Maisto Adventure Force: Lamborghini Terzo Millennio

Adventure Force is a line of budget friendly die-cast vehicles sold exclusively in Walmart stores. Many of these same vehicles can also be found under different Maisto labels found in other discount type stores. All of the vehicles are fully licensed, but don't expect Mattel level quality. The die-cast metal used in the vehicles is usually thin and the quality of paint and the applications are a notch lower than what you'd see on a Hot Wheels or Matchbox vehicle. All that said, these Maisto vehicles are still pretty good and a fun and inexpensive way to bolster your die-cast collection.

Maisto Adventure Force: Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4

Adventure Force is a line of budget friendly die-cast vehicles sold exclusively in Walmart stores. Many of these same vehicles can also be found under different Maisto labels found in other discount type stores. All of the vehicles are fully licensed, but don't expect Mattel level quality. The die-cast metal used in the vehicles is usually thin and the quality of paint and the applications are a notch lower than what you'd see on a Hot Wheels or Matchbox vehicle. All that said, these Maisto vehicles are still pretty good and a fun and inexpensive way to bolster your die-cast collection.

Vacation Road Trip Media Haul

I recently returned from a roadtrip to Fort Knox, KY to visit my brother-in-law and his family who live on base. This is the second time I've made this trip with my family and each time we've decided to break up the 8 hour drive over two days, opting to stay in Knoxville, TN which is about the half way point.

Located in Knoxville is one of the largest McKay stores I've visited. If you're not familiar with this store, it's basically a media lover's heaven. My whole family enjoys visiting, but probably not as much as me! I don't recall how long we spent there on our trip up...maybe 1 1/2 hours? I know I could have stayed longer as there is just so much to look at, however it was getting late and we still needed to grab dinner. I didn't walk away empty handed though...

The comics are stored on the second floor and I only had a little time to browse as my family was waiting for me in the car at this point during our visit. I was happy to find the issue of Marvel Premiere, but in my haste I realized after I got to my hotel room that there was a small rip on the cover. The other issues I picked up fill holes in those respective runs.

Who still buys CDs these days? Well me! The top three discs I found in their bargain section. The Waiting's self titled debut as well as Cindy Morgan set me back just a $.25 each while the classic Michael W. Smith album was just $.95. All three are classics in my book and I was happy to have something "new" to listen to in the car.

The final two albums were real treats to find. First we have Children 18:3's third album. I'm listening to it as I type this post and I'm loving every minute of it - a great purchase at $2.95. The other is Family Force 5's "Time Stands Still". This was one still sealed so I didn't mind their asking price of $3.95. I usually search for FF5 CDs when I'm browsing, but never find anything. This was the first album I popped into the player once we got back in the car much to my family's chagrin.

We ended up stopping back at McKays on the way back home and on both visits I spent more time in the movie section than I have on any previous visits. GI Joe Retaliation was a guilty pleasure purchase for myself. Spider-Man: Far From Home was one of the last MCU movies I needed to purchase. My daughters have been begging me to pick this one up.

I found Daddy Day Camp and Invincible in the $.95 bins and decided to pick those up for family movie night. My girls loved Daddy Day Care so we'll see if this one lives up to that...which I doubt it will. My family has surprisingly enjoyed watching sports movies so I hope Invincible will be enjoyed by all.

Most of my time spent browsing movies was looking for horror movies. While I'm not planning on upgrading all of my horror DVDs to Blu-Ray, there are a few movies I've been casually looking for. I was shocked that not only did I find The Hills Have Eyes, but I also found the sequel. For whatever reason these two movies aren't that easy to find on Blu-Ray, especially the first. These are both great remakes and dare I say better than the originals? Sorry Wes...

While I was looking for the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, I came across this FYE exclusive steelbook of the original on my second visit. This is the 40th Anniversary edition and is loaded with extras. I've yet to compare it to my DVD copy to see how the versions stack up against each other. The Hitcher is also an upgrade, though never in a million years would I have expected to find the HD DVD version! At just $.95 how could I pass it up? Funny thing was when I opened the case to inspect the disc the original Best Buy receipt was tucked inside. Someone from Fairfax, VA paid $29.99 back on 2007 for this movie...wow.

