Toy Review: Proving Ground boxset

07/20/10

Iron Man 2 Proving Ground 3-pack

If you grew up in that magical time between the advent of the Internet and the time when it became that incessantantly nagging friend that wouldn’t let you sleep because he wanted to tell you about this great movie he saw last month that totally re-defined the science fiction genre for him, then you probably remember that toy collecting was NOTHING like it was now.

There were no advanced announcements about what manufacturer got which license. There were no prototype pictures that whetted your appetite months before release. There were no test shots being sold on eBay. There was no advance marketing, no sightings report, no variant rumors being circulated, and no post discussions about distribution and quality control. It was all go-down-to-the-toystore-and-check-out-what’s-available. That was it.

My thinking is that if the Iron Man 2 (IM2) Proving Ground 3-pack had been released during that time, it probably would have been much more well-received by me. Sadly in this case, it was not. Prior to it’s release, we’d already seen what the IM2 4″ lines had to offer. We’d seen test shots and prototype photos of these figures for months at various websites. They looked ok, but when they arrived, they were a big dissapointment.

The back of the box shows some of the prototype photos I mentioned. They look ok, right? Nice, clean paint applications. Despite being a trio of re-used figure molds, they look like something I’d want to add to my 4″ Iron Man armory. Sadly, if you’ve been to the Iron Man shelves since these came out, you’ll see that the figures are wracked with quality control issues that are too obvious to be ignored.

Paint quality is the elephant in the room now when you talk about Hasbro’s 4″ Marvel lines, but especially with the Iron Man movie figures. They’ve been using this odd glossy paint for Iron Man’s fire engine red that is prone to uneven applications, clumping, splashing, and chipping. To make matters worse, they’ve chosen a gold paint that fades over time, becoming dark and dull.

It’s enough to make you want to give up all together.

The box itself is something I still take issue with. You don’t need something this big to hold 3 relatively small figures. It’s not as bad as the first Marvel Universe 3-pack boxsets (like the Spidey-Friends or Silver Surfer, Yellow Daredevil & Stealth Iron Man packs) since it’s got the Ironmonger sized Hulkbuster there, but it could have definitely been trimmed down to something similar to the recent 2-packs.

I’ll start with the new Hulkbuster. The back of the box doesn’t really bother to diffrentiate this version from the one that came in the mainline, which is much more accurate to the armor’s appearance in the comic. I have no idea what this version is supposed to represent. It’s basically a re-color of the Movie Ironmonger that was released in the Iron Man 2 mainline, but with some major retooling. A dome helmet was added to the top that replaces the head of the original.

I’m not sure the modification really adds anything to the design. It looks exactly like what it is; an afterthought. Unlike the Comic Hulkbuster, the proportions seem completely off, despite the bigger size of the Ironmonger mold.

The original Ironmonger had minimal paint applications, since he was basically never painted. It’s just raw steel. This one has that aforementioned red and gold paint and it displays all the awful qualities I mentioned. To top it off, the one I have has paint-locked elbow joints. The paint on the hinge joints was allowed to dry and froze the joints in place.

Bad Hasbro.

Moving on, I thought that the War Machine re-color would redeem this set, since the movie War Machine was among the best of the original figures. I was wrong.

Unlike the Omega Factor re-color that came with the Tactical Armor boxset, this one seems to be less thought out. It’s basically an old school camouflage dye job. It might have been nice if they had thought to include the hands and guns in the revision. Instead, those extremities are black. It’s either a glaring oversight or an awfully design. Either way, you end up with a War Machine that isn’t really good looking.

Since the Omega Factor Armor is already primarily green, it would have been far more interesting if they design team had chosen to re-paint this guy for work in another climate zone. Maybe a desert camo pattern, or an artic one that was primarily white. Hell, pink would have at least diffrentiated it from the first two.

There’s one redeeming factor here and that’s the fact that this one comes with a missle pod instead of the large gatling gun/ rocket launcher that the first two came with. It’s removable like the rest of the shoulder attachments, but it’s a different shade of gray from the Movie War Machine. If you want really use it to increase the show accuracy of that figure, you’re going to have to do some touch ups.

