October Hauls

[Dominic]

Okay, customizing, (the willingness to give up sleep and to sacrifice a nigh impossible to replace figure) yielded a custom "Dirge seeker".

The "Dirge seeker", (which is the only name I have seen for this guy), is a blue and yellow seeker that showed up in the movie and at least once in season 3. It is a standard seeker body in Dirge's colours, (blue body and yellow wings).

I left the the body shell pieces silver to preserve the Henkei look of the base figure.


Dom
-might display it in jet mode.

[BWprowl]

Alright, so last week I relented and picked up HA Drag Strip, admittedly out of morbid curiosity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he’s not even as close to as bad as JT made him out to be. Oh there are problems, to be sure, foremost among them being that I don’t know how they expect any larger toys to hold his ‘shield’ mode with the peg where it is. It’s in the wrong place at the wrong angle, no idea what they expect you to do with it. Other major problem is that cramming Master Disaster into his cockpit is nigh-impossible, and not really worth it, since most of the time MasDisas ends up shoving the floorboards down and inhibiting rolling of any sort. Vehicle mode can’t clip the blade weapons to the bottom portions either (they get in the way of the wheels), but you can stick them on the front of the car if you need to store them somewhere, not like any of the other HA Basics ‘hide’ their weapons in vehicle mode either. Transformation’s decently clever, I like that they thought to include a place for the steering wheel to slot in (though the shoulder that the steering wheel *isn’t* on doesn’t clip in as securely as I’d like) and you get some options as far as how you like the panels in the back positioned, or how you want to clip his blades onto his arms (there’s some fun variety to be found by fiddling with the various positions they can take). His proportions and overall look give me a really BM Mirage vibe, so maybe Mirage GT with the colors. Overall, he’s alright. Not perfect, with some clear flaws, but hardly the worst toy ever. He’s at least better than Tailpipe.

Then a few days later I got super-excited when I found those new Street Fighter toys at TRU, grabbing the Ryu/Sagat and Ken/Blanka packs. Unadvisable, these *are* actually really bad toys. Well, Sagat and Blanka are actually okay, though Blanka’s got some QC issues, like one of his hands not staying in tightly, and the little pin in one of his knee joints not going all the way through. But really, those two are decent enough toys of the characters. Ken’s okay, though the Shoto mold they’re using for him is frustratingly limited, no way he can take a ‘shooting a Hadouken’ pose. The figure also bears a strange resemblance to Owen Wilson. Ryu is garbage. His foot-joints are so paintlocked that the left once snapped clean off the first time I tried to move it, so now it’s glued in place and never moving again. There’s also something funky going on with his right hip joint, it *will not* point straight down, always wanting to jut about 25-30 degrees out instead. Plus not being able to do the Hadouken pose arguably hurts Ryu more than Ken. They get no points for including open palmed hands to let him do a Hadouken-charging pose, since that just adds insult to injury by letting us do half the motion and never the rest of it. Oh, plus the fleshtone paint on his face doesn’t match the rest of his body. Oy, I was really excited for these toys and they totally let me down. I don’t know that I’ll be getting any more unless the QC (especially on the Shotos) improves drastically, or they do characters that I *really* need toys of, like Rolento, Karin, or Makoto. Dammit.

Things get better though, since just the other day I got Muthafuckin’ Darksteel! Sweet, been looking forward to this guy forever. He looks as damn cool as I expected from seeing pictures all over. While I was a bit disappointed that he can’t hold his weapons all that well, they do work really well when you mount them as blasters next to his head (putting Mechtech ports there was pretty clever). Only other complaint I’ve got is the fact that the kibble-backpack doesn’t really lock down or fold up coherently or anything, you kinda just gotta do whatever with it. Otherwise, the legs work really well (this is notable since the first two deluxe Sideswipe molds had crappy legs), the swords look cool (I need to find a way to buff the id number or whatever off of the left one), and he’s goddamn Movieverse Quickstrike! I refuse to not think this is awesome!

I need to not slack off on talking about my hauls.

[138 Scourge]

Dang, Drag Strip and Darksteel are out already? My stores around here haven't had a new wave since, I think...Laserbeak's wave? At least as far as Deluxes go. Ah, well. Kind of frustrating, but probably gonna save me moneys in the long run. I was really enthusiastic about the DOTM toyline at first, but with nothing new lately my enthusiasm's cooled off a bit. I may not even pick up the DevilBee when that finally shows up.

Anyway, this has been a fun week. Went on a short vacation over the last weekend, my girl and I got in the car and headed off to Nashville. Partially because why not, and mostly because this Terminator the Second play was happening down there. Take Terminator 2, replace all the dialogue with Shakespearian quotes, put that sucker on stage, and there you go. It was pretty entertaining, worth the trip just to see how you do a huge special-effects thing on stage. I liked it. While there I got a neat cowboy hat, because I was in Nashville, dammit, I needed a cowboy hat. Also, my girl got me the coolest shirt, just because I offhandedly mentioned once that I liked it. Check it out:

Then I got some neat stuff today: I hit up a Vintage Stock today, and since I sold off a bunch of shit there a couple weeks back I've got an assload of store credit. With some of that I picked up God of War: Ghost of Sparta for the PSP, because I'm still on vacation and I've got time to kill. Then I picked up the G1 Grimlock bust, because they had it for like twenty bucks. Got the Grimlock shelf up to an even twenty Grimlocks now. Aw yeah. And my store credit covered all of that and more besides, so it was all basically free.

