2017 Power Rangers movie… A review of sorts

Hrm, I say  I must admit for this movie, I had pretty low expectations, so I was in no hurry to see it.  However I was determined to watch it.  So I did.

Unboxing My Black Rock Shooter Insane Part 1 and 2

So, after actually going through the terror of getting this, I finally decided to open it up.  Part one of a two part series.  This video covers the Blu Ray and outer package.  The next will cover the figma.







Part two, checking out the figma is here:

Transforming "Magical" Transformer Flannels.

Some towels I was given as a gift.
BEHOLD!

Owning Bill Murray

When I was going through the excitement of my Masters of the Universe Classics fad (let’s face it, that is exactly what it was), I also noticed that Mattel were doing some Ghostbusters figures.  I have always loved Ghostbusters,  I remember seeing it at the cinema and the scene where the librarian ghost gets all scary in the face, well, I got scared and covered my eyes.

I still love the movie and I also love Bill Murray.   Now I have a little plastic Bill Murray in his Ghostbuster outfit!  Let’s take a gander!

Protoform Optimus Prime

This was one of the first Transformers released for the first Michael Bay Transformers movie, as part of the ‘preview wave, it consisted of this Protoform Optimus Prime, Protoform Starscream and a Bumblebee if my memory serves me correctly.

Being a sad man that loves hi Cybertronian mode Transformers, I naturally had to get the two Protoform toys.  I wasn’t expecting much since they jut transform into a large turd, but they are surprisingly surprising.

The Fallen, Legion class toy review

This one comes with a super-duper real alternate mode!

Give me six and a half minutes of your life and I will give you the best video on youtube!



Bonus drinking game every time I say the word....

Working thoughts and The Third Man

 

The other day I was at work and making up a print.  It was the movie “The Third Man” now having never heard of it, I gave it a quick google and it turns out that it is from 1949, which would explain the print being in black and white.  While i was making it up, I was being very careful, trying to preserve frames where I could when needing to join spools together, just as a matter of course, as it looked old.  After all, if every time it is made up and taken apart, it loses frames from the head and tail of each spool, eventually scenes are going to disappear.

 

It got me thinking, what if this is the last print left in the world?  Unlikely I know, but you can’t really be sure. Perhaps not with this movie.  Or perhaps it is, what if one day I am working on some obscure movie, that hasn’t had a dvd/blu ray conversion done to it and the print I have is the last one.  It’s entirely possible that this may be the case eventually.  It did make me extra careful to keep frames when possible and even clean up a few dodgy looking joins that were already in it as well as reinforcing a couple of damaged sprocket holes.

 

With the shift to digital cinema and the conversion from 35mm film prints to hard drives it wouldn’t surprise me if one day, I do end up working on the last copy of a movie.  I find that a humbling, special and fairly sad prospect all at the same time.

The evil Professor Z. Small but deadly

The Cars a movie by Pixar was one I never got around to seeing.  The sequel however is another story, mainly because of it having some amusing Japan sections.

After seeing it though, I thought the story was predictable and average at best, but I was terribly impressed at how they managed to make the whole world carry the car theme.  Mountains shaped like Cadillacs as just one small example.  This made me enjoy the movie much more than I thought I would.  All the characters were well suited to their assorted vehicles.  Two in particular caught my eye, and so the hunt for the toys began.

Highbrow is Hunting.

Highbrow, one of the toys from the ‘Hunt For the Decepticons’ line at the end of the Revenge of the Fallen series.  Or was it ‘Autobot Alliance’?  I don’t know, they sometimes put too many damn names to these series sometimes.  I am just glad it wasn’t the ‘Revenge Battles’ or ‘Blah blah Battles’ since Hasbro have a passion for the word ‘Battles’ in their series names.

I got Highbrow for a couple of reasons.  The first is because like Mindwipe, he is named after a Headmaster character.  Unlike Mindwipe though, there is more than just a name similarity.  They both have propellors on their arms.  The second and most important reason for my getting him by a long shot, is that he is based on a World War II fighter bomber, the p-38 lightning.  Google it, it’s very interesting.

Stealth Force Bumblebee

OOOOh!  Stealth Force.  The Transformers that don’t transform.  I have been keen on the SF series for a while, mainly because of the M.A.S.K possibilities contained therein.  Most of them were overpriced when they cam out towards the middle of the Revenge Of The Fallen line.  Electronic Optimus and the normal Soundwave were the only ones I was interested in all the rest were waaaaaay over priced.


No with the Dark of The Moon movie using the forms and the game of the movie featuring them quite heavily (almost to the detriment of robot mode), I spied this new line of larger electronic sized cars and was intrigued, especially since Barricade is in the line up too.


Bumblebee didn’t interest me at first, but then after seeing the movie and playing the game, I kept an eye out for a sale, as the original $50 retail price (I kid you not!) is one of the larger rip-offs that we Australians have to put up with.  Luckily the toys sales abound and the price came done to $30.  Still a rip-off considering how the US is looking at an 18.99 price, but not too bad I guess.  So I got one.  This way he can go up against Barricade!

Latest haul

Quite a big batch in the post office waiting for me today.

