Emmy's Toybox

[emmys-toybox]

Toy of the Day 12/5

Today's Toy of the Day: 1995 Toby the Tram Engine, Henrietta, and Tidmouth Milk Tanker

I was a massive fan of Thomas and Friends as a kid. Much like everyone else obsessed with this series, I had toys from pretty much every line that was produced, but my favorites were always the wooden engines. These are actually the newest pieces to my Thomas Wooden Railway collection, being first-edition 1995 models. They're distinguished from later released models due to their thinner wheels, flat magnets, and visible staples on the underside. The decals, specifically on Toby himself, were stickers for this first run instead of printed or pained directly on the body of the model.

I had found the Henrietta in a pile of assorted vehicle toys at a flea market when I was younger, probably about a decade ago. The teen years. I was excited to find something, *anything*, from the first batch of my favorite line of childhood toys, even if it was for a nothing character like Henrietta (I have seen that she got a face and ended up becoming an actual character at some point during the CGI run, but I stopped paying attention to the show itself around the time of Day of the Diesels.) Some years later, I got the milk tanker in a lot of diecast ERTL Thomas engines (which I may write about in the future, lemme know if I should) and figured I should look in to getting myself a '95 Toby, just to complete the consist. After a moderate time hunting on ebay, I found my boy, old and affordable, and had him sent to me. I intend to, eventually, get this little consist a proper display but for now they rest on the top shelf in front of some books and an alarm clock.

[emmys-toybox]

Toy of the Day 12/4

Today's Toy: My Pokemon Deck of Choice - Cynthia's Garchomp ex

Unlike most lists I've seen online, my decklist (which I'm still working on) focuses on using Garchomp's first attack (Corkscrew Dive; 100 damage and may draw up to a hand of 6 for one fighting attachment) instead of the second attack (Draconic Buster; 260 damage, must discard all energy attached to this pokemon for two fighting attachments).

I find that it's worth it to power up the Garchomp for Draconic Buster, but not to use it unless you can score a big knockout because Corkscrew Dive, when paired with the ability of Cynthia's Roserade (Cheer On to Glory; Attacks used by your Cynthia's pokemon do 30 more damage to your opponent's active (can stack)) is able to do satisfactory damage while keeping your hand topped up with playable cards. Doubly so if you have multiple copies of Roserade benched.

Being a Cynthia's deck, I run four copies of Cynthia's Power Weight to increase the health of my Garchomp (and Roserade, and Spiritomb) by 70. This tool is especially helpful in the early game when I've still got multiple Cynthia's Gabite on the field to setup, giving my core setup Pokemon 170 HP keeping them nice and healthy until I'm able to get a Garchomp onto the field.

Increasing the health of Garchomp from 330 to 400 not only allows it to tank more damage, but it allows my backup attacker to deal more damage. Cynthia's Spiritomb deals 10 damage for every damage counter on my benched Cynthia's Pokemon. Roserade's ability increases the damage of Spirtomb's attack as well, letting me punish opponents who fail to take out my Garchomp in one attack.

[emmys-toybox]

Toy of the Day 12/3

Today's toy of the day: Nerf N-Strike Rayven (and N-Strike Elite Rayven)

The Rayven was a revolutionary dart blaster when it was released in 2012. Prior to the Rayven, the only motorized blasters Hasbro produced were either large, heavy beasts like the Stampede, weren't compatible with standard magazines like the Barricade, or a combination of both like the Vulcan. The blaster's bullpup configuration (magazine and firing mechanism behind the grip and trigger)made it compact and maneuverable, but the longer barrel decreased the muzzle velocity causing drag on the dart.

In 2013, the Rayven received its first major revision(s) with the N-Strike Elite Rayven (above). The Elite Rayven, unlike many other Elite versions of N-Strike blasters, did not receive an increase in muzzle velocity. The electronics across the two blasters remain the same, with only the livery and nameplate changing between the two. The Elite Rayven got a paint variant, the Stinger Rayven (pictured below, credit Nerf wiki). This version of the Rayven was exclusive to Sam's Club stores in the USA and as such remains relatively rare today. This version of the Rayven is, unfortunately, absent in my collection.

The Stinger Rayven was the first release of this blaster to not come with the Nerf Firefly Magazine, an 18-dart stick mag with a battery pack on the side and a pair of Ultraviolet lights in the feed lips.

The final Rayven version, the 2017 Rayvenfire (pictured below, credit Nerf wiki), was another retailer-exclusive release. Being released at Kohl's stores in the USA, Toys R Us stores in Canada, and Big W stores in Australia. The 10-dart magazine, molded in white and clear, is exclusive to this release of the Rayven. Like the Stinger, the Rayvenfire is unfortunately not a piece in my collection.

The Rayven, much like other bullpups, was widely overlooked for a conventionally laid-out alternative. In this case, the N-Strike Elite Stryfe. A common mod when both of these blasters were in production was to take everything to the rear of the grip on the Rayven and graft it on to the Stryfe, disabling the Rayven's dart-firing capabilities and turning it into a fixed stock for the carbine with integral magazine storage. This mod was so common it was given the title of "Strayven".

[emmys-toybox]

Toy of the Day 12/2

Today's toy of the day: Hasuki Pocket Art 004 Rei Uzuki

Probably my favorite figure in my collection. She comes with two pistols. One with the slide locked closed (above) and one with the slide locked back (below). Both pistols feature removable magazines and a port in the barrel to mount a suppressor (not pictured, the mounting rod is fragile and has broken on mine).

Rei has pose-able eyes, a trend that seems to be growing with imported figures.

She is also compatible with both hands for Goodsmile's Figma figures and hands intended for Kotobukiya's model kit lines (FA girls, Megami Device, Etc) giving her a wide range of pose and accessory options if you like to mix and match your toys like I do.

She scales well with other figures, between 5 and 7 inches tall

With a 5.5 inch Dalek (holding a Valaverse Action Force rocket launcher)

With another Hasuki Figure (Salvo Series 01 Colossus) and a McFarlane toys 7-inch NCR Veteran Ranger figure. I'm wary of saying she scales well with the NCR Ranger because of how tall the figure is, but its toys, no need to take things TOO seriously.

[lambdaduck]

new toy Monday!

i am not a fan of TMNT, she is the first *anything* from that franchise that i have actively interacted with. I'll be taking some pictures of her and my other figures/ dolls later this week (especially of some of the other things ive ordered recently show up)