Huh, I would have assumed that was Cap with the beard there. As for Taskmaster... I know bugger all about him - I kind of assumed he was magic, with the Skeletor-face and the sword and shield. Is he just a dude with a penchant for looking silly?

Oh man, obviously. I feel a fool now.

But... I already have the T30 Crosscut, and it's not so great I particularly want to buy it all over again. Similar for Nightbeat - I have the mould as Goldbug, so definitely don't want to have it again-but-in-blue. Perhaps if there's a WFC version of them.

 

That S great

 

The costume is pretty much cynical marketing, as in dressing up to to sell his services visually as much as by actions. He has a particular form of Photographic Memory described as 'photographic reflexes' meaning just from watching a person fight he can learn and perfectly mimic their style, and, with enough exposure to there repertoire, can get to the point where he can predict and anticipate their moves. He takes on mercenary contracts (usually involving superheroes' shenanigans) but, at least early on, he was making the real money in Supervillain henchman training for supervillains and criminal orgs. I'm a bit out of the loop but I believe he's now been repositioned as something of an anti-hero and a tragic figure as, the more he uses his abilities, the more of his own explicit (or personal) memories he loses.

 

Saw this on the HasLab Unicron thread, it made me *literally* laugh out loud:

 

Tried to get as many Lost Light Autobots as I own together... This is as far as I got.


Just isn't room for Getaway, whichever Technobots were there, or the Scavengers. This will have to do for now.

 

How fitting!  

So the new Star Wars trailer is certainly something. Almost made me care about the sequels again. Almost.

 

I'm afraid the opposite for me, there's one or two sizzle reel moments that might indicate JJ is headed exactly where I expected him to, and in doing so closing the door that Last Jedi opened.

 

Hrm. Another trailer with little hint of story, and mostly taken up with clips from the other films.

I'd probably be more enthused about Star Wars if it weren't for the fans, you know? After TLJ got such a backlash from people who went to such great lengths to explain why Rey was a bad character when it absolutely had nothing to do with her being a girl, honest I got so tired and embarressed by ever considering myself a Star Wars fan.

 

Figure's -juuuuuuuuuuust- released, but sadly follows Arcadia's overpricing to the extreme. Or maybe it was Yamato that was underpricing them to begin with.

Bandai's figures have "calmed" down in terms of pricing, or at least the most plentiful ones  

 

Damn, Planet X Kadmos is tasty.

 

Hmm, new SW trailer looks very pretty but I still can't get excited for it. This film is going to have to do some serious lifting to legitimise the existence of the Disney Trilogy.

That said, I had incredibly low expectations for Solo and I ended up really liking it, so we'll see!

 

Oooof, the new Star Wars trailer looks a bit tasty.

Confession time, I didn't much like The Force Awakens. I felt it was too much a Ep4 remake and I disliked it thoroughly for that. I then also did not like Rogue One too much... well I did at the beginning where it felt like it was trying something new, but then studio interference came along and forced in another epic space battle, centred around yet another plot device Macguffin (air shield this time!). Even the much lauded Vader scene I felt was OTT, because it ruins the supposed seamless transition to Episode 4...

The Last Jedi though, I did enjoy. Once I got over the illogic of outrunning spaceships (just hyperdrive and make a blockade ahead of the rebels!) and the jittery timeline (epic space chase leaves enough time for peeps to go to a gambling planet etc?) but Star Wars has always had massive leaps in logic and questionable timelines (Empire Strikes Back, Luke really only trains with Yoda for the same amount of time the Falcon is on the run... so what? A day or two? Maybe a week?)

Solo I did also enjoy, except I felt it to be utterly superfluous because we knew where it would go. Maybe I am strong with the Force, as I knew Solo would eventually end up with the Millenium Falcon, do the Kessel run in whatever parsecs etc. The supposed strength of the film as a prequel showng us new things is actually its' weakness IMO. But... the reintroduction of Prequel Trilogy Elements (no spoilers) was a real shock and I can't wait to see where that plot thread takes us. C'mon Han ol' buddy, don' let me down.

