2025 has finished and it kinda went quick. I felt started off well doing toys reviews at the start o the year, but then, I got a PS5 and whew! What a time sink that was. More on that later though.
The toys this year:
So there you go, a not terribly exciting bunch.
Let's gat cracking then:
Crossover Agent Knight
Crossover Party Wallop
TMNT and Transformers? All right, I'll bite. Stupid goddam name, like really, really shit. I like that you have options for making him bland, or take on one of the colours of the Turtles. Mine's still unopened though.
Yes, I am ashamed.
Bonecrusher Transformers Studio Series.
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Hook & Long Haul
These guys come in a commander size box and they both seem to be pretty decent figures. Long Haul comes with a bonus trailer, which is quite obviously the crotch of Devastator, so you could say Long Haul has a box of dick(s). It's fine I guess, but the fact that it doesn't even attempt to make a base or gun pod mode or something is pretty sad. Hook is a jolly handsome man, but I wish TT had kept his Japanese name; "Glen." It would just enhance his gentlemanliness.
Scrapper Transformers Studio series.
Star Convoy (A.K.A Star Optimus Prime [which is a dumb name]) AOTP
This guy, oooh tricky. He is the first of the smaller Titan class figures, which should have resulted in a smaller price. However in Japan, he was the price of a normal Titan figure. The just a little bit later, Trypticon got reissued with the (possibly) "new" full sized Titan price, which was significantly more.
So, Bad timing I guess for Star Convoy.
I have the reissues G1 Star Convoy and while it is an unashamed brick of a figure, it also has so many gimmicks and good stuff in him, he ends up being a really awesome toy. The robot mode also looks pretty schmick as well. Titan Star Convoy, just copies much of what the original did, adds some articulation, takes away the cool motorised tread which provides power and refines the base mode a tad. A decent update in my humble opinion.
If the price were lower.
As it was (and I got mine at a discount from RRP), this toy was very overpriced a fair bit. It reminds me a lot of the JP pricing of the first Commander, Jetfire/Skyfire. That seemed excessive as well. So as much as I like the toy, I do not recommend on pricing alone. If TT get away with this now, they'll do it again in the future.
I even felt I needed to mention that on the survey form. (I did)
Vortex Age Of the Primes
You know, for the longest time, I thought vortex was based on the Apache assault chopper. It turns out he isn't. While the chopper mode is fun and fine, the robot mode looks fairly good and his head sculpt is very nice, the arms come with very awkward floppy helicopter tail panels, which I really think they could've handled better. However they will no longer be a problem when he is fused into Bruticus.
Prototype Arcee Missing Link
Arcee never got a G1 toy and this Missing Link fixes that. I got the Pinky/Orange version because it seemed more "genuine to the time" than the one based on Arcees proper colours. After all the one made back then actually had these colours. As a bonus, she also has a beautiful 80s cartoon face sculpt, which I adore. Articulation is great, accessories are nice and like all the ML toys so far, it just feels sooooo good in hand.
I love it
Cordon Missing Link
A recolour of Sunsteaker and a hyped up police car, but with missing link awesomeness.
It's just so satisfying playing with these things. He now comes with a Diaclone driver too! He's white and sleek and a lambo. Good stuff!
Mixmaster Studio Series
He's cool. Has a more interesting transformation than I expected, a really nice head sculpt and is a cement truck. My main complaint is that it's hard for me to get my fingers on his face to make him look around because of the back of the truck (i.e his "hat).
Scavenger Studio Series
Seeing this guy in the SS line made me think of the Incredible Hulk. Why? Because they both have green torsos and purple pants. Unfortunately Scav's pants are the same as Bonecrusher's, which I find to be hindered in their articulation. You have to unclick them to make them bend, meaning that you can't do a very subtle bend at the knee, which their track legs really require... His robot mode is super blocky, but I kind of like that, and his transformation was more interesting, without being excessively complex.
He gets the job done. Now he is an arm.
AOTP Megatronus
I still actually like this guy, even after my review of him and he had been sitting around somewhere within arm's reach for, well, since I got him. Nicely pose-able, and good fiddle fun. Shame that tank mode sucks balls. The experience of the turret really puts me off getting SS Megatron, despite absolutely everyone telling me the robot is really good.
Optimus Prime (Studio Series Commander)
While the toys follows the cartoon colours a bit too religiously (i like a tasteful combo of toy and cartoon aspect personally), the toy is really frikking good! Satisfying, clever transformation that isn't excessively complex and can be done without instruction references after a couple of tries. A quality trailer (with a Roller!!) and fantastic articulation in Robot mode makes this thing a treat!
