|
|
Post by WhutScreenName on Aug 15, 2013 13:38:04 GMT
Not sure if the Mods will allow this thread or not, and I didn't see anything else like it. I thought, since we are all fans of the show, that it might be fun to post Mythbusters Merch here when we find good deals, or unique things. I just got an email about an end of summer sale at Disco and thought that people might be interested in the Buster figurine that is heavily discounted right now. EDIT: Added photo  |
|
|
|
Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 15, 2013 13:59:19 GMT
Too bad it doesn't come with a repair kit for after you "test a myth" with it...
|
|
|
|
Post by OziRiS on Aug 15, 2013 20:11:48 GMT
Isn't that basically just a stripped down G.I. Joe figure? Not the big Barbie doll sized ones, but the small ones from the late 80s - early 90s?
|
|
|
|
Post by ironhold on Aug 15, 2013 20:20:13 GMT
Isn't that basically just a stripped down G.I. Joe figure? Not the big Barbie doll sized ones, but the small ones from the late 80s - early 90s? Totally wrong body construction for that. Among other things, the 3.75-inch figures (also referred to as the 3 3/4th scale) visually integrated the shoulder joints into the upper arm pieces; aside from the rivet that served as the pivot point, you'd have to actually open up the figure to realize that the anchor for the arm was a separate piece. edit - As an example, consider the 1983 Duke figure, whose mold was used off and on (and in bits and pieces) up until ca. 2006 when Hasbro officially retired the "classic" 3.75-inch figure molds. In contrast, Buster's shoulder pieces are obviously separate from the upper arms. |
|
|
|
Post by OziRiS on Aug 15, 2013 20:29:24 GMT
I wasn't really aiming for THAT amount of accuracy. Just meant to say that the amount of moveable joints and where they were placed kinda reminded me of those figures.
The figures that my son has access to today can usually only move at the shoulders and hips and turn their heads. They're like oversized Lego figures in that regard. The Buster figure isn't limited to that, which is what brought up the memory.
|
|
|
|
Post by The Urban Mythbuster on Aug 15, 2013 20:32:23 GMT
I wasn't really aiming for THAT amount of accuracy. Just meant to say that the amount of moveable joints and where they were placed kinda reminded me of those figures. The figures that my son has access to today can usually only move at the shoulders and hips and turn their heads. They're like oversized Lego figures in that regard. The Buster figure isn't limited to that, which is what brought up the memory. The "action figures" of our childhoods as opposed to the stiff-jointed figurines that kids get now. |
|
|
|
Post by Cybermortis on Aug 15, 2013 20:37:51 GMT
Not sure if the Mods will allow this thread or not, and I didn't see anything else like it. I thought, since we are all fans of the show, that it might be fun to post Mythbusters Merch here when we find good deals, or unique things. I just got an email about an end of summer sale at Disco and thought that people might be interested in the Buster figurine that is heavily discounted right now. I'll allow links to official Mythbusters merchandise. |
|
|
|
Post by ironhold on Aug 15, 2013 20:47:08 GMT
I wasn't really aiming for THAT amount of accuracy. Just meant to say that the amount of moveable joints and where they were placed kinda reminded me of those figures. The figures that my son has access to today can usually only move at the shoulders and hips and turn their heads. They're like oversized Lego figures in that regard. The Buster figure isn't limited to that, which is what brought up the memory. If you're talking about today's G. I. Joe figures, that was a bit of a mess. Hasbro decided that, as a cost-cutting move, the vehicle drivers from the Retaliation movie toy line would only have five points of articulation (neck, shoulders, and hips). To Hasbro, the vehicle drivers have always been somewhat disposable, in that they were basically an added bonus to make the various vehicles more attractive to kids and parents alike; some of the "classic" drivers never even showed up in the fiction in any capacity (like VTOL pilot Updraft or tank driver Cold Front). Thus, in their eyes, the fact that a vehicle even had a driver figure in the first place was more important than the play value. The carded figures, meanwhile, would retain full articulation. For example, this version of Duke has articulation at the neck, shoulders, biceps, elbows, wrists, abdomen, hips, knees, and