3B's Toy Hive

Business picked up a bit this week thanks to a stellar sale at Kmart and the arrival of some new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles product at stores. Still no sign of WWE Elite 19, but I was able to pick-up a few older WWE items, the highly-anticipated classic World Tag Team title belts and received a gift (read: headache) from Mattel.

Keep reading to see what else came into the Hive!

Today CoD makes a comeback with a new edition that's heavy on the wrestling, mode-changing robots and a couple of battle scenes! Last month I added a new bookcase to my office affording me some extra display space and more options on the type of displays I can set up. I've been working on these displays for about a month now, waiting for some of the newer purchases to arrive in order to fit them in and also constantly tweaking exisiting figures to optimize them for the collection. Swapped out a couple of heads, adjusted some ring gear on several wrestlers, added/removed some accessories of various figures and now I'm ready to share them with you.

So jump ahead and see what's on display at the Hive at the beginning of 2013!

I don't know about your area, but store inventory around here is mostly devoid of any new toys, so I thought it would be great time to share some thoughts on the recently announced line-ups for WWE Elite 21 and 22.

These were posted last week on WrestlingFigs.com so credit for the reveals goes to them.

Now on with the new figs!

Hello and welcome to the first edition of "The Honeypot" for 2013! I skipped doing a Christmas Honeypot because like I mentioned before I handle all my toy purchases and I didn't really receive anything toy-related for Christmas. I did manage to pick up a few basic figures of Zack Ryder and R-Truth, but those were purchased to have alternate heads/parts for my Elite figures and have already been disassembled so a pic would look odd.

Anyway, let's see what's kicking off the new year at the Hive!

Sorry for the delay in posts, but I'm adjusting to a new work schedule which unfortunately doesn't give me much time for anything on my workdays meaning I have to wait until my days off to get anything Hive-related done.

Anyway, today I'm finally taking a look at Jerry Lawler from Elite series 18, one of two "flashback" figures in the wave. I don't think Mattel has really sat down and defined just what exactly qualifies as a flashback. Sure we know it's their way to get "Legends" into the main retail line and it also features older versions of current Superstars, but this Lawler doesn't really fit into any of these categories. Read on to find out what I mean.

Hello Foxy lady fans! My first review of 2013 kicks off with WWE Diva Alicia Fox who makes her line debut in series 23 of the basic line.

Mattel's Divas figures have come a long way since 2010 when the basic series didn't include any special ring gear or accessories. Over the past few years, the design team has strived to include costume pieces (something the male Superstars, don't really get) to enhance the basic female sculpt. Alicia Fox is actually the first single-carded Diva to receive a proper accessory.

Let's see what she has to offer!

Happy New Year everyone! We're three days into 2013 and it's about time I get around to revealing my toy wishes for the next 365 362 days. Last year presented some challenges in toy collecting, making me re-evaluate what exactly I was most passionate about and the answers surprised me. This year I feel I have a stronger focus on where my collection is going and I think I understand much better why I collect what I collect.

So what is 3B looking forward to the most in 2013? Find out!