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Topics - ARROW

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25
Items Wanted / ARROW's want list:
« on: November 09, 2011, 11:31:24 AM »
Hi all--
I'm looking for the following items, trade or cash offered.


Figures:
Looking for a Defence of Cobra Island LAMPREY figure. Don't need the stand or weapon, just the figure. ( yeah, I'm jonesing to crew that above mentioned MORAY with modern figures ;-) )

**Updated, found Moray parts needed. Just need a Lamprey.

26
The \'Show\' Room / With new bookcases, comes....
« on: October 15, 2011, 05:20:01 PM »
My wife and step-son got me some new bookcases, for my office/studio space at home, and so i set about putting up some of the collection. Only managed to get less than a 1/10th of it all on display.






















27
General Joe Talk / Renegades Duke and Snake-eyes review.
« on: October 05, 2011, 11:45:11 PM »
Well.................
Bought the 30th Ann. Renegades Duke and Snake-Eyes today from my LCS. I've seen reviews on these figures before ( General Joes), and I wanted to share some thought/opinions.

I knew what they were going in, but really.......having them in hand, my impressions are:


Meh.

 They seem like after-thoughts, these two. Firefly and Cobra Commander ( who I passed on) seem more like they are derivative from the cartoon, whereas Duke and SE seem like a late-hour course correction. The sculpts are very much POC-like ( which isn't necessarily a bad thing.)
SE is an okay figure, probably on par with the Resolute SE-but he's a PALE shadow of the POC Wave 3 SE.
I guess the feelings bore out, after that Wave 3 figure........any following SE really was going to come in 2nd place.

Duke...........well.............
POC Wave 3 Duke was a snoozer, if one buys the common opinion.
I thought differently, but that is because I kitbashed my Duke into a winner. ( Recipe: dump all of Dukes gear from this set, take VvV Crosshairs vest and add to Duke, add the belt gear and then POC Recondo's SCAR rifle. Instant "hero"-Duke), but not everyone has done that with their figure.
Renegades Duke is just kinda bland, as is.

And therein lays the potential saving grace to these figures: as is they are tepid. But go on a kitbashing binge with them and there's probably going to be some sweet outcomes there. I think most of the sparkle that can be added is new/different weapon choices. The Renegades guns..........well, they don't jibe well with the rest of the sculpt. Sure the weapons are true to the cartoon, but they are so plain its not even funny.

Duke and SE are okay.............but just okay. Mine are going to be used as vehicle crew. They don't stand-out as figures, so I'll make good use of them on Vamps or other rides.
I'm not let-down by them, but I'm not dazzled by them either.

28
U.S. & International / Fargo, North Dakota
« on: October 02, 2011, 01:21:52 PM »
Found plenty of wave 1 30th Ann. series Joes at the Walmart beside the TRU in Fargo, this weekend. Lots of all figures there. TRU had the same assortment, but less of each on the pegs. TRU had about 3 of the skystrikers on the shelves.

29
Off Topic / Because this is cool, and you will like it.
« on: September 08, 2011, 06:24:03 PM »
http://www.jonnyquest.tv/

This made me smile, a blast from my childhood past, writ recently in fan-made stop motion...........and its GOOD!

30
All Across Canada / 30th Joes starting to appear
« on: September 07, 2011, 05:01:22 PM »
Now, don't get TOO excited, folks.....yet.
Local comic shops and specialty collector stores that carry Joes should have the first 30th wave in stores today. My LCS had them ( Prairie province) and I picked up three: Stalker, Viper and Hazard-Viper.
Also, my spy-inside TRU told me that " a new assortment" of Joes is due sometime soon at TRU. This could be the 30th wave appearing on or around the reported Sept 20 street date.

Some folks bemoan not being able to find these at say.....Walmart, and yes this news is not in that light. BUT if you have a LCS near you, check them out. If you have a TRU, stand by for further heads-ups.

31
General Joe Talk / Its the little things....
« on: September 02, 2011, 02:12:54 PM »
So I was reading some of the latest Q&A responses, ( not all sites have theirs up yet), and turned my attention to the LAST round of Q&A--a couple months ago.
An therein I learned something about a figure that had been bothering me.

POC Iron Grenadier, more specifically his "smart gun".

From TRM( bold is mine):
Quote
1) Is there an additional swivel arm piece missing from the Iron Grenadier smart gun? The one that comes with Destro doesn't seem to work in its place.

Answer: No, the two parts do actually work with the Iron Grenadier cannon. I have one on my desk right now in the proper configuration. However, it was packed separately and the fit may not be perfectly tuned in, as the IG cannon was not intendend to use the linkage from Urban Destro. It was meant to be a freely carried cannon with an underslung ammo box. The hole on the side is a standard 3mm hole used in our figures (such as Duke Urban Assault and Shadow Tracker) and can be used to customize this weapon.

Well, I just grabbed my IG figure, grabbed the smaller ammo box and promptly slid it into the gap between the tab on the underside of the barrel, and the block on the underside of the receiver.  AND BY GOLLY IT FITS!

I knew there was sumthin' I was missing!

32
General Joe Talk / Where's the "feeling"?
« on: August 01, 2011, 06:55:10 PM »
Last year, close to this time ( actually closer to the end of August) POC started coming out.
And with those figures there was new and distinctive feeling.........almost a flavour that ( I think) could be felt.
Something unexpected, novel.......exotic even..........almost tangible when one picked up the figures for the first time.

But its gone, or largely missing......even watered-down now. I'm just not feeling it much with the latest stuff any more.

The first 3-4 waves of POC had some boldness to them. Duke, Beachhead, Zartan, Dusty...........Hasbro took things off in a new direction. A new flavour, again, if you will.
Wave  5 & 6 did not have that. The upcoming waves don't have that.
I think the mistake is that they are up-dating characters, not re-interpreting them. I LOVE Jungle Duke, the City Strike Beachhead etc.
And although I like Lowlight, Blowtorch, the coming Sci-Fi, Airtight, Lifeline etc.......the flavour just isn't there.

Yeah, it was nice getting an updated Crazy-legs........nice figure too, by the way, but......really........so what?
 Being just a filler figure, a cheap way to re-purpose mostly existing parts into something "new", there's a bit of a betrayal there. POC started out as something with loads of imagination to it. Different ways of thinking about the characters...........and then it just sort of.....petered.............out.
The upcoming stuff largely seems to confirm that, with some exceptions ( Data0Viper!!) and some of those are not even certain.

Make no mistake, I AM NOT one of those voices calling for updated. I just don't care much about them--even if they are done spectacularly. They do not spark my imagination, nor fuel my interest. POC was interesting and exciting because, at the start, it was DARING. But with the assortments heavy on up-dated characters over all-new interpretations.....I think its missing something.

I'm just not feeling it.

33
General Joe Talk / Crysis 2 figures.
« on: June 09, 2011, 06:49:27 PM »
Pick up these Crysis 2 4" figures today from my LCS--a CELL trooper and Nomad for $9.99 each--and I gotta say these things are pretty nice value for the dollar.
Decently articulated, some good accessories ( albeit a tiny part or two that I cannot figure out WHAT the heck they are) and each coming with a tripod mounted heavy weapon.
These are NOT GIJOE quality ( close, but not quite there), the paint apps can be a bit sloppy, and the articulation is a bit less than a 25th Joe--but they are in scale and they offer some really neat looking extras. I think they will fit in just fine with the Joes.
I took a chance on them, and I'm pleasantly surprised by them.

34
General Joe Talk / POC Wave 5 & 6-first impressions;
« on: June 03, 2011, 02:09:59 AM »
Okay, I don't have all of them-I cherry picked some of these at my LCS, as I have all of these on order with a friendly dealer I know ( Hub City)
I have
Wave 5: General Hawk
COBRA Commander
Wave 6:
 Crazy Legs
Iron Grenadier
Rock-Viper

My thoughts:
There's been other commentary on these already, and I'm not going to repeat the griping sentiments about re-used parts......as, well........I just don't share them.

Iron Grenadier is just City Strike Destro with a different gun. And backpacks. On the face of it, one might think that there's not a whole lot to recommend about this figure because of the re-use but I think this figure just works. I like the head on this, but moreso I LOVE the gold paint apps on the faceplate.The smart gun is really nice too--but I get this odd nagging impression that SOMETHING else is supposed to snap onto it--maybe one of the back packs. Gonna have to fiddle with this to see for sure.

Rock Viper..........bought him on a hunch.......and hunch proved right. Figure is meh. I love the scoped weapon he has--the rest is bleh. I really disliked the helmet he has, and there in I played my hunch. I swapped the helmet for a POC Alley Viper Helmet--but I removed the visor first.......and bingo. It made the look. The deep terracotta colour of the AV helmet is close enough to the colour on the chest pouches that it does not look out of place, and it gives the figure a more exotic look. I'm keeping him that way.

 Crazy Legs is a solid figure, but I'm wondering if his goggles were placed on UPSIDE DOWN. the art shows them the same way as on the figure--with the hollow space between the lenses as "up" and the band between them as "down".......but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. The how area is where the bridge of the nose should rest under the goggles--were they worn on the face. Well despite the card art, I went with my common sense here and put them on the "right" ( my) way. I really think he needs his original weapon from the RAH version--and I'm now on the hunt for one.


Cobra Commander-Another solid figure. My step-son bought one as well, and his had a left arm that broke just seconds after taking it out of the package. sheered off at the pin into the upper arm. I traded him my good sample and kitbashed a hybrid with my ROC CC figure. I like CC like this but its the head, vestéjacket and cape that really make the figure.

