Sep 25, 2011

The Lost and damned ballad of Grand Theft Auto IV

Not every title can be that creative, but I'm gonna go over GTA IV: The Complete Collection! (GTA IV, The DLC games: The Lost and the Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony)

Liberty City has Changed! While it was different in the last two games that its setting was LC, this time it has changed A LOT!!

This new Liberty is a whole New York... I mean World... more NYC like than the Previous LC, but that was not the only change...
The game engine is completely different, but it has SOME familiarity. We got a new ability, duck and cover. The cars are handled a bit more realistically, but it kinda feels a bit like San Andreas... but more realistic, set in Liberty city, etc.

OK, let's begin with the Story of all 3 games (They intertwine)... I'll try to remain as spoiler free as possible... (It's a slightly older game, but It's current gen s I've got to keep the spoilers to a minimum!)
GTA IV: You are Niko Bellic an Eastern European who just got off the Boat on Liberty City. Your Cousin Roman has been telling you about how AWESOME America is and how he is living the dream and all that... Which is Pure BS as you find out. He has his own business, a taxi depot and then everything, in classic GTA fashion goes to Hell... Now you have to move through the seedy underworld of Liberty City to save your cousin's butt and for your own personal reasons.

The Lost and Damned: You are Johnny Klebitz, the Vice President of the Lost Gang, Alderney Chapter. The President of the Lost, Billy Grey gets out of rehab and everything goes to Hell... The shaky truce with the Angels of Death (a rival Biker gang), is no more, then the whole Niko Storyline seems to bleed into Johnny's story.

The Ballad of Gay Tony: You are Luis Lopez, bouncer of the Popular club Maisonette 9, owned by "Gay Tony" Prince. Your boss took a loan from the wrong people (read: Mobsters) and everything has gone to Hell. Now you must work with the people that are part of Liberty City's Underworld. Just like in GTA IV:TLAD, your storyline will be "invaded" by Niko's Story.

The 3 Games combined give you a better look at Niko's Storyline and see the whole picture.

Now for the score on Story: (1= awful, while 10 = AWESOME)
GTA IV: 7
I liked the Niko Story, but it takes a while for it to hook you. The biggest shocker is that out of the many decisions made throughout the game ONE has a HUGE effect on the ending... (There are two endings)
The Lost and Damned: 4
I have to be honest, the Story of TLAD was not it's strongest point. Mostly because it was the First Downloadable Content for GTA IV... That must be the reason.
Ballad of Gay Tony: 6
While it begins very late in the Niko Storyline, BOGT has some glamour and feels more like a previous Generation GTA game. It almost feels like a FULL GAME on it's own unlike TLAD

THE GAMEPLAY:
Remember that I mentioned the duck and cover, the more realistic driving? Well, that's about what GTA IV brings to the table for the action segments. You can watch TV in your safehouse, the phones have much more interaction, heck you can even surf the web on the game (useful for main missions, side missions)

The Lost and Damned has some extra tricks up its sleeve aside the normal GTA IV stuff:
-Health boosts while riding in convoy.
-Gang Warfare, where you fight to prove the badassness of your gang (and to get rid of opponents)
-Toughness stat to improve your fellow bikers and get them better weapons
-New mini games (arm wrestling, airhockey, hi-low card game)

Ballad of Gay Tony has the same stuff as GTA IV, but it brings:
-Parachutes (You need them for some of the over the top story and side missions you do here... BASE JUMPING IS BACK BABY!)
-Club Management: You do your Bouncer stuff and some overt the top missions for the club.
-Mini games such as dancing, or golf.
-Cage fighting
-Drug wars
-Most importantly Mission Replay mode! (Once you beat the game)
Now for the scores:
GTA IV: 6.5 Obviously, this one is the lowest, since it's the most bare bones of all 3 games... (The other 2 use it as their base and then expand upon) The cover system is good in theory, but the problem is that the execution is a bit buggy. It's not cool to be trapped in a huge firefight when the action of going for cover puts you IN the line of fire!
TLAD: 7 While it adds some elements to expand itself from GTA IV, the whole Convoy health boosts benefits are available in 1-3 missions. The real improvement is in the weapons...
BOGT: 8.5 Now HERE is where we see a huge jump on the improvements on gameplay compared to GTA IV. The Mission Replay mode is the key for making BOGT the best of all 3 games from a gameplay point of view.

