That's the *snort* San Diego Comic *snort* Con Matty Exclusive!?

Yes, Mattel is giving us a Hordak as the San Diego Comic Con Exclusive! Not just Any Hordak!
They call it the FILMATION HORDAK!!


It's plain old Vanilla Hordak with short loincloth repainted in Filmation Colors. It can swap the left arm to have the hand cannon... Think Hurricane Hordak, but with Flipshot's bicep and Trap Jaw's left shoulder.

For a San Diego Comic Con Exclusive, this is a rather uninspired item. Feels lazy, and uninspired.
I will try to get one because of Imp, but I now kinda regret repainting my Hurricane Hordak into a classicized Filmation Hordak... Oh well...

You got a bang for your buck on Vykron, Orko and Marlena. The Comet Warriors were understandably expensive, but here we get imp and an extra arm... No Rocket Hordak, extra cannon attachments, no Imp transformations (The Chest is only available to people who go to SDCC)

Not even a new head... DAMMIT! DAMMIT!! DAMMIT!!!

**UPDATE**
There's more to this story. Toyguru has been busy replying...

He's got a few "tricks up his sleeve" and man do they suck!

They had the budget to do a True Filmation head but chose NOT TO!? NA He-Man, King He-Man, Alcalá Skeletor, Carback Merman, Whiplash, etc. beg to differ.

Translating the Filmation Design into Classics DOES NOT yield the Vintage Toy Hordak Head. The toy version is more Organic Looking than the Robotic Face from Filmation...

See the quick edit to the Filmation head. Adding a few rivets and some paint accents reminiscent of Toy Hordak while keeping the Filmation shape is closer to what a TRULY CLASSICIZED Hordak Head would look in Classics...

I've ranted before about the Classicizer Machine being a bunch of crap, this is another instance of it.

Alcala Skeletor Goes through the Classicizer, then the head should have been VINTAGE Skeletor's head, just as the Filmation Hordak head goes through the Classicizer and ends up being the vintage Toy head. Basically this excuse is a pile of horse dung.

BTW the Robot/Armcannon uh, arm is Trap Jaw's Shoulder on Flipshot's Bicep on Hurricane Hordak's Forearm. Only the Robo-hand is new.


He is also $30...

Street Fighter Toys: Are they Cursed?

I Love Street Fighter! I love action Figures. I've had NECA's SF, SOTA's SF toys, ToyBiz had some X-Men vs SF toys that I HAD to HAVE... Jazwares' SF Toys came to be in my possession. Hell I even had 1 or two Hasbro SF toys.

Sadly, I can never display them correctly. We never got a full roster after the horrible Hasbro SF Joes*

*SOTA is the one closest to a full roster that was accurate to the characters. (Dee Jay was MIA)

Is being able to recreate this in action figure form too much to ask?

Sadly, SOTA's SF toys vanished when they moved to online only and I missed over half of the waves. (Not to mention that finding most of waves 1 through 3 was a Pain in the ASS)

We know about NECA's "Curse" and many licensed lines die after 1-2 waves. So once again I was cut short of the SF goodie train.

Not even going to talk about the untouchable but awesome figures from the far East.

Is it THAT hard to get Street Fighter in Toy Form?
I suppose that they cannot have a "Buck system" like MOTUC or DCUC since Fei Long, Sagat and Ryu have very different physiques. They could save some money on Ryu and Ken due to parts reuse, but that's about it.

But HERE COMES A NEW CHALLENGER! I know this is a bit of old news, but someone else is trying for Street Fighter Toys.

I WANT to Like them, but I'm a bit wary about the Cloth clothing on some of the figures. Also, I'm not a huge fan of the sculpt on Ryu, but their Blanka looks Decent Enough. Hopefully they can smooth out the kinks before the line is released.

To end this Street Fighter Rant on a more positive note, here's a set of clips from the Street Fighter: Assassin Fist Project:




I have more hopes in this than some upcoming Hollywood releases.

Happy MOTU DAY 2014!!

Well, 2014 has delivered a lot of MOTUC stuff.
We completed the Core Evil Horde from the Original Line. Right now we only need Dragstor and Multibot.
We completed the Core Evil Warriors with Two Bad

We got the Most important Member of the Great Rebellion with Glimmer

We got the First Movie Figure with Blade... Honestly the most badass of all 3 Movie Figures that were made in the Vintage Line.

There is a lot of stuff coming in as well that it's pretty cool. Even the recent movie news are a good thing in a way. Even if I don't agree with the decisions taken so far, or how they are dragging their feet with the project. The point is that WE ARE GETTING MOTU out of this. I think of the times of the great MOTU droughts... (which in all fairness one of them was made bigger due to the original New Adventures toys not being appealing to many fans of the Original MOTU)

Yes, a lot of the stuff coming may not be entirely appealing to my tastes, but we ARE getting stuff. We could be in a worse position, like say Thundercats fans. Remember to share some MOTU Love today!


BTW this is the song I play while ordering stuff from Matty!

Remember to check other sites that deal with MOTU, for some other MOTU Day surprises!

Hey What the!? Move over Nathan Drake, Lara Croft, and Indiana Jones!

We've found a new Archaeological hero (or villain) in Zak Penn... His name sounds familiar, since he's written (and co-written) some movies. Well, Mr. Penn has found the Unholy Grail of Gaming. I'm talking about the Legendary Pile of E.T. Games in the New Mexico Landfill!!



What Museum? The Museum of Crappy Games? (AKA The Angry Videogame Nerd's Basement?)
Speaking of the Nerd, I hope this discovery help James Rolfe to complete the infamous AVGN Movie:


I can't grasp the magnitude of this event (the discovery of the cartridges, not the AVGN Movie).  I mean, E.T. was a huge agent in the 83' game crash. If it wasn't for SEGA and Nintendo, I don't know WHERE the videogame industry would be today... This is almost as finding the original strain of the Bubonic Plague for videogames.

Somebody should make a videogame adaptation of the discovery of the ET game pile... something along the lines of a Tomb Raider game... Maybe the games are cursed and they kill whoever uses them...

Superman vs Batman clusterfrack has a Cyborg... and other unrelated stuff.

They have a Cyborg... So we now have confirmed, Batman, Superman, (a bad choice for)Wonder Woman, (a slightly less bad choice than WW for)Lex Luthor (but still a really bad choice), Cyborg, then there's the rumors of Momoa as Aquaman, The Rock involved in something and a Green Lantern.
I'm only mentioning the Cyborg being cast news, mostly because I ranted a bit about this project. I think it'll be a flop BECAUSE they're trying too hard to copy Avengers.




Let's move away from the DC clusterbomb to something slightly better.

 The Girl Meets World Poster. I laughed out loud HARD! When I read that a reporter was praising the originality and cleverness of having the O in World be literally the World... Without any hint of sarcasm... It's not like BOY MEETS WORLD did that since their first Season. Heck! The GMW logo is reminiscent of the High School years of Boy Meets World. I REALLY hope the show is closer to S1 of Boy Meets World and not the average kid show on Disney or nickelodeon.

Some of Jem's Truly Outrageous cast has been revealed.

It's truly, truly Outrageous. Jem/Jerrica will be played by Aubrey Peeples. She's been on great hits such as: Ace Ventura Jr.: Pet Detective... The one without Jim Carrey... and More importantly she was Ian Ziering's daughter in the mega hit: Sharknado

OK, so Kimber is going to be played by Stefanie Scott. She was in the 6th Beethoven movie. Damn! I didn't know that they made any Beethoven movies after the Second one... OK, so let's see what else she's done: She was on Disney Channel's Jessie as a guest, but a regular in A.N.T. Farm...
So Kimber is a Disney Girl...

Aurora Perrineau from Pretty Little Liars is Shana... I feel that this is the choice that will anger most...

Last but not Least, Hayley Kiyoko who played Velma on the Cartoon Network Live Action TV movies of Scooby-Doo (The Mystery Begins and Curse of the Lake Monster) will play Aja...

Hoo Boy! They are super young... Probably so, to have the same cast for sequels... That's not the main issue I have with this project.

