Time For Some Sharing

So, the next few weeks, my hauling is going to be limited as I am saving up for another trip to see my honey. Some sacrifices must be made and for now, the toys and goodies will be kept to a bare minimum. Unless I get a real good deal on something or make a trade, then I'm not adding anything new.

Yet, there is still a few reasons why I have that scraggly grin on my geeky face.

I have gotten a few deals recently and made a trade for something I really needed. Plus, I have stuff that I haven't shown off going back to Christmas, so the House Of Swag will still have some goodies to brag about. I'm going to break it down, one piece at a time. Just to drag it out a bit.

So, Let's start with a package I received today.

I had let it be known on some action figure forums I frequent that I am always looking for Batman items. I get an email from a frequent poster that he has a Batman item I might be interested in. He was looking for a Wolverine Famous Covers figure, which I had a loose one that I was looking to trade anyway. We sent pictures of the trade baits and agreed on the deal.

I just hope he likes what he got, because I am loving my end of the deal.

Finally have a DC Direct Reactivated 3 Batman Super Friends figure. I am so thrilled to have this figure in my collection. I have been wanting one of these for the longest time and now I finally have one.

The sculpt on Batman is amazing. It looks like he popped out of an episode of the Super Friends. Very identical to how he looked on the T.V. series. Don't believe me? You be the judge.

See? I told you so.

 He is also painted in the classic Batman blue and grey with black on the mask and yellow oval Bat emblem on his chest. He even has blue eyebrows. Sweet.

Batman came with a black stand with Super Friends on the front on it. I believe it was painted on. I was looking traces of a sticker, but there was none, which is real cool.

My only complaint about the figure comes with the stand. See, the stand has hold for a peg on the bottom of Batman's foot to go into so that the figure can stand without falling over. Problem. Batman doesn't have a peg. He has a hole on the bottom of his foot for a peg to slide in. Looks like the trader sent the wrong base.

The back of the figure shows a flawless paint job. The cape is made of a rubber plastic that can be lifted up, but has no pose-ability to it, which is fine. I didn't trade for this figure cause I wanted to put the cape in any position. I'm quite happy the it is.

I have to tip my cap off to DC Direct. They did an outstanding job with this figure. When I opened the package and saw the figure I was instantly taken back to my youth when I would curl up in front of the T.V. I had in my room with a bowl of cereal and watch the Caped Crusader battle villains along with Superman, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Zan, Jayna and Gleek.

The Super Friends is still one of my all time favorite super hero shows and this figure is already in my top 5 favorite Batman items in my collection. Some people prefer the all black suit Batman or the black and grey suit Batman. Not me. Give me blue and grey suit Batman any day. It's the Batman I grew up with and this is the version I remember fondly. Artists such as Bob Kane, Dick Sprang, Carmine Infantino, Neal Adams and George Perez drew him this way and, like the old curmudgeon that I am, prefer him this way, dagnabbit.

Now, if you will excuse me. I am about to have a bowl of Count Chocula and watch some Super Friends. Here's the opening or you to enjoy.

Amazing Superman Collection Makes Me Want Batman Figures

The other day, I was on YouTube, looking at videos of other collectors and their collections. As of late, I have been in a very "Superman" mood and was watching videos of Superman collections. I stumbled across a collector called stewmurray47. He is a Superman collector from England, I think. This guy has one amazing Superman collection. If you have the time, check out some of his videos. Here is the one that shows off his collection. It's about an hour, but I promise you, it is worth the time to view this fantastic collection.

Seeing that video in it's entirety, made me think about my collection, specifically, my Batman collection and all the stuff I would like to pick up and add to the collection. Statues, batmobiles, playsets are some of the things I have looked into adding, but for this blog, I am going to keep it to just action figures as they are what I have been looking at on eBay the most...and drooling over.

And because I am pretty lazy, I will list the 5 figures I really want to add to my collection in the near future. I will only list figures that have been previously been released and are affordable to my wallet. As much as I would give my soul for a  Hot Toys Michael Keaton Batman figure, I will be quite happy with the NECA figure I have on pre-order.

1-DC Direct New 52 Batman

Of all the New 52 DC Titles, hands down, Batman is the best book to read. Some people may say Green Lantern or Justice League would be, but I just happen to love reading the Batman titles. I was afraid that when DC planned this reboot that I would really dislike the direction they were going. I was wrong.Well, at least when it comes to Batman. Loved The Court Of Owls and Death In The Family stories and I eagerly await to read what happens next in the Batman world.

