Southpaw Samurai

This is something I did about five years ago (I think for a thread about fun pictures of our new 1/48 Valks) and anyone who's been around since then probably has seen it a few times already, but I haven't really done anything since and I came across an old copy of it just about the same time as I noticed this thread, so I think it's only fitting I repost it. It's not great, but it does show how far we sometimes go to have fun with our toys.

I'm sort of hoping these are from when the characters were 'cool 'and active... Ozy looks a little on the young side (and has some serious torso distortions... but that's probably just a mistake in the photo manipulation) and Night Owl looks too in shape and menacing to be his 'present time' form. He doesn't need to be as large and pudgy as in the comic, but if they go TOO Hollywood slim and pretty, it'll ruin the character's arc, in my opinion. I'll be happy with this being his current look if it's the costume that's giving him the muscular arms and basically acting like a girdle holding in the flab. Ozy's rubber nips are amuzing... making as us much a statement on relatively recent movie superheroes as the comics did their predecessors. The Comedian almost looks like someone did a lifelike portrait of the drawn figure, so no complaints there and Rorschach looks good (then again, you'd almost have to be deliberately screwing up his look). Can't complain with the nice compromise done with Silk Spectre's outfit either.

Yep. First mini-series. G.I.Joe goes to get one of the three elements needed for a MASS device up in an Arctic mine. Cobra attacks. Scarlett tries to get Snake-eyes (who's deeper in the mines getting the crystals) to respond over a walkie-talkie (yes, he could respond via Morse code, but the look Snake-eyes gives his radio when she's saying, "Snake-eyes, respond." looks like "Damn, doesn't she realize I'm MUTE?!?!"). Cobra blows up the mine and that releases a deadly radioactive cloud. Snake-eyes seals the mine to save his comrades, then gets all glowey via the gas. He eventually escapes the mine and Major Bludd in what almost feels like pity decides not to shoot him because he'll die soon enough (if it was pity, wouldn't they HAVE shot him?). Snake-eyes, glowing with a bucket o' crystals, wanders the arctic wilds. He comes across a wolf (presumably Timber) trapped in a bear trap and frees him. Later, S.E. gets attacked by apparently the true target of said trap, the biggest polar bear in the world. Timber of course comes to help save him. Sorry for the artifacts...couldn't play the DVD with the hardware layer turned off for a screenshot, so had to vidcap it first... But, ultimately, it's this weird, blind guy who's not certain if he should have an Irish, Scottish, or pirate accent and looks like Grizzly Adams meets Santa Claus with too much mascara who saves the day. He scares the bear away, then takes Snake-eyes to his cabin, where a simply blanket of leaves and herbs completely takes care of all of Snake-eye's glowing radiation problems. And now you know... ...and understand why the cartoon is considered silly.... Still, I don't mind some figure designs based on the cartoon versions. I also heard the RAM is one of the vehicles coming out, which is great since I realized that I always kept my old Rock'n'Roll on his motorcycle and that's what seems off about the new one just standing around. P.S. A little off topic, but since I've commented on mute S.E., G.I.Joe silliness, and am in a posting pictures mood, here's a snippet from a recent Twisted Toyfare Theater (barely enough reason to pick up ToyFare... sometimes). Basically, Cobra Commander gets fired from Cobra for incompetence and while wandering the streets, asks for a sign for his new career and finds himself in front of a G.I.Joe recruiting poster. ("Hellsssss no!" he exclaims). He joins up, gets a new uniform and gets placed in a meeting next to Snake-eyes. When no one else is looking.... ...which finds the Commander in a sensitivity seminar.

