M'Kyuun

Well, I believe Takara are taking lead on these so they're not under the same restrictions as we and other countries so far as toy gun restrictions go. We would simply have to buy it from Takara directly or another overseas store. I imagine Takara will get around to updating his old G1 self eventually.

The additional articulation would have made me very happy back in the 80s, but I've been spoiled by any number of modern takes on these characters. The old G1 toys just don't look that great to me, even with the added articulation. If they get around to doing Megatron, I might bite, as I never owned G1 Megs. Too, the G1 cassettes if they were to trick them out with better articulation. For the most part, though, I'm happy to leave the G1 toys in the past and embrace modern figs with what I feel are better aesthetics and engineering. However, nostalgia is a powerful draw; I get that. I'm far more drawn to vintage LEGO sets than vintage Transformers, but that passion is the same. There's definitely an audience for these and I hope they're fun and fulfilling as they fill a certain niche in the collection.

The DX Sv-262 is a PITA to transform. I managed to transform it to battroid and that's how it has remained. I don't think I ever reattempted going back to fighter. The majority of it wasn't too bad, but those wing armatures were no fun. Since I display my valks in battroid, I'm good. I venture the opinion that Macross Plus is more popular than Delta (will ever be), and so, too, the two primary valks (although I have a soft spot for the VF-11, a lovely design in its own right and a valk that gets too little love). If initial sales of the YF-21 are good, I think Max and Milia versions will follow at a minimum. However, we already know this toy is going to be a mixed bag, as we've already exhausted many pages airing our grievances of which Bandai seemingly did little to nothing to fix since the unveiling in 2019. Desperation for a new toy is driving the acquisition of the YF-21 for many, myself included, but I'm not blind to its faults, either. If it's a solid toy with a non-frustrating transformation, good tolerances, and overall good quality, I think it'll soften some the more questionable design flaws, at least make them a little more tolerable. However, given the amount of critique this thing has already suffered, any misstep in quality or build is going to deep six this toy due to the umbrage onslaught. I'm sure Bandai's fully aware of the criticisms, but they're betting on the fandom's desperation. The fact that all this feedback is out there and yet nothing really changed for the better indicates that they're happy to one-and-done with this mold. FWIW, I hope it's a solid toy. Shitty backpack design aside, I've been pretty content with the battroid mode since the proto was unveiled in '19, so for my display purposes, it does the job. That said, I don't really handle my high-end toys, but for those who like to mess with them, the build quality, tolerances, and aesthetics are going to be far more meaningful; failing these criteria, I don't see much of an afterlife for this toy in repaints. If it sucks, the internet won't hold back. I was very much hoping that Bandai's DX would inspire Arcadia to take another crack at the YF-21. Even if they only did a partial retool of the Yamato to bulk up the legs, it would be the improvement I desperately desire. In all other regards, it's about as close to perfect as humanly possible. I'll take a chubbier jet mode if it means the battroid is more proportional, and hopefully the hips would be on ratchets this time around. The best thing about Arcadia is their genuine passion for Macross; it comes through in their toys, the little touches. I think a new YF-21 release from them would smoke Bandai's DX. Shame they didn't capitalize on the opportunity. In that absence, I feel we the fans lose.

Considering there's money to be made from milking a mold, I'm sure we'll see every possible variant. Sorry to hear about your Yammie's breakage. At least you can display it in fighter, which is its best mode.

