ToyBoss/Toybox – The toy photo galleries have been redone and now share a bit of code with the pixel art galleries. Not sure how much you’ll notice on your side of the screen, but hopefully this makes the page load more quickly. It also lets me add a lot of photos that I left out to keep the page’s file size down. Some of the galleries now have different urls, but the old ones should still work, too.
Double Dragon: Syndicate Collectibles: First I got Jimmy Lee and took some new photos of both brothers and some faked enemies. Then I got Willy, the game’s final boss and a beast of an action figure, and took a group pic of all three regular figures. Keeping my fingers crossed that this line continues, especially for Abobo and Linda.
Street Fighter: New heroes group shot including my new Jada Toys Blanka. I’m SLOWLY catching up in this line.
Masters of the Universe: New gallery with three new Masterverse pics.
Marvel Legends: A big group shot of characters who were in the Marvel side of the legendary Mego World’s Greatest Super-Heroes toy line up (except Conan).
DC Comics: added Justice League “original seven” pic and updated heroes pic, including new additions McF Martian Manhunter and Captain Marvel/Shazam.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: updated heroes lineup pic with NECA comic Casey Jones (gray shirt), archive pic of the Pizza Club boxes stacked up.
Wrestling: added an old “everybody I have” photo from March 16th, 2024. Sadly, I didn’t have a figure of Stone Cold then.


The site anniversary is on the 19th of July, but I don’t know what I’ll be able to finish for it because I’ll be working on commissions for a while. I already have a few finished sprites to add and linework already drawn for more, so it definitely won’t be an empty update.


The brand new Warp Point website brings a new school approach to the old school concept of video game website webrings. It groups together the latest updates from a wide, growing variety of video game fansites, and I’m proud to say that the ScrollBoss site was invited to be a part of it, too. With the internet being cluttered with more and more meaningless slop, it’s a great way to find new game sites or be notified that a favorite site recently updated. Their 88 x 31 pixel button (so glad to see that format making a comeback) is now part of this site’s sidebar quick links, and I’ll be adding it to more places soon, so you (and I) and go there and see what the other sites are up to. Really, that’s how it was when I started in the 00s and I’m grateful that someone has brought that back again!


Beatdown City Survivors, the horror-flavored sequel to Treachery in Beatdown City, has been available for a while, and you can get the scoop on the official site!


Once again shouting out the Pizza Kidd pixel art beat ’em up Kickstarter, fighting its way to the finish line, so please help out if you can!


Kimimi made a post about getting Escalator Action (not a typo, not a photo manipulation) and I’ve been waiting for that review ever since. That wait is over, so check it out on Kimimi’s blog!

I meant to post this days ago, but I hope any alert is better than none: the toy section update will happen either next Monday or Tuesday. I’ve already taken some roster update pics (two are because of what I showed you in the last update) and I’ll be taking more pics this weekend. You’ll also see the next big coding update for the section that makes the galleries work on the same system, which will let me make bigger toy section galleries.

I’ve gotten even more since then, mostly thanks to sales and gift cards.


Jimmy Lee figure boxed

Jimmy Lee figure boxed

both listed figures on blister card

Hasbro Secret Wars Falcon and ReAction+ Cobra Commander with cape

Mr. Fuji, G.I. JOE Classified Big Boa and Zap, Hasbro Secret Wars Daredevil


All three non-exclusive Double Dragon figures are in the Prime Day sale (I bought mine BEFORE that sale, but during an earlier sale) here. Mr. Fuji was already on sale at Target and I added him to get free shipping for a Bull Nakano pre-order while they were having a $10 off $40 sale, so I got even more $ off. Amazon was price matching that sale, so I ordered Falcon and Cobra Commander there and put some gift card $ on that. Also, Zap and Big Boa were bought in April at BigBadToyStore, but I didn’t have them shipped off until my Daredevil pre-order hit the store last week. So, no, I didn’t buy all this at once for regular price.

I’m going to spoil one that I already post on social media, here’s a shot with “every real Marvel character who was in the MEGO World’s Greatest Superheroes toyline” photo:

Marvel Legends figures of Captain America, Falcon, Green Goblin, Hulk, Human Torch, Invisible Woman, Iron Man, Lizard, Mr. Fantastic, Spider-Man, The Thing, Thor

70s Mego Marvel Comics line-up in Hasbro Marvel Legends figures

I photographed a second take at that group and improved a few things, and you’ll be seeing that one in the update.

“Hey, how close are you to doing that with the DC half of Mego?”
Not even close to half. A fourth, maybe? McFarlane figures can be tricky to get and some of the earlier Mattel and DC Direct figures are expensive on the aftermarket. Let’s see if Mattel makes it easier for me when they get the collector line license back in 2027.


Beatdown City Survivors, the sequel to Treachery in Beatdown City, has been out for a minute or two, get the scoop on the official site!

