Sunday, June 14, 2009

Stormriders Baby Fung Wan (Lego lookalike) figures set




Recently I acquired a Baby Fung Wan (also known as Stormriders) figures set based on the popular Hong Kong comic. I believed these figures are quite old. I got it for 50% discount in a comic shop in Pudu. I got Set C, which features both heroes from the popular chinese comic series - Lit Fung and Bo King Wan in their 'evil version'. This is the ONLY set that features both heroes together. Also included is the For Kei Loon, sorry can't translate that in English. It's a Chinese mythical creature that looks like a dragon with 4 legs. In the Stormrider story, this creature is on fire!
I've always liked the art in this Hong Kong series and unfortunately I can't read Mandarin, so I only watched the movie and the recent cartoon for the story line. Years ago, I would pester my wife to read the novel and then ask her to relate the story to me...
A quick description about the figures. They are like Lego or Kubrick, but I think these figures came out earlier than Kubrick..anyway I am not sure. Both figures comes with their signature weapons. Then there's the fire creature which looks kinda cute. Also included are bases for both figures. I checked eBay, couldn't find any of this set, so couldn't gauge the value. What I found was the more common set A, which features Lip Fung, selling for USD25.


Saturday, June 13, 2009

KFC Transformers Premiums





Transformers fast food premiums now available at KFC. It offers 4 characters - Optimus Prime, Bumblebee, Ironhide and Starscream! Unlike the 2007 Burger King Transformers premiums, these toys are transformable! And they are very easy to transform, even my 3 year old kid can do that! Except for Starscream, they all look good in their vehicle mode. Starscream had 2 hands sticking out in his jet mode..looks weird. But when transformed, Starscream is the best in robot mode. Optimus is the worst, his body is bent in robot mode and his robot face is just ...not like in the movie one. Bumblebee and Ironhide looks ok, both face and robot. An interesting note, their packaging all come with a hologram Hasbro logo.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

Optimus Prime Leader Class Comparison

The Transformers fever is here again. Scalpers once again wallop all the Bumblebees and a couple of nice figures i.e. Sideswipe, Fallen (which is supposedly rare) off the shelves of departmental stores. And yes, that idiotic collector who ripped toy box and cards had done it again...this time he ripped off the box of The Fallen figure! Many collectors that I know would agree that nowadays, toys are hardly rare, especially Hasbro toys. Very soon, you will find repacks, cinema packs, exclusives and all kinds of excuses to re-issue the figures! Just look at the Ultimate Bumblebee, it has gone through 3 packaging variant and now with Revenge of the Fallen packaging, the figure is now updated with battle helmet! Where got rare one?


Actually I would like to talk about Optimus Prime. Earlier I didn't want to get the Leader Class Optimus Prime because I thought it was a re-issue. But to my surprise when I saw the figure, it was kinda new figure with new gimmicks. So I got one. Here's a very brief comparison between the 2007 movie Prime and the 2009 movie Prime.
The new Prime is leaner, and in my opinion, a more movie accurate version. The previous Prime is more bulkier. The new one have Mech Alive gimmick which supposed shows the 'moving mechanism' when transforming. It comes with 2 energy swords. The 2007 Prime comes with blaster (or energy sword and movie accurate head for the Premium series). Both old and new Prime features eclectronic sounds and phrases. Looking at the picture, you can see that the new Prime body is much more proportionate and not so 'squarish/blocky' like it's predecessor. Even the tyres on the waist are not laid straight, quite movie like. Hasbro did a great job in this one. However, I haven't open it up and play..so can't say much about durability and transformation yet but the 2009 Prime sure look fantastic! This guy is selling fast but you can still find him ...as of now..