The Cast 3 "The Cast 3" is signed and numbered by the cartoonist and printed on 8.5"x11"
cardstock glossy paper. Limited to 15 pieces, a copy is just $20, and you can order
by sending your mailing address to wiigii@hotmail.com.
Check, money order or Paypal,
please!
Next week is Thanksgiving, which is followed by the serpentine menace of BLACK FRIDAY, so Target's been gearing up their toy section. Part of their lineup of exclusive Transformers products are a Revenge of the Fallen 5-pack of Legends Class toys titled "Straightaway Shootout." Blah blah Ironhide, blah blah Mudflap, blah blah Swerve, blah blah Runamuck, blah blah... Sparkcrusher?
Hrm. Sparkcrusher looks familiar...
Oh, hey, he's actually a trademark-challenged Gutcruncher! And that's why I have this set. See, Gutcruncher was an Action Master. Everyone remembers the Action Masters, the Transformers who couldn't transform? There were some unique characters to the series, such as Gutcruncher, and I've always wished that Hasbro would make transforming versions of those guys. And one by one, they seem to be. Very slowly.
So Sparkcrusher here is a redeco of Warpath. Whoever at Hasbro decoed him did a pretty good job. He's got the colors in mostly all the right places, while compensating for the toy's transformation. And his thighs were painted gray (on top of green plastic) to further cement the Gutcruncher motif.
It's too bad he's so tiny! And, uh, that he comes with yet another Legends Mudflap. I have two of him now, 'cuz they keep putting him in box sets with other guys that I want! I wish he were his twin brother Skids instead or something. Woof. I've owned all of these molds previously with the exception of Ironhide's. Ironhide's Legends toy ain't too bad. It goes from a Topkick truck to his robot form pretty simply and effectively, with the arms coming from the top and the legs on the bottom and the chest out in front. Impressive for his size. I could have lived with not having one, but impressive nonetheless.
Since Sparkcrusher there is a Legend Class guy, he does look pretty dinky next to the other transforming Action Masters I've acquired. It especially hurts 'cuz he's a tank, and so putting him next to Axer the motorcycle is just plain weird-looking. That this year's BotCon-exclusive Banzai-Tron is a friggin' giant compared to both of them helps matters none. But hey, throw in a plain-ol' Action Master Krok, and the median height ain't so far above Sparkcrusher's armspan no more.
The final verdict is, if you love Action Masters, you probably need this guy. And Warpath's toy was always pretty damn solid, so that's in the toy's favor as well. He's still got the interesting transformation and the wide range of articulation uncharacteristic of the smaller Legend Class toys. But he comes in a set with four other dudes for $20. Is that a dealbreaker for just one dude? [2009/11/18 10:59 pm] Shortpacked!:It's a new storyline! It was originally Monday's strip, but then some stand-alones happened.
Check out my Man-Bat! He can be currently found in Walmart stores if you rub two pixies together and sell your firstborn. Thankfully my dear reader/god Feywulf was happy to do this for me, and so now I have one. Hoorays!
As I understand it, Man-Bat is a sculpt that was originally created for the old DC Superheroes toyline (the one that evolved into DC Universe Classics) but didn't get released. But then they did him in white for a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive a few years ago. And now he's in his traditional brown! In Wave 10 with Joker and some other guys you'll never ever find!
He's pretty swanky.
The sculpt is definitely interesting. I love his bestial face, with its gaping maw and fangs. He's got spiky, sculpted hair all over him. And, woo, those leathery wings. It is kind of a pain to get the wings into a pose where they look nice -- you don't want to interrupt the flow of the leathery fields, but it's hard to do so while keeping him looking dynamic. He's just gonna have to have gaps.
Unlike most DCUC toys, he doesn't have hip articulation that allows his legs to spread. Probably because he's a sculpt that predates the line, if I had to guess. But, eh, he doesn't really need it. It'd kinda ruin the look of his jeans anyway.
Hrm. Who else in Batman's Rogues Gallery do I need? Catwoman? Maybe Mr. Freeze? I think the rest may not be up to my standards.
Today we bought the first chapter of Rebuild of Evangelion on DVD, as you might have guessed. I was musing how despite my love for Evangelion, I'd never drawn a Shortpacked! strip about it. Maggie immediately suggested one, basically writing this strip for me, and I drew it this afternoon, shoving what would have been tonight's back a day. We here at Shortpacked! have a long tradition regarding terrible smiles, and we're proud to continue it.
