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Site Maintenance Tonight – Late Night 8/20 – 8/21

some assembly required

We’ve got some minor DNS changes to make, but they’ll require some intermittent downtime they propagate. It’s nothing spectacular – just some back-end stuff – so the site will come back looking just as pretty (or ugly, that’s really subject to your opinion) as ever. I plan to start sometime tonight. If all goes well, we’ll be back up tomorrow morning.

Any suggestions on improving the site? Let us know. AFP will still be available on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, so in case something earth-shattering comes up, hit us up there. Have a great evening!

Mattycollector Subscription Results: Masters are a Go, Future of DC is Uncertain, and Ghostbusters are Busted

Masters of the Universe Classics fans have pulled through again, jumping from 91% of the target threshold to a massive 115% in the final four hours of the pre-order window – so Club Eternia has got the green light for 2014. Sadly, Ghostbusters fans won’t be getting the Ecto-1, moving the meter just 1% to 38% in the final hours of the pre-sale.

In the same time period, DC Universe fans managed to jump 5 points from 58% to 63%, but Club Infinite Earths still could not muster enough subscribers to hit even the first tier of the exclusive Doomsday – though I suspect that the tiered system contributed a bit of the sluggishness in the pre-orders, since the first goal was a lackluster jail-suited Doomsday, when compared to the unleashed Doomsday of tier 2. While Club Infinite Earths won’t move forward with the plan partially revealed at San Diego Comic-Con, there is still a possibility of getting DC Universe Classics figures through Mattycollector in 2014 – Mattel just has to figure it out.

I’ve got to believe there’s enough fans to support a DC line – maybe this setback with the all-in approach will spur Mattel to rethink something that works better for the fans. We can hope, right?

Continue reading “Mattycollector Subscription Results: Masters are a Go, Future of DC is Uncertain, and Ghostbusters are Busted”

Diamond Select Toys Announces Marvel Minimates Series 54 Featuring Captain America

The September issue of Previews is on its way, and it will include a new series of Marvel Minimates. Series 54(!) will feature Captain America, his allies, and enemies. You’ll have the opportunity to army build Hydra agents, as they’ll come with both Baron Strucker and the short-packed Madame Hydra. Also, gotta love that robot Red Skull – thank you, Arnim Zola!

Marvel Minimates Series 54 Captain America Asst.

Marvel Minimates 54 - Captain America

The new Captain America movie is on the way, but we couldn’t wait to pay tribute to the First Avenger with his own dedicated assortment of Minimates! Series 54 includes four different two-packs, including Fighting Chance Captain America and Robot Red Skull, The Winter Soldier and The Falcon, Baron Strucker and a Hydra Elite, and a short-packed variant set with a Hydra Elite and Madame Hydra! Each Minimate stands 2 inches tall and includes a variety of interchangeable parts and accessories. Designed and Sculpted by Art Asylum!

SRP $9.99/two-pack

via New Diamond Select Products in the September 2013 Previews! | Art Asylum Blog.

Border Patrol: Pacific Rim Crimson Typhoon, Marvel Legends Captain Marvel and Spider-Woman, and DC Infinite Heroes Deathstroke

Pacific Rim Crimson Typhoon 1 Pacific Rim Crimson Typhoon 2 Pacific Rim Crimson Typhoon 3

Pacific Rim Battle Damaged Crimson Typhoon by sabretooths_workshop – I love the battle-damaged paint job, but what really takes the cake are the motorized spinning blades and the light up eye, complete with separate switches and replaceable batteries – ends Aug 25, 2013 19:36:37 PDT

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

Continue reading “Border Patrol: Pacific Rim Crimson Typhoon, Marvel Legends Captain Marvel and Spider-Woman, and DC Infinite Heroes Deathstroke”

Just One More Reason to Hate Digital River

Club Infinite Earths order Matty Tracker 2014 - T-0-2

Update: Thanks to Kevin, who left a comment below, I checked my credit card activity and only have a pending charge for $38.15. So instead of having another reason to hate DR, I just dislike them a little more for being confusing. Please don’t let this discourage you from subbing to any of the Mattycollector subscriptions. Like I have suggested before – compare what figures you’re likely to get from the sub (pretty easy to do in case of Masters) against what you want from the line, and let that guide your decision-making. How you feel about Mattel, Toy Guru, or Digital River is just noise.

It’s more like seventy-five reasons – that’s what I was charged to pre-order the Club Infinite Earths subscription from Mattycollector. For two items that I will (potentially, if the sub actually goes through) get four and six months from now, I was charged the full price for the figures, the shipping, and tax. “Why are you surprised?” you may be asking – after all, I have subbed from the beginning. So I used the dreadful Customer Service link to find my previous orders to compare.

For reasons that are beyond my ability to fathom, the cost has gone up. Last year, for THREE subs, I was charged in the neighborhood of $150. Two years ago, for TWO subs, it was around $100. So, Digital River has found a way to increase what I’m charged four months in advance by 50% ($75 for one sub compared to $50).

But I suppose the more interesting thing here is that while this crappy practice of Digital River sitting on our money has been going on since the beginning, I didn’t even bat an eyelash before, even though the amounts were higher. I guess my dissatisfaction with Mattycollector and how Digital River handles the front end has been building up to the point where I don’t feeling good about buying from them. For someone who loves the toys, that’s saying a lot.

Anyways, time’s nearly up. What did you guys end up doing for the Mattycollector subs?

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