Literally just logged into Blogger and it remembered my account. Wild cause I havn't logged on here in almost 10 years, and not on this computer...wild. Maybe its time to post again, get the thoughts out of my head and on onto the internet for a bit. 

I'm still collecting, less so on Kamen Rider/Super Sentai (at least for the moment). Last Sentai I went hard on was Zenkaiger, got the changer, all the mecha, and all the main sentai gears (except 1). For Kamen Rider I went hard on Geats, got most of the main items. I bought the Belt for the next Rider, Gochard, which I liked but I didn't continue the show. Maybe i should try watching the new Rider Gavv.

During the pandemic I fell hard back into Transformers, the toyline Transformers: Earthrise started making figures using the classic G1 character designs that I grew up with, but obviously with modern engineering, and the ability to actually pose which many of the original toys couldn't do. Have been through a few years of toy-lines now: Earthrise, Kindgom, Legacy, Evolution, United, and now Age of the Primes. In addition to that I restarted my quest to get all the "main" Optimus Prime(s) and am surprisingly close to finishing them. Found my self collecting a lot of Bumblebees, a few Hot Rods, some toys from the Transformers: Animated line and Transformers: Prime. I also discovered the 3rd party transformers market.

Also went from collecting a few Marvel Legends occasionally for certain characters I like, to the giant X-Men cast I have assembled, and my many Iron Men. I try to be discerning now since I have most of the X-Folks I want in the costumes I want, but you never know, I didn't plan on getting 11 Iron Man figures either.

Video Games I continue to be woefully behind in. I recently started Balder's Gate 3 again and am going to try and stick with it since I have more of a DnD understanding now than I did the first time(I've been watching a lot of Dimension 20). I am playing a Half-Orc Barbarian named Hammer "Folk Hero" archetype. Trying to be a goodie goodie, not piss anyone off yet, but its still pretty early. Fighting goblins, and Harpies so far.

I started Dragon Age: Veilgaurd, but I'm not sure when or if I'll get back to it. It was a gift for my wife, but she got stuck and didn't like it because she thought it was too different from previous ones. Part of it is the Dragon Age games are the only modern games she's played, and I think this one skews a bit more to action than RPG. The game expects you be very defensive, limited health charges, adding a Dark Souls vibe.

I also finally got a new computer which should see me set for a while, I was still using the same computer that I posted from in 2013.

Its been a long time...

Update: I forgot I had a few unfinished reviews if the draft state that I will be wrapping up and posting as well. They will be posted as older reviews before this one.

I know it's old hat to report about it being a long time since I've posted, and anyone who is still reading at this point, my apologies. Life got busy and then I got behind on reviews I wanted to do, and then it was the old "now it has been too long" which just kept me from starting back up again.

But I have missed it, I just like getting my thoughts out in this manner when possible. Also having a record, and being able to go back to it and see what I was doing, and how I thought at the time. You know before the Fallout style Apocalypse happens and everything changes.

But onto other things....

My State of the Toku address.

-Kamen Rider-

I didn't realize it had been this long since I talked Toku toys, but since I last talked about Kamen Rider Drive stuff...I ended up getting just about everything. All the Primary Shift Cars and Weapons for Drive himself, and got my first Secondary Rider Belt in the Mach Driver (which is rad as hell). I just didn't get the Signal Axe or the Senrin Shooter, of the Signal Bike's that went with them. I ended up really liking Drive despite my tepid response at the start. Which is also being matched by my tepidness for Ghost, I just the main dude is kind of a wiener, but I think it's funny he ends up hugging all these people to get Ghost Eyecons. I do have the Ghost Driver and I think its rad, and have started getting some Eyecons. As I have more time to catch up on Ghost maybe it will grab me more than just how nifty the gear is.

