Kreon Scorponok Video review

There we go. Enjoy.

Lazy blog update

In general cruising of the web, I discovered this guy's blog and he had a post previously about his creation of Thundertron character for Transformers Prime.    So, being the nerd that I am, I jumped on and asked if he could publish some concept pictures of Thundertron for me to drool over (I love concept images of TFs!) and he was kind enough to to so!  AWESOME!

I recommend you check it out NOW!  it has certainly made me want that damn toy now.  Sure, I was likely to get it anyway, but it's gone from a 'waiting for a sale' to a 'must get' figure. Link below!  And thanks Emiliano!


Santalux: Emiliano Santalucia's Blog: Thundertron concept sketches!: Remember the recent post about Thundertron ? The new Transformers character introduced in the Exodus novel? Well, the folks at Hasbro have b...

I'm doing science and I'm still alive.

Believe it or not, I am still around.  I have recently changed abode and am having issues securing reliable internet connections.  I do have a wireless dongle thing for emails and what-not, but surprise surprise, Australia's wireless web accessibility is dubious at best and embarrassingly poor at most other times.  Heck, the best times are usually embarrassingly poor now that I come to think of it.

Anyway, to tide me over, I have created a fluff piece.  It's the Data disc Buzzsaw from the Voyager Soundblaster from Fall Of Cybertron transforming in slow motion.  It is spring loaded and rather clever really.

We'll just ignore the fact that Soundblaster can't chronologically exist as of yet, as he needs parts of Blaster to change from Soundwave to Soundblaster...





Hopefully that will keep me happy, at least I have 1 post up for November.

Happy Halloween

I was bored and messing about with some lights and the result is the video below.

Universe Ratbat, a well done recolour

Ratbat has always been one of my favourite characters of the G1 Transformers.  I suspect it has to do with me actually having his cassette form from when I was a kid, and a little story that goes with that toy (which I will save for when I get to him) and the fact that I still have it in fairly good condition.  So with that in mind, I am pleased to see him show his face whenever possible.

 

He did this rather respectively in the War Within (WW) comic, which was based on Cybertron before the Transformers came to Earth and the premise was that Ratbat was a politician.  They gave him a new form and it looked kind of regal and pretty cool.  This Universe Ratbat toy came in a two pack, and the toy he was up against was a version of triple changing Springer.  Sadly Springer wasn’t half as well done as Ratbat, as they used the Cybertron (Galaxy Force) Evac (Live Convoy) mode which turned into a very Earth like helicopter.  He didn’t even have a new head, so I ended up selling that one.  Plus I only wanted the pack for Ratbat.

 

Can the history of the character live up to my expectations, after all it is only another recolour?  No new accessories or anything fancy, just different plastic and bio which was on the back of the box.

Read on to find out…

Pretender time, Chainclaw

 

After doing my little review of the Botcon’s version of Metalhawk and it having gotten me in the mood for some Pretenderin’ I thought I would have a look at a real G1 Pretender.  Naturally, I wasn’t going to pick someone obvious like Landmine or Cloudburst.  That would be too easy (Plus I don’t have Cloudburst), so I have chosen Chainclaw, who is still a Pretender and is more exciting than the normal Pretenders, because he has a beast mode!

 

So what exactly is a ‘Pretender’?  Well it was a series of Transformers towards the end of G1 that featured a small robot that also came with a shell for them to hide in.  Usually the shell is a monster of some sort for the Decepticons and a humanoid type for the Autobots.  There were also 2 sets of beast shells for both Autobots and Decepticons.  Chainclaw here is one of the Beasts from the Autobots.

 

Weird sandwiches, bizarre hotels and more people than I have ever seen before!

1st and 2nd of August.

Oh my, the previous day’s practise with my new camera was all for now.  Let’s just hope that the controls are under my understanding…  For a trip to Niigata was on the cards.  Why, for some impressive fireworks.  We were booked onto a tour bus and had to meet in Tokyo with the guide for another shinkansen ride to the hotel.

The highs and lows of plastic crack

Nice haul of goodies today and I was excited.

Pocket Power Target Master

The Pocket Power Target Master, for more, visit the biggest and most informative Pocket Power site on the web, www.pocketpowertoys.com

Shattered Glass Rodimus

Since I managed to get the way through the 2012 Botcon set which featured a handful of Shattered Glass characters, I thought I might as well go through my previous box set and start doing some work on the actual Shattered Glass Box set itself.  However I have just realised that I have ignored that theory by having a look at Rodimus, who was a site exclusive character (i.e you could only pick him up from the convention) and wasn’t in the initial box set. 