Once again shouting out the Pizza Kidd pixel art beat ’em up Kickstarter, it’s over the halfway to the goal, so help out if you can!

Kimimi made a post about getting Escalator Action (not a typo, not a photo manipulation) and I’ve been waiting for that review ever since. That wait is over, so check it out on Kimimi’s blog!

The video game world lost one of its greatest pioneers this month with the passing of Yoshihisa Kishimoto. The beat ’em up genre wouldn’t be what it without the intuitive controls and cinematic elements the games he worked on helped define or sharpen.

Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun, its English localization version known as Renegade, and Double Dragon hit arcades with a rawness that was rare at the time, but those games also brought so much more than that, thanks to Kishimoto. As different as the controls from the side-scrolling brawlers made before them, they also felt solid and even second nature after a bit of playing. Even now, there’s a lot of satisfaction in landing a back kick or headbutt in Double Dragon. That was a good thing, as those were some of the first games many of us ever played where it felt like whole crews of sneaky, dangerous enemies were coming at us instead of waves of unthinking drones. It was like being trapped in an 1980s Golden Harvest martial arts flick where every villain was nearly as skilled as the heroes and the only key to survival was a mix of wits, skill, and speed.

Kishimoto’s brawlers had other film-like touches, with enemies and bosses sometimes entering the scene by door, elevator, or demonstrating their strength by punching through a background wall. Kidnappings and rescues happening on the play field kept you in the moment, keeping that feeling that you were in a movie. His earlier game direction gigs included anime FMV games like Thunder Storm/Cobra Command and Road Avenger (player vehicles from both were referenced in the first two Double Dragon games), so cinematic thinking wasn’t new to him.

He also directed fan-favorites in another genre known for fisticuffs and chaos: wrestling. WWF Superstars and WWF Wrestlefest were arcade staples so solid that it was appreciated even outside wrestling fandom. Once again, those controls just felt right and the hits felt solid, making it a perfect game to play with a bunch of friends or strangers at the mall.

He’s been gone for over a week at the time I’m writing this, and it honestly took that long for me to write about him because what he created means that much. I was in my teens when he made these games, and I have a lot of great memories playing these games with friends. The first article in the Minus World section of this site is named after my friend Kenyon yelling, “INTO THE DRINK!” in a perfect Popeye imitation after kicking a biker into the water while playing Renegade. Even when Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Final Fight, and other brawlers were in the limelight at the arcade, I still made sure to stop at the Double Dragon cabinet on the left hand side near the front of the arcade to get in a few more hits. This site probably wouldn’t exist without his work. It feels like he deserves far more than whatever ramblings I’m able to type, and I hope more writers do that for him. Yoshihisa Kishimoto deserves all the tributes he’s been getting and many, many more. Thank you, Mr. Kishimoto.

Sprites:
Captain America and the Avengers: animated flying sprites for the heroes, some enemy drones, partial Giant Robot (Sentinel), and a few more pickup items added.

ToyBoss: I just got the Billy Lee from Syndicate Collectible’s Double Dragon line of 7-inch action figures and took some photos, including some size comparison pics. Updated my Jada Toys Street Fighter roster pic, now that I have Dhalsim and Guile. Now I only need Dee Jay to be 100% caught up on regular figures.

Dreamhost (where my sites’ accounts are hosted) has been doing maintenance all day (and possibly before), so things may be running slowly or not at all. But I uploaded the update a few hours ago just so I could say that I updated on Wednesday like the old days. Maintenance is still going on after midnight and previews for WordPress posts won’t work, so I’m posting what I have now and fix it when everything’s running at full speed again.


Last year I teased a logo for a solo version of a Superhero Sprite Showcase that I planned to just update a little bit, but a rough last half of 2024 kept that (and a lot of other plans) from happening. To make up for being so late with it, I’ve added much more than I’d have done last year and you’ll see that video on the ScrollBoss YouTube Channel next week. A few of those sprites, including some new villains, will be added to the Custom Sprite gallery and image generator. Here’s a preview:


If you need an extra clue, this hero had a sprite added in this week’s update.

It’s the 24th Anniversary of the site, so I’m here with a variety of newness! It’s all game-related, even the comic and cartoon characters are game-specific. Beat ’em ups, platformers, and fighting games are all repped here.

Custom Sprites:
Double Dragon: Abobo (victory pose)
Fighter’s History: new sprite of Fighter’s History series hero Liu Yungmie
Metroid: Mother Brain
Popeye: Popeye the Sailor Man (finally, I know, I know)
Marvel: the Punisher (new pose), female ninjas from Capcom Punisher game

All new custom sprites added to the image generators, except for the really tall Mother Brain sprite, only the shorter version is in there since it seems to work in most big scene situations.

