Tereglith

I've come back with a few more. -How could I have forgotten Star Wars: The Clone Wars? Because I've made all efforts to blot it out of my memory, is why. Everything about it is just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. WRONG! It makes me want to throttle George Lucas with a chain, like Leia does to Jabba. Ahsoka is possibly the most annoying thing to come on screen since the invention of film. She makes Jar-Jar look positively unobjectionable. It totally screws over two sets of canon, the voice acting is terrible, the plot is incoherent, Rotta is simply disgusting, and someone who is that close to becoming a Dark Lord of the Sith should never utter the words "Get back here, you grubby slug." NEVER! -Anything that Disney has made that is direct-to-video. Yuck. -Batman and Robin. It was in Spanish. On TV. Needless to say, I only watched a brief few minutes of it, but that was enough. -It may not count as a movie, but "Rudolph's Shiny New Year" is pretty bad. It gets unintentionally hilarious at the end, though, when they're talking about "bongs" (the noise the clock is making. Yeah, right. More like what was in the scriptwriter's lap while he was writing)

Holy Toledo! Did you hold up a LEGO armored car to get all those multiples? 25 admiral's daughters? My God! Thanks a million, CopMike, I can use all of those second-prize figures!

"I'm sorry, Coffeebot, what was that again?" THUMP "I can't quite hear you." FWSHING! "VONNE HAS BEEN SIGHTED, DAVE." Dave folded his warhammer hand into a katana with a thought, made a pair of large but shallow cuts in his STEEL assailant's chest, and then kicked the anonymous man squarely in the stomach, sending him flying into the pile of trash leaning against the wall. "Where is she?" he asked, folding the katana back into a hook. "She is headed away from a potential R.A.T. base at 19th and K street. A Ching surveillance bot spotted her and managed to shoot a nano-tracker on her shirt. We now will know wherever she goes within the city." "19th and K, eh? Blast, that's a long way on foot." "I have foreseen this eventuality, Dave. In addition to conversing with you I have also taken over your car's computer system. It has been following us the whole time. I am driving around the corner now, Dave." Sure enough, Dave saw his luxury car, large by city standards, roaring around the corner and into the narrow alley, its single headlight glaring at the street like the eye of an angry cyclops. It stopped right in front of him, and the wrap-around window peeled back, revealing a plush seat. Dave climbed in, and the window instantly closed again. Dave's car "Unless you car to take control of the car, Dave, I will drive us via the most direct route to Vonne's location." Coffeebot's voice now came from the speakers on the inside of the car, rather than Dave's hearing aid. "That's fine, Coffeebot, you can drive," Dave said. Instantly, the car careened forward through the alleyway, narrowly avoiding obstacles and potholes. Within moments, they were on a major road, weaving between the tiny motor-trikes that most residents drove in. A few life-threatening minutes later, they were back in a different alley, careening through different types of trash. Finally, Dave saw two pedestrians in the distance, one a R.A.T. with long brown hair and the other his quarry, Vonne. "You certainly have a unique way of driving, Coffeebot," Dave said. "The probability of a crash never exceeded twenty percent during the trip, Dave." "That's... that's good to know. What is that R.A.T. doing?" "Unknown activity. Her actions seem to indicate the procuring of a weapon from a bel-" The R.A.T. turned around. There was a flash. And then the car exploded. The rollcage of the car, designed to protect the occupant from harm, took the shock rigidly and flew into the air. Dave's hook was instantly a vibro-katana, and he sliced the roll cage in half, lest it hit an electric wire above the street and kill him. He leapt out the top as the two halves fell down into the smoldering wreckage. He twisted and summersolted in the air, using his transforming hand to reposition his center of gravity, and managed to land on his feet in a crouch in front of the inferno that used to be his car, Tommy Gun in hand. There was another flash from the weapon of the distant R.A.T.. Prepared this time, Dave let lose a short burst from his gun with his typical deadly aim. The projectile sent from the R.A.T.'s gun was hit mid-flight by one of his bullets, and it exploded in the alleyway. Using the smoke from this explosion as cover, Dave ran towards the R.A.T. and Vonne, ducking into a side alley just before the smoke cleared. He ran through the network of crawlspaces and between-wall crevasses, Coffeebot giving him directions, until he was just ahead of Vonne and the R.A.T. Walking silently out behind his targets, who were still looking at the spot where he had disappeared, he quietly raised his gun. A single bullet spat out of the muzzle and shattered the R.A.T.'s grenade gun. Both women spun around. "Ladies," Dave said, breathing heavily, his exertions catching up with him. "I believe we have a lot to talk about. If you desire to not have small pellets of lead lodged in your brains, I suggest that you cooperate. A cab will be arriving in a few seconds, and we can calmly sort this out in my office." "Dave-" Coffeebot whispered. "She has another gu-" But it was too late. Kiara had shot the ground at Dave's feet with another explosive, and it fell out from under them. After a brief drop, all three found themselves in the sewer, burning chunks of pavement falling around them. "That didn't go as planned." Kiara said, looking around. "Oh well, no matter." She raised a different gun, pointing it at Dave's head, when a sibilant voice floated out of the darkness to the left. "Why? Why? Why can't they leave me in peacccce?" It seems that if we're all going to meet up, the sewers are the place to do it. Basically anybody who's in the sewers right now can continues this from here. Also, I apologize for the lack of background in the picture of Dave's car. I haven't had much time for MOCing lately.

