Counter-X Journal

Robot Archie

2012-01-24T20:00:00.000Z

I've taken the opportunity to fix up and dust down the Robot Archie page. While there's not much in the way of new text, I have put up all the stories I currently have. I rather lost track, but I'm fairly sure there are some there I haven't put online before, though I can't speak for anyone else.

They're almost entirely taken from the annuals (exceptions are from the specials); the Vulcan serials should return when I get around to uploading those to the excellent Mirrorcreator. Until then, enjoy Britain's foremost robot hero barrelling into things and hitting strange animals.

- Robot Archie

G.I. Joe 30th Anniversary - Sci-Fi

2012-01-22T20:00:00.000Z

I thought I was over my G.I. Joe addiction, especially when new cartoon Renegades really irritated me (a big disappointment compared to the superb Transformers Prime). However, while most of the show's central characters look dreadful, the accompanying line has been partly hijacked by the 30th Anniversary figures.

These are basically thus far most of the guys I really wanted the 25th Anniversary/Pursuit of Cobra lines to do, guys lumbered with obsolete figures up to this point - Airtight, Zandar, Lifeline and Mercer being the main drool-inducing ones to date. It's almost enough to make me forgive them remaking Dial-Tone as a preposterously-expensive club/convention exclusive I'm never going to own. Sci-Fi wasn't one of my most lusted-after choices, but a symptom of my disease is that I just bought him anyway.

- G.I. Joe - Sci-Fi toy review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Que

2012-01-19T20:00:00.000Z

My latest Dark of the Moon purchase is Que, the Autobots' slap-headed random-accented sort-of inventor with a habit of disappearing for ensemble scenes. I really didn't take to the character, finding him much more irritating than Skids and Mudflap combined, with the result that his tragic death scene brought a smile to my face. Especially when his stupid head bounced along the ground like that. Silly Que.

So the figure would be up against it, and Hasbro/Takara (I'm not sure which version this is, it came loose from a Hong Kong seller... I'm not even sure if there are any changes) would need to wheel out a classic to win me over - their prime objective in business being my happiness, naturally. Instead they didn't bother. He's bloody awful.

- Transformers - Dark of the Moon Que toy review

Transformers in 3-D #1-3

2012-01-17T20:00:00.007Z

In the mid-1980s Stereoscopy briefly became a fad in comics. And by "fad in comics" I mean "a gimmick tried by a few also-rans in the hope it became a fad in comics". Primary offenders were Eclipse, who specialised in applying the process to vintage comics, some of which they might have even owned the rights to (the most famous of Eclipse's efforts being Miracleman 3D #1).

Blackthorne were a slightly different case. They actually had a bit of a link to Eclipse - they were formed in 1986 by the former owners of Pacific, who went bust in 1984; Eclipse took over many of Pacific's properties, including the negotiations to import Alan Moore's reinvented Marvelman serial from the classic British anthology Warrior. Like Eclipse they also plundered cheap old comics, but also managed to get licences for several toy properties like G.I. Joe, Robotech and Transformers. Marvel already had the Transformers comic licence (and G.I. Joe... was it Valiant that had Robotech? Never cared for Robotech...), of course, so Blackthorne arranged what can be described as a 'secondary licence'.

Marvel had little interest in 3-D, their comics selling fine already. Blackthorne had no interest in colour comics, their various attempts selling badly for the most part. So, there was no real harm to Marvel for Blackthorne to sling out the odd 3-D comic book. They also produced a tutorial series called How to Draw Transformers.

What Marvel did own and weren't about to share were the negatives to every Transformers comic published up to that point. With no public domain newspaper strips to prey on, Blackthorne would have to do some work - coming up with original black-and-white strips to Stereoscopy.

This resulted in three of the most bizarre Transformers comics of all time. Both staff and storylines showed no real continuity. The first issue, cover-dated Fall 1987, seemed to be taking most of its' cues from the cartoon continuity somewhere around "The Rebirth", albeit with Scorponok and Fortress Maximus appearing despite the text making it clear the Headmasters process was still in development. All this is enlivened by some quirky, fun art and some endearing characterisation - Ratbat appears to be a blend of his comic and cartoon personalities, while it's undoubtedly Searchlight's finest moment. This issue is quite common second hand.

The next two issues are rarer. In the case of the untitled story in #2, dated December 1987 - featuring an all-chance creative team, a random appearance by Ironhide, some annoying kids, several complete logic breakdowns and next to nothing in common with the first issue - this is probably a blessing.

It's a shame for the third issue, though. Featuring a third batch of hapless Blackthorne staffers, it's not quite in the same vein as the first issue, but still interesting thanks to the debut of the made-up-on-the-spot-after-too-much-coffee Destructons - a menacing race of aliens. Their names, in ascending order of awesomeness, were Medusa, Bruton, Psychokhan and - best of all - Lord Imperious Delirious. It again featured no significant connections to the previous two issues.

It came out in March 1988, and was intended to be the first installment of a three-part storyline. By then, Blackthorne were in severe financial trouble after sinking much of their money into the licence to produce the 3-D comic of Michael Jackson's Moonwalker film. The film tanked, which obviously did the 3-D comic no good. Both originated material and licenced titles rapidly disappeared from the Blackthorne roster. The company limped on into early 1990 before finally folding.

So no more Destructons - though considering the scatter-shot nature of Blackthorne's material up to that point, there's no guarantee any Transformers in 3-D #4 would have picked up the story anyway...

Despite the rights having presumably reverted back to Hasbro and then included in the rights reprint bundles rented to the likes of Titan and IDW, surprisingly (well, maybe) no-one's reprinted these things. These scans will have to do for now... The ones for #1 aren't by me, those for #2-3 are. The 3-D effects have been removed and flattened to make a halfway-presentable set of black-and-white pictures.They were hosted on the main site until they fell by the wayside, but I've had a few emails asking for them to be put up somewhere. The files are showing their age, though, as a word of warning - I sold the comics some time ago, and the scans are about half the resolution they need to be.

- Issue #1 - The Test!
- Issue #2
- Issue #3 - The War Against the Destructons, Part 1 of 3

Golden Warrior Gold Lightan Episode 1

2012-01-15T20:00:00.000Z

Continuing in the vein of strange things I have uploaded, here's the first episode of the Gold Lightan animated series - the full name being the somewhat clumsy Golden Warrior Gold Lightan. It's nothing compared to the episode title - "Demon of Mechanic Direction". Nice.

I'm afraid the episode is raw, with Japanese audio only. Bah. Sadly, being the first installment of a Super Robot anime, it features very little mental robot action. Bah.

- Gold Lightan - 01 "Demon Mechanic of Direction" (full episode)
- The last ten minutes of episode 8, "Subway Centipede Panic"
- A TV spot for the series
- The commercial for the Chogokin figure

Shogun Warriors #1

2012-01-13T20:00:00.000Z

Continuing with the random scanning (I will do some proper updates at some point), here's the first issue of Marvel's Shogun Warriors series. For those who don't know, Shogun Warriors was Mattel's attempt to sell Popy toys to the American public - comprehensive coverage of the toyline can be found at Wildtoys' Shogun Warriors Page.

They roped in Marvel to produce a comic to help promote the line. In practice - either for legal reasons (the legislation that would allow G.I. Joe and Transformers was still a few years down the line) or by choice - only three figures from the line appeared: Raydeen, Combattler and Dangard Ace. Just as much focus was given to their human operators and the Followers of Light organisation responsible for the Shoguns in the end. The series - unlike its' 1980s descendants - took place in the main Marvel Universe, leading to a crossover with the Fantastic Four when sales slumped. The pilots would even turn up in the F4's own comic after Shogun Warriors was cancelled for an epilogue to their adventures.

Licencing issues (obvious even in the F4 wrap-up, where the robots were unnamed and had their appearances modified) mean the series is highly unlikely to ever be collected. There are scans of the whole run out there, but I've never found any in decent resolution. So I've scanned the first of my complete run. The age of the comics means the colours look somewhat washed out, but if people want more let me know and I'll add further issues to my "To Do" pile.

- Shogun Warriors #1

Lee's Guide to Gobots

2012-01-10T20:00:00.000Z

I've had this kicking around for ages, it's a free supplement given away with some issue or other of Lee's Toy Magazine. It's not 100% complete (where's Spy-Eye?) and the potted intro does it few favours (notably being unable to identify Popy as the line's originator), but it does manage to be a respectable overview of the US Gobots line, with pictures of most figures carded or boxed.

High-Res version (~20MB)
Low-Res version (~5MB)

G.I. Joe - Z-Force Convention 3-pack

2012-01-04T20:00:00.001Z

The reviews for these guys have been sitting on my computer for a while, so I thought I'd better upload them. The trio - issued at the 2010 International G.I. Joe Convention - are a homage to Palitoy's Z-Force figures from the 1980s. There's the mechanic Gaucho, electronics wiz Jammer and... eh... on-loan paramedic Lifeline. Click on the pictures to read each review.

Happy 2012

2012-01-02T20:00:00.001Z

...and I hope you all had a good Christmas.

Apologies for the recent lack of updates, I've been busy with a totally unrelated project I'm afraid. Once that's dealt with I've plenty more toy reviews to come.

On a totally unrelated note, fans of Transformers might want to check out The Complete Works.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - Brawn

2011-10-24T20:00:00.000+01:00

Brawn's a bit of a relic as far as my collecting habits go, coming from my "buy everything live action movie related" phase a year or so ago. The only reason he's still hanging on in there is because I keep meaning to review him before moving him on to someone who'll hopefully appreciate the figure a bit more.

