A Stroke Of Luck

For the recent holiday I got a four day weekend! Mostly because work is VERY slow right now, but I enjoyed having the time off so I'm not complaining.

Payday fell on this weekend also which for me, meant Transformer shopping time! I set out this weekend to find the new Arcee figure. As usual since the movie came out, all the stores were empty! I swear I'm gonna set up a tent in the toy aisle at my local Target and Toys R Us, and the first scalper who comes in trying to buy all the figures at once so he can sell them on eBay is going to get shot in the face!

Being that she's the only female autobot she sorta reminds me of Smurfette.

The stores were not actually empty, but the pickings were slim. There are two versions of the Arcee figure available and I saw several of the one that I already have. (Not to mention the '08 Bumblebee figure I spent so long searching for, it figures.) But that was about it. So after going to three stores I settled on another figure that caught my eye. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you Dropkick.


Although he comes in Transformers Movie packaging he's actually supposed to be a character from the new video game. I didn't care either way, it was love at first sight. He's a kick butt little figure!


So my wife and I headed home with me satisfied for the most part. Stacey was even so nice as to offer to buy me the $80 Ultimate Bumblebee figure because she felt sorry for me because I once again couldn't find what I was originally looking for. I thanked her but turned the offer down, I was satisfied with what I had and I really can't see spending 80 bucks on a Transformers toy that's not from the 80's. ($80 is a reasonable price for several of the old figures on eBay.)

On the way home we were passing a Super Kmart of all things and my wife asked me if I wanted to check there for the Arcee figure. I said what the heck and went in. They didn't have it either but they had the #1 toy on my wish list instead! The Titanium G1 Ultra Magnus! I snatched up the box as if there were a troop of Transformer geeks right behind me about to take it from me. (Actually I was the only one in the Toy aisle.)


I left the store in geek heaven, the Swedish Bikini team could have passed me by and I wouldn't have noticed. I've been looking for this figure for months to no avail. My wife said it was a wonder I wasn't tearing the box open in the car before we made it home.

As I said before in another post this figure most accurately portrays the way the character appears in the original 80's cartoon. As with all Titanium figures he's not very posable, being that he was meant primarily to be a display piece. And once I transformed it into vehicle mode I realized that they had sacrificed some of it's accuracy in favor of providing the much better robot mode.


Overall it's a great little figure for a collector but not really something that you'd want to buy for a kid because it's a little too delicate. On a scale of 1-10 I'd give it an 8 just because of it's accurate portrayal of Ultra Magnus.

Ultra Magnus saying "Hi" to the rest of the boys.

Transformers, babies, and internet withdrawl

First off let me just say that Stacey and I are NOT about to have a baby yet. I know that some family (You know who you are!) might read the title and jump to conclusions. I repeat, there's NO BABY on the way. Maybe someday, but not right now.

Now the reason I bring up babies is because Stacey and I have just spent the last half hour talking about possible baby names that we might like. (I think her biological clock is ticking on me folks, she's been bringing up babies all weekend.) At first we were seriously trying to find names we might like, but after about 15 minutes or so this degenerated to just plain ugly or funny names. Names such as Elmer Fudd, Brad Pitt, Optimus Prime and so on.

So even though Stacey rolled her eyes at the idea, I thought I'd put the question to you, constant reader, and see if you had any good ideas for our future children! So if you know any good ones or just plain funny ones leave them in the comments for us.



Second, today is the last day that my beautiful bride is fasting from the internet. It's been hard for her but I think she's going to make it. There were a few times I had to talk her away from the keyboard but she's holding out ok for the moment. I tell ya, this weekend it hasn't been pretty! First she was just a little crabby and I thought nothing of it. But I knew things were getting bad when my baby started getting the shakes. I later saw how ugly it could really become when I found her curled up under the computer desk in a fetal position clutching the mouse. She kept repeating, "Just my email! Just my email!" :)

Seriously though I'm VERY proud of my beautiful bride. I know the the weekend has been especially hard for her to abstain from the computer because that's her time to really unwind and just have fun. Instead, Stacey worked in the front yard with me helping to remove some particularly ugly bushes that she's hated since we moved in here.

However I think Geo was right when he said that I might not get the computer for a month when she goes back online. She just told me that if she even wakes up in the middle of the night tonight that she IS going to check her email! More power to ya sweetie.

And finally I have to mention Transformers. (GASP! Who'd a thunk it!? Me, talking about Transformers?!) Yep it's true, as I read someone else on the net refer to them as "plastic crack". I think it's totally true I just wish that I had thought of it first!

So, last night I was on my favorite Transformers web site and I found out there was going to be a comic and toy convention right here near my house! At first I said that I wouldn't go because I'd bought so many toys the last week or two. But this morning I just couldn't help myself so I hopped in the car and raced to the show!

I spent WAY too much money and after the beating that my wife gave me I'll be lucky if I'm walking again by Christmas! But I'd have to say that the collector in me thinks that it was well worth it. I got several figures that I'd been wanting for a long time.

Yes that's right I bought SEVEN more Transformers! Because I don't have nearly enough now.

While I was at the show I ran into a friend I know from Ypsilanti who works at a comic shop. We always talk Transformers when I go to buy my comics and he had his own table at the show selling his extra figures.

To my surprise he gave me an awesome deal on a rare Transformer figure that I never expected to get. It's name is Ratbat. It's very hard to find this guy intact because he's so delicate and the "ears" of the figure are almost always missing when I see it on eBay. But my buddy sold the figure to me for a fraction of what I'd have had to pay on eBay. To tell the truth he sold it to me cheaper than I could get it from ANYWHERE I think.

"Look Maw! I got EARS!!"

This now raises the count of figures to 267 folks! So needless to say I came home broke but a very happy geek-boy. Ahem, geek-man. :)