Official TF club toys now available...

Just got this email from the TF club...


"To order Astrotrain or Airazor, please follow the directions below as we will
NOT take phone orders until Thursday. Emailed orders will take priority. We
will start processing and making callbacks today from our list of emails. We
will get to you in the order the emails were received. Again, we will NOT take
any calls on these items until Thursday.

Please send an email to angie@mastercollector.com with the following
information:

If you need to have someone call you back, just include your phone number and
name. If you have a credit card on file (which most of you do) please give us
the last 4 numbers of the credit card and expiration date, verify your shipping
address in case it is different from your mailing address, make sure you put
your first and last (not your screen name) name and daytime phone number on your
request.

Then tell us what you want to pre-order. These two pieces are currently
scheduled to arrive here in late January.

We are limiting the quantities you can order to two of each (two Astrotrains,
two Airazors) until December 11, to give all members a chance to order what they
want. Some people are not online and they will not see the announcement until
they get their newsletter. There are only 2,000 pieces of each item.

You must be a member to order these items. If someone is not a member, they can
join at the same time.

Astrotrain is $87 +shipping, Airazor is $42 +shipping. Shipping is $7 domestic
for the first item and $1 for each additional item. Foreign shipping will vary
by country. If you are placing a foreign order, we will calculate the airmail
cost and add it to your order.

Example order: if you are domestic and order one Astrotrain and one Airazor the
total cost will be $137.

Also, if you are a foreign member and need a call back, we will call you though
the time of day might be very late or very early.

We have put these rules in place to make this process as easy, simple and fair
as possible. Please follow them.

In case you are wondering why we are not taking orders online: the programmers
are working on a pre-order module for the store but it is not finished. Also it
is not a good idea to test new code with such an overwhelming amount of
processing. We would prefer to test it in a simpler environment to ensure there
is not another Nemesis Prime problem.

Thanks for your support! If you have a question please put it in the Ask Brian
area in the members forum and I will answer it. Angie and the other support
staff will be a bit busy.

Brian"

---

I haven't seen the Airrazor toy yet... hope it's cool! :)

- Thunder

TransMasters Magazine Issue #3--Finally done

Well, fellow Transfans, here is Issue 3, short as it is.
Work's been keeping me VERY busy. So here it goes:

TransMasters Magazine Issue 3

Yes, I know, on Geocities again? Ah well that's how it is for now.
This issue includes:
--Big Beast Wars KO-Korner
--More Cheap Wal-Mart Video Reviews
--Four more parts of the Cybertron Story (Which I hope to wrap up in the next issue of the Comic)
--And... Big Suprize here...Trans Formers: Balance Of Power has Returned!!! Yea.
Thanks. Hopefully I can get more time in the future. I really want to do some work on the new Classics Line...I'll wait to judge the new Movie toys until I see them all.

Comic Review...

Transformers Stormbringer #4

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Don Figueroa
(Covers by Don Figueroa)

Synopsis: Thunderwing returns to Cybertron while the Autobots prepare for his arrival. In orbit, the Predacons prepare to bombard the planet as per Megatron's orders. Thunderwing experiences flashes of memory before landing on the surface and unleashing his raw power. The Autobots employ hit and run tactics against him to no avail. Jetfire deduces that if they can get Thunderwing to expend enough power he might run out of steam. The Decepticons in orbit launch two assault teams to try and aide the Autobots before they are required to nuke the planet. Optimus has his warriors re-program the Centurion droids and have them attack Thunderwing as well. Thunderwing is slowed down until he converts to a new secondary form that is more armored. The Decepticons decide to pull out and it's up to Optimus Prime to finish off the Pretender with his own firepower. Thunderwing runs out of power as predicted and goes immobile. The Decepticons call off their attack and leave while Optimus wonders what more damage Thunderwing may have caused wherever he went. Later on, Jetfire finds a trail leading to Earth and Optimus decides to head there immediately.

