Archive for February, 2009

Demon in a Bottle

Friday, February 27th, 2009

While I keep my collector habit firmly on Transformers, I occasionally get something else from other lines. You’ve probably noticed that I have a few Minimates. They’re fun and cute, like articulated Lego people, only badass.  Another ‘every now and then’ would be GI Joes, as I remember them fondly for their awesome articulation in an era where knees and elbows were few and far between.

Maybe that’s why I like the 3 1/4″ scale so much. That combined with growing up at the height of the micromaster era leaves me with a preference towards smaller tfs (though admittedly, deluxe is my favorite size class.)

I remember how I always thought it would be awesome if Marvel would team up with the GI Joe people and make small but awesomely articulated super heroes. I thought it might occur back when I saw some Street Fighter figs in Joe style, but when Marvel Legends came around I didn’t have an inkling that I’d ever see an in-scale Wolverine slashing through a horde of B.A.T.s.

And then, Hasbro gave us Marvel Universe.

I piked up Stealth Ops Iron Man at K-Mart and naturally this was the first thing that I did…

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INTERMITTENS!

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

That would be an awesome name for a cat. Almost as awesome as Awkward Paws.

But what isn’t awesome is this: The Lugnut Guide will be continued next week.  I didn’t want to have to do that, and for once it’s not just procrastination’s fault. Day job, author stuff, and admittedly some lazy-assing around. My guides are usually done at least a week in advance, but I jumped the gun on this one out of excitement and it was a bit too much on my already full plate.

But here’s something to satiate you!

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Lovenut Part 3

Wednesday, February 18th, 2009

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Step 1: Your Mace!

Yet another in-joke for a title. Of course, yesterday’s situation was an inside joke, or at least something funny inside Sunstreaker.

So Lugnut has a mace. It’s pretty cool, what with the action feature and all. There are two main problems with it, though. First of all, Lugnut holds it up near the business end of the mace. That’s great for standing around looking threatening, but not so easy when roughing up Autobots.

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Lovenut Part 2

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

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Step 1: Cut a hole in the Fox

Censored from the Swoop guide, this one seemed appropriate for Lovenut.

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Lovenut Part 1

Monday, February 16th, 2009

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Lugnut. As mentioned previously, I didn’t like the toy at first. Sure, the character was great, and that’s part of what eventually won me over on the toy, but at a glance he’s over simple and over small. Legs fold down from the back, cockpit splits to become the chest, head flips around, and arms move down and bombs open up into claws.

Wait, his bombs become his hands?

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Google, Econ, and The Frito Bandito’s Speedo

Friday, February 13th, 2009

One of my future Mrs.’s college classes is an economy course where she has to read a book called The World is Flat. It’s an interesting book, despite my personal distaste for college, and the snippit that she read to me today has justified the $12 price of the book.

It makes me worry about the cost of the class, though.

I don’t really think I can set this up any better than just quoting the story, and saying that the basis for the chapter is how Google is helping to ‘flatten’ the world and bring people and business together.

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The List! (And how to smudge it.)

Tuesday, February 10th, 2009

At first I was against animated Lugnut. He seemed overly simple and colored like fruit snacks.

But lots of pictures and glowing reviews made me give him a second thought, and that’s all the collector impulse needed to turn it into a full on craving.

Unfortunately, he was officially on the ‘Matt Can No Have’ list that I asked my future Mrs. to impose on me. There are cases where that list gets smudged a bit (Sideswipe was on it, but she didn’t feel right having Sunstreaker without Sideswipe. Woohoo!) but we try to stick to it.

For instance, spending the better part of a week making fun of animated Jetfire and Jetstorm means that though I’m mildly interested in them now, they’re still on the list (with a captital ‘NO, they look like Power Rangers.’)

So, how to get Lugnut withut paying money? Trade!

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