Tuesday, October 05, 2010

TopHeavy Fall Line 2010

2nd half goes off without a hitch!
The site may be back on track again. 2 new pages this week help to illustrate that, along with a really big set of updates.

The highlight of this second round is EASILY TopHeavy's fall line of shirts.
Everything got onto Winter Wear, and it's not to be missed. Bringing in the newest Sega stock art, and not clogging the works with 'classics' that everyone already owns a billion of...the fall line really impresses. They weren't afraid to use new color combinations and throw in fan-fave characters like...

The Chaotix!
FINALLY a Chaotix shirt! It may star Knuckles, but it still features them nicely. This one's going to be a must-have for me, along with the new Shadow shiny ink one. It's actually reccommended to never really wear those shiny ink shirts to keep them at their best...but I can't resist collecting/displaying it. Top Heavy continues to impress with great design and good choices. Hit your Sears, people!

*When I (or fans) can find and confirm prices/locations a tweet will appear.

Fan Shadow Car-
Tikal strikes again, with this very stylish item. Real ingenuity going on here...the effect could likely be replicate-able by dedicated fans...who have cars.

Bootleg spam on ebay:
SonicGear USED to have some fan submitters dedicated to trawling ebay for the latest shirts but the floods of garbage have scared them off. Don't fear, shirt collecting...anyones..reading this...I'll still bring in the photos no matter how many "RObbeez brithday" items get in the way.

Yes the Super Poser Tails initial (official) photos are on, but he's still pending a real review/turn arounds. I've yet to get a hold of this or the 10 inch Sonic. Stores in some areas may be slow.

Next Week-
Full reviews if I can get the JW items, and random stuff no matter what. More TopHeavy IS anticipated, this isn't their whole fall line.

Sunday, October 03, 2010

Jazwares. Again.

How is this happening?
Jazwares dominates another update. Hope you like action figures!

And no, this isn't just the missing 2nd half from last week, this is more new stuff sent in for THIS week...plus the (seemingly) un-avoidable 'it broke!' shots and sob stories that they create by making weak figures. Headless Super Sonic, reports of Super Poser Tails losing the paint off his face, 10 inch Sonic with a hand that just dropped off while he's MIB...none of this inspires fan confidence!

I've had loads of emails with people describing how their figures just snap apart or the heads fall off. My Espio has 180 degree elbows and 1 knee that won't keep its pose. What started as a Tails with tails that'd drop off has turned into an epidemic of sad fans and broken stuff. I don't know what to say or do, except "Return it!" and "Inspect it!" (before you buy, I know Gear is always harping on inspecting merchandise before you buy it, but they keep making me have to say it)

Try to exchange broken things for unbroken ones at the store, if you get something that just falls apart in its box. If you keep your recipt, you shouldn't have any trouble. Is JW even AWARE that their figures are doing this? They keep putting the "Safety Tested" sticker on the box, but was it safety tested by a pack of sharks who totally don't notice when the figures fall apart? Is Wile E Coyote using ACME shipping to get them to Toys R Us so they're destructed by the time they arrive?

Their sculpts are SO SO GOOD.
It would be a horrible shame if their bad quality plastic or bad construction, or over-used molds, or wacky packaging harms their reputation / turns off fans/buyers/parents etc and they take a hit because of it. They're the best company to handle Sonic figures....EVER. No one's done more characters, no one's listened to the fans as well, no one's sculpted better than these guys. They just need to clean up their act. EVEN if it means figures cost a dollar more...it's worth it to not have them all break!

Opinion Zone:
I don't even own it yet and their 10 inch Sonic is a zillion times better than Giant Talkin' ReSaurus Sonic. It's so so so so so much more Sonic-like. It doesn't look totally psychotic. Geez, he is how you do it right...I've not displayed the ReSaurus thing in forever just because it looks so bad. Those giant goggley eyes...the BDG...the bent up shoes...just...blargh! I guess you dont realize how off it is until you see one that actually bothers to look like the offical art.

Where are the racers?
Who is pulling the strings with the Jazwares mini racers? If you read the wikipedia for the game (or play it) Metal Sonic & Big are in there too...but they let out Amigo & Aiai? I don't know what the fans of Shenmue, Billy Hatcher (if he has any fans...) Alex Kidd or even ChuChu Rocket think. Still, you'd think they'd want to put all the actual...you know...Sonic people in there instead of throwing in Jet Set Radio randomguy.
And were are mini Knuckles & mini Shadow? You'd think they'd want them out before the monkies.

Even the electronics & fan items this week are all due to Jazwares.
The 2nd part of the update will have more (super poser Tails, broken photos, etc)

Next week?
Hopefully could have some new shirts. Top Heavy did indeed start a fall line. Otherwise, mixed bag of everything I can lay on there. Likely won't include much JW, as the last of it should be on the 2nd part here today.