Botcon 2006 G-Rated Videos

So I took a lot of lame ass video at Botcon a couple of days back and I've tried to edit it into something that would be remotely coherent.

Suffice to say, there's no real "story" here.

Part I:

Part II:

I think the only guy we ended up really vocally (amongst ourselves) picking on was Melon-Eating Boy.

And anyway, Melon-Eating Boy, if you see this... what's up with the bad craziness man? Seriously.

UPDATE: Ack!!! I linked some titles in Part II and one referring to getting somebody laid accidentally switched with one about Greg's minicon collection. Do I rerender or just leave it?

Hmmm... I'm leaving it for now!

Bow down and worship at the glorious power!

The Takara Super God Fire Convoy Toys R Us Japanese Exclusive giftset is mine!

The Master-Fucking-God-Sword is in da haus baby!!!

Very plasticky. Very cracky.

It being Botcon time and all I think I'll do my next few days of postings over at Plastic Crack Dot Net,

Check out my other site for fun and excitement over there.

It'll be a geekstravaganza.

Almost there...

Only 5 or so hours of work and I'm on vacation! Then Thursday morning it is down to Lexington.

Lori wants to watch The Hoont so I'm going to cancel having him boarded. That'll definitely relive the horribly stress he feels at being sent to the kennel and also not being around me. He's quite the dependent dog when I'm remotely in the vicinity.

I'm so happy that Botcon is less than 200 miles away. My max is about 3 hours or so in a car (either driving or riding) and that's just about at the upper level of what I can tolerate.

Diffusion is a good thing.

I got a new light box and spotlights the other day.

Hopefully, my geek photography will improve.

Craziness for the plastic crack addicts.

It was a very bizarre day to be a TF geek today.

As the last last few entries over at Plasticcrack.net will show, there's no doubt quite a lot of pissed off fans around the country and probably around the globe.

Hasbro really misjudged this one.

Nope. I really don't care.

Ok. I'm going to make it official.

I don't care that there's a Transformers movie being made.

End of topic.

1600??? Holy shit! That's like totally the lame!

Well today I hit another lame ass milestone and a Takara Micron Densetsu Crystal Convoy became my 1600th Transformer ever purchased.

Ack! I am so lame.

So lame that I actually hit 1603 today.

The Columbus Toy Show was surprisingly large and while there wasn't a whole lotta TF stuff there, it was obviously a geektastic afternoon.

Most of the Transformers related items were pretty much the same old common stuff that all vendors with TF stuff have. If I see another Top Spin or Twin Twist I'll scream. And G1 jets. Ugh! Too many of those exist on dealer tables.

I did pick up a few things I normally would not have gotten such as Throttlebots, Sparkabots, and some miscellaneous other stuff. I mean, while I don't actively collect some of the post-1986 G1 stuff, if the price is right I might as well fill the gaps in the collection.

Quite frankly though, the gems of today weren't Transformers related at all.

I reacquired 2 toys I had as a kid. These were major parts of my childhood and I always knew I'd end up buying them again.

Yes. The inevitable acquisition of Micronauts has probably started. The Attic of Loveâ„¢ needs a few more vintage 70s Micronauts and now I happily own 2 that I really loved as a kid.

The guys I bought them from actually knew about plasticcrack.net and The Attic of Loveâ„¢ as well! I was shocked. I didn't think that many people stopped by here since I don't really look at my stats anymore. (Thanks guys!)

A milestone fast approacheth,

Here's a scary thought.

Today I'm at 1590 Transformers that I've ever purchased in the Attic of Love.

Tomorrow, with the Columbus Toy Show at hand, I will no doubt hit 1600 figures.

Pretty frigg'n insane!

I'm waiting for the Lion reunion tour.

And then I read...

The DVD also features a winning soundtrack featuring the iconic theme "The TRANSFORMERS" performed by Lion, and the popular "The Touch," performed by Stan Bush.

Let's face it.

That soundtrack is one of the single worst collections of music used in a film.

Ever.

Amazing photography!

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.

Crack.

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.

The blog who loved Powerglide.

Not sure if the comment was from the real Michael Chain or not but I approved it anyway.

Not sure who Michael Chain is? Here's my post from last year.

And while Mr. Palochi's comment on Mr. Chain's hair in that photo, all I have to say is many of us have had the hair.

Michael Chain's Red Alert is still da bomb! And while I'm not a huge fan of the character, you gotta admit Powerglide is far more memorable due to his voice acting in the role than a lot of characters in the old TF show.

1500 has been achieved and I feel like a dirty skanky whore.

Well it had to happen. Wasn't sure if it was going to or not since it all depended on UPS or the Post Office.

But the illness that is my transformer collecting officially took me over 1500 transformers today.

Quite sick indeed.

And due to an obvious accident on the part of MC I ended up with 2 of everything.

Now I wasn't charged and I do feel sort of guilty about it but it would be a pain in the ass to ship this all back and then try to get credit for the postage and all. I probably should call them though and explain what they did and see if they want the 2nd set back. (If not, I'm really at 1517!!!)

Can I get a Lucky Draw Black Fire Convoy Menorah?

Everybody knows that Optimus Prime is Jewish right?

So if you are Jewish as well why not have an Optimus Prime Menorah this year for Chanukah.

The pug drool is still warm...

Yup! They've got new hats!

Super mega bad crazyness. S'all I can say.

All kinds of bad craziness happened while I went home for lunch today.

Sick ain't it.

It must have been a Decepticon attack.

I swear that I had absolutely nothing to do with this

A Holy Grail item...

I must not buy this.

It would be a bad thing.

But it would make me very very happy.

Unclean! Unclean!

Amazing how I always feel unclean after doing this.

That gaping hole.

Surprisingly, it rarely is like this for me.

Well... at least the part about finding every toy.

And then the pug started humping the plastic crack...

The kind caring folk down in the hurricane-trashing lands of Juan Ponce de Leon have scored me some plastic cracky exclusive CostCo goodness!!!

Hopefully, I won't have to pay extra for the "special love" that Riley gave the box.

Thanks M and L!

The shit that boy finds.

And then Nala's panties got really moist.

I should have stayed in the car.

1463

Oh to be emancipated from cracky enslavement.

Went and had breakfast with Kelmeister and Mr. P. this morning. Was very good to see them.

Then went out on a toy run to the northwest side on tips from Evebird about new crack.

And yes! Scored!

KayBee had the Micromaster Trainbots exclusives and WeBeToys had the Starscream/Vector Prime exclusive 2 Pack in so I snagged me some goodness.

There were no Alternator Prowls anywhere to be found.

Sucks.

Man Amazon. That was fast!

Mudflap sorta cool. Leobreaker total the lame.

I don't feel guilty buying from Amazon.

I've given up trying to find new crack in the brick and mortar stores.

I just found Cybertron Mudflap and Leobreaker in-stock at Amazon.com and with free shipping so why bother driving around looking for these. Of course I ordered them.

