Tag: Hasbro

Custom Marvel Legends Astonishing X-Men Emma Frost

Even Hasbro acknowledged that they could have done better with their Marvel Legends Emma Frost, and when they first showed the prototypes for the Marvel Madames, I thought there was hope. I won’t claim credit for the idea – Robokillah was the one who saw the potential for a repaint of Madame Hydra for use as Emma Frost. But then hopes were dashed, when sadly the mold for the Viper head was distorted in production.

As disfigured as she is, she still proved to be a hard figure to come by (I resorted to eBay eventually) – and as I lamented over her once beautiful head sculpt, I thought that it wasn’t really that far off. Maybe, just maybe, it could be saved. So I sent the head to Ibentmyman-thing to see if it could be prettied up. Sure, I also did some stuff to the original Hasbro Emma Frost body, but the real credit goes to Benty.

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Best Week Ever (the Toy Version) and the Spread Good Karma Giveaway

I’ve had a really good week (or so) for toys. It started on our anniversary – as a gift, my wife got me the Wal-Mart exclusive Avengers Hulk that has been eluding me for some time. And she didn’t even blink when I told her that I was planning to Frankenstein him with some other Hulks to make the best Hulk ever (maybe some day). And it’s kept going since then:

  • Hasbro Return of Marvel Legends – BigBadToyStore let me know that my pre-order of Wave 3 was in.
  • 3A Toys Action Portable – My most-anticipated figure, the Fighting JC, was announced in 1/12 scale, and on order day I also scored an AP blue-suited Zomb for a great price on eBay and the secret Dark Sarge Zomb on bambalandstore.com, right as the JC sale was closing up.
  • Hot Toys The Dark Knight – I missed out on the pre-order window for the SWAT version of Jim Gordon, but Sideshow just let me know that they found one for me (I had put myself on the wait list).

With all this good stuff happening to me (aside from now being completely broke :)), I figured I should spread the good toy karma around with a Free Stuff giveaway. Here’s what’s up for grabs and how to get up to three chances to win.

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More Fun with Laser Pointers and Action Figure Pics

I had so much fun taking pictures of the figures in my laser pointer how-to post that I spent the next day looking for more guys to shoot. I’ll spend a little less time on the how-to’s here, as it’s pretty simple to get really nice shots using a laser pointer as a primary light source.

The shot above is the Marvel Legends Icons Ultimate Ghost Rider. It’s always been relatively easy to light up the translucent flames on his head – here, I used my cell phone and tablet with a flashlight app for some backlighting highlighting his head. What I used the laser pointer for is to get some additional light on Ghost Rider and his bike to simulate light coming off the flames. I aimed the laser at my cheap DIY reflector and beamed it back onto him. Would have liked to get a little more spread (his arm didn’t get any of it) but I still like the effect.

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How to Use Laser Pointers for Dynamic Action Figure Lighting

There’s so much to love about MatthewK’s photo reviews. I spent some time talking with him about his setup and process, and one thing we discussed was how he creates lighting effects for things like laser beams or jet pack flames, like you can see in the “Space Ace” portion of MattK’s Masters of the Universe Classics Vykron review. The secret, he told me, is tiny LED lights – that and a whole lot of patience. Basically, he sets up in darkness, opens the shutter on his camera, triggers his flash for the basic lighting, and then draws the lighting effect he wants. The patience is key, because it takes a lot of tries to get it just right.

Since I am a pretty impatient guy, I thought I’d try something simpler. I found some action figures and accessories that I could try lighting with a couple of simple laser pointers that my wife picked up for me. So, while you won’t be getting laser beams in this article, you might still find some pretty cool looking action figure pictures – I’ll explain how I set up each shot so you can try it for yourself.

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