Sid.

If you don't sticker him properly as intended, there will be consequences.

 

Cool pic

 

What's the point in having all these seekers if you can't pose them in ways you can beat-aff to  

Christ biscuits that is rather nice.

That is cute as hell.

Springer doing the captain Morgan pose...

 

Bit stressed to start school tomorrow new school new teachers but at least got some friends with me

 

Thanks man, and good luck tomorrow. Deep breath and own that shit. You got this.

 

Stumbled at the first hurdle. The Takara book reissue has that huge heat reveal logo on the bonnet and looks arse.

 

Should the head lock in during alt mode or is it just held by gravity? Mine is tremendously loose and wobbly for a 15 year old toy that's rarely been touched.

Arms on mine popped a little but were tight and needed some more encouragement.

 

Good luck man!

Surely all you need is a Transformers-themed bum bag, a Walkman blaring Hall & Oates, your coolest pair of Pit Viper sunglasses and your vintage Days of Thunder T-shirt and you absolutely nail that shit, right?

WEAK!

Head doesn't lock in, just sort of sits there.

All the best
Maz

 

The main thing about TLJ was that General Leia got 99.999% of her forces annihilated and kept her job.

 

Making stuff up on the fly seems to be standard writing procedure for committee, writers room noodling, chuck a load of ideas at a board and see which stickism. Most are used all at once it seems. The whole schism between those willing to give it a good go on it's merits (the deeply wrong) and most critique of both post mortems, is that those that are in favour enjoy the supposed layers of critical, political commentary that the films engage with. I would suggest in my own expectation of the film that a nuanced performance from a lead character should be the minimum requirement
(any of them really, not singling Rey out here, as they all are muddled and confusing depictions that contradict themselves repeatedly through plot necessity or forgetting and changing motivation even in the space of the same film).

If I spend good dollar to see a star wars film it should at least take me on an exciting slalom ride even if the course and skiers are newbs.
I don't want re hash like the mystery box nonsense of JJ 'Help! we have extra series of Lost we don't know how to tie up all our threads up with' so let's make A New Hope but shitter and with more wtf moments - Captain Phasma locked in a broom cupboard. Talking mystical lightsabers.

I'm sorry Hollywood writers, I don't want to know things which turn out to be not important in a film anyway, or waste my few remaining brain cells trying to reconcile characters who change their core being every 20 mins.
Not just Luke but Rey, Snoke, Fin, Cameron, Leia, Han all seem divorced from themselves, the plot and each other.

It's an exercise in poorly executed development of character without a coherent plot/threat to ever care about the randoms mooching slowly around the galaxy looking for Reys keys.

I'm most miffed that it seems such a waste of an opportunity to tell a new story that is universal and could strike a cord across time and space instead of the cast of Casualty running round trying badly to escape from Snapes son.

 

Okay, Hound sticker update...

1, the Takara book collection sticker sheet is so dark I had to turn on my flashlight to see they are actually numbered. Might wait for actual daylight.

2, heat rub gone with no problems.

3, there is no way I'm putting a faction logo on top of his head. That's just dumb.

Pretty sure Vader did that at the Battle of Yavin and no-one complained.


Hmm okay. So every sticker used except number 1, which is the faction logo I'm still not putting on his head. Almost tempted to follow the animation model and put the autobot logo over his right hand side star as it looks odd not having a faction logo in alt. mode.



Looks like you saved me a bit of work with sticker number 10 as predicted @Maz, while it is marked on the instructions its away from the sticker guide and it doesn't mention cutting in half.



The trickiest bits were actually the arms as the official photos inside the box are wrong. Using your Detritus pictures and looking at the cut and natural lines on the forearms makes more sense than the recommended, so the pictures and sticker guide in the 2004 Takara reissue is numbered wrong asking for them to go on the opposite sides.



I also found the bigger leg stickers a bit tough because of the way they wrap around makes it tough to sticker them down firmly, but it makes sense and works there.

Overall, bit fiddly and looks ace. Might do Detritus tomorrow while it is fresh in my feeble head.

 

Looks amazing, Sid, properly lovely. Now since I don't have a Hound and I sure as feck don't want to go through stickering one again, can I just have yours?

Sounds like you had all the exact issues I did when stickering Detritus.

All the best
Maz

 

Wasn't Tarkin in charge?

 

Shame the Toy Hax doesn't seem to include the Jeep sticker for the front bumper.

So glad these are Tampoed in places, can't imagine having to sticker up the yellow / gold trim.

 

I believe the gold trim on the hood etc was all factory anyway to begin with.

All the best
Maz

 

Yup, but toyhax are nice enough to include them for.those looking to restore an original.

Have I mentioned lately how much I love the Takara book collection (and TRU Grapple) and Encores? I ended up picking up most of them back in the day even if I didn't need the toy.

 

That era of reissues is absolutely lush. I went through a very concentrated phase of picking up reissues and exclusives last year and it was absolute heaven.

A really sour couple of deals for Clampdown and standard Ultra Magnus put me off continuing on that route for a bit, but I’d love to fill the gaps. Stickering up that TRU Smokescreen really got the urge burning once more.

All the best
Maz

 

There's a few issues with stuff like the Hasbro Magnus reissue having the dorky missiles, but easy enough to replace those.

I passed on the Encore Devy and Bruticus as I had those in good condition already but tempted to check them out. That purple drum on Mixmaster calls to me. I picked up Encore Twincast and Soundblaster kept the new cassettes and flipped the bots as I preferred the earlier reissues. So much choice for great reissues.

And very happy I picked up 99% of eHobby back in the day. I actually started with Sideswipe (with the odd second sticker sheet), Red Alert and Thundercracker, before they moved on to funky coloured exclusives.

Edit: considering they had the mold sat there, it's odd they never did Encore Hound in a more anime accurate shade of green.

 

Good call. All of it.

All the best
Maz

 

I always had a soft spot for those mid-G1 era gimmicks - Triggerbots, Duocons, Battlechargers, Headmasters..... When Hasbro were just throwing random features at bots all over the place with no restraint. The Duocons in particular I always loved, not so much for what they are, but the concept. The idea of a split personality, one aerial vehicle and one land vehicle.... under a single mind just seemed to resonate. Plus, that 'jump up transformation' is very cool.

I don't know.... Bandai seem as short packed as ever, and Arcadia just keep increasing prices to test how much fans will bend over. But I haven't even kept up with what is being released any more, I am that far out of it all. The pre-order/new market is largely closed off to me due to not paying those prices or the 60 second click-fest of Bandai..... So its just browsing online stores to see if anything cool is available.

I dont know how much the original SV-51 was when new, and I am sure that the new version is better.... but, THAT much better? I doubt it very much. The CF versions that I have are fine and I never got an Ivanov, so I dont feel a burning need to replace them. As a long term favourite design of mine, I WANT a 51..... but not that much. My last two Macross purchases were HiMetal R - Elint and the Anniversary 1S.

Agreed. I have never been a huge Star Wars fan, to be honest. The original trilogy are classics. The prequels are flawed. The spin-offs just seem a bit desperate to keep the money train rolling and not do anything TOO different from what worked first time around. I liked Rogue One, agree with you 100% about tFA and haven't seen Solo at all.