ankles. Well, this proved to be yet another miscalculation on Hasbro's part. The fandom was furious when they found out about this, and the backlash was immediate. The "Flint" figure that came with a motorcycle was already in production, but beyond that Hasbro has promised to restore full articulation to all future vehicle drivers. ** That being said, however, both Hasbro and Mattel have released an assortment of 5POA superhero figures over the last few years. These figures were intended to be sold at "discount" stores like Family Dollar and Dollar General, and at $5 apiece are roughly half the price of the regular retail releases; the idea for these is that by severely limiting the articulation, the figures could be made and sold at a low enough price to where even poorer families could afford to get them for their kids. I can confirm that Hasbro has released Iron Man, Captain America, and Spider Man in this fashion; Cap has his shield, but the other two have no accessories. A handful of stores still have them, but they appear to have been a limited release meant to support the Avengers movie. Mattel released an assortment of Batman figures that represented different colors of the same mold (made for the most recent movie; almost all of them are gone now), Bane (ditto), an assortment of Superman figures (including at least two different molds), and a General Zod figure. |
|
|
|
Post by OziRiS on Aug 15, 2013 21:09:17 GMT
I was actually talking about today's action figures in general. While Hasbro may still make the figures with more than 5 articulating joints for the US market, I haven't seen a single one in Danish stores for more than 6 years. We only get the crappy 3-5 articulating joints now. G.I. Joe is all but gone here. Sadly. 20+ years ago when I was a kid they were my favorite toys.
|
|
|
|
Post by Lex Of Sydney Australia on Aug 16, 2013 3:25:42 GMT
Well if we're talking about disappointment with modern versions of our favourite childhood toys then I have to say I'm totally FREAKED OUT by the modern version of the My Little Pony toys. The original 1980's dolls looked sweet & cute  The modern ones look like the person who designed them must have been on an acid trip. Because they look like something out of a Salvador Dali picture, with their oversized heads, supper small bodies & big old alien eyes   |
|
|
|
Post by ironhold on Aug 16, 2013 17:19:01 GMT
I was actually talking about today's action figures in general. While Hasbro may still make the figures with more than 5 articulating joints for the US market, I haven't seen a single one in Danish stores for more than 6 years. We only get the crappy 3-5 articulating joints now. G.I. Joe is all but gone here. Sadly. 20+ years ago when I was a kid they were my favorite toys. Tragically, the line has been faltering for some time now. It got a big surge in 2007 - 2008 when the new 25th anniversary line (the 25th anniversary of the 3.75-inch figures arriving in 1982) hit, due to both the 100% brand-new figure molds and the return of so many classic figures and vehicles. However, the line got hammered by a combination of "entirely too many toys made for the first live-action movie" and "a misguided focus on 12-inch figures that nobody but (older) collectors wanted". This led to a glut of product on retailer shelves that was made worse when individual figures from the post-movie line (like the arctic combat Destro) wound up clogging things further. Adding insult to injury, since many retailers use an automated system that only calls for orders when X amount of product sales, this glut led to entire assortments of product either not showing up at individual stores or - if they showed up at all - only showing up in limited quantities (such as individual cases of figures). The die-hard collectors and the toy scalpers were quick to snatch these up, meaning that most kids and honest collectors only ever saw a lot of these items once, if at all. From there, Hasbro - for reasons unknown - has repeatedly deemed fit to release a number of fan-favorite characters (like Dial-Tone, Footloose, and Cover Girl) through the Collector's Club instead of at retail. Fun Publications, the organization behind both the Joe Collector's Club and the Transformers Collector's Club, lost the trust and respect of Joe and Transformers fans worldwide last year when their shockingly inadequate security protocols were defeated, allowing the hackers to gobble up credit card and debit card numbers left and right; not