Guest Spot on The Radioactive Lounge Comics Podcast

Art by Sacha Bryning.

Oh hi.

HRU?

Good I hope.

I'm well too.

One long vanishment from this ye olde blogge later, I have returned, yet again, to let you know about a guest spot I did on another podcast - The Radioactive Lounge: A Comics Podcast.

This time around, I was invited to be on a Melbourne based podcast to act like a conduit for two of the co-hosts in particular to have a rolling chat about toys and toy lines they thought were "weird."

Whether a toy is weird or odd or outrageous can often be entirely subjective and the basis of many podcast segments but within the context of this particular discussion, the main points they wanted to cover included the M*A*S*H toy line, Dukes of Hazzard's Vance and Coy figures and Mego's The Love Boat line as well as random anomalies from licenses like Harry Potter and Masters of the Universe.

I'm not on the show until around the 75 minute mark BUT if you want to hear about other stuff not said by yours truly...be my guest, I'm not your real parent figure!

Here's the link if you'd like to listen.

Note: Content and language warning applies to this show.

TOY TALK with $1 HULK featuring Denny "The Toy Bro" DiGregorio

Podcast Guest Spot on The Lachlan McLeod Show

Hoard World, Lachlan McLeod and Ghostbeard13

HELLO.

After years of refusing to be on other people's podcasts because I'm a goddamn diva, I finally buckled when my good pal Lachlan McLeod put the hard word on me last Saturday. And boy did we podcast.

In the recorded 150 minutes that transpired we covered  FREE COMIC BOOK DAY 2018 at All Star Comics Melbourne, what people were wearing on the day and a selection of FCBD titles as well as 108 minutes of topics like MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE TOYS , GROWING UP IN THE 80S AND 90S, SUPER POWERS TOYS,  BATMAN, JACK COLE'S UNTIMELY DEMISE, THE LONGING FOR MARVEL MERCH AND DECENT MARVEL MOVIES AS A KID and much, much more.

If you've ever wanted to listen to two unashamed Aussie nerds talk shit for as long as the running time of Avengers: Infinity War, now's your chance!

Listen to Hoard World's very first podcast as a guest on The Lachlan McLeod Show HERE.

EDIT 29/5/19: SADLY, THESE PODCASTS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE ONLINE. THIS BLOG POST REMAINS FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES ONLY.

10 Toy Photography Accounts to follow on Instagram

Well, well, well. Look who we have here? If it isn't Hoard World The Blog. Come crawling back to the blogosphere did we? Yes indeedy, Steve Macreadie.

Just like Harrison Ford, Ridley Scott and Dave Chapelle, sometimes they come back to their old shit.

Sometimes they shouldn't have. Sometimes it's alright. You can decide what this is for yourself. I'm not your real dad.

Once you've figured all that out, you can come with me on a journey to the magical world of instagram.....

Hoardsmas 2015: Vintage 80s / 90s Australian Toy Catalogues

Oh, hey. Long time no see. Soz. It's been quite a year. I've been a tad tardy with my bloggings.

I just thought I'd pop in and say:

HAPPY HOARDSMAS! 

Ahem.

Now that's out of the way, let me take you on a journey through some vintage Australian toy catalogues from both Zig-Zag and Toyworld, courtesy of my pal Mr. Brendan Ryan.

If you follow the Hoard World page on Facey B, you will likely have run into Brendan or heard mention of him via links. But if not, you will no doubt recall his magnificent toy catalogue collection that was featured way back in 2013 with THIS POST.

But wait, there's more. Quite a bit more. And today we're going to take a look at a bit more of these catalogues that are exclusive to the Hoard World blog. Thanks to Brendan.

Masters of the Universe Classics Light Hope Figure Review (Mattel)

This review was originally published way back in November 2014 on Doomkick.com. It was written specifically for the Doomkick site so may contain specific references to the site etc. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat. This is the very last of my guest reviews on other sites to date. With the exception of the little piece I contributed to Dinosaur Dracula a billion years ago, all my off-site work has now been republished right here on Hoard World! Yay! You can check out the originally published version of this Light Hope review at the Doomkick site here. Thanks for reading!

Light Hope. Yes. That guy. One of the three extra special BFFs along with Madame Razz and Kowl who knew She-Ra's secret identity. Also pretty much one of the hardest characters to ever make an action figure out of.

Because he's just a beam of rainbow-esque light (see above). You know?

Unless you do something almost cool but mostly awful like NECA's "Lightning Gremlin" action figure, you're really up Snake Mountain without a power sword when it comes to making an action figure of Light Hope.

Yet they did. And here he is.

