Congratulations to Bro Midnight for winning the October 2014 Contest !!!

The mystery character is indeed Warbird AKA Ms . Marvel and here's the proof .

HAPPY HALLOWEEN !!! October 2014 Contest has some loose incomplete MOTU TREATS for the winner !!!

Here are some figures I am giving away for the October 2014 Contest . You can win seven loose vintage Masters of the Universe figures . All figures are loose and incomplete . Here are some notes on a few of them with some issues in no particular order .

(1) Dragstor - his wheel does not roll.

(2) Whiplash - There is some paint wear on his face.

(3) Sy-Klone - missing wrist rings and helmet ring

(4) Kobra Khan - squirt feature not working.

(5) Mantenna - paint wear on eyes.

Despite the flaws, I assume that many of you may want these guys anyway, even if you already own them . You can use them as TRADE BAIT , or CUSTOM FODDER .

Here are some pics of the figures that you can win .

And now here is the TRIVIA QUESTION 

( 1 ) Give me the name of the figure .

( 2 ) The name of the toy line . 

( 3 ) The name of the company . 

As always all contests are 30 days long . Contest expires November 29, 2014 . As always the first correct answer is the winner. Good luck to all . Have a Happy and safe Halloween !!!

Links to Action Figure Imagery's Facebook & Twitter page .

For those of you whom may not know, Action Figure Imagery Toy Reviews has both a Facebook page and a Twitter page . The pages have been up for a while, I'm just letting you know so that you'll have more than just one option available to you for updates on the blog . I just use the Twitter page to update whenever there is a new post . The Facebook page gives you updates also . The Action Figure Imagery Toy Reviews Facebook page is referred to as just Action Figure Imagery . To visit the Facebook page click this following link Action Figure Imagery Facebook Page  . To visit the Twitter page click this following link Action Figure Imagery Twitter Page .  There you have it. Two social network pages for Action Figure Imagery .

MARVEL LEGENDS - Agent Venom Review !!!

I purchased this figure of Agent Venom , like many, from a local Walgreens at the cost of $ 19.99 . For those of you whom may not know, the secret identity of Agent Venom is not Eddie Brock . It is Eugene " Flash " Thompson , better known as just Flash Thompson . That's correct, the same Flash that use to bully Peter Parker in high school and would later in life become friends with him . When I first saw this figure I was not excited about it . Even though at the time I thought the figure looked cool, I just was not excited because I did not originally knew who the character was . I had not read recent issues of Amazing Spider-Man in a while and was clueless about this character. However my excitement changed when I discovered that it was Flash Thompson . I was hoping and wishing that Hasbro had made an extra head, with Flash's actual human face as a bonus accessory, however there is no such thing. Despite this, the figure does not disappoint .

When you remove Agent Venom from the packaging you will see that he comes with quite a few accessories . Four guns and a symbiote piece of his costume . His armor could be considered an accessory also because it is removable . I was nervous about removing the armor off of this figure, worried that I might break something . However if you want to see him without the armor , then head on over to www.itsalltrue.net . Agent Venom is also reviewed over on this great toy review website, and you can see him in a pic without the armor . Plus the shoulder flaps on the armor are bendable.

This symbiote piece fits perfectly into a hole in his back . Plus you can rotate it while it is in there.

I like how the black gun has a red dot at the end of the firing point, allowing us to visually imagine a red laser beam being shot from it. Speaking of guns, this is one of the benefits of owning an Agent Venom figure . If you feel like he has too many guns for himself, then feel free to give some of his guns to your other action figures that did not come with weapons, however you feel like they deserved weapons. I felt this way myself about the old Marvel Legends Toybiz Mystique figure. I was disappointed that she did not come with any guns, so loaning her one of Agent Venom's fire arms is a nice luxury to have. Speaking of accessories, if you pay attention to A. Venom's belt you'll notice that he has a ton of non removable items that a soldier should have . His belt is covered with items , from all angles, the back and sides.

As you can see Flash is carrying as many extra items a soldier needs. He is loaded with what looks like extra knives, pouches , holsters, water canisters, maybe bullets are in those pouches and possible grenades. Also in the above pic is the aforementioned hole in his upper back for holding in the symbiote piece that he comes with .
The figure itself overall is one of the best Marvel Legends Hasbro figures in a while . As you can see he looks to be just a tiny shade over around six inches tall .

When you remove the armor, you'll notice that he'll seem a little smaller in girth . The armor bulks him up a bit visually . It is also a luxury to see non- Peter Parker Spider-Man type characters growing in our collections, as the pic below is a good indication of this statement . As Agent Venom , Flash Thompson now joins Spider-Girl , Superior Spider-Man ( who is really Doctor Octopus ) , among others as NON - Peter Parker Spider-Man type characters and action figures .

                                                        FINAL   THOUGHTS
( 1 ) ARTICULATION - Excellent all around articulation . No complaints in this department .

( 2 ) STANDING  ABILITY - You will have to pose him a certain way to keep him standing without falling. Play around with his knees and ankles a little for that proper stance.Once you get him in that proper stance he stands nicely .

