I can very much imagine an MP Raiden being a thing, left-field though it appears. Hasbro and Takara are painfully aware of how little demand there is for mainstream train toys in the USA where they practically deify the car over stupid socialist public transport (and was the impetus behind the good guys in 1984 all being automobiles). So Takara wouldn't be able to rely on Hasbro money to develop Generations versions of any trainbots which don't have Astro- as a prefix, so they kind of have to put it in the MP line. It is only officially marketed and distributed in Japan these days, after all.

 

In the next week I'll hopefully be completing my TFA Powermaster prime, made him a proper sized Magnus hammer. Might make one for Magnus himself too

 

Thank you so much dudes - love you all.

Yep, my burfday was Monday and I can comfortably say I've spent the last 4 or 5 days in a consistently buzzed state - thanks to many different types of alcohol. There was a lovely a bottle of salted caramel flavoured rum gifted to me by the girlfriends mother, and that has been going down a treat.

Hoping Omne turns up tomorrow as it's a birthday pressie from my mum and it will nice to be have a Cosmos to mess with at this particularly starry time of year.

MP Raiden sounds like just the most wonderfully bonkers idea to come out of Takara since that mad dragon train trio of bots.

Is there anyone out there in the market for Siege Starscream, Thundercracker and Skywarp (no battlemasters)? £55 posted for the lot?

Oh, here's a pic of a trio that is definitely not the Siege seekers... 

 

Well piss.

Spent the evening doing some pixel art for the next music - a skeletal eagle wreathed in fire - it should look pretty metal if all goes to plan. Did the skull, did the spine, did the ribs, did the hips, started on the legs and then the app did a massive nope and reverted back to when I’d done the spine. No amount of undoing would bring it back. I am mighty peeved.

 

I'm with @Max Tower on this one, it ain't niche, wot it is is...

MP has forgotten this, IMO to it's peril but my wallets rescue!  

Alan Moore has disavowed as usual (and under the con job done on him by DC is entirely justified on his part) *BUT* it is rather uncanny that Crazy Ol' Uncle Alan has been recently chuntering about how "The Birth Of A Nation was technically the first superhero film" linking White Supremacy with the origins of masked heroes and that the series, well, not wanting to bust spoilers but my cursory research on it's goings on has revealed that it pretty much head-on tackles that very prickly thorn, and I think it's non-spoilery to note that the series has a deliberate nod to Bass Reeves, the black US Marshal who was allegedly the inspiration for the very white, and masked, Lone Ranger. Which denotes that, though they lack the approval, the writers of the series get Watchman's themes and signification on a level Zack Snyder was entirely blind to.

 

Yeah, I think that's the saddest thing, Lindelof is using Watchmen and superheroes to tell a completely different story which was exactly what Alan Moore wanted when he created Watchmen, rather than inspiring a 35 year cycle of everyone trying to deconstruct superheroes through the one lense of murky real-worldism. But he'll obviously never watch it due to the chicanery and stalkerish tendencies of DC and Warner Bros. Shame.

But it's always worth remembering when he came to do the project before it was Watchmen, he didn't refuse on principal because Steve Ditko didn't get to own The Question. He didn't pass on Miracleman because the original creator had his creation stolen from him. Doesn't make it right at all, but the comic book industry has been fairly consistent in it's legacy of shitting on creator's rights. He has made it better for the next few generations at least, and I admire his principles and his lack of animosity to co-creators (though it does bother me more than it ever should that he no longer has a friendship with Gibbons).

If nothing else, Reznor and Ross are absolutely killing it with the soundtrack. I didn't want or need a Watchmen TV show, and I honestly didn't think I'd watch it, but turns out I needed something to do before Silicon Valley every week, and the show won me over with it's opening sequence on the first episode. That's how black Superman gets his start in life, not scientists and rocket ships, but race riots and a stagecoach. Stunning stuff. Not pieced it all together yet but I'm very much a fan.

Just need Doomsday Clock to finally wrap up.

 

@CZ Hazard You're not wrong, Sid, it's ironic, almost darkly funny if one is in the right kind of mood, that the comics author who railed against Randian Objective certainty Black-&-White thinking in superheroes has cut himself off from the medium he loves (as per Leah Moore's recent Twitter statement) and some former colleagues through a certain, well, moral certainty.
Given his love of The Wire he might even have enjoyed the series himself if not for the (as previously stated entirely understandable) personal baggage.

 

Dinoking and Monstructor. Somehow this is the first time I've ever had them both displayed in full out of boxes and on the same shelf.

Could combine Dinoking to give the shelf more breathing space and add symmetry, but for now I like seeing them in both robot modes and combined.

 

Many belated birthday wishes Liam

 

Micro fun !



10 minutes in and I really like the air strike patrol, real cool little dudes.

 

did you ever get those Soundwave guns printed?

 

He hasn't said a word, as far as I know. To be honest, I imagine most people are too scared to ask him what he thinks, lest he reply at painful length.

Hard agree on what @Seeaich and @CZ Hazard have said. Especially Sid's point about it being the sort of story telling one might imagine Moore hoping his work would inspire. I suspect his opinion would be along the lines of 'if you're going to tell a story about Race and America then it might be more powerful if you got rid of the superhero nonsense', which is more or less a paraphrase of what I recall him saying when asked to look back on V for Vendetta.

