Happy Re-Halloween! Count Chocula from Vinyl SODA by Funko

 

      Happy Re-Halloween! I hope you've spent the past week doing everything you missed out on during the hustle and bustle of Halloween last week. Did you catch up on some favorite movies you missed? How about carving a pumpkin you didn't get around to converting into a Jack o' lantern? Today I'm checking out a "horror" themed figure that just didn't make it into The Dawn of 31 Days of Toy Terror: Count Chocula from Funko's Vinyl SODA line! Next year is the 50th anniversary of Count Chocula and Franken Berry cereal so I'm hoping General Mills has big plans to celebrate as well as bring back some old favorites (like Fruit Brute and Fruity Yummy Mummy). Heck, I'd love to see them introduce a new character, too. We could really use a female monster. Maybe a witch or a mer-girl? Oh, how about a banshee? Banshees are the best! Anyways, Count Chocula is clearly the leader of the Cereal Monsters and while his cereal is probably my least favorite of the bunch you can't deny the character's coolness. Let's check out Count Chocula after the break....

Barbecue's Bonfire 11/6/2020: Halloween Wrap Up Edition!

 

Hey everyone! 

   It's the week after Halloween (tomorrow is Re-Halloween!) and it's time to catch up on all of the great stuff that I've been up to. Earlier this week you saw my story of losing power in the hurricane last weekend. This week is much better, though, with more crazy happenings. First up: Trick 'r Treating!

 We did do a bit of Trick 'r Treating this year. We wore masks and only went to about 10 houses and a drive through trunk 'r treat (who all had cool ways to get candy to us in a socially distanced and safe way, including driving it to my daughter in a remote controlled Barbie car). We also quarantined the candy for a bit, just to be extra safe. I was Sam from Trick 'r Treat, my daughter was Hermione, and my wife was the Marauders Map. She's always cold, though, so her jacket is covering most of the dress. More Tricks and Treats from the week after the break...

Action Figure Review: Wayne "Beach Head" Sneeden from G.I. Joe: Classified Series by Hasbro

 

   Let's dive back in to the G.I. Joe: Classified Series with a look at the third Target Exclusive figure from the Special Missions: Cobra Island subset: Wayne "Beach Head" Sneeden. Multiple times since the relaunch of G.I. Joe in 1998 Hasbro has released figures under their original file card names, probably to get around an issue with the character's regular name being trademarked or in use by another company or something. It's better than renaming the figures (remember when General Hawk was General Tomahawk for a few years?) and does pay tribute to the vintage file cards which were such a huge part of the vintage toyline. Between the Larry Hama penned file cards and the excellent Marvel comics series, G.I. Joe really had most of its cast fully fleshed out, far more so than most toylines. Beach Head is one of my favorite figures in the vintage G.I. Joe line and was part of the 1986 series of figures, which was the year when I began getting into getting into G.I. Joe. Dang, 1986 was a great year for G.I. Joe and some of my favorite figures like General Hawk v2, Low-Light, Lifeline, Viper, and Roadblock v2 come from that year. Anyways, I have to think my friend Matt from The Toy Box for picking up Beach Head for me. These Target figures have been a beast to find! Let's check out Wayne "Beach Head" Sneeden after the break. He's one of the best figures in this line so far and I'm really excited to show him off...

Minifigure Review: Evil-Lyn from Masters of the Universe by Mega Construx

 

   The second series of the Mega Construx individually packaged figures started showing up in stores last month and I managed to find the whole set at the same time while at a Walmart. I'm going to start making my way through them in the next week or two but I figured I'd kick things off with Evil-Lyn. Evil-Lyn is no stranger to the Mega Construx line as this is her third single carded release. Each release has been quite different, though, and thus far both were worth picking up. What about this Evil-Lyn, though? If you ask me, this version is an homage to the 200x version of the character which was a pretty popular look for the villainess. Of course, she's also wearing more black here than she did there which kind of makes this a new interpretation, too. Interested? Then let's check this one out after the break...

Action Figure Review: Teela from Masters of the Universe Origins by Mattel

 

   Today we're checking out the last figure from series 1 of Mattel's Masters of the Universe Origins line and it's Teela, the heroic Warrior Goddess! Series 1 has been all A-list MOTU characters with nearly every figure being from the original series of figures and Teela is absolutely one of the MOTU A-listers. Considering that she even showed up in The New Adventures of He-Man, it's safe to say that Teela has shown up in as many incarnations of MOTU as He-Man himself. That's some star power! Teela was the last figure I got my hands on as I actually ordered her from Walmart.com but something weird happened with my order and it bounced around for a bit before being delivered. Let's take a look at Teela after the break and see if she's a worthy successor to the vintage toy...

Barbecue's Bonfire 10/30/2020: Belated Because I Lost Power Edition

 

   Sorry this one is late everyone! I've got a great excuse, though: Hurricane Zeta blew a few trees down across from my house, one of which knocked over some powerlines. We lost power on Thursday morning and didn't get it back until late Sunday evening. Fortunately, my parents live close by so we headed to their house where they still had power (though there internet was out until Friday night). Halloween wasn't a bust, though, and we still had plenty of Halloween adventures and fun. I'll detail those on Friday, though, as this is a catch-up post from last Thursday. So, what was I up to the week before Halloween? Let's check it out...

* We carved jack o'lanterns on Wednesday night and I had one that was so large that I was able to fit it on my head! I took a ton of pictures, so you'll probably see them pop up over the next few months for various reasons. Here's one that I thought turned out pretty well. Pumpkin selfie! More belated Halloween Hijinks after the break...

Toy Review: Panthor at Point Dread from Masters of the Universe by Mega Construx

 

   While it's not as large as last year's Castle Grayskull 2020's largest set, Panthor at Point Dread, is still pretty substantial. With 557 pieces the set includes three figures, Panthor, the Talon Fighter, and Point Dread. Just like in the vintage line and in Masters of the Universe Classics Point Dread can attach onto the top of Castle Grayskull, making an already quite large playset even bigger! There haven't been too many new Mega Construx releases this year so far (there were some new minifigures back in January/ February) but in the last month or so there have been a few more to capture collector attention again. I found this set at a Walmart earlier this month and just got around to building it over the past week. It's quite cool with a neat mixture of included items, most of which have their roots in the vintage MOTU line. Let's take a look at Panthor at Point Dread after the break....