It’s a Great Month for
Philippine Toy Collectors
There are 2 times during the year when toy geeks in the Philippines go nuts. One is in December. It’s fairly obvious why, since toy manufacturers are going nuts fielding product in time for the Christmas rush. There are a ton of conventions and sales that pop up in 4th quarter to add to the mayhem.
But June is the month that most toy fans really get their geek on. June has traditionally been the month when Collectibles Unlimited Association runs the annual Philippine Toy Convention.
This great event is now in it’s 9th year and has grown from a display of toy collections and some vendor tables. It now encompasses all sorts of geekery, including Cosplay, Comics, Movies, Anime, Cartoons, etc. It’s basically our version of the San Diego Comic Con.
Here’s a list of the contests and events happening:
The ToyCon will also be host to the DC Comics 75th Anniversary. There will be DC themed competitions and activities, and Filipino comic artists who have worked for DC Comics will be there to sign autographs. Not to mention limited auctions open to those purchasing items at the DC booth.
It’s really too bad I’m not going to be able to go.
You see, although the guys of the Collectibles Unlimited Association puts on a great show, there are reasons I’ve avoided the Toycon. First, it’s insanely crowded. I know there are reasons that it’s traditionally held in Megamall (it being in the relative center of the Metro Manila area), but the event outgrew the venue about 2 years ago. Last year, the line to go in went from one end of Megamall to the other and back around again. Once the door opened, all those people were inside the enclosed space of the Mega Trade Hall, which really isn’t all that big or airy.
Two, it’s not really a great place to go if you really just want to shop. If you don’t get there early, you’ll miss out on the best deals, but if you do get there early, you need to fight your way through the crowd to the tables. It’s a losing proposal for me especially since I’ve found that there aren’t a lot of great “deals” once you’ve gotten to a certain level of collecting. When you’re new to the hobby, you go to the Convention and there are hundreds of toys you want at prices that seem like a bargain, but after a few years, you’re looking around and thinking, “Not much new this year…” or “But I already have that…” or “I saw it cheaper at Greenhills…”
At this point in my collecting “career”, I’d rather visit the Transformers Autobot Alliance.
The event, organized by Cybertron PH, Toy Kingdom, and Playkit is happening on the same weekend as the ToyCon, but at the SM Makati Event Center. They’ll be releasing new Transformer products throughout the weekend (with a 1 per customer distribution center) and will have games and activities for children. So far it looks like we’ll see the War for Cybertron Optimus Prime and Bumblebee, Leader Class Starscream, and the Powercore Combiners.
Keep in mind that we don’t know WHEN the new toys will be delivered and released. It could be on the first day, it might be on the 3rd. The event is more for to increase the visibility of the Transformer brand than it is for the collectors. But still, a good chance at scoring the new Transformer toys at suggested retail price without the crowds seems to me to be a much better way to spend my day.
Sure I won’t have a chance to catch Alodia and the other cosplayers strut their stuff, or check out the customs competitions, but there are plenty of opportunities to do that.
The 9th Philippine Toys, Hobbies and Collectibles Convention 2010
June 19-20, 2010
10am-10pm
Megatrade Hall 2-3, SM Megamall and Megamall Event Center, bldg A, basement.
Transformers Autobot Alliance
SM Makati Event Center
July 19-22, 2010
Secret Wars Storm & Nightcrawler
I recently decided to streamline my Marvel Universe collection. There are 3 sets I want to continue collecting when it comes to these 4″ figures and they are Iron Man, The Hulk, and the X-Men.
X-Men issues comprise the majority of my comic book collection, from the late 80’s to about the mid 90’s. I stopped collecting when the prices of the books started eating into my lunch money, around the time I hit high school. Still, I never lost my love for that team of misfit mutants.
