Category: Misc

Dragon Fortress Top 10 Toys of 2023

My Top 10 Toys of 2023

On By thedragonfortressIn Gundam, Misc, Star Trek, TMNT, Transformers5 Comments

Hi, welcome back. It’s time to share my top 10 toys of 2023 with you. Better late than never, right? At the end of the post, I also have a little life update for you, which you can skip if you’d like. But I’m still alive and still thinking about this silly website.

Here are the parameters for this top 10– all of these toys came out in 2023 (or close to it), and older toys I bought last year don’t count. If older toys did count, almost none of these items would make this list. But there’s still some good stuff here!

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Mutagen Men Toycast

Introducing The Mutagen Men Toycast

On By thedragonfortressIn Misc2 Comments

Hello friends!

I’m pleased to announce I am cohosting a new toy-themed podcast– a toycast, if you will.

Your hosts are:

We are The Mutagen Men and this is our Mutagen Men Toycast.

You can find our official home base and website here.

Our first episode is a doozy.

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Site Updates: Russian Funskool Mainframe and Even More MOTU Origins

On By thedragonfortressIn GI Joe, Misc2 Comments

Hi there!

I promise I’m working on a full review, but I didn’t finish the photography before I had to leave town for family-related issues again.

But I do have some fun stuff for you anyway. These are a couple things I’ve been saving for a rainy day, and I believe this qualifies. Well, it’s more of a windy day, really– as I’m writing this, we’re having 65mph gusts. Fun stuff.

Today I’ve got an in-depth look at a Russian Funskool figure for you, along with even more modern day barbarians and wrestlemen.

Continue reading “Site Updates: Russian Funskool Mainframe and Even More MOTU Origins” →

Indefinite Hiatus

On By thedragonfortressIn Misc2 Comments

Hi there. Thanks for sticking with me.

As you know if you’ve been following me, my mother is very sick. She is not getting better. I’m returning to my hometown again to help take care of her. There are more people helping out this time around, but I still don’t know what that looks like.

This time I will not be taking any toys or other fun things with me. I have reserve photos taken for maybe three more posts, which I may publish as I find time. There’s a chance I won’t have the time or bandwidth to do those, either, though.

I love writing and taking photos for this website and I’ve loved connecting with all of you. I do plan to return to it as soon as I can, but I don’t know when that will be. Last time I asked others to step in and help me out, but I don’t think it’s fair to do so again.

I’ll be back as soon as I can, but I don’t have a time estimate.

Thank you again for everything.

My Top 10 Toys of 2021

On By thedragonfortressIn Beast Wars, Misc, Transformers1 Comment

Contrary to what some people may believe, I do buy some modern toys. I didn’t buy too many toys in general this year, though. But since I bought at least 10, I thought we could close the year out by looking at some of my favorites.

I ripped this idea off of my friend Drac. I saw him do one and had to do my own.

My list won’t be as varied as his, since basically the only modern toy lines I collect are either MOTU or Transformers related. I also like Spin Master’s Batman line quite a bit, but none of those toys quite made this list.

There’s also no GI Joe on this list because I didn’t buy any of Hasbro’s newer GI Joe stuff this year. That blue HISS looks kind of fun, though.

Anyway, let’s get into it.

Continue reading “My Top 10 Toys of 2021” →

I was on the Diary of a Dorkette Podcast!

On By thedragonfortressIn MiscLeave a comment

Hey everyone. No new review post today. Sorry about that.

But in an excellent bit of timing, my friend Miss M just posted the episode of her podcast I was a guest on. We talked about toy store encounters, stealthily buying toys when we were teenagers, text-based online roleplaying games, and gently antagonizing toy fans. Plus, we both list our top 5 favorite 90s toy lines and talk about a Very Important Spreadsheet we’re starting. What more could you want?? Listen below or use this link to catch the episode.

I had the most fun ever being on this podcast and I hope you enjoy it, too.

And please check out Miss M’s website, Twitter, and Instagram for all of her great content. She is easily one of the most creative, funny, and kind people in the entire online toy community. It was a huge honor to work with her.

2001 Jack in the Box Kids Meal Max Steel Toys

2001 Jack in the Box Kids Meal Max Steel Toy Review

On By thedragonfortressIn Misc9 Comments

2001 Jack in the Box Kids Meal Max Steel Toys

In 2001, I was going to Jack in the Box a lot. Not only did one of my friends work there, but it was also the New Hotness in town. Previously, we only really had McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway, Wendy’s, and some regional-type places like Arctic Circle.

In 2001, there was also something of a 12″ doll renaissance going on. The Toys R Us shelves were packed with Action Man, Max Steel, GI Joe, 21st Century Toys, BBI, and The Corps! in Barbie Doll scale. I would browse those toys every time I visited, but I never bought any.

Action Man and Max Steel also had pretty prominent Saturday morning cartoons at the time. When I saw the commercials for the cartoons (or, rarely, even caught the shows themselves), I liked the designs. I also thought the toys had some good stuff going on. But I never bought any, as I was much more into 3.75″ scale dolls and dolls that transformed into either vehicles or techno-organic beasts.

But, one day at Jack in the Box, I noticed they had a Max Steel Kids Meal toy line going on. I purchased one of the toys along with my traditional two tacos and Big Cheeseburger (how I miss that menu item).

A couple years ago, I got some of the other toys in the series, both because they are cool and because they aren’t really documented anywhere on the internet.

So here’s a quick review of (most of the) Jack in the Box Max Steel Kids Meal toy line from 2001.

GI Joe fans, you might actually be interested in this.

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