Reviews

Review – Marvel Legends – Blade (Man-Thing Wave)

The recent Man-Thing BAF wave of Marvel Legends is also known as the Netflix Wave. Primarily because it consists of Netflix versions of several characters, namely, Daredevil, The Punisher, Elektra and Jessica Jones. The wave also includes some comic characters though, mostly ones that make sense. Bullseye and Blade are both sort of in the same “street level” department as out Netflix heroes. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I almost wonder if this is sort of a secret preview for some possible future shows from Netflix. Bullseye is too much of a Daredevil staple that I would be incredibly surprised if he doesn’t show up for Season 3, for example. Could a Blade Series be int he works? Maybe a Man-Thing movie?

This iteration of Blade is particularly nice because his design works pretty well as both a comic book and a potential MCU Blade figure. He isn’t based directly on any particular live action Blade (Wesley Snipes or Sticky Fingaz), but he looks like he’s a normal human enough to fit in with an MCU display. Contrast this with, for example, Bullseye from this same wave, who sort of works but has those slightly exaggerated comic features that make him stand out a bit from all of the realistic MCU designs. I only really bring up the MCU at all because this is the “Netflix Wave” and this is full of MCU designs.

The figure itself is… ok-ish. I actually have a few issues with the body design. For starters, his chest is huge. By chick I mean, his upper chest. It’s almost comically oversized even by comic standards, because it looks so disproportionate next to his lower body. Blade definitely feels like he’s been skipping leg day quite a bit. His bare arms also look a little funky and are full of really ugly joints. A lot of figures get away with the ugly joints by hiding those parts with armor or some sort of suit, but because it’s just bare skin, they really stick out. His shoulders are particularly weird in places, they remind me a lot of Cable, where the shoulders are almost set too low to look human. His sword scabbard/bandolier is also fits oddly, it doesn’t really have any good place where it feels right and it’s generally pretty loose all around. The sword works well in it and the basic idea is there, I just kind of wish it fit his body better.

These design issues are kind of a shame because otherwise the paint and sculpt are pretty great. The heads both look really good and his chest armor and legs all are nicely done. I feel like some better choices on the arms would have really helped this figure come off less weird looking. I almost wonder if there was some thought to giving him a coat at some point as well, since putting the new figure int he old Wesley Snipes Blade’s coat goes a long way to hide a lot of the flaws.

Overall, while Blade is not a terrible figure, he’s not without his flaws. Blade’s time kind of feels like it’s come and gone though and he’s kind of a niche hero, so chances are there isn’t going to be another Blade release in the Marvel Legends line anytime soon. I will say, as much as I like the old Toybiz Snipes Blade, comparing the two, the new one feels more solid and poseable overall, so he is a good upgrade. Giving him the old coat helps as well, if you have one floating around.

Review – Transformers – Titans Return – Topspin and Twintwist

Oct 12th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Where Combiner Wars did it’s duty by giving us remakes of all of the original Combiner Transformers, it also used that opportunity to repaint all of those molds into different versions of the original G1 Autobots. Titans Return has been moving into a lot more interesting territory. There’s a lot more updates of Targetmasters, Movie bots and in this case, Jumpstarters. Topspin and Twintwist were a pair of very similar G1 bots that had one specific gimmick. Pull them back, and a motor would speed the vehicle along and eventually it would pop up and land on it’s robot feet. The entire transformation was literally “fold in half at the waist”.

Topspin got sort of an update with the movie line, he appeared in Dark of the Moon as one of the Wreckers, as a blue Lowes NASCAR. His toy even got a gray colored repaint that kind of worked as his buddy Twintwist. This iteration had pretty much nothing in common with his namesake aside from a vaguely Blue and White color theme. The original jumpstarters are more of a turquoise than a blue.

Titans Return has given us a proper update to this pair. Topspin came first but Twintwist is a straight remold of the Topspin mold. The new mold isn’t an exact replica of the original space ship/tank thingy, but it’s close enough, and the originals were kind of misshapen anyway to help accommodate the auto transform gimmick. The transformation is also an actual transformation now, and naturally a lot more complicated. It’s still reminiscent of the original. The bulky back end becomes the legs with the sides becoming the arms and the end result looks pretty close to the original robot with better proportions as well.

