Toy Review: Transformers Generations Legacy Blaster & Eject (Voyager)

Review:  #726

Name:  Blaster & Eject

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Autobot

Line:  Generations - Legacy

Year of Release:  2022

Size Class:  Voyager (Wave 1)

Mold Status:  re-release of Generations War for Cybertron Kingdom Blaster in Legacy packaging

ALTERNATE MODE:

Blaster transforms into a cassette tape player, which is typical of the character.

As expected, he's very rectangular and he looks really good in this mode.

However, since he's folding up to be a rectangular box, he's actually quite small in this mode, which is disappointing for a Voyager figure.  Above is a comparison against Siege Optimus and while the pictures make it seem that they're fairly similar, Blaster is a lot thinner in comparison, so in-hand, the difference is obvious.

The robot gun can be pegged behind to be stored in this mode.

There is a bit of play value in the form of a spring-loaded cover.  Pressing down on the grey button beneath the cover will pop it open.

The reason for this is that he comes with Eject, which adds a fair bit of value to this package.

Eject, in tape mode, can store inside, which is pretty neat.  There are plenty of sculpted detailing here too, so it doesn't look bland at all.

Despite the smaller than usual size, this mode is really nice.

EJECT:

Blaster comes with Eject, so you don't have to buy him separately, which adds a lot of value.

Eject transforms into a tape, which is basically a rectangular box once again.  Interestingly, it uses a transparent blue plastic.

In terms of size, Eject is very small.  Above is a comparison against a Legion figure.

It's a non-descript alternate mode so it's quite difficult (although still possible) to screw this mode up.

For transformation, Eject is as you would expect.  The bottom unfolds to become the legs, while the sides are the arms.  The head then flips up from the back.

The robot mode is pretty good, although a bit stocky in proportion due to the simple transformation.

The head is sculpt is fine, and it's on a balljoint.  He has some painted detailing, such as his chest details and his faceplate.

Again, he's very small in this mode, guess if he did not come with Blaster, he'll probably be sold in a two-pack in the Core class assortment.

He has surprisingly good articulation for the size though with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.  It's a good bonus figure to be honest.

TRANSFORMATION (BLASTER):

It's not a hard transformation and in general, is what you would expect as we have seen this from previous Blaster toys already.  The legs are the bottom and sides, although it takes with it most of the panelling for alternate mode which folds away.  The remainder is his arms and chest, and the head flips up.  A neat aspect is how the sides of the tape player mode has two speaker grills that for his shins in robot mode, but they flip around to provide different detailing.

ROBOT MODE:

Robot mode is great for Blaster, but there is still some slight proportion issues such as his chest being too big, so it makes it seem that his head is too small.

Otherwise, he does not have any kibble at all, which is always a bonus.  The panels are folded away nicely into his legs.

Head sculpt is mostly fine, although there is something slightly off with the face.  Maybe it's a bit too smooth and organic looking.

He's an okay size for a Voyager, just slightly shorter than Siege Optimus.

He has plenty of articulation, with joints for his head, shoulders, elbows, waist, hips, knees and ankles.

Ankle joints are always particular nice as it allows him to stand flat on a surface for nearly all poses, for added stability.

His right hand is sculpted in such a way that it has his index finger out, the reason being that he has enough articulation to actually press his own button to open the chest.

It's the same gimmick as in tape player mode, where you can store Eject inside his chest.

The Eject gimmick naturally means that his chest is hollow.  While the tape player mode is compact and solid, it all unfolds in robot mode and he feels much less substantial thanks to the hollowed arms, chest, and legs.

He comes with a weapon, a gun.

He can hold the gun in either hand and that's about it for play value in this mode.

The gun can store on his back.

A slight annoyance is how his hands don't fully click into place due to transformation, so they like to untab when you're posing or playing with him.

A strong robot mode with minor flaws.

OVERALL:

Blaster and Eject is a great package.  The inclusion of Eject more than makes up for the smaller size of Blaster and adds so much more play value.  Both modes are decent, and the transformation is simple but it works.  Blaster is a toy well worth recommending.

