Eaglemoss has a reputation for making nerd dreams come true.

Nerds first became widely aware of Eaglemoss Publications with the release of the Classic Marvel Figurine Collection: an exhaustive series of Marvel Comics heroes which are finely sculpted, cast in lead, and painted. Elevating the lowly action figure into the world of metal sculpture was just one step in the right direction; giving us characters that haven’t previously appeared as figures was the other step. Eaglemoss began to produce DC Comics figures in the same manner, and nerds everywhere were conquered.

Eaglemoss followed up these successful, ongoing series with The DC Chess Collection, a series of figures designed to be used, appropriately, in the classic game of chess. The comparison between the plots of the average comic book and the complexities of chess are pretty obvious, so the connection here is pretty satisfying, and as a Heroclix player, superhero gaming in any form is dear to me. Until now, all of these figures have centered around the world of Batman, including only his allies and enemies. Today, Eaglemoss announced that they’ll be bringing The Justice League into the fray with this Green Lantern figure, taking the place of the white bishop.

The DC Chess Collection: Green Lantern

The detailing, as always, appears to be sweet as ever, and the classic Hal Jordan Lantern is a great choice, and leads to a lot of conjecture about who will comprise the rest of the series. Will Superman and Lex Luthor be warring kings, or will their fighting abilities be more appropriate for another piece? Maybe it’ll be the conventionally stoic Martian Manhunter. Who could be important enough to parallel Wonder Woman’s queen?

We’ll wait, very excitedly, and see.

While the Space Age didn’t officially begin until 1957, it was anticipated and influenced by science fiction for more than 60 years beforehand. From fantasies described in 19th century ‘scientific romances’ to devices created for Star Trek, humans have imagined hundreds of fictional scenarios to describe the infinitely huge wonders of space, as well as how to get there. In the late 1920s, one of these fantasies, Buck Rogers, began to captivate an audience powerfully enough to still resonate today.

Until recently, Cool Rockets has been making an ongoing series of cartoonish, ultra-stylized rockets which I’ve seen on my friends’ shelves for years. They capture the whole ‘awesome, colorful, fun’ aesthetic, which can be incredibly captivating, and all based on original concepts and art. Now, Cool Rockets has made a couple of officially-licensed Buck Rogers ships: Buck Rogers’ Battle Cruiser, and the flagship of the enemy Asterites.

The Battle Cruiser statue is just over 10″ long, and made of a fairly light, solid, resin-like material. The delicate fins and protrusions are carefully protected by well-engineered styrofoam packaging, but I’d be hesitant to test how much it takes to make them snap off. Needless to say, this is a piece of fun art with some historical significance, and not a toy for your kid’s room.

The paint scheme is far more subtle than the usual Cool Rockets fare, and slightly weathered, but very clean. It’s a beautiful little ship with lots of sculpted rivets, fins, and all of the details seen on the silver screen. The rear flame is painted opaque, but is attached with a clear peg to give it the illusion of detachment. It’s a nice little piece, and awesomely space age.

The ship is firmly attached to the heavy base with a solid metal peg. Given the scale of the two items, and the delicate balance they seem to achieve, the whole setup is very sturdy. The sculpted lettering on the base casts a long shadow, and is awesomely dramatic, and the smooth, teardrop-shape of the base adds just enough of a retro feel to round out the whole experience.

Have a look at some of these photos for a closer look at the details.

This, of course, is a perfect accompaniment for your Buck Rogers comic strip collections, or the Buck Rogers action figure and Disintegrator Pistol released by Go Hero. I’ve included the 12″ action figure below for an indication of ship scale.

For any fans of vintage science fiction (and I’ve read and watched plenty), the replica Buck Rogers Battle Cruiser is a pretty neat thing to have around. For about $150, and limited to only 1000 pieces, it belongs right next to your Starship Enterprise and TARDIS pieces.

Andy Broome seems like a guy who knows the darkness, or unmitigated weirdness, at the heart of every collector. As the senior vintage card grader at Beckett, the world’s standard for meticulous sports card grading and valuation, Broome has surely experienced the fiery depths of collector intensity. If he hadn’t, he wouldn’t have been able to draw the astute cartoons in Collecting the Collector.

Whether it’s an especially intense “appreciation” for something being in mint condition, or the sensitive issues that divide “collecting” from “hoarding”, the philosophies that underlie collecting (and those attempting to justify the practice) run pretty deep. Do we collect action figures for the same reason that the cat has amassed that weird collection of cottonballs behind the couch? Are these collecting impulses that we share with animals convergent, coming from different places but having similar results, or divergent, coming from the same part of the brain, but manifesting themselves differently?

It’s a lot to think about, and it takes a smart man to begin to address and articulate these theories in cartoon form. So, for a whole bunch of pages, Broome mixes illustrated observations about the world of collecting with an occasional page of commentary. After dealing directly with collectors for years, both those who collect the same things I do and those whom I cannot understand in the slightest (seriously, what’s up with oil cans?), there’s a lot said here about every thread of collector. Perhaps the most telling and melancholy panel depicts a guy on a beach happily selling smoothies, declaring that he sold everything on eBay and never looked back. What collector hasn’t pondered a simpler life without all of the neat stuff they’ve amassed?

Collectors Quest: As a sports card grader, what do you find yourself collecting? And are you as fixated on the conditions of items in your own personal collection as your job forces you to be with others?

Andy Broome: My collecting has evolved over the years. I collected too many things! I have streamlined my collecting and tried to focus in the last 5 years. Now I primarily collect pre-war cards of baseball and non-sports, cartoon & comic art and books. I also collect some vintage Japanese baseball cards, mainly Russian-born pitcher Victor Starffin. My biggest collecting project has been ongoing for several years now. I am collecting original art from every cartoonist that has appeared in the New Yorker magazine. That’s nearly 88 years’ worth of artists. Some only appeared once in the magazine. Sound like a lot to collect? This is after I focused my efforts!

Condition controls my life. Does anyone else notice how off-centered our world is? In the earliest print run of my book, some of the covers were printed off-centered. I lost sleep. When my wife asked what the problem was, I told her some of my covers were off. She looked at me and said “Oh, I didn’t notice.”

I nearly always pick up a few magazines at the airport when traveling to a card show. I can never take the front copy. I have to get the copy in the best condition. Is that normal?

CQ: Obviously, you’ve explored the psychology of collecting a bit. So tell me, why do we collect?

AB: I wish I had the end-all, be-all answer to this. I think there are many reasons why we collect things. I believe some collect in an attempt to reconnect to a particular time in their lives, maybe a happier time as a child. Some collect items related to their work or interests, such as sports. These are the emotional collectors. People that enjoy collecting for the social connection with like-minded people or the thrill of the chase also fit into this group.

There are those who are into collecting objects solely for resale but take pleasure in dealing in a specific type of collectible. I see a number of people in this category in the trading card world. They truly enjoy cards but the cards are a commodity to them.

Whatever the reason, I think it comes down to two types of people, collectors and non-collectors. “Others”, I call them in the book. I think we are either born with or without a collecting gene. We are born collectors, we can’t help it.

CQ: Have you ever wanted to leave it all behind and start a life unburdened by the maintenance of objects?

AB: I have tried many times! I can’t do it. Part of me has felt a life unburdened living free from things would be grand, but I know it really isn’t for me. There have been several times in my life where I felt I needed to spend my time doing something else. I sell off a portion of my collection and in a short amount of time; I am struck with the guilt of making a terrible decision. I feel like I have cheated on someone. Even now, I sell something that doesn’t fit into my collecting anymore or I am tired of it and I regret it. I think that I cannot replace it.

I feel we do not actually own the objects we collect. Apparently, I am a life-long caretaker.

CQ: What’s the saddest collector story you know, aside from the one in the introduction of your book (in which a valuable collectible is irreparably destroyed)?

AB: Meeting so many collectors and dealers, I get to hear them all. I hear ‘My mom threw out all my cards’ so often, it has lost all meaning and sympathy. The saddest stories to me are the ones where someone is ripped off. Someone comes up to me at the Beckett booth at a card show and shows me a card that is clearly a counterfeit and I explain to them the unfortunate news.  They are clearly not seasoned collectors and many times they say they bought the card online in an auction or at a flea market. They don’t have the experience in handling this particular card but thought it was a good deal. It becomes an even worse story when the person was deliberately taken advantage of. Such as the case of purchasing a card that was trimmed or altered. Equally sad to me is when someone thinks they are doing the right thing by cleaning an object or innocently trying to improve the condition in the hopes that shining it up will help it sell. OK, I’m going to cry now.

CQ: And the happiest?

AB: The happiest collecting stories are the ones where people that aren’t even collectors make incredible finds and the item changes their lives for the better. Like when a family in financial trouble finds a T206 Honus Wagner that Grandpa left behind.

CQ: Collectors are a very passionate group of people. Is it easier to love ‘em or hate ‘em?

AB: It depends on the day of the week!  I love the passion and the excitement. The things I sometimes hate about collectors, I do so because I see them in myself as a collector. All-in-all, you gotta love collectors.

AB: Focus. Organize and focus. It can be easy to let your collecting get out of hand. To me, it is more fun when you are focused and can go after what you need with laser precision.

Keep away from the sun. I have experimented with light exposure and the damage it does to collections. I have autographs that have completely disappeared.  I coated the window in my collecting room with UV film. It cuts the temperature down and I can actually open the blinds and not worry about sun damage.

