http://www.oafe.net OAFE - Online Action Figure Entertainment Reviews of new and collectible action figures, news and commentary, Figuretoons, humor, a discussion board and links to other useful resources. en-us http://www.oafe.net/poe/dcuc7_bb.php Blue Beetle's most popular era was probably in the late 1980s, when he and Booster Gold became goofy best friends during Keith Giffen and J.M. DeMatteis's run on "Justice League International." Unfortunately, Blue Beetle was recently a victim of Dan Didio's endless quest to kill every superhero at least once during his tenure... http://www.oafe.net/yo/dcdwatch2n.php Classic Nite Owl was sculpted by Karen Palinko, just as Classic Silk Spectre was. The stitches on his shirt are raised elements, and he has a crescent blade tucked into his belt. He has a large folded collar, and beneath it is another tunic to protect his neck. His hood makes a small break from the comics, adding a pair of horizontal points near the top... http://www.oafe.net/monkey/necat2cs.php Unlike McFarlane's T-800, NECA's get a very nicely sculpted Arnie likeness, and some actual useful articulation. But we've seen this Arnie likeness before...in fact we've seen most of this figure before. This is 2009, and you'd be hard pressed to find any toy company that doesn't take advantage of re-using parts, and NECA's T2 line utilizes... http://www.oafe.net/yo/tfcl_inf.php TRANSFORMERS TUESDAY! Inferno is part of the "Generation 2 Series," making him one of the few Classics figures that isn't a G1 homage. What, specifically, makes this one a G2 version? Instead of his familiar ladder, he's got a water cannon, a nod to the working squirt gun added to the G2 toy. All things considered, I'd rather get the ladder... http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67878970&blogId=517001710 Find out what toy-related items you can get at your local comicshop this Wednesday. http://www.oafe.net/yo/mu_redh.php MARVEL MONDAY! Red Hulk is Marvel Universe figure #028, and for the most part, he's just a repaint. A repaint, of course, of figures 13 and 14 - Hulk and Grey Hulk. But while those figures looked cramped and shoddy, for some unknown reason, Reddy looks better. The sculpt is the same, but for lack of a better term, this Hulk "wears" it better... http://www.oafe.net/yo/gbmmlts.php He's also not very good at it. But when the real Ghostbusters get trapped inside the Manhatan Museum of Art, Louis decides it's up to him to save the day, so he puts on a spare jumpsuit and runs to the rescue! Until he gets winded a few blocks from the firehouse, and has to take a bus the rest of the way. Hey, what do you want? Proton packs are heavy... http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67878970&blogId=517000699 Find out what toy-related items you can get at your local comicshop this Wednesday. http://www.oafe.net/yo/khnbxs.php Halloween Town Sora is figure no.4 in Kingdom Hearts Play Arts Vol.2, an assortment that also includes Final Fantasy VII lovebunnies Cloud and Sephiroth. "Play Arts" is the name for articulated toys - the other end of the spectrum are the "Formation Arts" figures, the little plastic statues. So Play Arts, Marvel Legends; Formation Arts, McFarlane... http://www.oafe.net/poe/mezcf4jv.php Both McFarlane and NECA have covered a lot of ground with 6"-7" scale figures of Jason, Freddy, and Leatherface, but Mezco picked up the licenses last year for their Cinema of Fear line. By focusing on interesting variations of the characters as well as offering versions based on specific movies, Mezco has managed to keep the line successful... http://www.oafe.net/yo/dcsh8cat.php 10 series into Mattel's DC Universe toyline, and fans are still leveling the same complaints at them that we've been hearing since the 2002 Masters of the Universe relaunch: terrible distribution and heavy-packing unwanted variantions of the "name" characters. And of course, the longer the line goes on, the harder each subsequent series is to find... http://www.oafe.net/artemis/gijmbarpp.php JOE FRIDAY! Hasbro can't be accused of making them by just re-using parts - all of the new girl is original material, even the heels which are virtually identical, but have seams in different places to the bodysuit versions. What with the coat, they honestly could've re-used everything from the waist down and no one would've thought twice... http://www.oafe.net/artemis/amecomi8cw.php She was no pegwarmer, but neither was she as hard to find as a DCU figure (for one thing, DC Direct actually bothered making enough of them, and sending them to stores too; it's a crazy way to do business, I know). And compared to Selinanime v1's stripped-down leather fetishwear ensemble, more recent "Ame-Comi" figures have been a huge improvement... http://www.oafe.net/yo/mez_hb2g.php A fun game to play while watching "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" is to try to guess which monsters were the creation of Mike Mignola, and which were the work of Guillermo del Toro. This guy? I'm guessing Mike. Guillermo loves outlandish, inhuman designs; Mignola's all about the combination of vaguely human and somehow changed or deformed... http://www.oafe.net/poe/tf_20grim.php TRANSFORMERS TUESDAY! The original Grimlock is my favorite toy of all time. That will probably never change, since it has the advantage of my childhood memories and nostalgia. But while it can never be that same toy my parents first gave me in the living room of our apartment over 20 years ago, Masterpiece Grimlock is nonetheless a superb tribute... http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=67878970&blogId=516667347 Find out what toy-related items you can get at your local comicshop this Wednesday. http://www.oafe.net/yo/mmmbibskt.php MARVEL MONDAY! Every series of Minimates has had a variant - usually it would be an alternate costume for one of the characters, like the Black Spider-Man we mentioned above, or replacing a plain Wolverine with "DoFP" Wolverine. That sort of thing. Recently, however, AA has really been sticking it to the fans, making the chase an all-new character... http://www.oafe.net/poe/st_weed.php He was one of the evil henchmen of Dr. Anton Arcane, a mad scientist who was out to kill Swamp Thing. I got the Swamp Thing and Weed Killer figures for Easter. Why my parents chose Weed Killer over the other bad guys, I don't know. Maybe it was the bright orange jumpsuit; maybe he was the only other figure there; maybe it was just fate. Whatever... http://www.oafe.net/yo/necare10h.php HUNK is a part of NECA's "Resident Evil" 10th Anniversary line, the same one that gave us the nifty zombie that everyone loved so much. Of course, that line came out in 2006, so this figure's look isn't based on the "Fourth Survivor" appearance - HUNK also showed up in "The Mercenaries" side-game in 2005's "Resident Evil 4," and got a slight redesign... http://www.oafe.net/yo/gij25dvdasa.php JOE FRIDAY! The first two GI Joe "DVD Battles" sets were that unlucky combination of over-ordered and underwhelming. They were extremely slow sellers, which meant that the later three sets, the ones with new characters that people actually WANTED, never really made it to stores. Hasbro's good about re-releasing characters for those who...