Captain America: Civil War, A Somewhat Spoilery Review

Reviewing cinematic failure is easy. Flaws are usually obvious, or numerous, or even interesting, which make for good material. Some films can be so bad that writing about them is a safe way to vent. Yes, you are supposed to maintain some attempt at objectivity, which is why I make a point of finding strengths and weaknesses, but catharsis is catharsis. A legitimately excellent film is more difficult to talk about. On the fanboy level, you don't want to say too much for fear of ruining the experience. Its like explaining the joke, or dissecting the frog, you can't put it back together when you've finished. Similarly, you doubt if your own response is a reasoned one. Were you swept up in the moment? Do the nitpicks matter? Do you have an unacknowledged bias? Or will your opinion presumed to have one? I've already been extremely hard on the distinguished competition, after all. Going by fan reactions, and the occasional gulf between critics and those fans, you'd think most films are either excellent or dire, with nothing in between. This problem becomes worse when the film is a sequel, especially one which is part of these new, "universes".

Its at least partially a generational thing, back in the 80's, 90's, even at the millennium, ye olde video tape days, honestly good sequels were rare. Franchises did exist, don't let anyone tell ya different, but sequels were usually the domain of the lazy cash grab or the niche. This attitude still remains common in film critics, whom often take the view all works should be self-contained, rather coast on a previous success. Its not a baseless complaint though, diminishing returns is a thing, and its rather annoying to see a bad film presume a follow up. A persistent doubt is whether you can fairly judge a piece of a whole? And whether this flaw is a plot-hole or a sequel hook? As you liked the first film, aren't you sold on the sequel by default? And, when you get right down to it, multi genre long form story telling is some that hasn't really been done on screen before. Its not unique to comics, but its not exactly routine for Hollywood. When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, we have all of the above and more. The Marvel films have yet to produce an actual turkey, a few Ds certainly, but tending towards Bs for the most part. And people love them, assuming they don't have a dislike for the genre. But Marvel's consistent success adds to the review difficulty. We have an idea what to expect now, there's certainly enough for haters to hate, but, somehow, the movies keep on surprising us. And when they don't, we at least have something you can watch twice. The Law of Averages demands they must do a bad film eventually. Perhaps there was one, and we just loved them so much, we don't care. Does familiarity breed contempt? Or maybe this will run and run, like your average soap opera or Last of the Summer Wine. What will happen first, the end of the MCU, or the heat death of the actual universe?

Yes, I am stalling for time.

Look, you only need to know one thing about this film: its another success. If you need to know two things? The harshest criticism I can make is that it is indeed a sequel. Its drawing on eight years worth of material, which runs the risk of alienating new viewers, but just about everything that makes this film exceptional is made possible by that legacy. Could they have cut a few characters? Yeah. Would have been a better film? Probably nah. The airport fight that the trailers feature is a spectacle on a level we haven't seen since Avengers: Assemble, the sense that another fanboy dream has been made manifest. Whereas there the joy was that somebody had finally “got” the idea of a team of heroes with different powers, this film pitches two such teams against each other rather than disposalible foes, and its worth the price of admission by itself. All of a sudden, every single X-Men film looks like a missed opportunity. But more important than that, it sells the conflict. The film works because we know the characters, because we know that they would act like this, and we know what's at stake. Its like watching your parents divorce, or two mates in a nasty argument. Its a tragedy that plays out in front of you, as deep bonds are broken on principle. Who is right? Is the argument even about government oversight? Neither, and not for long.

Comparisons to Batman V Superman are impossible to avoid, and while its not really fair to make one, the contrast is sharp. Even with eight years of continuity weighing them down, and potential for Robert Downey Jr. to steal the show, the Russo Brothers has created a narrative that makes a hell of a lot more sense and doesn't shortchange anybody. Its still the Captain's film at the end of the day, plot threads from his previous solo outing being the starting point. As with the Winter Soldier, this film takes another sledgehammer to the status quo, but is notable for having something of a downer ending. Perhaps not for the reasons you might think, and certainly not the ponderous gloom of Bats v Supes, its a case where the actual villain of the piece wins. Marvel tends be criticised for its bad guys, because if they aren't Loki, they tend towards being 2-dimensional in some way, or not being given the due screentime. The antagonist in this probably won't defuse those complaints, but does go against the trend, and is used with same level of intelligence of the rest of the film.