AB: The cartoons found in my book come from over 20 years of experiences in the world of collectibles. They come from hearing the stories at shows across the country. I hear the stories and I see how collectors deal with each other. I have a non-collecting spouse who tolerates me but I see how she would really love to throw everything out!

I always carry a notebook and a sketchbook so I can capture anything I might see or hear. I take all of these pieces and put them together into a cartoon.

AB: I do not think so. There is so much to laugh about when it comes to collectors and the world of collecting. There are innocent things to laugh about but there is the dark side to our hobbies, too. There are bad autographs, fakes and alterations, crooked dealers, etc. to contend with.  Even these areas are not off-limits. Comedy comes from tragedy.

Even if you don’t know a thing about boxing, you probably know a few things about Muhammad Ali. With a self-aggrandizing mouth that wouldn’t quit, fists that moved like lightning (and stung like bees), and a body that would eventually succumb to the incredible tumult of being punched by the strongest men in the world, Ali is a living legend.

Ali was the reigning World Heavyweight Champ from 1964 (after defeating Sonny Liston, amid accusations of Liston somehow getting “a substance” into Ali’s eyes) until 1967, when Ali was stripped of his title for refusing to answer the draft to Vietnam. By 1970, Ali had regained the right to fight, but lost two separate matches, one with a broken jaw. But on October 30, 1974, Ali had fought his way back up to the current World Heavyweight Champion, George Foreman. The bout was held in Kinshasa, Zaire for financial reasons, and broadcast on closed circuit television all over the world. This was the fabled Rumble in the Jungle.

On a recent episode of Pawn Stars(‘Take the Money and Run’), the pawn shop was brought a poster from this legendary bout, posted at one of the locations where the fight was being broadcast live on TV. This episode revealed some some of the history of these posters: a huge number of these were produced and distributed to the locations which were going to show the fight, and each location placed their own info on the poster however they saw fit. Because of an injury sustained by Foreman prior to the fight during training (a cut above the left eye), the actual fight was pushed back and many of these posters had to be altered. The number of variations and alterations isn’t known, as they’re unique to every venue, but there should be at least one for everyplace the fight aired, as well as a bunch that were never even used.

Because of this, the poster isn’t too incredibly rare. It’s still an awesome artifact, generally worth a few hundred bucks, at least. However, if you happen to come across the original poster created for the actual event, live in Zaire, you’ve got something pretty special.

The Zaire poster, printed in French, has an asking price that hovers around $4500, due to the fact that it actually was displayed at the real event. It’s the difference between getting a high-end prop replica and the real thing. This wasn’t, however, the only poster created for the event, though it’s the most common and familiar one. Famed artist Leroy Neiman designed a poster for the event too. Copies of the decidedly more colorful poster generally sell for between $500 and $1000, and images of these appearing online also show evidence of having dates changed.

An unused ticket to the Rumble in the Jungle bout recently sold for over $300, so most vintage items relating to this fight are still sought after by collectors.

Ali doesn’t end at just ephemera, though. In 1976, Mego released an action figure of Ali, alongside the likes of The Incredible Hulk and Batman. This was released in various packaging configurations, including a standard bubble card, and a closed cardboard box. Sealed, these can go for around $250, and a very clean open figure can go for $150. This Ali was also released with a boxing ring ($300, sealed), as well as an opponent, simply called “Opponent” (but unofficially, this was probably a figure of boxer Ken Norton).

ILater action figures were also released: in 1997, Starting Lineup released a 12″ figure of Ali in their Timeless Legends line, this time with an embroidered robe and very detailed accessories, and reproduced a smaller Ali ‘statue’ in 1998. NECA has also produced both an 18″ talking figure and a 7″ figure of Ali as he appeared during his fateful fight with Liston.

Ali collectibles go on to include boxing gloves, signed photographs, coins, statues, and, incredibly, the actual robe he wore during the Rumble in the Jungle, which has an asking price around $100k.

Muhammad Ali Rumble in the Jungle Robe, via eBay

The white satin and cloth, calf-length robe is decorated with African patterns and elaborate bead work. The tapestry is a mixture of wool, horsehair, unspun wool and ribbon. The tapestry panels are hand woven and the belt is decorated with great looking bead work off each end.

The robe was made with a black interior panel stating “Christopher Lynch and Mr. Fish for The Greatest, Zaire–September 24th, 1974.” Of course the fight was postponed until a month later due to an injury to Foreman while training.

And if you can’t afford Ali’s actual bout robe, you can always get a George Foreman Lean Mean Grilling Machine. Those things make some pretty alright hamburgers.

From the release of the first Star Wars toy in 1978, action figures have slowly permeated and then dominated the boys’ toy market. Over the past 35 years of plastic, figures have evolved from being low on detail and 3.75″ in height to being 12″ tall, intensely realistic homages to characters and people we love, whether they’re fictional or real.

Most figure collectors are willing to drop up to $20 on a typical 6″ action figure (while pining for the days when they were still $4.99), but us figure collectors usually have to scrimp and save in order to obtain one of the more noble, high-end examples of the hobby. When you real the upper echelons of action figures, they really start becoming tiny examples of art and engineering. If you know a casual figure collector, odds are that they probably don’t have these excellent figures, but they’ve surely lusted over them. Drop a few hints and test the waters, and if you really love the nerd, get them one of these.

Nothing says “we’ll be together forever” like a 24″ talking Galactus.

10) The Avengers : Movie Masterpiece Captain America by Hot Toys

The Joss Whedon-directed Avengers was a box office smash, and with good reason: the film kicked all kinds of butt. Captain America personified all that is wholeheartedly good within the team, having been transported from a much more innocent era (and Cap was a much better superhero vehicle for Chris Evans than his previous role as The Human Torch).

Collectors probably already have the 3.75″ and 6″ Hasbro versions of “movie” Cap, but this is the apex of Caps. Hot Toys produces some of the most insanely screen-accurate action figures out there. At 12″ and with a photorealistic likeness of Evans (with an alternate unmasked head), this figure is an incredible homage to the film. This figure runs about $200, and shouldn’t be confused with the earlier Hot Toys figure directly from Captain America: The First Avenger (equally accurate, but this one is just cooler).

Collecting is a tough hobby.

If you’ve ever collected Star Wars action figures, you know the hundreds of little variations and complications inherent in the ongoing line, and with Hasbro’s unceasing release of figure after figure, it’s a more complex arena of collecting every day. Since 1978, collectors have been inundated with over 2500 significantly different Star Wars action figures, and that’s not counting the hundreds of re-releases with slightly different paint schemes, corrections, running changes, and packaging variations. Being a Star Wars action figure completist is a Sisyphean task. Once you get your 57th Darth Vader pushed to the top of that hill, Hasbro comes along and adds just one more and you roll back to the bottom. For many collectors, Star Wars came to define the excessiveness inherent to toy collecting. Some collectors persist, but I had to give it up to retain my sanity and my soul.

There was a time when I was pretty serious about scoring one of every weird alien in Star Wars as an action figure so I could set up my own little cantina scene, but no matter how serious my collection was at the time, I couldn’t keep up. Remember that scene where Vader was being electrocuted by Sith powers, and you could kinda see his skull outlined in blue? There’s an action figure of that. There’s a holographic Vader which is entirely translucent blue also. It’s the same figure as the electrocuted one… just clear. There’s another semi-translucent figure of Vader from Luke’s visions on Dagobah, and yet another from that same 15-second scene which features Luke’s face. Add 53 more Vaders to that and you get an idea of how it can be very difficult to keep track.

Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection keeps track. Chronicling every significantly different 3 3/4″ scale figure since 1978, SW:TUAFC succinctly pictures and describes each figure, the line it can be found in (with helpful acronyms, year of release, and a guide to what each cardback looks like in the introduction), why it matters in the grand scheme of a relatively thorough Star Wars collection, and if it’s a re-release of a sculpt (or any aspect of a sculpt) used previously. This hits just about every data point I could ever want when it comes to approaching a complete set of 3 3/4″ Vaders.

Fifteen Lando Calrissians. Three Bib Fortunas. Forty-two R2-D2s (and countless other astromech droids). It’s a pictorial depiction which is borderline pornographic for the action figure collector. Whether someone is a dedicated collector or trying to figure out what the heck Hasbro did and did not release in a give year, SW:TUAFC is a flawless reference manual. I’m a little in love, and that little dormant spark my brain once felt for Star Wars figures has flashed again. I suddenly want to dig my hands through the drawers full I have at home, match them up to this guide, and figure out what I have. And maybe pick up some things I don’t. Dice Ibegon, I’m looking at you.

Bear in mind, through, that the scope of this guide only covers the traditional action figure. You won’t find Star Wars minis, Micro Machines, Unleashed, Unleashed Battle Packs, Galactic Heroes, Sideshow Toys or Hot Toys figures, or anything else, so there’s collecting adventures left to be had and things to discover. Entire guides could be published exclusive to Darth Vader collectibles. I enjoy the fact that there’s still room left for a collector to discover extra figures to round out a good Star Wars collection. There’s a certain excited chill that’s tied specifically to discovering an action figure I’ve never seen before which I think that most collectors share.

And wisely, the guide doesn’t venture into the ever-changing territory of valuation. Sure, a sealed double-telescoping lightsaber Luke Skywalker is worth $6000, but you can find that out on your own. The only thing that this compendium is lacking is the various Star Wars monsters and beasts: the Wampa, the Rancor, Tauntauns, Banthas and the like. Whether or not these are technically considered ‘vehicles’ or not is debatable… but my girlfriend collects Wampas, and there are a few in 3 3/4″ scale… and they’re not here.

Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection is a pretty solid visual guide for anyone who has any interest in Star Wars action figures. Not only does it catalogue, but it also inspires, and it appreciates the absurdity of the hobby while it embraces it. This is a pretty excellent love letter to the action figure that started it all.

[Star Wars: The Ultimate Action Figure Collection was graciously provided by the publisher.]

If you grew up in the ’90s, the inexorable influence of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was everywhere. After its premiere during the fevered hours of late August 1993, a generation of American kids would never really be the same. For many of us, it was our first exposure to the wonders of kaiju, the art of the ‘giant, strange monster’. These kaiju usually presented themselves in enormous, foam rubber costumes worn by an unfortunate stunt actor, stumbling over landscapes and destroying everything in sight, Godzilla-style. These monsters were weird, awkward, and (often unintentionally) terrifying, shambling from the weirdo id of their creators.

Power Rangers is finally getting a “complete” series release from Shout! Factory and Time-Life, including everything from the original Mighty Morphin series, to the post-Morphin series, from Zeo to Lost Galaxy, encompassing everything that aired on TV during the 1990s. This amounts to a collection of 40 DVDs and 338 episodes across two colossal sets. Eleven more series have aired post-1999, with a twelfth planned for 2013, which will surely call for an additional box set or two. You’ll have to take care of the two feature films yourself (around 5 bucks each on DVD). As a ’90s teenager, this is just about everything I could ever want right here.

As a ’90s teen, you might have been attracted to the monsters, but maybe you were into the Rangers’ giant robots instead. With brains steeped in Transformers, Voltron and Robotech, fighting robots were a more natural fit for us. Maybe you enjoyed the camaraderie of a bunch of teenagers with secret identities, saving the world, starting charity drives and eating healthy. Maybe you just enjoyed the slapstick humor of Bulk and Skull, the goofy bullies who thought they had one up on the dorky Rangers civilian selves while they continued to seek the true identities of the Rangers. With a comedic obliviousness that goes beyond the classically absurd, the Rangers’ clothing usually matched the colors of their hero outfits, so the cognitive leap to their identities wasn’t exactly far. They were not exactly masters of disguise or subtlety, nor was anyone on the show that smart outside of their own heroic team.

I was 13 when Power Rangers premiered in the US, and Pokémon wouldn’t show up until 1997 (and thereby ruin Saturday morning cartoons forever), so there was a certain amount of unpreparedness us Power Rangers that us teens had to face. At 13, we hadn’t yet grasped the concept of “ironic cool”, and instead maintained a laser-focus on “actual cool”, whether it was misdirected or not. With over a decade between the year of 1993 and nerdy things actually becoming acceptably cool on a larger scale, was Power Rangers cool?

Probably not. But in the warm glow of nostalgia, and getting off the school bus for a snack in front of the TV, and the last feelings of genuine freedom that our adult lives would inevitably obliterate into a heavy, depressing, choking nothingness… that’s where Power Rangers retains its power. It’s a lot of power for one DVD set to hold, and it wields it wisely.

During season one, the evil Green Ranger appeared, and I was surprised. When the evil Green Ranger became good, I was relieved. When his powers were taken away, it had already seemed like a lot to put kids through… but when he was replaced by the mysterious White Ranger, who was actually the Green Ranger returning to the show, we kinda picked up on what the series was putting down. This whole thing had a plot, and wasn’t just a bunch of flailing, grey monsters slapping at each other. Even though that was a lot of it.

If you were a fan of Power Rangers, whether you admitted it or not, the weird circumstances surrounding the show’s cast were hard to ignore. The original Yellow Ranger, Thuy Trang, was killed in a car accident in 2001 (and was it racist that the show’s Yellow Ranger was Asian?). The Blue Ranger, David Yost, left the show after he was repeatedly harassed and insulted about his sexual orientation. For a while, it was thought that the Pink Ranger, Amy Jo Johnson, had appeared in porn, and while these rumors weren’t true, they’ve buried themselves into the brains of anyone who cared at the time. It’s not all bad news though: the Green Ranger became successful MMA fighter, and the Red Ranger now works as an EMT. Most cast members still seem to embrace their role in the show, making guest appearances in newer series and at conventions.

As a toy collector from the era of Power Rangers, the show’s collectible toys were probably the most explosive part of the Rangers’ presence. A Megazord or a Dragonzord could sell for hundreds of dollars if you were lucky enough to scalp one from the toy shelves. Today, a set of six Power Rangers Heroes toys, still sealed, sells for almost $900. Original Japanese toys, pulled from the Super Sentai series (which provided many of the fight scenes which the US actors acted around), also fetch huge amounts of cash. Power Rangers was undoubtedly one of the most collectible properties of the 1990s, and the value of many of these toys remains today. Browse any toy aisle and you’ll come across Power Rangers from any given series of the show, whether they’re aimed directly at aging collectors who enjoyed the show, or kids who enjoy the newer series.

As a complete picture of the 1990s era of Power Rangers, this set of 40 DVDs is pretty incredible, packing multiple DVDs into each DVD case, each with flip pages. These cases slip into their respective boxes, which are completely high quality. It’s completely obvious that this set (which sells for about $200) was designed for collectors to enjoy. It’s a whole lot of respect given to a show which is unashamedly ridiculous.

If you need a better picture of what’s on these DVDs, the Time-Life website includes full episode synopses for every episode in this set. Some gems:

As a school project, Tommy and Kat must pretend to be married. And to make the exercise even more realistic, Kat brings along Joey, whom she’s offered to baby-sit for the duration of the experiment. Joey’s crying is driving the teens nuts, but when King Mondo sends Boohoo the Clown to amplify the baby’s wail, the effects are devastating. If the Power Rangers can’t get the child to stop crying, he’ll lay waste to Angel Grove!

Not to mention…

Rita sends down Finster’s latest creation, the endlessly hungry Pudgy Pig, to consume the Earth’s food supply, starting with the Youth Center’s International Food Festival! The Power Rangers attempt to stop him, but Pudgy Pig even eats their weapons. Can the team find the monster’s spicy weakness in time?

If you’re not convinced that this is pretty awesome just yet…

Finster creates the Fang monster for Rita’s birthday. But the newborn beast becomes enraged when Baboo & Squatt eat his delicious rare “Gooney Bird” eggs. Goldar lies to Fang, pinning the blame on the Rangers, turning his anger toward our heroes. Do they stand a chance without Tommy, who was captured by Putties while on the way to Angel Grove High’s big talent show?

Every episode synopsis is a totally insane gem. I only wish I was in the room when these ideas were pitched. If only.

[DVDs graciously provided by the publisher.]

Frankenstein’s Monster is universally recognized as a tragic, imposing figure, and polls of repeatedly place The Monster in the top ten: he’s been rated #2 (after Godzilla) on Monster Island News, #3 on Retrocrush, and #7 on TimeOut London. In Mary Shelley’s original novel, The Monster is a thoughtful, lonely, and sensitive guy (or bunch of guys stitched together) who reads a lot of books and has no problem expressing himself, though his most familiar cinematic counterpart is more of an enormous manchild, struggling to understand the simplest parts of the world, like not throwing kids into lakes and the fact that fire is hot. Even Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994), truer to the original novel, didn’t wrest the oafish Monster from the collective consciousness.

That’s okay, though—the Monster Frankenstein is an amazing presence, even over 80 years later. Universal Studios maintains a pretty tight control over who can produce flat-headed, Boris-Karloff-looking collectibles based on their movies, so if you see an official Universal Studios Frankenstein, it’s met with their high standards of accuracy. Factory Entertainment has created a full-sized bust of Karloff’s Frankenstein, as large as life, and just as weird.

The Monster is an enormous presence, cast in a lightweight material, so it won’t crush any shelves. I say this as a person who just had to conduct extensive repairs on a particle board shelf which split under the weight of too many graphic novels. Being a nerd has its price. This is still a rather large object, so unless you’re familiar with handling human heads, it might be helpful to get a buddy to assist you during the unpacking process.

The details of the bust are pretty intense, incorporating skin textures and detailed, sculpted stitching where appropriate. It’s pallid and freckled, and just realistic enough to be disconcerting, even if he has a friendly look on his face. Those stitches look raw and sore. These images can speak to the depth of these details better than I can describe, so check ‘em out.

The bust is truncated vertically at the shoulders, and where they end, sculpted “metal” plates and “bolts” begin, emphasizing a kind of oldschool, sci-fi laboratory environment, cultivated by a mad scientist, or maybe a steampunk aficionado. This theme is continued on The Monster’s base,  which is a sculpted “wooden” panel with a working metal knife switch and a meter with a needle which measures some kind of mysterious energy.

With the aid of a few batteries, or an AC adapter if you don’t mind your monsters having cords (both of which are included), The Monster is illuminated. In a dark room, his hollow form glows faintly with a spooky electricity, but this effect really comes through with his translucent, yellow, spiraling eyes, designed to mimic the appearance of the original movie posters. If you flip his switches, the bust will emit either the sound of electricity coursing, or the good doctor yelling, “It’s alive!”, depending on the position of both switches. All the while, the needle on the front panel dances back and forth. Those alligator clips which plug into the base and clamp onto The Monster’s neck bolts are optional, and don’t actually serve a function beyond looking cool.

Overall, it’s a pretty impressive display, and would probably completely perfect any haunted house… or, at the very least, your front window on Halloween. It’s alarmingly gigantic, so be sure to make some room before you welcome this $450 bust home. And if you’re a solver screen purist, there’s also a greyscale version available, in smaller numbers, for $500.

