That's.. a lot of music.



@Ottertron, fair play. And hopefully it works out for the best, galvanising folk to fix the situation as there's clearly something rotten with that guy.

@CZ Hazard, full agreement with the guys on here. Sounds like a man dragging his feet and keeping his hand in his pocket. Hope it's boxed off sooner rather than later.

 

We’ll in! Is there a union in the workplace that can support you?

 

I'm still on my probation so the union wouldn't be much help tbh, but if i feel like involving them is a sensible idea I'll speak to them.

The thing I have to keep bearing in mind is that management and HR aren't here for the employees but for the company, so I'm not going to make the mistake of trusting anyone there.

The thing is, though, there's a lot of these issues that I've gone on record as having raised before, I know for a fact other team members are having some of the same issues and will back me up, and, most importantly, I told them from day one that I was disabled and mentally ill and so if i need to play those cards I WILL, and, legally, that leaves them on VERY shaky ground.

 

Yep - and they have a responsibility for reasonable adjustments to ensure you get the same opportunities to thrive as other colleagues- which is the precise opposite of how this guy approaches leadership and management.
I do hope they just sort him out

 

Sw​

A boiler costs the same in December as it does in January so I don't see why they would. Like I said they've been decent, he even bought the house from his brother when his brother sold up his portfolio so we weren't disrupted (he used to manage his brothers rentals).

If anyone is bullshitting it's potentially a plumber who's too busy to do the job at the moment but doesn't want to turn it down. But he's better than the last guy who "serviced" the boiler for ten years without actually checking anything.

It's fucking cold. Busted out the old covid mattress so we're living and sleeping in one room to try and keep costs down.

Thanks for all the kind words and thoughts from everyone.

 

Please do. Mannequins creep me the fuck out. Soul stealing bastards

Bad craic mate.

Nice work so far dude!

7 TR, 2 SS86 and one BH Megatron to preside over them.

CW Magnus with the Perfect Effect bot might be best for you dude.

You are probably right!

 

"You're Autobots? But... how?"

- The Transformers S04E17: 'Revenge of the Monsterbots' (3/5)

 

Another Action Master? Don’t play with my heart like that, Hasbro.

I’ve written about my affection for the Action Masters before, and while I only ever saw a couple of them back in my youth, I thought having a more ‘action figure’ style of Transformer was not necessarily a bad thing (which, I hasten to add, is not the same as thinking non-transforming Transformers is a good thing). And I think there are some really fantastic character designs in the cast. Characters that were so well done that I find myself wondering how cool they’d be if we got versions of them that did transform. And that is definitely one of the reasons I get excited whenever I see another Action Master character get a new release.

And Jackpot is definitely one of the coolest designs in the AM range. In fact, when I think of Action Masters he’s definitely one of the toys that come to the front of my mind. Looking back at the AM commercials, it was obviously Rad that Hasbro thought was the standout of the basic assortment. After the ’84 and ’85 re-does, Rad’s the Autobot that gets the most screen time. I’m genuinely surprised that Jackpot isn’t featured in those commercials. I think he’s that iconic looking.

Perhaps it’s because he looks like such a classic ’84/’85 Autobot. He’s got the de rigueur bonnet chest, wheels on his shoulder, and wheels on his calves. You can almost already imagine how he transforms into some sort of ’70’s sports car (dear reader, please be aware that any letters alerting one that the Ferrari Testarossa was not in production in the 1970’s will be returned to sender). All he’s missing as far as vehicle kibble goes is a roof on his back.

I really love the headsculpt on this guy. There’s a real sense that this guy is wearing a helmet, and underneath is a smaller, more normal head. And the deco really ‘pops’. Black is always cool, and the yellow highlights on his arms and thighs are striking. Slap some neon orange on his eyes, knees, and feet and you’re onto a winner.

He also comes with ‘Sights’, who is a bird that turns into a gun, which will not go down well with animal rights activists. Sights is actually a very cool-looking robo-bird, with a scowling headsculpt and nicely detailed wings. The gun is rather dopey, but despite that, Sights manages to be one of my favourite Action Master ‘partners’.

