ROTF Divebomb Review

Divebomb is one of the latest wave of releases from the overly drawn-out Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen toyline. Like most of the figs from this wave, Divebomb is a repaint of an earlier released character, specifically the scout class figure Ransack. This time around, the good folks at Hasbro decided to repaint that old hunk of biplane into the image of one of the most famous planes in the history of forever.

Yes folks, Divebomb here is repainted to look like the personal plane of a certain Manfred von Richthofen, also known as the Red Baron. With over 80 kills under his belt while flying the thing, that distinctive red Fokker Dr. I triplane was one of the deadliest machines to ever leave the ground and would forever be associated with total aerial badassitude. Man, Divebomb here's got some mean pedigree!

Divebomb is cast in red plastic, with some white and black paint mimicking the markings of Manfred von Richthofen's famous ride. My Divebomb had minimal paint slop, and the white just helps his overall color pop. He looks great in vehicle mode, and even if I've already bought Ransack before (which I didn't), you wouldn't notice they're from the same mold!

Click on the pics to enlarge the awesomeness!

If you've read any review of Ransack before this, you pretty much know all there is to know about Divebomb's robot mode. If not, then contextual clues dictate that Divebomb hold no surprises for anyone who's seen Ransack. But even with the same biplane mold, there's just something about all that red that gives Divebomb much more personality than his predecessor. You could really imagine the great Baron having a Decepticon guardian ala Bumblebee as they went on adventures picking off noobs from the sky!

Divebomb has pretty much all the articulation you might expect from a scout: ball-jointed hips and shoulders and hinged knees, elbows and feet. You pretty much have to have the dexterity of a yeoman to pose this guy, as the size and articulation makes him hard to pose in positions you want. My Divebomb is a bit floppy himself, but once you get him in the pose you want, he pretty much stays there.

I especially like his 'battle mode', which basically consists of just straightening out his wings and lifting up his propeller to make it look like he's gliding. Add his machine guns and what looks like two nukes strapped to his arms and he would totally beat up Optimus Prime if he could!

Revenge of the Fallen Divebomb is a welcome repaint that literally gives new life to an earlier mold. The Red Baron redeco just gives his robot and vehicle mode so much more personality that he can stand (or fly) all on his own.

It's already out in the local markets, so take your time picking the evenly painted ones. Though at the price point of P645.75, some might think they won't get their bang for the obviously big buck. But trust me, this is one repaint you definitely need to get!

My Week in Comics: Siege #2

My Week in Comics is a weekly look into my comic buying habits. Keep in mind that the reviews to be read here are not coming from a jaded, old comic book enthusiast but more of a wide-eyed fan of these monthly installments of yum or mush.

Oh, and SPOILER ALERT!

I picked up a lot of comics today, but though I would love to tell you what I thought about them, there was one issue that I just had to talk about (yes, more than Red Sonja: Wrath of the Gods), and that’s Siege # 2.

As you know, Siege is what’s being touted as the culmination of seven years of disassembling of the status quo courtesy of Brian Michael Bendis. I was not supposed to pick up Siege at all, seeing how much I trust Bendis in giving stories a satisfying ending, but with the promise of Siege being the ‘end-all’ of all the wars and invasions and disassembling and reigns for the foreseeable future, my curiosity got the better of me.

To be perfectly blunt, this doesn't read like a Bendis book. The action is intense and feels like it's actually going somewhere, instead of the tried and tested formula he did with the 'stare at each other for four issues deciding whether to fight or not' in his previous event, Secret Invasion. Hell, the staredown and subsequent slugfest between Sentry and Ares in this issue were the most cinematic series of panels I have ever seen in a comic. And that's hell of a high praise coming from me to Mr. Bendis here, but then again, he's got Oliver Coipiel on pencils.

And what pencils! Coipiel just outdoes himself with every issue. The scope in which he's rendered this entire issue just can’t be described in words. From the wide angle shots of the battle to the fight scenes, his art never misses a beat. I think it’s safe to say that Coipiel’s carrying this event to glory all by himself.

Two issue’s in and we’re already halfway through the entire event (Siege is only four issues long), and what we have to show for it are some very dead people and very pissed off gods. With all the absolutely brutal stuff happening in the first two issues alone, its ironic that the Heroic Age of Marvel will come after all this. Let's just hope that Siege does end heroically.


