Aspiring YouTube/Video Stars: Want a $25 Gift Certificate?

We love seeing ToyWiz.com products in your videos, and we want to see more! Do you have an unboxing, how-to or review you'd like to share? We will be checking out new videos and awarding $25 Gift Certificates to our favorites!

To be eligible, there are just a few simple rules.

1. You must be over 18 or have your parents' permission.


2. Make a video about any of our toys, collectibles or games. It doesn't have to be about ToyWiz.com - it can be anything related to our product lines. You can describe items you collect, show off tricks and tips for playing games, or just let your imagination go!


3. Be sure to mention ToyWiz.com in the video or the video description/remarks section.


4. Upload it to YouTube or somewhere similar.


5. Post a link to your video in the comments section for this entry. You can also email a link it to anissa@toywiz.com, but please watch for a confirmation message - it is possible that your message could be lost in a spam filter! And please don't attach the video file, it will need to be uploaded elsewhere with a link provided.


6. Void where prohibited by law, and of course, you must be the original creator of the work and have the right to use and distribute the video - no cheating! These rules could be amended at any time to comply with legal regulations, and will be updated here if necessary.


7. $25 gift certificates will be offered to the creators of those videos chosen as favorites by our staff, on the condition that we can link to them from our social networks.


8. This is an ongoing event. You can make as many videos as you like and we'll watch them all! We have not determined a set number of gift certificates - we'll be awarding them at least monthly, so enter any time!

So there you go: Lights, Camera....ACTION! Show off your toys & video skills!

New Gears of War HeroClix are coming!

WizKids/NECA announced 10 Gears of War HeroClix figures are coming in August, just before Gears of War 3 is released in September. There will be 10 figures in all, including 5 characters from Gears of War 3 Delta Squad and 5 locust enemy figures.

There are preview pics up at ICv2 already. And of course, we'll have them available here for purchase as soon as we can.

[caption id="attachment_906" align="alignnone" width="220" caption="Gears of War Heroclix"][/caption]

To be the first to know when these are available for pre-order and shipment, be sure to follow us on Twitter! Our newsletter will also keep you in the know about new releases, sales and discounts!

MONSTER MONDAY: Godzilla!

This week in 1956, American audiences caught their first glimpse of Godzilla in Godzilla, King of the Monsters! The towering mutant dinosaur stormed onto the screen, quickly becoming a pop culture icon that has lasted through nearly 30 films, comic books, a television series and is even in production for a new 2012 movie release from Legendary Pictures.

You can find this monster not only on screen, but also in books, video games, and comics from both Marvel and Dark Horse. With so many outlets for the franchise, it's no wonder Godzilla is one of Japan's most recognizable creations, spawning some incredible action figures and collectibles over the decades. He's so popular, we gave Godzilla his own category on ToyWiz.com! (Click here to take a look - Godzilla is always in demand)

From the cute & cuddly...

[caption id="attachment_894" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Awwww!"][/caption]

To the ultra-realistic...

[caption id="attachment_895" align="alignnone" width="229" caption="A masterpiece, right down to the operator inside!"][/caption]

To the classics...

[caption id="attachment_898" align="alignnone" width="232" caption="They just don't make mutant monster lizards like they did back in the 1960's."][/caption]

We've even got some extraordinarily rare Godzilla items for serious collectors, in stock and in mint condition. These items are sure to be in demand next year when the new movie comes out, generating a new wave of Godzilla merchandise and captivating audiences yet again. The "augmented reality" production of the new film promises some amazing special effects, and we can't wait to see what Legendary Pictures (Inception, The Dark Knight) has in store for us this time around.

A little Godzilla trivia for your Monday morning:

• There is a dinosaur named for Godzilla: The Gojirasaurus quayi is a Triassic ceratosaur over five meters in length, making it one of the larger predators of it's period. (Gojira is the name for Godzilla in Japan)


• Blue Öyster Cult had a minor hit, "Godzilla," in 1977


• Godzilla starred in a Nike ad by playing basketball with Charles Barkley in 1992


• The original American release was significantly different from the Japanese original, but became a hit in both countries.


