Reviews

Toy Story 2 Dynamic 8ction Heroes DAH-074 Al McWhiggin

As a toy collector, this felt like a figure that was a weird requirement to own. It’s also a figure that feels less likely to get a lot of toys. He was the villain for Toy Story 2, for the most part, but Toy Story toys tend to revolve around the Toy characters, who are all “toy sized.” Plus he is just kind of a goofy weird design in general.

I was a little warry because I don’t really know anything about the company making these. Buying from lesser known companies isn’t always an issue, and neither is buying from companies that may or may not be making unlicensed toys, though in this case, Al here is probably licensed. There are a lot of Disney characters available when searching for “Dynamic 8ction Heroes”. They seem to make slightly less mainstream characters from popular properties.

My other big worry, and probably still my bigger annoyance, is the weird 8″ scale. As implied by the term “8ction”. I mostly try to stick with 1/12th scale, but for a lot of stuff that is closer to whatever 5″ is I can sort of fudge it as height differences and whatever 7″ would be actually works better for a lot of non human characters. This guy is really big though. Way to big to “fake it”. Even way to big to “fake it” with the few 7″ figures I have. I imagine sticking to this size is part of whatever licensing deal they have, kind of how “Super 7” is all “7 inches”.

He does look alright next to Revoltech woody though. I know Woody wouldn’t be anywhere in scale, but it some how does work, which is fine, because in the end, Woody is the only one he really needs to display with. I don’t have a Buzz to pair up with him though.

There was plenty I do like about this figure though. He has cloth goods clothing for starters, which is always my Achilles heel for toy likes. Al’s clothes fit and work really nicely too.

The other fun bit is the ridiculous Chicken Suit. It’s actually, mostly kind of functional. You shove the figure up in this large rubber chicken suit, and cover his feet with some little cloth chicken feet. There is also a piece of soft material to help stabilize it all. Maybe technically you are supposed to not use it, but you can’t see it and it helps everything stay together. The overall effect works really well. It’s goofy and I love it.

Another neat bit is that he has poseable eyeballs, which, appropriately, match the poseable eyeballs on Revoltech Woody. Both of the faces have the poseable eyes. He also has several alternate hand styles and small versions of Woody, Jessie, Bullseye, and Stinky Pete, though they are not removable from their little display trays.

Overall, it’s admittedly, kind of a weird piece, but it seems like an appropriate one for a toy collector to have, since his character is a toy collector. On another side note, the box for this guy is absolutely humongous.

BringArts – Final Fantasy VII – Tifa Lockhart

Jul 17th, 2024

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 – Soul Blazer (SNES)

Jun 30th, 2023

by Ramen Junkie.

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On a bit of a whim, I decided to pick up and play through Soul Blazer for the SNES. I know I have heard of this game previously ages ago, probably in Nintendo Power, I’m surprised I never tried it in the past honestly. Anyway, it turns out it’s a bit of a hidden gem of a game. It kind of feels like if Gauntlet and Zelda had a baby, though it’s better than Gauntlet, not as good as Zelda.

You play as this sort of spiritual angel entity, come to the world to save it from destruction, except the destruction has basically already happened. There are 7 stages, and each stage works the same basic way. You arrive into a barren area, then travel through one or more dungeon areas connected to the main hub. As you progress, you defeat enemy spawners by killing the enemies each one spawns, which allows you to free the souls of creatures, people, and related objects in each zone. Basically, once finished with an area, you’ll have constructed a little town.

This also occasionally means returning to the town to do little additional mini missions to unlock new abilities or weapons or armor in order to proceed. It’s a neat system. Sometimes you even have to return to previous areas to unlock new things. In fact it’s a bit required because you can’t complete the game without at least going back and unlocking the Phoenix spell.

An airship with an ignition, what will they think of next???

Along the way you also unlock more and more of the story. Most of the plot revolves around leader characters who knew of this character Dr. Leo, who was forced to develop a portal to the world of evil which is why the world has been wiped out. Or something along those lines. There are even a few twists along the way near the end that aren’t quite as expected.

New unlocks aren’t even necessarily straight upgrades either. Though they are an upgrade in base defense or offense, they often contain unique additional special abilities. Like wearing the bubble armor to navigate under water, or the Ice armor to navigate over certain hot spot floors (which even return in a later stage).

Finally, a shopkeeper in an RPG who APPRECIATES THE EFFORT.

Though this does lead to one of, if not my chief complaint on the game. You essentially have 4 equitable slots, sword, shield, magic and item. You can only have one active item at a time. This almost feels like a way for the designers to remove the ability to become a bit OP. Not all items are useful, but for example, you can carry one (freely replenished) medical herb, which will revive you upon death (once). Or a strange pot that lets you keep your magic points between deaths. Or other items like bracelets that let you take half damage or not spend magic, or do double damage. It kind of feels like, at the minimum, the herb and strange pot should just work automatically, since they are consumable items. The pots can’t even be obtained outside of regular game play, you just find them in chests.

I mean, I get that complaining about a 30 year old game is kind of pointless and all, but it’s worth mentioning. The game itself is still a lot of fun and it’s an interesting gameplay loop.

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.