Nefty's House of Rants

Farewell Whitney...

2012-02-11T21:27:00.003-04:00

Whitney Houston has joined the ranks of people who Haley Joel Osment sees. Ho-Ly Crap!

No one knows the cause of death, but almost everyone is suspecting that it was: Drugs...
and I shall not post the infamous "crack is cheap" clip.

May she rest in peace.

Pinkie Pie is a train conductor... Among other stuff...

2012-02-10T22:31:00.005-04:00

Pinkie Pie is a Train Conductor... Sweet Mother of Celestia! What have they DONE!? Giving Pinkie Pie control of a train is an invitation to chaos... Especially since this train can run off-track... The extra carts are not included with the toy... So you have to rebuy Fluttershy and Sweetie Belle... (If we bought the Fluttershy nursery and the Pinkie Pie/Sweetie Belle Sweets Boutique, that would mean we'd have an EXTRA Pinkie Pie, Sweetie Belle and Fluttershy... after we buy the train versions... Why not Scootaloo? She needs to be more out there aside the School set with Cheerilee... Or maybe more Apple Bloom... OK Scootaloo needs it more than Apple Bloom...)

BTW... WHY IN CELESTIA'S Name, Applejack is having some sort of slumber party with a filly that is NOT her Sister Apple Bloom!? I would've understood if she was with Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle or Scootaloo... Who the heck is Star Dreams? I mean, seriously Hasbro! WTF!?

OH COME ON!! I bought Princess Celestiazilla AND The Twinkling Balloon just to be slapped in the face with this! A Celestia IN-SCALE with my little ponies in lighter Pink (closer to her toon look) a Spike AND A Twilight Sparkle with her Element of Harmony Tiara!? I'm waiting for Derpy and Big Mac...

I'll tell you what went wrong Derpy... Hasbro is almost ignoring characters from the show while making "G4 Versions" of either Older Generation ponies, or just background ponies instead of the supporting characters... I'm surprised that Cheerilee was able to make it... (Well she was important in G3, so maybe that helps her...)

I'll talk about the Valentine's Day Cards on Hearts and Hooves Day... (The Pony Valentine) Until then Stay Bronies...

Spider-Man Spider-Man can he do better than a Tobey can?

2012-02-08T20:51:00.003-04:00

The Trailer for The Amazing Spider-Man was revealed this week... Spike! Roll clip!

That's it... Just by the freeze frame before press play I can start to describe things that worry me about the movie...
-The Suit... Oh my goodness! Once again, you expect me to believe that this kid made this suit at home? Remember that Peter does NOT have a huge amount of money to pay for the high end quality materials for this suit.
Dear Hollywood if you expect us to believe that Peter made this suit on his home on his spare time then:

Thank you Mr. Takei!

-UNMASKED!? Sheesh!This thing of keeping the Actor's face at most times CAN be a tad annoying... Yes, I know that actors use their body to act... non-verbal reactions to express their feelings and all that. Something that they can't convey with a full mask, blah, blah, blah... But Peter Parker's whole mask thing is CAUSE HE WANTS TO PROTECT HIS LOVED ONES FROM DANGER!! Hence the full body suit that leaves no bits of Parker exposed...

But instead it looks like they're going to commit the same mistake as the Sam Raimi Tobey-Man movies...
Showing Parker's face a lot... Also this Peter looks a bit like a Douchebag...

What did I do now!?
The Lizard... Don't get me started on him... Also, Why is he naked!? I mean really... Humanoid Lizard in a lab coat and pants... How hard is that to screw up!?

Now on a more positive side: WEBSHOOTERS!! Now it's cool that Peter's inventive side is shown, but the movie web shooters look to High-Tech and fancy with their lights and stuff.

I will try to watch the movie but so far, I'm not THAT excited for it...

Super Bowl? More like He-Bowl!

2012-02-06T16:26:00.004-04:00

Apparently yesterday was the Super Bowl... Movie Trailers, weird commercials, like Matthew Broderick's Day off... But that's not what I'm here to talk about...
I'm here to talk about the Two things that brought He-Man to my mind...

MetLife has an interesting ad with a ton of Cartoon characters used to promote Life insurance... This is nothing new for them since they've been using Charlie Brown and friends to promote the same thing for ages... This time they went ALL in and brought Voltron, Teh Scooby Gang, Fat Albert and THE MOST POWERFUL MAN IN THE UNIVERSE!! among the characters shown...

3 things bugged me with this ad:

-Why is Fred such an A-Hole?
I mean look at him: Driving the Mystery Machine with Velma... Where is Daphne? (We find out later on the ad.) Or Shaggy and Scooby... That's Right Fred Ditches Shaggy and Scooby to fend off the Ghost... OK it's Casper, but still Fred Drives off with Velma while Shaggy and Scooby have to follow them ON FOOT while running away from a ghost!? It's not like Shaggy said: "Gee Fred, I'll like walk all the way to the meeting point while you drive away in the van!"

-What was Daphne doing with Richie Rich?
In the back of his Limo and Richie's face watching her leave does hint that he may WANT to do some naughty things with her or he TOTALLY DID some naughty things on the back of his limo...

-What the Heck He-Man and Voltron are doing there!?

Now the other thing that drew my attention was Madonna's Dress for the Half-time show...

It kinda reminds me of something...

Hey! I'm not the only one thinking that... Search Twitter for She-Ra and you'll see!

Is he a Turtle, a Lion or a Talking arm? A Very special thanks to Cam Clarke from my Childhood and Beyond!

2012-02-03T19:37:00.005-04:00

I haven't done a special rant about childhood heroes or idols from the 80s... Since the Playmates reveals of Turtley goodness I thought to start with the man behind the 80s Leonardo voice: Cam Clarke, also known as Jimmy Flinders.

Cam Clarke HAS been doing VA throughout the 80s and beyond. Before TMNT, he was Kaneda from Akira, Max Sterling from Robotech, Dirk Daring from G-Force.

Not the crappy guinea pig movie...
My first time hearing Cam Clarke was with TMNT... and he was also Rocksteady on the same show... Funny thing is that in the California Raisins show he plays a character named Beebop... (Both Bebop and Rocksteady are types of music... hmmm...)

He also was part of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes Cartoon playing Igor Smith and Tomacho... Holy crap! I can't believe it! He's EVERYWHERE!!

He Even WAS in Captain Planet... He played a guy named Ooze... heh! am I the only one who finds this funny? A guy who played a Ninja Turtle plays a guy named Ooze!!

He's also done plenty of voice work for Disney TV shows and movies... I'm going to refer to his work as Simba now... He was Simba's singing voice in The Lion King II: Simba's Pride

and Simba on the TV Show Timon and Pumba... (Eventually he'll return as Simba in Kingdom Hearts games...)
Eventually he ends up playing Mr. Fantastic in Spider-Man: The Animated Series (with Quinton Flynn as Human Torch and David Hayter is playing Captain America here... The relevance to this will be revealed soon if the La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo allow it! Forgot to Mention Jennifer Hale as Black Cat!)

Ah yeah! Xenogears... The Tale of Two Leonardos fighting for the love of the Referee from Guts!
Cam Clarke was Krelian here...

Now for the One role many videogamers ARE waiting for me to touch upon...

While Mr. Clarke did a lot of work between the two MGS games (Star Trek stuff, star Wars stuff, He was even Flounder in a Little Mermaid Sequel) everyone wants to talk about Liquid! I mean his performance was a bit hammy and over the top especially with that British accent, but that's WHY people love Liquid that much. I really wish I could have seen Cam Clarke's face when he first read the line "I Live on Through this arm!" There is no way that Cam Clark could top this off now... He was a member of G-Force, a Ninja Turtle, Simba, Mr. Fantastic, Freaking Liquid Snake! He'd need something like the Power of Grayskull to top off all this awesomeness...

Come on! If by now you weren't expecting the 2002 He-Man intro then you haven't been paying attention... I pretty much gave it away...
So let's recap: Cam Clarke has been all that stuff I mentioned AND He-Man too! Holy Crap!
Oh yeah! He was in one of the Steve Oedekerk Thumb movies... The Godthumb playing the Adopted Lawyer Son... I guess Thumb Hagen would be too obvious... The Talking arm is now a talking thumb... This is starting to get freaky man! Skip forward a few years and a lot of projects and we Land on Marvel Ultimate Alliance:
Here he is Thor... DareDevil and Weasel (Deadpool's hacker buddy) He even was Hercules in God of War II... (And Debi Mae West was Atropos... Eithere there aren't that many VAs or the Metal Gear Solid VAs are following each other... Another Tidbit Prometheus was played by Skeletor!! The Original one...)
He also shows up in Star Wars: The Old Republic... Let's see who else is in this...

David Hayter... So the Twin Snakes meet again, eh? Jennifer Hale!? Tasia Valenza!? Paul Eiding!? Quinton Flynn!? Phil LaMarr!? Peter Lurie!? Vanessa Marshall!? Holy ass-crackers this is starting to look like a Metal Gear Solid 1 &2 Reunion! Also Moira Quirk is in this game... (Xenogears) and not to mention Tara Strong (Drawn Together, Fairly Oddparents, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic) OK I will not keep checking out this or I'm going to go into a VA overload!!

All I can say is WHOA! Cam Clarke, you rock!

Tonight I dine on Turtle Soup!! Or some awesome TMNT Toys!

2012-02-01T22:29:00.005-04:00

Cowabunga Dudes!

Guess who's come back in Toy form?
I'll give you a Hint: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Not only that, but the Turtles are taking the Thundercats approach! 2 Lines: One based on the new toon and the other based on the Oldest Toon! (I have to say Oldest, since 2003/FF/BTTS have taken the Old spot) Click on the links to see the original article.

Now here are my thoughts on the new show Turtles Toys:
At first I was disappointed when I read the whole scale of the line is 4.25" to 4.75" that varies between figures... Until I measured my Commemorative Turtles... They're 4.25" So, in theory the old turtles should be compatible with the new ones. (Sure the new ones have better articulation, but the old ones do not have that ugly third toe!!)
There seems to be very little parts reuse on the Turtles, which is cool... Also check out the amount of detail in them... I haven't seen detailed TMNT since the 1990s... The last few Turtle toys were lacking a lot of detailing... (Stupid CGI Movie!!)
Well, it seems that Playmates IS bringing their A Game! Aside the normal Turtles, they also have a set of Turtles with Action Features... eh... I'm a bit worried about this... Playmates can be a bit crazy and weird in the gimmick department...
Deluxe Power Sound FX Figures:
Talking Turtles. It seems that if you hold an arm or a leg back, it'll say a phrase until you let go of the limb. Not my cup of tea, but these may be the TMNT for the kids and kids DO like these...

Vehicles!! The Party Wagon got a Badass Makeover and is now called the Shellraiser. Looks like a Train Wagon mixed with the VW Type 2 that was the Original Party Wagon.
A Turtle themed Motorbike is coming as well... It's called the Rippin' Rider. They have Donatello riding it... Its 2003 Counterpart was ridden by Raphael... But don't worry Raph, you seem to have your own ride!

Meet the Ninja Stealthbike... Seems incredibly impractical... It's not like they're giving Michelangelo an Oversized Skateboard... probably based on the Vintage Cheapskate... Wait, they actually GAVE MICHELANGELO a ridiculously oversized skateboard!? Sewer Spinning Skateboard... It does tricks... I guess by using something similar to Jakks Pacific's GX Skate toys...

There's a Bike for The foot clan! The dragon Bike... It allows the Foot Ninja Riding it to do a flip and land in front of it...

Ho-Ly Crap!! They have a Playset... not just a playset, but a Ginormous Multi Story Monstrosity that has a bit of an alley and a Super Tall Sewer base. Sure The playset is mostly a back wall with some ledges but that thing looks like it is almost 4 feet tall!! Picture a multi tiered humongous battle there... We also got a sneak peek at how the characters look! I have to do a bit of research on the show now... cause all I know is that Leonardo is voiced by the guy who *bleep!*ed an apple pie...

OK:
-Jason 'I had sex with an Apple Pie' Biggs is Leonardo.
-Sean Astin is Raphael... I don't want to make a Lord of the Rings reference here... His father played Professor Gangreen in the Killer Tomatoes movies... and was the Original Gomez Addams... Crap! Encino Man Reference it is... He's the one that is not Brendan Frasier or Pauly Shore...
-Greg 'Beastboy' Cipes is Michelangelo... That's all I got...
-Hoon Lee: Master Splinter... I seriously have no idea who he is... imdb is not helping me here...
-Mae Whitman: April O'Neil, she was Tinkerbell in the Tinkerbell movies, Katara from The Last Airbender and my favorite Ninja from Wutai, Yuffie Kisaragi! (except in Kingdom Hearts 1 where Yuffie was played by Kim Possible)
-Oh yeah I'm forgetting Donatello! He is crude but cool! Gimme a break! ...wait I thought that Donatello does Machines... Ugh! Rob 'The Original Raphael' Paulsen is Donatello... NARF! Yes, Rob Paulsen has been in a LOT of VA work... Pinky and the Brain, Original TMNT toon, Animaniacs, Metal Gear Solid, GI Joe, heck! he even was Hadji! Holy crap! he WAS Hydro Man? Now I know... and knowing is half the battle...
-Wait! I'm forgetting the Shredder... Kevin Michael Richardson... I want to avoid references to The Cleveland Show, or Armless Panthro... So I'll go with the Kingdom Hearts version of Sebastian the Crab... Or maybe Commander Scott Dolph from MGS2 Sons of Liberty... Nah! I need something more recognizable... General Aguila from the awful TMNT Movie!!

Nice cast they got for this show and so far it has zero Equestrians!

No, I have NOT forgotten about the Classics!
They HAVE A LOT OF Articulation... I'd say more than the NECA Turtles... Looks like they have Individually Articulated fingers... (That may pose a problem with the weapons.) But they look like a Hybrid of the Old Toon with the Vintage toys... I really spent a lot of time hyping the new stuff, but the Classics is what I'm more interested about...

Top 10 Figures I wanna see in the Classics TMNT Line: (That are NOT The Turtles)
1: Splinter
2: Shredder
3: April O'Neil
4: Casey Jones
5: Rocksteady
6: Bebop
7: Foot Soldier
8: Leatherhead
9: Baxter Stockman (Mutant Fly)
X: Krang

Jacob Black no longer has Corn Syrup in his veins...

2012-01-31T09:47:00.004-04:00

Taylor "Sharkboy/Quiluete furry-pedo" Lautner is no longer Stretch Armstrong.
He may be out, but the movie is coming... The tentative Release date for Stretch Armstrong is 4/11/14...
I still don't see how this Stretch Armstrong movie will work... unless they Hollywoodize the heck out of it just like Battleship...

Well he kinda has an arch-enemy:

Stretch Armstrong also has an "Evil Twin" Wretch Armstrong... and a dog named Fetch Armstrong... (sadly I couldn't find any videos of them...) but this is starting to look like another Inspector Gadget... (Which could be one of Matthew Broderick's Worst Performances ever...)

Go Go bad movie trailer!

Now, with a Character like this who is pretty much a blank slate I expect a lot of "pseudo-depth" from Hollywood to adapt it to the "tried but true" formula of a "superhero movie"... Or basically They'll rip-off Plastic Man as much as they can legally... and I bet that a lot of people are DYING to see a Plastic Man movie... Sadly Warner only believes in Bats and Supes for DC movies... They tried Green Lantern and we know how much that sucked...

Matthew Broderick's Day Off and car ads...

2012-01-30T14:47:00.003-04:00

Huh? Well here's the Spiritual sequel to Ferris Bueller's Day Off!

Uh, what the heck is this!? An Ad for a Honda CR-V?
Am I supposed to believe that Mr. Broderick cruises around in a Honda CR-V to do what his character did in Ferris Bueller's Day Off on a 1961 Ferrari 250 GT!? Oh Puh-Lease!
Then again it seems that there is some sort of trend of Celebrity Ego-Stroking Car Commercials...

Luckily Other Car Makers have decided to make car ads exciting or fun, in stead of ego-stroking projects for celebrities. Now, don't get me wrong, but I enjoy a nice celebrity-backed commercial (like the Norton Antivirus ads with Dolph Lundgren, or The Hoff) but Jennifer Lopez cruising on a FIAT in The Bronx is highly unlikely... At Least The Matthew Broderick Bueller Tribute had a bit of charm in it.

You have to admit that the widdle Vader ad was kinda funny and cute!

At 0:08 I saw a Doc from GI Joe!
At 0:09 I saw Storm Shadow!!
At 0:15 I saw a couple of Mr. Potato heads!!
At 0:19 I saw Twilight Sparkle!!
Is this a car ad!? or is this a Secret Hasbro Toy Commercial!?
Wait! What's this!? At 0:41 I spy a NECA Lara Croft!?
You know what I DON'T See!? Mattel Toys... I Wonder Why...

Now, these ads may not make me want to buy a new car immediately, I'm sure as HELL that it won't be a FIAT or a CR-V...

Speaking of buying cars you may need insurance!!

Sonic's got you covered... Wonder when Mario will start pimping Geico or All-State...

Odds and ends: Jan 29 2012 Ponies Make Everything Better.

2012-01-29T19:07:00.006-04:00

Everything is not what it seems... But Selena Gomez is sporting some "Seemingly controversial" streaks of paint in her hair that are reminiscent of...

I'm not saying that Selena Gomez looks like a Pony, but that Combination of Colors IS Similar to Twilight Sparkle's Mane...

Speaking of Ponies, A One Pony Rampage through the Streets of Modesto, California would sound ridiculous... But it happened. The cops had to corner him and stuff as it tried to run away... I think it was a GTA 1-Star chase for that Little Pony... I wonder what his Letter to Celestia would be like...

A Serbian Purple Calf may be one step closer for us to get ACTUAL MY LITTLE PONIES!!
Purple Calf... Purple Pony... We're getting there...

On other Pony related news... It's Official! DERPY WHOOVES IS CANON!!

And she speaks!!

I think that will be enough Ponies for now...

It came from the Toychest: "Lazy" Repaint Edition

2012-01-24T14:53:00.005-04:00

Battleground Evil Lyn has arrived and here is her review:
Original Evil Lyn Review... Ignore the Hordak reissue part...
That's what I'd do if I was REALLY Lazy... got to finish Wind Raider Review...
But this Repaint brings a LOT of new stuff to the ballgame...

I've already mentioned WHY I dislike her reuse of the Teela Dress... I might go on a little bit about it again.
My biggest beef with the figure is that this figure is pretty much a "placeholder" figure, until Mattel and the 4 Horsemen are able to deliver a true "200X Inspired" Evil Lyn. It honestly looks like a "Filmation Evil Lyn" in 200X Colors. Is she Filmation or is she 200X? NONE! Because Mattel CAN do those alternate versions of Evil Lyn because she is popular enough to revisit her over and over and over... (Yet Mattel calls this line a very, very, tiny, tiny line... I'm confused!)

Before I go into the figure itself I want to discuss her bio a bit.

Battleground Evil-Lyn® Bio

Real Name: Evelyn Morgan Powers™

Cast aside by her secret husband after his transformation, Evil-Lyn® sent their infant son into the future and plotted to overthrow Skeletor® by releasing his enemies from their dimensional prisons. In a series of miscalculations, she helped free the Snake Men™, Hordak® and Gygor™ - increasing her adversaries threefold! After Randor and Miro returned from Despondos™, the Three Towers rose and Evil-Lyn® found herself again allied with Skeletor® during the Second Ultimate Battleground. At the end, defeated and stripped of her powers by the new Sorceress® of Grayskull™, Evil-Lyn® used the Cosmic Key™ and the Power of Central Tower to return to the future to find a new life with her long lost child - The Son of Skeletor®!

Alright: I've made emphasis on the bigger shockers.
She's married to Keldor/Skeletor. She lost her powers thanks to Sorceress Teela (cause Teela's mom was poisoned by King Hssss and possibly died) and went back to the future to find a new life with her child: The Son of Skeletor!! You just had a mental image of Skeletor "boning" Evil Lyn... If not, I envy you...
In 2 Bios Scott "Toyguru" Neitlich has gotten rid of the 3 females of the original line! Damn! (and we haven't even gotten the Sorceress yet...)

Alright: Let's see what the BaGEL brings to the game:
Long 200X Inspired Staff: Check!
Short Vintage Evil Lyn Staff: NOPE!
Screech with Stand and Armor: NOPE!
200X Knife: Check!
Removable Orb Top: Check!
So she has 4 accessories less than Normal Evil Lyn... She must have something to make her special...
Brand new Unhelmeted head! Duh! It's ON THE FIGURE!
She also has an alternate Orb top... IT GLOWS IN THE DARK!!
And last but not least: She has a CAPE! (I believe it's Filmation inspired, but don't quote me on that.)
So overall she has 1 less accessory than Normal Evil Lyn.
While Not an accessory she brings new arms to the game! You can rotate her bracers...
Also, not a new thing but she has Catra's left hand in a non-gummy plastic...
Other than that, she's pretty much Normal Evil Lyn.

Now let's get to the whole rating thing... 1 equals abominable crap and 5 equals awesomeness!

Articulation:

It's the same as normal Evil Lyn but the new arms are adding 2 extra points of articulation. (While a virtually pointless PoA, it makes the figure a LOT cooler!) 4.0

Paint and Sculpt:
We've seen most of the sculpt before on Teela, Evil Lyn, The Green Goddess... you get the idea... Her headdress and dress have a bit of sloppy paintjob. On the other hand her face paintjob (on both heads) is a LOT better than the original Evil Lyn. 4.0

Accessories:

As stated Above, BaGEL has 1 less accessory than normal Evil Lyn, but the accessories being different enough helps her. Sadly my non-GITD orb top seemed to be mangled in shipping. Other than that they're pretty cool... 4.0

Overall:

Battleground Evil Lyn gets a solid 4.0 but if she had been a bit MORE than a 200X colors repaint of "Filmation Evil Lyn", she would've fared better...

The Mighty Spector: The rant.

2012-01-22T15:59:00.005-04:00

What the heck is a Mighty Spector and what does it do?
The Mighty Spector is a Brand New Masters of The Universe Classics Figure made for the 30th Anniversary of the line. This line consists of: The Fearless Photog (The winner of the Original Create a Character Contest from the 80s) Draego-Man (a Super cool Kick-ass Humanoid Dragon made by the 4 Horsemen... Yes the same 4 Horsemen that made Bunny Ultron in ML and the Rest of the MOTU Classics line!), A Character designed by Mattel's Design team (Most likely by Terry Higuchi), a Character designed by Geoff Johns of DC Comics (Who has NOTHING to do with MOTU's 30 year-old history... That's a rant for another day), the Winner of the NEW Create a Character Contest (that is void in Puerto Rico and anywhere else outside the Continental 48 States)

and last but not least: The Mighty Spector
Oops! Wrong Spector!

THIS is the Spector I'm looking for!
Why does the name Spector sound so familiar... Where have I heard of him before?
You came back from that link to the past? Well, if so you're beginning to understand The Mighty Spector! You are still confused? Well, here's what I know so far!
The Mighty Spector is Lt. Spector. Yes, the Palace Guard with the face of Scott "Toyguru" Neitlich is The Mighty Spector.

Logistics song by do4m
I even made a song about him!! PINKIE PIE STYLE!!
Also The Tagline for TMS is Heroic Master of Time Travel.

I think that my Spider-Sense is Tingling...
Here's the thing: Mr. Neitlich is pretty much the author of the MOTUC Narrative, The Mighty Spector is an Avatar of himself inserted into the MOTU Mythology... This has all the signs of something AWFUL!! Heck Even The Mighty Spector's initials are similar to THE MARY SUE!
(Which Spector kinda reeks of...)
Does anyone remember a popular story about a Mary Sue who gains god-like powers?

If anyone is thinking about Apple Holding you just won a NO PRIZE!!

Spector has the potential of Out-Mary Sue-ing Bella Swan. THAT Scares me. Now if Spector is played as a bumbling sidekick who is forced to fix the mistakes he originally caused in the timeline (a little bit of self-depreciating humor would do wonders for Spector). Making him a super important key player in the storyline would be the Biggest mistake ever made.

As stated my biggest fear is Spector's place in the storyline...

