Sep 25, 2014

Ooh! Snap! Hasbro has attacked Mattel's wallet big time!

Looks like we may hear more crap about Mattel being in the poorhouse pretty soon. Hasbro was able to obtain the rights to make dolls based on the Disney Princesses. I guess Mattel will have to...
Let it go!

Starting on 2016, the Hassenfeld Brothers Company will be making Disney Princesses dolls. This will take a huge chunk of change out of Mattel, since their biggest sellers are dolls Barbie (who has been having slower sales recently), Monster High, Ever After High and the Disney Princess dolls (especially Frozen), WWE and Hot Wheels.

While this won't have an effect on MOTUC (since the deal with Hasbro starts in 2016) it kinda reminds me of the whole Marvel Legends issue. If Mattel plays it like an a-hole, then they are likely to clog the shelves with Frozen and Disney Princess stuff so Hasbro has a hard time selling their 2016 stuff when Stores are clogged with Mattel 2015 Disney Princess stuff. The place where it could have an indirect effect is in other girl toy lines. Like the one I love a lot... It has Magic Friendships and lots of plot! (sorry, couldn't resist!)


Sep 24, 2014

It Came from the Toy Chest: Rapunzel loves GOOOOOOOLD!

Talking about Entrapta here. The Tricky Golden Beauty from Princess of Power and Completer of the "Girl Toys Horde" is finally here.

What can I say about her. She's basically the Second True Evil Horde Member in the POP Line. Remember that Double Trouble was a good gal pretending to be bad. Also Castaspella sometimes hung out with Catra for some reason.

So, Entrapta has golden body parts that make the other PoP gals attracted to her gold. and then they are captured by her hair. It makes the PoP gals seem super shallow. At least Filmation made her into a Horde gearhead, which is a bit peculiar.

So, that's a small intro for the character, now let's see how she scores... uh huh huh, scores! Unlike Rio, I was able to calm myself long enough to take a pic of her MOC.

I must warn people. Check your Entraptas. Their left hand seems to be squashed in the package. Like Octavia before her, she has the weird left hand that looks a bit too thin.

So, the hand can be fixed by heating it up, opening it a little bit and letting it cool. Preferably with an accessory on it.

Now let's tackle her:

Articulation:
She has the Standard MOTUC Articulation. Like most Female Figures, she lacks the boot cut. What she loses in her legs she gains in her hair.
Her hair has a ball joint on each braid and the tips have a cut joint. One complaint I have about her hair is that it's TOO HEAVY! It scares me because the ball join that holds her head is a bit too small. Back of the shelf for her to avoid suicide drops that could decapitate Entrapta.
4.5

Paint and Sculpt:
Unlike Most PoP Figures, Entrapta has a MOSTLY Toy Deco. Vest and hair seem closer to Filmation. Shame that the Bio Team didn't fix the bio since her chest is now Purple gold!
The Sculpt is pretty clever. It's more Toy based and Toy Entrapta was a Castaspella Redeco.
 Here's me chanting for a Toy Deco Castaspella to be turned into Allepsatsac.
4.5

 Accessories:
 Entrapta comes with a Purple Shield that is better suited for MAI WAIFU!! Then the other accessory is the Shaping staff... Which is a MEH Accessory. A slightly stylized Female Gender Symbol or Venus Symbol... (Mercury Symbol is a horny Venus, heh heh!) To be honest, the Shaping staff does nothing to me. Why, oh why didn't they go for the perfect accessory for her. COMB WEAPONS!!

I got two Axes now Entrapta Dual Wields deadly combs!
Sadly, the Axes are not her accessories...
2.5

Overall:
Entrapta gets a 3.83, which is not bad.
Yes, I'm a bit worried about her head and hand. Other than that, she kicks so much ass, it ain't funny!

Vintage MOTU factions can eat it! PoP was the first line to complete an entire faction!
Many thanks to my buddy Ruben, no not THAT Ruben for the Extra Catra!

It Came from the Toy Chest: Here comes a new Pornstache Challenger!

Now that Rio Blast is here, there's no need to riot, right?

I've done a bit of Ranting on Good Ol' Rio Blast before. So I may not need to rant about the NON-ETERNIAN Cowboy who is now stuck on Eternia. Finally he has graced One of the MOTUC Shelves here at the House of Rants. The question is how well does he fare against my scrutiny. Let's find out! Yes, I was so excited about him that I forgot to take a MOC pic of him.

Articulation:
Standard Articulation, minus the Shins, due to the Chaps. He has extra PoA on him due to his armor (leg flaps, chest flap, backpack.) Sadly his ankles are way too tight (can barely move them without being afraid of breaking them.) His heavy torso also does not help to pose him. He keeps falling, he keeps falling down, down...
4.0
Paint and Sculpt:
My Rio has no visible slop with the flap closed. When opened, the paint on the chest rubbed off on the flap forcing me to repaint the chest flap. The Sculpt is Amazing,  minus the Ruben Design ideas that screw Rio over. There's tons of details on him like Spurs on his boots
4.0
Accessories:
Rio doesn't have any accessories aside the guns that pop out of his body. then again, he cannot hold any other accessory due to the way his hands were sculpted. I'm glad that Mattel did not cut out any of his guns, but part of me wishes he had a Cowboy hat.
5.0

Overall:
Rio Blast gets an overall score of 4.33!? If one ignores Ruben Martinez's screw ups. Seriously, all he needed was a little notch on the top of the hinge to hold the chest gun in place. Taking in consideration the Fat Vest, the Inability to pair up the Targeting visor with his eyes, the massive pegs on the thigh part of his chaps that could have used some sort of grooves to hold the guns in place without having those ginormous pegs that don't make the chaps look better when closed; his score would decrease to 3.33


Now for those of you who are brave enough to fix your figures through the art of Customizing, John Harmon of Mint Condition Customs has a tutorial on how to Fix Rio Blast!


Remember that these fixes are not what Mattel intended with the figure and if you break him, you're Out of Luck. So do so at your own risk! I did and a Sneeze almost ruined the chest.






It's official, Disney's Jessie is a cancer that must be destroyed!

It's no secret that I LOATHE Disney's Jessie. Especially when it bleeds into other shows. Well, guess with what Show Jessie is going to do a crossover... I'll give you a hint: It's not Mighty Med, or Kicking it. Give up? It's ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN

I know, I hate Ultimate Spider-Man too... Especially since later episodes have ZERO Tara Strong in them. But, really? Jessie crossing over to Ultimate Spider-Man? WHAT THE HELL WERE THEY SMOKING!?
This doesn't make any sense! Well, Jessie is on its way out, so maybe it wants to go with a whimper...

Sep 23, 2014

It Came from the Toy Chest: He has a posse (and a horrible hairpiece)

For the first time ever, I'm reviewing a WWE Figure... Yes, I did review a mini-The Rock figure, but that was kept MOC. This time I'm reviewing a Mattel WWE Elite Figure. If you've read past rants where I bitch about Ruben "Mediocre" Martinez, you can guess WHO I'm going to review.

Yes, it's WWE Legend Andre the Giant...
 I finally saw an Elite Series 29 Andre the Giant and got him...
This is the first WWE Elite series figure I got. I've seen the standard figures that Mattel churns and I have to say that the Elite figures are way better. Makes sense since these are supposed to be "elite".













The pictures of Andre here are to show both of his looks. The Short haired look and the big bushy hair look. The WWE Elite Figure allows for you to have both looks for Andre. Sadly the execution of this is not that great.

Andre towers over MOTUC figures.

Ruben Martinez, Mattel Designer Extraordinaire... BTW Extraordinaire is meant to be sarcastic. I know that the joke is lost by me explaining it, but I'd rather screw up the joke if it means emphasize Ruben's mediocrity.

So, without further ado, let's get to the figure itself.

Articulation:
Based on Pictures that I've seen of OTHER WWE Elite Figures, Andre's Articulation is up to par. Heck! He has MORE ARTICULATION THAN A MOTUC Figure with the hinged wrist and double knee Articulation. The amount of Articulation allows for you to pose him in dynamic wrestling moves. I need to point out that the Head is on a ball joint... that is compatible with MOTUC Male Figures.
4.5
Nightmare Fuel?

Paint and Sculpt:
The Sculpt is based of laser scanning (for the living Wrestlers) and I'm not sure how do they do it for deceased Wrestlers... Do they sculpt them old school style or do they make a 3D Model based on pictures of the wrestler (in this case Andre)? Something seems a bit off on Andre's face. Also, I'm not a fan of the Nipple-less Torso. it looks great on figures wearing spandex bodysuits, but on Nude male torsos, they look off. Maybe I just got used to all the male nipples on MOTUC figures. Seems that he is molded in the appropriate colored plastic and the only paint details are on his hair and eyes.
4.0

Accessories:
He is still a Mediocre A-Hole who thinks he's the $#! but he is
more like the $#! minus the "the".













He has a removable black bodysuit... Ugh! I hate Cloth Accessories. Beneath it he is wearing Blue Wrestling Trunks. So you can have Andre wearing the Black suit or the blue Trunks. The other Accessory is his Hairpiece. this piece is supposedly Ruben's solution to the whole Andre's dual looks.
I think Hell is going to be a bit cooler now, not to the point of freezing over, but a bit cooler since I'm going to kinda compliment Ruben Martinez here... I'm hating myself for it, but in all fairness, the idea is not bad. It's just that the execution is not that great. I mean it's better than the bloated armor, but the problem lies that since the hairpiece is removable, it doesn't look well on the head. To fix it, you'd have to glue the hairpiece down and defeat the whole removable hairpiece thing.
2.0

Overall score:
Andre gets a score of 3.5 due to the lack of accessories. Other Elite figures seem to have some more accessories than an Afro wig. Now here's the thing. As you've seen on the pictures he towers over MOTUC figures, has a more heavyset body. So, MOTUC Customizers could make a General Tataran or a Kothos out of Andre. Holy smokes I'm forgetting the most obvious Custom with Andre the Giant...
FEZZIK!! Ah, so that's why I had the Fezzik pic ready for this rant... Duh!
The 1970s were a dark time for Skeletor.












Sep 22, 2014

Batman minus Batman

Finished watching Gotham's Pilot Episode. Will post my thoughts.

First let me start by saying that this is a Batman show WITHOUT Batman...
and yes, they do the whole Crime Alley thing on the show... Because Batman.
(Crime Alley clip removed)

The show is focused on James Gordon Before he was Commissioner Gordon. BTW, Gordon is played by a guy who VOICED Batman before... No, not Kevin Conroy... Ben McKenzie. Then there's Harvey Bullock, Grodon's Partner, played by Grounded for Life's Donal Louge. (I know he's done other stuff, but saying that vampire that died on Blade is not that recognizable... Or mention 3 Ninjas Knuckle up) who seems to be up to his neck in dirt... Since this is GCPD Pre-Commissioner Gordon, EVERYTHING is up to their necks in dirt; like the entire city.