• Godzilla has been portrayed as both a hero and a villain/destroyer

4 Brave Ninjas...

Have you seen Ninjago from LEGO? I love these!

[caption id="attachment_857" align="alignnone" width="279" caption="Test your Spinjitsu!"][/caption]

The background story revolves around Ninjas battling a skeleton army using their powers of Spinjitsu.  But this time, LEGO has brought us more than just a playset. Sure, you've got good guys, bad guys and an awesome theme, and that's all very good in it's own right. Plus with LEGO minifigs and bricks, these ninjas can do some pretty awesome tricks. There are lots of clever hidden traps and details, plus your ninjas can run along walls or hang from a ceiling to drop on an enemy. But it doesn't stop with cool scenes and stories - Ninjago is an awesome game as well.

The game works something like this: Choose a Ninjago minifig character, three weapons, a spinner base and four battle cards. Your choices affect the battle, and so does your skill in spinning - that's Spinjitsu! You'll place your character on the spinner, equip and position your weapons, then set him spinning to attack your opponent. The last ninja standing wins the round and takes one weapon from the fallen character. The game is simple enough to grasp, but once you start playing, you'll find that the combination of your choice of weapons and positions, plus your skill in spinning the figure and the effective use of battle cards, keeps things challenging.

Ultimately, there's a lot you can do with the LEGO Ninjago sets. The game plays a bit like Beyblades, but with the addition of battle cards and the interchangeable minifigs. And of course, with LEGO, the possibilities are always endless. You can spend hours trying out different figures, weapons and parts from other sets to build your most powerful character...even if he's not really a ninja.

Last Chance Thursday: HALO!

Today we're having "Last Chance Thursday" at ToyWiz.com! All day we'll be Tweeting HALO merchandise - only HALO items that have just 1 left in inventory.  Follow us @toywizdotcom on Twitter to keep up with the latest last chance items!

Hidden Arsenal 4: This Time It’s Personal!

Jackalope here with a look at the brand new Hidden Arsenal 4 set. I’m deviating from my prior YuGiOh articles as I’m going to crack (open) an entire case of Hidden Arsenal 4 boxes. Let’s take a quick look at the stats on that.

[caption id="attachment_870" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Step 1: Prepare you case for skinning."][/caption]

1 Case of Hidden Arsenal 4 = 12 Boxes = 288 Packs = 1440 Cards.

Now most of you are not opening a case of cards, so why am I going through the trouble of writing this article on this? Simple, my friends: Averages! Yes, when you break a box of cards there is a high degree of randomness to it, but when you break a case you can see trends and averages to better give you an idea of what you can expect out of a box. This might help you decide whether it makes sense for you to buy a box to try for certain cards or to just pony up for the single cards.

[caption id="attachment_871" align="alignnone" width="285" caption="Step 2: Discard the booster skins"][/caption]

Let’s look at some more delicious numbers! In that case of 1440 cards you will get exactly 288 Secret Rare cards and 1152 Super Rare cards. There are 20 different Secret Rare cards in the set and 40 different Super Rare cards in the set so if we go just by averages you should get approximately 14.4 of every Secret Rare and 28.8 of every Super Rare.

Spoiler Alert! It does NOT work out that way.

[caption id="attachment_872" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Step 3: Arrange your card filets in preparation for sorting"][/caption]

“Well Jackalope, how does it work out?” you’re asking, and I am glad you did! Let’s look at a few more numbers, specifically the best and/or most valuable cards in the set and see how many we got:

x7 Dragunity Knight – Trident $ 17.99
x8 Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier $64.99
x8 Dragunity Knight – Barcha $7.99
x8 Naturia Landoise $19.99
x12 The Fabled Unicore $5.99
x12 The Fabled Cerburrel $16.99
x15 Jurrac Meteor $6.99
x16 Neo Flamvell Sabre $5.99
x17 Naturia Exterio $4.99

Note that all these cards are valued at or over 5 dollars to show you what “money*” cards you can expect in your theoretical box purchase.

