Alpha OTS

Allspark's saying that Deep Space Starscream's sold out on Target.com now. That went pretty quickly.

Heh, don't know how I missed this post before making my own repeat of it. Anyway, I ordered it last night and got an email this morning saying it shipped already.

Dave and crew, heads up! Just found this on the allspark courtesy of ChessPieceFace. It's a link to Target to order Deep Space Starscream(aka Movie Premium Starscream) from their online store. Also in that post is a coupon code for 10% off.

Eriku, awesome pics. I'd really like to own one of these, but at it's going price it's just too expensive for me. I doubt it's the type of thing that will go down in value either.

Well there are the Fast Action Battlers from the movie line and the Activators from the animated line which were made pretty much to be durable and easy to transform figures.

Saw it yesterday. Loved it. It's definitely in the top tier super hero movies. I think the casting is what really made the movie. With anyone else it just wouldn't have played as well. Downey gets the big props, of course, but Howard, Bridges, and surprisingly even Paltrow deserve big kudos. My main worry was that they wouldn't address how the suit is powered, but incredibly they not only addressed it, but they gave it sufficient movie logic to drive the entire story! I could have used a longer and less kinetic armor fight, but it went with the story. Yeah, Stane was a little too efficient with the suit. I'm guessing there was a scene or two from the design phase that was cut out because it seemed like it went instantly from Stane recovering Mark 1 to a fully realized and upgraded, but unpowered, suit. I'm really looking forward to the blu ray, and hope they take full advantage of the format to give us theatrical and extended versions. Are they really talking sequels already? If they make it clear to the audience that the Mandarin's rings are alien technology, I could really see him working as a villian even if he says they're magic. Personally I always liked Crimson Dynamo, and I'd also like to see The Beetle make an appearance too. Keep it techy! And of course, Rhodes needs to eventually don War Machine armor.

I have to ditto everything JsArclight's posted above about this GTA feeling like a true GTA 4. Try this on, I was stopped at a traffic light. A guy rear ends me. I get out of my car and point my gun at him. He looks clearly terrified as I do this, and tries to hide and cower behind his steering wheel. I shoot him clean in the head, complete with single bullet hole in the windshield. He jerks back then slumps forward onto the steering wheel. His car horn goes off from the pressure of him resting on the steering wheel. Sounds pretty graphic, I know, but this is that difference between the arcadey prequels and this game. Also another big positive is the script and characters. I was pretty indifferent on the San Andreas story and characters. It was just too much "gangsta" and not enough "gangster" for me. These characters in GTA4 are enjoyable for me. I *want* to hang out with Roman and take him to the strip club, or out to get drunk. I just met Brucie, and I've heard he's a trip. Certainly has a nice set of choppers. I picked up the ps3 version. I was originally going to pick up the 360 version, but I figured I'm going to be playing this primarily solo. I read that the ps3 had a tiny, but negligible, edge on graphics, and the the load times were less because of the hard drive install. I've been pretty lazy with my games lately. I start them, but never finish them, so the DLC isn't a selling factor. Plus you know the 360 DLC isn't going to be anytime soon, so I figure once that hits, and if I *really* wanted it, I could probably trade this in or pick up the 360 copy for relatively cheap then. Heh, this is my second ps3 game, btw. The other was the Motor Storm pack-in which I played once. Can't wait for the inevitable parent's groups to get up in arms about this game too. You know how picking up hookers left it pretty much to the imagination in the previous games? Well, heh, not any more. The strip club is much more realistic too with those vampires attacking you for a lap dance the moment you walk in.