My main nitpick is obviously that it lacks something...

I just can't quite put my finger on it...

OK, all jokes aside, I do have a few nitpicks.

Too many Bat Villains references and they managed to flub one... Poison Ivy. They had a girl called Ivy handling plants. The Inner nerd in me was yelling: "You dumb @#$%! Her name is Pamela Isley, not Ivy!! KittenGirl (not yet a cat nor a woman), Skinny Penguin and CSI Riddler... Too many characters being shown prematurely. That's not a good sign. There was a possible Joker Reference. No Batman and they're hinting the Joker already!?

Another thing that bugged me was that for a series that is supposed to be years ago, it seems a bit too present time.

Now here's the thing: Is the show good enough to stand on its feet WITHOUT the shadow of the Bat?
Yes.

I just want a Batman show... there I said it. If the CW can Pull off Batman with a Robin Hood Fetish, then a REAL BATMAN show is plausible. Or at least a show focused on Bruce Wayne's training to become the Batman. Kinda like Smallville minus the CW Dawson's Creek romance crap.

I will keep watching Gotham... for now.






Sep 21, 2014

%$#@ You, Mattel! Ever After High Movie!?

Yup, you heard or in this case read correctly. Mattel is going to make an Ever After High... which is basically the Fairy Tale version of Monster High...

So, we know that Max Steel IS Happening. I already mentioned that Monster High is being developed. Not to mention the whole bit about Barbie getting a movie.

What in the name of all that is holy is going on here!? Everything EXCEPT He-Man seems to be moving along swimmingly!! Why is that? The simple answer is obvious. All of these are easier to make than He-Man. Max Steel happens in Modern day Earth. EAH is a stylized Fairy Tale High School. MH is a "Universal Monsters" Styled High School. All of these are easier to film than a Star Wars-esque world combined with a Conan-Like world. I will give them that, but still a shame that He-Man seems to be permanently stuck in Limbo while Mattel is pushing out EVERYTHING ELSE!

While Monster High and Ever After High seem easy to make, This was easy to make as well...


Just because it's easy to make doesn't mean it'll be good. (This applies to the He-Man movie as well, but with easy swapped for complicated) There is a positive to He-Man being delayed and all of these going before him. Mattel can LEARN from their mistakes before Getting He-Man out... Assuming they learned from their errors in 1987. (which to be fair, makes Mattel being ahead of the game since they had a live action He-Man movie long before a Transformers movie was made...)

Problem with Mattel is that they are often behind the times. Sure, once in a blue moon they innovate, but as they say: Even a broken clock is correct twice a day. Hopefully these projects will help Mattel wake up and make sure we get a He-Man movie BEFORE Georgie "Master Procrastinator" R.R. Martin finishes A Song of Ice and Fire.


George R.R. Martin is having a fund-raiser

For a friend of his who is a politician... Normally this isn't some sort of news that I'd comment on, but it's a Party where one can win an invitation to meet and greet the Politician from New Mexico and George "I'm not looking for an excuse to NOT write the final two books of A Song of Ice and Fire" R.R. Martin.

Of course Georgie "If my ass is not in front of my typewriter AT MY HOME I can't Write!" R.R. Martin pokes fun at himself with the whole wariness about a party thrown by George "Even Weird Al Yankovic is making fun of how much I'm dragging my ass to write the final two books of ASoIaF" R.R. Martin. I think we're safe at a Political fundraiser... there are no politicians in Westeros... Just a bunch of people who want to cut their asses off on the Sword chair! I'd be more worried if George "I will kill your favorite character if you make one more 'hurry up and type' joke with my name" R.R. Martin! was invited to your wedding, or was involved with the planning of it.

BTW, George "My books have more food porn than weird incestuous or pederast sex or weiners" R.R. Martin, you killed my favorite character in Book One... no wonder he was played by Sean "I'm the Live Action Version of Kenny McCormick" Bean.

In any case, I'll repeat the message that many people are thinking whenever some news about you shows up.

Dear George R.R. Martin:

Stop whatever it is you're doing and FINISH THE GOD DAMNED BOOKS WHILE YOU'RE STILL ALIVE!! 

Sep 19, 2014

Girl Meets World does the "Time Warp" Episode.

Directed by the actor who played Cory Matthew's True Love on Boy Meets World... No, not Topanga. I'm talking about the Other Ball and Chain: Shawn! Yes, Rider Strong directed this Episode of Boy Meets World: the Next Generation.

My thoughts. I want Rider Strong IN FRONT of the Camera, not behind it!! Cory and Shawn are like Batman and Robin, the Dynamic Duo.

The Episode was OK... I mean this is not unexpected, since Boy Meets World has done a few "Time Warp" Episodes... (No Guts, No CoryAs Time Goes By, and I Was A Teenage Spy come to mind.)
It wasn't a bad episode, but for me, it was too soon to do a "Time Warp" Episode on Girl Meets World. This is mostly because the cast is TOO YOUNG LOOKING to be the characters from the Flashback.
He kinda looks like a crossdressing Arya Stark.

Then again, there were too many coincidences in the plot. The idea that Riley's, Maya's, Lucas' and Farkle's Great grandparents met each other in New York is a bit TOO Ridiculous. Cory and Topanga's families have been established to be from Philadelphia. Same can be said about Farkle's family (Stuart Minkus was from Philly as well). I also think that Rowan Blanchard should have worn a wig with a lighter hair color, to help ID her as Topanga's Grandmother. I thought that she was Playing Cory's Grandmother at first.


I have to say that this has been the weakest Girl Meets World Episode, mostly due to the script and a few nitpicks on the costume department.

Sep 18, 2014

Is it time for a Wun-Dar variant?

I briefly touched upon the idea of a Wun-Dar Variant on an Action Figure Woes. Y'know the one talking about Rarity being good or bad... It was accompanied by a pic of Worst Pony's butt... because, you know, I must shove a reference to MLP whenever I can since they're my Replacement for Hannah Montana... Be thankful I don't bring back the Twerkey...

Back on Topic: Wun-Dar, the Wonderbread He-Man of Legend. Is it time to do a variant of him?
Before the Rare Hunters begin bitching about Variants... (I talked about this in the other rant and added a Yu-Gi-Oh! Rare Hunter pic there.) This variant is meant to preserve the value of the Original Wun-Dar and help make Wun-Dar something more than Brunette He-Man wearing Zodac's Armor in Black. Instead of an oddity, to flesh him out as a character. The Classics Canon missed an opportunity here when they gave Wun-Dar the story of the Alcala Mini Comics He-Man now called Oo-Larr (who is totally NOT a misswriting of Mo-Larr as a Trademark.) A Wun-Dar variant could be very helpful.

It gives a chance to those who joined late in the line to have A VERSION of said character, while preserving the value of the Original Version.

It gives a chance for the Bio Writing Team to flesh out this character and make him less of a rip-off.

It also gives Mattel a Chance to make one of the Infamous 200X Variants WITHOUT Actually making a Stupid 200X Variant He-Man figure.

Personally, i'm inclined for a Bastardized version of Jungle Attack He-Man, but with Wun-Dar.

Bodywise it's the Normal He-Man buck with Bow's forearms and hands. Oo-Larr Loincloth, just to keep it more savage. Personally, I would go Barefoot with him. Reusing the Oo-Larr feet and Demo-Man Shins. I would also love new Forearms to use the Bow hands that looked Savage or Primitive. I mentioned the Biow forearms, because PARTS REUSE!!

I would also have the body with the Jungle Tats like the 200X He-Man and use red yellow and blue on his face paint. Second head WITHOUT Facepaint to use on Normal Wun-Dar... (Both heads should not look like a Repainted He-Man head. Personally I'm more inclined to a Head Similar to Vykron's with the Alcalá He-Man hair in brown.)

For the Accessories:
New Primitive looking Sling with Maybe Two Stone Knives from Mossman. Needs new sling needs a Quiver for Wun-Dar's arrows (and to hold two knives.)
New Primitive Bow and Arrows (Usage of Bow's hands made obvious)
New Machete and "Giant Throwing Star". (Star can plug unto or clip-on the sword as a nod to the horrible 200X weapon. Also doubles as a nod to Krull's Glaive)
Reuse the Loaf from past Wun-Dar... because Wun-Dar.

This is what I meant by "bastardizing" the Jungle Attack He-Man figure. It's not a faithful take on JA He-Man like Snake Armor He-Man is in Classics. It's more like Wun-Dar making that variant his own.

For the Bio, the Team can Elaborate on him up to the point where the Wun-Dar with the Cosmic Armor Bio takes on.

I know this will not happen, but it would be a nice way to make room for Wun-Dar as a more Fleshed Out Character. Jungle He-Man simply felt like the best 200X Variant to flesh him out. Not to mention that the weapons he has make sense. The Bow and Arrow give Wun-Dar the Long Range Training that can justify the usage of the Cosmic Gun. The Machete justifies the Usage of the Black Sword of Power. The Weird "Throwing Star" and knives are for his Savage Fighting Skills.

Boom.




Sep 17, 2014

Action figure woes: Quit raping the wallets, Matty!

November is coming... yay! Matty's release schedule was released! yay!
November 2014

Early Access 11/13
Thursday, 11/13 from 8 a.m. PT to Friday, 11/14 at 8 a.m. PT (subscribers only)
Products Available:MOTU Giant Stratos®, MOTUC Battle Ram™ with Man-At-Arms®

All Access 11/17
Monday, 11/17 at 9 a.m. PT (everyone)
MOTU Giant Stratos®* (Club MOTU™ Giants monthly figure)
MOTUC Arrow™ (Club Eternia® "variant" figure)
MOTUC Battle Ram™ with Man-At-Arms®*
MOTUC Gwildor™ (Club Eternia® "holiday" figure)
MOTUC New Adventures She-Ra® (Club Etheria™ monthly figure)
MOTUC Tung Lashor™ (Club Eternia® monthly figure)
*Subject to Early Access sellout.

Items in Red are Subscription items. Items in light blue are new out of sub items.

OK, excluding the $80 giant Stratos, here's a lowdown on the MOTUC products and cost.

Arrow: $35
Gwildor:$35
Tunglashor:$25
NA she-Ra:$25
With shipping costs and any applicable costs I'm looking at $160 Approximately for a single sub and slow-ass shipping.

that's not counting the $110 Battle Ram that I will have to skip now, due to the wallet raping $160 surprise that is November... Not going to mention Black F to Cyber M sale, because that's another beast.