Looking at the numbers we got you can expect one, possibly two of: Jurrac Meteor, Neo Flamvell Sabre & Naturia Exterio. You can with come certainly assume you’ll get one each of these in your box: The Fabled Cerburrel & The Fabled Unicore. And lastly you have a 2/3rds chance of getting the big three, and almost certainly one of the following in your box: Dragunity Knight – Barcha, Dragunity Knight – Trident, Naturia Landoise & Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier.

What does that tell you? Well if you are looking for three Trishula, Dragon of the Ice Barrier cards you would have to buy the equivalent of 5 or 6 boxes to ensure you got them, at a cost of $79.99. That’s quite a hefty price tag as opposed to buying the single cards outright, but in addition you’ll get a whole lot of other cards. You've got lots of options for getting what you want: buying boxes and hoping for lucky pulls will give you lots of extra cards for trading, or you can purchase the individual cards you need.

[caption id="attachment_873" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Step 4: Portion out and serve your collection. Bon Appetit!"][/caption]

Only you can decide whether or not purchasing a box is worthwhile to you, or if buying the few single cards you need to finish your deck fits the bill, but hopefully this shows you the average odds you have of getting the card(s) you’re looking for!

Exit, stage right!

* Money cards refer to the expensive cards out of a set. Those can be valuable due to demand or rarity, oftentimes both.

Please keep in mind all prices are subject to change and these are the prices of the cards as of this writing which was on the day of release for the set.

The Battle of the Box

Jackalope here with another cost/value analysis. This time of an older set. A lot of players and collectors feel that there is less value when you buy an older box and open it. This is for various reasons, but the most commonly held belief is that the longer a set is out, the more of it gets broken (opened) and the more single cards there are in the market. I’m going to do a single box breakdown for you here. This is just one random box that I opened and is not typical of all boxes, but it gives you a good idea what you should expect if you bought a box of YuGiOh 5D's Starstrike Blast.



[caption id="attachment_819" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="So serene, just sitting there…"][/caption] 

[caption id="attachment_820" align="alignnone" width="293" caption="NOM NOM NOM!"][/caption]

Okay, let’s look at what makes up a box:
24 Packs, 9 cards in each pack. Each pack will contain at least 1 Rare card and may contain a foil card.

Newbie in the Magic Tourney, Round 2!

Well I haven't played since last Friday, but I went again to try my hand again. And hey...I'm getting better at this! My deck is too!

[caption id="attachment_807" align="alignnone" width="171" caption="These make all the difference. "][/caption]

I arrived early and bought 7 booster packs to try to build the deck I want. At first, I was a little disappointed - I got some duplicates that weren't needed and 4 cards I'd been hoping to see. That wasn't fantastic, but then I realized why you should always get to the tournament early...

Amazing Lego Creations

We love putting together fun scenes with LEGOs here at ToyWiz.com, but there are people out there who do amazing things with these bricks. Stop-motion animations, recreations of famous artworks, and even original artwork made entirely of LEGOs.



So for today, I want to share one of the great artists using LEGOs as a medium for his creativity - Nathan Sawaya of New York, whose creations have been touring museums in North America with a show called The Art of the Brick.

Be sure to check out his gallery of great LEGO brick art!

Why Collect Action Figures?

We talk to action figure collectors all the time and we love getting the chance to meet some of them in person at Comic Cons or at our retail store. I always love hearing about the collections, and usually I find out what type of collector a person is right off the bat.

Of course, lots of collectors have more than one "type" of collection going at a time, and some switch from one to another as their tastes change and develop. But most people I meet are avid about their reasons for collecting.

