March 2006 Archives
One would think that the US, being one lame ass geek market, wouldn't seem to be on the bottom of the barrel when it comes to videos and shows that never aired here. Especially when they are of a geek flavor.
Case in point: The forthcoming UK released of Transformers: Super God Masterforce.
I am going bonkers wanting to see decent video and have the thing subtitled! Supposedly the English dub is also not the horrible Japanese dub as well.
I so want to see Ginrai, Shuta, Minerva, and the rest and for some reason I suspect this will never be released here.
So. Where do I get one of these damn region-less players again? Grrrrr....
I found some old pics on a 8mb memory card that I rarely use.
This one's a classic.
I'm pretty sure I took this on the plane to Dallas on the way to Botcon 2005.
Evebird always takes the best pictures. This one is still my most looked at Flickr photo!
I was missing around this afternoon with a very complicated digital camcorder and just took some very stupid video of the Attic of Love.
I posted if as a test so if you'd live to view it (and the plastic crack, and feeshes, and general mess) then be my guest.
Nala's Video Test (on Vimeo)
Beware. It is in Windows Media format.
All I have is this built-in Movie Maker software so that's what ya get.
Ok. You can berate me all you want about it.
Yes. I broke the rule started in early 2005 about buying duplicates of Transformers. Towards the end of Armada and during the Energon line that strange fucked up collector/fan mentality creeped into my logic and I ended up buying duplicates of mass produced figures. Yeah. A lot of them I got on clearance and so forth., some even 70% off retail. But that's not the point.
There's no good reason for a healthy-minded individual to have duplicates of mass-produced Transformers. The "one mint-in-box, one for display" mentality is bullshit and for some reason, I went that way mid-way towards Energon and said "No more from now on!".
But I'm going to make exceptions every now and then and the TF Universe "Constructicons" were one of them. I had never intended to open them since I keep most of my Universe crap in-box for the sanity of storage and display in the Attic.
But I so needed to have an out of the box Bonecrusher because of his inherent spiritual calming capabilities. Yes. A character named Bonecrusher can actually have some good in him where Nala is concerned.
So anyway, I ended up not only buying another set to open, I figured I'd get another set of the other 2-pack as well so I can have all four open!
I am the lame. I know. And if there is an afterlife I'll be judged accordingly by Allah, El, Jesus, Odin, *fill in the blank* for my extreme lameness in this life. (Though rumor has it that if you manage to acquire a Lucky Draw Black Fire Convoy in this life, you get like 100 virgins in the afterlife! Or is it 100 fresh links of kielbasa? Or is it 100 vats of daikon kimchee? I don't remember. Actually I think it is 100 virgins cooking 100 links of kielbasa while making 100 vats of daikon kimchee while listening to Peter Gabriel!)
Numbers in Collection: 1558-1561
So I've been a total loser today and have been trying to figure out the best way to take toy photos with what I have available here in the Attic and with my old but trusty Olympus 2020Z camera.
I decided I'd spend some time with the new Transformers Universe Bonecrusher, who happens to be made from one of my favorite molds: Car Robots Build Boy.
Introducing...
Transformers Universe Bonecrusher!
So I broke down, walked over to Radio Scrap, and bought an AC Adapter because trying to do any kind of manual focusing required so much time and use of the LCD on my camera that I'd be killing 4 AA batteries about every five minutes. That LCD is a power hog!
But it was worth the $20.
In my quest to get myself excited about Transformers again, I've taken some inspiration from Reignfire's TF photograhy and am trying to take some decent plastic crack pics instead of my usual lame ones for the collection reference.
Cybertron Defense Scattorshot has been my little experiment for the day and I've been able to actually get my ancient Olympus 2020Z to do a closeup shot, though manual focus is a major pain in the ass with this camera.
I'm actually happy how these initial test shots turned out:
Yay! Giga, whilst out at a conference in the deep creepy recesses of the Southern Cowlands, found me a Dark Crumplezone and Cybertron Defense Scattorshot!
All kinds of new crack today!
I was on the fence about the Crumplezone retool but I've been looking all over for the new Scattorshot!
Yay!
I have not frigg'n clue but I so badly wanted this figure.
This is one of the rare times, along with Cybertron Red Alert, that they just didn't do a stupid repaint of the figure they actually upgraded the character into a stronger form!!!
The whole "Cybertron Defense" versions of Scattorshot, Red Alert, and Hot Shot all surpass the original releases.
Number in Collection: 1556
The strange short-lived Binaltech Asterisk line ended with the release of Binaltech Broadblast, a repaint of the Scion bBx mold originally used for Skids.
This time, the original G1 Blaster gets the BT treatment. No longer a boom box, he's now a full fledged vehicle and we here at plasticcrack.net will just imagine that Rewind, Eject, Ramhorn, and Steeljaw hang out inside!
