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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    How up-to-date are you? So far we know we're getting Voyager Galvatron and Sentinel Prime, Leader Blaster and Leader Powermaster Optimus Prime, Deluxe Hardhead and Skullcruncher (who has been renamed Skullsmasher), a couple Legends-class cassettes, and a few of a new class called Titan Masters that are basically more heads with small vehicles that can be used on other Titans Return figures. We know that all the characters I've mentioned are new molds, that Powermaster Prime is going to be a heavy retool of Leader Ultra Magnus, and we know that Sentinel, Galvatron, and Blaster are all triple changers. Galvatron has a space fighter mode and an artillery mode, Blaster has his radio mode and a "base" mode, and Sentinel has a shuttle mode and a "battle tank" mode that looks an awful lot like a train, leading to speculation that a Voyager Astrotrain will be an inevitable repaint. Given the fact that pretty much all the Titans Return Legends are cassettes (and technically, Buzzsaw is already in the tail end of Combiner Wars) I'd venture that a Leader Soundwave retool of Blaster is also inevitable. A Titan-class Fortress Maximus has already been announced, as well as the fact that Trypticon will be the next Titan. Whether or not he'll be part of Titans Return or whatever Hasbro/IDW cook up next is yet to be seen. Finally, most recently some blurry pics turned up of what may or may not be a Deluxe-class Blurr. As far as when we'll start seeing them in stores, who can say? The Combaticons are just starting to turn up in stores, and there's still another wave of Combiner Wars after that before Titans Return starts rolling out. Nope, and not for looking either. I've found the limbs in a few stores now, though. I'm actually thinking about picking up a few extra; I want to get another Vortex, pop the head off and repaint it as Blast Off, then stick it on Blast Off. I'll put a different head on the extra Vortex, repaint him, then pair him with Offroad and two other CW limbs that I'll repaint, pick up Cyclonus, and then I'll still have an equal number of Autobot and Decepticon combiners when I inevitable start collecting parts of Sky Reign. Since Bruticus is my favorite combiner, I wound up caving and ordering one of the ridiculously marked-up Onslaught's on Amazon, and I've got Shockwave coming from HasbroToyShop. Honestly, I can live without Piranacon, Abominus, and Computron, so that should just leave me with Predaking as a must-have, so I guess I'm going to have to go third-party.
  2. mikeszekely
    In addition to the Zeta Plus, it occurred to me that I've built a handful of kits since the birth of my daughter that I never shared here. First up, with special thanks to davidwhangchoi, are the seraphim parts for RG Wing Zero. Not really sure how I feel about this. On the plus side, more than any other kit I've built, Wing Zero was practically begging for a base. The seraphim kit provides that, with an arm that can bend to a lot of different angles. You can use the included pegs to angle the base, allowing the inserted artwork to show better. Now, things is, the feathers themselves, both the plastic ones and the ones on the artwork, strike me as silly. Yes, the help capture that moment in the Endless Waltz movie, and it's a stylistic effect... but angel feathers flying off of a metal weaponized robot is just ludircrous. To be honest, while I have no issues with either version of Wing or the TV version of Wing Zero, I've never liked the wings on the EW version of Wing Zero. Next up we have the Guncannon REVIVE version. Unless you have an aversion to the 1/144 scale, I highly recommend this kit! It's not the most complicated model you'll ever build, but the result is great. It's solid, very posable, and manages to make the Guncannon (a mobile suit I've always thought of as "dumpy") pretty cool. Then there's the Zeta II. I don't think there's anything wrong with this kit, per se. My issues are really more with the mobile suit it's modeling. It starts off ok... take the Methuss, rework it so it looks like Zeta Gundam, give it more (and bigger) guns. The problem is from the waist down. It's pointy where it doesn't need to be in the knees, crotch, and feet. Especially the feet. They look so stupid to me. I'd say pass, unless you really like the design. Like the Zeta Plus, it's pretty easy to convert the Zeta II to Waverider mode, but that's largely due to the fact that so much of the mobile suit isn't used. And the Waverider mode isn't really bad, but I prefer the sleeker lines of the Zeta Plus. Speaking of needlessly pointy mobile suits, I'll conclude with the Delta Gundam Kai. From the waist up, I love the Delta Kai. The colors are nice, the new shoulder armor is cool, and the head is more Gundam and less Hyaku Shiki, and who can say no to the addition of fin funnels? The problem is, again, from the waist down. The Delta/Delta Plus's skirt and knees are replaced with large knee spikes and hip armor with so many points it's practically serrated. Then there's the shield... it's an utterly massive affair, nearly as big as the mobile suit itself. It's also the bulk of the Waverider mode. If you've only got room in your heart and your Detolf for one Delta-series, I'd say go for the Delta Plus instead.
