Cybertronian Ratchet Vs. Ratchet WHAAAAT?!???!!!

The Transformers cartoon of Animated was my second favourite cartoon series of Transformers.  While watching this amazing show, I really came to like the depiction of Ratchet in the series.  Part medical officer, part technician, all grumpy old man.  His normal Earth mode deluxe toy is a corker as well, which led me to bother getting the Japanese version.  Then his Cybertronian mode was made into plastic too.  Well since a lot of Ratchet’s story is composed on Cybertron and the cartoon featured it well, I decided that the Cybertron mode needs both versions too!

Predators of the night.

Last night I was out for a walk in the fresh evening air, having taken my camera for some night shooting of the neighbourhood when I spied a strange and mystical object through the lens.  Wooooooo.  What manner of beasty could this be?  An alien? A ghost?  ZOMBIE?!?!??

What the hell do they put in icecream?

Icecream, it's yummy, cold and hard to eat when the day is warm and you don't want to spill it everywhere.  I just finished a tub of icecream and being a semi-environmentally focused fellow, I thought I should give it a bit of a rinse before bunging it in the recycle bin.

Fans Project DIA Commander and G3 Trailer.

Warning 2042 words(not including these) and lots of pictures!

This review is related to Transformers, but it is not actually a Transformers product.  Recently third party Transformer accessories have been cropping up all over the shop, they have been around for a while now but have become really popular as of late ( as well as numerous).  Although not the founders of the custom designing scene, I am confident in attributing the take-off and success of these third party items to the team that call themselves Fans Project.

This is a combined look at the G3 trailer and DIA Commander accessories they designed for Classics/Henkei Optimus.
Why combined?  Well my dear friend, they are a homage to the awesomeness of G1 (and before even).  Please read on…

Christmas Lights watch 2010. Christmas Eve.

‘Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a thing did move, not even a mouse.

Probably because it was hot.  So we decided to use the list in the paper and check out some of the entrants to the annual Christmas Lights decorations.  Some were good, some were ok.  Some were excessive.  Here are two that I could be bothered photographing.  I just enjoyed having a nice walk in the cool(er than home) night air.

To the Bath-tub! And Beyond!

While running around the shops, I found myself in the ‘Health and Beauty’ section.  much to my surprise, I also managed to find an impressive something…

Have yourselves a very sweaty Christmas!

Christmas day, featuring the eating of lots of food and as usual it is hot.  39.9 degrees (or I believe the old 100 in the silly Fahrenheit scale) makes for a hot and fairly uncomfortable day...  Meanwhile the rest of the country has rain.

Advent Calender Challenge. December 24. Christmas Eve!

WOOOOOO HOOOOO! Not only is it Christmas Eve, I can now stop feeling bad about throwing these horrible chocolates out into the bin (or occasionally eating them) as the final day hath cometh and the calender is now complete!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 23.

Dangit! I have fallen behind again.  Actually I didn't really, I just wanted my 100th post to be a bit more sexy than one if these ones.
Anyway Today's chocolate comes from Optimus' right armpit!  ALLRIGHT!

A Tail of Two (x2) Tails.

Whaddya know, 100 posts already!  I was wondering how to make the 100th more exciting than just the calender and decided that I could do a nice review of Miles 'Tails' Prower (man I love that name!) without the photography taking up too much time.  So here we are!  Thanks for visiting and reading!

Jazwares to the rescue again.  I thought I would combine the 3.75 inch and the 6 inch super poser into one post.  They are basically the same figure, but the scale is different.  As one would expect though, the Super Poser has more articulation.

Any Good?  Yep, they both are!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 22 + Free ROTF rant.

Oh ho ho ho! Again.  Not long now until the big man comes and delivers presents upon all and sundry, except for those who can't afford it I guess.  Whingeing aside, I am back on the daily track of opening up the calender, daily...  That sounded better in my head. 

Finally a nice bit of rain to cool the place off a little and allow the garden a drinky, funny thing is though, I washed my car a couple of days ago and I said to the better half  'Betcha it will rain soon!'  I should work for the weather bureau.

Harry Potter and the Merchandise of Cheap!

Whilst doing some cruising of random shops today, amidst the Christmas shoppers, I got to having a look at the merchandise for Harry Potter's latest movie, known as HP and The Deathly Hallows.  Now according to a Toyfare magazine of a few years ago, I was under the belief that HP toys were no longer going to be made anymore.  I laughed, there is far too much money to be made.

