So, having realised I never get the chap out of his box and therefore am basically hoarding him, I moved my Shinkansen Robo on. Hopefully the new buyer will treat him with a little more affection.
I took the opportunity to grab some better pictures of the figure before he set out for his new home, as well as scanning the cute instruction manual.
I might well go through and update more of the Gobots reviews with some better pictures - I seem to recall most of the pictures were done when my setup largely involved waiting for a sunny day...
- Gobots - Machine Robo Shinkansen Robo review
So, having finished reviewing my first movie figures for now (though Payload arrived today...) I'm on to the Revenge of the Fallen toys - six months after the event, for sure, but then I doubt anyone comes here for finger-on-the-pulse current events.
This first batch of reviews was going to be themed on the Shanghai battle from the film, but I don't have the screen-accurate Demolishor yet, and am waiting for the release of Flareup (or Elita-1, whichever it is) before reviewing the Arcee bikes - being an enthusiast of the film, they'll all be grouped in a single review titled "Arcee" and with tortured prose as I steadfastly refer to Chromia as "the blue Arcee bike".
So, that leaves us with Optimus Prime, Skids & Mudflap in their ice cream truck form, Sideswipe and Sideways. By sheer fluke, three of these have had signifcant roles in my recent collecting habits - Sideways was a present from my parents, and interested me enough to maybe consider trying out the Revenge of the Fallen range; Sideswipe was then bought the next day to go with him. And Leader Optimus Prime (a beautiful toy) is roughly the point where I went from "Yeh, I'll pick up the ones that catch my eye" to "MUST RECREATE FILM WITH PLASTIC FIGURES". Not that the Twins are unloved - they were a Christmas present from Sar =)
- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Optimus Prime review
- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Skids & Mudflap review
- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Sideswipe review- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Sideways review
Next thing on my list was to tidy up the pages for The Robo Machines as part of my one-man quest to get Fleetway's forgotten comic strip about the European version of Gobots recognised as the classic it was, possibly resulting in simultaneous storming of Bandai and IPC's offices, the forced unretirement of Tom Tully and his reunification with Kim Raymond to finish the thing. It's something to aim for, anyway.
The main thrust of the update is that people kept hotlinking the images (seriously, is Photobucket/Flickr/Picasa/Imageshack too complex for people?), so the files have been moved to Rapidshare. So, that means they can be downloaded fairly easily too. I've had a little bit of fun 'packaging' the two arcs as faux cheapo TPBs utilising only my poor Photoshop skills - indulge me, I'm the one who scanned the thing.
- Gobots - The Robo Machines comic
I've finished up reviewing the rest of my figures from the first Transformers film - Leader-class Decepticon bruiser Brawl (a.k.a. Devastator), Deluxe-class sidekick Scorponok, videogame tie-ins Longarm and Swindle, and sentient vehicle Landmine. A pretty mixed bunch of figures, but there we go.
Revenge of the Fallen reviews should be commencing soon, and I'm tinkering away at other bits for the site - a mix of more capsule reviews, more Challenge of the Gobots episode pages, a review for Soul of Chogokin Raideen, and some other odds and sods.
- Transformers Movie Brawl toy review
- Transformers Movie Scorponok toy review
- Transformers Movie Longarm toy review- Transformers Movie Swindle toy review- Transformers Movie Landmine toy review
Megatron is one of those toys where Hasbro are arguably on a hiding to nothing - in the films he's basically a big, spiky robot that turns into a folded up robot, and it would be very difficult to capture the feel of movement in a toy.
The first film's Premium Leader version has a passable go at this difficult task - it's not especially accurate to the flowing CG model, and is quite simplistic for something of this size, but at least it's recognisable as Megatron and interacts fairly well with other toys from the line.
- Transformers Movie Megatron toy review
Ironhide is probably my favourite toy from the first Transformers film line. It helps that he's one of my favourite characters from the films, but this really is a great toy. It's ingenious, doing a good job of following the complex CGI model without being needlessly complicated. Ironhide looks solid in both modes, and is fun to transform to boot.
The various muddled with versions are inferior for one reason or another, but the basic mould remains sound, and those curious might want to keep an eye out - Revenge of the Fallen Voyagers seem to be reduced in a lot of chains in the UK, and while the grey Ironhide might not look as sharp as the original, presumably the engineering still shines though.
Also this update I've put up what reviews I've done for IDW's Movie-verse comics. The four volumes covered here are probably about as in-depth as coverage is going to get, as they were so dire that reviewing them was actually a bit depressing. This site is mainly meant to be about stuff I like, and while my completist urges mean I'm going to end up with a few figures that aren't so great I'm not mad on the idea of spending time reviewing comics I feel are below contempt. That said, there didn't seem much point in not putting up what I'd done so far.
- Transformers Movie Ironhide toy review
- Transformers Movie comics reviews
Like Blackout, Bonecrusher suffers from an undersized toy - only a Deluxe rather than a more fitting Voyager. However, for some reason it doesn't bug me as much with Bonecrusher - possibly because the figure is outright superb, rather than the more qualified success of Blackout.
