Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

Online store Entertainment Earth has just announced their latest exclusive from McFarlane Toys. This Exclusive Halo 3 Yellow ODST Action Figure was just announced in their new catalog, and costs $14.99. As far as we can tell, it's a repaint with no unique sculpting, but it's still pretty slick overall. It's also worth noting that the first McFarlane Halo products are currently shipping and should hit a store near you soon.

One of the most compelling Klingons in Star Trek is coming as an action figure from Diamond Select Toys in 2008. Martok (pictured here) is coming with his trademark bad eye and, of course, Klingon accessories. Also coming is Colonel Kira, Chancellor Gowron, Worf, and a whole mess of other Trek product. We're quite pleased to see Deep Space Nine being given its due in plastic, especially considering that most people don't like the show. (We love it. Can't get enough of the repeats.) So there you have it-- the first-ever Martok toy. Do your part and buy one when it comes out in stores later this year.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at one of the new-for-2008 vehicles! The General Grievous Starfighter truly is awesome. This new vehicle hit last month and it turns out it's well worth the wait. Hasbro designed it to have a spacious interior and wonderful action features. Even the landing gear works properly, with a little use of force. So how many should you buy? Read on!

The sounding board for every generation known as Chunklet has announced they're making an exclusive, limited release CD called "Frankensteins and Gumdrops" to people who donate to radio station WFMU. You can read about it here, and if you're like us, you very much want it. According to the comments on the blog, it's about $75, which is a lot. But we paid $12 for the "Pennsylvania Macaroni Company" which was only 20 or so minutes worth of funny and damned if it wasn't worth it. Has anyone picked this up and if so, how was it?

Not to be left behind by anyone, Japanese manufacturer Jun Planning showed what must have been the biggest model of Nightmare Before Christmas' Halloweentown outside the actual set used for the movie. It's big, huge. It's gorgeous. We don't typically use words like "a thing of beauty" or "the most mind-bogglingly great collectible shown at the convention" but there you go-- it's slick. We don't have the price in our notes but we know it's a few thousand bucks. Seeing as it's about the same size as a car, we can understand the need for such a hefty price tag. Each figure is about 3-inches tall, give or take, so you can probably get a rough idea of just how freaking huge this item truly is.

This week: It's Super Turrican for the Super NES. It's a 2D shooter in the vein of Contra or to a lesser extent Metroid from Factor 5, the team that would go on to produce the highly decent Rogue Squadron titles for the PC and various Nintendo consoles. It's considered something of a classic, so if you have the means you may wish to give it a whirl.

Today at Galactic Hunter we look at a figure that can owe its entire existence to a few creative fans! The Pax Bonkik pod race mechanic is something special, especially given it's a repaint. You can't deny that Hasbro did a stellar job painting this guy. While he isn't 100% authentic to the movie, he's pretty great. I like mine. Will you like yours? Read on!

If you've been watching Transformers Animated on Cartoon Network, you no doubt are endlessly entertained by Ratchet. He's old, grumpy, has a gut, and has a damaged helmet. In other words, this is Mr. Personality, and TFclub.com posted a ton of photos of the upcoming toy to gawk at. Word on the street is he won't be widely available until June, but hey, that's just three months. Three very long months. Just click here to see what you'll be spending your ten bucks on come summertime.

Gentle Giant showed a few new licenses in New York last month, the most surprising of which-- to me-- was The Wizard of Oz. Gentle Giant has been largely a male collector line, specifically sci-fi/fantasy type stuff. Seeing them tackle a bona fide American cinema classic was a bit of a surprise, but when you see these things up close you'll wonder why they didn't do them before. In addition to the Wicked Witch of the West (shown) they plan on doing a Dorothy and Glinda bust, plus a flying monkey statue. The statues were shown at several times their normal size and we're told the finals will be much smaller. The detail is really striking in person, and we hope the final product looks just as good. Because in person, these looked really really good-- and we're not big Oz buffs, either. We can just tell a good item when we see it.

One this week: it's Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, a new game published by Capcom. Apparently it's a four-player game of some sort, we have yet to give it a whirl but we do know it's US$10 (800 points) and should be up to download shortly.

Today at Galactic Hunter we examine one of last year's last-minute new exclusives. This Luke Skywalker was a nifty mix-and-match figure which created our hero as he appeared on Hoth after the speeder crash. Is it worth picking up, or should you wait to see if Hasbro makes another one? Read on!

