Welcome to The Stormtrooper Effect

This is where i will review and discuss toys, video games and movies. I collect 3 3/4 inch to 12 inch Star Wars, Iron Man, Batman, Halo toys and other movie memoribillia that appeal to me! As of late i am into Hot Toys 12' inch figures. Thank you for visiting my page and I hope you enjoy browsing through my site as much as I enjoy sharing it with you!

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Top 10 Movie Villains of all time ( Michael Myers ) Halloween

In addition to the last post on the TOP 10 MOVIE VILLAINS of all time,
Voted by Tom of The Film Kiwi, here it is....


Michael Myers from Halloween! The kitchen knife wielding, butcher of teenagers, who cannot die, as far as we know ( from stabbing, fire, or shooting even) which practically makes him ''UN-KILL-ABLE''


This villain stops at nothing, and cannot be stopped. Halloween masks and factory suits are his favourite gear, and with Halloween just around the corner...it would be wise to be on guard...

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Top 10 movie Villains of All Time! (Candidates)

Alrighty! As i have spoken to other fellow reviewers, enthusiasts and collectors about...having a small ranking of our favourite silver screen villains of all time!



It goes in no particular order or ranking of how bad-ass they are...and as yet these are the potential candidates to RULE THE WORLD! in fear and oppression!
If the criteria to be a baddie was to have a kickass suit of armor, and a thunderous voice, Sauron, from Lord of the Rings sure hits em' all. ''ONE ring to rule them all'' need i say more?


Venom, as seen in Spiderman 3 - this tragic character eddie brock, fused with the alien symbiote from spiderman, has left eddie brock from hopeless sucidal, to vengeful villain...



Now, to the Villain that needs no introduction, this fallen, prophecised saviour of the jedi and also the man who made famous the phrase we all know now '' i am your father'' - Dark Lord of the sith, has inspired fear into the galaxy beyond despite surrounding himself with rather incompetent stormtroopers with a penchant to miss their targets (stormtrooper effect)...ladies and gentlemen....Darth Vader!





Reader BEWARE do not judge this frail old man by his looks. For this is one who has manipulated galaxies, and the foolish jedi into handing him all the power he needed to rule the world...Emperor Palpatine/ Darth Sidious, is a foe to watch out for.


'Norma' Norman Bates, in Psycho. Dont' let his charming looks fool ya ladies, this man is a serious lady killer. An the plus factor? He dresses like his mom to kill people!!!
'' Oh look normy....you pansy in your mommies' dressy!''



Jason Voorhees. Stone cold killer. Legend. pairs up pretty well on screen with fellow baddie - Jason

















Jigsaw Killer: Jonathan Kramer...from SAW. Butcher and psychotic sadist who pleasures himself in watching people struggle in his deathtraps. Boy, aren't we glad he's dead. Though, don't get too cocky yet. The film found in his autopsy tells us that the games have JUST begun...


The late Heath Ledger's Joker in The Dark Knight. A total anarchist and agent of chaos. One of the most threatening and terrifiying villains silver screen will ever see brought to life.


Tom Marvolo Riddle aka Voldermort. This supposed baddie from the Harry Potter franchise somehow turned out whacked up pansy in the film's adaptation. And does not seem as terrifying and as villainous as he was portrayed in books. Well, don't judge books by its covers...

John Milton/ Satan. Seen in The Devil's Advocate. By far, in my honest opinion, the most believable, most ruthless, manipulative, and true to the books like we've read it's version of ''satan''. This guy is one man you do NOT want to fuck with.

Heard the phrase, you can Run, but you can't HIDE? cause' there's only so far that you can run in your nightmares when Freddy Krueger come's knockin' on the door.

Mystique. The hot shape shifting babe in X-men. Well, she could shapeshift to any human form she wants too. Kills people in cold blood. Plus she's got one helluva of a hot bod. Heartless-check, special powers-check, hot bod-check. Qualifies to be a Baddie imho.


Blabberpus for the week.

As it has been a long time since i was into gaming, i have since become out of touch with the latest games or best sellers other than those that particularly interest me eg: star wars force unleashed (hence waited a year for it)

So it is no suprise that i made a HORRENDOUS choice or purchasing a cheap-production-poor-graphical-textured video game. Yes, it's the only video game i've bought this year, and it by far is the worst.

