Power X'treme Rebooted!

I have been collecting Centurions toys again and it really brought back many good memories.
While surfing the net, I stumbled across 2 talented customisers who have updated and rebooted the Centurions figures.
These are really cool.
Check them out

Customiser : PANZERVARGAS

Ace

Jake

Max

Customiser : nath_1977

Jake with rebooted Hornet

Little Plastic Man Funny Contest!

Readers of my blog will be aware that I usually end my toy reviews with a joke using the figure or its accessories.
Recently, I purchased NECA Disney's Lone Ranger Tonto and wanted to review it. However this time round, I decided to let my readers come up with the funny caption for my last picture.

I will pick the best 3 funniest captions or speech bubbles and the decision is solely by me.
This is just a fun contest so please don't take offence if your entry is not chosen or ask why it was not chosen.
The 3 winners will win a set of limited edition Iron Man 3 cards. I will post internationally.
Please submit your entry to xiongatoz@gmail.com with your name, address and blog (if any).
Contest will end on the 31st of July 2013 and results will be posted on the 1st of Aug 2013.

Win Limited Edition Iron Man 3 cards!

So put on your funny hat and write a hilarious caption/speech bubbles for the below picture.

FlatHeads By Emilien Escalle

Got a pleasant surprise from Emilien Escalle when he sent me his designs using my Flatheads template.
He has done Chewie, Darth Vader, Homer, Marge, Sponge Bob Square Pants and R2D2.
They are really cool.

As all good things must be shared, I have uploaded it so everyone can have a piece of  FlatHeads By Emilien Escalle!

Check it out!

Jakks Pacific Smurfs Micro Village

My fondest memory of the Smurfs was that I would catch the cartoon every Sunday morning. My dad would tape all the episodes on the VHS (for those who do not know what that is) so I could watch them anytime.

Jakks Pacific has the licence for the Smurfs and they were the one that did the toys for The Smurfs movie.
With the anticipation of the 2nd Smurfs movie, they again are producing the toys for the movie. On top of that, they have also produced the Smurfs toys from the cartoon and the ever so cute Smurfs Micro Village line.

The Smurfs Micro Village line caught both my wife's and my eye because they are so irresistibly cute.
The line consists of 1 inch figures and interlocking tiles to build your very own village. They also sold the 1 inch Smurfs separately in pack of 3's.

The packaging is eye catching with a colorful painting of the village on the card.
The figures can be clearly seen and they come out of the packaging easily.
The back of the card shows the other figures from the series and also the unlimited ways to built your very own micro Smurfs village.

These are real small figures (1 inch in size) so don't expect too much in terms of paint quality.
However, I must say it is pretty good for its size.
The sculpt is also well done for its size.
Articulation is nil but expected.

Overall, a cute addition to my collection. I kinda consider them as designer toys and have decided to frame them up and display them with my designer toys!

My Smurfs all framed up for display

Hot Toys Avengers Thor

After getting Hot Toys Black Widow from the Avengers, I managed to get my hands on Thor for a pretty reasonable price on the secondary market.
Looking at the prices of the other Avengers, I don't think the other teammates will be hooking up real soon...

The packaging is very simple and the same for the whole Avengers line.
You get a outer slip cover that covers a box with a window in front.
Thor's face is on a grey background at the front...and well that's about it for graphics.
The figure and all its accessories are secured nicely in the plastic tray and taking out the figure is very easy.

The Black Widow sculpt to me was slightly off but for Thor, I think it is perfect.
The sculpting is amazing especially the hair. I think this is a much better sculpt as compared to the first Thor figure.
For Black Widow they used rooted hair which is supposed to be the most realistic but Thor's sculpted hair is  just as good!
The sculpting managed to capture the flow of Thor's golden flock very naturally and realistically.
On top of the excellent sculpt, we get Hot Toys' ever reliable and amazing painting, you get an excellent figure.

Thor's accessories comes with 6 interchangeable hands, hammer of Mjolnir, Tesseract containment tube and stand.

Accessories for Thor seems to be on the light side but with the hammer of Mjolnir and the Tesseract containment tube included, I am happy.
I must say the stand out accessories (not much of a competition) must be these two items.

The metal hammer is really cool with the leather carry strap. It is all too realistic.
I am not sure if it is a reissue from the first Thor figure but I really like how the hammer turns out.
It is pretty heavy so the figures' arm may not be able to hold certain pose with the hammer for a longer period of time.

Tesseract containment tube is also another gem.
It looks amazing with all the details...it would be perfect if it had light up feature for this...:p

The suit is also nicely done however it is pretty restrictive to the figure's articulation.
I am happy that the cape is already attached to the figure, I did have problems attaching the cape for the DX12 The Dark Knight Rises Batman.

Overall, this is an awesome figure. A great addition to the Avengers team.