Funko Pop Collection: Part #2

I am a fan of the Funko Pop figures. They are inexpensive and feature some amazing characters. if you are a fan of any show or movie, Funko has probably made a Pop of it! That being said, I really don't collect Pops, but if I do see one of a character I absolutely love, I will pick it up. My collection is not huge, but it is selective and here are a few that I would like to share with you...

Jason Voorhees from Friday The 13th

I'm gonna mention this for about the 1,000 time here, but I'm proud to say that I grew up in NJ, specifically the part of NJ where the original Friday The 13th movie was filmed. It was a great childhood and Funko Pop Jason was an absolute must have for my collection!

Rocko & Spunky from Rocko's Modern Life

Rocko's Modern Life was unquestionably my favorite Nickelodeon Cartoon back in the 90's. The cartoons were funny, witty and a little bit adult. Chokey Chicken anyone? I saw this Rocko Pop at Barnes & Noble and quickly grabbed him up. I wish they would have made the whole crew, but at least we got Rocko, Spunky and Heffer. I wonder why they never made a Filbert?

Slimer from Ghostbusters

Ghostbusters is one of my all-time favorite movies. Ever since I saw it in the summer of 1985, I was hooked. As a kid I was hooked on Slimer. The ugly little spud was funny, unique and cute in a gross sort of way. He became synonymous with Ghostbusters. Anything branded Ghostbusters most likely had a picture of Slimer on it. That's how they would hook us kids and even as adults we were all clamoring for one more shot at a taste of Hi-C Ecto Cooler!   

Spider-Man from The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

I know this may not be a popular take right now, but I did not care for the Amazing Spider-Man movies. I just did not feel like Andrew Garfield was Peter Parker. If you like the movies, I'm not gonna hate on you. Everyone is free to have their own opinion and this is mine. Anyway, I got this Spider-Man Pop for less than $2 on clearance at Target. The one thing I did like about the Amazing Spider-Man movies was the style of the Spider suit and this Funko Pop captures that look nicely.

Toby Armored & Gnome Chompsky from Trollhunters

Myself and my kids loved the Trollhunters series on Netflix. It became a fixture in our house on Saturday mornings. Each Saturday we would watch one episode in an attempt to recreate the magic of those 80's & 90's weekends spent watching morning cartoons. We made it through the Trollhunters series and then watched 3Below, Wizards and the finale movie Trollhunters: Rise of the Titans. Guillermo del Toro created a fantastic world for these characters to play in and one of our faves was Gnome Chompsky, so my kids got me this Funko Pop for my birthday and it is amazing!

Scoops Ahoy Steve from Stranger Things

Again, I am a fan of the Stranger Things series and when Baskin Robbins joined forces with Netflix a few summer's ago it was magic. B&R pretty much turned their stores into a real life version of the Scoops Ahoy Ice Cream Shop from Stranger Things. The employees wore Scoops Ahoy uniforms, they sold Scoops Ahoy Ice Cream you could even order the U.S.S. Butterscotch sundae! As part of this alliance Baskin Robbins sold these exclusive Steve Pops at their store, so myself and the fam made a few trips and I got this Pop to commemorate this moment in pop culture. Check out a commercial for the promotion below:

Funko Pop Collection: Part #1

I am a fan of the Funko Pop figures. They are inexpensive and feature some amazing characters. if you are a fan of any show or movie, Funko has probably made a Pop of it! That being said, I really don't collect Pops, but if I do see one of a character I absolutely love, I will pick it up. My collection is not huge, but it is selective and here are a few that I would like to share with you...

Blanka from Street Fighter

Around my neighborhood, Street Fighter II was the fighting game of choice. Me and my friends would play this game for hours on our SNES during the summer of 1992 trying to perfect all the characters special moves. Of course one of the easiest to master was Blanka's electrical attack. That paired with his crazy look, made him a favorite of mine to play with.

Casey Jones from the TMNT Movie (1990)

The summer of 1990 brought my favorite Heroes In A Half-Shell to the big screen. My Dad took my brother and me to the theater to see this movie and our minds were blown! The movie was gritty & dark, but it still had the humor and action that we loved from the TMNT cartoon show. It was the perfect balance of the Mirage comics and Fred Wolf cartoon. Of course one of the highlights was the appearance of Casey Jones. He had some of the best scenes in the movie and of course I needed a Casey Jones to go along with my TMNT Funko Pops.

Doctor Octopus

Spider-Man has always been one of my favorite comic book superheroes. So much so that I have a Spider-Man tattoo and back when I was a DJ, my stage name was Spyda-Man. Those days have passed, but Spider-Man is still one of my favorites and my family got me this Doc Ock Funko Pop as a birthday gift a few years ago. He's a bad dude and still looks awesome, even as a Funko Pop!

