Oh my, these are characters for wave 2 of the 3.75-inch tall X-Men action figures that are based on the upcoming “Wolverine And The X-Men” Animated series (starting on Okto Channel on 1 May 2009, 7.30pm on every weekday).  I like Black Wolverine and of course Night Crawler in this wave 2!

However, I wonder what’s with the re-releasing of repeat characters all over again?  Already I see and an overstock of these X-Men toys in the departmental stores, and you can even find lots of loose ones (of every character from wave 1) at China Square Central flea market.  Forge and Toad are the only new characters in the upcoming wave 3.  I hope they will they make the female characters like Storm, Emma Frost, Mystique, Jean Grey, Rogue etc.  

I know this series of X-Men toys are more targeted at kids but like all Marvel Comics-based toys, it’s ultimately the toy collectors who buy them.  I’m actually surprised that they made a lesser known character like Avalanche in wave 1.  Then they most probably will make Mystique, Pyro and The Blob too to complete the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, I hope…

Here we have the next wave 4 of the cute little Marvel Universe action figures, to be expected in the stores in the second half of the year (or perhaps a little earlier).  To me, this wave of Marvel characters look to be the most uninteresting of all the 4 waves so far. 

So far, Classic Spiderman and Black Spiderman are always the ones left in the departmental stores, hence I wonder why they are released again.  Well at least I know I can take a break, skip this wave and look forward to the waves after this!  I hope they re-release Bullseye though!

I love these cute little Marvel Universe action figures.  And at the same time I ‘hate’ their existence too for they caused my emotions to be torn in 2 directions, that is, to collect them, or forget about them and stick to collecting just a few toylines. 

In this 1st wave that I completely missed out when they came out in our local departmental stores early this year, I like all of them except for The Punisher (his head is too big).  No wonder they re-released him again in wave 3  with a differenct head sculpt and slightly variant costume.

I think the staff of our local departmental stores are quite surprised that these little non-Star Wars action figures can fly off the shelves despite the high price tags of SGD17.90-18.90 each. 

Toy collecting is like being addicted to smoking and even drugs.  Once you’re in it, your emotional need for immediate gratification takes over your head and tosses out the logic thinking part out the window.  It’s like “who cares what other people think!?  I’m gonna buy them all now!  Hahahah……!!”  In Chinese, we call this stage “too deeply poisoned”…

Since there are no new My Little Pony toys in the departmental stores to excite me for the past months, I’ve turned my attention back to X-Men and other Marvel Comics action figures.  The upcoming “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie not just brought about the 3.75-inch tall action figures toylines based on the movie, but also sort of inspired the rise of the equally small-sized Marvel Universe action figures.

These tiny action figures are surprisingly detailed for their size.  I managed to spot some loose ones on display at a shop at China Square Central flea market yesterday but those belonged to the shop owner and were not for sale.  They look pretty good on their own or displayed together with the Star Wars and G.I.Joe action figures, which some collectors have done and posted the group photos online.

In this 2nd wave of Marvel Universe action figures, I like The Silver Surfer, Iron Man, The Human Torch and Captain America.  The 2 Hulks, being so much larger than the rest, are better value for money.  However I have no interest in this character.  I have no idea who Iron Fist (green costume) and Ronin (ninja-like costume) are, for they are too obscure.  They should have made War Machine and the rest of the Fantastic Four team instead.

Anyway, this toyline is definitely aimed at the Marvel Comic book fans and toy collectors.  There are more characters lined up for the rest of 2009, so we shall see if more prominent Marvel characters get made into action figures, or the really obscure ones which have lesser fan followings.  For me, I look forward to the former.

Lately at the local departmental stores, I’ve been seeing a lot of these little 3.75-inch tall Marvel Universe action figures - wave 3 selling alongside the equally small-sized “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie action figures and the new “Wolverine and the X-Men” animated series action figures.  They are priced between SGD 17.90 and 18.90 each, depending on the store.  In the US, they cost around USD 7.99 each, same as the Wolverine movie and animated action figures of this scale there. 

According to online fans speculation, this small scale Marvel Universe series looks set to replace the much larger 6-inch tall Marvel Legends action figures toyline.  These little super hero and super villain toys are fast gaining acceptance and popularity among many fans while the Marvel Legends are gradually losing fan support and popularity.

I used to ignore the Marvel Universe action figures until I saw the Ms Marvel (black costume) and Captain America action figures in person one day at a departmental store.  They look quite cute and I couldn’t resist picking them up.  However, most of these tiny figures have imperfect painting, so you’ve got sift through many pieces of the same character before you buy.

I feel a bit guilty going into Marvel Universe action figures as I’m supposed to focus on the X-Men ones only.  But then sometimes, the other Marvel super heroes like The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Spiderman and Iron Man do ‘cross over’ to the X-Men storyline and vice versa.  Hah, me and my weak excuses to buy other toylines…

When you visit the toy sections of some local departmental stores, do you notice that certain toys are locked in glass cabinets?  You’ll need to notify the store personnel to purchase or view them up close. 

