Alpha OTS

This is off topic, but I doubt there will be a serious rebirth of Alternators in the forseeable future. It was a line created during Hasbro and Takara's joint projects period, where Hasbro provided the capital (money) for development of Transformers, which is probably why there were so many Alternators released early on. Now that they're no longer doing joint projects, I doubt either company will care enough to make new molds. Tomy is pretty stingy with Transformers (nearly all of their TF product since 2006 have been redecos) and Hasbro sunk millions of dollars into Alternators, with little to show.

Well, there's that, and there's that they're already putting out Transformers with realistic alt modes through the movie lines. Why waste resources on a fan market when the movie tie-in market dwarfs it in comparison while putting out pretty much the same idea?

As to the movie, I'm cautious about Bay. I did like what I saw and heard on the extras on the Transformers Movie dvd. I found out that he actually did listen to people in the know, which I honestly found surprising. My fear is that he'll forget those little things that made the first movie work, and believe his own hype while making the second one. Therefore more human characterization, more explosions, less bot characterization, less mythos exploration, more explosions, and did I mention more explosions?

I remain cautious because he *did* listen the first time as much as it may pain some rabid fans to admit. It's all there in the dvd extras. I came away begrudgingly respecting the guy after viewing them.

edit: grammar/spelling

like he tried to do on the Simpsons lol?

The Thing was made to drive the Batmobile!

As far as the numerous cameo's go, I caught Lou Ferringo but missed Bill Bixby. Tony Stark's scene did seem a bit shoved in there due to the reshuffling that they must have done. I wonder, did so many people walk out of Iron Man without seeing Fury that they decided not to do that again.

I'm guessing that's why they reshuffled the scene to where it is too. The movie had already ended, but now they go to the bar scene with Ross and Stark. It does seem kind of off, pacing wise. Still a cool scene though.

As for Bill Bixby. At the very beginning of the movie, while Banner's still in South(or is it Central?) America, he's in his apartment watching tv trying to teach himself the local language. While flipping through the channels, one of the shows that pops up is "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" starring, of course, Bill Bixby! Bixby's only onscreen for a couple of seconds and in the tv clip he does utter a line of dialogue. Like I said, blink, and you'll miss it. It's definitely no accident that they picked that show as one of the ones Banner was flipping through. I thought it was a really cool and clever homage.

Speaking of cameos, did anyone else expect Stan Lee to hulk out after drinking the soda?

I put deluxe Animated Megatron next to my other G1 Megatrons, and it's obviously a much darker shade of gray on the Animated figure. Stil looks nice, and I really like the deluxe proportions when it's standing around other Megatrons.

While we're piling on Classics Grimlock, I'll add that he's probably my least favorite Classic. I don't like the tail gimmick, but what I *really* don't like is that he looks more like a walking crocodille than a T-rex. The head just looks all wrong. It's much too flat. He does look nice in bot mode though.

In the middle of watching the Ang Lee Hulk movie. Yep, I still like it. The new one's undeniably better though. But what the old one does perfectly is in the casting of Thunderbolt Ross. Sam Elliot *is* Thunderbolt Ross.

It all depends on what you want out of it. If you are looking for just a smaller version of the voyager in a deluxe size, you will be dissapointed. Simplified is more like it. A lot of the details that are painted on the deluxe are actual molded pieces/parts on the voyager. The gun on the deluxe is a more g1-centric gun as opposed to the bfg that the voyager has. Articulation is better all around on the voyager with some exceptions; the deluxe has better shoulder articulation as its double jointed, and the deluxe also has a ball joint neck. The paint job is more animation accurate. The figure has no ratchets at all, and is a lot looser in the hips than the voyager. The blade gimmick is neat, but not as impressive as the voyager. The alt mode is nowhere near as impressive as the voyager(I'll be honest though, the vehicle modes in both don't impress me). Overall I like it because its like G1 Megatron in Animated style, combined influence from the animation model. Basically, if you want it as a substitute for the voyager you will be dissapointed. If you look at it not as a deluxe version of Cybertronian Megatron, but as G1 Megatron in animated style, you may like it, which I do. It lacks the good things that the voyager has(individually molded pieces as opposed to painted, better blade gimmick, ratchets all over the place, and an awesome gun design. I do like both, but for different reasons. I wouldn't want to choose one over the other simply because there are unique enough to appreciate on their own, and are good figures in their own right. Hope this helps.

