PROWL

I like to think a little extra paint on some figures can go a long way or just repainting some minor details.

I used a Tamiya Silver Paint Marker for my Universe Prowl toy and coloured in his bland black/white coloured weapons to make them more 80's outstanding. I found the original black/white scheme clashy to the actual figure paintjob. Here a little silver pays a lot more homage to the Prowl toy of 84.

Here's Prowl on duty...

GALLOP

I finally got round to watching the Hub Channel's 2 episode preview of Transformers: Prime this Thanksgiving weekend.

That, I will talk about later.

Here's where the awesomeness is:
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic!

Its seriously a good show and is the creation of Lauren Faust - whose previous work is best known for Powerpuff Girls (a series created by her husband Craig McCracken)

Obviously targeted at a younger female audience this is a pretty tidy and well paced animated series with fun characters, easy to follow storylines and eye-catching visuals. Even Spike the dragon from the 80's series is present along with some other reinvented favourites.

The 2-part pilot for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic is viewable on Youtube along with later episodes.

Part 1 - Part 2
Now I've seen the shows based on these famous Hasbro properties I now have a sudden need to see how good GI Joe: Renegades is... The trilogy of sorts will be complete!

Thanks to Matt Blueshift Marshall for the Gallop graphic.

PADAWAN

I was recently brought to the attention of this article after seeing this new artwork entry by long-time Transformers fan pal Jack Lawrence.

It sounds like to me this girl was bullied out of pure ignorance. Star Wars is very much a unisex franchise, but more importantly bullying especially at such a young age is very, very bad and needs to be trampled on effective immediately!

I still believe that institutional bullying isn’t clamped down on enough or dealt with early enough either. From Infant School to the Workplace, there can be tormentors who get their jollies from the upset of others. It isn’t just the victims that need help - these tormentors need it probably more before they go too far.

I hate bullying, and even though I can’t win back the years it personally cost me - I am glad to have been in a position or two to make a difference for others. Others who have been made to feel uncomfortable to go to their place of education or employment because of ignorant behaviour. I have been there, and survived.

I am sure that Katie is probably well chuffed at having a Jack Lawrence caricature drawn for her (if she’s seen it yet). I have one of myself drawn in 2004 knocking around somewhere. I must post it sometime.

WOODPECKER

Cue the annoying sped-up laugh!

Today marks the 70th birthday of that crazy anthropomorphic multicoloured menace - Woody Woodpecker!

Woody first appeared in the Andy Panda cartoon short ‘Knock, Knock’ (1940) where the craziness branched out. 70 years ago today, theatre audiences first met Woody 'bringing the house down' in this 7-minute madcap fued with a panda family. It's really as bizarre as it sounds!

Happy Birthday, Woody! The nuttiest bird of all time...

NATIVITY

Hooray. Nativity is finally out on DVD!

For anyone who missed out on last years cinema release; this in a nutshell is a British Christmas movie (how many are there?) about the workings, competition and drama of a Primary School Nativity play.

Starring Martin Freeman, Ashley Jenson, Alan Carr and Mark Wootton comes the ultimate British feel-good Christmas film for the whole family.

This Christmas, primary school teacher Paul Maddens (Martin Freeman) is being charged with the biggest challenge of his life - mounting the school's musical version of the Nativity.

Competing against the posh local school for the honour of best reviewed show in town, the stakes are raised when Paul idly boasts that his ex-girlfriend Jennifer (Ashley Jenson), a Hollywood Producer, is coming to see his show with a view to turning it into a film. The only trouble is - they haven't spoken in years.

With eccentric assistant Mr. Poppy (Mark Wootton) fuelling his 'little white lie', Maddens suddenly finds himself a local celebrity and at the centre of quarrelling parents and over-excited children desperate in their bid for fame and fortune.

Now Maddens' only hope is to get back in touch with Jennifer and lure Hollywood to town so that everybody's Christmas wishes come true.

Let the Mayhem in ‘Bethlehem’ commence

INEVITABLE

SELECTION

(Set in Christmas 1986....)
(Original Blog Posting: Dec 2004)
(Continued from BURNT)

Christmas morning came and all was forgotten about the 3P0 incident (cept my finger still hurt like crazy). Luckily I managed to sleep Christmas Eve, even though I was in fear that ‘Santa’ wouldn’t leave me any new toys.