My wallet's leery, but not scared yet. It all depends on what this all comes down to. Are the 3 3/4" a continuation of the new 25th Anniversary style or do they return to the classic (or worse, something entirely different)? At this point, I'm only really interested in 25th Anniversary style myself and even then won't be too interested if we start seeing bright colors or other pro-child gimmicks (not that I have anything against making the toys for kids... but even as a kid I'd prefer pretending things were firing rather than have a missile than 'really worked' but launched limply for at best maybe ten scaled yards). I'll even break rank and file here and say that while I loved the vehicles as a kid, I don't clamor for them today. For one, I really don't have much room and, secondly, I've always liked G.I.Joe as small team, special forces rather than mini-armies. I won't lie... a good HISS tank (similar to the first version), a VAMP, or remade MOBAT (though I have a 1:18 M1A1) would be neat, but I'd (with a little sadness because I adored them as a kid) probably wind up passing on a Skystriker or Rattler.... Ideally, I'd like Hasbro to bascially use the 25th Anniversary style as a base and continue it on through the movie lineup... so if I felt like a comic-accurate Hawk today, I could have him, but if I felt like one that looked remotely like Dennis Quaid tomorrow, he could just be swapped out without looking out of place. Of course, that's just me and I can see this heading the same way my personal Transformer collecting Renaissance went... enthusiastically picked up the Alternators, but aside from a few really nice looking ones, pretty much dropped it against once they went all movie based.

I haven't seen any Wave 3 Comic Packs around here yet... Wave 1's abound with some Wave 2's and right now it seems a lot of the Wave 4 singles (plenty of Dukes and CC's). You might be hosed just because of the limited inventory they'll get from Hasbro, but I'd definitely try to work with the BBTS guys on resolving your issue. In the many times I've ordered from them, I've had one time with an incorrect item shipped and once where something was damaged in the mail and both times they were almost bending over backwards to correct the situation. Generally nice and friendly guys. Did you order a case? In such situations, it really IS Hasbro who caused you to be shortchanged one type for another because they changed the contents of the case. When ordering cases from places like BBTS or other online stores, you're really ordering 'Case #xxxxx' not x amount of item a and y amount of item b.... Hasbro could've changed the entire case to My Little Pony figures and it would be BBTS's fault unless they didn't warn you. I've tended to go individual orders when possible for that reason (unless the case or group order is discounted enough to warrant to chances of changes). I'd try working with them to see if you can return/refund the two packs you don't want. It seems like the Ace/WW one is the hot one and the others are still available for pre-order, so they may be hesitant to refund a partial order and get back the peg warmers, but given my experience with them, if you're polite enough about it, they'll probably work something out. That way you can at least have the money available to pick it up elsewhere.

Happier with Rock'n'Roll in person than in the preview pictures. The head sculpt is nice, capturing his very 'you sure that's regulation length?' hair and beard almost perfectly. Despite having the generic body parts (which work, because that's how the first thirteen Joes were), he does look unique enough with the bandoliers (even though they are definitely for a different weapon than what he currently is using, given the giant-sized belt his over-sized M60 uses). Hopefully down the road we'll get the second version RnR, short his ridiculous paired double miniguns.... I must've missed the pictures and info that Torpedo was going to have a mask instead of it being molded like his original. Very nice surprise and it works as well as Snowjob's new optional headgear. Torp's otherwise a dead ringer for his original, short the trademark holsters (but at least it gives him a silenced pistol in addition to his speargun). One of my favorite surprises about Torpedo? His flippers have holes in them so he can stand on his named stand while wearing them! Neat!(even though he then towers over everyone else). With and without head gear... nicely done faces for our surf boarder and scuba diver. Yes, the stand for RnR's machine gun makes it look like a crossbow when not deployed. BTW, once again we have discrepancies between code names and actual ranks. Rock'n'Roll, who did make E-6 by his second figure, is back to being a E-5 like his original card, but like his old comrade Flash, he decided to 'undemote' himself and goes by the codename 'SSgt Rock'n'Roll'... which is not only wishful thinking on the rank, but also raises the question of his branch of service as the Marines and Air Force use the 'SSgt' designation while the Army tends to just use SSG. Perhapes RnR was the team's first jarhead and not Gungho? Doubtful and more ignorance in using what seemed to be the most obvious abbreviated designation. Torpedo decides to do both Flash and Rock'n'Roll one better. The Chief decided being a warrant officer (W0-4) wasn't good enough, so he not only decided to bump up his rank with his codename, but commission himself an officer... and not only an officer, he wasn't happy with Ensign Torpedo or LTJG Torpedo, but went three ranks in at Lieutenant (0-3). Unlike Flash and Rock'n'Roll, I don't think he was ever that rank. Yeah, again I'm being a stickler on details but I really do miss Hama's touch which ensured some fact checking and authenticity. And it's sort of a shame because all it would take would be a few characters difference on the Grade line of their cards to make their code names match their ranks.