General Hawk--love the card art. Figure is okay--actually its the most interesting all-new sculpt in the bunch. Having the figure in hand confirmed my first impressions on seeing the press photos--I still feel thing figure should have been an updated Grunt, instead of Gen Hawk. There's nothing about him that says " General" to me, and I get more of a lower ranking soldier feel out of him. And the beauty of is that I can do that if I want to. As such, I think he's a rockin' figure and easily my fav of the batch I have thus far.

These are decent figures, despite their filler nature. They are sensible choices, sensibly executed. That one small helmet change to the Rock Viper made that figure, and my hybrid CC doesn't suffer for not being the one that came off the card. even if he'd remained intact, he would have been a fine "bog standard" CC. I can see myself buying another Iron Grenadier, just to flank Destro along with the other IG. Crazy Legs could have benefited  from a more authentic weapon choice, but the H&K sub gun he comes with works fine for him.
I'm liking them all.

35
Reviews Section / Its WORSE than the Mole-Pod....
« on: April 27, 2011, 01:50:42 PM »
With a header like that, you just know this isn't going to be a favourable review.
And as much maligned as the Mole-pod is, there is, in my opinion, something else out there that is truly worse......the ugly red-headed bastard step-child of the GIJOE toy-line.

It makes the Road Toad look like a Formula One race car.

Beware...........I present to you:

The Neutralizer.

Such deep spite I hold for this thing, this review will be sans photos. This toy doesn't deserve pictures.
Found in 2004, in the Valor vs Venom line, it slunk in alongside the Battle Hornet, another toy that got little love, but for some reason doesn't scrape the depths that the Neutralizer hits.

Now........I admit..........I bought this thing. I paid full retail for it..........cash.  And I got it home and the lustre peeled off it like layers off an onion. The longer I held it and stared at it, the greater and more profound the buyer's remorse grew.
The ONLY good thing about this set was the figure, and then only the helmet the figure had.
The rest sucked........bad.

The vehicle is just.......weird.  Not goofy weird, in that special, beloved GIJOE kind of way, but a weird "I-don't-know-what-the-hell-I'm-doing" design kind of way.
Lets dissect this thing starting from the ground up.........

Its got this track system with these HUGE road wheels--like something out of WW2. This vehicle is barely a 2-man job and its got road wheels that are better suited for a vehicle the size of the Patriot Grizzly. Over-engineered. Much.
Then right above those is the main gun...........a FIXED main gun. Not a turreted gun, but fixed to the hull........meaning that in "real-life" the tank ( a term used loosely) would have to steer to aim the gun. Worse, these guns do NOT ELEVATE. Not only do they not swivel, they do not raise or lower either.
Ouch.
On top of THAT are two separate gun emplacements for two smaller machine guns........each in their own mounting.
Think about that for a second.

The firing position is for ONE person, and there's two SEPARATE weapons mounted at that position that can swing about to engage the enemy.

So...........which one do you pick?  Get it now? They are not mounted together, so you swing one or the other.

Why is that there?
Then there is the cab.  Y'all remember the STUN.......the HAVOC??  The poor sod sitting waaaaaaaaay up there, in the line of fire to everyone in sight? All that weaponry and armour underneath him? The Neutralizer does the same thing.
Armoured from the waist down, the driver/gunner is exposed from the waist up--there's not even room for them to sit down lower in the thing. They stand out there naked to any decent sniper..........but their nethers and their ankles will survive to fight on in another battle!
That's how it should be, no??

There's a rear facing seat, another dopey gun facing back, a radar dish, and...................look, this thing is what happens when a bathtub thinks its a tank.
Its a product of "no bad idea left behind", a true mechanical mort.
Let me brazenly say that I bought it, so you never have to.

I know you are curious now, I figure that some of you are even intrigued.

Don't be. This one truly sucks.

36
Off Topic / So............I'm looking to buy a Blue-Ray player.....
« on: April 02, 2011, 09:04:24 PM »
Hi Folks......

I'm soliciting opinions ( based on personal experiences) on good quality Blu-ray players.

Now, first thing I want to stipulate is that I do NOT want a PS3--I've had that recommended to me already by about 4 people, and I refuse to get one of those machines.
Reason being: I do not play console games, so the game system is useless to me.........and my kids prefer to play Xbox360. That and I simply do not want to buy a console platform and start all over with different ( or worse, the same) games. That and I don't want to pay $300 for the dang thing.

I don't care about 3D.
I have a LG 47" LCD HD flatscreen for the tv.
Receiver is a Shaw HD satellite receiver--we do NOT get cable. We get a wi-fi internet from a nearby tower.
I am NOT interested in Netflix, because our current wi-fi router is spotty when it comes to streaming.

I have a budget of about $200, or less ( preferably less) in mind for this.


Has anyone come across a reliable, easy to use, good quality Blu-ray player?

Thank you for any and all input.

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