In praise of He-Man…

Justin here. We’re redecorating the ToyFare office, and one of the things we did was dedicate a shelf (actually, a windowsill) to our 200X Masters of the Universe collection. This is the first time I’ve had these figures on display like this in a couple of years and let me tell you…it’s still one of the greatest lines of all time.

Full disclosure: I was a massive He-Man fan as a kid, and the Four Horsemen managed to make their updated figures look almost exactly like what my memory told me the classic figures looked like. Except the classic figures were never this cool and my memory had been seasoned by time and distance. To have them all arrayed together again brought it all back again how cool this line was.

Do yourself a favor - if you’ve got your Masters toys in storage, pull some out this weekend and play around with them. If only to get yourself jazzed for the imminent release of the first two Masters of the Universe Classics!

ToyFare # 137 and Twisted ToyFare Theatre v.9: On sale 11/12!

Are you ready for double the ToyFare goodness?

Justin here, and this week you’ll be able to head to your local comic shop and pick up not just the new issue of ToyFare (#137), but also the latest volume of the collected Twisted ToyFare Theatre, volume 9! To find a comic shop near you, call the Comic Shop Locator at 1-888-COMIC-BOOK.

Here’s what you’ll find in ToyFare #137:
*A cover story on the Watchmen! We interview DC Direct about the highly anticipated toys, as well as Rorschach actor Jackie Earle Haley!

*The annual ToyFare Holiday Gift Guide, featuring all the coolest items for geeks this holiday season!

* Twisted ToyFare Theatre: Secret Invasion! Which one of your favorite Megos will turn out to have been a Skrull in disguise? It’s definitely one of these:

* A retro feature on Inspector Gadget: He only had one toy in the 80s, but it was one of the best damn toys of all time!

*A spotlight on Sideshow’s amazing Marvel products!

* Incoming: World premiere of NECA’s new Street Fighter 4 figures, plus much, much more!

* Behind-the-scenes of the first Become a Joe contest Hasbro held at San Diego!

* And a ton of other stuff.

In TTT Volume 9, you’ll find:

* Over 10 classic and neo-classic strips from TTT past, featuring the Megos, the Troopers, the Enterprise crew and more!

* A special gallery of Twisted ToyFare Sunday funnies!

* The latest chapter in the Official Handbook of the Twisted ToyFare Theatre Universe!

Buy both, and get free bragging rights that you bought both!

And now, my terrible artwork for the ToyFare 137 cover. Obviously, the real Comedian is my art skills:

Robot Chicken Star Wars: Episode II

Robot Chicken, as you may know, are our friends. Most of them got their start at ToyFare, and we’re super-happy for all the success they’ve had. Now they’ve got a sequel to their mega-successful Star Wars special coming out on November 16 on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. It’s true! I saw Seth Green on The Soup promoting it!

Well, if it’s good enough for the Soup, it’s good enough for us to promote. Please tune into their special on Sunday November 16. Here are three new trailers for you to enjoy in the meantime. And tell ‘em ToyFare sent ya!

Countdown to Twisted ToyFare Secret Invasion: 7 Days!

In seven days, one of these Megos will be revealed to be a SKRULL!

That’s because November 12 sees the release in comic shops of ToyFare #137 and “Invasion of the Mego Snatchers,” when Secret Invasion reaches the Twisted ToyFare Theatre Universe.

We are totally not jerking you around. One of these major Mego characters will be revealed to have been a Skrull since the beginning of the strip. And NOTHING WILL EVER BE THE SAME!

Come back each day for the next week (except on the weekends, when we have better things to do) to see three more characters with a Skrull hidden in their midst. Who will be revealed as a Skrull next week? The answers may shock and annoy you!

Post your theories about who’s a dirty Skrull at the Wizard Universe Message Board!

I Interviewed David X. Cohen, and You Didn’t

Justin here. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m an embarrassingly huge Futurama fan. One of my favorite things I’ve ever written was a Futurama spec script for my TV writing class back in college.

That’s why probably my proudest moment in the history of my employment here at ToyFare is when I got to interview Futurama co-creator David X. Cohen last year, and he said at the end of the interview “I can tell you know a lot about Futurama.” It’s gonna be hard to top that one! (Coming awfully close: getting Stan Lee to write the introduction for a Twisted ToyFare volume, than getting a very nice handwritten note from The Man himself! But I digress.)

