TOYS: 10 OBSCURE AND BIZARRE TOYS FROM AROUND THE WORLD

ARTICLE BY KRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ

Here at Lost Entertainment we fucking love bootleg and real action figures. Anything made out of plastic depicting the things we love will always be a winner. In the past we have reviewed bootlegged and real toys from around the world, and today we will be mixing it up a bit by looking at both real and bootlegged items.

So let the madness begin!

WONDERBREAD SAVAGE HE-MAN

This guy maybe one of the most controversial action figures of all time. Not in a bad way, but because his origin is simply unknown. The story goes, that this figure was an ultra rare mail away from Wonderbread in the 1980's. The problem is that no one can confirm this and there is no evidence to say so. This however doesn't stop collectors buying and selling these for ridiculous amounts of money and sometimes in 4 figure sums. I actually think the savage He-Man looks better than the real ginger haired version and he looks fucking bad ass to top it off. So wether Wonderbread He-Man is real or a bootleg will always be an unsolved mystery like the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888 and who was behind GTV in WWE in 1999.

E.T's finger

Now this is a real piece of merchandise which was sold in toy shops around the time of the movie's release. How no one clocked that E.T'S finger looks like a big dildo is beyond me. The fact it has batteries and lights up makes it all the more amusing.

VICKY AND HER VIBE

I recently stumbled upon a boxed version of this toy when I was hanging out with Sonic Mass at their rehearsal studio. This is a wind up toy of a naked woman who gives her self a good thudding with a mini version of E.T's finger. Vicky and her vibe are mainly sold in sex shops and the odd pokey off license.

WORZEL GUMMIDGE

Worzel Gummidge was a British TV show from the 1970's about a scarecrow who fell in love with a mannequin called Aunt Sally. The TV show had a great shelf life and was replayed up until the late 1980's. I always thought the whole thing was rather traumatizing to watch as a young child, as Worzel would get decapitated at least 3 times an episode. These toys are mega obscure and are worth money but finding someone who even remembers this show or even harder finding a fan of this show who collects expensive toyd could be a very hard task indeed.

ROCKY MEAT

The line of figures released by Jakks in 2006 are highly collectible and really fucking cool. However in this line maybe the worst action figure (if you can call it that) ever made! The slab of hanging meat which Rocky punches during the training for the first fight with Apollo Creed, made it as an action figure. When I see shit like this it always makes me think a kid might have got this as a stocking filler or even worse a main present at Christmas. I honestly think shit toys like this should be banned and classed as contraband. I really have a high level of contempt against crap toys. This makes E'T,s finger look like Castle Greyskull.

BREAST MILK BABY

Being a boy I have always thought girls toys were mega weird. Why anyone would want to have pretend tea parties, pretend babies that shit and piss and even toy dogs that do the same also is beyond me. Now I bring you the Breast Milk baby! I have no fucking idea how this works or more importantly why it was even released but it's 100% real. By the time girls get breasts they stop playing with dolls and end up having real babies of their own. Maybe they had to get their mothers or some other random woman to feed these weird fuckers.

YOU CAN SHAVE YOUR BABY

This is another weird baby toy from Japan. This one is a ginger baby who for some reason has hit puberty and needs to be shaved. I don't know if the hair grows back or not but I am guessing it doesn't otherwise this toy may have found the answer for baldness.

GOD ALMIGHTY

This action figure is a pure boss and the fact he is God Almighty makes that statement even more credible. I recently reviewed all the action figures of Jesus Christ at Easter (click here to read) and know of a few other bible related toys but this one is the best I have seen so far. I want to book him for the next Super Secret Wars so I am on the look out for this.

ROWDY RODDY PIPER GI JOE

The  Roddy Piper GI Joe is a really cool action figure which was released in recent times. As Sgt Slaughter needed a heel to go against Hasbro put Piper in the COBRA unit. Although this figure is mega awesome the only downside is the fact its ridiculously rare and valuable. I have never seen one go for less than £400!

POLE DANCE

Pole Dance is another bizarre toy from Japan and there was no surprise there. This toy which resembles a young child pole dances for you. Wether it strips or not I don't know, but as it's Japanese it more than likely does. I love Japan but everything is way too noncey for me. Everything involves erotic school girls and bright colors. Shits fucked up.

