Oh, My Beautiful Mistress of the Dark...

Next to Lynda Carter, my biggest and longest-running celebrity crush comes in the form of leggy, black-clad wisecracking horror-host and all around Halloween Hottie, the Mistress of the Dark herself, Elvira!

I used to watch her cheesy horror movies religiously when I was a youngster and usually just wanted the stupid monster flick to go to a commercial to see the next Elvira skit. Then came her very own movie, which I watch on HBO about 20 times in one Summer alone. In fact, I always thought Elvira was a grade A TV hottie, but after that movie, where her humor really shined alongside her amazing taste in cars, it was pretty much true love forever. (Incidentally, I just saw her on American Idol this past Wednesday night; she's still looking hot!)

Anyway, after months of trying to find a decent Elvira action figure on eBay for a decent price, and passing on all of them as they were either overpriced, or gouged in the shipping, I finally found one, mint on the card, at my recent San Diego swap meet trip for a big, whopping $5!

This figure came out several years ago from a toy company that came and went pretty quickly, with no help from their inanely vapid company name. This Elvira figure is the "Witch Variant", which basically means that she came with a witch's hat and a broom instead of the boa constrictor and chainsaw of the regular figure, two accessories that were quickly thrown to the wayside; it's all about the figure for me in this case.

Not the most articulated figure, and it has those stupid "hole hands", but I don't really care. The figure was 5 clams and it's Elvira. I'm a happy guy.

Despite the no-name toy company, they actually did a really good job in capturing her likeness, especially in the face, and her costume is top notch, right down to the removable dagger on her belt.

And it wouldn't be a post about everyone's favorite Mistress of the Dark without a gratuitous shot of her... umm... assets.

So, not a great figure, but not a horrible one, either. Like I said, I'm just jazzed to finally have an Elvira on the shelf, where she can host bad horror movies for the rest of my action figures

Anyway, kiddies... unpleasant dreeeeaaaaams!

*UPDATE*

Since Bubbashelby couldn't resist asking me for naked pics of Elvira (he just can't help himself, he has no self control), I guess I'll oblige him this one time.

Sorry, gang! That's as naked as she gets. Still, kick ass wristbands, though!

Lego Minifig of the Week! #15

Random Toy Pic #21

(I picked up the Vintage Series ROTJ R2 before I left for San Diego, and scored his darker evil twin at the swap meet.)

Video Blog #21

Lego Minifig of the Week! #14

My Haunted House UV Shirt Goes to Print!

Just got to see this sample of one of my UV color-changing shirts! The ghosts show up really bright in UV light. It's hard to tell but there are even little ghosts peeking out through the broken windows. :)

WooooOOOOooOOOOoOOOOoooooo!!!!

The Adventures of Clawtron in San Diego!

Hey, kids! It's me, Reis, reporting from sunny San Diego, California, where I'm halfway through my work trip. I know I said that the blog would remain "radio silent" until I got back, but I found some down time and I just couldn't resist a little blogging. I have so much to show you guys, but all in good time.

Today, I just wanted to show off some pics. Inspired by Chunky B's Gonk Adventures, I decided to bring along one of my new favorite figures, Clawtron (from the Fisher Price Adventure People) and let him have a little vacation too!

So sit back and enjoy Part 1 of The Adventures of Clawtron in San Diego!

The day we left Seattle, was rainy and cloudy, as usual, and Clawtron was more than a little anxious to get on the plane.

Once on the plane, I had to explain to Clawtron that despite him being programed to pilot and navigate over 7,000 known airborne conveyances in the galaxy, he was not allowed to fly this plane.

So I did my best to keep him occupied and we shared a snack of sesame sticks and dried cranberries together.

But that wasn't enough, so as soon as we landed and met up with my friend, we all went out for burgers. Clawtron was thrilled.

He spent the first couple of days meeting the locals.

And despite his frightening countenance, it turns out that he's rather quite good with children.

Clawtron has been joining me on my daily breaks (this being a working vacation, after all) to to the Starbucks down the block, where I give my eyes a rest from the computer screens and get some other ideas sketched out. 

One new favorite pastime that Clawtron has been embracing with me is our new-found love for collecting those squashed pennies that you get at tourist traps. And believe me, they're everywhere down here!

You can't go to San Diego without going to the zoo and here I managed to snap a pick of Clawtron admiring the elephants from atop the tour bus.

Thanks to a visit to my first California swap meet (which I have heard are collector's paradises), I managed to pick up a couple of friends for Clawtron to hang out with while working. So now, he and Mutt talk a lot about motorcycles and the weird little green dude, just seems to be happy to listen to them. (I don't know who he is, so if anyone can tell me, that would be much appreciated.)

And to wrap things up for now, I thought I'd end Part 1 with a shot of Clawtron hanging out with my recently acquired Lego minifigs. Woot! Woot! Series 4!

Anyway, I'm here for another week, so I'll see you all again soon with more Adventures of Clawtron in San Diego, plus some killer toy pics from the swap meet, and a closer look at some of the awesome toys I've scored.

Adios, mi amigos!

Lego Minifig of the Week! #13

Introducing... Snotz!

Here's the latest member of the Boogorz team, Lead Infantry Private Snotz...

Only a couple more Boogorz to add to the team, then I'll bake them up, paint on some details (like a gloss coat over the eyes) and then I can move on to the other clans. Think I'll do the Skabz next! Eeeeewwwww....

Lego Minifig of the Week! #12

Hey! Look at My Toys! is Going on Hiatus...

