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I wonder if there's any truth to that post at Tformers about 2 repaint Binaltechs coming out.

Quite frankly though, I'd be really hard pressed to buy these.

I mean... I might as well just scrape all the stickers and decor off Smokescreen to get that appearance. It is is true then that's pretty boring a la the straight up blue Binaltech Prowl.

And is there a demand for... I can't believe I'm typing this... a movie homage Meister?!?!!?

While I could see TakaraTomy resurrecting the Binaltech name, I can't see them doing much in the way of the die-cast figures again after they abandoned that for plastic of KISS Play.

Then again who knows.

Yesterday, Dan posted some links to some stuff that I hadn't seen yet.

And all I can say is that at least the Marvel Transformer mashup has resulted in some toys, Iron Man and Hulk for example, that are more TF and less Marvel.

This has kitbash fodder for TF customizers all over it!

The alt modes for Iron Man Jet and Hulk Tank work well as bases for so many potential TFs.

I mean, the Iron Man Jet practically looks like the Autobot Broadside's jet mode!

But the real love for me is only 1 1/2 inches tall.

Obviously, with Toyfair in full on mode, there was bound to be some TF-related stuff being announced.

Classics 2 Galvatron was not something that I seem to remember being previously discussed.

I'd say he is a pleasant surprise but I'm not a Galvatron fan at all.

He's like my #2 TF cliche right up there after Unicron.

No doubt G1 Galvatron's introduction as a reformatted Megatron is the cause. It left a bad taste in my mouth character-wise in 1986 and continues to this very day with Hasbro constantly playing the Galvatron card for a Megatron repaint. I'm shocked we haven't seen one in the movie line.

At least this time he's an original mold and that head is really great.

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I shouldn't have been too surprised that they'd regurgitate other molds for Classics 2 but Cybertron Soundwave done up as Blaster?

That really looks like a Botcon kind of repaint.

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The news about Hasbro wanting to get Alternators back on the shelves is about the best thing I could have heard.

I'd still love a Mini Cooper and a Dune Buggy.

Other than a bunch of KO news posted on TFW2005 there isn't much news about real and official toys from Hasbro and TakaraTomy.

Methinks that it'll be a slow toy news for most of December too since we've more or less seen all the endless repaints of the movie stuff.

I think I want mini Legends Rescue Ratchet but other than that TakaraTomy repaint of Blackout shipping with the movie DVD in Japan and Hasbro's Evac there isn't much in the world of TF toys right now that even remotely stirs my nether regions.

(Off subject, but back in grad school, I actually had a professor of cultural anthropology who could not, for whatever insane Christian or what-have-you reason, refer to sexual organs or genitalia as such and in lecture used the term nether regions!!! When an academic can't use medical or other academic terms and has to use a guilt-laden term like nether regions we know the apocalypse of some religion is upon us. What's even funnier is that from time to time I now try to specifically use the term "nether regions" in conversations. I suppose it reminds me of happier and more academic times of my life.)

Since there's so little TF in my life right now I don't have much to say. Hell, I don't even have much to photograph. I do need to add some Target repaint basics to the site though. Maybe this weekend.

I've mostly managed to get the living room and dining room done for Thanksgiving tomorrow. We still need to arrange all the furniture and setup shit. There's still the hanging of some wall art and other decoration we've bought. I really need to commission pieces from all my artist friends. I'd rather have real art from people I know other than shit I found in a store or gallery.

Giga took off work today and said he'd keep working on the first floor and the leaves. The damn magnolias in the back finally dropped the past 2 days and there's snow on the way this weekend.

Basically, after tomorrow, I've promised myself more or less taking December off to try and let my back heal and to try and get back on a simple daily gym and diet regimen. I can blame the steroids only so much for the recent weight gain. The rest is purely because I stopped going to the gym daily and because I stopped my strict daily diet. And of course, every time Hoop posts something about now fitting into size 32 jeans or some shit it pisses me off since I've strayed so far from where I was just 4 months ago.

Anyway, once I can sit, stand, walk, and lay down without severe pain I can hopefully shed the recent weight gain.

I kinda want to have the foyer painted by December 8's Pierogi Party and Dumpling Orgy so I may spent 3-4 days doing that up into the stairwell a bit. A better color and maybe a new light fixture will make it feel more "me" instead of the lingering "them". Then I can rest.