Now I shall talk about his design.
Two Words: Liefeldian Nightmare!
Yes he is very similar to Deadpool... Even his creator is aware of it. To be fair he made it when he was a kid... Most of us, would have not made up a super cool design at a young age because we are not professional designers. On Spector's case it's rather obvious that it is NOT a professional design... Aside that it looks like it was made by Rob Liefeld.
I'm not saying this to "attack" Mr. Neitlich, but having an entire design team at his disposal and not use it to its full capacity kinda sucks, since the customer is the one who ends up paying for it.

Now design-wise Spector has a couple of problems:
He looks too Generic. The whole "Faceless" Mask gives him an army builder vibe.
His chest armor with oversized holster for gun looks Liefeldian and the color combination of Blue-ish purple AND Yellow screams X-Men!!
His name and Tagline do not define his appearance or action feature:
Fisto, he has a big fist.
Stinkor, he Stinks
Zodac: Cosmic Enforcer... His helmet looks like a Sci-Fi astronaut/Alien kinda cosmic-like
Flipshot: He flips
Optikk: He's got an eyeball for a head...
Webstor: He's a Spider, man!
The Fearless Photog: He's got a camera theme.
The Mighty Spector: Heroic Master of Time Travel. His name evokes a ghost. His appearance evokes a spy/superhero (Deadpool, Snake Eyes)

Then there's the Ace of spades on his chest... What does it have to do with a time traveler? The Spade is a symbol of death. Does this mean that Lt. Toyguru is an assassin now? Sadly the spade is there cause the young Scott Neitlich thought it would be cool to have a spade as an insignia all those years ago.
The only addition he got from design seems to be an iCosmic Key Nano on his left wrist... With a Lightsabre and Laser Whip apps.

Now looking at Spector visually, I would have done TWO Simple things to him that would keep the design virtually the same, BUT it would have given him some cohesion between name, title AND Look!

Thing #1: Changing the Insignia slightly by drawing the outline of a smaller spade near the bottom of the main spade so it looked like two clock hands pointing at 12:00
Thing #2: Give him a Non-Obtrusive Action Feature that could help the Spectre-sounding name be linked to the Time Travel aspect of his title that is reinforced by the Hourhand spades. The Action Feature would have been color-changing like the SDCC version of Orko.

He can "Fade in and out of the timeline"with his Action Feature; has a clock inspired theme WHILE sticking VERY close to Scott's design and connects with the MOTU tradition that links name, look, and action feature.

If it had been up to me I would have played the "Spector/Spectre" thing by giving him a hood and a tattered cape.

Now with that said, Visually he just needed a little "Oomph!" Or in the words of Rainbow Dash: It needs to be 20% Cooler!

His role, Storywise is where the biggest fear lies. SO far all we know about him is based on what Scott Neitlich has said about the character. Hopefully the Bio will ease the fear about Spector replacing He-Man as the main character. He has the potential to rock and the potential to suck! While everything is pointing towards him sucking, I still believe in his potential to be awesome... Kinda like the Twilight Saga... Cool Idea, Horrible execution.

Uh, I think that I may NEED TP for my Bunghole now...

2012-01-21T22:06:00.003-04:00

I just saw the most awesome/somewhat creepiest thing I've ever seen!
Realistic versions of Beavis and Butt-Head
All I've got to say is: I'd LOVE to see a Live Action Beavis AND Butt-Head movie using these Prosthetic pieces!
Picture The Great Cornholio!!
Mike Judge should voice Mr. Anderson, cause they'll probably choose other VA's for B&BH...

Since I'm talking about B&BH... STOP IT WITH THE JERSEY SHORE CLIPS!! I still despise the show and every clip reminds me how bad the show is... Before any one of you points your fingers at me and mention Ponies, take a look at what you're defending... If you defend Snooki by attacking ponies, I pity you... Ponies spread love and tolerance... Jersey Shore... Awful stereotypes, awful behavior and promoting the Tanned Punching Bag...

Now I wish that B&BH kept making fun out of the OTHER non-Jersey Shore shows!

It came from the Toy Chest: Raiding the Eternian Winds

2012-01-16T17:08:00.006-04:00

The very first Masters of the Universe Classics Vehicle Review for:
The Wind Raider. I should start by saying thanks to the folks at The Great Rebellion for the Wind Raider... This is my first Wind Raider EVER!! so, that makes the review a bit harder for me... Can't stop playing with the sucker...

The Artwork for the Wind Raider was made by Artist Rudy Obrero, who worked on some of the 80s Masters of the Universe Artwork... Smart move by Mattel...

To start off, check out the Puny box it comes in... Now, don't be deceived by the small box... This thing is huge once you assemble it... Honestly, that box is packed to the brim with Wind Raider goodness! but before opening it up, check out that awesome art... Brings back that Vintage Masters of the Universe feeling... If only the rest of the toyline had that Vintage feeling with the red meteor and the blue background... but that's a story for another day.
OK after assembly, this vehicle is HUGE! I'd say bigger than Swiftwind... And this is just the Toy based One-Seater version... Now imagine if Mattel had made the Filmation FOUR-Seater version of the Wind Raider...

Pinkie Pie is Riding the Wind Raider: Where is your god now?

Well, what can I say about it... NO STICKERS!! I hate having to put stickers on toys... (Especially if they already have HALF the Stickers on...)
The wings have some articulation (They can rotate and may help for some poses.) The rudder on the back also can move. It has hatches on the turbines that you can open (for displays with MAA doing the whole Duncan is a Mechanic/Inventor/Weapons Master thing he does) The anchor on the Raider is Fireable by pushing one button disguised as a giant rivet. The Hood-Ornament looking thing is how you retract the short rope.
The Wind Raider also comes with a stand. Obviously, you pose the wind Raider on it... It helps create the illusion that it is flying or hovering. It's about One MOTUC Figure Tall (OK if you decapitate the figure and removed it's neck) The stand has the capacity of tilting (cause the peg you put the WR on can tilt.) Depending on how you put the Raider it will depend to the direction it will tilt... I could see this stand being reused for the possible Roton... The guys on the WR box... for those who don't remember the Roton...

Now here's a video look at the Wind Raider...

Now with that said and viewed: Here's the scorecard for the Wind Raider:
Articulation:
The Wheels rotate, the wings do too. The rudder swivels and the hood ornament thingie spins around. For a static piece it has a lot of articulation. The only minor gripe I have is that the wings do not have an option for spinning/being posed independently.
5.0

Paint and Sculpt:
As mentioned above, the stickers of vintage times are decals now, so be careful with the WR cause they may scratch off. There's no huge slops on mine, so I'm happy with the paint. Sculpt-wise, the 4Horsemen did their stuff by bringign 3-D details to what were stickers in the past.
5.0

Accessories:
The Stand... Which was not expected, but is an excellent addition that improves the Wind Raider...
5.0

Action Features/Playability:
Well, we know that it can fire off the anchor and it can retrieve it. It has wheels so "the kids" can roll it around the floor and play MOTUC Bowling... (Don't cheat, pop-off the wings before playing MOTUC Bowling)
5.0

Overall:
5.0 it's an amazing vehicle that manages to showcase the sculpting magic of the Four Horsemen in a way that the customers are not used to seeing... I mean they made a vehicle that I wasn't too into it as a kid into an amazing thing! (If they'd make a DRAGON WALKER!! I'd faint!)

As hard as I tried I could NOT avoid making a Snakes on a Plane joke...

Do We REALLY NEED Playsets in MOTUC?

2012-01-14T14:58:00.007-04:00

Looking at Masters of the Universe Classics we've got the figures, Beasts and now Vehicles with the Wind Raider. The Next Step is rather Obvious, Playsets. When they're mentioned Grayskull is the first thing that comes to mind. But I'm not here to talk about Which Playset I'd like to see in Masters of the Universe Classics. The real question is: Do we REALLY NEED Playsets in MotU:C?

Before all of you start grabbing your pitforks and form an angry mob, hear me out!

I'm NOT Against getting Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain, The Fright Zone, The Crystal Castle, and the other important background places that were Playsets in a "previous toyline."

What I mean by "Do we need Playsets?" is do we need all the bells and whistles like working elevators, voice changers, electronic lights and sounds, slime dumping, firing missiles, etc. for what will pretty much be a bunch of underscaled, glorified backdrop pieces.

Sure, some collectors are buying MOTUC Figures for themselves and their kids to spread the MOTU Love, but we already ARE Missing stuff that made these guys fun when we WERE Kids!

Battle Armors don't have their funky Battle Damage drums, Sy-Klone doesn't spin around, Hurrican Hordak's weapons are very static, Thunder Punch He-Man's punches lack "Thunder", Kobra Khan can't spit and Leech doesn't suck, etc.

Since the line is an "Adult Collector" Line, then why not go the "Adult Collector" way and Make MOTUC Grayskull a True Backdrop and when the Eventual He-Man Movie DOES come, make the Movie Grayskull MOTUC Compatible or that you can Snap on the MOTUC Grayskull on the Front Facade of the Movie Castle.

Now, How big should these backdrop/playsets be?

The 200X Grayskull is roughly 20 inches tall. So, in theory a MOTUC Castle should at least be 24 inches tall, from bottom to highest point on the Turrets. So, you'd need about 30 inches of clearance on the shelf to display your figures With the Castle in it. Now, if it were a playset, most of the collectors displaying Grayskull will probably have it in "Backdrop mode" to save

space and whatever "play features" added would be greatly ignored.

And if we go with Mattel's suggested price for a Full-fledged MOTUC Grayskull, I don't see people shelling out for Multiples WHILE buying Multiple Subs for the year. Heck some may be forced to choose between one or the other.

Now that's Just Grayskull, add Snake Mountain, The Fright Zone, The Slime Pit, Crystal Castle, Crystal Falls, the 3 Towers of Eternia, Nordor, Starship Eternia and any other places that never had a playset in the vintage line that now can:

Like Eternos, Hordak's Temple, or the Whispering Woods.

Here's the thing: No matter what they do, either a backdrop or a full Playset, they will never be able to match the full scope of the place. Like say Grayskull. The MOTUC Canon seems to be a combo of both vintage and 200X Canon, so that means the Normal Castle and the Crystaline sub-basement where the power of the sword is hidden. Now if the MOTUC Castle were to be made and they were to include this Additional Element to the Castle, it would require to make it even taller and add extra pieces for it to make a bit of sense from the outside. Which I guess it would mean a bit of the Abyss in front of Grayskull and maybe the Filmation Ramp for the Drawbridge.

So here's my solution for those other places or areas that a Playset would not work that well: Dioramas.

But not What Mattel calls a Diorama like the Weapons Rack. What I mean by Diorama is something more like the stage on a play, or some other playsets

As you can see on this WWE "playset" It's Pretty much a cardboard background, a bit of Floor and some plastic elements.

Nothing too complicated.

So let's say Mattel would release, say, a Crystaline chamber of Power Diorama. It would need Crystaline Structures, a few Crystaline platforms (Think MOTUC stands but large enough to fit A standard figure, Cringer and Orko) and a small alcove to

fit the Orb stand from Temple of Darkness Sorceress and the chest where both Swords are kept. Now that one does not need a special cardboard backdrop, since one can add a piece of black cardboard to simulate the endlessness of the void where the chamber is.

Now something like Snake Mountain Throne Room would require a backdrop and maybe a "special floor" (Either cardboard or plastic if mattel wants to get fancy) I'd say the Throne would be a 3-D piece, maybe some 3-D rocky outcroppings, Skeletor's scrying Table. While this would mean that these Items would be a bit more expensive, it would help displaying them a lot

better than say, the Weapons rack. It looks a Million times better in a Grayskull-like Backdrop!

Now I'm not saying that they should do THIS instead of Playsets/Backdrops.What I'm saying is that These could COMPLEMENT some of the main playsets/backdrops, or be a sort of "appetizer" while we wait for Mattel to figure out the Logistics involved to make affordable playsets.

So, to answer the question: DO WE REALLY NEED Playsets? No, but they are VERY WELCOME! While not Everyone will use the Play features, the option for having them is important. Yes, I am very aware that it kinda contradicts my view of having a Grayskull facade released through MOTUC. That's the whole point! I AM at a crossroads, while the practical side of me thinks: "I'm not going to spend most of my time playing with the Castle. I just changed the original batteries from my 200X Grayskull." The inner child on the other hand enjoys the 56kbps Modem sounds from Grayskull and the lasers! (even if I lost the missiles a long time ago... Stupid spring loaded stuff!) It's all about options.

Since we will never be able to have Truly Accurate versions of the playsets, then the best solution in my opinion is give us a Basic Playset, then expand through Dioramas...

If young girls can survive with smaller dioramas as playsets, without resorting to the Ginormous 3 story high Barbie houses... (That's like a 6 story MOTUC Playset) or using them IN combination with these Titanic displays, then why is it nearly impossible to apply that to an adult collector line? I mean the adult collectors eat up that stuff especially if they include trinkets or other stuff from the shows or the toyline!

While a Gigantic Snake Mountain like this would be cool, if a Snake Mountain Throne was made available before getting the Entire Mountain, the collectors would eat it up! We may try to deny it, but we LOVE that stuff... We went bananas when we saw the Ram Stone... (GITD Repaint in a Weapons pack please!) If one of these small dioramas comes with the Diamond Ray of Disappearance, The Magic Mirror of the Sorceress, Light Hope (Pillar of Light form), etc. chances are the Collectors will buy them...

Heck! I remember that a couple of collectors were disappointed that Mo-Larr's chair was just a bit of cardboard to display the figures on the box!

Looking Back on Marvel Legends (The Hasbro Era)

2012-01-08T17:09:00.006-04:00

After the trip down the Toy Biz era of Marvel Legends, it's Hasbro's turn at bat:
Fans were afraid that Hasbro would do 1 or 2 waves before shrinking the toys to Joe Scale.

Wave 1: Annihilus
This wave consists of:
Ultimate Iron Man
Planet Hulk (The Gladiator Hulk from said mini series)
Frasier Beast (X3 United Beast)
Hercules
Banshee
Emma Frost

Let's get this out of the way: Emma Frost is Almost as crappy as Scarlet Witch. The reduced Articulation and paint job hurt Emma a bit... Also her ugly face sculpt and super small head that look Off.
Banshee is also looking Kinda bad. His sickly flesh color, lack of a neck flap on his suit that makes his actual neck look freakishly long and last but not least the "wings" are partially wrong: The thinner stripes are meant to be the black ones while the thicker ones are Yellow. Also his hair should have been more orangey...
The best of the 3 figures I bought from this wave (Due to being the only ones I found... Later on I saw a Frasier Beast Peg Warming, but with no Hulkdiator, or Ultimate Evil Spock Robot I gave up on the wave... Though I got to play with an Annihilus and he was sweet!) is HERCULES!!
He's very MOTUC Like for a figure made years before MOTUC.

Before Wave 2, Hasbro relaesed some TRU Exclusive repaints:
Silver Statue Wolverine: A Completely Silver Repaint of The ML VI Wolverine.
Diamond Emma Frost: A Repaint of the second ugliest ML EVER!! They sucked so much that TRU had trouble getting rid of them at the marvelous price of $1! That's no Typo... They had Trouble getting Rid of Diamond Emma Frost even at ONE DOLLAR!

Wave II: The Blob!
She-Hulk
Ultimate Abraham Lincoln... I mean Wolverine
Asgardian Armor Thor
YellowJacket
Xorn
X3 Jean Grey
X3 Juggernaut
Quicksilver

Blob Loses Articulation due to his girth. Sadly his flesh tone is molded plastic with little shading.
YellowJacket (Looks better in his slightly more golden looking variant. The default one is too lime yellow for my tastes) is one of the best of the wave. He kinda looks like he shares parts with Series 1 Banshee and QuickSilver.
QuickSilver Is pretty cool sculptwise, but the lack of shading kinda hurts him... He has a Green Variant, which I saw one but wasn't interested in it. (My Quicksilver was not going to wear his Brotherhood of Evil Mutants clothes.)
X3 Jean is Very crappy. Her face competes with Emma Frost on bad Hasbro faces. I think she became Custom Fodder... She has a "Dork Phoenix" variant...
X-3 Juggernaut, while not a bad figure I bought it as Custom fodder.
Ultimate Wolverine... Aw Hell no! I popped the head out of that sucker and popped a spare Ultimate Peter Parker and made a crappy Havok custom.
Now The Next Two figures ARE Pretty Cool: She-Hulk and Asgardian Lord Thor
The only thing I don't like about Thor is that Mjolnir looks like a Cinderblock...
The Last Figure of the Wave is Xorn.
He's pretty good, but he needed Swappable heads instead of a Helmet.

Wal-Mart (who rarely stocks their exclusives) got a Special Silver Surfer:
A Reused ML V Silver Surfer with a new board with pegs instead of Magnets.

Now cause Marvel Legends is a Hasbro Property and Hasbro is Large enough to go to San Diego Comic Con, ML got some SDCC Exclusive Action!
Lawyer She-Hulk (Swappable hands/Feet, Removable glasses, dress, a suitcase ) Without the dress and the correct parts on she's Fantastic Four (Backup Member) She-Hulk!
Stan Lee! With an Extra Peter Parker Head You can make a Stan Lee, a Peter Parker, or a Spider-Man with this figure. (The best use for him would be an unmasked Spidey)

Well, Hasbro struck with a Fantastic Four Themed Wave and a Spider-Man Wave with a Sandman BAF. Both waves that I NEVER SAW IN PERSON!!
This wave consisted of:
-Doctor Doom: While a bit less detailed than the Toy Biz version, he looks cleaner and has Torso Articulation.
-Human Torch: He has the "QuickSilver/YellowJacket/Banshee" buck, which is a plus. I don't know if his flames are removable, but I wish he had another non-flamed head... Seriously he looks like Vegeta.
-Invisible Woman: Something about her face/hair seems off. Other than that is the first time The invisible Woman shows up on a wave. Not too fond of that suit though.
-The Mole Man: Hasbro could have taken the easy way out and reuse the Doc Ock Body from the SMC line/Sinister Six set with a new head, but they made a brand new Mole Man...
-Reed Richards: Now in Super Stretchy Mode... I'm not too fond of the stretched out body, but that's the BEST Richards Headsculpt I've seen... I'd say he has the ICONIC Reed Richards look.
-Namor The Submariner: Iconic Namor with his green Speedo. Looks better than the Toy Biz version.
-Silver Surfer: His headsculpt is less Ailen looking unlike the previous versions of him. He has a Vac Metal Board... I'm surprised that he didn't get Vac Metal... (On him it would be awesome)
-The Thing: It looks like a new Buck but reusing the House of M Thing head... not too fond of this one.

Now for the Sandman Wave:
This wave looks like a LOT of repaints...
- S-M2 Doc Ock: First Repaint of the Superposable Ock
- S-M Green Goblin: Repaint of the Super Posable Green Goblin from the First Movie Toyline (Minus the Removable Helmet)
- S-M2 Mary Jane: Finally! A new sculpt. She's got wood and her sculpt is a bit meh...
- S-M3 Green Goblin Jr.: I refuse to call him New Goblin, but I should call him White Rocket Racer... Looks Pretty good, but it's a shame that his mask isn't removable so we could have our very own James Franco.
- Normal Sandman: OK it's 3 New Sculpts... Looks OK. At least we have an option between Mega Sand Monster Sandman and Normal Sandman.
- S-M2 Spider-Man: He's a Repaint of the best movie Spider-Man Figure.
- S-M3 Symbiote Spidey: I bet he's a repaint of the other Spidey except with a new Torso... Nope! He's a new sculpt... With LEss Articulation than Normal Spidey...
- S-M3 Venom: Obviously he's a new Sculpt... Looks OK-Ish, but I'm not a fan of movie Venom...
Hey! it has less Repaints than expected!
Still Hasbro was striking hard... While these 2 waves were around they also released a couple of 2 packs AND a TRU Exclusive!
-Cable and Marvel Girl (Jean Grey)
This Cable has a new look and I think only his arms are reused from his Toy Biz version.
The Jean Grey looks like she uses most of the Rachel Summers body from the Brood Queen Wave (more on that wave later.) with a new head that has a resemblance to her Toy Biz ML6 head. (Nice move Hasbro!)
-Domino and Cannonball
Cannonball is a Reuse of the ML7 Ghost Rider... That's why he looks so "wimpy"
Domino is pretty much a reuse of the XMC X-Treme Rogue... (The only not ugly Rogue figure...)
-The TRU Exclusive is The Black Queen: Sadly it's a Repaint of Fugly White Queen with a new head... and a Whip. She looks a lot better than Emma frost, but that buck is not that good.

Now after that Onslaught we got the Brood Queen Wave:
The Wave consists of:
-Bucky: He's pretty cool and reuses some pieces from the Young Avengers set
-Captain America (WWII): It's a Decent Cap, but I wish his reds were darker
-Black Knight: Looks pretty good, though I wish he had a bit of more articulation on his thighs.
-X-3 Colossus: Not too fond of X-3 Figures, but he's OK... If it had been X-3 Shadowcat I would've been more excited.
-Astonishing Cyclops: I like him better than the XMC 90s style Cyclops. The only "flaw" is that his lime yellow should be more golden=like!
-Rachel Summers: She's got her more recent look which is slightly more stylized compared to other figures. (She has a Phoenix Force Variant)
-Hydra Agent: He's got a screaming variant which I own. His Articulation is OK.
-Danger: She's a new sculpt but her massive wings make her fall back. Also she would have been a lot better with a metallic finish.

Diamond Select got an ugly exclusive: Blue Ultimate Wolverine! a Repaint of HML2 Ultimate Wolverine.
Target got an Exclusive as Well: Movie Hulk (The one with Ed Norton)

The next Set I never saw... Have you noticed the trend of HML and me?
The Fin Fang Foom Set:
Starring:
-Absorbing Man: Sadly his ball does not sport a real chain...
-Doc Samson: He looks OK.
-Savage Hulk (Both Gray and Green) I still prefer the Hulk vs Leader Hulk!
-"The End" Hulk... This is from a parallel universe AFAIK. He's the last being on an irradiated Earth or something. If he turns to Banner he dies. Looks pretty cool though. It's Hulk in a Loincloth.
-King Hulk: I guess this is part of the Planet Hulk Saga... I actually think that a Gladiator Hulk looks pretty cool...
-"Savage" She-Hulk: She- Hulk in a manner Similar to her First Appearance... Her Torso will be reused soon...
-Skaar (Son of Hulk): Another Hulk-Like character who has a MOTU vibe to him.
-Wendigo: Pretty Cool Looking, looks better than a White Sasquatch.

SDCC brought a cool 3 pack: Ka-Zar, Shanna The She-Devil and Zabu the Sabretooth-Tiger.
Shanna's buck is the Savage She-Hulk buck, Ka-Zar seems to be wearing clothes? Zabu is a Sigma Six Tiger reused. It's a cool set, but Zabu would have knocked it down a few points if I were to review it...

There was a new wave of 2 packs... as well.
Elektra vs Ronin:
It's a Better Elektra than the one from TBML IV... She has swappable hands and head (for both of her looks) There is a Skrull variant with no extra head.
Ronin comes with an extra Clint Barton head.

There's the Reed and Thing pack
Thing is the same one from the Ronan Wave and the Reed is the ToyBiz ML F4 Pack head on the ToyBiz MLV Reed Body. Waste of pack...

The Third pack is Smauel L. Jackson with Ultimate Captain America (WWII Version)
I'm no fan of Ultimate Nick Fury, but he's a pretty cool looking fig. The Cap is not that bad either.

The Last Pack is Forge and Wolverine (X-Men Training Clothes) Could you believe that Wolverine was what made me skip this one? He's too tall and I'm not fan of both headsculpts?
On the other hand Forge is pretty cool... He shares the same buck as Wolverine... Except the right leg.

The Red Hulk Wave: Since I'm Targetless I freaking Hate this!
First off , I don't care about "Rulk" and I'm only interested in Warlock and Spiral... or should I say was...
-Warlock: He's pretty cool and he has the Infinity Gauntlet...
-Spiral: She looks awesome, but Hasbro did cut some key POA for her... Bicep swivel... She kinda needs those!
-Wolverine (yet again): Looks OK. He has a Black Variant (x-Force I think)
-Symbiote Spidey: Looks OK, but I miss the hand Articulation.
-Union Jack: Looks OK, but I'm not that interested in him.
-Silver Savage: Silver Surfer as a Gladiator... I really don't care...

