The Energon Pub

Ha Ha! YUP!!!

LMAO, Cary! :p

@ZeroWolf -- we brought home a golden doodle! My previous BFF was a golden retriever, and we loved him...but not so much the shedding. With our hybrid, Clover is a sweetheart -- she's healthier than Tanner was, and smarter too. That's good and bad.

Hah, the smart ones are always the devious ones. Mine are quick to pick things up but are quite stubborn (just like the missus )

RAAAAAAAAI - DEEEEEEEN!

Such awesomeness...

LOVE the sarcophagus too!!

Me and Cobo were talking about our newly aquired Raideens and I figured why not share my opinion here. Definitely a quality toy, but fiddly. Like the older MP toys (from the same mid 2000 era). Not everything stays together and dear lord was transforming him and then posing him onto a stand a pain. The stand has a tiny latch (a la MP starscream) and yet this die cast toy weighs a ton so you havet o do some juggling in your hands to make sure the toy doesnt fall why you try to place it. I do love the look though, its phenomenal! That headsculpt is to die for and all the paint is immaculate. That little gloober accessory is painted more intricately than any MP toy I ever bought. Its definitely in another league. But it doesnt mean its a joy to handle. Still, I dont mind having it, but it got close to me saying the opposite!.

It did get close to me hating the toy, when I was trying to transform it into God Bird mode. Firstly, there arent really instructions as to what to do. Imagine you bought an MP Sideswipe from Takara, and on that big spread where you see images of the many accessories and screenshots of where they were used, there was one section there the alt mode was highlighted. You would have screenshot of sideswipe in his car mode in the show and then a picture of the toy you just bought in alt mode. And thats it. Not multi step instructions.

And there is one very very crucial step (that I realize is kinda there but not obviously highlighted). Raideen's legs are die cast and heavy as ****. So with the God Bird mode being his legs in the air, they simply kept falling. BUT if you push in the giant calves, that should offset the weight for you to get the desired position. Its very tricky but it is very possible and works.
But it took me a while to realize that. But now its all good. Cobo, did you try transforming him yet?

So here are some pics I took

Is that the same release cobo got? Everyone is getting a raideen except me as it's a little out of my price range at the moment plus the only one through UK sellers on eBay appears to be the black version Plus when alls said and done...if I had the money, I'd be after the gaogaigar soul of chogokin toy first

I see deze hawt robits and think....

My must-have would be any incarnation of Mazinger.

I like what this Raideen guy is about. Looks like a pretty ballin' figure, thanks for sharing the extra shots WJ!!

itscramtastic wrote:I like what this Raideen guy is about. Looks like a pretty ballin' figure, thanks for sharing the extra shots WJ!!

No problem, I hope Cobo wont mind. He is petty cool but from what I read and look at revies it seems the initially cheaper figure, Super Robot Chogokin Reideen, might be the one to get if anyone is interested in getting a Reideen of their own. Also, it appears nobody likes God Reideen since that Super Robot Chogokin figue is still availble at the same price it was when it came out.

That is positively bizarre and AMAZING. That sarcophagus thing... DAMN!

Hey Cobo, got a question fo you regarding Star Wars. Being born in 88, I was born at the worst time to give a crap about Star Wars. I didnt grow up with it and by the time the prequels came, I didnt care too much. I watched them but only cared for Darth Maul, Qui Gon and some Yoda fights. I did care about revenge of the sith though and I like that film (and still like it, although there are some scenes I wish would be erased from the film). But since my parents didnt care about Star Wars (after their time) and I never saw the originals growing up, I was just given the echo of the franchise and it wasnt enough to latch onto, still to this day.

BUT, my little girl is growing up in the thick of it. She likes Star Wars A LOT. And with the advent of youtube, she can watch any cool scene she wants from any of the movies. She will watch Vader mow down a bunch of people in Rogue One, then watch Luke cut off the Wompa's arm, then watch Yoda vs Dooku, finished by Ky Lo Ren and Rei against the Platorian guards (which I will admit, is probably a top 3 scene in the entire franchise even though I dislike the movie its in).

So, as you know, I got the books. And now I am confused. I blatantly ignored the political plot of the prequels growing up and reading these small books, there is a fascinating story there but it doesnt make a bunch of sense.

See this page below, its the first time that story element was ever presented to me in that way:



Thats pretty cool and smart. I still dont know why these clones who work for the jedi would the kill ... (oh wait, its like a trigger thing right? like they are basically robots following orders and order 66 will be followed through no matter what?)
Anyways.... then later in the book, I get this page:



Ok so what is the angle here? Why is he on both sides adding casualties to both sides. His clone army is being depleated in this war. And he has order 66, why not kill all the jedi instead of spending enormous amounts of money to make battle droids that are made to kill your own army?!

There was a reason I avoided these threads in the films aaaargh

PS: I just realized right now, that Count Dooku is named as such in reference to Christopher Lee being famous for Count Dracula.

It's to consolidate his power in the Senate, passing more and more actions so he can turn the Republic to his empire. You should see the theory that jar jar binks is a sith lord...that puts everything in a twisted light

WILL!! What Zero Wolf said.

Palpatine was a master manipulator and expert politician. By the time Order 66 was triggered on the Jedi, no one in the Senate majority questioned his authority (save Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Padme Skywalker and a few others who ended up being the progenitors of the Rebellion).

Which book is that? I know it's for kids but I like it!! My little girl loves Vader and Kylo, she even met Vader at Disneyland in California last summer. Awesome stuff!!

