JB0

Oh man, I really like how Venom came out! I never owned the deluxe insecticons, but I sure wanted them. Wish the whole team could've gotten this treatment, though Venom's probably the one that we win most with. Chop Shop's gotten pretty close with a Shrapnel rework, and the other two ... their original designs aren't near as good.

I agree they should've found something better to do with the wings rather than being slavishly toy-accurate. The orange bit in his torso is a nice accent that I think improves the design. I probably would've updated the axe-head to a kukri knife if they'd asked me.

7 minutes ago, David Hingtgen said:

It's that, AND the whole "can't tell wings from tailplanes, so they just tend to add lots of them all over" syndrome.   It's like everyone has wings on their legs AND tailplanes on their legs, AND wings on the backpack AND the tail on the backpack.  Just, 'stuff everywhere' combining all the robot modes from the whole team on every individual.

Insert "biblically-accurate aerialbots" meme here.

On 9/14/2025 at 8:05 AM, mikeszekely said:

So that regardless of whether you prefer to or toon colors you have to buy both sets.😒

Evil! 

I don't undestand why Dr Wu packaged a toy-inspired Cliffjumper with an utterly hideous toon-inspired Shockwave. It is a weird choice to mix 'em like that, even ignoring my visceral hatred of Shockwave's toon colors.

On 9/11/2025 at 11:37 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Seriously.  That's not a thing in Star Trek.  "Good" and "Evil" are relative.  They depend on subjective morality.  One culture's Good is another culture's Evil.  There's no such thing as a universal definition of "Evil", never mind a universal origin of "Evil".

More importantly, if you ARE pure distilled evil, you turn into a puddle of metamucil and ink. You don't retain a humanoid form.

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

FAFO with Janeway... you just don't.  Not if you want to live.  There is a BODY COUNT and it is NOT small.  (Canonically, it's in the trillions by 2401.)

Janeway's a dice roll. Depends who is writing this week whether she's going to let you off with a warning or beam you down to LV-426 with a smile on her face. 

 

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Sisko would hit 'em with the side eye and then tell Odo to throw them in a holding cell, probably more to save them from the wrath of Major Kira than as a punishment. 

I can see it now. 

Beto: "We have a free press. You can't imprison me just because my writing made you mad."

Sisko: "Oh, I'm not mad. I'm disappointed. I've done horrible things. But instead of writing about the time I dropped bioweapons on an inhabited colony, rendering the entire planet uninhabitable-"

Beto: "You did WHAT?"

Sisko: " - or that Romulan ambassador I ordered my tailor from the Obsidian Order to assassinate to open a new front in the Dominion war and buy us some breathing room-"

Beto: "You ordered - wait, your tailor is from WHERE? "

Sisko: "- or any of the other LEGITIMATE crimes I've committed that I DESERVE to be raked over the coals for, you made up a pack of lies about my crew that aren't fit to line the bottom of my barkeeper's bird cage. And you didn't even stop to think what my first officer, a CONVICTED TERRORIST-

Beto: "Your first officer is WHAT?"

Sisko: "- WITH ANGER MANAGEMENT ISSUES would do when she heard the rumors you were fabricating from whole cloth. This isn't about oppressing the freedom of the press you claim to be a part of, this is protective custody. Though I'm told jails are better at keeping people in than they are at keeping people OUT. Pleasant dreams, sir."

Beto: "Excuse me, mister constable sir? Could you maybe post additional guards? Just to make sure I don't escape?"

Odo: "Unfortunately, my post here isn't large enough to add additional personnel. It's just me, the 'changeling infiltrator' you wrote about. And I was just leaving for my evening regeneration. *chuckle* I'll see you in the morning."

Beto: "I didn't know you actually WERE a changeling!"

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

This will be my first official Devastator since I started collecting in '84

True story: I've never owned a complete Devastator.

I don't see that changing soon. Every one I've seen is too expensive, not my taste in toy robots, or both.

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

If basketball is still played in the Macross universe, there has to be a Zentradi-only league because that's just plain unfair.

I think this is the topic of a postwar drama, Cyan Men Can't Jump.

8 hours ago, Big s said:

I thought the point of banging a robot was that you wouldn’t have babies 

Armitage III suggested just the opposite.

On 8/18/2025 at 8:26 PM, mikeszekely said:

Last but not least, we have the Takara Godzilla Megatron crossover.  In robot mode, from the neck down it's just Studio Series Grimlock in a mix and dark and light grays, with a little bit of red in some spots. 

Thank goodness for the red, or we'd think he was dead in stasis lock.