The Ares Wave is next: I've already given up on Hasbro... Most of these figures I NEVER SAW!! (as you can see on this rant.)
Saw them ONCE at a Wal-Mart... Not the Entire Wave though... but Torch, Ben Reilly and Heroes Reborn IronMan.
This wave has:
-Heroes Reborn Ironman: Ironman, the Dragster edition...
-Ben Reilly the Spider-Clone:He's better than the one we got on SMC...
-Human Torch: Who has the best Johnny Storm head I've seen... but completely flamed on! (and has another more flamed on variant...) Seriously doesn't anyone think that Human Torch should get a flamed off variant by default!?
-Vision:Eh... TB's Vision is good enough for me... Wasted opportunity. A White vision would have been better.
-Crossbones:He's a Punisher Character, right? Not much to say about him... He seems to be roughly the same size as the BAF though...
-Kang: A Repaint of the F4Classics Kang.
-Guardian:He's OK and helps Sasquatch to increase the number of Alpha Flight people to 2...
-Ultimate WarMachine: Repaint of Ultimate Ironman

HasbroToyshop Exclusive AoA Sunfire: Looks Pretty cool, but I'd prefer NORMAL Sunfire first...

The Holocaust Wave: (I refuse to call him Nemesis!) was another Wal-Mart Exclusive that I never Saw... No wonder I gave up on ML...
It consisted of:
-"Cat" Beast: Not a fan of that look... and no he can't haz a cheezburger
-Black Bolt:His wing things look BAAAAD!
-DareDevil (Red and Yellow versions): Expected to have those variants with DareDevil in ML...
-Punisher (Jungle Camo variant): It's closer to the Tom Jane look... Prefer the Jungle Camo variant.
-Nova:Nothing to write Home About... He looks almost DCUC-like...
-Tigra:Looks OK except for the lack of fur...

Now ML has been reduced to a few sets of 2 packs and it seems that it's going the way of the dinosaur due to the appearance of the 3 3/4" Marvel Universe line...
-a Hand Ninja vs a SHIELD Agent (or Nick Fury)
-The Variant of this pack has a white Hand Ninja and an Agent (or Dum Dum Dugan)

-We also got an Invisible Woman And Human Torch pack:
The Sue seems to be new... but she looks like a man, baby! Torch is a repaint of the Ares Wave Torch... It's the closest we'll ever get to a flamed off Johnny!

-We have an Ironman vs Female Shield Agent pack:
The Ironman has a Stealth Armor Variant. (More poseable than the First ML Ironman from ToyBiz) Each pack has enough pieces to make either Sharon Carter or Maria Hill... So Hasbro is nudging ya to get both...

Last but not least, the Skrull vs Kree pack!
The Skrull is a repainted Super Skrull.
The Kree seems to be made on the Quicksilver buck with a few new pieces.

Hasbro still fired off one last wave of 2 packs before announcing that Marvel Legends would be back in Full-Force by 2012... Part of me does worry about it being too little too late.

The last set of 2 packs consisted of:
Black Widow vs The Winter Soldier:
The Black Widow is what makes the variant: The black suit that is more popular and a gray suit.
For the Winter Soldier there is no variant.

Deadpool and Warpath:
Both characters have a different colored variant and Sneaky Hasbro found a way to nudge you into buying both!
-Red and Black Deadpool with X-Force's silver and Black Warpath.
-Blue and Yellow Deadpool with the Old School Red and Blue Warpath.

The last Pack is Valkyrie and Hulk:
Incredibly enough Valkyrie was a very wanted figure, but the end result was a bit underwhelming. The Hulk is kinda cool in theory, but the body looks a bit too cartoony...

And that is pretty much the END of Marvel Legends... Until their Return...
And this is what the return of ML starts with:
2011 SDCC Thor!
If this is what Hasbro is bringing up to the game with ML 3.0 it's no wonder Mattel is crapping on their pants! Now if Hasbro can make ML and keep them at a lower cost than Mattel's DCU All-Stars (The new re-branded DCUC) and have them look that cool... without the constant QC issues that plague DCUC... Then, Mattel's only hope to survive the 6 inch Superhero toyline battle is the Mattycollector.com branch of DCUC!

Looking Back on Marvel Legends (The ToyBiz era)

2012-01-06T20:48:00.008-04:00

Marvel Legends, the line that revolutionized toy collecting in the year 2002 Its humble origins began on a Spider-Man "Collector's Line". The First Incarnation of Spider-Man Classics (circa 2000):

As you can see on these six figures, the card EVEN LOOKS LIKE Most of Toy Biz Marvel Legends. So these are the Proto-Legends... (yes there were more figures, but I chose the six that I actually own(ed) some broke, others were lost. (More on that later)
Now fast forward 1 or 2 years into the future and Marvel Legends began it's journey to change the action figure world. Why are the SMC important? Well, aside being the Proto-ML the figures Before them left a lot to be desired in Sculpt and Articulation.

OK, so The First ML Wave were mostly an Avengers Line-Up and Toad... (Probably a Remnant of a cancelled project)
This wave I bought it almost completely. I never bought the Iron Man Variants, but it was mostly cause I wasn't interested in the Stealth Armor and I never Saw the Gold Armor. My ML Cap died on a shelf diving accident that broke his neck into pieces. (During the Hasbro ML years, so I already had a Superior Ultimate Cap)
I'd say that the sculpts ranked from best to worst would be: Hulk, Toad, Ironman/Cap (tie)
The Best Articulation ranking would be: Cap/Ironman (tie), Hulk, Toad.

Wave II was Pretty Much a Themed Wave: Fantastic Four... More Like Fantastic 2, Doctor Doom, and Namor.
This wave had 2 variants: Doombot (Never saw one) and The Thing: Trenchcoat and hat. (This one I got for Free back when K-B Toys had a promo that for every $100 spent on toys (in 4 Separate $25+ Purchases, excluding videogames/consoles.) you get a $25 gift card. I got "Disguised" Thing and Mekaneck for "free" and something else to round up the $25.
The Thing is AMAZING!! His hands were bendy and his body looked awesome. The Trenchcoat variant makes him even cooler. Torch was OK, but a non-flamed variant would have been cool to have. I kinda wished we could have seen the Traditional Speedo Namor. His spear is really brittle.
From Best to Worst in the Sculpt Department:
Thing, Doom, Namor, Torch.
Articulation:
Torch, Doom/Namor (Tie), Thing

Wave III was a bit more varied: Magneto, Wolverine, Ghost Rider (Dan Ketch), Thor, Affleck Dare Devil. (Wolverine had a Variant... Unmasked.)
First of all Affleck SUCKS!! Very Little Articulation, but the Sculpt is OK-Ish. On the Other Hand, Ghost Rider kicked ALL sorts of Ass! His base is his flaming bike, he has a real chain... Heck! you can hang him on a wall as if he was riding them! Wolverine is a bit too big to be well, Wolverine... Magneto is The Ironman buck redressed a bit. It's not bad, but the crotch is kind of obvious tell-tale of parts reuse.
Scultpwise:
Ghost Rider, Thor, Wolverine, DareDevil,Magneto
Articulationwise:
Ghost Rider, Thor, Wolverine/Magneto (tie), DareDevil.

Wave IV was a trailblazer... It ended the Sausage-fest that was ML.
Punisher,Beast,Gambit, Elektra, and Goliath.
I did NOT have Goliath, and he's something about him that looks 90s-ish... His features seem softer and 10 PoA... I never saw him...
The Best Sculpts are Beast and Punisher. That Frank Face is PURE BAD ASS! Elektra's articulation is a bit weird Since she's got a sort of V crotch and her buttcheeks rotate with her legs. Gambit is the average guy here... he's got a couple of new parts and a cloth coat.
(I did go through 2 Elektras) 1 broke her neck peg and I got a replacement after she became a perennial peg-warmer. (She was really tough to find at first.)
In sculpt the best to worst would be:
Punisher, Beast, Gambit, Elektra, Goliath
In Articulation:
Beast, Punisher, Gambit, Elektra, Goliath
There were 2 gift packs released between waves 4 and 5. I only owned the X-Men Pack, but I will discuss both.
X-Men Legends:
Beast (With Cloth Lab Coat and glasses), a New Unmasked Wolverine (NEw HEadsculpt),Magneto (with a new headsculpt), Gambit with a Pleather Coat) and Rogue (who fell off the Ugly Tree, hit all the branches on the way down, then the tree fell on her face.)
The only reason to get this is Rogue and DAMN! She Fugly! (She shares the Elektra Buck...)

Urban Legends:
Elektra, DareDevil, Spider-Man, and The Punisher
The Daredevil seems a reuse from the Second Version of Spider-Man Classics (Not the Proto-ML one, but the newer one with action features and sometimes reduced Articulation) As I was saying The Daredevil seems to be the one with a base that has a Twirling flagpole so it looks like DD is doing a stunt on the Flagpole. Elektra is the same as in ML IV, but painted white... The Headsculpt seems to be different though. Punisher is the same figure but with a new headsculpt, a rocket Launcher and a coat. Spidey is a reuse from the Spider-Man Classics Line (The kiddified one) He's the Parachute Spidey... (The Best Spidey with Painted Webs) The best things from this set are Angry Frank and DareDevil.
Wave V: This one brought some Big Guns... and a Pretty obscure Chase Figure that reuses the Affleck Buck! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT!
Reed Richards, Silver Surfer, Nick Fury, Sabretooth, Blade, Howard The Duck, Red Skull, and Colossus.
I never saw the Skull... I thought he was a myth until I saw him at a scalper's... I wasn't paying $125 for a barely unarticulated figure. I also never saw Blade... He was at a slightly more reasonable price compared to Red Skull, but still too high for my tastes. Also Blade looks like Wesley Snipes... I wanted a more Comic Book-like Blade.
Reed seems to reuse the Paratrooper Spidey buck, while Silver Surfer the Urban Legends Dare Devil buck. Howard is a 3 PoA PVC mini-figure that comes with the Surfer. Nick Fury reuses the Namor Buck (which we will see again at least 2 more times) The cool part about Fury is that his mouth has a space for you to put a piece of chopped toothpick to simulate his Cigar!

Articulation:
Colossus/Sabretooth (tie) Reed Richards, Blade, Nick Fury, Red Skull, Howard
Sculpt:
Colossus, Blade, Red Skull, Nick Fury, Reed Richards, Howard The Duck, Silver Surfer.

Wave VI: Oh How I loathe thee... One of the Hardest waves to find. I got a present from a friend who bought me a Phoenix at Scalper prices... I repaid that friend cause I felt it wasn't fair... So Indirectly I bought her from a Scalper. I also got Juggernaut and Cable from that Wave. NEVER Saw Deadpool, I skipped on Tom Jane Punisher, saw Brown Wolvie once, but I chose to take Cable and Juggernaut that day thinking that Wolvie might still be around... Boy was I wrong...
There seems to be a brown straps variant of him, but I'm glad that I got my yellow straps Cable... I reused a Castle Grayskull Gun from 200X and the Trident to give Cable his MVC2 Weapons. A MGS 2 Fortune Railgun served as his Placeholder Viper Beam. Juggernaut, that baby is MASSIVE!! Phoenix has a new Female Buck From the waist up, she's still the Elektra buck. The Crotch is new. She features normal Ball joints, which will become the norm after some Experiments with the female crotch. Now Everyone is on the same level in Articulation (except the pack ins) So there is little difference. I THINK Deadpool reuses the Daredevil buck... and instead of an unmasked variant, DP had a swappable head.
I think Punisher is the most meh... in sculpt. He kinda looks like David Duchovny instead of Tom Jane...
Spidey got a second Set in ML... Still he has not appeared on a numbered Wave... but let's go into The Sinister Six Set:
I know what you're thinking: Sinister Six... So we're getting, Doc Ock, Kraven, Mysterio, Electro, Vulture, and Sandman... Well, you've got 3 right. Dock Ock, Kraven and Electro... The other 3 are Green Goblin, Venom and Black Cat. Spidey is in it too...
Where do I start:
Black Cat seems to have fallen down the ugly tree after Rogue broke off a few branches... She also shares the Elektra buck...
Doc Ock is a reuse from the SMC Ock that was a bit undersized... Ock will get a chance to redeem himself in MLVIII.
Kraven is a reuse from the SMC Kraven (which reuses the Namor Buck) but with a screaming headsculpt... I gave this Kraven away and used the SMC Kraven which is better looking.
Venom is pretty much Sabretooth... Down to the elbow fins... that's the only drawback he has. I Love the non-Slobbering face that most venoms have.
Electro seems to use the Paratrooper Spidey buck... Simple and effective.
Green Goblin is a reuse from the Demonic Hobgoblin buck from SMC... Love the headsculpt cause the Goblin eyes are see through and you can see a bit of Norman's face... Creepy!
Spidey... Ooh This Spidey is pretty cool! I love that headsculpt! The body is a bit too bulky for my tastes, but I switched that head with a McFarlane Spidey from SMC and made my definitive ML Spidey!

Why get this box set: ML Electro, Black Cat, Green Goblin, Venom and a kick-ass Spidey!

Fantastic Four Sets:There were 2 of those...
The First one which I own has a variant. In one Sue is visible and in the other she is not.
The other set is just the F4. (No Herbie, no Doom and No Franklin)
The headsculpts on the 4 are stylized and Doom's face is more burnt than his ML II Counterpart.
Sue has the Elektra Buck but with a new Experimental hips used on ML VIII for Black Widow.
Reed is reusing the Para Spidey buck, Torch is the same as ML2 Torch but with a Johnny Headsculpt. Ben is ML II Ben but with new non-bendy hands. Doom is the same as his ML II counterpart, minus the head. Franklin and Herbie are brand New.
Why get this set?
Sue Richards, Franklin and Herbie... Ben is good, but Reed and Johnny are meh.

Marvel Legends Wave VII I Skipped Silver Centurion Ironman cause he was a lightly redeco'd ML I Iron Man... and I regret it to this day. I also skipped Phasing Vision cause I wanted a Solid one... (and I saw 5 Phasers and only one normal...) Never saw the Ghost Rider Variant.
Favorite Figures form this wave: Apocalypse and Weapon X.
Least Favorite: Hawkeye. This was due to his perennial bowlegged issues. The man can't stand and he looks a bit too wimpy!

Wave VIII (IMO one of the BEST ML WAVES) it came with the Man-Thing (I can't stop chuckling whenever I say his name... Man-Thing.), Doctor Octopus (Yay!), Black Widow (with BW II as her variant that I never saw in stores), Ultimate Captain America (Classic inspired Cap Variant), Modern (back then) Iron Man, Storm (Mohwak Variant), and Iceman.
I can't choose a bad figure from this wave. Some people might have had some translucent plastic issues with Iceman and bendy issues with Doc Ock's Tentacles. Ultimate Cap is a SUPERB Figure... As an Ultimate Universe hater, I got to say that Ultimate Cap's design is cool and the poseability of the toy kicks so much ass! Also he can flip the bird at Ironman! Black Widow is basically a reuse of the Sue Richards Body, but it works... I guess you could say she's the low point of the line.

Wave IX: Enter the BAFs... Toybiz implemented the Build A figure for Marvel Legends on this wave... and they started with Galactus!! Whoa... A 16" Galactus with ML Articulation! That's HUGE!!
The wave consisted of:
Soctor Strange, Charles Xavier (With a Picard X chair... The 90s Hoverchair was not possible due to Logistics...), Gray (First Appearance) Hulk with a Green Variant, Deathlok, Nightcrawler, Bullseye (with a more fierce variant) and Sexy War Machine!
Sadly War Machine reused the Standard Ironbuck, which is a little under articulated compared to the modern MLs. Also his face seems a bit off... His WM weapons and clip-on effects make up for the reused buck's shortcomings. I'm surprised that Doctor Strange did not get an Astral Body Variant...
I've never cared much about Deathlok, but that figure is pretty cool.

Now we'll take a break with a Box Set I never Saw...
Spider-Man: Fearsome Foes set...
It contains a Spidey, duh... (The MacFarlane Spidey with a new head.), a Brand New Rhino with more Articulation than the SMC one, a Brand New Lizard that looks more like his earlier appearances. There is also Carnage (who may or may not be a resculpt of the SMC Carnage with a crappy pyramid trap.) And The Vulture... Hey! We're a Sandman and a Mysterio short of the Original Sinister Six!!

Reason to buy this set? Uh, EVERYONE OF THE CHARACTERS!!
Now On Carnage: I am disappointed in Toy Biz... They gave Reed Richards swappable hands to simulate his stretchy powers, but no swappable arms or clip on Symbiote blade attachments for Carnage... An Ax hand would have been so cool to have with him!!

Wave X The Sentinel Wave: Guess who's Officially become a Marvel Legend (even if he's been on 3 out of the 5 box sets) Spidey!! There's also a Cyclops (That reuses the Namor buck), Omega Red who reuses the Sabretooth buck (but with a few new pieces... no fins for Red's elbows) Mystique, Angel, Black Panther and Mr Sinister round up the wave.
Aside Sinister, Black Panther, Omega Red and Angel this wave is a bit meh... Especially when Sentinel is a Freaking Army Builder... AND the line gives you an extra Sentinel crotch with Mystique or Omega Red!
This was a wave to fill up with Army Building folks like:
AIM People, Ultron, Shield Agents (swappable heads), Hand Ninjas, Multiple Man, Scrier, Hydra Soldiers. It would've made it easier for people to double dip on their figures...

Now we enter a small break on BAFs with the "Legendary Riders" wave... This wave has one of the UGLIEST Figures EVER!! Scarlet Witch! I think that ML Rogue's Ugly came from when she kissed Scarlet Witch. There were rumors about she being short packed because she was meant to be scrapped and redone again... (which hasn't happened yet) We also have another Thing (his First Appearance Look) Days of Future Past Wolverine (Reuse from the New X-Men Wolverine from the X-Men Classics Sub-line) with an awful rubber jacket. (He had a "Cowboy Logan variant) Hulkbuster Ironman, Taskmaster, Vengeance, Wonderman (wth Ionc Variant) and last but not least The Infamous "Bunny" Ultron that was sculpted by the 4 Horsemen.
I only got Fugly Witch, Wonderman, Taskmaster and Logan... missed on Vengeance and HB Ironman and willingly skipped FA Thing... I own The Bunny Ultron too... I just tend to forget about its existence.

Now This next Wave brings forth The Apocalypse!! Wave XII The BAF is Apocalypse... Which helps those who collect both ML and SOTA SF figures cause we can have a Marvel vs Street Fighter or a display of X-Men vs Street Fighter!
Now this Wave consists of:
Astonishing Wolverine (with unmasked Variant)

X-23: Purple suit, Black Suit variant (Own black Variant... Face looks weird on Purple variant.)
Bishop (there's a Bald Variant)
Sasquatch (White Variant... Is it supposed to be Wendigo?)
Iron Fist (w red suit/battle damaged variant)
Maestro (Cool figure but mine broke after a 16 inch shelf dive to my bed!)

Aside Maestro Breaking This wave was OK... Weird that this wave wasn't as X-Heavy as I expected... No Archangel? X-23 would be the most meh of the whole set.

Before the Next Wave, I'll discuss the First Wave of Face-Off packs AND The Young Avengers Set. (I didn't own a YA Set, nor the Cap Face-Off pack)

Hulk vs. Leader:
This set has THE BEST ML Hulk I've seen So far... Now The Leader... his toy is a bit too fragile and I never found the Classic Leader Variant... (which I found better looking than Scrotum-head Leader.

Captain America Vs. Set(s):
Now this was the BEST of the wave... On one hand you have a partial Reuse of Ultimate Cap, but made into Classic Captain America. His variant is a Steve Rogers head, but the Enemies are what made this set more interesting:
Normal Cap's opponent was Cosmic Cube Red Skull... A Super Articulated Red Skull!? AWESOME!!
The Steve Rogers Variant did NOT have Red Skull as an opponent... It had Baron Von Strucker as his opponent (in a Red Skull buck repainted with a BVS head)

Dare Devil vs. Kingpin:
DD vs White Suit Kingpin
DD with a Matt Murdock head (WITH GLASSES) vs Kingpin in a black suit.
It was a pain for me to find a White Suit Kingpin... While I love the Black suit Kingpin's head sculpt, the DD was not of my liking, especially wearing those MM glasses.

The Young Avengers set: It exists, I don't care much about it... some of the pieces here will be reused by Hasbro when they get their chance at ML...

Marvel Monsters set: I knew of it's existence, but never saw it in person. Not much to say about it... That Dracula looks pretty much like a Prof. X reuse.

Onslaught Wave (MLXIII):
This wave has kind of a cool roster, but the smaller size of the BAF kinda sucks... (If they had no choice to go Smaller, they should have done Onslaught's first Form)
This wave consists of:
Blackheart
Green Goblin (w/unmasked variant)
Loki (w/Crown of lies Variant)
Abomination (w/Melty face variant)
Pyro
Lady Deathstrike (w/Undershirt painted to avoid scandals from mommies about too much sideboob)
If I have to choose the "worst" figure of the wave then Deathstrike it is. Her face looks too happy and friendly.
I freaking HATE Wal-Mart cause of their Giant Man Wave:
Kitty Pryde
Antman
Ms. Marvel (Carol Danvers)
Havok
The Sentry ("Jesus head" Sentry Variant)
Captain Britain
Age of Apocalypse Wolverine (With Charred face variant)
Age of Apocalypse Sabretooth
Thor

A really good wave with a nice BAF... yet Wal-Mart never stocked it!! My local Wal-Marts
only had one of these (due to me only finding Pegwarmers Sabretooth and Wolverine... I only REALLY wanted Kitty and Ms. Marvel, was that too much to ask?

Wave XIV: The MOJO Wave:
Before I comment on this wave, I must say that Toy Biz was on a roll trying to clog the Market with ML since their time working on the line was close to an end and apparently Hasbro was going to take charge of making Marvel toys... Some of these later toys seem rushed and some even seem crappier than the worst of earlier ML...
This wave is composed of:
First Appearance Iron Man (w/Gold Variant)
Luke Cage
Psylocke
Longshot
Baron Zemo (unmasked variant)
Falcon (Classic Variant)

I got the normal versions of all of them. I have to say something: Luke Cage's hands SUCK!
Also that Psylocke is beyond wrong: She looks like British Betsy, but she's supposed to be Betsy in Kwanon's body. Also Where the heck is her Psychic Knife!! That's like making a clawless Wolverine!
CLassic Falcon looks a lot better than modern falcon (and uses the Vulture larger wings)

Before entering the Final Toy Biz Wave, we must discuss the second wave of Face-Off 2 Packs:
Iron Man/Warmachine vs Mandarin:
Alright, we've got Modular Armor Ironman or Modular Armor War Machine vs The Mandarin.
The Ironman and War Machine are the true reasons to buy both versions of this set. (Especially if you love to combine the MLs with SOTA's SF figures to create MVC Displays.)
Mandarin is a whole new level of suck!
He Has a super articulated body like all MLs... Only that his is strapped on a rubbery tunic that returns his body to the original position... (There was no point in making a new sculpt for Mandarin since TB was going down...)

Punisher vs Jigsaw:
Well both versions of this pack are really worth it. The one with "Punisher Jigsaw" has a Very Classic Punisher, while the White Suit Jigsaw has Jigsaw in a suit, with a more modern looking Punisher.

Wolverine vs Sabretooth: That's the most meh of the 3 packs. Sure you get a First Appearance Wolverine and an alternate look for Sabretooth, but the variants are just the Screaming version of the normal pack.

Now for the Last Toy Biz Wave: MODOK!
Now this wave consists of:
Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew, Variant is Julia Carpenter... got both versions)
Wasp (Short hair version, this one broke so I bought the variant)
Mar-Vell (Genis-Vell variant bought both)
Beta Ray Bill
Moon Knight (Silver Variant, bought both but made non-Silver Moon Knight into a custom Deadpool)
Thor Buster Ironman (Destroyer Variant) Never saw the Destroyer.
There's not much to say other than Wasp is a bit crappy on the QC side.

There's a House of M Box set, but I cared little about house of M... I was losing interest in Marvel at the time.
HoM versions of Hulk, Iron Man, Torch and Thing... Kinda cool that they revisited 4 figures from the first 2 ML waves.