Controls, while Heavily linked to gameplay, I study them in a separate category.
All games have the same controls so this one will be a general rating for all 3 of them:
The controls are similar, yet a bit different than previous GTA games. They take a little while to get used to. (Especially the in-vehicle controls... and shooting while driving)
6

Sounds, Music and voice-acting would be the next category to review.
The Voice acting and sound effects are about the same as expected in a GTA game... but without the huge list of Big time celebs like in past games.
Now the Music, that's a different story. I pretty much stuck to the following stations:
Vladivostok FM with it's Eastern European Music (Which suits Niko quite well)
Liberty Rock Radio with it's classic rock... Not too fond of LCHC's Hardcore Rock, although I alternated with these two while Playing The Lost and The Damned (cause it suits Johnny) I'd say may ratio was 6:4 with LCHC being the 4
San Juan Sounds: UGH! I Hatehatehatehate!Reggaeton and Bachata... guess which station has them? Only ONE sound saved this station for me in Ballad of Gay Tony... Suavemente by Elvis Crespo... but this station suits Luis Lopez. (But personally, I stick to Vice City FM)
I've heard snippets of other stations (Mostly Integrity 2.0 which is Lazlow's station) Haven't heard EVERYTHING yet...

I'd say that overall the audio department gets a 9 cause there is a bit for almost everyone... Nearly died the first time I heard Goodbye Horses while on a mission...
(thoughts of Buffalo Bill come to mind)

Last but not least, the Graphics:
What can I say about them, The GTA games are not well known for their beautiful character models, which still rings true here, but the game's beauty is in the main character itself... Liberty City. Obviously the PS3 and Xbox 360 can handle better graphics than the previous generation consoles, so GTA IV DOES look better.

and at least this time the characters don't have bread loaves for hands!
I'd say a 7...
Now for the Overall score:
GTA IV: 7.1
TLAD: 6.6
BGOT: 7.3

The Complete Collection: 7

I wouldn't say they're bad games, it's just that after San Andreas giving the player so much freedom, the more restricted world and gameplay in IV hurt the score a bit...

Sep 23, 2011

odds and ends Sep. 23, 2011

News are getting weirder and weirder every day... Like a Broadway actor breaking the Jaw of a Professional Wrestler! Sure, that Actor may be also known as The Best there is at what he does and what he does ain't pretty.
Ziggler Tweeted that he might be really hurt after the Impressive FALCON PUNCH! from this actor...

Really Dinsey, Really? Disney is going to make a park within a park... Disney is making a mini park in Animal Kingdom... And the park is based on a Pocahontas Rip-Off, but with 10-foot tall CGI cats.

Really? If they're making a James Cameon land, then why don't we do it based on his BETTER MOVIES!!
Terminator Land or Titanic Land...

I ain't afraid of NO Sub! Mattel killed the Ghostbusters Sub... Without warnings or anything... While the DC sub had all the Thermometer BS, and got reopened a few times, but not the GB sub... Now they will make LESS figures than before and will be MORE Expensive... (I understand the whole rising costs on everything, but why not reopen the subs like they did with the others?) They should open a new sub with the new cost and amount of figures.
I'd normally make a rant on why the GB sub doesn't work, but I don't feel like rubbing it on GBfans' faces... Long Story short, Mattel's lack of desire/resources to spend on ghosts would require to pad the line with too many variants of the GB, thus making the interest wane... like it happened in 2002-2004 with MOTU, Batman and Harry Potter... Seriously how can you screw up Batman!?

Sep 17, 2011

IT came from the Toy Chest: I don't want to be banished!

Or thrown in a Dungeon, or Banished and then imprisoned in the place I was Banished to...

Like That...
Yes, I finally got Princess Celestia!

Huh!? What's this!? I can't start the review and I already got Trolled by Celestia...


Heck! I haven't been that Trolled since Swift Wind...

Problem?