My rating: 4 out of 5

Webcomics I Love: Dresden Codak

Webcomics by nature are the very essence of fleeting entertainment, done-in-one shots of funny or awesome that you can take a quick glance for a pick-me-up and then move on to more important stuff, like doing that article your boss needs by 4pm. It's rare to see a webcomic that dares to do more with the medium, and that's exactly what this crazy dude did when he created Dresden Codak.

Dresden Codak is the brainchild of one Aaron Diaz, and it's a smorgasboard of webcomic goodness. I absolutely love this to bits. The art is simple but whimsically and beautifully rendered, and the stories deal with themes like transhumanism and Jungian concepts without boring you out of your skulls. Hell, where can you find philosophical themes illustrated to the tune of a tabletop RPG session?

It sounds deep, I know, and it is. But if webcomics that tackle abstract concepts like memories, love and loneliness in beautifully drawn webcomics isn't your cup of tea, then by God Dresden Codak will make it so.

Enough prattling. Check out Dresden Codak now!

Of Liefeld and Learning: The Creating Comics Seminar 2010

I've always dreamed of working in the comic book industry. The thought of me drawing the X-Men or Batman, illustrating their awesomeness for the whole world to see and enjoy, always got me pumped up for some reason. Which is why I'm super thankful that I was born in the generation where you've got all the stuff you need to achieve that dream: information out the wazoo, acceptance of the craft as serious business, and the annual Creating Comics Seminar.

When I heard that Glass House Graphics was visiting the Philippines again to hold one of their popular seminars, I didn't think twice. It's about comics, it's about making them, and it's got David Campiti. You win right there.


As I went inside the seminar room, the room was uncharacteristically quiet, while David Campiti was up front, being the character that he is. I love his absolutely funny insights on the American comic book industry, and he tells it like it is. No bullshit here, folks, and it's a load of laughs for it.

The venue itself (the high-tech DLSU-CSB SDA Bldg.) was pretty posh, and it didn't help that they've got some Benilde hotties manning the show. But I'm getting ahead of myself.


Anyway, David covered some great topics ranging from developing your own style to character design to what not to do with your art, a.k.a. anything Rob Liefeld does. And you know what? He's been ragging on Rob Liefeld's art every single time he's here, but it never gets old. You should have been there to hear about the "Rob Liefeld Shopping Mall" and "Tiny-toes...beware the might of Tiny-toes!"


I also got to chat with the lovely Jinky Coronado, the creator of Banzai Girl! Damn, was I starstruck. It's the first time I ever got to talk to a real live comic book creator, and she was awesome. A down to earth person with a lot to talk about, though I guess she wasn't ready when I said I was a founding member of the Banzai Girl Fan Club!


Of course, David can't exactly cover every single aspect of comic book creation by himself, so on Day Two he enlisted the help of no less than the most popular Filipino comic book artists in the industry today. Bong Dazo, Wilson Tortosa, Jay Ramos, J.M. Aldeguer, Dan Borgonos...this is starstruck territory, folks. These are the people I could only dream of being, and I can't help but just be inspired as they talked about coloring, inking, lettering, the stuff each and every person with a ticket that day would crawl a mile of broken glass to do.


It was an awesome two days of learning, drawing and laughing at other people's mistakes, but that's how you learn not to do those things. To be honest, I gotta hand it to David Campiti...even with all the horror stories he kept telling us about some Filipino artists with cold feet, bad manners and no sort of clue what they're doing, he still has enough faith in us to keep coming here every year to set us straight. I tip some gin for you, Mr. Campiti. Cheers to a successful Comic Creation Seminar 2010!

If you were there, tell me what you learned so far, and if it helped you in any way, by leaving a comment below. I wanna see if I'm not the only one learning from these things! Thanks for reading!

You're Superman

It's the first Monday of the year, and the first working day of the year for us working folks. Now normally I would go on another rib-splitting attempt at motivating you today, but the very nature of this day calls for something more...motivational.

It's a new year, another new beginning, another blessed opportunity to be awesome. If you're already awesome (which would probably be the case since you're reading my blog), then you've started this year right. But for those of you still reeling from the lethargy of Christmas and New Year binging to even think about getting your ass off and doing something awesome...

See, all my years lounging around the internets have gotten me a full-to-bursting desktop folder filled with nothing but awesome stuff. So to start you off right this day...nay, this very year!...I share with you a quote from something I found all those moons ago that's so fitting today.

****

Remember early Superman? I mean EARLY Superman? I'm talking Max Fleischer Superman. How Lois always treated him like crap? Playing tricks on him so he wouldn't get the big story and she would? Remember how he always just laughed and shrugged, confident in the fact that he was Superman and he knew she wanted him but would never have him? Adopt that attitude.