There's not a lot wrong with Brawn - in fact, he's one of the better not-in-the-movies movie figures. For one, he actually looks like he could halfway-work on screen.

- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Brawn review

Transformers: Alternators - Sideswipe

2011-10-22T20:00:00.002+01:00

After spending much of my Alternators reviews taking random pot-shots at Sideswipe, it only seemed fair that he got a review of his own. Yes, that's the reason, not my rampant completism (though I'm still holding out on buying the uninspired Decepticon retool trio of Ravage, Dead End and Swindle... well, I bought a Swindle, but solely to decapitate him...).

That and purchasing the original, or the dodgy, defective Chinese copy thereof, reminded me that any self-respecting group of Autobot cars need a Sideswipe. My Autobot Cars have a Sideswipe, my movie figures have a Sideswipe, and now my Alternators have a Sideswipe. Thanks to StoneCold Skywarp for the figure =)

- Transformers Alternators Sideswipe review

Transformers - Ratchet

2011-10-20T20:00:00.000+01:00

Re-reading the earlier issues of Marvel's Transformers comic recently reminded me of how much I love Ratchet - and that I'd had his toy for ages and not bothered reviewing it.

I love Ratchet's toy almost as much as I love his comic characterisation, but it's a different sort of love. He's more a weird robot curio, what with his tiny little sticker face behind a windshield, near-total lack of torso and his funny little battle base (or medical bay, I suppose). As a crazy bonus I've included scans of the original Diaclone toy's box - aren't I good to you all?

- Transformers Ratchet toy review

Transformers: Alternators - Wheeljack

2011-10-17T20:00:00.001+01:00

Despite really not liking him first time around I decided to re-purchase the Alternators version of Wheeljack to have another look - thanks to getting a UK release via Argos, and then being much reduced, he's fairly easy to find cheap and in good condition over here; I think mine was about a tenner.

While Grimlock has grown on me as a clumsy but surprisingly fitting figure, absence really hasn't made me grow much fonder of Wheeljack, who remains a bad fit for the mould. Other characters - such as the mooted Windcharger Mustang - would have worked better, and other moulds - most notably the Corvette - would have made a better Wheeljack, but Hasbro and Takara seem to have been on a run of really stupid decisions for the line at the time, so this is what we're stuck with. Oh, and I know the legs are mis-transformed, thanks.

- Transformers Alternators Wheeljack review

Transformers: Hunt for the Decepticons - Ravage

2011-10-15T20:00:00.001+01:00

While I'm open to correction (and I did consult some top-level pedants), it looks like us UK-based people have finally got an interesting exclusive toy. Back in the day we got all sorts of crazy stuff, like reissues of the Autobot cars a decade ahead of anyone else and a bunch of new moulds such as the Turbomasters and Predators; the downside was that from Beast Wars onwards the general British public seemed to lose interest massively and not really perk up until the 2007 film came out. This meant that for most of the interim lines we largely only got early waves (well, later figures were released, but as shelves were still choked with the earlier ones, they often became hard to find).

However, the tide has turned with what seems to be the UK-only release of the 'Ravage Infiltration' boxed-set (exclusive to Sainsbury's supermarket, and still avaliable reduced in most branches). Okay, so it's no great shakes, being just a group of recolours, and the main reason it's UK-exclusive is almost certainly that no US retailers were interested. And Flak and Rollbar are diabolical figures I'm not even going to grant a review. But there're some neat little soldier figures, a biox with a Diego Garcia diorama insert and a recolour of that Legends Ravage figure I kept meaning to get. Go UK!

- Transformers Hunt for the Decepticons Ravage review

Transformers - Sideswipe

2011-10-13T20:00:00.000+01:00

Sideswipe's one of those figures I've been meaning to buy for as long as I can remember, but there's always been something more exotic to buy, especially as I've owned at various times three other versions of the mould (Red Alert, Clamp Down and Deepcover).

Nevertheless, I went for him when his high-end bootleg appeared to finally complete my first series Autobot Cars. I sort-of wish I hadn't, as the copy is very badly manufactured - almost as badly as an Encore reissue. Nevertheless, I don't particularly fancy forking out with him again and the thing holds together well enough in robot mode. He'll do, but I don't recommend the Chinese version for other potential buyers. Considering the downward turn the things have taken (Mirage & Wheeljack good, Sunstreaker troubled, Sideswipe poor) I'll probably think twice before getting any others myself - they're cheaper than the real things, but still don't cost peanuts.

- Transformers Sideswipe review

Transformers: Alternators - Optimus Prime

2011-10-11T20:00:00.002+01:00

I didn't originally plan to get the Alternators version of Optimus Prime; I've already got the Masterpiece version, the original figure, the Robot Masters version and the Revenge of the Fallen Leader class toy, more than enough Prime for someone trying to keep their collection lean and focused. I think I've only got something like a hundred Transformers at any one time, so 5% of them being Optimus is enough.

However, seeing how cheaply they were going on ebay I inevitably caved as I always do, and was pleasantly surprised by what a neat and dynamic figure it is - the pick-up mode and robot mode layout work better both in general and as Optimus than I expected them to.

- Transformers Alternators Optimus Prime review

Transformers: Hunt for the Decepticons - Starscream

2011-10-09T20:00:00.001+01:00

I was effectively waiting for a Leader-class Starscream to come out for three years (not seeing the point in going mad on the various Voyager figures), and then forgot to buy him when he was released. Thankfully, my local store had one put away in the wrong place or something in the storeroom and when they rolled out their Dark of the Moon stock they bunged him out as well - reduced to boot.

It's a great figure, capturing the film version of Starscream perfectly. I like the film character quite a bit - true, he was never quite as cool as he promised to be in the first film, but there was a double-bonus in Dark of the Moon. Firstly, there was a hilarious death scene as Michael Bay trolled the drooling morons who largely make up the character's fanbase. Secondly, it meant he was out of the films without randomly telling Soundwave or someone that one day he would lead the Decepticons.

- Transformers - Hunt for the Decepticons Starscream review

Transformers: Alternators - Bluestreak

2011-10-07T20:00:00.001+01:00

Bluestreak is one of my longest-serving Alternators in terms of how long I've had this particular example, picked up in a job lot with some movie figures during the lull in my interest with the Alternators toys. I've sort of sat on him a it since to try and make the review a little bit more varied than "Yeh, it's Smokescreen in silver". I'm not sure this endeavour was a roaring success, but there we go. That and I didn't have his gun - thanks to Clay once again for providing that.

The toy was, of course, released as Silverstreak during the period when Hasbro didn't have the Bluestreak name available (it's since returned on a Speedstars toy; hopefully it'll be on something proper at some point...), and he's so silver I occasionally call him 'Silverstreak' as a slip of the tongue.

- Transformers Alternators Bluestreak review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Ironhide

2011-10-05T20:00:00.000+01:00

I greatly love the original movie Ironhide Voyager - there were enough positives to outweight the small size (scale-wise, compared to other movie figures when you actually set eyes on the beast that is the GMC Topkick) and spit & bailing wire chest layout. Thankfully, for Dark of the Moon a solution for these problems was on hand.

That solution is, of course, the new Leader-class Ironhide, which was a birthday present from my better half Sar. It has a superb robot mode, even if the truck suffers a little as a result and the transformation can be frustrating. But all of this is more than made up for by the giant, gadget-packed robot form.

- Transformers Dark of the Moon Ironhide review

Transformers - Inferno

2011-10-03T20:00:00.000+01:00

Inferno's a figure I've been meaning to review for a while, he's just been bumped down the order by Dark of the Moon figures and my rekindled love for Alternators. The character was always one of my favourites during his occasional appearances in the comic (where, for some reason, he didn't get bundled with the other 1985 Autobot cars, and like Red Alert lived an odd life of bit-parts in various UK-exclusive stories - high points being his stint alongside the Wreckers in "Time Wars" and getting the best death scene ever in "Legacy of Unicron").

One of the main reasons I remembered to do him was reacquiring Grapple from Stuart Webb, writer of the excellent Solar Pool blog. It meant I could get fresh pictures of everyone's favourite Autobot architect, and compare him closely with Inferno for the review.

- Transformers Autobot Car Inferno review

Transformers: Alternators - Tracks

2011-10-01T20:00:00.001+01:00

Tracks completes the trio of Car Robots-influenced Alternators. Well, actually, he didn't, he was the middle one between the Viper and the Honda S2000, but he's the third and final one of the trio I picked up. I think I got them in the right order, though - there was the mediocrity of Sunstreaker, followed by the vaguely underwhelming Overdrive, and now the decent Tracks.

The thing I really like is the toy looks like Tracks through and through, rather than a contemporary car that turns into a robot and just happens to have a certain character's head on the top. Like Hound, Tracks clearly dates from a time before recolour and retool options were factored in at the design stage.

- Transformers Alternators Tracks review

Transformers: Hunt for the Decepticons - Jazz

2011-09-29T20:00:00.000+01:00

Human Alliance never really grabbed me - the toys aren't to scale with the bulk of the live action figures, due to the size it's basically limited to only the cars, there's no Jolt and the Sideswipe looks terrible. However, I was shamelessly seduced in Toys R Us by that hussy Jazz.

Reviewing the HA version I re-read my original Movie Jazz review, which was largely based on the Final Battle version. Since then, I've got the Premium edition, which solved a lot of my original misgivings, so it only seemed fair to rewrite the review to reflect this.