Like a lot of Transformers lines, the later figures tend to be get better all around, and Topspin is no exception. He’s definitely one of if not the best mold in the line. The closest rival is Triggerhappy. A lot is helped by the way his transformation does a good job of hiding a lot of the hollow bits that have been prevalent lately. He also does a lot of interesting twists and flips that help him feel like he actually has a complex transformation. Something else lacking in a lot of figures lately. Particularly of note is his arms, which do this neat open up and collapse in on the shoulder and hand, often it’s a trick done on one end or the other, not both.

Both vehicles do a great job of lending itself to the Titan Master gimmick. The space ship design is perfect for a cockpit for the small robot to sit in and pilot. The little drill tank of Twintwist is a great vehicle for these little guys as well. Neither was originally a Headmaster but the gimmick fits well.

Topspin and Twintwist are definitely a top notch toys for the Titans Return line. Twintwist is slightly weaker than his mold originator Topspin. The guns don’t work as well in the tank mold and the tank dreads kind of just hang off and look ugly in robot mode vs Topspin’s wings. There’s been a lot of hits in this line but this mold one of the best. It’s a solid update of a unique and interesting G1 design with a modern appeal layered on top.

Review – Metroid: Samus Returns (3DS)

Sep 26th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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The Good

Solid game play from a solid franchise
Nice little additions and changes from the original Metroid II
Good visuals

The Bad

Repetitive enemies and play mechanics
Bosses are disproportionately difficult compared to everything else
Very linear game play for a “Metroidvania” style game.

In Depth

Metroid: Samus Returns is a 3DS update and remake of the original Metroid II on Game Boy. It’s essentially to Metroid II, what Zero Mission is to the original Metroid. The maps in Samus Returns are a little closer to the original Metroid II maps than Zero Mission and Metroid, but there are some changes and additions. Samus Returns adds Super Missiles and power bombs to Samus’ arsenal, for example, and there is a map revealing scope mechanism as well as the addition fo the Grappling beam. A lot of the added items are things added during Metroid 3, that became regular staples of the series.

The entire game also has a modern overhaul. Instead of sprites, everything is polygons and the game is playable in 3D mode, though it is a 2D platform title. Only one new boss uses the 3D mechanics in 3D space, everything else operates in classic 2D Metroid style. I really enjoy this style of game, so I am admittedly biased towards the play style. The game is lacking a bit in the Metroidvania department however. A lot of the areas have 2 or 3 main path loops that the player must traverse and there isn’t a lot of backtracking done aside from picking up items later, and a lot of this backtracking needs to be done close to the end of the game since you don’t even find the weapon needed to unlock these items until later in the game. The game itself is broken up into 8 Areas, all generically named “Area”. The Areas are gate blocked by special pedestals that only open the way after collecting a certain number of Metroid DNA samples. There isn’t a lot of explanation to what these pedestals are but it’s most likely Chozo related, in classic Metroid fashion.

The core of the game is fun, and everything about the remake works well and helps flesh out the game play from the original title. Metroid II has always been one of the weaker titles in the series and fleshing it out and giving it a bit more connection to the world of Metroid at large. Despite taking place on the homeworld of the alien Metroid creatures, it’s always felt a little separated. Partly because even the Metroids themselves are all mutated “mature” versions that don’t fit the usual Bubble with Claws image of what a Metroid is supposed to be.

Which leads into the core problem with this game, and with Metroid II. The basic plot involves killing Metroids of various types, more powerful than the last, in order to proceed through the game. There are 4 types of Metroids, not counting the Queen, and you fight each type several times. These 40 fights end up being extremely samey as a result. This problem is exacerbated by Alpha and Gamma Metroid being, more or less the same thing and each of the Omega Metroid battles are literally identical. There is some variation in the fights by using different environments, sometimes over lava or damaging plants or around movement hindering water, but they all use the same general mechanics until you each the Omega Metroids. Some of the battles have these moments where the Metroid runs off into a nearby room, which honestly just makes things even more tedious since it mostly just means passing a simple and annoying ball mode tunnel puzzle to progress the fight.

This repetition in boss fights isn’t helped by the normal level enemies either, there’s something like 6 or 7 different ones in different colors that you face… over… and over… and over… They respawn extremely quickly as well, so sometimes just traveling back and forth a room you get to battle the same enemies over and over. The game also introduces this gimmicky melee counter attack. Enemies will charge you, you counter them, then you effectively one shot them if the counter hits. If you miss, or just try to kill the enemy, you get to shoot it normally, often a dozen or more times. The whole thing is designed around encounter, wait for charge, counter attack, kill, which itself is slow and tedious the 100th time you perform the action.

