Proper buyers remorse this morning. Looking at Rhinox that arrived in the post, I am not sure this is going to be better than the Takara LG version I have...

 

its the yellow NBK version of Bonecrusher (carrying an Insecticon). His name is probably 'Shoveller' or some such

 

Think I've decided on a paint scheme for Wingfinger number 2; GW Ulthuan Grey, Ahriman blue, and either Ironbreaker or Necron Compound..

 

Just watching EmGo’s latest on Nonnef’s Ironhide upgrades: are we expecting/ hoping/ sacrificing goats for an Earthrise Ironhide & Ratchet re-release?
I really hope SS86 core leak is a typo…

 

I believe it's because it makes running on a treadmill more like running outside. It means you push rather than pull yourself along. Or something. But yeah, better slightly shorter run on an incline than one that's just flat. Also it's a good idea to vary it... do 1K on a slight slope, increase it for 500 meters, drop it back down for 1k, increase it again for 500 meters, stuff like that. Basically any variation will make your body have to work differently and get you better results.

(I hesitate to offer advice, because I hate it when someone says "I've just started doing this exercise thing" and some gym bore comes along and says "you're doing it wrong, you should be doing this and this and this" because it usually just kills your enthusiasm. If there's a proper answer to "what's the best exercise to do" it's "one you know you'll do again". You're already doing great. These are more suggestions to stop it going stale.)

 

Great point @LorDZeeD I'd never questioned those statues before either.

The TF timescale and lifespan is one of those things that I feel fundementally doesn't make sense.

On the one hand, TFTM is set after the 4million years of hibernation the core cast had in the Ark, which gives plenty of time for ancient deception leaders.

On the other apparently Old Man Shockwave was keeping the lights on and fighting fembots that whole time....

I kinda feel you can either have the millions of years of hibernation as being a long time, or you can have bots living millions of years but the way TF tries for both is a real have your cake and eat it too situation.

 

Incline running reduces pressure on the joints by promoting forefoot and flatfoot running which reduces heel strikes which are not a natural part of the human gait. Shoes and trainers are built up in the wrong place. This shouldn't be a surprise as collectively we as a society can't even go to the toilet properly.
The best part of changing the incline (you can set the treadmill to do it for you which is a great way to break up a run) is it increase properception and gets your mind and body a bit more involved. Treadmill running sadly disconnects the mind from the process a little, but if it works for you then it works for you, which is one of the golden rules for life.

I can't agree enough with everything you wrote on your second paragraph, when I first started going to the gym every person who'd been doing it for 20 years with zero gains was quick to tell me with absolute certainty what I was doing wrong. Unsolicited advice is the worst.

Not been to a gym properly since 2018 though as I burned out. Looking forward to getting back to it one day.

 

That's the problem with retconning stuff, you get anomaly after anomaly show up.

In '84, the cartoon was the only story, but now (although Transformers ended in '88 and nothing more was ever conceived of  ) there's the other version that's officially (to the toy makers, not to anyone who knows that '88 was the end ) canon, I believe.

I think the option I gave above is the only way to square both examples (add in that those leaders led small scale uprisings that never gathered enough momentum to succeed in the same way as Megatron's did, and you can just about fudge the 'multiple wars' bit as a minor exaggeration of historical rhetoric).

As I say though, the Quints made two races, and a monkey made Unicron. Fact. Fight me  

 

See this is again why I feel slapping 'million' into the timeskip was a mistake, when it could have just as easily been 'thousand' for all the difference it makes. Having to explain the fact that Grand High Poobah Lord Megatron has been MIA for literally the entire time it took for the human race to evolve from apes raises too many questions ("Dear TVTropes.org..."). Dreamwave and G2 tried to reconcile that by having Cybertronian society look down on the OG characters for still wanting to wage war while everyone else had moved on, but it still didn't really work. Mostly because Dreamwave's G1 vol. 2 was an utter crock of shite.

 

Thank you, and thank you in general to everyone in this community for being so supportive. I love taking the pics, it's part of how I play with my toys, but once I get one, I can't wait to share with you lot. This really is the nicest place on the internet.

<Group hug>

A lot easier with kids not waking me up at the crack of dawn. Now I remember how I used to manage it - lie ins.

