THIS WEEK'S TOY REVIEW; SIDESHOW'S SNAKE EYES FROM THE 1/6 G.I.JOE LINE!!!

Welcome to another toy review! This week we're looking at the fantastic job Sideshow Collectibles did with an item from their newly aquired G.I.Joe properties... Snake Eyes!!

Front of box and attractive 5 panel packaging design.

Upon first glance when opening the 5 panel box, you get the idea that Sideshow were going for a realistic enterpretation of a military soldier, if Snake Eyes were real that is. One end of the packaging is devoted to the ordinance and equiptment Snake Eyes carries..and there is alot here! The other side holds the figure, plus multiple hands for weapons and equipment. The scale of this figure is 1/6 (or 12" tall) and I'd say everything is perfectly scaled to the size of this guy! The panels are used very well with Art of the character. And on the inside, a bio of the mysterious character, usually knowned as "classified", has been included because alot is unknown about this military hero. And givin a nice "military files" style bio with everything labeled "classified" adds to the mystique of the legendary soldier. The packaging is, as always with Sideshow, Amazing! Right down to the magnetic clasp so the panels close tightly and securely. The Art and logo is reminiscent of the old action figure packaging of the 80's Joes, which is a good thing, because aside from the visor on Snake Eyes' noggin, the trademark swords, and the Arishakage symbol Snake Eyes is associated with, the comparasons end here. This isn't Snake Eyes from the 80's. It's better!

This is the FIRST figure in a new line of realistic military enterpretations of famous Joes and infamous baddies! The pieces and extra's Snake Eyes is packed with will make any military figure collector happy and I hope they continue that with the other figures they plan to release. Complete with A base(to stand the figure on display..he stands perfect on his own though)realistic weapons that piece together like the real thing, all painted to look even more real. There is an extra pair of boots and multiple hands for differant uses which I will get into later. The thing about Snake Eyes is that he's a quiet assasin. Along with training in multiple hand to hand combats that pertain to military close qaurter combats and secret black ops missions, Snake Eyes here is also a trained Ninja! That's right, he trained with a secret clan of ninja called the Arishakage. Which is why he wears their symbol on his weapons (and in the comics and cartoon he has the symbol tatooed on his left forearm). So the inclusion of a Ninta~to fighting blade, a ninja like bootknife and a ceremonial ninja sword (apparently given to him by the ninja masters) makes perfect sense. He's a quiet assasin with all the tools of a ninja, but he also has some heavy duty weaponry...but not too heavy.

Snake Eyes is equipt with a SPEI harness rig, which has all the pouches, harness attachments and clips to carry ALL of his gear. And it looks awesome on the body that was used. My only real beef with the figure is that the body, as articulated as it is, may be a tad bit too small. You can't really tell here because I "beefed up" Snake Eyes at the biceps, shoulders, chest and back with cotton balls haha! Just to give him that EXTRA muscle to his otherwise skinny frame. And it looks fine now! =D The uniform is great! The pants have multiple pockets and have intergrated knee pads. The head is a perfect size. Sometimes these figures come out, and the head is either too small or too big! Not in this case. Even with his protective visor, the size looks just right. I would have preferred that the visor could be movable (It hangs a little too far below the nose area), but it's not really a big deal.

Included in Snake Eye's gear are a set of black ops type utility bands complete with counters and time pieces embedded in them. I mean if Snake Eyes is racing against time to save the world, he needs to know how much time he has left to do it in right? Right. They're very detailed, you can actually read the numbers on the watches. Fancy stuff!

The MK-23 here is a light weight 45. Caliber pistol complete with a silencer, a 20 round magazine, and a laser guided sight, which all fit together nicely.




And that MK~23 fits nice and snug in a holster which is apart of the SPIE harness rig Snake Eyes is wearing. There's even a pouch for the silencer. Very cool!




Here's the boot knife I was yapping about earlier. And it fits perfectly in the knife sheath on Snake's boot in the pic below.




Snake Eyes comes with a handful of unique grenades which have differant purposes, and there is a place for all of them in Snake's harness pouches. The "Frag" Grenades (above)fit into a dropdown pouch on Snake's side. And the smoke grenades (seen below) fit in a pouch on the belt harness. Theres one extra pouch, maybe he can fit some sandwiches in there. I don't know about you, but when I perform secret military missions, I get hungry along the way! ...Sandwich pouch it is.



