daily ramblings: Transformers toys

In an effort to make my blog more personal, i've decided to add a new section to it, Daily Ramblings, also because sometimes there's a ton of stuff just flying around in my head that i would like to share with other people. Today I'm going to be discussing about the Transformers franchise, particular the collectible toys.

Transformers have come a long long way, from the classic g1 cartoons in 1985, to the latest 3d and animated series, not to mention the live action film that somehow reincarnated the transformers franchise to the huge money making cooperation it is today.

The transformers toys had humble beginnings, fulfilling what they were design to do, transform from vehicles, or animals, to robots.

here we see one of the original toys, notice the limited function in arm and leg movements. Back then this was the holy grail of transformers though, as long as it could transform it would sell.

Now, let's bring ourselves back to the 29th century, now not only do our transformers transform, they can move their arms up down left right in our, and also the legs. But this of course comes with a price, now we have to take at least 30 mins on the first go to figure out how to transform our robot, even with instructions! Back then it was, flip here, flip here, pull here, tada. we're done. Now it seems like rotate this, flip that, rotate this, flip flip flip flip, rotate rotate, flip the same thing 10 times, insert, pull out, fold here, tear here. And oh, your transformer doesn't look anything like the box art shows.

But no, seriously, i love transformers. It's how it all comes together that really makes you admire how they design it. Which kinda makes me regret not getting into the collecting business earlier in life, which now brings me to a story of how i started collecting transformers.

As a kid, i watched tons of transformers, had 1 or 2 during my childhood, which broke obviously. When the live action movie came out, it was mind blowing, i did look at the toys, but they were not to my liking, they robots from the movie looked ugly in my opinion, they looked nothing like the classic, except optimus prime but i was never a big fan of him, too many people already liked him.

How does that not scream YOU to the GEE, EL WHY. yes, that spells youge'elwhy. So my interest in the transformers ended there. I did however acquire some nice shirts particularly linking to the decepticon soundwave over the years. And this christmas, what did i see, the WFC soundwave, which wasn't the original boombox soundwave, but its similarities to the g1 soundwave were there, any fan would know. So without hesitation i bought it. Which springs the dawn of my collection today.

For me, when it comes to purchasing collectibles, i'm quite the picky guy, but looking at old toys, i really wished i had some of them, like the g1 series universe bruticus maximus exclusive to target released in 2008

Stunning isn't it. As i was saying when it comes to the collectibles, i find it more worth it to buy ones that aren't common, for example, classic hot rod, bumble and optimus prime. There have been so many re-releases of them that if you have one you don't feel right, and looking at old pics of them are not awing, or stunning. But when you look at old toys like bruticus, you'll go where can i get one of those? But optimus is so common, kinda makes you sick seeing the same old boring picture.

Whoever i think variants are well worth it, for example, wfc optimus prime, thats uncommon, and i highly doubt they will re-release a figure like that. Which also makes it a good one to sell or trade to fans of optimus prime without this figure. And people like me who just started collecting their toys in 5 years time will look back at figures like these and go, where can i get one of those?

Valentines for my girl

In conjuction with Valentines, i decided to write a little something something for my girlfriend!

:)

Graceful

Loving

Original

Responsible

Iphone4
Adorable

Sexy

Understanding

Motivated

Interesting

Lovable

Important

how unoriginal :/

but it still counts as something right?

As for those who are reading this for the sake of reading, now you know what my girlfriends all about! exciting isn't she. A little box full of treasures.

Our Lady of Lourdes

Recently it was feast day of Our Lady of Lourdes, so you might be asking, who is Our Lady of Lourdes. This is one of the many names given to Mother Mary, this one specifically to an apparition of her in Lourdes.

The feast day is on the 11 of Feb, because it was believed that on that very day about 150 years ago, was the first apparition of Our Mother Mary where a little 14 year old girl, said she saw a lady in a cave. That girl is Saint Bernadette Soubirous.

The story in brief is that the girl and her sister went collecting firewood, there they saw the spirit like apparition, when they told the story to the town, they received corporal punishment! Harsh isn't it? But laws back then were way different than times now. Later on she decided to go back with holy water to see if it was evil or not. Long story short, the apparition told her to come back and that she will make her happy in the next life, as more of the story unfolds, more and more people become increasingly interested in it, at a point, our Lady asked Bernadette to dig and drink from the water from the ground, that same water was used to cure a lot of people, miracles, don't they just make you feel happy. Later on sometime the Apparition revealed herself to be the Immaculate Mother Mary.

