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.

My god.. just took over an hour to finish Head of State. A few days ago I couldn't finish the quest... ol Hannibal told me to meet them at Lincoln Memorial, so I went back to Megaton to sell all of my loot, then went to Lincoln Memorial. Nobody was there. I figured I'd wait... and wait... and waited for a whole week (game time), and still nobody showed up.

Today I figured I'd escort the whole gaggle over to Lincoln Memorial, and figured out the problem. Along the way the caravan was waylaid by Yao-guai (a pack of three), a Mr. Gutsy, two protectortrons, twelve raiders (one of which had a missile launcher), two hunters, four super mutants, countless ghouls... not to mention all the stupid AI pathing problems. Hannibal kept on getting caught on lamposts, fire hydrants, even getting trapped when exiting the metro station. I kept on having to push up against him to get him in the clear so he could proceed at his leisurely pace. In the end, it took almost two hours, but I got them safely to Lincoln Memorial...

How the **** do you screw up Cyclonus' paint scheme?

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?

This assessment is probably dead on IMO.

Well, that's the thing, the GT-R doesn't fit "Prime" but it does fit "Convoy". Having Convoy as a title, instead of a name really opened up the character to more varied interpretations and I'm glad to see that the american version of transformers is following that lead.

I'm getting one, it's a fantastic sculpt, imo.

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.

Ah ok thanks for the info. but do you know takaratomy's website? ( English, as I dont have a Japanese Speaking Friend unfortunately )

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.

Just got Silverbolt. I didn't see any online pics of the toy before I got it and looked at the difficulty level of the transformation. Level 3 out of 4. I thought interesting. I liked the Silverbolt toy, and plus the Aerialbots were my favourite group. Got it tonight, and my god, the person must have thought that the rating was due to the size of the bloody toy, rather than the difficulty. This toy should be rated at 0.5.

Luckily, the toy itself is great. My only gripes are the gaps when transforming the hands and also the feet. Don't like gaping holes. Rather have them hidden.

Yeah, Hasbro bases the 'skill level' thing on the size of the toy, not the difficulty. I think even TakaraTomy does this now.

Hi Guys,

A little OT here, sorry for the Mods, but do you have any idea where can we get replacement parts " IF ANY " for the Binaltechs line? my BT-20 Jazz Meister lost its Gun, forgot to secure it during my overseas trip, so my nephew was playing with it, no damage done, except for the lost gun.

Informations highly appreciated, thanks!

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.

AHM is all the way on the other end of the spectrum, giving Gee Wunners the slavish homages they want, but then falls apart by not actually HAVING a plot... it's really a shame that TF comics can't settle on some middle ground that really works... I think a TF comic series could do really well if it stuck to hard G1 characterizations, but with a modern, more mature take, and tried to re-do the original cartoon in a darker, more plausible light. The problems in TF comics always seem to come from either alienating the fanbase with new flashier edgy takes on characters, or by having mind-numbingly stupid or nonsensical plots... Look at Spotlight Grimlock. Grimlock should have been a great issue with some useful plot and a great knock-down dragout fight, but instead ended up being a half-readable means to Dinobots, which in and of itself may or may not be any good, as it's still tied to all the garbage of the current IDW canon with far too many factions and conflicts to keep track of, let alone actually give enough room to be fully explained.

I personally find the Sunstreaker/Hunter plotline to be strangely fulfilling.

Was it really a business decision on IDW's part to force Furman to wrap up his stuff? Because Revelation and Spotlight: Grimlock read like he's just getting bored with the whole Dead Universe storyline and he wants to get on with Maximum Dynobots.

He's keeping his cards close to his chest for the day he can finish the story off in some form.

Which is pretty scary since Furman is a rather "Meh" scriptwriter, nice guy (I've met him a few times) but WAY

over rated by GeeWunner types.

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*

Wasn't Vector Prime designed based on The Last Autobot?

I was wondering. Thanks!

Now if somebody could explain to me why Hasbro wouldn't give us Thundercracker, but are now in fact giving us a second Starscream, that'd be great.

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.

So my wife drags me to Wal-Mart today to look at exercise bikes. I wasn't real interested in going, as my Wal-Mart is pretty good on Animated, but way behind on Universe. But the toy section was between the door and sporting goods, and there in the main aisle is a display with Classics/Movie/Animated Bumblebee three-pack and some Wal-Mart exclusive "Movie" toys. I put the "Movie" in quotes because three of them were repaints of Cybertron toys, but one of them was Crash... er, "Fracture," a Gobots-inspired repaint of Classics Mirage. And it was love at first sight. I know Mirage was kind of a shelfwarmer around here (Target had a bunch on clearance down to $5), but like many of you I loved the mold. Sure, he had a little kibble on his back, but he was a slick upgrade to G1 favorite and one of the most poseable Transformers I've owned.

As Fracture, the toy is still great, although her waist seems a little loose. The black and red do make a nice contrast to Mirage's blue, and I'm all for adding more Decepticons to the ranks. As Crasher, though, you almost need to be told in advance that she's supposed to be a homage. Yeah, they gave her a pink face, but it's still Mirage's face. Maybe if they'd put more black around her eyes and cheeks? Also, while it probably would have made for a much more boring toy, the red's a little out of place and there's too much white, to say nothing of the fact that her alt mode doesn't look a thing like a Porsche 956.

On the whole, I'd say she's worth the buy. If you're going to have a repaint, Classics Mirage is a good figure to repaint. And while there's still some G1 characters I'm hoping to see with new molds in the Classics/Universe line (Jazz, Wheeljack, Shockwave, and Motormaster all spring to mind). And as much as I love Transformers, I grew up pretty poor and had a lot more Gobots, so I actually wouldn't mind seeing the other five main Gobots (Leader-1, Scooter, Turbo, Cy-Kill, and Cop-Tur) turn up at some point, even if they are repaints. Heck, the Blades toy I passed on as a repaint (and will probably pass on as Springer again) I might have bought if they'd painted him blue and called him Cop-Tur.

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.

Have they redone the speederbike since the old ones, or is it the same old design?

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.

I picked up the Millenium Falcon at TRU in Times Square. Its huge, lots of detail but interior and exterior. The only thing I dont like is that the landing gear clips in and doesnt retract. It also comes with a small fighter that pops out of the side. I am not a huge SW fan, having only seen the movies, does the fighter come from any particular book, comic, or special?

Okay I need some help TF fans. I'm trying to work on a project, but I need high res reference pics of Flint and Lady Jaye's daughter from Transformers G1... that's right everyone's favourite EDC Captain Marissa Faireborn.

What I'm looking for specifically are good shots of her in her combat space suit (Five Faces of Darkness), General EDC Uniform (The Killing Jar), Dreamwave comics uniform (the one with the jacket), and black "baroness" body armor from the first issue of that most perverted of Transformers manga... Kiss Players.

If anyone can hook me up with any of those I'll be most grateful.

Hope this helps.

Anybody get an AT-TE yet?

Maybe the HAVOC? since it's got a hover vehicle in the back? http://www.yojoe.com/vehicles/86/havoc/havoc_iso.shtml

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.