Unfortunately, the Vector Prime-Starcream 2-Pack still isn't available nor are any new basics that are supposedly popping up. And the new Alternators are still AWOL.

I can't justify the crack pricing that the major online crack dealers (Big Bad, JRS, etc.) are charging for Alternators. They really are no more than $20 each so paying more for that + shipping on top is too much.

Yeah I might have it. But I'm still all about the value.

Botcon Ratchet roxxorz the ballz!

Oh Botcon 2005 Exclusive Ratchet... you are demanding top dollar (in the $180+ range) on Ebay and on the message boards so many people dislike you. "Too white" they say. "Not enough other colors" they say.

Haters! All of them! Haters!

I knew when Energon Tow-Line was released that eventually he would be redone as a Ratchet. I'm happy. Very happy.

You look so much more like your 1984 animation appearance. I'm happy Master Collector got Hasbro to create a new "accessory" for you that doubles as ambulance lights/sirens and I like your retooled head.

Let the haters hate. Me love you long time.

And you are so heads and tales above your original 1984 toy/robot form.

I still am amazed at what an eyesore you were back then.

Too bad Don Messick has passed away. He'll always make you sound like "you". But in lieu of Don Messick, I'll settle for for Tom Hardy being your new voice.

[crosslink]

It expands and grows.

Oh. From earlier, I realized there's also the "Transformers Fan By Proxy" which I'd say is pretty much what Giga is.

My internal monologue is also debating the existence of the "Been there. Done that. Bought the animation cel. Fan" too.

Not fully sure this is a valid category yet.

Introducing... the Transformer Victim.

I've decided that there are at least 4 types of Transformer fans. Perhaps more. But I will need to do more long term critical analysis on the subject.

I can definitely attest that there are the hardcore TF Fans, the nominal TF Fans, the occasional TF Fan, and I've decided based of reading TF message boards that there are the TF Victims.

Yes. The Victims appear to have real problems with both the collecting life and their real lives.

More later.

Just needed to announce this for posterity.

You heard it here first!

[Note: Of course, every "geekdom" has its victims. Every sport fan has its victims. This isn't anything new mind you. But I so want to turn the eyes of an anthropologist onto the subject. But by doing so, do I become a the fifth class of fan: the Super Loser TF Fan? There is no such thing as an impartial objective observation because the mere existence of the the observer and his/her actions affects the observed. And with TF fans, the laws of physics then break down and chaos unfolds in... well... a chaotic fashion.]

[crosslink]

You got the touch. You got the power. You got the shirt.

Hmmm. I typically don't wear emblematic shirts or clothing that isn't solid but this is kind of cool.

I mean. Few of the masses would recognize the Autobot Matrix of Leadership on a shirt now would they?

And since it is a black shirt I may just have to buy one of these.

Perhaps it'll help me finish writing Splintered, a novel in which said Autobot Matrix of Leadership plays a hideous and disgusting role.

Poor crack head addicts.

I feel very sorry for the crack addicts who couldn't find Alternator Tracks last year and ended up spending vast amounts of cash on Ebay to get one.

Hasbro has started producing more now and they are being released in the new round of Alternators packaging.

The rarity of this figure just nose-dived big time.

What I never could understand was the number of people who just didn't want to buy the Takara Binaltech version. Here's a die-cast metal version that rarely was more than $50 retail and the crack heads would spent $100 on the all-plastic Hasbro version but not just buy the better one. It made no sense.

Then again, that's why it is addiction.

[crosslink]

School Repaints Ahoy Crush.

I was going to write an in-depth commentary about how depressed I am that my favorite pr0n star was apparently underage when making movies and all the films are now illegal to own or somesuch but instead I think I'll just let you know that 4 more pieces of plastic crack arrived in the mail today.

Repaints ahoy!

Because I am the lame.

Because I am the lame.

Is there a documentary in here somewhere?

If you've read my daily blog for the past 10 years you know how I have this love-hate relationship with my toy collection addiction.

I fully acknowledge how depressing it is to be an adult collector of a 20 year old toy line. I full acknowledge that I have a problem in the sense that a whole lotta money goes to shit that just sits on a shelf either in or out of a box or card.

It is even more strange when I constantly try to justify the collecting habit in light of house repairs and other major important events that affect reality at large.

I'm really not a part of the typical Transformers fandom. I don't relate all that much to a lot of the people who attend cons or bitch/rant on message boards and I rarely can deal with individuals who eat, breathe, and shit their specific geek thing at the expense of other aspects of their lives.

Yes. The mere fact I blog about and document this silly collection of mine is sick and twisted but it is only a small part of my life and will one day fade into oblivion as such things do.

But I would really like to get back into the things I wanted to do when I was at university and while I never went into a career in animation and filmmaking, I still have some of those skills (though dated) and I still have the urges to do something there.

So I'm thinking about what it would take to do a small documentary about Transformer collectors . I'm thinking a 30 minute runtime and maybe 12 months of production in and out of my regular life.

I'm not talking about some spurious fan film but something with a bit more depth and focus.

I guess my own self-joking about my "plastic crack addiction" got me thinking about Transformers fandom. Recently attending Botcon in Texas also made me realize I need something substantial to keep me interested in my habit and something like this might be fun to do.

Costs would be minimal and hell, I could possibly apply for some small grants to try and start this. It would mostly end up involving some upgrades to my PC hardware and software, fixing and/or replacing my digital camcorder, and a whole lot of time over the course of the year to plan this.

There are some local Cowlanders who are TF collectors and perhaps they would be interested in being interviewed or being the focus on part of the documentary. There's a lot of background history/knowledge from some of the people that is quite vast and extensive going back to the first Botcons 10 years ago. I'd have to find a way to incorporate some non-Cowlanders and I can think of a few people that I met in Texas that would lend other valuable viewpoints.

Transformers also has some similarities with the Star Wars and GIJoe collector mentalities and I'd like to explore that. I don't seem much overlap between these types of groups which in itself is worth exploring.

I'm thinking something along the spirit of Trekkies but with my own take on "addiction" in the collector/fan geek scenes.

Plus it would give me a new goal to work towards and quite possibly help me get into the heads of the Transformer fans that I have previously never understood.

(original post)

---

I've even got real resources with producing and directing experience to draw upon for advice. Hell. I've got radio voices to draw upon for narration. I honestly and truly have the means to do this!!!

Plus Three

Of course, while I was away in Dallas, the always lucky Giger scored me some Transformers goodness too. This time in the form of basics Brakedown, Armorhide, and Undermine.

Cool little bots. Armorhide is fantastic.

Yes. More Transformers. Sue me. That's all I got to talk about right now.

In which Nala actually appears in a photo.

Ya know something. I think I look almost excited as Greg in this photo of Kristin's.

Yes. The awards dinner was so cool I almost crapped my pants.

Thank Shai-Hulud that I met these guys (and gal)!

