THE STARS ABIDE

Having already explained what I love and hate about Final Fantasy in my review of Lightning, I'll let it slide this time. Suffice to say that while I dislike the storytelling of the series, I am in awe of their designs. Vanille is no exception. This particular figure is based on the playable character in Final Fantasy XIII which was just released a week or so ago and is a very nice rendition of the "mysterious but upbeat young girl" as she appears in the game.

Again, like the old Play Arts figures, Oerba Dia Vanille comes in a plainly shaped box with a nice big window on it that shows off most of the figure, as well as the accessories that come with it. She has comes with two extra hands and two versions of her fishing rod; one folded and one extended.

When I first saw these, I had no idea about what the game was about, and I still have no real intention to play it. I thought the rod was some kind of magic staff from some kind of pantheistic religion that the other games seemed to have. Apparently, it's "a foldable fishing rod with multiple lines that can be reeled and used to attack enemies" (Wikipedia).

It looks rather odd to say the least, and I can't fathom how it is actually meant to be effective in combat, but it's a video game, so I'll cut them some slack. I hear that there's anime out there with characters that use giant staplers for weapons, so this is small potatoes right here.

In game, the rod is supposed to fold up and fit behind her back, but like they did with Lightning's Blaze Edge, they just gave us two seperate pieces. A word to the wise, you're going to want to be extra careful with them. I've already broken the folded one twice and had to glue the "arms" to the main body to keep it from snapping off again.

The folded version fits nicely in a pair of hoops that are attached to her fur skirt. The hoops have little nubs in them that are supposed to lock into holes in the skirt, but it doesn't work nearly as well as Lightning's holster. Still, you'd need to really work at it if you wanted the rod to fall out, so it's not a big deal.

The extended staff/rod looks really... ridiculous. There's no other word for it really. As a weapon it doesn't look effective at all, which is why I thought it was a staff or wand for a magic user. Who knows, maybe in game she grows into that role, but you'll need to ask one of those Game reviewers about that.

The staff is pretty slender and fits easily into her clenched pair of hands. It's so slender that it's actually a loose fit, so tends to flop around a lot. Again, it's not a big problem, since there are plenty of ways to pose her where it doesn't matter.

The other thing that's included with the figure is a stand. I've already explained the cons and... cons of this stand so I won't go into to much detail.

Let's just say that it took me FOREVER to balance her in the pose in the second picture below:

Articulation is just as impressive as the other female figure of this line. She's got just as many joints (give or take a few) as Lightning and is just as flexible. Like Lightning, she does suffer from some pretty loose hinges, but that is preferable to locked joints, especially in something that costs this much money (Php 2,300.00).

Below is a peek (pun intended) at the hip joints that Square Enix put into her. If she didn't have that skirt covering that set up, it would be awful, but thankfully, the design really does well in hiding it all.

Sculpt is even more impressive than the first figure. While I have to say I like Lightning more than Vanille overall, I can't fault her design or details. There is so much more here than on the other toy. From the tiny beadwork on her bag and necklace, the awesome pigtails that seem to flow naturally no matter how you turn them (yes, there are joints there, too), to the fur textures on her skirt; all of it is amazing.

The extra pair of hands are included as well, but they're really just soft gesturing poses. Good for casting I guess. I just use one set and left the others in the small box where I keep all my extra body parts. One day I'm gonna collect all those extra parts and make me a monster.

Scale wise... she's a monster. While she's no where near the 12" mark, she's getting there. She's a full head over the old Final Fantasy toys, and taller than even my GI Joe Sigma 6. Sad, really, since I used to display Play Arts and Joes together since the Joe line up was such a sausage fest. Hasbro I hate you for never making a Scarlett figure.

The height is still passable really, if you have them in an action pose, or if you pretend she's a supermodel in heels and the Joes are all Asian.

Overall, I think this was still a pretty good buy, especially since the production runs didn't seem all that crazy, and stores didn't import them in terribly large numbers. If I decide that I don't need to keep her, I could probably get a good price for the figure down the road and only lose a couple hundred bucks or so.

However, if you're going to only buy one of these figures, I'd have to recommend Lightning. She is just so much more impressive than Vanille.

I was afraid I wasn't going to be able to get a War Machine from the new 3.75" movie line, but luckily, with the help of Cybertron Philippines and some friends, I was able to score this short-packed figure at the suggested retail price of Php 450.00. For those overseas, that's about $9.00 to $10.00 depending on our exchange rate. Of all the toys released so far, this has got to be the one that really feels worth the asking price.

Though it's not as big as the Iron Monger, it has one of the best sculpts of the line, and comes with some relevant accesories that fit well and really complete the look of the figure.

The Variable Threat Response Battle Suit Mark II, Model JRXL-1000 is worn by James Rhodes, Tony Stark's right hand man in the comics, and his military liason in the movie. As a Vietnam vet and an engineer, he's got skills. He needs all of that training to pilot this thing because it's packing heat.

The list of weaponry is as follows:

Repulsors
Multifunctional unibeam projector
Pulse bolt generators
Retractable shoulder minigun
variable-configured double-barrel cannons
Gauntlet mounted flamethrower
Plasma blade on the left gauntlet
Heat seeking missile launchers
Missile box launcher
Micro-rocket launcher
Particle beam discharger
Electromagnetic pulse generator
Pulse cannon
Retractable back mounted weapon pods

This doesn't even include his photon emitter force shield, forcefield-based stealth technology, boot-jet propulsion, self-contained breathing system, carbon-composite-based steel mesh armor, solar charged power systems, tactical computer system with automatic laser guided weapons targeting.

Imagine all that coming at you when all you in a war zone, and you'll see why every toy of this guy dissappears from shelves so quickly.

In this case, the figure is just about as accurate as you can get in this scale. I've been checking on various art from the books and it's damn near perfectly matched to the illustrations. This is one mean looking bastard.

