My week in review: Of retro return, TV series & movies, diorama building, action-figures and junk buying of the week

Hey what's up peeps? Hope everyone's on top of their game and having a time of your life. I must stress once again that I have no idea whatsoever on who's still reading my blog posts anymore these days. I don't really keep up with the number of readers anymore because while I know there are still people who wander good 'ol fashion blog pages, most of ya would probably spend a good portion of your daily time on IG, FB, x, Threads etc. If you're still here, then good for you, get ready for another round of gibberish thoughts and no-holds barred reviews on stuff that matter most to me for the past one week or so.

Right, let's start the ball rollin'. What was the Rebel up to for the past week you say?

...

First of all, I got really fired up lately ever since I've read about Hasbro starting to display their M.A.S.K toys all over again at recent toy cons and exhibition. We all knew that this was forth coming and Hasbro would definitely want to cash-in on the still popular 80s franchise. Considering that most (or all) of the original fans of the original cartoon series are now adults with kids or their own, I'd say any re-release of the original toy line will be successful to the point where no real marketing efforts would be needed to sell those re-releases. I mean, those die-hard M.A.S.K. fans who're into their 40s by now will buy the re-release toys without much media push except for some very personalized marketing strategies a la Hasbro's HASLABs. And dare I say it, these parents may influence their kids to start playing with the cool toys that made their 80s weekends so memorable so they'll end up buying two of each. One as collectable memorabilia and the other for their kids to play (Hasbro should be paying me for my toy consumer behavior analysis!).

 

Word that's been flying around the 'net is that Matt Trakker's gonna appear in the upcoming GI Joe movie sequel and this would serve as a re-introduction to the M.A.S.K. franchise to the Hasbro cinematic world. So the timing to re-release the original M.A.S.K. toy line would be impeccable to say the least although I'd say there'd also be toys which would be more in line with the realistic cinematic movie environment should there be live-action M.A.S.K. vehicles in the GI Joe movie.

Whatever the rumors may be, I'm all up for any revival 80s cartoon toys. Matty Collector (and later Super 7) gave us Masters of the Universe, Thundercats and Silverhawks, so it makes good sense to bring back other classic heavy hitters like M.A.S.K. or even StarCom/Visionaries/Centurions etc. because the fans are still clamoring for those.

In case there are people out there who STILL do not know what 80s cartoon series I'm been blabbing about for the past two paragraphs or so, here's that intro of the M.A.S.K. cartoon series once again to jog up your memory:

Seriously, if you lived through the 80s but yet you don't have a clue what M.A.S.K. is, then I guess you must've spent the decade in a cave with no TV transmission whatsoever.

...

We're now at Episode 2 of The Walking Dead's spin-off series, The Ones Who Live (TOWL).

Since the end of Season 12 of the main TWD series, fans have been particularly looking forward to TOWL the most because it will explore the story of the two main characters who've been missing from the main series several seasons before it ended. While I enjoyed TWD: World Beyond, the Maggie-Negan led series i.e. Dead City was 'dead boring' to me (pun intended). Daryl's foray to France however was good and I enjoyed seeing the different change of venue from the US to Europe. Thank God TOWL followed Daryl's pace and I'm really enjoying the two episodes thus far. Rick Grimes' character however has been portrayed as someone who had been broken many a times and it'd be interesting to see how Michonne will bring him back to his senses, or else they'll never escape the nightmare that is the CRM.

...

In the true spirit of loving classic movies, here are a couple that made into my re-watch list last week. First one was Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Not really suitable for kids still, but if you look past that, then this one brings back all sorts of memories, especially if you were in school in the 80s. By the way, Sean Penn is still the ultimate surfer-stoner ever. Really.

How about some Dazed and Confused to rile up your memories of the 70s? What do 90s people know about fun on the very last day of school in 1976? Apparently a lot. After watching 'Fast Times and 'Dazed back-to-back, I realised that there are stark contrasts between the two different decades of being silly teenagers but they both retain the same care-free attitude of the youth of both eras.

Both great re-watch, maybe I'll re-visit Ferris Bueller and The Breakfast Club next.

