Amazon USA came through with the goods, eventually.

 

Any of you fellas know an exterminator? Got a vermin problem here...

 

No movement in two days, so this is where Cyclonus will be spending Xmas:



The deep, dark hole that lost my Bluestreaks.

Fuck you Jubilee Mail Centre, and fuck you 2020 with very rusty pruning shears.

 

*Inserts deep pan, crispy and even joke*

 

So guess which moron ruined the bed of his printer?

Yeah this one. Guess the upgrade to glass is gonna come a bit quicker than I thought.

On the plus side, the shotgun looks damn cool

 

Maybe look into magnetic removable build plates? Personally I just have a supply of build-tac that I replace when it starts getting beat up.

 

I will literally try anything. What exactly are you using at the moment?

 

Here are my furry exterminators, just raring to go,
ZZZZZZ!!!!! by Brendan Mitchell, on Flickr

 

Totally understand. It's a difficult topic.

I fully understand the arguments that retention of such stereotypes propagate the continued existence of them and thus the offence they cause.

I think my main problem with how this is currently handled is that changes are made for the sake of being seen to do it. There's no creative reason, nothing that makes sense, but it's done to appease vocal critics.

For example... and this is deliberately obtuse.

If we remake Braveheart, should 17% of the cast be black because that's what the UK looks like today? Of course not. A Chinese actor playing William Wallace would be stupid.

Equally, a cast of white guys in a Bollywood film would look daft. Nobody is critical of those films for not featuring different races...

I fully accept the contrary argument, and white folks shouldn't play non white people. It's visibly obvious that it doesn't work. And in film, that matters. You watch them, so you see the issue in front of you.

That said, I see no reason why a gay actor can't play a straight role. And importantly, vice versa. I can't stand the 'give it to an LGBT person' argikent when those same people would never make the contrary argument. Would it be better? Perhaps, in a role where personal experience would add quality to the performance, but not if it wouldn't. Give it to the best actor.

Ditto an able bodied person playing a disabled person. CGI works both ways, so I see no reason why it's not a democracy save for when the role demands something specific that is impossible due to the disability (and where stunt doubles wouldn't work). But if they CGI'd skin colour, i.e. for race, there'd be uproar!

Where I wouldn't baulk at a race swap scenario is if it were done wholesale. Gone with the Wind with white slaves? Fine, so long as the old white roles are all black actors. But we know that'd get slayed as lip service.

You can't win whatever you do. For me, if the story is good enough in its constituent parts, then you should be faithful to it but be humble enough to point out those flaws. Pretend they aren't there and you undermine the struggles people faced to get us to where we are now.


Erm... something something robots?

 

Determined not to get too annoyed with Smyths' delayed Cyclonus (he's for the movie shelf, he can wait till the SS86 guys arrive), but damn am I loving looking at all your awesome pics. Defo want him to arrive on his own, want to have time with him before I get too obsessed with another Hot Rod and forget all other toys.

This, however, has really pissed me off. Does this mean I've just missed it now? Are they out of stock?

I've still not opened my Autobot Alliance box, if Ratchet doesn't arrive, I may drop the idea of having an original arc crew display and part with it (and probs a bunch of Earthrise guys too). I preferred the Siege aesthetic anyway, and the idea of not only re-buying the same figures but slightly different, but also in so many cases at such a higher price point with extra stuff I wasn't interested in (battlemasters) grated on me.

Thanks for the eBay link @David and @robotmel, I'm fairly certain this maybe less than he spent on the original car. He has then spent ridiculous amounts fixing the damn thing but who am.i to judge, I love buying little plastic robots!

I think I'll keep an eye on eBay for anything cheaper, no rush on this.

 

In the same boat, luckily I did ridiculous safety orders which nobody should have to do in 2020 or any other year.

What's grinding is they opened the set up for order again, so either Amazon, Hasbro or a middleman fucked up as per. But that still wouldn't explain the previous randomness around this exclusives line. It's just amateur hour and that's being kind!

 

As it's been an intermittently quiet last day on the Helpdesk of 2020, I have cheekily slipped in a tweak or two. the Robo-Missus' face needed a little aftercare and this kid got cocky enough to take a punt at the awkward tiny exposed bits of face above the inside of her eyes!
"COME AT ME, ROBRO!"

"WHOA! I know John Woo!"

Also the red metallic on her belly-keypad just pops on her otherwise more pastel deco, and the wee dash of a metallic pink button gives me a lovely bit of aesthetic buzz for a detail so small and inconsequential. Also discovered a nasty paint pockmark on her left eye but, DAYUM, if a wee bleb from my dregs of Mr. Hobby Sky Blue didn't sort that seamlessly!

