company has licensed. I don’t think so, as those guys BELONG together. I’ll bet you all a baby carrot, too. Okay, I just want a boxed set of smaller figures because that big wabbit that’s going to go on sale later this year wont fit anywhere in my place.

make it so, Mezco 9and make me happy)…

Toy Fair Sunday Musings, Too: May The Force Be With Few!

Posted on February 15, 2015 by geelw

Thank you, Imperial Toy! One, for having one of the more surprisingly cool licensed items at the show (a huge Star Wars bubble machine shaped like R2-D2 that does exactly what it’s supposed to do and makes everyone in the vicinity stop what they’re doing and walk over to check it out). Its also surprisingly affordable. I’ll post pics of R2 tomorrow, as I shot photos with another camera and (duh!) can’t seem to find the USB cable (duh!)

Oh, and two, for giving me the nice silver-colored bubble lightsaber just for stopping by their booth to check out R2. Apparently, its one of only a thousand made for the show. Nice. Id love to have a blue one as well, but I don’t mind waiting for the normal white sabers to hit retail and add one of those to the collection.

Some Sunday Toy Fair Musings…

Posted on February 15, 2015 by geelw

Let’s see now:

Expect to see a LOT of Jurassic World merchandise coming for the upcoming film. Yes, Universal ran the same old trailer fans have already seen, but there’s a nice amount of new toys on the way that were unseen until the event earlier today. Dinosaurs everywhere would be a problem in real life for sure. But it looks like the licensing agreements on this film will bring kids (and adults) into those walking future fossil fuel sources will get plenty of folks into the stores before and after they hit the theaters.

As for those Minions, well, my bad poetry databank has been reactivated, so expect to read some ear curling stuff about that toy line shortly. That long trailer was pretty funny and it looks as if the third go-round with the little yellow guys may be the best yet. As for the merchandise, some items are returning from Despicable Me 2, but in updated form, there are new items that will make the kids (and parents) crack up, and yes, expect your disposable income to become a lot more disposable once the film hits.

More on both toy lines shortly. I’ve a lot of ground to cover over the next few weeks and two more days at the show in this stupidly lousy cold weather we’ve been socked with. It’s worth it, though…

Toy Fair Ultra Mini Report, Day One

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Well, then. Toy Fair is pretty brilliant this year, although I barely made it through the first day’s zipping back and forth. Pictures to come from some of the booths I visited earlier today, but not until tomorrow at the earliest. Par for the course, some of the smaller booths had the more interesting new items, but you’ll have to hold out to see what they are. Let’s just say that if you have kids ages 4-10 who have always give you trouble around bedtime, there’s the most awesome solution that’s guaranteed to get them wanting to hit the hay every night. And it doesn’t involve any trickery or pharmaceuticals, either.

Also, R2-D2 makes a phenomenal bubble machine, courtesy of Imperial Toys. Seriously. You’ll see. Zombies are still “in” this year and in some mighty creative ways thanks to McFarlane Toys, Factory Entertainment and others. Collectible fans will see way too many things to fill their shelves from Funko, Entertainment Earth, Mezco Toyz, The Coop, and too many more to list here.

Anyway, I’m wiped out and need to sleep, as I have to pop up early in the morning to go see some dinosaurs and very funny little yellow guys before hitting the show floor again. Good night!

Friday’s More Than Slight Change of Plans Makes For A Fine Diversion

Posted on February 13, 2015 by geelw

Soooo, I didn’t intend to do ANOTHER pre-show event before Toy Fair, but like yesterday’s Superherostuff.com and Sphero event, today was *special*. I ended up hoofing out to Astoria (in Queens) to see and play a bunch of games at Indiecade, and if you just so happen to be in the NYC area, love games and want to try some awesome ones, you NEED to get yourself out thataway before the show ends on Sunday. I could only cover one day thanks to Toy Fair eating my weekend plus whole, but I’ll have a few longer articles on the stuff I tried out next week.

Hell, if it weren’t for indies, I’d be doing a lot less gaming these days. Pretty much the only AAA release I’m looking forward to is The Witcher 3 and that’s because CD Projekt RED is going the extra mile plus to guarantee everyone who plays the game on anything it’s on is getting the best experience possible. Anyway, it’s off to sleep for me soon, as I need to pop up at 5am and be out of here before 6. Eeek. Back with more eventful posting tomorrow…

Gearing Up For Toy Fair is Tough Work!

