Hosive

these updates will be quicker and quicker since you know the deal from the previous weeks: one, two and three.

the good times continue to roll with three more new figures this week! my sweet t is happy with what we’ve gotten so far(that’s as good of a smile as you’ll get out of her since her smiles usually look like frowns…happy frowns)….

blind box is fun at the start since nearly every figure will be new….but we dread the future of doubles, triples and even…..the reality that we will not speak of. but for this week, we got a few rare ones: duffman and snake with a fairly common one, smithers in the middle.

we know that the ugly side of blind box is just around the corner…but we can hold out hope! see you next week!

looks like the party’s over! kid robot seems to be sold out of the simpsons blind box…

but on a tip from lisa(from last week’s post), i found a store that still sold them…and if you get a double or one you don’t want from them, you can trade it for ones on display.  when i got there, they only had 4 boxes left. i was only going to get three….one for me, one for theresa and one for my sister but i picked up the last one just because. my sister and mom were pretty enamored by the concept of blind box toys.

theresa got a really rare one……itchy…..only 1/48!

and we gave away another monkey! another rare one! ??/??…to my sister. she said we could have it but its ok….we play by the rules. maybe we’ll trade her for it if we wind up never getting it again. how often can you get a rare one? we’re looking for lightning in a bottle three times.

finally, we got barney and fat tony in the last two. yay! blind box this early is fun! everything is new!

i did find out from kid robot that they will get more stock next week….so check back next week in our collection chase.

more blind box fun! check last week’s post if you are totally lost…..but press on if you want to see what we got this week!

we got three figures this week, two for us and one for fellow simpson lover, lisa……both lisa and i got the same exact figure: hippie homer! yippie homer!

theresa snagged lisa with her sax! 4 down! 20 to go in the collection! stop by in a week to see what we get next!

(remember last week’s playmate simpsons entry with foreshadowing? the kid robot bag in the background?)

uh-oh….kid robot, a leader in the vinyl toy movement have teamed up with matt groening to create the first wave of simpsons toys. they are blind batch…meaning you cannot tell what you get until you open it. the upside is the magic of not knowing what you get until the delicious moment of discovery. the downside, the ugly side is getting a triple or quadruple of a figure you don’t like.

the figures have different ratios in production and distribution. the side of the boxes show your chances. here are some of the harder figures to get including itchy and scratchy at 1/48 and bumblebee man and funzo(?) at the mindboggling 1/96. both have been fetching close to $100 online. many of the figures have a 1/24 ratio.

a few common characters like homer, marge, bart and lisa have a 2/24 ratio. then there are the chase figures….with a ratio of ??/??…….

ok, some ground rules so that we do not go nuts and blow the hypothetical child’s college fund…..1) its ok not to complete this collection. (so much of this is luck) 2) we only buy figures once a week when i go visit theresa at the office. 3) we share the magic with others.

so here we go….let’s see what we get…each figure is wrapped in foil….welcome to america!

sam, one of theresa’s co-workers got one of the rare ones! the monkey! ratio of ??/??

theresa got maggie! 1/24

i got one of the rare ones! devil flanders! ??/?? ……there’s a certain irony here.

steph got a….lisa! 2/24……the good kid….more irony!

angie got a….bart at 2/24! the bad kid! no comment on the irony though angie made one.

can’t wait to see what we get next week!

the simpsons toy line made by playmates(not those playmates)is regarded as one of the best toylines ever made along with gi joe, transformers, the original star wars figures lines and cabbage patch kids. welcome to the toy subculture. in japan, the subculture is actually mainstream…more extensive and involved…intimidating if not scary.

the history of the simpsons playmates line is too extensive to recap on my site. but there is an excellent article with pictures of every figure and diorama from the line here. you don’t have to read the whole thing….just look at the pictures(i feel a weird playmates theme arising).

this is theresa’s workstation. at her office, there is a culture of collecting and displaying toy collections from robots to kinder egg toys to the current vinyl toy craze. theresa features our simpsons figure collection by bringing in a different diorama and cast of characters every few months. btw, there is foreshadowing in this picture. check back next week.

