Toy Review: Cyberverse Prowl

Cyberverse has been trotting out a lot of characters that originated in G1. Some of these toys could be considered an improvement on their originators, others have been woefully compromised by putting in half-arsed gimmicks (such as Acid Storm’s Toxic Slice) and being overly simplified for Warrior-Class toys.

Today we look at a character that has only cropped up in a couple of flashbacks so far in the Cyberverse cartoon, but has still warranted a toy. We look at the Autobot cop bots love to hate, we look at Prowl.

Robot Mode

A nicely proportioned figure. Much more reminiscent of G1 Prowl than either the Animated or RID(01) figures before, which are the last two times Prowl got a cartoon outing. He has ok elbow and knee movement, but all but no side movement when it comes to the shoulders or hips. He lacks neck articulation too so Prowl had better hope he is facing whoever he is fighting!

The head sculpt on Prowl looks really good here, both in the face and also his helmet horns. I quite like the stars on the shoulders too. However I find his legs quite bland and they could have used a lot more detail.

The biggest disappointment is the huge panel on the back of his head, makes him look like he is carrying the back of a chair on his shoulders. This can be mitigated somewhat by his gimmick move, which we will shortly see.

Robot Battle Mode

By pushing down on the front of Prowl’s chest, you make his shuolder cannons come down to do his ‘Jetblast’ move. Why this is called a jetblast I have no idea, I think they must have just picked a term at random. Anyways, the cannons pop down, making the back of Prowl not look nearly as bad, in fact I’m not sure why anyone would display Prowl otherwise. Also for once we are seeing a gimmick that does not compromise the toy to any great extent.

Vehicle Mode

A nicely proportioned police car. Note sure if you can tell from the photos but it is worthy of note that Prowl is not sporting his usual black but rather a very dark blue, much like Barricade in The Last Knight. It kinda suits him and modernizes him to look like police cars you would actually find on patrol in the US, rather than an old fashioned Sherrifs patrol car. Like the robot mode, this vehicle would look a lot better with some more detail put in, the very front of the car looks good but the rest is severely plain, somewhat like RID(15) Strongarm.

Battle Vehicle Mode

Not on the box and not in the instructions, but you can transform Prowl so that his guns stick out of the windscreen and rest of the bonnet, much like the G1 Triggercon Crankcase. My son discovered this so full credit to the young fella! You do this by simply not folding Prowl’s shoulder cannons back up when transforming him, this in no way affects the rest of the transformation or the formation of the vehicle mode. While it doesn’t look brilliant, it will add a lot of play value for younger fans who want to send their vehicles into battle.

Transformation

Like all the Cyberverse figures, the transformation is very simplistic. Great for younger fans but will not hold much interest for your older Transfan.

So worth a buy?

If you are after a more complex, visually pleasing and articulated Prowl then I recommend waiting until the new one in the SEIGE toyline is released (though that one lacks shoulder cannons). However if you are a collector of Prowl’s like I am, or a fan of the cartoon, or even simply looking for a toy for a younger kid, then this Prowl is worth a go.

Got something to say about this toy? Pop it in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Toys Review: Cyberverse Shockwave & Grimlock

Toys Review: Cyberverse Acid Storm

ROTC Booster Packs. Part 2: Gameplay – Transformers TCG

Last time we looked at the plethora of new cards to be picked up from the Rise of The Combiner Booster Packs for the Transformers Trading Card Game, along with their abilities and drop rates.

Well as promised, this time we will see the cards in play!  As there are already dozens of youtube videos and sites that are showing Combiners facing off against each other, and the only two Combiners I can make so far are Menasor and Dreadwing,  I thought we would do something different – a Combiner vs a Titan!

Clash of the Tit… er…. big bots!

It would be a bit unfair to send ol’ Dreadwing up against Metroplex I thought, so I picked Menasor for the battle.  I will be looking mainly at how the Stunticons and Menasor perform.  If you would like to read more about how the Metroplex character functions, please check out my review of the Metroplex Pack here.

Before starting, it should be noted that I received these cards for review purposes from Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast.  Neither company has paid me nor tried to dictate the contents of this review.  Bigangrytrev would like to thank both companies for their generosity.

 

Setting up the board

When setting up to battle with a Combiner, you will of course have all members of that team.  There is little point in having 4 Stunticons on the board but leaving Drag Strip at home.  All cards are (for Combiners that use 5 characters) 5 stars apiece. Pick three to shove up front and a couple to hang behind.  The difference between each Stunticons stats is negligible, though Motormaster is ever so slightly stronger, so I recommend getting him ready to rock.

 

Making Menasor

Find this Card!
  • First off, don’t worry about if some of your Stunticons are KO’ed. You can still make them into Menasor.
  • Unlike the G1 cartoon, to join all your characters together they all need to be in robot mode, even your KO’ed ones.
  • You need to employ the Stunticon Enigma card. If this has been thrown to the discard pile, don’t worry.  Being a green card, it can be retrieved and swapped with one of your own.
  • Once combined, Menasor will carry over any damage points taken by the individual Stunticons, so try to get him to combine before they get too hurt.
  • When combined, you will discard all the Utility, Attack and Defense cards your individual bots were sporting, except one from each catagory which can then be applied to Menasor.

 

Menasor vs Metroplex

Menasor Crush!

They have surprisingly similar stats:

*Both have 25 Stars.