His shoulder mounted rocket launcher and Gatling gun are there, as are his arm mounted guns. The unibeam and repulsors can also be seen (though he can't really use the repulsors since his hands are sculpted in place). The shoulder ordanance actually pivots on their mounts, and slide down his back when not in use. That means he's got a pretty wide kill zone with that chain gun of his.

He comes with some very cool accessories. If you have the 6" War Machine from the old Toy Biz Marvel Legends line, then you remember that he comes with some righteous translucent pieces that attach to his launcher and cannon to simulate what they'd look like in the thick of things. This itty-bitty War Machine also has those and they make him look pretty mean.

I do wish that he came with some boot jets or an exhast stand like the Comic Classic Armor, but if you have some of the other figures in the line, you can add on the flamethrower or repulsor beam attachments to his hands and have a proper party.

The figure also comes with the "armor cards" that are a signature of the line. As a signature I think they're pretty innocuous. Happily, they don't affect the toys' sculpt or articulation in any way and can either be left off or included in the display.

Sadly, there are other things that do hamper his articulation. I don't really understand why, but the designers decided to switch things around with this toy. Rather than have the shoulder armor as a seperate, removable piece like the Power Assualt Armor's, they attached it by a hinge to War Machine's body. That means that when the shoulder guard is down, he looks great, but he can't move his arm foward or back. If you move it up so that the arm can move, it looks awful. Moving the arm to the side looks passable, so that's gotta me your choice if you're going to display him.

The rest of his joints are pretty much on par with the rest of them. He only has a swivel neck, and his torso joint/ab crunch is severly limited due to the chest peice, but I can live with both.

Paint wise, he's one of the most consistent in the line. I saw maybe 8 examples of him at the toy launch and none of them was particularly awful. There was one that had a slightly dark smudge on the lighter silver paint, but it was small error and I'd still have gotten it if that had been the last one left.

Once I had him out of the package, I couldn't help but compare him to the old 6" version. I was never really satisfied with that one because I was bothered with the stocky frame and the long arms, as well as with the faceplate, that kind of reminded me of a monkey. The weapons on that one also felt like afterthoughts. Since the figure was built off the old Silver Centurion mold, that could have been the case. The Gatling gun didn't even point up.

Glad to report that this version looks much better than that one. Better proportions, better hands, better face plate, better guns. Basically all that was wrong with that old toy is improved in this one. Except scale. If this was 3" taller, it would be awesome.

Compared to the other figures in the line, he might he a smidgen taller. Maybe half a head. You wouldn't really notice unless he were standing back to back with another figure. Nice touch since I've always imagined that this thing would have more raw power than Iron Man if only for the fact that he has so much more ordanance to haul around.

So, verdict then?

This time, the hype is right. If you only get one figure from those that have been released locally so far, I'd suggest War Machine. The impressive sculpting, good paint applications, and awesome accessories really sell this toy for me. It's really too bad that it's the hardest one to find, but I'd think that would be the case even if Hasbro had decided to pack this 3 per case.

He's just that popular.

This is another toy I borrowed from Shit Critic, along with the Venom The Madness and toys. Though it's not as flash as those toy figures, you have to admit that it's got a certain style to it.

One can't help but love The Tick. He was created by cartoonist Ben Edlund as an absurdist version of your friendly neighborhood superheroes way back in 1986. By 1994, fox had made him famous with an animated series that spawned a lot of media attention which eventually led to the 1995 toy line from Bandai. The line covered many of the show's characters, including The Tick's sidkick Arthur, Die Fledermaus, El Seed, and Man Eating Cow.

This particular Tick comes from the "Tick Talkers" sub-line of the same year. There were 4 toys (re-tools/re-colors) in the line and the gimmick was that they could talk. Each had a little button on the back that when pressed would activate the little speaker and he'd say lines from the show. From what Shit Critic told me, the phrases were things like "Oh, Maybe not..." and "SPOON". Since I only watched a few episodes, I can't really tell you what he meant by that.

The one that I'm looking at is the "Natural" Tick. The other 3 have various clothing on top of the Tick costume. They are the "I Dig Dinosaur Neil" Tick, "I Love Wheat" Tick, and "Tourist" Tick who is dressed in sunglasses and board shorts. How often do you see superhero toys in board shorts?

 
                     

Pics from Amazon.com

Naturally, this toy being about 15 years old, he's already out of the box and the talking feature no longer works. I could probably replace the batteries, but I'm a lazy bastard and I'm not sure if they even still sell LR44 batteries anymore. And this thing needs 3 of them.

Even without the gimmick, he's still a great little figure. The sculpt is fantastic, capturing the square jawed dumb lug perfectly. You could leave this on your desk and I'm sure you'd smile every time you saw it.

The paint obviously didn't stand the test of time very well. Actually, it's not really painted except for his face. He's mostly cast in blue, which makes sense since his entire super suit is blue. I don't know why, but the plastic of his torso has already been discolored. I figure it's cause my friend left him in the sunlight or something. Still doesn't really bother me, since he still holds up well.

He's also very sturdy. He's got to be, since toys back then were made for kids who tossed figures across the room and regularly devised repugnant tortures for their GI Joes and their sisters' Barbies.

His articulation is standard for the era; 5 points. Neck, shoulders and hips. He won't stand a chance against modern Marvel Legends joints, but you can't really argue that since during the time 5 points of articulation was about par. Thankfully, Bandai didn't try and do too much with him, so he can just stand and stare at you. Somehow I feel that's less boring than having a statue that's stuck in that one dynamic pose.

Honestly, there's not much to say other than this is an excellent toy, despite being a decade and a half old. If you can find the Shocker Toys version of The Tick that would also be good, but since we didn't get that series here, I'll see if Shit Critic will sell this to me.

