Alpha OTS

DH was asking about the amount of chrome/silver on the new movie Prime with the sword hand. Here's a pic from a post on the allspark: http://www.fantofan.jp/news/event/toyforum2008/DSC00054.JPG Looks like a fair amount of chrome, except for the smokestacks.

Wheeljack always was a stickler for realism.

IIRC, he was rereleased in the 90's in Japan and most of his accessories were removed along with other "tweaks". I think there was also a recent Sonokong release that was the same. FFN can probably clarify.

I recently auctioned off my Shadow Alpha as I shrink my collection down to something more manageable/meaningful; it was a noncharacter to me so off it went. Anyway, I have(had) three toynami alphas. Out of the three, the Shadow had the worst QC. The hands were better because they're big claws, but they're still made of that craptastic soft plastic. Outside of that, I had just as many paint problems and chips as the others. What made it worse was that it had a huge glaring chip out of the right intake. So by durable, pretty much what people mean is that the hands won't fall apart. Everything else is still the same. or at least that's my experience...

As expected, a more traditional G1 deco like the others. I hope the face is painted. That'll make a good thing better.

Something about this seems too....bright? Might just be how the picture was taken though. Really need to see it in a side by side comparison shot with the previous normal deco.

See, that's why I thought he wasn't that bad of an addition. Not having a weapon, he *should* feel handicapped/broken. Plus being a Namco character, his aesthetic didn't clash at all with the existing cast. And watching that SC4 trailer, yes, the Star Wars guys don't fit at all. I was into it up until the Darth Vader breath which I felt pulled me abruptly out of a Calibur World I was enjoying. A lightsaber pressing up against a sword, and the Force used to deflect a sword blow really doesn't help sell it either. That's my .02 anyway..... Maybe Yoda and Vader are unlockables that you can avoid unlocking, and will therefore stay completely out of the story mode.

I liked it too, it was really clever. I didn't like how the episode started out with all the over the top clumsiness by Bulkhead. As it went on though, it was something of a character growth episode for him, and done well. We've got a new dinobot origin, and holy cow, it's actually good! Probably even better/plausible than the G1 origin too. And is this an ongoing coherent storyline interconnecting the episodes I see? Megatron and the good doctor, I'm enjoying the interplay and manipulation. The way the episode ended had some real depth too and promises of good things to come. I keep seeing Black Arachnia in the opening credits, and given Prowl's personality so far, I have a strong feeling we're going to see a SilverBolt-ish storyline develop eventually between the two. Not that that's a bad thing.

Awesome. Must get.

I still need to watch last week's episode. Edit: Just watched last week's episode. I said it before, and I'll say it again: Kids are going to love this. As for myself, I was thoroughly enjoying that my brain was *NOT* hurting from the continuous insults to my intelligence like it had been in the past three series. Yeah, there's some goofiness, especially with the Archer Bandit and some of Sari's antics/quirks, but the way its written and animated, it just clicks. I'm really liking the way they're portraying Megatron, deadly serious and quite ominous. If he's this much to deal with as a head, imagine when he finally gets his body back. Anyway, someone(Hasbro, U.S. writers, I don't care who!) is finally paying attention to the end product, and it shows. Acquiring the Dinobot episode at the moment.

HA! Click on previous twice and it'll take you to a Lego Legioss and Tread combo where the link-up is perfect! These are all pretty nice.

Nifty. Lego blocks are notoriously expensive, so I wonder if that's $50 worth of Lego we're looking at here?

Probably because it was advertised as such; X-men vs Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter, Marvel vs Capcom 1 & 2. Plus Capcom was at least smart enough to make the Street Fighter super moves look like mutant super powers, exaggerating them a bit so the theme worked. But even then, there was a bit of bellyaching back when they were released. I know I complained that I wished they just would have just done a proper Marvel Super Heroes sequel instead of these half sequels. Although that is usually Capcom's m.o. with just about every fighter they've done. And It's not so much that I'm bellyaching about this as I am pointing out that this effort would have been better used elsewhere (ie: Star Wars Calibur). Neither character will be a selling point for me. I'll more likely avoid them than use them.

I guess it's not any worse than midichlorians.....wait...that means Cervantes has a high midichlorian count, doesn't it? Then he could conceivably beat Yoda *and* Vader!

This is kind of a dvd related question, but in the HD DVD set (or blu ray, did they release one of those?), how many episodes do they fit on a single disc? I'm used to knowing how to gauge how many discs are in a typical tv season set, but now with the hi def formats, I have to rethink that.

