Completing core rosters vs going balls deep...

 I don't know how it is for everyone else, but I hate starting a toyline that ends without getting the core characters by the time it's canned. (Mainly SH Figuarts stuff, to use an example) 

At the same time, I'm aware that burning through core characters TOO fast can kill lines as well. But going "balls deep" into EVERY LINE is an impossibility, due to budget, space, and time. For example, Storm Collectibles were more affordable back when they were on the 50-60 range. Now the cheaper Storm Collectibles figures are on the 80-90 range. And to this date, they haven't completed the core roster of ANY of their lines.

But when you get a Core Team completed is such a fulfilling experience. When I had the completed X-Men The Animated series Roster, it felt fantastic. When I completer the Amazong Spider-Friends in six inches, I was ecstatic! 

I must say, completing the Multiversal core 7 heroes for TMNT is Terrific! Once Tygra, Cheetara, Lynx-O, and Bengali show up, it'll be the Cat's Pajamas!! 

The funny thing is that This wave was the first time I didn't go Balls deep on TMNT... sure, now Muckman and Mondo Gecko are on my BBTS Pile of Loot, but that's not the point. It's not about price, because NECA is a lot cheaper in general, yet I can't go balls deep with them.

I'm not sure why, but I'm feeling a lot pickier with TMNT than I did with MOTUC. (AND EVEN WITH MOTUC, I DIDN'T GO 100% IN...) sure, price increases are part of the issue of why I am holding back... but at the same time, I know that there's another factor at play here:

My love for TMNT is not the same as my love for MOTU. I can only blame the line for that. Turtle variants, there are far too many zany variants to justify. With MOTU you only got a He-Man and Skeletor variant every few waves. New characters were the priority, but with TMNT it's a few good waves, then it's variant city... not to mention that a lot of the later non-variants felt like D-list Mutanimals wannabes...

I mean Walkabout, Hotspot, Sandstorm, Sgt. Bananas felt more at home on a Mutanimals line than TMNT. Then there's the thing that I already own most of the core characters:

As seen on the pic above, I have all the core heroes. I also have on various stages of preorder most of the extra good guys I want...

Mondo Gecko, Muckman, Ray Fillet. 

My missing desired good guys are:

The 3 Neutrinos, the 2 Punk Frogs, Usagi, Fugitoid, Burne, Irma, Vernon, and Mona Lisa.

On the Bad guy side I'm not done yet, but I'm close.

I already have: Shredder, Rocksteady, Bebop, Baxter, Leatherhead, Krang, Slash, couple of Foot Soldiers, couple of Mousers.

The characters I need to have a "full core roster" are:

Rat King, Traag and Krang's Android body.

The missing evil wants are:

Tokka, Rahzar, Super Shredder, Chrome Dome, Pizzaface, Groundchuck and Dirtbag.

That's going on vintage toyline characters only.

In a recent podcast with Fwoosh, the guy from Super7 mentioned the possibility of Comic variants being included for guys like Casey... a reference to the American Flag look was made.

If this is possible and Mirage character can be made, then I could dabble and pick some characters. In a line with HUNDREDS (almost 300) of figures, I only want 36-50 figures (I didn't mention variants like Sewer Samurai Leo, Mutatin Splinter and Shredder, Toon Shredder, among a few others)

While with MOTUC I didn't have that problem, since I wanted most of the original 70-something figures. I also wanted the 20-something She-Ra figures. I also wanted whatever 200X stuff they threw at me. It was easy to cave in and buy NA Stuff. (It also helped that they were a lot cheaper than Super7's offerings and the "figure of the month approach" made it easier for the wallet.)

So, in a line like MOTUC, Going Balls Deep could be more easily justified for me. A line like TMNT is a bit harder to do so. This is due to price and my lack of appreciation for the roster. I like the lore and the core characters, but a lot of the non-variant extras do nothing for me.

A line like Thundercats suffers from a similar fate. I have most of the characters I wanted on the first 5 waves... and more since Mattel "forced" Pumyra on me. What helped me was that Super7 never made a Lunatak to force my hand. Lucky for me, since Amok wpuld be siper expensive.

Silverhawks forced my hand to get less figures than I wanted, simply due to Price and asking for too much at the same time. But even before it was announced, I wasn't planning to go balls deep either.

And that's the issue at hand: HOW TO KNOW whether to go Balls deep on a line or not.

Honestly though, I feel that going balls deep on a toyline is the rarer thing. If you're doing it as a speculator, forget about it... this is not the proper investment for you. If you're doing it as a fan of the product, do so, but be prepared for disappointment... for example, no one has made the 17 SSFIIT Fighters in a single toyline. Even Gatchaman, which is a rather small line going by the Human characters:

The 5 Science Ninja

Dr. Nanbu

Berg Katze

Galactor Trooper

That's 8 figures... sure you could pad the line with 7 more figures by having

The 5 Science Ninja in civilian attire

Female Berg Katze

Bulkier Galactor Trooper

But with the slow pace of Storm Collectibles releasing stuff, I can't see them completing at least the CORE members, which would be the first 8 I mentioned. It would suck to get Ken, Jun, Ryu, and Female Berg Katze...

Phicen 1:6 Street Fighter line!?

 Ryu is the figure I saw that is coming... a 12 inch Ryu with cloth clothes and on a seamless body... like a sex doll... are you thinking what I'm thinking?

No, I'm not wondering if he has a dick or not... I hope he does, because if I could buy him and a future female Street Fighter figure, I'd put them in inappropriate poses. But let's get serious for a moment and not think of Ryu getting molested.

This figure is theoretically the closest thing to a perfect Ryu Figure. He has 9 extra hands and can correctly Hadoken, Shoryuken, and Tatsumakisenpuukyaku. He even has his duffel bag. The only thing missing is extra heads with different expressions and a closed eyes KOed head. 

Personally, the price is a bit steep, but based on the 6 inch "Dolly", I can see how a 12 incher would be better.

But Barbie better watch out where she parks

I guess the next figure will be Ken for obvious reasons... since this Ryu is SFV Based, you know this means Banana Hair Ken will return.

