June hauls!

[BWprowl]

Uuuuuhhh I report things too slow. June Haul So Far roundup:

HG Turn A Gundam model kit – My local shop got this in, the Turn A’s one of the suits that scored a new kit being produced as part of the promotion for Build Fighters, and I’ve been quite turned onto the design in recent years, so I snapped it up. Haven’t had a chance to build it yet, been busy.

SH Figuarts Cure Heart – Mana was pretty much my entire reason for watching and loving Doki Doki Precure (the other characters were fine, but Mana was the focus character most of the way through and made a great one), so of course I was going to buy this. Although really I mostly bought her to harass and hit on any of my various other anime girl figures. Mana? Monogamous? Please.

Generations Tailgate with Groundpounder – Store didn’t have Skrapnel, who’s the one I really wanted, dang (and I still never even saw Cosmos or Swerve out here), so I just got Tailgate. He’s alright. Had to x-acto away some plastic on the panel his waist flips up on so it would fit snug, but after that he works fine. Colors are nice, at least, I like the white/teal combination. Groundpounder’s just downright goofy in anything other than vehicle mode. Though I guess there’s an amusing irony in Tailgate of all ‘bots literally using a fellow Cybertronian as a tool.

AoE Strafe Evolutions 2-Pack – I think I mentioned this elsewhere but: Mo’fuggin’ Strafe! Bot mode looks as glorious as I’d been lead to believe. Arms are a bit hard to work with but are cool where it counts, especially in being able to point his swords. Color scheme is nice. Transformation is pretty meh. Two-headed pteranodons are cool. The Mini-Con’s a neat bonus, I guess.

AoE Deluxe Slash – I think I like this one a bit more than most others. Raptor mode is great, love the way they go all-out with the feathers, makes it look cool, and the color scheme is nuts, in a good way. Transformation’s a fantastic piece of work, there’s a lot of neat touches that I’ve not quite seen anywhere before, like the way the head splits and rotates and contorts to become legs, or the way the whole torso sections rotates and clicks around. Bot mode is okay, kinda stumpy and limited by itself, but you can make it look cool, particularly with the axes and those cool ribcage shoulderpad bits. I’m happy with him, moreso than I thought I would be, actually.

Kirby Triple Deluxe for the 3DS – Belated B-day present from a friend of mine, go him! I love me some Kirby, and this one’s a keen romp in the spirit of Kirby Super Star AKA The Best Kirby Game Ever. I’m up to the fifth world on the ‘main’ game, and it’s been fun so far. Uses the 3D as a gameplay element rather cleverly in places.

Transformers: Victory on DVD – Ordered this from Amazon because I realized it was finally time for me to get it. I’ll get around to watching it…eventually.

Transformers Vol. 5: Chaos Theory – Because it was on the shelf at the comic shop and I realized I love Chaos Theory enough to want it in handy collected form. The extra Rodimus story bits at the beginning are just gravy, really.

AoE 1-Step Changer Drift – Because sometimes you wish that your car that was also a robot was also a butterfly knife. Seriously, this thing is fun as fuck just to fiddle with and flip around. If more 1-Step Changers were like this, I might be more inclined to get more of them.

[JediTricks]

LA Kings Stanley Cup '14 ballcap at the parade yesterday

[JediTricks]

Hasbro sent me a huge media box, so I hauled in a ton of stuff.

The box itself, it's bit and has slashes to reveal art underneath, it's a nice one. Inside the box is a giant art version of Optimus riding Grimlock, it looks slick.

A New Era TF4 hat, 3930 version, flex-fit, med/large. Nice.

An TF4 Optimus T-shirt, xl. Not as nice as the hat, but pretty decent.

Construct-bots Dino Riders Drift - I expected to like this more than I do, the alt mode is very generic, the bot mode is cute in a chibi way but not really my speed. It transforms though, more than just SUYAR.

