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tr4k_academy

@tr4k_academy

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Tr4k's premiere school for gifted youngsters (of any age) ! with instructors from the @tr4k_alliance toy news, reviews, unboxings, and more! kinda.

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I LOVE The Thing. I like the Fantastic Four as a whole a lot but i LOVE the thing. I enjoyed Fantastic Four : The First Steps. But "this man, this monster" is, for my money, one of the absolute greatest pieces of sequential art ever. And I do really love it when the thing has some modesty and wears a full on outfit. So you can imagine my disappointment when Hasbro was saddled, like they've been before (lookin at you infinity war and endgame figs) with concept art to go off of when it's toy design time. I'm sure it's great for them but man oh man is frustrating. Ben is completely clothed and full suited up for most of the movie (i know he does the cannonball and plays tugboat topless, calm down)!!! So when they announced that this would be a walmart exclusive, the sweat beads formed and my toy-based fight-or-flight began to grow. It grew even further still when he prematurely started showing up in Walmarts everywhere but near me. I know some toyfluencers would have you calm down, not panic, they are toys after all but that desperate toy panic comes from experience. I was there for cobra island! Amazon, Target, and Walmart STILL cancel pre-orders! It sucks! It's childish but it's a bummer to want something, think you got something, then have it disappear as if you somehow fucked up. That's right, cancelled pre-orders are like first marriages. So admittedly, when this fig showed up in Texas Walmarts, I had my search bar set and kept refreshing until any single texan scalper lay the bait... until finally, i was given a bit to bite and bite I did. And you know what? I'm as satisfied as i am when I eat a couple of bags of fast food. 20 chicken mcnuggets, a large coke zero (to watch my figure) , large fry, and filet-o-fish dipped in sweet and sour sauce...Owning this Ben Grimm feels like I just ate all of that after craving it all fucking day (that or one of them jack-n-the box munchie meals). I overpaid but there's relief. I feel some sort of relief. I like the fig. It's the last fig but with retooled boots, a new upper torso that has all the same articulation as the previous shirtless torso, and two sad faces, one of them w/beard. by @tr4k_academy

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19 days ago

marvel legends doomsday figs're comin' in and stoking the fire of my hype. especially with this james marsden cyclops fig i've been waiting for for oh... twenty-six years! glad i never caved and sprang for those toybiz movie xmen figs. there are cons of course, it is hasbro after all... no butterfly figs, ab crunch is meyeh.... i can see why they departed from the source design and ditched the yellow gloves and gave him brown leather boots (that i immediately did a black wash over) ... and there's also the con of the steady increase in retail price on these base figures. fucker was nearly 30 bucks? is he worth that much? not really. but look, it's an mcu james marsden cyclops figure in the classic blue and yellow. how i can not love this figure. (an alt head woulda been nice) but it's more than serviceable! MORE! I said. as someone who has spent some time begging for food and spent my entire life begging to own and justify owning toys.... i'm not choose-y. i'm grateful this fig exists, sincerely. it's cool and it makes me happy. and that relatively, fleeting happiness in the face of the constant everyday struggle with an ever looming global collapse ... is all that fucking matters. huh. also... this post is kind of a sausage party, huh? bring on the x-ladies, hasbro. although, if i had a sadie sink fig.... i probably wouldn't pair her this particular scott..... ugh i must resist toybiz movie figs damnit! i've almost bought that nightcrawler a handful of times. but must resist! hold out! hasbro'll show up! they gotta! they'll show up ... give us a c minus fig and i'll say "thank you, more please" .... because i'm that desperate for plastic fantasy totems to escape the hellscape of real shitty ass life. that's how much i respect myself and toy collecting. #marvellegends #avengersdoomsday #avengersdoomsdaycyclops #scottsummerscyclops by @tr4k_academy

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20 days ago

the next piece in my meager comic-con "haul" was the absolute must-need for me. it was just a few weeks before this was announced that i was browsing squared up hover chairs for chuck... glad i waited. glad i fed the corporate machine instead of some indie artists doing it for the love...

...i hate myself...

