PixlBit

Greetings and welcome my Pixlbit peeps. I hope that the week was good to you and now you are all ready to celebrate the weekend! If you have anything really fun planned, have a safe weekend. My goal this weekend is simple, I need to find the power cable and the TV cables. I have that swanky Dreamcast controller and I want to spend a day virtual fishing. So Pixlbit it is Friday, my Aztecs are playing on Friday…AGAIN (I think this is the MWC’s way of saying hey you tried to leave so FU. A couple of days ago they sent out an announcement that 10, TEN calls were bad by the refs, including an obvious punt block that replay saw, the ESPN talking heads saw, but the zebras on the field didn’t.) Anyways sit back for another edition of Quick Hits with Chris

 

Chris Buys Lego Knockoffs

Since the midweek Swapmeet is my new favorite thing to do, I’ve seen some interesting things and more and more toy vendors are carrying the Chinese knockoffs called Decool. These were found alongside legit Lego sets. While browsing one vendor I noticed she had the other versions of Iron Man. Normally I’m in the camp of not supporting the knockoffs but Lego doesn’t make these versions and I do want to make my version of the Hall of Armor (there are some epic MOC’s online) so I decided to take the plunge and spend $20 for five figures. The price was a little steep considering on eBay a set is going for $11 but its out of China, and rather than go through the headache a couple of months down the road why my card’s security has been breached I went with the safer cash option from the nice lady. 

 

I went with the four Iron Man figures not in the Lego lineup and for my fifth I went with the mini Incredible Hulk. The Lego version is a bit steep (and by bit I mean really steep) at around $40

 

First impressions are that the packaging is ok, it will get the attention of youngsters. Inside the box you get a bag with the pieces for the minifig, along with a pack of trading cards

 

Out of curiosity, here are the cards. They are cheap cardboard and I’m assuming they can be used with some sort of game. The figures came in various stages of assembly. Some figures you had to connect the legs to the waist piece, while others you just had to snap in the arms. This is a drastic change from legit Lego where the only assembly you do is connect the torso to the legs and placed the minifig’s head on the body. After a couple of minutes I had my figures finished and ready to compare against my legit Iron Man figures.

The quality is a bit hit and miss, but the printing on the figures is actually not bad.

 

The Lego version is on the left, and as you can see the gold paint is a bit off along with the hand color is different hue compared to the body

 

This must be a newer model because the backs of the legs are exactly the same as the Lego version, especially compared to this figure

 

Where the back of the legs are open.

 

Inside the helmets you can see the face of Tony Stark where again the color of the plastic is a little off compared to the actual Lego models and one of the Tony Stark’s looks a little more pink. For the red faced Iron Man I switched around because

 

It is the first model, which is cool. I might just leave the helmet off when I build my Hall of Armor.

Each Iron Man figure came with studs and can shaped pieces to represent his fire when he flies, along with a base

 

A closer look at the base

 

Overall I like the figures. The extra pieces will be placed in a separate Ziploc bag because they’re not Lego, so they won’t be in with my pieces. The figures will be a nice place holder in my Hall of Armor until if/when Lego decides to release these versions. They’re not bad but if you were to buy actual sets stick with Lego. Having these figures that go along with official license products is fine, but stick with the legit sets. I am curious to see the quality of the Decool versions of Captain America with a helmet, and red and gray big Incredible Hulk figures, and Dragon Ball Z characters. Maybe I might pick those up next week.

 

The family portrait. Everything on the left side to Iron Patriot is Lego, including my version of the Iron Hulk. Everything after that is Decool.

Random note, toys like this remind me of when I was a kid and I had the Japanese version of Voltron, where the guns were actually spring loaded and the Yellow Lion I had, his guns in his head could shoot. This was completely different from the American version that didn’t do this…but was covered in Lead Paint. Also when I bought the Transformers knockoff of Devastator where they had different colors you could choose from (I went with the green and purple). Oh this is when toys were fun…and a tad bit dangerous.