My haul

You know I'm a loser, right?

Of course you did.

Continue reading "My haul" »

Botcon 2005 Recap

Good morning kids.

I am so damn tired today that I just decided to skip work. I had it scheduled off just in case and I'm glad I did. Feet hurt. Shoulder is still killing me from Thursday night. All in all. I'm a mess.

So. Botcon? You are wondering how was it perhaps?

Continue reading "Botcon 2005 Recap" »

Sunday Morning Sunday Morning

Ok. It is the morning and I've had another measley 5 hours or so of sleep.

But man I had fun last night.

There's something to be said about being 5 states and 1200 miles away from Cowtown and yet ending up at a Wal-Mart at 11pm looking for both toys and alcohol.

Good times. Definite good times.

I'll be leaving this afternoon and arriving in the greater Cowlands sometime around 9pm. As always, most of the day will be ruined by travel and such.

But I gotta say this: I did meet some great people and had a very fun time this weekend.

(And I only spilled my drinks twice!)

Can I go home now?

The awards dinner just let out and it is time to start drinking again. Heavily.

Been a good day and I've only spent about $380 so far. Unfortunately, the large suitcase I brought is already full so I can't really buy much more than PVCs and such.

So far I've gotten the Masterpiece Convoy trailer ($45... great deal), Robot Masters Thundercracker and Skywarp (only $40), Reissue Perceptor, the Jusco Exclusive Indy Heat and Wrecker Hook I came for, Botcon 2003's Sunstreaker, a ton of PVCs I needed, and the e-Hobby Black Victory Saber.

The dinner was fine but the "fandom" part sucked.

Met some really cool people from California and Buffalo that I've been hanging with.

We'll be leaving for the airport around 1:30 tomorrow.

And yes. I'm pretty sick of Botcon.

Update.

This is Nala with your "Botcon 2005 I'm Not As Pissed As When I Left" update.

Well there were no real delays with getting here and other than Evebird getting mad at Super Shuttle taking us like 90 minutes to the hotel everything was pretty easy.

The hurricane is definitely not something to worry about. Maybe some rain but it is no big deal here in Dallas.

The con? That's what you want to know about anyway so let me shoot the shit.

My attitude changed when I got here and was still able to cancel the loose set of exclusives. That was like $125 saved so it really made me happy that they allowed me to avoid buying it.

I've spent quite a bit of cash but I got some great deals and have filled a lot of my wish list, especially with PVCs and some Japanese exclusives.

I spent the night totally drunk with some guys down the hall but more on that later.

Anyway, I'll update later.

I am so angry. Really. I am. And it is all my fault.

I just lost over 10 paragraphs or so of me ranting due to anger at myself for falling under the expectation that I would enjoy myself this weekend. The obscene amount of money I spent on toys that I don't even want is an abomination and I think that this is a lesson to me that has been a long time coming.

I could have taken this money and gone to San Francisco and spent quality time with friends and new acquaintances and come back to Cowtown with memories for more valuable than useless toys that go on a shelf that I beat myself over buying anyway.

Alex B.? Remember what you said last Saturday night in the Attic about me one day just wanting to chuck it all?

Well. I think that day is coming sooner than I, or anyone else for that matter, ever expected.

I am so utterly angry at myself for allowing my values to become so corrupted by objects both real and imaginary.

This weekend will see exactly what kind of hypocrite I am.

I really need to get my priorities in order. They are so out of whack with reality.

In which I kneel at the obscene altar of the crack gods!

Yes. I'm flying to Dallas, Texas in little over 3 hours.

Yes. I know there's a hurricane that is probably going to come on shore in Texas and pound the eastern part and eastern coast of the state hard.

Yes. I know it will probably turn into torrential downpours in Dallas.

But I intend to make the best of this.

If I can find web access I'll blog and stuff. If I can find web access and USB access I'll upload pictures to my Flickr space for you all to stare at in awe of the plastic crackiness.

If something horrible happens and I die then just know that such an event would make me the ultimate loser. I mean really... going to the Transformers convention during a hurricane. How fuck'd up is that!?!?!

And I'm already fucking pissed that the "attendee exclusive" is another fucking repaint of Arcee!!! FUCK THAT SHIT MASTER COLLECTOR!

I will have a good time at Botcon.

I will have a good time at Botcon.

I will have a good time at Botcon.

I will have a good time at Botcon.

Rita won't piss me off.

Rita won't piss me off.

Rita won't piss me off.

The 8th exclusive figure won't be a 3rd Buzzclaw repaint.

The 8th exclusive figure won't be a 3rd Buzzclaw repaint.

The 8th exclusive figure won't be a 3rd Buzzclaw repaint.

I keep telling myself these things repeating them over and over and over hoping that this is true.

About 25 hours until Evebird and I board our jet to Dallas by way of a stop in Detroit. (Yeah. That's a great one if you ask me.)

Still gotta run to Target, snag some fruit for the flight, burn some music CDs (I still have no mp3 player), show Giga how to feed the Fishes of Love™, and pack.

Since I'll probably be up late tomorrow for the oh-so exciting Botcon Casino Night I'm thinking of maybe just sleeping in tomorrow. Would do my knee good too since I've been in pain all week.

Anybody want to take bets on how much weight I'll gain over the weekend? I'm at 240 or so right now.

I ain't got nothin'n!

To all you people that think The Attic of Love is insane I think you need to see this collection.

Shockwave... not frigg'n Shockblast!

Arghhhhh!!! Of course, Hasbro must have gotten back the Shockwave name since it now adorns a future mini-con repaint release.

That is like balls sucky since they named Alternator Shockwave frigg'n Alternator Shockblast due to the trademark having been lost. The trademarks of many many Transformer names from the 80s are now lost so we end up with the constant regurgitation of a select few over and over and over.

Balls! Balls! Balls!

But at least the main man's name is back where it belongs! Shockwave being my favoritest Transformer makes this good news for me.

I never called him Alternator Shockblast anyway. And oh.. he's Alternator Dragstrip too not that silly Decepticharge name. Bah!

I swear the apocalypse is upon me.

Of course, in my previous post, when I posted Hurricane Rita's path through Texas I failed to notice that it will be going right over Dallas!!!!

This trip just keeps getting more disappointing as the days go by.

No. I'm serious. What the hell is that?

What the hell is this?

Oh cracky day! Oh cracky day!

Giga, Evebird, Kelmeister, Kelmeister's Brother, Mr. and Mrs. B. and I went to the Columbus Toy Show today. All in all I didn't spend all of the cash I took. I did spend a lot of it but not all of it.

Continue reading "Oh cracky day! Oh cracky day!" »

Perhaps they'll release it on DVD. Yeah. Right.

So the mildly-not-as-annoying-as-the-previous-two-series Transformers Cybertron has been removed from Cartoon Network and will be going to Kids WB!. And of course, Cowtown doesn't get Kids WB! even though we are a a major 'Merican market.