That was the end of the Toy Biz Era on Marvel Legends. It had its highs and lows. There were QC issues but not as dreadful as the QC nightmares from Mattel. The line redefined the tastes for collectors who began choosing Articulation over gimmicks as a reason to buy toys.
The Toy Biz ML Line lasted 16 waves, various box sets and being complemented by Sub-lines like X-Men Classics, Hulk Classics, Fantastic Four Classics, and Spider-Man Classics. That's nto counting the Movie based lines. It also spawned the DC Superheroes line from Mattel (who blatantly copied ML in adding a comic with the moderately articulated figures. Then when the line became DCUC it copied the BAF concept.) Other companies saw the benefit from Articulation on figures. SOTA brought Articulation to Street Fighter, then NECA did it to a couple of different licenses (Like the TMNT) and the rest is history... Roughly 6 years after ML, He-Man was finally bitten by the Super Articulation bug... (To be fair, the 4 Horsemen wanted to have super Articulated MOTU since 2002... it only took 5 years for Mattel to get the memo.)

Part two will touch Hasbro's turn at bat with ML and the collective fear of fans...

Odds and Ends My Little Pony and stufff

2012-01-05T14:33:00.005-04:00

This is from the New York Times, everypony!

Yes, Pinkie Pie... I AM EXCITED!! I dunno if Twilight Sparkle is excited, but she probably will not be due to the next news...

Twilight: the Musical IS a reality. What started as a Youtube Exclusive Parody has become a reality.
IT's very similar to a Very Potter Musical, so that's good... being a parody. Shame I can't be in New York to see it... like that OTHER Parody wait, waht1? That's NOT a parody?

Las Plagas are real!! Luckily they only make bees stupid enough for them to die...

But Pooh would be sad if we don't have anymore honey!

A Pyro Bonobo... Nah! Still, Chimp can light a fire... and help to cook food on the fire... Do I smell a new Survival Show on Discovery? Chimp vs. Wild? Planet of the Apes is becoming a reality... RUN!!

Looking back on Xenogears. That's right! I'm a coward!

2012-01-03T07:03:00.002-04:00

Xenogears, the cult-favorite Squaresoft RPG that challenged a lot of stuff... Religion, good voice acting,Classic RPG conventions... Yup, Xenogears challenged them all while standing tall...

But before going deep in the whole ratings thing, let's discuss Xenogears a bit.

Xenogears was released in 1998, around the same year as Konami's Metal Gear Solid. Why is this important? Well, MGS set the standard for Videogame Voice Acting. Xenogears, well... of the few KNOWN VAs from the game 2 are pretty well known and the other 2 have some moderate to high following, but the performances are well, wooden. But I'll get into it later. Call this a not-so subtle foreshadowing.

OK Xenogears was one of the Games Square released between two Final Fantasy games (Between FFVII and FFVIII) and back then Final Fantasies got all the attention and the other games, well... they had some attention, but not as much as a Final Fantasy game.

Now Xenogears was an ambitious little project from parts of the Crono Trigger Team. It was a 6 Episode Adventure that followed the life of multiple men across various generations in the far future. So it's a Sci-Fi, space Opera type of thing meets classic fantasy type of world... a Mix of High Tech and old-school Fantasy... (Knowing my love for MOTU, that aspect drew me in.) Also at the same time it's a little bit like Neon Genesis Evangelion (with it's Religious not so subtle subtext, psychologically messed up characters) so it's a WIN-WIN. Heck even the second disc goes in a final NGEVA Episodes messed up somewhat "lazy" or "rushed" style of storytelling.

(The whole Characters sitting on a chair while the screen tells us the story instead of letting us play it) Some say it was due to the game going overbudget, others that resources from XG were redirected towards Final Fantasy VIII. Another thing that attracts people is the battle system.

The whole variety of attacks by using different button combinations is rather nifty, compared to just choosing attack. (While the video shows more focus on the dial-a-combos called Deathblows in the game, you CAN do different attacks.)

Also the gears (as the Giant Mecha are known here.) have a combat mode similar to the characters. While they cannot do multiple attacks on a turn (unless they have a Combo Level) it works in a similar manner. 3 attack buttons.

Now I should get on with the whole in-depth review and stuff.

Music and Sounds:

The Music of this game is AMAZING! I dare say that the Music is the BEST PART of the whole game.

The voice acting on the other hand, is a bit wooden. Which is surprising with folks like Cam Clarke and Brian Tochi being two main characters storywise. Note: Both of them have been Leonardo from TMNT…

This is one of the worst synchronized scenes, but it’s one of the least wooden voice acting from the game. (also it’s the least spoilerrific) I blame the one directing the VAs and the translators.

Now if this score was Music alone it would get a 10 out of 10, but the voice acting knocks it down a few pegs:
7/10

Story:

It starts very Sci-Fi and outer spacey and all that, but when the gameplay begins we’re on a kinda steampunk/medieval village. It then shoves the Gears into this peaceful setting and the plot moves forward. Fei, the main character you control most of the time is thrown into what seems like a normal, Kid vs. Evil Empire overused plot, then it flips on itself and beats you up with Judeo-Christian references and themes, while messing up with some character’s minds. We get to see glimpses of previous events (some are 500 years old, others are far older) but in the end most of the current events can be blamed to 2 Leonardos falling in love with the Referee from Nickelodeon’s Guts… If I wanna be a smart-ass about it.
I'd say an 8/10 due to parts of disc 2 where I was TOLD the story instead of being allowed to play it.

Graphics:

Well the game is from 1998 and from the first Playstation, we can't expect State of the Art graphics of 2012 here. For it's time it had OK Graphics, most of the problem was on the extremely low-res sprites used for the characters that made them look very pixelated at times.
I'd say about a 6/10

Gameplay:

As I stated before, the Battles work with 3 attack buttons and depending on what combinations are used you can either chain various normal attacks depending on the amount of Ability Points available and which attacks are used. (Weak attack is worth one AP, Medium attack is worth 2 and strong Attack is worth 3) The gear battles are a bit different since you can only use one attack per turn (unless you have Combos available) and your attacks use fuel. (No fuel, no attack) so you can’t spam your strong attacks… until you get parts that let you recharge your fuel gauge.

Outside of battle, the world is 3D while the characters are 2D sprites. The camera does rotate which helps a bit. On some places the rotation is limited, but almost everywhere you can rotate it 360 degrees.
Why all this stuff on the towns and dungeons? Platforming Elements. Love them or hate them, they’re here on Xenogears. After XG, you MIGHT hate platforming elements. There’s a Real Time One-on-one Fighting mini-game, there’s a Rock, Paper, Scissors mini-game and a game of Speed. Most of these are side-quests, but the One-on-one Fighter is part of the story.

The controls are a bit awkward at first, especially jumping with theTriangle button. On the one-on-one fighting mini game, the controls are not that responsive and feel a tad sluggish.

I'd have to give it a 7/10

Fun Factor:

The game is NOT bad, but it suffers from bad aging... I wanna make a joke about Lindsay Lohan's bad aging to compare with Xenogears, but I dunno who would be more insulted. While the story is not for all, (It's a love it or hate it deal.) have to deal with tedious grinding at times, awkward/frustrating platforming segments, wooden voice acting; I have to say that the game is entertaining, to me. I actually prefer it to the "pseudo knockoff/Prequel" series made by part of the Xenogears Team at Namco (Xenosaga). Honest opinion, a 7/10 There are a few areas where I wish they weren't in it so I wouldn't have to replay them (Babel Tower, Nortune come to mind) but I enjoy the rest of the game so, I'll deal with them.

Now for the overall Xeno Score:
7/10 The Score may be a bit biased due to my love of this game, but as they say: "your mileage may vary". It has not aged well for a 14 year old game Heck even FFVII makes a reference to it:

BTW The Playstation Version says Zenogias instead of Xenogears... Probably a mistranslation...

Brace yourselves 2012 is coming!

2011-12-28T19:25:00.004-04:00

Let's look back at 2011 before moving on to 2012!

-The Royal family of Eternos has been completed! Queen Marlena and Cringer made their Debut in MOTU... as toys.
-Speaking of Mattel, they finally got Filmation Rights! (and Shadow Weaver is the Frist Filmation figure but is a sub exclusive)
-Hannah Montana is Finally over!
-I became a brony.
-Gilbert Gottfried is no longer the AFFLAC! mascot
-Thor rocked, Green Lantern sucked!
-Thundercats got rebooted... and it is AWESOME!!
-We were all left behind, or Rapture did not happen (Hercolubus all over again...)
-Osama Bin Laden and Kim Jon Il Kicked the bucket!
-Beavis and Butt-Head made a comeback, it's like they never left!
-I caved in and bought Tri-Klops from a resseller, then Matty was selling him for $10...

2012 might be the last year of this world (or the Mayan Calendar...) so let's see what it brings! Happy New Year Everypony! In the Mean time here's Kim Jong Il!

It Came From The Toy Chest: The MOTU Jack Skellington

2011-12-25T09:21:00.006-04:00

Scareglow: The Evil Ghost of Skeletor that has caused a lot of confusion for years... has finally arrived. He was originally released on November 2009 along with the Reissue of He-Man. Sadly I could not buy Scareglow... and was OK with it because I was still in a "Just get a FEW characters and call it a day" mentality. Also my Teela hadn't arrived, so I didn't know how Good these figs were... So here's the deal with Scareglow: He's like a Ghost Skeleton that Glows in the dark and induces fear... Like Scarecrow from Batman... In the Masters of the Universe Classics, he's the Ghost of a Bounty Hunter who was obsessed with penetrating Grayskull... The Castle, not the King... King Grayskull was already dead for a couple of hundred or thousand years... So that's pretty much Scareglow in a nutshell... I guess I should get on with the ratings part, but I cannot. I need to discuss what he brings to the game: A Skull head, a Cool Cape,Pole Ax, a key and a Grayskull Relic that holds the Key. Yes he does share the generic buck! Skeletor's to be precise.... So if you have a Skelly, you know what to expect with Scareglow.
Now I will do the ratings part, so 1 = crap and 5 equals awesome.

Articulation:
Same old, same old. Nothing new here... His joints are pretty tight, yo!
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
Look at Scareglow... Notice something weird? If you owned the Vintage Toy you will not see anything odd, cause he looks Just like you remember... Now, if you did NOT own one as a kid, like me, you Will notice something odd... His head does not match the body! His head is a nice rendition of a Skull... Even nicer than Skeletor's, the body? it reminds me of the Kobra Kai Halloween costume...

Oh look! Scareglow!
Well, the Skull is awesome, far more creepier than Skeletor's. The rest of him is pretty much Skeletor! His cape is frayed at the bottom and awesome!
Paintwise, well he's Glow in the dark "white" with the black areas tampographed on in order to simulate the skeleton body, so little paint apps on him. The cape is translucent and has a bit of a purple paintjob that fades into nothingness.
3.5
Accessories:
He's got the pole ax, the relic and the Key. The last two are new additions from the 4 Horsemen. The Mini Grayskull atop the Relic is AMAZING!!
4.5

Overall:
4.17 for Mr. Scareglow... He glows in the dark, looks a bit like Skullomania and is the ghost of an evil Dog the Bounty Hunter... What's NOT to like?

Christmas is already over.

2011-12-25T08:37:00.005-04:00

Yeah!
We didn't get to celebrate together!
Yeah!

Sorry, I got a little carried away with that Shenmue Joke...
Scareglow will be the last It Came From the Toychest this year... Cause Mattel screwed up with Demo-Man... They were unable to release him from China on-time...
I'm one ranticle short out of completing the 120th Article of the year... (OK I'm 2 short, but Screglow's ICFTC will bump one off) but this December seemed a bit Off! Not too much Holiday Spirit this year!! Oh yeah! We're 362-ish days from THE END OF THE WORLD!!

Wha?? No video? No Ice Age 2 Reference?

Eh, that will do!

I dunno, but even Christmas movies this year were a little lame... The only saving grace so far was the Cleveland Show making a Die Hard Parody!

Filler Video Warning!!

Ooh! I almost forgot! Mattel also sent me a map of Etheria!! If it would've had a Hamburglar He-Man too it would have been an awesome Christmas Miracle!! So not all Matty's messups are bad!

So happy Whatever the Heck you celebrate!

Holy crap! GI JOE Retaliation looks like it's NOT Going to suck!

2011-12-15T23:18:00.005-04:00

Holy crap! I CAN smell what the Rockblock is cooking!

The Joes are on the run, Cobra rules America, MORE NINJAS!! What's not to love!?

On the other hand not everything is great in Sequel Land...

Men in Black 3 is uh... looking a bit meh... Not sure if the disappointment that was MIIB has something to do with it, or the fact that it's been so long since the last MIB Movie (the aforementioned MIIB) that I no longer care about it... I need something to cheer me up...

OK, THIS WORKS as a perfect Pick me up!

So the entire trailer was a set up for a Urinary Tract infection joke?
I'll end this with a Dark Knight Rises teaser:

No more Mad Dog Bale Bats... Woohoo!

It came from the Toy Chest: SHORYUKEN! TIGER UPPERCUT!

2011-12-15T22:51:00.000-04:00

Street Fighter 2 packs from Jazwares!! I know what you're thinking: Isn't that the same company that made some sub-par Street Fighter figs during the twilight of SOTA's tenure with Street Fighter? Yes, yes they are... Well This Two-Pack as you might have guessed is composed of Ryu and Sagat. Kinda based on the Street Fighter Animated movie than any of the games. It's been like what, 20 years of Street Fighter? Do I need to go in depth about Ryu and Sagat?
OK Ryu is the main character of Street Fighter... Travels the world in order to become a stronger Warrior. Sagat on the other hand was the Final Boss of the First Street Fighter. He was defeated by Ryu and that huge scar on his chest is a reminder from that battle. He wants a rematch against Ryu.

As always 1 = crap and 5= Awesome.

Articulation:
Both Ryu and Sagat have the same amount of Articulation Points:
-Head is on a Ball joint (Pops off easily, watch out)
-Arms are on a rotating hinge.

-Same thing for the elbows
-hands only rotate (No hinges here... probably cause they are removable.)
-Torso rotates on some sort of ball joint (gives Ryu and Sagat a Little back and forward movement) The joint is underneath the pecs.
-Legs are on a rotating hinge, but the range of movement in not that great. Also Legs tend to Pop off.
-The Knees are on a rotating hinge. (Both Ryu and Sagat's right knees are mega loose)
-The Feet are in a rotating hinge joint as well.
The Articulation in Theory is not that bad. 16 points on a 3 3/4" figure is NOT That bad. A bit less than a 25th Anniversary GI Joe figure. The Problem lies in the Execution. Some of the basic poses CAN be recreated, but others cannot be recreated either because the figure's range of motion does not allow it or because the figure's legs start to pop off and fall.
I'd have to give them a 2.5 for that.

From Nefty's House of Rants

Paint and Sculpt:
I am severely torn on this issue. There are a lot of details in some areas, like wrinkles and folds on Sagat's pants and on the joints on his fingers but at the same time his bandages seem way underdetailed. On Ryu's case his gi has folds, wrinkles and creases that give him a detailed look, but at the same time both the dangling parts of his belt AND bandanna lack the creases and detailing that the parts that are sculpted to the body have. Also what's with the Leifeldian Manboobs on Ryu?
Now the Paintjob is a bit problematic.
On Sagat's case there is a nice reddish shading on his body (that matches his scar) which gives his muscles some tone but it was applied erratically across the figure. Some his arms are more reddish than the biceps and it looks odd.
On Ryu's case his neck is a bit Orange... Almost Hogan Orange. while the gi has some nice light blue shading. It seems that my Ryu has a half painted Bandanna. On Ryu's belt there are some Kanji tampographed on it. (The same ones that the NECA SF4 Ryu has as well.)
Also on both figures the joints are of a different color than the rest of the figure (only on the flesh areas.) They tried to cover it up by painting the joints, but sadly the secret is revealed once you move the figures around.

As I said, this is where I am very torn cause the sculpt is Pretty good, not Perfect but pretty good, while the paints are a bit below average...
I think that for this review only I shall separate Paint and Sculpt.

Paint:
Ryu: 3.0 Sagat 2.5
Sculpt:
Ryu: 3.0 Sagat:3.5

Accessories:
1 Extra pair of hands for each character. That way you can have both characters with closed fists or opened hands. The Ryu hands are meant to be Hadoken hands. the lack of swivel in them makes them a bit useless for that. Sadly no energy blasts or character specific accessories like Ryu's duffelbag.
3.0
Overall:
Ryu: 2.875 Sagat: 2.875

From Nefty's House of Rants

While they are a HUGE improvement over their past efforts, there's still a LOT of room for them to improve. At least they're MORE Accurate than the last time Street Fighter was in Joe Scale... made by Hasbro... Although Sagat was pretty Accurate... Now, the one positive thing I can think of is MK vs SF can be actually made at least in toy form since Jazwares also makes the MK figures... and these guys seem to have their limbs detached from their body so easily that Fatality displays could be easy to make!

It came from the Toychest: Bubbles of Power!

2011-12-08T18:41:00.000-04:00

As spoiled by the Swift Wind Review, my Third Matty Item from the November sale is Bubble Power She-Ra! Or as Mattel tentatively called her: She-Ra 2.0!
What's so great about this She-Ra? Horse Riding Powers! If you bought Swift Wind and did NOT buy this She-Ra...

Exactly!
Also this is the First She-Ra Variant, like Battle Armor He-Man... But this time she is Slightly closer to the Toy design... but we're still far off from the Toy design... I guess Starburst She-Ra will be the one based on the toy... As it can be seen she's got additional armor, removable of course so you can take the Filmation head off the first She-Ra an pop it in this one to have a Filmation She-Ra that can ride horses... Or Green Tigers if you feel inclined to do so! She also has a Toy accurate Tiara to be worn on a holeless head! She also has the Second version of the Vintage Toy Sword... which was reused on Starburst She-Ra... (Not the one I was hoping for, but Whatever...) I'm forgetting the bubble blower that gives Bubble Power She-Ra her name...

I should go unto the review part where 5 is good and 1 is crap!

Articulation:
Unlike her 1.0 Counterpart this She-Ra has a Softer Skirt and slits on its sides that allow a Greater range of Motion. she also, like BG Teela has a waist twist! Everything else is standard MOTUC Female Articulation... (Still no ab crunch like the males, but it's more visually pleasing that way...) and her super soft cape does not get in the way when posing her on Swift Wind... unlike her red 1.0 cape which is a lot more rigid than this one.
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
The Four Horsemen did a LOT of improvements on She-Ra! Adding some Toy details on her bracers and boots, making her Leaf pattern smaller and less Weed looking... I wish I would have bought a Second one to Customize into a Toy Accurate She-Ra cause her "Leaf" almost looks like the Toy Spiral...

Paintwise She has no visible slop or paint chipping off. She's I'd dare say Perfect, but there is ONE small flaw, or huge flaw... Your Mileage may vary...

She-Ra is a Jabroni beating, lalala pie eating, trailblazing, eyebrow raising, heartstopping, elbow dropping electrifying rebel Etheria has seen!
My She-Ra has her right Eyebrow painted like she's doing "The People's Eyebrow" Suddenly Holey head She-Ra is starting to look more appealing...
4.5
Accessories:
Like I said, She-Ra has her Toy Sword, Her shield makes a comeback with a Pink Bubble Power gem and a cooler paintjob... The CombAxe makes a Comeback. I did mention the Toy accurate Tiara for her... Sadly this time you cannot Flip it over and have the Tiara work as a mask and stay there. Now The Bubble Launcher is the most intriguing thing. I Never had the Original Bubble Power She-Ra and I don't Recall my cousin having her... If she did she probably lost the Bubble launcher really fast... the same way she lost her sword of protection and most of my power swords... (Thank goodness for the Weapon packs!) Well I don't know if the launcher works, but it looks a lot like the vintage one... (As much as I love POP, that was a weapon that went straight into the parts baggie #2! Too frou-frou for my display...)
4.0

Overall: 4.33 for Bubble Power She-Ra. She is Not a bad figure on her own, but she's overshadowed by her intended purpose of swapping the Filmation head and cape from the First She-Ra unto this one to have a Filmation She-Ra that can Ride Swift Wind.

It Came from the Toychest: Whoa! That's one big Pony!

2011-12-08T17:43:00.001-04:00

And this Pony is not small or mine... OK I own this Pony but it is not one of the 'My Little' variety... I'm talking about Swift Wind everypony! Wait... I just received a Letter from the Royal Palace of Eternos! OK, let's see...
Apparently I cannot use the following terms in this review:
10 seconds flat, 20% Cooler, everypony, somepony, anypony, and any other thing that references My Little Pony... So no She-Ra weed/Leaf thingie as Swift Wind's cutie Mark...
Swift Wind what can I say about him: He's Basically She-Ra's Battlecat, but in winged Unicorn form... Ah! I know what I can say... Remember the Trollestia Review? Sorry Spector, but I made a Swifty Reference there, so I must link to that to explain the whole Swift Wind thing...

In the 80s Swifty was White in the Toon, Pink as a Toy... Mattel later made a variant of Swift Wind called Royal Swift Wind! He was White, but not the Toon version. Fast Forward to the MOTUC era, with a Filmation She-Ra made due to it appearing on the Princess of Power Style Guide, but the Filmation Swift Wind not appearing meant that we were getting Toy Swift Wind... The Pink One... Mattel in their Infinite Wisdom decided to Make a Swift Wind Poll to choose Which version of Swift Wind would show up in the Line... Classic Pink or Royal White.
Royal Swift Wind vote... Probably due to some people fearing that a pink horse would make them "less of a man" or something... Then Mattle threw that result out of the window and Made Filmation Swift Wind instead!Looks like I've talked about it already...
So let's see what Swift Wind brings to the table:
Horse Body, Wings, a saddle and his mask with the horn attached to it...
You can ALMOST make a Spirit out of him if it wasn't for 3 things:
The wing holes, the lack of the small headdress Spirit wears AND the non-Removable "Necklace-like thing" Sorry, my terminology on horse related stuff is very limited... but in any case, you JUST can't strip down Swift Wing and call him Spirit... Either a Mattel oversight or a trick to sell you more horses...

Now unto the ratings part: 1 =bad 5 =good... I bet you already know this, but I have to mention it in case of new readers...

Articulation:
This probably will be the Standard on MOTUC Horses... but let's discuss it in depth:
Head moves up and down, so does the neck, but it also has a little side to side movement.
His wings are one a hinged peg that can rotate 360 degrees AND the wings can flap due to the hinges. His tail is on a hinged joint that kinda functions like a ball joint. His legs have 3 POA Each. (a hinged joint) So let's see: about 16 POA Not bad for a horse that used to be a statue!
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
This horse is veiny! You can see a LOT of veins in this sculpt, which is very important because there's a QC issue plaguing Swift Wind... Incorrectly assembled legs (Two right legs or 2 left legs) and the veins are the key to noticing this flaw. Also his feathers are very detailed and I think each feather is different from the other... Oh and his hair is Windblown like his rider's...
Paintwise Swift Wind is almost flawless... with a bit of paint rub on his neck, due to the necklace-thing...

Special thanks to Eric DeLima for the pics with the flawed Swifty legs.
4.5*
Accessories:
Technically that would be the saddle... which is part of Swift Wind... I have to admit that Mattel dropped the ball here. Here was the perfect chance to make a 2 in one figure, cause unlike Battle Cat, a 100% Naked Swift Wind could have worked as a Spirit (even if he did Not have the headpiece...) Two removable pegs of white plastic and making the neck thing removable...
On the other hand with the excess of wrong legged Swiftys, I guess it's a good thing that they did...
3.0

Overall: 4.0* for Mr. Wind... I know what you're saying: Wait a minute he hasn't mentioned She-Ra in all of this! Of course not! I'm saving that for her Bubble Power Review!... and yes, BP She-Ra CAN Ride Swift Wind in a lady-like manner and in a manly fashion... Something that Miss Rigid Skirt cannot do!

*=Assuming that Swift Wind has no QC issues...

Mandatory Godfather Joke... Neitlich started it when he said that Swift Winds's head was NOT removable to avoid this joke...

It came from the Toy Chest: Follow my Hose nose...

