Southpaw Samurai

I definitely am getting the Veers. Despite whatever crap the EU wanted to do to Max to make him detestable, the movie Veers was ultimately cool. He was competent (although not challenged at all) and he demonstrated both respect for Vader and for his superior officer (Ozzel, who probably didn't deserve it, but as Admiral of the fleet, it was at least obligatory). Good military man. Despite it not really looking much like him, I love that this Veers is a 'two for one' bridge officer and ground commander....perfect multiple figure material for my little Imperial display (just wish we could get some highly articulated Snowtroopers...the VOTC Stormtroopers are simply awesome in that you can have them at various version of attention (firearms displayed or not) or throw them into action poses at will. And we finally get Moff Jerjerrod down the road too! Anyway, I came for the Veers, but I think I'll need to get Derlin too. Always liked him as a kid, even before I realized that he was Cliffy Clavin! Little know fact that the Bruins played six seasons at Echo Base before moving to the Stadium.

A Rumble Civic should be a decked out one with a ridiculously oversized muffler and the biggest speakers one can cram in the trunk. A Frenzy would be a Civic all modded out in street racing mods, including lightning decals. Of course, we'll get boring ordinary ones....just see the original tape dudes as pure punks. Someone's GOTTA be transforming that Optimus all wrong...the whole cab looks off-kilter and like someone didn't push it all together.... the 'bot mode looks good enough. Might pick one up for my work desk (never bring my MP Optimus into work)....just won't admit it can transform if the current pictures are what you'll wind up with

Actually, if you listen to most designers and they're not just feeing you b.s. so that they can get their products shipped on time, many designs ARE backstepping and simplifying games...the logic being that people prefer simplicity...particularly now that every person on the planet and their grandma plays games. Computer games are no longer the domain of war/board gamers, computer geeks, twitch freaks, and their ilk. I agree with you...it's getting sickening how games now seem to come down to 'click left button to kill, click right to kill faster...everything else is abstracted'. The 2-D space battles are along those same lines....but to include the 'complication' of a third dimension, you'd have to slow the pace down to a Homeworld or Total War pace and most RTS designers believe that high speed is the way to go. It would actually be cool to have 3D space just for the rebels 'hit'n'run' and sneaking tactics. Still, aside from certain particular moments (like ESB's 'Well, we can still outmaneuver them' scene), most of the Star Wars space battles DID take place on a relatively 2D plane, so it almost feels kinda fitting. I have to agree, though....the 'Star Warsiness' of it makes me interested, but little else is really calling out to me. The interface is simplistic and the pacing seems too frentic. What I wouldn't give for a Rebellion (or better) strategy-level (probably turn based, since as people pointed out, everyone basically played Rebellion in a more or less turn based fashion anyway), mixed with Homeworld-esque tactical space combat and something along the lines of a Total Wars tactical ground combat (although allowing for better use of subterfuge and guerrilla tactics) hybrid. Of course, only me and four others would buy it, but that's beside the point.

There's a couple of mod authors out there. It seems like Bryant Malaski's is the best one from my experience. You can get it from Empires At War Demo Mod - Bryant's Mod 2.0 It's not perfect...as one can expect a mod that tries to unlock every little thing the demo software has available to unlock, but it does give you a nice feel for some of the heroes available (even if some crash the system) and for how both sides play.

Yes, Rebellion did a LOT of things right. The whole 'might vs. subterfuge' thing was dead on and provided much entertainment on both sides (as Lynx said, finding and completely crushing the Rebels was as hard as getting rid of all the cockroaches in a building). The big problems with Rebellion is that too much of the interface was a hassle to deal with, the 'manual' space combat was almost worthless, and the game walked too close to the center line between dry strategy game and energetic real time stuff that it made neither side happy. I've been playing Empire at War with some of the mods that open the universe up and allow you to play as the Empire too (you just can't use heroes as they crash the game and sometimes space stations become invisible, invincible objects). I'm not much for your RTS genre (I don't mind real time and I love strategy, but the whole C&C, Warcraft thing has gone cold on me), but I've been enjoying this to some extent. Ground combat still seems too high-speed-click-fest-C&C-ish to me and space combat almost seems to the same mass firepower over tactical decision mentality I hate in these games, but it's still very enjoyable to watch the fleets fight. What would be sort of cool would be to have the depth Rebellion gave on its strategy map with EAW's tactical battles (maybe slowed down to a more Total War speed).