And guess what? They are actually going to run the show starting with episode 1 instead of episode 4 like the fuck-ups at Cartoon Network. I still can't figure out why CN started in the middle of a story that needed to roll out as intended or else it wouldn't make any sense. Not that the previous Transformers Energon made a lick of sense anyway.

And to think I was kind of enjoying this not so shitty series.

Oh well.

New plastic crack for Nala.

My Takara PVC Ginrai arrived today from Great Britain.

You know it is kinda funny and kinda sad that I've had a hard time acquiring one of these and ended up finally winning one from a Great Britain ebay auction of all places. And it was even cheaper than he typicall goes for here in the colonies. Hell. Remember when I finally had to resort to getting an Energon Ultra Magnus from Australia? Bad craziness.

And no. Ginrai is not Optimus Prime. Yes. He looks like Optimus Prime but he isn't. He's actually a human with the cybertronic cock ring wrist bracelets that he bangs together and then he can merge with a transtector (Cybertronian spark-less body) that happens to have been a replacement body for Optimus Prime. Confusing yes. But not really if you are familiar with Transformer Masterforce's different direction for TFs in the 80s.

Of course, Ginrai merges with his trailer to become Super Ginrai and then mergers with God Bomber to become God Ginrai, my favorite PVC.

Michael Chain's jacket could destroy Unicron.

This is Michael Chain. He was the voice actor for Red Alert, Powerglide, Hoist, and Skids (for his only appearance) back in the 80s.

He'll be a guest panelist at Botcon 2005 where I'm headed at the end of September.

I am hoping that his jacket will also make a guest appearance.

In fact, I'm hoping that his jacket gets a panel all of its own.

All bow down before Michael Chain's jacket of eternal doom.

All hail Michael Chain's jacket of eternal doom.

Is it any wonder that the monkey's confused?

Hello. My name is I smoke crack.

$72??? While one of my favorite TFs of all time he's only a $30 at max. $50 for the Sam's Club Recolor.

I just don't get some people.

More than meets the Attic.

So I've been working on the Attic since I got home. Got some shelves reset and have been redoing everything. Nothing major. The Attic just looks more "lived in" with my toys up and fuck potential buyers if they can't deal with my geek-on.

I've added so much over the course of the summer. I had to move Armada all the way back (above) and I brought all my Cybertron stuff and merged it with my Galaxy Force figures.

The above image shows what I'm calling the "sell pile". It would be really nice to sell this stuff off before attempting to move. We didn't have much luck with Giga's ebay auctions but maybe I'll have time this week to get photos taken and get some of these on ebay. Unfortunately, some of this is still on retail shelves. Hell, WeBeToys on Morse has tons of Energon stuff.

And as promised, Frowny gets a RID Megatron.

Putting them away for a time gave new meaning.

Most of my plastic crack has been packed up since late May and I haven't been around them at all.

After pulling out all of my Transformers Armada and Energon figures I realized something that is extremely important.

In this instance, time does not make the heart fonder.

As I'm putting them on the shelves I realized how I really dislike the Armada design aesthetic. Sure, the smaller Optimus Prime (and even the larger one) is ok for what it is. Even some of the mini-cons are acceptable. But I really never realized how utterly boring the Starscream mold (and all other repaints/retools of it) are. It does nothing and is barely more than a statue.

I like Armada Jetfire too but he's so completely and utterly designed along a different aesthetic and vibe it baffles me. He doesn't share much at all with the rest of the line.

Energon fares a little better but there are some turds in the line.

All 3 combiners totally suck ass as combiners. I dissassembled the arms and legs to get them to fit into their bags and I cannot get a one back together to actually stand. Posability is nil. And Superion Maximus? Was the main component designed so poorly to cause kids to break the damn little plastic nib that serves as a waist? Grrr...

Roadblock is actually a really nice figure. I had opened him and put him on the shelf but never gave a real look at it. This mold should have been repainted as a G1 Grapple (or even Hauler) homage and included in the Master Collector "You stupid collector got suckered into buying this shit" exclusive set.

And the now happily gone Powerlinx gimmick? Ugh! The only figures that look half-ways decent are the Checkpoint and Prowl SWAT repaints of Rodimus and Prowl. And that's because they've been repainted in a like color scheme. All the other figures are up and down the color wheel here to actually make a decent combined figure. And man, they got worse "pieces" hanging off them than some Beast Wars figures. Give me "head on one shoulder, ass on the other" any day compared to this design style.

Ok. 9:30. Past my bedtime. Feet hurt. Calves hurt. Tired.

Gym-time at 5am comes really early.

Sleepies now.

And thus there came more plast crack...

So while going over my idea to use "molding" to hide various flaws around the vanity Giger wanted to go slightly different route so he's off to Lowes to check on slightly different wood.

But upon opening the front door to leave there was a package for me and in this package was... Beast Machines Blast Punch Optimus Primal.

At least he looks sort of like Primal did in the show. That other thing Hasbro released and called "Optimus Primal" is just so awful. Alas, Hasbro did a lot of bad design things with the Beast Machines toys. I can forgive a lot though (the poor design, totally out of scale, non-show colors, etc.) because they did release Air Attack Optimus Primal which pretty much nails the character from the show. (Of course, they released him under the RID brand name several years after Beast Machines was gone.)

This new bot is the 1361st Transformer that has been in my possession.

In which my Korean lust is satiated and crack abounds.

Robowang came over tonight and picked up some of Giga's Go-bots that he wanted to get rid of. I gotta say it is always nice to know that the plastic crack will find a good home with another crack addict.

Then we went to eat and my Korean lust was satiated.

Mr. E. You go girl!

Why look it that! Mr. E. getting on the A-List of plastic crack addicts listed there for all the world to see on a TFW2005 post.

(Hey. I never bust anybody's balls so today I've decided to bust me some Mr. E. balls!)

A plastic crack podcast?

I was thinking about starting a silly stupid 15-20 minute weekly podcast about Plastic Crack and stuff.

I'd get Mr.E. to stop by and we'd shoot the shit about stuff. Giga could stop by every now and then and who knows, maybe guest appearances by the ghost of Number Six Point Seven, Max Power, and others.

Or maybe I'll just borrow Mr. E.'s video camera or The Pickett's digital recorder and cover Botcon with a special podcast.

That's be an incredible waste of my time and something I'd lose interest in in about 3 weeks but it may happen.

In which I think I may have lost my entire Outlook address book...

Grrrrr!!!

In my recent rebuild I think I may have lost my entire Outlook address book. I so hate the way fucking Microsoft spreads out preferences all over the fucking place. Insane and useless this is!

At least I have the email addresses in the .pst archives. But man oh man... and those phone numbers and real world addresses. I sure hope I can recover them.

In other news, Giga found me Wave 1 of the smaller Legends of Cybertron PVCs. They are most definitely an upgrade over the Heroes of Cybertron non-transforming PVCs but hey... ya can't beat the G1 characters.