Yeah, pretty much what everybody else said. Darth Sidious created the Clone Wars for exactly two purposes. One, to corrupt and then destroy the Jedi. Two, tor corrupt and replace the Republic with the empire.

Dat's right 'densh!!

Also WJ, the Clones (genetically cloned from Jango Fett) had an inhibitor chip installed in their heads during development that would activate when any specific "Order" was given by Palpatine. There were a bunch of different ones. A few of the Clones figured it out before it happened (due to one Clone having his go off prior to Order 66) and they popped them out of their heads. If you haven't watched "The Clone Wars" or "Rebels" both are pretty good series to watch, and most of the important bits are on the YouTube (like Darth Maul!!).

I love how there are so many Star Wars geeks here, and Cobo hasn't even responded yet. (Incidentally, my YouTube handle is Darth Agamemnon.)

I am in agreement with the above. I'll expand on Order 66. The clones are purely soldiers. They were, generally, bred and trained to follow orders, not think for themselves. (I think there were a few exceptions like officers and special forces. And there are aberrations that were supposed to be caught early and....um....recycled to prevent soldiers with too much free will.

At any rate, Darth Sideous (AKA Palpatine...yup, he really was playing both sides to gain power) implanted a number of executive orders that could only be activated by the Chancellor of the Republic. These were seen as contingencies. I don't think anyone would have objected to them. As I understand them, they were like these from this source:

Order 4: "In the event of the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) being incapacitated, overall GAR command shall fall to the vice chair of the Senate until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv)."

Order 5: "In the event of the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) being declared unfit to issue orders, as defined in Section 6 (ii), the Chief of the Defense Staff shall assume GAR command and form a strategic cell of senior officers (see page 1173, para 4) until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified."

Order 37: Capture of a single wanted individual through the mass arrest and threatened execution of a civilian population. Follow-up directives include scenarios for body disposal of civilian casualties and suppression of communications.

Order 65: "In the event of either (i) a majority in the Senate declaring the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) to be unfit to issue orders, or (ii) the Security Council declaring him or her to be unfit to issue orders, and an authenticated order being received by the GAR, commanders shall be authorized to detain the Supreme Commander, with lethal force if necessary, and command of the GAR shall fall to the acting Chancellor until a successor is appointed or alternative authority identified as outlined in Section 6 (iv)."

Order 66: "In the event of Jedi officers acting against the interests of the Republic, and after receiving specific orders verified as coming directly from the Supreme Commander (Chancellor), GAR commanders will remove those officers by lethal force, and command of the GAR will revert to the Supreme Commander (Chancellor) until a new command structure is established."

****
This reads like legislation. So, Order 66 was probably shrewdly buried in the Contingency Orders without anyone thinking anything untoward. After all, who would ever think the Jedi would rebel on the Republic? Crazy talk!

These are very good answers, any link to the full set of commands

I think the ones I referred to above are the only official ones, so to speak.

Ironhidensh wrote:Yeah, pretty much what everybody else said. Darth Sidious created the Clone Wars for exactly two purposes. One, to corrupt and then destroy the Jedi. Two, tor corrupt and replace the Republic with the empire.

How does the clone wars corrupt the Jedi?

Also, the book those prics are from is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Sith-Star-Wars-L ... 0736436073

william-james88 wrote:

Ironhidensh wrote:Yeah, pretty much what everybody else said. Darth Sidious created the Clone Wars for exactly two purposes. One, to corrupt and then destroy the Jedi. Two, tor corrupt and replace the Republic with the empire.

How does the clone wars corrupt the Jedi?

Also, the book those prics are from is this one:

https://www.amazon.com/Sith-Star-Wars-L ... 0736436073

By fighting in, and leading the war, the jedi were surrounded by death and darkness in the Force. It started to, basically, numb thier connection to the light sideman blinding them to the rise of the dark. It also thinned the herd, and spread them out, making them easier to eliminate. Public trust in the Jedi was eroded as well, making it possible to paint them as the villains post order 66.

Dang it guys! My life is so hectic right now. In good ways and somee bad. I haven't even responded to Will's Raideen post yet! Which I intend to.

I do love how you throw out a nerd question like a scrap of bread to pigeons in a park, and the nerds flock in droves to answer it! I love this place. I'm truly among my people here!

You pretty much got your answer Will, and probably better than I could of answered. I like SW so much that I'm always pretty content to just be plopped into the world. A lot of the political structure around the Clone Wars is pretty confusing. I think a lot of times I just take it for granted, and am happy watching Jedis, do their thang.

But yeah, Palpatine and Dooku are some conniving bastards, and orchestrated an insane ploy to insure their rule. Playing both side like a bunch of chumps. And the damn Jedi were to arrogant to even see it.

Those Star wars Golden books are great. I found them at a comic shop in LA during a trip. My girls love them too.
Cram and Densh, you guys should hunt some down for little padawans.

If they are the ones I'm thinking of I've seen them in our local asda (our version of Walmart till they get sold on since Walmart want shot of them). Was looking at them for the two boys, especially since the oldest is getting into Marvel.

You know what I loved? How in AOTC, they basically made the creation of the Empire JarJar's fault.

They needed someone to give Palpatine the emergency powers and go "if only Amidala were here, she'd totes have the balls to do it". JarJar is sitting in her seat going "hell I'll do it, cause she would!"

Bam. Empire.