Time
to put together all of the stuff that I didn’t know what to do with
and stick it in a podcast! I had two episodes that didn’t work out
right at the end of the year, so I need to use up that storage space
I’m paying for.
Tuesday, December 31, 2013
Needless Things Podcast Episode 15 – Year End Wrap-Up – Zack Galligan, Andrew Lincoln, Beau Brown, and More!
Labels:
Andrew Lincoln,
interviews,
Masters of the Universe,
masters of the universe classics,
mattel,
MattyCollector.com,
Needless Things Podcast,
The Walking Dead,
Zach Galligan,
zombies

2013’s Best Stuff
Hey, Phantomaniacs - it’s
time for the biggest awards event that Needless Things produces all
year long! That’s right, just like every other site on the
internet, at the end of each year I put together a list of the very
best stuff.

Thank Yous
Thank You-
Mrs. Troublemaker, Lil’ Troublemaker,
Director Faber, El Famoso Mysterioso, Professor Morté, Gary Mitchel,
Joe Crowe, R. Allen Siler, Odin’s Cosmic Bookshelf, Billy’s Toys
and Comics, Zach Oat and Diamond Select Toys, Ironman Mike Woody, Mr.
Beau Brown, Beth V, Alicia Stockton, Chad J. Shonk, Gnoll, John
Schultz, Kalan, Richard Ewell, Evil, Tara Lynn, “Howdy” Mike
Gordon, Sara Nicole Pope, Reverend Dan Wilson, Josh Wilson, Le
Sexoflex, Justin Patterson, Handmade Stuffs, Kyle Starks, Jamie
Cosley, Hashim Clark, Jim Rugg, Belligerent Monkey and his wonderful
family, Award-Winning Bobby Nash, DJ Spider, CALABRESE, CM Landrus,
Rebecca Perry, Award-Winning Mark Maddox, Dana Swanson, Nathan Hamilton, Jen
Hartshorn, Zartanamiss Prime, Deanna and everybody at the RevCast,
Rick Michaels, Simon Sermon, The Casket Creatures, Jenn Wood, Matt Sweatman, Adam
Throne, William Faber, Louis Robinson, Mike Troutt, Geena Phillips,
William Stout, Michelle Sisco, Zack Galligan, Andrew Lincoln, and
most especially Granny Troublemaker who has inspired me all of my
life.
Special thanks to my Monstrosity
Championship Wrestling family for giving me a venue to perform – I
wish I could see all of you more. I’d list everybody, but there are
a shit-ton of you people and if I left anybody out I’d feel
terrible. But I do want to thank Bumplestilskin and Black Easter
Bunny most of all.
Thank you to everybody that I
interviewed for the site or on a podcast.
No thanks to – Wilson, Cory, Mark
Stopper, and Jay. Fuck you guys. Seriously. Not really. Yeah…
really.
Most of all thank you to each and every
one of you – my Phantomaniacs – that read Needless Things, listen
to the podcast, listen to Earth Station Who, and come up to me at
cons or wherever and appreciate the stuff I do. I love you guys.
You are the reason that 2013 was so
amazing and I can’t wait for an amazing 2014.
Also, go buy a fucking t-shirt. Please.
-Phantom

Monday, December 30, 2013
2013’s Worst Stuff
I
try not to bitch as much as I used to on Needless Things. I want to
be entertaining, not a drag. But this is the one post where I can be
a cranky old asshole and complain for 1,000 words (or more).
Labels:
2013,
holiday specials,
worst of

Wednesday, December 25, 2013
My Christmas Playlist
Merry
Christmas, Santamaniacs!
I
know I’ve done this before, but it was a different format and I’m
pretty sure the songs were different. I could do a “Top Twenty”
list of lots of different things – songs, movies, TV shows –
every year and it would be different; and not just from new releases
throughout the year.
Also,
this is just an easy way to have a post for today, a day that I
hadn’t really planned to post anything. But here’s a list (that
laziest of internet devices) of my personal favorite Christmas songs.
Labels:
christmas,
holiday specials,
music

Tuesday, December 24, 2013
My Christmas List
![]() |
Sideshow Collectibles' The Dead Subject #1206 |
Happy
Christmas Eve, Santamaniacs!
Today’s
post is an exercise in sheer whimsy. Because, you know – most of
what I put up here on Needless Things is so serious.
I
wanted to do something I haven’t done in over twenty-five years –
write a list for Santa Claus. A list of all the stuff I would ask for
if I were age-eligible for a visit from the jolly old elf. Looking
back at 2013, I do think I made the Nice List by a decent margin, so
the only question would be exactly how much of my list would end up
fulfilled. I can tell you that over the past six years I have become
fairly familiar with the standards of judging Naughty/Nice criteria
and the main factor seems to end up involving Santa’s resources
more than anything else.
So
given that, I would expect to see everything on this list under that
tree come tomorrow morning. If I were eligible.
Labels:
action figures,
christmas,
holiday specials,
toys

