Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon

I will be going with my buddy to watch this movie tonight...actually tomorrow on 12:01am haha, probably not the best idea since I still have to go to work in the morning...but I hope it will be worth it!!!

Transformers Haul

Picked these up during last week + this week. Got the Animated lot from a local collector, he forgot to bring my Skywarp and the club for Snarl, so I will have to get those from him sometime soon. But I am finally done my Transformers Animated collection with these few bots! I don't have everyone in the series, but I got all the ones I wanted, feels great! The Reveal the Shield Lugnut I bought after seeing Open The Toy's review on it, this guy is sweet, highly recommended!



Also picked these guys up this weekend at Toysrus with their 25% off sale! I am still hunting for Shockwave! Hopefully I will be able to find him before the sale ends!







Also got this Toysrus exclusive TF3 movie bag with Transformers purchases starting last Friday (while supplies last!). Looks pretty cool and it can fit 4 deluxes side-by-side perfectly haha!

Review: Transformers Backfire with Spike Witwicky

Here's a short review of the Transformers Dark of the Moon Human Basic Backfire with Spike Witwicky. Apparently Spike Witwicky is a character from the G1 era as well. I knew it had to be related with the last name, but I am not familiar at all with G1.



Out of the package in robot mode. It looks alright in robot mode, nothing spectacular.



This is the weapon mode, I think it is related to the Mechtech feature on the deluxe size and up Transformers. There's a peg on the bottom at the back for this mode which I think can be attached to the Mechtech ports.



And finally the vehicle mode, which is the reason I got this. Gotta love this 3-wheel bike design. I've been wanting to custom make one of these in R/C form for the longest time.



Low-rider for on-road driving...



and jacked up for offroading!



Overall it is a fun toy, I just really like these Human Alliance basics because I think they are sort of a cross between Transformers and Joes. I just wished they were bigger in size to work with the 4" Joes, THAT would make them PERFECT!

Review: Candy Toy Kamen Rider Birth and CLAWs Set

The debut of Gotou-san as Birth in episode 38 of Kamen Rider OOO just reminded me of this toy so
here's another quick review of this candy toy I got a while ago. It's for Kamen Rider Birth and his CLAWs weapons kit from Kamen Rider OOO. But first, let's check out Gotou-san as Birth shall we?



Birth and CLAWs are two separate items. I got the whole box so I was able to get this set easily. I think it is much harder to get these two if you were to buy singles from retail stores. I remember seeing only the ones that are not so popular left on the shelf when I was in Hong Kong last year.



The Birth figure comes fully assembled in the box, you only need to apply the stickers. The figure is about the same size as the 3 3/4" Joes. The Birth Buster gun also comes with the figure.



CLAWs came with each piece bagged individually and required some basic assembly. Each box comes with a piece of candy as well, but I've already eaten it before I got to the toy LOL!





And of course, the CLAWs components can be disassembled and used on Birth just like in the show.

Drill Arm


Shovel Arm


Crane Arm


Breast Cannon


Catepillar Leg


Cutter Wing


Happy BIRTHday! (The day where all 6 components were combined with Birth)


Overall I have to say I am really surprised with the quality of this candy toy. It is really well made and the details are very nice for this price. The details seems pretty close to the larger OCC line from what I saw in reviews. It has very good playability with all the combos you can make with the CLAWs set. I have several other figures from this set that I have yet to review, but I will wait for my set 3 coming this month and review them all at once.

Review: Revoltech Danboard

Here's a short and sweet review of the ever so popular Revoltech Danboard. A quick Google Image search with the word "Danboard" or "Danbo" will yield pages and pages of photographs of this character. There is even a flickr group for Danbo - Danbo Love - that has over 14,000 entries!!! So why is this little guy so popular?

From what I understand, Danboard is from the Japanese manga "Yotsuba&!". He is basically a cardboard robot.

Even the packaging of this toy is some type of thin cardboard paper. The box design is simple and clean.



The top of the packaging is made to look like Danboard as well.



There's not a lot of accessories included in this figure. The extra head is Miura Hayasaka who is the little kid who dressed up as Danboard in the manga. The only other item is the display stand. The Revoltech joint is for the extra head.



Danboard is a very simple figure and that is why I think it is so popular. The figure expression-less, so it can be used in all types of photographs. The expression relies only on the setting on the photograph. For examples, check out the 365 days of Danboard project by Arielle Nadel.



Articulation-wise, it is very basic: Revoltech joints for the neck, shoulders, and legs. Five joints in total.



The "side skirts" are one piece with the torso, but the front and rear part of the skirt is hinged, allowing the legs to articulate back and forth slightly.



Another feature of this figure is...



Light-up eyes! I think this feature will be very useful in some dark and scary photographs...

Like Zombie Danbo!


But of course, we all know Danbo is just a costume for cute little Miura Hayasaka...



Or is it?