So, it’ll come as no surprise that I’m delighted that they’ve chosen to give us a new Jackpot. With his few prominent scenes in More Than Meets the Eye, he’s certainly one of the AM’s I was thirstiest for. And SS86 Jazz is the perfect base mold for him. So why I am disappointed?

There are two things that really bother me. Firstly, the tiny, tiny head. His head is even tinnier than Geoff Holhurst’s. As noted above, the fact he looked like he was wearing a Judge Dredd helmet was one of the cooler features of his design. If this Kingdom Jackpot is wearing a helmet, then he must have been sat in the waiting room in Beetlejuice. And, to add insult to injury, the two-piece head seems to have been assembled by drunken monkeys (given an infinite amount of time, an infinite amount of monkeys could come up with Wheelie).

Secondly, what the fuck is going on with those big yellow streaks by his wheels? They’re so hideous and unnecessary. I hate them. Imagine if this guy’s Porsche mode had been all black. It would have looked stunning! I got SS86 Jazz out to check that this isn’t some issue where it would be impossible for the part that connects to the wheels be a different colour than the arms. Jazz has black arms. The part is white. This is just dumb. And with another dose of the insult/injury, the paint is hideously mismatched.

But despite all this…I think I like him? Considering the width of the flap that the head sits on it’d be some feat to actually make the head bigger (though making just the chin broader would have helped tremendously), so I do feel a little churlish moaning about it. The base mold is an excellent one and, head/flap problems aside, is an excellent fit for the character. And man, does that deco pop! They’ve made some smart choices, such as painting the headlights orange and making his visor so prominent, and aside from the dumb yellow paint by the wheels, they’ve matched the colours so well.

When I saw the first in-hand photos of this guy coming in I really thought I’d be regretting this purchase and cursing my peculiar form of completism, but now he’s sat on my desk I’m so happy I’ve got him. Seeing this mold in such a striking deco has made me appreciate it much more than I did when I was looking at SS:86 Jazz. And you know, as long as it doesn’t come as an incorrectly painted accessory for a £150 toy I’m not going to turn my nose up at an Action Master revival. So Hasbro, maybe do Kick-Off from Legacy Skids and we’ll be cool?

 

The first upgrade parts team to come up with a replacement head for Jackpot will just coin it in.

 

Congratulations to the GI Joe collectors who got their Skystriker jet project funded from HasLab last night.

While it's not my thing, it's a very cool looking toy.

 

I love that Kingdom brought minicons back.

 

I know nothing about it, but what about Perfect Finish Siege Magnus?

Apparently molds cost the earth. Just completely ignore convention exclusives, Aliexpress, Wish, and any amount of 3P companies. They use witchcraft.

 

Final #deskbot of the week as got the rest of the week off. So time for my fave Autobot weaponiser, Sixgun.

 

Ta - but more looking for the white and Perefet Finish Mags looks quite heavy grey.

I actually just watched the new emgo episode on Slammer and he’s a mix of off-white/light-grey and some whitey-white. It actually looked good alongside metroplex and Six gun, so I might actually be okay with siege after all.

the Perfect Effect CW upgrade is perfect colour but on reflection shorter than I’d hoped for.

with all these ‘good enough’ options, I predict the application of glorious logic - and getting them all!

 

Love him. Same mould as power-dasher cromar yet so completely better in every way!

 

Apologies if any of my points are invalid as I have only just skim read the last couple of pages.

I know you've already said you're maybe not fussed about Kingdom/Siege, but I have the oversized KO of Siege which has some changes to it and has a lot of die cast metal. He stands a good head or so higher than Leader Kingdom Rodimus (Rodimus' head sits around his shoulder) and for me he's a perfect magnus.

 

"What do you mean needs more faceplate?"

I'm unlikely to need anything from the Buzzworthy line, Kup was horrific enough the first time around.