He's a little skinnier than would be ideal and he's got almost twenty years on Sienna Miller, but I dig the idea of Chris Eccleston as Destro. He's one of those actors who's easily more talented than the class of actor their relegated to and he can so easily play a bad guy who doesn't see himself as a bad guy and/or feels completely justified in his actions, which is perfect for Destro. Even his default accent wouldn't be too off for a Scotsman who travels (yes, don't let a Scot or a Lancashireman hear they could pass for one another, I know.... ). If the rumor's true, the movie has earned a few more points in my book... still not sure it's total tally is positive, but if it isn't, it's getting close... certainly more than Transformers ever obtain for me.... now if we can only get them to drop the whole 'G.I.J.O.E.' aspect (as in it being an acronym). I don't mind it being a multinational group ala Rainbow Six, but if you're going to use the name 'G.I.Joe', just leave it as such and just claim its a carry over from when the team was established in America or something....

Mangler was one of those made-up Joes Hama used from time to time to have a death without killing off one of Hasbro's money makers (Coolbreeze is the other one that comes to mind... there may have been others before the big floodgate where he was allowed to kill off a ton of figured characters). I think he was in one of the Special Mission comics (which may be what the 'SM' stands for). I don't remember much except he was something of a young, cocky, punk who sacrificed himself to save the mission and the rest of the team. Why does the 3-pack Grunt look both in appearance and in the paint job like he ate all the team's fudge cake and is worried the rest of the Joe's will realize it's him? I sort of liked the half-done attempt at stubble on Breaker... it fits his original painting and is a nice balance between full-bearded cartoon and no beard comic... and Breaker seems to be one who would allow some stubble to grow. Grunt, on the other hand, always struck me as a more clean-cut, by-the-book sort of soldier. I hope the lists for 9/10, etc are legit... like the lineup for the most part (as mentioned earlier, Alley Vipers were too-late, too-garish for me and I have to agree... Hardball? If we're going to get an MGL wielding trooper, can't we accidentally get Poncho from Predator instead of a guy wearing a white baseball uniform into battle? ).

I loved that story. Was my first Joe comic. Kwinn basically tells the bad guys (I agree with Godzilla, I think they were Russians) that while he didn't eliminate the Joes when he had the chance, he did take their firing pins and left them as an offering somewhere between where he left the Joes and the Russians. If the Soviets wanted, they could go and find the pins before the Joes do. But, as he says, "They are trackers and you are not." as the 'camera' closes in on Snake-eyes wearing the necklace.... very nicely done. They do look less like weasel skulls and more like ol' Snake's been killing little greyling aliens, but overall if we're going to have Snake-eyes variant after variant, this is one I'd actually want. He almost should've been done as a comic pack figure, though, along with Kwinn. The rest of the wave looks pretty good, even if I'd rather see different characters over repaints/variants. I've always like Roadblock's second outfit, despite it being high-contrast and I'm digging the Baroness in her more 'Cobra uniform' colors.... can place her with CC in front of my swarm of troops and then have the all-black one stand with Destro off to the side. I might have to get Flint just for the gloved hands (should just do the quick custom job someone suggested awhile back here instead). And I'm glad Bludd got pushed back... hopefully they'll do some retooling... he's too cool an early Cobra baddie to do a slipshod job on.

Personally, I'm picking up the figures that I have nostalgic attachment to either for their toy or character. (Un)fortunately, that's just about every figure so far. I'm going to start skipping the repaints or slight variants (picked up the comic 2 pack repaints mainly for Doc) and once you start hitting the latter figures of the original 80's line-up, I'll probably skip them too (I know there's big fans of Alley Vipers and such and I'll admit they and some of the other latter figures are cool looking, but I had outgrown the toys at that point so I have no attachment to them). But I do agree that the 25th Anniversary line is starting to take up a larger chunk of my splurge budget than initially expected... especially since I'm a 'open and display' geek, so I can't just live with one Cobra trooper or Crimson Guardsman....