  3. mikeszekely
    Finished my Zeta Plus. Sorry for the lousy pics; since having a baby my setup has changed. As far as kits go, I enjoyed this one. I like the design of the Zeta Plus; it's similar to the regular Zeta, but with slightly different skirt armor and head, different shield, slightly more rounded lower legs, and wings that are more similar to the Delta/Hyaku Shiki than regular Zeta's funky backpack. For the most part, I actually think the changes, especially the wings, are an improvement over the regular Zeta. One oddity, though, is that there's no thrusters on the end of the tail binder. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me; the point of the tail binder on Zeta is partly the thruster and partly the additional limb for AMBAC. Now, this model of Zeta Plus (the A1) is for Earth-use, negating the benefits for AMBAC, so without the thruster it's just deadweight. Why didn't the designers just eliminate it? I digress. As a kit, like I said before, my only real complaint is the lack of color. Aside from a few stickers, a few splashes of white around the vents, and the blue feet the entire kit is two shades of gray. At least the Delta Plus has some more blue in the torso! Animation-accurate, I suppose, but again it almost makes me want to get a second one and do a custom paint job. I dig the Zeta Plus's Waverider mode a lot more than the regular Zeta's. In fact, it's ranking up there with the Delta Plus for my favorite Waverider mode. As is the norm for an HG kit, the model doesn't transform. You take it apart and swap pieces with special parts made for the Waverider mode. I'll give the Zeta Plus a lot of credit here. Unlike the Delta, most of the MS-mode parts are used. Really, just the head, torso, thighs, and shoulder armor are left. The arms, lower legs, wings, tailbinder, shield, and skirt armor are used on the Waverider, and it's pretty simple to take those parts off of the MS and put them on the Waverider. Compare that to the Delta Plus, which had you disassembling the feet to replace parts and moving some of the leg and knee parts around and it's a walk in the park.
  4. mikeszekely
    If I get Felisaber, it'll be more for his own merits. Catilla isn't part of Predaking. I'm surprised I haven't received more input on the whole BBTS/TFSource/Someone else thing. Thought about asking in the regular TF thread, but that's going to be mostly Takara fans buying from HLJ, whom I don't think sells 3rd party figures. You guys have pretty much convinced me now to just buy Feral Rex- even though 99% of the time he'll be standing in Predaking mode next to my CW Devastator, I do sometimes like to play with my toys, and it just seems like the Feral Cons are more solid all-around. Right now, it's just a question of money- my wife doesn't really complain if I spend $20-$70 here and there, but more than that and she'll throw a fit that will lead to a big fight that won't be worth it. I think I'm actually just going to ask my dad to loan me the money, then pay him back in amounts that won't set off my wife. I think I might chance TFSource for Fortis and Leo Dux, to save on shipping (unless BBTS has some shipping deals I'm unaware of?). Then I'll grab Bovis at BBTS, and preorder the other two from BBTS.
