Ask Trev!

Ask Trev: “What’s Big Angry Trev’s weight loss secrets?”

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This question comes from Anonymous in Aberdeen:

‘Hey Big Angry Trev, I see all over the internet you showing off how you’ve been losing all this weight!  Well how about ya share the secret how with the rest of us eh?  Or is it all bullshit and you’ve had a bunch of airbrushed photos done like all the other celebrities – thought you were better than that man’

 

Well, this reads more of an accusation than a question but I guess what this person is asking is ‘How have I been losing weight?’  It’s true, I’ve been losing nearly a kilo a day recently.  I didn’t even realize until my pants felt loose that I was dropping such weight and now it’s quite evident as you can see from this unaltered picture:

If you say this picture doesn’t turn you on then you are a damn liar!

So how have I been doing it?  Well, no real secret formula that any doctor wouldn’t recommend anyway.  It’s just been a change in lifestyle.  Since moving a few weeks ago I have:

  • Cut out alcohol and energy drinks
  • Eaten more often
  • Eaten smaller portions

That’s pretty much it!  But let’s take you through what I am eating in an average day:

 

7.30am

Coffee – no diet should exclude coffee – EVER!

Cup of coffee with milk and 2 sugars

 

8.30am

Breakfast

Two slices of toast with vegemite and a glass of orange juice

 

12.00pm

Lunch

Sandwich: 2 slices of cheese, 3 slices of ham and a healthy dollop of Dijon mustard – all on light rye bread and with a pint of water.

 

3.00pm

Afternoon Tea

A banana, a few crackers or cruskits and a can of sugar-free coke

 

6.00pm

NOT what you should eat, but what you certainly want to (recipe HERE)

Here I can’t provide a regular photo of what I have as what I have changes nightly.  What I can say is what has changed is not so much what I eat but what’s it’s made of and the portion sizes.  And that is because lately my wife has been doing the majority of the cooking.  Why does that make a difference? Well, let’s compare what we put in both our mashed potato recipes:

Her:

  • 3 Medium Potatoes
  • Skim Milk
  • Margarine

Me:

  • 4 Large Potatoes
  • Full Cream Milk
  • Cheddar Cheese
  • Butter
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Gravy on top

So with her cooking it’s proved a lot healthier (and she has the skill of making healthy food delicious which is something I had never thought to master) and because the portions are smaller it means I am eating a lot less, since I also used to eat the leftovers on my kids plates as well.

 

9.00pm

The most g-rated nightcap ever

Cup of soup

 

So as you can see, I’m not exactly starving myself.  Also I’m not eating super-mega healthy either.  But what I am doing is eating throughout the day which keeps my metabolism going, rather than just eating a huge lunch and dinner and nothing else.  Also I’m only having a beer on a Friday night instead of 3 or 4 every night and no energy drinks whatsoever.  Combine this with the smaller portion sizes and I’ve been shedding kilos like a mangy wombat does lice!

 

Oh, and exercise?  Well, yeah, ya gotta move your arse to shrink it.  But as a hobby farmer and father of two I never sat still long anyway so I don’t think that has contributed much to my weight loss.  At most it may be that since I haven’t been smoking the last few weeks, I’m not sitting down for 5 minutes an hour to light one up so I’m doing 1/12th more activity per day than before.

 

So yeah, go lose some weight!  It’s really not hard.  And if you can’t seem to manage it there are always other options.  If you are a guy just grow a huge beard to balance it out and give you that husky lumberjack look. If you are a gal, just have the fat liposuctioned out from where you don’t want it and then stuck into your breasts where everyone will want it – both easy fixes!  Good luck y’all!

 

Got some weight-loss tips of your own?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!

 

 

Meaty Goodness!

Meat Recipe #8 – Roast Lamb with Seasoned Vegetables

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Who doesn’t love a big roast eh?  Well, vegetarians I guess, and people with eating disorders, those in a coma etc… well, lots of people.  But lots more people love a roast, especially in winter!

Be still your beating taste buds

So here is a simple recipe for Roast Lamb with Vegetables that is certain to fill your tum.  All the ingredients will be seasoned in various themes of yummy goodness but I’ve even made that easy too.  Just follow the below instructions below and eat hearty!