-Super Sentai-

Sentai I have really dropped off since the end of Tokkyuger. I gave Ninninger a shot but it just didn't connect with me. I just wasn't a fan of the tone, in my opinion its wasn't as goofy enough or serious enough, and left me cold, also thought many of the toys were lame, which didn't help. Now that Zyuohger has started, I'm giving that a go. My first reaction is I don't find this years Red that tough, he comes off as kind of a wimp. Captain Marvelous(Gokaiger) and Daigo(Kyoryuger) were just so tough, they make these new guys look bad. This series is big into cubes, for the morpher and the mecha, so its even more blocky than usual and the changer doubles as a cell phone which I hoped we were done with for a while. But that's all I got from the first episode, so we shall see. I want to love another sentai show again, and I was hoping this being the 40th Anniversary show it would grab me right away.

State of the Games Address

Many games have happened, most notable from last year was Metal Gear Solid V, and Mario Maker which still has a grip on my soul. I loved both of those games, Put a lot of hours in MGS but still have so much to do, hopefully I will get back to it at some point...it just plays so damn good, and is so satisfying. Mario maker similarly plays just the way you want it to and the jumping/physics is so good. That game is so close to being perfect, they get closer with every update and addition. I also finally got around to playing the Tomb Raider reboot from a couple years ago. That game was fantastic, really enjoyed it, and tried to do just about everything in that game. Also I’ve burned through a lot of smaller games recently, Firewatch and Superhot. Firewatch had a great story, and good characters, I only wish the ending was as strong as the beginning. But that game gave me the creeps in a way i haven’t felt in a bit. Superhot’s gameplay

is really fantastic, I had a lot of fun with that, I’m sure I’ll come back to it from time to time to mess around and do some of the challenge rooms. I’ve got Rise of the Tomb Raider started but I need to get back to it. Also recently I’ve had an inclination to finally play Dragon Age: Inquisition, even though I know it is suuuper long. But just in general my backlog has never been longer new awesome games are around the corner at all times now. It has never been a more exciting time to play games. Things are changing and getting weirder with new hardware from possibly Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo all being seen really soon.

I hope to start doing more toy reviews, comic reviews, game reviews, etc. As well as some opinion pieces. As we all have strong opinions on things sometimes, and I need to get the thoughts out of me!

Toku - Kamen Rider Drive Shift Cars

The next one should have been a Pack of Wizard Rings, but there's just not much to really say about them, but they are cool.

But as it turns out I have been getting a bunch of Kamen Rider Drive Shift Cars. I still think that shift cars and how they interact with the Drive Driver + Shift Brace is pretty darn cool. I've just been getting all the DX Shift Car Packs. So I have 1-4 and the Shift Car Holder which comes with Funky Spike. They have all been reasonably priced, Pack 1(3 Cars) and the Shift Car Holder were around $18 each on Amazon, Pack 2-4(2 Cars a piece) were all less than $10 on Amazon.

- Funky Spike - Spiky Hotrod (Shift Car Holder)
- Justice Hunter - Police Car (Shift Car Set 1)
- Spin Mixer - Cement Truck (Shift Car Set 1)
- Massive Monster - Monster Truck (Shift Car Set 1)
- Dream Vegas - Fancy Limousine (Shift Car Set 2)
- Dimension Cab - Taxi Cab (Shift Car Set 2)
- Mad Doctor - Ambulance (Shift Car Set 3)
- Rumble Dump - Dump Truck (Shift Car Set 3)
- Fire Braver - Fire Truck (Shift Car Set 4)
- Rolling Gravity - Steam Roller (Shift Car Set 4)

Since the Drive Shift Cars don't have any electronics in them, they are a lot cheaper than the Gaim Lockseeds, which I like. Rumble Dump might be my favorite, cause its such a silly name.

By themselves the Shift Cars, other than looking different, have similar functionality. Part of the car can be flicked to "shift" the car into a mode so it can be used into the Shift Brace. Its very satisfying to do, its simple, and from time to time I'll just have one in my hand and just keep flicking it back and forth. Doing this also reveals the car's logo. They can also be used like toy cars, they all have movable wheels and roll pretty easily. They all have a pretty distinct look, Dream Vegas is all white with red 777 on the side and a handle similar to a slot machine, Rumble Dump is a bright transparent yellow plastic When used in conjunction with the Drive Driver it announces their name, displays their logo on the Driver, and they each have a signature music clip. Some of those are pretty cool, and they are all very distinct. Overall they are nifty, and cheap, and give my Drive Driver some cool stuff to say.

