The perfect antidote to several crappy weeks of work (and the sure knowledge that the next few will be rather crappy as well) surely has to be a trip to something like Memorabilia at the Birmingham NEC.
Get there early (very little difference between the cost of standard (11am) entry and Early Bird (9am) entry) and wander round at leisure, taking the opportunity to study what's there before crowds of the great unwashed pile in and block every aisle. Find a few things you thought you'd never see again. Pick up a bargain or twelve. Grab something that's not available in this country yet. Discover how keenly you want something you didn't think you'd be interested in until you clapped eyes on it. 'Meet' celebrities and get their autographs, if you're that way inclined.
Then get the hell out with your haul and enjoy the rest of the day however you like.
For the record, I made off with:
TF Movie: Dropkick, Landmine (and Voyager class Optimus Prime for the office)
TF Classics: Grimlock
RiD: Megatron Megabolt (should really be Beast Machines, but hey)
Beast Machines: Rattrap
Beast Wars: Airazor, Tripredacus (Cicadon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp)
A very respectable haul, all things considered. Details? OK then. From the top...
Dropkick is quite an oddity. His packaging proudly proclaims that he his "As seen in the TransFormers Video Game", which explains why he wasn't seen in the movie by any stretch of the imagination. The alternate mode is a low-riding pickup truck with a spoiler on its bed cover. Transformation is far simpler than the likes of Longarm, but still very satisfying. Robot mode is rather bizarre, in that he has animal-like legs, but a very humanoid shape overall. Unlike most of the videogame drones, Dropkick has something approaching a normal robot head, rather than the usual large lens and consequently has a lot more personality. The only downside to him is his ridiculous 'capture claw' weapon, which just looks like pliers.
Landmine is also an oddity, for many reasons. Firstly, he's an Autobot created out of a Sector 7 vehicle by the Allspark. Secondly, he appears to have claws. Thirdly, he appears to be wearing a hockey mask. He has some quite clever features, such as the vehicle's seats transforming into the robot's hands, and some bizarre features, like the fact that he seems to move around on roller skates. Hardly the most elegant of robots, but an effective and satisfying model.
Classics Grimlock is the one Classic I've never seen in the shops. In so many way's he's inferior to the original Gen 1 model, but he's far more poseable, and remains distinctively Grimlock. As has been mentioned all over the web, his shoulder assembly has been put together completely wrong, so things don't lock into place as they should, but he's still pretty effective... and he completes my Classics collection.
Megatron Megabolt was released under the Robots in Disguise banner despite clearly displaying a Vehicon logo on his chest, which would place him in the Beast Machines continuity. Moreover, his alternate mode appeared as a giant flying fortress in the Beast Machines TV series and not at all - as far as I'm aware - in RiD/Car Robots. The robot is another awkward one - no head movement, and even the ball-jointed limbs offer limited dynamic posing ability. Transformation is very complex for such a small model, and he wins a few points by utilising a magnet to attach his helmet and cannon to the robot's head. The insectoid legs of his alternate mode move thanks to wheels on the bottom and, supposedly, this thing can function as an alternate head for Fortress Maximus or Brave Maximus.
Beast Machine Rattrap is about twice the size of the original BW model in robot mode, and much larger in his robotic rat mode. Robot mode can use legs or wheels to get around, but frankly he looks terrible either way. Rat mode is a real winner, though, because it's very accurate to the TV show, and features a mechanical action where rotating his tail causes his head to move from side to side, tilting and waggling his ears as it goes. In that way, it's far more cool than I was expecting.
Beast Wars Airazor is a very simple model - this and the original Rattrap typify the simplistic construction that went into most of that line. Bird mode is only really effective when viewed from above (it's curious how true that statement is of almost all flying TransFormers), but it does feature a sort of 'diving' action where pulling back on part of the tail angles the wings forward. Robot mode is very simplistic, but quite effective. I'm aiming to display this model along with the TFCC Airazor eventually.
Tripredacus - not to be confused with Tripredacus Agent - is one of a very few Beast Wars gestalts. Made up of Cicadon, Ram Horn and Sea Clamp (each of whom has a robot mode of their own) he's a bizarre-looking monster of a robot. The face is curiously reminiscent of The Joker, due to some unfortunate and sparse paintwork, and the arms are not exactly convincing but, as a feat of toy engineering, he's pretty clever... How else could a fly, a beetle and a lobster be combined into one robot? As was frequently the case with Beast Wars and its offshoots, the beast modes are far more convincing and impressive than the robot modes, but the use of translucent plastic is very good, making the parts and the gestalt 'whole' very eerie-looking in a certain light.
