TLK Crankcase 01 by zigholtul88, on Flickr TLK Crankcase 02 by zigholtul88, on Flickr TLK Crankcase 03 by zigholtul88, on Flickr TLK Crankcase 04 by zigholtul88, on Flickr TLK Crankcase 05 by zigholtul88, on Flickr TLK Crankcase 06 by zigholtul88, on Flickr Testors Model Masters Acrylics Used - Argent Silver Acrylic - Black Gloss Acrylic - Blue Gloss Acrylic - Gold Metallic Acrylic - Metallic Copper (mix of orange gloss, gold metallic and silver metallic) - Orange Gloss Acrylic - Red Gloss Acrylic WARNING! THE BEGINNING RANT AND FOLLOWING REVIEW OF THE FIGURE FOR THOSE INTO THAT SORT OF THING CONTAINS CONTENT WHICH SOME READERS MIGHT FIND TO BE BEYOND WHAT THEY'RE USED TO! AND BECAUSE THE CUSTOMIZER IN QUESTION HAS SEEM TO HIT HIS BREAKING POINT AND NEEDED TO VENT OUT HIS FRUSTRATIONS DUE TO LACK OF REAL LIFE NON-ALCOHOLIC FRIENDS AROUND HIS AREA UNABLE TO APPRECIATE ARTISTIC MERITS BEYOND STUFF OTHER THAN SKYRIM WHILE CONSTANTLY TRYING TO BUM MONEY OFF YOU! HAVE YOURSELF SOME COFFEE AND LISTEN TO A CRAP-TON OF MICK GORDON FOR THEWS SAKE BEFORE PROCEEDING ONWARD! Hey folks. Sorry if I begin this review with a bit of a tangent, especially considering what's been going on lately as to why I haven't been doing customs at a frequent basis like I used too. Been needing to get this off my chest for a while now, so bear in mind how despite many of these figures turning out to even rival some of Takaras attempts, they're still be painted by the same artist whose.......... let's admit it everyone, pretty friggin insane whose in dire need of psychiatric assistance. Despite how their only answers alway end at - here have even more of these and don't worry about waking up more tired than a tranquilized race horse who risks possible fall injury down the stairs when taking the dog out. For those who are no doubt aware by now, my hobbies have long since extended beyond doing Transformers customs in addition to wanting to pursue a writing career, and applying more time and effort into some of my art projects. And in lieu of wanting to expand past drawing fantasy characters (mostly female types) to pulling a 180 and going out of my way to tackle the 7 deadly sins in the forms of Del Toro-type abominations with literal symbolism (applying some of my own interpretations) into the mix, I decided I needed to take a bit of a break, cool myself down and do some proper research when dealing with sensitive subjects you're only now starting to fully understand after a 2 day long anxiety trip because you dun goofed and forgot to take your bloody pills. It was only a few nights ago (depending on the release of this custom) after pulling a Deadpool on the Deviantart forums, completely in my underwear and basically making an ass out of myself for the purposes of "social experimentation" to the point of virtually having to write a Miracle of Sound parody for shits and giggles (describing the forums and the site in general) that I only now realize (until I again fuck up this concept several weeks down the line) why Pride is considered the deadliest sin and we all completely suck as an advanced species when our egos get the best of us. But we will all have to endure eternal elysium consisting of non-stop Full House re-runs, forever being stuck at boarding while listening to the mad ramblings of creationist Quinton Tarantino from Little Nicky. However if there is indeed a cosmic force out in the universe, it can only mean 3 things which doesn't involve Primus, Cthulhu, or a sentient cat/lizard/whatever whose a practicing Buddhist. (A) It might have two genders with both male and female voices because personal creative licenses dictate moving away from the standard bearded Norse god and something more visually appealing. (B) Its might be a ocean complexed mutant butterfly/mantis hybrid of humanoid origins to go along with the female savior-type character known by many as Eienyasil. (C) I might consider using it for my campaign setting seeing how the other Revelation Beasts I'm working on (in addition to 3 already finalized and sketched out) consist of mountain sized entrail blobs, multi-vestige fire werewolves with anger issues, and dual-pistol wielding airship mechas representing greed of clockwork cacophony. And I already got rid of humans since they're overrated, make up over 95% of genres with the fantasy subtitle tacked onto it and I needed to change things up even further because why the heck not if the multi-racial main cast is of any indication. Don't care if its not very original in this day and age. At this point I'm basically just going with it being a passion project since I have nothing else going on in life and I kinda wanna turn it into an animated series down the line, as suicidal as it sounds. So why the hell am I telling you any of this? No doubt pretty much scaring away my audience. Risking the high potential of getting my first Broadside Banhammer for daring to bring up religion and politics on a website (TFW2005 in this case) where these sorts of discussions are not allowed. Yet its perfectly okay (though might not always be the case at times given the atmosphere) to criticize another user by typing out documentary worth essays just to tell them how much they suck for liking the movie toys, why they might be racist for liking certain characters (8 GODDAMN YEARS - INTERNET STILL TALKS ABOUT IT LIKE THE STAR WARS PREQUELS), why they're pathetic for paying retail prices for them (hello local TJ Maxxs devoid of any figures), and why Michael Bay is a poopy-poop-fart-fuck of a lousy director who should have just stuck with doing commercials for Victoria's Secret (think I might've mentioned all this before with my DOTM Twins customs), when I should have been focusing actual time going over my first figure from The Last Knight line up? Because how many words could I cram out of what's basically just a 2nd attempt at Crankcase which I now consider a broken masterpiece. Yes, you heard me you belligerent clip-wheeled Chinese counterfeits. After applying more paint than I originally anticipated, I've now resorted to using this variant as my "official" Crankcase seeing how my old one (FINISHED BEING CUSTOMIZED FOR THE 2ND TIME) just now lost one of his golden hair thingies and went flying off into the distance. *Linkara voice* Where it will never be see or heard from ever again. UGH! Matters well seeing how I had to go out of my way to fix up the vehicle exterior since Hasbro.................. You know what? Screw it, I respect this company and will try to support them despite all the bs they pull from time to time. But If you're gonna get this figure. Either wait until it goes down in price, or get someone else to paint one up because as much as I've come to love this brazen bastard of blackitude badassery. And I do mean that since I bought 2 of the damn buggers and am considering getting more. The plastic tolerances were just god awful to the point where it has now officially upstaged DOTM Sideswipe upon release when it comes to fractured vehicle modes. Maybe that might change as time goes on, but holy baloney don't raise the prices (especially for your UK fans, they suffer enough already with distribution) when the best you have going for the line (when compared to AOE at least) is storage boxes, better weaponry (I suppose?) and the possible return of pinned on wheels. If this figure and Barricade are any indication of what's to come. And yes folks, despite how painfully slow its been lately I am looking forward in doing customs again (especially more TR stuff), despite how I'm wanna continue to pursue other projects, so don't worry. I finally found my camera and I might have to go back to the old outdoor setup since my old 2 lamp table display has ONCE again become another storage unit thanks to a certain Hispanic family member with a Goodwill shopping addiction. Again....................UGH!
