3B's Toy Hive

Wow, another year down and it's been quite the year for toy collecting. There've been soaring highs and subterranean lows, but overall I think it was a great year for action figure enthusiasts and I was surprised by many of the lines I started collecting. I started 2012 with a list of my Toy Wishes and it was nice to see some of them come to fruition.

For the "Best of" list this year I added some categories and spread out brands over specific lines to include as many toys as possible while only covering things I've purchased over the past 365 days and that debuted in 2012.

So come now and see what my picks are for the best of the year!

I thought all my Christmas shopping was done, but last Sunday my girlfriend
told me we still needed a couple of more items for my daughter. So I drove over to the Toys R Us near my job during my lunch break (approx. 10:30am) and was happy to find the store mostly empty (of shoppers, that is). I picked up a couple of Hello Kitty items for my little one, then took a stroll over to the action figure aisle where I found...

This week's assignment:

"The big guy is on his way! What's on your Christmas wish list this year?"

Well, I'm not going to bore you with some cliched response, but the problem with a Christmas list is who's doing the buying. My girlfriend says, in reference to my action figures, that it's too difficult to shop for me because I'm a collector and need to find a "perfect" copy of a figure... Okay, sure, I can be a bit meticulous in my purchases, but I pretty much handle all those purchases myself and she ends up buying something nice, but not necessarily toy-related.

So here's a list of stuff I want, with no regard for cost because it's a Christmas wish list after all!

Today we have a two-in-one WWE review with Kofi Kingston and his tag team partner, Evan Bourne!

Okay, so they aren't a tag team anymore, but Mattel's doing there best to get up-to-date action figures out there and it's a lot harder with the Elite line. Anyway, today's review focuses on the high-flyin' team known as "Air Boom" from the pinnacle of their union when they held the WWE Tag Titles.

We've seen both Superstars in the Elite line (especially Kofi), but don't write their latest release off just yet, because there's a lot of great changes on them. Let's see what they've got!

Click HERE to enter!

Well, it only took seventeen waves of WWE Elite figures before a Diva was introduced into the line. Sure, we've had Divas before in the basic series, but those were just as plain as the male figures in that line, with the exception of a different articulation model. Many fans wanted to know if/when Divas would be included at the Elite-level with entrance gear and accessories.

But basic series 23's Alicia Fox features the first real entrance accessory any Diva figure has recived, so what is the point of creating an Elite Diva now?

Let's see if Kelly Kelly has the answer!

After a couple months of massive hauls, things have slowed down in preparation for Christmas, but that doesn't mean the Honeypot is empty!

There are only two figures in this week's pot with some goodies thrown in for good measure and a new addition to the display area! Come see!

Hey there, readers, it is time to announce the winners of 3BTH's 2012 Christmas contest, but first I'd like to thank those of you who took the time to enter. Thank you very much!

There were 7 entries for the Undertaker and 9 for Wheelie, which was really surprising to me considering most of my traffic is WWE-related. In all honesty, I expected many more entries, but I guess it translated to better odds for those who did enter, the luckiest of which being:

• Jeff R. - "WM28" Undertaker
• Mario M. - "Generations" Wheelie
• Colbey H. - Hot Wheels/MatchBox Batman vehicles

Congratulations you three! Your items will be shipping out this week and you should receive them soon after. Again thanks to all of you who played, I wish I could give all of you prizes, but there's always next year!

Merry Christmas!

Hello, readers!

This week the League of Extraordinary Bloggers' asks:

If money was not a concern and you could choose any career path,
what would be your ultimate dream job?

After reading the challenge for the week on Monday I thought about my response, finally coming up with one a few days later and planning to write it up Friday afternoon until the tragic events at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, CT were reported. As a father I was deeply saddened to hear of what transpired up North and could not imagine what those families are going through.

Sitting in front of my computer writing this out on a Saturday night a day and a half after the shooting, I've had plenty of time to reflect on just what my dream job really means to me.

There are certain army-building action figures that are supposed to look identical. The storm troopers from Star Wars. Foot soldiers from TMNT. In Transformers lore there a more than a few: Scourge's Sweeps, the Sharkticons, TF Prime's Vehicons. But sometimes you get a figure that is supposed to represent an army or collective of similar, but different troops. Case in point: the Junkions.