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TOYS: M.U.S.C.L.E

M.U.S.C.L.E which stood for "Millions of Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere" was a hugely popular line of toys from Mattel in the late 1980's. The toys were made from a PVC gum and were of small wrestlers which ranged from humans, aliens, monsters, robots and brick shaped creatures. There was even on of a giant hand which looked cool but made no sense what so ever.

The figures came in packs which were boarded on cards or in a mini bucket. These toys were ultra popular and were used as currency at my primary school for a short period of time before they vanished off the face of the earth. These inch and a half unpainted toys were really cool and the fact that there were so many variations made these very collectible.

As time went on Mattel went on to release multi colored variations of these figures. Although it kind of breathed new life into the franchise they were no way near as good as the original flesh colored flesh colored counterparts.

A wrestling ring for the figures was released as well as a championship belt which you could display your top figure in (kinda like the AWA one for the REMCO figures click here to read about them). The line although hugely popular for a few years died out just before the 90's began. I collected them all up until that point and was only missing a few. The figures are hugely popular among collectors to this day and you can purchase ones you haven't got by going to this website (click here).

These toys are very iconic for their time period and fitted in well with all the other homo erotic shit that kids loved. They paved the way for Monsters in my Pocket and many other miniature collectible figures which are still popular to this day.

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JUNK FOOD: WWF SUPERSTARS CRISPS 1993

ARTICLE BY KRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ

So it's 1993 and things are starting to wind down in terms of the (then) World Wrestling Federations popularity. Hulkamania was done, The Ultimate Warrior fucked off back to parts unknown and Randy Savage had also stepped down. The WWF at this time was being led by Bret The Hitman Hart. A phenomenal wrestler in the ring but lacked the charisma and showmanship that we had been accustomed to.

At this time the WWF were really digging deep in the well when it came to creating new talent and ideas. We had clowns, repo men, tax inspectors, bull fighters, ex convicts, sumo wrestlers, alligator hunters, voodoo priests and Max Moon (what ever the fuck he was!).

The ratings and ticket sales dropped week by week and with a huge impending law suit over the steroids scandal this was a very dark and testing time for the WWF and for the wrestling industry in general.

However that did not stop them from making and marketing even more stupid products. Since the 1980's the WWF has marketed and sold every type of product imaginable. Be it hats, t shirts, toys, bed spreads, posters, badges, even more toys and anything else they could slap a WWF logo on at the time.

I remember being at primary school in the January of 1993 and one of my friends running into class to show everyone the coolest thing we had ever seen, The WWF Superstars crisps from Red Mill. Word spread like wildfire of these crisps that had the Undertaker on the packet. At lunch time another kid lucked out and found a bag with Randy Savage on in his packed lunch and pure chaos commenced.

I am not exaggerating when I say pure chaos started over these crisps, everyone was literally losing their shit. Everyone had gone off the WWF just after Survivor Series 92 but I was still a loyal fan who had faith in Hulk Hogan coming back and making everything great again. These crisps however made the WWF topical and cool again among my classmates, which was great news for me, as up until this point I was defending the business everyday when those other idiots were calling it "fake" and "rubbish".

So lets have a look 20 years on at the WWF Superstars Crisps by Red Mill.

CHUNKY CHEESE THE MACHO FLAVOUR

 
So this is the Chunky Cheese flavour which claims to be "the macho flavour"! Out of all the flavours to represent the extravagant Macho Man Randy Savage I would have to say that this one is in the right ball park. Then again Macho Man could be any flavor he fucking wanted as he was that cool. These were 20p at the time which was 10p more than Space Raiders and 10p less than Walkers crisps at that point in time. You got a decent bag of crisps plus a picture of Randy Savage, what more could you want? Well a lot but still.

On the back of the packet there are some prizes you could win if you sent off enough tokens off the crisp packet. The funny thing about the prizes, is the fact 80% of these products are products of Hulk Hogan who had left a year before and the Ultimate Warrior. Up until signing with WCW in 1994 the WWF would continue to sell products with the Hulks image on.

