Megatron for Christmas

I honestly don’t know why I’m on Hallmark’s mailing list, but I am.  Yesterday I received an email talking about this year’s Christmas ornaments.  I realize it’s probably a huge portion of their yearly profit but holy fuck I wonder how early they announce these things.  Regardless of how premature it might have been, I still clicked on the link to see what pop culture icons were turned into little plastic things to hang on trees that somehow celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus.  There is of course Disney out the ying yang and that means Disney, Pixar, Marvel, and Star Wars.  But that wasn’t all, there was also Megatron.

And I mean real Megatron.  He’s not a tank.  He’s not whatever the fuck that thing in the movies is.  It’s gun trigger for a dick, honest to god Megatron!  The ornament is clearly based on the original toy and looks fantastic.  He won’t be on sale until July and is priced at 14.95.  That means he won’t have any crazy light or sound effects, but this is Megatron; he didn’t need those anyway.  My favorite thing is you can see just how early the 2015 ornament entries are.  The product description is clearly copied over from last year’s Optimus Prime ornament.  

Top 10 Giant Robots

Last week Michael May and Siskoid ran a top 10 list of his their top 10 giant monsters.   One  of the rules when creating this top ten is that robots aren’t monsters and would require their own top 10 list.  Just like last week I had to get in on the action, so today we’re going to be talking giant robots.  We are also including mecha into this list, figuring that giant machines controlled by pilots are going to be close enough to robots that it will still count.  Make sure you check out Michael’s AdventureBlog today for a list of other blogs participating in today’s robot countdown. 

10. Voltron

I was going to use the Vehicle version of Voltron just to enrage a friend of mine, but the majority of people who recognize the name Voltron immediately think of the lion version when they hear that name.  There is a good reason for that to, the Lion Force robot is extremely cool looking.  So you’re asking if Voltron is iconic and has such a great design why is he only number 10 on the list?  It’s because watching a Voltron cartoon is excruciatingly boring.  All the archetypes are there, but nothing interesting is ever done with it.  That makes it even worse, it has such potental to be amazing and it's just bland.  I’m including all the re-launches in that statement too. 

9. Emperor Titans (Warhammer 40K)

No setting in existence does over the top better than the Warhammer 40K universe.  The armies of man have giant war machines called Titans, the largest of these are the Emperor Titans.  Standing 166 feet tall the Emperor Titan towers over everything else on the battle field.  As you’d expect the Titan is loaded down with weapons with equally over the top names like Hellstorm Cannons, Apocalypse Missle Launcher’s, and Vulcan Mega Bolters.  I almost forgot to mention that it carries a cathedral dedicated to the God-Emperor on its shoulders.  It's a massive warmachine and a walking church. 

8. Liberty Prime (Fallout 3)

If you remember the Journey of Thall Faceshooter you know I had a great time playing through Fallout 3.  There are some issues with the setting of the game when compared to the rest of the series; some of the lore just doesn’t fit as well.  Liberty Prime though is awesome.  Originally built to liberate Anchorage, Alaska from the Red Chinese this robot was dug up by the Brotherhood of Steel.  Liberty Prime eventually is set upon the Enclave and causes massive destruction by shooting dual energy beams from his head and throwing mini-nukes like footballs.  All the time he’s wrecking face he says things like “Communism is the very definition of failure,” and “Democracy is non-negotiable.”

7. Volfogg (GaoGaiGar)

One of the Super-AI robots in the GGG is the definition of cool.  His vehicle form is a police Ferrari and his robot form is pretty much a ninja.  He carries tow Silver Moon throwing blades that can be combined to form a giant throwing star known as the Silver Cross.  He is also equipped to create holograms, create smoke screens, and to use his Mirror Coating to turn invisible.  When he needs a power upgrade he can join with a non intelligent motorcycle and helicopter to form Big Volfogg.  He looks significantly less ninja-like when it Big Volfogg mode though.

6.  Lockdown (Transformers)

Transformers Animated introduced one of the coolest Transformers of all time.  It’s heavily implied that this faction-less bounty hunter was once an Autobot.  Lockdown has a habit of collecting trophies from his prey, usually it’s a weapon or upgrade that he can use for himself.  This is how he came to own Ratchet’s EMP generator.  Lockdown’s alt form is a nasty spiked racecar with an exposed engine block and a cow-catcher on the bumper.  Oh and in the cartoon he is voiced my Lance Henricksen. 