 

Ingredients:

  • 1.5kg roasting lamb
  • 4 medium potatoes
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1 large carrot
  • Frozen peas
  • Olive oil
  • Salt & Pepper
  • Minced garlic
  • Rosemary
  • Mild Paprika
  • Honey
  • Balsamic Vinegar

 

Preparation:

  • Peel & quarter the potatoes and the onion
  • Peel the large carrot and cut into sticks
  • Take a mixing bowl and fill the bottom with a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper
  • Put the oven on to preheat to 180 degrees

 

Seasoning:

  • One by one take each of the ingredients (the lamb, potatoes, carrots & onion) and roll them around in the mixture of oil, salt and pepper. Sit each to one side.
  • Mix up some minced garlic and rosemary and rub generously all over the lamb.
  • Roll potatoes in mild paprika
  • Roll carrots in honey and place in fridge
  • Pour balsamic vinegar in a small bowl and put onions in to soak. Place in fridge.

 

Method:

  • Place lamb in roasting tray that allows circulation of heat all around the lamb. Set timer for 90 minutes.
  • At the 45 minute mark put the potatoes on an oven tray and place in oven
  • At the 60 minute mark put the carrots on a separate tray and place in oven (otherwise all the honey that slides off will contaminate your potatoes and obscure the paprika seasoning)
  • At the 70 minute mark place the onion in next to the potatoes.
  • At the 80 minute mark put some peas on to boil

 

Serving

  • Cut the lamb into nice slices or chunks (depending on your culinary audience) using an electric knife and place on plate.
  • Divvy up the vegetables, providing some butter
  • You can provide gravy if you like, though with all the seasoning it shouldn’t be necessary
  • Enjoy!

 

And there ya go.  A roast recipe to warm the cockles of you and your families gullets this winter.  Happy eating!

Got your own roast lamb recipe?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Transformatorium

Titans Return Trypticon – the simple hip fix!

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Trypticon – the big bad!  The latest Titan Figure for the Titans Return line and the biggest Decepticon toy ever created!

However this titan has a titanic problem – his hips!

 

Though they are cropping up far less (still occasionally however) in later waves, the first batch of this toy came with some major issues that were in turn causing major damage to a pretty expensive toy.  These problems were:

1: The springs in the hips were far too strong and causing damage to the workings inside.

2: The teeth on the ratchet system for the hips were too big and would more often than not lock together instead of sliding over one another.

 

There have been quite a few fixes to these problems crop up on various Transformer sites and youtube.  These have ranged from cutting the springs in half to address the strength issue to filing down the teeth of the ratchet.  Some people have even removed the spring and half the ratchet altogether and replaced them with cardboard disks in order to turn the hips into a swivel system.

Well I am here to give you what I believe is the easiest answer to the spring and ratchet problems and guess what?  No cutting, filing or permanent removal of parts is necessary!  Follow the below instructions and your Trypticon will be ready to start smashing bots instead of his own hips in no time!

 

Before I start I would like to thank Grant in Blacktown and Michael in Melbourne for this.  Grant was the one who came across the method of fixing the spring and Michael created the solution to the ratchet teeth issue.  Well done guys – you both rock!

 

Tools:

1 Screwdriver

1 Pair of Scissors

1 Marker Packet

1 Black Marker

 

Method:

Step 1: Remove Trypticon from his box.  Note that his legs come unattached.  Do not attach them yet.  Even if you believe your Trypticon may be one of the ones sans the spring/ratchet issues I recommend being safe rather than sorry. Use scissors to cut the ties and take out the legs.

 

Step 2: Take your screwdriver and remove the two screws from the teal bracket.  Loosen the 3rd screw on top and remove the bracket completely.

 

Step 3: Remove the two screws from the black ratchet cover.  Be ready because the ratchet is underneath and the pressure from the overpowered spring will launch it sky high if you let it.  Have a finger ready to suppress its firing.