Another funny thing is that every time Hulks name got mentioned up until 1996 a Marvel copyright warning would come up. Although there never was a Hulk Hogan comic, Marvel did not take too kindly to Hogan using one of their top characters as his name. When Hogan first came on the scene he was dubbed "The Incredible Hulk Hogan" so to get out of any legal bother Vince Mcmahon Sr struck a deal with Marvel and gave them the rights to his name. This turned out in Hogans favor in the end, as he could continue being the Hulkster after leaving the WWF in 1993 until he became Hollywood Hogan in 1996. In 2005 he finally bought out the name and it now belongs to him. The sell by date on these crisps is the 17th of April 1993. From what I remember they did not last that long before being pulled off the shelves and never seen again.

SPICY BEEF THE DEAD GOOD FLAVOR

Everyone knows that when it comes to corn puffed crisps, beef will always be king. That's why it is so fitting the Undertaker got this flavor. The Undertaker is the don of dons and still even 20 years on, the dead man is kicking serious ass in the squared circle.

At this time the Undertaker had been a face (good guy) for just under a year. The transformation from being the scariest heel (bad guy) in the business to the Frankensteins monster (with good intent) happened over night. As a heel the Undertaker took apart all the main top boys including Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior. As a face the Undertaker served as a monster who would destroy other monsters on the roster such as Kamala and the abysmal Giant Gonzalez. Things would stay this way up until he won the belt again in 1997 at Wrestlemania 13. I remember this flavour being the best one.

PICKLED ONION THE CHAMPION FLAVOR

Finally we come to the Champion Flavor which was pickled onion. I would have had Bret down as being a prawn cocktail flavor just for the pink packaging alone.

I was never a huge fan of the Hitman when I was a kid! Not because he sucked or anything like that, I just didn't like the fact he had Hogans spot. The fact that I really wanted the Warrior or Randy Savage to be the guys in the top spot when Hogan left was a major factor for me not liking him. So when Bret became the main guy I instantly resented him for it. I think alot of young fans felt the same and Bret had a very heavy load to carry for the next 4 years.

These crisps vanished off the shelves not long after and it was as if they never existed, making them another Lost Entertainment gem! The WWF would fizzle out until 1998 until the attitude era began. Red Mill was a company under the umbrella of Golden Wonder and was purchased by a company called Tayto in recent years.

TOYS: INDEPENDENCE DAY ACTION FIGURE TOY LINE

ARTICLE BY KRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ

I know it's a day late but I completely forgot about these toys until about 2 am just after watching the movie last night. So 17 years has passed since the release of the 1996 summer blockbuster Independence Day. I still remember it as if it was yesterday.

I went to see the movie on the first day it came out and I was blown away. I was 12 at the time and things such as plot holes and common sense never came into play for me when watching movies then. All I cared about was explosions and fuck off space ships.

State of the art Independence Day offers found inside the Independence day VHS.

After re-watching the film last night I must say, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Yeah all the cast members are Hollywood rotten and the fact everyone just by sheer coincidence happen to all meet up at the most convenient of times is more than laughable, but it's just a summer block buster. The main appeal of this movie is the alien invasion and onscreen devastation of mankind. Like I said with Jurassic Park toys article (click here to read), if you only wanted to see this movie because you love the artistic work of Jeff Goldblum or some other none related reason other than aliens blowing shit up- then you are a cunt. Now lets get onto the toys.

The toys were made by a company called Trendsetters who also made the toys for that awful Godzilla movie from 1998. These toys were on the shelves when the movie came out but didn't stay there for much longer. Like I have said before, movie based action figures and especially ones from a summer blockbuster never have a very good shelf life. Depending on the movies popularity these toys will either fly off the shelves quick or will just remain there gathering dust. Independence Day maybe the finest example of a flash in the pan summer blockbuster. Although the movie did very well at the box office on release, the movie never had the same appeal as the Spielberg movies did which defined this genre. So on a whole this was not a very successful toy line.

The toy line consisted of a few of the main characters and a few different aliens. Each figure came free with a floppy disc which carried "mission data" whatever the fuck that was.

