Doiner has been writing reviews, cutting promos and writing whatever comes to mind since 2009. In 2010 alongside Drunken Zombie became the 2010 Splatcademy Award Winners for Best Horror Podcast. In early 2012 he made Head Writer. 2016 saw the closing for Drunken Zombie, now starts a new journey with Krueger Nation Horror Podcast, and Geek-Nerdery. To be continued…
This isn’t a breakdown of every MCU film in a traditional way but how I saw each film and what I think about them…
In 2008 I was sitting in a theater watching Iron Man thinking this is like every other comic book movie I’ve seen like Spider-Man or X-Men. Iron Man wasn’t bad but it’s been years since I’ve rewatched it. That same year The Incredible Hulk was released before hand I read the novelization and I loved it but the scenes I read and loved wasn’t in the film but I gave it a pass because Louis Leterrier did the character right and is probably the only best Hulk film I will ever get. HULK (2003) is a dumpster fire.
Iron Man 2 is my least favorite MCU movie that’s not named Ant-Man, or Ant-Man and the Wasp because those are just filler. But I like Paul Rudd but in a group setting.
Thor, and Captain America: The First Avenger I waited for the Blu-Ray to drop. Thor is an odd film, it’s very slow to me. It didn’t get good until the fight with the the Destroyer. It’s like the film is playing in reverse. With The First Avenger I was really really hesitant because I know Chris Evans from Fantastic Four, he was the Human Torch. You can’t play two superheroes! But was I wrong. The First Avenger is where I started to think if Marvel keeps this up nothing can stop them. Evans is and always will be Steve Rogers / Captain America to me.
Avengers… or as some people call it Marvel’s Avengers. Seeing all these characters together on a big screen was a event and didn’t disappoint. I saw it in theaters twice. I thought the story was good having Loki being the villain and I’m down having Hawkeye being brainwashed… My only problem with Avengers came from the marketing because I probably seen the trailer play after every other commercial. Marvel wanted to make sure you knew this film was coming out.
The 2019 death toll is racking up pretty quickly, yesterday I found out director John Carl Buechler passed away. He directed my all time Friday the 13th film, Friday the 13th Part VII: The New Blood. Earlier this year Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart and Gene Okerlund also passed…
We all have our favorites maybe they came from film, music, sports, or a public figure. Maybe you have been watching them for years or even decades and to this day you still miss these people you only know from their roles or TV exposer. With that said, and putting family aside I sure do miss Rowdy Roddy Piper and Dusty Rhodes two great talkers and storytellers and I miss seeing them on WWE television or being interviewed in general. I would love to hear what Dusty has to say about his son Cody and all the independent work he’s been doing from ALL IN, AEW, and Double or Nothing. Having a Piper’s Pit with someone like Broken Matt Hardy or Ronda Rousey their interactions with him would be priceless.
Linkin Park was a band I was listening to in high school. Songs like My December, Crawling, In the End are classics to me and not having Chester Bennington around to make more is a damn shame.
Heath Ledger is another person. He was white hot after The Dark Knight and could have any role he wanted. His Joker is iconic and just think how DC would be today if Ledger made a couple more movies as the Joker. DC might not be in the slump it’s in today.
Kurt Cobain… Nirvana… Greatest band to ever played! If the rockstar fame wasn’t there maybe Cobain would still be here today. I would love to hear what he would’ve come up with in the post grunge era. Closest we ever got to anything new came from their best of album Nirvana (2002) with the single You Know You’re Right. And I can’t forget their 2004 box set With The Lights Out had some awesome demos and early recordings.
If Nirvana was still around maybe we wouldn’t have gotten the Foo Fighters or Eyes Adrift. But I do think Cobain would’ve left Courtney, but that’s just fantasy booking…
Rumors are running rampant online with every major and copy and paste wrestling news site putting their input on all theses AEW “signings” or “in talks” rumors, I’m just getting tired of it.