For a first time viewing, production order of 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3. Don't even watch any clone wars stuff in between. Just get to the big-screen goodness (or badness, as the case may be with Ep. 1. It's got its epic parts, though.) Later on, you can jazz it up a bit - watch the 2D clone wars between 2 and 3 (even though they conflict with the EU canon laid down in the books ), or watch them in chronological order. Also, because of the way the movies are planned out, you can watch it 1,6,2,5,4,3, and watch for the parallelism between these pairs of movies (not recommended until the fourth or fifth viewing). You could also go for the marathon watch, where you sit for fourteen hours and watch all six in order while eating snacks from the Star Wars Cookbook (Yoda Soda - it's delicious [not recommended until you have achieved hardcore nerd status]) As for the EU books, you have to decide which ones you're going to read. There's well over a hundred now, I think. I suggest reading the in-betweequels (those which come between episodes), as they tend to give the most coherent story and fill in gaps, especially any that you can find between Episodes 3 and 4. If you want to read after Episode 6, be warned - the authors torture the poor characters well into their eighties. You may just want to stop at the Ewok song in your mind and leave it at that. In my personal opinion, SW:CW the movie is bad. Really, really bad. As bad as Jake Lloyd multiplied by Jar-Jar to the power of George Lucas's scripts. That bad. And the TV show is worse. Ahsoka is annoying as hell, Rotta is disgusting, the voice acting is horrible, the animation is done on the cheap, and there's no plot to speak of, not to mention that it conflicts with TWO sets of canon. The only reason that it exists is so that George Lucas can get even more money. I wouldn't waste my time on it if I were you.

Goodness, there are certainly a few... -Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. I regret to say that the first time I watched this, it was not the MST3K version. It was the real deal. Worst Christmas Movie ever is a difficult title to select, until you've seen SCCtM. Then it's a no-brainer. -I'll have to go with DunJohn on Happy Feet. Pretty much everything he said about it, I agree with. We were once watching it on a long bus trip for a field trip, and the only way to make it bearable was the way that my friend's heavy metal synchronized with parts of it freakishly well. -Babe: Pig in the City. It's all three of disturbing, wtf, and WHY? -Manos: The Hands of Fate. Happily, I have only seen the MST3K version. However, even with Joel and the Bots riffing it relentlessly, Torgo's thighs were still disturbing, and it was still the most "wtf?" movie I have ever seen in my life. However, I do know why it was made - on a bet! (thank you wikipedia, for that insight) -Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Six words: Jar Jar Binks, Midichlorians, Jake Lloyd. Seriously, they should have just cut out everything except the podrace and the Duel of the Fates. -And, lastly, there is a movie that I can ask "WHY?" for even though it hasn't even been made yet - Shrek Forever After. See? Just the title makes you want to shout "WHYYY?" Captain Kirk style. And then it makes you want to punch somebody in the face.