2011-12-08T14:56:00.000-04:00

Snout Spout has arrived, it's true it's true! The Etherian/sometimes Eternian Firefighter is here... A product of Horde Science... Basically capturing a random dude and doing experiments on the poor sucker... Well Snout Spout is one of those Horde Experiments...
Before I start with the review, I must say one thing. I ABSOLUTELY and completely HATEHATEHATEHATE! Snout Spout. Part of my hate towards him is the sad dopey elephant look on his face. The 200X Version of him made this loser a badass! MOTUC obviously went back to vintage, but some tweaks were made... He doesn't look as dopey as the vintage figure. His Backpack, while Mostly Vintage inspired got an extra element added to him (a side tank.) His Fire Axe got no real update but he got his own Hydraulic Spreader? (Jaws of Life) that kinda looks like an Elephant's face... and his trunk is Bendy!

With all that said let's move on to the ratings part where I say 1 = bad and 5 = good
Articulation:
Same old from your average MOTUC... Joints are pretty tight and all that... You're all waiting for me to give you the scoop on his trunk... I wouldn't fool around with it too much if I were you... The Material seems rather soft almost Foamlike. (found a small crack on the trunk...) 4.5 (not counting the crack...)

Paint and Sculpt:
Same old same old here. Basic He-Man buck, new gloves loincloth and boots... Aside that, the head is very vintage Looking, but as I said, the slight changes to his brow make him look a lot more cooler!
Paintwise Snouty is flawless... OK mine had two flaws: Due to his loincloth being ultra soft, some black paint chipped off his belt (already fixed) also he lacked some of his muscle shading, which I fixed by giving him a new paintjob:
4.0

Accessories:
The Ax and the Jaws of Life!
What can I say about the Ax: It's an Ax/Pick/wrench that can also be used to hold Snouty's trunk when firing the water... (If he HAD an action feature) Now the "Jaws of Life" They are kinda cool, but I probably won't display him with them for 2 reasons:
#1 It Makes Clamp Champ less interesting and for #2, see #1

3.0

Overall: Snout Spout gets a: 3.83 ( +.25 for free Stickers)
While he IS an amazing figure... which is a huge triumph for Snout Spout due to my hatred towards him, he still feel like he needed some more "oomph!" in him... I'm not saying they should have made him like the staction, which I would have liked. Yes the did made the brow to make him slightly more fierce and the backpack was updated... WITH THE VINTAGE BUTTON AND CAP where you filled him with water. (Which work pretty well on him.) but I still feel like he Lacks "something"... I dunno how to describe it.

12 Christmas Movies and/or Specials. Let's see...

2011-12-03T22:00:00.000-04:00

Which movies I'd love to watch on Christmas... Since it's December and pretty much everyone is with a little Christmas Spirit inside...

Let's Start with #12:

Jingle All the Way... It's Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Sinbad in a Holiday rush that many of you had gone through... Last Minute Christmas Shopping Spree... It's like a shark frenzy... and while the movie is kinda crappy it does have its moments...

#11:

Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas...
As you can see I'm talking about the Animated special and not the Jim Carrey Movie. My eart grows 3 sizes every time I see this special!

#10:

The Nightmare Before Christmas: I bet that all the emo kids at Hot Topic have stopped cutting themselves long enough to pay attention... Yes, I like the movie, yes I still hate the TNBC fandom... I knew I should have gone with Batman Returns instead, even if it's almost cheating...

#9:

Gremlins!
What, it's setting IS on Christmas... OK I guess Phoebe Cates knows how to ruin a good Holiday...

#8:

The Santa Clause:
Tim Allen Kills Santa, now he IS Santa. Since I've been Santa Claus before, I can relate to the movie... and I don't LIKE Tim Allen...

#7:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: The Rankin/Bass Special.
Of all the Rankin/Bass Specials, Rudolph's is the one I remember the most... I'm not a fan of Frosty the Snowman.

#6:

Home Alone 2: Lost in New York...
Or the Talkboy commercial movie...

#5:

Surviving Christmas...
I know it's not a well received movie and Most of the time I want to punch Ben Affleck in the face, but it kinda brings me a warm fuzzy feeling inside...

#4:

I saw Mommy kissing Santa Claus:
I should hate this movie... It's Basically Zack and Cody (playing the same character) having a war against Santa... Like a crappy Home Alone knock-off... I think it's that it's so crappy that it's good the reason why I kinda like this movie.

#3:

The He-Man, She-Ra Christmas Special... I know that you're not surprised to see this, since most of my rants involve Masters of the Universe somehow... Full of filmationy He-Man and She-Ra goodness, with a touch of Christmas!

#2:

Home Alone... No, it's not cheating... this one is in Chicago while the Last one was in New York... There are only 2 Real Home Alone movies... nothing more... Trust me on that...

#1:

Yippie Kay-yay Mother****er! Die Hard IS my Number One Christmas movie!! Action adventure and tons of Alan Rickman with his Snapey voice long before being Snape! Some people would say, hey! that's cheating! I say... I don't care... Watching Die Hard right now!

It Came from the Toy Chest: Peeping Tom, Dumpster Diver, Bounty Hunter

2011-11-26T22:19:00.000-04:00

Tri-Klops: He seems to be the Jack of all Trades for the Evil Forces of Skeletor!
The first Figure I bought from a reseller... Yeah I know that I'm not a big fan of resellers, but since Mattel seems to avoid reissuing Tri-Klops so "international fans" such as Myself could buy him... Mattel missed out on my money this time. Now onto Tri-Klops:
NO! I will NOT post a gif of Tri-Klops holding He-Man from the Diamond Ray of Disappearance...
Now what can I say about him... HE has 3 eyes... like a Cyclops, but with 3... Tri, clops...
Well, he's one of Skeletor's big five:
Evil Lyn, Trap Jaw, Beastman, Mer Man, and Tri-Klops so that's important. In the new Masters of the Universe Classics he's a Bounty Hunter, some type of inventor/doctor/scientist cause he reprogrammed Faker (after a Dumpster diving session at the Royal Palace) He rebuilt Kronis into Trap Jaw and also is the creator/user of the Doom Seekers. I shouldn't forget his high skill in sword fighting.
His Visor helps him to see great distances, around and through objects AND he can shoot concussive blasts like somebody I know...

Hookay in any case let's get it on with the review:
As you can see, he uses the male buck... He is the originator of the left wrist that Randor, Keldor, Adam, Thunderpunch He-Man, and Hamburglar He-Man use... Speaking of Adam... Pop the Adam head on Tri-Klops' Body and put He-Man's armor on... A little red paint on the Loincloth and swapping the boots with the DCUC vs MOTUC He-Man and you get the closest thing to a Filmation He-Man as you can get in MOTUC...

Now unto the figure himself. Unlike later figures, Tri-Klops' design takes cues from the vintage toy, but is not a 100% replica of the vintage toy in MOTUC scale and Articulation. He gets extra details on his face and Armor that were not on the vintage toy. The only thing from the vintage toy that I miss is the strap on his back to keep the armor a bit steady.

What Tri-Klops brings to the game in MOTUC:
His Sword, a Doomseeker, a Warrior Ring just like the 80s toy... No, I did not take Pictures of the warrior Ring... It's on my TO DO list... Maybe when my Scareglow arrives... The Warrior ring does not fit my fingers, so it went straight to the parts baggie... His sword I already mentioned vaguely in the Weapons Pack 1 Review. Now a DoomSeeker would be something nice to throw in a weapons pack especially in silver.

I think I should move on to the ratings part... 1 = poop and 5 = awesometastic!

Articulation: Nothing new to see here... One partially loose ankle... 4.0

Paint and Sculpt:

I think this figure has ZERO flaws in this department: No visible sops in paint, everything nice and clean... yay. Sculptwise, well the Horsemen went above and beyond expectations: Love the cyber details on the eyes, the kunai on his back are mini TK swords! Heck when the Visor pops off (NOTE: It should not pop off when playing properly with Tri-Klops.) he even has cybernetic parts on his eyes that link to the visor... he kinda looks like Doc Ock without the visor...

5.0

Accessories:
I already said, sword, DoomSeeker + Stand and the Grayskull Warrior Ring.
Honestly, the star of the show is the Doom Seeker. Dunno how they Retro-styled it but it works... The Wind Raider color scheme DOES work on it, but personally I prefer Silver... Incredibly enough I am NOT tempted to paint this one in silver... The Warrior Ring... I have to talk about it. It glows in the dark, does not fit my fingers and it opens up a secret compartment that NOTHING fits in it...
3.5

Overall:
Tri-Klops gets a 4.17 that it's not too bad, but personally I think that the Warrior ring is truly a waste of accessory. Sure it's a throwback to the vintage line, but this is something that the toys cannot use.

Odds and ends: Waiting for Matty's Black Friday Sale

2011-11-24T23:26:00.000-04:00

I'm gonna go for Scareglow this Black Friday on Matty... Sadly I have to wait until 4:00, not Noon (or 13:00 for me) but at Midnight Pacific Time... which Translates to 4 AM...In the case of New Yorkers: Big Apple 3 AM...

and this is the music they'll use...

The Hamburglar was retired from the McD Line-up, but there's a NEW Hamburglar in Iowa!
Sadly he surrender himself to the Authorities... I wonder if Officer Big Mac was the one Arresting him...
The guy broke into a McD to make himself a hamburger... Dude! Everyone KNOWS McNuggets are all the rage

You knew this was coming...

Megyn Kelly... is basically clueless. It's a chemical weapon. While it has a similar chemical as one found in some food products, it is NOT a food product... but I'm not going to talk about that...

Now that's an EPIC Burn!! Especially if it comes from Martha Freaking Stewart!

That's all for Today... Roughly 4 hours left until more WSOD for me! Whee!

Let's get our kettles with warm water and a glass of cold water just in case!

2011-11-23T20:57:00.000-04:00

Looks like Ranma 1/2 TV Special is REALLY happening... Here's some clips of it!

Sadly I don't see Ryoga anywhere...

I wonder if the Panty Raider will make an appearance...

I hope Happosai makes it...

Odds and Ends: Don't stuff the turkey yet!

2011-11-22T21:58:00.000-04:00

OK, Thanksgiving's coming and I wanna take a look at some stuff before it happens...
Mattel is FINALLY shipping my BP She-Ra, Swift Wind and Snout Spout...

Stealth Camouflage!? Nope! Chuck Testa! Nope! Chinese guy who makes Camouflage Paintings to render himself almost invisible... Problem is that he has to stand there without moving... DAMN!

Yahoo! caught me off-guard today with a random article: Where's Miley Cyrus Been? The answer is I have no idea what she's been up to ever since she hit the Salvia Bong... (and my assistant follows her on Twitter...) I think I can Find Carmen Sandiego faster than I could Find Miley...

I knew that she did a tour a couple of months ago, but I've pretty much stopped caring since she's no longer on TV and stuff... I guess that Forever being so short helped her slip off the radar... I'm still waiting for the 2012 Hannah Montana Revival tour... or at least Beavis and Butt-head to poke fun at Hannah or Miley...

Now let's move on to more recent and slightly more relevant things: Justin Bieber is getting a Paternity test... just to prove that he did NOT have sex with a girl...

Hey! It's a mandatory Bieber clip for the non Bielebers...
This whole paternity issue would've been better if it had been on Maury:

What she hopes to hear...

What Bieber hopes to hear.

Either way, that girl is screwed... If she DID have sex with Bieber, then it's statutory rape cause she was over 18 and he was... is a minor. If she DID NOT have sex with Bieber, he could sue for defamation of character and stuff...

Stuttgart, Arkansas is a town like no other... There is an obsession...

Yup! Duck Hunting... Apparently that's the Holy Grail of Duck Hunting... To me on the other hand the Holy Grail of Duck Hunting is:

The Most Obvious Videogame Crossover that still hasn't happened:

2011-11-21T17:31:00.000-04:00

Street Fighter vs Mortal Kombat... Why hasn't it happened!? I mean Capcom has crossed over with, Namco, SNK and Marvel while Mortal Kombat has battled the DC Universe.
Yet the big two haven't faced each other in a fighting game... (Neither have Marvel and DC but that's a story for another rant...)

Now From the MK Side, we have Ed Boon who'd LIKE to do it... Sadly it seems that the Capcom half ain't ready for a crossover with Mortal Kombat

Now I'm going to state the Obvious: 2 Games... When Capcom and SNK crossed over they did it that way, and they're doing it the same way in SF&Tekken Crossover games. Scorpion's Classic Unmask and Burn could be a nice Hyper Combo in the veins of Dhalsim's Yoga Inferno.
or Liu Kang's MK1 Pirouette Uppercut Fatality could be turned into a Crawler Assault type of Hyper combo.

(Obviously made a bit more over the top since it's a hyper combo)
All that Capcom has to do is make a super cool crossover game, personally I'd prefer if they went with a more crazy and over the top game (like the MVC series) but using old school 2-on-2 matches.

On the other hand Nether Realm Studios' half could go ALL MK with the Street Fighters.
Heck! Some of their Hyper moves could be borderline Fatalities.
Dhalsim's Yoga inferno could work similar to Scorpion's Classic Fatality. The Shun Goku Satsu could be Akuma's Fatality.

Ryu's could be a Shin Shoryuken that slices the opponent... (Story reason, something something dark energies from MK's realm affecting the lighter Capcom Realm characters)

That way everyone wins. Hopefully talks could start once this SF&Tekken thing ends... My guess is that Capcom doesn't want to do it... Street Fighter is more Superior than Mortal Kombat Mentality and all that... While I Prefer Street Fighter over Mortal Kombat, I Definitely think that this crossover would IS more anticipated than Tekken... Cause SNK is now out of the picture.

The closest thing we've got to SFvsMK or MKvsSF was the KAK from MK Armageddon... Now we need this for real!! C'mon Capcom!!

Marvel VS Capcom 3 made my fingers bleed!!

2011-11-17T21:50:00.000-04:00

I went on a ride and fought for the fate of two worlds. Got my butt kicked a LOT of times... Phoenix Wright takes some time to master... Well to be fair I never played MVC3 before... Wasn't going to buy MVC3 with Ultimate MVC3 coming soon... (well it already came, but you get my point... I guess)

I can't stop loving this hyper move (even if it's a huge pain in the ass to set up)
Also I love beating opponents with X-23... (not cause X is an easy character to use, but cause her voice sounds like an angry Twilight Sparkle... yeah, Ponies are my new Hannah)

The game feels familiar, yet different... A LOT Different...
Due to the changes in the controls characters have some older moves switched... This hurt me a lot while playing as Spidey... Looks like I'll have to relearn how to use him before venturing online... They switched the Web swing, but added a nifty Web zip... also the Maximum Spider seems a lot more badass now.
Heck! Even plain vanilla Ryu got a couple of new moves... Yeah, Hadoken guy has some new moves... How about that?

Semi controllable Shinkuu Hadoken!!

Also for a Final boss we get something bigger than Apocalypse:

Bigger Than Cyber Akuma...

Bigger than Onslaught

Bigger and badder than Abyss

FREAKING GALACTUS!!

It was inevitable... I kinda expected him in MVC 2 but what the heck, The Big G is here (Surprisingly no Silver Surfer...)

I should go more in depth into the review now that I've gushed all over the game... Remember that I NEVER PLAYED the Vanilla version of MVC3... Since this is a game review, the scale is from 1 to 10...

Story: A dimensional rift or something is making the "Capcom Universe" and the Marvel Universe to have people cross among the dimensions. Doctor Doom, being the incredibly nice guy he is, contacts the nicest guy in the Capcom Universe... Albert Wesker... They basically join forces and leech off Energy from Galactus in order for Capcom to invade Marvel and Viceversa... Sadly the likes of Ryu, Spider-Man, Chris Redfield, Captain America, Phoenix Wright, and Wolverine are trying to put an end to this evil plan... Now I'm not so sure if the previous games are in continuity, but that's pretty much the story...
4.5 It's the most coherent set up to have a crossover of this magnitude, but since it's a fighting game... the endings become a non-canonical mess... some of them are incredibly weird and would make sense in the character's universe (Mostly from the Capcom side)

Graphics: Obviously this is a PS3 and XBOX 360 game, so the Graphics, by default are better than a PS2 Game. The good old sprite-based games have been left behind. As a fan of sprite art, I think that this decision sucks. On the other hand, Capcom reuses those old sprites more than Mattel reuses buck pieces... ZING! They went with 3D models cause of SF IV and all that, which helps in making Alternate looks less than simple palette swaps (in some cases) Also the Street Fighter 4 Characters look a bit better in this MVC3 Style than their SF4 counterparts... a bit "cleaner" and more reminiscent of the MVC2 and earlier sprites... but 3D
8.5

Gameplay: Hoo boy, where to start: I'll start with the controls. The MVC series has suffered through various changes throughout each sequel.
I shall show them as if they were on a normal arcade joystick with the settings as if they were the ones from the Arcade version (on MVC 1 and 2)
W=Weak, M = Medium, H= Hard, P = Punch, K = Kick, S = Special, and A = Attack

MVC (1)
WP MP HP
WK MK HK
Traditional Street Fighter Style Controls, if you played Street Fighter, you can play this one quite easily.
MVC 2
WP HP Assist 1
WK HK Assist 2
I guess you have noticed something: "Where's the medium Punch or Medium Kick Button?" well the Assist buttons ate them... you have 2 partners now... you need one button to summon him/her/it on the fly... The Medium attacks still exist in the combos... by pressing the WP or WK.

MVC3
WA MA Assist 1
HA SA Assist 2
First thing I noticed was that there are no specific punch or kick buttons... What the heck is this SA Button... Special Air Launch... (To start Air combos) This control scheme almost feel like the one from Tatsunoko vs Capcom, but modified to fit the MVC3 style... Simpler, but not necessarily easier... Remember when I said earlier about releasrning how to use Spidey and stuff, this is why.
Old Spidey Web Swing (MVC 1 and 2)
▼◄ Kick
New Spidey Web Swing (MVC3)
◄▼◄ Any Attack (except SA)
If I do: ▼◄ Attack, I do a Web throw...
Ironman's smart bombs changed from a Punch + Kick attack into a Shoryuken type of move (►▼► Punch) which still keeps throwing me off a bit.

It might seem like nitpicks, but after MORE THAN eleven years of having some moves ingrained into our brains by a series of commands, changing the commands DO throw us off...
Once you get that out of the way, the controls are pretty responsive.
and the game is pretty much the same thing we've had since the past 11 years with MVC 2... An insane orgy of flashy attacks in order to drain the energy out of your opponent's bar. As you can see on the previous MVC3 videos, there's flashy, crazy and over the top.
8.5 The changes in controls bother me a bit... Made me shift form an average player to a total newbie.

Sounds/Music: Most of the themes from returning characters (and Capcom newcomers) are remixes from previous themes or from the game they come from. X-23 has some lyrics in her theme, which is kinda weird... First time I heard it I almost crapped my pants.
Voices are pretty good... I think none of the original voices from previous MVC games made a comeback...
Wolvie ain't Cal Dodd anymore... Christopher Daniel Barnes ain't Spidey anymore... Yes Greg Brady, Prince Eric from Little Mermaid are Spidey... Now we have Josh, Spectacular Spider-Man/Young Ocelot Keaton as Spidey, which is OK except his annoying WEB SWING battle cry... Yes, again with the web swing... X-23 is Tara Twilight Sparkle/Timmy Turner/Bubbles Strong... Cause she was X-23 in Wolverine and the X-Men is why they skipped Andrea Libman as X-23...

So, this means that Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie AND Twilight Sparkle have been X-23.
I love Tara's voice but she sounds too much like Twilight Sparkle... Maybe If X-23 sounded more like Pinkie Pie she'd be more Adorable...

On the other hand Jennifer Hale is playing Jean Grey... Dammit! This ruins my chances of having Black Cat in a MVC game... On the Capcom side things are a bit better: The VAs from SFIV and RE5 return to voice their characters. So, aside the annoyingness of Spidey's Web Swing... and X-23 sounding too much like a pissed off Twilight Sparkle, the sound Department gets an 8.0

Fun Factor: (offline) Like I've said before, I'm more of an anti-social player so the online mode does not motivate me much at all... I did got in a few battles online... Beginner's lobby, my ass!
OK, so back to the offline mode. there's the arcade mode, mission mode and training mode (haven't played offline versus... being an anti-social gamer and all that)
SO, arcade is very simple: Beat the crap out of various sets of characters until you reach Galactus and kick his enormous planet eating butt!
Training is where you can practice the moves and stuff.
Mission Mode is like Training mode, but with certain goals...
Offline the game gets a 7.5 While Galactus is easier than Onslaught, some of his moves are a tad too overpowered.

I'm not rating it online cause your mileage may vary.
Now for the overall score of Ultimate MVC 3:
7.4 It's not bad, but for a game that fans have been waiting for 11 years feels like it's missing something... besides Jill and Shuma Gorath... hate that Capcom is once again using Jill and Shuma Gorath as DLC, since they could've just added them to the disc since this is "an expansion" to Normal MVC3.

MOAR PONEHS!!

2011-11-12T22:45:00.000-04:00

Dear Princess Celestia:
I just have noticed that Hasbro is releasing other Ponies aside the Mane Six.
Aside from Cheerielee, I have no idea who those ponies are!
Your Faithful Student that is NOT Twilight Sparkle.

Well, since Hasbro WANTS to make ponies, how about Popular ponies from the show? And maybe a few NON-Ponies... Well, here's my list of My Little Pony Characters that I'd like to see in the Normal Scale with rooted hair... not talking about the Blindbag ponies, cause now they're making more characters there... I recall seeing a Rarity in Blanka colors:

Big Macintosh:
Applejack and Applebloom's eldest brother... He's a Brony... DO I want him?
eeyup!

The one called 'Derpy Hooves' by the Fans: Also known as 'Ditzy Doo' by Hasbro.
Why is 'Derpy' Popular? I think it's the derpy face... She's now the Waldo/Wally in Season 2...

Nightmare Moon/Luna: Yes, I know that Target has a pair of "Canterlot sets" that have a Luna (with a non-rooted hair Celestia), but those Lunas are not accurate to the show. (They're closer to the Season 1 look, but not too accurate.) Maybe a Season 2 Luna with extra pieces to give her the Nightmare Moon Disguise (cause this toyline cannot have any villains... apparently)

While we're at it how about a Princess Celestia that is NOT a Frigging Giant: Oh yeah I went there... Note that I'm NOT asking for a Cartoon Accurate Celestia, which would be even better, but "Retailers" want PINK Celestia... It's too weird That Celestia is as big as Twi's Balloon...

Zecora the Zebra: While not technically a Pony, she is a pretty popular character. Being a mystic Zebra that speaks in rhyme, also was the first target of Pinkie Pie's bigotry... (cause the Pink...ie Pie believed her to be EVIL!!)

The Great and Powerful TRIXIE:
Another character that would be fun to have, but suffers from the Nightmare Moon problem... No "baddies on a girl's line" issue... That's what reduced Catra to a "Jealous Beauty" and made parents rebel against The Misfits from JEM... Truly Outrageous! (Sorry, I HAD to do it!)

Gilda the Griffon: Another Baddie that will most likely NOT get made... Why does everything that has girls as their main audience cannot have bad guys in it?

and at last but not least a character that will NEVER EVER Happen, even if all the bronies in the universe begged for him:

DISCORD!! Probably because he's "evil" and a mismatch set of parts... but Hasbro will NOT do him...

There are other background ponies that would be fun to have, but this list is about those I'd like to see... Sure there's Granny Smith, Snips, Snails, "Doctor Whooves", Truly Toon accurate versions of Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash (with the shorter hair and proper mane/tail colors) or Applejack with the hat and freckles and a Pinkie Pie with more curlier hair... Even Vinyl Scratch aka 'DJ Pon-3'

It came from the Toychest: Now Everypony can Fly to the Castle

2011-11-10T18:43:00.000-04:00

Here's Twilight Sparkle's Twinkling Balloon!

That's how Important it is! It's THE Very first thing you see on the Intro!
It contains
Twilight Sparkle (Minus not Owlowiscious, comb and saddle)
Spike
a Cardboard cutout of Rarity
The Balloon...

Great now I'm being mocked by Chicken Pie! LOL

OK... Sheesh! For a Party Pony she sure is Grumpy!

Vehicle reviews can't be the same as a standard figure review, cause it's a frigging vehicle! Luckily we Have 2 Figures in it to Review!
Twilight, you CAN read the detailed Twilight Sparkle review for the single packed Twilight to get more into my thoughts. This Twilight Sparkle gets a different score, due to the different nature of her accessories:
Overall Twilight Sparkle Score: 2.67 (without the Pony Curve) Using the Pony Curve She gets a 3.67 Having Spike and Her Balloon helped her Out a lot! (in the Accessories Department)

Now for Spike! The Missing character or should I call him The New Rainbow... Dash?

