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One of the most memorable Sega Arcade Classics is Golden Axe. My time was mostly spent with the Master System version, so it blew my mind to find out that there were actually three characters to choose from, as opposed to just Ax Battler.
Storm Collectibles "recently" started their lineup from this beautiful game. Bored out of my mind due to lockdown, I preordered one directly from Storm in HK, as our local "dealer" in Toronto is not really reliable.
The figure itself follows the tried and true Storm design, featuring a base figure that has all the major bases covered, with a soft rubber upper torso, which normally would have allowed for neck motion without visible joints.... but they seem to have gotten rid of that a while ago.
Not that there was a non Deluxe version, but I suppose for the $128 its a decent value. You get 8 additional hands, her sword, and her noble steed the Blue Dragon. It's a shame that you don't get any little elves to beat up for meat and magic potions.
The Blue Dragon itself is nice and hefty, and also has a decent amount of articulation. Flame effect is meant for use with it... unless you're bored like me.
Takara Legends Targetmaster Windblade.
Windblade is a relatively recent addition to Transformers lore. If you've watched the recent web series for the Prime Wars trilogy, she's one of the main characters. If you're look a bit further back, she was featured prominently in the comics, and received a toy after being the winner of the first toy design for mass production based purely on fan input.
Unfortunately, as Windblade has a very vibrant and colourful deco, the Transformers Generation toy didn't quite capture the character fully, and I missed the boat on the Legends release. With Windblade recently being featured in the Titans Return line, I immediately preordered the Legends edition as soon as I had a chance.
Like all of the Deluxes in the last wave of the recent Legend entries, Windblade has been deemed to be a Targetmaster, one of those characters with a little bot buddy that transforms into a weapon.
Fundamentally, the two toys are the same. Based off the Triggerhappy toy for transformation, but strangely doesn't share the articulation that the other toys enjoyed. Most notable would be the lack of waist movement. Other changes over her Generations appearance are that she is now a Headmaster, and that you can no longer remove the fan off the top of her head.
However, the two do differ in several ways, none of which should be overly surprising:
- Takara has the collectors friendly packaging
- Takara has more/different paint applications, translucent plastic, and the base red plastic is a richer colour
- Takara comes with the Targetmaster
- Takara comes with the sword the first Generations/Legends toy came with instead of the twin blades the Hasbro version comes with.
- Takara costs twice as much.
Obviously, there is quite a significant different in jet mode, with the fuselage being completely different colours as is the canopy, and the Takara version has painted VTOL fans. Also, the Titan Master/Head Master is missing some paint on the small robot face as well as on the arms and legs.
What I didn't expect was how subtle the changes in robot mode were.
The crest under her neckline is painted dark blue on Hasbro versus the translucent blue plastic used on the Takara. Takara version has blue knee paint applications and fully painted hands.
Even more subtle is her face - unlike the Generations toy, both have opted to go with the softer, more anime inspired face that the Legends version. The gold crest on the top of her head is slightly different, and you'll notice that the paint apps under her eyes are larger on the Takara, and that the Takara version is slightly smiling over the more neutral look of the Hasbro version. IIRC, Hasbro like neutral expressions on everything they make.
The blue paint apps on her eyebrows and sideburns, for lack of better terms, actually exist on both figures, but are very dark blue on the Hasbro to the point where I only noticed them when doing these pictures.
Unique to the Takara version is the Targetmaster. This is the first Targetmaster Legends I've purchased, so I don't know if the part is repainted from another figure or anything like that, and it certainly doesn't act anything like the Targetmaster I got with my Cyclonus years ago. It does have spiffy paint work, and decent articulation for a piece of that size. I'm thinking perhaps of the production costs for this piece (and possibly because of looks) the Targetmaster version went and reused the original Legends weapon rather than went with those twin blades the Hasbro one came with.
Overall, I feel the Takara version looks nicer, but the difference in robot mode isn't as great as it was on the Generations toy. Is it worth the extra $20 CAD? Ehh.. it depends - if you display in jet mode, the looks are significantly different ,but if you display in bot mode, it's going to come down to whether or not you like the extra pieces that the Takara version comes with.
...the purple one! Aren't they cute?? I think I like them even more than the Kuma bears...these have fluffy little tails, a heart-shaped nose and poseable ears!
*Release date end of October.
*Preorders started at toygoods-e.ocnk.net/product-list/88
I preordered these guys back in September, and they arrived in the mail today. I gotta say...the detail here is really well done. Now I just gotta come up with a spot to display them. One issue I have is that there’s no good way to make them hold their trick or treat bags. I may have to hot glue them on.
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
One of the most memorable Sega Arcade Classics is Golden Axe. My time was mostly spent with the Master System version, so it blew my mind to find out that there were actually three characters to choose from, as opposed to just Ax Battler.
Storm Collectibles "recently" started their lineup from this beautiful game. Bored out of my mind due to lockdown, I preordered one directly from Storm in HK, as our local "dealer" in Toronto is not really reliable.
The figure itself follows the tried and true Storm design, featuring a base figure that has all the major bases covered, with a soft rubber upper torso, which normally would have allowed for neck motion without visible joints.... but they seem to have gotten rid of that a while ago.
Not that there was a non Deluxe version, but I suppose for the $128 its a decent value. You get 8 additional hands, her sword, and her noble steed the Blue Dragon. It's a shame that you don't get any little elves to beat up for meat and magic potions.
