So it was a rainy grey and relatively cool Independence Day.

The early afternoon was all about the usual Doo Dah Parade and Browning cookout.

It pretty much rained the entire parade but I was impressed with the number of people that watched from the sidelines as well as participated. The weather sure wasn't inviting.

Came home and then went across the street to the block cookout.

Apparently, every year J. buys and blows up thousands of firecrackers.

He had this 25-30 ft roll of about 16,000 firecrackers.

It took about 6 minutes to blow the entire roll.

Hell... my camera even ran out of space at 4 minutes.

After that, I briefly stopped by Carina and Skippy's party but they were all heading down to Whetstone for the fireworks.

Not one for big crowds, I did my usual anti-social thing while Giga went with them.

Yeah. I came home and went to bed.

Fun, ain't I?

So much fun that my July 5th will consist of cutting up hundreds of branches and placing them in compost bags all the while waiting for the BBC to air the series finale of Doctor Who "Journey's End".

Yes.

I is the lame.

On more levels than any human can possibly imagine.

Today's the day when we remember President Whitmore and Captain Hiller's successful defense of the Earth against invading alien attack.

May it never happen again.

My general ongoing malaise when it comes to funny books can be easily overcome with a dose of Krypto.

There is nothing more f'n awesome than a white dog of questionable breed with a red cape that has super strength, super hearing, and can fly.

No.

There's no denying it.

There's nothing better.

We here at Plastic Crack extend our great joy and happiness and wish our 1 apparent Canadian reader a Happy Canada Day!

May you always remember that if things had gone differently in 1812, you'd be eating normal bacon.

*ducks head from thrown Best Diorama Botcon 2008 award*

Giga brought home the one he bought during the Cinci toy runs at Botcon and added it to the Crack Den.

TF Animated Bulkhead is the 2072nd Transformer that I've acquired.

Giga brought home the one he bought during the Cinci toy runs at Botcon and added it to the Crack Den.

TF Animated Prowl is the 2071st Transformer that I've acquired.

The World's Most Beloved Official Mascot of The Crack Den™ was waiting at the front door today.

Behold his awesome glory!

I picked up and put back Animated Voyager Prime, the Megs/Prime 2-pack, and a Voyager Bulkhead.

See?

I'm getting better.

All I gotta say is if the BBC pulls another f'n big ass Star Trek reset button next week (like they did last series) I'm gonna be pissed as hell.

Yes. I will!

With that said...

*possible spoilers ahead*

Trailer for tonight's UK episode of Doctor Who. US won't get this for about 3 weeks.

Spoiler warnings obviously apply if you haven't been keeping up.

Unfortunately, a character returns that I really have never been able to stand.

OK.

Opinions.

Botcon sets since Fun Publications took over.

Which should I keep?

Boxed set or a loose but sealed bagged set?

So. How ya been?

That bad eh?

Yeah. Pretty much same here.

Spent all morning moving pallets and shit on a humid dank loading dock at work. Between that, the feeling of puking from the stickiness, and my back and shoulder blades hurting like a mo fo this is looking to be a shitty weekend.

The robots?

Nah. Haven't got the room done yet.

I pull a few out every day and throw 'em up on the shelf. I try to dust them off at least.

No. I'm still not completely sure what the hell I'll be getting rid of.

Huh? Oh yeah, I'll probably be selling off a bagged set of Botcon Games of Deception that I shouldn't have bought.

No. Black Fire Convoy is not for sale.

Hah! That's funny. You are right. I have absolutely no idea how Botcon Ratchet's head managed to get stuck and won't flip up. Maybe I'll let Arjun play with him and he can figure it out. Those Ukraindian kids are clever like that.

Comfest? Ugh. No. If you've been to 15+ Comfests you've been to them all. And the gays just had to move their gay parade to the same weekend at the same location so as to make the last week of June even more horrible.

Hah! You too? I almost ran over a drag queen once too but with a 1981 Pontiac Grand Prix!

No. There's never been a Grand Prix Transformer. Bears. Bunnies. Giraffes. Bugs. No. No Grand Prixes (sic). No. I don't think there have been Otters either.

Me? I'll probably go home and lay on an ice pack for 30 minutes or so. I may take a vicodan. If I'm gonna spent the night messed up on goofballs for my pain I should probably hit Target and snag The Beast With A Billion Backs on the way home.

3:30.

Maybe earlier.

No. I already took off 2 hours early to go home and lay down.

Hah! Funny you should ask about all the work I haven't got to. AEP came over yesterday. The Hoont was barking his head off and woke me up. Sure enough the guy was at the door.

Yeah. I managed to get them to agree to tear down those 2 awful and bare pine trees that are in the back yard. They reach up into the power lines somewhat but apparently it isn't something to worry about.

They'll cut them down but they'll leave the waste in the yard. They'll cut them to a safe area and then I'll have to chainsaw them down to the stump.

