Moss Eisley

Yachty Deluxe FREE game for iOS and Android

2011-12-19T08:46:00.000-08:00

I have just finished work on the Art for a new dice game called 'Yachty Deluxe'. It is based on the dice game yacht, or as you may know it Yahtzee. Art wise it was a pretty simple job to do, but the end result still looks great. The game is really addicitive, the sort of thing that sucks you in for hours on end.

It's available on iOS (iPad, iPhone, etc) and on Android. And it's FREE.

You can download the game from here:

Android Version

iOS Version

Star Wars Tri-Logos

2011-12-07T08:06:00.000-08:00

I have started picking up a few vintage carded figures after I realised that you can (if you are patient) pick them up for pretty much the same price as the new VOTC figures! Which to me seems crazy.

Above are three of my recent purchases. A Gamorrean Guard, Teebo, and AT-ST Driver. All mint on sealed cards. The Teebo is on the roughest of the cards, but even that look ok. The AT-ST and Guard and on very nice cards that only have a few edge dings, and other minor damage. And these all cost around the £10-15 mark. Considering the new VOTC figures are hard to find for less than £9.99 this seems a better buy.

Modern figures are never going to be worth that much on the collectors market as most people these days know that it is worth keeping them carded. So it's never going to be that hard to find a mint one years down the line. Where as the vintage figures still hold a premium.

If you have time, and patients, it's worth grabbing these figures while they are cheap.

Gatchaman God Phenix

2011-10-17T01:57:00.000-07:00

I have been wanting to get myself a Gatchaman God Phenix for years but they have always been way above my Price bracket. Battle of the Planets was always a popular cartoon when I was a kid and I remember seeing these toys in the shops, but never having enough pocket money to buy one. And when it came to christmas I always got Star Wars or Dungeons and Dragons figures.

So for the past few years everytime one turns up on ebay I have bid on it. But they have always escaped me, going for £50 or more. Which is why I am so pleased to have won this last week. It cost me a grand total of £6!!!!

Yes, £6.

Crazy.

It is in fantastic condition, complete with two of the tiny little vehciles. It has a small amount ig yellowing, and a couple of chips, but otherwise perfect. It even came with a chunk of the box.

These ships were made by Bandai Popy, the same company that made the Terrahawks shops. So it is really heavy, part diecast, part plastic. And full of neat functions. Fold up wings that hide compartment, firing missiles, drop down landing gear, etc.

The nose section folds back, and this area is normally broken as it is quite fiddly. This one is mint.

I think I may have started a new collecting focus!

Mallet Mayhem - FREE iPad Game

2011-09-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

I've just finished the artwork for a new game and it is out now on the Appstore.

Mallet Mayhem is an fun action game that will test you reactions to the limit. Tap the right cartoon character to score points, but avoid hitting the good characters. Big points can be made by tapping correct characters multiple times!

Download the game for FREE here : Mallet Mayhem on the Appstore

Rocket firing Boba Fett UKG graded

2011-06-18T03:24:00.001-07:00

Just received my UKG graded Boba Fett back in the post. This is the first figure I have ever got graded, so it is a new experience for me. I already own a few graded figures (both AFA and UKG) that I have bought from ebay or won as prizes, but this was the first time I have gone to the effort of sending off a figure to be graded.

I had seen a few of the 2010 release fetts graded by AFA and thought they looked really bad. For some reason AFA's cases are to small and they end up bending the long missile to fit it in.
UKG on the other hand have a better design for there cases and everything fits in really nicely.
The end result looks great, and this figure got a tidy U90% score.

Very happy with this and I will certainly get some other figures graded by UKG in the future.

Transformers DOTM Road Buster Deluxe review

2011-06-04T02:13:00.000-07:00

The second of the figures I picked up from Toys R Us is the Deluxe Road Buster Figure. This is a new character from the DOTM Movie so I wasn't sure what to expect.

The figure looks great in both modes and has a good paint job in the car mode. In robot mode it all just looks a little under painted which is a shame. Transforming him is pretty easy, nothing too complicated.

They have added a nifty feature to hide the gun mount holes on the arms and top in car mode, with some spring loaded bits that pop up to fill them. This really works well and means you are not left with holes in the cars body when the gun is not there.

One bad point on this figure is the shoulder mounted cannons. These seem especially hard to unfold, and most of the time they just pop off completely. Once this has happened a few times, in really starts to look like they will break completely sometime soon. This is pretty poor, and is back to the sub standard production quality from the ROTF wave. Not good.

Again the Mech Tech feature is on the Gun which has a spring loaded attack function.

Overall this figures is good, but let down by the production quality. Which is a shame.

Transformers DOTM Deluxe Starscream review

2011-06-04T02:01:00.000-07:00

Just picked up my first two figures from the new Transformers Movie Dark of the Moon. And I am quite impressed with them. Toys R us are currently running a buy one get one half price deal on there website, which even with the £5 postage makes them cheaper than other places.

This is the first time Starscream has come in the deluxe range of figures so I'm sure it will sell well as a lower price range figure. I wasn't expecting much from this figure as the figures from the last movie seemed to be made very cheaply and really weren't up to much. A number of the figures I bought from ROTF were broken or damaged as soon as they came out of the boxes.

The new deluxe starscream doesn't seem to suffer from this. The figure is pretty solid, and the limbs are nice and tight and don't pop of that easily. The transformation is not that complicated, with both modes looking pretty sweet. They new figures feature a MechTech feature, which is just a gimmick, much like the mech alive feature on the ROTF wave. With starscream his gun blade has a spring loaded feature. Not amazing, but works OK.

Overall I really like this figure. It is not quite as good as the Voyager version from ROTF, but for the price it is a figure well worth getting.

CosmoNutz - Great Little Puzzle game for iPad

2011-05-26T07:18:00.000-07:00

CosmoNutz is a new iPad game by Dare Devil Development that is fun to play and damn addictive.

The art style was created by the guy who did the graphics for a game called Speedball 2 back in the old days of the Atari ST and amiga. Sad that I still remember that game so well.

For CosmoNutz I created the models and animations for the chararacters that you see running around and being squished by boulders.

This is a really fun game based on the old Sokoban type game. I used to have a simple game like this on the PC that I managed to waste hours of my life playing. It made a change from Minesweeper at least.

ACUTE ACTION-FIGURE ADDICTION DISORDER

2011-05-02T12:17:00.000-07:00

I have been suffering with this for years and never new it had a name.

I'm sure many of you will be fellow sufferers!

Great Little War Game - iPad, iPhone Game

2011-03-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

I have been working on the art for this game for the last 6 months or so and it is now finally out on the iPad and iPhone.

It has been a long slog, but I am well pleased with the final game. It is fun to play and looks pretty good.

Go check out the website and follow the links to down load it to you iDevice.

Yellow Squadron get custom capes

2011-03-21T09:37:00.000-07:00

My next challenge after de-yellowing the figures was to make some new capes for the snowtroopers. I have been looking on line for a while now to try and source some vinyl that is similar to the original snowtrooper cape vinyl, and

this article had some good ideas. But being in the UK I cannot find vinyl covered ring binders anywhere.

But it did get me thinking, and I have found that blow up beach toys are made of a similar thickness vinyl. So I popped down to a really cheap looking shop in teddington and found this:

A blow up (mainly white) foobtall. The vinyl is a very good match. Glossy on one side, and slightly patterned on the other.

I simply cut the ball up to so that I had a load of the white panels on there own. You will need to flatten them as they tended to be creased. But I just put them in a heavy book for a while and the flattend out nicely.

I used a scan of an original snowtrooper cape from here as a guide, printed it and cut it out, you can then trace around it onto the vinyl using a pencil.

Then carefully cut it out. I used scissors to cut around the edge and a scalpel to cut the holes and small slit. This seemed to work pretty well and the end result looks very good. As these ar only army builder figures I was not worried about them being perfect.

Patrick the Hutt

2011-03-10T06:14:00.000-08:00

I'm sure it can't just be me that thinks this. I watched the Sky at Night over the weekend as they had Brian Cox on. This is a program I have almost never watched, and after watching this latest episode I am amazed anyone can. Patrick moore has sort of morphed into a mumbling version of Jabba the Hutt.

