Gaming Garbage Comics

Gaming Garbage Reviews
File # 2

Diosoth



Reviews of products, video games, or whatever else I choose to babble
on about.




This review will bring you my opinions of two recently purchased
toys.

* Transformers Universe Decepticon Fracture
* G.I. Joe Comic 2-Pack: Cobra Commander & Tripwire


Opening:

As intensely rare as the G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary line is, it
tends to be one of those lines that you must buy when you see the
toys. Despite NO marketing to push the line, it's been an incredible
success.
Likewise, the Transformers Universe line, a combo line of the old
Classics and Universe redeco lines, seems to sell well without a
cartoon to back it up.







* Transformers Universe Decepticon Fracture

Series: Transformers Movie, Wal-Mart Exclusive
Retail Price: $10 regular price, $8 sale price for a time

Decepticon Fracture is a fan draw as it's essentially a way for
Hasbro to include an old GoBots character, the female Renegade
Crasher, into the Transformers line. While Hasbro owns character
names and trademarks, Namco BanDai still owns the actual physical
toy designs of the original Machine Robo/GoBots toys, and Hanna
Barbera/whoever bought the rights owns the cartoon, so Hasbro
may own the characters and names, but the toys and animation models
are off-limits.

We've had a few supposed GoBots characters as Transformers before-
a set of six G1 Minibot redecos released by Takara, as well as
the Renegade Bug Bite as part of the Botcon 2007 product line. I say
"supposed", however, as none of the Minibot redecos really looked like
their GoBots versions as the colors were generally off- true, when
Bumblebee and Bug Bite are BOTH yellow, you have to do something,
but the others had no such excuse.

Fracture is the first to actually be recognizably close to the
character it's intended to be, plus it's a mass-release store
purchase, retail exclusivity aside. You won't have to go through
special trouble or high markups to obtain one... at least, not for
now...


Packaging notes: While intended for the Universe line, it was sold
in movie branded packaging per Wal-Mart's request for more movie
product. Feh. Two twist ties hold it in place, the instructions placed
below the inner bubble tray.


Car Mode: A Formula F-1 racer a little over 5" long. Matching up with
Crasher's original toy- er... here's where things get complicated.
The Machine Robo toy that became Crasher was originally white with
some Mirage-style markings. When Hanna-Barbera animated the cartoon,
aside from changing the face to something *slightly* more feminine,
they also changed the colors to a black/red/white color layout. Tonka
later re-released the toy in those colors.

The basic black/red/white is used here. The plastic is either black
or white, all the red is painted with black and white paints used
to continue color layouts. The entire front section is a gray smoky
transparent stuff, painted on all but the windshield. A black "1"
is on the nose bordered in a black box, while white "1" markings
flank the sides.

The car is solid, wheels roll well. The toe joints leave the spoiler
mobile, and the airdam MIGHT fall off if the toy is shaken enough.


Transformation: Simple on paper, complex to see. The rear pulls back
as legs, the front half folds back on itself as the torso, and the
arms fold out from the middle. The airdam becomes a gun.


Robot Mode: It's somewhat feminine... given this was originally
designed to be Mirage, though, this is actually a bad thing. The
torso is a cartoonish hourglass shape with a severe corset waist.
Perhaps more feminine than even Crasher's animation model... of which
was female because she had lipstick.

Poseable beyond reason despite huge boots and the feet, for being
flat panels on side-mounted ball joints, have decent stability and
motion. The waist is just clipped in, one of those "disc swivels"
used on the Universe line hands and arms, meaning it can pop loose.
All the joints on mine are night and tight, though, and I have
yet to pop the waist free.

The face is painted purple with black around the eyes, decently
mimicing Crasher's animation model. No lipstick, though...

The airdam gun fits snugly in the hand. The peg on top that stores it
in car mode also allows it to peg to the back for storage... in
theory. My copy seems to have had the plastic parts cure thick,
which may contribute to the good joints, but prevents this tab
from fitting in the back. Of course, Crasher being a GoBot, shouldn't
even HAVE a gun.


Other Notes: If you missed Fracture, Hasbro Toy Shop will be releasing
the toy in a yellow deco as Stunticon Drag Strip for $15 plus
shipping as a boxed online exclusive.