The real reason I finally gave in and bought this set is because I really wanted the Hologram Mark VI. It’s basically a re-color of the Mark VI that comes in the main line, just cast in translucent blue plastic so it looks (not well, mind you) as if it’s one of those holograms that Tony Stark used in place of paper schematics.

As I’ve said before, I love transluscent figures. There’s just something about them that makes me over-value a toy. If it’s see-through, I’m usually going to give it a higher score than most think it would deserve.

Again, this is not the case here.

First off, there’s a weird red tinge to the blue plastic, making the figure slightly purple in color. I don’t know exactly why the red is there, but it seriously throws me off.

Second, the whole figure is covered in white and blue markings that I figure are supposed to be diagrams. It doesn’t work because they’re way too light to really register with the viewer, and they’re too thick. They just don’t look like schematic drawings at all.

I probably should have left this on the shelf, but as I normally need to meet a minimum purchase if I want to defer payment at some establishments, I sometimes take a hit like this to fill that quota. In this instance, I really wanted a Transformers Generation Thrust and Drift.

I can tell you I had way more fun with those two toys than I did with these.

Toy Review: DCSH Battlesuit Lex & DCUC Superman

07/17/10

DC Superheroes Battlesuit Lex Luthor (& DCUC Superman)

One of the guys at Cybertron Philippines who frequents Divisoria sent me a text message about 2 weeks back that he’d found a Lex Luthor there for only p300.00 and asked if I wanted him to pick it up for me. My first thought was that it was the new Legion of Doom Lex from the Gotham City 5-pack; the one in the purple tights and webgear? Yeah, that one. Because I’d seen so many overruns from China these days, it wasn’t that big a jump. I mean I already got the Superman and Two Face from that same 5-pack loose at various specialty shops, and the guy told me that the purple Catwoman (without googles or whip) was available at Divi as well, so it was logical to assume there were overruns of the Lex figure.

Imagine my surprise when I got the DC Superheroes (DCSH) Battlesuit Lex Luthor instead!

I’ve been wanting this figure for a while now, ever since I saw it during one of the toy events. I thought it was a great look for Luthor, and the perfect costume to pit against the Man of Steel. Because of my focus on Marvel and Transformers though, I never really prioritized it. I’m sure I’d have paid a ton more if I had bought it from one of the collectors on the boards, so I’m really glad for this happy accident.

DCSH Battlesuit Lex Luthor is sculpted by The Four Horsemen, a group of artists who used to do work for McFarlane Toys. McFarlane Toys was the company that jump-started the toy industry by introducing the idea that toys didn’t need to LOOK like toys. It was after they came on the scene that we got Marvel Legends which introduced “super-articulated” toys. The Horsemen designed figures like Cy-Gor, The Crow, Mandarin Spawn, and The Flukeman for McFarlane before deciding that they needed to make toys that could be played with as opposed to ones that were just for display in one static pose. What came out of that idea was a partnership with Mattel and the Masters of the Universe Classics (MotUC) line.

Like their work on MotUC, their work on the DCSH line (and the subsequent DC Universe Classics or DCUC) was the definition of great toy design. While neither shares the same insane amount of articulation you find in Marvel Legends figures, the balance between sculpt and joint work is almost perfect. They all LOOK the part of the comic superheroes as well; big guys in tights.

Battlesuit Lex is a little different though, since he’s in a, duh, battle suit. You can’t expect a normal human to go up against the Last Son of Krypton in spandex. He’d get pulped. So, Lex went and built himself an exo-skeleton that could make him a match for old Clark Kent. This version is a little diffrent that it was when it appeared in the comics. From the images I’ve seen on Google, it was a much smoother looking armor, a lot like the original Iron Man costumes. The Horsemen decided to modernize it a bit, with some dohickery added in to make the suit look more like it was manufactured.

It was an excellent decision if you ask me.

