You know how we all thought Megatron’s Master Plan was stupid because, well, the plan was stupid, being entirely based on a good portion of humans being super stupid and gulible ?
Today I think it is indeed a master plan.

anyway, more importantly…

DELUXE KICKBACK ? What ? The insecticons are back ? My babies ?

AAAAAAAAAAA





And @Xaran Alamas married life is great thank you very much <3
She’s the best thing that has ever happened to me.

I mean except deluxe Kickback.

 

Throwing the comic in the box causes my internal comic collector to rage !!!
Glad I cancelled the lot to pick up the comics separately.

In robot news my Animated Blitzwing arrived and is so much fun. Everything is complete and in good order (no instructions but I worked it out).

Already been transformed a few times whilst I worked out how everything went together.
Can’t for the life of me work out what the triggers on his arms are for, however he can do a nice Gerwalk mode.

 

I know Siege Jetfire has received mixed views from within the group and the bot mode height seems to be key to that especially when you see the figure displayed next to Combiners.

Have anyone in here owned or currently own the X2 Skycrusher figure? Your thoughts? I know the face sculpt is very odd looking but overall and scale wise I thought this figure did a great job representing the character for a collection. How is the transformation/ quality? How does it fair with T30 Jetfire?

For those not sure what X2 Skycrusher is, I’ve provided a couple of screenshots from the net. The second photo shows bot size next to TR Sixshot. Did anyone ever attempt to re-do the face sculpt for the figure?

 

Is he complete? He certainly looks it from the pics.
If so I'll go £55

 

Condor/Laserbeak

 

Pedant corner: Sentinel Maximus came out during the short lived OTFCC rebrand, Botcon started in 1994 and has a messy history of people licensing the name. Pre-Fun Publishing would be more accurate as they took over from 2005-2016 and probably have the most clearly remembered tenure as organisers. People love those box sets!

Sorry to be one of those people.

 

It's well known Smyths don't actually state the stock properly so people can find things in store. They usually minus 1 off of every stock item

 

And how!

"I thought I was meant to be the paranoid one?"
From TF:UK#366 'Return to the Planet of Junk'

 

I saw him in Smyths today but as i dont have much of an attachment to the character (and had other stuff to buy) i didnt, but if he drops to £15 or even £10 at some point I will definitely grab him

 

Nice idea. Though something worth remembering is the Queen in Endgame is not the same Queen. She's Kriege's Queen and outright says she's left Voyager alone until then.

Ah, fair enough. Still, the 'potential future Queen' thing seems plausible for Seven, perhaps increasingly so due to giving her those tasks and having her be a Speaker for the Collective. I'm happy to accept it as headcanon  

Ooh I'd forgotten those moments of individual thought. It supports something I was thinking about that Queens are possibly allowed to retain a higher degree of individual thought specifically to make them more effective at devising strategies etc. There's actually a bit in the non canon but FREAKING AWESOME PLOT Star Trek Armada where the Borg create a clone of Locutus as they decide they need someone capable of more individual thought to devise strategies against the Federation etc. The Queen doesn't appear in that game but to be honest I could see something similar having happened with the Borg at some point which is why the Queens have more individuality than the average drone, they need it to fulfill their purpose and provide an objective viewpoint to the will of the collective. Could be a kind of 'know our enemy' kind of thing too.

Very good point about the order from chaos line too!

The super processor theory is also somewhat supported by what we see in First Contact where, when the Borg on the Enterprise are cut off from the Collective they are still able to function while she is around, as opposed to the more zombieish basic functions we see of drones other times they are cut off from the Collective. To me that suggests that as well as potentially being some kind of relay for the collective, Queens are also able to serve as like the central processing unit for a contingent of Borg, and the shock of her death and the sudden complete severing from the collective is what caused the Drones to all just die at the end of First Contact.

I ALSO feel like with the multiple Queens, that they also have specific tasks and assignments, like drones but on a far bigger scale. Like Alice Kriege Queenie I feel is the Queen assigned for invasions or possibly specifically dealing with humanity as she commands the Cubes in Best of Both Worlds and First Contact and is in command of the Transwarp Hub in Endgame, which apparently they had a (presumably recently created) exit near Earth itself. I feel like Voyager majorly screwed up an imminent Borg attack and that's one of the reasons this Queen who had left them alone was suddenly now taking an interest in Voyager.