It is rather strange that Takara released this as clearly an homage to a G1 character yet merged his Japanese name (Broadcast) with his American name (Blaster) to end up with Broadblast. Of course, Broadcast really doesn't work for the character in car mode does it?
He comes packed with a little chick figure called Lumina and I have no idea who the hell she's supposed to be.
The previous BTAs all shipped with these little chick figures of anime girls renamed as characters from Transformers. Alert came with one named AI (the artificial intelligence from Car Robots), Sunstreaker came with Junko (the ownder of the little red sportscar from Car Robots), and Broadblast comes with Lumina and I have no fucking clue who the hell she is! The now cancelled Binaltech Black Convoy was even supposed to come with Marissa Fairborn (GIJoes Flint and Lady Jaye's daugther) from Season 3 of the original series.
The whole inclusion of the little female PVC is some gimmick that I fail to grasp so I'll just chalk it up to being a "Japanese thing"!
Anyway, I'm pretty happy I got Broadblast. I don't see Hasbro releasing him.
As I've mentioned previously, I broke down the other day and bought Takara Binaltech Skids in a color palette more reminiscent of the original Skids released in 1985.
Binaltech Skids is a thousand times better than the Hasbro release. Where as Hasbro decided that Skids needed a totally gay flame deco, Takara took the more sensible route of just having a standard blue Scion and including stickers to make him look like the 80s Skids or a few flames. Why Hasbro couldn't do this simple thing is beyond me.
Number in Collection: 1554
My Binaltech Skids and Binaltech Broadblast should be delivered today.
Yeah. I broke down and bought the Binaltech version of Skids based on seeing Evebird's at work. Definitely nicer than the Hasbro versio with the paint flame deco.
Now there was that time when I was buying the Binaltech version of each figure but after Grimlock it just got to be too expensive. I decided at that time to only buy the Binaltech versions of figures that were not going to be released here by Hasbro and I'm happy I have yellow Tracks and Vroom-Vroom (the red Meister). Broadblast will probably never be released here by Hasbro so I picked him up due to this.
At least hope he won't be.
I mean, the Scion mold will probably get a repaint but I don't now if the Broadcast character would be it. I'm thinking even Hasbro realizes that doing a slightly retooled head and perhaps a few other minor changes to the mold will produce an Alternator Ironhide.
Unfortunately, with Takara-Tomy getting more distant from TF crap, I doubt we'll ever get Binaltech Wildrider now too.
Doing a refresh of the site design sorta-kinda got me excited about Transformers again.
That's so bizarre isn't it?
I mean. Really. I don't need any more plastic crack crap at all. The Attic is filled with enough shit that if the house caught fire, the flames wouldn't be the real dangee... the molten plastic "lava" flow and toxic plastic fumes would be! The plastic would run down the stairwell and out the windows in an orgy of oozey mish-mashed colors.
I'm thinking that I should at least spend Saturday and maybe Sunday cleaning the space. I've got to get rid of more clothes and the Aquarium of Love needs an algae cleaning again. Thankfully the computer back-up is done.
And taxes! I still need to do my taxes!
Ok. My mind is wandering.
File this entry under "totally miscellaneous rambling".
Evebird, The Internet's Most Beloved Transformer Original Animation Cel Collector, sent me this article indicating that the Dodge Ram SRT10, the
At the top of the "Meanest" list for 2006 is the Dodge Ram SRT10, powered by the same 500-horsepower 8.3-liter V10 engine used in the Dodge Viper SRT10 sports car. The Ram SRT10 received a Green Score of 12, compared to the top score of 57 earned by the gasoline-electric hybrid Honda Insight.So the new ugly-ass Alternator Optimus Prime, which happens to be a Dodge Ram SRT10, also happens to be in the form of the most polluting car according to the ACEEE.The Green Score is a numeric value of a vehicle's environmental friendliness assigned by ACEEE. Not based solely on fuel economy, the Green Score also takes into account tailpipe emissions and emissions of gases that cause global warming. The higher the Green Score, the more environmentally friendly the vehicle is overall, based on the ACCEEE evaluation.
The Ram SRT10's position at the top of the list made us wonder if the ability to create large volumes of tire smoke contributed to the low score received by the performance pickup. While the SRT10 may not haul much cargo, it is as fun to drive as any exotic sports car, and just might be worth the disdainful stares from the hybrid-driving members of your neighborhood block watch.
However, I find it even funnier that I happen to think the second most polluting car on the list, the Lamborghini Murcielago, would probably make the finest Sunsteaker ever. What a perfect modern car to be a modern Sunstreaker. And 13 mpg would probably be something Sunstreaker (the character) would be laughing at!
With the birthday presents from Giga yesterday I now have all the parts to make Transmutate, the poor birth defect riddled Transformer from the eponymously titled Beast Wars episode "Transmutate".