Essentially after reading this I went out looking for the two pack. When I saw Megatron was in G1 gray, it was a no-brainer purchase. Isn't the voyager more of a white-ish gray? Transformation is somewhat simple. It doesn't look like much, but ironically it does look better than the movie alt mode and even holds together better than it. The hip joints are way too loose on mine, which sounds like it's a common problem. It's difficult to get poses with the cannon. At least the arm joints are nice and tight.

Prime....I'm a little dissappointed in. Not that it's a bad figure, just that I'm feeling too much deja vu. I already have the cybertronian animated one, and this is almost exactly like it, only minus the excellent weapon integration into alt mode. Joints are tight on it, thankfully.

These are nice, but I think I spoiled myself by getting the cybertron Prime first. It really is that nice of a figure.

Captain America's shield is on Tony's Stark's desk when he's trying to get his suit off and Paltrow walks in on him. Also, there's a rumor that the bluray version of The Hulk will contain 70 additional minutes that will contain a footage where you see Captian America. My guess is that General Ross has him in ice somewhere, in that scene where he gathers the serum.

70 minutes? that's a whole freakin movie already....

I had heard that Norton wasn't happy that the movie was edited down for time, but 70 minutes was excised? Yeowzer.

I don't know why, maybe it was the Starship Troopers thread, but I put Halo 3 back in the ol 360, and have been having a heck of a fun time with it, and on a higher difficulty than I played through last time. I don't think I had this much fun on my first play through. Maybe it's because I'm picking up items and using them right away instead of hording them for later like I usually do. I'm starting to think I didn't play this the correct way the first time through.

It's been said for a while now that

Stark appears in the film

, and now it appears as though

Fury is in it as well.

If this is true, do they both show up in the end, like with the Iron Man film, or do they have more substantial roles in the film?

That said, there's nothing to stay after the credits for.

I'm only intending to buy a few Animated figures. Mainly a Prime, Megatron, and maybe a Starscream. How big is leader earth mode Megatron? Is he as ridiculously large as leader Optimus? He's really the only Megatron figure I want out of the line because I really like the design, but with Premium Movie Megatron as large as he is, I don't want another huge hulking figure hogging my Megatron shelf.

I picked up Animated Cybertron Prime. I'm pretty impressed. There's really nothing hindering articulation in bot mode as he's pretty much just an action figure in that mode. I always like when they find a way to hide the wheels in bot mode, and this is a case where they have, albeit he only has front wheels to hide. I also always like weapon storage and this does it in such a clever way that he's holding the axe and shield when you're finally finished.

There's only two things I don't like, which are kind of minor. First it takes a bit of fiddling to get everything just right when going back to alt mode. Although transforming him to bot mode is almost instantaneous. The other is that there's some sloppy paint apps going on with the silver on the front fenders. No loose joints thankfully.

Being an "old school" Battlestar Galactica fan, I have only seen a few epiosdes, but was anybody really "surprised" that earth looked like the end of the original Planet of the Apes? I almost expected to see the head of the Statue of Liberty laying on the beach.

Given the ongoing depressing tone of the show, I don't think anyone was particularly surprised by it. People had other theories about what might happen when they got to earth, but I highly doubt they gasped when they saw earth was a radioactive wasteland. This show is all about the characters getting punched in the gut.....repeatedly, and the followup punch is always just as they've regained their breath.

Just came back from it and really enjoyed it. It's not excellent like Iron Man was, but it is good. The pacing's good and nothing made me cringe in a "this is nothing like the comics!" way. This is the Hulk SMASH movie everyone expected out of the first one. That's probably the only problem with it, it missed it's window. People were much more anticipating a new Hulk movie then as to compared now when the superhero line-up is particularly crowded.

I'm glad they rebooted the origin and didn't overcomplicate it with tissue repairing nannites exposed with gamma rays in a human descended from a human previously genetically altered with jellyfish DNA.

As for cameos, blink and you will miss Bill Bixby.

edit: grammar

Even though I'm one of the few who actually liked Ang Lee's Hulk, I did like this new one better, mostly because of Norton. And the set-up for the Avengers really made the audience cheer. I'll echo what other people have said, great but not as great as Iron Man. Too bad none of the toys for either film are very appealing.

The Hulk toys are craptastically asstastic. The Iron Man toys, OTOH, are the complete opposite.

I also liked Ang Lee's Hulk.

I expected it to end at the announcement that they knew where Earth was because of the viper. Then I expected it to end when the president gave the order to jump. *Then* I expected it to end when Gaeta said the coordinates were a match. **Then** I certainly and fully expected it to end when earth was in view. I sort of expected what actually happened, I just didn't expect them to show us as much as they did in this episode.