Stoked for the B:TAS Batmobile,, another grail realized. The choice of dark blue as opposed to black is unexpected, but I can live with it. I wish the Batmobile itself had some pop-out gadgetry of some sort, even the hood guns like the '89 Batmobile, but as far as capturing the look of the car from the show, it's pretty dead on. The only Batmobile left that I'd love to see in an official set is the Arkham Knight version. Oh, and perhaps the Batman Beyond version as well. Fingers crossed. Glad to see villains other than the Joker in this set; however, given how large a role Joker played throughout the series, I hope we'll get a B:TAS Batwing with Joker, Penguin, and Catwoman. Nightwing and Batgirl sets would also be welcome with Poison Ivy, Two-Face, and Scarecrow. Needless to say, I hope they're just getting started with Animated Series sets. The Nolan Batman with Batpod is another pleasant surprise. There was a limited edition Batpod set released a few years back which sold out very quickly; I missed out on it and have lamented it since. There have been no other Batpod sets released until now and I'm itching to get a copy. I love that the buildable Batman can ride it. If they make a Dark Knight Rises Catwoman, that'll be pretty cool, too. There've been a lot of summer sets revealed. Some notables: City has been expanding beyond its boring focus on Police and Fire sets with some interesting and inventive sets, and this one stands out notably for its inclusion of a scaled down but instantly recognizable version of the Exo-Force Stealth Hunter from 2006. Admittedly, the set as a whole doesn't interest me much, but man would I love to have a whole series of those mini-EF mecha as stand-alone sets. For some reason, car transport tractor trailers have always fascinated me. This set really hits home for me, as it's just so well executed both aesthetically and functionally. However, while I'm not a car guy, that tricked-out 50s car kinda steals the show. Speaking of aesthetics and functionality, construction makes a return this year: While the mobile crane is impressive, I intend to pass on it; however, that excavator is a must! Love all the faux hydraulics (even simulated hoses running over the top of the main boom) throughout all three parts of the digger arm. The cab is beautifully realized, and the cabin window even has safety bars. I hope there are more like this coming in the fall wave. This beggars for an articulated dump truck and perhaps a heavy bulldozer or an articulated front-end loader. Cargo is one of my favorite City subthemes and I've enjoyed collecting a number of cargo ship sets over the years. However, this set is a departure from previous sets as the ship's hull is not a large single hull piece that floats, but a return to brick-built like the old 80s and 90s sets. The ship is also quite small relative to previous cargo ship sets. However, what the ship lacks in scale, the entirety of the set makes up for in atmosphere and charm. While I prefer the boats to float, I have to admit this set is warming my heart. This year's City Jungle Explorer subtheme sees the return of Johnny Thunder, LEGO's answer to Indiana Jones in the Adventurers series which ran from 1998-2003 and saw Johnny tackling everything from mummies in Egypt, scorpions, dragons, and yetis in the Orient, to Dinosaurs. Johnny's return is a little more grounded as he explores the jungle. Notable this year are the introduction of an adult and baby gorilla as well as a red panda. I'm quite taken with that helicopter, especially the cockpit section. Nice-looking Chinook-inspired heli. Space is ever popular and LEGO is leaning into it this year: Not only did the designers capture the look of the Apollo rover with all of its instruments bristling, but it even folds up like the real vehicle to fit in the Lunar Module. Too bad there's not a scaled version of the LM to squeeze this into. Now that would be a big, impressive set. Speed Champions returns this summer with three new sets: I saved the best for last. While the first two I pictured are just meh to me, the Lamborghini V12 Vision from the 2020 Gran Turismo Sport game is such a stunningly beautiful and complex design. I had my doubts they'd tackle it, but I'm sure glad they did. It's not perfectly accurate, especially the shape and size of the front part of the canopy but considering the medium and the scale they're working in, it's a really good capture. I'd love to see Speed Champions tackle other media like tv cars (K.I.T.T.) and anime: The Mach 5 and the Asurada from Future GPX Cyber Formula. As they've been doing for the last couple of years, LEGO's releasing yet another large elaborate Marvel set that's both playset and display piece. And in the mecha realm, these two have caught my eye. The first is Cole's Titan Dragon Mech. Once again, Ninjago gives us a large, lovely anime-styled mech with decent articulation (even knees!). The second mech of note has a completely different aesthetic, but no less interesting (at least to me). From LEGO's Dreamzzz theme, this is Mateo and Z-Blob the Knight Battle Mech. For those who've not seen Dreamzzz, Z-Blob is a gelatinous dream creature created by a kid named Mateo. With Mateo's creative power in the Dream World, Z-Blob can change forms, usually adopting a robot suit. This new mecha is a nice upgrade. Moreover, most Dreamzzz sets have a 3-1 feature where the main model is partially rebuilt or modded, and the same is true for this one. My only gripe is that the articulation suffers due to the use of those round curvy trans yellowish-green elements which are meant to represent Z-Blob's exposed extremities between the armor bits. It makes for a cool look but hinders the pose-ability. Nevertheless, I find all the models appealing, and though I rarely do so, I may end up building all three configurations. There are so many more sets coming; I just picked a few that appealed to me. Looking forward to picking these and others up as summer approaches. Lots to look forward to.

That he does.😄

I saw this in a thumbnail advert this morning and thought it was a new take on Shockwave. Turns out it's a Bandai Spirits kit called GIG R01Provedel Type-Rex 01. Wouldn't take much customizing to make him more Shockwave-y though.

All I want out of today's announcements are Steeljaw and possibly SS86 Springer, although I think the Siege toy is pretty well done so I'm not sure I need a partial retool of an already good take. I wish they'd actually shown Steeljaw; the cassettes are a particular favorite subset of TFs for me and I really hope Steeljaw is well done. Given the precedents, I'm not holding my breath. I can hope though. Looks like they're taking a break from more Animated or Prime figs. Ah well, more money in my pocket for now.

