Raphael 2012

The fourth and final of Turtles, Raphael.

I was able to snag Raph for $7.77 at my local Wal-Mart about a month ago(Wal-Mart now has them priced at$8.88) Just like the rest of the Turtles, Raph was included with a “Ninja Arsenal.  He has the same 9 points of articulation as only the Turtles have, and a pretty decent range of motion.  His skin tone is also the darkest of the four, just as he is in the show.

You can see that his trademark crack wasn’t forgotten, which shows that the sculptors were paying attention.  This line so far, for me, has been aces.  And it looks like it’s sure to get even better.

There was enough attention to detail, that we are treated to having a Raphael figure that can hold one of his sais in his trademark manner(you know what I’m talking about).  I have to give Playmates an A+ for the amount of playability that the line has thus far.

The future looks promising for this line, and I’m excited to see how it’ll turn out.  The show is great, and the stores I have been to lately, have had most of their stock depleted.

Here’s the mean, lean, green incredible team.

Michelangelo 2012

Just like how Krang is now “Kraang”, Michaelangelo, is now “Michelangelo”.  The little differences in these 2 names, is the only thing that I don’t like about the new TMNT line/show.  It’s no secret that I love the new figures.

Just as he always has been, Mikey is still the fun-loving jokester of the crew.  When Ninja Turtles first hit the cartoon scene back in 1988, Mikey was my favorite.  This didn’t last long, as Donnie became my favorite a short time later.  So I guess you could say that he would be my second favorite.  I think part of the reason I originally like Mikey, was because he was the one wielding nunchucks.  And a lot(and I mean a lot), of kids loved nunchucks, me included.

As is the case with the other Turtles, Mikey’s skin shade differs from that of his brothers.  He is also the shortest of the four, or the “runt of the litter”, as the card back refers to him.  He has the same articulation as the other Turtles(the other non-Turtle figures in this line have much more limited articulation, which is a minus for me).  I think that this is probably the best articulation that a Turtle figure has had(with the exception of the NECA figures).

I’ve always hated that the nunchucks never had real chain links.  I’m not saying that they have to be metal, but even if the plastic was individually linked(like the ‘chucks old-school Panthro came with)it would look that much better.  But, they work, and it’s not like I didn’t know they were plastic in the first place.

He’s a great figure, and I can only hope that the Turtles catch on with the kids of today(as I’m sure they will), and we get some more awesome figures.

I already picked up Raph, so the team shall be complete soon!

Leonardo 2012

I picked up Leo here when I got Donatello.  I originally was going to just get Donnie, but at $8.99 a piece, it made it easy to buy two(Wal-Mart has the for $7.77, but that’s a story for another time).

Leo’s shorter, and his green skin is a different shade than Donnie’s.  This is a nice touch.  Each of the Turtles have a little bit more uniquenesss because of this, and that’s a good thing.  I love the old-school figures, but I’m liking the differences that they have made.

As is the case with all of the Turtles, Leo came with his standard weapons(in his case, katanas), as well as a rack of other ninjas weapons(each figure has a different set).  They’ll just end up in a ziplock bag, stored away.  I think that it’s a nice that they’re included, but I don’t have any use for them at the present time.

I plan on getting all 4 Turtles, but I’m not so sure about the other figures that came out in this wave.  The other figures have less articulation, but they do look cool.  Once the show airs, I may be swayed into picking them up.  And the next wave is shaping up to be awesome, with the addition of Metalhead!  I’m really interested in how he’s going to look.  Could be good, but could also be very bad.  Time will tell.

I am pleased so far, and I hope this line and show does great.  It’ll be really cool to see the new generation of kids get into the Turtles just like we did.  I can’t recommend the figures enough.  Once you have one, you’ll want all four.

Transformers Generations : Fall of Cybertron – Shockwave

With the recent release of the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles toys, this almost flew under my radar!

If you’ve been reading this blog for a little while, you know that I’m a big fan of the Generations line of Transformers.  The sculpts are usually top notch, and, at least in robot mode, they heavily resembled their G1 counterparts.  And the newst wave is no exception.

The new figures are based on the characters in the upcoming Fall of Cybertron video game.  In the first wave we’ve got Optimus Prime, Jazz, and Shockwave.  All of their vehicle modes are their Cybertronian modes.  And in future waves, we will see Starscream and Grimlock(really looking forward to this one).  But for now, we’re here for Shockwave.

Shockwave came packaged in robot mode, but I wanted to show his vehicle mode first.  This is his “Cybertronian Mobile Artllary Mode”.  My guess is that this is some kind of super tank, and it’s bit reminiscent of his gun mode from Generation 1.   It’s a very interesting design, and looks bad-ass!