Friday, December 20, 2013
Toys R Us Fabulous 15 Christmas Toys by Evil
First off I need
to apologize for my slacking off. I got through the reviews of the
first two Star Wars Black figures then never got the rest. The pics
are taken, I just never got to them. But I promise to be better.
Originally when Phantom Troublemaker asked about Christmas articles,
I had intended to do reviews of the 2013 Star Wars Christmas advent
calendar. That thing is crazy expensive ($39.99) so I was waiting
for it to go on sale as Target was choked with them last year. Of
coarse that means that this year it sold out and now is going for
stupid money on the internet. So onward and upward. Instead I
decided to look at the yearly top Christmas toys as presented by Toys
R Us. This year they made a list of 15 toys. I decided to go with
the Toys R Us list due to the fact it’s the first that comes up in
Google and the ones that most parents probably go to. So here they
are with a little commentary on each, thoughts about the whole list,
and what I think is missing.
Labels:
christmas,
Guest Posts,
holiday specials,
Toys R Us

Wednesday, December 18, 2013
Toy Review – Batman ’66 TV Masters Riddler By Mattel
Penguin might
have been the most prolific villain of the old Batman TV show,
but Riddler is probably the one people think of the most. Between his
bright green unitard (which isn’t actually as bright as you
remember) and his trademark riddles; he had the most impact of any of
the male villains. And that’s really saying something when you’re
talking about a cast of characters that included Vincent Price as
Egghead, Victor Buono as King Tut, and freakin’ Liberace as the
criminal pianist Chandell.
Labels:
action figures,
batman,
Batman '66,
mattel,
Riddler

Tuesday, December 17, 2013
Toy Review New 52 Swamp Thing from DC Collectibles
Ol’
Swampy here represents the end of my coverage of the current crop of
DC Collectibles releases. All of the figures and sets I’ve reviewed
over the past couple of weeks should still be available at your local
comic shop or online somewhere, so I hope some of you have gotten
some good information out of these.
Labels:
action figures,
DC Collectibles,
New 52,
Swamp Thing

Monday, December 16, 2013
My Christmas Disappointment (Sort Of) By R.T. Ewell
Even
in my mid-thirties I still remember the most disappointing Christmas
I ever had. Now, this particular "disappointing" is from
the view point of a spoiled nine year old little boy. I look back at
Christmas as a child and I count my blessings but back then, boy was
I disappointed. I should have been thankful of how my holidays were
spent before my parents separated, we were a family and always spent
the season together celebrating. Now that seems like more of a gift
than any present I could have gotten.
Labels:
christmas,
Guest Posts,
holiday specials,
video games

Friday, December 13, 2013
Toy Review Batman: Arkham Origins Bane from DC Collectibles
Wow. This picture is terrible. Sorry about that. |
As
much as I disliked The
Dark Knight Rises,
I was excited about this figure that combined that Bane’s
practical, militaristic look with the slightly sillier look of comic
book Bane.
Look
– I am a huge fan of Lucha libre, wrestling, and general costumed
spectacle, but Bane’s old singlet and wrist pump look was not the
best.
Labels:
action figures,
Arkham Origins,
Bane,
batman,
DC Collectibles

Thursday, December 12, 2013
Toy Review Batman: Arkham Origins The Joker from DC Collectibles
I
didn’t preorder this figure. I didn’t like the lack of purple,
the face seemed weird, I knew the voicing wasn’t going to be Mark
Hamill, and I already had a perfectly good Joker from Arkham
Asylum.
Okay,
well – I had the Joker from Arkham
Asylum.
The quality of that figure is up for debate.
By
the time this Joker hit stores I knew a few things – I had played
Arkham
Origins
and liked the depiction, the guy that replaced Mark Hamill was
fantastic, and the new clothes still should have been purple.
Then
I saw this figure in the store and the deal, as they say, was sealed
for one reason – this
Joker could look straight ahead.
Labels:
action figures,
Arkham Origins,
batman,
DC Collectibles,
Joker

Wednesday, December 11, 2013
Toy Review - Batman: Arkham City Bane & Batman from DC Collectibles
This
two-pack is the final in a series of three that combined an oversized
figure with a repaint of re-release of an existing figure. I’m
still not sure if the Harley Quinn was different, but Penguin was and
this Batman definitely is.
The
other sets’ oversized figures were the (formerly) conjoined
Abramovici twins Sickle
and Mr. Hammer.
They had never been released before and were therefore must-haves for
me. I didn’t need a Penguin, but I did not have the Arkham
City
version of Harley Quinn. This set, on the other hand, included two
characters that I already owned. This is the third version I have
bought of each of these characters.
Labels:
action figures,
Bane,
batman,
DC Collectibles