At least the news outta Japan is better than out of Texas.

Ack! While the state-side Botcon toys may suck the balls, I gotta say that the new stuff being shown at the Characters Hobby Expo 2005 in Japan has got me excited.

The Binaltech Red Alert (with something they are calling AI) is sweet and I'm thrilled they didn't use the Sideswipe or Prowl molds for this. The Red Alert color palette makes him look like a totally different character anyway.

Binaltech Sunstreaker finally debuts. This is what the mold released as Dead End was supposed to be. It was annoying to see Sunstreaker's head on a bot called Dead End. But this is one cool release and I'm so looking forward to this.

And it looks like there will be another Dengeki Hobby Magazine Exclusive figure in the form of a black Robotmasters Lio Convoy. Yay! At least the packaging is consistent with most of the RM exclusives. Still kind of miffed that the Star Saber exclusive and Thundercracker/Skywarp 2-Pack deviate so much from the original packaging design. Just will stick out like a sore thumb on the Robot Masters Shelf of Love.

Reissue G1 Galvatron, regardless of the minor retooling and new paint scheme, still looks like a turd. Ugly designs will inherently always be ugly.

The chick's outfit does rock.

Betcha never thought you'd see Nala get cornholed did ya?

Ok. I was upset at spending the money on the Botcon exclusives sight unseen.

I've ranted and beat up on myself weeks over this.

And after today's final "reveal" of the remaining two I can definitely say that "I've taken it fully up the ass by Master Collector!!!" and it is entirely my fault!!!

Chromia is a damn repaint of Energon Arcee (still sitting on toy store shelves as I type).

And the last one...Dirge A different mold? Something fantastic?

Hell no! It is the same fucking Beast Wars basic mold used as Buzzclaw, the first previewed figure! A figure that I have two of already that sit in a bag because I can't stand the non-show Beast Wars toys!!!

Man I totally fucked myself with these. I can't believe it.

Mr. E.'s email moments ago sums it up...

Five f***ing basics and a deluxe. And two are the same damn mold.

We took it up the @ss.

I am definitely going to cancel my extra loose set of these wastes of plastic.

Well... 5 out of 7 are wastes in my opinion. The Deathsaurus one is tolerable for what it is and Ironhide is the only real figure that is worth it.

No doubt the Ratchet figure... geez... a repaint from the same Towline figure that Ironhide is... will probably be the 8th "show attendee" figure.

So I'm gonna call and cancel.

Hell. I may as well just demote my entire registration and save a helluva lot of money at the same time.

Alpha Trion from Vector Prime? I never saw it!

Psst...

Master Collector and Hasbro...

Here's the kind of exclusive retool that plastic crack afficianados will moisten their painties over.

And this custom was created by a fan!!!

This is a very important lesson.

As expected, the larger Deszaurus Botcon exclusive is indeed a remolding/repaint of Car Robots Gigatron (or Robots In Disguise Megatron). The new head is ok but I already have 5 of this mold too (though one of them is for Frowny).

It isn't bad. It isn't exciting. It just is. But he really just looks like Gigatron to me. Much like I knew it would be since this was the only logical figure I thought they'd remold based off the price point.

So we'll end up with a probably 4 $6 figures, 2 $10 figures, and 1 $20 figure as the 7 $265 exclusive set with the 8th show attendee-only figure probably being another basic.

I have learned my lesson.

Always wait until the figures are unveiled before purchasing. This is a very important lesson.

There's not a whole lotta crack I want.

Man oh man I've lost all the plastic crack auctions I've been trying to get.

The Botcon 2003 Hotel Exclusive Sunstreaker ended up going for $77 which is about $40 more than I want to pay (for a repaint, no matter how rare it is). The Micromaster bases are going for more than I am willing to pay so I've lost all of those.

I should have raided Mr. E.'s PVCs for the ones I needed since I haven't had any luck winning an Alpha Trion, Devestator, or the other 2 conehead seekers I'm missing.

I've decided the September Botcon trip will be about completing my Takara PVCs, getting the Beast Machines show appearing characters, and maybe other miscellaneous things since there's not much I need. Perhaps I should just buy some of the E-Hobby exclusives too. I want a few of them.

Anyway, that's like 5 weeks away.

I've got to get more concerned about finishing the house and finalizing the entree menu for the potluck. I wanted something better than burgers and dogs.

Yay for Fire Guts Super God Ginrai PVCs for $5

Wow. I didn't even remember bidding on it but I won an Takara fairly rare chase Fire Guts God Ginrai PVC for only $5. I needed it and with it being a chase figure I'm shocked it went so low. Sure it is a gold repaint but hey... I'm a completist.

I only need 23 pieces to have all G1 PVCs and unfortunately most of these are the rare chase/bonus figures that are often a pain in the ass to find at a decent price.

But completing these are one of my goals for Botcon.

Yes. I'm going to have a good expensive time and have learned to say "fuck it". I'll try to recoup some of the costs later by reselling the exclusives I don't want (even if it means breaking up the set) and hopefully the 8th show-attending only figure will suck such balls that I can sell it to someone who is a completist.

I figure it that toy is good and special and not some shitty basic then the fans that can't attend will definitely want one of those and I'll be more than willing to part with it.

I think I'll need to get this.

Man oh man all I gotta say is I hate when I get my panties moist because of box art. And the new Takara G1 Perceptor reissue has some might pretty art.

But while he's a straight reissue from what I can tell by photos I wish they'd have remolded his "faceplate" to have a mouth like his animated version.

Perceptor without a mouth is just silly given the character's tendency to ramble techno-incoherently.

Still... nobody reissues like Takara reissues.

And this picture of Binaltech Shockwave posed like he is on the cover to Marvel Comics' Transformers #5 is great.

Another basic. How quaint.

Oh. I won't bore you (and upset myself more) over the fact that the 3rd Botcon exclusive is yet another simple basic repaint of a G2 Cyberjet (already repainted many times before) and the 4th exclusive is a repaint of Energon Tow-Line as an homage to G1 Ironhide.

At least this one I feel is substantial in the realm of my +$250 spent for the exclusives and this is the first one that I've no complaints about. When Tow-Line appeared I said to Giga in the truck "This would make a good Ironhide or Ratchet" and lo and behold that has happened.

I have no doubts that the Ratchet is also going to be released as an exlusive in the set since that means they even had to do less work.

I'm still totally upset at myself for buying these toys.

I will be for the rest of my life until that day, on my death bed, I make Mr. E. bend over and I whisper into his ear that "I still feel ripped off by the Botcon 2005 Exclusives".

It'll happen. You just wait and read.

Now if the 8th "show only" figure is a repaint of Victory Saber I'll quit my bitching.

I still like the name Nitro Convoy better.

FYI: Cybertron Overdrive (aka Galaxy Force Nitro Convoy) is a nice speed car-ish Transformer but man oh man does she/he have a totally shitty looking bot mode. The chest/torso/waste just doesn't work at all.