Hey kids! I just wanted to drop a quick post to let everyone know that I'm going to be taking a small break from posting for a while. The wife and I are heading to Vancouver, BC for a few days to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and right after I get back, I'll be heading to sunny California for a couple of weeks for work.

I can't say much, but this super secret side project I have been working on has just blown up in a major way and I'm going to be spending a couple of weeks cranking out artwork, meeting with big wigs and basically launching stuff into the stratosphere.

I wish I could tell you more, but I can't right now. I assure you all that it's something you would all love, and as soon as I get the okay to show off some of the production work/concepts/final products, I certainly will, but probably over at my art blog.

So, Hey! Look at My Toys! will be quiet for about 3 weeks or so. But hopefully, I'll find scads of cool toys blog about when I get back!

Adios, muchachos!

Vintage Imperial Monsters!

Greeting boys and ghouls! MuuuaaaHAHAHAHAhahahahahaha!!!

So, I've got to be honest; I'm hella short on time and have a ton to do today, so I don't have a lot of time to wax poetically about some toy I had when I was a kid and how I had a multitude of adventures with it and all that nonsense, so I'm just going to post some pics of toys I never had, but saw them on eBay and just had to have them.

I scored this lot of monster figures by Imperial a few weeks back and they have been dominating my Universal Monsters shelf ever since, mostly because they are just massive, about 8 or 9 inches tall, and made of a bulky, heavy plastic. These figures could be used as murder weapons.

Anyway, like I said, I never had these before, but I do have vague memories of seeing them in stores when I was younger, and maybe some kids I knew had them, but whatever, these are mine now! Now all I have to do is find the Wolfman figure, and possibly a Gillman one (if they ever made one of him).

So, there it is. Enjoy the pics!

(By the way, I happen to have two Frankensteins, if anyone wants to make a trade for a Wolfman or Creature!)

Lego Minifig of the Week! #11

Random Toy Pic #20

Boogorz 2.0

Some of you may remember the disgusting little creature I made out of clay a while back, based on what I imagine an anthropomorphic, personified booger would look like. If you don't, scroll down. I don't post that often.

Well, sadly, the $4 children's modeling clay that I used was surprisingly crappy. Who knew? And our poor Boogorz fellow dried up and got all gross looking.

So, I went to a craft store and bought some good ol' faithful Sculpey, in a multitude of colors, and decided to remake the ugly little cuss.

I can already tell that I'm going to like this clay better, and once he's backed, he'll be solid as a rock. So I spent the afternoon trying to recreate my first Boogorz guy and you can see the process below...

Voila! An all new, brilliantly colorful, and slightly larger Boogorz critter! Again, I'm no sculptor, so pardon my less than perfect creature, but then again, he is a booger monster, so he shouldn't be too perfectly molded.

I had so much fun making him, that I quickly whipped up a little friend for him...

Aaawwwwww.... aren't they cute? So these are the first to Boogorz. I'm stiull thinking of names for them and I have three others planned, which I'm waiting to make before I bake them all. Then I'll move on to the other clans, like the Poo-toids, the Pee-zors, the Skabz, the Toejamz and the Waxilors.

It's going to get gross, folks.

Video Blog #20

VROOOM! Speed Buggy!

Vintage 1983 Kenner Force Lightsaber!

Out of all of the stuff I scored at last weekend's Emerald City Comic Con, I have to say that the biggest one for me was this vintage 1983 Darth Vader Lightsaber. I had one of these as a kid, a green one like Luke's, as did most of the kids in my neighborhood and we would regularly host epic lightsaber battles down by the Kindergarten school playground, under the monkey bars dome.

My original lightsaber was a trusty and beloved toy and I have literally been searching for a decade for another one. They rarely show up on eBay and when they do, they are either incredibly beat up, astonishingly expensive, or very often, both.

So imagine my surprise when I see this beauty, leaning up against a toy dealer's table, just waiting for me to pick it up. I asked how much he wanted for it and he said, "I wanted $25, but I'll give it to you for $20." I nearly peed my pants right there. Luckily, I kept it together.

This baby is in mint condition! Not a scrape, ding, nick or peel on it, just like the day it was bought from a  store. (Monkey has decided that he wants to be in this post.)

"The Force" Lightsabers, were actually the second generation of this toy which boasted a little design tweak that caused it to make "VWOOOM VWOOOM!" sounds when you swing it around. The sound is absolutely nothing like the sound effect from the movie, but in 1983, we didn't care.

It's this little doohickey one the end that somehow makes it go "VWOOOM!"

Along with the fact that the entire thing is hollow. I have no idea about the physics behind this. And remember how I mentioned how "new" it was? Yeah, turns out that this baby still has the price tag on it! Only $6.99 at Eckerd's (which is a pharmacy/drug store like CVS or Walgreens).

And that's my favorite score of last weekend. That, and the mint condition Dukes of Hazzard Lunchbox I found (which isn't a toy, so I won't be blogging about here).

And now, for the epic finale of this post, I will battle Monkey to the death!

Ach! He used the Force push to deflect the blade!

Oh! A nasty slash to the midsection!

Followed up by a ruthless stab to the back!

What's this? He has blocked my blows with the legendary Kitty Jedi Head Rub?! Impossible!

Aaaaaannnnnnd now he has to lick his foot. Guess the fight's over.

Anyway, he and I will meet again another day, when my powers will be even stronger. Until then, I will take solace in the knowledge that I have found a new lightsaber... and my training is almost complete...

VROOOM! Fred Flintstone's Car!

(click to view Brontosaurus size)

VROOOM! Hong Kong Phooey's Car!

 

(click to view Scatman Crothers size)