Final Thoughts: I wasn't a rich kid, so most of my toys were cheaper
Transformers; minicars, combiner limbs... and a lot of GoBots.
My dad was an engineer/robot enthusiast so things such as Ghostbusters
and He-Man weren't big for me. Getting an update of one of my actual
childhood toys is a good thing, and perhaps the closest we'll see to
such a thing given the horrible legal mess between Hasbro, Namco
Bandai and Hallmark(the current Hanna-Barbera library owner...
I BELIEVE, anyway...). Seek this out of you have the chance.




* G.I. Joe Comic 2-Pack: Cobra Commander & Tripwire

Series: G.I. Joe 25th Anniversary
Retail Price: $10... though this is likely to jump soon


Packaging notes: The standard comic 2-pack card. The stickers proudly
announce that the comic is an all new Larry Hama story. The file
cards are in a baggie under the comic.


Cobra Commander: This, unlike the other Cobra Commanders, is the
Crimson Guard body in blue with the standard hooded CC head. A belt
with sword sheath is included as well as a heavy soft goods blue cape.
Accessories are a long Serpentor sword and golden handgun. Perhaps
some in-package warping occurred, but the sheath is curved and the
sword is not. I have yet to ID where the sheath belt came from, or
if it is a new accessory.

Two problems exist with this body- first, the gun holster is still
on the leg but the revolver that would fit there isn't included.
Second... he's scrawny. It matches with what was seen of him in
Marvel G.I. Joe #61, where he famously unmasks and we see him in
a t-shirt and jeans, of course, but compared to the other CC figures,
is noticeable. But I guess this was intentional, perhaps trying to play
up the idea that he typically wears his battle armor under his
uniform. He's just not wearing it now.


Tripwire: This is the Sergeant Flash body with a new head and shins.
Drab green with light gray boots and dark dray armor pads. The toy
gets a mine detector and a backpack which holds three landmine discs.
Wait... why does a bomb defusing expert have explosives?


Comic: A new Larry Hama story, though unlike his other new stories,
this isn't a "number 1/2" issue which would fit between two issues
of the old Marvel books. Actually, there is nothing telling WHERE
this story fits in.

The plot focuses on Tripwire and Cobra Commander, appropriately,
as Dr. Mindbender's explosive armor helmet for the Commander- which
he is none too thrilled about- activates, and Tripwire is captured by
Destro to disarm the explosive.

Unlike the idiotic cartoon CC, which believed this to be a GOOD
IDEA, we see the Commander authorized no such device this time
around.


Other Notes: Tripwire will be released on a single card in an
upcoming wave. Cobra Commander, in a lighter, uglier blue, with new
boots and no cape will also be part of wave 13.


Final Thoughts: Tripwire is bland, which is often the case with comic
packs- one "must have" toy and one bland toy, a real annoyance for
non-completists. Given how inferior the single-card Cobra Commander
will look, as well, makes this pack worth buying now just for the toy.
At the very least, the comic is good and Tripwire's file card is a
damn funny read.

Gaming Garbage Reviews
File # 1

Diosoth



Reviews of products, video games, or whatever else I choose to babble
on about.




This review will bring you my opinions of two recently purchased
Transformers toys.

* Crossovers Venom
* Music Label Soundwave: Blaster Black version


Opening:

To be blunt, I am not a hardcore Transformers buyer. I largely skipped
out on toys the past decade, only picking up any interest in recent
weeks, and even then, still a bit picky about what I will buy. I
currently tend to stick to my toy buying habits of "nothing over $20",
a rule I've only broken twice in recent memory... one of which you
will read about below.

As far as these reviews go, I will not be printing character
biographies or anything, as you can find them elsewhere and those
are largely irrelevant to the toy itself.





* Crossover Venom

Series: Transformers Crossovers; Marvel Comics
Retail Price: $15

As the Star Wars Transformers line was Hasbro's first dig into
using their licensed brands to expand on the Transformers line,
the Marvel Crossovers series is another attempt, this time without
the restrictions of sticking to a specific vehicle for a character.


Packaging notes: The toy sits in place sandwiched in the plastic
blister, no twist ties. I like this.


Car Mode: A beefy muscle car in almost solid black. The plastic is
ALL black, actually, relying on the paint to break it up. Silver on
the grille and bumpers, hubcaps, etc with metallic bluish-purple
windows and bits of white on the grille, with a white Venom spider
emblem on the hood. Red and yellow for the tail lights and more of
the metallic bluish-purple for the license plate. Metallic purple
flame decals decorate the hood and doors.

Mold-wise this is a standard muscle car, with a custom grille made to
look like a mouth. The license plate has VENOM in raised letters.