The other Voyager Queen was probably a Queen tasked with defending the collective. I forget if she appeared in Scorpion but she may have been involved in the war with Species 8472 and then subsequently keeping an eye on Voyager etc. There's probably other Queens out there for other tasks like integrating newly assimilated tech and biology etc.

As for what makes Queens special, one theory I kind of like is that Queens are Allurians (Guinan's species) There's not really any particular reason why they should be, I just like it  

Uh oh  

Yes!

Awww <3 and   I take it a Deluxe Kickback has been announced/leaked or something/ And just when I got the FoC version!  

Same energy

Also I think I've realised one reason Arky bot may be appealing more than most Titans have - the ship mode. I've never been much one for base building, which is something Arkybot lacks. Hmm

 

Shang Chi was decent. As with all other origin stories there's a lot to fit in and add in the mystical stiff and it's even harder.

All in all I think they did a good job. Perhaps a bit too clever for their own good with some of the fight scenes, but overall I liked it.

Not really got much for spoilers, but here's my thoughts:

Spoiler: Shang Chi itself

Looks like D'Arcy from Thor has competition. Really expected them to kill her as his motivation. Glad they didn't, but is she now Chinese Hawkeye? If not, who is she once you see the mid credits message?

Playing the bad guy isn't evil card is a good swerve, but the timeline is a bit squiffy to line up with Iron Man bits. It probably works, but it had me thinking about it when it shouldn't have.

Really happy to see Ben Kingsley back and properly roast IM3 and Mandarin in general. Especially the tongue in cheek stuff.

Oh, and Abomination is mates with Wong? I need to understand that!

Spoiler: Mid credits scene

Erm, where'd Professor Hulk go? Looks like rumours for human Banner in She-Hulk are true.

Danvers is back to flowing locks. Okay...

Ooh, is this a sequel teaser? Another film? Crossover? Team up? Why is Katy on this path now, she's a sidekick at best in superhero terms, so I don't get it.

Otherwise, I like.

Spoiler: End credits scene

Okay, our secondary hero still wants to be a mob boss? Or does she?

Good to see it's no longer sexist in its training, although given her story that's obvious, but she's clearly the baddy for the sequel, and I'm not exactly champing at the bit for a brother v sister thingy that treads the same ground as this, so I'm sceptical.

Especially given the sequel tease in the mid credits.

All in all, a solid film that grounds his powers going forwards and gives us material to work with in Phase 4 perhaps and Phase 5 for certain.

 

Thing is though, anybody in their right mind assumes the stock checker is correct, otherwise what's the point of it? And when it isn't you're generally stopping someone showing up with their cash, maybe losing even more money on impulse purchases.
...

NECA American Werewolf In London Kessler Wolf In-Hand Images

McFarlane Toys DC Designer Edition Batman Year Two 7" Figure Official Images And Details

 

To stop scalping.

 

Yes, put me down for one deluxe Kickback too. My brain did a bad thing when I read your post, it said 'Wouldn't it be terrible.... if it was actually a Generations Energon Kicker figure using Kickback's name for Trademark reasons?'

Bad brain.

No need to be sorry, could to have a bit of clarity!  

 

At Smyths? They send caseloads of single items to individual stores while the rest of the UK gets dribs and drabs.

And there's nothing stopping you buying up loads of an individual item online or in store anyway IME. I've did it with their exclusives for folks on here in light of the above.

 

I always prefer to word things apologetically to avoid coming across like a know-it-all neckbeard.  

 

@MyTea Boc dude I almost did not recognize you with this new avatar pic wow I’m too much out of touch here !

@Xaran Alamas no worries here any Insecticons is a good pick, they’re just that great.
I mean in no way I’m getting rid of TR/LG Kickback even with a new one coming.

also, des bisous

 

Oh great UK hivemind, I'm looking for a metallic acrylic paint that roughly matches this blue. Army Painter have come up dry, and I can't see any citadel matches. Please help!

 

Trying to resist buying/decide between

Mft Blitzwing £26
Platinum Junkion set £50

May just pick up blitz when I get paid and sell on the iron factory too. Fighting the urge for the junkion set, no need for the roddy and Id need a fresh head for wreckgar but man do I want that scrapheap head to go with these guys

 

Happy 1700th everyone with some insects !