This is a shrine at Lourdes, reading about it makes me wanna go there myself, maybe drink a little of that Holy Water. Amazing isn't it, you can't find stories like these anymore in our days. Even so the pressure from critics now, and tabloids, media can be just overwhelming. So if instances like this did happen i wonder how long it would carry on. Our Lady appeared at Lourdes 17 times over a span of one year.

I'm beginning to think that something like this, grasp by media attention would defeat it's purpose, having cameras at the location of the apparition, would not make it special, everyone in the world can see it, well doubtful since the apparitions appear to a select few. But miracles on a giant scale would of course have to question the public views on religion.

It kinda makes you wonder that how some people can be so narrow minded to choose not to believe even though the signs are all there. Miracles have still been happening, very few reported, but none the less the proof is still there. Why do you think we still have Saints being canonized to this very day!

It just goes to show how secular this society has become, and what it's products are. I guess the important thing is to not be closed minded and not to fall victim to societies secularism and live with an open heart, mind and soul

Alternity Thundercracker

If you know me well enough, you would know that i have an sort of an impulsive behaviour when it comes to collectibles. Recently i had a craving for a shiny high end transfomer in the midst of my Hasbro normal grade Transformers. This made me turn to Tomy Takara, a pioneer in toy making from Japan, they've brought us a great deal of kids toys from beyblades, to collectibles like transformers.

One line that stood out to me was the Alternity, because of it's availability and it's not so high end price unlike the Masterpiece line which goes up to about 500 ringgit. The alternity line cost around 160 ringgit. Because of it's price tag, the conundrum of which one should i acquire arises. The Alternity line was short lived, for reasons unknown to us, so they only came up with 4 models, each model has a minimum of 2 remakes, mostly a different paintjob. Fortunately for me the store which sells this line only has one colour of each model, making it just a choice between the models!

Of the models, i highly disliked the suzuki swift cliffjumper model, because it looks bulky, fat in a sense. The Nissan Fair Lady Megatron was different to the original Megatron because it used swords instead of blasters, which kinda put me off. Another thing about Megatron which i did not approve of was that the back of his head was resting on a flat surface, which juts out a little which makes it look odd for a head not to be on it's own. Next came the Nissan GT-R Ultra Magnus, which looks highly cool, but after reviewing the reviews, it has poor articulation making it not be able to stand up, and also it's an autubot which sways my decision as i'm a big decepticon collector, (when i say big, i mean in heart, not in collection)

This leaves me with no other than, no surprises here as the title already stated, the Mitsuoka Orochi Thundercracker! Which i myself have no regrets of purchasing, and you'll see why in a minute. The Alternity seekers have been getting mixed reviews by the public which is understandable as everyone has their own taste.

The model is a Japanese Sportscar, the Mitsuoka Orochi, which to my suprise, there is a Showroom in Malaysia, where there is a huge billboard of the Mitsuoka Orochi. The car itself looks fine, along with the eccentric blue colour makes it pleasing to the eye. A great deal about the Alternity line is the attention to fine detail they have, the car has everything from wipers, headlights to rims and radio aerial!

eek, sorry for the gap in the middle there, must have slipped my eye while taking photos.

Stunning, isn't he, (note i did not call it a she like most cars, thats because thundercracker is a male decepticon) there's even a spot for the car plate!

Now as to why i wanted something like the alternity line so badly, ...

... you can actually open the doors, hood, and the trunk! Not only that but if you look closely inside ...

... there is car seats along with steering wheels, Sorry for the flash shot, but i had to take it to prove the point about the car seats and the steering wheel.

It just fits so well with my other toys, it's about the same size as a deluxe figure, which most of my collection are. This toy has a third mode, in addition to vehicle and robot mode, which is flight mode, his back wheels can be turned into tiny wings, similar to Turbo Tracks from the G1 continuity.

A lot of people don't have much love for this third alternative mode because it's pointless in a way, but i absolutely adore it, it just adds on to what's already great about this toy. Now for the long awaited robot mode.

