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JB0

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Everything posted by JB0

  1. JB0
    If they redo Space War 1, I want to see it from a different perspective. Let the old crew have bit parts and cameos, sure... but I'd rather see a NEW story. I'd actually like to see it from a destroid pilot's PoV, but fat chance of that.
  2. JB0
    Pretty much, yeah. Like I said, I made the call ENTIRELY based on which one offered more gunplay and coherent action sequences. I could generally tell what was going on in Fallen's fight scenes. And, well... Devastator's big brass balls were less embarrassing than the extended conversation about Sam's happy time and all the various euphemisms thereof. And mercifully shorter. I actually ENJOYED Dark of the Moon, though. To date it's the only live-action Transformer film I'd even CONSIDER watching again, in spite of the complete waste of Shockwave and "how in Primus' name do you make a chase scene through a collapsing skyscraper BORING?" and writing all the surviving Decepticons back in just to execute them, and... Look, I said I enjoyed it, not that it was a good movie. But that still makes it the best of a bad lot. I'm sure Age of Extinction will be terrible and I'll wish for my money back. But... a part of me still wants to go.
  3. JB0
    Worth it!
  4. JB0
    How much screen time does Peg Drift get, anyways? This is IMPORTANT!
  5. JB0
    Which is basically what I've been saying since the first movie premiered. Why the CRAP are we watching all this overwrought melodrama about some high school kid and his girl in a movie about cars and planes and trucks that turn into giant robots and shoot each other? The general lack of shooting is largely why I rank Revenge of the Fallen above Transformers. It may be an objectively worse film, but it had a much larger dose of robots shooting each other. In that robots shot each other. And that was all I was there for. I could care less about how whether or not Sam and Mikala can find time to make out on Bumblebee's hood. (Side note: You can't find a better place to make out than sitting on top of your buddy's roboface? Real classy, dude. )
  6. JB0
    And, like the whore I am, I will go see this in theaters before too long. Did we ever? Not once did I sit down to peruse a piece of Transformers entertainment going "Man, I wonder what happens to *insert human character here* this time!" Well, I lie. I did that for Transformers: Animated. And then Sari just disappears for most of season 3. *sigh*
  7. JB0
    True story: I'm tempted to just buy a sheet of faction symbols and apply them to every device in the house. Because I am a mature adult.
  8. JB0
    Well, they didn't use the original mold for Alternators, or Prime, or Robot Heroes, or... you get the picture. The original Astro Magnum design isn't trademarked, copyright doesn't really apply unless it's a reproduction of the original(which I'd totally buy!). Nothing stops it from being done, or Hasbro and Takara would be in a good deal of trouble. Even if it was an obstacle, they could probably buy it outright for a good price. I don't think ToyBox has any USE for Astro Magnum anymore. If he's homing an original tune, it IS copyrighted. Copyright is automatically granted at the moment of creation, though legally proving it may be difficult in this case. Character trademark is a bit more complex than that, though I grant that Hasbro and Takara have trademarks on most of their Transformers back catalog at this point. And unlike copyright on a toy mold, trademark DOES cover "that looks pretty similar". You don't even have to be the first person to do it to get the trademark. For an example we all know, see Harmony Gold trademarking "Macross". Going back to the above example... ToyBox reissuing the AstroMagnum might actually set off lawsuits for infringing on HASBRO AND TAKARA'S trademarks, even though ToyBox CREATED the dadgum thing. Which would be hilarious. Wrong, but hilarious. I'm SURE they'd set off trademark lawsuits if they reissued him in purple, again in spite of the fact that they created the thing in the first place. Basically, I'd go after unofficial Transformers under trademark law, not copyright law. And that's ALSO why the unofficial toys are named Citizen Stack and Mania King instead of Ultra Magnus and Galvatron. It's harder to prove that plastic robot A's silhouette and paint job is infringing on the trademark of plastic robot B than it is to prove that they named plastic robot A Ultra Magnus. And yes, everyone knows exactly what he's SUPPOSED to be, but legally proving that would be difficult. Also, if they're too blatant about it, Hasbro and Takara HAVE to sue, because you lose a trademark if you don't defend it. Citizen Stack is actually playing dangerously close to the line in that regard, since Hasbro likely DOES own the trademark on a transforming robot truck named Stacks, though it'd be a hard trademark to defend since it's a generic word and I don't think they've used it even once since they bought Kenner. (I say they LIKELY have the trademark since there was a lot less concern about every last name being trademarkable back in the day, and I don't have a Go-Bots catalog to check for little TM symbols.) Anyways, as long as they aren't using the official names, it's probably better for Hasbro and Takara to ignore it entirely. The goodwill they will lose with the fans will cost them a lot more money than the very limited competition is. Yes, they'll lose a few sales of MP Magnus to Citizen Stack, but they'll probably lose a lot more sales if they start firing lawsuits and make the fans angry. MOST of the people that buy the unofficial toys ALSO buy the official ones, and quite a lot of the official ones at that. It's rarely a good idea to anger your best customers.
  9. JB0
    We need Masterpiece Shockwave. It's the only logical choice.
  10. JB0
    I generally prefer downloadable over streamable. Less sensitive to bandwidth fluctuation that way. Also has the potential for higher-quality.
  11. JB0
    Robotech, obviously.