During our stay at Fort Knox, I had a little free time to get out and explore the small town of Radcliff, KY just outside the Army base. The first store I visited was TF games, a small video game store. I was really impressed by the store's layout, selection, prices and service. The store had a little bit of everything to chose from. I used a little birthday money I had left over and grabbed two horror UMDs for $2.99 each, Alice: Madness Returns on the PS3 and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on the NES. The latter two games were priced below current eBay listings, something that I didn't expect of Alice as that game has been rather pricey the few times I've found it out in the wild.

I left from TF Games and went down the street a little ways to visit a shop I saw on my way in called Comics Vault. The store was very small, had LOTS of inventory and at times smelled of cigarette smoke thanks to a side door being left open while an employee took a smoke break. I didn't stay here long, but I did take advantage of their 25% sale which even applied to new books! I grabbed the latest issues of Something is Killing the Children, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Everglade Angels and Batman. I also found the last issue I needed to complete the run from the 3rd volume of Captain America.

My final stop before heading back to base was at the local Walmart. While their trading card section was ravaged and offered me nothing, I did hit the clearance in the electronics department and found the gold edition of Resident Evil: Biohazard for $15. While I already own the base game on the PS4 and have beaten it, all of the included DLC was just too tempting for me to leave behind.

Just outside the electronics department was a huge bin of $5 Blu-Rays. Instead of just being thrown in, these were stored spine up making it easy to browse the titles. I walked away with two classics in The Sandlot and The NeverEnding Story and Pixels, a movie probably not that good, but one I wanted to watch anyways.

If you haven't been able to tell by now I'm a huge fan of physical media. When moving day comes I may regret my love of media, but for now I'll still embrace it. I hope to spend this weekend along with the weeks ahead enjoying some of these latest acquisitions.

Masters of the WWE Universe: Sting

I had to admit that I was skeptical when I heard the idea of Mattel crossing over Masters of the Universe with WWE. While I'm not the biggest MOTU fan, I have bought several toys in the past. I'm also a WWE fan and while I don't really buy wrestling figures, I have liked the changes Mattel has made over the years. Once I heard they were going to be Walmart exclusives I knew my chances of finding them on local retail shelves was going to be a tough task. Originally I could only find Triple H and Fin Balor, but the figure in the first wave that I wanted the most was Sting. When I finally found one, the blister card was bent and curled...but I didn't let that stop me from buying it.

The packaging is a nice combination of the two brand, including the logo. Mattel made a backstory which is told via a small comic that is included with each figure with everything taking place in WWEternia. Corny? Clever? You be the judge.

These new figures are based of the new, upcoming Masters of the Universe Origins line. These molds look closer to the original 80's figures, but with increased articulation. The heads and hands are detachable so theoretically you could build your own original character by swapping parts if you so choose. The figures themselves stand about 5 1/2 inches tall and are full articulated. 

Sting is done in his classic "Crow" look from his days in WCW, prior to his appearance in WWE. While the upper body may be a little larger than the character it's based on, Sting's face looks fantastic and captures look of Steve Borden, the man behind the Sting character.

Sting is based on the classic Masters of the Universe villain, Clawful. He was always one of my favorite villains so I was happy with this mishmash. Sting comes with a removable claw and some stoy of claw nunchuck. I don't care too much for this weapon as it's large, heavy and hard for the figure to wield. It took me several chances to even get this photo as the figure wanted to keep falling over with this heavy weapon in his hands.

The actual claw that slips over his closed fist is pretty cool. I don't have an original Clawful figure to compare the size of the two claws, but it appears to be scaled well with the figure. The claw is articulated, allowing the bottom pincher to open and close.

The upper body will spin if you twist the upper torso. Action features were once common place in figures like this so while it's not my cup of tea, it's still a nice throw back feature. Thankfully though it doesn't take away too much from the figure itself.

While I'm not planning on going all in on this line, this is a fun novelty if nothing else...especially if you are already a fan of both brands. As of this post, wave 2 is already on store shelves with at least two more waves planned. I look forward to what else Mattel has up their sleeves while I wait for the MOTU Origins line to be released.