Hello, and thanks all... especially Jim!

Well folks...

I've never posted via a blog before, so I thought I'd take time out to try out this thingie-doo. First, a little bit about myself. My name is Mark Bellomo, and I'm a professor at a state university in New York where I run their Writing & Tutoring Program. I've been a freelance writer for the past ten+ years, and have published composition/rhetoric textbooks, over 150+ articles on action figures, toys, and pop culture, a few books on action figures (The Ultimate Guide to G.I. Joe: 1982-1994, Transformers: Identification & Price Guide, Warman's Action Figure Field Guide and Warman's Transformers Field Guide) and I've also presented papers on Robert Penn Warren, Elizabeth Madox Roberts, William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway (my favorite American stylist) internationally and I'm published in sundry literary journals.

I'm not sure what I hope to accomplish here... I suppose to keep people abreast of what's going on in the toy/action figure world with borderline exclusive news... I'll be going to Toy Fair in a couple weeks, and have made appointments with AT LEAST the big two (Mattel, Hasbro), and will be checking stuff out from Diamond, Gentle Giant, Bandai, et al. Since I'll be returning from Toy Fair MUCH quicker than most (I live 90 miles north of NYC), I hope to post some exclsuive photos of new Star Wars product here before anyone else in the world can... I hope. So keep watching.

STAR WARS news:

Picked up a few new vintage and modern pieces. VINTAGE: Grabbed a MOC (with yellowed bubble... ugh) Ewoks Dulok Shaman and a POTF Luke Skywalker Jedi Knight (unpunched card, really nice & minty, clear bubble). Will eventually have to go back and finish my vintage SW collection this year if I hope to put out a collector's guide within the next two years. Am apprehensive about completing an entire set of figures, vehicles, playsets, promotions, etc., because a complete collection would include those darned POTF ("Power of the Force": 1983-1984) coins--promotional coins packaged in the last wave of vintage Star Wars figures. These POTF coins are SOOOOOO freaking expensive... especially category IV, Category V, and the 63rd coin. HUNDREDS of dollars each. I don't need these coins to be MINT and GRADED by the AFA (the Action Figure Authority), but a full set would make a nice picture in a vintage Star Wars Identification & Price Guide. But... what would a full set of POTFcoins cost? Bad enough I'd have to buy a MLC Sonic Landspeeder and MLC Remoted Control Sandcrawler...

New figures: they're okay-looking. Picked up McQuarrie Concept Rebel Trooper (#60), Clone Trooper: Hawkbat Battalion (#50), and Tycho Celchu: A-Wing Pilot (#44)... all at retail. Should complete the first sixty 30th anniversary by the end of the month.

HE-MAN and the MOTU news:

1) Spoke with Dan Salazaar (head of Mattel's Boy's Toys line) on the telephone last night... since I'm poised to pitch a new book The Ultimate Guide to He-Man, She-Ra, and The Masters of the Universe, I kept asking questions about the MOTU line (for those of you who aren't He-Man fans, "Masters of the Universe" = MOTU).

QUESTIONS: a) "When will a new He-Man and the MOTU line be reissued... more specifically, when will we see (be teased with) new product?" b) How far along in the process are you with the new upcoming He-Man film?" c) "When will fans see this new film?"

ANSWERS: a) "Not at the 2008 Toy Fair. Expect a release [of what? new product? confirming there's a new line?] at the San Diego Comic Con."
b) "The script has not been green-lit as of yet. Nothing has been approved. We're at the initial point of the process. But it is a process in motion."
c) "No comment."

G.I. JOE news:

The 25th Anniversary G.I. Joe figures are flying off of retails shelves: stores simply can't keep them in stock. Good times, good times...

Feel free to ask any questions!!!

-- Mark W. Bellomo