Roughnecks the Starship Trooper Chronicles Volume 1

Recently Amazon has a sale on Sci-Fi DVDs so I decided to pick up a bushel of em, This is the first one i'll review.

Now I have fond if hazy memories of this series from way back in 1999. Now at first glance the CG has held up remarkably well, it looks as good as any other 100% CG shows of the genre you'd get today.

Now its based on the 1997 Paul Verhoeven movie, which in turn is based Robert A. Heinlein's 1959 novel of the same name. Its not a direct continuation but combined elements from both to make a more "Kid" friendly Saturday morning cartoon show.

The story follows a Mobile Infantry Unit "Razaks Roughnecks" During the war with the "Bugs" an insectiod alien race with genocidal intent towards Humanity.
The show tried to be true to an adult-oriented science fiction franchise without being too violent, mature or controversial for the age group it was aimed at Saturday morning cartoons, leading to to it not being watching by either age group during its inital run. Adults didn't know it was on to see and it was bit over the head of the audience in the time-slot.

But re-watching it again 10+ years later I find it very entertaining and very watchable, It's well written, voiced and the music is alot better that one would expect.

As in the original novels the Mobile infantry have much better technology that in the movies, such as Powered Armours, Mechs, Orbital Drop Pods and so on. Its got the same feel as the Battletech cartoon did, Sadly another show that was underrated as a "kiddy" show back in the day.


All in all its a very entertaining watch, for all ages kids will like the ships and aliens but there is plenty of story and character development to hold an adults attention also.

Definitely worth picking up, I will definitely be getting other volumes at my first oppurtunity.
Thanks for reading, See you next Post!

Iron Man 2 Review

Now, before we start I should inform you that I am a bit of an Iron Man Fan-Boy from way back.

From the second I saw the first trailer, I was counting the days until I could see it. I went in with big expectations. Some were a let down, some were not over all was entertaining as a movie. I’m not sure if it’s a worthy addition to the Iron Man mythos.

"Bad Mama-Jama"

First of all Mickey Rourke as Ivan Vanko, The Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash Amalgam was amazing. That guy sure has screen presence, his Russian was very convincing, but alas his screen time was a bit lacking. I feel he should have been there a bit more and the final fight was anti-climactic and cut short, but over all Ivan Vanko was a bad mama-jama! If they made a movie or just this guy duking it out with the Colonel from Avatar I would definitely pay to see it.

Tony Stark/ Robert Downey Jr was great, But if you seen Iron Man then there is nothing really new from him. I felt they needed more moments of Tony just relating to his friends, he spends almost no time with Rhodey or Happy, just fawning over Pepper! I would have liked them to explore his alcoholism a bit more. I thought Yes! they are doing it when they showed his blood toxicity level but it just turned out to be something else, and I would like less of the forced Tony/Pepper romantic relationship its just wrong, no chemistry and I don’t like it. In the comics she is fact married to Happy Hogan.

Virginia "Pepper" Potts/Gwyneth Paltrow, Now I don't know if she researched her role at all, but again she delivered a weak and awful performance. She comes across weak, unintelligent, ditzy yet somehow runs Stark International. While in the comics she is a much stronger character infact she was a the leader of a Super-Team for a while and even wore a suit of Armour designed by Tony.

"R.E.S.C.U.E or the Iron Pepper Armour"

James Rupert "Rhodey" Rhodes/Don Cheadle was a breath of fresh air compared to Iron Man 1, I didn't even realise until about half way through the first one that he was meant to be Rhodey and now just random military escort guy ferrying Tony around. Cheadle gave a much more convincing performance, I felt the actor was a bit too scrawny for Rhodes but thats just my opinion and that’s neither here or there, but can't tell since he was barely on screen at all.

Justin Hammer/Sam Rockwell Oh dear how where do I start on this guy. First of all in comics Justin Hammer is a much older man, the movie version is much younger to make him a more contemporary rival for Stark, but he is too young to be position he finds himself. ( some sort of military weapons manufacturer/Government contractor) Also Rockwell is terrible in this role, I hadn't heard of him before now and hopefully wont be hearing of him again. His performance was almost laughable at points. It would have been good if he was trying to be a parody but alas he was not . . . . I could probably fill an entire post just about his poor abilities in this role but I won’t ill just leave him here.

Natasha Romanoff/Scarlett Johanson Why does she have front line billing? Infact why is she even in the movie her character doesn't seem to fill any role and Johanson's acting was wanting to say the least. I kept expecting her to end each sentence with "Like You know, Whatever!" like the Queen Bee/Prom Queen stereo type thing in some high school teen movie. Again like Hammer was cast too young. Romanoff is meant to be a Russian super spy who defected and now is a super spy for S.H.I.E.L.D. The fight scene she has was like something from W.W.E or something, after the movie my wife and I were in Video Game store and saw a wrestling game and joked that if you defeat the game on hard mode you unlock Johanson as a playable character. At one point she kicks down a door it was so unconvincing her foot got barely above knee height.

"I am Iron Man"

Okay acting aside the visuals are great, the armours look great, they move great, they fight great, over all they are just great but that’s what we have come to expect so I won’t dwell on it too much, but one thing I will mention is the Mark V Briefcase Armour! I nearly fell out of my seat when they I saw it. It’s just one of the silly iconic things from the comics that I never thought would make it into a movie but was also short lived. One visual aspect I didn't like was all the deliberate product placement. Like the Iron Man kiddy mask and Posters in the background etc. it was just too much blatant advertising for my taste.

As the story goes there was no real tension and I didn't feel the characters were in peril at all, sure Tony got roughed up a bit and had the crap kicked out of him but It barely slowed him down so you didn't get a sense of danger at all really. But still the fights were entertaining. It did lay more groundwork for the upcoming Avengers Movie pencilled in for 2012 and references to the Captain America Movie coming out next year.