Very impressive super-articulated Constructicon Team/Devastator! It's amazing how even the simplest of changes (like allowing legs to separate and knees bend can bring so much more life into a figure. Someone needs to do a BT/Alt scale Devastator....y'know, one that would wind up allowing you to use the car pool lane. Thinking about it, though, I don't even think the Constructicons are in scale to each other....

It would be cool to watch...many, many years ago there was some kind of big RC thing going on in Central Park and I remember people with planes, boats, subs, etc...and one guy who did this big flatop carrier (don't remember if it was supposed to be based on any of the WW2 island-less carriers or not) that people were doing touch and gos on, so it would be possible to have RC naval aviation...although I imagine you'd have the same level of plane loss as they had in the early days of the real thing....

Yeah, I've avoiding the new Optimus (unless he looks better than all the pictures we've seen of him so far and I can turn him into Ironhide) partially because there's no point when you have an MP Optimus that's perhaps only slightly off scale and otherwise looks wonderful surrounded by his smaller troops (much like the original G1 was). I do suppose that technically we don't have a BT/Alt Prime...the MP is merely a fancied up remake and not in the same continuity. I think for most of us, though, the BT/Alts were something akin to MP Autobots to go along with Optimus and that's part of our disappointment in seeing a new Prime and also seeing repaints of characters we don't really care about. I agree...I'd love to see Hasbro and Takatomitaka (or whatever the company calls itself these days) decide to drop the Decepticons from the BT/Alt line and do a line of all-Decepticon (maybe one or two Autobots like Warpath or Powerglide) military vehicles that are of the same complexity and detailing as the BT/Alts and are at least of the same general scale robot-wise (since the Seekers would be two-three foot long monsters and prohibitively expensive and my logic is that you'd probably only have the Autobots and Decepticons together in robot mode to fight anyway...you'd probably keep your cars and planes separate).

Yeah, but then we wouldn't have gotten Tracks, Smokescreen, or Skids either...all of which are fairly good in terms of characters and designs. I don't mind digging into the second and third series of G1 Autobots...just prefer to have most of the first and second stringers before we get someone who made an appearance for three seconds in one of the last episodes. Still, I agree that I'd almost rather see even the tertiary first collection guys like Huffer and Gears over some latter guys.... I wonder how one could do Ratchet given official licensing and such. Is there a make of ambulance or emergency vehicle that one could produce with potentially a 'civilian repaint' one as a later addition?

I'm pretty sure (aka, hoping) that the funky colors are just from the image that bbts grabbed. Optimus looks like he's tricked in some kind of underground racing two-tone paint job if it isn't. I expressed my opinions on this wave of Alts. in detail about two pages back, so I'll just chirp in on the repaints. I know why we have repaints and can appreciate their presence if it allows the series to continue and not cost an arm and a legs for the new ones. I just wish they'd pick repaints people wouldn't mind seeing. The BT/Alts have always been a nod to the G1 series, so why give people characters from near the tail end that nearly no one cares about? Rollbar was a Throttlebot, for Spike's sake! You could've taken Swindle and painted him up as Brawn...maybe a Beachcomber or, pushing it, a Trailbreaker (I once saw a nice black Hound/Swindle done up like TB)....if Jeep really wanted a red one, do what the one really cool ebay customizer did and make an Inferno chief/rescue jeep (since we'll never get a firetruck anyway). And Ricochet/Stepper? He has a place in some fans hearts as a halfway decent re-release just when the original G1 series was going to hell, but there could've been other choices there as well. Give the Alternators the red Meister, change the head, and call it Cliffjumper (since it's hard to make the mini-Autobots mini as BT/Alts anyway). Something over fourth strings (still tempted to touch up my Swerve to look like Hot Rod).

