Year 9: August Update

When I went to write this post I was surprised to find that I hadn't actually written a monthly update since February. Unfortunately, I don't have much planned other than to keep scanning some magazine articles, and I do have more video game ads to share eventually. Despite not having a lot of actual work to do, it feels like I've been busy and I haven't kept up on much game and toy news. The best announcement I saw recently was LEGO's Batman Arkham Asylum, a 2,953-piece set that comes with 16 mini-figures, including Batman, Robin, Batwoman, Catwoman, and nine villains dressed in orange jumpsuits. It releases on September 5th at a price of $299.99. Also, now available from LEGO is the Decepticon Soundwave, who joins the previous LEGO incarnations of Optimus Prime and Bumblebee. He does transform and has cassettes of Laserbeak and Ravage. The 1,505-piece set is available exclusively at the LEGO online store for $189.99.

Another new toy announcement comes from Jakks Pacific. Apparently there was a Sonic the Hedgehog and DC crossover comic book back in March, and now there are action figures based on it. Jakks Pacific will be releasing a variety of figures, including single Sonic characters dressed as superheroes, such as Sonic as The Flash, Amy as Wonder Woman, and Silver as Green Lantern. There will also be double packs of Superman with Knuckles, Batman with Shadow, and Cyborg with Tails. Jakks unveiled new action figures in its Super Mario line and The Simpsons too.

As far as video games, well, Nintendo did release the Switch 2 since I last wrote an update. That was June 5th, the week before the former week of E3. It costs $499.99 and is less powerful than its competitors as usual, though it is getting some of the higher end games that previously released on PlayStation and Xbox systems. I didn't find anything too exciting come out of the aforementioned former E3 week. Maybe it's because I'm getting old, though I think it has more to do with the lack of originality being shown, plus I don't own any hardware new enough to play most of the big games releasing these days. 

Yep, that was a short update. Sorry it's been such a slow year for the blog!

Thanks for reading,
Jonathan

[YouTube] 1990's Batman Action Figures (and 1995 Collecting Toys Article)

https://youtu.be/sUgGkiHTDcY

As noted in the previous post, Holy Bat-Toys!, it's Batman Day and I put these two posts, especially this one, together at the last moment (as in yesterday afternoon, evening, and early this morning). The video is simply a look at 36 action figures released by Kenner around the mid '90s. Since I'm keeping them sealed I could not do any interesting photo shoots and the rushed photos aren't my best work either, sorry! I sometimes put two or three toys in one photo to save time too. This post does have two somewhat unique aspects at least, one is an article scan from the June 1995 issue of Collecting Toys magazine that features a broad overview of Batman toy lines up until just before the release of Batman Forever. The other highlight is the bonus item shown at the end of the video, a photo of a retail store advertising piece that I cleaned up in editing.

Where Crime Pays (Collecting Toys - June 1995)

Batman: The Animated Series/Mask of the Phantasm/The Adventures of Batman and Robin

Legends of Batman

Legends of the Dark Knight

Batman Forever

Batman & Robin

Retail Store Advertisement

This is a Batman Forever poster board that hung from the ceiling at retail stores, directing customers to the official movie products. It's 27 inches wide and 35 inches long.

Holy Bat-Toys! (Collecting Toys - June 1995)

The third Saturday of September is Batman Day and that day is today. I had hoped to have some video game related content for the celebration but due to time constraints and an issue with a game, that fell through. This was all very last minute and so all I have are two article scans from the June 1995 issue of Collecting Toys magazine and one video looking at some sealed Batman action figures from the 1990s. Since one article is basically the evolution of Batman action figures, I'm including that one in the blog post for the video. The article featured in this post shows off an impressive collection by Joe Desris. Mr. Desris is also quite the expert on the character, as the article notes even DC sometimes contacted him for information, and in 2016 he co-authored a book about the 1960's Batman television show titled Batman: A Celebration of the Classic TV Series.