[Thanks to Factory Entertainment for the chance to play with this for a little while! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]

I’m a big fan of skulls. I once has a fair collection of my own, comprised of some pretty mundane specimens: deer, small mammals, a few birds I’d found around the valley, but I’ve since given them all to my nature-loving girlfriend. Today, I keep my skull obsession to print (the I Want Your Skull collection of art magazines) and my collection of t-shirts, after realizing that some of the skulls that I would purchase online were from animals killed for their parts, and not discovered by someone just wandering around in the woods. It was a pretty naive assumption to begin with, but you have to remember that this was before the Internet. We were all pretty isolated.

There are a ton of laws governing which animal parts can and cannot be owned and traded, based on their provenance, species and location, nesting periods, and many other fine details. Alan Dudley found out some of these complicated rules the hard way, after a very small part of his collection was found to be illegal under these laws. In a Kafka-esque twist of justice, Dudley was allowed to keep the vast majority of his collection, but an ankle bracelet prevented him from entering the room of his house where these were actually kept.

Dudley is a very serious skull collector, and a large portion of his collection is represented in Skulls: An Exploration of Alan Dudley’s Curious Collection, written by Simon Winchester and published by Black Dog & Leventhal. Beautifully photographed from multiple angles, Dudley’s skulls represent a nearly complete view of the animal kingdom, barring illegal or impossibly rare examples from various phylums, classes, orders, families, genuses, and so forth. If you’ve ever wanted to see what lies beneath the skin of any animal, you’ll either find it in this amazing book, or find something incredibly similar. It’s probably the coolest reference book you’ll ever see.

With all of these skulls, it might seem a bit too easy to slip into a morose mood, but Winchester’s description of the skulls, and a large introduction about both Dudley and the inner functions of the things he collects is written with excellent humor. It’s a serious subject presented in an accessible way, providing both standard and outlier examples of, say, animal ears or eye sockets, illuminating and amusing at the same time.

The photos, provided by Nick Mann, really get into the finer details of the full-on skull. While these aren’t presented in scale with one another (it would be impossible to present a life-sized hippo skull and a gecko skull in just about any sensible book scale), that detail falls into the background with the sheer quantity of skulls presented relatively close to scale. There are also a few extra skulls in here which are not actually part of Dudley’s collections, presented here in order to give a complete view of skull as an object; beyond the fact that this is one man’s collection, it’s really a collection belonging to a much larger entity, whether it’s humanity, the Earth, or just the earthly animal kingdom. And once again, beyond this scientific approach, Dudley comments on some of his skulls and expresses his fascination, or their provenance, bringing us back to one man’s passion for these objects. It paints a wonderfully complex, complete picture of a collection and its role in the world.

I’m unable to find any shortcomings in Skulls, and the cover price of $30 is worth the wealth of the contents inside. And there’s a lot to be said for taking a voyeuristic look inside someone else’s collection for a few hundred pages.

[Book graciously provided upon request by Black Dog & Leventhal.]

K’Nex is one of those brands that seems to be constantly surprising. After taking a dip into the worlds of Mario Kart and Angry Birds, I was poking around at the local toy store, looking for the elusive Wario minifigure, and came across one of the most surprising K’Nex items I’ve ever seen: Beatles and KISS minifigure sets.

(And before the grammar police step in and handcuff me with ampersands and schwas, I feel that it would be disrespectful to spell ‘KISS’ with anything less than all capital letters. You don’t lowercase KISS. And if you do, Gene Simmons will come to your house and emasculate you.)

The Beatles K’Nex set focuses on the band’s animated appearances in Yellow Submarine, which was my favorite movie as I was growing up. It was my 5th grade indoctrination into a full-blown Beatles obsession, and trying for hours to figure out if Paul really was dead. 28IF, you guys!

Figural items of Yellow Submarine Beatles aren’t all that uncommon, but they’re usually pretty great. McFarlane Toys made some incredible action 8″ action figures of the Beatles as themselves and as Sgt. Pepper’s band, Factory Entertainment is producing 12″ action figures, plush dolls and bobbleheads, and there are plenty of odds and ends to be found—but nothing so charming as these K’Nex block figures of the boys themselves.

All four Beatles are represented here, goofy faces and helmets of hair. Each figure is made from a standard body: tubular heads, crooked arms with squared-off robot hands, and piped legs. The only sculptural difference is those hair pieces, which slide easily onto their heads. The bodies aren’t printed with each Beatles’ clothing, but instead decorated with a carefully-applied sticker. They don’t show any signs of peeling or significant bubbles, and they’re very cleanly applied. Each guy also comes with an instrument that fits into their hands (on the case of Harrison, over his neck).

It’s pretty awesome to have a tiny John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison figures to hang out with your pens, pencils and power cords. Okay, Ringo is also pretty cool to have around too, I guess. The set also comes with a thin, plastic base (made of a similar material to the actual plastic bubble of the packaging) and a cardboard depiction of the titular Submarine, which can be plugged into the base. The grey background doesn’t do a whole ton for the setup, so I didn’t end up keeping these particular elements of the set around.

Of course, when you’re talking about block minifigures, you can’t escape the LEGO and Minimate comparisons, which are arguably the two most prominent lines of miniature figures going today. Here’s a shot of all three in scale.

It’s really an excellent little set, and 5th grade me has just lost his bowl-cut head over it. We’re one step closer to an all-minifigure recreation of the cover of Sgt. Pepper.

While I’ve experienced my own love affair with the Beatles, I never really experienced the same thing with KISS, but I’ve always appreciated the insane ferocity of KISS fans. It’s because of this passion that KISS has spawned an enormous array of collectibles. While I haven’t done the math, it’s entirely possible that KISS has had more figured produced of them than any other band in history. I don’t know the modern anthropological importance of this, but there’s a reason that ancient tribes carved innumerable idols of their gods. In a thousand years, they’ll find layers of Gene Simmons action figures buried within the Earth’s layers, and they’ll wonder about us.

The KISS K’Nex figures are more complex than their Beatles counterparts. While they all share the same standard body, they each have individually sculpted hair, and two of them include minutely sculpted stage-armor pieces and giant stompin’ stage shoes. They also all include their stage instruments, which include a whole drum set with a KISS logo. It’s a pretty incredible assemblage, and the three tiny guitars just completely rock. I’m a huge fan of scale model guitars.

While there are KISS figures that range from 2-foot tall statues to 12″ action figures to 8″ Mego-styled figures and a ton of 6″ action figures (again by McFarlane Toys) of KISS in various stage and fantasy scenarios, this is the first set of KISS figures I could truly get into. The cross-collection appeal will probably draw in a lot of toy fans who aren’t necessarily KISS fans, but can easily appreciate the iconography of KISS in, say, a LEGO zombie apocalypse scenario.

This entry into the pantheon of KISS figures is a little surreal, and for that alone, it’s total gold. This set’s base, like the Beatles base, comes with a designed background, and this time, it’s a KISS stage show with stacks of amps. This makes a lot more sense than the weird Submarine background, but the base is just a little too thin to keep around. It would never survive the rigors of my toy-cluttered life.

L to R: Creature Minimate, K’Nex Gene Simmons, K’Nex Toad (Mario Kart).

If these music items sell well, K’Nex hopes to produce similar items, and the possibilities are endless. I encourage everyone to pop out and find some of these, as they only run about 10 bucks per set, and stuff them in stockings. That way, I can start to petition for sets of DEVO, Oingo Boingo, Jethro Tull, and Led Zeppelin. And maybe totally destroyable sets of The Who. Is your mind reeling yet? These sets are great, and here’s to seeing more.

[Sets graciously provided by the lovely people at K'Nex. Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]

There are hundreds upon hundreds of Batman action figures (and I have at least 170 of them). Some are better than others. For every beautifully engineered, artist-specific Batman figure out there, there’s also a Tropical Helicopter Barbecue Batman, straight out of the nightmares of some toy executive’s trapped and damaged id. Once in a while, a Batman figure comes along which kind of blows all of the others out of the water. Including Hamburger in Paradise Leopard Attack Batman.

A majority of available Batman figures are under 7″ tall, which is the standard size for a modern action figure. A few larger Batman figures exist: three great figures from DC Collectibles’ ill-fated 13″ line, a bizarre and mannequin-like 18″ offering from The Dark Knight trilogy, and a few odds and ends which never really amounted to very much. The weirdo, giant Batman toys are great for completists who can appreciate a slightly off-brand-looking Batman, or a kid who just doesn’t care, but they’re not great figures. Play Imaginative has just made the ultimate 12″ Batman figure.

Play Imaginative’s Super Alloy Batman

The main selling point of Play Imaginative’s Super Alloy Batman, based on artist Jim Lee’s ‘New 52′ design, is that it’s made of 85% die cast metal parts. That’s a truly heavy metal Batman, in the most literal sense, and it comes with all of the articulation you’d expect from an amazing, high-end action figure, and a whole lot more. This is an action figure with multiple joints for every finger… but let’s start at the beginning.

Super Alloy Batman comes packaged in the most handsome box to ever envelop an action figure, as though this $275 Batman is a fine wine, or a rare piece of finely-crafted jewelry. It’s the kind of respect rarely paid to pop culture, though it’s something us nerds are seeing with greater frequency as we’re taken more seriously. For real, we’ll totally mess up your computers. The outer slipcase holds a fold-out box made of matte cardboard, the front clasped closed with a metallic, magnetized bat-emblem. As this all unfolds and unfurls, Batman is laid into a series of plastic trays to hold him and his accessories securely in place: the main figure, a grappling gun, two batarangs, a cape, and a gargoyle base.