Well, for the first time in all my peeking in the Target toy aisles over the past couple of months, I finally saw some single carded Joes. A shame I already had them, but at least now I have a Beachhead who doesn't sit like he just ate a giant holiday dinner! On the plus side, they also had the first wave of comic packs. Despite 5 out of the 6 characters already being in my possession in generally better paint jobs, I wound up splurging just to get a head start on getting Doc. Some observations: Despite that they are still bright, the neon Duke and neon Cobra Commander pack isn't really that ugly (they just stand out against the more neutral regular figures). Aside from his yellow bandoleer, Duke's bright paints aren't that bad and CC isn't so garish that I can't bring him into work as my new monitor topping. That'll probably Duke's destination as well... two figures I won't mind if people break or loosen in playing with them. Silent Interlude SE & SS are a nice way to get them together if you have someone who loved these characters but either doesn't want the five packs or to hunt them down individually.... particularly someone who was more into Snake-eyes in the cartoon than the original toy. I don't mind the color on SE at all... could've been a little darker, but he's not that bright of a blue... almost a perfect night-op blue in fact. Worst thing about this paint job is the big silver googles, which isn't accurate to the comic anyway. Stormshadow doesn't look as good with the blue instead of black parts, but it's not a killer. He's much more pale and his sandals aren't painted, which may appease people who disliked that as an inclusion on the new mold. Dreadstar's Willow and Hawk.... I mean Scarlett and Hawk are the pack I most wanted, mainly for Hawk who was my first Joe (yeah, my brother wound up with a Vamp and I wound up with the MMS... fortunately I was old enough to ask what 'grade' meant and found out that my sad, ordinary blond guy was a colonel and my brother's cooler looking bearded guy was a just a corporal. ). I've always been torn between Scarlett's purple and yellow vs. grey and yellow/beige. The latter's is a BIT more realistic (at least as far as military leotards go ), but the former works well as a color scheme. She's got a bit more obvious lip color than the 5-pack version, but I sorta dug Scarlett as a tomboy, so that doesn't matter much. If there more Joes that I could easily enough kitbash into Skeevo, Syzygy, and Oedi, I'd seriously put her aside as Willow from Starlin's Dreadstar comics... she and Scarlett went shopping at the same store in the early 80's. Hawk is mainly a dark green Snake-eyes repaint, body-wise (his head looking like Duke's gaunt, grumpy uncle). Neither bother me as the original Hawk shared the generic 'Grunt-style' body that Snake-eyes did and Hawk was never a stand-out 'look at me, I'm the leader!' type in those early, pre-Patton bomber jacket days and Duke and Hawk were always similar looking until Hasbro decided Hawk needed to be darker haired and a lot older for whatever reason (I personally always saw Duke and Hawk about the same age, the one grinding his way up through the non-comms and the latter coming out of West Point as an Lt. and through skill and connections quickly climbing the officer rungs). The figure itself isn't special in any way, but I have a personal nostalgic love for it. Surprisingly, while it seems most of the cards have been direct copies of the original 80's cards with just certain things like name changes, Hawk isn't his original... probably because his original gives practically no indication that he's the team's head honcho... aside from his grade and the quote mentioning he has great leadership traits, he's hiding out behind his boring-sounding 'Missile Commander' role. Hawk's new card is similar to his later ones in verbage and while others are retaining (or in the case of 'Sgt.Flash' have been demoted back to their '82 ranks), Hawk keeps his most current rank of Major General, which is two steps over his original colonel (Mommy and Daddy Abernathy probably pulled strings to avoid their little Clay from losing his stars). Sorry to ramble. My last quick observation... which anyone who's bought a comic pack or recent comic reprint of earlier 80's comics.... does anyone miss the old newspaper paper? All three of these issues (#1, #21, and #24) just don't look right on glossy paper. I think the old paper and printing process just added some 'noise' to the rather simple coloring, so it's more like the gloss making the limitations of the original work more obvious. Silent Interlude is really the one to suffer as it's way too bright now for the style and story. But it's great to have a copy of #1 and #21 so readily available to show people and #24, while not being anything special, was a fun and cool issue. Just don't get me started on the redone covers. They're fine enough stylistic homages, but I think they would've looked better if the comics came in a digest-size. As they are now they look like quickly done draft versions and I would've preferred someone doing their own take on the general idea of each over instead of just having a stylistic (looking sloppy) paint over of the originals..... Oh, and to answer your question, Vermillion21, I've been getting most of mine via BBTS... nice guys, reasonably priced on most things, and because I'm practically across the state border from their warehouse, I can have things shipped cheap via slower than slow mail and still get it next day. Up until today, had I been relying on hunting locally I wouldn't have had any single carded guys yet... and I'm getting too old/self-important to spend time visiting so many stores toy hunting. With limited shelf space, no big toy stores anymore in my area, and scalpers, it's just not productive or even fun anymore.