They've actually tried really hard to make this look similar to the original seekers, giving it a (false) hood for the chest, Wings, and hand mounted blasters, also the wings on the legs which gives him the flight mode in it's car form is suppose to represent the plane fins from the seeker mode. This figure offers a lot in terms of poseability, and it doesn't have much of a stnading issue as most transformers do have. One big complain about this figure is the doors in the robot mode, the doors don't play any part in robot mode and are kinda just awkward there, (this angle doesn't really prove my point about the doors, but if you have the figure you'll know what i'm talking about) the doors also very easily detaches when transforming which is a pain. The figure also looks ugly from the back as many reviews mention, but as some people point out, who cares? you don't display them from the back anyway, who does that?

Overall a stunning figure, worth every penny if you ask me.

For more pictures of him visit my flickr :)

Human Target

More along the lines of superhero sub genre of dramas comes Fox's 2010 release Human Target. Highly favoured by critics and scores a whopping 8.3 on the imdb factor, this show is probably one of the must watch series you have never heard of. Human target follows a team of people who protect the innocent using unconventional means, similar to Burn Notice and A-Team. Although this show doesn't bring any new concepts into television it's just A+ because of it's highly packed action, and characters you will come to love! I recently finished watching season 2, highly satisfied and anticipating a great next season!

Loosely based on DC Comic's Human Target, this show revolves around your not so ordinary group, an ex cop, Laverne Winston, an ex hitman, Christopher Chance and well, Guerrero, (if you watch the show you'll know what i mean), basically people in need of protection seek Chance out for help and he follows them around protecting them making him a Human Target.

Human Target was originally part of DC comics, but slowly moved out of the DC universe into their imprint Vertigo, here the protagonist Christopher Chance also is a man who protects the innocent, but he get's plastic surgery to reconstruct his face each time to become his client making him a real life Human Target.

Season 1 episode 1 starts us off kind of out of the blue action, you probably think it was already halfway through the season with no back story to lead us in. As i mentioned, it's just basically a bunch of guys protecting the innocent, mainly Chance as the head poncho and Laverne helping him out here and there, Guerrero drops by once in a while to do Chance some favours. As the season progress the more we understand why and how the group got together, using flashback techniques and so on.

Season 2 comes with new suprises, now under new management Ilsa Pucci, they become a "legit" company, but still using unconventional, above the law methods. They also get help from a new buddy Ames who was/is a thief, reformed, kinda.

Overall this show is very relaxing to watch, it doesn't leave you hanging much, there's a big picture to the story but it's kinda on the side, most episodes are independent to the arching story. In a way that makes it a lot similar to Leverage. I highly recommend you to watch this, you will not be dissapointed.

The Cape

As the new year unfolded, many new things have emerged, toys, movies, cartoons, television series. Among the tv series, NBC's added a hero to the superhero trend named The Cape. This is definitely a interesting take on a masked vigilante in this series no one has superpowers so to speak.

As a follower of many many superhero shows, i enjoy the show. The series does try to put on a realistic look but frankly that's questionable. This show i'm pretty sure it's very much inspired by Batman.

So, let's start off with our hero, Vince Faraday, the Cape.

So he's a policeman, in a town full of crooked cops, so he get's an offer from a private security company lead by Peter Fleming. Late in the middle of the night he get's a call from a notorious Blogger called Orwell, who exposes scums of the town. Vince finds out that he's going to work for a crooked company, so he informs his best friend, the guy who recommended him for the job but before realizing his best friends gone dark side, and rats him out to the Peter Fleming who is also Chess, the masked murderer. They frame Faraday as Chess and set him lose so they can receive credit for capturing this mass murderer.

Faraday then manages to somehow narrowly escape through a manhole underneath a tanker which explodes, so naturally he's been announce dead. he's then found by the carnival of crime, which take advantage of his security id to steal from bank's guarded by ARK, Peter Fleming's company. The ringmaster in returns makes him into the mask vigilante the Cape so that he could expose Fleming as Chess and return one day to his family.

Here is some obvious Batman influences, city full of corruption. Carnies! Dick Grayson was a Carnie.

Here's our very own Lex Luthor, Mr Fleming, the notorious Chess. Basically with Faraday framed chess pronounced, the cities decided to give full authority of the police force to ARK, and slowly he wants to run the whole town with his evil schemes.

Here is Orwell, basically Orwell to Cape is like oracle to batman, talk about influences. So she feeds him information and tries to help him bring Fleming to Justice.

