Fallout - Season 1 (2024)

Fallout is an eight episode show based upon the game series of the same name. The show has a stunning opening where it captures the horror and gravity of the situation where the whole world is bombarded by nuclear bombs. Due to the radiation, this forced the survivors to head underground and live in “Vaults”. Each vault has a small population and Lucy is about to get married to a member of another vault to help increase the population and not be inbred too much.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite go according to plan and Lucy is forced to go above ground. Hundreds of years had passed since the nuclear bombs, and not all humans died above. In fact, plenty survived but it is now a wasteland with no rules. Lucy, having had the luxury of shelter underground all her life, must go find her father in this cruel land, without any clue on how society works now.

The show follows other perspectives as well, including Maximus, who is part of this Brotherhood. Having trained there with the hopes of becoming a Knight, he succeeds in being promoted to Squire. However, Knights are not as virtuous as he had expected. These Knights also wear the iconic and instantly familiar armor of Fallout (well, at least the helmet). Even though it looks ridiculous and clunky, it is still kind of cool.

The show skips over the many years from the day the bombs fell to the day Lucy goes out, so many things are still shrouded in mystery. However, as cruel and harsh as the Wasteland is, there is still a society, and to be honest, some sort of order. Sure, mutated beasts roam the place so you’re never safe, and people are much more selfish, as they must to survive, but it is surprising that there are still many essential services, food and materials to keep some advanced technology running.

The show could have gone for a setting where everyone is unlikeable. Luckily, it doesn’t take things too negatively and the various characters that it follows, including what seems to be the antagonists, are never truly 100% unlikeable. Each of them has traits that are good, and traits that are bad. Their backgrounds are slowly revealed over the course of the season, which can be annoying if you’re the type that likes to know everything as fast as possible.

Midway through the season, the show manages to introduce a very good hook in its main mystery. While Lucy’s journey above was full of distractions, life continues underground in the vault. You’d feel that both their paths will eventually converge, as they are both honing into the same mystery. It’s an interesting piece, where whoever Lucy left back in the vault starts to question what they were brought up to believe.

The pacing of the season is decent, as it keeps enough things shrouded in mystery, but also reveals enough tantalizing details to keep you going. The final episode opens up with the big revelations of the purpose of the vaults, and what initially caused the war. It was a tiny bit anticlimactic as the uncovering wasn’t as world-shattering as it could have be. It wasn’t helped with Lucy’s plight and how easily she managed to get towards the end, considering the effort and obstacles she had to overcome up until now.

Overall, Fallout is a surprisingly decent show based off a video game. It had a strong opening and then the pacing slows somewhat being picking up again from the middle of the season. There is a lot of mystique and intrigue in the lore, that it slows unveils to you. While the big revelation isn’t mindblowing, the build up was still worth it and it ends with the promise of more.

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Toy Review: Transformers Earthspark Terran Thrash (Deluxe)

Review:  #823

Name:  Terran Thrash

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Terran

Line:  Earthspark

Year of Release:  2024

Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 5)

Mold Status:  new

VEHICLE MODE:

Thrash transforms into a motorcycle, based upon his appearance in the Earthspark cartoon.

Released in the more expensive and complicated Deluxe size class, this is in general a better motorcycle than the Warrior version.  He's also casted in a much more whiter plastic.

As a motorcycle though, he has the disadvantage of being very small / light for a Deluxe.

Unfortunately, he loses the sidecar, which seems like a massive downgrade.  Instead, the shield is a non-transformable weapon that attached along with the gun on the back.

There is a kickstand to help keep him upright on the table.

One of the annoying things is that he is not symmetrical on both sides.  The robot feet is designed to be slightly offset, which you would initially have thought to be misassembled but it is not an error...

A decent enough motorcycle, just the asymmetrical robot feet on either side of the motorcycle to be disappointing.

TRANSFORMATION:

Thrash has an okay transformation, it's actually fairly uninspired for a motorcycle Transformer.  The front and rear wheels along with the bottom half of the motorcycle forms the robot legs.  The upper portion are the arms, while the front is the chest.

