Rukia Kuchiki by Playarts

From the company that gave us the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts toys comes the Bleach toy line. if you don't know, Bleach is an anime about a boy named Ichigo with the power to see ghosts who gains the power to fight soul devouring monsters known as "Hallows." There's a whole lot more going on in it but I could go on for hours on it. Instead, I'm here to review the action figure of my favorite character from the series. Rukia Kuchiki


If you've seen Playarts toys in their boxes before than this is nothing new. Same window type box as other Playarts figures but as they say; "If it ain't broke, don't fix it."
But you see, it's shortly after I open this box that we have our first problem.

That's right. The damn thing's foot broke right out of the package. This was nothing a little super glue couldn't fix and while I know this isn't a figure made to be played with, I still found this ridiculous.



Once I got the foot fixed, Rukia was good to go. Right off the bat I can see great care was put into the details for the figure. (Too bad the same couldn't be said for the damn foot)



Her head is beautifully sculpted and painted. From the eyes, the hair, and the face, This IS Rukia Kuchiki.



Once I got over the fear of more parts breaking, I could see that her poseability was excellent as well. Her joints are pretty tight though so I wouldn't force her to pose too hard. You can also see from this photo in comparison to the first one, that she has interchangeable hands. However, they're a bit of a pain to get in and out so once I got the hands meant for her sword in, I decided I wouldn't be taking them back out.



Another accessory is her sword as it appears making her special attack. A nice extra touch but not something I personally will be displaying were with a lot. Her ordinary sword works fine enough for me. Which by the way I am also happy to mention has a sheath that works. That always scores extra points for me.

She stands at well over 6 inches tall which is odd considering how she's among the shortest people in the show. If they're all going to be in proper scale, Ichigo must be freakin' HUGE!



She also comes with my other favorite character in the series. KON!



(Insert Captain Kirk screaming Kahn joke here)

He doesn't do anything though he IS pose able in the head and arms.

As a big big fan of the character Rukia, I had to own this figure and am very happy with it even with the broken foot I had to fix. If you're a fan of the show and of this character I recommend it. Just be real careful opening it.

Phineas and Ferb action figures

The Disney series Phineas and Ferb has become by far not only my favorite show on Disney Channel/Disney XD (Although knowing their recent track record that's not really saying a lot) but my favorite cartoon currently on TV period. But I was rather surprised when I saw they had started making toys for them. Just because something is popular with kids, that doesn't always mean they'll work as toys. Do these? Let's find out

The toy packaging is nice, colorful, and eye catching. They're sweet and to the point. They have many different sets. There's a Phineas and Ferb with a drag race car, and another with skate boards. There are a few different Perry and Doofensmirtz sets as well but when you look at them hard enough, aside from a couple with Phineas and Ferb in swim suits, they're basically the same figures with different accessories and sometimes different types of arms. I chose these simply because I liked the rock n roll theme more than the drag racing theme, and I wanted a parachuting Perry. Plus, it came with a Lazer-inator! Who doesn't want one of those?


Phineas and Ferb are well made but honestly, their designs in the cartoon translates oddly into three dimensions. Especially Phineas and his big pointy nose.
Perry and Doofensmirtz I believe work better in toy form.


Their features are not in the figures themselves, but in the accessories. Ferb's drum set, when you have Ferb in place, will make Ferb "rock out on his drums" when you press down on him. basically, the drum in the back and the cymbals go up and down.


Phineas, when you attach his wrist to the guitar will strum in when you pull the lever on it.



Dr. Doofensmirtz's Lazer-inator beam spins when you press down on the thing on top.
These are all gimmicky yet kinda clever features that can add to the play value of the toys. But the one that should work but doesn't is Perrys



Perry as I said before comes with a parachute. It attaches to his harness from the back. You're supposed to toss him up in the air and the parachute will open. To put this bluntly... it doesn't. The parachute appears too small and unable to open and properly bring him down so Perry crashes like a rock.




The accessories are all removable but this brings me to my next issue with Phineas and Ferb. With their big heads and tiny feet, it is impossible for them to stand up on their own. Fortunately though, as Ferb demonstrates, they can fit in the GI Joe: Rise of Cobra stands.

