July Hauls

A general discussion forum, plus hauls and silly games.
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andersonh1
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July Hauls

Post by andersonh1 »

A couple of 1940s comics hauls today: 2 issues of "DC's most Wanted" miniseries from the 1970s, which reprinted 1940s villain origins, including Solomon Grundy's first appearance. I get the impression from older fans that DC often printed older stories as backups in the 60s and 70s and generally did a good job exploiting their back catalog and catering to older and younger fans of the time. I also picked up the next one of IDW's Superman Sunday page reprint volumes, covering 1946-49. I've read very little Superman from this era, and I'm particularly interested to see how the character develops when they move into the 50s with the next volume.
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Re: June Hauls!

Post by JediTricks »

I hauled in my car to the shop after the passenger-side radiator fan seized, the fuse didn't pop, and the whole assembly burned to the ground. It was only thanks to passers-by that generously came to my aid that the flames were extinguished before more damage was done. I won't have an estimate until Monday, and for sure won't be going to Comic-Con for an interview.

When I got home, I found a box, Hasbro sent me the SDCC Kreon set, the Fembots, and Devastator to review on the site. It doesn't make up for my car fire but it was a nice thing to see after coming home from the mechanic in a ruined mood. Keep in mind that the thoughts below are very early first impressions.

- The Kreon class of '85 set is so much fun, it looks like an old yearbook and there's a lot of fun ideas here.

- The fembots look a little better in person than than pics, the large weapons have a few details as combiner-slayers on the packaging.

- I've only opened Devastator so far, but plan to do them all. SDCC Dev uses a few pre-applied stickers to augment a little additional paint and obviously the chromed elements to help stand out from the mainstream release, of course also with the alternate face.

As individual vehicles, there's some fun to these, although a few elements that feel a bit simple. As individual robots, they are a tough sell, they really feel too simple for the size, and some of the simplicity looks more at home as a Legends figure. There's also some really weird elements to transformation, some ideas we haven't seen in a while, and a couple utterly new ones. Long Haul is stupidly oversized compared to the rest, he's like 1/3rd the bulk of the whole team. He also stows all the weapons in vehicle mode, although they all can hold any of them in robot mode (though some are too heavy for the simple elbows of a couple figures). The sculpts on the vehicles are acceptable although Mixmaster is just plain weirdly backwards, the robot mode sculpts are very much a throwback in a way that continues their feeling of being overscaled.

As a combiner, there are some elements that could be better but the overall impression is a success, he truly feels like a titan standing next to deluxe figures. He's pretty solid yet poses fairly well (provided you work away from the mistransformed-in-package bits), he's big, he's green and purple, and he towers menacingly. His weapon is big and well done, the hands don't hold it great but they do ok. A few parts de-transform a little when picking him up and messing with him, but it's fairly minor and it's easy to deal with. Avoid locking Mixmaster's forearms into his torso or you'll remove a crucial posing joint at the ankle. Also, the thighs have excess joints for other stuff so you have to be careful to move the correct joints or stuff starts de-transforming on you.

The instructions are really awful, not only are they ridiculously tiny, but they're nigh-inscrutable due to their panel order being in U shapes AND their directions being simple arrows that are mind-numbingly difficult to understand. Then of course they're also wrong on some things and missing crucial elements like moving Long Haul's shoulders down during de-transformation lest you break the tabs (mine bent following the instructions but I was juuuust able to avoid them snapping off... this time). AND they leave out steps to actually transform these guys back to combined mode, so you have to figure out things that fold out or snap in by intuition alone.

Mine came with 2 right hands. :(
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Re: June Hauls!

Post by Onslaught Six »

Jesus. That probably sounds more tragic/dangerous than it actually is, but still.

So here's my question: Having been given an SDCC Dev, are you more or less likely to purchase the retail version?
BWprowl wrote:The internet having this many different words to describe nerdy folks is akin to the whole eskimos/ice situation, I would presume.
People spend so much time worrying about whether a figure is "mint" or not that they never stop to consider other flavours.
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Re: June Hauls!

Post by JediTricks »

Onslaught Six wrote:Jesus. That probably sounds more tragic/dangerous than it actually is, but still.

So here's my question: Having been given an SDCC Dev, are you more or less likely to purchase the retail version?
Well, if we hadn't gotten the fire out as quickly as we did, it definitely would have spread to other systems, and maybe to the fuel lines.

I just looked at the Retail version pics more carefully to look for little stuff. The differences aren't as great as they were with Bruticus, so it's not as clear. But the few paint differences with the hips and a few small other areas, coupled with the potential higher resale value, and sweeter packaging, makes the SDCC the one I would aim for. And I would not go after the Takara version, the elbows and weapons aren't going to magically make the underwhelming individual figures significantly better.
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Re: June Hauls!