Alright, here's the Princess...
Before I start the review, let's take a look at the package. We already saw the Front, with the pink horse and stuff... while a picture of the White Celestia is looking at you with a smile. The inside is decorated like a beautiful Background shot of Canterlot that you can actually see once you take Celestia out of the equation. Now let's take a look at the back. We get some blurbs of info like: Her action features, some of her quotes, AND a picture of a Little girl playing with Celestia. As if Hasbro needed to remind people that Celestia is a toy for Little Girls... (sorry fellow bronies, Hasbro hates us...) While the little girl is having fun with Celestia, the ones TRULY having fun are her parents... Who will keep reminding her of this

Wait a minute! Look at the pic again... The one of the back of the box... HER CELESTIA IS PALER THAN MINE!! That one looks almost WHITE!! Grrrr....

I should get on to the review part before I get sent to the Moon!
Y'all already know the standard ratings, 1 = bad and 5 = good!
Articulation:
The Princess has 3! Three points of Articulation! Her head and her wings (but those work through an Action Feature... more on that later.) Standard curve she's get a 1.5 But using the MLP curve she gets a 5!
Paint and Sculpt:
She's pretty much molded in PANK! Not quite Pinkie Pie Pink, but close... The eyes and cutie mark are tampographed. The "Shoes" are painted in a darker pink... almost Magenta.
Aside from being in the WRONG colors, (Including the hair) they did a decent job on her. Also her Necklace covers the only visible screw on the toy (The one used to change the batteries).
4.0
Accessories:

She's got the Brush, The Tiara and Necklace (Removable) and 4 barettes! No animal sidekick on the Princess. So this would give her a rough 4.0

Action Features:


While this part won't count for her overall score, If I were to rate them she gets a 3.0
The wings glowing look pretty cool and I like the wing flapping action... (gives some movement to these static ponies.) Now the one thing I DESPISE! is her voice and quotes! Not Celestia-esque at all... That is the curse of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
The show is made for all audiences, the toys are made for Little girls.
Overall Score:
3.17 The Princess scored pretty high even with the Limited Articulation and wrong colors... It's not like I'm going to put her on display with my MOTUc, but she does look great with the Mane Six! (If there was a Target in my Area, I would've gotten Princess Luna... Damn you Target Exclusives!!)



I'll do the Pony curve then...
She gets a 4 Blame the Voice Action Feature for losing a bit of points here...

Sep 14, 2011

Filmation is possible in MOTUC: Who'd make my list?

The Shadow Weaver reveal at SDCC 11 was the Filmation surprise that some people kinda knew it was coming... (Making HER the Sub exclusive was the only bad news...) Now here's a list of Filmation Characters that I'd like to see and a list of characters I definitely DO NOT want to see... (I'm not doing a Jetlag list since it would be Crita, Sebrian, Mara, Drissi, Caz, NA Adam and the 4 Scientists) This list will not contain Filmation Variants of MOTU characters... Cause Mattel said no to those, but yes to Filmation versions of POP characters

Let's start with the Wants:
Image Detail
Melaktha: Heroic Royal Archeologist
He's like the Indy of MOTU, but a bit closer to real archeologists than Indy. Also he's had Multiple appearances on the series, which could help him get made.

Kothos:
Like Melaktha, the Evil Wizard Kothos had More than one appearance. He would require a Larger body to be sculpted, which translates into less chances for him getting made... Still I would want him.
The Trollans (Uncle Montork and Dree-Elle)


You might think, "Hey that's cheating!" but to be fair, Orko is nothing more than an accessory... These 2 reuse Orko's body and would require only one or 2 newly sculpted pieces... per Trollan. Also they've got more than one appearance... Montork could easily be one of the Overlords of Trolla.


Shokoti: Evil Dark Goddess
She only had ONE appearance, but it was in the Popular 2 part Episode: The House of Shokoti
The Dark Goddess has a decent group of followers... She'd be Perfect in a 2 pack with the Following character on my list!


Masque: Shokoti's Devout Evil Servant
As I said on Shokoti, Masque is a requirement to have her. Personally I'm not THAT fond of the chracter, BUT he IS a necessity in the same way that we NEEDED a Marlena figure. As you can see he seems pretty easy to do (toywise) as he'd reuse a LOT of parts!

Image Detail
Sea Hawk
He's the Jack Sparrow of POP... Bow ates him because he's stealing his thunder... Also he looks like Jonny Quest's Dad!! Dammit! Now I have the Quest theme playing on my head! He's also had more than one appearance...