only was 6+ months' worth of purchase information compromised, Fun Publications sat on the news for several days after it was finally brought to their attention before they bothered to tell anyone about it. Also for reasons unknown, other fan favorites - like Dr. Mindbender, Recondo, and the Frag-Viper - were either released exclusively to select internet retailers or exclusively at various conventions, making it even harder and more expensive for fans to obtain them. (When I pointed this out, a fellow Joe collector noted that the vintage figures were likely cheaper to get than the convention versions.) The G. I. Joe Resolute movie was dead on arrival due to the 1990s-style "darker and edgier" failing to win any fans, and the G. I. Joe: Renegade television series crashed and burned after a single season due to a mix of back-room politics & the death of the character designer. As a result, this left Hasbro without any fiction they could rely on to push product beyond the little bit that was already out there. Hasbro was hoping that the Retaliation movie would revive the line, but the combination of the movie's release date being pushed back almost a year and some disastrous choices on Hasbro's part (like the 5POA vehicle drivers, the bizarre accessories given to the early figures, and 2012 Roadblock's right hand having a weapon permanently grafted onto it) meant that not only did one or two waves of product hit shelves before everything had to be mothballed, most retailers are still sitting on all of that product a year after it came out (only Target seems to have chosen to aggressively clearance it out). Hasbro is gambling on a "super wave" of figures that is going to come out any day now and a brand new Tomahawk vehicle to boost things, but with all the old merchandise still clogging shelves some retailers might not bother to order them. |
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Aug 20, 2013 18:08:11 GMT
I was actually talking about today's action figures in general. While Hasbro may still make the figures with more than 5 articulating joints for the US market, I haven't seen a single one in Danish stores for more than 6 years. We only get the crappy 3-5 articulating joints now. G.I. Joe is all but gone here. Sadly. 20+ years ago when I was a kid they were my favorite toys. Tragically, the line has been faltering for some time now. It got a big surge in 2007 - 2008 when the new 25th anniversary line (the 25th anniversary of the 3.75-inch figures arriving in 1982) hit, due to both the 100% brand-new figure molds and the return of so many classic figures and vehicles. However, the line got hammered by a combination of "entirely too many toys made for the first live-action movie" and "a misguided focus on 12-inch figures that nobody but (older) collectors wanted". This led to a glut of product on retailer shelves that was made worse when individual figures from the post-movie line (like the arctic combat Destro) wound up clogging things further. Adding insult to injury, since many retailers use an automated system that only calls for orders when X amount of product sales, this glut led to entire assortments of product either not showing up at individual stores or - if they showed up at all - only showing up in limited quantities (such as individual cases of figures). The die-hard collectors and the toy scalpers were quick to snatch these up, meaning that most kids and honest collectors only ever saw a lot of these items once, if at all. From there, Hasbro - for reasons unknown - has repeatedly deemed fit to release a number of fan-favorite characters (like Dial-Tone, Footloose, and Cover Girl) through the Collector's Club instead of at retail. Fun Publications, the organization behind both the Joe Collector's Club and the Transformers Collector's Club, lost the trust and respect of Joe and Transformers fans worldwide last year when their shockingly inadequate security protocols were defeated, allowing the hackers to gobble up credit card and debit card numbers left and right; not only was 6+ months' worth of purchase information compromised, Fun Publications sat on the news for several days after it was finally brought to their attention before they bothered to tell anyone about it. Also for reasons unknown, other fan favorites - like Dr. Mindbender, Recondo, and the Frag-Viper - were either released exclusively to select internet retailers or exclusively at various conventions, making it even harder and more expensive for fans to obtain