Shrapnel’s Review Corner

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Shrapnel
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Shrapnel’s Review Corner

Post by Shrapnel »

Hi, folks. It’s snowing like a bitch up here in Boston, and there’s like seven feet of snow in front of the door, so I’m trapped inside my house with nothing to do or eat.

... okay, not really. It’s more like a foot and a half or so, but the roads are bad and the T is running slow and nothing is open, so I’m homebound for the day. So, to pass the time, I figuered I’d pull an OAFE and review things that only I find interesting (toys and collectibles and shit), minus the smug sense of false intellectual superiority. Basically think of it as OSSR’s for plastic playthings. Except not all of the things are old school. Or books.

Also, I apologize for the lack of professional quality with the photos, they were taken by a chimp.

Anywhat, let’s start with something that isn’t a toy!

Image
Behold, the 2017 Magic: The Gathering HasCon Collection Promo Set!

I picked this up at HasCon not because I like or play M:tG, but solely because one of the cards is Grimlock. How could I pass that up?

The set contains four cards, from three Hasbro properties: D&D (which probably fits into the M:tG universe best), Transformers (which fits in with anything), and... Nerf.

Let’s start with the best card, first, shall we?

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GRIMLOCK!!!!!!1!!!!! The quote on the left, by the way, comes from the movie, and the one on the right from the classic episode “Grimlock’s New Brain”. Also, this pic comes from TFwiki, hence the quality. No other pic or photo will look this good ever again, so savor it.

Something you M:tG players may have noticed is that this card, and all the others, have silver borders, meaning they are illegal in tournament play. Nuts, I say, nuts to that.

Another thing you may have noticed is that this card is double sided, and you switch sides by literally actually converting a Transformer toy. If you don’t own any Transformers toys, than you don’t deserve good things.

Now, I have no idea if there are other Dinosaur or Vehicle cards, but I know, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that there are other Transformer cards to take advantage of robot mode Grimlock’s buffs, and I don’t want anyone to tell me otherwise. I’m quite serious about this.

The dino mode of the card has the ability Trample, which... I have no idea what that does. Like I said, I don’t play the game, but I’m sure someone will chime in to explain it. I also don’t know what the numbers and symbols are/mean. Are they good? Are they bad? Everyone here but me knows!

Next up is the Sword of Dungeons and Dragons and the Dragon token card!

ImageImage
I lied about there being no more quality images, because the images that I took refuse to be uploaded. Fucking internet. Aside: the artist who did the Dragon card is named “Autumn Rain Turkel”, which is either awesome or weird. I haven’t decided which, yet.

So here, then, is the representative of the D&D property universe. Is there a sword actually called the “Sword of Dungeons and Dragons” in D&D? Probably not. Maybe not. I dunno, I don’t play D&D much either. STOP EXPECTING THINGS FROM ME!

Anyway, this card has you roll a d20 for it’s special effect, which finally combines the excitement and thrill of rolling dice with the non-stop action of a trading card game! Wooo!

... Sorry, had to get the snark out. Now, this cards secondary effect sounds like it’s good, because being able to summon an extra fighter every time you attack with the chance to do it again seems awesome. But I don’t really know for sure if it is. I do like that the hilt of the sword incorporates the ampersand from the DnD logo, and that the pommel is a d20. Would’ve been better as d30...

And now, the final card, Nerf War!

Image
This is the quality you can expect for the most part. Could I have just gone to some other site to find a better pic? Yes, I could have done, but I took the (minimal) damn effort to take these damn photos, dammit!

When I first saw this set on HasCon’s site, I thought that the Nerf card featured zombies fighting with Nerf guns, instead of goblins, because the resolution on the HasCon sites photo was shit. Goblins are fine, but zombies wielding foam dart weapons of death would’ve been METAL.

Anyway, this card has you fire a Nerf gun at your opponents deck, and any cards that get knocked off are sent to the graveyard, while dealing a whopping 1/2 damage. Now I KNOW this one is a good one because Darth told me so! This may actually be my favorite card from the set, because of how ridiculous and fun it’s effect is, and I love how the card specifies “foam darts only”, instead of of, y’know, the Teflon-coated “Cop Killer” bullets that Nerf blasters usually come with.

I know that it sounds surprising that my favorite wouldn’t be Grimlock, and he’s awesome and all, but Nerf War is definitely the funnest card. I mean, c’mon, it has you firing a toy gun at a deck of cards! What is there NOT to love about that?

There’s one final thing. The package proclaims that the set comes with a poster. This is it:

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This isn’t a poster, it’s a fucking cardboard insert! False advertising bastards.

Not very suitable for framing, is it? What a piece of crap!

Anyway, that’s the set. Four cards and a “poster”, which I paid about... 50 bucks for, maybe? I dunno, it was back in September, I can’t remember that far back.

Final Analysis!

Quality: They’re the same as any other M:tG card, only holofoil. The only thing that really brings this set down is that goddamn non-poster. 9.

Creativity: Combining three of Hasbro’s properties with M:tG was a really fun idea, and these cards, especially the Nerf War card, really capture the spirit of fun multi-branded intellectual properties meshing together that HasCon represents. 10.

