K-Squared Ramblings

Saw Transformers

I finally got out to see Transformers today. Yes, I grew up with the cartoons, the toys and the comics. Yes, I even collected every comic book from the original Marvel series through the Generation 2 series (including the prologue in G.I. Joe) through the first round from DreamWave. But somewhere along the line I just lost interest, and ultimately sold off my entire collection. (On eBay, actually.)

But still, there’s some sort of primal thrill—at least for anyone who grew up as a boy in 1980s America—in seeing giant robots fighting each other. So I finally decided to catch it while it was still in theaters.

It was better constructed than I expected. They had a plausible reason for the Autobots and Decepticons to be on Earth, and they were very good about following up on exposition. Every gun that appeared on the wall was eventually fired, down to Sam’s eBay auctions, with one exception: I really expected them to blow up Hoover Dam.

Which brings me to the biggest gap in logic. SPOILERS follow, for anyone who, like me, has been living in a cave. Read the rest of this entry »

Linobot

Hit the Spectrum again for lunch, and walked up to the ATM next to the movie theater. There was one guy already waiting in line for the 8:00 showing of Transformers…two days from now.

Edit: I stand corrected. They’re showing an advanced screening tonight, so he was only in line about 7½ hours ahead. Not terribly noteworthy, at that point.

Proto-Autobots

I found this ad from 1972 while looking through old comic books. At first I just found it interesting in a proto-Transformers sort of way, but then I looked more closely at it:

It actually uses the phrasing, “more (car) than meets the eye!”

Neocons, combine!

Is it just the fact that I was up way too late last night, or does the term “neocon” sound like a Transformers faction?

More Than Meets The Eye

According to the Transportation Security Administration’s list of Permitted and Prohibited Items for airline passengers, “Toy Transformer Robots” are on the approved list of carry-on items.

Which kind of makes you wonder: Before this version of the list was written up, was someone kept off a plane for carrying Megatron or something?