SARAH JANE LOVES CLOTHES…

…and Mickey’s more than up to the task of critiquing her various outfits in the first installment of Sarah Jane Smith Fashionista Fever! How did Sarah Jane go from fashion boring to fashion funky? It all started here.  (6/27/08)

IF THE DOCTOR DIES, SO DO YOU

In “Turn Left” of “Doctor Who” Series 4, we see a future in which the Doctor died in 2006 — and given how many alien threats he’s thwarted since then, it’s not surprising that things kinda suck. So does this episode.  (6/27/08)

That’s right — today we’ve got two new Doctor Who features to add to the Spectare section! Perhaps you recall our friend Mickey of Strange Cousin Susan, who partnered with us for the drinking game based on “The Sarah Jane Adventures”? Well, we’re glad to feature her writing once again on the site in Sarah Jane Smith Fashionista Fever! Note also that this is only the first part, so look forward to seeing more of Mickey’s work on SC in the future. The article is also crossposted at her site — along with her blog-style musings and several other projects, including a growing Sarah Jane sound file archive and a collection of LOL capshunz (many of which are Doctor Who-themed) — so be sure to swing by and give her some encouragement in her own backyard as well. 🙂

And whereas Mickey’s piece sees her criticizing Sarah Jane’s wardrobe choices of yesteryear, my review of “Turn Left” sees me criticizing a recent episode from the current “Doctor Who” series. And yes, I have no doubt that forthcoming events will do more to explain Donna’s surpassing importance in the grander scheme of things, but lines like “You’re the most important woman in the whole of creation!” are still unjustifiable and just plain bloody awful. And you know what else is awful? Billie Piper without makeup. I still heart you, Billie, but damn.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot — I made the logo of that piece with an image from this page. It’s a great resource for all of you creative Doctor Who fans out there! This Doctor Who fonts page is also quite useful.

Anywho — get it? anywho?! — that’ll do it for this update. Until next time!

MIA: QUALITY CONTROL

Seriously: whereas defects used to be relatively rare, too many toys today are plagued with sloppy paint jobs, stuck and/or broken joints, and other quality issues. So in What Happened to Quality Control?, we talk about it.  (6/6/08)

Eventually we’ll get off this toy kick and get back to slightly more diversified content (more old video game reviews are in the works, not to mention multiple food pieces that have been on the back burner for quite sometime), but for now it continues. This latest article isn’t a review, though — as you’ll see, What Happened to Quality Control? is more of a rant slash observation slash nostalgia piece in the vein of some of our older articles. And like many of those, it began as a Wesoteric blog entry before I decided to add a few images and give it to Scary-Crayon. 🙂

Other notes regarding today’s piece? I’ve been wanting to write about Spider-Man’s extended outdoor adventure for quite some time, so I particularly appreciated the opportunity to work it into this feature. (Heck, I’m even tempted to write a short story about the things he might have seen and done during his six-month stint in the gutter. Hmmm…) And I’m totally serious about Treasure Island Sports, Inc. — the customer service rocks. Well, at least if you contact them by e-mail. I didn’t have much luck calling the phone number (if I can, I tend to call online stores first rather than e-mail them when I have complaints and/or problems, if only because it assures me that someone was made aware of the issue), but when that didn’t work out I went ahead and sent an e-mail. Not only did I receive a response within an hour, but they shipped me a replacement the very next day at no additional cost. Really fantastic, completely unexpected, and certainly enough to get me to recommend TISInc to anyone in the market for some toys. Check ’em out and tell ’em Scary-Crayon sent you! They won’t have any idea what you’re talking about, but still. 😉

Alrighty, that’s it for now — hopefully I’ll have the review of that Mai and Chun-Li 2-pack ready before too much longer. Until next time!

THE RETURN OF KONG!!!

Mega-monkey mania comes to a head as we conclude the King Kong action figure review! Climb on in for a look at the remaining 6″ Playmates Kongs as well as the 15″ figure from Mezco — but mind the falling barrels.  (6/2/08)

And a month and a half later, the second part of the King Kong discounted action figure review is finally up! And to reward you for waiting so patiently, I’ve even included a bonus review of a dollar store gorilla toy. 😉

Speaking of dollar store toy reviews, you might want to check out the Dollar Store Toy Box. I believe the author of the site lives in Canada, so it’s particularly neat to see what items are making the rounds in the northern counterparts of our own dollar stores here in the States. For example, the Transformatrix bootleg Optimus Prime (remember him?) was a Dollar Tree regular back during the 2006 winter holiday season, but apparently he’s just arrived in Canada’s Dollarama locations. Neat!

And while we’re plugging things, Review the World returned this weekend after posting its “final” article on December 31, 2007. Sometimes things just don’t stay dead, eh? Anyway, I look forward to seeing how RtW progresses in its resurrected incarnation.

Until next time, minna-san!