So there was me, thinking to myself "Yeah, these TransFormers Animated toys are cool and all - very well designed, and very true to the TV show - but I just don't like the style." Seriously, I want my robots to look like robots, not Teen Titans...
And then they started appearing in Toys'R'Us.
It started with Starscream (remarkably cool - stylistically similar to the transforming jets in Macross), and now I have Bumblebee, Prowl and Lockdown.
My excuse? It was my birthday on Monday (34, as I told one of the teenage Salesmen at work, feels not unlike 19... or 17 on a good day... only I'm fitter now than I ever was then) so I have birthday money to spend, and they were doing 'Buy Two, Get One Free' to introduce the line.
And damn it all if they aren't really good in person. Bumblebee is very dynamic and, while I still have doubts about the design of the toy's feet (not entirely convincing, y'see), I warmed to him instantly. And I mean instantly. Prowl is a little indifferent, but only a little... His range of movement is irrationally limited in some ways, but he exudes effortless cool even in floppy-hipped toy form. Lockdown looks like some kind of bondage freak, or something out of a TransFormers/Spawn crossover (no, Hasbro, don't even consider it. Look away NOW!) and, while his hands and knees are not as functional as they could be, he still manages to look pretty darned good.
Do they look like robots? Not especially.
Are they cool? Undoubtedly.
Will I end up buying more? Inevitably.
In other news, I have not been at all surprised by the lack of people saying how much they miss our departed Senior Designer. He was a great brown-noser, and had a clever way of giving all the right people (bar myself and our manager) the impression of being very good at his job while actually doing very little so, ultimately, there's no reason to miss him.
Production is much quieter, and seems to be working more efficiently (bar a couple of odd glitches with new people), so it seems very likely that we'll be able to function perfectly well with only four copy controllers rather than six. I'm almost surprised but, as I continually pointed out, we used to have six magazines run by one copy controller who still had time to chat.
My second attempt at flat-buying is going a little weird. The estate agents told me they used to be the managing agents, but were no longer... but I received a letter from my solicitor including a copy of a letter from the estate agents in their capacity as managing agents of the flats. When the estate agent faxed the same letter to me, he carefully missed off the letterhead. Not sure yet how worried I should be about that... but it does mean that I'll be to-ing and fro-ing on the phone between the estate agents and my solicitor tomorrow. On my press day. Again.
What is it about these proceedings that mean the shit hits the fan on every single one of my press days. Are they doing it on purpose?
Gotta say, also, my birthday this year was a very sedate affair. I can't drink anything alcoholic at the moment as my allergies have hit (even smelling beer sets my nose streaming!), so I just had a simple dinner at home with my folks. I got the DVD of Appleseed: Ex Machina, fresh off my want list from the London Expo a few weeks back, then a total of forty quid in cold, hard cash (half of which has now been spent on TransFormers I don't have room for). My sister made her birthday card (it's really cool... if I can get off my arse, I may post a photo...), and my mother managed to find just enough scraps of TransFormers wrapping paper (which is probably about 20 years old) to cover the DVD. My old mate Paul got me a Star Wars TransFormer - the Snowspeeder/Luke Skywalker - which looks great in its alternate mode, but the robot mode really does explain why (if the rumours are to be believed) Hasbro sacked the design team that worked on SWTF.
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