Man, what the hell.

It's been crazy all up in this shit.  I had a red-eye flight back from Seattle, got home in Columbus around 9am, took a cab home, and I spent an hour or two doing things on the Internet and opening my Generations Wheeljack.  I'd ordered him online and he'd arrived on Friday while I was gone.  So I cracked open the bubble, transformed him into robot mode, and then went to take a nap.

And when I woke up from my nap, I was the sickest I have ever been in my life.  I spent 20 hours out of Tuesday in bed, asleep, and Wednesday wasn't looking too different until about 5pm.  But I'm slowly getting my strength and energy back.

So this Wheeljack may have the plague or something.  Or it was that awkward guy who hovered over my exhibitor table all three days in Seattle, wiping his nose on the book he read meticulously but didn't buy, and leaving his trash behind.  Either or.

Wheeljack's got a special place in my heart from my childhood, though probably not from the same childhood place as many other people.  When I was wee, the first comic books I ever owned were three-packs of Transformers titles sold at the K-mart register.  So I got a polybagged set of issues 7, 8, and 9, and another polybagged set of 10, 11, and 12.  Since I wasn't always home from school in time to watch the Transformers cartoon, these six issues were the main source of Transformers lore.  That I could read them over and over and over at my leisure kind of tipped the scale in their favor as well.  The world didn't have TiVo back then.  Hell, it barely had BetaMax.

But these issues are why, to this day, I love Ratchet and Huffer and Frenzy and Jazz and Wheeljack.  Specifically, I loved the Wheeljack as he appeared in issue 9, "DIS-Integrated Circuits!" He wasn't addressed as a mad scientist, he was just a gung-ho wise-talking warrior.  He was also, I had decided, due to issue 9, always Jazz's partner.  As my experience with Transformers widened, my idea of Wheeljack started encompassing the greater "Wheeljack is a wacky mad scientist" deal, but deep in my soul, he's that plucky wisecracker from issue 9.

I talked a lot about this Wheeljack toy back when I reviewed Tracks, his mold buddy.  He's a pretty extensive retool!  And he  has even more surprises.  We could tell from the photos that Wheeljack had a new head, new wrenches (instead of missiles), new feet, a new shin transformation, new spoiler, and new wingtips.  That in itself is pretty impressive.  But what's even crazier is this: when you transform him from vehicle to robot mode, his head is on a geared track that moves up and out along with his shoulders.  Wheeljack's geared track is more shallow than Tracks's, meaning his torso ends up a smidge wider.  In addition, Wheeljack's legs don't extend as far as Tracks's legs do.  This means even the robot mode proportions between Tracks and Wheeljack are retooled.  Wheeljack's original toy was short and stocky and Tracks's original toy was tall and lithe, so this makes some manner of sense, and it results in Wheeljacks's new toy being a head shorter than new Tracks.

Sweet deal, yes?

As mentioned previously, the backs of Wheeljack's shins are retooled, what for making the altered leg transformation, but there's also new C joint rods back there to store his wrenches, if you're so inclined.  Wheeljack can't carry his wrenches around forever!

Be careful about the instructions, however.  Though Wheeljack's instructions do give him his new head, they don't depict any of the other mold changes during the transformational steps.  Tracks's legs are supposed to extend way farther than Wheeljacks's, so strictly following the instructions on this may result in some excessive force that shouldn't be applied.  Just pull them out as far as they seem to want to go, and no further.

This is a great Wheeljack toy, one that magically incorporates all of his signature physical attributes: his stumpiness, his shoulder missile launcher, his wings, and even the placement of his wheel kibble.  It's absolutely insane that it also makes a fantastic Tracks toy, created with equal love.

I'm not sure how coherent this has been.  I'm still a little under the weather.

I'm heading off to the airport in the morning for Emerald City Comicon, but here's something to keep you occupied on this comicless Thursday. It's something I kind of wanted to address in the strip, but none of my characters are from the Chicago area, so none of them would ever have known about the Eagle Man commercial.