 

A good friend managed to acquire the extra characters from the Botcon and offered me some (he ended up with doubles) and so I took off his hands Rodimus, who also came with Megatron.

Final Turtle, 2012 Raphael!!

Saving the best for last, it’s my favourite Ninja Turtle the angry scrapper Raphael.  Much the same design as the other Turtles I have looked at, but yet again a new sculpt.  Let’s have a look at what makes Raph different as well as similar to his reptilian brothers shall we?

 

TMNT 2012 Michelangelo

Michelangelo is the youngest of the Ninja Turtles and here I have the Playmates version of him from the new 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon.  Once again this guy is a new sculpt and is visibly smaller than his brothers.  A nice touch.  I have also modified his nunchucks because originally they

A) Looked like sausages.

B) Developed a stress mark when holstered  

And

C) A chain just looks better.

 

Let’s have a closer look shall we?

Card Power Speedboat

Or Pocket Power as it is also known as.




For more information on this sexy beast visit:

www.pocketpowertoys.com

2012 Leonardo TMNT

Here I have the fearless leader of the Ninja Turtles, Leonardo.  I like Leonardo, the ability to whip his swords around always impressed me and he is my second favourite of the TMNT.  This new Leo is just as good as the other Turtles and I think that will do for his intro.

 

2012 TMNT Donatello

Keeping in the theme of the 2012 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reviews, I have now the clever Donatello of the Turtles to look at.  The Turtles seemed to get a bit more love in the sculpting side of things when compared to the other figures.  No surprises there, after all the Turtles will sell more than the others by a long shot.  What is surprising is that Playmates toys, usually known for creating figures with little articulation, have actually done a pretty good job on the Turtles when they easily could have slacked off.

The Infamous Headband!!!

Ha ha ha!  I remember ranting on like a mad man about this cursed Headband back when I was running through the Botcon set for 2012.  It is part of the character of Shattered Glass Soundwave and my rant was concerned about how it didn’t come with Soundwave.  It was a separate piece.  A five dollar separate piece at that.  Oh and available only at Botcon, apparently one per person, yet they showed up on online stores for no less than $70 or so I think.  I hope that no-one bought any at that price.

 

Anyway, due to a pal picking one up for me from Botcon, I have it.  So was it worth the angst?

 

TMNT 2012 Kraang

Kraang was always my favourite enemy from the 80s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon, I wasn’t so keen on the later interpretation, but what can ya do?  I just preferred his big goofy robot body.  The Kraang for the 2012 Turtles seems to be a cross between the two, with a smaller robot body, but still looking like a goofy brain.  As a result, I felt compelled to get this guy as well.

Had I known more about the figure, I probably wouldn’t have…

From Club to Toy Store

 

Back when Fun Publications took over the running of Botcon and started up the Official Transformers Collector’s Club in 2005 I joined. 

 

Why?  Because the blurb I had read mentioned how they were the official Hasbro endorsed club FOR THE WORLD.

 

Why?  Because the blurb I read had advertised how their relationship with Hasbro and being THE Official Transformers Club gave them unprecedented access to toy news and information.

 

Why?  I expected to see lots of cool information on the making of Transformers from designing to toy.  Lots of prototype pictures of figures that would be released and interviews with core members of Hasbro’s Transformers team telling us what plans they had for the brand and sneak peaks at the next series, whatever that may have been.

 

Of course, this was to be relayed by The Official Transformers Collectors Club magazine which came out every 2 months, packed full of exciting news.

 

Or was it? 

 

When the club first started pumping out the mags, there wasn’t that much in there.  Half the mag had a pretty crap comic, bios and occasionally a bit on toys.  Of course, being in Australia it meant that by the time I actually got the magazine it was old news anyway.  I still don’t understand why it seemed to take a month for a letter to get from America to Australia.  But I let that slide.  After all, I was part of the Official Transformers Collectors Club and it was new.

 

Surely it will get better.

 

But it didn’t.

 

Every year the Botcon came around and we were faced with a batch of 6 toys in a set, plus a bunch that could only be nabbed by going to the Botcon.

 

Still the Magazine didn’t get better.

 

But they sure pushed a lot of toys.