The Nostalgia Collector: These are people who loved action figures as children and continue to enjoy them for years. As adults, they may decide to fill in missing characters from old sets, locate figures they once owned, or finally buy themselves a few pieces they wanted but never got as kids. They tend to be focused on vintage pieces or re-released items, locating missing parts, or even finding the elusive mint-in-box figure from childhood.

Media Fans. These collectors focus on movies, comics, television shows or video game series action figures. Often they'll get every related character and watch for new releases.

Single-minded Collectors. These are easy to spot at home - I have a friend with every possible version of Batman figure imaginable. No Robins. No villains. But the Batman is all over her house in figures large and small, boxed and open! This type of collector wants one thing and one thing only - and they'll search high and low for a missing version of their favorite character.

Quality Collectors. These are the people who look for high-end figures with a lot of detail. While a specific movie fan may want every mass-produced figure, regardless of how many points of articulation and accuracy, some look at action figures as art. We have some amazingly detailed figures with accessories and paint that make them look almost lifelike. Some of our collectors love assembling shelves of these amazing action figures in lifelike poses.

Investment Collectors. These are the guys who stay on top of new releases and pop culture trends to buy figures they expect to rise in value. While all collectors certainly hope that will happen, some are banking on it!

First-ever Friday Night Magic Tournament - a total newbie perspective

I've been intrigued by Magic: The Gathering for many years, but always hesitant to try it. With  no idea how to approach the game as a complete beginner, I was just afraid to jump in. Because seriously - who wants to purchase cards, then walk up to strangers and risk feeling foolish for not knowing how to play?

Well guys, I'm here to tell you, it isn't like that at all. I had a short learning session at  Comic Con in New Orleans back in January and took home a few promo decks, but I still wasn't quite ready. My fellow blogger and good friend Jackalope has been playing a lot lately, though, and encouraging me to try. After his last post, I decided to go for it. Oh, not at our ToyWiz retail location in NY, but down in Albany, LA at a shop called Chuck's Field of Dreams. Yes, a nice anonymous place to go embarass myself, I thought.

Just so you know, I'm a friendly, but cutthroat player in any game I pursue. Maybe I'll post another day about my history with MMORPGs, for example, but suffice it to say that I probably blow away any stereotypes you might have about female gamers! So jumping into something new is a big deal for me  -  There's no way I'm playing anything without making a serious effort to master it and to be a fierce competitor.

You can go home again.

Jackalope here with a brief trip down memory lane for today’s post. I loved Magic: The Gathering, I played it casually for many years and have few regrets. I got my start with a starter of Beta or Unlimited (I can’t remember other than one of my rare cards was Personal Incarnation) and a pack of Arabian Nights.

[caption id="attachment_770" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="Ah, sweet memories."][/caption]

I didn’t really get into Magic until Revised when the rest of the geek world caught on that this game was something amazing. I played at the local game shop’s tournaments for about a year and soon began working there; any competitive aspirations were quickly dashed as I always had to work during our tournaments. Time passed and I played less and less, until finally my last constructed deck was a fun little Sneak Attack Deck built at the end of the Urza block.

All About Pre-Orders!

I get a lot of questions from people about how our pre-orders work, so here's the lowdown:

Why pre-order?

Preference, that's why. When a hot new item arrives, we start with the pre-orders first. On release day, demand can be outrageously high for some items, and we do everything we can to get all orders packed and shipped before the last delivery truck runs. But pre-ordered merchandise is processed first, so the sooner your order is placed, the more likely it is to be shipped on day 1.

This preferential treatment can also be the difference when supply is very limited or demand so high that we run out of an item. You'll see that a lot of things we sell are limited edition, but even things that aren't can be in limited supply at release. Although in most situations, we'll be getting more product when the manufacturer can complete our shipment, we do not have control over their production limits. The only fair thing to do is to fill orders as they were received, pre-orders first, and ship the rest as soon as our supplier can manufacture, package and send the rest to us. We hate when this happens, and we know you do too. That's why we offer the option of getting your order in ahead of the last-minute rush.