The magazines are plentiful, but again, there is a place for them on the human weapon known as Snake Eyes. There's 2 extra 20 round mags for the MK~23 and also 4 extra 80 round mags for the Sub-machinegun 9mm UZI (Which we'll look at in a bit) and you have to be careful with these because they are actually a bitch to get into the harness rig pouches! The sharp edges of the mags dig into the polyester pouches and can potentially rip them! So be careful. But eventually they fit fine!(pictured below)




Theres a grenade bandelier (which hangs across Snake's chest~just like in the cartoon I might add haha!) And this grenade bandelier is attached to the sword carrier which ends up on his back(2 pics down)

This is the Ninja~to sword inserted into the sheath and carrier(you can see the Arishakage symbol on the blade close to the handle..VERY nice touch sideshow!)

This is what the grenades look like across his chest along with the sword carrier, doesn't look to bulky or out of place at all. And is a nod to the old figure, very nice touch!


Here's the 9mm UZI sub machine gun I was talking about. It's the only "heavy weapon" Snake Eyes has (and even the UZI is actually light weight, so it works fine for the character) It has a nice folding stock, a strap and an nifty silencer supressor on the nose...we need to do things quietly on special missions, this will definitely do the trick!

And the UZI clips onto the SPIE harness and hangs over the shoulder and under Snake's arm for quick use.(pictured below)

This is the ceremonial "gift" I was talking about earlier from snake's ninja trainers.....looks like a freakin' Machete!!! lol! Either way it looks nice, again it sports the Arishakage symbol near the handle, and fits nicely on the back with the other sword!

OK ..here is a gun I added to ol "Classified" here. It's a BIG gun, I like to have my soldiers displayed with big guns....I don't know if that's just a male thing or not, I dunno...It looks great with him though! =D It's even got a working light on it for that extra point of realism!

See? Working light! Now he can work in the dark.. oh sorry, he has night vision in his visor...I'll shut up now =P

But like I said, He looks BAD ASS with that carbine machine gun along with the rest of his gear!

Snake Eyes just looks like the guy YOU would want on your side if you were going to war with high tech terrorists and one guy who wears a steel dome over his head and calls himself Cobra....nevermind...long story....

The gear works very well for the character. I can't stress enough about the accessories added with collectibles sometimes that have no use, or no place on the character. Sideshow got everything right, the uniform, the harnesses and weapons all correlate to a soldier equipt for light wieght weaponry, sneaking missions, and low profile deployment. He has just enough weaponry to make ALOT of damage against whoever he has to go through, and still do it all quietly, without being noticed or even seen.

The last items I'll address are the extra boots. These work very well because there are some poses that call for "bent toes" . Weather he's crouching, or leaning somewhat into a particular direction, they are an added bonus, making the poses look more natural and relaxed.(pictured above and below)

Overall, this is a solid figure from Sideshow. The only real problem I had with it was the size of the 30+ point body they went with. They could have easily used a bulkier body and it would have given Snake Eyes a more imposing quality as far as muscular physique. Again this is something that can be fixed if one would be willing to do so. You can even go a step further and switch the body out for a beefier one, you can do that with sideshow/hot toys/bbi/dragon figures, they're pretty versatile. What I loved were the little details Sideshow decided to use, such as the symbology associated with his ninja clan, the black ops/ NATO issue weaponry, the harness and load-out pouches, and the overall look of the figure...was all done top notch! This is an Awesome figure for any G.I.Joe fan or military figure collector because again the detail in this is astounding! Supurb packaging, articulation, accessories, and paint ops. I give this figure a 9 out of 10. A better body would have given Snake Eyes here a perfect score, but it really comes down to the essence of the character and they captured it flawelessly! When you see this guy, you know exactly who it is if you are a G.I.Joe fan like I am, and that gets it huge points..;)

Deadsurfkiss, over and out

TRANSFORMERS INDUCTED INTO THE TOY HALL OF FAME!!