So not only does this wave of Justice League Unlimited three-packs feature Fat Lady and Old Man, but it also features three of the goddamn Super Friends. It's weird, 'cuz, you know, Justice League actually featured updated, de-embarrassified versions of these characters as the Ultimen. But for some reason we're getting an Apache Chief figure before we get a Long Shadow. Ooookay.
Don't mistake my boggling for displeasure. I can't wrap my head around why we have these guys, but I'm pretty stoked to have them. I have to admit, though, that a large amount of my fondess for Apache Chief and Black Vulcan comes from their appearances on Harvey Birdman. Samurai, uh, I don't really have feelings for.
These are, for all intents and purposes, Hanna-Barbera characters. HB created the trio for Super Friends to ethnically diversify their cast, albeit in casually-offensive ways. For example, Samurai was apparently a history professor before he got his, uh, not-so-samurai-themed wind powers. That's just offensive to our education system, 'cuz I'm pretty sure a history professor should probably know what a samurai looks like.
(Hint: Actual samurai wore pants.)
Just like the cardbacks for the Captain Marvel characters, who also had no cartoon appearances, these three also have images of character model turnarounds in lieu of screen captures. And, ha, Mattel only claims trademark on Black Vulcan. Apparently "Samurai" and "Apache Chief" aren't names they feel they can claim. (I remember how Seanbaby once likened Apache Chief's name to "Minnesota President.")
Super Friends seemed basically dead-set against giving any of their size-changing characters pants, so there were probably upskirt pics of Giganta and Apache Chief all over its universe's Internet. So what is the color of Apache Chief's infamous lap? Well, apparently it's brown, no surprise, but it's also mispainted. Oops. At least Mattel didn't paint ball-hair hanging out the one side.
Do I put these guys with my Justice League Unlimited display? Do I pretend they were sort of around offscreen, like I do with Mary Batson? I do want to keep them out somewhere, at the very least, because they're awesome. If only they were bigger, or I could have them hang out with my Phil Ken Sebben and bear. Oh well. I'll figure this out. [2009/11/16 11:01 pm] Shortpacked!:Jake was the forgotten Koopaling.
You know, I never saw Cheetah's three-pack. I don't think there were ever a good number of her (stateside) on eBay. Did she ever actually come out, for real? Am I going to have to buy one from Hong Kong?
I ask because the wave after hers is out! This wave includes the guys you'd probably never thought you'd see, especially when the line first started years and years ago and it could barely manage a Lex Luthor. That's right, it's fat lady and old dude! But, kids, they come with Batman!
We're just short a "REPUBLIC SENATOR!" starburst on the packaging.
Holy crap, it's an Amanda Waller toy. It's an all-new-sculpt Amanda Waller toy! (How hilarious would it have been if she were just a new head on the standard female body, eh? Ha ha ha ha.) Every part of her is new, which makes this even crazier. She has the standard hip and shoulder and neck articulation, but she also has waist articulation! Whoa! The skirt is rubbery, see. (Why didn't they just make it one solid block down there, anyway, instead of giving her joints like they did? That's going the extra mile, there. Bravo, Mattel.) She also comes with a stand, since all girls do in this line, but she doesn't need it. Her feet are wide enough and her center of balance good enough that it's not necessary. So I gave the stand to Batman. His cape has always been heavy, and Bruce Timm's designs basically walk on toothpicks.
There's also General Wade Eiling! He eventually drank some supersoldier serum and became a monster in an episode that was very transparently Bush Doctrine commentary. Woof. Eiling's sculpt is, surprise, the Two Face/Clock King body with a new head and some paint apps to give him military stripes and badges. He also stands fine, as that body always tends to.
As promised, this is the Scarecrow that Sean Whitmore from ComicCritics.com sent me! (If you like Shortpacked!, ComicCritics! is a good comic to check out. It even has an exclamation point just like we do!)
Scarecrow's another one of those really old guys from the DC Superheroes line, the one which evolved into DC Universe Classics. But he's one of the articulated guys from that line (some weren't very much), so I totally wanted him for my Rogues Gallery. Yeah, he's got a lot of articulation. Short of a forward-back at the ribcage, he's got the same standard articulation everyone in DCUC has.