It's no Castle Grayskull, but COME ON MAN! One or two of those items could have been put in December to balance things out. If I were to buy everything (including the giant Stratos), I'd be a few dollars short of paying what it would cost me to buy a Castle Grayskull. Not everyone has the disposable funds to buy everything in one fell swoop. Holy crap! I just realized that some people have bought MULTIPLE SUBS... Now those folks wallets are weeping.

This brings me on an issue that explains why Club Eternia has had a bit of a harder time getting the number of subscribers needed. People with Limited Toy Budgets are being raped in the wallet on Q4. This is why some friends who collect MOTUC have downsized their collections. Instead of two subs for one MOC and one loose, they just buy the one sub and keep them MOC. Some people simply quit because of figures being too expensive and Q4's overload has put some of them in the proverbial doghouse.

Sep 16, 2014

Star Child: The rant

Now it's time for another I want to see X in MOTUC!! This time I'm tackling Star Child...
This is the most off the wall request I've made to join the ranks of MOTUC... She's Filmation and has ONE MORE APPEARANCE than Nepthu... (I need to Let it go)
As you can see she is not that big, which sadly means 100% new tooling and that makes the bean counters cry. Then again, she is also not a fighter at all. She just makes people glow if she loves them or something. I honestly can't remember since it's been a while since I saw a Filmation episode with her.

At least she is not one of the Christmas Special kids... Lucky for you there are no links to the horrible Christmas song.

So, yes, I want Star Child in MOTUC. No real reason. I just think she is memorable enough and she could be used as a way to move the story forward. Something something, Part of the Star Seed made flesh... Something something near unlimited power within a naive child. Something Something the UNO wants her to return to the Eternia Dimension. I know she has no chance in Hell of happening, but in a weird way it would be cool. (Then again, I did love the idea of having a Marvel Legends Franklin Richards...) There you go, Star Child could be the Franklin Richards of MOTU. Boom!

Sep 15, 2014

Rio Rant: the Blast

I am waiting for My Rio Blast to arrive, so let's talk some Rio.

So, Rio Blast, not to be confused with Rio Pacheco, is MOTU's resident Cowboy. According to Vintage Lore, RIO IS NOT FROM ETERNIA... I REPEAT: RIO IS NOT FROM ETERNIA. That fits with the whole "Cowboys don't fit in MOTU because Eternia is a more barbaric society,"

Rio being an alien, helps give the character some, well character, aside being "The Cowboy". Like the Cowboy cliché, he may be at home on the range, but at the same time Eternia is NOT home. That is a great angle to explore for him (and the fact that He-Man is such a huge jerk that goes to fight in other planets instead of helping Rio return home). the UK Comics (I think) had Rio partner up with Snout Spout and something about him being afraid of snakes.

His being a Cowboy can make him a bit of an odd fit to MOTU, but at the same time, he is SO MOTU... He's got guns EVERYWHERE... He walks through life as if he was playing Contra with the Spread Shot at all times.


We have guys defined by their action features (Mekaneck, Extendar) so, a walking Arsenal makes sense in MOTU. I understand he is not for everyone, especially when MOTU itself is very rooted on Sword and Sorcery. The thing is Why people accept Trap Jaw, Man-e-Faces or Roboto, when they have problems accepting Rio Blast?

It has to do with Rio Blast being "the American Cowboy" I'll not go into the whole Cowboy ripping off the "Latin American Vaquero" (Guess where the Term Buckaroo comes from). Like I said, MOTU is well rooted in Sword and Sorcery... Like Dungeons and Dragons, to name a popular Fantasy game. Ninjor, barely gets a pass since the Ninja is the ancient Oriental Assassin. The Cowboy is a more Recent thing, so it is very removed from the sword and sorcery theme. This is another reason why the Disqualified Create a Character entry: Gangstor doesn't fit MOTU... but I digress. When we have KNIGHTS, Barbarians, Ninja, Samurai, a Cowboy does look a bit out of place... Luckily we have Elephant headed Firefighters. A Frogman, a Furry Potato Bear-like creature, a Skunk man and a Witch Doctor Mask/Vampire thing... Classics makes it easier with a Blue Roid Rage Stan Lee, a Purple Chrono gimp, and Cobra Commander cosplaying as a knight.

Rio's main issue is that he is a later wave figure. Those were either cheaply made figures (Black guy with Fisto Armor and a new Weapon as gimmick) or defined by his gimmick (Drag Racing thanks to wheel on stomach.) He also lacked Filmation support. (While a character with the same gimmick appeared on SHE-RA, that guy was a Hordesman, not a hero.) As of the writing of this article, he is still available on Mattycollector. He seems like a cool addition, BECAUSE of how Odd he is. He seems to stand out compared to say, Extendar. His MOTUC version also looks like Sam Elliot... Kinda wished he looked like the spawn of Charles Bronson and Chuck Norris (like the 80s toy)

Long Story short, if Rio had gotten some televised media appearances or had been among the earlier waves, perhaps he would have gotten a bit more love.

Listen and Believe

Does the title of my rant sound a bit creepy, in a Robe wearing, Kool-aid drinking kind of way?


Well, my favorite Social Ju$tice Warrior is using that as her new slogan.

I mentioned on my lazy, from the hip, quick critical analysis of her recent video that she received death threats. I'm not questioning whether they are real or not. What I'm questioning is that her behavior has been rather curious. On situations like this, the Authorities normally tell the person to not engage with the stalker, but she obviously got enough time to tweet about how she was harassed and left her house, posting a screencap of the tweets, asking for donations, posting how the police did not take her seriously, and something about reporting an account that sent her child pornography and retweeting a screencap of her report and leaving the twitter handle of the account with child pornography.

So, some people, have questioned the veracity of her story; to which she has taken the stance of: "If you don't believe me, you're sexist and a misogynist." and something about BLINDLY believing women when they say they're being harassed.

Here's the thing: It's not right to take any sides until you hear both sides of the story. OK, let's take the whole #gamergate issue as an example. So, this female developer was accused of having sex with five guys while she had a boyfriend. Among the guys were her boss and a gaming journalist. Instead of pointing out at the issues with conflict of interest the media focused on #gamergate being an alleged plan to slander women and promote misogyny. Their main source: The woman who allegedly slept with the five guys, among other things.

Now here's the thing:
About who she slept with, or how many guys were involved:

The real issue is how the "gaming media" has declared her a victim and has taken everything she says as truth, WITHOUT QUESTIONING. Journalists are no longer looking for truth, but for more hits to their site. Every story has two sides, where's the info from the other side?

Same thing is happening with my dear Giant Hoop earring, plaid shirt wearing, tons of make up wearing Social Ju$tice Warrior. The "Gaming Media" is not questioning her at all. Hell, they've gone full "White Knight" mode by attacking the Patreon of two guys making a documentary about her saga. They haven't made the documentary yet, and they're getting tons of hate...
OK, so one of them looks like the weird Metalhead that sat in the back of the classroom on that 101 class... You know the one with the fabulous hair... The other looks like the spawn of Satan and an Used Car Salesman. But it's OK to make fun of them because they're men, and they can take it. Just don't do it to a woman, because misogyny... or was it Patriarchy?

If she often says: 
We must remember that it is both possible (and even necessary) to simultaneously enjoy media while also being critical of its more problematic or pernicious aspects.

Why she and her followers are trying to shut down ANY Criticism towards her?

Why is the gaming media so hellbent in insulting them and trying to shut down their Patreon for daring to question She who shall not be named?

Why not let the project speak for itself? This systemic onslaught of attacks towards them seems a bit too convenient. Not to mention how it mirrors the crap SHE got when she was doing her kickstarter.

Don't Listen and Believe. Question everyone and everything. Look for facts that in the end will either  corroborate or disprove what is being said. Believing blindly in strangers is not a smart thing to do. Especially those who want your money.

Sep 13, 2014

Shapeways MOTUC stuff: the rant.

I've mentioned a couple of times that the fans will do what Mattel won't.
Today I'll list the MOTUC third party items that spark my interest and why.

I will post links to the shops, you'll have to search for the items there. Some items may not be for sale. Not everyone who makes MOTUC Accessories is in this list, because I don't know about ALL the people who makes them.

I will exclude the Horde Leader Sword designed by Chris Sunday and yours truly, made by Evil Mike for obvious reasons.

From Evil Mike:

-Horde Crossbows (Cat and Force Captain)

-Hand sets: I like Japanese action figures because of the multiple hands and faces to have much more expressive toys, These hand sets help MOTUC figures. (both male and female.)

-Multiple versions of the Power Sword and Sword of Protection. NA? Mike's got you covered! Filmation? Yup! Alcalá inspired sword of protection? Even that! Mini Comic Powersowrd with vintage Toy hand guard? He has it!

-Sea Hawk Kits: One comes with his Non-Anchors Aloft blade (turned off and turned on.) and the sheath that hangs by his thigh. The other Kit comes with the Blade given to him by The Falcon (The one the official release came with) I think he has a kit with both blades.

From Der Waffen Meister:

-Iron Fists: Basically Fisto's Giant Fist WITH ARTICULATED FINGERS!!! Picture Fisto flipping the bird... thank Der Waffen Meister for that. (Some assembly is required)

-DC Power Sword: as much as I've not been a fan of DC's redesigns, the sword looks cool. You have the Smaller version (closer to MOTUC Power sword Scale) and the larger version, still on MOTUC Scale but bigger.

-Amulet Clip: It's for Count Marzo If you want to have the Amulet to be worn by Marzo on his neck, then here's the solution.

-Trap Jaw's Piledriver: One of Filmation's many Trap Jaw Attachments, but this one has an action feature (some assembly and a spring from a ballpoint pen is required)

From He-Bro:

-Trap Jaw's Accessory set: It has the Energy Bow, Fly Swatter, Rocket Attachment, Grabber and my favorite, the Dropper. (String not included)

-Horn of Evil: One of many Filmation artifacts that Mattel should have included in the line. He-Bro's got you covered.

-Castle Grayskull Hole cover: Many people have done some sort of cover, but He-Bro's cellar door looks pretty awesome.

-Pookie: I vaguely remember it from Filmation, but it's a cool addition to the line, especially for Filmation fans... I don't think Mattel will do Pookie, so He-Bro's got you covered.

From DJ Force:

-200X Axe and Shield: Since we're kinda getting a 200X He-Man in Classics with the Snake Armor He-Man, we NEED a Classicized Axe and Shield. DJ Force has you covered.

-Double Bladed Spear: Since Illumina ain't happening, DJ force has her Spear available for that Illumina Custom Figure, or any PoP Lady who lacks an offensive weapon.

-Sun Temple Perch: If you somehow ended up with A Nepthu (my condolences) and your Zoar is perchless, DJ force has a Perch for Zoar that includes a plastic chain to clip on the leg based on the Perch from Nepthu's episode.