...

I finally watched Joaquin Phoenix's Napoleon movie. The history buff in me was always intrigued on how Phoenix was going to carry the French General's weird character on-screen given that he'd successfully played dysfunctional characters like Arthur Fleck and Emperor Commodus before. Evidently, he does it well and this is definitely one of my favorite historical drama/movie of all time although Ridley Scott has been receiving quite the criticisms for several inaccuracies throughout the movie. Come on, it's cinema!

Scorcese's Killers of the Flower Moon was surprisingly excellent to me. I went in half-expecting it to be draggy and being slow-burn (although it kind of was in the first 20 minutes or se) but upon reaching the hour mark it began to get really interesting and you'd really want to get to the ending and see if your expectations are truly met at the very end. Trust me, if you have 3 hours to spare with nothing worth to watch, then this movie is a must-watch! Another winner from Scorcese, DiCaprio and DeNiro in my books.

And seriously, after the two heavy hitters that were Napoleon and 'Flower Moon, I couldn't really take in Aquaman 2. I tried, but after two failed attempts at getting past the hour mark, I just couldn't complete the movie. I kinda like Patrick Wilson's portrayal of a refomed Orm but that's about it I guess. Perhaps I'll get back to finish the movie soon. Maybe.

...

I've been pretty busy on the diorama-building front too. Several regulars put in some orders since last month and I spent several sleepless nights building these babies. Hit me up if you're interested to add any of these into your action-figure display/photography diorama accessories.

...

I can't really keep up with action-figure releases these days. I mean, I can't even remember what was the last figure I've bought at retail or online stores nor when was it. Hasbro's been barraging us with endless releases on both Marvel Legends and Star Wars front. I'm pretty sure those collectors who buy everything under the sun are already having nightmares when it comes to the health of their wallets. Simply too many releases that one can handle I say!

One particular figure however caught my attention since I'm more into the comic-based figures lately (pretty much gave up collecting MCU figures a long time ago) and I am always looking forward to replacing old Toybiz figures with more updated versions by Hasbro. The classic 70s Luke Cage/Power Man figure from the Marvel Legends' Mindless Ones BAF wave is high in my want-list although I'll probably wait until it hits clearance on online stores before pulling the trigger. I don't care much about the Mindless Ones BAF even though some collectors are racing to army-build these demons for their collection.

Classic Power Man will be mine someday. And maybe that Blade from the same wave too.

Me wants it at a reasonable price (someday)!

...

My local Toys R Us stores are all having a clearance sale at the moment (expected to last till June?) and most of the outlets have been seen putting out selected items in their clearance/el-cheapo bins at ridiculous price points. At about USD2 0r USD3 per item, I'd say these are pretty worth it especially if you want to fill in those gaps in your collection.

At one of the TRU outlet near me, I was told that there were many stuff that appealed to adult collectors on sale e.g. selected Marvel Legends were mostly at USD6-7 per item (I myself saw the deluxe white-suit Black Widow and the outback Hulk in one of the bins before they were quickly snagged by supposedly scalpers the very next day) which means that you really have to dig through to find those occasional rare figures that might be of interest to you.

Anyway, these were my loot (bought for me by my son from several different TRU outlets over a span of a few days). Apparently these were too cheap to be passed on and he knew that I needed these somehow for my collection. Interesting to note that all Brie Larson's Captain Marvel merchandises currently hog all of the TRUs at dirt cheap prices across all brands i.e. Marvel Legends/Barbies/others which makes you really think if Disney's ever planning to bombard retail shelves with similar strategies again.

Great, finally the Enfys Nest bike set hits basement price and I could use that Brie Larson's headsculpt for future custom work.

The MOTU Origins Eternian 'Green' Goddess is one of those that I really want in my very selective Origins collection. Can't really let this one go at such a dirt cheap price point.

I've stopped collecting Star Wars Black Series eons ago but getting deluxe Jar Jar here at such a ridiculous price is a no-brainer. Especially when imagining that he'd stand pretty between my 6" Qui Gon & Obi Wan.