Vance Astro (Marvel Legends Series 3.75")

Vance Astro, the 1000 year old man debuted in Marvel Super-Heroes #18 in 1969 along with his fellow founding members of the Guardians of the Galaxy. Vance Astrovik was an astronaut from the (then future) year 1988 who was placed in suspended animation for a millennium long journey to the planet Centauri-IV. The big joke was that when he arrived he found a full fledged human colony had beat him by about 800 years due to the discovery of faster-than-light travel. Somehow over the trip he developed psychokinetic powers and later he found Captain America's shield and started calling himself Major Victory. His initial weakness was that he would age to dust if his containment suit were ever breached. What I found hilarious is that his suit was stated to be made of copper originally, such space age materials in the far flung future of 1988.

Yondu (Marvel Legends Series 3.75")

Yondu Udonta is a native from the planet Centauri-IV who encountered Vance Astro just before the Badoon invaded his homeworld and starting the pair on the path to founding the Guardians of the Galaxy along with Martinex and Charlie-27. Yondu is the only extra-solar being in the original quartet.  His bow fires arrows made of "yaka" a sound sensitive material that allows Yondu to change the trajectory of his arrows by whistling. These little figures are decently articulated but can be finicky to pose. Luckily Yondu was pretty stable.

Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series (Waves 1 & 2)

Here's some group photos of the first two waves of Guardians of the Galaxy Animated figures:

Thanos (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Thanos, the Mad Titan, one of the biggest baddies in any version of the Marvel Universe. Saturn's moon of Titan is inhabited by a colony of Eternals led by Thanos' father Mentor. His big moment is yet to come in the movies but the cartoon was able to use him more. The figure is simple, like the others in this line, but he looks good. I'm not a huge fan of the new helmet, I miss the longer pointy bits over his eyes. The best bits of detailing are the gem-sized impressions on his left gauntlet.

Yondu (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Yondu is the leader of the faction of Ravagers who abducted Peter Quill from Earth as a child. He is played awesomely in the movies by Michael Rooker. I was skeptical at first because this Yondu was such a departure from the original comics character but Rooker's performance won me over. James Arnold Taylor provides his voice on the show. This figure is good in terms of sculpting and articulation but his complete lack of accessories bothers me. I can totally see why Groot had no accessories, he doesn't really use any. But Yondu has an iconic weapon in his "Yakka arrow" and it's such an easy accessory to make I can't imagine why they skipped it. I'd say it was because they were worried about a choking hazard but then so are Drax's knives. So *shrug* I let him borrow the arrow from his Infinite Series 3.75" comic book counterpart.

Nebula (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Nebula is another unfortunate soul raised by Thanos. In the movies Nebula and Gamora have a great twisted sibling rivalry that is mirrored in the cartoon. In the comics Nebula claims to be Thanos' granddaughter and plays a pivotal role in the original Infinity Gauntlet series. Her bald cyborg look doesn't appear until after that major event in a storyline in Silver Surfer. This figure comes with twin swords that remind me a bit of Asajj Ventress' or Count Dooku's lightsabers with their more Italian style hilt. It's kind of neat that the animated Nebula (voiced by Cree Summer) got an actual posable action figure before the movie Nebula (played by Karen Gillan). Though the movie Nebula figure should be out next month from the Marvel Legends line.

Rocket Raccoon (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Rocket Raccoon first appeared in a few issues of Incredible Hulk before starring in his own miniseries (all written by Bill Mantlo and the miniseries was early work by Mike Mignola). In his early appearances Rocket got his name from his boot rockets he used to fly, much better than a rocket pack for anyone with a tail.  The hating being called a raccoon is something right out of the movies. This figure is scaled to fit in with the others so he's short but still has nice elbows like his taller teammates. His big honkin' gun is fun and can be held with one hand or two. Rocket's tail can spin around but tends to be too unbalancing for the figure unless resting on the ground. To compensate for being shorter he comes with a potted baby Groot.