 

Step 4: Remove the two parts of the ratchet and the spring.  Now do the same for the second leg.  You should end up with a bunch of parts looking like this:

 

Step 5: Now to solving the problem.  First the spring.  No need to cut it, all you need to do is squeeze it.  10 minutes of compressing and relaxing the spring in your hand will take a bunch of the tension out of it.  Do one spring for 10 minutes and then see if it feels weaker than the spring you haven’t touched yet.  If so then you have done it right.  Personally I find watching an episode of Rick & Morty to be a good timer.  Half way through the episode change to the second spring.  Yes your fingers will get a tad tired (if you are a hardcore Transfan you have probably spent a hefty period of your life doing repetitive hand movements anyway) but persevere.  Once done replace the springs.

 

Step 6: Take your marker and draw an outline of the smaller ratchet piece on the plastic.  Then cut it out with your scissors.  Repeat.  This should leave you with two thin, malleable plastic dics.

 

Step 7: Take one plastic disk and put it on the smaller ratchet piece.  Then place the larger one on top.  The teeth of the ratchet will mush it into place where it will provide that bit less friction for the ratchets future operation.  Repeat with the second ratchet.

 

Step 8: Place the ratchet back on top of the spring and push down into place.  Put the ratchet cover over the ratchet and tighten the screws.  Reassemble the teal piece over the top making sure that the side with the 3rd screw hole is facing towards the back of Trypticon’s legs – it does make a difference when attaching to the main body.

 

Step 9: Attach the legs to the side of the body.  Rotate head and arms and stand up.

 

Step 10:

Go play with your awesome new toy without fear of it breaking itself!

 

And that’s it!  As stated – no cutting, filing or permanent removal of parts necessary.  Once again, many thanks to Grant and Michael.  I got my Trypticon the day he came out in Australia which almost garunteed he was one of the faulty batch and thusly I had been afraid to open him.  Now I can have some worry-free, titan-sized fun, as can you!

Got any other tips on how to fix a faulty Trypticon?  Write them in the comments section below!

 

Related Articles:

Toy Review – LG43 Trypticon vs Titans Return Trypticon

Video: Comparison of LG43 Trypticon and Titans Return Trypticon

Hobby Farming, Tales of the Trev

A letter of thanks to my former farm

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My dear former farm,

Though I have left you, I want to thank you for all you did for me over the past 6 years.

You taught me many things about caring for the land.  How to put back more than I took out.  The art of growing a tree in the right kind of dirt, the ways of composting and mulching to improve and protect the soil.  The planting of windbreaks, of nut trees, of fruit and vegetables for my family.

 

The necessity of you made me do something that my family had tried in vain to get me to do when I was a younger man – learn to properly use tools.  When you need to constantly build fences and animal enclosures, pirate ships and cubby houses, scarecrows and fire pits it forces you to finally learn how to use drills and circular saws and everything in between.  As for farm equipment, everything from the use of a humble shovel to mastering the subtleties of tractor usage became a daily activity.

 

You provided me the true experience of food.  Just how incredible so many things taste when they are straight out of your garden and grown by your own hand, rather  than having been grown on another continent and then shipped thousands of miles, put in cold storage, handled by dozens of people etc etc.  I never knew just how intense simple things like watermelon or mandarins could taste when it’s so fresh and been grown right!

 

You brought back to me the pride of properly caring for livestock.  To see the ducks growing, the chooks laying and the goats frolicking in their field in their thick winter coats – all given plenty of food, water, space and shelter to keep them at the peak of happiness and health!

 

You reminded me of simple pleasures that I had forgotten from living in the big city for so long.  Things like there is a night sky absolutely full of stars, the joy of swimming in a dam on a hot day or climbing a tall gum tree, the relaxed freedom of rambling around a paddock in a clapped-out ute.

 

You were the first farm that was truly mine.  When standing upon your ground everything felt right, I felt truly at home.  I felt a connection to the land that fellow farmers and country folk can relate to but rarely speak of, something almost spiritual.  Something sadly that your average gardener of city-dweller can never truly understand.  Just like someone cannot truly grasp the feeling of parenthood until they become one, nobody cannot truly grasp what it feels like to stand on the ground of your own farm, feeling the earth beneath your boots and surveying how you have shaped and changed and molded the land around you for the better.

