Blast Effects are becoming more and more popular in the Transformers toylines. What can make a giant alien gun look even cooler? How about a huge coloured laser coming out of the end! Lots of the larger figures in the mainline Transformers toyline are coming with blast effects now, though sadly not many for the smaller bots.
With this new trend, it was only a matter of time until some Third Party Companies decided to jump on the bandwagon, and start producing blast effects for those toys who came bereft of them. One such company is a new Australian business, 3D Damsel, who have been kind enough to send us a selection of their new products to peruse.
Yee-haw!
Note: 3D Damsel have not paid for this review, nor have they tried to dictate the contents of this blog. Bigangrytrev.com would like to thank 3D Damsel for the opportunity to review their products.
Pew Pew!
The blast effects we have received come in a variety of different sizes and blast-effect patterns.
The ones provided came in red
and blue
It is our understanding they are also available in green, which would perhaps suit characters like the Insecticons. It’s really nice to see such variation on the different blasts, making it easy to match the effect you want to the weapon its unleashed from.
Leader-class Bots
Voyager Class BotsDeluxe Class BotsScout Class Bots
Watch out, missile!
One of our favorites was the missile effect, showing the shell firing out with a trail of smoke behind it.
Careful of breakages
This fit great initially, then when reattaching it…
These blast effects are 3D printed, making them more brittle than the rubbery type included with the larger Transformer toys. While by no means overly delicate, it does mean you have to make sure not to be overly forceful when attaching them to the ends of weapons. These blast effects have been designed with hollow nubs on the ends, meaning you either push the nub into the end of the toys weapon, or else fit the hole within the nub over the tip of the weapons barrel.
Overall
It’s great to see an independent Aussie company trying something new, and the effects certainly do jazz up your battle scenes! The blast effects wont attach to every figures weapon, there being so many types, but are versatile enough you should not have much trouble matching them to a wide assortment within your collection. Hopefully down the track we will see an even wider variety of colours such as the traditional oranges, purples and yellows.
Ah the classic Scarecrow, truly a mainstay of peoples vegetable patches over the years. Scarer of birds and amuser of children. In the Wizard of Oz it was someone desperately in need of a Higher Education degree, in Worzel Gummidge’s case it was an inanimate pile of straw turned sentient being who was constantly trying to get his end away with a store manikin. The Scarecrow is a bit of fun that adds some colour to your vege patch but as most folks know it is generally highly ineffective at actually scaring birds. However today I am going to teach you Big Angry Trev’s secret to building a Scarecrow that actually works! And the good news is, it’s actually easier to make than the classic one!
I’m the slightly skinnier one
You will need the following materials:
One 1.8m x 15cm x 3cm board
One 1.5m x 15cm x 3cm board
One 40cm x 5cm x 3cm board
One 2 meter metal stake
4 wood screws
One potplant pot, bright for preference
One pile of plastic wrapping
One pair of pants with elastic waistband, synthetic and red for preference
One adult males top, synthetic and red for preference
One pair of gloves
One cap, red for preference
Bailing twine
Tools
One drill
One permanent marker
One sledgehammer
Now a lot of these material choices may seem weird to your classic Scarecrow constructor, but I will explain my reasoning for these choices at the end.
Step One:
Pop the 1.5m board through the tops sleeves. So that it sticks out either end evenly. Put the 1.8m board through the top so that at least 40cm of it pokes out the neck hole. Screw the two pieces together.
Step Two:
Put the gloves on, going over the cuffs of the sleeves and ends of the wood. Tie in place with bailing twine.
Step Three:
Strech the pants over the piece of wood, the wood should be long enough that when you stretch the elastic waist band over it that the band snaps back over it and holds it in place. Screw the short piece of word about 2 inches above where the clothing top ends, through the pants at the back which will help hold them up.
Step Four:
Take your pot and draw a face on it (you can go for scary but this really won’t make much difference to the birds and may scare your kids so I go for friendly). Pop a hat on the top. Stick on the top of your Scarecrow and take a bunch of plastic wrapping or old plastic bags and stuff inside to help secure in place.
To size your pot, simply use the bonce of any passing child as a measuring guide The term ‘Villawood’ should scare away both birds and anyone with a sense of morals
Step Five:
Hammer your metal stake in. Tie your scarecrow in at least two different points to the stake using bailing twine.
Ta-da! You have yourself a Scarecrow!
Nothing scares birds more than a fat guy wearing fashions from 2002
Why Big Angry Trev’s Scarecrow is more effective than the classic design
*The Clothing is Polyester instead of Cotton: It will hold moisture less and be more resistant to the elements, therefore less inclined to rot or weigh down you Scarecrow so it falls over due to water logging.
*The head is Plastic: No rot at all compared to a stocking filled with straw
*No Straw – Point 1: Everyone insists that you stuff the body and limbs with straw in order to fatten your scarecrow. No matter what people say, straw will eventually rot. This will cause your scarecrow to literally come apart at the seams quicker.
No Straw – Point 2: By not stuffing your Scarecrow with straw, it means that the clothing will flutter in the wind. This means movement and movement is far more likely to disturb encroaching birds than a completely stationary effigy.
Bright Colours: Some people actually say birds are colour blind. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact humans are practically colour blind compared to birds, in the same way our sense of smell cannot compare to that of a dogs. Birds have evolved to recognize that the red of certain flowers and fruit is OK, but for the most part they stay away from red because in nature red more often than not means DANGER! Your traditional Scarecrow is made up of browns and yellows natural and non-threatening colours. By making it have a lot of red, it will have a much greater likelyhood of scaring off these feathered fiends from your hand-grown, home grown veggies.
Boards instead of Broomsticks: Who the frag keeps breaking off the ends of their broomsticks so that they have spares just lying around? Who sweeps that hard? By using boards and wood screws rather than broomsticks and twine your Scarecrow will have far better structural integrity.
So will this Scarecrow actually keep birds off your veggies and away from your fruit tree’s? Debatable. I know my chooks give it a wide berth but then they aren’t terrified of it either. If birds are a massive problem then netting or, going to the extreme, a timed scare gun will be more effective. But those options are either loud or expensive or both. Scarecrow’s add a bit of kitchy charm to your veggie patch and they are great fun to build with your kids so considering the relative inexpensiveness and simplicity of their construction they can be forgiven for not inciting mass terror amongst birds. However this Scarecrow has a better fighting chance than most, and I’ve not seen a crow after my silverbeet after popping my rotund fellow up.
