I'm Baaaaaaack! And I Have A Figure To Show!

It's been a while. 4 months to be exact. 2014 was not the greatest year for this Sexy Geek. I lost a lot and one of the things I lost was the passion I had to blog about pop culture. It's not that I didn't love all the things I wrote about. I still love Batman and have been dying to get the '66 series on Blu-Ray. I still love comic books, even though I haven't really bought any in a long time and I am really lost. I went to buy all the Spider-Verse issues last weekend to catch up and was told there was another story line along with it to read. Way to confuse me Marvel! I've also been following the big announcement that Marvel made last week regarding Secret Wars and the impact it will have on the Marvel Universe after, which was what I was going to blog initially. But two things happened. I realized that I am out of the comic book flow, so I may not be the best person to state any opinions on this topic.

And I won a contest.

Let me explain, over on Facebook, I follow Funko and every Friday, they run a contest. I have entered a few, never winning any. Then during New Year's week, I get a notification from Funko on Facebook that I won the last contest I entered. I was beyond thrilled, to say the least. When the package arrived last Saturday, I was beside myself with joy.

Look what I won.

I won a Distressed Amazing Spider-Man 2 Funko Hikari. How freaking awesome is this thing? I had seen Hikari figures in Barnes N Noble before, but never picked any up because I really couldn't afford the 50.00 price tag these figures carry. But thanks to the kindness of the good folks over at Funko, I now have a Hikari of my very own. Let's take a look at the box.

I absolutely love the back light effect this box gives off. Spidey looks amazing (no pun intended) against the black of the box.

Now, against my better judgement, lets take Spidey out of the box and take a closer look at him.

Wow, this keeps getting better and better. This figure is numbered 1 of 750. I have the very first figure made. Even if it's not, I'm sticking to that story.

Right out of the box I can tell you this one awesome figure. The figure seems to be made of a heavy plastic. It feels heavier than a POP or one of their bobbleheads would. The fact that it's taller may have something to do with that as well. I also like how the colors pop out on this figure with some backwash on it as well. You can definitely see the Japanese influence in these figures.

The back of this figure looks great as well. If your wondering about articulation, There is very little, much like with a POP. The head does a full rotation and the arms will rotate as well, but that's pretty much it. Who cares? This figure is pretty damn sweet.

Just in case you wanted to see the tag on the figure.

And a close up of Spidey's mug. You can really see the fantastic work that went into this figure when you look at it up close. Ok, I'll stop drooling now.

For size comparison, I bought out my Spider-Man and Amazing Spider-Man 2 POP vinyl figures and you can see the Hikari Spider-Man towers over his smaller brothers. I wanted to have my Amazing Spider-Man POP join the others for this picture but it was too busy avoiding Sony executives.

Again, I cannot thank Funko enough for this awesome figure. It made this Spider-Man collector a very happy geek and it will have a prominent place in my Spider-Man Funko collection forever.

By the way, The Sexy Geek's House Of Swag is now on Facebook. Please swing by and like the page. I plan to add my blog posts from the House of Swag and The Sports Room on to the page as well as have conversations and post pictures of newsworthy items. You can check it out here:
https://www.facebook.com/TheSexyGeeksHouseOfSwag

I hope this is the beginning of my return to blogging. As long as I have something to say or a new item to show off, I will still continue to post blogs. It's one of the few things I feel I am good at and as long as I enjoy blogging (and I do), I will keep at it.

So I Walked Into A Bookstore The Other Day...

Don't you hate it when you go out some place, not looking to pick anything up, yet you walk out spending a some of your hard earned green backs? Neither do I.

I went to pick up some photos over by Union Square yesterday. Since I was in the area I decided to stop off in Barnes N Noble to use their facilities and see if there was anything interesting.While there, I stopped by the section that had POP figures. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything there so I moved along. While passing by this section where the Walking Dead stuff was, tucked between a couple of zombies I found this cool Spider-Man item:

Not sure where I would put this as I don't own a computer monitor, but it's going to look pretty sweet with the rest of my Spider-Man Funko collection.

So, I went to pay for the Spider-Man computer sitter when I noticed a huge display of POP figures right by the registers. Yeah, go ahead and put a huge collection of items that I'm going to want to purchase right by the register. Genius.

While standing on line, I peruse the Funko Pops on display when I saw them right next to each other. I knew it was fate that they would be coming home with me.

Anytime I can pick up a new Luke Skywalker item for my Skywalker collection, I am grabbing it. I had heard of a new Luke Skywalker POP in his Hoth gear paired up with a Wampa and I saw it at Barnes N Noble, but I decided to pass on it as it was a bit pricey. But I did find this Luke solo (No, not Han), so he came home with me.