Sprites: the Punisher (more sprites)

Also added or updated in the generators: Akuma/Gouki (Cyber-Akuma sprites)

ToyBoss: I just got my pre-order of the 52Toys Baby Commando figure from HobbyLink Japan in the mail this week and took a picture of the whole squad still on the cards. I’ll be opening them up soon and taking more pics, and I can’t wait because they all look amazing. For now, I’ve added a pic of the crew to the Toyboss page.

I found a comic book article that talks about the really early plans for Data East’s “Avengers in Galactic Storm” and even has pictures of an earlier 3D character model for Captain America in a different style. I put it in a blog post with scans large enough for you to read. You’ll find a lot of interesting info like the earlier roster plans, more confirmation that Iron Man’s home game rights interfered with how he was used in arcade games for years, and the original genre-bending plans for the Story Mode.


Thank you for visiting the site and extra thanks for the people who reply here in the news posts and elsewhere on the internet! Due to offline reasons I didn’t get to do all the things I’d planned (Cadillacs and Dinosars, more SNK stuff in the generators), but I’ll try to work them into future updates. I just want you to know you’ve been heard!

There are a few things that still need to be done (better scans for the Avengers article and putting Popeye’s mini-logo in the gallery, I’ll work on that over the weekend.


added July 20th, 2024:


Popeye had his Ninento mini-logo in the image generators, but it wasn’t in the Toys and ‘Toons mini-logo gallery. now it is, along with a new mini-logo of his 1970s logo with in the 1980 movie colors.

It’s time to wrap-up this year of updates in the usual way: content based on toys from the eighties and some unfinished business!

Custom Sprites:
G.I.JOE: Wild Bill, B.A.T.s
Thundercats: Mumm-Ra
Toys and Cartoons:B.P. Vess (C.O.P.S., all-new sprites), Miles Mayhem (M.A.S.K.)
Double Dragon: the alley cat from arcade version of Mission 1, NES design Billy and Jimmy Lee
DC Comics: Stargirl (yes, I’m going to miss that show)

Mini-Logos: Venom (from Kenner’s M.A.S.K.) added to Toys and Stargirl added to DC Comics

All new custom sprites and mini-logos have been added to the image generators. The main “Fighter-size” generator now an 80s action figure toy aisle in the Group, Vs. and MvC ending screenstyles. It’s still a work in progress, because I spent more time searching for image and scale reference than I did working on it so far. This version’s toys are mainly centered around 1985, the last year the first wave of Transformers were still being made. I’ll continue to update this in the future, and possibly add more versions and years (like a late-eighties version with a big TMNT section) if enough people want to see that. BTW: some of the most helpful reference pics were from this post on 20th Century Toy Collector, because I was able to see how some boxes from different lines of the era scaled next to each other.

ToyBoss: My custom New X-Men/classic Cyclops Marvel Legends figure is done enough to show, so I finally… FINALLY… have a full Konami X-Men playable character roster in 1:12 scale. I’d have had this roster (and others) finished earlier if I didn’t have to practically restart my Marvel Legends collection in 2020. I also added an updated shot of the Red Skull’s crew in Data East’s Captain America and the Avengers to show I’ve got the Controller in there.

Speaking of toys, a lot of my 2023 figure hype is aimed at Jada Toys’ Street Fighter and Mega Man action figure lines. Three figure in each wave and all at a price point that won’t K.O. your wallet, and they’ll fit in with 6-inch/1:12 scale figures, so they’ll be part of my Marvel vs. Capcom set-ups. All the little details, like the Hadoken having hands molded in like the old sprites and one of the two optional heads being based on the Super Street Fighter II Vs. portraits (still some of the best art of those characters), I’m definitely hype for these. Check out this Fwooshcast episode that drops info on these and the other figure lines Jada is working on right now:

Storm Collectables is still putting out Street Fighters, though their figures seem to be in a slightly larger scale than Marvel Legends and closer to Mattel’s Masterverse and McFarlane Toys. It’s great to have options with these and I hope both companies get into more classic video game lines.


It’s time for me to thank everyone who has visited the site this year, and I’m giving a really big thank you to those who commented here, by e-mail (yes, some people do!), and on social media. There are times when my day job has worn me out and I don’t have a lot of energy to do anything when I get home, but things like your feedback, seeing pics you made in the image generators, being surprised when the pixel minilogos pop up in fan projects, and things like that refill my energy again. Take care and see you in 2023!

Hot dang, that’s a lot of twos! This site is going to celebrate that with some new Double Dragon sprites, along with some other twins, including another pair of Technos game twins!

Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee (Double Dragon Advance cover art pose), Skullmageddon (Double Dragon Neon), an update of my 2017 Chin Taimei sprite
Kunio-kun: the Hattori Twins/Dragon Twins (who are based on the Lee Brothers)
Streets of Rage: Onihime and Yasha (a.k.a. Mona and Lisa) had their standing and crouching sprites redone
DC Comics: the Wonder Twins Zan and Jayna (sorry, you’ll have to wait for Gleek)
G.I.JOE: Tomax and Xamot, evil twin brothers!

All new sprites have been added to the main image generator, where you can create graphics like the one at the top of this post!

Finally, because I couldn’t let this day happen without doing this, here’s the Double Dragon Sprite Showcase video!

Stay tuned, there’ll be a “Yo Joe!” update later this week!

There’s going to be a lot of twos February 2022 (02/2022), so I thought the 2nd would be a perfect day to lay out this site’s plans for the month and demonstrate with a few sprites.

Custom Sprites
Double Dragon: Billy and Jimmy Lee nunchaku stance (Super Double Dragon pose)
Street Fighter: all-new scratch-made Balrog (Boxer) in Street Fighter V and G.I.JOE outfits

Those sprites have been added to the GFX Generator, where you can make shots just like the one at the top of this post! The Lee Brothers’ sprites have far more extra palettes there than in the gallery.

Plans for the month:
1.) It’s Black History Month, which is when I make more sprites of Black characters, and that starts here with Balrog.
2.) February 22nd: Double or Nothing day – twos everywhere. Expect twins and Double Dragon-related things. More info soon.
3.) Expect a G.I.JOE update to drop sometime this month to celebrate the anniversary, including some sprites to replace the old sprite edits.

The Beat ‘Em Up Showcade is ready! Okay, the video has been up since yesterday, BUT STILL. I originally planned to have Showcase videos for Double Dragon and Bad Dudes last year, but *shrugs* 2020. You know what I mean. Trying to make them in 2021 didn’t work out for better reasons, so I decided to make a Showcade filled with beat ’em ups. Nothing with an outside license (TMNT, Punisher, X-Men) is in the vid, because the straight-up game content felt a little neglected here lately. Let’s watch the video first, then I’ll break down what was added to the site.


Once again, mad thanks to Wizzy for allowing me to use that amazing BGM track for the video. I’ve had it stuck in my head since I picked it for the video, and it makes me feel like kicking doors open and throwing oil drums at people all day. AVPboy’s music does the same for me, and the added pressure of trying to do justice with their music in the videos pushes me to work harder.

Now for the newness that was added to the site itself!

Custom Sprites:
Crime Fighters: Sledge, Hawk and Boomer from Crime Fighters 2/Vendetta finally get fight stance sprites, Hawk gets a redone taunt to match, and Boomer’s taunt gets a size fix. CF2/Vendetta knife thugs were also added.
Double Dragon: Linda’s earlier two sprites completely redrawn, an extra variation of the taunt was added, and are available in arcade, NES, and DDII designs. The Billy and Jimmy Lee “JPN arcade flyer” poses were updated to fit the newer style Lee Bros. sprites I started adding months ago.
Final Fight: Maki (FF2 fight stance, select pose edited to match newer sprite), Mike Haggar – Saturday Night Slam Masters gear (also added to the Slam Masters gallery)
Growl: Jetgun
Kung-Fu Master: All Five “Sons of the Devil” (a.k.a. the Bosses) get new sprites, and Silvia gets a sprite, too.
Kunio-kun: Kunio (Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun flyer pose)
Renegade (new separate gallery): the Renegade/Mr. K, Sabu
Rushing Beat: Wendy Milan (taunt)
Streets of Rage: Barbon and Jet(SoR/BK 2) added, Skate Hunter updated (made shorter than the 2020 sprites)

All new sprites are now in the image generators, where you can make your own sprite scenes, fake screenshots, etc.

Custom Sprites:
Double Dragon: Abobo and some variations of that sprite were redone, along with Abobo getting a sub-gallery.

Marvel Comics: Avalanche, Batroc, and the Controller.

All these sprites have been added to the main image generator (Avalanche and Controller are in the Marvel Villains character slot).


I took the 2017 sprite, increased the size by 400%, put it in Clip Studio, traced it with a 5px. brush, and exported it at 25%. Clean-up work seems to take a while, but this process is still an experiment for me. I originally used the original NES-ish angle of the head, but decided to draw a forward-looking head alt head to use instead. BTW: this is why I still haven’t finished a spriting tutorial, because my process never stops changing.

A similar process was used to redo some linework I’d drawn and scanned of Avalanche and the Controller, along with remaking Batroc from scratch, and all of them are now in the Marvel gallery. Nearly all the Marvel villain Capcom-based sprite edits I had from the old days. Also made some headway on a Marvel video that I’ve wanted to make for over a decade:

Remember, the first Beat ‘Em Up Showcade video will strike this September, so stay tuned if you want to see more pixel art remakes based on Double Dragon, Final Fight, Streets of Rage, and more!