If you've collected 1/18th toys for awhile,
they you know what a sausage fest it is. Both Star Wars (which
pioneered the scale) and GI Joe are boys lines and the consensus among
toy manufacturers is that boys don't want to play with girls. You
would have thought 250,000 years of evidence to the contrary would
have been enough to convince them otherwise.

Realistically,
this may have been true when the lines were conceptualized; back in
the days of the USA vs. whatever-bad-guy's-currently-available, boys
were concious of not looking like pansies. But today, when more and
more kids would rather play video games than role play with action
figures, the toy companies need to realize there's been a paradigm
shift. More than ever, the collector's market is becoming more
prominent.

If you dig deep enough in any collector's closet,
you'll find that closely guarded "hot girl collection". Sure if a
collector is married or in a long-term relationship, that collection
may have fallen victim to some "compromising", but at one point or
another, it was there. Us collectors WANT female figures in our lines.
We want to see that Baroness standing next to Destro, or Teela next to
He-Man. We want our Princess Leia in the Gold Bikini.

Sadly,
we don't see this happen a lot. We're lucky if we get 1 female figure
in a line. Often times, even if a character is a big figure in the
series, she still doesn't make the draft. Look at Scarlett in the
Sigma 6 line. Big in the cartoon series but we had to wait through
something like 10 waves of repaints and retools before we heard news
that she was coming out. We got all excited, and then they cancelled
the line.

Say it with me. "Fuck You, Hasbro".

So, back
to my point. The 1/18 scale is woefully lacking in the female
characters. Which is one of the reasons that I've been looking for
this particular set for over 2 years now. I finally found a
"pre-owned" one from another collector who was streamlining (Thanks,
man!) for p700. One of the figures was slightly damaged, hence the
relatively cheap price, but it's nothing a little glue won't fix.

The Dead Or Alive set consists of 6 articulated figures;
Kasumi (Blue), Kasumi (White), Ayane (Purple), Ayane (White), Hitomi,
and Lei Fang. They're about 4" tall, so they're perfectly in scale
with Joes or Star Wars figures. This of course means girl ninjas to
kick Snake Eye's butt.

The girls are sculpted in the typical
japanalicious way. Colored hair, heart shaped faces, huge eyes, tiny
noses and mouths, big breasts, slim waists, round hips and butts, and
long legs. If you've played the video game that these are based on,
then you know one of the draws is that these are typical extensions of
various male fantasies. They look very pretty and great next to other
toys. They've even got transluscent hair so that they photograph
better.

One of the big features of the earlier installments of
the game was that you could turn the "gainaxing" (look it up) of the
female characters on or off, depending on how pervy you were willing
to admit you were. I'm a particulary pervy person so I always had it
on. This year's Ninja Gaiden went one further and gave us the ability
to control the movement using the game pad. How's that for progress?

Articulation is really nice on these, especially considering
they are trading figures. You've got movement at the nape of the neck,
where the neck meets the chest, the shoulder, an arm swivel, a
diagonal swivel for an elbow, a wrist swivel, a slanted swivel waist,
V-cut hips, thigh cuts, hinge knees, and rocker ankles. All told,
that's 19 points of articulation. The two Ayanes have 22 since they've
got 3 more joints for they're huge yellow bows. When you compare that
to the 13 or 14 that today's joes have, that's amazing.

Note that I said most of them are swivels,
including their elbows. That's because these toys are so tiny and
delicate, that adding hinges wouldn't be advisable.Though angled
swivels don't work so well in bigger scales, here they do their job
nicely. paired with the various other swivels allows one to have the
flexibility needed here. They are actually a very nice balance between
sculpt and joint work, though the plastic they are made of can become
brittle.

That really becomes a problem when you try and switch
out the hands with the other sets, which each figure comes with. They
are all a very tight fit and don't come out very easily. You need to
pull very hard to get them out and the post that connects them can
snap just like that. This is a problem since you can not easily glue
it back. The parts are too tiny, with too small a surface area to have
any kind of strength once broken.

Other than the extra hands, each also comes
with a few other things. Kasumi has her short sword, Ayane her bow.
Hitomi also has this circular impact effect thing that is supposed to
go around her foot I guess. Lei Fang gets nada. They all do come with
a plain, rectangular black stand. Unfortunately, it only fits them. It
comes with a post and a twist tie that act as away you can display
them kicking in the air. Low-tech, but effective.

You'd be
lucky to find these figures out there at the local specialty shops.
Even if you did, they're trading figures, so they come in a blind box.
This means that the box is identical for all figures and there is no
indication of what's inside. This is a stupid way of doing things,
especially since Japanese companies who do this usually pack in crappy
figures with the good ones. Thankfully, there isn't a bad one in the
bunch here. Though I do favor Hitomi and Lei-Fang for their regular
civilian clothes, each of th figures looks great.

At less than
p1000 for the set, this was a great bargain. Current prices on sites
like www.toywiz.com are about $30 USD, not including shipping or the
insane customs fees we have here in the Philippines. I imagine it's
even more on eBay if you're lucky enough to find a set.

http://www.fullybookedonline.com/jamesjean/

Of all the sub-cultures that exist for geeks and nerds in the world, gaming is one that I never really got into. It's the result of many factors. First off, I suck at them. I was well into my 20's before I finished Super Mario Bros. The original Nintendo version. 8-bit. Recognize. I didn't get better with age. The only way I can make it through games is if I print out a cheat sheet or walkthrough to refer to when I get stuck, which is about 80% of the time.

Secondly, I believe that the pervasiveness of video games is slowly dropping the collective IQ of the species. No one cares if a game has an internal logic to it. As long as you've got a good physics system to mimic the movement of the female mammary gland, most fan boys will not care if your protagonist is a virtual cardboard cutout. This may seem like a harsh assessment, but you see the evidence in the quality of tangential media like comics and movies everyday. Stories are getting less and less cohesive. Characterization has given way to empty gags and one liners. It's all about the visual bling now, man. Story isn't king any longer. The King is dead.

