mikeszekely

$11.99 at my local TRU. Either scalpers swooped into Target and bought up all the Darkmounts and Megatrons, or my local Target is stuck on wave 1.

I'll say this for WfC Soundwave... his transformation might be easier than Prime or Bumblebee's, and I think he could use a few more paint apps (silver on the sides of his head, silver or yellow around the vents on his legs), and his chest might not accommodate either the G1 cassettes or the Ravage that came with Hound, but he's a pretty good figure for the money. His alt mode is accurate (if a little simple), and his bot mode mostly is too. He's got a better look to mix with my other Classics/Universe figures than either my G1 reissue or "there's a load in my diaper" Titanium (the Music Label Soundwave looks pretty good, but isn't really worth the price... I wish they'd strip the electronics and just release that as a Deluxe, but I digress). He also happens to be very poseable. His shoulders, ankles and hips are on ball joints. His upper thighs connect just below the ball joint and can rotate 360 degrees. His upper arm connects just above the elbow the same way (allowing his forearms the same degree of rotation), but also connects just below his shoulder on a joint that allows his arm to swing out from his torso to a little higher than his shoulder. His knees can bed 90 degrees, and his elbows can bend enough that he touch his shoulders. His wrists rotate, but also have a limited up/down flex. About the only thing his missing is a ball-jointed neck (he can only turn his head from side to side) and the ability to rotate at the waist (he doesn't have any waist articulation). He's also got very little kibble, limited mostly to his shoulders, the tires on his back, and the tires on his legs. What kibble he's got doesn't really affect his articulation.

So I've still gotta track down Megatron and Straxus/Darkmount then, before Blurr and Dirge.

Was at TRU this afternoon, and I found Red Alert and Soundwave. I passed on Red Alert; I didn't care for that mold much when it was Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, but I did grab Soundwave as decent toys of him that aren't G1 reissues seem hard to come by. But I'm a little confused; weren't Darkmount/Straxus and Megatron supposed to come out first? I've yet to see either of them.

Dave Perry announced that this game is going to be free, as in free to download and free to play. The game will support microtransactions, but supposedly the game will be balanced so that it will be playable without them.

Hound and Inferno.

They're all there. I have them all unlocked.

I don't know. I don't have it, anyway. I don't have it unlocked, but the YF-23 is mentioned on the trademark screen before the title screen in Joint Assault, too.

I finished my first play through. I unlocked the F-22 right before the final mission... and couldn't afford it. It's like three times the cost of my next most expensive plane! I know, that's oddly realistic, but not particularly fun. So from the time I unlocked it until I finished the game, I only used the Su-27. Not a lot of experimentation there. In fact, I unlocked just 15 planes during my first play through, including the one I got after completing the game. That's out of an apparent 44. Like any good Ace Combat game, there's branching paths that will have me replaying the game, but that still seems a bit stingy. Oh, and David, you can get a used PSP pretty cheap these days. It's worth it. There's not a ton of games for it, but some of the ones that it has are really good. Ace Combat X was, IMHO, one of the best in the series. It just takes a little adjusting to the floaty analog nub and yaw controls on the dpad. Editted for grammar.

I think the camera In this game has me understanding Assault Skies better. The camera isn't glued to your tail anymore, so when you roll and start to turn, your tail end drifts to a corner of the screen. So just because the planes were off-center in Assault Skies doesn't mean AS is on rails. Other stuff I've noticed: It's easier to get gun kills. Despite being set in the real world, the story is pure Ace Combat, replete with betrayals, villains trying to manipulate aware behind the scenes, super weapons, and squadrons with odd names. Other AC tropes are there too, including the old "fly through a canyon" and "fly through the inside of an enemy base" missions. Although . While I've heard that there's more planes than any other since AC5, you must unlock them pretty slowly. I flew an F-4E for the first three missions, flew an F-16C for the next two, and have been flying a Su-27 ever since. Granted, I've unlocked other planes, but none that had clearly getter stats (including, oddly, the Typhoon and the MiG 1.44).

If you had a baby the day Duke Nukem forever was announced, said baby will be a teenager when the game is actually released.

You mean the one that came out in the theater just a few years ago? That's been out on blu-ray. It was one of the first ones I bought. EDIT: In the US, anyway. Is it really taking this long in Australia?

Game's out. Anyone pick it up? I grabbed it after work, but my PSP's battery ran down since last I played it. It's charging now while I entertain myself reading about Apple's presser today.

