Once Upon a Geek

Since I’ve already had a couple action figure posts this week, I thought this might make a fun one.  

These are plushes I got from the WB store back when they were still open.  Man I miss that store.  They had the coolest merchandise.  In fact, you can find two other items I got from the WB store posted on my buddy Rob’s blog, The Aquaman Shrine.  The items are a JLA winter coat and a DCU animated picture frame.  While you’re there, poke around his site.  It’s really impressive (even if you aren’t an Aquaman fan).

And so my daughter’s TRUE education continues this week with a new toy.  You may recall a few weeks ago I did a post about my daughter’s new educational toys.  Well, this new one goes hand-in-hand with the educational value of those. 

I just love these figures!  They’re adorable!

Now if they’d only release a Wonder Woman.  I’d like my daughter to have some action figures that represent strong female role models.  Somehow I doubt they’ll make a Black Canary figure for this line.  Fishnets and a thong just don’t scream kid-friendly.

Maybe I’ll see if I can find a Storm figure from the Spider-Man & Friends line.

I’ve been trying to get my hands on two action figures lately. They came out a few months ago from Mattel in their line of DC Universe Classics (Wave 2).  This is the brand of figures that are now carried in stores like Target.  The action figure scuplts are surprisingly good for distribution in regular stores.

Personally, I’ve been trying to get a Firestorm and Aquaman figure.  You can see images of the figures here - they look great!  Unfortunately, they aren’t available anymore and are selling online for sick amounts of money.  For example, the Aquaman figure is going online for about $30, and that’s before shipping. In regard to the Firestorm figure, after weeks of bidding I actually just won an auction for one.  I mean JUST won.  When I started typing this blog entry, I was still searching for a Firestorm figure.  I happened to find an auction that actually had a somewhat reasonable price.  So I ended up paying $19 after shipping.  See what I mean, sick amounts of money for action figures.  But I gotta say that Firestorm figure looks bad ass.

Part of the reason the prices bother me is that I’m not a “mint in box” kind of collector.  I buy action figures of characters I really like, take them out of the package and display them.  If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you have probably seen a few entries where I showed off my figures, like here and here.

I’m not sure what I’m going to do about the Aquaman figure.  There is no way I’m going to spend that ludicrous amount of money on a figure, especially since I have lots of other Aquaman figures.  I’ve heard rumors that more of the Wave 2 figures will be released, so I’m going to cross my fingers they release some more Aquadude and the prices come down.

Also in that wave should be a modern-day Firestorm.  I’m looking forward to that figure too.

When you are raising a very young child, you always want to keep a few things in mind when purchasing toys. First, you want to be sure the toy is safe. Second, you should ensure some of their toys have educational value. When I say educational value, I don’t mean academic education, like “book smarts”. I mean real life, need-to-know, common sense kind of education. Y’know, the kind of stuff that people really use in life. In the pursuit of giving my 2 year old daughter the best upbringing, I made it my mission to get fun, safe, and truly educational toys. I believe I’ve reached the pinnacle of that mission. Sadly, from here on out I believe I’ve “jumped the shark” when it comes to vitally important teaching toys.

I proudly present my daughters new educational toys…

From here we’ll begin educating her on some important principles that will guide her throughout life. These toys can teach her important things such as:

• Truth, Justice and the American Way.

• With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility.

• Criminals are a Superstitious, Cowardly Lot.

• It’s Against My Programming to Impersonate a Deity.

and most importantly …

• Together We Can Rule the Galaxy as Father and Daughter!

It’s very gratifying when you can educate the youth of today on truly important matters.

I am still in awe of the Steampunk Star Wars action figures created by Sillof’s Workshop.  He posted them a while ago, but I was looking at them again recently.  If you haven’t seen them, you must check them out.  The amount of creativity and craftsmanship that went into these is amazing.  I don’t want to steal his site’s thunder, so I’m only posting one of the pics below.  This is the Steampunk C-3PO.  Isn’t that awesome?!?!

