TF Views

On the way back from a doctor's appointment today, I drifted in to a Target. (I normally do not go toy hunting for myself after going to the doctor's, as a way of keeping things in perspective. But, it was hot and Target is air-conditioned. And, Lewis is looking for a few things.)

I found the current wave of blind bagged Kreons, at least one and a half case/boxes worth. And, I had a partial list of numbers saved in my phone, so I grabbed the 3 I most wanted. (Being over-heated and kind of hungry made the choice more a deliberation than I would have wanted.)

-Acid Wing (Acide Storm): A favourite character of mine by virtue of him being a new character and having a "not an over-hyped bad-ass" character profile. He was my "must get". Ironically, I would not have needed my code list to find Acid Wing (which I prefer as a name), as there was an opened baggie. (I grabbed a sealed copy. If a kid wants Acid Wing, he will have an easier time finding one. At the very least, he can rule out at least one bag, if not all bags with code 70.)

-Scourge: They had multiples of these. I almost bought 3, but did not want to wipe out the supply. (Code 72.)

-Bombshell: My appreciation for Bombshell has always been a quiet affair, but it has grown steadily, especially in recent years with "All Hail Megatron" and Barber's run on the comics. (I nearly bought another Devastator to bodge Kreon Prowl in to. But, I recalled that set being very disappointing. Code 67.)


And, I made a point to offer codes to a few parents who were walking by, though none were interested in Kreons.


-Decoding Dom.....

A second pair of tires, making a whole set of new tires! The shop took a look at the car and said that there wasn't anything really wrong aside from the very expensive oxygen sensor which can wait until I save up the grand to replace it (stupid oxy sensors), struts are noisy but safe for now, alignment is straight, so into the tires the held-back funds went. And they're W-rated, that's 168 miles per fuckin' hour! The car is limited to 140mph and gets REALLY thirsty even above 75, but it's still nice to know I'll be driving to Botcon safely and possibly quickly.

Star Wars Thermal Detonator Hot Potato Game - a Disney parks exclusive, this is a toy prop replica of the thermal detonator Leia disguised as Boushh used in Return of the Jedi, it has a movie mode and also a game mode where it goes off after around 45 seconds (it has 4 or 5 variations) and then makes an exploding sound followed by a SW character comment. Lights and sounds are authentic, and it has a stand.

TFG FOC Sideswipe - I'm a little conflicted, his face is a tad droll and jolly while his eyes are dead in dark gray with a single white vertical line each; he's also nothing like his game look and has the same issues as Jazz, plus a ridiculously stupidly large path blaster with a giant turbine sticking way out the side. But overall he has charm and the remolded bits look much better than Jazz.

TFG FOC Ultra Magnus - giant chin and huge red eyes with a tiny nose, is this an Animated evil twin character? It's like an amalgamation of ideas, but it doesn't suck, just a little odd. Head is the only mold change, everything else is left up to the very different deco, very blue and very white. The hips and waist are even looser than OP's though, maybe it's mold oil that can be removed, I haven't tried yet. The standard Optimus blaster is augmented by the inclusion of the big-ass-sword that looks alright and busts apart into 3 pieces to be attached around the blaster to make a mega gunsword. I'm thinking of swapping his weapons with Sideswipe's path blaster.

Holy shit, took an impromptu trip to Target today and apropos of nothing, found Sandstorm and Grimwing on the shelves! Snagged 'em both, I've bee looking forward to these toys. Sandstorm is pretty brilliant, almost more worth getting if you already have Springer, just to see how much was changed between them. As I've said before, I don't even mind the backpack since, to me, Sandstorm's supposed to be a backpack-y guy. The bigass-backwheeled dune buggy mode is fun as hell too. His gun kinda sucks though, not as nice as Springer's, and Sandstorm doesn't come with a sword to make up for it. Still a damn fine toy, also just very substantial for a Voyager. Grimwing is, by comparison, kinda simple and disappointing. Biggest issue is that none of his chest bits lock down at all in robot mode, so that section's an ever-shifting mass of panels when you're trying to move him, so that's kinda frustrating. But his weapon, while utterly failing as a missile launcher, looks cool on its own and I like the way he can hold the hook separately while still having it tethered to the launcher, looks nice. I'm a bit saddened that the wings are solid pieces and can't be unfurled or expanded, would have really sold the toy, but they still look decently cool in both modes. Decent amount to his transformation, though he's not as complex or interesting as Sandstorm, by comparison. Be sure to catch that his knees can expand more than they look like for robot mode, really improves the proportions and helps separate the two modes. So he's fun, but not great.