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New Game! (2016)

New Game! is a 12 episode anime based upon the four panel manga series. It follows Suzukaze Aoba, who is fresh out of high school and landed her first job as a character designer in a game company. Upon her first day of work, she encounters the many weird and unusual people that are her colleagues. Despite everyone being adults and the anime taking place somewhere other than a high school setting, the aesthetics has everyone looking like a kid or teenager anyway.

It’s not that Aoba struggles through her work, it’s just that anyone would have trouble adjusting to the colorful characters that are her colleagues. Starting from her boss Yagami who often sleeps in the office in various states of undress, to Hajime the motion designer that randomly jumps up and starts posing for inspiration, to Hifumi who is overly shy and doesn’t speak at all. This leads to various scenes of humor, but it also shows off the tougher working conditions of the Japanese workplace.

The anime is actually a nice insight to the joys of working, albeit exaggerated and softened to a more idealistic view. Nevertheless, it manages to make even the most mundane of things, like coming to work late, getting constructive feedback and even just adjusting the AC temperature interesting. However, there’s always either a positive message coming from it like everyone is helpful, or they play around with it in a lighthearted way.

One thing’s for sure though, is that Japanese workplaces have long hours. Aoba is constantly shown to work late into the night before she can head off to go home. When you consider she arrives a bit later in the morning, but doesn’t leave until 9pm or 10pm at night, that’s a solid ten to twelve hours of work… for an entry position. This is played off as normal so it’s definitely tough and tiring.

With all that, this is still a slice-of-life that’s focused on the cute aspect of the characters. Everyone is a stereotype, from the shy one to the energetic one to the airheaded one to the motherly figure. That’s not a bad thing since it makes the relatively bland plot engaging to watch. Since Aoba is in the character design team, it focuses on that aspect of game making, and it’s more involved than you would have expected. Even NPCs take a while to model, despite them usually being throwaway characters that you don’t notice, it definitely shines a new light on things.

As the season nears its end, so to do the company reach their goal of completing their game. While it still doesn’t get too much in-depth into the process, it touches upon several key aspects like meeting milestones, deadlines, announcing and promoting the game at events, and the dreaded crunch right before they have to finalise the code to be ready for shipping. It can feel at odds with the cheery and colorful aesthetics with these darker aspects, and it’s no wonder that the Japanese workplace is famous for overworking its staff. What makes it worse is that it feels like that Aoba has to work all the time, she gets told off for even just casually socializing with her colleagues.

There’s also plenty of things where it’s nothing to do with work. From a situation where everyone buys the team the exact same thing, to staying overnight and then heading to a public bath, it can feel kind of random at what it will cover next. When Aoba’s best friend, Nene, comes to join, it gets even better. By the end of it, you do feel like the characters within the company has become one big family, with all the good and bad that comes with it.

The ending is sweet, since we see nearly the whole journey with Aoba and her role in the game. There is definitely a sense of accomplishment, as well as relief and disbelief that it is finally over. The pride that the team feels when the game is released and they see people lining up to buy it is indescribable. This means that this season does well as a standalone and doesn’t leave anything hanging. The OVA is also a nice bonus event that takes place after the season and is a nice bit of fun.

Overall, New Game! is surprisingly enjoyable, despite the overly cute characters and colorful tone. Wrapping game development (even if it is just the character design section) with slice-of-life, that’s not set in high school, makes it fairly unique. Although the depiction of the workplace as constant overtime can be depressing at times. Nevertheless, all the characters are charming and will grow on you.

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Grand Kingdom (Vita)

Grand Kingdom is a JRPG for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4. It has a wonderful graphical style, focusing on 2D with gorgeous colors and animation. It looks great and sucks you in right from the get go. The game is about a band of mercenaries participating in a war within the kingdom, and it’s basically just an excuse for all the battles. The story is told in a visual novel style with portraits of the characters speaking. Surprisingly, the whole game has English voiceovers, so it doesn’t feel like a quick and cheap localisation. There is still the option of Japanese voiceovers if you prefer those.