Oh man you're right. Okay, 5 faces of darkness is today's watch.

Totally agree. It's funny, the Trekkie in me loves thinking about canon and the timeline, but the transformers fan in me? Meh, give me a fun story, I'll figure out the rest!

Maybe with hindsight (and knowing all the Pat Lee garbage that went on behind the scenes). Also we live in a post MTMTE world, standards have risen! Back then though? Man, I loved the shit out of those comics.

 

So there's an iPhone on the floor shining a light up his bum. Lighting our darkest indeed...



Picked this up from @robotmel a little while back. Its mad how much I love it

 

I'll still defend the Dreamwave era to an extent. The first miniseries was largely coherent as a story, even if it had its problems (dull suprise, inconsistent size in robot modes etc.). The second miniseries I absolutely hate because it's just such a mess of a story, trying to build an ongoing narrative from the first miniseries was a huge mistake. Pat Lee's pencils (and his toxic influence through the company) are bad, but I always loved the colouyring and shading, which I'd say has yet to be beaten. The ongoing series got off to a great start, though I do feel it was already starting to sag under its own flabby weight by the time the whole thing got cancelled. Micromasters was appalling. War Within was good. Armada/Energon... didn't really work. They were trying to do a Marvel-style ongoing in an era where toylines would last 18 months and then change, and it couldn't keep up. Cancellation was probably a mercy there.

 

@SJW


Full flash so you can see it properly

 

Few more faces added to ebay. Quite a few sold yesterday so thanks to any and all who bought. Big help right now.

 

RAMJET HAS ARRIVED AND IS BEAUTIFUL!

GOD the colours are wonderful. Kinda wish they'd do the ER Starscream mould in these so we get a good official Slipstream, who inhetited them, for a reasonable price.

 

Morning ponderings inspired by this.

Would Transformers as a brand be where they are now without Dreamwave?

Would Transformer comics be where they are now without Dreamwave?

 

I think people know more about how it ended than how successful it was. This was the first time since the 90s a comic other than DC or Marvel hit the number one spot and sold about 300k copies of issue 1. It was huge.

There was a reason there were TRU adverts liveried throughout: these comic buyers were the target audience. The Takara book reissues and TRU both borrowed a lot of art, Binaltech commissioned original art but a lot of it in a very comic style (not Pat Lee style, but better).

It was huge.

I don't think anything that happened to the toys happened because of the comics, but they were certainly an extra piece of the puzzle which helped Hasbro realise the time was right for a big collector focused push.

I'd like a Triple Takeover episode about it, but I think it would need the point of view of someone who was there and collecting throughout it. It was one of the single biggest issue launches we ever had in my store (largely pushed by me as I did the store ordering), we ordered heavy and when the price went up we did very well. I think we sold some of the 1:25 variants for £75 each. £18 for the Preview issue. Good Times.

 

No retcon needed. The toon is internally consistant, it's only when you try to apply stuff from other continuities does things get messy. Megatron wasn't the first. The cartoon was a race war that got way out of hand.

Except constructicons. They make no sense without fudging.

No fighting. Your 100% right.  

 

Honestly? I think in the case of the former the answer is yes. It might even have been better. Whether or not Dreamwave and Pat Lee's ego stretched towards the Transformers, the 2000s nostalgia boom would still have happened and Transformers would still have been swept up in its wake. Someone else would have got the licence, probably Dark Horse or Image - maybe even Marvel if they could scrape the cash together - and done a very similar set of comics.

As for the state of TF comics... it'd have been different, if only because the early days of IDW were a combination of using up the last drips of ideas from the Dreamwave days (Megatron Origin in particular) and pointedly railing against Dreamwave (most of Furman's output in those first few years).

I'd like to visit the universe where Marvel picked up the licence and hired Larry DiTillio and Bob Forward to write a sequel to Generation 2. That would have been fun.

 

Decided to fill out my GI Joe classified ranks...sticking with the 'only buy ones I have originals of' rule I just grabbed Duke, Flint and Lady Jaye.

I could buy Zartan but I'm waiting for the pulse-con version.

Still hoping they do a Cobra Eel