Construct-bots Dinobot Warriors Drift with Roughneck Dino - I haven't opened this piece yet, it's a larger Drift, and another semi-generic vehicle design, but Roughneck the dino apparently becomes armor, so that's interesting, and this has a newer skeleton than last year's Construct-bots.

Kre-o Micro-Changer Volcanicon - this is my first micro-changer set, and it's new-character Dinobots. They do enough with what they're given, and there is some variety considering how similar they all are. The combined bot Volcanicon is ok, but I think Power Surge is my favorite piece as an alt mode it really does something different and looks more like a character rather than what it is: a Kreon leaning over.They all have charm and personality though, each has unique deco. Funny to see a pair of Bat'leths in there tho.

Kre-o Grimlock Street Attack - haven't opened this one up yet, the Golden Knight Optimus Kreon is a little monochromatic for my tastes since the build Grim is also gold as hell. But the Vehicons have magnets that Grim's mouth grabs, so I'm eager to see that feature. Apparently this recreates the scene from the trailer where Grimlock busts through the Chinese archway, as that is included (complete with bust-apart feature).

One-Step Changers Grimlock - I liked this piece more than I expected. Nothing is terribly great in either mode, but it does a nice transformation where things really happen at once, it gives that feel of conversion. It stands well in both modes, and the arms can be raised at the shoulder in bot mode. I would have liked this a lot as a younger kid. The only drawbacks are that the head has a downward tilt for no obvious reason, and converting back to dino mode hangs up a little. But again, thinking of kids, it transforms without notable physical effort, and when I was little that mattered on converting toys. The cool thing is that it's a nice scale for Legion figures, it's partway between basic and deluxe.

One Step Changers Lockdown - My feelings here are mixed. The alt mode looks halfway decent, a fairly good representation of a Lamborghini Aventador, not an unreasonable amount of gaps, and no kibble at all, it even rolls well; the rear end comes loose easily but it's minor. Bot mode also looks fairly decent if you don't mind the green mask-down face, there's actually a lot of sculpted detailing and not a bad amount of paint. The ultra-simple conversion is where the mixed bag really starts, which is just push a button in the windshield and it pops apart in a very simple manner, it's fine but literally just spreading the limbs out a little and pushing the backpack away, not clever like some of the others in the line; the conversion back is a little stiff, I can see how some younger kids could have difficulty pushing in the right place hard enough. The figure's only articulation is the forearms hinge up. It's also an odd scale, bigger than a basic but way smaller than a deluxe, not sure where it really belongs. But it looks really decent in both modes, so it's not terrible.

Flip and Change Grimlock - hoo boy. This isn't as terrible as I expected, but I'm not sure who this toy would be good for either, it's finicky and requires a lot of gears moving the right way together assuming the kid can flip this thing multiple times. Sculpting is alright in dino mode, and it has Grimlock gold plastic, silver and dark gray paint; the forearms are on rotation joints but the chest panel limits them a bit. Pulling out the tail and twisting it up on its joint, then spinning it... I want to say "backwards" but that might be wrong... anyway, spinning it twice causes the gearing to push out the chest, rotate down the legs, and unfold the head to become shoulders. The problem is that the figure spins and you can get gearing to click out of alignment, things are easy to get wrong, and it's hard to figure out how to get it right again. In bot mode, the only joints are elbow joints, but it does have 5mm fist holes. Some of it looks ok, but the chest engages way too far out so there's a huge gap, the shoulders don't push all the way down so he's got a permanent shrug, and the best thing I can say is he stands well. Converting back to dino is where things catch and gears click out of alignment and there are a lot of chances to get it wrong, and when you get it right it seems at first like you don't. An interesting idea, but the gearing that clicks out of position to keep it from breaking also allows too much confusion as to it being done correctly, and the rewards are few in bot mode.