The Starchild:
She'd probably be an accessory given her size. she's also got more than one appearance on her side.

Image Detail
Scorpia: The Pinching... uh beauty?
She's PoP and Horde... in the words of Charlie Sheen: Bi-Winning!
Image Detail
Octavia: I'm sorry but I can't give her a PoP tagline since they involve pretty stuff...
Horde Octopus chick... I've seen enough hentai to know where this is going... and it probably involves my MOTUC shelves...

Image Detail
Madame Razz (with Broom)
They are part of the few others who know Adora's Secret... It's about time that we get these 2...

Now for the ABSOLUTE DO NOT WANTS!!

The Spirit of Evil
He's supposed to be Satan or something... Look at him, now you see why I don't want him in MOTUC!? He looks like a flaming turd! I would take LOKUS (The winged orangutan thing)


Crackers the Clown:
No, just don't... Must resist temptation and avoid mentioning that his head kinda looks like a penis...

Zagraz: The Comet Keeper
He's got apparently 2 appearances, but his design is too generic and I don't find him appealing.

The Widgets:

Too Hobbit-wannabes for my tastes... They also have a He-Signal to call He-Man... Kinda like Batman...

Plundor Teh Spoiler
Half Bugs Bunny, Half Captain Planet Villain... Guess why I don't want him...

There's more Filmation characters, some I like, others that I'm indifferent to... As they say "What might be right for you, may not be right for some"... Some may agree, others may disagree but those are my top wants and DO NOT wants from Filmation!

Sep 11, 2011

IT Came from the Toy Chest: Applebucking Champion

Finally, Applejack will get her review! Spike will help me this time once more...



Alright, we already know that 1=Crap and 5=Awesome, so let's begin with the review!
Articulation:
Like all the other Ponies AJ only has 1 POA... that translates to a 1 in my normal scale and using the MLP curve she gets bumped to a 4
Paint and Sculpt:
Applejack is pretty much reusing Pinkie Pie's head and body, but in AJ colors and AJ hair... and with AJ specific Tampos... So far she's THE MOST show accurate Pony out of the Mane 6... (Lack of AJ freckles aside) 4
Accessories:

She has The Comb, the Saddle and Wynona... Who actually looks show accurate for a change...

Thanks for this Obvious Statement AJ... Waitaminute!? Where's your hat!?

OH COME ON!! I'm starting to think that Hasbro is doing this on Purpose... 3
Overall:
2.67 Articulation and lack of hat hurt her... but

Alright, using the Pony curve AJ gets a 3.67 She basically tied with Rarity... AJ's NOT going to like this...

Sep 10, 2011

IT Came from The Toychest: I can't send my letters to Celestia!?

I was going to save Twilight Sparkle for Last, but some delays with Applejack...

(Meaning that I've got the Mane Six)
caused this small shift on reviews, thus Twilight Sparkle... huh huh! is going to get reviewed First... Spike, the Baby Dragon will NOT be assisting me today...

That duty will go today to Owlowiscious

or however his name is spelled...
Now Roll Some Twilight Sparkle clips!

OK well let's start with the review... as always 1 = Needs a lot of Love and Tolerance and 5= is already 20% cooler...

Articulation:
As said in every pony review I've made: As action figures they would suck and get a 1! As Ponies, they do OK since the lack of Articulation comes since G1... 4

Paint and Sculpt:
She's like Rarity, sculptwise... but in light purple... though it looks like a muted fuschia... Once again Hasbro failed to make her cartoon accurate. Her mane is Dark Purple, Pink, Dark Purple... not Pink, dark Purple, Pink! 3...
Accessories:


She has her comb, duh! She has her saddle for... Wait this bird is NOT Owlowiscious!! and Where the Hell is SPIKE!?

Sonofa B- I mean Dammit! dammit! dammit!I need to get a playset AND a second Twilight Sparkle!? Aw Hell No! You know that THIS is gonna cost Twilight some points...
2
Overall:
She gets a 2 That was mostly to the lack of cartoon accuracy and the Spike screw up...

Using the Pony curve she gets a 3... She should've and could've been better, but she isn't...