Don Murphy, who (for good or ill) is intimately involved in the live action Transformers project, has publicly said that the recent 'leaked' test footage is fake. Now, it could be real for all we know (there's a lot of reasons to deny it), but given the quality of the fan-based (and professional commercial) Transformer-like footage we've seen over the recent years, I'm very willing to accept it as a fan-based video. I do have to concur with Greyryder. While the Beetle Bumblebee idea holds a place in my heart for its nostalgic charm, I could easily live with seeing an Elise Bumblebee. It allows Bumblebee to become zippy while maintaining his small stature (moreso than the current Beetles would) and he doesn't have to really lose and 'bubbliness' in robot mode as both the front and rear are curved sufficiently enough. Plus you could probably get the Lotus license, which is a definitive plus.

So does this mean that Toybiz has officially come out from under the same umbrella that Marvel was under? If I'm not mistaken, I believe Toybiz is/was owned by either Marvel, or by people who worked for whatever company technically controls Marvel these days (part of the reason Marvel lines make up the vast majority of Toybiz's products, at least state-side). Yeah...looks like Hasbro's just throwing the cash about again. Really a shame given that Marvel Legends (and the off-shoots that used a similar design) were incredible toys....accurate enough for little statues, durable enough to be played with (at least compared to much less poseable McFarlane stuff, for example), poseable enough to fit almost any pose one wanted. I actually impressed a female coworker who couldn't care less about comic book characters with one or two Legends. She went from almost scoffing at having them on my monitor to being impressed that they were more flexible (and able to hold the pose) than her art model. Even if Hasbro doesn't dumb down or simplify the characters (or castrate them like Optimus Prime's smokestacks and such), it'll probably still suck since they'll probably start all over from the start with main characters again so anyone looking for their favorite second or third stringer might never see them.

The whole WV Bumblebee thing is sort of sad when you consider how generally benign a character BB is. Although he occasionally drew a little blaster in the cartoon, the toy didn't come with a gun and his tech specs listed no hidden weaponry (like Cliffjumper's 'glass gas'). The most offensive thing about BB was that he was a spy. Otherwise, his primary function was cuteness/humor and being a punching bag for everyone from Megatron down to little old ladies. Hasbro/Takara would shift his personality a little from being a 'gungho, wants to prove himself' type to a more pacifistic, but still wants to help the cause. Make him a scout instead of a spy if you need to. Given that Takara apparently did line art/design work for a BT, it's a shame that they couldn't compromise with VW, especially since BB is one of the iconic G1 characters.... Anyway, I've seen a couple of Bumble ALT/BT designs and this one's pretty darn nice looking. I agree with the others that you could probably get at least a half dozen to a dozen buyers if you felt like making more than just one (assuming the cost and time involved didn't force you to charge and arm and a leg for him).

Sadly, there was a lot of potential for SW Galaxies. Unlike most MMORPGs, it actually was designed with a true community in mind. Non-combat trades were generally speaking very functional and profitable when they supported the combat-based people. You could actually have people 'living' in one or two cities and creating something of an atmosphere for the game. For a while, that actually worked and was actually fun for those of us who were entertainers/weaponsmiths/what-have-you. We didn't play the heroes, but we gave quite a bit of 'Star Warsiness' to the game and provided conversation and entertainment (as in 'real' entertainment, not just stat-wise) to those dropping into towns. But as the game became more and more popular, it drew in the 'Evercrack' crowd (which doesn't include every Everquest player, mind you) who just wanted to grind out the most powerful characters they could get. They didn't want to talk, didn't want to be 'be' in a Star Wars universe at all (there's role-playing and then there's just playing in an environment...they didn't even do the latter...their universe was just their characters, their stats, and what they're about to kill). If they stayed as the combat classes, it wouldn't have been bad, but they also wanted to powergame the support classes too (because a power-gamed high end support class could probably bring in more money per day than any fighter). So the major cities suddenly had their cantinas full of entertainer 'bots. 'Live' entertainers really couldn't function in those cities (too noisy to ply their trade or talk and no one would be willing to tip them when someone's character is just standing there automatically doing their thing just to boost up their stats. Grinders gave their skills away for free (because all they cared about was the end result of more points for their skills) and in general it became hard for the average joe who didn't want to spend all day playing or using a 'bot to succeed or even just interact with people. Everything was 'wham-bam' with people running in and out of towns just to get healed up or buy something new. The developers also shifted over to emphasizing the combat classes more and more and between those two developments, the game lost a lot of the people who gave the universe a personality. Those of you who run and gun through the game might not have noticed those people before, but their departure is part of the reason every city except for a few major ones are ghost towns and half the people in those 'crowded' cities aren't really playing.

