3 Toys from the Junk Box 05/29/2015

Back with more random toys from the infamous junk box.

I loved the Simpsons. But around 2005 I quit watching.Mostly cause it felt like something was missing from the show. But recently thanks to FXX showing hours of the show each day I have been catching up. And one of my favorite side characters is Comic Book Guy.

I have been going to comic shops since I was fairly young. And sadly Comic Book Guy isn't just an creation of the show. I have met many many Comic Book Guys running various comic shops. With David Sincere of Sincere Comics,two stores one in Mobile AL and one in Florida,being the best example of a real life CBG. Many times I watched him insult the customers to their faces.

Back in 2008 I went to a yard sale that covered a huge rich ass suburb of Jackson. Pretty sure it was in Ridgeland. I wandered into one garage. The owner asked what I was looking for. I told him the various things I collect,IE Pez,toys,comics and DVDS. I had on my very old Krusty the clown shirt. "Oh give me a minute I bet I got a toy you will love." he went into his home and came back out with CBG and the Androids Dungeon Playset. And CBG even still had the half eaten hamburger. Which I have lost.

The figure has articulation at the gut,shoulders and neck. And the paint job while basic does the job. The playset is great. It really looks like a miniature version of many comic shops. And it makes sounds. There are 3 buttons. When pressed and there is no figure on the marked spots each button just makes a cash register sound. But if you have a figure on the special spots you get different phrases based on who is on the spot. Now the only Simpsons figure I have is CBG. But one day I plan on grabbing a few more.

For the 10 people that read it the Android Dungeon playset became Lord Fanboy's Funhouse in my Pezzville web comic. Maybe if people ask nicely I might bring that web comic back :P

As a young kid,like most males in the states,I loved Hot Wheels and Matchbox diecast cars.They were the perfect toy when I was 7 and under.They are cheap. Hard to break. And small enough I could put a few in my pocket,lunchbox or book bag. But once I was about 8 or so I stopped getting them. Action figures and video games took over for Hot Wheels.

Then 3 years ago I had gotten a huge amount of pre-record VHS tapes. A friend that collects VHS was wanting a bunch of them. And told me he had some wrestling themed Hot Wheels. So I got him to take pictures.

What he had was 2 of the Racing Champions line of WCW themed hot rods.Back in the mid to late 90s when WCW was blazing hot they signed a deal with Racing Champions. Which is a group  that was just breaking into the diecast toy car market. With most of their stuff being based on legit race cars.

The WCW cars each came with a base that included a cardboard backing that was a picture of the wrestler. I know quite a few of the readers of my blog are wrestling fans. But I bet lots of them do not remember High Voltage. They were a tag team of two guys that got trained at the infamous WCW Power Plant training facility. They were two big muscled up guys who rarely won a match. For some unknown reason I was a big fan of them. And as far as I know this is the only piece of merchandise they got. And this is one of the 4 diecast toy cars I own now.

This is a Tech Deck Star Wars Darth Vader skateboard along with a Vader themed quarter pipe.These tiny fingerboards have always been interesting to me. Not that I could do any tricks on them. Hell I can barely ride a real skateboard without falling off.

As a kid I was a HUGE Star Wars fan.Owning close to all of the original Kenner released action figures. And lots of other Star Wars themed toys. And as a kid I so wanted to learn how to skate. While most kids in my neighborhood wanted to play football,baseball or basketball. I was wanting to go skating. Which was hard to do when every road was either dirt or so poorly paved it felt like you were riding over a washboard.

Back in the start of the year I was making my monthly visit to Dirt Cheap.I had seen this set there before. But they were only giving 50% off the original price of $20. Way more than I wanted to pay. Now it was 80% off the new sticker price of $15. I grabbed it thinking I would hold onto it and give it to my younger cousin for his birthday in June. Then when  a few weeks ago I made a trip down to go visit him and his family I found  out the only toys he wants to play with now is Legos. So once I got home I opened it up and started playing with it.

Sadly my above pictures aren't the best.  The picture of the ramp doesn't show off how good the graphetti style Vader picture looks. It really looks like some one came by with a stencil and a can of red spray paint and tagged the ramp. The skateboard looks even better. You get the old school Star Wars logo at the top. Then the rest of the board has a great full length portrait of Vader.

Well people I hope you enjoyed this trip into the junk box.

Bongo comics Free for all 2010

Bongo Comics Free for all 2010

 What a great cover. Of course most comics fans will know it is a homage to the cover of Amazing Fantasy 15. With Comic Book Guy in the place of Spider-man. This was the first of the Bongo FCBD comics I ever picked up. We get 4 stories all starring various people from the Simpsons TV show.

The first story is titled "Clown Therapy". Starring Krusty the clown,it is about Krusty who is forced to add educational content to his kid's show. This causes him to freak out and his therapist tells him he needs to change jobs. So Krusty ends up working at the Springfield power plant. And of course wacky stuff happens. Written by Chuck Dixon with pencils by Phil Ortiz and inks by Mike Decarlo,Clown Therapy is a great story to start this issue off with.

Up next is "Maggie's Crib". This is a wordless 2 page story that is written and drawn by Sergio Aragones. I love how Maggie manages to outsmart Homer in this story.

The third story is "Homer beats the heat". It is summer time and Lisa is complaining about how hot it is. So Homer tries various things to help Lisa and him to stay cool. Written by Tony Digerolamo,pencils by Phil Ortiz and inks by Mike Decarlo,this is a fun little 5 page story.

