karamazov80

I know that at least 2 different Red Skulls were released from the Marvel Legends line, so the apparent non-Nazi stigma of DST certainly doesn't carry over to Toy Biz. If DST is only offended by the swastika, they could release the Skull in his modern, non-Nazi garb (like the figure from the Face-Off pack).

Nintendo has done this a lot with their big-name games in the past (relating to Zelda and Mario, particularly). The good thing about it is that it allows them to fix any quirks in the game, and to make sure that it is super-polished (unlike XBox games, which typically get rushed and have to get updated every few weeks through XBL to fix the bugs). But it is a little annoying. It seems like they would err on the side of having a later release date than they expect, rather than an early one which inevitably gets pushed back

That is excellent! I'm not sure that a DST-designed Conan could look better. I can't help thinking, though, that the massive axe from Ares seems like a natural weapon to go in his other hand (if it would fit. . .).

There are a few good games for the PSP, but if you want a hand-held system, I think the DS outranks it in terms of having great games. Its probably my favorite system that I own (next to my NES-compatible Yobo, of course).

Starscream was always my favorite character from the cartoon, but the no transformation thing is a tough one for me to overcome for a "Transformer," so I'm not sure I'll get this (though it does look great). Regarding size, for the longest time I considered getting a Revoltech Megatron to go with my TF Classics figures (since he looks a heck of a lot more toon-accurate than Classics Megatron). But he's smaller than the seeker toys, and that is unacceptable for Megs.

I don't have a PSP. . .but if I did, I would most definitely get Power Stone, Metal Gear: Portable Ops, Castlevania: Dracula X, and that Mega Man game.

One observation, though: ?

Shame on you, Night Trap! At least it will never appear on a Nintendo system! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHvrFClZeoM

Personally, I put his bow in his right hand, and then I very carefully place the arrow in my large zip-lock bag storing excess Minimate accessories.

That's just wacky. . .and this whole story seems so convoluted. I thought the X-comics were confusing back when Chris Claremont was writing them. Sheesh.

The Konami connection with Snake gives me hope for a Contra or Castlevania character, and Mega Man might be a pipe dream, but that would round out the group of core, iconic NES characters that I would want to see (excluding, perhaps, Little Mac and Luigi). Some more Pokemon's, huh? yay. . .

I just got a Wii for my birthday, and I'm super-psyched about Smash Brothers (though I'm just going to assume, so that I don't get disappointed, that they're going to delay it again for another several months). Anybody have any guesses as to extra playable characters that haven't yet been announced? I would be as "happy as a little girl" if we could get Megaman, Simon Belmont, and Bill or Lance from Contra. . .

Well, that went without saying, of course. What a beauty.

I wonder, depending on the success of the series, if the 4th movie might not be altered to follow from its story moreso than from Terminator 3? Also, I love the battle damaged Terminator Winkerbean. I knew that Sandman would be good for something!

I just saw the IGN video review for Burnout Paradise. You know what would probably make that game better? If you could shoot different types of turtle shells at other cars. If somebody made a racing game like that, I would probably buy it.

If TM2 sends me some Minimates, I might consider forming a pact to vote off buttheadsmate instead. . .

I never cared one way or the other about Itunes until I received a little Ipod shuffle for my birthday last year. I really only use my Ipod when I go jogging, when I'm riding my bike, or when I'm traveling (and its great for those purposes). However, Itunes has really grown on me. Now, I wouldn't recommend buying anything from the Itunes store, mind you (b/c its in this stupid file format that can't be used by any other program), but the program itself is a great way to have all of your music in one place without having to hassle with CDs. Discs load fast and automatically on my Itunes whenever I put them in the tray, and so I've got nearly all of my CDs there, and its like the largest multi-CD changer of all time. Plus, you can organize your songs to play however you want. More generic mp3 players like Windows Media Player could probably essentially do the same thing, but Itunes makes it really simple and efficient (and whenever I upgrade to one of those 160 gig Ipods or whatever, it will be a simple, easy way to tote all my music around). That's my take on the whole thing, anyway.