Ryan Landels wrote the script, which, per the producers, centers on an orphaned teenage girl who becomes an online recording sensation. She and her sisters embark on a music-driven scavenger hunt -- one that sends them on an adventure across Los Angeles in an attempt to unlock a final message left by her father.

WHAT THE F!? If Jerrica becomes an online recording sensation, then the whole JEM = Secret Popstar angle will not be there! Also, who is a famous popstar who became famous thanks to the internet... and has been the star of two Chu movies?

Where is Synergy in all of this and Jerrica's  Jemstar earrings that turn her into the Truly, truly, truly Outrageous star, JEM!!
So, if Jem is an online sensation does this mean that Eric Raymond is something like ARK Music Factory's PATO WILSON? (AKA Fat Usher)

Losing hope in this project seems a lot easier, especially after figuring out that the whole "Talent kickstarter" thing was a BS ruse to make Jem go viral... I feel used. I know I'm NOT the target audience, but Jem has a nostalgic place in my heart and seeing these dillholes (Jon Chu and Scooter Braun) taking a massive dump on Jem sucks! Hopefully Jem will be better than the Not Really Bay, but the director is a Bay-fanboy Turtles.

It's a shame that Spector and Laser-Lot had to be made in 2012

Hoo-Boy! I'm on yet another Spector Rant... 2 years later. Hey! I also included Sir-Laser-Lot to spice up things!
Like the title says: It's a shame that they had to be made in 2012 when a LOT of new parts that would have made those figures cooler hadn't been made!
Let's start with Sir-Laser-Lot:
I've often said that Man-E-Faces Shoulders with Trap Jaw Biceps would have given him a more Knightly Look. Well, Extendar's thighs would have helped him a LOT More. Not to Mention Standor's Loincloth.

Why those Pieces? Simple: The Thighs, Shoulders and Biceps are more armored, which helps break the He's wearing Blue Tights look. The Standor Loincloth looks more knightly and breaks off the Tights look. Less Superman, more Badass Laser Knight.
I tried to keep him close to Johns' figure, but some tiny changes did wonders to that character (IMO). Going Full Knight with more Extendar pieces would make SLL a lame Extendar repaint.

Spector is another character who would have benefited from post 2012 parts. I've talked a LOT about why Spector fails in past rants. Not going to tread the Mary Sue waters, but I will retread the Deadpoolness of him.

Let's start with the body. Once Again, Eliminating the Appearance of Wearing Tights on him is the first step to "remove the Deadpool" out of Spector. The easiest way to do so is teching out the body. Also, Axing the Trap Jaw Legs! It would be easy adding Roboto's biceps and calling it a day. Spector is already asymmetrical, so let's enhance the Asymmetry a bit more. For his left arm (the one with the key) let's add some more Armored Hi-tech Arm... Translation: Flipshot's Bicep. For the right Arm, I used the Roboto Forearm because if his suit is high tech due to time travel, let's emphasize the tech aspect of it. Hiding it in a "wearing tights" look doesn't scream High tech. For the Post 2012 Pieces, I'm using NA Skeletor's legs due to the cyber parts attached to them.
The Only NEW Piece would be the new Armor/Harness for Spector which eliminates the cumbersome Leg Holster for the gun and Ammo belt on the leg. Also it has some more "Tech bits" on the torso to emphasize the whole High Tech look for a Time Traveler. At the same time I tried to stay as close as possible to Neitlich's creation.
Swapping the Lower Torso for the Hordak Flat Abs helps sell the "Armored" Look for the body better than the Normal Ab piece.

Now the remaining Piece I swapped was Blade's Right Forearm. There is a simple reason for that piece. The two Little Barbs on the back part of it remind me a bit of Batman.

With all that said, there's a bunch of people who believe that you CAN'T MAKE Spector or Loser-Lot cool no matter what. I kinda agree with them from a canonical point of view and also with the parts that they had back then. (I did  try over 50 variations of Spector Redesigns and variants for kicks.)

I feel it sucks that the year that MOTU had a great celebration with a Create a Character contest, we did NOT had access to a LOT of the pieces we have now. (also it sucks that I couldn't participate on it, otherwise I would have sent at least 10 entries)

I did not touch Cy-Chop because he is nearly impossible to make cool. Photog, well he needed to be as is since the 80s contest and all that and Draego, well, The Horsemen KNEW what they were doing.

Barbie Movie is Happening... HWAT!?

I was not joking nearly two years ago when I said that they should try to make a Barbie Movie!! I just didn't expect it to truly happen! Curse you LEGO Movie!! There, something bad that I can say about the LEGO movie. They're hoping to start filming before the end of 2014. You know, I can't wait for this to happen. I KNOW for sure that certain Social Justice Womyn Warriors will bitch and moan about Barbie the movie, simply BECAUSE it's Barbie. I almost expect "Patriarchy diatribes" running loose.

Back to the movie news. The angle going for Barbie is a modern day Mary Poppins type of character.
But, we know which project will be easier to make. Barbie WILL Happen, meanwhile the He-Man movie is gathering more dust than Castle Grayskull.

I'll just have to see how this develops and I MAY HAVE TO SEE THIS... Dammit,  Blockbuster! Why did you have to go broke before this came to DVD?

It Came from the Toy Chest: Sharpening Himself to stab Dolph Lundgren

Finally, the First Masters of the Universe (the Motion Picture) figure is here! I'm talking about BLADE!!

Not THAT Blade!!
I mean THIS Blade! Played by Anthony De Longis... Who is he? Well, he's mostly known for weapon training and stuff. He's done a LOT of stuff and I'm only mentioning a few things.
He Was the Fencing Coordinator on Mutliple episodes of iCarly.
He was the Horse Action Consultant on Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior.
He was the whip trainer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull as well as Batman Returns.
He was also Skeletor's Stunt Double for Masters of the Universe. Not to mention the role of Marshal Leigh Johnson in Red Dead Redemption. So he acts, does voices, stunt double, and trains people to use weapons in movies/tv shows. That's enough about the man, let's talk about the Character.

The MOTU Movie used new characters to replace actual characters from the Original Toys.
Saurod was sort of a replacement for Whiplash and Kobra Khan, Karg was a replacement for Trap Jaw, Blade was a Replacement for Tri-Klops. (That's the reason why my Tri-Klops dual wields.)

So, that's Blade in a nutshell, not going to bother with the MOTUC Bio, because aside from his real name and confusing chronology; the bio is good.

Articulation:
He's got the Standard Male MOTUC Articulation. The Armor hinders the articulation a little bit. (Raising the arms can be a bit troublesome.
4.0

Paint and sculpt:
He looks a lot like the movie version of Blade. The face is identical to Mr. Delongis after being stylized to fit the bulkier MOTUC Body. Similar to what was done with Standor and Lt. Spector. The likeness to the person is there, but the proportions are tweaked, due to the new body.
I'm surprised at the sheer number of new parts on him. The Paint, well here I've been disappointed. He is missing a few hits and mine was very sloppy on my chainmail. Not nitpicking about those. I'll bitch and moan about the lack of paint hits on his accessories.
3.5

Accessories:
He has 3 Accessories, but the Fail is strong on them. The swords are too big. The Toy Sword looks like a Playmates Toys weapon, the "Movie Sword" is too large and Blade can't hold it WITHOUT Warping his hand. Also, the color scheme is from a Highlander Episode (and Mattel cut out paint hits there...)

3.5

Overall:
Swordmaster Blade gets a 3.67 as his final score. It's not bad, but the paintjob issues and the epic fail of the oversized swords did hurt his score a lot.

Spider-Man: Parker's back and other Spidey stuff.

Once again, Marvel has killed my favorite Villain, Doctor Octopus. He was killed before in the clone Saga, then revived and killed again. We got through Inferior Spider-Man and Peter Parker is now back for realsies... It totally has nothing to do with Amazing Spider-Douche 2 starting soon and Marvel wanting Peter Back to tie-in with the movie... It's not like they gave him the black suit before Tobey-Man 3 started years back...