*Metroplex has stats of 6 Attack, 35 Health and 1 Defense. 

*Menasor has stats of 6 Attack, 35 Health and 2 Defense.

This makes Menasor that slight bit stronger than Metroplex.  As incongruous as this seems to any diehard TF fan, one must remember that Metroplex can still flip to his City Mode, as well as deploy his 3 sidekicks (presuming they are not already KO’ed), giving him the edge. So don’t get too cocky when you whip out your Stunticon combiner, you haven’t won yet!

Basic Game

The basic game is hardly worth mentioning here.  Given their almost identical stats it’s simply a matter of the opponents taking turns flipping cards until one behemoth dies.  Great fun for really young players, but holds little appeal for even those with a modicum of Transformers TCG experience.

Advanced Game

Find this card too!

Gameplay proceeds as usual, with you equipping your characters with different utilities, weapons etc and you and your opponent KO’ing each others cards whilst trying to save your own.  A lot of it is skill, a lot of it is down to the luck of the draw.  If you find any cards specific to your team however, employ them at once, they can really help!

The trick to using your Combiner Group effectively is using your individual characters in conjunction with each other, balancing their strengths and weaknesses as well as their special abilities in order to do the most damage before combining.  For instance Motormaster can protect other characters from non-attack damage, Dead End will give you an extra card and Breakdown can gain you extra attack damage.

I also highly recommend getting many of your characters into robot form as soon as possible, so when you decide to unleash your Combiner you only have one or two characters max that needs flipping.  Keep your eye out for the Stunticon Enigma Card too, if you only have one in your deck and you let it get away that’s it, you may as well let your opponent walk all over you because it’s quite hard to win a game with just the individual characters, since none of them are particularly spectacular.

When playing as Menasor, you get two extra cards right off the bat for combining him.  You then get Bold 1, Tough 1 and Pierce 1 as well as playing an extra action on each of your turns.  This means he can seriously kick Cyberarse, especially if you have the right Action Cards slotted.  In fact of the 4 games with friends of Menasor vs Metroplex, Metroplex was only successful in one instance.

So yes, from actual game play I can confirm that the Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs are well worth picking up. I heartily recommend you trade cards with friends so that you can build yourself one of these awesome Combiner Characters as soon as possible!

Got any questions or anything to add?  Pop them in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

RISE OF THE COMBINERS BOOSTER PACKS. REVIEW PART 1 – TRANSFORMERS TCG

EXCLUSIVE CARDS REVEAL: DIRGE AND DEFENSIVE DRIVING. TRANSFORMERS: TCG

REVIEW – METROPLEX PACK: TRANSFORMERS TCG

 

Rise of the Combiners Booster Packs. Review Part 1 – Transformers TCG

Yes kids, the wait is over!  For months now we have been seeing previews of both the new Hero Cards and Battle Cards for Wave 2 of Transformers: Trading Card Game, the wave entitled Rise of the Combiners.  People have been anxiously awaiting to get thier hands on these cards to see if they are as good, or even better, than the excellent cards that were released in Wave 1 last year.

Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast have been kind enough to send me a box of the new Booster Packs from Wave 2, in order to review in much the same way I did the Metroplex Pack last year and the Dirge Reveal several weeks ago.  Once again, it must be stated that I have not been paid to do this review nor have either company tried to dictate the contents of this blog.  www.bigangrytrev.com would like to thank both Hasbro and Wizards of the Coast for the opportunity to examine these cards.

Oh the sweet anticipation of opening!

Now, as you may have noticed from the title of this blog post, this is Part 1 of a review of these booster packs.  Why am I doing it over more than one post?  Because in recieving a box of the Booster Packs, each box holding 30 packs which in turn contain at least 8 cards, it means I now have over 200 cards on my billiard table (er… I mean gaming table) with at least a hundred of them different!  That’s a LOT of cards to look at and a pretty big undertaking!  So in Part 1 we will be examining Drop Rates, new types of cards, Combiners and new Hero & Battle Cards.  In Part 2 we will look at how they perform in gameplay.

 

The Packs Themselves

Each Pack contains 7 Battle Cards and 1 Hero Card or 1 Pair of Combiner Character Cards.  We will look at the likelihood of doubles near the end of this review.

 

The Cards Themselves

Note: At the end of each discussion of the new cards I will be popping in their Drop Rate.  This is to signify how many times I was able to find these cards from the 30 packs contained within a single box of Booster Packs.

 

Combiner Cards

So many Combiners to be made!

Whereas Hero Cards have the robot on the front and the alt-mode on the back, Combiner Character Cards come in pairs.  On one card you will find the robot mode and the other the alt-mode.  On the back of the cards you will find artwork to join together to make the Combiner itself.

Gotta Combin’em all!

There are 5 different Combiners to make from the Booster Packs: Volcanicus, Optimus Maximus, Predaking, Superion and Menasor.

The Stunticons

I was lucky enough to find from the one box all 5 sets of Character Cards in order to make Menasor.  I look forward to bringing you a review of just how he goes in actual gameplay.  I was also able to form what could be termed a Mini-Combiner:

The Dreadwing Pair
Dreadwing

First revealed exclusively by Ozformers, this pair of Decepticons – Dreadwind and Blackwing (formerly Darkwing) combine to form the Dreadwing Sky Destroyer Jet.  This was a smart move on the part of the game makers, as it means you have a greater likelihood of making a Combiner sooner rather than later since he only needs two Character Card pairs instead of 5 or 6.