This video sums up how I feel about the Fox X-Men cartoon, or at least its comparative production values.

Man, I am freaking out!  I've never been the Pacific Northwest before, but come Thursday, I'm hopping a plane. Hopefully my books will be there when I arrive, and not half of a blender?  *cross fingers*

Please, Washington Staters, do not hurt me!  I am but a humble cartoonist.

I'll be exhibiting this weekend with Blank Label Comics (duh) at booth 210.  I will have things with me!  You can have them.  But, you know, for money.

Argh how did convention season happen so sooooon.

Personally, I find Justin Bieber to be pretty inoffensive all around, but whatcha gonna do.

I needed Bane because he fills an important slot in both of the arenas of DCUC I'm collecting: Batman villains and Secret Six dudes.  So far, there's been a 100% overlap!  It's a really uninteresting Venn diagram so far.  ...well, okay, I didn't pick up Parademon, but he really didn't look, y'know, proper.  Needed to be beefier and wear a fluffy vest or something.

If I ever do get a respectable Secret Six display, Bane may have to go through some minor changes.  See, in Secret Six, Bane has been off the Venom for quite a while, as he's decided it's a weakness and a crutch.  In fact, Bane is a very interesting character all around in Secret Six.  This should not really be possible, since he should be, by all rights, no more than that goofy muscle guy in the luchador mask who breaks Batman's back over his knee.  But under the insanely awesome care of Gail Simone, Bane is a compelling character in his own right.  Kinda weird in the head, but fascinating nonetheless.  And so I might have to get rid of that Venom tube that runs from his head to his arm.  It just wouldn't be proper!

But, hey.  Let's not delude ourselves.

I know why you're all here.  I know what the money shot is.

Let's do this.

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NOT COOL, GOD, NOT COOL.

I found this out, like, sixty seconds ago, so this is not exactly going to be a prepared statement, but apparently Dwayne McDuffie passed away for reasons that aren't known just yet.  This is terrible!  I know him best, personally, for creating and overseeing the vast majority of, y'know, the Justice League cartoon.  I know!  Seriously!  He is not allowed to die!  I don't think he was, like, old, either.  He was still relatively young and spry!  (Not that anywhere seems to list his birthdate to confirm.)

He's also known for creating Static, who most folks will recognize best as the hero of the cartoon Static Shock, and McDuffie was also well-known as being a crusader for writing non-white people in comic books as not horrible stereotypes.  And he wrote the script to the animated version of All-Star Superman, which I just friggin' watched this friggin' morning. He is one of the best things to happen to the world, and I guess now he's gone, and this sucks so bad.

Man, what the hell.

EDIT: Since I first babbled out this post, Wikipedia has added his birthdate and we know the cause of his death.  He was 49 and he died of complications due to surgery.  Neither information makes me feel particularly better.  Maggie and I watched some Justice League Unlimited episodes tonight.  She's really been getting into them this past month -- I've shown her episodes before, but this month it's really clicked and it's become her newest obsession.  (It and Young Justice.)  It broke her (and my) heart to learn that the writer of "The Great Brain Robbery" is dead far ahead of his time.  What an awesome dude he was.  What a sad day this is.

This is the last year for Mattel's Justice League Unlimited line.

I'm not sure whether that's surprising to hear or not.  The line has long, long, LONG surpassed the lifespan it had any right to have.  On the other hand, it's lasted so long, that it felt like a permanent fixture.  It's like George Burns.  It shouldn't have surprised me to learn that he died, but it did.  (y'know, 15  years ago)  I mean, dude was 100 years ago!  That's borrowed time!  But, well, you got the feeling that he was immortal all the same.  Justice League Unlimited is just like that.  Except, like, George Burns was better at not falling over on his face all the time.

But at least it's not goin' out without giving me what I want!  And what I wanted was a fucking Vandal Savage.  Dude was in three multi-part episodes!  That's technically seven episodes, all around!  That's a lot of episodes to be the villain if you're not Lex Luthor!  That's high profile.  A-list.  Meanwhile, I have a toy of the friggin' Key.  He opened a door once with his giant key prop.  That's it.