Dammit Marvel! Stop Killing Doc Ock! Kill Norman Osborn for good for a change... Hell Eradicate the Goblin Crap! Goblins here, there, Everywhere... Especially with the Horrible Goblin that I must say, doesn't look like Solomon Grundy. I was wrong. It looks like the bastard Child of Beavis and Butt-Head.

Hoo boy! Peter Parker is Dating Gwen Stacy.
I mean, the dude Playing Peter Parker is dating the gal Playing Gwen Stacy. He is British, She's American... I swear I've heard a similar story before...

I'm not going to touch his comment on sewing because it's a non-issue. Also, his comeback comment was pretty good and shows that he has a sharp mind. (That doesn't excuse him for playing a HORRIBLE Peter Parker.) Now these 

"Relationships that bloom on the stage" are risky because it often fails. We've seen it before and the results are not often that good.

And we'll see a lot more of these fluff pieces regarding Spider-Man, due to his upcoming movie.

Back to the Spider-Douche movie. That Goblin is Harry Osborn and Not Norman... Great! Now we're screwing Norman out of Screwing Gwen and possibly killing her. DAMMIT! DAMMIT! DAMMIT! Is it too hard to stick to the source material or at least be respectful towards it!?

As much as I hate the Spider-Douche movies, I KINDA want to see Doc Ock...

Fantastic four and realism... Ugh!

I've complained about this new reboot of Fantastic four and called it racist because Johnny Storm is the Human Torch and will be played by a black actor. How could this be OK'd and no one bats an eye? The black man sets himself on fire constantly.

Now, the folks in charge of this movie are talking about making the movie more realistic and gritty.
Realistic and Gritty movie about a man who stretches his body, a woman who turns invisible, a man made out of Orange Rocks AND a man who lights himself on fire and FLIES!?


Aside the Horrible Casting choices. (All 3 Male Leads), the idea of a Gritty Fantastic Four is MORONIC!

Punisher, Blade, Dare Devil, Iron Fist, Power Man, Wolverine, Venom, Deathlok, Ghost Rider, (giant-sized) Man-Thing, the Midnight Sons and X-Men lend themselves to Gritty movies

The Fantastic Four lend themselves to Adventure styled movies. There is some sort of Jules Verne inspiration in some of their earlier adventures. The Microverse, Subterranea, Atlantis, The Negative Zone. All of these lend themselves for Adventure movies with the F4. Something along the lines of the Journey to movies.

The Skrulls, Namor and the Atlanteans, the Puppet Master are great Fantastic Four villains that are not only Fantastic enough, OK Puppet Master is not that Fantastic, but his powers are pretty cool and I just want to avoid using the Latverian Diva.

We need someone that is NOT Freaking Doctor Doom in a Fantastic Four Movie. IF Doom Happens, he'd better Wear THE REAL DOOM Clothing. (As seen on the Pic above)

Now seeing that the Director is the same guy who did Chronicle... *shudder* I can be certain that this movie will reek of Chronicle with a F4 skin over it.

Is it a little bit too much to ask for a Fantastic Four movie that RESPECTS the Source Material?

I saw Captain America II and other stuff... Marvel Related.

It was pretty cool. Had some twists, some unexpected surprises. It's pretty hard to discuss without spoilers.

Well, I wonder what the show I gave up on will deal with the Aftermath of this movie... Talking about Agents of SHIELD.

There were a few things I did NOT like about the movie...
So, I guess I should get those out of the way before going in any further.



Things that I did not like:

Before anyone says: Standor wasn't in the movie... I mean the Stan Lee Cameo since Stan had NOTHING to do with Captain America. Yes, I do not like ScarJo as Black Widow. She seems like she wound up in the wrong set and the director was, ah screw it!

Things I DID Like:

Then there's the plot, which I liked, mostly. Few things here and there that I did not like, but other than that, the movie was pretty awesome. MUCH, MUCH better than Iron Man 3: The Armor is busted half of the movie and we took a massive dump on The Mandarin. I also liked it more than Thor 2, which was good, but the Midgar elements were the most painful part of that movie.

I will not rate the movie, but I'd suggest that you watch it if you haven't.


Speaking of Marvel stuff, I FINALLY got to play Spider-Man: Edge of Time. I have a lot of issues with that game. IT STINKS!!
The good things are:
Story/Plot Bonus points for using Peter David (Man who needs no introduction but for those who don't know, he did a lot of work for Marvel, specifically speaking a LOT of  Spider-Man 2099)
Voice Acting Bonus points for using Christopher Daniel Barnes and Joshua Keaton as the two Spideys... 2099 and normal Spidey. BTW Both Chris Barnes and Joshua Keaton have voiced Spider-Man in the Marvel VS Capcom games. (Barnes in MVC and MVC2 while Keaton was Spidey in MVC3)

Bad points:
Gameplay
Controls
Fun Factor

The game is trying to be a PS1 Spidey game. (No free roam) and the camera suffers since you have very little control of it and can be disorienting. Combat is OK-ish, even if a bit too repetitive and Spidey is severely underpowered.

I'm trudging through it only for the story. Games are supposed to be fun, this one, well isn't... This game is a "play it once and fuhgettaboutit!"

A MOTUC Version of Battle For Eternia... Good Idea or Bad Idea?

Now that the Forces fighting for Eternia and Etheria are almost complete... Or will be complete by the end of 2015, that has got me thinking. I vaguely remember a He-Man Boardgame that used the Actual MOTU Figures to play with and you had to rescue He-Man or Something. TO THE INTERNET!!

One Internet Search Later has yielded some results. The Game is called Battle For Eternia and the point of it was to Rescue He-Man. Here's a video of the game in action.


Well, seeing the game in action has reawakened the desire to see a MOTU Classics Version of this game. Think About it: MOTUC Board Game. This would have been a nice way to promote Matty Collector a few years back. Sell the game in stores promote the Matty Collector Product since the game would be compatible with MOTUC Figures... Now it would be a nice way to celebrate MOTUC.
Not to mention that MATTEL could sell expansion packs like the Battle for Etheria, the Preternian Ultimate Battleground, the Eternian Ultimate Battleground and the Final Battle on Trolla. (this last one could bring out a MOTUC Netta!) Of course each Update would have its own twist on the rules to make it fresh instead of a retread of the same game. Not to mention that it would give THE WRITING TEAM an outlet to flesh out the story in MOTUC and an outlet to sneak in extra accessories for some MOTUC Figures like the Golden Power Sword in the DVD Box Set... Or a 3D version of the Grayskull Dungeon Grate.

Think about it: a Mighty Spector update pack where Spector uses his time travel powers as a wild card. Send opponents back, have him assist you in a battle, move your piece forward. Not to mention adding an Accessory for the Mighty Spector Figure like the left-out whip. The idea of using the Figures combined with the Board Game is too cool to pass up!

Aaaaaaaah! SEGA!!

Since my Shenmue tribute rant, I've been on a Sega Nostalgia Trip. Mostly because MY first Console was a SEGA Master System. My SMS was the one that had Hang-On and Safari Hunt within the System. Translation: I missed out on the MAZE GAME. I could only play it with my Uncle's SMS.

The trippy music from this game is etched into my memory... My main game was Hang-On!! (I sucked at Safari Hunt and my dad's TV had the dents on the screen to prove it.) I wasn't half bad on Hang-On!! The old man was a better Hang-On!! player than me. I never truly owned any other SEGA Games, though I could rent or borrow some. I regret renting ALF. I LOVED Rampage, After Burner, Space Harrier, Wonder Boy and Double Dragon. I did not play Alex Kidd until my teenage years.

I did not own a SEGA Genesis, but my Uncle did and I spent a LOT of time at his place. Family and all that (but also Videogames)... Since we're doing Genesis, let's get one thing out of the way.

I must add to this list:
Space Harrier II, The Amazing Spider-Man vs The Kingpin, Moonwalker, Street Fighter II', Sonic the Hedgehog are the games that come to mind. There were a few others, but these were the ones that popped so often. I got to use the DULLARD on MK as an adult.