Drop Rate: Both the side of the box and the official website say the drop rate for Combiner Character Cards is about 50%. When opening multiple packs I was pleasantly surprised to find, for me at least, it surpassed that promise.  Out of the 30 packs I opened, 20 of them had Combiner Character Cards.  So rather than a drop rate of 50% it was a drop rate of 66%.  That’s great considering most Combiners are made up of 5 or 6 different characters you have to collect.

 

Hero Cards

New Hero Cards

As well as the Combiner Cards, we have the same sort of Hero Cards that were released in Wave 1.  There are quite a few new characters getting a showing, and many of the most famous characters, such as Megatron, Bumblebee and Starscream, have been released again but with new artwork and stats

New Hero Cards

I got a mix of characters I had other versions of from Wave 1 along with a good dose of new guys.  I was particularly pleased I was able to get Dirge since www.bigangrytrev.com was given the exlusive reveal of Dirge earlier in the year.  Some Character Cards have their special abilities blank, such as Novastar and Ruckus.  I have yet to figure out exactly why this is and how it will affect their gameplay value.

Drop Rate: Those packs that don’t come with a Combiner Character come with a regular Hero Card.  I found the drop rate to be one in every 3 packs, which doesn’t sound great but actually is if you are after the Combiners specifically, which I believe most players will be actively seeking.

Drop rates for Ultra Rare cards are described as 50:1.  You’ll note I got a King Starscream which is indeed Ultra Rare.  So I got one at a ratio of 30:1 but its entirely possible I could buy 20 more packs without finding another.

 

Battle Cards

Before we had Battle Cards that came in a few different colours based on their ability to attack and defend, with some cards overlapping.  Rise of the Combiners see’s some new categories introduced.

Star Battle Cards

Oh. My. Primus!

This cards are definitely going to be a game changer!  Big time! Got a team which only uses up 22 or 23 or the 25 Star allowance.  Well now there are Battle Cards that have stars!  That means you can put them in as part of your team.  Valued at 1 Star apiece, these are perfect for rounding up your team.  I can see Bolt of Lightning being very useful but it’s Vandalize, where you can scrap all enemy Weapons, Armour or Utilities, that blows me away!  I can’t think of many instances where that wont be invaluable!

Drop Rate: There are 7 Star Battle Cards, in 30 packs I obtained 6 of them.

Enigma Cards

Enigma Cards

So you have all your characters needed to create a Combiner.  But you need one more thing – an Enigma Card.  There is an Enigma Card for each Combiner.  Being Green (discussed shortly), these cards can be rescued from the discard pile which saves a lot of heartache.  The Enigma Card is used to make your Combiner Character cards join together, even if some of those characters have been previously KO’ed.

Drop Rate: In 30 packs I was able to get all 5 Enigma’s as well as a couple of spares.

Team Specific Cards

Team Specific Cards

There are specific cards that you can use with each team but no others.  They can be placed on only one member of this team.  I have yet to see if they can be retroactive – for instance I have a Dinobot Swoop card from Wave 1, but it does not make up the Volcanicus Team.  Can I use my Electrified Spikes card on that old Swoop since he is a Dinobot and the card talks about Dinobots, not Volcanicus?  Stay tuned for future reviews to find out!

Drop Rate: I was able to find cards for four of the five teams within 30 packs.

Green Battle Cards

If you get a Green Battle Card, it means that you are able to retrieve it from the discard pile.  You can only do this with one card per turn.  Whilst this sounds good but not game changing, it can be of extreme importance given what some of these cards (such as the Enigma’s) do.

Regular Battle Cards

White Battle Cards

We have a slew of new Battle Cards in already established catagories, so many it would take too long to list them all.  Some of them we have already seen in exclusive reveals, such as those made by Lisamaree on the Life with SPROGS site, like Inferno Breath and Surprise Attack.   I was a little disappointed to not get a Defensive Driving card but don’t believe it will take me long to obtain one.

Orange Battle Cards
Blue Battle Cards

Drop Rate: Well you are guaranteed 7 Battle Cards per pack.  I was very heartened that I never got the same two cards in the same pack.

 

So there ya go, a not-so-short synopsis of the new cards on offer from the Wave 2 Transformers Trading Card Game Rise of the Combiner Booster Packs.  I was very pleasantly surprised that I only got two doubles of characters (Dead End and Mirage) out of the 30 packs, which made this undertaking even bigger!  Stay tuned for Part 2, where we test these bad bots (now available in selected stores) out with some serious gameplay!

 

Related Articles:

ROTC Booster Packs.  Part 2 – Gameplay

Exclusive Cards Reveal: Dirge & Defensive Driving

Metroplex Pack: Transformers TCG

 

 

 

 

Ask Trev: Grumpy Silkies Problem

Today we have another chicken question from Maddy in Melbourne:

 

Dear Trev,

Me again, with more chicken nonsense.

Thank you for the very informative and detailed blog post about goats.

Your initial FB post about capturing goats was never enough of the story for me and I feel quite pleased to now have the full account.

I wish you good fortune on your future goat capturing endeavours.

So anyway as you may know I have overcome the little city kid heartbreak of losing ‘livestock’* (*pets) and have decided that contrary to what a teenage boyfriend once declared to me  (I wish I had never fallen in love with you so I didn’t have to feel this heartbreak at having lost you) I can in fact go on to love again. I’ve recently acquired two new hens and did a great deal of research on breeds and temperaments and so on and so forth.

