Irfan Takes A Train To The Mall

02 June 2011 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Star Wars, Transformers
 

One activity Irfan and I did this school holiday was to take the Light Rail Transit (LRT), the city-wide train network. He rarely gets to ride on it, since we drive everywhere which is sometimes cheaper depending on the situation. So we thought we'd go to the Mall.

We set forth to the station after lunch and soon train came along.

It's a train station!
This reminds me of that scene in Top Secret!
Arrival at PWTC station
 

Star Wars Crossover

02 February 2011 | Hisham | | Star Wars, Transformers
 

There's a breach in the spacetime continuum and strange, giant robotic entities fly through and bring their own war into the Galactic Republic! However, the creatures look somewhat familiar... eeriely familar. One faction allies itself with the Republic while another with the Separatists. With the sudden inclusion of powerful sapient giant transforming mechanical life-forms, the Clone Wars is taken to the next level!

I have the better Alec Guiness voice!" "No, I do!
My lightsabre is bigger than yours." "Oh, shut up.
 

ROBOT FIGHT!

26 November 2009 | Hisham | | Star Wars, Transformers
 
You fool, Starscream. You let these unwashed plebes into the house!!

In this picture we have Megatron in combat with WALL-E, an ASP droid, 4-LOM and IG-88 who he has in his hand.

Why? Who cares.

 

A Star's Cream

12 July 2009 | Hisham | | Transformers
 

Here is Starscream.

Not the Voyager-class toy, but the smaller Legends-class one, complete with the 'Tronian markings he got himself waiting for Revenge of the Fallen to be released.

Robot-mode Starscream

Strangely enough, I find this little thing to look much better as an F-22 Raptor than the Voyager-class alt-mode, which has an inordinately huge underbelly.

Alt-mode Starscream
 

The Year the Hasbro Toys Invaded In Tandem

05 February 2009 | Hisham | | Transformers
 

Preview of the upcoming giant robot mayhem movie Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has been released. In fact, it was shown on TV during the superbowl, and not long afterward the trailers can be viewed in their high definition Quicktime glory at the Apple Trailers site.

Let's have a look at some of the highlights, shall we. Click on the thumbnails below to view the full image.

PUNCH Gunalan?

Above: Autobot leader Optimus Prime receives a blow to the face, shattering his mouth guard in slow motion. One hopes that he turns around and stabs his assailant in the face with a big ass extendable energon sword as he is wont to do. I have no idea who punches Prime.

Good doggie

Above:You wouldn't want Ravage to bite you, cause after he's bitten you he'll probably also fire that big ass cannon in his mouth. Which usually hurts. I wonder if this Ravage can speak, and if he does will he speak in a thick Russian accent, as per Beast Wars? Hee hee.

Unicycle? But can he juggle at the same time?

Above: Prime leaps onto a much larger Decepticon who smashes up an elevated freeway in China. Although it might seem like it, this is not the gestalt known as Devastator. No, this is one of the components that make up Devastator. This Constructicon transforms into a big ass Terex RH400 Hydraulic Mining Excavator, the largest power excavator in the world. Devastator is going to be gargantuan. If they use the name "Devastator", that is, since they've used the name on what should have been Brawl in the first movie. So, who is this particular Constructicon? The closest thing to it originally would be Scavenger.

And finally, from the G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra trailer, here is the first glimpse of the movie Joes as a group.  

Starring Mr. Eko as Roadblock's cousin

Above:  From left to right, here are Marvin's cousin Lamont, Alvin, Conrad, Clayton, Wallace, Shanna and... the ninja guy without a name. Courtney appears elsewhere in the trailer.

Hasbro seems to be prospering well in the Year of the Ox. Also, I wrote "big ass" three times in this entry for no particular reason.

 

The 'Tronians Are Back With Friends And Then Some

28 December 2008 | Hisham | | Comics, Transformers
 

Check it out:

Who is the Fallen? Find out after the break.
 

Malaysia Trip - Part I

02 January 2008 | sila | | Family Pics, Friends, Transformers
 

I know I've been quiet. I don't know why but somehow I sort of slipped into a bit of a hibernation period. I haven't really done very much, haven't swept the floors either (that's next on the list). I really have to get started on sharing the pictures from our awesome 4-week trip (3 weeks in Malaysia, 1 week in Australia). So here it is, the beginning of the sequence. These are the pictures that I took the first few days we got home.

