The Written Word

Our Toy Fair 2005 coverage is up! All of our write-ups have been organized and posted.

As the day progresses, I will be adding thumbnails and text links to specific pictures, but right now, each write-up has a link to the specific company gallery. Also, I should be adding one or two more companies.

I saw something that made me so happy... it's like catching a glimpse of a really great pair of buns, and having to look up and smile at someone, even your wife.

Like after eating a big thing of lasagna

...The pics just keep comin' out.
We put up Sideshow, SOTA, Mattel, Megabloks, Plan B, the Designer Toys, Palisades... go straight to our Image Gallery and click all over.

Our write up should be done for Monday, so we'll have that posted then too, but I think most of the pics are up, and there are a ton.

Man, if you like T2, or Planet of the Apes, or Star Wars, or X-Files, or Buffy you should hit our SideShow gallery now!

Lots of great stuff.

Star Wars Press Kit

Yesterday was our last day at Toy Fair. The last toys we looked at were Hasbro. Of course Star Wars was the line to see. I can't believe how great the Episode III line looks.

Hasbro Showroom

At the end of the tour I received the official Star Wars Press Kit. Holy crap is it cool. On the front is an ROTS Anakin in a bubble. When you open the kit it automatically flips around revealing Darth Vader.

Just got back from Toy Fair and boy are my eyes tired

Hey folks, quick update, I'm staying home today to do nothing but upload pics. If you check out our image gallery, you'll see that I'm uploading all day. Also, once you check out a folder, be sure to check back again in a bit, there will probably be more. We'll let you know when we're all the way done.
Check out some of the cool swag we got too!


I'm working on Diamond Select now, and will have lots more as the day goes on.
Stinkhead out

after shock.

Getting home from NYC, especially Toy Fair, I have a little shell shock. Not many cities in the U.S. are as energized as this one with things going on everywhere and it really wears me out. But I'm home now. Back at school on my planning and I can't help but miss the craziness a little. Especially the toys....

Toy Fair this year was a great one, and a dissapointing one at the same time. I had a GREAT time talking with the Toy Growers. I found myself just wandering back to their aisle to chat with them. There are some great peeps over there like Sam from Friens with You, Heather at Wootini, and Patrick from Rocketworld. It was refreshing after so many stuffy business oriented meetings to talk with such down to earth creators. Cranium's meeting was fun too: we sat and played games the whole time!

But sadly, we weren't allowed into Toy Biz for our appointment because someone leaked their products on the web and so Toy Biz decided to cancel all their dot com appointments. Very upsetting. It didn't seem fair to punish everyone for someone else's unprofessionalism. Also, Xevoz were absent from Hasbro (but Stink will tell you all about that), and there didn't seem to be as many fresh, new products this year. But it still was great, and as always it's fun to talk with other journalists and professional toy makers. And we always learn something in the process.

Well, I better get to my real job. Our coverage will be up soon.

peas.

Day 3 Morning

Well its 7:00 in the morning and I thought I should post stuff for you guys.

LEGO
All I can say is wow! Melinda from LEGO showed us around and gave us the exclusive on all the new sets this year. The big news and I mean big is the Deathstar set. This thing is huge. They wouldn't reveal the block count but that just has to mean that it is more than the Star Destroyer.



Of course we also saw all the Episode 3 sets along with the sets for the new Harry Potter film. A full complete report will be posted this week.

Palisades
The sad news is that they are finished producing Muppets. The final series will debut in stores soon. The good news is that they are now in full Sesame Street production. Of couse we were all salivating over Super Grover. This is a 2005 tour exclusive meaning that if you know somebody going to conventions be very nice to them!!! The box art is drawn by Alex Ross and it is beautiful.




Mattel
The big line this year again for Mattel is Batman. This year however they have two Batman lines: The cartoon and the new film Batman Begins. We got a good look at the movie line and a great shot of the Scarecrow.




DC Direct
The showroom for DC Direct was twice the size of last year. Mostly because of all the new lines coming out. Following from last year with the HUSH line DC has now created Tim Sale's The Long Halloween. These figures look spectacular.




Well today is the last day and I am heading home. I will be seeing Hasbro and will have a great report on all the Episode III toys. Uggghhh.... I need coffee.

Toy Fair Day 2

Sorry folks, we don't have any new pics right now... it's 2 am, we just got back from a kickin' Art Asylum party (well we did have to stop by and get another slice of NY pizza on the way back)
we're exhausted.
We saw some great stuff today. I can't wait to show you all the batman stuff we saw. stuff from the comics, the new movie, and ofcourse the cartoon.
We have just a few more appoinments left tomorrow, then we make the long road home tomorrow.
So far we have more than 600 pics to organize.
Lots of great stuff to tell you about,
Mr. Stinkhead... sleepin' it off...

