View allAll Photos Tagged preordering
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.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER IN BLUE!~ Out of all the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, I liked Merryweather the most. I got her on craigslist for $200. I got it from a collector who was emptying out his entire collection. I missed out getting it for retail, MAN I SHOULD'VE PREORDERED HER OMG! She sold out online in like 15 mins. >.<
LE Blue Sleeping Beauty was released in stores on October 7th and online on October 8th, 2014. LE 4000. Original Price: $119.95 USD.
Woot! number 45! this is the lowest number I have so far!
Users who have preordered Fallout 76 can now invite their friends to the beta version of the game. About this Bethesda reported in the official Twitter game. Beta members can find three codes in their accounts on Bethesda.net that can be shared with friends to dive into the Wasteland. It is
gameplaying.info/in-fallout-76-you-can-now-invite-your-fr...
Pre-order Only
www.play-asia.com/superalloy-hello-kitty-paOS-13-49-en-70...
This is a product with limited availability and our allocations have been presold. If you have preordered this item, your order has usually been confirmed. If you plan to purchase this item, please check back on the item's release date for possible restock.
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.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER IN BLUE!~ Out of all the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, I liked Merryweather the most. I got her on craigslist for $200. I got it from a collector who was emptying out his entire collection. I missed out getting it for retail, MAN I SHOULD'VE PREORDERED HER OMG! She sold out online in like 15 mins. >.<
LE Blue Sleeping Beauty was released in stores on October 7th and online on October 8th, 2014. LE 4000. Original Price: $119.95 USD.
Up close slice of Bill art.
Bill The Butcher shirts are up for preordering! missmonster.bigcartel.com/
Please keep in mind they will not ship for awhile due to printer turnaround times and time allowed for people to place preorders.
Big Scary Monsters (2015)
Technically, I have already reviewed the music on this LP as it is comprised of the first two Beach Slang 7"s. Though you'd be hard pressed to find a bigger fan of the 7" format than me, there's certainly something to be said about the convenience of having all of these songs on one LP. If nothing else, it certainly makes it easier to pop on without having to get up from the couch so many times to flip the record.
I enjoy these Beach Slang songs just as much, if not more, than I did when the 7"s first came out. I stand by my belief that the singer reminds me an awful lot of the guy who sang in Tugboat Annie. The more I listen to these guys, the more I hear elements of Knapsack as well. Maybe Beach SLang isn't quite as polished and they certainly don't yell as much as Knapsack, but I feel like both bands are trying to convey similar feelings.
The band is working on their debut full length for Polyvinyl right now. You can bet that I'll be preordering that guy on day one.
Beach Slang - Broken Thrills LP:
The Little Lodge at St. Kate's Wood
On Pioneer Trail, southhwest of Heavenly Ski resort This stunning new 2 master suites 2.5baths, diminutive and dramatic lodge style house with 3 gas fireplaces has become available for Christmas December 23th-26th @the reduced 3 night minimum rate of 225/night. Fully equipped and furnished in comfort and contemporary high fashion mountain decor devoid of usual kitsch,
In addition to cable and wifi connections pricing includes welcoming upon arrival valet service ensuring shoveled drive and walkway, purchase and stocking of preordered groceries, unloading and unpacking of luggage and departure maid service.. Promotional video on youtube: www.youtube.com/watch?v=4PIZj-1TrKU depicts additional bedroom and bath renditions prior to upgrades.
Pricing reflects offer for a respectful, non smoking occupancy of 4 guests only please
Coveniently located off of Pioneer Trail near Heavenly Ski resort.
Floorplan: www.flickr.com/photos/57320325@N06/
CALENDAR: www.homeawayconnect.com/cale ndar.aspx?propertyid=659828&culturename=e n-US&mode=1
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 submitted my cards for the 1000 Handmade Greetings book a long, long time ago. I had preordered the book and it magically appeared on my doorstep today! So freaking exciting!!
I'm also on another page, but I didn't take a photo of that one yet. :)
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.
I want my Hello Kitty Pullip now. I have to wait until the end of November/ beginning of Dec. b/c I preordered her late. *sighs*
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.
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.
I ABSOLUTELY LOVE HER IN BLUE!~ Out of all the fairies in Sleeping Beauty, I liked Merryweather the most. I got her on craigslist for $200. I got it from a collector who was emptying out his entire collection. I missed out getting it for retail, MAN I SHOULD'VE PREORDERED HER OMG! She sold out online in like 15 mins. >.<
LE Blue Sleeping Beauty was released in stores on October 7th and online on October 8th, 2014. LE 4000. Original Price: $119.95 USD.