My last girl standing from my last flock is a wee little thing and has become quite dependent on me in her dotage.

Cut to the chase she has two new pals who are little silkies. They’re much younger than my last posse of backyard hens and seem to actually despise me. They’ve only known a small cage prior to coming to Casa Del Madsy but seem entirely perturbed about that whereas my last girls felt this palatial new digs was simply glorious.

Everything I read about silkies is that they’re lovely friendly hens who will tolerate children and sit on your lap and follow you about.

They have blue ears and extra toes and I’ve ruled out the idea I may have accidentally bought bunny rabbits so why do they hate me?

Will they ever come round?

They grumble at me like old men who’ve been woken from a nap in their favourite chair and the greyish one even pecks me when I put treats in their little run. I have them separated from Ponny still but she seems to be happier just knowing they’re there.

So anyway that’s my question: why do my silkies hate me and will they eventually warm to me?

Is there any more I can do to convince them I’m very nice to animals,

Thanking you in advance,

Subruban Madsy.

 

Thanks for all the chicken questions Maddy, keep’em coming!

 

In regards to why your chickens hate you – they don’t hate you.  They hate humans.

‘What are you staring at you damn dirty hairless apes?’

Think about it, they have been locked in a small cage their entire lives.  Pretty horrible way to spend your existence.  And who put them there?  Were they locked in by other chickens for crimes against poultrykind?  Did they voluntarily lock themselves in the cage due to some kind of chicken-agoraphobia, fearing the idea of the outside world?  Were they involved in some kind of bizarre sado-masochistic erotic chook game (involving feathers no doubt) and simply lost the key to their private sex dungeon?

Nope.  Humans locked them in there.  Filthy stinkin’ humans.

So despite them being usually a very friendly breed, these chookies are probably a bit traumatized. It’s going to take a while for them to adjust and even longer to trust.  It’s not like when Apartheid ended that every black person in South Africa suddenly started trusting white people.  Nope, it’s a long road that that country is still bravely travelling along towards a brighter future.  And so it may be with your new chooks.

 

My advice?

 

Spend as much time as you can as possible in your yard with them, but without interacting.  Take a chair and a book and just sit near their enclosure.  This way they will slowly get used to your presence without feeling threatened or that they are about to be shoved back in a tiny cage at any moment.  We have many wombats on our farm and there is a big old bugger at the moment who has taken to feasting in our front and backyards.  At first every time he saw us he bolted.  Now he couldn’t give a crap if we are there or not as we have never bothered him.  In fact just last night he wandered to within a few meters of our dog, who was lying there idly watching him chew.  We don’t bother him and in return we get a free organic lawnmower!

After the Silkies have gotten used to your presence and seem relatively unfazed by you being around as it has become part of the norm of their lives, then you can try interacting a bit.  Chickens are like children – wary of adults until that adult busts out their favourite treats.  Experiment with a few different things to see what your Silkies like best.  Our ducklings are somewhat wary of us, until we come out with sliced watermelon and then we are likely to trampled in a stampede of webbed feet!  There will be something that your Silkies can’t resist, be it a type of grain, fruit, worms or snails or even just breadcrumbs.  When you find out what that special something is, throw a little of it to them from a distance each day, and each day shrink that distance by a few inches.  In no time at all you will have them pecking around your feet without a care in the world.

Will your chookies ever warm to you to the point they want to sit in your lap?  Hard to say.  If they are young enough they may learn new behavioural patterns but if the distrust of humans is ingrained in them it may be the best you can hope for is them clucking around your feet as you potter in the backyard.  Our Frizzle rooster likes us well enough that sometimes he even sneaks in the porch door, but he never wants to be picked up (unless he’s gotten into a fight with the drake that is, then he will sit in my lap sulkily for an hour while I console him on his loss and tend to his boo-boos).  So don’t take it too much to heart if they never become lap-chooks, though with how fluffy Silkies are I know ya just wanna cuddle’em.

Like a poodle mated with a marshmallow

 

I hope this advice helps Madds.  Remember:

A: Get them used to your presence

B: Find out their favourite treat

C: Slowly lure them a bit closer to you each day until they are comfortable

D: Do not mention Apartheid or eat KFC in their presence and…

E: Remember chickens are like people – sometimes you encounter some grumpy, unsociable bastards where it doesn’t matter what you do.

‘What? I’m funny to you? I make you laugh? Come closer and lets see how much you smile then’

Good luck!  Let us know how things work out in the coming weeks.

Got any other advice for Maddy?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Ask Trev: Chickens – The balance between pets and livestock

Permaculture: Treating Mite Infestations in Chickens

Ask Trev: How to deal with molting chickens

 

 

 

Capturing Wild Animals: Feral Goats

Feral Goats.  Bane of natural forests.

Here in Australia they are classed as an Invasive Animal Species and official pest.  Responsible for financial losses totaling $225 million per year, they cause land degradation and compete with native species for both food and rock shelter.

We’ve had a big pack of feral goats that turn up periodically on our farm from the forest it backs onto.  Except for the odd bit of damage to a boundary fence, it hasn’t been not too much of a nuisance in the past as we currently have no herds of grazing animals.

But now they have discovered our two pet does – twin-sisters Milly and Molly.