I don't want to say much more at this point. With Marvel consistency being what it is, you know how you will likely react to this film. Spider-Man? Yeah, he's great. Black Panther? Nicely done. Vision and Scarlett Witch get some great scenes. I will end on this thought. Captain America: Civil War may not be the best film ever made, but its one of the best Marvel has ever done, and certainly top ten material.

Images copyright Marvel, used under fair use provisions

A Concise Combaticon Review of Combiner Wars Shockwave In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Legend, 2015/2016.

Modes: Robot, Spaceship, Combiner Gun.

Transformation Style: CW legend, simplistic triplechanger.

Play Patterns: Robot and vehicle, “sixth member” combiner to Onslaught, 5mm weaponry, targetmaster.

Points of Interest: Homage to the G1 episode “The Revenge of Bruticus”. Rare new mould in Combiner Wars.

The Good

Nearly everything. The ship mode is very close to his original gun form, while the robot is a more of modernisation via the video games. Both look great, and the robot is almost ideally articulated for the size. There's a balljoint for the head, great motion in the shoulder through a balljoint/swivel combo, similar in the hips, and better knees than me. Joint count is 14, the neck being above and beyond the call of duty, so making natural poses with the gun arm is easy. He operates excellently as a big gun for Bruticus, being able to store on his back too.

The Bad

To emulate the G1 toy, translucent plastic is extensively here, most worryingly in the elbows. Breakages will be a thing to watch for. The forearms are a weak point, generating kibble in all modes. Achieving the gun mode is a matter of flipping a handle down, and while this can store on Onslaught's altmode, it doesn't sit well. There was also a tiny spot of misapplied paint on my example.

The Mediocre

Shockwave is specifically designed to work with Combiner Wars gestalt hands, and a bar of plastic before the peg will interfere with many regular hands, not to mention the weight.

The Alternatives

As a distinctive G1 original, Shockwave is extremely well supplied for toys, most recently with a Masterpiece release. Within Combiner Wars, the most obvious alternative is the Powerglide mould, specifically the Viper repaint. This would arguably fit the Combaticon theme better, BUT that's a weaker toy with tabbing issues. There is also the Botcon 2016 Relector pack remoulded from this, which I have, and adore, but its going to be expensive.

The Verdict

Shockwave is an unabashed success. Its difficult to image a version of the character at this size and price done better. As a partner mould to combiner, he's the best example of the concept. Yeah, he's basically a targetmaster whereas the other toys tried something new, but its a tried and true gimmick executed well. I would personally prefer that translucent plastic wasn't so big a feature, but its early days, and it makes the toy look good in a 1984 sort of way. Pick him up.

Radical Regenerations: Prime Rumble

I normally start a review when I have a spare moment, on a bus, or on lunch hour. Then when I get home, I put the toy to one side of my laptop while I do do internet stuff and play. It can take weeks from initial interest to final drafting, or I can be done in 24 hours because I don't have anything sensible to do with my time. The last thing I do is make my usual attempt at “photography”, where I take it to a good spot in my kitchen and.......

Conservative. Party. CONFERENCE.

Well, I've written a load on on this toy, and I'd rather not ditch all of it. So, I rewrote the introduction, and here it is. I must report however, this did have a small effect on my opinion of the toy. Enjoy.

Vehicle Mode
 Rather than being a little dude whom fits into Soundwave's chest, this Rumble is a small blue car, and a fairly uninteresting one at that. This isn't too much of a departure for Rumble, as he did appear in the Alternators line as a Honda, but the execution here is bad. While there is some attention paid to the front end, some tiny Decepticon badges, and tinted windows, the vehicle appears otherwise unpainted. This isn't actually true, Rumble has loads of paint on him, but its being used to conceal the fact that the entire roof is translucent plastic. Clearly the tightening of toy budgets hit here, but I think we'd would have been better off with ratio reversed, painted windows instead(1). There's also a lot of exposed robot bits on the underside, but you'll forgive me if I put off talking about that just now. Functionally, there's a bit more going on, with two 5mm ports worked in as petrol caps. These allow for the accessories to be mounted on the side, accessories that also needed paint. These do triple duty as pile drivers, guns, and for this mode rocket boosters although a certain degree of imagination is needed here, as they just look like black blocks. That said, 5mm ports do give plenty of options for some Road Warrior action. 