-the Savage Weapons: These weapons are based on the items from the Triangular Rack on the Vintage Castle Grayskull. (These were drawings on a piece of cardboard in the original toy) Since they were not made for Classics, DJ force took it upon himself to make them.

-Trap Jaw's 200X Arm kit: It makes the vintage Looking Mechanical arm on Trap Jaw look more 200X.

From Freeman's Mind toys:

-Castle Grayskull Sewer Cover: It's unique because unlike most of the hole covers, this one is raised from the floor.

-Imp Toilet: Well, the whole Impgate stinks of crap, what better way to celebrate it than with an Imp toilet.

-Tentacle Grayskull hole cover: I hope that you've seen enough hentai to know where this is going.

-Chinmoku ninjato: A weapon for Ninjor, being more accurate than the Katana he is getting.


While 3D Printing is not perfect, it at least allows for a decent solution to some of your Action Figure needs.

Sep 11, 2014

Videogame media and the crime of being male.

Nowadays it seems that any videogame related article that pops on the internet is related to any of the following themes:

-Offensive portrayals of women in gaming
-How male gamers are supporting misogyny
-Games that gamers should be ashamed of owning.
-Male Privilege in gaming.
-Videogames are no longer for gamers.
-How women are oppressed by gamers.

It pisses me off. The amount of bull and white knight circle-jerking that goes around with these people is incredible!

They claim, gaming is a male dominated space and that it needs to change... Um, Ever since the early 80s with the coming of Pac Man, gaming was opening up for females. It's not the gamers' fault that most females SHUNNED gaming... Even the cool dudes shunned gamers, making gaming the last refuge for the geeks, dweebs, dorks, nerds and other social outcasts. Gaming communities tend to be friendly (aside in-game trash talk) welcoming pretty much everyone. Now that it has gone mainstream, we have the dudebros taking their real world douchebaggery into the virtual worlds, and the Social Justice Warriors pretending to "change the world" one BS campaign at a time.

Yes, there are A-holes who play games and they'll act like A-holes. That does not mean that gamers hate women. The same way there are gamers who are female and can kick your ass with Dan frigging Hibiki on SFIV (worse when it's on alpha, where Dan royally sucked ass) as there are "gamer gurlz" who love covering their boobs with SNES Cartridges to show how much they love gaming.
The worst kind of fakers are the Social Justice Warriors.  They do not give a damn about the issue at hand. In this case Videogames and they want to "change" the medium to fit their views of "Ju$tice" (which means get as much money as possible for talking out of their asses... Hey! I should get in on that Social Justice crap!)

Can you see the issue here? These Newcomers want an industry that has found their market for over 30 years (which is basically a young industry) to bend over to cater to their whims. The very same group that claims X isn't happening, in games, but when games that DO have X in them come out; they just don't buy them because they don't really care about gaming. When gaming stops being popular enough, they'll simply move on to the next big thing. Anyone remembers the "crusades"
against Rock & Roll, Television, Tabletop RPGS, Comic Books? This is exactly the same thing... Heck! Didn't we have one of these crusades against gaming less than twenty years ago with Jack Thompson and Hillary Clinton?

Instead of, trying to make a game that can be appealing to them, especially now that the indie scene is so full of people willing to experiment to make non-games as games, like the turdtacular Gone Home or the complete non-game Depression Quest... (Whose creator exploited the death of Robin Williams to promote her non-game,) I don't see the need for these folks to whine and complain about gaming not catering to them.


Nooooo. that would be too hard! It's easier to demand "change" and further shame the gaming community, who again, have been the butt of many jokes and insults. Including being mocked by Popular Culture itself.

So, now these people come in, insult gaming's consumers and somehow get the media involved in insulting the gamers a bit more is OUTRAGEOUS!

Gamers are now getting crap for being born with a penis. As if being a make is now a crime. Gaming has enough space for the games like Call of Duty, GTA, Halo, Metal Gear, etc AND space for "Social Justice friendly games". There is no need to further ostracize those who have been shunned by mainstream media. It's sad and pathetic that so many mainstream gaming sites are bending over to the Social Justice Warriors. Gaming sites should be about gaming, not political correctness (or a warped version of it to get money)

Why should I feel guilty of Playing King of Fighters as Mai Shiranui?
Why should I feel enraged that I can kill people in Grand Theft Auto?
Why must I be ashamed for enjoying Devil May Cry, Dead or Alive, or Double Dragon?

Not all games need to be politically correct, the same way not all books, nor tv shows HAVE to.
I know some people will say that "she is not trying to take those games away from you." or some other crap. What she and other SJWs are doing is promoting censorship.
"but-" Shut the @#% Up! The way they are promoting censorship is using their articles and videos as "educational material" in order to "guilt trip" the game developers into castrating their works for the sake of Political correctness... In other words, they want the developers to self-censor themselves by using their morality as compass. They won't openly cry for censorship, BECAUSE of the failure of Jack Thompson's anti-violence crusade; but the way they manage their blogs, forums and YT comments sections, it's obvious that Censorship makes them feel tingly down there.

That is my issue. SOME games can be a perfect educational tool. Some games can be entertaining without being violent, and some games can pour oceans of virtual blood at me. I can enjoy them all... Assuming they are ENJOYABLE.

 Now my issue with the gaming media is that they take  what the social justice warriors say without looking at the other side of the story, or even fact-checking them. Professional Journalists HAVE to seek out the truth, which they are not doing right now.

Disagreeing with the shady tactics of Social Justice Warriors does not equal misogyny. Being a male gamer does not mean I'm a misogynist.

Cold Update Number Thursday: Won't be able to go see Miley Cyrus tonight... She's doing a concert here in PR and I'm still sick. Feeling a smidge better.

Sep 10, 2014

I'm not too sure of an ALL FEMALE Ghostbusters team for GB3.

There have been rumors floating about making GB3 with an all female cast... My thoughts about this can be explained with one picture:
Before any Social Justice Warriors begin to call me sexist, hear me out. I am NOT opposed to having female Ghostbusters; I'm just opposed at the idea of making them ALL Female "just because".
There is no real compelling reason to make the entire team female, aside "Social justice".

Then again... I can see the positives of an all female cast...



I mean there is no way that Sliming a a female can be interpreted as some sort of Rape symbolism or something...

Nope, not at all...

OK, all snark aside, I think that an All Female Cast "just because" will suck ass. I mean, the only canonical reason to have an all female cast would involve an older Venkman keeping the Ghostbusting biz alive and only hiring an all female cast because he is Dr. Venkman...

Like Venkman's NOT going to tap the new busters... because Busting makes him feel good! Hey, I could have used a Neutrino Wand joke here... This would be like Charlie's Angels
but with Ghosts! Or a porn parody... Ghost Bust Hers!

To make matters worse, Bill Murray offers his ideal all female cast.  Notice something Peculiar?
ALL OF THEM ARE WHITE!! I mean, the Male Busters at least had a minority character in Winston. (Not going to mention how racist it is that the Black Guy is the Everyman who needs everything explained to him, because he doesn't have a Ph.D or something)

Melissa McCarthy... aw hell no! Her whole shtick can be summarized as "I'm fat and I'm raunchy!"  and she's not really THAT funny... She's slightly funnier than FRED.

Kristen Wiig, so far seems the better choice for a Buster. I'm not so sure about Linda Cardellini (and this has nothing to do with her playing Velma Dinkley or being a wedge between Cory and Topanga) nor Emma Stone (not making dead Gwen jokes). They feel a bit too young for the roles.

The whole Female Cast "because reasons" seems to fall into the Girl Power Cliché. Fighting Clichés with more of them is a bit ass backwards.

Now having a Female (or two) joining the ranks seems a bit better.


Not going to mention the whole imagery of the guys holding their "neutrino wands" while the female uses her "Ghost trap" to finish the job. Dammit! I'm starting to sound like you know who!!

But I digress, the issue here is that they're talking about making the cast women BEFORE working on the story, which reeks of "political correctness" and "social justice" crap! It's just following some trend instead of evolving the brand organically.

Now I'm gonna eat some chicken soup and go to bed, stupid cold!

Update: This may be a reboot instead of a threequel...

Sep 9, 2014

Il Credo dell'assassino Due: la critica

Non voglio fare questa ricensione in Italiano, perché ho dimenticato alcune cose... Come si dice: I'm a bit rusty in my Italian and the joke will become annoying soon enough.

Being sick has opened up a gaming window and between binge watching Boy Meets World, I've also played Ass. Creed II.

The game is good. I had tons of fun doing parkour in Renaissance era Italy and stabbing SOLDIERS with the hidden blade. While you CAN stab civilians, the game warns you about not doing that. Do it enough times and it's "Game over" or DESYNCHRONIZATION in this game's case. Especially when attacking women. That's something that Ms. Plaid Shirt and Jumbo Hoop Earrings wearing Con Artist disguised as a Feminist won't tell you. Her analysis of Ass. Creed 2 is completely flawed, which I confirmed by PLAYING THE FREAKING GAME!!! But, I digress.

Unlike Toys, Videogames are reviewed on a Scale of 1 to 10 where 1 is crap and 10 is good.

Graphics:
The graphics are pretty good. I'm not too fond of the face models of many characters because they looked a bit off.
The backgrounds is where the game shines. The Renaissance Era Italy was captured pretty well.
8.5

Sounds and Music:
I didn't notice most of the music in the game, to be honest. Sure, I do remember the melody when reaching a View Point You'll hear it AT LEAST 66 times. The little music I noticed felt like it belonged.

After checking out the IMDB because I heard a voice... that sounded very Cam Clarke-ish and I needed to make sure. Yes, it was him! The humongous amount of great VAs in the game is noticeable and I didn't have issues with the voices. Well, aside a long set up for a little nod to Videogames' greatest character.
9.0 

Gameplay:
You're an assassin, so you kill... You also do parkour. You're on a Parkour/Action adventure game from Ubisoft, so you also do puzzles. It's kind of an Open World game, so you're stuck with escort missions, tailing someone without spooking them missions, silly checkpoint race missions, random Item collecting (feathers, Codex Pages, Statues, Assassin seals, etc.) SOME of them can be annoying.
7.5

Story:
I have not played Ass. Creed 1, but I knew about the whole Abstergo memory diving thing and looking for something  that was connected to an ancient assassin known as Altaïr. In Ass. Creed 2 same thing but with a different Assassin, Ezio Auditore. This time it's the 21st Century Assassins who are using Desmond to search for answers. So, I'll be honest. I do not give a rat's ass about Desmond's story. When I bought the game (A, to piss off She who musn't be named, because buying these games is the opposite of what she wants. B, because I had heard great things about the series. C, It was dirt cheap.) Ezio's story, on the other hand is the far more interesting.
5.5

Controls:
They are mostly hit, but sometimes you move so fast that you can overshoot your jumps or runs (especially on races, or chasing someone across rooftops.)
9.0

Fun Factor:
The game is fun, but some glitches can make it somewhat annoying at times. Getting stuck on walls while doing timed puzzles for an Assassin Seal IS FREAKING frustrating.
8.0

Overall:
Assassin's Creed II gets an overall score of 7.83 which is a nice score. To be honest, I won't bother with other Assassin's Creed games.

