Alive, slightly less sore, a little less tired and a whole lot more excited about all the amazing goodies coming out in the next year. That’s me, right now, a few days after the mean streets of SDCC closed it’s hollowed halls.
Actually, THAT’S me (Thanks Sideshow Collectibles), sporting my first ever semi-cosplay as the mighty Jack Burton from Big Trouble and Little China. Never having done that sort of thing before I can tell you, it’s a little strange being on the other side of the lens. I was stopped constantly by people happy to see their nigh-forgotten hero brought to life in front of them so perfectly.
“Wait a minute, Kurt Russel didn’t have a beard in that movie.”
“But he COULD! It’s all in the reflexes.”
I took a million photos, just like I do each year and as a result, I’ve only been able to go through and edit a few. I’m splitting my wrap up into two sections. For this article, I’m focusing on the Toys and Collectibles. I’ll post our massive Cosplay gallery in the next day or so. If you’re here for that, check back soonly!
Someone told me this year’s SDCC felt muted compared to past ones he’s been to. I told him I felt more like someone turned the volume all the way up, but then unplugged the subwoofer. All the noise, crowd and aggressive fart clouds were there… but something else wasn’t. There’s no punch line or resolution to this paragraph’s setup. I honestly can’t explain why I felt that way because I could never quite put my finger on it.
Maybe I’m just getting old or jaded… or both.
Most of the usual movie franchise-flaunting epic-ness was still in full effect, though the lack of Marvel popping off a big super hero movie to blow the doors off things with it’s mega star powered money machines was certainly noticeable. But we had freaking Star Wars! You simply can’t get bigger than that, can you? DC/Warner Bros had Batman V Superman which raised hope as well as expectations for many. Leaked trailers of the new Ryan Reynolds/Sony R rated Deadpool flick as well as the up-until-now-almost-universally-panned-as-going-to-be-awful Suicide Squad caused a huge stir.
At one point, whilst I roamed the floors, the cast of Game of Thrones caused people to amass in claustrophobic picture-taking panic when they sauntered onto the showroom floor for their scheduled signings. I was only able to snap a few before the swarm overtook me.
As the clock ticks down the last few moments of the 2014, I look over and note just how overloaded my shelves are with the many goodies I acquired over the year. With my collection expanding and including figures from Hot Toys, ThreeZero, 3A, Hasbro, Sideshow, LEGO, NECA, Figma, Play Arts Kai and more.. this is the first year I’ve had to toss up a few extra shelves just to hold them all. Toys take up a LOT of real estate in my home. No toy company has claimed more of that space than 3A.. and no type of toy than Ashley Wood’s Tomorrow Kings.
This year added quite a few TKs (Tomorrow Kings) to our collection, however we really didn’t write any reviews this year covering them. Historically, I’ve found that writing interesting reviews on Tomorrow King characters can get pretty repetitive as they all share so many similar traits between them. I guess that’s understandable given that they’re supposed to literally be clones of each other as Wood’s convoluted storyline goes.
That said, this past year 3A not only seemed to release TKs hand over fist, they gave them some very unique characteristics that really set them apart from each other. So since we didn’t talk about them along the way, I thought it’d be interesting to take a few shots and write some quick thoughts on each one in an end of the year summary.. Tomorrow King style.
I hope you enjoy.
Das Intro
Today, I have the privilege of reviewing a 1/6 scale prototype action figure from the fine folks of ThreeZero. This time, it’s a figure based off the 2014 Robocop film reboot, the EM-208. These bots were probably the coolest looking things in the whole flick.. even if they (spoiler alert) were only used in the first half the movie and were basically canon fodder for Robocop.
I actually just watched the film the other day for the first time and while some of it remains close to the original Robocop, it’s certainly not as gritty or near as memorable as the 1987 classic. The entire time I was watching it I kept thinking of all the different ways they could have made the movie so much better… and that ending? OOF!
Eh.. it’s a rental.
That sentiment doesn’t reflect my feelings for ThreeZero’s bot. This being a prototype, some things may change and there’s probably a couple of things that should.. but out of the box, ThreeZero has delivered a highly accurate, articulated toy version of the EM-208 that should definitely please fans!
Rad Toy Review 