ben 10yson

Ben 10 is an example of a for-kids cartoon that adults could like. I occasionally get bored, but it's still fun nevertheless. Ben and his cousin Gwen are riots. And they keep adding nice developments in the plot, his grandpa Max being a former alien hunter "plumber", ghostfreak getting out of ben's watch, adding werewolf dna, meeting future ben 10,000, and more..

Finally gave in to my "comrades", I actually am embarrassed going over ben 10 toys at toy kingdom with 7 year olds, I kid with my wife, they're are my "homies." Just got the Ben toy. Resisting getting any alien toys, because I know if I get one, i'd eventually have to hunt them all down. Here's my cool ben.



more toys here http://www.toywiz.com/ben10ten.html


upcoming toys from toynewsi.com, I love the translucent part of this new wave compared to the current versions, this could mean trouble for me. And of course lucky girl gwen tennyson. Maybe a Grandpa Max in Plumber gear? Heatblast, diamondhead, xlr8, fourarms, wildmutt, upgrade, ghostfreak, stinkfly are my favorites.


(added more pictures 9/4/2007)







and the upcoming live action movie, cool!
http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/tv_shows/promotion_landing_page/ben10/index.html

Encore Trailer!

Got my encore prime this weekend. It was as what I imagined getting a prime when I was a kid or even better. I must have went out of my mind if I got this when I was a kid. Truly, a g1 prime transcends time. Now I understand why collectors push the price of this prime to the sky. Not that I encourage it. Enough talk.
Here it is.


and the best part, now i can use the trailer for classics prime. Tadaa!




I'll save the photoshoot and review for later. Still haven't bought good lighting.

Titaniums

Finally able to complete the titanium line, at least all the molds that have been released, sans the recolors. The first few waves were flimsy, especially War Within (WW) Prime and G.i. joe Megatron , you could easily topple them with a breath. The later models became better and sturdier.

Just when the momentum and mastery was building, they decided to pull the plug on theses babies. The reason are cost of production and that it was not so sell-able. Most of me disagrees, no shelf-warmer titaniums here locally, but the occasional scourge. The public's been gobbling it up with no qualms. Too bad, that the local distributor has been skipping some waves, so some of the waves are not available on the mass market. You'd have to rely on the hobby shops.

What makes the titaniums special from the other transformer toys these days is well, is obviously, from it's name, titanium. Some parts of these toys are metal, i don't think it's exactly titanium though. Some old school toy collectors love the clank of die cast and the feel of the cold metal when transforming their toys.

Here is a reference to the complete line.




And some molds that were lined up but never saw light of day. These guys would have been awesome if they were released! Who knows. Rumor is some of these molds might make it for classics 2.0

bumblebee and cliffjumper head


arcee


shockwave


cosmos


toxitron, decepticon truck with a trailer, nice.


prowl (i don't know about this, it's already a colored version, but not released)


and some more here, see the gallery of the coverage of botcon 2007

encore encore encore

Good news for those who just jumped in the transformers bandwagon, takara (japan transformers company) is releasing the old g1 (generation 1) molds again on a new line. Notice I say again, because this is the nth reissue of the molds. Despite that, the public has been graciously sweeping out anything transformers, specially g1. Never could understand why. Especially w/ the limited articulation. and odd looking robot modes.

I for one, having only recently started collecting would love to own a g1 optimus prime for the only reason that this was one of my childhood dream toys! along with the dinobots, voltron, visionaries, gijoes, tmnt, etc.. (i just realized i could go on forever) Other than that, not unless I become uberly rich, would I collect all the other bots for the sake of completion. Furthermore I don't think you have to worry if you can't get one at a good price, don't chase after the outrageous prices 2nd hand scalpers offer them. There'll be another encore encore for sure. And maybe another encore, encore, encore. The formula, somehow, works. Our generation are really suckers for these babies.

the first 4 in this new line (but old molds) are optimus prime, megatron, soundwave, and starscream! they are already released in japan, and they'll be available locally tomorrow! whooo, can't wait for my g1 prime. :) hopefully there are still megatrons left on my next paycheck. for my g1 protagonist-antagonist pair.

Optimus Prime w/ trailer

Megatron german walter p38



Soundwave w/ just 1 tape laserbeak? aw comeon.


Starscream, need I say more.




here's how they look inside the box, and some displays in some tokyo toy fair.



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thanks to actoys.net and cybph.com for pix and references

Samurai Champloo

This anime series surely grabbed me by the balls, the samurai fight were out of this world, a new style - captivating and awesome. The creator Shinichiro Watanabe who also created Cowboy Bebop mixes japan history with contemporary art even rap music. The characters are great and different. They aren't your ordinary lovable anime characters, they have their own distinct idiosyncracies that will surely raise your brow and at the same time solicit a grin. The soundtrack is also awesome, rap beat and ancient japanese melody cooked into a groovy and hip hop genre, it's really catchy.

This anime is tops in my list, and haven't been toppled yet with the likes of naruto, bleach, don't get me wrong - also like these anime, they're also good. Champloo is just for me, one notch higher. This series is only a 24 episode series which tells the story of 3 totally unrelated characters brought about my fate, to search for Foo's (the girl) father. The two other companion are Jin and Mugen - the 2 best samurai in the land, smug and outlandish, one is an introvert and principled, the other the opposite and rash. Together their travel sends them off hungry and into inexorable confrontations with different sorts of villains or wanna-be-villains.

Don't miss this one. This is an automatic classic.

Hope they extend this to another season and develop their story further. Here are some figures that I would love to have. Saw 2 in megamall, but they are now gone, I only would like them as a set.



also a statue series that would just be an add-on for me after the 3 figures above.



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thanks to toywiz.com and tisinc99 for the pictures

divisoria hauls

went to divisoria this weekend. got me a good haul of bootlegs.
first stop. the famous devastator. the last one i got was a wst so i had to take this biggie-sized, don't know the real size since i don't have the original, so could be 1:1.



next combiner, i don't really know who, but i liked the medical theme cars, so i got it.



next stop, was somewhat a deluxe sized or probably scout sized landbullet/crumplezone...
check him out...

with his pal ransack..

how he fares to his real counterpart, big bro crumplezone..


the only problem, if you haven't noticed yet, is that he's got 2 right canons, so the left one is inverted. can't complain for bootleg price. ;D they aren't your ordinary flimsy types. they are actually good somewhat.. err.. you have to hold them to believe.. lol




and my last piece, saving the best. yes. feast your eyes on Cybertron Starscream, yes, w/ the voyager detail, from the likes and quality of bootleg crumpy. good thing he doesn't have 2 canons that can go wrong. :D

i'll post pictures later comparing him to galaxy force starscream.. tadaaaa....



looking pretty good and feels even sturdier. Here are the robot and alternate modes of galaxy force starscream, the bootleg and original version.