I'm screwed if they do a Shattered glass version.
It's good, really very good.
Link Travellers - A gacha line
Coming across as the spiritual successor to Gashapon Quest (Possibly Aqua Shooters! as well), this is a line where they just thought
"Screw this, let's mash genre types together!"
And that's what they did, you've got girl "Idol" groups, Pirates, future fighting guys, robots all kicking together and it's pretty cool. IF You can find them and don't get a series of shitty rolls that result in 3 dresses, 1 pair of shoes and a hat, but no figure with which to adorn them upon.
It's cool, but also a bit of a PITA. I'll get in depth with them in a later post.
Moving on to other random figures that I got. A lot of them were GI Joe Classified figures.
Zandar
The brother of the wonderful Zarana. So I had to get him. His style is superb and I think him and the rest of the Dreadnoks looks awesome. Also, I see that the images I yoinked from TT's page there have all stopped working. Dammit. Also, Zandar rocks that scarf!
Dr. Mindbender
This guy just summs up everything I love about GI Joe characters, more specifically Cobra. My god! It's just crazy. He has a big coat, a metal codpiece, no shirt and a MONOCLE! A Monocle ladies and gentlethings.... Too crazy to properly exist in this world, but here he is and I have him. Woot.
Swarm Tracer - From Action Force
I remember action force being some off-shoot of GI Joe that killed Bumblebee in the comics. Somehow (possibly black magic) some dude got the name and started making GI Joe Aligned figures with it. Oddly he actually got a figure of Sgt. Slaughter made. Wow.
Anyway, I grabbed this figure because it glows in the dark. I initially thought it was a blue GITD because the pictures used a blacklight on it, but it's actually the standard green. That's ok though as it's rather glorious.
It comes with a little wing pack, a couple of gun, a teeny tiny knife, some hands and three heads. One head looks like a flight helmet, another looks like a big bug eye and the last one looks like a mean-ass! It would seem these guys are meant as army builders, kind of the like B.A.T robots from GI Joe. Articulation is pretty damn fine! I like it a lot! It's glow is good and it's fun to mess about with. Highly recommended. Although I don't think I'll bother with many more toys from "Action Force" The website has a very fan fiction-y story made up (complete with speling mistakes) and I kind of like that. It looks about as legit as the Transformers Collector's Club (used to be)!
MOTU Classics Necro-Conda
I can't tell if I hate or love that name.
Another MOTU figure I picked up for its GITD properties. It has some painted areas and the armour is GITD plastic. Nice. Sadly the weapons are not, despite looking like the should be. It's col, its chunky, it has a cape.
It also comes with a cool snake tail, so you could replaces his legs if you so desired. HOWEVER since the tails has no glow bits, that will not be happening to mine. Once again, I have feeling this is another troop/army builder guy.
I like it, GITD is really cool. Plus look at the goddam box art! Motu knocks it out of the park!!
And so the toy of the year:
Is very hard to decide, TBH nothing really grabbed me by the balls and threatened devastating violence, so I'm gonna have to give this by default to
Studio Series Devastator
This guy kind of becomes my toy of the year by default in a way. He has taken the entire year to gather the whole team to make him. When combined, he actually looks pretty awesome, despite the chunks of stuff hanging off his lower back (good grabbing area though) and a little square hole in his chest that should have been better covered up by the chest shield thing. I think he is a lot better than the Unite Warriors/Combiner Wars one that was released before, mainly because he has knees that aren't in his thighs anymore
However, he is big and beefy. The wide chest this guy has, I actually really love and I think it fits well thin the realms of what he should be as a combined robot of construction vehicles. That is, a strongman. I like to justify the combined modes of groups as being essential parts of their team make up, as a result, I am happy with Devastator as being seen as the physically strongest and one of the most durable of the Decepticon, whereas Menasor should be crazy, a bit smaller and while well shield form blaster fire, not able to lift as much as Devs. etc.
Spot 2 Probably goes to the awesome Missing Links and Spot 3 would be Commander Optimus Prime.
A kind of a plain year now that I think about it... Maybe I should actually make the Toy of the year my PS5...
And that should segue nicely into my gaming blurb for the year.
A lot of my thoughts got included in my Game Diary posts, but I'll go over them briefly and add to them. Let's go.
Legacy of Kain Defiance and Blood Omen
Fatal Frame II
I've not touched this since that post. Partly because at the moment, my PS3 needs a bit of maintenance, so hen it heats up a bit, it starts sounding like a low flying aeroplane. I have plans to fix it up, but they haven't happened yet.
