The Korean loose BWII Seacons...

Like many other people, I have my BWII Space Pirate Seacons in the "loose" format - as the TFWiki says too, a large number of loose Seacon toys surfaced some 4 years ago - only on Ebay - and sold for much less than the real thing. (I got Halfshell for 20$ and the other four for 4$ each from Robotkingdom)

They are genuine - not KOs - but they lack God Neptune parts, save for Halfshell's shell/shield.

My question is... what were these? And as a matter of fact, what is the deal with the Korean BWII/Neo toys as well? They surfaced many years after the toyline ended, but only certain toys exist in this format - for example, we got Magnaboss but not Tripledacus. Were they excavated from a lost ark... erm, factory? Were they a reissue intended for Korea... were they even sold in shops in Korea?

And adding it here - I'm in the market for any G1 Piranacon parts (can be KO or reissue) I can use to repaint for my God Neptune. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-arcee.gif)

Alien Racers - why didn't I hear of this series before?

I am often surprised what sort of cartoon shows I can find on Youtube that I never heard about, yet they have talent associated with whom I have known and loved in the past.

In this case, Alien Racers. It's a 2005 CGI animated series, and at first I almost dismissed it as your generic racing series... But the visuals caught my eye. Honestly, I was reminded of Mainframe's work.

So I watched the few episodes that are uploaded on Youtube, and... This is not such a bad show. Sure, nowhere around BW or Shadow Raiders, but it's interesting so far. It's unique - even more so than in Shadow Raiders - that most of the main characters are not even remotely humanoid.
And the car races themselves, while being the core of the episodes (due to the affiliated toyline that existed at the time) are rather only there as the settings to the episodes.

I probably got hooked on this after episode 3, where due to the machinations of a character, the representative of the rather Zerg-like Kragan empire HIGHLIGHT to view:
gets almost his whole race wiped out.... Now that I did not see coming.
Skrash, the rather crazy undead guy powered by Xeno energy, who is no-one's ally, is also quite amusing.

The writing credits include guys like Bob Forward, Bob Skir and even Simon Furman, and VAs include Gary Chalk and Brian Dobson. I am quite sure Gary Chalk voices Ulthrax's superior, who is called - get this - Minister Prime Apex... (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-fire.gif)

Oddly though, the series is just... impossible to find. I checked Ebay and Amazon in vain, although there IS a DVD release. A few episodes - the beginning and the end of the series - can be found on Youtube, but in quite bad quality.

If anyone has the DVDs, or even any of the toys, for sale, let me know. I have become interested in this show. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-hotrod.gif)

Toy(s) ID needed

I have gotten a rather good deal - a whole lot of Super and regular Gobots - from an UK seller who was kind enough to change the Ebay setting, allowing me to bid on it (sadly I lost out on his Rocklords lot).

(IMG:http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/BB_Shockwave/Collection/2013-05-31.jpg)

Amongst the many regular and Super Gobots, there were some toys I simply could not identify... or just partially so. Here they are:

(IMG:http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/BB_Shockwave/Collection/ToyID01.jpg)

(IMG:http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y139/BB_Shockwave/Collection/ToyID02.jpg)

I do know that the one on the left is from some obscure Matchbox toyline, I even have this toy already, I simply forgot the name. And I recognize the mini Roadbuster too - however, I am not sure if this is the Convertors variety, as I have that one already and it is military green. It has no markings/copyright stamps.

The little red car is stamped "Made in Japan" only. The blue truck is die-cast.
But I'm most curious about the turquise locomotive... the arms aren't broken off, they seem to be detacheable, and it has a rather complex transformation (the whole front tank can be pushed in and rotated, with the chimney bending down to the back). Again, he has no company logo/date either.

Any help is appreciated!

Grim Dawn -from the creators of Titan Quest

Did not see a thread for it, so: Official Site

Titan Quest is my favourite ARPG (IMHO surpassing Diablo III, especially in the skill-design department) - so when I heard some 2-3 years ago Crate Entertainment separated after THQ 'downsized' and started to work on Grim Dawn, I was all for supporting them. I pre-ordered the game some 2 years ago via Loyalist Package, and took part in the Kickstarter too.

The Alpha is out since May 15, and you can find gameplay vids on Youtube everywhere. Three Skill-sets are in the alpha, and the first "Act" of the game, and must say... it is already more stable than the Beta of D3 was. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon-waspy.gif) It's not without flaws - there is some lag sometime, and they oddly made monsters disappear the instant they are killed (despite the engine of TQ handling huge mobs without disappearing bodies easily, and this being the same engine)

The game-world is interesting - it's set on a roughly-Victorian era alternate Earth, besieged by two warring 'alien' (rather, mystical) factions both using humans as 'resources' in their war against each other. I have yet to see how, but supposedly you can gain various reputation at these different factions (plus human survivors) based on what quests you perform.

The three classes (or skillsets - as in TQ, you can take 2 skillsets, one at Level 2, one at Level 10) are the Soldier (standard melee fighter), Demolitionist (ranged attacker with pistols/rifles, various bomb and trap skills as well) and my favourite so far, the Occultist - summoner with interesting curse and poison/bleeding attack skills. I am currenty only roughly 1/3 way into the first Act, so will share my full opinion when I am done with the act.

Question - Is Pathfinder's alt mode a Cylon Raider?

Just saw this auction on Ebay: Cylon Raider toy - from the old Battlestar Galactica series.

Here is another auction/picture.

And what hit me immediately is that it looks just like the alt mode of the Gobot Pathfinder. Is this intentional, or just coincidence?