They traditionally do this for PC games and trading cards, which are either expensive or easy to go missing from the store.  These days, I see Star Wars (Lego ones too), Transformers, Marvel Legends, and even the 4-inch tall Marvel Universe and Wolverine action figures under lock and key in some stores. 

During the height of the Transformers movie craze in 2007, some stores not only locked the Transformers toys, they even limited each customer to not more 2 pieces of each item.  I thought it was to give more genuine customers a chance to buy those hot toys, instead of letting them end up mostly in the hands of toy scalpers.

Currently, I notice some departmental stores selling the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” and “Wolverine and the X-Men” action figures in sets only.  You can see them all on display in the locked glass cabinets but can’t touch them.  According to the store personnel, the stores have begun to recognise such toylines as collector’s items and have thus taken steps to prevent damage by kids and other people.  Times have changed indeed…

I saw the very quick trailers on Okto channel this week, confirming that new “Wolverine and the X-Men” animated series will be showing soon!  According to the trailers, the show will premiere on 1 May 2009 on Okto channel!  Perhaps the time slot is between 7-8pm on every weekdays.  My guess is that it will replace “The Spectacular Spiderman” animated series currently showing on 7pm from Mondays to Fridays.

No wonder the action figures for “Wolverine and the X-Men” animated series have hit the local departmental stores for the past month already.  It’s not just to coincide with the “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” movie, but also the upcoming Wolverine animated series.  But at SGD 18.90 per each 4-inch tall action figure, I doubt many layman parents will be keen to get them for their kids.  I’d expect the main market to be the local toy collectors.  The Wolverine and Logan action figures, plus some Cyclops action figures are still most abundant on the pegs.  Nevertheless, I’d expect the stores to re-stock this toyline for as long as the animated series runs here! 

Updated on 17 April 2009: “Wolverine and the X-Men” animated series will premiere on 1 May 2009 on Okto channel (Singapore), every weekday at 7.30pm!

This is one very detailed video review of the 25th Anniversary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TMNT) action figures.  Yes these turtles are based on the very original 80’s mold and they are being re-released early this year in the departmental stores, even here in Singapore.  I first spotted them in our local stores in early March.  However our local TMNT packaging do not come with bonus DVDs, unlike those released in the US.  Must be due to different DVD region codes.

The video review of the Ninja Turtle toys made me want to have them.  Hence I went to look for them in the departmental stores over the weekend but they are all gone!  Only lots of Aprils, Splinters, Bebops and Rocksteadys are left on the shelves and pegs.  At SGD 16.90 each, the 80’s retro turtles are still very much in demand here in Singapore, whereas the modern turtle toys are mostly left behind.

Looking at the above wave 1 of 25th Anniversary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, I find that 80’s toys look so much more colorful than most modern toys now.  They tend to have better paint job quality too.  Although they had lesser articulation, they were still very fun to play with.  And most importantly, the toys look almost exactly like their cartoon counterparts!

I had thought that I’d pass these 25th Anniversary Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles action figures, but now I kinda regret a bit over my initial decision of not getting them, when I had so many chances to do so since I first saw them in early March.  So to buy toys now or buy toys later, it can be tough to decide.  It’s sometimes hard to differentiate between “impulse buying” and “worth buying”…

When I saw this Star Wars box set on sale at a departmental store yesterday, I recalled reading about its detailed review done by LEon recently.  If you are still thinking of getting this Jedi Starfighter toy, it’s still available and there are plenty of them in stock.

Look at this stack of Jedi Starfighter box sets.  There are at least 30 boxes.  These photos were taken at the departmental store’s Orchard outlet.  LEon got his box set from the Chinatown outlet.  Maybe the Bugis outlet has it too.  The store is having a 3-day store wide sale till today (12 April).  Not sure if the Starfighter will still at this price after that.

For me, it was a ‘dry’ day for new My Little Pony stuff that I was hoping to find but there were none.  I think our Hasbro Singapore is currently focusing on the more lucrative Wolverine, Marvel, Star Wars and Transformers toylines to bother much about My Little Pony.  Gosh, I was so bored with my pony hunting trip that I even resorted to blogging about Star Wars toys observations, a toyline that I don’t collect…

I did the ‘unthinkable’ impulsive thing yesterday - playing the Capsule Station for Ben 10 toys!  Here’s my ‘lucky draw’ prize for SGD 3.00.  I was actually aiming for the cute Ben 10 figure (the kid version) but I ended up with one of his alien forms called “Upgrade”.  It was a 1 in 5 chance of getting kid Ben 10 himself.

Doesn’t the pose of this alien figure remind you of a Japanese horror movie where a female ghost crawls out of the tv screen?  Eerie isn’t it?  Anyway, Capsule Stations are ‘evil’, stay away from them and don’t look at their contents if you can help it.  They are wicked towards your pockets!