He just sits in the background occasionally mumblings something (and like Jabba he could really do with sub titles) and chewing the head off a frog. I made the bit up about the frog but it is not that hard to believe.

The sky at night on BBC is apparently the longest running show ever. Not sure how as it is car crash tv.

Yellow Squadron - Ready to roll

2011-03-09T05:34:00.000-08:00

This lot of figures took a lot longer to De-Yellow than expected. But they really were the worst figures I had ever seen. The most yellow of the figures took nearly three weeks of sitting in the 6% Hydrogen peroxide before they were anywhere near white. The very yellow Snowtrooper still has a slight tinge of green/yellow to the body, but when compared to the first photo it really is quite amazing how white it has gone over all.

Stormtroopers still seem to fair the best with this technique having almost all gone back to white.

The Biker scout is not bad either when compared to the original shot. This is left with a bit of a yellow tinge.

I have also carefully touched up the paint on all of these figures using Acrylic paints. It is pretty hard to see that this has been done and makes the figures look so much better.

For the moment I have made some temporary snowtrooper skirts. I'm looking to find some vinyl that matches the original skirts, but no luck so far. They are currently made from the top white section of plastic taken from a Forbidden Planet carrier bag.

And here is the full army of 22 figures so far:

Great Little War Game - Promo Video

2011-03-05T00:38:00.000-08:00

This is a video showing the new game I have been working on. Coming soon to the iPad and iPhone.

My latest quest

2011-02-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

This really is going to put my De-yellowing of plastic skills to the test. These are some of the yellowist Star wars figures I have ever seen!

One of the snowtroopers is so yellow it is hard to believe it was ever white. The reason I bought this lot was that all the parts that are yellow are the ones I had most success with. Stormtrooper bodies go white well, but not so much there arms. Snowtroopers bodies go white well as do there arms. Biker scouts are the same as Stormtroopers, but the arms will whiten a bit.

So from this lot I should?? Get some good figures.

To start they day they all had a nice bath.

From now on they will be known as Yellow Squadron. Let the battle begin.

Beware the Rancor

2011-02-07T02:15:00.001-08:00

Picked up this bargain Rancor this weekend in Weston Super Mare. £9 for the rancor and when I got it home he coughed up a treat. Hidden inside him was a vintage stormtrooper gun! So it wasn't just Jabbas dancers and Gamorrean guards on his diet!

De-Yellowing Vintage Action Figures - Full guide

2011-01-28T05:44:00.000-08:00

De-Yellowing Vintage Action Figures

A recipe for those on a budget.

What you will need:

2x 200ml Bottles of %6 Hydrogen Peroxide
1x Empty coffee jar
Sunshine – if available
Patience – plenty of it

My aim was to use the techniques other collectors have tried but to spend as little money as possible. When you read how other people have done this process they talk about buying food grade Hydrogen Peroxide %35, which as far as I can see can only be bought on line with the smallest bottle costing around £5 plus £5 postage. And to me that already sounded like a lot of money as that is the for cost of one new figure.

I am a UK based collector so I will be talking about shops and brands that are available here.

So I decided to see what I could achieve while spending as little as possible.

I had recently bought ten stormtroopers off ebay that all looked like they were in a sorry state with most being pretty yellow and very dirty. So the first step after receiving them was to give them a good clean in hot soapy water using an old toothbrush to clean the grit out of the hard to reach areas. This straight away made a massive difference to the figures.

On the left are the original figures, on the right the same figures after they have been cleaned.

Then it was of to the chemists to see if they sold Hydrogen Peroxide in one form or another. It turns out they do. In Boots the chemists you can by %6 Hydrogen Peroxide made by Care +. They did ask me what it was for, but I think they have to ask no matter what they are selling you. A 200ml bottle costs £1.01 in boots but I later found it in Sainsburys for £0.93.

I had only ever heard about Hydrogen Peroxide being used for bleaching hair, but apparently it is used as an antiseptic agent which is why the chemists stock it.

From my tests you will need two bottles of this, but it will depend on what sort of jar you use. You need enough to be able to cover the figures.

The process is simple, and this is based on reading up on various sites around the web (listed at the end). Fill your jar with Hydrogen Peroxide, place a few of your figures in the jar, put the lid on and then place on a sunny windowsill. Then you just need to wait.

Because this is a low percentage hydrogen peroxide you need to leave in the sun for a long time, which is where the patience comes in. For the best results I have found that at least 7 days is required. It is also good practice to give the figures a little shake and turn them around a bit during the seven days as they get covered in small bubbles after a few hours.

When I tried my first few figures we ended up with and entire week of rain and clouds but I don't really think it made any difference. Other sites say you need the sun to get results, but in my experience just a bit of cloudy daylight works just as well. It may be that this affects the speed at which the bleaching happens, but that is only a guess.

The plastic the figures are made of seems to make a big difference in the time it takes to De-yellow. I have mainly been working with old Star Wars and Terrahawks figures which have a body made from a hard plastic with the limbs made from a more bendable softer plastic.

The Hard body plastic takes about a week to de-yellow, but the arms seem to be affected differently. Although they are all made of a softer plastic, they change at completely different speeds. Some turn white it just a few days, others take 10 days or more. You just have to keep checking to see how white they have gone as they will go white in the end.

Because of the amount of time it takes for the plastic to turn white it is sometimes hard to remember what the figures looked like originally. So a good idea is to have a colour chart that you can use as a guide. Before you put your figures in to bleach, make a note of which colour they are, then you can compare after a few days.

There are free charts on the web for Teeth whitening, this one is pretty good.

http://www.enutramart.com/ezbright/ezbright_color_chart.gif

As you put your figures in the bath, make a note of the colour tone they are, then you can check to see how much they have changed over the next few days.

When they are done, and you will just need to judge this. Take them out and give them a good wash. You may find a powdery coating on some of the painted areas once they dry. This can just be wiped off with a cloth.

Overall the results are pretty good. Some of the figures still have a yellow hue about them, but nothing like they did when I got them.

And that is it. Simple really, and there is no need to spend lots of money on this.

Total cost to whiten ten figures £2.02

Bargain.

Sites worth looking at:

Retr0bright - http://retr0bright.wikispaces.com/

Comic Book Bin - http://www.comicbookbin.com/Action_Figure_Yellowing001.html

Exisle - http://www.exisle.net/mb/index.php?/topic/59657-de-yellowing-plastic-the-stain-isnt-permanent-after-all/

De-Yellowing Star Wars Figures - Stage 2 part 3

2011-01-26T08:04:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to show a couple of figures recently taken out of the H2O2.

The Snowtrooper turned out great. This had yellow arms to start and they ended up a very nice mint white.

The storm trooper still has a bit of a yellow tint to it. I have four other troopers in at the moment and each ones seems to be made from a different plastic. And so far none of the arms have good completely white. They are all much better, but just not fully white.

De-Yellowing Star Wars Figures - Stage 2 part 2

2011-01-18T06:00:00.001-08:00

It has now been 7 days since I put my first to figures in the Hydrogen Peroxide, I decided to leave it this long as we had not really had that much sunshine. After a few days both figures had started to loose there yellow markings, but you could still see them.

Now after a week both figures are looking loads better. These were very yellow figures and I never expected to get them back to 100% white, I was using these as they were both figures that I didn't really mind if they got ruined.

The stormtrooper has a few areas on the front that are a little yellow so it may be worth giving him a second bath. And the Biker scout has a bit more of an all over subtle tinge of yellow.

If you look at the images below you can see the overall difference that a week makes.

I have a few other figures in the bath now that have been in for 4 days which I will also leave the full week.

Today I added a Terrahawks figure as this is made from a dark blue plastic. I'm hoping this will have the same results as my Kate Kestrel figure is looking pretty yellow.

De-Yellowing Star Wars Figures - Stage 2

2011-01-14T01:36:00.001-08:00

Stage 2 is the bit that I have read the most about. It requires you to dip your figures in Hydrogen peroxide and leave in the sun for a few days. Most articles seem to think that a 30% solution works best, but I didn't want to go down this route as you can only buy that on line and it works out pretty expensive.

So I decided to see what you could get on the high street. And it turns out that Boots the chemists sells a 6% bottle. This costs £1.01 for 250ml which is a much better price.