What a sad character and kudos for Hasbro for making a figure.
However, super mega nasty balls to Hasbro for spreading 6 pieces of the figure over 6 10th Anniversary toys, resulting in basically a $100 Transmutate figure.
Then again, I suppose that is the only way we'd ever get something like this.
Number in Collection: 1553
Evebird mentioned something at lunch about Transformer comics and I've got to tell you, since Dreamwave ceased publication of their G1 and War Within series in 2005 I just don't give a shit anymore about Transformer comics.
I've been, or should I say Giga, has been picking up IDW's Beast Wars: The Gathering for me but really I'm only interested in the pretty pictures of Don Figueroa. I couldn't care less about Simon Furman's stories for this thing. Hell. I don't even care about the characters since they are all basically one dimensional "calling it in" kind of characters. Hell. They didn't even appear in the original Beast Wars animated show and only really existed in toy form for the most part. (And no, I'm not counting the Japanese anime here.)
IDW's G1 revamp storyTransformers: Infiltration is about as substanceless as you can get for a license property based on toys.
And I just don't get the retread horror that is the "multi-cover" bullshit. This is the kind of bad business publishing that caused comics to tank in the 90s and both Dreamwave, and now IDW, are pulling the same old multi-cover shit on the property and this kind of crap only appeals to the most deprived of fan boys. (Of course, DC and Marvel still are no better on this!)
Hell. There are 7 fucking covers on Infiltration #2. Seven!!! There are 4 "regular" and 3 "incentive" covers for a book that can't be selling all that well.
The general comics buying geek doesn't really care about Transformer comics. And with those who do care, the percentage of readers just doesn't seem to be able to support this kind of licensed property anymore.
Transformer comics just seem to be an anachronism.
What we need is a Ron Moore type of reimagining of Transformers. It can be G1. Car Robots. Hell, it can even be Armada-based.
But it really is utterly without soul anymore.
Then again, I don't think it ever really had it.
On account of it being my birthday today and all I've refreshened the place up a bit.
Now if I just could get off my ass and get those updated lists on the collection uploaded everything would be fine and dandy!
Ok. Due to tomorrow's emminent Nala birthday I just want to make sure we have one thing clear.
This is what's on my list:
- Lucky Draw Black Fire Convoy
- Car Robots God Fire Convoy TRU Giftset
- Osaka Toyshow Car Robot Autobot Brothers (I gotsta have one to open!)
- Takara Zarak PVC (Colored)
- Takara Grand Maximus
- Takara Fortress Maximus
- G1 Minerva
- G1 Go Shuta and
- a set of Ginrai's
cockringsGodmaster bands
This pic of Galaxy Force Megalo Convoy is one of the single best toy photographs I've ever seen.
He actually creates the illusion of mass by this photo angle!!!
His photos may just sell me on the Canon Digital IXUS 40 camera. Beats to hell and back my ancient and craptastic Olympus 2020Z.
I went a little crazy recently with Who stuff over here
Ebay has become worthless.
The "auction" aspect has fallen the wayside for the "store" and "buy it now" items and any excitement has been removed for me. There are no deals to be made anymore and it has become nothing more than a site to whore your wares like any other store.
Hell. Some of the software packages that people use to host their items even manipulate the search results. It is yet another once good thing that is now festering in a quagmire of uselessness.
While there have always been the sellers that have been smoking crack, I've been seeing more and more play essentially manipulate and deceptive games to get you to accidentally buy something.
Case in point: this for sale Galaxy Force EX-02 GF Convoy / Sonic Convoy / Ramble TRU Giftset.
This set was sold in limited quantities in Japanese TRUs only. Each figure is repainted or differs from the general retail component. And Coby's Ramble only comes with the set.
That's fine and all. Nothing wrong there. It is a TRU exclusive.
Now comes the seller deception part.
It really is only found on ebay with $99 or so Buy It Now pricing and about $35 shipping and handling. Most are coming from Japan or Asia so while pricey, that's expected.
Now the auction that really blows my mind is the fact that it entices you with a $24.99 price but charges you $98.80.
$98.80!
So they are basically just getting you to look at the auction from search results of price only to fuck you over with an illusion.
Great. Love it.
If you read my main blog you know how much I love data manipulation and illusions.
These are the kinds of sellers that need red hot pokers shoved up their assholes and then the bleeding wounds filled with cayenne pepper.
Fuckers!
Ok. I need to be a hater for a moment.
And I'm gonna hate-on some ebaying insanity.
Case in point: An auction for the forthcoming Optimus Prime alternator, a $19.99 retail toy, that is currently at $103.50 with 2 days to go.
Why the fuck are you people doing this???
This is a mass market toy that will be everywhere! There is no way that this will likely ever be rare or anything.
It is the first of the mold and will no doubt be repainted in the future.