We ended up leaving the show just before standard entry time, partly because we had other plans for the rest of the day, and partly because it was a much smaller event that previously. It only took up one hall, when it has previously been two. That said, it felt to me like a distillation rather than a drop-off. Attendance was high, even before standard entry kicked in, and the quality and range of merchandise on offer was very impressive. I don't think there's been a single show that hasn't been dominated by Star Wars one way or another, but it's never felt as though it's becoming a Star Wars convention... even if security appears to be provided by the Stormtroopers of the UK Garrison.
One stall was selling all kinds of movie props, including two pieces of TransFormers. One was an unrecognisable talon, listed simply as 'TransFormer Part', by the other was a section of Scorponok's tail. Even a cursory glance revealed obvious welded joints, which was disappointing but, equally, proved that there is still enough magic left in cinema to turn human-made props into convincing alien robotic monsters.
After the show, we headed into the town nearest the hotel for some food, then back to the hotel to eat, snooze, lark about and watch DVDs for the remainder of the day. The trip back home today was smooth - far smoother than the outward journey, in which we got lost because we left directions to and details of the hotel back at the office - and without any of the snow that was threatened in weather reports earlier in the week.
Sunday, 25 November 2007
Thursday, 22 November 2007
New, new, new!
During my two days off work, it occurred to me that if sitting on my chair while at the computer was making my legs and back ache in a vaguely similar way to when I sit on the end of my bed, then there was almost certainly something wrong with my chair.
It further occurred to me that, compared to my office chair, my home chair was rather low.
Unfortunately, the screw that was the sole means of adjustment was well and truly stuck in position, and any attempt at moving it resulted only in mangled plastic. Not even a liberal application of WD-40 had any effect.
So, almost on a whim this evening, my boss whisked me off to Ikea on the drive home. She was after a frame for the leaving gift for one of our staff and, of course, they had a goodly selection of chairs. I opted for the £16.99 Svenning, with its fancy pneumatic height adjustment. I am sitting on it as I write, and I am comfortable. Hurrah.
Also, when I arrived home with flat-packed Svenning in hand, there was a small surprise waiting for me, in the form of Beast Wars Rattrap - won recently in an eBay auction after losing out on about three previous auctions. Hurrah again. He's rather cute, utilises an early - but no less clever - form of the movie line's 'Automorph' gimmick (lift the tail, and Rattrap transforms... all by himself!), and his handgun is contained inside his beast mode in two parts. He's actually smaller than I was expecting in robot mode, despite being almost exactly the size I expected in rat mode. How strange.
The final bit of news is that there has finally been an announcement about Auto Assembley 2008. First and foremost, there will be one! In August! In the same place as last year's! Hurrah the third.
Now I must pack for the weekend. But once more, hurrah!
It further occurred to me that, compared to my office chair, my home chair was rather low.
Unfortunately, the screw that was the sole means of adjustment was well and truly stuck in position, and any attempt at moving it resulted only in mangled plastic. Not even a liberal application of WD-40 had any effect.
So, almost on a whim this evening, my boss whisked me off to Ikea on the drive home. She was after a frame for the leaving gift for one of our staff and, of course, they had a goodly selection of chairs. I opted for the £16.99 Svenning, with its fancy pneumatic height adjustment. I am sitting on it as I write, and I am comfortable. Hurrah.
Also, when I arrived home with flat-packed Svenning in hand, there was a small surprise waiting for me, in the form of Beast Wars Rattrap - won recently in an eBay auction after losing out on about three previous auctions. Hurrah again. He's rather cute, utilises an early - but no less clever - form of the movie line's 'Automorph' gimmick (lift the tail, and Rattrap transforms... all by himself!), and his handgun is contained inside his beast mode in two parts. He's actually smaller than I was expecting in robot mode, despite being almost exactly the size I expected in rat mode. How strange.
The final bit of news is that there has finally been an announcement about Auto Assembley 2008. First and foremost, there will be one! In August! In the same place as last year's! Hurrah the third.