Best part about all this is the memes coming from Facebook groups. Like, AEW is just a T-shirt company or my favorite, Hope AEW signs Triple H. As of wrestling this a picture of Chris Jerchio and Batista was posted online and those sites says Batista in talks with AEW… Got all that by a picture…
When’s Double or Nothing is said and done and none of these big names sign with AEW… and I told you so! Oh! and to who Cody will be facing at Double or Nothing, it’s CM Punk and you can bank on that.
Last year for my birthday I received Wrestling Playset (Style B), you may have seen these in your locale dollar store. Mine has been sitting in my closet since I got it but tonight I pulled it out and opened it.
You get two figures, four accessories like a guardrail, ladder, trash can, and construction cone. Even the ring has a center logo that says Extreme Championship Wrestlers. The turnbuckles are kinda small and ring posts have that cheap plastic, it may break if you put too much tension on it.
I can see this as a good alternative and at a dollar store price, I’m guessing $5 or $10 isn’t bad. I may have to visit my dollar stores more often for these kind of wrestling playsets.
Mean WOO! by God, Gene Okerlund passed away at the age of 76.
I remember creating my own backstage interview segments or post match interviews with my LJN Mean Gene. And every time Gene would be interviewing Hogan I would always say, Let me tell you something Mean Gene.
I received my first WWE True FX figure in Curt Hawkins (Elite 64). I’m glad Mattel is going with the Hasbro model with their figures, with interchangeable hands, heads and sometimes build-a-figure.
Hawkins face scan is perfect and swapping hands is easy like a Marvel Legends fig. He comes with a removable vest, cane, and breakaway RAW wall. I didn’t get the variant but the orange and blue.
Now that I got Hawkins I can now place him next to Ryder to fantasy book a episode of The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast.
This morning I saw on Facebook that the first trailer for Avengers: Endgame got dropped. After a few viewing throughout the day here’s what I have to say.
I’m liking what I saw… To me it felt like Avengers: AoU because how bleak it was. Stark talking about dying floating in space, I can see him getting Rescue[d]. Capt. is clean shaven and is worried about the future and I got all electrified when he gave his “Not sure what to do if it doesn’t work” speech. A down and out Steve Rogers fighting to survive, it can get nasty.
Hawkeye or Ronin both good characters in the comics. I don’t mind the costume change. Barton slice and dicing probably mad his family disappeared in the snap.
So! GOTG wasn’t highlighted much in the trailer and no tears over that. Scott Lang returns, how nice. Hopefully we find out how he excepted the Quantum Realm.
Thor, Banner not much to them in the trailer I hope A:EG isn’t focused on Thor like the last film. And! If you seen the set photos and the dirt sheets talking about time travel, not a fan. Don’t want to relive Marvel’s Avengers all over again. Could come out as a What If? story.
So what do you think of the trailer, comment below with your fan theories or fantasy bookings. Massive!
The wait is finally over! Tonight at The Game Awards the Mortal Kombat 11 launch trailer was reviled. Thanks for Ed Boon.
A community event will be held on January 17, and the game will be released April 23. To those who pre-order MK11 will have access to the beta and will get Shao Khan as a playable character.
It’s being reported that Tom Billington better known as the Dynamite Kid has passed away today on his 60th birthday.
Dynamite was one half of the tag team duo the British Bulldogs along with Davey Boy Smith. The Bulldogs won tag team gold at WrestleMania 2 defeating The Dream Team (Valentine and Beefcake).
My favorite memories of Dynamite came from the Bulldogs vs. Hart Foundation from the 80’s. Their tag matches were stiff and brutal. It wasn’t until later in life when I watched Dynamite in Japan. His bouts with Tiger Mask were legendary.
Back in 2013 Highlights got the opportunity to sit down with Billington to talk about his career and his thoughts on the Benoit murderers.
I finally bought A Nightmare on Elm Street collection on Blu-Ray. I owned all those movies in the past on VHS and only got around to buying the first and fourth movies on DVD.