Batman’s heavy body is, as mentioned, mostly metal, making him a hugely heavy thing to manipulate. He’s weighed down by the gravity of his own parts, so the joints holding him together need to be especially strong. Visually, it’s difficult to tell where the metal ends and the rubberized parts begin because of the flawless merging of materials. The only place where this different is readily apparent is his rubber underpants, which are designed to flex as much as possible while still hiding the ball-jointed hips. For the rest of the figure, it’s genuinely difficult to tell which part is made of which material.

Double joints are used for the knees and elbows, both of which ratchet into place for added stability and tightness. With a figure made of so many materials, you’re advised to move the joints with caution: metal straining against plastic parts can easily snap, and then you have a problem which might not be repairable. We don’t have the luxury of Revoltech-styled joints that pop apart when under too much strain and then easily reassemble. These joints are totally for real and forever.

The figure’s flexibility has a pretty wide range, while remaining just a little bit robotic. The most impressive piece of articulation is with Batman’s fingers, which have all of the joints of a real hand—just way, way tinier. This makes it very easy for him to hold his weapon accessories, or his cape. Or just point at things.

The cape is lined at the very edges with wire, allowing the user to pose it to some degree, since we can’t always make our figures look as wind-swept as they do in the comics. The cape is attached to Batman at the neck using a couple of magnets sewn into the lining, which affix directly to the figure. It’s not the strongest bond, but it’s strong enough to keep the cape in place without wearing through the fabric or rubbing on the figure itself. It’s also a pretty perfect material for a 12″ Batman cape.

Batman’s general sculpt is pretty simple, and comes right out of his newest comic book look: a costume with lots of computery lines all over it. Sure, a 1970s-styled Batman would have been stellar, but this is definitely a costume that lends itself to this metal treatment, as it’s already the most dehumanized costume Batman has ever worn for any length of time. Batman’s face is great, though sculpted very young and with a subtle manga-esque appearance. It’s not pure Jim Lee, but it’s definitely inspired by Lee, which is better than a dead-on representation anyhow.

Batman’s gargoyle base is optional, but it exhibits a stunning level of detail and texture, well beyond the smooth and simple figure. This is a piece of architectural art that would look better on a building in Asia than in the noir landscape of Gotham City, but it’s still a great gargoyle, and it actually works with just about every Batman figure you might have. As bases go, this is pretty appropriate, but I wouldn’t have objected to a Bat Signal either.

Batman obsessives who are even more dedicated than myself will also want to hunt down the Special Edition, which has a gloss finish and white packaging. This variant was available via preorder and at a convention in Singapore only, but as of this writing, isn’t selling for prices much above the standard retail cost. Understandably so—it’s a limited market that will spend over $200 on a Batman figure.

While countless Batman statues are always competing to be a collection centerpiece, there’s no doubt that this is the king of all 12″ Batman figures, and can hold its own among any genre of Batman collection. Its heft and presence are pretty great, but it becomes exceptionally real when you actually touch it. The unexpected weight and nontraditional materials are a pretty epic attempt at making the world’s coolest Batman, and the attempt is very successful. This is their first real action figure, and first product from the DC Comics world, and it’s a resounding success. It’s a very long leap between Care Bears figurines and this, but Play Imaginative didn’t miss a step.

‘GoldenEye’ is a word familiar to film fans, James Bond enthusiasts, and video gamers everywhere. In addition to being an ultra-powerful system of computers and laser-equipped satellites and the name of a popular 007 film, GoldenEye is also the name of a series of ongoing 007 video games—even if not all of them include the ultra-weapon in the title. It’s just a cool word, and the Bond world loves the idea of things made of gold, like guns and fingers.

This prop replica by Factory Entertainment captures a few critical elements of the giant device: two keys, and the ‘device’ containing a CD-ROM with weapon launch protocols and an amber-colored central lens. The lens, in Bond lore, is some weird combination of science and what science fiction thinks that crystals are capable of, like powering starships, focusing spirit energy from the cosmos, and making computers do things they were never meant to do. Forget about the science for a moment: popping a giant, asymmetrical, polyhedral crystal into a magic laser device is pretty awesome.

As far as replicas go, a handful of individuals have machined their own GoldenEye devices with varying degrees of accuracy and success, but Factory Entertainment presents the only official replica, made from the actual original prop.

The GoldenEye is a thing of eerie beauty. You know that it’s potentially very destructive, but the crystal and Horus-eye-like keys suggest something a little arcane. The crystal here is cast in resin, and is actually more perfect than the original, which was filled with small bubbles—one of the perils of working with resin, but also a flaw that was not seen on screen. The crystal lens extends on both sides of the device, across a CD-ROM housed in clear plexiglass, surrounded by a very sturdy, brushed metal frame. The CD-ROM, presumably, contains a programmed sequence for the GoldenEye lasers to target vulnerable locations from the sky. Whether or not this CD-ROM contains any secret codes will never be revealed, but it looks blank from here.

The side of the metal casing incorporates a detail from the screen-used GoldenEye to house a battery compartment and a recessed switch, which illuminates the device around the edges, making this whole thing just a little more eerie. It’s also a seamless integration of an ‘action feature’.

The set also includes the two golden launch keys, which are perfectly crafted in radiant gold metal. They don’t interact with the main device, but they’re vital components of the much larger system. Like the device, these are also a relatively heavy metal. Nothing here is less than what a real super spy organization would use. Except they might put actual code on their CD-ROMs. And they probably wouldn’t use CD-ROMs anymore when a flash drive containing the entire Jethro Tull catalog can be hidden in a tooth or something.

Each set is signed and numbered, and presented in a beautiful case with clear, plastic supports for each item, and a hand-numbered plaque on the front. Along with Factory Entertainment’s other iconic 007 prop replicas, you can assemble a whole arsenal of espionage and apocalyptic devices. Which is honestly kind of rad.

[Thanks to Factory Entertainment for the chance to play with this for a little while! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]

Universal Monsters are the kind of thing that have an appeal that’s… well, universal. Whether you’re only really aware of monsters at the end of October, or if they’re the kind of thing that follows you around all year, Dracula and Frankenstein are the kind of characters which are known by just about everyone. These powerful and enduring weirdos have huge cult followings, and have spawned a huge array of collectibles. And if you’re talking Universal Monsters collectibles, you’re also talking about some very, very strict standards.

One of the companies that produces high-end, Universal Monsters-themed objects is Factory Entertainment. When it comes to Dracula, they’ve done everything possible to replicate the authentic experience with prop replicas from the original films. This particular ring replica first appeared in The House of Frankenstein (1944), starring Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr. and John Carradine as Dracula, and would alter appear in subsequent films. If you’ve wanted to don a ring or amulet exactly like those of Dracula, Factory Entertainment has fulfilled your wishes (and at a variety of price points, too).

Let’s take a look at the Ring of Dracula: Collectors Edition Prop Replica, as well as their Elite Edition, side by side.

Universal Monsters – The Ring of Dracula Collectors Edition Prop Replica

The Collectors Edition Prop Replica of Dracula’s ring runs about $35, and has been cast from the authentic rings worn by a variety of actors who portrayed Dracula, one of which was later owned by famous collector and author Forrest J. Ackerman (who was cool enough to have “Sci-Fi Was My High” inscribed on his gravestone). The ring is one aspect of Dracula’s iconic character, bearing his seal in antiqued metal on top of a reproduction “stone”, cast in a reddish material, all packaged in a clear plastic box. It’s a substantial, accurate, and respectable item, but the Elite Edition is even more awesome.

Universal Monsters – The Ring of Dracula Elite Edition Prop Replica

The Elite Edition is $250, but for good reason. This edition is cast in sterling silver and includes a genuine carnelian stone, which has a far richer color than the less expensive edition. It bears a certain weight and magic as an object of the pseudo-occult. This edition also comes with a certificate of authenticity and a large presentation box. There’s not an obvious difference between the rings, as the metal of both is well-crafted, but the stone is the true point of difference. Check ‘em out together in this image.

Collector’s Edition on the left, Elite Edition on the right.

This image should help you determine which ring is really for you, because it’s almost impossible to understand the depth of the difference in these “stones” without seeing them side by side.

Of course, you’re not really done reproducing your Dracula costume without the medallion, and Factory Entertainment has made an incredible one.

Universal Monsters – The Medallion of Dracula Limited Edition Prop Replica

This prop replica wasn’t nearly as easy to reproduce, as the original medallion was either lost or destroyed—possibly even during the course of filming. No one really knows what happened to it, as is the case with many film props from the black and white era, and sometimes copies of the films themselves went missing or were destroyed (like the fabled London After Midnight). This prop replica has been assembled with any images that could be found on the original Dracula (1931), starring Lugosi, and based off of extensive research surrounding the genesis of the film itself. The medallion itself is not a thing of exquisite beauty, but something that looks like the work of a peasant, imperfect and full of symbols of nature, probably accurate to both the film and the artwork of Transylvania. Short of digging up Lugosi to check out the one he was purportedly buried with, this is the closest that art and science can get to the real thing.

Even though the amulet barely appeared on film, and was barely visible when it was, it became a very important part of the Dracula image; one of these talismanic things which may or may not have had some kind of magical power.

This replica is cast in a heavy metal, and comes with a thick, red ribbon if you’re inclined to wear it around town. If your sense of fashion is a bit more reserved, the medallion also comes in a wooden display box, ideal for showing off this dubious award. This isn’t simply a visual representation of something, but goes as far as attempting to feel just like the original would have, based on the circumstances of its construction. This medallion costs round $250 for the hardcore Dracula enthusiast.

