Tuesday 30 March 2010

The Mast Blogs: Themed Months & Sculpted Perfection.

Shatter his lenses, from the INSIDE!

No reviews, but his post contains cool stuff therein!

Themed Months.

Over the past couple of weeks I've felt like I've been stricken by writer's block. Every Thursday I throw an edition of Thursday's Comics out there, and that's all good. When deciding what to do with the space in between, however, I draw a blank.

I never really know what to do reviews off, I have LOADS planned, but I either don't have all the parts or comics necessary to review them, or I haven't figured out how. So, what I'm going to do is dedicate selected months to selected characters and, maybe once or twice a week, do a post about them.

It might be a character bio, it might be a review of some of their important story arcs, it might be a review of their first appearance or it may be something else.

This will not occur every month since, if I don't have the necessary tools, I have to buy them.

With that said, April will be Daredevil Month. Something I've been wanting to do for a while is get EVERYONE who reads this up to speed on Daredevil. It's the one series I buy that I have no included in Thursday's Comics, simply because so much has happened.



My original plan was to do a huge, summarising post of his second volume and lead it all the way up to #506, which comes out in April. However, I've decided to mix it into Daredevil Month.

I've already reviewed his first appearance, so I'll link to that when the time comes. Expect reviews on his important story arcs and a detailed history that tells you all you'll need to know about Daredevil and the important people in his life.

I really, REALLY love Daredevil, so I hope it'll garner some kind of attention, or you guys and girls'll let me know what you think in comments. Also, feel free to post ideas on themed months I could do! Maybe there's a character you'd wanna know about, yet you just didn't know where to start Let me know, I'm open to suggestions.

Now, just when you thought it couldn't get geekier...

Sculpted Perfection.

As some of you will know if you know me personally, I am a big fan of comic-based sculptures, statues, action figures etc. You name it and if it's of good quality, you can be I'll like it.

China-based (I think!) company Hot Toys are known among collectors for being the PINNACLE of life-like figure production. Their Masterpiece line is legendary due to the amount of life-like detail that they put into their figures and sculptures, not to mention all the additional details. They don't necessarily specialise in comic book characters, they do movie characters, with a few exceptions. Naturally, they end up making a lot of them to do with comic book movies. Their more legendary pieces include the Joker, Iron Man and various Watchmen characters.

You can check them out HERE.

For those who can't be bothered, here's a peek at what you're dealing with here:



That's the actual head-sculpt for their T-101 figure. That's the realism that Hot Toys brings to the table. As for comics:





Utter, frightening perfection. In addition to the visual realism, the clothes are madly detailed too. From leather shoes, to individual playing cards and real buttons/shoelaces, everything on these figures is tip-top. These are absolutely not for kids, they're for collectors.

Iron Man, for me, is one that I craved. They released all versions of his armour from the movie (Mark 1, Mark 2 and Mark 3), as well the figure of Downey. Jr where he's testing the flight boots.

Here's their Mark 3 figure:





I really wanted that, or the Mark 2 (Which just looks SO slick):



On top of everything, the eyes, chest and hand repulsors all light up. Naturally, it comes with changeable heads, because there's only so much you can really expect them to engineer.

However, none of them really made me think that they were worth their price point. Bearing in mind the detail and specs of these figures (Read them on the site), you can't expect them to go for cheap. Hot Toys will ask you for up to $200 U.S. dollars for one of these things. I'm not entirely sure on shipping.

Personally? I do not deny this price point, as I believe that is absolutely worth it. I've seen a few of these in person and they really are the most bang for those bucks. I just didn't really feel comfortable with them being MY bucks.

Until I saw this...









I don't think the word "Masterpiece" fits this thing, but I know I want it. It's not due out until July or August time, but goddamn. How about that?

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Sorry to have rambled! Still, it's all comic related and that means it's ALL good. Speaking of Iron Man 2, us U.K. folks get the movie on April 30th. I WILL be reviewing that movie here, so any of you North Americans who do not want it spoiled and wish to wait until May 7th, AVOID my post.

Thanks for reading, people. Don't forget to check back on Thursday for another edition of Thursday's Comics, feel free to leave comments and keep your eyes open for Daredevil Month!

Until then, peace.

-The Mast