Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Siege Impactor (Deluxe)

Review:  #543
Name:  Impactor
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Siege
Year of Release:  2019
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 4)
Mold Status:  new

TANK MODE:

Impactor gets a new mold in the Siege toyline and he transforms into a tank.

The tank looks pretty good.  It is surprising but the yellow-orange and purple works well together.

While the turret cannot rotate due to transformation, the cannon can tilt up and down.  A neat aspect is how there are sculpted cannons on the side as well.

Impact is a fairly big figure, one of the biggest in the line actually.  Granted, the front is fairly hollow.  Above is a comparison against Studio Series Lockdown.

A great looking figure, and the silver battle damage that permeates the line looks okay only on the sides of the tank.

TRANSFORMATION:

Impactor's transformation doesn't try anything new.  The turret splits to form the arms (and the shoulder cannon is permanently attached) and the front splits to form the legs.  The only fun part is because the lower portion of the tank forms the legs, and the turret forms the upper robot body, you can have a walking tank by only transforming the lower half.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is Impactor through and through.  This is the first time the character has gotten his own unique mold instead of being a retool.

He barely has any kibble and is a solid figure overall.

The headsculpt is simple but looks good.  There is quite a number of paint applications on the figure.

Impactor is one of the tallest Deluxe figure in the line, rivaling Ironhide.  Like Ironhide though, that is fairly deceptive since Impactor has hollow legs (no reason other than to save on plastic), a hollow waist and hollow torso.

Articulation, as you'd expect, is excellent.  Impactor has joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

He comes with two weapons, a traditional gun and a smaller drill.

By flipping the hand back into the forearm, you can plug the drill as a replacement for a look that's more suitable to the character.

He can hold the gun in the other hand.  As mentioned earlier, the shoulder cannon is permanently attached.

The ankle tilts are also not as useful as you would expect.  The joint is on the outside of the ankle, not the middle, so it can look weird once you tilt it too much.

A decent robot mode.  His bulkiness coupled with a few weaponry options give it plenty of play value.

OVERALL:

While Impactor may not be the best figure in the Siege line, that is evidence of the high standard of figures Hasbro has been releasing recently.  Impactor is still a solid figure packing in quite a punch in both modes.

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Book Review: The Burning Maze

Review:  #906
Title:  The Burning Maze
Series:  The Trials of Apollo – 3rd book
Author:  Rick Riordan
Comments:  The Burning Maze has a predictable story in a predictable structure, but it manages to still be enjoyable, albeit a tad bit average compared to the author’s previous works.  The problem here is that the author tends to rely too heavily “modernizing” Greek legends but unfortunately stumbles by trying too hard and not having those modernizations feel fitting.  The other negative is the constant “teasing” of the next significant character or the next major plot point.  It’s quite annoying when it spends paragraphs leading up to the reveal, only to get interrupted and then spends a few more paragraphs before revealing it to you anyway.  The story itself is the familiar Apollo must go ahead and stop the evil emperor.  The emperor himself is set up as the main antagonist but has surprisingly limited appearances.  Instead, the main villain is one of his servants and this makes the climax feel lacking.  The reuse of jokes is tiring and you can see what 90% of the humor is going to be from a mile away, which defeats the purpose.  The plot meanders too much to keep a good pacing.  However, it is surprising that the novel had the courage to kill off characters.  On the flipside, nearly all characters feel one dimension, as if one trait dominates them and that’s all they are.  Recurring characters appear bitter and this makes them unlikable.  Certain subplots that appear to be significant going forward doesn’t get developed or is dropped.  At the end of the story, it doesn’t feel like the series’ overarching plot moved forward at all, The Burning Maze felt more like filler than anything.
Rating:  6/10

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween (2018)

The sequel to the surprisingly refreshing Goosebumps movie falls off the mark.  It features a new cast with only what can be described as an extended cameo role of Jack Black as R.L. Stine.  With a brother sister combo along with the brother's best friend, Goosebumps 2's characters are tired old cliches that does nothing to freshen itself up.  The two friends are nerds and are bullied, while the older sister is sick of her brother.  At Halloween, through a few coincidences, R.L. Stine's creations are released into the world and it is up to the trio to capture them back.  All of the action feels predictable and unlike the first movie, it doesn't feel as much as a nostalgic trip.  While some of the dialogue is funny, in a stupid kind of way, most of the script falls flat.  To that end, Goosebumps 2 is a disappointment and is barely worth your time.

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai (2018)

Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai is an anime based on the light novel series.  It adapts the first five volumes into 13 episodes.  It is set in high school and follows Azusagawa Sakuta who one day sees a bunny girl in the library.  Other people can’t seem to see her except for him.  The girl introduces herself as Sakurajima Mai, a famous celebrity who is currently on hiatus in order to focus on school.  She warns him to forget about this and to not bring it up again.

Naturally, Sakuta keeps thinking of her and while Mai is resistant at first, we slowly get to understand what is causing this phenomenon.  Sakuta deduces that Mai has the adolescence Syndrome, an urban legend that causes people to have special powers or is hurt in mysterious ways.  In Mai’s case, it causes her to lose presence to an ever increasing number of people, effectively becoming invisible, which is starting to become inconvenient.  The plot doesn’t pause and quickly dives into Mai’s history, why she wanted to quit the show business, as well as having doubts on whether to return.  Sakuta on the other hand puts his best foot forward to try and find out what is causing Mai’s disappearance.

The development of the relationship between Sakuta and Mai happens fast.  They first see each other, then suddenly they’re on a date, and then they’re sharing a room.  The resolution of the problem happens quickly too and that’s probably why the relationship had to progress so fast.  The dynamic between the main pair actually works well even though they’re like a regular couple.  The way that Sakuta has to explain what is currently happening to him to Mai due to misunderstandings keeps the anime interesting.  The embarrassing, yet sweet, resolution was good and it had an interesting mechanic behind it.

Despite the English title focusing on Sakuta first seeing Mai in a bunny costume, this arc only takes up a small portion of the anime.  Odd things keep happening with a few foreshadowing moments thrown in.  The way each situation rears its head, as well as being resolved is quite nice.  Nothing about it is particularly clever or clever but it feels right each time.  The story takes scientific theories and concepts to apply them to the events in the form of the Adolescence Syndrome.  Each story arc is only around two to three episodes long.  Yet it never feels like the pacing is too fast and enough time is given for things to properly work out and progress naturally.

Sakuta, despite not even trying, seems to attract the affections of a lot of other girls.  The ones experiencing the phenomenons always seem to gravitate around him.  He usually is one of the only ones to sense that something is wrong and thus he is the only one that can help them.  All the characters introduced are likable since they’re usually introduced a little bit before their arc so you can get to know them better.No explanation is ever given for why the syndrome only seems to happen around Sakuta.  We only get educated conjectures from the characters on why these specific events are happening.

The “rascal” part of the title naturally refers to Sakuta.  He has some choice comments befitting of his description.  Despite the suggesting title of the anime, the fan service is really subdued; it mostly just has a few double entendre from time to time.   Sakuta never crosses the line to becoming slimy with his dialogue and all this makes the series have a sardonic type of humor.  The wistful melancholy ending theme suits the series very well.  It comes and hits you hard in the ending as it finally addresses one of the longer running “problem” that Sakuta was experiencing.  It is a sad tale with a tear-inducing resolution.  However, by the end of the thirteenth episode, it feels that the anime wasn’t ready to end but it had to, leaving a few things still as mysterious as when they were first introduced.

Overall, Rascal Does Not Dream of Bunny Girl Senpai gets better as the episodes progress.  It’s a neat twist on your typical high school slice-of-life with intriguing scenarios.  The humor is subdued but works well because of this, the characters are wonderfully likable and most importantly, it makes you eager to see what is next.

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Stick it to the Man! (PS4)

Stick it to the Man! is a sidescrolling platformer for the PlayStation 4 (as well as for a myriad of other consoles including the PS3, Vita and PC).  The aesthetics has the characters and world take on the form of paper cutouts and it works wonderfully well.  The player takes control of Ray who was just having a normal day testing out the hardness of hard hats when he gets into an accident.  When he wakes up, he suddenly finds himself with an arm sticking out of his head.  The pink glowing arm gives him additional powers.  Not only can the arm stretch, Ray can now read the minds of others as well as grab onto stuff from far away to swing himself onto the platform.

The controls are simple.  Ray can jump and this forms the core of the (simple) platforming.  Grabbing onto faraway pins helps increase the distance he can travel and at a much quicker pace too, which can be crucial in escaping guards.  As a carry over from the PC control scheme, you use the analogue stick to aim the arm, which also acts as a select for which character you want to read the mind of and the stickers to grab or place.  Thus it can be unwieldy at times especially when you want to run through something fast via grappling but the arm doesn't quite line up with where you were aiming for.

Reading a character's mind ties into using the PS4 controller's speakers in a neat way.  It doesn't feel tacked on and is a nice surprise the first time it happens.  What helps is that the game has a unique quirky sense of humor.  While there are some bizarre elements with some of the jokes as well as the story, on the whole, it's naturally funny.  To progress through the story, you just have to travel the whole level, grab stickers and then read minds to see what the characters want.  Then you give them the appropriate sticker to trigger the next event.

There aren't too many sidequests, most are required for the story.  The only semi-significant ones are when it is tied to an achievement.  While most of the game is pretty easy, there are certain sections where the answer is not obvious.  The poor logic in these sections are annoying especially when you know you are towards the end and it feels like it is artificially dragging out the game.  There are small sections interspersed throughout the chapters where you figure out how to get past and avoid the enemy.  The enemies chases you once you are spotted but if you are caught, you just end up respawning at the start of the section so there's no real penalty.  This makes the game fairly relaxing.

The story is intriguing and while there are plenty of diversions, Ray is ultimately being chased by someone who wants his ability.  Unfortunately, the antagonist's backstory is never fully revealed, no matter how interesting it was.  There are collectibles in the form of reading the minds of all the characters that appear in the game.  If you miss some, you can use chapter select and the game has a good map to show the objectives.

It is a short game though since it takes around three to five hours to complete on a first run.  Once you know what to do, it takes a lot less time to complete each chapter and there's not much replayability.  Overall, Stick it to the Man! is an enjoyable game.  The gameplay concept doesn't sound like anything special but finding stickers, reading the mind of others and then putting the stickers in the correct place is surprisingly addictive.  It's definitely worth a play especially since it is cheap and doesn't take too long to complete.

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Book Review: Armada

Review:  #905
Title:  Armada
Series:  N/A
Author:  Ernest Cline
Comments:  Armada takes place in the present day and currently, there are two VRMMOs that have taken the world by storm.  One is a spaceship dogfighter, while the other has players take control of machines on land.  It follows Zack, an temperamental and unstable character who’s one of the best players of Armada.  Eventually, it is revealed that Armada is a warfare simulation in order to train civilians for an impending alien attack.  The book throws in a lot of pop culture references, mainly gaming references.  Unfortunately, these feel forced, especially if you have some knowledge of what it is referring it.  The author also tries to shoehorn in actual real life people into the story but again, it feels so unlikely that it becomes laughable.  The whole novel seems to take on an amateurish quality in its writing and plot.  As the plot continues, it feels more and more like fan fiction or something from the imagination of a young child.  Everything is too idealistic and predictable, from the romantic interest that the author tries to develop but doesn’t quite achieve it to the climax and big reveal.  You actually don’t want what you expect to happen to happen because it is something you would feel is too lame to happen.  Yet that is exactly what the plot devolves into, a big case of self-wish-fulfillment.  Granted, the background of the aliens and the program was intriguing and when the characters start giving out the answers, it hooks you.  Armada isn’t a bad book just a very average one.
Rating:  6/10

Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Siege Mirage (Deluxe)

Review:  #542
Name:  Mirage
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - War for Cybertron:  Siege
Year of Release:  2019
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 4)
Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Mirage transforms into a blue and white Formula 1 race car.  While he looks good for the most part, the robot arms forming part of the spoiler definitely ruins the sleek look of the car.

As the robot mode uses faux parts (spoiler:  the front does not actually form the robot chest), the back reveals these parts.

The two robot weapons peg on top of the spoiler.  There are no gimmicks apart from rolling him on top of a table.

Mirage is about the average size for a Deluxe.  Above is a comparison against Studio Series Lockdown.

The cockpit is cast from transparent blue plastic, which is an interesting choice.  Despite the chunky spoiler, this is still a decent vehicle mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Mirage has a different transformation scheme to what you're used to with the character.  The front actually splits into two and a few panels fold together to form the legs.  While the spoiler and the grey block behind the cockpit splits into two for the arms.  The back then folds down on a few struts to complete the torso.

ROBOT MODE:

Mirage's robot mode is pretty good, note that there are no silver battle damage paint spoiling the color scheme.

Despite initial photos making it seem like Mirage had insubstantial legs, they are solid and locks together well.

The head sculpt is a tad bit bland but is recognizable enough as the character.  It is on a ball joint and the silver face is nice.

In terms of size, Mirage is about normal.  Above is a comparison against Siege Sideswipe showing that they're about the same height.

Poseability is great since the Siege line focuses upon this.  He comes with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

The blue panels on the side of the shoulders are on separate joints and can lift out to the sides to suit your preferences.

He comes with two weapons, both are guns.

One of them can peg onto his shoulder for a shoulder missile launcher.

While the other longer gun can be held in his hand.

Noteworthy is the fact that the tip of the missile launcher can be detached and also held as a weapon in his hand.

Mirage is a fantastically solid figure, due to the way he transforms, there aren't any obvious hollow parts.

A great robot mode that looks and plays well.

OVERALL:

Mirage is a nice figure and once again, a neat addition to the Siege line.  His alternate mode is not too Cybertronian in aesthetics and can pass for an Earth mode.  The robot mode features plenty of articulation and has a bunch of weaponry.  If you can, then Mirage is a worthy addition to your collection.

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