Like a Page of Perez: New Teen Titans Series 2

Life throws up challenges all the time: your car gets stolen, your neighbour's dog eats your favourite bed of pansies, a cyclone wipes out your house, or maybe your wife asks you to skip your Friday afternoon trip to the comic shop because she's sick and the kids are being more than a handful, and it happens to be the week that the New Teen Titans Series II figures are coming out.

What do you do? Well, you do what any loving and responsible toy collecting husband would do, and race your ass past the comic shop as quickly as you can and hide the toys in your briefcase so you don't upset your beloved when she's not feeling well. Duh.

Anyhoo, risking, life, limb and an extended lack of nookie was totally worth it. This is a great set of figures. especially if you use your retcon powers to pretend that the maskless Deathstroke isn't a part of the wave. I'll get to him in a moment - happy stuff first.

The great: I'm not the most obsessive when it comes to scale, but even I would have been throwing my toys around the room if my Terra towered over my Starfire, a likely possibility considering DCD's track record. Considering this. they have to be given props for nailing the scale here - these figures are a perfect fit with the original series.

I'm also in love with the packaging. Great use of the original Perez art, the logo from the comics, and the little vignettes at the bottom are excellent. I display my figures loose, but have to admit I ended up going back and buying an extra Terra so I could keep one MIB and enjoy the packaging.

....and that's all I can put here. Everything else is either just that little bit or more than a little bit flawed.....

The could have been great: I'm not one for looking gift horses in the mouth, even if I've waited almost a decade for them, Terra and Jericho are already treasured items in my collection, and while some arm articulation for Terra and an interchangeable head with non-possessed eyes for Jericho would have made them 10/10s for me, I'm gonna deal with it. The extra head is a bigger deal for me, and in fact I was pretty sure that I had seen solicits of Jericho with such a paint job. The ad for the wave in this month's Toyfare confirmed my memory - a shame they didn't stick with it.

Props for the inclusion of Terra's rock - a good link to the props / stands that came with the original series Starfire and Raven, and definitely something DCD should be doing more often.

The far from great: What's this with the blue? Last week it was Harley Quinn's face, this week it's Dick Grayson's hair. Holy blue streaks, Batman! Actually the streaking is a theme - if you look closely at Terra and Jericho's coiffures, they're splotchy as well, just not as noticeable because they're blondies. There have been alot of Henny Pennies bemoaning Dick's blue locks. For me, it's just DCD reminding us they're DCD. Gotta love 'em.

Oh and there's that Deathstroke I'm retconning out of the wave. Meh. I'll hang for the DCUC version thanks.

The rage: I got a genuine set of chills when I put the gang together and had the complete team, in-scale team, and then it hit me: the chills aren't just because its my beloved Teen Titans in-scale, it's because this is pretty much a first, which is pretty crappy for all these years of DCD collecting. Pretty much every other team has gaping holes in the roster or has been cobbled together from different series with a clash of styles and scales. Is it any wonder that so many people are over the moon about the promise of an in-scale DCU from DCUC? I think not.

That makes me sound ungrateful, and I'm not. Whatever moved DCD to give us this much awaited and much needed wave of three pretty great figures, I'm thankful, really.

Oh, and while I'm being nice, DCD, give us a better Kid Flash and Wonder Girl. Starfire and Cyborg could use an update as well if you're feeling generous.

Just, no more streaky hair, okay?

DCUC 2: The Thrills, the Chills and the Freaky-Fugly........

"Trials and travails" has never been more appropriate than when it comes to tracking down DCUC in Australia. While Australian collectors site Ozfigurama reports a couple of random sightings of DCUC 1, there's been nothing happening in my neck of the woods. While there has been a promise that Aussie store Casefresh is going to stock DCUC in the future, I've had to resort to online purchase from the US, which is fraught which challenges in the shipping department. Some sites were asking more to ship to Australia than for the case - I think not! I have to give a shout out to Cornerstore Comics for their consistently reasonable overseas shipping charges - thanks!