5. Megas XLR

With a theme song that told the world that “Chicks dig giant robots,” it was obvious that Megas XLR was going to be different than most cartoons.  Produced by Titmouse, Inc, Megas XLR only lasted one season (just like their amazing cartoon Motorcity).  In the future the Earth is losing a war with an alien race called the Glorft. The humans steal a prototype giant robot and modify for our use.  Megas and its pilot Kiva are going to be sent into the past hoping they can stop the invasion.  All sorts of craziness happens.  Megas is damaged and sent to the wrong time.  The damaged Megas is found in present day by Coop , who repairs the robot and replaces the damaged head with a muscle car.  He calls the robot XLR.  Kiva finds Megas but is unable to pilot it anymore because of Coop’s modifications.  Megas XLR makes fun of every giant robot trope in existence and then moves on to anime tropes in general.  The series was smart and funny as all hell. 

4. Iron Giant

Iron Giant is the best Superman movie ever made.  If you haven’t seen it you should stop reading right now and go see it.  Nothing else really needs to be said about it.

3. Veritech (Macross/Robotech)

The VF-1 Valkyrie is a classic.  It goes from from jet mode, to guardian more, to battloid.  There are numerous different versions just in the first series alone.  The design has been copied across all different sorts of media.  Roy Focker’s Veritech looks the best of course.  The black and yellow scheme stand out on the white body and the skull squadron symbol just makes the whole thing look cool.  The Robotech cartoon had a huge impact on me when I was a kid and this design will be with me forever.

2. Springer (Transformers)

I’ve talked numerous times about Springer on That F’ing Monkey.  My all time favorite Transformer.  In the cartoon he was a sarcastic asshole who got shit done.  In the comics he’s the lead of the Wreckers.  Springer is named because he’s legs are so powerful that he is able to leap across battlefields.  Considering he also turns into a helicopter you wouldn’t think that would be an issue.  He goes from sports car, to helicopter, to bad ass.  This triple changer first debuted in the Transformers movie and I’ve been obsessed with him ever since.

1. GaoGaiGar

GaoGaiGar could be placed on the top of this list for his theme song alone.  For those unfamiliar with this awesomeness let me explain what it takes to transform into GaoGaiGar.  A cyborg leaps into a giant robot lion's mouth.  This causes the lion to transform into the robot GaiGar.  That robot is then joined by a drill tank, a bullet train, and a stealth fighter.  All four of these machines then take on the form of GaoGairGar.  You want a giant robot anime that takes it over the top?  This is it.  GaoGaiGar protects the world from the Zonder threat and while I had just mentioned his basic transformation as the series went on he was outfitted with more equipment to battle the aliens.  The most famous is probably his Goldion Hammer, a gigantic hammer that contains an artificial gravity well.  Another robot had to be introduced so it could turn into an arm attachment strong enough to even hold the hammer.  Most of the foes GaoGaiGar faces end up be completely disintegrated.  There is a reason GaoGaiGar is the King of the Braves. 

Joel Carroll Draws My Favorite Things: Part 4

This week we’re doing something a little different here at That F’ing Monkey.  While looking through my things the other night I realized I’ve been sitting on some amazing art work from Joel Carroll.  I’m lucky enough that I live near Joel, so I get to see him at a lot of conventions.  Every day this week I’m going to showcase another piece I’ve had commissioned from him.  Some are personalized pieces he did in his sketchbook others are character designs, etc.  When you’re done here make sure to go to www.joelcarroll.com and check out even more of his work.

 

Today’s Joel Carroll update was done inside another of Joel’s sketchbooks, Recent Things I Have Drawn.  The sketch is over the Transformer character Springer.  Springer has been my favorite Transformer since he first appeared in the original Transformers movie.  I loved the post movie cartoons because of his involvement.  My love for the character has been all over this blog from mentioning the third party Warbot Defender toy, the amazing Last Stand of the Wreckers comic, and even the Kree-O version of the character.

It will surprise no one that I have a few versions of Springer hanging out on my toy shelves.  I’ve stayed away from some of the Springer toys just because I didn’t want to purchase expensive convention exclusives off of eBay, especially since the figures only had one vehicle mode.  Hasbro recently surprised everyone by putting out a new triple changer version of Springer this year.  I haven’t been able to find it on the store shelves yet, but I will.  Joel’s amazing sketch represents this newer version of the toy.

