Transformers Prime Beast Hunters Predacons Rising Abominus.

Dear god that's a mouthful, isn't it? The Predacons Rising sub-line must have one of the longest names in Transformers history. Exclusive to Target in the US, and Tesco in the UK, it mostly consists of repaints. This is probably the jewel in the crown of this wave for me. Abominus, like the names suggests, is a modern re-imagining of the classic G1 combiner team the Terrorcons. unfortunately the name has been used for the Dark Energon zombies in the Prime line, so they're generic Predacons this time around. I can live with that though. The toys themselves are Cyberverse Legion class, the smallest that Hasbro currently put out. Despite that, there's a lot to like about them. This is a box set of all five team members, packaged in combined Abominus mode. I'm not normally one to get excited about packaging, but Hasbro have done quite a good job of this one. If anything, the box is a bit too big, with a lot of dead space. The environmentally concerned hippy in me dislikes this, but the nerd in me rejoices at the fine aesthetic choice. So, Abominus then. The major difference between this version and the individually packaged figures is the plastic, which is translucent for this release. It has the effect of making Ambominus look like he's made out of gummy bears. It's not a bad thing, though, and the colour choices are quite good, staying faithful to the G1 source. The translucent plastic actually looks a lot better to my mind. It does take some fiddling to get Abominus into some good poses, but it is possible. It's definitely a toy that looks a lot better in hand than in pictures on the internet, and has quite a loft of character. The individual weapons combine to form a large rifle thing that can be held in Abominus' right hand, adding an extra dimension, although the suggested configuration in the instructions doesn't work with mine,leaving a hammer left over. I'm also not overly impressed with the the head. It definitely feels too small, although that probably has a lot to do with the limited nature of the size class. Individually, the figures are incredibly faithful to the G1 Terrorcons. I have to admit at this stage that I've always loved their designs. The idea of monstrous Decepticons is such an obvious one that I was overjoyed as a child to see it followed through. Each figure here is pretty much a straight update of the original, complete with the original colour palates. Someone somewhere has a lot of love for the Terrorcons! It's a shame that the names had to be changed for trademark reasons. Sinnertwin has always been one of my favourite Transformer names ever. Overall, this is a pretty decent set, and at the current Tesco sale prices is well worth the money. I prefer the translucent plastic on this set, which is just as well as I've only ever seen two or three of the individually packed components on sale here in the UK. A few final points. The individual moulds will be seeing some further use in future, with several being repainted for the the Predacons Rising Legion two-packs. There's a recoloured Japanese version too, released as Goradora in the Transformers Go! line. Finally, in one of the odder twists, some, if not all, of the figures are being upscaled to deluxe class by Hasbro as part of the effort to produce simpler toys. These won't have the combiner ports, it seems, and appear, to me at least, to be one of Hasbro's odder moves in recent years. Final verdict then? A good, fun toy. Maybe not worth the full retail price of £25 or so, but worth it if you can find it on the cheap.

Abnormal business is resumed.

It's been a while, hasn't it? A small thing called life got in the way. Fortunately I'm now blessed with both free time and a modest disposable income once more, which has brought back my nerdish ways. It's changed for me though. I no longer find myself obsessively completist about things, for a start. I don't feel the terrible pang if I leave a new Transformer on the shelf knowing that I have others in the line, nor do I feel the need to read the entire output of the Western comic publishing world. I'd like to say that I'm more refined in my tastes now, but that's not strictly true. It's more that having some time away has allowed me to re-evaluate my collecting ways. I'm now focused on things I actually like, rather than buying for the sake of buying. And that is good. So I'm getting back in the game of reviewing/commenting/making noises that no-one else pays attention to. It should be fun.

Out with the old.

So, I'm aware that I don't update this very often. I'm not even certain if anyone reads it to be honest. But, since I've got it, I should probably do something with it. That way I can at least vent my horrific nerdery on the internet rather than my poor girlfriend, who will probably kill me if I attempt to discuss the future of digital comics with her again.

So here are some thoughts on the subject. I like comics. I have the internet. I have yet to purchase a single digital comic. Why is this? For me, it's a matter of cost (and the fact that I use a netbook most of the time, which isn't ideal for reading digital comics). Why should I pay the same amount for a digital comic that I would for a paper copy? Paper copies are more convenient anyway - I can't read the netbook on the toilet with potentially burning my thighs - so why would I pay the same amount? Digital comics are simply overpriced.

Take the difference between mp3s and CDs. Mp3s are generally considerably cheaper. That makes me more likely to buy them, even if it means that I haven't got some nice packaging to look at. I like nice packaging, but I like a medium that allows me to have more music on the cheap better. It's the same with comics. If digital comics were to be significantly cheaper, I'd actually buy some.

My interest in this isn't entirely as a consumer. I'm currently putting together a digital comic that I'd like to sell online. Most of what I've found mimics the print medium - 22 pages, standard cover price, pretty much print comics dressed up like cheap tarts trying to seduce a new medium. While some do innovate (The commentary/art features in Verum Corpus springs to mind) people seem to be stuck in the old routine, seemingly happy to maintain the status quo. I'm not sure that I'm happy to be part of that.

I have something in mind, although it's early days yet. I ant to try something that addresses both the price and format possibilities that digital comics bring. Whether I'm successful or not, I'm hoping that I can at least try to find a new way of doing things.

SVK and funky gimmicks.

I succumbed to my terrible weakness for gimmicks and bought a copy of SVK, the latest offering from Warren Ellis. The concept is remarkably simple: print 'hidden' dialogue (in the form of thought balloons) in UV ink, and provide a UV torch so that you can read it. It's neat, fun and well designed, and is something that can only work in print format, which rather goes against my recent love-in with digital comics over at Bleeding Cool.