...but i don't hate this set! i will say that the chair does feel a bit hollow compared to the rounded one we got a few years ago. but if that's a disadvantage then the trade off advantage is the professor's telepathy is represented here by daredevil's sonar fx piece and not a random weird piece of magnetically charged... spooge. by @tr4k_academy

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3 months ago

preface : the views shared here are the sole views of @sorry_tr4k alone and do not reflect the shared views of anyone affiliated or associated with what's left of the @tr4k_alliance / @tr4k_academy

That said, few things are as humbling/humiliating as trying to get san diego comic-con exclusives as an overweight aging man-child. each year a seed of hope gets planted at the sight of some fucking instagram post boasting that exclusive necessity that'll just really tie your collection together and every year that kernel convinces you to debase yourself. you get herded like cattle for the slaughter from one line to the stinky next (the con smelled especially farty this year). this continues for maybe hours only to find the actual line you're looking for is capped or that the item you sought after sold out for the day and you think "well, i guess i shoulda just taken that piss then"... and as your uti incubates on that two and half hour defeated drive home, you scour ebay to feed those scalpers you saw in front of you earlier. but listen... this isn't the rant of a bitter man, mind you. a defeated one? maybe... but i think it's really funny... i really do, i swear! it's funny, guys! ... it's goddman hilarious how much of a fat and pathetic joke i've become.

alas, tried as i might've, i didn't get this set at sdcc. at the risk of sounding resentful ( "resentful" being a kinder way of saying "whiny lil baby") , my status literally isn't high enough haha. but the set itself is pretty cool when you're just focusing on the toy of it all and not on the fiscal and emotional cost of it. i had my jada sagat all but ready to post to mercari but with these new accessories, i think i may keep this cute lil poo sack. and while the sun sets here with my own personal summer tryst with jada toys's street fighter line... i look forward to the desperate yearning for their cyberpunk and scooby-doo dolls and mourn for those pairs of boxers that'll inevitably be discarded due to the swamp ass-skid marks they get from waiting in line for the convention exclusives i'll inevitably be denied in favor of toy collectors more active than myself. "You Lose" set, indeed. by @tr4k_academy

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3 months ago

If the only Bobby Drake figure we got was the hasbro one from the Juggernaut wave, I'd probably be fine, live a happy life, die a happy death. That figure on the re-purposed pizza spidey body is still one of my favorites. Love the headsculpt and the little back spikey things. Just like I loved all the og toybiz Bobby Drake figures as a kid.... but this new Mafex fig is amazing. Is it objectively the definitive? I guess there's always room for improvement. Wonder why mafex refuses to do thigh cuts. The accessories are awesome and the fig looks great in a variety of displays. MvC, Gold Team, animated... etc... (can't wait for that x-96 beast) .... I never noticed the AoA Bobby didnt have butterfly joints. Anyway, I almost fed a scalper a few times for that diamond select ice slide but this mafex one is a thing of beauty. He's a japanese import and those 1:12 tend to scale smaller but I think I've always liked Drake a little on the smaller side since he was the first kid on the team. I feel like they should probably change his codename though... on the one hand, I can't think of a better one... but on the other hand I'm scared he might try to deport my aunts or uncles who I swear are legit US citizens! Anyway, I don't think I'ma ever use those ice beam fx. by @tr4k_academy

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4 months ago

Even though I'm from the Generation X (the comic) era of kid x-books ... The New Mutants is in my rotating top 3 x-books of all time and Magik is in my top 5 x-characters of all time! so i'm pretty fucking stoked to have this new secret wars Magik even if she's a little random and a little crosseyed. The juggernaut (or was it warlock? which ever came first) wave was my first dive into Marvel Legends but right after, when I found out there was an sdcc exclusive Magik figure in a dr strange box set, I had to have her! Sealing my fate with the rest of you nerds forever! Feeding a scalper just to have a beloved character is basically a rite of passage, yeah?! I saw a review that said she can't pair with x97's Sunspot and while I can see and agree that the yellows dont match (even though the yellow on his uniform in the toon is a deeper mustard! it coulda matched... fu hasbro and your not-give-a-shit to matching colors) ... i don't mind pairing them because.... it's them! it's fine! Roberto just ran his uniform through the wash too many times! It's fiiiine!! Now I just hope we get the rest of the team. Cannonball (also in my all time top 5 x) and Doug being teased in the corner of that retro release last year seriously better not just be a tease. Desperately want those dudes too... Warlock needs a Doug! We need the whole damn team in these colors, these uniforms! I was hoping to find my old toybiz Magik figure for a comparison shot...she's somewhere super fucked up and worn out. I might even rebuy that whole weird wave! I love every goddamn version or her. Anya Taylor Joy was a great Magik in that just fine New Mutants movie... And this new Magik is awesome. I mean her hair makes head poses difficult but what're you gonna do... her hair is iconic and not Illyana w/o it. Her metal arm kinda freaks me out because it gives a bit and the peg is so small. I'm gonna mod her torso to get more of a crunch. But these are all minor complaints in the face of the fact that WE'VE GOT MAGIK IN HER OG NEW MUTANTS TRAINEE UNIFORM!! Praise be to the Darkchilde and all the other devils of limbo! Legacy Virus be damned! #hasbro #hasbropulse #thenewmutants #magik #marvelcomics by @tr4k_academy

