Long time no blog! Honestly, I haven't had the desire to write one. ADHD! Ha! I've actually been kinda busy on the geek front though, so I do have a lot to write about. To start off with, shortly after my last blog I rearranged my living room at my wife's request. I really wasn't looking forward to it, I didn't think it would look as good, but it turned out pretty good. The only major issue I had was re-wiring the surround sound system. Damn that job sucks! But I got it done. We replaced our 37" console TV with a new 52" HD LCD flat screen and got an entertainment center for it. This excited me for two reasons. The first, I have a small living room so it's like watching a movie from the front row at the theater. The second, from a gamers stand point, is that the next gen systems were basically built with a large flat screen in mind. When playing a game like Dead Rising, I could not read my mission objectives on the 37". They just appeared as red, blue, or yellow lines. That makes for a difficult and boring game. But now... yea, you get the point. It's fabulous! When I got the new TV we ran into a small problem, the TV has no RCA outputs for the surround sound. So I had to go to Wal-Mart and pick up a fiber optic cable. It took a while to figure out how to reprogram the surround sound to run through the new cable, but when I did it was well worth it. The sound quality and volume were drastically increased. Best 16 bucks I've ever spent.
I've been working on my Ghostbusters Ghost Trap prop as well. I haven't done a lot really, but at least I'm to the point that I know how it's all going to go together. My biggest problem was trying to decide if I was going to build a "hero" trap or a "stunt" trap. For those that don't know what this means I'll break it down for you. A "hero" prop is what you see actually functioning in a movie. In the case of the trap, it would have opening and closing doors, as well as lights. A "stunt" prop is what you see being carried around but doesn't do anything. That way if it is dropped you only have to repair or replace the static prop as apposed to the wiring and electronics as well. I did this for two reasons. First and foremost, I want to get it done quickly so I can spend my time, energy, and money on the packs. I don't want to spend the extra couple hundred bucks on the electronics on it when I could spend it on the packs which are more important to me right now. Secondly, when would I use it? Having "hero" packs would be great because you can walk around with the lights on, or power them up in public and get a rise out of people. Same with a "hero" PKE meter. But the trap will pretty well always be hanging on my belt. After I get the packs done I plan on building a second trap that has the exterior lights working and have a smoking device inside of a cool effect like the trap is full. I don't see myself ever rolling out a trap and opening it in public, but I do see me running out of a building with a smoking trap.
I'm also still slowly working on my Tobin's Spirit Guide. The only problem I have with that is I'm not one to sit down and type for hours on end. I've also gone back and changed my layout and font styles several times as I get tired of seeing the same old thing or I see a book in a movie or in person that has a cooler layout or font that I can try to implement in my Tobin's.
I picked up Alien Vs. Predator for the Xbox 360 a week or so ago. It was fun playing as a Colonial Marine in a new game... but only for a few minutes. For those of you that are Aliens fans, you will know what I'm talking about. In Aliens they send a squad of marines to LV426 and they are all killed off pretty rapidly. Even with the M41A2 Pulse Rifle, flame units, grenades, smart guns, century guns, gun ships, an APC, and of course armor.... they still didn't stand a chance. In the game you start off wounded and alone with a hand gun... yeah... um, why not just start the player off dead and roll the end credits immediately following the opening cut scene? I mean, really? A hand gun? Damn.
Playing as the Predator isn't much better. Sure you have the arm blades, the plasma canon, the cloaking device, the infrared... all of it is shit. The cloaking device shuts off as soon as you use ANY weapon and you become a great big target. The Xenomorphs dodge the bolt from your plasma canon and the marines have a 6th sense that can tell when the 3 red dots from your targeting device appear on the backs of their heads and somehow know where its coming from and shot you in the face with a burst of 10mm explosive tipped caseless rounds. Ouch. Only the marines appear on infrared as the xenomorphs are cold blooded. The most effective weapon is your arm blades and the downfall with those is you have to be up someone's ass to use them. I haven't even played as the alien yet. I remember playing as the Alien in the original Alien Vs. Predator and it was SO disorienting. Made me want to vomit. No thanks. I will try it later, I just haven't felt as if my feet have been on the ground enough to try it yet.
Well, I guess that's all for now. More will come later when I have something good to write other than "I did this or that". I'm wanting to turn this into a review type blog. It's kind of hard to review a prop that you build, so I'll just give updates on that. My next blog will probably be a review of the Terminator novels. Until next time, keep your geek on.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Friday, December 18, 2009
Propper's Blog, Stardate -314964.29
Wow, so I totally didn't keep with the whole "I'll update every Friday" thing... my bad...
Anyway, nothing has gone on until this week anyway, so I had nothing to write. Remember my first blog and my comment about how I wanted to write a blog but never had anything to write? Yea? Yea...
Well, I never got that lightbar for the Robocop police cruiser. I bought it. It's sitting in my purchase box on fleebay. I just can't pay for it. For whatever reason, I don't know why, paypal will no longer allow me to use my bank account for payments. They are now requesting a credit card or a debit card for payments. Well, I'm a geek with ADHD. I am BAD, BAAAAAD with credit and debit cards. I call them debt cards. I have a prepaid card that I can use I suppose, but as well as having ADHD, I'm also LAZY. I don't want to go to my bank to cash my check and then drive all the way across town to put money on my card at Wal-Mart, then go home to pay for something when I could just leave my money in my bank account and go home. And that brings up another question... why can't the bank put money on my card? I call bullshit. So yea, so far, no lightbar.
I got on fleebay again this week and bought the new 1/6 scale Ghostbusters Ray Stantz figure. It's sweet. Can't pay for it yet either. Bullshit.