By popular demand, here's the Spiral Hill diorama Jun Planning showed in New York. Like the Halloweentown we showed the other day, it's huge-- but not that huge. Actually, this is pretty manageable as far as large dioramas go and it might look nice in a store window or your mansion. Assuming you have one, of course, as this is going to be another very expensive item. No pricing or release info has been made available to us just yet.

After roughly a month of delays, we just received word from Rhino that our individual Giant Gila Monster DVD for Mystery Science Theater 3000 has shipped. According to the site, it seems they are no longer accepting orders for the individual disc-- as such, we hope you got your order in early.

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Halo exclusive announced! Indiana Jones returning to DVD! Kathie Lee Gifford returning to TV? Mego back from the dead with Zombie toys! Firefly and Serenity Prop Replicas! Transformers convention exclusives! Who is the new King of Kong? We have a whole lot of exciting news for you in this show, so be sure to check it out. And be sure to check out our bonus show, too!

For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.

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This week, our Toy of the Week is not one, not two, but 15 toys! We examine waves 1 and 2 of the 2008 Star Wars Action Figure collection, which includes characters from Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars The Force Unleashed. If you were curious if the new Commander Gree, Darth Vader, Maris Brood, or any of the other dozen new releases are any good, we are going to tell you. Sit back and enjoy!

Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

Hasbro's new Spider-Man Animated action figures are hitting stores now. We spotted these last Friday at Toys "R" Us, and Entertainment Earth has also had them in stock briefly. (All we saw at TRU were Doc Ock and Venom.) They look pretty good, as Hasbro seems to be playing up the whole "animated" thing this year in their action figure lines. We have yet to see these at Target, but according to various sources we expect to see their toy aisles reset around the last week or two of March... so keep your eyes peeled.

After years of crossing our fingers, we finally heard something we've been waiting for: Gentle Giant got the Pixar license. They did a lot of work for Pixar, but nothing in the realm of commercial products. This Wall-E statue is one of several items the company will be producing from the films Wall-E and Ratatouille, both films which seem to have a strong appeal to older animation fans. We don't have an exact release date yet, but the item was a decent size-- roughly 6-inches, we believe-- and the detail was pretty striking.

First at Galactic Hunter we look at the first non-Emperor Senator Palpatine from way back in 1999. While we can easily pick apart the figure's flaws today, in 1999, it was awesome. He had a great (at the time) likeness, an incredible (at the time) costume, and a nifty gimmick which actually made good use of his CommTech Chip. Sure, he was a weak seller-- but did that mean he was a bad figure? Read on!

A number of sites including The Allspark are posting images of the just-released "HenKei" assortment of toys. New releases include Bumblebee, Starscream, Optimus Prime, Megatron, Grimlock, and Mirage in new colors with chrome-- lots and lots of chrome. We don't plan on importing these but you may dig the unique new paint jobs of the toys released in the USA as "Classics" from 2006 and 2007.

Two this week. One is Brain Challenge, another Brain Age follower, for $10 (800 points). This one has multiplayer, so that's something.

This week: It's DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure for the Super Famicom NES. We haven't played it yet-- it was never released in the USA before-- but it looks to be some sort of nifty unholy union of Mario/Sonic-style platforming with elements of Milon's Secret Castle. We can't wait to try it this weekend. Also, Puyo Puyo 2 for the Sega Mega Drive Sega Genesis. This appears to be another import, but it's nothing too special that you haven't basically played 20 times in other ports.

Every now and again a figure comes along and you have to look at it and squint. "Do I have this one?" you ask. It can be really hard to tell, because figures like this Obi-Wan Kenobi are made of entirely existing parts, but are put into a new configuration which may leave your scratching your head. So is this a keeper, or something that you might toss in a junk drawer? Read on!

A Japanese exclusive limited to just 10 pieces per store, this Powerglide Micron is one hot release. Click the pic to see a thread at The Allspark explaining its deal and how it looks, because it is pretty nifty.

If you shop at Toys "R" Us, a number of nifty sets are showing up in the mass market. We reported the headlines at Playmoblog previously, but here's a fun round-up.

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New Transformers! New Spider-Man toys are in stores! New Star Wars is on the way! Not only is there toy news, but we have some tidbits on the 2010 and 2011 Harry Potter films. We also have news on the latest additions to the US box office. In short, there is a lot of fun stuff here, including word on when you can expect a hi-def remake of the original NES Bionic Commando game. Good times.

For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.

