Tag: Mattel

Happy 75th Anniversary, Batman!

This weekend marked the 75th anniversary of Batman’s first appearance, in Detective Comics #27, way back in 1939. While there’s lots of interesting news stories about this auspicious event, one of the more fun ones I looked through was Comic Book Resources’ 75 Greatest Batman Covers, as voted on by their readers. The Neal Adams gatefold featured above came in at #43 on the list.

We also happen to have a few Batman comic book covers (and comics) courtesy of Bill’s Comics – these ones feature action figures of the Caped Crusader, and I think they match up pretty well with the drawn version with an artistry of their own. Bill’s cover above is from the start of a three parter, Batman: Curse of the Demon. If you like this one, be sure to check out all of Bill’s Batman comics, all of his comics featured here, and even more at Bill’s own site. Cheers!

Masters of the Universe Classics Club Eternia – Map of the Horde Empire Viewer

Each year when the Club Eternia exclusives ship, I publish one of the more popular posts on AFP – the map viewer for the Club Eternia exclusive map. This year, Mattel shipped the Map of Horde Empire with the very mysterious Unnamed One. I still don’t know what the Unnamed One looks like, because I’m away from home.

  • Position your mouse over areas of the map to magnify it.
  • To zoom in or out, scroll up or down with your mousewheel.

If I’m away, how did I get this map done? Big thanks again to my wife, who made this possible again this year. Enjoy exploring the Horde Empire, and be sure to visit our previous installments:

Sorry, Castle Grayskullman – Ra-Jar is the Best Fan-Created MOTUC

Masters of the Universe Classics Ra-Jar 3

We’re going back a ways, but Ra-Jar was one of the runners-up in the Masters of the Universe Classics Create-a-Character contest that spawned Castle Grayskullman back in 2012. A few days ago, Matthias Grundner posted a Ra-Jar album on Facebook featuring a pretty awesome custom of the character, including a write-up of the features and bio of the would-be toy.

I’ve got no idea of Matthias’ relationship with Ra-Jar’s creator, Josh Howard, but he also included the Mattel-commissioned artwork for the contest by Jonboy Meyers and Chuck Pires. Anybody know the origins of the character sheet? Was it produced by Mattel for the creator, or vice-versa? Or did another fan of the character make this tribute? Please share the background if you know – all I know is that if Ra-Jar had won instead of Castle Grayskullman, I would have happily bought him.

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DC Universe Classics Passes the Torch at Mattycollector March Sale

Mattycollector March Sale

I’m sure it’s no coincidence that Mattycollector’s March sale (underway now) includes figures from Mattel’s outgoing DC Universe Classics and incoming DC Universe Total Heroes lines. Hook-handed Aquaman is the first of the last four DCUC figures, and John Stewart (with alternate Green Lantern heads) is the first deluxe Total Heroes figure to be sold on Matty. All six Watchmen figures are also up, for those of you who didn’t sub to Club Black Freighter or are just looking to cherry-pick.

On the Masters of the Universe Classics front, it’s the relatively unexciting Hydron, following blockbuster releases of Two Bad and Modulok – but he’s joined by New Adventures He-Man and Fang Man from last year, if they didn’t sell out during Early Access. Even if you’re not a New Adventures fan, you might want to pick up a Galactic Protector He-Man for the easy hand swap He-Man custom.

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