The wife and I were out earlier this week doing some Christmas shopping, and we stopped at Poster World at Carbondale Mall. The wife got her father a couple of Marilyn Monroe posters, and I spent 76 dollars on posters for myself. YAY!! I got The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day theatrical posters, the Jaws theatrical poster, and the Friday the 13th European theatrical poster. I'll be framing them tomorrow. What am I going to do with them then? Store them. I have this wild idea that someday I'm going to buy a house out in the country that will either have a full basement that I can finish, or build a pole barn and turn into my own theater. 52" HD flat screen mounted on the far wall of a long and narrow room with a powerful surround sound system, rows of couches on risers elevating from front to back with deep red walls and carpet, lights on dimmers, a popcorn machine in the back, and my movie posters on the walls and my movie props in display cases throughout. Someday... "drool"
I'm a big fan of "Fan Films". Yea, I know, most suck, but some are damn good. There is a series being made by some Ghostbusters fans in Minnesota called "Ghostbustin' 911". If you like cheesy comedy, Ghostbusters, and fan films, I would suggest checking it out. They currently have 3 episodes up. You can find them at: http://www.iceparkcity.com/
As I was typing this I got on www.gbfans.com and bought the entire second series of Ghostbusters comics from publisher IDW. I have the first series from them, and I don't know what to think. They have good writers, and it's Ghostbusters, but it doesn't FEEL like Ghostbusters. They story was ok, but it didn't really fit with GB at all. I'm hoping the second series is better.
Well, I guess that's all of my dorkness for now. Stay tuned next week for more from the wild world of me.
Anyway, nothing has gone on until this week anyway, so I had nothing to write. Remember my first blog and my comment about how I wanted to write a blog but never had anything to write? Yea? Yea...
Well, I never got that lightbar for the Robocop police cruiser. I bought it. It's sitting in my purchase box on fleebay. I just can't pay for it. For whatever reason, I don't know why, paypal will no longer allow me to use my bank account for payments. They are now requesting a credit card or a debit card for payments. Well, I'm a geek with ADHD. I am BAD, BAAAAAD with credit and debit cards. I call them debt cards. I have a prepaid card that I can use I suppose, but as well as having ADHD, I'm also LAZY. I don't want to go to my bank to cash my check and then drive all the way across town to put money on my card at Wal-Mart, then go home to pay for something when I could just leave my money in my bank account and go home. And that brings up another question... why can't the bank put money on my card? I call bullshit. So yea, so far, no lightbar.
I got on fleebay again this week and bought the new 1/6 scale Ghostbusters Ray Stantz figure. It's sweet. Can't pay for it yet either. Bullshit.
The wife and I were out earlier this week doing some Christmas shopping, and we stopped at Poster World at Carbondale Mall. The wife got her father a couple of Marilyn Monroe posters, and I spent 76 dollars on posters for myself. YAY!! I got The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day theatrical posters, the Jaws theatrical poster, and the Friday the 13th European theatrical poster. I'll be framing them tomorrow. What am I going to do with them then? Store them. I have this wild idea that someday I'm going to buy a house out in the country that will either have a full basement that I can finish, or build a pole barn and turn into my own theater. 52" HD flat screen mounted on the far wall of a long and narrow room with a powerful surround sound system, rows of couches on risers elevating from front to back with deep red walls and carpet, lights on dimmers, a popcorn machine in the back, and my movie posters on the walls and my movie props in display cases throughout. Someday... "drool"
I'm a big fan of "Fan Films". Yea, I know, most suck, but some are damn good. There is a series being made by some Ghostbusters fans in Minnesota called "Ghostbustin' 911". If you like cheesy comedy, Ghostbusters, and fan films, I would suggest checking it out. They currently have 3 episodes up. You can find them at: http://www.iceparkcity.com/
As I was typing this I got on www.gbfans.com and bought the entire second series of Ghostbusters comics from publisher IDW. I have the first series from them, and I don't know what to think. They have good writers, and it's Ghostbusters, but it doesn't FEEL like Ghostbusters. They story was ok, but it didn't really fit with GB at all. I'm hoping the second series is better.
Well, I guess that's all of my dorkness for now. Stay tuned next week for more from the wild world of me.
Monday, November 30, 2009
Propper's Blog, Stardate 63913.22
Due to time constraints, I wasn't able to do much with either the Robo car model or that fricken game. The wife was home sick most of the day, so I spent most of my time with her. She did go to work for a few hours though, and this is was I accomplished...
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (VG)
When I play this game I fee like a little kid that has found a toy lightsaber and now everybody wants to kill me. Some of the force powers are cool and all, but it you take the time required to stop and use one you will loose half of your life. So you usually spend most of your time running in circles trying not to get hit, smacking anything that walks directly into your path with your lightsaber. And I do mean smacking, not slicing. The baseball bat in Grand Theft Auto is a more effective tool than the Lightsaber is. Ok, here's the lowdown... When the game first starts you are weak. Through game play you earn power ups that you can assign to whatever you want to power up. However, I notice very little difference in anything. For your basic enemies you have the lowly Stormtrooper... at the start of the game it takes 2 smacks with the lightsaber to kill them. After a power up it takes one. But, come on, it's a lightsaber!! Shouldn't it take only one good "slice" with a lightsaber to kill pretty much any humanoid sentient being?! Apparently, no. Then you have the Stormtroopers carrying the Imperial Repeaters. They always take several smacks. Stormtroopers with "Force" shields (yea, it deflects the Force...) take several smacks. Stormtroopers with jetpacks, Biker Scouts or "Snipers" as the game calls them, UNARMORED Rodians, random space critters never seen before... they all take several hits to take down. The random space critters can apparently block your lightsaber blade by raising their arms... yea... and the Dark Trooper rejects that are more robotic feeling than anything have energy shields that block your attacks. The trick is to figure out which force powers to use on which enemies. The Dark Troopers shield blocks all lightsaber attacks, but if you throw some force lightning at them they will loose a small fraction of health and allow you to run up and smack them two or three times before they get pissy and knock you across the room. Or you can use force grip to throw stuff at anybody, but when you do your guard is down and an AT-ST shoots a rocket up your butt. I don't know... The game has a lot of potential, and seeing the force powers they way they are in the game is great... but I'm probably going to finish this title and go back to playing Jedi Outcast.