We opened some presents for Helen first as she was still very tiny. She got plush toys and squeaky things and baby clothes. She actually liked the wrapping paper more than the contents.

OK. For me... The 3P0 incident scarred me literally. The mark on my finger stayed there for a number of years and that alone made me think more than twice about playing with fire, regardless or not whether Santa wouldn’t leave me any toys. My parents took it no further and I still got my presents.

My main present I remember from that year was a huge Transformer by the name of Metroplex. At the time he was the holy grail of all Transformers figs. There was no way that Hasbro was ever going to produce a Unicron (until many years later anyway) and the Autobots needed a playset. Metroplex was a huge white transformer that changed into a battle station/base for transformers to play on. You could store smaller figures inside him and he had some pretty cool weapons. I also received a Blades toy because he was pictured on the box. Michael received both a Galvatron and Ultra Magnus.

Michael was also introduced a cool looking new toyline called Thundercats. He had two figures - Lion O and Mum-Ra! These looked great in detail and were bigger than anything from the He-man toyline. The main attraction was the light up eyes that Mum Ra and Lion O both had. I also got into Thundercats slightly later, but Transformers was my main thing and always had been.

Another clever toy I received was a HeMan/Masters of the Universe figure by the name of Modulok. With Modulok, he could be taken apart to make 1000's of different creatures out of his limbs. This at the time was a mark of genius.

That year I got heavily into drawing and realised in my own view that was'nt half bad. I was happy that Santa left me pens and things to draw with. The 5 or 6 selection boxes Michael and I got each lasted us till Christmas 1987 (true).

This was the year where I kept some trimmings in my drawer. I began to hate it when the trimmings came down and all the happiness had been put away. Compared to the Christmas Period - Non Christmas days are Black and White in comparison. 1986 lasted longer than a year for me. I was in a class I had been wrongly placed in and all my friends who were my age were in the class below me. Blaise Primary never explained why they put me in a class where most of the kids were a year above me. That still remains a mystery. That was the year when I was bullied by the older kids till they moved on to 'The Big School' and became the little kids again. Watership Down, Transformers comics, Drawing, and Christmas Trimmings I had hidden away all kept me going.

BURNT

(Set in Christmas 1986....)
(Original Blog Posting: Dec 2004)
(Part 1 of 2)

Hmmmm.... I don’t know how to start my 1986 Christmas Flashback but here goes. This year marked the introduction of Thundercats, Modulok and even more Transformers and oh yeah my baby sister too.

This was the first Flatt Family Christmas Holiday with my new sister Helen. Helen was born shortly after my Granddad passed away. If we were a Hindu family we'd put it down to reincarnation. Mum told me that Granddad was now living with God in Heaven and we will see him again someday.

I believe it was Live Aid or Ferry Aid or something that was Christmas number 1 that year. 1986 marked lots of well known songs in the charts from the likes of Berlin, The Bangles, Spitting Image puppets (we were allowed to sing a edited version of 'The Chicken Song' in a school assembly), and page 3 girl Samantha Fox. I wasn’t much into pop around then but everyone at school loved the chicken song and there was so much fuss about it more than any other song in all my years in schools and educational institutes. Top Gun was also that year’s no.1 movie.

Back onto Christmas. We taped lots of films and cartoons that year. Dumbo, Watership Down, He Men and She Ra Enriched, The Animalypics and some Australian monster film called Monsters Christmas or something. We still have these somewhere on Betamax tape somewhere (and yes! I acquired a Betamax last year from a workmate and when I get the right leads I will capture and make some 80's clips for kenflatt.com). We watched Watership Down almost everyday. Bigwig was the man, err bunny!

Dad made a huge blazing fire on Christmas Eve (we had one really cool huge fireplace at our Bungalow in Brentry). Michael and I took the opportunity to make a sacrifice for the fire. We chose an old C3P0 toy we had (1 of 5 second hand C3P0 figs we had and back then SW toys were going VERY cheap) and when Dad wasn’t looking C3P0 with some help from your's truly took dive into the fire. He hit the guard and missed. Oh dear..... Dad could be back any second and do us for action figure murder. I reached into the fireplace and grabbed a slightly charred 3P0 and burned the inner part of my index finger. I ran quickly into the bathroom and watered it down.

