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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    Yeah. And if you want to be extra lazy, you don't even need to install SteamOS. Pretty much any computer that can run Steam (if not the games) can be set up for in-home streaming. My gaming PC is currently in the 2nd bedroom, but I have a Mac mini hooked up to the TV in the living room. It runs Steam, I have it working with a 360 controller, so I'm set.
  2. mikeszekely
    Steambox could refer a Steam Machine, which is a small form-factor computer, so far from either Alienware or Syber, starting around $450 and going as high as $1500, that may either run SteamOS or Windows and is intended to be used on a TV with a Steam Controller (or Xbox controller). If it runs SteamOS, it can play games that can run on SteamOS, and if it runs Windows it can of course run anything that runs on a similarly-specced PC. Whether it runs Steam on Windows, or SteamOS, it should be able to stream games over a local network from another PC via Steam In-Home Streaming. Steambox could maybe also refer to Steam Link, a small $50 box ($100 bundled with a Steam controller) with an HDMI out, an ethernet port, and a pair of USB ports, that simply allows streaming from a gaming PC on the network to the Steam Link. Both Steam Machines and Steam Link are part of Valve's effort to expand PC gaming intot the living room.
  3. mikeszekely
    Same, I started reading the Shannara books and the Dragonlance Chronicles in middle school in the way back time known as the early '90s. I wasn't thrilled when I saw the first promo pic, but the video looks much better. And it's smart that they're starting with Elfstones, probably the best in the series, instead of the LotR-light Sword of Shannara.
  4. mikeszekely
    Not surprising, as they're both tapping the IDW well for inspiration.
  5. mikeszekely
    An actor can be good, but not right for the role, or their take on a character might not be the best. For that matter, Leto could be doing the best with what the writers/producers are giving him to work with. But since I haven't see a movie with Leto in it since Fight Club, all I've got is the teaser footage to go on.
  6. mikeszekely
    I was holding out the hope that, after a proper trailer, maybe I'd be a little more interested. I mean, it worked for Batman V. Superman, right? Nope. Somehow after seeing the trailer this movie looks worse than I expected. You guys saying Leto is the highlight are extra nuts.
  7. mikeszekely
    When you have to look twice to see that a suit is Robin's, not Batman's, you might be a teeny bit too Grimdark™.
  8. mikeszekely
    Anyone else see this? I've heard of Beelzeboss, but I've not bought anything from them. This is looking pretty tempting, as it makes the doofy-looking CW Optimus actually look pretty good.
  9. mikeszekely
    To each his own! Like yourself, I'm not much of a painter, so I don't have an airbrush or anything. For me personally, aside from panel lining with a Gundam Marker, the only paint on any of the 20 RG kits I've built is a touch of black in some of the thrusters on my Zeta 3. Plus, all of the RGs I built before the Zeta 3 (so basically everything except the Zeta 3, the Gundam G3, Wing Zero, and the 00 Raiser) don't even have panel lining. Most of my HGs have at least some paint, to better match their animated appearances. Mostly, this is as little adding black to verniers, vents, and thrusters. In a few cases, I might do a little more like vulcan barrels, the yellow/gold on thrusters, or some other small details that were molded but not painted. I'll also occasionally paint spots on HGs instead of using an included sticker, if the spot is smallish. Only twice have I painted the majority of a kit. The first was an HG Crossbone Gundam Maoh, from Build Fighters. I painted the majority the purplish gray parts (legs, arms, waist, head) white, the darker purplish blue (chest, shoulders) black, and the red parts (feet, crotch) blue. The second was the HG Sinanju, where I used a metallic automotive lacquer on all of the red parts, and a gold sharpie with a light clear coat on the black parts instead of the gold foil stickers. For both of those kits, I basically took individual runners and used cans of spray paint to coat the entire runner, which you can do in a few light coats on both sides. You don't have to worry about your hands shaking much; the hardest part is waiting for one coat to dry before trying another, and making sure you get it at different angles to evenly coat the entire parts. If you really want to skip painting, though, the best advice I can give is to work with RG kits (maybe MG... I'm a stickler for scale, so I haven't built any). They tend to use lots of layering of parts to give you accurate colors on even small details like head vulcans without any paint. They have tons of decals, but they're stuff like caution markings, model numbers, faction insignias, etc, not stickers to add more accurate color, so you can skip them. If you do feel like trying them, though, they're stickers, not waterslides, so you can remove and replace them without tearing them.
