Toy Review: Transformers The Last Knight Steelbane (Deluxe)

Review:  #415
Name:  Steelbane
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  The Last Knight
Year of Release:  2017
Size Class:  Deluxe (Wave 2)
Mold Status:  new

DRAGON MODE:

Steelbane transforms into a dragon with wings attached to his forelegs.

At first glance, this mode looks good but once you pick it up or even just see it in person, it is a huge mess that doesn't hold together well.

The torso is gappy with the robot sword only helping somewhat to cover the gap.

The head is on an angled balljoint so it still has a decent range of articulation.  The mouth can open and close and impressively, the tongue inside is painted red.

In terms of size, above is a comparison against Age of Extinction Scorn, Steelbane is a lot more hollow and flimsy in comparison, unfortunately.

The head and tail is formed by the robot legs so they have plenty of joints, just that like the rest of the figure, the loose joints let it down.  The robot feet visible on the neck and tail is forgivable given the transformation scheme...

He is somewhat poseability, your biggest enemy is the loose joints.  It is also somewhat unforgivable the various hollow gaps in the limbs.  Part of the wings are also soft plastic which is prone to warping straight out of the package.

Steelbane's dragon mode is all looks and no substance, and even then, it doesn't look too great at a more than cursory glance.

TRANSFORMATION:

There are some interesting steps such as how the robot legs split apart and rotate to form the dragon's neck and tail.  The loose joints and inability for any piece to lock together make the transformation a floppy mess.  It's disappointing that the designer did not add in simple tabs or clips to hold some of the pieces together since inadvertently, while moving one piece you will move another piece that you didn't want to.

ROBOT MODE:

Steelbane's robot mode carries on the knight motif that started with Age of Extinction and it looks great here, but like all the other robot designs from the movie, it is moving to being much more organic rather than mechanical.

His biggest piece of kibble are the wings on his back but they are adjustable.

The headsculpt is great and one of the most heroic ones we've had in a while.

Size-wise, he is a little bit shorter than your standard Deluxe, not helped by the light weight of the figure.

Steelbane suffers from loose joints here as much as dragon mode, made worse by some bits having joints that are too tight like his ankles, which make him hard to balance.

The torso also does not like to stay in place, preferring to slide back up for transformation.  It looked like the wing assembly and the torso were designed to clip together but in actuality, they don't.

He comes with a sword that has a lot of rune-type sculpting.

The wrists have swivels which is perfect for the sword-wielding bot.  He lacks heelspurs which is a huge negative since he keels over backwards easily.

The wings can be spread to however you like to make him more formidable.  The shoulderpads are much more versatile than expected.  There's plenty of paint applications but just in the ugly green-ish color, this figure would be excellent if it was painted silver or cast in black plastic.

A robot mode that's like the dragon mode, it looks great but becomes a mess once you pick it up.

OVERALL:

Steelbane in theory isn't too bad.  Unfortunately, the figure itself is hampered by terrible quality assurance resulting in many loose joints causing it to become a floppy unstable mess.  The usage of soft plastic for the wings and part of the torso really hurts.  All in all, if you can find him really cheap, then he is worth purchasing, otherwise, best to leave him at full price.

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Book Review: The World God Only Knows Vol. 6

Review:  #700
Title:  The World God Only Knows Vol. 6
Series:  The World God Only Knows - 6th volume
Author:  Tamiki Wakaki
Read Before:  no
Comments:  This volume has a jumble of separate stories.  First up is Hakua visiting Keima once again but the good news is that we get to learn just a little bit more about this demon capturing business.  Hakua has also practically admitted her affection for Keima.  Then two chapters follow Chihiro, Ayumi and Elsie as they form a band and struggle to set up a Light Music Club at school.  This subplot reveals that the girls seem to not have actually lost all their memories of what had happened, although it doesn’t really hint much at the implications of this.  Then the final subplot is another girl with a gap in her heart that Keima must fill.  From the swimming club, the way Keima gets close to her is one of the best yet.  You don’t feel it being rushed as much this time, and the ending felt perfectly understandable and plausible, with Keima going to the festival with Minami.