Anyone else obsessive enough about details to notice something's awry here? Give up? Looks like ol' Tony got himself busted back down to corporal after his promotion and code name change for the exclusive last year, but decided to keep the new moniker. If I was him, I'm put in a request to have it changed to 'General Flash' for grins... Even though it's being very picky (sadly, I noticed it within a few seconds of looking at the back of the card because I've been curious if they were going to change things about characters), it's sort of a sad little oversight. Granted, Hasbro needed to use the 'trademarkable' version of his code name, but one would've hoped that someone would've looked at it and said, "Hey, if he's 'Sgt. Flash', shouldn't he be at least an E-5?" instead of just blindly duplicating the original copy short the places where the codename is used. Flash is easily the disappointment out of the 5th wave, aesthetics-wise. I think its one of those cases where they maybe should have indulged a bit with changes. Flash was sort of a cool looking figure to a kid back in '82 (maybe because he (and GrandSlam) stood out a bit from the other non-S.E./Scarlett/Stalker generic looking, all green figures), but to those same eyes 25 years later, he's just not as appealing. While it matches the original figure, I almost think he'd be easily improved with boots on the outside instead of his stirrups. Still, he's not horrid looking and he looks like he has good articulation (I won't open anymore of my Joes until after the holidays as I need to rearrange room for them) and he is a direct homage to the original, so I can't complain. Sadly, it looks like most of the rest of the original thirteen (minus the aforementioned Triple-S guys who all had unique molds), are going to fare as poorly in their new form, if the pictures of Hawk and Rock'n'roll are evidence... somehow Breaker looks like he may avoid the jinx... but that may be because you just don't see action figures blowing bubblegum bubbles... and that's his comic look to a 'T'). As mentioned earlier, I haven't opened these guys yet, so no take on their articulation/play-worthiness. Snowjob looks good and I like the options for his goggles/hood. Iron Grenadier Destro really makes me wish they had packed an Iron Grenadier as opposed to a Crimson Guard in this wave. And the C.G.s themselves are okay to good. The leg holster looks a little tacky and I'm not entirely sold on the new helmet design (much more angular and the face guard is very 'beak-like' with what looks like very limited visibility.

As much as it might mean increasing the cost of tickets by 50% (or more, if you're a matinee person), I'd HIGHLY recommend that anyone who's tempted to see this see it in an IMAX 3D theater if they can. It adds considerably to the impact and it looks like a lot of scenes were done with 3D in mind (some gimicky 'here's a spear in your face' ones, but just certain flybyes and such just aren't as fun without the 3D). I enjoyed it. It's one of the better adaptations of the original work, staying true to the 'rah,rah, Beowulf's great!' feel of the poem, but throwing on a failible, mortal side that doesn't overtake Beowulf being larger than life (Beowulf & Grendel is an example where trying to add on 'realism' and more depth kills the epic nature of the material). It works on a storytelling level and can be simple as you want or your can pick out some of the extra depth they tossed in. I like how they tie all the main events from the poem together to make them related, then explain why today we don't hear about why they were related. I wouldn't go in to watch it for the technical aspects. You'd spend your time being disappointed at what doesn't quite work that you'll both miss the stuff that looks great and the overall experience of the film. The closer they get to it looking like live photography, the more there will be to nitpick. Yes, often the characters don't look like they were actual people filmed, but they do all work together with the background, non-human characters, and effects, so I don't see a problem. Robin Wright Penn's character is particularly a problem, but I think that's mainly because her face just doesn't translate as well. She has some wide, flat, smooth features which just come across as plastic in CG. The younger girl works a little better because of freckles and other detail, but I think the problem with the CG women in this is the same problem artists (mostly male ones, anyway) have had for years with women: if you put too much detail on, they look worn and haggard, if you put too little, they're simplistic and fake... a guy can easily draw a woman who's supposed to be ugly, but the minute we try to go for 'beautiful', we keep playing it and just screw it up. That said, Jolie comes out very nice... in some cases, she almost looks like someone just took the film of her and composited it with the CG characters. But, go in to the theater looking for a nice retelling of an old epic, not to marvel at the technology. It's not a 'must see', but it's a good experience, particularly in 3D.