Hasbro did a nice job delivering a "classics" Wreck-Gar and his retool/redeco, Junkheap in the "Reveal the Shield" and "Generations" lines, respectively, but two figures does not a squad make. I bought multiples of each thanks to the fantastic decal kits released by Repro Labels (Wreck-Gar & Junkions 1 for the WG figure, Junkions 2) for Junkheap). But there's only so much you can do with decals. That's where Lucky Rogers steps in with this upgrade for the Junkion mold.

Collector DASH Action Figures has a bunch of great contests going on right now. Take a moment to look over the following announcements and click on the link to sign up for Collector DASH if you haven't already done so!



Hey don't pass up a shot at winning a FoC "G2" Bruticus!

Sign up HERE!

There's just over 48hours left to enter 3B's Toy Hive's 2012 Christmas Contest! If you haven't entered, yet, click here for official rules and to find out how to enter.

Remember, I'm giving away a "WrestleMania 28" Undertaker and Transformers Generations Wheelie as the two main prizes! One runner-up will receive a set of Batman Hot Wheels!

Don't miss out on this giveaway, enter now!

When WWE Elite series 16 was announced I was happy to see Kevin Nash enter the line. While I was most excited about his Diesel version, I picked up the NWO figure, too. I was fully expecting to like his classic WWF version more than the other, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

With both figures in hand I can tell you for certain that not only do I prefer the NWO figure, it's the better figure. Not only is Diesel the weaker of the two, he's a rather weak offering overall.

I'm sure that is confusing to some fans, but in what should have been a pretty straight-forward variant, Mattel made some choices that are just plain odd. Let's try to sort out what happened with Diesel here.

To-date there have been three different versions of the Transformers: Generations - Fall of Cybertron Bruticus released: SDCC, regular retail and this "G2"-inspired version. If you weren't around in the early 1990s, you're probably wondering, "WTF is up with the purple camouflage?". Yes, well, back then Transformers had been away for a while, so Hasbro tried to revive the brand by re-releasing the original toys with new, garish color schemes. Bruticus was sold as the individual Combaticons and each figure received bright base colors with purple camo spots.

Ridiculous. Tawdry. Absurd. All perfectly acceptable words to describe their new motif. Anyway, I was a bit too young when the original G1 Bruticus was in stores, but G2 hit just around the time I was ten-years-old, so the toys looked "radical" to me. I knew I wouldn't be able to assemble Bruticus on my own, so I enlisted the aid of my cousin and we came to an agreement about each of us buying two of the limbs and then whoever finds Onslaught would buy him and we'd eventually alternate having Bruticus at home.

With Christmas just about two weeks away I fully expected the quantity of toys in these posts to decrease significantly as funds are allocated towards gifts for others and my credit card reaches it's limit. However, I was truly surprised to run into some new WWE figures last week and picked up a couple along with several other "small ticket" items.

Come see!

This week the League of Extraordinary Bloggers assignment is:

Merry Geekmas! Write or photograph something festive and pop culture oriented.


Well, I'm going to talk about my favorite Christmas time snack: Little Debbie's Christmas Tree cakes!

Collector DASH Action Figures has a bunch of great contests going on right now. Take a moment to look over the following announcements and click on the link to sign up for Collector DASH if you haven't already done so!



Sign up HERE!

Beezleboss' latest custom kit features a new head for Transformers Generations Red Alert, pile drivers for Universe Sideswipe and new weapons for both Autobots packaged in a box with all-new original artwork.

I have to say I've been working on this review for nearly two weeks and it's been killer! The set is good, not great, but good. However, I've just hit a few blocks trying to get my thoughts on it out here.

Beezleboss has done fantastic work on previous kits for Cliffjumper/Bumblebee and Goldbug so I was very interested in this new set that replaces the horrible engine/blasters included with 'swipe & Red Alert who happen to share the same mold and transformation. But I think the set didn't quite turn out the way they were hoping it would and that's more obvious on some of the pieces than others.

Hello once again and welcome to another installment of "The Honeypot", wherein I share my toy finds over the past week (or two). There was only one new addition the week of Thanksgiving so I skipped a post and rolled that toy into today's edition.

Let's check them out!

It's been several weeks since I participated in a League of Extraordinary Bloggers challenge, but it wasn't for lack of trying. Anyway, this week the assignment coincides with one of the Hive's regular features, Currently on Display, so I'm killing two birds with one fat, lazy stone.

The mission:

Post a photo of a shelf of items that displays your love for pop culture.

Here it is!