 

No new news, very little information on toys.  Some articles with people related to Transformers appeared and in one case wasn’t even related to Transformers.

 

But we had plenty of toys chucked our way.

 

It was at this point I saw a pattern.  The excitement over the Botcon toy sets had changed the essence of the Club.  It was becoming less and less Club and more exclusive shop.

 

This year after they got the website back online again (after how many months???) they set up a subscription service.  6 Toys are in the subscription.  5 toys for the Botcon Box set.  Another 7 or so toys available for pickup at Botcon again, totalling about 18 toys.

 

Now what I find interesting here is a sharp focus on exclusive club toys…  The Magazine now is just a half-arsed piece of rubbish with a horridly drawn comic and ho-hum story.   The latest issue actually had an interview with the designer of Sunstreaker, so an article on a toy!  Rare.  However it was done by a fan.  NOT by anyone at the club.

 

They devoted two pages to pushing 2 toys in the subscription service.  They certainly didn’t need 2 pages but if they hadn’t they would probably have just put in another word search.

 

So with a huge increase in the amount of toys they are producing and looking at how the website has been handled after the crash.  The board still isn’t up to my knowledge.  But they certainly got the Shop up and running all right.  Leads me to look at the Official Transformers Collectors Club not as a club, but just another source for toys.

 

And not a good source either.  I had a look at the subscription charges and as far as I could tell, it would cost me $40 postage each time a toy was sent out.  That was the cheapest option.

 

Nice one guys.

 

As a result,  after almost 8 years of being a member I will not be renewing my membership.  This isn’t a club anymore.  At it’s zenith it was a badly run ‘professional’ club run by a bunch of fans.  A bunch of G.I Joe fans that is.  At it’s lowest point it was a twitter account.  Now it’s somewhere in between, but no longer a club.  I see they are far more focused on hocking exclusive toys to Transformer fans.  In America.  Despite holding the license for the whole world, they focus all their attention on the US.  Sure most of their members are probably in the US, but that is beside the point.  As license holders for the whole world, they have a duty to cater for THE WHOLE WORLD.  I guess you could say they do, but they don’t do it very well.

 

I have had enough.  I will no longer pay  my yearly money for the crap magazine they vomit out every 2 months.  I don’t care about the exclusive toys (especially judging by this years lacklustre Botcon set) I think that the prospect of producing so many toys will lead to poor choices and execution.  Lets’ face it, some of the subscription figures are strange choices.  I look forward with evil twinkles in my eye at the theme for the 2013 Botcon.

 

I was previously determined to go to a Botcon one day, but now I just don’t really care that much.  There is no club feeling to this club and since all they want to do is sell toys which are overpriced I am going to move on and leave them to their own devices.

 

Goodbye Transformers Collectors Club Shop.  You won’t be receiving my money anymore.

TMNT 2012 Foot Soldier Review

Any nerd worth their salt knows that when the Turtles get released, so should the cadre that follows them.  With the announcement of the new Turtles cartoon for 2012, we see a new toy line of Turtles and bad guys as well.  Here I am going to have a look at the faithful little Foot Soldier.

 

Shopping and Cowboys. Way to go!

1st August.

Forgot to mention on the way back from the Dinosaurs and mabodofu, I dropped by Yodobashi camera and made the purchase to replace my humble camera.  Sure, I only mentioned the failings of my camera yesterday but I have been aware of these issues before, so I have been looking into new cameras and decided upon one.  So today’s adventures are full of photos with my new camera.  Huzzah!  It has a heap of different photo shooting filters, one of which I am very happy about and a slow motion video option!  Niiiice.  More on my new camera later.

Um, so today was my day to myself until the afternoon, so I headed out to check out Toys R Us as I usually do, hopefully to make me think that Toys R Us is actually a decent toy store somewhere.  I also ventured out to a family restaurant that was ALWAYS packed whenever we walked by.  A good sign of decent food surely?

Iron Chef, Dinosaurs and old friends showing their age.

31 July.

Quite a bit to do today.  Once I managed to get motivated we headed off to Landmark Tower in Yokohama for a Dinosaur exhibition.  We started out kind of late and so by the time we got to Yokohama it was time for lunch. 

Modifying Mikey's Nanchaku

Here is a video tutorial on how I modded 2012 TMNT Mike's weapons, losing the craptacular plastic chain and adding a real one.  It looks very cool and wasn't hard.  I guess this would work for other nanchuku weapons as well, 2011 Thundercats Panthro has a plastic chain for his as well I noticed.