Well what can I say about this Baby Dragon?
Articulation: Zilch, Nada, the big goose egg!
Paint and Sculpt: What can I say about the sculpt? He looks pretty accurate (except the whole quadruped pose cause Spike seems to be a bipedal dragon) There are tiny details on his sculpt that are hard to catch on Camera like on his knees, which is kinda cool for a MLP toy (with their soft sculpts and partial lack of detail). The paintjob needed to be 20% cooler. There's a bit of slop on his torso, near his legs. you won't be able to see it unless you grab him, flip him over and look at it!
Accessories: Technically he comes with none but I believe that the Rarity Carboard cut-out is his.

That's why...
I can't officially rate him as a figure since he's pretty much an accessory. A Decently sculpted Accessory to a line of Ponies with 1 POA... He pretty much is like Cringer... As a toy on his own is almost useless, but once you pair him with Prince Adam or in Spike's case, Twilight Sparkle... they complement each other! Also there is something about him that makes me enjoy him... been carrying and playing with him almost non-stop for 9 hours... Heck as I'm writing this review, I'm goofing off with Spike!

Cardboard Rarity Cutout:
It's just used to show the girls that Twilight is meant to go in the balloon...
She is Cartoon Accurate AND Having Rarity IN the balloon is IN Canon... Roll the clip Mr. Awesome MLP Accessory!

I still can't get over Celestia being The Sorceress... Kinda Freaky when I watch 200X...

I think I've delayed the inevitable Long enough! Unto The Balloon itself...
If you've been watching the videos and look at the Toy, you'll notice something...

No, not Spike checking out Rarity... Take a good look at the balloon and at the balloon in the videos...

Trollestia Strikes again!
She switched ALL The colors! But this palette is Less Girly... What is going on!?
As you can see it IS pretty accurate to the show version, colors aside. The only 2 liberties in the sculpt are due to the electronics for the action features. It plays a bit of a melody (MLP based) AND it lights up.

As seen there...

Also it has a cute Telescope for Twilight study Friendship from afar. (Or for Spike to check out Rarity's flank...

Now for the ratings part: Which I kinda skipped on Spike, but HAVE to do with the Balloon itself.
Paint and Sculpt:
The Sculpt is pretty detailed. It IS cartoon accurate but with an extra bit of detail. As I said before, the Only liberties taken with the sculpt were to fit the Electronics. From the bottom of the balloon to the Basket is where the colors are NOT cartoon accurate. The balloon does NOT have slop, but a bit of yellow paint was scratched off one of the stars on the basket, when I accidentally knocked it over... (due to it being top heavy, it tends to fall with the slightest bump.)
4

Accessories:
While the Balloon is technically an "Accessory" It DOES come with 2 figures. so here we have a 5

Action Feature:

While I normally disregard action features, I can't do that with this Balloon, cause the Action Features are REALLY Important! I'm still trying to figure out if the tune that the balloon plays IS from Friendship is Magic or from an older MLP show... The twinkling lights effect is cool, but the Nightlight option is so Adorable!

I give it 2 FLuttershys in the cuteness scale...
But That's NOT the action Feature's score... It gets a 3. I enjoy the song and the lights are cute, but it's yet another MLP toy with a light and sound trick...

Overall:
The Balloon gets a: 4

Here's a Pic to show Size Comparison between Spike, Twilight Sparkle, Celestia and the Balloon.

It came from the Toy Chest: Trying to figure out something witty about NA and MOTU

2011-11-08T13:58:00.001-04:00

Flipshot is here! Oops! I mean Icarius is here... Finally we have a Galactic Protector from New Adventures in our shelves! Now we need some 87 Movie characters (like Gwildor, Blade, or Saurod) and we complete ALL the factions in MOTUC... but I'm not here to talk about that: This is Flipshot's time to shine... Screw Legalese, he was is and always will be Flipshot... In your face Battle Fist!

Before I start with Flipshot I want to show you something... Matty has a Create a Character contest... It ends in December, yet they only started to show ads for it on the October MOTUC items... (He arrived in November) so how would that give me to design a character and submit an entry IF the Contest was available to everywhere outside Continental US?

Very Little... We should've been getting this ad since Man-E-Faces!!
With that out of the way let's deal with Flipshot!
Where to start with Flipshot:

He shows up at 0:31 in the video... He's on the far left. and once again at 0:56... he's the second to last on the right.
Alright, he's a space pilot and he can also fly with his wings. Obviously he's like a Futuristic Icarus... but this one does not crash and die!

He also looks like a certain Actor... (Yes, I could've gone the easy route and use a recent picture of him for a joke, but I really want to show that MOTUC Flipshot DOES look like a young Val Kilmer... The same way Bow looks a bit like Cary Elwes in The Princess Bride)

Then again his vintage toy also looked like a certain actor...

But the toy has a vibe from another Toy from another line... (and IIRC not from Mattel)

-Now, What have we learned?
-Icarius is Flipshot
-Good!
-He always looked like an actor
-Yes! And most importantly
-He's a Pilot from NA
-Right! Now that you know the stuff that makes Flipshot Special, let's hear it!
-Are you quoting Rainbow Dash?
-Uh let's get on with the Review shall we?

(as always 1 = crap and 5 = Awesome!)
Alright! Once we get Flipshot out of the package this is what we have:

At First glance he DOES have a GI Joe vibe, or a Centurions vibe. I'll be honest and admit that the NA visuals were part of what kept me avoiding it for years... So I understand some folks feeling that he looks from another line... Once we get Extendar, Rio Blast and other characters from the Vintage Era that are not Barbarian Looking he will blend in a LOT better! I already talked on how his non-helmeted head looks a lot like Val Kilmer. Some people See Arnold in it, others Jean Claude Van Damme... I'm glad that we don't see Dave Coulier in him... (I hope Hydron Looks like Tom Cruise!!)

The visor is pretty cool, but you have to be careful since it pops off quite easily! It moves up and down, which helps getting the most out of the Helmet head...

OK I lied... You can also get some more if you remove the visor... Heck with some creative part swapping and Repainting you could Make a Megaman out of Flipshot... if NA isn't your cup of tea...

He's GOT A TON of NEW stuff... in tooling parts and accessories! His Winged backpack has two articulation points, so you can adjust the wings. His arm mounted missile launcher has removable missiles AND it kinda functions as a shield when he has no missiles!

As said in the pic, with some creative posing, Mr. Flipshot gets two Melee Weapons! Now this is what I call getting a bang for your buck!

Now with that said here's the ratings:
Articulation:

Standard MOTUC Artic here: Nothing new... Well he has a Bow styled Crotch and the material is very soft, so there IS a decent range of movement for Flipshot! His Torso Armor is very soft and DOES NOT Restrict the movement of the Torso at all... Head Articulation is slightly restricted. (but mostly cause of the way the figures are made... No MOTUC can look forward while flying... yet)
5.0
Paint and Sculpt:

Paintwise, Mr. Flipshot has a little bit of slop and a mole on his left cheek (helmet head) but it is Noticeable if you look for it... Also the piece joining the foot to the leg has no paint on it. (The joint is gray while the boot is silver... Not THAT noticeable but it's there...) Now the Sculpt... Not counting the Accessories (Backpack, Weapons) Flipshot DOES have a lot of new parts: The Arms are new, The Crotch and Armor are New, the shin part of his boots are new, the Feet part is reused from Bow...
4.5

Accessories:
He's got an extra head, the Arm mounted Missile Launcher, Missiles, Backpack and two extra Missiles... so he's got plenty of stuff AND you can display him with ALL of his accessories including his Extra head if you pose him in a certain way.
5.0
Overall:
He gets a NICE 4.83 I think right now he's gotten THE BEST rating out of all the MOTUC I've reviewed. Including Battle Cat and Panthor!!

A little note before ending the article. FLipshot works a LOT better when displayed in a flying pose. His backpack can be a bit heavy and when posed in some ways it CAN make the figure fall back. Unlike Randor or He-Ro, Flipshot has no Cape to use as a "Third Leg".

Odds and Ends Nov 4: 2011

2011-11-04T22:12:00.000-04:00

Dear Princess Celestia:
This week I learned that the humans are being assimilated into Pony Culture. So much that some of their biggest news publications have talked about it.
Your Faithful Student,
That is Not Twilight Sparkle!

Ho-Ly Crap! The Ponies made it to the front page on the Wall street Journal! Game Informer had a letter with a fellow Brony defending the awesomeness of the show... Yeah it might seem a bit girly but these ponies are AWESOME!!

Sharing Kindness is an easy feat... Fatality!

Bieber denies he had sex... with girl that claims he's the father of her child. I dunno what's worse... The girl claiming that Bieber is the father of her child. Or Bieber having to claim he didn't have sex... with that girl. Cause we're sure he's watching My Little Pony with Selena Gomez... I know that he's been checking out Selena's Cutie Mark...

The next mini article requires a bit of Creativity... I could Go the Easy way with this:

It's not Sam Jackson related, but the clip is related to the Article... It's time for SNAKES on WEIRD PLACES!!
Just what I needed... Snakes on the ATM! Another reason for me to fear some more stuff... First it was Snakes on Grandma's house, then snakes on the toilet, followed by Snakes on a plane, now snakes on the ATM... What's next Snakes on my trousers!? OK I walked straight into that one... Long story short. Guy goes to ATM on Spain, tries to withdraw money,Surprise! It's a Snake! Kinda like in Resident Evil games...

Take That! Hold it! Objection!

2011-11-01T01:07:00.000-04:00

I'm feeling the Phoenix Rising from the ashes, No I ain't talking about Jean Grey... Once again I'm talking about Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: the movie. I vaguely mentioned it in an article with Bear Grylls acknowledging his pee drinking...

Well, the movie seems to be getting made...

My brain exploded twice! when I saw this...

After this Phoenix Wright Business I should take a cold shower... On second thought I should not... More pics can be seen here... There is only one thing that has been a disappointment for me...

Ryoga is probably lost...

Probably lost as well...
Still don't have an idea of what I'm talking about? Ranma 1/2 in Live Action... Luckily it's made in Japan and the Ranma 1/2 WTF factor will probably remain as intact as the budget allows...

Once again I see myself writing something Mattel related... Don't worry Mr. Neitlich, this time it's Barbie Related... Another adult collector barbie stirs up some controversy... She's inked! *Le Gasp!* think of the little children! OK, ass-backwards reactions like this justify the reason why Mattel employees treat their customers like morons...
The Tokidoki Barbie is a Gold Label item... Remember the Twidoll reviews?
The Twi dolls are Pink Label... The lowest of the Barbie Collectible Totem pole...
The Tokidoki Barbie is a Gold Label item... What do these mean?
Platinum Label is the TOP of the Totem. Their production numbers are allegedly less than 1,000 dolls.
Gold Label is the second most valuable level with less than 25,000 dolls. The "Controversial Barbie" is a Gold Label Item... (already sold out on Barbiecollector.com)
Silver Label are a step above Pink and they CAN be found on retailers, but not all 50,000 of them... SOME make it to retail...
Pink Label are widely available, but in lesser amounts than normal plain old barbie dolls marketed for girls.

The "Controversy" is just a bunch of people who don't understand the adult collectors and think that because it is released under the Barbie Brand, then it IS for girls.

Beavis and Butt-Head's second coming... huh huh I said coming!

2011-10-27T23:05:00.000-04:00

Today was the first Episode of Beavis and Butt-head since uh, 1997 huh huh! The question is was it worth it? Let's find out!
Ok let me start with the Noticeable changes: NO Disclaimer...

This is missing from the new show...
They seem to be slightly smarter... but still dumb enough to be Beavis and Butt-Head...
Everything else is good old school Beavis and Butt-Head. They still poke fun at videos, but now they also do MTV shows as well... Sadly the videos seem to be much more abridged this time...

They poked fun at this...

This...

A bit of this, although it almost felt like ASS KISSING Jersey Shore...
They did a True Life Addicted to porn session, but I can't find a video of that episode...
and a video that I forgot to catch the name of... something with a kid and a bunch of monsters and stuff...
They even managed to make fun of this OUTSIDE the couch segments

Other than a few recent references it's just like we've traveled back in time to the mid-90s!
If you loved B&B in the 90s, they haven't changed one bit... (Mike Judge sounds a bit off, but it's been roughly 14-16 years since he's worked on B&B) So far Beavis and Butt-Head do not suck!

Hey What The!? Looks like Beavis and Butt-Head are geniuses

2011-10-25T23:44:00.000-04:00

Compared to these guys:
Alrighty before I give you a list of dumbasses that Make Beavis and Butt-Head look Smart, here's a small warning:

OK, Dumbass Number 1: This thief who tries to carjack a car and locks himself in! How the heck do you lock yourself inside a car and have NO WAY OUT!? That's INSANE!?

Dumbass #2: China's Goverment! They're trying to limit Entertaining Television and promote more Educational and Cultural TV. While I agree on limiting some of the crap shown on TV, but Seriously? Stopping the bootlegging/media-piracy capital of the world? Hah! Unless the whole Goverment goes on a crazy mega-censoring spree... It's not like some of the weird/strict policies hasn't come back and bite the Chinese in the ass...

Dumbass #3: Obviously MTV, for killing the Music, now they have to rely on Beavis and Butt-Head in order to bring back old fans and convert them into Snookis

The only winner here is VH1!

Pop up Videos has made a comeback! HECK AND YES!!

It came from the Toy Chest: Stand back! There's a Hurricane coming through!

2011-10-20T22:33:00.000-04:00

Just cause I used The Hurricane's tagline, doesn't mean I'm actually going to do a review of THAT Hurricane... I've already used that type of joke with Raven, Question, and Leech... I really need new people writing the comedy bits! I can't *bleep* work like this! Whoa! for a moment there I felt like Christian Bale...
Looks like I can't keep beating around the bush... THIS is what I'm going to review...

well, the MOTUC version of him, anyway...
As always 1 = bad and 5 = good...

Articulation:
Hurricane Hordak IS pretty much Standard Hordak but with something similar to the Filmation Arm cannon!

Here he gets a 3.5

Paint and Sculpt:
Ooh... the part I did want to avoid is inevitable right now...

I think it was more of a ball dropping sound...
I mean for all the crying about tooling budget that Mattel does, yet they bothered to spend tooling money on a new armor for Hordak to replicate a Vintage dial that NO LONGER WORKS! Not only that, but as I said in the linked post, they're doing it wrong! The arm cannon looks cool, the hurricane attachments look awesome... his Thunder balls look veiny and...that sounds so freaking wrong... his sword-like pincer thing looks like it even has points of articulation... (it does not)... So aside the dial, everything is awesome, sculptwise...
The paint is OK... Except the Vac-Metal parts. I WAS OK with them on the Mo-Larr review, cause it was on the weapons and Mo-Larr was an Exclusive for SDCC. While I don't Have Preternia Dissguise He-Man, I'm OK with Vac Metal ON The Cosmic Key... Heck! I want a Vac Metal set of swords for He-Man and She-Ra! What I'm NOT OK with is Vac Metal on MOTUC Armors... They kinda look... Tacky. HH's Armor clashes with He-Ro, Bow, She-Ra, Randor and any other character that wears golden armors. OK, so I Hate Vac Metal Armors, I'll deal with that later... (Except if we get a God Skeletor)

but one thing I can't stand is the flaking off. My Hurricane Hordak was flaking gold everywhere... A few minutes after handling him I kinda looked like this:

Not Cool, Mattel, Not cool at all. At this rate, we'll get Buzz saw Hordak and HH would just be partially de-Vac-Metallized.
2.0

I should've gone with a: "Looks like our killer is... From Mattel!" joke.
Accessories:
He has the 3 attachments just like you remember. Sadly, they don't Spin just like you remember... Mattel kinda forgot how to make a free turning drum inside the arm. Other than that, he's got nothing... Best part: Roboto's pieces and Trap Jaw's pieces work on him... so in a way, he has access to 10 Accessories! Shame that they didn't add an Extra Hand...
4.5

Overall:
He gets a 3.33 Mostly cause of the severe flake off... I had to take matters into my own hands. I decided to give him a new paintjob... First I needed to get rid of the remaining Vac Metal... Otherwise the paint would flake off... A Hot Wheels collector/customizer told me that oven cleaner ate Vac Metal. So I ovencleaned the heck out of him. Here's a tip: Wear gloves!
Tip #2: HH's Torso is black underneath the Vac Metal, while the armor is gold.

A slight Paintjob change later has made me LOVE this figure A LOT MORE!! Even the dial looks a lot better in black!

It came from the Toy Chest: He sucks... No really, he does!

2011-10-16T07:56:00.000-04:00

Look, Kurt, I know that every time that you hear that someone sucks;it does NOT mean that we're talking about you! Besides, aren't you supposed to be playing Lex Luthor down at TNA? I'm gonna talk about MOTUC LEECH! Whose Action feature in the 80s was sucking! That's why he Sucks! Kinda like Real Leeches but this Leech is a slug according to Mattel's bio...
I think I should move on to the revies, cause the big red bat on his chest makes him a hordesman and we kinda know about the Evil Horde...

Articulation:
He's a Male MOTUC figure, so he has the standard Articulation. Yes he sports a new Torso piece, but the Articulation is the same. He cannot look up due to his head sculpt, but his suction cupped hands HAVE Extra articulation!! (Like Bow)
4.5
Paint and Sculpt:
Sculpt: He's Pretty Much Vintage Leech, Running through the Classicizer Machine. Thank the Toygods that his Suction Cup mouth was lost in the process... (Wish I could say the same thing about the dials.) My Leech luckily has very little slop. Noticeable slop spot is on the back of his head, but since the head looks glossy it is almost invisible when light hits him...
5.0
Accessories:
He comes with a Horde Crossbow and a Suction cupped Net... I dunno if the Crossbow is supposed to look like that, but mine looks a tad asymmetrical. The Net... I'll be honest, I sent it straight to the MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONah! cause it didn't do anything for me... also that's treading into Netossa Territory... what's next Snout Spout trying to Steal Clamp Champ's thunder?
3.5

Overall: 4.33 Leech is an AWESOME Figure that helps bolster the ranks of the Horde... (Mantenna, Mantenna, Mantenna!!) and he looks FREAKING SWEET!! Yes some people (myself included) would have preferred a second head looking like the Staction, but the whole Head Ban and Anime Hyper Detailed crap would not allow it...

IT came from the Toychest: Nants Ingonyama Bagithi Baba

2011-10-15T22:42:00.001-04:00

No it's not Simba or Lion-O... It's Chief Carnivus!
-Who?
Chief Carnivus, he's a 200X Character, leader of a humanoid cat Tribe, the Qadians... like the cat headed Palace Guard...
-Oh... Still, who is he?
He's a friend and ally of Randor. He was turned into a SnakeQadian hybrid by King Hssss...
-Nope, still don't get him.
He's Mattel's way to poke fun at the Thundercats, the same way Stonedar and Rokkon poke fun at the rock lords and the Meteorbs do so to Transformers...
-Why didn't you say so in the first place?

Cause I made that part up? In any case, Chief Carnivus is representing the 200X Era in MOTUC, like King Grayskull, Zodak, Marzo, and the Faceless One... That's 5 figures, while New Adventures only has Optikk and Val Kilmer on the 17th...
Chief Carnivus, he's a good guy, a Lion... No, this review will NOT have any Goofy/Pluto Chief Carnivus/BattleCat jokes...
As Always: 1 bad and 5 good...

Articulation:
Standard Male MOTUC figure based on Beastman's body... But his legs feature the new furry piece for "boot wearing furries" (Chief C, Grizzlor, etc.)
4.5
Paint and sculpt:
As I said, he shares the Beastman buck but with a few new pieces.
He's got 2 Gripping hands: Right hand that can grip normal stuff and a left hand that can grip stuff with a thicker handle (like Whiplash's phallic spork). His feet are brand new and slightly more Cat-like. His loincloth is new and has a sort of snaky cat thing on it... could be reused for the 200X Hssss! (I guess)
Paintwise he's a bit sloppy. (Mostly on the rivets though, but that's almost expected.)
4.0
Accessories:
a Two pieced Armor (Cape + Armor) A Sword and a Shield:
The Shield apparently is inspired by the Central Tower of the Vintage Eternia Playset... Cool!
His Scimitar-like sword... Just look at it and tell me that you can't see the resemblance to another sword...

The Cape and Armor are "Generic looking" so that gives them plenty of customization options!
4.0
Overall:
He gets a 4.17 cause he's a LOT better in person than the pics make him look. The Thundercat fan in me kinda wishes he had a Dagger version of that sword as well...

HOLD IT!! OBJECTION!! TAKE THAT!!

2011-10-13T16:11:00.000-04:00

Phoenix Wright is coming to ULTIMATE MVC3!!
I want to squeal like a Schoolgirl in a Bieber Concert...

Yes, I know, I can't squeal like a Schoolgirl cause I ain't one and I will never be caught on a Biebr Concert... but you get the idea...

It's official... I NEED THIS GAME!!
It's a short post, but it's FREAKING PHOENIX WRIGHT!!

It came from the Toychest: Reboots can be weird at times

2011-10-11T13:28:00.000-04:00

DC rebooted their universe (halfassedly) and things are a bit confusing...

This second video pretty much covers my thoughts on Returning Barbara Gordon as Batgirl.

If I like Oracle so Much, Why am I reviewing a Babs Batgirl figure? Cause it's Freaking Barbara Gordon as Batgirl!

I think that I might've gone a bit overboard with the Batgirl Clips... but It's Batgirl!
1= bad and 5= good...
First, this Batgirl seems to be a repaint of her DC Superheroes Counterpart. My figure came with her right limbs ULTRA Warped! Now with that said I'll move on to the actual reviewing.

Articulation:
Since she's a DCSH figure at heart, her articulation is roughly the same as a DCUC (cause DCSH was Mattel's first attempt at copying ML) One weird thing that I must note is that she seems to either lack articulation at the waist, or I got another Mattel figure who lost a POA due to Frozen joints...
3.0 (If the joint is stuck) 3.5 (if she lacks that POA)
Paint and Sculpt: Being a DCSH figure gives Batgirl some advantages that their DCUC brethren do not have... (Hint: it sounds kinda like: More detailed Scuplt!) Her right hand is molded to hold a Batarang! The paint on her is 99.9% flawless. The only slop that I could find was on her face. Also I think her hair could've been a tad more reddish... This IS Barbara Gordon...
4.5

Accessories:
A Stand and a Poster... No Batarang!? Dammit Mattel! She has a hand sculpted to fit a batarang... you should've given her a Batarang!!
2.5
Overall: 3.33 Warped limbs, no Batarang, possibly stuck joint... If she TRULY lacks that POA, then she'd get a 3.5
Poor QC is what keeps bringing these wonderful toys down... and then they wonder why Club Infinite Earths didn't sell enough subs... There's no need to be the Worlds Greatest Detective to figure that one out...

It came from the Toy Chest: Another Titan... GO!

2011-10-06T10:55:00.000-04:00

Well, here's my next figure from that random raid at Marshalls... Raven!

Not that Raven...

OK this one is more acceptable! DC's Raven is the figure I'm going to review, but you already knew that...
One thing that bugged me is that she came in the Validus wave instead of the Trigon wave... It would've made more sense to have Raven and Trigon in the same wave... I think I should get on with the review part: As always 1= crap, 5= good!

Articulation:
At first look Raven has the same Articulation as a standard DCUC. For some reason her ab crunch seems very limited. She has abnormally tight elbows. Noticed her right leg has the "Frozen joint" syndrome that plagues the DCUC...

4.0

Paint and Sculpt:
This is the confusing part: While the DCUC use the "buck system" (so they can reuse parts), Raven has a LOT of new parts. Some work, others, not so much.
Her skirt works like a MOTUC Loincloth, but with really soft plastic.
Her hood is sculpted in a way that it looks like it's a part of the cape in many angles... (does not look like Skeletor's bonnet)
Her hands even have her rings sculpted. (paint's a bit sloppy there)
Now the first piece that bugs me is the Torso piece. It looks like it was made for Starfire... (who is supposed to have a huge gap of naked flesh to show cleavage, yet the toy has the "uniboob" buck for well covered chests...) Raven looks like she painted her dress...
The other piece that bugs me is her cape. I know that in the comics it flares up like that to give her that "Raven Wings" look, but in plastic it looks off!
The paint is OK on the figure, aside the bits of slop on her rings.
3.5
Accessories: Just the Validus leg, and a Pin... 3.0 (2.0 comes just for the pin...)
Overall she gets a 3.5 I blame the lack of character specific accessories and the few sculpt issues. At least her QC is not as AWFUL as the Martian Manhunter.

