JINZONINGEN73

Well, I do remember sitting in a theater in 1986, my friend and I (and everyone else) with our jaws dropped, going "Coooooool!" after Spike dropped an S bomb as Unicron managed to suck his ship back in. *wub* But yeah, it wasn't just flung all over haphazardly for shock effect. And there was no cliche' potty humor to make it feel like every other modern kid's movie. ... ... ..."Shrek the Halls"? Hmm... guess I'll go download it, just to see if it makes up at all for that bad 3rd movie lol.

Yeah. Seen, seen, seen. Closing...

Yeesh. Lego should completely scrap both Belville and Technic figures in the place of some new, just-as-customizable-as-minifigs version of taller Lego persons. And just imagine if they did... can you not see the potential with licensed characters? Then again, maybe that's why minifigs still rule... so the owners of licenses don't request the more expensive, more detailed figures that they might want to represent their characters?

Seriously? I'd never have thought that. It's like hearing something funny and going "Loll loll loll!" Thought for sure anyone would just spell it out A-F-O-L. When was the last time you heard an alien abductee say he was take aboard a oofoh?

Pre-bent limbs just confound me to no end.

I'm guessing NO, but I hope at least ONE of the pieces on each figure can be used with Lego. If not, I'll not eat at McDonalds for a month in protest. :-P (I actually mean that lol)

http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=288299 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?i=2853917 Digging the chest cavity. The rest is a little unimpressive though. Is it me, or is the new blaster not as compact as it looked in the first pics? Not sure why I thought they were smaller... I LOVE pohatu's hand clamps. Most useful looking. Disgustingly so. Likewise, the new forearm pieces are awesome... so many things I see them for... and bless my megablocking eyes, but are those forearms also twins? SYMMETRICAL twins? :) Kopaka's nothing to look at... save for a cute silver blade weapon (1 piece is not enough to warrant paying 9 or 10 bucks). His backpack wings are designed well, but meeeeeh. Chirox... NOT feelin' it. Vamprah... not a bad assortment of wing dealies. So far, Pohatu. Winner.

The Wild (aka "Madagascar") (lol) I could drop links on other stuff that I've done a million times before (like http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm and http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...cQ0&refer=home) but I think I'll drop some different ones. Finding Nemo (aka "Pierrot the Clownfish") http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml.../ixnewstop.html Biggest-selling DVD of all time. Unfortunately, the original creator had his books dropped by retailers, for looking like he was copying off Disney! High School Musical (aka "High School Musical") http://www.thedisneyblog.com/tdb/2006/12/w...isney_chan.html >__< Wouldn't happen to be a GIANT robot and have monsters for it to fight, would it? http://www.buzzfocus.com/2007/09/20/dreamw...o-avoid-avatar/ Just have to wait and see...

I was trying to remember where I'd seen something that resembles that packaging... now I remember. Centurious's Crystal of Souls from the old Ghost Rider. http://www.maj.com/gallery/JINZONINGEN73/J...designstudy.jpg

It's infinitely better than attempts at resin casting I've tried, but I'm perplexed by how rough the surface is. Like, are the grooves and holes we're seeing a result of fingerprints from the initial sculpting? Or is it a mix of THAT and a resin-casting beginner's obligatory air bubbles? You're well on the way to something great, but it needs a good deal of refining yet.

This topic has made me DAMN hungry for McDonalds. Put them down if you want... but, to me... ...it's sweet sex, it is. I'll take'em over Burger King's hyper-greasiness or Wendy's cardboard-ness ANY day. Damn it. I'm broke and going to be passing by one today. *sad*

I'll give it a look... Bleh... it's too jumbled. The tank mode is decent enought, but that robot mode is somewhat atrocious. Yikes. There's very little going on in this figure that isn't murder to my eyeballs. http://tfkenkon.com/g/?mode=view&album=Col...ze=1000&start=0 Bleh, pass. I'm also confounded by how Hasbro can never seem to make a small version of a character look the same as a larger one. Granted, just like with Lego robots, the bigger you make them, the design mechanics change based on weight. But still, there's uneccesary cosmetic changes that make me kookoo. Look at that pic... barrel, sides, front, back of tank, gun placement, color. ALL different, with the smaller one looking more realistic. That's why I like more Japan-only kind of stuff. If you like a character, he's going to be fairly consistent from one size to the next. You can easily associate with a character. But Hasbro... :-|