Beyond that, there's not much to say. Switching to robot mode is however very interesting, and while carformers are not my preferred tipple, I'm not aware of one which follows a similar pattern. The front end transforms into the legs, but the back end and roof form the arms, with the flanks and back wheels forming back kibble. There's also a dramatic head reveal. Its a shell-based transformation, and inelegant given how much of the car ends up around the arms and torso, but that strikes me as deliberate intent, rather than incompetence or laziness. They wanted a particular style of robot mode, which I will now talk about. And looking at the image below, you'll easily see how this toy made into my Radical Regenerations format. When his thumbs weren't breaking off.

Robot Mode

Now, the review actually starts. When you get this toy into robot mode, you notice only one thing. Rumble is invoking a very particular design aesthetic, one so distinctive its impossible to see this toy as anything other than a deliberate homage. Yes, this is inspired by the classic 2007 anime Gurren Lagann, and its characteristic “chest face” motif. And its light-piped too. Rumble has two sets of glowing eyes in a good light, though the upper set work best, with both a mouth and a mouth plate at the same time. You can leave the head folded in the chest, and still look him in eye. Here's some art from the series for comparative purposes. Note the attached thumbs.

Copyright: Studio Gainax

See what I mean? Its not necessarily unique to either Gurren Lagann or Rumble, of course. ROTF Bludgeon had a skull chest for example, while Beast Hunters Bludgeon had monster pecs. Nor did Gurren Lagann invent the design element in Super Robot cartoons, that honour probably goes to Gaiking. But the timing and shoulder kibble makes me think Gurren Lagann, and I think its extremely cool looking as a result. At least it balances out the very bland car mode, where the broken thumb doesn't matter.

 

His chest face is so distinctive and overpowering, you forget the other design elements, some callbacks to the original. The back kibble for example has guns sculpted in, regrettably unpainted, but similar to the G1 toy. He has the pile drivers, and the articulation to make make a fine ground-pounding pose. His overall build is quite short for a deluxe, but wide with the arm kibble balancing out the pile drivers. He's not a chest minion anymore, but he's still a short dude. I'm not entirely sure where the head sculpt came from though. There's nothing very Rumble about it, and to muddy the waters further, there was an alternative with an actual mouth(2), but that's not very Rumble either. Neither immediately say Gurren Lagann either, although you could claim the mouthed version is closer to the style than the one we have here. One wonders if designers had something very different in mind for this toy only for it to be re-purposed as a legacy character, or if the designers got a bit of leeway as the character wasn't actually appearing in the cartoon. All I know is, if they'd swapped out that chest face for something closer to a magnetic tape cassette, we wouldn't be here right now. Complaints can however be made about the lower legs, with the calves being a bit ramshackle, preventing a straight stance, and the actual knees being below a set of decorative knees. There's also some questionable colour and material choices; the neck joint is a balljoint in translucent plastic, while the hands are also painted, making chipping a problem. And, I forget if I've mentioned this, his thumb broke off.

Also, if I didn't know better, I'd think his feet were on backwards.

Regardless of what this actually looks like(3), the robot mode has a lot going on. The aforementioned pile drivers have quad gun barrels sculpted in, with a 5mm port on the underside for no obvious reason. This allows Rumble to do some gun fighting poses, and make combi-weapons of a sort. He's also got a total of four 5mm ports, two on the back of his shoulders for storage, and the two petrol caps on his flanks. Articulation is decent, with eighteen points. This is allows for the aforementioned ground-pounding, and I'd like to single out the shoulders as being far more mobile than they have any right being. Its a generously cut balljoint on top of hinge, with rotation at the bicep, so he has great inward motion even if outward motion is blocked by kibble. He can cross his arms, but not demonstrate how big the fish he caught was. The lower body also has a lot in the way of balljoints, but ends up being limited by the sculpt. There is a balljointed waist, but the crotch piece makes it all but useless. There's balljoints in the ankles too, but as mentioned, a perfectly straight stance is impossible. Plus his thumb broke off.

