Maybe I'm crazy...

...but I think the little anonymous user icons on Amazon look like the Ayatollah Khomeini...

My new favorite toy

My new favorite toy

I got a box in the mail today from Onell Design with several Glyos figures in it. The highlight of the box was this little guy:



He's a Gobon. He's not available for sale yet, but Matt Doughty, the creator of the Glyos System figures, has given a few of them out to some customers. I don't know much about the character of Mr. Gobon here, but he's AWESOOOOOME!



He stands right at 3.25 inches tall and is made of solid injection molded PVC. He's about as heavy as a tiny figure can be... he feels like a rock in your hand. On the surface he appears to be made up of 12 pieces...



He has an extra face on the back of his head that looks a LOT like Maximillian from The Black Hole. This is, as usual, a good thing, as Maximillian was FABULOUS!!!!



Although he looks like he'd be a nightmare to balance, much like his Glyos brethren he is extremely stable and takes a pose like a champ!



Oh ho! What's this? Could it be....



ANOTHER HEAD????? Yup. It is. An awesome cyclopean chompotron head. I just made that up.



What does Gobon do when a pretty lady Gobon walks by?



Sucks it in, of course!



Those Gobon Blasters that have been coming with random figures for a while now? Yeah... they look great on his arms!



RAARRRR!!!! I IS A SITH!!!



Huzzah!



Yeah... eat your heart out, Darth Maul!

Black Ox Has Mad Skills

Check this out:



This was made by Patrick Boivin using a Revoltech Black Ox figure (a figure I soon hope to have in my grubby mitts thanks to the most excellent Skelet0r from 4chan's /toy/ board-- Thanks again, man!)

You really should check out Mr. Boivin's other excellent stop-motion animation short films on his YouTube account. His is a truly special talent!

A Tale of Two Zillas

So today I did the flea market thing. It was much hotter than it needed to be. I'm totally serious. It could have easily been about 30 degrees colder.

I grabbed an old vhs copy of two Pete and Pete episodes. Gosh, but I miss that show. I was amazed at how quickly it sucked me right back into the fun and weirdness. Nickelodeon was really pumping out some good stuff in the early 90's. The only thing worth watching on there nowadays is Spongebob, and that's hardly ever new (which is OK for me seeing as I only recently started watching it and needed to catch up). My P&P tape came with a tattoo of Petunia.



If you don't know what I'm talking about, you really need to go hunt down a P&P tape or dvd... trust me.

I bought some DVD's as well... there's a guy who sells DVD's for 3 bucks or 4 for 10 bucks. They're used, but they are always in fabulous condition. I check anyways, because if anyone ever has a problem with you checking the quality of their used merch, DON'T BUY IT FROM THEM.

I grabbed Stand By Me, American Psycho, Sin City, and Godzilla. Yes... that Godzilla. The Dean Devlin, Roland Emerich version. Why would I buy that? Until today I honestly couldn't tell you why. I have been wanting to own it for some time now, but did not want to pay for it. I guess $2.50 is a reasonable compromise.

vs

After watching it again I have to say that it does wonders for anyone who loves the traditional "man-in-rubber-suit" style of Godzilla movies. Devlin and Emerich threw millions of dollars of Hollywood cash at this colossal crap pile of a movie and it still can't compete with the old-school Godzilla flicks. Were the old ones cheesy? Heck yes they were! Were they fun? You bet your butt they were! Did they spawn sequels? How 'bout over 25?!?!? That's something America's Crapzilla can't say. Well... actually it can't say any of the above.

Crapzilla is a long, sappy, preachy, and just really... bad. The special effects were kinda neat. The monster looks pretty cool, but he's no Godzilla. If this movie had been called IGUANDOR or REPTILLIDOR or something else, I'd be all over it... but it's just two jerks with a lot of money and no taste making a rip-off of a franchise that's done pretty well over the years. In the "making of" featurette Dean Devlin says his first step in approaching Godzilla was to completely change everything about the character.

Yeah... smooth move, Ex-Lax.

Here's what Japan had to say about the American Godzilla:

Roll Out! But Don't Transform!

I am one of maybe 3 people who actually liked the first Transformers movie (of course I'm joking, as the movie was a tremendous success and continues to drive the franchise). I didn't think it was high art or anything-- I just thought it was a really fun romp with characters who pretty much embodied characters I loved as a kid. It wasn't perfect, but it was very fun. No matter what they did with the movie Peter Cullen's performance as Optimus Prime was golden. He was the reason I stuck with the property through all its changes, and he'll be the reason I watch this new one. Optimus Prime is the heart of the Transformers universe. If you drastically change his character, you kill the story to me.