These last few episodes have been all setup. We need some payoff because it seems they're revisiting the same themes a bit too often. Yes, the four are changing, and yes, Starbuck continues to prove herself crazy and untrustworthy, and yes, Baltar's loving his messiah harem schtick. Apart from that, the only new thing was Leoben, and he didn't change the story that much(the humans are aware of the cylon civil war now and Starbuck needs a hybrid to find earth). It's good, but it's going too slow. I was hoping for more Cylon perspectives of things. Story wise it probably is best for realistic tension, and retrospectively will probably have been a wise decision, but I really need a skirmish or for something to really snap. Getting back to Starbuck. She's done *nothing* to show herself trustworthy since coming back to Galactica. She doesn't even pretend to acknowledge military procedure and communication except only after she's burned all bridges that might have respected her command. A simple report back to the Demtrius about Leoben's ship rather than babbling about a vision would have helped restore much needed faith in her leadership and cause. But as is, everyone's reaction is perfectly reasonable to her irrational command. If it weren't for Helo, they would have mutinied a long time earlier. He's the one person aboard the Demitrius that *gets* the whole vision thing having seen her original drawing, but her craziness has gone over the amount of leeway he was willing to give her.

I guess there's always that, but I was put off by the chrome on the feet. Not because of how it looks, but because he'll be standing on something that I don't want chipping.

At least the deluxes are multiples of Landmines heres so if you have to settle for one movie deluxe, at least its a good one that was technically in the movie.

I just came back from Target. You can tell they're phasing out the TF movie stock now. A large part of what's left is Cybertron repaints though. There's barely any figures left. The new Hulk merchandise is replacing it on the pegs(and is also some of the WORST movie figure assortments I've ever seen). They had a decent selection of Legends versus packs, and I did pick up the Legends BumbleBee and Scorponok set. I *just* found out that this scale Scorponok figure exists recently, and had to have it. It's ironic that it's a better proportioned and articulated figure than it's deluxe counterpart. I'm going to try and fit it into Blackout's cage, but I've already been told it doesn't fit. I'm going to try anyway. Anyway, seeing as Target is getting rid of their movie stock, I panicked. I was hoping to see these last premium waves pop up locally, but it hasn't happened yet and I don't want to have to patrol like a hawk to find them. I just ordered a bunch of premium stuff from BBTS(basically bent over and took it ) and Hasbrotoyshop.com. I hope I didn't miss the window on Leader Premium Prime. He's sold out at both places. Of course, I'll walk into a Walmart next week on a whim and probably find the whole lot......

The gold paint on the shoulderpads on mine was put on kind of sloppily. I'm pretty happy with the set though. The cape is about what I expected, although mine wasn't frayed or tattered. Unfortunately the hip kibble kind of hurts the cape aesthetic. If you push it back like normal, it pushes the cape back and you can't see as much of it.

McKellen to reprise Gandalf role Leonard Nimoy's response can be found here.

1. I didn't go there to buy Blurays. I was actually looking to see if there were any clearance HDdvds left. While there I happened to see the Bluray price, which has always been higher than anywhere else, and it is generally higher than it was before. 2. Yes, it's anecdotal evidence, but this *is* a discussion forum and it hardly qualifies as a rant. Edit: May as well add a footnote that I own a ps3 lest I be branded with a "well established HDdvd leaning".

I was just at Best Buy and the normal price of a new Blu Ray movie was $35. I think I miss the format war.

Judging by that box art, he'll look like Ultra Magnus. Not seeing a huge difference between the two based on that pic, which is pretty cool and good business sense that it's like that, imo, because then those without a White Prime can still have an Ultra Magnus. Some posters at the Allspark had pointed out that there wasn't enough mass in the armor to compensate for the mass in the trailer. Looking at that ginormous gun in that pic above for the first time, looks like they were right. Not really liking the gun so far. I'm hoping it gets a fantastic paint job and/or there's another transformation step to collapse the size of it. Still not a dealbreaker for me. You know what would be cool, if they thought ahead enough to at least have peg holes on the sides of shoulder armor so you can peg in G1 Magnus missile launchers.

