Despicable Me

"In a happy suburban neighbourhood surrounded by white picket fences with flowering rose bushes, sits a black house with a dead lawn. Hidden beneath this home is a vast secret hideout. Surrounded by a small army of minions, Gru (Steve Carell) is planning the biggest heist in the history of the world. He is going to steal the moon! Until, he encounters the immense will of three little orphaned girls who see something that no one else has ever seen: a potential Dad. The world's greatest villain has just met his greatest challenge: three little girls named Margo (Miranda Cosgrove), Edith (Dana Gaier) and Agnes (Elsie Fisher)."

(Movie Plot: inSing.com)

As I got a pair of complimentary tickets from my family, I went to watch the movie last Saturday. It's definitely suitable for audience of all ages. The plot was simple with lots of fun factors. I like the part when Gru read bedtime story to the little girls. The yellow minions were cute too. Overall, the movie was much better than I expected and the ending was very heart warming (Movie Rating: 3/5).

My Hot Toys Whiplash finally arrived...

Just collected this masterpiece during lunch...Will do a review SOON!! :p

Hot Toys - Iron Man Mark III in Battle Damaged Version Pt.1

I love the graphic work done on the "Iron Man" packaging by Hot Toys.

On the front of the packaging, there is a slipcase showing the battle damaged chest plate of the figure. On the back, it has pictures of the figure with some value added features.

The inner box shows detailed mechanics under the chest plate of the figure while the back shows pictures on the workable parts of the figure.

The environment base is housed in the left hand side of the inner packaging while the armoured figure is housed in the right. The promotion card for Iron Man 2 series is also given with the figure.

Let’s take a closer view of the environment base and armoured figure with accessories...Nice? My next review is here.

Ong Bak 3

"The legend of Ong Bak 3 begins after Tien (Tony Jaa) has lost his fighting skills and his beloved stepfather at the Garudas Wing cliff from the raid led by Jom Rachan (Saranyu Wonggrajang). Tien is brought back to life with the help from Pim (Primrata Dechudom) as well as Men (Petchtai Wongkamlao) and the Kana Khone villagers. Deep into the meditation taught by Phra Bua (Nirutti Sirijanya), Tien finally is able to achieve Nattayuth. His talents are put to the test again when his rivals including the Golden-Armoured Kings Guard (Supakorn Tok Kijsuwan), the mysterious killers in black, and Bhuti Sangkha (Dan Chupong) return for the final massive showdown (Movie Details: Golden Village website)."

The story line was so-so only. Not so much of fighting scenes but more romance this time round. There were some comedy scenes in the story as well. The story also focused more on Tony recovery after being saved by some good guys. In this sequel, Tony performed purely Thai martial arts. Unlike in Ong Bak 2, he performed a mixture of martial arts. However, Tony fighting styles were great. His punches and kicks were always fast and fierce. But the ending was a disappointment as the villain was too easily defeated. Anyway, the fighting scenes were still enjoyable and my rating for Ong Bak 3 is 3/5.

WWE "Shawn Michaels" Mattel Assortment Series 4

Front and back view of the X-shaped blister card packaging by Mattel.

Unlike Mickie James, this head sculpt has a very good likeness to Shawn Michaels.

As Shawn has no ball jointed legs, he is not able to perform his finishing move "Sweet Chin Music" aka "Superkick" :P

Shawn has only a tattoo on his left arm. The little alphabets "HBK" that represent "The Heartbreak Kid" were nicely printed on the back of his wrestling attire.

For your information, Shawn Michaels started his wrestling career with WWE in 1988. He retired after having a "Career Vs Streak Match" against The Undertaker at WrestleMania this year.

WWE "Mickie James" Mattel Assortment Series 3

Front and back view of the X-shaped blister card packaging by Mattel.

Though the figure has no likeness to Mickie James, the overall appearance looks good to me.

The paint work on the face is nice. Great texturing work on the hair and it is finely sculpted too.

The rotation of the head is very limited due to the loose hair hanging in front of the shoulders. The rest of the body joints work well that also allow you to get some basic poses.

Mickie is a five-time WWE Women’s Champion. She also won her first Divas Championship at Night of Champions last year. Unfortunately, Mickie was released from WWE in April this year. For other figures under this series, you may view Chris Jericho here and Shelton Benjamin here.

Predators

"PREDATORS, a bold new chapter in the Predator universe, shot under the creative auspices of Robert Rodriguez, stars Adrien Brody as Royce, a mercenary who reluctantly leads a group of elite warriors who come to realize they've been brought together on an alien planet as prey. With the notable exception of a disgraced physician, they are all coldblooded killers mercenaries, Yakuza, convicts, death squad members human predators that are now being systemically hunted and eliminated by a new breed of alien Predators (Movie Details: Golden Village website)."

The actors were great and most action scenes were exciting. The plot was weak as I think the filmmakers just "anyhow" copied ideas from the first movie and dumped it here. I found Noland (played by Laurence Fishburne) was an "extra" character in the story as he only appeared in the screen for less than 15 minutes. The ending implied there will be a sequel in future. Furthermore, we still don't know who was behind this. The new type of predators seem less powerful than those in other instalments. But, I like the "fierce" look of Berserker Predator in the movie. Overall, it was entertaining and my movie rating is 3/5.

Hot Toys Endoskeleton T-600 Pt.2

Light-up eyes for an Endoskeleton Terminator is a must have feature in today sixth scale world, especially to Hot Toys figures.

Besides having "solid" feel, you can have all the detailing and texturing from this figure.

The overall articulation of the figure is very impressive. All the joints and pistons work very well. The metal-like hands have articulated fingers that allow you to get some great poses. You will have no problem to wrap its fingers around the grip of the Gatling gun.

The shoulder joints allow you to move its arms up, down and sideways easily.

The metal legs have fantastic articulation that allows the figure to stand steadily without the use of display stand.

Due to realistic paint work, it's difficult to differentiate the ammo pack is actually made of hard plastic.

The soft rubber ammo belt fits perfectly into the slot at the top of the ammo pack. While T-600 is carrying the gun, the cloth strap with plastic buckle around the wrist helps in holding the weapon too.

Getting the ammo pack on the back of T-600 is pretty frustrating as I have spent a lot of time in adjusting the four cloth straps that tied to the ammo pack.

Hot Toys has done a great sculpting work on the figure as it looks pretty accurate to the movie.

The light-up eyes are always bright and nice. So far, no problem to the rotation of the head.

The metallic paint work on the T-600 is amazing. Besides rusty effects, some armoured pieces have rough finish. However, certain parts of T-600 are made of metal. For example, those metal springs or hoses connected from the head to the upper torso.

To prevent leaking, I have removed the batteries from the compartment at the back of T-600. Overall, this is a great figure to be displayed on shelf. For box packaging, you may click here to view. For Endoskeleton T-600 in Concept Version and Endoskeleton T-800, you may view here and here.