A TF fan who thinks the new stuff looks too clever by half

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Sat Jun 12, 2004 7:37 pm

"Hello" from the UK, am hoping to do some business with Transformerland in the future (yay me!) and therefore lurk on the messageboards in a menacing and English fashion.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Sun Jun 13, 2004 10:15 pm

Ah! Another lurker of the message boards! Goodness greatness! This could be a good thing.

Well, a UK bloak eh? Whereabouts up in there, the only places I've been is Dublin, Ireland and London, England.

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 12:18 am

From St.Helens, which is up between Liverpool and Manchester. Famous for the worlds biggest glass company, best Rugby League team and former home of Beachams (who make cough syrups and stuff) and, err, not much else.

Oh, yeah we also had the first ever train "The Rocket".

Post by **Time Traveller** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 10:35 am

my first train was astrotrain.

well, welcome to the site. there are good times here, though i swear some people are mute

i'd write more but i have to go to work now.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 12:03 pm

St. Helens has the largest glass company, just not the largest factory right?

Because I swear when I was in Prague [or rather just outside Prague in a smaller city] they said they had the largest factory in the world. But meh. Glass making is cool to watch. They can do some cool stuff with the amorpheus solid.

Manchester has one hell of a soccer/football team. How they doing this year?

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Mon Jun 14, 2004 6:04 pm

Yup, largest glass company "Pilkington Glass", reknown for making all manner of sheet glass for big buildings. I think they put the windows in the Petronas towers (the ones that clean themselves etc). They also own Triplex who make all the car windows for the majority of European cars. Used to be home to the largest Glassware manufacturer too "Ravenhead" but they went down the pan in a series of blunders and were left for dead.

Manchester Utd came 3rd in the league behidn Chelsea and Arsenal (Arsenal going unbeaten, the first team to do so for about 90 years). Bit of a bummer season for them. They're going through a bit of a Redwings style transition period, not helped by having one of their defenders (and the best one in England) banned for "missing" a drug test. He didn't fail it, just was late so got an 8 month ban....bit harsh as you might expect.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Wed Jun 16, 2004 4:03 pm

Did you know that Manchester is the largest sports franchise in the world, including all sports? Yep yep.

As for the drug test thing, I'm glad that the league sticks to what they said, instead of manipulating it for a star player to get around the rules. I mean, granted he passed, but rules are rules. As long as it stays that way for ALL players I have no problem with it.

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:20 pm

I thought it was a bit harsh because people in other countries across Europe have had 3 to 6 month bans for testing positive. A guy misses his appointment by a few hours, phones up to organise another - the soonest being the next day - and gets 8 months. They had to make an example, which I understand, but 8 months was overkill. To the end of the season would have been bad enough, 12 games would have been more reasonable.

And yes, Manchester Utd - biggest sporting Franchise in the world. Developed over the last 15 years too really. Bit of belt tightening in recent years across almost all sports - but you know that if they wanted to they could dig into their massive coffers and come up with more money than practically any club on the planet.

Except for perhaps Real Madrid....but they are owned by the Spanish Bank and thus are as corrupt as they come.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 10:41 am

Madrid though is an exciting team to watch.

Are you going to be watching any World Cup events, whether soccer or hockey?

I'll be definately checking out the hockey, and following the soccer as much as I can.

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:01 pm

We get little to no cover of the World Hockey. We're lucky really that Channel5 cover the NHL during the year. Lord knows what I'll do next season if there's a lockout. C5 is pretty much the only channel to see any of the American sports (from NFL to MLS).

Currently I'm watching the European Championships, flag waving and praising our ability to beat a bunch of clock makers from the Alps.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Fri Jun 18, 2004 4:08 pm

Heh... those damn swiss.

As for the NHL, I'll be pissed if they go on strike next year. They are seriously considering it, which really burns me. Ah well. The league is losing money because it is not so popular in America. It seems that most of the players in the league are foreign. Go figure. Foreigners have more dedication and what not to the sport and go further.

As for watching it, I don't get to watch it much either. With local broadcasting I only get to watch hockey on Saturdays on ABC. I just follow it online. NHL.com is the resource.

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 9:45 am

Last year I did a fantasy Hockey League on Yahoo, had great fun doing it. Was looking forwards to doing it again this year. As yet it's up in the air. They went on strike in 95 or so, they'll do it again to preserve their money rights.

Probably the most worrying thing is that the average Ice Rink has maybe 30,000 capacity max....yet football stadiums and such have 60, 70 or 100,000 type capacity - but pay pretty much the same money (or lower). Players need to be more reasonable, the league needs to sort out its priorities.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Sun Jun 20, 2004 12:40 pm

Well the problem isn't the salaries... it is the benefits they receive afterwards. Didn't you hear of the entire scandal? A united organization was put together of the players [it wasn't officially a union, but considered as so]. Well, the head of the organization ran off with all the money that the league/owners was required to put into it as accordance to the strike in 95. Now there is no benefits, that is why you don't see the old timers running off to retire, they have nothing worked out for themselves when they do so.

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Mon Jun 21, 2004 5:04 pm

Ooo...no never heard anything whatsoever. Until 2001 we had a complete NHL blackout, not a game on TV seen since they tried in 93 or something (where I saw and fell in love with the Canadiens...woo Roy and the Genesis/Mega Drive NHLPA93!).

Shall look it up though.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Wed Jun 23, 2004 10:18 pm

Yeah, it is some stupid scandal. They caught the guy though. And he is being prosectued or already in jail or something. My dad knows more on it. He is super at following things.

As for me, I just play you know. I appreciate playing the sports more than watching, but I always love to analyze the strategy in a game. If your players did exactly what they were supposed to, what system to attack what defense. It's lots of fun.

Challoner · Post by **Challoner** » Thu Jun 24, 2004 4:45 pm

Yup, I play Football (Soccer) a lot.....I talk a better game than I could probably ever play it. When it comes to the actual management, tactical side of the game etc I can see stuff and react to it, but my ability is somewhat behind my brains thoughts and instincts. So I enjoy analysing all sports, but of the American ones only the NHL seems to ever make sense as your Soccer league is like our equivalent of Sunday League Football (i.e. Pub Teams) and NFL seems to be two teams using slighltly different playbooks to achieve the same goal.....but you can marvel at the ability of NFL players to make a difference to those strategies more so than almost any other sport.

Aanallein · Post by **Aanallein** » Mon Jun 28, 2004 9:54 pm

The funny thing about football is that there is a million different styles of play. I mean, defense there is a million strategies and offense there is another million. You can call them 2 billion different names, but when you come right down to it, its the same damn thing.

Then the names they give stuff is so easy that a 4 year old could guess the strategy behind the play.