Tuesday, December 10, 2013
Toy Review Batman: Arkham City Hugo Strange (SDCC Graphitti Designs Exclusive) from DC Collectibles
Hoo,
boy was I pissed off about this figure.
Hugo
Strange is a character that is oddly special to me for a few reasons.
His ghost was in the first Batman comic I ever read, he’s one of
those characters that is more of a mental challenge for Batman (and a
particularly insidious one, at that), and he’s the only character
in all of created fiction ever that I can cosplay (is that proper
word usage? Even after my exhaustive Dragon Con coverage I’m not
sure).
Labels:
action figures,
Arkham City,
batman,
DC Collectibles

Monday, December 9, 2013
Toy Review RoboCop 1.0 from Jada Toys
Labels:
action figures,
Jada Toys,
RoboCop

Friday, December 6, 2013
Toy Review Batman: Arkham City Sickle & Penguin from DC Collectibles
This
two-pack is the obvious mate to yesterday’s Mr.
Hammer & Harley Quinn,
but it was less desirable to me because I already own a Penguin.
Although I have no idea where his little cigar went, so at least I
get a new one of those.
Plus,
I never reviewed that Penguin because I was still didn’t want to
admit that I was buying DC Direct figures again after being so vocal
about how poorly made they were.
Were.
They’re
much better now. Well, mostly.
Labels:
action figures,
Arkham City,
batman,
DC Collectibles,
Penguin

Thursday, December 5, 2013
Toy Review Batman: Arkham City Mr. Hammer & Harley Quinn from DC Collectibles
I
was surprised when DC Collectibles offered this two-pack and two more
like it – Batman with Bane and Penguin with Mr. Hammer’s brother,
Sickle.
Each
set consists of one new figure and a slight repaint of an old figure.
It was a pretty smart way to get three oversized figures and three
sold out but popular figures on the market. I’ll talk about the
other two sets in the coming days; today I’m going to take a look
at the first one that came in at the ol’ local comic book shop.
This
first set is notable for me because I never bought this version of
Harley. I wasn’t crazy about the design before I played the game,
so I didn’t order it when it was offered through Previews. By the
time I decided I wanted one they were long gone. So this set was the
best deal of the three for me because I didn’t have either of the
figures.
Labels:
action figures,
Arkham City,
batman,
DC Collectibles,
Harley Quinn

Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Toy Review Batman: Arkham Origins Black Mask from DC Collectibles
I’m
going to be reviewing a
lot of
DC Collectibles’ action figures over the next few weeks. They timed
a huge number of releases to coincide with the holidays, which was
probably a pretty clever idea.
I’ve
written before how I had basically sworn off of DC’s in-house
action figures a few years ago, so I won’t belabor my complaints
about their quality and fragility. Especially since DCC seems to have
made huge strides in those areas.
But
first we have to start with a bit of a throwback figure that honestly
leaves me a little confused – Black Mask.
Labels:
action figures,
Arkham City,
batman,
DC Collectibles

Tuesday, December 3, 2013
Toy Review Masters of the Universe Classics Castaspella from Mattel
I
think I’ve made it pretty clear that I am not the most
knowledgeable guy when it comes to She-Ra and all of her flowery,
fruity pals. I didn’t watch the cartoon when I was a kid because it
was for girls and… well, that’s pretty much the whole story. I
knew about the Evil Horde because they were so much cooler than
Skeletor and his goons, but I couldn’t tell you much about the
heroes of Etheria.
This,
of course, did not stop me from writing over 20,000 words of a Doctor
Who story that just happened to take place on Etheria. But that’s another
story.
Labels:
action figures,
Masters of the Universe,
masters of the universe classics,
mattel,
MattyCollector.com,
redheads

Monday, December 2, 2013
Gone To Pallookaville
No post today – come back tomorrow.
I’m at this place:
Well, at the all-new brick-and-mortar
location of this place, located in the heart of Avondale Estates at
17N Avondale Plaza. Here’s their menu.
Wait.
Before you look at the menu I have to
warn you there’s a good chance it’s going to blow your mind right
out of the back of your head. Or the top, maybe. I’ve never seen an
assortment of comestibles quite like what is being offered here, and
I think there’s a good chance I’m going to suffer some sort of
mental breakdown trying to decide what, exactly, I want to eat. The
thought of going to Pallookaville without getting a corndog is
ridiculous, but I keep hearing about these pork burgers. I really
want a pork burger.

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