Masterless: The Killing Joke

I finally hit the wall and when I crashed, the wreckage of my vehicle told me a joke. 

It showed me all the times I've played the fool's part. It gave me a punchline of just how mocked I was and how much I allowed it all to happen. It conveyed to me every single angle of my asinine way of thinking. 

What defined that sense of ideal? That honor? That need to make things right and to hold things together? Why was it so important to me that I kept ignoring the killing joke that was being told? 

I saw that wall, you know? I saw it coming a mile freaking away, but I didn't do anything to try and swerve out of the way. I guess I got used to being the one to make the move, the one to try, the one to always hold it all together... the person who was willing to reach out and try... all the time with everything and everyone. I guess there was a point that I didn't want to try and I just said... FUCK IT. 

The joke was on me and it really killed a part of me. And after I crawled out of that wreckage, battered, beaten, and thinking I'm a ghost... I realized that I'm still alive. When I came to the realization that if I go around these walls it would be the same people all over again... I laughed. I laughed so hard....

I haven't done this before..... and it's new. 

I gave up. Ha. I give up. Ha. And the funniest thing is... this feels right. 

.:The Blackest Night:.

11/23 - 11/26 

I said last year was my last... but I was a guest. A much-needed arsenal in a chaotic few days where people lost their damn minds. When nonsensical but fruitful needs to spend money for the sake of tradition takes over....

Why? Why did I do it? 

For some reason, it's part of the 'fun'. To stay busy. To remember that most of what I am thankful for this year is my constant need to continue on despite everything and everyone. 

Well, here's to the 'brightest days', then. 

Future

I've made up my mind. From here on out, a lot of my fandom based posts will no longer be posted here. I am going to be setting up my new place somewhere else... my own 'domain', so to speak. Since a lot of my previous reviews on fandoms are in this blog, I will keep this up for that reason; I'll be linking a lot of things here so I guess I can't really get around to getting rid of this thing. That and I might use this seldomly for thoughts or what not.

I'm going to delete my commission-based blog that does nothing for me.

Anyways, I don't get much traffic nor do I get readers here. I didn't really make an effort to reach out to people with this blog anyways so in the end, this was just a dead end blog.

Laters.

DC Icons: Supergirl Rebirth

I might be on a DC figure roll here, but let me just say that I am not building a massive army of DC Icons... just Harleys. BUT here we have another DC Icons in the form of Supergirl. NOW, I don't want to digress with my reviews on toys that much, but something happened between this figure leaving the BBTS factory and receiving it on my doorstep. So here's a link about that experience. Trust me, it's worth the read. Anyways, on to the figure.

The package is indeed similar to the Burnside Batgirl I bought earlier this year. And they do share a lot of similar qualities, both good and bad as I'll mention in this review.

And I have no intention of getting the rest of the figures in this set.

I think throughout the years, DC has struggled with Supergirl's costume. It's a fine line with giving her a 'feminine' look, while at the same time keeping the "Superman" influence alive. Sure they could have gone the easy route and just give Supergirl the same tights and let her curves do the talking, but... they decided to be bold and give her a skirt. That poses a problem (not for me, but... ya know):

Dandofuga

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This version of Supergirl was (I believe) was during Jim Lee's run with Supergirl, my favorite version of the Maiden of Might. While she gained a fan following, the problem is the flouncy skirt was going to give too many panty shots! So? How to rectify that? They really didn't. But I digressed. The costume we have here just made the boots longer and made it less of a 'cheerleader' look. While I haven't read the comic books, from images I have seen, this is a pretty accurate sculpt of Kara from Rebirth. She does look a little older with the face we get, but the body is quite nice. The cape, while not articulated, is soft and pliable, and it does have some dynamic look. 

The colors are quite nice. Though it might look bland, and it certainly is, the idea of this figure is to try and replicate her look in the Rebirth series, which from all the artwork I have seen, that comic book is not mean to be as vibrant or as 'flashy' as the New 52 or the continuity before it. My only real complaint is her hair. I think of Kara as having blond hair that sticks out a little bit. To have it so flat colored is a bit underwhelming. Still, the paint job is clean so I'll take it for sure.

