Man. I was tired last night..went to bed at 10:30, and didn't wake up till 6:00 this morning. In fact, I was telling a friend I was gonna call it a night, but instead said "I'm gonna call it a sack" Hoo-boy..I also didn't finish building the C3 Batwing, either. Finished it this morning. It's a shame C3 was on clearance at Toys R Us, as these are actually really good Lego-esque construction sets, unlike Megabloks or Hasbro's Built To Rule lines. (Megabloks has weak plastic, and BtR had an awful grip. The sets would fall apart if looked at wrong.) Another plus of the C3 sets, it includes D.C. Minimates, this particular set had Batman in a nifty flight suit. The only downside is, the instructions are awful, as I had to look at both the instructions and the completed piece pictures to figure out how to build portions.

As usual, pics coming soon.

Aoi

After the day I've had, you'd expect me to the cranky or tired..but strangely, I'm not.
Today I had to get registered for classes, but rewind to last night. Figuring I'd better get a good night sleep, I'd hit the sack early...only to wake up at 2 AM(or there abouts) and stay awake...Got dressed, went with mom to work so we could save gas from having to come back here, then head to the registration area..got to the registration area, had to stand in line to speak to someone to get my class schedule all tidy and 'full', only to find out my major has been sliced in half. Anyone that knows me, knows I've been studying Animation and Computer Aided Design(Why that's lumped in with Animation, I haven't a clue.)
Well, they've dropped the animation classes COMPLETELY, with me only needing one more class to finish that half, and one more for the Computer Aided Design, before I recieved my Animation Certificate. I figure, whatever I lean with the now titled "Computer Aided Design and Drafting" major, I can still put towards animation..so I'm taking Architectural Drafting-Residential, and Basic Writing Skills I(Hopefully, it'll teach me how to put a Point B, to points A and C in plot development.), However, I do have the right amount hours for my Animation Certificate, so they're gonna try and tweak the classes to fill in those ones I don't have with other classes I've taken.
Anywho, the reason why I should be exhausted, since mom's work wouldn't let her take some time off to pick me up, I spent the day walking..not to home, as cheaper that would of been...but I ended up walking from the college, to Toys R Us back to the college, waited, then headed back to Toys R Us to pick some of the stuff I purchased earlier, then walked across the parking lots of Target, Petco and Office Depot and across the street to get lunch...then back to Target, got a Green Tea Frappachino(Maybe that's why I'm not so cranky?), then ran around the store for a bit, buying a few games...
Then headed back to the college, again, they didn't have info from the financial aide office, so I had to go back to make sure they called the lady I spoke to...which I had to wait again, as everyone was having lunch...which was fine with me, considering I had god knows how many iced teas, and the Green Tea Frappachino, mixed with ninty degree plus heat, I'd likely vomit. She had heard from my aide, so out the door I went again...headed over to the mall, finding out there's actually a long way to get to the front of the mall, when your coming from the back. Dropped into Books A Million, no Bionicle book, so off to the Books A Million cafe I went to get some water...then headed to the manga section, just to get a wee bit depressed. A series I'd been 'following' had leaped to vol. 6 and 5 all of the sudden.(I last purchased vol. 2 of each series.) Headed back to the cafe, rested a bit longer and finished off the water.
Headed to FYE to find a surprise, a few DVD series I had been collecting(still unfinished), were released in thinpak collections, for roughly the same price I paid for the first volume w/artbox! Ran around the mall a bit longer, then mom came to pick me up...had to make a few more errands, then came home.

