Top Hat Sasquatch

What better way to celebrate the release of the final chapter in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy than by reviewing four 12 year old, completely unrelated action figures? I can’t think of one! Yup, it’s time for another Random Toy Review.

Today we’re looking at four action figures that were released as a tie-in to the direct-to-video animated movie Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker, which is actually pretty damn awesome. I loved Batman Beyond as a kid, but I didn’t discover this movie until a few years ago. It has a huge cult following, partly because the violence nabbed the first PG-13 rating for a Batman animated film. There have been a lot of versions on home video since, some with the violence dumbed-down, but thankfully the uncut version is available on Blu-ray and looks great.

But I digress. Thinking about this movie has made me want to revisit it soon, and I’m sure I’ll write something up on the site about it. For now though, the toys. A friend game me some carded figures from this movie, and since I have no respect for mint-in-the-box-things I promptly ripped them open to get a closer look. How do these 12-year old toys hold up to the Batman action figures of today? Let’s find out.
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The Top Hat Sasquatch team reads a lot of blog posts every day, and some slip through the crack or just don’t warrant their own post. That’s where Missing Links comes in. Every few days we collect the best links we’ve come across and pass them on to you.

Yes Virginia, there is a perfect super hero trilogy: ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ | ShezCrafti
Jaime over at Shezcrafti wrote up a nice (and spoiler-free) review of The Dark Knight Rises. I'm going to be a day or so late to this party, but I can't wait to see it.

TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman is loving Michael Bay’s movie – will fans? – Boing Boing
Even though I consider myself pretty hardcore when it comes to TMNT, I don't have a problem with them ditching the mutant aspect. Face it, they don't look that much like turtles anyway.

Pixar Is Making “Finding Nemo 2″ | Cartoon Brew
Interesting. So Disney is kind of forcing Andrew Stanton to direct Finding Nemo 2 before they'll let him make any more live action movies? It's a bummer that John Carter didn't do better in the box office.

Here’s the Opening of Nickelodeon’s TMNT Reboot! | ShezCrafti
They're kind of using the old theme song! Awesome. This show looks like a lot of fun.

‘Wreck-It Ralph’ Footage – Disney’s Video Game Movie Just Looks Better and Better [Comic-Con 2012] | /Film
Just when I didn't think I could be more excited about 'Wreck-it Ralph'…

When the Internets first got glimpse of the LEGO Minecraft Set on the company’s Kickstarter-esque site Cuusoo, I doubt a lot of people thought it would ever become a real product. It surprised me when LEGO announced on the CUUSOO blog that it passed their approval process and would be a really-for-real set in a few months time. It’s been for sale for a short while and I got my hands on one, dumped all the pieces on my desk, and built it so I could let you know if it’s a great LEGO set or just a decoration for hardcore Minecraft fans.

What You Get

The LEGO Minecraft Set (or Minecraft 21102 officially) is a micro-world set, meaning it’s not minifigure scale. It does, however, include a couple micro-figures in the likeness of Minecraft’s Steve and a Creeper. Since the whole point of Minecraft is shaping and building terrain out of the available blocks in the game, the LEGO Minecraft set works the same way.
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I liked The Amazing Spider-man. I really did. I liked almost everything about it, with one glaring exception: the design of The Lizard. I was so excited when they announced that The Lizard would be the villain in this movie, but when the designs started to leak, I was a little bummed. When I finally saw the movie, I liked the character but the snoutless, generic Lizard design didn’t do much for me. So, to avoid actually working today I’ve been making a list of 10 things that look better than The Lizard.

As with most ‘silly lists’ on Top Hat Sasquatch, this is mainly a joke. Keep that in mind before you rage in the comments section.

The Goombas from the Super Mario Bros Movie

The Goombas from the Super Mario Bros movie were the first things I thought of when I saw The Lizard. Bald, scaly, and a big toothy grin. Exactly what The Lizard could have looked like in a 90s Spider-man movie, had they decided to ditch the snout and make it look ridiculous. I don’t know if a snout would have made The Lizard look that much better, but what is so unrealistic about growing a snout vs. growing a tail?
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I’ve drooled over many a Mondo poster the past few years, and I’ve never been able to snag one due to their limited runs and popularity among geeks these days. Luckily, Mondo has teamed up with acclaimed artist Olly Moss to produce a Dark Knight Rises poster that will be sold to anyone who wants one.

From Olly’s annoucement post:

It’s a 16×24 screen print on cream stock, and it will go on sale for 24 hours at 12:01am CT Wednesday the 18th of July for $40 from www.mondotees.com . It’s a timed edition, so anybody who orders within those 24 hours is guaranteed a print.

I think this is a great idea. With eBay scalpers accounting for a huge number of Mondo sales lately, printing a huge run like this will effectively cap the resale value but enable more fans to get their hands on the art. I wish they would do this for more posters.

So, are you going to order a poster on Wednesday?