The brand they sell is Care + Hydrogen Peroxide Solution 6% 20 vols. I picked up two bottles as the jar I have to put my figures in was fairly large.

I am hoping this will do the same job as the stronger percentage, but just take a little longer.

As I bought two bottles, the lady serving me had to ask what I wanted it for. Maybe she thought I was making bombs? So I said I was mending action figures. It might have been better if I was making bombs as she did give me a very odd look.

The next bit is simple, fill the jar with the H2o2 and place your figures in it. Then leave them on a windowsill in the sunlight. As you can see I have used an old coffee jar, no point spending money on anything fancy.

That was the only problem in my plan, the sun! It's been pissing down with rain and overcast for about the last month, but I thought I would give it ago anyway as the sun peaks out every once in a while.

So now I wait...

De-Yellowing Star Wars Figures - Stage 1

2011-01-11T10:07:00.000-08:00

I know this has been done and documented by other people on the web, but I thought I would keep a note of how I got on with the process. It seems people get varying results some good, some bad.

I started by getting together a selection of figures that are at various stages of Yellowing. I'd actually just won a lot of ten figures on ebay, all of which were yellow and dirty.

So the first stage has been to give the figures a deep clean in soapy water using a soft toothbrush to get into the cracks to remove the dirt. After this I used lighter fluid and kitchen towel to rub off any black marks and pen. This produced a pretty good result already as the figures were really filthy.

On the left you can see the figures as I received them, on the right is after the deep clean and as you can see some of them are already looking a lot better.

The next stage involves the chemicals.

The retrobright has been a great help to me and is well worth a read.

I'll will post more about my attempts at De-yellowing figures shortly.

Bumblebee Arm Blaster

2010-07-28T09:34:00.001-07:00

Ooh, it's a good day today as I just had a huge box turn up containing my Bumblebee arm blaster thing! Not really a transformer, more a big gun that makes lots of noises. It's a tad small for my hand, but the sounds a fantastic. Now I can annoy the misses by making transformation noise around the house.

I found this clip on you tube, shows the sounds off nicely.

This really is very noisy, not just the sounds but it sort of cranks when you pull the funnel back. It is not the sort of toy you are meant to be play with quietly.

Supposed to retail for £39.99 which is way to much. I picked this up for £10 on ebay which is a much better price.

Ohh, new toy shop!!

2010-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

How exciting, and new toy shop in Weston Super Mare. Well, it's not new, but it has moved to a bigger store and they have much more stuff on show now. And that makes it a new store in my eyes. M.T Games and DVD exchange.

If you look on googles maps you can see it was not there last year:

View Larger Map

it was some mobility shop. Anyway, what I like about this shop is that it is one of the few place that sells loose vintage figures. Check out the images to see what I mean. The only other place I know that sells loose figures is also in Weston, so there are now two reasons to go there. Woohoo.

The prices in my mind are a little high at £2.99 per loose figure, but there were some in the pile that would be worth that. The also had bags of modern weapons and parts priced at £1.99 and some of these were very tempting as they had some good items in them. Next time...

Banksy Stormtrooper???

2010-07-26T10:09:00.000-07:00

Just been on a trip to Toys R us at Cribbs Causeway near Bristol, and walked past a work in progress Halfords store. On the boards that stop you getting in a stealing all the tools someone has sprayed this stencil. I'm guessing this is not Banksy, but they have certainly taken his ideas.

Darth Vader falling on hard times

2010-07-23T09:12:00.000-07:00

Darth Vader robbed a bank. Looks like the mortgage payments on the second death star caught up with him. Read the full article on the Daily mail site.

Psychiatrist with too much time on his hands!

2010-06-14T03:28:00.000-07:00

I would have thought his time is better spent on people on the real world. And let's face it I think we all new Darth Vader had some mental health issues. For a start as a young boy lots of older men took and interest him and groomed him in the ways of the force.

If you tried that these days, you would be straight off to jail.

Anyway, the Sun thinks this is worth reporting, Read it here.

Adidas fucks up the Star Wars Cantina

2010-06-07T12:31:00.000-07:00

Is it just me, or is this not very good. OK, technically it is clever. But the content is really very poor. I can't believe Lucas let this one get through.

I just don't see the point. The 'acting' is terrible, the idea is shit. All this time effort and money on a bad idea.

They should have put this much effort into the Star Wars special editions.

Terrahawks - Treehawk

2010-06-07T12:07:00.000-07:00

Managed to get another of the Terrahawks ships off ebay a while back. This time the Treehawk made by Bandai Popy in 1983. These are really great toys, and built properly out of good solid materials with a nice chunk of metal.

This toy is based on one of the duller ships from the show. It is essentially a cylinder with a jet on the end. They have spiced it up a bit with some fold out wings and landing gear. And the nose cone fires forwards on the press of a button. The colour scheme is the same for all the ships, a bright orange (mainly plastic) and then a silver metal. These larger ships all come with firing missiles, and unless you get a boxed one you will be lucky to get a ship with the bullets.

One thing I never understood about this toy line was the lack of enemies. With the figures you get a single enemy, Zelda. And there are no enemy ships. So as a child who were you supposed to fight against.

The best toy in the line was the large Zeroid, so it would have been great to have one of Zelda's cubes in the same size to fight against. But this never happened which is a real shame.

These toys are well worth picking up, and as I have said before you can get them pretty cheap if you are patient. Conditions vary as they do have some small details, in this case the wings and landing gear, that are easily broken.

Medical Frigate Leia - What's up with her legs

2010-06-03T07:13:00.000-07:00

This was one of the figures I picked up at TK Maxx the other week in Taunton. It is the Wave 6 Medical Frigate Leia figure in the Legacy line. Leia figures have often been a bit on the poor quality side and this one is no exception. The face and overall sculpt are ok. The soft goods skirt is passable, but does look way out of scale in texture.

My big problem with this figure is the legs. OK, I know the skirt covers them, but if you are going to put a cloth skirt on, then you should expect people to look underneath.

Her legs are just weird. She reminds me on the Cartoon character Crazy Legs Crane, as they are so thin and bendy. It looks like she has suffered from rickets.

Other than the legs the figure is just ok. If it wasn't for the U-3po droid piece I think I would have left this one on the peg for someone else to buy.

'ThunderCats writer murdered'

2010-05-28T09:41:00.000-07:00

What a weird friday:

Comics - News - Police: 'ThunderCats writer murdered' - Digital Spy

I blame Lion-o, he must have done it.

STAR WARS I-PAD BRIEFING

2010-05-28T06:09:00.000-07:00

Star Wars at TK Maxx

2010-05-26T08:52:00.000-07:00

Last year after the demise of Woolworths, our local store was replaced by a TK Maxx. It's the sort of shop I would never bother to go into as it just looks like a huge jumble sale and is normally full to the brim with people fighting over some bargain.

But last week I was drawn in, not sure why, I must have sensed the dark side in there. And to my surprise right at the back I found a few shelves of toys and bits. Most of which were not for me, but hidden on the top shelf at the back I found two Legacy wave Star War figures that I had not seen in any other shop. Wave 6 BD 38: Luke Skywalker (Medical Frigate) and BD 41: Princess Leia (Medical Frigate). Both £6.99 so not the cheapest, but still a good find as I don't know any other store (apart from Forbidden Prices) that ever had this wave in.

So from now on TK Maxx is on my list of shops to check when I am out and about shopping. Fingers crossed.

Endor forces arrive

2010-05-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

I went a bit crazy on ebay a week back and bid on loads of Endor rebel troopers in the thinking that I would maybe win a couple of the auctions. Turns out it was a super sunny weekend here in the UK and I won pretty much all the auctions at nice low prices.

And that means I have waves of Troopers turning up in the post. The first few arrived today so thought I would take a quick shot out in the garden. A bit of photoshop later, and check it out.

TRU AT-ST Exclusive

2010-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

I picked myself up one the new At-St scout walkers from Toys R Us before Christmas and boy what a great new toy it is.

After a bit of trouble with the first one I picked up as straight out of the box the top joint on the leg was broken. I was a more than a little miffed as I had picked this up 150 miles away from my house as we were visiting relatives. And the nearest TRU to use is about 50 miles away.