I have to revisit the first trip to Toys R Us, as it was something I'd wanted to "experience" for a while, being there when the store first opens. I expected it to be filled to the brim with scalpers, but instead it was full of grannies. (Granny scalpers? The world may never know.)
..but I'll also reveal something embarassing, pacing around to wait for the store to open, I had leaned up again the wall and started pacing again...saw something following me. A spider-web had attached itself to my pants leg with the spider still attached! One thing you either already know, or will learn, spiders scare the living crap out of me(with an exception of Spider-man and Tarantulus from Beast Wars, oddly..), so I try whacking the web off my pants leg...which doesn't work, mostly because I was likely missing on purpose, cause I'd freak out more with this flying spider attached to my hand...so I only do the next thing that comes to my currently absent mind. Run in circles...which doesn't help much, as I'm practically chasing the spider now..some how the web detaches from my pants leg, which was great, as if I kept running in circles, I'd likely run into one of TRU's outer-walls...however, the spider made me forget, I wasn't the only one in the parking lot. This little old lady had pulled into a spot, waiting for the store to open as well. (I hope the little old lady was amused, as really..retelling it to my mom, I couldn't help laughing. Neither could she.)Anyways, I went into TRU, found a few building sets (Two lego sets bundled together, and a C3/Minimate building set for half off...being the last TRU had, I jumped at the chance to get them.) As for the games I picked up from Target, I got three games, two blue guys. Sonic Mega Collection and Sonic Gems, along with Megaman Anniverary Collection.

Anyways, with all that said...How was your day?

Aoi

Well, the Scorpion Prison review is on hold for a bit. Gotta get the pics 'developed'...in other words, my camera is messing up, so I gotta go spend some quality time with Tech Service. Yaay!

Aoi

Well, it was a jam-packed night, tonight. Had to run a few errands. Wal-Mart has a huge amount of toys on clearance...didn't get any there, though. Just got something we had ordered from the Pharmacy, then headed to another store, then Sam's club. Got something to eat this week, and picked up the Ghostbusters Double Feature Gift Set for $12.88(A good deal, I think.)
Then went to eat dinner. I had an odd moment as I was eating my meal, when I bit down and heard a loud crunch around the tooth that's been giving me problems for the last few days. (that's why I haven't been posting. That just sucked all wanting to do anything outta me.) Went to the bathroom, and was checking my teeth. They looked fine, but I'm glad no body walked in while I was checking. I'd feel somewhat embarrassed getting caught making faces in the mirror, heh.

Anywho, after dinner went to Target and got my Green Tea Frapachino at the in-store Starbucks (Mouth pains be damned, I'm getting a Green Tea Frapachino!) which put me in a pretty good, and hyperactive, mood. Picked up some stuff for home, then dropped by toys. They redid the entire section, moving Lego several aisles down. Picked up the only two Knights Kingdoms sets I'd been wanting out the current lineup, The King Mathias Megafig and Scorpion Prison Cave playset.

I was going to take a picture featuring last years Target Exclusive King Mathias model, but it's gone missing...so that'll have to wait. Anyways, the set is nothing new in terms of building, if you've purchased last year's Mega Figures. I'm still annoyed by the joint pieces all being on the same side, but the lower leg armor hides it pretty well. The new torso piece, shield and armors make him look quite imposing and regal in person, He retains his crown and cape from the previous model, but this cape is a much darker color, and despite what the instructions say, my cape can be pulled down over his head, rather than removing the head, then placing the cape(but I imagine the instructions way will be less wear and tear on the hole.) He has two cogs on his back, which I really wish could be locked still, in which the one that corresponds with the left swings his arm back, and the one on the right swings him arm forward. I really like the appearance this character gives, and defiantly recommend purchasing him if your into this line. Expect a review of the Scorpion Prison to come up tommorow or tommorow night.

Aoi

Lessee what I'll talk about tonight. I was gonna complain about not being able to get to sleep, but I'll complain about something else instead, I was talking with a friend about Gundam..mentioned how awesome this one kit looked, and decided I'd order it. It's only $7.99 so that's a good price, and I could just pay for it out of my PTR earnings, but not till I got to it with shipping. To ship it, it was $6 extra! I'd probally wouldn't complain if I was ordering it from Japan, since that'd be the cheapest shipping ever, but it was from here in the US...so I suppose I'll have to wait a bit longer before I can order it.