Why I don't care about The Matrix Resurrections

 I saw the Trilogy, saw the Animatrix, trudged through the two awful videogames, but I absolutely have no interest in "going down the rabbit hole" with

Mr. Anderson... it's been 18 years... I have outgrown the Matrix and its edginess. I have taken the red pill and see that this saga is extremely overrated and it hinges on the success of the only good movie, the original. The games weren't that good and Path of Neo ended up being a retcon for the third movie and even then the ending was stupid. I suppose that the pretentiousness and illusion of depth, now retconed into a metaphor for being transgender. Before this last retcon, the messages from The Matrix were very similar to themes from some JRPGs, Shonen Anime, and other videogames that tried the pseudo deep sophistry of dabbling in introductory college philosophy course topics. The trenchcoat wearing revolution is nothing more than an adolescent dream where no one can do anything if they aren't "the chosen one". But when you think about it, the heroes are the biggest assholes. The real world is a wasteland where humanity clings to a dystopic dump because of "muh freedumb". Meanwhile, the machines let humans "sleep" withim a simulated world that is far less messed up than the true reality.

Also, When half of the Wachowski sisters duo doesn't return to direct the 18 years late sequel, one must ask themselves:  Why didn't she return? There must be something wrong with it to not want to heve her name attached to it.

Besides, the trilogy had a fitting conclusion with Neo Sacrificing himself to stop Smith and reach a peace treaty with the Machines bringing at worse a ceasefire and at best peace. Redigging the grave of the Matrix feels like Terminator sequels after Terminator 2... an unnecessary soulless cashgrab... so I'll be taking that Blue Pill, please. Aside the whole betraying everyone else, Cypher was right.

But, if you still enjoy the Matrix and its sequels, feel free to enjoy Resurrections. 

Naughty or Nice Collection preorder period will close up in a couple hours

 Roughly in 20 hours, the campaign will be over. Apparently everything reached the minimum aside the completely White artist proof Santa... I have to wonder what Wave 2 will bring, since we have Army Santa, Pirate Santa and Cyborg Santa...

How about a "Young Santa" not necessarily inspired by the Rankin Bass movie? Or a reversed Colors Santa, white outfit with red accents with gold belt/boots and black buckles.

Or a full Krampus not disguised as Santa?

I've been wondering if the Easter Bunny or Cupid would be tackled as we reach other holidays. I mentioned a while back wanting a Samurai Santa...

Will Mrs. Claus be a thing? Or how about a Reideer Wrestling Santa? Think Mike Haggar from Final Fight with Santa-styled clothes.

But I guess I should wait until I get my Vanilla Santa in 2022.

Spider-Man: The Animated series: a rant

 I guess it is time to go back to the 90s and listen to that guy from Aerosmith again...

Yes, the 1990s Spider-man Animated series was a strange creature... it wasn't my first Spidey series. That honor goes to syndication keeping the 1967 series alive, in addition to having the 1980s AND Amazing Spider-Friends all at the same time, which confused my child brain. Especially with the Iconic 1967 English intro being replaced with a weird Latin American song. I did see the original intro on a VHS tape when I was a wee lad. But my Tween Brain is less confused about 1990s Spider-Man. Looking at it from a "current year" perspective, we can call the show: corny, lame, low budget, childish, and all those insults that somehow they work for Filmation He-Man as well. 

These two Clips don't help my cause. But read me out. Yes, the show was corny and censored up the ass. Avi Arad was also one of the reasons the show was canceled, especially when he was teying to outMattel Mattel at using the show to sell toys. Then there's the infamous James Cameron Movie that held back the Origin, Electro and Sandman... that's why we got so much Hyrdoman!

For one to properly analyze the series, one must look at this from a 1994 perspective.

The Censors were heavy on violence, especially outside the US and were angry at shows like Batman TAS, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and Gargoyles coming out a month before Spider-Man and not pulling any punches didn't help our webhead.

On the other front they had certain things they couldn't do, like many crossovers (the one with X-Men was expensive) Spidey couldn't appear in other shows.

This was problematic... But promoting shows that were in other networks was a big no-no... and despite being on the same Network as X-Men, that small cameo was super problematic.

So, many Spidey stories in which he crossed over with other characters had to be modified to hell or scrapped. Stories that were to dark had to be tweaked to hell or scrapped.

Gwen was ubdoable because people knew she'd die (had been dead for close to 20 years) and the debate about her death is controversial and a big no-no. That's why MJ ended up Getting Gwen Stacy'd to the Shadow Realm.

We then have Avi Arad trying to push toy product placement over story... He was the reason why Norman Osborn being the Green Goblin was delayed to have the Hobgoblin first, because of a Big Glider toy...

Used a couple of times in the show for product placement. The Spider Slayers were pushed as Product placement sonce their design screamed "Available now at KB Toys"... Comic accurate Spider Slayers are not as toyetic.

Production was hectic as well, so it's almost a miracle that they managed to pull something off. 

Now let's talk Spider-Man... outside the comics he had, a nifty themesong with a forgettable cartoon... can you remember ANYTHING from it? 

Peter reading a book?

You know that from a Meme.

Spider-Man sitting at a desk?

Another Meme, I swear if you mention Spider-Man pointing at a Spider-Man...

Spider-Man spoiling moments!

You didn't even TRY to make the meme make sense!?

Alright, I only know it cause of the memes... Have you seen that show!? That shit's barely watchable!

Language! Yes, yes it is. You can blame nost of the wtf factor on Ralph Bakshi... fun fact, the 90s Spider-sense is a nod to Bakshi's acid fueled animations. OK back on topic, the original cartoon had so many corners cut that it is now a circle.

After that it had the 1970s Live Action series...

Not that one... the American one... the less we talk about Supaidaaman the better.

I BARELY remember the series and didn't bother watching it because it was Spidey against normal criminals, despite being on syndication. I do remember catching some reruns on Sci-Fi channel. I remember saying that the only good thing about the show was the porno music... before being attacked by a flying chancla. Mostly for mentioning the word "porno" in front of my 5-7 year old brother, or my early teen self involuntarily admitting that I have had watched 70s porn in order to recognize the music.

The 80s... 2 Spider-Man cartoons made roughly at the same time... only one is mostly remembered...