Shedding Light on Illumina

2011-10-04T19:06:00.000-04:00

Who is this Illumina and what does she do?
Illumina was a character made for the 200X Comics by MVCreations

Illumina is the Blue Lady in the Picture... I don't know the Cat's name...
This is all the Info I could find regarding her:

Little is known about the blue-skinned warrior named Illumina. It is known, however, that she is a descendant of the Gar refugees that came to Eternia after the destruction of Infinitia and that she was a member of the Guardians of Grayskull (a secret sect devoted to the preservation of Castle Grayskull’s secrets throughout time).

At one point in her life, Illumina was known as one of the strongest proponents of anti-Eternian sentiments amongst her fellow Gar. Accordingly, she was a fierce proponent against efforts to integrate the Eternian and Gar peoples. What remains unknown, however, is what (if any) role Illumina had in the ruination of Captain Miro’s planned union with the mother of Keldor and the subsequent Gar massacre instigated by Count Marzo and other segregationists. Whatever the cause, with age Illumina’s views changed and she eventually sought atonement and repentance past for misdeeds.

At the time when the Mystic Wall was created she was on the Dark Hemisphere of Eternia, which effectively trapped her there. Fortunately, in addition to being a great strategist and possessing formidable fighting skills (especially with melee weapons), she has the power to control light and can even blind her opponents when those other talents are not enough. Prior to being caught on Dark Hemisphere she assisted Dekker in the teaching of Duncan.

Although a heroic force, it has been said that she was very cold blooded. Also, a common misconception is that she is in some way related to Keldor; however, beyond their shared Gar heritage there is no connection between them. Similarly, many believe her mount to be a descendant of the Battle Cats of old, while, in fact, her white-furred companion is an entirely different species that is genetically closer to the blood-thirsty Panthor.

That's pretty much all the info I have on her. She's from Keldor's race, the Gar, but she's not a relative of the fallen Prince of Eternia... (who later became the OVERLORD OF EVIL! *Gasp Spoilers!*) She has light manipulation powers... (Probably that's why her name is Illumina) Her ride is an Albino Panthor, and she trained MAA.
Now why am I talking about her? Oh yeah! Mattel... Just as I did with Josh, I'm doing the same with Illumina. Why? Simple: This is the only Obscure character that Mattel has been tossing Hurdles to stop her from getting made. Kinda Like Donkey Kong...

Yeah kinda like that...

Where were the "demands" for 5000 Customers for The Green Goddess, Vikor, Gygor, Demo-Man, or any other Obscure character (Concepts, Prototypes, etc.)?
What's with the:

We certainly can get to her one day, but do fans really want her to bump another figure like Ram Man, Frosta, Flogg, or even Dragstor?

Putting her against a heavily anticipated core character seems like a fair choice...
Now the thing that grinds my gears is the following: It takes 5000 to be slightly more than a "Vocal Minority" but it takes 1 to be the Majority!? WTF!?
Did 5000+ people ACTUALLY Requested Vikor, Demo-Man, or Gygor? Methinks something Fishy is going on here...

Compared to Ram Man who would require ALmost 100% new Tooling, Illumina seems like an easy choice to make for a budget balancing "filler spot"

From a Tooling Standpoint, she could reuse a LOT of Parts! (So would her Cat...)
If we throw Illumina through the Infamous Classicizer Machine She'd only need 3-4 New Pieces:
Head
Dress (2 Pieces, IF they use the new Female Body)
Weapon
Her Cat would need about 2-3 New Pieces:
Head (If they don't reuse Panthor's)
Saddle
Thing on its Forehead

Logistics would not stop her from getting made... Vikor had a LOT of new parts tooled compared to what Illumina would need (New torso, head, right Bicep both arms, Loincloth, both boots, cape, Sword, Shield, Ax...) yet he looks like he shares a lot of parts with the other figures.

Is her Story too convoluted for her to fix in MOTUC Canon? Like I said on the Josh Awareness post, Mattel can make whatever story they want with Illumina... They made Gygor into an evil Ape that Evil Lyn released. They split Zodak and Zodac into two characters. King Grayskull and He-Ro worked together... although they're a bit redundant, since BOTH Were the Power Source for He-Man... but you get the idea... If Illumina's original Story is too complicated they could "fix it" cause her one appearance was a page in a comic... (as far as I know...)

If Logistics is not the issue, canon is another non-issue, the popularity issue is not a real issue, cause we've gotten characters AS obscure or more obscure than her made. Then WHAT IS THE ISSUE!?
Does Toyguru HATE Illumina? Does he have a Beef with the people behind her creation?
Honestly, I have NO IDEA, but the Question would LOVE to dig deeper on why Mattel is so hellbent in stopping Illumina from Happening! Sadly I'm not the Question... so I'm staying in the dark. Hopefully Mattel's MOTUC team would reconsider their stance on Illumina before skipping her for the Wind Raider Pilot from a Model Kit Box art... (No offense to fans of the Blue Pilot, but that guy is so obscure that he doesn't have a name or a backstory...)

Why do I want Illumina?
Look at her: She's got this Elven Warrior vibe to her, she Rides an Albino Panthor for crying outloud. We have, robots, bee men, moss men, mer-men, cat men, ninjas, cowboys, giants, Firefighting Elephant Cyborgs, Lemon-Lime Apes, Time Travellers that look like a Rob Liefeld creation, why can't we have a female Elf-looking Warrior?

If you want to join the campaign of 5000 for Illumina you can check out Facebook's Illumina group! Please, don't let this cool looking character be lost due to the ridiculously difficult goal set by the Toyguru.

It came from the toychest: Dog carcass in alley this morning, tire tread on burst stomach

2011-10-01T19:15:00.000-04:00

No, it's not Rorschach... It's the Real deal, the Question...

I found a DCUC Question for $7.99!! Wow, I miss the days when Action figures were under $10.00! but I'm going on a tangent here... Yes, I found a DCUC Question and another figure for a review. I'm not a huge fan of the Question, but since he IS DCU's Rorschach, though a bit less violent, I couldn't pass him up. Without further ado , here's the review!
1= crap and 5= good...

Articulation:
It does seem that the Question HAS the same POA as a Normal DCUC (such as Batman...) but there are a lot of things with his sculpt that make many of those points a bit useless.
His head is on ball joint, but he cannot look up or down, only to the sides. The coat interferes with most of his movement. (More on that later.) His feet have a VERY SMALL RANGE OF MOVEMENT...
2.5 (due to sculpting issues that limit the Articulation... Otherwise he would've scored higher.)

Paint and Sculpt:

On the paint Department this figure seems almost flawless... (since most of it is molded in the correct color, there is very little paint to apply. There is a TINY bit of black paint on his left ear, but it's barely noticeable. Now on the sculpt. Full of 4Horsemen goodness... Question is TRULY FACELESS... The only two things that bother me with his sculpt are related to the coat itself.
The coat is well sculpted but, the issues are:
The suit seems to be a bit too low.
Why are the coat and suit one piece? IT HINDERS THE Whole Torso Articulation and part of the legs!
3.5
Accessories:
Collect and Connect Piece... should not count and that's pretty much it... and that's why he'll get a lower score... At least 1 Character related accessory would've been nice...
2.0

Overall:
2.67 Personally I blame the sculpt issues AND the lack of accessories that made the question lose some points. It's a really cool figure even with it's flaws.

The Lost and damned ballad of Grand Theft Auto IV

2011-09-25T20:40:00.000-04:00

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...

odds and ends Sep. 23, 2011

2011-09-23T06:35:00.000-04:00

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!?

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

2011-09-17T16:22:00.000-04:00

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...

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

2011-09-14T08:19:00.000-04:00

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:

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!

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.

Scorpia: The Pinching... uh beauty?
She's PoP and Horde... in the words of Charlie Sheen: Bi-Winning!

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...

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!

IT Came from the Toy Chest: Applebucking Champion

2011-09-11T08:28:00.000-04:00

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...

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

2011-09-10T11:44:00.000-04:00

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

Action Figure Woes: The Nostalgia Trap

2011-09-07T08:47:00.000-04:00

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...

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

2011-09-06T07:24:00.000-04:00

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...

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

2011-09-05T09:10:00.000-04:00

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...

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

2011-09-03T14:46:00.000-04:00

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...

Odds and ends Sept 2, 2011

2011-09-02T21:49:00.000-04:00

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...

Videogame Woes

2011-08-28T20:08:00.000-04:00

Although most of my reviews are Toy related, I also am a gamer. Here's a list of stuff that games do that makes me grind my gears:

Forced Backtracking: I've spent most of the game going from Point A to Point B threading through enemies, bosses, an entire city, or continent in some cases just to be greeted by a "you need to go all the way back to the beginning to get the item or to do this mission, etc.
To mention some offenders from the top of My Mind:
Metal Gear Solid: Backtracking ALL the way to the Armory to get the PSG-1 needed to beat Sniper Wolf while Meryl lies there bleeding to death...

GTA Series: The "Help character X who is on the other side of the city" type of missions... Vice City's Death Row comes to mind...

JRPGs also LOVE to do this... before you get the airship that makes it easier to travel... I am forgetting the KING of Backtracking...

Escorting USELESS Morons/ AI PArtner is brain dead:
Do you have any idea how Many Times I wanted to Kill Emma in Metal Gear Solid 2 or Ashley in Resident Evil 4? A LOT... Let's say that whenever I play that game on PS2 I choose Mobster outfit for Leon, just to avoid dealing with Ashley... cause she gets the invulnerable Armor!
At least EVA was somewhat useful on Snake Eater... When she wasn't groaning out of hunger, shooting me in the back or moaning about a dog...

VAMP stole my chance to do that myself!!
but back to the rant... It seems that the AI of your partners is in permanent Moron mode... They see the enemy, they get between me and them so it makes it harder for me to protect them.
The GTA Games are full of these too... Have Partner, gets in the way of your bullets.

Moronic AI, love it on the Yu-Gi-Oh! Tag Force games... When they're my opponents, they seem to always pull the right cards to screw me over... When they are my partners they seem to always pull the right cards to screw me over... You read right... Tag Dueling, 3 against me...

SNK BOSS Syndrome:
Guess which company makes some cheap as hell bosses that it gets it's own term... SNK...

I already talked about Seth and a bit on Gill (who are Capcom bosses with a bit of SNK BOSS Syndrome)
Other Bosses can be SNK cheap, but have a kinda glaring weakness... Now I know and knowing is half the battle!

Nagging NPCs telling me what to do or for crap:
Obvious Navi Reference is obvious. This time I'm talking about the GTA IV NPCs pestering Niko to do stuff... Roman, Little Jacob, Packie, etc. Keep calling you at random times to go do menial stuff while I'm in the middle of a firefight or trying to dodge the cops... I don't mind it too much when I'm NOT in missions, but when I'm in missions it gets annoying... I guess making a Rosemary calling Raiden about April 30th reference comes to mind.

Getting hit sends me flyin' to my DOOM!!!!
Old School Castlevania and Ninja Gaiden come to mind here.

DUCK HUNT DOG!!

'Nuff said!

It came from the Toy Chest: in 10 seconds flat!

2011-08-28T09:56:00.000-04:00

I got the Fastest Pony in all Equestria... Rainbow Dash!! To help me with this review I hired an Expert in Ponies, Spike, the Baby Dragon...

This is a serious review unlike my normal ICFTTC which have a bit of lame attempts at humor. Rainbow Dash is my second MLP:FIM Pony... Pinkamena Diane Pie was my very first Pony...

Will you stop that, Spike! I will Not make any references to the Plot or how the fandom thinks that RD might possibly be a lesbian pony... Although she DID have a Wingboner when Pinkie Pie... OK Spike, Roll the clip

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

Articulation:
Dashie (That's how Pinkie Pie calls her) 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 Rainbow Dash 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 blue and the extra stuff is tampographed. Her eyes have a gentler kinder expression, more like Fluttershy than Rainbow Dash... Her sculpt is similar to the standard MLP stuff... Although she's got a permanent Wingboner. The rooted hair makes her look Completely NOT show Accurate... She's got the G3 Rainbow Dash hairdo...(AKA the Rarity Hairdo) 2

Accessories:
Here's where Show accuracy has been thrown off the window... Why is Rainbow Dash pulling a carriage!? that's what Earthponies do! What's with the Squirrel? Rainbow Dash is a loner! If she was getting a sidekick she should've gotten that chicken pony, Scootaloo!
She also has a pink comb... 2

Overall:
This one is a bit tough... Had she looked more like THIS she would've gotten a higher score...
1.67 as an Action Figure... 2.67 as a Pony... using the MLP curve.

Rainbow Dash herself said it perfectly...
Dammit! I'm still thinking about chopping RD's hair to FIM length... Whwe! made it through the whole review without a Cupcakes reference! D'oh!

It Came from the Toy Chest: I'll giggle at the ghosty

2011-08-28T08:10:00.000-04:00

Pinkie Pie is SO RANDOM and so mine too! I got a Pinkie Pie!!

Pinkie Pie is my very first Pony EVER!! Sure I've had a few encounters with the ponies in the 80s, but the Magic that is MLP: Friendship is magic has made me love them... Now If Y'all remember I've talked about the ponies before...

So in the words of the late Mills Lane: Let's get it on!
5= good 1= crap!

Articulation:
Pinkie 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 Pinkie 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 pink and the extra stuff is tampographed. Her sculpt is similar to the standard MLP stuff... The rooted hair makes her look not too show Accurate... 3

Accessories:
Here's where Show accuracy has been thrown off the window... First of all NO GUMMY!!

I guess that a toothless Alligator is NOT marketable for little girls... The real target audience for them ponies.

Well Pinkie Pie has a comb, a saddle and a yellow mouse... As an action figure collector Pinkie gets a 1 but converting it to MLP Standard 3

Overall:
As an Action Figure collector, Pinkie is an absolute failure: 1.67 (Going through the same standard gauge as ML, Joes, Transformers, MOTUC, etc.) BUT the scale is different for MLP collectors. (They're more used to the lack of Articulaion, the rooted hair that makes everypony look like Rarity... or in Pinkie's case Pinkamena Diane Pie...) but the Lack of Show accurate accessories DOES hurt her a bit and her MLP score would be: 3.33 The lack of Show accurate accessories did hurt her a bit.

Since I mentioned Giggle at the Ghosty

It came from the Toy Chest: King Randor is getting some tonight

2011-08-26T22:12:00.001-04:00

King Randor is Smiling once more...

While he may have lost his job as a Corporate Mascot he still has plenty of reason to be smiling... Mattel and the 4Horsemen have finally done something that has NEVER Been done before... a Queen Marlena Action Figure!! She was the SDCC 2011 MOTUC Exclusive.
Well I finally got mine! (Technically it's a Marlena Glenn Figure, but with a bit of parts swapping I can have the Queen of Eternos... in her Green Filmation garb!!)

Well where do I start... Ratings, 5 is awesome and 1 is crap... yeah! We'll start with that...

Articulation:
Captain Glenn is using the 1.0 Buck and we've already seen what it can do... Nothing new here...
Her Astronaut dress does not hinder her movement. Now her Queen Dress makes her a statue from the neck down. (Except her arms)
Captain Glenn: 4.0 Queen Marlena: 2.0
Paint and Sculpt:
She's Mostly a She-Ra (figure without her dress) from the neck down. Her Astronaut dress is similar to the Adora dress. and her Queen Dress is brand new. Paintwise she's OK. Very little slop, but there seems to be some incomplete/weird paint applications...
HER EYES!! They look dead thanks to the weird choice in makig them just a black dot.
She looks like she's wearing too much eyeliner on her Astronaut head, While the queen head has a bit of paint missing on her hair. Her Scepter seems to be missing some paint.
3.0
Accessories:
She's got:
Extra Queen Head
Queen Dress
2 Piece Helmet
Repaint of Battleground Teela's Sword
Repaint of Adora's gun and Holster
a 1987 Movie Inspired Rifle
CRINGER!!

The dresses are easy to swap. The Tab system works better than expected. Everything else is normal stuff... weapons, Extra head... She gets a 5.0

Overall:
Captain Glenn Mode: 4.0
Queen Marlena Mode: 3.33
Here's the thing: While Marlena loses a LOT of Articulation in Queen Mode, she still looks awesome... (a bit pissed off, but the Horsemen are NOT perfect) So, having the Entire Royal Family of Eternos outweighs the cons in my mind...

Now Cringer... he's the $5 fig in this 2-pack... Now what can I say about him?
He's very Filmation-like. He's a bit too small (I know Logistics and stuff...) and Underarticulated...

I mean we have a Cringer that cannot cower in fear... But at least it's a Cringer that is NOT Naked Battle Cat...

Dear Princess Celestia: Ponies for Bronies

2011-08-16T22:48:00.000-04:00

This is the first Official My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic related article. (I've made a few references before, but not gone with a full article...)

Instead of talking about the show, which is REALLY awesome! WATCH IT! I'm gonna talk about the toys.

If you click on the links you'll see two examples of MLP:FIM toys... and you will notice something... They have NO Articulation... To be fair My Little Ponies are not known for their incredible articulation. (it's been that way since the 80s IIRC) Now this brings forth the whole point of this rant... Moderately Articulated MLP:FIM Figures!! Or as I'd like to call them Ponies for Bronies!

Pony made on the Pony Creator by General Zoi (modified by me to show the POA)
That's pretty much what I'd like to see:

If I can recreate many of the poses from the Evil Enchantress song I'd be happy!
Pegasi like Rainbow Dash or Fluttershy would get hinged ball joints for their wings.

Since the Ponies come with accessories the Ponies for Bronies would be no exception, now here's my list of accessories for Each Pony:
Twilight Sparkle: A Book and Spike (with Quill and Parchment to write to Princess Celestia)
and NO, Spike wouldn't be as articulated as the ponies...
Fluttershy: Angel the bunny, the hat and glasses she wore in the Episode Green isn't your Color to avoid the paparazzi.
Rarity: Opalesence, a basket full of gems and her glasses
Apple Jack: Hat (obviously), Rope, Winona, and an apple basket.
Rainbow Dash: Sonic Rainboom "flight stand"
Pinkie Pie: Cupcake on a plate, rubber chicken from Dragonshy, and this:

Sure some Variants could be made (Sonic Rainboom Rarity, You gotta Share You gotta Care Pinkie Pie, Pinkamena Diane Pie, Floppy horn Twilight Sparkle, etc.) but we'd need the "Mane six" before worrying about everypony on the show...

The La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo has a lot of guns!

2011-08-14T07:09:00.000-04:00

I've been Playing Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots for a while and after beating the game here are my thoughts:
Well not here here... I need to set a bit of background on the game before I ramble on and on about it.

This game is a Sequel to Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and possibly to Metal Gear Rising
The game is set 5 years after the Manhattan (Arsenal Gear coming from underneath the Big Shell and crashing into the Federal Hall) incident.

The one where a pretty boy kills the former President of the United States...

War has changed, Now instead of Armies, the countries use Private Military Corps... The world's economy is mostly fueled by war... a world in "Eternal chaos" where soldiers have a place to be... an Eternal Battlefield... This almost sounds like...

-Outer Heaven!?

Great! looks like I have an unwanted Guest!

-Unwanted Guest!?

You can come out of the Box, Snake! As I was saying:

Snake no longer looks SOLID... It looks like OLD IS Snake...
and we're tossed in the Middle East... was this to poke fun at the excessive amount of "war games" set in the Middle East? Probably. First thing I noticed is that Controls have changed... They no longer feel Metal Gear-like... they feel more like MODERN FPS mixed with Metal Gear...

-Metal Gear!?

Yes, Snake... Now shut up and Smoke... or else I'll have Sunny make some eggs!

As I was saying... The controls might have changed, but this STILL IS a Metal Gear game. Sneaking = Good, getting Spotted = Bad! Basically you're tossed in the Middle east to assassinate...

Uh, Snake? This is the part that you interrupt me to scream LIQUID!! at the top of your lungs...
Well, you are to assassinate Liquid Snake, the talking arm that lives in Ocelot's body. No there is no "I LIVE ON THROUGH THIS ARM!" clip...
Story, Story, Look down, back up! You're in South America now, trying to sneak into a mansion due to Storyline reasons. Some Story later you're in Eastern Europe following some whistling dude across the city. Story stuff... BOOM!

-A Surveillance camera!?

We're back in Shadow Moses! Some plot later We're on... I have no idea where we ended up...

and that brings up my First complaint about the game: It feels too disjointed. Looks like Hideo Kojima got too ambitious trying to cram all these different backdrops into one game. The story is the one tiny thread that binds them together... in some parts barely.
Having the game split up like that kinda feels like a huge PSP MGS game...

Now to the Review part: 1=crap 10= awesome!!!
Graphics:
Obviously since it's a current game and a Metal Gear Solid game, the Graphics are pretty good. Like in The Third Metal Gear Game (Metal Gear Solid) there are some Live action elements mixed with the game (See the Evil Egg scenes) that does throw me off a bit since most of the game uses the same gameplay graphics for the cutscenes... (Not like SquareEnix who loves to abuse the FMV)
9

Gameplay:

This is very important... This and Fun Factor... but FF get's it's own part later.
At it's core THIS IS a Metal gear game, so the standard Elements are there. It does throw a few twists like the Tailing a character which has NOT been seen on a Metal Gear Game since Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. the controls have been tweaked, so it takes a bit of time to get used to. Once you do, It's golden... NOT going to spoil a super secret Boss Battle... the game is a few years old they probably know about it...
9.5
Story: Now this is the biggest selling point for the game... Next to the gameplay. It did brought an end to the story, but it left enough room to wiggle around some prequels... I'm Waiting for my Solidus and Liquid Games... Make it so Kojima! Now the story felt a tad iffy... Especially with Nanomachines being the ultimate scapegoat. I have to admit that ACT 4 was a masterful exercise in pulling the Nostalgia factor up to 100
8
Fun Factor:
While there is a ton of junk to collect, most of the fun comes from messing around with the soldiers... Unless you play Metal Gear Online... You can get some more fun out of that, but as I said before... I'm more of the anti-social gamer... I'd rather play with another player in the same room as I am instead of across the globe.
7

Overall: 8.38

I think the game being disjointed and the few issues with the story hurt it's score a bit. Personally the game could've been split into 2 and flesh out each of them a bit more.

Odds and ends: Finally I got a Marlena Shipping confirmation

2011-08-09T17:58:00.000-04:00

Not exactly the Biggest news ever, but I Finally got the Shipping Confirmation fro Captain Marlena Glenn. Let's see if she can come out of the toy chest in August.

Damn you Milla Jovovich. WE DO NOT WANT RE-INO 5!! The previous 3 movies were steaming piles of Zombie Turd... Unless they kill Alice by The Las Plagas, I'm not interested in this.

Holy bad driving, Batman! Catwoman nearly kills a camera while Filming Baledog Rises!
The suit needs more cat ears to be a Catwoman suit... Anne, darling, the suit needs more cat ears, otherwise it's a bad Baroness costume that you're wearing...

Tony's back, man! Joo better read dis in Al Pacino's bad cooban accent from Scarface, man!
He's gonna be back on top, man! or at least in 475 movie theatres across the States! Joo wanna play rough? OK! say 'ello to a Gnagsta audience!

A wild dog repellent that the Internet version of Bear Grylls would love! Scientists are studying Dingo pee in order to make a synthetic pee-based Dingo repellant.

If Resident Milla 5 was bad enough, the cast of Jersey Shore will be on the 3 Stooges movie... Do I need to elaborate on this... This Abomination!? Right now, I wish I could be distracted with something more awesome... like Thundercats or My Little Pony: Friendship is magic...

It came from the Toy Chest: Buttered up for Jim Henson

2011-08-05T12:44:00.000-04:00

Awful Clawful is here!