Drax the Destroyer (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Drax the Destroyer lives only to kill Thanos. In the comics Drax was created from Arthur Douglas, an Earthman driving through the desert with his family as Thanos flew overhead and exploded them to hide his presence. This worked super well because Thanos' father Mentor was watching the whole thing and put Douglas' mind into an indestructible body filled with vengeance. Drax "died" again and came back with brain damage that made him talk more like the Hulk. He was eventually restored to normal and started sporting his current tattooed, knife wielding look.

Groot (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Groot first appeared in Tales to Astonish #13 in a classic monster tale by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The Groot who joined the Guardians of the Galaxy is a different individual from Planet X (yes Planet X, it was the 60's). Groot spoke rarely but normally until the 2008 Guardians of the Galaxy series where Dan Abnett & Andy Lanning gave him the limited yet poignant vocabulary everyone's favourite giant tree alien is now famous for.  Groot is the only figure in this line to have knee joints and is so much taller than the others that he was packaged with his legs detached from the body.

Star-Lord (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

We went to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 opening weekend at a Friday matinee. The film was awesome and reminded me that I still needed to shoot the rest of the team from the animated series line.

Peter Quill is the half-human/half-Spartoi Star-Lord. Possessing twin "element guns" he leads the Guardians in their sometimes good/sometimes bad adventures. The animated Star-Lord looks like Chris Pratt jumped off the silver screen into the toon box but sounds like Batman Beyond because he's voiced by the great Will Friedle. Like Gamora before him articulation is not his strong suit. His arms are decent but he has no knees. The collar of his jacket negates most of his neck rotation. The element guns fit nicely into his hands but look a little gargantuan in their holsters.

Gamora (Guardians of the Galaxy Animated Series)

Gamora, the deadliest woman in the universe, began her life in comics as a supporting character in Jim Starlin's groundbreaking Warlock series. She's Thanos' adopted daughter and became an integral member of the current iteration of the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The success of the live action film has spawned an animated TV series which continues the adventures of everyone's favourite interstellar rogues. This figure hails from the toy line tying into the series which so far only encompasses the 5 main characters.

Collection Corner

Ok it's a new year and time for a new series of blog posts. In addition to eating cheese and drinking tea I also have a fairly substantial action figure collection and I finally decided to bite the bullet and share it with the world (or at least the subset of the world that happens to stumble upon this blog).

In past posts I've talked about my love of "genre" fiction which just might be the worst name ever. My pop culture interests tend to reside in the sci-fi/fantasy/super-hero milieu and such is my collection.

I'm just going to randomly post pictures of the various displays around my house. As the seasons or my moods change I rearrange my shelves and will start sharing new pics when that occurs. (I have become one of those nerds whose collection has indeed outstripped his living space but I have an understanding and wonderful spouse)

Without further ado I give you the first installment of "Collection Corner" or "Sharing Shelves" if you like.



This is my cabinet of curious collectibles which lives in the corner of my living room

Apologies for the lighting, I didn't think this post through very well, the rest of the pictures were taken earlier in the day

David's Tea Mulberry Magic Herbal Infusion

Tonight I'm enjoying David's Tea Mulberry Magic while checking out the new Guardians of the Galaxy animated series. Both are entertaining. Will Friedle is the man from Batman Beyond to Bumblebee in the latest Transformers cartoon to Star-Lord now, he's got a great set of characters under his belt.

Mulberry Magic is a simple blend of mulberry leaves and macadamia nuts.  The nutty flavour is robust and sweet, and the mulberry leaves are earthy and herbaceous. I like this tisane and as I keep working on these types of blog posts I find I have less to say about the ones I really like beyond saying "I really like this, it's tasty."

Apparently there are fancy health benefits to mulberry leaves but I'm not concerned about any of that. I drink tea because it's tasty and has less calories than pop or other beverages.  Mulberry Magic fulfils the tastiness criteria and is a nice source of variety in our tea cupboard.

For more info follow the link: https://www.davidstea.com/ca_en/mulberry-magic