Aww dammit! This makes me want to change her score once again...

Dear Princess Celestia:
Today I learned that Hasbro does not give a rat's flank about making cartoon accurate Ponies. They even got Your Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle wrong! I will love and Tolerate the ponies for what they are, but Hasbro needs to be more accurate with these things... I don't see them screwing up the Joes, Transformers or Star Wars... Please help them learn this lesson.
Your random babbling Student, Nefty

Sep 7, 2011

Action Figure Woes: The Nostalgia Trap

Looks like it's THAT time again... A Mattel rant... Well more of a MOTUC rant, cause Hurricane Hordak, Battleground Evil Lyn are coming... and cause of some figures that have come before them like Clawful, Grizzlor, Buzz-Off, or Whiplash... Before anyone thinks that this is a Pro Anime Hyperdetail argument; please stop... It is not...
Yes, MOTUC's goal is to join ALL the lines within a Vintage inspired look. Hence the whole Classicizer Machine and all that crap... I understand that, but it seems that Mattel/The 4 Horsemen have painted themselves into a corner by Adhering to Much to the unwritten rule that states: "If it was made that way in the 80s it shall be made that way in MOTUC".

Look at Buzz-Off... Do you see something wrong with his head? His antennae... They are slicked back... This was made this way in the 80s due to sculpting/mold limitations, yet in 2010 Buzz-Off was still sporting that awful 80s limitation... The 4 Horsemen HAVE made a Buzz-Of with Antennae standing tall and proud WITH his Helmet being usable... Why is Buzz-Off with slicked back antennae? The Nostalgia trap...

What is The Nostalgia trap? It's when they try to be SO FAITHFUL to the Original designs that they KEEP the flaws and 80s limitations even when they can go beyond the 80s toy...
Like King Hssss not getting the larger snakes. Sculpting USELESS dials on figures, Buzz-Off's slicked back antennae, etc.
Throwing NODS to the original figures is fine and dandy, but going out of the way to recreate stuff that is UNNEEDED (and in some cases doing it inaccurately) well, that sucks big time...

The approach to the dials should've been the same approach used for Leech's mouth... His face STILL looks vintage, but he does NOT have the Vintage Suction cup... that sucks... (pun not intended)
If the Hordak dial had been turned into a spine of spikes that vaguely resembled a dial, then this part of the rant wouldn't be here... Cause Hordak would have a nod to his vintage figure that does NOT ruin the sculpt... I'm worried about Tunglashor, Terror Claws Skeletor or Marlena...

Now the next part of this rant: BAttleGround Evil Lyn... or BAGEL for short...
He-Fans and She-Ravers,

Ever since we announced the new version of Evil Lyn coming out this fall, their has been a lot of questions over her design and look. To understand this better we went straight to the mouth – the Four Horsemen’s mouth that is. We talked with them and Terry Higuchi from Mattel design to understand the inspiration for this new version of Evil Lyn.

TERRY: Part of the feel and look of the vintage MOTU line has always been the strategic use of shared parts (Stinkor and Mer-Man anyone?). To help capture that feel in MOTUC, we very deliberately use shared parts in MOTUC even when sometimes a new part could be called for. Bow and Optikk are both great example of this. It is part of the look and feel of the brand.

FOUR HORSEMEN: When designing Battleground Evil Lyn, we used a combination of new parts (new head, cape) along with thought-out reuse parts (tunic, Catra hand) to capture the charm and nostalgia that reuse parts evoke uniquely with MOTU. While we are always trying to go the extra mile for fans, sometimes our efforts do not jive with what the fan base is looking for (She-Ra 1.0's mask attachment, Space Explorer Marlena in Green are good examples).

Fans have also asked why the new 2.0 female buck was not used for Evil Lyn. At the time this figure was being sculpted the 2.0 body was not developed yet. We knew that it was coming, but it didn't exist for us to work off of. With this in mind we felt that it would be better to go with this simpler version rather than sink a lot of tooling into a version that didn't have waist articulation, better hip function, etc. If we used up the tooling now, it may have killed the chance to do a version that 100% satisfies all of the fan requests. Now that the 2.0 body has been created and worked into the line, the door is open to do this version in the future.



