Turns out, this past year has presented many opportunities to catch up on TV shows and movies that we had been putting off, as well as allowing for us to jump back into some classics we hadn't seen in quite some time. With the addition of the new NBC Peacock streaming app, we found ourselves jumping in and out of some older TV shows, seeing old friends and theme songs that felt as familiar as returning to your grandparents' homes for a holiday.

We decided after watching a random episode of Punky Brewster, to start it at the beginning and go through all four seasons. What we had forgotten though, was the show was returning this month, with Soleil Moon Frye revising her role as an adult Punky, now with some little monsters of her own. Apparently our timing, or rather whatever algorithm that put it in front of us, was spot on.

First off, I want to explain why we're even writing about the show. This show meant a lot to both Liz and I growing up, almost every episode was a lesson, and seeing a kid our own age as the focus and star of the show, not just a member of the family, was pretty big.

I'd say that one of us identified a bit more with the character than the other, as we have consistently spotted things throughout the series that happened to Punky that Liz either very purposefully or on a subconscious level, took on as style and personality traits.

Obviously Punky meant a lot to us then, and this current re-watch has really been a lot of fun and got us super excited for the new series. We know revivals of classic shows have the ability to be quite the letdown, but we're still going to be excited to see some of our old friends.

Speaking of those old friends - let's do a quick recap of everyone before diving into some of the episodes.

She's got PUNKY POWER!!
The star of the show, Punky Brewster was a homeless child squatting in an empty apartment across the hall (this particular apartment is occupied by at least two other tenants as the series goes by) from her soon-to-be adopted father, Henry Warnimont, who also doubled as the building's manager.

The first episode reveals that Punky's father left her and her mother, and apparently soon after, her mother most likely loses her shit and abandons Punky and her dog Brandon at some grocery store where Punky quickly learns the art of cute-hustlin, charging people to carry their groceries to their car. (She does a bad job at this.)

Punky is ridiculously cute and funny and it's no wonder why the show did so well just based on her alone. The character's aesthetic is what she's mostly known for and much like her name, is sort of punk lite, or rather... "punk-y". What we found out quickly is that Punky is a MASTER manipulator and made her way into her new life in no time by cute-ing and puppy-dog-eyeing her way into Henry's home. Which by the way, is exactly how she made her way into everyone else's homes in the 80s.

After season 2, the trademark pigtails and outfit are dropped for a more fashion-forward look and hair styles, mimicking (or setting) the styles of the time. But everything after season 2 was now off of prime-time and rather shown in syndication. Which resulted in a couple changes in the show's format which becomes obvious in this current re-watch. We'll get into those differences a bit later, but for now, let's reintroduce a bit more of the cast.

Brandon the Wonder Dog!
Okay so we completely forgot that Punky's dog's name was 'Brandon' which, if you follow us on IG, is why we posted that quiz in our stories asking what everyone thought his name was. The options were Barkley (Big Bird's dog on Sesame Street), Brandon (a lot of people got it right), Data (this was actually our friend's dog's name that looked like Brandon), and Sandy (the dog who played Brandon's real name). What's weird about that, is that when we met our friend's dog, Data, for the first time, Liz immediately started calling it 'Sandy' and most likely didn't know why.

So Sandy as Brandon was a huge part of the show. Brandon was almost always dressed up as something funny relating to whatever was happening in the episode. Multiple times Brandon would be on the old adding machine helping Henry figure out expenses at the kitchen table, he would often be found serving food on a cart that he'd push out of the kitchen while on his two hind legs. I don't know if any of this was fun for the dog, but I can only assume a dog this smart had tons of loving people working with and for them at the time. We are excite-a-sad to see how Brandon is mentioned in the new series, and hoping they give Brandon (Sandy) some proper credit.

Henry Warnimont was a cold old heart that was in desperate need of warming. But after Punky came into his life, it was apparently that he was as loving & caring as he was frugal.
What's impressive about George Gaynes taking on the role of Henry in 1984 is that at the serie's start he was a young man of only 67, and reached his 70s during the show's run. But George went on to do many more shows and movies (Police Academy obviously) until his last acting appearance in 2003 at 86 years old. We're only focusing so much on his age here because during this rewatch it's apparent how great of a sport he was as an actor, to constantly dress up in silly outfits (almost as often as Brandon) and make a fool of himself for a mostly child-filled audience. The episode where Henry dates a woman with a "hog" (that's a motorcycle for those of you not in the know, much like Henry wasn't) and every time he swoops through the scene being picked up or dropped off by her, he's got his hair slicked back, wearing sunglasses, jeans and a leather jacket while singing his own renditions of popular songs (seriously it's like he refused to listen to the actual songs and just wanted to read the lyrics in order to prep for each scene).
The point being man was a damn good sport, and I'd love to know the things he said no to doing on the show. Ridiculous costume after ridiculous costume, Gary would walk into a scene as Henry knowing that he being a strict, stern older man wearing a costume would delight the live audience as well as those of us watching from home.

Cherie Johnson as played by Cherie Johnson.
This was such a great character. Cherie (pronounced 'Cherry' - we have a hard time not calling her 'Share-ee') was usually the impulsive and glutenous one of the group - always down to eat too much or jump into a bad decision with her BFF Punky.

Cherie had her own style that rivaled that of Punky, with her trademark headbands and rad, er... I guess 'radical' outfits.

While usually acting as the id of the group, she was also often looked to as the grounded friend that would pull Punky back into reality any time a far-out idea seemed like it would get her in trouble with her grandma.
Cherie and her grandmother Betty Johnson stayed in the same building as Punky and Henry one floor above them on the third floor. This made it easy for all four of these characters to be in the same place at the same time and for Cherie and Punky's friendship to grow throughout the series. Cherie stayed with her grandmother because BOTH of her parents died in a car accident one day when on their way to pick up Cherie. She obviously blamed herself for their death, and moped around about it for exactly one episode. But that's the kind of person Cherie was, never to let anything get her down for too long, a strong and upbeat spirit.

The ORIGINAL 'Nurse Betty', Betty Johnson "rounded" out the main cast as Cherie's grandmother and main guardian.

I'm not certain why, but this show was QUITE mean to Betty, mostly in the form of fat jokes slung from the otherwise timid Henry. I know it was just the culture at the time that insults were a way to get a quick laugh, but now it's pretty cringy having to watch jokes that seem out of place amidst the otherwise caring, heartwarming show. 

But Betty (played by Susie Garrett) could give it as much as she could take it. While she dealt with an onslaught of fat jokes from Henry, she fired back with jokes about his cheapness and his intelligence. 

Besides being on the show to take the brunt of the unneeded insults, Betty was often the voice of reason when anyone else was freaking out on the show. Rarely did she cause panic, other than when she learned how to drive, from a very insulting teacher (Henry), usually calming everyone down and surprisingly would be very open-minded about things the girls were doing, especially given the time. Ultimately the show tried to be pretty forward-thinking, though it had some weird mixed messages here and there, but when a progressive view was put forth, it was usually Betty making that statement. It should be noted that Garrett was actually Cherie's real life grandmother. Which might have made for a pretty easy role for both of them.