So when I saw this 2-pack with the teams most capable leader (in my opinion anyway), Storm, and the “furry elf” Nightcrawler, I couldn’t pass it up. I was lucky to find it. With the reduction in Playkit’s orders of Marvel items, it’s been a hard year for collectors. Toy Kingdom in Podium only had 2 pieces of this and none of the other branches got more than a handful. Both this set and the Doctor Doom and Absorbing Man sets disappeared quickly.
Like the rest of the Marvel Universe line, Storm and Nightcrawler are both about 4″ high. The good thing about this size is that they are easy to store and easy to display because of their small size. They are also closer to the proper scale when posed with the various X-Men Build-A-Figure toys we’ve gotten from the Marvel Legends line over the years; the Sentinel, The Brood Queen, Onslaught. Maybe not Apocalypse, Blob, or Mojo, but the first three, yeah, definitely some display options there:
Just like all of the Secret Wars 2-packs, this set has a clear winner and loser. Storm is the better of the two in this case.
In my opinion (which is heavily influenced by my growing up in the 80’s), the mohawk Storm was the best Storm ever. Claremont really began to give her a personality other than the fish out of water foreigner. She played the really cool aunt to Wolverine’s cigar-smokin’, trash talkin’ grumpy uncle.
The figure captures artist Paul Smith’s punk redesign of Storm perfectly, from the outrageous mohawk, to the incredibly badass leather jacket. Even without her weather powers, you don’t mess with Ororo Munroe.
Articulation is ok; somewhat limited by a few lacking joints. Since the Marvel Universe female mold is used, this figure has all the problems of all the previous female characters we’ve seen. She lacks both upper arm and thigh swivels, which hampers posing. While the ball-socket hip joint works better here than on the male figures, it’s still a step back from the ball joint that Marvel Legends popularized. She also lacks any wrist articulation, which is another sticking point.
Aside from that, you’re going to have to keep a stand handy to help her stand. Due to her absurdly small foot print, she’s almost impossible to pose without one.
Paint is ok as well. There were two examples I saw and the other was pretty bad. There were several white splotches on the black portions and her eyes weren’t properly aligned with the face’s sculpt.
The sculpt however works well with the figure. With the new head,the belt and jacket really sell this figure as a real 80’s Storm. Sadly she doesn’t have any other accessories. Even if she didn’t have powers when she wore this costume, a lighting bolt or two (Electro had ones that could have been re-purposed easily), or a knife would have been welcome.
She fits in well with the leather GI Joe girls. They’re pretty much in scale with each other, so if you want a black female to join your Joe team, here’s your chance.
Despite her low points, Storm is an excellent figure and well worth the trouble I took finding this set.
Nightcrawler, however is a different story.
He’s pretty tall for a Kurt Wagner figure. I don’t imagine him being bigger than Colossus, but he’s about the same height. Maybe the Showdown Colossus is too small, but I feel the proportions of this Nightcrawler figure are all wrong. Too far past lanky.
He’s got more articulation than Storm does, but again, he’s missing neccessary joints, including that required thigh cut. The biggest dissapointment is his ankle joint however. Since he’s got the weird three toed foot,the joint that connects his foot to the leg is in the middle of the foot rather than the end. The way it’s designed means that he can only really swivel his foot around. If you want him to move it forward so he can squat, you’re out of luck.
He’s NIGHTCRAWLER. He’s supposed to squat in the shadows.
In addtion, he shares that same ugly hole in his torso that is visible when you bend him too far forward. It’s an eye sore, and since his torso joint isn’t all that useful due to the lack of other joints, makes it unfogivable.
There are two other things that peeve me. The first is the glued-on shoulder pieces. They do not reach the bottom of his chest. Both sides terminate right before the joint between the chest and stomach. They aren’t even cut right, being horizontal while the seam of the two pieces is slanted. As it is, he has this obvious black strip between the two red plains.
The second is his tail. It’s so blah. It does not look like a natural curve at all, like it was being whipped or curled, or as if it had any muscle in it at all. It just hangs there looking useless.
