Reviews

Action Toys – Voltron Vehicle Force

Jul 24th, 2024

Everyone knows the classic Voltron version with its 5 lions. There have been a few versions from the Stealth Voltron and Netflix Voltron and the newer Modern Voltron. There was also an additional team though that was made up of 15 vehicles, divided into three teams, colloquially called, “Vehicle Voltron.”

Like the Lions, it was based on a Japanese series, in this case, Dairugger XV. I have always really loved the Vehicle Voltron design, even though the Lions always got all the love.

Ok, more specifically, I like the combined mode design more, the separated designs are, kind of lame in the majority of cases. There are three teams based around land, sea, and air, each consisting of 5 vehicles each. Some of the vehicles are neat. The helicopters and the little trucks are cool. The battleship looking ones are alright. The head is cool.

A lot of the others are essentially just, “A box on wheels.”. Some have little flip out towers or whatnot to give them a bit more variety, but they are still just, weird boxes.

Each of the three teams can form a combined vehicle. They also all combine into one larger robot.

The real fun of this is definitely the combined robot. It’s surprisingly articulated and hides the joints in the blocky vehicles that make up most of its torso and pelvis very well.

Some of the articulation is tricky to use though. Mostly because some of the actual connection joints feel a bit fragile. This is not a model kit, but it very much has the FEEL of a model kit. It’s light weight, pretty stiff plastic 5+3 joint tolerances for the connections feel a bit too type.

I still really dig it though. And it helps fill out the little collection of similarly sized robots and Kaiju I have been working on building up very nicely. It’s a little smaller than my Die Cast modern Voltron, but not so much that it’s super out of place. I am really hoping it scales well with the Moderoid Lion Voltron I have on the way (which IS a model).

BringArts – Final Fantasy VII – Tifa Lockhart

by Ramen Junkie.

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I probably don’t really need to reiterate my overall criticisms of this line from my Cloud write-up. I will add that, I was inspired to start this line when I saw Wave 2 had Yuffie, who is my favorite character from the game. But this Tifa looked super great and was part of what pushed me to go ahead and get the rest of them.

That and Cid and Cait Sith both look great, and kind of round out my top 3 of this game.

Tifa was harder to find though. Since I was starting with the announcement of the second set, the first group was basically sold out everywhere. I was able to piece together Cloud, Barret, Aeris, and even Sephiroth between BBTS and Amazon. But Tifa was nowhere. I think at this point she is actually more available for a second run, but I ended up getting her from USA Gundam Store, a place I had not ordered from but reports were it was alright.

Overall, she does actually feel nicer than Cloud. Her joints are hidden better overall for one. She has a second face plate for another, though she has less alternate hands and no weapon. The weapon part is understandable, she fights with kicks and punches.

The figure’s balance is a bit weaker than Cloud but probably partly because being a brawler, I have been trying to put her into more exaggerated poses. She does come with a stand at least, to help hold her up.

My only real complaint is the hair. It has a sort of, permenant side swoosh going on. It feels like they could have put some sort of hidden rotation joint in there to let it pose swooshing the other way, or just straight down. Feels like something Bandai or Max Factory would have done, and kind of touches on the complaints I had about in my Cloud write up about the poor bang for your buck value on this line.

Overall though, she is a super nice figure.

BringArts – Final Fantasy VII – Cloud Strife

Jul 10th, 2024

by Ramen Junkie.

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Final Fantasy, and Final Fantasy VII were once a pretty big part of my interest many years ago. I probably would not be Ramen Junkie online if not for alt.games.final-fantasy on Usenet. FFVII is probably the most popular game in the series, and while I prefer FFX, a lot of people consider it to be the best.

With the recent remakes, and all the spin off games and movies, the original character designs felt like they were kind of pushed to the side. I don’t really pay much attention to any of Square’s various “Arts” lines either I did not even realize these were being made until I got an email about the second “wave” with Yuffie, Cid, Vincent and Cait Sith. Fortunately, I was able to put in orders for the first group that I had missed.

I am going to put this out though up front. I missed the existence of these because I don’t follow BringArts because they are way overpriced. I have made an exception on these figures because I really like this game and these designs, but they are all overpriced. And I buy plenty of pricey “premium” figures. For the amount of accessories and the size, you get less than a Figma or S.H. Figuarts for 50% more in price.

Also, since this is the first of these, I wanted to mention Square’s lines a bit. They have several lines, all called “Arts”, two of which are figures. Originally it was PlayArts, these were around 7-8″ tall, larger than a standard 1/12th figure. Then it was PlayArts Kai (PAK) which were even larger figures with a bit of dramatic style to them. More recently they started doing BringArts, which are closer to Figma/Figuarts and 1/12th scale. I don’t have a ton of interest in the huge PAK figures, but these Bring Arts figures were neat and a better size.

So, enough history what about the figure itself?

Overall, Cloud looks really nice. These are modeled more on the original art than the goofy PS1 era 3D models. The sculpt is nice and crisp and the colors are really good.

