Review - Sideshow 12″ Aragorn As Strider The Ranger (Exclusive Version)

It’s the last day of 2006 and I’m cranking out the last review of the year here at SWFToys! And we are looking at my favourite character from JRR Tolkien’s iconic The Lord of the Rings series. It helped that Peter Jackson did an excellent work to bring the world of Middle-earth alive for all to see! Viggo Mortensen was a perfect cast for Aragorn with his rugged looks. He is not all-out handsome like Brad Pitt or Brandon Routh but he has that intensity and rough edge that makes women swoon.

Comics - Astro City: Life In The Big City

Astro City: Life In The Big City

Originally uploaded by swftoys.

“I love superheroes”. That was Kurt Busiek’s opening words in the introduction of Astro City: Life In The Big City. I had picked this TPB up because of my on-going desire to appreciate good comic work. Right from the start, the Introduction was an interesting read. It summarises Kurt Busiek’s vision for Astro City… well… in several pages really.

The premise for Kurt Busiek’s inspiration for Astro City was to explore if more could be done with the superhero genre. Although superheroes started as simplistic characters that took the earliest readers into the realm of a different reality, could these characters to used to reflect our true reality? Can they be a metaphor for real issues to communicate to a different comic-reading audience? Well, it sure is an exciting prospect back then I guess.

Review - Hot Toys 12″ Rambo First Blood

One influential aspect of the Rambo movies was that it never failed to inspire me to workout after watching them. You got to see Sylvester Stallone in the movie to believe how chiseled his body was. And it was not the bulky physique bodybuilders had. It was lean and it left no doubt that Rambo could be as swift and flexible as any athlete. And who could forget his impossibly big lats in Rambo III!

Showcase - 24 Products Catalog 2006

Here’s a products catalog for 24 that I picked up in Yamashiroya in Tokyo. Sharing here with all fellow fans of this great series! Another good news is that a new Day starts in January! Too bad there were no 12″ Jack Bauer figure available while I was there. I guess the hunt for Jack continues…

There are 4 pages to the catalog. Enjoy!

Musings - Christmas 2006 Greetings!

It’s Christmas! I would like to wish all readers of SWFToys a merry and joyous Christmas! I must say that it has been wonderful to be able to share with fellow toy collectors the joy of our hobby via this blog. Go have fun!

Incoming - Medicom 12″ Wolverine (X-Men The Last Stand)

After the disappointments in Medicom’s 12″ releases of the comic versions of Marvel superheroes, a 12″ Wolverine figure from the 3rd X-Men movie has been released. While the comic version’s Wolverine resembled bad pencils commonly found in different artists’ rendition of this berserker, this new movie version looked suspiciously good in the initial promo pics. And this has reached SWFToys!

Musings - Giving Back to the Community

I have also posted some of my non-toy related travel activities in Japan. It is my desire to keep this blog solely as a toy blog(and not a personal blog). But I realise that there is a need to help potential travellers with information to plan for a more complete itinerary for their trips. Something like a complete solution. Japan is the mecca of toys but you can’t shop for toys all through the day! There’s more to that country than toys. Some guys may need to plan non-toy related stuff to distract or appease their other half for the Toy Plan to be successful. I want to help to make the plan a success!

Travel - Back From Tokyo Japan!

SWFToys is back home! It’s been a long day since I was either travelling in a plane or rushing from one airport gate to another! Started the journey from Tokyo at 4am local time and reached home at 10.45pm! As such I am really beat and will start to do some updates on my trip tomorrow… that is if I don’t sleep through the day!