Well. Pretty much so.

What I said last week.

I gotta admit, the new Wreck-Gar was a lot different than I expected.

Yesterday's "Garbage in, Garbage out" episode of Transformers: Animated was pretty good.

Weird Al was ok and all, but for me the geeking all had to do with Corey Burton reprising Spike and also the appearance of a very pregnant Carly. His Spike voice is a bit different, but that was almost 2 decades ago so I expected some shift.

I so can't wait for his Shockwave!

And Giga reminded me that I'd been saying there should be a garbage truck bot for a long time.

Great tits enjoying the warmer weather - so far

Alas, here in Cowtown, it has been business as usual the past few days which of course consists of dreary, damp, and rainy.

I even drove through campus and didn't see much on the tit front yesterday.

Now this is some bad crazy fanwank in Iron Man.

Damn!

I never would have caught that.

He's great.

A lot more color in the deco than I initially thought.

I love the white and other detail colors. It really stands out in train mode.

TakaraTomy Henkei Astrotrain is the 2063rd Transformer that I've acquired.

I have to post this to document the count or else I'll regret it later this summer.

I won't even tell you how off my spreadsheets are. It has probably been 18 months since I updated them.

e-Hobby Ghost Starscream - 2036
TakaraTomy 2008 Wonder Festival Arcee - 2037
Galaxy Force Dark Fangwolf Exclusive - 2038
TakaraTomy Fusion Cluster Protoform Movie Convoy - 2039
TakaraTomy Fusion Cluster Protoform Movie Starscream - 2040
Transformers Movie Bumblebee (Stealth Deco) - 2041
e-Hobby Crystal Rodimus - 2042
e-Hobby Twincast and Flip-Sides - 2043 and 2044
Beast Wars Neo Heinlad - 2045
Takara PVC Silver Alloy Convoy (Chase) - 2046
TakaraTomy Hyper Hobby Scanning Bumblebee (magazine exclusive) - 2047
Botcon 2008 Starscream - 2048
Botcon 2008 Optimus Prime - 2049
Botcon 2008 Jazz - 2050
Botcon 2008 Grimlock - 2051
Botcon 2008 Razorclaw - 2052
Botcon 2008 Goldbug - 2053
Botcon 2008 Megatron - 2054
Botcon 2008 Hot Rod - 2055
Botcon 2008 Blurr and Whisper- 2056 and 2057
Botcon 2008 Sideswipe - 2058
Botcon 2008 Rampage - 2059
Botcon 2008 Divebomb - 2060
Botcon 2008 Ricochet - 2061
Crazy Steve Figure Botcon 2008 Exclusive Skywarp Tetrajet - 2062

I think that is it.

And yes. I'm counting my Crazy Steve exclusive.

It is one of the best things I got this year!

If there's one movie you see this year about an alcoholic genius inventor that ends up creating a suit of powered armor and goes about kicking all kinds of ass after he has a crisis of conscience then make sure Iron Man is that movie.

Holy shit!

It was... it was...

It was damn near perfect.

It is quite possibly the most fun and dead on balls awesome comic book to film adaptation that I've ever seen.

In the world of awful films made from comics, this one is a shining gem of how to do it right.

Thank you Jon Favreau.

I knew from the moment I saw the leaked image of Tony Stark in the original thrown together armor I knew there was going to be something special here.

Everything about this film turned out great!

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And if you are saying to yourself "I want to see a fantastic movie that has superheroes in it during the dark era of the 1950's McCarthy hearings" then look no further than The New Frontier, the film adaptation of DC: The New Frontier.

Fantastic!

Nala + the real Time Trapper + some semblance of the original LSH = crapping pants.

It has been a long time since a final word balloon in a frigg'n piece of paper crack made me feel like a kid again.

"...I deserve better than I've been given."

No shit!

Congratulations to Mr. Hooper_X and now Mrs. Hooper_X.

On your wedding day, in the slightly butchered, yet immortal words of Luca Brasi, I tell you... "May your first child be a masculine child. (And still like toy robots when he is 30.)"

1. Have any of you ordered directly from e-Hobby?

2. If so, how the phrock did you do it if you don't read Japanese?!?!?!?!

Just got an email from BBTS that my Henkei Astrotrain is ready to ship.

Ugh!

I so have to finish the last bedroom project! I so want to setup my office/crack room and get this shit out!

Dare I say it... I feel a renewed sense of lame geek vigor now that I'm back from the GRC.

So...

Thanks to WaterMelonEatingBoy for making a surprise visit on Sunday!

It was great to meet fellow bloggers Mr. Terrific, Teresa, and Ramen Junkie. And it is always a pleasure to see The Evil King of Macrocrania.