The main issue on Cloud are some of the joints, specifically in the legs. In a static pose everything is fine, but the knees are extremely ugly when bent. It’s a huge single joint with no attempt to hide it in the sculpt. There are plenty of figures of characters with baggy pants that are able to mask the joints from other companies.

Otherwise pose-ability is alright. He is fairly easy to balance and his joints are stuff enough to hold a pose, which is especially important with his arms, since his sword is quite large.

The bigger issue for the articulation is the hips have a tendency to pop off. It’s not as loose and annoying as I have had with some MAFEX figures, but it’s there. It affects both hips, but on mine it’s worse on (Cloud’s) right hip.

He also only has one facial expression, which, granted, is pretty consistent for Cloud “…..” Strife. He has 4 extra hands (2 alternate sets) and his Buster Sword, to round out his accessories.

Another sword option would have been a nice extra to a have, though the Buster Sword is quite iconic and would likely be the only thing anyone used anyway. Maybe some sort of slashing effect piece or something would have been a good accessory to pad things out a bit.

A lot of this is not really bad, except it feels bad when paired with the premium premium pricing Square charges for these figures. I could forgive all of this a lot more easily on. Figure that was half or even just three quarters the price. For a $100+ figure, it’s kind of unacceptable how lazy it feels.

I also probably should mention, I think originally these had some sort of NFT nonsense attached to them, but I believe I saw somewhere those were removed for some reissues. There may have been something in the box but I have no care or interest in that.

All in all, Cloud isn’t a bad figure, he just, costs too much.

Review – Transformers – G1 – Rodimus Prime

Apr 5th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before and chances are you already know, but a while back, Hasbro re-released several of the old G1 toys in commemorative packaging with, unfortunately, commemorative pricing. They ran 30 to 40 dollars each and were exclusive to Toys R Us. A few people bought it, but most didn’t. They made it to clearance and the occasionally discount clearinghouse store.

That’s why I picked up Rodimus, sort of. Unlike Perceptor or the Incecticons, I wasn’t interested in him at 40 dollars. But for 8 bucks, I figure, how can one go wrong. Well, it’s possible you can.

Let’s make a positive upswing for a second. I like Rodimus Prime’s vehicle mode. There is something really classy about a supped up RV with flames and huge pipes. Seriously, who came up with this design, it’s brilliant. Vacationing in style.

It’s also huge. He dwarfs the Autobot cars and is pretty large even when compared to modern deluxes. The whole thing is pretty solid and the 6 rubber tires are really cool. This mode is the reason to buy Rodimus.

The robot mode is pretty lame unfortunately. Granted I’m all about Articulation and proportions but I can be flexible. I’ve also recently picked up G1 Smokescreen and he’s got a really slick robot mode. Rodimus is way too tall and his limited articulation (shoulders only) make for a very boring toy. His shoulders also end up set a bit low on his body making the ugliness shine through even more.

The legs all end up under the trailer anyway, so it’s not like they could not have easily remedied the “too tall” thing. Sixty to Seventy percent of the body is legs. I’m not saying Hasbro should have remolded this toy for the re-release, I’m just commenting on the original design here. I guess the point of the toy being tall was to help him stand out as the leader of the Autobots.

When in robot mode, his trailer/camper back becomes a gun emplacement. The height is adjustable so shorter Transformers cam operate it just as easily as Rodimus can. It also includes a pair of attachable shield panels to help protect the user from incoming fire. My only real complaint with the gun base is that 1, you can’t open it while it’s attached to the Rodimus car and the turret doesn’t rotate at the base, just at the top, which is better than nothing. Otherwise it’s pretty slick.

So overall, Rodimus is still a decent toy. The robot mode leaves much to be desired but the Gun Base and vehicle mode are really nice. He’s probably not worth the original steep price, but if you can get him cheap, you might consider it. Still he’s likely to be a bit bland for anyone who is not a G1 enthusiast.

Power Rangers Lightning Collection Eye Guy

Jan 30th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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Of all of these Lightning Collection monsters, Eye Guy is one that differes quite a bit from the show design. For one, he’s a lot more bulked out. The original costume has a weird design and you can tell the person inside is a lot smaller than the suit by the weird arms. It’s not inaccurate, it’s just a bit more stylized.

The eyes are also a lot less detailed than the actual suit, which is likely a cost cutting measure. That said, there are a lot of eyes and it’s kind of creepy.

I also think the accessories are neat. I have no memory of this monster on the show but there is essentially a separate dismembered eye, I’m not sure if this is intended to be the same eye that makes up the main head or a second large eye since most creatures have two eyes. Both are compatible with a beam effect that can be attached over the iris itself. The beam effect is a bit short but I’m not sure a long beam would have been much better, so it’s probably just fine in the end.

The big monster’s eye also has a closing eye lit that let’s it “blink”. The power Rangers Wiki suggests that this eye is the weak spot for this particular monster. He’s a creepy huge beast though. I like it quite a bit.