July Hauls!

[Almighty Unicron]

Was driving back to new york from a convention in New England when I stopped in Connecticut for dinner. Across the way from the restaurant was a walmart so, on a lark, I popped in and they had only one Prime voyager left: Sharkticon Megatron, which I had been wanting for a while. Score!

[Onslaught Six]

PACIFIC RIM HOLY SHIT WHY DON'T WE HAVE A THREAD ABOUT THIS MOVIE. I saw it last night (after months of hyping it up for myself) and it was everything I wanted it to be and more. Best movie I've seen all year, period.

[BWprowl]

I grabbed a Bot Shots Jump Shot Shockwave, because Target had it clearanced down to under three bucks, and it's kind of amazing I don't own one of these things already. I blame the lack of characters in the format that I actually would want lil' versions like this of (maybe should have bought Barricade). But I realized recently I've got a surprising amount of various Shockwaves anyway (ten now, counting this one!), so it fits. The toy's okay, getting him to lock together in vehicle mode is harder than it should be, and the 'jump' action translates to 'fly up and land anywhere but on his feet', but it looks cute, and was at least worth three bucks in amusement value.

[andersonh1]

Today's comics: Superior Spider Man #14, Daredevil Dark Nights 1 & 2, and Indestructible Hulk #9.

[Tigermegatron]

I bought the Mass release FOC Vortex deluxe toy at Kmart Two days ago. Because I really dis-like the ugly colors SDCC Vortex's toy received.

Since the SDCC & mass release Foc Vortex toy has a lot of highlight details factory painted over the toy,it seems like it's impossibe to try to RID dye this toy dark grey. as painted over highlights are resistant to RIT color dye.

[JediTricks]

SDCC...
MP Soundwave
GI Joe Transformers Hound/Jetfire
Mattel 1:12th tv Batmobile
Batman tv SDCC bag with cape
C-3PO Mimobot MicroSD Card Reader
Construct-bots Optimus Prime vs Megatron
The Big Bang Theory Dr. Sheldon Cooper Mego-style SDCC-exclusive
Kotobukiya ArtFX+ Jango Fett (won this, not yet released in the US)
2x Kotobukiya Death Star ice ball molds

and when I got home...
TF Generations comic deluxe packs wave 1 (Bumblebee, Megatron, Trailcutterbreaker, Orion Pax)
Star Wars The Black Series Darth Vader, Biggs Darklighter
40" Sharp LCD LED-lit tv, to replace my 42" Insignia whose color rendering module blew out the morning after I got home, might get an insurance claim on that one
RCA universal remote

[BWprowl]

Alright, so the other day I was at TRU and saw that they had the first couple of Construct-Bots out, Ironhide and Starscream. I waffled for a bit, then decided to grab Ironhide to try the line out. And they were having a buy one get one half off sale, so I grabbed a remaining Generations Laserbeak they had there, because I’d want to genuinely troop-build that mold if it was currently more readily-available (wish I’d bought another Skystalker or two back in the day).

Anyway, Ironhide turned out to work pretty well! After failing to do so with both BTR and Kre-O, Hasbro finally delivers on the idea of buildable TFs that can transform without disassembly here, and it works better than I expected. I thought I was in for some generic, vague, PCC-Mini-Con-esque contorting to get to the altmode on this, but there’s like, actual pegging and rotating and head-stowing and bits clipping together, it’s a real transformation! Granted, the end-result still isn’t terribly impressive, but at least there’s signs of them putting some effort into this new format. The front bumper-piece formed by Ironhide’s feet has defined headlights and other vehicular bits on it, it *almost* works!

Anyway, I was impressed enough by Ironhide that I went back a couple days later to grab Starscream. He’d been the one I passed on since his transformation seemed like it’d be less impressive than Ironhide’s (it seemed like it’d take less effort to vaguely fold a robot into a generic jet form) but he’s actually just as involved, and his vehicle mode arguably comes out better. The advantages of the format also make themselves known on Starscream: The default configuration has you clipping the wings to the arms, but you can put them on the back and tweak how you do the transformation and it’ll still work just fine! I might start experimenting with mixing-and-matching the parts on these guys, and seeing how far I can get in terms of creating original looks and still maintaining transformation options. At the very least I’m excited to find other kits, just to have more parts to get going with, I can already tell the line could really take off for me the more I have to work with. The idea of readily and easily being able to build your own functional TF is very appealing. One big issue with Starscream here though: He has a GLARING paint error on his head that is apparently endemic to this kit, only about 1/3 of his head is actually painted black, the other parts are left grey. I’ll have to see if I can fix it myself, because yeah, it’s a serious flaw. Which is a real pity, since the kit itself is pretty nice. This and Ironhide are certainly worth ten bucks in curiosity, at least.

Also, while I was at TRU the second time, what should I find nonchalantly stashed on an endcap behind the generic crap, but a Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers Legacy Power Morpher! Insane impulse buy, maybe, but these things haven’t been easy to find for the time being, and MMPR being one of the few things I have genuine nostalgia for, I went ahead and splurged on it. Honestly, this might be the single most impressive piece of merchandise Bandai of America has ever put out for this franchise. The entire front is die-cast metal, and I think there’s some on the inside too, this thing has some WEIGHT to it! It comes with all five original Power Coins, and those are all solid die-cast. It has a belt-clip to hold it, and the back of the morpher actually has fully-done ZyuBuckler details, meaning you can completely use this thing as a ZyuBuckler if you want to (the morphers as shown in MMPR didn’t have quite as much going on as their Japanese counterparts). The handle has some solid, satisfying jointing, and it’s actually designed to fit in grown-up hands, even my giant crab-claws can hold it fine. Pressing the button satisfyingly opens it with good sound effects, but holding that button DOWN is even better, as it produces a full, instrumental version of the theme song! Fantastic! I’ve seen Japanese DX roleplay toys that weren’t on this level, this thing is just seriously an incredible piece of work and Bandai sucks for not putting this much effort into any of their other PR merch.

With this, my SRC DaiZyuJin/Megazord, the Figuarts on pre-order, and the assortment of MMPR 2010 toys I got a couple years ago, I should see about clearing a space for it all, I could assemble a pretty classy MMPR display, I think.

[Onslaught Six]

Honestly, this might be the single most impressive piece of merchandise Bandai of America has ever put out for this franchise.

Wait until you see the Dragon Dagger they're putting out!

[BWprowl]

Wait until you see the Dragon Dagger they're putting out!

I did. If it turns out as good as this Morpher did, I'm in.

What they did to the Ranger Keys kinda reverse-makes-up-for-it though...

[Almighty Unicron]

Wait until you see the Dragon Dagger they're putting out!

I did. If it turns out as good as this Morpher did, I'm in.

What they did to the Ranger Keys kinda reverse-makes-up-for-it though...

I'm only lackadaisically following PR- I know they're using the Gokaiger suits in the 2nd half of megaforce, what are they doing with the ranger keys?