My main reason to buying this collection is to have A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 4: The Dream Master on Blu-Ray. The DVD copy I have is really grainy but after watching the Blu the picture is so clear and the sound is top notch. Specially when Running from this Nightmare kicks in.
The extras for the Dream Master are short and sweet. A handful of featurettes looking at Freddy’s makeup, chest and meatball face effects and interviews with director Renny Harlin, Robert Shaye, and KNB founding member Howard Berger. If you seen The Elm Street Legacy you probably heard those stories before.
I keep thinking there’s some kind of uncovered information about The Dream Master but there never is. I have the same problem with The Punisher (1989) and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990). Just give me that special edition Blu that I always wanted and call it a day. Now I can put The Punisher to bed, because Umbrella Entertainment released a three cut with commentary and extras Blu. That’s all I need.
There’s a bonus disc that came with the Elm Street collection. Two episodes of Freddy’s Nightmares, handful of interviews with Wes Craven, Clive Barker, Rachel Talalay and many others who worked on the Elm Street franchise.
I’m happy with this collection. And just having a better quality of The Dream Master makes up for the $30 price tag. Also I didn’t get any 3-D glasses for Freddy’s Dead. The extras are fine but watch Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy for a rundown on every film.
The Toys R Us mascot will return this holiday season only at Kroger with Geoffrey’s Toy Box. The superstore will carry toy brands that was exclusive to Toys R Us.
The official trailer for Dark Phoenix dropped late last night on The Late Late Show With James Corden… From the looks of it FOX is going a bit darker with their X-Men franchise. And as always it’s Professor Xavier’s fault. Look for Dark Phoenix in theaters February 14, 2019.
Some are calling The Thing figure of the year and I have no argument about that… Late yesterday I noticed everyone on The Syndicate posting that Walgreens have released their exclusive Marvel Legends The Thing and Magik. And since then everyone have been toy hunting, even myself. I checked two Walgreens and the second time around I found what I was looking for.
The Thing is a heavy figure, not as heavy as a Hulkbuster but you can probably break a car window with Ben Grimm. The Thing comes with alternate hands and head. So you get two open hands and two fist. The heads one is showing teeth and other doesn’t. The articulation is good and it’s easy to swop parts.
I know I just a top five review but if I The Thing at the time I wrote that it would’ve made the list. So go out and get your today!
Since writing the first Top Five so many great figures have been released and toy hunting has been so much fun. My greatest finds came from Geek’d Con this year with the Toys R Us exclusive Scarlet Witch & Vision two-pack, and purple haired Psylocke because at the time that wave of figures hadn’t made it to my area… Now to my top five!
Sabertooth
This figure brings me back to the 90’s and the X-Men cartoon from FOX Kids. The face sculpt is spot on and if you put him next to Old Man Logan in a fighting stance he just towers over Logan.
Thor (Ragnarok)
I been wanting to get a Thor figure for some time now but none of them did it for me until I saw the Ragnarok version. The detail on the armer is very good. He is kinda back heavy because of the half cape but once you get him standing he’s not going anywhere.
Proxima Midnight
When this figure was first released I passed on it but after watching Infinity War a few times over she grew on me. And the hunt was on and thankfully Target had her. She’s taller than a majority of the other figures in my collection. She has some of the best articulation.
Carnage
Just one of the best looking figures. Comes with a lot of accessories even a Cletus Kasady head that is spot on comic accurate.
Typhoid Mary
When it was announced Typhoid Mary was being released this year I was hoping for that 80’s big hair look but we got the modern day leather jacket style. And I’m okay with that, I been wanting more DareDevil villains. And what the dirt sheets are reporting, we may see a live action Typhoid Mary in Iron Fist season two.
If you collect Marvel Legends what are some of your favorite figures or complete waves? Sound off below in the comments.
