Guest Post: Metal Gear Solid V Phantom Pain Collector's Edition Pics & Comments

I have never gotten into the Metal Gear Solid franchise even though it's huge, especially in Singapore.

I remember trying out MGS3 back on the PS2.. Reviews were great and friends enjoyed it. So I decided to get it. Put in the disc. installed the game and loaded the game.. Well, I could never get past the first area.

It wasn't a couple of tries.. It was lots. Decided this isn't for me and kept the disc back onto the shelf. 6 months later, I tried again.. Same thing happened.

A year later.. Still the same. I think I tried a few times over the years I had a PS2 but never got past that stage.. That was it.. Lost all interest in that franchise. So.. if you were wondering.. Nope.. I didn't get MGS V Phantom Pain.

So.. I asked a friend to help me write a review on his MGS V Phantom Pain CE and he gladly obliged. Thank you Louis for sharing your pics and thoughts..

"It's a sleek package that is not as big as some other games' collector's editions.

The half-bionic arm's height is about 2 pens high. The level detail and over finish of the hand itself is great, and the fingers have more articulation than they first seem. You can have fun posing the half-scale arm in quite a number of ways, but it's not very good at holding objects, unlike the 1:1 scale version which can hold an entire PS4 DualShock.

One main disappointment of the bionic arm is that the textures have a simple toy plastic finish for most parts, which the promo pictures did a good job hiding. My photos here have it's contrast and crispness adjusted by Instagram, but the real thing does not look as metallic like the promo pictures show. Thus, do not expect the premium texture finish of the MGSV PS4 console.

Another disappointment is that the map as shown in the promo pics is actually pretty small and when folded, it fits into the game's blu-ray casing, which I've already sold away without knowing that it was in it (I already have the PC digital version). I thought the package was mishandled. 

The steelbook is pretty standard, although I wish they could have included the Yoji Shinkawa artwork version from the Japanese special edition.

Overall, I have a feeling this CE with the half-scale bionic arm is just an average package at best when compared to the Japanese CE, which makes sense since its price is 40% of its larger brother. Nonetheless, I bought this CE as a keepsake and to support the MGS franchise, but it's probably the last cent that I will ever give Konami."

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The Order: 1886 CE's Statue Review by a Special Guest

So, you have seen the Premium Edition and it's Statue..

Now it's time to check out the Collector's Edition's statue. I don't have the CE yet so I got a friend to help me out with some pics and his thoughts on the statue.

A big welcome to Leon! Met him at GameStart 2014, when I was there with a few other guys and we have been in regular contact since then. Very cool guy and he's a big Evolve fan as well. We have been playing on the PS4 together and I am honoured to have 1 of the best Trappers, I have ever seen, on my team.

Alright, take it away Leon!

Here's his thoughts..

"Having not bought a collector's edition in a really long time, I have decided to pick up the collector's edition for The Order 1886. 

It comes with the standard stuff like, costume DLC, couple of stickers, digital soundtrack and all that. But the major selling point for me was the sweet ass 7" statue of the game'a main character, Galahad.

Overall, I was really impressed with the amount of detail they put into this statue, from the creases in the cloak, the chainmail parts in the armor, Galahad's plated greaves look super awesome as well. 

And now on to the bad part, the base and the wall he's leaning on looks too glossy, it really is of a different standard than the figure itself. The gun too doesn't look too great, maybe because it's all black. 

To summarize, it's a really good deal to pick up this figurine for ~$20(Game by itself is around SGD$70, collector's edition is SGD$89)."

Great review there!

Yes, the detail on Galahad looks really great. Cant wait to add this to my collection soon. You really can't argue with the value of this CE. For just a little more, you get an upgrade to the Steelbook edition as well as a gorgeous statue. 

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Assassin's Creed IV Skull Edition Unboxed by a Friend!

Remember that Skull Edition I posted a while back? I couldn't post any unboxed pics of it as I was intending to sell it sealed. Well, I finally managed to sell it away and in the process.. got to meet a new friend, Jerome, who is equally passionate about collecting Assassin's Creed stuff as me!

Had a good long chat with him, earlier today about Assassin's Creed, collecting and some irrelevant stuff about life. Haha!

Anyway, Jerome was kind enough to send me some pictures of the Skull Edition's contents to use on the blog. So here they are!

Skull Edition itself!

The Back

Unwrapped front side of the Jumbo Steel

The Back

Opening the Jumbo Steel

The Lithographs

Official Soundtrack

Mini Artbook

The game case

The Back

But here's the surprise.. I didn't know that this Alternate Cover Art was included in the Skull Edition so I was surprised when Jerome told me about it.. Anyway here it is..

Looks really cool if you ask me, very nice art on the cover... 

Anyway here's Jerome's thoughts about the Skull Edition..

"I think it was a good edition for collectors who missed out on the items such as Soundtrack, Artbook & Lithographs but this edition has another bonus which is an alternate cover on the reverse side which has a very nice artwork on it. 

The Metal Steel Case also protects the contents well and you can keep the items back into the case for safe-keeping and there are nice designs on the metal case on the front as well as the back. Similar to the Steelbook Edition but with a bigger capacity."

Thanks for the pics and comments on the Skull Edition, Jerome! Again, nice to know you and enjoyed chatting with you earlier. Do say hi in the comments below!

