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A Scene from The Transformers

Friday, September 11. 2026

The World Trade Center as seen in the cartoon The Transformers

The 25th anniversary of September 11 comes on the heels of another loss, actor Peter Cullen. With a career that spanned nearly 60 years and hundreds of roles, Cullen's most famous role was likely the voice of Optimus Prime. The Autobot leader's calm yet powerful voice became a hallmark of the hero - one "strong enough to be gentle."

While most of the early episodes of The Transformers took place in generic locations, episode 3 of the second season, titled "City of Steel," took place in New York City. The episode presented several meme-worthy moments, including Prime's reconstruction as a sewer alligator at the hands of the Constructicons, Megatron's fleet of Battle Taxis, and Devastator climbing the side of a building à la King Kong.

Another moment worth mentioning is the scene of Autobots coming together for a rendezvous in Central Park after learning of Megatron's plan to turn New York into New Cybertron one building at a time. While Prime leads one team into NYC via the bridges, a group consisting of Hound, Mirage, Wheeljack, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker come in from the other side of the city via hydrofoils. This group is shown approaching lower Manhattan, going past the Statue of Liberty with the Twin Towers in the background.
See more scenes ➡

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You Got Full Coverage On That Truck?

Thursday, September 10. 2026
After last year I decided against doing too many "multiple builds at once" projects, but I had to make an exception for a pair that has been on my "to do" list since 1996: the Jeep Pickup and Dodge Ram from the original Twister!

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To Defend: This is the Pact. But When Life Loses Its Meaning and is Taken for Naught, Then the Pact is to Avenge

Thursday, August 13. 2026
As I slowly lurch towards mild competency in figure painting, I realized that I haven't had a whole lot of practice with skintone. Enter Taarna, whose battle bikini looks to be a reference point for every video game trope from the last quarter century. The result is...OK. I still have a ways to go, but I can see progress from my first attempts to today.

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I Need a Ride

Thursday, July 30. 2026
I still prefer using rattle cans over my airbrush when it comes to paint jobs because I'm lazy, but every once in a while there's a project that gives me a certain nudge. Case in point: after weeks of trying to get a halfway decent finish on my John Wick Chevelle and being denied time and again, finally ending in having to scrap the body altogether, I was able to get a factory-correct Forest Green finish in a single afternoon thanks to MCW's airbrush paint.

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What's the Matter, the CIA Got You Pushing Too Many Pencils?

Thursday, July 16. 2026
The original Predator didn't have much in the way of vehicular action - the helicopter ride into the jungle, the truck up on blocks serving as a generator for the compound, and a couple of Jeeps that brought Dutch's crew to the base at the very beginning of the movie. It wasn't much, but I've done more with less for worse movies.

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That's a Long, Dark Road You're Headed Down

Thursday, July 2. 2026
I had been putting off building the Faster Chevelle because I had to find a '71/2 rear bumper. I lucked out at a recent toy show, finding one at a table of miscellaneous parts, and when I cracked open the box I discovered that I had already found one and dropped it in the box some years earlier.

I gotta take better notes

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Let's Face It, Harry...the Vette Gets 'em Wet

Thursday, June 18. 2026
The classic Corvette from True Lies may not seem to strike one as the definition of "power," but in the late 1950s the little Vette was putting out horsepower numbers that rivaled Ferrari using the second-largest V8 in Chevrolet's stable at the time. Add in that the car was driven by the Austrian Oak himself, and that seemed like more than enough cred to make the cut.

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Office Spaced

Thursday, June 4. 2026
The Internet Game Car Database lists the Plow King from The Simpsons: Hit & Run as an Oshkosh W-Series, but that didn't seem right to me. The hood's too short and wide, the fenders are the wrong shape, and the cab roof doesn't match. I'm sure the artists on the cartoon and game simply made a mash-up of several heavy duty rigid trucks, but to me it always looked like the biggest inspiration came from the Ford L series. Fortunately, I had just what I needed in the parts stash.


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Something with Reclining Leather Seats that Goes Really Fast and Gets Really Shitty Gas Mileage

Monday, May 25. 2026
The idea of a 6000 SUX has been on my radar for years, but I never expected a kit of it. Too Many Projects to the rescue again, with the first full-detail kit I've gotten from them. Between this and Jada's prior release of the Robo-1 Taurus, getting models from this classic has been way easier than I expected...not a phrase I get to use too often!

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There Might Not Be a Minimum Safe Distance

Thursday, May 7. 2026
Much as I liked The Avengers, it was a little light on the movie car front. Mostly seeing what new and exotic cars were wearing "Stark" license plates. But we did get a quasi-chase scene near the beginning, which at least provided something to add to the collection.

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America, Fuck Yeah

Saturday, April 25. 2026
I generally try to keep this site and my social media presence apolitical. Not because I don't care or don't have opinions, but because I want to have a respite from that discussion and wanted to provide a place where other people could do the same. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have gone in the opposite direction: everything is political, and by extension extremely stupid. That's a viewpoint I can get behind, and was no better demonstrated than in Team America: World Police.

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I'm the Unknown Stuntman

Thursday, April 23. 2026
Procrastination saves the day once again! While it seems like I've had plans for a Fall Guy pickup forever - and the kit for almost 20 years - it wasn't until just last year that the proper wheels and tires were available.

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When You Idiots Fill these Trucks with Stop Leak, You Block the Vents

Friday, March 27. 2026
We've been watching Reacher and enjoying it, so when this new movie War Machine (starring the same actor who plays Jack Reacher) dropped, we thought it would be worth checking out. It prompted us to look back over his filmography. Blood Drive, Fast X, Black Mirror...turns out we've been Alan Ritchson fans the whole time.

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There are 50,000 Watts Flowing Through that Tower

Saturday, March 14. 2026
In our last installment, I noted that I tried to remain flexible when new project fodder dropped unexpectedly. In today's case, Revell released a new Stranger Things WSQK van kit. I was pleasantly surprised on multiple fronts, from it being an all-new tooling to the clever functions of the finished build to the better-than-expected interior details.

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Right on Target - Thank You, Boys, Over and Out.

Saturday, February 28. 2026
While I do plan out my builds for the year, I still have to leave a little wiggle room for the unexpected. Case in point: I've wanted to add a Tomb Raider Defender to my collection for 25 years. There were ideas and some materials to do so, but nothing carved in stone. But when a near-perfect diecast drops out of nowhere, that's my cue to bump it up the priority list.

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