As much as I'd like Hasbro to lay off the Cobra Commander figures for a bit (we practically have more commanders than Cobra personnel at this point), it would be fun to see a figure where you pull the helmet/mask off and it's the aging hippie C.C. from the issues where he was running around unmasked and in semi-disguise. Heck, for fun, they could re-release the Wave 6 battle armor C.C. with both the evil-hippie head and the Crimson Guardsman Fred series imposter.... waitaminute, didn't I just say I wanted LESS C.C.'s for a while? Torpedo looks great. R&R I'm going to have to get just for the love of the first set of guys, but the figure is just a little lackluster... perhaps too much the original figure. I'd love to see Airborne. He was an early favorite of mine. Was cool and detailed, but still realistic looking and not outlandish. Plus, in my opinion, he was the superior Native American Joe compared to Charlie 'Spirit' Iron-knife, code name: INJUN STEREOTYPE. Seriously... Charlie really could've left one or two things back in his locker... he was the equivalent of Scarlett, Blowtorch, or Barbecue showing up in full Leprechaun gear with pints of Guinness instead of firearms.

To me, DL has always been a likeable character... and one that has always tried to do things right (by at least someone), in spite of all the bad cards he has been constantly dealt. I think the problem was that he never got much screen time and as the stable one, his parts were often overshadowed by Nikki's. His end is disappointing and while I can see how it fits for Nikki's plotline and how it makes a statement about life and death, I still think they completely flubbed handling the actual death. As for the twins.... I don't mind their characters or powers, but I'd rather see a Nissan commerical instead of their story pieces. It's basically the same thing over and over and unlike Claire constantly mutilating herself or Issac painting in Season 1, there's not the slightest bit of variety either. I've reached a point where, as in Monday's episode, I can be quite happy with what's going on, but then the slightest hint that the next few minutes might be about the twins deflates that completely. Never seen anything with Kirsten Bell in it before and didn't like Elle when she first showed up, but now I appreciate both the character and Bell's acting (unless she's naturally a sociopath). Elle came across well rounded (ironically enough for a character that not well rounded) and you can sympathize with her a bit while disliking what she does at the same time. I do agree that it seems either too convenient or really dumb that you'd lock one potentially god-like superhero in a room with a vent directly to a long lived, potentially twisted individual who has demonstrated purposes contrary to one's own and not at least bug the rooms. Not monitoring Peter's medication intake when he could potentially level the entire complex wasn't very bright either. I'm hoping it means there's something deeper than is obvious going on, but the show has demonstrated completely dropping the ball more than once, so I wouldn't be surprised either way.

I was a spoiled kid and between my brother and I we had almost all the G1 Gestalts (basically #1-8 on the list). They mostly were cool in one's imagination as the toys were often skinny, flimsy feeling, and mostly static (and weren't much taller than some guys like Blaster). For that alone, Predaking rocked because he was huge, solid, evil looking, and had fists that were about the size of Bumblebee's body. Granted, he wasn't any more poseable than most of the gestalts and he was a very chunky winged monkey, but he just looked like a bruiser compared to the others. That said, I'd still have a hard time saying I'd pick him all-around (toy/character/cartoon) over Devastator just because Devastator felt unique in the Transformer universe for his time, whereas later it got to the point where just about everyone was merging together. Devastator also had the multi-bot torso instead of the one big guy with four little guys tossed on scheme. As a kid who always liked the tech specs, I found it funny that often (particularly with the Decepticon gestalts) when you merge five average or even smart Transformers together you somehow wind up with a complete moron in terms of intelligence. Of course, one grows up and starts working at places where decisions are made by committee and you realize just how accurate that is...

