Gulf Coast Toy Show Haul 2016

Every year I look forward to the Gulf Coast Toy Show in Houston, TX. While nowhere near as big as one of the local comic cons, this show is packed with awesome new and vintage action figures for collectors. Every year I find must-have figures at great prices.  Here's what I brought home this year!

My most exciting find was the 6" Michael Keaton Batman figure. He came exclusively with the anniversary release of the Batman blu-Ray a couple of years back. They did not make enough of these, so demand and prices have been high. I snagged this dude for only $25, about half what I seen online!

Typing on my phone is getting old, so I'll just post pics of the rest of my haul. All of these are figures that have been on my radar and I got a good to great deal on each one.

Hallmark Ornament Collection

One of my collections that I don't think about outside of December is my Hallmark Ornament collection.  I bought myself a really cool Spider-Man ornament (pictured above) sometime in the early 2000's and a yearly tradition was started.  Some years I pick up 2 or 3, some years it's only one, but Hallmark always comes through with something worth buying every Christmas.

In the past few years, my kids have gotten old enough to love Christmas ornaments like I do, so you'll notice Mickey, Tinkerbell, Rainbow Brite and others that don't seem to quite fit are included.  This is by no means the whole collection, only the ones that had decent enough light on them to get a usable picture.

These pics won't be great quality, due to the Christmas lights all over the place, but I liked festive spirit of the pics compared to taking them with the lights off...so GET OFF MY BACK!  Sorry....got that under control again...enjoy the pics.

Emmitt Smith 

Tony Romo

Thor

Space Ghost

 Spider-Man

 Yoda

 Chewbacca (with C3PO)

 Mickey Mouse

 Wolverine

Tinkerbell

 Rainbow Brite

 Statler & Waldorf

 Obiwan Kenobi

 Tie-Fighter

Captain America

Simply Amazing

Marvel Select Unmasked Amazing Spiderman Figure Review

I was surprised when I came upon this figure in the Disney Store yesterday.  I looked for it last Fall and they had already sold out.  I was pretty excited to finally find one.

If you haven't seen the Amazing Spider-Man movie, you're missing out.  I loved the old trilogy, but this new movie just really nails the character.  It was SO good!  Anyway, this is an action figure review, so lets stay on topic.

Spidey comes with a masked and unmasked head, gloved or ungloved forearms, and a detailed brick wall base.  The heads were pretty hard to pop on and off and I was afraid I was about to break something, but it got easier after the first time I switched them.  The hands were easy to switch, but once on stayed nice and tight in their joint.

The likeness isn't spot on, like some movie figures I've gotten, but it's close enough for me.  Check out the details on the raised webbing and the texture on the red and blue parts of his costume!  His hair also has some nice highlights to give it depth.  This is some pretty slick work by the Marvel Select team.

Here's a look at Spidey with his mask and gloves on.  In a rare change, the gloved hands are both in fists instead of the "web slinging" pose.  Almost all Spideys come with the web slinging pose these days, so I'm glad for a change here.

This figure actually looks great with his mask on OR off.  I had a hard time deciding which way to display him.  Again, check out that texture.  When I was a kid we were lucky to get the webs PAINTED on his costume, much less sculpted on!

Here's a size comparison with the Marvel Legends Avengers Hulk figure.  They're in pretty nice scale together, though he's too tall to hang out with my Marvel Legends.  I've decided to display him alongside my movie figure collection.  He's pretty tall and fits right in with those figures.  Hulk gets away with hanging out with the Legends because he's SUPPOSED to be a lot larger than them.  Spidey's supposed to be tall, but not a head taller than Cap.

Here he's facing off against my Marvel Legends Lizard.  Though this figure isn't over-sized and imposing like the Marvel Legends movie Lizard figure, I think he's a much better design & sculpt, so I decided against upgrading him.  This Lizard came in a 4 or 5 pack of Marvel Legends Spidey villains and I'm pretty sure that's they only time they used this sculpt.

Overall, I'm happier with this figure than I though I would be.  Getting him out of the packaging and checking out his detail and costume options...he's top notch.  I'm giving him a 9 out of 10 just for the fact that he's got a faulty knee joint and I think his head likeness could have been a bit better.  Still...this is almost a perfect Spidey figure.  Two enthusiastic thumbs up!

And now... your moment of Zen.

Monochrome Spidey

For those not in the "know", the Fantastic Four recently lost a member to a temporary death (as it turned out) and changed their name to the Future Foundation.  The new FF sported slick new black & white duds and invited Spider-Man to join in the fun.  I bought the first issue of FF just for the sweet Spider-Man suit.  Now Hasbro has released an awesome new FF Spidey in the latest Marvel Legends series!  Let's check him out!

First off, this is probably the best Spider-Man action figure sculpt yet.  Yes, his hands are frozen in fist/web shooting poses, but considering how bad the more articulated Spider-man hands have been in the past, I'd rather just have one that looks nice for once.  This Spidey is very solid-looking, features great posability, and the paint apps are almost perfect.  I'll compare this new Spidey to my previously displayed one and you can see the difference. The older Spidey features nice details, but he's creepy skinny and while they made him very posable, he just looks odd.  I love this new sculpt and would buy more Spideys from Hasbor if they would repaint this sculpt in the classic red/blue and black suits.

Is this suit design and figure followthrough not incredible?  Love it!

Check out these poses!

Here's the comparison  of the new Spidey to the now-demoted Spidey.  The old Spidey can almost match the pose, but look how awkward and fragile he looks.  Plus, look at those weird hands!  No contest.

I'm not usually a huge Hasbro fan (I haven't forgotten you ToyBiz), but they did Spider-Man right, which goes a long way in my book.  Nice job!

Mighty Muggs!

Sorry for the lack of pictures this Winter. We just moved to Houston and are still getting settled. Here are some quick fun pics though!

This is my little Mighty Mugg collection. They are about 5" tall and are made entirely from recycled plastic. My cousin, Jacob, started the collection by giving me Snake-Eyes. I added Wolverine, and then as I was leaving Shreveport, my buddy, Brad donated Spidey to the cause. I threw some light on them earlier today, took out my trusty phone camera and went to work. I hope you enjoy the big-headed awesomeness.