The Blue Dragon itself is nice and hefty, and also has a decent amount of articulation. Flame effect is meant for use with it... unless you're bored like me.
More Transformers goodness that has been sitting there for about 6 months now.
One of the more awesome things to come out of the PotP line was Abominus, the combiner formed from the Terrorcons. This combiner was, as expected, a G1 character that was released to oppose Computron, whose updated set was release during the Combiner Wars line. Unlike Computron, however, Abominus saw zero screen time during the recent animated trilogy, which is a shame because I'd like to have seen him interact with Computron.
I had cracked open Hun-Grr and Rippersnapper last year, but gotten the rest of the team by the Summer. didn't really open anything else up because I was waiting for the one thing to bring them all together - the Transform Dreamwave upgrade kit.
Transform Dreamwave (TDW) is one of the newer 3P companies to come on the scene, and effectively presents itself as better valued Perfect Effects (PE) alternative. I only have one PE upgrade kit - the one for Computron, so I can't really comment on any of their hands and feet options. But the PE stuff I did get was very well made, and Abominus needed some love so I figured why not?
Well, the set finally arrived, and I unpacked everything and did some photos, made some notes, and now present to you my findings, starting with my assessment of the rest of the Terrorcon team.
As with most combiner limbs, regardless of the era, they're generally functional in all modes with no real winner as there is reuse and remoulding of parts as much as possible to reduce production costs. To complicate matters, as it were, the Terrorcons are all monsters of sorts, so even their alt modes are kind of arbitrary. Also, as is the new norm, the accessories they came with are rather meh, though I'm trying to decide which is more boring - the weapons, or the fist/armour bits.
Having said that, some are less boring to look at than others, and my vote for best Terrorcon limb goes to Blot, the black and purple fellow. I love the colour scheme and the "not quite a block with arms and legs" look he's got going for him.
Overall, winner by a large margin.
So back to TDW. They actually came to my attention first with their Volcanicus upgrade kit (soon to be discussed) but when I preordered the Abominus kit the Volcanicus kit had not arrived yet, so I did so with blind faith.
For those who are unfamiliar with TDW and PE, as you suspect, their upgrade kits make the default combiners from Hasbro/Takara into magnificent looking bastards which sadly still have the underlying problems of really crappy loose joints.
Much like the PE set, the TDW set has their combiner fists and feet being able to separate and transform, as applicable, into weapons for the smaller bots and wield. The TDW sets try to one up PE by making EVERYTHING into a weapon or accessory for the smaller bots, thus increasing it's value as it were, but honestly I don't know of many people who would be taking advantage of I'm fairly confident that most folks would stick with the combined mode anyway because lets face it, the individual bots are above average overall.
Unlike PE, however, I've noticed that TDW has parts to increase thigh thickness of the combined mode, as well as in the case of Abominus, additional parts to expand the torso size due to the installation of the chest shield.
Installed, the set does definitely do the job of making the combined mode much more visually appealing, which as mentioned, is limited by the crap joints that are in the base product.
I know there are lots of people who complain about the QC on Hasbro products, but generally it's an issue with poor paint apps. The QC with these sets is all over the place, which I guess is not out of the realm of expectations for a smaller manufacturer, but it really does put the reality of Hasbro and Takara being better at something in perspective.
Between Volcanicus and Abominus, the biggest issues I saw were:
- poor paint apps, most prevalent on the silver guns in the feet
- poor hinge tolerance on the feet, leading them to split apart when weight is applied
- peg tolerances being too large resulting in difficulty inserting into the figures
So yeah, buyer beware, but again if you're not looking too closely you're generally good to go.
Available daily after 4:30PM (pick up at Tartine) but requires pre-ordering. So I preordered and brought 3 loaves back to Toronto. Because I love bread.
Tartine Bakery
600 Guerrero Street
San Francisco, CA
(415) 487-2600
Owners and Chefs: Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson
More Transformers goodness that has been sitting there for about 6 months now.
One of the more awesome things to come out of the PotP line was Abominus, the combiner formed from the Terrorcons. This combiner was, as expected, a G1 character that was released to oppose Computron, whose updated set was release during the Combiner Wars line. Unlike Computron, however, Abominus saw zero screen time during the recent animated trilogy, which is a shame because I'd like to have seen him interact with Computron.
I had cracked open Hun-Grr and Rippersnapper last year, but gotten the rest of the team by the Summer. didn't really open anything else up because I was waiting for the one thing to bring them all together - the Transform Dreamwave upgrade kit.
Transform Dreamwave (TDW) is one of the newer 3P companies to come on the scene, and effectively presents itself as better valued Perfect Effects (PE) alternative. I only have one PE upgrade kit - the one for Computron, so I can't really comment on any of their hands and feet options. But the PE stuff I did get was very well made, and Abominus needed some love so I figured why not?
Well, the set finally arrived, and I unpacked everything and did some photos, made some notes, and now present to you my findings, starting with my assessment of the rest of the Terrorcon team.
As with most combiner limbs, regardless of the era, they're generally functional in all modes with no real winner as there is reuse and remoulding of parts as much as possible to reduce production costs. To complicate matters, as it were, the Terrorcons are all monsters of sorts, so even their alt modes are kind of arbitrary. Also, as is the new norm, the accessories they came with are rather meh, though I'm trying to decide which is more boring - the weapons, or the fist/armour bits.