My punishment for buying on impulse to burn time for the day. And what game was it? you might ask, Soldier of Fortune: Payback..... I always had a thing for soldier of fortune, be it the mindless senseless violence and gore which most games do not do so explicitly ( strewn limbs, heads, arms, blood spraying etc...) to the fast past run-and-gun action.

however this third instalment to the ''once'' popular title, has obvious buried, or cemented SOF's position in the videogame junk graveyard.

i was playing today right after purchasing it, and despite playing on easy, i realise that it seriously was a B I T C H, to get enemies. not that it wasn't hard to kill them, but it was bloody shoddly hard to spot them. Whilst i would say Call of Duty 4 was challenging as enemies sometimes blended well in the background, i would still applaud the realism and detail in the models and textures, however as for SOF3...the problem was the textures of the background and models were so BLAND, that the enemy models HARDLY stood out at all. Appalling really. While i may not be hardcore into the new games since my PC'S breakdown....i must say i still keep in constant practice for my FPS skills, but with the atrocious textures, terribly unconvincing gunshots and poor storyline cum narration .....this title falls FLAT. as in terribly flat.

Gamers will not be able to fully engage and be emotionally invested into the game. furthermore the action is blatantly unconvincing, and A.I is terribly dumb even at the hardest setting, and the only offensive or rather skill they have which aided them in their quest for my annahilation was the poor graphics and textures which made em' so well camouflaged. ( COD4 AT its hardest setting was still fun despite having to die every few seconds) in SOF3 , you could die wondering where or what happened.

controls were sluggish and sprint only headed in one direction. wtf?

ah well. for 39.90 it already is terribly overpriced. and as for its rating, i wont give it anywhere above 3 out of 10.

Highly unadvisable unless you have an expandable amount of cash and time.


on the other hand, after this experience, i'm going back to my old regime of doing some good old proper catch-up with the gaming scene....to prevent further dissapointments like these.
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as yet two titles that have appealed to me since researching cross referencing reviews were DEAD SPACE and FAR CRY 2....

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Hot Toys The Dark Knight Batman




Sleeve on back view


Sleeve off front cover


Why so SERIOUS?





I have yet to remove this awesome figure out of his box, but till i get all my target figures, Ironman, joker, mark 1 ironman, then i'd get a new shelve display THEN open them all. Won't want the oxygen to oxidize my figures and degrade it...



To note, TFH gave me an awesome price for this figure. I thought it was going for 239, however it was 205...bloody amazing.

Friday, October 17, 2008

Max Payne Hits Theatres.

Movie costume

The clothes that made the MAN(video game)

Max Payne HAS hit theatres. And though i will be watching it tomorrow, i must still say the anticipation is killing me. Yes, every video game fanboy of max payne's will be driven nuts now that it's here.
The things i always loved about max payne....how can i name it all...film noir, slow-mo gunfights, comic book narrative graphics, solid narration with the whole dark, deep, emotional, vengeful ANTI HERO.

I particularly loved the intro of the film, ( i have yet to watch it) but through online releases, i noted that the film stayed very true to its video game roots. With Mark Walberg's narration in the comic bookesque style. Furthermore his voice and character is evidently a right choice to play as the titucular role, Max Payne.


however the reviews i've read from the papers and online as yet, were somewhat dismal about the movie. But i'd still watch the movie. and i'd be back with a full review tomorrow.

A look at the movie's intro here

Left 4 Dead







Awesome screens of Left 4 Dead. I have been, and still am anxiously anticipating its release. Particularly due to my interest in the whole concept of zombie apocalypse/ end and survival of the human race. Furthermore, there has never, i repeat never been a decent zombie shooter game as yet IMO. And i had always pondered the possibilities of a zombie shooter game ever since the release of the SOURCE engine.
Because at its time, ( 2004 - ) it was one of the best engines and most realistic yet. And to have this concept or idea realized, is certainly a fanboy/geek's dream come true.
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basically L4D is about 4 survivors who find themselves, obviously, stuck in a zombie infested city and are struggling to get out. The game heavily emphasizes on teamwork and cooperation for survival. Trailer seems decent though since then the graphics has improved.
so you can check out left 4 dead's webbie...right here.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Custom TDK batman pictures

I found these pictures in mediworld forums. As many other collectors found their TDK batman to be a tad' fat...some took the initiative to actually mod it. Which can be seen in these few pictures.



How the suit comes together



The armored body figures




Sanding the butt cheeks to allow more poses for the legs
Sanding of the pectorals , upper ribs and midsection of collarbone..( to allow batman to tilt neck)







While it does look way much better after customing, batman no longer looks like fatman, i feel that the customer sanded a tad too much off the sides of the upper ribs...making his waist seem too slim and making his legs look out of proportion.
Great custom IMHO. Though i must say i'm not certain whethere i'd do that for my own figure. Preferably i should wait for HT's slim bodies to come out before substituting? perhaps.