See, Hot Rod had sort of a cool, futuristic look back in the day (like what people in the 80's expected people in 2005 to drive). But there are several cars, some exotic and some not, I'd rather own today. But if I ever wanted to go on some sort of cross-country road trip in an RV, you better believe I'd want it tarted up with exhaust pipes up the sides and a flame deco. EDIT: Another example of "car that people in the 80's think people would drive in the future" that I like better than Hot Rod anyway was the Super Gobot Psycho.

Ah, but I've got MP Prime, and he is around. But I don't want MP Hot Rod, I want MP Rodimus Prime. MP Prime, Megatron, and Seekers can have their first-season battles, but I want MP Rodimus Prime to pal around with MP Grimlock (dino mode, blue eyes). And Grimlock will be not the violent renegade who barely respected Prime's authority of season 1, but the lovable doofus of season 3. A part of that is because Rodimus Prime is a more interesting character than Hot Rod. Hot Rod (and wannabes like Hot Shot and Cheetor) are the cliched over-confident youth who matures enough to ultimate save the day (often while still being a cocky tool). Rodimus was the reluctant leader, making the snap decisions but always second-guessing himself. But a big part of it is that Hot Rod seems to get all the love. I mean, he got two G1 releases, plus two Alternators, Classics and Animated. Not to mention that it's pretty obvious that Hot Shot is supposed to be Hot Rod... and Excellion. Even Energon Rodimus, the one Rodimus who finally didn't turn into a sports car, looked more like a truck cab than a Space Winnebago. And how many Space Winnebagos have we had since the G1 toy (not counting reissues of said toy)? Just the Titanium one that I really wanted but couldn't find anywhere.

I'd say it has a lot to do with the fact that tech specs were written for the toys (and the Marvel comic book) before the first season came out. A lot of the "super powers" the first season cast used were from the tech specs. But as Hasbro added more and more new characters, season 2 had less of a core cast than the first season, and a lot of the characters would only get the spotlight for maybe one episode. Even core season 1 members got a lot less face time.

No clue. But I want the Space Winnebago.

This is a rumor, so take it with a grain of salt. But the rumor says Hasbro's bringing MP Rodimus out in the States. Except he won't have the Rodimus Prime trailer, and they're going to make him a Targetmaster. #$@% Targetmasters. I want my damn trailer. I know I'm a minority, but I wanted Rodimus Prime. I got enough Hot Rods.

Grimlock's articulation isn't that bad. His knees, elbows, wrists, and neck are equal to the other MPs. Yeah, he's got limited ability to move his arms away from his body at the shoulder, but so do Prime and Megatron. And while the Seekers have better motion there, but their hips are limited by both their plane kibble and their skirt armor, so Grimlock has them beat there. They also can't turn at the waist the way Grimlock can. Actually, Prime and Grimlock have fairly similar ranges of motion. Prime has better ankles (a downside to Grimlock's transformation) and fingers, that's about it. Where you see "fun" in the Seekers transformation, I see "less of a pain than Megatron, more of a pain than Prime." I played with Starscream a bit when I first got him, but I've transformed Skywarp maybe once. They both just stand on their shelf with Megatron, who will probably not be moved let alone transformed (I got him posed in a stable position that looks good on his tiny ankles). It really doesn't matter to me that Prime has more metal. And while Prime may look more imposing next to Grimlock due to his larger size, Grimlock looks plenty impressive on his own, next to the Seekers (or Rodimus, when he comes out), or next to most other Transformers.

Which still gives me hope that Hasbro might bring us a domestic MP Rodimus for $99 US.

But... talking cars?

Not sure exactly, but I was under the impression that Megatron and Straxus/Darkmount are due before Soundwave (and Red Alert). I love the Classics/Universe/Generations figures, but I wasn't a huge fan of the Sunstreaker/Sideswipe mold. I might skip Red Alert.

That's a good ulterior motive, and the primary reason I build my own computers most of the time (easier to just buy a laptop, and I wanted a laptop for gaming on vacation).

I've got 32-bit on my desktop and 64-bit on my laptop. Both have Core 2 Duo processors and both have Nvidia graphics. Can't say I've noticed much of a difference between them. I play media files and games, plus browse the net and edit documents on both. The only compatibility issue I've had so far is that KOTOR 2 won't run... on either computer. Apparently it's a Windows 7/Vista thing rather than a 32-bit/64-bit thing. Long story short, I wouldn't fret too much about having 64-bit. I don't know if you'll be able to dowgrade or not.

I think the US prices have been better than the Japanese prices. But I do wish Grimmy had been priced closer to the Seekers than to Prime.