BOB SHARE

Rumors presence BlackBerry Storm 3 had time to fade. But now rumors of the presence of the BlackBerry Storm 3 flare discussed again, the emergence of Storm 3 (Also known as BlackBerry 9570) are present to block the popularity of the iPhone 4.

Storm 3 will be equipped with large enough that resolution 800 × 480 pixels. Research In Motion (RIM) seems to want to approach the territorial retinal display iPhone. Now the question is, whether the Storm 3 is able to be worth opposed to the iPhone 4?

In terms of processor, Storm 3 reportedly has a speed of 1.2 Ghz. That said, RIM uses dual-core chip, the optical trackpad is still present, and the display is supposedly a 3.7-inch capacitive touchscreen with an AMOLED display, with 16M colors. You’ll find integrated WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth connectivity. The battery life is supposed to grant users 9 hours of talk time, and up to 432 hours of stand-by time. It’s still possible that the BlackBerry Storm 3 will feature the same Operating System as the PlayBook, or it could just ship with OS 6, as other BlackBerry devices have recently. No word on when, or even if, the device will make it to market. But, if it does, it sounds like RIM has a real contender in the smartphone market again.

Here are the specs of the BlackBerry Storm 3:
- 1.2 GHz processor
- 3.7-inch 800 x 480 capacitive display
- Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE
- Tri-band UMTS/HSPA
- 5-megapixel camera with 720p video recording
- 8GB eMMC (storage for apps and data), 512MB of RAM
- microSD slot
- Magnetometer
- Proximity sensor
- Accelerometer
- Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
- 2.4 GHz b/g/n and 5GHz a/n Wi-Fi + UMA
- 3G Mobile hotspot
- Optical trackpad
- BlackBerry OS 6.1
- OpenGL ES 2.0
- 1230 mAh battery

Funny how a movie can really change your life.

I used to be a huge Duke fan, but after GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, Im now a Storm Shadow junkie! Well, at least as far as movie Joes go. And its entirely because of this guy:



Its Korean drama serial "Auntie Killer" Lee Byung-Hun! Why the nickname? Because the housewives here in Asia loooove him. And because we call housewives, especially the old ones, aunties. (Not you, Wanz! :P) Yes, go ahead and YouTube him. 1630 hits, people. Thats how big the guy is in Asia, and perhaps now the rest of the world, because of the movie and his toy!

Enter Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow, who bears a pretty good likeness to the actor.

Now I have to say that one the whole, the majority of the movie 3.75" range of movie Joes have great face sculpts that resemble the actors playing them. General Hawk, Ripcord, Zartan, and Duke (Marine uniform) come to mind. And you have to give Hasbro credit for at least trying.

What they did do really well, though, was the articulation on the figures. Storm Shadow here has 22 points of bendy parts.

He has a ball-jointed head and chest, pin-swivel shoulders and elbows, swivel wrists. legs are ball-jointed, with double-joint knees and swivel and ratchet ankles. His lower half articulation is excellent, with perhaps the end of his pants getting in the way of him pivoting his feet, but that really is a minor problem.

His upper half, though, is slightly more problematic. But only slightly. First off, his head cant rotate as far to the right as it can the left because of the slightly lopsided collar. Second, his vest doesnt allow his arms to come together in front of him. They do rotate all the way back but lack of frontal flexibility means he cant properly wield his katana two-handed. And he definitely cant hold the huge ass cannon that come with him on his shoulder with 2 hands. Speaking of which, PP Stormie comes with a variety of good stuff!

Two swords, two sai, a pistol, a stand and a big friggin cannon/bazooka. He also comes with a double sword scabbard, and a suction cup-like thing that has handles on it. And whats a GI Joe figure is it doesnt come with good stuff? Thats right, toys that come with toys for the toys are the best. ;P

Just look at how much you can arm him with!





































And check out the nifty places he can store his arsenal:

But defeinitely no place for the BFG, which I might add, only Stormie gets to fire in the movie to take out the Eiffel tower. It wouldve been a super cool accesory if only Paris Pursuit Storm Shadow came with it, and not every figure in the movie line. I dunno, maybe Hasbro wanted to keep those of us who havent seen the movie from guessing who actually gets to fire it. Or maybe they thought every kid in the world would wanna have a BFG after seeing what it can do. Hmm. But too bad Stormie here cant have two hands on it while hes holding the weapon.

Hey but check out the suction cup thingamajig, though. Its deinitely going to come in handy in a glass display cabinet. Finally, all the 3.75" figure height troubles in tall shelf space solved! Itll also make for a nice wall-climbing battle scene.

OK lets rate him!

Character accuracy: 9.5/10 - Great likeness, jumpsuit is nicely detailed and collar molded to look like the way LBH wears it in the movie.

