You're gonna look great. I just know it.

Hard agree

Hard disagree.

Even first time round, before nostalgia was even a thing, I thought the AM's were good. I liked the fact that there was now a Jazz or Devastator who was more robust and more like an actual action figure then what was previously available. I didn't know this was a 'hot take' at the time.

2nd in my duo run. 'Surely Optimus and Megatron should go together?', I hear literally no-one cry. Not for me, my non-existent friend. From 'Warrior School' up to 'The Price of Life', it's always been these two.

 

OOOOPS. That's another reason for posting, proof reading!

 

I assumed it was satirical. They only think they have independence.

 

my tuppence on Action Masters - was very Meh towards them back when i was a young-un, but now, i frequently scour ebay for them - some genuinely nice figures in there, and some really cool companions/ vehicles - and they tend not to cost a bomb (not fallen down the Elite hole yet, but i'll get there eventually)

they also display really nicely...

 

Spoiler: Standard Disclaimer

Standard disclaimer: The theme of this week's reviews is the worst toys in my collection. If you enjoy these toys, great! It is not a personal attack on you or your tastes. Not everything you love has to be good, and you are not defined by the quality of the things you like. Essentially, you don't need to defend your honour on someone else's view of plastic robot men.

Oh ho, what an irony that the vainest of the Autobots ended up with the ugliest of the Combiner Wars moulds. Lad must have been fuming, I tell thee. I mean, there's a lot to like about Sunstreaker's general design. He's got those great big ear thingies, so he'll always stand out, he's got the canopy chest, he turns into a swish sports car and he's got that turbo thingy on the roof, so yeah, he's a Good Boy. Just not here.

He's also had a good turnout in fiction over the years, even though he quickly vanished into the background in the cartoon when Tracks showed up, and was one of the assumed off-screen casualties of the Movie, but both Dreamwave and especially IDW gave him plenty of page time. Sure, he definitely deserved a better finale to his relationship with Hunter O'Nion, but it's not like he vanished from the series after that, even if he generally took a more background role again.

I'm stalling, aren't I? I'm trying to avoid having to talk about the toy. I don't have anything to say about the character at all, but I'm trying to stretch it out like he's some fiction megastar like I've covered in the past. No Thunderwing he.

Alright, let's do this. The CW Breakdown mould is hands down the worst of the bunch. CW was generally a smash hit, giving fully-functional versions of (almost) all the classic combiner teams, as well as a few oddities along the way. But while the Stunticons yinned with the superb Dead End, they yanged hard with Breakdown. And then it only got worse when it was done in yellow as Sunstreaker. Because while Breakdown was lumpy and wonky, it did still look like Breakdown. Sunstreaker just... doesn't.

For starters, there's too many right angles. Almost everywhere one line meets another on this toy it takes a sharp 90 degree turn. Once or twice wouldn't be a problem, but here they're everywhere. Point of comparison, just today I had my first experience with the Prime Wheeljack mould, and it's astonishing how much better this works, and not a single right angle to be had anywhere. And if the Dead End mould could pull it off, why not this one?

Second, the proportions are off. The torso goes on for days in every direction, the chest juts out hard, the legs look piddly and stumpy by comparison, with the weedy little arms dangling down uselessly despite perfectly adequate joints. Third, the head and shoulders don't line up. It's funny how often this can cause problems with a figure, and it's not always something you notice at first.

I do like that his turbo charger thingy is made from the hand-foot-gun doodad, and it sits comfortably on his back. This is good! It looks Sunstreaky! It sticks out way too far, obviously, but it's trying. It looks even better in car mode, and definitely has the most effective way of keeping the HFG around out of any CW character (other than Brawl). His other accessory, a sort of gunblade thinger, is less successful. When did Sunny Streak ever use a swor- oh forget it. Like it even matters. After all that praise for the HFG the sword just gloms on the side of the car mode as an afterthought, which of course it is.

But here's the kicker. These issues are actually forgivable. I didn't think they were, but then I met Unite Warriors Lightspeed, who uses the slightly-altered design for CW Wheeljack, but is mostly improved by having much tougher and better quality plastic. Sunstreaker by comparison may as well have been made from the spare yellow scraps left over from all those Bayverse Bumblebees that were accumulating in factory waste bins. It's somehow too yellow, with a slight sheen of translucency that makes details just sink away into a bland mess if they're not picked out in paint. It's the same problem that affect Megatron in Titans Return and Apeface's white bits in Siege, only this time in yellow.