Of course, the directions were very confusing.  But now that I’ve transformed him from robot to vehicle and back again, it’s not overly complicated(which should be expected, as it’s transformation is a level 2).

But as with the majority of Transformers, he looks better in robot mode.

Shockwave’s cannon is a seperate gun rather than being part of his other arm(as was the case with the G1 version).  Still, with his one never blinking eye, and absence of any facial features, he looks really frickin’ awesome!

Now while I am happy with this figures appearance, I do have a few gripes.  The first being the higher cost of these deluxe class figures.  I picked this up at Wal-Mart(which is usually cheaper than anywhere else), and it ran me close to $16.00.  And that was before tax!  Now, I wouldn’t mind the price increase, if I felt that it was warranted.  But these new figures are a bit smaller, and the materials they’re made from, seem to feel a bit cheaper than the older figures in the line.

So, if I were to rate this on a scale of 1-10, I’d give it an 8.5.  It’s a great looking figure, but I don’t think the price hike was necessary.  Shockwave looks like he’s the short-packed of the 3 that were released.  So if you want him, pick him up when you first see him, because you may have a hard time finding him later.

Donatello 2012

I haven’t anticipated a toy line like this in a very long time.  As you should be able to tell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is one of my all-time favorite toy lines.  I got into the toys and the cartoon series early, and moved to the older Mirage comics in my early teens.  And though there has been quite a few carnations of the Turtles in the past, this incarnation looks interesting.  It’s almost like a mix of the original Turtles from the comics, mixed with the ones we knew as kids.

I stopped at Toy R Us this past weekend, and they had every other scale in stock, except the ones I was looking for!  They even had the Classics.  I was about to purchase the Classics Donatello(he is my favorite), when I figured I would check out the nearby Target.  My plan was, if Target didn’t have any Turtles, I would go back to TRU and buy the Classics Donatello.

And as they have in the past, Target came through!  They had at least one of every figure in this scale, except for Krang(I know, I know, he’s now Kraang).  I already knew I would get Donatello.  But at $8.99 each, I bought two(you’ll see him in a few days).  I love the new look of the Turtles, and think that the figures(so far), are prety nice to look at.  I always get nervous when new incarnations of shows and characters I grew up with go into production.  But just like Thundercats, this line will get my money(and of course I’ll be watching the series).

The other 3 Turtles all have their teeth showing, but not Donnie.  From the back of the card, we can see that Donnie has gap-teeth.  While this seems a bit weird, I’m curious to see how it fits in to his personality.  The articulation is better than the old-school figures, and it works.  Besides his trademark Bo, he also came with a weapon rack(similar to the ones we got with the originals).

I will have all four of them.  In my opinion, you need to have all four Turtles.

I’m not going to have any time to write this weekend, so, we’ll see the next one in a few days(I may have a few more by that time though 🙂 ).

Everybody’s Working For the Weekend(even this guy[me])

That means that I had a nice weekend.

On Friday night I went with my wife and a bunch of friends(8, to be exact[10 people total]), to see these guys.

If you have never heard of these guys, I recommend that you give them a listen.  They are unique, but they’re not for everyone(I for one, have been listening to them since 1999).  Morningwood and Lunic were the 2 bands that opened for them.  They were decent sounding, but I can’t tell you too much about their performances, as I was at the bar(that was located within the venue), having a few beers before MSI came on.  They put on another great performance, and it was an overall great night…except for one thing.  While on our way through the parking lot, one of the bouncer’s(he was a douchebag), had some choice words to some people in my group(my wife included).  I had some words exchaged with him, and he ended up sucker-punching me.  His hit did nothing to me, and he picked up a piece of wood(?), and threatened to kill me.  Other bouncers came over to resolve the situation and told me to leave or they would call the police(nothing would have happened to the guy, and it would’ve been a big waste of my time).  We kind of made fun of it since then, and it didn’t tarnish the weekend’s appealability(that’s a real word!).

What you see above is what I acquired this weekend!

I plan on doing a review tomorrow.  So…if there is something specific in the in the above photo(even if it’s the NES game, the Adventure Island manual or the hockey cards), that you would like to see reviewed(soon…like, tomorrow..that’s when I plan on posting again), just leave your suggestion in the comments.  I might just write about it!

But before we go, I thought that this was pretty cool.

The index card says…

“Jump into the first pit of quicksand in world 8-2 and sink into a shortcut”

I found this tucked into the Adventure Island instruction manual after I bought it, while we were in the car leaving the store.

I could just imagine that some kid got this hot tip and wrote it down(I’m hoping back when it was released), and put it in the game’s manual, so he never forgot it.

I don’t even know if this hot tip even pertains to this particular game(I’ve only made it world 6, and I even had this one back in the day[it’s in my current collection, and it’s one of my favorites]), but I’m going to make it a point to find out soon.