But Luke was not alone. Right next to him was a POP I had been looking for:

Spider-Man, of course. Duh.

I had been looking for this Amazing Spider-Man 2 POP ever since the movie came out, yet I had trouble finding it. I was all set to order it from eBay like I did with the first Spidey POP, but lucky for me, he and Luke were chilling out, waiting for this sexy geek to grab them both and bring them home.

Since I'm here, Let's take a look at Spidey out of the box and check him out.

Right off the bat, I love the sculpt on this POP. unlike the last Spider-Man, the web lines are not colored in, but it doesn't take anything away from this figure. The Spider symbol is also larger on this POP then the last one as well.

Check out the eyes on him. Awesome job Funko.

Here's the back of Spidey. The paint on this figure is fantastic. There is nary a sploch, messed up line or anything negative to say about the paint application on this POP.

Heck, I even like the Spider on his back.

I always said two Spideys are better than one. I initially thought that the blue on the ASM 2 was lighter, but that isn't the case. The eyes are also wider on this POP. To tell you guys the truth, I can't decide which POP I like better. To me, both have great qualities that I love and because of that, I'm not going to even try to figure out which I like better, so NAHHHH!

What made this trip to Barnes N Noble even sweeter was that I had a 30 % off coupon, so this sweet shopping spree cost me less than $20.00. As Mel Brooks once said, "It's Good To Be The King".

I Don't Only Collect Sports Bobbleheads

Over the past few years, Funko has become one my favorite companies. It's well documented on this blog my love for the Pop Vinyl line. In my opinion, they are one of the funnest lines to collect. But that is not the only line that Funko produces that I have become a huge fan of.

Before there was Pop, there was Wacky Wobblers. These are bobbleheads that, much like POP, are made of just about any character or famous person you can think of. I was introduced to them when my buddy gave me a set of Monkees Wacky Wobblers for my birthday one year. I was floored by the set and I have them on display in my bobblehead 3 shelf bookcase. Although I cherished them and was impressed by the likeness on the bobbles, those were the only Wacky Wobblers I owned for quite a while.

Then a couple of years ago, My buddy, George and I went into a Big Lots store up in Poughkeepsie that we go to every now and then. We went into the toy aisle and I found these bad boys.

I was ecstatic, to say the least. I had wanted to grab some of these when they were first released, but held off on picking any up. Now, I see a whole shelf of them and they were only 5 bucks a piece. I had a hard time deciding and had to leave Wolverine and Vision behind, but I am happy with the ones I did pick up.

Of the four, I definitely would say that Captain America is my favorite. I love that this bobble is sculpted to look like he just came out of the comics. Captain America is in my top 5 favorite heroes, so picking this up was a no brainer for me.

This one is also going to be the one that I may actually keep in it's box. I love the Jack Kirby style art that is all over the box as well as the iconic lettering.  I doubt I will be getting rid of this box anytime soon.

I loved the Incredible Hulk. I loved that Edward Norton tried to capture the style of the 1970's T.V. series, right down to the equipment that Banner used when he was exposed to the gamma rays. It's a shame he and Marvel had a falling out and he didn't do the Avengers. Then again, if Norton is in it then we get no Ruffalo and Ruffalo was awesome as Banner/The Hulk.

The only thing I would have done differently was make The Hulk a lighter shade of green, like in the comic books. He has that Philadelphia Eagles green going and I'm not sure I'm a fan of it.

Of course, I had to get Iron Man when I saw him. These two Wacky Wobblers are from the first movie, so I was pleased that I could get them at such a good price.

I love this Mark I Wacky Wobbler. I snatched this as soon as I saw it on the shelf.

And let's take a look at them out of their boxes.

These maybe made of plastic, but I would say that they are pretty bad ass nonetheless. I think I actually like the Mark I Wobbler a little better than his Mark IV brother. I'm almost sure this is the Mark IV suit.

Nice detailing on the back.

Wow, Cap looks even better out of the box than I thought. I do wish Hulk was a bit bigger, but what are you going to do?

I actually forgot that Cap had a star on his back as well. It almost looks like Cap has got the height advantage over Hulk. Just slightly though.

I had them in their boxes ever since I bought them and they look even better out of the box than I thought. These maybe made of plastic, but Funko didn't skimp on the attention to detail when they made these Wobblers. From the chain mail on Captain America's costume to the screws in the back of the Mark I Iron Man, I think Funko did a heck of a job on these. The paint, which has been an issue with the more recent Funko releases, is flawless on these figures. If I was in charge, I would put these in front of the painters as an example of how to produce a great paint job on Wobblers.