Advent Calender Challenge. December 21st.

WOOOOOoooooo! Not long until the disappointment of Christmas shows.  Why disappointment?  Well, all this work and effort of almost a month (maybe more depending on dedication levels) for one perhaps two days.  Then it's all over.  Back on daily track with the Advent Calender Challenge!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 18, 19 & 20.

Falling a bit behind on this.  Phew, some days of work and adventures into the night all conspire to make the eating of horrid chocolates less and less appealing.  Oh well.

Adventt Calender Challenge. December 17

The calender challenge from four days ago comes from Bumblebee's left ankle.  I did take the picture on the night of the day concerned, but didn't have time to post...

Reveal the Shield. Windcharger.

Old Windcharger here was a bit of an impulse buy for me.  He is based on his G1 counterpart, which is always a plus in my book, but best of all, instead of being a random name usage (I’m looking at you ROTF Mindwipe) it is designed to look somewhat like him in robot mode with his head(well his cartoon head) and the vehicle mode is an update, but still based along the same body type.

Advent Calender Challenge. December 16.

Was at work this morning and off afterwards, so a late challenge report today.

War For Cybertron, Optimus Prime. Wow…

Rounding off my War For Cybertron set of figures comes the guy that has had the most sculpting work done on him for sure.  Again, his size is of a deluxe variety, due to the initial limitations Hasbro put on the Generations line, but the design is very complex and I believe it would look quite at home as a voyager to be honest.

Megatron of the War For Cybertron variety.

Good old War for Cybertron, it's a G1 fanboy's dream (almost) come true.  I was pleased that they have made some toys of the game characters, and hopefully with the announcement of a sequel, more will be on the way. here however, I have a bit of blurb on a mighty looking megs, who just so happens to be carried in the Generations line of figures, which I always forget to mention, as I just see him as WFC. 

Advent Calender Challenge. December 15

Woke up early, played some Blazblue Continuum Shift and had the house vibrated almost into little pieces by the construction next door. Lovely.

To top it off, it's calender time...  Yay                     ?

Advent Calender Challenge. December 13 and 14

Wha ha ha ha!  I didn't have time to post up the day of the 13.  OOooo! Evil Monday the 13th.  So today I have two for the post of one!

These aint kids toys: Queen's Gate - Alice, by Revoltech

These aint kids toys: Queen's Gate - Alice, by Revoltech: "Queen's Blade, the one pervy rude series to come out of Japan that I was tempted by. Revoltech have made some nice figures of the cha..."

This post is not recommended for immature folks.

Advent Calender Challenge. December 12

Was at work today, so didn't have time for this in the morning.  To be honest, I don't fancy the idea of having this chocolate as breakfast (or at all).  On a completely different note, I managed to get a 40+ freeflow combo in Batman, Arkham Aylum last night.  The trophy notice that popped up managed to distract me enough to put me off the combo...  Maybe next time, 50 hey?

Christmas Lights Watch 2010, a better one!!

The other night we went for another Christams lights search again.  this time though, we hit a  bit of a winnnnnah!  I have the strangest feeling that it may have won a competetion in the past couple of years.  If they haven't then they should be in the running. 

Advent Calender Challenge. December 11.

Today's choccy went straight into the bin.  the only use for these chocolates would be for poisoning dogs.  Sad but true...

Advent Calender Challenge. December 10

Couldn't bring myself to eat the chocolate today.  They have gotten to the point where they are just too Yuck!

Crazy Plant ruining my day.

Seems odd, previously I had photographed a plant outside the house on a beautiful day post and it was doing fine and strong.    Summer has come and like it did at the start of winter, the damn plants is dying.  Or so I thought...

The simple things in life.

I bought this fan for $5 from a weekend market as a laugh since the other half liked the look of it.  We plonked it in the front garden in front of the kitchen window.  I have to say that it has brought me great enjoyment watchin it spin in the wind.

Transformers 3 official Trailer has been released!

Woooo, Looks exciting!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 9.

Baaargh! Getting tired of these chocolates for sure now!  I had a nice day, started with some Red Dead Redemption, went and caught up with a chum, and came home and had a go on Spiderman, Shattered dimensions.  Spiderman is OK.  The Noir levels are fun, but the camera when you are crawling on the walls is a tad annoying.  The rest of the game seems fairly standard fare really.