Predaking Returns

When Transformers first introduced figures that combined to make larger robots it was incredible.  I still remember my cousin getting Devastator and being in awe of it.  Seeing the constructicon’s success the Transformers quickly started releasing more combiners.  It was very formulaic; one bigger robot was the torso and the smaller ones created the arms and the legs.  That all changed with Predaking.

Predaking was made up of full sized Transformers, so he towered over the others combiners.  Sadly, he was also very expensive.  I was lucky enough to get three of the Predacons, so my Predaking was sadly without legs.  In my mind he just used the wings on his back to fly around and punch things. He didn't let the lack of legs keep him from wrecking face, because that's the kind of bot he was!  

A re-issue of Predaking is currently for pre-order over at Big Bad Toy Store.  120 dollars will get you Divebomb, Headstrong, Rampage, Razorclaw, and Tantrum.  Sure 120 dollars is a lot, but considering you get five figures in the set it is a pretty fantastic deal.  Part of me wants to order it just so I can finally have a full version of this monster.

Kre-O Springer

When the first Transformer building sets came out I remember thinking to myself that they were okay, but I thought the mini-figures were far cooler than the Lego-like building blocks.  I didn’t worry about it too much because I had assumed they would stick more to the movie characters or the characters used on the latest cartoon.  I was wrong. 

 Kre-O realized how popular their Transformer mini-figures were and released a set of blind bagged characters.  I didn’t realize these were coming out, so I was surprised to see so many G1 favorites represented when I found them in the store.  As soon as I saw that the set contained Springer I knew I had to have one.  I didn’t want to test my luck though, so instead of grabbing a handful of the packages I went to eBay.  I won't lie, I was really tempted to buy a bunch of them and hope for the best.

When I received my package from eBay it was still in the blind bag.  I don’t know how the seller knew it was Springer without opening the package; I think he must be a wizard.  Springer comes with two swords; a gun and a sword would have been more accurate.  The package says you can build a robot or a vehicle, but his helicopter mode just looks like the robot is laying face down.  So really this is something you want displayed in robot mode.

Springer looks better if you don’t use all the pieces he comes with.  There is a connector that fits over his chest that allows you to plug helicopter blades onto his back.  Doing so covers up the chest details that make him look more like Springer.  I get that Kre-O didn’t want you to have a handful of extra parts, but he looks so much better without all the extra blocks strapped to him.

Toy Fair Springer

Toy Fair is always an exciting time for collectors.  What new lines are coming out?  Will your favorite series get any new updates?  Can you expect anything cool besides countless repaints?  Obviously things like Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and Transformers have a huge showing each year.  This weekend pictures emerged that had me doing a happy dance in my living room. 

Back in June of 2010 I did a countdown of my top five favorite Transformers.  That list would be a little different now because Transformers introduced the amazing character Lockdown, but my favorite bot has not changed.  Since the original Transformers movies hit the movie theaters, I’ve been a Springer fan.  When it came to the cartoons and comics, Springer was the coolest.  In the toy department, Springer wasn’t all the great.

His original toy was okay, if you ignored his floppy sword and tiny arms.  Then there wasn’t anything for a good long while.  The first new Springer figure was a 2007 convention exclusive.  He was a redecoed Hot Shot figure and only was able to transform into an armored security vehicle.  A year later we got a Target exclusive that was a redeco of the helicopter Evac.  It was a pretty good figure, but I still wanted a Springer who was a triple changer.

Finally Fans Project created a third party figure called Warbot defender.  It was Springer.  He changed into a helicopter and a car.  His robot looked bad ass.  It was perfect.  It wasn’t a cheap figure but since I didn’t think I’d ever actually get what I wanted from the official Transformers line I happily bought him.  Now let’s talk about this year’s Toy Fair.  Holy crap look at the pictures in this article!  It’s perfect.  Other people are flipping out over a new Metroplex figure, but this has me over the moon.  I almost want three so I can display him in each form.

Tales From the Brain Jar, #24

Tales From the Brain Jar is a reoccurring feature here at That F’ing Monkey. I’ve been collecting art from some of my favorite creators for years now and Tales From the Brain Jar is a way it off a little. Today’s sketch was done at Botcon 2010. Botcon is a Transformers convention. I probably wouldn’t travel to go to a Botcon, but when it came to Orlando I had to check it out.

The sketch was done by Matt Moylan whose art can be found at lilformers.com. Matt ran a Lil Former’s web comic for a long time. He now works for Udon Entertainment and does web comics for Bravoman and Wagan Land. Matt is extremely well versed in Transformers lore, so I could have asked for any number of Transformers. Instead of going for my all time favorite (Springer), I went with another bot in my top 5.