With all this behind me I picked up my case of DCUC 2 from the post office with a great sense of relief. First off, I was pleased to get the figures I wanted: classic Aquaman and Firestorm plus one each of Blue and Red Superman. I'll find a MA Firestorm eventually, but I don't get the "Modern Age" Aquaman at all - what Aquaman does he look like exactly? Pass.

Now to the toys:

The best: Aquaman is not only the best figure in this wave, I'd go so far as to say he's the best Aquaman figure ever, and that's in spite of the chest joint which is something I just don't get in these figures. The headsculpt is one of the best versions of Arthur we've seen.

Apart from the scale issues, I've always been a fan of the DCD JLA Firestorm from a few years back. The DCUC Ronnie is a good in-scale alternative, but doesn't capture his face as distinctively as the DCD version did.. I like the nuclear wrist thingies though!

Grodd also goes in the "best" category for me - this is the Grodd I've been waiting for! I thought I'd want to take the weird electrodes off, but I actually don't mind them - they're kind of cool, so I left them on. Mattel also get extra props for limiting the C & C to five pieces and not forcing you to buy the variants to collect the entire figure.

The almost best: Black Manta is excellent - I like the shape of his head and his groovy gun. The Justice Manta has a hand up on this one because of the removable helmet, and personally I like the "wet" look as opposed to the matte look used here. I like the inclusion of a trident for Manta - nice touch.

Blue & Red Superman are fun, and the different headsculpts are appreciated. Even though they were minor players, they help to flesh out my Morrison JLA, so they're winners with me. The only gripe is not being able to take the red/blue flame / electricity thingies off of their backs - that's a bit weird.

The bad: crickets, nothing to see here, skip straight to:

The Freakish. Sorry, but this Harley Quinn goes straight in the "storage / sell / feed to dog" pile for me. It's not just about the blue face, but what's with the blue face??? Harley's a Smurf now is she? Ewww. Beyond that, her joints are loose and her hands won't hold either accessory properly (won't hold the mallet at all and the gun only loosely). Overall in this line Mattel is doing a great job of creating toys that look and feel expensive. Harley looks and feels like a dimestore bauble. Yuck and double yuck.

Overall QC: Paint apps overall are good,with a bit of sloppiness on Harley's wrist being the only noticeable blotch. Apart from Harley's trick hips (hey, maybe that's not so bad after all.....), Red Superman's joints are also strangely loose to the point where standing is precarious. On the flipside, I'm glad I had a backup left Grodd arm from the second Superman, because the left arm from Blue Superman was totally locked at the joint. At first I was too afraid of breaking it to push hard, but when I realised I had a second, working arm, I still couldn't budge it.

The Wrap-up: While I've been tough on DCUC for some aspects of upcoming waves, this is a winner for me. With Aquaman being my all time favourite character it couldn't help but please, but he's well supported by the rest of the wave - if you pretend like I am going to that Harley doesn't exist. (Hey, if the writers can retcon, why can't we??) The accessories are great (again ignoring Harley's which she can't hold..) and the overall QC is excellent.

Thanks DCUC and thanks for reading! As always your comments are most welcome!

Oh My Gods!

It's been awhile since I bought a whole DCD wave, but New Gods Series one was a no-brainer preorder for me based on the solid Kirbyesque style captured in the designs. It didn't hurt that due to a shipping delay these ended up coming in on Free Comic Book Day and I got 20% off them as part of a storewide sale!

Not much to be disappointed about with this wave, in fact I would have to say it's the best since the New Frontier.




I'll try to be sequential: Packaging: very colourful, very Kirby. A larger carded blister this time as opposed to the smaller carded recent JLA figs or the boxes for Trinity or Justice etc. It did make me wonder if the lack of consistency in packaging is an annoyance for MIB collectors in terms of storage. Doesn't bother me because I unpack mine, but I wonder if it makes packing them away a pain? Just a thought.

Sculpts: this is a time when we want a wave to be artist specific, and there's no disappointment here. The lines, the shapes of the faces, it's all Kirby and all good. Even the bases have Kirby dots on them. Pretty cool!

Paint apps: nearly spotless. Mr Miracle has perhaps a tiny bleed between the red and yellow section of his uniform, other than that it's great. Excellent bright colouring, they really look like they've off the pages of the New Gods.

