David Hingtgen

Never mind, I posted that before getting a good look, I saw the location was Seattle, but didn't notice all the other drydocked subs there--which means it's more properly Bangor.

::edit:: Just noticed the other subs nearby. Is the big one next to it the Long Beach? I think it's been sitting there with the superstructure gone for years.

I'd like to think that engine technology which is millions of years more advanced than our own, doesn't spew smoke like a coal-fired locomotive... Also, spewing smoke would be a dead giveaway of the whole "disguise" aspect, since F-15's don't smoke. If SS wants to smoke, he should have picked an F-4 or B-52----people'd expect it to smoke.

I was at Target 2 days ago, and they had all the prequel comics put into a single book. Note that it didn't look at all like your typical TPB---it was in the children's books section with the other TF movie books, and could easily be dismissed as a coloring/sticker book at first glance. If you want the prequel comics, that is probably the easiest and cheapest way to get them.

Not toned down, REMOVED. It's got "leaks" from non-existent openings. I have never seen ANY dirt on an F-15, ever. Just doesn't happen. And even the filthies F-4 or F-8 in the world never got 1% as much dirt. Except the F-4's tailcone, that got filthy. But that's because F-4 engines smoke, a lot. Directly onto that area. Not the friggin speedbrake and canopy hinge.

Leader Prime repaint: Night Watch Optimus. http://www.amazon.com/Transformers-Movie-L...963&sr=1-40 Likely black, but I would so love a very dark blue---then it'd be just like my dad's 379.

When he lost his metal and just had bone claws, it was quite obvious and gruesome. Sometimes they'd show shredded skin dangling from the claws. (Again for Rogue, too) Anyways, back to TFs. Saw a Ratchet for the first time today, and the Prime beach towel. (I actually want to buy the washcloths but haven't found them yet)

OT, but yes, Wolverine ripped open his own flesh every time he extended his claws. And it healed the moment they retracted. Until he got the nifty metal "sheaths" or whatever. They expounded on this a bit when Magneto ripped out his adamantium, and he had to go back to doing it the old way. Same thing happens whenever Rogue uses his power, as she only gets the claws and healing, not the adamantium.

It's an intensely bright scarlet-red. The kind of red that is so eye-catching you normally only ever see it on toy water guns and the like intended to be sold to very young children as cheap impulse-purchases, and knock-offs. Giving it a "low-quality" vibe. And the sheer translucence of that color when used in plastic, gives it another low-quality vibe. No, it's not see-through, but it's definitely not as nice-looking as utterly opaque red. Plus the fact that the paint on the cab windows IS see-through, and looks bad/cheap. A $45 USD toy should not have the paint applied so thinly that you can see the underlying plastic. PS--you know I know military colors well. I said flourescent red and I meant fluorescent red. "Fluorescent red, FS 29815". The color used on C-130's etc for rescue markings. It's a VERY bright and orangey red, so scarlet/orangey it's classified as an "other" color in the FS system, not a true red. DVD MP Prime and Leader Movie Prime are Fluorescent red. Most really bright reds are orange reds---sports cars are a good example of this. (Except Porsche, they have the bluest of the bright reds) PS---Ironhide has fluorescent pink-orange turn signals.

Just FYI, it's now Andy and Lana Wachowski, not Andy and Larry. (You'll find lots of references to "Linda" but it seems s/he prefers Lana now) And those wheels suck, they're about +4 from what they should be. I also think the car should be "smoother" overall---IMHO the Mach 5 shouldn't have a single ridge, edge, or angle. Pure curves.

Ironhide is amazingly "black". Everything's black, black, and more black. I don't really like the character or design, I bought him PURELY for transformation complexity. Anyways--the automorph works very well and everything stays in place. The problem is getting it BACK. Folding the feet back up alone with just strip gears. Best method I found is to move the side leg panel back into place as far as you can, then grab the feet and side panel all together and move them. I plan to paint the stacks silver. He has transparent blue foglights, FYI. And in a note of stupidity--his headlights are also transparent blue. But covered in silver paint on the outside. What's the point of molding clear parts separately, then covering them in opaque paint? Methinks the factory mis-interpreted the painting instructions.