Of course, that's a generalization. Generalizations are ba-a-a-a-a-d (at least according to the anti-harassment training videos I watch all the time). There are quite a few titles that really distinguish themselves in the gaming arena, it's just that they are buried in the legions of crap product out there. It's a lot like Hollywood, only with socially inept people rather than the photogenic don't-hate-me-because-I'm-beautiful crowd.

During my college days, I was really into Soul Reaver, a series about a vampire apocalypse with a time travelling twist. The story of Kain and Raziel was something else and read like a high fantasy novel. The graphics were top of the line back in the day, with some inventive environments and excellent animation, and the gameplay was very involved, including shifting from the ethereal plane to the material one. Everything FELT thought out and logical, and things were intuitive. I got the same thing from the Thief series, a steampunk fantasy adventure with religious overtones. Again great story, great graphics, excellent gameplay with a variety of things to do.

I like to keep an eye on the gamesphere to see what is coming to find out if anything will really push me enough to buy into another console system. That 8-bit Nintendo really burned be when I bought it right on the cusp of the 16-bit revolution. So far, the only thing to wow me is the God of War series for the Playstation. But today, I found something that might actually swing me back towards Nintendo: Epic Mickey.

When I read about this new game, it totally blew me away. According to advance reports, it centers around forgotten Disney characters, ones from before the days of Steamboat Willie, deciding to take their revenge on the Mouse House's colorful stable of personalities. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit (Wikipedia him) unleashes Phantom Blot (again, Wiki is your friend) on toon town and all the happy little animals get a nice black coat of black ink. Anyone else remember the Exxon Valdez? No? God I'm old.

So the original Moustketeer is the only one to stop old Oswald, and to do it he gets a load of brushes, pens, paints, and erasers to re-color his world. But until he succeeds, gamers are going to be treated to a darker, more sinister cartoon world than you've ever seen in the Disney films. It's a steampunk's wet dream, at least if these concept paintings of a brokendown Magic Kingdom by artist Fred Gambino are any indication it is:

In addition, Fred shows us what the familiar cast of characters will look like in Oswald's little personal Dystopia through some nasty character sketches:

After seeing these beautiful images, I seriously can't wait to see if this title will be launched on any other platform aside from the Nintendo Wii. While I appreciate that the unique (at least for now) controls of the Wii lend a certain charm to the gamer's proposed interaction with the game character, the Wii's selection of titles leaves something to be desired.

Let's hope Disney's next theatrical release ties into this little idea somehow. I'd hate to think that crap like "The Princess and the Frog" is what we're gonna be seeing from them from now on.

If you've been following the reviews on the site, then you know I've got a mad crush on Yoko Littner. It's almost as bad as the one I had on Cheetara of the Thundercats (oh, Cheetara...). I've already got two figures based on the character: Fraulein Revoltech Yoko (TV Version) and the Fraulein Revoltech Yoko (Movie Version) . The one we're reviewing today will be my third and I'm seriously thinking of getting a few more. The red hair, the fantastic curves, the hot pants, the bikini, the huge gun...

Excuse me a moment.

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...

...

Ok, I'm back. but yeah, Yoko Littner. As I said in the previous reviews, I've got no clue as to what the anime was about. I've been meaning to watch the thing, but like art films, I seem to have lost the patience for long-winded Japanese animation. If it's not an hour long OAV full of gag boobs, gainaxing, giant mecha and/or mixed martial arts mayhem, I'd rather be watching Star Trek for the 23rd time.

When I first saw Alter’s 1/8th scale Yoko Littner ‘Bounty Hunter Ver.’ PVC statue on WasabiToys.com I just couldn't resist pre-ordering one for myself. The product shots of this figure were amazing, plain and simple. You can't not look at it. I clicked on "Add to Cart" button almost without thinking.

After I had submitted the order and that initial infatuation with the figure had died, I was worried that I'd be disappointed. I'd seen some statues that looked great in the trade announcements and then turned out to be nightmares on the shelf. Plus this was a statue. This wasn't really a toy in the strictest sense. You could not play with it. There were no joints and no accessories. You couldn't do anything with it except sit it on your desk and stare at it. It was crazy expensive (near p5000.00 at the pre-order price), and damn fragile to boot. Previous PVC figures I bought had tended to lean after time and they were a bitch to stand after that happened. These were the cons.

The pros? It's pretty. Damned pretty.

Naturally, the pros won out or I wouldn't be here writing this. Last week, after about 6 months of waiting, I stopped by WasabiToys in Blue Lane of the Shoppesville Arcade in Greenhills to pick up my prize.

At first glance I was pretty disappointed. I'm not used to these kinds of figures, so I was thinking they'd have put more effort into the packaging. It's pretty bad. Just a few product shots and a lot of Japanese script I couldn't read, very plainly laid out. The cardboard itself is surprisingly thin for something this expensive. My Polno Dianno figure had a nice sturdy box surrounding it. Since this figure has such a fragile looking coat and hair, I'd figure they'd have given it a bit more protection. Mine was pretty badly dented in shipping apparently.

When I finally got it out of the box, my perception of it changed completely. Even if the box was unattractive as hell, all that missing effort went right into the figure. It was exactly as it was pictured in the product shots, which is to say, absolutely pristine. Every line and curve is there. It's one solid piece of PVC goodness, no assembly required. Well, except for placing her on the little stand, but come on.

There isn't a misplaced paint application on this sucker, from her sniper rifle, right down to her boots, every color is crisp and sharp. You'll notice it first off on her bikini. Honestly, the bikini is hard not to notice. You'll see her little red flames are perfectly drawn in against the white with no bleed whatsoever. The color of the plastic is perfect skin tone, making for a very translucent quality to the entire figure.