What's funny or sad is that, if I remember correctly, while Snake-eyes in the comic was sometimes done in a shade of blue (as is normal for 'black', as in hair), in the Silent Interlude episode, his highlights were grey, not blue), so it's not really even 'comic accurate' like the zany Star Wars comic adaption figures Hasbro's done. A really dark grey might've actually looked cool with black details.

MINOR SEMI-SPOILER. In adaptations based on the movies, Bumblebee lost his ability to speak after encountering a pissed off Megatron (who was not so pissed as to just kill BB outright, apparently) back on Cybertron millions of years ago. That's from the comic adaptation prequel... not sure how much of that will make the film. What doesn't make sense is if they each can rearrange themselves on the fly to change their appearance at will, why can't he rearrange his systems to correct that issue? Surely he should be able to jury rig some kind of vocalizer that can receive input from the 'brain', especially if he can create for himself a functional car radio and stereo. END SPOILER

Just when you thought you had the most ultimate Optimus Prime short that somewhat silly-looking, giant statue in China... $4000, 6.5' Tall Optimus Prime Too bad he's not transformable (BBTS's pic looks like a scaled up Masterpiece, for good or bad)... that would rock... even if he'd probably kill you by falling on you in the process.

Well, this isn't MOO3 bad, thankfully... although much of what made MOO3 bad was that it took everything that was great about MOO1 & 2 and did something completely different with those parts... almost always for the worst. Despite the early lukewarm opinions here, I went ahead and bought it anyway and I can't really say much that hasn't already been said. It very much has a garage-made X-Com clone that spiffies up the ten year old graphics a bit, but actually loses parts of the original's complexity that made it compelling. Because all your troops are tunnel-visioned, near-sighted, hopeless shooters, most tactical options are limited. Taking a tank along in the beginning is still a viable option, but since it eats up half the space on the transport, you're left with a single four man squad which further limits things. Then you toss in the seeming lack of benefits to kneeling, cover, etc and you're reduced to next to nothing. And it can get VERY frustrating early on as your troops head to the infirmary and all you get is one new guy in a blue moon... my last time out all I could field is three guys... let me recruit, darnit! It's not like the guys trickling in are well trained soldiers... I just had an entire squad miss an alien two squares away, all firing aimed shots... in many ways you're better off just spraying the baddies and hoping three 15-25% shots might hit over a wasteful aimed shot that's supposedly 40-60%, yet seems more like 10% in practice.... and don't get me started on the guy who 'threw' a grenade that somehow landed in his very own square with no obstructions.... this is something like 'XCOM:'Special' Forces' or something... I'm an old XCOM/UFO:EU guy from the beginning who loved the original, thought the second was a cheap follow-up that at least allowed more of the same with very annoying aspects, originally disliked the third, but grew to appreicate it in its own right, and have since stayed away from all the attempts at reproducing the series... now I know why. The game isn't horrid...just sadly sub par and at $40-50, I can't recommend this to someone looking to rekindle an old XCOM fixation, unfortunately.... at $20 or less, it might be worth it as a time waster as there are bits that do give off that old feeling... but they're few and far between. And what's with the opening film? It starts off with three space fighters (I'd say your Interceptors, but currently my interceptors run out of fuel halfway around the planet... I don't think they could escape orbit if they wanted) dogfighting some UFOs and then coming across a whole invasion fleet... I suppose its sort of backstory, but it's more like an intro video for XCOM:Interceptor than this game...