Conclusion

Rumble is a weird toy when you get right down it, and not just for the visual choices. The Prime toyline suffered from budget cuts and misapplied gimmicks, and while there are far worse offenders, Rumble is rough around the edges. I'm no toy accountant, and thus speak from a position of ignorance, but I do feel that ditching the translucent plastic would have been to the toy's net benefit. G1 purist are also not going to be overly keen on this interpretation of the character, even if they go Japanese, because he's some distance from the 80's. That's why he's in this review format, of course, but let's acknowledge some may that downside. But then, that's also a plus, and I'll happily stand up for a transformer that reminds me of one of my favourite animes. The designers clearly wanted to do something different here, and in robot mode it works very well. He's got the pile drivers, he's got the joints to use them, but now he's also a gunfighter with a monster face on his chest. Given how repetitive Prime was after a while, at least until Beast Hunters kicked off, this is a good thing. Its just shame that the car mode is so meh. All things considered, he's worth having, and is very inexpensive on the secondary market. If you want a rough diamond, Rumble is your guy. Assuming his thumbs stay on.

Foot Notes

1. The Japanese versions of the mould sidestep this with stickers as well as paint. Although, they omit the pile drivers for a singular Arms Micron, so some loss of play value there.
2. This was used for both of the Japanese versions.
3. i.e. quite badass.

A Concise Review of Combiner Wars Trailbreaker In 500 Words Or Less

Pricepoint/Vintage: Deluxe, 2016.

Modes: Robot, Truck, Arm, and Leg.

Transformation Style: CW deluxe limb, Off Road style.

Play Patterns: Robot and vehicle, combiner, 5mm weaponry, HULK HAND, a pack-in comic in the USA.

Points of Interest: Retool of wave 2's Offroad, with a new head, forearms, and modified accessory.

The Good
Trailbreaker's 5mm gun arm allows him to mimic Rook's play pattern' giving him a single hulk hand via his combiner piece. Said accessory is also quite distinctive, functioning as a claw, and a believable shield. The new head is nice too, and the hubcaps painted. Articulation is solid at 14 joints, the truck mode attractive, and the limb modes having just the right amount of bulk. Most importantly, this iteration of the mould has all but eliminated the tabbing issues of Offroad, making the arm mode practical. Offroad was basically fine, but new play features and refinement make Trailbreaker better.

 

The Bad
While one big problem was fixed, issues with proportions and exposed robot bits due to engineering are still inherited from Offroad. He's a touch skinny in the arms, and the vehicle mode isn't that different from earlier versions. The loss of a regular right hand obviously means some loss in function, and reduces the number of 5mm ports to 3 in truck and limb modes. The pack-in comic has an infamous art error. My example suffers from misapplied door tampographs.

The Mediocre
Trailbreaker comes with that axe that I don't think has suited anybody, including him. They also missed a trick in that it can't plug into the gun arm due to its shape, a crying shame that could have helped with future reuses, as well as add play value. He's also a bit monochrome.

The Alternatives
Its a bit surprising this toy exists, as Trailbreaker got a new unique mould only in 2014. That does not combine, and incorporates a number of design elements this toy can't, although arguably neither is definitive. The other, increasingly numerous, iterations of this toy also come to mind. That said, if you want a combining Autobot with Hulk Hands, why not Rook?


 

The Verdict
I don't think anyone really wanted to see this mould again, especially as wave 6 was a repeat of wave 4, but Trailbreaker really is something special. The new parts increase the play value, while solving a tabbing issue, and is easy on the eyes. If Hasbro MUST reuse moulds, this really is a good justification, and perhaps the most desirable deluxe since the Protectobots. While not without weaknesses, Trailbreaker is like taking yesterday's cheesecake, and adding toffee sauce. Go get him.

Botcon 2016 Coverage: A Non-Review Of The Souvenir Exclusive Toys

Now, it is kind of difficult to review Fun Publications output due to, well, price, but also creative merit, unappeasable fans, and the company's business practices. When you have a deluxe, or some such, going for three times retail value, people tend to become very forgiving if they like it, and ill-tempered if they don't. If Funpub uses a popular character, some will feel that toy is being held to ransom, if they go obscure, why would anyone sensible buy it? The answer is that Funpub likes to sell things via boxsets and subscriptions, so like a variety pack of cereal, you'll always end up buying something you don't want. Then there was the credit card thing. Anyway, here's my commentary of the toys on offer.