So after a trip out to get another one, which I check carefully I finally got to play with the new AT-ST.

The new sculpt is great with many more joints in the legs for better posing, a larger cockpit that holds two figures, firing guns and and alternate gun if you want a more movie accurate look, and even opening flaps on the front. It really is a great looking vehicle.
It comes with one AT-ST driver figure, shame it's not two. The figure is an old sculpt so has limited joints, but still does the job.

I'm guessing this will be released a few more times and not just as an exclusive. Hasbro will want there money out of this one.

Originally on sale for £50, it was already knocked down to £40 when I got one. Grab one fast before they go.

Games Britannia

2009-12-22T01:10:00.000-08:00

I'm sure most of you TV addicts out there have been watching Games Britannia on BBC 4. It's been and interesting show, but a bit on the dry side.

And if you have been able to stay awake in the second episode you were treated to a very small glimpse of a games fair from the early 80's, in a section about the Dungeons and Dragons role playing game. It would have been great if they had showed the whole of this footage as it really had some gems hidden in there.

A couple of the highlights for me where this great He-man outfit:

And these from Terrahawks:

You can catch the show for a very short time on the BBC I-player.

BAD Chewie

2009-10-08T07:29:00.000-07:00

We are now well into the Build a Droid series of Star Wars figures, and I'm guessing like many collectors everyone wants to build the droids, but not everyone actually wants the figure that comes with the key droid parts.

Early on this wasn't much of a problem as most of the figures that were released were pretty good and worth adding to your collection. But more and more now I am finding that all I really want is the droid part. And for me I only want the astromech bits.

More often than not you can find someone on ebay who has bought a whole box of figures and has taken the droid parts out to make the droid and sell it at a huge mark up. And fair play to them. I have even bought a couple of the droids like this myself as there were no figures in that line that I wanted.

But I have now got the problem that I am amassing a large collection of odd bits. See poor old Chewie above. He can't move for bodies.

So watch should I do with them? Anyone fancy trading for other droid body bits. Drop me a line.

A change of heart by ITV

2009-10-08T07:27:00.000-07:00

Seems like ITV have changed there minds on Primeval. Looks like it will be coming back after all as it was picked up by a few different channels so ITV don't have to risk all there own money.

So that means we can look forward to a new series in 2011! That's a long time to wait.

ITV are Idiots

2009-06-15T04:46:00.000-07:00

So it seems ITV have canceled primeval. What a bunch of idiots! Read about it Here.

This was pretty much the only show worth watching on ITV especially when TV burp is not on the air.

Primeval was a reliably good show, with a good all round cast, interesting stories that went of for more than 45 mins (something Dr.Who couldn't seem to do), and some great special effects. I'll be interested to see what they fill this slot with, fingers crossed it will be another show that is all about the many talented members of the public that can sing other peoples songs or street dance.

What idiots!

Stock Update

2009-05-14T07:06:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know I have updated my Star Wars stock. I have added figures from all lines both old and new.

Check them out Here

Proof that Daleks are no good in water!

2009-03-04T07:50:00.001-08:00

I think Cylons suffered from the same problems as Daleks! Does not compute!

What a great find, I bet they are all fighting over this one to see who will be the first to stick it on ebay!

Read about the find on the Daily Mail site. Yes I know the Daily mail is s**t but you can't have it all.

Zeroid 101 - Review

2009-02-23T04:34:00.000-08:00

Another review from this line as there really is very little info out on the web about these figures. Taken from the line of figures created by Bandai/Popy in 1983.

This figure is considerably smaller than the Deluxe Sergent Major Zeroid but has much the same level of detail. The figure features eyes that can be revealed by sliding two panels into the body, and the head can be removed from it's stand. It has a simple paint job but just enough to give the figure the detail it needs.

I think even with the limited quality of toys from the eighties it would have been pretty hard for any toy company to make a mess of a toy that is basically a ball.

This figure is one of the harder ones to get from the range as it seems to be the one everyone wants along with Sergent Major. And I guess if you can grab a few it would make a nice Zeroid army. As they don't come up for sale that often I say grab them when you see them, but do check if they have suffered from any yellowing as the plastic they are made from seems to be quite prone to this.

Tiger Ninestein - Review

2009-02-16T06:48:00.000-08:00

I know this is about 25 years to late, but I couldn't find anywhere on the web that had a review or write up of these figures. Based on the Terrahawks TV show these figures were made by Bandai/Popy in 1983. For the time they are not that bad overall. They are limited to 5 points of movement, arms, legs, and head and come with a very basic paint job.

I'm not quite sure what Bandai were thinking when they made these figures as they don't really resemble the TV show characters. The scale is all wrong as these are based on more human proportions where as the show has them looking kinda short.

The face of Tiger Ninestein is particularly bad and looks nothing like him. It's all a bit long and thin, and again a bit to human looking.

The figures also seem to suffer from having very large bulbous feet, it makes them stand up nice and easily which is a good thing compared to most modern figures. They also have the traditional holes in the heals even though there are no playsets that feature pegs.

Having said all that it is a strangely likable figure and is worth picking up if you see them going cheap. They have a certain 80's charm about them and remind me a lot of Fisher Price toys of the time.

Battlestar Galactica - Cylon Attack

2009-02-10T07:34:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would post a link to this old movie of mine as it seems to still be getting lots of hits on youtube.

Still scary after 26 years! Guess who?

2009-01-20T00:57:00.000-08:00

This made me laugh as I can't believe after 26 years there has not been another even scarier female space alien. Seems that whenever you see anyone with a few wrinkles and they are female they must look like Zelda!

Check out this article from The Sun.

I hope Gerry Anderson gets some cash every time they use that picture!

Now there is no doubt that Madonna is looking a bit rough these days, and she should really keep her legs shut, but Zelda, not sure about that.

The Death of Khan

2009-01-15T07:15:00.000-08:00

It's another sad day for the Star Trek world with the death of Ricardo Montalban. He has to have been one of the all time great villains to have appeared in any movie. It is one of the few Star Trek movies I can happily watch over and over again and I never get bored of it.

And he was also pretty good in the Spy Kids movies! But I bet those won't be mentioned. Shame.

Zelda, the real one, not the computer game!

2008-12-15T10:20:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I last made an entry on this blog. But I've been very busy, and had a trip to Japan the land of toys. So it can't be helped.

I made another good Terrahawks purchase off ebay a few weeksn back. A nice carded Zelda figure by Popy. All for the price of 99p!

The blister was a bit cracked, but the figure is mint and complete, and overall the card is pretty damn good. I have seen these figures go for far more than this, and it really is all down to the photo. Look at the poor quality shot that was put up for this item.

Big isn't it!

Anyway, a bad listing is good for the buyer ; )

Ewok-o-rama

2008-10-14T08:09:00.000-07:00

This is my first go at doing a Diorama. My mate G has been working on a few and I'm always impressed by how good they look.

I'm a bit stretched for space these days, so thought I would start small and build something that would fit on my work desk shelves.

It was fairly simple to make, I'll go over the basics quickly now.

The trunk is made from a small piece of Apple tree ( I have and orchard, so it's the easiest wood for me to get. This was cut with a hand saw and screw to a thing piece of plywood that I had cut into a semicircle. Onto this I glued (using evostick as it's a slow to go off glue, and gives you time to move things around) small lengths of willow. I first did a row of full length twigs fanning out in a circle. In-between these I glued short lengths that I had sanded to a point, otherwise they would not fit in.

The next step was to leave it for a night to dry. While this was happening I got a length of fairly rough string and split it into is's core of three thinner bits of string.

String is pretty much always white, so I put this in a mug with a Tea bag in it and left it over night. Next day I was pleased to find it had turned a nice shade of brown ( and smelt of tea!).

After drying this out I then wound it through the end of the twigs to create a sort of tied on look. Not that complicated but looks the part.

And that's it. The end result looks pretty good, and fits perfectly on my shelf.

Next I need to build something for my Clone troopers and R2's!

True Galactica fan

2008-10-03T08:08:00.000-07:00

Seems that if you watch Battlestar Galactica while driving a truck, it's not that dangerous as you only get 225 hours of community service. They would have given him more if he had worked for a more up market company than poundstretcher!

