Tuesday 22 April 2008

Upon closer inspection

Now that I've had a good look at TF: Universe Swerve (aka the limited edition Chevrolet Aveo TransFormer), I must say how impressed I am by the paintjob.

While it's been done to make the vehicle mode look as good as possible , somewhat to the detriment of robot mode (and without going to the expense of nice glossy paint, that is), it really is a very impressive bit of paintwork. Whereas the average, high-street-bought Deluxe has transparent plastic for the windows, etc, the extent of the paintwork used to match those parts to the opaque coloured plastic is minimal by comparison. On Swerve, they didn't just paint the shape of the door (for example), they painted the whole door... even round the corners of the plastic. Then the door handles are painted. The front grille is painted silver, and the Chevrolet badge is painted gold. The hubcaps are painted.

It's really very nice to look at.

It's not perfect... There are parts that really shouldn't have been left bare of paint, but on the whole, it's rather an improvement on Hasbro's usual work.

Robot mode, as I said, does suffer for all this paintwork. Aside from a couple of details on the face, Swerve displays largely bare plastic (red, grey and black) in his robot mode. That said, there's a fair bit of molded detail, including details on the backs of the legs, where you wouldn't normally be looking.

And all this in a limited edition, for less that £20. Methinks Chevrolet must be kicking themselves for not giving it a higher price.

For some reason, I thought my appointment with the masseur at the Chiropractor was first thing this morning, so I set my alarm for 6am. Having got ready for work, I checked my appointment card... 6.15pm

So I had myself a quick nap, then went out at what should be my usual time - about 7.45 - and managed to bump into my old mate Paul at the station. We chatted about his work and mine (it seems his employers don't just have a hiring freeze, they're actively looking to let people go), and the progress of my flat purchase.

It's been quite a while since I last caught him at the station, normally because I never manage to leave the house at quite the right time. His birthday is coming up, and I still have yet to find something suitable for him...

During the day, I was able to speak to the insurance brokers about my flat roof... and, within about half an hour, I had insurance lined up and ready to be activated when I'm closer to the exchange date. Definitely looking positive so far. I think that's basically everything ready, so it's all in the hands of the solicitors...

When, after work, I got to the Chiropractor, it looked as if I was the last patient to be seen (actually the penultimate, the last arrived just before I got put on traction), so I was ushered straight in for my massage. My legs and back were the focus of attention this time, with a short foray into the muscles of my buttocks.

"That's really tight," commented the masseur, while kneeding my left cheek.

I briefly toyed with the idea of asking if she was commenting on the state of my muscles, or merely complimenting me on my 'tight buns', but decided in favour of simply agreeing, and mentioning that it's usually the lefthand side of my body that goes wrong.

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