Transporter & Bridge Playsets

I've already said that Playmates isn't my favorite toy company in my previous Terminator Endoskeleton Review. If you're an 8 year old kid and you happen to be playing with some old school TMNT toys, then you're probably happy as a turtle full of pizza. But if you're a discerning trekkie looking for some nice collectible toys to decorate your shelf, you'll need to look elsewhere.

When the new Star Trek reboot rolled into theaters I was overjoyed. I loved the film and was hoping for some nice things to go along with it. Unfortunately, though Bankee (our local Playmates distributor) brought in all 3 lines of action figures, they were dissappointing. The 12" Galaxy figures were probably the best bet for collectors, but I found the poor tailoring on their cloth uniforms a turn off. Both the 6" Warp and 4" Galaxy series suffered from pathetic articulation, particularly in the legs. What's worse, the 4 inchers, who were supposed to include parts that you could use to complete two playsets that were sold seperately, where suspiciously light. If you look on any of these packages in the toystore, you'll see a huge empty space on the bottom of the bubble where various chairs, consoles and other things were supposed to go. Apparently, the Galaxy figures distributed to Asia are missing these goodies. What a gyp I tell you.

Luckily, you can still buy one half of the Bridge and Transporter playsets in Toy Kingdom and Toys R' Us here. Even better, Bankee, realizing what a crap line they had on their hands decided to include the entire line in the recent 50% off sales. At p200, I still wouldn't buy the figures due to their overall poor quality, but the playsets are another matter. I got the Transporter set for p1,250.00 and the Bridge for p700.00. Score!

Both the sets come with 1 figure and a "playmat". The playmat is a roll of plastic that has a pattern printed on it. The included consoles and machinery are placed on the mat (the placement is made obvious by the pieces shape). The drawback to this of course is that you don't have all the pieces to complete the diorama, and you even if you did, you need a buttload of space to display the whole thing. I've basically just thrown both into my box of freebie posters.

The figures are about what I expected. Kirk comes with the Bridge, Good old Scotty with the Transporter. "Beam me up...", Nevermind. They both come with a belt that constantly falls off and a phaser pistol that fits into the holster. There's a tricorder on the belt as well, but it's not removable. They have precious little articulation: a swivel neck, ball/peg shoulders, ball/peg elbows, swivel wrists, swivel hips, swivel knees, and swivel ankles. The whole system is useless, and they can't do anything but stand really. And sit. whoo. hoo.

The real fun of these sets though is the pieces themselves. I'll start with the bridge. You get the main command island with the captain's chair, weps and helm control, two data screens, and a viewscreen. They're all separate pieces so you can arrage them any way you want. The chairs on the main island swivel so that you can put 4" figures in easily. I'm a little dissappointed that the details on the consoles aren't sculpted. Most are just decals that don't even fit their little wells perfectly.

The consoles look pretty good as the generic flight controls for any kind of ship. If I had a Marvel Universe Nick Fury and some SHIELD agents, this is where I'd display him. The data screens are nice, and they're generic enough that you can use them in anything. Iron Man's armory. Teletran 1. Avengers Mansion, Forge's Lab. Whatever.

But the saving grace is that big ass view screen. This thing is just amazing for something so simple. It's really just a curved frame with a printed piece of transluscent plastic on the back, but it works so well that I can't stop playing with it. If you place it in front of a light, the image lights up as if it was backlit. Perfect. I only wish they had included a few more scenes from the movie so it didn't always show the spiny Romulan ship on it.

The Transporter is a little different. It's not as versatile as the Bridge set as it's quite obviously something from Trek. It's half of the transporter pad with a detachable transporter "pod" and a console with the chair. And of course, Scotty. Trusty Scotty. I think the Transporter set suffers more than the Bridge with the lack of the other pieces because it's not modular. The Bridge is made up of many little consoles and stations that can stand alone. The Transporter looks more cramped without the missing pieces.

Again, the console that Scotty sits in just has decals to give it some detail. The console is more complex than the Bridge seats. It houses some electronics that connect to the Transporter itself and has two buttons that activate the features. The reason this set costs more is because it has lights and sounds that imitate the transport effect. The two bottons on the panel activate the whooshing.

If you press the first button, the "pod" lights up. The second button, the sound effects kick in and the lights slowly go up inside the pod, revealing the figure. Press button 1 again and they fade out, simulating the beam out. It's really quite fun and less annoying than most sound gimmicks. I tend to press it when I'm bored at work. The whooshing relaxes me, though I might be pissing off my boss.

You can also remove the pod and transport the figure inside to another planet. The pod has a button on the top that activates the beam in lights. Then you press the two buttons on the side to release the figure and PRESTO! one planetside trekkie.