Well, I recently had the pleasure to interview Mr. Cohen for a third time, and you can read part of the interview that deals with tomorrow’s new full-length DVD movie release, “Bender’s Game,” right here at Wizarduniverse.com. FYI: In my expert opinion, “Bender’s Game” is the best of the DVD movies yet. It’s the first one where everything was firing on all cylinders, and it felt like a truly classic episode. I highly recommend picking it up if you’re a fan.

There’s another part of the interview that focuses on next year’s final DVD movie, “Into the Wild Green Yonder,” and you’ll be able to read that as part of our massive 2009 preview in December’s ToyFare #138.

Enjoy the interview, folks. I’ll tell David you said hey.

And now, a public service message from your friends at ToyFare

Howdy, folks. Just a quick public service announcement: If you are a U.S. citizen aged 18 or over and you don’t vote tomorrow, you deserve to have all your mint-in-box figures played with by a three-year-old. Please vote.

Go, Miniman, Go!

It’s the 30th anniversary of Lego’s iconic Miniman, which means many of us have never lived in a world without Minimen. Let’s take a second to reflect on how lucky we are.

Back? Okay, in honor of the celebration, Lego has put up a web page, Go Miniman Go, where fans can submit their own Miniman photos and movies. Never one to miss a birthday party, ToyFare made a special two-page Lego TTT in the new issue, #136 (on sale now in comic shops), starring Lego Indiana Jones and friends. And Lego just posted it on the site (there are no permalinks, so look for October 13). Check it out!

The Gourd Apocalypse!

In years past, ToyFare has sponsored a pumpkin-carving contest around Halloween time. Well this year we’re way too lazy to do so, but luckily we don’t have to! The intrepid and talented WUMB user krpykrwly (pronounced “Creepy Crawly,” donchaknow) is holding one!

Follow the link to check out the rules for this year’s Gourd Apocalypse! You might win fabulous prizes!

ToyFare # 136: On sale 10/8!

Hey Gang, TJ here. It’s that time again. What time? New ToyFare time, of course. And boy do we have one humdinger of an issue for you, especially if you’re a video game fan. As you can see, NECA’s new Marcus Fenix figure from the upcoming Gears of War 2 game adorns the cover of issue #136 (available in comic shops 10/8 and on newsstands 10/21) and relates to the huge GOW mamajama therein in which we cover the upcoming new game, comic book, action figures and more. We even got to talk with GOW-guru Cliff Bleszinski who gave us the lowdown on GOW 2. In other video gameyness, you can check out the all time top ten grosses monsters in video games as compiled by the ToyFare staff and written by funny dude Chris Ward. As if that’s not enough, you can also check out a little behind the scenes action for the upcoming Bond game Quantum of Solace.
For classic cartoon fans, we’ve also got a look at IDW’s upcoming G.I. Joe and Tranformers comic book plans with guides like Larry Hama and Editor Andy Schmidt. Check out some awesome character designs and find out what’s coming up in the next few months with your childhood heroes.
Also in this issue, Crystar gets the retro feature treatment as we get to the bottom of the gemstone hero with editors and Marvel bigwigs Ralph Macchio and Jim Shooter.
And finally, after three months of Manly Men of Action TTTs, we’re going a completely different route with three mini-TTTs starring MiniMates, LEGO Indiana Jones and the cassette tapes living inside Soundwave.
All that, plus the usual Incoming, Hot Plate, Calendar, Price Guide, Back Page and more can be yours this Wednesday.

And now, as has become our tradition, here is Editor Justin Aclin’s “art” depicting what the cover should look like. See you next month!

Big Shots: Week 14

Hey gang, sorry about the lack of posting last week. We were experiencing some technical difficulties in house and were also closing the next jam pack issue of ToyFare. Anyway, welcome to our fourteenth installment of classic Big Shots from ToyFare Magazine’s past. Got a particular fondly remembered Big Shot you’d like to see here? Let us know on the Wizard Universe Message Board. Also, take note that some of the fonts were lost in the translation from the older issues, so they don’t look exactly like they did in the mag, but they’re still hilarious if we do say so ourselves.