With these props, a widow’s peak and a giant cape, you’re set to stalk the night. Factory Entertainment demonstrates their attention to authenticity throughout their Universal Monsters line, as well as their other prop replica lines.

[Thanks to Factory Entertainment for the review sets! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]

There are few characters who demonstrate the covetousness of collecting better than Gollum, JRR Tolkein’s tragic Halfling whose life is warped and controlled by The One Ring. It’s a story of object-lust taken to its sickening, feverish extremes. When I’m out hunting for new action figures to collect, it’s not uncommon for me to spend a moment considering Gollum and the toll that his sole possession took on him, and maybe I’ll put back that 150th Batman action figure. Maybe.

Bridge Direct has made some pretty excellent figures to accompany The Hobbit, coming out in December 2012 (including this Bolg and Gandalf set I’d previously written about). This is the first time we’ve gotten Lord of the Rings figures in 3.75″ scale, so we now have Hobbits and Orcs that can hang out with our Han Solos and Hulks and be the right size. The thing about the average 3.75″ figure is that it represents a character who is about 6 feet tall. So, when you’re dealing with Hobbits, which are about half the size of a heroic human, you get some very, very small figures. Details can potentially get lost, and quality can quickly decline—but in spite of this, Bridge Direct has made one of the most compelling Gollum figures I’ve ever seen.

Bilbo Baggins and Gollum come together in a two-pack, appropriately: protagonist and antagonist together, to reenact the scene where everything goes terribly wrong for the Baggins lineage, and The One Rings changes owners.

Bilbo, the hero of The Hobbit, is portrayed here in perfect Hobbit-size, and is accompanied by his sword, Sting, and a satchel. Sting slips into the scabbard at his hip perfectly. Very impressively, Bridge has managed to retain most of the articulation one finds on much larger figures, including the notoriously difficult ball joints. Bilbo has cut joints at the neck and wrists, bends at the knees and elbows, a swivel at the waist, and ball joints at the hips and shoulders. All of this is incredibly impressive at such a tiny scale.

While one can’t say that the face is a spitting image of Martin Freeman, the figure is a pretty solid representation of a chunky little Hobbit. The star of the two-pack is Gollum, who is rendered very impressively.

Gollum’s red-ringed eyes are pretty haunting, and his spindly body is articulated at the neck, below the pecs, and also has ball joints at the hips and shoulders. There’s a certain skeletal delicacy here that makes you nervous to bend anything, but the joints are pretty solid and I didn’t experience any problems. Gollum’s agile, simpering, slinking body might not be articulated enough to crawl around rocks or leap around excitedly, but this particular figure is a scary little monster for your desk, who stands upright very strongly because of his wide, Hobbit-y feet.

His body is stained and greyed around the edges, detailed as though he’s been crawling around in a cave for years, and the frightened, enraged look on Gollum’s face has never been captured this well. ToyBiz had made a bunch of Gollum figures in different scales; one large figure with interchangeable smiling and angry heads which talked and sang, and a few 6″ scaled figures which featured both articulation and rubberized limbs, or a combination of both. This is still probably my favorite Gollum figure.

The Bridge line of Hobbit figures includes a few more monsters and many different Dwarves, as well as a couple of elves and humans who join the party on their journey, and they’re all of pretty excellent quality, especially for a company who is relatively unknown in the world of action figures. With a total of three Hobbit films coming out, here’s hoping for a ton more crazy Middle Earth monsters and heroes. Check out a few more figures in our Community!

As a dedicated fan of Pixar, I’ve come to expect a certain amount of heart and emotion from their films, as well as a whole lot of awesome character design. I couldn’t make it through the opening sequence of Up without bawling, and I have at least three action figures of Mr. Incredible (one with a light-up chest). Brave was a film that delivered on all fronts, viewed while curled up in a hotel bed in Connecticut on an anniversary weekend with my girlfriend, while she got teary no less than three times.

Brave will be released on November 13th, 2012, in multiple formats, friendly to just about every strata of viewer: simple DVD, a three-disc Blu-ray/DVD combo pack (with bonus features), and the Ultimate Five-Disc Collector’s Edition, which includes all of the above, plus the 3D version of the film, and a digital copy on disc, covering every possible viewing experience you’d like to have. As I’ve mentioned a hundred times before when talking about Disney and Pixar releases, they absolutely know how to cater to the entire breadth of their audience without leaving anyone out. I’m inclined to think of grandparents who have just evolved past their VHS players into DVD viewing wanting to watch this with their grandkids, as well as those weirdos who are overly enthusiastic about 3D films and their exceptionally overwrought home theater setups. I can’t see films in 3D, and neither should you.

The Ultimate Edition is an incredible set, and truly an edition for collectors, completing their Pixar shelf. My own Pixar shelf, once established, will include a Revoltech Mr. Incredible & Buzz Lightyear, some LEGOs, and more than a few Mattel minifigures. If Revoltech releases a Merida from Brave, I’ll be all over it. In the meantime, there are many Merida collectibles out there, and while the message of the film was definitely not gender-specific, the heroine was indeed a young female, so the merchandising blitz was directed very specifically, and without exception, at young girls.

While toys for family movies are a given, the girl-centric marketing has created a proliferation of too-perfect Barbies and dress-up playsets that effectively work against the entire theme of the film. Merida is a character who hated dressing up, defied the cookie-cutter princess lifestyle, and embraced charming goofiness and independence. Reducing these aspects of someone’s personality into a doll is a task that is at odds with itself. As an adult collector of all things Pixar, Brave isn’t really a film that spawned too many worthwhile collectibles. For little girls, it’s a total, play-friendly goldmine, and that’s great. As long as your daughter’s Merida is kicking butts and not only drinking tea with plush dogs complacently, I think that the message can remain fairly pure.

Just as the movie was appearing in theaters, Brave appeared on shelves, and unfortunately, they were filled with spoilers that were impossible to ignore. I implore you now: stop reading if you haven’t seen the film yet. It’s impossible to discuss the collectibles of Brave without busting the plot wide open into an unsatisfying predictability. This is probably the first time that Toys ‘R’ Us has spoiled a film for me in any significant manner.

The first toy I came across was the “Disney Pixar Brave Story Gift Set”, which is a Polly Pocket-like set with interchangeable articles of clothing, a few accessories, and a bear with a crown. You now have exactly one guess as to the nature of this bear, and I dare you to forget this realization when you see the film.

We also have figures of Merida with her horse, Angus, which are a bit truer to Merida’s character than a dress-up set, though these toys have definitely been over-cuted in the interest of appealing to young girls. She’s now a princess who rides a horse, sure, but she still doesn’t come with her bow and arrows. At left is the doll from Tolly Tots (about $40), and at right is Mattel’s Barbie-like version (about $35).

Merida and Angus (left by Tolly Tots, right by Mattel)

There are also aspects of this marketing barrage that emphasize the skills of the main character instead of the fact that she’s a pretty princess. While Merida’s Bow and Arrow Adventure set by Creative Designs is also cuted-out to oblivion, I realize that it’s not meant to be a prop replica. Instead, I wholeheartedly encourage anything which fosters an interest in archery, whether it’s Hawkeye from Avengers, or The Hunger Games. Nothing was more adorable than a recent trip to Target, during which I heard a very young girl ask for the “arrow guy” action figure from Avengers. It’s a discipline which I enjoy myself, and when it comes to girlie toys, even if they’re pink and have tassels, archery is probably the coolest you can get. And let’s not forget: more aligned with the film’s actual message.

Merida’s Bow and Arrow Adventure Set by Creative Designs

…but then there’s also the bow by Disguise Inc., which falls far, far closer to the realistic bow from the film itself. Kudos to you, Disguise Inc., for having the guts to not pander to the simplest marketing angle. It’s a noble-looking bow that even dares to cross the lines of gender appeal.

When it comes to off-base collectibles, Mattel is probably the worst offender. I understand that these things generally go into production without having seen the source material, and sometimes with only preliminary sketch art, but ‘Gem Styling’ Merida just feels like an insult to everything the film’s creators were working towards. These are no doubt high quality, as Mattel is a fine producer of toys, and perfect for kids, but it just seems like a shame to dilute such an interesting character in this way.

‘Styling Gem’ Merida & Merida & Queen Elinore Gift Set by Mattel

If anyone gets it right, it’s Disney themselves. Their Merida doll includes the crazy mess of red hair, a round head, weapons, and a smirk. Sure, it’s still a little too pretty, but it definitely comes the closest to the pure item. With all of the fully-rendered 3D modeling done for the film, and the development of technology to convert these models into real objects, one might hope for a few more collectibles that fell closer to the film, or even one figure of Merida’s formidable dad, or any one of the dozens of Scottish warriors that pepper the film, or a giant, murderous bear…

Instead of a giant bear, we get three smaller bears, which isn’t half bad, but still doesn’t really capture the action and adventure of the movie. Remember when I was talking about toy store spoilers? It couldn’t be spelled out more clearly than this. TURN BROTHERS INTO BEARS. Thanks a lot, jerk toy store packaging.

Brave Transforming Triplets Dolls

Brave is an excellent film with an excellent message, and if you find yourself falling in love with it, there’s no shortage of stuff to collect surrounding the title. As a grown-ish man, I’m holding out for something a little closer to the film. If you’re a kid, this is exactly the stuff for you.

[DVD graciously provided by the publisher.]