- Transformers Hunt for the Decepticons Jazz review
- Transformers Movie Jazz review

Transformers: Alternators - Overdrive

2011-09-27T20:00:00.000+01:00

I'm not calling him Windcharger. He was designed as Overdrive, released in Japan as Overdrive and would have been released in the West as Overdrive but for trademark troubles. Those troubles saw Hasbro pick a name they wouldn't mind keeping trademarked and slap it on someone with a passing resemblance to the original (red, has wheels). But to me, this figure is always going to be based on my third-favourite Omnibot regardless of what his hilarious licence plate says.

That out of the way, the figure itself is something of a mixed bag, with some neat ideas and the usual attention to detail tempered by some sloppy execution and poor choices.

- Transformers Alternators Overdrive review

Transformers: Hunt for the Decepticons - Hubcap

2011-09-25T20:00:00.001+01:00

One of the few figures from the 2010 line to grab my attention as I resolved to cut down on the amount of figures I'd buy, dislike and move on (I think about a third of the Revenge of the Fallen figures I bought ended up being keepers), I wanted Hubcap after he was first announced.

1930s-styled Coupes have always gone well with transforming robots - there's Super Couper, there's the Generation 2 Laser Rods, the Micromaster Hot Rod Patrol... Actually, that's about it, and Super Couper's pretty poor, but anyway. Talking of the G2 Laser Rods, I've also added pictures of Reprolabels' Volt-inspired add-on sticker set, which really tops off the figure nicely.

- Transformers - Hunt for the Decepticons Hubcap review

Transformers: Alternators - Grimlock

2011-09-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

Grimlock is very much a slow-burner for me. The first version of the Alternators Ford Mustang I got was the recolour Wheeljack, some time ago. I didn't like him much at all and traded him away, while writing a very negative review to boot, and the figure put me off the range for some time.

Shortly after this, Kali from TFArchive sent me a knock-off Grimlock as a gift, since when the thing has gradually grown on me as I've got used to its' eccentricities. I've even dared to paint the head (now more resembling the original Grimlock) and get a nifty set of Shinoda tuning stickers from Reprolabels to make him stand out a bit more compared to Jazz and Silverstreak. The toy's still not without its' faults, but I've found there are a fair few positives to be had as well.

- Transformers Alternators Grimlock review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Sideswipe

2011-09-21T20:00:00.001+01:00

Another Dark of the Moon Deluxe, and this time one I largely got to hit a particular bulk-buy shipping discount. The figure in question is Sideswipe, and I've always been fairly happy with the Revenge of the Fallen version - I've never really understood the criticisms, even finding him fairly easy to stand.

Nevertheless, I picked up the DotM version just on the off-chance it was better and, as I say, because it worked out about the same to get Jolt, Barricade and Topspin with him as without (few other DotM Deluxes thus far have appealed - I've already got a definitive Bumblebee, Skids and Mudflap look much less interesting than their RotF counterparts and Crankcase would just piss me off being that tiny). Sideswipe turned out to be a bit of a mixed bag, sadly - some areas are improved, but others (most notably the colour scheme) are a step backwards. Shame.

- Transformers - Dark of the Moon Sideswipe review

G.I. Joe - Zarana

2011-09-19T20:00:00.001+01:00

One of the few G.I. Joe figures I was still after was the San Diego Comic Con version of Zarana - I've no idea if she's still technically part of the 25th Anniversary line or whether it's the 30th Anniversary line or what; her card is basically identical from the front to the original 1986 version.

Anyway, I've got her... I decided to wait out the initial high demand and ended up getting her for a reasonable (to my own very poor sense of value for money, anyway) price. The same tactic worked not so well for Dial-Tone, a collectors' club exclusive who goes for about the same money as a decent-sized Godaikin. Good thing his original figure doesn't look like a drag artist, then. Zarana's did, and I'm glad I've upgraded the thing.

- G.I. Joe - Zarana review

Transformers: Alternators - Jazz

2011-09-17T20:00:00.001+01:00

As well as the Dark of the Moon figures, I'm also trying to catch up on reviewing my growing Alternators/Binaltech collection, which is difficult because I keep buying them (today I've been struck with the realisation my ridiculously over-designed menu for the Alternators is soon going to be useless and need another no doubt even more complicated redesign).

This chap, though, is the Movie-inspired Binaltech Argent Meister (yep, I'm not calling him by any of the correct names - because that's the way I roll), who I lusted after until Clay of TFArchive sold me one to shut me up, hence triggering me starting collecting Alternators again.

So it's all his fault.

- Transformers - Alternators Jazz review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Topspin

2011-09-15T20:00:00.002+01:00

Next on the Dark of the Moon review rota is Topspin, a.k.a. "the Wrecker who doesn't say anything, or really do that much when you think about it". He didn't get a mad accent, and didn't even end up with much of the Decepticon pilot the Wreckers utilised as an impromptu Christmas cracker.

Nevertheless, he got a respectable toy out of things, complete with an attack mode car form (seeing as the Deluxe Leadfoot will also be in attack mode, Roadbuster's going to stand out even more unless Hasbro issue a new tooling at some point).

- Transformers - Dark of the Moon Topspin review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Jolt

2011-09-13T20:00:00.000+01:00

Dark of the Moon gave Michael Bay the opportunity to fully flesh out the glimpses of Jolt we got in Revenge of the Fallen (like the bit where he's driving around, or the bit where he's standing in the background). Sadly, he stiffed us and Jolt wasn't even in the film - not even in a long shot in car mode intentionally left in to piss nerds off. Instead we got Que with his ever-changing accent and silly head. On the upside, Que did get killed in a hilariously pathetic fashion.

Hasbro had a little more respect for one of the buttresses of the line, however, and designed a brand spanking new Deluxe mould for the Dark of the Moon toyline. I did initially mean to stick to screen-only DotM figures after realising hardly any of the extended RotF figures were any good, but any rules I have go out the window when it comes to Jolty goodness.

- Transformers - Dark of the Moon Jolt review

Transformers: Alternators - Sunstreaker

2011-09-09T20:00:00.001+01:00

Another Alternator, this time Sunstreaker. The Viper mould hasn't impressed me since Sideswipe first showed that the range wasn't all going to be classics like Smokescreen, but the lure of a Sunstreaker was too much for me.

It's actually the first of the Viper moulds I've owned, having largely been put off by Sideswipe's awkward gaint. Sunstreaker suffers from the same problem, the retooling being confined to the car shell and the robot head, but he was nowhere near as bad as I expected him to be.

- Transformers - Alternators Sunstreaker review

Transformers: Dark of the Moon - Barricade

2011-09-04T20:00:00.000+01:00

Compared to the explosion-filled extravaganza of the film itself, the Dark of the Moon toyline thus far seems to have been a bit of a damp squib. Lots of variations on characters we already have pretty good versions of, and some fairly uninspiring non-film characters. For example, at the time of writing it looks like we might not even be getting toys of some speaking on-screen toys, notably Dino and Brains.

I've picked up a handful of the figures where it looked like there might be some improvement, and Barricade - whose 2007 version was one of the less impressive 2007 Deluxe figures - was one on my list.

- Transformers: Dark of the Moon Barricade toy review

Transformers - section revised, three new reviews

2011-09-02T20:00:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the recent bout of non-updatedness; I got sidetracked trying a couple of things which haven't really come off, and then decided to streamline and refine the Transformers section.

For now I've just slimmed down to toy reviews due to the half-finished nature of most of the other stuff, though hopefully this will just be a temporary state of affairs.

In the meantime there are new, sexy, needlessly complicated sections for the Autobot Cars and Alternators figures. But that's not all - there are also new reviews for the original Smokescreen, the Binaltech version of Skids and Roadbuster from Dark of the Moon.

- Transformers section

G.I. Joe: Pursuit of Cobra - Crazylegs

2011-08-16T20:00:00.003+01:00

My second Pursuit of Cobra purchase, and it's good old Crazylegs. Yeh, you remember Crazylegs, he took over from Airborne in the comic as the guy who sat next to Wild Bill in aircraft so Bill's exposition seemed slightly less awkward and then died in a hole in some made-up country.

As such, he must be something of a surprise inclusion as a simple straight retail figure, but not an entirely unpleasant one. Hopefully Pursuit will feature a few more left-field choices as the line goes on - Interrogator, Quarrel, Mercer and Zandar next please!

- G.I. Joe: Pursuit of Cobra Crazylegs review

Transformers - Raiden

2011-08-14T20:00:00.003+01:00

I've had this knock-off of Raiden for years, and reviewed him for my old Transformers site. The review was pretty much unsalvagable, so I did a new one.

I've always been fond of train robots - if a maniac broke in and forced me at gunpoint to name my three favourite Transformers combiners, they'd be Rail Racer, Sixliner and Raiden. He's a little odd in places, but is something of an antidote to the incredibly boring designs which riddle the line whenever it has to tackle combining.

- Transformers - Raiden review

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra - Helix

2011-08-10T20:00:00.002+01:00

Another of the figures from my review back-log, Helix is from the Rise of Cobra line. She didn't feature in the film, instead being created for the computer game tie-in - which sounds like it managed to be even worse than Steven Sommer's turd of a movie. All things concerned, seeing as the film couldn't manage a non-patronising version of Scarlett and had Cover Girl act as Hawk's secretary, it's probably for the best Helix didn't make the film.

The figure's not bad - it's strange that new female characters have gone from being guaranteed at least annually in the 1980s to ever rarer nowadays, and even if Helix is a bit trashy, at least she adds a bit of variety.