Comments: Someone else mentioned that this story didn't really need to be it's own mini-series--that could've fit the regular series just fine as a storyline (although IDW's way of doing things seems to be that every storyline is a mini anyway). At any rate, I agree this story didn't really need to be hyped up as a big event because it really wasn't. However, it does fit the main IDW continuity very well, revealing another piece of the puzzle. I enjoyed Stormbringer overall, both as a story and the art as well. While it wasn't a big epic, it wasn't the letdown that I felt Beast Wars and Hearts of Steel were. I felt something was accomplished with this tale and appreciate that.

This issue: Highly Recommeded.

Series overall: Recommended.

Comic Review...

Transformers Spotlight #2
Nightbeat


Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: MD Bright
(Covers by MD Bright, James Raiz and Nick Roche)

Synopsis: One of Nightbeat's contacts tells him he's found part of a log to the long lost original Ark. Nightbeat is immediately interested but his contact dies when he arrives at his ship to get the log. The log is gone so Nightbeat traces his path back to Gorlam Prime--where the log was found. He finds a people slowly evolving from organic to mechanical and upon further investigation, finds a deep tunnel below the surface. There, he finds an interdimensional hole in the ground. The Sports Car Patrol show up then and give chase, subduing him and bringing him back to the beings in the portal. Nightbeat is given some sort of brain implant and then released, apparently unable to remember the whole incident. Later, Optimus Prime contacts him and tells him he's needed on Earth.

Comments: Not a lot happens really but I liked this issue anyway. Nightbeat is very much in character with Furman's old Marvel Universe depiction (yay!) The story poses many interesting questions, giving us a better look at this world without actually telling us anything. The original Ark was lost millennia ago but apparently didn't crash on Earth... its insinuated it may have crashed on Gorlam Prime and influenced that world's evolution. But where did this interdimensional portal come from? And what do these beings want with Nightbeat and the Transformers? Sooner or later we'll find out, I suspect and I look forward to the answer (may it be worth the wait).
MD Bright was brought back to TF comics by Tim Finn's suggestion IDW track him down (according to Tim). His art is more blocky then some of the recent artists but I like his style and it works well with this story. I also liked his cover art.
(This comic is a special Botcon exclusive edition of the TF Spotlight: Nightbeat and comes with all the variant covers in one edition. A great value for that reason alone).

Highly recommended.

Comic Review...

Transformers: Evolutions #4
Hearts of Steel, part four

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Guido Guidi
(covers by Guido Guidi)

Synopsis: The US army tries futilely to stop the Decepticon Astrotrain as it roars through their blockade with ease. Elsewhere, Muldoon, Clemens and the others arrive on a train at some station somewhere and encounter Bumblebee, the other Autobots and John Henry. All join forces and continue in pursuit of the Decepticons. As they close in, Starscream launches Scourge (a blimp) and has him bombard them from the air. Scourge is shot down finally but not before Starscream attacks again, this time bombing the Autobots and their allies, trapping several in a tunnel. Bumblebee and John Henry pursue them solo. They get around the Decepticons and hit the track switch, sending the Decepticons and their allies plummeting helplessly into a canyon beyond. Epilogue: The good humans get rescued and the Autobots return to their slumber.

Comments: A decent end to a decent story. I was bit surprised by the abrupt ending of the story. "That was it?" was my thought upon reading it. It also didn't answer all the questions either. Shockwave (a boat) was unaccounted for and what happened to those Decepticons in earlier issues that appeared to be planes? Surely they all didn't go down with the train so why are the Autobots so confident in the end? Or was there a plan to possibly do a sequel? I was also disappointed we never got to see the cannon Megatron make an appearance in the story--he looked cool but I guess he was just something they designed for fun rather then for the story. Oh well... I wish this story had gone another issue and given us a little more action after so much build-up.

This issue: Mildly recommended.

Series as a whole: Pass (unless you're really a hardcore fan and must own it)

Comic Review...