This past weekend I attended my very first convention, Geek’d Con. For years I’ve heard stories from the Drunken Zombie crew about their adventures. Now I’ve experienced what they been talking about for years…
Leading up to this trip I had a couple goals in mind. One – Marvel Legends, I’ve built an army of figures and still looking for more. Two – video game or comic art to hang on my wall. Those two goals were accomplished quickly and that gave me time to walk the floor. But Doiner! What about meeting celebrities and such. To be honest, not the best lineup of guest for myself. Sure Mick Foley will be there but I can care less about the guy who voiced Jack Skellington. It wasn’t until Brian Knobbs was announced I thought about standing in line for a meet and greet.
Friday was a lot of driving and storytelling. It wasn’t until we stopped getting cell services when the real fun took play. But those stories are for a private conversation, if you will. When you have three big guys who skipped breakfast, lunch became an event or as the people at the Keachie Kountry Store will say, legend. You see… Three guys from the beach in the backwoods of Louisiana. One with a backwards cap, another with a CBT shirt and a guy wearing a Houston Texans cap. I’ve seen a lot of horror movies, I know what comes next… We walked in to a half store half dive and not talking about like the ones you see on Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. This place was spooky at times but the wait staff and food was excellent. We chatted with everyone about Geek’d Con and who’s going to be there. After we made friends with the townsfolk we were one step closer to getting to Shreveport.
The first thing we did when we got to Shreveport was check into our motel at the Red Roof Inn and when I say this place was bad it makes the Bates Motel look five stars. Here’s the rundown… My original room was trashed beds flipped, chairs turned over, I got out of there quick. So I was put in another room and this time no running water for an hour. Next thing I knew Rafael switched rooms because of the water being off, wasn’t just me. After getting settled in and disinfecting the joint I found a couple treasures. A pair of socks and ten cents. Oh! And to lock your rooms door, I had to lift the door up and lock it at the same time…
I took security measures for my safety.
That evening we met up with a few more friends and hit up a casino. Good thing Raf and I brought our suits. Because we were limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin’ n’ dealin’ all night long. We left the ladies wanting more, WOO! After a few hours of gambling and earning we hit up the Con for a few hours. I made my rounds, found enough Marvel Legends to hold me over. I got the layout of the joint and I was ready for Saturday…
Saturday… Morning, wake up call, Rafael… Get up, get ready. With Roddy Piper’s theme blaring in my hotel room it was time to put on the kilt and jacket. I was ready. Waiting for the doors to open I spotted a few marks and we gave each other Too Sweets or a head nod. Once in I split from the pack to search for more Marvel Legends and this time… Jackpot! MCU War Machine, Ragnarok Thor all on the cheap, but to the guy who wanted $50 for Cyclops or Rogue… Take your internet prices somewhere else.
While walking around taking in everyone’s awesome costumes I got a phone call from Rafael saying Brian Knobbs didn’t have a long line if I wanted a picture. I made my way down there and sure enough, no one! Walked up got a picture autograph combo and he told me a Shawn Michaels story. Good times.
I may get heat for this, looking at you Patterson! But Constantine (2005) is a good movie by my standards. Another person I got the picture autograph combo treatment was from Pruitt Taylor Vince. He played Father Hennessy. Such a nice guy, told story after story. Nicest guy ever… I was informed that different panels were taking place and John Wesley Shipp (The Flash) was coming up soon. After the meet and greets I went back on the hunt for more Marvel Legends and every time I walk past a booth I been to someone was restocking more Legends. So I found my last ML for the day, the variant purple hair Psylocke.
I finally made it to John Wesley Shipp’s panel talk, I was late but I made it. After food and regrouping with everyone and agreeing to see Helen Slater talk about her film career and staying for a viewing of Supergirl (1984) I needed to find something to hang on my wall and wow did I find something cool. I stopped by The Pixelized Princess booth and they had 8-bit bead art but placed said characters on paintings. Great idea! Got myself a Friday the 13th picture. It’s awesome!
At this point the Con had about four or five hours left before closing for the night and I decided I wanted a picture autograph combo with Mick Foley if his line wasn’t long. Yes, I’m a mark and I’m not a huge Foley fan but I liked his early Mankind gimmick. When I got there the line was short about six people and a couple came in right after me. While waiting a announcement was made, once everyone in this line has met Mick Foley he’s taking a break. That’s when they closed the line.
