Mirage wrote:Took advantage of TRU's second sale on movie Joes (2 for $10 again) and snagged Paris Pursuit Snake Eyes and the Ice Viper. Snake wins over the alternatives on design-- no mouth (yay!) plus the trenchcoat balances out the much-hated baggy pants. And the Ice Viper is as solid and cool as he looks (love the uber-baggy pants on him).
Dammit, why did I not know about this earlier today?
Ahem. Well, anyway, today, I fired up my G.I. Joe Killaz CD to psyche myself up, and rolled to the movie theater to catch Rise of Cobra. Loved every goofy, glorious minute. The movie kept up a sense of being a fun live-action cartoon through the whole thing. So, since I was inspired, I went down to Target and picked up The Baroness, because she's cool and I needed a better one than the blue-suited one. She's cool, I can't figure out how the grappler accessory's supposed to work, and she can't even hold her big stupid gun, but the twin pistols, briefcase, and warhead will do nicely. Movie Joes were on sale at Target, too, for $6.49, so not bad, but not quite as good as TRU's sale apparently is. Ah, well, I wanted a movie Destro, anyhow.
Yo, Prowl, if you're lookin' to get some Energon toys, I'm lookin' to get rid of some of mine. PM me if you wanna work out somethin'.
Dominic wrote: too many people likely would have enjoyed it as....well a house-elf gang-bang.
Went to Walmart and Target last night. At Target found Scalpel. It's ok. Not as epic fail as many of the other ROTF figures, but the legs could have been done better. At WM got the ice cream twins, which are cool. It's like getting two basics that combine into a deluxe-sized vehicle. Swerve. Red Sideswipe with a new head. Pretty cool. I might repaint actualswipe into Sunstreaker. Ratchet. Haven't fiddled with him yet. And last and least... sigh... God I hate myself sometimes... Arcee and Chromia. I don't know what happened. I saw them both there and something compelled me to get them. Having fiddled with both of them I suspect they might be Hasbro's answer for how to merge the individual Constructicons into Devastator. That makes about as much sense as anything they actually transform into. Seriously, they are both 100% epic fail pure unrefined suck. Arcee's torso is kind of ok, I guess, but the bottom is just a mess and Chromia beats out the Jumpstarters for worst TF toy ever. In the history of everything.
So, just to recap:
Ice Cream Twins: Win!
Arcee and Chromia: Epic Fail!
Scalpel: Ok
Swerve: Win!
Ratchet: ???
What, you got 'Voyager Ratchet?' That thing is awful. The mould was only ever kind of okay, passable, but in those colours? Ugh, man. Even the cruddy vehicle mode of Deluxe Ratchet is made up for by his robot mode.
...I can't believe I'm saying this, but Chromia isn't *that* bad. I still regret having paid full price for her, but she's not mindbreakingly awful. She'd be a nice Basic, actually. In fact, all three of the bikes should have been Basics--they'd be much more justifiable that way, in both scale and in price.
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.
Wait, there was a transformable deluxe version of movie Ratchet that wasn't FAB? Ratchet's coloring was pure suck any way you slice it between either movie really. I'm contemplating Ironhide, but I'd want movie 1 version because it's black, not that shit grey that the ROTF one is. I really dunno what compelled me to get the bikes or Ratchet. I have problems. Also, Jolt is pretty good. My only complaint is with the shoulders not having much movement due to back kibble. Other than that, he's really one of the better figs of this line.
I got Ratchet last Movie, and I actually rather like him. He's not mind-blowingly fantastic, but what he does, he does well. I honestly can't think of any major flaws that toy has. Okay, sideways hands, but that's about it.
Anyway, got *two* boxes full of Energonny goodness today:
FIrst one had a bunch of Basics. Perceptor I already got earlier (Twice! One's still MISP. This is what happens when you buy in Lots.), so I may try to resell him. But it also had Energon Strongarm, Signal Flare, Offshoot, Insecticon, and Chromehorn Forest Type. Oh man, pretty much all these guys are awesome. Strongarm and Signal Flare/Offshoot I already had the Movie versions of, but these colors are just so much prettier. Energon weapons in clear red look way snazzier than black or grey. The Insecticons were the main event though. These guys are absolute Love in beast mode. Adorable, with decently posable legs, and Energon weapons that let you change what kind of beetle they are. Transformation is simple, but interesting; I dig the way the legs form, and the rotating torso chunk is something I haven't seen much before. Robot mode's okay. Kinda cute, with the big fists, but the limited posablity hurts it a bit. I really like the leftover insect legs becoming over-shoulder cannons though. Still, beast mode's definitely the better of the two, and it carries the toy effectively. I like Chromehorn's colors more than Insecticon's: nice shade of green with cool purple accents. Having two of them does really add to the experience though. I almost want to troopbuild this guy.
The other box had Ironhide! I figger that, with two Kickers (and two more on the way), I really needed his partner in kid-appeal. Ironhide didn't really appeal to me back when Energon was first coming out, but as I grew to love the show, I grew to like Ironhide. Thankfully, his toy is much cooler than I thought way back then. Solid vehicle mode with some good mass to it. Obvious robot head would be an issue, but that's a detail that's ingrained in my brain at this point as simply being part of Ironhide, so I'm not really bothered by it. Transformation's simple, but effective, and it was a breeze for me since I'd seen it a ton of times during the cartoon's run. Robot mode is good. A waist joint woulda been nice, but the combination nixes any chance of that. You can use combination transformation joints in his legs to get a bit more articulation out of those. I really need to get another Energon Mega so I can try out the combination modes, since his seem really good. It is bullshit on a stick that he can't hold his guns in his hands, even though they detach and everything. Still, cool toy of a key character. I might get the Powerlinx version later on, so he doesn't feel quite so overwhelmed by my Kickers.
-BW "Anyone wanna trade something for an Energon Perceptor?" prowl
BWprowl wrote:I got Ratchet last Movie, and I actually rather like him. He's not mind-blowingly fantastic, but what he does, he does well. I honestly can't think of any major flaws that toy has. Okay, sideways hands, but that's about it.
The giant, non-movie-accurate legs, with absolutely no paint on the robot detail bits? The crappy claw-grabber thing? The lack of a gun? The shitty axe? The way the face is moulded so it doesn't actually look a thing like the movie model's face? The screwholes in his shoulders? The nerfed thumb articulation? (And, actually, his whole hand.)
Everything about this toy screams out Mediocre, Could Have Been Way Better, and in the much crappier ROTF colours, he's a definite pass. Should've waited, Sparky.
Chromehorn Forest Type.
You mean Shrapnel!
Ah, that's a lie, the Insecticon repaint as Shrapnel that I always wanted was primarily black and had purple and yellow details.
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.