The rest of the series regulars appeared when needed, though Margaux was the most frequent of the regulars - a solid third to Punky and Cherie's duo. Margaux usually appeared when they needed someone to dump on besides the main cast, and having a rich snob around was the perfect target. Margaux appeared throughout all four seasons of the show and on the rare occasion we got to see her actually be nice to the others and even vulnerable in an episode or two.

Mike Fulton made his first appearance in the season 1 finale two-parter 'Fenster Hall' where he works in the orphanage that Punky did a stint in. The two episode arc was meant to be a spinoff, but apparently when that didn't pan out, the character of Mike made his way onto the cast of Punky for most of the second season. This time he was all of a sudden a grade school teacher that just so happened to be teaching Punky's class with her and all of her friends. Mike was there as a sounding board for Punky when the situation needed someone other than her friends or Henry to confide in. Mike quietly disappeared near the end of the second season, and in the third season no more scenes were done in the school, avoiding any need to mention what happened to Mike.

Allen, oooh annoying Allen. Allen appeared in an early episode along with another young boy that was known for what most young boys are known for; shaving cats. Somehow he beat out the cat-shaver to be the show's token boy, and from time to time was Cherie's love interest. Allen was the class clown and often the only one laughing at his own jokes. Allen left early in season 3 and in his first appearance of the season it's revealed that his parents are getting a divorce and he's moving to Kansas City. The actor that played Allen, Casey Ellison, apparently left the show in order to maintain a role as Miles Knobnoster, Wesley's friend on Mr. Belvedere.

And then the character that absolutely no one needed or remembered; Eddie the Handyman. Apparently even though Henry managed the building, he needed help and hired on Eddie to do all the dirty work. A couple jokes about Eddie being a horrible handyman and apparently that's all it took for him to get let go. Eddie, played by Eddie Deezen, left during season one after only a few episodes.

It's hard to talk about the show without mentioning the super-catchy theme song that introed the series. Though the imagery that accompanied the theme song changed from time to time (and quite frequently during the first couple seasons), the song remained the same through all four seasons.

After about a season or so of hearing this theme song, I would begin to sing the 'Cheers' theme song after the beginning notes of the Punky intro, right when the correct lyrics to the Punky song started. At first I figured it was just because it was the 80s and most of the theme songs followed a pretty similar sound and formula. But after digging a little deeper, we found that 'Every Time I Turn Around' was written and performed by Gary Portnoy, who had written songs for Air Supply, Dolly Parton and a bunch of other television theme songs - including 'Where Everybody Knows Your Name' for Cheers.

While I really wish we would have been writing this as an episode-by-episode breakdown beacuse there's tons of weird stuff and fun trivia in each episode, we decided to do this write up near the end of the series, and we have other 80s sitcoms that need our attention when we're done watching Punky - as well as the new Punky episodes. So instead, we're going to touch on some of the weird/fun/strange stuff from a few episodes worth mentioning. But feel free to comment with any cool tidbits you uncovered while watching Punky.
​
What's obvious is that after the show switches from it's primetime Sunday night slot and moved into syndication (daily weekdays most likely in that sweet spot between afternoon cartoons and the news), that they change focus from a traditional sitcom aimed at families including adults and children, to mainly jokes, lessons, and scenarios aimed at just a younger audience. This is also apparent in the amount of children you can hear in the live audience during the episode's taping.
One of the best things to happen was during an episode when a new character exclaims that they're leaving the apartment because they're allergic to children, you hear the normal amount of laughter that a joke like that warranted, but then you also hear a lady cackling at the joke. And it just made my day thinking about this lady sitting in an audience of mainly young children, most likely annoyed because children are annoying, and letting it all out when someone poked fun at kids. Just to see if any kids around her were self aware after that.

Season 1 - Episodes 1 - 3 'Punky Finds a Home'
Obviously the first (or in this case the first three) episode(s) is worth checking out. This is where Punky is first discovered by Henry as she's doing her best Chris Farley future-impression, dancing to herself singing 'Maniac' in an empty apartment across the hall from his. There's turmoil as Child Services get involved and scare the crap out of everyone saying that she can't stay with Henry. I'll spoil this right now and let you know that everything works out and Henry gets to be her foster parent.

S1 Episodes 4, 5, and 8
Mentioning these specific episodes as these are actually half episodes (so six episodes total) because Punky Brewster originally aired on Sunday nights on NBC after football games. And since so much of the Punky audience were young viewers, they made these shorter episodes to air, instead of cutting into an episode halfway through, pissing of some idiot kids. 

S2 Episodes 15 & 16
A two-parter called 'Henry Falls in Love' wherein Henry sparks up a long-lost romance and when Punky gets wind of the two of theirs' plans to get married, she does what any decent foster child would do; packs her shit and gets out. When Henry realizes that Punky has run away it's an all out manhunt to bring her to justice. Henry doesn't decide to get married because it would mean putting Punky in a boarding school or something else stupid that they couldn't figure out how to make it work, so he ditches the love of his life for, you guessed it - the master manipulator.

S1 E17 - My Aged Valentine
This one is a gem for a couple reasons. First, it's a valentines episode and everyone at school is obviously pairing up because love is in the air. Everyone except Punky - who early in the show was making it clear that she didn't need or want the attention of boys. When one ends up sneaking in a kiss on her cheek, she decides to give him a black eye. The episode should have ended there and that should have been the lesson, but unfortunately it goes on and she learns through a nightmare that she needs to open up more and let love in. (We told you, this show has mixed messages.) The dream she has is the main reason we're mentioning this episode. In it, Punky sees EIGHTY years into the future and is still a single lady, living with her 150 year old guardian, Henry and her obviously not deceased but very long-bearded dog, Brandon. Her friends Cherie and Allen come for a visit and these two 80 years from the correct time, are a friggin delight. Cherie's appetite finally caught up with her and we see her as a very plump elderly woman. Seeing the actor get to play around in a fat suit and just knowing she was having a lot of fun bouncing around it in, makes the whole thing even better. And since earlier in the episode Allen was currently her love interest, he's there as her husband, in the best acting he's ever done. He plays an elderly gentleman that's hard of hearing, and he does it very well. 

S1 E18 - I Love You Brandon
This one gets mentioned because if we were into betting and didn't know that Brandon was in the rest of the series, we would have bet that he was a goner here. They pull out all the emotional stops for having a dog being put to sleep, including a very young child crying at it's bedside.
He makes it though, don't worry.

 S1 Episodes 21 & 22 - Fenster Hall
As we mentioned before, Fenster Hall was the season 1 finale and was meant to eventually be its own spin-off show with the character Mike as the lead counselor at the children's home. That didn't come to be, so Mike joined the cast of Punky Brewster in season 2.
These two episodes centered around a kid T.C. that climbed in Punky's window at the beginning of the first episode and stole from her and she followed him to his thug mentor's hideout where she confronted him and somehow got him to come to her house to eat dinner. From there he is tricked into staying at Fenster Hall and eventually becomes a good boy or something. I dunno.
What really stuck with me personally for years was T.C.'s bad guy boss, Blade. When I saw him on the screen this time I had a flash of how scared I was of him the first time I saw him.

