The New Hope!

On Sunday I went shopping at my local discount store, where my girlfriend spotted an ROTS re-issue of the 'all new likeness' Princess Leia, packaged with a plastic cup, for the paltry price of £4. After purchasing and opening said figure, I knew it was finally time to open my ANH Blu-Ray Commemorative Pack.

I was not disappointed.

The sculpting and posability on these figures is second to none, especially for a seasoned (former) POTF2 collector as myself. Luke looks like Luke, Ben Kenobi is incredibly accurate and the Sandtrooper is the boss, completely. Even the R2-D2, which I thought would be the weakest of the four, has a nifty action feature whereby you twist his dome and his sensor pops out; and that's on top of a superb sculpt and crisp, clean paint apps. I don't think there's any going back now...

Given the increase to my ANH principal cast, it meant I was finally able to better utilise my Death Star walls, and get my own version of that classic promo shot...

The Leia and Han are nice place fillers, but they really pale in comparrison (literally with the Han, he's from the Jabba pack and his skin is almost green). Time to upgrade the POTF2s, no?

Finally, sorry it's been a while between posts, but college work, film-making and other projects have taken over. My comic/writing/film-making blog is now up and running at http://dopemeat.wordpress.com; take a look if you have a spare couple of minutes!

Wolverine Redux

I probably don't self-censor enough, and sometimes post pics that I'm not really happy with. I guess that's the growing pains of learning a new skill, but it's still not a great advert for the blog when the first picture is out of focus and, well, not that good. So, with standards in mind, I've revisited Wolverine for these shots:
 

The base is from a McFarlane Toys Lost figure, but it seems to work fine as Logan's hunting ground. I guess this means the Marvel theme is well and truly continuing!

And, hopefully, that's the front page looking a bit better for the time being... :D

Smoulder

I was in a Transformer buying mood some months ago, and it just so happened the Powercore Combiners were on sale at TRU. I knew for balance to my collection I needed a Decepticon, and deliberated long and hard before going for this guy. I was most certainly impressed!

This is more or less the anti-Inferno/Optimus (depending on your particular generation). A fire truck seems like a pretty strange choice for a Decepticon, but he pulls it off well. In fact, the facial sculpt is so well done, as are the colour applications, that in robot mode there's no doubt whose side Smoulder is on. Well, other than he bears a passing resemblance to Perceptor, but nevermind.

Now, what's really awesome about Smoulder is the addition of his weapon, 'Chopster'. Reminiscent of the original Targetmasters, Smoulder's axe is a mini-Transformer and character in his own right! Double cool for a discout price. Furthest more, whilst I'm unable to show it off (due to not having Bombshock), in another nod to Transformers of yore, Smoulder can combine as the central piece with another lot of combiners to form an entirely new gestalt! I've seen pictures; it looks like G1 Bruticus, it looks awesome, and it is on my wishlist.

There you have it folks. Evil fire engines? They're pretty hot right now :D

Wheeljack Strikes Back

The first of my modern TF purchases, I proudly present the irresistable Alternators Wheeljack!

For me, this was the ultimate series of Transformers - Generation 1 characters who transformed from accurate scale replicas of existing cars into bulky, ass-kicking robots with multiple weapons. Wheeljack, whilst never one of my favourites originally, really shone in his new incarnation as a Mustang muscle car, complete with go-faster stripes, an energon sword and an engine block that turns into a gun. Sheer design genius!

  

G1 Soundwave never stood a chance...

The Dinobot Coast

 

For more realistic Dinobot action than the Swoop shot below, these Grimlock pics were taken, quite appropriately, on a trip to the Jurassic Coast last year. I think the King fit in rather well...