Another similar influence is that they have their own league of assasins, known as tarrot or something. basically each tarrot is an assasin.

Overall it's a well produced program. I hope they stick it through. It's got an all star cast, and People that love the superhero franchise will surely enjoy this addition.

La Brute

In my opinion, the French are pioneers when it comes to mini online games,they've created transformice, labrute, and formulawan, just to name a few that i've enjoyed. Today i'm going to introduce you to La Brute, the 2nd reincarnation of this popular online past time.

The general idea of la brute, is that you own your own character, or brute. You bring him into the arena to level him up, as he advances levels he will be favoured with a variety of skills and weapons and so on. The only downside of the 2nd reincarnation is that it only in french where as the original La Brute, or known to english users as mybrute had a variety of servers to choose from, english, spanish, french. But lucky for us we have google translate. Although in french, those who have experienced the 1st generation mybrute would have no problems at all playing this one.

here's a general view of your brutes page. Here's one of my characters, Tpefex, currently he's got 2 weapons, (shown on the wooden plank), 1 skill, (the only box that isn't half invisible), and a pet dog. (i decided to show this character cause i know my girlfriend loves dogs :))

One of the big difference which will make this game more favourable to the original is that each time you level up you get to choose one of two upgrades, one normally being a stat upgrade and the other either being a weapon, a skill, a pet or if you're really unlucky another stat upgrade.

This is a big yes for the fans because in the original, it depended on your luck, and sometimes you might be upgraded with the most useless skill, or a puny weapon. So you're given more freedom in this.

Another difference is that you only get to pick your opponent from a set given to you, and that you cannot see what skills or weapons he/she has, only his stats. This halts cheap players picking on guys with poor skills, which was regularly seen in the original. Here's a screen shot of my brute just about to hit the opponent!

Another difference with the system is, in the original we only get to picked 3 fights a day, a victory grants us 2 experience and a loss 1 experience. Here all fights are 1 experience, but you can carry on fighting for a maximum of 10 rounds as long as you don't lose 3 fights. 3 fights will get you hospitalized till the next day.

It's a really neat game, which probably required at most 30 mins of your time a day. So if you're free, i highly recommend you trying it out :)

Decepticon Thrust

So recently, i acquired a new deception to my collection. To be fair, i have not yet to review any of my deluxe class decepticons, so even though it's not my first of the collection, it's the first to be introduced to the perauverse.

Also i think it's probably out of my current collection a good one to be introduced because it falls into the original 1985 G1 (generation 1) transformers cartoon and it's very very close to cartoon accuracy. Which is a big YES to many transformers collectors.

For those who don't know him, here is Thrust from the cartoon. He's a conehead and a decepticon Seeker. Originally the conehead design was unattractive to me. But the market for transformers currently doesn't hold many variety (unless purchasing online, which i'm quite afraid of in case the toy has a imperfection). Out of the coneheads he is probably favourable to me because he does not have the main wings lying on the legs, (the toy version anyway).

Here's what my toy looks like. It's almost identical to the cartoon! Probably only difference is that the wings are on it's body instead of the leg but i prefer it that way anyway. Things to note about is that the rifles and the turbine are removeable, so you can socket them anywhere you want. The turbines can be socketed on the feet. Similar to the dreamwave arch version below.



Guess the part where you can accesorize him however you want kinda puts your own touch to it. The transformation of this decepticon is relatively easy, i say relatively because in comparison to most transformers it's a piece of cake. The vehicle mode is a normal jet, it's supposed to take on a form of a modified f-15. Probably because the original seekers are modeled after the f-15 and this is modified from the original seekers. Here's what it looks like it in it's vehicle glory

All in all Thrust is a great deal. He looks good and is a great add to your collection. He can even dismount his blasters and hold it in his arms like below, which is 100% cartoon accuracy.

By now you're probably thinking, is it all great? unfortunately, no. Sadly with all seekers remolded from Henkei henkei's Starscream they all have really short arms. you won't really notice it with the blasters hanging from the side, but that's just an optical illusion! Just like almost every transformer, they have problems when it comes to stabilizing them while in the upright position. He doesn't pose much poseability because his wings block most freedom for movement of the arms and legs, most of the time if you move the hands, you have the move the wings as well.