S2 E2 - Punky's Treehouse
This is the ultimate episode where we get to see Punky manipulate people. In fact, she even gets help tricking folks into building her treehouse for her from her teacher Mike. Through the power of master manipulation, a treehouse is born. The set for the backyard with the treehouse so high up must have been massive and that got us wondering how they film sitcoms in general, with different sets. Like, do they move the audience from set to set, or do they move the sets around in front of a seated audience?

S2 Episodes 6 & 7 - The Perils of Punky
First episode; the four kids (Punky, Cherie, Margaux, and Allen) and Brandon get lost in the woods during a camping trip and find refuge in a cave where they wait to be rescued.
Second episode; the four kids end up having to battle an ancient evil spirit that the native indigenous people have kept at bay for ages - they end up dying one by one and become part of the evil cave trying to bring the others down. They battle a giant spider, meet a guy that's now part of the cave, and eventually find One Eyed Willy's treasure. Okay, maybe not that last one - but this two-parter came out in October of 1985, and The Goonies had just been released in June of the same year. Despite having been heavily influenced by The Goonies, these two episodes are so weird.

S2 E8 - Just Say No
Guess what this one is about. Okay so obviously Punky is faced with doing drugs. Obviously she says no. But what's great about this episode is the pile of drugs that these older girls dump out onto the ground. Cocaine, uppers, downers, zippers, scoopers, wacky tabacky, and of course angel dust. How could anyone say no to that!?

S2 E12 - Milk Does a Body Good
This one had us guessing at the beginning, because anytime a new parent and child move into the building, they're there to be the example of something bad or weird that we needed to learn about. This time the kid (played by a very tiny and very adorable Candace Cameron) was real weird about doing anything dangerous, such as going up in the treehouse. So we assumed this would have been the child abuse episode. But instead it turns out Cherie and Punky notice that the new little girl Julie, is listed as missing on their milk carton. Turns out her dad ran away with her like a year ago and has to keep moving for some weird reason. 

S2 E13 - Christmas Shoplifting
I had this one mixed up in my head with the one early in season 1 where Punky gets scared that Henry also left her behind at a grocery store - but what really happens is that Punky really wants to buy Henry a scarf for Christmas, but doesn't have enough money to do so. After running into a friend at the mall (played by the little blonde dude that stars in 'A Christmas Story') that shows her how easy it is to steal - she does so, but mixes her bag up with her teacher Mike's when they bump into one another. So of course HE gets busted and arrested and taken to jail where he is in a cell with a Santa (played by Al Molinaro) until Punky comes and confesses.

S2 E16 - Cherie Lifesaver
This is THE episode. In fact, as much as we all remember this episode, the show itself references this particular episode at least two other times in later seasons. This episode taught us TWO lessons; obviously the first one was to not throw out refrigerators with their doors still attached, because hungry young girls like Cherie will get stuck in there looking for food left behind (shut up, you already know they were playing hide and seek, I don't have to say that), but also that if you don't pay attention in class, you friend might die. Because at the beginning of the episode when the kids were all in school, Allen was being disruptive in class when they were all being taught CPR on a dummy by Mike. Mike gets so annoyed that he gives Allen enough warnings and sends him to the principal's office. So when Allen and Henry finally find Cherie in the fridge and she's unconscious, Allen is zero fucking help and is sent to call 911 as heroic Punky and Margaux run out and perform perfect CPR on Cherie, bringing her back to her food-loving life.
So I guess like maybe it was three lessons. The third one being, you should learn CPR. I do not know CPR. Well kinda, after seeing this and The Office.

S2 Episodes 17 ​- 21 - Changes
This is a DOOZIE of an episode. So much so that they made it five episodes.
Henry's photography studio burns down to the ground.
He has no insurance.
He suffers a bleeding ulcer and has to be hospitalized.
Then Child Services shows up and sees how Henry is no longer fit to take care of Punky, so she's put BACK into Fenster Hall before being sent to live with an uber rich couple.
It all works out in the end, though. You can relax.

S2 E22 - Accidents Happen
The five parter before this episode was obviously meant to be the season finale, but Punky and the cast were called back into action as the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster left a lot of kids frightened and unsure of how to feel about what happened. We learn here (and it continues on throughout the entire series) that Punky wanted to be an astronaut and keeps the courage up to continue wanting to be an astronaut even after the Challenger explodes.

S3 E5 - Beer and Buffalos Don't Mix
This episode is important because the father and son return later on in another episode. But it's also important because we learn that driving while drunk or buzzed is dangerous. One of Henry's Buffalo lodge brothers offers to take everyone to Six Flags and everyone bails on it including his son because he's obviously drunk at like 9am. Drunk on beer. At 9am. That's a lot of beers he downed. Also why is someone hitting rock bottom with drinking, doing so with BEER?
He decides to ultimately leave his car at Henry and Punky's home and walk home with his son so he can sober up.

S3 E8 - It's a Dog's Life
Punky dreams that she switches places with Brandon, so her body is running around barking and acting like a dog, and Brandon is kinda just acting normal, cause he always acts like a human.
This episode matters because throughout all three seasons there has been a Care Bears cookie jar sitting on the edge of the counter in the kitchen in plain sight. When Punky is trying to maneuver around in a dog body, we see the cookie jar even further on the edge of the counter and of course her dumb butt knocks it onto the ground. There's even an aerial shot of it shattering on the ground. This broke our hearts when we watched it slam onto the ground. To rub it in, some of the later season 3 episodes that were filmed before this one, show the cookie jar still sitting back there. But for the most part, it's disappeared after they broke the dang thing.

S3 E9 - The Metamorphosis 
The boobs episode! This is another one that stuck in our heads from the original airing, most likely because they were tackling such a taboo topic that most shows for kids never touched on. 
From the girls' ideas on how to get their breasts to grow quicker (cheeseballs!), to Punky's first exclamation to Henry of what was going on, to the two of them and their adventure visiting a bra store for the first time.
Seeing Punky's eyes go big and grab a sequence corset while exclaiming "LOOK AT THIS!!" because it was so fitting with Punky's style. This episode seriously is super funny and apparently helpful answering some questions for kids that usually don't get to talk about this stuff.

S3 E17 - So Long, Studio
Another whirlwind episode for Henry. Since losing his original storefront location to his photography studio, Henry sets up shop in the mall and business is doing well. All of a sudden a larger photography chain company comes in and buys him out for ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!! Wtf?? That's not even the craziest part - he stays on to work at this photography studio chain and takes orders from the man that bought him out. EVEN THOUGH HE HAS ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS!! That's not even the craziest part - Henry eventually gets fed up with how he's being treated, how his customers are being treated, and finally realizes he can quit. But in doing so - OPENS A RESTAURANT called 'Punky's Place'!! WTF?? Did any of you remember Punky's Place?? It's actually only in a few more episodes in season 3 and quietly phased out and never mentioned again by the end of season 4.

S3 Episodes 21 & 22 - Open Door, Broken Heart
Brandon runs away after Cherie leaves the front door open (they do this all the time, so she shouldn't have felt so bad), and Brandon hooks up with another family that is actually in the process of moving to California where the dad just accepted a new job. The mom is played by Alley Mills (the mom from The Wonder Years) and the dad and son are played by THE TWO ACTORS THAT KNEW PUNKY AND HENRY FROM THE DRUNK DRIVING EPISODE!!! Yet no one knows one another. There's no way this two-parter was meant to take place before the drunk driving episode, so it baffles us as to why they wouldn't have known each other. They're even the same characters - Joey and his dad Mr Deaton. So weird.