Rating:  6/10

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors (DS)

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors is a puzzle visual novel (or point and click adventure) released for the Nintendo DS (and finally ported to PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4 and PC eight years later!).  The story is told via text, with no voice acting.  Therefore, there is a lot of reading and no option to increase the text speed.  You can skip text that you have already read in a previous playthrough though which helps a lot in speeding things up in subsequent playthroughs.  The game has six endings and in order to have the full experience, you will need to play through the game multiple times to get all those endings as they each reveal a different bit of the overarching narrative.  It also makes the true ending that much sweet as each ending reveals just a tiny tidbit of information, with the true ending revealing all which by that point, you come to realize just how much you actually know.

While reading comprises most of the game, the other part are escape room puzzles where you select and investigate objects in the locked room to find items which you can use, and combine, to help escape.  You will obtain clues within the rooms, combine items to create new ones and minigame puzzles where you need to break codes using the hints you have found.  The game is completely in 2D barring a few animations of doors opening.  Character models have limited animation.  While you can use the physical buttons to advance the text, you have to use the touch screen when solving puzzles as there's no other way to explore.  You turn around in the room using arrows on the touchscreen and touching an object will let you investigate it, which is too cumbersome for a button control scheme anyway.

You get unlimited time with solving the puzzles.  Basically, if you get stuck, you need to select everything that you can see to get as many items as you can but some items can be hard to pick out from the scene.  A sort of hint system would be nice because the puzzles can be hard to decipher, obscure and at times, unintuitive at what you need to do.  Who would have guessed that you need to combine the dry ice with frozen chicken in order to crumble the dry ice?  In terms of the plot, you play as Junpei, who was kidnapped along with eight other people to play the Nonary Game.  Each person wears a bracelet with a number from 1 to 9, there are also nine doors which they must find and explore.  The goal is to find the number "9" door in order to escape.  The twist here is that each door only opens if the digital root of the people entering it (based on their bracelet's number), matches the number on the door, which gives some intense situations when the group realizes that not everyone is going to survive.

Making the game more intense is the fact that the characters only have nine hours to escape.  If they haven't escaped by the end of the nine hour time limit... they all die.  It takes a while for the plot to get going and multiple playthroughs before you finally get answers.  However, by the time you complete the true ending, you feel that the revelation was very clever and it leaves you pondering over what you have just witnessed.  It can really do your head in and gives you a fresh new perspective on what had happened.  It is lovely in the way the story manages to tie together threads from various other endings into one cohesive story.  Even better was the way it utilized the DS's two screens.  That said, the ending left just enough questions unanswered or vague that while it was still satisfying, it doesn't give you complete satisfaction.

Not everything is positive since the game spends a lot of the dialogue stating the obvious like the bracelets have stopped their detonation sequence, or that the character has a knife which can cut through meet.  It can get very repetitive with these pieces of dialogue which adds nothing except pad it out.  You have to repeat puzzles every time in every playthrough which is boring.  The game can get quite gory and unsettling in its descriptions.  Since characters die, it goes into detail explaining the remainders of the body and its effect on the surroundings.  Overall, Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors tells an intriguing story that while slow in the beginning, is really worthwhile by the end of it.  You must be prepared to replay the game multiple times in order to truly appreciate the various plot threads.  While the escape room puzzles are fairly weak in terms of being unintuitive in its explanations and the repetitive nature of the game, it is definitely worth playing.

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Toy Review: Transformers Generations Titans Return Seaspray

Review:  #414
Name:  Seaspray
Brand:  Transformers
Allegiance:  Autobot
Line:  Generations - Titans Return
Year of Release:  2017
Size Class:  Legends (Wave 5)
Mold Status:  new

HOVERCRAFT MODE:

Seaspray transforms into a hovercraft as you would expect.  This is a fantastic hovercraft with plenty of meaningful paint applications.