Lucy and Maximus are important, of course. Just like in the game, Lucy, the vault dweller, provides the viewer's main frame of reference when it comes to the wasteland, and her character has the greatest growth in terms of her outlook, decisions, and actions as her story progresses. Max has a smaller arc, but after the conclusion, I get the sense his importance to the story is going to expand much more. The Ghoul is a fascinating character. He's lived a long time, seen a lot, knows a lot, and time and the wasteland have changed him. But at the core, he still holds on to some of his ideals from when he was purely human. He offers an adjacent yet seasoned view of the wasteland in stark contrast to Lucy's naive and optimistic outlook. He comes off as a bad guy, and some of his actions are ethically questionable, but he rarely does anything without a reason or purpose behind it, and he's not just killing for the sport of it. His is the most interesting viewpoint given the lens of time through which we see events unfold over a 200+ year timeline and all the machinations to which he was privy. Walton Goggins is captivating in the role. Just overall, I like all the main cast and I'm looking forward to S2.

Thanks, Mike. Welcome news, indeed. At least now I know so I can keep an eye out for them. Much appreciated.

Ooooh! I had not seen those, but I'm totally down for a set. Where did you find these guys and are they available for PO yet? I've been on Showz and TFSafari all week and haven't seen them there.

That's nice, but I just don't have the space to display it. I'm already sitting on a backlog of large sets for which I haven't the space to display, so, as much as I like space themed sets, I'll likely pass on this. Still pretty happy with my Saturn V.

Although I have a soft spot for Beastbox (love that little pink gorilla- still have my G1 set, and love Wu's update), compared to his Squawkbox, IMHO Wu's take on SlamDance translated into a more cohesive toy except for the precarious weapon attachments which could have greatly benefitted from stronger tabs. Be careful with them, as they're very small and their attachment is tenuous at best. That bit of frustration notwithstanding, I hope you enjoy them. I wish Tak/Has were doing the cassettes at this level, but alas, not even close, except for Legacy Eject. Wu's figs still enjoy better articulation but Eject is the best official cassette thus far in the Legacy scale. Their new Rumble was so close, but the lack of elbows was pretty disappointing. Like, c'mon man, just two more parts on the sprue could've given us ball jointed elbows, and that would've been awesome. I would have rather had elbows than the pile drivers. As much as I love the cassettes, I own nary a single copy of Slugfest or Overkill, so a new Dr. Wu set is very much welcomed for my CHUG collection. I'd love to see Keith (KFC) do an updated version as well in the OG micro-cassette scale. If they were to turn out anywhere near as good as his recent Ramhorn and Steeljaw, fantastic! And of course, I'd love for MMC to do their takes as well for the MP scale. In case you weren't aware, this set is coming from Fans Toys: Robot Paradise RP-01C Buzzsaw, Overkill, Autoscout & Slugfest Set of 4 - Show.Z Store (showzstore.com) FT's cassettes are OG micro-cassette scale, and with this set, I'll finally have my first copies of Slugfest and Overkill. I wish they'd put Ratbat in there instead of the pointless Autoscout, but I guess they need to keep him tied to Acoustic Blaster so people will buy him. Hopefully, they'll eventually do just a solo release of Ratbat or a two-pack with him and another recolored cassette, probably the Autoscout just to get their money from the mold.🙄 Just to add my additional $.02, I have both KFC's and FT's recent OG micro-cassette scaled Ramhorn and Steeljaw and I think Keith's versions are far superior. At that scale, I don't know how he could've improved on them, especially Ramhorn; they're just so well done. If Keith can replicate that effort with the dino-cassettes, yes please. I won't begrudge you Dr Wu's Extreme Warfare line, as it obviously has its fans or he wouldn't still be making more figs. Although initially I tried to resist falling down the legends rabbit hole, I've plunged, especially this month. I've spent a lot more than I should have filling the ranks with various figs from both MS and NA, especially NA's Dinobots (their Sludge and Swoop are excellent, their Grimlock not as good, but still ok IMHO- looks slightly undersized to me). However, I have holes in my cassette collection that I'd love to finally have filled in at least some capacity and, given how much quicker he's pumping these things out than anyone else currently, I'm hanging my hat on his continued production of these things. Moreover, he's making cassette teams that we'll otherwise not get if left solely up to Has/Tak, or really anyone else for that matter. Case in point: https://showzstore.com/drwu-mini-cassettes-impact-wave_p5895.html I know, not the Slugfest/Overkill team we both want, but it is a Dino combiner cassette team. And yeah, I know that pterosaurs aren't technically dinosaurs, but for the sake of simplicity, I abuse the term. These guys are based on Graphy and Noise, of which I had no familiarity until Pulse had the G1 cassettes for sale awhile back. I passed, as they were pretty expensive, had G1 Frenzy (cartoon's Rumble) packed in as a third wheel to raise the price, and had even more lackluster articulation than most other G1 cassette bots. Guess my waiting for better paid off as Wu's versions are vast improvements, especially Noise's articulation and most certainly Decibel's. I'm looking forward to their and the FT 4-pack's releases to fill some voids in my collection, and I continue to hold out hope that Wu will eventually plumb the entire library of G1 cassettes to give us improved versions in Legacy scale. Versions of Dile and Zaur would be awesome next to Overkill and Slugfest- a nice little menagerie of dinosaur cassettes. Beyond that, if Wu wanted to really get adventurous, he could do updated versions of Micro-change Battle Bike and Jet-heli from the Microman line along with his own mini Microman figure. It's a stretch, but dreams are free. If you're reading this, Dr Wu, do all the TF cassettes first please, and thank you most kindly. Cassette Machine Battle Bike HG90 (MC-08) (Microman, Microchange, VS/Unaffiliated) | Transformerland.com - Collector's Guide Toy Info Cassette Machine Jet Heli XL120 (MC-09) (Microman, Microchange, VS/Unaffiliated) | Transformerland.com - Collector's Guide Toy Info

