Author: Ron

Mattel Missing the Mark with Epic Creations?

Movie Masters™ Epic Creations™ DC Classic TV Series Batman™ Utility Belt Movie Masters™ Epic Creations™ Ghostbusters™ Neutrino Wand

Maybe I’ve been conditioned over the years by quick sell-outs, but it was still somewhat of a shock to check in on the Mattycollector December sale to find that the big three Epic Creations items, the Masters of the Universe Classics Castle Grayskull, and the prop replicas for the Batman Utility Belt and the Ghostbusters Neutrino Wand, are all still in stock. None of the three are even at the point where they’ve got the special tags indicating they’re “Almost Gone.” This is particularly surprising for the Castle – from the point of pre-order through the pre-hype for this sale, Mattel has consistently said that they’d have just a very limited amount of Castles for day-of sales.

If we don’t see this change in the short term, here’s what I’ve reasoned could be behind the slower than expected sales.

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CustomCon 36 – the Complete Index

While we’re on the subject of custom action figures, did you happen to catch CustomCon 36 last week, right here at AFP? Without further ado, here’s the complete index for the three day show that featured twenty one entries:

CustomCon 36 - Day One

DAY ONE: Tuesday, December 10

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Border Patrol (Part Two): Marvel Legends Blade, Hercules, and Star Lord

Part two of our make-up edition of Border Patrol features three Marvel Legends customs:

  • Marvel Legends Blade by AC Custom Figures – feels like a lot more love went into this custom than if Hasbro had actually released Blade as a variant to Punisher as originally planned – apparently Hasbro had produced a stake gun for Blade, but since the figure never came out, they released it as an accessory for a G.I. JOE figure – they tracked the gun down and have included it with this custom – ends Dec 18, 2013 19:00:23 PST
  • Marvel Legends Hercules by Loosecollector – this is a previously owned custom that takes the originally Hasbro release from the garbage dump and cleans it up in a big way – ends Dec 18, 2013 18:14:30 PST
  • Marvel Legends Star Lord by Draubner – I am not familiar with this rendition of Star Lord’s costume – is it a Marvel Now! redesign or something from the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy movie? – I liked it better when Star Lord had a mask covering his face, but I’m sure the movie studios don’t like it much when you hide the big star’s mug – ends today, Dec 17, 2013 13:07:18 PST

In AFP’s Border Patrol, we scour active eBay auctions for customized action figures that you won’t want to let slip by!

Border Patrol (Part One): 1/6 Scale Movie and TV Edition

Since we skipped an installment of Border Patrol with CustomCon 36 going on last week, we’ve got two for you today. First up, I noticed that the top dollar customs this week have been dominated by 1/6 scale figures from the big and little screens. Here’s three of them:

  • Blondie from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly by SixIceCubes – a lot of 1/6 scale custom figures from the movies start with kits, and this is no exception – however, the headsculpt has been resculpted and repainted – a lot of attention to detail was put into his clothing accessories, so they would both look right and move right – ends Dec 19, 2013 18:26:29 PST
  • Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead by Iminime – here’s a custom kit up from Iminime being sold by a previous owner – the kit comes with two headsculpts, a squinting bloody one and the other with a normal expression – previous owner added a wedding ring and watch – ends Dec 18, 2013 08:57:39 PST
  • Travis Bickle from Taxi Driver by Rainman – this custom is from a pretty rare kit of just 30 pieces – this one is bring put up by a previous owner, and he also has the Taxi Driver Travis Bickle soldier version up for grabs – both include everything except for the bodies, and not sure why those would be excluded – ends Dec 22, 2013 16:53:59 PST

In AFP’s Border Patrol, we scour active eBay auctions for customized action figures that you won’t want to let slip by!

Build Your Own Dwarven City of Erebor – All You Need Is 80K LEGO Pieces

With the Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug opening this past weekend, my wife found this LEGO re-creation of the Dwarven City of Erebor on YouTube. If you’ve got 80 thousand spare LEGO pieces hanging about, and have the talent of LEGO enthusiasts Jack Bittner and Blake Baer, then you too may be able have your own Gimli-sized Erebor. I was most amazed by the waterfall and lake below it. And then there’s the giant Dwarven statues adorning the gates to the inner city. Fantastic!

I don’t know if Desolation revisited Erebor in its glory, as we saw it at the beginning of the Unexpected Journey – I haven’t seen the movie yet. But I’ll guess that there’s at least a glimpse of it again, if Peter Jackson stays true to the pattern of repetitive flashbacks he used in the LOTR trilogy. Have you seen the movie? If so, please let me know how you liked it.

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