My Justice League collection

Decided to take out my entire collection of Justice League stuff to take photos of them, for memory sake. It is one of the best DC animations ever (yes, I find it better than the recent DC cartoons and animated films), with Batman Beyond and Batman:TAS close behind. I really enjoyed how all the cartoons were within the same universe, and we got to see that world move from B:TAS all the way to JLU, and ending off with a closure to Batman Beyond too. This whole cartoon is just as satisfying starting as it is watching it end in a good note.

Top row: JL/JLU toys
second row: JL novels and some JLU toys
Third row: JL/JLU comics and novels, JLU second season DVD set
Bottom row: JL first and second seasons, JLU first season (all VCDs)

My Justice League comics are mainly from this company called "Gotham Comics". It was a comic book company that got rights to publish many Marvel/DC titles in small, lower quality comic issues to sell in the Asia region such as India (which I think this company is from?), Malaysia and Singapore. The comics were much cheaper than their original counterparts (eg. 1 TBP would cost SGD $20-$40, but only SGD $10 from Gotham Comics). Unfortunately the company didn't really make it far, so it stopped after a couple of years. But during that time it reprinted many series and Justice League Adventures was one of them. I managed to buy all the issues and "Giant-sized" books, allowing me to collect most of the Justice League Adventures series.

Then there's the JLU comics that I managed to buy at book fairs for much cheaper prices. Really glad they had the huge cut in prices at the book fairs because these small comics cost a bomb (to me)!

The Justice League series also had novels meant for young readers, and only the first book, Secret Origins, was based on the episodes of that same name. The other books were stories of their own.

When the Justice League cartoon came out, I was not wise enough to wait for those "full season" sets, so I went to buy the VCDs when they came out. DVDs were new to me, so I stuck to VCDs. When the DC Comics Classic Collection started releasing all the DC cartoons in full seasons, I went to buy them all. For season one I skipped the first 3 volumes as my 3 VCDs from much earlier consisted of those 3 volumes. Only when the season 2 of JLU came out did I decide to purchase the DVD set, the prior seasons all being VCDs.

The Justice League figures that first came out were Attack Armor and Mega Armor series. I bought the Flash, Batman and Superman ones as they were in their original costumes. However, the toy shops did not have the Martian Manhunter and Green lantern toys, so I didn't get them. At that time I did not know about hunting for toys on eBay, nor the sources to find toys from local sellers. I was a kid, and relied on toy stores to provide me with the figures. Green Lantern appeared again in the Mission Vision series, this series providing figures with more joints to increase articulation. They came with some accessories and a shield that revealed some picture. The 1st three figures were actually repaint of the Mega Armor series, with mild adjustments and replace of the figures with more articulated ones (except for Flash). There was also Wonder Woman and Darksied in this series, but I could never find Wonder Woman.

When the JLU toys came out, I just had to use this chance to get the remaining core members. This series had individual packs and 3-in-1 packs, and it was the 3-in-1 that I could get Wonder Woman, Hawkgirl and Martian Manhunter. I planned my purchases such that the only duplicates I got were of those that I had from the original series that had little articulation. I felt cheated by the Wonder Woman pack though, as she had some random designs on her, despite the packaging showing her in her default costume. Hawkgirl did not come with her mace, although I was too happy having the full core team to bother about all this.

You can tell that DC/Mattel tried to make the figures better from their predecessors. The articulation is much more, and not as loose as the Mission Vision series (I am basing this on my GL figure). The colours are more vibrant too. Height is an issue though, especially for Superman. His height did not increase much, and he is still much shorter than most of his team. However, stability was the price to pay for this new paintwork and articulation. Posing the figures in simple standing position was a hassle, and the female characters with their small feet and closed legs made them almost impossible to stand without support.

It took me really long to get the core team in position for the photo, but I like how it turned out. Despite the lack of 100% accuracy, I still really enjoy collecting them and expanding the roster to new members like Green Arrow and Aquaman. Not too sure why I bought Green Lantern and Dr. Fate though. They weren't on sale, nor are they my favorite characters.

Either way, I'm pleased with my small collection of Justice League merchandise, and will always treasure it as one of the best cartoons in my childhood! :)

VS System TCG

Well, because I'm sick of studying, I decided to take a break and write a post about this card game. VS System started a long time ago, and as much as it tried to survive, it just never manage to capture people's interest. Which I fail to understand.

VS System allows you to use your favourite heroes, villains and teams in Marvel comics and DC comics, with a few others such as Hellboy. But mostly Marvel and DC. Today I found a card shop that sold this X-men starter deck for $10 (it was $15 long ago) and this deck box which was actually not for sale because the guy did not know how much it would cost now. That is how old this game is.

I like the Justice League deck box! Artwork by Alex Ross! Saw a guy having this a few months back and now I finally got one for myself!

To talk about this card game, I decided to show this starter deck as an example. I already bought one of this way back, but I decided to buy one more... just for fun. Anyway, in this box holds 2 decks, ready-made in a sense. Why I say so is because this game actually needs you to have a deck of 60 cards, which I think is slightly overkill. I mean, how the hell do I shuffle 60 cards? The box contains 26 cards per deck. The 2 decks are X-men and Brotherhood. Apparently, this set came out when the first X-men film was released. Hence you will notice that most of the characters given in the decks are same to the ones that appeared in the film. Thankfully, the artworks use the costumes of the comics-counterparts.

I won't go through the how-to of this card game, but I'll share about it in general. You can use any characters from any team, such as Brotherhood, and even have a deck containing multiple teams as long as you have team-up cards to allow team bonuses to be shared. I could team up the JLA with the Avengers if I wanted to. From big guns like Superman and Captain America to smaller ones like Morlocks and Outsiders, VS System covers a lot of the Marvel and DC universes.

Through the years VS System tried to give itself a fresh look in terms of card design in order to keep people interested and attract new players. However they must have failed badly because the card game was discontinued a few years back. I have to admit, Singapore did not really promote this game. I only could buy the newer sets from a particular comic shop called Comic Mart at Raffles City, which closed down eventually. That meant that I could no longer buy the newer sets, and had to stick with the older ones which can still be found at card shops around the island.

Every character has multiple versions, hence you can have more of your favourite character in the deck. Take Magneto, for instance. I've 2 different versions of the level 7 Magneto, both with different effects but still just as fearful.

There are many teams to make, such as JLA, Gotham Knights, Teen Titans, X-men, Ultimates, Spider-Friends, Sinister Syndicate, Gotham Inmates, Fantastic Four, Brotherhood, Hellfire Club, Green Lanterns and Avengers. I'm not sure why, but I purchased many of the cards for collecting. I bought boxes of booster packs from many series and many starter decks just to see what cards I'd get and add to my collection.

I made plenty of decks with the cards I got, but I never found anyone to play with. Nobody seemed to play this game, and hence I could only look at the cards and admire their beauty. I think VS System would be better if it was promoted more, their rules a tad simpler, and the deck size reduced to 30. I've been making my decks of 30 cards because I feel that 30 is enough for a game to last. I presume the 60-card size is to merely make chances of getting the cards you want less to... make the game more challenging? I don't know. Either way, as a comic book fan, I feel that this game actually had the potential, but somehow failed horribly due to dumb luck or something. Even the PSP game, Marvel Trading Card Game, was not well-received. And the cards given were the old ones with the new ones only obtainable from downloadable content(which I couldn't get because by the time I tried, the website was closed down).

BATMAN BEYOND!!!!! Love this toy ^^