MTMTE #18. I dunno yet, haven't cracked it, I'll let you know tomorrow perhaps.

Bought the second half of the first season of the animated Green Lantern series on DVD. And that may be it, actually. Has that series been cancelled?

andersonh1 wrote:Bought the second half of the first season of the animated Green Lantern series on DVD. And that may be it, actually. Has that series been cancelled?

I believe so.

TFP Dark Energon Wheeljack - straight from BBTS, a very nice figure and a good use of this mold if you like translucent. It's all dark coloring instead of white, dark navy blue trans plastic most everywhere, orangey bronze instead of silver paint, very striking translucent red eyes as well as the windshield halves, looks keen. If it weren't for an Autobot logo in red over silver on a bronze shield on each forearm/door, this would be a very bad-guy look.

TFP Dark Energon Knockout - again, straight from the BBTS booth, I never liked the deco on the original mold and this proves why, this is dynamic and alive and exciting. Yes, it's translucent green with trans and solid purple, so it's a bit Constructicon-y, but it's pleasant to look at and the trans-green plastic comes alive in any light. Deco on the head is purple with trans purple eyes on a silver face. The doors have a slanted black Decepticon logo as if he's so fast that they are being pulled off. The hood has a black panel with a pink crossed pair of paint lines with a big purple over silver 'Con logo. Some areas like the bumper and window sills are painted brightly and while they don't technically match the trans plastics, they do look good with them. Excellent pickup.

Kre-O G2 Devastator Kreon - Hasbro's booth giveaway. Comes with trans purple Megatron gun-mode accessory.

That's it, that's all I could really justify buying. I almost bought an MP Starscream 3rd party crown set for $20, but couldn't find the booth.

andersonh1 wrote:Bought the second half of the first season of the animated Green Lantern series on DVD. And that may be it, actually. Has that series been cancelled?

Yes, GL:TAS has been canceled, replaced by Beware the Batman, which looks awful. Young Justice replaced by Teen Titans Go. What is this world coming to?

JediTricks wrote:

andersonh1 wrote:Bought the second half of the first season of the animated Green Lantern series on DVD. And that may be it, actually. Has that series been cancelled?

Yes, GL:TAS has been canceled, replaced by Beware the Batman, which looks awful. Young Justice replaced by Teen Titans Go. What is this world coming to?

Too bad. I sampled both Young Justice and Green Lantern TAS on DVD (since I don't have cable) and enjoyed both quite a bit. I was hoping for more, but all the good stuff gets cancelled.

JediTricks wrote:Yes, GL:TAS has been canceled, replaced by Beware the Batman, which looks awful. Young Justice replaced by Teen Titans Go. What is this world coming to?

You know what my 'favorite' thing about Beware the Batman is? The way they've nonsensically stuck Katana in there as his sidekick. Honestly, I am TOTALLY for diversity, and have no problem with Batman in this new series being given a female, Asian sidekick. And I mean, it's not like Batman had any other previous sidekicks who were female and Asian who could have filled the role-


...sigh.

Especially since Cassandra has the added advantages of not dressing like some hilariously stereotyped Sammer-Eye, or being named 'Katana'.

Anyway, package from eBay came: Classics Devastator! Yes, finally! Been wanting this thing ever since it came out, my local Wal-Mart never got it, and it shot up in value on the secondary market to ridiculous levels. This one I scored for like five bucks above the original MRSP of the pack. It's a fun bunch of toys, I haven't owned the Energon Constructicon molds before, and I think they're my favorite of any of the Ener-combiners. The 'Scrapper' mold in particular (also used for Bonecrusher) is great, even if the weapon is a bit doofy. The crane mold isn't quite as neat, but is solid, and I like Hightower anyway for the novelty of a 'new/replacement' member of the Constructicons. Scavenger is cool, vehicle mode 'looks' big even though it's just at Deluxe size, and I'm impressed by the plethora of tabs and pegs he uses to keep together in all his various modes. Combined mode is big, stompy, and fun. I'm delighted that both molds used as arms can have elbows, and the cranes don't even need their Energon utensils to function as smashy, clampy hands. Which frees up one their Energon claws to be used as an impromptu chestwing, neat. This thing works surprisingly well as a 'Classics' Devastator, and I've wanted it for that role for some time. Glad I finally scored it.

ClaDev is awesome and highly underrated; I love him. The only thing I don't love is the fact that there's no upgrade set or anything for it!

(I also have a running theory that Cybertron Hardtop is based off a cancelled design for a full team of new-mould Combaticons, who got canned. He would've been Swindle. I say this because the Bonecrusher guy is the same exact transformation scheme.)