Not only that, but the original protoype pictures were taken with care in lighting, which added a lot to the visual appeal. The newer pictures are overlit and you get nearly no shadows or distinction to features. My one disappointment is in Cobrad Commander. Granted, it was an unintenitonal trick of the camera in the original prototype picture, but I liked that he had a large melon... something suitable for a normal head with a helmet on... but it's obvious that he's as much a pinhead as Destro... oh well. I concur on the Snake-eye/Stormshadow second costumes as part of the first three waves. As much as Snake-eyes v.2 is sort of iconic thanks to the cartoon (even if I always preferred commando-SE over ninja-SE) and I have a softspot for Stormshadow v.2 despite being sick of ninja even when he first came out as a kid, I would rather have had Hasbro pace itself better with the pair. Even Cobra Commander could've waited a bit for his hood (and eventual battlesuit and/or big ceremonial version of his mirrored helmet outfit). I want to see what they can do to the likes of Stalker, Torpedo, and even a few more obscure guys like Airborne (who was the cooler of the Native American Joes simply because he wasn't a walking stereotype.... seriously, the only thing Spirit lacked was a beer bottle, a casino shareholder letter, and a button that made him cry everytime Cobra littered into order to complete the look ).

The video review/transformation video does indicate that the gun can accidentally pop off during the transformation (hopefully he meant the whole aseembly and not that it might fire its missile), which to me, like yourself, is one of the make or break it factors of the toy. If I pick it up, I expect much 'accidental popping off' of the gun whenever I chang Optimus into truck mode. I mostly like the look of the toy... almost wish the movie version actually looked more like it, in all honesty. One thing I find interesting is the leg assembly, which could actually lift Optimus off the ground as he transforms (instead of many of the original G1 designs where the cars had to hop into the air before transforming (in the original movie, Prime even hits some kind of thrusters to get some lift as he transforms)).

I've had the Intercooler since about the time it came out... it DID seem to help with some of the Oblivion lockups that may or may not have been heat related (of course, shortly after I bought this, Bethesda released a patch that also helped lockups, so who knows). It does make the console a little cooler and it hasn't caused any problems. It's not really that much noisier either (although one of the fans can be noisy until it gets going for 30-60 seconds... it's pretty cheaply made). The thing to remember about either of the two fan devices is that they are ONLY extra fans to help the air flow. If you place the 360 in a place thats really warm with no airflow, they won't help at all and might make things worse as the outer shell of the console won't be able to directly give off heat. The best way to handle 360 heat is to first make sure the console sits in a relatively cool, well ventilated location with space around it (not easy if you want to place it in your entertainment set, mind you). No amount of extra fans are really going to help if it just keeps sucking in the same hot air it let out seconds ago.

Sorry.. simple typo, but given Tony's lifestyle, it just made me chuckle that he'd have an Ironman suit specifically to play golf with his heroic cronies.... he'd probably need something to help offset Hulk and Thor's driving power..... I agree with your comments on the recent cartoon movie... way too much stuff packed in to the point where nothing really gets a fair shake (or it was just packed in inefficiently). <<<<SLIGHT SPOILERS>>>> One of the only things to really bother me for some reason was his already designed suit collection. Granted, it does explain how he can craft a suit so quickly and also allows him for a few costume changes. But it sort of detracts from his change over into a hero a bit. The change just seemed too weak, quick, and convenient... "Whew... I'm glad I'll never wear that suit again... ooops... we're in trouble... heck, I'll just wear one of my dozens of suits and save the world!" Outside of that, I'd say the only other problems are that the Mandarin gets little actual direct involvement and I probably wouldn't have known the dragon was Fing Fang Foom if he wasn't named somewhere in the supporting material. DID like the elemental design.. .nothing exceptionally innovative, but nice nonetheless. <<<<END SPOILERS>>>>

For those who don't want to register for yet another board (you apparently need to in order to see the pictures), here you go: They're certainly better in detail and paint application than most of what Hasbro's put out in the Rael American Hero vein, but that's not necessarily saying much given all the gaudy paint apps they've chosen, even for re-releases..... I wish the proportions...particularly the heads... were better, or at least consistent. One can live with stylistic choices, but to have a few people look fine and others (Duke and Destro probably the worst, although the Cobra Trooper should be bigger... or his helmet an add-on) are way off just doesn't sit right. I DO like the original Commando Snake-eyes over 'Mystical Ninja with pet Wolf' SE... even if I don't really mind the latter....