I haven't gotten Red Alert transformed yet but he's better than he was in Armada. That much I can definitely tell you.

And of course, with all the house drama, trying to get it on the market by the end of the month, and overall mental anquish over the cost of Botcon, I still have to deal with Wave 3.5 of Cybertron which includes Buzzsaw, Runamuck, Longrack, Blurr, Sideways, and Snarl. The first 4 are merely retools of 4 Armada molds so I don't know what I'm going to do about those. They look better now than they did but I don't know if I want to be a total whore and own them all or not.

And of course I still need to lose 20 more lbs by September 22.

Grrr...

AM SO FUCKING RETARDED IT ISN'T EVEN FUNNY ANYMORE!!!

To say that I'm feeling overwhelmed by the amount of money I've spent/am spending to attend Botcon in late September is putting it mildly.

At the core of my being I really do feel that it was a mistake to go to this year's con and last year's show should have been my first and last show.

Yes. I collect Transformers.

Yes. I have 1553+ of them.

But at the root of my collecting gene is the collecting itself and not really much of the peripheral "fandom" that most geek things have.

Hell. I barely read the geek message boards anymore because on any given day the same thing is being said that was said last year and the year before and the year before that. (The panels at these cons are pretty much the exact same thing year after year too with the same lame questions asked and the same stock answers given.)

It is all pretty much the same no matter what your "geek" thing is.

I knew I should have waited to see the actual exclusive toys before filling out the registration form. I failed in this. I failed in this royally and the "collector" retard in me ordered two sets. So that's $405 out the door.

Airfare ended up being $220 or therebouts.

It'll cost $50 to get from the airport to the hotel and then back on return day.

And the hotel will be $129.

I've already spent $804 and I haven't bought a single toy at the con or eaten a meal.

Where the FUCK has my internal sense of value gone?!?!?!

When it comes to this messed up addiction of mine I am usually extremely controlled by a sense of value and I will often compare and constrast every decision based on the implied value I see in something.

And buying these godforsaken exclusives sight-unseen was against every single personal rule I have for my collecting.

Hell... even on Ebay you most often have at least 1 photo of the item in question and a whole decription of it!

With these I didn't even have that to go on and I bought two sets of what is turning out to be figures I have absolutely no care in the world for that aren't worth a damn anything to me.

And while the rumor mill and leaked photos abound my gut feeling is that all these so-called rumors are actually true and I've paid this money for things that I have absolutely no real need or want for.

I AM SO FUCKING RETARDED IT ISN'T EVEN FUNNY ANYMORE!!! (And then it was only funny part of the time anyway!)

Perhaps I will get shit-faced drunk at the con. Why the hell not!

My god I am such a lame fool.

Ugh!

It is going to cost Mr. E. and I $100 ($50/each) to take the damn Super Shuttle to and from the Airport at Botcon. 50 fucking dollars!!!

Methinks we should explore car rentals for that weekend. If it costs less than $100 it'd be cheaper than paying Super Shuttle.

I'm definitely thinking this will be my last Transformers convention.

This is way too expensive.

Way too FUCKING expensive.

And yes, I'm a fucking RETARD for going.

All messed up and that's a fact!

So according to a post over at the TFW2005 boards somehow the original Convoy (Optimus Prime), Rodimus Convoy (Rodimus Prime), Ultra Magnus, and Jazz (for some reason) will make an appearance in a forthcoming episode of Galaxy Force and they are referred to as "ancient Transformers".

I certainly hope the characters from the 80s are not directly tied to the current series. It just wouldn't feel right. (And of course once Voicebox dubs this into Cybertron it'll be blemished forever.)

If indeed they do appear then I am proposing that Super God Fire Convoy (from Car Robots) breaks through the space-time continuum from a parallel universe and with the power of the Master Sword kicks every body's ass from G1 to Energon, all while Sky-Byte is making haikus of the battle.

Then again, that's just me.

To dream... perchance to sell sexual favors for plastic crack...

Someday. You will be mine.

Oh yes.

And you too but they already know that.

And there will be much rejoicing.

But there will not be much rejoicing regarding Mr. E.'s Fort Max. I've been outbid but it is good for Mr. E. since the winner is paying more than he did for this Max.

Man that Megalo Convoy gay porn sucked balls.

Ok. I've got to post about this because even though Mr. E. did, his language isn't as filthy as mine is since he's all decent and stuff and a dad and all. Me? I have no such responsibilities.

So Takara is releasing a figure called Megalo Convoy that is somewhat of a real thin homage to G1 Metroplex, the Autobot that was a city (don't ask).

Now rumor has it that Hasbro is even going to name the damn thing Metroplex which I think is just horribly wrong but I'm not a fan of reuse of the names unless it is for the actual G1 characters. Just the way I am and I also kind of want some new creativity in the lines too so new names would be cool.

Anyway. This ebay auction has some test shots of Megalo Convoy up and from what I've seen of some Galaxy Force model sheets he's a huge figure. No doubt in the $49.99 range like that big ass Starscream that I'm waiting to go on clearance before buying.

But Megalo Convoy's "alt" mode has got to be one of the dumbest simplest transformations ever and in effect, as you can see from the picture, essentially involves him bending over, getting on his knees, and preparing to take it up the ass.

Now perhaps he "merges" with Primus, Starscream, or some other large toy.

But man... it really does look like that to me. The transformation doesn't even remotely hide any aspect of the bot. He's just folded down and on his knees bend over.

And "Tak'n It Up The Pooter" Cybertron Metroplex can be yours for only $50.

I'll get him. But he is definitely staying in bot mode. Always in bot mode.

I just wish he had the sword.

My god I'm bidding on one of Mr. E.'s plastic crack auctions.

Yes. It is Fortress Maximus. And yes I need one.

But I can't believe that I'm bidding on this toy.

If I win him you know what that means right?

Oh yeah baby... Fortress Maximus with the G1 shelf and Brave Maximus with the Car Robots/RID shelf.

Cha-ching! (That being the sound of Mr. E. taking my money if I win this. And if I do and then find one cheaper at Botcon I can taunt him mercilessly, pant hoot, and throw feces at him for selling me this one!)

Yay! But where are the train bots?

I'm very happy that Hasbro will be releasing the early 90s Takara Micromaster combiner Sixwing in an homage to G1 Superion but this definitely has confirmed to me that Hasbro has only a core group of names that they are actively maintaining.

Ro-Tor? Storm Jet? These are RID and Beast Machine names. And Decepticon names at that!

Either I'm assuming that they've officially lost Slingshot, Vortex, Blast-Off, Onslaught, Blades, and probably a lot of the Technobot and Terrorcon names since none of them have really seen reuse since the early 90s.

Sucks.

Terrorcons is a great name as is Abominus and so many of the component bots.

But... dare I say it... it may be time to let the names Prowl and Hot Shot take a long nap.

