THESE ARE THE BIONIC MAN TOYS I'VE ALWAYS WANTED!!!!

Ever since I was old enough to know what action figures were and realize the difference between Star Wars and Buck Rogers, there was one toy that I wanted that I never got.. And that was the Steve Austin Six Million Dollar Man figure. Just look at this huge piece of awesomeness:



When I finally DID get this toy for my birthday, I was a little dissappointed to learn just how huge it was. All my other toys were 3&3.75", he was a GIANT compared to all of them. Well, I had to wait about 30 years, but guess what? I'm finally getting my 4 inch Steve Austin figure!!!!! Courtesy of Zica Toys, they just sent out this press release yesterday:

"Six Million Dollar Man Action Figures Official Announcement!
New from ZICA Toys, The Six Million Dollar Man retro style action figures! Get ready to travel back to 1974 and relive the adventures of the world’s first bionic man. Sculpted in 3.75” scale, these harken back to the heyday of action figures, when the designs were simple and the fun factor was off the charts!

Assortment 1 includes Colonel Steve Austin (red tracksuit) and Bionic Bigfoot. ZICA Toys has big plans for this line and is hopeful that vehicles and playsets will eventually be available. Variants and exclusives are also planned but rest assured that everyone will have a fair opportunity to get them. Preorders are expected to begin soon so keep checking your favorite online retailer for more info."

-Best news ever!!!!! They don't mention a SDCC exclusive, but here's hoping they can get one out by the con. I can't WAIT to get these!! I'll post figure reviews, plenty of pictures and other goodies, but you'll have to wait about a week or so between the time they come out and the time I get it done. Because I'll totally be playing with these in my backyard!!

2012! That year that was.......

....ok-ish. First off, I HATE HATE HATE year end review shit. Seriously. Why? Because I have the patented Hayes memory. I can't remember anything. Yes, I know my wedding date. Yes, I know dates of important events in my life. I remember stuff that's important to me and a lot of stuff that isn't. But, when pressed, I always come up WAY short on lists. So, this isn't so much a list, as much as it is a "I DO remember that this happened this year" type of thing. And I'm gonna TRY and come up with 12, but, well, we'll see what happens.

Skyfall: OH MY GOD SKYFALL!!!! I am a huge Bond fan, but I never thought that a James Bond movie would be as perfect as this. Never. It's got everything. All the classic hallmarks of a Bond film cranked up to 11. What surprised me most, was that this was an ENDING to the origin of James Bond. And I didn't even know I was watching it until the very last few minutes. Easily, my favorite movie of 2012.

REVIVAL: OK, I'll admit it. I'm the guy that hates Image Comics. SUPER hates them. I hate them so much, I'm totally indifferent to them. Except for one other comic that will come up later. So, what in the hell would make me even look at this book? First, it was the creators, Mike Norton and Tim Seeley. Then, I found out that it takes place in a town about 45 minutes north from where I grew up. You know what I found out? NOT ALL IMAGE COMICS SUCK!!! I absolutely LOVE this comic!! I'm not gonna go into a long diatribe about why here, but trust me when I tell you-it's fucking AWESOME!!! If you get the chance, seriously, read it-you're going to love it. Art is great, story is great, just an all around solid, comic. THE best ongoing title released this year, hands down.

THE AVENGERS: What can I say about this movie? Everyone, includiing me, LOVED IT! And, with good reason. I'm not a Joss Whedon fan, but this was GREAT!! Perfect amount of action, dead-on, true to the character dialogue, what more could you ask for? Nick Fury was a LITTLE too much of an asshole for my taste, but that was really the only complain that I had. And, it's a VERY minor one. Best summer movie, by far!

FRIENDS: In 2012 I found out who my TRUE friends were....and it was a giant kick in the ass. People that I THOUGHT were my friends, turned out not to be. Sad, but true. And, they made me appreciate my REAL friends even more. And for that, I am very grateful and blessed.

ERNIE CHAN: Sadly, we lost Ernie Chan this year. From Batman to Conan to Captain Carrot, he was one of my favorites. Both him and his work will be missed.

SCARLET SPIDER: Chris Yost and that A-Hole Ryan Stegman brought an all new Scarlet Spider to life!! And he's AWESOME!!!! The book is still going strong, but sadly, with out artist Stegman who has moved on to a great gig on the upcoming Superior Spider-Man!