TERRY: Clearly fans are looking for more new parts on a grey skinned Evil Lyn. We will certainly take this into account when looking at future variants of the evil warrior goddess. There are lots of ways we can update her down the road and just as we did a She-Ra 2.0 and multiple versions of He-Man, Evil Lyn is clearly a popular enough character to warrant multiple versions.While we do not have another version of Evil Lyn on the books anytime in the immediate future, don't count her down for the count. She could very well be back when you least expect it!



------

Hope that cleared up some design choices and we can't wait to see what the Horsemen are working on next!

See you all at Power Con on Sept 24th and 25th!

Matty


Alright, that's Mattel's long winded explanation trying to justify BAGEL... (Which happened after the pro-200X fans/customers complained...

Especially after Scott Toyguru Neitlich promised that a 200X Evil Lyn "would be much more then a repaint"...
Yes, the THEN instead of THAN is intentional... (to capture the TG speak as accurate as possible)
So, what is MUCH MORE THAN A REPAINT?

-But Toyguru said that this is NOT 200X Evil Lyn!

Look at the signs, she WAS MEANT TO BE 200X Evil Lyn, until the fans/customers complained...
*Her Skin Color is reminiscent of the 200X version.
*No Screech.
*Her clothes are in a 200X-ish palette.
*Her Extra head is 200X inspired.
The only thing missing is her 200X dress

TERRY: Part of the feel and look of the vintage MOTU line has always been the strategic use of shared parts (Stinkor and Mer-Man anyone?). To help capture that feel in MOTUC, we very deliberately use shared parts in MOTUC even when sometimes a new part could be called for. Bow and Optikk are both great example of this. It is part of the look and feel of the brand.

Wait, what!? This almost sounds like another instance of the NOSTALGIA TRAP!! Going for the Evil Lyn= Teela repaint vintage angle... TG can't come and use the Classicizer Machine here cause look at the Faceless One... He IS wearing Evil Lyn's 200X dress... and it didn't become Teela's dress... Which is the MAIN Reason why people wanted a 200X Evil Lyn in the first place!! Evil Lyn wearing a different dress than Teela... That's what the fans wanted in a 200X Evil Lyn...

TERRY: Clearly fans are looking for more new parts on a grey skinned Evil Lyn. We will certainly take this into account when looking at future variants of the evil warrior goddess. There are lots of ways we can update her down the road and just as we did a She-Ra 2.0 and multiple versions of He-Man, Evil Lyn is clearly a popular enough character to warrant multiple versions.While we do not have another version of Evil Lyn on the books anytime in the immediate future, don't count her down for the count. She could very well be back when you least expect it!

So, let me get this straight... People asking for a 200X Evil Lyn have been saying the same thing ever since the Original EL came out on 2010, yet Mattel never got the memo? But that's OK since they can do MORE Evil Lyn variants in the Future... (and Making BAGEL a pointless variant... I mean Repaint with 2 new pieces...) If they got things right on the first time, there would be no need for further revisits to the character...

I wouldn't be surprised If Mantenna is made as a two legged character because of the Nostalgia Trap...

Sep 6, 2011

It Came from the Toy Chest: Is she a Pony or a Tree?

Fluttershy is here everypony! As always I borrowed Twilight Sparkle's #1 Assistant: Spike the baby dragon to help... Roll the Flutterclips Spike!






As always, 1 = crap and 5 = Something more awesome than the Grand Galloping Gala!
Articulation:
Fluttershy only has 1 Point of Articulation and is due to the rooted hair. I already complained about the Ponies' lack of articulation before. Almost 30 years and no improvement in the POA!As anAction Figure collector Fluttershy would get a 1 here... but since it's the MLP Standard that would translate to a 4 in a MLP collector scale.

Paint and sculpt:
Well there's not much to talk here... She's pretty much molded in light yellow and the extra stuff is tampographed. Her sculpt is similar to the standard MLP stuff... Although she's got a permanent Wingboner... Now that's more of a Rainbow Dash thing... The rooted hair makes her look Completely NOT show Accurate... She's close but something is missing. 3
The plot must be very interesting...

Accessories:

Here's where Show accuracy has been thrown off the window... Why is Fluttershy pulling a carriage!? She'd probably be too afraid of it... Is that bunny supposed to be Angel?