But when you have them set up with their accessories and stands, they make great display pieces. And for children who don't really care about display or collectors value, they have some decent play value as well. they're colorful, fun, and based on an awesome TV Show. Especially at only 7.99 a two pack.



This is the Ninja Pirate signing off.

GI Joe PoC VAMP

I actually got this bad boy for Christmas but with my camera kind of out of commission, I wasn't able to do my review until now.
Since the first day I saw pictures of the prototype of this at Toy Fair, I knew I must own it. With five seats instead of the original VAMP's two, and an awesome looking gun in the back, how could I NOT want this? And now that I do, does it hold up to my expectations? Let's find out



Let's start with the driver it comes with. "Double Clutch." Not a whole lot to say here. He's a decent standard figure. Properly pose able, and comes with a pistol and a satchel. Hey, if they're good enough for Indiana Jones, they're good enough for GI Joe.



The Vamp itself once out of the box and assembled is just plain awesome looking. Like I said before, it holds five places to fit your Joes in as apposed to the original 1982 Vamp that only fit two. But my other favorite thing about it is that it's semi customizable. As you can see here, we have a machine gun in the back but if your Joes need a little extra fire power, you can detach that and replace it with a rocket launcher





There are also extra holes up front so you can attach the guns there instead. I personally find this makes it kinda silly looking but if you want it, it's there.
All these options give a lot of play time opportunities.



Although it may cause the Joes to take longer in getting ready...
Is there anything about the Vamp I DON'T like? Well, yes. There are a couple of minor issues



For some reason there's a claw in the front that can be pulled out. I think it's supposed to be a towing hook but wouldn't it have made more sense to put this in the back? Otherwise, it's just kinda in the way


Finally, I don't care for their choice of color for the bottom. They got the strange idea that a jungle vehicle should be painted red somewhere.



But overall, there are minor issues to what is a fantastic vehicle. I've heard some Joe fans complain about it but I don't know what their deal is. As far as I'm concerned, every Joe fan should have this in their GI Joe motorpool.

This is the Ninja Pirate signing out

The Dick Tracy Show

Dick Friggin’ Tracy! When I was six years old, I was super into Dick Tracy. I had a bunch of the toys, I had the NES video game, I even had the toy wrist watch that lit up and actually told time. (Even though I wasn’t very good at telling time back then) With my Dick Tracy style hat, and my toy gun (which I think was actually a pirate gun I got from the Pirates of the Caribbean gift shop but I didn’t care. A toy gun was a toy gun) I was totally enthralled in the Dick Tracy hype of the early 90s. I’ll bet you’re wondering, why I’m suddenly talking about all this. Well, I wanted to give you an idea about just how much I was into this character and his world. Just how much of a big deal Dick Tracy was in my childhood. So you’d understand the massive disappointment I had for a certain adaptation of the character I discovered during my Dick Tracy hype.



If you don’t know, Dick Tracy began as a comic strip in the 1930s by Chester Gould. I was introduced to the character through Disney’s 1990 movie starring Warren Betty and went nuts for it. It was colorful, action packed, filled with memorable villains, and a kick ass hero taking them down. What wasn’t to like? But Disney’s epic action film wasn’t the first adaptation Dick Tracy got. Far from it. In the 60s, Dick Tracy’s comic strip held great popularity among kids. So what better way to capitalize on this popularity among kids than with an animated series? It makes sense, right? Dick Tracy’s adventures animated seemed like a fantastic idea. That is until… we saw what they did.



The Dick Tracy Show premiered in 1961 and when Disney was hyping the Dick Tracy movie in the 90s, networks decided to capitalize on the hype by re-airing the series which is how I discovered it. So, what did they do wrong with this show? It would be faster to explain what they did RIGHT on the show. Which wasn’t much.




I’ll admit, Dick Tracy and his villains properly drawn. They look like they should and feel like they at least attempted to make them resemble as they appeared in the comic strip. But that’s pretty much the only good thing I can say here. I’m ignoring the poor animation. This was more or less the standard of the time. No, my main gripe was the writing. Why? For one simple reason. Remember how in the movie, Dick Tracy turns down a promotion because it meant “Being stuck behind a desk?” Well, he must’ve gotten the idea from watching this cartoon because that’s all he did!



