Transformers Kre-O: Exclusive Optimus Prime Review

**State of the Toy Union: My display room's a mess!  It's made me really not want to open up any of my recent purchases until I get it cleaned up.  I'm making progress with the packing/tidying up though.  So in the meantime, I'm very sorry for the long pause between reviews.  Enjoy this one though--he couldn't wait! ;)**

Call him an SDCC, a Botcon or a (insert your preferred)Con Exclusive, but for us here in Singapore, he's our Transformers Con 2012 Exclusive Kre-On! (That's what they call a Kre-O figure btw).

Messy room--enter at own peril!

That's right, in a month's time from March 11th to 14th, the bi-annual event is hitting our tiny island nation.  So the awesome people in charge sent over this little fella just to whet my appetite!

Now the idea of building a Transformer out of Legos or any other building blocks is hardly a new one because anyone who's ever laid hands on such toys will have at one point or another tried to do it.  But never has there been an official toy company who's gone out a produced a whole range of them--until now.

And while I have to admit that I was pleasantly when I saw Kre-Os on the shelves in stores, I was less than impressed by the sets.  First up, the robot modes aren't all that accurate to the G1 TF forms they were trying to mimic (and neither are their vehicles modes for that matter).  Second, they came with Kre-On (minifig) versions of themselves.  And that doesn't really make sense, if you catch my drift.  Third: the price. At US$30 a pop for the bigger sets, it was kinda hard to go out on a limb and trust the quality of a new building lock brand.

Still, those Kre-Ons looked pretty darn cute.  And they do have a whole range of them out right now--Optimus, Bumblebee, Mirage, Sideswipe, Megatron, Shockwave, and Prowl, just to name a few off the top of my head.  I had even told the Rangerlord what many have expressed online--if they sold the Kre-Ons separately, I'd grab 'em.  He agreed too.

So you can imagine my delight when the organizers of Transformers Con 2012 sent me this little package.  Now I can't wait for the Con to come.   So I guess I'll just have to settle for filling the time with a review of Kre-On Optimus Prime! ;)

Lego 6862 DC Superheroes: Superman vs Lex Luthor!

Guess what I got for my birthday from the dear wife, when it isn't even my birthday yet?

That's right!  Yer looking at it! :D :D :D

She's been getting me stuff early for special occasions for a while now, so I just thought to tell her that she needn't, and said that I feel bad for opening presents early and all that.  Her response: I need to get it for you before you see it and get it for yourself!  Hah!  The bonus?  She also got me the Batcave!!!  (Review to come...)

Apparently, this Supes vs Lex set won't be brought into store until next month here in Singapore, so this is a happy thing for me to be able to have and review it early.  That and the fact that I love Superman and the wife likes Wonder Woman makes me a happy 33 year-old kid.  Add to that the excellent looking mech that is Lex Luthor's power armour and this is a must-have set!

It's been a while since I really wanted badly to open something that I bought or was bought for me and review it, so what are ya waiting for?  Jump, jump, jump!!! ;D

Oh and watch out when opening the box--the parts come in three bags: two bigger ones and a small one for the little bits. There's also a Lego comic book and of course, the instruction booklet--but the cannon-to-power armour power cable for the Lex's mech is not in any of the bags but directly in the box itself.  So don't go throwing way the box with glee before checkin'! ;)

Star Wars Vintage Collection 3.75" Bastila Shan

Bastila Shan is exactly the type of Star Wars figure that I wouldn't care about until I saw her on the pegs.  I love that she's an Expanded Universe character from the Knights of the Old Republic computer game.  Most of the EU characters are unknown unless you follow their game/story/series specifically.  And usually this means that their stories are not done being told/continues to be told.

It kinda has a roleplaying game-like feel, which reminds me of the time when the Rangerlord and I would get the siblings/cousins together for many a spot of the old West End Games Star Wars Roleplaying Game.  There was a real sense of boundless potential for your characters.  You could be anything you wanted to be--a Force sensitive but untrained character, a half-trained Jedi, a wrongly trained Jedi, or even a guy who thinks he's a Jedi and has powers because of it.  But my favourite was coming up with your own "occupation," like "Space Cowboy" or "Galactic Ladies Man"  Heh, those were the days.

But getting back on point--Bastila Shan captures this same sense of potential in plastic toy form.  And while I was on a buying-characters-I-don't-know-of streak with Barriss Offee, I picked up this lass too--how could I possible resist the "Character Debut: Never before offered as a figure!!!" sticker?  I'm such a sucker!

From seeing her in-package,  this was what I could garner:  Jedi?  Check.  Double-bladed lightsaber?  Check.  Funky new hair sculpt?  Check.  Fancy Schmancy duds?  Check.  Snazzy name?  Check.

So let's take a look at her out-of-package, shall we? :)

Christmas in Legoland!