Ok. Now where is Sixtrain's US release?!?!

And I've known Takara was going to re-issue G1 Galvatron for some time and had no excitement over it.

Galvatron is one of the worst designed figures ever and looked nothing like his animation model sheet counterpart.

Well Takara is trying to fix that by making him movie accurate colored and tweaking the mold. Unfortunately, it still doesn't do much for me and suffers from the general poor design of so many Season 3 and beyond figures.

Is it a brick? Or a Transformers?

Mr. E. has wanted me to get a Grandus for a long time.

I may just bid on it.

It is funny because it sucks.

The current poll at The All Spark is "I want the next stereotype character accent in Cybertron to be...".

Yes. The powers that be have found it necessary in Transformers Cybertron to use a lot of fake accents for characters. Jetfire is Australian, Red Alert is pseudo-Brit, and Thundercracker is white trash Tennessee.

It really is better to watch the Japanese version (Galaxy Force)even though one can't speak Japanese.

Build Boy is still one of my favorite bots ever!

Damn. I'm so looking forward to the new Alternator Skids when he debuts. Wish I could find me some Dragstrip and Prowl goodness.

In other great news, it looks like the HasbroToyShop.com is actually going to release the G1 Devestator homage of the RID Build Team!!!

There was fear that it would go into limbo.

Ok. It is 8:00pm. Time for Nala to crawl into bed and fall asleep to a Beast Machines episode. Yup! I borrowed the VCDs from Mr. E. again. I sooooo love this series.

Rampage has a leg!

Mad crack-props to Giger for the tip about the 99 cent Beast Wars Rampage at the Goodwill.

Rampage, while missing most of his parts, did indeed have his two bot legs so I can fix my near-mint one and now make him mint with the right leg!

Yay!

Now of course I have the carcass of a parts-only Rampage.

So sad really.

I don't think I know enough ways to say the word fuck.

Oh my god what a loser I am!!!

The 2nd exclusive figure for Botcon was unveiled and it was a fucking repaint of an Energon Basic!?!?!?!! A figure that even Wal-Marts couldn't get rid of fast enough even by doing 2 for 1 and such!

A figure worth at most $5!

Fucking fucking fuck!!!

I'm 0-2 in giving a fuck about these and I was a stupid fucking Transformers collecting idiot and have ordered 2 sets!!!!

Fucking fucking fuck!!!

My god I was stupid and gullible. So stupid and gullible!!!

So now we've seen 2 figures and while some fans may like these all I can say is FUCK!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

My god for the money I spent I could have had a repro Master Sword!!!

That 8th figure that attendees to the con only receive better toss my salad or this will have been a very important lesson learned from Master Collector on my part.

And that's all I'm gonna bitch about these. Well... until the 3rd figure is shown.

Yay! More crack soon!

Trixter makes Allspark main page and since she's a Cowlander also confirms that Cybertron Wave 2 plastic crack is around our fair Cowtown even though I didn't find anything new at the brand spanking new Target yesterday.

A plastic crack update. Not that you care.

I'm kind of slacking this afternoon. I got home about 90 minutes ago and instead of changing clothes and painting and finishing the kitchen I came up to the attic and have been reading all of my favorite blogs and crack shit. And remember... just because I haven't been commenting on your site doesn't mean I don't read you. Now that I don't read sites at work I kind of have to play catch up once or twice a week so I don't have time to comment on everything I want to. Not that my comments really have any value or anything.

And Giga found me an Alternator Swerve the other day. That raises the crack total.

current figure acquired: 1353rd (Alternator Swerve)
current figures in attic: 1345
projected additions: 175
projected total: 1520
number sold: 9

I need to sell more and buy the ones I really want.

I can't say I'm thrilled with the first preview!

Not to sound like a plastic crack pissy pants but man I'm less than thrilled with the first preview image of one of the Botcon exclusives.

I can't say I'm much of a fan of any of the non-show appearing Beast Wars toys and I've got an entire box of these types of guys I won as a lot when I was trying to complete my Beast Wars needs. (You should see the Falcon/Hammerhead shark Airhammer fuzor piece of shit for how bad some of these designs are!

If the exclusives end up being a lot of these miscellaneous crappy Beast Wars figures I'm not only going to be super mega balls upset but I'll also feel as if I really got ripped off.

But it would of course be my own total fault.

I'm the one that pre-ordered the figures before seeing them. I'm the one that pre-ordered a 2nd set of the damn things.

Here's hoping that out of the 8 exclusives at least 4 will be something I'll really like and will be worth the cost.

I've a gut feeling that some of these will be smaller than Buzzclaw and at $20 each that will really make me mad as hell.

Hell. We still have NO FUCKING IDEA who the guests will be or which vendors will even be there. This show could be a massive waste of dinero for me. (But I'll always have Casino Night to share with Mr. E.)

He did what?

Yes. I broke 1350 today thanks to Giger's Sprawl-Mart adventure this afternoon. He found me some Cybertron Recon Minicons, Clocker, and Hardtop. They all rock the balls!

With Botcon this September and that local toy show sometime around then I will definitely break 1400 by the end of the year.

Three away from 1350.

Nassau stopped by last night and added a G1 Cosmos, G1 Windcharger, and a complete G1 Sideswipe to the collection of crack. Every time he goes home to Connecticut he always comes back with something for me. (And man... did he take care of his toys!!!)

With these guys, plus the exclusive give-away Skywarp that the Alex and Kristy picked up for me in San Diego, I've got a nice 1347 figures. So close to 1350 you can almost taste it.

Bad craziness. Bad bad craziness.

All the shit I'll never have.

Since it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere of this planet that means Takara is unveiling exclusives aplenty.

All the shit I'll never have.

*sigh*

Continue reading "All the shit I'll never have." »

Say, you don't happen to have those mudflaps do you?

Guess who's hiding under the tarp at the Hasbro booth at the big San Diego Con event?

Must have Elita-1 mudflaps for the Deluxe Luxury New Beetle.

He better have the right "voice" in his animated form. Or else!

So a CGI model sheet of the new Galaxy Force Soundwave has appeared on the net. And there's even a little Laserbeak or Buzzsaw perched up on his "wing".

So far he's a dead on homage to everybody's favorite cassette-bot spewing 80's walkman Decepticon and I while I'm not into jet-ish alt modes much I can't knock the mere fact he will exist. I mean so far his model sheet makes me definitely think "yeah, he could be Soundwave" and that's pretty rare with modern TFs. (What's funny is that even to this day I still consider the G1 versions the definitive version and all others are compared to those toys and/or animated model sheets.)

I like the fact that his chest definitely opens and can hold whatever it is Laserbeak/Buzzsaw will transform into. I'm assuming a missile or bomb-shape of some type since that'll go with the stealth jet-ish mode and drop from the bottom.

