Alright so Marvel has literally dropped the release mic this past week, unleashing a plethora of new product related to the upcoming Avengers movie (go look at that extended Super Bowl trailer now!) and I want to talk about them, because they ARE RAD. But we’ll get back to that later.

Alright, so the next wave of NECA Gears of War 3 figures is in stock and again, I’m a fan of them. NECA’s female sculpts aren’t always the best, but their angry buff guys and monsters are usually solid toys. This applies to the 2nd wave of Gears figures, which are some of their most articulate figures to date, what with 30 somewhat points or articulation each. The wave consists of Dom Santiago, Damon Bard (my personal favorite!) and Augustus Cole aka THE COLE TRAIN BABY WOOOOOOOOOO! I’m assuming anyone who’s played any of the Gears games got that reference. Anywho each figure goes for about $18 bucks a pop for each 6″ figure, which also comes with various weapons from the games. For less than $20 bucks it’s a solid deal.

Next we have….a lot of words. It’s ::takes a  breath:: Composite Ver. Ka VR-014/ HD Fei-Yen HD (Hatsune Miku version) which from what I can tell, its a hybrid of Vocaloid Hatsune Miku and a Virtua-On mecha, which unlike Vocaloid, is something I care about. It’s pretty pricey at $70, but you certainly get your money’s worth. As part of Bandai’s Composite Ver. Ka line, the figure is  incredibly detailed, despite some limited articulation at times depending on the hair and accessories equipted at times . In terms of accessories, this figure is LOADED. Miku comes packed with a nice stand, a pair of variant hands, a variant head with an exposed-Miku face, a mic and a pair of transparent leeks. The big accessory is her “Emotional Heart” which a some sort of weird floaty heart thingie. Miku also comes with a cool Dreamcast-looking backpack, which as someone who owns a Dreamcast, I appreciate. I’m not sure how much the Vocaloid fandom crosses over with the Virtua-On one, but there’s probably a demand for this figure somewhere, given how huge Vocaloids in. Much like any of Bandai’s high end figures, the demand is high and the supply is low, so if you want it, comes by ASAP!

So like I said earlier, Marvel’s dropped the first wave of Avengers merch onto our shelves and OH MY GOD, IT IS BEST! “It” being the Marvel Mini Mighty Muggs, which are tiny and great, and yes I’m am bias because WOOK HOW KWUTE WIDDLE HAWKEYE IS HEHEHEHEHEHE! Hasbro’s done 2 types of releases for the MMMs, singles that focus on the movie versions of the characters, and 2 packs which are heroes vs. villains that come with more comic accurate versions of Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The singles consist of Hawkeye, Nick Fury, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America, while the 2 packs so far are Captain America vs. The Red Skull, the Hulk vs. The Abomination, Silver Centurion Iron Man Vs. the Iron Monger and the pictured Thor vs. Loki. The singles go for about $10-11, while the 2-packs go for about $20. And as we speak, the first wave of Hasbro’s 3 1/2″ Avengers figures should be hitting the shelves, as well as the first set of the returning Marvel Legends figures. But we’ll look more in those next week, as there’s a ton of ground to cover there.

This is the perfect X-book for people who are bored of X-Men.  It’s plucked straight from my favorite era of X-Men comics, back when Morrison was blazing a trail with his fresh science-fiction-heavy run on New X-Men and editorial were trying hard to push books in innovative directions. Things were glorious for a brief, bright time – then that milk suddenly soured.  Originality waved a white flag and it was back to basics.

X-Statix (for those of you who don’t know) was less about mutants as outcasts and more about mutants as celebrities and media-darlings.  That may sound sort of unspeakable, but consider this; they are a team of people who aren’t fighting crime for good, or for evil, they’re fighting for fame.  They’re a bunch of self-centered narcissistic, backstabbing assholes who will do anything to get their faces on television, or their names in the gossip columns.  It’s like a glorious car crash you can’t look away from, being filmed by a small, amorphous green blob with eyes.  How can you resist?

I hear Jonathan Ross has an upcoming book exploring the idea of reality show contestants as superheroes, but that’s already happened.

Leading off the new arrivals is the Bishoujo Mystique statue, and a pair of repainted Ami-Comis statutes: White Canary and Star Sapphire Wonder Woman. The Ami-Comis are kind of whack, basically just being repainted versions of the previously released White Canary & Star Sapphire, but hey, they may be someone else’s thing. Mystique, on the other hand, is a damn find low end statue, and the painting and sculpt is very well done, especially when it comes down to the skulls on her belt. In addition to Mystique, we also have the black costume variant Batgirl Bishoujo statue in stock, which  looks a ton better than the original release thanks to the new paint scheme/job.  I would easily recommend the 2 Bishoujo statues over the Amie Comis if you interested in picking any of them up.