Aesthetics: 9.6/10 - Gotta love the detail they put into this guy. The creases in his jacket and pants, his hair molded just like Stormie in the movie, his light smirk, and his eyes. When painted well, they look like hes actually looking at you. ;) But I have seen some where his eyes are painted too high and he looks like hes perpetually rolling them. Mines painted slightly high, and looks like hes always looking up when his heads turned to the side--his collar gets in the way left and right. Also, Ive seen some with worse painted hair than my Storm Shadow. Or you can just touch him up with a little paint if youre not fussy. :)

Sneakers!








Poseability: 9.7 - I really wanna give him a 10 here just for the double jointed knees--you can do so much with them!


But he loses points for the head and also for the vest getting in the way of his arms and hands coming closer in front of his chest.
























And just for fun, heres Storm Shadow executing a side-kick (At least I hope thats what it is):

Overall: 9.6 - They couldve gotten away with doing Storm Shadow with just his ninja mask on and thats it, but they didnt. They gave him a face, and a good one at that. And theyre not stopping there. The next wave will see a bare-chested Storm Shadow with cuts all over ala the final battle with Snakeyes in the movie, and therell be masked and unmasked versions. Ill probably get them both! Woohoo!

Hasbro have done a good job with this line, if Storm Shadow is anything to go by. Now I cant wait to crack open Snake Eyes, General Hawk, Pit Commando, and Accelerator Suit Ripcord, the latter 3 of which I got over the weekend. :) Yo Joe!

The Solar Dynamics Observatory captures an M8.7 class flare in a handout photo released by NASA January 23, 2012. The flare is shown here in teal as that is the color typically used to show light in the 131 Angstrom wavelength, a wavelength in which it is easy to view solar flares. The flare began at 10:38 PM ET on January 22, 2012, peaked at 10:59 PM and ended at 11:34 PM

Late last night (Jan.22) at around 11 pm ET a giant, long lasting, solar flare erupted off the face of the Sun, sending a giant Coronal Mass Ejection (CME) – cloud of plasma and charged particles – squarely towards the Earth.  Detected by NASA’s sun-monitoring satellites SOHO and STEREO, the solar blast was determined to be an M9 on the Richter scale of solar flares – just shy of an X- class flare which is ranked as the most powerful. Space weather forecasters at NOAA – who keep watch for any hazardous, incoming solar storms – are expecting the brunt of the CME to slam into Earth’s magnetic field Jan.24 around 9 am EST ( 2 pm UT)   +/- 7 hours.

And Earth is not the only planet in its cross-hairs. Mars will get walloped too when the CME arrives there on Jan.25th.

This handout image provided by NASA, taken Sunday night, Jan. 22, 2012, shows a solar flare erupting on the Sun`s northeastern hemisphere. (AP via NASA)

Finally!  A 3.75 inch two pack set that has two members of the same team!  In this case, of course, its the X-Men.

While Im really happy Ive got these two to now add to my Wolverine, Cyclops, Jean Grey, and Gambit, Im a little sad because this is the last Wave of the Secret Wars packs, meaning that there wont be a chance for ol Prof Egghead...er..X, to be produced.  On the bright side, Prof X doesnt move around in a wheelchair in this series, so perhaps Hasbro will do him in a more "iconic" look in the main Marvel Universe line.

So yes, I picked up these two to round out my ragtag all-costumes-go X-Men.  But I had other reasons too: who wouldnt want Storm with a Mohawk? And how can you no want to buy a uniquely sculpted Nightcrawler?  Well, I sure did, so lets see how it turned out!





Like: Mohawks! Well, actually, Mohawk, since theres only one in this 2-pack.  And not for me, but for Storm.  Its one of her more distinctive looks, and I think shes probably the only superhero around with two really different but memorable "costumes."  Of course, theres this Mohawk look and theres also the long hair with cape look, which is more current, I believe.  A unique hair-style on  figure means a unique head sculpt.  And Hasbro have done a good job with it, as with the Doom and Absorbing Man two-pack.  Like that two-pack, this set also has two new heads.  And all through the line, theyve been giving us unique head sculpts for the most part.  Nightcrawler is no exception to the new head sculpt practice too.  His head looks perfect for our for favorite Mutant circus performer.

Like: Prehensile tails!  Or specifically, the one on this Night Crawler because its got swivel articulation!  Woohoo!  If only it was really prehensile and I could make him hang on trees or something...

Like: "Accessories."  Technically they dont come with jack.  But they do have extra parts on their bodies that could be considered as accessories.  Storm has her sleeveless leather jacket and a belt, while Nightcrawler has his vest "sleeves" and tail.  Yeah, I know, thats reaching a little, but at least they did try to give us something more than just paint on the body for costumes. Oh, and the comic that comes with them doesnt really count as an accessory per say, but its still nice to have a little history/background on the characters!