He really is very good fun on his own terms, with a very neat cinematic transformation - you can really imagine the chap rolling forward into robot mode, ranting and flailing as he goes. Not sure what the point was in the moving parts that make his arms even longer than they already are, though...
- Transformers Movie Bonecrusher toy review
Okay, a bit of a break from toy reviews here... Work is a wee bit mental at the moment, meaning I don't have the time/willpower to type anything more than about three lines long, so I've been tinkering with rounding out the Doctor Who section. So, I've completed capsule reviews for every story up to the end of Season 30 and slapped them up, meaning there's rudimentary coverage of most of the show's history, rather than full-length reviews of only a couple of stories.
So, enjoy, and if in the (highly likely) event I don't get chance to update for the next few weeks either, Merry Christmas and a happy new year.
Tom.
- Doctor Who capsule reviews
I don't generally like Jazz. The Generation 1 character severely irritated me with his hip posturing, and the film version didn't do much better - I can deal with the lubrication scene, I can deal with Judy asking Sam if he'd been masturbating, and I can deal with Frenzy swearing. But a robot saying, without apparent irony, "What's crackin', little bitches?" before posing on a car like David Brent? I hoped the sofa would swallow me. Jazz's pointless and unlamented death thus put a smile on my face.
I thus got the toy with very low expectations, but he isn't bad, really. There's a certain amount of "No kid's going to want to buy this one after seeing the thing, but we'll put one out anyway" cheapness to him, but it's also a fairly well-worked design.
- Transformers Movie Jazz toy review
Okay, so I've decided to have another crack at doing an episode guide for Challenge of the Gobots. One of the biggest problems I've been having with this (beyond it often being very bad) is the episode order As with many 1980s American cartoons, the show's air dates don't necessarily make sense, despite the general lack of any plot arcs. So, at the moment I'm following the airing order, but will be shuffling the menu as I go along whenever an episode is blatantly screened out of intended order (sadly, the show's lack of continuity makes this easier said than done).
Screen cap galleries I'm not sure on... Some of these recordings were taken (not by me, I'm not up to that sort of work) were taken from off-air VHS recordings made in the 1980s, and look bad enough in the small size shown above. I'll see what I'm left with once I'm done, I think.
Anyway, here's the review of "It's the Thought That Counts", the first episode shown after the initial five-part mini-series. It manages the not-inconsiderable feat of containing a human character even more punchable than the regulars...
- Challenge of the Gobots Episode Guide - "It's the Thought That Counts"
I managed to slightly upgrade my Clover Gundam recently... It now has a shield and a launcher, plus better shoulders.
Getting this sorted was a bit of an adventure, as the Italian who sold me the one with these parts turned out to be a lying bastard who told direct lies about the condition of the thing. Not in itself a big big problem thanks to the modern technology of the screwdriver (any toy that can't be taken apart with a screwdriver is an overcomplicated mess), just a bit bloody annoying, so I got some money back for that and even got him to admit he was a lying git.
Anyway, I'm now left with one nearly-there Clover Gundam, at least. Actually, he's there enough for me - in an ideal world I'd like the box (to go with the one for the DX) and a missile for the launcher, but the shield moved him up to an acceptable approximation of complete for me.
- Clover Gundam review
Blackout is someone I'm very torn on. The taciturn, lumbering character was impressive in the first film, even if his role was something of an anti-climax after that entrance, and his figure is good enough - despite a very poorly thought-out Automorph sequence for the head reveal, and a lack of any plausible weaponry in robot mode. The tiny Scorponok is a great little feature, there's decent enough articulation and a passable degree of accuracy to the screen model.
However, he's just too damn small - noticeably shorter than either Ironhide or Ratchet, not much larger than Deluxes such as Bumblebee and Jazz, and positively tiny compared to Prime or Megatron. Which is a pain, as he's probably the biggest Transformer in the first film. Should've been a Leader class in an ideal world...
- Transformers Movie Blackout toy review
Ratchet has suffered a bit as far as toys go. His original Voyager figure has been criticised for a lack of detail and accuracy compared to the film model; it was recoloured in Generation 1 colours as Rescue Ratchet, which became a shelf-warmer when the Movie figures were flying out of shops; a recolour for the second film added some details but dropped others. More recently, a new mould was announced with a more screen-accurate robot mode. This it had, but sadly the new figure was downsized to being a Deluxe, and the alternate mode changed to a rubbish pickup. Poor Ratchet.
I went for the original Voyager, largely because a cheap version (albeit missing two parts - the cage-thing that goes on the front bonnet, and the cover for the head in Hummer mode) came up, and rather like him. Sure, he isn't particularly accurate, and he is relatively chunky and simple compared to fellow Voyager-class figures such as Ironhide or Blackout, but he is nice as a big, simple change of pace.
- Transformers Movie Ratchet Review
So, having realised I never get the chap out of his box and therefore am basically hoarding him, I moved my Shinkansen Robo on. Hopefully the new buyer will treat him with a little more affection.
