A confession to begin: Your Popculteer is not having a great week with his Myasthenia Gravis, and as such, is not up to typing a long essay or anything like that for today. There will be a longish essay tomorrow, but today, rather than crank out a detailed review, I’m just going to bring you annotated photos of some of the cool things I’ve picked up or received in the mail over the last few weeks.
The captions will be lengthy and, I hope, informative, but since last week’s photo essays from Winterfest went over so well, I thought I’d share a few more pictures for my readers. So let’s take a running start and dive into some of my recent acquisitions…
I wrote about Final Faction, the surprisingly cool Dollar Tree exclusive action figure line back when it debuted, but I haven’t been keeping up with it much lately. It seems that they have now released a third series of figures…all repaints from earlier lines, and they are trickling out nationwide. This one is the only one I’ve found locally.
Here’s the back of the card. These repaints (not officialy series three) have the bad guys, The Kharn, re-colored with bright green pieces under the banner, “Venom.” The good guys, The Alpha Team, are labelled as “Elite” and are repainted in black and gold. Start watching your Dollar Tree stores for the new assortment. They’ve redone the vehicle and accessories, too.
The new issue of Toy-Ventures arrived this week, along with the bonus “Mangler” keychain for ordering early. I haven’t had a chance to crack it open yet, but I know it’s going to be good. You can get your own copy HERE.
This actually showed up before Christmas. It’s a special Yellow B&O caboose, in O Scale, sold as a fund-raiser for The Kruger Street Toy & Train Museum. As PopCult readers may remember, they have a yellow caboose like this on the grounds of the museum, and you can actually sleep in it.
Punching all the nostalgia buttons, MEGO has released near-exact replicas of the original DC MEGO World’s Greatest Superhero figures, in replica packaging, but on a vastly-improved new body.
The big deal with these, aside from the obvious coolnees factor, is that they included Green Lantern and The Flash, who for some reason never made it into the MEGO line up in the 1970s.
I’m not a rabid Hot Wheels collector, but they’re cheap, so when I see one I like, I pick it up. These are all recent Dollar Tree finds. On the left is a way-out-of-scale Water Bomber plane. On the left is a green jello mold on wheels. In the middle…well, you gotta protect those trademarks.
A Winterfest pick-up, from Mattsquatch Customs. It’s just about every accessory you need for an Adventure Team Base Camp.
These are just a few of the Super Joe Unlimited figures I picked up at Winterfest. I’ll be writing much more about them in the coming weeks. There’s a big announcement coming soon.
I even grabbed a vintage uniform to put on one of the new SJU guys.
It’s not all about toys, you know. I didn’t even know that, back in 2008, Elvis Costello hosted an interview/musical performance show that aired in Britain and The UK. The show was recorded live at Harlem’s famous Apollo Theatre and 30 Rock’s 8H studio in New York. It features intimate interviews between the host, Elvis Costello, and various musical guests intertwined with performances by Costello and the guests, separately and together. I learned this when I found the five-disc set of season one at Dollar Tree. For a buck and a quarter you get Elvis jamming with The Police, Elton John, Lou Reed, Norah Jones, Tony Bennet, James Taylor and more. Plus you get some great interviews. Could this be the bargain of the year, maybe?
Finally and just in time for Valentine’s Day, Mrs. PopCulteer treated me to a new Zoom recorder, to replace our old Zoom H4 that we’ve used for almost every show we’ve produced for The AIR. The old Zoom was starting to behave like HAL 9000, and it was 18 years old, so we had to put it out to stud. You’ll get to hear this new toy starting next week on The AIR.
You had my attention with the Megos in the background of your title page. So far around here, I’ve only seen Supes, Batman, and Robin. I’m DEFINITELY interested in this line since I had them as a kid, and I’m exceptionally pleased that they’ve brought Flash and Green Lantern into it. Gee, only about FIFTY YEARS overdue.
I’ve seen that Final Faction item you showed. Didn’t know it was a limited edition. May have to snag it. It’s a cool line, certainly reasonably priced, and exclusive (!) to Dollar Tree.
Love the Hot Wheels, especially the Jello Mold one. I find myself wondering how many “flavors” Mattel will recolor it into.
I like the caboose and the Joe stuff, too! It’s all cool, really.