Toku - Kamen Rider Drive DX Trailer-Hou

For a while I stopped buying toys, first to save for my wife's birthday, then I didn't buy anything because vacation and my birthday was coming up, then I had to do a lot of traveling for work. Things have calmed down a bit now and my birthday was extremely fruitful. My wife is pretty amazing as it turns out, while she doesn't understand why I enjoy this stuff, she just knows I like it.

So for my birthday she got me the Kamen Rider Drive DX Trailer-Hou, loosely translated, the Trailer Cannon. The Trailer-Hou is the weapon Drive gets when he changes to Type Formula(a form based on F1 cars). Unlike the other two weapons Drive uses, which are based off of car pieces, Handle-ken(steering wheel) and Door-Ju(car door), the Trailer-Hou is kind of like a giant Shift Car. Instead of shifting to be used with the Drive Driver, it changes to a giant gun.

While speaking of Shift Cars, Trailer-Hou comes with the Formula Shift Car, so you can use it with the Drive Driver to shift to Type Formula, and unlock all the sounds that go with it. Trailer-Hou though a bit smaller than the one used on screen in the show is still pretty big, and very hefty for a toy. It's mainly blue to match type formula, and it has the names/symbols of all the shift cars on it, as if they were sponsors on a NASCAR. Its supposed to look like a semi truck, but illusion is broken by the end thats supposed to be the cab, but is also the handle of the gun, but over all it looks very good, and matches the look on the show perfectly. To shift it into gun mode, you hold the front end of it by the cab of the truck, there is a button there, you press and then can move the handle down and lock it there. Gun mode is where this thing really shines, as it has original sounds to go with every shift car and the two main signal bikes(mach & chaser). The only issue for me is all of these sounds are looooong, very heavy on the extended explosion sounds. But all of sounds for the various gimmicks are pretty cool. It has a port on the top, that accepts any of the cars/bikes/cores. To "charge up" the gun. It also has a port on the end of the barrel of the cannon with which to put a shiftcar/signalbike. That one is the reader port so you can get the different sounds. Once inserted then the voice will say the name of it with "-Hou" after it. Ex: Insert the Formula Shift Car it says "Formula-Hou"(Formula Cannon).

For the sheer amount of sounds this thing is cool, but it also looks cool. I just really appreciate how big it is and it feels hefty. Now I didn't pay for it so its hard to judge it on value. But it is currently at $60 on amazon with free shipping, which isn't a bad price at all considering the size of the package. So for that price I would definitely say its a good buy.

Toku - Kamen Rider Fourze Super Rocket Switch

To keep the Kamen Rider train moving along, next up is Kamen Rider Fourze. I got the last thing on my wish list from that show. My wife got me the Super Drill Switch last year, and now I finally bit the bullet and got the Super Rocket Switch.

I got it used on eBay for about $21 with shipping.

Its pretty simple toy like most of the switches, this is kind of an upgraded version of the standard Rocket Switch, Astro Switch #01 that comes with the Fourze Driver and like every lot of switches I've purchased online. But this one, Astro Switch #S-1 is much bigger, the part you press actually looks like a Rocket Booster. Now in the Driver is still activates the same sounds, so when you put it in the Driver is says "Rocket" but then is immediately followed by the Switch itself saying "Super". Which sounds cool, and the timing makes it have a nice effect. Its one of the hand full of electronic switches like N & S Magnet, Cosmic, and Fusion. Also when turned on the Belt says "Rocket On" and then the switch plays the Rocket States jingle which is a nice Rock and Roll riff.

Fourze was probably my favorite Kamen Rider series and the Fourze Driver is probably my favorite belt after my new CSM Decadriver as well. It just has so many sounds, and gimmicks, and of course the lever. Anything that gets me more out of that toy is great by me. It sadly didn't come with batteries since it was used, so I had to take them from the Super Drill switch, I havn't been able to use both at the same time yet. I think this might be my last Astroswitch, I have 1-40, Super Rocket & Drill, unless I stumble upon a cheap Meteor and/or Meteor Storm in my travels I think this is it for me.