As long as I avoid the Voicebox-dubbed Transformers Cybertron and stick with the Japanese Transforms Galaxy Force I think I can like these far more than if the bad characters of Cybertron get in the way. (Yes. This is a specific geek where the toys and the animated version play major roles in if I like or don't like something!)

And rumor has it... Primus finally will appear and look like this. Will they retool the Unicron toy to make a Primus figure? Hmmm. At least he'll be cooler than that shitty glowing Energon Primus that looked like the protoculture matrix from the wreakage of the SDF-1.

My reward for painting. Well. I bought 'em for myself.

All the new Transformers have arrived and been open. Most are pretty good.

Some are just meh.

Move along. There's only text about plastic crack to read.

Only crack lovers need bother.

Continue reading "Move along. There's only text about plastic crack to read." »

Ok. So now my internalized geek guilt is really at maximum.

Ok. The damage is now complete and there's no going back on it no matter the internalized guilt.

Airfare was bought last night and registration was just submitted for the 'con. (Of course, hotel and that lovely $50 round-trip Super Shuttle charge from the airport to the hotel still isn't worked in yet!)

This had better be worth it. I've purchased the exclusives (plus an additional loose set) sight unseen and that's something that goes against my inner monologue. There's still no announcement of who the guests voice actors will be and there's still the issue of what I'll actually be able to buy at the show.

And I better be one of the people that gets the Deathsaurus cloisonné lapel pin. I don't know if I can live without it.

Let's just say that on top of all of the house-related items, September is going to be a very expensive month for me.

Here's hoping I can still find a way to go to San Francisco this year too. I soooooo need a couple of days out there.

Oh. And the Botcon info has this blurb...

With everything that is going on in the world today, you owe it to yourself and your family to take time out and attend this once-in-a-lifetime weekend of Transformers collecting.

And my family? They no doubt think I'm a total sick fuck!

It has been a very cracky day.

Well. It is done.

Mr. E. woke me up out of bed because Northwest Airlines tix dropped to $214 round-trip so he and I are heading to Botcon 2005 from September 23-25 in Dallas, TX.

I'll bite the bullet and register tomorrow for the Primus Package, the super-duper whopper expensive one. Hell. I may have to become a whore during the nights during that trip just to pay for this.

I think we've found a vein!

Hey kids... guess what time it is?

Continue reading "I think we've found a vein!" »

But can I make the DVD out of shit too?

So I had my problems with the first episode of Transformers: Cybertron that aired Saturday.

But I've come across perhaps the funniest way to describe it from message board post made by Solidus Prime.

The impression I get is that this is the cartoon equivalent of making a box out of poop, then crapping in it.

Then again, they did skip the first 3 episodes of the source material. Perhaps that should count for something?

Just another crack-related post.

Ok. Just another crack-related post.

Continue reading "Just another crack-related post." »

Regrets... I've had a few...

So I'm patiently waiting for the new plastic crack to arrive.

Continue reading "Regrets... I've had a few..." »

Ya know. I'd love NOT to have the plastic crack gene.

Yeah. With the debut of the already messed up Cybertron and the appearances of new toys in the retail chains I'll admit that the "plastic crack gene" kicked in the past few days.

I even went on my first pseudo toy run yesterday because I needed to see if TRU had Cybertron Jetfire since I saw Walky had one. (Of course, I think he probably got them online too since there's some Takara-only stuff there too.)

The Transformer collector compulsion is a cruel mistress. It makes one irrational beyond belief. Hell... it makes me feel dirty and ashamed a lot of the time when I think about the better things in reality that this money could be spent on. I mean, there's a lot of people that have nothing out there and here I am with a habit that costs quite a bit and yet I don't really need.

Anyway. Suffice to say the recent increase in my cybertrone (that's the hormone that the plastic crack gene activates) is pretty bad and it shouldn't be at all. I wasn't thrilled with much of the Galaxy Force stuff so why do I get excited about the possibility of acquiring the US release stuff? It truly is all about "finding something new".

*sigh*

When my cybertrone levels are high I feel like a dirty filthy stinking whore. Especially since I went online again and bought more toys today.

Unclean! Unclean!

Super Unhappy Gay Pride Galaxy Convoy?

Ugh. Some Japanese magazines get exclusive Transformers that are merely repaints. There's a trend in Japan of all solid gold metallic, all silver or pewter, and all black repaints. It looks good on some bots and bad on others.

However, Super Unhappy Gay Pride Galaxy Convoy is going to suck balls of such magnitude... well... just kidding.

The picture is just for the magazine to imply that it could be any color. It is a contest in which a winner will pick the color.

Yeah. Lame. But way better than Super Unhappy Gay Pride Galaxy Convoy!

Note To Reality: More than 3-4 colors, rainbow colors, and "tie-dye" style needs to be purged. There is such a thing as "colors all over the place" and nature itself doesn't even do this. Please see repto-avian Galaxy Force Terashaver for example of bad color choices.

Actually, that picture of Convoy actually reminds me of a trip I had back in college.

Man I miss "Turansuform!" from Galaxy Force

Ok Hasbro and the other powers that be.

I was giving you the benefit of the doubt on Transformers Cybertron both for toys and animation.

I already knew you'd altered some toys from their Takara releases and this was for the negative.

Now I've gone ahead and watched the premiere of Transformers: Cybertron, the supposed adapation of the original Takara Transformers Galaxy Force and it appears you've had to go and fuck this up too?

You start Cybertron with the fourth episode of Galaxy Force??? WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!

That's like giving someone an issue #7 comic book of an 12-part miniseries and saying "you'll figure it out".

And here all along I've been under the illusion that you'd done away with Voicebox as the producing company and went with someone else. But no. I mean, I love Gary Chalk and David Kaye but when they use these these voices they are just sounding like bad retreads of the great characters Optimus Primal and Beast Wars Megatron. Remember them? They were well written and well acted. Remember when that was possible in a Transformers cartoon?

And who the hell serious brought to the table the idea of giving Jetfire an Australian accent and Thundercracker and over the top redneck Texas accent? (No offense to the Australians. The Texans? Well...) I mean, one of the main problems with Energon was that having so few voice actors on the show made everybody eventually sound the same. So what do we do here? Give them accents??? Yeah, that worked for Energon Bulkhead!!! Ugh!!!

And Vector Prime? So you brought in TF vet Richard Newman. Great. That's cool. But does he have to use the Beast Wars Rhinox voice for a different character?!?!?!?!

NOTE: Accents can be distracting when you are producing this for an audience that speaks American English!!!!

And why change the name of Speedia? I mean... c'mon!!! At least it doesn't sound like a character and/or something generic TF from previous shows. Velocitron??? What the fuck!??!!?!?! The "tron" suffix is over-fucking-done to death.

The animation of course is still pretty decent. And the voice actors for the kids are really good. And the fact that the annoying voice reverb for 'bots is gone is a MAJOR improvement. And there was really only 1 or 2 bad lines of dialogue that were inappropr