  10. mikeszekely
    Wow. Unreal. I mean, I've kind of drifted away from Nintendo, who absolutely owned my childhood, but I still hold a special place in my heart for them. And for so long, Iwata's been the public face of the brand that in passing it feels like a part of my youth went with him. This is awful news. Iwata is definitely someone who will be missed.
  11. mikeszekely
    Not looking like the most structurally sound Gundam (although it could be an "under construction pic").
  12. mikeszekely
    Fun fact: the Constructicons do all have individual weapons. Whether or not they're ideal, if the Takara individual guns make the Takara Devy worth importing, or whether you want the guns that'll come with Perfect Effect's PC-07 set, well, that's all debatable. But it's definitely possible to give each Constructicon their own weapon, although it's not in the instructions. -Devastator's forearm parts fold into missile launchers (sort of like the one's the RX-79[G] Gundam Ground Type uses). I leave them with Scavenger and Bonecrusher, whom they connect in Devy mode. -Devastator's gun breaks into two smaller guns. I gave the back half to Long Haul, and the front half to Scrapper. -The wings come off of Devastator's chest plate. The center part looks like it could be a double-barreled gun, if a fat, flat one. I gave it to Mixmaster. -The pegs that fit the wings into the center part of the chest plate fit into some of the Construction's fists, and I guess pass for a melee weapon. If you squint. I had Hook dual-wield them. One other thing I noticed playing with the Constructicons this evening is that all six of them have ankle tilt. It's kind of frustrating that the Constructions are actually pretty well articulated, aside from the elbows. And yeah, maybe they couldn't have elbows as articulated as MP-10's, but I really don't see how adding elbows to Scrapper and would have affected either alt mode or leg mode (the stability thing could have been overcome by putting interlocking tabs on both ends of his arms). I can sort of see why they did Long Haul's elbows the way they did, but bicep and wrist swivels would have overcome his elbow problem. Still, I'm willing to forgive the flaws on account of how fun a toy Devastator turned out to be.
  13. mikeszekely
    So, Devastator. Well, each of the Constructicon's alt modes are pretty solid. If I had to make some complaints, it's that Hook's crane boom doesn't extend, and that Mixmaster seems to be based on something like an Oshhosh S-series front discharge mixer, so that little "cab" that make's Devy's foot (that people are complaining about) is actually the rear of the mixer (I think this is confused a bit by th efact that the pair of shutters on the rear are painted purple like they're windows). Naturally, Perfect Effect is making upgrade parts that address both of those (and Scavenger's shovel, which I honestly didn't think was a problem). As far as individual bot modes go, they have a nice size, especially Long Haul, who's bordering on a short Leader class. Elbow's aside, they all have good articulation and are good representations of their animated counterparts, aside from Long Haul, whose bed doesn't form his legs anymore. This gives him a squatter, but bulkier appearance that's in line with the IDW version. As far as complexity, they're in line with the other Combiner Wars Voyagers, but probably slightly less complex than some of the Voyagers in recent Generations waves. And yes, each and every one of the Constructicons is compromised in some way, be it weird (or no) elbows, fat crotches, or what have you. Despite the lack of elbows, I'd rank Scrapper as the best (perfect aside from no elbows), and Boncrusher the worst (crotch doesn't peg well, and his shovel chest is a little ill-fitting). Will the Takara version fix some of the compromises? Yes, mainly the elbows. But no, it doesn't look like it'll fix all of them, and the thing is most of the compromises exist entirely for the combined mode. So how is the combined mode? Well, the sheer size of it can make fitting all the pieces together a little fiddly. But unlike the Scramble City CW guys, Devastator doesn't use large jointed pegs on the limbs and ports on the torso. Instead, each piece is designed to go in only one spot (you can probably swap which arm is which, and you might be able to swap the legs around, but that's about it). And since he's designed that way, there are actually five points of connection between Hook and Long Haul, two for each arm (one on Hook, and one on Long Haul) and three for each leg. Although there's a secure five-point connection between Hook and Long Haul, there's a gap between them due to Long Haul's back being higher than his chest. This gap is covered by his chest plate, though, which seems to have four points of connection, two on Hook and one on each arm's treads. Between the numerous points of connection and the aforementioned compromises on the individual bots, what you end up with is a very solid, very articulated Devastator. Knees bend, his hips can move his legs forward and backward as well as out to the side, this thighs turn, and his lower legs bend a little in the middle to give him a degree of ankle tilt. His shoulders can rotate as well as swing out from his body his elbows bend, his wrist turns and his fingers open and close, his