Star Wars: The Black Series: First Order Snowtrooper

 One of my C2E2 grabs was the First Order Snowtrooper. There were a number of vendors at the show that had a wide assortment of Black Series figures, but only one that I saw who had this guy. I’m not entirely sure what wave this comes in, but I’ve yet to see one at local retail. That worries me quite a bit: I know that I’m behind in getting some write ups posted, and I’ve got some stuff that’s pretty much brand new, and also a few things that aren’t as new, but I’d never seen in a store before, and some of them are things that came out waves or years ago in their respective toylines. I’m not sure what has kept some of these things from getting on to store shelves, and it does make me worry when new waves of figures are supposed to be out at retail but all you find are the previous waves’ shelfwarmers, still hanging there. Long ago I found the Leader class Skywarp, right after he’d been released, in a store; now I’m so tired of seeing that Skywarp at every Target that I have to remind my Skywarp that I’m not mad at him, just the other ones. Overall I’ve had little trouble getting the Black Series figures that I really want even on the secondary market, but I’d much rather be able to find them at retail, the easy and fun way.

Some nice detail here to draw your eye a bit.

Anyway, I don’t know what wave this figure comes in, and the pegs at most stores now carry an assortment of the first, second, and First Order TIE Pilot wave, whichever one that was.

I’ve written on the Toys R Us exclusive Snowtrooper Commander already, so in terms of the base figure here, I’m not sure what else to say. The First Order Snowtrooper is the Commander figure minus shoulder pad, and

Transformers: Combiner Wars Onslaught and Bruticus

Finally, after all these years. I finally, thanks to Amazon, finally got an Onslaught, and so my Combiner Wars Combaticons are complete. I want to do two things in this entry: talk about Onslaught, and then talk about Bruticus. But, thanks to a C2E2 buy, there will be more Bruticus talk later, but I can’t write about that part until I get this part out. Heavy lies the head, right?

The "Right" Way

The "Also OK" Way

Onslaught is a repaint/mold of Hot Spot, and in vehicle mode is some kind of military truck. The entire central part of the truck is the Bruticus chestplate and head. Hot Spot, being a fire truck, worked a little bit better in terms of incorporating the combiner elements into vehicle mode, but

Star Wars: The Black Series: Emperor’s Wrath Darth Vader

What Imperial collection is complete without Darth Vader? This figure is the second Black Series Vader that has come along, and is quite an interesting entry to the line.

A head-scratchingly bizarre Walgreens exclusive figure, Emperor’s Wrath Vader is a figure of the final moments of the Luke/Vader/Emperor battle at the end of Return of the Jedi, after Luke has cut off Vader’s hand and after Vader has thrown the Emperor down the Death Star shaft. Oh, geez, sorry. I probably should have dropped a “spoiler alert” there before I blabbed away. The helmet is a translucent purple, replicating the literal frame of the movie where the Force lightning allows us to see the skull beneath Vader’s helmet. Very, very cooly, the right hand is also removable, and the wrist has some painted wires and stuff, meant to replicate a severed robotic wrist. 

Star Wars: The Black Series: Sandtrooper Commander

 I find myself having difficulty keeping track of the passage of time. Outside of major events, almost everything in my post-2010 life just seems to have happened ‘in the past,’ not because of some effort to diminish the passage of time, but because of a legitimate inability to remember things in a chronological context. While I will never forget the date of my wedding, I do not remember the year I graduated from grad school; I don’t know how long I’ve been teaching college; and while I remember the years of the Blackhawks Stanley Cup wins, and I remember the teams that won between them and the order they won in, I do not remember the years: this amounts to me being able to say that the Hawks won in 2010, and the Bruins won the year after, but I don’t remember the year the Bruins won in. Truly preposterous. 

Something else I can’t remember in terms of the year, but certainly in terms of its magnitude, is when I bought my first Black Series figure, at the urging of my wife. I’ve told that story before. I bring it up because in however many subsequent years there have been, I have purchased many, many Black Series figures, as I warned my wife would happen if I started down that road.

Transformers: Combiner Wars Chop Shop

The first of my C2E2 gets is the brand new, never-before-seen-in-stores-by-me Legends class Chop Shop, a repaint of Generations (I think….?) Shrapnel sans Minicon Reflector. Chop Shop is the same figure as Shrapnel, but with a new head, which is pretty amazing, given that this is a Legends class figure.

The mold itself is a pretty good one, and I often find myself fiddling with Shrapnel, even after all this time. The insect mode and robot mode are both perfect for Shrapnel, and both work terrifically for Chop Shop as well. I find this a little surprising, as the standard reuse plan for the Legends class seems to be just repaint this into somebody else, and don’t worry about it. Thus, that Legends Optimus Prime because Nemesis Prime, and then Huffer, and then Pipes. Essentially because they’re all trucks. Huffer got a new head at least, which then also became Pipes.

C2E2 2016

This weekend was C2E2, the Chicago Comic and Entertainment Expo. It was the second year that my wife and I went, and the first time, as I mentioned to her several times, that we'd gone as a married couple. She wasn't too interested in that, but I was all happy about it.

