3B's Toy Hive

Two up, two down! We're one day away from welcoming March already and you know what that means: time to look back at February and see what toys we hauled in, in this month's edition of "The Honeypot!"

As a child of the '80s I was able to enjoy a lot of great toy properties in my youth. It was the golden age of the action figure that paved the way for the technology seen in the '90s and '00s. While today's toys are engineered at far superior levels, there really aren't any new properties that manage to surpass the classics, which is probably why companies keep revisiting (and improving) older characters and licenses. Fans of Star Wars, G.I. Joe, Masters of the Universe, superheroes from both DC and Marvel, along with Transformers, have enjoyed updated toys of classic characters from those properties for most of the last decade, but 2012 proves that the trend of revitalizing old properties will continue. Case in point, no less than three '80s/early '90s properties are reappearing on store shevles (and online) with updated, classic versions of their characters: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (by Play Mates), Voltron (by Mattel) and the ThunderCats!

WWE Legends didn't get the retail support Mattel wanted so it was announced last year that the line would move to MattyCollector.com for 2012 and only feature six figures for the year, voted on by the fans in an online poll. However, the first figure, Andre the Giant, was already decided on by Mattel and was released this past January. Today we're taking a look at what is literally the biggest WWE figure Mattel has produced thus far. Is he worth the hassle of ordering from MattyCollector and dealing with the online support company, Digital River? Find out now!

With the "Legends" line left lingering on store shelves (and now MattyCollector.com), Mattel decided it was a good time to incorporate some Superstars from yesteryear into the highly successful WWE Elite Collection line as a way to bring in some characters that aren't seen on TV nowadays without the burden of having to sell an entire wave of figures based on former wrestlers. While these "Elite-Legends" would be incoporated into the Elite line proper, they've been dubbed "Flashback" figures in order to separate them just a bit from their contemporary wavemates. Elite series 12 is the first wave to introduce these Flashback figures with the inclusion of Kane (in his debut attire) and the subject of today's review, the frightening Papa Shango!

The New York Toy Fair came and went last weekend and now that some of the dust has settled I thought today is the perfect time to look over the reveals and reflect on what is coming down the 'pike this year. Be warned, though, there is some fanboy ranting ahead along with passive agressive comments and a few sprinkles of joy.

Today we have the culmination of many months (and many dollars) invested in what was promised to be THE combiner Devastator toy for your "classics" Transformers collection. At this point I've reviewed all six of the individual figures in TFC Toys' Hercules series, so I'm not going to dwell on a technical review and just blatantly gush about the toy instead! Jump ahead to see "Hercules" in all his devastating glory!

Six long months after the release of Exgraver, TFC Toys finally completes their incredible Hercules project with the release of Madblender. He serves as an homage to the "G1" version of the Transformers character Mixmaster and joins the rest of the figures in the series (the aforementioned Exgraver along with Dr. Crank, Heavy Labor, Neckbreaker and Structor) to form a "classics" styled, modern version of Devastator.

A few hiccups aside, TFC has delivered some great modernizations of the Constructicons and while there was definitely a lot more riding on the shoulders of the first release, this final figure had a burden all his own as the end cap to the series. Was he worth the wait? Find out now!

This has been a long time coming! Finally a new edition of "Currently on Display", the first of 2012, in fact. If you're new to the Hive, this is where I showcase what's being displayed in my home right now. To keep things fresh I usually change out the display about every month or so, but old favorites always return in new configurations and themes. The last CoD entry was back in November and I announced that it would be the last for at least a couple of months until I finished unpacking everything at my new place (which I moved to in December). I decided my first action figure display of the new year would be WWE Legends- related and my initial attempt was up by the end of December. However, thanks to a few additions throughout January, the display kept changing, until we arrived at this version.

The fifth release in TFC Toys' unprecedented Hercules series of combining robots delivers an homage to the Transformers: Generation 1 Constructicon Bonecrusher and like his G1 counterpart, he transforms into a bulldozer and pulls double-duty as the mighty gestalt's left arm. Coincidentally the final two figures in the series (Neckbreaker along with Madblender) stirred up a bit of controversy between Devastator fans who felt a few of each of the figures' parts were cast in the wrong color. The color changes don't bother me much, but Neckbreaker does have a few shortcomings. Let's take a deeper look at this dastardly Decepticon!