Thank you for everything you taught me and gave me.  And most importantly thank you for giving my two children a safe place to spend their first few years of life – no matter how far away we may go there will always be some Mallee dust in their veins.

 

It broke my heart to leave you, but I know we leave each other better than we found one another and I never forget the life lessons you taught me.  You will always have my thanks and my love.

Transformatorium

Moving your Transformers Collection – Part 2: The actual Move

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In Part 1 of Moving your Transformers Collection we looked at packing your Transformer collection safely in order to get it ready to move to its new home.  In part two we are going to look at the moving itself.  What method you use will depend on whether you are moving yourself or having movers do it for you.

 

If Hiring Movers

The sign may be battered, but at least your toys wont be.
  • Ensure you mark all pertinent boxes with FRAGILE. Even in plastic crates if something of sufficient weight is put on top the lid can break.  Don’t think that most 30 year old G1 toys can take the strain of the weight of a couch sitting on them – not even Brawn.  Also have marked on the outside of the box which particular Transformers are in there in order for easier sorting when they reach their destination.
  • Make sure all the boxes are taped up at the top to prevent lids coming off or cardboard boxes opening when being lugged by removalists.
  • Word up your removalists about your collection. Most movers are younger blokes so are well aware what Transformers are.  I worded up mine when moving from Melbourne to Swan Hill and unbidden they did a visual sweep of the truck before leaving after unpacking.  Because of this I ended up not losing one of my Leader-Class Movie Brawl’s shoulder cannons that had managed to fall out of a crate.  I was very grateful for this unasked for courtesy.

 

If Moving Yourself

Where is Motormaster when you need him?
  • This is where I am for the current move. Moving a thousand kilometers with a whole hobby farm to pack up on top of my 3000+ TF item collection means we are using a 40 foot shipping container which we pack ourselves.  As such you need to know how to stack your TF boxes.  I use the following method:
  • Furniture and heavy boxes (such as full of books) make up the bottom half of the layers
  • Strong Transformer Crates (such as plastic ones) make up the first upper layer
  • Weaker Transformer boxes (such as cardboard ones) make up the second upper layer
  • Light items that cannot damage anything underneath make up the top layer
  • Make sure all Transformer crates and boxes are secure. Your ratchet straps will be more useful affixing large pieces of furniture to the wall so this can be achieved by simply wedging the boxes tight enough against each other that movement is all but impossible but at the same time they are not crushing each other.
  • When unpacking at the other end, do several visual sweeps of the truck or shipping container to see if any items have fallen out.

 

Keep a Record of your Collection

Don’t wanna lose any of these little suckers

If you have a large enough collection, you might not notice until it’s too late that somehow a rare and tiny Arms Micron or Decepticon Cassette got left behind.  To try and remedy this do a thorough check at both ends that all your pieces are present and correct.  However if even this is too time consuming at least have a complete list of your action figures so that you can make an insurance claim.  I do this in two ways:

  • 1: A typed list. How you do this is up to you.  I’d recommend an Excel Spreadsheet, though I personally just have a bloated Microsoft Word file, since when I started my cataloging many, many figures years and years ago I didn’t know how to use that program and it’s a bit late in the game to swap over.
  • 2: An online visual record. Having a typed list is all well and good, but what happens if your computer goes missing during the move, or the whole truck crashes and burns?  How will you make an insurance claim then?  By having a visual record kept online somewhere, it not only helps to remind you what is in your collection, but prove to an insurance company what you had should anything go wrong.  I use Photobucket and also have extensive albums on Facebook for this purpose.

 

By following the advice given in part one regarding sorting and packing along with the advice imparted above regarding the actual move, you stand a damn good chance of getting all your Autobuddies and Deceptipals to their destination without a single bot getting lost or damaged.  It may never be a stress-free experience (moving never is) but at least you won’t lie awake at night wondering if Springer’s Sword is lying on a roadside somewhere.  Good luck!

 

Got any extra advice to add to that above?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Meaty Goodness!

Burger Review #6: The E-I-E-I-O Burger

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I am a total fan of combining meats.  Despite my rather disastrous ’14 meats stew’ I tried to make a decade ago, I persevere with trying different combos to see what fleshes of what animals will complement each other on the palette.