So, does it work? After a fashion. The story is what you would expect from a Warren Ellis comic, with great art from D'Israeli. The comic can be read twice, once without the torch and once with and you still get something out of it. Even the ads make use of the UV torch, which takes the idea of hidden advertising to an interesting new level. There are teething problems, of course. My torch didn't work when it arrived, which appears to be a common problem. Full credit to Berg though, they dispatched a replacement that arrived the next day.

I would like to see a few more comics from Berg using the UV treatment, particularly now I have the torch. Maybe that way they won't be horrendously expensive. It is a very good way to show that there are still a few tricks for print comics that digital comics can't match. It may be a gimmick, but it's a gimmick I'd like to see more of.

Dr Who: The Pandorica Opens.

So, I'm a bit behind on this. Fortunately, as the this is the first part of the season finale I can fit a lot of other stuff in that crops up, including my half baked theories as to where this is going. I should say that, even with the slightly poor Silurian two parter, this has been the best season of Dr Who since it was relaunched. Hopefully the conclusion will be as good.

The episode opens with a sequence using all of the 'hero' characters from the series so far, with Vincent Van Gogh, River Song, Winston Churchill and Liz 10 cropping up to convey a message to the Doctor. It's nicely worked, and proves to be a great foil to the end of the episode. There's even a nod to the late, great Douglas Adams with the message on the cliff. E=If you've never read Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy, do so immediately.

The Doctor duly arrives in Roman Britain, to investigate the giant plot device that is the Pandorica, which is opening. Once again everything is far too convenient, and Amy seems to be the focus of everything. The plot spins various directions as Rory returns, having been eraed from existence during the Silurian story, and just about every alien race encountered so far showing up, ultimately to outmanovour the Doctor. The Romans (and Rory) turn out to be Autons, and everything goes wrong at the end, with the Tardis exploding (with River in it), Amy being killed and the Doctor being locked in the Pandorica. The gathering of the villains is a lovely counterpoint to the opening with the heroes. So where from here?

One notable point is that this version of River Song is from before the Weeping Angels storyline. That means she has to survive the Tardis exploding. In theory at least - time is being unravelled by the Tardis exploding. Also of note is Leadworth, and how wrong it seems to be. Amy is clearly the centre of the story, so she can't be dead either. There is also no obvious villain for the story. They're all accounted for in the final scene of the episode, aren't they?

Well, no. There are two notable absences. The first is the Master. He seems unlikely to be the villain this time around after being the 'big bad' in the last major storyline, and he's supposed to be trapped on a dying Gallifrey.So who does that leave?

The Dreamlord, the only major villain from this season to not appear in the final episode. We know he didn't vanish completely at the end of his episode, appearing in a reflection to the Doctor. As a part of the Doctor, there are two distinct possibilities for an evil Doctor. One is that he is a future regeneration, who made his first appearance in the Doctors subconscious, but will one day be regenerated into. While good, this could limit the future regenerations so is unlikely. This leaves the possibility that he is the Doctor from the past, blanked out by his own subconscious. We only ever saw one story with the Paul McGann Doctor, and never saw him regenerate. Who know what he got up to?

Further evidence fo this is the 'Tardis' from the previous episode, the interior of which looked a lot like that of the Paul McGann Doctor's. If there's another Tardis, where is its pilot? Could it be a past Doctor, attempting to create a new Tardis?

A good indication that it is the Dreamlord in some form or another is that the whole lifting a trap from Amy's mind fits his MO, as does creating a perfect village that is wrong in someway in Leadworth. Finally, there's Rory. He was erased from existence, so the alliance would have no way of creating such a perfect replica. The Dreamlord was in his mind, so he'd be able to do it.

Of course, it could also be the Dreamlord gaining a seperate sentience somehow. Mymoney is on him being the villain in some way for certain. As for how the Doctor gets out of this one, and what Amy's secret is, who knows? It'll be fun finding out.

RIP Ronnie James Dio.

This will be just one more tribute to a great man, one of many that the entire metal community will be making. Dio was one of the greatest singers ever, and like so many people it was his albums with Rainbow and Black Sabbath that helped to get me into metal all those years ago.

I'm going to stick Rainbow Rising on, throw the horns one last time for him and be glad that i got to see him with Heaven and Hell last year.

Dr Who: Flesh And Stone/Vampires Of Venice

So, I'm a bit late with this. Two episodes rolled into one it is then, so I can have a chance of catching up tomorrow. Generally, the standard is still high, and the plot is moving like lightning compared to previous seasons.

Flesh And Stone finishes the Weeping Angels two parter, and has a lot of revelations about the crack in time (which, far from being ignored or merely alluded to is a major plot point). Amy doesn't save the day, but is hugely important again, and possibly far too good. She's a little too perfect, and as the Doctor says at the end of the episode, it's all about her.

Vampires Of Venice is light relief after the Weeping Angels, with space fish and explosions, and Amy's fiance along for the ride. The fish people (sadly not minions of Dagon... as far as we know!) have escaped the crack and want to restart their world. The Doctor decides they can't. We see that the Doctor is less tolerant and more independant than his predecessors, and that Amy is still saving the day. The crack shows up again, in the TARDIS lock and in the sky, hinting at bigger things to come.

So far I stand by the assertion that Amy is somehow causing the crack in time, but the Doctor's excitement at being able to rewrite history seems like it will be a major point too. I wouldn't be surprised if time is rewritten so that everyone on Earth forgets about the Daleks etc, bringing the series closer to the original.

Next week (Tomorrow, to be exact) we see the Time Lord against the Dream Lord apparently, and Amy makes a terrible choice. I could probably take a stab at what that will be, but I'd rather wait and see. An episode about dreams? I thought Neil Gaiman wasn't on board until next season...