Kategoriarkiv: International

Best of Lego 2018 and 2019

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Okay, so it’s an inevitable result of several years of amazing Lego releases: I simply do not have room for them anymore. So even though I’m still actively buying, I’m also trying to sell a lot and keep some kind of balance. This makes it harder for new sets to really grab me, and only the really unmissable ones make the cut. That’s why I didn’t make a list of the best Lego sets of 2018 and why I don’t really have enough for a good 2019 list either. But having caught up on some stuff, let’s see what sets and figures were the best of both years. ... Läs hela texten

Japan 2019: Discovering Chocol8 Syndrome

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When I visited Osaka this October, I wanted to benefit from staying in the entertainment district of Dotonbori and took a look at the local music venues. There were two very close by with performances on several of the days we were there, but ultimately we only went to see one: Chocol8 Syndrome. I knew nothing of them before, but after looking up their songs on Youtube I really wanted to see their show. We took a short walk to Music Club Janus and went up the escalators to find the band selling their merchandise. I wasn’t expecting that, but it’s fun to actually be able to interact with the musicians. I had managed to track down one of their albums at Book-Off and Shaon, the singer, was really happy that I already had it. Anyway, since it’s unlikely that I would get the chance again, I bought the other two as well and got them all autographed. Before long it was time for the band to get ready. ... Läs hela texten

Lego Captain Marvel and the Skrull Attack (76127)

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Right after watching Captain Marvel I went out and bought this set, but having my photo booth covered in Lego prevented me from giving this a review until now. So what do we have here?

Making superhero Lego sets is usually an exercise in pointlessness. With few exceptions, the heroes are what matters and any vehicle is usually just a way to get around the license issues, since Lego don’t normally own the ”action figure” rights. Some are actually relevant, like the Quinjets, the Milano and the Benatar, but usually we get a little generic piece of building or something. This set gives us yet another Quinjet, and one of the smaller ones at that. At the same time we have a bigger one from Avengers: Endgame, but this uses a more toned down design mostly in grey with red accents. ... Läs hela texten

Lego Hagrid’s Hut: Buckbeak’s Rescue (75947)

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The new Harry Potter sets released slightly ahead of schedule, so I picked up this one without waiting for a better deal. For some reason, probably because it’s the best movie, the recent sets have heavily focused on The Prisoner of Azkaban, with the previous train set, this and a smaller Expecto Patronum set all covering events from there. Which is fine with me, since we’re getting new editions of several important characters.

Hagrid’s hut is a fairly compact but very detailed set, which uses some clever designs to achieve the rounded look. It reminds me a bit of Luke’s hut from the Ahch-To set, but it’s better overall. The two parts of the house can be taken apart, and inside is plenty of space for (fairly cramped) play if you want all the characters in there. There’s an unnecessary but nice feature with the fireplace lighting up if you press on the roof. Some of the random items inside include a whip, a cleaver, a spoon and, for some reason, Umbridge’s umbrella, which is a nasty little tease considering the figure herself is an exclusive from the Bricktober sets. Outside there’s a small patch of pumpkins with a pole to tie Buckbeak to. These pumpkins are new for 2019 and useful parts, and we get four in this set. ... Läs hela texten

Benny’s Space Squad (70841)

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The appearance of the ”80’s-something-spaceguy” Benny in The Lego Movie was a genius move to appeal to older Lego fans. It’s not even just Adult Fans of Lego since you’d need to be 35-40 years old to really appreciate the classic design of Lego’s first space theme. So we got Benny and the awesome nostalgia bomb of his spaceship and that was generally it. In the years since Lego has teased old fans occasionally like having a green Futuron guy in a City set and printing a part specifically to allow building a gray classic spaceman from other spare parts. But now in time for The Lego Movie 2 they’ve released another major nostalgia set: Benny’s Space Squad. ... Läs hela texten

Sarah Alainn #6: Timeless

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A year after Cinema Music (and the short LP album Eternalist) Sarah Alainn returns with a ”best of” collection rather than a brand new album. This is a little disappointing and I had considered simply skipping it since I already own all of her albums, but it turned out to include a selection of brand new tracks so I had to get it. Curse my weakness!