Graham, it isn't answered specifically yet (I haven't read FoC yet...given my disappointment in POV choices, I can wait for the paperback), but there's several possibilities. ///////////MINOR SPOILERS////////////// 1) Ramsay's a bastard (in more ways than one, come to think of it). He and his father dont necessarily get along. Ramsay's also a criminal in the eyes of the Starks and their bannerman for his acts. So perhaps Ramsay's doing it out of personal vendetta. How he got men from Dreadfort might be by using his heritage (even if Lord Bolton doesn't necessarily fully acknowledge him, he's currently Roose's only living son) and perhaps he just played up on the historical animosity the people of the Bolton lands feel towards the people from the Stark lands (I forget when they talk about that, hence the spoiler warning, even though it's more historical background than anything else). 2) Certain dealings that will play out in SoS might have already been in effect at this point and Ramsay might just be an opportunistic instrument of it. I can say no more without turning this ino a much bigger spoiler. ///////////SPOILERS DONE///////////

Totally agree. While I'm not as disappointed with Prowl now that I have him as much as I was when I first saw him, I think I'll probably stick with my Meister-body custom. The legs are just horrid looking, especially since the grey that you see in the promo pictures (and probably on the Binaltech) is now a light blue-grey that reeks of post-Headmaster transformer color choices. Since his legs are barely poseable anyway, I actually just swung his hips around again and now he has his rear windows showing on the front...which improves his G1 accuracy too. I makes him a little forward-heavy and he looks like he's wear a hakama, but I can live with it. Do have to agree with Skids. Awesome BT/Alt. His transformation is complex, but not ridiculously so and it all makes sense why you're doing it (he has a cool over-extend, compact back down approach). And his 'bot mode does look great. I'm of a mind to go ahead and plunk down the twice-as much cost and pick up Blaster (Broadblast) from the BT line just to have another, even though I hate the BB/Scion car mode. I actually dig Sunstreaker...I think the yellow makes him look less bulky in 'bot mode. I just am trying to figure out what to do with his doors...as wings, they stick out too far, leaving them as arm guards like Sideswipe makes him look too much like his bro'...I currently have them as folded back wings...not perfect from all angles, but since his 'backpack' sticks out almost as far, it works. The next Alt wave seems disappointing. We've already seen the mixed-opinon Optimus, but the rest are two repaints and Skids again (unless they repaint him as Blaster...still, I'll probably have my first BT by then). The Swindle-repaint Rollbar makes some small sense I suppose if you're going with the RiD Decepticon version and not the G1 Throttlebot, but even in RiD he had a Brawn-wannabe dark green/beige color scheme, not red. I actually liked the idea of a really cool-looking Inferno custom someone did out of Swindle awhile back (even if he was a chief/rescue jeep and not a firetruck). Oh well....with some stickers and emergency vehicle lights, it would be easy to make Rollbar into one if I so desired. The other is the Richochet/Stepper repaint of (Blue)Streak. I never even knew Stepper/Richochet existed as a kid...I think I had grown out of TF by the time Richochet showed up. So he doesn't have any nostalgic appeal to me...and those flame stickers look horrible. So unless I decided to turn Optimus into Ironhide (probaly not, as I'm not a big fan of the Alt OP 'bot mode), I think I can sit that whole group out.