Given this carnivorous mindset, I was therefore very happy in my wanderings to come across the E-I-E-I-O Burger.

The meats that dreams are made of…

 

That’s right – deep-fried chicken, double beef patties, double bacon and triple cheese!   These people don’t muck about! Old McDonald’s farm must be looking pretty sparse after they made a few of these babies! The ingredients were all done to perfection: the deep-fried chicken was not oily like it had just come out of a KFC or something, the patties were big and juicy and definitely home made in the good way, the bacon was plentiful, the onions was grilled excellently, the lettuce was thankfully negligible and the tomato was, due to special request, non-existent.

I was very pleased that they remembered to leave the tomato off as so many places either refuse, or otherwise forget, to make any alterations one asks for (I’m looking at you BAB Burger makers).  I’m not sure what the special sauce was except that it certainly shat all over whatever it is they use for a Big Mac.  It had a slightly smoky flavour with just the right amount of bite and it was that plentiful that I found myself having to use a napkin on both my hands and mouth after each bite.  Some may see that as a negative – I see it as a sign of a chef who isn’t stingy!

You magnificent Frankenstien’s Monster of a burger you!

What can I say – to quote Mr Jackson This was a damn tasty burger!  I mean it was REALLY friggin good!  Unfortunately I didn’t have time to savor it properly as we were running late for Transformers 5 so had to gobble it.  Given its size (much bigger than it appears in the above photo) this still took me 5 minutes of solid mastication.  At $18 and considering it does not come with any sides whatsoever its not the cheapest burger but it’s that good I would happily lay out the cash again.  If you find yourself in Greensborough Plaza in Melbourne then stop by Flame 400 near the cinema and gorge your tastebuds on a burger that has cow, chook and pig all under the same bun –  you deserve it!

 

Eaten this burger before or have another one you think worthy of mention?  Would love to hear about it in the comments section below!

 

OTHER BURGER REVIEWS:

The BAB Burger

Pulled BBQ Wagyu Burger

Cheeseword Cheeseburger

Tradie Burger & Truckie Burger

The TNT Burger

Random Reviews, Transformatorium

Movie Review – Transformers: The Last Knight

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Here we are – the fifth installment of the live-action Transformers movie franchise.

These movies have caused a lot of debate over the years.  Many of the critics and your more traditional Transformer fans have hated them – citing such things as poor plots, juvenile jokes and lack of characterization.  However the general public has loved them – all four previous movies still remaining in the top 100 highest grossing movies of all time.

So will Transformers: The Last Knight fare any better than the previous four with the die-hards?  Let’s find out!

Oh, and SPOILER ALERT!  This is a movie review – so if you haven’t seen the flick yet and don’t want to know what happens, read no further (but please do come back after watching I implore you).

 

This movie picks up not long after the events of Transformers 4, and unlike that movie brings back a lot of what happened in Transformers 3 as well.  The Transformers are still all hated and hunted by the human governments, yet they keep arriving.  Most of the Autobots are living in a junkyard which they periodically leave as they try to find more of their lost brethren with the help of Cade.  Megatron (Galvatron being just a phase he was going through) is enacting plans with the help of his henchman Barricade and Optimus Prime is off in space trying to find the creators of his race so he can put the smack down.  Oh, and the new plot has flashbacks of Merlin dealing with a bunch of Cybertronian knights that can combine into a 3-headed space dragon – now there is a twist that not a lot of movies can boast eh!

The first half of this movie advances these plot lines.  Megatron does a hostage swap of some humans in order to get some of his captured crew back from the military.  Cade and the Autobots hiding out unwillingly adopt a 14 year old orphan girl and Optimus lands on Cybertron to meet Quintessa, his creator.  Soon conflict (and Bayesque explosions) come into play.  Megatron (tracked by the military) finds the Autobots and has a scrap, most of his henchmen we had only just met being killed in the process.  Quintessa brainwashes Optimus into becoming Nemesis Prime and sets the broken planet of Cybertron (which got royally f’ed up at the end of TF3 by a spacebridge explosion) on a course to Earth to siphon its energy to make the metallic husk pull itself back together.  We also get introduced to two new plot lines: The first is that Anthony Hopkins rocks and has a bunch of old Autobots at his disposal (including a quite psychotic character named Cogman) and is trying to figure out the whole Merlin angle.  The second is that, like the TFPrime cartoon, Earth actually is Unicron and he is extending his horns out through various parts of the planet!