  5. mikeszekely
    Turns out it was a Gunpla Christmas for me after all. I finally got to see my parents this afternoon. My dad's still pretty weak and he lost way too much weight, but getting to see his granddaughter perked him up a bit. We were finally able to exchange gifts, too, and it turns out he got me an HGUC Zeta Plus (Unicorn version). Not super far along on it, but I love the design. My only complaint is that, like the Delta Plus, it's too much gray. Seriously, there's one little blue runner for some of the feet parts, a white runner with some vents, and the rest of the runners are gray. I'm sort of tempted now to buy a second one (and a second Delta Plus, for that matter) and do custom jobs with them. That's low on the priority list, though. Gunpla-wise, I still have to get the RG Red Frame and REVIVE Qubeley, not to mention several other HGUC Unicorn kits I want and any other RGs that come out by the time I actually get around to doing these imagined customs...
  6. mikeszekely
    So do you guys prefer BBTS or TFSource? Or someone else? I still have no idea where to get the money, but it looks like I can buy Leo Dux and Fortis (and, if I decide to get him too, Felisaber) at TFSource, and they have free shipping for orders over $150, which is nice. I can get the same three, at the same prices (well, $5 more for Felisaber), but they also have Bovis. He looks sold out at TFSource. BBTS doesn't seem to have any shipping deals, though. Neither have Talon or Tigris; both are listed as preorder items.
  7. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I've been reading up (no patience to watch 40-minute plus videos) as much as I can. Ares is totally out of the running. While I think they did some neat things, the overall look is just off. In combined mode, I might give a slight edge to Warlord. He's got slightly better proportions, I dig the clawed fingers, and the arm-bot thighs showing actually matches the Combiner Wars aesthetic. Feral Rex's limbs are a kind of chunky. But I do like FR's wings and sword, and the details like the lion's head on his chest are sharper. What really puts FR over the top, though, is that the individual bots look a lot better, especially their take on Razorclaw. The sticking point is really the price. If they were the same, I'd happily buy Feral Rex and not think twice about it. But like I said, I can buy Warlord complete for $260 right now. If I want Feral Rex, I gotta come up with double the money and buy them separately, possibly from a mix of stores, with Talon and Tigris being preorders.
  8. mikeszekely
    Hmm... you really have me thinking about how to come up with the funds for Feral Rex now, Scyla. Mostly because that Leo Dux looks so good. How's his size? There's a ton of pics of him online, but with MPs or other 3P combiners, not Combiner Wars. Looks like the combined mode is a little shorter than CW Devastator, and the individual bots are between Voyager and Leader-class. That about right?
  9. mikeszekely
    Appreciate the feedback, guys. But the thing is, I'm not contesting that Feral Rex is the best. Like I said, that seems to be the consensus pretty much everywhere. But, like I said, he seems a little tougher to get. Talon and Tigris still look like preorders, and while BBTS seems to have the first three in stock other stores are out of Bovis and/or Fortis. And doing some quick math, Feral Rex (without Felisaber) will run me around $525 + shipping from BBTS. The thing is, I can get all five members of Warlord for around $260 shipped. So the question isn't really whether or not Feral Rex is better, the question is more is Warlord good enough at half the price that he's worth picking up now? Feral Rex could always be a down-the-road sort of thing. Or, having satisfied my need for a CHUG Predaking, I could even do Nero Rex later. And David, thanks for the pic, but believe it or not that really doesn't bother me much.
  10. mikeszekely
    That's a shame. It might not have the flash of a full-on custom or a diorama, but it's easily one of the finest jobs I've seen. I certainly don't have the skills (or patience) to get my models looking like that! (That's why I stick to HG and RG.)
  11. mikeszekely
    Stupid priorities, always getting in the way of stuff. In my case, it's the baby we had this summer. My wife still got me the Hasbro Devastator about a month before our daughter was born, though. The differences between it and the UW version, especially when they don't fix things enough, didn't really justify the extra price or waiting six months for me. And I think that, for the most part, your complaints are totally valid and if those are things that bother you you're right to pass (I take exception to the notion that Scrapper is exceptionally poor, though... he's actually pretty good, and if he just had elbow articulation he'd easily be the best of the six). For what he cost, though, I can live with the individual bot mode's flaws because as you've noted the gestalt mode is actually pretty great. And there's always 3P stuff to fix some of it... like I'll probably pick up Dr. Wu's Mixmaster replacement, and possibly one of the kits that improve the individual bot arms. If you do go 3P, I personally like Giant better than Hercules, but I'd probably wait and see how Gravity Builder shakes out.