Some people had a problem with the new costumes, but I really didn't. Batman wearing shorts or not wearing shorts in his new outfit doesn't really matter to me. I really like the sculpt on this figure and  look forward to adding it to my collection at some point soon.

2-DC Direct 13" 1:6 Batman

This is one of the more higher end figures on my list, but it is so cool. I have seen this figure in stores when it was released, but the $79.99 price tag always had me backing away from it slowly. Had I known that Hot Toys would be even more expensive and that the price tag for this figure would grow, I would have gladly grabbed it at $80.00. This is what Famous Covers should have been.

Let me piggyback this figure with the one above since they are both 1:6 Batman figures

I think I want this one a little more because this is my favorite incarnation of The Batman. It's the one I grew up with in the 70's and 80's and the version I favor the most.

3-DC Direct Justice Batman

Alex Ross is one of my favorite artists and when I found out DC Direct was releasing a figure based on the graphic novel "Justice", which Ross illustrated, I knew I had to get it for the collection. A few years later, I still don't have it. In my defense, I can never find it and when I do, the price is pretty high. I will add this figure to my collection at some point soon.

4-DC Direct Super Friends Batman

As a kid, The Super Friends was my favorite cartoon and I never missed an episode when it aired on Saturday mornings on ABC. As an adult, I pick up the DVDs when I find them and enjoy a piece of my childhood. This was another of those "I have to have it" figures when I saw it, yet I still have not picked it up. But, I do have more than one option as this figure came solo, in a 2 pack with Scarecrow and in a four figure Batman box set. I have seen the box set and will fork over the 40.00 when I see it again.

5-DC Direct Batman/Superman Public Enemies Batman

I have always been a fan of Ed McGuinness and I absolutely love this figure based on the graphic novel. The sculpt looks exactly like the way McGuinness drew Batman. I enjoyed the graphic novel, so this figure is also a must for my collection. I should take time this weekend and see if the animated movie is on Netflix this weekend and check it out.

Now that I listed the 5 (o.k., 6) figures I want to add to my Batman collection, it's time to start looking for them before all you guys grab them before I can get my dirty mitts on them. I know I probably won't have a collection as big as the Superman collection stewmurray47 has, but I plan to have fun trying and these 5 figures will be the ones I start with.

What I'm Reading: The Green Lantern Chronicles Vol. 1

I am a huge DC Comics fan. Batman is my favorite in the DCU, but I also have love for Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman. I truly believe that DC is coming out with some great comics, with Batman and Justice League leading the way. One hero that I have always been intrigued with, but never really got into is the Green Lantern.

Oh, I like the character. I love the green, black and white suit, and the powerful ring.I grew up watching the Green Lantern on Super Friends. I have read Green Lantern: Rebirth and Blackest Night. Thought both were OK, nothing terrific. I saw the movie and liked it enough, even bought 2 of the mini figures. But to be honest with you guys, I don't really know too much about the character, aside from the basics. I thought a lot of the history of the character and some of the stories were kind of confusing. But, I wanted know more about Lantern. I know he has become extremely popular in recent years, so I wanted to see what everyone liked about Hal Jordan. To this is I decided to start from the very beginning.

 

I found this graphic novel at a half price store I wandered into. The book was 4 bucks, so it came home with me and I started reading it on the train ride home. By the time I got home, I polished off 30 pages of the book and thoroughly enjoyed the early stories I read.

I got to read the first story where a dying Abin Sur gave Hal Jordan The ring and lantern. I really loved the art of these early stories, which was done by the legendary Gil Kane. I was a fan of his work on Amazing Spider-Man, so I knew these stories would be well drawn. I thought the stories, which was written by John Broome, was pretty good. I did think he should have gone into a bit more detail as to how Jordan mastered the powers of the ring because in the next story he was flying around like he was always a Green Lantern. Obviously, later on, this was explained, but I felt Broome should have tackled the subject from the beginning.  

Another reason why I picked this up was I wanted to read these stories in color. I have 5 volumes of Essential Spider-Man, a volume of Essential Iron Man as well as a volume of Essential Avengers and they are in black and white. I think the DC Showcases is also in black and white. In my opinion, the best way to enjoy these classics are in color, as they were originally presented. I do understand that the color books are a bit more expensive. Showcase is usually less than Chronicles. The DC Archives are really expensive. But, if you have the extra bread to burn, I would go with color. 