G.I. Joe: Rise of Cobra - Helix review

Transformers: Alternators - Smokescreen

2011-08-08T20:00:00.002+01:00

I can't believe it took me so long to review this feller. Alternators Smokescreen has been a long-standing resident of my Shelf of Awesome, along with Voltron, Soul of Chogokin Ideon and Daimos, Z-Gokin Big Dai X, Brave Gokin Baldios, New Material Model Turn-A Gundam, Masterpiece Optimus Prime and the original Jetfire... Some of which I haven't reviewed yet either. Huh.

Anyway, such exalted company should tell you everything you need to know about Smokescreen. If you don't already have one, you should go and buy one now - I'm pretty sure it's illegal to collect robot toys and not own a version of this mould.

Transformers: Alternators - Smokescreen review

Comics - Vulcan links fixed and added

2011-08-06T20:00:00.000+01:00

I've finally got around to re-uploading the links to the Vulcan issues - they're all relocated to Rapidshare now. Again I know isn't everyone's favourite, but it allows me to monitor whether the files are still there as I have an account with them.

I've also found and added scans of the final issue, the Holiday Special and all of the Annual through a filesharing network - sadly, the files didn't have scanners' names attached, so if you recognise them please drop me a line so I can credit you accordingly. The same network also yielded a few Scottish issues, and I'm hoping to find the time to do pages and sort mirrors for these at some point in the near future, as well as sorting the links on the Spider section.

- Comics - Vulcan

G.I. Joe: Pursuit of Cobra - Low-Light

2011-08-04T20:00:00.000+01:00

Pursuit of Cobra looks to be a damn fine toyline. However, I haven't bought much from it because I have definitive figures of most of the releases. I didn't expect this to change much as the line would probably work through the big guns already revisited in the 25th Anniversary line, but so far the series has included a couple of surprise choices.

Best of all is Low-Light, inexplicably ignored by the 25th line (but yay, we have... Outback... huh), rendered in full 1980s style, but with important additions like proportions and more parts than a Spider serial. He's awesome.

- G.I. Joe: Pursuit of Cobra Low-Light review

Voltron - Dairugger XV KO

2011-08-02T20:00:00.001+01:00

Another new arrival for me - a knock-off of Voltron/Dairugger XV that has suddenly sprang up all over ebay. Well, I'm not sure how suddenly, as I haven't been looking for much Dairugger stuff since landing the Popy DX a while ago.

It's actually based on that very same DX, the version of the figure that wasn't released in the West, and is a decent copy as these things go. While it doesn't have the same quality, as a cheap and cheerful version (typically around £15 shipped) of the one true Voltron.

- Voltron - Dairugger XV KO

Transformers - Sunstreaker

2011-07-31T20:00:00.001+01:00

The latest Autobot car in my collection... I'm still only about halfway through because I keep forgetting I'm collecting them. But I remembered to get Sunstreaker, eventually.

The one I ended up with is the Chinese fake reissue, as I see little point in paying triple figures to get the genuine article when it's virtually identical. It's not like Hasbro care that much either - if the company's financial plans for the future, giving the moulds to passing elves or whatever in the 1990s wasn't a particularly smart move.

- Transformers Sunstreaker review

G.I. Joe - Oktober Guard

2011-07-29T20:00:00.001+01:00

More G.I. Joe reviews, all from the Oktober Guard figures. I was going to sit on these until I had the whole set, but I spent six months not bothering to look for Horrorshow, Dragonsky and Stormavik, let alone Big Bear or Volga. It came down to the old-style figures just not doing it for me after I've got used to the 25th Anniversary-type 'G3' figures - so it's a case of waiting for Hasbro to go mad enough to issue a giftset full of obscure comic characters who stopped being relevant when the Berlin Wall came down.

So instead I've decided to go with what I've got - Colonel Brekhov, Daina, Shrage and Lt. Gorky, as well as the 25th Anniversary Red Star.

- G.I. Joe - Oktober Guard reviews

Transformers: Alternators - Mirage

2011-07-25T20:00:00.002+01:00

The first Transformers figure I've bought for a while, and the first Alternators toy for even longer... I've always had rather mixed views on the Binaltech/Alternators series, which had a few great figures and several not-so-great figures, though going over reviews of Skids and Wheeljack I do think I was perhaps a little harsh on them.

While I'm very open-minded on robot toys in general and even Transformers, I do find in the case of the latter it's at its' best when handling realistic-looking transforming cars - I like some of the exceptions to this, I like some of them a lot, but when the line returns to its' roots it tends not to go far wrong - as per the better Alternators/Classics/Universe figures, and the licensed on-screen Movie characters. Mirage definitely fits into this category, very slick in both modes, one of the franchise's classic toys.

- Transformers - Alternators Mirage review

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: Arcee

2011-07-23T20:00:00.005+01:00

Another long-overdue toy review, this time of the Legends Arcee from Revenge of the Fallen. At one point I had the Deluxe versions of Arcee and Chromia, and held out on reviewing them as a trio with the combined mode and everything, but I got bored waiting for Elita-1 (that she was announced as a recolour of the abysmal Chromia hardly helped) before she eventually showed as part of the Hunt for the Decepticons line.

Instead, after dallying with the Human Alliance versions (which might have done the job but for the colours mix-up, despite the lack of a combined mode) I opted for the Legends Arcee, and once again held out to see if recolours were coming (there's a tab on Arcee which suggests these might have combined). These were announced as part of a set with a version of Sideways, but never came out. So I thought "Sod it" and have finally got around to just reviewing Arcee. So, here she is in all her freakish, ugly glory... In a way, I'm rather glad the full set never came out, as Arcee's terrible enough on her own.

- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Legends Arcee review

G.I. Joe - General Flagg

2011-07-21T20:00:00.003+01:00

Another G.I. Joe figure. General Flagg isn't someone I've only recently remembered to review; I got him a while ago, and was so unimpressed I moved him on, without remembering to upload the review for the figure first.

He's a horrible figure from one of the comic triple packs, when for various reasons Hasbro couldn't work out whether to use the vintage moulds or whether to update them in line with the newer casts used for Venom v Valor; the comic packs also saw a woeful attempt to ape Marvel's colour palette, resulting in bright green Joes with yellow webbing. Flagg isn't affected by the latter problem, but he has the first in spades...

- G.I. Joe - General Flagg review

Transforming Robot Toy Primer updated

2011-07-19T20:00:00.003+01:00

It's not a huge update - one new line (Racetron) and maybe half-a-dozen or so new pictures, but I only just realised that the page wasn't indexed on the main Footnotes menu, so this is done by way of apologising to the poor thing, and to assure anyone out there sitting on a goldmine of information about Dashbots/Super Alternators/Pow-R-Tron knows that it's still an ongoing concern - if still largely full of banal speculation and sentence fragments, because it wouldn't be a Counter-X article without those.

- Footnotes - Transforming Robot Toy Primer

G.I. Joe - Heavy Duty

2011-07-17T20:00:00.000+01:00

And continuing in the "reviews of toys I pretty much forgot I'd bought", here comes a new G.I. Joe figure review - Heavy Duty from the Rise of Cobra line. Considering my ambivalence towards any version of the character and great dislike of Rise of Cobra (the film is awful; the toyline has a couple of interesting 'backdoor' 25th Anniversary figures) I'm still a little surprised my need to buy G.I. Joes went as far as him (and Helix, for some reason)... I seem to remember the ebay seller was offering combined shipping and I thought "Why not?".

- G.I. Joe - Heavy Duty review

Transformers - Hoist

2011-07-16T20:00:00.001+01:00

The first toy review I've got finished for many a moon (since February, in fact...), and it's everyone's favourite jolly fat robot, Hoist - the Encore release of which I got about a year ago, took out the box to find part of it was broken in package and then largely ignored. But I don't let Takara's shoddy quality control prejudice the review - well, not too much anyway.

There might be a few more Transformers reviews in the offing as I've predictably gone a bit Transformers-fever after seeing the excellent Dark of the Moon - though few of the new figures for the film have really impressed me so far. That said, I remember saying that about the Revenge of the Fallen toys...

- Transformers - Hoist toy review

Grand Prix - 1985

2011-07-12T10:04:00.002+01:00

Next season review is - shock, horror - 1985. Prost versus Alboreto in the title, though it's often Senna versus Rosberg in the actual races.

As well as in-depth coverage of all 16 races, including full results and team-by-team guides, there are also articles on:

- The sadly departed Stefan Bellof and Manfred Winkelhock (both killed driving Porsche prototypes within three weeks of each other in 1985).
- The Renault, Alfa Romeo, RAM and Spirit teams, all of whom withdrew either during or at the end of the season.
- The political controversy surrounding the South African Grand Prix (the last to be held under apartheid), and records from the first running of the Belgian Grand Prix.

Grand Prix - 1985

Don't Panic England - The Black Archer

2011-05-23T20:00:00.001+01:00

A brief respite from Grand Prix stuff while I try to find the disc with the 1985 European Grand Prix on it... And here are some comic scans. I've set up a page for general Fleetway fantasy stuff that doesn't have its' own section, and will try to throw a few scans up here when I get chance - some of it might be stuff you've seen before, some of it might not.

First up is the Black Archer, who initially featured in Tiger & Hurricane in 1967. Clem Macy, a clumsy TV reporter, could transform himself into the Black Archer by simply thinking about it. The Archer had no particular superpowers, but was an expert shot with a crossbow and had all kinds of special arrows - a bit like the Green Arrow. Indeed, judging by the one story I've got, the strip has very little originality - his skills are the Green Arrow's, his secret identity is Superman's, and he's got sidekicks and a stupid interfering cop antagonist straight out of the Spider. To be fair, the strip here seems to be a later one which drops the original medieval-style hooded costume (which can be seen at International Hero) for a black number which doesn't even hide his face. It's pretty boring, actually, especially considering how superb the cynical, grumbling Archer is in Zenith.