After what seemed like forever, Square Enix finally released the first set of the Super Street Fighter IV Play Art Kai figures.  And it’s worth the wait, because these figures are MASSIVE! Chun Li and Ryu make up the first wave, and each of them come with a variant head, another set of hands, a  trademark fireball, and a stand for said fireballs. Again, I think it’s bull that Squenix doesn’t package figures for their figures anymore, but they’re fairly sturdy figures as is. Much more so than the previous Final Fantasy releases, as their exaggerated designs lend itself to this look well. They go for about $55 each, which is the average Play Art Kai price these days. If you’re looking for some colorful additions to your collection, and really dig Street Fighter, these figures are meant for you.

The biggest arrivals of last week have to be in the insane amount of new Bandai arts figure. We finally got in some new releases, and man, it’s nice to have something that’s not Shonen Jump related to talk about. The first new D-Arts is from the cult PS2 classic/new hit anime Persona 4, and is the main protagonist’s Izanagi.  The first D-Arts based on Persona 4 (there’s at least 2 more on they way), Izanagi comes with a stand (obviously), a plethora of variant parts and effects, and a massive bladed weapon. The other new Figuarts of note in is Rock Bison of Tiger and Bunny fame! He’s a massive figure, easily overshadowing Tiger and Bunny in terms of scale. What’s a little beat about the figure is the fact that he really doesn’t come with much outside of some variant hands. Still it’s well sculpted and has a ton of articulation. So it’s not like it’s a bad figure. We also got a few older mecha-releases in stock, specifically Gundam F-91, and Eva Units 0-1, and the Berserker Unit 0-2. And a ton of Kamen Rider figures. Possibly a literal ton. A lot regardless. Prices for the figures start at $45 and go up from there. With the rate most of these have been selling out, I advise you come by ASAP if you want em.

So let’s just review this document my clone has passed in…we’ll call him CLunkiedev. *Puts on reading glasses, clears throat* Ahem.

GOOD FOR YOUR EYES

Well, I already have to step in to editorialize. Clunkie’s written here “Darhrazz 8” and then a sort of squiggle. Due to me taking this particular clone out of the tank a little early his hands aren’t strictly speaking hands…he can grip but his nailless fingers are sort of boneless and stumpy. I think IT is trying to recommend Dark Horse Presents #8 which, on top of some great new stuff from Brian Wood and Howard Chaykin promises to have a Hellboy B.P.R.D. tie-in story. It’s a good book to cover.

Speaking of which, Clunkiedev has scribbled a sort of moist rectangle with a Superman symbol, the number 6 and a big “X” through it. I think It is as disappointed in the cover to Action Comics #6 as I am…sort of a green and purple blob in which Superman is stuck as though in a Japanese tentacle manga. It reminds me of Clunkie’s forehead…see eyelashes are really hard to clone, and they came out all…never mind. AC #6 has a lousy cover, but I’m sure Grant Morrison’s superlative writing on these Super-books will be top notch.

Two covers that leap off the shelf are Fear Itself The Fearless #8 and The Twelve #9! Fear Itself The Fearless is the spin off series from last summer’s Fear Itself event. Good  Marvel fun. The cover, however, is the best Art Adams has to give! Amazing perspective, detail and poses as only Adams can deliver.

As for The Twelve #9, this HIGHLY anticipated book begins the ending to a great story line first launched in 2007. That incredible, shirtless wonder you see on the cover is the BLUE BLADE, one of Unkie’s top picks for relaunch glory! His powers? He can pull of that outfit and ride a horse! NICE! Twelve trades are available here at the Forbidden Planet to get you up to date on this fun, weird story.

MARK OF THE BEAST

Detective Comics #6 featuring Batman vs. Penguin and Justice League International #6 join Action Comics as top #6 picks here on Clunkiedev’s list, but they’re rather hard to make out as the clone machine malfunctioned and his tongue is flopping out of his elbow. Every time he finishes a sentence it gets all drooly and blurry. Eww.

I’ll wrap this up; Image has a new issue of Invincible out this week, as well as top cartoonists such as Jill Thompson, Shannon Wheeler, and Mike Allred doodling silly all over fairy tales in Fractured Fables. NO cartoonist tops Sergio Aragones, who gifts the world with another volume of wonders in this week’s Sergio Aragones Funnies #7 from Bongo.