Another Review by our Special Guest, Samael Statue from Darksiders!

Delayed a bit but I did that on purpose.. I wasn't expecting this review from Alexander but I guess he did it just to taunt me... Like the Death and Despair Statue, I don't have Samael as well..

So here it is.. The Review of Darksiders Samael Statue by my good friend, Alexander Hauge! The stage is yours, Alexander!

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Samael is the 2nd statue of the Darksiders series made by Sota Toys. The statue comes in a very nice box with artwork by Joe Maduera showing Samael holding the heart of one of the chosen. The box is the largest of all the three Darksiders statues. Maybe thats why Samael arrived with without a single fault or scratch. The most important things is that it was well packed. The statue comes in 2 parts. The base and Samael. Putting it together is self explanatary and very easy.

Just like the Death Statue, Samael has a much better paint-job than War and Ruin. He has details on his face down to the smallest detail. His claws, his armor all show details with great accuracy from the game. His wings are gigantic, and surprisingly strong quality to it. Since this was my second statue from State of the Art Toys, I was astonished for how much they had improved after the War statue. 

Don't get me wrong. I really love the War and Ruin statue. But compared to Samael and Death, it stands out as dark with less details.

Like the other statues, this one also has LED function. On their website, Sota Toys says that the Heart of the Chosen is glowing with a hella bright light, and a second function is to use this statue as a night light. My own opinion; The LED effects could have been much more. The LED effects is not bright enough to show Samael's face looking at the Heart in the dark. Although the lights is a gimmick for many collectors, I think they could have made the effects stronger. Maybe some lights behind his wings.

It's still on sale and with 350 copies made. 150 less then War and Death statues. Would I recommend it? Yes absolutely, but If you have to choose between Samael or Death the answer is simple. Choose the Second Horseman! 

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Fantastic Review once again, Alexander! Thank you for your time. I got to say his collection looks fantastic! I'm kind of tempted to get the Samael statue as well now. Looks fascinating!

(All pics courtesy of Alexander himself)

Review of the Death and Despair Statue by a Special Guest.

Something different today..

A good friend of mine is going to share some pics and his review of the Death and Despair Statue from SOTA Toys.

Alexander Hauge is a guy I met on Facebook while commenting on SOTA Toys' Facebook Page. Both of us are big fans of the Darksiders games as well as the Darksiders Statues from SOTA Toys. We have been chatting for quite a while and we seem to have more in common than just Darksiders. Very glad to have a met a new friend through collecting..

While I only have the War and Ruin Statue at the moment, Alexander has all 3 including the Samael and Death & Despair statues. Since I wasn't getting the Death statue for now, Alexander so kindly volunteered to share his pics for the blog. He also did up a short review on it.

So put your hands together for Alexander! All the way from Norway!

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Death and Despair is the 3rd statue of the Darksiders series made by Sota Toys. The statue comes in a very nice box with artwork by Joe Maduera showing Death and Despair. Just by the looks of the box you can get a good taste of the quality the statue has.

It comes in 3 parts. The Base, Despair and Death himself. The parts are very good packed. Death himself is wrapped up tightly and is very secure.

Putting the statue together is very easy. Despair goes into the base, and Death goes onto Despair. It can be a little hard to place Death firmly and hit the hole.

By comparing this to the War and Ruin statue you can right away tell that this statue has a better quality feel to it. The base is very well painted and looks very good. I only found one paint error on the side, but its so small you have to look for it. The base almost look like real stone so the paint job couldnt be better in my opinion.

Despair is highly detailed. Taking on all the details from the game it couldn't be better. The paint job here is also very good. I have read that some owners of the statue says the paint job is thin on Despair, and looking on pictures from other Despair there's clearly some differences. What this means is that when lit up you can see through despair and that is really not that cool. For my own statue this isn't a issue. Despair looks twice as good with the LED on. You can see so much details. The ribs, the eyes and the green effects is damn awesome. I was worried for some time that Despair's head didn't light up properly, because on the pictures of him on Sota toys website it's more lights on him. It also says clearly on sota website that product may vary. I actually found Despair as he is much better when he is darker like mine statue. It makes the smaller details so much clearer. 

Finally we have death. He is very detailed as well. When comparing him to War he is much better detailed. His armor looks, his boots and his weapons all display excactly like he looks in the game. Also the soulkeepers that he has on his chest lights up.

All in all this makes for one really nice statue and is worth every penny.

A few last words. My statue arrived almost flawless, but I did find one little error. The chain that goes around despair is made of Flex resin. This seem to be very fragile. On one side of Despair it was actually a little piece of it that had fell of. Making the chain not going around the whole bit. It was still in its fixed position though and is easily fixed with a glue pistol. Its really hard to see, but I think fixing it protects it from more damages.

All in all I give this staue a 9/10.

I think you would love this statue Juan. It really is so much nicer than the War and Ruin.

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Thank you for rubbing it in at the end, Alexander. Sucks that I don't have it yet. Really love how the lighting gives the smokey-effect on the statue. It's a fantastic looking statue and I definitely plan to get it. Hoping to see the last 2 horsemen made as statues as well. Also seeing Samael together with the first 2 horsemen makes me want to get Samael as well..

Here are more pics from Alexander..

  

 Fantastic review Alexander, many thanks for this!