Dio

I'm with this guy. I lucked out to find a Turbo Tracks at a Walgreens, but haven't seen or heard a peep about Jazz nearby... I feel like I missed the wave somehow, especially in light of all the excited Wreck-Gar sightings. At least I got my FansProject Protector in, this thing is SWEET. I also nabbed the upgrade kit for Alternators Prime (Matrix and converting gas can rifle), which really spices the toy up for me. Now just waiting for the Superion add-on kit reissue...

Please don't make fun of me

Max was clearly not a pushover outside of the pilots' seat, he handled himself quite well in a brawl in the show along with Kyle... Kaifun? Only seen it in Robotech, never seen pure Macross original series so forgive my ignorance. The same applies to Gamlin, outside of his Valk he's still got some awesome skills. He single-handedly defeated a building full of terrorists with a tranquilizer rifle, making him something of a cross between Bruce Willis and Solid Snake

Gamlin! There's something to be said about the guy who goes and jumps in a brutal centrifuge out of sheer determination to tolerate a piloting technique. The other pilots like Isamu and Roy certainly have existing talents and "cool" factors, but Gamlin takes the cake in my mind because he's not just talented, he actually gets better over the course of his series through determination and hard work. I think I see a kindred spirit in the guy, because I frequently have had to work through adversity and persevere in life to achieve my successes. That, and he's a bit of a stick in the mud because he's always so serious.

Fokker let him jump into the pilot seat of their latest top-secret transforming fighter jet to show him what a real plane would feel like. Clearances shmearances. Fortune favors the bold. Off-topic: Woohoo! Promotion from armour waxer to heatshield scrubber!

My copy of Black Ops won't even run with the patch installed, I get the "cannot read blu-ray disc" error. The game really struck me as a giant pile of "meh," with maybe the exception of the Zombies mode, which is just hilarious (former Presidents Kennedy and Nixon making Duke Nukem-style taunts). The general conclusion from the folks I talk to is that MW2 was way better. This one felt just a little too rushed for me, even the single player campaign seems to just force a run-and-gun mentality that doesn't leave any fun for sniping or creative explosive setups.

I did see a new "Reveal the Shield" figure today at Walgreens, but can't remember the name. It was some blue/black missile truck thing with a pretty ugly looking bot mode. I passed. However, the point about Walgreens having new figures is correct.

Only seen the first 2 (from the youtube links) and have a mixed bag of reviews. I feel somewhat tainted by previous shows, in that this one is coming off as a bit of a Frankenstein mix of "things the writers heard the fans loved about Animated" and "things the writers want to inject into it because it's a tie-in to the movies they also wrote." There just doesn't seem to be much understanding of the source material there, and the homages/copied elements that they're trying for come off as half-assed and not well understood. "Con" Examples Ratchet & Bulkhead are cranky, and ostensibly an endearing giant, respectively. However, it just comes off as "jerk" and "generic muscle that the token human girl forms an attachment to." The back story of Cybertron seems to contain a few general points throwing back to WFC (advertised as the prequel), but it's like they didn't really do their homework and just watched a few game clips on YouTube, then decided to include the plot points they could remember. Despite all that, oddly enough, it's the new original material that I'm liking the most, and what I think will be the show's strong points. "Pro" Examples Arcee and Cliffjumper are pretty compelling incarnations this go-around. I especially like Cliffjumper's portrayal, because it establishes that the series isn't messing around and wants to carry some sense of gravity. Arcee with a little bit of a past isn't done over-the-top and I think they're doing a good job of setting up the partnership with her human character. She could have very easily been done as "Cheerleader Prowl" and I'm thankful they're exercising a little bit of subtlety. Optimus is seeming pretty classic, and so far is done right. Seeing him interact with a more realistic human government is a neat angle that they never really explored outside of the movies. Megatron will hopefully see some character development as well, there's potential there. Soundwave I'm really liking - it's a good style for him. It looks like it's got some good production values and they're at least putting some thought into it, so maybe it will find its feet and really make that extra push to become something awesome in its own right. Either way, I can't wait to see the toys. And their zombie versions.

Interesting, I actually recognized a few of the scenes from the trailer. I'm curious to see how they portray Sam & Dean, since it's going to be an Eastern perspective on a couple of very stereotypically American characters.

Picked up Terradive and Skullgrin yesterday, and my Skullgrin has two left finger pieces! It doesn't ruin the toy, and it's actually kind of a charming quirk. Very hard to transform and get locked into either mode, though... I feel like a failure if anything pops off during the transformation. Terradive is very neat, I like the style of the transformation, very similar to Cybertron Sideways with a slightly quirkier cockpit. I came close to buying Thunderwing but I can't see him as anything other than a downsized Classics Jetfire, just uglier. I suppose if I had more attachment to the character I'd snap him up in a heartbeat, but the comics focused on him didn't really resonate with me. Still hunting for Jazz and Tracks! Oh, and I ordered an Allspark Almanac Volume 2 off Amazon today, get em while they're hot!

