The AFB Podcast Episode 182: Hasbro Star Wars Black IG-88 / Hasbro Comic Two Pack Cade Skywalker and Darth Talon / Sideshow Commander Luke Skywalker Hoth 1:6 Scale Figure

Episode 182 of the AFB Podcast is live at iTunes and is now available for direct download! Download and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes now! 

This week, join Scott, Eddie and Ben for a great new show with all of the latest news and reviews!

This week we check out:

• Hasbro Star Wars Black IG-88 Action Figure

• Hasbro Comic Two-Pack Cade Skywalker and Darth Talon 

• Sideshow Collectibles Commander Luke Skywalker Hoth 1:6 Scale Figure

If you don't use iTunes, you can download Episode 182 here now! Click on the link to listen, or right click to save the file! The podcast will always be available from the “Podcast” tab here - but if you can subscribe and give us positive ratings at iTunes, that will help us greatly! 

The AFB Podcast is also on Stitcher Radio!

Have a listen, and please give us some feedback at podcast@actionfigureblues.com - we might even read out your feedback on the next show!

Happy listening!

News Covered in this Episode

1. Hot Toys “Boba Fett” ⅙ scale action figure - from toyle10 on reddit
2. Sideshow “Sabretooth: Classic” premium format statue
3. Pop Culture Shock “Blanka” ¼ scale statue
4. Asmus Collectibles “Aragorn” ⅙ action figure
5. Asmus Collectibles “Tauriel” ⅙ action figure
6. Nintendo September Amiibos   
7. Star Wars Force Awaken products break street date and hit ebay
8. D23 Star Wars Die cast figure set exclusive
9. D23 12’ Princess Leia Doll
10. Jakks Pacific “R2-D2” 18” figure
11. Mattel Thundercats Lion-o Update
12. Underground toys Sherlock 5” figure
13. Arkham Knight DC Collectibles Gamestop exclusive, Battle Damaged Batman and (Spoilerific ) Unmasked Arkham Knight - from zaaab3 on reddit
14. PlayArts Kai “Batman:Timeless - Steampunk” figure
15. Funko “Napoleon Dynamite” Pop vinyls & “Friends” - from dbillips on reddit

The AFB Podcast: Turning Art into Toys with DC Comics Artist Nicola Scott

Episode 120 of the AFB Podcast is live at iTunes and is now available for direct download! Download and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes now! 

Join Scott  and Eli for a very special episode this week!

In this episode, we have the great privilege of speaking to DC Comics superstar artist Nicola Scott! As well as hearing the fantastic story of how she came to the world of comics, we speak to Nicola about what it's like to have her art turned into toys, and discuss some recent and upcoming releases from DC Collectibles based on her Earth 2 work!

If you don't use iTunes, you can download Episode 120 here now! Click on the link to listen, or right click to save the file! The podcast will always be available from the “Podcast” tab here - but if you can subscribe and give us positive ratings at iTunes, that will help us greatly! 

The AFB Podcast is also on Stitcher Radio!

Have a listen, and please give us some feedback at podcast@actionfigureblues.com - we might even read out your feedback on the next show!

Happy listening!

The AFB Custom Comp - "Scum and Villainy" - The Winners!

Recently the AFB Forum held its first Custom Comp for a year, and this time it was all about the bad guys!

If you haven't checked out all of the fabulous entries in this comp, please check them out now.

Finally, let's give a big round of applause to our three top vote-getters:

Third Place - PSYCHO PIRATE by NiteOwl

Second Place - SCALPHUNTER by fishmilkshake

First Place - SLIPKNOT by dozymuppet

Congrats to all of our winners, and again well done to all of our entrants!

Scum and Villainy! The New AFB Forum Custom Comp!

The AFB Forum has a great group of custom action figure creators, and a growing tradition of fantastic Custom Comps. Our latest Custom Comp has just been announced!

Scum and Villainy! is a chance for you to get in touch with your dark side and put in your best effort to make your best version of  a bad guy or girl!

Here's all the info from our resident Custom Comp Coordinator, Justin, and you can check out the Comp Thread at the AFB Forum:

---------------------------

Welcome One and All to the AFB Forum's 6th Custom Competition!

As the title suggests, we want to see action figure customs of any character from any medium at all, as long as it's a villain!!!

There will be no limits and no scale suggested, as long as the character is pure evil.

Any amount of Frankensteining or sculpting is encouraged!

Due Date

Three photos are to be supplied: front, side and rear. A W.I.P. (work in progress) photograph would be cool as well.

Completed Photos with any write-ups or reference pics are to be sent to scott@actionfigureblues.com or PM'd to Scotty through the AFB Forum or  No larger than 800x600 please. The due date is May 10th, 2014. All pictures will be posted the following few days in a locked thread for you all to admire. A separate thread will be started for comments.

We encourage all members to have a go! This is a challenge for fun and there will be a vote by all members on the best figure.

The voting will be broken down to a 3,2,1 system with a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place announced.