( 3 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  BEST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE ? Finally an action figure of Flash Thompson after all of these years, even though we can not see his face. The all around articulation is a plus also. The extra guns are also a nice bonus.

( 4 ) WHAT  I  LIKE  LEAST  ABOUT  THIS  FIGURE ? Has nothing to do with the figure at all, but what the figure does not come with. An unmasked Flash Thompson head would have been nice to have .

( 5 ) WHAT  COULD  HAVE  BEEN  DONE  TO  IMPROVE  THE  FIGURE ? Repeating what I mentioned above. The figure needs an unmasked Flash Thompson head to make it a very good buy / purchase for any Spider-Man fan. Or action figure fan for that matter .

( 6 ) GRADING  SCALE - On a scale of one through ten I give this figure a 9.5 . What kept me from giving it a Perfect Ten is the difficulty in getting him to stand properly without falling and the lack of an extra unmasked head .

( 7 ) FINAL  ANALYSIS - Overall I am pleased with this figure. We get to add another good guy to our collection to help Spidey out instead of another baddie . And despite not having an unmasked head, it feels good to add one of Peter Parker's longtime friends to our collection no matter what form they are in . But besides this being Flash Thompson , this is a very cool action figure to add to your collection even if it was not Flash . The extra accessories and overall sculpt and posing ability makes this a great figure.

TOY STORIES - Installment Number One !!!

Welcome to a new series I'm starting here on Action Figure Imagery . This series is called " Toy Stories " , with a little nod of respect given to the Toy Story movie franchise since toys are involved . This series will cover toys from a NEWS perspective . Every now and then toys may make news headlines for obvious reasons . Not very often however, two stories have made headlines this week involving toys. One made national headlines , and the other was just mainly news to us MOTU Classics collectors .
( NOTE ) I will NOT repeat every word these articles have. I will just post links to the articles and give my views and opinions on each subject matter .

             First up is the story of a Florida mom starting a petition to have the Breaking Bad action figures removed from the shelves of Toys R Us . Why ? Because she claims that today's kids try to imitate the action figures they have and according to her these Breaking Bad figures definitely have some "bad" things about them, such as meth bottles and prison jumpsuits. You can read the article by clicking this link http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/20/living/breaking-bad-action-figures-toys-r-us-protest/index.html
Now here are some pictures of the toys the woman is referring to, for those of you whom may not know. CNN is not the only media outlet with news of this . The following pic is courtesy of www.epictimes.com .

My opinion on this story is that there is way more important stuff in the world to worry over . For any parent that does not feel like these toys are right for their kids, simply just do not buy these toys for your kids . Simple as that . Don't spoil the fun of us adult collectors that intend on buying these toys ourselves. I like the Breaking Bad figures myself . And just because some of the accessories contain negative content such as drug paraphernalia does not mean that the buyer is into that stuff . I sure as heck is not. I just happen to like the figures as I already mentioned .
                   The other big toy news story to make headlines this past week is the resigning
of Scott " Toy Guru " Neitlich from Mattel . The website Action Figure Insider was first to report the news and you can listen to Scott's interview with AFI by clicking this link http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/afi-exclusive-scott-toy-guru-neitlich-resigns-from-mattel/ .
The following pic is also courtesy of Action Figure Insider

As many of you already knew, Scott was the Marketing Brand Manager over the Masters of the Universe Classics among other lines at Mattel . With a big emphasis on the word " WAS " . He has taken his talents to another toy company .
My questions remain the following .
( 1 ) With Scott gone, what will be the fate of the MOTUC line after all of the vintage are made in the 2015 subscription ?
( 2 ) Will there be a 2016 rebranding of the line ?
I hope that who ever Mattel hires to replace Scott, I hope this person has a passion for the line along with interacting with fans . Those were two benefits of having Scott as the Brand Manager .

That's it for now folks . Those are the two stories making headlines involving toys this week . You will see more " Toy Stories " in the future just in case more stories similar to these occur .

A look back at old Wrestling Figure Advertisements .

Here's a look at some old ads from some Toyfare magazines of wrestling figures . The thing that is nice about wrestling figures in my opinion , is that one does not even have to be a wrestling fan to enjoy wrestling figures. And the reason I say this is because a lot of wrestling action figures come with a lot of cool accessories . Some wrestling action figures even have better accessories than super hero action figures in my opinion . Also wrestling figures are easier to customize than super hero figures . Because of lesser clothing , they can easily be transformed into regular everyday people or super heroes themselves. A lot of super hero figures are tougher to customize because of things like armor getting in the way , weapon attachments on parts of their anatomy , capes , masks , etc . Here is a look back at some old ads by Jakks Pacific and WWE Mattel . Plus one ad from the Toybiz ( TNA ) Total Nonstop Action Wrestling series .

That's it for now. Hope you enjoyed browsing through these or may even found something you may be interested in if you do not own it already . Check the ARCHIVES of this blog for something similar I did with Movie Action figures. Expect more toy category advertisements in the near future.