Robocop's Police Car (model)
Not much to report unfortunately. I got most of the parts painted in at least primer. I've started assembly in some minor areas, but nothing special. One thing to not though, apparently I'm a dumbass. Yup, reported here first, Stretch is a dumbass. From my reading of the instructions it was my understanding that you could not put the wheels on the car without building the engine and all that crap because it's all supported the same. Well, the suspension system does attach to the engine block and all of that, but it also attaches to the car and uses it for it's support. No need to build the engine. However, I've already got most of the work done, I just need to glue the pieces together. No big deal at this point. Might as well complete it I guess.
The Ghost Whisperer (TV)
I feel like I'm watching a creepy version of Touched by an Angel. I still don't know if I like it, which probably means I don't.
I think I'm going to start making this blog a little bit more structured at this point. I believe that I've touched on most of what I'm doing geek-wise at this point. My first effort at structuring will be to make this a weekly blog. Expect updates to be posted on Fridays from this point on. I think if I have a week to work on the blog it will help me make it a little bit more organized, as well as work on projects so that I'm not posting everyday with stuff like "I glued a car seat into the model today...", and I can actually get a major amount of work done that is worthy of talking about. Until next time, live long and prosper.
See? I did it again!
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (VG)
When I play this game I fee like a little kid that has found a toy lightsaber and now everybody wants to kill me. Some of the force powers are cool and all, but it you take the time required to stop and use one you will loose half of your life. So you usually spend most of your time running in circles trying not to get hit, smacking anything that walks directly into your path with your lightsaber. And I do mean smacking, not slicing. The baseball bat in Grand Theft Auto is a more effective tool than the Lightsaber is. Ok, here's the lowdown... When the game first starts you are weak. Through game play you earn power ups that you can assign to whatever you want to power up. However, I notice very little difference in anything. For your basic enemies you have the lowly Stormtrooper... at the start of the game it takes 2 smacks with the lightsaber to kill them. After a power up it takes one. But, come on, it's a lightsaber!! Shouldn't it take only one good "slice" with a lightsaber to kill pretty much any humanoid sentient being?! Apparently, no. Then you have the Stormtroopers carrying the Imperial Repeaters. They always take several smacks. Stormtroopers with "Force" shields (yea, it deflects the Force...) take several smacks. Stormtroopers with jetpacks, Biker Scouts or "Snipers" as the game calls them, UNARMORED Rodians, random space critters never seen before... they all take several hits to take down. The random space critters can apparently block your lightsaber blade by raising their arms... yea... and the Dark Trooper rejects that are more robotic feeling than anything have energy shields that block your attacks. The trick is to figure out which force powers to use on which enemies. The Dark Troopers shield blocks all lightsaber attacks, but if you throw some force lightning at them they will loose a small fraction of health and allow you to run up and smack them two or three times before they get pissy and knock you across the room. Or you can use force grip to throw stuff at anybody, but when you do your guard is down and an AT-ST shoots a rocket up your butt. I don't know... The game has a lot of potential, and seeing the force powers they way they are in the game is great... but I'm probably going to finish this title and go back to playing Jedi Outcast.
Robocop's Police Car (model)
Not much to report unfortunately. I got most of the parts painted in at least primer. I've started assembly in some minor areas, but nothing special. One thing to not though, apparently I'm a dumbass. Yup, reported here first, Stretch is a dumbass. From my reading of the instructions it was my understanding that you could not put the wheels on the car without building the engine and all that crap because it's all supported the same. Well, the suspension system does attach to the engine block and all of that, but it also attaches to the car and uses it for it's support. No need to build the engine. However, I've already got most of the work done, I just need to glue the pieces together. No big deal at this point. Might as well complete it I guess.
The Ghost Whisperer (TV)
I feel like I'm watching a creepy version of Touched by an Angel. I still don't know if I like it, which probably means I don't.
I think I'm going to start making this blog a little bit more structured at this point. I believe that I've touched on most of what I'm doing geek-wise at this point. My first effort at structuring will be to make this a weekly blog. Expect updates to be posted on Fridays from this point on. I think if I have a week to work on the blog it will help me make it a little bit more organized, as well as work on projects so that I'm not posting everyday with stuff like "I glued a car seat into the model today...", and I can actually get a major amount of work done that is worthy of talking about. Until next time, live long and prosper.
See? I did it again!
Friday, November 27, 2009
Propper's Blog, Stardate -314905.99
I'm sitting at work looking online and trying to find anybody online that had a problem with the ERTL X-Wing Star fighter, and I couldn't. Everybody says that it's a beautiful kit. I think they are stupid. I know, harsh. There may have been a problem with my kit. The mold that made it may have been on it's last leg before blowing out and the bottom half got jacked up. Hell, as far as I know, it may have been the top half that was bad. It's really hard to tell when all of the little parts fit on both halves just fine but the two main parts of the fuselage just don't go together. And it wasn't just a little discrepancy, we're talking a major difference in size. The outside walls of the upper half were about a 2mm to the INSIDE of the inside walls of the lower half on both sides. Taking that into account with the fact that I got this kit second hand, it had already been worked on (very, very little), and a couple of engine parts and landing gear flaps were missing, I chucked the thing in the dumpster. Now I want to buy a new one, but I'm afraid I'm going to run into the same sizing issue in the fuselage. I like building models, but I can't stand fixing production mistakes before I can build a kit.
Note: My ERTL TIE Interceptor kit is the same way, so I doubt it was a one time thing.