Some pictures of the end results.  First the end result and what they looked like originally.

No Alcohol Beer? What a crazy place…

24 July
So Japan has many, many wonders.  One of them that I noticed but didn’t have time to take advantage of last time was 0.00% alcohol beer.  I think it made it’s debut when I was last in Japan (2009) and I must admit I was most curious to give it a try.  For some reason or another, I never got around to it, however on this trip I have made the effort to give it a go.

And here is my attempt at a beer review…

Random walks to nowhere and The Birds!!

30 July.

Can’t remember what exactly happened on this day.  I think I was off to visit the local Book Off store in my desperate search for Sega Saturn Software.  I went to it, found nothing, decided I would go for a stroll.  Which ended up being a HECK of a lot longer than I initially envisioned.  But that’s fine, it was muggy inside the house and if you could find a bit of shade, was actually quite pleasant.  Which I managed to find.  As well as a ‘Royal Milk tea’ drink that I have to have.  It’s disgusting, much like can-coffee, but I always want some when I arrive in Japan and actually look forward to whingeing about how bad it tastes.

Boozing and Power Rangers??????

28th-29th July.

So here we were catching up with some family and off to a Yakitori place, it involved booze, laughs and food  what more could you want? 

Oh, expensive dessert places and local matsuris?  Yeh we covered that as well.

Another Lazy day and sunsets.

26th July

 

Well, really that should be sunset, as there can only be one per day, unless you do some tricky flying or time travel shenanigans.  Buuuut Whatever.  The end result is I had some damn amazing sushi and spied a rather nice Japanese sunset, which ended with me running around the suburb looking for a good vantage point.  I think I found one eventually.

 

Ben 10 in a glowing form!

As  my usual hunt for cool glowing figures progresses, I found via a random internet search that there is a version of a Ben 10 toy that glows.  Sadly not entirely and I was a little disappointed to see it when I discovered it in the shops.  Annoyingly it was in a two pack with a dvd as well.  But unperturbed, I proceeded on and now have a little Ben 10, X-ray version.

 

Marvel Megablocks Thor, Loki, Capt. America!

After having some fun with Cyclops and his Brother Havok from series two of these cool little toys, a good tip off that more were showing their faces in local supermarkets put me on the trail again.  With appropriate information at hand, I ventured off and scored myself a lovely trio of Captain America, Thor and Loki.  Wolverine STILL evades my grasp.  At least I have Cap though.

 

Flowers and shopping.

25th July

 

A bit of a lazy day after the travel of the previous ones.  So not much to report here.  I amused myself by taking some shots of the flowers blooming rather nicely in the garden and we went to Yodobashi camera for a bit of omiyage (or maybe not ) shopping.

 

LEGO Click Brjck

23rd July

While traversing the outlet’s of Manza, I found an interesting shop on the map.  Curious I made sure that we made out way nearby.  Why?  Because it looked a little bit like this:

 

 

That’s right! It’s a shop devoted ENTIRELY to LEGO!

 

Nagano, Manza onsens and Outlet stores.

22-23rd July.

 

In the vein of visiting onsens (hot springs) and the like, parts of the family met up and off we went to the wonderful place of Nagano to visit the Manza Prince Hotel which is generally a ski-resort.  During the summer, you can generally stay at ski resorts for a cheap visit and they also often have onsens.  Wheee! off we go!

 

Lazy Saturday in Japan

Saturday 21st July

 

Hmm, a lovely lazy day at home with a short trip to the shops to get some t-shirts.  And ended up up with some little extras as well.

 

The morning Started with the most delightful of starts.

 

MELONPAN!

 

A bun with some melon flavoured stuff on the top.  Great!

 

Then I turned on the TV hoping for some Saturday anime.  It appears I was out of bed too late and the panel talk food shows had already started…

 

 

Then not much, but the shops revealed some good stuff.  A couple of print t-shirts for less than 20 bucks and an Arms Micron Prime Vehicon toy!  Woooooo!  While in the shop, I thought I’d take a shot of the little Transformers section.  It’s small, but that is due to the shop being a department store.  The toy section was pretty much just a forgotten add-on really.

 

 

Just picked up the Vehicon as he was the one I wanted most.  Will drop by an actual toy store later and grab some more and maybe others, I know I am after a Breakdown and have a small shopping list from friends.