Bought Ironhide. Instructions suffer heavily from Hasbro's patented "abbreviated" instructions. It shows before, and after, but makes no mention of how those 4 hinges fold to make it happen. This is especially bad with the roof---there's multiple z-fold hinges that can go either way---and the instructions don't even show what it's supposed to look like when you're done. I currently have it "the best-looking way I can figure out". Also, one of the missles was dirty. Almost as if it had dried black grease or mud caked in all the grooves. Saw Leader Prime. Colors suck IMHO. It's the same orangey almost-flourescent orange-red that the cheaper uglier DVD MP Prime has. It's not red, it's reddish-orange and cheap looking. Especially bad is the main chest parts (with the windows)----it's molded in clear blue for the windows, but has a thin layer of flourescent orange paint over it, which easily shows the blue plastic underneath. Am definitely going to wait for a repaint. (I'll take anything--G1 red, Magnus white, Nemesis black) Bumblebee looks pretty nice, but I plan to wait for the 2009 version. Jazz sucks color-wise, he's GREY, not silver. Same problem as Prime--we know Hasbro can do more silvery-looking plastic, but the movie toys are 99% grey with 1% silver sparkle.

It wouldn't help much---there's not really that much difference unless you go for very small, older planes. Here's a Su-37 and F-16 comparison---the largest and smallest modern fighters. If you truly want small, you could get an F-5. I added the F-5E real quick.

I hacked this together a little bit ago to show how friggin huge an F-22 is. These pics are to scale: An F-22 is about twice as long as a Peterbilt 379, but sheer size is several times greater.

In short, MP Prime is out of scale with himself. He's kind of like a caricature of a semi. It's very semi-esque, but 100% of the effort went into the robot mode, and the truck is shaped how it needs to be for robot mode. He's not any scale at all, since different parts are different scales to each other. Basically----he's permanently "anime magicked". Robot mode is how it should look, but truck mode has incorrectly-sized parts. MP Prime is so tall because sacrificing in truck mode just a little bit here, and a little bit there, goes to making robot mode just that much taller. Plus he has sliding-extending legs, which gives him a few inches right there.

Too tired to post more, here's a couple from today: Sundowners! It was very cloudy, this was the best-lit BA shot:

SS really needs a leader-class toy. From looking at pics, the dexluxe's undercarriage is partially explained by transformation---in the movie, the sides of the intakes are the sides of his chest/upper abs---but on the toy, they're his thighs! He's already got a complex transformation, but it's still compromised a lot more than any other I think. A leader-class (or even Ultimate) is really needed to do his transformation justice. So long as they get rid of the gatling-gimmick, and don't make it even worse with light-up missiles, etc. I'd pay more for a really accurately-complexly-transforming movie SS than I would for MP SS.

That reminds me---do you think future non-movie toys/series/cartoons etc will use the new movie versions of the logos from now on, or go back to the classic ones? I really don't see why they changed them in the first place--it's subtle enough most people don't notice. It's like they messed with it just to mess with it. The Autobot one is really subtle and I don't really care, but I definitely prefer the "classic" Decepticon logo.

Take a brand new pure white toy. Leave in a sunless cave for 5 years. Come back, and 40% of the pieces will be deep yellow, the other 60% will be pristine. Some plastic simply yellows no matter what, even seemingly identical pieces from the (presumably) same batch. UV certainly can cause yellowing, but stopping UV will not stop all yellowing. Anyone who's owned an SNES can probably tell you about the weird patterns in which it yellows. The real question is----do Yamatos yellow due to UV, or something else?

I'm going to airshows all this weekend, and the stores here adhered tightly to the Jun 2 release date, so I won't be able to buy anything until Monday or so. That said: What's the best toy besides Leader Prime? I am definitely getting a Leader Prime mold (plan to wait for a repaint) but want to get SOMETHING now. How's Ironhide? (I'm not getting the SS that's available--I'll wait for a bigger/better mold, or if that never comes, the Thundercracker repaint)

Since the setting would be "active war" probably, go with battlepods. Flags usually show up later, when there's time to get fancy and paint. But silhouettes can be spray-painted with a stencil in 10 secs.

Went to the Quad Cities Airshow today, trying out my new camera---quite pleased, these are way better pics than before. Highlights:

Here's an example from OIF, VF-2's CAG plane. It dropped a LOT of bombs:

Check Desert Storm kill marks! You'll find camels and bicycles. Now, for ground kills, only the plane used gets a kill mark, not the pilot/pilot's plane. Of course, in Macross, every pilot gets to fly his custom-painted plane all the time. (Unless you fly a CF) More often nowadays, they show the weapon used, not the object destroyed. Modern F-14/16 markings will usually show rows of JDAM's, a few Paveways, etc.

I loved Shrek 1, liked 2 a lot, but thought 3 was a complete waste of time and money. Skip it if you haven't seen it already, unless you are the world's biggest Shrek fan. Also, more so than any other movie I've seen--"you saw all the good parts in the trailer".