  12. mikeszekely
    Not to dredge up an old topic, but... well, I've been collecting Hasbro's Combiner Wars figures. With Devastator and Bruticus, they've covered two of my three favorites, and Superion, Motormaster, and Defensor cover what would be my second tier. They're not going to give us Computron (aside from Scattershot), Abominus, or Piranacon, and I can live with that. What bothers me, though, is no Predaking. It seems the consensus on third-party not-Predakings is that MMC's Feral Rex is the the best. However, it's also the most expensive, the most difficult to find in a complete set of five, and while some members are still pretty easy to find others are still listed as preorders while the earlier ones are out of stock, and the individual bots look a little large-ish to be mixing with Combiner Wars. Ares seems more attainable, and I do like their takes on the characters. But he's still around $500, and his combined mode IMO might be the worst, especially with those red-barreled cannons. So... UT's Warlord. Size-wise, seems like a good fit with the CWs. The individual bots are a little lackluster. And I hear he's a partsformer, although that doesn't bother me too much. Looks like he's got a pretty solid combined mode, which is mostly how he'd be displayed anyway. The fact that UT's Mania King is one of the few 3P figures that I own and I absolutely love it gives me a certain amount of trust in UT. Best of all, looks like he can be had for under $300. Those of you with more experience with the various 3P Predakings, what do you think? Warlord worth shelling out for at that price? Should I spend the extra money (and effort) to try to track down Feral Rex? I think I should also mention that playability is sort of important. Not so much that I want to make all kinds of cool poses in combined mode... the Hasbro ones pretty much just stand there. But I do like to take them apart every now and then and put them in their individual bot or alt modes. Seriously, you guys, I'm this close to pulling the trigger on on Warlord. I'm just waiting for a few "Do it!"s or "Don't do it he sucks!" Oh, not to throw another wrench into the whole thing, but I guess there are some rumblings that Metal Club, a group known for doing high-quality knock offs of Bandai's Saint Seiya toys, is doing a KO Feral Rex with no major differences. Could be as low as $200 for all five. Any thoughts on that? A part of me wants to say that I shouldn't be bothered if a company that doesn't respect Has/Tak's IP gets KOed and heck yes I'd like a $200 Feral Rex, but I can't exactly ignore the fact that 3P figures are often well-designed, high-quality toys made by fans catering to a market that would rather pay $100 for a better toy than accept the realities that come with a mass-market $20 toy aimed at kids. That's worth supporting, isn't it?
  13. mikeszekely
    Thanks, David. We think he's out of the woods now that they actually figured out what's wrong and are treating it. Since Thanksgiving he'd been in the hospital three times with bad abdominal pain, nausea, and diarrhea. The first time they said he had a stomach infection, but despite doing three stool samples couldn't say what was infecting him. They sent him home with antibiotics, which helped at first but then all of the sudden he got much worse. The second time he went to the hospital they just gave him an IV for awhile, told him to see a gastroenterologist, and sent him home again. By this point, he was drinking small amounts of sports drinks but he refused to eat, saying the pain was too great. I honestly thought he was going to die, but the GI sent him back to the hospital and diagnosed him with a C. difficile infection. After a few days on antibiotics that target C. diff he's still super weak but he's able to eat and doesn't need to go all the time, and he was able to come home. With a five month old baby, though, they want me to keep away for another week yet. That being said, I still assume my parents got me a gift, and when they'd asked what I wanted I sent them my Amazon Gunpla wishlist. And while my dad recovering is all I really wanted, there's still a chance I'm getting Gunpla. And whether I do or don't, I'm sure I'll join A7 in getting that HGUC Revive Qubeley.
  14. mikeszekely
    I got nothing for Christmas. Not "no-Gunpla," I mean literally nothing. My wife and I didn't buy each other anything, since we decided to spoil our new daughter instead. My parents usually get me something, but my dad's been deathly ill. They just let him out of the hospital the day after Christmas.