The alien figures are quite cool and their heads open up with a bulldog clip type mechanism which you can pop the little alien inside. From what I remember these figures were also a bit pricey which would also be a big factor in this lines downfall. 

The Supreme Commander alien figure is the coolest of the bunch as he is a much larger toy and has lots of cool sound effects and gimmicks. The other Alien figures were very similar apart from having different paint jobs and floppy discs.

The Steven Miller action figure was the first ever action figure of Will Smith. Its a pretty cool figure and comes with lots of different guns and other cool shit. 

Jeff Goldblum got immortalized in plastic once again, just 3 years after Jurassic park which was great news for him. Out of all the actors in the world to have 2 action figures, he's one of the last guys you would think of.

They never released the giant mother shop or the massive city destroying vessels we see in the movie. They did however release the small UFO as a toy in this line.

This toy was very expensive at the time and was also a big rip off. The box was over sized and gave the illusion of a decent sized toy, but when opened the space craft was only a tiny bit bigger than your hand. 

As well as an LCD handheld game and an even worse outing on the Playstation 1 another toy was released in this line which is very valuable.

This toy is the handheld Area 51 micro battle play set. This was a Mighty Max styled hand held play set which included a few vehicles and other bits and bobs which you would lose within 3 minutes of opening the fucking thing. I have seen these sell boxed for over £100.

Although the toys themselves were of a decent standard they flopped majorly just like the movie's popularity. By February 1997 these toys could be found in the bargain bin area of the stores before being shipped off to fuck knows along with last summers Super Soakers and Sega Saturn consoles. When it came to liscensed movie toys Toy Story cleaned house and are still doing so to this day.

NEWS: BOOTLEG SUPER SECRET WARS 2 ANNOUNCEMENT AND SNEAK PEEK

ARTICLE BY KRISTIAN RODRIGUEZ

So the war is over and the hangover has ended, what next? If you thought there was going to be a huge sequel to the series.. you were damn right!

However there will be Halloween and Christmas special editions of the series first, but there will be one giant story in 2014 which will be coined- the Bootleg Super Secret Wars II.

With over 100 figures bought and paid for, this adventure will be the biggest installment of the Bootleg Super Secret franchise. So whats in store? Well lets look at the cast

THE FACES

Some familiar faces from last time return as well as many new ones. New additions such as the Punisher, Captain America, Thor, Dr Strange, Storm, Super Girl, Daredevil and many more make their debuts. The real life aliases of Batman and Spiderman make appearances as Peter Parker and Bruce Wayne. We have a Bat-mobile now and Spiderman has a new suit also.

THE HEELS

In this next installment we have gone all out when it comes to bad guys. The Joker and co will remain in jail for this one but new additions such as Dr Doom, Skeletor, Magneto, The Kingpin, The Red Skull, Venom, Bullseye, 2 face, The Terminator and Samual L Jackson all make their debuts in this next installment. Not to mention the return of el Hulkio and the arrival of Darth Vader will stir things up to boiling point also. Scarface and his gangster friends return and play a much bigger roles this time which wages them in a bloody turf war against the Kingpin and his criminal empire.

This is the most ambitious project we have undertaken since starting the series a few months back and this one is going to have a decent script and will all come packaged in one giant online issue. We are looking at releasing it around the begining of 2014. 

As mentioned earlier there will be Halloween and Christmas specials from the Bootleg Super Secret Series. These issues wont be as big and will focus more on the younger characters like Supergirl, Robin, Jubilee, Karate Kid and Peter Parker. Scooby Doo and co are on hand for Halloween as well as the mystery machine. Freddy Krueger, Jason Voohees, Michael Myers and Dracula are also starring in that one. 

The Christmas Special will involve a Home Alone theme and yes we have a Kevin Figure but there has been no planning or writing of this just yet, so stay tuned.

NEED TO CATCH UP ON BOOTLEG SUPER SECRET SERIES?

THEN CLICK HERE 

GAMING: GUILD WARS 2

ARTICLE BY CHRIS DEMETRIADES OF

AREGAMINGREVIEWS.COM

Introduction

Guild wars 2 is an Mass multiplayer game that is set 250 years after the Guild Wars Eye of the North expansion.  Guild Wars 2 is an exciting and fun active game with endless missions and tasks to complete set in Tyria the world is always changing and shape the world around by the choices you make.

