I’m glad that they’re back in full effect since I was a Lego maniac back when I was a young’un. Some of my own comic characters like Longway came straight from customizing my own characters out of Lego minifigs.

BTW: Lego, if you’re looking to make more money, you may want to think about bringing those Batman sets back. There still seems to be enough demand to let people charge over $30 for some minifigs.

Most of you won’t know who this is so let me tell you about him. He debuts in G.I.JOE the Movie in a scene where the Joes’ resident hard case, Beach Head, tests out each member’s skills only to be annoyed by their personality quirks. In Big Lob’s case, he treats the obstacle course like a sporting event complete while giving his own third-person commentary of his actions. This irks the hell out of Beach Head, which makes him sound like a grouchy comics-only G.I.JOE fan who lives within the cartoon itself. He didn’t appear in later episodes of the cartoon probably because production of the show went to another company after the movie was made. He never got an action figure or appeared in the comic book. He just disappeared. No Colorforms, Shrinky Dinks, Underoos or vinyl pencil case art. Dude just disappeared.

I knew dozens of G.I.JOE fans while I was growing up and none of them had a problem with Big Lob. Most of us wondered why Hasbro never gave him his own figure. That was until I got online and saw how he seems to be one of those characters that some people like to complain about. A few will even try to tell you that nobody likes the character. Whatever, man. Look, Big Lob is a strange character and is probably crazy but who wasn’t on that cartoon? That’s what made it a fun show to watch for kids who hadn’t become morose, uptight sad sacks yet. So while he may not be a mainstay like Duke and Snake-Eyes or one of those figures like Hit ‘n Run or Repeater that hardcore Joe fans (including me) are crazy about, let there be no doubt that Big Lob has a posse. Now he has a piece of fan art to back that up.

When I figured out how to pop off the minifig parts and put them back together in custom ways, I’d recreate my favorite characters. At that time, the very early 80′s, it was the only way I could make an entire Justice League (because Mego never made GL or the Flash) to play with. When I needed another set of characters, I’d swap parts again to make the Marvel Universe, G.I.JOE, Star Wars or anything else that I wanted to do. The most important group of characters that I’d make were my own. M-Wave, the Entity, Twofold, Exponent and a lot of other heroes would be snapped together to fight the bad guys I’d made up. They’d roll around in tank-like vehicles or motorcycles and fight in buildings that would be torn down during the fight. Other characters like Longfellow and the Executioner (whose redesign will pop up on Illmosis next year) came out of those ol’ minifig sessions. As crazy as it sounds, that’s where I developed a lot of their basic character traits.

Go Miniman Go is a website that celebrates the trusty ol’ minifigure’s 30th birthday. I’ll have to set up some of my minifig collection this weekend and snap some pics to celebrate.

Hitting Toys R Us pays off with with two Cobras (a.k.a. Cobra Troopers) and my 2nd Red Ninja. I feel lucky here because I’ve heard nothing but horror stories about people trying to collect the new G.I.JOE 25th Anniversary line. Most involve people not being able to find them or finding out that some chumpcakes buy them all up to sell on eBay. It feels good to be rewarded for not running to the online stores where these things are selling with an insane price mark-up.

• For my family and my friends for still betting on the most worthless horse on the track!
• For the relief from the artistic constipation I caught back in 2002. With any luck, I’ll catch some creative diarrhea in time for 2008.
• For those who fought for what was right especially when no one was looking.
• For the people that check out my sites Illmosis and ScrollBoss. No one looks at this blog, though. Seeing as how this place is filled with stupid posts like this, I’m thankful for that no one else is actually reading this.
• For these beautiful things: 25th Anniversary G.I.JOE figures and the box sets that play the theme song, Taito Legends 2 for being full of old-school gaming goodnes, Dr. Thirteen, Gumby, the new Booster Gold series, the Sinestro Corps. Crossover, the All-New Atom by Gail Simone, the Rey Mysterio: the Biggest Little Man 3 disc set, whoever was behind Steven Richards and Little Guido Nunzio getting more screen time in ECW, whoever lets Santino Marella get on the mic on RAW, female wrestlers (like Victoria, Beth Phoenix, Mickie James, Gail Kim, Jackie Moore, Ms. Brooks and ODB), everybody that worked on the Shaw Studios/Dragon Dynasty DVDs and whatever mad genius at Lego came up with the skeleton horse.

When it was announced that Toy Biz would be making 3 3/4 inch figures of Marvel Characters (in other words, G.I.JOE/Star Wars sized), my lid was officially flipped. It’s too bad that various factors caused the line to sell so poorly that the final waves only saw a limited release. Of course, you can buy them online at gooftardedly high prices. OR you can be lucky and find some at Big Lots for $3.00 a pop. In your face, toy aftermarket, and kiss my shiny, metal ass on the way out. I’m just hoping I can do the same with the other figures that I want which is pretty much everybody except Elektra.

One thing that I want to say is that I’ve seen sellers charging over $50 for the 5-packs but I bought mine from Toys ‘R Us (actual, not website) for $30. In fact, I’ve heard that some people have found them for cheaper than that. Do some price hunting if you really need to net-buy ‘em. I’ve heard that the distribution on these are going to be good, so don’t get price-gouged out there.

1UP: But is there any chance of an actual Shadow sequel?

KI: Maybe if we made something like the 300 movie. I’m just joking around, but that’s what we were thinking, some over-the-top violence.

1UP: So, basically Shadow of Rome minus the stealth elements.

KI: Yeah, hypothetically-speaking — we’re not planning this — but if we were going to make Shadow of Rome 2, we’d get rid of all the stealth elements and give all the violence you hurried through the stealth parts to get to. [Laughs]

At least there’s one designer that knows what we’re thinking. We need to print that up and send it to the rest of the game-making community. I’m not saying that no one likes stealth games, but most people that I talk to seem to hate it when developers shove a stealth scene into a non-stealth game. Boo that crap.

OH SNAP! CAMOUFLAGED OUTPOST!

Classic-Castle.com review of Camouflaged Outpost Lego set

When I was a kid, this was one of my most favorite sets. In one small set you got a mini-headquarters and an instant crew of Forestmen Lego figures. These days, you’d NEVER get such a small playset with so many minifigures. No, little green booger martians that can only bend at the waist don’t count as figures. If my old Lego collection hadn’t been wiped out, I’d look for the instructions online and rebuild it. As it is now, it’d be probably be a pain in the wallet trying to get all that stuff again on BrickLink and recreate it. The small black feather on the one minifig alone costs more than some sets now. Ouch. I’ll probably try to make my own version of that some day. Yeah, I know how sad that sounds.

Arkham Asylum on Lego.com

I just ordered mine, so I can’t tell you how cool it is yet. What I do know is that the set comes with Batman in the movie outfit and some Bat-glider, Nightwing with a black motorcycle and trans-blue escrima sticks, the Riddler, the Scarcrow (there’s 2/13ths of your Legion of Doom right there), Poison Ivy (thankfully in her classic look and not her all-green look) and two prison guards that will probably be killed at the start of all your adventures. I used the El Cheapo shipping option (when don’t I?) so it’ll be a while before I get it. When I do, I’ll post pics. But even if you’re just thinking kinda/sorta/maybe on getting into the Lego Batman groove, just go get that now while it’s still there or you’ll be kicking yourself in the butt when it’s gone. Even though Riddler and Scarecrow will appear in new separate sets in a month or two, this is the only place I’ve seen Nightwing and Poison Ivy.