"That was rather imprudent of you, Dave." "I know, Coffeebot, I know. But it was fun," Dave said, walking through an alley. People skittered away from him into doorways like so many roaches when the light's turned on. "It's been practically all political an economical bullying for the past few decades, which is engaging, but it's not fun in the same visceral way as physical intimidation." "I do not have the capacity to understand this, Dave." "Sure you do! Didn't you have fun when you were crushing that R.A.T. in half against the wall the other day?" "I have not yet experienced emotions, Dave, although I am endeavoring to. However, I have gathered from my psychological readings that pleasure is not something that should be taken when performing violence against others. I think that you have psycho-sadism, Dave." The smile fell off of the old man's face. "I was told that, once, by a different computer. Long ago. Long ago...." "I am sorry that I have caused you sad remembrances, Dave." "No, it's no matter. That's quite behind me now. Almost a century ago." There was a silence. "Any new news, Coffeebot?" "There has been much irregular activity in the sewers, Dave. And there is a new report coming in about Vonne. She has been sighted going into the strip club on the corner of 17th and G street with an unknown female R.A.T. and out of it again with the same R.A.T. and a male one that was identified as Jones, a high-level R.A.T. leader." "Hmm.. this report was from our spy Lahr-shi, the bouncer? I knew he would come in handy some day, even if he's dumb as a post. Well, it looks like we'll just have to wait for another report to find out where they've gone, I don't know enough bout Jones' habits to make a prediction about where they'll go, and that female R.A.T. is an unknown factor. We'll just have to wait it out." "A wise decision, Dave. Are you going to beat up more 'punks' in the street?" "No, I don't want to waste my energy. Maybe I'll step in somewhere for a coffee." "I think that you may have a Caffiene addiction, Dave." "I know that I have a caffiene addiction, Coffeebot. That's why I have you in my office." "I see, Dave." You did fine. You wrote him a bit more... villianous, than I have been, but I put it down to his psycho-sadism (which is his principle problem). It was also in a bit more of a southern dialect, but that's just me being my nitpicky writerly self.

It really depends on what else I'm doing that week, and what inspiration hits me. I'll often spend four hours during an afternoon/evening doing a rough form of an MOC and then spend a couple hours through the rest of the week tweaking it, but that'll use up all of my LEGO-ish creativity for the time being. I average two small to medium-sized MOCs every three weeks that I put a lot of time into getting right.

I think that, out of all of the Ben 10 sets, this one is the best. That said, I still voted "Bad". The price per piece ratio is at the level of DUPLO, and the pieces are far more specialized than Bionicle pieces (which were at least technic-compatible). I will concede that the colors are good, and there are KNEES (Thank God, KNEES AND ELBOWS!), but that doesn't save this set or any of them. I hope that the second wave of Hero factory gets back to Bionicle goodness in a way that these sets don't.

I'm about a third Irish (some from both sides), a quarter Czech, and the rest mixed European heritage. All of this adds up to one thing: PALE

Damn! How quickly things could get out of hand. A few minutes ago Dave had been ready to calmly resolve all that was going on, but now Vonne had left the building and Hukang, always the iconoclast, had made the Oni's primary task finding her, instead of finding the teleporting R.A.T., which would mean a slipshod search in the sewers as more attention was devoted to tracking the wayward recruiter. And of course there was the matter of that false employee that Coffeebot had alerted him to a minute ago by way of the Oni - that was one thing they were good for. Apparently there was an inflitrator in the company, which on any other day would have been a major problem, but now seemed to be the least of his concerns. Dave drained the last of the Frapaucino. "Computer simulations run against newsweb data indicate that the teleportation of the R.A.T. into the building was an isolated incident and does not indicated a widespread use of the technology by R.A.T.s, Dave." "Best news I've heard all day," Dave muttered, shifting through datafiles on the holoscreen. "I'm glad that I have brought you happiness, Dave." "Stuff it, Coffeebot." "Yes, Dave." Why the hell had Japan been adopted as the dominant culture here? It made it so much more difficult to decipher video of the streets. If everyone was an angliophile you wouldn't have all this flashing neon to clutter the... Ah, there. Going into a R.A.T. base, eh? Had Vonne been a turncoat all along? "Coffeebot, do we have any agents in that Arms and Armor shop or near it?" "The last was killed three days ago, Dave." "Blast. Looks like I'll have to go investigate myself, seeing as the whole Ching force is after that R.A.T. and Ichi will be in the sewers a while. Coffeebot, transfer your audio output to my hearing aid." "Yes, Dave," Coffeebot said in Dave's ear. "Where's my Thompson gun? Used to be unique in this town, but I guess I was a trendsetter, now everybody wants artifacts as weapons. Probably don't know a bit of the history behind them... Ah, thanks," Dave said as Coffeebot's arm handed him the restored antique. "Do you have your body armor, Dave?" Coffeebot asked. "I always do. The number of assassination attempts I get? I've also got the EM projector for the lasers and software mod for the chip guns. How do you think I got to be a hundred and twelve?" "I always forget that you know best, Dave." "Thank you, Coffeebot. Desk, manage my affairs while I'm gone. Do what I would do, unless you can't figure that out. Then get Coffeebot to ask me the question through my hearing aid." "Yes, sir," said his desk. "Alright. Let's go," Dave said. With a few quick swishes, his hook became a golden electrified vibro-katana. "Dave..." "I do admit, Coffeebot, that Japan is good for some things. This is one of those instances." "I see. Good call, Dave." VAMPIRES DON'T SPARKLE! I've made Dave a japanophobe angliophile. It seems to fit his character. I've pictured him speaking in a British accent all along. I've also tried to make what's going on fit with Pedro's post as well as possible.

