Wrapping Up 2020: Heavy Infantry Mandalorian from Star Wars: The Credit Collection by Hasbro

 

   The Heavy Infantry Mandalorian, real name Paz Vizsla (voiced by John Favreau), is the fifth and final figure of Hasbro's 2020 Star Wars: The Credit Collection. He's a Best Buy exclusive and he just arrived in my mailbox less than a week ago even though I ordered him in early December. Interestingly, the standard Paz Vizsla was part of my wrap-up of 2019 who I reviewed in early 2020 as well. He was also a Best Buy exclusive. Hasbro has treated Paz Vizsla as a deluxe figure (which seems like they're really stretching the concept of a deluxe figure) and so this one comes on a vintage Kenner styled card, like the other figures in the set, but it's quite a bit wider. Paz Vizsla is really just a repaint of the previous figure and, oddly, he's not all that different from the first release. Still, I was up for another Mandalorian and I got a good deal on this guy from Best Buy.com since his package was damaged. Want to check him out? Then join me after the break...

Barbecue's Bonfire 1/8/2020: First Snow Day of the Year Edition!

 

   Guess what, friends and neighbors? Today is my first snow day of the year! I've been sitting at home playing Assassins Creed: Valhalla this morning before my daughter woke up and while my wife is working but I figured I'd better jump in and do a quick Barbecue's Bonfire. Honestly, while I've been quite busy this week I don't have too much exciting to report. I received the first two High Republic era Star Wars books but I haven't gotten to read them yet and I know the G.I. Joe Classified Series Target exclusives are out there (Viper and Firefly) but considering how bad Covid is in our area and the fact that Target is about 30 minutes away I haven't even gotten to check for them. Plenty of good, though, as I've been getting to spend plenty of time with my family and enjoying lots of cool stuff, though none that I've finished this week (my wife and I are currently watching through the first series of The Black Adder, I'm still playing through AC: Valhalla and Little Nightmares), and I'm in the middle of Stephen King's Rose Madder). We did finish a room escape game, though!

    We actually started this one on New Year's Eve with my parents and then finished it later in the afternoon on New Year's Day. I talked about the first game in the Exit series I played last week and we liked this one even better. The Enchanted Forest is a fairy tale themed game with lots of clever, interactive puzzles. It doesn't feel like a traditional room escape game but that's not bad. Rather than looking for hidden objects, finding keys, etc, you're essentially solving a puzzle at each step. We actually made paper snowflakes, used a translucent leaf as a decoder, arranged little cardboard furniture cutouts, and built a bridge to find our way out of the woods. Technically these are one time play games (they involve a lot of cutting) but for the price of around $10-$15 dollars that might be worth it for around 2 hours of entertainment for your family. This one was quite nice and is definitely recommended if you have kids. The puzzles are mostly clever and logical and most of the time if we missed something we realized our mistake once we used a hit.

Just a bit more after the break today....

 

Wrapping Up 2020: Sith Trooper (Holiday Edition) from Star Wars: The Black Series Phase IV by Hasbro

 

   We're still technically in the 12 Days of Christmas so let's take a look at another of Hasbro's Holiday Edition Star Wars: The Black Series figures released in 2020: The Holiday Edition Sith Trooper! The Sith Trooper was released in 2019 to coincide with the release of The Rise of Skywalker and, like the film itself, it was kind of forgettable. The Sith Troopers had really cool designs, though, and the figure was fantastic. I'm glad to see the mold reused again as I love the sculpted detail on it. This version of the Sith Trooper is decked out in red and green with a festive scarf, a "NERF" blaster, and a little companion in the form of Babu Frik. The Sith Trooper (Holiday Edition) is exclusive to Best Buy and I was able to order mine online although he took forever to arrive. Let's take a look at the Sith Trooper (Holiday Edition) after the break and continue the celebrations...

Wrapping up 2020: Lords of Power from Masters of the Universe Origins by Mattel

 

