Review: Dark Knight Rises "Gotham City Battle" Action Figure Five-Pack!

Now here’s a toy oddity I found hard to resist! Mattel has released this very reasonably priced five-pack of 3 3/4 action figures based on Sir Christopher Nolan’s bombastic, clunky, terrifyingly bleak, almost-Batmanless epic The Dark Knight Rises...

And, furthermore, this set is clearly aimed at children. “Hi, my son is turning five on Saturday and I’m looking for a small action figure of a fetish mask wearing, neck-breaking terrorist but I don’t want to spend a lot of money. Can you help me? Oh, and if you can throw in a crazy, crippled rasping billionaire and a double-crossing thief in a sexy bondage outfit then that would be good too.” Sir.. have we ever got you covered...

This unlikely set fascinates me because the quality wildly ranges from dollar store bootleg to a couple of surprisingly decent figures (at least sculpt-wise). I’m kind of amused that it exists at all.

I’ll show you a whole lot more... after the jump!

Review: The Dark Knight Rises Movie Masters: Batman and Bane.

Last week when I reviewed Mattel’s 6 inch Movie Masters Catwoman (apparently with premium sculpting and articulation for the “Adult Collector”) I childishly lamented that I didn’t pick up the Batman so I could draw a comparison. Well wipe away those bat-tears because, thanks to a recent sale at Toys R Us, I now not only own screaming/spitting vigilante/maniac Batman, but also extreme sexual deviant/sadist Bane!

This is the make-up after the break-up.

How do these two dapper gents size up against crazy cat-lady Catwoman? Find out what I thought of all this... after the jump!

Review: Mattel Movie Masters Dark Knight Rises Catwoman

I’ve been tenaciously seeking the perfect piece of The Dark Knight Rises merchandise to get the old hype machine purring, and at this weekend’s Supanova Pop Culture Expo I finally found the item I’d been questing for. Thanks to our friend Drew at Red Griffin Games I was able to snare a Mattel Movie Masters Catwoman, based on the likeness of Anne Hathaway in the upcoming film.

Most of what I’d seen up until this point had been the basic line of figures aimed at kids (and they pretty much consist of multiple tricked-out Batmans and the occasional Bane) but this is the much-coveted line for the "adult collector"! A more detailed, larger, articulated figure for the distinguished and discerning manchild! (Or ladybaby).

How does this new version of our favourite crazy cat lady fare? Why not join me... after the jump!

Katniss Barbie - yep, really

This is somewhat of a surprise to me. Obviously The Hunger Games has done all kinds of crazy things to previous box office records, and logic says there'd be a certain degree of merchandising - leaning to the more teenage/adult spectrum, surely - and thus I was NOT expecting a Katniss Barbie. Not in a million years.

More after the jump-

Fruitless Pursuitscast - Episode Two

Since none of us we're impaled by the falling satellite, we celebrated by discussing the latest week in news (and non-news too!) This time the group consisted of Fruitless Pursuits contributors Luke Milton, Mike Taylor, J. Tagmire, and Mike Wickliff.

This week's topics:
-Star Wars: The Old Republic release date
-Gears of War 3
-Diablo 3
-Nerf!
-Vintage Trading Cards
-DC Reboot (and naked Starfire)
-Jim Henson's 75th Birthday
-Mattel's Toy Subscription Service Issues

We're still sorting out our the audio setup, but if you can get past a little distortion, or the occasional robot interruption... give it a listen! Let us know what you think.

Click to stream. Right click to download.
Fruitless Pursuitscast - Episode Two

And finally, the Fruitless Pursuitscast is now available on iTunes! Click the link below to visit our iTunes store page for easy subscriptions and a fancy podcast mini-logo.
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/fruitless-pursuits/id466336249?uo=4

Amazing Classic Masters of the Universe Art!

I am absolutely in love with this gallery of classic Masters of the Universe paintings by clearly the most epic trifecta of artists ever: Earl Norem, William George, and Esteben Maroto. As a child MOTU was my next big toy obsession after Star Wars so it's amazing to see the original, untouched artworks that were used in both packaging and promotions. Let me share with you six of my favourites and tell you why I want to have their babies in my non-existent womb!

OHHH YEEEEAAAAAAAAAHH!!