Compared to Disney, I'd say Dreamworks is the lesser of the media-whores. You can NOT go out shopping and not see something Disney, even if it's characters they haven't had in a feature for 5 years! Same with most of your other arguments, where Disney's gone before to the highest degree. And once again, Disney are the kings of ripping other people's intellectual properties off and getting away with it by crushing the competition with their high-priced lawyers. Buuuuut anyway, I agree that over-saturation with promoting characters is annoying. I LOVED the first Shrek movie... but didn't see it at first. Same with How the Grinch Stole Christmas. WHY? Because I'd be there on my drive to work, hearing incessant advertising on the radio. I'd be at work, and all the electronics flyers had their freaking faces plastered on every page and on every monitor in the ads. THEN you go home and it's all over the tv... ugh. It's just too much. Truthfully, I saw Shrek and Grinch (months later) ONLY because my wife dl'ed them because they were "new" movies lol. To this day, I know people who haven't seen one or the other for the same reason I almost didn't. Disney will do media blitzes for CRAP movies, and people get suckered into viewing them. Inevitably, this makes it so other movie companies have to jack up the advertising even further just to get a chance to be seen inside the tidal wave of Disney's advertising budget. Also, you have to realize the costs associated in making films like these... they have to pull out the stops on advertising or heads are gonna' roll when the numbers don't come back to validate making any more. Shrek 2 was a decent sequel to the first (as in, it didn't take the franchise down a notch like in a Ghostbusters 2 kind of way). The third did pretty much blow... seemed too... I dunno. Something felt bland and wrong about it. The physical landscapes didn't feel quite on par with the first two, being maybe TOO realistic. And the whole absent-minded wizard thing is the cliche' junk you'd get in any crappy cartoon... something / someone REALLY powerful, but faulty. **yawn** Now, that's not to say a 4th, 5th and 6th movie would also blow... but 3 sure did. (And yet, still better than most movies that come out any given year).

I find an adequate amount of humor that a BZ staffer drops a link which has female nipples visible directly on the first page. Naughty santa girl FTW! :-D EDIT: Ah, the images on that page randomize every time you refresh it. Still, funny.

*sigh* Months later and still haven't seen a movie figure I liked enough to buy. I WASN'T going to get the Real Gear watch Meantime after finding out they didn't make him functional (like every Transformers watch that came before him!)... and by the time I found Jin Saotome's tutorial on customizing a working watch over him, the ONE Walmart had was gone. (Jin's custom versions): http://www.angelfire.com/mech/jinsaotome/J...s/Meantime.html (Jin's Tutorial): http://tformers.com/ig.php?mode=album&albu...ize=800&start=0 Bleh. These movie figures are just not doin' it for me.

But he's actually (eventually) admitted it lol. Snagging a lick here and there is "normal", but yeesh... and then the insult of having to get sued before you give credit? Bleargh. Robert Plant's later stuff was fun to listen to at the time. Though admittedly, I can't for some reason even attempt to listen to Now and Zen these days. It's too... I dunno. It's aged badly somehow.

As I remember the Kenner Star Wars figures from the 80's... didn't Snowtroopers come with long guns anyway? Oh, oh, wait... you bought the REBEL base. (Was looking at your signature pic and got confused) :-D What did France get? Mine (US) had black radar dish with gold bordered bat.

Oh man, it was so much more than a few licks though... it's like almost ALL of "Stairway"! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HjPAEPFaxoM X-D http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ogTFdlbup24 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsAcXFb2DbM :-D

And me? HELL yes. lol See, I cherish the tribal origins Bionicle had, but being robot-like, I knew the line would likely deviate into hi-tech at some point. And, had the character designs, plastic quality, story and new part designs not been horrendously suckass, there would technically be nothing wrong at all with the line going all SWAT team NAVY Seal. Drastic changes to anything is good, if it's done well. But Bionicle has primarily been executed in a halfass manner for a good while now. Drastic redirection is accentuated when all the detrimental qualities elsewhere are paired with it. Was it really like that? I noticed Throwbots and Roboriders, along with their action-figurey joints... but it wasn't until seeing the tribal mask-wearing figures that I bothered to buy anything of Lego. To me, the Throwbots were a bunch of freaks with perhaps the most horrendous proportions and set designs one could imagine. I think one guy's weapon was a piece of technic panel fairing! It wasn't until Bionicle that elements popped up that could convince me there were actually people thoughtfully designing things, both due to hand weapon and mask sculpting. The Throwbots and Roboriders all had pretty much the same damn heads!

Apparently so! That truth was driven hard today in Walmart. I was wondering how I could get to the Lego section, when something ripped through my pants. Seems evolution has grown me a tail out of necessity. One running pole vault later with this new third leg and I'd cleared the Megablocks section, landing in front of a bunch of Creator buckets. "Nature will find a way". ... ... ...wait, new third leg? Ew, forget it.

Be reasonable. How would a Megablock come in contact with my eye? I mean, I HAVE to get close to them on my way to the Lego section, but just being in too near a proximity saps my strength, leaving me to collapse on the floor long before I get up to them. (Yay for natural defense mechanisms!)

