Once again I take advantage of the fact that our K-Mart seems to have only old stock of some things when I luck up and score the 3-pack with Lex Luthor, Copperhead and Mirror Master. I already had the single pack versions of Lex (the lime-green flavor) and Copperhead but this pack gives me the more accurate version of Lex and a Copperhead with a better paint job. I mostly got it for Mirror Master because this toy line is too scalperlicious to even hope that I’d see a single pack Mirror Master.

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.

I would like to give thanks for the following:

• 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.

The 25th Anniversary G.I.JOE figures have started hitting this area and I’ve been buying what I can. At this point, I have the Cobra set and the single pack versions of Snake-Eyes (pictured to the side), Storm Shadow, Cobra Commander (with the rag mask) and 2 Cobra Officers. It’s kinda weird that they put the Cobra (Trooper) in the Cobra set instead of the Officer since most people that buy multiples of the troops prefer to have more troopers than officers. It’s like workplace with 20 supervisors and one regular guy. The good news is that there is going to be a single-pack Cobra Trooper on the way later this year, but it’ll have a silver logo like the Viper glider pilot instead of the red trooper logo. Hey, as long that’s the only difference and they match the rest of the 5-pack trooper, I’m not going to gripe. These figures are far too cool for that. I plan to do a big mega post after I get the Joe 5-pack and Flint (hopefully after this next paycheck) with pictures and all that good stuff.

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.

Between moments of trying to salvage this pic of Hal Jordan and the one of that female ninja, I soothed my mind by gawking at Toy Fare 2007 photos. Seeng as how I wasn’t there and don’t have my own photos, I will utilize my Link-Fu Grip to hip you to the newness:

G.I.JOE: 25th Anniversary Collection - It’s as if Hasbro saw all the cool customs being done with Takara’s Microman and Microlady figures and said, “Hey… why don’t WE do that?” So they’re going to do it to it this year with 25 insanely articulated figures. If you want to see what the mock-ups/prototypes look like, I think it’s only appropriate that you check out the pics that a guy nicknamed “General Hawk” took and posted on this page.

Lego Batman: contrary to what many people on the internet will have you believe, not every fan can shell out over $70 for a set just for the minifigs that are exclusive to it. No, I don’t have the Batcave or Arkham sets or the delicious figures that come with it. As far as paying over $10 for figures from a Bricklink store? No. Luckily, Lego’s going to kick out some smaller sets that have the Riddler, the Scarecrow and the brand new Bane figure as well as a Batman with a dark blue/light grey color scheme! Booyah! Peep the gallery page on the ASM Zine site. Waiting until August will be tough, though. At least I should have the 25th Anniversary G.I.JOEs by then, so my pockets won’t be completely empty.