The 12 Days of Christmas: Prince Theodred from The Lord of The Rings Trilogy: The Two Towers by Toy Biz

   To make today's review a little bit more Christmasy, I'll paraphrase Mr. Charles Dickens: "Theodred was dead, to begin with." Yup...this is pretty much a figure of a dead guy. As I'm going through and checking out one review of my 12 favorite toylines of all time I'm using different criteria to make my selections as to who I should review. Sometimes I'm selecting a favorite figure. Other times I'm selecting the newest figure in the line I've acquired. Today, while writing a review for Toy Biz's The Lord of the Rings line based on the Peter Jackson films, I'm going with the strangest: Theodred. Theodred, the son of King Theoden is the Prince of Rohan who dies pretty much as soon as he appears. I mean, he spends more time onscreen being dead than being alive, which wasn't much time at all. To be honest, the thing I remember most about Theodred is Theoden's quote: "No parent should have to bury their child."
   Toy Biz began releasing figures when The Fellowship of the Rings opened in theaters in 2001 and continued releasing them through 2006. All in all they released over 200 releases for three films. That's insanely impressive for a film that isn't a Star Wars film, isn't it? While Toy Biz released a line of figures for each film, after the release of The Return of the King in 2003 they began releasing figures from all of the films in smaller packages, dubbed the Trilogy figures and later Epic Trilogy figures. Theodred was released in the fourth series of The Two Towers: Trilogy figures in 2005, which was pretty far into the line's lifespan and thus Toy Biz was really having to dig pretty deep in the line for characters and thus Theoden's dead son was released. Toy Biz, you truly were awesome toy makers. Let's check out Theodred after the break...

The 12 Days of Christmas: Indiana Jones with Ark from Indiana Jones by Hasbro

   For today's installment of the 12 Days of Christmas, which this year is comprised of a review each day from one of my 12 favorite toy lines of all time, I'm checking out the deluxe Indiana Jones with Ark from Hasbro's 2008 Indiana Jones toyline. Raiders of the Lost Ark is tied with Ghostbusters as my favorite film of all time and I've always been a huge Indiana Jones fan for nearly as far back as I can remember. Heck, for years I used my General Hawk v2 action figure as Indiana Jones as the only figure I ever owned as a kid from Kenner's The Adventures of Indiana Jones line was Toht. In 2008, in conjunction with the release of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Hasbro released a new series of 1/18th scaled action figures that covered all of the films in the series. In addition to the standard figures, Hasbro also released a number of deluxe two packs. Today I'm checking out the set of Indiana Jones in the robes he wears while looking for the ark and entering the map room in the ruins of Tanis. It's a pretty cool set although, to be honest, Indy wears this outfit while looking for the ark but he discards the robe before finding the robe. Still, it's a great set so let's check it out after the break...

The 12 Days of Christmas: Jungle Fighters from Guts! by Mattel

    For today's review from one of my twelve favorite toylines of all time, I'm checking out the Jungle Fighters from Mattel's 1986 minifigure line Guts! Most of these guys are my original childhood figures as I've owned most of the line since I was pretty young. While plastic army men are one of the toys that nearly everyone has owned at some point, Guts! went a step further by giving us really unique sculpts with painted details. These are some of my favorite minifigures of all time and they've always been a toy that I've never had any intention of getting of. Today I'm checking out the Jungle Fighters set, one of the six sets in the Guts line. Available in 2-packs, 5-packs, and a 10 pack, the Jungle Fighters definitely had a bit of a Missing in Action/ 80s action movie vibe to them. To be honest, I always used most of them as bad guys as they kind of reminded me of some sort of guerilla faction. They're definitely the faction with the most character, so that's why I'm showing them off. I've talked about my love for Guts! many times over the years but I'm finally getting the chance to show them off! More after the break...