them. (When I pointed this out, a fellow Joe collector noted that the vintage figures were likely cheaper to get than the convention versions.) The G. I. Joe Resolute movie was dead on arrival due to the 1990s-style "darker and edgier" failing to win any fans, and the G. I. Joe: Renegade television series crashed and burned after a single season due to a mix of back-room politics & the death of the character designer. As a result, this left Hasbro without any fiction they could rely on to push product beyond the little bit that was already out there. Hasbro was hoping that the Retaliation movie would revive the line, but the combination of the movie's release date being pushed back almost a year and some disastrous choices on Hasbro's part (like the 5POA vehicle drivers, the bizarre accessories given to the early figures, and 2012 Roadblock's right hand having a weapon permanently grafted onto it) meant that not only did one or two waves of product hit shelves before everything had to be mothballed, most retailers are still sitting on all of that product a year after it came out (only Target seems to have chosen to aggressively clearance it out). Hasbro is gambling on a "super wave" of figures that is going to come out any day now and a brand new Tomahawk vehicle to boost things, but with all the old merchandise still clogging shelves some retailers might not bother to order them. "any day, now" = "don't hold your breath?" |
|
|
|
Post by ironhold on Aug 20, 2013 21:19:14 GMT
"any day, now" = "don't hold your breath?" Pretty much. My hometown Wal-Mart and H-E-B Grocery are both still sitting on large quantities of unsold merchandise, the area Target's holiday reset leaves no room on the shelves for product, I didn't see anything Joe remaining at the area Toys-R-Us or my hometown Walgreen's, and I haven't been to the area K-Mart or AAFES PX in some time. One Dollar General has a pair of lone Shipwreck figures from last year's value assortment, and I haven't been to the other Dollar General in a while. So either somebody is going to have to bite the bullet and buy enough product to trigger the automated restock systems, or I'm going to have to break down and buy things online for the first time in over a year. |
|
|
|
Post by silverdragon on Sept 15, 2013 10:04:34 GMT
Freaked Out..... I was in a shop and saw Hula-Hoops.... Fine, no problem. They had an attached card..... well, they would, price code, name of supplier, that kind of stuff?.... NOPE!... Instructions for use. WTF?  ? GET THE FORK OUT...... yer having a laugh aint ya?.. instructions?... I am slightly upset even, kids need written INSTRUCTIONS for a hula-hoop?....... |
|
|
|
Post by ponytail61 on Sept 16, 2013 2:12:45 GMT
Freaked Out..... I was in a shop and saw Hula-Hoops.... Fine, no problem. They had an attached card..... well, they would, price code, name of supplier, that kind of stuff?.... NOPE!... Instructions for use. WTF? ? GET THE FORK OUT...... yer having a laugh aint ya?.. instructions?... I am slightly upset even, kids need written INSTRUCTIONS for a hula-hoop?....... Let me guess it said: Place hoop around waist. Start Twerking  |
|
|
|
Post by Cybermortis on Sept 16, 2013 7:38:48 GMT
Freaked Out..... I was in a shop and saw Hula-Hoops.... Fine, no problem. They had an attached card..... well, they would, price code, name of supplier, that kind of stuff?.... NOPE!... Instructions for use. WTF? ? GET THE FORK OUT...... yer having a laugh aint ya?.. instructions?... I am slightly upset even, kids need written INSTRUCTIONS for a hula-hoop?....... Instructions - open bag, eat.  |
|
|
|
Post by the light works on Sept 16, 2013 14:34:59 GMT
Freaked Out..... I was in a shop and saw Hula-Hoops.... Fine, no problem. They had an attached card..... well, they would, price code, name of supplier, that kind of stuff?.... NOPE!... Instructions for use. WTF? ? GET THE FORK OUT...... yer having a laugh aint ya?.. instructions?... I am slightly upset even, kids need written INSTRUCTIONS for a hula-hoop?....... what, you expect their parents are going to take time out from their busy TV schedules to tell them how it's done? (apologies for the ad) |
|
|
|
Post by Lokifan on Oct 7, 2013 4:46:54 GMT
Just an FYI: The local Grocery Outlet is selling the Mythbuster project kits. They had the rocket and car crash versions for about $10.
If you know a young Mythbuster, you might want to check it out and maybe make their day...
|
|
? GET THE FORK OUT...... yer having a laugh aint ya?.. instructions?...