We look forward to the entries!

The AFB Podcast Episode 56: Bowen Scarlet Witch / Marvel Legends Hit Monkey Wave

Episode FIFTY-SIX of the AFB Podcast is live at iTunes and is now available for direct download! Download and subscribe to the podcast at iTunes now! 

Join Ben, Justin and Scott for Episode Fifty-Six of the Action Figure Blues Podcast! The AFB Podcast is a weekly look at action figures, statues and other collectibles from the worlds of comic books and pop culture.

This week Scott takes a look at the Bowen Designs Scarlet Witch Variant Statue as our Toy of the Week, and then we take in-depth look at the Marvel Legends Hit Monkey Wave!

If you can't use iTunes, you can download Episode Fifty-Six here now! Click on the link to listen, or right click to save the file! The podcast will always be available from the “Podcast” tab here - but if you can subscribe and give us positive ratings at iTunes, that will help us greatly! The AFB Podcast is also on Stitcher Radio!

Have a listen, and please give us some feedback at podcast@actionfigureblues.com - we might even read out your feedback on the next show!

Happy listening!

AFB Logos punched by Superboy Prime, get Rebooted

You may have noticed that the logos for both the AFB Blog and the AFB Forum have had a makeover!

I've been thinking of giving the sites a spruce up for awhile, and started by doing some cleaning up and redesigning of the body of the blog at the beginning of the year with help from our friend dozymuppet, as I am moderately HTML-disabled. Once I'd done that I had an idea in my mind of a new logo that might suit the new look.

I have many skills, but when it comes to logo design and all that graphic-y stuff (note the technical language) are not in my skill set, so I rely on the skills of others, which is just one of the reasons I keep company with a wide range of talented folk such as the capricious Coffee Joe and the bombastic Burn, who respectively designed the last two fantastic incarnations of the AFB logo.

The idea for the new logo crystalised in my mind when I had my good and extremely talented friend Matt "Mirthquake" Orsman do one of his famous "Mirthtoons" of yours truly (check out Mirth's Facebook Page to see more of his work). It was initially for more of a lark than anything, but once I saw it, I realised how great it would looked tagged to the end of a new, Mirthquake-designed, AFB logo! It didn't take Mirth long to whip up the amazing treat you see above, alongside the forum logo and the smaller version in this post.

Adding the Mirthtoon to the logo is a great way of clearing up any confusion that's been caused by my online name and my real one. I chose "Andy" as an online name many moons ago because it was a derivative of my surname, but as so many people have come to know me by that name, they often get a surprise when I sign off an email or message as "Scott". Now you can see it's all the same me!

I'm over the moon with the great job Mirth has done, and I hope that you like the change. Mirth does his Mirthtoons for hire, and you can get in touch with him through his Facebook page above if you'd like your own. He's a real talent!

Let me know what you think about the new AFB look! You can discuss this at the AFB Forum, and you can also comment on this post to enter the June AFB Comment of the Month Contest!

Until next time!

That '70s Custom: The New AFB Custom Contest!

The Seventies were a pretty amazing time. People danced to disco. They wore bell-bottoms. They watched "What's Happenin'?'" on television. No, really.

Meanwhile, superheroes and villains donned some of the most cosmic gear ever seen! Who could forget Luke Cage's iconic tiara, or Angar the Screamer's amazing hippie gear, for instance?

What better way to celebrate those time than a custom contest? Our inaugural AFB Forum Contest, "What the Buck?!?", was a great success, and our custom team are excited to make "That '70s Custom" even better!

This contest is open to everyone - whether you are currently a member of the AFB Forum or not, whether you have ever attempted a custom before or not. The more the merrier!

You can check out the full list of rules and requirements here at the AFB Forum. Please check it out, and spread the word!

Entries close on the 30th of April! We're looking forward to a great comp!

The AFB Comment of the Month Contest Begins!

I love putting this blog together, and I love getting feedback about what people think about the toys and opinions that have been posted. The stats I get from Google tell me we get some very healthy traffic here, and so I’m keen to get people talking as well as reading!

The establishment of the AFB Forum has been one great way of getting discussion going, and if you haven’t joined in yet I’d encourage you to jump in and have a go – we’re having a blast, and seem to have a knack at getting the discussion off track in record time!

I’m wanting to see the discussion happening here on the blog as well, and so as I briefly mentioned a couple of posts ago, starting with June 2009, AFB is partnering with Mike from Mike’s Comics N’ Stuff to bring you the AFB Comment of the Month Contest! In basic terms, at the end of each month, I’ll be randomly selecting (in some super scientific method, I assure you) one valid comment (see below) from that month’s post to receive their choice of one of two pre-announced figures on offer from Mike’s amazing store. Hopefully this will help generate some of the same fun discussion on the blog that we have going on the forum.