  12. JB0
    That's EXACTLY what I'm saying. What makes anyone writing Dracula or anyone writing Sherlock Holmes less silly than anyone writing Batman? Copyright law was meant "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries." And at the end of that limited period of time, the work would belong to the public. This benefit to the creator was weighed against the benefit to society as a whole. The original law in the US was 14 years, with the possibility of requesting a single 14-year extension IF the original creator was still alive. It was never intended to grant anyone sole control of a cultural icon in perpetuity, and the current state of copyright law is a twisted mockery of everything it was ever supposed to do. Trademark is different than copyright, and ... well, equally ridiculous, with people trademarking random words out of the dictionary. The moral of this story? Plastic robots: serious business. Or possibly... Free the toys! But probably just... I'm gonna get in trouble for this, aren't I?
  13. JB0
    I WAS thinking arcades. And just using J names exclusively. I forgot this one gets "complicated.' US arcade Life Force = Salamander. Japanese arcade Life Force = Robotech Gradius. US NES Life Force = Robotech Toonami Edit Gradius. Parodius = Space Gandam V. There we go.
  14. JB0
    I have... strong opinions about Gradius and related games. To put it mildly.
  15. JB0
    No. SALAMANDER was awesome. Life Force was hacking the godawful Gradius power-up bar into a game that was never designed for it, and possibly qualifies as a crime against humanity. Konami should be ashamed of themselves.
  16. JB0
    DRAMA! I think the unofficial Transformers are darn cool. Expensive as heck, but pretty darn cool. And I don't think they're in competition with Hasbro or TakaraTomy... EXCEPT for the Masterpiece line. I think it's... strange... that Stacks is adhering so closely to the original design. Most of the unofficial toys I've seen have been unique takes on the character, or existed at a functionality/detail level that just isn't viable for mass-market. Stacks is neither from what I've seen. This is one of the rare cases where I DO see a direct conflict between the official and unofficial toys, and it's KINDA IFFY, though I assume the current situation is just coincidence and not an active plan on anyone's part. Regardless of coincidence or conspiracy, it's clearly a unique mold, so it's WAY ahead of the old iGear Masterpiece Prime. How did anyone ever defend that one? My main thought, though, is that Hasbro and Takara have had THIRTY YEARS to milk this thing by now. At this point any protections on the original character are long since past the point where they make any sort of rational sense, and I see nothing ethically wrong about someone else making a G1 Ultra Magnus toy. I find it hard to be particularly heartbroken that two of the largest toy companies in the world might be missing a couple thousand dollars in sales because someone else made a toy that looks an awful lot like something they used to make. ... Also, Stacks is supposed to be orange with a truck cab for a head. I can't believe they messed that up so badly.
  17. JB0
    Ayup. I hate analog nubs. They're the worst of all possible worlds. The keyboard's big problem is it has all the buttons, but the layout is an abomination and there's no way to tell by feel where you are on it. Also, yeah, no analog. I used a Sidewinder Strategic Commander as a keyboard replacement for a while. Eight buttons under the finger tips, and three shift keys under the thumb. It was nice, except... A. spring tension was way too light for my hand, and B. it's not a HID game controller, so without native support in software you don't have the option of analog movement since you wind up having to bind keyboard keys to the analog axes. Also, there's no drivers for any modern OS, so it's not usable in any form nowadays, which is kind of problematic. What I've wished for in terms of modern product is a CAD "mouse". But again, no support in the gaming software means limited functionality.
  18. JB0
    You say that like a keyboard is a decent gaming input device instead of a mediocre text entry one. </controversial_statement> In the interests of full disclosure, I DO use a keyboard for a lot of PC games. And a trackball, because screw mice. I still don't think a keyboard is an optimum or even DESIRABLE input target, though. Messed with some keyboard replacements, but between desk space issues, abysmal build quality, and/or a general need to remap most of the controls(which is a staggering amount for anything I'd play with a keyboard), I wind up back on QWERTY.
  19. JB0
    Okay, I've got a hypothesis here. I suspect that you don't actually live in the same universe as the rest of us, and there's a bizarre quantum entanglement glitch in your modem connecting you to our internet instead of your own. Your world sounds like it's a lot nicer than our's.
  20. JB0
    That was a bootleg, not a real Indiana Jones film. There's just no way something that awful could've come out of that franchise.
  21. JB0
    You know, with the Indiana Jones movies getting better with each release, it makes me wonder how good a fourth one would've been if they'd made it. It's probably for the best that they didn't. Humanity just isn't ready for that yet. I still think Star Wars: The Phantom Menace deserves a place in the worst list. Not because of any objective measure of quality, but because of the sheer disappointment of the release. The broken dreams, crushed expectations, and shattered hopes it left in it's wake elevate it above any mere travesty of scriptwriting. It may not be as bad as some other movies, but it cut so many so deeply that it can't simply be ignored.
  22. JB0
    Actually, it looks like he reaches the same point, the rocket launcher is just canted up in one pic and down in another. Edit: whoops, missed a whole page of posts. I feel silly now.
  23. JB0
    i feel about seven some days. At least until I remember I have to cook my own meals.
  24. JB0
    You never know, it might be! "Nyan-Nyan Chinese Restaurant: Home of the Deculture. Guaranteed to make you scream... well, you know."
  25. JB0
    Ah, you fail to see their cunning plan. If they wait until the cost gets even MORE ridiculous, they can release the new toys for five hundred bucks and people will be "WOW, WHAT A DEAL!" instead of "that's outrageous, this thing isn't worth half that!" It's all part of the plan. Bet you they're even shill-bidding the auctions to drive prices up. That's just good business sense.
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