On 8/19/2025 at 11:47 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Random Q for the performance/gaming aficionados here... have you any thoughts on the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K as a processor for a gaming rig?  

I know Intel's kind of on the outs with that community due to the issue with the 13900 and 14900, so I was wondering if that chip has any major drawbacks.

Personally, I do not trust Intel right now. They have overtly lied so hard about the issues with their previous processors I have no faith in their undocumented assuraces that the oxidation problems have been addressed, and their microcode fixes clearly aren't solving the overvolting problems(can't fix hardware with software). Right now, I wouldn't pay for ANY Intel part.

Stats-wise, the 200 series has proven underwhelming. Even Userbenchmark's notoriously wild Intel bias can't generate anything good to say in his 285K writeup, or even find room to throw in an unrelated paragraph of how much AMD sucks. I'm genuinely worried about the poor guy.

"Hey guys! What if Space Seed but also Doomsday Machine!"

On 8/12/2025 at 8:47 PM, Devil 505 said:

The F-22 had the provisional name "Lightning II" before they settled on "Raptor," hence the name of Novalogic's PC flight sim for the F-22, F-22 Lightning II. Speaking of which, the third game in the series, F-22 Lightning 3, has a Macross reference, as "Skull Squadron" is the name of an allied F-14 squadron in the game.

Fair enough. The F-22 does get in just under the wire.

1 hour ago, pengbuzz said:

Guess she never has to worry about Macross collectible preorders, huh?

Nope. She gets a good night's sleep, then pays the scalper markup. Doesn't even hesitate.

On 8/8/2025 at 10:13 AM, Big s said:

At least they didn’t go with Ryan Reynolds 

There can be only one... cellular service provider, and it's Mint Mobile.

8 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Maybe, but can it run Crysis?

Yes, but not ideally since Crysis is designed for high single-core performance.

...

Actually, "not without mods". Crysis uses 3DNow! instructions when running on an AMD processor, and AMD removed 3DNow! support.

You know, the more I think about the He-Man crossover, the more disappointed I am with it. I know this is being done on Mattel's side as He-Man but also Trvansformers instead of Transformers but also He-Man... but there's a lot of vehicles in He-Man and a Land Shark that turned into Skeletor would be frickin' awesome. Pair that off with a Wind Raider that becomes He-Man and you've got a hit on your hands. Or better yet a triple-changer that turns into Prince Adam as well!

46 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I won't say a word of complaint if they put out an Evil-Lyn wearing that Kotobukiya Bishoujo Starscream outfit...

In the words of Castlevania's Alucard: I'm interested in this.

24 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Uh... 🤨

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Spoilers: Even wearing Megatron as a shirt won't stop him from betraying Skeletor at the worst moment.

On 7/19/2025 at 12:53 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Plus the Frontier NUNS initially doesn't have weapons that can hurt the Vajra.  Scorning them for feeling fear when they're fighting a fight they have no hope of winning and dying for it is pretty unfair. 

On the other hand, SMS is only equipped for the job because they're doing testing for the new fighter before the NUNS adopts it. And I recall there being lines to the effect that SMS  was doing the testing primarily so that the government didn't owe anything to anyone if something went wrong. Independent contractors aren't entitled to medical benefits or compensation to next-of-kin, they're just up a creek if the lightly-tested plane decides to go project supernova under their chair or something.

Ironically, in this case the gubmint probably paid out more in medical and bereavement due to their policy of being responsibility-dodging cheapskates.

It probably won't do SegaCD. It isn't impossible, but I think if they'd cloned the more-expensive MD Everdrive Pro they would advertise that fact.

I do hope it's a good clone. 

8 hours ago, Old_Nash_II said:

First teaser

Trailer tomorrow

I like the implication that Mortal Kombat's universe differs from our own mainly in that New Line Cinema didn't get bought out.

10 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

and that in-story the developers absolutely intended to mass produce them as-is instead of watering them down into a much weaker production machine.  

That's a cliche I've never really understood. Surely the point of trialing a prototype is to find out if it meets performance expectations and is fit for purpose. Adopting a machine that WASN'T trialed based on the performance of the machine you tested just doesn't make a lot of sense.

It's like if the US had tested the YF-22 and then bought the F-35A because the -22 tested so well, instead of testing the YF-35.

13 hours ago, Gendo Koun said:

 👈

Ayup. 

15 hours ago, anime52k8 said:

I kind of like how incredibly stupid the combined trailer mode looks.

Same. The Spacejet Winnebago and Orguss Tank modes fall into the "so bad it's good" category for me.

Among other things, he was the first person to have Superman and The Flash race each other. 10/10, greatest comix writer of all time.