Bioman
by Adrian J. Watts

Episodes 31-34 are intense! The Big Three and some of the Beastnoids get upgrades, and the Biomen need to upgrade their own suits and powers in order to keep up - and it isn't easy for the heroes. Mason's upgrades are amazing, especially the Mason Vulcan he now wields. Psygorn looks much cooler, and his new ability - Horror Kinesis - is terrifying and wonderful. Farrah turns up the feminine charms (especially in the chest area... sigh... they literally show some close-up shots to make sure we all notice) and Mettzler takes a leaf out of Mr Fantastic's book.

Monster's upgrades are... less subtle! And Juo's are barely noticeable, but given his fate in episode thirty-one, I guess being functional at all is an upgrade.

What really makes the episodes exceptional is how well they are put together. With only two exceptions, they are pretty much flawless. It really felt like they were all done together as one solid block. Monster is absent for an episode without explanation, but the reason is clear if you know what to look for in the next episopde - a level of subtlety often lacking in Toei tokusatsu of this era. The ending credits go through a few changes to show that the status quo has changed and that we have not yet arrived at the new status quo. It's almost like a movie broken into four distinct chunks!

The only things which didn't make a lot of sense was how the Biomen were ultimately able to transform in episode thirty-four (they couldn't, then just could all of a sudden) or how the Super Maser was upgraded. Nothing happened to power up the Super Maser - could it always do its new finisher, and they just never thought to use it before?

I'm wracking my eyes looking for visual changes to the Bioman outfits but can't see any. Psygorn, Mettzler and Mason got amazing upgrades, though, and they are clearly visible. Only Farrah Cat remains unchanged...

Absolutely amazing, one of the best arcs I've ever seen in Super Sentai.

Series progress:

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Jet Powers (and Space Ace)
by Adrian J. Watts

I just finished reading the Jet Powers series by Magazine Enterprises, from 1951 and 1952. Jet Powers featured a back-up called Space Ace - with #5, Jet Powers was renamed Space Ace, but featured entirely different characters.

Jet Powers was a weird series (and character), as it destroyed its own world very early on! There is still a lot of potential for the character, as his last stories ended with him on Mars, I believe. Space Ace had some potential, too - I'd be tempted to team up with Jacob Milnestein on a Jet Powers VS Space Ace one-shot one day!

As Jet Powers and the Space Ace back-up are now public domain, I might be tempted to make them readily-accessible somewhere. They're neat, fun stories, well worth a read!

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Bioman
by Adrian J. Watts

Past the halfway mark, with the movie and the two-part revelations about Doctor Man's origin now done.

There were a couple of things which bothered me about the two-parter. In episode twenty-five, how did Mason get Koichi's watch? I double-checked, and Koichi clearly still had it on right up until the point it was thrown back down to him. In episode twenty-six... what was with the happy resolution? Koichi is still alone - where was he going? Was he just catching a train to school? Who are these people who will protect him? It clearly didn't mean the Biomen, because he responded to the comment by saying that he knows they will also protect him... I hope this means it isn't the last we've seen of him!

Series progress:

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Bioman Movie
by Adrian J. Watts

The Choudenshi Bioman summer movie was epic. It was far longer than most Super Sentai summer movies and it did feel like it was beginning to drag at around the halfway mark (about the runtime of a regular episode) but then almost immediately picked up again. Loved it.

Yellow Four II has now totally solidified her status in my mind as one of the great Yellows. I still kinda see her as an impostor, but she's wonderful. She stole the show - but that said, she got a lot of screen time compared to Green Two and Blue Three in particular.

I loved it when the Beastnoids did their own version of the Bioman roll call, but I did not care at all for the Cat Army. Farrah Cat is amazing, but Cat One, Cat Two and Cat Three simply were not and I hope they don't return.

I felt it was a bit rough that the Biomen would basically sacrifice Tokyo to the aerial raid by Mirage Fighters just to save Hisao, and I also wonder why Gear doesn't just try to catch the boys again in order to find Bio Base. Doctor Man is normally more clever than that - just look at Mechaclone Hisao!