 

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD

 

While looking through my Instagram feed, Chloe Bennent who plays Skye posted this from Robert Downey’s AMA on Reddit

 

And sure enough within hours articles started popping up which is exciting because I had a theory that Skye’s father is Howard Stark. Of course this isn’t happening but I’d like to see Iron Man show up on an episode.

 

This season is starting to pickup especially with the return of Simmons and her storyline.

 

Here’s to hoping that season will be bigger than last season’s where Nick Fury showed up.

 

Bacon Cream Cheese

 

While buying cream cheese at the new Walmart (I needed an excuse to check out the Grand Opening) I spotted this

 

Yes I bought one, and proceeded to laugh at the 70 calories per 2 tbsp because seriously who actually only uses 2 tbsps? Apologies to you folks who actually follow this. So two bagels later I can say it tastes good with and without Lox.

 

Pickups

 

Games

 

So there have been some new game purchases this week. The first coming after I read a blog here about the price a certain game hitting the $10 mark at the local GameStop.

 

I now think I completed my Gears of War run on the 360. My next goal is to actually finish a Gears of War game.

 

The next game pickup is the latest Android Mobile Deal from Humble Bundle

 

The one big game in this group that looked the most interesting is Syberia. Everything else I’ll try but a couple of them most likely won’t be on the tablet for very long. One thing that makes up for some games that are not that interesting for me is that these bundles contain soundtracks that I can download on both mp3, and FLAC. I always get one of each because I do have a dedicated FLAC player that I really need to update.

 

Humble Bundle also gave away Devil’s Attorney for free. All you have to do is submit your email. It’s free, why not give it a try.

 

Origin also released its next freebie of the month

 

I think I have this on PS3, but I can’t remember off the top of my head. Either way its in my Origin library now. I bet if I could see a record of my gaming habits on Origin, it will be 99% Simpsons Tapped Out.

 

Music

 

CD Sunday went well but instead of buying a bunch of new stuff, I picked up one album from the $1.99 wall

 

I picked up another album from my high school years. The big single from this album is Who Can I Run To. The funny thing is that my favorite version is actually by a Marching Band. Flashback to the one of the 90s edition of the Bayou Classic when we all watch for the battle of the bands between Grambling State, and Southern University. Normally I like Grambling but during Southern University’s show, they played this song and it quickly became my favorite version.

 

Yeah that’s the band nerd in me.

 

Toys

 

While at the midweek Swapmeet, next to the lady who sells the knockoff minifigs, the Lego lady was back and she had some new stock. She was selling minifigs for $3 each, which is a little bit higher than normal, but she had some good stuff including her bags of random pieces. I ended up getting a couple of figures

 

The newer model of C-3PO and Arctic Batman with Stormtrooper armor. I swapped out his random yellow hand with a black one, and now I have a “special” Batman. I do like how this Batman looks. Next week I’m going to check if knockoff Lego lady will have any alternate Batman figures. I should make a Hall of Armor for Batman.

 

While at the new Walmart I picked up some of the new series of Lego Minifigures in hopes of finding the gamer guy without squeezing the bags

 

I got the genie, and the swashbuckler guy. Yeah I forgot he had a sword until I almost threw it away.

 

I normally don’t buy Hot Wheels but I went to check the aisle for the new Fast and Furious cars and they jumped to $5. FIVE DOLLARS!!! Yes it deserved three exclamation points. The ones I bought before were a buck or two, but these are FIVE DOLLARS!!! Anyways for some reason I decided to look around the big display in the middle of the main aisle and I spotted these bad boys

 

I bought two so I could open one. I need to go find my Michael Keaton Batmobiles now. The fun thing is that it matches my Lego Camo Tumbler from The BAT playset.

 

Ok Pixlbit folks before I go, earlier this week I was reading a blog about post your game collections and it’s been a couple of years since I did one of these blogs. It was also time to go through my collection.

 

I finally made some room for my PSP games

 

And here is my little setup when I was placing and sorting my Playstation games.

 

I think my new series of blogs about my collection will happen in a couple of weeks. Anyways have a good one Pixlbit!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris