Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Spud Muffin (Series 1)

Review:  #567
Name:  Spud Muffin
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  N/A
Line:  BotBots
Year of Release:  2018
Size Class:  BotBots (Series 1)
Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Spud Muffin transforms into a box of french fries, which to be frank, is quite an awesome alternate mode.

There's a dash of red on the front but the back has nothing other than white.  Apart from sitting on the table like this, there's nothing else that he can do.

As a BotBot, Spud Muffin is really small, above is a comparison against Legion Barricade.  Nevertheless, a cool alternate mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

Spud Muffin has a simple transformation.  The french fries flip back to reveal his head, you pull out the sides to form his arms and then flip the legs down from behind.

ROBOT MODE:

Spud Muffin's robot mode does a good of job differentiating from the alternate mode.  The french fries looks better than you'd expect as a helmet.

There's a little bit of kibble on his back which was required to allow the french fries to fold back.

The face details that's painted on looks good, with the visor and a nice smile.

He's still fairly small in robot mode.  Above is a comparison against Legion Crosshairs.

Poseability is limited to swinging his arms, but that's easily forgiven for something at this price point.

OVERALL:

Spud Muffin is a great little figure, like most of the BotBots line, really.  He has an unique french fries mode, and a cool robot mode.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations War for Cybertron Earthrise Starscream (Voyager)

Review:  #566
Name:  Starscream
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Decepticon
Line:  Generations:  War for Cybertron - Earthrise
Year of Release:  2020
Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 1)
Mold Status:  new

JET MODE:

For the second part of the the War for Cybertron trilogy comes another version of Starscream.  This time, it is based on his G1 self, transforming into a F-15 fighter jet.

Revisiting an accurate G1 version is long overdue ever since the Classics / Universe version, which was released over ten years ago.

However, this Voyager mold shares a lot of engineering design with the Classics mold, right down to the gap within the body of the jet mode.

In terms of size, Starscream is fairly decent, above is a comparison against Titans Return Optimus.

Despite the gap underneath the body, this is still a decent jet mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

One thing is for sure, while Earthrise Starscream takes the Classics Starscream's transformation as a base, it is not a simple upscale.  There are a lot of little changes that make it feel really different.  At its core, the back extends to form the legs, the arms fold out from the fuselage, and the nosecone folds into the body to form the chest and reveal the head.  However, the arm design feels like it complicated things for no reason since there are multiple hinge joints to extend it for robot mode.  It improves upon things such as having the panels the arms are attached to pegged solidly into the chest piece.

ROBOT MODE:

Starscream's robot mode is a lot bulkier than you would expect.  Unlike the recent Masterpiece toys, the Earthrise line still has plenty of sculpting to give the robots are more robotic / mechanical look.

He does have several pieces kibble including the nose hanging off his back, and the rear wings on the sides of his legs.

The headsculpt has Starscream with a neutral expression, although there might be a slight smirk happening, it is hard to tell.

A quick comparison with Studio Series Optimus and Starscream is a bit shorter than several Voyagers but he makes it up with his chunky look.

The robot mode has fantastic articulation as you'd expect from the Generations line nowadays.  He had hinges for his neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, knees and ankles.

While the ankle joints are useful, they can only tilt for a limited range.

All of the red on Starscream is painted, he only has blue and grey plastic.

If you wish, you can remove the (small-ish) nullrays and have him hold it in his hands.  Although since his forearms are fairly large, Starscream only manages to hold them loosely.

A great robot mode that's a worthy update of the original.

OVERALL:

Despite what seemed like a lazy upscale of the Deluxe figure from over ten years ago, Earthrise Starscream is a worthy update with improvements to the core transformation design.  It looks great in both modes (despite the gap in jet mode), and the robot mode is a real treat in terms of its size and articulation.

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Book Review: Sword Art Online: Progressive Vol. 6

Review:  #919
Title:  Sword Art Online:  Progressive Vol. 6
Series:  Sword Art Online:  Progressive – 6th volume
Author:  Reki Kawahara
Comments:  The second part that finishes the story of the sixth floor.  While the author claims in the afterword that he was forced to split it into two parts due to its length, after finishing this volume, you’ll come to realize that it could have fitted into one volume after all.  This is because of the author’s extreme tendency to find every opportunity to regurgitate the characters’ current predicament as well as summarizing everything that has happened up until now.  You’ll find blocks of paragraphs that do this and it gets tiring.  Ignoring that, there is also the theme of all the NPCs not acting like your typical game AI but rather more like humans.  Considering that this game was the first of its kind and very far from when the Underworld arc and its “true” AI would have happened, it’s hard to believe and breaks the immersion.  The player killing gang remains a major antagonist but sits more in the background.  Rather, Kirito and Asuna focus on spending time with Kizmel, befriending a new group and then continue on solving that floor’s story quest so that they can challenge the floor boss.  There is a lot of filler content that ultimately becomes inconsequential, from the excessive detailing of food to the same tired angle of NPCs being individuals as well, and that they have histories spanning to before the game started.  All this combines into a slightly above average story but nowhere near as good as the early volumes.
Rating:  6/10

Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018)

Solo:  A Star Wars Story is a prequel to the Star Wars prequel films, focusing on Han Solo and Chewbacca.  We see the humble beginnings of Han where he is trapped in the slums of Corellia, and then eventually his escape, his first meeting with Chewbacca and of course, how he obtained the Millennium Falcon.  Wrapped into the film is your typical story of Han being forced into the service of a crime syndicate which turns into an impossible heist.  There's also your usual love interest, a new character by the name of Qi'ra.  While the film has its highlights, a lot of the set pieces are great to watch, the plot follows down the same beaten path of a lot of other films.  Thus, there are no surprises, even though there are some questionable choices made by the characters.  The pacing does ebb and flow, with a strong beginning followed by a weaker segment, then another exciting set piece, followed by more set up before the final climax.  The climax and resolution of the whole matter didn't feel as substantial as one might have expected from the build up.  Thankfully Han and Chewbacca remain charismatic and is a likable pair, helping to carry the weight of the film which is ultimate a solid, yet predictable, affair.

11-11: Memories Retold (PS4)

11-11:  Memories Retold is an adventure game with two very unique elements.  The first being its art style, and the second being that the story is focused on telling an emotive story set in World War I.  The art style is based on impressionist art.  While it looks nice at first glance, everything feels too blurry at times.  It’s hard to pick out the facial features of certain supporting characters because they have none, and objects tend to blur into each other.  You get used to it but it is not the charming art style that you would expect from something of this nature.

Two narratives intertwine within the plot, being Harry and Kurt, who are on opposite sides of the war.  It tells of their involvement in the war, how both reluctantly enlisted, and how both changed from what they saw.  The plot will swap between the two viewpoints with the story being split into three parts.  Harry is a Canadian photographer.  To impress the girl that he loves, he enlists and travels to the front-lines to become a war photographer.  At first, he was attracted to the glory of a soldier but the things he sees changes him.  He was not supposed to be in any danger but will eventually be put into situations where his life is at risk.

Kurt on the other hand is a German engineer.  His son, who was in the front-lines, goes missing.  Refusing to believe that his son is dead, he enlists to find clues on what happened to his unit.  He is persistent but also feels more down to earth and less idealistic when compared to Harry.  The gameplay is minimal and can make the beginning of the game a chore to play through as it is very boring.  Ultimately, as the player, your only input is to make the characters walk to their next objectives, interact with a few objects, and then watch cutscenes as the story unfolds.  There are a few mini-games but they involve little more than either easy QTEs or rearranging items.

The second half of the game varies the game-play a little bit more.  During some parts, you can voluntarily swap between the characters.  The result is some light puzzles requiring teamwork.  One character will hold something open before you switch to the other to grab something.  In other sections, you’ll have to stealth through an area so that you don’t get caught or to avoid gunfire.  These sections are not hard at all but still manage to give you the tension and threat that would be present in such a scenario.  Harry also gets the ability to take photographs.  The photos that he takes as part of the story may seem to be insignificant but does eventually tie into plot points that gives you a “aha!” moment.

Despite your objectives always clearly stated, it doesn’t tell you how to get there.  So you’ll end up running around hoping to find the person or find the place to trigger the next cutscene.  You’re usually put into a medium sized area with no map as you run around to try and familiarize yourself with the location.  The game falls into the trap of including too many pointless collectibles, especially where it doesn’t feel like it needed it.  Scattered in each chapter are numerous floating pieces of paper (and sometimes, objects that you need to photograph).  At least it does encourage you to explore the often larger than expected environments.

The central theme of war not being black and white, as well as how it changes people is executed nicely.  You can see how some other characters’ personalities have slowly changed as time goes on.  The strong music and emotional moments come to the forefront in the scenes before the ending.  Those scenes are really powerful and you don’t realize how engrossed and invested you were in the characters until that moment.

The game has multiple endings, however, there is chapter select so you don’t have to repeat too much of the final parts to see them all.  It’s still grinding since there’s a lot of repetition but it is acceptable.  Unfortunately, it seems that no one ending is the perfect ending; each has something in it that is bittersweet.  It is a short game though, taking only around 5-7 hours to complete.

Overall, 11-11:  Memories Retold is a surprisingly good game.  While the game-play is nothing to write home about and more often than not, feels clunky, the storytelling is its strength.  The plot takes some time in order to get going but once it does, you’ll be invested in its characters, care what happens to them and then stay in your thoughts as your ponder about the various endings.

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The Office - American Season 3 (2006-2007)

The third season of the American version of The Office is comprised of 25 episodes long at approximately 22 minutes each.  It is based on the British show of the same name but by this point, it has branched off in its own path.  The series follows the Scranton branch of the paper company Dunder Mifflin.  In particular, the main character is Michael Scott, the regional manager and the most shallow, selfish and offensive guy that you could meet.

A fair amount of time has passed since the end of the last season and significant changes has occurred.  Right off the bat, all of the cast are still here but relationships have formed or crumbled, and we see the fallout from the very first episode.  There is the continued ever looming threat of closure.  While it doesn’t get much of a mention in the beginning, it quickly rears its head and never quite goes away.  The series is a comedy and there is a limited amount of plot.  Regardless, things do change to a rapid degree and the series is not afraid to chop and change.  The situation at the end of the season is completely different from the beginning.  Characters come and go pretty often in this season.  Sometimes you don’t even notice that they were gone for a few episodes until they make a big deal of them coming back.

There is a higher focus placed on the various relationships of the characters.  A lot of them are now in pairs, although not all of them are public knowledge.  Michael loves to flout his relationship, even when it is inappropriate, which is most of the time.  It’s a shame that we never got to see how Dwight and Angela got together.  We were introduced to them as a pair randomly in a episode last season.  While their relationship is obvious to a few select characters, everyone else is oblivious.

Michael takes up most of the screen time and we’re shown his many flaws.  The biggest mistake that other characters keep making is trusting Michael with their secrets.  Michael is a massive blabber mouth, he pretty much instantly blurts it out in front of the whole office even though he knows, and promises, that he won’t.  Yet despite Michael’s personality, he somehow manages to connect with potential clients and get their business.  This does show that he had the skills, or luck, to be the best salesman of the branch before he was promoted.

It can get annoying and painful to watch how self-centered and selfish he is.  He just cannot read the atmosphere at all.  For all the things that he does wrong and continually makes mistake for, things somehow work out well for him.  He doesn’t lose his life.  He finds success in his romantic life.  It’s unfair when you compare his situation with other characters who deserve it more.  The show takes a risk and splits the viewpoint into two distinct threads.  It is different but doesn’t quite work.  As a result of this decision, the cast grows significantly.  Among the new characters, Andy is the suck up and rival to Dwight.  All it means is that we get another annoying character.

All the characters’ negative traits are emphasized and it gets worse with this season.  Angela is particular is going out of control with her overbearing attitude and general negativity.  Ryan graduates from a nice and innocent temp worker to an unpleasant person with a horrible personality.  Despite how genuinely annoying some characters are, when the season plays around with shifting the characters, you feel like something is missing.  It’s only when they return do things go back to normal and you don’t feel that unease anymore.  It’s interesting to see how the season plays out the characters’ strengths and weaknesses to its potential.  It makes certain episodes and scenes more meaningful than just another gag or joke.

The series is not afraid to take on some of the more sensitive topics.  While its depiction is not exactly ideal, it goes all in in trying to make it funny.  At least it depicts how not to deal with these topics.  Things will often be inappropriate and the series is the perfect example of how a company should not operate.  The season finale was pretty interesting as it pits coworkers against each other.  It is good that the cast don’t stay forever at their current positions.  There is potential for people to be permanently shifted around, creating an air of unpredictability and preventing the current situation from becoming stale.

Overall, the third season of The Office shows how the series is continuing on getting its stride.  Characters and episode plots are getting more confident.  The characters are coming into their own and the wave of new characters fit in perfectly.  Of course, there are dud episodes and jokes as well as boring scenes but on the whole, season three was fairly enjoyable.

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Toy Review: Transformers BotBots Driver Ted (Series 3)

Review:  #565
Name:  Driver Ted
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  N/A
Line:  BotBots
Year of Release:  2019
Size Class:  BotBots (Series 3)
Mold Status:  new

ALTERNATE MODE:

Driver Ted transforms into a ride-on motorcycle arcade game which is a really unique alternate mode.

There's some sculpting at the back as well that helps sells the machine.

As a BotBot, Driver Ted is very small.  Above is a comparison with Legion Barricade.

TRANSFORMATION:

Transformation is very simple  The two motorcycles pulls down to form the legs.  The arms pop out from the sides and you open the front into halves and reveal the head.

ROBOT MODE:

Driver Ted has a equally unique robot mode.  Due to the sculpting of the motorcycles in alternate mode, he has slim feet and can be prone to falling over with a simple knock.

He has the halves of the alternate mode's screen as kibble but they are angled like wings, giving him a distinct silhouette.

The headsculpt isn't so much as a head.  During transformation, you open the monitor... to show another monitor.  The face still works well though.

Above is a height comparison against Legion Crosshairs.

Poseability is very limited.  Only his arms swings forward but this doesn't diminish how unique he is.

OVERALL:

Driver Ted is another great mold in the BotBots line.  He has a one-of-a-kind alternate mode and a lovable robot mode.

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