So far, I am enjoying my "crash course" into the history of the Green Lantern. I can see myself easily finishing the graphic novel within a weeks time and not because the book has just over 150 pages. So far, I have been sucked into these stories. I read how the Green Lantern saved a city from a missile and fought saboteurs all while trying to win the love of Carol Ferris. Already, I am wanting to read some of the classic Green Lantern/Green Arrow stories, How Jordan became Parallax and then The Spectre. I'm also hoping to see Sinestro pop up in a story. 

Needless to say, I'm enjoying the Green Lantern Chronicles Volume 1. This was one of those "should I or shouldn't I" buys for me and I'm glad I picked it up. I'm looking forward to finishing this book off and move on to the next one. 

League Of Extraordinary Bloggers: Saturday Morning Cartoons

I remember the days when I used to wake up real early on Saturday mornings to watch 6 hours of non stop cartoon goodness. Yeah, 6am. I was the kid who refused to get up at 7:00 to make a 7:30 bus for school, but yet I would happily get up at 5:45 to grab some Lucky Charms or Count Chocula to nosh on as I watch some awesome 'toons. The other day, I got curious and checked out what was showing on a Saturday Morning. What I saw was informercials. Are you freaken kidding me? I wanted to see Tom and Jerry and saw some dude spouting the virtues of a t-shirt that would hide your belly fat (I ordered 3 in back, white and fucia blue).

So it is my duty to get this right. On my new channel, WMIKE, we show cartoons on Saturday. And not just any cartoons. We got the vintage stuff here. And if you like Superheroes, well sit back, relax and watch some classic Superhero cartoons. Here's the line up:


6am-Underdog

Not your typical Hulk Smash Superhero, but I thought it would be fun to start off with a show like Underdog. Might be nice for kids to see where the movie came from.

6:30am-Couragous Cat and Minute Mouse

Unfortunately, the only clip of this cool cartoon I could find has a Spanish voice over during the intro. I always had a blast watching this Batman parody created by none other than Bob Kane, creator of Batman.

7am-The Supeman/Aquaman Hour of Adventure

Originally titled The Superman/Aquaman Hour Of Power, this show not only shows Superman and Aquaman cartoons, but you will also see the likes of Green Lantern, The Flash, Teen Titans and Justice League of America. Very cool show from Filmation, circa 1967

8am- The Marvel Superheroes

Not to be outdone by DC, Marvel had a half an hour of superhero cartoons that showcased Iron Man, Captain America, Thor and Sub-Mariner. The animation was pretty poor, but the art and stories were lifted straight out of the comics. And oh, those catchy theme songs:

Moving on..

8:30-The Fantastic Four

I'm not the biggest fan of the Fantastic Four, but Hanna Barbara did such a great job with this show that it has to be included in my lineup.

9am-Spider-Man

The show that made me the Spidey fan that I am today.

9:30am-Spider-Man (90's)

While not exactly vintage, it's too good not to be included in the channel's Spider-Man hour block.

10am-Batman With Robin The Boy Wonder

Like with the Spider-Man block, Batman will also get his hour block, starting with his first animated apperance on this Filmation show from 1967.

 

10:30am-Batman: The Animated Series

Almost went with the New Adventures of Batman and Robin from 1977, but I had to go with the best Batman cartoon show ever.

10am-The Hulk

Had to get The Hulk into the lineup and this was a good show to stick in there. With The Hulk's solid showing in The Avengers movie, this show should do well.

10:30-Battle Of The Planets

This classic anime cartoon should do real well with kids who love japanese animation and adults who remember it's original run in the late 70's.

11am-The Super Friends

Finishing off the morning is an hour of arguably one of the most beloved super hero shows ever.

So, there it is. The Saturday morning lineup on WMIKE. These are shows I loved watching as a kid and still do. I think these shows will be very popular today as they were yesterday. All that they need is a new generation of kids to watch and enjoy them just as much as we did. In today's world were video game consoles, the internet and smart phones rule, I think some vintage slips right in nicely to balance it all out because sometimes we all need a break and these shows provide that break. And they do an awesome job, if I do say so myself.

My Top 5 Favorite Batmobiles

For as long as I can remember, I have loved the Batmobile. I'm not talking hearts and flowers and cherubs dancing along side my head, shooting arrows at me as I run toward it in a meadow with "Love Is A Splendid Thing" singing in my ears. I'm talking heart pounding, eyes wide open and drool dripping off my chin when I see one.

I'm not even a car person. I couldn't tell you what racken pinon steering is or if I even spelled it right. All I know is I love that car.  If its a toy, I want it. It it's featured in a comic, I'm reading it. To me, The Batmobile is the greatest vehicle in pop culture history. Everyone knows what it is and who drives it. It is the most pimped up car in comics history, period.