Science fiction and action films have some pretty awesome, iconic weapons, which are always hallmarks of any great fiction: Star Trek phasers and Star Wars lightsabers, Hellboy’s Big Baby gun and Gandalf’s sword, Glamdring, and even The Doctor’s omnipurpose sonic screwdriver. But without a doubt, one of the coolest weapons in fiction is The Golden Gun, first seen in the 007 film, The Man with the Golden Gun (1974).

Because The Man with the Golden Gun was Bond author Ian Fleming’s last effort before he died, Fleming didn’t get the chance to edit his manuscript into a truly final draft, so the book was published without the author’s final approval or input, attracting negative reviews as a result. There are numerous differences between the novel and the film, but the film encountered equally negative reviews due in part to a poorly-received theme song and comedic sound effects overlaying action sequences. Despite this, Christopher Lee’s Scaramanga (the man who wields the Golden Gun) is still regarded as one of Bond’s best nemeses, and his gun holds an equally respected and iconic place in Bond lore. Anyone who’s played a James Bond video game in multiplayer mode knows that there are entire tournaments based around finding the Golden Gun and killing as many opponents as you can, one immensely powerful bullet at a time, before you’re inevitably offed by a weapon with more rapid firepower.

The Golden Gun has a warm place in most action nerds’ hearts, transcending just the lore of the film, so being able to hold Factory Entertainment‘s prop replica Golden Gun is pretty awesome.

The Golden Gun comes packaged as all of its disparate parts. This is a gun designed to be made out of everyday objects, assembled surreptitiously from innocuous things, but completely deadly. A pen acts as the gun’s barrel, which is screwed into a cigarette case/bullet chamber, which is affixed to a lighter that serves as a grip, and finally, a pair of cufflinks screws in as a trigger mechanism. Once all of these beautifully, precisely machined parts come together with relative ease (and with the help of the accompanying blueprints), you have an awesome gun. Add the golden bullet, marked ’007′, into the chamber, and you’re ready to pretend to shoot at secret agents. Christoper Lee had once remarked that assembling his character’s gun was pretty difficult, but this is supremely easy.

The whole set is made of substantially heavy metal and fits together perfectly, matching the iconography of the film very well, and purportedly better than other companies’ previous attempts. All of this can be displayed in the collector-friendly, dust-free plastic case, augmented by a curve of plastic designed to support and display the gun, in a neat ’70s-modern display, perfect for the era of the blocky, beautiful-by-way-of-ugly gun. The whole display is set up on a heavy base, which displays the item’s individual edition number, as well as the authentic signatures of Roger Moore and Christopher Lee, rare elements in their own right.

It’s hard to imagine a more perfect object for the James Bond fan, but because of this gun’s inherent awesomeness, it’s long sold out at all retailers. The secondary market is asking for huge sums for this unbelievably collectible item, occasionally climbing to $1000, double the original retail price—justifiable for the only perfect Golden Gun replica available, put together with an amazing amount of respect and care. Bond nuts are aware of the SD Studios model, sold in the mid-’90s, but collectors regard this as a more accurate representation of the gun. Both sell for very large amounts of money.

If you can’t shell out enough for a full-sized replica, a 1/6th scale model also exists, packaged with Sideshow Toys’ Scaramanga action figure (which also has a third nipple, for the sake of accuracy).

Sideshow Toys Scaramanaga Action Figure (with tiny Golden Gun)

The $100+ price tag on Scaramanga is almost worth it, just for that gun. And if you’re going for that whole retro toy gun thing, Lone Star made their own very inaccurate version of the Golden Gun, long ago…

Lone Star James Bond 007 ‘Golden Gun’ Pistol

So, it’s pretty obvious that Factory Entertainment’s replica is the only game in town, even if you have to hunt one down at auction now. For the Bond nut, there’s nothing better.

[Thanks to Factory Entertainment for the chance to play with this for a little while! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]

James Bond’s weird world is replete with surreal weapons and fancy gadgets. Throughout the series of Bond films, you’ll see poison-tipped dagger shoes, watches that include strangling wires, suspenders with grappling hook capabilities, and a golden gun that can be assembled out of desk accessories and household objects. And those aren’t even the weird ones. It’s an impressive array of fancy, high-tech (or overtly make-believe) devices that define the series… but once in a while, the Bond mythology dips into more mystical territory.

‘Live and Let Die’: Solitaire’s Tarot Cards Collectors Edition Prop Replica

In Live and Let Die (1973), Bond encounters a woman named Solitaire (played by Jane Seymour, aka Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman), who has a special ability to read tarot cards with uncanny accuracy… until James Bond himself strips her of that power by seducing the living daylights out of her. Great job, Bond. You could have seen the future and made yourself a very happy and wealthy man, but instead, you had to get some immediate action. Bond’s complete jerkiness aside, Solitaire’s tarot cards play a major role during the film, so reproducing them as a prop replica is a pretty solid, relatively inexpensive (under $30) way to get a real Bond prop into the hands of Bond’s countless, passionate fans.

Factory Entertainment has produced an obsessively faithful set of cards, exactly as they appeared on screen or during production of the film—and the documentation included with the cards makes it clear that this was no small task. While Salvador Dali was originally asked to produce these cards, he declined, making way for Surrealist artist Fergus Hall to create an original deck for the film. By the time the film needed these cards to appear on screen, Hall had only completed the major arcana (the main 22 cards), and a few other lesser cards. Hall would go on to complete and amend these images later on for an official James Bond Tarot Deck, which was released in conjunction with the film. The cards included in the Factory Entertainment set include only the original, never-before-published, pre-revision designs, for the very first time in print. Instead of picking up a vintage James Bond deck (or during later republications, The Tarot of the Witches), this is the closest thing to the real deal as you can get.

Factory Entertainment packages this set in a handsome box, including the history of the cards and a pouch to hold them, just like in the movie. They’re printed cleanly, as any authentic tarot deck would be, and even the ’007′ design on the reverse is retained from the original film. (The original James Bond deck featured this design in blue, while these cards are backed with red.) The only cards included here are those which appeared in the film, minus a couple which were mentioned but did not actually appear on screen, and for which the actual originals have been lost (if they ever existed). Without knowing whether or not Fergus’s later designs were the ones used in the film, Factory Entertainment has omitted these unseen cards. They’ve also included three copies of The Lovers card, which also plays an iconic role in the film, and relates to James Bond being a completely selfish lothario.

If you’re buying these because you want to divine the future, you’re out of luck. Go get a full tarot deck. As a perfect prop replica, these are the only way to go.

The true tragedy of the original Solitaire tarot cards can be seen below.

A trading card company obtained the original tarot cards and cut them up, only so they could be included in a set of trading cards. There’s so much weird, self-destructive, profiteering irony in this that I can’t even begin to articulate the circular logic that goes into cutting up cards to make less valuable cards. A genuine, screen-used prop is a glorious thing. I own Jeffrey Tambor’s pants and Selma Blair’s choker from Hellboy, and GOB’s forget-me-now pillbox from Arrested Development. I appreciate the value of a great prop which has actually interacted with an actor and has been seen by millions.

So, if you’re holding out for the original, screen-used cards from Live and Let Die, you’re out of luck. They’ve been destroyed. Factory Entertainment’s prop replica set is the only way to go. Thankfully, it’s a great way to go.

[Thanks to Factory Entertainment for the review set! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]

Curious plush creatures are infinitely more interesting than plain ol’ teddy bears, as enduring as the ursine cuddlers might be. Over the years, I’ve amassed a small collection of plush weirdos (including three Cthulhus)—mostly to shove between me and the ice cold wall of my bedroom when I sleep. I swear that wall channels air directly from the Acrtic via some kind of space-time portal. Plush beasties protect me from frostbite. Plush collectors have been known to be far, far more intense and specific.

When you pair my desire for warmth with my love of cephalopods, I’m pretty much sold. So, when I saw that a new line of plush dolls called Clump-O-Lumps, made by Knock Knock, would be exploring the fine art of the plush squid (and a few other strange animals), I had to ask them for a couple to play with… before I even fully realized that these guys have a very, very special feature.

Here you have Squid-O, the squid. He’s super soft and squeezable. He looks like an incredibly cute, dopey squid, with eight arms textured to look and feel a bit like they’re covered in suckers, and a couple of extra ‘arms’ higher up. We’ll just call those tentacles, because any real squidophile knows that squid and octopi have eight ‘arms’, and only squid have two extra appendages called ‘tentacles’. And squid also have three hearts, because squid are so very awesome. Here’s the awesome thing about Squid-O (and his other friends): he zips apart.

Cleverly sewn seams hide these zippers, but Squid-O can be dissected into three pieces: head, tentacles, and arms. Using a simple zipper system, these three parts can be divided, revealing a red interior with a white ‘spine’ circle running down the center. You essentially make sushi out of Squid-O. But this feature doesn’t really end there, and this is where the ‘collecting’ aspect of Clump-O-Lumps comes in.

Here’s Tig-O the Tiger. He can also be taken apart in the same way as Squid-O, leaving behind a head, arms, and a pair of legs with a tail. All of these disparate parts can now be reassembled… in any way you want. Make a squid with a tiger tail, or a tiger with eight arms and four tentacles. If you collect the other four (Frog-O, Bee-O, Bird-O and Shark-O), you can assemble a massive array of weirdo animals, be they stout and un-limbed, or very long and overly-armed.