Minifigure Review: Krampus (Blood Red) from Kaiju Kaos: Smackdown by Acheson Creations

   While we're definitely late for Krampusnacht I still want to show off a cool new Krampus minfigure I picked up from Bailey Records. Krampus is a new addition to the Kaiju Kaos: Smackdown line, a line of hand cast resin minfigures that can be used as pieces for a board game. Krampus is available in multiple colors and I picked mine up in Blood Red, a fitting color for this old Christmas demon, don't you think? Let's check out Krampus after the break...

The 12 Days of Christmas: Firefly from G.I. Joe: Sigma 6 by Hasbro

  I know I'm doing these alphabetically but, if we were going by order of merit, Hasbro's G.I. Joe Sigma 6 line would easily be in my top 5 toylines of all time. Not only do I love these figures, which are much larger than your standard A Real American Hero G.I. Joe figures (but smaller than the classic 12 inch Joes) but I had a blast collecting them and interacting with the small yet passionate Joe community who dug these guys. I wrote a lot of guest and co-reviews for these guys but I do believe that Firefly is the first figure I've ever reviewed specifically for Action Figure Barbecue. The Sigma 6 line was divided up into Soldier and Commando class figures. Commando class figures sold for around $15 dollars and came with larger accessories and packaging that converted into a footlocker while the Soldier class figures retailed for around $10 bucks and came with fewer accessories on a standard blister card. Firefly was a Soldier class figure, part of the third series of Soldier figures, and I think you're going to be wowed with how many accessories he comes with. These figures were loaded with play value! Let's take a look at Firefly more closely after the break...

The 12 Days of Christmas! Wonder Woman from DC Universe Classics by Mattel

  For the second day in this Christmas countdown where I'm reviewing one figure each from my 12 favorite toylines of all time, I'm checking out a Wonder Woman figure from Mattel's DC Universe Classics from 2008. Now, to be fair, I'm not just counting DC Universe Classics by itself when factoring it in as one of my favorite toylines of all time: I'm also counting Batman Unlimited, the DC Universe Signature Collection, DC Comics Multiverse, and multiple other smaller lines that used this same scale and style. DC Universe Classics lasted the longest, however, and it delivered dozens of unique DC characters rarely (if ever) seen in action figure form. I was trying to decide who to review so I asked my daughter, who is fascinated by my DCUC collection. She first suggested Superman but then decided that Wonder Woman would be a better choice. I agreed and thus we're reviewing the DC Universe Classics Wonder Woman. Originally released in the fourth series in 2008, this version of Wonder Woman is honestly one of my favorites. The DCUC line was expansive, fun, and incredibly diverse over the first few years of the line's lifespan. Let's take a look back at this incredible version of Princess Diana that is now over a decade old...

The 12 Days of Christmas! A.T.A.X. from Aliens by Kenner

    This year in the lead up to Christmas I've decided to take a step back and show off 12 toys from what I believe are my 12 favorite toylines of all time! Since narrowing the list down to 12 was difficult enough as is, I've decided to present these in alphabetical order for the sake of simplicity. Today we're jumping back to 1992 to check out a figure from Kenner's Alien/ Predator line: A.T.A.X. from series 2 of the Alien line. I reviewed all of the first series figures quite a few years ago back during my The Epic Review days and I have't really reviewed any more of Kenner's offerings from the series since. Aliens was one of those toylines that introduced me to an entertainment property, in this case the Alien franchise. I was only nine when these came out and they blew me away. A neighbor who was a year or two older than me (remember Freddy and my K-Mart bag wrapped Gorilla Alien?) introduced me to these and for at least a year or two they were the subject of many playtimes. I didn't see Aliens for years (probably not until I was in late middle school or early high school) but my friend Freddy had and so he was obsessed with ensuring that all of the marines from the film were represented. This meant Ninja Turtles and Batman figures with paper armbands taped on that had the characters' names written on them (I'm pretty sure Midshipman Mike was Lt. Gorman). When A.T.A.X was released, however, it was a big surprise. He just seemed to appear out of nowhere. Fortunately, the comics included helped to flesh out his character a bit as a highly skilled special operative who wore a disguise to sneak into Xenomorph hives and eliminate alien queens. Pretty cool, right? Let's check out A.T.A.X. after the break...