ROBOT MODE:

Thrash has a very good looking robot mode, impressive given that he is so slim with barely any motorcycle kibble hanging off.

The biggest piece of kibble are the wheels behind his legs, but they feel like they are integrated well enough into the robot mode to not be in the way.

The head sculpt is fine, there are some metallic teal highlights.

Height-wise, he is standard for a Deluxe, just that he is very slim.

Articulation is fantastic, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.  The ankles in particular has a great range of motion.

He comes with two weapons, a shield (that in the cartoon is formed by the sidecar) and a small gun.

The gun can be held in his hand, while the shield pegs onto his forearms.  They look pretty decent.

When not in use, the gun can peg onto his back.

A quick comparison with the Warrior class version released earlier and this Deluxe version is proportioned much better, just that he is missing the sidecar shield that actually transforms as well.

The cleaner white also looks nicer.

He is well balanced and proportioned, adding to his play value.  The small gun can peg on top of the shield.

A strong robot mode that is the definitive version of the character.

OVERALL:

Yes, it is disappointing that Thrash loses the sidecar shield that transforms when compared to the Warrior class figure.  However, he is much better in every other aspect.  The motorcycle is kind of weird with the slightly asymmetrical look (but also easily missed if you didn't know it existed).  The robot mode looks awesome and is a lot of fun to pose.

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Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry (PS4)

Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry was originally downloadable content for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. However, it was later released as a standalone. Given that, you can expect a short runtime as well as gameplay mechanics that would be a carbon copy of the Black Flag. Therefore, you must temper your expectations going into the game.

The game follows Adewale, who is shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue. The plot mostly follows him trying to free the slaves and the gameplay reflects that. Given that this was originally a DLC, it assumes you already know the controls well enough. Thus, if you hadn’t played Assassin’s Creed in a while, you may struggle in the opening scenes in how to counter, strike and dodge. It does not include a very good tutorial at all and can lead to some slight frustrations.

Otherwise, Adewale is dropped into the new area and you’re pretty much left free to explore however you like. He has all the abilities of an assassin, being able to climb and parkour with the best of them. He carries some weapons, a machete, the assassin blades, some darts and smoke bombs. They’re enough to get by and you will unlock more as you progress through the story.

A prominent element of the game are all the slaves that are being oppressed. You’re immediately presented with many small pockets of opportunities where you can kill their oppressors to free the slaves. Freeing slaves will allow them to join you, and this will unlock perks for Adewale, so it is in your best interest to do so. That’s not to mention that freeing a certain number of slaves will also allow you to progress through the story.

There are set pieces that provide the opportunity for the stealth gameplay that the series is known for. These are bigger areas with patrolling guards that you can pick off one by one. That could be through hiding in the bush and luring them to their deaths, or the good old-fashioned air assassination by jumping down from the roof above them. The guards are mostly stupid, and if you don’t like stealth, you can brute force your way by fighting everyone, although Adewale can get quickly overwhelmed.

It’s understandable but this DLC is effectively a carbon copy of Black Flag. It’s like a shorter miniaturized version. You might be initially impressed with the scope of the game’s map until you realise most of its size is open water, and the other areas you can visit are small maps to take over and free slaves. The story is short but dragged on due to the requirement to free a certain number of slaves before the next mission is unlocked.

There are a few other annoying aspects of the DLC. There are enemies walking around that will always target you, so Adewale never really has the freedom to run around without getting into combat. Too many of the missions require eavesdropping or tailing, which are extremely annoying when coupled with the inability to stay incognito when running about. It’s just a terrible design that overshadows some of the better parts of the game such as the soundtrack, and epic feel of a few grander missions.

The DLC only takes around four to five hours to finish, even less if you just beeline for the missions (after doing the compulsory grinding to unlock those missions of course). It’s a short story, and to be honest, like most games in the series, not very engaging. The final mission was anticlimactic as the main villain, if they can even be called that, went down so easily. Afterwards, you can just continue to do all the side activities but since you’ve been doing this all game and probably during Black Flag anyway, it’s repetitive and boring.

