UPDATE: Vote HERE

Today (Monday), Transformers fans are called to flock to transformers.com to vote on five nominees for the new Transformers Hall of Fame.  Hasbro automatically inducted Optimus Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, and Starscream, because, really, let's get those guys out of the way, and they left the fifth inductee this year up to us.  The winner will be announced at BotCon.

Last month, a bunch of participating websites, including the Transformers Wiki, held separate polls to get their own lists of five worthy Transformers.  The results were sent in, and Hasbro used these results to create a list of five final nominees, the ones we'll be voting on today.  The first five were pretty obvious:  Soundwave, Grimlock, Jazz, and Shockwave.  The fifth I imagine was a surprise, as this week's TNI strip addresses.  It's Dinobot!  Some guy from friggin' Beast Wars who hasn't appeared in any other series!  He showed up on almost everybody's lists, and was the #1 choice from the Transformers Wiki.

This is because Dinobot is awesome.

(Though not everybody thinks so.  Some folks from TFW2005 were very adamant that Dinobot was shoved into the Nominee list by Hasbro, as part of some underhanded coup, because Hasbro hates the fans, because nobody would vote for Dinobot!  Nobody!)

Of course, I don't think he's going to win.  He doesn't have a chance in hell against Soundwave.  Dinobot may win some local polls at certain websites, but we're talking general transformers.com traffic here.  Soundwave's got it locked.  But a man can still dream, and I'm still voting Dinobot.  (Well, when the poll on transformers.com goes up sometime today.)

I've, uh, probably exhausted my well of Dinobot toy photos, especially recently, what with me trying to get every use of his mold ever together in one spot.  But there is one thing I know I definitely haven't photographed for this blog, or photographed period for about 15 years.  In 1997, disappointed with Dinobot's toy (what was wrong with me???), I bought a blue 5" Iron Man figure, covered him with sculpey and paint and called it a day.  His rigid grill structure's kinda broken off and he's been at the bottom of  a toy bin for a decade, but other than the paint wear that resulted, he's still in surprisingly good condition.

So enjoy this little bit of personal action figure history.  In 1997, Dinobot was a big part of my world.  In 2010, even though he hasn't appeared in a television series since then, he still is.  That's why I'm voting for him.

Starting Monday, a new storyline: "Vote Chopperface."

I went back to see if that Batgirl/Nightwing/Penguin three-pack was still at that Target.  It was!  Everything I'd left behind was still there.  Am I the last person alive still looking for these things?  Since these toys should be impossible to find, much less leave unattended for 24 hours, I'm starting to think so.

AND OH MY GOD I'M WATCHING COMMUNITY RIGHT NOW AND IT IS THE BEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN EVER

(Note: in the photos, all the old versions are on the left and the new versions are on the right)

I bought this set because Batgirl comes with a stand.  The Batgirl I had was an exclusive extra for the Rise of Sin Tsu video game.  It's the only release in her "real" colors.  (Kinda dickish.)  But she has gimpy legs (continuity nod?), a crazy look on her eyes, and no peghole in her foot for a stand.  This new version solves two of those problems!  Gimpy legs remain, but her paint is better on her face, meaning she looks less like she wants to eat your brains, plus a peghole in her foot and a stand!  A stand!  A STAND!  Hallelujah, she'll be able to stand.  Out of all the myriad of DCAU toys in my collection, she is the not-standiest.

And, hey, as a bonus, her paint is better.  I like the thicker, more defined symbol and belt, and I guess her taller boots are all right.  The back of her cape's blue instead of black, which isn't what I prefer, but small price to pay.   (Unlike what JLU three-packs cost these days.)

The other two guys aren't as much of an improvement.  With Nightwing, you can really tell the difference in plastic quality between when I got him probably a decade and now.  The new one is more rubbery, so he came out of the package all bent and unstandable.  I borrowed my old Batgirl's sticky-tack for his photo.  His bird deco on his chest is also narrower so it doesn't require paint on his arms, which probably costs extra.  On the other hand, I like the color his skin is painted better.  But I'll probably still choose the old one for display since he stands and because I like his bird deco better.

The Penguin is basically the same other than some deco choices.  The bottom of his shirt is a darker gray and instead of molding his head in fleshtone and painting black, his head is molded in black and his skin is painted on.  This might be an improvement (for those who don't like shiny fleshtone plastic) if the paint didn't thin up by his forehead.  It doesn't look so good.  So I'll keep using the old one.

In summary: Noncrazy Batgirl who can stand.

I totally found new Justice League Unlimited single-packs and three-packs at Target this morning!  Does this stuff happen anymore?  It was a Christmas miracle.

In single-pack land, there were retro-Brainiac and Kandor Superman and Asian The Atom.  ...Of brow-raising note, the customary screen captures on the back of The Atom's card seemed to photoshop The Atom into having the new guy's costume.  Sneaky!

The three-packs included the Penguin/Batgirl/Nightwing set that I'd forgotten about, which I considered briefly despite having all those guys, and a Superman/Weather Wizard/Livewire set.  I guess it's a set that celebrates the "Fuck Superman" group from that episode in which he dies, since the two villains are members of it.  What I really want is a friggin' Toyman.  He was in that group!  But he's not an easy repaint, so he'll continue to get sidelined.

Despite my grousing, I am legitimately happy to get two new villains.  A new Flash villain is always wanted and... yeah, Livewire is a new villain.  God, I hate Livewire.  I want to bash in her throat with a sledgehammer so she can never speak again.  I can't stand her voice.  Or her character.  Her last name's pretty cool, though.