The Attendee Freebie: Terrorsaur

This could so easily have been the best free gift ever. He's not had a Cybertonian mode before, or many toys in general. He is compatible with the boxset below and in the same shade of CG red. He has a spot-on head sculpt. He has very nice nose art in jet mode. And more importantly, he's based on Air Raid, the best of the deluxe aerialbots. Unfortunately, he does not come with the combiner accessory.

I mean, really.

The Predacus Set
If you've collected more than one combiner team, you've probably got a fairly good idea of what to expect here. The use of Combiner Wars moulds is both a strength and weakness. On the one hand, these toys are generally good. On the other, we've all been buying these for at least a year. For context, these five represent pre-Beast-Wars versions of the Tripredacus Council and two of their agents. The three generals existed as toys that combined into Tripredacus, although this didn't happen on screen, and in fact the computer generated cartoon used completely different character modes due to time constraints. These toys follow the cartoon in appearance, meaning there's a lot of red I'm not fond of, but obviously combine. Some observations also apply to the set in general, in that the part tolerances can feel different from mass market toys, but not necessarily worse, and there's a lot two tone colour schemes going on.

Here they are, ranked worse to best.

General Ramhorn: A de-facto preview of the Hasbro version of Nosecone(1), Ramhorn isn't very good. He's based off Brawl, a sub-par deluxe at the best of times, and the bulk of the retooling applied is limited to his weapon, an admittedly impressive drill. Nosecone will not be a First Aid level reworking. This means his altmode is a tank in reverse, the waist issue remains, and articulation is middling. More pressingly, the new head has some extremely delicate looking bat ears, and minimal clearance for them when transforming him. If anybody is gonna break, its this dude. Still, its a nice head, and he makes a bulky arm.

Ravage: I want to be pleasant to this toy, I do. I think the Breakdown mould used here is under-rated, because while its dorky to look at in robot mode, and a bit fiddly to convert, its very functional. Nice car mode, effective leg mode, superior arm mode, and good accessories. With Ravage, and by extension the Tigatron of the same convention, the new head they've added exacerbates that visual weakness. Ravage is proportioned like a Werther's Original atop a smart phone, there being limited space for his head in the altmodes, and there being conflicting design styles at work. The back of his head is completely, humorously, flat. I don't know what they could have done to fix this without completely abandoning cartoon fidelity, but I would have asked the sculptor to have taken another swing at it. Ravage is also subject to a oversight by Funpub, his combiner piece is not included in the box by default, so check for that. That said, he's not a bad toy once you get over the head, with both a Predacon and a Decepticon badge.

 Breakdown pictured for comparison

General Cicadacon: The least changed toy in the set, this dude benefits from a happy coincidence and some nice detailing. Based on CW Skydive, the unmodified head was fairly close to the CG in the first place, and a jet is reasonable stand-in for a flying insect. A particular highlight are the wings, which are done up in a lovely bug wings pattern. He's still very red in the same way Ramhorn is, but if you don't mind that, he's quite satisfactory toy. I'd also like to mention that his joints seem better than than my example of Skydive, although this may just be a coincidence.


General Sea Clamp: This guy carries the team in some ways. As a retool of Silverbolt via Scattorshot, he's a fundamentally a good toy and combiner torso. He also has the bulk of the retooling, with two rather nice new heads, one with an adjustable horn. The colours are also more varied due to the combined mode, which is nice. Purist may question how a guy whom flies became a craw-fish, but here we are.

Tarantulas: Rook is the best deluxe in Combiner Wars, don't let anyone tell you different. So an evil spidery version of him with an elaborate paint job? Well, yes, its kinda awesome. On the flipside, maybe Tarantulas would have worked better as that deluxe Groove mould? And the 5mm ports seem a bit loose.

Predacus: The only part of the set to favour the original toy design, through necessity, Predacus is striking when combined. While limb placement is a factor, given three members have the same red, and the other two are dark tones, Predacus has a distinctive look. Its also unique that the hands/feet come in both black and red, allowing you to contrast the colours as you see fit. Otherwise, its just as functional as any CW gestalt, although he doesn't have a dedicated partner legends toy, forcing him to use Superion's “1989 Joker” gun. 