As for my Robocop cruiser build, it's going fine. I've got the main body done... meaning it's been painted flat black and the OCP logos placed on the doors. There was next to no work to be done on the body. The sprues came off very cleanly, and the only parts needing to be added are the trunk lid flair and the mirrors, so no big deal. I've got all of the engine details sanded and primed, waiting for their detail paint and assembly. The only trouble I've run into (other than me not wanting to assemble the engine but having to...) is that I've discovered that my wife is now intolerant to the smell of paint. Great. I'm not painting outside at the end of November, and my windows don't open for ventilation. My paint times are going to be reduced to when she leaves for work, followed by several hours of drying time with an air freshened room before she comes home to work. So I'm going to have to set up the days paint plan the night before she goes to work and paint as soon as she leaves so the smell will dissipate a bit.
I also just purchased a 1:24 scale Whelen Edge lightbar on eBay for 4 bucks. I was looking into getting one of those kits that uses very small LEDs to light the lightbar, but they are just too expensive for what they are. They are uber bright, but at 45 bucks for a lightbar, I would want the flash patterns to be accurate. The Edge bar has 6 LEDs in the housing powered by a 9v battery. It wouldn't be too hard to hide a 9v battery in the car, paint the wires black and run them up the C-post to the roof. The wires also include a quick connect feature, so I could hide the battery in a display stand and run the wires through the bottom of the car to the stand it's self. The only issue I have is that the 6 LEDs flash randomly in no distinct flash pattern, and that would bug the hell out of me. So I purchased a static bar for this kit. Maybe someday somebody will design a light board tiny enough for this application and powerful enough to operate a pre-programmed flash pattern. Time will tell.
I have been able to watch a few good movies in the last few weeks. My wife and I rented Up the other day. Very good movie, lots of humor, but also a lot of drama for a Disney Pixar film. Within the first 10 minutes of the film my wife was in tears. But there was a lot more funny than sad. Damn well better be. Who wants to go to the movie and go home feeling sad and depressed? Like with My Girl. And Street Fighter.
Ghost of Girlfriends Past was wonderful. Yes, this geek can watch chick flicks with little to no problem. Unless it's Sex in the Shitty. I mean City. If my kids grow up to become people like the characters in that show I'm going to rip off my legs and beat myself to death with them. GoGP was great though, and had a lot to offer for both men and women. The women will love the on-again-off-again love story between the two main characters, and the men will love that the male lead is a chauvinistic pig. The running comedy will of course be enjoyed by all.
I was never a huge fan of Star Trek, but OH MY GOD that movie was excellent!! It immediately made me want to go out and buy the first season of the original series, or Star Trek TOS as us geeks would say. Excellent character development for the entire crew, some great effects and sound, the movie score was perfect... The cast and crew have a lot to be proud of with this movie.
I started watching The Vampire Diaries on the CW. Well, let me rephrase this... I started watching the new CW series The Vampire Diaries by downloading it from Limewire. I’m at work every night a show I like is on TV, so I pretty much always have to download illegal copies online in order to watch. What do I think of the show? It’s what I like to call “eeh...”. It really has no original thought behind it. From the first 5 minutes I was feeling like I was watching the bastard child of Twilight and True Blood. Since I like both of the later mentioned series, I can’t complain too much. I would have liked something a little more original though. However the relationship between the shows male vampire protagonist and his vampire brother antagonist/protagonist combo is the reason to watch. If they would have ran with the relationship between these two and scrapped the rest of the show for an original story idea, it would have been much better.
Season 9 of Smallville is great. Duh.
I’m currently reading Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I just finished The Terminator, and that book was great. I’m a huge fan of the Terminator franchise, and the books really expand on information that was not in the movies for whatever reason. Not only do you get more information that better structures the existing story and makes it make a little more sense, but there is also a lot of extra stuff that totally screws with your mind with the whole time-displacement-alternate-realities thing. For instance...
*****SPOILERS*****
The Terminator doesn’t just kill the different Sarah Connors and leave as you see in the movie. The files in the future are not too detailed, but it does know that Sarah Connor has a pin in her leg from a fracture, so it uses that for a positive ID. It’s not just systematically killing all of them, it starts at the top of the list and works it’s way down. It kills one, slices her leg open looking for the pin, gets no positive ID, and moves on to the next. Now for the mind trip... What Skynet didn’t know is that the fracture of the leg occurred later in her life. Like the end of the movie when Reese blows the crap out of the T-800 and it blows Sarah down the stairs and impales her leg with shrapnel. Wow. A machine from the future is sent to the past to kill a woman and uses information about a leg fracture to ID her, not knowing that the Terminator it’s self is what caused the fracture that Skynet knows about. If Skynet hadn’t sent the Terminator, she would have never had the pin... what a paradox. And that is just one of many.
As for Terminator 2, it’s just as good as the original novel, and it’s written by the same author, but if you have seen Terminator 2’s special edition, then you know all of the extra stuff that wasn’t in the original theatrical release. The only addition is a future scene with John sending back... shit... hold on...
*****SPOILERS*****
sending back Reese for the first story and the Terminator for the second.