While I'm more than sympathetic to Moore's righteous rage about DC's behaviour, it's always made me arch my eyebrow a bit. I seem to recall that prior to the Watchmen screw over he was so happy in the corporate bosom of DC that he was suggesting that they go poach talent from independent publishers ('Have you seen Lloyd Llewellyn? You should get this Clowes guy to do a Jimmy Olsen comic'). That's always made it a bit hard to take some of his rhetoric at face value. A feeling that got much stronger after that hideous 'last interview' was released, where he came across as a complete intellectual bully that was happy to totally misrepresent and diminish the work of others (nevermind Grant Morrison, his treatment of Will Brooker and Pam Noles was particularly vile, and detailed here). After reading something that was so intellectually dishonest as that rant I've concluded that I don't have a much respect for the guy anymore. Which is a real shame, as I recall pouring over his late 80's/early 90's Comics Journal interviews as a teen and having a lot of what he said really shape the person I became.

I think the Airstrike Patrol are the best of the 'classic' Micros we've got in Siege (I think Laserbeak is actually the best best), by sheer dint of Stormcloud having a transformation that is more involved than the original. Something that can't be said for most of 'em.

"Even after deca-cycles behind bars...Unmistakeable..."

"Permission to come aboard?"

 

"Men? Come on, men."
Today's #deskbot is the victim of dumb rushed translation where nobody stopped to wonder if referring to robots as "men" constantly would sound weird. It does.

Also, I'm about back to where I was yesterday on this demon bird. Ca-caw!

 

Holla everybody!

Been busy finalising the calendar (it's looking mighty swish actually! Not bad for a rush job!) and eagerly awaiting some pics by @TigerBlade and @scubaboy31! Could be good, could be tasty... Anyway orders for V2 cards and 2020 Calendar end THIS SUNDAY! Then it's close books, off to the printers etc etc! Depending on the numbers I may have a few extra but why risk it? These always sell out because I don't overprint or do extra print runs!

I should have warned you about the SHAMELESS SHILLING eh? Oh well.

In other news I have completed my 5 Archery probation sessions. In a nutshell, after completing the beginners course I can join the club, but have to do 5 probationary sessions (essentially be there at busy times so that full members can make sure you're not a menace) and yesterday I did my 5th.

The thing was, the moment I walked through the door I thought 'blimey, that's a lot of people. What's going on?' Turns out it was a competition night (Portsmouth) that I wasn't aware of and 'did I want to enter and shoot?' The roster was full (14 peeps) but I was told by the guy running it some people probably won't be showing up, so wait a bit and when the slot opens up, I can fill it (ooer missus).

5 minutes to go (takes at least 10 minutes or so to set up your bow) 3 people hadn't turned up and because I don't feel pressure like normal people, down goes my name and into the fray! I only had time to shoot 3 arrows before the competition was being set up, and then shot another 6 practice arrows to get my sight in and that was it, straight onto scoring. So I was kinda going in cold.

Shooting under competition conditions is a totally different ballgame, as everything is scored so there is actual pressure to do well every shot. I saw more seasoned archers fluffing shots, kicking themselves which affected their next shots. Me? I took a Martial Art adage I've been taught, don't celebrate your mistakes. Fuck up? Eh. Move on. It was 60 arrows in total and took just over 2 hours to do. Midway through the competition I had to take a quick snap of all the hardware...


That's my red bow, Boomer, there at the bottom. It's an impressive line up of bows!

And here's my scoresheet!



And you know what? I actually did pretty well. On the target are 3 yellow rings the centre 2 rings represent the 5cm (ish) bullseye (10), outer yellow ring is 9 etc etc. I think the first 2 shots I did (remember this was my 5th session, and first competition) made a few people sit up. I even got a few spiders (the very smallest yellow ring). The final score was 480, which isn't that close to the high scorers (550+) but also isn't that far from 500. I beat more experienced archers (whose bows had all the gear, stabilisers etc) and from what I was told 480 for a first go is pretty darn good. So I'm well pleased with myself.

I did not miss the target at all (it's actually really easy to miss a 60cm target over 25 yards) but upon analysis I lament the 3 arrows that went askew and scored 4, I just need to eliminate them, score oh so slightly better and 500 should be easy to reach. Goals eh?

TLDR: I had a very good evening shooting last night.

Robots? Uuuh. I got nothing.

 

I think the Airstrike Patrol is the best Pack. Direct Hit and Power Punch might be my favourites. I think if they had elbows they would be superior. I do wish more had elbows and the cars were a little more solid.

The tapes are another thing altogether. Unfortunately my laser beak doesn't clamp onto the groves in Soundwave’s arm and pops off with little effort if I do manage it. I have a hard time counting them as the same as the Micromasters because they are so linked with Soundwave they seem just to complete his unit.

 

Wow @tikgnat that's super impressive. Sign me up for a set of cards please.

 

HEY EVERYONE I JUST WORKED OUT WHERE THE RIBCAGE AND HIPS ON MY SKELETON WENT LAST NIGHT IT TURNS OUT THEY WERE ON A DIFFERENT ANIMATION FRAME AND I TOTALLY DIDN'T NEED TO REDO EVERYTHING THIS MORNING EVERYTHING IS AWFUL NOW HAHAHAHAHA OH GOD

 

Just noticed smyths pre-order for Astrotrain has closed and now it's just showing as out of stock due between yesterday and the 10th. So with any luck he'll start showing up soon

 

I guess it’s all practice and learning.

 

Usual

Usually a sign he’s in store this happened with Mirage, Impactor and Barricade they showed up on the shelves about a week later.