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
In a way, it's amazing it took me so long to get around to getting this one - a year or two ago I rounded up the Bandai HK reissues of the original Lightan figures, which were my introduction to Chogokin. So the spiffed up version of the lead would be an obvious purchase, right? Well, it would, but I got a little sidetracked and spent a fortune on Voltron, Godaikin and far too many Ideon figures than is strictly sensible.
I very cleverly left it until the original gold version was quite scarce (there's a twin set of black and silver versions out, which is cheaper and easier to find, possibly because it's utterly pointless)... The only decently-priced one I could find was from an American seller who had the thing listed as an international auction, but seemed determined to make it basically impossible to buy the thing if you didn't live in America. Thankfully, all-round good egg Adam a.k.a. Lolligagger a.k.a. Savannahtron acted as middle man, and this golden beauty was mine.
Despite a few quibbles, the Soul of Chogokin figure is a great update. Crucially, it looks pretty good with the other figures, and the revisions mean he doesn't quite look like the vanilla toy anymore.
- Soul of Chogokin Gold Lightan
Over the past couple of months, I've got quite hooked on the live-action Transformers movie toys. they're not perfect, but they are good fun most of the time. Well, some of the time... It's actually quite hard to pin down quite why these appeal to me so much more than any other Transformers - possibly because they're generally dynamic and in-scale enough for a full-on living room floor rumble.
The first two reviews (the menu would look a bit weird if I kicked off with just one)... don't really give this impression. The first version of Bumblebee was chucked out quite hurriedly so that one of the film's leading lights would have a figure out as soon as possible, and is pretty unsophisticated. Thankfully a proper version (albeit with a less appealing vehicle mode) would follow in time. Meanwhile, Barricade - Bumblebee's sparring partner in the film's first robot-on-robot fight scene - looks like something from another Transformers line given a half-hearted retooling to fit the film's aesthetics.
- Transformers Movie Deluxe Bumblebee (Classic Camaro) review
- Transformers Movie Deluxe Barricade review
A slightly older Soul of Chogokin, Zambot 3 is about five years old now, but does stand up quite nicely compared to more recent offerings. The original anime was created by Yoshiyuki Tomino, of Space Runaway Ideon fame (he also did something called Gundam as well), and only lasted for 23 episodes.
The concept was something of a more colourful, 1970s version of Ideon, featuring a giant robot made up of three vehicles, protagonists who were persecuted for possessing said giant robot, clashes between the younger pilots and their older superiors,a super weapon for the robot that's stupidly over-sized, and a bloody finale.
However, Zambot 3 has a lot of individuality too, from the striking design to the presence of Zamboace. A nice figure, in all...
- Soul of Chogokin Zambot 3 review
Okay, long time no update... Variety of reasons, ranging from a lack of motivation to real life (I got engaged!) to forgetting to upload two Soul of Chogokin reviews that were finished a month ago. Oops. Those should be up over the next week or so, time permitting.
For now, enjoy the new live action Transformers movies section, featuring reviews, notes and information for Transformers and Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen.
- Transformers Live Action Movie section
I like Leopardon... I bought the original not expecting much, mainly getting it because it was a Godaikin I didn't have, and ended up really liking the design, so getting the Soul of Chogokin version has been on the hit-list for a while.
He's actually one of the cheapest SoC figures to find, at around £40, due to being fairly small (the set is padded with a pointless vinyl figure of Spider-Man), and while not exactly perfect (the two sets of arms aren't the smoothest piece of engineering Bandai ever came up with), he's a very good first point of call for anyone after a sample of the range's quality.
Good articulation, stacks of detail and some nice features, plus of course the great design - I always loved the way he's got the web motif all over him, but can also work nicely without the Spider-Man connection.
- Soul of Chogokin Leopardon
Another Autobot car, another chunk of my money heading back to deserving Chinese bootleggers. Mirage is another figure that Takara and/or Hasbro simply couldn't be arsed to keep an eye on the original moulds for, either destroying them out of sheer carelessness, or allowing a squad of Chinese super-thieves in stripped jerseys and domino masks to tuck the heavy steel constructs into a large bag with 'SWAG' written on it.
It's a fate that's befallen all sorts of minor, obscure Transformers characters like the Constructicons, the Dinobots, Shockwave, Sunstreaker and Wheeljack. Thankfully Takara have at least kept such design classics as Blaster, Kup and Wheelie unscathed, which totally balances things out. Other mould preservation problems such as those with Bruticus have been worked around by simply issuing completely substandard figures that most bootleggers would reject in disgust.
Really fills you with pride at how well figures you cherished during childhood are being preserved, doesn't it? If nothing else, it's a great disservice to the engineers who came up with neat, if somewhat dated, designs like Mirage in the first place. Takara landing the Disney Label deal has a certain aptness to it, what with their mickey-mouse nature...
- Transformers Mirage review
The latest review from my growing Soul of Chogokin collection is Getter Poseidon - a birthday present from Sar. He's insanely heavy, and very, very cool. So cool I was briefly tempted to buy his two team-mates in order to fully exploit their combining aspect, but I decided against it because I don't like the look of either.
What I do like is other Soul of Chogokin figures... I've recently got hold of Leopardon and Gold Lightan (cheers to Savvy T, a.k.a. Adam, a.ka. Lolli, for looking me up with the gold-plated glory that is the latter =)), both long-term targets to, respectively, replace and supplement the originals. And also bought Zambot 3 on a whim (yes, I spent a hundred pounds on a toy for a whim).
Also a big thanks to my parents for getting me Revenge of the Fallen Sideways, who's awesome in that weird Movie figure way. Reviews of the above are pending =)
On a non-robot toy front, but still a bit robot-y, there are some good reviews of Marvel UK's excellent Death's Head series at The Comics Code. It's a good British series (which was typically picked up and fucked over by Marvel USA as the diabolical Death's Head II, before original writer Simon Furman got back hold of it as Death's Head 3.0 and fucked it over again all by himself). It's good stuff, so have a read and see why you should pick these things up.
- Soul of Chogokin GX-20 Getter Poseidon review
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.
