Caving in

Yes, I finally gave in and ordered myself the rather spiffy TransFormers Music Label Soundwave. While I consider the model to be somewhat flawed (the Gen 1 Purist in me says that the lower legs transform backwards, and all in the name of 'ar-tick-you-lay-shun'), let's face it... It's frikkin' Soundwave, people!

Gen 1 Soundwave was one of the finest toys to come out of Takara's Microchange catalogues, and there wasn't a 'proper' Soundwave until the wonderful stealth bomber version that graced Galaxy Force/Cybertron. Music Label Soundwave isn't just a remake, it's a very clever homage taking today's technology and building a classic Decepticon around it. Even if it's only ever on display, it'll look great on my TF Classics shelf. But, hell, it's a working MP3 player into the bargain. What's not to like?

There are a couple of things I would have done differently (ignoring the legs for the moment) such as making his weapons into 'batteries' that could be stowed inside him (if the battery compartment was made big enough for three AAA batteries, the weapons could have been made to scale and slotted in along with the real battery), and I might have been tempted to give him some kind of minion in the package, as well as having Music Label Rumble & Frenzy, but that's just me being picky and petty.

Spent some time today trying to think through a structure for my website redesign, and I'm fairly happy with the results so far. The complicated part will be actually putting it into some kind of practice, and deciding on a look. I'd like it to be more consistent this time - all sections looking similar - but what sort of overall look? I don't want it to be too TransFormers-centric, and I don't want it looking too plain... and then there's the logo, which will have to be 'remastered' for the new look.

I'm pretty certain that, once I've got this figured out, I will consider it the 'final' layout for the site. Changing the look every year was fun while I had the time, inclination and ideas... but I'm out of all three these days.