It’s always excellent when plush transcends the world of ‘cute’ and gets strange, and invites people to create and explore a familiar form. Despite all of these zippers, the gently-rounded corners and thick zips are completely finger- and bedtime-friendly. And it’s also worth mentioning that these guys are very large. A torso-sized squid is inherently huggable. Squid-O is welcomed into the family… and I don’t exactly have a shortage of stuffed cephalopods.

Collection of plush cephalopods.

If you’re especially morbid, you don’t even really have to re-assemble these. Just sleep in a pile of plush meat, like the world’s strangest doll-butcher. For only about $25 each, there’s a whole lot of doll to be had, and paired with the really smart, exciting concept of modular parts, these are pretty great additions to a doll collection, or even a living room couch in the world’s trendiest home.

[Don't forget to check out Knock Knock on Facebook, too! Thanks for the toys, guys!]

The first cinematic installment of The Hobbit will be released on December 14th, 2012, and if Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy can act as a barometer, nerds are already anticipating a really excellent film. With that, us nerds hope, comes excellent collectibles.

For the original LOTR trilogy, the now-defunct ToyBiz released a hugely extensive collection of 6″ scaled action figures with amazing sculpting and a few neat action features, covering a huge swath of characters who’d appeared in the films (including Peter Jackson as a Hobbit). I collected these ferociously, even though Viggo Mortensen reportedly refused to allow his exact likeness to be used for a toy representation of himself.

Now, Bridge Direct has taken on the very difficult task of producing 3.75″ scaled (or Star Wars-sized) figures from The Hobbit. If making figures of half-sized humanoids was tricky in 6″ (or 1/12th) scale, you can imagine the pitfalls of making this same half-sized guys in an even smaller scale. It took Hasbro a really, really long time to make a Princess Leia who wasn’t referred to as “monkey face”. Bridge Direct sent along a few figures so that we could get a look at them up close. If this is any immediate indication of the quality of the figures, I promptly went out and bought some more to fill in some critical collection gaps, all seen below.

A selection of figures from The Hobbit, by Bridge Direct.

It’s always good to look at a collection of figures together to get a feel for how much a company respects the scale they’re working with, which is a direct reflection of how much they respect hardcore collectors. This shot demonstrates a wide range of figures in the same scale. When your hobbit comes up to your Gandalf’s stomach, you’ve got a good thing going.

Gandalf is a guy who I’ll collect in almost any scale. My collection contains ToyBiz-made Gandalf (both grey and white) in 6″ scale, and when I sold off my entire Sideshow Collectibles LOTR collection (because the company wasn’t going to finish the Fellowship), I kept only Gandalf. The old man adventurer is possibly the most iconic of all wizards… and he’s also the amazing Ian McKellan. It’s kind of an automatic purchase.

This 3.75″ Gandalf is surprisingly detailed, from the wizardly face to the texture of his robes, which even at this tiny scale, are obviously (and miraculously) some kind of coarse fabric. His accessories include a removable hat, his staff, and his sword, Glamdring, which fits into a scabbard held at his hip.

Gandalf has articulation at the neck (though limited by his beard), ball-jointed shoulders and elbows, and a waist turn. His hips and knees are also articulated, but the stiff robe prevents them from actually being useful, at the same time as it helps him stand upright. While these figures lack the customary peg holes in their feet, 3.75″ figures usually can use all the help they can get. With this, and the rest of the line, I have no paint complaints at all.

Mini-Gandalf is immediately a highlight of my collection of nerd icons. And if there was any doubt that a mini-Gandalf was a necessity, I present you this argument :

Gandalf can now fight with Darth Vader. Nothing else needs to be said.

Gandalf comes in a two-pack with a guy named Bolg, the ruler of the Goblins of the Misty Mountains. Unsurprisingly, he’ll be a major protagonist in the upcoming film.

I haven’t read The Hobbit since junior high, so I have no special insight into the nature of Bolg. I didn’t even understand the events of the written Lord of the Rings trilogy until I saw them on screen, and even then, Tom Bombadil was left out, which was the only part of the books I’d actually understood and retained. But I digress. Bolg is an imposing figure, taller than Gandalf, and festooned with bones and blood.

Bolg is articulated in the same manner as Gandalf, though in this instance, his legs are free to move and exhibit their range of motion. Without pegholes in the feet, he’s a little tough to pop into any extreme action poses, but some degree of balanced positioning is possible, as shown here.

Bolg comes with a spiked mace and a sword which slip perfectly into his hands. The level of detail on such a small figure, exhibiting individual bones and multiple types of sculpted fabric, is fairly impressive. It’s a very elaborate costume to capture, and there’s a new detail every time you look at it. While there’s no real comparison to his screen counterpart yet (aside from a few press photos), this guy’s still a great little figure. But I’m also a sucker for blood-stained warriors.

These are only the first two Hobbit figures in the assortment, so we’ll be looking at a few more between now and the release of the film, including the completely awesome and minuscule Gollum figure, whose haunted eyes are completely frightening. Even without seeing the film, this is already shaping up to be a pretty neat collection.

Whether or not you partake in computer-based entertainment, you probably know a little bit about Angry Birds, the physics-based bird-tossing game created by Rovio Entertainment in 2009. Beyond the screen of your smartphone, the Birds can be found on TV commercials, as plush, toys, and are also emblazoned on just about every type of stationery and attire you can imagine, from erasers to underpants.

If you’ve never played the game, the premise is simple: you represent the birds, and some pigs have stolen your eggs. These pigs have built fortresses out of various materials (ice, wood, stone) in order to prevent you from getting your eggs back. Fortunately for you, your bird-skills are quite diverse. You launch your bird army at these fortresses to try to knock them down, and some of your birds exhibit special properties: they can explode, boomerang, divide and conquer, inflate, accelerate, and so on. Using these tools, you topple building after building, crushing the hapless, hungry pigs inside. Each level is a puzzle with multiple solutions, and the game is fueled by calculating the effects of different forces on different objects. Sometimes, the effects are obvious. Other times, physics react to the bird projectiles in unexpected and interesting ways, keeping the intrigue of the puzzles alive. Forget about the subtle math involved: throwing birds at pigs is just fun.

Needless to say, I’m a convert to the world of Angry Birds, being a fan of physics-based puzzles from years back. Of course, there’s only so much satisfaction you can derive from tossing digital objects around. There’s a part of every player that, after playing a few rounds, wants to start tossing projectiles at objects to see what will happen. This is where K’Nex comes in: a building system which is perfectly suited to the build-and-destroy nature of the game, bringing it into the tactile world.

K’Nex provides Angry Birds building sets which mimic the challenges found in the digital game, encouraging bird-launching towards pig-filled structures—but when you’re trying to knock down a toy stronghold, it helps to have a lot of neat projectiles of varying sizes and shapes. This is where the K’Nex Angry Birds Mystery Figures come in.

Not unlike their Mario Kart Wii companions, these Angry Birds (and Angry Birds Space) come in sealed packages which don’t reveal the contents of the package. The bird (or pig) that you get is a total mystery until you open the bag… or you’re really good at squeezing a sealed bag in order to figure out what’s inside of it. Each bag contains any one of 16 different possibilities, pictured above.

Each figure comes in multiple pieces that must be assembled, but it’s usually as simple as popping a front and back together. Each one also comes with an accessory from the game: an egg, a ham, or a crystal. Some Birds are more common than others, so you might spend some time seeking out your favorite bird. The images included below display the contents of a full case of 48, so if you see 5 Red Birds, there’s a 5/48 chance you’ll get a red bird. If there’s 2 Space-Bomb-Birds, there’s a 2/48 (or 1/24) chance. Blind box math is fun.

The variety included here is fairly huge, and it’s a collecting situation in which multiples of the same figure are welcomed, rather than being disappointing. If you get 5 Marios, you might be a little bummed, but 5 Ice-Birds is just more birds to toss. Us nerds call this the ‘Army Builder Principle’: if it’s something that exists in multiples in the canon of the narrative you’re collecting, it’s totally cool to get as many of that thing as possible. You buy one Spider-Man, but endless SHIELD Troopers. These Birds are also a very faithful visual interpretation of their on-screen counterparts.

Fortunately, they’re also devoid of any sharp, hard parts. If you see a point on one of these projectiles, it’s probably made of soft rubber. This isn’t to say that these should be chucked at your sister—they still have a substantial weight to them, and even the gentlest eye-gouge is still an eye-gouge.

Once you open and assemble your bounty of Pigs and Birds, it might not be easy to remember which accessory comes with which character. Check out this handy guide, courtesy of the side of the box:

Fortunately for you, Collectors Quest is giving out a full set of all 16 Birds and Pigs, plus accessories! Everything you see in the first image in this post can be yours, and you won’t even have to poke through an endless array of sealed bags. We’ve done all of the work for you and created the perfect K’Nex Angry Birds Mystery Figure collection. Runners-up will receive a selection of figures also—just not the full set.

Everyone can have multiple entries, and each task below counts as one additional entry into the giveaway, so participate often! Here’s how you can enter:

1) Comment below with your favorite game, be it a board game or video game. We want to know what you play! (And be sure to include your email address where it asks for it!)
2) Tell us your favorite kind of bird on our Angry Birds photo on Facebook. It doesn’t have to be an Angry bird!
3) LIKE our Angry Birds photo on Facebook.
4) SHARE our Angry Birds photo on Facebook.

We’ll accept entries until midnight on November 12th, one week from this posting. Winners will be contacted via Facebook or email and given 2 days to respond. If the winner does not respond within this time period, a new winner will be selected. Good luck!

[Giveaway has concluded. Thanks for participating!]

[Thanks to K'Nex for providing prizes for this contest! Check them out on Facebook and Twitter!]