As for games, I’m currently working my way through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It’s ok. Seeing the force powers at full strength is pretty damn cool, and the script is a very good tie in. Unfortunately, to me anyway, it’s the actual game play that suffers. This is one of the few games that the enemies hit you while you’re down. I guess I can’t complain about that as it adds a bit more realism to the game, but come on! When you get used to playing games that the enemy knocks you down and then step back to let you get up and organize yourself before attacking again, then suddenly you play a game where you have full health, the guy knocks you down, kicks you a few times and you die, that’s kind of unfair and shitty. Not to mention that you are supposed to be a Dark Jedi/Jedi, and you get your ass handed to you by a bunch of random space critters. Anything more powerful than a Jawa or a Stormtrooper (which are the same strength... funny...) and it will kick your butt. Lame. And when you do get to fighting, the mechanics get old. There are several different types of attacks you can do, but the execution and the on screen movements make it feel almost like a fighting game on the SNES. I like the game, but for a game on a next gen system, it leaves a little to be desired.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game kicks ass! Now, I’m a huge Ghostbusters fan, so I’m biased. But, that’s not saying much as the other GB games out there are on par with a turd sandwich. The outside case looks great. The filling sucks. But GB:TVG is very much the exception. The control is excellent, the voice acting is superb, the graphics are beautiful, and the overall story is great. Not to say that there aren’t any flaws. My biggest gripe, as mentioned as a joke in my first blog, are the cherubs. They just suck. Most of the other ghosts or possessed items in the game are easy enough to tackle once you figure out the trick. Not the cherubs. Even after you figure out the trick you’re still probably going to have your ass handed to you several times before you defeat them. Then you go straight from them to the main boss battle, only to find that there is no trick. He pops up, you blast him, he goes away. He pops up, you blast him, he goes away. You do that like 6 times and you win. Game over. Why were the cherubs so hard? Pisses me off.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is outstanding. Again, great story, graphics, blah blah blah... The fighting mechanics, while very simplistic, look VERY good onscreen. The only issue I have with the game are the villains that you fight. I’ve never really cared for Killer Croc or Baine, and I would have preferred that some of the characters that you get an homage to only were actually in game. But that’s just personal taste.
Well, that would be enough rambling for a day. At some point I plan on having a little bit of structure to this blog, but for now I’m just trying to get people up to speed as to where I’m at with stuff in general. Future blogs will be updates on prop and model buildings that are ongoing, full reviews of movies or games that I have just seen or finished. I’m also going to see if posting images is possible so that you don’t have to just go by my descriptions of things. Tomorrow I will be finishing Star Wars The Force Unleashed and working some more on Robo’s car, so expect a small update on Sunday about that. Since tomorrow will be the start of me building the engine block on the car, expect to read many angry rants and a few more expletives. Until then, may the force be with you.
See what I did there? I said “goodbye” with a geeky movie quote. Looser.
Note: My ERTL TIE Interceptor kit is the same way, so I doubt it was a one time thing.
As for my Robocop cruiser build, it's going fine. I've got the main body done... meaning it's been painted flat black and the OCP logos placed on the doors. There was next to no work to be done on the body. The sprues came off very cleanly, and the only parts needing to be added are the trunk lid flair and the mirrors, so no big deal. I've got all of the engine details sanded and primed, waiting for their detail paint and assembly. The only trouble I've run into (other than me not wanting to assemble the engine but having to...) is that I've discovered that my wife is now intolerant to the smell of paint. Great. I'm not painting outside at the end of November, and my windows don't open for ventilation. My paint times are going to be reduced to when she leaves for work, followed by several hours of drying time with an air freshened room before she comes home to work. So I'm going to have to set up the days paint plan the night before she goes to work and paint as soon as she leaves so the smell will dissipate a bit.
I also just purchased a 1:24 scale Whelen Edge lightbar on eBay for 4 bucks. I was looking into getting one of those kits that uses very small LEDs to light the lightbar, but they are just too expensive for what they are. They are uber bright, but at 45 bucks for a lightbar, I would want the flash patterns to be accurate. The Edge bar has 6 LEDs in the housing powered by a 9v battery. It wouldn't be too hard to hide a 9v battery in the car, paint the wires black and run them up the C-post to the roof. The wires also include a quick connect feature, so I could hide the battery in a display stand and run the wires through the bottom of the car to the stand it's self. The only issue I have is that the 6 LEDs flash randomly in no distinct flash pattern, and that would bug the hell out of me. So I purchased a static bar for this kit. Maybe someday somebody will design a light board tiny enough for this application and powerful enough to operate a pre-programmed flash pattern. Time will tell.
I have been able to watch a few good movies in the last few weeks. My wife and I rented Up the other day. Very good movie, lots of humor, but also a lot of drama for a Disney Pixar film. Within the first 10 minutes of the film my wife was in tears. But there was a lot more funny than sad. Damn well better be. Who wants to go to the movie and go home feeling sad and depressed? Like with My Girl. And Street Fighter.
Ghost of Girlfriends Past was wonderful. Yes, this geek can watch chick flicks with little to no problem. Unless it's Sex in the Shitty. I mean City. If my kids grow up to become people like the characters in that show I'm going to rip off my legs and beat myself to death with them. GoGP was great though, and had a lot to offer for both men and women. The women will love the on-again-off-again love story between the two main characters, and the men will love that the male lead is a chauvinistic pig. The running comedy will of course be enjoyed by all.
I was never a huge fan of Star Trek, but OH MY GOD that movie was excellent!! It immediately made me want to go out and buy the first season of the original series, or Star Trek TOS as us geeks would say. Excellent character development for the entire crew, some great effects and sound, the movie score was perfect... The cast and crew have a lot to be proud of with this movie.
I started watching The Vampire Diaries on the CW. Well, let me rephrase this... I started watching the new CW series The Vampire Diaries by downloading it from Limewire. I’m at work every night a show I like is on TV, so I pretty much always have to download illegal copies online in order to watch. What do I think of the show? It’s what I like to call “eeh...”. It really has no original thought behind it. From the first 5 minutes I was feeling like I was watching the bastard child of Twilight and True Blood. Since I like both of the later mentioned series, I can’t complain too much. I would have liked something a little more original though. However the relationship between the shows male vampire protagonist and his vampire brother antagonist/protagonist combo is the reason to watch. If they would have ran with the relationship between these two and scrapped the rest of the show for an original story idea, it would have been much better.
Season 9 of Smallville is great. Duh.
I’m currently reading Terminator 2: Judgment Day. I just finished The Terminator, and that book was great. I’m a huge fan of the Terminator franchise, and the books really expand on information that was not in the movies for whatever reason. Not only do you get more information that better structures the existing story and makes it make a little more sense, but there is also a lot of extra stuff that totally screws with your mind with the whole time-displacement-alternate-realities thing. For instance...