Reasons why I love my job.

Many many years ago, I made a vow to play Sonic the hedgehog on a screen so large he was the same height as me.  well thanks to my position at work, I can say that I have accomplished that.

Christmas Lights Watch, 2010. (Sort of)

Haven't had much time for getting out and about for a Christmas Lights search lately, especially since my knee thought it would be funny to cause me pain for no apparent reason.  So I took a pic of the lights off my own mini-table-tree.

It's actually a photo of the lights reflected off the wall, with a tissue box shadow for good measure.  Looks quite interesting in my humble opinion.

Advent Calender Challenge. Decmember 8

Oh no!  Today's chocolate was a struggle.  When I bit into it, there was a strange 'crunch.'  Now there is something wrong with that!

PREDAKING! Is all that needs to be said.

I went on about this guy briefly when he arrived.  I have played and I have enjoyed, What a beastly beast man!  No wonder the Predacons are the baddest of the combiner groups!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 7.

Managed to have a nice bash on Donkey Kong Country Returns today.  Man that sunset level where DK and DK are in silhouette is so pretty.  I mention this as I forgot about my Advent Calender challenge... 

Until now!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 6th

The chocolate for today is some mystery shape.  if you have any ideas as to what it may be, feel free to mention, because I have no idea.

Sega and Sonic All-Stars racing 4 car set review.

Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing is a nice game in the vein of Mario Kart.  Very fast and although there are a few too many Sonic-verse characters, it is still quite a worthy entry to a racing game fans collection.  As a bonus, some action figures have been dished out as well.  Made by Jazwares, like the other Sonic toys, they are equivalent to matchbox type cars.

Stealth Force Optimus Prime review.

Non-Transforming Transformers, what's the world coming to? This version of Optimus is in the Stealth Force line of toys, along with my previous post about Soundwave, again it doesn't have a robot mode, but it is definitely set in the Movie universe. Is this one any good? Again, just like Soundwave, it depends on the price.

*Edit!*  This toy has been re-released under the Dark of the Moon toy line.  It has a new box, but is still the same toy.

Tails to help.

Not even Tails can work out why my video won't upload to the blog post.

Grrrr.

"Hey Big! Stop being such a wally and give me a hand!"

What the heck is up with that?

Advent Calender Challenge. December 5th

Back for some more, almost forgot to do this today. Late addition. However, never fear, I am still one the job!

Advent Calender Challenge. December 4th.

Today's yummy chocolate is brought to you by:

Optimus' Right hip joint.

Advent Calender Challenge. December 3rd

Today's chocolate comes from Bumblbee's right knee.

Crazy Japanese Gaming....

I heard about his game and thought I would have to try it out.  Criminal Girls.  yep, you heard correctly.  It so far appears to be some strange Japanese RPG.  The usual 'chibi' (shrunken, also referred to as super deformed) game characters.

Advent Calender Challenge. December 2nd.

So far so good.  Remembered to open it up today.

Also remembered how bad the chocolates are...

Advent Calender Challenge. December 1st.

As part of the work scecret Santa thingo, someone gave me this advent calender of a Transformers theme. Convenient, as it arrived just before the start of December.  Now last time I had one of these, I managed to forget about it for most of the month and ended up munching on chocolates from it throughout February...

The good thing about massive Bush fires...

They can make for incredible sunsets! 

Shame about the dickhead who started the bush fire though. 

Christmas Lights watch 2010

I like the new habit of people jazzing up their abodes with Christmas lights.  Sure, I wouldn't want to live next to a really good one as all the gawkers (like me) would probably irritate me no end.  Nevertheless, I went out the local area for a quick tour and found one place worthy of note.

Nice start to the viewing methinks.  Hope there are many more to come.

Oh HELL YES!

This big bad boy appeared in my humble post box. 

Premature Christmas Lights

But they were quite nice to look at.  I spied these the other night on my way home from work and thought the brightness of the lights compared to the darkness of night would make a lovely contrast.

Generations Blurr Pics and stuff.

I always had a soft spot for the speedy blue fast talker, and this time I am not talking about Sonic the Hedgehog...  this Blurr looks like he has a lot of elements from the IDW comics version that has Blurr on Cybertron before the Transformers got to Earth.  Well his head does.  The rest of him is just a recolour of Drift, with some small modifications.

