Kickin’ it old school. But better!

Insecticon Kickback in robot mode

Let’s talk about Insecticon re-issues. Specifically, let’s talk about the Legacy and Legacy Evolution series. Why, you may ask? You may not know this, but I name my computers after Transformers, and have for a long, long time. This used to be A Thing among nerds. For instance, a friend of mine named all of his computers after South Park characters. Anywho, I had a quick round of three computers (a laptop, a Roku replacement, and a streaming machine for while I’m working on servers in the basement), and I named them all after G1 Insecticons. If I like the Transformer enough to name a computer after it, I usually also enjoy collecting a toy of it. In a stroke of luck, this happened during the Legacy and Legacy Evolution releases, so I picked Kickback up during one of Ace of HeartsTarget adventures.

Insecticon Kickback in grasshopper mode

While the transformation is more complex than the G1 version of the toy, it’s still pretty straightforward. There’s a hip rotation, and there’s some feet repositioning, and there’s some neck twisting. Nothing surprising, and nothing difficult.

The joints are stiff enough to be able to pose the figure and leave him that way, and there are enough of them that there’s plenty of articulation. Articulation and detail – in both modes – are where this re-issue shine. In those ways, it is absolutely an improvement on the original 1980’s toy. In every other way, it’s faithful to the original, and a worthy update.

Glorious Garage Sale Find

Be-stickered laptop lid

On a day much like this one, at a garage sale, MonkeyLinkMega found something that would change his life forever. Or, for a couple of years, at most. He found a used laptop, for only $15. A Compaq Presario CQ62. He jumped at the chance to have his own computer, and brought it home, beaming. It needed some love, but, luckily, this Dad knew what to do. Tech Dad replaced the battery, the charging cable, and the keyboard. He added RAM and upgraded the hard drive. Once it had Linux on it, it could ALMOST run a full-screen YouTube clip without stuttering. You see, it only had a single core processor and no dedicated video. (Cue gasps and sobbing)

Eventually, MonkeyLinkMega traded up for something a bit better, and this laptop was consigned to the spares pile. It languished, sad and alone, for years, until one day, the tech-savvy Dad decided he was going to max everything out for a Linux installfest fundraiser.

The maximum RAM was listed as 4GB DDR2 (which it had) on some sites, and 8GB DDR2 on others. Tech Dad splurged on some eBay RAM, which was only expensive because it had become harder to find over the years. He also swapped the spinning platter hard drive out for a SATA SSD, to make sure that storage wouldn’t bottleneck what little speed the laptop could get.

Opened Compaq laptop

Initially, things were looking good. The full 8GB of RAM was recognized, and several distros of Linux would install, but none of them booted. After several rounds of this, successful booting became intermittent, even off of the USB drives. In the end, the laptop stopped booting at all, and wouldn’t even POST.

Tech Dad had a sad, but knew that the laptop had lived a long and productive life. (It’s me, I’m Tech Dad.) In the end, the RAM and SSD were put in a drawer and the laptop in electronics recycling. Rest in peace, you glorious garage sale find.

Also, if anyone has a need for DDR2 SODIMMs, let me know. :)