American Flagg! Vol.2: Southern Comfort
by Adrian J. Watts

As much as I loved Vol.1 (#s 1-3), Vol.2 was a really hard read. Hard to follow, and I even found myself having to Google who some characters were! Maybe my instant love for the series came a bit too soon...! I still have Vol.3 to go, but not sure that I'll hunt down the rest of the series after that. We'll see how things go.

Maccadam Build-a-Figure
by Adrian J. Watts

I was finally able to put together the Transformers Cyberverse build-a-figure Maccadam. I'm not sure what I expected... but I am a little bit disappointed - he certainly wasn't worth the $232 I effectively paid (each of the Deluxe figures which included his parts was $29, and there were eight). I do like the Thunderhowl Deluxe figure, I suppose, and I might be able to gift Hot Rod to someone, I suppose!

As for Maccadam himself... he's OK. It's great to have a toy of an obscure comics character, even if he is not micro-sized. It's a shame he isn't compatible with any of the Cyberverse or War for Cybertron gimmicks, though.

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Bioman Movie Trailer
by Adrian J. Watts

The trailer for the Choudenshi Bioman summer movie is interesting... in that it is entirely uninteresting. I don't think it included any footage which wasn't already in the show; in fact, I don't think it included any footage which wasn't from the opening credits! The voiceover was new, but didn't say much at all. I guess if, like me, you already like the show, then you don't need to be sold on the movie... but what about luring in the folks who were not already fans?

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Climate Types in Australia
by Adrian J. Watts

Earlier this year I quickly put together a multimodal text called Climate Types in Australia. There were several motivations behind it. One was to introduce work colleagues to the science content itself (e.g. the difference between weather and climate) and to frontload how to present and analyse data. Another was to model creating a multimodal information report as a digital text. It isn't complete, as I would more than likely have added sound - it was purely to illustrate the concept for colleagues.

I feel it still has some merit, especially over the summer break; it has questions and prompts for kids in Grade 3 and 4 to use to explore the content, so I'm putting it up in case anyone finds use in it.

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The Prometheans
by Adrian J. Watts

It's been twenty-seven years since the Energy took off from the launch platform on the planet Prometheus and set off the events which would lead to the destruction of half the universe. Now, the Prometheans are ready to launch again in their new ship, the Battle Base. This time, things are different, though. They've learned from their past mistakes and have only a team of guardians on board - in fact, two teams.

Team 1 consists of Orion, a new leader; Stronger, his lieutenant; Hornet, his lieutenant in training; Sider, a trainee leader; and Firestorm, Sider's sidekick. Team 2 consists of Sentinel, an advisor to Orion for his first mission as leader; Caesar, Sentinel's lieutenant; and Steelclaw, Sentinel's own lieutenant in training.

However, all is not quite as it seems. Will the crew of the Battle Base be able to prove that space travel is within the Prometheans' grasp, or will history repeat itself?

The Prometheans #1 will be available 01 January 2021.

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Bioman
by Adrian J. Watts

I've been trying, when I can, to watch Choudenshi Bioman, the Super Sentai series from 1984 - the year I was born! It started off fairly slow and unimpressive; I didn't even really take note of characters' names, other than Yellow Four (the first one, anyway). By episode twenty, though, it has become really amazing - and intense! Prince and Grotesque Canth were quite menacing! If Prince had lasted longer, he'd be up there with Kamen Rider Ouja among the villains who give me nightmares...

I'm really digging the show now, just a matter of being able to watch it! I was surprised it took nineteen episodes for Blue Three to finally get a focus, but with having to deal with the Yellows it is somewhat understandable - Jun needed a couple of extra episodes to get established, I guess.

Series progress:

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Under Construction
by Adrian J. Watts

As you may have noticed, I am now going through the process of updating the site. It's quite a major overhaul. Right now I am only updating this index; what happens next will be a bit ad hoc as I experiment with different things. I'm still going to be sticking with a very Web 1.0 interface, static HTML, etc. as it has unending benefits... we shall see.

Hopefully this index will be fully revised and ready for 01 December 2020, at which point I'll begin updating a bit differently. No promises!