He reminds me a lot of the DCSH Mr. Freeze I bought a few months back. That figure was also sculpted by The Horsemen, so it came as no surprise. It got me wondering if I could somehow kit-bash another of these Lex Luthor figures and make a nicely articulated Mr. Freeze (that figure has very little useful articulation).

Speaking of articulation, this thing has it. Again, it’s not as spectacularly abundant as it is in the Marvel Legends line, but all of it is useful. From the feet up he has hinged ankles, swivel boot tops, hinged knees, swivel thighs, the now standard DCUC hip joint (combination of a swivel and a hinge that gives it the same range as Legends balljoints), a torso balljoint that acts as crunch joint and swivel waist, swivel-hinge shoulders, swivel biceps, hinged elbows, swivel glove tops, and a limited balljoint neck.

Holy crap.

The feet are a little weird, seeing as how they have now nub to stop them from going all the way round, but I’m not going to complain about MORE range of motion than is needed.

The face sculpt is pretty awesome in and of itself. It’s sculpted with a look of smug arrogance that’s perfect for kicking Superman’s butt. It’s pretty easy to get it to turn in the armor too, so you needn’t worry about that.

Paint is top notch on this item, more than any of the new DCUC figures at least. Everything feels right where it’s supposed to be. Even the reds aren’t bleeding into the green, which is normally a big problem.

Unfortunately, there is a downside to buying overruns. Accessories aren’t usually included in with them. While reviewing the reviews online, I found that this toy originally came with a way cool Kryptonite pistol, with it’s own piece of Kryptonite. I’d love to have that weapon and zap Supes into oblivion.

You also have to watch out for the red tubes on his torso. I think the vendor in Divisoria glued the things back on after they fell off. It’s barely noticeable and doesn’t bother me, but I’m sure there are collectors that wouldn’t like to have a repaired figure.

As I said, I also picked up the Gotham City 5-pack Superman. Again, there are caveats when buying surplus toys. This figure in particular had a heat damaged cape, and a very, VERY loose head. I can’t complain since I got it at p300.00 and I only really wanted him so Batman could pound on him anyway.

Still it’s a great figure, identical in most respects to all the other DCUC Supermen except that he has normal eyeballs (the one in the Brianiac 2-pack had heat vision eyes), and a neck joint that allows him to look up. It’s a great addition and should be standard for all figures from now on Mattel!

Honestly, Superman is a must for any DC collection, and I still think that the DCUC one is the best there is. I suggest you get one (any one of them will do really). It’s a good thing that this particular one was re-released in the 25th Anniversary line, so go out and pick one up.

Toy Review: DCUC Wave 3

07/16/10

DCUC Wave 3 - Solomon Grundy

It’s sad how things go sometimes. DC Universe Classics (DCUC) is, frankly, the best action figure line out there. There have been problems with quality control, but then that is an issue that affects ALL toy manufacturers, not just Mattel. There’s also that hullabaloo about their distribution (which to be fair, is pretty bad), but then this isn’t a line that has as big a potential as say, Barbie, or even Transformers. When it all comes down to it, despite all the collector complaints, DCUC figures are the best superhero toys around.

They’re just so damned expensive!

This economic downturn has even affected shopaholics like me, despite our compulsive buying habits. DCUC was one of the lines I had to drop due to the fact that I simply don’t have as much income as I once had. At about p1,300.00 for each figure, 7 to 9 figures in each wave, and about 1 wave every quarter, you can imagine how expensive this line has become to collect. Even if you are not a completist, that’s an insane amount of product to try and run down. Add that to the fact that this is a line with a Build A Figure gimmick; meaning to get some of the well known villians like Darkseid or Gorilla Grodd, you need to buy a set. Cherry picking isn’t an option if you want those bad boys. When I was re-evaluating my priorities, DCUC was one of the first to go.

Thankfully, for the frugal collector in the Philippines, there are some options.

When a toy manufacturer makes an order of an item, the factory usually makes a small percentage of extra figures to allow for any variance in quality. This ensures that if Mattel has ordered 100,000 Supermen, they’re gonna get 100,000 Supermen. Now usually, there aren’t a lot of figures that need to be replaced, so these “overruns” remain after everything’s been shipped. Since we’re so close to China (where a lot of those factories are) and we have a relatively good market for these toys because of our facination with all things American, those overruns naturally find their way here. There was a time when you could get ENTIRE SETS of early DCUC waves for little more than the price of a single figure.