Because the Billy’s in particular have such an interest in our two nannies, and indeed twice we have had to go find our goats (who are free range) because they have taken off with the pack, we decided to do something about it.

Not owning a gun, capture was the next best option.  And, especially during a drought, it’s surprisingly easy!  Here is how:

 

Billy Goats are like 18 year old boys

Caught via his own passions

*Its truer than you think.  They smell bad, they’re constantly hungry and they are constantly horny (pun partially intended).  So if you think like a teenage boy then you can lure them in.

*My does are both on heat and have been putting their scent out on the wind.  So we have had all the local feral Billy’s showing up, making it easy to capture one.  First I left the back gate to the does pen open (which I do most days as they free range and come back themselves of an evening).

*Then I made sure there was a salt-lick in their yard and their water trough was full.  During drought goats, like most creatures, are in constant search of water sources.

*I made sure there was some fresh Lucerne in their yard.

*Now think like a teenage boy and think what the scents on the wind are telling the Billy Goat.  They are saying ‘Hey!  You know what?  I know this place we can go!  There is tons to eat!  There is tons to drink!  And there are twin-sisters that are hot to trot big time!’

Look, they even do tabletop dancing!

*So with the promise of free food, free drink and a couple of hotties who are gagging for it, like the 18 year old human male, the Billy Goat cannot resist.  They turn up and quite quickly make their way into the pen.  I’ve caught two 100+kg Billy Goats with this technique this month alone!

 

Capture is easy – containment is hard.

The trouble containing feral goats is that they will throw themselves at the fences, charging full pelt with horns down, trying to escape.  I have enough fencing skill that I’ve put up a few around the farm, but they are certainly not of a professional standard.  The one I built around my goat pen is strong enough to contain our does and proved strong enough to withstand the punishment of a Feral Billy until it gives up and accept its lot in life.  However we encountered a problem…

… a competing Billy Goat.

According to my mother-in-law (I was at work at the time) a white Billy turned up and had a big fight through the fence with the one I had captured.  With two 100+kg Billy’s throwing themselves full force head first at the same part of the fence, it wasn’t long until it gave and the Billy escaped.

Not the fence it once was

However that afternoon he was quickly replaced.  A 3rd Billy (a black one this time) turned up and I was able to catch him using the aforementioned technique.  However as I had only had time to do a slapdash repair on the fence, it was not strong enough and with enough full-force attacks he was able to batter over the damaged fence and escape.

So, hopefully I can get the fence repaired properly before my does go out of heat and try and capture some more.  All I have to do…

…is think like an 18 year old boy.

 

Got any goat-trapping tips yourself?  Pop them in the comments section below!

 

Related Article:

Raising Goats as Pets

Exclusive Cards Reveal: Dirge and Defensive Driving. Transformers: TCG

Last time we discussed Transformers: TCG – the new card game that has many parallels between it and Magic: The Gathering, we looked at The Metroplex Pack, which introduced the new concept of Titan Cards.

Well Wave 2 is coming out now, and since we already have Titans on the board, it’s time to introduce the other behemoths from the Transformer franchise – gestaltsRise of the Combiners will be introducing gestalt teams such as the Predacons, which looks to open up the range of gameplay even more.

However it’s not just the Combiner Teams that are being introduced in Wave 2.  We are getting some other new Hero Cards as well, along with some new Battle Cards for gameplay.  Once again, Hasbro has been kind enough to offer bigangrytrev.com an EXCLUSIVE SPOILER to reveal! So in this exclusive reveal let’s look at one of the new characters as well as one of the new battle cards: Dirge, Doombringer and Defensive Driving.

*Note: Like last time, no money has changed hands for this EXCLUSIVE SPOILER, and Hasbro & Wizards of the Coast have in no way tried to dictate the contents of this blog article.

 

HERO CARD:

DIRGE, DOOMBRINGER

I was pretty chuffed when Hasbro gave me Dirge as an exclusive reveal.  Dirge was my first ever Transformer way back in the 80’s, so whilst not the most popular of the Seekers, he has always held a special place in my heart.

The Artwork

The artwork for this card was originally seen in a TF game app years ago, Transformers Legends.  Though that game is dead and buried, the fantastic artwork from it still crops up here and there and has been seen with some of the collector cards that came with figures from the Titans Return, Power of the Primes and other Transformer toy lines.  It’s great this artwork has seen the light of day again and Dirge looks excellent here, blasting away in his robot mode and conversely zooming off in his jet mode.  The art of both modes are based on the Generations toy Dirge received back in 2010, to my mind the best toy of Dirge we’ve had (perhaps barring the Masterpiece version that came out a couple of years ago).

Card Power

The term ‘Dirge’ has to do with laments and music for the dead.  And the way this card plays on the board is very appropriate for the character’s name indeed, for he kills the weak stone dead and gains power from the death of others.

Robot Mode

Dirge is rocking stats of 2 Attack, 11 Health and 2 Defence in robot mode.  Whilst not staggering stats, it’s his power of Pierce 1 that makes him so valuable.  It means no matter the defences up, Dirge is going to inflict at least 1 damage to his opponent, very handy if your opponent has characters that are well defended but also on the brink of death.

Jet Mode

Jet mode has stats of 4 Attack, 11 Health and 2 Defence, so much like the robot mode.  The power of his alt-mode is to get an extra attack point for every character you have KO’ed of your opponent.  So if you have KO’ed say 2 or 3 of your opponents Hero Card’s already, it can bring Dirge’s attack up to a power of 6 or 7.

