About a month ago Minimates released the first few sets of Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3 Minimates. Each set comes with one Marvel and one Capcom cast member. The first four sets are Deadpool vs Dante, Arthur vs Iron Man, Mike Haggar vs Hulk, and Magneto vs Zero. Two of these sets, Hulk vs Mike Haggar and Magneto vs Zero, are Toys R us exclusives. Minimates says that before the end of this year another pack will be released which contains Phoenix and Morrigan. More sets will be released starting next year.

For a long time I didn’t care for Minimates or Kubrick collectibles, but after picking up an Asuka and Rei Kubrick from Toy Tokyo earlier this year they slowly grew on me.

Check out the pictures (the best part) below.

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Wave 1 Minimates Deadpool Vs. Dante

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Wave 1 Minimates Iron Man Vs. Arthur

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Wave 1 Minimates Hulk Vs. Mike Haggar

Marvel Vs Capcom 3 Wave 1 Minimates Magneto Vs. Zero

The week of July 4th saw the launch of kidrobot‘s Street Fighter line featuring figures that cover much of the original World Warriors lineup. kidrobot, for those unfamiliar, has several lines of original collectible figures as well as licensed figures from the likes of Adult Swim, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Futurama. Each figure in kidrobot’s lineup is both instantly recognizable and unique.

kidrobot serves up their figures in blind boxes so you don’t know what you’re getting until you open them. I’ve picked up six of these figures so far, four from Boomerang Comics in Lewisvile and two from Atama which is located inside Centre in Mockingbird Station in Dallas.

Out of the six I picked up I got:
2x White Ryu
1x Blue Ken
1x Blue Dhalsim
1x Vega
1x Green Guile

Check them out below and be sure to pick yours up soon if you want them. I can’t imagine these being around for too long before they’re all gone! Anyone have an extra Chun-Li?

Last year when I was in NYC I met up with a friend and his brother so that they could show us parts of the city that we either wouldn’t have gone to without them or wouldn’t have known have existed without them showing us. For a normal person the most memorable place to visit would have been Flushing to see the Unisphere, but for me it was Toy Tokyo.

It’s very much a toy store lifted straight out of Japan and dropped into the center of Manhattan. It goes without saying that when I went back to NYC earlier this month I had to come back to Toy Tokyo. Jump below for pictures of Toy Tokyo’s storefront and the toys I picked up during my visit.

If you ever find yourself in NYC or you live there and haven’t gone to Toy Tokyo you’ve got to check this place out. They’re located at 91 2nd Ave (in the East Village between 5th and 6th street).

First two photos of Toy Tokyo’s storefront are photos from moldie13‘s Flickr. I didn’t have the foresight to take any pictures of the store itself.

This time last month I was reading Marvel 1602 and a handful of single issues. This month I have a small library to get through and the opposite problem. Not enough time to read them all. What do I have so far for March?

• Axe Cop Volume 1 (Dark Horse)
• House of M (Marvel)
• Neon Genesis Evangelion: The Shinji Ikari Raising Project Volume 8 (Dark Horse)
• New Mutants: Fall of the New Mutants (Marvel)
• Street Fighter The Comic: The Ultimate Edition Complete First Series (UDON)
• Street Fighter II The Comic: The Ultimate Edition Complete Second & Third Series (UDON)
• X-Men: Endangered Species (Marvel)
• X-Men: First Class (Marvel)

I picked up both of the Street Fighter books at Borders for 20% off. Borders is closing most of their locations and is discounting their remaining stock. I heard that the discounts will ramp up higher as the end of April approaches since that is when the stores are slated to close, unless they run out of stock first. The Borders I checked was slim in the American graphic novel section, but there was plenty of Japanese manga left on the shelves.

A small downside to the sale is that Borders employees are required to draw a line through the barcode on the back of the books you buy. You can fix that with some rubbing alcohol if it really bothers you. Cotton pad + rubbing alcohol = no more ink.

Who knew that Toys ‘R Us was open until 11 PM on a Friday night? Went in to look for a pair of Hulk hands for a costume party and didn’t find any. Instead I found a few aisles of toys that were obviously aimed at an older crowd. Ghostbusters, Family Guy, Gremlins, and of course a whole aisle of action figures from video game franchises like Mario, Sonic, and Mega Man. Sonic and Knuckles walkie talkies!? They’re hard to resist, but I decided to pass on them… this time.

I hadn’t gone into a Toys ‘R Us in years, but now I feel like going back to check out more stuff. I never knew Geoffrey the Giraffe had stuff like this stashed behind his doors. Check out what I did end up picking up below.