The climactic battle between Iron Man, War Machine and Crimson Dynamo/Whiplash was anything but and  kinda anti-climatic really, much too short for my liking.

Overall it was pretty entertaining and I would recommend it, It's not perfect and the things I mentioned above do take away somewhat but it’s a good summer movie.

So I will leave you with this.

Spoiler Alert below

One has to wonder why you would reveal your new super Mandroid weapons at a civilian science expo instead of a senate sub-committee, also why build 10 suits of Mandroid armour when they don’t work?

Also why do the normal Las Vegas PD or wherever they were Arrest Hammer? I mean on what grounds?
He didn't set the Mandroids loose, He didn't even know his crime was harbouring a Super Villain which is probably a S.H.I.E.L.D or federal matter so wouldn't agents of some sort be the ones to arrest him?

Anyway . . .

End Spoiler

So hope you enjoyed it, See you next Blog!

Lego Ben 10 Spider Monkey

Was browsing Amazon and came across Ben10 Alien Force Lego, and thought that would be great for my 6-year old nephew. So I ordered it had it gift wrapped and waiting for an opportunity to give it to him.

This is first real Lego type toy that you have to build yourself, so we were sure how he would react. Well to say he loved it was an understatement. I think he spent almost an hour just staring at the pictures on the box and running around showing it to everyone.
When we finally opened it he insisted on making it himself instead of the usual make me do it. When he was completed I don’t think he let it out of his hand.

Now to the actual review, I must saw this thing really took me by surprise. It looks great sorry I didn't have a chance to take pictures. The degree of pose-ability is crazy on this guy with 19 points of articulation all ball joints. He is also a great size too. Perfect for 6-year olds of any age to play with.

Also in the back of the instruction booklet there are images of combined aliens made from combining various other Ben 10 Alien sets, Or also you can just make your own and let you imagination run wild. It wasn't long before my nephew was rearranging his arm lengths.
So in closing I’ll definitely be getting more for him and will probably pick up one or two for myself.

You can’t go wrong with Lego.
Thanks for reading, click some ads while you’re here if you want and see you next blog!

More Ben 10 Lego

Speck iPhone 3G/3GS CandyShell - DarkHeart Black

Since I got my iPhone i've been concerned of it getting scuffed or dropped and breaking. So i've spent some time ooking for a decent case. Before I found this, cases were either gigantic leather coffins or shells that were basically a wafer thin and offered no protection.

The Speck Candy Shell offers both padding and protecting, while looking good and maintaining a relatiely small profile (no one wants a bulky iPhone). It has the outer shell, which is a hard plastic similar to the existing back panel of yor iPhone. The outer shell will protect it from sharp impacts, while a rubber inner ayer will absorb falling impact.

Its this combination that makes it stand out from other product seems to offer. Its either look pretty with no protection, or be totally padded at the cost of look.

Also packaged is a screen protecter. which is a thin plastic film that affixes over the screen. Now in theory its great, prevents scratches, dust and other particulates from damaging your touch screen. In practice its something different, while yes it does offer the protection its like looking at your screen through a venetian blind, and its finish is rough and not comfortable at all. I couldn't remove it fast enough.

The Candy Shell itself does offer a degree of protection for your screen. The case forms a lip around the edge of the phone. keeping it raised so it wont directly touch any surface its laid face down on.

It does look very nice and comes in a vast array of colour combinations. So there will be one for everyone out there, infact it was Voted "Best of Show" at Macworld 2009 by iLounge.com and iProng.com.

All in all its a fairly robust and would easily absorb most impacts that would result from normal day to day activity, I wouldn't risk lobbin' it off the roof or anything but you get the idea.

So i'd really recommend it for all iPhone users.

See you next time.

Other Speck Candy Shell Cases

Gundam Unicorn SD Review

Preordered This before christmas and forgot about it. Then a few days ago it arrived in the mail. Now I haven't built a model like this in years, but have always been a Gundam fan.

Now this is the SD version of the Unicorn Gundam from the new OVA series just released, Which I will probably be picking up soon anyway.

Now this little guy has three modes! Normal Mode, Destroy Mode and "Beast Mode". Beast mode is special for this model and doesn't follow the OVA.

Now he comes totally disassembled on his three plastic sprues, one sticker sheer and one rub-on decal sheet. The parts come off the sprues with little to no hassle, not leaving any discoloured stress marks.(which is nice)

Assembly instructions are simple and easy to follow. you assemble him in sections, head, arms, legs, torso, pelvis, shield and beam saber.
Probably best to apply stickers and decals before you assemble him.

one a side note, be careful with the sides of his head, I had the on reversed when I was applying one decal before i realised. So the left side of head has upside down decals . . .


Once individual sections are put together, its simple to snap all the joints inplace, And I  have to admit he does look pretty good.

Transformation is pretty simple, Reverse his head, open unicorn horn, pull on arms to open chest, and flip down pelvis flap and there you go, from Unicorn mode to destroy mode!

Now beast mode is a little gimmicky and tacked on, kinda like there were playing with it at and said oh thats kinda cool lets make that a feature, Although if you have two models one can ride on the other ones beast mode if you like that sorta thing.

Well that rounds up this review, As my first SD Gundam he is very impressive and will probably pick a few more sometime. I'd definately recommend him to Gundam fans and non Gundam fans alike.

I've included a few pictures of the finished results. Enjoy

Behold! Gundam Unicorn!

Reveal! Destroy Mode!

Arise! Beast Mode!

See you next Blog! Same Blog time, Same Blog Channel

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