Jedi Fallen Order
My comments for this are exactly the same, it was fun and I enjoyed it, but I have no intention to return to it. I even didn't want to bother collecting the things I missed mainly because navigation through the levels was a bit of a pain. It did totally make me want to try out the Sequel though.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor
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| Yes, that is Boba Fett making a cameo. |
The combat isa bit rough at times, and dealing with a variety of enemies in a single group can prove very troublesome but, I found once I had levelled up a few of the stances, each of the types of sabre you can use are all pretty fun. The game seems really hard at the start as you try and kill up your dude, and you have to spread your skill points wisely. I feel that you can't rely on sabre skills alone and found the best way to fight lots of fellas was to combo sabre slashing, with clever, but minor use of force powers. A quick push here to stop some guy slapping you so you can finish of some droid over there, a quick group pull to get them pesky troopers within range of your circling light sabre throw and eventually, the very awesome group slam move, which I absolutely loved. Shame they took it away at the start of the NG+, as it was heaps of fun and I was looking forward to just TRASHING everyone with it. It also had a really awesome sound effect to it as well.
There are lots of cosmetics to find and wear and a good variety of bad guys. I kind of fell tempted to New Game+ this game, but don't know if the story is strong enough for it.
According to my gaming wrap up, I played it for 91 hours. Now, what made me go that far was the fun platforming and clever use of abilities. It falls into the Metroidvania genre and the level designs are pretty well done and once you have a bunch of abilities to traverse the world, it's rather enjoyable doing so.
Quite looking forward to the next one TBH.
Ghost of Tsushima (director's cut)
Once again, according to the wrap up, this is the game I' spent the most hours on at 134. Phew. I also nabbed all the trophies for this game too and it was a real cracker. A cool samurai movie experience that is quality all the way. It looks amazing, plays really well, has cool, decent stealth mechanics, a robust melee system that successfully allows you to switch sword swinging stances between strokes and a decent story.
The fights were really awesome with you parrying, going for a riposte if you felt, or just zipping out of the way, but the parries were the best. It also had a really good dueling system for the many one on one fights.
It's incredibly cinematic and if you can ignore the geographical and weather inconsistencies quite enjoyable. Knowing where Tsushima Island is, and what time of year the game is set in, it's very hard to imagine anywhere having snow, even up in the northern section. Plus some areas were in Spring and another in Autumn.
As I said before the game was very cinematic and it was a great game for making you feel like you were playing a samurai movie. They also had a very impressive way point marker system that kept the game screen clear of excess stuff. You could press a button and the wind would blow in the direction that you needed to go, this could be changed to personally set markers as well. It was very impressive.
The DC version came with a mini extra island which I left until the end end of the game, because it comes with some overpowered gear and as a result, I think I was tiring of it a bit as it felt like a tiny bot of a drag. As a result, while I started the NG+, I have not progressed very far and just stopped.
It did have many ways to customise your Samurai dude as well, which was super awesome! And a photo mode!
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| Nothing wrong here, I'm juts gonna plant my rice next to these people who were tortured to death. |
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| Majestic |
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| Weather! |
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| Running around, covered in other people's blood, in my samurai undies! |
This one, is another game that I am looking forward to the sequel, Ghost of Yotei, BUT I need a break from it as yet.
Marvel's Spiderman 2
I posted a Game Diary post about this one and was pretty harsh. I have since progressed on the story a bit and now that pussy Kraven is deadened, the story has picked up a bit. Now I see his role in the story and what was going on. Fair call. But it took a REALLY long time to get there.
Still, it hasn't improved the general mechanics of the game, i.e most of the missions involve swinging to an area and then beating up countless mooks.
It's better, but not awesome.
Astrobot's Playroom.
Holy shit, this game, this god damn game! What a cracker! And it was free! This game was more fun than it has any reason to be. A quality little puzzle-ish platformer with lots of Playstation nostalgia chucked in for good measure. It makes use of the motion controls to exhibit the powers of the PS5 Dualshock controller and those bits kind of suck, but can be turned off.
Astrobot himself is full of character and it has nicely set up themed worlds. Even the music is pretty charming and catchy. There were some challenges to some bits, that need googling, but they are optional.
Really good fun!
However, while the game celebrates the history of the Sony Playstation, it's really a sign of the times, that very few of the characters and games referenced are able to be played on the PS5. There's Ape Escape, Symphony of the Night, Flash Jack Rabbit and a whole heap more, but you can't play most of them on the PS5. Kind of telling in a way; Sony doesn't give a shit about the rich history they have at their disposal.