Jazwares Black Knight version of Sonic

Oh goodness me.  I was so scarred by the how bad Sonic and the Secret Rings was I didn't bother buying this game.  But I did want me a Sonic action figure.  So I opted for this little fella.  Considering the size of it (8cm) I thought it would suck.  I was pleasantly surprised.

Soundwave superior! Everyone else inferior! War For Cybertron rawks!

War for Cybertron is a cool game.  What makes it even better is that the toys have been ace as well!  Here I have Soundwave, one of my favourite characters from the olden days and it's nice to see him coming back to form, both in the game as well as the toys!

Sonic Colours Special Edition toy review

Dodgy Blurry pics aside, the return of Sonic this is certainly welcome.  I managed to get the 'collector' edition' which came with a Sonic the Hedgehog action figure.  He also comes with 3 Wisps.  Is the toy as good as the game?
 

Wow, Incredible clouds

Bit of a hot day today, although not uncomfotably so.  Was fairly humid which added to the feeling of it being hot.  However, the air flowing over the Darling Ranges provided a natural and pretty bit of eye candy.

Wow, so fluffy.

Figma Dead Master review.

After the joys of BRS, I decided it would be fitting to have a yin to the yang.  So here is Dead Master in Figma form.  It doesn't come with a bloody great big gun, but she does have a couple of skulls and a scythe.  Can it live up to the wickedness of BRS? 

Warning: Harry Potter & Deathly Hallows Pt 1

I haven't seen it yet, but I think the world should know:

• The credits are ridiculously long and there is nothing at the end.  I am not kidding.  Stupidly long.  Your reward for sitting through them? NOTHING!
• Daniel Radcliffe is in it.  This warning should be common knowledge by now.
• Emma Watson is unlikely to get her kit off.

That is all.

Game downloadable content. Good, bad, or just ugly?

I was chatting online with some chums, and talk of gaming and the War For Cybertron Transformers game came up.  A sequel has been announced for 2012 and we were concerned about the life of the game.  After all, as one friend pointed out two thirds of the game is online....

Japanese sweet red bean paste muffins. HELL YEH!

Ok, I had to make some morning tea for my final day of Prac.  So since I had gone to the effort of making some red bean paste (known as 'an' in Japanese) I thought I would use in muffins and see how it goes.  After all, anpan (an bread) is totally damn yummy!
 

New Goodies ゲット！

Ha ha ha ha!  Todays Grabs. (Dead Master just in there since I am testing it out )

Sonic Colours for the DS, Generations Dirge (soon to be compared to Henkei) and Generations Blurr, based on the IDW comic look I suspect, judging from the look of his noggin!

Hope DS version of SOnic is as fun as the Wii one!

Sonic Colours on Wii. Yay or nay?

I have been surprised by the Wii lately, games I actually want to play onit?!???  Goldeneye 007, Kirby's Epic Yarn, and Sonic colours have shown up.  I have said it once and I will say it again, I love Sonic the Hedgehog, I just hope this game doesn't break my heart like all Sonic games since Sonic Adventure series on Dreamcast...
 

Figma Dead Master - Hachaaaa!

In the post today, the follow up from Black Rock Shooter, comes the charismatic and intriguingly named DeadMaster, BRS's enemy I assume.

Very nice so far, light on accessories, but it does come with a nice couple of skulls and they have mini stands for them and a very very nice ( and like BRS, large) scythe.  Why all these baddies are given scythes to fight with, which personally I think fairly inefficient, I don't know.

Will have to bust out Queen's Blade Airi and they can have a maid of death-match, er to the death... I guess.

Play time and photos soonish....

Sonic The Hedgehog 4: Episode 1

Sonic the Hedgehog has been going through a bit of a revival lately.  Parts of Sonic Unleashed were really good, Sonic and Sega Allstars Racing is an ace kart game that rivals (and copies) Mario Kart nicely, Sonic Colours looks promising and now Sonic 4 shows up.  This game has been officially confirmed as the continuation of the original game series on the Megadrive. I would like to say this game is a return to form for my favourite spiky rodent.  In way a way it is. It's a return to 2-d form.  Sadly though playing this game makes me want to go and play the Megadrive ones, instead of continuing woth this one.

Figma Black Rock Shooter review

This Black Rock Shooter Figma makes an interesting story. I remember it being mentioned in the pre-orders and online. It was popular and pre-orders sold out quickly. Odd I thought as I knewg nothing about it, but I liked the look of it. Why? Because it has a massively oversized gun. How could I resist?