Slag is one of the Dinobots. The triceratops was always my favorite dinosaur as a kid, so when the Dinobots first were introduced he was the one I wanted. But there are other reasons that Slag is perfect for me. His name is a generic curse word in the Transformers world. It’s not a nice word in British slang either. He also breathes fire; his file card even stated he likes melting enemies into pools of liquid metal. The file card also goes on to state he’s such a complete and total asshole that the other Autobots won’t come to his rescue when he gets himself in trouble. “Me Slag no like anything” indeed.

G1 Van Upgrade

I was talking with a friend this weekend about how we were pretty much the perfect age when Transformers came out. I can still remember the first time I saw them on the store shelves. I also remember watching the cartoon when it premiered. Even at a pretty young age I was aware that not all of the toys looked like their cartoon counterparts. The biggest two examples were Iron Hide and Ratchet.

Iron Hide and Ratchet were pretty much one toy with two different paint schemes and minor kibble to make them different. Ratchet was the medic and Iron Hide was the blue collar soldier that was always at Prime’s right hand. They were big, burly looking bots that were always on the cartoon. Their toys were…well they were special. Their heads were stickers. The tops of the vans turned into the sled type vehicle. They were not what the cartoon was showing us.

Over the years there have been a number of new versions of Iron Hide and Ratchet, but I think iGear is about to release my favorite ones. Now iGear is a third party manufacturer, so they are actually releasing PP05M Medic and PP05M Weapon Specialist. Third party Transformers are never cheap; these will cost almost 120 dollars a pieces. Each of the bots does come with a huge amount of extra tools and weapons.

I love that there is a market out there to provide fans with versions of characters that they want. I’ve had Fansproject’s version of Springer since he was released and I couldn’t be happier with the purchase. I was never a huge fan of Iron Hide or Ratchet, but if I was I’d be scraping up the cash for a pre-order.

Geek Wills

Forgive me if I get a little bit morbid on you today. While leaving a 7-11 a couple months ago I was stuck at a rather long red light. I spent part of that time staring at the front of a small legal services building. In their window they had a big sign that read, “Wills $75!” I don’t know what the going rate on wills are, so I have no idea if that advertised price is something special or not, but it did get me thinking.

First things first, we’re ignoring the big things here. House, cars, etc… This isn’t about making sure your loved ones are taken care of if something happens to you. This is more about who is going to get that mint in box Jonah Hex figure signed by Jimmy Palmiotti that has been sitting on your shelf for the last 3 years.

This isn’t an open invitation for everyone I know to start laying claim to my things. I’m married, so if something happened to me obviously the majority of the things I owned would default to my wife. She’s picked up a lot of geek knowledge from living with me, but she isn’t going to know or care about the differences between Tracks and Springer (The answer to that is Tracks is an awesome toy who sucks in the cartoon while Springer was awesome in everyway). Obviously those bots need to go to someone who would.

Some of the collections could be sold off for profit. Who knows, your family might need it. But other things in your collection probably have far more sentimental value then monetary. If the piece wouldn’t really sell for much, I’d rather it go to someone who would appreciate it. I can’t be the first one to think about this can I? If I broke up my collection between family and friends my will would probably be as long as one of the trade paperbacks I was giving away. Anyway, this is just something I’ve been randomly thinking about for awhile, tomorrow will be on to happier subjects, I promise.

War for Botcon

You may have noticed I didn’t update the site Saturday. My original plan was to finally put up a review of War for Cybertron. By that point I think I would be able to offer a pretty fair review of the game even though I still haven’t finished both campaigns in the game yet. But I got distracted by Botcon, the yearly Transformer convention. This year it was in Orlando, so I figured I wouldn’t miss out on the opportunity and skipped out on both my work and my blog.

So today will be a double shot; a game review and a con review. Which one was more fun? Check out the reviews after the jump.

Transformers Countdown #1, Springer

Transformers: War for Cybertron is out this Tuesday, unless you go to Sears apparently. There are lots of reports of them breaking street date. I didn’t even know Sears still sold video games. Anyway, to celebrate what looks like it is going to be an awesome game I’ve been counting down my favorite Transformer toys I had as a kid. The list started with Thundercracker, then went to Sideswipe, Tracks, and Slag. Finally we are down to number one. Released in 1986 along with the Transformers Movie, my all time favorite Transformer is Springer.