Card Functionality

The above powers means both sides of Dirge’s card greatly complement each other.  You can use the Pierce 1 of his robot mode to kill off weak opponent cards, then flip to his alt-mode in order to gain extra attack power from those aforementioned KO’ed Hero Cards. You then use this extra power to knock off your opponents healthier Hero Cards.  This gives Dirge a great deal of latitude in regards to what kind of decks you can put him in. Indeed Dirge will be a real asset in particular to decks where you have other Hero Cards taking care of the major offensives and defences.  Make sure you use him in the right deck though – at 8 Stars he will take up nearly a 3rd of the total stars you can use to create your team.  Used correctly however, Dirge will indeed be a bringer of doom!

 

BATTLE CARD:

DEFENSIVE DRIVING

Artwork

The artwork for this card is actually taken from the IDW Transformers comic book series.  In particular the subseries Maximum: Dinobots, published all the way back in 2008/09.  The picture shows one of the Sunstreaker clones (bearing a striking resemblance to Cordon), created by Scorponok, defensively driving out of the way of a tail swipe from Grimlock.  I love the fact that this card series takes its artwork from so many different sources, not just the one.

Card Power & Functionality: UPGRADE – ARMOR

It’s a good thing that these cards are intended for the more advanced way of playing Transformers: TCG rather than the basic, as there is no way my 6 year old son could figure out the power of this card, it even took me a minute of two!

Essentially this card offers extra protection to your characters when played.  Whilst not defending from a direct attack, what is does do is lessen the damage taken from non-direct attacks by your opponent by 1.  This can be extremely handy to play when your opponent has multiple non-direct attacks set up on the board, as they can add up and easily KO one of your Hero Cards.  With this card protecting one of your characters, your Hero Card stands a much better chance of surviving non-direct attacks in order to fight another round.

 

So as we see, Transformers: TCG continues to expand.  I personally will be hoping I find both Dirge and Defensive Driving in blind packs when they are released in March this year.

How are you enjoying Transformers: TCG so far?  Would love to hear in the commments section below!  And for more card reveals, check out Lisamaree on Life With Sprogs to see some great battle cards!

 

Related Articles:

Transformers TCG: Metroplex Pack

Toy Review – Masterpiece Dirge

Toy Review – POTP Dinobots: Wave 1

How to Save a Premature Duckling

How to Save a Premature Duckling

Though not as popular as chooks, more people are starting to keep ducks.  Some just as pets, some as livestock, or maybe like us to sell the  Organic Free-Range Duck Eggs they produce.  And for anyone that keeps poultry, breeding your birds is great but can lead to problems.

For the most part, mother nature can look after itself.  And I’ve learned the hard way over the years that human interference can often cause more harm than good.  Many’s the time I thought I was helping with the birth of one of our ducks and, through a misguided sense to do good, actually caused the death of a hatching duckling rather than save it.

However sometimes you do need to intervene.  If you are a professional farmer of ducks, chances are you already know all the tricks and even have the right equipment to handle things (incubators and what have you).  However if you are a backyard duck farmer like me, you have to rely on your wits and what is to hand.

 

First off, if the membrane and yolk sac are still intact – do NOT break them!  Chances are there are still blood vessels attached to the duckling.  Just let it keep doing its thing – it can take up to 24 hours for a duckling to emerge.

If the membrane and yolk sac are broken and the duckling seems unable to free itself, just sit tight for a few hours and keep checking on it.  Again, it will probably get itself out.

Now worst case scenario. It’s been hours since the duckling broke through the egg shell, membrane, yolk etc and its still not getting out.  Here is where you may have to intervene.  Chances are it’s premature and it doesn’t have the strength on its own to break out.  At our place this can be a real concern, as we live on a farm rife with tiny ants and I’ve lost more than one duckling to ants pouring into the hole of the shell.  Here is what you do:

 

1: Take tweezers, or use fingers if you cant find any, and very carefully peel away the eggshell a tiny bit at a time.

2: Once the shell is peeled away, you should be presented with a very wet (and if premature quite small) duckling.  As long as it’s breathing then come away.  Being premature it should take longer than usual for them to get on their feet as it will be very weak.  Keep checking back but try and let the mother duck take over.

3: If you come back and the duckling is still lying in relatively the same spot then it’s time to step it up. Once again, on our farm the ants are horrid so sometimes when I come back I’ll find a poor weak duckling unable to move and covered in tiny little sods all chowing down on both duckling and yolk.

4: Take the duckling inside and prepare somewhere warm. If you have the knowhow then you can try to set up a makeshift incubator with a warm light globe and a cardboard box and pop the duckling in. Otherwise body heat is perfect.  Clean the duckling up as best you can, wrap it in a thin towel and cuddle it to your chest.  If there is more than one person in the house then taking turns is a good idea, as you will need to do this for a while and let’s face it, who has a heart cold enough to refuse to cuddle a duckling?

5: Ducklings often don’t eat for the first 24 hours, but sometimes with premature ones they need some extra strength to make it through, especially if they hadn’t absorbed a lot of the egg yolk before hatching. What I have found works best is to start off with sugar water. Simply dissolve a little bit of sugar in room temperature water. Put this in something tiny and low and hold it under the ducklings beak. Hopefully it will drink something and provide it that little energy boost needed to make it through the coming hours.