 

Then some more general perusing, of 100 yen stores ( I love these places!!) and the department store taking some shots of stuff I like.

 

Aren’t these little hanging couches cute?

 

 

And some chairs that I wanted to send home last time, because they look rather comfy, but are too big for the post office to handle.  Sad face…

 

 

And that pretty much summs up that day.  nice and easy, some good stuff.

Hakone, onsens, ninja volunteers & Mangoes.

19-20th July.

As usual we went for our start trip to Hakone for some quick onsen (hots springs) joy.  The train ride to Hakone was uneventful.  We went for lunch at Gora Koen (Gora Park) which was all the way in the hills, which isn’t surprising considering how hilly Hakone is.  Here is the most interesting train ride as the train has to zig zag it's way through the mountains, There is only one track for the returning and  going trains to use so one will have to sit in the station while it waits for the other to meet up.  Very interesting! 

One thing I was surprised to see was there were some umbrellas at the station with a sign saying they were free to use, as long as you brought them back!  Wow, couldn't have that in Perth!!  They would get taken home and forgotten about! 

 

 

 

 

Micron Arms Gobu mini review. And Pants.

Day 1 of my Holiday in Japan.  Well, officially day 2, but since I spent most of yesterday flaked out from the actual getting here (Always unable to sleep on planes), I am going to call today day 1.

In fine form I must say as well.  First trip to the local shops for a check of my preferred game shop, which sadly has a heap of PS1 titles, but nothing in the Saturn range.  Across the road to pick up some comfy Pants.  It’s incredibly humid here and my shorts are a bit too hot for hanging around the house.  Great pants, nice and light.  And check out those colours!!


Damn they are some fine looking pants!







More interesting stuff, ie Gobu after the jump.

Oh, Skoops, you’ve done it again!!

Another day, another coffee adventure.  This time, back at Skoops the gelato place where I had a good cake/icecream and coffee combo before.  This time they had another awesome deal.

 

 

 

And there we go!  A skoop of ice cream and cheescake and a coffee.  In the foreground, we have the caramel cheesecake and a skoop of strawberry gelato.  In the background is the cookies n cream cheesecake and hazelnut icecream.

 

All this for $5.95!!!

 

Deeeeelightful!  The caramel cheesecake was incredible!

 

Thanks again Skoops!

Shockwave. FOC–ing good!!

LOOK INTO MY EYE!

Whee! The final of the Fall Of Cybertron trio from series one thankfully happens to be a bit of a corker.  He is a “Revealer” class size, which is the new version of Deluxe, named so because as you transform them, their heads pop up in some funky way.  Both Jazz and Optimus are a bit boring in this respect (and hinder the toy a bit as well), but Shockwave’s actually works quite nicely and due to his large chest, it isn’t that destructive to the rest of the toy.

Anyway, that’s enough of an introduction, lets have a closer look at this short-packed chap from wave 1 of the new Generations toys!

FOC Optimus Prime, getting there.

So after the sadness that was Jazz, Optimus presents himself for a perusing of the most scrutinising  eye.  Hmm, didn’t know that perusing could be if a scrutinising nature.  Nevertheless, Optimus is marginally better than Jazz, despite his relative simplicity in design and being of a slighter  build than Jazz.  Believe it or not.

 

FOC Jazz, Oh dear…

The prospect of another pre-Earth Transformers game has me salivating in excitement.  The prospect of TOYS with Cybertronian modes from that game, Fall Of Cybertron is just too damn exciting.  I now have Jazz, Optimus and Shockwave.

Sadly I was sorely disappointed with old Jazz here, which sucks, because I like Jazz and I like his vehicle mode here.  Let’s have a closer look.

Amazing Cupcake work!

Once again I find myself impressed by a friend’s handiwork with the medium of cupcakes.  This is a different friend from the Cookie Monster Cup cakes I was on about before.  I do believe that these are mighty impressive.

 

They were made for a cinema theme and she whipped up 200 or so for it.  Rather annoyingly, despite being on site at the time and after she made it known that at least one be kept for me, it did not eventuate so I am unable to describe the taste…  Anyway enough preamble, on with the photos.

 

 

 

 

Wow! Lookit That!  Real popcorn on those popcorn ones, copious amounts of icing on thenormal cupcake one, a meringue with a bit cut out for the flake piece on the icecream on and  Real Fairy floss (cotton candy depending on your origins) on the fairy floss ones. 