Transformers Timelines
Dawn of Futures Past

Writer: Forest Lee and Peter Sinclair
Artist: Dan Khanna, Alex Milne and Marcelo Matere


Synopsis: Tigatron and another Maximal pursue some Predacons who are after the Golden Disk--an relic of great importance of Maximal High Command. Tigatron's partner is injured, leaving him alone to pursue their enemies. Elsewhere, Megatron holds the disk and plans to use it for his grand designs. Dinobot wants to stay and fight but Megatron tells him his plan is more important. They leave. Elsewhere, a mysterious Predacon tells Laserbeak and Buzzsaw to make certain Megatron accomplishes his ultimate goal but to remain hidden at all cost. Megatron and co. get on their new ship, the Darksyde, leaving Tigatron to find a nearby vessel and commandeer it. Fortunately its pilot, Airrazor, is okay with a fight and happy to help. The Maximals order the Axalon and its crew to pursue the Darksyde as well and they do, despite Optimus' concerns over their cargo (i.e. Protoform X). A big space battle ensues, with Lasorbeak/Buzzsaw almost destroying the Axalon before Tigatron/Airrazor come along and stop them. As Airrazor/Tigatron's ship is about to destroy itself from the battle damage, Rhinox uses some kind of remote spark transfer thingy to beam their sparks into two blank protoforms. The Axalon then gives chase to the Darksyde and both jump into a transwarp portal. Epilogue: some time later, mysterious figures muse over the ultimate fate of the Golden Disk, Megatron and the others fates. It is revealed these are in fact the Predacons of the G1 era! Divebomb tells Razorclaw now that he has returned, it is time he lead the Predacons to ultimate victory over the Maximals!

Comments: I usually hate Forest Lee's mini-comics in the TF club newsletter. Imagine my surprise when this story came out readable and even decent. I'm not sure if this is because of Sinclair's involvement, much editing or just the fact that with enough space even Lee can do something different storywise. I give them credit for not referring to most of the famous BW toys pre-show names, thus getting around the sticky issue of what they may have been (or having to go through legal and finding usable names). Obviously, Rattrap's pre-show name started with an "R" as this is what Optimus starts to say before he's conveniently interrupted (and the first place I really noticed the absence of proper names). The characters all sounded correct--like I would imagine the show characters speaking (something far too few writers pay attention to in the comics). I do wonder about Megatron's battle armor. I know it was to help make symmetry between what we see in Beast Wars, part one and this toy form but I really think a bunch of robots wearing battle armor is redundant when they can just be built with weapons inside them. One final comment on the writing: too many instances of long, rambling sentences with no commas in them that come across feeling like info dumps instead of dialogue.
As to the art... well, its okay. I noticed Rattrap's head design changes twice throughout the issue--from the terrible looking toy head (part of the BC set) to the more familiar BW show head back to the toy head again (look how many people drew this issue, though, and such mistakes are inevitable). A few frames suffered from being unintelligible in terms of what the hell was happening (common to fan comics and, it seems, Botcon comics). The art generally doesn't stand up to IDW's wonderful artwork.
I loved the appearance of the Predacons at the end of the comic and hope that this is not the start of some new and long storyline but just a throw away thing. (Incidentally, there were fan made BW Predacons at the convention for the story--I got pics!)
A decent effort, it does it's job as convention promotional item...

Mildly recommended.

"The circle is complete."

My pics are now up.

http://s114.photobucket.com/albums/n245/tkthunder/

I took over 200 pics but only posted the more interesting stuff... I didn't bother rehashing the toy pics because I figure all the sites out there already did that anyway.

t.k.

Botcon 06 report!

Find it here:

http://www.karmicsalt.com/bc06report.html

A bit long winded...not for those who just want the straight-up facts (I like to talk about everything I
did so I can remember it years later).

My pics aren't up yet but will be soon and I'll post when they are.

Comic Capsule Review...

(There's been so many comics coming out lately and not enough time in the day so I'm going to do three mini reviews here and now to catch up.)