This story is from a 1985 edition of Eagle Picture Library, but if there's any doubt it's from the sixties, check out Chango's vely lasist speech patterns. Just to make sure we know he's Asian, he's randomly karate-chopping something the first time we see him too. Bolts of steel!

I am properly back on the internet now, i.e. have all my site files on a computer that's connected rather than juggling files between the two as I have been the past six months or so, so I'm going to start getting around to re-uploading the various scans which are down. As a word of warning, these will be on Rapidshare, as I have a premium account with them and thus can more easily keep track of whether the files are actually active or not.

- Comics - Don't Panic England: The Black Archer

Grand Prix - 1984

2011-05-13T19:50:00.001+01:00

The latest season review is 1984, and it's bigger and... bigger than before. As well as fact-packed illustrated reviews of all 16 Grand Prix ran in the season, there are overviews, statistics and also two tie-in articles.

One is on the ATS team, whose idiosyncratic participation finally finished after the 1984 season, and the other on Tyrrell's highly dubious nobbling at the hands of FISA.

Enjoy.

- Grand Prix - 1984 Season Review

Grand Prix - The Questor Grand Prix

2011-04-22T20:00:00.003+01:00

Not a new article, but an update of what - according to Webalizer - is the most popular page on my site by a considerable margin. The Questor Grand Prix was held on the combined oval/track configuration of the Ontario Speedway (think the Indianopolis Grand Prix circuit, but with some ludicrously wealthy Californians in the place of decades of motorsport history). The one-off event was effectively a Formula Libre race, resulting in an unequal battle between Formula 1 and Formula A cars.

Thanks to a huge prize-fund, the entry - at least from Formula 1 cars - was pretty impressive. Sadly, the prize fund was too generous, and the race played out to half-full stands. The Questor Group hit financial trouble, and Formula 1 never returned to the circuit.

Grand Prix - The Questor Grand Prix

Grand Prix - 1983

2011-04-07T20:00:00.001+01:00

1983 - flat-bottomed cars, a four-way title bun-fight between Prost, Piquet, Tambay and Arnoux, a lovely Osella, Keke Rosberg driving like a lunatic, Michelin versus Goodyear, turbos galore, the other Jacques Villeneuve, fuel stops... It's all here.

1984 already in progress. I'm definitely catching up.

Grand Prix - 1983 review

Grand Prix - No Miracle in Montreal

2011-03-15T20:00:00.000Z

Just a short Grand Prix article hammered out while working on the 1983 season review...

This concerns Jacques Villeneuve, brother of the late Gilles and uncle to the Jacques Villeneuve who most people have heard off, and his doomed but vaguely heroic attempt to qualify a dire RAM March for the 1983 Canadian Grand Prix. I'd always dismissed Uncle Jacques as a bit of a joke, but hearing more details of his struggle it's quite hard not to feel more than a bit sorry for the poor feller.

- Grand Prix - No Miracle in Montreal

Grand Prix - 1982

2011-02-14T20:00:00.002Z

Okay, so this is what I've been up to in my spare time for the past three weeks- the definitive (maybe) account of the 1982 Grand Prix season, brought on by watching the BBC Grand Prix highlights episodes of the year on a loop for a while.

Much like the knackered, old semi-retired 1965 version I've tried as much as possible to write "at the time" - avoiding spoilers, if you like, because there's nothing more annoying than reading a retro Grand Prix article which can't mention Arrows without saying how they never won a race, can't mention Nigel Mansell without pointing out that he did eventually win a title, can't mention Ferrari without referencing Michael Schumacher, and so on. If you've made it this far, you know all that, and it's more interesting to see events unfold in context... Indeed, I think one of the reasons I found the old BBC stuff so much fun was getting that context, and also not knowing the season off by heart. I've tried to avoid too many nudge, nudge, wink, wink moments along the way.

So, anyway, what you have here is illustrated race reports for all 16 rounds of the season, complete with team-by-team breakdowns, lots of praise for Keke Rosberg (he really is marvellous to watch if you can find footage), 'Gilles Villeneuve' and '1982' appearing in the same sentence without endless moping but hopefully some serious respect, because the guy would want to be known for how he lived and not how he died, a staunch refusal to turn Didier Pironi into a cheap pantomime villain, a soft-spot for Osella, and more.

Enjoy - and any corrections are gratefully received. I enjoyed doing the whole thing so much that carrying on with 1983 is probably going to be my next project.

Grand Prix - 1982

G.I. Joe - 10 New Figure Reviews

2011-02-11T20:00:00.000Z

Apologies for the recent lack of updates; these reviews were meant to be going up every 3 or 4 days one at a time, but it seems I messed something up with the automated options, so they're all coming at once...

So, from the original series come Snowcat driver Frostbite, laser trooper Sci-Fi, paratrooper Crazylegs, samurai Budo, cameraman Scoop and moron Salvo; from the 'Generation 2' series comes G.I. Joe himself; from the 25th Anniversary range comes ginger nutter Outback and covert Argentine Glenda; and from Rise of Cobra comes Leatherneck.

As ever, click on the pictures to go to the reviews.

Grand Prix - Ivan Capelli profile

2011-01-01T21:00:00.000Z

A rare break from G.I. Joe content, here's a profile on Grand Prix midfield hero Ivan Capelli, who stuck with me from 1990 when in successive races he firstly nearly won in a Leyton House at Paul Ricard, and then passed just about anyone going at Silverstone. He's mainly remembered now for an awful season at Ferrari (if at all), and this is my small effort at redressing the balance.

- Grand Prix - Ivan Capelli profile

G.I. Joe - Comic Capsule reviews

2010-12-29T20:00:00.001Z

Something ever so slightly different for the G.I. Joe section - capsule TPB reviews, covering the first ten "classic" (and never were inverted commas needed so much) Marvel collections, which basically boils down to a hundred issues of bad jokes and overwrought ninja hysterics, as well as DDP's main output - their first very spotty Real American Hero series, and the excellent America's Elite.

Click on the picture to go to the index.

Action Force - Baron Ironblood and Red Wolf figure reviews

2010-12-24T20:00:00.000Z

Three Red Shadow-themed reviews - Baron Ironblood and Red Wolf from the original Pailoty line, and the Red Jackal from Rise of Cobra. No, shut up, he totally is. Or isn't, really, it's some version of Destro but I refuse to fork out forty quid on a version of the original Destro figure with a funny vest, and this chap achieves the vital goal of not looking too much like my 25th Anniversary Destro.

Click on the pictures to read the reviews. Oh, and have a nice Christmas - thanks to everyone who's visited, emailed, commented, linked and had general patience. Have a good one!

G.I. Joe - Barrel Roll and Wraith figure reviews

2010-12-20T20:00:00.000Z

A DDP double-bill of reviews this time - flavour-of-the-month Joe sniper Barrel Roll from the Spytroops series of figures, and stealth-capable Destro lackey Wraith, who finally got a toy in the 25th Anniversary line. Click on the pictures to read the reviews.

Action Force - 5 new figure reviews

2010-12-17T20:00:00.001Z

Five more figure reviews, this time drawn from Palitoy's Action Force range - SAS Force provide canoeist Canadian Beaver, leader Rob "Eagle" Buckingham and genuine working parachutist Sparrowhawk; Z Force contribute confusingly-codenamed Italian radio operator Breaker and German sometime minesweeper Scout.

Click on the pictures to read the reviews.

G.I. Joe - 6 more new figure reviews

2010-12-12T20:00:00.001Z

Another half dozen G.I. Joe figure reviews for you reading enjoyment. This time the 25th Anniversary line has five of the things - expensive mountaineer Alpine, diving block Deep Six, unconvincing boat-rider Cutter, vanilla later Cobra minion type Viper and the robotic cannon fodder that is the B.A.T; while the Rise of Cobra line contributes chunky-legged snow trooper type Ice-Viper.

Click on a pic.

G.I. Joe - 6 new figure reviews

2010-12-10T20:00:00.001Z

Another half-dozen G.I. Joe figures reviewed thanks to an unexpected burst of productivity - from the original series come Airtight and Mercer; from the 25th Anniversary line there are Wet-Suit, Doctor Mindbender, Strato-Viper (or Air-Viper if you prefer) and Croc-Master. Click on each picture to read the review.

G.I. Joe - 7 new figure reviews

2010-12-07T19:47:00.011Z

Okay, I apologise once again for a long gap between updates. The situation at the moment is we're on two computers, an old one which barely works but is internet connected, and a brand shiny new one which has all my website stuff on but is yet to be connected to the internet (modem incompatibility, don't ask). So it's a bit difficult to actually coordinate uploading stuff.

Anyway, here are seven more GI Joe reviews - from the original 1980s line comes Dreadnok biker slut Zarana; from the 'G2' DTC line comes scary generic Cobra doctor Medi-Viper; from the 25th Anniversary series come action girl totty Lady Jaye, Dreadnok leader Zartan, Cobra boat pilot Copperhead and AWE Striker driver Crankcase; and from the Rise of Cobra line comes tank driver Thunder (or Sgt. Thunderblast, as Hasbro have it). Due to ultra high-tech coding knowledge, clicking on the little pictures should take you to the appropriate review. Amazing, eh? What's next? Menus not made from big image files cut up? Pages with tables that aren't 300kb? Spell checks? Who knows, it's a crazy future.