Scale: Well.... if you're obsessive about it you'll be annoyed. They're a bit taller than say the recent JLA figures - I've put in a shot with the JLA Superman for comparison. If you're like me and planning to have a separate New Gods display then you won't worry.

Accessories: Each character has his own Mother Box, but as the hands have no grip the only hope is to position their hands with palm facing upwards to rest them in it. This works for everyone except Mr Miracle - when I tried to twist his hand at the glove it was very tight and felt like it might pop off if I twisted harder. Fairly shortly it made no difference as I had already managed to lose one of the Mother Boxes. Grrr.

Orion has his angry head, and Darkseid has his evil glove, the name of the device is escaping me at the moment and I can't be buggered to look it up. They both interchange easily with the standard parts.

I have read alot of complaints about the lack of Orion's harness, but I actually don't mind having a more BVP Orion to go in this display. The harness does tend to hunch the figure over and in the case of the DCUC Orion he looks terribly constipated.

For me these are the best impressions of any of the characters ever done. There are some great Darkseids out there but this tops them by far. I've given you some comparison shots to help you make up your own mind.

All in all three thumbs up from me (there's a bit of hillbilly in my bloodline) for this excellent series. I am looking forward to Series Two: unlike alot of folks I understand why Superman is in there, but I do hope they fix his fugly headsculpt, and I am puzzled by the version of Kalibak we're getting which isn't what I want.

There are still so many great characters that could be made in this series, so I hope it continues - at least until we get Granny Goodness!!

Words to warm a father's heart.....

Well folks, my work here on earth may just be done.

Walking through the shops this weekend hand in hand with my eldest, Miss Seven, this proud papa's heart nearly burst with joy when she stopped, gazed meaningfully into my eyes, and asked a detailed question about the properties of Krypton.

My enthusiastic answers triggered a lengthy discussion that went on throughout the day's duties, and ended in a web search on all forms of K and the various effects of each form. We found this very useful chart which helped us on our way. I believe that Miss Seven is planning to take this to school for news later in the week.

While Mrs AFB bemoans the loss of a daughter to the "dark side", I'm sleeping easy in the knowledge that the family tradition is going to live on.......

Oops! Supergirl does a Britney

Elsewhere at NYCC, an array of the DCU's finest put in dutiful appearances for the premiere of the INFINITE HEROES line. Players like Flash's great friends the Weather Wizard and Professor Zoom were particularly excited to make their long-awaited debuts in plastic.

Their shining moment was dramatically upstaged, however, when Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl, took her place at the back of the podium. A stunned hush filled the auditorium as heroes, villains and the paparazzi alike quickly realized two things: firstly, Supergirl was wearing no underpants, and secondly, she is clearly a fan of the Hollywood wax. (Look it up boys, this is a family blog)

The clearly disoriented Zor-el was quickly ushered out of the press conference, but not before her cousin's regular foe Bizarro could shout: "Bizarro hate Naked Girl! Bizarro never want to look at Naked Girl again!", creating an even bigger stir.

At press time no-one from Zor-el's camp would comment. It was understood that she was being seen to by her cousin Superman, close friend Wonder Girl and Dr Phil McGaw.

Custodial arrangements for Comet the Super Horse and Streaky the Super Cat were unclear at this stage.

Mattel...... you got some 'splaining to do......!

Dont'cha hate it when stuff like this happens? I mean, how embarrassing for Mattel that they've taken a bunch of parts which are CLEARLY leftover bits of a Teen Titans Go! Cyborg and shown it at NYCC as a Metallo BAF for the DCUC line! (Many thanks to Action Figure Insider for the pic of Mattel's big boo-boo.)

I bet Bandai is pissed about this!!


Hopefully they'll rectify the mistake soon and show us the real Metallo. Oh, and the Classic Black Lightning and Riddler variants, which are coming, aren't they??

I mean, these are the guys that "get us", isn't that what everyone's saying? These are the guys that understand collectors.

... and so they give us Batman Beyond?


(leaves space for effect - yes, we are getting fricking Batman Beyond, not to mention Black-suited Superman and - oh yay - The Eradicator.......)


