In which I babble about my fan cannon, specifically about Double Punch

Who’s got two giant pinchers and always makes me think of Sid Vicous?
This guy.

For some reason I cannot think about Double Punch without mentally comparing him to Sid Vicous.
This guy.

I wish I could make more sense of it. I mean what do we really know about Double Punch? Well, he’s an arrogant prick who likes to destroy stuff and has a foul mouth. But wait, that’s pretty much Sid Vicous. Well, Sid Vicous also was a junkie and murdered his girlfriend, but let’s stop and think what a violent Decepticon like Double Punch might do when his glory days end.

Yeah, he just might become a junkie and murder his girlfriend.

What if he stole Wreck-Gars wife?

Her name was Nancy.

  These two are very similar in a lot of ways, if you think about it without breaking it down into to many details. That and if you think about it, Sid Vicous was all image and really just a moron. Double Punch might be a moron, but he gets things done. Sid was hired as a member of the Sex Pistols because he was a spectacle, they didn’t even plug in his bass. Double Punch is actually a threat. But when you put aside facts and go by urban legend, Sid was this uber badass who did what he wanted when he wanted. Which is what Double Punch actually is.

So, in my head, Double Punch is basically a competent version of Sid Vicous, who actually would have beaten up those cowboys instead of getting beat up by cowboys.

But he probably would still puke all over himself.

Crasher Review

Etsy Spotlight, Decepticon Soap

I have made joke after joke about the BO present amoung dorks. I myself have noticed myself smelling a little rank from time to time during a bout of forgot to shower-itis. Well my fellow robot loving nerds, I have a solution.

Etsy seller SoapLane has created a fine bar of soap featuring the sigil of our famed villians, the Decepticons. Now, what would that smell like? Oil? Metal? Weird cosmic radiation? Well, according to the order page it smells quite nice.

This deceptive surfactant cleansing compound is scented with notes of rain and ocean without forgetting hints of chaos and destruction.

Well that sounds great. So hey Transfans, let’s take off our hoodies and that old BotCon shirt (wash those too) and hop in the shower. I imagine a day where a TF fan gathering smells like rain and the ocean, instead of axe and ramen noodles.

The Godbomber paradox. Or why I loved the sweater in the store.

I love Powermaster Optimus Prime (PMOP). Yes he’s a brick, don’t care. He hails fictionally from the latter part of G1 (which is my favorite part of said era) and truly is where I first really started appreciating Optimus Prime (before he was just a cool toy and generic good guy in my eyes). He is my absolute favorite toy ever. Yes he’s a brick, still don’t care.

Seriously, why do people use the term brick as a reason to dislike a G1 toy? They were all bricks for the most part. It makes as much sense as discounting a Micromaster from 1990 on the basis that it doesn’t have the articulation of Sideburn, using the basis that technically it’s release in 2004 as part of Universe would mean it would be a more recent toy than the 2001 Sideburn.

That’s the kind of stupid you’ll find on the internet.

I digress.

Now why would a blog entry with Godbomber in the subject line be about Powermaster Optimus Prime? Well unless you are extremely new to the game, you would know about the Japanese incarnation of PMOP as Ginrai. If not, then read this, and then continue.

Well, like many other TF fans, first discovering information about the various Transformers animated series and toy lines in other countries was a rite of passage. When I found out about how my beloved PMOP was handled in Japan. I admit I was pretty turned off at first, I mean WTF right? Then shortly after I accepted it and actually learned to love Masterforce for it’s uniqueness in the world of TF fiction. After all, Decepticons making zombies that wear little shorty shorts and t shirts emblazoned with the Decepticon sigil. Comic dudes love the Beyonder and his whitey fro. Me, I like zombies in 80’s jogging gear.

So of course I found out about Godbomber, and to be honest, at first I thought he sounded great. Extra trailer for PMOP that turned into both a robot and armor for PMOP. This sounds great, why wasn’t it included in the American version? For that matter, why was the Japanese version of better quality? (at the time, things like price points and the economics that go into Transformers wasn’t a well versed subject of mine) I gotta get one. At the time, the pictures I would find online made Godbomber were usually kinda small and grainy. For all I could tell, he looked pretty decent. I had reasoned that I would score a Godbomber and combine him with my PMOP. Partially to save on the cost of a complete Ginrai set, and also part of my middle finger attitude towards the whole Ginrai/PMOP situation at the time.

At BotCon, I had my chance. See, local conventions in Atlanta have pretty much ignored Transformers until the 2007 movie. Of course since then they have jumped on the bandwagon, but before then TF stuff was kinda odd to find. Dreamwave comics popularity made for more t shirts, but that was about it. So I usually had to wait until I could attend a BotCon to view some of the more hard to find stuff (you could find a million Sunstreaker fists on ebay, but no Godbomber I tells ya).

So there I was, at BotCon and there it was… Star Saber!

Man that thing was awesome, completely overshadowed this blocky looking dude that turned out to be Godbomber. I mean, wow Godbomber was a mess. I wasn’t too turned off by that, because hey… he’s an accessory. Well, that was the general feeling until every dealer wanted a little over a power bill’s worth of cash for the damn accessory. 

Well I decided to pass on Godbomber for a few years based on what reality had presented me with. Not very long afterwards the whole God Ginrai gift set was reissued. Man, timing was perfect and thanks to timing I got it for $14 at Hobby Link Japan’s clearance sale. Man, Ginrai is really nice, man… Godbomber really sucks. Why did I want this so much? A little later Hasbro reissued Powermaster Optimus Prime and I jumped on it. The reissue was in fact just the God Ginrai gift set in American packaging. So now I had two God Ginrai gift sets, just one was Optimus with some blocky dude now named Apex Bomber. Man this PMOP was really nice, Apex Bomber really sucked.

So now I have two Godbombers, something that I once would have been ecstatic to say, now I’m just reluctant to point too. I still think I like my old PMOP better than the Ginrai set though. Not because of Godbomber, he is a kinda cool accessory that wasn’t executed well. Not because of the nice die cast metal and other features Ginrai offers. No, but because my old PMOP will always be the toy I had on my bookshelf next to my stereo. The classic PMOP will always be the robot I doodled on my Mead notebook instead of taking notes. Ginrai is just another dude, and the Apex Armor is just a new addition. PMOP will always be classic, and Godbomber is just a foot note I took a few minutes to blog about while stuck inside during a winter storm.

Have your own damn con within the next few weeks.

Guys, BotCon isn’t until summer , as is most other TF cons (or fall for Slagacon). I covered the idea of small fan events in my last blog, you know, during these long months between cons hold a small fan get together or two, that whole damn idea.  Well, I can’t believe while suggesting ideas, I forgot the most obvious opportunity coming right this damn way. 

Guys, the new Transformers Happy Meal starts Nov. 28th and the Transformers Prime miniseries starts on the 29th.

So there is so much damn opportunity RIGHT THERE!

Record some episodes, arrange a meet up at McDonald’s, everybody get Happy Damn Meals. Watch the episodes on a laptop or something. Follow up with some conversation about the new series, maybe some toy trading or buying. Somebody might bring their customs. Or hey, if anybody has WFC for DS, there could be a few multilayer matches.

Or hell, you could have some folks over at your house and everybody brings Happy Meals. But I figure a public place might work better. 

Hey, could be a damn fun time.