What Did Y'All Get?

[Zobovor]

The challenge this Christmas was to compartmentalize both my gift-giving and my personal wish list into specific categories. My wife got this idea in her head that she wanted to scale back on gifts for the kids, both for monetary reasons and because they're pretty spoiled when you get right down to it, so we intended to keep it simple. Something you want, something you need, something you wear, and something you read.

What I ended up getting was Masterpiece Ultra Magnus (MP-22), Masterpiece Hot Rod (MP-28), both toys that were somewhere at the top of my wish list. It was a little harder to come up with books that I wanted that I didn't already own or something that qualified as a necessity. I asked for a new waist apron to wear for work (got to have a place to keep my pens and tape and other supplies), a wooden articulated artist's hand model (I have a couple of wooden mannequins but they do not have fingers), a new sweatshirt (I love my hooded sweatshirts and I wear them all year long... it gets a bit chilly in the house sometimes when the air conditioner is running), a winter hat with ear flaps, and that "Horrible Person" T-shirt I've mentioned here now and again that I've seriously wanted to own for a while. The book was the biggest challenge but I finally discovered that there was a novelization of Disney's "The Black Hole" from 1979 that I've never read.

She got them all for me, of course, because she's amazing and wants me to be happy. (The T-shirt actually says "Terrible Person," but it's very difficult for me to argue that there's a true distinction. Is a Terrorcon somehow intrinsically more or less evil than a Horrorcon?) The NES Classic Edition was also technically a gift from Santa, though sometimes he delivers early and it's been sitting around for a month or so.

We also went to Target tonight to get some supplies for New Year's (meat and cheese tray, your days are numbered) and they had the huge four-foot tall Michaelangelo from Ninja Turtles on clearance for half off. I've been wanting one for a couple of years, ever since we got them in at Walmart two seasons ago, and I've been kicking myself ever since then for not buying one of the only four that ever arrived at the store. Sometimes I end up talking myself out of getting things that I want, which I guess in theory is better than being totally spendthrift and buying huge, expensive things on a whim. Anyway, I totally got one today. Not sure if it qualifies as a Christmas gift or not, but I'm totally putting a Santa hat on him anyway. He even came with two nunchucks, when the first version from a couple years back only came with one! So, sometimes it pays to wait!


Zob (I'm quite certain this is the largest action figure I'll ever own)

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

I asked for and got the SDCC FT Max for my birthday, not really all that happy with it, I bought myself TR Scourge and TR Blurr knowing I wouldn't find TR Triggerhappy or Doublecross in time,(Scourge's floppy leg panels are driving me crazy) and while I found them, I wasn't willing to pay TRU's $19 price tag or Walmart.com's $28.97 either. Bought a secondhand Fansproject assaulter on the 22nd, and the fanmodes are much better than the official ones. Also found a 3 pack of Starwars 6" Jyn Erso, Captain Andor, and Deathtrooper at half off clearance at Target.

As for what friends and family got me, a Muslim coworker got me a kitten calendar, cat toys, and Christmas candy, and a santa hat when I told her I'm not really that religious.

My direct family got me a shirt depicting Jawas dismantling the Tardis, the updated Star Wars filming locations art-book adding in the new movie, tickets to Rogue One, DVDs of the first four seasons of Shameless, which I had never heard of but they started watching at season 5 so got me the first seasons so they could watch them, and some beer. They ordered a Cloud9 Quakeblast which came on the 27th, and I'm quite happy with. It looks really good and is my 2nd high end 3rd party product after buying myself Assaulter on the 22nd.I had to shave down some of a joint as it was too tight to fold the handles out when I got it.


People were lining up at 5 AM every day in hopes that our store would have some NES classics, Kindle fire TV, Amazon Echoes, or series 2 apple watches. No watches ever came in.

[Zobovor]

On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 8:16:26 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:

> I asked for and got the SDCC FT Max for my birthday, not really all that
> happy with it

I remember this. Well, one day they'll do a Titan-class Scorponok and you'll be glad he has somebody to fight.

> I bought myself TR Scourge and TR Blurr knowing I wouldn't find TR
> Triggerhappy or Doublecross in time,(Scourge's floppy leg panels are driving
> me crazy) and while I found them, I wasn't willing to pay TRU's $19 price tag
> or Walmart.com's $28.97 either.

Those prices are just crazy sauce. My store ran out of Deluxe toys before Christmas and I haven't been able to restock them since (I seriously cannot believe the last of the Combiner Wars Wheeljack toys finally sold).

Besides the leg panels, what do you think of Scourge? And Blurr?

> Bought a secondhand Fansproject assaulter on the 22nd, and the fanmodes are
> much better than the official ones.

I had to look at some pictures online to figure out what toys you were talking about. Assaulter's robot mode is really nice, but his "aircraft carrier" mode just doesn't look very good to me. (But then, Titans Return Broadside has a pretty sad-looking jet mode.)

> As for what friends and family got me, a Muslim coworker got me a kitten
> calendar, cat toys, and Christmas candy, and a santa hat when I told her I'm
> not really that religious.

That's really kind of thoughtful, actually.

> My direct family got me....DVDs of the first four seasons of Shameless, which

> I had never heard of but they started watching at season 5 so got me the
> first seasons so they could watch them

They say that people give the sort of gifts that they would want to receive. Sounds like your family is taking that very literally.