The gameplay is tough. The game has a sort of tactical style to it when exploring the map, as you move around in a simplified grid-based layout where you can sight and avoid or engage enemies, environmental traps and treasures lying around. When you engage an enemy, it transitions to the separate battle screen and the battle system is actually quite unique. Unfortunately, there are some questionable choices with the controls that makes it harder to grasp than it should be, and it doesn’t help that the tutorial is not that great.

Each battle has three lines that characters and enemies stand on. It is turn based and when it is your characters turn, you can move in a certain range depending on that character. Once you are close enough to an enemy, you can then attack by pressing one of the face buttons, which each correspond to a different skill. Depending on the skill that you chose, you can then attack as many times as the character’s gauge allows. Sounds simple enough, but what makes this annoying is that the attacks are mapped to the Square, Triangle and Circle button. The X button is used to cancel and end the character’s turn, so when you have been using X to confirm for everything else in the game, and you’ll accidentally end a character’s turn more than a few times.

The other flaw in the tutorial for the combat system is how you’re just thrown into a battle to try and make sense of it. So the range of each character is different, and each attack they have are different. Some attacks have unlimited uses while other can only be used a certain number of times in each level. Perhaps most painful is that it is possible for friendly fire. Yes, you now have to contend your attacks accidentally hitting your own party, and this isn’t fun when you cannot gauge the range of your attacks until you have used it a few times and get used to it. Even worse is that throwing items can be blocked by someone too close to you, so it hits them instead of the actual target, which isn’t helped when the arc of the line previewing where it hits does not make this obvious.

The flow of battles feels jittery and that you’re forced to put up with the slow pacing. Since it’s not fully turn-based or action, you have this weird moment of waiting for all the enemies’ turns and watching their attack animations, which can be frustrating. You can speed things up, only the enemy’s movement speed (and you have to do this for every battle since it defaults to off, which is annoying). It’s not game-breaking but it can be a major annoyance especially when everything else has loading screens as well, so you’d just want to move to the destination. It doesn’t help that the game forces you to fight many many battles, so it all feels really repetitive.

And finally to round out the clunky feel of the game are the loading screens. There is a loading screen every time you go in and out of battle, which is… okay to a degree. More unforgivable are the loading screens when you go into the party menu to adjust, when you go into the shop menu to buy things or just going in and backing out of what you thought was a simple menu. These loading screens are each a few seconds long and they do add up and ruins the flow of the game.

On the more positive side, the game allows a decent amount of customization. There are numerous classes to select from. Leaning into the mercenaries theme, you hire to recruit your own four-character party, determining their classes yourself. Every time they level up, you decide which of their stats you pour additional points into. You decide on their appearances, and what skills to equip. It can be overwhelming at the start when you’re not sure of what everything is and what they do.

The story is weak. You play as the leader of a mercenary group who joins the war efforts within the Guild. There are a few named characters that will cover the bulk of the story since the player is basically a silent protagonist that doesn’t even have an avatar. It’s a slow story that doesn’t have a good build up and doesn’t have a good climax. It’s forgettable and the only good thing are the character designs, thanks to the nice aesthetics of the game. The story can be summed up as mercenary group battles their way through the war, gaining prestige, eventually facing off against the big bad who had summoned beasts. The four beasts are ultimate killed and the world is saved.

To be honest, the story itself doesn’t take too long, there are only 12 quests. What makes it take around 15 hours to complete is that you are forced to grind up levels in the optional quests, otherwise you’ll run the real risk of reaching the story quest’s final boss, only for a difficulty spike to hit and you fail the quest, resulting in repeating the whole thing again. There is no instant retry of the final battle so it wastes a lot of time. It’s yet another frustrating element of the game, and feels like a really cheap design element.

One thing the game doesn’t lack is the amount of content. Since the English release included all the DLC that the Japanese version had to pay extra for, there are an additional four stories, leading to another 36 story missions. Unfortunately, there is nothing new in terms of gameplay. Perhaps the salt in the wound is that you finish the story at around level 30, and these additional stories range from 30 to 60 for their very first quest, so it’s off to extra grinding if you want to see them through. No thanks, neither the gameplay or the story is good enough to be worth spending that much time on mindless grinding and sitting through the tedious animations.