 

Pretty impressive looking hey?  Considering how she isn’t even a caterer or anything. Maybe a new line of work should be there for her.  All that study as an architect as well…

Energon Swoop & Grimlock

When Transformers go horribly, horribly wrong.

 

I was excited when these guys came out ages ago.  Hanging on to the tail end of the hit and miss Energon line.  Well, most of the Autobots were a miss, but the Decepticons were quite cool. I was surprised to see two Dinobots make an appearance and they came in a double pack, so no extra hunting required.

 

I love the G1 Dinobots.  Robot dinosaurs are pure awesomesauce, on the meat of fantastic in a winning sandwich and so I was pleased to see how faithful Grimlock looked to his original self and thus I blindly bought this set.  Of course, back in those days, video internet reviews were nowhere near as commonplace as they are now.  Had I watched some I might have changed my mind…

 

Bot Shots Bumblebee, Super bot! 002

My video review of Bumblebee in Bot Shot form.  The Super bot version in fact.  Watch the video and then enjoy the cool shots of Bumblebee on a Lightning base!  It looks darn tootin’ cool!!



Piccies after the jump.

Minerva by CMs Corp. Sigh

Minerva, buy CMS Corp from the Gutto Kuru line.  Man, my previous experiences weren't all that positive when I last bought one of these.  Expensive and a pretty crappy feel in the hands.  I hoped that they had gotten their act together a bit more for the Transformer characters, since they are planning Ginrai as well.  They haven't.

It's better, but not as much as you would expect for it's price.  Much like my Nanael that I bought before...



Aka, Minelba too...

Bot Shots Ratchet video review

Well, I ended up buying some more Bot Shots, at full price, despite my objection to the full price....  I am so weak.  Anyway, watch the review and enjoy.



PS, let me know what you think of the new intro :p

Megablocks Cyclops and Havok.

So, random packed lego-like figures are becoming pretty popular.  Megablocks seemed to have come up with a line of Marvel characters.  I hadn’t seen any sets or anything to go with them, but being fond of little lego type chaps, I had to check out the Megablock Marvels.

 

I saw these in a shop and they were $2 a pop.  Not too shabby so on a whim I bought 2.  Once again, random packed, I just hoped that I hadn’t bought two of the same.  In a cool little twist of fate, I managed to get of the ones I was hoping for, and another.  I say another as if it is a bad thing, but I am pretty pleased with both of them, as I now have the Summers Brothers Cyclops and Havok.

 

Okami HD for Ps3 Confirmed!

At last! It:s here, it:s totally exciting!  I am a happy chappy.  Okami has been confirmed as having an HD update for the Playstation3!  Oh happy joy joy! My favourite game of all time in beautiful gorgeous 1080p

Check this out!


Rather annoyingly though, it's only going to be released on PSN for North America and European markets!  WHAT? Grrrrr! Give me a hard copy damn you!  The Japanese release has a blu-ray version available.  Normal edition and a ltd edition one, that is a little bit too expensive for my liking there playasia!

To keep mad people like me hanging on, here is a bit from Capcom

And a comparison with the PS2 version

Metalhawk, Botcon 2012 Final figure review

So I finally have my new face for Metalhawk, actually, I don’t know why I used finally. After I emailed funpub in regards to the face I received before, they sent it out pretty much right away and I had it within a week or two at most.  Cheers guys.  Thus I now have  the final review I will do for the Botocn 2012 (Mainly because I don’t feel the need to hunt down the attendee figures at all this year), the leader of the Autobots on the Skyhammer over Japan, Metalhawk.

 

Metalhawk was a Pretender back in the day.  I know a lot of people dislike Pretenders as the robot is usually sacrificed so that they fit inside their monster/human shell.  I have a soft spot for them, as you kind of get two figures and their rubbishy look is cheesy and baffles the mind as to what vehicle they are sometimes.  Now he doesn’t have a Pretender shell, but he still manages to covey the organic feel of Pretenders. 

 

So how does a shell-less Pretender rate?

 

Let me show you my Stocking…

So essentially, the left over bits from my video review are contained within here.  There are some bits that the video camera just couldn’t nab.  Plus I prefer the photograph side of things.  Anyway, here are some extra pictures of Stocking, from Panty and Stocking.  Made by Sentinel from their Rio :Bone line.

More pictures after the jump!  Woo hooo!

Oh and Panty is here.

Strider Hiryu Action fig review baby!