Transformers: Evolutions #3
Hearts of Steel, part three

Writer: Chuck Dixon
Artist: Antonio Vazquez and Luis Czerniawski
(covers by Guido Guidi)

Synopsis: A human leads a caravan into the middle of the desert and meets with Starscream. He wants to make a deal with the Decepticons. Elsewhere, Ravage tracks down Muldoon and attacks him at his refuge. Clemens helps to defeat it and Ravage retreats for the time being. The Decepticons inadvertantly learn of the Autobots resurrection from their new human allies while Bumblebee tells John Henry he must leave to rejoin his fellow Autobots and take the fight to the Decepticons. Elsewhere, the army finds the Decepticon base too late to do anything to stop them, as they have already left. Muldoon figures they're headed for New York and says they must stop them. Bumblebee leads a train along with John Henry and his friends in pursuit of the Decepticons.

Comments: The story continues and it is still interesting. Unfortunately this is issue three of four and we still haven't gotten to an actual confrontation between the two sides--one of those annoying nuances of comics nowadays. Still, the story is moderately interesting and it's nice to see someone other then Furman doing a TF story for a change. The art also continues to be good.

Recommended.





***


Transformers Stormbringer #3

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Don Figueroa

(covers by Don Figueroa)

Synopsis: Thunderwing attacks Nebulos, inflicting mass carnage and the Decepticons try futilely to stop him. When its clear they can do nothing, Darkwing and Dreadwing make their escape. On Cybertron, Bludgeon crates his Pretender shell but bonds with it too soon and goes mad. The other Decepticons present are attacked by Optimus Prime, Springer and his Wreckers--and taken out. Elsewhere, Razorclaw tells Megatron that Thunderwing is back and Megatron orders him to do whatever is necessary to eliminate this new threat. On Cybertron, the Autobots detect Thunderwing returning to the base.


Comments: Bludgeon is defeated to make room for the battle against Thunderwing in the final part. Not a bad issue--a lot of action and it seems more clear where Furman is taking this new TF continuity. Excellent art as always (and I actually got the cover I wanted for once! Hooray!)

Recommended.



***


Transformers Spotlight #1
Shockwave

Writer: Simon Furman
Artist: Nick Roche
(Covers by Nick Roche and James Raiz)

Synopsis: In the past, Shockwave foresees the enviromental disaster coming to Cybertron and sets about seeding other worlds with energon stores. Some time later, he goes to a primitive world (Earth) and starts his plan by stabilizing the Energon available there. The Dynobots have followed him, however, intent on revenge for a past battle. They assume organic dinosaur forms and take out his ship. On the surface they face off and Shockwave easily defeats them. As he is about to leave, he falls victim to Grimlock's back up plan--a bombardment from the Dynobots ship that blows open a nearby volcano and takes him out. Centuries later, two human archeologists find his hand sticking out of the ground (indicating that he is most certainly buried but not totally destroyed).

Comments: Possibly the best IDW TF comic done so far in terms of story. It's all in this one issue, a complete story and focus on a character. No multiple parts, no cliffhangers--one issue and it works well, accomplishing what it set out to do (spotlight Shockwave). I wish we could see more of this type of thing in a mainstream comic series (but IDW seems to prefer one-offs and mini-series to tell it's overall story instead of steady ongoing series).

I also think the artwork was fantastic--I knew Nick Roche ten years ago and he was a great artist even then. I'm glad to see he can pull off an entire issue of sequential art and make it work. Not all artists are capable of such a feat (Dan Khanna, for example). Shockwave's antennae are a bit longer/angled then I would do but I think that's intended as a stylistic choice rather then anything else. I hope Nick does many more comics in his career. Way to go, Nick!


Highly recommended.

More Blogger Blues

Well as you are probably aware, we still ended up having more adult related spam junk. Thanks to Tony K. for keeping a close eye on this. I was shocked because I had turned on the Comment Moderation feature. Coupled with that I should not have had more of these, but since someone seems to be good at faking out my email adddy, I've done a couple more things. One, I've changed the our blog email addy and kept it from being published. If you want it you'll have to email me directly. Second, and I was very reluctant to do this again, I've changed it back to the "members of this blog only". While I was in the process of doing this another spam message arrived with my name on it. This time it did not send out, I hope. It had some kind of military career title but was marked as a draft. I immediately deleted it.

I guess Blogger doesn't think I should have to moderate myself?

Still working on Mag, going to be another very late one. My work is putting way too many hats on an already over taxed neck. Gotta Roll into bed.