At 50% off, I feel that both these playsets are a good buy. Even if you don't have a Star Trek collection, there are a lot of lines that benefit from the kind of high tech props that the franchise has. I'm thinking of displaying Iron Man Armor in the Transporter. While I wouldn't recommend the figures at any price, try and find these if you can. Both are great additions to any collection.

Here's some more pics:

       

The Gathering Storm

If you love books, then you're probably familiar with that curious feeling of depression one gets when he gets to the end of a beloved story. Halfway through the book you realize that there are more pages behind than there are ahead and that sinking feeling starts to creep up. You get to the second to the last chapter and you realize you only have about 100 pages more with these characters you love so much. You slow down, savoring each page, every scene. You don't want to leave this facinating world you've been visiting.

About a month back when I heard that Tor was finally going to release Brian Sanderson's first Wheel of Time installment, I wrote a blog post about Robert Jordan. For nearly 20 years, I've grown up on the story of the Dragon Reborn and have followed Robert Jordan's opus since the first book came out in 1990. Yesterday night, I realized that the series is ending.

Sure, I've known this since the third book (I thought it was a trilogy), but it was only sinking in as I read the last chapter of The Gathering Storm. I wanted to cry.

According to the announcements on the web, the book was to hit the shelves November 3rd, but apparently, we get some books earlier than our friends in the US (yay for the Philippines!). I picked up my copy at Power Books about two weeks ago. They got only 8 copies and the other 7 were reserved. I found this one on the shelf all by itself. Dark One's own luck, that. I guess it'll probably be flooding other stores soon, but frankly I couldn't wait to read what Jordan and Sanderson had cooked up.

Before I start, there is one thing that I want to get off my chest. I cannot stand Darrell K. Sweet's cover art. It is absolutely awful. The scene it depicts is not one I feel was really a standout and even if it was I feel Mr. Sweet should be ashamed of the job he did on it. Not only is the composition completely boring, the way he poses his characters and hides Rands stump is awful. It is without a doubt his worst Wheel of Time cover to date and I can't belive that he went from that beautiful Eye of the World cover to this piece of shit. But then, we were always told not to judge a book by it's cover, and Jordan's volumes have always surpassed Sweet's artwork.

I don't want to spoil anything for anyone so I'll keep this review as vague as possible, and focus on my opinions and views of the book. I will tell you that the majority of the plot is dedicated to the split in the White Tower. Fans of Rand will still have quite a few chapters to call their own, and Matt and Perrin have a couple to push their plots ahead, but for the most part it's about Egwene.

I'd have to agree with Jason Denzel's advance review on Dragonmount; Sanderson has succeeded in filling in the gaps that Jordan left in his manuscript with words that fit. That doesn't mean you won't notice a few pages where the tone or tone might feel a little different from what you remember, but the whole seems to fit in quite nicely with the series. As Sanderson says in his introduction, he is a new director taking over a franchise. The cast and story is the same, but some of the style may differ. I believe the intensive research he did before taking up the project (he reread the entire series while taking notes on the characters) really helped him to give each of them a voice that was true to Jordan's.

Unlike the last few books, The Gathering Storm doesn't feel like a filler novel, as Crossroads of Twilight and Knife of Dreams did. Both of those books are padded full of exposition that Jordan needed to get out of the way before he brought everything to the precipice. This book has several chapters that are filled with what Hollywood would term "trailer shots". All that rising action has finally come to a head and the payoff is just around the corner. When you finally put it down, you get the feeling that after this book everything is coming to a head, Perrin will come to terms with the wolves, Matt will play his game of Snakes & Foxes with the Aelfinn and Eelfinn, Moiraine will be found, Rand will bow to the Daughter of Nine Moons, and the Last Battle will be fought on Shayol Ghul.

That is not to say that it was not a satisfying read. It is. I don't remember the last book that had such a wonderfully quiet ending as this one, especially considering how fast paced the rest of it was. I'm sure with the last two books in the series all about a much darker battle, the tone will be changing, but I like that the Sanderson judged this an appropriate place to break the 3 volumes.

After all's said and done, I feel Sanderson aquitted himself well on this first chapter. Though I'll always wonder which parts Jordan himself wrote and how different this might have unfolded had he survived to finish it, I am eager to get to A Memory of Light and see how it all ends.

Until then, I think I'll read them all again.

       

Hellboy 1 from Mezco

I'm a big Guillermo del Toro fan. Among the patheon of geek gods in my head, he is right up there with Thor or Peter Jackson. His sense of storytelling and composition are exactly what I look for in movies. If you've never watched his earlier pictures, I suggest you try and find copies. I still need to find "Devil's Backbone" but stuff like Kronos and Blade II are some of my favorites.