Now I must pack for the weekend. But once more, hurrah!
Wednesday, 21 November 2007
Foiled again...
There is something very wrong with my computer, and it seems to be getting worse. It's been getting these intermittent lags for a while now, but they're getting longer and closer together. It gets to the point where the screen isn't even keeping up with my typing. I can work quite happily for a while, then all of a sudden, the damned thing is next to useless. Video playback is obviously similarly affected (though not so if it's DVD playback).
This evening, for no obvious reason, I was getting obscure error messages when I tried to connect to my website's FTP to update some content... Having shut down and restarted (as opposed to plain old restarting) it seems to be back to normal, and connecting merrily. I really hate PCs sometimes. I may just give in and buy a Mac next time. It's not as if I play games anymore...
News? Not a great deal. My collection of TF movie toys is almost complete:
Leader
Optimus Prime
Megatron
Brawl
Voyager
Blackout
Ratchet
Ironhide
Starscream
Thundercracker
Rescue Ratchet
Deluxe
Jazz
2008 Bumblebee
Scorponok
Wreckage
Barricade
Bonecrusher
Arcee
Longarm
Dropkick
I also nabbed the movie Robot Heroes - the only time I've seen them, and I grabbed almost everything on the shelf - because they're rather sweet. There's something very odd about seeing Frenzy with a mouth molded into a cheeky grin but, somehow, it works.
And the upcoming new stuff (dubbed "Allspark Power", and largely comprised of repaints), for the most part, isn't lighting my candle. This is probably a good thing, as I'm pretty much out of space (again). I've added paintwork to most of the movie figures I've picked up because the Hasbro paintjobs are generally inadequate.
In many ways, this weekend's trip to Memorabilia isn't so much about going to the show and buying loads of stuff (though that's almost inevitable - I don't think there's been a single Memorabilia that I've left empty-handed, even though I have previously managed to spend far less than my budget), as much as it is getting away from home and larking about at the weekend... Which I should do more often, if only by doing touristy crap around town. I'm sure I promised myself I'd to that around this time last year...
I've been off work these last two days - two out of the three holiday days I have yet remaining - and have managed to arrange a visit to the dentist for a routine checkup next week, but very little else. I've woken up both days and said to myself "I will sit down and turn my extensive notes on that story of mine into a proper short story" and "I will sit down and work on my little fairy tale story" and done absolutely bugger all. I've read some more... getting about halfway through the second book of Stephen Donaldson's first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and it's quite a fascinating read. I decided to look it up on Wikipedia, and discovered a whole new angle on it that I hadn't considered, which certainly threw a new light on parts I've read recently, and lead me to go back and skim through the first couple of chapters of the first book.
Recently, I've been to see the computer generated movie based on the legends of Beowulf and I must say the story in the movie is far more interesting and coherent than the stories it is based upon. My only real quibble (apart from the usual not-quite-human movement of the CG faces) was that the animation of the horses in the movie was terrible - roughly videogame standard. While the movement of the human characters was clearly the result of some seriously high-end motion capture, the horses were not... That kind of thing really shows up, too. It's quite a gory film, but true to the legends in that respect. One amusing point is that Beowulf takes the first opportunity to strip naked (to fight Grendel as his equal), and then the movie uses an increasingly unlikely stream of things to obscure certain bodyparts. Some of it almost had me laughing out loud. I also got the impression it was made with IMAX 3D in mind, because so much of it took full advantage of the system to throw things right at the audience. I'm hoping to see it in a 'normal' cinema, just to see how it compares...
Work is currently rather tiresome, with the same old people making the same old mistakes. It's getting all the more depressing that, in spite of all the progress, we're still scuppered by the same incompetence and, in spite of Production moving heaven and earth to accommodate the demands of the Salespeople, they haven't made good on their part of the bargain until they've seen things go horribly wrong because if their tardiness and stupidity.
On my most recent visit to Forbidden Planet, I picked up the soundtrack to (deep breath) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society - the movie based on the TV series based on the movie based on the manga. It's the usual Yoko Kanno stuff - eclectic, occasionally beautiful, and featuring a goodly amount of vocals by Russian singer Origa. It's bound to make its way onto my MP3 player... Which I must remember to charge before the weekend.