It's not this one... it's the other one. With Firestar jumping from the cartoon to the comics... But Spider-Man's biggest marks on media outside of comics were a logo and a balloon...

So, where does this leave us? While Spidey IS Marvel's Flagship character, it was Hulk who was more successful at surviving outside the comics... until the 90s. As Marvel was spiraling down in bankruptcy they were trying in desperation to see what could stick and save their asses outside of comics. Enter Arad and ToyBiz. The first attempt was toys and to sell the toys cartoons were needed. Enter the X-Men...

Not those X-Men... the ones with the Hungarian Cop song

This toon put the X-Men on a more recognizable role. Coupled with a few good videogames, The X-Men became as recognized as Hulk. Spider-Man,  Fantastic Four, Iron Man, The Avengers, Ghost Rider, Silver Surfer, among others tried to climb the popularity ladder. Cartoons and videogames came and went, but obly Spider-Man and X-Men somehow reached the top, while everyone else was forgotten. Virtually no one knew about Iron Man until Robert Downey Jr. Hell, before the MCU, who paved the way for Superhero movies? X-Men and Spider-Man. The only reason we had the 2002 Spider-Man, the popularity of the animated series at the time.

So, let's ignore the flaws and look at what it accomplished:

-it was the first Spider-Man series to stick to the rich lore from the comics as a source. While it wasn't exactly super faithful to the source Material, it did push some boundaries by adapting certain stories. Like The Kid who Collected Spider-Man... this time it was a little girl instead of a boy... and Doc Ock is horribly humiliated. 

-Unlike past series, this one relied on Marvel Comics characters as villains. The closest thing to a Made up Character is AGENT X, who could be a Spidey TAS Version of Sharon Carter or Black Widow. I mean this show had Morbius, Rocket Racer, Prowlers, Big Wheel, The Spider Slayers, Hydroman. 

-the few Big Crossovers it had could be considered events. It even had a "Spider-verse" roughky 20 years before the comics. It even referenced the infamous oneclay agasay. 

But as I mentioned before, it's not only the comics that get some love on this cartoon. Past iterations get some love as well. I already mentioned the Bashki Spider-sense, look at Peter Parker, he's the spitting image of Nicholas Hammond. The later outfit (brownish jacket, reddish shirt) is supposedly, a nod to the 1980s outfit in different colors. Personally, I don't see it, but Spider-Man Unlimited's Peter Parker outfit is a more obvious nod to the second TAS Outfit.

Some people may say that Spectacular Spider-Man is much Better than this one, and they'd be correct. The issue is that without this one,  Spectacular wouldn't have been as good, since it couldn't learn from the mistakes made here. So yeah, it's a flawed bit of media that played a key role for shaping the future.

Also, fuck Avi Arad... sure, he saved Marvel back then, but gained enough power to become a villain. (He forced Venom on Spider-Man 3, he forced Amazing Spider-Man 1 and 2, and the Sinister Six without proper buildup plans were all him.)

Odds and ends Dec. 29, 2021... John Madden edition

 I guess a change of name is coming to the famous videogame franchise, since Legendary Football Coach, John Madden has been seen by Haley Joel Osment. Condolences to the family and friends. I've very little to say because, all I know about John Madden is: 

-Legendary Football Coach. (I don't care about Football)

-Has a videogame series named after him. (I don't care about Football)

I know what you're thinking: If I don't care about Football, why mention it? 

"Videogame series named after him" is related to something I care about.

Not even Despacito singing P.T. Barnum is immune to COVID-19. Hugh Jackman has been hit by the virus. The House of Rants wishes a speedy recovery to Leopold before he goes back in time... What? Were you expecting an X-Men reference?  

A random thought, since Tobey and Garfield appeared in No Way Home, does that mean that the "Amazing" Spider-Man movies and the Bully Maguire movies are part of the MCU? IF SO, then Tobey started the MCU... until Disney retcons in the Fox movies and then Picard and Gandalf started the MCU. If Tobey, Garfield or Holland appear in the sequel to into the Spider-verse, then that would mean that the MCU started with:

Todd announced some new toys... among them, Titan Joker... as in the final boss from Arkham Asylum.

Will he make an Arkham Knight with Gunfingers, since guns are now a big no-no on DC toys... What about Two-Face? Mr. Freeze? Scarface? The gun ban is dumb... especially for "adult collectibles". Will we get a Bruce Wayne with an extra Hush as Wayne head?

The Return of Faker thoughts

 The Faking Filmation kickstarter campaign gave a Christmas present to backers. A preview of The Return of Faker. To my understanding, this is not the finished version, since some scenes based on the rewards haven't been animated. But from what I've seen so far, it's impressive. There are a few areas that could use some polish, (He-Man vs Faker fight) but again, this isn't the finished version. 

I don't want anyone to take this the wrong way, but the process to making this "episode" in a way it's very similar to the process of making an abridged series. Instead of looking for matwrial to poke fun at the original, it uses audio and scenes from existing episodes cobbled together. It was eerie hearing Linda Gary once again. This enters the morally grey area of DeepFakes. 

Aside some slight hiccups in some of the animations involving new poses/movement, it felt very much in line with what a Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe episode should feel like. Taking in consideration that this was a fan-made episode, the results are Astonishing. I shiver at the thoughts of what James Eatock could do if he had NBCUniversal's blessing, a budget, and Audio DeepFakes weren't frowned upon by the Guild. If there is a person, I'd trust with expanding the Filmation MOTU and POP Universe is James Eatock...

The reason I'm sticking to the technical stuff despitw not being well versed in that area is because I don't want to spoil this... at least not until it's officially released.

UnMetal is the best Non-Hideo Kojima game that has ever Hideo Kojima Gamed.

 Unmetal, the Indie Metal Gear Parody is on sale for the Switch at a lower price due to a sale. It ends on New Year's Eve or something.

I've only played up until defeating the first boss and I'm enjoying every second of it. The game was made by a Spaniard, so the humor is tailored to Spaniard sensibilities. Some of the humor is lost in translation, which mirrors Kojima's Japanese writing losing stuff in translation as well. This parody/love letter type of game would be a nice thing to see. For example a Platformer parodying Mega Man. The premise could be instead of robots, a rainbow special squad gone rogue and the reserve member having to fight his former comrades and stop the villain. Taking the tropes from the sentai tokusatsu and mega man games.

