[REVIEW] Akiba Yellow Season Tsuu (by Phantom Stranger)

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Jul 192014
 

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From the desk of Phantom Stranger:

“Alrightly, so it’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a figure and I’ve recently acquired Akiba Yellow Season Tsuu. This is going to be a fairly brief (for me anyway) because a lot of what I have to say about this figure is pretty much the same as Akiba Blue Tsuu, so we’ll mainly be focusing on the differences.

Like Luna, Akiba Yellow comes in a nice rainbow window box. It’s pretty much that same as Blue’s but with Yellow and her accessories featured. There is text on the back, but I can’t read Kanji, so no idea if there is anything of interest. The box also wasn’t bent like Luna’s, so that was nice.

Opening it up we get a tray that holds everything in place, with a nice overlay to keep everything from spilling out. Since the box wasn’t damaged like last time, things went a lot smoother this go round. The overlay was easy to pop off but also fits snugly in place, so no worrying about tiny pieces going flying during removal. You also get instructions showing some of the accessories and how to combine them. They’re simple enough to understand because of the pictures, but you don’t really need them and we’ll get more into that in a bit.”

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[REVIEW] Club Infinite Earth’s – Phantom Stranger

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Feb 212014
 

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From the mysteriously complicated desk of Phantom Stranger:

“Alright, I’ve been putting this off for too long now. I’ve been meaning to review this figure since it came out back in February last year, but for some reason I never got around to it. Perhaps it’s because I didn’t have a lot to say about the figure, or perhaps it’s because I just didn’t feel it was worth the time. I honestly cannot say, but we might as well get it over with.

Starting with the box we have the usual style that the Club Infinite Earth figures came in, with original artwork of Stranger wearing a dinner plate around his neck.

Aaaand is seems Mattel didn’t know which version of the character they were doing. The Bio on the back indicates it’s supposed to be the New 52 character, but the figure itself represents the silver and modern age version, which had 4 different origins to confuse everyone. The box also states “None” for the name, which lines up more with the silver/modern as opposed to the N52. It’s like buying a Huntress figure and her name being Helena Wayne but the bio saying she was the daughter of crime lord, Santo Cassamento.

Opening the figure up is of course easy, just slide the tray out after popping the top. Getting the figure out of a tray is another matter, I wouldn’t say it’s hard, but they thread the cape through the tray, and the cape is wider than the cutout. Simply folding the (thankfully) pliable cape into a taco shape is enough to get it out, but it is a rather perplexing design choice that Mattel continues to stick with.

But I guess that doesn’t matter all that much. The figure is what really counts here.“

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TOY REVIEW: S.H. Figuarts Sailor Mercury (by Phantom Stranger)

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Jan 202014
 

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From the desk of the omniscient Phantom Stranger…

“2012 marked the 20th anniversary of the Sailor Moon Franchise. By spring 2013, Toei announced plans for a new Anime series along with a ton of merchandise celebrating the anniversary. Among the new merchandise was a new line up of figures from Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts. Sailor Moon kicked off the line in August 2013, followed by Mercury a few months later, and is who we’ll be taking a look at today.”

“As you might expect from a Figuart, Mercury has a plethora of movable joints. Her hands are on ball joints, her shoulders are on a pin disc universal joint. She has single jointed elbows and knees, however these are on a disc joint similar to a figma, so while they’re not double jointed, they come close to having the range of a double joint. Her legs are your usual S.H. swivel down ball joint, her feet are on ball joints allowing you to pull off a full on tip toe if you so wish and they can even swivel. Her upper torso has a slight wiggle do it, but don’t expect much. Finally, her head is on a ball joint, with the only real hindrance being her hair sculpt preventing her from looking up.”

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[REVIEWS] Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (by Phantom Stranger)

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Dec 262013
 

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From the desk of Phantom Stranger:

“Taking place in 18XX (What is this Mega Man?) The Belmont Family has been missing since 1797. But with the strong possibility of Dracula’s revival looming, several organizations have appeared in the Belmont Families absence to rid the world of Dracula.

At the forefront of these organizations is Ecclesia, headed by Barlowe who may have found a way to destroy Dracula using a type of spell called a Glyph. This particular Glyph set is made up of three different spells and when combined they form Dominus, and it is of immense power.

However, the Glyphs need a host body to unleash their power. The one chosen for this role is Shanoa, a member of Ecclesia and Barlowe’s personal disciple. But the ritual is interrupted by a fellow member of Eccleisa named Albus. Albus claims that Barlowe promised him and him alone the power of Dominus. Albus defies Barlowe’s orders, attacks him and steals the Glyphs for his self, but Albus is unable to properly absorb them.
During the scuffle, Shanoa was knocked unconscious and upon awaking has no memories, possibly taken by Albus along with Dominus. She must retrain her skills, find Albus and take Dominus back.

