The Great Divide's that one in the canyon with the two dickhead tribes, right? It's kind of disposable I guess, but I'll still watch it. And I do still like Book 1 as it's relative tameness just makes the ending of Book 2 and the entirety of Book 3 all the more impactful.

 

Avatar is a series that I will enjoy watching over time, and was especially fun to watch through with the family. Korra was good, but a little too serious for Harry (he’s 5).

The only replacement at the minute for a series like that is probably the dragon prince, looking forward to that again next month.

Cities of gold was also good for season 1 and 2, if only I could find season 3 in English.

Family cartoon time is fun!

 

None available for online order and none in my area. Apparently there’s 15 in Leeds.  

@bcm77 - first couple of days were a little fraught as, obviously, Clarence was rather miffed about the interloper and went into a sulk with us, but Claude won him over by not rising to his attacks and just being sweet and loveable so now they’re the best of chums!

 

Todays arrivals are MP Exhaust and Toyworld Green Hornet.



Exhaust's head sculpt and rockets are definitely the coolest thing about this guy. I'm glad I have him now. Got Road Rage on the way too



This guy is small but looks the part. The transformation is by no means "fun" but it is smart and the result is fantastic. He poses really well!

 

Well, stone the crows! I think the sliding release date shenanigans of Hasbro UK have cured my Pre-Order fever! With the plethora of Wave 4 in store at the mo, I'm gonna take my chances.
I think also a pre-order moratorium until, for thread rules' sake, let's say "Post Hallowe'en" is probably quite the most sensible grownup decision from this immature w*nker in a while.
Plus I have a run of pre-existing preemptivee due to land this month anyhow.
Time to appreciate what I have.


Aaaaand maybe order that Optimal Optimus gear set for Throne Primal!  


And get that finger out on these unfinished tiny guys!

 

I’m just miffed (to put it mildly) that Kapow have had to shut MP Blackarachnia preorders before I was able to get an order in as we’ve no idea what the exchange rate is going to be like with suck fuckwits ruining the show

 

Bludgeon isn't necessarily the first name you might turn to as an example of a Decepticon leader. For the longest time I had to keep reminding myself that he ever had held a position of command, but yes, Bludgeon does get to keep his place in the Deceptileader hall of fame thanks to a late-game power-grab in the G1 Marvel comic, just a short time before it folded for good. Despite this, Bludgeon's time in charge was followed up by Simon Furman twice, first in the ill-fated G2 comic and then later in the ill-judged Regeneration One, both of which had him very much put in his place by the bigger kids in the playground. He only really became leader in the first place by virtue of all those bigger kids being off elsewhere at the time, and a distinct power vacuum left back on Cybertron which he was eager to fill. Just think, if Furman was more into moustaches and wrestlers than samurai, we could have had Stranglehold on the Deceptithrone.

Yeah, Bludgeon's one of the staple favourites of Simon Furman, and has the honour of appearing in almost every series that he has penned. Marvel G1 and G2 (despite his toy being long gone from shelves at the time), Dreamwave G1 and Armada (yes, really), Titan's movieverse comics and of course, IDW. That's an even more impressive spread than even Grimlock or Swoop. And yet... it's taken until this year for Bludgeon to appear on the screen in any way, with a couple of minor cameos in season two of Cyberverse. That's a pretty massive disparity between being a comic book mainstay and a TV nobody.

It gets worse, as this Bludgeon is (mostly) the RID 2015 version, who got a substantial retool from the Megatronus toy and still didn't appear in the show, only for his own Autobot repaint, Blastwave to get an episode of his own instead. The ignominy! The affront! The bare-skulled cheek! Just because Blastwave's colour scheme was secretly way cooler... ahem.

So you probably noticed that my Bludgeon is looking somewhat different to his regular self. The toy was based on Megatronus, whose arms become the single cannon for vehicle mode, but Bludgeon's arms just end up hanging around on the back looking a bit daft, while his cannons are a new piece. So it didn't take much thought to simply Frankenstein the two together, and have Bludgeon's body with Megatronus's arms. And then an alt mode with three guns, because three guns is two more than one gun, and that's just good maths. Murder-maths!

I've always liked that Bludgeon becomes a tank. It's been suggested that, as a martial arts master, something a bit quicker and more agile might be a better fit as an alt mode, but Bludge is having none of it. Real Japanese samurai armour made them into big hulking powerhouses of the battlefield, built to take punishment as well as give it out, and that's what tanking is all about. Sure, Bluncheon-meat has some sexy moves, but he's still the party tank, not a DPS rogue. He's probably put some skill points in evasion and parry though, so he can tank with style.