Gremlin from Gremlins (1984)

Seeing Gremlins with my Dad and siblings in the movie theater is one of the earliest memories that I have. I don't actually remember seeing the movie, but I remember getting home from seeing the movie and the power went off in our house. Of course everyone was joking that it was the Gremlins that caused the power outage, but in fact it was a blown fuse. I didn't know that and those innocent jokes led to a few sleepless nights in my bed!

Harley Quinn from Batman: Arkham Knight

I have the Batman Arkham games collection for the WiiU and honestly, I've only played it a handful of times. I'm not a huge fan of the game itself, but I do like me some Harley Quinn. I picked this Pop up at a going out of business sale at a retro store in our mall. So for a couple of bucks Harley came home with me.

Dustin from Stranger Things (Target Exclusive)

I have been a fan of Stranger Things since the first season hit Netflix way back in 2016. Recently, my oldest daughter has watched the series with me and my wife and now she is in love with the show! For my birthday, my wife and kids got me a Target exclusive Funko Pop Dustin set. The set came with this Funko Pop of Dustin in his "Camp Know Where" outfit and a shirt with the "Roast Beef" design on it that Dustin wore in season 3 of the series. I love this shirt!

That's it for this round. Check back next week for some more random Funko Pop figures from my collection!

These figures are totes DORBZ!

Over the years I have collected certain Funko POPs figures, but mostly just of characters I really enjoy. These have included the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Stranger Things, Spider-Man and Street Fighter. I had seen the Dorbz figures, also released by Funko, at stores before, but never really wanted to pick them up. That is until our local Hastings store was closing and I was able to grab some for around $3 each.

The figures in question were these Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! I was able to pick up Leo, Raph & Donnie for the $3 price tag, but there were no Mikey's available. I waited until I was able to find one on ebay for a good price. I think I paid around $5 for him and was able to complete the set!

A few years later I spotted these Ghosbusters Dorbz figures on clearance at Gamestop. Once again they were around $3 each and I was able to add Peter, Ray & Winston to my collection. It wasn't until about a month ago that I was able to add Egon to the team. I paid around $7 for him and I am glad the crew is back together to bust some heads...in a spiritual sense of course!

The Funko Dorbz line was just as vast as their POPs line with characters from Marvel to DC to horror icons like Jason to cartoon favorites like He-Man. There was a Dorbz out there for everyone. They just never caught on like the POPs and were recently discontinued. I wasn't a huge fan in the beginning, but these figures have grown on me for their cute faces and really affordable price point. I suggest you pick some up to add to your collection and enjoy! They are pretty awesome!!

New Additions to the TMNT Collection III

Over the last few months I have succumbed to the addiction that is on-line shopping. Seriously, once you start you find so many other cool things and you just can't stop...that is until your wife reminds you that you have children and bills to pay. This realization led me to be pretty selective of what I've purchased recently and as a huge fan of the Green Machine there are a ton of options. So without wasting anymore time, here is part 3 of the newest additions to my TMNT collection!

TMNT: The Incredible Shrinking Turtles Book

I had some of these books as a kid, but never this one. This book came as a gift in a package from the ultra-cool Hoju Koolander! If you want to check out some of his radical retro flavored articles or videos you can check them out at RetroDaze.org or on the WIZARDS! Podcast on Youtube.

TMNT II: The Secret of the Ooze VHS Tape

I have extremely fond memories of owning this VHS tape as a youngster. Me and my brother would watch this movie daily. This copy is a special one though. It comes from the Mirage Studios Archives and was in the collection of TMNT Co-Creator Peter Laird! Don't believe me?

I bought it off the Mirage Studios website and it came with this sweet Certificate of Authenticity! It only cost me about $10 and I love it! If you would like to own a piece from Mirage Studios, they typically hold weekly ebay auctions. You can view the items available by clicking HERE.

TMNT Party Wagon: Hot Wheels

I kept seeing this mini version of the Turtles' Party Wagon pop up in my Twitter feed. People were finding it everywhere. I searched my local Walmarts, Targets and Dollar Tree stores, but had no success. Instead of continuing the trend of disappointment, I decided to buy this off ebay for $5. After I made that purchase, I began finding these all over the place. I picked up a few extras and gave my son one, Ieven sent one to a collector in Canada who was having trouble locking one down. I really like the details and for $1 or less, you can't beat the usual Hot Wheels quality of this toy!

Funko Pops!

My wife scored me the Target exclusive Metalhead figure for Christmas. This was a big surprise for me and she was really proud of herself for tracking him down. She's a keeper. The Casey Jones, I found in a clearance section at Walmart. This was odd to me since they had just recently came out. I didn't have a Casey in my Pop! collection yet, so I took advantage of the possibly mislabeled figure and now he stands proud next to my Turtles on the shelf in the basement!