32-Bit Era... This means we're not going to Uranus, but we're entering Saturn! Before you ask: Where's SEGA CD, or 32X, I never met them...
Here my game selection was Weird, all the games were used after SEGA axed Saturn for the Dreamcast.
All-Star Baseball, Virtua Cop, NBA Live 97, GEX (which I had on the PSX), Virtua Fighter, SFA 2 (which died after a few uses, sadly) Marvel Superheroes and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 had the same fate. Last but not least...
♪Do-da do-da do-do-do-do do-do-do♫

Sadly, I was unable to get the expansion cart to play X-Men vs Street Fighter (and the whole game being a Japan exclusive didn't help)

Of course that leaves us with the Dreamcast... I had nearly lost my faith in SEGA but Ryo Hazuki helped restore it. Now I didn't have too many DC games and only 2 survive to this day. KOF: Dream Match 98 and Shenmue. The most use the Dreamcast is getting is for ports from Homebrew games made with the Beats of Rage engine.

I wanted to mention the Game Gear but I ran out of juice faster than it ran out of Batteries...

All Game Gear jokes aside (I only used my cousins but I had Spider-Man and Columns. Her GG only came with Sonic 2, She also had a Roadrunner game... and an AC Adapter) It's a shame that SEGA has vanished from the console market. I mean they TRIED HARD at what they did. The SMS had two ways to read games, by card (never had games that came in cards) and cartridge. The Sega Genesis tried to evolve with the SEGA CD and the 32X...

Evolution is a Mystery, A small change no one sees... Except
when you're talking SEGA Genesis. Holy Crap! The Beast
is growing into Kaiju-like Proportions!

The Saturn even had an Expansion slot just in case... Then Dreamcast had a built-in Modem... Hell, the WiiU's main gimmick (the screen on the controller) SEGA did it first with the Dreamcast's VMU over 13 years earlier... in a more archaic way, but in the 20th Century...

SEGA, I salute you!

Remembering Shenmue

Ah, Shenmue, one of the 5 Reasons to buy a SEGA Dreamcast! (the Other 4 Are: SoulCalibur, MVC, MVC2, Crazy Taxi)



How did I get involved with Shenmue? It's a story that started a long time ago. It was the Dawn of the 21st Century and I was in Orlando, Florida for a class trip. First time at Disney Parks and I was there on an Educational trip. We had rides and Education. So, the Epcot Day, I found the Innoventions area... Who according to Internet Research was heavily backed by SEGA, so that explains the Dreamcast showings. Now, my memory is a bit foggy, not sure if Shenmue (Japanese version) was actually playable or if it was on a demo mode, but I remember this:

Only the sodas in the game were Fanta and stuff. I do remember a QTE as well.
We move time forward a few months/almost a year later when I went to ToysRUs with my younger brother. There I saw the Dreamcast Display and the Demo video they had WAS Shenmue. I remembered the game from the trip to Disney and began saving for a Dreamcast, a VMU and Shenmue.

Eventually I got the stuff and was immersed in Japan 1986, following Ryo Hazuki's quest for Revenge.
Here's the thing: Mega fans will go with nostalgia tint glasses that makes everything better, while haters and people who don't "get the game" will ramble on and on about the flaws of it and exaggerate them.

I KNOW the game has MANY FLAWS, but I love to revisit it (though now I do it less since my VMU went kaput. I'll have to remind myself to buy two more CR2032 batteries to see if the VMU still works.

The Game CAN BE TEDIOUS... Things like looking for sailors, working at the docks, etc.



Other things just seem weird like going to a parking lot at night to practice karate.


Oh the Voice Acting... Everyone complains about the Voice Acting. It's Awful. It's like the Acting in THE ROOM, but with less emotion and more stilted.

There's some backstory to its awfulness.
Link 1
Link 2

The seemingly bad voice acting stems from trying to keep it as Japanese as possible. It makes sense, since some people have criticized the game for being TOO JAPANESE. Not only the complaints are about the acting but the plot and its pacing are included in there. Yes, it's a bit slow compared to most J-RPGs. Now I actually LIKE the Horrible Voice Acting BECAUSE it reminds me of badly dubbed Martial Arts movies.

How can I describe Shenmue? I could call it a somewhat spiritual Japanese ancestor of Canis Canem Edit. While, yes, both games have some similarities, Shenmue is closer to a J-RPG crossed with Canis Canem Edit,  70s Martial Arts movies and some Japanese Quirkiness...  The Music is one of the best things in Shenmue.

The worst part of Shenmue is that American fans never got to experience the FULL Shenmue Experience. Before anyone mentions Shenmue 2 on XBOX, let me finish. Japanese and European gamers got the true experience since both countries had both games on the same console (Dreamcast) and the Shenmue Save file could be loaded on Shenmue 2, which gave you your items and kept the skills you had on the first game for the second game. American gamers were able to do so by either getting both games from another region, or modifying their savefiles and getting a pirate copy of Shenmue 2.

With the Third installment being MIA for over 10 years, it's a shame that we'll never find out the conclusion to this Kitty petting, capsule toy collecting, duck racing, 70 people beating, fork-lift racing, Vintage SEGA GAMING, Leaf Catching, revenge saga...

While flawed, I LOVE this game!!

Jem the Movie IS TRULY OUTRAGEOUS!!

Truly, truly outrageous! We have no script, no cast, movie will be Low-Budget AND it starts Filming in 3 Weeks...


Yes, I know that I'm not the Target Audience and that this movie needs to catch the attention of a new generation of JEM and the Holograms fans; but this seems like it's the wrong way to go about it. I hope the end result DOES NOT SUCK, but My Expectations keep getting lower with every bit of news I hear.

While JEM does not need a Bayformers budget, the whole Low-Budget thing scares me. The Misfits are borderline Terrorists, JEM NEEDS Explosions and Super CGI Magic to turn Jerrica into Jem and the whole Synergy thing. I fear that a lower budget may not give us a decent Misfits terrorist plot or a great Synergy...

The lack of a cast worries me. How can filming start if there isn't a cast set in stone? Also, don't we need a script? You know that thing that needs tons of rewrites before filming...
This project seems to be moving WAY TOO FAST... A rushed movie is not necessarily a GOOD Movie and this project seems to be happening at a ridiculous speed. I honestly hope that it will not suck, but I don't feel that it'll be GOOD.

April 2014 Early access was a Nightmare but I made it!

Today was the Early Access day with Kowl and Loo-Kee 2 pack (a bit overpriced pack, but I need Loo-Kee) not to Mention Beastman's bitch, KLACKY!!
The new Items weren't showing up until a few minutes before the sale.
Firefox was crashing like Launchpad Mc Quack
Google Chrome was acting up with the items vanishing and loading a blank Early Access Page. When the items loaded you clicked on the page and turned Kowl/Loo-Kee pack into a $200 Item.
Only Internet Explorer came through today for me...
Yes, we've all heard that the best thing IE is useful is to download a better browser, but Slow IE came through for me: Translation: I have a Loo-Kee!

Honestly, Matty seems to be getting worse. while there was no Geoblock this time, I had to wade through a lot of crap to get my items. Something that I didn't have to do during my last year as a cherry picker.

The good news is that I DO NOT have to play Matty's games to get Loo-Kee... Goatman should be available at cons that I'm likely not going to, like power-con (Goatman sold out in 45-ish minutes after the EA sale started) and he may show up for the Black Friday/Cyber Monday Matty sale.

Seriously, who has time to be checking out Matty 24/7 to see if Loo-Kee is available? Especially since the pack sold out on Early Access. So, those who wanted them and were late, will have 2 options:

Play Matty's games with Kowl/Loo-Kee and Hunt Goatman on cons that are NOT SDCC and have Mattel Presence.
Pay Secondary Market Prices.

I didn't like the games with Kool-Aid Hordak, I don't like them with Loo-Kee...

I'm going to call it once again: either Ninjor or Gwildor will be the dumbass Chase figure for 2015!

Most wanted MOTUC Army Builders: The Rant

Now that it has been ages that we've gotten the Horde Troopers, the desire for Army Builders seems to have died down a little bit. (But people want Horde Troopers dammit!) Now with that said, we haven't exploited the full extent of the Army Builders.