S4 E3 - Going to Camp
The girls are off to summer camp, and the whole point of the episode is how much all the other girls want to meet up and smooch with boys from the camp across the lake but Punky doesn't care about that or boys in general. There's some really weird messages in this one, including their version of a panty raid, and one of the girls being called their version of a tramp even though she refused to do anything when she met up with the boy she paired up with.
What's most interesting about this episode is that it's the first of two episodes that Henry isn't actually in, and we only see Punky talking to him over the phone at the beginning.

S4 E10 - Radio Daze
This isn't that interesting of an episode, other than another appearance of an actor from The Wonder Years; Jason Hervey (the older brother, Wayne Arnold) is someone competing against Punky's crew in a radio contest.

S4 E16 - Bad Dog
Brandon is barking like crazy, and guess what... there's a new mom and daughter in the building that are going to be the people that our episode's lesson focuses on.
It turns out that Brandon had been acting erratically (barking, and eventually biting the mom's hand) because the mom was beating her daughter. After a complaint from the woman, and before anyone knew that she was abusing her daughter, she was insistent that Brandon be put down for biting her. SHE WAS GOING TO KILL A DOG TO HIDE THE FACT THAT SHE WAS BEATING HER CHILD. Everything works out in the end.

S4 E19 - One Plus Tutor Is Three
Punky gets a tutor because she's a moron and can't math well.
That tutor is Mark-Paul Gosselaar. 

S4 E21 - What's Your Sign?
In this episode we see the girls' in their version of the Girl Scouts 'the Fireflies' and a new girl and her mom come to town... guess who's there to teach us a lesson?
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S4 E22 - Wedding Bells for Brandon
In an interview Cherie Johnson mentions that this wasn't filmed as the season/series finale. Not sure what other episode would have been the season 4 finale (and ultimately the series finale if not this one), but it kind of makes sense as the ender because there's quite a bit of flashbacks throughout this episode.

UPDATE!
Since starting this entry we've actually finished the 1st season of the new Punky Brewster show and really loved it. Getting to see characters we knew and see how they've grown was amazing. They've also done a really good job at keeping the spirit of the original show; focusing on diversity, understanding, and empathy. If our culture continues to consume as much television as it always has, we definitely need shows like this to teach people to have heart and be accepting of one another, despite our flaws.

Also, since our favorite thing is pointing out trivia, it should be noted that Punky's family has a golden retriever and it's name on the show is Brandy. (Brandon + Sandy = Brandy)
​We see what you did there, and we approve! 

This past year was one for the record books. There were too many things that went wrong, and you all know cause you lived it so that's as far as I'm going to go into that.

Because the year was so ding-dang dumb, we wanted to take a moment to give some recognition to a toy company that we think, despite the pitfalls of the rest of 2020, did their part to make the year pretty special overall for collectors.

The company in question brought to life new toy lines of their own and helped get other toy creators' ideas into collectors' hands. But they also helped bring back a slew of classic brands including; Transformers, Thundercats, Masters of the Universe, My Pet Monster, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Peanuts, and Garbage Pail Kids.

For those of you in the collecting community it should be obvious by now, and for those of you not (thanks for reading a blog entry about toys when you don't really care about toys!), we're talking about the fine folks at Super7!

Throughout 2020, Super7 has thoroughly impressed us with their wide range of toys and action figure offerings. As we mentioned, they've continued to produce their own toy lines which, at their core, has always included fun designer vinyl. With pieces ranging from classic sofubi, to smaller keshi style figures (that's like the old M.U.S.C.L.E. figures), and quality vinyl figures as low as $10 (?!) for those budget-conscientious collectors - they were able to continue turning out what put Super7 on the map. Heck, they even managed to pulled some G.I. Joe fans kicking and screaming into the world of designer toys with their yet-to-be-released pre-order of the Super Cyborg Cobra B.A.T. vinyl figure.

Another Super7 exclusive brand is their series entitled 'The Worst', which features some of the BEST reinventions/reimaginings of classic type monsters and super villains. From a bat prince of darkness named 'Batula', to a ghost of a monster called 'Frankenghost', to my favorite - a vicious tiger man turned wrestler; 'Red Tiger'.
​The Worst is a love letter to those creatures and baddies we all grew up with that scared and excited us all. The entire line is for the most part, done in their signature ReAction style of figure, which harkens back to the days of Kenner's Star Wars line which featured minimal articulation, but tons of charm.

While on the subject of ReAction figures (we won't stray too far from ReAction figures throughout this award ceremony...) and creator-owned toys, we would be remissed if we didn't mention the two creators that had mass-market released toys this year because of collaborations with Super7. The brands Healeymade and Killer Bootlegs both had ReAction figures released in 2020 ('Hellbent' and 'Phantom Starkiller' & 'Count Draco Knuckleduster', respectively) in collaboration with Super7, and both brands' figures were very well received by collectors. We've already bought a new Killer Bootlegs Phantom Starkiller in 2021 and we're looking forward to what other offerings these collaborations bring this year.

While on the subject (still) of ReAction figures, it's a good time to mention that Super7 has used the format to provide fans with some really amazing toys in 2020 (and before). Toys that, without the ReAction figures, would have little-to-no action figure representation.
From the various iterations and special releases of Universal Monsters, to the cartoon classics such as TMNT, Transformers, Thundercats, Toxic Crusaders, Peanuts and My Pet Monster, to all the figures based on heavy metal properties; Anthrax, Slayer, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Misfits, King Diamond, and Rancid, and even managed to release famous baseball team mascot figures.

If that isn't a testament to their reach and ability to build out a library of licenses, I don't know what is. And we didn't even list all the ReAction figure licenses. Seriously, go look for yourself on their site. It's pretty amazing. 

Can you believe we've gotten this far in this write up about our favorite toy company of 2020 and we haven't even mentioned their highly-detailed, super-articulated, beautifully-sculpted line of toys??
Well I can, because there's a lot to cover with this lil' nimble and versatile company.
Super7's line of 'Ultimates' or 'Classics' is another type of toy line that, like the ReAction figures, brings in various licenses - but where ReAction figures lean into crisp, simple designs with limited articulation, the Ultimates toy line does it's best to be the top tier when it comes to sculpt, articulation, accessories and attention to detail.

Super7 released a handful of Classics/Ultimates in 2020, and the reason the term 'Classics' is part of this subset of toys is that Super7 took the helm with Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics toy line when Mattel's MattyCollector division was shuttered and fans still looked to add missing or updated versions of the Masters of the Universe to their collections. The last piece of the MotUC toy line just arrived on doorsteps this past holiday season as the massive Snake Mountain playset shipped to all of the folks who ordered one during the crowdsourcing campaign.