Weirdness: C’mon, firing a Nerf blaster at a deck of cards? Instant win, baby! 10.

Packaging: The set came in a pretty nice box, which is excellect for displaying on a shelf or cat, and the cards can be taken out of the box and put back without having to destroy anything, which is the ideal when it comes to convention exclusive packages. 10

Replacement: These cards can’t be used in official tournament play, and not everyone will have the requirements for their effects (a d20, a Transformer toy, and a Nerf blaster). These were clearly intended to be fun display pieces than used in a game. But if you want to have some fun while playing M:tG, then these are perfect. 6.

And the Shrapnel Review Corner’s Overall Score is... 10! I don’t play M:tG, but this is a nice set to have as a display piece, and I just love the Nerf War card. And who knows, maybe I can find someplace to tack the the cardboard poster insert.

And that’s that for the first review in Shrapnel’s Review Corner! I may or may not do more, depending on many factors such as my current mood, the phases of the moon, and how many baths Bon Jovi took the past week.





I’ve finally decided: Autumn Rain Turkel is an awesomely weird name.
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Post by Ancient History »

I'm not quite sure when it happened, but at least sometime around Unglued or Portal, Wizards abandoned the idea that players could potentially throw down with any and all combinations of Magic cards from any set, so balance concerns were localized to the current sets and everything else could just be...fun.
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Post by Shrapnel »

Well, apparently Bon Jovi took a lot of baths this week, as it’s time for Vol 31 of Shrapnel’s Review Corner!

Today, we will be reviewing a figure I’m rather quite excited about... Diablomon! Who can “Digivolve” into Keramon! From Digimon! Fun.

Keramon (from kerakera, the Japanese onomatopoeia for cackling laughter) is the Child stage of Diablomon, main big bad of Digimon Adventure: Bokura no War Game!, of which there was never an English dub. (Fun Fact: Summer Wars was directly inspired by Children’s War Game. In fact, they’re directed by the same guy!)

Now, this figure is from the Digivolving Spirits line, which is a spiritual successor (geddit?) of the Digivolving Series toyline from the early aughts. Like most transforming toys not made by HasTak... they sucked. Big time. They were all shellformers: “Digivolving” them really just meant packing in the various bits into the shell. Almost always, the “evolved” form was the only good looking part of the toy, and you were unlikely to ever transform the thing more than once.

Now, nearly twenty years had passed since then, toy technology has come a long way, and this new line is aimed towards adult collectors. So, are these new toys any better...?

Yes and no. The evolved mode is still the better toy, and certainly much better than anything that came out eighteen years ago. But it’s still a goddamn shellformer. Just a much more complicated one. *sigh* But, on the plus side, the figure does have die-cast parts! It’s a lost art.

Anyway, on with the review!
Image
Packaging!
Let’s start with the best mode first, shall we?
Image
Diablomon is a gangly, long-limbed bastard, and this figure captures his proportions excellently. Lookit them long, long arms! He’s nicely articulated, as well, which means you can pose him doing pretty much anything, even a Russian folk dance! Which I didn’t take a picture of... dammit!

The paint and plastic is also very high quality, on par with Bandai’s other collector themed lines (such as S.H.Figuarts). And since it’s a Japanese toy, it has all sorts of hard pointed bits that really hurt if you stab yourself with ‘em!

Unfortunately, one area where this figure really suffers is that it only really looks good from the front. The back, well...
ImageFvcking Keramon kibble, man.
An unfortunate side effect of having to make concessions to both modes. Transformers suffer from this, as well.

Speaking of... in order to transform this thing, you have to fiddle around and fold up all the limbs and such, neatly packing them inside the shell parts.
ImageWhY mY ShOuLdErS hUrT?
Getting the shell to close over the limbs is a pain in a bitch. This is the second time I have ever tramsformed this thing into Keramon, and I’m not likely to ever do it again. Why? Well, here’s what Keramon normally looks like:

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... and here’s what the toy looks like:
ImageKinda leaves a lot to be desired, eh?
The back looks even worse in this mode.
ImageNot pictured: Keramon’s tentacles
Yeah, this thing is always gonna be Diablomon. That’s just... awful.

Oh, and I almost forgot! Diablomon comes with an accessory, the only figure in the line to do so: a die-cast mini replica of the clock from the movie!
ImageWho has the clock? Well, turns out I do!
Neat.

Now, a real long time ago, Bandai had planned a D-Arts release of Diablomon, showing a painted prototype at Wonderfest ‘11:
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But that figure was never released, and it is highly unlikely that it ever will be, so this is the only way to have a Diablomon figure.
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Final thoughts: As a transforming figure, this leaves a lot to be desired, but as an action figure overall it’s really high quality. Plus, it’s the only way to add Diablomon to your collection... well, actually, I suppose that’s just my collection. I’m probably the only one around here who collects these kinds of things... oh, well.
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
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Post by Shrapnel »

... dammit, I just couldn’t not take a picture of Diablomon dancing.
ImageOle!
Is this wretched demi-bee
Half asleep upon my knee
Some freak from a menagerie?
No! It's Eric, the half a bee
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