Naturally when he took on Hellboy, I was intrigued. I didn't follow the Hellboy comics by Mike Mignola, but I loved the creator's style, and was interested in seeing how the two artists would work together. Thought the first movie didn't do as well as say, Spider-man, it was successful enough to spawn a sequel.

These toys have been ones that I've wanted to add to my collection for quite sometime, but I never got the chance. When the original movie was out in theatres I wasn't that big on collecting, worrying about classes and summer jobs and wotnot. When the second one came out, and Mezco released the new line, many of the figures didn't have the same quality as the originals. So I held out only buying Wink (the cave troll guy from the second film) when I found him on the cheap.

Luckily, I braved Greenhills during one of those power outages that made the days after Ondoy so much fun and saw these loose at one of the consignment shops. 3 figures from the original line, almost complete, for only p3500. That's a good price considering what was missing was a tiny little baby Sammeal that was supposed to come with Abe. I got an extra "big baby" revolver from the new Hellboy as a trade off. Score!

The first thing you'll see when you get these in had are how much better the quality is compared to the newer figures that were released last year. The Wink that I have has some atrocious paint mistakes, like slop, dings, unwashed areas, etc. There's even a big area on his foot where it looks like a drop of gray base paint fell on it and wasn't washed off. The other figures suffer similarly, with lots of bad paint applications.

Though they're a little worn and dirty from handling, these figures here look like they are superior in terms of paint. Abe alone has the new one beat since he's in his skin instead of the boring black BPRD suit. His skin has a glossy finish while his pants are matte. Hows's that for detail? He's also got his stripes painted on, though they seem a little more faded here than I remember in the movie.

Sculpt wise, Abe is pretty solid. He looks like a lot like Doug Jones in the suit, and the sculpted hands really allow him to mimic the things that he did in the movie. The general build of the body is much much lankier than Hellboy, as is expected, but height is the same at about 7". He does have some excellent detail like the fins on his back, the buckles and pockets on his belt, and the great individual toes. He's even got the suckers on his hand.

His accessories are mostly functional, with the aforementioned baby Sammeal being the exception. He came with two parts of his breathing apparatus (the bellows and the toilet seat), a belt, and two heads (one with, and one without his googles).

I really prefer him as skins vs. shirts. He is supposed to be swimming around after all.

Next up is Kroenen, who is let's face it, one of the most badass villians I've ever seen. C'mon, a steampunk ninja zombie with clockwork innards and tonfa swords? How cool is that?

Of the three, Kroenen's got the best articulation, which isn't surprising since he does need to be flexible. Undead Nazi Ninjas apparently take pilates, don't you know? He loses Abe's extra wrist joint (which allows him to move his hands up and down in addition to swiveling), but gains double jointed knees. It's an excellent trade off. You can get some very nice action poses with this guy, which makes him a great piece to display with the brutish Hellboy.

Paint wise he's a step below. I don't know if it's from playwear or because the previous owner decided to try some re-painting, but alot of the bronze pieces on my figure look pretty dark, especially the mask's mouthpiece. The swords also have some kind of a wash on them that makes them look more like corroded cast iron than steel.

Sculpt is probably even better than Abe, which you'll see once he takes off his mask:

Juicy. That ought to give you some Halloween nightmares.The mask is removable and you can snap it back on anytime you need to. It's definitely a good touch. He's also got a lot of fine detail on his chest plate, though the rest of him is pretty plain looking; black Victorian gimp suit and brown leather straps.

Now on to the best one of the set (in my opinion), Hellboy, "Red Gorilla", Anung Un Rama!

Like I said, you won't find the Big Baby shotgun on the old figures. It was an accessory that came with the line that was released for the second movie, The Golden Army. However, the newer Hellboy mold includes an ugly new Right Hand of Doom that is sculpted to hold the huge barrel of the shotgun. The arm is bent at the elbow and there isn't any articulation to un-bend it. This older figure looks much nicer with a straight arm and a fist. You still can't bend the arm, but it doesn't look completely ridiculous in repose.

The older figure also has a nicer coat. The finish is much closer to leather than the second one, which looks more like a toy. Another difference is the face. There's one with a cigar and one without. This old one is just a nice calm grimace.

He's got the least accessories of the three with only his Samaritan gun, which fits nicely in it's holster. The Big Baby doesn't count since it's not included in the original package.  The paint on the guns is top notch, sharing the same kind of weathering as Kroenen's swords. Big Baby also has a nice painting on the stock. Both however break apart so he can load it. It's a nice touch, but he can't really do anything with it since he has no elbow articulation. He also can't use both guns at once since he can't open the Right Hand of Doom.

Surprisingly, he still retains a good deal of articulation despite that long trench coat. You're not going to get him in the same kind of poses as a Marvel Legends figure, but since he's a brawler, it's not really necessary. As long as he can bend his knees and point a gun, it's all good.