Now I could be totally wrong here but you gotta give Hasbro's distribution system the benefit of the doubt here. They've totally retooled the Alternator distribution and while this may only be 1 per case, that doesn't mean that it won't end up clogging shelves like so many other figures.
Yeah. The original release of Alternator Tracks seemed to be way off and there was an inordinate fan demand the the figure. For the life of me I can't figure out why repaint called "Swerve" seems to all of a sudden be in demand.
Will I buy this Alternator Optimus Prime?
Yes.
Will he ever be in bot mode?
Never.
Personally I think this bot mode is the ugliest Alternators ever created. The way those fenders form the upper arms is so distracting and ugly that I never want to see them.
And that's good because while I don't want the bot I'll be more than happy to add the truck to my collection since so many of the "repaints" are just in alt mode on my selves anyway. It'll give variety to all the sedans.
Based on what Hasbro said at Botcon 2005, this mold ended up being tooled as an Optimus Prime because that's the only way Takara would allow it. There are practically no pick-up trucks in Japan and a truck like this would not sell. However, slapping the Convoy name on it in some shape, way, or form is a guarantee.
So Takara was going to release this as Ginrai and then a black version called Black Convoy. That would meet Takara's demands and Hasbro could get it out.
Of course, Takara merging with Tomy killed so much of Takara's initial plans and now we are left with a really half-ass design that is so not a Prime or Convoy that we'll have to make do.
Maybe there's an Ironhide repaint in the future. Hell. Trailbreaker even!
But it is worth $19.99.
That's it.
I had meant to upload the basics of the new blog design last week but I forgot.
Oh well.
This is where it stands.
So I opened the Scrapmetal I got the other day.
As is usual with the Cybertron line, the basics (scout class) are really pretty outstanding.
Now in Galaxy Force he's called Ramble and is more or less, with the other colored version out there, an very loose homage to G1 Rumble and Frenzy.
Other than the color and the silly "piledriver hands" I'm not seeing it.
He's more insect-like and even more vehicle like, reminding me more of a standard anime mecha than anything standard for Transformers.
I wish my camera were better and I could get in on the detail of his head but alas, grain city!
I'm sorry.
If you would pay $79 for an Alternator Swerve you should be pooped on.
I just need to share a Flickr photo set I've recently found.
Reignfire's TF: Litho set has what may be some of the finest Transformer photography I've ever encountered.
This guy makes the Alternator line look more dynamic and "alive" than I've ever seen.
I just need to share a Flickr photo set I've recently found.
Reignfire's TF: Litho set has what may be some of the finest Transformer photography I've ever encountered.
This guy makes the Alternator line look more dynamic and "alive" than I've ever seen.
Not that you'd care or anything but there's been quite a few recent acquisitions to the currently messy and disorganized Attic of Love.
Wow!
I'm actually getting excited about future TF-related releases.
What's up with that???
It is kind of crazy but there's almost a "sorta-kinda" excitement in me, Giga, and Evebird about Botcon 2006 and the damn thing is half a year away.
Amazing what locating it 3 hours from Cowtown can do to us!
Bad craziness.
The sorta-kinda non-Takara version of World's Smallest Transformer Dinobot Snarl arrived today from TFSource.com.
I bought two. One for me and then one for Evebird as final payment on the Star Convoy reissue he got me.
Evebird opened his. Pretty damn cool!
Numbers in Collection: 1537
Wow! Two awesome Transformer-related items in a row. Who'da thunk it!
Yesterday was the revelation that Botcon would be a bit south of the Greater Cowlands border and today I come across Guido Guidi's conceptual art for the IDW Transformers: Evolution miniseries Hearts of Steel.
His reimagined Shockwave, Nala's all-time favorite Transformer character, is actually fantastic!!!
The first miniseries takes place in the 1800s and Shockwave has been reimagined as an ironclad warship. It totally works.
While I'm not a fan of Guidi's art, I gotta give the man due here for conception. He even brought in elements of Micron Densetsu Laserwave.
This ironclad Shockwave does not suck balls.
Ok. Good.
Now I know what Jeremy's IM was about last night.
I just found an email from Master Collector stating that Botcon 2006 will be held in Lexington, KY!!!
That means we can drive and save a shitload of money.
I can't handle more than 3 hours in a car and at 180 miles or so, Lexington will fall right into the tolerance of my driving/riding range.
Hell. Giga may even want to experience TF geekdom at its finest (and so often lowest).
I'm sooooo happy that it isn't going to be in Fresno again. That cost so much extra just to get to and from the airport that I could have bought 4 more toys!!!
Ok.
With much thought given to it, I've decided to renew my practically useless membership in the Master Collector's Transformers Collector's Club.
Yeah. I know it is basically $40 down the drain.
But I figure I'll end up going to the con again later this year and the membership rate will be a helluva lot cheaper than the non-member rate.
Yes.
I am the lame.