You might remind me that Vandal Savage isn't very interesting-looking to kids.  He's a dude with a beard in a suit. And then I will remind you that I once bought a set (AT RETAIL) that had an old balding white man in a suit and an old fat black lady in a suit.  There should not be a world in which we get General Eiling and Amanda Waller but not friggin' Vandal Savage.

But anyway, this is being rectified.  He comes with a normal Batman and a figure that I hadn't even considered the possibility of... bearded future-traveler Superman.  Which is also pretty damn awesome, if you ask me.  David Willis is pleased.

There's some other interesting guys coming out this year before the line ends.  There's Killer Frost, the sorta-obviously-absent STRIPE, Mongul, and most of the rest of the Batman Beyond-era Justice League (including friggin' STATIC, woo!).  And at the end of the year, to close out the line, there's planned to be a huge multi-pack set of guys who haven't been made yet.   Reports seem to imply these are seven heroes.  I don't think I can name more than one who hasn't been made yet, off the top of my head (Phantom Stranger).  Am I forgetting anyone?  I can't remember if I have a Gypsy yet or not.

Most importantly, now that Justice League is definitely coming to a close, I'll finally be able to round up all of my extraneous Batmen and Supermen and see how big a pile they make.

Reprolabels sticker upgrades for Animated Wreck-Gar arrived in the same envelope as my RtS Jazz stickers, but my need for the Wreck-Gar set wasn't nearly as drastic as it was for Jazz's.  The set comes with a lot of stuff, mostly alternate heads and faction logos and such, but I really just wanted the damn toes.  Wreck-Gar has three red toes on each foot on his character design, and the toy's feet are solid black.  It's easy for me to paint black, and I've done that all over Wreck-Gar's body already, where necessary, but painting red is much harder for me to do in a way that doesn't look horribly sloppy.

So, woo, toes!

I did use a few more from the set, but not many.  There are also orange stickers for his heels which I applied, and new orange stripe stickers to go over his preexisting painted orange stripes where his forearms meet his elbow.  The paint doesn't go quite all the way around, which I guess is the reason for the sticker's existence, but it's not something I absolutely needed.  There's also stickers to cover up the orange on the top of the torso, surrounding the head, but you can't see them in any of my photographs because they're really not all that exciting.  Oh, and the Autobot symbol.  I used that.

Stickers I didn't use include the small black stickers to stick up under Wreck-Gar's forehead, but I'd already painted that, so those weren't necessary.  He also comes with a bunch of faces and facial expressions you can paste over his toy's face, but... wow, no.  Never.  That'd be awful.

I'd completely forgotten that I'd gotten Weird Al's signature on my Wreck-Gar.  That was a fun rediscovery.

Here's some odds and ends that don't really fit into the Transformers Wiki's coverage.

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During the G.I. Joe portion of the introductory presentation, a memorial clip was shown that mourned the loss of Renegades character designer Clement Sauvé.  A piece of music was composed just for the presentation, a Sad Piano version of the Renegades theme song.  It was very touching and I'm glad they put that together.

Hasbro has a new Totally Not Lego brand coming out soon called "KRE-O," and this section was put in a tiny room away from everything else and heavily guarded.  No photographs were allowed.  Hasbro was afraid that somebody from LEGO might get inside and find out how to make construction bricks or something.  And then they put a bunch of photos of three of them in their press kits.  Well, yeah, sure, but now LEGO will never know that Hasbro is also making kits of Jazz, Ratchet, Prowl, Cliffjumper, Megatron, Sideswipe, and Sentinel Prime!

Crap.

Anyway, it looks really neat, and I will probably get Ratchet. I loves me some Ratchet.

Addendum: "KRE-O" must be pronounced as if you are Dr. Cliff Huxtable yelling at your son.  I've decided this.