On the side

We had a sweet time checking out the open booths at the Javits center, we have the bulk of our private showroom appointments tomorrow.

Wow is security tight, they scan our badge's UPC code each time (last year was just a visual check) , and people are not as receptive to photos. This one buttface seemed to think that us telling people about his products would not help him out at all... we'll see you at Toy Fair next year... or not.

SideShow had some great new products. We're really digging the Planet of the Apes, and the X-Files (two shots in the gallery now)

We've started uploading images to our Image Gallery to get you started. Be sure to come back tomorrow night for some more "appetizer" shots, and the main entree of coverage will come on Wednesday.

It's snowing like crazy here. But we can still manage to hit the bar... sweet
Stinkhead out

Day 1 Designer Mania

Oh man what a day!! I had some great talks with Patrick Ma from Rocketworld, Greg from STRANGEco, met one of my favorite artists Pete Fowler, and had a wonderful talk with David Horvath concerning his Ugly Doll line.

STRANGEco has Mars-1's second Vinyl and it looks to be just as rad as the last.



Also, Critterbox is expanding its Uglydoll Vinly line with Ugly Dog... Check it out.


More later, I need to crash.

Toy Fair 2005 Day 1

Well we are at Toy Fair 2005 and what a day.

Jakks-Pacific
While Jager and Stinkhead were checking out Javitts Center I went over to the Jakks-Pacific Media showcase with Iron Cow Matt Cauley. Jeremy from Jakks gave us the run down on the newest WWE wrestlers and Dragon Ball Z. The first big news was the new articulation of the Adreniline line. Here is a picture of Mostifa with the new torso articulation.


But the big thrill was meeting the legendary Terry Funk. He was great speaker and answered all the fan boy questions. I also got to meet Stacey Keebler. Now I don't follow wrestling as much as I used to but damn she was hot.


I also go to check out the prototype for the new Undertaker prototype figures.
More Images

MEGABLOKS
After Jakks I checked out Megabloks who has a great new line of Pirates vs. Skeletons. I wish I could show you the photos of the Skeleton Pirate ship but they asked us not to show them for 4 weeks so be sure to check back because this thing was sweet. It was about 3 feet long and had cloth sails. Megabloks does have a new Hummer Pro set and is releasing Fantastic Four hero lines.


At the end of the day we all met up and had a Guiness to celebrate the day. Tomorrow I hit LEGO and I can't wait and hopefully we can crash Hasbro for all the new Episode III goodness.

Toy Fair!!!

Well tonight I pack up for Toy Fair. I have all of our press kits assembled, maps to all the cool toy stores printed out, and our appointment schedule all hammered out.

We will be "phoning" in some reports straight from the show on this blog, but keep an eye out on image gallery too (link on the right)

If you're not a member of our mailing list, why not Sign up now? We won't send you any spam, and we'll be drawing a name from the list at random to win a grab bag of Toy Fair swag once we get back from the show.

Also, if you have any questions you want us to ask, or specific things to look out for, visit the official question thread on our message board.

Alrighty folks, we're pretty excited, and you should be too. We'll have some great updates for you starting Sunday (the 20th) and then the motherload of coverage on Wednesday the 23rd.

Stinkhead out.

Xevoz Giveaway deadline approacheth

Remember the deadline is tomorrow
(like midnight, but I'm really busy with Toy Fair prep, so the earlier the better)

This is a great start, hopefully we'll get some more in today and tomorrow. Tell your friends

But now, check out the gallery of entries.

The folder at the top is of some goofy pics Crazy Birdman sent in. He also sent in a regular entry... but I wanted to keep those separate so you didn't think he was being entered multiple times. But we do love seeing all the work that goes into these. Hasbro will dig it too.

Ok folks, get em in!

Mr. Stinkhead

Brady Bunch DVD

It's a story of a lovely lady with three lovely girls and a man with three boys of his own. Together they formed the Brady Bunch, one of the most popular television shows of all time. Now finally Paramount has begun to release the show on season DVD box sets. Of course we start from where it all began, season 1.

Stand Out Episodes
The Honeymoon (pilot)
This is the episode that started it all. Mike Brady is a single dad raising three boys with housekeeper Alice. He met and proposed to Carol Martin, who has three girls of her own. We learn in the pilot episode that Mike's first wife and the mother of Greg, Peter, and Bobby died a few years ago. Carol's first husband was never discussed, or his whereabouts. He could be dead but it was also thought that Carol was the first divorced woman on a network sitcom.