There is a new boss that’s added to the game that shows up a few times. A large Chozo digging robot pops up early on, awakened by Samus. It later shows up during a stage sequence where you must outrun it’s massive destructive drill arms while passing over and through obstacles. Eventually you battle it out with the boss. It’s probably the most difficult boss in the game, though not the final boss, and it’s a nice change of pace from the repetition of the Metroids.

Despite the repetition, it’s a fun game. It’s not the best Metroid title but it’s a welcome update to one of the less enjoyably and probably less played games int he Metroid franchise. The new additions do a lot of good freshening things up and the updated graphics are a great step up from the cramped old Game Boy title.

Sentinel – Mega Man (Classic)

Aug 2nd, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Mega Man is one video game series I have extremely fond childhood memories of. I’ve played and finished all of the games and Mega Man 3 is one title that I played religiously back in the day. It’s a series that just begs for a good toy line but it seems like it will never achieve the greatness I had always hoped with hundreds of Robot Masters. Years ago Jazwares put out a short lived line and I snapped all of them up, despite their mediocre quality. I’ve dabbled a bit in some of the model kits as well. The newest contender in the realm of Mega Man is Sentinel Toys. Unfortunately they seem to just be keeping the same cycle of releasing only variations of Mega Man. There was a Cut Man but it was part of a limited 2 pack. I don’t think they have even ventured out into the realm of Proto Man, Bass, or Zero as of this review.

So I opted to pick up the standard classic Mega Man, to give the line a try. These figures of course carry an import level price, but since they are a bit smaller they aren’t too far out on the high end. Mega Man is small to be sure, he’s quite a bit smaller than I had expected, but he is sold and advertised as 4 inches, so I don’t really know what I expected. The sculpt and design is nice and crisp, though there are a lot of visible joint seams.

The seams do sort of work here, given Mega Man is a robot, but it does break up the sculpt, especially when viewed from behind. He does end up with a really nice range of articulation however as a result of all of these joints. He can make many classic Mega Man style poses easily and holds them quite well.

Mega man includes a stand as well as a couple of alternate hands, an alternate face, and a blaster arm. These are all easily swap-able and help give some variety for posing and display. The little extra bits for storage are nice but they don’t really do a lot to keep the pieces together.

Is this the best Mega Man figure available? It’s hard to say. It’s better than the Jazwares one by light years, but Revoltech has put out a few nice looking Mega Man figures as well. He also isn’t quite as stylized or squat as others may want in a Mega man figure, the design is closer to the newer artwork than the older artwork and the games. He’s definitely a nice figure though, and relatively affordable as Imports go. He also fits pretty well with other Video Game figures like the Figuarts Mario, Figma Samus and Figma Link.

Review – Transformers – RiD – Megatronus

Jun 15th, 2017

by Ramen Junkie.

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Megatronus was the first in a surge of Decepticons added to the Robots in Disguise line. Poor Steeljaw would no longer have to face the Autobot army alone. This toy has been released in a few versions, with and without a facemask and a few paint tweaks, this particular version covers the Megatronus release that was exclusive to Toys R Us.

I have to admit, I don’t follow the show, so I’m not sure where Megatronus falls into the hierarchy of things. I believe Steeljaw is actually the leader of the Decepticons and Megatronus is not the same character as Megatron, though the former is the namesake of the latter. Megatronus originally, in the Transformer Mythos was one of the original 13 Primes, and is more commonly known as The Fallen, though I don’t know if that title applies here.

Despite that he isn’t Megatron, he certainly kind of looks like Megatron, and whether or not he is The Fallen, he also feels “special” compared to the other Decepticons in the line. Primarily because he doesn’t seem to really have an animal theme, like the other Decepticons. He’s very much just a tank robot.

Another sign that this guy isn’t Megatron is his complete lack of a Fusion/arm canon. Instead, Megatronus comes with a little sword weapon, which can be weilded in a variety of ways. It can be mounted on one arm as a blade weapon, or held like a standard sword. The tank most also works both with and without the sword attached.

Probably the coolest part of this toy is the transformation. Hasbro has been doing a lot of interesting things lately with Transformations, and Megatronus has some cool tricky that keep the Transformation elegantly simple. The legs in particular, formed from the treads, do a neat little fold over trick. Also notable, since the entire torso is the turret of the tank and the treads are the base, he ends up with a fully rotating turret and a usable waist joint.

The only real issue with this toy is that, given the character and design, he really just feels too small. Megatronus really is a character who needs to be imposing, not this tiny little tank. It’s still a nice figure, he just may pair better with the legends scale than the other Deluxes.