Is this the best Bludgeon? Not really. ROTF Bludge is still the superior version, even after a whole decade. But while his erstwhile boss Thunderwing continues to languish in deluxe size, the thought of Skeletor here towering over the greatest leader the Decepticons ever had just couldn't stand. His RID version can certainly hold a pose or two, but his sword's a little on the stubby side, and there's no way he could ever hold it in two hands. And there's a strangely scattergun approach to a colour scheme (which admittedly I made worse by giving him new arms) with green, purple, orange and red all in the mix. And, let's be real here, he's totally overdone it on the skull motif. Not just his face this time, but torso and bum-flap all are made to look like skele-men. He's trying a little too hard, bless.

Still for now, RID hybrid Bludgeon can take the spot on the shelf. For now.

 

The Car That Killed Hitler!
Actually, on that tack there's a rather neat low budget fillum on Netflix that I really dug called 'The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then The Bigfoot' a high Pulp Fiction premise done in a really grounded way with an excellent dual central performance from Sam Elliot and Aidan "Poldark" Turner (who makes a surprisingly convincing young Sam Elliot), if offbeat is your bag give it a go. It's high adventure done in a kind of myth-busting fashion. I loved it - but it did also punch my heart out.

Quite. You have to be a pretty inbred, idiotic, over-entitled twerp to think you can leave the club but still use all the facilities for free!

Also found something else to spend my pennies on, good ol' the artist formerly known as Spurt Reynolds now Repro Man has the small guns for Pincher, Doubleheader, and Stranglehold!
OOpsie!

 

1) Is he MP scale or CHUG scale?
2) Does he come with that brickwork mat thing, or is that from elsewhere?

 

@Imperator - deffo Studio Series scale, so he's a wee deluxe. The brick piece also came with Bulldog and they're magnetic at the sides to build them up. I only realised this cos I wound up with two.

 

Yep its SS scale. The brickwork comes with all figures and they are magnetic.

They also come with parts for a BAF of a Biplane Starscream. 3 more parts to go!

 

Well... shit. I definitely think I'm going to miss all of these at this rate. There was a Bulldog at TFN but I couldn't stretch to £60 for it. The first real historical line of transforming bots, and it's when my funds are tight.

 

Glad they're getting on OK, they're very cute!

The first week or so we had Oreo was a bit fraught as Rebecca had been on her own for a couple of months after her chum passed away so there was a bit of squabbling but they got used to each other and aside from a few days after his operation they've been together ever since.

Today my Mum made the basic error of leaving her new pair of furry slippers next to her chair when the ferrets were about and they didn't waste any time trying to steal them....anything furry is a potential toy!

For this reason I will be extremely careful with my Hot Toys Wicket when it arrives as I don't want to have an awkward returns related conversation with the seller because the furry buggers tried to "befriend" it  

 

Aye it's pricey, I still have that spare you could have for mates rates if you're interested?

 

I know, mental isn't it. I love my raspberry pi but do like the original consoles. take my pi on holiday.

need to get amiga games on the pi. and the star wars arcade game.


In other news, had info back on kidneys. the chest infection was the cause of my kidneys being on the blink so I should make a full recovery and be able to come off the blood pressure pills.

 

I'd love to see this, but for some reason I think Bulkhead and Knockout would be more likely than Breakdown.

 

@Imperator challenge failed.


I thought he had more to his legs, but the lack of any outwards hips really makes him suffer. Still really like this guy and will be my fiddle fodder tonight.

Looks like the wife will be starting her new part time job tomorrow. Be nice to get a little extra cash in. Evening shifts so I'll have a few hours to myself when i get home from work each night. Hmmm, what can i do with myself?

*ques up star wars prequels and every star trek movie.

 

Right, well that was something of a ballache. I've queued up posts on Tumblr for the next week to repost my Snowflake Seekers reviews, so they're all in the same place. Once I've gathered the energy to do so I'll do the same for the season 3 Autobots and then get my act together on the current series.

Anyway, it's called Sterner Stuff Toys. If you like, have a look. I occasionally (frequently) forget to post anything there, these queued posts will be quite the change.

Back when I had him out more frequently I'd put him with the sword casually resting over his shoulders, but that's about as good as you can get, sadly. The key for me is always head rotation. If they can't turn to look at something, they always tend to look unnatural. After that you need 3 dimensional movement in shoulders and hips, and at least 2d movement in knees and elbows. Everything after that is a luxury, like bicep and thigh swivel, wrist and ankle tilt.

I really wish I hadn't lost my Swindle minicon, as that deploying gimmick was my favourite thing about Armada Starscream.

 

Excellent news old bean, glad to hear that you are on the mend! 

 

X Men Grand Design is also marvelous. Can't wait for Scioli's FF version.