Fit For Natalie

On the DVD commentary for First Contact, both Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore cited the baggage of continuity as one of the reasons why Star Trek was daunting for writers to contribute to, and expressed the belief that the franchise might have needed a reboot to provide a clean slate for writers to tell new stories. Another thing I think you can do with a reboot is to more effectively tell TOS than was possible in the 1960s.

Dude, that's disgusting. I really don't understand people playing out their serial killer fantasies in games. The quest is semi-bugged. After Hannibal's group pack up and head out to the Lincoln Memorial, the game tells you to head there. Unfortunately, fast-traveling directly to the Memorial means Hannibal's group won't teleport there with you. What you do instead is run over to the nearby collapsed metro station (should be called something-Mall). Kill the dogs there, then fast-travel to same location. When you teleport there, Hannibal's entire group will be with you, like with all other companions you escort whilst using Fast Travel. They will walk to the memorial and the quest will be completed.

People crazily thinking toy companies paint every inch of their toys, including the joints? I think the tan is supposed to match is gold stomach grill and Nightstick's gold face. The white is actually silver plastic.

So, have you guys seen the new Universe mold pics in the Club magazine? Let's not forgot how Alternators Prime was created: Takara demanded it be a Convoy so they could flog it in Japan. Then they folded the Binaltech line. I think going in that direction without character is doing what fans hate TF doing: assigning random alternate modes to classic characters. I'm betting this is G1 Convoy, like the Nike Free Convoy and that iPod Convoy were. Just crazy marketing with a licensed brand name/design that turns into some kind of robot that they decide to call Convoy. I don't believe this is a case of creating an new Convoy character, but just packaging a new toy as Convoy, that that treats the character as a brand name far more than Hasbro's continual reusing of Optimus Prime across various series and continuities. Anybody remember Robotmasters? Even the only G1 Megatron figure in there was him wearing a Convoy disguise.

I don't think it fits Prime at all. This is likely how it went down: They did a small-size Binaltech-type toy with elements of Movie style transformation and detailing. They made him Convoy because Convoy happens to be the most popular TF character in Japan. Hell, in Japan, the other characters in Transformers might as well not exist because it's all about Convoy over there. Oh, then you're hosed. Apparently TakaraTomy's customer service deals exclusively in Japanese. Customer support page http://www.takaratomy.co.jp/support/index02.html Their online support form is here: https://my.tomy.co.jp/confidential/takarato...upport/form.htm If you get really desperate, I dunno, buy an Alternators Meister or Shockblast. Both were reissued to shelfwarm when Hasbro changed the Alternators packaging back in 2005. I love Silverbolt too. He's much better in person than in photos, and because he's simple, he's a very solid design. Yeah, Hasbro bases the 'skill level' thing on the size of the toy, not the difficulty. I think even TakaraTomy does this now.

You should ask TakaraTomy or ask a Japanese-speaking friend to do it for you (especially as Tomy released Argent Meister recently). From what I heard TakTom are good at replacing parts, even for foreigners. At least I hope so, because..... I got Henkei Thundercracker today and it has a widespread QC issue - the missile launchers cannot fit into his arms. The holes are too big. There have also been reports from Japan, general asia and from western fans of both Thundercrackers and Skywarps with two left or two right thighs, so one ends up backwards. Generally joints are looser.

I applaud IDW and Nick Roche for *not* playing it safe with somebody like Kup. I enjoy the fact that not every character (at least until the AHM retcon) is a carbon copy of their most well-known personalities. I also enjoyed seeing all of the later-year G1 characters being used.

Mirage was written by some other dude. I don't think anybody liked it. Kup is probably one of the best Spotlights. I'm afraid of him appearing in AHM, as a sketch for Kup in the style of AHM featured in the Focus on Decepticons book (elaborate advertisement for AHM). Kup simply has too much baggage from his Spotlight to be handled in AHM. Screw the G1 cartoon. We already had the G1 cartoon. We don't need to retell the stories. We need new stories. I personally find the Sunstreaker/Hunter plotline to be strangely fulfilling.

Yes. Furman said on his blog that he realises that some people will not be happy with how Revelations plays out, but it was the best he could do. He had to squeeze a lot of stuff into four issues, and evidently there was another series afterwards called Expansion that went further along in the storyline. He's keeping his cards close to his chest for the day he can finish the story off in some form. Plenty of people who aren't GeeWunners love Furman, especially his Furmanisms.

Anybody here dislike IDW's current All Hail Megatron series? I do, though for reasons other than for what I believe is a poor, simplistic storyline that flies in the face of continuity. I also dislike IDW's business decision to force Simon Furman to VERY QUICKLY and messily wrap up his storylines. *waits for Shane McCarthy to turn up here*

Yep. I'm sad his Mini-Con wasn't named Xaaron. The 25th Anniversary of Transformers. You gotta get versions of the core characters out for that. It's been 2 years since Classics Starscream was released, and in those 2 years there are now A HELL OF A LOT MORE Transformers customers, what with that movie back in 2007 and this movie called Transformers Revenge of the Fallen coming out in 2009. So yeah, targeting all those people who never picked up Starscream when he was originally available.

Not when the Corvette looks like the Mach 5

If anybody is wondering, Vector Prime is repainted to homage The Last Autobot from the G1 Marvel comic.

Energon Galvatron is good enough for me, and I really doubt either Hasbro (or Tomy) could ever come up with a G1 Galvatron-based deco that looks that good ever again. I picked up Onslaught today. Nifty toy.

You can put any of the Walmart-exclusive 'movie' toys in your Universe collection, because Hasbro originally developed them for the Universe line, which is why you get guys like Big Daddy, Breakaway (Getaway) and Crankcase, who are a bit more G1-homagey than the usual Hasbro homage.

First pics of a robot design. This guy is quite possibly noted in the call sheet as "Stinger", and he turns into the Corvette Centennial concept.

In 2002, Hasbro retooled the Speeder Bike to be included with the Deluxe Clone Trooper. It had more realistic handles, and some other details, but had a dorky removable missile launcher. They repainted it white in 2003 for the Clone Wars line. The bike was part of Hasbro's short-lived idea for cross-toy integration. It could be disassembled and stored in the rear of the Republic Gunship vehicle. Its worth tracking down if you're looking for a speeder bike that doesn't have dumb 80s handlebars.

The bootleg Dai Atlas might be worth getting to strip for parts and the motor........ assuming the parts aren't different sizes, of course.

Yeah packaging and instructions call it a mini-fighter. Its a play feature for kids. Predictably, a fair number of Star Wars neckbeards hate it.

Walky pointed something out that didn't occur to me until now: Universe Onslaught's torso transformation is based on Onslaught's cartoon model (hood and windows become chest), not his G1 toy.

The mini-fighter's design is by Hasbro. The Falcon's escape pods are likely to be a different design if Lucasfilm got around to designing it.

They did the clip-on landing gear due to the lack of interior space, since this isn't scaled to 1:18 interiors. Its scale in relation to the figures is closer to the exterior prop they used in filming.

Here's the best I could do: Hope this helps.

Anybody get an AT-TE yet? Its abit too iconic to use, in my opinion.

Universe Classics Inferno is actually a Voyager class (apparently the first Universe Voyager that's not a repaint). Not sure if Hasbro will do a Trailbreaker until they can get a reasonable sounding alternative name. They've been unable to trademark variations of Trailbreaker for the past 5 years without success, because another company apparently holds a very similar trademark in the same category.