One thing that I really loved about the movie were the insane designs of the robots themselves. They are beautifully complex automatons that are believably rendered and yet totally alien in shape and function. I knew when I first saw them that they would be impossible to replicate in any transforming fashion. You would either have great vehicular modes with questionable robot modes or vice-versa. I think Hasbro did an admirable job translating the robots from screen to plastic in transforming models, but they just don't really capture the look of the characters in the film to a "T."

Enter the Robot Replicas line. They are small plastic versions of the movie characters that do not transform but are more accurate to the look of the film characters than their transforming counterparts. The first series employed mimic Revolver joints much like the joints that Kaiyodo patented for their Revoltech line of super-articulated figurines.

I had been wanting a Robot Replicas Optimus Prime since the first movie, but I'm a skin-flint, so I avoided paying the 11 bucks for a figure that was basically the same size as the old Toy Biz X-Men figures. Little did I know that GIJOE sized Marvel characters would be almost 10 bucks a couple of years later. Sheesh. I went out a week or so ago when the new Transformers stuff from the new movie came out and saw the new series of Robot Replicas. 13 bucks. Yes... 13 bucks for a figure that was smaller than the first series and had less articulation and no accessories. These figures are smaller than the transforming figures, less articulated, and, again, lack the ability to transform. Needless to say, I skipped buying them. I managed to snag an Optimus on ebay last week for 8 dollars with free shipping. You can't beat that deal, no matter how hard you try!

So? How is the figure? Read on...



Click Images to Enlarge

Stats

Toy Line: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Robot Replicas
Figure: Optimus Prime
Producer: Hasbro
Action Feature: None
Height: Just under 5 inches
Retail Price: $12.88 (Walmart)
Cheap Skate Price: $8 (with free shipping on eBay! Zoinks!)

Packaging

It didn't have any, which is just fine by me. I have seen the package in the stores and it's ok... shiny and colorful and who gives a crap? Gimme my toy!

Sculpt

Very nice job, to whoever did this. It has a LOT more crisp sculpt that the RR figure from the first series. That one looked kinda like one of those cheapo anime PVC figures they charge too much for at Suncoast. This one actually has a great deal of detail and very sharp lines.









Most of the plastic is pretty soft, but the core of the figure is harder plastic. It gives the figure a great deal of strength and the softer plastic allows for some flexibility without being too rubbery.

My one annoyance with the figure is that he only has one hand... his right hand is replaced by the sword he used to delete that big robot on the highway in the first movie. You remember that one scene where you went nuts even if you hated the scene because Optimus popped out that blade and killed that guy? Yeah... that sword. I would have rather had a detachable hand with the sword as an accessory (along with maybe a gun), but this isn't the end of the world. At least the sculpt on the sword is very nice. It seems a tad small, but it's a pretty small figure, so it's hard to judge.





Paint

A good chunk of the figure is sculpted in colored plastic, but what paint apps are there are pretty nice. There are some sloppy spots, but nothing godawful. The flame deco is particularly nice, and the eyes are well done. Nothing to write home about... nothing to fuss about.



Articulation

The figure has 20 points of articulation. It's not Marvel Legends level articulation, but it is nicer than some other figures. One really cool thing he has that is kinda interesting is inner chest articulation. The two halves of his upper torso are ball jointed so that they have a good bit of range, and they allow for some very expressive poses.







He has a ball jointed head, the chest halves are ball joints, the shoulders are pin and post ball joints, the elbows are hinges, and the forearms are ball jointed to that elbow hinge. The waist is ball jointed, but the sculpt limits the range of motion somewhat. The hips are pin and post ball joints, the knees are hinges, and the ankles are ball joints. He's a really expressive little figure, and he holds poses rather well. He balances pretty well due to his HUGE feet. The joints are nice and tight, but are fluid enough to allow for easy posing. My one issue here is the lack of swivel joints at the biceps and upper thighs. It limits some critical posing options... think of a GIJOE figure without the Swivel Arm Battle Grip, and you can see why I have an issue with the lack of it here.



Accessories

Nuffin. He has his sword... all the time. No hand shaking with this guy. He really could have used swapable weapon hands, and at the retail price he should have at least had one accessory. Shame on you, Hasbro. SHAME!