So in conclusion, I am just glad I was able to get my hands on one of these gems in the end (okay, more than one). I've been wanting one of these figures ever since I saw some amazing photographs with this figure as the subject. I don't really know what rating I can give it because there's not much to it really. There's basically only one color to it and there's only 5 joints in total on the whole figure. It's just one of those unique figures that makes toy photography so fun!

Review: Dr. Slump Arale-chan Arale Norimaki

This is a review for the Arale Norimaki figure by CM's Corporation I recently got from Amiami. First let's take a brief look at who this character is from her Wiki page.

Arale Norimaki (則巻アラレ, Norimaki Arare) is an android built by Senbei Norimaki, known for her naïvety, energetic personality, lack of common sense and unbelievable superhuman strength but ironically she is nearsighted and needs to wear glasses. Senbei's mission is to convince the other citizens of Penguin Village that she is no more than a typical girl, which they appear to believe in spite of them taking notice to numerous displays of her superhuman capabilities.



I vaguely remember watching this show as IQ博士 when I was a young kid. I don't remember much from the show except for the incredibly hilarious main character known as Arale and her friend Gatchan (the flying-metal-eating fairy). She also lives in a village with animal neighbours lol. I actually recently picked up a Dr. Slump movie from the local chinese mall and it was quite hilarious and entertaining, it was certainly nostalgic. The best part was the opening song, I mean who wouldn't just love this tune?!



Anyways, let's get on with the toy!

Initial impressions with the packaging leaves me thinking this is a cheaply made toy. I don't know if it's the pink and white stripes or what, but it almost screams knock-off to me LOL

As you can see, this figure of Arale-chan is of her in her pilot helmet outfit, not the regular classic one with winged-cap.


Upon opening the package, I was introduce to the smell of...stinky plastic. I don't know what type of plastic has this smell, but I don't like it. Turns out it is just the flame attack part that was smelly. It's one of those soft-rubbery type plastic.

The accessories include 3 faces, 3 pair of hands, her NCHA flame cannon attack and the saying in Japanese, a stick, a pink caca, and some clear stands for the figure and accessories.


First look at the figure shows it has some decent paint apps. She is very top heavy because of her head so she does not stand very well by herself. One little detail that I was somewhat disappointed with was that her glasses sits lower on her face than what was on the box art.

She looks soooo cute!


There was a little bit of rough paint area on the back of her helmet, no biggie though.



Articulation-wise, her knees and elbows are single jointed, shoulders and hips are ball-jointed although their movement are severally hindered by the little straps on the side of her helmet and her shorts. Wrists are ball-jointed, but the balls are not very round so it's quite hard to rotate her hands without ripping out her whole arm. The head is mounted to the torso with a ball joint and to the face with a rachet type joint (more on that below).



When I tried to rotate her hands, the whole shoulder joint detached from the torso. I couldn't get it to go back in properly because of the way the joint goes into the torso. I've never seen it done this way, it is sort of an awkward design. It was very hard to apply force on the joint to get it into place because the hole is inside the shoulder.



To change her face, you first have to remove the earmuff pieces, then the back half of her helmet. The face piece slides into the front part of the helmet. Here you can see how the head is connected to the "neck" shown above. The outer ball piece that attaches to the neck piece needs to be moved remove and attached to the exchanged face as well. This piece feels really flimsy and I was scared to handle it a lot when changing her expressions.



Here are all the pieces required to change her expressions.



Another example of why I keep thinking this figure is poorly made. They couldn't even get the holes drilled correctly for the earmuffs!



Even with all the drawbacks in quality of this figure, it is still a good representation of Arale-chan. Did you know her favourite hobby is poking poo? LOL

This is with one of the extra hands she comes with which was basically same as the stock fists but with a tiny hole drilled in the center to hold the stick.



One of Arale-chan's special abilities is her NCHA mouth cannon attack (see video below).



And recreated here with the figure and supplied accessories.



Overall, I give this figure a 7/10. It is a good representation of the Arale-chan character in the Dr. Slump cartoon. Quality-wise, it is just not up-to-par with figures from lines such as Revoltech and Figma. The joints are a pain to configure with, specifically the shoulder and the wrists. Although it does come with quite some accessories to recreate some funny moments in the show. Do I recommend it? Yes if you are a fan of the show and wants a figure of Arale-chan since I think this one if the only action figure available for the character. No if you are not familiar with the character as you might be slightly disappointed by the quality. I admit I am a bit stumped by the quality of this figure, but I am just as happy to finally have an action figure of this lovable character.

Haul of May

Finally received my package from Amiami, got charged by customs though! $40 tax + $60 shipping ARGH! Oh well, at last it's here though. Been waiting for these guys for a loooong time! Finally got meself some Danboards!!!



As decided by Leon at Open The Toy, I will be reviewing Arale this weekend. Maybe I should start a what should I open next? thing LOL

I need more display shelves!!!