The sculpt itself is great. Designed by Ikuma Kuramoto who I'm told has done many other Fate/Stay Night statues, the figure is in a pretty bold pose. Her Rifle is slung up on her shoulders and her hair and jacket are swept back in the mountain air. You'd think that sculpting a character like this wouldn't be so hard considering the lack of detail necessary, but the extra things give her a lot of depth. The jacket is unbelievably nice. With holes and ragged edges. The buckles and belts are whipping in the air, too. She's go her distinctive chopstick hairpins in, and the red hair looks natural the way it flies out behind her.

The thing that really impressed me was the pistol by her side. The holster has some great detailing on it. Even the stitches on the leather are visible! There's some wash to the brown to give it some weathering which is very effective. It's "tied" to her thigh with a thing strand of leather which I could have sworn was removable. It's not, just a sculpted piece, nicely painted. However, the pistol itself IS removable. If you have any 1/8th scale figures in need of weapon to borrow (GI joe Sigma 6 figures come to mind), here you go. I kinda wish I could also pull off the sniper rifle and give it to Long Range as well.

Yoko's face is great, too. It's less cartoony than the Fraulein Revoltech versions, but then you'll have to remember that this is anime, so the requisite big eyes are still there. The register lines thought are sharper than anything you'll see in the mass market toys in Toy Kingdom. The hair falls nicely in front of her eyes, but doesn't cover her face. There's a tiny smug smirk on her lips.

About the only thing I didn't like is her lack of a butt. She is devoid of back. booty-less. It's a small thing considering you'd likely display her facing out to show off that amazing front, but is sad that she's so unbalanced. I don't know why the sculptor didn't give her some meat back there. It's barely visible since you need to do some serious upskirting to notice it, so it's kewl.

All in all, I feel she's a great value for p5000.00, especially finding out that she's currently selling for p7000.00 at other shops in Greenhills now. I was hoping she was going to be about 12" high to pair with a Marvel Icon or two (I mixed up 1/8th scale with 1/6th so for the longest time I thought this was the case), but she goes great with my small collection of anime statues. If I can find a few more that are this high quality, I might consider getting a few more PVCs.

There are a few toy lines that have become media franchises. G.I. Joe which has been around since the early 1960's is one. They started as military figures, Barbies for boys, with the familiar green fatigues of real american troops and relatively realistic gear.  In the 1980's they shrunk to 3.75" to cash in on the success of the Star Wars line that shared that scale. That's when it really took off, becoming one of the merchandising cash cows for toy maker Hasbro.

The line died down in the mid 1990's. With odder product lines in weird neon colors, outlandish weapons, and vehicles that looked more and more ridiculous, the series just lost a lot of it's original fan base. But in 2003 and 2004, Hasbro released Spy Troops and Valor vs. Venom, cartoon series that brought back the original military feel and lead to my favorite line of G.I. Joes, the 8" Sigma6 line.

Now before I start off with this review, I have to warn you that this line has already been cancelled. Around the time the 25th Anniversary figures were released, Hasbro was wrapping up the Sigma6 and related sub-brands in order to move focus back to the 3.75" lines. Bad news for fans of the 8" line, but good news for completists. I was able to score these loose at Greenhills for p1,000.00 each. The only thing missing was their foot lockers.

I know you're probably saying "p1,000.00?! That's a lot of scratch!" When these came out here in the Philippines, they were p1,500.00 on the shelf. Even at that price they were worth it because they were top scorers in almost every department. They were highly articulated, had great sculpts (though on the cartoony side), lots of accesories, and packaging that is still by far the best I have ever seen. Now since this version of Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow are both from the first wave of figures that came out in 2005 and run upwards of p2,500.00 each mint in the box IF you find them, p1,000.00 seems a great deal.

You should also consider that these are 8" figures, not your standard shorty soldier. Other 8" figures... well off the top of my head, I don't know any other 8" lines, but 7" lines like NECA also cost about p1,500.00 and they have no where near as many accessories nor the articulation that these babies pack.

First off, lets deal with Snake Eyes.

Hasbro went more for the commando look for Snake this time around, though he just happens to carry swords. The sculpt on the Sigma6 line is obviously influenced by manga and other japanese art, with big eyes, hands and feet. A lot of Joe fans didn't go for this, but I actually love the look of this entire line. It really reminds me of Joe Madureira's artwork back in the day. On the whole, the lines of the Sigma6 line are bold and angular, lots of points. Most of these guys have the superhero chin, with ripped musculature that isn't entirely anatomically correct.

The material Hasbro used for the figures is much softer than the plastic used in toys of the '80s and '90s. While on the smaller 25th anniversary figures, this can lead to problems with warping and the loosening of the grip, on these bigger figures, the softer plastic just seems to lend the toys a nice gravity. You really feel as if this is a toy you can give an 8 year-old and not need to worry if it'll still be in one piece tomorrow.

Paint isn't really that much of an issue. There aren't many areas that have it, since he's mostly cast in gray plastic. The most notable painted areas are his face and the Sigma6 logos that are on his person. Both are relatively clean so you don't really need to worry about it when buying.

Now we get to the good stuff. There are 2 reasons that make the Sigma6 line so remarkable. The first is articulation. While they do not pack as many joints as a Marvel Legends figure back in their heyday, they're basically as poseble as ball-joints, which makes up for most of the missing ones. Here's a list:

• Neck
• Shoulders
• Elbows
• Wrists
• Abdomen
• Hips
• Knees Ankles

For instance, He's got no thigh cut, but since both the hip and knee joint allow movement foward and back and side to side, you don't lose anything for the lack of it. It's really a rather efficient way of doing things and once you play with these you'll find out how sturdy they feel. I pose mine all the time and they've yet to get loose on me. There's also some soft ratcheting on the bigger joints to help them hold poses. What more can you ask for?

The second reason to buy these are the accessories. He comes with a ton of great stuff; 2 swords & scabbards, 1 knife & sheath, 1 Uzi sub-machine gun, 1 visor, 1 pair of nightvision googles, 1 gas mask, Ninja whip-star with rope, Zipline handle, 2 suction cup climbing handles, and 2 weapon connector pieces.

