I Am Elemental Female Action Figures

Just came across these last night via The company's Facebook page. According to their Kickstarter video these 4 inch scaled action figures are aimed towards young girls, but as a 50 year old adult action figure collector, I think these little ladies a pretty dang cool. Planning on ordering wave 1 soon. What I've seen these figures have some really good articulation. They look like they would be a lot of fun for customizing and repaints. I'll have to post a review of these figures on my You Tube channel (www.youtube.com/kevinnelson66) when I get around to ordering these. Compliments go out to I Am Elemental on these.

FanboyNewsDesk For February 10, 2017

This is the current video edition of the FanboyNewsDesk from February 10, 2017. I talk about actor Richard Hatch's passing at the age of 71 and the return of Jay & Silent Bob to the big screen.

GI Joe, the Original Action Figure

On February 2, 1964 Hasbro introduced the world's first action figure line, the original GI Joe Adventure Team of 12 inch scale action figures. Mattel had found success with their Barbie line of 11 1/2 inch scale fashion dolls and Hasbro was looking to do something similar, but marketed towards boys. The original line of Adventure Team figures were military inspired, but that eventually changed over more towards adventure themed figures and vehicles as the Viet Nam war began winding down. Many variations of Joe found their way into toy isles including figures with 'life-like' hair and beards, an African-American version, 'talking' GI Joe, 'Kung Fu Grip' GI Joe(which I had), 'Eage Eye' GI Joe, Mike Powers 'the atomic man'(Hasbro's version of Kenner's successful Colonel Steve Austin 'The Six Million Dollar Man' action figure), As the Adventure Team toys began winding down, Hasbro released a superhero figure known as 'Bullet Man' and an odd looking figure called 'The Intruder'. The line ended in 1976, but a year later Hasbro launched a smaller scale(8 inch) action figure line called 'Super Joes' which failed to match the success of their taller counterparts. With the success of Kenner's 3.75 inch Star Wars line of action figures, vehicles, and playsets Hasbro re-imagined GI into their own line of small scale action figures known as 'GI Joe A Real American Hero' in 1982. This new anti terrorist team of male and female action figures went up against the terrorist team known as COBRA. The toyline was spun off into a comic book series from Marvel Comics Group which ran from 1982 until 1994 as well as an animated series. As I said earlier, I had the eagle eye GI Joe when I was growing up as well as the atomic man. I still have several of the A Real American Hero action figures, but they've seen their better days. I enjoyed the comics, but didn't really get into the animated stuff. I'm going to sign off this action packed edition of this blog by saying happy birthday to the original action figure and giving out a "yo Joe!"

Battlestar Galactica Death Of Apollo

Battlestar Galactica Death Of Apollo, published by Dynamite Entertainment tells the story of what happened to Captain Apollo between the original Battlestar Galactica TV series and it's spinoff TV series Galactica 1980. After sustaining serious injuries during a battle with the cylons, Apollo's career as a viper pilot has come to and he must re adjust to life as a bridge officer. However, he choses to sacrifice himself to save the rag-tag fleet when the cylons strike again. This is a well written story which I think would have been a great season finale episode had there been a second season of the classic Battlestar Galactica TV series.

Rogue One A Star Wars Story

I put this movie right up there with Empire Strikes Back as far as the story goes. It was great seeing a story which involved the battle between the Empire and the Rebellion which I grew up with back in the late 1970's and into the early 1980's. ILM did a good job with re-creating Peter Cushing's Govanor Tarkin and the A New Hope era Princess Leia Organa. Hearing Carrie Fisher's voice as Leia at the end sort of made me choke up a bit considering Carrie passed away recently. It was fun seeing other minor characters from the original 1977 movie show up periodically, especially Red Leader Garven Dreis, Gold Leader Dutch Vender, and General Dadonna(also via the magic of CGI performance capture). Was pleasantly surprised to see our favorite droids C-3PO and R2-D2 make a cameo at the Yavin IV base. This movie blends in so well with A New Hope that someone could re-edit the two into one four hour long film, even though Rogue One is intended to be a standalone story. It's too bad that everyone in Rogue One(the group responsible for stealing the original Death Star plans) didn't survive the mission, but this is supposed to be a war story. Has a bit of a Dirty Dozen and Inglorious Bastards vibe to it. Anyway, that's my review of 'Rogue One A Star Wars Story'. Until next time, behave yourselves and I'll see ya next time, 'later.

Supergirl and Superman On The CW

Really liked Superman's return to the small screen during the first two episodes of Supergirl's second season. I think Tyler nailed the character really well. That's the Superman I remember as a kid. Laid back, but not above calling people on their BS when needed and still able to kick some ass when called for. Tyler and Melissa seem to have great chemistry and they also look like they could be related. Great idea to move Supergirl from CBS to The CW. The writing was good during season one, but it's gotten better so far this season. I'm hoping we see more of Tyler as Superman in the future. Maybe Kara goes to Metropolis at some point where she could team up with Clark to find Alex Danver's dad. Maybe that could be used for the season two finale. Anyway, that's about it for this exciting, action packed blog entry. Until next time, 'later.

TBT:Kenner Turbo Tower Of Power Toys

What's up, people? I'm back from a brief hiatus with another Throwback Thursday edition of this action packed blog. This time, I'll be focusing on Kenner's Turbo Tower of Power(TTP) toys produced in the 1970's. This line was intended to be a spinoff from Kenner's popular SSP vehicle line and also a competitor to Ideal's Evel Knievel line, also from the 1970's. The TTP toys consisted of cars and motorcycles which could be bought seperately or in sets with the tower pump. A kid would pump the lever up and down. Air would travel through a hose beneath the launch ramp and into the vehicle. The vehicle would launch from the tower with flip of the side lever, and it's off to the races(or stunts). Kenner prodeced several vehicles and sets for this line, including a Debbie Lawler set, two Six Million Dollar Man sets(one of those sets is a SMDM/Bigfoot dual launch race set), and Bionic Woman set. Dennys Fisher in the UK also produced sets for The Amazing Spider-Man and Captain America in 1977. The sets and car pictured are from my personal collection. I also have the two Six Million Dollar Man sets. I'm still looking for the Bionic Woman set. I had a really great time playing with these toys back in the 1970's. I wish the line line would have stuck around long enough so we could have gotten some Star Wars themed cars and cycles. That really would have been fun. Anyway, that's about it for this edition. Til next time, have a good one.