TF Views

andersonh1 wrote:After reading some 60s Spider Man, this DC fan is sampling some other 60s Marvel. I found a used copy of The Mighty Thor omnibus vol. 3, so it's now on my bookshelf. I hope it's good. What l browsed through and sampled seemed fun.

I've read a lot of Thor (probably the one comic character I've read the most of). Avengers: Disassembled is good, Stormbreaker (the Beta Rey Bill story) is really good, and I've been reading the current Mighty Thor, which has been really good and interesting.

Shockwave wrote:

andersonh1 wrote:After reading some 60s Spider Man, this DC fan is sampling some other 60s Marvel. I found a used copy of The Mighty Thor omnibus vol. 3, so it's now on my bookshelf. I hope it's good. What l browsed through and sampled seemed fun.

I've read a lot of Thor (probably the one comic character I've read the most of). Avengers: Disassembled is good, Stormbreaker (the Beta Rey Bill story) is really good, and I've been reading the current Mighty Thor, which has been really good and interesting.

What I've read is pretty entertaining so far. The book collects "The Mighty Thor" 153-194, and the early issues in this collection are old enough that they're still written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. Thor starts out fighting Loki (to no one's surprise, I'm sure), and then he's trying to fend off some creature named Mangog from destroying Asgard while Odin is asleep and can't help. Loki cracks me up, because he reminds me of Starscream. "Odin's asleep, Thor's not here, so I'm king! Obey me!" The faux-Shakespearean dialogue gives the book an interesting tone. Thor's catchphrase seem's to be "I say thee nay!" before he puts the smackdown on someone.

And interestingly, Thor becomes a doctor named Donald Blake if he's separated from his hammer for a minute. I guess that's his "super hero weakness" all these guys had back in the day.

I haven't read any more modern Thor, but then I've never been able to get into Marvel, with a few exceptions like Waid's Daredevil a few years back, or Superior Spider Man. But I like these older stories, what I've read so far anyway.

Sparky Prime wrote:

JediTricks wrote:A mountain of crap from Star Wars Galaxy's Edge

Custom built lightsaber?

No, I'm waiting until they fix the motion lag on those. Across my 5 visits, I got the Hasbro 6" Black Series droid 4-pack (DJ Rex, 3PO with improved arms, R2 and BB-8), a wind-up talking Gonk droid in 1:12 scale, a wind-up talking Chopper in 1:10th scale, a droid restraining bolt refrigerator magnet, a Rebellion iris keychain, the Star Wars Galaxy's Edge Coca Cola bottle, opening day pin, opening day Annual Passholder pin, limited edition large Millennium Falcon opening celebration pin, opening day Annual Passholder T-shirt, a die-cast TIE Echelon toy, a die-cast Resistance I-TS toy, a Sabacc deck, and a 3.75" color change build-a-droids 4-pack. I kinda like the place.

Hauls:

Ectotron - love this figure, so good. Only things I'd change are make the ecto goggles movable, add more beige to the robot mode, paint the rear license plate (the front is already there), and cover the gap at the top of the boot. But overall this is really satisfying, love the packaging, the vehicle mode is huge, the bot mode is fun, I dig it.

Siege Starscream - got this on a Prime Day deal, it's an interesting figure, I don't hate the vehicle mode as much as pictures suggest - if the legs were just a little more tucked away or smaller it'd be really solid actually - and the transformation is quite interesting. Packaged transformation is wrong in 2 ways that made the figure seem like a mess, read the instructions on this one to get the neck plate right. Robot mode is a very different G1-inspired Starscream with tall shoulder inlets and a leggy look, reminds me almost of a manga version while still remaining true to the character. The battle slop paint is the real drawback, just too much of it (and that exact same pattern is getting repeated on all the repaints coming soon, ugh). The chest on mine doesn't pop off easily, thank goodness. I am not sorry I waited for a sale on this figure, but I'm glad I have it.