Phew – that’s a lot going on eh?

To prevent this they…..

…you know what, bugger it – if I list the 8 millions plot twists this review is going to become a novel!  Chances are if you are reading this you have seen the movie and know what happens!  So how about I save us all a bit of time and go on a few pro’s and cons eh?

PRO’S

*Lots of explosions

*Tons of action

*Nice boobs for the boys, nice ab’s for the girls

*Anthony Hopkins was awesome

*Cogman was funny

*A good variety of different robots

*Great fight scenes

*Expanded the movie lore

*Genuinely funny moments

*At least some characterization of Decepticons

*The action was not too close up and frenzied so you could actually tell what was going on most of the time

*Cullen and Welker reprised their roles as Optimus and Megatron respectively

*A Transformer clock killed Hitler

*Autobots, Decepticons, Quintessons, Combiners, Cybertron and Unicron!

 

CON’S (no, not those Cons)

*Bumblebee coming apart and coming back together contradicted a lot of TF deaths from the previous movies

*So many Transformers didn’t actually transform!  Grimlock, Slag Slug, the baby Dino’s, Cogman, Wheelie, Sqweeks,  whoever the female submarine was etc.  It was like reading an IDW comic!

*A lot of the Transformers that did transform never did it on screen, such as Optimus himself.

*Contradictions in plot

*Too much human focus

*Hot Rod is french?!

 

So overall, is this movie worth watching?  Well I’d have to say yes.  All the people that complain about the Transformer movies would do well to remember that these flicks are based on a cartoon from the 80’s about shape-changing alien robots fighting a civil war.  It’s not supposed to move you and make you cry – it’s supposed to entertain you!  In that regard Transformers: The Last Knight certainly delivers the goods!  It (like all the others) is a long movie but I can’t say there was any point where I was bored and frankly I found the whole movie quite fun!  It’s not a movie you are supposed to take too seriously and I think some of the critics and die-hard fans need to remember that sometimes.  Overall I’d say that this was not as good as TF1, about on par or slightly better than 3 & 4 and much better than 2.  I had a great time watching it with a half dozen mates and I can’t wait to see what happens with the Unicron angle in number 6!

 

This movie gets 4 out of 5 energon cubes.

Got something to say about the movie?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Transformer Toy Reviews

Toy Review – MP-11ND Dirge

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Dirge, oh Dirge.  Nobody loves you but me.

Dirge was my very first ever Transformer figure over 30 years ago and as such he holds a special place in my heart.  For others not so much, arguably the least popular Conehead.  He only ever used his special power of fear-inducement once (as far as I can remember) to freak out Silverbolt in a Marvel Comic and he even committed suicide when getting eaten by The Swarm in the G2 Comics.  In IDW he has done a bit better for himself, even becoming a central character to a plot line that extended for some time.  But whether you like Dirge or not, here he is – perhaps the last outing for the Masterpiece Seeker mold.  He comes with a very hefty price tag – let’s see if he is worth it.

 

Robot Mode

Despite being pretty much the same figure, for some reason Dirge strikes me as less stocky than say MP Thrust (for a review see HERE).  The colours are quite good though I would have preferred to see a pure black like the toy rather than dark grey like the cartoon.  He has the guns that most of the Seekers shared in the cartoon but these can be covered by bigger guns to resemble the machine guns that the toy had.  These have been retooled from MP Ramjets rockets so are slightly different but overall look too big and bulky (which they need to be cover the null rays) and resemble missiles rather than machine guns.  Dirge is as poseable as any of the other MP seekers but there have been no real improvements.  At least the missile racks built into his chest make sense as opposed to the likes of some other Seekers since he actually did deploy missiles from there in at least one episode of the cartoon (The Girl who loved Powerglide).

