[OT] Toy store update

A friend called me up last week to tell me I HAD to go to TRU and have a
look at line that had just come in. I went out last weekend, got pretty
excited, but more on that later.

I thought I'd relate a few of the 'reduced price' items that might be
interesting to the list.

The Matchbox area had a reduced price Mega Rig Jungle Hovercraft for
$7.97US that looked like it might be useful to the SGII folks. I only
looked at it at the store, in box, but it seemed to assemble to about
6-8"
long, and the piccies of it looked fraught with possibilities. Course,
as
with many now, it's a transformer, though not to a mech/mecha, but to
various smaller configurations.

Marvel spin-offs seem to be doing poorly; an Avenger Air Glider for
under
$4US looked like it might be of use as a small lander, and the X-Men,
the
movie, X-Jet($9.98US) always looked like a possibility as a table-top
landed space ship, always in my mind for an assault scenario. That, or
gutted as a figure case. ;->=

Has anyone ever tried using a Battlefield Earth Psyclo Battle Craft
($9.97US) for anything?

Now, for what had my friend, the Colonial Wars fan, though no purist, so
excited on the phone. Seems the spin-offs to the Disney film about
Atlantis
include some very promising toys for the Victorian Steampunk crowd.

Currently, there are a number of action figures, two large toy boxes,
and
two smaller boxes. I'll forego the AF's; I didn't notice any of the
accessories showing promise.

However, the Aqua Evac set, stunning me at $19.99US, had a rather
fetching
bronze-colored submersible. I think it's suitable for futuristic modern.
We
tried Evil Empire(tm) Orks walking off for 'Grozhnak MacArthur' photo
op,
and didn't look half bad, 'cept the vehicle was entirely TOO clean.

This also has transformer-o-philia, but may be a good thing, as the base
part works as a simple stream crosser for the truck included, and the
side
pieces snap together for the start of a rather nice ironclad gunboat.
There
are more pieces, but I haven't had enough time playing with it to
comment.

One of the two smaller boxes has The Spanner($8.99), a
vehicle/self-laying
bridge, but if you drop the bridge parts(transformer, again) you get an
interesting little archaic tank.

The other two packs, an ocean spider/scorp/beastie and another truck,
seemed less useful, but YMMV bigtime when one talks about the use of
toys.

Much conversion seems in order with any of these, and the scale may be
off
for one or another item. The trucks work with 28mm if you chop the cab
roof, while the Aqua Evac parts, in the main, suggest smaller scales to
me.

While I try to wish ill on no one's livelihood, I shall shed no tears if
these are way over-produced, and I find piles in the toy liquidators. On
the other hand, if popular, I'll find bits and pieces for YEARS in the
thrift stores. I can't lose!

The_Beast

-Douglas J. Evans, curmudgeon

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