Additionally, he has done Victorian Avengers, Gaslight Justice League, Star Wars Re-Visioned, Star Wars: 1942, Dune: House Atreides, Daredevil, and many more.  You’ve got to check out his work.  Wow… just wow.  A link to his site is below…

I love me some JLA & JSA.  In fact, I’ve been building a DC Direct action figure collection of these two teams for years.  After seeing my buddy Michael Bailey (Views from the Longbox & Fortress of Baileytude) post some pics of his figures, I thought I would take you on a tour of some of mine.  This is by no means all my figures, just some that I have on display.

So follow me weary reader through the door into the back room of the house.  You unlock this door with the key of imagination. Beyond it is another dimension - a dimension of plastic, a dimension of multiple points of articulation, a dimension of facial expressions that look as if the character is constipated. You’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into … Shag’s Comicatorium (also known as Shag’s Sanctum Sanctorum). 

 THE JUSTICE LEAGUE OF AMERICA (multiple eras)

Notice the classic JLA is on the top shelf, followed by the satellite-era League on the second shelf, and finally the JLI era on the third shelf.  Yes, I’m that geeky.  Also, I hung my cool satellite-era League plate behind the second shelf.

 THE JUSTICE SOCIETY OF AMERICA (classic era)

Notice Johnny Thunder and Mr. Terrific are tiny. These are from the PVC JSA set that came out a number of years ago.  They have not yet made full size action figures of these two characters, so I leave those PVC figures in.  Also, in-between the shelves I hung my cool Mike Parobeck “Justice Society of America” mini-poster promoting the series that only lasted 10 issues.  Also in the long shot below, you can see beneath the JSA figures is a framed original drawing of Alan Scott Green Lantern by his creator Marty Nodell.

In this long shot, you can see how the Comicatorium is laid out.  From left to right:

• The amazing 5 1/2 foot Crisis on Infinite Earths poster by George Perez and Alex Ross. 
• The JLA figures above.
• A great Superman/Batman poster by Ed McGuiness that has been mounted on foamcore.  My wife’s office used it for a superhero-themed function.  After it was over, they kindly gave it to me.
• A bookcase filled with geek stuff.  Including Star Wars action figures of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade; Super Powers Doctor Fate; Secret Wars Kang; a model of a 1960’s movie Dalek; a Jack Knight Starman variant figure; a Hawkman Heroclix signed by Geoff Johns; and a hand-made figure of one of my own characters sculpted by my friend Ron.
• The JSA figures above.

If you are wondering, the term Comicatorium was first coined by Serv and I when we lived together in college.  It was used to describe the dining room that had become the dumping ground for all comic-related items.  That was a great room.

So as you can see above, I’m pretty much a … well … a real freak. But it makes me happy.  Maybe another time I’ll post pictures of all my Doctor Who stuff.  Now that will definitely scare the normal people.

I can’t wait for the new Doctor Who Classic Series wave of action figures! The figures from the current show have been great, but these classic figs really make me feel nostalgic.  They are currently scheduled to be released in August.

Character Options has once again done an outstanding job providing high quality figs that look fantastic.  Even my eight year old step-son thinks the Character Options figures I have are cool and wants to play with them as often as I’ll let him. 

Here are the classic figs for wave one…

Each figure pack comes with a different collectable part of the giant K-1 robot from the fourth Doctor’s first story in 1974. When all eight packs are collected, the giant robot will be complete.  How cool is that?!?!

They are already starting to plan wave two. Possible figures for wave two include: 7th Doctor Sylvester McCoy, 8th Doctor, Ice Warrior, Morbius Monster, Mummy with Jar, Tenth Planet Cyberman, Voc Robot, and an extra figure to assemble (like the Giant Robot).

I can’t wait until August!  Yay!

In honor of the Doctor Who premier tonight on Sci-Fi, I thought I would post a fun image I put together a few years ago.  Interestingly enough, the gag still works since all three shows are still being shown on Friday nights.

Tomorrow is the start date for Season 4 of Doctor Who!  I can’t wait!  In honor of the special day, below are two pics showing that even at my age, I still enjoy playing with dolls…

These are the guys you want helping you when you stumble over a Dalek in a dark alley.

Oh shit!  Who invited these guys for dinner?!?!

Thanks,

Shag