Having said that, some are less boring to look at than others, and my vote for best Terrorcon limb goes to Blot, the black and purple fellow. I love the colour scheme and the "not quite a block with arms and legs" look he's got going for him.
Overall, winner by a large margin.
So back to TDW. They actually came to my attention first with their Volcanicus upgrade kit (soon to be discussed) but when I preordered the Abominus kit the Volcanicus kit had not arrived yet, so I did so with blind faith.
For those who are unfamiliar with TDW and PE, as you suspect, their upgrade kits make the default combiners from Hasbro/Takara into magnificent looking bastards which sadly still have the underlying problems of really crappy loose joints.
Much like the PE set, the TDW set has their combiner fists and feet being able to separate and transform, as applicable, into weapons for the smaller bots and wield. The TDW sets try to one up PE by making EVERYTHING into a weapon or accessory for the smaller bots, thus increasing it's value as it were, but honestly I don't know of many people who would be taking advantage of I'm fairly confident that most folks would stick with the combined mode anyway because lets face it, the individual bots are above average overall.
Unlike PE, however, I've noticed that TDW has parts to increase thigh thickness of the combined mode, as well as in the case of Abominus, additional parts to expand the torso size due to the installation of the chest shield.
Installed, the set does definitely do the job of making the combined mode much more visually appealing, which as mentioned, is limited by the crap joints that are in the base product.
I know there are lots of people who complain about the QC on Hasbro products, but generally it's an issue with poor paint apps. The QC with these sets is all over the place, which I guess is not out of the realm of expectations for a smaller manufacturer, but it really does put the reality of Hasbro and Takara being better at something in perspective.
Between Volcanicus and Abominus, the biggest issues I saw were:
- poor paint apps, most prevalent on the silver guns in the feet
- poor hinge tolerance on the feet, leading them to split apart when weight is applied
- peg tolerances being too large resulting in difficulty inserting into the figures
So yeah, buyer beware, but again if you're not looking too closely you're generally good to go.
Takara Legends Targetmaster Windblade.
Windblade is a relatively recent addition to Transformers lore. If you've watched the recent web series for the Prime Wars trilogy, she's one of the main characters. If you're look a bit further back, she was featured prominently in the comics, and received a toy after being the winner of the first toy design for mass production based purely on fan input.
Unfortunately, as Windblade has a very vibrant and colourful deco, the Transformers Generation toy didn't quite capture the character fully, and I missed the boat on the Legends release. With Windblade recently being featured in the Titans Return line, I immediately preordered the Legends edition as soon as I had a chance.
Like all of the Deluxes in the last wave of the recent Legend entries, Windblade has been deemed to be a Targetmaster, one of those characters with a little bot buddy that transforms into a weapon.
Fundamentally, the two toys are the same. Based off the Triggerhappy toy for transformation, but strangely doesn't share the articulation that the other toys enjoyed. Most notable would be the lack of waist movement. Other changes over her Generations appearance are that she is now a Headmaster, and that you can no longer remove the fan off the top of her head.
However, the two do differ in several ways, none of which should be overly surprising:
- Takara has the collectors friendly packaging
- Takara has more/different paint applications, translucent plastic, and the base red plastic is a richer colour
- Takara comes with the Targetmaster
- Takara comes with the sword the first Generations/Legends toy came with instead of the twin blades the Hasbro version comes with.
- Takara costs twice as much.
Obviously, there is quite a significant different in jet mode, with the fuselage being completely different colours as is the canopy, and the Takara version has painted VTOL fans. Also, the Titan Master/Head Master is missing some paint on the small robot face as well as on the arms and legs.
What I didn't expect was how subtle the changes in robot mode were.
The crest under her neckline is painted dark blue on Hasbro versus the translucent blue plastic used on the Takara. Takara version has blue knee paint applications and fully painted hands.
Even more subtle is her face - unlike the Generations toy, both have opted to go with the softer, more anime inspired face that the Legends version. The gold crest on the top of her head is slightly different, and you'll notice that the paint apps under her eyes are larger on the Takara, and that the Takara version is slightly smiling over the more neutral look of the Hasbro version. IIRC, Hasbro like neutral expressions on everything they make.
The blue paint apps on her eyebrows and sideburns, for lack of better terms, actually exist on both figures, but are very dark blue on the Hasbro to the point where I only noticed them when doing these pictures.
Unique to the Takara version is the Targetmaster. This is the first Targetmaster Legends I've purchased, so I don't know if the part is repainted from another figure or anything like that, and it certainly doesn't act anything like the Targetmaster I got with my Cyclonus years ago. It does have spiffy paint work, and decent articulation for a piece of that size. I'm thinking perhaps of the production costs for this piece (and possibly because of looks) the Targetmaster version went and reused the original Legends weapon rather than went with those twin blades the Hasbro one came with.
Overall, I feel the Takara version looks nicer, but the difference in robot mode isn't as great as it was on the Generations toy. Is it worth the extra $20 CAD? Ehh.. it depends - if you display in jet mode, the looks are significantly different ,but if you display in bot mode, it's going to come down to whether or not you like the extra pieces that the Takara version comes with.
More Transformers goodness that has been sitting there for about 6 months now.