Poor, poor work, Hasbro.
Despite my like for the Storm figure, the sorely lacking Nightcrawler really kills this set for me. Retailing at Php 900 (about $20), I think that it’s unacceptable that a possibly great set is ruined like this.
If you have an X-Men collection, you’ll need to pick this up, but otherwise, don’t bother.
Related Links
Secret Wars Doctor Doom/Absorbing Man
Hammer Files Colossus
Hammer Files Kitty Pryde
X-Men Origins: Wolverine with Jacket
X-Men Origins: Iceman and Cyclops
So Revoltech became a hit, and now has more than 100 figures in the line, expanding from the initial 4 sub-lines and securing various Hollywood movie licenses like Batman and Aliens. They recently revamped the line to include even more accessories in the box. Unfortunately, they only came out with 4 Transformers figures.
Too bad really. Optimus Prime and Megatron were excellent figures and deserve more company than Starscream and Hot Rodimus. Those are Revoltech figures #46 and #47 respectively.
I bought these figures at last year’ December Toy Con, a scaled down version of our summer Toy Con that caters more to Christmas shoppers rather than the hordes of fan boys that descend on the SM trade hall in June. Since my main reason of going to toy conventions is to fill a few holes in my collection, I prefer the less stressful atmospher of the December Toy Con. I don’t have to deal with long lines and force myself through a gaggle of people to get to the vendor tables.
Just like #19 and #25, Starscream and Hot Rod come in plain square boxes that are the standard for the series. Again, they have the same black plastic tray that holds the figure and accessories, with a clear plastic cover that can be slid in and out of the provided paperboard box.
The box has some nice photos in the back that displays the toys in poses that really whet your curiosity. If you saw either of these in the toy store, you’d definintely pause to look at the box.
It’s too bad that they’re only made in Japan. If you want them, and you don’t live in Southeast Asia, you’re best bet would be one of the online stores. Filipinos thankfully can find them in Greenhills, and they’re fairly available around Singapore and Hong Kong I hear.
LIke the first two, these figures are sculpted in a forced perspective and look best when seen from below. The feet are big, while the head is tiny. It sounds odd, but it works remarkably well.
The articulation is just as excellent as the first two. After the issue with Prime’s elbow joint, Kaiyodo fixed the problem. Although you can still see the nub of the Revolver poking out, it’s cast in the same color as the toys now, so it’s less obvious. The joints really shine when you’re displaying your figures in dynamic poses as opposed to having them just stand on a shelf.
Hot Rod comes with several accessories.
First he has a couple of extra pairs of hands. One of them is a thumbs up, which is all kind of cool. He also has a set of hands that allows him to hold his two photo laser pistols, which look unbelievably awsome in his hands. His final accessory is the extra head which has a visor over his eyes. You know, ’cause his “future’s so bright, he’s got to wear shades.” I’ve got a month old Chocnut for anyone who can name where that that obscure pop reference came from.
Starscream is just as awesome as the rash Autobot Commander.
Again, he has the same excellent articulation as the other 3 figures, though it is slightly hampered by his wings. Understandable, but it might have paid off if Kaiyodo had made the wings articulated as well. If they were able to fold back, it woudl have added a nice little gift to toy collectors.
Still, with the included stand that comes with these two figures, at least you can have him float above the other 3 figures in the set.
He has the requisite extra hands, just like everyone else, but instead of an extra head, Screamer gets his little friend, Megatron, in his gun form. The gun fits in an extra hand. The way it’s built is kind of weird, with the shoulder stock bent downwards, but that’s probably a limitation of the fact that these are blocky robots and now soft round humanoids.
Paint wise, these two are a little more mettalic looking than their predecessors. The finish reminds me a lot of the new Iron Man 2 figures. I could have done without it, but it was a nice addition.