Anyway, what a terrific weekend. Sitting here on a Sunday evening, both of us complaining about general fatigue and soreness from all the walking around (we also were in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last night for a concert after a second full day at the con, so it's been an all around busy weekend), opening new toys and reading comics, already getting enthused about the dates of next years' C2E2 having been announced, that being the one thing that's helping me deal with the fact that the convention is over for this year. Man, good, good times.

I'm still fairly new to the convention scene, having been to a table top RPG convention back in like 1995 and that's pretty the extent of my experience. Last year, I was totally unprepared for my first C2E2, and spent most of the day wandering around and staring at things. There were so many vendors and awesome things; I saw collectibles that in some instances I had never seen before. This year, a booth had a G1 Overlord, all complete (the guy said....) in a beat to shit box. Honestly, just for laughs, I asked him how much he was selling it for, and he said without so much as a pause, $900. Lol. I owned a G1 Overlord once, missing a whole bunch of parts, and I had to sell it, but there's no way I'd pay $900 for an Overlord in his torn up box. I'm not saying I'm in the position to pay $900 for any toy, but if I were spending that much on a toy, man, that box better be brand new.

But that's the sort of excellent thing about wandering the dealer floor. Oh, the things you see. I bought a bunch of stuff too. Took advantage of some deals, bought some comics.

For the second year in a row, we left talking about how next year, for sure, we need to cosplay. There are so many cool looking costumes, and some that are real head scratchers, and some that are kind of funny. But the people cosplaying always look like they're having a great time. So for the time being, I'm just going to say that next year, I'm hoping to cosplay.

For weeks and weeks, there had been a total drought of new toys in the area. Which was fine, honestly, because I didn't have a lot of time to sit back and write up reviews of play with things anyway. Then, I found one thing in a store. Then, I ordered something from Amazon. Then there was a pretty good deal online; then I went to my local comic shop and found some new things. Then, we went to C2E2. Right now, I've got a ton of stuff to write up and post, so much that the thought of taking so many pictures makes me feel tired. Tired. Because of pictures.

Anyway. C2E2 was a blast. And some new reviews are coming, and coming soon.

Transformers: Combiner Wars Rook

 Rook is another of the new characters and designs for the Combiner Wars line, along with Off Road and Alpha Bravo. Rook is the replacement for Groove among the Protectobot ranks, swapping out a police motorcycle for some kind of police/SWAT transport. I find him to be a strange addition to the team, vehicle wise, and while I do see him being a member of a search and rescue team, I think large, armored police vehicle in the world of 2015/16 USA is a choice that comes with a little more subtext than Hasbro may have intended.

Transformers: Combiner Wars Smokescreen

We have had a full-on toy draught in my area, seemingly for months. Whispers and rumors of both Onslaught and Sky Lynx showing up in my area have sent my wife and I on more than a few frantic Target runs, only to find shelves empty save for a Motormaster. And it has been this way with Star Wars figures as well. I feel my heart skip upon seeing a fresh set of Black Series boxes hanging from pegs only to get close to them and see rows of jacket Finns and that constable guy. Combaticon Deluxes are showing up more regularly now, but I don’t need those; twice I’ve seen the second batch of Autobot repaints, the Sky Reign team, but don’t have any interest in them. At all. I don’t want a super plain Wheeljack, and had I not bought Ironhide, I’d probably go for Trailbreaker, and may if there’s ever a real good sale, but otherwise, no. And I’m not a real fan of the Rook/Swindle mold, so Hound has no real appeal for me. 

Coffin Shaker: Clutch – Earth Rocker

I recently got Earth Rocker on vinyl, so I decided to give it a review. Some bands just sound better on vinyl. I am a big believer that if you haven’t heard the Doors on vinyl, you haven’t really heard the Doors, and while there are other old bands that the same can be said of, Clutch is perhaps the best example for me of a modern band that fits that same bill. I’m 37 years old, so a part of my earliest music listening experiences are associated with vinyl, it being the format my mother utilized, and while I did find the rediscovery of the medium kind of hokey at first, I am pretty glad that it not only stuck around, but that I got in to it as well. There’s something really fun about vinyl.

Coffin Shaker: Primal Fear – Delivering the Black

 

I love Primal Fear. I don’t care much for Power Metal, but I love Primal Fear. They satisfy me on a number of levels: they’re catchy, and they’re fun, and they are memorable. For me at least, as I’ve certainly seem more than a few people state the exact opposite of my favorable position on the band. But I picked up Jaws of Death in late 1999 and was pretty much instantly in love. Despite that, I’ve actually missed a pretty large swath of the Primal career, mostly due to my general disinterest in Power Metal as a whole. I like a few albums over the span of that genre, but I don’t pay enough attention to it to feel a need to sample new bands or too many different releases. I don’t know Primal Fear to the extent that I know which albums came in which order, but I had a three record love affair with the band spanning Jaws of Death, Nuclear Fire and Black Sun.