*****SPOILERS*****
The Terminator doesn’t just kill the different Sarah Connors and leave as you see in the movie. The files in the future are not too detailed, but it does know that Sarah Connor has a pin in her leg from a fracture, so it uses that for a positive ID. It’s not just systematically killing all of them, it starts at the top of the list and works it’s way down. It kills one, slices her leg open looking for the pin, gets no positive ID, and moves on to the next. Now for the mind trip... What Skynet didn’t know is that the fracture of the leg occurred later in her life. Like the end of the movie when Reese blows the crap out of the T-800 and it blows Sarah down the stairs and impales her leg with shrapnel. Wow. A machine from the future is sent to the past to kill a woman and uses information about a leg fracture to ID her, not knowing that the Terminator it’s self is what caused the fracture that Skynet knows about. If Skynet hadn’t sent the Terminator, she would have never had the pin... what a paradox. And that is just one of many.
As for Terminator 2, it’s just as good as the original novel, and it’s written by the same author, but if you have seen Terminator 2’s special edition, then you know all of the extra stuff that wasn’t in the original theatrical release. The only addition is a future scene with John sending back... shit... hold on...
*****SPOILERS*****
sending back Reese for the first story and the Terminator for the second.
As for games, I’m currently working my way through Star Wars: The Force Unleashed. It’s ok. Seeing the force powers at full strength is pretty damn cool, and the script is a very good tie in. Unfortunately, to me anyway, it’s the actual game play that suffers. This is one of the few games that the enemies hit you while you’re down. I guess I can’t complain about that as it adds a bit more realism to the game, but come on! When you get used to playing games that the enemy knocks you down and then step back to let you get up and organize yourself before attacking again, then suddenly you play a game where you have full health, the guy knocks you down, kicks you a few times and you die, that’s kind of unfair and shitty. Not to mention that you are supposed to be a Dark Jedi/Jedi, and you get your ass handed to you by a bunch of random space critters. Anything more powerful than a Jawa or a Stormtrooper (which are the same strength... funny...) and it will kick your butt. Lame. And when you do get to fighting, the mechanics get old. There are several different types of attacks you can do, but the execution and the on screen movements make it feel almost like a fighting game on the SNES. I like the game, but for a game on a next gen system, it leaves a little to be desired.
Ghostbusters: The Video Game kicks ass! Now, I’m a huge Ghostbusters fan, so I’m biased. But, that’s not saying much as the other GB games out there are on par with a turd sandwich. The outside case looks great. The filling sucks. But GB:TVG is very much the exception. The control is excellent, the voice acting is superb, the graphics are beautiful, and the overall story is great. Not to say that there aren’t any flaws. My biggest gripe, as mentioned as a joke in my first blog, are the cherubs. They just suck. Most of the other ghosts or possessed items in the game are easy enough to tackle once you figure out the trick. Not the cherubs. Even after you figure out the trick you’re still probably going to have your ass handed to you several times before you defeat them. Then you go straight from them to the main boss battle, only to find that there is no trick. He pops up, you blast him, he goes away. He pops up, you blast him, he goes away. You do that like 6 times and you win. Game over. Why were the cherubs so hard? Pisses me off.
Batman: Arkham Asylum is outstanding. Again, great story, graphics, blah blah blah... The fighting mechanics, while very simplistic, look VERY good onscreen. The only issue I have with the game are the villains that you fight. I’ve never really cared for Killer Croc or Baine, and I would have preferred that some of the characters that you get an homage to only were actually in game. But that’s just personal taste.
Well, that would be enough rambling for a day. At some point I plan on having a little bit of structure to this blog, but for now I’m just trying to get people up to speed as to where I’m at with stuff in general. Future blogs will be updates on prop and model buildings that are ongoing, full reviews of movies or games that I have just seen or finished. I’m also going to see if posting images is possible so that you don’t have to just go by my descriptions of things. Tomorrow I will be finishing Star Wars The Force Unleashed and working some more on Robo’s car, so expect a small update on Sunday about that. Since tomorrow will be the start of me building the engine block on the car, expect to read many angry rants and a few more expletives. Until then, may the force be with you.
See what I did there? I said “goodbye” with a geeky movie quote. Looser.
Propper's Blog, Stardate -314905.35
For my entire life I have wanted to write a journal. Problem is, I never have anything to write. Oh, sometimes something really great happens in my life and I want to write it down, but 98% of my life is the same old thing. Who wants to die and leave their journals for their kids to find if their legacy is only going to be like this...
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Today I went to work at Lifeline for my usual 24 hour shift. I ate at Wendy's for lunch. Those spicy asian chicken bites are pretty good, but they really give me gas. I picked up that old drunk again. Bitch. She needs to drink herself into a coma and die. But then she would probably just turn into a drunk zombie and we would keep hauling her. New NCIS is on tonight, that's cool. Today Grohler said pumpersnicker instead of pumpernickel. We put it on the list.
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, need you to come in we got one going to St. Louis, happy birthday to me.
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
It was my day off today. I went and paid the bills. The people at Rent One are still retarded. The people at Wal-Mart are still retarded, not that I pay bills at Wal-Mart, I'm just saying they are still retarded. Wife was at work most of the day so I played some video games when I got back from paying the bills. God those little cherub bastards in Ghostbusters are tuff. The end boss isn't anywhere near as hard as those cherubs. I ate potato wedges from the gas station for dinner. They gave me gas.
Friday, December 11th, 2009
I'm at Lifeline for 24 again. First thing this morning I picked up that old drunk bitch again. God. A student came in to do ride time today. She sat at my spot on the couch. I killed her and hid the body in Robby's locker. I chewed on a piece of ice at some point. It gave me gas.