One thing i love about the deluxe line is the attention to detail, the one that really sticks out to me in this model is the wheels, if you look at the picture of thrust holding his blasters i kinda forgot to fold the wheels inwards, it's by his chest, if you compare it to the first picture of my toy you can probably see difference. Here's an upclose of the wheel while it's in vehicle mode.

What catches me about this is that they probably didn't need it since in transformation mode you can't see it, and it's such a small detail, why bother? i don't think it would have mattered to the fans. Thats why i really love the fact that they've done it!

Overall it's a great toy, worth every penny. So if you love decepticon seekers. it's a must buy!

the Beatitudes

So, a new year, new dawn. How would we live our lives? A week or two ago in mass the gospel was the beatitudes, i was on Children's Liturgy duty that day, so here i am trying to do the impossible, teaching kids something some adults can barely grasp fully on, the beatitudes. I say this probably cause it's so open ended and there can be so many interpretations.

the Beatitudes are found in Matthew 5:3-12

Anyway these are like some guidelines given to us by Jesus, but how are we suppose to live them? join me now as i explore the beatitudes!

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

In general, i think this means to be humble like, i don't think Jesus is forbidding us to be wealthy, but reminding us that we must be humble at heart and not brag? i know, i'm not very deep.

Blessed are they who mourn,
for they shall be comforted.

those who suffer will eventually be comforted. maybe. eventually. in heaven. OH, here's an idea, mourning is probably a sign of having feelings for others, so that means, empathy! not being self centered but also think about others.

Blessed are the meek,
for they shall possess the earth.

this kinda just reinstates my idea for the first beatitude, meek = humble in spirit. which now confuses me even more. for i don't think two beatitudes mean the same thing. So they must have different meanings. which comes back to.. what is "poor in spirit"? The word poor often makes us think about money, so in a sense, poor people don't ask for much, they're happy with a roof above their heads, fresh water and food to eat. So i guess it might be telling us to be happy with what we are given and don't ask for so much. Let's stick with that for now.

Blessed are they who hunger and thirst for justice,
for they shall be satisfied.

there's no deep thought here in my opinion. Justice. is maybe something this community lacks. there is no justice with corruption, stealing, cheating and all that. abide by the rules :)

Blessed are the merciful,
for they shall obtain mercy.

mercy, need i say more?

Blessed are the pure of heart,
for they shall see God.

purity of the heart. what could this mean? this one could probably be open ended, is a heart pure after committing a sin of it's free will? Does sexual thoughts, revenge and all that make a heart impure even though the deed is not committed? If we look at it this way, it is almost impossible to have a pure heart. So what could Jesus mean with Pure of Heart. If we think of pure, ( well by we i mean i) we think of purity, like we want the purest gold like 24 karat. if it's 18 karat. it's not pure. Well, if we think about it that way 24 karats are only 99.9% pure. we still have 0.1% impurities. But nowadays we can't find anything thats really "pure", we give 99.9% purity the title pure. So if we think about it this way, an impure heart might still be able to become pure.

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called sons of God.

World Peace is something that a lot of people dream of, especially beauty queens (<- click on link, you will not regret it!). We say dream because some dreams do not become reality, as much as we want this we know it's not going to happen with all the hate in the world. But does that mean we stop trying? Answer: No. who knows, if you can touch just one person with trying to make peace, maybe that person will do the same. And the train of peace continues, eventually the world will be full of peacemakers.

Blessed are they who suffer persecution for justice sake,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And now we come to our final beatitude, the word justice has already been said, so what makes this justice different from the other? It's hard to tell really, hunger and thirsting is kinda a form of suffering in my opinion. So..how? maybe there's an emphasis on Justice because there is no justice in our world today? Well, i guess maybe the first time it's mention justice is the need for us to want justice, yearn it. And this mention is probably for us to act upon it!

**

So with these in mind my friends, let's try to make an effort :)

Gundam RX78-2 Anniversary edition HG 1/144

So. This is wayyy overdue. Luckily for me i have some pictures of it in my phone. even though it's in storage somewhere far far away.

Overall. This is probably my most favourite Gunpla that i own. Every Gundam fan should have some model of the RX 78-2. And if you don't! this would be one that you would like to invest in.

Here's an example why it's so great, notice the particular attention to detail! and this is at the bottom of the feet mind you! Just imagine how good looking the rest of the parts are!