Do you happen to know if its the same art and/or artists that have done the work for the collectible card game and RPG manual? If so, then I might pick it up. The art from those sources (not into CCGs, but I've seen some cards and wound up picking up the Bible size RPG tome just because I liked the look and flavor even though I may never actually play a paper and pencil RPG ever again) IS decidedly amateurish for the most part. But it's amateurish in a sort of cool, non-conformist way. Some of it is the kind of 'amateur, but it's got it's charm' look and some of it is the 'that's gorgeous!' look, so it sounds similar. In all cases, though, it doesn't have that 'over-processed, strict guidelines' feel that a lot of professional fantasy art falls under (see almost anything published by Wizards of the Coast).

That's adorable! It sums up Ultra Magnus in many fans' eyes so succinctly!

I haven't been looking forward to Feast because of the POVs chosen (most of my favorites get little to no chapters and I REALLY don't want to spend time in Cersei's head) and because of complaints that he's almost going Jordan-like in not moving the overall plot along much, but now it seems like I have another thing to not look forward to. I'm hardly a prude, but I have to completely agree that he's been getting more descriptive and lengthy and even a little weird maybe in each successive books. What there was in the first book at times seemed like the perfect bawdy banter people might exchange (particularly pseudo medieval folk) and the few actual acts seemed appropriate because of how the character was involved. But even by Storm of Swords we had nearly an entire chapter devoted to one character's sexual escapades (leading up to his introducing cunnilingus to a wild culture) all done in a sort of 'Penthouse letters' style. His having sex (and doing it many times quite happily) WAS important to the story, but the details weren't. As TWDC said, his sex and violence have been somewhat gratuitous, but there's times where being overly descriptive may have an artistic point and times where it serves no purpose and starts to come across as immature even.

I don't mind how 'fat' this Optimus looks. This time around he actually has sort of a typical big, beefy guy 'v' shape torso as opposed to most versions where he's got almost a feminine figure with a big chest, small waist, and large hips. Granted, we're applying human body structure to a robot, but it's a robot in humanoid shape. In some ways, the cab mode is potentially worse than the MP Prime, in my opinion. I remains to be seen how well the final one holds together, but that wheel gap isn't something that will go away.... It would almost be nice to get a REAL Optimus Prime Alternator (not that one we've seen prototypes for)...one where they start with the cab mode and figure out how to make him look a little better than the old G1 version in robot mode as opposed to making a cool robot and then going 'Shoot! We almost forgot he has to transform!'.

As much as I've enjoyed the first three books of the series (whereas I couldn't get very far into any of Jordan's stuff), I came here not to praise ASoF&I, but to warn people: 1) There's more political backstabbing than combat sword swinging for the most part. It's not a bad thing necessarily, especially when you have an author who writes better political intrigue than fighting and knows it. But anyone going in hoping for detailed fights or grand stories of battles will be disappointed. Martin only tells parts of battles that are important to a character at that moment. 2) There's a LOT of characters. The cast is outrageously large and you are never sure if a minor character has been named just to have him named (or show his lineage) or if it might be important to remember him for a later event. I personally sort of dig this, but I've spent some time studying various European and Asian courts and their entourages, vassals, extended families, and hanger-ons. Some might find it overwhelming, though. 3) It's all told from various POV's. This is generally a good thing, as you can read a chapter at a time and put it aside and feel like you're reading viginettes. It also gives you insight into various characters and in the end everyone feels more human and less blatantly 'good' or 'evil'. The downside is that you're in almost double trouble if a chapter is about a character you care little for or dislike. You not only have to deal with a chapter on that character, but deal with almost living in their head. You'll probably find yourself looking forward to the next chapter of your favorite characters and loathe seeing a chapter named after a least favorite. This apparently becomes a big issue in the fourth book, which lacks some people's favorite characters altogether (including my favorite little fellow). I like the series a lot...probably my favorite entertainment read I've done in a bit...but it's easily not for everyone. It's almost as if you were putting together the historical events of some past war through the journals of some creative participants. If you could care less about how Ser Guy of Green is the third son of Lord Carey by way of the second daughter of King A1 and how he won two tourneys, but never obtained a position in court because of machinations of Lords Fokker and March...or had a hard time even digesting that sentence, look elsewhere.