One of the more awesome things to come out of the PotP line was Abominus, the combiner formed from the Terrorcons. This combiner was, as expected, a G1 character that was released to oppose Computron, whose updated set was release during the Combiner Wars line. Unlike Computron, however, Abominus saw zero screen time during the recent animated trilogy, which is a shame because I'd like to have seen him interact with Computron.
I had cracked open Hun-Grr and Rippersnapper last year, but gotten the rest of the team by the Summer. didn't really open anything else up because I was waiting for the one thing to bring them all together - the Transform Dreamwave upgrade kit.
Transform Dreamwave (TDW) is one of the newer 3P companies to come on the scene, and effectively presents itself as better valued Perfect Effects (PE) alternative. I only have one PE upgrade kit - the one for Computron, so I can't really comment on any of their hands and feet options. But the PE stuff I did get was very well made, and Abominus needed some love so I figured why not?
Well, the set finally arrived, and I unpacked everything and did some photos, made some notes, and now present to you my findings, starting with my assessment of the rest of the Terrorcon team.
As with most combiner limbs, regardless of the era, they're generally functional in all modes with no real winner as there is reuse and remoulding of parts as much as possible to reduce production costs. To complicate matters, as it were, the Terrorcons are all monsters of sorts, so even their alt modes are kind of arbitrary. Also, as is the new norm, the accessories they came with are rather meh, though I'm trying to decide which is more boring - the weapons, or the fist/armour bits.
Having said that, some are less boring to look at than others, and my vote for best Terrorcon limb goes to Blot, the black and purple fellow. I love the colour scheme and the "not quite a block with arms and legs" look he's got going for him.
Overall, winner by a large margin.
So back to TDW. They actually came to my attention first with their Volcanicus upgrade kit (soon to be discussed) but when I preordered the Abominus kit the Volcanicus kit had not arrived yet, so I did so with blind faith.
For those who are unfamiliar with TDW and PE, as you suspect, their upgrade kits make the default combiners from Hasbro/Takara into magnificent looking bastards which sadly still have the underlying problems of really crappy loose joints.
Much like the PE set, the TDW set has their combiner fists and feet being able to separate and transform, as applicable, into weapons for the smaller bots and wield. The TDW sets try to one up PE by making EVERYTHING into a weapon or accessory for the smaller bots, thus increasing it's value as it were, but honestly I don't know of many people who would be taking advantage of I'm fairly confident that most folks would stick with the combined mode anyway because lets face it, the individual bots are above average overall.
Unlike PE, however, I've noticed that TDW has parts to increase thigh thickness of the combined mode, as well as in the case of Abominus, additional parts to expand the torso size due to the installation of the chest shield.
Installed, the set does definitely do the job of making the combined mode much more visually appealing, which as mentioned, is limited by the crap joints that are in the base product.
I know there are lots of people who complain about the QC on Hasbro products, but generally it's an issue with poor paint apps. The QC with these sets is all over the place, which I guess is not out of the realm of expectations for a smaller manufacturer, but it really does put the reality of Hasbro and Takara being better at something in perspective.
Between Volcanicus and Abominus, the biggest issues I saw were:
- poor paint apps, most prevalent on the silver guns in the feet
- poor hinge tolerance on the feet, leading them to split apart when weight is applied
- peg tolerances being too large resulting in difficulty inserting into the figures
So yeah, buyer beware, but again if you're not looking too closely you're generally good to go.
The Ziggy Vest is a Tunisian crochet vest in THAT lacy ripple stitch (the one that that everyone sees in Pinterest and then looks for on my website!). It's easy to cut to add armholes, which makes it self-healing.
The Ziggy Vest pattern is in the book Delicate Crochet by Sharon Silverman. It can be preordered in October 2018 for a December 1st release.
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
I got this the other day from amazon. My dad preordered it for me for a Christmas Present.
Yes yes we all know the theme song, we don't need it c&p'd in the comments.
OMGOMGOMGOMG. The Devil Wears Prada is seriously my favorite band everr and I preordered an album online andd it was signed... <3
More Transformers goodness that has been sitting there for about 6 months now.
One of the more awesome things to come out of the PotP line was Abominus, the combiner formed from the Terrorcons. This combiner was, as expected, a G1 character that was released to oppose Computron, whose updated set was release during the Combiner Wars line. Unlike Computron, however, Abominus saw zero screen time during the recent animated trilogy, which is a shame because I'd like to have seen him interact with Computron.
I had cracked open Hun-Grr and Rippersnapper last year, but gotten the rest of the team by the Summer. didn't really open anything else up because I was waiting for the one thing to bring them all together - the Transform Dreamwave upgrade kit.
Transform Dreamwave (TDW) is one of the newer 3P companies to come on the scene, and effectively presents itself as better valued Perfect Effects (PE) alternative. I only have one PE upgrade kit - the one for Computron, so I can't really comment on any of their hands and feet options. But the PE stuff I did get was very well made, and Abominus needed some love so I figured why not?
Well, the set finally arrived, and I unpacked everything and did some photos, made some notes, and now present to you my findings, starting with my assessment of the rest of the Terrorcon team.
As with most combiner limbs, regardless of the era, they're generally functional in all modes with no real winner as there is reuse and remoulding of parts as much as possible to reduce production costs. To complicate matters, as it were, the Terrorcons are all monsters of sorts, so even their alt modes are kind of arbitrary. Also, as is the new norm, the accessories they came with are rather meh, though I'm trying to decide which is more boring - the weapons, or the fist/armour bits.