200X Horde Troopers:

More Knightly than Sir-Laser-Lot

We could use this as Horde Prime's Special Squad of Troopers as a Justification to have them, or go with them being Preternian versions. We already have a few pieces for them and Draego's unflamed sword looks a lot like their sword.

Shadow Wraiths:

They remind me of Dementors!

Shadow Weaver needs her cult of warlocks if she is the so called Head Witch of the Horde. Just picture it: Shadow Weaver escorted by two hooded figures. Looks a lot better than Shadow Weaver escorted by two Horde Troopers.

Now That would be giving the Horde 3 Different Army Builders and we cannot have that.

So, Skeletor needs some Army Builder Action too! He is a bit hard to pick up an army, but it's doable.

they are bone warriors and slime mutants not to mention
their different sizes!

 I'm thinking a 3 pack: Before you let out a scream that curses BOTH the Star Sisters and the Fighting Foemen, hear me out.
Look at the Possible army builders that Skeletor has:
 The 200X Slime Pit Mutant Warrior: Classicized it's basically the naked evil buck with a new head and loincloth and Demo-Man lower legs.
Give him the Shield pictured and the spear for weapons

I got nothing...

The Skelcons from the Golden book are quite easy:
We have the evil buck for them with Zodac's Torso in purple to make the pseudo shirt. Reuse Batros' neckpiece. The only new pieces would eb again head and loincloth. Use the Skelcon sword and Slime Pit Mutant Ax as weapons.

Half Horde Trooper, Half energy Zoid

Since these guys use so little in the extra parts and paints department. they need no extra heads, theoretically Mattel could make a Robot Knight as the "Third cahracter" Orko sized, 3 PoA, stand and maybe an extra arm with a different attachment.

If you notice a lack of Great Rebellion Army Builder, it's rather obvious why this is. Peasant Army Builder would not sell. Bright Moon Guards COULD Work, but I don't see everyone getting those.

Same thing could be said about Flogg's Not Really Storm Troopers so, back away with those lawsuits, mouse!

Yay! for Copyright Infringement!

Odds and ends April 11, 2014

Megan Fox... I'm not a fan of her. Let's leave it at that. As much as I dislike her, she seems to be a fan of Sailor Moon. She seems interested in doing a Live Action Sailor Moon. Personally, I think this is a HORRIBLE IDEA. Not because I don't like her as an actor, but because she's too old to play a 14 year old girl.


I'm going to give a shout out to the folks from Nerds on a Couch since they got little old me to do a rant there. Obviously, the topic is Ponies... I kid, I kid! It's He-Man, which shouldn't come as a surprise. IT IS closely tied to the recent news about the movie and reflecting on them a little bit more than my shooting from the hip rant that I posted Earlier.

Finally, a Girl Meets World Teaser...


This Teaser is not enough to gauge if it'll be in the same spirit as Boy Meets World, or if it'll end up as another Shake it Up, ANT Farm or Jessie... Did Ben Savage get a Nosejob? He looks somewhat off.

MOTU Movie update: apparently we have a director!

And it's Jeff Wadlow!! I have no idea who in Despondos he is, and I've not seen any movie made by him. Not even Kick-Ass 2.

So, I checked Rotten Tomatoes and some of his movies, since I have no clue who he is and I have not seen any of his movies and here is what I found:

Kick-ass 2: 29%  and 61% Audience
Never Back Down 22%  and 34% Audience

Cry_Wolf (No critic Rating) 39% Audience

This doesn't inspire me any confidence in the guy... Seriously, HANNAH MONTANA: THE MOVIE rates Higher than anything this guy has done with both critics and audience. Hell, The Room... yes, THAT THE ROOM with Tommy Wiseau rates higher with critics than all of Wadlow's movies.

THIS IS THE GUY that SONY entrusted MOTU to... Direct... Wait! Here's a link that says he's only re-writing the script! So, let's see what movies he's written...
Kick-Ass 2
Cry_Wolf
 Prey (No Critic Rating) and 23% Audience according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Yup! This is the guy who's rewriting the script... Well, if I have something to say is that at least his movies have rated higher than Justin Marks' epic Masterpiece of... poop that is known as Street Fighter: The Legend of Kristin Kreuk pretending to be Chun Li.

Right now we're slightly above Uwe Boll levels of crap... Mattel cannot afford to have a crappy MOTU Movie out. Period. Look at GI Joe. While I enjoyed Retaliation, the movie wasn't good enough and GI Joe practically disappeared from toy shelves.

Survivorman has Jumped the Shark

While Bear Grylls jumped the shark AND Nuked the fridge a long time ago, Les Stroud, the Survivorman has jumped the Shark with his Bigfoot Special.

So, Stroud is on Canada looking for Bigfoot. That's right, the Sasquatch himself is what Les Stroud is looking for. Honestly, this is something I expected out of Bear Grylls. Something about Bear going SAS on Bigfoot (but it really being a guy in a suit)

This is far too gimmicky for Survivorman, even more so than Survivorman and Son. Yes, Les Stroud dragged his son into the Surviorman game. Kid didn't seem to like it too much.
But now Les Stroud is looking for Bigfoot.

I don't know about you, but I can't get over the sheer stupidity of the sentence: "Les Stroud is looking for Bigfoot."
 It's a shame that Survivorman has fallen to the gimmick game, but ratings...

Odds and ends April 9, 2014

Sad news to Wrestling fans from the 80s. The Ultimate Warrior has passed away. It sucks for the UW fans that he passed away, but on a more positive note; at least he made peace with McMahon and the WWE before passing. My condolences to his family and those who were touched by the Warrior.

Found something more insane than McNugget Rampage... Topless McRampage!!


I wish I knew what the Topless Rampage was all about, but at least she got Ice cream!!

Now on a more positive note, Amanda Bynes seems to be doing better. Well that is if we're to believe her Attorney. I hope she is doing well and that hopefully she'll remain staying well.

I'd ramble a bit more but I'm trying to figure out an E-Mail I got from Matty where Today is the 10th and I may be getting a second Gorpo.

Wait What the Huh!? Twilight's Kingdom!?

Well, the idea of Twilight getting a Kingdom was rather obvious. She became a Princess... and we need to promote the Rainbow Power stuff. Well, Equestria Daily posted something last Saturday. I missed it because I was getting distracted by Pinkie Pie rapping.


Twilight's Kingdom Synopsis.

Read it and weep. I REALLY HOPE that they are wrong about this. Twilight became Mary-Sue-Like the time she drank red bull. Now the TOYS KINDA make sense if the spoilers from EQD are true. At the same time the MARY SUE LEVELS on Twilight will read 1006
My issues with this and the already done Alley Corn Twilight is that we're distancing Twilight from who she really is. Socially awkward Librarian Pony who learns about friendships and uses her dragon slave/fax machine to send her homework to her teacher. Now she's a princess who has her friends writing stuff on a diary while she gets her castle.

I get that the whole Twilight Castle is a ploy to sell more toys. What I don't get is why are they messing with the winning formula that is the show?

Then again, this is HASBRO, and they're giving us Horse Girls 2: We're not ripping off Jem, honest!
I want to trust the writers but, the characters are beginning to
Latest victim, Applejack who became a pony who knows nothing but apples.

show signs of becoming self-parodies.
I'm not asking for them to be

Just that any Changes to the status quo should be ORGANIC instead of Mandates from Marketing...

I know that the FIM team is screwed since in the end Hasbro is boss, but they should sometimes be able to disagree with the 'bro. I'll be honest, I'm not that excited about the season Finale. Especially with the Part 2 Synopsis. Yes, I'm aware that it'll be temporarily, but it's as stupid as a Super Saiyajin god... In any case, I'll have to take the wait and see approach. I don't like the idea of Twilight becoming ridiculously powerful. Especially super powerful enough to stop a threat to Equestria, just to need help of her friends to solve something that she could on her own with her super pony powers.

Gone Home is severely overrated,

I just don't get how people can praise Gone Home as a great game... Much less pay the $20 that it costs on Steam. I'd like to thank a friend of mine, who shall remain nameless, since she wants nothing to do with this rant. The only thing she did was let me play Gone Home on her laptop... Since she has the game. She was raving about how awesome Gone Home is... Kinda like I was with The Last of Us.