Super7 also traversed the murky waters of what appears to be a very confusing licensing ordeal just to continue on another brand abandoned by the shuttered Matty Collector; Thundercats Classics. If you're a Thundercats fan, you're well aware of the curse of the various toy lines the brand has undergone within the past few years. The Thundercats Classics toy line was not immune to the curse and looked as though it was going to end just after one wave was released by Mattel. Luckily we're now seeing a few waves ahead and already have a new wave of figures in hand thanks again to Super7.

The 'Ultimates' line was brought to life with the perfect brand in need of some love this past year - Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. While TMNT has dominated toy aisles for decades, the past two years saw the brand quickly disappear from retail shelves thanks to a poorly received new animation, 'Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles'.
Luckily for fans of the original show and toy line, Super7 had a great vision to bring the color-coded brothers back in the form of updated versions of the original Playmates toy line, under the Ultimates line. So while the nostalgia hits hard because these new figures are all based on and updating the original toys we all knew in the 80s/90s - they go above and beyond with the new sculpts, bringing the former 3.75" (It's true! I measured!) into the realm of the 6" scale.

There's more planned for this new highly-detailed 6" 'Ultimates' toy line, including the Conan the Barbarian figures that were announced for pre-orders in 2020 and look like they are shipping very soon as of the time of this blog entry. We also saw an amazing 6" figure of Voltron in this Ultimates line which means there's probably a lot other toy lines you wouldn't think of being brought into this format.

Now that I've run down a lot of the amazing toy offerings Super7 gave us in 2020, I think there's an unsung hero that needs to be mentioned before closing out this award ceremony. 
And I'm not talking about all the ancillary items they produce for the licenses they acquire, such as t-shirts, pint glasses and the occasional rug.
What really needs some dang accolades is the stellar packaging Super7 keeps churning out.
Just look at some of these things!

While I mention packaging and specifically mean the artwork, there's a lot to be said about the designs of the packaging itself. The way the TMNT Ultimates boxes slide over the top of the main package, the cuts on the two The Worst figures released recently that go together, the decision to do Remco-style retro packaging on some classic monster figures - all of this shows that there's a company that cares about what they're presenting to the consumer. As opposed to putting something in a plastic tray, inside of a brown cardboard box and calling it a day.
But back to the main point here, the artwork across the board with Super7 is outstanding. There have been plenty times that the same artwork could have been reused on packaging for a repaint of a character, but instead Super7 tends to create new artwork. That's dedication right there. Not only does it give the customer something new and exciting to look at (especially if the particular customer isn't going to open whatever toy), but also to the artists that are getting additional work because of it.

I came from a very scrappy background in comic publishing, so if there was a way to stretch a certain image into new products, I knew how to do it. But that does shit-all for the artist that got paid once for a piece of art when a company uses it over and over. What Super7 is doing is commendable and should be adopted by more toy companies and similar professions. It should also be mentioned that they know what they're doing too. Super7's roster of artist they pull from are nothing short of amazing. The artwork across all the toy lines' packaging is consistently impressive and makes for a good business model where folks like me often buy two of a figure just to keep one in the amazing package, and one to open.
Seriously, the artwork on the Super7 packaging deserves to be collected into a ding dang book.

So before we end this rambling, fawning award ceremony, we just want to say we can't wait to see what all Super7 is bringing us in 2021 (a dang Thundertank was just announced!) that we'll be buying.
And also, when it comes to a line of super-fun random G.I. Joe ReAction figures based on crazy stuff from the comics and cartoons that Hasbro knows their core audience won't go for in more traditional formats - we are here for it. We've already cleared a spot on our shelf for a Boy George Snake Eyes figure. Can't wait to see if it's a single release or a box set with Lady, Jaye, Timber, Shipwreck, and Polly! Oh! A Hector Ramirez figure!? I had better stop before I make someone at Super7 mad about how spot-on I'm getting with these guesses.

In all seriousness, thanks again to the team at Super7 for being a bright spot in our 2020.

(Runners up include that little-known company Hasbro for it's Transformers and G.I. Joe offerings, and Boss Fight Studios for Legends of Lucha Libre, Bucky O'Hare, and their long-running ​Vitruvian H.A.C.K.S. line.)

Totally forgot to post these pics of a bunch of folks that showed up to our Grand Re-Opening party back in January. Photos taken by the talented Jeremy Hill. Check out his work here.

These pics were NOT taken by Jeremy. They were taken by a shitty iPhone by some very sober people...

'Thundercats Roar'. At the time of this entry we're left wondering if the internet backlash made this series quietly disappear, as it was originally slated for a 2019 release and we're now halfway through September with no news of an actual release date and it's still listed as 2019 on all noted sites such as Wikipedia and IMDb. Which is a shame, I was really looking forward to it and it getting Thundercats back into the mainstream.

It makes me sad to think that people are insanely so short-sighted not to see how this fun & funny new show would generate not only its own new fans, but get the original (and stellar reboot) some new love and attention.

- But I guess the Netflix She-Ra was a flop and cancelled after one season.

- Teen Titans Go! (which some of you probably never heard of cause it also was pulled after just one episode) wasn’t able to find its audience and would have never gotten a new comic readers into the shops.

- The Netflix Voltron series also a horrible failure and didn't get us a set of new Voltron fans for life. It would have been cool if the series did well enough to eventually get us newly-tooled versions of the original Voltron lions at mass market while the new series toys were also on shelves.

- The success of the Nick TMNT helped keep the fire of the Turtles going which got us tons of non-Nick TMNT figures and merchandise, but the poorly received ‘Rise of the TMNT’ cartoon caused an immediate, almost military-style, shutdown of all fun Ninja Turtle items not related to that show. I would have loved to get that NECA Slash figure but that’s not going to happen now because they just haaaaad to make Raph the leader in Rise. 

All sarcasm aside, it’s quite selfish for people to think that a new, different version of something somehow would negate anything that came before it, change what already exists, and wouldn’t proliferate the brand at question.

Having people in the shop on a daily basis say things to their kids like “these are the Transformers / Trolls / Strawberry Shortcake / Ninja Turtles / Power Rangers I had when I was little” shows me not only the magical moment that is parents relating to their kids about a brand (HOW COOL IS THAT?!) but that the kids know what the brand is BECAUSE of all of those variations that have kept those brands alive and in the limelight. 

And then there's G.I. Joe. While several attempts to bring it back into the collectors market and get new blood invested in the brand have been made; the major motion pictures, the Renegades cartoon series, Resolute animated feature, Sigma 6 cartoon series, and the two CGI animated features 'Spy Troops' & 'Valor vs Venom', it ultimately ends up getting scrapped, iteration after iteration leaving fans and those just starting to get into G.I. Joe without anything new to consume. While this has more to do with Hasbro's inability to put faith into the brand (and internal power struggles and politics within the company - but that's none of my business and you didn't hear it from this blog), it still shows that not having a brand on the shelf does little to help keep the collectors market strong because of the lack of new fans. Since the last G.I. Joe movie we've seen the toys disappear from retail shelves, only to be replaced by generic military toys at Target and Walmart (so there's definitely a market for them), the G.I. Joe Collectors Club has shuttered its doors and we no longer have an annual official G.I. Joe convention.

I know, I got pretty sidetracked there, but Thundercats fans need to heed my warning; No mass market representation of your favorite brand is a bad thing.

