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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    I'm having a hard time believing that GM is in New England... I mean, if that were a 1:1 scale, the snow should be halfway to its knees by now...
  2. mikeszekely
    Not just Haribo Gummy Bears, five pounds of 'em. Shopping for candy online makes the bulk packs at warehouse stores seem small.
  3. mikeszekely
    Ok, I mean, that knife might be sharp enough, I dunno. But I think a hobby knife like an X-acto knife is easier to use. You don't have to go to Michael's; Walmart has your basic #1 style for maybe $5, in the crafts section. Once you have the knife, you can get replacement blades in the same place for $2-3. They have these one kind of blades that have like a goldish coating along the cutting edge. X-acto advertises that they're the sharpest... they are really sharp, but so are the non-coated ones. I can't say that I've really noticed a difference, but the price difference was small.
  4. mikeszekely
    I think there's a notion in psychology that, rather than gather information prior to a purchase and using that info to make a purchasing decision, that it's common for people to make a purchase and then seek information that confirms their decision later, ignoring or dismissing opinions or information that disagrees with their decisions. In other words, people who have bought and enjoy MP-22 don't want to hear comments from people that don't like it, and especially don't want to hear that people like Citizen Stack better. I believe it's a sort of confirmation bias. The opposite goes for people who bought and dug Stack, but skipped MP-22. The natural inclination is to argue for your choice, because it's personal. It becomes difficult to say, "well, I get why you like might like that, but I really prefer this," or "I'm happy that I went with this one, but it's cool that you went with that instead." In my case, though, I'm just a stickler for language with a low tolerance for hyperbole. I see that MP-22 is more 'toon accurate, and I get why someone might prefer that accuracy. I personally think that the flourishes on Stack make it look better, but I don't like either of them enough to drop over a Benjamin on. Anyway... I saw some pics where a guy stuck Legends Huffer onto Combiner Wars Optimus, in torso mode with the chest open. Basically, looks like he repositioned Huffer's legs down, then jammed Huffer's fists onto the pegs under the silver "matrix" area. The result reminds me a lot of Power Master Optimus/Super Ginrai. I might just look into picking up the original Legends Optimus Prime that Huffer is a remold of, since last I looked my Target still had a bunch of him.
  5. mikeszekely
    Is the knife in the picture the one you're using, David? It looks more like a boxcutter. I don't know about this water thing, but what I do in similar situations is use the tweezers to pin the decal in place where you want it, then slide the edge of the knife along the edge of the part through the decal. You see how the part isn't exactly like a four-sided box, but corner between the front of the part where you're sticking your decal and the top of the part is sort of a smaller plane? The edge of the knife should follow that plane, like a shaving razor following the contour of a face. If it's pushing the decal instead of cutting it, you can try a gentle sawing motion, but it might be a sign that the blade you're using isn't sharp enough.
  6. mikeszekely
    Right. MP-22 is more 'toon accurate. MP-22 looks exactly like the UM you saw on TV as a kid. I conceded that several posts ago. Stack is not 'toon accurate. Stack is still unmistakably UM, though. Stack is, in fact, closer to being 'toon accurate than the upcoming Combiner Wars UM or UM in the IDW series More Than Meets the Eye, and to claim that Stack doesn't look anything like the UM you saw on TV is hyperbole to a ludicrous degree. If you'd never seen Stack and somebody showed you a picture and said, "hey, what character from the Transformers cartoon you used to watch as a kid does this look like?" you wouldn't say Hot Rod, you wouldn't say no one, you wouldn't say you don't know, you'd say "Ultra Magnus." That might be followed by a "but," and you might proceed to point out every minute way Stack is different. Those differences might bug you, and you might hate how Stack's design has been tweaked, but you're being disingenuous if you try to pretend you wouldn't say "Ultra Magnus." To be clear, again, I'm not arguing that MP-22 isn't more 'toon accurate than Stack, and I'm not faulting you or anyone else for preferring MP-22 because they prefer the more 'toon accurate toy. I'm only taking issue with the hyperbole in the statement "he just do not look anything like the UM we saw when were kids". Stack looks a lot like the UM we saw when were were kids, just not as much as MP-22 does.