These are easily the best toys I've gotten in a while. Fully poseble, beautiful sculpts, nice and useful accessories, and at a decent price. The new Hellboy II toys cost about p1,500.00 each and are much lower quality than this first round, so if you can find them at a similar price, you should scoop them up. Now if only I can get a Sammael and a Rasputin figure, I'd be all set.

       

Where Bold Stars Go to Die

by Gerry Alanguilan and Arlan Esmeña

They tell you never judge a book by it's cover, but I do that quite a lot. It's how I got hooked on The Wheel of Time, the Dark Elf saga, Xanth, and a dozen other books and series. It plays an even bigger part in the comics I follow. The reason I was so hooked on X-men during my formative years was Marc Silvestri's art. The reason I loved Hulk was Dale Keown (and Peter David). The reason I've never read Sandman is mostly because I can't stand the art of Dave McKean and company.

The cover is the main reason I picked up "Where Bold Stars Go to Die".

The thing that struck me the most about Esmeña's cover was the simple graphic, with a figure reminiscent of the old baroque paintings I liked back in college. I'm sure not many will admit it the same thing, but the majority of my exposure to Filipino comics is from the newsprint porno mags that are sold in Manila. My older cousin who was going to one of the Universities there would buy stacks and stacks of these and I'd sneak peeks at them when I could. Most of them weren't works of art, but there's a certain common style to many that is very appealing to someone like me who's grown up on American/European supermodels. Comic artists here tend toward more Rubenesque portrayals of women.

"Bold Stars" wasn't one of the comics I'd been looking into purchasing when I missed this year's comic con. I was mostly after the third Trese book. But seeing this behind the glass case at Comic Odessey, I just had to find out what it was about. I put it in my pile.

Back home reading the story, I've got to say I was surprised. Ever watched "It's a Wonderful Life"? Know where Zuzu Bailey says "Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings"? Well the book is sort of a take on that. If you're a guy, and you re-read the title of the book I'm reviewing, I'm sure you'll get the idea.

How many times have I wondered what happened to those sexy stars from my high school days? The ones that would be featured on the front page of those wonderful tabloids in the morning? The ones that would dance on the noontime variety shows. What happened to Anjanette Abayari or Patricia Javier. Where is Amanda Page? The first tagalog movie I ever watched was "Gayuma". It sucked, but Amanda Page was hot. What happened to her and all the other girls we used to fantasize about?

Gerry Alanguilan posits an interesting theory that they are not lost to time. They are in fact waiting for new fans, like lost gods waiting for worshipers. And the form of worship isn't a blood sacrifice, but semen. 

For those of you who don't get it yet, they need guys to jack off to their movies or they fade away, mmmkay? 

The whole thing is a little off the wall, but then this is the guy who gave us "Wasted" and "Elmer". No matter what your reaction is to the subject matter, it's worth the read. Especially p150.00. You can find it at local comic specialty stores like Comic Odessey (Robinsons Galleria).

Now I'm going to go find some of those old showbiz mags and some tissues. Excuse me.

       

Wink from Hellboy II

I got Wink way before I actually had a Hellboy for him to fight.

Since A), Wink is monster figure, easily twice as massive as Hellboy, B) is a fantastic sculpt that rivals that of those Four Horseman toys, and C) came only 1 per case, it was only natural that this one would be sold faster than a geek can say "Kristen Bell, OGC!" As soon as I heard that he had reached our shores, I heard that he had disappeared from shelves. Luckily, the local NECA/Mezco distributor, 2Rats, was able to bring in more of them. Even better, they had the movie accurate heads (the first ones apparently had ones based on an earlier design).

Unluckily, the second time around, 2Rats decided to sell them in sets. While I'd normally applaud this kind of a move for a Marvel Legends wave or a DC Universe Classics wave, on this line I think it might have been a mistake. Each Mezco figure costs p1,500.00, and they were in sets of 5 or 6 toys, which is a ton of scratch. These are big 7" toys that require a lot more room than your average superhero figure. There is no real reason to get the whole set since many of the figures in the Golden Army set were sup-par, and there is no build-a-figure part to collect. Plus, demand for Hellboy toys is low, so you're not going to unload unwanted ones as easily as I did the ones from the Red Hulk wave. Understandably, the toys were on the shelf a long time after the show had gone from screens.

But finally, things turned around and the retailers realised their mistake, breaking the sets up. I was in Toy Kingdom on one of my regular visits and lo and behold, there he was, sitting next to the Goblin, Princess, Prince, Abe, Liz, and drunk Hellboy toys that he had been packaged with, waiting for me to pick him up. I was estatic and proceeded immediately to check out.