The only negative here, and it is slight, is that the robot fists are visible from behind.  The propellers are able to spin as well, which is awesome.

Seaspray part of the Legends size class, but he is actually a little bit larger than your typical Legends (and it is not fake size either, since he is solid in this mode with no hollow sections).  Above is a size comparison against Generations Swerve.

He comes with an artwork card but unusually, it features artwork of his alternate mode, rather than the robot.

Finally, as part of the Titans Return line, while it is undocumented in the instructions, the back section can lift up to fit a Titan Master.

This is a really good alternate mode.  The only way to improve this is if they had added in plastic wheels so that he could roll on a table.

TRANSFORMATION:

The transformation is simple but it works well.  The knees has tight joints which make the collapsing back into hovercraft mode more annoying than it should be.  Otherwise, nothing here will surprise you.  The back form the arms, the front unfolds to become the legs, and you flip a panel down to reveal the head.

ROBOT MODE:

This Seaspray is much more accurate to the previous Sea Spray toy from a few years ago, from the huge feet to the bulky torso (to the point of being tubby).

He features no kibble and is a clean robot overall.

The headsculpt is great, it is painted yellow and thus a different shade of yellow to the plastic.  It is on a swivel but since it's situated behind the two propellers, getting your finger in there to turn it can be slightly difficult.

Size-wise, he is more in line with other Legends figures.

His poseability is as good as you'd want with balljoints shoulders, elbows and hips.  He has thigh swivels and hinged knees.  Thanks to transformation, the feet can also be tilted up and down slightly to adjust for dynamic poses.

His large feet helps keep him stable and his centre of gravity is low enough such that he doesn't keel over backwards despite not having any heelspurs.

He comes with a weapon, which is a missile launcher.

Despite having 5mm fist holes, the missile launcher is specially designed for Seaspray to be "held" via pegging it against a slot above the fist.

If you wish to give him a more G1 accurate tubby torso, you can leave the missile launcher where it was in alternate mode.

The paint applications on his torso look fantastic, and the sculpting is great.

A fantastic robot mode that nicely updates the G1 figure.

OVERALL:

With all the recent G1 homages, Seaspray's version had been long overdue.  What we do get is amazing and everything you'd hope.  It is the G1 figure with updated contemporary engineering, having two great modes and plenty of articulation, be sure to try and track him down, even though he is in the very last wave of Titans Return making it a little bit difficult to find him.

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The Garden of Words (2013)

The Garden of Words is a Japanese animation film that's set mostly in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan.  Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is the garden referenced in the title and while the movie is short at only 46 minutes long, it is an emotional ride.  Amazingly, within the short amount of space, The Garden of Words manages to introduce the characters, create a deep bond and make the viewer care deeply about what happens to them.  It focuses on Takao, a 15 year old high school student who skips school on rainy mornings to go to the garden and focus on his ideas.  He aspires to be a shoemaker.  He meets an older 27 year old woman one day named Yukari, who is skipping work and initially they take in each other's presence but eventually start to talk to each other and grow a bond.  It is a sweet and melancholic story, made all the better when the finale comes around and Yukari's background is fully revealed.  The music coupled with the amazing animation is a treat.  The ending is hopeful and viewers will be glad that it is not a sad depressed one like 5 Centimeters of Second was.  It still carries forward the message of falling in love and moving on but in a less heartbreaking way.  The Garden of Words while slow paced, is deeply emotional and is a must-watch for fans of Makoto Shinkai.