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This week, we get our Trek on with the EE Exclusive Star Trek Original Series Communicator Replica! Yes, it is ours, but I love it. From the metal lid to the spinning motors to the blinking lights, this item is a lot of fun. It comes to life when you open the lid, and the price is excellent when compared to high-end replicas of the same prop. I play the sound effects of the item and tell you all about it in this week's Toy of the Week!

For starters: You do not need an iPod to hear a Podcast. Podcasting is just a fancy word for "hack job internet radio show," which is exactly what we're aiming to produce here.

Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

As predicted, we broke down and bought DoReMi Fantasy: Milon's DokiDoki Adventure for the Super Famicom NES over the weekend. To give you the shortest possible review: it's about as fun as Super Mario World with the difficulty of Kirby's Dreamland and a little less variety. And now for the long version...

One of the highlights of our day job is the fact that we can get to help develop, approve, and yes, review nifty exclusive toys. This is one of them. We reviewed it on the podcast at work last week, but here's a print review for you too.

LEGO essentially retired their old fantasy-driven Space range when they brought on Star Wars, but it seems it's going to make a return with a few fan-made items in the limited run, collector-oriented, and oh yeah-- damned expensive LEGO Factory range. The guys over at The Brothers Brick (which is a freaking amazing LEGO blog, read it) have pictures of some of the items coming up plus interviews with the fan designers. There's a "good guy" and a "bad guy" set, and they look really cool-- if LEGO continued evolving Space Police and its Space theme, this seems like exactly what we would have expected to see today. LEGO.com indicates these are coming in April, and we're seeing information which hints the sets will be about $99.99 each, and they'll be stuffed with lots of medium and small sized vehicles. So if this is true, you're essentially buying an entire theme rather than just another set. We're impressed.

Today in Figure of the Day, we turn our attentions to a giant pile of suck that we call 3T-RNE, a droid from Star Tours that cost ten bucks. Was it worth the premium pricing? With an intro like that, what do you think? Read on!

The guys over at TFClub posted a nice gallery of the upcoming Voyager ($20) Optimus Prime from Transformers Animated. It looks pretty slick.

Two games are receiving a price drop. Doom and Assault Heroes are now going to be $5 (400 points) each. Both received pretty positive marks, so if you've been waiting to get them, now seems like a good time.

This week: It's Super R-Type for the Super NES. It's a classic shooter, extremely difficult, but lots of fun. Nearly 20 years old, it goes to prove how some game formats not only stand the test of time, but continue to be exceedingly difficult. Also, Spelunker for the NES. It, too, is ridiculously difficult from what we hear as a minor fall means instant death. We still have a working copy of R-Type so we won't be downloading it, but it doesn't mean you should skip it.

While the plan initially seemed to unveil these two new sets bit by bit, that seems to be over. User Nash1126 over at Brickshelf posted two pictures to his gallery with the full front packaging illustrations for sets #10191 Star Justice and #10192 Space Skulls. We're impressed. More details are expected in/by April.

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New Star Wars announcements from Hasbro! We have news on all sorts of stuff like the new Elvis Costello album, a made-for-PC fan remake of Metroid II: Return of Samus, new Gentle Giant items, and a whole mess of toy and collectible news. Oh, and new movies at the box office too!

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LEGO Time! This week we look at the set 7667 Imperial Dropship mini-vehicle. It includes 4 stormtroopers for you army builder fans out there. It's splendiferous, and cheap.

Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

At Circuit City, they're offering a $10 gift card with the purchase of Crisis Core when it comes to stores this Tuesday. (You can also pre-order it online.) So you pay $39.99 now, and get a $10 card for next time-- it's not a fantastic deal, but it's certainly better than nothing if you were planning on picking up the game anyway.

Ad: Online shop Entertainment Earth has added pre-orders for the first 7 toys for Transformers: Animated. You can order by the case. Or, you can order a set of the first 4 deluxe toys (Bumblebee, Optimus Prime, Lockdown, and Prowl) or any of the individual 3 first voyager toys (Starscream, Bulkhead, and Megatron). The DVD 2-pack with Optimus Prime vs. Megatron is also up for grabs. Click through for pricing and availability.

Today in Figure of the Day, it's Princess Leia from the infamous (and for the time, fantastic) Mynock Hunt set! She has a breathing mask (great if you're in to that sort of thing) and snow pants (great if you're in to that sort of thing). The figure holds up fairly well for an item ten years old, but should you get one anyway? Read on!