I got these two for only Php 700 each at the WasabiToys stall at the Toy Fair. I’m fairly certain that they’ve sold out, but I see Revoltech toys for sale all the time on the PinoyToyKolektor forums and I’m sure that the Anime-oriented forums around will have them as well. They’re liable to be more expensive now, but if you can find them for about Php 1000 I’d count yourself lucky.
If you can find both, you can have desktop battles like the one below:
Revoltech Convoy & Megatron
Right now, I think the best line from Japan is Kaiyodo’s Revoltech line. Kaiyodo is a company that begain back in 1964 as a tiny hobby shop in Osaka making and selling models kits. Since then, they’ve become one of the biggest names in toy making in Japan, with a their very own museum in Nagahama,, Shiga prefecture. In 2006, Kaiyodo introduced the Revoltech line which featured a newly designed, replaceable, ratcheted joint that allowed figures an unprecedented range of movement.
Since then, the Revoltech line has evolved, coming out with sculpts that got the most out of the “Revolver” joints that were the basis for the line, and splitting into 4 distict sub-lines; Super Robot, Creature, Humanoid (which eventually included the Fraulein Revoltech line with Pocco, and both the Movie and TV versions of Yoko) and the Real Robot line.
“Real Robot” is a genre of Japanese animation (anime) that encompasses Mobile Suit Gundam, Macross, and other similar cartoons. They are typically characterized by a reliance on ranged weapons and other scaled up versions of human weapons as opposed to the crazy insane Breast Missiles or the Blazing Sword.
Part of the “Real Robot” sub-line is the Transformers collection. This includes #019 Convoy (or Optimus Prime as he’s known in the rest of the world) which was released on April 15, 2007. It was followed by #25 a few months later; Megatron (who is, uncannily, also known as Megatron in Japan). Later on Kaiyodo made a Starscream (#46 - Starscream) and a Hot Rod (#47 - Rodimus Convoy) but I’ll cover them in a later review.
Like most of the early Revoltechs, these came in fairly plain, traditional boxes that housed a plastic tray with a fairly secure cover. The tray displays the figure fairly well, and holds some of the accessories. The rest of the accessories (extra hands, the stand, etc.) are usually included in a small baggie that is taped to the backside of the black plastic container.
The box itself is pretty nice, since it sports some nicely done product photography and shows off the range of the toy. These things are designed for joint junkies like me, so the photos give you a pretty good idea of what you’ll get. If I didn’t need the space, these are probably among the packages I’d keep in order to store the toys (which are fairly delicate).
They’re easy to pop out of the plastic prisons. The covers to the black trays have round buttons at each corner that hold them to the bottom part. You just cut the cellophane tape on the sides and pull the two apart. Be careful not to lose anything, since toys aren’t that big, and the parts can easily jump out of the tray and disappear under a bed or a sofa forever.
As you can see, they are only about four and a half inches tall, perfect for a desktop decoration. They are sculpted in a style that resembles the art of Pat Lee or Don Figueroa; manga-like with a lot of forced perspective these bigger than life robots look bigger than life.
Because of that, the toys look slightly funny if you shoot them from straight on, with a tiny head, and oversized feet and long legs. If you bring your lens (or eyes) down, then they look a little more natural. Perfect if you mean to put them on a shelf above your computer or something.
Both toys are sculpted by Katsuhisa Yamaguchi who did a whole bunch of the other Humanoid Revoltech series like Vash the Stampede, Dante from Devil May Cry and all 3 of the Detroit Metal City toys. Not to mention my Dead or Alive figures.
The toys are built on the Revoltech Revolver joint, which is basically a double swivel/hinge; a ratcheted hinge shaped like a ball with a post at each end that plugs into a limb. The limbs swivel around the post. This allows a crazy amount of articulation, but also means that the toy tends to fall apart at times. It’s still better than joints breaking.