Anyways, I also did a bit of searching on Digg.com earlier tonight, and spotted this high speed image site It's pretty neat, and I might want to make one of the images my desktop, but I already made this image from Nasa my desktop. I swear, one of those lights is my room.

Aoi

Not sure what I wanna talk about tonight, but all I'll say is; I want one. http://www.zoho.nl/zoho2.html It's a metal sculpture made from Bronze and Stainless steel, with 920 parts, 101 found in the hand, and 85 mobile parts...course, I'd rather it be plastic, cause it looks like it costs a bundle. Anyone wanna get it for my birthday?

Found @ http://www.ohgizmo.com
Aoi

Check the "Favorite Links" I've added two new blogs to the links section,

"Success at Sonic Speed" is done by one of my oldest pal's online, Azureblaze(He's 234, I think. Which makes him plenty old. Heh. kidding.) Anywhoo, he also does the sites Phantasy Star Online:The Next Level, a very good info site for Phantasy Star Online and Sonic Gear, what might be the ULTIMATE Sonic The Hedgehog Merchandise museum online.

I've also added "A Writer's blogck" by Nechie. I don't know them very well, but I really enjoyed reading the articles and checking out their pics. I also love the name of the blog.

If there's any other sites on there, without a description, I haven't looked at them yet. I just pressed the "blogthis!" button without much digging. ^_^;;

Aoi

Hiya everyone. I'll probally edit my last couple days worth of posts with a few photos of the topics I'm talking about to break up all the monotony...but my camera's being a bit of a glitch, so I'll have to figure out what's going on there.

Anyways, I built both of the Nano Building Sytem sets. I'll give a few comments now. The Packaging, I really like. They're self-contained containers for the packaging, that includes a stud-ruler(for measureing the studs on the brick.), a magnifier for the small pieces, and an unused/extra display brick to show the size of the brick. The clear portion has studs on the four corners to attach a setting picture to, while the bottom of the case is a four way intersection. (Inside comes with a few road pieces to connect other boxes to form a sort of playset.) It also has a latch and a 'lock' switch to keep the pieces from flying out. It's so so, considering the lock is somewhat weak.
The building of the sets themselves was somewhat straight forward, even if a few of the pieces didn't fit exactly. Which brings me to the last thing. A number of the clear pieces is already showing signs of stress from sitting on the studs. Not good. The appearances of the Sandstorm/"Humvee", are very close to what you'd expect in a military vehicle...but the antenna that is shown on the packaging, falls off with the most gentle of taps, so I left the antenna in the container...and the Interceptor looks like a police car. That's all I really gotta say on appearances. I'm unsure if it'd recommend it at regular price, but if on sale or buy one get one type of deal, I could probally give a thumbs up for that. All and all, they were worth the $1.14 I paid apiece.

Aoi

The Nano Building System sets I picked up earlier. I decided to get a few quick pics of the packaing they sorta came in.
I kind of considering asking for a discount on 'em, but that was before I found out they were $1.14. (considering I'm using that on a 'kini project, I don't care if they're missing pieces, but the inner-case was still wrapped, so all pieces are there, and I'll have a write up on them later tonight or tommorow.)

Aoi

Well, today I started getting ready to go back to class. Hopefully the new teacher is as good as the old one...So I managed to see my financial advisor, and he found that I could be likely to get a Pell Grant so, whoohoo...but which meant I had to go all the way to the college to get the pell grant forms and pay $10 to reapply for access to Campus Connect....which I got there just as soon as the school's financial office closed, so I couldn't get any of that...but I did get the Fall Semester class schedule so I can write up my trial schedule. Onto the toy portion of this posting. I went down to Target sometime afterwards, and dropped by the in-store Starbucks. They had this green tea frappachino that really tastes alot like the green tea ice cream...so if you like it, jump on it while you have a chance. It's limited edition.