forearms rotate, his waist rotates, and his head rotates. Honestly, the only way to improve his articulation would be if each finger was independently articulated (which the Perfect Effect add-ons address) and if his head were ball-jointed. Oh, and one other thing I might have done would have been to put a joint in Hook's crane boom so that it could fold down onto his back. And he's so satisfyingly huge! As has been pointed out elsewhere, not as tall as Titan-class Metroplex, but as you can see almost twice as tall as the other CW Combiners. Now, to address the usual complaints... could he have been better? Well, it's no use comparing him to a 3P... a 3P would almost certainly have had better individual bots, but if Giant and Hercules are anything to go by they'd be half the size and the full Devastator would be 3-4 times more expensive. As for the Takara version, like I said, it addresses some things, and it's surprisingly close in price if you overlook the shipping costs. When making my purchasing decisions, though, I personally can't overlook the shipping costs. What's more, my wife opened a TRU credit card and got 15% off, which actually brought Devy down to $127.49, further increasing the price difference between the Hasbro version and the Takara version. With that in mind, if you plan on displaying the individual Constructicons then yeah, maybe the Takara version is worth it, but if you're planning on keeping him mostly in Devastator mode (as I am) the added expense of the Takara version is harder to justify, and personally, the minor upgrades just aren't worth it, but YMMV. I also can't tell you if you'll think Hasbro Devy is worth $150; all I can say is that I think he is, and even more so if you can snag him for $128. Be advised, though. TRU's already pulling their "raise the price because it's in demand" shenanigans. The shelf sticker when I picked him up was $149.99, but the cashier had to mark him down because he was ringing up $159.99.
  14. mikeszekely
    I don't think he'll actually be Titan-class, just part of the Titan Wars line that's replacing Combiner Wars next year. BTW, I found Devy today. Playing with him now; updates later.
  15. mikeszekely
    Not me, I'm super impatient. It's why I'm going TRU tomorrow even though I already have Devy preordered. Ok... that's not entirely true. I'm going to TRU to buy stuff for the baby we didn't get at the shower last week. But if Devy's there...
  16. mikeszekely
    Combiner Wars Scattershot. No sign of the other Technobots, though. If Hasbro releases the rest and I can make Computron I'll bite, but I didn't care for Silverbolt enough to buy just Scattershot. Silverbolt works better for Scattershot than I thought he would, but I do hope this is like an early version tossed together for SDCC. The combiner head and chest need some work yet.
  17. mikeszekely
    Personally, I'm holding off for Combiner Wars Bruticus. Aside from being official, the flaws are easier to overlook when the whole thing costs less than one third-party limb. It doesn't hurt that Onslaught is a retool of Hot Spot, the best Combiner Wars torso so far, and Swindle looks like a retool of Rook, one of the best limbs. Not happy about Blast Off being a repaint of Slingshot, though (especially when his head would have been more accurate if they'd used Fireflight instead), but there's always hope Takara will redo Blast Off the way they did Groove.
  18. mikeszekely
    Yeah, they're bent on making it as confusing as possible. I saw the slide you were talking about, but I was under the impression that Trippy was going to Amazon, the Coneheads were going to Target, and Blaseptor was going exclusively to a third store (probably TRU). And still no sale/preorder pages for Trippy at either.
  19. mikeszekely
    TFormers is saying Trippy's an Amazon exclusive, and the other Platinums (the Coneheads, and the Perceptor/Blaster reissue) are "exclusives to other retailers". No, I have no idea who's right. All I know is that the Coneheads you ordered at Target are listed as "Target Exclusive," although third-party sellers already have the Coneheads and Perceptor/Blastor up on Amazon. Trippy's nowhere to be seen.
  20. mikeszekely
    It's your lucky day, David (or maybe Davids?). At SDCC it was announced that the Trypticon reissue is getting a US release exclusively through Amazon.
  21. mikeszekely
    Not canceled. Omnigonix posted this morning at TFW2005. Between the two, I do think that Badcube's altmode is closer to MP Sideswipe's. I think both bots have pros and cons.
  22. mikeszekely
    The best tip I can give you is to watch the "true" ending on Youtube and move on. It's what I did.
  23. mikeszekely
    Well... it's a step in the right direction, in the sense that they're making an animated series based on an IDW series and aiming it at older fans. But honestly, the CW crossover event (in Transformers and Windblade) was kind of terrible. What I really want is an animated series based on More Than Meets the Eye, which I maintain is the greatest Transformers fiction of all time.
  24. mikeszekely
    I'm going to check my local TRU this weekend again for Devy, but if I don't find one I have a preorder at Amazon.
  25. mikeszekely
    Looking at the waist, looks like the same mechanical designer as 00.
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