G.I. Joe & Action Force Figure Reviews

2010-11-03T19:03:00.002Z

Oh yes, it's New Section time... The G.I. Joe range, especially the superb 25th Anniversary figures, have been eating up all my disposable the past 3-4 months, so a section on here was depressingly inevitable. I realise G.I. Joe is pretty mined out with many sites covering it in more detail and depth than I could ever manage, but sod it, it's my site and I like G.I. Joe, so G.I. Joe goes on the site.

Anyway... Currently the section contains reviews of 77 G.I. Joe figures (I must confess, I didn't realise it was quite that many until I just counted them), and 12 from Palitoy's European Action Force series. Plus a couple of no-doubt poorly researched rants disguised as articles.

Exciting stuff, eh? Eh?

- G.I. Joe section

Transformers - Movie Real Gear Roundup

2010-10-16T20:00:00.002+01:00

Rounding up the other Real Gear Robots reviews I have ready to go (Booster X10 will have to wait until I retrieve him from the attic...). It's still one of my favourite Transformers subgroups/lines, really inventive stuff. It's a shame none of the characters have any fiction to back them up, as surely the toys would be more highly thought of.

At eight figures the series was possibly a little overstretched (there's a certain amount on overlap between Spy Shot 6 & Zoom Out 25X, as there is for High Score 100 and Power Up VT6) and had mixed end results, but when it went well... Longview and High Score 100 are up there with Spy Shot 6 as the best figures in the Real Gear subgroup, despite some fudging with the scale of their alt modes - Longview gets an incredibly stylish, slick robot mode out of a pair of binoculars, whereas High Score 100 goes the other way, with superb, unconventional results. Speed Dial 800 and Zoom Out 25X are a little bit more ordinary, but are both worth a look if you see them on the cheap.

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Blake's 7 Capsule Reviews

2010-10-14T20:00:00.000+01:00

Another thing I've had sitting around for a while... I really like Blake's 7, it's a series I can just watch and watch. The show's a triumph of characterisation over special effects and one of the very best British dramas ever.

There are a number of exhaustive fan-sites on the show out there, all much better than I could ever do, but I really wanted something about it on here. So, the obvious answer is the good old capsule review - nigh-incomprehensible for anyone who's not seen the thing, not a lot of work for me and yet a chance for me to get my two pence worth out there. Perfect!

On a more general site note, I'm aware that many of the comic scan links are currently down through the hosted files being deleted, either due to inactivity or due to the copyrighted material being reported. I'm looking in to what to do about this - the most likely answer is probably going to be going back to Rapidshare only. as I have a premium account there and can at least moonitor things. As soon as I have chance to sit down and organise things, they'll be back, probably with additions as I've found a few bits since. However, in the meantime please don't email me requesting scans, as I don't have the time or connection to send them out by email. When they're back they're back is all I can offer for now, though I understand most of it has been disseminated through other groups and networks anyway.

- Blake's 7 - Capsule Reviews

Convertors - First Track

2010-10-12T20:00:00.001+01:00

This review's actually been live on the site for about three months, since before I took a sabbatical. Which is ironic in a way - I spent a year or so trying to find one of these in good condition, eagerly reviewed it then got sidetracked...

It's the Convertors figure First Track, and like many of the early Convertors it's drawn from the infamous Mark line. The design is actually Takatoku's Batrain/Sasuraiger robot, of which Mark made a small cheapie version. This version was then licenced by Select for the American market.

Thanks to being made of plastic about as tough as cheap glass and having detachable arms, First Track is actually one of the hardest Convertors to find in good condition (and I think didn't get a recolour, unlike most of the Defenders assortment... which is odd, as the Real Type Batrain scheme meant there was a ready-made one in waiting), but I got him eventually. And might be moving him on soon as he's just been in a box since reviewing... Poor bugger.

- Convertors - First Track review

Transformers - Complete UK Comic Map

2010-10-10T20:45:00.005+01:00

Apologies for the large gap in updates... I've got a bit robot-ed out of late, mainly spending my cash on the curiously addictive G.I. Joe figures (so, yeh, I suspect they'll be getting a section at one point despite being relatively low on robots, diecast metal and/or a shocking amount of violence).

Thankfully, other people aren't as slovenly and unfocused as myself, as emphasised by this marvellous Transformers UK issue map, submitted by the ace Magical Truth-Saying Turtle. It's essential reference for working out what exactly was in each issue of the excellent Marvel UK title, either as easy reference before digging through back issues, or for quick research if you're looking to buy some old issues, or even just putting together some sort of guide yourself. So thanks for sending that in, mate! =)

- Transformers - Marvel UK Complete Comic Map

Victory Gundam

2010-07-01T20:00:00.000+01:00

Bandai supported the 1993 Mobile Suit Victory Gundam anime with a full toyline of figures, of the sort not seen since Clover's original series of figures. It's a bit of a shame that no-one particularly cared for either the cartoon or its' mecha and the effort was all for nothing, really.

The bulk of figures were represented by the Mobile Suit in Pocket series - allegedly 1/144 scale figures (actually closer to 1/200) with surprising articulation for something as small from that era. I'm not sure how many of these were made - I've seen figures numbered up into the 20s, but how many of these are recolours and/or retools I couldn't tell you - I've only got two, the Hexa Gundam and the Zolo.

Next up was the 1/72 Hexa Gundam, which has electronics. Weirdly this one is actually 1/72 scale, and thus much, much bigger than the Mobile Suit in Pocket figures, which leaves a big gulf in the line - you can either get small figures, or one or two massive ones. It's strange, as ~6" figures would find the best balance between detail and price (model kits of around that size had been the backbone of Gundam merchandise for 15 years by the time Victory came out)...

The centrepiece of the line was the 1/48 Victory Gundam, which made a fair stab at the cartoon's complex combination sequence. It's a real beast of a toy, almost as large as the Deluxe Vehicle Voltron, though it's not quite up to Bandai's standards of either the 1980s or the 21st century.

Indeed, the whole line is strangely reminiscent of CG Robo (which was issued at around the same time) - it's not bad, per se, but there's a distinct feel that it should have been much better, and the design work seems to be somewhat stagnant.

- Gundam - Mobile Suit Victory Gundam toy reviews

Transformers - Jazz

2010-06-29T20:00:00.002+01:00

The drawback with my rough plan of getting all the 1984-1985 Autobot cars one way or another is that I had to buy a Jazz at some point, though thankfully I got it out of the way fairly cheaply. He wasn't quite as bad as I expected him to be, but is still one of the very weakest figures in the range. In terms of the basic moulds, I'm struggling to think of any that are worse, actually - Ironhide/Ratchet and Sunstreaker might be a bit weird, but at least they're different. The conventional pretensions of Jazz just mean he shows up badly compared to the Datsun mould, or Hound.

I've also reorganised the non-Movie Transformers toy reviews a bit to (hopefully) make it easier to follow my arcane filing system - with lines that don't have a lot of coverage I try to play it fairly straight, but with Transformers I feel less obliged to call figures by their proper names and so on, as the real information can be found joylessly catalogued all over the place.

- Transformers Autobot Cars reviews

Gobots - Rock Lords Boulder and Magmar

2010-06-27T20:00:00.001+01:00

It was always going to happen: I've bought some Rock Lords. I'm not entirely sure why; nostalgia seems the most likely culprit. Rock Lords generally didn't too well, and here in the UK the line was reduced en masse, meaning I bought nearly all of them in one trip with the money from my 7th birthday. I thus have strong memories of the whole line - I've got a weird memory, I have to think what I studied at university, but could tell you easily the order pieces broke off my beloved Transformers Smokescreen or just which Zybots I had.

The good thing about Rock Lords is they're generally cheap and easy to round up - my brief burst of impulse-buying left me with half-a-dozen or so for an outlay of £20. The bad thing is, and it's an old and lazy criticism (that also happens to be very apt), they all turn into rocks. The robots are nicely designed, surprisingly dynamic and well-engineered, but having them turn into lumps of coloured plastic gets dull quickly. It also makes them quite challenging to review...

- Gobots: Rock Lords Boulder & Magmar toy reviews

Transformers - The Complete Works: Decepticon Dam-Busters

2010-06-25T20:00:00.003+01:00

Wow, didn't realise it had been a year since I updated this particular section of the site. The name is meant to be intentionally incorrect in common with the 1980s books of the same name, but a year is a bit much...

Anyway, here's a page for "Decepticon Dam-Busters", complete with fresh scans, plus assorted letters pages and other bobbins. It's not the best story, it's not even particularly good, being a loose adaptation of the TV episode "More Than Meets the Eye, Part Two" Ratchet tells to the Dinobots to alleviate their boredom, with little thought as to keeping the reader entertained. It's possibly Hound's most substantial appearance in the Marvel comic, though...

Soul of Chogokin GX-41 Reideen

2010-06-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

Reideen introduced me to something of a new experience - a Soul of Chogokin toy that didn't completely blow me away. I had slight reservations over Combattler V, but then he was about 10 years older than the others I had by that point, and it was relative to the superb Voltes V and jaw-dropping Ideon anyway.

I think the difference is Soul of Chogokin is so expensive I generally only fork out for something that really catches my eye, whereas Reideen was offered to me by someone at a knock-down price. Beyond the sheer historical weight of it being the first transforming robot toy, the original Raideen figure didn't do much for me, so perhaps I should have expected this - it's not so much that it's not a great figure as that the basic design of the character doesn't do anything for me.

