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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    Yeah, taking pictures of cars for a living... must be heck. (I kid) I did retail for 15 years. I know your pain. Started in college, worked my way up to management, quit when it turned out to be a dead end, wound up back in retail while I did grad school. I think I'm lucky, because my wife's had a very good career, and we've been able to live quite comfortably off of her income. After 13 years together, we finally decided that we do want kids, and we've both kind of accepted that it's ok for me to be a stay-at-home dad, so I was able to quit my last job doing computer repair at Staples. If not for that, I don't know how much more I could've taken.
  2. mikeszekely
    I'll reserve judgement until I see the show... after all, I hated the Turn A when I first saw it, but the series wound up being Tomino's best since Zeta, and the Turn A's design sort of grew on me. On the flip side, I thought the Strike Gundam was a fresh take on the RX-78 (and truthfully, Freedom's still one of my favorites) but I ended up hating SEED. If I'm being honest, though, my gut reaction is to wonder who's crossing Gundam with Escaflowne.
  3. mikeszekely
    I'm going to pass on the Revive RX-78-2, since the RG is good enough for my collection. Can't wait for the Revive Guntank, though.
  4. mikeszekely
    But it is. I mean, you're right in the sense that this isn't going to be the hot holiday toy for boys 5-10 this Christmas, but Hasbro isn't calling this an "adult collector's item" or anything that would let them skirt US toy regulations, nor are they designing it and pricing it for the market that doesn't think twice before dropping $300 on a bust. Hasbro made a toy that they could sell at Toys R Us at the $150 price point. So again, you might not like it, you might not want to spend $150 on it, and that's fine, but comparing it to a 3P figure that's half the size, costs more than three times as much, and isn't beholden to US toy regulations is just silly. It's like pointing out that a Toyota Corolla isn't as nice as a BMW M5. If you've got the money and the desire for an M5, skip the Corolla and buy it, tell me the Corolla isn't for you or that you don't care for it, but don't complain that the Corolla isn't as good as the M5 until the Corolla and the M5 have the same price tag.
  5. mikeszekely
    I keep saying pretty much this. It's perfectly reasonable to look at CW Devy and decide that you don't like it, or that you'd rather go with something like Giant or Hercules. But too many people seem bent on trashing CW Devy because it's not as good as Giant or Hercules, or not MP quality, as if that level of quality was were realistically attainable in a $150 mass-market toy twice the size of Giant or Hercules. EDIT: BBTS has preorders up for PC-06 and PC-07. PC-06, which upgrades Devy's shoulders and hands, upgrades Mixmaster's cab, Scavenger's shovel, and Hook's crane, and gives you the Prowlestator head, looks like $59.99. PC-07, which is the elbow fixes and guns for the individual Constructicons, will be $29.99.
  6. mikeszekely
    Sure it would be. It also would have been designed with a higher price tag and without the constraints of being a mass-market toy in the US.
  7. mikeszekely
    I think I've mentioned this in the TF thread, but I don't watch reviews, because I can read a written review in a fraction of the time it takes to sit through a video. For written reviews, I like Gaijin Gunpla, but he's a tad slowish getting them up.
  8. mikeszekely
    They're definitely coming. Perfect Effect has already done PC-01 to PC-05, which are upgrade parts for Menasor, Superion, and black/purple/white fists/feet that can be used with any of the Combiner Wars/Unite Warriors combiners besides Devastator. The only questions are really when and how much.
  9. mikeszekely
    Not that sixtybucks doesn't have a point with the other minor Takara tweaks, but you could still get the Hasbro version and get the Perfect Effect PC-07 upgrade that's been announced. New elbows for Scrapper, Hook, Mixmaster, and Long Haul, all with wrist swivels, and Long Haul's add some mass which makes his proportions look less goofy IMHO, plus individual weapons for all six (although it does look like Devy's forearms and chest plate do become weapons). They're also making a PC-06 upgrade with an improved cab for Mixmaster, a new, bigger shovel for Scavenger, an add-on to make Hook's crane boom extendable, new forearms and hands for Devastator, some kind of gear to make Devy's shoulders a little broader, and new "Prowlvelstator" heads. I might go this route, personally. PC-07 isn't as necessary, since I don't plan on my Constructicons not being Devastator 99% of the time, but I do like the way those forearms look on Long Haul. The improved Devy hands and cab for Mixmaster alone are making PC-06 really tempting even for the Takara version.