I admit it - I was pretty exhausted and didn't take as many pictures as perhaps I should have, plus then the camera battery conked out and all kinds of excuses. We were only in Malaysia for 2 and a half days before we had to set off for Perth. So we stayed on the 10th floor (enjoying the view) with Hisham and the rest of the family.

 

Finally! Transformers: The Score!

14 October 2007 | Hisham | | Misc Sci-Fi, Transformers
 

One of the things that I looked for immediately after watching Transformers was the soundtrack CD. I was disappointed that there was only Transformers: The Album released which had, you know - a bunch of songs. The Linkin Park song What I've Done wasn't too bad. So were the songs from Goo Goo Dolls and Smashing Pumpkins. But there was not one track released that had the movie's orchestral score as composed by Steve Jablonsky. In fact there was no score soundtrack album at all.

I've been monitoring the online news about the status of the score soundtrack. On or off? There was an online petition, but would it work? Sifting through a ton of information in the internet I found only an mp3 of Jablonsky's Decepticon theme on the web.

And there was nothing on Amazon.com... until last month or so. And as of last week, it's been released.

 

Irfan: Five Years After the Day

21 September 2007 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Transformers
 

Tonight was Irfan's 5th birthday, as can be noted via the photo of his cake below. See? It's in the shape of the number five.

Five. Five candles, ah ah ah. But yeah, Ain noted that it looks like the letter 'S'.

The blue thingies are supposed to be penguins... who knew
 

Which Transformer Are You?

20 September 2007 | sila | | Friends, Transformers
 

It's Athena's fault. Suddenly I'm 84% Optimus Prime!

Optimus Prime

Optimus Prime is the heroic leader of the Autobots. He is the personification of courage, strength, and integrity. His personal motto is that “Freedom is the right of all sentient beings.”

Like Optimus Prime, you are good by nature. But beware because mischievous thoughts sometimes tempt you. You are inspiring, confident, and a natural leader. The Autobots have chosen well. In addition, you enjoy being one step ahead of your friends as far as trends and technology.

I AM
84%
OPTIMUS PRIME
Take the Transformers Quiz
 

Green Lantern Corps - Roll Out!

08 September 2007 | Hisham | | Artwork, Comics, Transformers
 

Corpsman of the Cybertron SectorYou know that one of the lifeforms in the universe that most deserve the Green Lantern Corps power ring is the guy depicted on the left. He has no self-doubt. He has no quantifiable fear. The only thing he'll pause to is to see if an upcoming battle will have unacceptable collateral damage. But if the collateral damage is acceptable, any enemies (Sinestro Corps, I'm looking at you) will have a Lantern-powered energon sword stabbed at their faces.

Click on the thumbnail to see the full version. Click here to see a bigger version at deviantArt.

 

Best Wiki Disambiguation Page Ever

07 July 2007 | Hisham | | Transformers, Trawling The Net
 

Before this page disappears off the face of the internets, I would like to bring your attention to why wikis aren't the best source for you to quote your argument or college paper.

However, having encountered the same damned error over and over again on the net, I have to applaud this wiki's writer's spirit in getting the point through to the reader.

Cannnnnon?
 

No Sacrifice, No Victory - A Transformers Review

28 June 2007 | Hisham | | Movie Review, Transformers
 

Megatron, Bumblebee and Optimus Prime
First of all, I along with a couple of other pals, were the dudes who taped the Transformers episodes when the first aired (long before they were known as G1), to try to identify all of them. So yeah, even after more than 20 years later I can still name all 18 of the original Autobots who crashlanded on Earth on the Ark. So this movie is a big deal for me. The idea of seeing photorealistic giant robots prance on the screen, firing missiles at and beating the crap out of each other, transforming into cars and burning rubber on the highway.... is sort of a holy grail.

Walking up the hallway to the escalator in Cineleisure that will take me to the Cathay Cineplex (with Irfan in tow), Remembering the first time I heard they were going to produce the Transformers movie, I told Awie, "I've been waiting for this day for more than a year." Awie said, "I've been waiting for this for twenty years." I realise he's right.

To be honest, I really didn't want to put my expectations high for this movie. But I couldn't help myself. My expectations were higher than normal. I've already seen the trailers a million times each... not to mention the clips on TV. I must have seen tons of effects shots of the Cybertronians transforming and fighting (and crashing through buses) that I thought I've seen it all. There must be not much else to see. I thought, what the heck, let's watch the shots again but this time on the big screen with THX sound. I'd be happy to settle for just that.

 

Irfan and a Friend

22 June 2007 | Hisham | | Artwork, Transformers
 

And then they roll outI thought I'd paint a picture of Irfan and his friend, and then post it here.