With all this gear, there are several configurations you can display him in. The Uzi can connect to a port on his leg, but note that the knife and sheath don't seem to really fit on him. Anywhere I try and put it, it just looks awkward; a little too big or long. I'd have preferred it if I could have just plugged it in to the Sigma6 ports. The swords are a nice touch, though. You can swing out the handles so Snake can hold them like a tonfa.

I've tried putting both scabbards on his back, but it just doesn't work. This isn't one of those figures where you can just load him with all his gear at one time like the Paratrooper Snake Eyes. You're going to have to sacrifice some weapons and equipment. My favorite Snake Eyes is still the commando, so he's mostly displayed with his gun in hand and one sword on his back.

On to Storm Shadow:

Old SS has just as many accessories as his buddy Snake. We've got his customary Arashikage Clan katana and wakizashi with their scabbards, a display stand for both, a staff, a pair of sai, nunchaku, and climbing claws for both his feet and hands. You might also include his pants and the belt that holds his weapons as both are removable.

He also shares Snake Eye's high level of articulation, and with the easy balance that these figures enjoy, they're a breeze to play with. You can stand them pretty easily, even on uneven surfaces. the swords can fit into the ends of the staff so Stormy can have a naginta to play with as well. The scabbard and sai fit into his belt.

I also really like the climbing claws. He's got one for each limb and though they're not really enough to hold him up by themselves, they look great on him. I'd imagine they hurt like the offspring of a pregnant dog.

The great thing about the Sigma6 line is that aside from having a very high playability factor, the toys are made as a line. Though they don't really look alike, they look very unique and like the old Masters of Universe toys, look best when you display them together. You really don't get the full effect of the line until you have a few of the figures to swap weapons and gear with and display in little action poses. These were literally made to play with.

One more thing about the Sigma6 Joes. There were two classes, the Soldier, which came in the more traditional carded bubble, and the Commando, which came in a transparent box with plastic caps on the end. These caps could be removed and assembled into a nice little foot locker that was used to store all the gear that came with the figure.

This is why I said that the Sigma6 line was the best of all packages, ever. The little plastic boxes are insanely useful. They store all my little accessories (except the smallest since they can slip through the cracks), they can act as cryogenic stasis chambers when you want to ship your guys to Alpha Centauri, and they act as a technologically ambiguous background when you're taking pictures. How's that for handy?

Since I got these loose, I'm missing 2. Anyone have any for sale? Let me know ok? kthxbye.

I don't know why I never bothered with Astro Boy. I've had a copy of the 2003 animated series for years now, but never bothered to watch. There was always something else to see or read and the clild like character just didn't have that draw that comes from being completely bad-ass at first glance.

I mean, come on. He's a prepubescent robot boy in tight underwear and go go boots...

However, after watching the new computer animated movie, I am a convert. As soon as I left the theater, I went over to Toys R' Us and bought 3 versions of the diminuitive little bugger, and a few of the bigger bad guys for him to fight. He's currently on my desk fighting my 7" NECA and Mezco figures and kicking some plastic behind. Later, I'm going home and will dig through my DVD collection for those discs so I can find out where this little nekkid guy has been and what other stuff besides his butt mounted machine guns he has in store for me.

After some quality time with wikipedia, I found out that Astro Boy is actually the first Anime. It was this one that spawned all the big eyes, funky hair, speedlines, and those pans, zooms, closeups, and long-ass panoramic establishing shots, that we all remember so well from Robotech (Macross to you folks). That is way cool.

So how does the new computer animated film stack up to the old school series?

I like it. Though the animation isn't up to Pixar standards, a lot of the effects and colors are appealing and make up for the lack. The fights are something else. Watching Astroboy in the area, or going toe to toe with the mutated Peacekeeper I felt myself cheering inside like a schoolgirl watching Robert Pattinson save Kristen Stewart from yet another vampire. This little guy could totally kick that wussy bloodsucker's butt though, with his arm cannons, rocket feet, and the aforementioned butt mounted firearms.

The plot is about what you'd expect; a variation of Pinocchio. Dr. Tenma loses his son in a lab accident and in his grief decides to make a robot copy. blah blah blah. Truthfully, if you're going in for some witty dialogue and great acting, you're going to be disappointed. The lines are all kind of forced, with director David Bowers script clunking along. There is maybe one line that actually drew a laugh from me and it wasn't "a squirty-bottle's got to do, what a squirty-bottle's got to do". Seriously, the screenplay reads like bad B movie.

The voice casting doesn't help. Again, we see how casting big names can really kill a animated film. Every time Nicolas Cage spoke, I felt physically ill. He is an example of an actor who should be banned from doing voice work. Ever. I felt like he was sitting at a table doing a read through. Many of the other actors share this same failure. Bill Nighy as Dr. Elefun. Donald Sutherland as President Stone. Samuel L. Jackson as Zog. All of them should have been dropped before they were cast. The only one who knew how to have fun with it was Nathan Lane and the voices of the RRF, though the poor script really killed their work.

But if you make it through the exposition, you'll get to the good parts. They last 40 minutes or so of the movie really kick it into high gear and by the time I got to the end, I felt satisfied enough to forget about the rest of it. I came away hoping that they would be releasing a sequel sometime soon, since this effort seemed much like a dry run, with many of the peices needing some refining.

To recap: If you're a fan of deep, traditional anime, you probably won't like this. If you like you're a summer blockbuster movie goer who's a kid at heart, then you probably will.

I think Dragonball is stupid. There I said it.