So, I asked her to please avoid spoilers and I sat on a beanbag chair. I put on my Cup Holder hat and 2 Bottles of Mountain Dew and began to play Gone Home...

I gave up 27 minutes into the game... If I could call it a game... Let's call it Overhyped Sidequest/Pre-Alpha partial gameplay Demo. Walk around and read notes on stuff that happened to people in the game's world. Many Survival Horror games use this to flesh out the story. (I've seen it in the Resident Evil Games, and most recently in The Last of Us. I'm sure this happens in other games but none come to mind at the moment... PARASITE EVE!! PE was another one)

Now the Overrated part is very likely to come from the "My little Sister is gay and ran away from home" angle. This is what has the critics praising the hell out of this game. Personally I felt the whole "Sam is gay and ran away with her girlfriend" forced as if saying: "Look at us! We're EDGY! We're progressive!" And if you think that this is a BAD GAME you're going to get labeled as Homophobic or Misogynistic gamer.

Here's the thing: I KINDA see the potential in the story (Well the Other stuff that wasn't the Sam Story. I was more invested in the failing marriage of the main character's parents), Sam's Story was a bit cheesy and cliched but the whole she's gay, felt shoehorned in. you could switch the genders in one of the characters (Sam or Lonnie) and the story would be pretty much the same Forbidden Teenage Love Story that plays out the same way as we have seen in previous FTLS. Also, the reviews would have been more honest.

Did I like it? No. In fact, not liking this game nearly ruined a friendship. My good friend bought into the hype and called it a masterpiece. I found it Dull, Boring, and Pretentious.

I'm definitely glad that I did NOT BUY this Overhyped Sidequest/Pre-Alpha partial gameplay Demo. I cannot recommend this product.

21-1 what a crock of...

S... You know what word should've been there. Yes, I, like many others stared at our screens (I feel bad for those who saw it live) when the most BS-y thing that the WWE could have done, happened.
Undertaker LOST at a Wrestlemania... to Brock Lesnar. Now here's the thing: I'm NOT MAD at the Streak ending. I'm MAD AT WHO was the one that ended the Streak: Part-time Wrestler, Brock Lesnar.



Let's face it, Taker is NOT getting any younger.  while he is 49 years old, many of the pics of him make him look like he's on his 60s (Especially when he's not with his hair dye) So, ending the Streak makes sense. Now Whoever ended the streak would get a super boost in their popularity and career, theoretically speaking. That would have been a nice way to legitimize some of the newer wrestlers, or to turn them into a REAL THREAT... Like say Having Bray Wyatt defeating Taker at Wrestlemania, would have cemented the Wyatt Family as a real threat. Not to mention that the defeat against Wyatt would have served as a "Supernatural passing of the Torch". Alas this was all wasted on a somewhat decent wrestler who works part-time and is prone to leave the WWE on a whim. (12 years ago to play with the NFL, when that didn't work out he went to Japan, then UFC.) While, yes, Taker is a part-timer too; I don't think it was appropriate to give it to Lesnar, who WON'T STAY on the WWE as a full-time wrestler and is likely to move on to something else approximately in the next year.

To me as a former WWE fan, it felt Disrespectful. It was so bad that they could have had the same effect by having Taker job to Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus.

Also, Cena sucks for another predictable victory, cause Cena Sucks!!

Aside those two fights (with Lesnar and Cena victorious) it seems that the theme for The Highly Pornographic Wrestlemania XXX was passing down the torch. Still Boo to Lesnar and to Cena!!

Go Ninjor! Go Ninjor Go!

Well, looks like it's time to support an unpopular Vintage MOTU Character that is likely to happen, but we don't know if he is coming on 2014 or 2015. The Title is a dead giveaway... If not, then the Vanilla Ice video Below kinda gives it away too!



I'm talking about Ninjor, one of the two "Totally does not belong in MOTU" characters. The other one is September's Rio Blast! I KINDA understand the notion why Rio Blast wouldn't fit in the fantasy setting that is MOTU (even if I don't agree with it). Ninjor can fit easily in MOTU... The Fantasy setting allows enough space for a ninja... Even staple fantasy games like Dungeons and Dragons have Ninja characters on them. Not to mention that it was the 80s... Ninja were running amok.We've seen other shows with ninja like Chuck Norris and the Karate Kommandos whose villain was the Super Ninja. We had the GI Joes with Storm Shadow and Snake Eyes.

(even if the good guys couldn't be called Ninja in the UK back then.)
MOTU lacked a ninja until Ninjor Showed up. Sure, it's filling in a quota, but it's not like Stonedar, Rokkon or the POP Horses who seem as obvious knock-offs to other toy properties... (Rock Lords and My Little Pony)
Besides, Ninja are freaking Awesome!!

Now unto the figure itself. Back in the 80s, the later figures had a few characters who reused everything except the head. (Clamp Champ reusing Fisto stuff, Randor reusing Jitsu stuff, Scareglow being a naked evil buck with a cape, and Ninjor...)
At first Glance We have over 90% of the parts needed for a MOTUC Ninjor:
Standard Evil Buck, He-Man Loincloth, Preternia He-Man Torso vest. and all we'd be needing is a set of heads and weapons.
The Ninjor we'll get is likely to look like I mentioned above... The Ninjor I'd like to get is slightly different. It'll follow the recipe above except for forearms and hands. To have a PERFECT Ninjor (that still looks close to his vintage figure) We need forearms that can fit the hands with hinged wrists AND that the Right Hand can be interchangeable.
Why the Interchangeable right hand? Try putting ANY MOTUC Weapon on Bow's right hand... That answers your question.
I wanna add a different vest than the PDHe-Man one... Something more Ninja-like, but that would be "deviating from the Vintage inspired look, blah blah!" But he totally needs a new vest! One with a sheath on his back for his sword.

Accessory-wise, Vintage Ninjor had the Katana, His More Advanced Bow, and Nunchaku.
MOTUC Ninjor will probably get the same, but the Arrow and Bow may be 2 separate pieces.
Personally I'd add the Kama from Jitsu to his arsenal. Then again if they left me I'd also give him a Bo staff and a Sai... Hey! He already has a Katana and a Nunchaku...

Figurewise we'll have to wait and see what the Horsemen do with him.

Now there is something that I've avoided and it comes up next... The only thing I dread about Ninjor:
His BIO!!

I'm expecting some ridiculous non- "ninja sounding" real name... Jitsu got called CHOPPER... 
Then something small about his ninjarrifficness then something the MOTUC Storyline and perhaps getting killed in the second ultimate battleground or something.

So, on his bio I have real low expectations and already have something to replace it with in my fan continuity... a bit more ninja like.

So, here's my headcanon Bio for Ninjor:

Ninjor: Evil Ninja Warrior
Real Name: Kagemusha

The Grand Master of the Akairyuken clan, an Earth Ninja clan with dragon ancestry, was summoned by Skeletor as a highly skilled warrior and master of weapons to defeat He-Man and the Masters of the Universe. On the Magic Rich world of Eternia, Ninjor's latent Dragon DNA awoke heightened ninja powers like his, Muonkochou Bakudan. With it Ninjor appears out of nowhere to ambush heroic warriors.

Here's my reasoning for my choices:
The name Akairyuken comes from the Red Dragon and Sword on Ninjor's chest. (Akai = Red, Ryu = Dragon, Ken = Sword.) Also ending the word in Ken sounds Ninja-y enough. (I could have used Tsurugi for sword, but Akairyuken seems to roll off the tongue easier than Akaryu no Tsurugi). Since Eternia seems to be devoid of Japan, I chose him to be an Earthling. Since Mattel has claimed that there is a link between Eternia and Earth, what's stopping ancient Earthlings coming to Eternia or Viceversa?
Now, since I made him an Earthling, the Evil Warrior pieces (fins and feet) would need an explanation.
Dragon Blood... It makes sense. The transformation, enhanced powers, Magic Dragon Blood.

That Muonkochou Bakudan move kinda translates to Silent Fart Bomb... Which is an attack I give to ALL my Ninja characters in fiction, based on the Ninja Smoke Bombs... (Hey! I've said I like Fart jokes a few times before)

Mattel's Design team has some huge cojones.

