TMNT 40th Anniversary Comic Celebration

                                                            

(Possible Spoilers: fair warning!)

I decided to pick this up because I grew up with TMNT. I grew up with the 87 show but often read the Mirage comics in my local library from time to time. I really loved the 2k3 series when it debuted and I dabbled here and there when it came to anything TMNT afterwards.

With the exception of Next Mutation, you got to see short stories of previous animated adaptions such as the 87 show, 2k3, 2012, and even Rise. Rise gets a bittersweet send off for one of the leads while you have the 87 just chillin as usual. The 2k3 brings back the Utrom Shredder in what is a continuation of Turtles Forever. How he comes back is still a mystery, but he is there and the Turtles do an iconic pose from that of the comics. The 2012, I'm not too sure but it seems as if they met an enemy that was the root of an enemy they previously fought. While the enemy escapes, the Turtles wonder when will the enemy possibly strike next again. In other words, the battle continues. 

You get stories from various TMNT comics and even a quickie on The Last Ronin (which I have all 5 books but I still haven't read it, LOL). There is one comic that continues the trend early on that despite the Turtles being the heroes (in the eyes of the reader), they were still monsters perceived by the people they save. In that quickie, The Rat King causes trouble to this kid but the Turtles save the boy but because they are all nefarious looking, the boy ends up cowering in a corner afraid as the story comes to a close. 

And then you got some nice artwork. There is even one that mimics the famous Spider-man pointing to other Spider-man meme to conclude the Anthology. 

The book is roughly $20 but it is now $15 on Amazon.com. I ended up getting another 5 off so I got the book for 10. Not bad, not bad at all. Later folks. I am working on another TF review but it will be a little time before I get it off the ground. Jesus loves you. 

           

Transformers Studio Series 86-26 Leader Class The The Movie 1986 Dinobot Swoop Action Figure review

 

Aloha folks, I am back again with another TF review. Once again, I've been pushing myself to take these guys out of their boarded up prisons. Today is the 5th and final member of the Dinobots: Studio Series 86-26 Leader class Swoop. Without further delay, lets get started!

Boxing

So Swoop comes without the plastic protection. The two backdrops that comes with him is the same as Blasters. Once again, this could had been done differently. Swoop was not present in that scene. I think the Prime backdrop would been more fitting since Autobot city was devastated by the time Prime and the Dinobots arrived. Weird or lazy choice by Hasbro again. The figure comes with two swords (one is longer than the other) and his two missiles. 

Me Swoop no see nothing!

 

I finally utilized my holder stand to do his flying poses. What can I say? Swoop is a well done figure... almost well. If anything bugs me, its his back that seems to be full of holes. Maybe they could had done something about this? The next noticeable aspect, though not too bad to be honest, is his knees. His knees is his feet in alt mode. So as you bend his legs, you get three claw like stubs sticking out leaving  a fairly large gap. It just looks weird to see this gap as you bend his knee.  His joints are tight though his heel can be loose at times. So he may fall back backwards depending on the pose you are doing. He does have a head and waist swivel and can do a myriad of posing. In this case, you could see I had lots of fun doing his sword photography.

The Dinobots

 

He scales very well with the others.

Alt mode and with the team. 

Possibly the easiest Dinobot to transform of all the Dinobots. I don't have any qualms here. He looks neat for in Pterodactyl mode and he plays really fine as well. When it came to retransforming his teammates, I had to refer to Youtube in how to do it again.   No instructions were used on Swoop however.

And then I found out...

That his wings extended even more. I didn't feel like reshooting him again with the posse but here he is with wings all flapped out. Now you can tell Swoop good part. 

Conclusion:

Swoop completes the team. Overall, he is a good figure. The Dinobots are done remarkably well on the 86 line except if you have the 1st batch of Sludge who has wobbly feet. I was reminded of that when I had to transform him again. I think Swoop is still obtainable for a reasonable price today if you haven't got him. If you love the Dinobots, then you owe yourself to pick up the final member of the team. Go with God. Thank you and see you again. 

Transformers Studio Series 86 25 Blaster and Eject Review

Blasters version of the Bloodsport pose

 Hello ladies and gents, I am back with another review. Today, I review Studio Series 86 Blaster and Eject. I'm not going into too much details since I had done an earlier review on Kingdom Blaster, so its more of an comparison. Anyhow, let's get started. 

Boxing

SS Blaster comes with the backdrop where Magnus and some of the new Autobots gather and strike up a plan. Imo, they should had gotten Blaster the backdrop where he is in the radio dome where he radios Prime for help and defend off against Soundwave's micro minions. I think Hasbro was too lazy to make a new backdrop for him. I mean, technically Blaster was not in this scene. This was possibly the biggest bummer that came with the figure. Not a big complaint but I think Hasbro could had done better here. 

86 SS Blaster vs Kingdom Blaster

 

For those who did read my Kingdom Blaster review. I liked him. When SS86 came out, I was peeved and refused to double dip at first. But to a degree, this taught me to, perhaps, wait for Hasbro to release the more anime accurate one. I simply couldn't resist his anime stripped chest of a deco he had here so that was one of the main reasons why I pulled the trigger.  So here you have toy colors vs anime. 

The biggest differences here, besides the striped chest, is SS Blaster has more grey coloring albeit lighter than the Kingdom version which is also more heavy on the black colors. This is also the color of their rifles respectively. I do like the red coloring better on the 86 version. The yellow is also darker on the 86 version. 

The only point I am torn is the head coloring. 86 is too white for my tastes and Kingdom is too dark. 

Play wise- they play identical to one another. I already covered this in Kingdom Blaster so if you liked Kingdom Blaster, you will like 86. 

Click here for my Kingdom Blaster review:

Kingdom Blaster

Cassette bot wise: I don't really care for Eject much. He feels too plain. However, I will say I prefer SS86 Eject. I thought the translucent version, now side by side with the 86, did nothing for me. It feels off now really to have a translucent one.

Alt mode: Cassette tape and Boomboxing.

Same thing as Kingdom. I forgot how to transform parts of him, so the manual was needed again. I didn't delve into this too much. Once again click on the Kingdom link I posted above to see how many ways you can store his weapons in this mode. Once again 86 SS wins this one for me. The chest piece does look better here and I like the handle coloring where its a mish of black and grey for 86. The dials are painted different as well but that is no biggie on which version for me. Once again, more blacks on the Kingdom one and more greys on 86. I prefer SS86 Eject as well. 

Maybe didn't notice the first time or maybe I refused to address it.

Eject tightly fits into the tape compartment. So if you manage to stick him in transformed as a cassette of course, he doesn't come out easy. As a matter of fact, as you push Blasters eject button, the tape door gets stuck. I have to pull the door out manually in order to get the tape back out. Both Kingdom and SS86 versions are like this. Or at least my copies. I don't know if people have this problem or not. If you don't put any cassettes inside, the doors open magnificently smooth. 

Conclusion:

If you didn't get Kingdom Blaster, SS86 is the version to get. They play the same overall but it all boils down to which one you want cosmetically. This could be problematic if you already have the Kingdom version and if you are tight on a budget. Well, have a nice day folks and go with God.