Yep, they "get us" so much that "Classic" seems to mean classic characters in crappy Modern Age costumes. It means that we get two regular (one of which is a mort Batman villain) and one variant female character (in a costume she wore, what, for one issue?) in five waves.

Yes, Mattel "gets us" so much that in five waves they couldn't throw in one character that DCD has never done.

Instead, we get Batman Beyond.

Come on Mattel - give Bandai back its Cyborg bits and make a REAL Metallo that looks like something we don't have to Google to recognise. Make the Modern Age stuff the variant when it's crap like Black Lightning's new outfit, and don't tell us what's "possible", just do it.

Looking forward to this being cleared up promptly!

Black Canary 1:6 Scale: Score!

Well, the first item on my Christmas list has already been decided! The fourth female in DCD's 1:6 scale and personally most awaited female character: Black Canary!

Although I'm sure its inclusion will please some collectors, I'm not sure why they chose to put the mask on her for the main solicit shot. Good to see it comes off and she looks great underneath it. Better yet, this figure comes with an interchangeable head so that we can have her in scream mode if desired!

I'm also very happy with the decision to go with sculpted hair vs. rooted. And to imagine I was actually considering buying Barbie as Black Canary if this hadn't come along!!!!

Disappointments: personally I'd prefer a BA version with a blue costume. The hand / wrist joins look a bit clunky - it makes her look like she's wearing a flesh coloured skivvy. The angle that he knee joint is sticking out yet makes me wonder if posing is going to be a problem with the fishnet stockings. At least her costume will cover up any of those horrible mid-limb cuts they insist on including with these.

This solicit couldn't come at a better time for me, as I was just beginning to wonder if the 13" range was running out of steam with only villains on the immediate horizons. I haven't been collecting the bad guys because I do have a mortgage, and because I've been disappointed with the MA versions of classics like Bizarro and Joker (those teeth!) that have been solicited.

For the true Black Canary fanatic such as myself, December will be a bumper month from DCD as we'll be getting her in the JLI as well as in the magnificent 13" range.

The shopping list has begun!!!!!

Latest and Greatest Customs

I don't know how I did it, but I managed to miss March completely! The start of the year is always crazy for me - hopefully things will settle down now. Anyway, the purchases and posts are backing up so I'll get straight to business:

My Legion and JSA Collections have marched further forward with the latest efforts from my favourite customisers.

On the Legion front, Jackknight92 has finished off the Silver Age Legion proper with Shadow Lass and Nemesis Kid, and helped me start on the Subs with Polar Boy and Night Girl. Here they are, along with a fairly pathetic attempt at a group shot. Once I get some stands that allow me to put some levels in, I should be able to do better.

I am so thankful to Jack for all the care he has put in to creating these for me.

Moving from the Modern Age JSA Customs that the amazing Lars has been doing for me, I thought I should really try to get the original JSA sorted out, so I commissioned these two amazing guys: Mr Terrific and the Star Spangled Kid. Here they are, along with the Hawkman from the latest Reactivated Wave.

I hope you agree they are pretty amazing!

Many Armored Aquamen...

Okay, so I'm a serious Aquaman fan. Please don't ask me to explain - I don't know why. I remember being a kid and loving the Superfriends cartoon and - wait for it - standing poised with my little Kodak camera during the opening of the show to take pictures of the television when Aquaman was on the screen. I'm sure there's something to analyse there but that's a session for another day.

So anyway that's the only explanation I can offer for the fact that I have bought not just one but two Armored Aquamen in the last month or so. I reacted like most others when the Armored Justice Figures and Armory Waves were announced: shaving all the hair from my head and body, putting on sackcloth and ashes and engaging in a suitable period of wailing and gnashing of teeth. I protested loudly along with the rest of you, and yet deep in my heart of hearts I knew that when it came time to pass an Aquaman by, I wouldn't be able to do it. I bought them, just like I'll be the sad guy that buys Aquaman as Betty Boop or Aquaman as the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz in that episode of Superfriends where they all got turned into Oz characters (and yes, that really did go to air).