Or taking an infamous game like Castlevania 2 and making "a good version" while having some fun with classical horror tropes and Castlevania tropes... wall meat, Die Monster... What a terrible night to have a curse... the usual. 

I know this concept isn't new, since Konami has parodied their own Gradius series with the Parodious series.

Beat em ups, one on one fighters, platformers, JRPGs, horror, there are tons of genres that can be parodied. The fact that parody games CAN be made AND at the same time BE GOOD is one way to prove that Videogames CAN BE ART.

Revisiting Liberty City: GTA 3 from the Definitive Edition first thoughts

 Third Quarter 2001... probably Mid-November. I was barely in college. I had to study pretty early in college, so I could be home before my younger brother was dropped off from school. Back then I didn't have classes on the weekends... such innocent times. I believe the Proto-Marvel Legends line, Spider-Man Classics had started my transition to the 6-inch collecting. I still wasn't that big into articulation, because Man-Spider was freaking awesome. I believe that this was before Yu-Gi-Oh! Holy shit, it's been a bit over 20 years... I knew about GTA 1 and 2, but had very little interest in them. My PS2 Collection at the time consisted of CVS2, MGS2, and Final Fantasy X. Little did I knew, that enduring accompanying my Mom to the nail salon on that fateful Saturday, would've yielded a grand surprise... Hell, right now I'd WISH I hadn't dismissed those trips, not for the toy/game acquisition potential, but to hang out with Mom a bit more.

So on that fateful Saturday, after she got her nails done, we went to a Mall which was like half hour from home to dilly dally. This Precise Mall was the one that changed my life in the late 80s with $4.99. Well, now they had a Gamestop. So I went in, I saw Grand Theft Auto III and due to my grades, fulfilling my duties as my Brother's Keeper, and accompanying her when I could've stayed home, she thought that it was a reasonable reward. After I explained the game to her and its content, she agreed to buy the game, with the caveat of not exposing my preteen (at the time) brother to too sexually explicit content. Violence, no problem, Titties, BIG Problem. I ended up winning quite a lot more on that day, since Battle Sound He-Man, Battle Sound Skeletor and Battle Cat were at the register... The day I got Grand Theft Auto III was the very same day my passion for He-Man was reignited... After watching the VHS tapes and playing with the figures, it was time...

This was my first Open World Experience AFTER Shenmue. I was dazed and confused by the sheer size of Portland. It's small by today's standards and to most JRPG standards if the world map was 1:1 scale. The illusion of freedom was pretty great. You could go anywhere by driving a car or go on foot, which is mindblowing in comparison to other action games that followed a linear path and when put in a vehicle, usually meant a scripted "rollercoaster ride".  The radio stations, the commercials, the background characters speaking, and the sounds created a somewhat realistic atmosphere that mocked American culture in a clever yet low-brow way. But, 20 years later, the Nostalgia Glasses have lost their rosy tint. The game is buggy, restrictive, with awkward driving, fighting, and shooting. Grove Street games made and awful remaster of the game, but for some reason I'm enjoying it. There are plenty of things missing from its PlayStation 2 counterpart comma but this is due to these games being built from upscaled ports of the mobile game port.

Somehow it manages to feel so right but at the same time it feels so very wrong. Most likely due to the rushed nature of this remaster. 

This was the common complaint EVERYWHERE. As it is right now, it's not worth the $60 it costs. The game was supposedly rebuilt from the ground up using Unreal Engine. Instead of fixing the Jumping issues where Claude can barely climb a knee high step while jumping (a requisite for obtaining certain hidden packages) they recreated them. I'm not asking for Nathan Drake climbing skills. I just want to hop on this small wall here to get that taped block of cocaine.

Maybe instead of these remasters, Rockstar should be more focused on GTA VI. But GTA3, Vice City, AND SAN ANDREAS should be remade reimagined in the HD Era. All you have to do is make some changes to the story and missions to fit the HD era maps. Have the actual GTA 3, VC, and SA be movies that were INSPIRED on the real events. The reason their LC, VC, and SA look different is because they weren't completely filmed on location.

GTA SA could be divided into 2-3 games, while VC and LC should have their single game. That way certain events can be tweaked, using GTA 3 as an example, reintroducing "Darkel", increasing "Forelli" presence, etc. Yes, I put some names in quotations because HD Liberty doesn't match with 3D Liberty and some names were chanfed for "artistic liberties". Like in OG 3, you have a big final showdown with Catalina at the Dam. On "the true version" you kill Catalina much earlier and it's an unceremonious kill. The "family war" could be between the members of the commission and outside wannabe families. The entirety of Liberty City is open from the start. Hell, in order to connect everything there could be a mission where "Claude" acts as a Bodyguard to Actor Ray Liotta who is playing Tommy Vercetti, specifically, the scene where Vercetti does what dubs him as the "Harwood Butcher"... The main story is still there "Claude" gets betrayed and left for dead. As a prisoner convoy is being transported, a group of professionals hijack the convoy. During the chaos, "Claude" escapes with another prisoner who knows people that might help. On his quest for revenge, Claude brings chaos to the seedy underbelly of Liberty City, but not everyone is happy with his exploits so now he has to eliminate the persons who are causing him too much trouble.

So, back on topic how do I feel about the remastered GTA3? WEIRD. 

It came from the Toy Chest: Mark Hamill as Skeletor...

 

Thanks to Santa Claus for leaving this at a friend's house... I didn't  buy this, because I have an aversion to Masterverse Thanks to Kevin Smith. This is the Skele"god", imbued with the power of bullshit and I'm here to review the figure not to mock the shell of what once was a great director.

Articulation

39 years after the Original line, 19 years after Marvel Legends debuted, Mattel discovers double elbows and knees. I'd d3scribe the articulation as:

Marvel Legends limbs, NECA torso. The fogure has a decent range of articulation despite the bracers and loincloth.

4.5

Paint and sculpt 

Here Skeletor falls flat. He has a splotchy wash that instead of giving shadows, looks like he's just dirty. The other paint hits are well done on mine. Some figures have had some green accents missing from the armor. The cloth cape somehow manages to look both good and janky at the same time. Despite all this, it manages to to be a decent representation of the character... now imagine of a better sculptor, like say Jean St.Jean, or the fourhorsemen had worked on this figure.