This is roughly to scale with the old Alternators line, though lacking
interior car details and translucent windows... and any sort of
automotive licensing for the car.

If I can step out here, I honestly don't care if Hasbro licenses out
car models for their toys. It's not a selling point to me. Touches
such as interior details and translucent windows are also not a
feature I desire or am picky over. Truth be told, I didn't like the
Alternators line as the robots and transformations suffered for the
detail. I never purchased past the first two toys, mind you, but I'm
also not of a mind to "support a brand" if I don't like it.

That said, the car mode is insanely solid and the wheels roll very
well. The two missiles clip onto the underside of the car for storage.


Transformation: Typical Transformers car type- hood as chest, arms
from the sides, rear as the legs- with some odd new bits. The front
end splits to allow the center of the hood to fold down, plastering
the spider emblem on his chest. The downside is that this makes the
torso a horrible origami of moving parts that, if you don't know
what to do with, can be frustrating, and neither the packaging photos
or instructions much help. I suspect this process would be less of a
hassle if the panels sealing the underside of the car mode were just
absent, honestly.

Once pegged together, though, the torso is solid. The chest tab is
meant to lock into the pelvis by a tab, but I find this isn't
necessary and hinders the waist joint.

The rear folds in half with the feet pulling out and the doors stay
on the arms.


Robot Mode: It's a pretty typical Transformer robot, but all the
exposed robotic bits were sculpted with tubes to look semi-organic
and the head is clearly the Eddie Brock version of Venom.  The look is
good, it's bulky, tall, and black, what you'd expect from Venom.

Purple is used to break up the black, which is better than some
choices they could have used- especially blue. The purple plastic used
for the thighs and feet seem to be the only exception to the black
used elsewhere on this toy.

The neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, fingers, waist(if not secured),
hips, knees and ankles are all articulated. Missile launchers in the
forearms can fire the included missiles and the clips which store them
can be accessed on the arms.

Now, my problems with this toy... first issue, the launchers. The need
to stow the springs and internal works in the forearms makes them
long and the elbows sit high. Between the shoulder wheels and arm
doors, posing the arms is limited.

Second... the ratcheting bits that prop the arms up need to be
stronger. They tend to sag.

Third... the legs are a mess. While the mechanic to fold them in half
is good in theory, the toy's center of gravity sits back with the
large car chunks in the back. This isn't much of an issue if you have
the waist unlocked and the legs straight but in any hunched poses,
the toy will stumble. Possible solution- fold down the car chunks so
they touch the ground to serve as supports.


Other Notes: The toy will be re-released in a later wave in red,
likely as Carnage.


Final Thoughts: Honestly, some problems aside, this isn't a terrible
toy. It's almost as bulky as most of the $20 offerings and doesn't
tack on a lot of needless detail. It sets out to be a robot version of
Venom in the Transformers line and for that, it succeeds. But I can't
say I'll buy into this line anymore. The $15 price tag does put me
off a bit and not every toy in the line will be as beefy.





* Music Label Soundwave: Blaster Black version

Series: Transformers Music Label
Purchase Price: $55, on sale from bigbadtoystore.com


The Music Label was a line from Takaratomy in Japan centering around
working music player devices. The other inclusions in the line were
a working set of Rumble and Frenzy headphones and an Optimus
Prime/Convoy with a working, licensed iPod docking station as a
trailer. Optimus was initially released on solid white, with an
exclusive new head sculpt onto the G1 original toy, with a later
release in the "normal" colors. I have no Apple iPod so I have no need
to look into purchasing this toy.

Soundwave was a working MP3 player, released three times- the
standard iPod white color, "Spark Blue" in standard Soundwave colors,
and "Blaster Black" in Soundblaster colors. I ordered Soundblaster
as it was the one on sale. I could not justify an extra $40 for the
blue version.


Packaging: A nice flat-finish black box, meant to looks more like the
packaging of an electronic device than a toy. Photos of the white
version are used, with a sticker indicating which version is inside.
The front flap lifts up so you can see the toy.

Honestly, if this toy DOES get a domestic US release, I'd like to see
this package kept, with proper translations.

The toy sits in an inner cardboard tray, sandwiched between two pieces
of plastic, no twist ties. Think of how Venom was packaged. The toy,
guns, extra hands and headphones are all on display. Four pieces of
tape keep the tray halves sealed, and a loose bag of papers floats
free in the box under the tray.


