It's Thursday, right? Liar -- of course it's Thursday. THRIFT STORE THURSDAY, that is! Check out the initial installment if you don't know the drill -- otherwise we'll jump right into this time's thrift store selections. Here goes!

Today we'll be looking at three bags o' thrift store goodies toys that I'd probably rather not touch but might someday end up being useful for my customizing activities. As the orange tags in the image denote, the three bags carried prices of $1.00, $0.70, and $0.60 -- for a grand total of $2.30 before tax. That's not much at all -- and you might be surprised to find what two bucks and some change will net you in dusty unloved toys! (more...)

Hey folks -- hope all's been well with you! Sorry (again) for the lack of content lately; I've been out of town and sick and kinda distracted to boot. But never fear: I haven't forgotten about stuff and more content will be forthcoming, especially since my schedule is scheduled for a scheduled return to what passes for normal (according to my schedule). "Schedule" has a really weird spelling.

Anyway, yeah. Stay tuned for more SDCC-related content (yes, still), toy reviews & spotlights, and other good (food)stuff! And in the meantime, check out a quick Dusty Plastic HELLside comic. I really wish Playmates had seen fit to make these things in scale with 6" figures.

Just posted this to my DeviantArt page -- figured I'd post it here as well since I mentioned I'd start doing stuff like that.

Behold: HAUNTED Papa Smurf, a gritty, "ghostly" black-and-white repaint of the movie Papa Smurf figure. I posted a mostly finished version of it on the tumblr a while ago (also with Raph there for comparison), but I'd been holding off on declaring it "complete" because I wasn't satisfied with the final touch -- the glow effect. But the other week I found this stuff that claimed to have a super light-absorbent formula, so I decided to give it a shot. AND HOLY JEEZ IT RULES. I had to fiddle with the camera settings to photograph it effectively, but the figure really does glow that brightly. It's awesome. (more...)

I was pretty exhausted last night, so I didn't get around to posting the second part of Thrift Store Thursday #1 -- but here we are now! And remember what I wrote yesterday? This feature can go up whenever! Even though it's Friday now, it's still Thrift Store Thursday. ANY DAY CAN BE THRIFT STORE THURSDAY.

So let's recap.

Last time, we glimpsed three bags of thrift store toys and took a look inside one in particular -- which we bought not because of the ginormous Rodney Copperbottom or the two G.I. Joe Rise of Cobra Snake Eyes figures within, but because of Lieutenant "Gears" Mecaniks of the Major Powers & the Star Squad line. And since we bought her precisely because she looks like somebody (we used to know?), we took a closer look at Lieutenant Gears and invited readers to speculate as to her resemblance.

Feel free to keep speculating -- we'll reveal our thoughts on the matter at the end of this post. (more...)

I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I've been buying a lot of junk from thrift stores this year. It's a really cheap way to acquire fodder for customs (even though I haven't found uses for the bulk of it yet), and in any case I come across a lot of wild stuff I've never seen before. For instance, who knew that -- way back in 1997, no less -- Disney released a Hercules figure with a highly detailed sculpt and respectable articulation even by today's standards?

I'm sure somebody knew about it, mind you, but I certainly wouldn't have had I not stumbled across the figure in a plastic bag with a colored tag stapled to the top of it. (more...)

Please stop buying action figures; removing/replacing the BAF parts, accessories, bases, and sometimes even the figures themselves; and then returning the taped up packages to the store. THAT IS STEALING.

Look, I know it sucks that companies expect you to buy an entire figure just to get a small item you want or to rebuy a figure you already paid for because it has minor changes/improvements. But stealing what you want out of the package doesn't stick it to the man: it just makes you a bum and a scoundrel and a thief who steals toys of all goddamned things. It might also bring unhappiness to the retail workers who lose their jobs when the chain's profits go down due to losses from vandalized merchandise; to the children who tear open their toys on Christmas morning only to find that Batman's batarangs have all been removed; and to your fellow collectors who, being in a hurry and not noticing the missing items from the package, are now unable to display certain figures due to missing accessories or are unable to complete the BAFs of waves they did buy in their entirety because your scumbag ass stole the right arm.

Your actions also ensure that you'll spend eternity roasting in darkness amidst action figure packages that, from a distance and in the dim light, look like awesome new figures from that wave you've been anticipating since last year -- yet when you finally reach the figure after hours of stumbling across searing coals and white-hot spikes, you'll find packages empty of all contents with Post-It notes affixed to their surfaces. The notes will read, "Ha ha! Got first."

Please consider this impending punishment before you commit your next reprehensible crime against the retail establishment and toy-loving children everywhere and the toy collecting community at large.

Your pal,

Wes

Hey, folks! Just wanted to post something to let y'all know I'm not dead... which, with comment threads now being included in articles, is probably the kind of thing the blog will end up being used for. Also, I wanted to make clear that I haven't forgotten about the SDCC content. It might end up being fashionably late, but it's coming! And hopefully it'll still be interesting no matter how timely it is.

I was planning to post a couple of SDCC pieces tonight, but then I got kinda sidetracked (for HOURS) fooling around with gallery plugins and image layout and whanot. Probably won't end up changing too much visually, but it'll greatly simplify things on my end -- which will ideally mean more and more frequent posts in the long run, since it'll take me less time to put them together. Anyway, here's a preview of the next SDCC-related article in the queue (it's entirely possible I'll post a really quick review of something else before I get it up).

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