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.
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.
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.
My one and only rbl...although I preordered Anjelica Eve, so Tina may have some company soon
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www.play-asia.com/superalloy-hello-kitty-paOS-13-49-en-70...
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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.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
I've been tinkering with the EQ2 character generator that comes with the starter kit one gets for preordering.
Here's the character I'll be playing first. She's a wood elf named Laerise, and she's probably going to wind up being a templar. Possibly mystic, but probably templar.
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.
Cocoa Willow limited edition preordering at: www.etsy.com/listing/564607693/willow-cocoa-resin-limited...
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
Storm Mai Shiranui arrived a few nights ago, which for me is relatively fast as blogger photos started popping up maybe two weeks ago?
Mai is... interesting. I guess by now what you should be expecting from Storm is pretty well known, so I guess my concerns began when I preordered based on the prototype. But, being a devout Mai Shiranui fan, and seeing how few action figures we get her, it had to be done.
So the good news is that there seems to have been some improvements made, but ultimately it's not exactly where I would like it to be.
Mai Shiranui is known for being... full bodied. Now, granted the curves kind of change depending on the art for the game, but ultimately she's got curves. The KoF '978 art is from the era before they started giving her slimmer proportions, but at a time they kept changing up the face.
The prototype looked like Mai skipped meals. To me, it looks like they made her bust larger, and it feel like the thighs were increased or the groin piece was altered slightly as the figure, or at least mine, cannot stand with her legs together like in the prototype.
HOWEVER... it looks like the neck was inexplicably lengthened, which combined with the undersized head, just looks really, really odd at any angle where the neck isn't tilted. Perhaps to add even more insult to injury, Juri, who caters to the foot fetish crowd, actually has thiccer thighs than freakin' Mai, which is unacceptable AND leaves Mai still looking waifish. This is most evident in an poses that require her to stick out her legs.
I also wish they had increased the arm girth, both for aesthetic and practical reasons.
The faces are... adequate. They're certainly identifiable as Mai, but they're not even remotely close to the character and to be completely frank, range from OK to Gollum, especially the face with the closed mouth. Part of it is the small size, but in general I've found that many of the Storm female faces lack any real muscle definition. They get marginally better as you get less and less mouth, though the eyes are again, kind of generic.
Decent number of accessories, though like with most Mai figures, there's always something missing. You get a closed fan, and open fan, a thrown fan, and her Flaming Bee Attack effect. I don't recall Mai having the two fan spinning attack in KoF '98 nor do I recall her having the flame pillar attack (I think that made its debut in Fatal Fury Real Bout) but there's yet again, no Flaming Tail attack effect and also, sadly, her Tassels are made of soft plastic. There's no manual, and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to attach the stand to the Flaming Bee Attack effect like in the stock photos.
Articulation is mostly as expected, with a few weird twists. The shoulders, arms, knees, and feet work as you would expect. Starting with the torso, the aforementioned soft rubber tassels, specifically the bow on her lower back, along with the fact they made her torso one piece have eliminated the entire point of articulation in the abdominal area.
One win/lose choice is the ass, specifically to have the ass cheeks and the thigh together in one piece. Aesthetically it looks much better when she's standing, but in most other poses it just looks weird. The other problem is that because of the bulk, articulation of the hips/thigh are restricted.
A final stroke of weirdness, sort of, is the neck. Now, I was happy that Juri got a fully articulated neck. Well, that joy was short lived as the restricted neck is back, but there is some movement at least.
To summarize, her neck articulation is optimized to allow for many, many, MANY poses where Mai is bent at the waist and showing off the goods.
Other facets of the figure are per Storm Collectibles norm. I just wish they had made the dangling bits off the fan not as easy to come off.
While I was out this evening picking up the CMOS battery for BlackFlame, as well as dinner- I stopped into my local EB Games to preorder my copy of Mario Kart Wii!
Usurper King Zant is my favorite character of all time, and the balance of my existence. I preordered this statue a year in advance and spent a huge amount of time saving up on my meager college student income. He was worth the wait and the money. He is my prized possession.
My girlfriend preordered a D800 back in march and she still hasn't gotten it... She was getting antsy, so she bought some lenses. She picked up the Nikkor 50mm Æ’1.4G & the Nikkor 14-24mm Æ’2.8G. I told her what an amazing lens it is, and I thought it compliment her style too.
Well it only fits on my camera now, she's switching from a Canon Rebel... I went out and shot this quick photo and I love the lens myself.