And sure, the Thundercats Classics have returned thanks to the determination and persistence of the fine folks at Super7, but I have to wonder if these will also fall victim as so many other Thundercats toy lines have before them and end before we're able to get even the core team and villains.

To illustrate my point and give weight to the notion that that may happen, here's a few examples of how/when Thundercats fans have been burned by trying to start collecting a new series.

• Funko's Savage World line - not only did it come out the gate with horrible QC issues, but it was cancelled after the first wave, and then... it came back for a second wave! But then cancelled again.
• Sticking with Funko, the Pops! only got out five figures and stopped there. Lion-O, Cheetara, Snarf, Panthro, and Mumm-Ra.
• Comics? I mean, yeah the series that started back in the early 2000s stuck around for a minute but stopped after a few miniseries. 
• MiniMates - actually did five sets, but the last set is so hard to find that it tends to go for around $125 online. So while collecting these may have been a good idea in the beginning, eventually a lot of people missed out on completing their sets if they're not able to shell out of that last hard-to-find set.
• Thundercats Classics - it's getting listed here because we suffered through this being cancelled already. Only seven figures were released before the line was initially scrapped. It's hard not to be cautious with the line as it starts up again.
• Mezco's giant Mega-Scale figures which almost completed the core team but failed to release the Thunderkittens and gave us Mumm-Ra as the only villain.
• The reboot - the show was amazing, both well-written and beautiful, bringing the Thundercats back to the mainstream. It ended before it should have and with it, Bandai's toy line which was on shelves at every major toy retailer throughout the country.
• Speaking of Bandai - they also tried an 8" 'Classics' line when they had the license and it too came to a screeching halt after only releasing three figures based off of the original cartoon and I believe two or three based on the rebooted cartoon.
• The original toy line - Just because casual fans will remember the cartoon and accompanying toy line with fond memories doesn't mean it ended before it's time. There were toys that were planned but scrapped when the line ended and we never got toys of tons of great characters that appeared frequently on the show such as Mandora, Captain Bragg & Crowman, Snowmeow, and the entirety of The Lunataks. 

I'm sure there's more than what I could think of here, but this should illustrate my point that I'm a bit cautious of getting my hopes up when it comes to completing a Thundercats toy line.

This seems pretty simple to me and I can't understand why people can't see this; If you provide something that skews to a younger audience, it's going to help the brand financially. The products made for a younger audience are going to be bought by parents for their kids as well as by collectors willing to support the brand. Not just by those crazy completist, bless their souls. And guess what? When companies see that a brand is making money for another company - they tend to be more willing to produce items themselves for that brand in hopes of getting some of that money. In no way, shape, or form would 'Thundercats Roar' been bad for the brand. It's existence would have only brought new fans to the brand, fans that could ultimately end up going back and finding all the old toys, comics, cartoons and collectibles, thus bringing that new blood into the brand's collectors market that we all can't seem to figure out how to do.

But luckily a bunch of angry fanboys took care of that...

“What do you mean you're bored, young daughter? Come, look upon this horrible trailer. For it was I and my brave companions that vanquished it from the land with our mighty keyboards as you can see here on in the comments section.
Always read the comments, daughter. For it is there... that battles are won.
​Wait, you LIKED that? Honey no. I did you a favor.”

There's a lot of people that may think that all we do when an item comes into our shop is turn around and sell it right off the counter with little-to-no work put into it, which makes it very hard for them to understand why we're buying at a fraction of the price we'll sell it for.
You don't have to read this whole thing - just scan it and be impressed with how much I wrote and assume there's a lot that goes into what we do. I mean, that's what I'd do. But for those of you actually going to hunker down and read it all, here we go!

Getting an item into the shop includes most, if not all of these steps, which is what the money we make on an item goes towards. Any shop that buys from individuals directly (collectible stores, record shops, comic shops, etc.) will all know what we're talking about, though some of the steps might not be applicable to all of them.

• Communication with the buyer even before they get to the store.

​This can take up more time than really needed as a lot of questions are asked before the person gets into the shop and we have to do a lot of handholding long before the person even shows up.

Then when a person selling brings an item in here are the steps taken from then on are:

• Time to Appraise the item, including:
• Inspection of the item for damage, wear, smell (we get a lot of items that smell like pot for some reason), battery terminal corrosion and if the electronics work if it takes batteries, as well as completeness. 
• Research on the item if we're unfamiliar with it including pricing and current market demand.
• Determining a price we'd sell it for in the shop on each individual item based on inspection and price researched.

These steps could take 10-15 minutes or up to entire days depending on the size of the lots brought to us and our familiarity with them. And that's for each individual that comes in. What most folks don't realize is that this usually isn't a scheduled event, but rather people showing up at random. Which means this whole process could happen numerous times a day, and often overlap one another.

It's also worth mentioning that we are a small business and bringing in high-priced items is tricky for us. If an item comes through that retails for hundreds of dollars, taking that risk to pay for it upfront may be a blow to our cashflow that we may struggle to come back from if the item doesn't sell right away. Moreso if a large collection of items comes through and it means selling numerous cheaper pieces to start seeing some return on our investment. 

Back to the process!

Once a buy-price has been agreed upon and we've now purchased the item, any of the following can, and usually do, happen in order to sell the item(s):

• Cleaning. This takes up a lot of time as each item itself needs to be cleaned a specific way. Dust is the most notorious fiend to the collector. Collections if not stored in a sealed cabinet or display case, will gather dust rapidly. A lot of people don't want to take the time to clean an item before letting it go. And we get that, you're about to let something go, so why take the time to make it pretty again? But again, dust is so difficult to clean off of items that have a thousand tiny crevasses so every 15-year-old Transformer that comes in here takes some time to clean properly. 
• Repair. If an item comes through that we can fix, we do so. This goes from trying to clean marker initials off of a figure, or actually taking an item apart and fixing any mechanism that may have deteriorated over time. Light paint touch-ups if we feel confident in taking care of, are also something we'll do.
• Sorting. Some people bring us in entire TMNT collections with each individual figure bagged with it's accessories. Some people bring us a trash bag full of G.I. Joe figures and accessories just jumbled in there. Don't get us wrong, while we do love sorting this stuff (it's very therapeutic and almost like a puzzle), it is very time consuming.
• Stocking. This step takes the most time and we wish we COULD just leave everything on the counter where it was when we bought it from folks, but we know we can't. Our shop, while we have a lot of space, it's still difficult to find spots for everything. And trying to decide if an item is going to be here long enough to bother figuring out where it goes is also a constant struggle. We get some stuff in and know as soon as we show it off on Instagram / Facebook that it will be out the door, so why move fifty X-Men figures to make room for a Megazord?
• Time/Space. But if it DOESN'T sell right away, the time an item sits in here and the space it takes up is something we have to take into consideration. A giant Cybertron Starscream may sit up on the shelf for a year before someone grabs it, while an original Zartan figure that takes up no space for the same price will probably sell right away.​

Then there's things not specifically related to the items themselves that any store needs to take into account when buying such as:

• Rent. For some reason we can't convince our landlord to give us free rent so people can get more money for their broken Batman figures. (We'll try again next time we see him though.)
• Supplies. This one is huge and I forgot about it initially. But there's so many things we go through, not just stuff we buy once that it takes to run a business like fixtures, a computer, printer, audio visual stuff, but all the stuff that we buy weekly like all those cleaning supplies which we burn through so quickly. That includes wipes, paper towels, solvants, soap, etc. Then there's things like trash bags, toilet paper, baggies, price gun labels, printer paper, printer ink, and shipping supplies that we also go through quickly.
• Credit Card Fees. Again, something we've asked if we could just not pay, but Square didn't seem too amused (and between you and me, may have secretly raised our processing fees). 
• Insurance. When we were opening our store we went to the company that we use for our personal insurance. They freaked out and quoted us something like 12k for the year. So we also freaked out, until we called Dave over at Quake and asked him what the hell to do. He hooked us up with his insurance company and they've been great ever since.
• Licenses. If for some reason you don't know this, we're in Chicago and this city doesn't show much love for it's small businesses. If there's a way for this city to charge you a fee for something, they will do it. We used to have our Alderman's office next door to us and when they moved the trash can that used to be on the sidewalk outside between our locations disappeared. I messaged them asking why, only to find out that as a business we can request a trash can and pay the annual fee to have the city put one out there and empty it on a regular basis. We had enough taxes and fees we pay to the city already so we no longer had a trashcan in front of our store.
• Taxes. This may come a surprise to some of you, as it kinda shocked me, but even on top of the sales tax that the customers pay (and we in turn pay to the city/state) companies also get taxed on their profits. In an effort to not sound too much like Ron Swanson, I'll stop there and just let that be a point on the list here.
• Payroll. We have people that work here that aren't us. Though we've never taken a paycheck home from here, we don't expect others to work for free.
• Utilities. Need lights to see this stuff. Need heat and air to make sure our lil' butts aren't freezing or sweating, stinking up the place. Need Wifi, it's a necessity even for a trash store like ours. We'd still exist if internet didn't, but who knows for how long? A big portion of our customers come from our social media outreach and without that, we may not have been around for as long as we have.

Back to a few things that are item-specific to getting the same item out the door after it came in oh so long ago in this write-up. 

• Photos. We have to take photos of items and any flaws to show folks on social media. This is hard to do when the sun goes down so we have a window of hours during the day to do this before we lose our light. Also making sure the counter isn't cluttered with other items when we take the photo is hard to do considering how often things end up on the counter with us sorting/cleaning/pricing stuff and then more stuff could walk in at any moment. We've noticed that people are more responsive to photos if there's not a lot of stuff cluttering the background of a single item. There's a lot more to taking a photo to make it engaging and to make people respond to what you're posting, but this is getting to be borderline tutorial so just know that we have to take photos and that takes time too.
• Posting. A large portion of my day is coming up with captions for items (not including the captions for purchase photos, cause that's not what this is about), describing each item thoroughly as to avoid any sort of confusion for a buyer and any headaches for us after a sale. This is especially true when we have flash sales, posting a bunch of stuff rapid fire. We have to have these things pre-written and monitor claims while responding to DMs and posting the remaining items. 
• Calculating shipping costs. People want to know up front how much shipping is going to be, so we try as often as possible to figure out how much an item will cost to ship within the U.S., and though we figure this out after weighing the item and looking up the shipping options, it doesn't always mean the item will sell in a manner that will require shipping. So this is a step that while not always required, is always necessary. 
• Packing the item. Other than cleaning toys, I'd say the most time spent out of my day is finding a box that's the right size for all these randomly-sized items that end up needing to be shipped. We rarely buy boxes because we don't always use the same sized box for any two given items. So we do our best to recycle boxes that come into the shop or that we find in the recycle in the back or from our pals over at Logan Arcade that have given us a bunch of shipping supplies over the years. Even our friend who used to work here will stop in periodically with her old boxes cause she knows how much goes out the door on a daily basis. But once we have the right box for each item, there's still time that goes into packing it up properly. 
• Creating a shipping label. "But guys, generating a shipping label is simple!" Haha! Yeah, yeah it should be. But tell that to our Brother brand printer. The amount of half-printed labels and things that just refuse to print is ridiculous. But despite the love/hate relationship we have this bastard printer, going back and finding people's shipping addresses, and making the label isn't something that happens magically, it does take some time out of our day so it's listed here just like everything else.
• Q & As. The amount of direct messages with questions we get about items is astounding, if the item is listed on IG or FB. For the most part those are valid questions, but if an item gets listed on eBay in order to sell it, oooh man the questions and stupidity that comes through there is baffling. But there's also questions answered in-store on items and those are more along the line of "I have this at home too, I can get (exactly how much it's priced for here) for it??"
• Customer Service. Meaning once an item has been purchased, dealing with any questions or concerns during transit if an item is lost or taking too long, or if an item arrives and there's something wrong that we need to make right.
• Haggling. Putting this last as a nice little bookend to the whole buying process. People are going to come into our store and assume they can ask for a better price on ANYTHING. Literally while I was writing this, someone asked for two items that were priced at $10 each, if they could get them for $15. They also asked if they could get two items that cost $35 each for $50 total. I've gripped about this before, as people don't walk into retailers that are major corporations and try to haggle with the cashier, so it really breaks our hearts that people try and do that to a tiny business like us. We give deals to folks that are buying a lot of items as well as to our regulars that we see weekly (or even more frequently), but when someone comes in and just loves throwing their weight around trying to haggle, it's pretty upsetting. So while some people think their item that they're selling us is worth a certain price, there's someone on the other end that would like to disagree with you, and that is something else we need to take into consideration, that items we bring in may not even sell for the full price that we're basing our purchase price on.

Bonus chapter - Determining what an item will sell for in our shop:
This is something we wish everyone would know how to do. When we look up items online, we usually look at the sold listings on eBay which gives you a better idea of what the going rate for an item is, versus looking at Amazon or items currently listed on eBay. Because while someone could list a $20 item for $2,000 on either of those sites, that's not necessarily reflective of the current market value. Looking at recently sold items is the best way to gauge what an item sells for.

Even doing this takes some skill, as you have to see how many things are selling for around the same price with a Buy It Now price vs how many items went to auction. If you see an item that's sold a few times at auction for $20, but one item has recently sold with a Buy It Now price of $80, that could mean a few things. Such as, the buyer may hate dealing with auctions, and losing them constantly. Or it could mean it was the only item of it's kind listed at the time and the buyer didn't have the patience to wait around for another one to pop up. 

On the other hand, if you're seeing that one item sold with a Buy It Now price of $20, but all the other sold listings are auctions that have ended around $80, it's safe to say that the seller either didn't know what they had, or didn't care and wanted to list it at a price to get rid of it. 

Worth noting as well, we try to make our price lower than what is readily available online. Because if we're posting something for sale on our social media, we want folks to chose our item instead of running to Amazon or eBay. We also sell on eBay and know we can get a higher price there, but doing so is even more time consuming than what's listed here. 

We know everyone's seen shows like Pawn Stars so they think they're supposed to argue price with us, but we're not a TV show and we're not trying to low-ball anyone for entertainment value. We set our prices and know how and why we've done so, but now we hope maybe what you just read will give some insight as to our reasonings and process. 