Power Attackers Power Punch Crosshairs - so this is the kiddie version of the deluxe main line, and I feel like Hasbro is letting kids down here. There's a few kernels of good ideas in here, but the execution has such a huge compromise that it knocks it down quite a bit. If they had gotten the left arm to look and work more like a regular arm, this might have stood a better chance as it has a "simple Transformer" look but enough going on in articulation and conversion that it might make a little kid engage. Unfortunately, that power-punch arm is a crappy arm - the instructions downright ignore the fold-out fist with its 5mm peg hole entirely, it's folded in for packaged mode, as the look of the arm is also a giant fist, but it's way out to the side and very stubby; then you twist the waist, and assuming you don't "strip" the gears (standard TF gearing so it doesn't strip for real, it just clicks out of position to avoid breakage) your reward is a silly giant fist springing out on a longer arm. It's hard to figure out where to grab the figure since the whole back is part of the power-punch arm (you can try to get your fingers around the waist, but the correct answer is to use the other arm as the lever), hope the backpack kibble doesn't get caught up again, hope the waist doesn't spring out of position, hope the gears don't strip, and then you get an action that doesn't really seem like Transformers at all. There is a clever bit if you fold out the regular-size fist though, it retracts halfway into the giant fist when that comes out. Transformation has some clever stuff, enough going on that I'm surprised this is a younger kid toy - it's not super-origami or anything, but there are whole sections rotating and moving, flipping around, and covering up others. Alt mode is actually fairly decent, it's a fattish C7 Corvette and has better paint than the Generations version with detail on BOTH SIDES (!!!) and the only real kibble showing is the rear right quarterpanel has a sliver missing showing the giant fist's knuckles, but it's really minor. It does have the cheap pop-on wheels, but they roll well for once.

Generations Deluxe Bumblebee - I wasn't going to buy this figure for myself because Bay's designers stole a person's actual custom car, and also HOW MANY BUMBLEBEES DOES ONE BRAND NEED?!? But here it is, and it's interesting. I love the alt mode, no doubt about that, Mr. Vengeance did a slick restomod on a '60s Camaro to honor his father, and this is unintentionally a very nice version of that guy's work, as well as being a nice classic Camaro (movie 1 had BB in a 2nd gen uglified Camaro, this is a 1st gen model). Transformation is fairly standard for movieverse BBs really, less gimmicks and more panels, but generally the SOS. Bot mode is a lesson in frustration, it's not painted enough, it's very thin to the point that it feels hollow, it's gappy and kibbly, it has that annoying permanently-mounted marble shooter on the wrist, and the shoulders don't lock down so they are constantly working against regular posing-play. It's not a disaster, but there are enough things against it that it's hard to focus on "adequate" like if you pose the figure digitigrade, its legginess eases up and it hides the open gaps in the shins somewhat. Sculpted detail is lower than usual chiefly because there isn't much to put it on, it's more skeletal than past BBs so there's detail sculpted on what's there. Bot mode is a bit hunchbacked with all that kibble behind the head and a permanent tilt to the torso. Poseability is fair but not great, joints are very tight but either there's a kibble problem in the legs or the shoulders are fighting against their conversion joints all the way through, at best it's a mixed bag. The backpack of kibble at least folds in a little so it doesn't hang down past the butt. Conversion back to alt mode is frustrating only because there are so many panels pushing past each other and getting in each other's way, and they're all very thin and feel brittle even though they do bend out of the way adequately, but once you get everything figured out and the legs bent to the proper alignment, there is a satisfying end result, and the missile doesn't actually need to be removed for conversion in either direction; the instructions add several steps in the arms that are only there because they don't use text to better explain that you just fold them in and rotate the forearms around. And to end on a positive note, because this is worth having for the alt mode, the Camaro SS badge is sculpted on the tail and painted on the nose stripe, the car is matte black and slick for it, and the only kibble that shows is through the windows (it might be worth painting them on the inside).

Generations Voyager Evasion Optimus - I've already reviewed this figure as I just bought it not long ago. Great figure, definitely worth having.