I got the chance to hang out and drink with the crew from About Heroes. Here's to Dan, Spider-Ben, and EvilOmar! I hope Omar can feel his balls once again.

W and A, while only coming down Saturday, seemed to have a good time too.

Props to Spectroscott and NeoSpark. And I could never forget WoozyGuy's fantastic Casino Night dancing.

JKNotRowling, a total non-TF person, had a very good time losing his virginity. I think that even Brandy had a good time at her GRC deflowing this year!

And Botcon for me would never be the same without Tom, Mike, Greg, and Kristin. If it wasn't for them I doubt I'd ever have gone to another con past 2005.

And of course, thanks to Giga, who now has the personal pleasure of witnessing me constantly saying "Tell me again why I spent $420 on 4 transparent toys that I already own in some other form or color?!?!?!"

And thank you to all those wonderful toy dealers who bought up all the Animated figures at stores around Cincinnati and then marked them up 200-300% then sold them to little walk-in kids who really wanted them. Yes. There is indeed a special place in Hell reserved for you. And I'll open the door when ya get there!

This is what you end up buying when the things on your needs list aren't able to be easily met.

However, the Jacksons weren't exactly staying put in the wallet.

The crap includes:

An Awesome Raydeen PVC
Transformers Visualworks book
E-Hobby Ghost Starscream
2008 Winterfest Arcee Exclusive
The Botcon 2008 Boxed Set
The Botcon 2008 add-on souvenier figures
Silver Alloy Convoy PVC
Bearbricks
Exclusive Crazy Steve Botcon 2008 WTF?!? Tetrajet Skywarp
Galaxy Force Dark Fang Wolf exclusive
Beast Wars Neo Heinlad
E-Hobby Translucent Hot Rod
TF Movie Bumblebee (Stealth Version)
E-Hobby Twincast and Flip-Sides
Takara Exclusive Fusion Cluster Protoform Convoy
Takara Exclusive Fusion Cluster Protoform Starscream
Brave Maximus Weapons kit
Sewing Stars Exclusive Buttons

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I'm home.

And all I can say is I am major tired.

Botcon itself, as usual, was so-so meh.

Everything around Botcon however was utterly fantastic.

You don't go to Botcon for the toys.

You don't go to Botcon for the guests.

You go to Botcon for you are your geek friends being screamingly retarded on pitcher after pitcher after pitcher of Killians!

And... to top it off?

Mister Terrific won 1st place in the diorama contest last night!

More later after I decompress.

Bad crazy day.

Have met up with Mr. Terrific and Teresa. Going to dinner.

I'm only down $330 from the dealer room.

No idea if I'll be able to get anything for anyone. Sorry.

Here's what I snagged so far.

Yeah. I dropped the cash down on the Wonderfest Arcee.

But I got Heinlad!!!

Have I mentioned lines before?

Yeah. There are lines.

And more lines.

Now it wasn't as bad as last year.

However, FP never ever seems to learn a lesson and change the way they do things. The fact that they are all paper-based and not electronic completely makes this laughable.

So much could be solved with a little investment. Oh well.

Thankfully I brought plenty of cash. The cash line at least seemed to move. The add-ons were over $200 with tax. Ugh!

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So far, my only horribly doy moment was realizing that I gave out the wrong area code when I gave out Giga's cell! It is 614 folks! I'm so sorry!

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Let's see... I finally ran into Zeta Convoy late last night with the his gf. Mike too. MrDeuce and the others were driving in from Louisville and got in much later.

It is really good to see those guys. I really only see them once a year but it is worth it.

I also ran into Crazy Steve and chatted briefly. He's still working on those Tetrajets!!!

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Hot Rod is the only toy I really like.

And from what I hear, I seriously doubt that I'll be able to get another set.

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Is this green 2-day old baby poo or guacamole? You make the call.

Worst Mexican food ever!

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I'll try to post some of the stupidity if it occurs.

And all the pics will go to my Flickr Botcon Gallery!

Woohoo!!!

E-Hobby is doing a repaint of Omega Supreme as a the generic Guardian Sentinel!!!

Now this I will buy!!!

So this is it.

I gotta take the Hoont the get boarded, rake up some more magnolia blossoms, clean out the car, and finish packing.

We should be on the road by 1:30 or so.

View Larger Map

I'm so happy this is a quick drive!

If you don't hear from me before... then see ya from the Gayest Robot Convention you can possibly imagine!

So I noticed that the Allspark message board has a post announcing that the Botcon custom class figure turned out to be the retooled Transformers Collectors Club Nightbeat figure.