The thing is, these overruns are as limited as some of those insane exclusives we’re always hearing about. Unlike bootleg toys, there’s a limited supply of these things and once they’re gone, they’re gone. Lucky for me though, there are still a few DCUC collectors out there willing to help out fellow hobbyists that are still looking to get some of the older toys.

The Grundy set (DCUC wave 3) is one of the sets I’ve wanted for a long time. Not only does it include the “Collect-N-Connect” figure, Solomon Grundy, it also includes 2 Green Lantern characters, 2 Batman characters, and one extremely well accessorized black hat.

I’ve actually got 2 Robins now, having bought a single one to add to my Batman collection. It’s not something I stress over though. It’s a pretty great figure if you can get over his tiny size. Like Beast Boy, he shares that standard “teen” mold that DCUC toys have. It’s only about 4.5″ tall, so ends up looking like a prepubescent kid next to the 6″ guys.

Scale issues aside, the sculpt is solid. Well-muscled but not bulky. Proportions are fairly accurate, and he ends up looking lankier than say Bats. The face is a little flat looking though, something he shares with Nightwing.

He comes with several toys. First are 2 “robinrangs”. They’re made of soft plastic and look pretty nice on their own. Unfortunately, they don’t fit in his hand well. It took me forever to get this one to stay in place long enough for me to take the picture above. The other accessory is a quarterstaff. It’s a simple piece that’s mostly smooth except for a small area that has some recessed buttons. Don’t ask me what they do, but it’s a great detail.

Nightwing on the other hand comes with a pair of eskrima baston. I wasn’t aware that Nightwing practiced the Filipino martial art until I saw this toy on the Internet. It feels like every movie/character has been using Filipino martial arts these days. I mean if it isn’t Krav Maga, it’s Kali knife fighting. I’d love to see Batman’s Israeli street fighting versus Robin’s sikaran in the next Dark Knight film.

The sticks can be stored on Nightwing’s back via parallel clips. They aren’t very secure, however. The slightest knock and you’ll be down on your knees with a flashlight in you’re teeth weilding a broomstick trying to get a tiny little piece of plastic out from under the shelves.

It happened to me twice.

The buck that Dick Grayson uses seems to be the same as that of Batman. It’s not a bad fit, but I wish Mattel had commissioned the Four Horsemen to make a few more base bodies that are closert to the body types of the characters. I imagined this former Robin being much thinner than Batman could be.

Speaking of body types, what the heck is up with Sinestro?

The Sinestro figure is really the worst in the set. I don’t know if it’s my bias towards larger than life villains, but he’s really REALLY small. Not as small as Robin, but it still is no match to the Green Lantern’s build or Nightwing’s. I’m thinking if I can get a plain looking body at Greenhills, pop off the heads, and then ask one of the guys at Pinoy Toy Kolektors to custom a new one at the right size.

Speaking of, why wasn’t this body the one used for the teens?! It’s slightly taller than the current teen body, and lankier. It’d be perfect for that awkward period where superheroes are getting pubic hair and acne for that first time. Makes you wonder how teenage Superman took care of those zits on date night…

Sinestro comes with a funky looking lantern in a kind of sickly yellow-green color. I suppose the lantern would have looked better on the Yellow variant but it’s a welcome inclusion anyway.

If you are looking for this set, you’ll need to be careful. Sinestro is by far the worst off when it comes to quality control in this wave. This one has a warped leg, lots of missed paint applications, and ragged register lines between colors. The yellow variant is even worse. It’s probably the only reason why Sinestro is the only one of this line I still see on the shelves here regularly.

Sinestro’s playmate of course is Hal Jordan. I’ve been putting off buying a Green Lantern for 2 reasons. The first is because the reason I got into the DC universe is the DC Animated cartoons, the Green Lantern I know is John Stewart. Once you go black, you never go back.