‘I have a dozen metal nipples –  punk girls friggin love me!’

 

 

Vehicle Mode

A faithful representation of the character from both the G1 cartoon and the toy.  Dirge has the Decepticon emblem on his nosecone that the toy had but the ones on his wings are smaller than both the original toy and its cartoon depiction.  The guns can be repositioned under the wings but again they really needed to be smaller.  You can put (yet another) holographic pilot in the cockpit but I really would have preferred to see Shawn Berger, since he appeared in two episodes and did go for a ride in Dirge at one point.  Given the huge price point and the fact we are getting a range of different humans in the Autobot line, I think a little Berger figure was warranted (but then maybe not – really rich guys using their power and fame to gain high political office seems to be a bit of a sore point these days).

F-15 Delta-Wing variant. Never actually existed and if it had, guessing it wouldn’t have been this colour

 

Overall

‘I’m also moody and depressive – so I get all the emo chicks as well’

This is the most expensive MP Seeker figure to date that wasn’t a variant of one that has already been done.  That combined with the fact that Dirge was not hugely popular means that this will be a miss for a lot of folk.  But if you are a MP or Seeker completionist or otherwise, like me, are one of the few Dirge fans out there then this is a nice way to end the Masterpiece Seeker line and will complete your collection nicely.

 

 

Got something you want to say about this figure?  Would love to read it in the comments section below!

Meaty Goodness!

Burger Review #5: The BAB Burger

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Today I will be taking a look at the BAB Burger – billed as for The Big Eaters.

This burger made up 100% of the options for ‘Big Eaters’ so if you don’t like beef you are out of luck

Available at the Commercial Hotel in Swan Hill, this burger comes in at the cost of $23 so I was expecting that it would be substantial (I’m guessing BAB stands for Big Arse Burger) and was not disappointed.  However the size of this burger is really the only notable thing about it.

 

Presentation and Customization

A tower of beef!

First of all, I asked for my burger sans tomato and beetroot and as you can see from the picture above this was apparently too much effort for the chef, though he did remove the relish that I had wanted.  Also as you can see from the photo there were four chips (well – 3 and a broken one) sticking out at an odd angle at the bottom of the burger on one side.  However when looking at the rest the chips on the plate, one realized that they were not put in the burger on purpose, but must have just got caught up in its construction as the other chef dumped the chips on the plate.

 

The Eating 

No burger too big!

Despite the pic above, this burger was too big to eat with the hands in a restaurant (you could probably get away with it at a truck stop cafe or something) so you had to disassemble it and eat it with a knife and fork.  With double bacon, double cheese and the two huge patties there was certainly a lot to get through – you wont walk away hungry!  However there was not a lot of taste to be found despite all the ingredients (they REALLY should not have left the relish off).  The two patties were indeed huge in size, way more meat than you get with say a Mega Mac which boasts 4 patties, but they were made of cheap mince and quite bland.  The underside of the buns were burnt and the egg yolk had disintegrated with the frying so tasted the same as the white.  So a big burger, but every ingredient was either overdone or of such cheap quality that you’d need an electron microscope to search for the taste (for an example of how fine quality ingredients can make all the difference to a burger – read my review of the Cheeseworld Cheeseburger).

 

Overall

It’s a big burger and you get a decent amount of chips with it, so if your idea of a good feed is quantity over quality it is worth the $23 they charge.  Again, you will not walk away from the table hungry after this.  But if you are looking for something to dazzle your tastebuds or made to your particular specifications then definitely don’t bother with this.  If you want quantity AND quality then try the meat at somewhere like The Kings Hotel.

 

 

Got something to add to the above or news of a great burger you would like to share?  Pop it in the comments section below!

 

Transformatorium, Uncategorised

Moving your Transformers Collection – Part 1: Sorting & Packing

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Packing and moving.  Truly a terrible job.  Having to pack up the entire contents of a house and get them to a secondary desitnation safely is time consuming, back breaking and frankly boring.  But you can add to that list a hefty amount of stress if you have something like an expensive collection you have to move.