3.5

Accessories 

Energy shot

2 grip hands

Sword of Power.

Sadly there is nothing that could be added to give this figure any value... aside extra hands, which Mattel only does the bare minimum.

4.0

Overall:

Skelecod gets a 4.0 as his final score. Is not a bad score... but the biggest issue is the sculpt. I know that it's supposed to be inspired by the cartoon, but it simply looks inferior to MOTUC. It may have the size and articulation advantage over MOTUC, but it somehow feels like a step back from MOTUC.

Skelegod: By the power of Grayskull
Nefty: Oh crap...

Skelegod: I have the... Not again!
Nefty: Suck it, Cockknocker!!

Skelegod: My fapping hand!
Nefty: wait a second, could I...

Nefty: I've been waiting my whole life for this...
Skelegod: NOOOOOOOOOOO!!
Nefty: By the Power of Grayskull...

Nefty: I have the Power and shit!!
Skelegod: YOU DARE TO DISRESPECT THE POWER!!

Skeletor: Your mere presence disrespects me, you imitator...
Skelegod: WRRRRRYYYYYYYYYY!!
Nefty: Did you just make a JoJo reference?
Skeletor: I'll squash you like a a Cockroach Zoanoid!!
Nefty: A Guyver reference? It must be Christmas!!

Skeletor: There can be only one...
Nefty: Now a Highlander reference? If you keep this up I'm going to plow Evil-Lyn...
Skeletor: just make sure to keep the sword away from her... we don't need a He-Vil-Lyn again...
Nefty: I'll yell her I'm her long lost brother.
Skeletor: Whatever you do, don't let her call you winter... othwise she'll ask of Winter is cumming...

Nefty: That joke su-ooof!!!
Skeletor: Please Die, I'm givong you a chance because it's Christmas...

He-Man: What the Hell is going on here?
Skeletor: He killed a me from another universe who had your sword from another universe. He used the Power of Grayskull to kill the other me.
He-Man: You lnow what? It's too early for this bullshit, let me have my coffee first...

Tis a dark time for He-Man

 No, this isn't a Kevin Smith sucks ass, or Mattel is run by a bunch of nincompoops that make Rocksteady and Bebop seem competent rant. This rant is related to He-Man's father... not King Randor, but Mark Taylor, the creator of He-Man... Vikor and Demo-Man were part of the proto-MOTU before the designs evolved into the He-Man and Skeletor that we know and love.

Sadly, Master Taylor, has been seen by Haley Joel Osment. I don't have any info on the details of his passing, nor do I want to dig deep. All I know is that various trusted members of the MOTU community have confirmed Master Mark Taylor's passing. I never met the man personally, but his work has left an enormous impact in my life. 

Mark Taylor: The Master behind the Masters of the Universe.

My condolences to his friends and family left behind. Good Journey Master Taylor... Good Journey!

Merry Christmas from the House of Rants

 X-Mas is coming. Another year is about to end soon. We've had our highs, we've had our lows, and everything in between. It's been another semi bizarre year due to recent world events, there are a few things changing on my personal life with will have an impact on this blog. I  honestly, don't  know what the future will look like, but I'll  keep stumbling through. I still haven't reviewed the Avengers box set... or finished Midnight Sun... but that's life... or maybe I'm leaving incomplete stuff in order to remain as a ghost. Would that make me a Ghostwriter?

I had to go there... haunting kids, solving mysteries... but seriously, could I keep writing this blog if I was a ghost? I don't mean a ghost blogger, as in someone who is hired to write posts on behalf of others... I mean Me writing posts from beyond the grave, as in me being a writer that happens to be a ghost. What does this have to do with Christmas? I have no clue but maybe I could do some Christmas Carol thing with my ghost powers. Do I even get ghost powers?

I completely forgot where I was going with this. I want to thank you for being here and reading this blog.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and stuff!

Advent Calendar 24: Crime is afoot... or a Foot Clan...

 

Both Shredder and Splinter from the 2019 SDCC Exclusive Capture of Splinter pack have appeared in other posts. I never got around doing the full review, because life and other things got in da wae. With the arrival of the Foot Ninja 2 pack, it meant that I had a chance to do a stealth review of the SDCC box set with this two pack.

The set contains Shredder, Splinter and 2 Foot Ninja. The problem is that we have 4 turtles and a Casey... The Foot is Outnumbered. Enter the 2 pack. Now we have 2 Foot Ninja in addition to the other 2 Foot Ninja. With Tokka and Rahzar everything "evens out".

Let's get cracking:

Articulation 

Both Shredder and Foot Ninja share bodies. With same bodies both have the same Articulation. They have the "ugly" double jointed elbows and knees...

It's Not me-soggy-knee! It's a reference to the first movie...

NECA Warning:

Treat all the articulation points with extra care because this is a NECA toy and they tend to be unintentionally fragile at times especially at the joints. 

This Warning should apply doubly in cold climate. I was fortunate enough none of the figures had any breakage issues. As you can see, I can get them not quite in Seiza, but they can be posed in a kneeling pose in front of Shredder. I also didn't go too wild and crazy with the posing due to the possible fragility and hard to find nature of these.

4.5 

Splinter has unique articulation due to his rat body. He IS SUPER FRAGILE, so handle with care. He's surprisingly very articulated, even including a bendy tail. 

5.0

Paint and sculpt 

While both Shredder and the Foot Ninja have shared bodies, it's the additional details that differentiated them that make them pop. The foot Ninja have an alternate bandana knot to help differentiate the ninja. You can also use hands and weapons to is which ninja is which. There are minute paint imperfections in some of the Ninja but are barely noticeable from a standing in front of a shelf distance. 

4.5

Shredder, on the other hand pops and it's not because of the glittery maroon outfit and metallic Zebra cape. The details on his helmet, mask and bladed armor parts are incredible. The removable mask hides Oroku Saki's scarred visage. Despite of having multiple NECA figures, they still surprise me with the level of detail.

