The designers at Sideshow are absolutely amazing. I have no idea how they come up with such awesome sculpts and detailed accessories time and time again. A little while back, I posted a link to their release of the 12" Cobra Sniper, and these uncanny toy-makers are up to their old tricks again with their upcoming 12" Firefly figure.

This thing has more awesome accessories than Richard Simmons has pairs of tiny silk shorts.

Here are the specs according to Toy News International:

To pre-order the Sideshow 12" Firefly (scheduled for a 2nd quarter 2010 release), visit The Big Bad Toy Store. And don't let any of those pesky G.I. Joes stop you.

For those of you who happened to have memorized every single second of the 1987 G.I. Joe animated movie, you'll probably remember the Joes' official sports announcer (G.I. Joe needed an official sports announcer?), the one, the only, Big Lob! And I'm sure many of you have been pulling your hair out at the roots pining away for an official Big Lob action figure, am I right? Well, give your delicate follicles a break, because if you're a member of the G.I. Joe Club, a Big Lob figure can now be yours!

According to the official G.I. Joe Club website, you have to be a current and active member of Officer Level (whatever that means) by March 16, 2010 to get this figure for free. Yay! Free action figure!

Well, forgive me if I don't trip over my two cats in a mad scramble to join this club in order to get this figure, but I figured (no pun intended) that there were enough hardcore Joe fanatics out there that this may be just the thing to get them to start hi-fivin' each other like a bunch of mathletes that just served a rival high school a trigonometry smackdown.

For more information, visit the Official G.I. Joe Club website, and for lots of hilarious comments on the figure, swing on by Topless Robot. Yoooooo Joe!

A while back, I posted a blog about the big toy sale that went down over at Toyrocket.com. This sale caused a lot of buzz in the action figure collecting community for a couple of reasons. The first reason was that Toyrocket was offering absurdly low prices on some seriously top-notch toys and the second reason manifested in the gut-reaction of many collector's suspecting that it was some sort of scam, mostly due to rumors of Toyrocket's recent alleged bankruptcy, making some worry that they would fork over their hard earned cabbage only to never see their toys delivered.

About a week ago, word started coming in through the various forums and message boards of people starting to receive their shipments, and today, I officially became a part of that happy demographic. Yes, my Toyrocket order finally arrived. Sure, it took about a month, but it's here and I'm happier than a fat kid in the Hostess factory.

I admit that I was skeptical as well about the sale (seriously, these prices were so low, it looked like it was too good to be true), that's why I only order a few things. Now that all of my figures arrived, I only wish I had ordered more! In my box I received a Deluxe Indiana Jones Idol Floor Trap playset ($3.00), a Star Wars McQuarrie Exclusive Concept R2-D2 and C-3PO two pack ($5.00), a Batman/Batgirl Microman two pack ($5.00) and my favorite score, a rare Fuji Film exclusive Batman figure from Japan that I had never even seen before ($2.50). After shipping, I'm practically rolling in awesome action figures for less than $24.00! This is great stuff for an action figure collector.

So, the moral of the story is that if you did indeed order stuff from Toyrocket, rest easy my friends, your stuff will come. But you may want to prepare yourself for a good self-kicking for not ordering more.

I am by no means a highly skilled customizer, though I know a few tricks of the trade, and at some point I'd rally like to start an official series of customizing tips here on the Action Figures site. So it always amazes me when I see some of the incredible work done by customizer out there, one of whom, who goes by the online moniker of Jin Saotome, has posted several secrets, tips and step-by-step guides that could have you customizing like one of the big boys in no time.

I've been seeing Jin's work around for a while now and am always stunned by the detail and imaginativeness displayed in his custom figures, so I think it's awesome that he cares enough about the craft to share his skills with the rest of the action figure community.

His site includes tutorials and guides that cover everything from beginning to advance general customizing, to painting tips, to what tools to use and how to properly use them to character specific guides, like how to make actual metal claws for your favorite Wolverine!

The guides and tutorials are fun to read, easy to follow and an excellent contribution to the customizing world, so my hat's off to you, Jin. And no, he did not ask me to say any of this. In fact, we've never even spoken, but I just think that when I see something this cool, the word needs to be spread!

Let Jin help you get your custom on by visiting www.jinsaotomesdangeroustoys.com.