for election season, she is displaying town hall with mayor quimby, kent brockman the reporter and the evil mr. burns. after election day, another set will be rotated in.

the goal of the toyline was to recreate the whole springfield town with all the locales and sites. the formal name for the line was the world of springfield. i started out by getting the church with the pastor as a joke but then found a bunch on clearance as the toy line was winding down. whenever we go to a town, i rummage through the local toy store’s stock and see what “treasures” i can find. once in awhile, i go through ebay listings to see what rarities might be available. friends also buy us figures….so the collection has gotten pretty extensive.

one of the features of the simpson toy line is that they talk…and say lines from the show. each figure has a chip and when plugged into a relevant setting, they will say something….on some sets, they will have multiple lines. discovering which figures will talk and what they will say in the sets is part of the fun. you take the figures and put them into the connection points in the set and push a button…and magic. if a figure is not compatible, a sound effect relevant to the scene will play….in this case, a hot mike.

because the sets run on batteries….sometimes when there is an electrical spark in the air, the sound feature goes off on their own. in own home, that means….you hear voices for no reason. a few guests have had the crap scared out of them.

i’m guessing people come over and look at theresa’s toys especially since she brings different ones in…..and i’m guessing they push the buttons to see…or hear what will happen. i know that when people come to our home…they go to each set and push away….plugging in different characters.

and…..there’s that foreshadowing again.

part of the big fun of collecting a line are finding and obtaining variants….these are figures with similar molds but with something unique: paint, accessories, sculpt or theme. usually they have limited runs and are not sold in stores but at exclusive locations like comic cons. some variants are obtained via mail order or fan clubs. for the futurama line, the majority have been (san diego) convention exclusives. some of the figures trickle to the other conventions but because san diego is the premiere convention, it is the first place to get the big time toy exclusives.

this golden bender was actually the first figure in the line released by toynami perhaps as to test the market. i managed to snag mine on ebay at a reasonable price but it currently runs for $50 or more. it’s the bender from one of the alternative universes…universe 1.

wizard and toyfare magazines produced another universe 1 variant exclusive not sold in stores but only via their website and at conventions.  wondering if toynami will complete the whole set of universe 1 cast. that’s unlikely since this zoidberg variant  is still around and readily available at the original price.

whoops! i just checked the site! it finally sold out!

another zoidberg variant was the 2007 convention offering: mating season zoidberg….a regular zoidberg with a big old fin on it. the price of this has spiked but i was able to get mine pretty close to the release date but i did see it at a few conventions.

this year’s exclusive was a bit more interesting and more expensive as toynami released 2 exclusive figures…a santa robot and santa bender set! both of these are variants as the santa robot will be the build a robot giveaway from waves 4, 5, 6 with a different head mold.

my boy, michael huang with animediet.net, a website covering anime was covering the anime portion of the convention and was able to save me a ton of money by snagging one. they have been going for almost double the price on ebay. though michael says there were plenty at the booth when he bought mine.

here are all the variants(so far)together! as well as the bender variants with the standard bender….the non-gold benders come with interchangeable eyes and i was able to display all three eye versions. also, here are all three versions of zoidberg as well. they are very sturdy and project a solid presence.

no more futurama updates until the next wave is released!

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

currently i’m into the new toynami futurama toy line…….

here we are with wave 3 of the futurama figures! i also got these in dallas, same as the first wave…..i almost cheaped out and waited until i got home to pick them up because i misremembered the prices being lower at home. but turns out these figures flew off the shelves especially the bender one.

neglecting economics, i went for romance envisioning that it would be cool if i got most of these figures from texas…making collecting part of my texas years. so i went ahead and got them. if i did not, i would have had to go ebaying and paying a whole lot more. these were also the last ones on the shelves at the branch of dallas chain(lone star comics)…..i figured they had more in the stock room but the sales dude told me that these were it. i haven’t seen a bender in a store since.

and getting the third set means that we go robot building!