Anywho, I did a bit of running around the toy aisle to find that Target is clearancing their Nano Building System sets by Megabloks....which seems to be the only time I buy them on clearance. (Not that they're expensive or anything, but the items I paid full price for...I hate. I can't really find any redeeming quality for buying them.)...which probally makes y'wonder why I've bought them anyways. Prof. Skull at the Shockertoys forum came up with a design that combines these Nano bricks, with Shockinis to come up with a very intresting design. I figured I'd get a few to see how these sets are, and to add some members of the Nano-'Kini group....besides the tags said they were $4.18 (previously $5.99)...but the scanner told a completely different price. $1.14, so who am I to complain if they're garabage? Picked up a Military Humvee, and a Police Interceptor(I think that's what it's described as.) I just wish they had the Apache Copter.
I'll probally make a post on them in a few hours after I get a bit of time to build and play with them...as for why I haven't been playing with them. Two words. NEW TRANSFORMERS! yaaay! Well...if you include the yaaay, that'd be three....Anyways, back to the Transformers.

I picked up the two Deluxes toys Thundercracker and Hotshot, also known as Thundercracker and Exillion in the Japanese version, I'll start the commentary off by saying, out of all the Transformers toys released domestically, Cybertron has the BEST packaging by far. The cards are in the shape of the Autobot and Decepticon symbols, and the plastic bubble containing the toy is multi-leveled and faceted making it very easy to spot on the shelves. Let's hope Hasbro continues this trend till line's end. Now, onto to the toys in order of opening.

Thundercracker, if you want me to put a number value on him, I'd have have give him a 4 out of 10. (10 being greatest.) If it hadn't been for Galaxy Force, I would of either waited for the figure to be marked down or passed it up. The character is getting a bit of abuse from both allies and enemies alike in a Waspinator-fashion(for those of you that've seen Beast Wars, you'll know what I mean.) which makes him quite like-able.
The toy on the otherhand, presents a really nice vehicle mode(a military air combat craft) and a ho-hum robot mode. Negatives are a plenty in the figure, but I'll cover the one that can be repaired first. On my figure, it appears that his cannon arm has been built backwards, as it has the screws away from Thundercracker's body. This can be easily fixed by unscrewing the cannon, and turning the upper-arm around. Screw cannon and upper-arm back together...which leads us into the main problem with the toy. Thundercracker's cannon is just TOO HUGE for his scale...partnered by small feet, he tips over quite easily. I still haven't found a pose that he can stay up in due to the feet. The last problem he has, is his arms feel and look disconnected from his body..there isn't anyway to click them into place. I do believe this toy could of been better at a $15 or $20 price scale. (too bad the $15 scale was done away with.)

Up next is Hotshot. for a numerical description, I'd have to give him a 6.5 out of 10(10 being the greatest, of course.) He's an intresting toy for several reasons. He manages to be an old character, a new character and a homage all at the same time.
As I've said, his name in the Japanese version of the series is Exillion, the Japanese version hasn't anything to do with the previous two Transformer series(Armada and Energon), so that makes him a brand new character, but he was designed in such a way, he also works as Hotshot from Armada and Energon. It doesn't end there, the homage to this figure is quite clear, if you activate the force chip feature, he gains two spoilers in vehicle mode, which is that of a semi-modern but still futuristic sports car. A nod to the original G1 Hotrod, not only that while transforming him, you rotate the canopy so those spoilers are sticking up behind his head like the original G1 Hotrod.
The vehicle mode looks great, as does his robot mode. I can't think of many Transformers that can actually cross their arms in front of their chest, besides a few really expensive ones..the only negative I see, is in the legs. They compress too easily(they strech out for part of the transformation), making him look like a hobbit or something of the sort...they also don't swivel, but eh. that can be modified sometime in the future.

I defiantly recommend Hotshot, but Thundercracker...he's a hit and a miss. If you like the character on the show, I'd suggest thinking REALLY hard about purchasing him. But if you don't, don't bother.

Aoi