GI JOE RETALIATION: Earlier this year, I and other GI Joe fans had the rug pulled out from under us when Paramount and Hasbro announced just WEEKS before it's release date that GI Joe: Retaliation was being pulled for 3-D conversion and that we'd have to wait almost an entire YEAR to see it. Well, that year is about 90 days from being up and I'm still excited about seeing it, but that was the day that all of us GI Joe fans collectively flipped out shit for 1 day.

CALL ME MAYBE: No comment.

DISNEY BUYS LUCASFILM: In what came as a HUGE shock to most people, The Walt Disney Company aquired Lucasfilm AND announced that Star Wars: Episode 7 would be out in theaters in less than 3 years. A great day for all Star Wars fans, true. With Disney owning Marvel, Lucasfilm as well as it's OWN treasure trove of characters, this is the year that Disney pretty much took over as the top studio in Hollywood.

MACGYVER: THE COMIC BOOK: In October, Image Comics released MacGyver: The Fugitive Gauntlet #1. Written by series creator Lee David Zlotoff & Tony Lee and illustrated by Will Sliney, this book is AWESOME!!!!

SIX MILLION DOLLAR EVERYTHING!!!!: This year, Entertainment Earth released a TON of Six Million Dollar Man merchandise!!! Figures, coffee mugs, t-shirts, all this and more on the way. That, combined with Dynamite Entertainment's excellent comic book series made this year pretty damn Bionic!!! Still, part of me wishes for a 3&3/4 inch scale set of action figures. But, I'm not complaining. :)

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!! This year on March 2nd, after 2 long years spent on the Legally Prohibited from Selling Comics in a Store Tour, I was honored to join the team at Challengers Comics + Conversation in Chicago, IL. Run by two long time friends, it has been nothing but a pleasure spending the past 9 months as a Challenger. Thanks to them for the opportunity.

Bonus: I can't believe I came up with 12, let alone a 13th, item. Wow. I guess my memory isn't nearly as bad as I thought! Also, huge thanks to google. This one may be the most important one. This was the year, that I decided to go back to school to get a degree in Personal Fitness Training. It's something that I've been passionate about for awhile, and I decided that this was something that I could do to HELP people become better. As of today, it's not looking good for me to make the January classes for a number of reasons, but here's hoping I will. If not, then I will FINALLY start school in April. Here's hoping!!!

BIONIC MAN #2 REVIEW!!!!

To put it bluntly, this issue left me feeling a little disappointed. But, ONLY in the fact that this comic is based on a screenplay that WILL NEVER be made. Folks, if this movie would've gotten made, it would have been THE most balls-out, over-the-top, thrill-ride action movie of ANY summer. We're talking like Jurassic Park in 1993 big. But, enough about movies. Thankfully Dynamite saw fit to turn this into a comic series and we are SO lucky that they did. First, if you haven't checked out my review of issue #1, you can do so here.

-Simply put, this issue is better than the last. First issues are always all set up, so now that we know who everyone is and what they do, we can get into the real meat of the story. Like I stated in my last review, it's been awhile since I've read Kevin Smith's screenplay that this is based on, so I can't remember exactly what's been added and taken out, but WOW this issue is PACKED with story, mystery, and action. Just like EVERY comic book should be. Phil Hester does a fantastic job at pacing the story, and Jonathan Lau's art is out of control awesome. There's lots of action heavy pages in this issue. And I mean HEAVY! Yet, with Lau's art you never get the "things are happening to fast that I can't really tell what's going on" feeling that you get with some artists. Hats off to the creative team for an outstanding job.

-Most impressive about this issue, though, is the shocks and surprises that are thrown at you. You don't normally find that in licensed comics today, and TRUST ME, I'd know. Let's face it, even if you have never seen the TV show, you know what's going to happen to Steve Austin. I mean, c'mon, the book is call The Bionic Man, not The Dead Astronaut. But there are shocks, surprises and twists on almost every other page. Questions answered you didn't even know where asked, mysteries uncovered that you wouldn't see coming a mile away. This is, simply put, a fantastic comic. And the best part? We're just getting started. This issues are only going to get better. Better. Stronger. Faster.

*Footnote-As an added bonus that has absolutely NOTHING to do with The Bionic Man, this issue features a GORGEOUS double page ad for Dynamite's upcoming Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist series. First issues out in November, it's 32 pages and it's only $1.00. PRE-ORDER. IT. NOW. It looks AMAZING!!!!!!!