Features

Features in Guild Wars 2 are forever changing because update and patches in the game happen regularly, this makes its a prominent feature in this game that there are always add on. The vast servers to choose from with European and US to choose and includes individual countries.

You also have eight different character types to choose from and 5 different races to pick male and female. Endless amount of weapon choices with different skills to improve your character, the characters have an option to put different weapons together giving them different combinations.

For example my character is an elementalist, the weapons that can be used are. The highest level you can reach is level 80, different weapon and armor rarity exotic being the highest for armor and legendary for weapons.

Two-handed

Staff — Can cast different area effect spells with direct or lasting effects.

Main-hand

Scepter — Casts various single and multiple target, medium range spells.

Dagger — Emphasizes close range, heavy damage spells.

Off-hand

Dagger — provides powerful close range abilities suitable for offense as well as abilities designed for defense.

Focus — Provides supportive spells in form of energy shields, disabling snares and defensive area effects.

Aquatic

Trident

The other main feature being the online mass multiplayer is the option to play different game modes.

Trading Post

Is where players can sell and buy items and equipment they have find throughout the world, the profit you make will be saved within the trade post can be accessed anytime through an vendor.

PvP (Player Vs Player)

Where you team up as a group of five players and battle it out, with a game type like capture and hold. Which is an always fun experience but it does take some time to get used to, it made me annoyed and frustrated when I first started but give it time you will get used to it.

WvW (World vs World)

This game mode will give you four different worlds to choose from depending on what server you play on. The options would include protecting and fighting in your server world, and the other two options being the enemies, also a free for all being the strongest server would control that map.

  The way WvW works is that its point based system where you will have to capture towers and keeps and supply deposits which counts towards overall score. This game mode can be difficult if your server you have joined isn't very committed to WvW or just short on numbers. This game mode can be very fun with the right amount of players and good commander to follow around.

Guilds

This feature in the game can be very useful if you find a good group or clan to join.  Guilds can consist of many members from 1-50 and so on. The larger the guild more options you have to play with someone. This also isn't the main benefit of a guild it allows you to participate in Bounty and weekly rushes, such as puzzle and many more options and to choose and use. You also have Guild bank and treasure trove for higher ranking members. The guild will consist of six ranks, Squire, Knight, Officer, Templar, Baron and the leader, each rank giving you benefits and permissions within that Guild.

Gameplay

Guild Wars 2 has beautiful graphics and setting if you have the computer power to run it on high. Personally me at first I did struggle because there are so many options to pick and choose and from and you will be a bit lost at first if you’re a newcomer like me. But after first week I got used to the game and how it worked and then I started to enjoy the game and find it fun and interesting along with the story mode learning many things as I went along.  

I would recommend purchasing a gaming mouse this will improve game a lot and make fighting and control of your character easier. The game manual does explain the basic keys to activate parts of the menu.  The gameplay within Guild wars 2 will always change depending on what zone of the map you enter different parts of the world are harder and more difficulty to survival, because of the different level zones. The story mode will always be different depending on what race you pick each one has its own story and path they follow, the story mode is very strong in depth and interesting with having different characters support you throughout the story mode. But never the less you will meet interesting characters and choices to help some you come across within Tyria with them giving you money for your services and mini tasks within each map you enter.  As you can see by the picture you have thousands of places to discover roam and to make and continue your story.

Pros and Cons

Pros

·         Long lasting with and interesting and colorful world.

·         Many choices or races and characters.

·         Regular patches and updates to the game.

·         Weapons choices and combinations.

·         Different game modes.

Cons

·         Sometimes can be overwhelming.

·         Repetitive at times.

·         Time consuming to make a legendary item.

·         Not enough smaller missions to keep you busy. 

Summary

This game will give you mix of everything and so much detail you would get bored if I included all of it, this game is very additive and fun. Getting your character to level 80 will seem faraway and hard but it’s worth it. Overall to me the game is worth buying endless hours of fun and missions with many dungeons and objectives. If you’re looking for a game to have fun and enjoy and meet new people this is the game for you.