Zombie Superman Knock-Off Review (Unknown)

The review included in this blog entry was originally published way back in July 2013 on ThEpicReview.com for their Resident Evil Zombie Celebration Week. It was written specifically for ThEpic Review site so may contain specific references to the site etc; For example my mention of whether Zombie Supes is "epic" or "great" or "good" towards the end is a reference to ThEpicReview's ratings system. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat (like there aren't as many of these knock-offs floating around on eBay as when this was first written). You can check out the originally published version on ThEpic Review's site here.

Marvel Select Marvel Zombies Colonel America Review (Diamond Select)

The review included in this blog entry was originally published way back in July 2013 on ThEpicReview.com for their Resident Evil Zombie Celebration Week. It was written specifically for ThEpic Review site so may contain specific references to the site etc. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat; although this figure came out in 2007 so was already practically a billion years old before it was "reviewed" in 2013. Much like most of us wish George Lucas hadn't, I have also made a handful of changes and edits to this piece; so this is a"Special Edition" if you will. You can check out the originally published version on ThEpic Review's site here.

Hoard World Year Three in Review.

Monday July 6th 2015 is the third anniversary of the shenanigans that have become known as "Hoard World", so, as per usual, I take this magical moment in time to cast my weary eye-stalks back over the last 12 months. Let's see if we can't learn a thing or two, eh?

Incidentally, as you can no doubt tell by the assorted 3rd Birthday pics that accompany this retrospective blog entry, we had a great time. With Giant Cake. And over-sized celebratory candles. Thanks for asking.

Return of the Living Dead Tarman Action Figure Review (Amok Time Toys)

The review included in this blog entry was originally published way back in July 2013 on ThEpicReview.com for their Resident Evil Zombie Celebration Week. It was written specifically for ThEpic Review site so may contain specific references to the site etc. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat; for example the film 'Warm Bodies' is not recent. You can check out the originally published version on ThEpic Review's site here.

Masters of the Universe Classics Eternos Palace King Randor Review (Mattel)

The review included in this blog entry was originally published way back in June 2013 on Poeghostal.com. It was written specifically for Poe Ghostal's site so may contain specific references to the site etc. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat. For posterity (in case Poe's site ever goes offline forever) I have included screenshots at the end of the article of a selection of the 20+ comments I received for this guest review; to date, still a comments record for anything I've written. Booooooo. You can check out the originally published version on Poe Ghostal's site here.

Masters of the Universe Classics Spirit of Hordak Review (Mattel) / Vale Earl Norem 1924-2015

The review included in this blog entry was originally published way back in October 2013 on Poeghostal.com. It was written specifically for Poe Ghostal's site so may contain specific references to the site etc. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat. For example, obviously since the Spirit of Hordak chase figure came out, we've had Loo-Kee and Kowl as well as the recent Spirit of King Grayskull (Which I still don't have! OMC*). This version contains slightly different wording as well as many new links that were originally removed from the final version by the editor. You can check out the originally published version on Poe Ghostal's site here.

Before we begin this recycled review, I'd just like to pay tribute to one of the greatest illustrators who ever walked the Earth: Mr. Earl Norem. Along with the likes of William George and Alfredo Alcala, Earl Norem was an integral element of the Masters of the Universe mythos in its illustrated form. Aside from MOTU however, he was just an all-round wonderful artist. I was literally only just looking at some of his brilliant work and reading the interview with him in the recent Masters of the Universe Art Book a few days before he passed. Here's some footage of the man himself hanging out with Stan Lee at a con a few years back. Rest in peace, Earl Norem. You will be sorely missed but thankfully your decades of amazing work will be with us for generations to come.

VALE EARL NOREM 1924-2015

*Oh My Crom!

TONNES OF NEW STUFF FOR SALE IN THE ALL STAR COMICS MELBOURNE TOY CABINET! HULK! STAR WARS! SPICE GIRLS! HE-MAN! MAD MONSTER PARTY! SIMPSONS!

Whenever Anti-Venom attends a Mad Monster Party, he always brings some Los Pollos Hermanos chicken.

Hi everybody,

As some of you may already know, for a good while now, I've been fortunate enough to have been given the unique opportunity to host some of my wares for sale in the Toy Cabinet at All Star Comics Melbourne.

Yes, it's all true. If you're a local you totally have a shot at owning items that have been personally fondled by yours truly.

That said, while the allocated shelf space has varied from one to a couple over the last almost three years - All Star Comics move to Queen Street heralded a new age of display option wonderment for this little plastic dog and pony show of mine. An entire cabinet!

As awesome as that is, I have even better news.

For TWO DAYS ONLY this weekend May 30th - May 31st I have been given access to an additional TWO cabinets.

This is a dream come true because not only do I love selling off my pieces from my personal collection to new forever homes, I really dig creating toy displays. During my previous life as a comic shop worker back in the early to late 00s, it was one of my favourite things to do! (Apart from being lovely all the time and obviously spending most of my earnings on STUFF.) Some of my fondest memories at that now defunct store include re-arranging entire walls of action figures to pretty much whatever I felt like. Good Times.