It's true! Check out this post by the one and only ♠Toyguru♠

 one question from the design group was whether we should just make the armor non removable, as this would ensure the snuggest possible fit.

My thoughts can be summarized with this picture.
I'm sorry but the simple fact that someone from the Design team has the cojones to ask that question is simply baffling.

Does anyone remember WHY were He-Man and Beastman delayed long before I got into MOTUC?
I'm talking about 2008 here... That was like before this blog even existed.
The Correct Answer is to have the figures with Removable Armor "Just like We remembered" or something like it. Duncan, Hordak, He-Ro, Randor, Stinkor, Mekaneck, Clawful, Optikk, He-Ro and others had removable armor without suffering from the Bulkiness that current armors suffer from (Snake Face, Sea Hawk, Hydron)

It Really Pisses me off that "Someone from the Design Team" (who I'm guessing is called Ruben) can only think of Making the armors non-removable as a solution. Really? That's the brilliant solution the design team could come up with?

I know that some people might say "Lighten up, dude! They're just toys!" To which I'd say:
Have you even read this blog!? I get worked up over the most minuscule things, then I ramble on and on about them and make mountains out of molehills! Just because these are toys, it does not mean that the Design Team can get away with Laziness and take away features that made this toyline what it is!
the whole non-removable armor business for Mattel is a lot easier for them. I'm sorry but no! They Purposely delayed the first figures in 2008 in order to give them the Removable Armor. Turning back on that would be a massive load of crap! I get that some characters shouldn't have removable armor like Sy-Klone or Strobo. Hell, Even New Adventures Skeletor should be on the non-Removable Armor League. (Because his "armor" is basically his skin fused with the Techno-Virus) OK-ing this Lazy Solution fixes nothing.

The Design team amazes me sometimes.

Let's use Hydron as an example.
They put the Tabs for his armor RIGHT on the sides, making the armor look ridiculously bulky, when they had these Tubes on his back that they could have used as "Camouflaged tabs" Like they did with Two-Bad.

But I just realized something: It's not simply the tab placement that makes the Armor look big and bulky. In some cases it's just that the Armor is TOO BIG. (Like Hydron, Snake Face, Horde Troopers) Here's the thing: What if Mattel makes non-Removable Armor that is simply TOO Big for the figure...

Design needs to stop Half-Assing things and deliver the "High Quality" Product that Mattel loves to say they deliver. Right now Design Team is showing their incompetence and that's not good for Mattel.

Girl Meets World vs Son of He-Man

I've made a few references in being more interested in Girl Meets World than what I am for He-Ro: The Son of He-Man.
There's a new pic of the Girl Meets World cast and I found ONE Issue with it:
I'm STILL Interested in Topanga and Cory and do not give a rat's ass about the people in front of them. (their kids, the "Shawn" to the Topangaborn, the possible "Minkus" and "the crush") I can't wait for the show to start this summer for ALL the WRONG REASONS... Mainly Cory and Topanga, who will take a back seat to the plot, since they are not the focus. Now to bring that back to the MOTU Tangent, He-Ro: Son of He-Man focuses on the SON of He-Man, where He-Man is NOT the Focus... SOME fans of MOTU may be pulled into it to see further adventures of He-Man and company. That would be the WRONG Reason. Both Girl Meets World and He-Ro: son of He-Man re basically within their parents' shadows.

Like He-Ro: son of He-Man, Girl Meets World has a parent company that is willing to mess with the integrity of the property in order to get more profits... (Talking about Disney for GMW and Mattel for SoHM) Yes, both companies are businesses and not charities, but tinkering with the product and turning it into something it is not. Things like Disneifying the BMW universe and making Riley into Generic Disney Star #436 (with hyper sassiness, disregard towards parental units' authority, the parents allowing her to get away with anything, etc.) and Mattel... Well, we know Mattel and what they can do. Just look at what they did to He-Man after 1987... then again the whole Son of He-Man thing is another of the things they'd do... (Resisting urge to mention bad Green Lantern inspired Fanfiction turned into MOTU Canon).

Unlike He-Ro: Son of He-Man, Girl Meets World will follow the life of an average girl from an average family. She doesn't have much of a Legacy to live up to... Daughter of Cory and Topanga is not that big of a deal...
Dare on the other hand is the freaking Son of He-Man: Most Powerful Man in the Universe and defender of Eternia. Now there's a freaking Planet sized Burden upon Dare's shoulders.

I know it feels like I'm going on a partially coherent rant here, but. The biggest difference between both ideas IS why I can be excited for one, but appalled by the other.

Since Riley has no huge Legacy riding on her shoulders (aside being the star on the continuation of Boy Meets World) the Show CAN FOCUS ON HER as she stumbles through life. (as well as Cory and Topanga stumble through parenthood on the 21st century.)

Dare on the OTHER HAND has the whole legacy of the Power of Grayskull as well as the whole Continuation of the MOTU Story. Kinda hard to live up to. Now Mattel's "mentality" about their properties is what will screw them here. While YES, I'm aware that the "great and powerful" MOTU Lore was made mostly on the fly by people's work for hire stuff in order to sell more toys, that does not mean that 30 years later Mattel needs to do that. Right now MOTU needs their own version of Larry Hama to flesh out the characters (Those who haven't been fleshed out like most of NA, Later waves of Vintage MOTU, etc.).  The approach of throw everything at it and see what sticks is NOT a great idea.  (We saw the Oh look! Shiny new stuff! on the mini comic that came with Gorpo). The Look! Shiny! may work on kids, but not necessarily will work with old farts that can't even accept that New Adventures and Princess of Power ARE  a part of MOTU...  So, Girl Meets World has it easier here.

Though now I'm more interested in a Son of Urkel sitcom...

Ranter's Block and MOTU

Usually, when I have ranter's block, I do two things: either wrap up some odd news that call my attention and give some commentary with the more crazy things getting more commentary; or a MOTU Rant. Those MOTU Rants are usually wishlists for things that will never happen or rambling about a character that may or may not be coming.

Those rants are BECAUSE of MY LOVE for MOTU DESPITE Mattel. No, this is not an I'm angry at Mattel or a WTH are you doing Mattel!? Rant. OK it may be a bit of the latter.

We've seen the MOTUC Bios and the Canon they form. Sadly, there's too much Green Lantern and Star Wars elements in MOTUC... Seriously, read the Horde Empire Map Bio that comes with the Unnamed One... I'll wait.

Something something Trade... Something Something Empire... Something Something Holy balls! "The Bio Team" is ShiaLaBeoufing Star Wars PREQUELS! Seriously, when you have to be influenced by Star Wars for the love of Standor, pick the ORIGINAL TRILOGY!! Or Space Balls...

I've said this before countless of times here, on forums, facebook and on Council of the First Ones:

Mattel NEEDS to step up in the Story Department if they want to keep MOTU Relevant and accomplish their main goal of selling toys. The only way I believe they can make the MOTU brand stick is by actually DEVELOPING the Universe. Make us feel invested in the characters. You can't have Mattel saying that New Adventures Characters don't sell as well as the rest of MOTUC since Mattel does NOTHING to make use WANT THEM in the first place.

I made this chart a little over a year ago to explain on a fan page how the Evil Horde worked on my Fan-Continuity.

It took me about 5 minutes... I wasn't going to do a super fancy chart with one of those Professional Paint Programs... because I don't have any of those on my Computer. But the idea is still there: Horde Prime is the Head Honcho and has his Own Squad of Enforcers. (One of them was donated by Hordak and secretly spies on Prime for Hordikins)

Under Hordak he has the Vintage 4 (Grizzlor, Leech, Mantenna, and Modulok) as well as Shadow Weaver (who ranks higher than they do.) She also acts as a middlewoman to Hordak when dealing with the Femme Fatale Squad. (Catra,Scorpia, Double Trouble, Entrapta and Octavia). Adora was removed since she defected to the Rebellion.

We know that Weaver wants to overthrow Hordak, so having her conspiring with Prime is not as far-fetched. Double Trouble acts as a rebel spy thanks to her Shapeshifting powers.

