Brush or Pen? Both!

One of the really interesting things at the recent conventions here was the tools the artists were using. 3 of them (Agnes Garbowska, Mike Allred, and Francis Manapul) were using the same ink pen, and I'd never seen it before.

It's a nifty little cross between a brush and a pen, using bristles but running off an ink cartridge. Which of course means you can do everything from detail to thick lines, and vary the weight of a line like you can with a brush, but without the hassle (and mess) of dipping from an ink well.

I wasn't the only one taken with this. The 3 of them combined could probably have sold a couple of dozen of the things, with the number of people asking them what it was they were using. Mike Allred put me on to the above Jetpens website, so I quickly put in an order (side note: don't visit "jetpen.com" by mistake, it is... disturbing). They arrived a couple of days ago (can't get them locally), so today I had a bit of a play, doing this in around 30 minutes:

It's really cool not having to change pens, or to fill in a think line using a thin tip. If your hand's not steady doing the thin lines then it really shows, had the shakes a few times. Doesn't seem like it will take a heck of a lot of practise to get used to though, the above came out pretty good for a first attempt.

Normal Transmission Will Resume Shortly

Erractic posting on this blog is nothing unusual, but this whole "Moments In Death Metal" thing (upcoming: Iron Fist) is taking entirely more effort than I was expecting. Between that, actually reading comics, and watching Ghost In The Shell : SAC, I've been finding little time to actually post content. Things should be a bit more regular shortly (I hope).

Anyway, in the meantime, I've been adding to my toy collection recently, including $140 in purchases today alone. I completed the Iron Man movie series:

The Limited Edition version (far right) had been going for $25 at Toyworld, and there was no way I was paying that for it. Eventually a department store got them in, and I picked it up for $18. That prompted me to buy the Mark 2 and Removeable Armour versions. I don't know why anyone buys things at Toyworld, they're so much more expensive then everywhere else. I'll only go there for the occassional item that noone else is carrying.

At the card shop today, the new JLA figures were in, I got Hawkgirl to add to my JSA lineup.

(sidenote: the sooner she leaves JLA and goes back where she belongs, the better. Better wait until the JSA gets rid of half their roster though, or she'll never get any face time).

Also in at the card shop, the Manga-ised version of Power Girl:

Heeeeeee, it's so cute. Expensive, but cute. As you can see, I've made a little Power Girl shrine.

I've bought a bunch of Hotwheels Batmobiles too, might post pics at a later date.

I'd pay $50 for one

Some absolute legend of a guy has built his own Iron Man suit. Amazing.

(click picture for link)

Eye-uhn mahn

I'm totally stealing a post from Chris Haley here. Now, you may've heard about the upcoming release of Iron Man replica helmets cast from those in the movie.


Very awesome, but very expensive. What alternatives might there be on eBay?

For the very cheap among you, there's the cardboard variety.

Then things get a bit more serious (and pricey). Here's an official helmet based on his first appearance:

Another officially licensed helmet (not movie related):

This one's a bit dopey looking:


Then there's an unoffical one with light up eyes

And a homebuilt kit based on the movie. It has no back though, so don't get too excited:

That's pretty close to the sort of thing I'd pick up (see my Guyver helmet). I'll be waiting until the release of those official helmets though, in the hopes someone makes a few casts from one.

Not content with just the mask? Try these:


But hands down the best Iron Man mask on eBay was this:

That's awesome.

Free stuff

No actual content tonight, since I went and saw Iron Man again. Yep, just as good the second time.

Anyway, in the course of making yesterday's post, I came across a bunch of free eComics that Dark Horse has here.

And while it's not overly great or anything, it would be remiss of me to not link directly to the X eComic.

OMG, Iron Man rules!

Damn that was an awesome movie. Robert Downey Jr was perfect for Tony Stark. Loved the dancing pole in his private jet. I was worried it was going to drag a bit, being over 2 hours long, but it flew by. I need to see it again, but that just may be the best superhero movie ever.

And since I'm making a largely irrelevant post, I may as well add to it...

This week in comics sucked for me. I just dropped JLA and Birds Of Prey (and Brave & The Bold) last week, so that meant no comics for me this week :( We're a week behind the USA, incase you were wondering. I suppose on the bright side I saved $15 on the two comics I dropped, but it sucks coming home empty handed.

I'm on holiday and had been trying to post daily for the 3 weeks. I've been close, the last couple of days are a bust though. I'm working on something (very) different that I hope to be a regular feature, but it's taking longer to organise than I expected. Should be all systems go by the weekend though, fingers crossed. It should rock your world.

Iron Suit, Will Of A Wet Bus Ticket

I mentioned the other day that I was quite taken with the new Iron Man figures, and not surprisingly, I caved and bought some more. First up, what I assume will be the movie's main bad guy, Iron Monger:

Mongrol Smush! Actually... dammit. I've just had a conversion idea for Mongrol (ABC Warriors). A new head and short legs, and it'd be perfect. Ah well.

A nice big figure with plenty of attitude. The legs are a little lacking in directional movement, but the arms make up for that:

It's pretty cool. Also included is a "super smash" feature, meaning the arms move when you squeeze the legs together, but that looks kinda lame.

Next up, Iron Man mark 1:

Given that it's a suit of armour and not a robot, I do wonder about the condition of Tony's hips after wearing that. It does, however, have a cool scratch-built look to it while being strongly tied to the original design. Being made out of scrap metal doesn't make for a good toy though (play wise, I love the look). Here is the range of movement you get out of the elbows:

The knees:

Aaaand finally the waist:

Yeeesh. The head doesn't turn either. If you're gonna buy it, you better like the pose it comes in, because you aren't changing it without a hacksaw.

(Iron + Man) + Plastic - Iron = ?

Iron Man movie toys got released here this week! I haven't really paid any attention to Tony since the 80's, but I used to quite like him, and several of the new figures look really cool. So I picked up the standard Iron Man model (designated "Mark 3" for the movie line). Here's what I thought of it:

The Good
As I mentioned, these things look really cool. I didn't pose it particularly well (see later for reasons), but you get the idea.

As an added bonus, these are produced by Hasbro. I hate the ball joint system Toy Biz uses; it's great for posing, but just looks ugly. Hasbro went for a slightly simpler approach, which looks great, but isn't necessarily that versatile. I won't be playing with it though, so the look is most important.

The articulation on the upper body is excellent. The mid-torso joint is one of the best looking I've seen and has a full range of movement. The arms can handle all sorts of movement. Wrist joints are fairly flimsy though.

The knees are the standard two-joint fare you expect from a Marvel toy, functional and don't look as dorky as they sometimes do. Here's Tony with an imaginary skateboard:

I love the feet. They've moveable, and the leg section hangs over them, which looks awesome.
The Bad
The head looks like it should turn, but trust me, it doesn't. That seems a pretty strange decision.

My major problem with the figure is the hip joints. They are an absolute pain to move. They will only go in one direction at a time.

Also the ball joint they're on rotates a little too freely, so when you're trying to turn the leg to pose it in a different direction, it's quite tricky to line it up so it will go where you want it. Expect to spend some time getting the pose you want, you'll have to line things up so the leg will go foward, then spin the joint around to get some sideways movement etc. Would be a total pain in the ass to actually play with.

Once we start stocking these where I work, I expect to get some of them returned broken, sufferring from either broken wrists or broken hips from a kid just being too impatient to fiddle around to get off a decent side kick mid-stride (or something like that, heh).

The Ugly
My Iron Man has two left hands. WTF?


Ugh, I'm trying to save up for the convention in 3 weeks time, but the rest of the line are soooo tempting...