5.0

Splinter is the strongest and weakest of all figures. I mean he looks exactly like the 1990 movie Splinter. And that includes details like to cut ear, the face, the hands, even the cloth kimono. But your mileage may vary on the cloth kimono. I don't recommend taking it off because it's a pain in the neck to put back on and have it fit properly. Don't get me started on the Belt.

5.0

Accessories

Now I have to differentiate between SDCC 2019 item and Foot 2pack.

SDCC 4 pack:

Extra bandana knot

Extra hands for Shredder

Extra hands for the foot Ninja

Shackles

Small knife and sheath

Cardboard crate

Weapon rack

Bo

Katana

Nunchuck (chained)

Nunchuck (bendy wire pretending to be rope)

2 sai

Tonfa

Ax

5.0

The 2 pack:

Same weapon rack as SDCC 4 pack

Bo

Katana

Nunchuck (chained)

Nunchuck (bendy wire pretending to be rope)

2 sai

Tonfa

Ax

2 sets of extra Foot Ninja hands

2 alternate bandana knot

The real difference is that the San Diego Comic-Con set only had one set of hands for two ninja while the 2 pack  has a set of extra hands for each ninja.

Sadly the chained Nunchuck broke on my 2 pack set after a ninja fell on the review tray. I mean the figure was literally standing it fell forward and the nunchuck broke.

4.5 (due to breakage issues)

Overall:

SDCC 2019 Capture of Splinter gets a: 4.86 as its final score. Mainly to blame for the less than perfect score is articulation nitpicks on the non-Splinter figures. 

Foot Ninja 2 pack gets a: 4.5 as its final score. Accessory breakage was the biggest culprit. In second place I'll blame articulation nitpicks and if the 2 didn't have these "issues" it would be close to perfect.

Splinter: I was going to make a Tickle me Elmo reference, but Nefty-sama said no.

That concludes the Advent Calendar for 2021 I have no idea if I'll be able to keep up with the Advent calendar the next year, because of the greater responsibilities and most of the things I'm collecting, either I got priced out *cough* storm collectibles*cough*, I'm reaching a reasonable quitting point *cough* Thundercats, Silverhawks, Power Rangers Lightning Collection, Jurassic Park, NECA TMNT *cough*, the lines are becoming too much of a pain in the ass to obtain *cough* NECA TMNT, BTTF, GARGOYLES, Lightning Collection, GI Joe Classified *cough*, or simply they're dropping far too much product vs what I can comfortably purchase *cough* Hasbro, McFarlane, Super7 * cough* and I have a massive backlog of Marvel Legends 

Paul Feig really is an idiot.

 In February 2022, SONY will release a Ghostbusters boxset containing Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, and Ghostbusters Afterlife.

But Paul Feig, director of Bridesmaids, is whining about SONY Forgetting his 2016 abomination. 

I guess I'll have to mansplain this to poor Paulie...

Let's ignore the fact that the movie flopped and it panned... No, it wasn't because "misogynerds ruined it". The movie was bad and it was a different continuity than fans wanted. But let's pretend it wasn't bad. Let's imagine it was a good movie... it still wouldn't have made it. Why is that?

The same Reason These guys didn't make it either

These guys were Ghost Busters before we had Ghostbusters. Just like the 2016 Ghostbusters is completely unrelated to the 1984 Ghostbusters.

The Boxset is celebrating the adventures of Stantz, Spengler, Venkman, and Zeddemore as Ghostbusters.

Excluding 2016 from this boxet is not a slight against Feig. That would be like sayong that the Nolan Trilogy needs to include Batman and Robin for the simple reason that it's a Batman movie made by the same studio.

Ghostbusters has multiple continuities and 1 of those was heavily ignored: The Cartoon Continuity. It still follows Stantz, Spengler, Venkman, and Zeddemore, yet it's not part of the set.

Continuity A:

Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, Ghostbusters Afterlife 

Continuity B:

Ghostbusters, The Real Ghostbusters, Extreme Ghostbusters 

Continuity C:

Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, Ghostbusters the Videogame

Continuity D:

2016

SONY is making movies out of Continuity A. Only things from Continuity A will be made part of it. That means No Videogame, no cartoons, and no 2016 movie.

Advent Calendar 23: Stone Soldiers from Dimension X, do they Rock?

 

I am referring to General Traag and Granitor. The Stone Soldiers from Dimension X and the Top two members of Krang's Army.

Articulation 

Both figures share the same body, but with enough pieces to look different from each other. Their Rocky forms hide the articulation points a bit better than other figures from the line. Despite having double jointed elbows, their articulation there is limited. The knees are single joint. Surprisingly Granitor has a decent articulation range on his arms. Granitor has a scary thin neck. I could say he's a literal Pencil Neck, since his neck is roughly as thin as a real pencil. In case of Shelf diving, he could be a Fatality.

4.0

His neck worries me.

Paint and sculpt 

I say mentioned both figures share a lot of body parts with their heads, neck, upper torso overlay, and upper arms being different. They are cartoon accurate on the holidays 2006 a paint job in addition to certain edges being painted black to simulate the penstrokes on the cartoon.

5.0

Accessories 

Here NECA dropped the ball monumentally.

2 guns

1 ooze canister

1 communicator

3 Neutrino wanted posters innclear plastic.

I thoight my set was defective and missong the extra hands, but no. That's all they come with.

2.0

Overall

This two pack gets a 3.67 as its final score. I honestly blame the lack of accessories and awkward articulation... add the whole Granitor seems incredibly fragile for such a bulky and heavy figure... They are very underwhelming, which was unexpected... but with them I can theoretically complete the main roster of The Arcade Game...

Advent calendar 22: Blond Donald has a Rainbow Dash jar.

I have no other description for this 2-pack. Sorry for the mental scarring, but if I feel like shit on Christmas time, I have to share some of my pain!! But its kinda hard to describe the logic behind this 2-pack ESPECIALLY since Ace Duck didn't actually appear on the cartoon...

Don't start with the Ace Duck Appeared in a Blink and you miss it one second image on a TV... during a single episode. Why is he here? To upstage Super7... Hopefully NECA will do it again with a cheaper Party Wagon.