With that out of the way, here's a rundown on the two. The JUSTICE Armored Aquaman is...... quite green. There is a reasonable amount of detail and all the appropriate Aquaman-ish scales etc. It would have been nice to have an alternate head for this to have a sense of the character being in there, but then the idea of this armour is that it's the Metal Men covering over the JLA (as you do) so I can see the argument for not having that. Overall, more interesting than I thought it was going to be but unlikely to ever become the centrepiece of my Aquaman display.

The Armory Wave Aquaman comes from the "Our Worlds at War" crossover event in which Aquaman "died", but not before donning this fetching gold armor with green chainmail getup. Now I have to say I really like this figure. The helmet is removeable and the head underneath is very well sculpted, presenting one of the most striking Aquaman visages we've seen in an action figure.

The most perplexing this about this figure is the multitude of golden prongs that come in the packet. It's very rare that DCD provides any instructions when assembly is required and this is no exception, and this one required a bit of thinking as they all go in the back of the figure which isn't visible in any of the pics to provide a guide. I assume I got mine right, I found enough holes to stick them in at least - that has to count for something, right?

Anyway these are they. I thought that since it's quite likely that I'm the only person that bought these that I shouprovide the public service of putting pics and some words up to help others out.

Just don't judge me, okay? It's obviously a deep-seeded childhood thing.

And no, I don't take pictures of the TV screen anymore.

That's what DVD screen captures are for, right? :0)

Yours in collecting.

Did I mention I think I have OCD?

Or at least Obsessive Compulsive Collection Completion Syndrome. And that's why even though I have the original 13" Hal Jordan, I imagine I am going to end up buying the new four-headed version so that I can have a Tomar Re. I couldn't really care less about Abin Sur at this scale and have to confess a gap in my GL knowledge in that I don't know who the fish dude is, but Tomar... sigh.

Here's hoping the fact that we didn't get John Stewart or Guy Gardner options here means that we can count on them as individual solicits later down the line.

And I won't even comment on the weirdness that is the fact that you can have a 13" GL Fish Guy in this line before a Black Canary, Hawkman, Zatanna or... a some Amazon chick who I think used to be important in the DCU???

Mmmm..... Teen Bodies............

Just a funny way of saying that the new "Teen Body" for the DCD 13" (or I guess not quite 13"...) line is a winner with me. Of course it could be no one other than Robin to premiere this line, which is certainly very heavy on Batman and his supporting cast and villains!!!

Here's the rundown: The packaging art is the same ho-hum blandish stuff that alot of these boxes seem to have become. I'd really like to see a bit more done with these. Inclusions are fairly basic - the ever useful extra pairs of hands (I often wonder where mine are...), stand, a grappling hook, and two masks, one black and one green. The masks create a couple of gripes for me: firstly with two masks being provided, it would have been nice to have one with white-filled eye slits, which is how I would have preferred to display him. Secondly, Robin's bangs on the right side of his face come down just a fraction too far so that the mask doesn't sit quite straight on his face, creating an ongoing source of irritation for anal-retentive OCD-ish collectors like myself.

Robin's costume is well-done overall, although something like the scaled effect on Aquaman's top could have been used to get his briefs looking more like what we see in the comics. Nice detailing with hand-stitching on his tunic, and his boots are just great.

Due to Robin's bare legs, I expected the (in my opinion, unnecessary) thigh cuts to really bug me, but they stand out much less in flesh tones that they did on the green of the Martian Manhunter. Of course, it could be because the legs are skinnier - this is the Teen Sculpt after all!!

I am still working towards an enclosed display space so that I can have these on show out of the box, and I can't wait as they really do take on a life of their own once they're free from their little prisons. As soon as I got this guy out of the box he became one of my favourites in the line, and I was sad to have to put him back.

One would assume that the Teen Body Sculpt will be used again - while a SA Aqualad would be my dream, Kid Flash (Wally West SA version) would be my next realistic choice. Bring it on!!

Battlestar Galactica Wave 1

I am a huge fan of the modern Battlestar Galactica series, and was really excited to hear that DST was producing figures from the show, but didn't preorder when I saw the solicits as it just didn't seem that they'd nailed the headsculpts (I'm hedging my bets on the upcoming Heroes line for the same reasons). When DST has done an overall outstanding job with the headsculpts on the Star Trek products it's hard to see why they can't do it elsewhere.