Read the full story Here.

Battlestar Galactica Sleeping Bag

2008-09-27T13:10:00.000-07:00

I was really chuffed to receive this in the post a few weeks back. I kind lady from the USA offered to send it over to me as she no longer wanted it. And what a great item. If I was a kid I would have loved to have had this to sleep in.

It's been a while but I have just updated my oldest site to feature this item and a few others. Go check them out: Battlestar Galactica Memorabilia

AT-TE Review

2008-09-24T06:41:00.000-07:00

It's here and I got it for a bargain price of £80 from Toys R Us.

Opening the box, this thing is a real beast! The legs and gun are separate, but the body is just in one big lump and it's huge. Attaching the legs and guns is easy so within a few minutes you have your AT-TE ready to go.

It does come with some stickers, but only a few. They almost seem like and after thought as they really don't add that much to it. The one thing I am a little surprised about is that it doesn't come with batteries. It requires 3x AA, which they could have easily slipped in the box considering the price tag!

And let's face it, you need to put the batteries in as the sounds are great. It has loads of phrases and a great walking sound. And it's very very loud.

There is also a light on the main gun which lights up the barrel and targeting screen. Again a few more lights inside would have been nice.

The figure that comes with it is just the standard Clone trooper, so nothing special.

Overall I am really pleased with this as I was in two minds about getting it. The detail is great, lots of little bits and bobs all over the shop. All the guns on the front move when you move a single gun which is nice. The sounds when you open the back hatch are really fantastic.

I'm not quite sure where I am going to put this though as it's about the size of a small dog.

Now all Hasbro need to make is a new republic gunship that is in scale with the AT-TE and can be used as the dropship for this. That would be fantastic!!!!

AT-TE is here in the house!

2008-09-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

I'm looking at the box now. I'm so excited! But I have to wait to open it as I have work to do : (

Grimlock @ The Natural History Museum

2008-09-20T01:47:00.000-07:00

So I was up in London earlier this week and to kill sometime popped into The Natural History Museum.. It's a great place that I had not been to for years and years.

The first thing to do here is always go and check out the dinosaur section as this is by far the coolest place.

Right at the end of the Dino section there is a display cabinet showing toys that have Dinosaur shapes, and who do I see there but a nice little G1 grimlock. Sweet.

I didn't have my camera but see some other people have pics posted of him on the web. The one above came from here.

Build-a-droid

2008-09-18T03:21:00.000-07:00

Now I am a massive Astromech fan so when I saw that the next few waves of Star Wars figures were going to include lots of droids I was really happy. But now the waves are out I'm finding it pretty frustrating. To get each droid you have to buy 4 figures, normally not a problem as I like to have good collection of figures. But this time there are very few figures I actually want to buy. But I do want the droid!

So what am I to do. I have bought the figures I like, but that was only two. So I now have a r4-m6 head and body (you can work out which figures I bought from that ; ).

I always keep my eye out on ebay and have so far managed to get a single leg from the R7-Z0. Which is a little disappointing. But at least the hunt keeps me off the streets.

I wish Hasbro wouldn't do this though as It really makes collecting hard.

AT-TE - to buy, or not to buy?

2008-08-14T02:56:00.000-07:00

I'm really struggling with this one. I've always liked this vehicle and now that they have made it into a toy it's a very tempting item. The AT-AT was always my favorite toy from the original trilogy, mainly because Empire was the best film! And the AT-TE reminds me a lot of that. But at nearly a hundred quid (or 90 if you look at my last post) it is an awful lot of money.

So the question is, should I buy one?

Do I need one, no :(

Do I want one, yes : )

I know if I do get one I will sit and look at if for a while, press all the buttons to make the cool noises, apply the stickers. Then after a few weeks of it gathering dust it will end up going back in the box and put up in the loft. And that would seem a waste.

So has anyone out there bought one? What's it like? Is it worth the money?

I'll give myself another week before I make my final choice.

I never thought I would say this!

2008-08-04T09:29:00.000-07:00

But Forbidden Planet is actually selling something at a reasonable price!

They have the AT-TE for £89.99! and only £2.50 postage.

And that is actually cheaper than most places except Play which has it is £89.99 with free postage.

I must say I am impressed as I thought they would try an flog this for at least £130.

Maybe they have worked out that people can get these things much cheaper on the internet.

A-Wing Pilot - Tycho Celchu

2008-07-01T07:26:00.000-07:00

Just picked up one these figures from the 30th Anniversary line of figures. On the card this figure really looks great. The sculpt for the body and clothing is one of the best to date. The wrinkles and folds in the fabric look really real, and there are some nice paint details.

That is until you take his helmet off. The figure comes with the helmet in place so you only really get to see this when you take him out of the packet.

What's the hell is wrong with his eyes!

I've discussed this topic before about how mint a figure can be as even when you get a brand new figure out of the box there is always something that's not quite right. But this figure takes it to another level. I've had a look at some over versions of this figure and they all seem to suffer from the same problem. I'm guessing this maybe why the figure comes with his helmet on so you can't see the face until you've paid for it.

Dr Who series 4 - Almost over

2008-06-28T13:10:00.000-07:00

Thank god. This series really has been pretty hard going. It has contained a couple of good episodes, but on the whole has been the worst so far.

Every week they seem to pick a weak idea, wrap it with up over dramatic sentimental scenes that bore the socks off me, dull the ears with constant thumping background music, and solve all the worlds problems with the sonic screwdriver. OR failing that psychic paper!

And if you have time make one of the characters either gay, lesbian, bisexual, or if that fails they must fancy the doctor. I wouldn't mind if it added something to the plot, but this is never the case. The sex of the character makes know difference to what they do or how they act, so why mention it at all?

Donna has also been the worst assistant. Tate only seems capable of pulling silly faces and doing one of her 'hilarious' voices or catch phrases.

I do want to like it I really do. But there has been so much going against it this series. I'm going to fight on and watch the last episode, but I expect to very disappointed.

Chewbacca - visits Clarks part 2

2008-06-02T08:42:00.000-07:00

Well he did visit, but I missed it : ( I got there about half twelve, saw him in the distance but thought I would get a coffee. When I returned he had already gone. Even though it said he would be there until four.

Next time I'll know to go straight there and get my coffee later.

Chewbacca - visits Clarks

2008-05-27T06:45:00.000-07:00

Click Here to read more.

Clarks did this last year and it was really good fun. You can check out some of older Star Wars posts to see photos of when I met Dave Prowse and Kenny Baker.

I'll be off again this year if I get time.

Poll Results - How bad is the new Dr Who series?

2008-05-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

And the results are:

I like it. 0%
Watchable, just. 0%
Make it stop. 25%
Arrrggh, my eyes. 25%
Cathrine Tate makes me feel sick. 50%

Total votes cast 4

Check back soon for our new poll.

The BBC in knots

2008-05-14T03:58:00.000-07:00

Seems like the BBC are sinking to a new low with Dr Who. So far this series has been as bad as ever. I really want to enjoy watching it, but every week is like torture! I feel like I am having my brain kicked in for 50 minutes while someone shits in my eyes.

Now they are taking a woman to court for knitting versions of the monsters.

Click Here to read

You can read her site here

Seems like wasting the License fee on making more Dr Whos isn't enough, now they want to stop people having a bit of fun.

You can still download Knitting patterns for the Old Tom Baker scarf here

The Old Dr Who Logo here

Buck Rogers back in the 25th Century

2008-05-09T09:29:00.000-07:00

According to Variety Buck Rogers is to be made into a movie Again! Not another one I hear you all cry.

Why can't the film companies come up with something new rather than going over the same old movies every few years.

Ammo/Gonk Droid

2008-04-28T08:32:00.000-07:00

Just picked myself up the Ammo droid from the Battlefront Droid Figure set.
I had to get it as it goes really nicely with my other Gonk droids and R2 collection that I am building.

Essentially this is just a repaint of the Saga Gonk droid, but without the had thing, or the cables around it's middle. It's a really cheap figure as they have not even bother to fill in the holes were the cable would plug in. But as I got it for 99p I'm not disappointed.

Cylons - What went wrong?