6: If the duckling has managed to keep down some sugar water, then you can move on to use a similar technique with chick starter (tiny grey granules fed to young poultry).  Grind these granules up even smaller and once again add to room temperature water.     Once again, it may not eat and drink, but if it does the mix will be perfect for providing it that bit of extra nutrition to survive that it missed out on by emerging early.

7: Despite body heat being perfect, when it comes to bedtime do not take the duckling to bed with you, you might roll over and squash it! Instead take some towels and create a little nest in a cardboard box. Place the duckling inside and very gently lay a light tea towel over the nest.  Ducklings sleep under their mothers wings for the first few weeks and this will be a good approximation.  Having a dark, warm and soft place to rest hopefully should lull your duckling in to having a much needed sleep in order to build up its strength.

8: If your duckling is still alive in the morning, chances are it’s going to survive. Keep an eye on it for a few hours to make sure it is making noise, its feathers have fluffed out and it is eating and drinking.  If so, great!  You should have successfully turned your duckling from this:

Saturday Afternoon

To this:

Same duckling – Sunday Afternoon

Congratulations!  You saved a duckling!  Now perhaps the hardest part of all.  You have to give this cute fuzzy little duckling back to its mother.  The sooner you return the duckling the better.  The longer you leave it, the harder it will be to reintegrate it to its family and the more attached it will be to you (and chances are you to it).  But if all goes well, within a week the duckling should have caught up with its siblings in size and strength to the point you wont be able to tell them apart.

Now sit back and enjoy watching the cuteness abound.

Got any other tips for helping a premature duckling?  Or want some extra advice?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

 

Related Articles:

Permaculture – Treating Mite Infestations in Chickens

 

Video – My 150+ Generations Autobots

Several months ago I did a short video showcasing from my personal collection 100+ Generations Decepticons.  Well now it is the Autobots turn.  These figures are mainly of G1 characters who have received an update through toylines such as Thrilling 30, Combiner Wars, Legends, POTP and so on.

So enjoy this short video I made of the display.  Also below you will find some screenshots and a full list of the Autobots onshow, along with links to reviews of many of the figures displayed here – have fun!

 

 

Air Raid,  Afterbreaker, Afterburner, Alpha Bravo, Alpha Trion, Arcee

Beachcomber, Blades, Blaster, Blurr, Brainstorm, Brawn, Broadside, Bumblebee

Caliburst, Cerebros, Chromedome, Chromia, Circut, Cliffjumper, Cludburst, Cloudraker, Computron, Cosmos, Crosscut

Depthcharge, Dustup

Eject, Elita-1

Fastlane, Firefly, First Aid, Fisitron, Flak, Fortress Maximus

Gears, Getaway, Groove, Godbomber, Grappel, Grimlock

Hardhead, Highbrow, Hoist, Holepunch, Hot Rod, Hot Spot, Hound, Huffer

Impactor, Inferno, Ironhide

Jackpot, Jazz, Jumpstream, Junkheap

Kup

Landmine, Lightspeed, Lightsteed, Lio Convoy

Metalhawk, Metroplex, Mirage, Moonracer

Nightbeat, Nosecone, Nova Prime, Novastar

Omega Supreme, Optimal Optimus, Optimus Prime, Orion Pax, Outback, Override

Perceptor, Pipes, Powerglide, Prowl, Ptero, Punch, Pyra Magma,

Ramhorn, Ratchet, Red Alert, Rewind, Roadbuster, Roadhandler, Rodimus Prime, Rook

Sandstorm, Sawback, Scattershot, Scoop, Scrounge, Seaspray, Sentinel Prime, Shuffler, Sideswipe, Silverstreak, Silverbolt, Skids, Sky Lynx, Skyburst, Skydive, Slash, Slingshot, Sludge, Slug, Smokescreen, Snarl, Springer, Steeljaw, Stripes, Stormclash, Strafe, Streetwise, Sundor, Sunstreaker, Super Ginrai, Superion, Swerve, Swindler, Swoop

Tailgate, Tracks, Trailbreaker, Topshot, Topspin, Twin Twist, Twinferno

Ultra Magnus

Victorion

Warpath, Wheelie, Wheeljack, Whirl, Windcharger, Wreck-Gar

 

Related Video

My 100+ Generations Decepticons

Meat Recipe #11 – Pork Cutlets with Creamy Mustard Sauce

My wife doesn’t like pork.  There, I’ve said it.  It’s a shameful thing to have to admit about ones spouse but there it is.  Likes ham, tolerates bacon… but hates pork.  My daughter likes pork to a small extent and my son merely tolerates it.  So in a house of four people we have a total of one pork lover – me.

As a result I am always trying new recipes to try and convince my family to eat swine flesh on a more regular basis.  Most make the meat reasonably OK for them but it never truly converts them.

However I have finally hit on a recipe that even my wife will happily eat!  Saucy and tasty, this will make even those whose religious faith make them eschew pork commit heresy and chow on down – Pork Cutlets with Creamy Mustard Sauce.

 

Ingredients

  • 6 large Potatoes
  • 2 Red Capsicum
  • 1/4 cup Wholegrain Mustard
  • 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
  • 1/3 cup Chicken Liquid Stock
  • 4 large Rindless Pork Loin Cutlets
  • 1/2 cup Thickened Cream
  • 1/4 cup Flat-leaf Parsley L:leaves
  • Salt & Pepper

 

Method

*Preheat oven at 200 degrees

*Cut the potatoes into wedges and thickly slice the capsicum, place into a baking tray.