Might as well set up some Christmas decor too even though I could honestly take or leave all that. Christmas to me is more nightmarish and less fun anyway, though I'd love to get a life size crucified Santa to put out front. And if he lit up too? So much the better. A crucified Santa to me is pretty much a dead-on interpretation of my general feelings for this insane runaway Victorian-created Christmas "holiday" time. When gas hits $3.50/gallon we'll see how the typical view of Christmas starts to collapse. Give it 3-7 years and the US consumer economy, which generates most of its profit off of a 30 day shopping orgy, will totally sink this country into a depression. It is right around the corner kids.

But there will always be plenty of pierogies to eat.

Fina-effing-ly!!!

Something new!

Something awesome!

Something small!

Something cheap!

So I was thinking.

There's a good chance that I'll have the NalaKickAssConversionVanForTraveling™ by next spring and that would make attending something like Transformers Con up in a Toronto a possibility.

Obviously, I need to make sure my passport is in order and all but I think it'd be kind of cool to head up north and see how the Canadian geekae do gay robot conventions.

Maybe even a stop off at Niagra Falls and then possibly round trip back through Windsor, Motor City, and then a stop over in Glass City.

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Maybe.

We'll see.

I need to get my head back on straight and all by then.

Toy Recall on Top of Toy Recall (AP)

The first recall was bad enough: A million-plus "Thomas & Friends" toys pulled because of lead paint. The second was surreal: The maker of the smiley-faced trains sent customers "bonus gifts" so they'd stay loyal — and now some of those toys have been recalled, too.

Um... Mattel apologizes to China???

Interesting bad craziness.

It would be awesome if China had banned Idol because of this whole thing wouldn't it?

See that?

That's a fishing rod "accessory" that transforms from KISS Player Hot Rod's exhaust pipes. (from fantofan)

That my friends, loyal readers, and TF addicts, is why Takara kicks ass!!!

God is in the details.

Takara knows this. It usually escapes Hasbro where the collectors are concerned.

Thank you Takara.

It appears you'll be releasing a standard size Autorooper in the KISS line along with the stupid little version.

Keep the Binaltechs coming in some shape and form please and Nala will be happy.

I saw this link to TFWire from Shortpacked!. I rarely listen to TFWire's podcast anymore but perhaps I should gather up the past few months someday and listen in again when I am concrete-free for a while.

Anyway, while I am not into wearing emblematics and and am pretty much a solid-colored shirt man but I have to admit, the thought of wearing adult Underoos kinda has a certain perverted and sick appeal to it.

The guys of TFWire report that Hot Topic is planning on releasing more TF-related shirts. And these are pretty cool in that Adult Underoos-ish kind of way.

Baby Jesus crys when I wear red so the Hot Rod and Prime shirts are out for me but I can see myself... and I *gulp* when I say this... buying a Soundwave and Tracks shirt.

Would I wear them?

Probably once or twice around the house or out at breakfast.

No doubt they'll be in the $18-$20 price range so that is usually more than I'll pay for any tshirt but who knows.

Oh. And speaking of TF-related shirts and fandom... if you are and adult Transformers fan... please ditch that Megatron Club shirt that came out a few years ago. It isn't that attractive, it is not a "formal" shirt because it has buttons, and it doesn't look good if you are 20 lbs over your ideal weight. It also goes against all subliminal fashion rules when you and 30 other guys are wearing at the same time at the same place.

Hmmm... maybe I'll create a fuck'd up character at Botcon and do a "What are you wearing?" red-carpet video kinda thing.

I am pretty much outside of TF fandom so I could be the weird asshole at the con making a general nuisance of himself with a video camera.

Cool! I can dig that!

The character definitely needs to be German-ish and speak with an accent of some sort. I'm thinking along the lines of Dieter from Sprockets with plenty of Sacha Baron Cohen's gay Brüno character. Man. That could really unsettle some people.

"Excooze me. That TakaraTomy packaging clashes with your obvious cheap Wal-Mart shoes. Do something about it!"

Oh. Yes. There's annoying potential here!!!

But I digress.

I like the Soundwave and Tracks shirts.

Hell. These four designs are at least pretty iconic. If you have any peripheral knowledge of G1 you'll know who they are.

Shockwave Underoos would be pretty obvious too but pretty boring. Same with Hound.