He sat at a desk and sent other people out to catch the crooks. So Dick Tracy did practically NOTHING in the “Dick Tracy show.”
Now, the idea of Dick Tracy with a team of crime stoppers is kinda cool but it was another potential concept that fell flat. Just... just at the cops he would send out.

Some random stupid chubby guy

A downright offensive Mexican stereotype

An even MORE offensive Japanese stereotype

And a talking dog. That’s right. A freaking talking DOG!!!

So, the basic pattern for every episode would be this; two Dick Tracy villains rob some place, Dick Tracy sits at his desk, calls one of these goofballs and then does nothing for the rest of the show, and the goofball would chase the villains around town, and from this, “hilarity” would ensue. I say hilarity in quotation marks because the episodes make up of some of the lamest slap stick comedy you can imagine. Oh, sure. I get the occasional giggle out of it, but it’s few and far between. I DID think the talking dog not only running away from Mumble’s bullets but actually holding his hand up and making them stop was worth a chuckle. They’d eventually catch the crooks followed by Dick to come in at the last minute to issue some “Good job” response. At the end of at least one episode, he even drives in on the scene in his police car teasing us that he might actually get in on the action and all he does is just say “Good Work!”



“Good Work. For a moment there, I thought I’d actually have to get off my ass and do my job.”



I watched some stupid stupid things when I was six, and even then I could tell this was horrible. I don’t know what made them think a Dick Tracy cartoon where not only Dick Tracy never does anything, but doesn’t even have the atmosphere of Dick Tracy was a good idea, but they were wrong.
My theory? The animation studio must’ve wanted to do some generic cop cartoon to compete with Hanna Barbara and someone in the studio decided to slap Dick Tracy on it at the last minute because he would sell it.

Man 1: Alright, we finished our comedy slapstick cop cartoon.

Man 2: Throw in Dick Tracy

Man 1: … this is a comedy

Man 2: Yep. Put in Dick Tracy. It’ll sell!!



Maybe it’s the generation gap talking because I‘m sure many children of the 60s grew up loving this cartoon and if that‘s the case, more power to them maybe they‘re seeing something I‘m not. Maybe it’s because my introduction to the character was through the kick ass ’90 film so I was spoiled from the start, but when I want to watch Dick Tracy, I want to watch DICK TRACY!!! That means I want Tracy punching out crooks, gunning down the thugs in his way, and giving all forms of evil a hard time. Not sitting at a desk as he sends Japanese stereotypes and talking dogs out to do it for him in bad Hanna Barbara style “humor.”
But on an up side, at least they’re short. They don’t go much longer than five minutes each.



This is the Ninja Pirate signing out

BTW, like my new title banner?

My top 5 favorite christmas specials

It's Christmas time everyone! You know what that always means. CHRISTMAS SPECIALS! As a child, I often got excited when Christmas specials started airing. Some are good, and some are horrible. But there are those that are timeless. Those that are so good that you actually sometimes have the urge to watch them out of season. Those are the ones I'll be focusing on today. These are my top five favorite Christmas specials

5. Mickey's Christmas Carol

With Scrooge McDuck in the role he was born to play...



Scrooge. Proving that typecasting is alive and well. This gets on the list because it's freakin' DISNEY! It was among the first versions of A Christmas Carol I saw as a child and remains to be a personal favorite. While a decent adaptation, it's not exactly a "to the letter" adaption. In fact, upon a recent viewing it almost feels like a parody. Or "A Christmas Carol: The Abridged special."



While most versions of A Christmas Carol depicts Scrooge as a miserable cheap Bastard, Disney depicts him more as if he enjoys being a cheap Bastard and comically over exaggerates Scrooge's stinginess.
But even with all this exaggerated silliness, they're not gonna let you off the hook too easily. It's Disney. Which means at some point, you will CRY!
As you probably know, Mickey Mouse plays the role of Bob Crachet. And unless you've been under a ROCK all your life, you know Bob's story and how his youngest son Tiny Tim is ill and will die if not helped soon. When Scrooge sees the future and what's happened to Bob Crachet, we see him at a tombstone with Tiny Tim's Crutch and while other versions get the sad moment out through a lot of talk, the moment grabs your heart and Mexican Hat dances on it with only once scene.