*In a bowl, mix up the mustard, olive oil and liquid stock.

*Pour mix over the vegetables. Place loin cutlets on top and season with salt & pepper

*Place in the oven for half an hour

*While food cooks, chop up parsley leaves and put into a bowl, add the cream

*At half hour mark take out the cutlets and wrap in tinfoil.  Pour the cream and parsley mix over the vegetables and put back in the oven for another 10 minutes.

*Put the food on a plate.  Sit back and let everyone compliment you on how good it looks.

Oh hells yeah!

*Devour.  Threaten others that if they don’t do the dishes this time round that you will never make such a meal again.

 

And there ya go, a pork recipe to delight the family and ensure you actually get to eat pork once in a while.

 

Enjoy this recipe?  Lets us know in the comments section below!

 

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Big Angry Trev vs God Slayer Hot Sauce

I’ve had a bit of a love affair with hot sauces over the years, and like most things which are not good for you, the more you indulge in them the bigger the hit you want the next time.

Many years ago I tried 15 different hot sauces in one bite.  It was damn hot but overall it was fine.  Then I tried Australia’s Hottest Hamburger, a challenge I sadly lost, ironically due to the burger making me nauseous more than the heat itself.

 

For Xmas 2018 my in-laws gave me two hot sauces, the first was:

 Darkhorse

Aged 6 Years

Limited Edition

Super Hot Sauce. 

An impressive title.

 

The second came in a smaller black bottle.  It’s title simply read:

GOD SLAYER

FUCKING HOT SAUCE

 

At dinner we were having several kinds of meat so I decided to try these hot sauces out.  I asked my 3 year old daughter which one I should try – the tall red and yellow bottle or the little black one.

Unfortunately for me, she picked the little black one.

Now before we continue I should introduce you to something called the Scoville Scale:

The Scoville scale is a measurement of the pungency (spiciness or “heat”) of chili peppers and other spicy foods, as recorded in  Scoville Heat Units (SHU) based on the concentration of capsaicinoids, among which capsaicin is the predominant component.

Now to give you an idea of spiciness – your average tabasco hot sauce comes in at around 3,500 SHU.  The Pepper Spray used by police to incapacitate people comes in at 5,000,000 SHU.

I have been unable to find a SHU listing for the Darkhorse.  But God Slayer comes in at a whopping 6,400,000 SHU.  That makes it (besides limited edition novelty releases) the third hottest commercially available hot sauce on the planet!

Of course, I did not know this at the time.

So I got some chicken and liberally coated it with God Slayer.  Took a big old bite.

The effect was instantaneous.  My lips, tongue and mouth in general were on spice-driven fire!  If it had been a cartoon flames would have been shooting out of my mouth!  I urged my brother-in-law to fetch some milk and spent the next several minutes using milk and bread and beer to try and put out the flames in my mouth.

After about 20 minutes I was OK and decided to try the Darkhorse Super Hot Sauce.  Put some liberally on my pork and took a big bite.  Like when I did the 15 hot sauces challenge and the chilli beer I had after tasted like water, this time the God Slayer had seared my tastebuds so much that I couldn’t even taste the Darkhorse.  I had another helping 5 minutes later and found the same.  So at this stage I had devoured 3 helpings of hot sauce in 45 minutes, one of them the 3rd hottest sauce on the planet.

 

The Effects

*At first I was fine

*Then my belly started to gurgle

*After that for about half an hour I became flatulent, to the amusement of myself if not others

*After that I became somewhat nauseous

*After that I felt quite nauseous so went and lay on the couch while the rest of the family continued to enjoy the Xmas festivities outside.  Think I even had a little nap.

*Went back to my mother-in-laws to bed at around 10.30pm.  Felt a bit nauseous still and had a tiny bit of a sweat on but nothing major.

*1am: Wake up and the backs of my hands were on fire!  Looking at them I was surprised the flesh wasn’t blistering!  Went and ran them under cold water.

*3am-7am: Up and down all night feeling nauseous, having hot flashes in my hands and feeling like I needed to defecate but couldn’t.

*8am: Wake up to nausea.  Go and sit on toilet. Diarrhea finally hits and the song ‘ring of fire’ pops into my head as my body purges itself of molten lava from my rectum for at least half an hour.

8.30am: Start to panic.  Am supposed to be taking my son and his friends to see the Bumblebee Movie for his birthday soon.  Tell my wife she may have to go in my stead.  She brings me water, pain killers and stomach pills for me to devour.

9.30am: Pills kick in.  The ordeal subsides.

 

So it was a fairly horrible experience in the end.  It turns out the heat in my hands was due to me drinking beer after the God Slayer.  It essentially diluted it and put it into my bloodstream where it traveled around trying to find a place to vent the heat.  As I was wearing pajamas the only parts of my body exposed and cool were my face and hands and thankfully it went to my hands.

So did this all happen purely due to the God Slayer or did the two helpings of Darkhorse contribute?  So sigh…. I am going to have to test this so this blog post might have a sequel down the line.  In the meantime, for the next few weeks at least, my mouth (and subsequently my colon) might give the hot sauce a wide berth.

Got a hot sauce experience of your own?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

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Big Angry Trev vs Australia’s Hottest Hamburger!

Join the Trevolution!