25th Anniversary Super Mario Pack, in my hands!

The Super Mario 25th Anniversary special pack arrived today.  A nice version of Super Mario Allstars for my Wii.  It comes with a 'history book' and cd and of course the game.  Quite nice presentation and cheap too!

Sci-Fi revoltech Jack Skellington.

With Hallowe'en on its way and the kids having done a little work on it, I thought I should have a look at the King of Hallow's Eve since I haven't actually taken him out of the box since I got him.  A shame really, as I love The Nightmare before Christmas movie and Jack as a character is quite good as well. Kind of like a nasty guy with the scaring going on, but he is so motivated all the time to provide the best experience for kids.

Okamiden, Chiisaku Taiyou Special Edition.

Man, I just couldn't wait for this!  When I found out about Okamiden (sequel to the brilliant but generally unsold Okami) I knew I would have to get the Japanese version while it was being translated. 

THEN I found out about the special edition.  Sadly too late though... 

A pair of pairs. Animated Arcee(s)

Wooo, Animated how wonderful are your ways.  The first series to bring us a real Arcee!  (Energon doesn't really count)  Is she sexy and good?  You betcha!!

Another Lightning base. Still cool

So after the joys of the red Lightning base, I gots me a blue one.

Animated Jetpack Bumblebee!

Woe is me, one of the best series of Transformers cut short before its prime.  This Tak-Tom version of Bumblebee was a initially going to be released by Hasbro as Hydrodrive Bumblebee.  Alas that as not to be.
Never mind, as Jetpack Bumblebee is the same thing.  He is quite cool as well!

Slight bit of buyer's remorse.....

Sonic Adventure is available on the PSN, as a bonus you can get an add on for the 'Directors cut' version.  I did and now I have a little bit of buyer's remorse...

Why so expensive? Breakfast cereal...

I like breakfast cereal, which is a shame because the shops, despite having a whole aisle dedicated to it the range is fairly poor.  Sure there is a lot of brands of cereal, but they ll make the same type.  As a result whenever a new cereal comes to town I get all excited.

Enter Sultana Bran Buds

Crazy weather ruining my day.

The past couple of days have ben really fine and nice.

Something along the lines of this...

Old Skool Surprise!

I have been plaing thorugh Valyria Chronicles as of late and was plonking away (still very early on) and came across this..

Any sega-phile should know where this guy comes from.

From the Vault, THS02 Hybrid Style Convoy

I was digging around in my cupboard the other day and found this gem.  Another Convoy?  Pfaaah! I hear you say.  Well yeh, it is another Convoy, but it's a special one you know.

Incredible cloud formations in the morning.

Awoke this morning and went outside.  Aaaah, nature's beauty, some quite cool looking clouds in the sky.

Newly arrived AnimatedCybertron Ratchet

My TT Cybertron Animated Ratchet showed up today.  Haven't had time to open, but intial impressions are good.   White isn't as white as I thought it would be, more like a grey actually.  The red is very very nice though.  Toy wise it looks better than the Hasbro version.  Less cartoon accurate though.  I know this is a good mould, so I am happy!

Pastry cooking, FAIL

Had a nice day today and tried my hand and making some apple pastries. 

Great Gaming Moments... Sonic & knuckles

I loved Sonic so much and my excitement for this game was reaching an almost zealous nature! After being introduced to Knuckles in Sonic 3, the opportunity to play as him was too much to resist!

Tets Plays a Demo, then rants. Enslaved, Odyssey to the West

Just played a demo of Enslaved, Odyssey to the West. Why? Just because.


What was it like...

Playstation Network Shopping across the continents.

Ye olde Playstation Network (PSN) allows one to download and buy some classic and not-so-classic Playstation 1 games.  Sadly though, Japan, North America and Australia and U.K (who share the same store) are all host different games.

Cool gaming Moments... Gunstar Heroes

Aah, Treasure, how I love your ways.  by far and away one of the best games ever made.  Treasure, the makers of this game and a couple of other faves of mine did really well.  The first time I booted up this game (back in the 90's) I was blown away by the fun, two player and flow of the game.  That's why it is in my great gaming moments!

Stealth Force Soundwave

Yet another Soundwave in a jazzed up van mode that doesn't transform. Is it worth it? Depends on price in this humble writer's opinion.