Sep 8, 2014

Top Gun two is going to suck ass!

So, they are making a sequel to Top Gun... They're trying to bring back some of the cast. So far it seems that the Vertically impaired, not quite sane, running enthusiast and Professional Scientologist wants to reprise his role as Maverick... This would have been GREAT News if it hadn't been for the Second half of the news...


He who wrote this turd of a movie, will write Top Gun 2... Justin Marks is a hack and should not be allowed to write anything other than Uwe Boll movies. They are perfect for each other.
freaking idiot turning Adam into effin Simba...

So, yes: Top Gun 2 is going to suck ass with a bendy straw while doing loops on a tilt-a-whirl! in order to liquefy the poop to ease in on the sucking. I would apologize for the colorful text, but if I did, then I would be softening the blow of the news of this film turned into a Scatological Masterpiece of Excremental  Magnitude! (accompanied by 4 cans of Bush's baked beans) This will be the Sharknado of Turds... a Turdnado...
I better stop channeling my inner SIGINT... Then again, Marks also wrote: The Jungle Book adaptation for Jon Favreau... (Looks like Favreau will have a LOT to do to pull off a decent movie here.)

I wish this cold would get the F out!!

Sep 7, 2014

I think I have a cold... TV WHY!?

It royally sucks. So, this morning as I lied on my bed writhing in agony, I decided to watch Cartoon Network. I saw the unholiest Abomination to ever grace that Network: Scooby Doo Wrestlemania mystery.

That was awful... Not sure which was worse, the Scooby Gang or the WWE...

So, here's the deal with the movie. Vince McMahon owns a city, (un)creatively called WWE City. There's this Ghost bear who attacks Wrestlers and My Favorite Former Real World Cast Member gets Yamcha'd by the bear. the wrestlers are Superhuman. John Cena lifts the Mystery Machine out of a ditch on his own. This makes Rasslin' hater Daphne to become obsessed with Mr. Fruity Pebbles.

We get the run of the Mill Scooby Doo movie formula... but with WWE Wrestlers, and Michael Cole... Having... Smackdown! Just... Bring it! Flashbacks! Did I mention how much I loath Michael Cole's commentating? (Especially on fictional fights) I would have killed to have Jerry Lawler commentating in this and not a 2 second cameo.



The TV airing removes Wrestlemania out of the title, and mentions to the event are called Superstarmania... Which is weird. but they keep the titantron themes for the Superstars... and Vinnie Mac's. Of course they stop it before we learn the No Chance refers to No Chance in the Home For Infinite Losers.

John Cena also speaks Luchador... Meaning Sin Cara is pretty much a Mexican Lassie. We go through the Scooby Doo tropes.

I got to be honest though. I had fun with it, but in a "I can't believe this is happening, Oh The Humanity!" kind of way. I have to be honest, this COULD have worked better in the 1980s where most wrestlers were almost like cartoon characters... Hogan, Taker, Ultimate Warrior, Sgt. Slaughter (who also has a cameo here... Yo Joe!) Santino, Miz, AJ were under used. Hell HFIL! Even Tripple H was underused. There was simply too much Cena in this.

You HAVE to watch this Train wreck!

Also, damn this cold that makes me watch crappy Scooby Movies.

About 2016 and MOTU... no longer MOTUC

2015 barely made it according to Mattel. I'm not going to question if the numbers are real, fake, etc. That's not today's rant... Today's rant is looking towards 2016.
With Vintage Masters of the Universe gone and Princess of Power too, all we have left is New Adventures, Mini Comics, Other media folks, Concepts and revisions to past characters with defects and too core to have a toyline without them.

Let's start with a Reminder: 2015 BARELY SQUEAKED BY... (according to Mattel) So, a possible price increase, C to Z listers in the roster won't make this line super Appealing to the general public. An even smaller production run may mean more expensive figures and eliminating some customers with figures going beyond their threshold. The only real solution for Mattel to keep pumping out MOTU stuff compatible with Classics is Downsizing.

2016 won't be able to survive with 12 figures, Sub Exclusive, 4 Extra items, Chase Figure, SDCC Item, Holiday Item, and Traveling Con item.

What I propose is: a smaller, more Manageable Subscription.

4 Quarterly Two Packs, 1 Sub Exclusive Single figure, 1 SDCC Item (two-three pack), 1 Holiday Item no larger than a steed. (could be another two pack)

This is an example of a hypothetical year, not necessarily what I'D like to see:

Q1:
Dakon and Garn pack: (Mini Comic Heroes) there are rumors that Lodar may come in 2015 (yes!!)
So, this two pack is to more or less complete the sets. Garn to go with Lodar and Dakon to go with Geldor. Both of them require very little new tooling.

Q2:
Melaktha vs Masque "House of Shokoti pack"
I've already discussed this pack idea before. Yes, I WILL keep pushing for Melaktha in MOTUC.
It's another Low new Tooling pack, but trust me... It'll be worth it.

Q3:
Songster and Scrollos: Storytellers pack
Another character that I have touched as a necessity is Songster. He is being paired with Scrollos
Who is basically MOTU's UATU...

This set requires a bit more new Tooling, but it's not BREAK THE BANK type of new Tooling.

Having another nod to the UK comics is cool and Mr. Power Tour is icing on the cake.












Q4:
Galactic Protectors set with Kayo and Vizar:
This would help the Galactic Protectors have only one guy missing from wave 2 (just like the Mutants) I've touched what could help to make these guys before.
and I'm willing to compromise and reuse NA Skeletor's forearms and Horde Prime Hands for Kayo.

Now, all we have left is SDCC Item, Sub Exclusive and Holiday Item

SDCC:
200X  inspired He-Man vs Skeletor pack
Releasing the Main 2 is a nice way to keep them refreshed.
We have most of the pieces to make 200X He-Man and we'd only need a right forearm (perhaps using the NA Sword Aloft hand) and a Harness.
Skeletor is a new head, forearms and Loincloth (we can reuse the He-Ro Greaves and Demo's feet)
Very Little New Tooling. Mayhaps tossing an Odiphus reusing the Kowl buck with new head and arms. (worst Case scenario, just a new head)

Sub Exclusive:
Crita or Despara (Depending on who does make it to 2015 if any of them)
They have moderate reuse of parts, but they are appealing enough for the sub exclusive slot.

Holiday Item:
Stridor/NightStalker or Mantisaur:
Any of these three would make vintage fans happy. This is why I was trying to keep Reuse at Maximum on the figures.

I tried to keep the sets somewhat themed and their use is to somehow complete factions.

Crita closes the Core NA Mutants. Kayo and Vizar even up the odds for the GP and wave 2 of NA

NA She-Ra goes with HP so that balances things once more.

Garn and Dakon round up the casts from their comics.

Same with Melaktha and Masque with their filmation episode.

The only one closest to a frivolous want is Songster and Scrollos, but they are "keeping the lore alive".

Personally, I don't have that much faith in 2016, but downsizing may be the only way for it to happen and not dying during "sub period".

Sep 6, 2014

Melaktha: The Rant.

It's no secret that I want a MOTUC Melaktha. Also, it's no secret that he is highly unlikely to happen. Hell, I think Kayo may rank a bit higher than Melaktha.
I've said ad nauseum that I am aware that he is a bit plain and that he lacks that Toyetic factor.
The idea is to make him desirable, yadda, yadda... filmation Artifacts, yadda.

He's incredibly easy to make for Mattel, Since he's basically a new head and shirt... (or in my case, Head, Shirt and Belt. Worse case scenario they could reuse Flipshot's loincloth in Melaktha Colors.)

The parts that would be reused are:
-Normal Male Upper torso
-Hordak Flat Abs
-Normal Shoulders
-Mosquitor Biceps
-Oo-Larr Forearms
-He-Man hands
-Plundor Loincloth (Worst Case Scenario, Flipshot's)
-Normal Thighs and Shins
-Dekker boots

All those pieces make an acceptable MOTUC Melaktha when combined with the new head and shirt.
The reason for the Hordak abs is to keep the "shirt look" when the figure is "shirtless". That was made on purpose, so people can put on him some sort of armor like say, Palace Guard armor, or Carnivus Armor and keep some semblance of Melaktha's default look under the armor. Now to spice him up a little bit. We use the bios., where we can say that in his youth he loved to raid tombs (a la Indiana Jones or Lara Croft) and lived the adventurous life. If you notice, I gave a nod to the Warrior Ring on the Brooch on Melaktha's shirt. So, he could be a secret defender of Grayskull or something (maybe a veteran from the Great Unrest who became an Archaeologist for some peace and quiet). Perhaps he may have deduced Adam's secret and pretends to be a bit more bumbling in order to give Adam an excuse to leave and transform.  I've already mentioned before that he could be used to tie some other loose ends on the bios. (Thundaria, Gygor, etc.) If Orko can be made into a Genocidal maniac, or Nepthu into a badass character, then what's holding Melaktha up?

He'd be perfect to toss in with Masque in a two-pack and end the House of Shokoti. Masque, like Melaktha requires very few new parts (head and harness) so, in this theoretical two-pack could be filled with accessories since they require so little new pieces. A bunch of scrolls, maps, books are the easiest things that come to mind. but they're plain... How about: the Masks of Power, the Grimalkin Statue, a Black Flower, Pookie, etc.

Sep 4, 2014

Odds and Ends... 2014/09/04

So, I've been a Ubisoft hater for many years... Aside the First Prince Of Persia (The sands of Time series) my experience with Ubisoft games has been rather bad. Well... I FINALLY bothered to play the Ass. Creed Games... Number II in Particular. I should thank the Hoop-Earring-Wearing-Misandrist for that. I've only played about one hour and I have some issues. Clipping Problems were the biggest offender. Having to reset Multiple times because Ezio got stuck on a wall, or Between Two walls... Which royally sucks when doing timed events like deliveries, or races. Then it hit me...
The Ubisoft Logo looks like water being flushed down the toilet! Now, I'm going to take a page out of James Rolfe's AVGN: You know what gets flushed down toilets, Turds and Ubisoft produces some of the biggest turds in videogame history, especially on PC! DRM to help players, my ass! Not to mention how its name sounds like some toilet paper crap!
So, aside the glitches, Assassin's Creed II who has ASS twice on it's name!! seems like a decent game. I won't fully review it until I beat the game. IF I feel like reviewing it... But seriously, that Ubi Logo totally looks like a toilet flushing. I kinda wish I could flush down the Rabbids.