Oh yeah, and believe me, I tried desperately to like it *because* it was a Star Wars fighter. There was not one redeeming factor about that game. It was even graphically sub par at the time of its release! I really like AC6, but I refuse to pay for any of the current dlc as is. Now if they package the lot of it up and offer it for 400 credits, then, *maybe* I'll pay for the skins and altered stats of planes that I already own.

Something about these doesn't look like they fit in with the rest of the cast. Yoda especially. Look at the detail in his face, then look at the anime-ish person he's fighting. Doesn't gel right. Cool, but not for me. Heihachi fit, being a Tekken model which is essentially a Calibur model without a weapon. Spawn kinda fit, given the axe and how "evil" Siegfried already looked. Link was the weakest of the three, but didn't look *that* out of place. That said, what they should have done is do a Star Wars Calibur game. Problem solved and *everyone's* happy.

Be very VERY careful with that bicep extension and swivel. I remember reading that this was something that would snap clean off if you applied too much pressure. Really dissappointed by this, but not too surprised. Although still mystified at the horrible half-assed paint job on the cockpit. My toynami's didn't have that issue, but I did have some paint chips(didn't we all?). Nothing as bad as what you're showing in your pics though. Why does the hand look like it belongs to a zombie? Flesh decomposition and all. And what's with that head? It looks like it's about to fall apart! I was entertaining picking one of these Blue Scott's up because it's the color I always wanted, and the ebay prices are a bit too much, but with this......no. I'm not going to take the chance. Going to have to continue to make do with the Toynami Lancer I have that I was mostly lucky with QC wise.

I just found out there's another Twisted Metal game coming out.......for the PS2. Seems to be a port of the PSP game with a ton of extras. I heard great things about the PSP version of Twisted Metal, that it had gotten back more to its TM2 roots(the real high point of the series), and the screen shots and movie here seem to bear this out. Paris again! http://blog.us.playstation.com/2007/12/04/...wisted-edition/ How is it I have a 360 and now a PS3, and I'm playing 2d games on my ps2, *and* looking forward to a 3d ps2 game of a psp port of all things? Madness, I say. Just in a retro mood, I guess....

Heh, when I went through that level for the first time, half way into it I said to myself "Wasn't I just through this section?"

Didn't someone here post an advertisement for custom inbit toys not that long back?

It's an HDMI cable. I stewed a bit after making that post earlier rather than hooking up the ps3. I'm still amazed they packaged in that piece of crap composite cable for a hi def machine. Anyway, after stewing, I rationally decided to go to the store and get an HDMI cable to do it right.......for another $30......*grumble* The tv is a Westinghouse 1080p 42". I've been playing with it a little more. I'm starting to think it's my tv, and that the HDMI settings for it needs to be fine tuned(my tv has seperate settings for each input). I also found out that I had my tv setup so that it was upscaling/filling the 480i feed from the ps2 to fill the whole screen, and doing such a *damn* good job of it that I had forgotten that it was the tv and thought it was all the ps2. The fill option on the PS3 doesn't look as sharp, nor fill as well, on my set anyway. I probably posted prematurely as the pack-in ps3 game looked fantastic and without issue. I just really wanted to plug in and play and do with it what I've been doing lately with my ps2 and not have to do anything else. And the ps2 games I tested all had issues of some sort, most likely because I have all the weird non-mainstream titles in my collection. I'm still ticked that a brand spanking new game like Fire Pro is glitched and graphically unplayable. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet, but I'm no longer in a rush to get rid of my ps2.

YES!

Sigh. Nevermind. The ps3 just SUCKS at upscaling some ps2 games. My recent ps2 purchases include NeoGeo Battle Colliseum, King of Fighters XI and Fire Pro Wrestling Returns. I've been playing these alot lately. Fire Pro is very glitchy and you have to reset the game until it loads properly without graphic jitters. I can't even get it to load properly without the jitters at all now. Even when it does, there's a softness and lack of sharpness that I assume is because it's a 480 game being played at a larger resolution(either 720 or 1080, i or p, didn't seem to matter). This is really bumming me out because I'm *finally* really getting into it. Battle Colliseum looked a little softer, but not anywhere near as bad as Fire Pro. King of Fighters looked about the same as it did on the ps2. Thankfully both have options to adjust the sharpness of the in-game sprites. Although both had a smoothness in the character select screens I could see despite the option adjustment. Most of the games I have held onto for my ps2 are 2d games. If anyone has any hints on improving what I'm looking at, please PLEASE share. The moral of the story so far, buy the cheaper version ps3 unless the extra storage and pack-in game mean something to you. Regardless, don't get rid of your ps2. Moving on now from this dissappointment to check out the dvd upscaling features.....