Three-pack dudes basically never get accessories.  Accessories typically only come with the single-packed dudes.  And yet, Weather Wizard comes with his little dildo wand, which is the source of all of his powers.  ALL of his powers.  He's not the Weather Wizard without it, he's just Dorkily-Dressed Grown Man Man.  He's not even a good hand-to-hand fighter or anything!  So I like to think the inclusion of his accessory is an acknowledgement of his inherent lameness.

If I ever see the Nightwing/Batgirl/Penguin set again (ha!) I might pick it up.  I forgot to examine the packaging to see if Batgirl's been retrofitted with a foot peghole and a stand.  That would be worth the purchase.  My current Batgirl DOES NOT STAND.  You have to bury her waist-deep in sticky-tack to keep her from keeling over.

Yesterday I mentioned that Soundwave was the first of five nominees for the Transformers Hall of Fame.  Nominee number 2 is Grimlock, who is equally unsurprising.  I mean, yeah, once voting opens, Soundwave has this locked up, but Grimlock is the only guy who could possibly ever steal it from him.  Even though he won't.

Just like Soundwave's Hall of Fame bio, Grimlock's also drops some new information about him.  His speech impediment has been explained various ways before.  In the Marvel stuff, he didn't talk right because talking right was for prissy losers.  He talked badly because he wanted to.  In the original cartoon, he didn't talk very well because he was a primitive creation of Wheeljack.  (In fact, one could say that without a trip to Vector Sigma to endow him with life, he wasn't actually truly alive, but merely a complex machine.)

The Hall of Fame bio claims that his speech is fucked up because Scorponok damaged his voice processor during a battle.  Well, okay, let's add that one to the pile, I guess.

Hopefully, Dinobot will be tomorrow's nominee.  If not, I may be kind of fucked (I'll explain later), but if he is revealed to be a nominee sometime this week, I wonder what crazy retconned trivia we'll learn about him.  Is he Megatron's son?  Did he earn his rigid grill structure for pulling off a successful heist?  Will we finally learn what a steses pod is?

Who knows.  Other than us, potentially sometime tomorrow morning.

Oh my merciful lord, I actually have a new toy to talk about!

My Recon Ravage arrived in the mail today, the one I sent away for with my proofs of purchase and shipping and handling and what have you a number of months ago.  Yay, mail-in toy exclusive!  (For the US, anyway.  Elsewhere he's exclusive to Toys"R"Us.)   He comes in a big white cardboard box with N.E.S.T. markings, with a letter from Optimus Prime and a coupon inside.

He's friggin' pretty, is what he is.  The colors are stolen from the Voltron Black Lion, and used to great effect with the chrome-plated silver they gave him.  This is just plain-ol' vaccum-metalized chrome with no additional coloring, so I can rest easy that it's not gonna spiderweb and flake off.  Other chrome-related hazards may happen in due time, but flaking is crossed off the list.

(Oh, hey, and he's retooled a tiny bit.  There used to be an extra joint in his tail, a tiny balljoint just above the middle hinge.  It's gone now.  Guess tails were popping off too much?  It was kind of an inconvenience on the original version of the mold, and the articulation added little.)

And, hey, guess what, he's a Mini-Con.  What, you say!  Today Hasbro began unveiling the five fan-choice nominees for their new Transformers Hall of Fame, and Soundwave was nominee #1.  (Surprise!)  He got a entirely new bio for the occasion, and, uh, hey, his little animal partners are apparently Mini-Cons now.  Ha ha.  Weird, but not something that bothers me.  In fact, the impotent rage from others who ARE bothered will be fun enough in itself.  I'm an asshole like that.

So.  Biggest Mini-Con toy ever?  Naw, I guess that'd be Alternators Ravage.

Hey, everyone, I'm back!  Penguicon was great!  My next con is in two weeks in New Jersey, at WildPig with Randy Milholland (Something*Positive), Daniel Corsetto (Girls With Slingshots) and others!  Mark your calendars.

Check me out in my mini-booth, looking like I've just gotten up and eaten 30 bagels.  How do I find the time to both collect toys and eat so much?  Hmm.

The "Relationshipocalypse" storyline is over, and I hope everyone enjoyed it!  Lord, I love writing Amber and Mike like nothing else, and from the things people were telling me at Penguicon, I'm not alone in being enthralled by their twisted little romance.

Here's the way April 9th's comic originally ended.  I thought Amber'd been a little too naked recently at her expense, so I redrew the last panel at a different angle.  Also, I figgered it'd be funnier if we didn't actually see her and Mike in the act.  The mind can come up with way more compromising positions than my PG-13(ish) strip is allowed to portray, so...

Plus I got that extra little punchline!

Aha!  I remembered to get a TNI strip done while at the convention this weekend.  However, I brought an uncharged camera and no charger, so today's strip is brought to you by the good graces of Chris Hallbeck (The Book of Biff), who took a photo for me yesterday and emailed it to me when he got home for the night.

The Sunday dealer room at Penguicon is only open four hours (11 - 3) so this'll be a quick day. Then I'll be packing up and starting the 3-4 hour drive home.  My thanks to everyone who came to visit me this weekend.

Here's a quick question: Is there interest in me going to TFCon in Toronto?  It's the weekend before San Diego Comic-Con, which makes me pause, but it might be interesting to do.  Let me know if there's Canadian demand for me up there.

Looong ago there was a Roomies! miniseries that published not on my old itswalky.com site, but at Keenspot.com as a "Special Event" sort of thing.  Once I moved from Keenspot, it disappeared and I sorta forgot about it.

So let's  put these back out there again.  There's 30 strips in the story, so every Saturday night I'll publish five of 'em.  Tonight, you'll see the first five.

Context: It's 2001, a few years after Roomies! ended, we haven't seen them for a while, and the cast are about to graduate college.  As usual, Danny's being angsty, Joe's being horny, Billie's being violent, and Mary's being... repentant?  Huh.

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Seeya next Saturday night!