TMNT Valentines

I found the vintage looking TMNT Valentines on clearance for around $1 and my wife found the other 2 boxes for me. Of course the kids wanted to use some of these for my friends and I let them go to town. I remember what a thrill it was to receive a Ninja Turtles Valentine. I received a card featuring something I loved on the biggest love day of them all and it was AWESOME! Who am I to keep another child from experiencing that same thrill?

Thanks for bearing with me and checking out some of the latest additions to my TMNT collection. I gotta say, I'm running out of room and may have to expand my basement collection area because I'm sure there is more to come for this Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fanatic! COWABUNGA!!!!

My Faves: Figure Collection TMNT Edition

I have a fairly big collection of loose figures from the 80s & 90s. I would like to share a few of my faves with you at this time and since I have deemed August 2019 "The Month of the Turtle", this is an all TMNT edition of My Faves!!! Here we go!

Nightwatcher Raphael (Playmates, 2006)

I really enjoyed the 2007 Imagi Productions TMNT movie! The cast was great and included Chris Evans, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Patrick Stewart. The animation was pretty good. The fight scene with Leo and Raph on top of the NYC buildings in the rain was a highlight for me. I also loved the way they were able to make this a standalone movie, but still tied it in to the original Ninja Turtles movie trilogy. Anyway, the Nightwatcher character was pretty cool and when I saw this figure at a second hand store for less than a dollar, I immediately made it part of my collection. Yes, he is missing his helmet, but Raph is still a cool piece in any collection! 

Krang Mini-Vynl (Funko, 2014)

The look of these figures is pretty cool. They look cartoony, but that is the charm of this series from Funko. I picked up 4 or 5 of these blind boxes at Barnes and Noble for around $2 each. They were in their discount bin and I couldn't pass up that deal. Usually I don't like buying blind boxes, but for that price it was worth the gamble for these sweet TMNT figures. In addition to Krang I got Casey Jones, Michelangelo and April. 

Venus De Milo (Playmates, 1997)

First off, I have to say that I absolutely do not care for the TMNT: Next Mutation series from Saban. It looks cheaply made, the stories are weak and the dialogue is extremely dated. That being said, I thought the idea of adding a new Turtle to the family was a cool idea. The way it was done was pretty awful though. This can be done well as we have recently seen with the mutation to Jennika in the latest issues of the IDW Ninja Turtles comic, it just wasn't done well in this series.

Donatello LEGO Key-chain (LEGO, 2013) 

I went crazy when I heard that the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles were going to have their own LEGO sets! I loved LEGO as a kid and I still love them today. It was like a mash-up of two great things coming together to form one awesome toy! The first items I saw released were these TMNT keychains and so I bought my favorite Turtle Donatello when we were in the LEGO store while on vacation in Orlando, FL. I bought a few of the smaller sets and put them together with my kids. We had fun working together, but like most of our other sets they are now broken apart and in buckets with hundreds of other LEGOs waiting to be built again!

Tokka & Rahzar (Playmates, 1991)

The first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie is one of my all time favorite flicks, but I would have to rank Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze a little higher. TMNT 2 was a little bit closer in tone to the cartoons I knew and loved, Vanilla Ice gave us "Ninja Rap" and it introduced us to 2 new mutant menaces, Tokka & Rahzar! These guys were freakin' AWESOME, but as a kid I always wondered why they didn't use Bebop and Rocksteady? It was years later that I found out it had to do something with the licensing rights of those characters. That turned out okay in the end though as we all grew to love these vicious, muscle bound, BABIES!!! I bought the Tokka action figure right off the rack in 1991, but Rahzar had to wait a few decades before I added him to my collection. I found him in a loose figure bargain bin at a vintage toy store for around $1.50! On a side note: Did we ever figure out which one was the ugly one?

Stranger Things are happening...

at Baskin Robbins right now! I heard through the wire that Baskin Robbins, home of 31 flavors, would be introducing new Stranger things inspired flavors and creations this summer. So this past weekend we took the kids to the park to run around, had a picnic then after that we headed to taste the flavors of the upside down!

Baskin Robbins was pretty creative with their new Stranger Things menu. They didn't just rehash an old product and slap a clever Stranger Things related name on it, but these are all new, unique taste treats. Above you will see the Demogorgon Sundae. This is a Demogrgon shaped waffle bowl filled with Very Berry Strawberry ice cream, strawberry topping and sprinkles. The Upside Down Sundae is a scoop of the new Upside Down Pralines ice cream with caramel sauce, whipped cream, nuts and a cherry on the bottom! 