The first thing you'll notice about this thing is how HEAVY he is. I mean absolutely elephantine. The toy comes in a clamshell which is easily twice as thick as the one for say Abe or Liz.

I'm glad they chose the clamshell package for this line, since normal cardbacks would have been mauled if left for more than a day on toy racks. The sheer weight of Wink or even Hellboy would have ripped the bubble right off the pack and we'd have toys with missing parts all over the place. Sure the clam is a hard to open as (insert obvious, potentially offensive joke here), but it looks great, can withstand  a lot of abuse, and protects the figure. Unfortunately, this isn't one of those packages that you can store the figure in after opening. You're really going to have to cut your way into this sucker and forcibly remove the toy.

The back of the card has some pics of the other figures in wave 1. I would like to get the 3 other protagonists, Abe, Liz and Johann, but the quality of this set is significantly worse than the toys released for part 1. I'll get to that in a minute.

Out of the clam, this guy towers over 3" and 4" inch figures. He makes a great cave troll if you're into mixing GI Joe with Lord of the Rings. Next to 6" and 7"ers he's not as overbearing, but he is tall. I'd say he tops out at about 9" or so. Easily taller than anything else I have except for BAFs, Transformers, or statues.

He's covered in great textures. From the rusted iron of his glove to the wood grain of his greaves, it's all there. He's also got a nice brushing to really bring out the detail of his rhinocerous hide. There are great details all over, like his scarred eye, the crest on his stomach, and the rivets on his armor. The effect of the sculpt is a very pleasing and makes it feel like that he really is worth the p1,500.00.

He's even got the grotesque back hair, just like in the film.

One of the best things about Wink is the accessories. Or rather one of the accessories. He comes with two; a useless box with a strap (the one he carried with him into the auction house in the film - wtf?) and his hand-mace. It's as bad-ass as it was in the film. Sculpted as a clenched fist-on-a-chain, you can readily switch it out with the other hand which is sculpted in a gesturing pose. The chain is real, too, not one of those crappy plastic things.

Articulation on him is decent, but very limited. Since he's a big character, there's a lot of bulk that there's just no way around. You can't really put double joints on guys like this without ruining the look. Many of the earlier Marvel Legends Hulks had that problem. So I can understand the limited range of his elbow and knee hinges. What I really hate are the lack of bicep swivels. On a figure this big, those arm cut joints are as important as thigh cuts. The fact that Wink doesn't have them really limits the way he can move.

I do however love the neck joint. It's made up of two ball joints; both the neck and the head have the receptacle and there's a third piece, two balls on a stick, that connects the two. It's very effective in allowing Wink to move his head side to side despite his bulk. It's light years ahead of the old swivel heads on things like the Marvel Universe Hulk. Hasbro should get a clue.

Sadly, there is bad news. All the Winks I've seen share the same bad paint. Sure there are a lot of nice applications on him, but none are without huge areas where the wash or the dry-brushing were forgotten. Or worse, where paint was literally just dropped onto the figure's foot like on mine. It's really hard to catch it since the feet are hard to see in the package and even if you could, it's so hard to find that choosing one that has good paint is impossible.

Still if you have any skill with a brush, a quick touch up should be enough to remedy the situation. I really can't do anything but recommend this figure, despite the quality issues. He may be expensive and hard to find, but he makes such an excellent display piece on your shelf that the issues become moot.

       

Trese: Mass Murders

Ever since the first collected edition of Budjette's and Kajo's opus came out I've been a huge fan. It's not that the idea of fantastic creatures living among us is really all that unique. It's not even that this time, Filipino mythology is used instead of European. The draw for me is that both creators seem to know how to do a lot with a little. There isn't a whole lot of exposition in the words, and there isn't a whole lot of detail in the drawings. Manila in these books is a world of shadows and lines.

This new book seems to mark a departure from the tone for the series. Books 1 and 2 were more focused on the mysteries of the Trese's city. Like CSI with aswang. Now that we're all following along, we're treated to a great big FIGHT!. This series of stories focuses on Alexandra's battle with a god of war. That's right, a god of war. Blood and guts and plenty of it. It can get pretty gruesome. We also get to see more of the supporting cast, along with flashbacks with Mr. Anton Trese himself. With all this, it's not surprising that the book costs slightly more than the first two; p200.00. The size of the comic makes up for it though, with several extra chapters.

The story's got quite a few nice little ideas in it, like a ghosts playing MMPORPGs and bribing duende with imported chocolate. Kambal fans will also want to get their hands on this as soon as possible since part of the through story involves their origin. We also get treated to a werewolf pack that doesn't suck like the one in Twilight. Sadly, Angel Locsin isn't among them. There's also a mention of Skyworld, another Alamat comic by Ian Sta Maria and Mervin Ignacio. According to Budjette's blog, they're working on tying the two books into the same universe. I can't wait to see the first real crossover and see Trese and the Kambal battle it out with the Tikbalang tribes.

