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JB0

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  1. JB0
    I have to say that, at this point, I really think GCreation has it down. I know I've said things about complex designs for complexity's sake, which it sounds like is a serious problem with the GCreation dinosaurs, but... they are tickling my nostalgia bone something fierce here. I owned Slag(and he was one of my favorite toys, so he went with me EVERYWHERE), a cousin owned Swoop, another cousin owned Grimlock(and I nearly died playing with him), I got a hand-off Sludge from a friend in the 90s... so I've had a lot of exposure to four the original toys, with pretty much every seam memorized on Slag(as well as some long-absent stickering), and GCreation really hits that toy look. Sure, there's some places where Toyworld is revising things for the better, but overall they just don't tickle my fancy the same way. ... It also means I'm not nearly as "into" Snarl as I am the other four. Sure, I know there WAS a stegosaurus, but he just doesn't have the same physicality in my mind that the others do. Also, let's be honest here. Stegosaurus is the least cool of the four dinosaurs and a pterosaur five dinosaurs present
  2. JB0
    Now THIS is how you do a retro-gaming nostalgia product! No ARM processors, no emulation, no "HDMI, USB, SD only" nonsense. An FPGA programmed to be a perfect recreation of the original hardware(plus some interesting upgrades). Full hardware and software compatibility, original IO is present alongside an SD reader and HDMI output, a new case designed by one of the original designers... it is almost the perfect project. There is only one problem: It's a friggin' Sinclair Spectrum, AKA the worst computer to ever see mass-market success. For those interested in a computer that sucks significantly fewer balls... http://wiki.icomp.de/wiki/Chameleon An FPGA device in a Commodore 64 cartridge. Connect it to a C64 and get all kinds of cool expansion capabilities. Or disconnect it from a C64 and... it reconfigures itself to behave as a C64. A C64 the size of a deck of cards. And yes, you can plug your old C64 floppy drive into it, or anything else that goes into the IEC bus(for obvious reasons, the cartridge doesn't have a cartridge slot).
  3. JB0
    As Slag was the Dinobot I owned (because triceratops was the best dinosaur ever) I can verify he had two sliver chunks in his wings/dino shoulders. Large trapezoidal lumps with techno-detailing on them. GCreation has the lumps molded in, they just aren't painted. I also note that while GCreation has the right dinosaur HEAD, their frill is wrongwrongwrongWRONG to the point of distraction, given how closely they echo the toy in so mnany other places north of the tail. Toyworld's frill is almost lifted straight off the original toy with the flat design and striations across the plates(though it should be slanted backwards and with more panels of varying sizese, and the lack of slant really messes with the Toyworld dino head). On the other hand, Toyworld gave him silver-chromed horns and ribs. And I can forgive GCreation the gray tail. It is better than chromed gold, mostly because it actually looks like it belongs where it is in a way the original tail honestly never did. Though given the drawing board myself, I would've done an original-style tail that detached and turned into a weapon. The chrome spine running through the tail always looked like it should be a weapon to me. (In my head, his tail shot lasers) Favorite touch on the GCreation one: The teal detailing on the shoulders. At first I thought they really went overboard with it(the original stickers had a lot less color there due to the V shape), but the more I look at it, the better it looks. Toyworld's, I like the RGB rectangles on the shins, as inauthentic as they are. Also the smaller gold lumps in dino mode. The original Slag toes that GCreation apes honestly stick out way far.
  4. JB0
    You're right, of course. And the missiles were metallic, not clear red. I can just see where they might have considered it an homage anyways, and the barrel DOES wind up looking like a separate thing that isn't really PART of the gun. Holy wow, Thunderous has some huge guns. Interesting. Just from looks, I have to agree that it's a pretty tough call. Mostly, I like Muddy's design better. The humanoid torso on Thunderous is nicer with all it's blocky angularness, though. But the actual look of individual parts, I prever Thunderous. Lot of extra detailing, a "shrouded" dino head, and ... just in general, that extra mile to make it prettier. With the exception of those lovely metallic dino toes on Muddy.