It is a very good collection though. It’s missing a couple of my favourites like ”Turns to Light”, ”New World”, ”Angel” and ”Nandemonaiya”, but almost all of the selected tracks are among the best. We have the great ”To Love You More”, the amazing ”Little Doll”, the uplifting Yasunori Mitsuda track ”Dream As One”, Sarah’s own equally uplifting ”Sky’s Calling”, the quirky ”Shadows of Time” and ”Venetian Glass”, classics like ”On My Own” and ”Time To Say Goodbye”, and of course ”Beyond the Sky”, the Xenoblade track that started her career. While I would still recommend buying her entire discography (except possibly the first, Celeste), this is a good place to start. ... Läs hela texten

21 years of Soul: Soul Calibur V

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Finally, we have the fifth installment. It was revealed through a series of puzzles on the official site, eventually showing off a big change in direction. Mitsurugi and Siegfried appeared in older, slightly greyed versions, and it was soon established that the game took place after a Tekken 3-like time gap. Sophitia was gone for good, replaced by her kids Patroklos and Pyrrha. Since women over 35 can’t exist in a fighting game most of the originals like Xianghua and Taki were removed and replaced by successors, but Hilde barely made it by virtue of being young enough in the previous game. For Ivy and Tira, Namco mainly shrugged and didn’t age them. And the generational thing didn’t really go anywhere. Besides Mitsurugi and Siegfried, the rest didn’t age either. And replacing most of the original cast once more (see I and II) didn’t go down well. Leixia, Natsu and Xiba were derided as silly, childish versions of Xianghua, Taki and Kilik, and replacing the Alexandra sisters with two angsty kids really wasn’t appreciated. ... Läs hela texten

21 years of Soul: Soul Calibur IV

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It’s funny, but I can’t remember any particulars about the release of Soul Calibur IV. The first images turned up in the summer of 2007 and being the first game to release on Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 it was beautiful to look at. A huge surprise was the fact that both versions would yet again get exclusive characters, this time around none other than Darth Vader and Yoda, with the new character Apprentice being in both versions to promote Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. As time went on, the game also introduced a bunch of guest characters designed by mangakas, but unlike the creation fighters in III there was very little cohesion and they were all female with varying levels of absurd designs. Scheherazade was an elf, Angol Fear was an anime fighter in an otherwise realistic-ish game, Shura was a generic badass and Kamikirimusi was a weird demon. The only one who felt like she could have been a proper Soul Calibur character was Ashlotte, a gothic robotic clockwork maiden. ... Läs hela texten

21 years of Soul: Soul Calibur III

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Only two years after part II, it was time again. In early 2005, images appeared, once again with Mitsurugi and Taki as the leads, but also showing off three new characters: Zasalamel, Setsuka and Tira. This time the game was Playstation 2 exclusive, probably since the console had smashed most of its opposition. It lead to a lot of resentment however, and Soul Calibur III remains a very divisive game. I loved it though. For once I kind of enjoyed the new characters, mostly because they didn’t replace anyone. In fact, everyone was back! That Siegfried was once again his own character and even the main protagonist didn’t hurt either. ... Läs hela texten

21 years of Soul: Soul Calibur II

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It actually took a while for the next Soul Calibur. Dreamcast died off and Xbox and Gamecube replaced it, while Playstation 2 built an early lead. In september of 2001, the first images appeared, with Mitsurugi, Taki, Astaroth (with weird horns that were eventually removed) and Ivy returning but Sophitia replaced with Cassandra. Yes, yet again there was a change of cast. We also lost Siegfried, Hwang, Lizardman, Cervantes, Rock and Mi-Na, with a couple of newcomers taking their place. Yet again I didn’t really appreciate Yun-Seong, Talim or Raphael. The arcade version was released but I wasn’t too hyped, and it was a weird game in many ways. When it was time for console versions in 2003, Namco made deals for unique editions for everyone. This started a tradition of guest characters that mostly have made the games worse and distracted from the original cast. Link did end up selling a ton of copies for Gamecube, but I never liked his gameplay. Heihachi was a neat addition, but Spawn was and is a horrible design and a boring character with a short, stubby axe. ... Läs hela texten