International G.I. Joe figures on card

I have never really bothered to have unopened toys. As you saw a few days ago, I'm actually quite the opposite. I make an effort getting old toys - and I open them.
Still, the effect of collecting toys is that you usually end up having many several unopened examples, but I never made it a goal to be a so called MOC/MISB collector (Mint on Card, Min in Sealed Box).

There was, how ever, one thing I wanted to have in my collection. Carded Joe figures from several different countries. And I made the conscious decision og chasing down a few selected pieces. No really rare ones, and certainly not "mint". In fact, many of them are really banged up, with poor cards. I don't care, I just like to have examples from different nations - like the Norwegian carded Action Force figures.

The pictures are not the best, as my camera was acting up. And in the future I hope to take the pictures these deserve. But I'll do the run down on my small, but planned carded collection. So hop on in.

How to make Bouillabaisse

This is my mother's recipe of a dish she calls Bouillabaisse. She's a skilled cook, and more willing than most others to try out new recipes, and new ways of making old  recipes. With that in mind, I have no idea if this actually is Bouillabaisse or not, but it was a really tasty dish using various seafood.
Relatively quick to make, this was a dish that could be a welcome change on a boring Monday.

Read on!

Figure Friday: Avengers will be Assembled

The first two sets arrived today by mail. It's the smallest of the Marvel Superheroes sets, featuring Captain America on a bike, and Iron Man chasing Loki and Hawkeye. And I'm very excited. In fact, I'm saving these for a special occasion: my summer holiday which starts in two weeks.

If you saw the latest Avengers movie, you obviously see that these sets are based (if somewhat loosely) on the movie. I'm ok with this. When I first heard about Lego doing Marvel, I was a bit annoyed that they would be based on the movie - because what if the movie sucked? It would have been a minor problem, because it's still Lego after all. But there's a reason I prefer Original Trilogy Lego over Prequel Lego.

You know how it is though, the movie was amazing, definitely better than most Avengers comics ever made (which I talk a bit about here), and almost to the point where I consider the movie to be canon for anything Avengers. And the result today, this last Friday in May, is that I have to restrain myself from opening these boxes. And it's really no point in doing so. I can probably build Lego and do my real work at the same time. But I like to save them for that moment when I have no other distractions.

And distractions I have, which is why this Figure Friday article will be slightly shorter than what you are used to. I will leave you with a few impressions based on the unopened boxes of these Lego Superheroes sets:

• Iron Man wasn't chasing Loki, it was Maria Hill and Nick Fury. Would you be excited for minifigures of the SHIELD directors? I would.

• Loki is featured in three of the five Avengers sets. I don't mind, he looks to be a fantastic figure. Cape, helmet, staff, great detailed print.

• There are two versions of Iron Man, this is the Mk.6 he had in the first half of the movie.

• The Cosmic Cube is a standard, translucent 1x1. I like that. Iron man's repulsors are round, flat 1x1 in translucent blue.

• TLG (The Lego Group) have gone with stickers for the vehicles. AFOLs (Adult fans of Lego) seems to be torn on this matter. I'm in the camp that would prefer printed bricks instead of stickers, but I can see how it's convenient if you plan on using the bricks for something else.

• "Comic Adventure Included". Interesting. Makes me wonder if we'll also see a Marvel Lego videogame.

• The two aliens chasing Captain America have different faces, and are actually kinda creepy for minifigures. Well creepy in a cute way of course. They are still minifigures after all.

• Captain America has maroon colors, just like in the movie. But here, with his maroon bike, maroon shield, maroon gloves. It's all very obvious how red it should have been, and how very maroon it actually is.

• And regarding the motorcycle... Doesn't it vaguely look like a scooter? Something that teenagers or old men would drive? Technically, Capt. Steve Rogers could fall into both those categories, so I guess it makes sense. But I'd liked to have seen him on something like this instead:

Enjoy your weekend people.

Lego Hawkeye

I had initially planned for an exciting recipe today, but since we're actually celebrating the 80th anniversary of Lego (the 22nd), I felt it was more appropriate to do an article on Lego.

Most of my readers know I really like the superheroes. Even if I don't collect that many superhero action figures, they're my main interest. It also goes without saying that I like the bricks. So when Lego decided to start the Superheroes theme, you can imagine how excited I was.
I have a few of the bigger sets on their way from Lego's online shop, so I can't show those yet. But I managed to get hold of a promotional sample of Hawkeye. I felt this was very adequate, as Hawkeye has been featured a few times before here in this blog, and he's probably my favorite Avengers character.

Read on for a few more pictures.

Transformers Box Art part 1

I showed an example of box art last time I wrote about bootleg robots.

Read on for a lot more!

Figure friday: assembling the tomahawk

Every summer for the last ten years, I've treated myself with a big toy of some sort. It has been everything from the box sets from Marvel Legends, to the big Lego buildings. Today, as last year, it will probably be a robot of some sort, or maybe the always relevant unassembled G.I. Joe vehicle.

There's something about assembling a Joe vehicle. It's relaxing, soothing, almost meditative - In addition to it being incredibly fun. Taking the time to study how it was produced, and how it's assembled. Noticing details in paint and sculpt. The idea of the toy being completely unused, the thought of playing with a pristine example of a toy. The thought of the screaming elitist collectors who think that a toy like this is best left inside the box.
Open your toys people!

And here's a few pictures from me assembling the mighty Tomahawk a few years back.

It had to happen: Zombie Lego.

I have several friends who are really into the whole "living dead" thing. And, I have seen that the zombies have been increasingly popular the last decade, with comics like The Walking Dead, movies like Shaun of the Dead, games like Left 4 Dead. I'm clueless about zombie media though, I just stumble upon it from time to time. In fact, I actively try to avoid zombies because I think it's a bit too silly. It has never fascinated me. Until now.

These pictures should all be well known to most zombie fans by now, but I'm sharing them anyway, as it's the first time I've been interesting in anything zombie related. Click in for more.