TF Views

Wow. Great hall Mirage. Leaders for less than $40 are always nice.

138 Scourge wrote:Well, see, I love "Earth-2" as well, but the idea of an anti-matter universe where evil always wins is just smashing. Of course, that's assuming that "Good" and "Evil" can be considered almost physical forces in the DC Universe. This also means that "Good" has to win in the regular DCU. It's like a physical law.

I figure in this thread, I've managed to make both Prowl and Dom lose all respect for me.

The idea of morality as physics is one of the thinga I did not like about "Earth-2", besides the fact that it brought back the 5 most worthless characters in all of fiction, and dressed a stupid idea as something good. Busiek writing those characters is even worse.

Given the trends in current DC, I suppose that the Quardian Earth is a great place to live now, uh, except is it not, as shown in "Trinity".

I do not mind dark shadows of heroes. John Walker is my favorite Captain American by virtue of his contrasting so well with the admirable Steve Rogers. But, Walker is not a cosmic wankery clone, but a flawed character based on some idea beyond "this is kewl". (I personally liked how Walker was not shown to be a racist, but also shown to be perfectly comfortable exploiting the racism of others. That beats "evil twins" any day.)


Dom
-has a movie Skywarp on the way.

Failing to ever find a clearanced Ultra Magnus, I went and bought Animated BlackArachnia to round out my Animated collection. After buying two of the allegedly better ROTF deluxes in a row, I have decided I'm just really not that interested in the movie aesthetic. This BA figure is so much more captivating and, frankly, playworthy than Sideswipe and Sideways, at least to me. I guess the Animated style really spoke to me, they're pretty, fun, well designed, and just more "neat" overall. Alas. The new movie toys are neat in a different way, i just need to align my brainwaves to it.

Interestingly, BA was my second or third figure (Bought her and Ratchet simultaneously) and I found her to be so...bland and meh that it was probably a large part of why I didn't buy more of the line.

Of course, Ratchet and Grimlock sucking probably paid a large part in that.

donosaur wrote:This BA figure is so much more captivating and, frankly, playworthy than Sideswipe and Sideways, at least to me. I guess the Animated style really spoke to me, they're pretty, fun, well designed, and just more "neat" overall.

Animated Blackarachnia is one of the few TFA figures that really appealed to me. It uses a slightly updated version of Beast Machines Blackarachnia's transformation scheme, which was already one of the better spider transformers. It combines that with the animated aesthetic and a head sculpt that's similar to TM2 Blackarachnia. It's a good, solid Transformer, and well worth owning.

Saw ROTF Superion and the new Titaniums at Target in Wichita today. Didn't purchase, as I found their appeal (and my money) limited. More for everyone else, I guess.

I want those Tits somethin' fierce. Off to Target I go!

Come payday, anyway. I'll be happy enough with Thrust as my Seeker rep from this line, though I'd have preffered Sunstorm. Hot Zone or whatever's pretty, and Optimus...well, screw it, I could use another one for the Prime shelf. Anyone got a recommendation on which to start with?

donosaur wrote: This BA figure is so much more captivating and, frankly, playworthy than Sideswipe and Sideways, at least to me. I guess the Animated style really spoke to me, they're pretty, fun, well designed, and just more "neat" overall. Alas. The new movie toys are neat in a different way, i just need to align my brainwaves to it.

I've been having the same problem with the movie guys. The transition from one of my favorite aesthetics ever to one that I'm sorta borderline on has a lot to do with it, too. And I'll second the love for Blackarachnia. I wouldn't have thought they could make a BA toy that beat the Beast Machines one in my eyes, but dang if they didn't manage it. Fun fact, if you hang her on a desk or whatnot by her grapnel thing, she'll stay there for days on end. That grappling deal is not built to screw around.

At least we get the tail end of the line, eventually.

Oh, hauls, right. Just comics today:

Punisher #6: The Hood brings back a slew of supervillains gunned down by the Scourge of the Underworld (heh) back in the 80's, tells 'em Frank killed 'em. Watch the fun! This features the return of Turner D. Century, so you know I'm happy.

Marvel Zombies 4 #3: Because when Fred Van Lente writes Morbius, Hellstrom, Man-Thing, and Jack Russel, Werewolf by Night, I'm in. But dammit, Fred, why're you making me like the Zombie Deadpool Head? He's (sorta) a Liefeld character, I don't want to like any of them...

Incognito #4: Fantastic. I'm a sucker for supervillain books, and this one's done up all pulp-styled. Fantastic.

Captain Britain and MI-13 #14: I'm so gonna miss this book. Sigh.

Why so much praise for BM Blackarachnia? That toy wasn't just horrible, but I broke the damn thing in half trying to transform it. (And it wasn't even mine. Sorry, 86.)

Discounted Cobra 5 pack from Target.

Dom
-customs ahoy!

donosaur wrote:Failing to ever find a clearanced Ultra Magnus, I went and bought Animated BlackArachnia to round out my Animated collection. After buying two of the allegedly better ROTF deluxes in a row, I have decided I'm just really not that interested in the movie aesthetic. This BA figure is so much more captivating and, frankly, playworthy than Sideswipe and Sideways, at least to me. I guess the Animated style really spoke to me, they're pretty, fun, well designed, and just more "neat" overall. Alas. The new movie toys are neat in a different way, i just need to align my brainwaves to it.

Hmm, this does intrigue me. I don't like Animated Blackarachnia very much at all. She's flimsy, bits pop off, her hands are sideways, her kibble annoys me, her spider legs are all at odd angles, and the transformation is unsatisfying. I bought her some time ago, went "Oh", and promptly attached her to a shelf by the too-short grappling line, where it tilted her robot neck and made it look like she'd hung herself. This so amused me that she stayed that way until i moved six months ago.

I've messed around with her recently, and she's just not a figure that does anything for me. I feel no sense of Beast Era nostalgia from that figure (Which is not to say I don't have any, as the BWR-01 10th anniversary set is among my favourite TF items EVARRR), and find it a shining example of Animated as whole. Interesting characters, neat designs, boring and poorly engineered action figures. I can understand why they did not sell next to the ultra-cool-looking Movie stuff, which lacks in personality and makes up for it by looking pointy, shiny, and anti-kiddie-aesthetic.

Blackarachnia's certainly a tidier design than, for example, Sideways, as most parts have a place and both modes are fairly 'clean'. She's a swifter transform, which usually lends better to fiddling. Yet I like Sideways a lot more, and not just because he's a very detailed death machine with a sawblade on his forearm. He's clearly a complex toy representing a complex design, and doesn't pretend to be anything else.

If Animated had had the chunky, cheerful, ultimately playable engineering level I'd expected it to based on the designs, it would've been a fun line, if ultimately for kids. As-is, it never knew where it wanted to go, had no consistency, and half the figures have engineering problems. This irritated me a lot. Although I bought most of the line and enjoyed the show, I can easily turf most of the figures into storage without a second glance, which is a shame. The movie stuff compells me to fiddle with it, even if it's only to rearrange the kibble.
To be fair, I disliked a lot of Universe for not having the 'heart' of Classics, so it's not just me picking on Animated. I'm kinda glad it's over, though.



Anyway. I got stuff! I did! AWESOME STUFF.

Encore Omega Supreme.

And I Wrote Stuff About Him Here.

Dominic wrote:Discounted Cobra 5 pack from Target.

Ooh, must start looking for discounted stuff. What little stuff is left, I mean.