No. I don't know if "to chainsaw" is a verb or not.

I've got a shitload of other debris that needs to get carted to the dump. Apparently they'll take the wood from the pine trees.

Sell it? Hah! And what, buy more useless robots? Not on your life.

Daddy needs new deck and patio furniture!

"Besides, if I didn't buy Final Crisis, I'd just spend the money on booze and hookers."

My how that so easily translates to "If I didn't by transforming robots I'd just spend the money on pot, house remodeling, dog food, and hookers."

I'll drink a Corona Light and sing Sto Lat tonight in your honour!

They look pretty decent together in a way that most individual figures haven't in ages.

The generally consistent color palette at least makes them look like a team of some kind as opposed to a motley ragtag band of miscellaneous repaints.

Only 2 more years to go and I'll have the whole team!!!

Yippee!!!

---

Botcon Mirage has really grown on me.

Now the mold I've loved since day one but the dark translucent blue was kind of meh.

Yeah yeah... I know... the clear plastic likely would have yellowed. Believe. I know. My Osaka Toysland Clear Mach Alert is yellowed.

But I think he would have looked incredibly sweet clear with this same blue as the wheels.

---

Here's something that sucks the balls!

Botcon Ratchet's head refuses to pop up!!!

The greatest website ever!

So there I was walking up the steps and got all excited thinking it was my Shockwave Munny but alas, it was just a Transformers Club membership figure.

Not as translucent as in previous figures. Well... at least the jet/plane one.

TF Club Topspin is the 2070th Transformer that I've acquired.

(And yes, I like him holding two guns instead of the official instructions!)

Megs has some issues. What's sad is that they were there right out of the box before I even transformed him.

There's plastic stress on some of his pins. Hell. The one pin doesn't even look like it was inserted right and had to be cut or something.

Who knows what our Chinese overlords are doing with toy production these days.

All I know is that mine better have a shitload of lead in the paint.

It tastes better that way.

The jury is still out on the new camera.

While I love the monochrome quality of it, I can't say I see much difference at all in the higher ISO settings that I really expected to see.

Yeah... I don't have a $500 macro lens for it, and the lenses I do have are either pretty basic or a generic telephoto, but there's just something more I expected.

I know I have a lot to relearn on this, but I'm got this overwhelming feeling that I probably should have just stayed with my Powershot A620 for a bit.

Damage is done already though so I might as well experiment and learn the damn thing.

I really don't want to add another movie figure to my mix but damn, whilst I was at the Target I came across Deep Space Starscream and all I can say is that's one sweet paint deco.

Damn!

I mean... I've got a fetish for monochromatic color palettes and damn if Hasbro didn't nail this one exactly to bunch my boxers up!

It actually makes the damn think look decent... and I'm no fan of the mold!

I don't know.

I just expected more.

He's just... I don't know.

That face just doesn't quite have the character of Megatron from the show.

I like a certain regal arrogance in my Megatrons. Hell, I'd have settled for the Beast Wars Reborn retooled smirk even.

I think my favorite new part is the disclaimer on the instructions: "Some parts are made to detach if excessive force is applied..."

Yeah. His legs fell off while Transforming him.

Then again, he's not all that solid or sturdy of a figure in bot more his cyberthing mode.

---

TF Animated Megatron is the 2069th Transformer that I've acquired.

Evebird said...

So is the Energon Arcee motorcycle officially the TF with the most repaints ever? With BotCon, Target Sector 7, and mass releases in US and Japan, there have got to be 10-12 different shades of that thing.

... and that got me thinking.

While it certainly has been repainted a shitload of times, personally I'm betting on one of the G2 Spychanger molds being one of the most repainted figures.

Some of them were done so many times as Car Robots Spychangers, Super Spychasers, Jusco Spychangers, RID Spychangers, the many variations on that, Tiny Tin Spychangers, the G1 repaint Spychangers, not to mention some of the other Japanse chase versions.

I'd have to say, just looking across my crack, that one of these 6 Spychangers is likely the most repainted Transformer ever.

Your thoughts?

Why haven't the robots been politely saving?

I'm in need of a fix.

So I've been thinking of actually keeping a bit more crack than originally planned.

There's no reason I have to get rid of some of the things I'd originally planned to.

Hell. I can even rotate some things in and out as I feel the need to refresh the shelves so to speak.

So... I'm thinking I'll get rid of...

Most if not all of the G2 stuff
All non-show appearing Beast Wars figures (with the exceptions of a few Japanese Neo ones)
95% of Armada/Micron Densetsu
95% of Energon/Superlink
60% of Cybertron/Galaxy Force
Some Botcon stuff

So... that'll still allow me some shit to make people want to puke when they visit and yet also not make me feel like the tens of thousands of dollars I've wasted in my life on this shit hasn't been in vain.

Then again, I could just haul up a dumpster and be free of it all.