> They ordered a Cloud9 Quakeblast which came on the 27th, and I'm quite happy
> with.

I had always been under the impression that third-party stuff like this was intended to fill a gap left by a lack of official releases. Did you still find Quakeblast more desirable even with an official Masterpiece Shockwave on the market?

> People were lining up at 5 AM every day in hopes that our store would have
> some NES classics, Kindle fire TV, Amazon Echoes, or series 2 apple watches.
> No watches ever came in.

People lined up for the NES at my store, too. Which is kind of funny because they would be there at six in the morning even though we didn't start selling them until eight o'clock. I wish I had that kind of spare time to waste!


Zob (seriously, the things I could do with two hours)

[banzait...@gmail.com]

I don't get much anymore for the holidays. I did get the Waruder Botcon 2015 set from my brother, which was extremely bad ass and unexpected. That's it on the transformers side. My wife got me an "Angry Mama". I saw it on TV and told her it looked like her, and that I wanted one for Christmas. She has a good sense of humor so she obliged. I also got a bottle of The Macallan's 12 year doublecask scotch from my other brother, which was just released. It's an excellent whisky, but I think I prefer the standard, (and cheaper) 12 bottling which retains more sherry influence.

-Banzaitron

[Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People.]

On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 10:20:29 AM UTC-6, Zobovor wrote:
> On Saturday, December 31, 2016 at 8:16:26 AM UTC-7, Irrellius Spamticon of the Potato People. wrote:
>
> > I asked for and got the SDCC FT Max for my birthday, not really all that
> > happy with it
>
> I remember this. Well, one day they'll do a Titan-class Scorponok and you'll be glad he has somebody to fight.
>
> > I bought myself TR Scourge and TR Blurr knowing I wouldn't find TR
> > Triggerhappy or Doublecross in time,(Scourge's floppy leg panels are driving
> > me crazy) and while I found them, I wasn't willing to pay TRU's $19 price tag
> > or Walmart.com's $28.97 either.
>
> Those prices are just crazy sauce. My store ran out of Deluxe toys before Christmas and I haven't been able to restock them since (I seriously cannot believe the last of the Combiner Wars Wheeljack toys finally sold).
>
> Besides the leg panels, what do you think of Scourge? And Blurr?
>
> > Bought a secondhand Fansproject assaulter on the 22nd, and the fanmodes are
> > much better than the official ones.
>
> I had to look at some pictures online to figure out what toys you were talking about. Assaulter's robot mode is really nice, but his "aircraft carrier" mode just doesn't look very good to me. (But then, Titans Return Broadside has a pretty sad-looking jet mode.)
>
> > As for what friends and family got me, a Muslim coworker got me a kitten
> > calendar, cat toys, and Christmas candy, and a santa hat when I told her I'm
> > not really that religious.
>
> That's really kind of thoughtful, actually.
>

I felt awkward, I had to get her something so I didn't feel like an ass. She's the only non-family that got me anything.

> > My direct family got me....DVDs of the first four seasons of Shameless, which
> > I had never heard of but they started watching at season 5 so got me the
> > first seasons so they could watch them
>
> They say that people give the sort of gifts that they would want to receive. Sounds like your family is taking that very literally.
>

If you say so

> > They ordered a Cloud9 Quakeblast which came on the 27th, and I'm quite happy
> > with.
>
> I had always been under the impression that third-party stuff like this was intended to fill a gap left by a lack of official releases. Did you still find Quakeblast more desirable even with an official Masterpiece Shockwave on the market?
>

Quakeblast is so much cooler to me, he's the darker comics iteration. The official release looks too much cartoon palette, and I just didn't like the limited colors from the show compared to the darker comic tone. I grew up seeing Shockwave more in the comics. Plus this one has articulated hands and better elbows, he can salute for half the price.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fjX2pqeQMK0
This is an excellent review of all of them

> > People were lining up at 5 AM every day in hopes that our store would have
> > some NES classics, Kindle fire TV, Amazon Echoes, or series 2 apple watches.
> > No watches ever came in.
>
> People lined up for the NES at my store, too. Which is kind of funny because they would be there at six in the morning even though we didn't start selling them until eight o'clock. I wish I had that kind of spare time to waste!
>
>
> Zob (seriously, the things I could do with two hours)

I forgot to mention, we visited my uncle who lives in Ferguson, so he decided to have a Ferguson Riot themed party. I got gifts based on what was looted in the Ferguson riots, such as beef jerky, a Cinnabon, a bottle of American Honey and a bottle of bourbon. I would have ended up with some shoes but it was outside the price limits.

[No One In Particular]

Wave 2 deluxes and Voyagers. New shoes. Good Christmas gifts all
around. :)

[David Connell]

From my mom: a Doctor Who TARDIS mug and a Guinness glass & coaster set (I'll have to provide my own Guinness! :-)

From my brother: a $100 Wawa gift card. So he's buying me breakfast for the next month or two.

From my best friend, a heated travel mug, a pair of slippers that were too small (replaced with a Millenium Falcon model), a couple of Star Wars ornaments and a couple wind-up model kits.

From my goddaughter, an R2-D2 portable battery pack.

From a friend, a DC "Big 3" T-shirt and a bottle of wine.

From myself, Legends Super Ginrai (arriving today!!!)