She also has a comb... 2

Overall:
Fluttershy gets a 2.0 As always lack of Articulation and missing on show accurate stuff hurt her score...

Alright! I'll use the Pony curve!!
3.0
The lack of show accuracy hurt her score a bit... but with the pony curve she scored a lot higher...

Sep 5, 2011

IT Came from the Toy Chest: My Destiny is a ROCK!?

Yes, It's that time again... Time for MOAR PONIES!! This time teh Poneh in question is:
Spike, Drumroll...


Miss Rarity herself!!


Now, Spike don't overdo it with Rarity clips...


As always, 1 = crap and 5 = Something more awesome than the Grand Galloping Gala!

Articulation:
Rarity only has 1 Point of Articulation and is due to the rooted hair. I already complained about the Ponies' lack of articulation before. Almost 30 years and no improvement in the POA!As an Action Figure collector Rarity would get a 1 here... but since it's the MLP Standard that would translate to a 4 in a MLP collector scale.

Paint and sculpt:
Well there's not much to talk here... She's pretty much molded in White and the extra stuff is tampographed. Her eyes are tampographed and Look like Rarity's unlike somepony who has a wingboner... Her sculpt is similar to the standard MLP stuff...The rooted hair makes her look Completely NOT show Accurate...she's got two different shades of Purple AND it looks a bit off...
4

Accessories:
Here's where Show accuracy has been thrown off the window... Where is Opalessence, her cat... How can she be the Crazy Cat lady if she doesn't even have her cat!?
A Bird!? Somepony at Hasbro needs to watch the show more often...

She also has a comb... 3
Overall:
Rarity gets a 2.67 Lack of Articulation and show accuracy hurt her score...

Alright, she gets a 3.66 after using the My Little Pony curve (Cause Rarity begged me to change it... after whining about it for a while...)


She DOES look like a Marshmallow...

Sep 3, 2011

It Came from the Toy Chest: He really has what his name says

Man-E-Faces has arrived and boy, this fig is AWESOME!!
He CAN do his face changing thing... so he is MAN! ROBOT! Or MONSTER!! One of My Favorite MOTU Toys has gotten the Classics Treatment!!

So let's get on with the Review part: 1 = crap and 5 = Awesome!!

Articulation:
Man-E-Faces has Almost the standard articulation from a MOTUC figure... (His head loses some due to his large helmet.)
4.0
Paint and Sculpt:
His sculpt is based on the old school card back look instead of the vintage toy. His color scheme is based on the Vintage toy minus the Snookie Orange skin... Sadly mine had a glop of purple paint in his inner thigh... But why is his head removable if I can't mix and match with other figures... M-E-F's head does not work on other figs and the heads from other figs don't work on him...
4.0
Accessories:
He has his Vintage gun, whose handle is a bit too thick for the right hand, but too thin for the left hand... He also has a second head with 3 new faces...
2.0
Overall:
3.33 Personally I think the Extra head was what hurt Man-E-Faces a lot more than the purple glob on his inner thigh... Then there's the impossibility of using other heads on him... I think that they should've gone with the Man-E-Weapons... That we got on the Weapons Rack...

Sep 2, 2011

Odds and ends Sept 2, 2011

Damn! In one week it'll be 10 years since 9/11...


Yeah, 9/11 sucked... Lots of Death, Terrorists, Gulf War part deux, all that stuff... But no one got
the short end of the stick more times than Spider-Man!


The Post 9/11 version had a bridge between the Towers to make it NOT the World Trade Center...


Spidey and the WTC... Was there something else that got changed due to 9/11?

IIRC there was a scene in MGS 2 that got the Ax due to 9/11...
Now that I got 9/11 stuff out of the way let's move on to other stuff...

Thundercats Frigging ROCK!! I saw a MonStar Cameo today... and Tigersharks...

Sadly it was in the past... Hopefully we'll have some more Silverhawks Cameos instead of Mandora the Judge Dredd Rip-Off...


For this next bit I'll play a clip from Jay and Silent Bob Strike back

This dude gives the term Trouser Snake a whole new meaning... Ugh! What an idiot!

Looks like I'll have to overcompensate this month for falling short in August...