Soldier Story Navy Seal Team 10 Brad Pitt look alike

Thanks to Desmond for picking this up for me! The figure was taken out from Soldier Story "US Navy Seal Team 10". The likeness to Brad Pitt is amazing...put him in a suit and you get characters like Rusty Ryan from Ocean's Eleven, John Smith from Mr. & Mrs. Smith or Joe Black from Meet Joe Black! My only complaint is the hair as most of the time Brad's hair is blonde and spiky.
I am happy with this figure...however...unfortunately, after pulling out the head from the body I just could not attach it back...hmmm...guys any idea??









Mr Smith?

Sun Star De Lorean from Back to the Future II

Time travel has always intrigued me. Imagine what you could do...all the wrongs made right, "earn" some $$ ;) or just able to experience and see beyond your life! This brings me to my next toy review...the Time Machine De Lorean from Back to the Future II.
Back to the Future is a 1985 science fiction adventure film directed by Robert Zemeckis and is one of those few movies where the sequels are just as good as the first one.
I could watch it over and over again and not get sick of it.
The movie is basically about Marty McFly (played my Michael J. Fox), a teenager who is accidentally sent back in time from 1985 to 1955. While in 1955, he meets his parents and accidentally becomes his mother's romantic interest. Because of that interference, his parents did not get together resulting in him not existing in the future, hence it's a race against time to repair the damage to history by causing his parents to fall in love, while finding a way to return to 1985.

The De Lorean was chosen as the time machine and boy its one cool machine. Sun Star produced a 1:18 die cast De Lorean from the second installment of the trilogy. Hence we get the "modified" version.
I think the details are pretty good. The interior looks accurate and the flux capacitor ( the one that makes time travel possible) is there too!
It's heavy when carried which is always a good thing.
Since the De Lorean is from the 2nd movie, it was modified to be able to fly. Sun Star made it possible to move the tires down (by moving a lever at the base of the car) so that we could also get the time machine in flying mode. A very nice touch I must admit.

How can you not have this item if you love the movie. Overall a very cool and nice item to display! No complaints for this one.
Until someone invents a real time machine, this will be the closest thing I can have!

De Lorean






Mr Fusion...it converts junk to fuel for the time machine












Nice interior






Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads

Sideshow GI Joe

As you already know, Sideshow will be producing 12" GI Joe figures.
Currently in the line-up are Snake Eyes, Cobra Commander & Cobra Trooper.
These are figures that I will most probably buy even if they get bad reviews (which I don't think so judging from the photos)...sad but true.
I am now imagining how good they will look in my display cabinet..............................

Dollars & Sense

Doing business cases and finding the Return of Investment (ROI) for a campaign or project is part of my job. Hence today while I was calculating the ROI for a campaign, I started thinking. We often pray and hope that certain toy companies will produce the figures we want. I just wonder what are the business decisions needed to go ahead with the production of a certain figure or toy line. Do they think about how much to produce, expected amount sold, expected returns, branding over monetary returns & artistic direction over monetary gains.
At the end of the day, a toy company is still a business.
Just a thought...

NECA Immortal & SDCC Exclusive Battle King Leonidas 300

The movie 300 was a 2007 film adaptation of the graphic novel by Frank Miller and was directed by Zack Snyder. The movie is based on the Battle of Thermopylae where King Leonidas and 300 Spartans fought to the death against Xerxes and his massive Persian army.
This movie was a spectacular visual treat! Before I get misunderstood, I was not talking about the 300 hunky & sweaty men fighting together almost naked saved for a leather underwear and a red cloak. I was actually referring to the spectacular visual effects and the battle scenes!

NECA got the job to create the 6" figures for this movie and released the following figures:
1) King Leonidas
2) Queen Gorgo
3) Immortal
4) Ephialtes
5) SDCC Exclusive Battle King Leonidas
6) 12" King Leonidas with sound
I only got the SDCC Exclusive Battle King Leonidas & Immortal as they were one of my favorite characters in the movie.

The head sculpt for both the figures are pretty good. I was a bit disappointed that the helmet for Leonidas could not be removed. The texture of the helmet made it look as if it was made of real metal. Rather impressive! The body sculpt for Leonidas is in proportion, not too chunky not too small.
The Immortal comes with 2 head sculpts, one with the mask on and the other without. I would rather like it to be 1 head sculpt with a removable mask.
The paint ops for both figures are clean, nothing much to complaint about. The SDCC Exclusive Battle King Leonidas, as the name suggest, is in the midst of battle so they painted blood onto his chest and legs. Nice touch.
The SDCC Exclusive Battle King Leonidas depicts the King in battle and NECA came up with a pretty cool idea. The figure comes with arrows which you could stick onto the shield and ground (base) creating a very cool display scene! The other accessories are Leonidas's spear, shield & sword.
The Immortal comes with 2 head sculpts and his 2 swords.

Overall, pretty decent figures and if you are a fan of the movie I think these figures are a must have. I am currently into 12" figures and I hope Hot Toys or Sideshow could do 12" figures for both Leonidas and Xerxes (NECA was supposed to do this figure but I guess it was dropped)...Well one can only hope.

The King






















The Immortal


















Give them nothing! But take from them everything!


Immortals... we put their name to the test


If there were product placements during that
time, this would be it!