When I saw Apollo and Caprica Six in my LCS I decided to pick them up, as Six in particular looks much better in person than in the solicits. Satisfied with the results, I then decided to chase down the rest of the wave.

I'm going to name Chief Tyrol as my favourite figure in the wave. Probably the best headsculpt. Apollo is a bit of a disappointment in that category as it just doesn't capture the actor.

Apart from Six, each figure comes with a good range of accessories - rifles, handguns. a med kit for Tyrol and helmets for Apollo and Hotdogs which are well constructed and look great when on.

I could take or leave Hotdogs and Sam Anders, but their inclusion the first wave is very promising in terms of the range of characters that are going to be offered in this series. However if we don't get a Roslin and Adama soon I think I'll riot!

My biggest complaint about the BSG figures is that you have to go to the four corners of the earth to get the whole wave, what with multiple company-specific exclusives in one wave. All extra fun when you're doing it from Aussieland! However, this first effort is good enough for me that I'll do the chasing thing again for Wave Two!

Justice Wave 7: The Past Revisited

I thought you might like to see John Stewart and Gorilla Grodd from JUSTICE Series 7 in situ with their counterparts from the series and matched up against earlier figures of the characters.

The John Stewart figure is the Hal Jordan figure with a different head. The whites of his eyes are a bit large, giving him a slightly mad or stunned appearance. This is exaggerated by very black tone of his skin which is much darker than he is displayed in the comics or than the figure was solicited with. Nothing exciting here, and clearly not much put into this one.

When I saw the solicits for the Grodd figure, I thought it looked like the same stance as the original DCD Grodd and assumed we were getting a bigger version as per the slightly larger scale of these figures. Well, it isn't just the same idea; it is from the same mold by all appearances, just with a different, angry head. If I didn't like having multiple versions of characters in different displays (e.g. original DCD Grodd in my Flash display, new Grodd in the JUSTICE display), then I'd be more than a mite cranky about this. On the flipside, for anyone who missed out on the original Grodd or doesn't want to pay the hefty prices he usually goes for on eBay, this is a good chance to pick one up even if you're not in to the Justice figures.

On a side note, I did wonder to myself what Alex Ross thought of the reuse of an old sculpt for this figure, seeing that JUSTICE is all about HIS version of the JLA and their foes.....

Finally, here are the new figures lined up against DCD's original efforts for these two characters. As you can see no major new ground has been broken, and this just highlights the re-use of the original Grodd mold. Have to say it: it seems like DCD was phoning it in on this one. Good to see they seem to have picked up their game for the eighth and apparently final wave of this series.

In the context of the JUSTICE line, I would say that these are very competent additions, and certainly wouldn't complain about the QC, paint apps etc. It does seem a shame, however, that the opportunity to do something new or fresh with the characters wasn't taken.

Naturally, as an Aquaman tragic I also bought the Aquaman Armoured figure, but I'll post pics and review of that alongside the Aquaman from the ARMORY Wave shortly.

Great New JSA Additions!

In the same way that JackKnight has been helping me with the SA Legion, the amazing Lars has been helping me build up the MA Justice Society - we've already added Stargirl, Wildcat and Damage, and he has just completed two comissions for me: Liberty Belle and Cyclone.

I love these, and have to say I think Liberty Belle is one of the finest customs I have ever seen. I hope you agree.

I am going to have him do some GA JSAers for me next, and would love to one day be able to afford to have him right some of DCD's wrongs by doing me a proper MA Hourman and Mr Terrific as well.

In additon to these two comissions I also won a Lars auction on eBay: a MA Jericho. I really like his new costume and thought it was a real shame they brought him back onto the team only to shuffle him off so quickly. Maybe we'll see him again!

Yours in collecting!

SA Legion Marching to Completion

My great friend JackKnight92 has nearly helped me complete the entire Silver Age Legion, and I couldn't be happier.

The latest arrivals are Karate Kid (the character Keith Giffen disliked so much he killed him off not once, but twice) and Princess Projectra. PP needs a bit of surgery after some cape damage in transit but I'm over the moon with these.

