Dusty Plastic HELLside #26!

Job security isn’t terribly great for action figures. With new versions of characters constantly being released, there’s always a danger of being replaced in a given collection! So it goes in Dusty Plastic HELLside #26…  (8/5/11)

Dusty Plastic HELLside #26 assigns the blame to Optimus, but really Jazz should be taking this up with me! (If, you know, toys were alive and had beef regarding their relocation to the storage bin and all that.)

See, I’m that guy on toy forums who’s always happy to voice any excuse not to buy a figure — and whereas other collectors tend to harp on sculpt, paints, and other stuff, for me that reason usually comes down to cost. I’m sure other collectors find it annoying at times, especially given how willing some of them are to plunk down ridiculous amounts of money for figures (I think this willingness is even more prevalent among Transformers collectors, what with super expensive third-party offerings and all that jazz), but I happen to think my comments are representative of a certain class of collector whose voice also deserves to be heard.

(If that class spoke louder — as opposed to the guys who proclaim their willingness to pay even $30 for action figures and the collectors who show how much they’re willing to pay by patronizing scalpers on eBay — maybe we wouldn’t be seeing such a sharp increase in toy prices right now. Yes, oil prices and the rising cost of Chinese labor and the sorry state of the US economy have something to do with it, but in general companies are going to charge whatever they think they can get away with. Which is why we’re seeing Mattel charging $10 for 4.25″ figures with less articulation than TMNT figures had over two decades ago. Sure, the Young Justice figures are a terrible value compared to every other figure of comparable size in the toy aisle (hell, there are 6″ Spider-Man figures with Marvel Legends articulation going for $10.99), but Mattel’s had quite a bit of success raping DC collectors with its Justice League Unlimited and DC Universe Classics lines. Why stop now?)

Anyway, I’d heard time and time again how great the Transformers Reveal the Shield Special Ops Jazz is, but I wasn’t interested in the new figure because my G1 repaint of movie Jazz had the G1 Jazz slot filled in my collection. Every time I mentioned this, multiple collectors would tell me about how that Jazz wasn’t really G1 Jazz, or that the new figure was so much better than the movie repaint, etc. For me, though, it really came down to whether I felt like spending $13-15 for an update of a toy that I was fairly satisfied with. Yes, I’d grant that the new Jazz looked to be better than the movie repaint — but for me, in almost all cases, a toy I already own trumps one that will cost me an additional $13-15 to purchase.

Halve the price, however, and I become a lot more interested! So when I found the new Jazz for $6.99 in Ross, the poor movie G1 repaint didn’t really stand a chance.

Aaaand thanks for reading that really long tangential explanation of a comic that didn’t really require it at all! That’s how we do things at Scary-Crayon, yes’m. 😛

Welcome to Stake Land, kid.

When vampires blood-drinking zombies overrun the USA, things don’t go too well for society! Stake Land is the story of Mister and Martin’s journey through the dangerous world that remains. It’s surprisingly decent.  (8/2/11)

The Powers That Be were kind enough to send along a review copy of Stake Land — which just came out on DVD today — so here’s my review of the film. It’s definitely worth a look if you’re into horror movies with meaning, though admittedly I have a hard time advising folks on renting or buying these days. It was one thing when rentals were $5 and you could only keep the film a few days… but now, with subscriptions and extended rental times and all that, it’s pretty difficult. If you’re at all interested in film or writing, you’ll definitely want to hang onto the movie long enough to check out the commentaries! And maybe the featurettes and other stuff, too. My review copy wasn’t the 2-disc special edition, so I can’t say much about what it includes.

Anyway, give the review a read, and check out Stake Land if it seems like your kind of thing. See you next time! 🙂