Yeah, things are alot better these days in the mask department. They more resemble the original masks, not the crappy Nuva ones... and that's a DAMN good thing. It's still unfortunate to be forced into mocing something in a certain color because a certain part ONLY comes in 1 to 2 colors. Just think (those of you old enough to remember) how dreadfully BORING 2001 would've been if the Miru and some of the other kickass masks had only come in 1 to 2 colors. *shudder*

Nah, sorry if it sounded like that. I was just thinking out loud of something not even related to you. :-| (Actually, was watching a video on the subject a few minutes before seeing your posts and the connections just clicked). :-P

Well now... looks like I've been suckered. Here's what my non-US friends are saying about "Sicko". My my my... countless posts like these, (as well as StarWars4J's "corrective PMs") all say the same thing. Michael Moore's reeling in suckers again, like he does in all his movies. I R M feeling the stupid. :-| More... With that said HE DOES have a point about how useless and stupid the health care system is in this country. But the fact of the matter is that when you have 300+ million people in the country (not just 30 million), it is virtually impossible to copy the European (country by country) system of operations. He leaves out a lot of shit, for example that People in paris enjoy a quality of life not enjoyed by people living in the provinces... also that European countries divide their ethnic populations away from the main groups (so minorities never get to integrate into society) whereas in the United States people are forced to integrate... which leads to all sorts of problems (including a much wider array of health problems that one system cannot possibly deal with.)

Thanks to the world of wifi internet and illegal movie streaming sites: The Messengers- Decent horror flick. It has the staple "fake-out" scenes, but wasn't too annoying. I thought that it wasn't made very clear WHY the chick was constantly being attacked when the guy they really wanted was right there the whole damn time. She didn't even have a "counterpart" in the past for them to be pissed about. (???) 28 Weeks Later- Ok follow-up to the first zombie flick. At the same time I liked it though, the ending was PAINFULLY OBVIOUS long before the end. I found it interesting that there wasn't all THAT much gore going on (for a zombie movie), but the mood of the movie was still scary. LOVED the "serious" approach regarding the Americans reacting if such a thing were to take place. It felt about right. I Think I Love My Wife- Normally I hate "stupid husband cheating on his wife" movies, as everything bad that happens to the main characters, I feel they deserve. What made this one different is that it didn't just JUMP into him being a filthy scumbag... it explained WHY he had thoughts of infidelity. (Not that it justifies it, but at least it wasn't him being vulgar and immoral at the drop of a hat). Definitely a decent movie. 1408- Another ok horror movie. Thought I'd hate it, but it too was decent, especially for a Stephen King movie, which usually means insta-suck. The special effects were a bit overboard (WAY OVERBOARD?) (literally! lol) yet the subtle moments of scariness helped buffer that. Maybe it's just me... I like it when "ghosts" are depicted as they are... whispy things barely keeping cohesion, not CGI-cutouts made to look like they were edited off of modern digital cameras TRYING to look "grainy" and old. Still, could've been worse. I found the ending charming, and it actually took me a sec to realize how everything went down. Worth a watch. Sicko- It's a Michael Moore film, so therefore I'm going to hate it. Uh oh... I didn't. Unlike Bowling for Columbine where Mr. Moore used deceptive editing and flat out LIES to push his liberal agenda, sadly, he doesn't even need to on this particular issue. The US health care system is corrupt. It just is. And he drove the point home RATHER well, again by visiting Canada lol. But he also visited France, Cuba and the UK. Yeah, he did his normal, "I'm yelling at people who can't hear me or think I might be a psycho" thing, he did his normal "acting stupid" thing, but it was kept to a minimum this time. It put me at a loss, having to applaud a movie of his, but the movie was not only good because it's an issue that noone could foul up, but I feel he did a good job of not only describing the problems, but pointing out that America can still be America with a federal health care system (as well as producing audio tape of a meeting with President Nixon that shows the EXACT MOMENT in time where everything went evil and wrong to begin with). Likewise, he drove home the very important observation that the US media runs a conspiracy to tell it's citizens that France, Cuba and the UK SUCK... when they're actually decent places with (GASP!) nice humans residing in them. If you're conservative and or hate Michael Moore, you'd still be intellectually dishonest and ignorant to not give this movie a chance. I did, and it scares me that I almost didn't. EDIT: Wuh-oh, not so fast! (More beneath the next poster's post). Too bad they STOLE storyboards STRAIGHT out of Akira. Watch the motorcycle attack scene in Batman, then watch the opening biker fight in Akira. It almost made me turn it off it was so blatant. Ironically, The Lion King was ALSO a brazen ripoff of ANOTHER anime!!! http://www.kimbawlion.com/rant2.htm Shows how pathetically uncreative animation companies in the USA are, doesn't it? I hate how every time I discuss how evil fluoride really is, little brats spit those quotes out to shout me down lol. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=43...earch&plindex=4 http://blogs.laweekly.com/judith_lewis/la-...ought-it-was-s/ http://www.sonic.net/kryptox/history/perkins2.htm http://rense.com/general78/fluo.htm Conspiracy theory my butt, it's fact.