(Ladies? This applies to you as well but I'm going to run with the Superman analogy so switch genders in the following bit if necessary)

When you're at work, or at school, or whatever mundane practice you participate in that's necessary to function in society, you're Clark Kent. Sure no one takes you as seriously as you deserve, and sure that girl Lois you've had your eye on for so long treats you like crap. But that doesn't matter. Why? Because you're Superman. It doesn't matter that no one else knows this. You're Superman.

When you leave your job/class/etc, drop the disguise. Shed the clothes of mild-mannered Clark Kent and don the glorious tights of Superman. Write that novel. Film that movie. Record that song. Learn to breakdance. You know better than those around you how awesome you REALLY are.

Keep at it. Keep at it long enough and finally, Lois is going to realize how damn freaking awesome you are. But who cares what she thinks? You're SUPERMAN. You're already hooking up with Wonder Woman and high-fiving Batman. Oh and that Luthor punk? He's just jealous. He wishes he was as damn awesome as you are but he's not, so he just blames you for all of his problems. Yeah he's kind of annoying, but he's not hooking up with Wonder Woman and high-fiving Batman. YOU ARE. So let him throw giant death machines at you. Just knock 'em down and head to the JLA mixer.

****

And that, is the anonymous author's advice to you and me. Now you, go out there and be awesome...

Superman.

My Week In Comics: November 27, 2009

By the time you’re reading this, you’ve probably already gotten the last two Lantern ring replicas from your favorite local comic shop. For those who haven’t yet, Green and Red are out right now. Try this for fun: Say the Green Lantern oath slowly and loudly while slowly slipping the Green Lantern ring on your finger. Ignore the stares you get…you just became a goddamn Green Lantern!

But I digress. New comics this week! Let’s see what I got myself into!

It’s pretty stupid of me to get Blackest Night #5 without actually getting numbers 1 to 4, but aside from getting a discounted price for a Green Lantern ring if you buy the issue, the buzz around this particular ish made me curious. And this time, curiosity didn’t kill anybody. The entire spectrum of Lanterns have come together (whether they like it or not) to stop the threat of Nekron, while the rest of DC’s big guns arrive to try to stop the rest of the dead from doing any more damage.

I’ve never read a lick of Green Lantern before getting this ish, but Geoff Johns delivered by giving us some great character moments from all the Lanterns. Larfreeze in particular just became a favorite of mine. Greedy little bastard!

Shocking revelations on the nature of death in the DCU (“You’re still connected to [death]. To me.” Nekron snarls in one panel), a shocking “resurrection”, and an ending that just spells ‘we’re fucked’, bodes ill for the rest of the DCU, but not for this book, which gets a well-deserved 4 out of 5.


Queen Sonja #2 breaks it down with a breather of an issue, with Sonja’s prisoner from the previous ish fleshing out some of the history behind some very bad country with a douchebag for a king. Sonja doesn’t like it one bit (like all good bikini-clad warriors do) and decides to teach them a lesson only the She-Devil with a Sword can provide. Never thought I’d love a ‘story’ issue like this, but writer Joshua Ortega makes it interesting enough to keep me reading. When Sonja proclaims that an entire country just gained ‘a most dangerous enemy’ (i.e., her!), you just know it’s about to get good. That, and Mel Rubi’s smokin’ hot rendition of Sonja, gives this book a 4 out of 5.


Invincible Iron Man #20 opens up with a hologram recording of Tony Stark laying down his ‘last will and testament’ to someone off-panel. Like about 10 pages of it. It’s all well and good, though, because not only does Tony back-sass Osborn like crazy, he also lays down plans to revive him from his vegetative state, and he wants Iron Man, Thor and Captain America together to clean Osborn’s mess after. Can anyone say Siege?

Not much happens this issue, but I’m guessing this is the part where it all goes to hell for Osborn and co., and I’m loving the very prospect of defeat for these very bad people. This gets a 3 out of 5.


Finally, we come to Image United, a very ambitious project involving the original seven founders of Image Comics, along with some help from Robert Kirkman. The very thought of all these comic juggernauts coming together to basically do an artjam of a comic (with each creator drawing the characters they created, save for Whilce Portacio, for reasons you can probably research yourselves) blew my brains. I’m in this for my main man Whilce, and I’m happy that despite not having access to Wetworks for this story, the character he does draw is the focus of the story!