  15. mikeszekely
    Yep. Leader-class Age of Extinction Optimus Prime, and Warrior-class Strongarm from the current Robots in Disguise cartoon. In Japan, I think Age of Extinction might have been called Lost Age, and I'm certain that Robots in Disguise is Transformers Adventure. And while we're talking Transformers... I finally got to Toys R Us, and I was happy to find all the Deluxe Combiner Wars Combaticons (no Legends Shockwave, sadly, and the only Voyagers they had were a handful of Cyclonuses and a crap ton of Hot Spots). The worst of the lot is Blast Off. By now, it's pretty common knowledge that he's a jet now and not a space shuttle. I could let that slide... I mean, the jet mode actually fits the military theme better, and they nailed Blast Off's colors. But his head is totally wrong. And it sadly could have been avoided... all they needed to do was use Fireflight's mold instead of Slingshot's. Or even better, Vortex/Alpha-Bravo's head. I might actually look for a spare of one of those to repaint that head. Or see if I can find my Fall of Cybertron Blast Off. Vortex isn't bad. I mean, if you've got Blades or Alpha-Bravo, you know what to expect from the mold. The mold works fine for Vortex, and while the colors are a little more vivid than I remember the cartoon being, they mimic some of the sticker details from the toy serve to make him very visually distinct despite having zero changes from Alpha Bravo. Brawl's sort of a mixed bag. He's got a lot of details right, like the face and the treads on his shoulders. He can either wear his tank's cannon on his back, or detach it and use it as a hand weapon. His tank mode is solid, although the turret doesn't move. In fact, he's got a peg you can flip out to mount his hand/foot weapon thing on top. And his leg mode is pretty solid, too. His arm mode is adequate, but I'm not as fond of it. His shoulders and hips are a little weird in bot mode, though. Finally, he's a little more brown and less green than I'd prefer. I guess that's in line with the cartoon, but not the comics or the original toy. Swindle's easily the best of the bunch. He's got the right mustard color, and the overall look of the bot-mode is spot on with a great head mold and touches of purple detail (at least for the G1 toy, not the animation model with the windshield chest). His alt-mode is still a jeep, but it's a bigger, tougher-looking jeep, and although it's not the most colorful it's got lots of molded detail like cargo containers and headlights. He's good as a leg, but he's also a pretty great arm, too. He basically works the same as Rook, whom he's remolded from, but somehow feels totally fresh. I'd actually recommend him even if you didn't plan on getting any of the other Combaticons. My only tiny complaint is that his weapons can only be held in his hand (or shoulder). Toy-accurate, I suppose, but my absolute favorite thing about Swindle in the cartoon was that he had an arm cannon like Megatron, so it'd have been nice if you could peg his weapon into his forearm.
  16. mikeszekely
    Pics?
  17. mikeszekely
    Let's not do anything rash, here. I don't want a venereal disease. Seriously, though, from what I can tell my account's ok, but like I said I'll have the wife check out the credit card statement.
  18. mikeszekely
    Thanks for the heads up! I'll have my wife check our statement later, but so far there doesn't seem like there was any unusual activity on my credit card, and I spent all the Steam Wallet credit I had myself. EDIT: Not sure how bad the issues really was. People could definitely see other people's account info pages, but that doesn't have your whole credit card number. And despite some people reporting they had stuff added to their cart that they themselves hadn't added and rampant speculation that people could spend other people's Steam Wallet balances, I've yet to hear anyone actually say that someone else spent their Wallet balance or used their card. Valve's official word:
  19. mikeszekely
    Sovereign looks good, but it's too early along to say if it's better than Tyrant. Especially without seeing the alt mode, which I feel like Tyrant really nailed. For now, I'm still leaning toward Tyrant, though. In some ways, Sovereign looks more animation-accurate, but Tyrant looks more menacing and more dynamic.