Of all the comics produced by the local industry, I love the titles in Alamat's library the best. They bring out the same kind of feeling I got back in my college days, dicking around the UP library or borrowing books from friends reading up on Philippine myths and history. Despite the history and Filipino lessons I took in my 4 years of high school, I never really felt as connected to these islands as I felt reading the old stories. Trese and books like it bring back that same since of wonder I felt then.

I suggest you pick up a copy as soon as you can. Hell, pick up several. I do. If I give you one of them as a gift this christmas, it means I like you. If I don't you're getting some random piece of clothing.

 

The Trese Homepage
Budjette's Blog
Kajo's Blog
Exhibit 13: Trese Fan Art

       

3rd Annual Toy Kingdom Mega Warehouse Sale

  Ok, was there at 10:00 sharp this morning when they opened. Started getting hairy around 11. Madhouse by 12.

Lined up around 12:30, spent about 30-40 minutes paying. Tip, if you have any other choice, don't opt for deferred payment on a card. They take it to customer service and then they need to call to verify stuff. Naturally they only have a few phonelines to do so. It takes forever.

Not as much stuff as the previous years. I imagine they cleaned out quite a bit in years 1 and 2, but still some good deals for christmas gifts, or a few nice finds for collectors who aren't stuck on one line. Friends of mine bought all kinds of kiddie toys for their kids and godkids. Saw a ton of people who's kids are going to be very happy this Christmas. Another friend bought a bunch of itty-bitty toy dart guns for his team. Gonna give them to them before the Christmas holiday. Right after they have them, he's gonna pull out the huge shotgun he bought for himself. Nice.

Here's the rundown of what I saw.

• Transformers Deluxe, Voyager, and Leader Class. ALL OF THEM. Including the deluxe 2-packs and a new Leader Class/Activator set. The one I saw was Bulkhead and Bumblebee. Wish I could have gotten one.
• Knock off deluxe Transfomer Animateds. Like the red Jazz, etc.
• GI Joe, most of the recent vehicles. I didn't see any Rhinos. They had that boxset with Duke, Cobra Commander, Storm Shadow, and Snake Eyes for p800 (lower than the current sale price). No other figures that I could see.
• McFarlane Dragons, Military, Lost figures. Some Flintstones.
• NECA. Tomb Raider, Hitman, Street Fighter (All except Ryu I think), April O'Niel, Gears of War, 12" Arnie, Other 12" stuff,
• Deep Space, Twilight, etc. etc. etc. Best find... Mousers for p700.00. That's p1,300.00 off baby!
• Play Arts. Cloud in the Shinra suit (p1800) and Balthier (p1500). That's it.
• Warcraft. I saw the walrus for p2000.00. Was going to get it but changed my mind. Other stuff too. Most with p500.00 or so off.
• DC Directs. Got a Nightwing and Flamebird from the Armory series at p500.00
• Most everything else that 2Rats distributes was there with additional discounts. Some loose toys in baggies too.
• Pirates of the Carribean at rock bottom prices. They've got figures at p100. A lot of the sets. Chow yun Fat's character looks like a good 3.75 Mandarin for Iron man.
• Dragonball: Evolution. ugh.
• Kung Fu Panda. The little ones.
• Looney toons, those long yellow boxes with the figures, cars and the play maps were at p200 each, complete sets available
• Speed Racer. I saw the 3" figures with the cars. The big truck playset too. Bunch of stuff for the kids.
• Hot Wheels and replica cars, various companies.
• For girls, there are dolls, but I don't think any of them are Barbie or Bratz. Surprising since they're on sale in Toys R Us...

Here's what they DO NOT HAVE

• No Marvel Legends
• No Marvel Universe
• No DCUC
• No Playskool stuff
• No Bankee stuff like Terminator: Salvation toys

  To anyone going tomorrow, get there EARLY! Don't bring kids. This isn't an event for them. It's for people looking for gifts for kids. It's not an event for collectors looking for a good deal on popular items either. It's a WAREHOUSE CLEARANCE SALE. duh. It's mostly old stock. You're unlikely to find any new releases here. Even in the past, the only "new" releases were figures that hadn't been shelved. With Playkit's new practices, I doubt we'll see much. The big brands they do have are toys that have already gone on sale while they were on shelf. Don't expect discounts on top of those you've already heard about.

That said, I got a quite a bit.

 

       

Transformers: Animated Blitzwing!

It's my fault really. I kept putting it off. Go into Toy Kingdom and see it sitting on the shelf at 30% off. Tell myself there are other things to get right now. Not a priority. Then I hear it's up to 40% off. 50% off. Now it's only p500.00 from p1,600.00. Still I tell myself, it'll be there tomorrow. Plenty of time to get it. I buy something else.