Hexbug Warriors Transformers Battle Stadium - I've always taken note of Hexbugs but never gotten them until now. The launch of Age of Extinction comes with a small series of Transformers-themed Hexbug Warriors, and this set includes Optimus Prime-themed warrior bug and Lockdown-themed warrior bug, as well as a bonus of all the weapons of the other 3 Transformers Hexbugs - Drift, Crosshairs, and Galvatron. These are "bristlebots", their source of locomotion is a vibration motor and the angle bristles bend just enough to let them move forward; the real complicated bit is the impact sensor system that reveals how much "damage" each bot takes in battle, blinking when hit or when losing stamina and changing colors from green to orange to red until finally shutting it down and showing solid red when defeated (there's also a training mode where they have infinite stamina and show damage only by flashing red when hit but never getting defeated). Each bug has character-specific sculpting, including the light panel, a flip-up faction logo panel, character-specific art and paint, and character-themed snap-on weapons and armor; but they don't have "faces" so it stays in the Hexbug theme still. The standard play is putting them in an arena that's lightly bowled in with a round at either end and a bottleneck in the middle, this allows the bugs to stay in a confined space and battle; the stadium here has 5 leaves and an overhead central window that can be slid open or left closed. I found the stadium setup has too much free space so the 2 included bugs rarely run into each other in significant manner, instead they often hit the uprights holding the stadium ceiling, so this might be more fun with 3 or more bugs, but with just 2 they buzz around like slow slot cars going from leaf to leaf, occasionally hitting. However, the leaves are segmented and can be snapped together to form that regular shape, so they come right at each other, and this is where the fun really is here, and it IS fun. Letting them run around the stadium, it was clear that Optimus Prime has more stamina than Lockdown, he ran 5 seconds longer on his own, taking damage for around 45 seconds before shutting down, where Lockdown took around 40 seconds; but then it occurred to me that they SHOULDN'T be evenly matched, that's what makes fights interesting, how a weaker opponent deals with a stronger. Having all the extra weapons really makes this fun then, each bug has holes for attachments at the front and back, and front and back "hips" as well, for a possible 6 different attachments, although some attachments take up 2 hip points. The vibration action causes some of the weapons to have action, spinning sword and a spinning tri-bladed weapon, a multi-hinged whip with a flail on the end, Optimus' sword that hacks up and down, Drift's twin swords that rotate open and closed, and more. Adding different armor and weapons can make them too heavy or let them snag an enemy, and after trial and error Lockdown's chances not only improve but eventually become unstoppable! This is a Battlebots sort of thing, they charge each other, move away, tangle up, chase, strike, exhaust each other, but it's all somewhat random (you can load down one side of a bug to get him to favor that side and turn more) so each battle is unique - occasionally the kill each other at the same moment, or they'll take a victor lap, or they'll even knock parts off their enemy. Ultimately, this turns out to be a great licensed set - there's a little bit of Transformation available, there's customization, it's got a bit of slot car and battlebots personality to it, and it includes all the Transformers parts from the other 3 TF bugs (there are 5 single-package TF warrior bugs, including the 2 in this set) - it's more fun than it seems, but the actual stadium is the weakest element with just 2 bugs, so it's MSRP seems high considering that the best elements are the smallest.

[138 Scourge]

I don't have a haul THAT big, but I wound up buying just a bunch of stuff yesterday.

Started off by finally deciding to get Scoop and his Targetmaster pals. I might try to review these dudes properly, but for now I'll just say that they're all pretty decent toys, and it's kind of cool paying ten bucks and getting a gang of toys for that price. Also, for some sick reason I keep thinking it'd be fun to repaint this sucker as Cybertron Landmine.

Later while my wife and I were at Target to track down some dog treats, I saw that the Kre-O combiner dudes were at half-off clearance, so I figured I may as well finally get the Piranacon. And of course, if I get Piranacon, I may as well check the single-pack Kreons for Seawing. There was only the one single-packed dude left, so I checked the code without a lot of hope. Somehow, it was indeed Seawing. I have no idea how that happened.

