New MOTU Classics - Clawful!

One of my ever-growing collections is the Masters of the Universe Classics. Mattel has taken the classic He-Man toys from the early 1980's and reimagined them as better toys, with the Classic look. You can't find these toys in stores though. You can only buy them at www.MattyCollector.com and they only release one figure a month. Generally the new figure sells out less than 30 minutes after being posted. That's why on the 15th of the month I'm poised with 3-5 browser screens open just trying to get in to buy one.

This year there haven't been many figures released that I wanted to buy. This month was the exception, as July brought the return of Clawful, Skeletor's strong, but dim-witted lobster warrior! They used the same basic body as they did for Buzz-Off and Whiplash, but they set him apart by adding a detailed chest piece, great paint applications, a new shield, and of course, his signature HUGE claw! I'm going to shut up now and let the pictures do the talking for me. Just for fun I dug out the old Clawful from 1984 so you can compare them side-by-side. Enjoy!

This one's for Jeff.

I was looking through my ready-to-post figure pix and I saw a few that tied in with a conversation I had with my friend, Jeff, the other day, so I'm going to post those.

First up is the super cool Marvel Select Anti-Venom. He is a symbiote character that spawned from the Venom suit, although strangely enough, the original Venom (Eddie Brock) is the man beneath the new Anti-Venom suit. Instead of killing, Anti-Venom has strange healing powers. Spider-Man still doesn't like to hang out with him though because when he's around, Spidey gets "healed" of his spider-like powers, making him a powerless guy in a full body stocking. No one wants that. This is a great figure that really captured the jagged, angular artwork of John Romita Jr., the artist who brought AV to life.


Next is one of my favorite Marvel Legends figures, Colossus. Hard to find a better figure than this one. Check him out in all his Russian majesty! There's a new Marvel Select Colossus coming out later this year, but the vote is still out on whether or not it will be an improvement over this figure or not.


Stay tuned. I have been doing a lot of custom Green Lanterns lately and hope to be hoping pics of the very soon. Thanks!

Foosball is NOT the devil, Mama!

These are some pictures of an unfinished project from a decade ago. I took a standard foosball table and was in the process of painting each figure on the board as a different superhero. I got busy with life and it has spent most of the past 7 years or so in my sister's attic. Last time I was in Tulsa I took this pics to remember it by, since I gave her the okay to find it a new home.

I finished the "hero" team and painted 2 figures on the "villain" team, but never completed the whole table. I tried to pick characters that would work well on that area of the soccer field. I had the big guy, Hulk, as my goalie with stretchy Mr. Fantastic and Green Lantern as his defensemen. I had my my all-around talent in the middle of the field with Human Torch, Cyclops, Captain America, Batman & Robin. Then on offense I put my fast guys, Flash, Superman & Spidey.





I had the villain team picked out, but only got as far as painting Carnage and Magneto on offense. This is a fun idea that I may revisit someday, but it is years away. This was a very time-consuming project.

Return to Eternia!

Hey toy fans! It's time for some more Masters of the Universe fun. I'm posting pics from my favorite ongoing collection, the Masters of the Universe Classics by MattyCollector.com. The whole point of this line of figures was to remake the classic He-Man figures of the 80's but to make them better. As you can see in the picture, they're doing a great job! Another way these are special is, you won't find them at Walmart. No sir, these figures are released on MattyCollector.com on a once-a-month basis. If you aren't online in the the first 15 minutes or less when a new figure is released, you're probably out of luck. Luckily for me they do re-release figures after a year or so, which is how I recently purchased Evil-Lyn. She sold out in less than 4 minutes originally!!!

Enough jibba-jabba! Show the figures already!

Tough Guys

You're only getting one picture with this post, because in this case, one picture is enough. Man, this one turned out GOOD! The lighting, the positioning, the awesome sculpts...I think this is one of the best shots so far.

Wolverine is a Marvel Legends unmasked variant. This Cyclops figure is one of the better figures put out by Hasbro since they took over Marvel Legends from Toybiz. These are two of my favorite figures and are inspired by my favorite X-Men comic series of all time, "The Astonishing X-Men" issues 1-25.

Group photo! Everyone get in close!

So far I've mostly been focusing in single figures and then, mostly from the waste up. To break it up a bit (and to show off more of my collection) this post is all about the group shots!

First up is Tony Stark and the Iron Man Collection! I created this Tony figure using an extra Stark head and the body from a Harvey Dent Dark Knight movie figure. Behind him you can see a wide range of armor that represents nearly every era of the character. My favorite is probably the huge "Hulkbuster" armor in the back. You can see him peeking over Tony's left shoulder.



"In brightest day, In blackest night..." here come the Green Lanterns! I want to take a more definitive group photo of this collection, but for now this will have to do. You can see my GL Spidey is getting along well with the other Lanterns.



Lastly, these are my Marvel Heroes. The X-Men Variant Deadpool is front and center, with X-Men behind him on the left and Avengers behind him on the right. Since my figures are on glass shelves, I took a fun one from above as well.

Wolverine, Beastman, and ... Spidey in Eternia???

Here are a few more fun figure pics played around with in Photoshop and posted for your viewing pleasure.

First off is Wolverine, up close & personal. This figure is the unmasked variant Wolverine from the Marvel Legends line and it is possibly one of my favorite figures. The sculpt is a perfect likeness from my favorite X-men comic, Astonishing X-Men. Since Hasbro took over the Marvel brand from ToyBiz, they don't make 'em like this anymore, folks. Check out that detail! I'm sure I'll post more of this figure later on. He's the coolest.



Here is Beastman from the fantastic new Masters of the Universe Classics line from Mattel, available only from www.mattycollector.com. Mattel has taken the basic designs from the classic toy line and reimagined them all as better figures. I'll have a lot more pics from this line of figures, but Beastman gets the first post. Skeletor will be pleased...for once.



And here is...Spidey in Grayskull?!? I ended up with 2 Spideys that I couldn't decide between displaying with my collection at my office, so this guy hangs out in Castle Grayskull with my Masters collection.