Check it out by clicking on the thumbnail to the left.

Or you could view a much, much bigger version at deviantART here.

 

Irfan's One Utama Walkabout

31 May 2007 | Hisham | | Family Pics, Transformers
 

One fine day, Irfan Shafiq went a-walking about the hallways of the mall known as One Utama.

Movie Carnival 2007 weekend was just around the corner. So there were plenty of well-known characters loitering about the concourse of the new wing of the mall. One of the most remarkable things there would be this here thing in the following photo. A Transformers movie Optimus Prime! It's not on sale yet for another two more days. Apparently the guy bought it off eBay.

A stellar looking toy!

Looks as good as an Alternator
 

This Will Be The Awesomest Movie Of 2007

25 May 2007 | Hisham | | Transformers
 

No one destroys a liquor store while Ironhide's aroundIronhide twists and jumps away from the path of the incoming missile, and as he falls in slow mo he fires off a missle of his own.

Holy shit! This will be for me THE movie of 2007. The recent Transformers trailer than was released last week dropped a couple of jaws. It had a close-up of Bumblebee transforming, Optimus Prime transforming with the classic cartoon sound effect, Starscream jumping up and transforming into an F-22 in mid-flight, Megatron about to stomp on Jazz in mid-flight, and Bonecrusher expressing his distaste for the public transport system on a bus.

As a fan of the cartoon series and the awesome 1986 animated movie, I have no expectations of this live-action movie being a faithful adaptation of them. In fact how can one be a faithful adaptation of Transformers cartoon when you have Generation 1, Generation 2, the Marvel series, Energon, Armada, Robots In Disguise with almost all of them have divergent storylines set in different universes.

I mean take a look at the different incarnations of each movie character here at Monitor Duty. The Optimus Prime section itself will make you either shake your head in despair or shake your wallet to see if you have the cash to buy all versions of the character.

So as long as there are Autobots vs. Decepticons, and the human characters don't steal the limelight, and there is general and widespread destruction caused by huge transforming robots beating the crap out of each other, I'm sold on it.

I'm sold, I say!

 

I've Transformed My Wallpaper

28 March 2007 | Hisham | | Linux, Transformers, Trawling The Net
 

Freedom is the right of all yadda yadda...So today I made a brand new desktop wallpaper, which I think looks great. Click on the thumbnail over there to the left to view it in its entirety. I'm wondering about that glyph etched into the metal above his eye.

This is where I got the original image, which is substantially larger than what is seen on my desktop.

 

Primed for Empire Magazine Cover

25 December 2006 | Hisham | | Transformers, Trawling The Net
 

Oh my! Another Transformers entry so soon. I think I should have a "Transformers" category in this here weblog. Yes? No? Maybe?

On the cover of Empire magazine.... is Optimus Prime. The image was eventually found - while I was link-hopping on the net - at Don Murphy's message board. All I can say about it is... what an awesome image.

Excuse me while I take a look at eBay for Adam Sandler's unversal remote control so I can fast forward time to July of next year.

 

Walking, Talking and Punching Bots

21 December 2006 | Hisham | | Transformers, Trawling The Net
 

As of last night, the new Transformers trailer went online. This is not the fleeting 2 microsecond glimpse of a silhouette smashing the Mars Rover teaser bit which I caught in the theatre just before Garfield: Tale of Two Kitties. (Yeah, I watched Garfield. Shut up in the back there.) This one shows a whole bunch of Cybertronian aliens, in various modes and transforming. There's even a shot of the protoform stasis pod crashing down.

I am happily surprised that there are no loud rock and / or rap music in the trailer to mark the movie as "cool" to the teens. It's just a bunch of quick cuts of... well, lots of bits that made me and Irfan very happy as we went to bed last night. It's not an adaptation of any of the Transformers sub-universes. I'm not even going to go "But Megatron was a gun!" or "That's not what the Creation Matrix looks like!" kind of purist-mode.

As long as there are giant transforming robots blasting crap up, I'm happy. I'm not going to gripe over differences between the cartoon and this movie.

 

Toy Robots In Disguise

12 September 2006 | Hisham | | Transformers
 

Once upon a time in my early teens I had to save my weekly allowance for a couple of months before I could buy an original Transformers G1 toy. I only managed to save enough to buy two: Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Then later when I was overseas, I bought Wheeljack which I was unable to find when I returned back to Malaysia.

Last weekend back in Sitiawan I finally found Wheeljack somewhere in one of the cupboards, so I put the three of them together for a photo shoot.