each of the figures….3 waves, 2 figures in each wave, 6 figures total….has one part or set of parts to the devil robot….for those of you weaker brothers, i take off the horns so its just evil robot or chinese new year robot. here i am assembling the robot in front of the figures….note the extra richard nixon severed head figure i talked about in the last entry.

and voila! the bonus figure with all the parts! i’m such a sucker for stuff like this.

in the background, we see a few things that theresa collects….including the ugly dolls and pom glasses.

the pom glasses come from the pomegranate juices….the glasses that come with the drinks are high quality and seem to be a waste to chuck so we use them as glasses. we call them lady glasses as opposed to the mason jars we use as man cups. maybe i’ll do an entry on them one day.

as for the ugly dolls, we’ve only bought 2 or 3 ugly dolls in our collection. in fact, out of all the ones in the window there, we only bought 1! when people find out that we like stuff, they graciously gift stuff for us. thanks, hamburger patty! also big shout out to julia! between to the two of them came the rest of them from party favors and vendor giveaways! in the fall, there will be an uglydoll convention in the city where there will be limited edition dolls, art and general ugly fun. i secretly long to get one of these dolls for my niece jaqueline and have it be here favorite toy…but i bet it winds up in a pile with other forgotten toys.

finally, another three waves of futurama figures have just been announced! with another bonus figure if you get all of them! looking forward to more collecting madness!

but next time, we’ll take a look at the variant figures!

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…

i like these well made toys…..

here’s a quick look at the second wave of toynami’s current futurama line. if you have not been to a toy store lately, you might be surprised that the days of $5 figures are gone. gone are also the days where toys are made primarily for kids. these figures are for adults. quality materials. premiere sculpting, design and art….. wasted on kiddies who’s figures wind up with missing heads and limbs.

what’s cool about the zapp brannigan figure is that it also comes with president nixon’s head in case…a bonus figure in its own right. this reminds me of the latest(terrible)x-files movie that deals with the apparently real science of severed heads still being able to live without a body. if you do some googling, you’ll find some really freaky science non-fiction research. here’s a creepy sample video from youtube if you dare(sorry, facebook…you’ll have to go to the agapeshack site to see it). futurama is more science than fiction!

this is the second of three waves…as previously stated, each figure coming with a piece of the devil robot figure….one more wave to go and we go robot building!

i already have a column about comic books but i also wanted one exclusively on collecting(mostly toys). so i thought of the collector…the supervillian identity of the comic book guy on the simpsons….this is a nerdy homage to him, collecting and indirectly to matt groening.

i read somewhere that we are all collectors. its part of human nature to collect. so a question to ask, that is strangely revealing, is what is it that we collect?……handbags, music, stamps, coins, shoes, clothes, memories, gadgets, junk, plastic bags to reuse, rocks…what’s your poison of choice? my father in law collects expensive liquors and figurines. i have a friend who collects lighthouses. my mom loves little trinkets and toys. my dad collects pieces of wood. no joke.

i collect all kind of things…too many things….including some toy lines that are highly regarded as some of the best ever…the playmates simpsons line, for example. more about them in a later post.

i also started collecting these futurama figures….there are 6 figures in the line so far…each comes a part to build an additional figure: a robot to boot. so buy 6, get one free. i am a sucker for deals like that.

i got these on sale in texas. i rarely pay for anything full price. its the chinese in me.

i love a few things about this line. i love the sculpts of the figures. the figures look like mini-versions of the characters. this is not always the case…as some figures don’t look anything like the originals.

i love the attention to detail. even the packaging shows love and care. the art is not just slapped together but well thought out and executed.

i love the fact that its a new line of figures and i can collect it from the beginning as opposed to getting into the game late and having to chase sold out figures on ebay. i also love that since the series is relatively short, the line will not cost me an arm and a leg. i hope.

and i love the motivation for collecting all the figures to get the last figure! its old school. i remember getting excited about give aways and mail aways as a kid.

it is doubly ironic for me and my profession to be excited about this bonus figure. for those faint of heart, i take off the horns and its just evil robot! or chinese new year, red robot!

Posted under android dungeon/card shop