the vynsane asylum

I'll count them even though I got them last week, since I decided not to return them: Windblade, Crosscut, Nightbeat, and Jhiaxus.

Only opened Windblade so far. (Of course, she's the only entirely new sculpt. Though Crosscut's new for me, too, since I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND FUCKING SKIDS.) Sort of like the comic, I don't get the dislike for this figure. She kicks ass. If I were Starscream, I'd do her.

I really want to post in here that I found Black Series wave 5 with the new Darth, new Ree Yees & Jabba's Skiff Guard - but I can't yet. They are, however, being found in Canada so the hunt will be on again today.

On a whim I bought my first Star Wars Black Series (6") yesterday, Han and a Stormtrooper.
They're pretty damn nice. Great sculpts and articulation. The $20 price tag sucks, but these are the kind of Star Wars figures I wanted years ago. Hell, these were my first toys purchases in ages.

I just can't figure out how and why Hasbro is so hit and miss on this line (and the Marvel line). The good ones look really good and the bad ones are really bad. Slave Leia looks like shit and Artoo looks pretty underwhelming (which bums me out, because Artoo was one of the main ones I wanted when this line was announced...unless he looks a lot better opened), Anakin looks decent, but not on par with the rest. As for Marvel, I really want WWII Cap, but every fucking one is fucking cross-eyed.

And I've still never seen Boba Fett or Rocket Raccoon.

No Guardians Legends have shown up here anywhere. That's a fucking travesty.

We're drowning in Star Lord and Iron Man.
I've seen Gamora once, Drax twice and Nova a few times.
And never a Rocket.

I see Iron Man all the damned time. Star Lord's almost as common, followed by Drax and Gamora (whom I've seen probably four times). I've seen Nova exactly once, and never a Rocket.

I don't understand Hasbro sometimes. "Rocket and Boba Fett are really popular, and we make sure to include them in everything else, and they're definitely the sort of character that a lot of people who only want one figure will want. So let's not put them out at all and keep them rare!"

BTW, if anyone cares, I've passed on Bastila Shan, Toryn Farr, Vader, Luke, and Yoda a few times. The Snowtrooper Commander, curiously, looks like he could join Luke as a pegwarmer. (I've seen him only twice, but one time there were two, and both times there were no one else from the wave.)

My friend sent me a box with this years SDCC Marvel Legends Exclusive set that had Medusa, Blackbolt, Gladiator, StarLord, and a big ass Blastaar.
I am ridiculously behind on Legends at this point, but it's still nice to have them.

I just ordered Skids, Gears, and muthaphukkin' Death's Head from HTS. Code FAMILY2014 gets you 20% off and free shipping with no minimum. I have questions about Skids ever actually hitting retail and me finding him, and with all the shit tons of Hyperions and older TF Legends figures clogging shelves, I don't want to chance never seeing the others.

(They've been restocking Legends lately... with more of the shitty Optimus Primes and Bumblebees no one wanted more than a year ago, along with the shitty Nemesis Prime and Cliffjumper repaints. I've seen Tailgate and Shrapnel exactly once; most people never found them at all.)

Of course, the day after Skids ships, I see four of him in fucking Walmart.

No biggie; $12 is better than $14.97.

I know I've already spoiled it, but the wait is over--finished! Take a guess who was waiting on my porch today, yes?

Okay, so I bought Rhinox over the weekend. First time I'm seen him back on shelves since the 30% off Cartwheel offer at Target hit, and it expires tomorrow. IDW and Hasbro really have a great "scam" going, putting out Classics figures of non-G1 characters, then working them into the G1 IDW comics and making guys like me actually give a shit about them. (I see they've already used the Armada Megatron design in the upcoming Drift miniseries, so I guess I'll have to get that one, too. )

And not me, but my son: Kid loves Ninja Turtles. I can't fathom why. His grandpa tends to buy big for birthdays, uses exclusively Amazon, and never actually gets the stuff on the wish list. (He looks at the "customers also bought," which I always personally found stupid for gift-giving suggestions, because if I wanted something else, it'd be on the fucking list.) So today he opened up the four basic Bayverse Turtles and the Assault Van.

Holy fucking shit, I know manufacturers tend to cheap out on movie tie-ins, but this is ridiculous. These guys are practically rubber. The sculpting is really soft, particularly given the amount of detail the movie designs have (and I think the look of the Turtles in the movie is actually pretty good, even if I'd rather castrate myself with a butter knife than watch the movie). They have less articulation than the 1988 figures had, even, and what they have is poorly thought-out and executed.

Then the "van." Holy shit, this is a fucking turd. The plastic is the quality of a McDonald's Happy Meal toy. I know that gets thrown around disparagingly an awful lot, but it's true here. No, actually, it's not. McDonald's wouldn't carry this shit. It's dollar store trash quality plastic. And there are about six million stickers, all of which have to be placed perfectly or they're fucked. And they are supposed to fit in spaces that are slightly too small, or shaped wrong, or have open pockets underneath and so there's little plastic to adhere to, or are so far inside the fucking van you can't reach them. Or, mostly, some combination of any three of those four.

Plus the sled-launching feature is so powerful, it could kill a man. It's so touchy it's hard to not accidentally trigger it, and the ramp shoots out faster than the fucking Millennium Falcon on the Kessel Run. I have visions of someone losing an eye with this fucking thing, and am trying to figure out a way to permanently disable it without breaking the rest of this cheap POS.

And it's $30+? Holy shit, fuck you, Michael Bay.

What does your son think of the TMNT haul?

He's confused why they don't look "right," but likes the figures. He doesn't seem to care much about the van beyond pushing it around a few times.

Ok. Kids sometimes like weird things. A few years ago we let our kids pick a toy while we were at a Dollar Store. They both got toy iphones and actually played with them longer than some of the toys they got for their birthdays.

We were at TRU today looking for something else, but I ended up getting R5-G19, and it was 20% off. Passed on Hoth Luke. I didn't even know that wave was out.