Good or bad, the story reads just like pure, distilled 90’s. Bad guys start trashing major cities in what I assume is America, and the Image heroes' solution is EXTREEEME violence and bad puns. But Fortress, the guy in the green and violet (ugh) suit is sensing that something is very wrong, and he needs all these heroes from all these different worlds to make it right.

If you have no connection to these characters, the book might be confusing, but if you want to see what an artjam from the most popular 90’s artists looks like, that's all you'll probably get out of it. I’d get this for nostalgia, if nothing else. Aside from the sheer awesomeness of seeing the Image founders drawing their own characters in one comic (never thought I’d see Velocity as done by Marc Silvestri again!), nothing much is explained, and the only hook they have to get you to buy the next issue is that if they don’t unite against this unseen threat, they are all going to die. We’ll give this issue another shot, but they better have more Witchblade in there if they want me to keep buying! This one’s a 3 out of 5.


An altogether satisfying week for comics, and that’s all I can hope for these days. If you think there should be more Witchblade in the next issue of Image United, or just want to talk about my choice of words in this blog post, leave me a comment below and let’s discuss! Thanks for reading.

ROTF Decepticon Bludgeon Review

With Transformers Universe taking an indefinite hiatus, Transfans can only get their fix from Hasbro’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen movie line, which is currently putting out new figures and tons of repaints long after the movie has gone from theaters.

Bludgeon (Decepticon Bludgeon to you copyright fans) is the latest Voyager class bot to come out of the ROTF line, and to be honest I’m impressed and downright psyched by what Hasbro has done to please both G1 fans and the casual movie-former lovers: they took a character so undeniably old-school and made it fit both the G1 and movie aesthetic, ultimately bridging both. He’s like the Barack Obama of TFs!

Now I’m not much of a Transformers wiz, having only started collecting TFs this year, but all I know is that back in the G1 days, Bludgeon was a samurai ghost robot, which for all intents and purposes is already awesome in and of itself. He was a Pretender, a smaller Transformer that hid under a larger shell. Bludgeon’s outer shell was a skeleton in samurai armor, and inside he was a robot that transformed into a tank. I don’t know why he thinks he can fool anyone by dressing up as a giant samurai skeleton, but Decepticons aren’t exactly known for smarts, only firepower, which Bludgeon has a metric ton of.

His alt-mode is a “jungle tank” according to the back of the box,, but us nerds know its actually a Japanese Type 90 tank. His turret rotates the full 360 degrees, something even ROTF Megatron was incapable of doing.

The machine gun on top of the turret also rotates, and it rolls on surfaces great. You haven’t even transformed him yet and you’ve got a great looking and highly playable toy tank!

Transforming Bludgeon is a pretty involved process, but the engineering spent on this toy to turn it from a tank to a samurai robot is nothing short of impressive.

There are a lot of things to flip over, turn around and break in two, but in the end you get a toy that really looks like an undead robot samurai, instead of Hasbro just giving some robot a samurai sword and helmet and calling it a day.

Paint-wise, I love his shade of green on the tank, and the garish orange probably highlight his spectral nature. He’s got a Mech Alive feature, where the turret breaks in two to reveal a sheath for one his weapons, which I’ll get to in a minute.

Articulation is pretty limited, including a lack of waist swivel, but you can make the most out of what’s there. He’s got a neck swivel, swivel shoulders, arms and legs, double elbows and hinge knees, and you can get a pretty good variety of limber moves you expect a samurai to do!

Speaking of which, you can’t be a samurai without a sword, and Bludgeon gets to have the biggest-ass sword of all. Pull out the gray tip of the tank turret for his nodachi (long sword), and his Mech Alive feature brings out his wakizashi (short sword). You can store both through holes on his right hip just like a real samurai. Mad respect for Hasbro for going out of their way to put in these little details that really make Bludgeon more than a toy.

They’re both made of pretty soft plastic which is too bendy for my taste, but I guess it’s a blessing in disguise…it’s a bitch to get them in Bludgeon’s hands. Dude’s got grip! But once he’s armed, some poor Autobot’s about to become sashimi!

I never liked the movie aesthetic, to be honest, and the news of Universe phasing out made me ultra-sad. But Bludgeon gave me hope that we can get good, classic characters out of the movie line’s extended run. This big undead samurai robot is an awesome toy, with appeal that reaches across borders. You gotta respect the way of the samurai!

It's not out in the Philippines yet, but I got him from a specialty store in Greenhills for pretty much SRP. Once he drops, get him fast!