  20. mikeszekely
    I want to. I have Mania King and I love him. I just don't have the money right now.
  21. mikeszekely
    I grabbed Pillars of Eternity for $17.99. There's a couple of games on my wishlist that are around half off, but I'll wait a couple of days. The sale's on until the 4th, and people might gift me Steam Wallet cards. EDIT: I bought Sword Coast Legends over the weekend, and the Winter Sale price is the same, so I think it's worth mentioning. I was a huge fan of Neverwinter Nights back in the day (although I never finished... man that game was long!). Sword Coast Legends reminds me a lot of Neverwinter Nights. You have the same sort of top-down camera (although you can't change the angle in SCL, just the distance). It's still got the hot bar on the bottom, and it's got the same "click to move/interact/attack" gameplay. Where SCL differs from NWN, and where I think a lot of the early complaints came from, is that NWN adhered to the D&D rules (3e). If you were familiar with the pen and paper game you already knew how to build and develop your character, from the initial point buy to allocating skill points to selecting feats to planning ahead for prestige classes. All the races and classes in the Player's Handbook were playable. SCL goes in a little bit different direction. It's sort of a D&D lite mixed with more videogame elements. You still choose a race, class, and now a background, and you still start with a point buy. The game engine still takes those factors into account and still uses virtual dice rolls for calculating success/failures/hits/damage/etc. However, character progression doesn't follow the current 5e rules. Instead, at each level you get three ability points to spend These points can be used to buy abilities from different skill trees. As far as I can tell some of the abilities are derived from 5e class features, while some are new. On a similar note, abilities that might be per encounter or x per day are instead on cool down timers. To me, these changes are a two-edged sword; it's not a faithful translation of the tabletop rules the way NWN was, but I think it's more accessible to players who might not be familiar with the tabletop rules. It's also a little disappointing that all the PHB classes and races aren't available. For classes, you can only pick from Fighter, Cleric, Rogue, Ranger, Paladin, and Wizard. I can see leaving out Sorcerer and Warlock- with the modified system there might not be as big a difference between them and Wizard as in the pen and paper game. But the lack of Bard, Druid, and Monk is a little inexcusable. For races, you can be Human, Elf, Half-Elf, Halfling, or Dwarf with the attendant subraces, but Gnomes, Dragonborn, Tieflings, and Half-Orcs are all missing. Like NWN, SCL allows for custom adventure modules, extending the game's replayability. When all is said and done, I am a bit disappointed that SCL is lacking some of the content from the pen and paper game. But the thing is, while I can't play as a dragonborn monk, a gnome druid, a tiefling bard, etc, I'm having a good time with the human fighter I rolled. At the end of the day, I think that's the most important thing- it's a fun game, and worth picking up if you can get it on a Steam sale.
  22. mikeszekely
    Beast Wars was a great show. ...but I don't want any robots that turn into realistic animals.
  23. mikeszekely
    You know, Gundam Build Fighters is exactly the kind of anime networks buy for Saturday mornings or weekday afternoons. Bandai should just shop Build Fighters around and bring over the upcoming PS4 Gundam Breaker instead.
  24. mikeszekely
    *sigh* We finally get a non-Musou Gundam game coming out outside of Asia and it's for the Vita. That said... I really liked the Vs series back in the PS2 days, but I genuinely do not get the love for the newer Extreme Vs series.
  25. mikeszekely
    Ah, ok. Well, everyone has different ideas about the value of a dollar, but personally I'd say go with the Samsung. The Intel can have significantly higher peak performance, but in both user tests and lab tests averages out to be around twice as fast as the Samsung. So why go with the Samsung? Assuming you're not finding better deals than my very quick Google search, a 500GB Samsung should be around $150. The Intel is around $375. Bottom line, I don't feel that the extra performance is worth paying over $200 more for, especially if you've never used an SSD before and are already going to be floored by how much faster they are than mechanical drives. Besides, I couldn't tell you which is more reliable in terms of longevity or whatever, but I can tell you that should a drive fail I'd rather be out $150 than almost $400.
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