2008-04-07T01:20:00.000-07:00

Diamond Select Toys have been creating figures based on the new Battlestar Galactica for a while now. I've seen a few of them and they are ok, but lack the charm of the old figures. They are more of a statue that an action figure in my mind.

I have just been reading up on the next wave that they are brining out, which this time includes a 'classic' Cylon. But what have they done to it!!!!

They have managed to take a classic design and turn it into something that just looks plain wrong.

Gone are the sleek curves and 70's chrome effect, to be replaced with and ill fitting Robocop pair of legs. None of it seems to fit together, as though they have just found some old molds and tried to make something new out of it.

I don't my the modern way of re-imagining old shows, but if something works, it should be left alone.

Poll results - Which of the new Sci-fi shows are you enjoying the most?

2008-04-07T01:11:00.000-07:00

And the results are:

Flash Gordon 0%
Terminator - The Sarah Connor Chronicles 75%
The Bionic Woman 50%

Total votes cast 4

Yes I know they don't add up, but that's what the Blogger poll worked it out as!!!.

Contains intense bloody violence

2008-03-27T12:05:00.000-07:00

I've worked in the computer games industry for a long time now, it's actually over 15 years, so a real long time. And for as long as I can remember there have been warnings on the back of games clearly giving an age rating and some info on what is contained.

And example from a recent game I worked was this subtle piece of text placed next to the 18 logo:

"Contains intense bloody violence"

Now you would have to be pretty stupid not to understand what that means.

But it seems that the government thinks that some people find this a little too complicated to understand so are looking into making it more obvious. You can read some of that here BBC News.

It makes me really angry when things like this happen. When I was a child I wasn't allowed to watch movies that had 18 ratings, so what has changed. If it says 18 on it, the shops shouldn't sell it to the kids, and the parents shouldn't buy or let them play them. It's just lazy parents not paying attention to what there kids are doing. It does my nut!

Demise of Grievous

2008-03-22T22:00:00.000-07:00

The entertainer have been selling these off pretty cheap for a while so I picked up a couple. They come in a plastic case (the main reason I bought them as I needed one for another figure) and are a limited edition figure.

I've taken one off the card just to see what it was like. It's a fairly cheap figure overall. But the paint job is quite good. The orange effect works pretty well with the plastic flames.

The downside of this figure is the badly sculpted hands. They are just to small that both the gun and stick he comes with easily fall out of his hands. You just have to tap the figure and they drop out. You would have though it would have been easy to get this right as they do with most of the other figures.

Otherwise, I think this is a nice figure. But don't pay much for it as they seem to be easily found at this moment in time.

Poll Results - Are you enjoying The Sarah Conner Chronicles?

2008-03-22T14:42:00.000-07:00

And the results are:

Yes - It's a good show 50%
Sort of - but it's not really got going yet 33%
No - they shouldn't have bothered! 16%

Total votes cast 6

Check back soon for our new poll.

Transformers - Deluxe Brawl

2008-03-10T16:20:00.000-07:00

I finally found this figure. Picked it up in Sainsburys of all places for a good price of £9.99.

I really liked the look of this figure both in the film and from the shots I have seen of it. I'm not really sure why they have called it Brawl as and action figure when he is clearly called Devastator in the film.

The figure looks great in vehicle mode, nice amounts of detail and a reasonable paint job. The trans formation is pretty straight forward until you get to the arms which have possibly the worst shoulder joint I have ever seen. It's really un-clear in the instructions how you are supposed to lock it in place, and it seems no matter what you do it just won't stay put. Any amount of movement causes the shoulders to pop out which is pretty poor.

Maybe I have not set it up properly, let me know if you have worked it out. But this is aimed at kids so I think I should be able to master it.

The only other downsides to this figure are the really silly bright red missile, and the cheap plastic they have used (which could be the cause of the shoulder problem). This is the same kind of hard plastic they have used on the Rescue version of Ratchet. It just feels very brittle.

If you can get him into Robot mode he does look really great. Loads of details and really mean looking. I'd say it was worth getting if you want him on display, but if you plan playing with him he'll just keeping falling apart.

Who buys this crap????

2008-03-05T17:28:00.000-08:00

Whilst doing a search around ebay I can across this seller:

Atlantic trading

They sell prints of home made CGi images based on Star Wars, Star trek, etc. And they are really bad. I know they are only 4 or 5 quid a print, but who on earth would buy one of these images. They are very badly done using some really basic models. The backgrounds look like they have been created by a novice in Bryce 3D or similar.

Good luck to the seller. I would love to know if they have actually sold any.

Transformers - Ratchet Voyager

2008-03-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

I've now managed to pick up both version of the Voyager version of Ratchet. And there are big differences between the two. The original version is a really nice figure, looks great in both Robot and vehicle mode and is built really well. There is a nice amount of detail overall, better than some of the other figures. I know the green colour is not to everyones liking, but I don't mind it.

Now, the rescue version. I got this as in my mind it has a more traditional paint job that matches the G1 version of the figure. But I was a little disappointed when I got it out of the box. The have used mainly white for all the plastic parts so it just looks very dull compared to the green version which has black areas all over the arms and legs. I'm not really sure why they have done this, except I guess to save money.

The plastic that has been used also seems a lot cheaper than the green version. It looks very brittle and is easily marked, especially stress marks. because the plastic is cheap the arms keep popping out of there sockets which is not good. This can be fixed by loosening the screw on the elbow joint, but it shouldn't happen at all.

Both these figures are on sale (if you can find them) for £19.99. But in my mind the rescue version should be cheaper as it really isn't that well made.

Shame.

RIP - Gary Gygax

2008-03-05T10:41:00.000-08:00

Gary Gygax one of the founders of the RPG Dungeons and Dragons has died.

I never really got into the whole RPG thing, but I did love the cartoon that was a spin off from this scene.

Trash Gordon

2008-03-05T08:41:00.000-08:00

I was quite excited that there was a new Sci-fi show starting this week. But what a disappointment. I didn't even make it to the end of the first show. The acting was very poor, as was the script. There was no chemistry between Dale and Flash, they just had a glazed look to there faces.

The effects I saw in the first part were some of the worst I have seen in years, bad CGi, or worse still men in very cheap alien outfits. It's a shame as they could have done a lot with this show.

And there was no hot hail to be seen anywhere.

Let's hope that the Bionic Woman (which starts next week) is better.

Poll Results - Which is better?

2008-03-03T01:12:00.000-08:00

And the results are, Dr who 13% - Primeval 86%

Total votes cast 15

Check back soon for our new poll.

Boobaloo!

2008-02-25T09:02:00.000-08:00

I'm sure it's not just me, but I find Helen Cutters Boobs (Juliet Aubrey) very distracting!

I sit down all ready to watch the latest episode of Primeval, and the great CGi monsters, but I'm forced to stare at her cleavage for most of the show. The image above is not the best for illustrating this, but it seems that there are very few images of her offending chest out there on the web at the moment.

While she is traveling through the anomalies you would have thought she could have picked up a new shirt. Or at least a less push up bra! It could be her boobs are a great way of distracting the many prehistoric creatures she meets, but I very much doubt it.

Just put them away please!

Spotted - Ben Miller

2008-02-17T16:35:00.000-08:00

How weird is this! I was getting some cash out at the weekend, and how happened to be in front of me at the cash machine but none other than Ben Miller (primeval, armstrong and miller, Moving wallpaper). In London I would expect this sort of thing, but I live down in the countryside.

He was at the Barclays in Taunton, somerset. And he got out considerably more cash than me!!

Am I seeing things?

2008-02-15T15:45:00.000-08:00

I know this is a little off topic compared to the rest of the blog, but hey, it's my blog and I will comment on what I like.

You know how sometimes you see and image and you can't help but see another side to it.
Well I get this all the time, and one of the recent things I always see is the Mr Kipling pie boxes. To me, it just looks like the pies are being sick. I have made a nice little picture above so you can see what I mean.

And if that's what the pie thinks of his insides, there is no way I am going to buy it!

So does anyone else see things like this? Or is it just me?

Primeval Wallpaper

2008-02-14T16:53:00.000-08:00

Just thought I would do another quick post today. My Girlfriend wanted a Primeval wallpaper for her desktop but couldn't find anything good. So I quickly knocked this together using images from the web.