Having said that, some are less boring to look at than others, and my vote for best Terrorcon limb goes to Blot, the black and purple fellow. I love the colour scheme and the "not quite a block with arms and legs" look he's got going for him.
Overall, winner by a large margin.
So back to TDW. They actually came to my attention first with their Volcanicus upgrade kit (soon to be discussed) but when I preordered the Abominus kit the Volcanicus kit had not arrived yet, so I did so with blind faith.
For those who are unfamiliar with TDW and PE, as you suspect, their upgrade kits make the default combiners from Hasbro/Takara into magnificent looking bastards which sadly still have the underlying problems of really crappy loose joints.
Much like the PE set, the TDW set has their combiner fists and feet being able to separate and transform, as applicable, into weapons for the smaller bots and wield. The TDW sets try to one up PE by making EVERYTHING into a weapon or accessory for the smaller bots, thus increasing it's value as it were, but honestly I don't know of many people who would be taking advantage of I'm fairly confident that most folks would stick with the combined mode anyway because lets face it, the individual bots are above average overall.
Unlike PE, however, I've noticed that TDW has parts to increase thigh thickness of the combined mode, as well as in the case of Abominus, additional parts to expand the torso size due to the installation of the chest shield.
Installed, the set does definitely do the job of making the combined mode much more visually appealing, which as mentioned, is limited by the crap joints that are in the base product.
I know there are lots of people who complain about the QC on Hasbro products, but generally it's an issue with poor paint apps. The QC with these sets is all over the place, which I guess is not out of the realm of expectations for a smaller manufacturer, but it really does put the reality of Hasbro and Takara being better at something in perspective.
Between Volcanicus and Abominus, the biggest issues I saw were:
- poor paint apps, most prevalent on the silver guns in the feet
- poor hinge tolerance on the feet, leading them to split apart when weight is applied
- peg tolerances being too large resulting in difficulty inserting into the figures
So yeah, buyer beware, but again if you're not looking too closely you're generally good to go.
1. Mystic Belle, 2. AH ~~~ DA~~~, 3. Christmas ver. Elf Lea OE
Created with fd's Flickr Toys
I have been waiting over 7 months for my Vampire Belle, I dont even want her any more :( I just wish she would ship so I could trade her for something I do want!
Fat-Chai, Daphne & Ping Pongs Brother, The Dh talked me into Preordering him and Now I cant wait :D He comes out in February, I hope its around Valentines Day!
Christmas Lea, I wasnt going to do it, I really wasnt, But I sold some things and got stressed that I would miss out on a Sleeping Lea, So I got Sleeping Christmas Lea, Then like two weeks later they made it so you could get both Heads instead of two Separate Dolls so I got both Heads now NS. Im glad but at the same time am sick to my stomach I ordered from that Terrible company again because HOLY CRAP 7 months for a doll I paid for is really sick and unacceptable to me. I SWEAR she will be one of the last if she takes as long as the Vampires have!
So there you have it, the rediculous stuff I paid for in 2010 that I wont see til the next few months in 2011.
Also just laying it out so I know what Im expecting :)
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
So interesting story about this figure. This is actually an older release - I mean, most of them are by the time they get to me - but in this instance I mean it was clearanced on Black Friday, but I actually preordered it when it was first annouced.
It's just that for whatever reason, over a year later my selected Canadian retailer still had not gotten it yet. So I ended up cancelling and ordering the figure from Bandai directly for like half the price.
Win-win?
The details escape me now, but there were two versions of this figure announced, with this being the Deluxe version. I believe it had to do with some stickers and the postcard.
This is also my first Blitzway product and I have to say they're pretty good from an end product perspective. I've never seen any other company, especially one making figures at this size/price point, actually put a plastic baggie over each individual hand.
Now THAT'S quality concerns.
While this figure isn't really about the articulation, Waldo (or Wally) features some decent articulation. He's no Black Widow, but he can at least keep up with your action figure, albeit one with no waist.
The finished product is, as mentioned, quite clean. It's very simple by comparison to other figures that I've purchased, No issues with regards to blemishes or poor paint. The host of accessories are well done.
At the end of the day, chances are unless you're a fan of Where's Waldo/Wally, you're probably going to skip this. It doesn't come from any exciting franchises, and it's really not a figure that fits into most peoples collection.
But it IS a refreshing change of pace. So if you're looking for something like that, look no further, though you might want to wait for another sale.
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
Shortly before going to dinner last night, I started getting the onset signs of a migraine [sensitivity to light, slight nausea, etc]. I started to feel better once I started eating, but once we were done, my migraine got progressively worse. It still hasn't gone away and is instead joined today by both a slight fever and stomach cramps. :/
Since I've felt like crap, I've spent the day being a bum. Watching tv/movies, doing some wedding planning [and buying!]. I finally, after stalking Amazon and searching numerous different text, found Britney Spears' new cd, Circus, on there and preordered it for just $12 shipped. The expected delivery date is December 8. I am excited.
As for my wedding planning, I purchased yet another part of the bridesmaids gifts. Tommy really needs to get a move on on figuring out the boys gifts. I have the girls nearly done.
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
More Transformers goodness that has been sitting there for about 6 months now.