Avengers X-Sanction #3, Hulk #48, Venom #13 and a slew of new X-Books. Round out Marvel’s offerings. What’s that sound?

*CRASH* Uh-oh, I’ve gotta’ run! Clunkie’s found the sugar bowl and he’s getting a little rambunctious. As I’m typing this he’s sweating all over my linens; only due to the clone-machine’s increasingly poor quality control standards, his sweat glands have been replaces with…You know what? Don’t worry about it. Let me just take care of this.

NEXT WEEK: How to bury a clone in five easy pieces…I MEAN STEPS! Now where’s that machete?

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More musings from Unkiedev, Earth’s own sidekick, can be read at unkiedev.blogspot.com

Anywho, I promised you guys a look at the new line of Marvel Universe figures, and I shall deliver, because I’m that type of guy, and there’s not much I can talk about at the present. Today we’ll be looking at the new set of 2 packs, as well as a more indept look at the 18th wave which I talked about last post.

The newest 2-packs in the Greatest Battle line consist of Adam Warlock vs. Thanos, a staple of cosmic Marvel, and Mr. Sinister Vs. Gambit, which is a solid set of 90s Marvel mutant memorabilia. Loran took a look at the Thanos figure a few months back,  and this one is repainted slightly different from the one we saw on the blog. The Adam Warlock figure is mostly new, and comes armed with the Infinity Gauntlet, as well a staff. The Sinister/Gambit 2 pack offers a Mr. Sinister painted black, while the Gambit figure is a repainted and slightly altered figure from the X-men Origins: Wolverine line a few years back. If you need some advice as to which one to buy, I prefer me some cosmic Marvel, as this 2 pack goes well with the Guardians of Galaxy box set. Speaking of which, there’s a slightly new Future Foundations 3 pack out, which is basically a repaint of the Fantastic Four box that dropped awhile back, and ties into the Future Foundation Spider-Man figure that will drop this spring. That’s some impressive synergy!

Alright, so let’s give a look at the 17th Wave of MU figures. Starting off with  Avengers-related releases, we have Young Avenger Patriot, which I think is the first YA to get a MU figure. This is kind of rad, except for the fact that the costume he’s rocking was worn for like the first 3 issues, and the mask was discarded shortly after. I guess Hasbro didn’t want to risk making another fugly face sculpt. Still kind of  whack if you ask me. Wave 17 no longer comes packaged with stands, so you’re only get an old-timey Captain America shield with him. Double whack. On the right we have Thor, rocking his Ages of Thunder look. I think the body is a new sculpt, and the hammer and head are just repainted from an earlier Thor figure.

Moving onto the X-men side of things (well technically still Avengers as Storm is an Avenger too…)  , we have X-women Psylocke and Storm. I’m fairly certain this is the first time we’ve gotten a Psylocke figure, and she comes packed with a purple psychic katana & psi-blade. I couldn’t tell you how it’s psychic katana, but I assume it has something to do with being purple. I like the figure, but I’m hoping this gets re-released later in black, so she can be  Uncanyy X-Force accurate. Moving onto Ms. Munroe (Is she still Mrs. Black Panther? I want to say yes. Someone correct me in the comments section) , this is the 3rd Storm figure we got, and it’s the closest we’ll get to her rocking her modern costume. I’m fairly certain it’s a mostly retooled Classic X-men Storm (apart of that awesome Uncanny X-Men box set) and comes with lightening bolts for both arms. I think that’s kind of cool, which is while I bought her and she’s chilling with the rest of my X-Men.

Rounding out the Wave 17 figures, are 2 blatant repaints, Iron Fist and Daredevil. The white and gold Fist is to reflect something nonsense that happened in New Avengers, and black and red Daredevil is to indicate his fall from grace via demonic possession during Shadowlands.  New paintjobs aside, they’re literally figures you’ve seen before, and they both rock the same accessories they’ve always rad (snap on chi and nunchuks respectively). Buy only if you need these figures, and missed them every time they’ve dropped so far.

Each of the figures retail for about $12, and we also got in some older releases as well if you want to check em out. That’s all I got this week, take care of yourself Forbidden Planet Faithful!

That being said, if you’d like to follow my recommendation for this book you may pick up a copy of Daredevil Volume 1 here or you can pick one up at the shop and we can rap about its terrificness sometime.  Either way, Messrs. Mark Waid, Paolo Rivera, and Marcos Martin have crafted a swell book for Marvel’s Mr. Magoo and it would behoove you to give this superlative work a chance.