A review of a cool little Strider Hiryu toy that I have had for ages, it cam with Spiderman, although I thought it was Cyclops from a short Marvel Vs. Capcom line of toys.  There were some good toys around then.  I wish I still had them...

K-Mart Slave? Not I!

So the other night I trotted out to K-Mart to buy some stuff.  After finding it easy enough, I headed off to the checkout.



Since the good people of WA don't quite get the late night trading concept, it was very quiet.  Approaching the checkout, I saw that all the checkouts were closed, save the self-checkouts.



I have an objection to the self-checkouts as they reduce customer service, but donft offer any compensation for that fact.  As a result, I refuse to use them.  However that night, I had no choice.  There was one staff member in the returns section, who was busy doing some stuff.  The express checkouts are in the same section as the returns bit, but they were all closed as well.



I noticed that other customers were going through the self checkout.



I left my intended purchases on the nearest flat surface that wasnft the floor and left.  I refuse to do the job of a K-Mart employee for nothing;  I think it would be logical to assume that all employees of K-mart get paid a wage or salary for their time at work, so I donft see why the customer should have to do their job for free.  Customer service is bad enough in Australia and most prices on goods are quite high, so why should we, the customer, have to put up with another drop in the level of service?



I could have asked to have them open a checkout but considering the staffing level at the time, I suspect they wouldnft have had anyone available anyway.  Aside from that, the point is; I shouldnft have to ask.  That is part of customer service isnft it?  To assess and provide for the customerfs needs.

Surely the next step in this process is to allow customers access to the store room and have us stock the shelves as well?  Where will the madness end?



  I think I see why there werenft that many customers in the place.  Surely I am not the only person bothered by this?



Disgusting attitude to your customers there K-Mart.



 I have since emailed K-mart with my thoughts on this situation and look forward to their response.

In an update to this situation.  K-mart quite admirably attempted contact me for quit a while (I can be irritatingly hard to get sometimes) and I ended up chatting to the manager who apologised and said it wasn't their intention to force people through the self-checkouts.  He was going to look into the approximate time and see what the deal was.

I must admit I am impressed with the efforts they went to to address my concern.  However, the discount idea for non-staffed checkouts was not mentioned...

;)

Sakura Kyoko. figma coolness

Hmm, Magical girls.  Or Puella Magi Madoka Magika as it’s known in Japanese.  I have only just started watching the anime of this series, but I liked the design of the characters from the start.  This one I think is the last of the figma figures that are planned for the line and the one I wanted them most, or second most.  I forget which.  Anyway, she looks cool in her colours and has a really sexy weapon!

 

And Snacks.

 

Crazy shopping.

 

Man I love it when out and about and some crazy weird stuff that makes you say “What were they thinking?” crosses your path.  I’ve found dodgy badly done toy labels, strange celebrity endorsements and totally truthful information. 

 

Please have a look and ponder this;  How did the Human race come to this.

 

Making Turbo Tracks

Only this guy and one more to go.  I have to wait for a new Metalhawk head as the one on mine looked like it had gone 10 rounds with Overlord (the real one).

Back to Tracks though.  Oh, Sorry.  Turbo Tracks.  Once again we have a couple of influences for making this evil version of Tracks.  It is based on Road rage, an e-Hobby release of G1 Tracks that was inspired by the Diaclone colouring of the same toy.  For a pretty interesting read, have a look here.

 

Believe it or not, I actually like this one.  Oh, except for maybe the bio, it’s a bit too similar to normal Tracks’ one for my liking.  The bio is written fairly well which is a nice surprise.

 

Botcon 2012–Treadshot

Oh goodness me.  Of all the Botcon figures for this year, none of them actually display a sense of confusion and desperation quite like this character. G1 Treadshot used to be an Action master, that is a Transformer that doesn’t transform, but he had a little friend that did.  Then the name got used a couple of times, usually with little relation to the original Treadshot.  One use was a recolour of a particularly rubbish toy from the Armada series (it was a recolour of Sideswipe) which was used in the generally awful Universe line, which featured such lovable classics like, purple Silverbolt, purple Tigerhawk and various other ugly recolours.

 

Now we have this guy for the Shattered Glass side of things.  It is generally assumed that the Shattered Glass reflects the G1 interpretation of toys, so it wouldn’t be odd to expect this to be an opposite character of the Action master toy, which was a bit of a gunslinger character.  However it appears to be entirely based on the Universe toy.   Out of all the other Shattered Glass characters they have done, only this guy isn’t G1 based.  As a final nail in the coffin of confusion, the head for this guy isn’t related to the Action Master figure (which could have worked by blending them all together), nor does it look like the Universe Treadshot.