If you do decide to play through the DLC, it will really start to grate on you and show off how shallow the gameplay is. The stories for the DLCs are actually better than the main game’s but you get so little for the number of battles you have to do. Battles become a massive chore, you cannot avoid some battles, and then in others, they’ll have annoying aspects like traps or fast enemies or long animations or other frustrating gimmicks that add nothing to the game but wasting more of the player’s time. The quests start to drag and get longer for no reason, maps are bigger and there are more enemies and traps on the map. It gets to the point of being fairly disrespectful and makes you dislike the game.

Overall, Grand Kingdom had a really strong start but soon plateaus and becomes a mediocre game. One thing to note is that the online element has since been retired and this is actually a fairly substantial component of the game. You’re locked out of several things, which may make the grind a bit less. So on a purely offline single player experience, the game is way too grindy to be fun. Grinding is not inherently bad, but when the game is so one-dimensional that you have seen everything the game has to offer within the first few hours, but has content that forces you to play for over 60 hours, that’s when it crosses the line and is just too tedious to fully complete.

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Toy Review: Transformers Vintage Beast Wars Rattrap (Basic)

Review:  #725

Name:  Rattrap

Brand:  Transformers

Allegiance:  Maximal

Line:  Vintage Beast Wars

Year of Release:  2021

Size Class:  Basic

Mold Status:  repaint of the original toy with minor differences due to new mold being created for this release

PACKAGING:

Rattrap comes in a bubble blister card that mimics the original packaging, right down to the dated design layout.

As Rattrap is a simple toy, the transformation instructions are printed on the back, along with a bio.

BEAST MODE:

Rattrap transforms into a rat, and given that it was the brand's first foray into organic modes, it's not too realistic and is quite chunky and chubby as a result.

It's still a decent beast mode though, with only the robot legs peeking out from the back.

Rattrap is a Basic figure, and while he's quite big compared to the equivalent Core class now, toys hasn't shrunk so much yet, so he's still smaller than a Deluxe (the beast mode helps make him look bigger than he is).

There's no articulation here, unless you count the rat feet being on swivel joints.

There are some gaps that you cannot hide due to the transformation, but otherwise, a decent beast mode.

TRANSFORMATION:

The Basic line of figures in Beast Wars had a gimmick.  They're mostly one-step transformations.  In Rattrap's case, you lift and pull back his tail and it'll open up the sides to reveal the robot.  Then all you need to do is pull out his arms and legs, and that's it.  This mean he is a shellformer of the most extreme kind.

ROBOT MODE:

Being a shellformer, Rattrap has some proportion issues.  His legs and arms are small as they needed to fit within the beast mode, but he has a huge backpack and a huge chest.

Apart from the rat head which forms his chest, everything else from the beast mode is now on his back.

The head sculpt is fine, recognizable as the character, but of course the animators of the show took liberties so it's not an exact match.

In terms of size, it's much more apparent here that he's nowhere near the size of a Deluxe.

However, when compared to a Core, we see that the figures have shrunk a lot.  Also a comparison between two figures of the same character released 20 years apart, shows off how much toy engineering has improved.

Articulation is theoretically good, he has balljointed head, shoulders, elbows, hips and knees.

A neat aspect is the two halves of his gun are tucked into the shell of the beast mode.  You can then take them out and combine it into a bigger gun.

The gun can be held in either hand.

So the reason articulation is theoretically good is that Rattrap can't actually utilise it to any meaningful degree.  The backpack is too big and heavy, and his feet too small, that he cannot stay upright at all unless his legs are in a neutral A stance.  It's a real shame that's for sure.

This is an okay robot mode, looks fine but the limitation in articulation is tough.

OVERALL:

Rattrap is a blast from the past, but the limitations of toy engineering from back then is very apparent here.  The backpack is a severe limitation that hampers the enjoyment of the robot mode, so if you're only looking for a fun toy of the character, it's better to go with the Kingdom release.  This is really only for those who are curious about these older toys or those who want it again after having it in their childhood (i.e. nostalgia purposes).

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