By the time I came out I was in trouble. Dad found out (thanks to Michael for squealing on me) and I was sent to bed early. Now as a 9 year old and excited about Christmas Day the most torturous thing that could happen is being sent to bed early. And yep that happened to me. It was like a solitary confinement scene from a prison movie.

On top of that Santa was going to be told about what I did.

TO BE CONTINUED…

DISTANCE

... ;_;

RUMBLETUM

(Set in 1984....)
(Original Blog Posting: Oct 2005)

When I went to the juniors for the first time I was in the land of the giants. Once again, like in the infants, all the kids in the playground were much bigger than me and much more frightening.

Break time came and all was scary.

"Hey Milky Bar Kid!!" a voice yelled and the same thing again from another voice. A punch to the stomach from out of nowhere struck me down to the cold playground concrete and had me crying on the floor. I looked up and saw the menacing figures of Langstav and his friends who bullied me somewhat 3-4 years ago in the infants. To be honest I forgot about them, but they sure did not forget about me.

I was bullied and called names in the infants because of my glasses. I hated those glasses, they made me look like The Milky Bar Kid.

The whole Milky Bar Kid thing in the infants was humoured by myself and my mum. Mum dressed me up in a cowboy suit at a school fete and I won the dress-up competition hands down! I won again that year later dressed as Popeye! I still remember to that day wearing stockings on my arm with tennis balls up them to look like muscles (mum even drew Popeye's tattoo on them too).

Looking back. The whole Milky Bar Kid was something that started off as a cruel nickname towards me but ended up being humoured and embraced. Much like when Jesus' followers were called Christians by the Romans as a jeering name and then over the years turned into a badge of honour.


Oh yeah... Back to the horrible bullying scene.

Langstav and his goons crowded around me in a semi circle. From what I remember they were calling me names and not letting me get up.

Ironically. Langstav wore glasses himself and at this time I had just stopped wearing them. I had no idea what his beef with me was. Maybe he and friends were establishing themselves as the top dogs of the 'prison yard'. All of a sudden the semi-circle broke up and a mass brawl ensured.

THE RUMBLETUMS!!! Yes, The Rumbletums came to my rescue.

The name Rumbletums from what I can remember was from a Kellogs breakfast cereal promotion and part of when The Weetabix Gang were around.

The Rumbletums of Blaise Primary were lead by my hero and role model at the time - Perkins! Perkins was the man. His mum and my mum were good friends and he always looked out for me as a kid. I picked up a lot from Perkins and he always had my back during the Juniors.

I can describe the fight as either a punch up from The A-team or a Backstage beatdown from a wrestling show where the good guys run in and make the save.

Either way, this whole playground fight was entertaining to watch. Langstav was on the receiving end of an almighty "kick to the goolies" by Perkins, and shortly after that he fled and took his band of 'mutants' with him.

The Rumbletums checked to see if I was OK. It was re-assuring and less scary to know that I had the toughest gang in the juniors looking out for me.

As weeks went by, I was made an honourary Rumbletum and got made to feel like one of the 'Cool Kids'. I learned a lot from them. I learned that kicking someone in the goolies is a great advantage in a fight (and that helped me a few times). I even learned some great and colourful new words... Words that got me into trouble some time later...

Langstav and co tried to get me again a few times after yet and more kicks to the 'goolies' ensured. The gang war between The Rumbletums and The Langstav Goons continued until the ever intimidating Mr Hayball stood in and intervened.

And that... is another story.

LARIAT

Amazing...

DRILLER

More building-brick banter in today's blog. I messed around this morning with some Lego zombies I dug out from sorting through a pile of stuff.

This unsuspecting drller is from the knock-off 'click bricks' toyline. He obviosuly cant't hear the vastly approaching undead brickmen.

Captions please... :)

TRIO

I'd normally put this in a Facebook note, but since a few people there are causing me some grief I decided to cut and paste my tagged reply here.

My good freind from various TMNT fan communities Jeph (Jephael) tagged me in his survey with a series of questions to give trio answers to. So here's my rundown. Enjoy.

You've been tagged, thus you are supposed to write a note with the Threes of YOU. At the end, choose 26 people to be tagged. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you - but not in a creepy stalker kind of way. It's a good way to learn more about your friends without INTRUDING!