I'm not just talking about the recent live action movie (which I think most will agree, was pretty terrible), but also the source material. Many of the most popular shows, like Dragonball, are just a series of ridiculous escalations of violence. Season 1: kid learns kung-fu, stops bad guy. Season 2: kid learns new kung-fu, stops team of bad guys. Season 3: kid learns alien super kung-fu, stops alien bad guys. Season 4: kid gets team of super kung-fu experts, tuns into giant gorilla, kills super bad guy, while destroying huge chunks of Earth's ecosystem. Meanwhile, you're sitting there watching 30 minutes of close-up coverage of the characters looking beat down and panting, as about 2 minutes pass in the actual fight. It's retarded... and they decided to make a movie of it. Giant gorilla and everything. sigh.

This time around Bandai is the one that got the license, though I'm pretty sure they already make the Dragonball toys for the cartoon as well. It's a much better fit than the Playmates Terminators which was a weird match up from the get go. Bandai's known for great children's toys from many Japanese series, plus their excellent Ben 10 stuff, and the Dragonball series is made for children, so quality toys that are made to appeal to that audience would do well.

When these were first released here, they were about p400.00, same as the Playmate Terminators. That's about $10, same as retail in the states. They've been on the shelf for months now, and if you wanted it was pretty easy to get a complete set and build Ozaru. IF you wanted. Apparently no one did. Now that Toys R Us and Toy Kingdom are clearing shelf space for Christmas, the toys are now only p150.00. Much better, but I still wouldn't pay that much for most of them.

The only one I really wanted was Bulma since the only thing I liked about the movie was Emmy Rossum and Jamie Chung. I realize this is completely shallow, but then I'm not particularly deep. Both their parts were pretty small compared to how much they had to do in the cartoon. I'd rather have seen the Tournament of Champions as a movie than the silly story they ended up with, but then that might start me on a fanboy rant. I'd have to break out wikipedia and frankly, I don't have the time right now, so let's not go there. It's too bad they don't have a Chi Chi figure in her babydoll dress. That would have gone over better than that crap Fu Lum toy.

At first blush, Bulma looks pretty good. Faithful to the movie, anyway. The bangs and ponytail don't do much for me, but her face is decent. It doesn't much look like Rossum, but then at this scale, there's only so much you can do. I'd rather they make the face look clean than try to hard to get the likeness and fail. The leather get up is great. She's molded mostly in black so the shiny plastic goes over well without the need for much paint. It's very feminine, and standing up, she looks perfectly acceptable.

But standing is about the only position she's good for.

Bandai really mucked up her articulation. Despite relatively nice articulation on the male figures of the line, which share joint systems similar to the DC Universe Classics line (though much uglier), Bulma suffers from joints that are pretty old school. She's got a ball-jointed head, hinge/post joints at her shoulder, v-cut hips, thigh cuts, and hinge knees. That's it, a measly 7 points. The v-cut crotch is the real kicker, making her leg articulation useless. She can't sit, squat, crouch, anything. All she can really do is spread her legs. Great if there was a pole included and dressed as a stripper, but she's not. She can't even be posed sitting on a 1/18th scale motorcycle, which is a ridiculous oversight if you ask me.

Making things worse, Bandai saw fit to give her among the worst accessories in recent memory. Her sculpt works in 3 holstered firearms which is insanely cool, but instead of making them removable, or giving her a pair to actually hold, they gave her that idiotic tricorder thingamajig she had in the movie. You know, the one she had to track the Dragon's balls.

Speaking of Dragon's balls, she's got one of them. It comes with this little "stone" display stand, but it's really nothing to gawk about. It's fairly cheap looking and made of mediocre plastic. It's not going to break or anything, but is its useless. If you collect the whole wave of 4" figures, you'll get all 7 of these things and be able to form... a bigger stone display stand. dun dun dun DUM!

They also have another value add piece in the package; a piece of the "BAF" Ozaru figure. Knowing how this gimmick has really improved set sales among collectors, you'd think this BAF would be something pretty impressive. It's not. The pieces are little more than hollow casts. When assembled the back is open, so you can pop Goku into this transluscent half-shell. There is no paint, only base articulation, and you can't display him from the back. Bad, bad, bad.

If that wasn't enough, Bandai even touts a third reason to buy all 7 figures on the package. If you collect all 7 packing inserts, you can form a crappy paper Shemron the Dragon! Score! Really, the least they could have done was make the inserts out of some kind of high quality card or something. Papercuts!

Bottomline, I do not recommend this line. Though Bulma is a pretty fair sculpt and looks great with a Scarlett head on her, she has some god-awful articulation and no useful accessories. It makes it impossible to put her in any kick ass poses. While the male figures have better articulation, they also look terrible sculpt wise. At p150, it may be a nice gift for one of your neices or nephews (one you may not particularly like so much), but it's not really something that'll add to anyone's collection.

Having already been disappointed by the T-800 Endoskeleton from NECA, I wasn't too keen on picking up any new toys from the Terminator franchise. There's something about the endoskeleton from the original 1984 that doesn't translate to plastic. If they're true to the animatronic effects, they get a toy with limited articulation. If they take creative license, geeks get all riled up about it not being accurate. Personally, I wouldn't have minded a few more ball joints.

Though NECA got the Terminator 2: Judgement Day license, it was Playmates that got the rights to do toys based on the new Terminator: Salvation movie. I honestly don't know if this was a good move on either the studio's or the toy manufacturer's part. Playmates has been known as a manufacturer of toys for the younger set. Choosing them to make toys based on a franchise that has been traditionally R-rated is counter intuitive if you ask me. Since the new film was rated PG-13, they could argue that it's for a younger audience, but their toys are generally for the 5 to 12 crowd, so no.

The result of this odd pairing is some really silly looking toys that remind me of the end of the old classic GI Joe molds when Hasbro was painting them neon colors. These guys are supposed to be suffering a post-apocalyptic dystopia and they're wearing day-glo orange. oh-kay. The effect through out the lines (3.75", 6", 12", and the role play toys) is of Terminator for kids, which is pretty dumb since kids aren't supposed to be seeing it.