I finally made it to Foley, got to chat with him about his WCW run and facing Vader. Nice guy, what else is there to say. Around the same time I had to make it to Helen Slater’s panel talk, got there took a seat and she talked about Supergirl. Keep in mind I never seen the Supergirl movie. Q&A with the audience and a few questions about The Legend of Billie Jean were ask, I was happy about that.
Now it was time for the movie… Rafael, Dustin, and I was set and ready… AND… What an awful movie. If I would’ve gotten an autograph from Helen Slater I would have given it back to her and tell her to keep the money, I don’t want a refund. My time watching this movie was spent texting Patterson! and play by play commentary with Rafael. The scene with the front end loader was ridiculous. A giant tire falls, Lucy Lane gets knocked out, Jimmy Olsen never takes pictures to document the damage and so forth. And when ask if she had a transcript, she types one up herself. Who gave her the knowledge that she needed one. And how does she phase in and out of her school uniform. This movie makes no sense. At this point I was so bored I started reading the Geek’d Con program. I had more fun talking about roundabouts or how people bust their belt when all they’re doing is sitting in a chair watching a movie… Looking at you Rafael.
Once the movie was over I first out and never watching this awful movie again, I mean there wasn’t even an end credits scene. How lame is that.
Sunday morning it was time to head home, what a weekend it’s been. Would I do it all over again, I would because I had so much fun. Nothing like hanging with friends and laughing in a place where everyone enjoys the same entertainment as you do. Before we made it home we stopped back in that half store half dive to see what everyone was up too but the morning staff was working…
We made it home and here I am writing this, documenting my first convention. I had a blast and hopefully do it all again next year… Visit Doiner.com for pictures of Geek’d Con 2018.
Since joining The Syndicate on facebook and seeing everyone’s Marvel Legends collection I had to get back into the action figure game that was not WWE related. I been buying Marvel figures since the 90’s when ToyBiz was making every Marvel character you can think of. I still have most of those figures today but in storage.
What got me buying again was seeing the Marvel Legends Captain America (Infinity War) and Mr. Fantastic and once I got ahold of those figs, the hunt was on for more! Now to my top five…
Kingpin
Before Hasbro, ToyBiz was making Marvel Legends and the Face-Off collection came at the right time for me because I was heavily reading Daredevil and when I saw the two-pack Kingpin vs Daredevil I knew I had to buy it. I’ve seen many Kingpin figs over the years and this one is perfect in every way.
Human Torch
I had many Human Torch figures growing up but none of them ever felt right when it came to comic book likeness. Some figs would be half human and half flams but with ML I think I found “my” Human Torch figure. The flame effects are minimal and just enough.
Hawkeye
Since Hawkeye made his debut in the MCU all I been seeing is MCU Jeremy Renner or sunglass wearing Hawkeye. I prefer the classic comic book version. The only drawback are the accessories, the bow he comes with and quiver is all purple. Wish it was better detailed and colored differently.
Ghost Rider with Flame Cycle
I’m not huge on Ghost Rider but this set is very cool looking. The flames coming off the bike, flaming chain, it all looks nice sitting on a shelf. The figure itself is basic but the head sculpt is nice with a jaw hinge for up and down movement, red eyes for the penance stare.
The Punisher (Netflix)
The spot on likeness of Jon Bernthal is absolutely amazing. The fading on the skull has nice details. Just a great looking figure overall.
With almost every Marvel Legends figures you get a build a figure part to build another character. I have many parts but never actually built a figure. I just buy the figs I want and keep BAF parts in a box. If you are looking for parts, let me know and I’ll send a picture over of what I have. And when it comes to fantasy booking… I want to see a Dolph Lundgren Punisher from the 1989 movie, and a figure of Ravage 2099.
So! What are your favorite Marvel Legends figures? Comment below.