I've been collecting Dr Wu's cassette bots, and I've been pretty impressed all around with the majority of them. As you say, despite their diminutive sizes, they're robust enough to be played with and they generally capture their subjects very well. The only non-cassette Wu fig I own is their take on Arcee. I chose Wu's over NewAge's, as I felt both the backpack and alt modes were better executed. However, I'm more into the cassettes, which are all done in Hasbro's new smaller-than-RW micro-cassette scale so they fit in with current figures only better engineered with superior articulation. Thus far, he's been concentrating on the cassette combiners which Hasbro seems unlikely to do, but eventually, I hope he'll move on to the regular cassettes like Ravage, Laserbeak, Rumble, etc. Ravage is my all-time fave of the cassettes, and I'd love to see Wu's take- I'm not expecting MMC levels of engineering, but if he could approximate what Keith did with his excellent takes on Ramhorn and Steeljaw recently, albeit at regular micro-cassette scale, that would be remarkable as I seriously doubt that Tak/Has will ever come close. I know Hasbro's planning a Steeljaw later this year, but again, after owning the travesty that is Ravage, I have little faith that it'll anywhere approach good let alone mere mediocrity. Dr Wu seems to be our only hope of decent Cassettes at the current scale. Have money, want cassettes.

My usual prejudice towards Cybertronian alts is manifesting with this fig. Just like most jetformers, the arms are right out there in plain sight. However, based on the trailer for One, perhaps the transformations at this stage in Cybertronian evolution are purposely more simplified. That doesn't please me, but holy heck, that trailer sure did. Many of my fears are relieved as the look and feel harken back to Prime. They're obviously leaning hard into the humor, and just from a few minutes of footage, it feels somewhere between Animated and Prime, and even a bit like the Marvel films in its tone. Setting the story in the deep past of Prime and Megs before either wore their destined honorifics, after seeing the interplay between them, essentially a buddy comedy, feels like a good decision. I like a good laugh like everyone else, but I hope this movie, like the '86 Movie, has a lot more to offer across the gamut of action and emotion. After all, we know how that friendship ended and if they choose to show that parting of ways in this film, there's going to have to be some substance there. I'm assuming both Prime and Megs are going to assume those names and their roles in the coming war by film's end, but if I had my druthers, the film would lead up to a fracturing of the friendship and a parting of ways only to continue the story of their developments and the development of the Autobot and Decepticon factions in a tv series. After all, there are likely thousands, if not millions of years of history between the events of One and the G1 series in 1984 in which any number of stories can be told. The friendship of Starscream and Skyfire. The forging of Megs' and Soundwave's relationship (why is Soundwave so loyal, and at what point did he develop the ability to carry his minions around within his body?) Are Cybertronians built in factories as base protoforms, lovingly crafted by Wheeljackian inventors, or some other methodology(ies)? Why did the bots who would become Insecticons leave Cybertron? Why is there such a vast range of size differences among the denizens of Cybertron? Will they finally try to explain mass-shifting as a technology rather than an artifact of animation cheatery? And on and on. A tie-in series to One presents an awesome opportunity to not only tell stories about our favorite bots early in their lives but also to explain some of the burning questions surrounding the characters and circumstances that remain elusive. I'd be down for a series like that, a deep dive into Cybertron's history with good storytelling and writing that appeals to kids but doesn't speak down to the older fans. Like Prime and Animated. Here's to hoping Hasbro will leap at this opportunity to tell more stories, create new characters, and sell more toys along the way. This could be the new G1, a perfect gateway into that universe for this generation of young Transformers fans who thirty years from now will still keep this franchise going strong. I hope it continues long after I've become one with the Matrix.