Here's the other two spaces I'm occupying for this very limited period......

90s Star Wars figures! Whoa. They're super rare, right? Right?
And yes, those are Spice Girls dolls.

Is there any other store in Melbourne that has an entire toy shelf dedicated to The Hulk? You're welcome.

And here's the toy section as it looked right before I left it earlier this afternoon.....

So if you're living or staying in Melbourne right now and feel like dropping some coin - there's no better time than now!

But don't take my word for it, check out this special video sneak peek courtesy of The Hoardstagram.

And that's it!

yr pal,

HOARDAX.

TROMA 4 LYFE.

Masters of the Universe Classics Hordak Review (Mattel)

This review was originally published way back in April 2013 on Doomkick.com. It was written specifically for the Doomkick site's 1st Anniversary celebrations so may contain specific references to the site etc. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat. Although this piece was actually published before my "Mosquitor" guest review on Poe Ghostal's site, it is still chronologically (in terms of the order I wrote them) the second guest review I ever did. You can check out the originally published version (that comes with an introduction from Hoard World's "management") on the Doomkick site here.

Hi. I'm Hoardax.

Yes, the Hoardax. Maybe you've heard of me or maybe you've heard of me!

This isn't about me today, though. That was just a formality to set my new audience at ease. I am completely out of my comfort zone. Normally, I'd be talking to the legion of Hoard Worlders over on my Facey B page or on The Blog - to rapturous applause, often a standing ovation.

But today, I talk to YOU - The Doomkickers. Be gentle with me, won't you? Like many artists, or siblings of Evil Dictators who have become estranged due to a conflict of interests (He wanted to murder everybody all the time; I enjoy collecting nice things and sharing my love of said things with the world via the internets), I am very sensitive.

NEW YORK TOY FAIR REVEALS: NECA 8-BIT VIDEO GAME FIGURES - MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS - BATMAN THE ANIMATED SERIES - MARVEL LEGENDS - KOTOBUKIYA SUPER POWERS - BIF BANG POW 3.75" FIGURES - MEZCO 1:12

I weep both tears of happiness and sadness at the New York Toy Fair reveals.
Happiness at the beauty of the nice things.
Sadness at probably only ever seeing about 14% of them in real life and owning about 8% of those. 

Is it that time of year again already? It seems like only yesterday that I was ogling a sample of 2014's New York Toy Fair wares!

Well, it is. It is that time of year. And what a year Toy Fair 2015 has turned out to be!

There was soooooo much stuff displayed this year that it literally gave me anxiety. And I didn't even attend Toy Fair! Frankly, I blame the internet.

While many reputable sites have beautifully delivered massive amounts of footage and pics direct from Toy Fair already, here on Hoard World, I'm borrowing a mere selection of those very same pics and showing you the stuff that I am personally excited about. Ya dig?

Let's start right away, shall we?

Masters of the Universe Classics Mosquitor Figure Review (Mattel)

This review was originally published way back in May 2013 on Poe Ghostal.com. It was written specifically for Poe's site so contains many references (and links) to his other reviews. Due to the age of the article, some of the information contained within may have dated somewhat.  This is the complete, unabridged version. You can check out the slightly edited version on Poe Ghostal's site here.

The latest addition to The Mighty Horde's army is Mosquitor The Evil Energy Draining Insectoid, who was released last December. He sold out reasonably quickly after he went on sale but has since turned up on Mattycollector for sale as excess Customer Service Stock. Which has also sold out. If you missed out, there's a pretty good chance he's still floating around on eBay for prices somewhere higher than Chief Carnivus or Dekker but much less than Whiplash or Beastman.

To my knowledge, Mosquitor never made an appearance in the Filmation cartoon or the 200x version. He did, however, get his own front cover fighting He-man in one of those Marvel Star Comics of the late 80s. Issue 8, I believe it was.

As such, we've never really known that much about him. All we know is that he's one of The Horde, he has a Mosquito head and he sucks blood. Oh, and that he's actually FEMALE thanks to The Fwoosh and their magnificent, fact-based logic.

It's well documented that Mosquitor is Pixel Dan's favourite MOTU character EVER. This was irrefutably proven once and for all by this video where Dan's celebration of finally receiving a MOTUC version results in a Kafka-esque Metamorphosis....and Gangnam Style Dancing. These days it's hard to even think about Mosquitor without thinking about Pixel Dan. (Or do I have some kind of problem?) In fact, Poe talked to him just the other day about the concept of a Toy Fan's favourite obscure character being called "My Mosquitor."

The "My Mosquitor" definition revolves around a "guilty pleasure" character that isn't popular with everybody. Now, there's a chance Pixel Dan might read this but this isn't why I'm saying what I'm about to say.....