The Legs by itself. The gunpla poses great poseability, check out how articulated the joints are in the legs. I don't have a picture of the hands but the hands can pretty much move in any direction. Most gunpla at the 144 scale have stiff legs but this one is awesome. Also it can do a alsmot 90 degree spilt!

This is what all it's parts seperated looks like! The joy of making a gunpla!

Just like any Keroro Fan would, the head goes in at the last! yup yup.

Here's a posing shot, with all of his weapons! I have to admit it's not the best of angles. Hence why it's not on flickr. And here are more better looking shots!

Looks fantastic overall doesn't it? There's more pictures of it on Flickr! you can view them here.

Totally an awesome figure. Has tons of poseability and great articulation, Colours and details are great. And not to mention he has an awesome arsenal, bazooka, lightsaber, gun, shield and that chain hammer. The probably only downside is his lightsaber is a onepiece. If you collect gunpla you'll know what i mean! But this is a definite Must Have :)

Flickr?

harlow there sports fans. So. yep. I think i'm falling behind again on this blog thing. I really really should put more time and effort into it. Probably as much time and effort i put into watching my tv shows. I do have quite a lot to blog about! Gundams, heroclix, transformers, tv shows, animes, etcetera. I guess the hard part to do is take pictures and upload them. Its quite hard to take relevant and nice looking pictures. You don't want too little, cause then reading text would be an eyesore. But you don't want too much, or it'll be like "Oh, this again?".

Speaking of Pictures, if you noticed, i've found a different approached into putting pictures on my blog. I've instead of using the normal Upload a photo, i've used linking them from Flickr! which means YES! i do have a flickr account!

Flickr is basically a facebook for photo's. kinda. well you get the jist of it i guess.

I've decided to organise my uploaded photos so it can be easily viewed when necessary. This is mostly as you will expect it to be. Photo's of my toy collection.

Anyway my current Photostream you can click here.

It's been organised into 3 sets for now. Lego, heroclix, and transformers! i'm going to upload everything, past, present and future. Probably stuff that i won't even post here. And many stuff before i post them here! So do check it out :)

I've also put links on the Right hand column under my profile if you want quick and easy access!

The thing about flickr is though, there are so many nice photos uploaded with really expensive cameras. And i feel really noob with my little handphone cam. :( but it has a big heart and would like to share it with the world!

For now, enjoy this random set of photos from my flickr!

Discipleship

What is a disciple? Loosely it's defined as someone who follows a teacher. Basically a student of a mentor. Although true, the word disciple has been often linked with Christianity. Probably being since Jesus started off with 12 Disciples, now more known as the 12 Apostles, and later more and more being his disciples, following his teachings. All in all, Jesus was probably the greatest teacher to have walked on earth. Having thousands of Disciples. Now every follower of Christ is known to be his Disciples.

But what does it mean to be a disciple? To be a disciple is not to be static. It's sometimes easy to just live with what we know and not what to learn more and assume we know everything we need to. But that's wrong. Discipleship is a learning process. If we knew everything we wouldn't be disciples! We would be mentors.

Also, being a disciple means much more than learning. We must follow, in the footsteps. Disciples want to be the as good or even better than the mentor. Although impossible in this case, we must still try our best. Maybe it isn't important to you, but how would it be if someone were to be acting like you and making you look like a fool in public. So act like a disciple!

... Comes Brightest Day!

Welcome to Part 2 of my 2 part heroclix review. I don't think it was too hard to guess that after Blackest Night was obviously the Brightest day, any DC comic fan should know this, it was pretty much the biggest event of 2009-2010. Now let's see what we have in store for us today.

Here's a look on the complete set of 7 new figures in the Heroclix Action Pack Brightest day. Unlike their predecessors, Blackest Night, these Figures are not dynamic poses but are more of a standstill. Even so, these look grrr-rreat! And come at a cheaper price! New figures comes new powers which brings a whole new playing field into Heroclix. Each figure also have the ability Regeneration, since they did come back from the dead. And the best part about these figures are....wait for it .... KEYWORDS! Not only do all of them possess the keyword 'Brightest Day', some of them have their own keywords. Now lets take a look at these figures up close.



