Alpha OTS

Jsarclight, I enjoy reading your posts. I'm curious as to what your opinion on upscaling standard dvds is. What do you think of the difference between watching a natural 480(I know it's encoded as interlaced) picture in 480p on your hdtv vs upscaling that 480 picture to 1080. Actually, I'd like to hear anyone's experience on the subject. My xbox 360 vga cable just broke. I'm still unsure how, but it just no longer works, and it was upscaling my dvds(according to my tv menu at least). So I had to go back to the regular component cables for the moment. I have a regular dvd in now, and I'm not so sure there's a difference as when I played the same dvd upscaled to 1080.

Just finished watching the HD. Damn, that was fun. Things that annoyed me before didn't annoy me as much. Probably because I was expecting it now. The Jazz death sequence still bugs me though as it was still without any real resonance. It just happens. Even the autobots seem a little nonchalant about it. There's other minor things, but this movie's just fun. I even kind of enjoyed the arrogantly stupid Sector Seven guy. I too remember in the theater how this was all jumping around so quickly during the end of the movie, which I remember being a common gripe during the movie release too, but this time I was able to focus more on what was happening and take in all the robot detail/action. Factor it to an HD home viewing or to me just knowing what to expect. Regardless, I enjoyed this much more on the second viewing.

I went to Target with intent of getting the HD copy, which I did. However, I seriously considered picking up the transforming case copy because I collect Optimus Primes and the case seems like a borderline true transformer. So how durable is that case, and can it really stand up on its own?

I'm in agreement with the above, but I'll elaborate more. I'm more concerned with the Hollywood Godzilla aspects of introducing a transforming aircraft carrier. We didn't get the Transformer characterization we did because of Bay, we got it *despite* Bay. And unfortunately look at how little it was. Seriously, we're lucky we got what we did. Throw a Hollywood Godzilla into the mix, and we'll get even less.

Dang, there were that many episodes!?

Two things about that bother me. Bay is still involved(we were lucky we got what robot characterization and mythos we did despite his involvement), and two, that's just a terrible idea.

I'm crossing my fingers for a more G1 deco'd Megatron. An anime Astrotrain wouldn't hurt either.

I know we already discussed that you wanted a leader scale. Well, here's another one you don't want. A voyager redeco in G1 colors which also quite amazingly succeeds at being one ass ugly figure. I pray if and when they do do a G1 deco leader class, they don't do it this way. Allspark Power wave pics at tformers.com They're also releasing Ironhide again but in blue. He looks quite a bit like Soundwave now.

I was looking for a picture of the Energon Grimlock and Swoop combiner to show how poorly engineered and half-assed the above good idea turned out. Oddly, this picture from the G1 cartoon came up in my search results, and is just.....wrong.... Had to share...

I'm surprised how well he looks amongst an Alternator line-up.

The only thing I really don't like about Barricade is that there's no head articulation at all. The spring loaded arm is kind of pointless too. I do *very* much like that he has the "to punish and enslave" logo and the soundwavish Frenzy gimmick is neat too. Everyone seems to have that problem with deluxe Brawl though. I usually don't handle my figures much once I find "the pose", so it's not as much an issue for me, but yeah, if you handle the arms at all they detach from the chest. You sure you didn't break your 70s Bee's morphing tab? It's the tab underneath the hood transform button that kind of helps hold the front end together. If you force the automorph on the front end instead of pressing the button, you could break the tab and end up with the problem you describe. How do you mean floppy? I have two 70s Bees now(the extra was from buying the Target Evolution of a Hero set) and neither are floppy. Concept Bee is, without a doubt in my mind, the best deluxe figure to come out in a loooooong time. Very Alternator-esque and at a small scale. No one loves Bonecrusher enough. No wonder he hates everyone and everything. I have him in a skating pose that's pretty close to his cameo appearance in the movie.

This sucks. I would really like to own the prequel dvd, but when I bought this HD DVD drive for my 360, Transformers was one of the movies I used to rationalize the purchase. Seems like every other movie I want in hi-def so far is only on bluray too.

The voyager is a really nice mold though. I have the Target Robovision Voyager Prime with the G1-esque deco, and the silver paint they used really makes it look sharp. Much better than the standard deco voyager Prime, imho.

I found the new concept BB, but it was in the Target exclusive Evolution of a Hero(BB two pack) set. I have two 70's Bees now. It's a real shame that they didn't opt for the Japanese 70s Bee with the purple translucent windows and missiles like is on the back of the package. Unfortunately it looks like it's the same exact 70s Bee we saw before(if you were lucky enough to find him). Concept BB is the best deluxe imho. The contrasting colors, the mechanical detail, the transformation and the weapon simply work on a level beyond your general deluxe. I just wish I had him in normal colors instead of this battle damage. Given how barren the deluxe pegs *still* are around here, I just couldn't pass him up.

I never understood the fascination with the Piranacon set. The transformers fandom has been screaming for a reissue for years. Looks like it might be finally coming out too. G1 Piranacon Prototype Surfaces on Ebay.

I'm in the process of ebaying all my RiD stuff now. It was a really hard decision to make because this was the stuff that got me into collecting again. The problem is that it's all been in a box in the closet for far too long because other, not necessarily but sometimes better, stuff has come since which I enjoy displaying more. Alternators being the major reason(and also the next logical step after RiD engineering), characterization being the other. There's no Bumblebee or Ironhide or Hikaru in the RiD bunch to warrant holding on to it. Anyway, I just finished doing a "photoshoot" of RailRacer for ebay. This really is a fantastic figure. I really like the Build King/Landfill molds too, although they're not held in near as high a regard as the JRX set.

I buy used games all the time, BUT, I always demand to see the back of the disc before I'll buy it.

I have similar plans. I'm just hoping my system holds out long enough until the next price drop.

That was pretty cool, I thought. A lot of thought and work went into those. And as a Macross site, I'm sure everyone should like the gerwalking Starscream.

I wonder, do they offer an "exclusive two plus month waiting period!" for these free movies?

Although I didn't buy any of the Target exclusives, I did like that they colored the energon pieces so they looked more like solid pieces of metal instead of the blazing translucent red they were in the Energon line.

This is a minor nitpick, but after Gears of War, I expected to be able to join co-op games with random people. The only people you can play co-op games with are people in your friends and recently played friends list, so you have to arrange the match(ie: invite them). There's no way to browse lobbys waiting for people to start co-op games. Gears made it easy to play co-op with random people, and you could even co-op into a running game. If I missed out how to do this, please tell me. I went to gamefaqs and xbox.com researching this because I was honestly surprised it wasn't in the game.

I prefer this paint scheme and am glad I waited, but yeah, I would have much preferred full blown TV colors too.

Or is it that people's 360s haven't seen much activity until Halo 3 and now their system's reached the mileage needed for a RROD?

Wuh?