I guess that's kind of cool.

But...

There's a part of me... the part that pays that extra $40 a year to belong to that mostly useless club... which is kind of angry.

I mean... don't you think you should actually produce the figure for purchase by club members before using it for something like this?

I mean.... yeah... that's great and all for the people that paid to be in the class but I don't know...

When it really comes down to it I just don't give a shit.

I think that part of me that wants to save that $40 a year pretty much knows I will now.

Ah!

It is so nice to begin a vacation on a nice sunny day and just get up without the alarm and not feel like I really have to do anything other than pull my crap together for the con and run a few errands.

And no... I'm not going to work on Project 5 until Tuesday at the earliest. I'm in no mood to ruin a generally good mood heading into Botcon by getting covered in dust for hours.

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I saw that the TF SDCC exclusive this year will be another repaint of the Classics Prime mold, this time as the done-to-death Nemesis Prime deco.

So we get the same general idea done at Botcon and then again, only blacker, for SDCC.

Definitely time to retire the mold. I can accept the original, the Magnus, and even the Botcon repaint. And of course, the Henkei one isn't really for the American audience. But 5 of the same thing is 1 too much!

Speaking of the mold, the custom Ultra Magnus armor to Classics Magnus is really nice.

It still amazes me people will bitch about it and still go on and on about the use of a white Prime.

Be happy somebody is making something that will alter the figure... and selling it!

If you aren't going to kitbash and customize the shit out of it yourself then quit yer bitch'n!

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Ugh! My last day of work before what I guess you could say amounts to my only vacation this year.

It is kind of sad when Botcon becomes your vacation, as it has the past 2 or so years now.

I miss my once or twice yearly jaunts to San Francisco that used to happen quite a lot prior to 2004.

Hmmm... San Francisco or Cincinnati, OH? San Francisco or Providence, RI? San Francisco or Lexington, KY? San Francisco or Podunk Suburb Of Dallas, TX?

Yeah. Nothing quite compares to my favoritest city in 'Murica.

I've sent out emails to everyone that I knew was going to be there. Hopefully ya got 'em.

Note: I am not the keeper of the phone. I don't own one nor do I plan to in any capacity for a long time. That's Giga's number!

In other news, I'm actually super excited about something now that is Con-related.

I can't wait to get my hands on my super rare Botcon 2008 exclusive Tetrajet and exclusive poem "I Only Feel Alive at Botcon (and that is why I want to die)" figure and ancillary item. (Perhaps he'll do a personal reading too!)

Man... talk about quite possibly the single best custom tshirt caption that sickly captures my general feelings of toy collecting and GRC conventioneering.

Leave it to Esteban Loco to sum it up perfectly for me.

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What's really sad is what a bad turn I've taken from Botcon 2006, and even Botcon 2007 due to the events of the last 6-8 months.

Injuring my back really but me into a downward spiral overall health-wise, not to mention mentally.

I looked back at Botcon 2006 pictures and I've put on over 50lbs since then.

Not good.

Not good at all.

I've got to get back to my gym routine and get my back solid and strong or else I'm going to be even more miserable in my 40s.

Sucks.

And since I gave all my fat clothes to Goodwill in 2005 I really don't have anything that fits right any more.

I am definitely the poster child for how 6 months of no exercise and bad diet can undo years of hard work.

Still... even 50 lbs heavier... I'm a lot lighter than some of those Botcon geeks.

And I smell better too!

Come and and smell me. I dare you.

Ok. I've emailed our cell phone # out.

I'm suffering from frazzled brain old age due to the toy show and the house work and I think I got every body.

I know I lost Mr. Terrific's email but hopefully mine'll get forwarded like I requested.

Hmmm.... I gotta go home and rake up decaying magnolia leaves before I start spackling.

Joy!

So we set up at Vets Memorial again to do the "toy and comic dealer" thing even though we really are "toy collectors trying to get rid of shit".

Nothing in our booth was new but was purely the stuff from the same bins we returned with last time.

I made one kid extremely happy with a boatload of Energon toys and gave away a few Tiny Tin Spychangers.

I'm always happy when kids get really excited about TFs.

There's some miscellaneous pics at my Flickr set.

I only bought Micronauts and an old Colonial Viper from the 70s. More on that later.

The real news, and something I'll be depressed about (for no logical reason) is that my comics all sold.

Of course, they sold for for 5 cents for every dollar spent on them over the past 30 years... but 95% or more of them are out of my my basement, my garage, and my life.

The 90s and 00s stuff didn't bother me... it was the stuff from my childhood that hurts.

More later. I'm tired.