Well what can I say? I'm old enough to know that toys are just for kids (but are they really? ;D)
and to ignore the impact of one particular brand would be sacrilege against my own childhood. Some of these toys made such an impact on our childhoods that it helped us live out our imaginations as children. Helped us use our minds that other things simply couldn't do for us, they helped us to dream! As an adult, I'm happy to say they still do that! One notable toyline invokes images of giant robots that change into cars or jets or even cassette players to use as a disguise! And these amazing toys changed those who enjoyed them forever!
yes, I'm talking about TRANSFORMERS!

Original G1 Transformers Cartoon which debuted in North America in 1984.

They've come along way over the last 25 years and exuded a success that is literally unrivaled. I mean us boys had G.I. Joe and Starwars and all sorts of other things to mess around in the sand box with..but the one thing that we all enjoyed were the cars and jets and trucks that changed into our favorite robots, that most of us still know them by name today! It was a toy that soon became a cartoon and had millions of us trampling over each other, bashing each other over the heads with our lunchboxes to get home in time to catch it! It then became a popular Marvel comic book, it became a theatrical animated release, it even became our bedsheets and pillow covers and toothbrushes! Transformers was everywhere...and it still is here to stay!

Transformers #1 Published by Marvel Comics.

After 25 years, Transformers spawned dozens of toy lines, comic books, and cartoons that continue the battle between the Heroic Autobots and the evil Decepticons. And the great thing is that all the main characters from years back are still an important part of the lore! Fan's excitement reached a feverish pitch in 2006 when it was announced that Transformers was coming to the big screen. A movie so exciting, and successful that the fans demanded more after seeing it! As soon as the film was release, work on Transformers II Revenge of the Fallen was underway and should be released sometime this summer with extremely high anticipation!

Autobot leader Optimus Prime from Micheal Bay's 2006 movie TRANSFORMERS.

TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN 2009

So, where did all this come from you ask? From a toyline that was once only available in the country of Japan! The north american toy giant HASBRO had made a deal with TAKARA japan to sell the toys over on our shores. With new names, and looks, the original 20 robots or so, eventually expanded into hundreds! And with the popularity came the story. People wanted to know "were they came from?"

Original Optimus Prime Transformer toy from Takara/Hasbro line of 1984.

The cartoon told a story about a race of robots(Autobots) that went to war with another alien robots, the Decepticons. Once living in peace, the Decepticon leader Megatron, along with his "trusted" allies Starscream and Soundwave, orcastrated a war with the Autobots. After thousands of ages, the Autobots, lead by a risen leader Optimus Prime, leave the planet Cybertron, in hopes of establishing help to regain their home world. The Decepticons followed them! Bringing thier war to planet Earth! After millions of years they wake in our modern age. And the wars starts again. But these alien robots have the ability to "scan" technology for a disguise. Being on a new planet, with new technology, both warring factions use earth vehicles as disguises. The stakes are higher this time around. The Autobots know this is OUR planet, so the Autobots now have a reason to fight, to save us!

Decepticon Starscream from Transformers Revenge of the Fallen

I can't say how happy I am about the Hall of Fame Induction because it tells me what I've thought all along! Transformers were and always will be the greatest toy ever!

These are pictures from some of the best lines Transformers has to offer. Transformers Alternators ( which utilize realistic vehicles and licenses) and Transformers Masterpiece Editions which focuses on the characters from the G1 (generation one) Cartoon but adds more sophistication to them. At the end there is a handful of pictures of some fan~made Transformers showcasing some peoples talents as well as thier love of Transformers.

And finally, the last photo set is of a brand new Transformer from the Transformers II Revenge of the Fallen film! It's a spoiler so you may wanna skip it...I'll leave a warning so you 'll know where it is!

Here's a look at the TRANSFORMERS ALTERNATORS line(also called BINALTECH in Japan)

Autobot TRACKS in 2008 Chevy Corvette C5 Z06 and robot modes. Hasbro 2006.

Decepticon DEADEND in 2007 Dodge Viper SRT car and robot mode.Hasbro 2006.

Decepticon DECEPTICHARGE in 2006 Honda S2000 car and robot modes. Hasbro 2006.

Autobot leader OPTIMUS PRIME in 2006 Dodge Ram SRT-10 150 truck and robot modes. Habro 2006.

