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mikeszekely

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  1. mikeszekely
    I do dig rubber tires, although I remember losing a few of them from my G1 toys. I think that diecast is totally overrated, though. I think older collectors like it because it can make a toy weightier, and because it reminds us of the toys we had as kids. Anyways... still no luck finding Rook, but on a whim I picked up Robots in Disguise Grimlock. I wasn't planning on getting any of the figures from the RiD line, and as we discussed before the cartoon isn't so hot. But, if there is one thing I do like about the cartoon, it's Grimlock. He's slow without being G1 slow, and as destructive and violent as some of the comic book versions but in a sort of happy-go-lucky way. I almost hate to admit it, but he's become one of my favorite versions of Grimlock. I actually even dig the black and green color scheme. As far as toys go... in some ways I'm disappointed that the RiD "warrior" class is the same price point as Generations Deluxe. As much we've complained about Deluxes getting smaller and having hollow spots, Grimlock is actually nearly a head shorter than Combiner Wars First Aid. He's got his fair share of hollow spots, too... on the insides of his shoulders, the insides of his forearms, and most of his back (to be fair, though, dino head covers the hollow area of the back). No waist, ankle, or wrist articulation. His neck is on a swivel, not a ball joint, so he can turn his head about 90 degrees to the left or right but can't tilt his head. His hips and shoulders aren't ball-jointed, either. Instead, there are multiple joints. His shoulders can rotate 360 degrees where the joint connects to the torso, but that joint has a pin through it, and the arm is attached to the pin so it can swivel Likewise, his elbows can turn, and his arms are connected to the elbow on a ratchet that can bend about 90 degrees. His hips are similar to his shoulders. The can rotate forward and backward, and his legs are pinned in and can swing inward or outward on the pin. The leg can rotate at the top of the thigh, and his knee bends a little less than 90 degrees. The resulting poseability is less than any of the CW Deluxes, but it's fair. Transformation is similar to G1/MP/Animated/FoC. The dino head and arms are on Grimmy's back, the robot arms become the dino legs, and the robot legs become the dino tail. The main difference is that the dino torso isn't wings, it's mostly Grimlock's. Just the ends of the torso pivot downward, and the dino arms rotate from the back to the front. Grimlock's legs split in half, with half making his dino-butt (and his feet making the back), and the other half making most of the tail. The rest of the tail is folded out from the left leg; interestingly, a matching tail is molded onto the inside of the right leg, but it's just for show. The resulting dino has solid proportions and no real robot kibble, which is to say that he's slightly better than FoC Grimlock in that regard, but but does have a hollow gap around his dino-crotch. He doesn't come with any weapon or accessories... which honestly is true to the show, but kind of furthers the idea that he's less value for the money than a Generations Deluxe. His hands are molded in such a way that he can hold a weapon, though. Also, in dino mode, if you push forward on on of the spikes on his neck his mouth opens. I'd say that if you're into Transformers, there are better choices in the same price range. If you like Grimlock, though, especially the RiD version, he's got a solid transformation, reasonable articulation, and pretty true to the animation in both modes (although he could use more paint).
  2. mikeszekely
    I didn't pay with Paypal, nor did I order from GG Infinite. I ordered from Gundam Planet, and they already told me that an issue with their distributor meant it wouldn't ship until June, so it's not technically late, either.
  3. mikeszekely
    I thought this discussion was just SNES vs Genesis, but if we're talking first console, mine was a Magnavox Odyssey². I was very young at the time, so I don't remember it super well. Mostly I remember playing a lot of Attack of the Timelord.
  4. mikeszekely
    I'd be happy if I could just get the one I already paid for.
  5. mikeszekely
    You're right. The modern toys feel better. Seriously, the old toys were just as floppy, artificially heavy (diecast is seriously overrated), poorly proportioned, and inarticulate. Don't get me wrong, there were some seriously cool ones, but for most characters I'll take CHUGs over original G1s or reissues,
  6. mikeszekely
    Is it weird that my first thought when I heard about this was "I thought Capcom didn't care about Mega Man anymore?"
  7. mikeszekely
    Bot mode pic? I mean, from the alt mode, it's definitely a repaint of Legends Jazz, but TFU says it was never repainted or remolded, so...?
