Musings of an Inkd Geek

My latest purchase arrival was HAF Evolution Toy Redman special dark variant. Supposedly only a limited number of these black variants were done. Redman is a figure from Tsuburaya that was broadcast as part of a children's variety show. He basically would fight a bunch of mostly Ultra kaiju (usually worn out or cheap looking costumes). There are episodes/clips available on YouTube, it's really quite funny. This is my 4th HAF Evolution Toy figure, and this one, like Spectreman and Fireman, is well done. No overly wonky articulation, nothing fell apart. It's a nice looking figure. The black really stands out (the original Redman is, you guessed it, red). He also comes with quite a few accessories as well. You get 5 pairs of hands, with one extra single hand, an extra pair of antennas, and a dagger and a sword-like weapon with a cross. The articulation is standard for their tokusatsu heroes, with the movements at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, torso, lower w...

Emotional. That's the 1st word that comes to mind when I think about Avengers: Endgame. There were so many emotional scenes throughout the film. It plays like the swan song / last hurrah of the original Avengers team, and ends their stories in satisfying and surprising ways.  The film begins on a somber note. The survivors are dealing with grief and despair, at the same time trying to keep order and hold the rest of the planet together in the aftermath of Thanos' snap. These scenes are well done, with some exceptional performances from Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans.  * SPOILERS BEGIN FROM THIS POINT*               Tony is stuck in space with Nebula. Clint (Hawkeye) lost his family in the snap. Back on Earth, Cap, Natasha, Roadie, and Bruce are assessing the damage. Captain Marvel has joined them and she goes into space to rescue Tony & Nebula. They figure out where Thanos is at and go after him to...

So I finally finished watching season 1 of the Netflix Ultraman anime. The first thing I can say is that after the MASSIVE letdown that was the Godzilla anime trilogy, this was miles better! I know that several old school fans complained that it was basically like an updated version of Iron Man (with the heroes encased inside the armor suits), however, I didn’t mind that at all. I figure that they needed to update the show in order to make it appealing to mass audiences, as well as anime fans. I felt they did a good job in making it a continuation of Hayata’s story, this time focusing on his son Shinjiro.   It begins years later after Ultraman left the earth. Hayata is now much older. He soon discovers that his son possesses the same abilities that enable him to be an Ultraman. Ide recruits Shinjiro into the science patrol to fulfill his destiny of becoming an Ultraman.   In addition to Hayata and Ide, it also brings in Dan Moroboshi, who plays a bitchy...

The Conjureverse, which began on a high note with the first Conjuring film, has now, 5 films into the series, begun to go downhill. This latest film is connected to the shared universe through the character of Father Perez (Tony Amendola), who appeared briefly in Annabelle.     This movie tries hard to duplicate James Wans’ style he used to great effect in Insidious and the first 2 Conjuring films, and it fails miserably. What we get is a stupid movie with a predictable story, filled with characters who make dumb decisions and don’t communicate, cheap jump scares that are telegraphed miles away, and no effort to create atmosphere or build tension. It feels more like a lazy cash grab to try to adapt a Mexican story told by generations to try to make a quick buck.   Anyone who’s latino grew up with stories of La Llorona. I was told that she had dropped her kid in a lake and they drowned, so if you hear her crying at night, it means that she’ll get ta...

My latest purchase was the Bandai Shodo Ultraman 3 Candy toy set. This one comes with Ultraseven, Ultraman Gruebe and Jugglus Juggler, as well as a jet from the Ultra Garrison, a warehouse building, a skyscraper, small set of buildings and stand.   My set was a 10 pack, so I came with an extra jet, extra warehouse, Ultraseven and Jugglus Juggler, both with their accessories.   I own several Bandai Shodo Ultras and sets, but so far I don’t own Ultraseven, Jugglus or the newer Gruebe, plus the jet and buildings are always nice extras to have for displays/background cityscapes.   These sets are smaller candy toys, pretty well articulated, with extra hands and accessories. One thing to note is that sometimes the joints can be a bit loose, especially in the legs.       Ultraseven comes with 3 extra pairs of hands, plus one holding his eye slugger and another firing his wide shot. His eye slugger can also detach fro...

 I finally got my hands on an S.H. Figuarts Alien Mefilas. He's a few years old and I'd been wanting one for a while. I now own every villain they released from the original Ultraman show (well, minus the 3 figure Alien Baltan shadow clone set, but I own the regular Baltan release and that one is just fine).  For accessories, Mefilas comes with a pair of fists, a pair and curved hands and one open gripping hand. Not sure why they only released the one open hand instead of a pair. There's also a pair of fists attached to a blast effect, a stand for it, and an extra Ultraman hand with a shredding halo weapon (aka the Ultra Slash).  I'm pleased that it fits my Ultraman type A, I wasn't sure if it would as I think it was initially meant for the type C or 50th box set releases. So now my Ultraman type A has another weapon. Now the one thing I will note is that getting the hands with the effect part into the pegs on the arms is kind of a pain. I ha...