  10. mikeszekely
    Fixed (with apologies to anyone who's ever worked at a theme park).
  11. mikeszekely
    The EMP and missiles are honestly not as good as the remote hacking thing, and none of them are as flat out useful as the 60mm cannon. So, like I said, focus on upgrading it so it does max damage and reloads as fast as it can. As for the helicopters, left trigger fires a vulcan gun that's useless against the tanks, but it can take out the choppers and kill missiles from the stationary missile launchers. So, you can spray the vulcans at the choppers in between cannon shots, and if you have it use the hacking to takeover one of the tanks that fires three shots. In addition to killing stuff for you, it'll give the other baddies something to target besides you, which will help get them off your back.
  12. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I was under the impression that the Classics Astrotrain and previous release of Toyworld's Not-Astrotrain were based off of the G1 toy's colors, and that gray Astrotrain was used in the cartoon and based on a catalog photo, not the toy that we actually got.
  13. mikeszekely
    You mean those bombs in the street, that you have to defend against drones before you can use the engine revs to blow up? Best advice I can give is to prioritize upgrades for the Batmobile's reload speed first, then mix between Batmobile armor and Batman's armor (in the Batmobile weapons, Batmobile, and Batsuit grids, respectively). Combat and gadget upgrades don't seem to matter as much in AK, until you get the disruptor. Upgrade the ever-loving poop out of that thing. There will be militia checkpoints (the missions where there's gates up, and you have to beat the commander and break his radio) with guns bigger than sentry guns. They will murder the pants off of you, are difficult to avoid, and can't be disabled the way sentry guns can. But, there's a disruptor upgrade that will let you tag them so that when they see you they explode.
  14. mikeszekely
    I just finished AK. Well, I have about 96% completion... I've done everything now except finding all the Riddler trophies. For a game that's supposed to be so busted as to be nigh-unplayable on PC, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
  15. mikeszekely
    I get the disappointment, in the sense that the 3Ps are objectively better. But, like I already said, the 3Ps are around $500, Titan Devy is $150 despite being bigger. Realistically, neither Hasbro nor Takara was going to compete with 3P in their targeted price ranges. It's sort of like, if you've got the money for a BMW then go for it, but if you buy a Toyota Corolla you don't expect it to match a BMW in quality. Disappointing, maybe, but CW Devy is pretty much what I expected: six Voyagers with all the compromises that go along with Hasbro's recent Voyagers, plus a few more to make up the for the fact that they not only have to be robots and construction vehicles but also the component pieces of a combiner that MP-10 is only crotch-high to. And like I said, Giant/Herc are better, but for $150 CW Devy is good enough. Just like a Corolla.
  16. mikeszekely
    On the Hasbro version, Scrapper doesn't have any elbow articulation, and Hasbro's reasoning was that it was intentional to provide better support for Devastator. Also, Long Haul's elbows bend inward, but not forward. I don't know what they were thinking there. As for individual guns, AFAIK, only Scavenger and Bonecrusher have individual weapons, as they're needed to become Devastator's forearms. For some fans, even before it was announced that Takara was going to give them individual guns an fix the elbows (and touch up some details, and give Devy a sliding visor), those were deal breakers. Others, like myself, have sort of shrugged and said "yeah, but where else are you going to get a combiner bigger than MakeToys Giant for $150?" Some of the people in the first camp will stick with Giant or Hercules, wait (forever) for an MP, or get the Takara one, and I understand and respect why they'd do that. Me personally, I don't feel like spending $500 (Giant/Herc), I don't feel like waiting until December (Takara Devastator), and I don't think guns and elbows on bots who are almost never going to be in a mode where they need guns or elbows is worth a $50-$70 + shipping premium, especially with Perfect Effect already teasing upgrade kits that seem to address the elbows, Devastator's head, Mixmaster's cab, Hook's hook, Scavenger's shovel, and Devastator's hands.
