Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Hasbro loves me.

Maybe it's the multiple emails I've sent to various Hasbro people. Or all the times I've asked about this at cons, or had friends ask.

Whatever it was, Hasbro finally got the message.

And, thus, this is happening:

NEW GODDAMN WRECK-GAR

Thursday, April 29, 2010

Umm...

Hi...

I've, uh, been busy lately. New job, trying to get into college, etc.

Also, Final Fantasy X has sucked up a lot of my time.

I also haven't gotten many toys lately, and my camera no longer wants to upload pictures onto my computer, making it completely useless.

So, obviously, it might be a while before I start reviewing things again. Maybe some of the other idiots will write something...

Sorry.

Friday, December 25, 2009

Christmas haul

So, here's what I got, with mini reviews!

PS2 Slim- Wow, this thing is tiny. I had the original version of the PS2 years ago (It died), and it was huge compared to this. The slim one is about the size of a trade paperback copy of Watchmen. Smaller, actually. Anyways, it's a nice little system, and, unlike when I switched to an Xbox, the controller didn't take some time to get used to. I also got a memory card for it, which is one thing the original Xbox has over the PS2 AND 360- built in hard drive.

Kingdom Hearts 2- This is why I wanted another PS2. I played the KH games years ago, and was starting to miss them. It's a very Japanese game, in that (Aside from being an RPG and all) there's quite a lot of story and videos and mysteries and what not. The gameplay is excellent. It has a lot of Disney's whimsical feel, which meshes surprisingly well with the Final Fantasy elements. Also, you can fight alongside Jack Skellington on one world. How awesome is that?

Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories- The card based fighting system isn't really as good, but the game is still enjoyable. You can still kind of tell that it's an upgraded DS game, though.

Tetris Worlds- It's Tetris. Tetris is, and always has been, perfect.

GameStop Edge card with subscription to Game Informer- Free magazine, and a card to get extra money on trade-ins, and money off used games. This will be particularly useful, as you may have noticed I did not get the first Kingdom Hearts (Apparently the main GameStop here (There's almost as many GameStops as Starbucks, including two right across the street from each other and another two next door to each other) didn't have it).

Clothes- You don't care, but I got some nice pants, shirts and a sweatshirt.

So, what did you get?

Happy X-mas

War is over

(If you want it)


Saturday, November 28, 2009

Finally.

I have finally found my camera, so new reviews shall commence soon.

Possibly tonight.

Monday, November 16, 2009

Trans-Scanning Bumblebee Guest Review

Tonight we have a review of the Japanese exclusive "Trans-Scanning" Bumblebee (More like Dress Up Bumblebee, amirite?) by General Tekno, the artist and writer of the webcomic Big Time Toons!
*Note: Everything in black was written by GT, and eveything in red, I added.

Ahoy-hoy, everyone! General Tekno here with a very special guest toy review for RawToys! Only several months late! (Looks around to make sure he's not about to get shot) [POW! -ed.] Today, I'll be looking at one of the more original figures to spin out of the Transformers movie toyline: TakaraTomy's TransScanning series Bumblebee. To give a bit of background, the TransScanning toys were based off the concept in the movie where generic Autobot protoforms would crash to Earth and scan a new alternate form- as such, these figures are Shellformers, and yet they're not...

Each Trans-Scanning figure is made up of a base protoform robot - a superposable stickman with a sparkcore on the chest and the same generic build/color/head. Both figures that were made, Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, share base robots. These suckers are very posable, in keeping with the fact that they're designed to contort like crazy for their transformations.

Snap on the first set of armor that comes with Bumblebee to give him his "landing" mode. As far as I know, this is no different than Prime's re-entry armor save for color - it's basically a bunch of neatish looking clear armor pieces that give the robot some pizazz. However, this isn't THAT recognisable as Bumblebee at this point save for the fact that it's yellow armor.

With this armor applied, Bumblebee has properly placed pegs and holes to transform into his comet altmode. All things considered, it isn't THAT bad - it looks like a contorted body, but honestly there's not much more they could have done. However, in a definite plus, he comes with a stand that pegs in and allows him to at least look like he's re-entering an atmosphere.

Where Bumblebee really gets neat though is when you apply the Camaro shell. Suddenly, he now looks like his movie self!

Sadly, there IS a bunch of kibble on his back, legs, and arms, which seems garishly out of place, he's got a fake chest, and his "wings" don't work quite the same in how they're formed as the movie model. HOWEVER, there is a great tradeoff for this - as aside from the fact that you snap on armor, he is NOT a shellformer...

...he can TRANSFORM. With NO REMOVING OF PARTS. This figure forms a VERY nice Camaro, through contorting around, and no removal of armor is necessary at all to transform it. This is where the Trans-Scanning concept of having modular Transformers with different sets of altmode "shells" becomes brilliant in its execution, and as a proof of concept it is a VERY neat idea. [GT wanted me to mention that the crazy difference in the yellow colors is a result of the camera flash, and not nearly that noticeable in person -ed.]

Plus, you can mix and match the armor, to get more of a Cybertronian mode Bumblebee, and to remove the kibble which restricts his movement at the same time. He can be tricky to balance in poses with all the kibble, but since you can choose to give him as much as you want, it's not that big of a deal.

Overall, this Bumblebee is a VERY cool concept, but if he suffers from anything, it's that he's constrained to the movie designs. As a proof-of-concept though I would LOVE to see a toyline just like this, where we got a core figure with snap-on-armor that could STAY on while he transformed to his altmode.

FINAL THOUGHTS:
Pros: Nice Camaro mode, cool concept, very posable
Cons: Kibble, kibble, kibble! Protoform mode kinda weak too.
Rating: 3.5/5
Recommendation: If you find one on sale, get him. Otherwise, maybe not.


GT also sent me some other pictures, and I can't really find a place for them, so here they are!:

The back of 'Bee's altmode


Bumblebee with Marvel Universe Iron Man (IM is roughly 4" tall)


Bumblebee close-up


Bumblebee's chest and spark without armor

Monday, November 2, 2009

Joes For Tots

Paul, formerly of ToyBender, has put up a post on Poe Ghostal's site concerning this year's Joes For Tots contest, which you can read here. Basically, you donate stuff to Toys for Tots, send along proof, and you can win freaking AWESOME stuff.

But to sweeten the deal, anyone who reads any of my blogs (Or even writes for them), who enters and sends me the proof as well (Email me at reilly_weakley@yahoo.com or rawtoys@live.com) gets a free, black and white, artwork commission from me, and if you win, I might even throw in something else.

So! Go! Donate! Enter! DO IT!