He made one quick stop to visit Captain Paintbrush... Now that I think of it All 3 characters who shared the "Lizard/Bee/Crab" Body were visited by Captain Paintbrush...

Unlike the Other 2 where the visit was on their bodies... Clawful got a visit for an Eyebrow plucking treatment...

IF/When Mermista is available, I shall use this for a joke...
Before I start with the Review I have to say this: Finally a Clawful ACTION FIGURE that does NOT look like a Mexican Wrestler with a Crab Motif... While he truly looked like a Crab Monster in 200X, he never had an ACTION FIGURE... Now with MOTUC, his Crabby self is more Crabby, less Rey Mysterio.

Now, for the review I will use A Mattel Stock Photo of Clawful cause I was too eager to eliminate the Muppet Brows that I customized before taking the pics! My bad!

Look at him! He looks like a Muppet... That's why I don't use the Vintage Whiplash head...

Mandatory Muppet Video with a touch of Cyrus... Don't make me play the Ponies!!

I did not play any Pony videos on this article... BTW DO NOT READ CUPCAKES!!!

Articulation:

He's got the Standard MOTUC Articulation, mine has Clawfully loose ankles. His Large, meaty claw has an Articulation point that is rendered useless by the action feature. (No open claw display)

4.0
Paint and sculpt:

The reuse of the Whiplash body and Buzz-Off claw help break the "Curse of the Mexican Wrestler" on Clawful. The large, meaty claw is beautiful... They even gave him a more Crab-like back piece...

The Paint is nicely applied here. Love the red fading into his arms to avoid the Guy in a suit look. I May dislike the Black Eyebrows, the black shading inside his mouth and the pearly white teeth, but those aren't really flaws. Just design choices that I disagree with...
4.5

Accessories:

He's got his Mace... which looks a tad different than the rest of the Maces. It's a bit longer and thicker... and he's got a Crab shelled shield!? A Crab carrying an extra shell to use as a shield... That's like giving a watergun to Snout Spout... Extra head could've worked well here... (Not necessarily a 200X Head, but a more menacing, snarling head... The Classicized 200X look can almost be obtained by painting the eyebrows red...)

Some people may like the shield, but I find it too much and unneeded. It's in my extra pieces bag now... Maybe when I get Peedrink-or: Heroic Master of Crazy Survival in MOTUC he'll use it to make a shelter...
3.0

Overall: 3.83

The Lack accessories, once again hurt this score. (Your Mileage may vary.) Paintwise he's one of the best figs I've gotten. shame that he's got such loose ankles...
After the tweaks to hide the design elements that I don't like, he's a lot better now!! He is A LOT better than I expected... aside the ankles and small range of movement on his claw...

Odds and ends: Spider-Man is now half Latino/half black

2011-08-03T11:41:00.000-04:00

Boom! Shock Value Bomb! This is not on the main universe where Peter Parker is forever a loser thanks to the lame ass Pseudo Retcon made by The Devil... I mean Joe Quesada.

Ultimate Spider-Man is Peter Parker no more... they killed him and his replacement is half black/half Latino... Miles Morales... Who the heck is Miles Morales? The newest Marketing ploy from Marvel...

We interrupt this pseudonews related rant with some PONIES!!

OK, where was I... Why is Miles Morales doomed to fail?
-First, He reeks of "Marketing Ploy" The whole big announcement stuff that made this article possible is proof enough. Like all Marketing ploys it'll eventually be shoved under the rug and quickly forgotten. (Especially if it backfires on Marvel)

-Replacing Spider-Man has been tried before and it failed... They tried to Replace Peter Parker with... Peter Parker... And that was a massive failure.

-The replacing a hero with another one of different ethnicity rarely works when it's done for shock value...

Monday was the sale for Mattycollector.com's SDCC items. I was able to sang a Marlena Glenn. The curious thing was that they HAD an All Star sale in which they were getting rid of some older figures (such as He-Man, Skeletor, She-Ra, The 4 Ghostbusters, Superman, etc.) set up for customers who discovered the site AFTER SDCC... All the way until August 15th (or the items ran out).
During Monday August 1st the All Star stuff was marked Sold out! and the Allstar Page was inaccessible during the time of the SDCC sale. Now the items are back up! WTF MATTEL!? That's ridiculous... It's like y'all want the products to fail... Kinda like the Club Infinite Earths.

Now that I mentioned Club Infinite Earths, let me get a bit deeper into it. Mattel is Killing DCUC. I mean, the line as it is is going through a reboot... kinda like DC Comics. The collector oriented characters will be on the Sub program Club Infinite Earths, while your basic Superman, Batman, GL will be in retail (most likely based on the new DC Universe designs.)

Also you'd get 3 Large scale beasts not available on Retail (They're killing the collect and connect)
Sounds fine and dandy, BUT this is the only Subscription that has a gauge that determines if this will be done or not... Unlike Voltron, Ghostbusters or MOTU... As of today the subscriptions to CIE are at a 20-something % of what they need... The sub period ends this Friday... It's official Matty is killen teh lien...

Felt the Magic, Heard the Roar!

2011-07-29T21:09:00.000-04:00

Thundercats are loose!

WARNING!! There may be Spoilers!! Spoilers of a new cartoon that is a reboot of an 80s toon... So some of them have been known for 20+ years!!

The Premiere of the New Thundercats was Today and I saw it.
All I have to say is WOW! I'm gonna keep on watching this show (as long as Cartoon Network does not play Schedule Roulette like they did with another 80s property rebooted about 10 years ago...)

A quick peek at Nu-T-Cats... I think I've posted this video before, but posting it next to the MOTU reboot, that I have not done.
Which brings me to my first point: This new series has a MOTU-Esque vibe...

-Lion-O is the "Slacker Prince/Disappointment to his father" character... If you're thinking about a Pink vested prince or his maroon jacket 200X counterpart you win a no prize...
-Snarf suffered the 200X Cringer treatment as well.
-Cheetara reminds me a lot of Teela.
-"Thundera" is pretty much Eternos...

Unlike MOTU, this show got a tad dark from the beginning:
-Mufasa-O... I mean Claudus, and Jaga kicked the bucket in the First Episode... Why did I call Claudus Mufasa-O? Cause his Death kinda reminds me of Simbadam Begins... I mean the sctript by Justin Marks for the MOTU movie... (which thank goodness was scrapped). Jaga still dies a noble death, but this one was more badass!

I'm NOT Happy with two things:
TAAAAAAAAAIIIIIIIILSSSSSSS! on the Thunderkittens and Pikasnarf!
Other than that I'm cool with the show...

Things that made me go wild:
- Claudus being voiced by the Original Lion-O!
- Lynx-O cameo!
-Mumm-Ra's reveal!
-Grune!

It seems that this is a continuation, rather than a TRUE reboot to the Thundercats... Only future episodes will tell... Or maybe the creators on an interview...
I'm eliminating any social activity on Friday nights just to watch the Thundercats! HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Matty's SDCC 2011 MOTU Madness!! Pt.II

2011-07-24T11:10:00.000-04:00

Man! That's a lot of stuff to rant about Like I said in Pt.I:
Let's start with Icarius: That's Flipshot's Euro-Name... Used cause NERF has a TM on Flipshot... (Mattel tends to lose their TMs... See Battle Fist back in 2002...)

ICARIUS - Daring Space Ace
Real Name: TC Icarius Kaz

A great pilot from the cloud city of Leviton on Planet Primus, Icarius is equipped and ready to ‘flip’ into battle at a moment’s notice. After his 18th birthday, he left home to join the Galactic Protectors. Rising to the rank of Lieutenant, Icarius travelled with Captain Hydron on his quest to find the legendary twin warriors prophesied to defeat the Evil Horde Empire. Arriving on the distant planet Eternia shortly after the end of the Second Ultimate Battleground, they recruited not only He-Man and She-Ra but several other members of the Masters of the Universe who were eager to pursue Skeletor to the stars. Nicknamed “Flipshot” Icarius utilizes a battle helmet, back-mounted jet pack and concussion grenade wrist rockets in battle against Skeletor and his new Space Mutant army.

OK, let me get this straight: He-Man, She-Ra AND OTHER HEROIC WARRIORS Leave Eternia to fight in The Tri Solar Galaxy!? Kinda sounds cool, but it defeats the whole purpose of He-Man going alone to a new world to fight... Especially since the old Toyline only had He-Man and Skeletor as returning characters... Unless this is NA Third Strike... Wonder how many Evil Warriors Followed him to "The Stars"... I'm sure Evil Lyn did not... (More on that later.)
Vissually Flipshot looks awesome! Can't see that many reused parts (which is good) It looks like his helmet has a flippable visor.

Snout Spout: I hate this guy! I think I haven't stressed this enough! I *Expletive deleted* HATE! Snout Spout!! He has the dopey Sad elephant face from the Vintage figure, but slightly less dopey... That's good. Looks like his trunk may be bendy... That's kinda good... He has his Axe and Backpack... That's good...

SNOUT SPOUT - Heroic Water Blasting Firefighter
REAL NAME: Jaxton

A peasant from Etheria, Jaxton was one of three athletes abducted by Hordak and cast into his experimentation matrix. There, like the others, Jaxton was grafted with cybernetic parts giving him both amazing powers and a bizarre form. After crossing through a Lasergate to Eternia with the Evil Horde, Snout Spout escaped and joined with the renegade Masters of the Universe. Self-conscious about his appearance, and called "Snout Spout" for his abilities to blast water from his cybernetic trunk, Jaxton often feels that everyone is always laughing at him. But when the Snake Men slither out and enemies attack, Snout Spout blasts them back with a super jetspray!

Looks like Extendar and Dragstor (a drag racing car inspired character... not the other type of Dragstor) are the other 2 athletes. Snout Spout has self hating issues! LOL
Him and Mekaneck will form my Loser Squad... not sure which one I should add to that team: Stratos or Buzz-Off...

Bubble Power She-Ra: This is the famous She-Ra 2.0 with Horse Riding Abilities... OMG!!!

BUBBLE POWER SHE-RA - Most Powerful Woman in the Universe
REAL NAME: Adora of the House of Randor

After crossing over from Etheria to Eternia with the help of Light Hope, She-Ra joined forces with her brother and the Masters of the Universe, who were caught in a four-way war with the Snake Men, Skeletor, and Hordak. She used her cloned sword to harmonize with and channel the Power of Grayskull to form new arms and armor in the midst of battle. Her Bubble Power Armor greatly enhances She-Ra's stamina and allows her to funnel great fumes of energy at her foes. She remained on Eternia to fight off evil until both she and He-Man were called to the stars to fulfill their destiny, traveling to the Tri-Solar System to end the oppression of the Horde Empire.

Not too fond of having BOTH Twins fighting on Primus while leaving Eternia unguarded... but figurewise She's SMOKING!! Horse riding powers and the capability to make my Ultimate She-Ra is as Charlie Sheen would say: Bi-Winning! Sadly I will have to gut y She-Ra 1.0 so my 2.0 will have horse riding powers!! (I'll make 1.0 BP while 2.0 is my default She-Ra...)

Swift Wind: Mattel lied... That ain't Royal Swift Wind... (kiss my dreams of Original toy Swift Wind good bye!) That's Filmation/Proto Swift Wind!! Still confused on the leg Articulation... looks a tad odd. Sadly he looks like there is no Spirit Mode... (Probably I'll have to buy him on Matteh on another day)

SWIFTWIND - Beautiful Horse, Spirit, Becomes Magical Flying Unicorn
REAL NAME: Spirit

A magical steed from Etheria, Spirit served Adora during her time as Force Captain of the Horde Army. Loyal to Adora, not the Horde, Spirit stayed with her after Adora learned of her true heritage and joined the Great Rebellion. Enhanced by Adora's newly acquired Sword of Protection, Spirit was transformed into She-Ra's flying mount, Swiftwind, heroically carrying the Princess of Power into battle. Swiftwind remained with She-Ra, traveling with her from Etheria to Eternia to join with the renegade Masters of the Universe in the continued fight against Hordak and his armies.

Bio is pretty Vanilla... Nothing to discuss here...

Battleground Evil Lyn: Really Matty, Really?

What happened to her being More than just a repaint? Extra head that she should have had since her first release in April 2010? A Crappy Catra Left hand? A Cape? That's just a half-assed attempt at spicing up a repaint... Dear Mattel: The whole point of requesting a 200X Evil Lyn in MOTUC was the COMPLETELY DIFFERENT LOOK THAT SHE HAS COMPARED TO HER VINTAGE FIGURE!! Had Her armor looked more like the one from The Faceless One, I would be extremely excited about her... Right now I am SO disappointed in her.

BATTLEGROUND EVIL-LYN - Evil Witch of Eternia
REAL NAME: Evelyn Morgan Powers

Cast aside by her secret husband after his transformation, Evil-Lyn sent their infant son into the future and plotted to overthrow Skeletor by releasing his enemies from their dimensional prisons. In a series of miscalculations, she helped free the Snake Men, Hordak, and Gygor, increasing her adversaries threefold! After Randor and Miro returned from Despondos, the Three Towers rose and Evil-Lyn found herself again allied with Skeletor during the Second Ultimate Battleground. At the end, defeated and stripped of her powers by the new Sorceress of Grayskull, Evil-Lyn used the Cosmic Keyy and the power of the Central Tower to return to the future to find a new life with her long lost child the son of Skeletor!

Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat? Evil Lyn married Keldor and had a CHILD!? Then she sent him to the Future? Is this a theme in the Powers Family? The not so Faceless one did the same thing with Evelyn... Now she does that with her kid!?
I want a Son of Skeletor figure...

Demo-Man: To be honest, I'm not THAT impressed with him. I thought he'd be more furry or something... I'm more excited about the Alcala Skeletor head than anything Else...

Here we go, the last bio of 2011:

DEMO-MAN - Evil Spirit of Despondos
Real name: Uqquz Zekul-Mshqx

Realising his pupil Keldor had no intention of releasing him from Despondos, Hordak merged him with an extra-dimensional being called Demo-Man. While this saved Keldor's life, it also drove him temporarily insane and convinced him to open a portal to Despondos and lead what he thought were "his people" into Eternia. Hordak intended to use this ruse as a means to escape once the portal was opened, but the new merged being "Skeletor" was quickly defeated by Oo-Larr, the Jungle He-Man, and Hordak remained trapped. Soon after, with the help of Evil-Lyn, Skeletor gained control of the powerful spirit inside him, increasing his abilities ten-fold. He was now the true Overlord of Evil and one of the most dangerous men on Eternia!

My few complaints about this bio:
WTF is that name? Also it suffers from Bow's Bio Syndrome... First Sentence is about Demo-Man, the rest is Skeletor Bio 2.0... I must add Demo-Man is NOT GAY!

Now unto the 2012 figures:
Star Sisters 3 pack: Incredibly stoked about them... Love some concept characters and Princess of Power... So this combines two things I like... It's gonna hurt the wallet a bit (Sorceress is coming that month) Sadly they lost the action features... Hey Look! Glory Bird has a new stand!!

Sorceress: The Chicken Lady Finally arrives in MOTUC!! I'm so excited I'm so excited! I'm gonna have a ball then! Confused why the blue is on the inside of her wings and the lack of shading in her white feathers... Other than that THIS is the second MOTS Exciting figure in the line for me!

Fearless Photog: Mr. Bitner's childhood dream is finally a reality: Fearless Photog is here...
I'm kind of OK with him, but at the same time I don't feel him... I think it's the black halves that make him seem odd... Bare calves... no boots or anything Probably will be reused on Oo-Larr!

Fisto: The Man with the big Right Hand shows up in MOTUC... HE brings GREAT NEWS!! The 200X Headban seems to be OVER! He has a 200X Head, 200X extra belt with pouch, his 200X BUSTER SWORD! (and a vintage head and vintage Tri-Klops sword...)

Kobra Khan: He brings 2 heads!! One with Opened hood, one with Closed hood... (Who's going to display him with his closed hood?) He has his Lizard friend from 200X his gun is no longer Zodac's gun. New Torso, new Loincloth, new abs, and new shin armor (The shin Armor could be used for a true Vintage Skeletor...)

Thunder Punch He-Man: HOLY CRAP! That Figure is so freaking SWEET!! His sword reminds me of a Jolly Rancher, He's got a Blast Cap RING!! HOLY CRAP!! This is the most bonerriffic announcement of ALL SDCC... Crew Sorceress, Shadow Weaver, etc... TP He-Man is where the excitement lies!!

Draego Man: Looks cool, but un-MOTU-like... Yes I know he reuses Whiplash's tail, King Hssss's Arms, Legs, He-Ro shin Armor and Hordak Feet, His Armor looks BA-ish, He has a Preternian Loincloth, but he looks un-MOTU-like... Love his Sword!!

Shadow Weaver: OK, Ignoring the fact that Mattel made her a Sub Exclusive, she's an OK Fig... She Obviously loses Articulation cause of her Dress. (also she looks grossly underdetailed, due to being Filmation)

Matty's SDCC 2011 MOTU Madness!! Pt.I

2011-07-24T08:28:00.000-04:00

Where to begin!! It was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!

The cat is out of the bag: THEY DO HAVE Filmation rights...
We deduced this a long while ago when Herr Neitlich would NOT directly deny the Filmation issue whenever he was asked...
There's a buttload of toys coming...

Guess what that means: YES Shadow Weaver is coming... As the Club Eternia 2012 Exclusive...
Arnold and this other dude describe my thoughts and Matty's thoughts about my thoughts...

I should also talk about the Create a Character Contest.
No 100% Sculpts, must be with a ton of parts reuse... Void in Puerto Rico and everywhere else outside the US...

VOID in PUERTO RICO... You SonofaSmurf!

OK: Here's the Line up:
-Icarius (Formerly known as Flipshot) He's from New Adventures!
-Bubble Power She-Ra with Horse Riding Abilities!
-Battleground Evil Lyn: The So-Called 200X Variant of Evil Lyn that was supposed to be more than a Repaint...

-Snout Spout: I've always hated him (personal reasons, and not fond of the character) but he looks cool... That Clamp is entering Clamp Champ territory...)
-Swift Wind: She-Ra's HORSEY!! He-Man can Ride his Kitty Cat, then She-Ra needs her Horsey...
-Demo-Man: I suppose Skeletor is the Full Version-Man... Check out the Alacala style Skeletor head...

-Star Sisters 3 Pack: Oh Holy Crap! The legendary 3 (No, not Articuno, Zapdos, and Moltres... Uno Dos Tres... Mind blown) I'm talking about the 3 PoP figures that never made it into toys in the 80s...
-Sorceress: Do I need to say anything about FREAKING SORCERESS!?

-Fisto: Glad the 200X head ban is dead... I'm making mine into 200X Fisto with all the 200X pieces included...
-Kobra Khan: Does not spit water... Looks like he's awesome...

-ThunderPunch He-Man: @#$% YEAH! This is THE Vintage Figure that I've been waiting for a MOTUC makeover... (After Beastman)
-Shadow Weaver: Neitlich says that the 2012 sub exclusive is 'being nice' and not trying to screw over people... More like bullying people into buying the Sub!

-The Fearless Photog: It took over 20 years, but Nathan Bitner (The winner of the 80s Create a Character Contest) Finally got HIS TOY!!

-Draego Man: A 4H Original contribution to Masters of The Universe to celebrate 30 years of Power!!
Here's a Look straight from the Horsemen's Workshop (Note: The Snout Spout image is a link to DCUniverse's Nekron)

I musn't forget but check out the Mini Masters:
They Frigging ROCK!!

On Pt.II I shall go in a more elaborate rant for the reveals (and discuss their bios...)

Let Our Producers Combine!

2011-07-21T06:14:00.000-04:00

Our World is in danger. Gaia the Spirit of the Earth can no longer stand the destruction plaguing our Planet... Just picture this being said by LeVar Burton...

Or even better yet, I should just post the damned Youtube Link(a)...
WHY this Captain Planet Post? They're ACTUALLY MAKING A LIVE ACTION FILM!!

Yes, Don Murphy is going to combine his powers with Ted Turner in order to get the Film going...
I fear the worst...
Just woke up to read this Eco-Nightmare! (PLEASE pick Moises Arias as Ma-Ti!)

GRRR! I hate that Dr. Manhattan rip-off!!

2011-07-17T22:48:00.000-04:00

Street Fighter IV is a really cool game! A combination of great graphics, awesome voice acting and BGM, awesome gameplay, but it only has ONE HUGE flaw: The Final Boss, Seth!

Doctor Manhattan with a Yin-Yang belly makes me so angry! HE IS the most unoriginal character ever...

-He reeks of Urien/Gill of SF III

-Aside from his Super moves and Ultra move, he rips off other characters' moves...
-Is awfully cheap... almost SNK Boss cheap! On Round one 8 out of 10 times he lets you win, making you feel over confident. On Round 2 he spams his teleport and if you're in the air you'll get Shoryuken'd. If you're far away he'll draw you towards him with a sucking move... if he doesn't teleport close enough to get you in his Spinning Piledriver. GRRRRRR!!! So far I've only beat the game with Ryu... (after 52 losses against Seth... Still can't believe how I won...)
I know that battling the Final Boss should require some skill, but the Boss should be BEATABLE without having to make me curse more than a Sailor...

Hey What the!? Robber turned Sex-Slave!?

2011-07-13T20:25:00.000-04:00

From Russia with Love... Dude tries to rob a hair salon, gets his ass kicked by a girl and is forced to be a sex slave for 3 days. Or so he claims. She on the other hand claims that she did kick his ass and had sex with him, but she also gave him new jeans and 1,000 roubles ($35.7)

Holy Pulp Fiction Batman!

I bet that Wheeler would like to re-enact that news story...

History Channel's Spokesperson has become Hometownless Hitler now has lost his "honorary citizenship from his own hometown... Yes he was evil, and he created the VW Beetle... but he's been dead for over half a century.

For some reason I keep thinking that Charlton Heston would oppose to this...

A Monkey Marriage ceremony...

What else can I say It's a freaking Monkey Wedding!!

It Came from the Toy Chest: With Less clothes and a dye job!

2011-07-09T10:38:00.000-04:00

Blonde Bikini Teela from the DC Comics version of Masters of The Universe has made it into the MOTUC line! Now she is called: Battleground Teela and she's Teela: The Sorceress' apprentice.

She wear that while going to the Eternian Polar Ice cap... Either she is tough or stupid...
Well here she is!

Notice something strange? Underboob Bikini Teela has bent one of her "metal" cups with her boobs of "steel"!

Let me get that fixed...
Ok now that I've fixed that Here's what we got... An incredibly lightweight figure with two cool looking accessories!
Now I'll get unto the scoring pat of the review and blah blah blah 1= bad 5 = good...

Articulation:

She's got a different body than the average MOTUC Female... More on that on the paint and sculpt section. This new body brings some differences in Articulation.
She has a REAL waist twist! Due to the naked Torso she doesn't have the underboob articulation that other female figs have... There is no Ab Crunch. (I think I'm the only person who enjoys female figs with Ab crunch...)

She also lost the "weird thigh rotating pseudo ball joint" that Fem buck 1.0 has.

3.5

Paint and Sculpt:
The Horsemen did a great job on this 2.0 body Teela's face resembles the previous Teela while looking a tad Older... (Is it just me or does she look like she's bored and was wishing she was somewhere else... kinda like Kristen Stewart...)
Paintwise She's too hard to screw up. Minimal paint applied where needed. Not too fond of the Reddish hints in her hair... Looks a tad sloppy... (I'll probably paint her hair in a reddish brown color...) For some reason her arms and hands are a tad gummy, not Catra hand cummy, but almost there...

4.0

Accessories:

She's got a Sword and a Blaster inspired by the DC Comic. The sword looks a lot fatter than her comic counter part and her gun looks larger than her comic book counterpart... I should dock some points for being inaccurate. On the other hand the sword is so elegant with it's simplicity that it makes Teela's normal sword look too fancy/elaborate... CRAP! I just shot down my pro-200X argument!
Her gun is designed for her right hand. She can use it in her left hand, but on her right hand fits better (due to a notch for her thumb...)
4.0

Overall: 3.83
She's a pretty good figure, but personally she's not Teela for me... Unlike most of you I will have her as The Goddess (with Teela's extra Snake head) while I'll repaint her hair with a reddish color for Normal Teela... So she looks like an Adult version of 200X Teela minus the Anime Hyper detail... Need to figure out how to make removable shoulderpads...