Overall, Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry is an average DLC. Having it available as a standalone is not a bad idea, especially since you probably don’t want to play it too soon after Black Flag. It doesn’t add any meaningful new features, so it can feel repetitive with what you are required to do (which is basically upgrade the ships again).

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy Wreck 'N Rule Collection Bulkhead (Voyager)

Review:  #822

Name:  Bulkhead

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Legacy

Year of Release:  2022

Size Class:  Voyager

Mold Status:  redeco of Legacy with new hammer weapon

PACKAGING AND CONTENTS:

As part of the Wreck 'N Rule Collection set of exclusives, Bulkhead comes in a really nice box with excellent packaging art (if you get all of them sets in the collection, they can combine into a bigger piece of art).

He also comes with a piece of cardboard that you can build into a hammer if you get the whole collection, so it's a nice little incentive to collect the set.

VEHICLE MODE:

Bulkhead is a reimagination of the Prime character, with G1 aesthetics.  He transforms into a military truck which looks nothing like the Prime version unfortunately.

Looking at the truck on its own merits, it's not a bad one, the bad is a bit gappy (it's the robot mode feet) and it relies on the tarp piece to hide a lot of it.

He is a fairly decent size for a Voyager nowadays, the tarp helps give him a bigger look.

He comes with a couple of weapons, the gun and mace can store inside the tarp.  The new weapon for this release, the hammer, can only store by being pegged outside (well, you can put it inside the tarp but then there'll be no space for the other weapons).

There's something really neat about the flatness / blockiness of the truck mode, and it looks great, and there are a lot of good sculpted detailing.

There aren't any gimmicks here though.  The six wheels roll, and that's about it.

A decent truck mode but a little bit spartan.

TRANSFORMATION:

A simple transformation but one that makes him quite fun to transform.  Take the plastic tarp off, along with the weapons.  Then you can split the back and split them to form the legs.  The front of the truck is the torso, while the arms also come from the back.  push up the head and you're done.

ROBOT MODE:

Apart from the head, Bulkhead's robot mode doesn't really look like his Prime self (or his Animated self for that matter).  That was the biggest disappointment of the "updated" design language of Legacy.  Later inspirations were much better.

Thanks to the blocky nature of the truck mode, this meant that the robot mode is relatively kibble free, which is quite impressive.

The head sculpt is recognizable as the character, although appears a bit small for the body.

His size is decent.  He is as tall as a typical Voyager, but is a little bit wider than usual, although the torso is hollow.

Articulation is fine, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, wrist, waist, hips, knees and ankles.  So, the usual stuff for figures from Legacy and beyond.

Perhaps the best part about this figure are the numerous weapons, he comes with a riot shield (from the tarp of the truck mode), hammer, mace, and gun.

The mace opens up so that you can wrap it around his fist, which is a nice inspiration from the original character.

You need to keep the mace on his hand in order to use the riot shield, as it then pegs onto the mace, but it looks great there as well and actually like a shield, rather than a repurposed unused piece of plastic.

He can hold the hammer in his hand, although the handle is a little bit short.

Finally, the mini Gatling gun can be held in his hand...

Or attached as a shoulder cannon which looks much cooler there.

The weapons can store on his back in a variety of ways, including the shield, even though it's somewhat awkward.

Give Bulkhead a chance, and the robot mode will warm up to you with its excellent stability and wide variety of weapons.

There are some neat design elements too, such as the wheels behind his back, the bulky aesthetic, and wide range of articulation.

A solid robot mode in the end.

OVERALL:

As the mold, Bulkhead is actually pretty decent, if you ignore the fact that this is supposed to be an update to the Prime character.  As a re-release, the only thing new is the camo color scheme and the hammer accessory, which does add to his play value.  If you get a chance to get him cheap, then he is worth it.

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