One of the more awesome things to come out of the PotP line was Abominus, the combiner formed from the Terrorcons. This combiner was, as expected, a G1 character that was released to oppose Computron, whose updated set was release during the Combiner Wars line. Unlike Computron, however, Abominus saw zero screen time during the recent animated trilogy, which is a shame because I'd like to have seen him interact with Computron.
I had cracked open Hun-Grr and Rippersnapper last year, but gotten the rest of the team by the Summer. didn't really open anything else up because I was waiting for the one thing to bring them all together - the Transform Dreamwave upgrade kit.
Transform Dreamwave (TDW) is one of the newer 3P companies to come on the scene, and effectively presents itself as better valued Perfect Effects (PE) alternative. I only have one PE upgrade kit - the one for Computron, so I can't really comment on any of their hands and feet options. But the PE stuff I did get was very well made, and Abominus needed some love so I figured why not?
Well, the set finally arrived, and I unpacked everything and did some photos, made some notes, and now present to you my findings, starting with my assessment of the rest of the Terrorcon team.
As with most combiner limbs, regardless of the era, they're generally functional in all modes with no real winner as there is reuse and remoulding of parts as much as possible to reduce production costs. To complicate matters, as it were, the Terrorcons are all monsters of sorts, so even their alt modes are kind of arbitrary. Also, as is the new norm, the accessories they came with are rather meh, though I'm trying to decide which is more boring - the weapons, or the fist/armour bits.
Having said that, some are less boring to look at than others, and my vote for best Terrorcon limb goes to Blot, the black and purple fellow. I love the colour scheme and the "not quite a block with arms and legs" look he's got going for him.
Overall, winner by a large margin.
So back to TDW. They actually came to my attention first with their Volcanicus upgrade kit (soon to be discussed) but when I preordered the Abominus kit the Volcanicus kit had not arrived yet, so I did so with blind faith.
For those who are unfamiliar with TDW and PE, as you suspect, their upgrade kits make the default combiners from Hasbro/Takara into magnificent looking bastards which sadly still have the underlying problems of really crappy loose joints.
Much like the PE set, the TDW set has their combiner fists and feet being able to separate and transform, as applicable, into weapons for the smaller bots and wield. The TDW sets try to one up PE by making EVERYTHING into a weapon or accessory for the smaller bots, thus increasing it's value as it were, but honestly I don't know of many people who would be taking advantage of I'm fairly confident that most folks would stick with the combined mode anyway because lets face it, the individual bots are above average overall.
Unlike PE, however, I've noticed that TDW has parts to increase thigh thickness of the combined mode, as well as in the case of Abominus, additional parts to expand the torso size due to the installation of the chest shield.
Installed, the set does definitely do the job of making the combined mode much more visually appealing, which as mentioned, is limited by the crap joints that are in the base product.
I know there are lots of people who complain about the QC on Hasbro products, but generally it's an issue with poor paint apps. The QC with these sets is all over the place, which I guess is not out of the realm of expectations for a smaller manufacturer, but it really does put the reality of Hasbro and Takara being better at something in perspective.
Between Volcanicus and Abominus, the biggest issues I saw were:
- poor paint apps, most prevalent on the silver guns in the feet
- poor hinge tolerance on the feet, leading them to split apart when weight is applied
- peg tolerances being too large resulting in difficulty inserting into the figures
So yeah, buyer beware, but again if you're not looking too closely you're generally good to go.
One of the most memorable Sega Arcade Classics is Golden Axe. My time was mostly spent with the Master System version, so it blew my mind to find out that there were actually three characters to choose from, as opposed to just Ax Battler.
Storm Collectibles "recently" started their lineup from this beautiful game. Bored out of my mind due to lockdown, I preordered one directly from Storm in HK, as our local "dealer" in Toronto is not really reliable.
The figure itself follows the tried and true Storm design, featuring a base figure that has all the major bases covered, with a soft rubber upper torso, which normally would have allowed for neck motion without visible joints.... but they seem to have gotten rid of that a while ago.
Not that there was a non Deluxe version, but I suppose for the $128 its a decent value. You get 8 additional hands, her sword, and her noble steed the Blue Dragon. It's a shame that you don't get any little elves to beat up for meat and magic potions.
The Blue Dragon itself is nice and hefty, and also has a decent amount of articulation. Flame effect is meant for use with it... unless you're bored like me.
Cocoa Willow limited edition preordering at: www.etsy.com/listing/564607693/willow-cocoa-resin-limited...
My lovely parents brought me Hina Ichigo (Mollie) for my birthday, and Hollie (ACR) is sort of a present to myself...she was preordered ages ago but only just arrived.
xx
My teal-haired Kenner arrived home today from Gina's spa.
But soon two will become three ... Alexis is coming home on Friday! Mum picked her up last Friday and will be coming back to Syd with her this week. I actually preordered her, but was soo worried that CC Toys wouldn't get enough to fill their preorder.
Poor PAM and Teal Kenner still nameless though ...
She has finally arrived! A second one is on its way....totally forgot I preordered one when she was first announced.
These girls arrived today. I had preordered them as a set in August,maybe? They are cute, Once again though, Takara is using the shaggy layered look on the hair, which is not real great right out of the box. Have to see a couple of days.
More Transformers goodness that has been sitting there for about 6 months now.