Transformers Universe Basics Wave 2? (Tformers.com)

I still can't believe that Hasbro keeps producing these toys and is now packaging them under the "Universe" banner. This old energon stuff can still be found in some Krogers and WeBeToys here in Cowtown!

Then again, this may be unpackaged overstock that Hasbro packed up in a Universe-branded shell.

I've seen the larger combiner parts in Big Lots but they are basically the same price they were in main retail when Energon was new.

I might consider buying some of the omnicons as "army builders" if I found them for less than $3 but other than that they just aren't worth it.

Slowly but surely pics of Hasbro's booth at the San Diego Comic-Con and there's some real surprises for the plastic crack addicts out there.

Loves:

Classics Astrotrain is a beautiful sight to behold. Hasbro/Takara needs major props for this figure.

Titanium Oprimal Optimus is great and I'm thrilled that they are including some of these.

My favorite form of Prime, the firetruck from Car Robots (aka Fire Convoy), gets a Titanium release so I'm ecstatic about this one.

Galaxy Force Optimus Prime is a great repaint. I do like the toned down hues.

Apathetic:

I've never been a fan of G1 Scourge and the new Titanium G1 Scourge still doesn't do it for me. Lack of love for the character doesn't help with love of the toy either.

The Galaxy Force Vector Prime repaint looked a thousand times better in the product "photoshop" mockup. Can't say I like the palette at all.

Other

Pics of MP-04 Masterpiece Convoy with Trailer has me pissed off a bit. I'd like this someday since the trailer is so nice on the inside but I can't justify it since I already own MP-01 Convoy and the "aftermarket" trailer. If Roller had been included I'd probably not think twice about wasting scratch on it but thankfully, his omission makes it easier to say no to.

Tformers.com has new pics of a Lugnutz repaint named Hightail and a repaint of the main Cybertron minicon team now called the "Shadow" recon team. I like the occasional translucent redeco so I'll probably snag them.

I could care less about the Hasbro Attacktix game and I especially hate the way they cross-packaged the TF ones with the Star Wars ones. Rarely do the two geeklines mix. Hell. At Iacon One we found a ripped open package with the Star Wars figures still intact thrown into the trash even. I'd probably by some of these new Attacktix TF figures if that meant I didn't have to throw away a bunch of crap I didn't want.

One year ago today, I broke the 1300 mark with the plastic crack.

I have added 271 Transformers to the Attic of Love™ in the 355 days since then!

Bad fuck'n craziness man!!!

I am the lame.

Um. Ew.

I was sorta-kinda excited at Botcon 2005 when these were announced but now that images are finally hitting sites and the detail can be seen I have to say these are really pretty ugly.

Celebrate 10 years of Beast Wars by releasing new toys of the 2 leaders that may as well be different characters entirely.

The new 10th Anniversary Optimus Primal and Megratron are total duds in my book. Not buying these will be pretty healthy for me.

The first decent image of Alternator Rumble popped up on of all places Wal-Mart's website.

Yup! He's most definitely the modern incarnation of Soundwave's favorite bot-mode cassette. I mean let's face it, Frenzy is practically a non-entity in the scheme of use.

They've kept the back-mounted weapons. He's got a variation of his pile drivers too but I can't say I like them since I'm a "hands man" for bots.

The cassette deco on his chest is fantastic too.

What's funny is the way his doors hang off his waist reminds me of Car Robots Prowl for some reason but that's no doubt pure coincident.

Of course. No doubt we'll get a bluish repaint called Frenzy.

Hasbro has obviously put the nail in the coffin of the old clash between toy and animation names where Rumble is blue in the cartoon but his toy is red and Frenzy is vice-versa.

Rumble is now definitely in the reddish palette!

You know I have nothing of real importance to talk about Transformers-wise when I bring up the recent news of a Cybertron Vector Prime redeco.

Surprisingly, the concept isn't bad.

Now if in execution the color works out like the photo then I think this will be one of the nicest redecos of a figure that has ever been done.

Personally, I think it'll take an entire new generation of designers to top the Black Convoy redeco paint scheme but this is pretty close in my book.

If we are stuck with repaints, which we always will be now due to economy of scale, we might as well get some good ones.

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!

I had meant to upload the basics of the new blog design last week but I forgot.

Oh well.

This is where it stands.

I swear that I had absolutely nothing to do with this