However, I do also think this one's a bit complex for its' own good, especially the over-complicated head parts. Still, a below-par Soul of Chogokin is still a finer figure that most toylines' finest products.

- Soul of Chogokin GX-41 Reideen toy review

Transformers - Movie: Meantime

2010-06-21T20:00:00.001+01:00

Another Real Gear Robot review - this time of Meantime, the wrist-watch Decepticon. Like his spiritual forebear, that transforming watch fella that clipped onto that wristband (also originating from Takara) and had a digital watch embedded that would sometimes work for whole days before packing up, he was bootlegged with some enthusiasm.

I had a grey one when I was little, named Quartz by me because that's what it said on his chest. They were also offered as a prize, bizarrely, in the early days of Marvel UK's licensed Transformers comic (around the time they tried to give away a load of yellow Cliffjumpers...), and featured in this awesome American commercial (Kronoform, like Diakron, was one of Takara's attempts to market Microchange and Diaclone in the West before Hasbro launched Transformers) - check the three awesome extra modes...

But, yeh, Meantime. He's a lot more refined than his ancestor (despite not having a working watch bit - boooo!), but somehow not as much fun...

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

High Complete Model - FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type

2010-06-16T20:00:00.000+01:00

Having sworn off HCM following an underwhelming run of figures (the Zaku, the Gelgoog and the Zeta Gundam, all either done better by other lines since or - in the case of the Gelgoog - monstrously ugly), I picked up the Full Armor Gundam cheap because the shipping would basically be absorbed by winning the stupidly big 1/48 Victory Gundam from the same seller.

The figure actually reminded me of why I like the line in the first place, being a nice, functional, dynamic interpretation of a tidy design, if a little rough around the edges. It might just be that I'm a sucker for the original Gundam and anything derived from it, but I am rather impressed with this one.

- Gundam High Complete Model FA-78-1 Gundam Full Armor Type review

Transformers - Movie: Power Up VT6

2010-06-14T20:00:00.004+01:00

Transformers' 2007 attempt to return to its' Microchange roots, however briefly, didn't seem to go down to well. Maybe it's because the Real Gear Robots (actually unused figures from Transformers Cybertron - quite why these were held back while clunkers like, well, pretty much everything actually used for Cybertron, I don't know) were swamped pretty quickly by the first few batches of onscreen toys - which then promptly sold out, leaving many looking frustratedly at stacks of Real Gear figures.

The other reason a lot of people might not like them is that they ended up getting Power Up VT6 first and decided the whole bunch of them were terrible. Because he really is a bit rubbish. The rest of them range from good to very good (talking of which, I've also switched my old Spy Shot 6 review over to the Movie section at last), but Power Up VT6 is the exception...

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

X-Bomber - Big Dai X DX

2010-06-07T20:00:00.000+01:00

It had a sort of sad inevitably to it. Once I'd bought the ST Big Dai X, a DX purchase was never going to be that far away. Thankfully, the wonderful Albert Penello stepped in and swapped me one for a pair of unwanted Godaikin, so it all worked out.

Big Dai X is a lovely big slab of Gokin hunkiness with his bright colours, firing hands, diecast heft and slightly irrelevant transformation. It's a great toy, really it is.

It has made the ST obsolete, though - that one's on ebay if anyone's interested.

- X-Bomber Big Dai X DX toy review

Transformers - Movie: Dreadwing drone

2010-06-04T20:00:00.003+01:00

Presenting probably the worst toy I've bought for a very long time. And considering the roll call over the past year or so includes the HCM Zeta Gundam, Revenge of the Fallen Ejector, Universe 'Masterpiece' Skywarp and Pulver-Eyes, that's pretty terrible.

I mean, look at the freak. He's just not right... I like strange robots, and I quite like the Movie's game drone designs on the whole - Swindle and Payload might be a bit flawed, but they basically work. Dreadwing doesn't - he's monstrously ugly even to someone completely in love with the live action aesthetic, he's top heavy, he transforms in an awkward, jerky way and bits of him keep falling off. Rubbish.

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Machine Robo - CG Robo reviews updated

2010-06-02T20:00:00.002+01:00

I've updated the CG Robo reviews a bit - they needed a bit of a tweak here and there. A couple of them have more pictures, though for some of the others I don't have the original figures any more, so what there is will have to do, sadly. There seem to be a few more of them on eBay of late, so I might see about buying more CG Robo at some point - but then again I might not, there's so much stuff I want to buy. Too many robots, too many robots...

I've also tweaked the relevant commercials as well, adding Sharebee links to download the commercials in DIVX format and some screen captures too - you lucky, lucky people :)

- Gobots - CG Robo Toy Reviews

Transformers - Movie: Wreckage

2010-05-29T20:00:00.002+01:00

Wreckage is one of a number of passable if unspectacular non-film Deluxe Decepticons in the Movie line. He gained a little notoriety by nearly appearing in the film (an early version with the placeholder name 'Stryker' made it into some later drafts), and through appearing in an IDW comic that was given away free in a comic given away with the film's DVD (and therefore one of the few IDW comics to be read by enough people to fill St. Johnstone FC's ground).

The figure was repainted as the first Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon, the review for which was tagged onto the end of that for Whirl, but this review was actually written first and just, well, got forgotten about. That's how memorable Wreckage is.

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Machine Robo - Gashapon figures

2010-05-27T20:00:00.000+01:00

I've actually had this set in my eBay watching menu for something like three years - there just always seemed to be more exciting toys out there to buy, plus you tend to assume eBay shop listings are going to be there forever, don't you?

Anyway, I finally got around to actually buying them a short while ago, partially through hankering after a cheap Machine Robo fix after doing the Challenge of the Gobots episode guide, and having most of the affordable, proper figures.

Were they worth a three-year wait? Nope, not even close. They're rubbish =(

- Machine Robo - Gashapon toy review

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: Whirl

2010-05-25T20:00:00.003+01:00

Having already coughed up for two Blackouts and a Grindor, I didn't have any particular plans to get either of the Autobot versions of the Pave Low.

However, the 'Masters of Metallikato' set that contained Whirl was put on special at Toys R Us here, and I eventually caved. I mean, it's a Universe-esque Whirl figure, and I've always liked Whirl. He does look sharp in his deep blue, and the retooling is nicely done - it helps that the Pave Low mould has a few bits with decent alternative configurations as well.

The set itself was a bit more of a bust - the quality control is laughable, plumbing Takara depths of care and competence. Plus the Deluxe Bludgeon is a very bland toy - even ignoring the proper Bludgeon that came out not too long after it's still a lazy lump of rubbish that could be just about anyone.

But Whirl was cool enough to make up for it. Now, to find a Universe Roadbuster cheap so he can be reunited with his partner in violence...

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Nomura ST Baldios

2010-05-23T20:00:00.000+01:00

A very small review here - I got this Baldios ST a couple of months ago in a job lot of similarly battered figures, and moved it on fairly soon afterwards. It was clearly a great figure once, and one that isn't missing quite so many parts is on The List for some point in the future, but the thing was just frustrating in this sort of shape, especially as it was once a really lovely chunk of diecast and springs.

- Baldios ST Toy Review

Transformers - Movie: Stockade

2010-05-21T20:00:00.003+01:00

Continuing me finally getting round to reviewing my Transformers Movie figures, here's the Deluxe Stockade. As with Landmine, I mainly bought him for the Sector 7 vehicle mode as basically a prop.

Unlike Landmine, he's not actually all that good - the figure falls between two stools, with spindly joints clashing badly with big chunky bits - best summed up by the Movie-style legs and the straight-out-of-Universe head sculpt. He's not even stylised enough to pull off the robot simian look the designers were presumably going for.

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Kinsman - Toyota Pickup

2010-05-19T20:00:00.000+01:00

Another year, another Kinsman figure - that's what if feels like anyway, and without checking it's probably not miles off. This one, modelled on the inevitable Toyota Hilux, I had as a kid, and while it's not as impressive as the Nissan I got a while back, it does give off a nicely fuzzy nostalgic glow.

I've tidied up a few other bits of the Kinsman article as well, though it's still short of solid information, so if anyone out there does know anything about the line that I haven't mentioned, please get in touch!

- Kinsman Toyota Pickup review

Transformers - Movie: Dropkick

2010-05-17T20:00:00.001+01:00

Another drone type devised for the Activision game, Dropkick is the only such figure to really transcend the faint praise of being "not bad for something from a video game" and into being a genuinely good figure.

The less overtly-drone design helps (the guy's got more personality than most other non-film figures) in addition to a very creative transformation and generally excellent quality. I wasn't really expecting him to be any good, so the general excellence was a pleasant surprise.

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Challenge of the Gobots - "The Gobots That Time Forgot"

2010-05-16T05:30:00.004+01:00

I was uploading this episode by request for someone, and thought I might as well pop the links up here as well having gone to the effort of ripping and uploading the thing.

"The Gobots That Time Forgot" was the first of a small bunch of episodes at the end of the run that introduced a fair few new characters, and saw a moderate upturn in the quality of the writing. It's one of my favourites, though as a word of warning it should be noted that it's nothing mind-bendingly good out of context. Indeed, watched as a one-off it probably loses a little freshness - seen in a run of episodes, it comes as a nice change, being the only episode Cy-Kill doesn't appear in. "The Gobots That Time Forgot" sees Gunnyr and his lieutenant Bug Bite as the villains.

AVI DIVX file, needs to be extracted with WinRAR: -

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

Apologies for the size - this was actually my first ever attempt at ripping a file from DVD, and it's about twice as big as it needed to be. It looks better at half-size on Windows Media Player and the like.