Meanwhile, while I'm screwing around with the Kre-O stuff my wife wanders over and sees the Abominus set and decides I should get that, too. So I wound up with that as well.

[BWprowl]

Well first things first: I moved! Went from my tiny apartment to renting a room in a house with a friend of mine. My new bedroom is roughly the size of my old living room, there’s a much greater increased living space, total, and my monthly rent was cut by over half as a result! Not a bad deal. Still got some leftover kitchen stuff to move over from the old place, but otherwise it’s a done deal. Am currently still waiting for the cable company to get over and set up the internet, so until then, here I am catchin’ up on forum stuff over work internets!

I celebrated, naturally, by going out and grabbing some toys:

AoE 1-Step Changers Lockdown: 1-Steppers are becoming something of a guilty pleasure for me, Grimlock and Drift both amusing in their own ways. Saw Lockdown on the shelf and I like his design (particularly with the faceshield down) enough that I thought I’d give this flippy version a go. Autotransformation’s not nearly as impressively involved as Grimlock nor brilliantly fun as Drift, just a simple pop-apart of the robot under the car, though both modes at least look good. Wish he had more articulation, but that’s the sacrifice you make with this subline.

AoE Legacy Grimlock 2-pack: Bought mostly because I coveted the more detailed paint-job on the Voyager AoE Grimlock within. Much more use of black, the figure looks a lot better than the concurrent single-packed Voyager, I think. The mold is nice, the robot mode being nicely dynamic, though the weapon is held oddly and the dino mode is somewhat strangely proportioned (especially in the chest/arms area), though other parts of it are nice and the chompy gimmick is fun. Transformation is interesting and I like that he has rotating wrists in robot mode. Weapon ‘storage’ in dino mode is a joke though. The redeco’d Energon Grimlock he comes with does not make me sad I never picked this mold up previously. Yeesh, this is not one of the better TFs I’ve had the privilege of owning. I mean, I tend to find more positives in the toys I get than negatives, but this is the rare toy that I can’t help but be negative about. Arms sit too low even when you’ve got them all up on their sliders, the upper legs are way too skinny with shitty limited hips that just cause the whole chest assembly to come unpegged any time you move them, the elbow hinges/swivels are horribly unintuitive and end up going the wrong way constantly, dino mode has laughable proportions and bad feet, the list just goes on and on. I’m glad I’m happy with the AoE Grimlock I got out of the deal, because this thing is a complete write-off.

AoE Generations Voyager Galvatron: TRU had one of these in the shelf. Initially I realized that meant that Hound might be afoot, but after checking and not finding him, I impulsively decided to grab Galvy anyway. Well turns out TRU was having a BOGO ½ off sale, so buying this with that Grimlock pack I got it for only about twelve bucks! Between the price and the toy itself, it turned out to be a pleasant surprise; it’s…a neat toy. Don’t get me wrong, the transformation is as piss-easy as any pics you’ve seen would indicate, but Hasbro has, in this toy, managed to make maybe the most elegant, impressive shellformer ever. The entire cab portion unlocks and compresses (automatically in places, even) for robot mode, with bits locking down onto the back and generally compacting down so well as to not be intrusive in the “there’s no way any vehicle-kibble was ever getting integrated into this design” robot mode. Then, when you want to go to vehicle mode, you just unlatch those bits, then tent-pop the cab section back into shape, and fold it over the robot. It’s kind of brilliant, and an interesting counterpoint to fellow tractor-trailer Voyager Evasion Optimus’s overwrought (but still impressive) complexity. Oh there are caveats to the design, to be sure: specifically, the back section in cab mode is noticeably gappy as a pair of legs pegged together, and doesn’t always seat straight or stable, but other than that both modes look *good* for just being nigh-independent units that simply have to wear each other. Only other issue is the colors in robot mode, all that grey desperately needs a wash of some sort to bring out the detail, I might even add one myself (I’ve seen pics of what this thing looks like all painted up and it is indeed pretty impressive). The peg-on arm cannon is fine as an accessory, though the missile-launching is one of the weakest from a spring launcher I’ve seen in some time. Only other issue is that his knees in robot mode are a bit too high, but he’s got rockin’ articulation everywhere else, including universal ankles (!), double-elbows, and a nicely wide-range head ball-joint, so he’s still a very entertainingly expressive robot. Definitely surprised by how much I like this one, doubly so that I got him on sale.