* Just copy, paste & fill in your own answers!! *

Three names I go by

1) Hero

2) Ken

3) n/a

Three Jobs I have hated in my life

1) Twilight Shifts at Tesco

2) Cashier at Sainsburys

3) Delicatessen

Three Jobs I have loved in my life

1) Learning Support Assistant

2) Voluntary Awesomeness at TGI Kids Club

3) Art Commissions

Three Places I have lived

1) my parents' house

2) a room with no heating

3) A caravan in the backyard of a place known around town as The Pit!

Three Favorite drinks

1) Tea

2) Crabbies

3) Water

Three TV Shows that I watch

1) Lie To Me

2) Batman: Brave and The Bold

3) Smallville

Three places I have visited

1) Toronto, Canada

2) Gozo, Malta

3) Black Gang Chine, Isle of Whight


Three favorite foods

1) Salmon

2) Olives

3) Chilli chocolate

Three friends I think will respond

1) Scott (Slash)

2) Nicole (Hailstorm)

3) Kevin (Jester)

Three Things I am looking forward to

1) Driving School

2) Upcoming episodes of Smallville.

3) Making my mark on this world

Three Things that are always by your side

1) cell phone

2) back pack

3) house keys

SNOWBLIND

I have just enjoyed the best internet 'freebie' in a long time - A marvellous post-apocalyptic, snow-capped, Spagetthi-Western entitled... Snowblind!

SYNOPSIS: "A lone gunman gets a last-minute pardon from death row, with the mission to deliver a woman of mysterious powers to an evil Governor. Against the backdrop of a frozen, inhospitable earth, Snowblind fires up the classical love triangle with smoking barrels and a ton of red-hot bullets.

SNOWBLIND is true film making 2.0: Community-powered, fan-based, graphic-novel grindhousy goodness… Shot on their own money and post-produced in endless hours of unpaid work. What else to do but share it with the world for free now – because in our present, yesterday meets tomorrow and spaghetti western goes digital!"
Snowblind is available for free download from the film website or can be viewed streaming on youtube here.

VETERAN

I Attended the Rememberance Day Service and parade in High Street Keynsham. This day of the year most of the town come out to watch and onlook.

The High Street was closed off for the duration of the parade and was amusing to see a couple of Bath buses get stuck.

I did'nt scrub up and wear a suit like I wanted, but I brandished my poppy with pride.

GUERRERO

Wow. It's been 5 years today already. Seems like yesterday I was hanging out with a few of the guys from wrestling training when the sad news of Eddie Guerrero's passing came out of nowhere. It was really shocking.

Been watching a couple of Eddie's old matches online to reminise the good times. I miss his comedy personna and tidy wrestling ability. Eddie took 'Lying, Cheating & Stealing' and managed to revert these obvious heel traits into a great babyface gimmick, a gimmick that made us laugh at the expense of the bad guys.

Missing you always, Latino Heat.

VIVA LA RAZA

Eddie Guerrero 1967-2005

STAMPEDE

I round-robin'd some of my cellphone contacts a question (I do this from time to time for a laugh)).

I asked: What would you do if Dinosaurs run rampage on the streets of Keynsham?

The replies consisted of:

"Stay where I am in Brislington"

"Cry"

"Ask my mom and dad if I can keep one as a pet"

"Say a prayer, and then find the nearest coffee shop for a caffiene shot!"

"I would use the name of Jesus to tame the dinosaurs".

NEXUS

One of the best songs I've heard this year is 'We Are One' by 12 Stones. It's a really upbeat Christian rock track about unity and making a stand.

I do think that however this potential 'anthem' has been marred by its usage on WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) programming as the entrance theme for its feared badguy group - The Nexus!

As much as I'm all for more Christian Rock being advertised, this track will probably be more commercially seen as the Nexus theme. Talk about bricolage. :)

Still, I am happy 12 Stones are getting recognition.

COLD

Oh boy, the weather here in Blighty is getting even more chilly.

Time to wrap up warm... Very warm.

I'm feeling like one big Heroic popsicle right now.

STUNTICON

Cross-posted from Figured Out.

As if the revelation about the streaking Lego Santa was'nt enough of an eye-opener, I was brought to the attention yesterday of a very questionably named Transformers product.

That's not a 'photoshop', it's the packaging of an upcoming Stunticons homage figure.