Going on a different tangent... Still keeping it on games. I've noticed a lack in J-RPGs lately... I still need to play FFXIII... I will, someday... but. I kinda miss the J-RPG craze from the 90s. Final Fantasies IV-VIII, Chrono Trigger, Xenogears, and that's just on the Squaresoft side... I miss those 60+ Hour grindfests... (Still haven't beaten FFVII on PC) but I just seem to lack the focus. Also, I don't seem cut out to current Era FPS games... I've played  Battlefield, Call of Duty, Recently, I committed the Ultimate sin and Played Halo (didn't impress me). FPS games just don't cut it for me.

Now going back to Assassin's Creed Is it me or have there been too many Ass. Creed Cameos on other games. Soul Calibur V has Ezio Auditore, while MGS IV has the Assassin Vest and Peace Walker has the Assassin's Creed Hay Bale as a Cardboard box. Funny thing is that one of the earliest missions that I got in the game is beating up unfaithful males AS REQUESTS by the scorned women... We have WOMEN PAYING an ASSASSIN to make their Cheating male partners PAY for their actions. Why don't people hear about that>

The hunt for a PS3 Man vs Wild has been fruitless, and you know what that means... The online options I've seen have Puerto Rico as an undeliverable place... Not being able to play as Bear Grylls kinda sucks, even if it's supposedly a crappy game. I endured Hannah, I can Endure Bear...

Speaking of Hannah/Miley, she was banned from performing in the Dominican Republic, but she is coming here Next Week. Tickets are redonkulously expensive for the So far away that not even with the Hubble, I'd be able to see her. Besides, I would have been more interested if this had been a Hannah Montana Concert.

Joan Rivers has passed away, which means that Spaceballs lost another main cast Member... Wait, is Mel Brooks still alive? Yes, he still is. In any case my condolences to her family... She will be making fun of the way people dress in the afterlife.



Sep 3, 2014

Imaginext and MOTU... stop beating around the bush!

There have been a few Imaginext items with nods to my favorite Toyline from my Childhood, Masters of the Universe for those of you who stumbled here for the first time.
Here's a few that I've seen...  Just look at the pic... Seriously, it's a bit too much of a coincidence that some MOTU Items have made it to Imaginext...

So, as the title of the rant says: Mattel needs to stop beating around the bush and make a MOTU Imaginext subline. The Mythology already exists. Some of the Imaginext figures vehicles and playsets have a MOTU vibe to them. What better way to introduce MOTU to a future generation, than getting them while they're young!? I mean, that's how they got ME involved with this toyline about 30 years ago.

Unlike the Batman imaginext line, He-Man is a Mattel line, so no licensing fees or anything.

Personally, I find an Imaginext MOTU line a better novelty item for collectors than Skelebaby or Giant Sized That Looks Worse than a Bootleg made by a drunken sculptor MOTU figures that Mattel is trying to sell. Have you seen their Giant He-Man? That thing is so ugly and so not-he-man like that it made me forget the insult I was going to use.
 Just look at the picture and see what I mean.
The Giant is not even an accurate reproduction of the 80s toy but Mattel wants me to spend $98 with shipping (approximately) for a Giant inaccurate version of He-Man?
I think that an Imaginext MOTU set would have been even better than the minis. Come on, the Dragon Walker has Imaginext Toy written all over it!


They could have like, say: Release a He-Man vs Skeletor pack. Then a Tri-Klops and a Roton colors Alpha Blade, then Man-at-Arms in the Battle Ram leading up to the Retail Imaginext line with Castle Grayskull and redecos of the Matty releases. Or even simpler, Skip the Matty stuff and go straight to retail with Imaginext. Right now the original "Children of MOTU" are having Children of their own.
Personally, I find the idea to introduce "my childhood" to "my kid" an amazing idea.

Then again, this is the same company that can't figure out how to make a Barbiecollector series of Barbie as She-Ra... The boys toys part says: talk to Barbiecollector. The Barbiecollector part says: talk to boys toys. I'm like: For eff's sake! Barbie is Mattel, She-Ra is Mattel! What the Hell are you making me go around all this when I'm not even a Mattel Employee!?

Sep 2, 2014

The Fappening... Why it is important?

During the weekend, a massive amount of nude pictures of female celebrities infested the internet.

He survived the Fappening.
This event was dubbed "the fappening" or "celebgate" for those who are afraid of mentioning what will be the use for said pics. The feds are now involved.

Now, why is this Fappening important? Simple:
Can't protect a Flower girl, much less your data.
Never put your trust in Cloud Storage... It sucks at protecting stuff... Then again, I knew that Cloud's Protection sucked ass since 1997.

The issue arises from the fact that Apple's iCloud makes a backup of everything, like photos. If you delete them from the phone, they're on the Cloud. Once it's on the internet, it's nearly impossible to remove it from the internet.

Second, and most obvious issue:

If you want to take nude pictures of yourself, you must be aware of the risks that come with that.
-Other people might see the pics.
-In this modern era THEY WILL MAKE IT TO THE INTERNET.
-They have the potential to ruin careers.

So, if you don't want people to see your boobs, then don't take pictures of your boobs! Before anyone says "Victim Blaming", hear me out.

The hackers actions are deplorable. That is a fact. Very little would have changed if there had been no nude pics, because Hacking is still illegal and wrong. Saying that they should have taken steps to prevent these issues to happen is NOT Victim Blaming or siding with the hackers. The bad action from the hackers does not absolve the victims from their bad decisions. 

Now, this Fappening issue will bring some good things:
-Force Cloud Storage Companies to up their protection.
This Trailer:

-A revised version of Seth McFarlane's We saw your boobs
-Raise awareness about phones uploading your crap to the internet and making copies of it.

If you saw them and enjoyed them, good for you! If you refuse to see them, good for you too!

Sep 1, 2014

Women as Background Decoration Part Deux The Lies intensify.

The Hoop Earring, Plaid shirt wearing anti-Pay-Tree-Are-Key champion full of lies and deceit is back!
Roughly Two months? That was fast!

Before I start, I must Reiterate certain warnings:

-Disagreeing with her does not make a person (in this case me) a Pro-rape Misogynistic Agent of the Patriarchy.
-Disagreeing with her doesn't mean that I hate her. I just dislike the dishonest crap she is trying to pass off as fact. IF she says something that I agree with, I will say that I agree with it.
-Disagreeing with her doesn't mean that I believe that there are no issues with games like sexist themes, etc. It's just that I disagree with her points or the examples used.
-Wasting $160,000 in this First World Problems series to "protect the rights" of PIXELS AND POLYGONS when that money could have been used to help REAL LIVE WOMEN THAT EXIST IN THE REAL WORLD is an atrocity.
-I'm gonna be firing from the hip as I watch this video. I don't want to watch her stuff any more than I have to.

Now let's start with the video.
She uses a few clips of women killed by THE BAD GUYS to start her Narrative.
Then she uses the ALREADY CONTROVERSIAL Hitman: Blood Money campaign to imply that gamers are into necrophilia, because of three ads that have women on it. I kid you not. She is calling male gamers Necrophiliacs.
 The marketing blitz surrounding the release of the 2006 game Hitman: Blood Money featured several advertisements depicting the murdered bodies of sexualized women with captions like “Beautifully executed”. Even in death these lingerie-clad women are posed provocatively in a way designed to sexually arouse straight male viewers.
BTW, she glosses over the fact that Dead Males are used in some ads, which further emphasizes the point that a man dies and no one gives a damn.

 Now she's showing a Line-up of games with this "trope" and once again, she has Red Dead Redemption on it.
 In that game you DO NOT HAVE TO KILL ANY Prostitutes. Hell, Marston even REFUSES sex with any prostitute in the game.(not objectifying them) Not only that, but in the Mission Eva's Peril (Which I'm sure she'll twist into something evil) Marston HELPS a Prostitute (Eva) to turn her life around by paying her debt to her pimp. Spoilers, she ends up being killed by the pimp and Marston Avenges her. Running with the game's theme of Redemption? (or how it can be futile) OK, in the Undead Nightmare DLC you have to kill UNDEAD Prostitutes among the rest of the undead. Pointing it out to stop any comments saying: You're lying because you HAVE to kill Prostitutes in RDR UdN!!

Back on topic. You know what all those games have in common? They are all Rated M for Mature Audiences. Here's a tip: using multiple games from the SAME Series (ie GTA IV and GTA V is pretty much trying to pad out the list) She will ignore completely how in most of those games you mow down men left and right with your weapons and overemphasize ONE or TWO Scenes where there are female bodies. It's OK to kill hundreds or thousands of Male NPCs that we know nothing about, but kill ONE Female NPC and it's Misogyny!

Wait... She mentioned Male Corpses!? Ah, I see... The Implied quote of the day is: If you play or make videogames, you're a Necrophiliac!

Again we can compare the way the murdered male bodies are displayed and notice the distinct lack of sexualization in their presentation. The male corpses may be designed to evoke a sense of horror or disgust, but it’s not coupled with elements of sexual titillation in the same way that female bodies are.
If your games have female corpses, you're a Necrophiliac... Let's ignore that having the Female Corpses in Sexualized poses also evoke sense of horror, disgust, and rage. Because let's face it; if a villain has the time to brutally kill a woman AND rearrange her corpse in some sort of pseudo erotic pose, then that villain is one sicko that NEEDS to be put down.

And here we go... Eva from Red Dead Redemption... I called it! I want to point out how she leaves the
part where Eva decides to go to a convent. Here's a walkthrough for the entire EVA IN PERIL mission.


The women who fulfill this trope in gaming universes are sometimes designed to occupy minor narrative roles but more often than not they’re just hollow shells, empty representations with little to no personality or individuality to speak of.
What she conveniently ignores is that we can apply the "hollow shell" definition to pretty much EVERY NPC and most of the "Strangers" on Red Dead Redemption. Minor Characters aren't as developed as main characters (in books, movies, tv and videogames) not simply women.


Now she is using random NPC events...

These vignettes are not major plot points, instead violence against women is essentially used as a set piece to establish or punctuate the seedy atmosphere of crime-and-chaos-ridden fictional universes.
It’s meant to paint the gaming environment with a harsh brush, but it ends up doing so on the backs of women’s bodies, casually sacrificing female characters in the name of setting a ruthless narrative tone.

Because talking about all those vignettes that have male victims being robbed, beaten or killed would put a hamper on the whole "Gaming is a breeding ground of misogyny" narrative.

