Customized Faker

 I've been a fan of the Masters of the Universe since the day that 8 year old me walked into the Mervyn's toy department and saw these massive figures on dark red blister cards literally towering over the Star Wars and GI Joe figures next to them.   I was enthralled by the art on the packages and the mixture of  fantasy and technology.   I had many of them as a child, in 2002 when the line was reborn I began collecting them again.

In that line there was one figure that have I always wanted but could never find at a good price. Toyfare Magazine had a mail away offer for Faker, the evil robot version of He-man which, in the secondary market still claims a ridiculously high price tag. So at Power-Con this year I found a open He-man figure and a Skeletor harness and decided to make my own! 

 I've painted figures before as a kid, but this was my first attempt to make a professional looking figure.  I think he turned out pretty well!

There and Back again: A Hobbit Review

I went and saw the Hobbit this morning and here are my thoughts

*SPOILERS* If you are one of the five people in the world that haven't read the book or seen the cartoon.

- Peter Jackson and Co did their usual outstanding job with this latest edition to Middle Earth. The same attention to detail that went into the Lord of the Rings was here. My only criticisms are that a large number of the goblins were CG and lacked the depth, texture and variety of the Mordor Orcs or the Moria Goblins, and it was fairly easy to forget that three of the company were dwarves unless they were standing near Gandalf or some other tall folk.

- In addition to what is "seen" in the book and cartoon, we a treated to a couple of new scenes dealing with what Gandalf was up to when he was separated from the Dwarves and Bilbo. We are also treated to a couple of new villains, one is the Necromancer who's true origin many will know but I will not say as it is sort of a spoiler. The other is an Orc that was named in book in passing, and much like Lurtz and Gothmog the Lesser, was given a larger role on screen. This new orc ties together several different scenes in the book nicely and is a good addition in my opinion. I was also happy to see Radagast the Brown make an appearance in the book, and I'm hoping that Beorn makes the cut in the next film.

- The movie ends around the halfway point of the book, just as the Dwarves are reaching Mirkwood, and it appears that the actually tale told in the Hobbit will wrap up in the second movie and the third will finish tying the two trilogies together.

Can't wait till next Christmas to see the next part!