  7. mikeszekely
    It's not a matter of convincing. I'm looking at a pic of MP-22 next to Stack, with a screenshot from the movie next to the animation model. Lemme see if I can use fewer words. Hot Rod doesn't look anything like the Ultra Magnus we saw when we were kids. Citizen Stack looks a lot like UM, just not exactly like him.
  8. mikeszekely
    Not anything? Nothing? Really? I'm prepared to grant that MP-22 is more 'toon accurate; I've already said it. But Stacks has the right colors in the right spots (well, a little extra red on the legs, but that's toy accurate, and a little extra white on the feet, because he actually has feet), He's got the shoulder stacks and the shoulder missile launchers. He's got a little extra molding on his waist, knees, and shoulders, and the blue piece on his chest is a little different, but all are very evocative of Ultra Magnus. The eyes are a little different, perhaps a bit more like the old Marvel Comics, but otherwise nearly identical. I wouldn't say he doesn't look anything like the UM we saw when we were kids, because he looks a lot like him. He just doesn't look exactly like him, and that's ok, the way Batman in The Batman cartoon doesn't look exactly like the Batman from Batman: The Animated Series... similar, instantly recognizable as the same character, some artistic differences.
  9. mikeszekely
    I kinda dig the F91 Gundam F91 and the XM-X1 Crossbone Gundam Full Cloth. Oh, wait, Macross mecha? Based on fighter alone, probably the YF-30, but I'm really not a fan of the lankier Frontier-era Battroids. All-around would either be the VF-22 or the SW-XAII.
  10. mikeszekely
    Alright, let's all just agree that MP-22 is a crappy toy that looks more like the cartoon and that Stack is less 'toon accurate, but better overall.
  11. mikeszekely
    So... I guess Hasbro's Greek site has some product photos of some of the new Combiner Wars figures. Some initial thoughts: While Cyclonus is, in some ways, a pretty impressive retool, he look so much worse than the CHUG version. Easy pass for me. Why are they making another Warpath? Just to reuse the Legends Megatron mold? Given that there's a much better Deluxe CHUG version, another easy pass. I'm kind of digging the combiner thing, so I'm cool with Hot Spot, but I'm also sort of thinking that Robots In Disguise (the first one, er, Car Robots) Optimus Prime would be a cool repaint.
  12. mikeszekely
    The Skygrasper is the only RG (aside from Wing Zero, which I just haven't gotten around to picking up yet) that I haven't built, but like Hikuro it's hard to justify the RG price for an airplane I don't really want (and a launcher striker pack I don't want, and a sword striker pack I do want).
  13. mikeszekely
    No arguments from me. I even dared to say that Citizen Stack was better.
  14. mikeszekely
    I can help. 5lbs of gummi bears, $11 and some change.
  15. mikeszekely
    So far so good!
  16. mikeszekely
    It's amazing how much a red Gundam marker can improve CW Optimus. I did a little work on Alpha Bravo, too. Basically, in the comics and in the test shots he has some blue on his shoulders that I added back. I also painted the backs of his shoulders white, so they blend into the helicopter mode better. I'm wondering if I should touch up the others. I really don't think Skydive needs it. I'm strongly considering putting more red on Fireflight, but I haven't settled on how much and where. Dragstrip's a little tougher, because he's got so much purple that doesn't belong, and I'm doubting whether my yellow paint matches the yellow plastic. At the very least, I might try to get the purple paint off his thighs. Oh, and doesn't anyone know if the gray plastic on the connector part in his chest is of the unpaintable variety? I'm cool with the actual square peggish part being gray, as it's analogous to the silver on the G1 toy's tummy, but the round joint part really needs to be yellow.
  17. mikeszekely
    He had a good run. I'm still sorry to see him go.
  18. mikeszekely
    No arguments there. It's a shame it's not on Netflix anymore.