The second is that I knew that if I got just ONE Green Lantern, I’d get that collector urge started that would quietly whisper in my ear, “Green Lantern Corp… Green Lantern Corp…” and keep doing it until I bought a Kilowog, an Abin Sur, a Guy Gardner, a Tomar Re… You see how this goes? With the new movie coming up, you just know there’s going to be a ton of product to scout for. Oh, well.

Like Sinestro, Lantern comes with a Lantern battery. This one is green and shaped more like a classic, well, lantern. Again, a nice include, but I’d have preferred more play oriented accessories like the ones included with later releases Katma Tui and Stewart. A few light contructs would really have gone a long way in a toy display and could have been re-colored for any future toys.

Last but not least is Deathstroke (The Terminator). I never really was into the Teen Titans. I remember having one or two issues as a kid, but it never really took off for me.

This toy however, is made of cool.

Apparently, Slade Wilson is an assassin (which is funny since half his costume is day-glow orange), expert in hand-to-hand combat, and most forms of weaponry. Thankfully, Mattel saw fit to give us a proper collection of implements for him to play with.

The first is a broad sword. It’s an odd choice for a character, since most tend toward the Japanese katana these days. It’s great that it fits so well in his hand and snaps securely into the scabbard that hangs at his side.

The second weapon is a quarterstaff. It’s well detailed compared to Robin’s, with textured areas as well as smoother portions. The staff is much thinner than the other one, but still fits snuggly in his hands.

Even better, it fits into a pair of clips on his bandolier (which IS removable by the way) as well, so you can store it on his back. Awesomeness.

He also comes with a pistol. The gun again fits well into either of his hands, and slides securely into his hip holster as well. Unlike the 4″ toys today, both holster and pistol still appear made to scale. Excellent.

Sadly, there is one fail in this epic list. The weapons are all made of the same soft plastic the figures are molded from, so the odd shape of his assault rifle, and the fact that Mattel chose to sling it around the figure’s torso in package, practically gauranteed buyers that they’d open it up and find a limp noodle of a firearm waiting to be tossed and forgotten.

Still, the other accessories and the general quality of the sculpt on the figure itself, really makes me forget about that one gun. The platemail, the ribbons coming off his head, the boots, the belt. All of that really makes for a wonderful toy.

You do need to watch out though. Next to Sinestro, I remember that Deathstroke was the other figure that suffered from issues. Not only poor paint applications and the deformed accessories,but also switched parts (like two left feet).

Finally, after having opened all the figures, I put together the Collect-N-Connect gestalt, Solomon Grundy.

He’s a pretty big figure, somewhere between the old BAF Sentinels and the newer Onslaught figures. The heft is nice, giving him a very solid feel that’s perfect for a character like this. I hope they start making Hulk figures like this. Actually, if you were to paint him green, he probably would serve as a good Hulk variant.

The sculpt is superb. The Four Horsemen really out did themselves here. Despite just being a big man in a tattered suit, Grundy looks INTERESTING, with little holes and tears here and there. It doesn’t overwhelm, but it doesn’t get boring either.

Articulation is on par with expectations. This is a big figure, so you aren’t going to see a huge range of motion. Still, the elbows manage a respectable 45 degrees, and there’s some ankle and thigh movement to make sure he’s stable on his feet.

Now that Marvel Legends is a dead line, I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to continue finding these figures below retail through second hand dealers and these overruns. I can’t stress enough how impressive they are compared to their smaller counterparts like Marvel Universe. If Mattel could only do something about price, consistency of quality, and their distribution, this would be the line I’d have chosen to continue.

Toy Review: Punisher & Iron Man 2-pack

07/1/10

Punisher & Iron Man 2-pack

I don’t really know how Hasbro chooses the characters they’ll include in a multi-pack. Sometimes it’s obvious like the Amazing Spider Friends or the Henchmen 3-packs, but sometimes you’ll get something like the Silver Surfer, Daredevil, Iron Man 3-pack that makes no sense. Sure they’re all Marvel characters, all male, and they all have special powers or abilities, but they never have been strongly associated with one another.