Orbital Manga was also graced with my presence on that same day... Plenty there that I'd like to snap up, but there's always the question of whether I'd get better prices elsewhere. It's a cool shop, and good to know about, even if their stock can be a little inconsistent. I took note of a few prices, have compared them to eBay, and will compare them to the stands at Memorabilia before deciding what to buy, when, and from whom. Strategy, that's the key.
This evening, for no obvious reason, I was getting obscure error messages when I tried to connect to my website's FTP to update some content... Having shut down and restarted (as opposed to plain old restarting) it seems to be back to normal, and connecting merrily. I really hate PCs sometimes. I may just give in and buy a Mac next time. It's not as if I play games anymore...
News? Not a great deal. My collection of TF movie toys is almost complete:
Leader
Megatron
Brawl
Voyager
Ratchet
Ironhide
Starscream
Thundercracker
Rescue Ratchet
Deluxe
2008 Bumblebee
Scorponok
Wreckage
Barricade
Bonecrusher
Arcee
Longarm
Dropkick
I also nabbed the movie Robot Heroes - the only time I've seen them, and I grabbed almost everything on the shelf - because they're rather sweet. There's something very odd about seeing Frenzy with a mouth molded into a cheeky grin but, somehow, it works.
And the upcoming new stuff (dubbed "Allspark Power", and largely comprised of repaints), for the most part, isn't lighting my candle. This is probably a good thing, as I'm pretty much out of space (again). I've added paintwork to most of the movie figures I've picked up because the Hasbro paintjobs are generally inadequate.
In many ways, this weekend's trip to Memorabilia isn't so much about going to the show and buying loads of stuff (though that's almost inevitable - I don't think there's been a single Memorabilia that I've left empty-handed, even though I have previously managed to spend far less than my budget), as much as it is getting away from home and larking about at the weekend... Which I should do more often, if only by doing touristy crap around town. I'm sure I promised myself I'd to that around this time last year...
I've been off work these last two days - two out of the three holiday days I have yet remaining - and have managed to arrange a visit to the dentist for a routine checkup next week, but very little else. I've woken up both days and said to myself "I will sit down and turn my extensive notes on that story of mine into a proper short story" and "I will sit down and work on my little fairy tale story" and done absolutely bugger all. I've read some more... getting about halfway through the second book of Stephen Donaldson's first Chronicles of Thomas Covenant, and it's quite a fascinating read. I decided to look it up on Wikipedia, and discovered a whole new angle on it that I hadn't considered, which certainly threw a new light on parts I've read recently, and lead me to go back and skim through the first couple of chapters of the first book.
Recently, I've been to see the computer generated movie based on the legends of Beowulf and I must say the story in the movie is far more interesting and coherent than the stories it is based upon. My only real quibble (apart from the usual not-quite-human movement of the CG faces) was that the animation of the horses in the movie was terrible - roughly videogame standard. While the movement of the human characters was clearly the result of some seriously high-end motion capture, the horses were not... That kind of thing really shows up, too. It's quite a gory film, but true to the legends in that respect. One amusing point is that Beowulf takes the first opportunity to strip naked (to fight Grendel as his equal), and then the movie uses an increasingly unlikely stream of things to obscure certain bodyparts. Some of it almost had me laughing out loud. I also got the impression it was made with IMAX 3D in mind, because so much of it took full advantage of the system to throw things right at the audience. I'm hoping to see it in a 'normal' cinema, just to see how it compares...
Work is currently rather tiresome, with the same old people making the same old mistakes. It's getting all the more depressing that, in spite of all the progress, we're still scuppered by the same incompetence and, in spite of Production moving heaven and earth to accommodate the demands of the Salespeople, they haven't made good on their part of the bargain until they've seen things go horribly wrong because if their tardiness and stupidity.
On my most recent visit to Forbidden Planet, I picked up the soundtrack to (deep breath) Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society - the movie based on the TV series based on the movie based on the manga. It's the usual Yoko Kanno stuff - eclectic, occasionally beautiful, and featuring a goodly amount of vocals by Russian singer Origa. It's bound to make its way onto my MP3 player... Which I must remember to charge before the weekend.
Orbital Manga was also graced with my presence on that same day... Plenty there that I'd like to snap up, but there's always the question of whether I'd get better prices elsewhere. It's a cool shop, and good to know about, even if their stock can be a little inconsistent. I took note of a few prices, have compared them to eBay, and will compare them to the stands at Memorabilia before deciding what to buy, when, and from whom. Strategy, that's the key.