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4 months ago

The new mcfarlane Hellboy fig is a mixed bag but i still love it in the face of 1000toys and Bossfight. Has decent articulation (any hellboy fig tryina balance on them tiny moose knuckle camel toes tho...). it's design and paint apps lap the 1000toys fig by a good but maybe slim margin.... but for the price point... compared to the upcoming bossfight... forget about it. the coat is a joke though. i had a ko 1000toys hellboy for a while, so i'm using that knock off....the set to get though is the platinum chase variant. i missed it it when it was on bbts but it comes with all the vital shit. i dont usually care about the horned head but between that and a sword compared to that janky wet fart of a nothing coat....i'd rather have the horns. but i'm glad i have a comic book looking hellboy for the price of a toy. #mcfarlane_toys_official #mcfarlanetoys #hellboy by @tr4k_academy

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5 months ago

Have a few gripes but once you start fuckin w/the thing... it's pretty goddamn fun. I don't think it defeats the other 90s Jim Lee Cykes but I don't think any of those are perfect either. Feels kinda like there's no definitive Cyclops. But no Cyclops fan can say we don't have options. We're "eating good" as they say. #shfiguarts #shfiguartscyclops #shfiguartsgamerverse #shfiguartsgamerversecyclops #xmen #marvelsxmen #marvelcomics #marvelvscapcom #xmenchildrenoftheatom #marvelcyclops by @tr4k_academy

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9 months ago

most of toy collecting for me is a result of some nostalgia trigger. when i saw @prime2da1st 's latest cabinet build, i instantly ratatouille-d. when you're a younger kid trying to look cool, the easiest way to get cigarettes-when you're under age-was through a cigarette vending machine. this vintage model took me back to those humid and smelly music venues or those grimey, ancient steakhouses. this is my first ever piece from the prime arcade and i couldn't be more satisfied. it looks great, is built well, and can't wait to setup a scene and shoot it. by @tr4k_academy

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a year ago

i don't think i'm qualified enough to add anything of value to what's already been said about these two. so "nuff said" . #hasbro #hasbropulse #hasbromarvellegends #hasbroxmen #marvellegends #marvellegendsxmen #xmenmarvellegends #marvegirl #cyclops #cyclopsandphoenix #cyclopsandmarvelgirl #scottsummers #jeangrey #xmentoys #xmenactionfigures #scottsummersandjeangrey by @tr4k_academy

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a year ago

it's not so bad!! homie just needed a shirt to avert our eyes from his condition. was it worth it just for the beautiful rogue head? not really. but it's here and the money's been burned and remy has a few new hands. #marvellegends #hasbromarvellegends #rogueandgambit #marvelrogue #marvelgambit #marvelcomics #xmen97 by @tr4k_academy

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a year ago

The Shi'ar have arrived in our Milky Way Ghetto. Deathbird is cool if limited. No accessories. But the sculpt is cool and interesting. At the risk of being that creep, I thought hasbro had a hard "no" on cleavage. Titania comes to mind but here we've got Deathbird's ladies peekin' out with some ample sculpting. Just surprised to see it. I like the gauntlet tubes. Those worked out nice. An alt-cape shape woulda been nice. But speaking of capes, I have never had much luck with Hasbro's plastic capes. Like this one on Gladiator. The pegs are always too long that they jut out the cape and because it's a heavy material, it throws the balance off. They shoulda done soft goods. If Mcfarlane can, they can. This is so... stupid at this point. Besides that Gladiator is cool. Butterflies woulda been nice but an updated pinless sculpt from the previous one. Alt-hands and Alt-eyes. Those're cool. I wasn't into comics (or born maybe) until after the Phoenix saga had come and gone... so my intro to the Shi'ar was the 90s with the blue and yellow team and Xavier exo-suit so I know them mostly from that and the Rogue Squadron arc Joe Mad did just before the trial of Gambit. That Rogue Squadron/Phalanx returns arc is still my favorite (after AoA) .... which makes me really want a 90s x-men rookie Cannonball to beat the hell out of this Gladiator! C'maaan Hasbro... give me a year of just multiple Sam Guthrie figures please! #shiarempire #marvelsxmen #hasbromarvellegends #deathbird #marvelsdeathbird #gladiator #marvelsgladiator #marvelcomics #xmeninspace #shiarroyalguard #xmenphoenixsaga #xmenphoenix #mkraancrystal #shiarroyalfamily #lilandra #charlesxavier #milkywayghetto by @tr4k_academy

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a year ago