No, no, I just thought that maybe I didn't have some of the information that you did. If you knew that Doc was being released widely, then I would consider selling my points (you can get a goodly amount for them on eBay). Though you do have a point. Doc is really just a repaint of existing Joes with a new head sculpt (that has been the case for most Joes released at this point), so its not like he's that original, anyway. Plus, Hasbro does love to do "comic" repaints, etc., so I wouldn't be overly shocked if we see this guy pop up in a comic two pack colored brightly in the future. And you are also right that the fans will be pissed, regardless, and will probably keep doing what they have to to get exclusives, regardless of how bad they feel screwed. However, it seems like a lot of people are buying the 2 packs just for those stickers (I'm not one of them--I want all the different characters ), and those guys would be particularly pissed if Hasbro made them jump through hoops and then told them they didn't need to. If only people were less serious about collecting. I could not get paid enough to deal with the madness of SDCC or something similar--with people basically trampling each other for toys. Seriously.

I think that God Magnus is right. Further, I think that celebrities, including politicians and athletes, often become symbols that we identify ourselves with. If you feel that John Coltrane, Desmond Tutu, or Ingmar Bergman understands things the way that you do for instance, represents these parts of yourself to others, and/or perhaps exemplifies what you hope that you can be in some way, then like Magnus says, you develop emotional attachments as if you really knew these people, and you feel for these people when bad things happen to them. I think Ledger's acting in some of his more recent work, particularly, could have impacted people in this way.

Whoops, I usually look at "New Posts," so I'm unfamiliar with the categories--I thought that this fell into the "everything that doesn't fit below" category. If some mod reads this, please move it wherever it belongs. Again, if someone with the power to do so reads this, please add a category for "0"--I don't want to discriminate against the haters out there.

I was just noticing my obscene amount of music on Itunes, and was wondering what other forum members might have in the way of songs. At the moment, mostly transferred from my own CDs and the mp3s that I've accumulated over the years, I've got 4,971 songs, and over 13.4 days worth of music, taking up 17.41 gigs of memory on my rinky-dink, $350 computer. It is ridiculous. . .but I'm betting somebody here can beat me

Baned? Do you mean that your spine was broken?

I love 80s pop music. Would be awesome if they had released a Huey Lewis figure instead of a Marty variant for one of the BTTF packs. . . .since I'm thinking about 80s musicians in film, how about DST work on getting the rights to a Danny Elfman figure from Weird Science, Sting from Dune, Prince from Purple Rain, Tom Waits from Down by Law or Rumblefish, Debbie Harry from Videodrome, and of course, Olivia Newton-John from Xanadu! Then they could do start doing actors who briefly "acted" like musicians: Patrick Swayze, Bruce Willis, Don Johnson, Eddie Murphy. . .

Why do you think that we will get a regular release of Doc? The feeling on the Joe boards that I frequent, based on Hasbro's recent experience with Joe exclusives, is that this will be it. Plus, it really wouldn't make a lot of sense for Hasbro to eventually release this widely, as it would sour a lot of people from trying to get "exclusives" in the future (why spend 60 bucks to get an exclusive if it eventually becomes available to anyone that just wanted to shell out 6 bucks or whatever?). On another point related to Doc, do you guys know about this? http://www.gijoeclub.com/images/Redemption_Form-502.jpg 50 battle points for an extra Doc with 6 stickers (up to 3 extras allowed)--really makes the pursuit of these stickers more worthwhile, in my opinion. Regarding the 2-packs generally, I'm fairly ambivalent. I'm glad that we are getting some of the new figures at all (don't care too much about the "comic" repaints, though), and I really like Breaker, but I'm less enthusiastic about the Dreadnoks and Hawk. And based on the pics, I'm not really excited about the Crimson Twins, either. The quality on many of these seems to be below that of the single packs somehow. . .

Some are easier than others to get. The 2 you mention (I'm assuming the helmeted Cobra Commander) were first available in separate 5 packs which costed from $25-30 each--those are pretty easy to find. More recently, wave 4 of the single carded figures had each of those figures released on its own (5-6 dollars each). However, that wave has been really hard to find in some places (including where I live). Your cheapest bet would probably be to buy those 2 guys loose from the 5 pack, as a lot of people bought the 5 packs and have sold the individual figures separately on eBay (particularly Cobra Commander, b/c people bought the Cobra pack just to army build the Trooper that came with it). If you can't find someone to ship it to you cheap on eBay, I would be happy to play the go-between for you (though you would have to pay for shipping twice that way. . .).