What I also loved about the episode was that Adama reacted exactly like he should have to Saul's revelation. He also brought up valid points I've been asking about Cylon's aging and how could Tigh have been one this long. So the writers haven't forgotten about those points, but they still haven't answered them!!! Grrrr....

I have to give the creators credit, they're skilled at the art of dangling the carrot. Skilled to a purely evil degree. Waiting until 09 is cruelty, plain and simple.

Was it or was all the action and starship scenes recycled from the first movie?

That thought struck me too. Some of that looked awfully familiar.

Is the pilot ep of Venture Bros. by chance on either of the DVD's that are out now? I've never seen it, but there's a clip in the "10-Best Brock Fights" on adultswim.com, and it's fuggin' awesome! Brock pretty much eviscerates a crocodile that's stowed away in a luggage bin on the X1. It's cool to see the characters in their more rough-hewn, "original" conceptions.

It's an extra on the first season set. Pretty good episode, actually.

Have to ditto what JsArclight said above. This last ep was good, and answered a lot of remaining questions(now we know why Billy and Pete live in a camper), but it wasn't a knock out of the park like the last two were. A little odd since it has all the best characters in it. Still good pizza regardless.

My friend told me he's going to be bummed out if Brock doesn't at least mention the Led Zeppelin reunion this season or even better, attend the concert in the show.

If you can get the Fewture Mazinger before they're all gone.. amazing toy if you have $300 to throw away.

What's the deal with the Fewture Mazinger that it costs so much anyway?

Those are both the basic Mazinger shape I'm looking for. The second one looks better, which is also the 1R version promethuem5 mentioned. None of the ones on ebay at the moment are the 1R version though.

Thank you.

Turns out my ebay search was wrong, there's plenty of GX-01R Mazinger's on there, some even with Aphrodite A. I found a seller(Maybang, sounds familiar for some reason) in the U.S. that was selling the 1R for $80 shipped and went with that. He seems to go for $100+ elsewhere when you factor in shipping, on ebay at least.

I'll post comments when he arrives. This is my third SoC. The other two are MechaGodzillas MG-02 and Kiryu, both of which I love.

sweet got leaked 2 weeks early watched it earlier pretty good I liked the first one better but still good futurama so good bender poo bricks. Definitely plan to pick it up like the first.

I...ahem...watched it. It's ok. The first one was definitely better. This was missing something. I can't quite pinpoint what it was just yet. Maybe it'll get better on a repeat viewing.

Diamondillium is stronger, btw.

I don't know why, but reading your post gave me the chills, Skullsixx. And in a good way.

I think the thing I like the most is the inference that the end of the series is going to tie back to the beginning. That's the way it should be, and I'm glad that it sounds like that's the way they're doing it.

Really dissappointed that we're not going to get the final cylon reveal this week, and will have to wait until 2009. BOO!

Poor QC with the TF: Animated figures??? Whoa, this is very disappointing ....

Yeah, seeing the news on the allspark really caught me by surprise. They look like excellent engineered figures otherwise. Don't know if the kids will care as much as the collector's do.

Always?

I "always" thought so. There was an episode where Adama was flashing back to his marriage because it was the day of his wedding anniversary. Edit: Forgot to mention this is the episode where we find out about the ring. He seemed to romaticize it, and blamed himself for the break up. It was Apollo who came in later in the episode and pretty much told him how it really was, and how she wasn't mentally healthy. Adama seemed to cling to the good memory anyway even though Apollo told him it was a false one. I think this was pretty much the starting point for the storyline for him and Roslin becoming an item.

At least that's what I remembered. I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong.

I always invert the Y-axis on every game I play because I got used to it while playing flight sims.

Same here. It's from playing flight sims on a pc ages ago, and is something I can't unlearn. I can't play a FPS without Y-inversion options without getting really annoyed and invariably looking down when I wanted to look up when the action starts getting heavy.

Have the centurions always had that spinning thing in their chest, or was this one just lighted differently this time around?

This is the first I've ever seen it. Granted this is also the first time we've had a toaster still enough and on screen enough to notice. I was fully expecting the toaster to answer Gaius too.

Ok, the plot point's been established that without the hub, cylons are like humans now and can die. A few nagging questions come to mind though.

What's the deal with resurrection ships then? We know the cylons have them. They made it sound like it's something they have tag along when going on deep space missions so they'd have somewhere to download to.

Have they ever really revealed if cylons age?

I think what you're looking for is this: http://www.collectiondx.com/node/635

or this: http://www.collectiondx.com/node/560

Those are both the basic Mazinger shape I'm looking for. The second one looks better, which is also the 1R version promethuem5 mentioned. None of the ones on ebay at the moment are the 1R version though.

Thank you.