 

Transmetal 3 Megatron
The revival of an abandoned concept by 3H Productions(2), this toy was the undoubted must-have of the convention. Its an undeniably attractive reworking of the 2002 RID Megatron, a toy I'd been tempted by, but never owned before. I'd say the mould has aged well, although the tail tends to come off, and minor tabbing issues. As a toy, he feels great. As high-end display piece, he's gorgeous. Two problems occur. 1) Due to the remoulding, the gargoyle mode is gone, leaving him with 5 official forms. 2) The eyes of the dragon heads are unpainted. Regardless, its an immediate and comprehensive success.


EDIT: It has since been pointed out to me that there's stress marks on the translucent plastic already. This dampens my enthusiasm a tad, and Megatron will now stay in a glass case.

Reflector Three Pack
I must confess I purchased this one while in a state of giddy hysteria. It was three of the CW Shockwave mould, a toy I'd been eyeing up for my Combaticons for months. And they had somehow figured out a camera mode for them. On closer inspection, this was not mentioned in the instructions, it being more a fan mode based around the arm tabs. On further inspection, this didn't actually matter. Presentation is immaculate, and as scout/legends scale toys go, the mould does everything I want. The fan camera mode even holds together well, once you get it there. Expect further gushing in a forthcoming Shockwave review. One slight problem, these are named “Flash Sentry”.

Custom Class Toy: Combiner Wars Ratchet & Others

Funpub was apparently instructed to use this mould by Hasbro, but its something of a coup for them, nonetheless. This was essentially a white version of CW First Aid, but with the option to use the previously unreleased Ratchet head and translucent blue accessories. Obtaining this on the secondary market will no doubt be a deeply frustrating matter for many. As for me, I have a new found respect for factory workers. You'll excuse me if I don't photograph mine, I'm not got around to finishing the stickers, and want to touch up the paint.


Toys I Did Not Buy
Another reason I'm not calling this a review is that I didn't get all the souvenir figures, but some comment is still needed. Consider this a rough guide to why I didn't.

The Rubber Ducky: I never thought I'd have to write about this. I'm a fan of whimsy, and having a bathtime buddy for Megatron above makes too much sense. On the other hand, its a not a Beast Wars accurate ducky. Its a generic ducky with a botcon logo. I put it down as a maybe, and then forgot about it. This one kind of slipped through the quacks.

Sorry.


Tigatron: Um, see Ravage?

Airazor: This one just didn't grab me, although no doubt I will curse this choice if I ever properly watch Beast Wars. Furthermore, I'm just not that fond of the base mould. I have Windblade, and she doesn't balance well.

Unit-3: Remember that issue with obscurity I was talking about in the introduction? Well, this dude is an example. He's based off an old, unnamed, Happy Meal toy known only as "Under-3"(3), via Combiner Wars Streetwise. As nice as that mould is in yellow, if you've indulged in Combiner Wars prior, you've probably brought this toy twice before. It doesn't exactly help that his new personality is a bit of generic badass.

The Magnaboss Sticker Sheet: Depending on how you look at it, this is either a cute idea, or a poor excuse with a somewhat cheeky inclusion. Magnaboss was the Maximal equivalent to (Tri)Predacus and this sheet would allow you to do up the mass market Prowl, Silverbolt, and Ironhide as their Beast Wars iterations. This adds some appeal to some otherwise meh toys, as well as giving someone for Tigertron and Unit-3 to combine with. What was a nasty surprise however, and I didn't find this out until I got home, this is where the eyes for Megatron's dragon heads are. Was this a last minute attempt to fix TM3 Megatron, or a ploy to sell the sticker sheet? We may never know.

Conclusion

Uhhh, draw your own? Or get Megatron and Reflector?

Foot notes

1. Long story.
2. Longer story.
3. Not a long story, the dude hardly exists.

Botcon 2016 Coverage: Hasbro Panel Video

Well, I took a video camera with me, and I decided to record the Hasbro display. So, please enjoy this shaky, noisy, and unedited footage from the event.

Botcon 2016 Coverage: Hasbro Display Images

As a Brit, its not often I get to see the new Hasbro product in person until after its been all over the internet. The UK is frequently two waves behind the USA, assuming waves don't get skipped, and I don't travel to big conventions like SDCC. So, the Hasbro display at Botcon has intensely interesting to me. Here's a photodump from the event.