Well, sort of. ;P

But that's what it sure felt like this year as my dear wife got me this bad momma:

Oh and the wife is adding on a Marvel Universe SDCC 2011 Exclusive Sentinel as well. (Hell Yeah!)

To top it off, the Rangerlord added on these babies:

Aw heck yeah it's gonna be a very a very Lego-y Christmas and New Year for the rest of 2011--let's just hope I get some of the reviews in before the year-end, eh? ;)

That's the other thing I wanted to say: the holidays have really gotten me into the mood and I've been busy running around getting gifts for as many people as I can. So I apologize for the very very infrequent updates/reviews.

Oh boy, Oh boy, I can't wait!

Although the son got a ton more toys for Christmas than I did, he's gonna have to go quite some ways to catch up to Daddy.  But my boast ends there--you must be thinking "if he's got so many toys, where the heck are the reviews?!?!?!"  Lol.  On the way, on the way.  (Or at least that's what I tell myself. >.<)

Oh and on one final merry note, I just have to mention this awesome gift I got from a couple of dear cousins of mine.  It's a car windscreen sun shield--but it's ain't just any windscreen shield:

Awww yeah.  Laugh my but of every time I look at it--for those very hot days in Singapore or when I'm travelling in hyperspace.

Well, so to one and all: May the Force be with you...

...And also a very Merry Christmas! ;)

Star Wars Vintage Collection 3.75" Bariss Offee

I'll have to say for the record that I'm not a fan of the New Trilogy.  Or at last I'm not as big a fan of the NT as I am of the Original trilogy, not by a long shot.  I seriously dislike the way the NT was treated like a 3 movie-long commercial, with characters more or less being sold as merchandise.  As long as they appeared for a split second on screen, they'd be sold as an action figure sooner or later.  Same with the vehicles, aliens, and whatever else made it into the theatre.  And the Star Wars Universe suffered greatly.

Back in the day, the OT characters, background or otherwise, were very much less deliberate.  In fact you couldn't even tell that George Lucas had merchandising on his mind.  Perhaps he didn't even know himself.  Sure, he may have already had backstories for everyone in the Mos Eisley Cantina to the Forest Moon of Endor, but it wasn't forced on you the way Jar Jar Binks felt like it was.  Hence, I can't really get myself to like the toys--I already have a bad taste in my mouth for most things NT, so I tend to be less partial to Clone Wars stuff.

But sometimes, just sometimes, a figure will pop out at you from the pegs and no matter which trilogy/series/timeline/universe they're from, you're just drawn to it.  Barriss Offee is one of them.

Looking at the character pic they have on the card, Bariss really looks like a noob Jedi wannabe who might've been in the movies (she was) and ended up dying a meaningless death (she did)/being an easy kill during Executive Order 66 (incinerated by an AT-TE. Hm.)  The character, despite all the awesome makeup and the lightsaber, just looks uninspired in the card pic.

But look at the figure--it's almost as if they made the figure first and then based the character of the toy.  I just had to get her.  Being at 2 for S$25 helped too.  It's not often Star Wars figures go on discount here in Singapore.  So was Bariss as good out of package as she was in-bubble-on-card?  Let's find out!

Marvel Universe 3.75" Mutant Leaders: Ultimate Magneto & Cylops

No peeps, this ain't no two-pack--I just happened to snag them at the same time and thought it would be more fun as a double review. :)

Props to the Rangerlord who hooked me up once again.  I swear, he's somehow become my full-time plastic crack dealer.  He also happens to to have me by the short hairs (to use the polite term)--no reviews, no hook ups!

Ok, so maybe he didn't put it in so many words.  But he did say he wanted to "speak to me" about picking up my review slack.  Now that's a veiled threat if I'd ever heard one!

So that's yet another reason to double up--I don't want to be found frozen to death from withdrawal symptoms outside a Toys R Us, my fingers bloody to the bone from trying to claw my way in.  *Shudder*

I'm kinda starting to feel fidgety and stuff...so...*scratchscratch*...*sniffle*...yeah, let's move on to the review!

Marvel Universe 3.75" Commander Steve Rogers

I knew I wanted to get this figure the moment I saw the photos from the SDCC 20011 Sneak Preview.  And it was simply because it would be the first version of Steve Rogers that had him unmasked.

Boy, was that a mistake.

Because this guy is awesome for so many more reasons than that!  And to think when the Rangerlord spotted him on one of his now famous rangings, I was kinda ok on getting him.


I mean, I wanted the guy, but not "ok-you-gotta-get-him-for-me-no-matter-what" kind of wanted the guy.  It was just: "Ok, I'll take him.  That is, if you don't want him, though."


And so it was that Steve Rogers became mine--no prizes for guessing how this figure turned out! ;)