There are a few more Wacky Wobblers I need to pick up. The Spider-Man Wacky Wobbler has been on my must have list for quite a while and I think I will be crossing it off my list sooner than later. What I love about Funko is they give you options of other cool items to add to your collection. Be it bobbleheads or Pop Vinyls or even blind box Mystery Minis, you really can't go wrong when you add a Funko product into your collection.

Funko Pop Comikaze Exclusive Peter Parker Vinyl

I remember seeing this cover as kid and ever since then I have been fascinated by Peter Parker unmasked as Spider-Man. Some of my favorite Spider-Man stories have Spidey unmasked for one reason or another. Like when Parker caught a 24 hour flu in Amazing Spider-Man #12 and lost all his strength. He went to fight Dr. Octopus anyway because he had kidnapped Betty Brant and Peter felt like he had to save her. Because of the flu, Parker was over whelmed and unmasked. Luckily, Doc Ock thought that Parker was masquerading as Spider-Man and threw him aside.

Or probably the most famous Spider-Man unmasking, which occured in issue #39. That is the issue when the Green Goblin discovers Spider-man's true identity, with the help of a gas that dulled Spider-Man's spider sense. He didn't know he was being followed after a fight with some crooks on the observation deck of the Empire State Building, where one of the crooks, who was hired by the Goblin, threw the gas at Spider-Man. Afterward, Goblin followed Spidey and saw him change back into Peter Parker and followed him to his house. After a fight on Parker's lawn, he was subdued, roped up and dragged away by the Goblin. Also in this issue, we discover that the Goblin is Norman Osborne. (SPOILER ALERT!)

Now, ever since I found out that Funko was releasing a Unmasked Spider-Man POP Vinyl, I knew I had to have one. The fact that it was a Comikaze exclusive and that Comikaze was taking place in Los Angeles and I'm a New Yorker was irrelevant to me.I was either going to get this on eBay or I would fly out to the con and get one myself, which is just what I did.

Only the Hot Topic booth was selling this figure, a fact that I didn't know until I was at the con for about an hour and after going to booth after booth looking for one. Lucky for me, one of the dealers told me where to find one.

The first thing is the packaging. One of the things I love about the boxes is the drawing of the figure you're getting on the bottom left. The drawing on this one is very well done as usual. The coloring pops off the package. We also have the usual clear cellophane that shows off the figure as well as the number on the top and the name of the figure on the bottom.

There's the sticker that proclaims this as a Comikaze exclusive. I've said it once and I'll say it again, management needs to think of a better logo than that octopus.

As usual, the back of the box shows off the other POP's in this line. Now, if I wasn't just strictly collecting Batman and Spider-Man, I might grab that Ghost Rider POP because it looks awesome. I also like the Dr. Doom and Silver Surfer. I know that Deadpool POP is going to be a popular one as well.

Now, as much as I like the sculpting on this figure, what jumps at me right away is the paint job. The black on his boots are all over the place. I love that he is looks like he is about to spin a web and Parker has been de-masked,  but that paint job on the boots just irritates me.

The back of the figure doesn't get any better. There are white spots galore on his left hip and left shoulder area. And the boots are pretty funk-a-fied on the back as well. Unlike myself, there is not a spot of white on Parker's hair. As if being Spider-Man isn't enough for me to be jealous of Parker.

One thing I remember, there was a dispute if POP made any bobbleheads and sure enough, this one is a bobblehead. I also see that Parker has been branded. I need to find out what that marking on the bottom of his foot his. I am not sure if any of my other POP's have a number on the bottom of their feet. Again, the boots are a complete mess. It looks like Spidey has been hanging out in the mud pits over at Lallapalooza instead of fighting crime.

Overall, this is could have been a fantastic figure had it not been for the paint job on it. Somewhere, a painter is getting destroyed by his boss so bad that he is shrinking into his beret and rightfully so. There is no excuse for a company to have released a figure so badly painted as this one was. I just hope that anyone else who managed to pick one of these up has a better painted figure than the one I got. I'm still going to display this next to my regular Spider-Man POP, but man, it should have been painted better.

I'm pretty sure you guys are getting tired of reading POP reviews and I promise this one will be the last review for a bit. I can't promise you how long because I am addicted to these little guys. They're inexpensive and look great displayed. Plus, there are others I will be picking up, but in the meantime, I will be reviewing other stuff and discussing other topics for the foreseeable future. But, I dare you to try walking past these at Barnes N Noble, Toys R Us or any other of your fine retail stores. They are like Lays potato chips. Once you get one, you just can't stop. I dare you to try.