Matchbox – Ford F-100 Panel Delivery (1955)

This 1955 Ford F-100 Panel Delivery by Matchbox is a car well loved at my wife’s library. After storytime on Fridays, the kids get to bring out the toys. Diecast cars are always a favorite, and she says the more unique cars get the most love.

This truck showed up a few years back, went into the lost and found for a time, and then went into the box with the rest of the diecast for the kids to play with.

Yesterday a kid brought it up with the back axle split in two. My wife said, “I think my husband can fix that.” I have become known as Uncle Toy Doctor after fixing my nephew’s powered toy truck.

I have played around with diecast in the past, and I have a list of projects I want to do. Most of what I have done did not require work on the chassis. Well, this one was going to require something special.

Not only had the axle broken in half, but the wheels were fused to the axle, so if I glued them in place, the wheels would not spin, and that is a no-go when this is meant to be played with.

I had bought some brass tube to allow for new axles, but had not tried it yet. I had only read about it. Well, this was the perfect opportunity. I cut out the other axle, and drilled out the hole for the axle to accept the bigger size brass tube. I glued it into place, cut it to size, and I was half way home.

I thought it would be fun to use a pair of wheels off of a Brush Fire Truck. Unfortunately, with about a millimeter of size difference, that was all that the wheel needed to not be able to fit. Boo! Okay, on to plan 2. Find any set of wheels that fits. All of the donor cars I had laying around, I have plans for and need the wheels in tact, or they were just too big. Then I found wheels to the Hot Wheels Back Slider. This thing has a big set of dual back wheels that were smaller than usual. And that smaller size was perfect to fit in the wheel wells of this truck. And being red, it made this truck look more like a sleeper anyway. It must be a hot rod under the patina.

All glued into place, and ready to go back into service. I would love to have added it to my collection, with the perfect patina to the paint, but it is important for the kids to have the wide variety of cars to play with. Really, this project wet my appetite to really get going on one of my own projects and see what I can come up with soon.

Elite Praetorian Guard (with Heavy Blade) (Amazon Exc) and Elite Praetorian Guard Comparison

Since Amazon was ready ahead of time, the exclusive Elite Praetorian Guard (with Heavy Blade) was sent out early. So, now that I have it in hand, I wanted to compare it to the standard Elite Praetorian Guard #50.

First off, the helmets. I was expecting the figures to be the same except for the weapons. I am happy to see that there is a different helmet for each of the types of guards. The Heavy Blade guard is in the left, with the upswept mask, while the standard figure on the right has the longer mask.

Let’s take a look at the rest of the figure too. First up is the standard guard. He is VERY red. The only spot of color are the black pants hidden under the skirt.

Now that is a lot of red, but the figure has a lot of texture going for it that allows for some variation. There is a leather texture on the skirt as well as the around the neck. The arms have layered armor that allows for color variation in the highlights and shadows. And the mask itself is shiny.

The details included are really well done. From the leather material to the fine lines of the body armor. They even have cool double jointed knees with the big knee pads as the main part that separates the two parts of the leg.  he guard comes with a pretty nasty looking bladed weapon. It is interesting that these guards have bladed weapons as opposed to the long range blasters that the majority of the characters use. It will be interesting to see how these weapons hold up against weapons like the lightsaber.

Heavy Blade guard has the heavy blade that has a pole as tall as the guard and then there is a massive blade on top of that. It is a formidable close-combat weapon. He also comes with a spear or pike of some sort. The SHFiguarts Heavy Blade Guard shows that this weapon separates to become a whip. Seeing him in hand really gets me excited to see these guys in action. Unlike the Emperor’s Royal Guard, we should see these guys in action.

The only real problem with these guys are the elbow joints. The joints are lost behind the layers of armor, so they cannot bend their arms very well. I have seen some fixes that I may try.

The director of The Last Jedi, Rian Johnson said that he wanted these guards to look more like samurai than the Emperor’s guards. He wanted them to look like they could fight if they needed to. I think they succeeded in the desired effect. I really like that there are different helmets and weapons available. There is one more guard out there. The “fingernail” guard with a wide brim on his helmet that looks like a big fingernail. It is part of the Gamestop Exclusive 4 pack that comes with 3 other guards going back to the Republic days. It is way too expensive for what it is, so I am going to hold out hope that Hasbro will put out a single pack with the 3rd Elite Guard. I am also interested to see what the numbers of each type of guard are for the movie. There are supposedly 8 of them.

Black Widow – Marvel Legends Retro / Vintage Packaging

Finally we get a comic version of Black Widow. Mostly it looks like Mary Jane Watson in a black suit, but we get the point. It was a great head sculpt with fantastic hair, and the body was equally as good. So we should go with it for a while longer.

She comes dressed all in black save for the gold belt and the matching bracelets. She comes with a pair of black handguns that we have seen before. Most recently we have seen a silver version used by Bullseye in the Man-Thing wave (that I have not yet reviewed but have photographed, so they are in the queue to drop soon).

This is a pretty plain figure, but she is a solid one. She has great movement in her articulation, and she is well sculpted. An all around great figure.

The wave is 6 figures. Most are a skip for me, but I was so happy I lucked into finding Natasha on the peg at my local Toys R Us. The rest of the figures are a repaint of Punisher, a repaint of Spider-Man, a Repaint of Captain America, a re release of gaijin Wolverine, and a partially new Iron Man. I will keep my eyes out for the Iron Man, since you can never have too many Iron Men, but the rest of the wave is a pass for me, unless I luck into a good deal somewhere. This is a case where I am glad there is no Build-A-Figure in this wave, since I am not too excited about 3/5 of the wave.

The women of the Marvel Universe continues to grow, and they are looking great. Hasbro has continued to do a great job of bringing better body sculpts, nice sized feet for standing, and great head sculpts. Though they are still a bit hit and miss with the hair, for the most part, they have gotten that down too. This is a great figure to add to my collection.

Marvel Legends – Human Torch – Walgreens Exclusive

My 250th Marvel Legends figure is none other than Johnny Storm. The continuing exclusives from Walgreens is focusing on the Fantastic 4. We now have Namor, The Invisible Woman (Sue Storm), and now The Human Torch (Johnny Storm).

The Human Torch is a good figure. He is a solid buck with good articulation. There is not a lot to him, since he is flaming, so therefore not heavily clothed.

He has flaming forearms, and a new head sculpt. There are removable flame effects that sit on his shoulders and a small post that goes into his back.

He comes with a flaming fist, as well as an open hand. These are great for posing and photo shoots.

 

He also comes with two fists that are not flaming. They are needed as regular fists.

Add on some flames, and you have a good number of accessories for this guy.

The team keeps growing. Now with three figures, the other two are on their way next year.

I think this is a solid outing for The Human Torch, and he looks great hanging with his sister. This is going to be great when the whole team is together.