  5. JB0
    Just to be clear, the remark about Centurions rejects wasn't as malicious as it came across. I genuinely liked the concept behind the Centurions, and I like how many options Warbotron left on their not-Technobots. It is just an odd thing to see that many peg holes on a pseudo-Transformer. Just a hypothesis here, but I think the red-barrelled gun is a compromise homage. Since they don't include a missile launcher, the gun barrel is molded so it can be treated as such. If that is what they are going for, they made the wrong call. Muddy looks pretty darn nice. Though I really miss the smoked-plastic-over-chrome dinosaur heads of the original Dinobot toys. I always thought it was a neat effect, and I'm kinda sad that it looks like no one else does.
  6. JB0
    I'll say. If he had any more peg holes on him, I'd think he was a Centurions reject.
  7. JB0
    Well, he's a lot better sized than the first MP Megs, I'll give him that.
  8. JB0
    I can only assume this is a misguided effort at protecting the Virtual Console sales. I've... still never seen a MiNES.
  9. JB0
    True. I wasn't blaming either side, just noting that for someone shopping from both sides of the pacific, it has the potential to cause confusion. ... But I still think they should call the Legends toys "Micromasters" instead. No burning here, different strokes for different folks and all. But transformation is my biggest complaint about the new Megatron, particularly after reviewers said his color looks much healthier in-person. It is a ridiculously convoluted transformation that results in a terrible altmode AND seemingly unavoidably damages the toy's paint in the process. Convoluted and terrible altmode should be an either/or proposition, not both. And inherently unavoidably damages toy is an automatic nonstarter. I'm wondering if some parts tolerances weren't changed between the prototype and final production run, because surely their engineers weren't thinking "Okay, these parts scrape against each other and will NEVER hold paint, but it is okay since only a fool will experience our engineering anyways!". I do respect the engineering that went into the transformation on a technical level, but question whether it was wise. Particularly given the end result is proving so problematic. Personal preference, though? Even without the issues, I prefer simpler transformations. FAR simpler. I like being able to grab a toy and just idly transform it while thinking about something else, and excessively complex transformations annoy me.
  10. JB0
    It does not help that Hasbro uses the term legends for something different than Takara, which is only going to sow confusion. On a US toy, "legend" would mean something like "micromaster"(albeit with MUCH better engineering). On a japanese toy, it is as everyone else has already said.
  11. JB0
    While pointlessly distracting, it wasn't statutory rape. And hey, I saw an Osprey crashing in this new trailer! Who says these films are unrealistic?
  12. JB0
    Oh, the new AtGames unit is close to shipping? Good news! Rest in pieces, Firecore! This is, obviously, also an ARM-in-a-box, but AtGames has never pretended to be heroes while begging for tens of thousands of dollars to install an emulator on a smartphone. In fact, we knew this was coming because AtGames announced before the MiNES was a thing that they were making an ARM box with an emulator so they could get A. save states, and B. the Firecore albatross off their back. I still don't understand how the Firecore chip turned out as bad as it did, but now it is dead.
  13. JB0
    *looks at link* A C64 clone? That's a reasonable enough goal. I think most of the C64 parts already have FPGA clones available, so it shouldn't be hard to put them all together into a single ASIC and ship a one-chip C64 that has perfect compatibility and no lag and is really a C64 instead of a lazy- " At the core of THE 64 is a low cost, high power ARM Cortex SoC, which provides all the modern interfaces demanded by today’s consumers. " Never mind, it's a lazy emulator in a novelty case. Shameless cashgrab. "This has clear advantages for the consumer. Creating a software/hardware hybrid machine ..." Gonna stop you right there. This isn't a hybrid of anything, it is an emulator plain and simple. It has no advantage to the end user unless the end user doesn't CARE, in which case they can download VICE or something and get EXACTLY the same experience. *deep breath* Sorry about that. I am just sick of people churning out lazy ARM processors with half-baked emulation because they can't even be bothered to download a good emulator, and then pretending they're god's gift to classic PC/gaming enthusiasts. Yes, making an FPGA clone is more work, but it is WORTH it to get no lag, no glitches, accurate presentation, and full compatibility. I'm over it now, though. Unless they say something truly outrageous like how the C64 was the fir- " THE 64 ™ is an exciting and respectful re-imagining of the original home computer, the Commodore C64 " *screams until he bursts a blood vessel somewhere* Screw you, Random Indiegogo Scammer! Aside from the blatant disrespect shown by making a lazy ARM shitbox instead of something that required a minimal amount of actual effort, the Commodore 64 wasn't even the first COMMODORE home computer(never mind that the VIC-20 and PET both sucked). To say nothing of the Apple II, Atari 800, TRS-80, and TI 99/4. (And th Sinclairs, I guess. Though they weren't much good as more than doorstops.) Okay, really done now. Promise. Closed the page and everything. This probably isn't a scam, but it's still lazy garbage. I hope they at least steal a good emulator and buy a cellphone processor up to the task.