Siege Brunt - I really like this figure, it's a lot of fun. Vehicle mode is neat, if it were a voyager-class it'd be even better, same can be said about the bot mode. That bot mode is a lot of fun as it is, though, with a cyclon-like eye-band across the whole head, a popped collar design, beefy proportions without feeling woefully bulky, and DA CLAMPS! The weapons modes are not the best of the Weaponizers perhaps but I think they're the most fun, and the combined weaponizer modes are both actually quite neat which I cannot say about the others. If they do a repaint of this, I'd get it, especially if it was a Tankor-colored one (say, the original Beast Machines toy colors to really differentiate it from the purple Brunt design).

Star Wars Black Series Chopper, Ezra Bridger - both decent figures, quite likable. Chopper doesn't scale to the other astromechs in the line but that's because Hasbro underscaled those astromechs, Chopper seems the right size with the non-droid 6" figures.

SW Black Series Ep 1 Obi-Wan - this figure was another prime day purchase, not a figure I'd buy at full price but I'm glad I have him to duel my Maul figure. He's got decent sculpting and paint, although his expression makes him look a bit angry, high, and constipated all at once, and his shiny plastic doesn't help. He's got a rubber tunic which adds to poseability, and they gave him shrug-forward shoulder joints on top of the regular ones. They even changed the hip joint system from a T-joint to a V-joint system to get the hips closer together, only took what, 6 years? That said, they left out the alternate pointing hand that pictures showed him coming with, leaving that accessory exclusive to the convention figure.

New backpack after my old one failed, and since it has a hydration bladder ability I got one of those as well.

Emergency radio after the 4th of July and 5th of July earthquakes, that was insane. My old backpack didn't totally fail, so I've got it as my bug-out bag now.

And a year and a half after volume 5 came out, volume 6 of Golden Age Superman was finally published and my copy arrived today. It contains the 10th anniversary story which recaps Superman's origin (and which already looks very Silver Age to me) and collects stories from January 1947 through October 1948. Wayne Boring shows up as a Superman artist for the first time in this volume, and if you can picture the Superman with the very thick waist and torso from the 50s and 60s, that's the way he draws the character.

I've bought quite a few books lately, haven't I? After enjoying a few of the 60s Spider Man Masterworks that I checked out of the library, I went all in and bought a copy of the Amazing Spider Man omnibus volume 1, which collects, I think, 39 issues and four annuals. It's almost 1,100 pages, so it's easily one of the largest I've seen, and I believe it has every last issue that Steve Ditko worked on in one volume. Between this and GA Superman vol. 6, I'll have plenty of old comics to read. Take that, Didio.

Last week, I wrapped up a trade with Scourge. (I sent him my "Siege" Springer and some other stuff....he sent me 2017 Overlord and a few "BotBots".

Overlord:(robot, tank/plane, base)
This is one of the many (and steadily increasing number of) figures that I have never seen at retail. I cannot say that I looked for it, because I did not even know the damned thing was out. In any case...

Overlord is one step up from the "Voyager" scale price-point. Unlike the general trend for Hasbro in recent years, Overlord is not specifically evocative of IDW's then-recent handling of the character. (The face-sculpt is a retro-passive expression.) The Headmaster figure can pilot either the tank or plane components. The base form is lacking. (My guess is that it was added more for the sake of echoing the original Overlord figure from 1988, rather than adding anything to the figure.)

Not a bad figure. But, not worth going crazy trying to find unless you have a particular affinity for Overlord as a general concept. If you are interested in a particular iteration of the character, this figure may disappoint.


BotBots:
The 4 "BotBots" figures that Scourge sent as extras are an order of fries, cheese fries, a cup of soda and....toilet paper. I suppose that one could assume the toilet paper will be necessary to address the inevitable consequences of the bad dietary choices implied by the other 3 figures.

Ectotron -

I saw this at GameStop. It did not look bad, but the $60-odd dollar price tag was more than I am willing to pay for toys at this point. The association with a bad comic also did not help.

Siege Starscream -

I just cannot get behind this mold. (Actually, from what I have seen, the current Voyager figures are all lacking. Megatron and Soundwave seem to be the best, if only for not being terrible.)

Siege Brunt -

Oh muh gawd. This thing is amazing. Have you displayed it as weapons/gear yet? There is a retool of Brunt as one of the old Powerdashers. Given that the mold is based on an old IDW design, I would expect Brunt to be recolored as an army builder. (It also displays well with Mega Man figures.)