Why do pre-order dates change or go by without a shipment or announcement?

I promise, it isn't because we're holding back merchandise or failing to deliver! The dates we publish are given by the companies that make the things we sell - these are their own projected delivery schedules. Some of them make their deadlines on almost every product release, and we're always happy when things run like clockwork. But there can be glitches and delays before an item ever hits the shelf. Whether a supply-line problem arises in manufacturing, licensing, packaging or even shipping, sometimes merchandise just doesn't get to us when the makers thought it would. To make it even more complicated, they're often too busy scrambling to fix those issues to let us know that something has been delayed, or why it happened. We stay on top of the game, though, and try to ensure that our pre-order release dates are accurate based on the information available to us. When there's an update, we get those posted quickly to ensure that our pre-order customers know when to expect delivery.

And there's one last reason: Locking in prices. We sometimes see price increases after release, but if you've pre-ordered, you can save yourself from this possibility.
When are pre-orders charged to my card?

We don't bill your credit card until your order is shipped.

Why can't I have pre-orders and regular merchandise on the same order with PayPal?

You can, but we can't ship them separately, so your regular merchandise will be on hold until everything is available. This is due to PayPal's policies for merchants, so we have to ask that you divide the order if you want the available items sooner.

YuGiOh 5D's 2011 Duelist Tin

Jackalope here with…Ohhhh New Duelist Tin!

[caption id="attachment_732" align="alignleft" width="120" caption="Just sitting here on my desk, asking to be opened…"][/caption]

I’ve always been a fan of the duelist tin product from both a retailer’s and a consumer’s point of view. Why you ask? Value, this product has solid value to it and what means is you as the consumer get great value for your dollar. Let’s take a look at one of the tins (along with pictures of the tin I’m opening for this post).

 

 

 

As you can see you get several things in the tin:

Special Thanks

Have you noticed this phrase on our Beyblades listings?

We would like to thank World Beyblade Organization and BeyWiki for the detailed information featured in this item. Please head to wiki.worldbeyblade.org for more information.

If you love Beyblades like we do, I hope you're already familiar with these guys, because this is an amazing source for detailed information and discussions. Events, customization tips, feedback...the depth of knowledge on BeyWiki and the World Beyblade Organization forums is astounding. We really appreciate the time and effort it takes to compile, manage and organize such a massive site for fans and hobbyists.

In brightest day, in blackest night...

Wow! The newly released footage from the Green Lantern movie looks amazing!

 

"You can’t process me with a normal brain."

Debut! You might have noticed that our blog hasn't been updated since 2009, but that's about to change. So let me start with an introduction: I'm Bebs, aka Anissa. I'll be blogging here a few times weekly with information, insider news, how-to guides and fun links, and I think it will be a kick to share some of what goes on at ToyWiz.com with the world. I'm a bit of a gaming geek at heart with a love of toys and the people who collect them, but I'll spare you too many personal details: just subscribe to our RSS feed and get to know me!

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="139" caption="Charlie Sheen Talking Bobble Head"][/caption]

With that out of the way, I can't tell you how much I giggled when I realized that I'd be making my blogging debut alongside the announcement of one of the funniest new products I've seen in awhile. Yes, it is a Charlie Sheen Bobble Head, and it talks.

Our friends over at Funko! are crazy with this thing! I mean seriously, could they be more timely? At least until they make a Bebs Bobble Head, but I might need to actually get a subscriber here before they oblige.

And even if I don't get my own Bobble Head, stick with me. You'll find me alongside Charlie Sheen on Twitter and Facebook, or you can email me directly at anissa@toywiz.com. I'd love to hear your questions and ideas, so please (I beg you) comment, respond, chat me up! Just don't call the office looking for me...I'm probably hiding out somewhere playing with the LEGOs. *Note: I promise not to pre-play with your LEGOs if you're placing an order. Those are my LEGOs. My "work LEGOs". It's research. Don't judge.