Yes, there is a point beyond showing how I see my Horde working while implementing all the Horde members that are likely getting a toy. (that's why Vultak, Admiral Scurvy, Genreal Sunder, etc. are not on this chart.) This little chart gives me an idea of the Pecking Order in the Horde, which allows me an idea of what the character interactions may be like. Knowing how characters would interact with each other, CAN help develop the Universe. Sure we had the Filmation Cartoon to get an idea of the character interactions, but they had no Dragstor, Mosquitor, or New characters like Cy-Chop. The same can be said about the Heroic and Evil Warriors. We haven't seen Clamp Champ, Rio Blast, Ninjor, Draego-Man, etc. enough to get an idea of the pecking order on each faction. Yes, I'm aware some of these had comic appearances, but not everyone had access to the comics.

The thing is that small things like this, or charts explaining the character's power levels and extraordinary abilities would be VERY HELPFUL to the fans and to the people involved in adapting MOTU to OTHER MEDIA (*cough*Cartoon, videogame, movie, etc. *cough*).

I know that writing FULL Stories requires a new writing team and Mattel's rep will most likely say: "Either new stories or getting Multi-Bot."

But some character statistics and pecking order within his/her faction doesn't require writing full stories.

Let's Take Mossman as an example:

Mossman: Heroic Spy and Master of Camouflage

Real Name: Real Name: KREANN’OT N’HOROSH

Abilities: The ability to manipulate, control and summon plant life (Plantomancy?), Magically enhanced strength (due to his nature god status) perfect camouflage in jungle environments, photosynthetic regeneration.

Notable foes: Stinkor, Evil Seed, Cy-Chop.
Notable allies: Buzz-Off, Orko, Perfuma, Preternia's He-Ro, King Grayskull and Eldor.

Bio: Thought of for many centuries to be an urban legend, the creature called “moss Man” was in fact an ancient Eternian nature god and ally to King Grayskull. During the rise of Skeletor and the subsequent battles with the Snake Men and Horde invaders, Moss Man often joined forces with the Masters of the Universe helping to protect freedom for all forms of life. He was instrumental in helping them win the Second Ultimate Battleground using his powers over plant life and his "fur" of forest green to fool and frustrate his wicked foes!

5 Little lines that tells you what does he do and who does he get along better and his biggest rivals. Of course, Mattel can go into a bit more elaborate story and justify each of his allies and enemies. something like this:

Mossman's animosity towards Stinkor is related towards the acrid stench emanating from the latter. The stench is so powerful that it can wither plant life. His animosity towards Evil Seed stems from their plant elemental status. Cy-Chop's scissor hands have destroyed the plant life in multiple worlds and Mossman will not allow it on Eternia.

His affinity to Buzz-Off comes from the Andreenids worshiping the Plant god, Mossman. Orko's child-like innocence draws Mossman closer to the Trollan mage as a reminder of who is he fighting for. Perfuma's status as an Etherian Plant Elemental piques Mossman's curiosity. The Sage Eldor, his apprentice He-Ro and the King of Grayskull were great allies when battling the life force draining armies of the Horde and the Snakemen in Preternian times.

Doing this COULD HAVE Helped the New Adventures characters, since it gives them a bit of background on them to, I don't know, make them more desirable?  I mean, making a rant about Flutterina made me discover how awesome she is... being the POP version of Antman (minus the science or the wife-beating... I await the Pym fans going. HE ONLY HIT HER ONCE!!) all Pym jokes aside, just look at what the Horrible Mini Comic that came with UNO did... It made me want Hans Hammer Holder. Had we gotten some NA action, MAYBE we'd had people interested in New Adventures.

Raiden May Cry: Or a more Masculine Bayonetta... but with Cybercrap instead of hairclothes...

Got Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance as a Birthday Present. I'm not going to review Frozen, and Mattel gave me a Trollan for my Birthday... I could Review Equestria Girls once more...

OK I'll do Revengeance... Cause it's like Revenge and Vengeance at the same time!

This is a Metal Gear Side Story game or Gaiden in Japanese... but in this case it's a Metal Gear RAIDEN game... Yes, ladies and Gentlemen this game has no solid or naked snakes as playable characters... but it's OK, we're playing with the post-MGS 4 Badass Raiden... Not the MGS2 Sissy Boy who stole Snake's Limelight Raiden... Now here's the thing: I ACTUALLY LIKE RAIDEN... and I'm talking about  the MGS2 Sissy Boy who stole Snake's Limelight Raiden...

THIS Version is my favorite... Sure, the Cyborg Ninja Raiden is cool, BUT it's a really horrible gimmick. It reeks of trying too hard to make Raiden "Cool"... He was already cool. Rosemary on the other hand, now there is someone you could focus your hatred on. All the nagging and fussing about April Freaking 30th is .61 NAVI in the annoying Scale. Sure, he's NO SOLID SNAKE and


Hey! I could have gone with the President Johnson scene...

But, I'm stuck with Cyborg Ninja Trying to be cooler than Grey Fox Raiden... In his own game... Cause let's face it, we wanted to play a Metal Gear Game with Cyber-Raiden...

I'll use a 10-point system to Rate MGR:Revengeance. Closer to 1 is bad and closer to 10 is good.

Graphics:
Well, The Graphics are Decent... Not the best graphics I've seen. Some of the human characterss look weird and slightly cartoony. Especially Doktor... The game also relies on something that is a big no-no for home console Metal Gear Games... Uses pre-rendered cutscenes that are NOT the Gameplay Models... I bought that Racist Sombrero for a reason... I wanted to see Raiden in a Sombrero... In other scenes besides this one:

The visuals in Cutscenes and Gameplay take some cues from the exaggerated and over the top direction from The Twin Snakes and kicks it up ten hundred notches!!
8.0

Music and Sounds:
The Voice Acting is Great! Quinton Flynn (Human Torch and Jonny Quest) returns as Raiden. Other MGS VAs return to voice different characters. (Doktor's VA, Jim Ward, was Granin in Snake Eater, Kevin's VA  was Vamp,, etc.) The Music... Well, the music is not great for a Metal Gear Game. It feels more at home at a Devil May Cry Game or something. Seriously, here's another boss battle theme. It doesn't feel like music from Metal Gear games.
8.0

Gameplay:
THIS IS NOT A METAL GEAR GAME... the 75 game overs I got on 2 days tell the story. I am NOT a fan of Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, and God of War games. Seems like Revengeance is heavily inspired by them. Screw Stealth, we have Over the top action!! sadly, I like Stealth! I have to admit that chopping up a Metal Gear Ray with my sword was cool. What was NOT Cool was make me go through a gauntlet just to reach a point where the Past bosses come back for a second Round... What is this? A CAPCOM Game? 
5.0

Controls:
These have taken a LOT for me to almost get used to... Can't seem to make the lock-on function work half of the time and I end up running around like a chicken with its head cut off... (you google it... the headless chicken part, not the MGR::R Lock-on issues)
The game is obviously made with the intention that you chop crap up and long range weapons SEEM to have been an afterthought. Having to use those secondary weapons can be a pain in the ass.
4.5

Story:
 I have NOT BEATEN THE GAME AS I WRITE THIS, but the story feels a bit MG-Esque. It's 3-4 years after Guns of the Patriots. PMCs still exist and War Has changed... once again... Now there are more Cyborgs running around and a variety of Bi-pedal tanks... There are a few more Japanese-anime cliches and tropes on this game than a normal Metal Gear Game... I get Neon Genesis Evangelion flahsbacks while playing this...
7.0

Fun Factor:
Hoo boy! The game once you master it, SHOULD BE FUN... right now it's been a Frustrating Experience. Problem is that you take Raiden out and the MGS references (The Gekkos, mentioning the Patriots, etc.)and it could be a generic Action Game with a super-powered protagonist.
6.0

Overall: 
Metal Gear Raiden gets a 6.42 overall score. IF you're into Bayonetta, DMC, or those types of games, you might rate it higher. Right now the only thing that keeps me going through this frustrating experience is the Story. I COULD Read it online, but I got the game, so I HAVE TO play to see it!