These two creations were dedicated to everyone's favorite Hawkins refugee, Eleven. Here we have the Elevenade Freeze, which is a mix of vanilla ice cream and lemonade. The final stop on this journey takes us to Eleven's Heaven, waffle cone ice cream, chocolate coating, sprinkles served in a waffle cone.

Of course when we entered Baskin Robbins we had to stop and check out what items we wanted to try, but there were some other cool Stranger Things decor to check out. We all got our pictures taken in the Scoops Ahoy! cut out and I was interested in the two new flavors of ice cream. Those being the Upside Down Pralines and Eleven's Heaven.

While ordering I couldn't stop drooling over the Stranger Things merchandise they had for sale that included an exclusive Scoops Ahoy! Steve Funko Pop figure, stickers and official Scoops Ahoy! shirts! Didn't get any this time, maybe next.

I ended up ordering the Upside Down Sundae and my son and daughter each got a Demogorgon Sundae. I really enjoyed mine, my only complaint is that it was just a single scoop of ice cream. Next time I'll ask for two. My kids enjoyed their frozen novelties as well and were filled before they even finished!

Baskin Robbins didn't just let the fun stop at the door, you can take home your own Sccops Ahoy! brand ice cream, the U.S.S. Butterscotch or you could order some of a Byer's House Lights Cookie Pizza. Very cool! If you are a fan of Stranger Things, I highly suggest you go to Baskin Robbins right now and take part in these limited edition treats while they last! Remember season 3 debuts on July 4th!!!!

Check out the Baskin Robbins/Scoops Ahoy! page by clicking HERE!

Christmas 2018 Fallout

 Now that I am a parent Christmas is mostly all about making the kids happy and helping Santa get them the toys that were on their list. But every year I still look forward to unwrapping my own gifts from my kids & wife. They typically do a great job of getting me some sweet presents and this year they did not disappoint. I know it's a little late, but lets look behind the wrapping paper and see what goodies were under the tree for me this year!

 Ghostbusters: The Ultimate Visual History Book

I love this book! I have been a huge fan of the Ghostbusters since the awesome foursome hit screens in 1984 and I thought I knew a lot about the series, but according to this book I didn't know as much as I thought I did. This book goes deep into the creation & production of the 2 original films. This is a fantastic read for any Ghostbusters fan with some bonus extras included inside.

Funko Pop Doctor Octopus & Blanka

I collect Funko POP figures, but I am not a ravenous collector. I usually grab the figures I like from series that hold a special place in my life. My wife picked me up these two guys because she knows I am a fan of ol' web head and she heard me say Blanka was my favorite Street Fighter II character while I was playing the game with my kids. I guess my wife does listen to me every now and then!

Super Mario Kart Piranha Plant & Rosalina Figures

My wife admitted that she picked these up for me because they were on a smokin' clearance sale at Barnes & Noble. I think they are pretty cool, but I will probably hand them down to my son so we can add them to his Super Mario figure collection.

Movies!

I rarely make it out to the movie theater to see a movie above a PG rating these days, so my wife picked me up a great selection of movies I have missed over the last year. Included are Spider-Man: Homecoming, The Death of Superman, Justice League, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Avengers: Infinity War, Rampage and Stephen King's IT. Can't wait to find the time to watch these flicks!

Stocking Stuffers

I freakin' love stocking stuffers! Ever since I was a kid I couldn't wait to rip into the stocking on Christmas morning to find the cool little gifts Santa had brought in addition to all the edible goodies inside. This year was no different. I got a mini Horn Head Madball, Batman Fidget Spinner, Ghostbusters Ecto Plasm container, Ninja Turtles Playing Cards and some sweet treats!

Guitar Hero Live for the WiiU

I kind of looked at my wife confused when I opened this one. I hadn't played Guitar Hero since it was on the PS2 and really hadn't shown any interest in picking my guitar back up, but once again my wife found this on a great Black Friday deal and thought I would enjoy it. I was skeptical, but I plugged in my pretend amp and myself and the kids had a blast playing this game again!

Well, that's it for this past Christmas. I hope yours was merry, bright and full of good tidings. Now enjoy a full hour of Christmas commercials from the 90's to tide you over until next year! Merry Christmas!

Comic Book Pick: 5/3/17

This week the comic book I am most excited to read is...
TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES FUNKO UNIVERSE #1

The Funko craze comes to TMNT! Funko-style TMNT get wind of a new Shredder-inspired cereal and go to the source to investigate the bad-guy based breakfast! An absurd and hilarious adventure awaits!

•   Inspired by the Funko toys based off the original TMNT cartoon!
•   Part of this month's big FUNKO UNIVERSE event!

        (W) Caleb Goellner (A/CA) Nico Pena 

SRP: $4.99