Fear of being tickled by The Great Mole Rat covered in peanut butter...

Generally, I don't link to many commercial sites, but every now and then there's one that's just too wonderful to ignore. Such is the case when I discovered a company dedicated to easing peanut-butter phobias.

From their site: "For anyone earning a living, the financial toll of this phobia is incalculable. Living with fear means you can never concentrate fully and give your best. Lost opportunities. Poor performance or grades. Promotions that pass you by. peanut butter phobia will likely cost you tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your lifetime..."

I think that's true. Working in corporate America, I lost count of all the promising folks who failed to get ahead solely because being near crunchy Skippy made them shriek and flee the area. Even now, when I'm approached by some bum asking for spare change, as I pour hot pepper spray into their big sad eyes I can't help wondering how big a role peanut butter played in their downfall.

It's clear that they're doing great work here. But what about those of us without a peanut butter phobia? Have no fear! (get it? fear? that's a little joke) These same folks can also help you with your fear of Bolsheviks, being tickled with a feather, ventriloquists ' dummies, balloons, Walloons, and, of course, by popular demand, The Great Mole Rat.

Jigglypuff Birthday Cake

Longtime readers might remember the Starblind logo cake. This year, Madeline made me a cake version of Jigglypuff, complete with microphone!


This can also be seen on DeviantART.

Marvel Select Ultimate Thor action figure review by Andrew Lenahan

Figure: Ultimate Thor
Property: Marvel Super Heroes
Series: Marvel Select
Keywords: Thor; Marvel Universe; Avengers; Ultimates; Mjolnir; Norse Thunder God; God of Thunder
Company: Toy Biz / Diamond Select

Series Overview:
A counterpoint to the more mainstream Marvel Legends figures, the collector-oriented Marvel Select line is larger in scale, packaged differently, and distributed mostly through comic shops. While production values (and accessories in particular) tend to be excellent, such quality does come at a cost: Marvel Select figures tend to retail at a price point around $17 to $25!

Character Overview:
Ah, the mighty Thor, Norse God of Thunder and hammer-wielding good guy. Although he has a long history in the comic books, including being part of the Avengers, I always associate the character with the movie Adventures in Banysitting, in which one of the kids is Thor-obsessed. This Thor is from the Ultimate Marvel range of characters, which means he's more grim and gritty and all that. It also means no more cool tiny wings.

Action Figure Sculpt and Paint: 8.5
The bottom line here is that the sculpt is a masterpiece, but the paint is just adequate. There's a huge amount of detail, particularly in the lower body, with each bootlace and pants rivet sculpted with tender loving care. The best part of the sculpt is the face: a wonderfully-expressed look of determination and anger, as though dealing a mighty bonk with his hammer. The hair, which is sculpted of soft rubber, has fine detail work as well. The only major sculpt concern is that the head seems noticably too small for the body, and while that does make him look less like a real person, it's a common aspect of superhero artwork.

The paint is another matter. The paint job is fairly simple, and what is there is far from perfect. My figure had sloppy paint ops on his back where the costume and flesh meet. Even worse is the bizarre "tan" on Thor's arms. An example: his inner arm and armpit have a dark pink hue, as does the outer arm. However, the front of his arm (with the vein) is not tanned. This means that either he's got no skills when it comes to applying Coppertone, or the paint ops are fairly nonsensical. The bright spot of the paint job, though, is the cool glow-in-the-dark circles on his torso. Apparently, these are electric in the comic. Despite having been around for decades, glow-in-the-dark is still somewhat cool, especially where it isn't particularly expected.

Articulation: 7.5
Thor's articulation is good, although it's obvious that the sculpt quality takes precedence here. Thor moves at the neck (ball joint), shoulders, biceps, wrists, waist, hips, knees, and ankles. Not bad at all, although standing is a bit of a problem, especially without any pegs in the base (not holes for them in his feet, for that matter!).

Accessories: 9.5
Obviously you can't have a Thor figure without his signature weapon, the magical hammer Mjolnir. Unlike the squarish sledgehammer-like Mjolnir of old, the Ultimate Thor has a much larger, goofier-looking hammer, like something out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Despite its cartoonish quality and unwieldiness as a weapon, it's decently sculpted and painted, with a worn-looking paint texture and metallic shine. the head is hollow hard plastic, while the shaft is flexible rubber. It fits in either of Thor's hands.

But the best accessory, and perhaps the best part of the whole figure, is the base. It's huge and a work of art on its own. It's basically the chest and face of Giant Man, knocked out and lying in a bed of rubble. Apparently, the base is supposed to represent a scene in The Ultimates comic book (issue #5). I can't say enough good things about it. Stood on end, it's taller than Thor himself. It has an amount of detail rivalling the figure itself. Heck, if even has a keyhole hanger on the back so you could wall-mount it and freak out guests! If they ever make an Action Figure Base Hall of Fame, this one would be part of the inaugural collection.

Packaging: Massive
The packing looks nice, but it's huge--especially bizarre since it's intended for comic shops, which often have limited shelf space. But ultimately, the packaging does its job.

Overall score: 9
If you want a Thor figure, this is the one to get. It might even be the "ultimate" Thor figure. I'm just hilarious. Anyway, a solid figure with some easy-to-overlook paint problems and a wonderful base. The base alone makes this an easy figure to recommend.

Availability:
Although it's supposed to be sold in comic shops, I've also seen some of these in more mainstream retailers such as Suncoast. In either case, the price point is likely to be a problem, so try and grab one on sale or head to eBay.