Transformers Masterpiece MP-13 Soundwave review

Transformers Masterpiece MP-13 Soundwave review. #G1 #Transformers #Masterpiece #Soundwave

The war on Cybertron had taken its toll on the mighty Soundwave at the start of the year when he was ripped from the shelves in a fierce battle to own this fantastic Masterpiece edition remake. Thankfully he was able to rebuild and was rereleased in September when I managed to get my hands on him. I was pleasantly surprised when I still saw him in a few stores so I thought I would give you a quick review in case anyone is hunting him down.

Firstly for those that are unfamiliar with the MP range. They are rereleases of the original Transformers toys. However thanks to modern day technology they are in scale with each other and are very accurate to their animated forms. This Soundwave in robot form is the splitting image of what I grew up watching.

Soundwave stands at about 23cm and comes with his trusty companion Lazerbeak! Like the others in the MP range he has fantastic articulation and has a very solid build quality. The only down side is that there are some paint markings and defects in parts. However I can look past this because he looks amazing on my shelf with Lazerbeak.

If anyone is looking to pick this guy up or any of the previous or upcoming Transformers Masterpiece releases please let me know either via our Facebook page or message on Ebay and I will try my best to get you the best price.

New Lightsworn Duelist Set

Really A++ play mat and sleeves from the new Lightsworn Duelist set #yugioh #ygo #duelist

Image of the Lightsworn play mat and sleeves.

This has been a busy month for Yugioh OCG with the new booster, VJump announcements and now, the new Duelist sets. There are two versions, Lightsworn and Geargia. They both come with a deck, a booster, a sleeve box, a play mat and sleeves featuring their respective themes. I have only bought the Lightsworn one so far as I am hoping to make a Lightworn deck but having seen what's in this one, I'm probably going to pick up the Geargia one later.

Anyway, I am very impressed with the set overall but since most English players don't do OCG, I'm just going to skip to the mat, sleeve and box.

The play mat comes in a neat folded box and the sleeves aren't in any particularly special packaging haha.

The play mat is actually pretty impressive. It's a good quality, full sized mat featuring most of the Lightsworn members. Dimensions are approximately 14" x 24" x 0.08" - basically the same as the WoW TCG mats.

The Lightsworn mat in all its glory.

The sleeves are pretty much the same as other sleeves released in previous sets. There are 70 sleeves in the pack - nice to see they are keeping the same nice number for a 40 card deck, 15 extra and 15 side deck.

The set also comes with a long cardboard box for holding cards in general and has a flat plastic handle on top. I didn't make mines up so here's a picture from Konami. Lightsworn is Lightlord in OCG.

The cardboard card box.

As an aside, this set of merchandise comes with some cardboard Madolche deck boxes. They're just your standard freebie giveaway but I have a soft spot for Madolches so I'm still happy with them.

The front part of the Madolche deck box.

The back part of the Madolche deck box.

It goes without saying, I have some Lightsworn play mats and sleeves that are looking for a good home so if you are interested, please contact me. They are, of course, new and unused. You can use Facebook, eBay, Twitter, this blog etc and I'll get in touch with you. Happy dueling!

It's that time of the year at the Pokemon Center!

I want one of these at home!

The fuzzy material makes you want to cuddle them!

Fast forward to the festive season, here are our new starters in their Christmas getup! #pokemon #pokemoncenter #christmaspresent

One of my favorite Pikachu bags.

Maybe for that special someone?

Tins of cookies.

Awesome lamp featuring the Halloween Chandelure design.

I will get this one day...

Apart from the plushies, there are tins of cookies, lots of stationary (clear files, pens, calendars etc), mugs and straps. Oh Santa, could I just get a whole Pokemon Center for Christmas?

Pokemon X Y Super Music Collection

The new 4 disc Pokemon X Y Super Music Collection looks awesome and shiny! #pokemon #pokemonxy #xy #music

Here's the CD case!