To finish off the team we have Shadow Lass and Nemesis Kid coming soon, and then I think we'll move on to the Subs!

Once I get Shady and NK I'll use my new camera to try and work on some decent group shots of the whole set.

Long Live the Legion!

..... and we're back!

First off, huge apologies to my tens (ones?) of loyal readers who have been hanging out for some more AFB fun the last couple of months. It's been a busy time of year, and what with it being summer here and Australia pretty much shuts down in January, but I'm back from the beach and back online now with lots to catch up with!

The OCD (and lets face it, every collector is a bit OCD...) part of me feels the need to try to travel my collecting journey in order since I last left you. I'll try to do my best overall but in order to get back on track I'll have to let some of the order fly.

And to get out of order right away, I'd thought I'd celebrate my return by mentioning the DC Comics Action Figure Archive by Scott Beatty which came out recently. I was lucky enough to receive this beautifully presented hardcover book as a gift early in the new year. Attempting to chronicle every figure that has been made of a DC Character is an ambitious undertaking at least and Beatty certainly deserves kudos for giving it a go.

His tome has its strengths - it provides some interesting, if sporadic, insights into specific product lines and their development, It's well photographed, and therin lies the big disappointment of the book, because of the nearly 1500 figures listed, we only see half. Quite a few of the pages are presented as per the Deadshot example (thanks to RTM or whoever they got it from) with one or two photos and then other figures unpictured. It stands to reason that the main audience for a book like this is going to be collectors, and I dare say that many of them experienced the same deflated feeling I did when they sat down with this expecting a treasure trove and found it a pretty but quick flick-through instead.

Needless to say this is not going to go down as the authoritative text in the subject. Along with the photo-skimping, the opportunity for a more expansive history of the various lines is also missed, which seems a great waste as there certainly is enough information out there in different places that could be brought together to make something more informative.

Despite all of this, it is nice looking and contains enough to warrant it a place on the bookshelf of any serious collector, but if you're not lucky enough to have it gifted to you, I would suggest looking for it on sale. Half-price sounds about right for something that only gives half the story.

So I'm back. I have a truckload of photos of recent acquisitions and some great customs to share and I'll try to work at them steadily from here on in. As always your comments are always welcome!

Yours in collecting!

Marvel Legends Series 3 - Holy Headsculpts!!!!

Seeing as we've yet to see Habro Marvel Legends Wave Two here in Australia (don't get me started on the totally sporadic and nonsensical distribution of toys at retail over here!!!!!), I've had to eBay for the figures I wanted from Wave Three. Last week I got Marvel Girl, Black Knight and Cyclops in the post.

Seeing as I presently don't have a display space for my Marvel Legends figures at present, I'm not taking these out of the pack for the moment, however I am really impressed with Black Knight and Cyclops. Very clean sculpting and paint apps. Nice costume design for Black Knight in particular. These two figures would stand well alongside the rest of the ML collection.

The main area where Habro seems to be falling down is with headsculpts, and Marvel Girl is a perfect example of this. The bottom line is the dodgy work on her headsculpt, especially the giant-sized earrings, makes the whole figure look cheap. The headsculpts on Captain America and Bucky from this wave are the reasons I passed them over - and Bucky in particular is a character that Hasbro really couldn't afford to screw up.

Overall I am pleased with these but if the 'Blow can't get more consistent with their QC in the headsculpt department then the future of this line is questionable at best.

Laser Beak Man Rules!

Not an action figure (at least not yet), but a very different type of superhero. Laser Beak Man is the creation of Tim Sharp, an 18-year old Australian chap. I found out about him today at the "Eternity" exhibition at the National Museum of Australia.

The amazing thing about Tim is that he is autistic. When he was young his parents were told that he was beyond hope and the best thing they could do was to put him away and forget about him. When he was 11 drawing was discovered as a way to focus and help him, and the creation of Laser Beak Man gave him a way to begin to develop communication skills.

I was incredibly moved by hearing his story and seeing his work. Laser Beak Man has a website and some merchandise. It really is worth a look.