See?! I've got no life. Who would want their kids to find that in a journal? We all have the movie-esq vision of our kids growing up, and someday after we die, they find an old dusty leather bound journal from mom or dad that was written long ago. Tear struck, they read it to find out that mom was full of angst as a teen just as they are, or dad was a firefighter and saved peoples lives, or so-and-so was an artist too... blah blah blah. Lana Langs found her mothers journal in the garage in Smallville. The boy in Vampire Diaries found his great x4 uncles journal. If my kids find my journal, the only tear jerking it's going to cause is because their dad was a looser.
So I've given up on the journal. Screw legacy. I'm just going to leave my kids my debt. They will probably grow up to be jerks anyway. Just look at their dad. But I still feel the need to write. Not because I'm good at it, God no... but because I enjoy it. So what your going to get is this. A completely unoriginal blog about what I love most in life. Movies, movie props, video games, and sometimes comic books.
I suppose I could write a "journal", but I can't rant on and on about just anything. Usually my "status" is enough to convey my thoughts. My wife is going to kill me for this statement, but when I posted in my status that we found out that she was pregnant, that was all I really had to say about it. I mean, I could have gone on to say more, but what? She's pregnant, and at the time it was little more than a booger in her womb. Woo. There's something to write about. We didn't know what sex it was, we have no idea what we are going to name it, we don't know what color we are going to paint it's nursery or what we are going to decorate it with.
What I can talk about at length though is geek stuff. Unfortunately I don't really have anybody to talk about it with as I'm pretty well the only geek I know, except Dan, but he's more a nerd than a geek. So I'm going to talk to my myspace page and you may feel free to read what I say. So, on with the blog!
Today I'm sitting on my love seat in my living room, stealing internet from the neighbor, and watching Family Guy: Blue Harvest. I was going to watch season one of G.I. Joe, but it's disappeared. Go figure. In the dining room I've got the table covered by newspapers and model parts. I'm working on a 1:25 scale OCP Detroit Police cruiser, IE: Robocop's car. Not a bad little model. Excellent details on some of the smaller parts. I only have a few gripes with the kit. First off... what the hell is with the lightbar on the car? The model comes with a Federal Signal Jetsonic strobe lightbar, and a Visibeam roof mounted spot light. Now, in the first two movies his car was equipped with a Whelen Edge strobe lightbar. In Robocop 3 they replaced the Edge with a Code 3 MX7000 lightbar. In the TV Series his car had a Federal Signal Vector lightbar. Why such great detail on the car and other equipment and then put the wrong bar on it? Another problem I have is that the car is missing the MDT, but I can live without it. It was a small detail that was never really used on screen, but it was in the car and it was scripted to be used, but for technical and time reasons it wasn't. Would have been a really nice detail though. Another problem I have is probably pure laziness on my part, but I think my reasoning is logical. As well as the body and interior details, it has engine and mechanical details. A lot of engine and mechanical details. The engine block is in two halves, no big deal. Then there is the timing belt, front and rear cam covers, front and rear exhaust manifold, starter, oil filter, oil pan, air cleaner box, air duct/density meter, power steering pump, air conditioning compressor, alternator, battery, lower and upper radiator hoses, left and right steering knuckles, tie rod, sub-frame, inlet manifold, distributor, transaxle, radiator, struts, master brake cylinder, windshield wiper motor, catalytic converter, exhaust, rear suspension, mufflers... holy shit...Ok, well, I guess people do enjoy just building this stuff, so I'll give them that. Me? I like the finished product. And to me the finished product doesn't require all of that. When sitting on my shelf you will never see the exhaust and all of that, so who cares? Waste of time if you ask me. Same with the engine compartment. Once I glue the hood on, nobody will ever see the engine again. That is, until one of my snot nosed brats finds it in a box after I die and smashes the shit out of it with a hammer. So why build it? Because if you don't, you can't put the wheels on... shit...
Yesterday I started working on an X-Wing starfighter made by the ERTL company. It was horrible. So I picked up my TIE Interceptor made by the ERTL company. It was horrible. How can a company make a product that is designed specifically for the detail enthusiasts, and manufacture it in a way that the parts don't actually go together properly and require heavy modification to look semi decent? What a croc. So, not a fan of ERTL. After chucking those into the parts box, I decided that I would never buy an ERTL product again. I then began construction on the Robocop cruiser made by ERTL...
Also on the project table, what I like to call "ongoing projects", are a few movie props. My current ongoing projects are 2 1:1 scale Proton Packs from Ghostbusters, a 1:1 scale Ghost Trap from Ghostbusters, a 1:1 scale PKE meter from Ghostbusters, and a couple 1:1 scale uniforms from Ghostbusters. They are ongoing because of several reasons. Anybody in the hobby of movie prop replication know that there is a lot of time and of course money involved in finding accurate parts, or fabrication of replica parts. As I don't have the tools to fabricate metal parts I have to wait for somebody else to either make some and sell the extras, or a bunch of us "proppers" have to get together to fund a run of parts at a metal shop. Right now I'm waiting on parts. Not much of a story there.
I guess that will do for a first blog. Yea, I know, I didn't really say much of any substance or value, but I don't really have anything of any substance or value to say. Ever. Deal with it. When I geek out a little more, I will update with a new blog.
Peace
Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
Today I went to work at Lifeline for my usual 24 hour shift. I ate at Wendy's for lunch. Those spicy asian chicken bites are pretty good, but they really give me gas. I picked up that old drunk again. Bitch. She needs to drink herself into a coma and die. But then she would probably just turn into a drunk zombie and we would keep hauling her. New NCIS is on tonight, that's cool. Today Grohler said pumpersnicker instead of pumpernickel. We put it on the list.
Wednesday, December 9th, 2009
Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, need you to come in we got one going to St. Louis, happy birthday to me.