 

For all intents and purposes, we have a new character that is based on a series that is supposed to be using warped versions of the ones we know. 

 

Nice one Collector’s Club.

 

More glow, Skylanders

My ceaseless efforts to acquire glow toys has been somewhat slow.  But recently I found out about some Skylander toys that glow.  An ebay search yielded one that was completely glowy.  But priced at $100, I laughed at the foolishness of the seller and promptly closed the window and moved on.

 

Unperturbed, I later found out about a figure with bits of glow.  A trip to my local dept. store and the forking out of $15 (!!  Seriously?) and I have in my hands the “Stealth Elf.  Silent but Deadly.”

 

Yes, that is what the packaging says.  I am not sure if it’s intentional or not.

 

Optimus has to tell someone!

Oh man, this is so awesome, who can I tell?  Grimlock, Ratchet and Bumblebee are too busy… Oh, I know who, he’s never busy!


Guess what I just got!!  It’s so cool!

What is it now Prime?



SBS and Eurovision 2012, Approved by Optimus Prime!

Soundwave and Zartan’s Excellent Adventure

Before I started typing this, I was thinking about what to write and my thoughts drifted to how much I like Soundwave and even this interpretation of him.  Then they shifted to this year’s Botcon theme and the confusion I feel towards it.  My thoughts then drifted to the characters themselves and the controversy.  They shifted back to Soundwave and my thinking that, like Magnus, I had a character I liked without any issues.

Then, I remembered the headband.

Something’s not right…. Gigatron

Just note, there is a lot of thought-working-through that goes on in this post.  If you want to know what I think straight away, scroll to the last line where I finally managed to work it out.  Then you can enjoy the pictures as you see fit.  Otherwise, just keep on reading.

 

So here we have probably the most controversial choice in this year’s Botcon set.  It is Gigatron.  Or the character he was inspired by, Overlord (from Master Force).  The original toy was an impressive massive dude, who was made of two characters.  He was a Power-Master, so he had two engines that Transformed and connected to his chest.  The engines were Giga and Mega.  Obviously Mega has gone somewhere and here we just have Giga.  The original toys transformed into a space shuttle and a tank as  well as a sort of base and a large, impressive robot mode.  It is very cool and now very very expensive thanks to a comic book.

 

THIS version of Overlord (hereby referred to as Gigatron to avoid confusion) is re-using the body of Bludgeon from the Hunt for The Decepticons line that was a space filler after the Revenge of The Fallen movie.  The reason for the controversy is this, Bludgeon was a samurai character and the body is well designed to represent a samurai body with swords and armour.  It also has a skull theme going on, which is good for Bludgeon as his face was a skull.

 

While the tank is appropriate for an Overlord homage, in my opinion the robot mode is not.  So now that that ugly business is out of the way, let’s get on with a look at the toy.

 

Botcon 2012 main Intro

From Top L- Top R (SG= Shattered Glass, C = Classic)  - Metalhawk (C ), Turbo Tracks(SG), Ultra Magnus(SG), Soundwave(SG), Treadshot(SG), Gigatron(C).

Here is the set in the er flesh?  Kind of busy, little bit confused box art with the main characters I guess in the centre.  That’s MetalHawk and Gigatron there, with some of the attendee only figures flying in from off the sied.  The new Optimus’ legs can be seen there.  I am not that fond of this year’s art.  Or the set to be honest.

It feels like a random mish-mash of ideas, a smell of desperation hang on this box set.  After the previous years, Animated, Wings of Honour, Games of Deception, the rather inspired G2 set and the original Shattered Glass have all been fairly cracking in terms of characters, but obviously following those up has exhausted ideas.

This year’s though, hmm, a little bit of classics (loosely associated with the ‘Wing of Honour’) and a continuation of the Shattered Glass series.  Smashed together.  Into a bit of a sad dog’s dinner.   I just hope the toys are nicer than the possible story…

There is a typical Botcon Badge supplied.

Nice enough.  I also got the first day Badge. Previously covered here.


And the comic, which I forgot to photograph….  and an extra set for figures for a pal.



I have taken a few photos of most and am working through them now.  Keep an eye out.