Here’s some basic contest rules:

• every genuine comment on a post from the calendar month will be eligible for receiving the prize. I’m going to stick to my own time zone and call it at 23:59:59 Australian Eastern Standard Time – best to comment often and comment early
• if my super scientific randomizer comment selector system chooses an Anonymous comment, I’ll skip it and go again – you need to leave a name, a link, your AFB Forum username or email addy so that I can contact you if you are the winner. Blogger comments allows you to do this.
• you will be given a choice of one of the two figures on offer from the month’s contest – figures will be in their original packaging
• figures will be sent by first class mail within the US (Mike is sending them, remember) and first class international to any overseas winner. An overseas winner can elect to chip in for Priority Mail or Insurance, but otherwise we can’t take any responsibility for a parcel that doesn’t arrive – after this is coming out of AFB’s  not dreadfully deep pockets!

As for June 2009, I am pleased to announce that the two figures available for your choice of prize are the Yellow Dr Fate from DCUC Wave 8 and Live Wire from Superman / Batman Series 7 (provided this is released on time).

Since we’re all over the place and I’m posting this just as my June is about to start, the contest starts now, so comments on this post are the first eligible posts for the first ever AFB Comment Contest!

Thanks for making this little pursuit a great deal of fun, and I hope you enjoy this little way that I can give back – and thanks heaps to Mike for agreeing to partnering with me in this.

Okay, enough of me, get commenting!

We’re back online!

That was quick! Server migration is finished and the AFB Forum is back up with conversation flowing!

See you there: http://actionfigureblues.smfforfree.com/index.php

Cheers!

AFB Forum Maintenance

For our AFB Forum Members, SMFForFree has advised that they are migrating servers this week and as such all of their forums will experience a short downtime. AFBForum is currently offline, however we expect this to be a brief outage.

Anyone with urgent AFB business (like, toys and other urgently important stuff….) can contact me at scott@actionfigureblues.com

I will let you know as soon as we are back up and running!

Who should be next in JLU? Have your say!

The AFB Forums have really taken off! We hope you'll come in and have a look AND a say!

In "The Pegs", which is our board about collecting life, we're running a poll to come up with lists of the heroes and villains who appeared in Justice League Unlimited but haven't had a figure yet that we'd most like to see. Global Moderator Kimmel Prime has done an exhaustive list of every character that's appeared in the show but not in plastic (there's more than you'd think!), and all you need to vote on which ones you think should be next in this amazing line of toys.

The poll is here - come in and have your say!

Toy Fair: Stuff to buy, stuff to hide…..

Stuck over here in the boondocks, of Oz, sites like Action Figure Insider and Toy News International are a fanboy’s lifeline at convention time. Thanks guys for some great glimpses of ToyFair so far!

We had heard rumours that Zatanna was the next DCD 1:6 Scale figure, and sure enough there she was, with a top hat and white bunny too! Personally I’d love to see the Perez costume come out in this line someday, but it was a no-brainer that we’d see the black and white magician’s suit first. And it works, but golly I wish DCD  would get the knock-kneed thigh cut mess sorted out on their female figures in this scale. It’ll be sorted out with posing, but gosh she looks scee-raggly. Not super-duper wild about the facial expression either, but this is still a lock for me because I love the character and the line and want more, more, more.

We also saw the 1:6 Scale Wonder Woman up close, and after all the ongoing drama about what form Wondy’s hair should take, I can only imagine the screeching that might be taking place now. I’m personally glad they went with sculpted hair, but when have we ever really seen Diana in a ringlet perm? And…. she has the icky thigh cuts. Her uniform does look solidly done, but too loose around the bust in the same way that Black Canary’s was. I’ll reserve judgement until I see her in person. I do feel a bit for DCD on this one, because there are so many dedicated fans that there is no way to make everyone happy no matter what decisions are made.

Oh, and Georg Brewer obviously loves his ablutions so much he’s now  selling them. They’re called Uni -Formz. How Georg manages to do poopies that look kinda like Superman and Batman I have no idea, but the dude should be selling them on eBay along with the Corn Flake that looks like Jesus and the Raisin Toast with the profile of the Pope in it. I guess this is DCD’s answer to Mighty Muggs, and your intrepid reviewer is going to get a couple to give you the low-down. That is how much I love you. Remember that come Christmas time. God help me if I end up liking these.

And outside of DC world, DST is making a Star Trek Original Series Nurse Chapel! That’s awesome news for the Original Series collection. I do hope that DST remembers that the Original Series Stuff was in a smaller scale than the other stuff they’ve made so that she doesn’t end up towering over the rest of team. Looks like she’s coming in a two pack with McCoy with short sleeves and gorilla hair arms. That’s another figure off my want list.

Oh, and AFI has a truly terrifying Toy Fair video of Jesse Falcon up. Put the kids away before you watch that one, if you must watch it all. Short but scary.

Now for some fun news – if you want to make comment on this or anything else you’ve seen from Toy Fair – you can now do it at the AFB Forum – please have a look, set up and account and lend a hand in setting up what we hope will be another fun place to chat toys on the Internet!

Enjoy!