I believe that the word you're looking for is THEME. And did you make sure that there's not a topic about this already? It seems like the sort of broad question that would have been asked before. In any case, I find it difficult to pick certain themes as a favorite, because they almost always have really good sets right alongside really bad sets. And there are some, like classic pirates, or Bionicle, which just span such a long time and so many sets that it's really almost impossible to compare them with shortlived themes like, say, Dino Attack (which had some cool sets, but just isn't in the same class of theme as either mentioned). I guess that I would have to say that my favorite theme is Indy. I love the movies, and all of the sets were worthy interpretations. It's about the only theme where, if I had enough money, I would buy every set from every wave, just because I like them all that much.

Isn't it fun doing different versions of MOCs across different themes? This is great

Don't worry about the post length, most of them probably won't be as long as CB's and my first ones. I didn't really intend for Agent 314 to be Ichi (since I thought he was rogue), which is why I left it ambiguous. It could be, though. I would let him decide.

4504 Millenium Falcon. Not only is this the biggest set that I have ever had (pitiful, isn't it?), I also got it when I was about eight. It took me forever to build it, especially since the rounded construction is connected through some rather precarious SNOT and the entire thing is on four relatively small (yet still butt-ugly) landing gear that are difficult to put on without breaking it again.

"Dave, disturbance in testing area three!" Dave Charon sighed. "Thank you, Coffeebot," he said wearily. "Video feed perhaps?" "Certainly, Dave. Bringing up video replays on your desk screen." Dave looked at the video intently. It started abruptly with a person, a R.A.T. by the looks of him, falling out of the vent duct onto... Borgiss? Hmm. Odd, but there was no mistaking those legs. Silly of him, really, when he could easily get ones indistinguishable from organic legs, but no matter, the cyborg was a fool in any case. The R.A.T. evaded the capture of Borgiss and his henchmen, then ran into the hall, running into an employee. "Pause video, Coffeebot. Can that employee be identified?" Coffeebot whirred for a moment, then said, "Affirmative. Employee is Samantha Vonne, head of the Recruiting department." "Interesting. Put on her schedule an appoinment with me at 1:30 tomorrow afternoon. I want to see if she's figured out anything. Knowing Borgiss, he was probably talking about the plan loud enough for her to hear through the door. Foolish man. Continue the video." The Vonne and the R.A.T. picked themselves up ran down the hall, moving their mouths. Coffeebot presciently changed camera views to keep up with them. After a couple of turns, Vonne opened up a chute in the wall. "Pause video. Where does that chute lead, Coffeebot?" "Chute is connected to the central sewer system of the building. Desk could give you a more complete schematic." "Schematic is ready, if you wish to view it, Dave," said his desk, in a slightly lower voice. "No thank you, that tells me all I need to know. Keep the video going." The R.A.T. jumped down the chute, and Vonne ran off down the hallway. A moment later, the green-haired henchman that Borgiss had had with him ran into view. The video feed ended. Dave though for a moment. Decisions, decisions. This would require much consideration to gain control of completely. Well, first things first. "Coffeebot, move that appointment with Samantha to nine o'clock tomorrow morning." "Dave, that conflicts with your meeting with..." "Cancel it. I need to find out what this girl is playing at. Then, send an Oni down into the sewer. There's a catacomb of abandoned rooms down there that are connected to directly to the chute that our R.A.T. friend went down. Put out an alert to all available security personel from Solar-Com. Actually, put it out to all of the Ching security that I have access too. Tell them to search the sewer until they find a man with black hair, four eyes, and some sort of mouse. Shouldn't be too hard." "Alert distributed, Dave." "Excellent. Well, that seems to cover both ends of it. I couldn't get much out of Borgiss, foolish man, nor his useless henchman. I need to figure this out, though. Coffeebot, why was a disturbance not detected when that R.A.T. entered the ventilation system? The vent that he unscrewed to get in should have notified you, they're so simple that they're impossible to hack. How could he have gotten in without you knowing? Is one of them disconnected from your database?" Coffeebot whirred for a moment. "Diagnostic complete. All vent computers are in proper working order, Dave." "How could he have gotten in, then?" "Unknown, Dave." Dave leaned back in his chair, drumming the fingers of his right hand on his hook. An idea occured to him. "Coffeebot, pull up that video again." The holoscreen flared back to life, with the R.A.T. falling. "Pause. Now zoom in on the vent. Further. Now move the time back about a minute or two. Hmm... Further. Five minutes? Seven? Aha!" "What have you found, Dave?" "Right here! Seven minutes and thirteen seconds before the vent breaks, we see the siding of the vent vibrate some, and a dense exhalation of air from the vent. Ha!" Dave said triumphantly. "I do not understand, Dave. Why is this significant?" "See, Coffeebot, this is why robots will never supplant humans. You see those two things as pieces of data, but I can put them together in my mind and surmise that a large mass spontaneously appeared inside of the ventilation system and fell onto it, rattling the siding. Its appearance was so sudden that it disturbed the air into rushing out of the vent. He teleported inside!" "I see, Dave. You are like Sherlock Holmes?" "How the devil do you know about him?" "I do a great deal of reading from the database in an effort to develop my artificial intelligence." "I see. Well, yes, I suppose so. This puts a new spin on things, though - either the R.A.T.s have developed teleportation, or this fellow wasn't a R.A.T. at all. See if you can find any news items that would indicate a widespread use of R.A.T. teleportation in the city, and inform R&D of a possible need for localized quantum field dampeners in the offices of more important members." "Right away, Dave. Anything else?" "I really need a Frapauccino." "Here you go, Dave," Coffeebot said, depositing a tall, frothy drink on the coaster that Desk had created a moment before. "Whipped cream?" "Yes, Coffeebot. I don't know what I'd do without you." "I don't know what you'd do without me either, Dave."