Final thoughts

This is a fun little guy. I say little a lot because... well... he's pretty tiny. He stands just under 5 inches, so almost every Transformer from Scouts on up to Ultras will be looking down on old Prime here. Eh... that's cool... I didn't really buy him to fit in. I wanted a poseable Prime to stand on my shelf next to the Titanium alt mode Peterbuilt I bought on clearance when the last movie was out.



He might fit in with some of the smaller Scouts and the Legends class figures... I'll have to look into this... I'm not exactly sure what the scale on the Revoltech Transformers figures is, but he may fit in with them. I'd like to have a G1 cartoon accurate Prime to stand next to him on my shelf now. Hmmmm...









If you can get him at a reasonable price like I did, I'd fully recommend him. If you have to pay 13 bucks for him, I'd say avoid him like the freaking plague. He's nice, but not 13 bucks worth of nice.

Now... I intend on doing some modifications on the guy that will improve some of his issues. I'm going to give him at least the Swivel Arm Battle Grip... maybe the thigh swivels. We'll see. It might mess up the sculpt to break it up at the thigh. I am also going to give him new swappable hands and maybe a gun. Everything else is just fine by me.

PUDDING PUDDING PUDDING PUDDING!!!!

Yet another reason why Japan is the greatest place on the face of the earth:



I have never wanted pudding so much in my life.

Not really.

Stuff and something unexpected

Someone asked me why I haven't put any updates up with artwork... well... a few things I'm working on are top-secret kinda things, so it wouldn't be fair to show them until the people who commissioned them wanted them revealed. Just be patient, and there will be a payoff.

In the meantime, here's something I found yesterday, and it has made my day. Someone leaked a chunk of the new Transformers movie with the character that I was full-well set to hate from the pics of his character design alone-- Wheelie. Sigh... Wheelie. Ugh. Then I saw a leaked bit with german dubbing (I'll have to admit... this character works MUCH better with a saucy German accent, but this is ok too). The attitude of the character REALLY sold him for me. Wheelie was always a survivalist, and making this tiny, scrappy, bombastic, overcompensating jackass REALLY works here for me. WARNING: He says some spicy things here, so parental guidance is suggested:



If the voice sounds familiar, it should. It's Tom Kenny. Yes... THAT Tom Kenny. The voice of Spongebob Squarepants. This has, to say the least, made my day.

Now I want a toy of him.

HE JOCK IT MADE OF STEEL

Possibly the funniest thing they ever did on MST3K. EVER.

From one of my all time favorite Godzilla movies (Godzilla vs. Megalon) comes this "translation" of the theme song for Jet Jaguar. Enjoy:



I NEED a Jet Jaguar figure. Pity they cost an arm and a leg. Guess I'll have to finish up that custom one I've had on the backburner for about a year or two now...

The greatest toy review in the history of toy reviews

Dash the Toy Guy posted this insane toy review on Youtube today. Alcohol and action figures that annoy you for personal reasons rarely ever mix... but boy is it funny when they do...


WARNING!!! Spicy Language is present but bleeped out... still... you were warned-- don't tattle on me.



I subscribed to his Youtube feed seconds after viewing this. Guy's a hoot.

Live-Action Grimlock... sort of...

Well... it seems the rocket scientists who wrote the two Transformers movies are unwilling to actually put the Dinobots in their movies because one of them-- get this-- "doesn't like dinosaurs."

I have this hard, fast rule. If you're a guy and you don't like dinosaurs, I don't trust you automatically. Something is seriously wrong with you, and we need to get you to Jurassic Park STAT! Wait... that movie might just make you hate dinosaurs... nevermind. At any rate, these brainiacs can't even see that every darn kid in the world just loves dinosaurs at the very core of their collective being. Growing up as a boy (I'm really not actively trying to exclude the ladies, I just don't know any who really like to expound upon the wonders of Pachycephalasaurus' fantastic noggin... and I know even fewer who happen to also dig Transformers) you're just hard-wired to like dinosaurs. That Orci guy needs to just rethink his role as a writer of popcorn cinema if he has a hard time getting his head around the concept of children going monkey-crap-crazy over gigantic robot dinosaurs.

I say all this to frame up my post tonight. I just found this INSANE commercial from Germany's Saturn consumer electronics company. It features the possible only live-action dinosaur robot we'll see for quite some time. It's only in the commercial for a short moment, but it's quite possibly the best moment of the whole darn thing.



Is it just me, or is that chick at the end about the creepiest thing you've ever seen? She just kinda killed the whole "sexy-robot-girl" thing for me when she started talking.