That’s the case in this new 2-pack in the Marvel Universe line. Both Punisher and Iron Man are well established characters, but despite my well-honed Google-Fu, I can’t find anything that would connect the two together. I’m sure they were both part of the Civil War crossover, but since that was a flagship event involving pretty much ALL Marvel licences, that’s like saying you’ll see both Mickey and Alladin in the Disney Land.

Then again, most members of the market couldn’t care less about the logic of market assortments, so we’ll let it pass. The new package design is nice, toning down the insane waste of space that was the old 3-pack box for a nice, compact one that does the job of protecting the figure without that extra empty cardboard. The chopped off corner is also cut from two down to one this time.

The back has the required photo of the two toys and smaller photos of the other sets in this wave; Spidey and the Green Goblin (connected), Wolverine and a Hand Ninja (connected), and Iron Man and Black Panther (connected). The blurb explains that the methods of the two heroes are polar opposites that anything can happen if they meet, blah blah blah. Oh, well.

The figures are locked in their cardboard prisons by a molded plastic tray and some rubber bands. I’m sure some sets are going to have some problems with warped limbs due to the poses the toys are placed in, but mine came out fine.

As with all these sets, the figures are basically just re-colors of previous figures. Iron Man is a straight re-paint of the first Marvel Universe figure, while Puny is made up of a SHIELD Agent body (which I’m sure has been used elsewhere) and a new head that differs from the two previous releases.

Iron Man is really the throw away figure here. He’s a straight re-color, no new tooling, no new acccessories, an the new paint is really just a darker shade of the first release. Really just a filler so that Hasbro can make it’s money back on the mold.

That said, I really like the new hue they chose, and the way it’s painted on. It’s the sort of shade I expect the new movie line was supposed to have, but the application is cleaner and even, not tacky looking like the paint on the Mark IV and VI. It’s become my favorite of the 4 colors I own.

Every thing else about the figure is exactly the same. Articulation excellent (it’s the Iron Man figure that can get closest to that iconic ground punch pose). Sculpt is nice (though if you had problem with the “he’s too skinny to be a man in suit” sort, then pass on it). Accessory wise, they skimpped. He doesn’t even come with that limp repulsor wrist clip on that comes with EVERY OTHER 4″ Iron Man figure.

Punisher is the real reason to buy this set. Though he’s a re-color, it seems that the sculpt was made for the vigilante. The new head fits very well on the body, not like the first version whose head seemed like a melon on a smurf’s body. Personally, I prefer the head of the second, all black version, since it looked sort of like Tim Bradstreet’s version. This one looks as if it’s based on Jim Lee’s rendition, complete with headband.

Articulation is what you’d expect from the Marvel Universe line. It’s good until you get to the hips, where the lack of thigh cuts really throws everything off. The Iron Man figure circumvents this by having a combination peg and hinge joint at the knee, but this bad boy forgoes that in favor of the double hinge knee. The double knee hinge is great if you have that thigh swivel, but without it, it’s useless.

He’s got a hip holster connected to his belt, and a shoulder harness as well. The belt looks as if it would be removable if you’re willing to dis-member him. I am not.

Sadly, there’s no second holstered pistol attached to the shoulder harness. It’s also weird that the harness and holster is brown, while the belt is inexplicably white.

What excites me though is that the pistol is REMOVABLE! That’s right, Frank can pull the hand gun from the holster and threaten to pistol whip the bad guys into submission! Awesome!

He also comes with that boring old M-16 that seems to be in all the Marvel Universe figures these days. It’s made of very soft plastic, which is better than brittle plastic, but it turns limp in the heat of summer.

Really the great thing about a 4″ Punisher though is you can deck him out in GI Joe gear! Here he is with some stuff from Beachhead, Shockwave and Snake Eyes:

Despite the fact that I really like this figure, there are some glaring problems with it that prevent me from recommending it.