I was so impressed I bought the standalone game. (yet to be played )
Sonic Racing Crossworlds
Another Sonic Racing game, which I think is the 4th now and aside from Sonic Team Racing all seem pretty good.
All Stars Racing, was a great start with a myriad of excellent character choices.
Sonic Racing Transformed took the kart racing formula and shoved it to the top of ideas with tracks that changd during the race and the car changing from car to boat to plane. Plus they all had slightly different handling. Damn I love Transformed.
Team Racing leaned heavily on multiplayer, and the mechanics looked a lot like standard racing, but with team buddy work. Essentially a drop back from the magic of Transformed.
Crossworlds attempts to combine Team Racing and Transformed together, with some success. You have the three vehicles and team work options, but instead of things happening in the tracks for each lap, for the second lap, you'll get shoved into a "Crossworld" which consists of driving through a warp ring and doing a single lap of a completely different track. On the one hand it's really cool. On the other a bit saddening. Many of the Crossworlds aren't fully fledged tracks as such, just a section in feeling. Since the track options are fairly randomised you very rarely repeat the exact same experience each time, which is cool.
However it ends up with a slight feeling of "Not enough tracks." Sure, there are a bunch of cups, but the last track of each cup is a lap each of the previous tracks, so while the cup has 4 "tracks" you actually only race over three, plus whatever crossworld you come across. Add to that after a certain point, normal tracks become cross worlds, I had one cup where I did the same track as a genuine track, then as a crossworld in track 2, and once again for the final track.
Plus it is very item spam heavy. Holy shit. A lot of them are real bitches ot avoid as well. What I liked in Transformed was that with a well timed boost, you could avoid getting smacked with something. Got a homing rocket punch coming up yer arse? Get a slide boost ready and let it rip just as the thing is about to hit you and your safe. No such luck in this game. It feels somewhat excessive, even for a kart racer. And FUck that goddam ninja star thing that cuts your car in half. That seems to be the most common one to get whacked but. It can rot in hell.
Crossworlds made me buy the Season pass as well. A first. I figured a number of the proposed characters looked fun and I'd like them (Spongebob, Ninja Turtles, Pac Man) and I really wanted the Prime Sonic characters. Actually, Knuckles the Dread and there was no other way. But anyway. Plus they have also been supporting with a decent release of free SEGA characters as well. I was happy to see Hatsune Miku, NiGHTS and the guy form Yakuza rock up as freebies. I want a figure of Miku in her racing gear. So I feel the devs and SEGA are supporting it pretty well for the future.
There's more I wanna say, but I might save it for a gaming diary later. Regardless, Sonic Crossworlds has a lot of potential and I am having a good time at the moment.
Super Mario Wonder
I picked this up super cheap very recently so can't really comment except to say; as a non-mario player its not bad. I'm still working through what I think and haven't had enough time to form a thorough opinion, so I am going to shove this into the game wrap up post for next year.
So here we go with GOTY and after much thinking, I think it is going to
Ghost Of Tsushima.
This game was such a good ride and does so many things right. While typing this post and thinking about the game, I keep remembering all the awesome missions it makes you do and maybe I'll jump back in again.
Second place goes to - Jedi Survivor. (but only just)
The level design is the highlight here and navigating to various places and trying to find all the treasure chests was a joy.
Plus it has 5 types of Light sabre style!! FIVE!!
A very close third goes to - Sonic Racing Crossworlds.
Its good and brings a smile to my face each time I play it. It is pretty intense though, but in a way it is also able to set to a level of intenseness that you want. And on top of that, it actually makes me want to do the time trials, which is something I haven't felt in a long time with a racer.
I expect good things from Crossworlds for next year.
So a nice segue for next year thoughts.
I'm looking forward to finding a cheap copy of Ghost of Yotei, more time with Mario Wonder and Sonic. Plus Astrobot!
Toy Wise, perhaps finding that goddam Keaton Batmobile in good colours from Hot Wheels. I finally picked up a black Arkham Asylum Hot Wheels in early December. I've got a nice little selection set up now, which I like. Batmobiles are cool.
Transformers, I'm not really digging a whole lot. Bruticus is on the list for sure, and some Targetmasters no doubt, but aside from that I haven't been paying much attention. Missing Link Diaclone Magnus has bee preordered, and he'll be superb, but with TF pricing creeping upwards all the time, I find I am easily resisting their sexiness.
I'll probably be in for more Link Travellers, but less so for Aqua Shooters. If they still make them. They're good fun and fulfill my kit set need to clip things together.
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