Challenge of the Gobots Complete Episode Guide

2010-05-14T21:31:00.003+01:00

Apologies for the delay since the last update, but I've been working on something fairly big - a month in the making, it's the Challenge of the Gobots episode guide! Yay, right? Yay. All 65 episodes and the film summarised, annotated and reviewed. A hundred and thirteen Guardians, Renegades, rocks, humans and bits of equipment profiled (in as much as the word can be applied to Challenge of the Gobots). My mind melted in the process, so you all better appreciate the thing :)

- Gobots - Challenge of the Gobots Episode Guide

The Spider versus the Crook from Outer Space

2010-04-08T19:59:00.004+01:00

Here's a slight update to the section for the Spider. It contains a link to a Not Quite Collected Edition collating 16 of the 19 parts of "The Spider versus the Crook from Outer Space"; the first 14 have been online as the Spider story featured in Vulcan for a while... I've tacked on two installments from issues of Lion, and bundled the lot in a single CBR file for ease of download and/or reading.

If anyone else out there has the rest in scanned form, I'd love to hear from them and see about getting this arc completed in digital form. If Titan can't be arsed we've got to do something, right?

- The Spider - "The Spider versus the Crook from Outer Space" scans

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: Superion

2010-04-06T20:13:00.005+01:00

I owned 40% of Superion's Energon counterpart, Superion Maximus (I'm sure someone, somewhere thought that was a great name) some time ago and they weren't bad - Terradive and... Skyblast? Something like that, one of each of the limb robots anyway.

Over here we get pretty bad breaks for Transformers availability in shops, like most of Europe - something some fans would do well to remember when they're bitching about how some US exclusive figure hasn't yet turned up at a store within a hundred yards of their house... When we do get lucky, it's with a silly thing like Superion being a mass release rather than an exclusive. Which would be great, if the £29.99 RRP was about 33% more expensive than US RRP. Thankfully, no one bought the guy and he turned up half price in many a January sale, often in strange places - I got mine in Debenham's, for instance. It was probably, then, about a fair price for a pretty mediocre figure...

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

The Ideon - Mobile Suit vs Giant God - Gigantis' Counterattack

2010-04-04T22:33:00.005+01:00

A long-lusted after holy grail of mine, Mobile Suit vs Giant God - Gigantis' Counterattack was a non-canon Gundam ZZ manga story which proposed that the Ideon universe was the forerunner of that of Gundam, with the destruction of the Ideon itself and everything around it effectively functioning as the second big bang. So huge, huge thanks to scanner join, uploader some random guy at 4chan and internet detective Denyer for all helping me towards getting scans, albeit largely inadvertantly.

Sadly, it's all in Japanese, and I don't have the skillset or attention span to learn the language. I'm currently trying to suss out the options for getting it translated without breaking some sort of taboo; what manga translation sites I've found thus far sound rigorously strict, while professional services charge by the word and would require me to put together a budget from somewhere... But I'm assessing the next step as best as I can. For now, though, here's the raw version.

Oh, and as a general note, I've been forced to block remote image linking... I had no real objection to people linking the odd image here and there, and obviously copyright-wise I don't have a leg to stand on, everything being some sort of digital copy of someone else's work that could be done by anyone if they could be bothered, hence why I don't watermark anything... Sadly, some idiot took it a bit too far, and that's that.

- The Ideon - Mobile Suit vs Giant God - Gigantis' Counterattack scans

Transformers - Movie: Payload

2010-04-02T20:30:00.002+01:00

I'm an unashamed fan of the 2007 Activision Transformers game... Through not having various consoles it was the first Transformers game I got to play, even if my aging computer can't handle the cutscenes and tends to get massive lag in the middle of any great big fight. The game is repetitive, badly planned (all those lovely weapons and you can't use them on opponents...), has a very weird plot and no Ratchet. But none of this can quite obscure how much fun it is to wander around a city transforming into a robot and hitting things with other things.

Payload, closely based on one of the drone types you can hit with things, is a similar mix. Some of him's very neat, especially the way the boxy truck mode folds away. Sadly, he's hamstrung by a silly gimmick and some bad quality control. So at least he's honest to his source.

I'll level with you, I had no idea that was going to come together like that when I started typing.

- Transformers Movie - Payload toy review

Beetras - Beet-Gugal

2010-03-31T20:10:00.001+01:00

Lucky finds make the world go round... Someone was lucky enough to find a case of these babies in an old storeroom, I was lucky enough to find their listing and get the chap at a decent price, and you were lucky enough to find this site. Well, maybe you aren't so lucky, but I am, I have Beet-Gugal.

Beetras was the final groan from the dying Takatoku, a last desperate attempt to recreate the success of Macross. It didn't work, and the Beetras toys are now mainly known as the things Hasbro got the Transformers Deluxe Insecticons from (Beet-Gugal went on to be Chop Shop, securing a whole three frames in the UK comic epic-slash-letdown "Time Wars" four years after he was only released in America), and not that many people remember those either.

Still, Beet Gugal's a nice slice of history even if he isn't a particularly great figure.

- Footnotes - Beetras overview & Beet-Gugal toy review

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: Bludgeon

2010-03-28T22:44:00.003+01:00

Having caught up a bit on my Transformers film figure reviews, I'm slimming down to just one at a time on the updates, and this time it's Bludgeon. He's only been out about three months, which is a pretty good turnaround for a review from me. Probably.

I was expecting to be faintly disappointed by the guy considering the fanboys who've been hyping him were the same ones who thought Ejector was great, but aside from a couple of design brain-fades he really has come out quite nicely, and will appeal even to those not that keen on the live action lines in general.

And talking of Transformers, on the off-chance you haven't yet, you really should be reading IDW's Last Stand of the Wreckers mini-series. It's already the best thing IDW have managed, and it's the first professional Transformers comic since the late, lamented Marvel G2 series that's seemed to matter (though this is hardly surprising - Roche and Roberts cut their teeth in the UK Transmasters group), and I can't wait for the next issue.

- Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon toy review

X-Bomber - Big Dai X ST

2010-03-25T20:37:00.001Z

Another random purchase... I've coveted a Big Dai X off and on for a while, but they can be very expensive. I lucked across this one on eBay for a very modest sum, and snapped it up - it's got bits missing and the like, but it's still pretty nice. It's a diecast robot from the 1980s, you can't go wrong with that.*

It briefly inspired me to ~~download~~ buy all of Star Fleet, and it's actually quite hard going despite being a heady mix of disco, a chap in a robot suit jumping around and some puppets. I don't remember seeing it as a kid, but then I'm pretty sure we weren't allowed to watch ITV... Still, it seems to have a rabid UK following, so fair play.

Of course, being me I'm currently wondering if I should buy the DX version. Yay, OCD!

- Z-Gokin Big Dai X ST toy review

* DISCLAIMER: You can, you really, really can.

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: Scout Party

2010-03-23T20:14:00.001Z

The latest Revenge of the Fallen round-up covers the Scout Class figures. These fall between two stools - they're not as cheap as Legends class figures, and they're nowhere near as good as most Deluxe figures.

They're also largely based on unseen characters - only the previously-reviewed Scalpel and Ejector are in the film. The rest of the range is drawn from unused concepts (Ransack, Depthcharge), computer game characters (Dead End, the Scrapper drone), stuff which should never have seen the light of day (Reverb) and the odd recolour thereof (Nightbeat). This batch only covers about half the Scouts, but considering that I got four of these figures basically for free and still feel short-changed, I doubt I'll be covering the rest...

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Gobots - #36 Street Heat

2010-03-21T20:02:00.000Z

In another reworked Gobots review, Street Heat jumped to the front of the queque due to me moving him on and having to get pictures of him sharpish.

The figure, a second series Guardian, is one I really wanted to like, but despite an interesting alternative mode and novel transformation he was just a little bit bland and half-hearted, and one of the few figures I can remember being disappointed with (the key to buying Gobots is low expectations, incidentally). However, some time later I picked up an example in the Japanese colour scheme (also used for Robo Machine in Europe) - navy blue, with flame pattern stickers and a few other details. I liked that one much more, so it was just a matter of time before red here was converted into money to be converted into other robots...

- Gobots - Street Heat toy review

Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen: Under Constructicon

2010-03-18T20:30:00.001Z

And now for an update based on Revenge of the Fallen's most controversial aspect... Forget the twins' characterisation, forget Julie getting stoned off hash cakes, forget Wheelie having intercourse with Mikaela's leg. The real question is just how many Constructicons are there, how many of them form Devastator and how exactly did the toys end up being so confusing.

Hasbro certainly don't have an answer, so here we cover:
- The Devastator made up of six Constructicons that don't transform;
- The Devastator made up of seven Constructicons that do transform, but is only about six inches tall;
- The four Constructicons who do transform but don't make a Devastator;
- The one guy who may or may not be a Constructicon and was initially released coloured like a guy who is a Construction.

Mmmm, convoluted.

- Transformers - Movie toy reviews

Batrain - GN-U Dou Sasuraiger

2010-03-16T20:41:00.004Z

A cheap purchase that worked out nicely - having ran out of space for my original Batrain figure a while ago, I snapped up Yamato's non-transforming GN-U Dou version (under the anime name of Sasuraiger) recently, and he's rather good for that sort of thing - very dynamic.

The figure wasn't really worth a page of its' own, so a few pictures and a couple of paragraphs of text have been tagged onto the end of the extant Batrain article. Until, of course, I get hopelessly addicted to GN-U Dou and it gets its' own section... =(

- GN-U Dou Sasuraiger toy review