Not a bad job for 20 minutes.

Enjoy.

Starscream: Legends

2008-02-14T14:23:00.000-08:00

Just picked up a few more of the legends line of figures (Bumblebee, Optimus, Megatron, Blackout and Starscream). And I thought I had better make a comment on Starscream straight away.

The other four figures are not bad, the look pretty reasonable in both vehicle and robot mode. But Starscream just stands out like a saw thumb. To put it mildly, it's Shit! It's made of the cheapest bendy plastic you can possibly get, but that is nothing compared to how bad it looks. In robot (I use that term loosely) mode it looks like it was designed by a 2 years old. It's like a big triangle with legs and arms stuck on. This really is probably the worst figure I have ever seen. It's the sort of thing you would expect to find in a Christmas Cracker.

I know these are meant to be cheap figures that kids can buy with their pocket money. But if you only had £2.99 I would recommend buying some sweets instead!

Movie Legends Barricade

2008-02-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

Another of the recent figures I picked up is the Movie Legends Barricade:

These cost £2.99, and I have to say it's really nice for that price. The transformation is simple, but they seem to be built to last. Nice thick plastic with very few joints.

They are never going to be the best figures, but for the price, they are really worth getting! Barricade stands a little strangely as his knees won't straighten fully, but I can forgive that.

The only thing that would have made it better would have been an old fashioned rub sign.

Barry Morse - RIP

2008-02-04T08:11:00.000-08:00

I was very sad to hear that Barry Morse Died over the weekend. I'm just in the process of re-watching Space 1999 on ITV4 and he really was very good in that show. A little over the top, but then they all were on that show.

June 10, 1918 - February 2, 2008

Terrahawks - Battlehawk

2008-01-28T07:34:00.000-08:00

Just received a nice package in the post with the two Battlehawks I won on ebay.

I've never had one of these before, and I am more than a little impressed. To start with, it's big, and very heavy! A large chunk of the toy is Die cast which you don't often get with toys like this. I have the large Hawkwing as well and this is completely made out of plastic.

(These are the images from the Auction, I will add some better ones soon.)

It also has lots of things you can do, buttons to press, access ramps, doors, vehicles that drop out. Press a button on the side and a small battletank drops out. Another on the top fires a battlehawk (sadly missing). And a final button opens a hatch on the back. There is also and access ramp on the nose section.

I think I was pretty lucky to get two in one auction as they seem to go for quite a price. And it has also meant that I have been able to take the best bits from each and create a near mint toy. That's what I like about old toys, they are always screwed together so you can easily get them apart. Transformers are another line that are easily repaired this way.

It would have been nice with this range if the ships were a little more to scale with each other, but I guess that would have meant having a much larger battlehawk. And I would have had no where to display that!

Blackout - Voyager version

2008-01-15T16:53:00.000-08:00

I had to get a few of the new Movie figures and thought I would do some reviews of the ones I get. As quite often with transformers, there not always great.

Blackout - Voyager version, bought for £19.99 from woolworths. You get a free radio when you spend more the £10 on Tf's so not bad.

This figure is pretty good, looks great as a vehicle and not at all bad in robot mode. My only gripe in robot mode is the large backpack he ends up with. It's made of all the bits they didn't use for the robot, and is rather large. You can remove it, but then what do you do with it.

He also comes with a small scorponok that fits in the tail section of the helicopter.

The figure has lots of panels and detail so looks much more advanced than it is. It's a fairly hard one to transform as the head section is spring loaded and just won't sit in place without a lot of fiddling.

There are a couple of clips that hold the sides in place in vehicle mode that already had stress marks on them when I took this figure out of the box. So I'm guessing for most kids they will snap off quite quickly. The blades of the copter also come off very easily.

Overall, not bad for the price.

Transformers Real Gear Speed Dial 800

2008-01-14T08:52:00.000-08:00

Transformers Real Gear Speed Dial 800 bought for £6.75 from Asda.

I think this is the first time Hasbro have done figures that are the correct size to be real world objects. My girlfriend thought this was a phone.

Overall this is the cheapest looking of the figures I bought, and a little over priced for what it is. It has very few parts and is a very simple figure to transform, but it does look kinda cool.

It would have been very simple for Hasbro to improve this figure, just by replacing the 2 really cheap looking screen stickers with lenticular ones, the ones that change when you tilt them. The stickers they have put on just make it look cheap. And at £6.75, it's not that cheap. Considering you can get the deluxe figures for £9.99.

It also has a small camera lens, which they could have made work like in the old six million dollar man. Hasbro should have asked me before making this!! ; )

Scorponock - Not really a Transformer

2008-01-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

I picked up one of the new Transformers Scorponock figures from the movie the other week. Mainly because I thought it worked really well in the film and it looks like a pretty detailed toy, which it is.

But the transformation of the toy is a real disappointment. It's almost as though the toy designers couldn't be bothered to think of anything for him to do. Fold his arms down, that'll be enough to keep people happy.

I guess they didn't have much to go on from the film as you only ever see him in scorpion mode. But when you are paying £10 for a 'Transformer' The least you can expect is that in actually transforms.

Overall the toy is actually pretty neat. The sculpt is really nice and detailed and looks very accurate to the film. The tail has a firing missile of sorts as the missile is not able to leave the body, it just fires forward. There is also a mechanism that makes the claws spin when you push the figure forward.

Not the best figure, but a nice addition to my collection.

Primeval - Back for seconds

2008-01-14T04:16:00.000-08:00

The second second series of Primeval started on ITV this weekend, and already it was so much better than Dr. Who. There is just something about the pace of the show that keeps you on the edge of your seat, unlike 'Who' were I struggle to stay awake.

The stories are still not the best in the world, but they work well enough. And the characters are more likable and believable than Dr Who. And as there are four main characters, if you don't like one, you know they will cut to one of the others quick enough.

You also don't have to put up with the constant Gay overtones that Russel T Davis puts in. There is a bit of sexual tension going on, but only in a childish way.

I was quite amused by this first episode as it was mainly filmed in the Bental's Centre in Kingston. I've not been there for many years, but used to hand out there when I was at college. It is easily recognisable by the bridge that runs from the shopping centre to the car park.

Unfortunately there were no shots of Abby's Bum this week, so I thought I would post a classic from the last series. Enjoy!

Dr Poo

2008-01-05T13:32:00.000-08:00

Were do I start. Boy did the Christmas Dr Who suck big time. The BBC and Russel T Davis seem hell bent on taking Dr Who and making it the biggest pile of S**t on TV. I know it was never a really top class show, but it did have a certain quality to it. The BBC do like to turn everything the have into unwatchable drivel. They normally manage this by messing around with the schedule and replacing whatever you were waiting to watch with Darts or Snooker. But this time they are taking it to a new level.

Dr Who has very quickly gone from a quite entertaining Sci-fi show to a dumbed down parody of itself.

Every assistant has to fall in love with the Dr. Why? Can't they think of something else for them to do. It's just a very lazy thing to do.

The Stories, I think that may be an over statement, are so basic you might as well not have them. The Tardis gets hit by the Titanic in space? What the hell is that all about.

It has also become a very Gay orientated show. This is the only reason I can see for having Kylie in it as it certainly wasn't for her acting ability. She was as wooden as the backdrops. If she had had less Botox in her face she might have been able bring the script to life! And in the new series they have Catherine Tate which is only going to make it even more unwatchable.

I doubt I will bother watching any of the next series as the trailer at the end really didn't show anything that looked good. But maybe this is what the BBC has been planning for. Once they have lost all there viewers they can stop making them again for another ten years until they run out of Strictly Dancing spin offs to waste the license fee on then bring it out again for another ever so brief outing. Let's face it, it's all they have.

On the other hand ITV have got a new series of Primeval coming soon and that looks great. The trailers they have been showing are looking really cool. Itv always seem to do this sort of thing much better than the BBC.

Christmas retail slowdown???

2007-12-22T09:36:00.000-08:00

Or just buying the wrong stuff.

All I've heard this last week on the news is how shop owners in the UK are having another bad Christmas as no one is buying anything.