It's an utter 180°, Lads, I love this figure, and for all her flaws she is, in fact, the best G1 Arcee we've gotten!

Look, I love T30, she's going nowhere - she was the first proper, proper Arcee but ER? Well, there's not only the incredible increase in articulation but also just have a quick spin thru TFTM at her transformation scenes, as I did the other night to check out her deco colour-mapping, and you will find that her car mode, shelltastic as it is, is pretty much bang on to her Movie appearance that the T30 just isn't quite (it hews that bit closer to the earlier Floro Dery model sheet car mode that's on the Marvel bio art). In fact I was quite surprised and pleasantly so how accurate to the Movie the soapbar shell car is!

The gun's still crap though! Boy, am I glad I hung on to that LG-10 Movie-style pistol!

 

No Thrust on any horizon but AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA





I think I may have time tomorrow to come here but in case I won't I want to whish you all the best for the holidays, You're truly a bunch of great and nice people and the only reason I still come to this f****ing website. This has been a rough year, so let's hope you have some rest and joy among yours for even one magic day.
And I know those days, christmas, are a difficult time for some of us. Reasons are various, and I know them, I've been here. I just want you to know that I love you.

 

Hmm yeah the Knuckles treasure hunting sections were the weakest definitely - and that includes Big. TBH the fishing bits were a kind of fun diversion between all the running around   - yet that gameplay worked much better for Rouge in the sequel and fit her to a tee. I remember I always felt Knuckles' levels should have been more of a brawler type thing. Punching your way through hordes of enemies with his fists interspersed by gliding and climbing sections.

And funnily enough, the Tails/Robotnik gameplay in the sequel were some of my favourite levels in that game too   I love how everyone in this thread can happily enjoy different things about the same stuff and it's not a whole thing  

Couldn't agree more with Forces. It had a lot of potential and I really hoped it would be a true successor to Adventure but it ended up as a damp squib. I can't help but agree with a sentiment I've seen that the levels kept ending just as they felt like they were getting somewhere. The character creator was a neat enough idea but I'd happily trade that in exchange for more alternate characters ala Adventure. The frustrating thing is I think that there felt like there was a lot of good elements there but it was poorly executed. Mania was certainly the superior Sonic game of the two.
Also TBH while I wasn't sure at first, Heroes was a great blast too and I wouldn't be opposed to sequel to Sonic Heroes, possibly with new teams too. It also somewhat feels like the end of the Adventure era. That or Shadow the Hedgehog which I know is divisive but heck I enjoyed it! Though I had the PS2 version and it felt weird playing Sonic on a non SEGA or Nintendo console  
I also remember rolling my eyes at the complaints of a Sonic game with a gun and people acting like SONIC was running around with a gun... except he wasn't. The whole point was this was Shadow's game, you don't even play Sonic! I also liked the multiple paths that game had and as someone who loved the whole Shadow plotline in Adventure 2, seeing them delve into it more in his own game was great  


Oh and possibly my last HLJ order arrived today. Two more Scrapfaces and Cogman. My ID SS Blackout order has been dispatched but is unlikely to arrive before XMas. Oh well, I'm hoping for some transforming robits on the day too  

 

Love lotr movies. It changed the face of movies, so many 'epics' came out following them. But they were the first. Gollum is still my fav and still happy for him watching his final scenes, that at least he goes out happy.


Amazon has opened medic orders? That's bang out of order when they still have people waiting on their orders to ship.

Opened ss skipjack today. What a wonderful pogo stick he is. If this is how the other constructicons are, then friday will be a fun day.

 

It had previously sold out eventually, then went up again. They even reduced the cost of shipping to the UK. Now they're telling people who all ordered at the same time they can’t source them, even though plenty did get them.

Meanwhile I got my set from IDT weeks ago and my American mate has a set in hand.

 

Just about finished doing up NBK Devy. Been a very enjoyable project, good for a beginner as can't really go wrong doing weathering. Lots of pics here;

Minor/Repaint: - NBK Devastator weathering

But it's all about da big guy!

d'oh the dino should be upside down!

 

That scene's from the wrong movie!

 

Ouh my mistake, I wasn't clear, those levels are fine, I was refering to the plane shooter section of Adventure 1, you know when you go to the Eggcarrier. It's not bad by any means, but a perfect exemple of Naka trying to put as many things he can and that's not always super interesting.
But I agree wholeheartedly about what you say about the thread though. thus why I'm here.

Shadow ?

 

If.you ever get your safety order in, you fancy selling it and its not spoken for, hit me up?