  8. mikeszekely
    For a minute I thought you'd linked to some cool new competition for Reprolabels. Then I realized that this is just Reprolabels crappy new site.
  9. mikeszekely
    Classics/Henkei/Universe/Generations. Although they've had more labels than that now (like Combiner Wars, Legends, Unite Warriors, Reveal the Shield, etc), it's become a blanket term for the Transformers line that is, essentially, updated versions of G1 (and occasionally Beast Wars or Armada) toys vs Transformers lines representing current movies or shows.
  10. mikeszekely
    I don't even know why you'd think that's a reasonable expectation. I mean, I don't know if you're talking about what's on pegs in general or specifically about the Devastator dapro posted pics of that we've been discussing, but... Even if we take complexity out and use the argument that the Generations subline is arguably aimed at older collectors, it's still ridiculous to expect Masterpiece quality from a non-Masterpiece toy. Masterpieces come out much slower, as I assume they take longer to design, and an MP car that's slightly larger than a Deluxe but smaller than a Voyager runs, what, around $50-$60, if you got the Japanese version? I think TRU wanted $69.99 for MP Prowl? And you think it could even be mathematically feasible to have that sort of quality in a $15 Deluxe-class that needs to turn not just into a bot and a car/airplane, but also use a similar transformation to pretty much everything else in the line (lately) so that it can also turn into an interchangeable arm and leg? Unless you were talking about Devastator... but I'm going to ask the same thing. MP-10's around $150-$200, right? I think Hasbro said Devastator will be $150, so again, you really think you're going to get the same quality as MP-10 at the same price, when Devastator is more than twice as tall and has to come apart into six separate bots, each with their own construction vehicle mode in addition to being part of Devastator's body? Now look, I'm not saying that you should buy CHUGs or Devastator if you don't like him, especially if you're used to collecting Masterpieces, or the expensive Macross Valks, or some other toys that cost more and have higher quality. It's perfectly reasonable to say something like, "aside from the Masterpieces, current Transformers releases are too simple and seem sort of cheap, so I'm not interested in them." But seriously, look at the price tag, and have some realistic expectations. It's flat out ridiculous to complain that mainstream retail toys marketed for kids aren't MP quality at a quarter of MP prices.
  11. mikeszekely
    I was pretty firmly in the SNES camp. I'd had an NES before, and I think I mentioned before that my family wasn't the most well-off when I was a kid. My parents couldn't afford to get me a SNES at launch, or the year it launched. My best friend in elementary school/middle school (I think the SNES came out when I was in middle school) got one right away, though. I remember playing SFII and Final Fantasy II (we didn't know it was IV back then) at his house, and that flamed my desire for a SNES of my own (didn't help that my butthole friend kept deleting my FFII save, always sometime between becoming a paladin and going underground). We finally got a SNES at home when Nintendo was doing some kind of holiday offer where you could buy the SNES with Super Mario World, then send away for a free copy of Super Mario All-Stars. I remember also getting Final Fantasy II, and I think my brother might have got some game for it, but I don't remember which one. I do remember begging my dad to take us to the mall the day after Christmas so we could spend our Christmas money, and I remember my dad buying A Link to the Past because he'd like the original Legend of Zelda. Even better, we got hit with a blizzard during the holiday break, so instead of going back to school right after the first we were out until mid-January. Looking back, I was pretty satisfied with the choice to go SNES. I don't think I ever questioned that choice, but I will say that Sonic and the X-Men games on the Genesis were awfully tempting.
  12. mikeszekely
    More for me, then. In all seriousness, it's a huge, adequate Devastator at a third of the price of the superior but smaller Giant that my wife will actually allow me to own. That's enough for me.
  13. mikeszekely
    Yeah... except for the part where they keep reminding me how old I am. A little, at first, but most of the kids said they were curious enough that they wanted to watch the old one. And I give those kids credit for picking up, even at their age, that Hollywood and TV types are out of ideas and are just recycling stuff from before. Oh, and major props for recognizing that G1 Optimus > Bayverse Optimus.
  14. mikeszekely
    Still stings. Well, I'm hoping that he'll turn up soon at HasbroToyShop, since they haven't sold any of the Protectobot limbs there yet, but they have Groove and they had (sold out of) Hot Spot. I check a couple of times a day, knowing that I'll overpay with shipping because I won't want or need anyone else (unless maybe Ultra Magnus turns up at the same time), but at least it'll be because of shipping and not scalping.