Of course slang words in the US/UK differ from one another. I beleive the said name on the box is also offensive Stateside too. You have to question how much research the department at Hasbro put into thier Transformers names. I beleive they still own the copyrights to 'Menasor', 'Dead End' and 'Drag Strip'.

This is probably the most controversial name on a Transformer since the 80's when a certain fire-breathing triceratops hit the UK toy shelves. There have been other questionable Transformers names since, but never on this level. Let's hope Hasbro sorts it out.

YEARBOOK

Last year I did'nt draw as much as I wanted. I did however manage to take part in a multi-artist montage for the T-25 Magazine at last years Auto Assembley convention.

Transformers turned 25 and fans were given the oppurtunity to take a character from the original 1984 lineup to draw for a 'Class of 84' photo. The different art styles together was amusing and the final piece turned out well.

Of course I got first dibs on drawing Sideswipe!

I recentley dug out the picture again and got my pal Ben Pirrie to working his colouring magic. Here it is again but solo.

===KEN

ELEMENT

Kryptonite comes along in many 'fruity' flavours. I came across a brief guide yesterday to the basic variants. There's like soooo many, but I guess this description narrows it down a little. Rambling on to people about the 15 different types is just a little too hard to swallow. I'd have left white k-rock out however.

BTW. Loving Smallville season 10 so far. Clark has got to lose that plycra jacket though.

I'm happy to see the relationship with Lois blossom out. It is great to see soulmates deservedly get it together.

EMPTY

As I was making my merry way down Keynsham High St today, I saw that the notorious bed shop around the Riverside buildings had finally been given a purge.

For many years the bed shop had been just there and not open for business, whilst many beds on display just stayed there, collected dust and brandished sun-faded price signs.



There's been many stories about the mystery of this place as to why the store stayed closed but never went out of business. Some say it was a cover up for something else or possibly an exterior for a mafia hideout :)

As you can see in the photo, there is a lot of business space there and there's some potential for something new to open up. Hopefully not another charity shop or salon.

TWITCH

Twitch has finally been freed from his packaging prison and is now all over the place.

I decided to impromptuly review him over at Figured Out.

POMANDER

I made myself a winter Pomander...

This basically involves buying an orange (preferably thin skinned) and some apple cloves and mixing them together as a scent decoration.

The cool thing is you can make the pomander look like a landmine (pictured), but in my case I stuck some eyes on it and gave it some extra character. The eyes were originally for a Pac-Man ghost custom that is still in Development Hades. I figured that these could have a Halloween Pumpkin appeal, but in a Christmas way.

These take a while to make a scent, but its worth the wait. After the Pomander has run its course, it can be boiled to make a further 'Christmassy' scent.

For more info on Pomanders, go here

GROTTO

Now that Halloween and Guy Fawkes are done, it's really good to see Christmas surroundings being errected and the proverbial road to the Festive Season being paved.

Of course, I am not big on the commercial stores setting up thier idea of what people should buy thier loved ones last minute on Christmas Eve. Those Christmas surroundings are just merely 'adverts'. I care more about towns putting up lights, trees and other clobber to indicate that Christ's 12 day birthday encore party is coming...



Places like Garden Centres and some Toy Store windows whilst still advert-like will always put on something spectacular to gaze at, with no visual obligation of telling the passer-by that thier overstocked lacey bra, perfume or Harry Potter DVD is the ultimate present.

That ultimate 'gift that keeps on giving' present has already been given.

FASHION

Popped into Primark again on my travels and managed to get a snapshot of the awesome TMNT trousers retailing there.

Not really 'my thing', but just to show a few stateside pals what there is TMNT-wise over my end of the globe.

PANTS

Its been a bit quiet on the TMNT front for me. Last I heard, Nickelodeon bought the rights and a new movie + TV Series were on the way (due 2012??)

In any case, I came across these in Primark. They are TMNT Lounge Pants retailing at around £8. Not only that, this design was also featured on trousers and jumpsuits too (cant't remember the retailing price, but can update that info).

I am sure some of my overseas TMNT fanpals would be interested in some of this gear ;)

Also in Primark (and reported on in Ghostbusting.net) are Ghostbusters boxers. I've certainly had a pants filled day to say the least. Who knows where my Christmas shopping will take me next.