Lightspeed wears this mould reasonably well. G2 Breakdown is also just about acceptable, though this is mostly due to his ludicrous shell suit deco. But other than that, this is an ugly mould that just doesn't work as a Transformer toy. There's decent odds for Sunny Delight here to make a comeback in Earthrise, though this is only an educated guess, nothing more. But if he does, I'll be ready to upgrade. I don't often say that either.

 

Finally switched one of my Master System.
60Hz Dragon <3

 

Ahhh, that takes me back, I loved my master system back in the day <3

Wonderboy in monsterland was my personal fav of the wonderboy games

 

If the camera adds ten pounds...

 

I'm so happy to have made mine modified, it's so bright and fluide right now aaaaaaaaaaaaaa <3

Wonderboy in ML is a great game ! I love it ! I have a very soft spot for the Dragon's Trap (and that remake <3) but the four Monster World games are pure joy, so, hard to disagree haha.
I hIghly recommend you to get Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom then, its been realised almost two years ago and it's glorious, a true pure beautiful sequel 23 years later.

Also Aggelos, which is more classic in a sense and is pure hommage without being tied to the series in any officiel way, but it's pretty awesome if you love the MW series.

Haha great pics.

 

It's a fantastic game. It did get re-released for download recently and you can chose new graphics or retro. It had a very limited release as a physical copy through a company called Limited Edition. I missed it though.

Edit: it's the Dragons Trap Wonder Boy which had a modern re-release. My bad.

 

Do you have the Holy hand grenade of Antioch at the ready?

 

Of course. You can never be too careful.

Behold Centaur Reflector.

 

Can draw: Squirrel girls, windows
Cannot draw: Trees.

Need to do the tree from scratch.

EDIT: Let's see if this animation works...


It does! Go for the powerup, SG!

 

/Hangin' out, hangin' out... Hangin' out with m' family./

 

I totally forgot I bought the Monster Land games on sale from XBox Live a month or two back - I got my nose stuck in Gunstar Heroes and Streets of Rage & forgot to play them.

I feel like a bit of drip as I nearly bought Duck Tales and then forgot and then they pulled it from sale for good - I was kinda irked.
Speaking of a game i'd like a 2D Graphic update of though how about the Master System game 'Master of Darkness'.

Are you going to get the Dr. Wu ones too ?

 

When you realise you have good taste in DS games...
Just going through the Bluray and games collection to bin lots of boxes taking up space and to just keep them in CD/game wallets.

Then I realise how much the DS Casltevania games are worth (Ecclesia, Dawn and Ruin)… woah!

In robot news? Sold loads, more than I thought I would, but then been picking up a couple too. Bigbite and Ironshell arrived today, another two of the team yesterday. And Siege Ratchet ordered too. Cost a fortune, but is a one off.

 

Nah. I'm purely first party  

 

I have since discovered that iMovie does not recognise animated gifs. Instead you have to record video of the gif playing, save that video, insert it into your iMovie project, and then save the video all over again.

There has to be a better way. I guess Apple could just insert animated gif functionality but clearly that isn't a high priority. Ah well. Still going to do it. Tomorrow just needs SG's tail to swish a bit and maybe add some sort of baddy in the top right corner. Dr Doom drone perhaps?

 

I ordered a set - I'm keen to see if it's feasible to use the ports/posts to get them doing fun things like making wheel bases for Rumble or adding hoverfans to Ravage, As for the 1st Party issue. I'd VERY strongly recommend a set of hinged wrist covers for Soundwave they only cost about £7 on eBay and they come with some parts that enable Soundwave's cassette mode to work too & also have the added feature of two extra mounting spots for the cassettes or other weapons in vehicle mode - or easy back strorage for his Distruptor, along with a set of Ears for Siege Jetfire it's something simple that adds a whole lot to the toys at minimal cost.
You can get weapons for Laserbeak too but they are are kinda expensive to be honest. I may wait and see if someone makes a more elaborate upgrade that also included Guns & or Pile Drivers for Rumble too.

I also got some Tim Heada Gap fillers for my Soundwave In main as the holes in his feet bugged me.

I hope Hasbro still intend to do that set with Buzzsaw and Frenzy in it too. I hope The rumoured Blaster figure has the same size Cassettes then they can perhaps throw out a cheeky Giftset with Stripes and co in it too.

I'm planning out a means to make Ravage a tail too - I'm just trying to see if I can find a means to attach it that also works for cassette mode storage too.