   Like most other events last year Power-Con 2020 was canceled and, instead, was held as a virtual event. It was pretty cool and while I'm sure it wasn't the same as getting to attend Power-Con in person I certainly enjoyed it. The exclusives were still offered up as well and the main piece for Power-Con 2020 is what I'm checking out today: The Lords of Power 5-pack from Masters of the Universe Origins. What exactly is Lords of Power? Check out Battle Ram or one of the He-Man documentaries on Netflix like The Toys that Made us or The Power of Grayskull for a full run down but, to make a long story short, Lords of Power was the original working name for Masters of the Universe. Apparently the name was changed due to someone at Mattel thinking that it sounded "too religious" so Masters of the Universe was chosen. The "Lords of Power Collection" was displayed with an image of five prototype figures of He-Man, Skeletor, Beast Man, Mer-Man, and Man-At-Arms that showed more details from Mark Taylor's concept art which were eventually dropped for the final product. While ideally I would have wanted these figures as Masters of the Universe Classics releases but, considering that MOTU Origins is currently Mattel's main focus, it makes sense that they'd push it. All five figures come in a box that looks similar to one of the vintage MOTU carrying cases, so the presentation is pretty slick. The set was originally sold through Power-Con to folks who bought attendee tickets and was sold through Big Bad Toy Store for non-attendees. I'm going to go ahead and forewarn you that this set was quite pricey due to being a limited fan convention exclusive: Power-Con was charging $200 for attendees (who paid an extra attendance fee) who would pick up on site while BBTS was charging $270 for anyone who wanted one. Anyways, the price has been paid so let's check out the Lords of Power after the break...

Wrapping up 2020: Phase I Clone Trooper from Star Wars: The Black Series Phase IV by Hasbro

 

      This intro might get a bit confusing as this figure is technically called a Phase I Clone Trooper, which refers to the Clone Troopers from Episode II: Attack of the Clones with the sleeker helmet designs with a more pronounced fin on top. Of course, the Black Series toyline itself has also used the label "Phase" to refer to the different iterations of the line. In mid-2020 Hasbro transitioned the Black Series into Phase IV with new packaging. Make sense? OK, good! Like the recently released Imperial Stormtrooper figure, the Phase I Clone Trooper is another figure from Phase I of the Black Series that Hasbro has completely created a new version of for Phase IV. The Black Series has really evolved over the past few years and it's nice to get some new and improved base bodies for troop builders who we know we'll see repainted and re-released multiple times. I never reviewed the original release of this guy from 2014 although I've reviewed multiple repaints of the original figure. Clone Troopers are a staple of the Star Wars galaxy now and it's actually nice that Hasbro went back to the drawing board to improve this guy. Let's take a look at the Phase I Clone Trooper after the break...

Wrapping Up 2020: R5-P8 from Star Wars: The Black Series Phase III by Hasbro

 

   Yes, it's officially 2021 but I've still got a dozen or so figures that I picked up in December or received for Christmas that I need to review so let's get started with wrapping up 2020 by taking a look at R5-P8. R5-P8 is part of the Target exclusive Galaxy's Edge Trading Outpost subset of The Black Series and is intended as the droid companion of Hondo Ohnaka, another figure releases in the Galaxy's Edge subset. I haven't gotten my hands on Hondo yet but I'm about to just bite the bullet and order one because I doubt we'll see him again. Anyways, R5-P8 did appear in a few episodes of The Clone Wars but he's also part of the ride Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run, which is what this version of the astromech droid is based on. Let's take a quick look at R5-P8 after the break...

Barbecue's Bonfire 1/1/2021: What a Long, Strange Year it's Been Edition

 

   Happy New Year! Well, 2020 is over and 2021 begins! I've had a week that's been very busy as I've been with my family nearly every minute of the day but also not busy at all since I'm still on Christmas vacation from work until Monday. I've made sure to fill the time with some cool stuff. My daughter got a bunch of Harry Potter Lego sets, so we've been building up a storm. Also, we did Christmas with my wife's family via Zoom on Saturday. Our Christmas felt like it lasted 4 or 5 days! Of course, we've also been checking out lots of cool stuff. What, you might ask? Read on and find out...

 We've been watching through the Star Wars films in a really weird order with my daughter and we finally got around to watching The Empire Strikes Back, which is the greatest Star Wars film of all. It's amazing how good this one is. My daughter asked me what my favorite part was and I told her it's basically from the time the opening crawl starts until the music blares at the end. She said that wasn't specific enough so I decided it's from the moment we first see Vader and Lando in the carbon freezing chamber through Luke's rescue while hanging from the bottom of Cloud City. Better?

   She really loved Yoda in this one! This all started with me wanting to watch Return of the Jedi which she got into, then she wanted to watch ROTS because a friend of ours showed it to his daughter who is now scared of senior citizens because of Palpatine's face getting warped. Then we ended up watching A New Hope, Episode 1, Episode 2, and, finally, ESB. My daughter really liked TFA when it came out but hasn't seen it in a few years so we'll probably watch it soon. I guess we'll make our way through the Sequel Trilogy next.

More after the break...