  17. mikeszekely
    Sorry it's taken such a long time to finish this one. My 8-months pregnant wife got bronchitis, and the medication she can take is extremely limited. Between caring for her and the 30+ hours I put into Arkham Knight instead of sleeping, I wasn't very motivated to finish. Anyway, here's a quick pic of my completed RG 00 Raiser. It's tough for me to evaluate this kit... on the one hand, it seems like a great value, what with the 00 Gundam, two GN Sword IIs (with beam effects), the GN Katar shield, GN Sword III (with beam effect), and the 0 Raiser. On the other hand, the for an RG kit the 00 Gundam itself was pretty simple. If not for the all the extras, I don't think it'd have taken me much longer than an HG to complete. And, as I've said before, I'm not a fan of the 00 Raiser... planes that turn into robots are ok, but planes worn as capes on robots is, for all the in-universe reasoning, really stupid. But that's a flaw with the subject, not the kit itself, and the kit comes out so good that it almost makes plane-capes cool. And the 00 Gundam itself isn't really a bad design. I've got half a mind to display it and the 0 Raiser separately. First I need to get to IKEA. This Detolf is full.
  18. mikeszekely
    If you were waiting for the Takara release, Unite Warriors Devastator will be 25,000 yen, or BBTS is listing it for $219.99. That's not as much as I was expecting, but still not worth it (for me, anyway) for elbows and individual weapons for guys who will spend 99% as a chunk of a gestalt.
  19. mikeszekely
    I can understand being upset that one thing is slow, or sort of a not-getting-what-you-pay-for thing, but your "slow" PS4 is faster than any device in my 25mbps house. Thanks, Comcast.
  20. mikeszekely
    Decepticons are cool. But MTMTE has become my absolute favorite work of Transformers fiction ever, so I'll be partial to any toy, Hasbro or 3P, that captures the MTMTE look of any of the book's main characters.
  21. mikeszekely
    I don't even know what kind of medal you get for 27th*... Still, as envious as we can be of our MW friends in Japan (#3), isn't GU-11 in Malaysia? I mean, we can complain that we've got ISPs making billions of dollars screwing customers with internet that barely meets the minimum for broadband despite living in one of the wealthiest nations, we've still got 101 ranks on poor Malaysia. *I suspect the average of 36.99 is probably skewed by a majority of people around 25 like me being averaged with with a much smaller, much faster base of fiber users.
  22. mikeszekely
    Cupola looks good, better than Function X1. But the only G1 Headmaster I owned was Brainstorm, I didn't see any of the Japanese Headmasters cartoon until I was an adult (and it was pretty bad), didn't read the old Marvel comics, and while I watched the American Season 4 miniseries numerous times, Chromedome never really stood out for me. I don't really have any strong attachment to a G1 Chromedome. Now, I'm in love with IDW's More Than Meets the Eye series, and Chromedome's a major character there. Neither Function X1 nor Cupola really capture that Chromedome, though.
  23. mikeszekely
    I'm sorry that your internet is so terrible, but don't mistake the US's ISPs as some kind of gold standard. I pay US $60 a month for internet that recently got a speed boost only because the government redefined broadband and my service needed the increase to meet the minimum requirement to still be called broadband. I'd kill for the kind of fast, reliable internet that South Korea or a lot of European countries seem to.
  24. mikeszekely
    That's a legitimate choice, but I can't imagine it being less than $100 more (the regular-sized Takara combiners are already $130-160). Since I plan on keeping him in Devastator mode most of the time, I can't really justify the extra cost. But your mileage may vary.
  25. mikeszekely
    If you didn't bite at Amazon, BBTS, TFSource, Captured Prey, and Robot Kingdom are all taking preorders for Devastator.
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