  19. mikeszekely
    Combiner Wars Optimus Prime came today. With Hasbro's simplifying and plastic cost-cutting, combined with the need to make a Prime that's also a torso, I honestly wasn't expecting to like him. In person, he's really not too bad. Yeah, he's got gorilla-ish proportions and a rounded head that combine to give him a sort of cartoonish look, but he manages to be much less kibbly than the old Classics Prime. His feet are kind of weird, and I wish they were blue. Speaking of coloring, I think he could use a little more paint on his abdomen, and I wish the gold on the tops of his legs stood out a little more. As far as articulation goes, he's about the same as Classics. He's got some nice ratchets, but sadly he's knees are a little loose. He transformation reminds me a little of Powermaster Prime, in that you fold his arms up over the fake windshield and grille. The difference, though, is that his legs fold backward instead of forward, and instead of having a the real truck front of the truck on his back his arms become the front of the truck. The back has some minor kibble from the super robot waist, and the hollow feet are pretty ugly here, but on the whole it's not horrible. Everything locks together tightly. I'm not sure if I like the smaller Euro-style truck for Optimus Prime, but honestly it could be much, much worse. His torso mode is a little underwhelming, which is a little disappointing since I feel like some of the flaws Prime does have in truck mode would be totally fixed by not having a torso mode. Basically, it boils down to a few things. First, the super head is on a bar that moves out from bot-mode's back, and there's a big gap between the bottom of the bar and Prime's body. Second, the lose knees and tight ratchets make posing the gestalt's legs tricky and a little unstable. Third, while the open chest is a nice homage to Energon Optimus Prime, the side panels are larger and rounded, which gives the open chest an odd appearance. Personally, I prefer to leave it closed. There's a hint that you might want to do that in the design, in that there are windows molded onto the panels that serve no purpose in bot or truck modes, but give the gestalt torso an Optimus-like chest without being the exact same chest. Despite those complaints, gestalt mode has pretty good articulation. And I found some neat things, like the fact that Prime's bot-mode fists can still hold weapons. So I put Prime's rifles together and used the hole in the top to peg on Firefly's weapon and put that in the gestalt's hand. Then I put Skydive and Alpha Bravo's weapons into Prime's bot-fists, making them sort of shoulder-mounted weapons on the gestalt. Oh yeah, size-wise, the gestalt Ultra Prime is shorter than Energon Omega Supreme, a little taller (but not hugely so) than FoC Bruticus, and about the same height as the Ultimate-class Beast Hunter Prime if you ignore the spinny dragon thing on his back.
  20. mikeszekely
    Stickering the RGs isn't as bad as it looks. You shouldn't have to to cut anything (although I've found that it sometimes helps). For larger decals (larger being relative, mind you), you can pinch an edge of the sticker, remove it from the paper, then roll it onto the model. For smaller ones, get the tip of your hobby knife under the sticker, lift it off the paper, then carefully get an edge of the sticker to cling to the model more that it's already clinging to your knife. With either technique, you can usually use your knife to slide smaller stickers into place. Once it's positioned how you like it, use a q-tip or your finger to rub it down.
  21. mikeszekely
    WHAT? Everyone likes Darkwing Duck. Don't forget Talespin. I'm all for a new DuckTales. Especially if it leads to a new Darkwing Duck. And while we're on it, how about we get the guys that did the HD remaster of the DuckTales NES game to give the same treatment to DuckTales 2?
  22. mikeszekely
    Ah. Although I like anime and comic books, I don't read much manga. In fact, I don't think I've read more than Blue Destiny, F90, Silhouette Formula 91, and the various Crossbone mangas. And as much as I love Gundam, I really only cared for Crossbone out of all that.
  23. mikeszekely
    Huh, I guess the Hercules I saw had the Rage add-on. Probably contributed to why I thought Giant looks better. But again, Scavenger with black legs? That just isn't right.
  24. mikeszekely
    What exactly is that bonus weapon thingy? I mean, I've seen pictures of kit, both on and off RG Zero. But I've watched Endless Waltz a couple of times, and I don't remember it.
  25. mikeszekely
    Toon Devy did have black forearms, and it looks like CW Devy will too. Tread forearms are a thing now in IDW, but G1 Devy didn't do it, and CW Devy isn't doing it. AFAIK, Hercules didn't either, although Hercules did use black treads. Just Giant. And while the tread forearms thing makes for a good-looking Giant with black forearms like toon Devy, it also makes for a Scavenger with black legs instead of purple, and that's just not right.
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