Sleep well my babies

When I moved out of home at 18, I was able to fit all the belongings of both my buddy and me in a small station wagon and my small box of G1 Transformers stayed at Mum’s.  When I moved to the country at the age of 33, I had accumulated over 900 TF figures and had a respectable amount of  comics, books and clothing to go with it, it took up a nice bit of space in the moving truck.

Now nearing 40 I am moving again and this time across states, a solid 10 hour drive from where I am now.  And my collection has grown expodentially!  Currently my collection boasts:

  • 2000 figures – over 100 of them MISB/MOSC
  • 500+ Comics
  • 40+ Books
  • 60+ DVDs/Blu Rays/Video Games
  • 80+ Pieces of clothing
  • Lots and LOTS of MISC (cups, mugs, board games, lunch boxes, backpacks, posters etc).

So probably about 3000 pieces all up.

 

Moving all this is very daunting.  Not only the sheer scope of packing it all in the first place, but packing it all in such a way that nothing will get lost or broken.  In this two part blog I will be sharing my tips for how to move your collection in such a way that it stays safe.  And thus we will start with Part 1: Packing.

 

Step 1: Sorting

Sorting action figures

Hot Shots in baggie

To make sure you leave nothing behind I strongly suggest you sort your collection.  How  you do this is up to you.  You may choose to sort via the toyline (G1, Beast Wars, Armada, Movieverse etc) but personally as a Multiverse collector I choose to go by the individual character.  This has the advantage of being able to bag them to keep them grouped whereas an entire toyline , especially ones that have big figures like Cybertron, might be too big for a single crate.  Also if your collection is smaller you might take the time to transform them all into vehicle modes to be more compact, though this was something time precluded me from doing.

In cases where you have a lot of characters you might even give them their own crate.  I have these for Optimus, Bumblebee, Starscream, Megatron etc.  With my Optimus I needed two huge crates, one for loose figures and one for MISB’s.

Too many Optimus for a baggie!

 

Sorting Paperwork

I have to give my wife credit for this one.  Very occasionally I get stuck with a TF that I haven’t transformed in many years and have forgotten how.  When this happens rather than dig through over 1000 instruction manuals I turn to youtube.  However where we are moving we wont have internet for quite a while so my wife sorted all my instruction manuals into 26 individual alphabetical plastic pockets.  This was also handy for checking I was not missing any accessories.

 

 

Sorting accessories

Missiles & launchers

Primarily you want to have them bagged with the figure they come with.  However if you have thousands of the buggers time may stop you from doing this.  In that case I recommend sorting them into bags of missiles, rifles, shields etc.  I’d also bag all your smaller figures like Kre-O in a similar fashion.

 

Step 2: Packing

As I’ve shown above, large plastic sealable bags are the go for keeping your robots separate.  But now the larger packing begins.  For this you will mainly use three different materials: cardboard boxes, cardboard tubes and plastic crates.

 

Cardboard boxes

Proper moving boxes
The TF boxes that other TF boxes come in

In these you can pack items that are not breakable.  This includes TF boxes you have kept (such as perhaps Unite Warriors or from busts) and Transformers clothing.  Other misc items such as backpacks, lunch boxes etc can be packed the same way.

 

Cardboard tubes

Used for all your Transformer posters.

 

Plastic Packing crates.

Expensive when you need a lot but worth it

Now these are really what you need for your figures.  The stronger construction will protect the figures from getting damaged and you can buy them up to a 140L size for around $20 each from places like The Reject Shop.  When packing these crates, try and pack them with similar toys.  I have all my versions of the Combaticon and Stunticon characters in one crate, all my versions of the 84’ Autobot cars in another and so on.

 

Bubble Wrap

Resist the urge to pop – you wont be able to stop!

If you wanna go the extra mile and pad all your plastic crates with bubble wrap on the inside it’s a good idea.  However if you have a collection as big as mine its probably impractical and I would suggest just bubble wrapping any of your irriplacable or particularly fragile items.

 

So, by following the above you should be able to get your collection, no matter how large or small, ready to move to its new home.  Please check back for part two – The Move!

All packed up and ready to go!

 

Got any tips to add to the above?  Would love to read them in the comments section below!

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