Wednesday, 7 November 2007
Miscellany, and general Catching Up
I keep letting this blog slip... Terrible, really... Poor thing must get so lonely.
So:
At the end of last month, my boss popped into London's Forbidden Planet to see Stephen Donaldson and get his latest book (Fatal Revenant, of 'The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant') signed. I invited myself along, to watch her turn into a giggly fangirl. In the end, all she did was gush a little, but even that was fun to watch.
The next day, we bounded off to Milton Keynes for Collectormania and I, personally, found it so disappointing that I've set a dangerous precident... I bought nothing, while she bought lots. Being a Sunday, the CentreMK branch of The Entertainer wasn't open - they being part of the 'Keep Sunday Special' brigade - and even browsing M&S for a new winter jacket yielded no purchases. Why can I never find anything in Small? I did buy a six pack each of A&W's Cream Soda and Root Beer, along with some sweets... but nothing from the show.
I've come up with a detailed outline for a new short story (hurrah!) which should actually be short (my last first attempt at a short story in recent years was quite long... my second topped 30,000 words, and my third has been on indefinite hold for the last three years or so having topped 30K while still mostly in note form). I'm pretty certain this one is going to be the first in my secondary cycle... which may end up being finished first. It certainly felt good to come up with such a complete concept, and it all happened while I was half asleep in bed.
Work has been bonkers. Nothing new there, but the sheer scale of staff turnover lately has been staggering. Two editors have resigned in the last month... One moving on to bigger and better things, the other taking a well-earned break and considering her options in this big, wide world. There is more... but I'm too tired to go into it right now.
In other news, there was a disturbing rumour circulating at work this morning... later confirmed as more than mere rumour... My cyberstalker of old apparently made a pass at one of our gay salesmen at a leaving do for one of our Copy Controllers a couple of years back. Scary...
On a similarly weird note, I was rooting around in my drawers at home the other night, and came across a printout of an email exchange I had with a female colleague about three years ago (symptomatic of the rumours that circulated about me at the time), and an apologetic letter from her mother which accompanied the return of a book I loaned her that she lost. I giggled over both briefly, then threw them away...
So:
At the end of last month, my boss popped into London's Forbidden Planet to see Stephen Donaldson and get his latest book (Fatal Revenant, of 'The Last Chronicles of Thomas Covenant') signed. I invited myself along, to watch her turn into a giggly fangirl. In the end, all she did was gush a little, but even that was fun to watch.
The next day, we bounded off to Milton Keynes for Collectormania and I, personally, found it so disappointing that I've set a dangerous precident... I bought nothing, while she bought lots. Being a Sunday, the CentreMK branch of The Entertainer wasn't open - they being part of the 'Keep Sunday Special' brigade - and even browsing M&S for a new winter jacket yielded no purchases. Why can I never find anything in Small? I did buy a six pack each of A&W's Cream Soda and Root Beer, along with some sweets... but nothing from the show.
I've come up with a detailed outline for a new short story (hurrah!) which should actually be short (my last first attempt at a short story in recent years was quite long... my second topped 30,000 words, and my third has been on indefinite hold for the last three years or so having topped 30K while still mostly in note form). I'm pretty certain this one is going to be the first in my secondary cycle... which may end up being finished first. It certainly felt good to come up with such a complete concept, and it all happened while I was half asleep in bed.
Work has been bonkers. Nothing new there, but the sheer scale of staff turnover lately has been staggering. Two editors have resigned in the last month... One moving on to bigger and better things, the other taking a well-earned break and considering her options in this big, wide world. There is more... but I'm too tired to go into it right now.
In other news, there was a disturbing rumour circulating at work this morning... later confirmed as more than mere rumour... My cyberstalker of old apparently made a pass at one of our gay salesmen at a leaving do for one of our Copy Controllers a couple of years back. Scary...
On a similarly weird note, I was rooting around in my drawers at home the other night, and came across a printout of an email exchange I had with a female colleague about three years ago (symptomatic of the rumours that circulated about me at the time), and an apologetic letter from her mother which accompanied the return of a book I loaned her that she lost. I giggled over both briefly, then threw them away...
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