Here we have Aquaman and Osiris. It looks to me they're pretty much similar in sculpt if you look at the poses. Probable only difference is that Aquaman stands on a tentacle. Aquaman gives a whole new playable field for the keyword "Atlantis", i mean he is the king of Atlantis after all. His Trait, allows him to deal damage to opposing characters whenever a Player with the keyword Atlantis is KO'd. This is generally attributed to the fact that the current revived Aquaman no longer controls aquatic life but only dead aquatic life. Fun Fact: every aquatic life he goes near dies. Anyways, imagine having an army of Aquaman. Lets say 4 Aquamans, If 1 got KO'd, the other 3 will be doing damage to each opposing character that attacked that Aquaman! Thats 3 x 2 = 6 Damage! Dangerous. Although it would be utterly useless against damage reducers.

Osiris is pretty much just like most Mystical character that receives their power from Shazam, only plus side is if he rolls a critical hit, the remainder of the game he modifies his combat values by +1. Try your luck with him.

Here we have Martian Manhunter, (The not so) Deadman, and Captain Boomerang. Martian Manhunter is probably one of the cheaper Powerhouses that comes with a lot of pow! Here he has a trait that allows him to use Exploit Weakness, Outwit, and Probability Control until your next turn whenever an opposing character is KO'd. Here's another character that has a new power after reviving, conversing to dead people. Overall he's a great fig, and i absolutely adore his sculpt, maybe just because it's half Black Lantern, and since i don't own any Black Lantern Figs, this kinda makes up for it! although sometimes i wish he was full black lantern.

Deadman, Now not dead, is my favourite figure in terms of stats. He's got a great healing power, and he doesn't die easily since he has a amazing ability to stop taking damage on the last dial. He's a wonderful tie up figure, and he has the ability to summon any figure with the brightest day or White Lantern Corps Keyword. Oh, did i not mention? He owns a White Lantern Ring, not sure why yet, but i'm sure will be revealed in the Brightest Day storyline eventually.

Captain Boomerang, One of the cheaper and weaker figure but with the ability to attack all characters in his boomerang path, it might come handy after all if you use him well! Great addition to the keyword Rogues.

Alas, our last two figures, Firestorm and Hawkgirl. Firestorm is probably one of the rarely used figures as his special abilities don't really give much options and you can use better figures for his cost. Not to mention his lack of keywords :/

Hawkgirl on the other hand is a cheap and strong warrior. Her trait Master Aerial Combatant allows you to modify her attack and damage values by +1 whenever she attacks a character with the Flight ability! Now that's what i call power!

All in all, a fantastic set, another must buy for DC Heroclix lovers, this set has not failed me. Great Quality overall, although there is some complains where Hawkgirl is weak at the legs and tends to snap, i haven't had that problem but it always doesn't hurt to pay extra attention to them.

So this wraps up this weekends Heroclix bonus edition by me. I hope you enjoyed it as much as i did. :)

From Blackest Night ...

Welcome, I've finally decided i should get going on my collections, today i bring you part 1 of a two part Heroclix review. I give you, my Heroclix Blackest Night Starter Set.



Here we have a complete view of all the Figures from the starter. I will briefly describe each figure later. One of the best parts about this set is that the figures have fantastic dynamic poses. It's been highly regarded as one of the better sets and a must for anybody who plays Heroclix.

These only downside of these figures really is that they lack the keywords to make them highly playable in Heroclix, regardless though they can still pack a punch! I mean think about it, superheroes and villains with power rings, surely they'll do more damage than they normally do.

Here, from left to right order, we have Indigo Lantern Atom, Green Lantern Hal Jordan, and Violet Lantern Wonder Woman. 3 classic superheroes, Atom is highly used because of his pretty awesome healing powers. Green Lantern has a special ability that lets him regenerate instead of taking pushing damage. And Wonderwoman is basically a high damage powerhouse. Atom's sculpt has been deemed one of the best heroclix figures, and if you look at it, you can see why. My only upset with this is the Green Lantern figure. He is so tiny. he looks like a small boy when standing next to wonderwoman. Atom's small but that makes sense, he is the Atom! he can shrink!

Red Lantern Mera and Blue Lantern Flash, Mera is somewhat evil since red lanterns are all rage, This gives her highly large attack and damage stats for a cheap cost. But the downside of her is she is easily taken out with low life of 6 clicks. Blue Lantern Flash is probably my favourite figure to use, a well all rounder with good stats, and useful Powers and Abilities like Hypersonic Speed, Enhancement, Perplex, etc. This figures are probably the most fragile out of the set. So pay careful attention when handling them.