I didn't like it that much, but I'm glad that I went to see it in a theater. It's perhaps the only movie where, if you aren't that excited about it, you should go see it in a theater and the NOT buy it on DVD. Without the 3D and huge screen, it's Pocahantas with blue people. You really need to see it as it was meant to be seen to get anything out of it.

I would just like to say that, since this is 'supposed' to be set in an airport, the screen does serve a purpose - it's one of those displays that Airports have up all over the place to tell you if your flight is on time or not.

HA! No, I hadn't noticed that. Awesome!

Don't worry, LEGO has also recently been featured on epicwinFTW.com! You'll notice that I cleared up a little dispute about the propriety of saying "Legos" in the comments.

HAH! It's the fact that it's a DVD+R that really makes this for me, since everyone knows that all you need for a pirate joke is "ARRRR!" in there somewhere.

I just watched "The Invention of Lying" on DVD. It's very interesting and cleverly done. My favorite part is the bus-side advertisement - "Pepsi: When they're out of Coke". It's funny because it's true

It seems that I've been signing a lot of these petitions lately, but, hey, the Harry Potter one worked! SIGNED I'd love to see the theme re-done with modern building techniques and pieces.

Nice comic - I like all the action that's going on. You portrayed the gunshots rather well. I see I'm not the only one to use white epaulets and for the Chings . Nice homicide there, too, it seems to be something of a hobby abong the Cyberpunk characters. However, I had sort of a hard time reading this. The eye naturally goes from up to down and from right to left. I had to re-read some panels because you've put the speech bubbles out of order. Take panel 10 for instance. The Ching character says something in response to what your character is saying below that. But when someone's reading it, they read the Ching dialogue first and your character's dialogue second, which makes it nonsensical. Stuff in the top or on the right is read first, stuff in the bottom or on the left is read last. (My dad's a cartoonist, I've got some grounding in this.) It appears that Jared has a Coffeebot Mark II. Not as good in a fight as Dave's, but better looking

The Sherlock Holmes soundtrack. Hans Zimmer is a one-man epicness factory.

I'm pretty certain it's voluntary - pretty much Steel Dragon made his and then the rest of us said "Hey, that's cool, I should do one". I know that mine took quite a long time, and it might be too time-consuming for some players.