That's right. They make the freakin' mouse CRY!! Not even a full blown cry. It's just one tear. It's all he needed.

Oh, another reason this version rocks is because it gives Pete his one and only crowning moment of awesome! It comes near the end. Pete is the Ghost of Christmas Future who reveals Scrooge is basically gonna die alone and unloved. Pete has this one awesome line when Scrooge asks who's grave this is.


"Why yours Ebenezer. THE RICHEST MAN IN THE CEMETERY!"
followed by another thing Disney is not complete without. NIGHTMARE FUEL!!!
Not the most serious version of the classic story, but still good and worth the time.

4. Muppets Christmas Carol



Another adaptation of A Christmas Carol. This time instead of a talking mouse, we have a talking Frog!
But don't let that fool you. This ranked above Mickey's version because despite the talking frog, pig, ect. this is actually one of the most faithful adaptations of the story I have ever seen. This remembers a lot other versions don't and for the most part the dialog is quoted straight from the book.



Oh, and Scrooge is played by Michael Cain. Michael fucking Cain. 'Nuff said!
Try to find the uncut version if you can. For some versions have the "When love is gone" song number cut which fills me with rage!!!

3. Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer



We've all seen Rankin Bass's Christmas specials. I think we all have a favorite. Mine is Rudolph. Since childhood this was the stop motion Christmas special I enjoyed the most and spoke to me the best. This was the one I would watch even off the Christmas season. It in fact made Rudolph one of my favorite Christmas characters. Maybe 'cause being the victim of name calling and bullying myself, I feel very much for poor Rudoolph. I used to even draw him as a child. So, why did I rate it only number three? Growing up and watching it again I noticed something. Everyone in this special is a freakin' JERK!! Seriously. Everyone puts down Rudolph for being different. I know, i know, that's how the song went but when even SANTA CLAUS is being an asshole to poor Rudolph, you know something's wrong. Seriously. Of all the people you'd expect to be a bigot dumbass, it's certainly not Santa Claus!! When Santa turns and asks for his help, I wanted to see Rudolph say something like "Let's see some begging first, FAT MAN!" Ah well, he'll have his revenge. He'll have his revenge on them all!!



2. How the Grinch stole Christmas



I've got nothing against the live action movie. (Except for a few questionable jokes) but when I think the Grinch, I think Boris Karloff! As a big Dr. Seuss fan since childhood, it's not Christmas until I've seen the green guy trying to steal it!
Unfortunately, I don't have much to say on this one. Other than The Who's Christmas Song actually gets me inside.



1. A Charlie Brown Christmas

Oh come on. What else would it have been? As I think TV Tropes put it; "This isn't a Christmas special. This is THE Christmas special!"
And no truer words have been spoken. I defy you to find a single Christmas special in recent years that doesn't parody or pay tribute to this special some where in it.
the fact that radio stations play "Linus and Lucy" on Christmas time despite that the theme isn't really a Christmas song tells you how much of an impact this special has had on Christmas. In the fight for Christmas, it's between Mickey Mouse and Charlie Brown.
Seriously, not only is it one of the best yet simplest Christmas specials ever, but it's one of the few Charlie Brown specials out there that actually ENDS well for the poor kid.
It's also one of those few Christmas specials that grows up with you and never feels childish. As you grow, you understand Charlie Brown more and some of the cynical jokes tossed here and there. I particularly always liked Linus' comment as he bangs on a metal Christmas tree saying "This tree really brings Christmas close to a person." And his later comment when they find the little tree and says "Wow, do they still make wooden Christmas trees?" Which came to my mind went I went to a Walgreens and saw Charlie Brown's little tree being sold. It's ironic because you KNOW those certainly aren't "Wooden Christmas Trees."
Oh, and if Linus's little speech about the true meaning of Christmas doesn't make you tear up a little then consider yourself a SCROOGE!!! And not the fun Scottish Disney one either.
Timeless, thy name is Charlie Brown

So there they are. My top five favorite specials. Without these, it's just not Christmas.
With this I say Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!