Ace: *Donald noises*
Nefty: Did you manually ejected the first bullet? Last dude I saw doing that was an Ocelot...
Ace: *Donald Noises*
Nefty: No, he wasn't a Mutant Ocelot, but a dide who called himself Ocelot. He even meowed and shit.
Ace: *More Donald noises*
Nefty: AS I WAS SAYING, Ocelot used to do that, bit his gun jammed. Also, the way you bend your elbow to absorb the recoil is more of a Revolver technique.
Ace: *even more Donald noises*
Nefty: NO ENGRAVINGS!! They give no tactical advantahe whatsoever!!

But I digress... Ace Duck is a Pilot turned into a duck... in my continuity he's a Donald/Launchpad Hybrid. Speaks like and has the temper of Donald while being as competent as Launchpad when flying.

He also HATES being called Launchpad or Donald.

Ace: *Excited Donald Noises*
Nefty: Such irresponsible gun behavior. You're the poster duck for Gun Control...
*Bang!*
Sora VO: Aaaargh! Heal me you dumb fu- duck!
Ace: *Angry Donald noises*
Sora VO: What do you mean you're not Donald!?
Oh no! I see myself!!
Nefty: Oh my God! You killed Sora! Ace, put down the guns slowly. Please!!

Now the Jar dude was a victim of Shredder and Krang's mutagen experiments. 

Nefty: This my friend is the highest croning achievement in 90s porn history: The Pam Anderson and Tommy Lee tape... beat that!
Ace Duck: *Donald noises*
Nefty: You have an actual reel of Howard the Duck!? Why!?
Hideo Kojima VO: you know the rear reason!! Dakkutitsu!! Sugoi!!

Articulation:

Ace Duck is basically a standard humanoid figure with normal articulation. The only remarkable thing is the single hinged ball articulation point on the wingswings.

This is the biggest difference from the Toy Version, which had a Tuetle Shell with the TMNT logo

Mutagen Man loses articulation due to his cumjar nature. Despite the torso being "useless", he has a decent range of articulation. Worth noting is his left foot, the leg brace ADJUSTS ITSELF based on the foot position.

Both of his heads have limited Jaw Articulation. One issue I have is that due to the articulation the left tube doesn't stay plugging the cumjar.

Nefty: Shit, we even summoned Hideo Kojima with the Metal Gear Solid references...
Ace: *coughing* I was choking on bread you dumbass!
Nefty: You can speak normally!? I thought you spoke like...
Ace: I killed Kingdom Hearts,  do you want to see your Mom again?
Nefty: OK, this skit got incredibly dark.

While both get a 4.5 as their score here. But Ace's articulation was expected, Mutagen Man was a pleasant surprise in this department.

Paint and sculpt 

Both of them are "cartoon inspired" but Ace Duck is mostly toy inspired since this was his toon appearance.

No wings and nothing from the waist down.

So NECA Cheated on this. 

Mutagen Man is obviously toon based, as his toy version is far creepier. Due to censorship on Children's toons of the time, his design was made less body horror but it still has a bit of it.

Nefty: Is this some sort of Rick and Morty reference...
Cumjar: D-daddy? Are you my Daddy?
Nefty: No... you can't be... are you?
Cumjar: Remake Tifa, Remake Aerith, Lulu, Reboot Lara, Mai Shiranui, Mary Jane Watson, Black Cat, Kylie Quinn, Elena Fisher, Chloe Frazer, SFV Chun Li, SFV Cammy, MVC3 Morrigan, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Mia Fey... your lust for them, I am made of its byproduct...
Nefty: Wait... are you my Jizz?
Cumjar: Yeppers!
Nefty: Oh no...

Both figures have the 2 tone "cell shading" and thick black outlines that make them look "cartoony". This also helps tone down Mutagen Man's innate creepiness.

Due to the two tone cell shading paintjob, moe joints might chip off paint, but I have no complaints here.

5.0

Nefty: Time for the secret Joestar Technique! NIGERUNDAYO!!
Cumjar: Daddy why are you running?
Nefty: The spirit of past wanks is cumming!!
Past Cumjar: Variable Geo, Twin Dolls, La Blue Girl, OG Tifa, OG Aeris, KOF96 Mai Shiranui, DoA, OG Lara with her triangular tits, Kelly Kapowski, Buffy, OG Pink Ranger, Bonnie from Knight Rider, OG Teela, OG Glimmer, OG She-Ra, OG Cheetara, Sailor Mercury, shall I begin with your classmates and teachers?
Cumjar: Will they cancel Daddy, onii-chan?
Past Cumjar: People tried to cancel Crayola becaise the multilingial black crayon had the word Negro in it...
Cumjar: Isn't that literally Black in Spanish?
Past Cumjar: It's Twitter, they can be Intellectually disabled when they're trying to go for a faux moral superiority...
The Old Man is going to get canceled.

Accessories

We know that this part will yield a great score.

Ace comes with:

Eggsplosive grenades

2 guns

Hat

Head

Hands

Movie reel

VHS tape

Poster

Muckman comes with

Gun

hands

Head

Canister of episode specific chemical McGuffin.

Neca MM: Onii-chan, should we tell the truth now?
S7 MM: Disclaimer, Nefty, the author of the blog does not cum in jars or spank the monkey to the characters mentioned above.
Nefty-kun, the fictional avatar, that dude is a massive horndog.
NECA MM: That's because Nefty-kun is an exaggerated caricature of the Real Nefty. Sonce Nefty-kun is a fictional version of Nefty, he can spank it to fictional characters...
S7 MM: Hmmm... all this talk about fapping is making me all worked up...

The accessories seem to favor Ace Duck, but in all fairness, Mutagen Man has what he needed. There isn't much to do with him unless you added Seymour Gutz before the mutation and after his final mutation. Besides, At least ALL OF HIS ACCESSORIES ARE USEFUL unlike Super7's...

5.0

NECA MM: How are we gonna fap if we have no genitalia?
S7 MM: Good question... Maybe this is something we need to explore together... Mmmmmm!
NECA MM: I NEED AN ADULT!!
S7 MM: I AM AN ADULT...

Overall

This set gets a 4.83 as its final score. Both figures are fun to play/display. Also, I discovered a little bit of Revolver Ocelot in Ace Duck during the review. Mutagen Man is still a cumjar for me from now on. I just wish that mine didn't have the unplugging tube issue.

