what a difference store location makes. i braved the excessive heat of the day and ran up north to a pretty decent target and the worlds worst toys r us.
went to target first because i was sure they would have secret wars #2 waiting for me. they did, they had three sets of each except for #2, which they only had one. i did my typical judgments and picked the best one. i think all of the secret wars at this target looked much better than the other ones. aside from one pack of cap n' klaw that had the blue eyes captain they were all on the same level of quality as the two winners i picked of #1 & 3. the #2 sets are by far the dandies of the bunch. they were really almost equal in paint app quality so other than a slight under painting of the human torch's eyes and mouth, the only other thing i had to go on was how neatly they were packed. fortunately the slightly better paint job was also the better packing. wolverine's left leg looked slightly kinked the wrong way in the other one. with my secret wars thirst slaked i began a quick survey of the regular marvel universe figs. it appears that they got some refresher wave 4 cases and threw them out. no red hulks or moon knights in the bunch but they did have one item that i'm sure some of you are sure to enjoy. they had the variant thing with white boots. when i first heard about him i really didn't think i'd like him. i mostly purchased him as trade fodder. but after closer examination upon getting home i think i like him more than the original. he's got the darker blue pants, almost black they're so dark, with a nice blue highlight to them. no special treatments on the white, it's flat white with no washes or highlights of any kind. you know what though, it doesn't need it and the entire color combination as a whole really looks sharp. still on the fence about whether to trade him or not. i was so excited with what i had found that i left before checking on the gormiti. i don't know what they had in that department. i may be heading up there again tomorrow though, more details on that later.
after picking up some socks also i left target with my new found toys and drove through the parking lot to the worlds worst toys r us. i've bee-eye-itched about it before, so i'm sure you know why it's the worst one, so i'll leave that alone. i got a pretty good parking spot, which isn't hard since at that time of the day almost no one is in there. i really think that i'm not the only one who hates this location. other than at christmas time, this place is pretty barren.
i zipped on back to the marvel universe section to see if they had anything new and they didn't. all the same figures as before. i'm going to talk myself into buying those blade and union jack figures one of these trips. just below the same old same old though, they did have secret wars. i'm way glad i bought from target. the one and only #2 they had was terrible. it looked like wolverines head had come loose and his head-fins (what the eff are those anyway?) were so deformed it almost looked like they were tightly rolled cannolis. i like cannolis as much as the next guy, but i prefer them to not be an integral part of my super heroes' costumes, thank you very much. i didn't bother to really get a good look at the other two sets since i already own them and the #2 did
NOT impress.
i was just about to look for gormiti when something caught my eye. the 3-packs! they had the spidey and friends, daredevil/iron man stealth/silver surfer & the army builder sets. first off, lets get the whining out of the way. the spidey and friends set is dreadful. the only good thing about it is that the spidey figure (looks the exact same as the secret wars spidey) is painted perfectly. much better than the spidey i got in secret wars. and in spite of that fact the set is completely un-purchasable. why you ask? because of the other two stinkers in the set. firestar has to be one of the most boring figures i've ever laid eyes on. the sculpt is pretty nice, but the paint and design is more ho-hum than a wings marathon. thumbs down. and here's where it gets worse. iceman is by far the worst figure of the entire line. you take your absolute worst painted figure of the most boring character you can think of and he's still a world beater over iceman. i
pray that they make a cool iceman sculpt. i'd like a translucent blue one in the same vein as the flame on human torch from wave one, but have it be the spikey iceman. this one is
not going to cut it. he's that terrible old school style where he looks like he's made out of snow. positively dreadful. i will not be buying that set unless it's for only $6. and as i just typed that sentence i realize that i forgot to look at the price of the 3-packs. sorry.
the other 3-packs were equally great, they both had a stinker figure in with them, but no deal breakers. the army builder hydra soldier and hand ninjas are spectacular. the paint on the hand ninja is second to none. the color scheme is so clean looking. i would have bought the set for this figure alone. he does come with a bonus though. the hydra soldier is nearly as great as he is. very nice paint apps and the colors look terrific together. so that just leaves the shield agent as the stinker. and boy does it stink. it's almost like the face was a transfer and they didn't quite hit him on the cross hairs. i don't like to judge all the sets based on the paint apps, but they were all the same. they must have had johnny crosseyes on the paint line that day. it's almost like he's nick fury's half deformed mentally challenged little brother (i know, not very classy). you get the idea though. he sucks.
the final set, and prolly the one i'm most interested in, was great. out of the three they had only one had a really great daredevil paint job, the others were getting close to that secret wars level of quality. the stealth iron man looks awesome. definitely the class of the set. the silver surfers look about the same as the iceman sculpt. except instead of a light blue wash they got a light gray. it's really about as good as i expected after the comicon pics but a little worse even. only because of the shoddy washes they've been doling out lately.
gormiti was the same. all still sporting my little red "x" in the corner. you go to target and it looks like this line is going strong, but when you go to toys r us it looks like it's dying.
so, why am i going back tomorrow? well, my wife gave me the old screw job. and not in a good way. i gave her my checking card to go grocery shopping yesterday and she still had it. noticed this in the line at target. thankfully i had some weight to cover my costs there, but was bone dry at toys r us. the only reason i still went to toys r us was because i thought they wouldn't have anything. imagine my surprise/disappointment when they actually had something worth buying. payday is tomorrow and after i make my house payment i should have enough for toy splurging. for sure gonna get that iron man/daredevil 3-pack and maybe even the hand/hydra set. i'll prolly set that spidey one on fire and piss on the ashes.
EDIT: holy eff that's long.
Edited by dankingery, 11 August 2009 - 05:04 PM.