Now, she goes on Assassin's Creed II and the mission Damsels in Distress. There "the player" keeps screwing up the mission to "make a point" that the Killer will keep going on and on... Meanwhile, when the mission is played correctly it takes less than a minute to beat... and no women (aside the one in the pre-mission cutscene) are killed. Just because a person SUCKS at a mission, does not mean that the DEVELOPERS intended that the Player must ROYALLY SUCK at the mission because Misogyny.

Now she comes back to Red Dead Redemption... Ah the Prostitute mini event. Funny she doesn't mention the Shopkeepers being robbed, Horsejacking, the Stagecoach robberies, or the "Rescue X from bandits", where X is a man or a woman about to be hanged by bandits. Surprised she doesn't talk about the ambush, where a "helpless" woman asks for help, then the player gets ambushed by 4-6 bandits.
What I find funny, not in a haha kind of funny is that for her video clip demo; the player reaches the prostitute with PLENTY ENOUGH TIME to save her, yet the player does nothing... and I mean stands still long enough that Marston begins his standing idly animations.
She then compares it with the Pirates of the Caribbean ride...
Is she capable of understanding Hardware Limitations? The same reason corpses vanish on Sandbox games is why some scripted events repeat themselves. (Or why some characters respawn, or there are multiple "clones" on these sandbox games)  Even the dialogue can repeat itself with NPCs. (Of course, more powerful consoles have less limitations than older, less powerful consoles) a PS4 can emulate a NES game, but a NES can't emulate a WiiU game. Not only that but the whole comparison is Apples to Canteloupes, because one is an interactive experience, and the other you're an external gazer and cannot interact with the events.
No game mechanics are provided to call an EMT, administer first aid or check in on the victim.
Wait... What? She's kidding right? Nope! She is not.. Does she understand what a GAME is? Where is the amusement or fun in calling an EMT and waiting for them to arrive? OK, let's imagine a game like that. The call to the EMT would be reduced to a Cutscene. Can you imagine recording dialogue for ALL of the situations where a random event that would require the EMT call needs? not to mention how that would break the flow of the game. Then there's the Administering CPR mini-game. Another set of controls that the programmers would have to add. Not to mention that it could be an intuitive or an annoying experience to players. (Having flashbacks to GTA 3's Paramedic Missions)
What's next? Enduring the entire law procedure when getting busted in Grand Theft Auto?
Meaning that these female characters exist to be assaulted in order to give the player something to do, a reason to chase down the bad guy, exact vigilante justice on him and gain the allotted experience points. After which the women are casually discarded, forgotten by the game and its characters.
Again, Hardware limitations, there are male characters who are assaulted as well, and not all characters are KEY to the story.

As you can see, the late Raúl Juliá explains it perfectly. It's all a matter of perspective. While yes, having characters die is bad, in the grand scheme of things (THE STORY) they are nothing, because the focus is NOT on them, but on the main characters. I cannot vouch for Watch Dog's case, because I've not played the game, but in most games, characters that die are erased because of hardware limitations.

When the victims are men, sexual objectification and sexual or domestic violence are almost never ingredients in the scenario. Even the countless male thugs and henchmen the player mows down in these games are depicted as active aggressors, not characterized as passive victims.
Um, aren't women the main target of domestic violence? (She'll probably put up the 1 out of 4 women are raped statistic and something about domestic violence affecting more women than men.) If Men are the minority of DV, why would a game put focus on DV against men on a random event that has NO Relevance to the main story?
The Thugs are the aggressors, not the victims!! She completely ignored the male victims and turned the focus on the aggressors. Why should the Aggressors be portrayed as victims?

Plot devices that capitalize on female trauma for shock value function in much the same way as the hitting a child, or kicking the dog, tropes do.
It’s casual cruelty implemented as an easy way to deliver a quick emotional punch to the player by presenting attacks on characters specifically designed to appear pitifully vulnerable.
These scenes serve no real purpose in the plot other than to let the audience know that the perpetrators are truly deplorable monsters.
Actions speak louder than words. Those despicable actions are used to show how much of a degenerate is said character. They are a shortcut to help the reader, viewer, gamer to easily identify the bad guy. We can't get to know the entire background story of everyone we meet in these games. Also, these simple actions make you loathe the villain and want revenge. The reason women are used as victims lies in the notion that Women are for some reason More important than Men. Since men are considered disposable compared to women, then having the villain kill men is akin to us killing a mosquito. You kill it and move on with your life. With women, it's a different ballgame.
The phrase "Women and Children First" in survival scenarios comes to mind. Why are they more important than Adult Men? Why must they be rescued first? Ensuring survival of the species... and all that.

Having these villains do these despicable acts, allows the players more reason to take out these sickos. Making victory much sweeter. Why did people cheered when this happened?

The death of a young man, in this case a King is wrong and despicable... Oh, it was because he's a rotten little turd tyrant!!

But back to the main topic. Yes, it's a bit lazy to show bad guys doing bad things that make the player involved with the action and save NPCs... But again, this is videogames that we're talking about, not reality. Being a colossal A-Hole on a game does not equal being one in Real Life.

It’s a lazy shorthand for “evil” meant to further motivate the protagonist to take the villain down and help justify the excessive violence committed by the player in these games.
After all, if the random thugs or villains are so heartless and vile they attack helpless women, then the player can feel completely justified and even take pleasure in murdering them in ever more gruesome ways.


It's bad if we sit and watch the FICTIONAL women die, but it's JUST AS BAD to SAVE THEM from Harm!? I point towards the Joffrey thing. We cheer when the Disturbing and disgusting villain falls, not when the likable villain does. Again, making the villains more evil, makes the vanquishing of said evil more enjoyable.

These women and their bodies are sacrificed in the name of infusing “mature themes” into gaming stories. But there is nothing “mature” about flippantly evoking shades of female trauma. It ends up sensationalizing an issue which is painfully familiar to a large percentage of women on this planet while also normalizing and trivializing their experiences.


These Fictional Women and their Fictional bodies join the thousands of fictional men who die due to circumstances. What about their trauma. All those male shopkeepers that I've Extorted in The Godfather suffered the same as the female shopkeepers... What about THEIR Trauma? what about the thousand dudes that I've killed in Contra? or Doom? or in the MSX Metal Gear games? right, Killing Millions of fictional men is OK, because Pay Tree Are Key!

BTW The "Mature" term is pretty much the same thing as "R" in movies.
Excessive cussing, excessive violence, glorifying drugs, crime, etc. Dealing with war and the atrocities committed during said wars are the type of things you'd see on a Mature game.

Sexual and domestic violence is at epidemic levels in the real world; one out of every five women in the United States will be raped in their lifetimes. One in four will be sexually assaulted. And women involved in prostitution are at a much higher risk of violence because they are seen as vessels to be used by others rather than as fully human.

So, basically, this is thrown in to create panic and make people believe that videogames cause violence against women... Because Women were not victims of abuse until Videogames were created.

I'm just going to throw this here for no reason at all... OK, I lied (lying is contagious when dealing with a mega liar like you-know-who) See what they did... No, not the Rape Whistle part... the 1 out of 2 girls will be raped or sexually abused. No! I want to know what is the ACTUAL statistics for rape and the actual statistics for sexual assault... Speaking of which
Quick question; what does Sexual Assault mean? It's a bit of a rhetorical question, because the definition keeps changing. Rape is sexual assault, in some places groping is qualified as Sexual assault. Some groups are trying to make catcalls as sexual assault. They're trying to make THIS to be the same thing as rape. See the problem here? Rape is Sexual Assault, but Sexual Assault is not rape, because Sexual assault covers other things.

By changing the definition of assault to include everything beyond a quick glance at a girl into "sexual assault" will inflate the cases of "sexual assault". Note: I am not condoning sexual assault (Things like groping, rape, etc.)  but it's getting to the point that complimenting a female could be considered assault. THAT is freaking scary.
So when games casually use sexualized violence as a ham-fisted form of character development for the “bad guys” it reinforces a popular misconception about gendered violence by framing it as something abnormal, as a cruelty only committed by the most transparently evil strangers. In reality, however, violence against women, and sexual violence in particular, is a common everyday occurrence often perpetrated by “normal men” known and trusted by those targeted.
If they commit such heinous acts then they are not "normal men", they are monsters with a decent facade.  By heinous acts I refer to rape, and/or physical assault. She's still trying to force the idea that "gendered violence" can be caused by videogames. Not going to mention a study that found that the whole "videogames cause violence" is rubbish. Now back unto the villains doing villainous things. Sure we could have them beat men up to show he is ruthless, but let's be fair. Beating up another man is not seen as evil as beating up a woman. (Not condoning violence against anyone.) I'll point out the disposable man. Since the man is expendable, beating up an "expendable object" is "not as bad" as beating up an "irreplaceable object" of greater value.
The truth is that the vast majority of cases are committed by friends, colleagues, relatives, and intimate partners. The gendered violence epidemic is a deep-seated cultural problem present in the homes, communities and workplaces of many millions of women all over the world. It is not something that mostly happens in dark alleys at the hands of cartoon villains twisting nefarious-looking mustaches.
Meanwhile, let's create a misandrist panic by making everything with a penis be a potential rapist.

Looking for positive role Models in Grand Theft Auto is as futile as finding Tetris Por...  winning the Lottery WITHOUT having any tickets. In those games you play as a criminal, who steals, kills and does multiple illicit acts to beat the game. She then goes on to mention how Kratos is ruthless because he has a female character killed to solve a puzzle. Uh, from my limited GoW knowledge, Kratos kills anything in his path because he is a ruthless asshat.
 There is a clear difference between replicating something and critiquing it. It’s not enough to simply present misery as miserable and exploitation as exploitative. Reproduction is not, in and of itself, a critical commentary. A critique must actually center on characters exploring, challenging, changing or struggling with oppressive social systems.
 Missing the point of the term game... It involves FUN! Also, isn't the whole point of that Mission in Watch Dogs to STOP the Human Trafficking ring?
But the game stories we’ve been discussing in this episode do not center or focus on women’s struggles, women’s perseverance or women’s survival in the face of oppression. Nor are these narratives seriously interested in any sort of critical analysis or exploration of the emotional ramifications of violence against women on either a cultural or an interpersonal level.
 Again, because THAT IS NOT THE POINT OF THOSE GAMES!! Also, not all games need to be "Pretentious social justice pieces of pseudo-art" Some games are like Michael Bay movies. "turn off brain and enjoy insane action... and explosions!" Please rewatch the Bison videoclip posted above.
The truth is that these games do not expose some kind of “gritty reality” of women’s lives or sexual trauma, but instead sanitise violence against women and make it comfortably consumable.
 Yeah, no mention of all the violence against men that is sanitized and made "comfortably consumable"...
We don't see the effects of Goon #348's death by meeting his family.