Finally the day comes when I pass by the Transformer aisle and go, "Wait a minute... where is he..." Of course, I'm too late. He's already disappeared from the shelf. A hundred kids a day pass by the display. it's close to Christmas time. It's a steal at something less than 33% of it's original price. It's amazing it lasted as long as it did on the shelf. I was just too stupid to pick it up.

Sound familiar?

I do this a lot. There's always something new coming out and the recent Transformers deluge has kinda spoiled me. I expected the surplus toys to remain on the shelves at Toy Kingdom forever, and I totally lost my chance to get a Blitzwing. By the time I realized he wasn't available anymore in Megamall, he was gone from all the other malls I visit regularly. argh.

Luckily, one of the PTKers had a friend selling one for p700.00. Sure it wasn't p500.00, but considering the only sightings I heard about were in Makati and the fact that I am a lazy fucking bastard, It was worth the extra p200.00. I'm glad to report that despite all the trouble I went through hunting one down, He is worth it.

He comes in his box in his jet form so let me start there.

If you didn't know, old Blitzwing is a TRIPLE changer. That means he's got 3 forms, one robot and 2 vehicle modes. In G1 he turned into a tank and a plane. The Animated (I've always wondered about this... wasn't G1 "animated"?) version is the same. He even has the same paint scheme; purple, gray, and black.

The jet mode probably suffers the most from the compromises they had to make in order to give him 3 forms. You probably already noticed he's got treads instead of landing gear. In reality, he probably couldn't take off at all. But this is the ANIMATED universe, so we'll cut him some slack.

In truth, given the design themes that the entire line has used, the jet doesn't really look all that bad. The fact that it is cartoon accurate makes it easier to swallow. The only real problem I've got with it is that the parts don't really lock together in either vehicle form. Things are easily bumped out of place at the slightest touch. It doesn't help that TFA toy joints seem to get loose fairly quickly.

The tank shares the same problems:

It's a lot weirder looking than the jet, with two barrels. You won't find it in any military guide, but it since it's such a departure from anything recognizable, it's easy to say that it's clearly an alien design, hence, acceptable.

I practice this kind of bullshit a lot.

There are wheels on the treads so he does roll, which is great. The two fireblasts lauch from the barrels, another plus. The turret turns full circle. Good. But one thing they missed was a joint to let the barrel go up and down. Since the design of the treads are somewhat slanted, the guns are always pointed down. boo.

The best thing about this toy is the Man-E-Faces gimmick he's got going on. In the cartoon, he can switch personalities from German officer dude, to Arnold Schwarzenner man, to crazy-ass nut. The toy does the same thing. This is all kinds of cool.

The robot form is probably the way I'll display him the most. He's got some pretty good articulation, though his shoulders are slightly blocked. Like I said though, the joints get loose over time.

If you can still find this guy, get him now. Though the Transformers animated line is dead, the toys are really some to the best to every be released.

       

Zombie Phone is Dead... or My LG G106 cellphone review

I've never really needed a phone since I'm one of those people that doesn't really feel the need to be available to anyone 24/7. I finally decided to start carrying one around when my sister wanted to upgrade to a new model. I inherited her old Nokia 5110.

The phone was first produced 1998 and discontinued in 2001. It was at one time the most popular phone on the planet. It was used in the X-files (mini-geekgasm). My particular unit has been in the family since the beginning, so it's over a decade old now. I never bothered to replace the cover with one of those more colorful faceplates. My only concession to personalization was a sticker on the back that eventually peeled off. My only concession to upgrading was to buy a slim battery when the original finally died. My sister put one of those acetates behind the screen (remember those?) and it bothers the hell out of you since you can't see what the hell your typing without exterior light. I never bothered to have it removed, which meant I regularly typed shit that made no sense at all. The plastic became brittle and the shell around the antenna disintegrated. It's been dropped, cracked, drenched, burned, bent, and busted. I dubbed him Zombie Phone a while back since he WOULD NOT DIE. I wouldn't let him.

Despite the insistance of others to replace this sorry piece of shit phone, I loved it to pieces. People seem to goggle at the fact that I have no qualms about having a 10 year old phone and feel no need to get the newest latest tech. But old ZP (Zippy for short) did exactly what I needed it to. Make calls and send text messages. I didn't need a whole lot of storage, I only know so many people. I don't need to send MMS messages. I have the Net. I don't need to take pictures. I've got a camera. More than one. I didn't even need him to send multiple messages in the course of one day. I never forward anything and only text people when there's something they need to know or I need to know from them.

Sadly, even zombies can die from a head shot and Zippy was not immortal. He had been acting up for months. Stubbornly shutting off while I was typing a message. Unpredictable battery life. Screen pixels going all fuzzy and chaotic. It was driving me nuts, but he was still doing his job. Then Ondoy came.