Though, I should note, he's sculpted into a pose, despite his wide range of movement. He stands naturally the way I've posed him for the photo on the right. One leg supports most of the weight, with the other intended to veer out to the side slightly. One leg's a little longer than the other, and the angle of the soles line up with this as well, so you're not really gonna be getting him into a straight-legged at-attention pose. Not that you'd require one for the Scarecrow, but it does merit mentioning.
He comes with two accessories: a fear gas bomb and a weapon that ends in both a scythe and a pitchfork. I'm afraid to remove the packaging rubberband that keeps his bomb in his left palm, 'cuz not only will I lose it, but I'm also not sure if it'll stay in there securely without the rubber band. And I'm happy to let him keep the bomb in his hand, so I'm fine not finding out. This is only a little unfortunate because his longer weapon looks like it'd look better if gripped in both hands. D'oh well.
Because DC Superheroes was basically Mattel's attempt to ape ToyBiz's Marvel Legends line, Scarecrow came with a comic book that featured him, just like early Marvel Legends figures. Scarecrow's comic book is a fairly contemporary (at the time, at least) Batman issue by Doug Moench and Kelley Jones. Sweeeeeeet.
Today's strip is based on a real comment I read on Mattycollector's Facebook page. I saw it and I was like whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa? I was robbed of drawing Adora, but I really think showing the actual toy photo drives in the point a little more pointedly. Lord knows I tend to draw my thighs a little chunky anyway.
Anyway, there was a period of time yesterday in which I was feeling I was kinda mean in my previous two strips towards IDW for their dumb comic book. But then today they deleted a swath of critical posts from their message forums, and I changed my mind. Apparently they just deleted an area of a thread where one of their moderators went totally nuts and called everyone morons and exploded in a fury of crazy? Well.
To the right is my Two-Face! I was debating for a while whether to hunt down this much older black/white Two-Face or just buy (loose off eBay) the orange/purple one that you can find everywhere in that $55 Walmart-exclusive DCUC five-pack.
So I asked my peeps! Aeire demanded monochrome. Eric Burns-White demanded crazy. I was actually kinda liking the crazy one, just for variety's sake, since my Bruce Timm-style Two-Face is black/white-suited. And the orange/purple was his original colors. But, y'know, I do really like the black/white suit.
Anyway, I saw a (relatively) cheap black/white one on eBay and the decision was made. Aeire wins! Sorry, Eric.
He's Riddler's body, being the original use of the mold, but he has a different head and a tommy gun. Oh, and this one doesn't have two left legs. Not that, again, I can tell. (In fact, the legs are so similar it took a while to really figure it out for certain.)
So I guess I have an almost-complete Kalibak now? I got his torso a long time ago with Killer Moth. I didn't really have any use for a Kalibak torso in the conventional way, so I used it throughout the summer to wedge my window open to let a breeze through.
Sometimes it would fall out the window, and I'd go outside and bring it back in and wedge my window open with him again. And at some point he fell out during heavy rain. Well, I'm not going outside to retrieve him now!, I thought. And then I forgot about him. And then he was pretty disgusting.
But the Man-Bat that Feywulf had mailed me arrived today, and holy crap, there were a pile of Kalibak parts with him. So out I went, dug Kaliback out of the muddy ground, washed him up best I could, and now I have a Kalibak. Well, a left-legless Kalibak.
See, his left leg comes with Captain Marvel! Mike Wickliff sent me a free loose Captain Marvel along with my Riddler. He asked me at the time if I wanted any build-a-fig parts. Well what were the chances I'd ever end up with a nigh-complete Kalibak? So I told him no.
Oops.
Edit: Anyway, Mike got back to me and my Kalibak leg will be on its way! Huzzah!
Hey, remember back around my Weddings when I ran a bunch of guest strips? Well, the folks behind Tiny Kitten Teeth sent me their original painted art from their entry! Holy balls, dudes! As if that weren't crazy enough, it came with some black and white sketches of Mike, Ethan, and Batman.
I will need to frame this somewhere.
And down to the left is my current above-desk display of DC Universe Classics dudes. (Minus Deathstroke and Captain Atom.) Today I got Scarecrow in the mail from Sean Whitmore, of ComicCritics.com. Scarecrow's from waaaaaay back in the "DC Superheroes" phase of the toyline, but he's one of the few that has decent enough articulation to pass for a member of the current toyline. I'll talk about him in detail later. Probably Monday? Hrm.
