Score!

Well, the new office isn't a complete disaster. Aside from idiot children not playing nice and not listening to The Boss (now back from holiday refreshed, and looking forward to tearing a new one for anyone who crosses her path) when they're told NOT to log in and check their email.

It's a nice place, at first glance. Certainly looks far more impressive than the Notting Hill tinderpile/cockroach hotel. It's not quite finished, in that there's still some painting to do (Boss observed that it was rather tacky to farm out painting any kind of design on the Production wall when we have two members of staff with degrees in Fine Art but, hey, that's the company all round), but it's looking nice and professional. And it's on the fifth floor, with a decent view over London. And balconies.

Of course, it's not all happy news. In the move, the Office Manager/PA to MD had her laptop stolen. Everything else - docking station, monitor, mouse, etc - arrived safe and sound, but the computer was gone.

Post-work celebrations took me down toward Kingston where, this morning, I ventured into Shakeaway (because, when in Kingston, one must have groovy milkshake), The Entertainer (TF display as sparse as ever, and nothing I really wanted to buy was on the shelves, though they do occasionally have a gem or two), and Woolworths.

Now, in my experience, Woolies don't tend to offer much of any great interest to me... but I was surprised to find a goldmine on this occasion. I walked out with Fast Action Battler Frenzy, Rescue Ratchet, Thundercracker and the 'Sector 7' edition of Energon Strongarm.

Frenzy is seriously cute. Not that well articulated, so posing him is a complete chore, but as an exercise in turning a CGI model that cheats its way into becoming a CD Stereo/Radio into a small model robot that turns into a tiny model CD Stereo/Radio, it's really not bad. The lack of articulation really kills it - Frenzy is a mass of joints in the movie, and this thing doesn't even have proper knees - but it's a fun toy, and the CD-shooting action is all present and correct.

Rescue Ratchet is just the same as the original Movie Ratchet... but this time predominantly in red and white, and so manages to look even plainer than the original. Also, while the ambulance redecoration may suit the character of Ratchet for the Gen 1 purists, the Humvee rescue truck just doesn't work as an ambulance. The roofrack and tool bays give it away as nothing more than fanservice. Robot mode does look great, but seriously in need of extra paintwork or more colours of plastic.

Thundercracker, meanwhile, is at once another example of pandering to the Gen 1 purists (how long till we see Movie Skywarp, eh?) and a brilliant use of a discarded movie head. One of the possibilities for Starscream's movie bonce has wound up on this non-movie movie toy... and it actually works quite well. It contains elements of the original Starscream, but with the movie aesthetic. While the colourscheme could have been better - the grey seems completely out of place, for example - the overall result is quite successful.

Sector 7 Strongarm I probably shouldn't write about, because I have to return mine thanks to a factory defect (superglue on one knee). This is the first colourscheme for this model that I've liked, aside from the BotCon '05 one - Fallback - so I felt compelled to add it to my collection.

Last week, I received a bunch of three DVDs, two of which I've been watching on and off today. Gilgamesh is a very strange - though also very samey Sci-Fi story where two kids are on the run, and just happen to be the key to everything. Good guys want them, bad guys want them, debt collectors want them... but we don't know who's who yet.

Apart from the debt collectors.

Season one of The Tick (animated) seemed like a good buy... but it's just not as funny as I remember it. It's still a spoof on the whole superhero genre, but the shoddy animation - by today's standards - and lack of any real 'funny' surprised and disappointed me.

Paprika I haven't watched yet... But I'm looking forward to it...