At the wedding. all havoc breaks loose when Tiger the dog chases fluffy the cat (who was never seen again) at the conclusion of the ceremony. After the wedding, Mike and Carol miss the children and bring them along on the honeymoon.

A Clubhouse is not a Home
When the boys refuse to allow the girls into their clubhouse, Carol and the girls build their own clubhouse. Of course girls can't build things which Mike and the boys find funny. When Cindy almost is hurt it is no longer a laughing matter and the family pulls together to build the clubhouse for the Marcia, Jan and Cindy.

The Grass is Always Greener
When Mike and Carol make a bet on what is harder—cooking or baseball, they switch roles. Carol discovers that baseball is hard on the ass while Mike discovers that cooking can cause the same pain.

A Camping We Will Go
It's the first family vacation and the boys are not too happy that the girls want to tag along on their annual camping trip. When the girls ruin the fishing outing, the whole family is forced to eat the food that Carol packed.

Lost Locket Found Locket
The first of many episodes where we discover how messed up Jan really is. Feeling the pain of being a middle child, Jan receives a locket, which had no real clear sender. Both Mike and Carol suspect each other but when the locket is missing, Jan discovers that Alice sent the locket. Turns out that Alice was a middle child as well. Poor Peter is assumed to be fine.

DVD / Extras
The artwork for the DVD is a lot better than it looks from the picture. The front cover uses a ventricular print that gives the illusion that each Brady looks at each other depending on how you tilt the DVD just like in the opening and closing of the show.

The only special features included are a 20 minute documentary with the creator Sherwood Schwartz, Barry Williams (Greg), Christopher Knight (Peter), Michael Lookinland (Bobby), and Susan Olsen (Cindy) all lending their thoughts and stories of the creation of the show. It's an interesting documentary but it is nothing that any Brady fan didn't already know. I do question why the remaining cast did not participate in the feature.

Audio commentaries are also included on select episode with Sherwood Schwartz, Barry Williams, Christopher Knight, and Michael Lookinland. The commentary is really fun at times especially when they make fun of themselves and make comments about what the cast remembers filming.


Final Thoughts
I have been a huge Brady Bunch fan my whole life. I grew up with the show in syndication. Sure, the stories are far fetched at times but the Brady Bunch is just a good wholesome show that I enjoy watching to this day.

It is great that the show is now available on DVD, but I wish that there were more extras included in the set. There has to be footage never shown on television or even photograph archives. Before each episode is the original television proclamation that the Brady Bunch is in color.

This is a must-have for anybody that loved the Brady Bunch. All of the episodes are uncut as they were shown on the original run. Overall I am happy with Season 1 and look forward to four more.


Win A Copy of Season 1
I am looking for the biggest Brady Bunch fan that is deserving of this box set.


To win a copy of the Brady Bunch Season One on DVD send an email to ldp@millionaireplayboy.com with the answers to the following questions. The more creative your answers are to the questions, the better chances of winning.

1.) When it is feared that Jan is allergic to Tiger, the Brady's discover that she isn't allergic to Tiger, but what?

2.) What does Mike install when the Brady kids are always tying up the phone?

3.) What is the one thing that Cindy tells Santa Clause she wants for Christmas?

The First Season of the Brady Bunch is available at Amazon.com

Xevoz Wave 4 Two-Pack giveaway

Though we probably won't have any Toy Fair news regarding Xevoz, here is a pic-filled review of the Wave 4 Two-pack Runeslayer vs Firedrake. It's not going to hit stores over here, and they're going for a lot on eBay, so we're doing a giveaway for an unopened set I have.

Here is the review and all the contest details. Please enter before Feb 17th!

Episode III LEGO set 7256 Jedi Star Fighter

Anakin's Star Fighter is the first of many Episode III sets and what a great introduction. This is an improvement on the Jedi Starfighter seen in Attack of the Clones. The ship is a combination of the X-Wing and Tie Fighter. I can't wait to see this ship in action on screen.

The Star Fighter is an amazing set with a great range of playability. The four wings of the starfighter fold open similar to the future Darth Vader Tie Fighter. They can also fold down to the body of the ship when docked. Other movable parts include an opening cockpit and retractable landing gear.

The set includes stickers to place on the ship. This is a rather new feature for LEGO sets and I found it to be a bit aggravating. I don't like placing stickers on blocks and I question why they weren't printed on the pieces. This is a small set so the build time is under a half hour but it's one of the more solid built LEGO ships to date.

The Vulture Droid is also included in the set. This is a slightly redesigned ship from the Episode I release. The ship transforms to walking mode with the movement of the wings. The ship is small but a nice inclusion to the set giving you more for your money.

The mini-figure of Episode III Anakin has his long hair. Sadly it is not the new light up lightsaber mini-figure.