The exception is the 3.75" endoskeletons. Though they suffer the same kind of kidification effect as the human figures, at this scale it's harder to notice. For the most part, it the influence is limited to the head, which looks less like an angry skull and more like a surprised monkey. Thankfully, the rest of the mold is pretty much spot on, with much of the same faithfulness to the original that they had in they have in the 6" version, only littlized.

Little or not, Playmates was able to pack in a lot of great detail. There are tiny little rivet holes, lines where metal panels join, hydraulic pistons, and the requisite doohickery. They've even got a coat of paint on them so they're not so blah. You can either go with the evil silver coated T-800 (the one that Arnie played) or the evil-er dark gray T-700. I basically got several of the dark ones and have the silver one playing "Sarge".

Both of the versions comes with a couple of accessories, though I gotta say they aren't that impressive. The T-800 comes with two pistols, one "ray gun" and one relatively normal looking weapon. Like the NECA version, neither really fits in the buggers hands. They look pretty good for Joes though. The T-700 gets a nicer looking rifle. It's not really film accurate, but it fits much better in the figure's hand and looks pretty mean. He also comes with a bent I-beam that he's supposed to have... well, bent. It doesn't really fit well in his hands and he looks ridiculous carrying it around. I tossed all 7 of mine.

Articulation is hit an miss. The shoulder joints are excellent, offering the unit a wide range better than most Marvel Legends (the yardstick against which all toys are measured against). elbows and knees are basic hinge joints with about a 55 degree arc. More than adequate really, and better than some GI Joes. However, the rest of the toys joints are the suck.

One, no thigh cut or equivalent. Two, no ankle joint. Three, no outward movement of the leg. With its tiny footprint the endoskeleton has, these three joints are essential for stability. Any other position is basically out of the question. Four, No wrist pegs. You can get his rifle into a two handed grip, but you need to bend a lot of plastic to do it. Five. No waist. This is just retarded. Six, no neck. Wtf, Playmates? Essentially, you're little endo-man can only stand up with his gun pointed sideways at the ground. If you try any more dynamic positions, he bites the dust.

Some killing machine, huh? They might as well have included a fluffy bunny.

But then again, the real reason I bought these wasn't so they could overrun the human race but so that they could get their asses kicked by the Marvel Universe. They're very good at that sort of thing:

They also look good getting the shit kicked out of them by other toys:

At the original price of p400.00, it would be pretty ridiculous to try and build a terminator army with these things. 400 bucks is simply too much to ask for these. Nice looking or not, they simply aren't on the same level as 25th Anniversayr GI Joes which retail at less than that. The plastic is much softer, there aren't many paint applications, and you don't a lot of accessories. Heck, you don't even get the IOF (Idiotically Oversized Firearm) that the new Rise of Cobra figures have.

Luckily, they've recently gone on sale at 50% off. That means they're only p200.00, or about $4 each. That's not bad for something like this.

Now if only NECA would make me a 3.75" Arnie so I could put him on a motorcycle...

I have a secret fetish for 1st person perspective games. There's something about the first person perspective that really pulls you into a fictional universe. I was never big on the "shooters" like Doom, but I did love "sneakers" like Thief. Mostly is was the horror aspect. More than any other video game genre, the 1st person perspective games felt like a classic horror movie, where your peripheral vision is limited and stuff tends to jump out at you when you're holding your breath. There was many a time during Thief: The Dark Project when I almost pissed my pants when I turned around and found myself face to face with a zombie.

In a way, that's exactly why I enjoyed Pandorum so much. When the lights go down in the theatre and you find yourself staring at Ben Foster waking up, you're as lost as he is. You have no idea what is going on, and you don't know what he's got to do. There's no exposition until about halfway through the film. The whole mystery forces you into this little box, holding your breath, waiting for that zombie to pop out.

The Sci-Fi/Horror Survival sub-genre has been around for awhile now. The general consensus is that their record isn't that good, though I loved every one I've seen so far. The Resident Evil movies were modestly successful, spawning 2 sequels. I believe it's more because Milla Jovovich is such a kick-ass ass kicker than because of anything the filmmakers really did. I loved what Christian Gans did an excellent job on Silent Hill, with great atmosphere and design. I watch it every few months. Most reviews will tell you that Doom sucked hoary balls, but I can't resist space marine pictures.

With Quaid and Foster playing space colonist, Pandorum falls nicely into that niche. While there aren't any great looking machine guns or drop ships, there are some nice creature effects and costumes. Most of the action is hand to hand or with various blunt or edged weapons. It's kind of like 28 days later, but on a space ship. The plot is pretty easy to follow, though the surprise at the end threw me off a bit. It's something similar to Boyle's Sunshine, where all of a sudden we've got Pinbacker running around like Freddie. It doesn't exactly come out of left field, but it felt a little distracting.

Cinematography wise, I had some gripes. There's an awful lot of camera shake going on here. I guess it's a new gimmick that is replacing the done-to-death handheld documentary style. Whenever there's a creature on screen, the camera gets all jittery and does some weird zooms and blurs. It can get irritating. I do love the blacks though. There are several scenes where you can't see a damned thing. It's perfect since the characters can't see a damned thing. It's a thing I wish Filipino horror movie makers understood.

I was impressed with the sets and costumes. The production team must have had some fun building this. It's not a nice Trek ship. It wasn't made for living. These people are supposed to be in stasis for a century long journey, so there aren't any sofas or curtains or picture windows to see a passing comet. It looks like a factory, grease and grime, soot and solder. It feels more real, and far more scary than if they had made things silver trimmed and shiny.

It's sad that this movie didn't get a lot of press in the general media. It's well made, entertaining, and satisfying. Like most sci-fi films released in the Philippines theatrically, it lasted all of a week. I'm waiting eagerly for a DVD, and hoping that it did well in other countries so that we can see a sequel that the ending inferred.