I was 10 when the movie came out, exactly 10 because it came out on my birthday. The movie did many things that probably explain why I’m so strange, but that is better left to another discussion. The important thing it did that we’re talking about today is that it introduced Springer. All of sudden the Transformers were shoved into the far future of 1995. Of course the movie introduced a bunch of new Autobots who never took the form of Earth vehicles; they were all futuristic looking Cybertronian vehicles. And in my mind Springer was the coolest.

More triple changing after the jump.

Transformers Countdown #2, Slag

War for Cybertron is only days away from release so we are getting close to the end of my Transformers countdown. Looking back at my favorite Transformers as a kid we’ve already covered Thundercracker, Sideswipe, and Tracks. The toy line already had cars, trucks, jets, and guns; what else could a kid want? Oh yeah, dinosaurs! The Dinobots were huge when they came out. They looked fantastic. They were all done in the same color scheme, mostly a grey with metallic silver and gold, so they looked like a cohesive unit. My personal favorite was Dinobot Slag.

Slag transformed into a Triceratops which has always been my favorite dinosaur, so as soon as I saw him I knew I had to have him. Except when the Dinobots came out they were incredibly popular. You couldn’t find them on the shelves. Then one day after calling ahead to stores my cousin and I found out that Service Merchandise was getting a shipment in! We waited with my Aunt in the back of the store where there was this long conveyer belt. The Dinobots were in the back and they were going to send two of them down the belt. I was so excited to see those boxes, it seemed like forever. Then finally, we get the boxes in our hands and I could see I got...Sludge, the Brontosaurus. Sure he was cool, but I was so disappointed.  Luckily a month or two later I finally got Slag.

More Slagging after the jump.

Transformers Countdown #3, Tracks

June 22nd is fast approaching, which means that War for Cybertron will soon be sitting in my Xbox 360. There is a demo on Xbox Live right now showing off the multi-player!  To celebrate the game’s release I’m counting down my top five favorite transformers as a kid. Thundercracker and Sideswipe were numbers five and four. Both characters came out in the initial release and are both confirmed to be in War for Cybertron. Sadly they are the only two characters on my list confirmed to be in the game.  My next two picks in the countdown were released the year after Transformers US debut, 1985. So the Transfomer we’ll be talking about today is the Autobot, Tracks.

Tracks’ vehicle mode is a blue Corvette Stingray. While I still appreciate Corvettes now, as a kid I loved them. Corvette pictures on my wall, Corvette Hot Wheels cars, and then a Corvette Transformer. The moment I saw him, all of the other bots who had come before him were forgotten. But there was so much more to the toy to love and then there was a crushing disappointment afterwards.

More love and disappointment after the jump.

Transformers Countdown #4, Sideswipe

War for Cybertron comes out on June 22. Because I’m so excited about a game that is calling itself a G1 prequel, I’m counting down my top five favorite Transformer toys from my childhood. Number 5 was Thundercracker the only Decepticon to make the list, so if you were hoping to see Megatron you’ll be disappointed. Although as a kid I did get in trouble at an airport because of Megatron, but that is a story for another time. I mentioned how Thundercracker was my first full sized bot; Sideswipe was my first Autobot.

Sideswipe transforms into a red Lamborghini Countach. When he switches to robot mode not only did he get a gun, but he also had a shoulder mounted missile launcher. The missile launcher I had didn't fire at all, the spring must have been messed up.  In the cartoon, I don’t remember him getting much of a spotlight. Unlike the last Transformers cartoon the starting Autobots had a pretty large cast, so lots of characters were extra soldiers filling in the background. So Sideswipe and his brother were pretty much filler. Wait. What? Did I just say brother?

More Sideswiping and brothers after the break…

Transformers Countdown #5, Thundercracker

War for Cybertron comes out at the end of the month. The game looks incredible and I figured I’d use my excitement for the upcoming game to talk about some of the transformers I love. I’m going to do a top 5 countdown of the ones who really stick out from my childhood. So sorry Lockdown, you’ll have to wait until I do a more current Transformers list.

My first ever transformers was the Lazerbeak and Frenzy two pack. But my first ever full sized was Thundercracker. It was 1984 so I was 7 or 8 at the time. My cousin Jeff got the black jet, Skywarp and I picked the blue one. Robots that turned into jets, they blew my tiny mind. I still remember running around my aunt’s living room try to shoot the missiles into this fancy looking ashtray that was on her table.

More thunder cracking after the break…