Both are made of both ABS and PVC plastic (not sure what parts are what, but I suspect the joints are the ABS… or PVC?). They’re very sturdy and seem to be holding up quite well. I bought mine second hand and they’re still as playable as the day the guy I got it from brought them home.
There is one thing that may bug you on Prime’s body, and that’s his elbow. The Revolver joint there goes into his upper arm, but the other end, instead of going into his forearm, goes straight down through his “skin” and pokes out. Though it doesn’t affect his articulation, it’s highly visible since all his Revolvers are black. Thankfully, they fixed the issue before Megatron came out. They still stick out, but at least they’re colored gray.
Both figures come with a few choice accessories. Prime/Convoy has his classic rifle, 3 extra hands, and a tiny Matrix of Leadership (so small that he can only fit one finger into the handle). There are a ton of other things that could have been included here, like his jet pack, his energon axe, Roller maybe? There isn’t even a stand like the later figures. Megatron gets a similar set; three extra hands and an extra sneering head instead of the Matrix. His gun is glued to his arm.
Overall, both of these are good figures. I’ve seen Optimus (Convoy if you insist) for lower than Php 1,000.00, but Megatron seems to be less available nowadays. If you can get them at around Php 800.00, they’re a good value for your money. A nice sculpt, spectacular articulation, and a high fun factor outweigh the issues of small design flaws and a lack of accessories. I can also forgive the small size since they are a match for each other, so scale isn’t such an issue.
If you’re a Transformers fan and can find them (they are only produced in Japan after all), then I’d suggest picking them up.
Revenge of the Fallen Bludgeon
Waaaay back in 2009, when I first heard that the announced Revenge of the Fallen (ROTF) Bludgeon had made an appearance at some of the specialty stores around Metro Manila, I was itching to get my hands on one. I expected that it would be impossible to get one, having experienced several grueling hunts in a row for Sideswipe, both of the Twins, and the Ice Cream Truck set. After Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen was released, competition for Transformers collectors increased about 1000%, since every parent in the country had kids asking for their very own action figure based on their favorite characters. It didn’t help that reports from the States were saying that Bludgeon was pretty hard to find on retail shelves.
Luckily, that wasn’t the case here.
Like Dirge, Brawn, and Lockdown, Bludgeon wasn’t part of the movie cast. That meant that competition from the Mommy market wasn’t forthcoming. That meant I still had collectors and hoarders to deal with.
Apparently not. As it turned out, Playkit, banking on the success they had with the figures that were directly representing characters in the movie, ordered plenty of boxes. Bludgeon and the others that came out at the same time have been warming spaces in Toy Kingdom ever since.
Bad for the Playkit, good for me.
The box is the same as any of the other Voyager Class figures in the second series of movie Transformers. Like the boxes for the Leader Class Optimus Prime, it’s mostly made of plastic, with some carboard for the back and as a frame for the toy inside. The windows are large and give you a fairly wide view of the toy inside, which is in vehicle mode. You can see that the tank lies on another plastic insert so that it is raised off the back of the card at a slight angle. There’s also an abundance of tape and twist ties. Hate hate hate twist ties.
Despite the fancy pinking on the sides of the box, it opens as any standard box would. You can slide out the tray, cardboard this time, and take out the toy. I don’t think the toy requires this much space though. You can see from the pictures that there is a lot of empty in that box. However, I bet mint-on-card (MOC) collectors love this kind of display.
On the back, there’s the requisite product shot and data blurbs, as well as the power guages. Who else misses the red tech specification decoders from the 80’s? Raise your hands, now. The photos are servicable, but completely uninspired.
The figure’s alternate mode is a Japanese Type 90 Kyu-maru, which is the main battle tank of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force. It’s built by Mitsubishi, so you’ve probably seen it in Jackie Chan movies.
The mold seems serviceable, but it doesn’t really look too close to the photos I’ve seen of the real Type 90, which is a lot smoother. This thing has little parts hanging off all over it. Which is actually good. Honestly, I don’t care how close Transformers are to real cars or jets, as long as they look good.