New backpack after my old one failed, and since it has a hydration bladder ability I got one of those as well.

Hydration bladder? Might you explain this? I still miss my old backpack (which failed in spring of 18). It was a hold over from when I was a student and more likely to be travelling to wrestling shows (and thus needed more carrying capacity). Technically, the lower capacity backpack I use now is better. But, it is not an unambiguous upgrade.


Dom
-time to start a fall thread.

Star Wars The Black Series Zuckuss - a Disney Store exclusive when TRU folded and couldn't take these, the figure looks really good and moves well, clearanced out at $15.

SW TBS Deluxe Stormtrooper - another Disney Store exclusive from TRU's demise, this one isn't a good figure at full price since it's just the original Trooper mold with some painted battle damage, a stand, a small explosion, a large explosion, an E-11 blaster rifle, and a blast effect for the rifle, but at the clearance price of $10 it's a bargain. And with the Disney credit card it's 10% more off, so $9.

SWTBS Rio Durant - from Solo: A Star Wars Story, this was a Game Stop $5 clearance figure and it's really neat, it's a nice figure that's very different from the norm.

SWTBS Han ESB - another Game Stop cheapie, this figure has angles that look right and from the rest looks like a very old, very tired caricature.

A new kitchen scale

A new component for my refrigerator, which conked out again almost exactly 7 years after the first time it broke down 7 years after assembly. $10 part can cause a fridge to act totally ruined, luckily I kept the part the repairman swapped out from the first time.

Wahl clipper set - hair cuts went up $5 around here, my cut is stupidly simple so we got a clipper instead, cheaper than a single hair cut. Only one big accident so far.

Birthday hauls:
- Canon 50mm f.1.8 STM - haven't used the lens yet, but it feels nice and has a metal mount. Was going to give it its first run yesterday but the surprise rain killed that.

- Red Dead Redemption 2 - amazing game, some really fantastic highs that the few very annoying lows can't damn.

- Rogue One blu ray

- Knight Rider blu ray set

- Raptor socks from my girlfriend

- First Order journal from Star Wars Galaxy's Edge - it's got silver-gilded edges on the die-cut paper, and a nice techy design. Not sure I'll write in it though.

- Lock pick set - trying to get into locksport, the hobby of lock picking. So far, I'm not great, my hands aren't very sensitive, but I've gotten a few locks that are above beginner. Also, top tip: never, ever buy Master Locks.

- Marvel Legends Hela & Skurge - outstanding likenesses! I really enjoyed the hell out of Thor Ragnarok, and missed buying Hela the first time around, so my buddies got me this set for my birthday.

Dominic wrote:Overlord:(robot, tank/plane, base)
This is one of the many (and steadily increasing number of) figures that I have never seen at retail. I cannot say that I looked for it, because I did not even know the damned thing was out.

I don't remember seeing it at retail for long, but I did see it here. It made a heavy presence at discount chains, though.

Ectotron -

I saw this at GameStop. It did not look bad, but the $60-odd dollar price tag was more than I am willing to pay for toys at this point. The association with a bad comic also did not help.

I don't care about the comic, the toy is fun. I preordered day 1 for $40 before HasbroPulse went up to $50.

Siege Brunt -

Oh muh gawd. This thing is amazing. Have you displayed it as weapons/gear yet? There is a retool of Brunt as one of the old Powerdashers. Given that the mold is based on an old IDW design, I would expect Brunt to be recolored as an army builder. (It also displays well with Mega Man figures.)

I tried out the weapon modes, that's pretty fun, but a bit of work to keep balanced. That Powerdasher, Zetar, was kind of hilariously silly but the premise doesn't track for me what with the huge turret on the back and minimal focus on the drill itself. I am fascinated by the 5mm-pegged head though, that's an interesting way of doing that, even if it is legoforming.

New backpack after my old one failed, and since it has a hydration bladder ability I got one of those as well.

Hydration bladder? Might you explain this? I still miss my old backpack (which failed in spring of 18). It was a hold over from when I was a student and more likely to be travelling to wrestling shows (and thus needed more carrying capacity). Technically, the lower capacity backpack I use now is better. But, it is not an unambiguous upgrade.