It's also available on itunes but I picked up the hard copy from the Pokemon Center. If you had pre-ordered it, you get a bookmark freebie. There's 3 semi-transparent bookmarks that you pop-out from the holder.

A bit underwhelming...

The CDs were the piece de resistance!

Oooooh shiny!

Ooooooh more shiny!

The booklet has the track list, interviews with the sound team, map of Kalos, a brief write-up of the general story line, design sketches of the Kalos world and a small customization guide.

Best part of the booklet. It tells you where to buy the items and how much they are.

And the main part, the music, is fantastic. As mentioned by other people, it doesn't just contain the Pokemon X Y music but also the ones from Pokemon The Origin. It's a 3 hour 30 minute trip down Pokemon lane. You can find the full list of tracks at Bulbapedia.

This would make a fantastic Christmas present for a Pokemon fan, especially the ones who started with the original red/blue. Physical things in your hand always feel better after all ;) and this is no exception.

As requested, Pokemon Time merchandise

As requested, here are more detailed pictures of the Pokemon Time toys! #pokemon #pokemontoys #pokemonmerchandise

Pokemon Time Hard Cover for 3DS LL

Pokemon Time Hard Pouch for 3DS LL

It's basically pokemon drawn in a really stylized way so that they look kind of drugged up with huge eyes (reminds me of the Simpsons episode with the alien/Mr. Burns). You can see them pretty well on these 3DS cases. The clear one is a hard plastic case for the top and bottom of a 3DS (normal and LL version available). The other one is a somewhat hard-but-still-bendy zip-pouch for a 3DS LL. They come with a hard foam "adapter" so that it can snuggly fit a normal 3DS in it as well. There's a small pouch on the inside of the lid for games but I find it to be a bit loose so I never use it. It really should have had a small zip or elastic band. As it is, I almost dropped a game cartridge when I opened it up once.

Pokemon Time Deoxy Plushies

Of course, there are also Pokemon Time plushies. Most of them are about fist sized; they just released a whole bunch including Pikachu, Charizard, Squirtle and Deoxys. Some of the older ones are bigger, about 7", but they are quite hard to find now. My favorite is probably Teddiursa - the Pokemon Time style makes him look adorable.

I will skip over the stationary items; that's the pens, notepads and clearfiles (so many of those...). Actually the item that really caught my eye are these mugs. They come in these circular tins and the quality of the mug is pretty good. There are only 3 pokemon to choose from; I would have bought Ampharos if he was in his mega evolution form :)

Pokemon Time ceramic mugs of Ampharos, Gardevoir and Deoxy

Anyway, I recommend keeping an eye on the Pokemon Time items as they are quite a nice deviation from the normal Pokemon style and they cycle through different pokemon and different merchandise quite a bit.

We Love! Pokemon magazine and Pikachu Blanket

Gotta catch them all with this Pokemon XY commemorative 'We Love! Pokemon' magazine with a super cute Pikachu blanket! #Pokemon #Pikachu #Blanket

With the release of Pokemon XY a few weeks ago, this commemorative magazine 'We Love! Pokemon' was released in bookstores across Japan on the 31st of October! This would make a perfect Christmas present for that special Poke-trainer in your life! The magazine has interviews with various famous people about their own Pokemon game experiences. Perhaps the most fascinating part is the comparison of the game maps from each generation is well as the look of the main playable characters. The latter half of the magazine show cases up coming merchandise and also has some tutorials on how to draw the starter pokemon! Even if you can not read any Japanese the magazine is still a blast to flick through, looking at all the images and comparisons. 

The best part is the Pikachu blanket! For those just going into winter, what better way to spend your nights than being wrapped in this cute blanket around your shoulders, sipping some hot chocolate and playing Pokemon! The blanket is H53xW85cm and made out of nice soft polar fleece material.

Please check out the Ebay link if you are interested:  We love Pokemon!