WHO DOESN'T LOVE MOSQUITOR? Seriously. I want a show of hands.

He/She is a MOSQUITO-headed vampire that SUCKS BLOOD! The vintage figure had a blood-pumping chest action! Are you kidding me? That's objectively the best thing that ever happened.

But is the MOTUC re-imagining of Mosquitor a piece of black plastic recycling? Let's find out.

Eternia Is Everywhere - Masters of the Universe Fan Art Project

A beautiful quality screenshot from the wonderful quality video you are about to watch.

A little while ago, I came across a guy on eBay who was selling lovely photos of vintage Masters of the Universe figures. I was intrigued to say the least!

I'll let him explain it himself:

(excerpt from his eBay listings) "My name is Marlon. I am a hobby artist and realized my childhood dream in 2011-2013 creating my version of the beloved MotU 80´s advertisement leaflets we all love. In total I took 87 pictures of the vehicles and characters of the MotU 80s toy-line all over Germany and France.

All my pictures are framed and ready for display! Only 1 produced and signed by the artist and together with the GPS-Co-ordinates where it was taken and a picture on the other side  of the displayed motive showing the very place in human perspective.

The whole idea is not new and some of you made similar projects. Anyhow it was and is my dream that all of my 87 pictures will find a new home somewhere in the world. Maybe with you?"

Before long I had some of my very own, you can watch what happened in real time here:

You can visit (and buy) Marlon's remaining one-off pieces right here on eBay and take a look at the Eternia is Everywhere Facebook page here if you're interested in viewing more of his work with some history and commentary behind them.

One thing is for sure, thanks to artists like Marlon: Eternia really is everywhere!

yr pal,

HOARDAX.

TOP 5 NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS FOR 2015! A DRUNK VIDEO MANIFESTO! VIDEO SPOTLIGHT ON THE FLASH DC UNIVERSE CLASSICS ACTION FIGURE BY MATTEL!

Nothing says Happy 2015 like a blurry screenshot from the Hoard World 2013 NYE fireworks video.

Happy New Year everybody!

I hope, whether you've already had NYE or are about to, or are still having it, that this finds you in good health during a celebratory time.

I have a few resolutions for Hoard World in 2015 that you might care to know about but first let's take a look at NYE 2014 on Hoard World. It wasn't a huge production but it did result in Hoard World's very first Video Manifesto.

A drunk video manifesto. As (sort-of) requested by YOU.

Screenshot from 1 of 2 videos that contained a shadowy figure and a drunken manifesto.

The original text that introduced the video manifesto on Facey B.

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO HALLOWEEN ON HOARD WORLD? aka PLEASE READ MY GUEST POST ON DOOMKICK.COM

Behind-the-scenes pic from my guest review of Bob Hope's lesser known relative and She-Ra's BFF Light Hope over at Doomkick.com

Hi everybody!

My reasons for writing you all today are two-fold.

Firstly, I just thought I would let you know that my guest review of Light Hope has gone up and is ready to peruse at your leisure over at the Doomkick site!

If you've never been there before, then now is a good time to start. It's a lovely place. I highly recommend it.

You can read my guest review right HERE.

Secondly, even though Halloween has clearly come and gone, it would be remiss of me not to share with you how it all went down on Hoard World. It was pretty wonderful you guys.

Two of these things are not like the other.

WHY I SOLD MY BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA ACTION FIGURES.

I make no secret of the fact that I help support my addiction to stuff by selling my other stuff. It's the circle of life. And in a real world scenario where you have finite space, the reality is you just can't keep everything. That's just how it goes, bro.

We've been through this before but this is called Hoard World for a reason. I have a problem. Or had a problem. Or am getting better at least with incremental amounts of small yet important progress.

Two years ago when I started Hoard World, never in a million years would I have thought I would ever sell my Big Trouble In Little China figures. Never. They weren't for sale. At any price. The fact that 10 years into the action figure series' existence they had become quite rare and incredibly sought after perhaps further cemented my resolve in a reasonably unhealthy way.

The Hoardax of yesteryear would rather have been buried with those figures than let anybody get their greasy mits on them. Besides that, it proved that I was a true fan of John Carpenter, Kurt Russell and the major motion picture Big Trouble In Little China, right? Only a true fan would have bought the Jack Burton figure the day he was released! Only a true fan would have picked up David Lo Pan and Egg Shen a little while after on a discount table for $10 a pop because the figures were a massive commercial failure and the toy company that released them was never heard from again.

All wrong. (Except for the part about the discount table, the massive commercial failure and the toy company never being heard from again. Those bits are fact.)

But even though we can all agree my Elitist Fan Pride was misplaced and whether you own hard to find licensed merchandise of a cinematic/televisual/animated/musical/comicbook property is no indication of how much you love something (although obviously it can be),  why then did I end up selling my Big Trouble In Little China figures?