One of the more awesome things to come out of the PotP line was Abominus, the combiner formed from the Terrorcons. This combiner was, as expected, a G1 character that was released to oppose Computron, whose updated set was release during the Combiner Wars line. Unlike Computron, however, Abominus saw zero screen time during the recent animated trilogy, which is a shame because I'd like to have seen him interact with Computron.
I had cracked open Hun-Grr and Rippersnapper last year, but gotten the rest of the team by the Summer. didn't really open anything else up because I was waiting for the one thing to bring them all together - the Transform Dreamwave upgrade kit.
Transform Dreamwave (TDW) is one of the newer 3P companies to come on the scene, and effectively presents itself as better valued Perfect Effects (PE) alternative. I only have one PE upgrade kit - the one for Computron, so I can't really comment on any of their hands and feet options. But the PE stuff I did get was very well made, and Abominus needed some love so I figured why not?
Well, the set finally arrived, and I unpacked everything and did some photos, made some notes, and now present to you my findings, starting with my assessment of the rest of the Terrorcon team.
As with most combiner limbs, regardless of the era, they're generally functional in all modes with no real winner as there is reuse and remoulding of parts as much as possible to reduce production costs. To complicate matters, as it were, the Terrorcons are all monsters of sorts, so even their alt modes are kind of arbitrary. Also, as is the new norm, the accessories they came with are rather meh, though I'm trying to decide which is more boring - the weapons, or the fist/armour bits.
Having said that, some are less boring to look at than others, and my vote for best Terrorcon limb goes to Blot, the black and purple fellow. I love the colour scheme and the "not quite a block with arms and legs" look he's got going for him.
Overall, winner by a large margin.
So back to TDW. They actually came to my attention first with their Volcanicus upgrade kit (soon to be discussed) but when I preordered the Abominus kit the Volcanicus kit had not arrived yet, so I did so with blind faith.
For those who are unfamiliar with TDW and PE, as you suspect, their upgrade kits make the default combiners from Hasbro/Takara into magnificent looking bastards which sadly still have the underlying problems of really crappy loose joints.
Much like the PE set, the TDW set has their combiner fists and feet being able to separate and transform, as applicable, into weapons for the smaller bots and wield. The TDW sets try to one up PE by making EVERYTHING into a weapon or accessory for the smaller bots, thus increasing it's value as it were, but honestly I don't know of many people who would be taking advantage of I'm fairly confident that most folks would stick with the combined mode anyway because lets face it, the individual bots are above average overall.
Unlike PE, however, I've noticed that TDW has parts to increase thigh thickness of the combined mode, as well as in the case of Abominus, additional parts to expand the torso size due to the installation of the chest shield.
Installed, the set does definitely do the job of making the combined mode much more visually appealing, which as mentioned, is limited by the crap joints that are in the base product.
I know there are lots of people who complain about the QC on Hasbro products, but generally it's an issue with poor paint apps. The QC with these sets is all over the place, which I guess is not out of the realm of expectations for a smaller manufacturer, but it really does put the reality of Hasbro and Takara being better at something in perspective.
Between Volcanicus and Abominus, the biggest issues I saw were:
- poor paint apps, most prevalent on the silver guns in the feet
- poor hinge tolerance on the feet, leading them to split apart when weight is applied
- peg tolerances being too large resulting in difficulty inserting into the figures
So yeah, buyer beware, but again if you're not looking too closely you're generally good to go.
Back when times were better, Adam preordered the 2010 Camaro... this wasn't his, but one of the first ones that the dealership got in, so we went to go see it.
Arrival of preordered Amiibos. Turns out that Star Sket here is a rare one. Not opening that one then :p
Ironing out bottom port details on new iPhone 5 case. Super exciting!
328 Likes on Instagram
13 Comments on Instagram:
itisdecided: The design looks different to the earlier prototype. It no longer overlaps over the edge, hopefully they are still workin on it.
kennethong: Not overlapping the edge would allow any type of screen protector to be used.
thomasbuckler: to the left of the lightning port, shouldn't there be 2 rows of 5 holes?
esteban564: Sorry i like more samsung galaxy S3 is greate!!!
_tery: Ok. You've sold me. I'm putting my order in!
ciprianodr: The best phone <3!
secretservice: Preordered cant wait!
tommasorenieri: @grovemade How can I get one for the iphone 5 in Italy? Are there stores where I can buy that case or just on the online store? Thanks!
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
I JUST recently got the Fujifilm Finepix X100. I preordered it on March 14, 2011 and it arrived in my hands on April 02, 2011.
I was lucky enough to find a store that had a LOW preorder list! The store had 8 preorders, and they received 3 from Fuji Canada. Luckily for me, i made the cut, and I was #3 of 3 cameras.
Anyways, today, I decided to walk around Steveston, BC for a quick street test of the Fujifilm X100. All I can say is, WOW! This camera is FANTASTIC! I feel invisible when I am taking street shots! I definitely feel a lot more liberated as oppose to when I use my 5D Mark II. I'm still getting used to the camera so I hope to improve my speed when handling the camera. It'll probably take a week or something to do just that.
Anyways, here's some test shots from Steveston, BC.
I’ll be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with Trick or Treat Studios. They make stuff I dreamt about owning my entire childhood, but many of the expensive items I’ve purchased from them have poor paint jobs and the colors literally wipe off when I dust them...they also have THEE worst customer service of any company I have ever encountered. They treat their customers like absolute shit. But I won’t get into that now.