Oh, I also splurged and picked up a 3DS XL, because I finally got tired of gripping the sharp, uncomfortable brick that is the original 3DS, though now I’ll have to do a System Transfer to get all the digital software I had for that over to the new one. Been playin’ that new Kirby game on it though, and I definitely like using it more than the old one.

[JediTricks]

I opened and built the last 2 items in the Hasbro box before sending nearly everything listed there out to a 7-year-old kid my friend knows.

Kre-O Grimlock Street Attack - this set was better than I expected but still not fantastic. This set has no transforming aspects at all, and some building brick elements required tolerances well above what this brand delivers, so the guns on Grim's back and the break-away archway mainly come apart when being handled. Gold Optimus Kreon was an oddity and I don't think works that well for the character, but the magnet-attracting Vehicons were fun to get zapped into Grimlock's magnetic mouth (they have a metal stripe in each helmet and a metal disc backpack). Grimlock himself isn't super detailed but has some nice features and good articulation, some likable features as well. The shoulder-mounted rocket launcher doesn't work well at all, but it looks nice.

Construct-bots Dinobot Warriors Drift with Roughneck Dino - this was WAY better than I expected, this was a big jump in quality over last year's Construct-bots. Drift himself has actual conversion and a little more attempt at an alt mode (although it does still fall fairly short there), but the conversion even has a spring-loaded "transformation core" gimmick to swing the waist up and snap it into position. The figure looks alright and is well-articulated. The real treat is actually Roughneck, a separate dino that is all red and can be pulled apart to make armor and weapons for Drift, a very cool feature. There is a tolerance issue with the crossbow-looking weapon he makes, instead of firing its missile it blasts the head apart, but it looks cool anyway . The dino actually looks good, and is a size that the smaller Dino Riders figures can mount, although it doesn't have a clip for them to lock onto, and he can move his hips and feet and tail a bit. This was a winner, and I was glad it was going to a kid who will enjoy it because it's neat.


A couple other pickups...

Hexbugs Nano v2 Orbit set - this was on clearance at Target, it's the Hexbug Nano that climbs up inside the tubes for the series, it's nifty.

Hexbugs Warriors yellow guy with spinny top weapon - also on clearance, I figure he can battle with Optimus and Lockdown, but the left legs are bent in-package so he's a tad gimpy, and his activation sequence is the opposite of theirs so at first I thought he was super powerful, turns out a single press gets him into training mode so he's unstoppable.


And at Botcon, I picked up...

Decepticon-logo light-up ballcap - got a ton of compliments on it, it has pin-sized lightpipes so it's like sparkles that shift color in the 'con logo.

Dr. Wu Optimus Prime die-cast Ion Blaster - it's really nice, and fits well in Evasion Mode's hands, though I'm not sure if he'll keep it or it'll go somewhere else.

Dr. Wu/Captured Prey die-cast Broken Blade - their Optimus sword repaint with a gold hilt and purple blade, a very nice sculpt, the hilt has The Matrix sculpted into it and a cheap little jewel on either side to suggest the crystal (this one is orange, a corrupted matrix), it's very shiny and pointy, fits well in AOE Galvatron's hand right now, scales well to him. And it was on sale for $5, so it was a no-brainer.

Corbot V War Axe - this was only $5 as well at the table I got it, some had it for as much as $12. This is the War for Cybertron axe design, the energy blades are translucent but barely and transition from dark to lighter orange, as well as having off-white painted energy lines. While not die-cast, it's really nice and the guy who sold it to me showed me his display model by whacking it really hard on his table to show how strong it is, sold! It looks really good, it comes apart into 3 pieces so it can be held by WFC Optimus 2-handed. These are the sorts of things I think Third Party owns Hasbro on best.

