...I mauled it horribly though, There's still an arm or two lying around somewhere...

Also, for some reason, I had a dream Grimlock was stalking me the other night.

I did have a lot of fun writing for it

Anyway, I got my main pair of 3D glasses from a "Fruit By The Foot" box I don't know if they still make the kind that comes with that or if that was just a limited time thing. Also, I have a few extra pairs that came with the "Heroscape" ads that ran in various Archie-comic titles for a couple months. I have alot because I read about 3 Archie-published comics a month (Sonic, Sonic-X, and Sabrina).

I guess none of this helps you get a pair of your own.

Well, you can always but colored cellophane and make a pair (That might make a good "Arts & Crafts" article too).

I always thought writing for the Weekly World News would be an awesome job.

Also, I just reread your comments about the 3D photography and checked out the links -- that does sound pretty cool! It'd be even cooler if I had a pair of 3D glasses around here, but yeah. Some of those dollar dinos are pretty awesome, too -- I saw this one brontosaurus (!) that was reared up on its hind legs the other day at a Family Dollar. I was like thiiiiiis close to getting it, but somehow convinced myself that I couldn't afford to spend the dollar on it. Wish I'd been able to do that regarding the insane amount of expensive Transformers I bought this weekend.

RADIX: I don't think there was all that much in-depth dinosaur knowledge in the piece, but thanks! Admittedly, working on this feature makes me want to pull all of my childhood dinosaur books off of the shelf and reread them again. Perhaps this will result in more print reviews as well!

(As if there aren't a thousand other articles I have sitting on the backburner, not the least of which is the Shanghai recap...!)

Regarding knockoff toys, hopefully the following sentiments will allay your doubts and fears and permit you to pick a few up.

Buying knockoff toys does NOT sap money from the hard-working official distributors. It's different with, say, bootleg movies or music CDs. Buying those generally does hurt the industry because these items are typically still in production and are currently being sold. But with knockoff toys, the item is usually long gone -- say, in the case of a knockoff Grimlock -- or is so much different that it is effectively a separate product.

In many, many, many more ways than one (more like in all ways except them both being robotic transforming stegosaurs), Rawr is not Snarl -- but even if he were, Hasbro wouldn't be losing any money because the G1/G2 Dinobots haven't been sold in stores since the early '90s. Nor will Hasbro lose any money on reissue figures, since apparently the Dinobot molds have been lost altogether.

Secondly, when people buy knockoff figures, they generally do so with full knowledge and intent to buy knockoff figures. For the most part, it's not as if knockoff figures are made to trick people into thinking that they're getting legitimate versions, nor is the quality remotely comparable to the legitimate versions (unlike, again, bootleg movies and CDs). With the exception of shady people who buy knockoffs with intent to sell them as originals to unsuspecting buyers on eBay (or thrifty parents who give them to small children who know no better), nobody gets knockoffs with intent to pass them off as the real deal. I'm not sure precisely what the laws are on the subject, but for that reason I'm fairly certain that nobody really gives a crap about knockoffs. They'd be more problematic if there were confusion -- or if they were current enough to draw buyers away from the official retail versions still being sold in stores -- but since that's generally not the case you probably shouldn't worry about it too much. Unless you're using the typically hollow figures to smuggle drugs, nobody's going to come knocking at your door with a pair of handcuffs to drag you away for buying knockoff toys.

There! Now that you're more comfortable with buying knockoffs, go to it! And remember that you are welcome to submit guest reviews to SC if you come across any cool ones that you'd like to review for our information and entertainment.

If Rawr's plates could somehow retract to reveal even more guns, he'd be the greatest toy stegosaurus ever.

With that out of the way, your vast knowledge of dinosaurs amazes me--I was interested, yes, but I could never tell anyone the difference between two similar breeds of dino, or just why Tyrannosaurus-Rex was such an efficient killing machine other than "they were a huge breed of dinosaur". You, sir, have excellently detailed the functions of these QC Dinobots in regards to actual dinoasaurs.

And this article once again reminds me: I've always wanted to find some decent "knock-off toys" for comparison reasons (among other things), but I don't, out of fear of being arrested. [Yeah, maybe there's not a lot the authorities can do to me, but then, I don't know much about pirate laws other than "it's illegal and saps money from the hardworking OFFICIAL distributors." Well, there's plenty of crappy official toys as well...] Mostly for Megaman, because when I work with that series, I tend to go crazy.

One thing about Rawr: Yes, those "solar panels" are pretty flimsy when you try to place him in nature and make him work, but isn't it possible that they could retract to reveal more guns, if Rawr ever found himself surrounded? That would come in handy then, but the panels probably wouldn't be very practical otherwise.

At least it's still around and still funny (maybe not *as* funny, but oh well).

BTW have you seen the Batboy comic strip they print in there now?

RtW/Brian: Oh, believe me, they're coming... I've got all eight of the Quick Change Insecticons (thanks, Big Lots!) plus four that I found at a local generic dollar store packaged as the Transformer Robot Team. Between the two lines -- there's some overlap -- I've got all but one of the mysterious bootleg insect robots: the red stag beetle. You can see him here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISA.....0138894162

I'm almost tempted to bite just for him, but these things totally aren't worth that much. And at first I hated Hopper-Bot -- the one you mention -- but the TRT version (which is slightly different!) has kinda grown on me. Still dislike the QC version with its floppy insect legs, though.

But yeah, more on that later.

I still consider Pluto a planet so it's not like I blindly follow the scientific community either. So, yeah, no biggie.

And, those were indeed simpler times. I was once in my area's local paper myself, for participating in my school's mother's day pancake breakfast. Nowadays, I imagine any reporter even suggesting devoting page-space to some kid flipping flapjacks in his classroom would be laughed out of the office.

Damn, I feel old now.

Regarding the brontosaurus/apatosaurus thing, that was pretty much what got me featured in multiple newspapers. (I even got a full color photo on the front page of the Baltimore Sun, which goes to show you that we were living in simpler times!) Try enlarging the image and you might be able to make out the text -- but if you can't, here's the gist of what happened:

Back in the day the postal service issued four dinosaur stamps -- but because one of the stamps bore the name "brontosaurus" and not "apatosaurus", a bunch of scientific types were having a fit. Not understanding what the big deal was, I was like hell-o, they're the same damned animal! Sure, apatosaurus is the more correct term because it was published first, but with brontosaurus being the more widely known name of the animal it made perfect sense that the stamp would bear the more popular name. Also, anyone who would be bothered by the use of brontosaurus clearly knows that apatosaurus and brontosaurus refer to the same creature, so where's the foul? So that was pretty much the post office's rationale, the point that I put forth in the letter that I wrote way back when, and the take on the issue that I maintain to this day.

Also, I assume that the toy was referred to as Bronto-Bot (or Bronto Bot) in its carded form -- and not Apato Bot -- so that's reason enough to use brontosaurus when talking about it!