MP3 Plater Mode: As the original Soundwave was just a rectangular cube
with some details to give it the look of a Walkman, this is the
same: a rectangular cube, with the details giving it away. Unlike
the 80s toy, the buttons are flat. The shoulder button protrudes a
bit, the SD card door popping open on a good spring. Honestly, if not
for the back side being a bump to allow the battery compartment,
this would be a nice, flat squared toy. The shoulder gun slot is
replicated as the headphone jack.


Transformation: A fairly decent copy of the original. Legs fold down,
arms from the back. Some changes, though, such as the legs being
reversed to give proper knees, the hands folding under, and the
shoulders slide forward on a track to line them up properly. The
guns do not store in the back anymore, and the missile of old is now
a permanent gun tip. You will also have to change the hands to
allow the toy to hold the rifle.


Robot Mode: Black and silver. Basically, as happened in Japan in the
80s, Soundwave had black replace blue. Strangely, while Soundblaster
had a red door, this has purple.

Heavily articulated, more so than it even has a right to be. As
far as this toy goes, it's a nice 6 inches tall, making it a decent
$10 toy without the MP3 player guts. As an interesting side note,
if you turn the legs backwards, you can mimic the look of the old
toy, as the heel bits serve as feet. You disable knee movement...
but as the original Soundwave had backwards knees, it's a nice
feature.

My only gripe is that the spring platform that pops the head up
wobbles some.


Mini SD Card Notes: Either a Mini SD card or a Micro SD with Mini
adapter are needed for this toy as it has no internal memory. A
brand name, reliable card is suggested- SanDisk and other established
brands. Transcend brand cards as well as other cheaper brands are
known for high card failure rates and especially seem notorious for
failing to work in portable devices.

Some SD cards come with USB slot readers. These can also be bought
separately, either as stand-alone SD readers or as universal memory
stick devices. Many computers now also have card readers installed.

For this, I am using a SanDisk Micro SD 2 GB with Mini and SD
adapters.


MP3 Player Functions: Right, so we've reviewed the toy... but that's
not what I sunk money into. You want to know how this works as an
MP3 player. Okay, so... load some random MP3s onto the card, plug
it in, install a battery....

And honestly, the sound quality is excellent. If anything, this is
superior to what I get from Winamp running on my computer. The
quality of headphones may have an impact on this, of course. Using a
dollar store brand is not advised. I would also suggest against using
the included earbuds, as earbuds are typically garbage.

The buttons function as play/power/pause, volume up and down, and
track selection. There is no fast forward or rewind feature, nor
a track memory. The player will start over at the beginning when
powered on. The songs will play in the order placed on the card, not
by file name.

while it lacks some of the features of the iPod shuffle 2GB, it
does have some advantages, such as swappable memory and regular
batteries. A single AAA battery is indicated to last for 6 hours of
play. Paperwork indicates the toy can only play MP3s at a 128 KB/s
bitrate, but I am playing 320 KB/s music without problem. The
paperwork also indicated Mini SD support of only 1 GB... guess
Takaratomy wanted coverage in case something doesn't work.

There is NO display screen, in case you were wondering. Oh, and
MP3 playback functions work in robot mode as well.


Other Notes: The removable hands make me doubt this will see a US
domestic release. I am not sure if they would meet the US choking
hazard safety specifications.

A site called reprolabels.com sells a special sticker kit for this
toy, designed to mimic the stickers of the original Soundwave. As
I have spent a small pile of money on this toy already, I am not
likely to order them as they wouldn't enhance the toy for me.


Final Toughts: Vintage Soundwave toys can go for a LOT of money,
and unless you were fortunate enough to purchase a reissue when it
came out, you're out of luck- unless you don't mind a toy in awful
condition, and even then the rougher shape toys can still go for
some decent money thanks to an inflated market.

As it is, I spent $55 on the toy, $7 on shipping, plus an extra
$20 on a mini SD card, which brings this to the most I have
ever paid on a single toy. An iPod Shuffle 2 GB costs about $10
less, and some of the non-Apple models may cost much less, some of
which will have display screens. But... the toy did retail in
Japan for about 8000 Yen, and import prices hit the $120 range for
some time.

That said, the MP3 playback quality is decent, the toy itself is
very good, and who didn't like Soundwave? Now that the price is
dropping, it may be something to look into, especially since it
may fulfill two geek needs at once. For what I spent, I am actually
happy, considering the cost. I am unlikely, however, to by another
copy of this unless we get a cheap domestic release, though as stated
above, I am doubtful we will, otherwise Hasbro would have announced
it by now.