Pong of Makchu

Been doing some doodles for a much thought of comic book of mine called Pong of Makchu.  Take a look at the pics.  Thumbnails of a few pages have been drawn as I really want this comic to be something that's been thoroughly thought out (unlike some of my other half-baked ideas in the past).

Titans Return: Hardhead Review

On to the next Transformers: Titans Return review, this time on the Autobot named Hardhead.  Hardhead is part of a grouping of Transformers called the Headmasters.  Well, that's what they were called back in the 80's.  At the time this line debuted, I had already started getting disinterested in the line and was growing up into pre-teen/adulthood so I really don
t know much about the characters....only the gimmick that was being introduced.I saw the 5 part series that told the origins of the Headmasters and realized that this wasn't going to be my cup of tea.   I guess others in the U.S. thought the same and the interest in the line waned a bit.
It seems, from the tfwiki, that Japan created it's own anime for this series and started to deviate from the G1 cartoon here in the states.  You can check out the history of the Japanese Headmasters here.
From this series, it looks like Hardhead was 1 of 10 to undergo a rigorous training to learn the art of transformation again.  It also looks like Hardhead was a partier.  Check out the picture below:

The animes in Japan....man, I don't know, they add some weird stuff every now and then.  So, Hardhead is a kareoke superstar, that's his sctick.  He's also a soldier for the Autobot cause and that's, in part, why I like him.  I also like the color pallet on this figure.  Here is Hardhead shutting Blurr up from talking so much.

Okay, so here are some pictures of Hardhead from the Titans Return series from yours truly:

I'm digging the colors on this guy and the mobility.  Oh, the mobility.  Just like Blurr, this guy has joints in the shoulders, elbows, hands, waist, hips, knees, and toes if you want to be technical.  His gun turrent can be positioned on his right shoulder or it can be sent to the back and hang out there.  Really, really a good spent dollar on this guy.  And, like I mentioned below, here is a picture of him mis-transformed (love it).

See you next time.  I'm getting a San Diego Comic Convention exclusive in the mail either today or tomorrow so that'll be the next review.

Something a bit different...Titans Return: Blurr

With a renewed love for a series of toys that I grew up with, I'm going to do something on this blog that I've always wanted to do in other blogs I've written; a toy review (or two).  So, with that, I bring to you the first of three (maybe four) reviews of the new line of toys from Hasbro called "Transformers: Titans Return."  The first figure I picked up was a character I grew up enjoying when he had screen time.  He's the fast talking, even faster speeding (get a drift that I like fast characters), Autobot named Blurr.
Blurr debuted in the classic Transformers: The Movie, an animated movie that came out in 1986, I believe.  Here's a link to a brand new blu ray version of the movie that'll be coming out in September of this year.  The first signs I knew I'd like this character was when he spoke to Ultra Magnus (the Field Commander of the Autobots still left on Earth.  Here, check out this scene below, and it'll basically show you how I instantly gravitated toward the him.

So, yeah......that was quite a bit of Blurr speaking and moving.  A bit more in one shot than what's needed, I'm sure.  At rate, you get the picture....he's fast.  So, Hasbro's decided to make a new toy of Blurr one with the great articulation that we have these days and some of the reminiscence of his Generation 1 (the first television series to debut and from this point forward, will be referred to as G1) look.  The first figure that came out of Blurr looked like this:

Yup, a brick.  But, we got a lot of those in those days.  Technology and a budding franchise that a company didn't want to invest too much money into (that's only my opinion folks) gave us a lot of bricks back then.  We did have to use our imaginations and we'e lucky to have the tv show to help supplement that.  Yeah, I know they were 30 minute commercials.....but that's what hooked me into this franchise.

There have been other iterations of Blurr in other lines I didn't collect years ago.  Here's a look at what they looked like:

Never owned those figures, more than likely, never will.  But, still like the character.  Which brings us to this, Titans Return: Blurr (the pictures below are from my vault):

The packaging for Titans Return is pretty average as they've been using a similar type of packaging for lines previous to this one (ala TF: Generations and Combiner Wars).  I like how they show that the gimmick for this line is that the head comes off and you are left with a headless robot.  The back side of the packaging shows Blurr in vehicle and robot mode.  I totally dig the vehicle mode.  It looks pretty much like the movie alt mode back in the 80's.

  Here are a few more pictures of the actual figure.  I had to put the Headmaster driver next to the vehicle mode Blurr because it reminded me of the old Transformers: Headmasters cartoon, which was supposed to be season 4 of the original Transformers series.  

I do like this figure, in general. He's articulated in the arms, waist, and legs, more so than I've seen some other figures these past few years.  The only gripe I have with this figure is the coloring.  If you'll notice, he looks like a mechanical Smurf.  There was at least a bit more to him in the series, I was kind of hoping for the same thing here.  I may end up customizing him or ending up getting the Japanese version later on down the line.  Here's what he'll look like in Japan.:

A bit more variety and the white changes up the monotony of the dark blue all around.  Attention to detail, Hasbro.  hahaha.....

For the last pic, I had to take one of Blurr mis-transformed. I love looking at these types of pictures and thinking to myself, "What the hell were they thinking when they did THAT?"

  See you next time with a review for Hardhead. No, that's not a typo.  C'mon, these characters are from the 80's.....people were high on an hourly basis coming up with this stuff.