.
I have to give it to them here...they totally knocked it out of the park with this one. I am HIGHLY impressed with the sculpt and overall look. The photos they released several months ago teasing this figure looked just ok. And the hands looked too smooth and “girly”. But it actually looks better in person, which is seldom the case.
.
For a price tag of $130, I’d say it’s worth every penny (if you’re a Myers freak like me)
.
I preordered the Sideshow Myers statue a few months ago, that cost $600. It is twice the size of this guy, has real hair and comes with a light up jack o lantern...this is gonna be hard to beat, though. I’m just hoping for $600, it does. Haha.
.
My only issue with it is the knife is super cheapo. It broke while I was inserting it into his hand (he comes with two hands, one opened, one in a fist to hold the knife). I had to super glue it twice. But other than that, I love this thing.
Takara Legends Targetmaster Windblade.
Windblade is a relatively recent addition to Transformers lore. If you've watched the recent web series for the Prime Wars trilogy, she's one of the main characters. If you're look a bit further back, she was featured prominently in the comics, and received a toy after being the winner of the first toy design for mass production based purely on fan input.
Unfortunately, as Windblade has a very vibrant and colourful deco, the Transformers Generation toy didn't quite capture the character fully, and I missed the boat on the Legends release. With Windblade recently being featured in the Titans Return line, I immediately preordered the Legends edition as soon as I had a chance.
Like all of the Deluxes in the last wave of the recent Legend entries, Windblade has been deemed to be a Targetmaster, one of those characters with a little bot buddy that transforms into a weapon.
Fundamentally, the two toys are the same. Based off the Triggerhappy toy for transformation, but strangely doesn't share the articulation that the other toys enjoyed. Most notable would be the lack of waist movement. Other changes over her Generations appearance are that she is now a Headmaster, and that you can no longer remove the fan off the top of her head.
However, the two do differ in several ways, none of which should be overly surprising:
- Takara has the collectors friendly packaging
- Takara has more/different paint applications, translucent plastic, and the base red plastic is a richer colour
- Takara comes with the Targetmaster
- Takara comes with the sword the first Generations/Legends toy came with instead of the twin blades the Hasbro version comes with.
- Takara costs twice as much.
Obviously, there is quite a significant different in jet mode, with the fuselage being completely different colours as is the canopy, and the Takara version has painted VTOL fans. Also, the Titan Master/Head Master is missing some paint on the small robot face as well as on the arms and legs.
What I didn't expect was how subtle the changes in robot mode were.
The crest under her neckline is painted dark blue on Hasbro versus the translucent blue plastic used on the Takara. Takara version has blue knee paint applications and fully painted hands.
Even more subtle is her face - unlike the Generations toy, both have opted to go with the softer, more anime inspired face that the Legends version. The gold crest on the top of her head is slightly different, and you'll notice that the paint apps under her eyes are larger on the Takara, and that the Takara version is slightly smiling over the more neutral look of the Hasbro version. IIRC, Hasbro like neutral expressions on everything they make.
The blue paint apps on her eyebrows and sideburns, for lack of better terms, actually exist on both figures, but are very dark blue on the Hasbro to the point where I only noticed them when doing these pictures.
Unique to the Takara version is the Targetmaster. This is the first Targetmaster Legends I've purchased, so I don't know if the part is repainted from another figure or anything like that, and it certainly doesn't act anything like the Targetmaster I got with my Cyclonus years ago. It does have spiffy paint work, and decent articulation for a piece of that size. I'm thinking perhaps of the production costs for this piece (and possibly because of looks) the Targetmaster version went and reused the original Legends weapon rather than went with those twin blades the Hasbro one came with.
Overall, I feel the Takara version looks nicer, but the difference in robot mode isn't as great as it was on the Generations toy. Is it worth the extra $20 CAD? Ehh.. it depends - if you display in jet mode, the looks are significantly different ,but if you display in bot mode, it's going to come down to whether or not you like the extra pieces that the Takara version comes with.
I went to pick up my preorder today! XD Can you believe I was the only one to have preordered this game at the GameStop I went to? D: That makes me sad! But oh well. It is in a pretty trendy mall. Also, that mall is pretty dead, anyway.
But anyhoo, I got it! Haven't had a chance to play it yet, but hopefully I will get to over the Thanksgiving break. ^_^
One of the most memorable Sega Arcade Classics is Golden Axe. My time was mostly spent with the Master System version, so it blew my mind to find out that there were actually three characters to choose from, as opposed to just Ax Battler.
Storm Collectibles "recently" started their lineup from this beautiful game. Bored out of my mind due to lockdown, I preordered one directly from Storm in HK, as our local "dealer" in Toronto is not really reliable.
The figure itself follows the tried and true Storm design, featuring a base figure that has all the major bases covered, with a soft rubber upper torso, which normally would have allowed for neck motion without visible joints.... but they seem to have gotten rid of that a while ago.
Not that there was a non Deluxe version, but I suppose for the $128 its a decent value. You get 8 additional hands, her sword, and her noble steed the Blue Dragon. It's a shame that you don't get any little elves to beat up for meat and magic potions.
The Blue Dragon itself is nice and hefty, and also has a decent amount of articulation. Flame effect is meant for use with it... unless you're bored like me.