Post by andersonh1 »

JediTricks wrote:Well, if we hadn't gotten the fire out as quickly as we did, it definitely would have spread to other systems, and maybe to the fuel lines.
I'm glad it wasn't worse. My neighbor's oldest son was on the highway when his truck caught fire. He was able to get out thankfully, but the truck was a total loss. It was scary seeing pictures of it afterward.
I just looked at the Retail version pics more carefully to look for little stuff. The differences aren't as great as they were with Bruticus, so it's not as clear. But the few paint differences with the hips and a few small other areas, coupled with the potential higher resale value, and sweeter packaging, makes the SDCC the one I would aim for. And I would not go after the Takara version, the elbows and weapons aren't going to magically make the underwhelming individual figures significantly better.
I look forward to a review and some pictures. I'd like to see a comparison of Devastator with one of the other combiners as well, just to get an idea of his size.
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Re: June Hauls!

Post by JediTricks »

andersonh1 wrote:I look forward to a review and some pictures. I'd like to see a comparison of Devastator with one of the other combiners as well, just to get an idea of his size.
He's been standing next to Superion the last day, it's quite a thing to see, and Wildrider is next to this but you don't even notice.

I took Dev to a friend's house last night (via rental car), we had a fireworks-viewing gathering so I figured I'd show off the big guy. They were impressed right up until I took him apart. I don't think I made any sales.
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Re: July Hauls

Post by JediTricks »

Nobody made a July Hauls thread, so I converted the June Hauls posts that came after the month was over into this.


Spotted a single Streetwise at Target, the head looks nicer than I expected and much more in line with a combiner than the upcoming Prowl's head. It also uses more color which looks nice on this mold, and I like the design of the POLICE text on the front and sides.

Overall, Streetwise is satisfying and a good deal dissimilar to the mold he comes from, Dead End. Streetwise is a bit more technological than I expected in vehicle mode, with vents all over, even cutaway ones at the nose and roof. Vehicle mode is also a bit more bulk than I expected. Paint up to the midpoint of the car is good, then after that it's non-existent save for a narrow back window.

Streetwise's bot mode is good if you don't mind not having much in the way of toes a la Dead End. He's got a nice amount of sculpted detail and color for a CW figure. The only shared parts are the hips and thighs, maybe some connectors but nothing significant. He has a great look, but it's so odd that they used off-white plastic (and on mine, some parts are slightly more off-white than others) when the rest of the team as bald white. I like the sculpt they put on the head, it looks appropriately blocky but since he was never a connector-head in G1, it has more going on. His tri-barrel shotgun is also terrific, although the scope on top suggests this isn't a shotgun.

Naturally with him in hand, I had to get Hot Spot from online since I haven't seen hide nor hair in person, and he'll be here Saturday to complete my Protectobots (sorry Blades, I still think Alpha Bravo looks better).
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Re: July Hauls

Post by JediTricks »

Saw 2x Hot Spot and Cyclonus at TRU for $25. Despite my order with Amazon, I decided to pick up Hot Spot when I saw him in person, then Amazon arrived the day after. One of the figures had a defective right thigh and left hip, the other had weak paint at the chest and combiner head, so I frankensteined myself one decent figure and am sending the other back to Amazon for a refund. Hot Spot's thigh coming apart was unacceptable, but the weak hip on the other side made combining a near disaster. As such, my initial opinion of Hot Spot was very badly colored, but objectively I still think this figure is wildly overhyped. Posted review in the reviews thread.

Cyclonus is decent overall, not quite the character model I would have chosen since it's not MTMTE and not the cartoon or the toy or anything although it borrows from all of them; it's a little blockier from the Silverbolt arms which works more like the G1 figure, but vehicle mode works better than Silverbolt and better than Universe Cyclonus. It's suuuuuper purple though, again like the G1 figure but moreso. Galvatronus is interesting. Review posted in the reviews thread.
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Re: July Hauls

Post by Dominic »

-Combiner Wars Slingshot:
The last of the Superion limbs that I needed. As much as I looked forward to it, (if only to distance Superion from the recent comics), I have yet to actually transform it to a limb, let alone form Superion. My interest in "Combiner Wars" has apparently diminished.


-TimeLines Mirage:
I have always liked the 2006 Mirage mould. And, I like the character. The club store was selling these for a little over $20, and a friend of mine is a member of the club. That is enough to cancel out the fact that this figure only shows up in a Fun Publications comic. Worth getting if you do not otherwise have the mould and/or character.
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Re: July Hauls

Post by Shockwave »

Do digital hauls count? Plants vs. Zombies and Gears of War 3 both for the 360. They were both free this month so I figured why not? Both definitely worth downloading, PVZ is downright addicting and Gears of War 3 is interesting and fun. My only two problems with GoW 3 is having multi level stages with no jump button and the taking cover mechanic is a little annoying at times. Also, sometimes it's hard to tell the enemies from your team mates, especially at close range, since everyone is wearing metallic grey armor.
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