You'll have to forgive the funny angle her heads are in! Due to the hair position, I can't get a good shot on these faces (that's why I do an upclose photo). She comes with alternate hands as well. Not a lot of accessories, but good enough. She also comes with this:

It's a transparent stand that does its job well enough. It has an angle and it can offer some levitating poses. Not dynamic flying poses, but it can do some cool things.

This is the first version of her face. Again, she looks a bit too calm and not as 'young' as I picture Supergirl. I think they were going for the TV series and the Rebirth look.

Her second head is more or less the same except that it has attachable heat-ray visions. Cool things to have since it offers a few more poses.

Articulation is mediocre. High mediocre and definitely passable. I was able to get some pretty good shots on her, so I'm not bummed out at all with what I got. Some are really classic Supergirl poses too. The one thing going for her is the giving material of her skirt, cape, and her hair (to an extent).

One thing I didn't try as hard was getting her into a flight pose that is every bit familiar a Kryptonian would do. Again, the neck barely allows her to look up and that cape of hers hinders her arms pointing in the direction a flying pose needs. The eyebeams are awesome though, but they are limited in what they offer. Still, glad to have them.

A good new design that is a happy medium. Passable paint job. Good sculpting. Standard articulation hindered by costume. Decent accessories. After the New Batgirl, I expected something more from this figure. But then again, that was a deluxe figure with a bike, this is the standard. For any Supergirl fan, this is probably a good grab. For casual fans, this is an easy pass. Still, this is the only Rebirth Supergirl figure I have seen so this might be a must unless we start seeing some more. I mostly consider this figure as a highly articualted statue. 

Some Consideration

I have been thinking quite a lot about a lot of things. I have been blogging for some time now and ... while I enjoy it, I haven't really feel "something" come out of it.

I might change things up.

This might actually turn into a 'masterless' page.

Who knows? I'm thinking. My mind is racing a 100mph thinking about different things, where things will go, and how I'm going to do this.

So many things opened my eyes.

Stay tuned. If there is anyone out here still.  

DC Green Lantern figures (Series 5): Soranik Natu

I'm not going to recite the Green Lantern's creed! I barely remember it since all the Lantern Corps' creeds are all mixed in! So with that said, here I am with a figure I have had in my collection for a long time! I decided to open her to give my DC shelf some ...  Light. Anyways, let's get on with the review.

It's a very classic packing. Cardboard and plastic, very reminiscent of the toy biz days. Well, nothing much to say about this box. Though there was a time where I was a big time War of Light fan. I was enamored with all the different Lantern Corps; I especially loved the Red, Sapphire, and the Blue.

Right off the get-go, this figure is awkward. Sculpt wise, it looks decent. It is a female figure and she has a pretty good and curvy frame. But it stands very awkwardly vanilla pose. Heck, it's even hard to get her on a good dynamic pose, but I digress. As I was saying she's made into a good looking figure, aesthetically. She has a decent and not ugly face.

And while this is not my favorite color combo, it's a good paint job on Soranik. The combination of pearlescent white, metallic green, and black really compliments each other, with the latter really making the brighter colors pop. I also like her skin color, definitely adds depth to the color scheme. Her Green Lantern insignia isn't as prominent as say, Hal Jordan's, but it's there. While this juxtapose is common in the Green Lantern mythos, the fact that is well done in plastic form definitely gives this figure a saving grace for me.

The only thing I'm going to say is... cool base. That's about the only noteworthy thing to say about the accessory department.

If you expect in-depth articulation from this gal, don't. It's an awkward sculpt and unfortunately that level of awkwardness carries over to her range of movements... or lack of. I know it's an older figure, but her articulation dates back to the days of 5-point of joint movements(okay, she has a little more, but the sculpt is once again a hinderance to make any of the swiveling useful)... that's 90s! Back when Toybiz was just crawling! Not really much to say about this.