I've also got Two-Face and Harley Quinn to talk about as well, now that I think about it. Oh, and I have a Man-Bat coming! Yeah, I'm rounding up these guys pretty quickly.
Funny thing is about today's strip, if I'd written and drawn it today instead of yesterday, it would probably have been about the endless list of ridiculously stupid errors in Transformers Continuum: The Definitive Chronology, not how dumbly vague it was about everything. Before, we only had five preview pages to go on. But today, we have yet another preview page and a review or two of the rest of the contents.
Mind, even in the first previewed page stuff is out of whack. It erroneously says their Megatron was originally a slave, not a bottom-rung mine worker. Well, that's fine, until you remember the reason he rebelled and began the Decepticons is because they were SHUTTING DOWN HIS MINE AND LETTING HIM GO. Megatron hates freedom!
Jesus, IDW, if you can't bother to read your own stuff while getting paid to do so, why are we forking over our money to you for the same material? C'mon, reading all your Transformers stuff can't take more than a day. There's not much of it! "Definitive Chronology" my ass.
Our hamster babies are finally old enough to wander out and about their living area themselves. Ham mommy doesn't like that very much, and will go drag them back to the nest, but ever so often we'll find them eating some food on their own. So tiny! Seriously, they're like a centimeter or two long. The video exaggerates their size. They could fit on a quarter.
Anyway, they're adorable. And there's five, we think. Five is the most we've seen all together at the same time, but there is a chance there's a sixth or more in there. But we've seen no evidence for that. They just spend most their time buried in fluff under their mom's butt, so it's not very easy to get a headcount of them.
Hello! Everyone and their mother emailed me asking about the lineart for the Mike/Amber Smoochy-Smoochy strip. Well, you can have it! But you'll have to fight each other for it first. That's right, it's auction time.
As usual, it's on 12"x18" art paper, was rendered in blue pencil and Copic brush marker, and comes to you rolled in a mailing tube. Add it to your collection! Or start one. I'm not fussy.
Auction ends in 5 days.
So, like, even back before I started getting all the Batman guys from DC Universe Classics, I kinda coveted their Robin. It was my favorite Robin design ever! It kinda helps that Tim Drake's One-Year-Later-through-Batman-RIP outfit was based on hisNew Batman Adventures look, sure. You know me and my Bruce Timm designs. I liked that the green is dropped and he's just a red, black, and yellow guy. But the comic takes it a bit further and draws him closer thematically to Batman's motif. He's got a scalloped cape, for instance. And those little tufts on his gloves. And, oh, hey, pockets on his belt! He's like a mini-Batman with red. It kinda makes sense, don't it?
I passed it up at the time because I wasn't collectingDCUC, but I am now! So, yay, an excuse to get him. And the fun thing is, BigBadToyStore still had him in stock for non-secondary-market prices! (they don't seem to any more) And so I was just a day or so away from just going ahead with the whole thing and ordering him when I found that damn Robin at our local Target. Just sitting there on the shelf. What? Okay. Well. I guess miracles do happen.
Robin joins my Batman in punching villains now. Sometimes he even gets the punching! (Okay, most of the time. He's only second behind the Riddler.) The toy comes with a few accessories. He's got his martial arts staff that Tim Drake likes to carry around and two Batarangs. (Robinorangs? Birdorangs?) I kinda wish he could store the -rangs in some of his pockets. But no, they'll probably just get lost. I prefer the staff. He also comes with a stand, as he's not part of the "build-a-figure" deal.
I'm grateful that there's a smaller, teenager-sized body-type for Robin to be. It just wouldn't do, being the size of everyone else. Plus, y'know, I guess it'd come in handy for the rest of the Teen Titans.
Anyway, speaking of Power Rangers, you know how they all wore color-coded outfits when they were in their civilian identities? Red Ranger wore red, Pink ranger wore pink, etc? Robin totally did that in the very early comics, I noticed, as I've been reading through my Batman Chronicles collections. Dick Grayson is always in a yellow collared shirt under a red sweater and green pants. Wow, that's a bit conspicuous. Batman probably color-coded his civvies, too, but blue and gray formal wear is a lot less outlandish.