The final story is "The League of Extraordinary Barts!". We have 3 different super hero versions of Barts from different Earths all teaming up. The only superhero Bart I had seen before was Bartman,but we also get a Mr Fantastic version of Bart. And a Bart that is the sidekick to Pieman. This is a great story that is full of all kinds of Easter eggs for comic fans. Written by Ian Boothby,with pencils by John Delaney and inks by Andrew Pepoy. This story is my favorite one in the issue and I would love to see more stories using this premise.

Overall this is a great comic. Plus it being free adds to it's greatness. Bongo Comics Free for all 2010 gets a A.

Bongo comics Free for all FCBD 2012

Bongo Comics Free for all FCBD 2012


Every year on free comic book day Bongo comics puts out a free comic. Most of the time the comic is loaded with great Simpsons stories. Usually it turns out to be one of my favorites of the FCBD choices. Sadly this year it was the worst one I got. 

We start off with a great cover of Comic Book Guy dressed up as various geek icons. We start off with a story about the Springfield bear patrol. It is a great funny little story. And sadly it is funnier than the Simpsons TV show has been in years. Up next is a Sergio Aragones story "My first Peso". This story seems to be auto biographical. And of course has great Sergio artwork. Well after that story it is time to flip the book over. WTF Spongebob? I have never been a SpongeBob fan. This side has one fairly long SpongeBob story. Then a one page gag strip. And both of them are pretty shitty. Now I know I didn't have to pay for this. But if I had known in advance that most of the book wasn't gonna be Simpsons stories I doubt I would have gotten it. Bongo Comics Free for all FCBD 2012 gets a C-.

X-mas comics 01

I was a big fan of the Simpsons TV show for many years,but during the past decade or so I just quit watching it. I felt that the quality of the writing had fallen. Now I have know about the Simpsons monthly comic for many years now but had never bothered to pick it up. But thanks again to cheap random lots of comics on Ebay,this issue came into my possession. The main story is "Worst Christmas Ever!" which is written by Paul Dini,of the DC animated TV shows fan,and has art by Phil Ortiz. The story is a parody of how every few Christmases or so some toy will become mega hot,and all the various parents go wild trying to get one for their children. In this story the "Hot" toy is interactive Itchy and Scratchy toys. It is Christmas eve morning and the only store in Springfield is The Android's Dungeon. And of course Comic Book Guy has a nice selection of all the interactive figures,but they are all also marked up way over retail value. So instead of being the 19 or so bucks they should cost ,they are all now $80 or more. We see Marge,Milhouse's Mom,and Ned Flanders all in the store trying to talk CBG into dropping the prices at least a small amount. He of course refuses and all the parents besides Marge end up buying the toys. Marge goes home upset cause these toys are the only things Bart and Lisa have asked for this holiday season.When Bart finds out he might not get one,cause of the high price,he goes down to the store and tries to trade and barter some of his various toys. But of course he is denied.Homer is pissed and vows to drive around to all the other stores that sell toys so he can get some for his kids.After going to 3 various comic book/collectible stores and finding out that they do have the toys but at a even higher mark up. Homer gives up. On the way home sees a 18 wheeler and it's trailer overturned in the middle of the road. And when he stops to look inside the trailer Bart and him find a huge stash of all the Itchy and scratchy toys.Homer gets the "brilliant" idea to take these toys and go to outside the Android's Dungeon and sell them. Thanks to Ralph Wiggums mishearing Bart,everyone ends up thinking Homer is giving away the toys. And Homer and Bart get mobbed and give away all the toys. This causes CBG to get majorly pissed off. When the last of the toys has been given away,Homer and family head home to enjoy a little holiday cheer. But there is a sudden knock at the door,and it is Fat Tony. It seems his gang has gotten into the collectible toys aftermarket game,and They were in the middle of high jacking the truck when Homer and Bart turned up. Of course Fat Tony wants the money he would have made off selling his ill gotten goods. But since Homer gave the toys away for free he doesn't have it. Then to every one's surprise a fat man in a red suit shows up in the Simpson house.It is Comic Book Guy who gives Fat Tony a "Mega Rare Odds Maker Pete Rose Baseball Card,the Crown Jewel of the Cooperstown Hall of Shame series". And this card is worth as much or more than the toys were.Fat Tony happily accepts the card and leaves. When asked by Marge why he would do such a selfless thing CBG replies with "The Toy give-away this afternoon turned you Simpsons,However briefly into Local Heroes. If it came out that i had aided the gangsters, I would have been further Vilified by the Community and my store Shunned like a Trek Fan at a B5 Convention." Then he starts to leave and mentions that his filking group is going out to sing various Christmas Carols but with parts changed by substituting clever Sci-fi in jokes. The second story has Bart,Lisa,and Grandpa being summoned to the studio that does the Itchy and Scratchy cartoon. It seems the studio head is tired of them showing the same X-mas cartoon for going on 35 years. And since back some time earlier when Itchy and Scratchy had hit a low turn,it was turned around by Grandpa Simpsons,they now want him to write a new Christmas Holiday special cartoon. And so we get "A Springfield Christmas Carol" which is a variant of the Charles Dickens classic with various people from the town of Springfield. The first story is a great tale about all the goings on in the aftermarket toy market. Having been a collector of action figures for almost 25 years now,I can see many things in this story that have happened in real life. Plus I find that Comic Book Guy is one of my favorite secondary character in the shows history. The second story while not bad,isn't as good as the first one. I find it kinda sad that this issue of Simpsons Comics is better than any episode of the show I have seen in the last decade. Simpsons Comics 52 gets a very merry A+.