As it were. So yeah, hopefully Rise of Skywalker will satisfy me. Also, I knew Rey would eventually get a lightsaber staff. Aside from using a staff in TFA, Daisy Ridleys stunt double was one of the Bruce sisters, (Chloe Bruce) a Tang Soo Do instructor who happens to specialise in... the staff. She was also the stunt double in The Last Jedi, and even though it's not there on IMBD (yet) I reckon she's still the stunt double in Skywalker.

Oooof, the new Black Widow poster looks a bit tasty.

Am I seeing Red Guardian, Yelena Belova and Taskmaster? Hmmm. I want this film to have Nat be a full on bad guy at the beginning. I was going to say 'at least in the beginning', but you know what? Considering Black Widows 'red in her ledger' maybe they should make it a proper trilogy, where the first film is her origin and presented as a full on villain. Second film Shield is included and she has her first teamup with Hawkeye (I dunno... Budapest?), where the seeds of her defection are first sown but she remains a 'bad guy'. Then the third film is her on the run from her former Red Room Colleagues while trying to link up with legitimate Shield operatives, which is made more complicated because some of them are actually Hydra... etc etc.

Speaking of tasty, I'm gonna go on a tangent here (as I do) and mention something about... weight. Before TFN I was 74.8kg, a little heavier than I would like (I should be... 74?) but that's OK. After TFN... I was 76.5 kg! That weekend of eating at restaurants every meal time and (for me) copious drinking added almost 2 kg! I took my weight again this morning (as you do) and it's down to 75.6 kg, so over the week since TFN I lost almost a kilo and that's including the Birthday BBQ where I ate too much and drank way too much Coke.

Also speaking of which, thank you for the birthday wishes! I did indeed have a good one. Well, not the birthday itself (as yesterday was too hot) but the day before I had the aforementioned birthday BBQ, where I inivited a good mix of people and we all ate and had fun. Present wise is light, I got a puzzle from a friend and pubers gifted me a Black Widow comic (I wonder why?) and a Movie Optimus Prime Spychanger. Apparently there's more coming...

Today has been lounging with the kids. Yesterday we were at The Works and I bought them a 'Build your own den' kit, which is a set consisting of rods and balls which can all fit together to make a frame. Spread a sheet over it and voila, a den. Saves my kids from stealing furniture from around the house to make their previous dens. Anyway today I bought another set so we could make a bigger den, right now they have a semi detached igloo with separate entranceways!



Killed my living room though...

 

Yes, Yes, and Yes! Yelena is apparently Florence Pugh's role. Sadly ScarJo has reportedly had enough of spandex and is going back to chasing Oscar-bait roles, [SASS MODE/On] some of which I'm sure which won't even be at the cost of minority performers at all [/Deactivating/SASS MODE] so you might get half a wish as I'll be very surprised if the course of the film isn't Nat setting her on her own road to redemption from villainy as Black Widow 2.0.
Which will make the MCU's first cinematic heroine (& friggin' last solo vehicle of the Phase 1 folks, simmer down Hulk fans, he's already had two goes) their first actually-depicted Legacy Hero, and I'm not sure how I feel about that?

 

@SgtLemon , just siege Prime, Megs and Magnus if you're interested.

Also....



...because I can.

 

I thought the ship in The Midichlorian was WFC Siege Lugnut.

It's not about Rey, it's about Mary Poppins force flying, crystal fox dogs, the universe's slowest car chase, zero character development. Kung Pow is more in continuity than the Last Rites is.

 

Yep, I love Rey and most of the new characters, but I hated TLJ because I thought it let them down and was just generally a terrible film with a lousy, nonsensical script. Unfortunately a lot of people’s hate for the film did seem to stem from a hate of female and non-white leads, and it was frustrating that legitimate criticism got swamped in among some pretty horrible bile, which also made it easy for those who loved the film to dismiss all criticism as coming from dodgy political ideologies.

I go into this one with low expectations, but that helped me enjoy Solo, so here’s hoping... I enjoyed the trailer, at least.  

 

good to see you back on the boards

 

Ultimately, I would take you all for your offers, but I am broke. 0 hour contracts and weekly pay is a disgusting combination

 

Belated happy birthday to both @tikgnat and @TigerBlade hope you had great days chaps!