Looks like my plans for cutting back have faltered recently, but this is because I plan on finishing the acquiring new stuff for a while, so this is part of my big final push.  More follow.  I even had my good camera today!

Dark Of the Moon Laserbeak

I picked this guy up as I am a bit of a sucker for Soundwave’s minions.  After all I bought the awful Revenge of the Fallen Ravage and then again when they released him with chrome.  Ravage was a crappy Transformer.  Nice figure of the character but his ‘vehicle’ mode was poor.  How does Laserbeak do?  Read on…

Black Rock Shooter Blu Ray and DVD Limited set

I saw these going cheap on the internet and managed to convince a pal o mine that we both needed one.  It was half price and considering the amount of stuff in it, I thought it was good value.  It certainly has a nice box.  So, what exactly is inside?

Tets goes to see Pirates 4: Stranger Tides

Hmm, So I went off to see Pirates of the Caribbean 4 : On Stranger tides the other day.  I like the Pirates movies.  Sure Number 2 was a bit too much and #3 was a tad on the dodgy side, but you have to admit the character of Capt. Jack Sparrow is indeed an interesting dude.  Johnny Depp  and Geoffrey Rush definitely saved the later movies

 

So after hearing positive reviews for #4 and seeing that Orlando and Kiera’s characters were both absent, as well as a good cast (bar Penelope Cruz), I was looking forward to it. 

 

Sentinel Prime, initial thoughts.

I like the concept of Sentinel Prime and so I was looking forward to this figure.  He has cool weapons and is a pretty awesome vehicle mode.  Much in the same vein as Animated Ultra Magnus.  That is, a big ass truck of some description.  Sorry, but there is a lack of robot mode pics, again, using just my camera in my phone, and I didn’t think of doing this until after I had transformed him to vehicle mode.

Powerglide, Same toy. New Pics.

My thoughts are still much the same as in my initial thoughts post about this guy.  I have just managed to get my camera batteries charged and have taken some better quality pictures.

Dark Of the Moon figure price RIPOFF!

 

Ok, I know for a fact that in Australia we get gipped on prices for pretty much everything, games, toys, lately food.  It’s all seriously priced up over other countries, but I have to say that I was shocked when I saw the pricing for the Dark Of the Moon figure assortments.

 

Let’s compare with our friends in the U.S.A (which is nice and easy due to the Aus Dollar being so close next to it). 

 

US $ and Australian $ Price Comparison of ‘Dark of the Moon’ toys.

Class size:	Legion	Commander	HA Basic	Action Playsets	Deluxe	Voyager	Leader
US  Dollars	5	8	10	16	13	24	50
Aus Dollars	8	18	19	19	29	50	89

 

So bearing that in mind, and the fact that the Aussie dollar has only (!) been about equal to the US dollar for the last 5 or so months, I will convert the Australian Prices into American using the current rate of $1 Aus gets you $1.06 US.

Australian Prices Converted into US dollars and compared with US prices.

Class size:	Legion	Commander	HA Basic	Action Playsets	Deluxe	Voyager	Leader
US  Price	5	8	10	16	13	24	50
Aus Price changed to US dollars	8.50	19.17	20.23	20.23	30.87	53.22	94.76

 

So in essence, although the Legion and Playsets are pretty close in price scale, the HA Basics, Voyager and Leader sizes are pretty much double what those lucky chaps in America pay.  I should also add that as a standard price, $89 Aus is deemed cheap for a leader as they usually retail for $99 Australian (equivalent to $105.40 US).  I believe there are a number of stores that intend to charge that price as well.

 

Really it seems ironic that with the stronger Aus dollar, retailers have been whinging that they are losing sales to online/overseas stores.  Well here’s an idea BE MORE COMPETETIVE!   The service is bad, the range is bad and the prices are bad.  No wonder people are buying online.  I know that if I want more DOTM figures (of which there are only about 5), I will be going online.  So far the ones I am after I can get for about $150 including postage I suspect.  And yet here in Australia they expect me to pay that for a leader size and a voyager alone!

 

That my friends, in the words of Penn & Teller, is Bull S**t!!

 

Size comparison and a examples of toys follow:

 

 

Commander Class Powerglide intial impressions

Commander Class Powerglide is the first of my Dark of the Moon Toys which will probably be a small collections.  Why?  The prices on these things are expensive!!  I did get a little 3-d flickery card doohicky as part of a competition, but even so…

I apologise for low quality pics.  I spontaneously bought this as I objected to the ripoff price.  But then I caved and thought that this will be the only one.  So I had to uses my phone camera for the shots.  I might get around to whipping out the good camera and do some proper shots and review later on.

*Update: Pics with my good camera here*

Buzz Lightyear! AGAIN!

‘Another Buzz Lightyear?!?!?!??  Man, didn’t his guy do enough shots of his last one?!?!???’ I hear you cry.  Well, I did do quite a few of my Revoltech Buzz, mainly because I was mightily impressed with it.  Then I saw this Chogokin version of Buzz and when I saw one particular feature, I decided that I would give it a try.  So which is better?  Read on…

More stuff to work on

Just received this hot little item today.

 

 

Chougoukin Bizz Lightyear!!

A few more pics follow……