  15. mikeszekely
    For what it's worth, First Aid might be my favorite CW limb, period. Every complaint I had with Offroad was addressed, and his coloring is just about perfect (minus the lack of paint in vehicle mode). Likewise, I think I prefer Streetwise to Dead End and Wildrider. Actually, I like Blades better than Alpha Bravo, but that's entirely because I prefer the red to AB's white. I'm not a huge fan of helicopter Transformers. I have no opinion on Rook, because I CAN'T FREAKING FIND HIM ANYWHERE! BBTS and Captured Prey are both sold out, he's just not listed at TRU or HasbroToyShop, most of the physical stores I go to lately have one peg of RiDs, one of leftover AoEs, and if I'm lucky an empty peg where CW limbs would go. The only place I can seem to find him is Amazon, but it's not shipped and sold by Amazon, just scalpers on the Amazon marketplace that are asking $40+. I'm still waiting on Hot Spot, too, but I have him preorded at Amazon with an estimated ship date of 6-15.
  16. mikeszekely
    And yet they're still going ahead with Pete's Dragon, The Jungle Book, Dumbo, and a couple other lame live-action remakes of animated classics.
  17. mikeszekely
    Sure, Konami. Sure. I feel real comforted after you two of your biggest developers left and you canceled the one game you were making that I was really looking forward to. In all seriousness, Konami has all but admitted that they don't care about games or their fans, they just want our money. Hence, half-arsed "freemium" mobile games.
  18. mikeszekely
    I'll be curious to see what you come up with.
  19. mikeszekely
    Do you remember the name of the store, or where about in Pittsburgh? I live close to the city; if it's still around I might want to check it out.
  20. mikeszekely
    I think the back wheels on the real car are bigger than the fronts, too. And they're not touching the ground. There is no ground. Like I said, I'm pretty sure those are just renders at this stage. Even if that is an actual toy, at the very least it's 'shopped onto a gray background with some shadows added. Either way, you're not looking at an actual toy with tires on an actual surface.
  21. mikeszekely
    In all seriousness, though, I've built the regular RG Gundam and the RG Casval's Gundam, and I have to tell you that the engineering has improved greatly in the RG line just since that kit. Build whatever interests you, but my personal favorites from the RG line are the Zakus and the Mk-IIs.
  22. mikeszekely
    I had a Shackwave too! But I didn't get him until after Sideswipe. He was a pretty great toy, but I remember thinking it was weird that he was gray and not purple.
  23. mikeszekely
    Sideswipe for me. As far as I can recall, he was the only '84 transformer I owned, aside from Bumblebee. I had a few of the smaller ones from later, but we were pretty poor then, so mostly then I just had Gobots. Things were better for us around the movie and season 3, so I had a ton more from then on.
  24. mikeszekely
    Blades, Streetwise, and First Aid came today. As you guys probably know, Blades is a repaint of Alpha Bravo. The only difference aside from colors is a poorly sculpted grimace in place of a faceplate. Likewise, First Aid is a repaint of Offroad. First Aid is more significantly changed, though, with more of an ambulance rear than a pickup. I dig the new head and colors, and unlike Offroad his joints aren't all floppy and his robot arms peg better in Defensor arm mode. Disappointingly, he comes with the same axe weapon that Offroad has, which seems out of place when everyone else has guns. Lastly, Streetwise is a retool of Dead End/Wildrider (or Brake-Neck, if you prefer). Like First Aid, he's got a little more remolding than just a head. I think, more than most of the other CW figures, he's suffering from a lack of paint. There's a blue stripe down the side, but it stops at his leg when it looks like it should continue. I Gundam markered some tail lights onto him. What I like best about Streetwise, though, is that he comes with a totally unique weapon that looks like a shotgun, which seems appropriate for a police officer/car. For now, I have them set up with CW Optimus and Alpha Bravo in what I'm calling "Defensimus Prime". Hot Spot's not going to get here until mid June, and I can't seem to find a Rook. Sadly, there's no way to cram Groove into Defensimus Prime's chest.
  25. mikeszekely
    Hmm. Never heard of TnR, and the pictures still look more like renders than actual product... but for $89.99, I'm keeping my eye on this. MP-style Not-Jazz.
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