The obvious re-purposing of the original mold is one thing. As I said, there should have been some re-tooling to make it seem like this is really a Frank Castle loaded for bear. Casting the whole harness and holster in either white or black would have been one way to do that. Giving him a second gun and holster would have been a second. Putting a strap on the M-16 would have been a third.

Most importantly, Hasbro SHOULD have given him a left hand that could hold things. There is a reason that GI Joe figures are always sculpted with 2 gripping hands and that is so that they can hold 2 accessories at once. The fact that this Punisher can’t seem to do that is a huge point against it.

And only 2 guns Hasbro? When has the Punisher ever gone out of the house with only 2 guns? Seriously?

So no, even if I really, really like both of these figures, I can’t recommend the set. Despite great sculpting, nice paint and fair articulation the obvious re-use of figures, lack of accessories, and the higher price tag (the set costs P1,000.00 or p100 more than 2 single card figures do now) makes this an above average attempt, not a must have. And this was probably the best one in among the 4 2-packs.

It’s a close one, but I’m gonna say this Frank and Tony set is a loser.

Blog Post: Plurk!

“Plurk For Life!” or
“I’m Not as Horny IRL. No Really!”

I’ve never been one big on socialization. I have a handful of close friends and I don’t even see all that much of them. I’m sure a lot of you all out there are the same.

When the advent of social media rolled around and Friendster came on the scene, I resisted jumping on the wagon. The idea felt silly to me; having a constant presence on the Internet where EVERYONE could check in with you and bug you anytime they wanted? The avoidance of this was one of the reasons it took me so long to buy a cell phone! Eventually, a friend of mine decided to make an account for me, and I decided to give it a shot.

Since then I’ve tried out a few other social networking sites. Multiply was one of the big ones for me a few years ago, since it seemed like a place where I could post everything I wanted to share with people close to me, and discuss things with them via comments. When interest that site started to become stagnant, I wasn’t really sure what to do anymore on the Internet.

Then I found Plurk.

Almost immediately, I found myself immersed this little community that was buzzing with news from the Internet, links to funny pictures and stories, and personal issues. It’s unique “timeline” interface gave you a look at your friends’ day on the Web and off it. The design seemed to draw you in and make you interested in finding out what else you could do.

Unlike Twitter or Facebook, there wasn’t a whole lot of extras that you never used. Time was spent either telling people what you were up to or reading what others were doing. Sure you could do that on other sites as well, but none of the others made it as easy to reply to those posts and start up actual conversations. It felt like chatting with someone real time rather than replying to random comments on one of your Tweets.

Pretty soon, I was on Plurk almost exclusively. Multiply was dead (except for the occasional request to add another online gadget store), Facebook seemed to be largely a waste of time, and Twitter felt like something celebrities used to brag about themselves. Plurk seemed like home, with a nice handful of people that would share stories I could relate to.

Then Typhoon Ondoy happened and I found out how Plurk could be used for something other than killing time. Who would have thought that the online community here in the Philippines could pull together like that and help so many. People were plurking locations of people in need of rescue in real time, links to articles that would help people trapped in their houses, pages where they could get help, news updates about the affected areas. My home was in one of the affected areas and I was stranded in the office. Those updates were my lifeline as I waited for the water to recede.

During our recent elections, Plurk was again one of the sources I would go to see what was going on. Sure I read the paper every day, watched the news, and visited other websites, but it was interesting to see what the pulse of the online community was as well.

So Plurk has become part of my life now, and is one of the sites that I open every day and revisit constantly. I use it to share posts on my blog, get a quick look at what’s going on, and share news about my hobby and interest. Ok, occasionally I make comments on pictures of scantily clad women that could be construed as juvenile, but what red-blooded male doesn’t?

Despite having accounts with the other social media sites, Plurk is the only one where I’m active every day. I can post anything I need to, and now I can even do it via SMS or through my Gmail account . There is always the Karma system that people from Twitter make such a big deal about, but honestly, it’s not a problem. If you get an extra smilie, great! Does it really affect you if you don’t? if you’re not posting a lot, what does it matter if you’re lacking a few perks? So Plurk is not the biggest social media site on the Web with the most features. So what?

It’s the best.