With everyone excited about Dark Knight Rises opening up Friday (Me included) and posting Batman related blogs left and right, I decided to post one myself spotlighting my five favorites of the many incarnations of the Batmobile.

So, as Casey Kasem, who was the voice of Robin in the Super Friends, used to say, on with the countdown.

5-Batman The Animated Series Batmobile

When you first see it in the opening credits, you realize that this is one cool car. Designed by Bruce Timm, this Batmobile was designed combining elements from the comics and the Tim Burton Batman films. It was dark, with a gothic feel to it, like the cartoon. It also was, like the movies, getting back to Batman's roots where he drove larger vehicles. It had a lot of those wonderful toys Batman is known for like an ecjection seat, tear gas launcher, missile rack, among other things. To me, this Batmobile is way cooler than any of the movie ones.

4-1950's Batmobile

This awesome vehicle first showed up in Detective Comics #156. In the book, Batman had plans for a Batmobile that was 10 years ahead of it's time. The car was modeled after a Studebaker and possibly a Cadillac. As a kid, I read the Batman Encyclopedia and I remember seeing a breakdown of what this particular Batmobile had inside it. It had a complete lab with, yes, stools. Imagine Robin trying to work in the lab while Batman is tearing down the streets of Gotham. Not getting much done, I assure you. The front had a steel nose to cut through barriers and the top had a searchlight, but what I love most about this car is it screams 1950's with the bubble dome and the huge fin on the back. This car is classic cool and one I need to add to my growing fleet of Batmobiles.

3-1940's Batmobile

I'm sure when kids picked up Batman #20 and saw this new Batmobile bursting out the cover, they must have thought they seen the greatest thing ever. The bullet holes in the windshield suggests that they were chasing some bad people and that Batgrill up front is just nasty. Dick Sprang drew this iconic image which was based on a previous Batmobile drawn by Jerry Robinson, with some noticable diffrences like headlights and the red trim. There were diffrent versions of this car drawn by Bob Kane, but this car seems to be the definitive Batmobile of that era.


2-Super Friends Batmobile

As a kid who grew up watching The Super Friends and it's many incarnations throughout the 70's and early 80's, I love this Batmobile. I have fond memories of siting in my jammies watching Super Friends while polishing off a couple bowls of cereal. This car, which was designed by Alex Toth, was based on the Futura 1966 Batmobile, with some obvious diffrences like the lack of red stripping and the oval Bat symbol on the doors. The front of the car has a Bat head on it's grill that the live action car didnt have either. When the show changed to Challenge Of The Super Friends, they did away with this car for one that was more hard edge, but I like this one a lot better.

1-1966 TV Series Batmobile

Come on, could there have been any other choice for this spot? This, to me, is THE Batmobile. I was not lucky enough to have seen the show when it aired (on account of my not having been born just yet), I can only imagine how thrilled the kids were back then to have seen this Batmobile coming out of the Batcave, tearing down the streets of Gotham, parking in front of Commisioner Gordon's office, getting stolen by various villians. The car became a character in the TV series. Designed by George Barris in just 3 weeks, he used Ford's abandoned Futura concept for the car. It already had the fins, which he modified and the bubble canopies. According to Barris, he modified the nose of the car to look like a bat mask, as well as open the wheel wells. Some of the cool features the car had was lasers, a telephone, rockets, ejector seats, an alarm system,and a mini batcomputer in the trunk. When I saw a replica of this Batmobile at Super Mega Show, I had to tell you, my heart was ponding and I had to really fight the urge to jump into the drivers seat and haul out of there. One of the things I do regret is not getting George Barris to sign something for me at a Hollywood Car Show he appeared at a few years ago. I hope I can get the opportunity to meet the creator of arguably, the most famous car in pop culture history.

Well, there you have it. My 5 favorite Batmobiles. I'm sure you guys have your own favorites and please, list any you feel I might have missed. I would love to read any and all opinons on the subject.

I'd also like to give props to a site I stumbled upon while doing my research for this particular blog. Head over to http://www.batmobilehistory.com This web site has so much information on the history of all the Batmobiles as well as pictures, fan art and, my favorite, a collectors page. I was in awe of some of the collections I seen and I haven't even seen them all.

As a pop culture geek, I cannot think of a car that is better than the Batmobile. Maybe the Black Beauty or the Deloran from Back To The Future, but thats it. Not The Mystery Machine or KITT. Not The A-Team Van or the truck from BJ And The Bear. None may be privlaged to have the honor of parking itself next to this extraordinary machine. There can be only one and that one is the Batmobile.