[Onslaught Six]

Anyway, this has been a fun week. Went on a short vacation over the last weekend, my girl and I got in the car and headed off to Nashville. Partially because why not, and mostly because this Terminator the Second play was happening down there. Take Terminator 2, replace all the dialogue with Shakespearian quotes, put that sucker on stage, and there you go. It was pretty entertaining, worth the trip just to see how you do a huge special-effects thing on stage. I liked it. While there I got a neat cowboy hat, because I was in Nashville, dammit, I needed a cowboy hat.

GET THE FUCK OUT, YOU WENT TO THIS.

I seriously so badly wanted to go to this. Partially because the concept itself sounded 'fucking awesome' but also one of my favourite bands in the world, The Protomen, wrote like half the score and were totally in it. They were the SWAT team that kills Miles Dyson.

How far is Nashville for you? They play down there pretty frequently (being based there), and you should check out their live show. Intense shit. I have plenty of videos on my YouTube.

[138 Scourge]

GET THE FUCK OUT, YOU WENT TO THIS.

I seriously so badly wanted to go to this. Partially because the concept itself sounded 'fucking awesome' but also one of my favourite bands in the world, The Protomen, wrote like half the score and were totally in it. They were the SWAT team that kills Miles Dyson.

How far is Nashville for you? They play down there pretty frequently (being based there), and you should check out their live show. Intense shit. I have plenty of videos on my YouTube.

Ohhhh. Yeah, I heard the director talking to some dudes about the Protomen having made music for the show, but had no idea they were in it. There were a bunch of SWAT dudes that had silver facepaint on, this was likely them? Also, the show was as good as the concept sounded. Good shit.

Nashville was about a ten-hour drive for me, so close isn't the word. If they come around here, though, I'll look into it.

[Onslaught Six]

Ohhhh. Yeah, I heard the director talking to some dudes about the Protomen having made music for the show, but had no idea they were in it. There were a bunch of SWAT dudes that had silver facepaint on, this was likely them? Also, the show was as good as the concept sounded. Good shit.

You bet.

Nashville was about a ten-hour drive for me, so close isn't the word. If they come around here, though, I'll look into it.

That's really weird because that's about how long it is for me, so hey.

Here's their upcoming November tour:
http://protofans.tumblr.com/post/116386 ... tour-dates

[Dominic]

So Scourge, do you have a picture of yourself wearing that new hat you picked up?


Dom
-and will you post it?

[138 Scourge]

So Scourge, do you have a picture of yourself wearing that new hat you picked up?


Dom
-and will you post it?

Yeah, I'm sure I could find a picture of me in said hat. I don't think I'll be posting the one you're thinking of. That one was special.

Hey, I found something new and kind of stupid, kind of cool. Look in your Wal-Mart, by where they keep the Kreo and other Legoey things, they may have a box of blindpacked Marvel lil' Lego dudes for two-fifty. I saw that and figured "Hell, two-fifty? I'll buy a couple". They're pretty neat, they're somewhere between Lego figures and regular Marvel figures, there's some sculpting on the limbs, but you snap the figures together and they've got the little Lego dude hands. They also come with a "display stand" which is a Lego block in that characters dominant color. So I wound up with Loki, who looks pretty neat, really, and Venom. Which works out, this is the only time in my life I could have opened that package, seen a Venom, and gone "Oooh, neat!". It's Eddie Brock Venom and not Flash Thompson, of course, but it's close enough.

[BWprowl]

Hey, I found something new and kind of stupid, kind of cool. Look in your Wal-Mart, by where they keep the Kreo and other Legoey things, they may have a box of blindpacked Marvel lil' Lego dudes for two-fifty. I saw that and figured "Hell, two-fifty? I'll buy a couple". They're pretty neat, they're somewhere between Lego figures and regular Marvel figures, there's some sculpting on the limbs, but you snap the figures together and they've got the little Lego dude hands. They also come with a "display stand" which is a Lego block in that characters dominant color. So I wound up with Loki, who looks pretty neat, really, and Venom. Which works out, this is the only time in my life I could have opened that package, seen a Venom, and gone "Oooh, neat!". It's Eddie Brock Venom and not Flash Thompson, of course, but it's close enough.

Wait, are these actual Lego ones, or the Mega Bloks ones that started coming out a while back? I wound up getting a Mega Bloks black costume Spidey a while back, and it was a'ight. I was mainly kinda turned off by the fact that the rest of the assortment seemed to be nothing but Spider-Men and Iron Men with I think the Green Goblin thrown in.

[BWprowl]

I picked up Cyberfire Bumblebee aka Hellfire Bumblebee aka DemonBee aka Satan’s Camaro. You gotta love toys with awesomely uncharacteristically terrifying color schemes, his glowing red eyes are what really tip the scales here. This being the first time I’ve owned this Bumblebee mold, I was surprised to find that there was more to it than I though. Not quite on the level of BBBB, but there’s some nifty stuff going on. I particularly like the way the chest transforms. Oh, and he’s got actual, up-and-down elbow joints! No sideways hands! The Mechtech weapon’s okay, nothing to write home about, but it’s at least worlds better than NitroBee’s weapon. He does suffer from some of the same kibble-pack-based problems as Sideswipe/Darksteel, in that it doesn’t lock down securely or really go anywhere specific, but it’s not as intrusive as on Darksteel. A cool mold, and the new color scheme made it worth getting even though I’ve already got like three Deluxe Bumblebees.

It really doesn’t say much about Airraid that I’m more interested in two of the repaints from his wave than I am in him, the lone new mold. I may pick him up eventually, though I kinda want to see what they do to him for a repaint. He actually looks like he’d make a pretty good G2 Terradive.