Fuck you Ondoy.

I was wandering about for hours in the rain and Zippy got drenched in my bag. After he dried out, the problems intensified, really becoming unbearable. And then his antenna bent. That was the proverbial straw. All of a sudden, he couldn't recieve a signal unless I was standing right next to a cell site soaking up rads and rads of radiation. Begrudingly, I accepted that I'd need to buy a new phone and let Zippy rest in peace.

I was looking at spending at least p10k on a new camera phone (cause I might as well you know, since I'm too lazy to bring my DSLR around). It would have been quite a hit to take. I was dreading it.

Then, happy day, I actually got one for free. I never win raffles. Well that's not entirely true. I won the office raffles a total of 3 times. Guess what I got. An oven toaster. All 3 times. So imagine my surprise when I got something that was so serendipitous!

It's another simple phone, an LG G106. Instead of an MP3 player, it's got an FM tuner. I get to listen to Mr. Foo, everyday now! Not. It has a camera, though its got like 1 pixel. Ain't no "mega" here. It's not as user friendly as the old 5110, which, let's face it, a 3 year old could figure out. It's been so long since I had to use any new tech, that it may be a while before I work out all the kinks. It is also a tiny little thing (it feels too small for my hand which is used to the Nokia brick), but it performs well in the texting and calling department, so I'm sold.

I shall name him, Splicky, son of Zippy. Perhaps he will live as long as good old Zippy. Time will tell if he shall join his father in the halls of Valhalla.

       

Star Trek Limited Edition DVDs

Ok, so I'm reviewing Star Trek again. Sue me. I haven't enjoyed a movie this much since Dark City. It's worth the extra Web space.

This time, I'm taking a look at the DVD, specifically the steel case and the special Enterprise Limited Edition. What? Two, you ask? Yeah, yeah. What can I say, I'm an idiot. I happend across the steel case and couldn't wait to see it so paid the p1,550.00 and enjoyed it immensely. Then I'm online the next day and find out there's a Limited Edition with a model Enterprise that houses the discs in the saucer section. How cool is that? So faster than you can say "Facinating," I was off trying to track down a copy.

I found it in Astroplus Podium. Had to pay another p1,850.00. Totally retarded, I realize this, but I couldn't let it go. What's even stupider, is that both versions are identical other than the packaging. The fist disc has the movie, commentary, and a short featurette about the vision behind the "re-imagining". I really hate coined phrases that become part of the vernacular.

Here's what you get:

DISC ONE

• Commentary by director J.J. Abrams, Robert Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Damon Lindelof, and Bryan Burk
• A New Vision
• Gag Reel

 

DISC TWO

• Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
• To Boldly Go
• Casting
• Aliens
• Score

 

I've seen all of them twice already and it's great fun. J.J. Abrahams and team are the kind of filmmakers that love their job and that passion shines through on the discs. I've listened to a lot of commentary and seen a lot of "making of" features, and this is among the best. The gag reel is actually funny to boot, ending with Spock and Kirk doing a scene with Irish and German accents. Sounds funnier when you're watching. The featurette on the first discs tells you about the pitch, and how they got people to buy into the movie. Great stuff.

The second disc is the in depth stuff. It's interesting to see what scenes were left on the floor, and I've got to say I totally agree that they didn't add to the story, but are fun to see. I just wish there was more green girl. Rachel Nichols is hot, even painted green. The rest of it is pretty self explanatory.

As for the packaging, it's a matter of taste. The steel case is a steel case. I personally love the look of metal. If you give me anything in metal I'll geekgasm right there. Metal is good. I prefer this design to the ones on the regular release so that's also a plus. The warping Enterprise just looks better than the gathering of disembodied heads that most DVD packaging is reduced to. I do however hate that there isn't any place to put the piece of paper with the description. It doesn't fit properly inside the case as an insert. There's also the disc locking mechanism. Sure they're secure, but it's a bitch to get them out of the cradle.

Fortunately, I don't have that problem with the Enterprise version. A press of the button and it's open. Another press and the disc pops out. Niceness.

There's some assembly required. The model is about 10" to 11" in length. It doesn't have any lights or sounds, but it is beautifully detailed for such a small scale. There are painted highlights where appropriate, the lettering is sharp, and there are even translucent plastic accents at the tips of the nacelles and the deflector dish. I had been thinking of getting the Playmates electronic model Enterprise (it was on sale at p1000.00 and bigger than this), but this little model is FUNCTIONAL. Somehow that makes it more attractive to me. Plus it looks absolutely great on my desk at work. 

Whichever way you choose to go, Star Trek on DVD is a must own. Go out and get it.