Previously available on eBay and in Asian Chevy dealerships, the hard-to-find Chevy Aveo toy is up for order for $12.80. And by "$" we mean "euro," which puts it at about $20 in United Statesian currency before shipping and fees. If you've been wanting one and don't want to pay the eBay asking rate, this isn't a bad option. No word yet on a wide US release.

Target, Wal-Mart, and a number of stores have put out their displays for product from Hasbro for the new Iron Man flick-- which we hear has been pushed up to a late April release. The toy line isn't as extensive as some, and it includes a number of action figures, Superhero Squad sets (4-packs and not 2-packs), and some roleplay items. They're not bad, but it looks like the line is about on par with Ghost Rider in that it won't be too extensive and it doesn't seem like it was designed to have legs. But the stuff looks really fun. If we buy any, we'll keep you posted.

By now, you've no doubt heard that the B-52s released a new album and that it is in stores now. What we just found out, though, is that Target has an exclusive variant for $11.98 that's apparently a one-time limited dealy. The store we hit up got four copies, and it's a double-disc set with the regular full album and a second disc of live bonus tracks recorded "Live at the Roxy in L.A." We're still listening through it as of writing this but so far we're not sorry we bought it. The album is available at Bset Buy for $9.99 through Saturday night, and iTunes has it for $9.99 with two of the bonus tracks from the Target bonus disc. So there ya go. We'll post more as we firm up what we thought of it.

One new game this week: TiQal, a game with a description that boasts "120 action-packed levels" but what they really mean is that this is another casual-gamer puzzler type thing. We're not saying it sucks, but we haven't tried it yet. Also, Switchball is getting a major downloadable upgrade, so if you enjoyed that you might want to keep an eye open for that.

This week: It's Powerball for the Sega Genesis. It's some sort of soccer/rugby/football thing, so naturally, we're ignoring it. Also, King's Knight for the NES, bet known as one of the first (if not the first) game that Square released on their own in the USA. It's basically a shooter, but with graphics that belong on one of their NES RPGs. For hardcore Square fanboys only, we rented it back in the day and didn't get much out of it.

Today in Figure of the Day, it's Darth Vader! But it's not just any Vader, nosiree! This is arguably the best Hasbro has done so far. Sure, there are things other figures do better, but this one is the best that money can buy as of today, and-- what luck!-- Hasbro reissued it a couple of months back. So just how good is this figure? Read on!

The new issue of the Transformers Collectors' Club Newsletter confirmed what to expect out of the next two waves of Transformers Animated deluxe! Wave 2 has Ratchet and Blackarachnia, while Wave 3 will be a mind-numbingly awesome quartet with Snarl, Soundwave, Jazz, and Oilslick. It's shaping up to be a pretty robust line pretty quickly, no?

We once heard all good things must come to an end, but apparently nobody told SNK Playmore. Over at The Magic Box are several pictures of the twelfth game in the series, plus a description of some frankly awesome sounding new fight modes. Click through to see them.

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Unleash the exclusives! This week, we examine the latest Target-only Battle Pack. The Attack on Kashyyyk includes 2 Stormtroopers, 2 Wookiees, and Darth Vader action figures from the Star Wars: The Force Unleashed video game that, at current estimates, should be in stores by August 2012. How do these repackaged and repainted figures stack up? Well, we liked them.

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Transformers Animated news you can use! Pre-orders have started and waves 2 and 3 have been announced. New G.I. Joe exclusives are released and announced. We also point out where you can see some great Transformers video reviews, how you can save $10 if you plan to buy Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII for the PSP, and on yeah, Iron Man toys are available to buy now.

Galactic Hunter has posted a Q&A column this week! Be sure to click through and read up on the latest!

Fast proving itself to be a toy news junkie's best friend, eBay once again provides the world with new, in-packaging shots of Animated Activators toys Bulkhead, Starscream, and Bumblebee. Surprisingly, they all look decent-- not fantastic, but definitely very good. Click through for more.

Our sister site Playmoblog has news on a newly released, potentially US-exclusive motorized boat which you can put in the water and will swim around for a mere ten bucks. Click through for the details.

We were lucky enough to spot the new Cobra Night troopers at Toys "R" Us over the weekend. The set costs $24.99 for 5 action figures with weapons. We passed. We hear the other four sets are hitting but we have not seen them yet, so keep your eyes open for more ninjas, more Cobras, and a heaping helping of the Crimson Guard.