Haulgust is well under way!I was expecting August to be a light month, honestly, but then three things happened. San Diego ComicCon, the return of Daily Deals at BigBadToyStore, and Hasbro shipping a shit-ton of its Septemser/October. So what was gonna be some delayed BlueBastard preorders finally showing up has turned into a mountain of plastic. You’ve already seen Kite Man, Swerve, Mr. Terrific, and Robot #4, and things really get rolling with COLD MOTHERFUCKIN’ SLITHER!
As soon as this was announced, I needed it. It’s so suited for my particular neural receptors even through, until this weekend, I’d never seen the Cold Slither episode of GI Joe.
It’s Dreadnoks, and I’m a Dreadnok completionist. It’s them pretending to be an 80’s hair metal band. And it’s band stuff, which I’ve already been collecting a fair amount of from other toys and such. I had to have it. But Hasbro made it difficult before they made it easy.
The sale during ComicCon sold out in less than 30 seconds. I never saw it, and I was there watching the countdown. They had a second sale on 8/1 that sold out in minutes, but this time, I was part of the reason why. Then they put it up as a “we’ll make more” pre-order, which is good and just, and in fact, weeks after the con, pre-orders are still available, unlike the other Hasbro SDCC exclusives I thankfully didn’t care about.
It is glorious. The box is amazing - it’s essentially an entire-ass building, the “Springield Theater”, where every side except the bottom is full of printed details and Easter eggs. And the inserts are stage parts. I hope to do something with it as a prop someday but it’s a little bit awkward as is and I need to figure out what the best way is to turn it into a working stage prop.
You get Zartan, Torch, Buzzer, and Ripper in their hair metal glory, along with a bass, a guitar, a keytar, two extra longer straps, a full drum set, drumsticks, and Buzzer’s goddamn removable goggles. It’s a lot for the price, and includes things they could have gotten away with not including like the bass drum pedal.
Would I have liked a couple of mic stands? Absolutely. Speakers? Sure. But four $25 figures and a drum set that’s essentially a fifth $25 figure for $125 is a shockingly good value for 2025 Hasbro, especially on an exclusive they could have gouged on.
The set also includes the single greatest unnecessary detail of any toy, probably ever. The drummer’s stool has been painted so that in the right light, you can see the shiny print in the “leather” worn down by the drummer’s ass. Stuff like that is how you know a toy company really cares and is really trying.
This is the first of two pics I’ve done with them - they’re very photogenic - but they’ve also been photographed a lot since their release and I wanted to do things that haven’t been seen yet, so that’s why I did the shot from the back and reassembled my Normie Squad crowd for the occasion. The spotlights are 100% created by me after not finding any stock images I liked and I’m really happy with the variety of techniques I was able to apply.
No comments:
Post a Comment