Generations Skrapnel with Reflector - a buddy sold it to me for cost. Skrapnel is an alright figure, pretty much what you'd expect from a modern Insecticon, but less silver paint. Reflector is awesome, turning from the G1 Shrapnel gun to a DSLR wearing a long lens (the 5mm post is the viewfinder) to a SUYAR version of Viewfinder. Instead of using the 5mm peg to hold the camera upside-down, use Reflector's arms as grips and Skrapnel can hold the camera up to his face.

Generations Legends ('09) Megatron - bought this at a room party for $9, I figure this is the last Hasbro gun-mode Megatron we'll ever get and I never saw it in stores, so I had to have it on that level.

AoE 1-Step Changers Lockdown: 1-Steppers are becoming something of a guilty pleasure for me, Grimlock and Drift both amusing in their own ways. Saw Lockdown on the shelf and I like his design (particularly with the faceshield down) enough that I thought I’d give this flippy version a go. Autotransformation’s not nearly as impressively involved as Grimlock nor brilliantly fun as Drift, just a simple pop-apart of the robot under the car, though both modes at least look good. Wish he had more articulation, but that’s the sacrifice you make with this subline.

Congrats on the move! As for Lockdown, that's how I felt as well, the transformation was a let-down after opening Grimlock. I may end up getting 1-step Copter Drift, it looked good at Botcon. 1-step ROTF Megatron looked alright too, but I probably won't get him or 1-step G1 Prowl.

The redeco’d Energon Grimlock he comes with does not make me sad I never picked this mold up previously. Yeesh, this is not one of the better TFs I’ve had the privilege of owning. I mean, I tend to find more positives in the toys I get than negatives, but this is the rare toy that I can’t help but be negative about. Arms sit too low even when you’ve got them all up on their sliders, the upper legs are way too skinny with shitty limited hips that just cause the whole chest assembly to come unpegged any time you move them, the elbow hinges/swivels are horribly unintuitive and end up going the wrong way constantly, dino mode has laughable proportions and bad feet, the list just goes on and on. I’m glad I’m happy with the AoE Grimlock I got out of the deal, because this thing is a complete write-off.

Yikes, that's how it looked and what kept me from trying to track it down, but that's worse than I expected. Thanks Aaron Archer!

[Shockwave]

Well first things first: I moved! Went from my tiny apartment to renting a room in a house with a friend of mine. My new bedroom is roughly the size of my old living room, there’s a much greater increased living space, total, and my monthly rent was cut by over half as a result! Not a bad deal. Still got some leftover kitchen stuff to move over from the old place, but otherwise it’s a done deal. Am currently still waiting for the cable company to get over and set up the internet, so until then, here I am catchin’ up on forum stuff over work internets!

That's awesome dude! Congratulations!

[Onslaught Six]

Good job on the new living situation. Moving can be hard and it can be even harder if you're not doing it willingly. I know far too many people lately who have had housing situations fall through and had to move out for financial reasons, so it's good that you're moving up the ladder.

I got:

-Frogger for the PSX/PS1! Found this at a Goodwill. Hoping this one actually plays correctly, because I bought one at the game store and it didn't load any of the actual levels. Paid $4!
-AoE Construct-Bots Lockdown! Cute little murderous bounty hunter psycho. Definitely worth $6!

[Onslaught Six]

Aaaand back from a little local convention. Unfortunately ended up with significantly less money than I thought I would have, but there wasn't too much interesting anyway.

Still, for $20 I managed to pick up RID Tow-Line/Wreckerhook and Super Prowl/Mach Alert. Which is not too bad of a price. One step closer to completing the line!

[Dominic]

2 CDs from O6:
-Peace Through Tyranny
-First Blood

-handwritten note from O6.

-three pieces of gum

-download codes for digital copies of above CDs.