Here's our two villains Orange Lantern Lex Luthor and Sinestro Corps Scarecrow. Lex Luthor is probably the most useless figure in my opinion, his stats are mediocre and his special ability is hard to use in expert games. Scarecrow on the other hand, doesn't play out well but i have to say his figure is probably the best looking one for me. I mean, check out the yellow lantern crows. Not fairly used but will probably have some usefulness in a Sinestro Corps theme team.

Overall a great starter kit, anyone looking to start playing i highly recommend getting this kit. Its just appealing, and one of the coolest Dc comics Collectibles you will find in the market.

animoviethon

So. If anyone wants to take a crack at it. Animoviethon would be. indeed. short for. Anime-movie-marathon. { i wouldn't have guess 8-) }. Reason for this being i've seen a couple of films and why not write about all of them in one go? simple enough. It's probably overdue anyway.

Now, in no particular order i bring you four, in my opinion, pretty decent anime movies, that might interest you.

Summer Wars

Here's a one different from your regular animes. Set in our contemporary period, a young boy pretends to be his seniors girlfriend following her back to her hometown for her grandmothers birthday. There's a virtual space, called OZ, where it's been hacked into by a virus called "Love Machine" and it was going to take over military missiles and all that. Its up to the boy and the girls' family to put all their wits together to try to bring the virus down.

That, my friends, is what i would call a super summary. Mind you, its been about couple months since i watched this. All in all, it's a fantastic anime in my opinion, and you should definitely 100% truly watch it. It comes off a little weird at first, but you will enjoy this shift from the animes that you watch today. Its got a little bit of everything for everyone, romance, fighting, a bit of mystery. What else could you ask for?

Detective Conan: Lost Ship in the sky (movie 14)


Here's the latest from the Detective Conan Movie franchise, the lost ship in the sky, i'm not sure why it's titled like that since the ship isn't lost at all. Here we have a very interesting take on Detective Conan, not your regular plot where you have an assailant, and probably 3 suspects, which Conan tries to figure out who it is. Or the single suspect with the air tight alibi which Conan has to disprove.

In the beginning, we see a terrorist group steal some kind of virus. Along with the plot is Kaito Kido who claims he will steal Jirokichi Suzuki's priceless Gem on an airship. Everything suddenly comes to chaos, as the terrorist group also enter the airship.

To be honest, the reason why Detective Conan is so interesting is because of the mysteries, For a feature length movie with such little mysteriousness, it might score unwell with long time fans who've watch every single episode and every movie.

Gundam 00: Awakening of the trailblazer

Here's another franchise that's a big hit in Japan, Gundam. And with their latest feature length film. Awakening of the trailblazer. Here's another plot that's been shifted away from the norm. To most people, when you think of Gundam, you think robot on robot action. But in this film we have robots versus alien like substances. So if you're looking for intense robot on robot fun, i suggest you look else where cause this movie will fail you. But if you're a fan of the Gundam 00 series and have kept up with season 1 and season 2, this movie will definitely suit you nicely. They've managed to put every single character that's still alive, that played a part in season 1 and 2 into this. Even if their role is small. Which is one of the reason i enjoyed this movie, even though many of them sacrificed their life for the sake of humanity :(

The overall plot is, an alien substance in the form of a lost space ship returns to earth. After that, strange occurrences happens, and after a while, they've figured the unknown substance is causing it. Eventually more of this substance heads their way towards earth and it's up to the mobile suits (robots) to stop them!

Disappearance of Haruhi Suzumiya

Lastly, we have the dissapearance of Haruhi Suzumiya, now to be bluntly put it, anyone who watched the series the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, MUST, i repeat, MUST watch this. One day, our good friend Kyon wakes up, remembering everything but the world has been changed, normal. So he puts everything together to try to make things back the way they were, trying to solve with the hints left behind for him. If you haven't watch the Melancholy, watching this is going to be a head-turner, you will not understand a single thing. So i suggest you watch the series, then watch this, kthx. But seriously, i loved it. Not only was the storyline great, it also involved a bit of mystery, cause you don't know who done it, who made it change? It's revealed halfway through out the movie BUT only to be muted when the name is said (which is a fantastic move by the producers) so unless you can lip read cartoons, you wouldn't know who dunnit till the very end of this 3 hour epic movie.

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So that about wraps it up from my side. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i enjoyed writing it. :)