January 2010
18 posts
Toy Review: GI Joe - The Adventure Team
Adventure Team By the end of Hasbro’s foray into the 8” scale, they had two sub-lines being released concurrently with the last of the 2007 Sigma 6 figures; the “Combat Squad”, and the “Adventure Team”. Both shared the same design themes and characteristics of the original line, but branched off in different directions. The Combat Squad was a set of...
Movie Review: Legion
Legion Post-apocalypse stories aren’t new. Terminator, Matrix, Mad Max, Dawn of the Dead… all of them are about life after the end of everything. No matter how bad they are, end of the world stories seem to make for good box office no matter how bad they are. Just look at Roland Emmerich. Me, I have a soft spot for a particular sub-genre, the Endtimes story. There are a few of...
Toy Review: Marvel Select Thor
Marvel Select Thor I never had a lot of Thor comics when I was a kid, preferring either Transformers, GI Joe, or later X-men. I do remember a few with the Thor Corp and several with Beta Ray Bill. To be honest, I always preferred Beta Ray Bill more than the original, because of the science fiction inherent in the character. Alien everyman with godlike powers trumps boring god in terms of...
Toy Review: TF Crossovers: Hulk 2.0
Transformers Crossovers: Hulk 2.0 I’ve seen these Transformers Crossovers in the toy ailses for several years now and they always always always hang around for months after their released. I’m sure Hasbro had the right idea with them (Marvel Superheroes and Star Wars characters that transform into vehicles) and kids would have loved to get these for Christmas, but there were two...
Toy Review: RotF Deluxe Class Dirge, Brawn, and...
Deluxe Class Dirge Brawn, & Lockdown Since the Bayverse Transformers first reared their ugly heads back in 2007, we’ve seen a deluge of product coming out of Hasbro house. With a few exceptions, I’ve been indifferent to the toys that they’ve released in the movie line, preferring figures from the Transformers Animated or Transformers Universe line. However, I have been...
Toy Review: City Strike Duke & Friends
City Strike Duke & Friends Recently, GI Joe: Rise of Cobra (ROC) toys went on sale here in the Philippines and I decided to pick up a few. The 45% discount was too good to pass up so I got the first ROC Snake Eyes, Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow (PP Storm Shadow), and City Strike Duke (CS Duke). I’d seen these three warming the pegs for quite some time and at Php 300 each, I figured it...
Toy Review: Play Arts Kai Star Ocean Series
Play Arts Kai Star Ocean Figures The Play Arts (PA) line of toys recently came under the Square Enix umbrella. With the merge came a big jump in the number of licences that PA had to utilize. Before, we were pretty much stuck with characters from the various Final Fantasy installments. And Dragon Quest, but who really wanted those? When I wrote that preview article on the upcoming FF XIII...
Toy Review: Play Arts Kai Star Ocean Series
Play Arts Kai Star Ocean Figures The Play Arts (PA) line of toys recently came under the Square Enix umbrella. With the merge came a big jump in the number of licences that PA had to utilize. Before, we were pretty much stuck with characters from the various Final Fantasy installments. And Dragon Quest, but who really wanted those? When I wrote that preview article on the upcoming FF XIII...
Blog Post: My Take on Hoarding
Over at Articulated Discussion, there’s a great interview by Dr. Nightmare with two “scalpers” about their practices and motivations. It’s a great read. I’ve been posting there as well, figured I might as well make some content out of it and hit those two birds.I’ve noted that scalping’s become a big thing in the Philippines too, mostly because of the...
Toy Review: Bruticus Maximus & Superion
Transformers Universe Bruticus Maximus & Superion I’m sure that by this time Transformers fans will have already read reviews of these two sets, but since I just got these a few weeks ago, I’m going to subject you to another one. When these two sets were released locally at retail shops, I didn’t really want to bother with them. With a tag of Php2,200, I felt they...
Toy Review: "Battle for the Cyber Planet Keys"...
“Battle for the Cyber Planet Keys” I’d never even heard of “Sam’s Club” until I was doing research for this review. Apparently it’s a membership-only warehouse retail chain in the states which is actually owned by Walmart. An exclusive item for a membership-only chain. Talk about elitism. Sigh. It’s a good thing that Playkit brought in a ton of...
Toy Review: Chap Mei Police vs. Bad Guyz
Chap Mei Police vs. Bad Guyz Living so near to China, the Philippine toy market is basically just bootlegs piled on shelves next to a smattering of officially licensed products. Sure we see the same Hasbro and Mattel figures as the rest of the world, but the majority of our population can not afford “original” toys like Transformers and Marvel Heroes. Enter Chinese toy...
Movie Review: James Cameron's Avatar
James Cameron’s Avatar Remember when James Cameron was cool? Before he came out with that 3-hour long cheese fest about a boat and a grandma and a hundred year-old pendant? Remember him when he was doing movies with ground breaking special effects that were pushing the envelope of what film could do? Remember when he was creating characters that stuck with you? Like that robot from the...
Toy Reveiw DCUC 10 Part 2
DC Universe Classics Wave 10 Batman, Joker, Man-bat, & Imperiex Before you read this review, you’ll need to go back and stop by my review of the first half of DCUC 10. With a full 8 figures in this wave of toys (and since I’m such a lazy bastard) I had to break them up into manageble groups. I suppose I could have just done one paragraph on each, but in addition to being a...
Toy Review: DCUC10 part 1
DC Universe Classics Wave 10 Forager, Power Girl Beast Boy, and Robotman Exclusives suck. Sad to say, DC Universe Classics Wave 10 (DCUC 10) or the “Imperiex Wave” is a Walmart exclusive. Since the closest Walmart to me is about 8,113 miles away (I checked), this poses certain problems. Since I neither have the gift of flight, nor access to a Federation Starship, I was pretty...
Toy Review: Playarts FF XII - Ashe & Gabranth
Ashe & Gabranth As you can tell from my FF AC series 1 review, my FF XII preview, and my Daytona Hardy vs. Fenrir review, I’m a big fan of the Play Arts Final Fantasy (PA FF) line. They boast the best female action figure sculpts of any toy line, have fabulously detailed costumes and accessories, functional articulation, and include the best figure stands I’ve come across in...
Toy Review: FF VII AC Series 1
Final Fantasy VII Advent Children Series 1 I loved Final Fantasy VII Advent Children. I didn’t UNDERSTAND it, but the whole thing just wowed me. From the amazing fight scenes, to the digital eye-candy, to the unbelievable hotness that is Tifa, Advent Children (FF VII AC) is one of the best examples of CGI animation I’ve seen. Understand that I have never played the game....
Toy Review: Tenjho Tenge Gashapons
<font color=”#ff3300”><b><font face=”book antiqua,palatino” size=”7”>Tenjho Tenge Kaiyodo<br>Vol.2 Gashapon Set</font></b></font><p> </p><p> Since I am a male (arguably), my taste in anime tends toward the “shonen” variety. While girls get boring cartoon dramas where guys and...