Grrrrr...
Not that anyone probably noticed, but for some reason my blogroll has disappeared. Don't know why, but its gone poof completely. Argh.
Anyway, pretty slow weekend, and yet I didn't even find the energy to do any blogging. Friday night I went to the St Paul Saints game. Good time, free food, crappy seats. Too bad, too, because it was my friend Sarah's first ever Saints game, I'm gonna try to get her into the reserved seats next time.
Saturday watched some Firefly, is about it. And Sunday I did nothing but clean. Great progress, though, I did ALL the dishes, plus cleaned out some of the cupboards.
Oh, and I picked up a new Transformer, Override. I expected a pretty good toy, considering it's one of the "leaders" for the series, the 'Bot in charge of the Speed Planet. Because of that, she (yes, she, they changed his gender for the US series, despite the fact that he/she is quite mannish) has a gold-and-red Planet Key instead of the silver, which is neat.
And the vehicle form is very cool. Not the nicest car of the series, but still sleek, good color scheme. Unfortunately, like Inferno and Optimus in the Energon series, the top of the head pokes out of the top of the vehicle. The Key feature bites, as it flips two small guns out of the top of the car. It's shoddily constructed, with the guns not being able to point straight forward.
The transformation is awkward, with a trigger transformation that makes half of it occur on a spring load. Which causes major frustrations in putting it back to vehicle afterwards. And I'm planning on showing her off in vehicle mode more than robot. She's blocky, mannish, and the joints are painfully loose. The crappy gunbarrels are even more noticably crooked as the handheld blaster, and its difficult to keep it held straight.
Since she's a Convoy in Japan (the basic name given to all the Planet leaders), I would have expected a stronger, more expensive figure than what I got. The other Convoys that have been released so far (Galaxy Convoy, Flame Convoy, Live Convoy) are all $20-plus, high-quality figures, and it feels like Override (aka Nitro Convoy) has been given the short end of the stick. Especially since there's only one figure from Speed Planet at over 10 dollars, I think this toy should have been a LOT better than it turned out to be.
Another figure I did pick up a week or two ago, and never put up a review for, is the new Cybertron Red Alert. Out of all the figures in the Cybertron line this is probably the truest to its previous counterpart, Armada Red Alert. Fortunately, its also been dropped down into a more reasonable size and price range. The Armada version of the figure was a 20 dollar figure, but was so simplistic and ugly-looking that it could have easily been shrunk into the $10 range.
The vehicle mode is even truer to the original, keeping the same color scheme and similar truck body. Nothing much to say about it except it looks really nice. The Planet Key feature is pretty cool, with the side panels popping out with guns blazing. Unfortunately the panels are built so close to the body that the guns are difficult to lock back in again.
Robot mode... well, what can be said except that it's a decent figure for the price range, yet also turns out to look better than the original. The legs are very neat. As the original had such a huge body with legs that looked almost feminine by comparison, these legs both look better and also have some creative transformation schematics that are difficult to describe in writing. He has one hand, with the other one explained on the website as being chopped off by Starscream. In response, Red Alert replaced it with a laser (described as a laser scalpel in the Armada storyline), and has two "alternate" hands, a claw and a hammer-thing. Both of which would have been kibble in the original G1 line, but are conveniently stored within the hood area on the legs. The Planet Key feature, again, has the lasers popping out at the shoulders, with the same difficulties locking them back in place.
Overall, I like this figure. Of the Deluxe range figures I have so far, this one probably ranks number 2 behind Hot Shot. However, quality figure, a definite upgrade to the original.
Anyway, pretty slow weekend, and yet I didn't even find the energy to do any blogging. Friday night I went to the St Paul Saints game. Good time, free food, crappy seats. Too bad, too, because it was my friend Sarah's first ever Saints game, I'm gonna try to get her into the reserved seats next time.
Saturday watched some Firefly, is about it. And Sunday I did nothing but clean. Great progress, though, I did ALL the dishes, plus cleaned out some of the cupboards.
Oh, and I picked up a new Transformer, Override. I expected a pretty good toy, considering it's one of the "leaders" for the series, the 'Bot in charge of the Speed Planet. Because of that, she (yes, she, they changed his gender for the US series, despite the fact that he/she is quite mannish) has a gold-and-red Planet Key instead of the silver, which is neat.
And the vehicle form is very cool. Not the nicest car of the series, but still sleek, good color scheme. Unfortunately, like Inferno and Optimus in the Energon series, the top of the head pokes out of the top of the vehicle. The Key feature bites, as it flips two small guns out of the top of the car. It's shoddily constructed, with the guns not being able to point straight forward.
The transformation is awkward, with a trigger transformation that makes half of it occur on a spring load. Which causes major frustrations in putting it back to vehicle afterwards. And I'm planning on showing her off in vehicle mode more than robot. She's blocky, mannish, and the joints are painfully loose. The crappy gunbarrels are even more noticably crooked as the handheld blaster, and its difficult to keep it held straight.
Since she's a Convoy in Japan (the basic name given to all the Planet leaders), I would have expected a stronger, more expensive figure than what I got. The other Convoys that have been released so far (Galaxy Convoy, Flame Convoy, Live Convoy) are all $20-plus, high-quality figures, and it feels like Override (aka Nitro Convoy) has been given the short end of the stick. Especially since there's only one figure from Speed Planet at over 10 dollars, I think this toy should have been a LOT better than it turned out to be.
Another figure I did pick up a week or two ago, and never put up a review for, is the new Cybertron Red Alert. Out of all the figures in the Cybertron line this is probably the truest to its previous counterpart, Armada Red Alert. Fortunately, its also been dropped down into a more reasonable size and price range. The Armada version of the figure was a 20 dollar figure, but was so simplistic and ugly-looking that it could have easily been shrunk into the $10 range.
The vehicle mode is even truer to the original, keeping the same color scheme and similar truck body. Nothing much to say about it except it looks really nice. The Planet Key feature is pretty cool, with the side panels popping out with guns blazing. Unfortunately the panels are built so close to the body that the guns are difficult to lock back in again.
Robot mode... well, what can be said except that it's a decent figure for the price range, yet also turns out to look better than the original. The legs are very neat. As the original had such a huge body with legs that looked almost feminine by comparison, these legs both look better and also have some creative transformation schematics that are difficult to describe in writing. He has one hand, with the other one explained on the website as being chopped off by Starscream. In response, Red Alert replaced it with a laser (described as a laser scalpel in the Armada storyline), and has two "alternate" hands, a claw and a hammer-thing. Both of which would have been kibble in the original G1 line, but are conveniently stored within the hood area on the legs. The Planet Key feature, again, has the lasers popping out at the shoulders, with the same difficulties locking them back in place.
Overall, I like this figure. Of the Deluxe range figures I have so far, this one probably ranks number 2 behind Hot Shot. However, quality figure, a definite upgrade to the original.
posted by Bill at 9:46 AM
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