In regards to the Target coin's back. I can understand the cross guard looking part...might've been hard to get them to look like they were fighting with something other than broomhandles if you didn't try to emphasize the difference between handle and blade.... ...still doesn't explain while it looks like one of them has a scabbard hanging from his belt. I got the ROTS DVD solely just to finish my legitimate copies of the series, but I think it'll definitely be the last chunk of change Lucas sees from me unless he releases an untouched (except for any cleaning up) version of the OT or maybe if he does a set down the road with adjustments that actually improve the series..... You know what's strange? I was never a TPM hater like so many fans (for fear of my life I'm not going to mention that I actually like the character of Jar Jar and feel he's just the unfortunate focal point to the wrong kinds of silliness in the movie), but I think TPM might wind up being the only PT movie that improves a bit on re-watching. Not that the writing nor acting gets better, but because you learn to live with the issues and beyond that is a sort of wide-open tale that actually feels antiquated compared to the OT (I think Lucas took to heart people saying it needed to look like the OT and by ROTS, the PT looked like they might have happened five months before the OT). TPM had a very 'period piece' feel to it which I think works for telling a prequel story.

Ah...for the love of a time machine! The Terminator-era Michael Biehn would've been darn near perfect. After all, he WAS Snake on the original Metal Gear (at least, the U.S. NES game box).

You'll get the same feeling after watching the whole movie....all ninety minutes of it. I actually can't believe I watched the whole thing. I downloaded it, started watching it just to see how tolerable it was, and found myself actually watching the whole bloody thing....around the hour mark was when I first realized how much I had invested in it. The CGI ship work is excellent. The blue/greenscreen stuff is some of the best I've seen in a fan movie (there's a few occasions where it even doesn't look like such. The humor is....weird...might be funnier if I was Finnish, but there's enough enjoyable humor spaced around so that there's few dull moments. The parody aspect varies from inspired (I love the 'enemy' commander's method to dealing with things...perfectly fitting) to childish (the parody names, for example). The acting is...well, still amateur and fan-film quality, but I did like that there's obvious invested personality thrown in...most fan films either have wooden reading or completely hammed-up overblown acting. This has that from a few participants, but overall I think the actors had fun and throw their hearts earnestly into it. Some of the sets could've used work, but we're talking an fan-film budget, so one has to make due. The story? As mentioned above, it's darn right weird....if you haven't heard the details of the plot, you'll find yourself on a trip where you really have no idea where the destination lies. It's almost like running to get into a taxi and accidentally getting into the backseat of a car full of drunken sci-fi Finns who are determined to take some haphazard tour of your local state/province...and not necessarily via roads. If that sounds like it might be at least a little fun, then this video is for you.

Me neither. I got techno-geek...I mean, the guy's girlfriend is a sex toy!...but not a particular ethnicity. I know a good chunk of Jewish people and I know a lot of geeks and he definitely was more the latter (who can be the former too, but certainly don't have to be). I was on the fence on this for a bit. On one hand, I HATED the whole 'deus ex machina' escape. On the other, I agree that if they even through out the slightest hint early on, most, if not all, of the audience (especially given the specific demographics of this movie) would've immediately picked up on it. And I totally agree that Hollywood these days basically throws a flashing arrow at the 'hint' of the critical plot twist/escape in movies these days. I think in the end, had Joss had a better idea of how this was all gonna turn out, it would've been nice for some mention of Mal's wound/surgery back in the series...a throw away scene, like the doctor asking about a scar while fixing another bullet wound or something. Something that would've been all but forgotten and when it came to this moment, a few fans would've guessed, "Oh, waitaminute, you can't do that to him!", but most would've been surprised, but then remember the line and love the connection. It's sort of a shame it just couldn't work out that way.....