Thursday, December 10th, 2009
It was my day off today. I went and paid the bills. The people at Rent One are still retarded. The people at Wal-Mart are still retarded, not that I pay bills at Wal-Mart, I'm just saying they are still retarded. Wife was at work most of the day so I played some video games when I got back from paying the bills. God those little cherub bastards in Ghostbusters are tuff. The end boss isn't anywhere near as hard as those cherubs. I ate potato wedges from the gas station for dinner. They gave me gas.
Friday, December 11th, 2009
I'm at Lifeline for 24 again. First thing this morning I picked up that old drunk bitch again. God. A student came in to do ride time today. She sat at my spot on the couch. I killed her and hid the body in Robby's locker. I chewed on a piece of ice at some point. It gave me gas.
See?! I've got no life. Who would want their kids to find that in a journal? We all have the movie-esq vision of our kids growing up, and someday after we die, they find an old dusty leather bound journal from mom or dad that was written long ago. Tear struck, they read it to find out that mom was full of angst as a teen just as they are, or dad was a firefighter and saved peoples lives, or so-and-so was an artist too... blah blah blah. Lana Langs found her mothers journal in the garage in Smallville. The boy in Vampire Diaries found his great x4 uncles journal. If my kids find my journal, the only tear jerking it's going to cause is because their dad was a looser.
So I've given up on the journal. Screw legacy. I'm just going to leave my kids my debt. They will probably grow up to be jerks anyway. Just look at their dad. But I still feel the need to write. Not because I'm good at it, God no... but because I enjoy it. So what your going to get is this. A completely unoriginal blog about what I love most in life. Movies, movie props, video games, and sometimes comic books.
I suppose I could write a "journal", but I can't rant on and on about just anything. Usually my "status" is enough to convey my thoughts. My wife is going to kill me for this statement, but when I posted in my status that we found out that she was pregnant, that was all I really had to say about it. I mean, I could have gone on to say more, but what? She's pregnant, and at the time it was little more than a booger in her womb. Woo. There's something to write about. We didn't know what sex it was, we have no idea what we are going to name it, we don't know what color we are going to paint it's nursery or what we are going to decorate it with.
What I can talk about at length though is geek stuff. Unfortunately I don't really have anybody to talk about it with as I'm pretty well the only geek I know, except Dan, but he's more a nerd than a geek. So I'm going to talk to my myspace page and you may feel free to read what I say. So, on with the blog!
Today I'm sitting on my love seat in my living room, stealing internet from the neighbor, and watching Family Guy: Blue Harvest. I was going to watch season one of G.I. Joe, but it's disappeared. Go figure. In the dining room I've got the table covered by newspapers and model parts. I'm working on a 1:25 scale OCP Detroit Police cruiser, IE: Robocop's car. Not a bad little model. Excellent details on some of the smaller parts. I only have a few gripes with the kit. First off... what the hell is with the lightbar on the car? The model comes with a Federal Signal Jetsonic strobe lightbar, and a Visibeam roof mounted spot light. Now, in the first two movies his car was equipped with a Whelen Edge strobe lightbar. In Robocop 3 they replaced the Edge with a Code 3 MX7000 lightbar. In the TV Series his car had a Federal Signal Vector lightbar. Why such great detail on the car and other equipment and then put the wrong bar on it? Another problem I have is that the car is missing the MDT, but I can live without it. It was a small detail that was never really used on screen, but it was in the car and it was scripted to be used, but for technical and time reasons it wasn't. Would have been a really nice detail though. Another problem I have is probably pure laziness on my part, but I think my reasoning is logical. As well as the body and interior details, it has engine and mechanical details. A lot of engine and mechanical details. The engine block is in two halves, no big deal. Then there is the timing belt, front and rear cam covers, front and rear exhaust manifold, starter, oil filter, oil pan, air cleaner box, air duct/density meter, power steering pump, air conditioning compressor, alternator, battery, lower and upper radiator hoses, left and right steering knuckles, tie rod, sub-frame, inlet manifold, distributor, transaxle, radiator, struts, master brake cylinder, windshield wiper motor, catalytic converter, exhaust, rear suspension, mufflers... holy shit...Ok, well, I guess people do enjoy just building this stuff, so I'll give them that. Me? I like the finished product. And to me the finished product doesn't require all of that. When sitting on my shelf you will never see the exhaust and all of that, so who cares? Waste of time if you ask me. Same with the engine compartment. Once I glue the hood on, nobody will ever see the engine again. That is, until one of my snot nosed brats finds it in a box after I die and smashes the shit out of it with a hammer. So why build it? Because if you don't, you can't put the wheels on... shit...
Yesterday I started working on an X-Wing starfighter made by the ERTL company. It was horrible. So I picked up my TIE Interceptor made by the ERTL company. It was horrible. How can a company make a product that is designed specifically for the detail enthusiasts, and manufacture it in a way that the parts don't actually go together properly and require heavy modification to look semi decent? What a croc. So, not a fan of ERTL. After chucking those into the parts box, I decided that I would never buy an ERTL product again. I then began construction on the Robocop cruiser made by ERTL...
Also on the project table, what I like to call "ongoing projects", are a few movie props. My current ongoing projects are 2 1:1 scale Proton Packs from Ghostbusters, a 1:1 scale Ghost Trap from Ghostbusters, a 1:1 scale PKE meter from Ghostbusters, and a couple 1:1 scale uniforms from Ghostbusters. They are ongoing because of several reasons. Anybody in the hobby of movie prop replication know that there is a lot of time and of course money involved in finding accurate parts, or fabrication of replica parts. As I don't have the tools to fabricate metal parts I have to wait for somebody else to either make some and sell the extras, or a bunch of us "proppers" have to get together to fund a run of parts at a metal shop. Right now I'm waiting on parts. Not much of a story there.
I guess that will do for a first blog. Yea, I know, I didn't really say much of any substance or value, but I don't really have anything of any substance or value to say. Ever. Deal with it. When I geek out a little more, I will update with a new blog.
Peace
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