Are you familar with the CamelBak line of backpacks and hydration packs? They kinda led the way in this, but if you're not, what it is is a flat, floppy plastic, 2-liter bladder with a screw-on cap mounted towards the top and a hose attached at the bottom (via a snap-on valve) that hangs in the main body of the backpack so the water is distributed as much as possible against the back rather than all at the bottom. The hose feeds out a velcro flap on my backpack and has a bite-and-pull valve to get the water out (you bite to open it, but also pull it slightly away from the housing, it's more secure). Here's the one I got https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B071DQSZB8

My backpack is a regular backpack but has the hanging strap for using a hydration pack, a little pouch to keep it contained from the rest of the backpack contents, velcro flaps on either side to feed the hose through, and a loop in the shoulder strap to feed the hose through. +

- Lock pick set - trying to get into locksport, the hobby of lock picking. So far, I'm not great, my hands aren't very sensitive, but I've gotten a few locks that are above beginner. Also, top tip: never, ever buy Master Locks.

As I am getting ready to translate back into tech and security, I have blundered across a few DefCon videos on this. I suspect my hands would keep me from getting too good at this. But, it is something that I am interested in.

SW TBS

I hate how Hasbro markets "the Black Series" as some kind of premium line, when the damned things were standard action figures ~5 years ago. Making so many of them exclusives (while choking shelves with figures that only have 5 points of articulation) is insult to injury. (There are figures I would have had to talk myself out of, had I seen them.)

I don't care about the comic, the toy is fun. I preordered day 1 for $40 before HasbroPulse went up to $50.

I could almost see $40. (Still waiting for a good cross-over line. When IDW published all of the Hasbro licenses under one banner, I had such hopes...)

My backpack is a regular backpack but has the hanging strap for using a hydration pack, a little pouch to keep it contained from the rest of the backpack contents, velcro flaps on either side to feed the hose through, and a loop in the shoulder strap to feed the hose through. +

That sounds like something that is more for hiking than daily use. (Never seen one of those.)

SW TBS Emperor Palpatine and Throne (Amazon exclusive) - this is a retool of the previous TBS Emperor, given a new headsculpt, 2 more portraits (smiling, grimacing), more detailed hands, an improved robe sewing, a cloth inner "skirt" so he can actually sit down, and lightning hands. Amazon shipped it without even bothering to put an air-pack in the shipper box, which trashed the packaging. The figure is great, the new likeness is outstanding in the sculpt, the robe hood fits right thanks to a new design, the new hands look better, and the throne is really nice. The makeup deco has a light gray/blue wash over the faces which actually doesn't even make him as gray as he was in the film, kinda funny; that gray wash that doesn't appear on the hands, so the hands are redder than the face. The lightning hands have a little weirdness on the paint, making it look like extra long fingers. Both extra portraits each have an eye that's off, and while Amazon will replace it, it's not currently in stock. Overall, though, I am really happy with this set, it is everything that I passed on the original TBS Emperor figure for, and the ROTJ Emperor on his throne is one of those things that has always felt like a touchstone for me.

Dominic wrote:

I don't care about the comic, the toy is fun. I preordered day 1 for $40 before HasbroPulse went up to $50.

I could almost see $40. (Still waiting for a good cross-over line. When IDW published all of the Hasbro licenses under one banner, I had such hopes...)

It's a pretty big Ecto 1 alt mode, bigger than the voyager-class figure it's remolded from.

That sounds like something that is more for hiking than daily use. (Never seen one of those.)

It's a very everyday backpack, not a hiking bag. It can be used for light outdoors stuff as it has a bedroll strap and a few other touches, but it's really just a bag. That's what makes the hydration bladder so nice, it's a modular element, it can be added when I need it and stored at home when I don't.

Picked up the Flash 80 years collection, and it's probably a better selection than the 75 years book. Some good Wally stories, and all three Rose/Thorn Golden Age Flash stories, the third one never published in its entirety before. The book is oversized like the omnibus, which I didn't know until I got it. I might have to go back and get the Action and Detective 80 year collections as well. Hopefully we'll get a good Green Lantern book not too far down the road.