The tank mode has wheels on the treads, which, wonder of wonders, are actually flexible. Parts of them anyway. Thanks to his design, the treads break apart. Some are cast in place, but pieces come loose and hang rom his armor, forming a sort of chainmail. Frankly, it’s awesome.
The turret also turns as a turret should, but there’s no up and down movement. The machine gun on top pivots, but the missle pods do not.
Since he’s a Voyager class toy, he is a little bigger than the Deluxe figures, but not big enough to be true to scale for anything by Legends class figures. He’s dwarfed by the Leader Class Brawl from the first movie (sorry, don’t have a pic of that).
Paint, like with most Transformers toys, is virtually a non-issue. Most of him is cast in color. So it’s either green, orange, or gray. There are some pieces painted black on his body, and they aren’t too bad, but they are flat and featureless paint applications. This lack is especially sad when you have him tank mode, since those orange parts that look good in robot mode look totally out of place in his vehicle form. A little paint would have gone a long way here, Hasbro.
His conversion process is a little tough for beginners, as a Voyager Class toy should be, but once you know where it all goes, it gets easier.
One part I really enjoyed was how his turret becomes a “backpack” that houses his two blades, both his katana and wakizashi. The katana (the longer one) slides right into the barrel of the main gun and the hilt of the sword forms an extension of the barrel. The dagger, fits into a small tube that pops out of the interior of the turret. There are also some cool gears in there as well, so it’s not just a single hinge that opens it. Sweet.
The dagger is a little short for a samurai’s short side sword, but it’s forgivable when a robot looks this awesome:
If you’re familiar with the Transformer toyline, you might remember there was a subline called “The Pretenders” from 1989. These were a group of Transformers who inhabited human form shells. The shells would crack open to reveal a small robot with simple transformation scheme. It was a pretty fun concept and I bought at least 3 of them.
The original Bludgeon was one of them. His pretender shell was that of a skeletal samurai. That’s right, a SKELETAL SAMURAI. I cannot stress how cool this thing looked to me at the time, despite having only 2 points of articulation. This new version has way more than that.
I mean, the term “super articulated” has been thrown around a lot in the toy industry, but this is pretty damned close to my own definition of the term which is “has the ability to kick that other super articulated toy in the face”:
That kick just awesomed that other toy’s face off.
When you look at him, Bludgeon has the equivalent of a swivel neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, an upper arm swivel, double-hinge elbows, swivel/hinge hips, swivel/hinge knees, and hinge ankles. Plus his man skirt is on hinges as well, and the turret is on a swivel. All of that combines for some satisfying play options.
The new robot is an homage to that early shell, while the alt mode is a nod to the robot that was included inside. It’s a skeletal samurai, just like the original, but it has a lot more detail in it’s special roboty regions with gears and pistons and stuff. The whole effect is very impressive and if he was bigger, you could just imagine him slicing his way through Tokyo.
About the only thing I would have changed would be to make the turret removable so it could act like a shield, as it did in the original toy. However, since they gave us a second weapon to occupy his other hand, that’s something I can live without. Heck, with his excellent upper body joints, he can even hold the katana with both hands. OR, he can store both his swords at his side where Hasbro designers included two holes that the blades can fit in.
Seriously, this guy is worth the price (around Php 1,400.00 or so), and since he’s still readily available at suggested retail price, it’s an excellent bargain.
He’s absolutely a Decepticon worthy of standing next to Megatron on your shelf, chopping Autobots to pieces as the Master of Metalliko.
If you're looking for biased, one-sided views of toys and other assorted geekery, then you're in the right place. If you want objective, you'll need a blog written by someone who isn't an obsessive geek.
These are my views on various toys, movies, places, and things, along with assorted pictures and the the occasional link to stuff I find sufficiently geeky.
Enjoy your stay and leave a comment.
Slangards
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