  14. JB0
    Bother. Honestly, that was my first thought, and then I was "wait, no, that's a fighter plane" and corrected to the wrong number. Pro, right?
  15. JB0
    Now if only someone would post pics of him next to a real P08. I saw it done with the old MP Meg.
  16. JB0
    When I get one, yes. My area has long been a Transformer desert. I DID pick up a DoublecrossTwinferno the other day, though. I was shocked they had robots on the pegs, much less ones I hadn't seen and already bought or ignored. Sadly, he doesn't spit sparks like the original(to the surprise of no one). But truthfully, I'm still surprised to see oddball characters like him GETTING a modern version. Also, I think I saw no fewer than three different places where someone had molded in a place to peg a stand, which was quite surprising. Their engineers are sneaky bastages these days.
  17. JB0
    I have eight days, fourteen hours on the game clock. 0 raids, 0 crucible wins. And Just over twelve hours in sparrow racing(Yes, I bought a PSN card just to play Wipeout: Destiny. Don't judge me.).
  18. JB0
    As a solo player, I felt I got what I wanted, mostly. The strikes were really all that bothered me, there didn't really seem much reason to require a team for them. (I decided early on, basically the moment the vault of glass opened, that I was never running a raid.) On the occasions I did something multiplayer, I just pretended everyone else was an NPC. Sorry, people who were not actually robots. In fairness, the game system usually changed for the better. The game started super-ultra grindey and most of the system changes were to make it less so. Borderlands formula would have been better, I think. Destiny early on placed a high emphasis on getting good drops, but drops weren't frequent enough to ensure you were getting good gear. Hence the constant hunt for a new cave of loot as Bungie shuttered the old ones. Borderlands, by contrast, pretty much rains guns. No farming, no plans. Just play the game and you will have more choices of gun than you know what to do with. It did take Bungie quite a while to figure out WHY people were spawncamping the AI, though. They knew the popularity of the loot caves indicated a problem, but had a LOT of trouble figuring out what that problem was for some reason. That said, I don't play Destiny "right." The crucible was of zero interest to me, the raids were just obnoxious "solo players not invited" signs, and mostly I just did story missions. (Also strikes before my PS3 died, seeing as how they were basically story missions you had to play in a team. Not paying money for multiplayer on PS4... except during the SRL season. )
  19. JB0
    They kind of teased that it was in the works, but it never happened. Cayde is still the best thing about that game.
  20. JB0
    I suspect they had one shipment too many intercepted by customs the last Megatron release. They don't want the material costs or customer service headache associated with it, and my impression is that customs knows what Megatron is(duh) and generally figures out pretty fast when a new Megatron toy comes out. So the odds of slipping past customs have gone way down from the first MP Megatron.
  21. JB0
    Panels nothin'. He's oversized and crazily-proportioned. Even without all the seams he looks pretty fake. The old MP Megatron made a better gun, and he was fake-looking too. Honestly, I can't imagine anyone actually trying to use Megatron as a stand-in. It is a REALLY EXPENSIVE way to get a toy gun that has a non-zero risk of becoming a shape other than gun, which makes him down there with "banana" for viable firearm stand-ins during a robbery. But mostly, if you can afford him, you are not desperate enough to hold up a liquor store.
  22. JB0
    Oddly, a removable plug is not legally compliant, but their statement certainly seems to imply it is removable. "... we recommend that you do not remove the plastic plug after you have received the item" sure sounds like it is not "permanently affixed" as required by US law. In short, the plug is just enough effort to keep customs off everyone's back without actually ruining the toy. (And of course, even permanently affixed, a plug will not satisfy several state toy gun laws. But as long as it makes it through customs, who cares? We aren't gonna run around flashin' our Megatrons at the cops, right? We aren't total idiots here.)
  23. JB0
    Also the gun is REALLY misproportioned.
  24. JB0

    LIFE

    JB0 replied to spanner's topic in Anime or Science Fiction

    Then kind of moron Hollywood puts in an astronaut suit/military uniform/lab coat/spy gear. That's what kind.
  25. JB0
    You know what? I'm okay with that!
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