3 Toys from the junk box April 9th 2015 edition

Since I am getting so much feedback on these I got another one done quick.Also since someone asked,Yes all the pictures are of toys I own. And taken in various rooms of my house.

From the late 90s here is the Jakk's Pacific WWF bendie Hardcore Holly figure.I got a Stone Cold Steve Austin bendie figure from this line for years. Had it hanging from the rearview mirror in my car. Then ended up giving it to a buddy when he moved.

Last year a good friend in Cleveland told me he had grabbed me a small gift at a recent AIW show.He wouldn't tell me what it was,just that I would love it.

As anyone reading this knows I am a big wrestling fan. And one of my favorites is Hardcore Holly. Part of it is I got to meet him back when he first started wrestling. He worked as a welder on the gulf coast. And worked a few plant shutdowns with my father. So when the company they worked for had a company picnic my father told me I had to go. "Newt we got this guy named Robert who is training to be a wrestler." So I went and got to talk to Robert for a bit.

Fast forward 4 or 5 years and Hardcore appears in the WWF as Sparky Plugg. And quickly became one of my favorite wrestlers.

I had no idea Jakks had made a bendie of Holly. And since I got it I have kept him by my desktop computer. Some people have Norton or Macafee protecting their computer. I got Hardcore Holly and the next figure.

Anyone reading this,if you have any Hardcore Holly merch you want to get rid of leave a comment here.

From the old Playmates Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle toyline here is Panda Khan.When this toyline first started I grabbed the four turtles and that was it.Then when I started hitting thrift stores in the early 90s I started grabbing any anthropolymorphic figure from the line.

I haven't read all of the Mirage TMNT stuff,but I have read most of it and Panda Khan never showed up. I must assume he was created for the cartoon.

He has really nice sculpting. The paint job is well done. And the articulation is really good.I like how the pieces of armor on his shoulders and legs is made from a semi flexible rubber. No clue what accessories came with him.The green sword holder on him,well I doubt it originally came with him.

I got this Panda,I had owned him years ago and sold him when I moved from MS to TX back in the mid 90s,at the annual Wesson outfoor swapmeet. One guy had boxes of toys. I found this and asked what he wanted. Since I was getting 4 figures he told me $2.

While I have never been a huge fan of the Transformers toylines,when I saw this lego like set I had to get it.

Pretty sure this is Terraking.He is in his dragon form. The toy is so great. Once you build it you can transform it by removing a few pieces and twisting some stuff around. Yes it is basically a Transformer you make outta lego like pieces that you can transform.

Seems these toys came out in 2012. Construct Bots is the line name. They each come in a resealable tray. Which is perfect for keeping the pieces and instructions in.

I found this one a few months back at Dirt Cheap. With the discount I think I paid $5. Which is a good price. Looking around online these were $15 to 20 each when they came out.

Since finding this one,I have found Blitzwing at my local Walmart. And he was $7.50. Expect him to show up in a future installment of Toys from the junk Box.

Well that wraps up this edition. As always no idea when the next one will pop up. Keep checking here for the next one.

2015 Reading Challenge Book 050 Bat Manga

TITLE-Bat-Manga!
AUTHOR-Chip Kidd
FORMAT-Trade Paperback
FIRST TIME READING-No
COST-$15

I discovered manga with Eclipse comics Mai the psychic girl series.Since then I have read a few manga series.Mostly Battle Angel Alita,Akira and Ranma 1/2. So when I first heard that a book reprinting some 60s era Batman manga stories I was pretty excited.

Seems the Batman explosion into mainstream pop culture after the Adam West tv show started wasn't just a North American thing. Over in Japan once the series started airing the Japanese went Bat-nutz.Not only did they have a weekly manga series,but there was so many great toys made.

So enough history ,how is the book? Chip Kidd talks about how hard it was for him to find copies of the Batman manga stuff. So we only get two complete story lines in this trade. There is IIRC 6 story lines reprinted in here. Of course it reads back to front and right to left like all manga should. Before re-reading this I hadn't read any manga in a decent amount of time. But after a few pages I was use to reading it "backwards"To fill in the dead space on pages Kidd has so many great pictures of all the Batman toys that came out in Japan in the 60s. Most of which are made of metal. Which is nice to see,by this time in the states the switch over to plastic was already happening.

So how is the Batman manga stuff? Now you gotta remember the source material they used wasn't in the best shape. So there is some flaws in stuff. The artwork is good. It is fairly simple,But still looks good. The stories are as good as the stuff DC was putting out at the same time. With it being a weekly publication of course every 6 pages or so there is a cliffhanger. But that to me just makes it feel more like the Adam West TV show.

Overall this is a good book. My only complaint is the binding. I get the feeling that after heavy reading it might come loose. There is a hardcover version,which I am sure has better binding. But it is also $40.

Bat-Manga! by Chip Kidd gets a 4.85 outta 5.