The Rise of the Guardians Happy Meal

One of the movies back in 2012 that I enjoyed was Rise of the Guardians. It wasn't really one of the films that was on my radar early on because the design of the characters looked a little too “Dreamworks” (oh, wait...) for me. The trailer didn't really help improve my outlook since it seemed to be a lot of “wow, lookit!”, which I've found usually means there won’t be much to the movie but visuals.

I was wrong.

Yotsuba To: Danboard Mini Model Kit

It's been almost four years since I bought my Revoltech Danboard. Ever since then, I've been wanting to make my own Gestalt Danboard, but since 2009, the price on the RT Danboards have skyrocketed. When I first got mine, I got a quote for 6 pieces and it was something like Php 6,000. Nowadays that would run you well into Php 15,000 for the same quantity, depending on which version you got. Even the RT Danboard Minis were too expensive for my blood.

Along comes Kotobukiya's Yotsuba To: Danboard Mini Model Kit. At Php 600 each at WasabiToys, they're a steal! Of course I pre-ordered mine back in October and it looks like they've run out of stock, but good news is there's another pre-order up for the same price.

G.I. Joe: Retaliation

Back in June of 2012, when Paramount first announced that they were going to be delaying the release of the sequel to 2009's G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, I have to say that I feared the worst. The original film hadn't really done all that well in the domestic box office and I doubt that anyone really believed that malarkey that the studio wanted the extra time to convert the film to 3D. Throw in a director known for his hip-hop dance movies and (gasp!) a Justin Bieber bio-pic, and it's not looking to good for our "Real American Heroes".

But color me red, white, and blue, I was completely wrong. This installment is far better than its predecessor and definitely worth a trip to the cinema. If Jon M. Chu can do this with material like G.I. Joe, I wish him all the best and hope we see more of him in the geeksphere. It almost makes me want to go out and take a look at his previous films.

Almost.

Marvel Legends Archangel

It's ridiculous how much I paid for this toy, but let me tell you right up front, that I don't care. The near perfectness of its design just kills all regret for me. I just look at this thing on my desk and I don't care that it was marked up to more than 200% of its retail price.

That's how good Hasbro's version of the character is. You just marvel at it and ask, "Why can't all toys be this pretty?"

Hasbro's Masterpiece Optimus Prime

Okay, so I started a new job and find myself with a lot less "disposable" income than I had before. I've had to cut back on my vices in order to, well, eat. To celebrate my new found sense of fiscal responsibility, let's take a look at something that cost me more than I should have probably spent: Hasbro's version of the MP-10, otherwise known as Masterpiece Optimus Prime.

What I'm Watching in 2013

So it's a new year and I'm surfing the Net looking at coming attractions. Here's what got me excited today.

300: Rise of an Empire
Did you know this was coming out? I didn't know this was coming out. Now that I know this is coming out, I'm lining up for it. The first 300 was insanely awesome so this story about Themistocles vs. Xerxes is going a shoe in for a spot on my list. I'm a little concerned that it's no longer directed by Zack Snyder, but I'll be interested to see if the style still works with another person at the helm.

47 Ronin
Keanu Reeves in a fantasy samurai movie. Questionable, but at least the rest of the cast seems to be of the right ethnicity. Until Hollywood picks up the Blade of the Immortal license, I guess I'll have to be satisfied with this.

After Earth
M. Night Shymalan’s new movie about life after the apocalypse. This time he didn't write the thing, so I’m hoping it doesn't totally suck. To be fair to him, though, I was a fan all the way up to Lady in the Water. Here’s hoping this new one will take away some of the WTF that was The Last Airbender.

Before Midnight
I've got some misgivings about this one. Before Sunset was no where near as good as Before Sunrise, but Richard Linklater's story about Jesse and Celine was one of the my favorites, so it is hard to say no to another installment. Still, since it's been about two decades since the first one, I doubt there are many who are eager to jump into this trilogy.

Kreon Micro-Changers

So, the Kre-O Transformers Kreon Micro-Changers (that's a mouthful) have been out for a while now, but I've only gotten around to completing them this week. I had a bit of trouble getting my hands on a Galvatron, since the first few boxes I went through were sold out of him. Finally got him the other day at Toy Kingdom Express at SM Megamall.

I'm not sure if he's short-packed or what. No way to really tell with these $@#%ing blind packs.

The Shellraiser

The original cartoon Turtles, when they needed to get anywhere their skateboards couldn’t take them, drove themselves around in a beat up van that kind of looked like my old family Volkswagen Westfalia Camper. It’s funny since that old van was a bright, mango yellow that was weirdly similar to the yellow that the old Turtle Van was covered in. It even had a shell top, though it was white and not green. The Turtles never did take the stealth part of their ninja training to heart, did they?

For the new cartoon, it looks like Nickelodeon and the creators went for a more “realistic” look. Instead of the old VW (see a photo of the classic Party Van HERE), they've based the design of the new Shellraiser (is that an awesome name, or what?!) from a subway car. The Turtles have modified the unit, attaching various implements to it, slapping wheels on the ends so that it could go straight from rails to road.

GDO Generations Swerve

It kind of sucks that there were a few Transformers that never got screen time on the original show. In 1986, Hasbro made a few re-colors of their Mini-Vehicle sub-group of their Transformers available. Pipes, Outback, and Tailgate all came out in the third batch of the little robot figures, but the characters never got the same face time as their "original" counterparts, Huffer, Brawn, and Windcharger, got on the show.

The same thing happened to Swerve, the 4x4 truck patterned after Gears, who was one of the toys released in the first round of Mini-Vehicles. Poor bastard.

Generations Deluxe Wheelie

As far as I can find out, the new term being used to describe the line this figure belongs to on the toy forums is “GDO”, which seems to be short for “Generations Distributed Overseas”.

That seems appropriate, since Wheelie here is part of a set of 4 Deluxe Class figures in the Transformers: Generations sub-line that is only being distributed in Asia. The other three are Springer (a recolored Hunt forthe Decepticons Tomahawk), Swerve (a recolored Reveal the Shield Sergeant Kup), and Cliffjumper (re-released Transformers: Prime First Edition Cliffjumper). All 4 come with brand new heads, which makes the re-use of the bodies far more tolerable than it might have been.

What also improves my reception of the figures is the fact that they’ve chosen four very good bodies to re-use.