Well, from a toy buyers point of view I would have to say that it's not that we are not wanting to buy goods, but that there is nothing to buy. I'm more than happy to go to the shops with a big load of cash to spend. But when I get there what do I see:

Woolworths - as always they have bought hundreds of toys, but they are all the same one. They Have lots of Movie Transformers, but they are all the same figure. I counted 20 of Recon Barricade. So there is no point in my buying this as I know it will be reduced a few days after Christmas.

Forbidden Planet - Now I always expect to be disappointed here as they are always way over priced. And they didn't let me down this time. They had the new line of Star wars 30th Anniversary Figures there. I'll pick one as their prices always vary from figure to figure, R2-B1 £9.99. That's £4 more than you can buy it for from play.com. That's pretty much the cost of another figure.

The Entertainer - This is probably the best place to go really. As the prices are normally pretty good. But this time they just had nothing to offer unless you like Dr.Who. Everything else had been sitting in the shop for most of the year. The only thing I did get was a Saga Clone Commander Cody for £5. And that wasn't a bad price.

So if this is the state of shopping it doesn't surprise me that people aren't spending any money. Generally there is nothing to buy, and it's just cheaper, easier, and there is a better selection on line.

Bah Humbug!!!

Ebay lucky find of the week!

2007-12-07T02:44:00.000-08:00

I've just had one of those lucky little finds this week. I bought a job lot of 1970's dolls off ebay, mainly because I wanted the two Space 1999 figures and Kirk from Star trek, but also because you never know what you are going to get. I got this nice little lot for £11.51, a bargain. The guy selling had not really put much effort into his listing as it didn't even say Mego, Space 199, or Star Trek, so most people wouldn't have bother looking at it.

I was more than pleased when the package turned up as they tow 1999 figures were in really good condition, so a nice addition to my collection. And the kirk was also pretty nice, he even came with his belt and communicator.

As for the rest, i have to say I didn't know much about them. Batman was another mego doll, then there were two Lionrock figures which I new nothing about. The larger figure turned out to be from The Lone ranger. Without good old google I would never have been able to work that loot out.

And finally there was a pile of bits and bods, mainly boots but also some guns. In amongst this lot was an Action Man dog tag.

And this was my Lucky find! A quick look on ebay and I found that this little Gem is quite rare. So I put this straight on ebay and a week later it sold for a grand total of £27. That's not a bad profit really.

I'm not sure what the guy I bought the original lot off would think, but I guess he really should have done a bit more research before selling his old toys.

Let that be a lesson to you all ; )

Deal or No Deal

2007-12-03T05:46:00.000-08:00

This is a link to the latest game I have worked on. I was hired to create a CGi version of Noel Edmonds to host the game. It was a pretty fun job to do really. And the end model looks really good. It had to go through all sort of different people, with the final say so going to Noel himself. So I guess he must have liked it.

It's a fairly straight forward model, nothing too fancy as it doesn't do that much. Just talks to you and moves his arms a bit. It would have almost been easier just to film him against a green screen. But for Noel, I'm guessing time is money.

R2 Test video

2007-12-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

I just though I would share a little test animation that I created. I built a rather high detail R2-D2 model a while back and thought I had best do something with it. So here is my little test render, enjoy!

May the farce be with you

2007-11-13T02:37:00.001-08:00

I just picked up this annual from WHSmiths. It was a bargain at £3.49 and seems pretty good.
They had an offer on to get it half price, so it might be worth grabbing it while you can as the normal price is £6.99 which is a bit to much in my mind.

The annual is pretty cool with pages covering most of the main characters from all six films with lots of little tit bits about each. It has and interesting time line showing when everything is supposed to have happened.

But having read through most of this, I wouldn't take it as gospel. On count Dooku's page it states he was Born in -78, and died in -19, which to me makes him 59 years old. But according to another panel on his page he died when he was 80!

Overall though, I do like it. It's nice to have a book with lots of cool images in and a load of stupid little facts.

Here is a link to Amazon where you can get it. Looks like they have it cheap as well.

Zeroids Ahoy!

2007-10-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

After waiting ages due to the postal strike I now have both my Terrahawks Zeroids. They look really cool together. Neither were in perfect condition, but a bit of a clean seemed to take most of the dirt off. And having a look at the date on the bottom, they are 24 years old so I would expect them to be a bit warn.

There are supposed to have a clockwork feature that you use the stand to windup. The pressing a button on the back of the stand causes them to roll around the floor using and offset weight. This was broken on both of them so I decided to have a look inside and see if it could be fixed.

The annoying thing was they have a sticker around the middle of the ball that covers the join. So I had to cut this with a scalpel to get them open.

On the first one I took apart, all it needed was a little jiggle about and everything just clicked back into place. After that it all worked fine. The second one though appears to have piece missing were the ball attaches to the base. Without this it just won't wind up.

To me these look so Gerry Anderson in design, and that's a good thing. I love the simplicity of them. Looks like I will have to try and get some other Terrahawks toys now : )

Toy Yoda

2007-10-24T06:38:00.000-07:00

Someone needs to get a sense of humor! Thanks to Kim & Duncan for emailing me this little gem.

The Force is strong in this one

2007-10-17T07:38:00.000-07:00

My Dad has just started going through all the old family photos and scanning them in. It's quite weird to look back at all these things and people that you can't really remember. And some of the fashions from the 70's and 80's are really quite shocking.

As a kid I was obviously quite into my kids Tv as seem to only be wearing Tv and film related clothing. It's good to know I have always been a bit on the nerdy side.

Check out these two images.

These photos were taken in 1978 when I was four, and already you can see I was into Star Wars.
I really love the Darth Vader T-shirt and Badge. If only I still had them, not that they would fit me anymore. The badge appears to say 'Darth Vader Lives'. Nice.

Let's just not mention the hair cut.

Forbidden planet - beaten on high prices!!!

2007-10-15T02:02:00.000-07:00

I didn't ever think I would find a shop that sold toys for more money than good old forbidden planet, but I have.

We had a trip to London over the weekend and I decided to have a look in Hamleys. F**k me!

Lets use a single figure as a guide to prices.

Transformers leader class figure:

Woolworths - £34.99
Forbidden Planet - £39.99
Hamleys - £59.99

Enough said!

Terra-hooked

2007-10-09T09:33:00.000-07:00

After are little trip to the Montacute toy museum a few weeks back I have got a bit hooked on the Terrahawks toys. I never had any of these as a child, but did watch the show. I would have loved to have had a Zeroid, but it was never to be.

So, the fool that I am, I have just started to buy a few bits. I picked these three up on ebay over the last week. I don't actually have any of them yet due to the stupid postal strike so these are the image from ebay.

I have two Zeroids, and a boxed Terrahawk. The designs of them are really great, and very Gerry Anderson which is not a bad thing. I can't wait for these beauties to term up.

And the good thing about this line of collecting, is I know there are only a few bits to get, so it won't be as endless as collecting Star wars or Transformers.

Next on my list is the Hawkwing.

Ministry 'Not in charge of Gundam!'

2007-10-07T08:27:00.000-07:00

This just caught my eye.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/7029685.stm

I love the quote from Japans ministry official Tsutomu Shimomura -
"The Agriculture Ministry is not in charge of Gundam".

I always thought they were! :)

When Accessories go bad

2007-10-05T01:54:00.000-07:00

When I was kid growing up, you would get your latest star wars figure, and it would come with one gun. If you were into AD&D (the figures by LJN) you may have got a sword, shield and cape.

Now when you buy a figure you get a gun, and spare gun, extra hands, a different head, a stand, a tool box, antenna, etc, etc, etc. It's gone accessory crazy.

I'm sure this is great for all the people who like building dioramas, but for the normal collector you just end up with loads of little bits to store, or misplace. I have boxes full of little bags containing spare bits for pretty much every figure I have.

I recently got the Revoltech Optimus prime figure. It's a really great toy, but comes with 3 extra hands. What am I supposed to do with them?

Having said that, the Transformers Movie figures, only come with what they need, which is often nothing.

Thank god for all the websites that list what weapon goes with what figure as it gets hard to remember.

Star Wars toys stolen in raid

2007-10-04T02:40:00.000-07:00

It tells you something about the world when thieves start going after your toy collection!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/dorset/7024796.stm

Poor guy, I hope he had them insured.

Keep an eye out for them on Ebay!