Another TMNT non-vintage toy Wishlist for Super7

 Every now and then I often drop Wishlists to test the waters. So far, Marvel Legends has yielded better results, but I also like MOTU and TMNT, so those two brands get some love. Since Mattel is interested in making toys inferior to MOTUC, I won't bother with a Masterverse list for now... Some Familiar faces will be on this list, because they are ones I really like and if done in a style mimicking 80s-90s Playmates makes them more appealing in a weird way.

As much as I would like to say TOON VERSIONS of a lot of characters, I don't want to do that. I want to use the  playmates Vintagizer as a lems to filter the characters. Like I did with the Punk Frogs. 

Punk Frogs:

Like say, making Attila out of a modified Napoleon body with the lower arms, lower legs fron Genghis, and new head. This would make him a sort of Giant Bullfrog-like character. For Rasputin we could go for a mostly Genghis redeco with hew head and torso. (His quiver needs to plug into the torso) Remember that Tokka was a Slash redeco from the neck down. 

Karai: if they play their cards right, they could set up parts for future variants. I think I suggested Shogun April and April Ninja Newscaster parts, but I should elaborate for the sake of better explanations without visual aids.

From Shogun April (who shares parts with Mitsu) Upper Legs and arms. The Lower Legs from Ninja Newscaster April. The new twist I'm adding is the Ravishing Reporter Torso. The reason for this is a bit devious: Making Karai a 2-in-1 figure to ensure she sells. By having her "Lady Deathstrike-like Armor" be a removable overlay, an alternate overlay can be used to give her a more traditional ninja outfit. Add an additional long haired head, and boom! A "Playmates Vintagized" Lotus Blossom. IF we use Mattel Mentality, the Mitsu head could be useful as a "Lotus Head". For the color palette I'm  thinking Grey outfit with blue and purple accents. Karai's overlay would be purple with gray and blue accents. The other overlay should be grey... the idea is to have the Foot Soldier colors be reflected on the Foot Clan.

Granitor: 

Traag needs a rock army, so hos second in command is needed. In a Perfect World, I'd suggest a toon accurate Granitor, but since we're getting Toy Traag... theoretically speaking, then Granitor should follow. Normally I would've suggested reusing some Traag parts and call it a day, but After studying the Traag toy, I have to say no. It should follow the school of thought of looking like a naked rockman wearing boots, he should look like a rockman wearing tights. He should have his coloring flipped from Tragg. His "flesh" should be grey, while the "sleeves and legs" are brown. His torso should be a darker grey. His underpants and helmet should be blue, while his boots should be green. His face should resemble Jerry Seinfeld crossed with Matthew Broderick and a Toucan.  (No, it's  not a Bee Movie reference)  Look at toy Traag and tell me that he's not a fusion of Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and a frog...

Personally, I would prefer Granitor to be lankier than Traag in order to have this Laurel and Hardy-esque odd couple. And for the creepy crawlies, instead of Spiders like Traag, he has scorpions. For weaponry, a Laser Deasert Eagle and a Gat

tling gun.

Rock Soldiers:

This would be the Generic troops for Traag and Granitor. From the Waist down reuse Rocksteady and from the waist up a new rock body. It would fit the realm of what they could possibly do.

Hun:

I know he's not 80s, but he's a nice addition. I'm thinking a human the size of Rocksteady or Bebop. Probably he could use parts compatible with Super Shredder as well. His weapons would be his Dragon Knuckles, katana (looking comically small in his hands) His attire would have to be made more 80s and adding color. Probably blue pants, grey sleeveless shirt and a purple vest. Colors should Not in the same shade as the Foot Soldier.

The outfit could be heavily inspired by the Chinese game. That outfit is so DiC Double Dragon that it's ridiculous and I love it.

Venus

You knew she was coming. Depending on her size, Jennika could reuse a lot here. Obviously she's 100% new sculpt and cannot reuse anything from the previous Turtles.

Armaggon:

I've  mentioned that he'd be perfect to fight Ray Fillet. He would probably  be a 100% new sculpt.

Zach the 5th Turtle:

He's 100% new sculpt BUT of Super7's got access to movie versions of characters... Zach's body could be reused for a stylized Danny Pennington or Keno.

Hattori Tatsu:

Using the 2012 series as a loophole to get Tatsu. As I did with Karai and Hun Tatsu would sport the Foot Clan colors. Mainly Grey and Purple with blue accents. He could be made from Shredder's nody, some new parts and Splinter's cloth kimono... if based on the Sega Genesis version.

Foot Elite:

These can be made from the Foot Soldiers and new head and arms.

Vanilla Ice:

A Playmates Vintagizer stylized Vanilla Ice would be fun. Depending on his outfit, most likely based on HIS appearance onTMNTII SOTO, is what would dictate thw amount of new tooling.

Danny and Keno

Like I mentioned with Zach, these two could share bodies between each other, or if we go a bit extreme include Zach on the sharing parts...

My idea is to generate a Movies sub-line for Super7 when they are "forced to fill gaps" with movie variants of the Turtles and company.

Shadow Jones:

I like the idea of Casey being a single father trying to protect his kid from the world being a motivator for his vigilantism. Also, Shadow could share parts with a vintagized 2012 April.

Shredder clones:

Mirage had these freaky Shredders made out of worms and Oroku Saki's DNA... they would be a nice addition.

Crab Shredder can be made from basically a Foot Soldier body with a new head and Shredder arms with new forearms. The usage of the foot soldier body is to get unnatural proportions.

4 Arm Shredder can be made from the Super Shredder figure, with a new torso for the 4 arms. He would need a new head. I want to suggest the super shredder head WITHOUT the serrated blades.

Mini Shredder would need a new body that would support the normal Shredder head. He would also have to come with a shit-ton of accessories to justify the $55 price tag.

Successful Clone Shredder is basically a Shredder repaint, with 2 new heads, the Oroku Saki head, and a Mutatin Shredder helmet head.

There are plenty more but this list got a bit too out of control... in any case, let's wrap this up, because I have to fight for Matrix 4 tickets, oh wait, no one is fighting to see that. Everybody and their Dead Uncle are trying to watch Spider-Man...