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JB0

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Everything posted by JB0

  1. JB0
    I had the view full version button on Android Chrome. I clicked it and now I'm locked into the full version because the theme selector doesn't show.
  2. JB0
    That reminds me of another Prime, from another time.
  3. JB0
    Eh, it wouldn't be the first time I took a made-up story at face value. On the other hand, if it was just about the gun... Honda was easy enough to satisfy by removing the gun from the package.
  4. JB0
    My understanding was Volkswagen was pretty insistent they didn't want to be associated with war at all, and that's a hard condition to fill for a Transformer.
  5. JB0
    Okay, seriously... I'm trying to figure this out, and I can't. How did Takara get the Volkswagen license? Or are they just gonna laugh and be "This could be ANY car, you can't prove it's a Volkswagen Type 1"?
  6. JB0
    http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Beast_(G1) Your's is better, though I don't like how Sludge's neck sticks up like that.
  7. JB0
    I think he'd probably take the name Nemesis Prime, personally. But Scourge has the advantage of being applied to the mold I was thinking of when I said flamethrower.
  8. JB0
    True facts: I've not watched EITHER Total Recall movie. But I HAVE read "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" before. It's a fun story, and the REAL original version.
  9. JB0
    As far as Prime killing people goes... In fairness, this is just a more personal touch on movie Prime's attitude to date. He was pretty willing to let the 'cons trash human cities just to teach the fleshlings a lesson back in Dark of the Moon. He's always been a bit less compassionate in the live-action films than most other incarnations. Arguably borderline insane. And the humans have been kind of jerks to the autobots when you look at the movies. They've been enslaved, isolated, used as tools, discarded when it was convenient, lied to about SERIOUS BUSINESS, and whatever is new for the fourth movie. And yes, Prime was in a bit of a huff back in Dark of the Moon, but... he still sort of let Megatron and Sentinel kill everyone in Chicago. Not because he couldn't stop them, or because he had to form a plan, but TO TEACH THE HUMANS A LESSON. He waited while the pitiful meatbags were scoured away so that the survivors would realize they DID need the autobots to protect them and MAYBE they deserved a bit better treatment. Apparently they didn't GET that better treatment. I fully expect Optimus to get a flamethrower, swap out his faction symbol, and start scouring the surface clean himself in the next movie.
  10. JB0
    Theoretically possible is the best kind of possible. ... Hmmm, I wonder how difficult building such a telescope would actually be. You'd need a helluva large reflector, that's for sure. Maybe spread the lens system out over several light-years, since you have FTL travel. Each lens is a drone ship equipped with it's own hyperdrive unit, and it jumps to the new focal point on command. That'd help restrict your field of view. Controlling light leakage would be a royal pain, though... Big dadgum telescope though. I applaud the reference, good sir. That said, I rather like the name New Eden myself.
  11. JB0
    Good old animated GIF. Never runs the same rate twice. No, I have nothing useful to add.
  12. JB0
    Man, how do Skids and Mudflap rip Devastator's face off from the inside only to go out like punks to Sentinel?
  13. JB0
    I do not deny this.
  14. JB0
    Some day... mark my words, some day...
  15. JB0
    Well, that's why I said "if". Even if they kept the same timeline, I'm sure they'd modernize the tech so, for example, instead of roving robotic phone booths, they had holographic cellphones. You know, something that made sense for a world where technology rapidly accelerated after 1999. I LIKE the retro-futurism, so I'd be sad to see it go. That said, just because another crew wasn't critical to the course of the war doesn't mean they don't have compelling stories of their own. Though if you REALLY wanted to be terrible, you'd make it about one of those destroid crews that dies. The last scene of the last episode would be that crushed destroid being trucked down the streets that passes Hikaru, Max, and Kakizaki. ... Actually, that'd be kind of awesome now that I think about it. Horrible, but awesome.
  16. JB0
    I'm pretty sure you're mistaken, as Pacific Rim was the best movie OF ALL TIME FOREVER AND EVER TO INFINITY PLUS ONE.
  17. JB0
    Can't say I did. I own original hardware for just about everything it does(exception: I don't have a GameBoy Player for GBA on a TV) and a proper CRT to connect them to, and if I wanted a dedicated emulation box, I'd build one. It's certainly neat, and I respect them for making it, but... it's not something I'm interested in. Pity they didn't include a Master System cart slot while they were at it. Requiring a Power Base Converter is kind of jerkish, though the molded recess for the back tab is very nice. Now, the CONTROLLER, on the other hand... if it works as good as it looks, it's totally worth my money.
  18. 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.
  19. 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.
  20. JB0
    Worth it!
  21. JB0
    How much screen time does Peg Drift get, anyways? This is IMPORTANT!
  22. 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. )
  23. 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*
  24. 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.
  25. 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.
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