In my day we didn't talk about toys on no dagnabbit social medias, with the facebooks and myspaces, we had forums and we liked it!

...and toys were actually available to buy at things called "stores", you didn't need to stay always-online and connected to social media to get the newest drops or suffer a thing kids call "FOMO"!

I am old too. Alot of us are old. Kids these days don't want toys. We like toys. I like toys. I have alot of toys. I want more toys. Wait what was I saying...?

When I first started talking about collectible action figures, we had to write our opinions on actual paper and send them to other people in the mail. You didn't even know if other people liked toys. You just sent letters to people by looking up addresses in a 'phone book' (a collection of peoples' phone numbers and addresses arranged alphabetically by the last name of the resident) and hoped someone would send you a letter back with their rebuttal to your opinions.

Posted by: @grumpymatt

↑

Almost the moment I turned 50 my ability to read menus, receipts and many other things took a big hit. I've always had great eyesight, too. I had to have someone help me read the numbers off a Target gift card a few months ago ... Fortunately, dollar store readers — when I remember to carry them on my person — solve my problems. For now, I guess.

Incidentally, when I don't have glasses, Ollie's price tags give more trouble than most

I keep a pair of readers in my truck, in my bag for work, by my computer at home, and a "travel" pair that comes with me if I go out somewhere where I might read small print.

Well this old fart got Mad Marauders Sarge today. I love em. His bag is the top accessory of the line. It holds all of his other accessories. I want them to include this in an accessory pack or just pack it in another few guys. It’s fantastic. Looks great and holds up. I like this Sarge offering better than the original offering. Such a sweet figure. His brighter colors make him look more heroic.

Thwipp!

Fuck readers, I have bifocals

My next trip to the optometrist will result in bifocals or switching out for readers.  Both options seem dreadful.  Maybe this is why they dropped File Cards?  We're too old to be able to read them.

Look at all you responsible adults with your "readers" and bifocals.   

NOT ME I'M STILL YOUNG!!!!!!!!   I AIN'T GOING TO NO SAWBONES TO CHECK ME PEEPERS!!!!

Oops, sorry I need to save my strength I see a couple menacing looking clouds coming my way....

I am wondering what surprise we might get at PulseCon, since it is coming sooner than my wallet would like.   I mean something completely unknows like the CLAW reveal from SDCC.   I'm sure we'll see Nemesis Immortal and the first wave of 2025 (SAW Viper, etc).   Maybe another small vehicle?   The Fang was clearly teased with Starduster's art, and since he is coming at PulseCon.....maybe?

Pythona. I can see them teasing her or showing her at PulseCon. Well get to preorder or just buy Nemesis and Pythona will be teased.

I can see only a tease as they have so much planned for 2025 it’s going to be pretty jam packed year again. 

Thwipp!

Possibly more official orders for SDCC Cobra Commander will hopefully go up as well at Pulsecon?  That would be nice. 

I got a charge notice from Pulse for the Stinger.

Planned to wait but went ahead and ordered a stinger after getting stock alert from EE. Plenty of codes floating around to get 10% off so figured what the hell.

Unrelated to more current news; I got the Ann. Action Soldier - Infantry today.

For those not in the know, this figure retails in Canada for about 52 dollars. It, and the Diver, have been hovering around 45 dollars lately. But the other day, for seemingly just one day, the Infantryman dropped to 35 dollars, which is the price of a regular Classified figure on Amazon.

So boom. I could resist no longer. I love the idea of these Anniversary figures. Love that they're blank slates. Love that they're call-outs to the 'Original' Joes. Just a great presentation, great concept, and visually a great execution as far as I could ever tell. But 52 dollars is too much. Even 45 is a touch high, in my opinion. If this figure stayed around 35, I probably would have considered going back for another.

Not that anyone asked but -- my thoughts on the figure:

The negatives: I appreciate what they were trying to do with the modular pouches, ala Marauder or something. But in practice it actually kind of sucks. If I'm going to have any stability with posing, I'd need to glue them in place (defeating the purpose beyond getting to choose my layout one time). And frankly, if they had just sculpted these in place they'd actually look and fit better. As-is, in order to make them modular, they ports make them extra bulky, which actually hampers posing. Not a great idea with a figure that, by its design, is already going to have some issues in that regard. Not the worst thing ever, but definitely a swing-and-a-miss.

I also kind of hate the choice of guns. The rifle is bizarre. I'm not a gun expert by any means (although I know a bit), but why does this thing have side-by-side barrels? What is going on? Take that away and the design is pretty good so I just.. don't get it.
I wanted to like the SAW, and that's kind of where my mind was at for posing him before I ever was even sure I'd get him. But like.. eh. It's so close. If they'd just shortened the buttstock, or gone with a slightly different stock design entirely, it would look great. As-is, it's just kind of difficult to pose because it's too long to shoulder.
Ideally, I'd like to find a bit of wall or drums or something he can rest the bipod on, but even with that it's just never going to look right. There's just so many versions of SAW that have shorter stocks on them that specifically choosing a design that sucks for posing was super weird and kind of dumb.

Besides those things, though.. man, I really like this guy. A lot. If these ever go on sale at or below 30 bucks, I'd probably group another two or three, to be honest. And I definitely feel like I've gotta get the diver now. Or two.

Posted by: @theknightdamien

↑

I also kind of hate the choice of guns. The rifle is bizarre. I'm not a gun expert by any means (although I know a bit), but why does this thing have side-by-side barrels? What is going on? Take that away and the design is pretty good so I just.. don't get it.

Based off of this thing

It's real, but totally a range toy. I figured they used in that it's 100% real world, but straddles that line of oddball/bizarre that the Joeverse is known for.