Hopefully this was informative and didn't come off too snarky, again we love what we do and couldn't do it without the countless folks that have brought stuff into the shop for the years we've been a store. We truly couldn't do any of this without you all!

Trump is a bitch.

Came to a weird realization recently and this may just me connecting dots that aren't there, however I'm going to show you all the evidence and let you connect your own dots (in the privacy of your own home). 

I have no connection to Micronauts, having been born in the late 70s I missed this whole amazing line even though I had two older brothers that did their part to introduce me to things like Star Wars, fart jokes and the ability to cut someone out of your family for good. Too dark? Okay let's get back to these crazy alien dudes. 

These three Alien figures were released later in the Micronauts line, 1979, and became fan-favorites, usually showing up in collections such as ours that don't feature any other Micronauts action figures. From left to right in the photo above you have Membros (the orange gentlemen named so because of his massive brain that looks a bit like a decent 70s hairstyle), Repto (in the green with orange wings and probably named that because of his green skin), and finally Antron (in the purple with the four well-armed arms). 

These figures are simply amazing and usually found very loose because of how much kids loved playing with them. Finding a mint, complete figure in good shape without loose limbs is not an easy task. We got these guys in the shop not too long ago and even though they're in great shape with good joints, our Membros suffered a broken cord that goes from his gun to his backpack which is pretty common due to the brittle plastic that was used on that cord. 

We also have a variant of the Repto - one figure with an orange brain and another with a white. 

So this is the part where I start to assume stuff so I may lose some of you (this is usually where Liz stops paying attention...) but I'd think that it's safe to say that someone who was in their late 20s/early 30s in say, 1993 would have come across these 14 years earlier, especially if they're into toys to the point of eventually becoming a toy designer themselves. Which is why I personally believe that these figures directly inspired the three Lunartix Empire aliens that were released as part of the original G.I. Joe toy line in 1993. 

Micronauts Aliens, meet the aliens from the G.I. Joe universe. It's no secret that as the Joe brand saw sales decline, Hasbro did their damndest to chase whatever fad was hot at the time. Neon colors of the 90s, 'Dino Hunters' (Jurassic Park), 'Star Brigade' (Star Trek/Aliens), and even 'Eco Warriors' (Captain Planet).

I first found out about these guys from the James Desimone guides when we got back into collecting around 1998 or so. I stopped collecting Joes around 92 so those last couple years completely snuck by me. But once I saw how crazy they went with some of the later figures I was instantly in love with these turds. From left to right in the photo above you have Lobotomaxx (with the neck/tail/exposed brain in the green), Predacon (with the four arms, blue skin and white pants), and Carcass (in the orange with the green guts and green accessories). 
These figures were released in the last year of G.I. Joe's original run, 1994. So these were most likely designed by an in-house designer around 1993 or so. I stand by my math above, with the thinking that whoever worked on these most likely was at least aware of the original Micronauts aliens and used them for inspiration. Some of the similarities are too much to ignore. 

I posted Carcass with both Membros and Repto since he shares some attributes with both of them, but in my pairing, I'd say he goes more with Membros since Repto pairs well with Lobotomaxx. 

It's also nice that all of these figures have really really beautiful card art. Art on the older figures was always amazing and did most of the work of selling the toy that could barely live up to what the art was portraying. 

So I may be completely off here and these six figures may have absolutely nothing to do with one another, however I have one last thing I want to mention about these guys. Back in 2004 I was attending my first JoeCon in Orlando with Devil's Due. At one point in the hotel I get onto the elevator with my friend Tim and he notices the other gentleman that gets on with us is Kurt Groen (Hasbro designer 1989 - 1998) and introduces him to me by saying "Kurt's the guy responsible for designing those awesome aliens we love" to which the Kurt replies; "I hated all of that stuff." Him saying that only made me like the figures even more. But to think whoever helped design the figures didn't really want to would put some weight into them borrowing from the Micronauts figures that came out about 14 years earlier. 

But what really kicked me into gear to post all of this was this three pack of weird robo-alien figures that I found at Ross last week. I've seen this around before, I may even already own them in other colors, but finding them in a three pack of blue / orange / green felt like a sign that I should get all these bros together for a few photos. I believe these guys are part of the "M.A.R.S." action figure line that's usually found at Family Dollar or Dollar General.

Now I'm going to say that whoever is designing cheap figures for this line is probably not immersed in the toy world and most likely didn't draw inspiration from either the Micronauts or the G.I. Joe aliens, but that's pretty arrogant of me and may be completely false. Heck, this person may be a huge toy fan and may already know about the similarities between the two previous toyline aliens, whereas my theory about the Joe designer may be way off and that person may have never even laid eyes on the original Micronauts figures before putting pen to paper for designing the Lunartix aliens. Whatever the facts may be, all of these figures are now all best friends and plan on traveling the galaxies together (or sit on a shelf in our house).

With the beginning of the new year in 2018 we are gearing up for a new line of TMNT figures along with its accompanying show. And since the new figures & show means we saw the end of the previous series and toyline, we thought it'd be a good time to look back at the Nick TMNT figures and post a bunch of our favorites that have been released over the past few years. 
The list is presented in no particular order, basically it's posted in the order in which we took the photos, which was actually the order in which the figures were laying on the counter next to the photobox. 
It's worth mentioning that our favorite characters from the first TMNT toy line didn't make the cut here in their updated incarnations which pained us terribly. But we just weren't too happy with Slash and Metalhead's updated designs. But that might just be because of how much we liked the originals. You seem to see a lot of that in pop culture as a whole. While those figures may be great in their own right, they don't make an appearance on our list. 
So scroll on and check out our weirdly color-balanced photos to see who did​ make the cut!

Starting things off with this great version of Futatoid. The Nick TMNT series contained two Fugatoid figures that shared the same mold. There was this one that was released as a normal carded figure and a chromed figure that was released as a Target exclusive in a box set with chromed versions of the Dimension X space suit Turtles. With this release that makes five (?) Fugatoid figures that have ever been released, starting with the original, one from the 2003 toy line, a special edition chromed version of that 2003 figure and the two that were released in the Nick TMNT series.
This Fugatoid hangs out displayed with our original Slash figures which is where he picked up some of those bad habits such as threatening people with a 'psycho sai'. 
The detail on this figure is great from the thin fingers, to the thick robot feet, to the seemingly constant-happy eyes. Love the pearl white on him too, all-in-all a really fun figure for play or display.

He's a SHARK, wearing SHARK ARMOR! Hard to leave Armaggon out of the "best of" list just for that alone. Look at those veins sticking out of his neck! He's got roid-rage and he's gonna take it out on the turtles. 
Armaggon has pretty good articulation for both coming out near the end of the line as well as being such a thick figure. I'd say the only thing going against him is how hard it is to remember the correct spelling of 'Armaggon'. 

Yellow space suit! This April is displayed at home with our set of Slimed Heroes Ghostbusters figures, as it fits in very nicely with their colorful jumpsuits. It's hard to not have a homerun with a figure that has a huge dome space helmet. She also comes with a laser gun that looks like a freakin camera! A nice little nod to her original cartoon design when paired with the yellow outfit.
It wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world to give her some more articulation, but after seeing all the figures in the line, she's far from lacking when it comes to movement.