Like: Nightcrawlers funky proportions! Hes got 2 fingers and a thumb, as well as three toes on each foot.  Also, his lower torso is longer and thinner than other MU figures, giving him the thin, wiry look he needs.

Dislike: Nightcrawlers funky proportions! He may have all that neat new sculpting, but I suspect the new torsos made him a little too tall.  Stand him straight up and hell tower over most of the other MU figures.  Hes around the height of Thunderball from the first wave in this mini-line and the newly released Luke Cage. Now such proportions are unforgivable.  But luckily Nightcrawler does a lot of crouching in most all his incarnations, so that extra height should be easy to hide.

Like: That I have a reason to crack open my $1 Mutt Williams figure from the Indy Jones line!  Why?  Not because Storm could use a biker gang (hmm...maybe she could use one!), but because Mutt comes with a saber!  And that sabre has been pilfered for the ol Bamfer himself!  And I also get to add to my flimsy cardboard crate collection.  Boy, Im just racking those up!

Like: That I can put Storm on the Wolverine Movie series "Back Roads Brawl" bike that comes with Wolverine and Sabertooth.  Itll go great with Storms biker chick look and its even got a nice big blue and green X on it.

Like: That I now am two figures closer to "completing" the X-Men.  I say that because theres prob too many X-Men for Hasbro to want to make them all.  Also, I think if they made a Professor Xavier and I got my hands on a Colossus, then Im more or less set for the...uh ..set. :)

RATINGS
 

Aesthetics: Storm - 7.5: Both of these sculpts are the "simplified" versions of these characters, especially for Storm, whos had longer hair for some time now and sports a full costume with cape and other flowy things (for wind effect). Unique pieces molded for her are her biker chick jacket, her spiffy hipster belt, and of course, her mohawk!  Its a tall one, I tell ya! 

Nightcrawler: - 7.5: The more I look at him, the more I like his face sculpt with ts stern expression and chiseled features.  Also, I dont know how else they could have done his red "vest" better.  It looks exactly like what it is--shoulder shoulder pieces for the upper body and paint for the lower abdomen.  All things considered, I think Hasbro did the best they could with his costume.  Also, the paints not so hot, especially with fuzzy/faded lines for his boots and gloves. 

Poseability: Storm - 7: Because of her hair style and her costume shes the Marvel Universe female figure unhindered.  And as it turns out, shes not that bad at all.  The only problem comes with her feet, which are tiny.  Balancing her can be quite a challenge but it can be done.  Having one open hand is cool but I think shes one figure whom I feel needs both hands open to better "summon the wonds and the lightning." ;)


Nightcrawler - 8: His gangly frame lends itself to some great twisting and turning and his giant feet and hands make for good poses too, especially the fet which have giant toes.  His chest pivot is the best joint, able to twist all the way around and bend forward and back in a way only a real circus peformer can!

Fun: 8 - Theyre both key X-Men!  What more can I say?  And this will also probably be the only time you see Mohawk Storm in 3.75 inch scale and probably the only time youll see Nightcrawler in this scale at all!  I know, i know, hes got his fans in us.  But the kids want the Spideys, the Wolvies, and the Iron Men, dammit!  And what the kids want, Hasbro gives.

Its strange, these figures dont come withaccessories, but with what Hasbro has put out there in this scale from this line or especially other lines, its not tough at all to acquire some piece of equipment that can easily go with these guys.  Hence the bike (Wolverine Back Road Brawls) and the rapier (Indy Jones Mutt Williams) for these two!


Value: 7 - Yeah, they both come with (drum roll please...) a comic!  Not one each but just the one!  If you just take the likes of the Dr. Doom and Absorbing Man 2-pack (which has a gun, a ball n chain, and a to-scale mini Wasp) into consideration, Storm and Nightcrawler are simply poor when it comes to value for money.  Thankfully, we dont.  The waves other 2-pack in Ultron and Mr Fantastic is just as vanilla accessory-wise but this is the only set that has two recent A- to B+ listers.  Theyre definite fan favourites and anyone who loves the X-Men will find this 2-pack worth it.  Im not a huge fan but I can still appreciate that its two imporant members of the worlds favourite Mutant superhero group. 

Overall: Storm 7.6, Nightcrawler 7.8 - A solid pack to have with two solid figures.  Granted, alone they seem a little lost at sea when you put em next to the likes of Hulk, Thor and Captain America, but when do the X-Men ever stand alone?  NEVA!  Unless Hugh Jackman plays one of them and gets his own movie.  Har!  Even then, he needed Gambit to fly that damn plane and sop him from killing Sabertooth.   Speaking of which, I have both of them lying around somewhere in package...the time to free them may be near!