Book Review: The World God Only Knows Vol. 5

Review:  #699
Title:  The World God Only Knows Vol. 5
Series:  The World God Only Knows - 5th volume
Author:  Tamiki Wakaki
Read Before:  no
Comments:  The scenarios are definitely getting better.  In this volume, we see the completion of Jun Nagase, a student teacher, and also Tsukiko, a second-year whose only friend is her doll and is fixated in astronomy.  Nagase’s arc had some interesting elements, such as her overbearing passion, however, the way Keima won her heart in the end felt like another leap in logic.  The journey was fine but it was just that last step.  Similarly for Tsukiko, the journey was excellent, you could actually start feeling the bonds grow between Keima and her but the ending felt rushed and you had to read it twice in order to understand was happened.  The gaming references made by Keima is humorous and his dry sarcastic nature is what makes him a likeable character, despite being unpopular amongst his classmates.

Rating:  6/10

Vividred Operation (2013)

Vividred Operation is an original anime not based on any existing works, consisting of 12 episodes.  It is set in a futuristic world where world peace is obtained due to the Manifestation Engine, an engine that creates energy from the sky, basically being the ultimate green energy available.  The Engine is located on Blue Island and this is where the protagonist, Isshiki Akane, lives with her grandpa and sister.  Akane's grandpa is an inventor and one day, a giant metal alien machine called an Alone attacks the Engine.

To eliminate the Alone which poses as a threat where conventional weapons are useless, Akane ends up gaining the powers of the Vivid System, gaining a Palette Suit (aka a magical girl transformation).  The transformation seems to combine machinery during the transformation sequence but the actual end result of the suit is fully organic so it doesn't manage to pull this aspect off well.  Akane's school friend Aoi gains a suit pretty soon as well, and in a few episodes, two other friends gain their own Palette Suits.  The acquisition of this power seems to be a bit too easy.

With the power of the Vivid System at their disposal, not only are they overpowered (wielding oversized weapons) but they also have the ability to "dock".  Docking involves Akane and one of her friends, with one girl kissing the other on the forehead and they combine together to form a more adult version of the two with stronger powers and a weapon inspired by Akane's chosen partner.  It's somewhat weird to say the least.  Vividred Operation doesn't explain the Vivid System in too much detail so you're expected to just accept things as they are.  There are overlong transformation sequences which thankfully doesn't play every time, the stock footage ends up shortening in later episodes.

Characters will yell out all their attacks and even their movements, which makes it hard to take the anime seriously.  The pacing is slow and the plot is filled with cliches about friendship.  Akane will make friends with all the characters, even of course, the misunderstood villain.  The first four episodes were extremely predictable as each episode tells how another one of Akane's friends will gain the power of the Palette Suit and end up docking to defeat the Alone that had showed up.  The characters are so overpowered that it makes all their battles anticlimactic.  It seems to hit all the cliches and stereotypes of magical girl shows, to the point where the majority of the action sequences and dialogue are cringeworthy.

Vividred Operation packs in a lot of fan service, such as shots from the lower behind of the characters, their underskirts, not to mention the shots during transformation.  Nudity shows up occasionally, feeling unnecessary and too in your face.  It doesn't help that the scenes were supposed to be serious ones so it clashed with the mood.  There are a lot of suggestive undertones within the dialogue and the girls' supermoves.  A saving grace is that the animation is high quality; the anime had high production values.

Various scenes try hard to be funny via exaggerated action but it fails.  It's simply not interesting and comes off as lame.  As you get towards the end, the plot takes random turns and ends up seeming so far out from where it started.  Not that it's horrible but it feels out of place.  You're supposed to revel in the teamwork and friendship of the protagonists but it comes off as empty and hollow since their friendship isn't developed with the viewer, they already have it from the beginning.

Considering the amount of damage that Blue Island constantly gets from the barrage of Alone, and collateral damage from the weapons of the army, it's a surprise anyone still stays to live in the cities.  While it doesn't make up for the boring beginning, the last two episodes were the best in the anime with the main plot element finally revealed, escalated and resolved.  This is where another classmate of Akane, Kuroki Rei, has a mysterious link to the Alone and the reveal happened near the end.  It leads to a solid ending that is satisfying.  Overall, Vividred Operation looks pretty but the plot is somewhat lacking.  It's not a terrible anime, just uninspired.

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