She then talks about an indie game, Papo & yo that deals with the notion of how a kid copes with an Alcoholic father... Through a block puzzle type of game; which makes sense since she doesn't like action games. (she said that they were gross during a lecture in 2010) The game seems interesting, but I don't do Indie games that often, because they tend to be overpriced and buggy as heck, or they end up being pretentious non-games like Gone Home.

I want to emphasize the whole INDIE game thing. Indie Games can allow themselves to do the "pseudo-artsy" type of "games", since they are not tied to huge companies that are ruled by Bean counters and they want to rehash whatever is successful, because money. That's why we get CoD, CoD clones, GTA, GTA clones, Madden, FIFA, etc.
We must remember that games don’t just entertain. Intentional or not, they always express a set of values, and present us with concepts of normalcy. So what do games that casually rely on depictions of female victimhood tell us about women vis-a-vis their place in society?
And I think we have reached the crux of her argument. She can't distinguish between Fiction and Reality... Or at least taking the position of a person who can't distinguish fiction from reality. I thought I complained a lot, but she has got me beat. Looking for positive role models in games like GTA is like expecting Oscar Winning Performances on a movie based on 4 Mutant Turtles that Learn Ninjitsu from a rat... Who learned it from a book! Everything needs to be "Educational" is a crappy argument. The Target Audience of these M rated games are adults. the people that can distinguish between Fantasy and Reality. I'm not against things that target children to have certain educational elements, but to sanitize everything for the sake of "education" (in her case pseudo-feminist propaganda) is just wrong.
Well, the pattern of utilizing women as background decoration works to reinforce the myth that women are naturally fated to be objectified, vulnerable, and perpetually victimized by male violence. These games also tend to frame misogyny and sexual exploitation as an everlasting fact of life, as something inescapable and unchangeable.
But, wasn't she the one saying "one out of five women is raped" and that "rapists are not mustache twirling cartoons, but people close to them."!?  All this time I thought the games were saying: "Violence against women is bad. Therefore, this guy who is violent against women, is bad. Be better than this guy and save the woman."  Heck! I'm afraid to ask what do they say about men, since in games people mow them by the thousands. Oh wait... No one gives a damn about all those fictional men that are killed in games. Again, Representations of Humans in videogames are NOT REAL Humans. They are Literally objects that the player character (another object) interacts with. They are lines of code that are arranged in pixels or polygons. SHE is the one giving us the stats about women being perpetual victims as a fact.

This dominant narrative surrounding the inevitability of female objectification and victimhood is so powerful that it not only defines our concepts of reality but it even sets the parameters for how we think about entirely fictional worlds, even those taking place in the realms of fantasy and science fiction. It’s so normalized that when these elements are critiqued, the knee-jerk response I hear most often is that if these stories did not include the exploitation of women, then the game worlds would feel too “unrealistic” or “not historically accurate”.
Please rewatch the Naked Gun clip I posted above. She's trying to half-answer her critics... and failing.
She's complaining about the usage of strip clubs and brothels as backdrops for some games. These games often involve criminals and a common background for illegal transactions are often strip clubs and brothels. She also complains about said strip clubs and brothels to be full with strippers or prostitutes (depending on the location.) Is it weird to have strippers at a strip club? Or is she expecting Immortal Xiao Lin Nuns?
If a game is set during the prohibition era, speakeasies and brothels go hand in hand. Having no prostitutes at the saloons in Red Dead Redemption would have been historically inaccurate. If a game took place in say, Ponyville, having a Prostitute Pony would feel out of place...

Wait! The ponies are at a Western town, with Sterotypical Native American Buffaloes. So, a Saloon Girl makes sense! BOOM! When a show made for kids, by a feminist has a Western Episode, they made sure to add a Saloon Girl, for historical accuracy... You don't expect a Police Station to be filled with Firemen, or a Hospital full of school teachers, right? Same principle applies here. No one is defending the violence against women, but the idea that if an environment is used on a semi-realistic game, then the characters in those environments should more or less match the real world counterparts. It's like removing swastikas, nazi references, etc from WWII games.
I understand NOT having Prostitutes in, say, The Mushroom Kingdom. A fantasy world that is mostly idyllic, except the times that Bowser feels the need of taking over.
But let's go to the whole Objectification thing. Are these characters REAL HUMAN BEINGS? No, therefore, you can't objectify things that are not even human to begin with.

What does it say about our culture when games routinely bend or break the laws of physics and no one bats an eye? When dragons, ogres and magic are inserted into historically influenced settings without objection. We are perfectly willing to suspend our disbelief when it comes to multiple lives, superpowers, health regeneration and the ability to carry dozens of weapons and items in a massive invisible backpack. But somehow the idea of a world without sexual violence and exploitation is deemed too strange and too bizarre to be believable.
Gameplay Elements does not equal Plot elements. If an environment is used on a semi-realistic game, then the characters in those environments should more or less match the real world counterparts. Zombies worked on Red Dead Redemption, because they used a common trope (Indian Magic) to justify it... (by trope I mean: Tropes are devices and conventions that a writer can reasonably rely on as being present in the audience members' minds and expectations.) Now, was it perfect? No, but there was no other way to justify zombies in a world before nuclear energy or genetic engineering.  Now, let's return to the characters matching their environments. So, you're in a GTA game. A mission sends you to a Strip Club. The Strip club is pretty much vacant... It's night. Your first instinct is:

Nope! It's a normal mission where you talk to the manager of the club that wants you to go somewhere and do something else for him. You have entered the "sanitized zone" a zone that cleans up the violence in games in the name of Political Correctness... "It's not censorship if it's for social justice, even if it's doing the exact same thing as censorship." Does anyone remember how the sanitizing games worked for Nintendo?  They gave up on it by the second Mortal Kombat.
The truth is that objectification and sexual violence are neither normal nor inevitable. We do not have to accept them as some kind of necessary cultural backdrop in our media stories. Contrary to popular belief, the system of patriarchy has not existed for all of history across all time and all cultures. And as such it can be changed. It is possible to imagine fictional worlds, even of the dark, twisted dystopian variety, where the oppression and exploitation of women is not framed as something expected and inevitable.
Except when men = cannon fodder... no one bats an eye at that. Why do I keep mentioning that? It's simple: slapping a woman in one mission is not worse than killing hundreds of men with guns, rifles, grenades, vehicles, Molotov cocktails, etc. Not condoning acts of violence towards real people, but one transgression against a woman is not worth more than murdering a hundred men. where's the "equality" in that?
Aaaaaand she HAD to mention the Patriarchy. FYI it's not real... Just like the monster under the bed and Justin Bieber's sense of decency.

Hmm...

Didn't she say a while back the following:
So when games casually use sexualized violence as a ham-fisted form of character development for the “bad guys” it reinforces a popular misconception about gendered violence by framing it as something abnormal, as a cruelty only committed by the most transparently evil strangers.
but now she says:
The truth is that objectification and sexual violence are neither normal nor inevitable. 



First sexual violence is NOT abnormal, because the misconception IS that it's abnormal and only people who are evil do it. Now it's NOT Normal and it can be avoided? How can it be one thing and be it's complete opposite at the same time?

BTW... Does she even know what the word Dystopia means? You can't have a dystopia without oppressing and exploiting people in general... The only way to have a Dystopia where women aren't oppressed is a Radical Feminist Matriarchy where men are the oppressed... and we'd be back to step one but with roles reversed.
When we see fictional universes challenging or even transcending systemic gender oppression, it subverts the dominant paradigm within our collective consciousness, and helps make a more just society feel possible, tangible and within reach. 
If she wants to see that, then she should make her own damned game! Put her money where her mouth is. She wants change, then she should start MAKING said change and not whine about it. SHE collected $160,000 to make these whine sessions. she should go back to kickstarter ask for a Million and MAKE the type of games SHE wants. Why must the Big Studios cater specifically to HER TASTES!? There is an indie market where social justice minded pseudo artsy "games" are made and sold. Why must Rockstar, Capcom, EA, Ubisoft, Activision, Square-Enix, etc. change the games they make to suit her wants? They'll make what brings them EASY MONEY. Taking risks on some experimental game, that may not be considered a game by hardcore gamers (and the main customer base) is not a financially viable idea for them. Indie Developers do it as a labor of love and to tell a story.
As my final thoughts, I'll leave with this:

Oh, who lives in peace 'neath the willow tree...
Sexual Harassment Panda!
Who explains sexual harassment to you and me...
Sexual Harassment Panda!
Don't say that! Don't touch there! Don't be nasty, says the silly bear!
He's come to teach you right and wrong...
Sexual Harassment Panda!

How is it related to her? Simple. The lyrics in Bold seem to match her behavior. She wants to bring awareness about "issues" but in reality she wants to make gaming fit her views. Of course she has an escape clause when she gets called out on that. She is simply teaching you what's right and wrong.

Just hurry up and do the fighting F-toy so I can see how DoA will show up there... Probably the only game we will agree on... BTW, Dead or Alive: the Movie passes the Bechdel Test... Life can be funny at times.

It's not that I am against equality, but there are FAR MORE important things to fight for than whether a game has virtual prostitutes, or how Princess Peach is such a victim. Again, Fighting Genital Mutilation of women in various countries (Meanwhile circumcision for males is legal...) , help Shelters for DV victims, etc. is FAR MORE Important than defending the "rights" of FICTIONAL CHARACTERS... Not Real People, but Lines of code represented visually by sprites or polygons.

"Preaching" from an ivory tower with a double wall protecting her: Her more zealous fans (ie the infamous White Knights) and her "no direct replies" wall keep her out of touch with reality.  She may have the knowledge in the areas of feminism, but it is RATHER OBVIOUS that she doesn't understand games too well. It's rather funny that she claims that women are oppressed yet, she was able to collect nearly $160,000 to make videos about first world problems. If she was as "oppressed" as she claims all women are; wouldn't "the Patriarchy" have stopped her kickstarter and automatically remove her youtube channel? Think about it. Don't believe her blindly. Question what she says, the same way you should question what EVERYONE says... Including me. Don't believe blindly without checking for facts.

*Update*
As I was looking for the videos to put on the rant (both the serious ones and the joke ones) It was brought to my attention that she was allegedly harassed by a stalker who was threatening to rape and kill her. Personally, I think she's exploiting this situation to gather sympathy donations. (Whether the threats are real or not.)

I want to emphasize the following: IF the threats are real, I hope that no harm comes to her or her family and friends; that the authorities can apprehend the suspect. If proven guilty by a court of law, then the stalker should punished to the full extent of the law for stalking and threatening another person.

If it's proven that she made up the threats in order to gain sympathy; then she should be punished to the full extent of the law that would apply to making and reporting false accusations.