This is the one figure I desperately want to see pictures of. I almost have my movie montage display complete. I'm a little dissappointed with the orange on Galvatron, but I figure the Henkei release will fix it. And guys, according to the Allspark, those Ultra Magnus kits are selling pretty fast. The theory is that BBTS has a preset quantity on a counter, and that counter is currently at 80 units left. So if you want one, you should probably jump on it now. Waspinator from allspark dug up this image link: Edit: Just found out there's pics of the upcoming Target Exclusive Voyager Comic Packs here. I didn't think it possible when I initially heard about it, but that's actually a good mold to to deco up as a Ratbat. The alt mode does surprisingly invoke a bat-like form. The face in bot mode even seems kind of vampiric. The Springer's nice too and more in line with what I'd expect a Springer to look like, unlike the Botcon exclusive. The other set does nothing for me, but the Springer and Ratbat set's on my list now.

She's a man, man! /Austin Powers Sorry. Putting Decepticharge in pink drag unfortunately doesn't make him female.

More good news. The Classics Ultra Magnus armor kit is up for pre-order at BBTS for $76.99. I expected it to go for $100+ considering it's a fan kit. This company also made the Cliffjumper head, bumper, and cannon set for Classics Cliffjumper. http://www.bigbadtoystore.com/bbts/product...amp;mode=retail "This amazing new parts set for use on the Classics Ultra Magnus figure is limited to only 2000 pieces! Each piece is individually numbered and will be nicely packaged. The trailer itself transforms into armor for Ultra Magnus and features a high level of detail. Please Note: The images currently used are of an unpainted prototype. The completed product may vary, and it will be fully painted in the G1 Ultra Magnus paint scheme."

Meh. Or should I say......JaAm?

That's really been confirmed and is no longer rabid wishful thinking? Cool. Kind of negates Mustang Grimlock then though.

With a targetmaster too. From tformers: "+ Universe Deluxe Cyclonus w/ Nightstick Targetmaster. G1 type mold. Nightsitck can be held by Cyclonus. Almost looks black. Very nice."

MUCH better. Can anyone tell if you can orient the legs beneath the knees any differently to further differentiate Sunstreaker from Sideswipe? ie: twist them so the inner calf becomes the outer? Edit: Just saw this: "+ They respect each other exclusives. So if Takara re-released any seekers that were exclusive here, they would be different in some way so they weren't exact." Is that a way of saying that Henkei might solve our seeker problem?

While he was ranting in the bar, I kind of have to agree with Chief about Cally. I don't remember a scene when they were happy, and with Chief's normal go-with-the-flow attitude, she was usually the one making them miserable. I know there's some Cally fans here, but apart from looking nice, the character was a harpee. This episode seemed more about the final four changing. There was a theme of "perfection". Torry started it last week, and now it seems the rest have caught up. They all made a vow to be who they were when the first found out, but it seems they're slowly abandoning that notion. I think even if Chief finds out that Torry airlocked Cally, he's not going to care. Only monkey wrench in the works now is that before each of the four were in key positions, and now, Chief's been demoted. That Comicon exclusive Micromachine Galactica set arrived from HasbroyToyShop today, much to my surprise. They do ship pretty quickly in my experience. Stealth Galactica is much darker than the online pics show. Still works for my needs. The MARK II Viper is VERY nice though with all of the little added detail tampos. A little dissappointed with the Raptor. It's just so.....plain, especially when compared to the Viper. Pretty nice set for the money. Kaio, thanks for recommending it

Hound with Ravage? Did I read that right? Ironhide looks like a cross between Ironhide and Inferno. Looks nice. I like the hands. I need a better look at the head with him looking straight ahead instead of down, but it looks like a nice sculpt from what I can see. Silverstreak's bot mode pic is there. They have Silverbolt as the thumbnail, but if you click on it, you'll see Silverstreak. To tell the truth, the mold looks better in Silverstreak colors. I hope that's not all they're doing for Sideswipe, because that's clearly a Sunstreaker repaint with *nothing* changed. Very dissappointed with the head in particular. Do the wings on the head fold back at all? As is it's Redstreaker, not Sideswipe. Silverbolt really does look like his animation model in bot mode. Is there anyone left who doesn't own the G1 Optimus mold? Isn't that market pretty tiny?