Storywise, I enjoyed this but there are some problems. Unlike PoR, we don’t have any connections here. We’re given a completely new cast with no connections to the Belmonts, or anyone else for the matter. We also finally get to see what was going on before the Morris family inherited the Whip and before the Lecarde family had the Spear. Leaving the year vague was also a good idea. We can assume this happens before the events told in Bram Stoker’s Novel, but we’re not too sure. Koji “IGA” Igarashi, has expressed a slight displeasure in using his revised timeline, stating:

“Because Dracula only appears every 100 years, we made the whole timeline and ran out of places to put in another game. I made the timeline, but I shouldn’t have actually released it, because now it’s all official. That was a bad decision.”-IGA in an interview with WIRED.“

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[REVIEWS] Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin (by Phantom Stranger)

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Oct 032013
 

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From the desk of Phantom Stranger:

“Taking place in 1944, right in the middle of WWII, we take on the role of Johnathan Morris, the son of John Morris from Bloodlines and Grandson of Quincey Morris from the novel. In addition to Johnathan, we also have Charlotte Aulin, a distant relative and descendant of the Belnades clan. With the Belmont family still missing since 1797, it is left to them to defeat the lord of the the castle.


Along the way they will have assistance from a friendly Priest named Vincent who will give them items… for a price, of course. They will also meet a mysterious ghost simply known as Wind, who has been bound to the castle since death. Johnathan and Charlotte will also learn that Dracula has not been fully revived, but another vampire, by the name of Brauner, has taken over the castle.“

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Phantom Stranger Presents: Fictional History of The Spectre – Part I

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Feb 132013
 

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From the desk of Phantom Stranger:

In the beginning there was the Presence. We do not know where the Presence came from, or even what it is, it merely exists. The Presence is the creator and cause of the Big Bang and everything in the multi-verse, Gods, aliens, humans, creation itself.

Certain aspects of his being were split into three. His wrath, Galid , who would later become Elipso, his mercy, Radiant, and his vengeance, which would eventually become The Spectre.
The first form of the Spectre was early in the universe, three seconds after creation, a rebellion occurred, started by Lucifer. Those that rebelled were cast down, becoming demons, but one returned, Aztar. He came to the one some humans would call, Michael.

Aztar begged for forgiveness, willing to accept any punishment the Presence seen fit. The Presence chose Aztar to be merged with his divine wrath, becoming a vessel, but the cost would mean everything he was would be burned clean, his memories, his personality, he would be little more than a shell. Aztar accepted, if albeit regrettably, thus the Spectre-force was born.

The true reason the Presence did this was because he foresaw Galid becoming untrustworthy. In contrast to Galid, the Proto-Spectre as we shall call him, worked more as a spirit of vengeance, being more discerning in whom was punished, whereas Galid was pure destruction.

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SPOTLIGHT: History of Comic Books – EC Comics (by Phantom Stranger)

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Dec 192012
 

From the desk of Phantom Stranger:

“Today we shall be looking at the history of EC Comics, most famous as the publisher of MAD Magazine and many Horror/Thriller titles such as Crime SupenStories.

But how was EC formed? Well, to explain that, we must first look at the history of another company. Since the real meat of the matter is EC, I’ll be going over this as fast as possible, and I do apologize if things get slightly confusing, as some company name changes are incredibly close to one another.

In 1934, a man by the name of Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson had the idea to published comic books with new never before seen stories. Up until that point, comic books were simply reprints of news paper strips; an early form of a trade paper back if you will. Nicholson created the company National Allied Publications. By 1935, Nicholson’s company was failing horribly. Sales were poor and he lost many backers. Nicholson went to Harry Donenfeld at Independent News, who agreed to pick up N.A.P. However, this would mean that Nicholson would lose much control over anything the company owned.

Together they formed Detective Comics, Inc. In early 1938, Harry sued Nicholson for non payment, and Detective Comics, Inc went bankrupt. Harry would buy up both N.A.P and Detective Comics, Inc. Later, in 1938, Superman would make his first appearance under the National Allied Publications banner.
The two companies would eventually merge into National Publications, which in 1944 would buy All-American Publications, a company National promoted and did crossovers with quite often. After the buy out, National Publications would once again change names, this time becoming National Allied Periodicals.”

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SPOTLIGHT: History of Comic Books – Wonder Woman (by Phantom Stranger)

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Dec 072012
 

From the desk of Phantom Stranger:

“Today we will be exploring the creation of Wonder Woman by her BDSM loving creator. Thankfully I was able to find out a lot more about the creation of Wonder Woman than I was with Green Arrow (click to read).

Let us start in the year 1942. Even though Seduction of the Innocent hadn’t been published, comics were still under attack by various sources. One such example is “The Plague of the Comics“. Stories such as these would continue to pop up in educators’ journals over the years. Later, in 1948, National Congress of Parents and The National Education association were calling for legislation to regulate the comics industry, this would eventually lead to the Comic Code.”

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