Dino Riders Triceratops

Some may have been surprised by Tuesday's list, specially the top 3. Personally I never had a lot of Dino Riders, which is somewhat sad. Because it's an amazing toyline. The concept was ridiculous, as any other toy line. But the execution was flawless. In fact, the toys were of such amazing quality that they saw a life beyond the toy stores.

The dinosaurs were so well sculpted that the natural history museum at The Smithsonian ordered the dinosaurs from Tyco to be sold in their gift store. Obviously in new packaging, without the guns and humanoid insect warriors.

Another really cool feature was that the dinos were morw or less in scale with each other, and that they from the mid-size and up had battery driven mechanized movements.

I had the Triceratops, which easily was my favorite dino. Today, I couldn't find any of the armor or guns. The insect warrior I know is lying around somewhere, but I can't be more specific.

So here is the dinosaur in it's natural glory. A fantastic toy that when I play with it only makes me want to get more Dino Riders.

The Top 10 Female Action Figures of the 80s

I felt a bit like an outsider, because my peers certainly didn't share my opinions, but as a kid, I loved the female action figures. They were rare, they were something different, and most importantly, they were usually extremely pretty. I guess I was a victim of... biology.

Looking back at these toys now, as an adult toy collector, I realize three things: The female action figures were severely  under-represented, to the point where it's actually offensive. Secondly, the toy makers struggled to translate the characters' beauty from cartoons and movies. And lastly, I realize that I still absolutely love these action figures. So much that I want to share a list of the ten best female action figures of the 80s. Skip a lot of paragraphs for the list, or simply read on! Either way, click in to read more, and leave a comment if you feel like it. Agree, disagree, how would your list look like?

Lego Curiosities

I had initially planned a longer article for today, one I've been working on for a little while. But I got visitors over, made a nice reindeer pot, and well.. no time to finish article.

So for today, I'll share two interesting pictures that resurfaced over at reddit. One was a picture of an actual Lego mold, and the other was an old advertisement or poster of the early 90s Pirate Lego. Feel free to marvel over the first and nostalgia hard over the second.

Bacon tip

Just a little tip on this Tuesday. I've previously mentioned a way to get the bacon extra crisp is to cook it in the oven, as opposed to the frying pan. And that's cool, but it really takes less time to fry it. Still, the excess fat makes it less crisp than it should be. Instead of just going straight from the pan onto the serving plate, I let it rest for a few seconds on a newspaper. The paper absorbs the fat, and the bacon ends up super crisp.

Also this Tuesday: WTF?

Cheese Flutes

I'm not actually certain what the proper name for these things are. They are small bread rolls with cheese. I'd call them cheese horns, but I guess flute or bugle could do as well. I'm going flutes. Leave a comment if you think of a better name. 

This is a personal favorite after making pizza. I'm usually left with additional dough, and I'm way too cheap to throw away excess dough. Delicious with cheese, jam, ham, butter, etc. Great for breakfast the day after.
Step on in for recipe and pictures!

New York Toy Fair 2013 winner: Lego

Toy Fair has came and went this past weekend. Mostly for the various companies to show off their plans for the future, I'd say this year was decent. Scratch that, it was monumental. I'll not get into detail with the various reveals, as they are easily available at places like toynewsi, toyark. The various specialized forums like seibertron, he-man.org, eurobricks, yojoe all had representatives running around the floor, tweeting their preferred toy news. And reporters like Pixel Dan has made thorough videos that I recommend you checking out.

I'll be brief about what interested me the most:

Mattel is moving along with their Masters of the Universe Classics line, and showed a painted prototype of Castle Grayskull. Undersized, but gorgeous. I'm still on board. Upcoming characters like Clamp Champ, Mantenna and New Adventures He-Man are all looking good.

Hasbro revealed their new Tomahawk in the contemporary G.I. Joe line, now called... Eaglehawk. Looks awfully similar to the 1986 version, doesn't it? Except the vintage one is vintage. Hasbro's Transformers department does it better- They don't just replicate the vintage toys, they do something more. The upcoming Metroplex is far from being a replica of the vintage one. In fact, the new one is the largest Transformer robot ever made. Think about that for a second. It's bigger than Fortress Maximus, over two feet tall, where the vintage Metroplex was barely a foot, if that even.

Someone are making Big Bang Theory Mego-style dolls, all though I can't remember who. I'm interested, not necessary as a customer, but to see them on the show in one way or another. Last episode even featured dolls of some of the characters. Maybe it was planned?

The Lego Group can do nothing wrong. Almost everything they showed at Toy Fair was gold. The upcoming Galaxy Squad line has me salivating. It's the perfect mix between Starcraft, Gundam and vintage Sci-Fi movies.

But the absolute highlight of Toy Fair 2013 was the new Jabba's Barge in the Star Wars line. Obviously, I'm not ignoring the fact that we get an amazing Lego Slave Leia, but the blue orchestral leader Max Rebo, like the little show man he is, completely stole the show for me. Look at him! Look how cute and blue he is. You know those stumpy fingers will play right into your hearts. Not the first time he's being made in toy form, but certainly the best.

Schedule Change!

Ok, it's been a long time since I posted. Well, not that long, but the blog has been on an obvious decline lately. Reason is that I'm trying to figure out the future of the blog. As I told you some two months ago, I've been wanting to change the schedule, and maybe re-do the way this blog is made.

I know I have loyal readers, and quite a few random visitors (in fact January 2013 was the second best in the history of the blog, in terms of visitors), so I want to make sure that the content is good and regular!

Toys and Bacon will from now on be updated every Tuesday and Thursday with articles. The articles will be short or long, depending on my personal schedule.
You will also be able to see occasional randomness in the weekend, either by small updates like a picture or a few eloquent words, or longer pieces if I feel like producing something more elaborate.

Out goes the Figure Friday article, sadly. That doesn't mean I won't do the heavy toy article, it just means that I won't produce anything regular on Fridays.

I'll try to have a bi-monthly list. Suggestions for what kinds of lists are always welcome. Actually, suggestions for anything is welcome. Leave a comment in one of the articles, and I will notice you.

Anyway, enjoy the rest of the week, and I'll be back in full force next week!