You got Transformers in my Pony!

Check out the news at CBR.

Before your world ends (from bitterness or glee, whatever works for you), keep in mind that this is only a variant cover, not a full crossover comic. It's also an exclusive that's AT Botcon, not a Botcon exclusive.

Also, I'm being told that this is an IDW comic for the convention season that they'll be distributing wherever they go, not just Botcon... so it looks like CBR might be incorrect about their own exclusive news.

Want to Buy: Prime Deluxe Megatron

Like the title says. This guy right here. If you have one you would like to sell, shoot me a PM with what you're asking for it.

Holy cow George Takei is voicing a Transformer!

Did you guys hear about this yet?!

It's always amusing when the mainstream press pretends they know about the niche properties... They're a season late on this character and a whole series late on the actor! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

The Transformers Collectors' Club Collected Edition Volume 1

With little fanfare, The Transformers Collectors' Club Collected Edition Volume 1 showed up at my door late this week. As far as I know, there was no notice that these were shipping, so those who preordered should keep an eye out.

The Transformers Collectors' Club Collected Edition Volume 1, which I will refer to from this point as Tim, boasts a brand-spankin' new cover by Robby Musso, which fittingly depicts a bunch of the characters who appear in the "Balancing Act" comic that Tim collects by default. The inside cover has a collected list of credits, while the back inside cover has ads for the TFCC and the Lydia vs. Zombies comic (you should read it, it's pretty good!). The outside back cover has a full-page ad for TF Source. I have no issue with Fun Pub promoting themselves in their own product, but why did I pay for an additional page of TF Source advertising? I would much rather have had the Fun Pub ad on the back and the interior back cover could have been a short editorial on putting the mag or Tim together, or maybe some previously unseen art on a new profile page… just a little something to add genuinely new content.

That said, I'm not exactly making a complaint. It's not like Tim doesn't deliver exactly as promised. Between the covers lie the first six issues of the Official Transformers Collectors' Club Newsletter, hereafter known as Oscar. If I had to guess, I'd say these actually are leftovers of the first six Oscars, re-bound under the new cover. Nothing seems to have been changed and they're presented here in their entirety, warts and all. The layout and style pleasantly reminded me of browsing old issues of Tomarts and Lee's. Sadly, the lack of change means Tim doesn't have cohesive page numbers, but this isn't really intended to be a frequently-referenced guide or something of that nature.

As can be expected, some of the content is very dated, but things like the reviews are still informative, and even the toy reviews have a certain nostalgic appeal. Remember when we couldn't get enough about the Cybertron toyline, and Alternators were amazing because we'd never had anything so uniquely G1 targeted at the collectors? Speaking of G1, there are some great articles about the G1 pack-in incentives like the Minispies and patches, as well as one about the Starscream 3-D puzzle. I loved them and think that the Collectors' Club could stand to do a few more of them today. With all the focus that fans and official sources give to toys and fiction, it's easy to forget about the troves of crazy merchandise right off the beaten path that no one really spends a lot of time exploring.

The real meat of Tim is the six part "Balancing Act" story that is spread across the Oscars. For those who haven't had a chance to read it, it's a "between the scenes" saga set during Cybertron that pulls in some Club Exclusives and then-current Universe toys. Tim only has half the story that is contained in the Balancing Act TPB from 2007, but that didn't have the benefit of the cool profiles that the main players get (and all the other Oscar content). I hope that we get future Tims that will have the second part ("Revelations") and more.

Bottom Line: Highly Recommended! Anyone who has interest in the Club fiction or even those who just want to sit down with some nostalgic Transformers-themed articles will have a blast with this. Individual Oscars from the Club store run $10, so six of them for $20 even beats the occasional 50% off sale. Even beyond my initial reading, I'll definitely pull this off the shelf to flip through it from time to time, and I can't wait to get more Tims to sit beside it.

Tablet repair question

I have an Archos Arnova 10 G2 tablet. I managed to trip over the cord while it was charging and it ripped the pin right out of the socket. Apparently this is a common problem and a relatively easy fix, but... getting the part for this has been a bear and I am just enough of a techno-weenie to be dangerous.

This post in a helpful thread about fixing it says that a PJ26 would work, and I thought this was it, although I noted the one he used has a pin diameter of 1.3mm and this is 1.65mm. He also said he did some cutting, although I'm not clear on where.

Anywho, on the advice of a buddy who builds his own computers and said this would probably do the trick, I bought one of the sockets in the auction. I haven't installed it yet, but the old charger clearly will not fit. I'm not worried about that, I'm perfectly okay with buying a new charger (the pin is still stuck in it anyway) and can figure that out on my own (although if someone really wants to hunt it down on Amazon for me...). At this point I just want to make sure that after I go to the trouble of taking this thing apart and doing all that soldering and then find a charger, the damn thing will turn on, but the buddy I mentioned has gone MIA of late so I'm lacking in the technical advice that (usually) prevents me from screwing these things up. In short, the same question: will this part work? Should I go hunting for something else?