"In brightest day, in blackest night

No Evil shall escape my sight

Let those who worship evil's might

Beware my power, GREEN LANTERN'S LIGHT!"

Okay, I did it. Since I only opened her to add some variation on my DC shelf, I think she serves her purpose. I didn't plan on having her in some dynamic pose so it works. I can't really say she's a bad figure when I had an idea of how she was going to be. But the sculpt threw me off; luckily her aesthetics stayed true outside her packaging! Anyways, happy collecting! 

Ghost of Tsushima

SO....

Some KEY things to pay attention here:
Ghost. Ronin. Samurai. Some DiD. Tragedy. Katana. Open World. People who were responsible for Infamous. PS4. 

This game has my apparition all over it! SO GETTING THIS!

Disney Showcase: Frozen Fever Elsa

Well, I did say I had a pretty cool souvenir from my Disneyland trip, didn't I? I wasn't going to leave that place without some kind of Elsa related figure! No way! This little beauty may not be my favorite Elsa dress, but she is still gorgeous and this is an OFFICIAL Disney product. So, let's check her out.

The box is nothing to gawk over.  It's pretty simple, concealing, and definitely not something that defines the work placed in the figure inside. But to judge this figure by the box is kind of asinine, to say the least. But it does offer some good protection for this fragile figure. So let's get on with it.

So just as a warning, I didn't use a lot of flash in these pics because it somehow made this figure look awful (most shots I took, anyway). So you'll see a lot of natural light at the time I took these pics.

Now, this figure is not like my common statue in my collection. It's delicate and no other purpose but for display. Now 'only for display' paraphernalia is not exactly out of the norm for me, but a very delicate figure is definitely something I don't usually have. But with that set in mind, that doesn't mean that this figure lacks in good sculpt. She's very well made and the details are not sacrificed. The posture is very Elsa like, and it's definitely something we've seen before (I'll definitely touch on that again). ALl the little details on her dress are all sculpted well and they definitely do their job defining this summer dress of hers.

Now as far as her colors, it's well done. But I did mention there was something odd about the coating that just makes her look unnatural with flash (or maybe I wasn't getting the right lighting and was too tired to get it right). But regardless, there are different shades of green to enjoy, her skin tone is just right, the pink flowers that are peppered all over her stand out. The only thing is her hair... seems like a lot of figures have a hard time getting that almost 'white' blonde hair right.

But she is pretty. It's not 100% accurate to Elsa, but it is recognizably Elsa, nonetheless. I love it!

Again, the posture is something VERY familiar. Something I'll touch on right now.

So the posture was definitely used before in the form of the SEGA Elsa. While Frozen Fever Elsa stands a bit more upright compared to her more 'sexy' posed SEGA Elsa counterpart, again, the idea is the same in regards to how she is standing.

Though I think the face on the SEGA Elsa is a bit more accurate (and prettier).

And here she is next to Treasured Collections Elsa. They share no resemblance in posture, that's for sure, but in terms of the type of collectible they are, they have a lot in common. Very fragile and not meant to be moved a whole lot. They're both in the same price range too (well, the SEGA Elsa became the same price range as well due to demand).

Would be cool though if they put her coronation dress in this same posture with the 'let it go' hairstyle. Hard to say which figure looks more like Elsa though and no, I'm not talking about just the hairstyle, but just the faces.... they both capture and not capture Elsa's features.

Kind of cool to see some of the evolution of Elsa. From very paranoid and kind of aggressive to I've-let-my-hair-down(literally), and to the Frozen Fever 'relaxed' posture.

Can't deny that this figure is still beautiful, even if this is not my definitive Elsa look.

One thing is missing though, that nice cut on her dress that shows some legs! Yes, I'm that perverted.

In conclusion, this is a good Elsa statue for those who are adamant Elsa fans like myself. Obvioulsy it's an easy pass, but for me, having visited Disneyland, I couldn't get off the magic without some kind of Elsa merchandise! Suffice it to say, this is a good addition to my Elsa shrine!
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