Autobot GRIMLOCK in 2007 Ford Mustang GT car and robot modes. Hasbro 2007.

Autobot HOUND in Jeep Wrangler and robot modes. Hasbro 2005.

Autobot JAZZ in Mazda RX8 and robot modes. Hasbro 2007.

Autobot MIRAGE in Ford GT concept model and robot modes. Hasbro 2006.

Autobot PROWL in Acura RSX police model and robot modes. Hasbro 2007.

Decepticon RAVAGE in 2008 Jaguar XK and beast mode. Hasbro 2008.

MasterPiece OPTIMUS PRIME and Subaru Impreza RED ALERT variant.Hasbro 2004,2007.

Autobot RODIMUS PRIME in 2006 Ford GT concept model and robot modes.Hasbro 2007 San Diego Comicon Exclusive.

Decepticon RUMBLE in Honda Civic Si car and robot modes. Hasbro 2008.

Decepticon SHOCKBLAST(a.k.a. SHOCKWAVE) in Mazda RX8 and robot modes.Hasbro 2007.

Autobot SIDESWIPE in 2006 Dodge Viper SRT car and robot modes. Hasbro 2005.

Autobot SKIDS in 2007 Scion xB car and robot modes. Hasbro 2006.

Autobot SILVERSTREAK Subaru Impreza WRX car and robot modes(BLUESTREAK WRC rally car variant also shown) Hasbro 2004.

Autobot SMOKESCREEN Subaru Impreza WRC rally car and robot modes. Hasbro 2004.

Autobot SUNSTREAKER Dodge Viper SRT car mode. Hasbro 2005.

Autobot SUNSTREAKER Dodge Viper SRT-7 car and robot mode.(black Viper decepticon DEADEND)Hasbro 2005.

MasterPiece Megatron MP-05 in robot and Walther P.38 gun modes. Takara 2008.

MasterPiece Starscream in robot mode (Cartoon Edition).Takara 2007.

MasterPiece starscream in robot mode(Japanese edition)

Masterpiece Ultra Magnus (MP-02) robot and Semi Truck modes. Takara 2005.

Below are fan~made kitbashes of Alternators from the story "Dead Within"

Optimus Prime Robot and Dodge Ram truck modes.

Mirage Robot and Ford GT concept modes.

Optimus Prime close-up and detail work (Masterpiece Optimus Prime was used)

Autobot Skids detail work (Skids Alternator was used)

Below is a fan~made rendition of Arcee, the female autobot (a RoadBot body was used!)

Arcee with hood, doors and trunk open.

Arcee in robot mode (the beautiful head sculpt is from scratch!)

Below is a fan made design of the Decepticon SnakeBite (SilverStreak was used)

SnakeBite in Subaru Impreza and Robot mode!

Custom Smokescreen by Simonster70, Subaru Impreza and robot modes.

ActionMaster Autobot Kickoff custom Mazda RX8 and robot modes.

(((((((((SPOILER ALERT)))))))))

SNEAK PEAK AT NEW TRANSFORMERS REVENGE OF THE FALLEN TOY BELOW!!!

This is the vehicle mode for our mystery Transformer from Revenge of the Fallen!

And the Transformer is.........................

...... MEGATRON!!!!!!

This is Megatron's brand new look for the returning Decepticon leader this summer!

Thanks everyone for reading my Tribute to one of the greatest toy lines ever created, hope you enjoyed!!!

Deadsurfkiss

Alternators/Binaltech photos courtesy of http://www.siebertron.com/

Megatron, Starscream, Ultra Magnus masterpiece photos courtesy of http://www.flashout.net/

Arcee Alternator custom created by Kyle Robinson, pics courtesy of http://www.figurerealm.com/

Battle damaged/zombie Skids, Mirage, Optimus prime masterpiece and alternator customs created by The TransTorchure, pics courtesy of http://www.figurerealm.com/

G1 vintage smokescreen custome created by Simonster70, pics courtesy of http://www.figurerealm.com/

Actionmaster Autobot KickOff custom created by Massprime, pics courtesy of http://www.figurerealm.com/

Megatron (ROTF) pictures courtesy of http://www.ft080.net/