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Let’s see now… I’m sort of taking today off because I’m making a new, longer list of Toy Fair 2015 meetings for this weekend and I have a pre-show event to pop into this afternoon to check out a few items. I’d initially promised myself I wouldn’t do any more pre-show events because under certain circumstances it gets to be SO busy running around that I end up too pooped when the show actually starts. However, I made two exceptions this year because of the folks who reached out that didn’t forget they reached out and didn’t suddenly get back to me to say their events were overbooked.

I get invited to a load of events and respond as soon as I see the invite. Once in a while, the PR person who contacted me and took my reservation will get back to me a few days after I confirm or too often, right around the day the event takes place to say something like “oops, we overbooked!” without letting me know what I can do about seeing the product they were gushing about so fervently in that invite. The latest example of this was a big deal film screening/press junket I was SUPPOSED to attend this week, only to be told last minute that they ran out of room AND to hold out for a new screening date (which didn’t happen). Gee, thanks. So much for promoting your film or whatever else you were looking for from me, big megacorp deluxe who’s burned me one too many times. I got yer Throwback Thursday right here, Foo. Anyway, let me get back to my regularly scheduled day.

Back in a bit, maybe with a quick followup post if I make it back before the library closes.

VHS Video Cover Art – May Blooms Up A Killer Book From Schiffer

Posted on February 11, 2015 by geelw

Oh, yeah. As someone who grew up in the VHS era and had a rather huge collection of films (long sold off, sadly), seeing a book like this coming in May from Schiffer Publishing gets me all giddy. VHS: Video Cover Art by Thomas “The Dude Designs” Hodge (and yes, that nickname sounds straight outta the eighties) is a 9″ x 12″ hardcover, will feature 264 pages, 570 color photos (and an index, of course) and cost $34.99, a pittance for the sheer amount of nostalgia guaranteed to be on display.

For me, this one is a “shut up and buy it” book if there ever was one. I’ve looked over the first 24 pages and had a huge grin on my face that’s still lingering. This one’s going to do well amongst the collectors out there and any movie fan looking for an excellent gift will want to keep an eye peeled for when this drops into stores in a few months. Color me excited, folks. Between this and those Mill Creek collections I’ve been picking up for dirt cheap lately, my teenage years are coming back full force. Er, without the awkwardness around the ladies and doing stupid stuff for fun part…

Tuesday’s Off: More YouTube Nonsense? Sure, Why The Hell Not?

Posted on February 10, 2015 by geelw

Here we go again. Another day, another account strike, same jerks pulling the same stunt. Look, YouTube. Whomever is doing this is clearly abusing your new and quite stupid system to their benefit. According to the email I’m getting from a PR contact, no one at the film company has a clue who’s pretending to be representing them.

Your policy that anyone who claims to be a rights holder or protector or whatever is totally corrupt. Based on all the people who this “Rico Management” have hit with takedowns and have lost their accounts who probably aren’t going to be coming back to your “service”, unless you take action yourselves to find and kick these frauds off your site for good, expect to see some other video service overtake you sooner than you think. I’d post a video with this, but I can’t get into my damn account because I need to go back to that damn stupid “copyright school” and do the damn stupid test again that I didn’t need to do at all because I’m being trolled hard.

I’ll just describe the gloriously dirt simple image of someone giving you and “Rico Management” the finger in a looping ten-minute clip for now. Got it? Good. Now fix this problem, please. Music for today? See above. Or here, as at least I can still use links to the site, grrrrr. Back in a bit, as this is making me a bit grumpy (and I don’t mean like the Cat)…

IndieGala Every Monday Bundle: Five More Games To Keep You Otherwise Occupied

Posted on February 9, 2015 by geelw

So, in the middle of a too stupidly busy day, I get ANOTHER copyright strike from YouTube courtesy of the overzealous idiots at Rico Management. Wonderful. Now that I’m boiling with rage over some bullshit (again, I have done nothing illegal here – I just posted videos I was sent to post to help promote the film I reviewed, so thanks go to for nothing but grief to a few people at this point), I still have to be polite here and tell you about this fine deal over at IndieGala.

Five games for two bucks may not seem like such a solid deal after the bigger bundles they’ve offered in the past. But there’s quite a lot of gameplay for the money and you’re helping fund a charity or few. So, pipe down and go take your medicine, I say. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go scream at someone and go take that dumb-ass Copyright School test AGAIN. Grrrr. I hate this sort of irresponsible behavior by faceless entities who need to sat out of the lives of people like me who stay on the decent path in life. But I guess these jerks need a lesson in knowing we’re all not thieves and pirates or whatever.