VF-17 for me... awesome cannon, good looks, plus it has the attachable BFG for sending Gabil home crying episode after episode.. after episode

Disclaimer: I have not read the comic. I'm a bit torn by this show. I think I have to understand the context, that they're trying to tell a story as though the characters have never considered or been aware of a "zombie" situation, despite decades of media and fiction existing on the subject. A zombie scenario these days would play out more like Zombieland, I think. That being said, if Night of the Living Dead had never come out, and this was the first time the premise had ever been told by a film/miniseries, this show is downright excellent. Like another poster above, my wife is freaked out by the show, and it definitely hits all the right notes as far as character drama, scene setup, and the casting/directing is great. I was skeptical at first, but am now hooked. I do have to question the choice of what to use the hack saw on in the latest episode though, since the metal rod or the small chain would probably have been more easy to cut through...

Any idea what the likelihood is for a second printing of the Allspark Almanacs (particularly Vol. 2)? Those things are all but impossible to find online, and I'm starting to lose hope.

Hobby Link Japan has the VF-11C 20% off right now, if anyone's interested.

Sorry, my photos earlier were from the morning, had to wait till now for dusk. My wife has a knack for lighting (and was actually the one who pointed the Dioders out at the store), so every room in our house gets sunlit for most of the day. Obviously, the degree of lighting is going to depend on how crowded the shelves are, but one valk per shelf seems to work out nicely. My third shelves down are packed more densely, and it shows in the shadows over the bottom figures. Lower-profile display stands may also help, I've just been too lazy to pick up clear FlexiDisplay stands... ironic, because I live within shopping distance of LAFToys With the sticky-pads (alternative to screwed brackets) and very thin wiring the lights offer, it wouldn't be any trouble at all to run wires down the support rails and attach a second set two shelves down if you'd like more light throughout the cabinet. The nice thing about these style of lights is that they can be very easily adapted to different configurations, and can be daisy-chained with one another... so someone creative could probably run a set of extension wires out of the first light rails, to a second set, and still drive them with the one power supply.

Hey guys, I know the IKEA Detolf has long been a mainstay of the display cabinets in use by MW members, and I finally joined the club about a month ago. However, I also found some cool lighting that can be mounted pretty easily along the upper ceiling of the cabinet, using the IKEA "Dioder" brand of LED light strips. They're originally intended to provide edge lighting around a TV set and help with eye strain, but the size and profile are just right for the cabinets, and the LED's are quite energy efficient as well. See attached photos for how I rigged them up, one set of Dioders is adequate for lighting two cabinets with a top-mount (2 rails per cabinet), but I'm sure you could get creative with them. Photos taken with and without flash, for comparison.

WFC Prime is pretty cool, though a bit smaller than I expected. He totally has a "Gears of War" vibe to the way his bot mode stands, especially when you position it so he's holding his gun with two hands and leaning forward slightly. I'm slightly surprised they'd build this many small parts and joints into a [slightly smaller than] deluxe-sized figure, but I guess plastic must be improving. No luck finding Bee or Peg yet, unfortunately. Maybe the lull in TF's will allow me to shift my focus back to Valk collecting, I've been meaning to invest in a VF-11C for some time now.

It looks like a Star Wars game based on the God of War play mechanics and style (rapid combat with moments of partially-controlled extreme action sequences). It's certainly not a bad thing, in fact I'm quite pleased that this game is completely unashamed to celebrate badassery. I haven't gotten a chance to play the first one yet, due to lack of a next-gen console, but it's definitely on the to-do list, if as nothing more than a prelude to its own awesome sequel.

Two words: Darth Kratos.

I'm somewhat struck by how Physica's death affects Gamlin - he's now (for the time being) the only surviving/conscious member of Diamond Force, and has to shoulder a pretty heavy burden. I do find it somewhat odd that the enemies would shoot to kill though, as up til now they've primarily been disabling scores of VF-11C fighters and draining spiritia from the cockpits. Was Gigil just getting overzealous this episode? Which leads to another tech question - what's the ejection system of the VF-17? Is it a detachable cockpit like with the VF-1 & VF-11, or a more conventional ejection seat like with the YF-19? It's interesting that we don't see many ejections in Macross aside from these (even in Frontier we only see them jump out of the cockpit in their EX-Gear), that's something that would have been neat to get more elaboration on.

I'm somewhat struck by how Physica's death affects Gamlin - he's now (for the time being) the only surviving/conscious member of Diamond Force, and has to shoulder a pretty heavy burden. I do find it somewhat odd that the enemies would shoot to kill though, as up til now they've primarily been disabling scores of VF-11C fighters and draining spiritia from the cockpits. Was Gigil just getting overzealous this episode? Which leads to another tech question - what's the ejection system of the VF-17? Is it a detachable cockpit like with the VF-1 & VF-11, or a more conventional ejection seat like with the YF-19? It's interesting that we don't see many ejections in Macross aside from these (even in Frontier we only see them jump out of the cockpit in their EX-Gear), that's something that would have been neat to get more elaboration on.

Could be worse, you could have watched the Sci Fi Channel "Alice." Ugh. Alice on SyFy

Any word on when that gorgeous red VF-22 is getting a toy?

Thanks! My wife hates Gabil, and calls him the "evil space monkey," so that's where I got the idea. When I get some time I'd like to do a whole cast photo, time permitting.

This guy was the best man at my wedding, and obviously has way more courage than I do (that took 7.5 hours just to outline)