M'Kyuun

Just got these guys in this week. They are New Age's Rhedosaurus (Sludge), Freyr (Swoop), Herbie (Bumblebee), and Vanishing Point (Cliffjumper). These guys are tiny. a few reference pics. First a LEGO minifig for scale. Here they are with New Age's takes on fellow Minibots Powerglide and Cosmos. Sorry for the blurry pic. Here they are with G1 Huffer, the only OG Minibot I own. With Iron Factory's takes on a blue Cliffjumper repaint and their take on Huffer. Here are Rhedosaurus and Freyr with New Age's take on Grimlock. I also wanted Freyr (Swoop) in G1 toy colors except with a blue chest, but they only make a toy version with a red chest. So the blue version unfortunately has the toon coloration instead of the shiny paints and tampo. I love how that blue looks though. NA's Sludge stays true to the G1 toy's shaping and placement of the robot chest in sauropod mode, two areas where the Has/Tak SS86 deviated much to my disappointment. This take on Sludge is nigh perfect. Like the SS86, there are dino-specific front legs, which store in the bot's torso, used effectively. The sauropodian neck has two swivel joints built into it allowing for several degrees of motion omnidirectionally, the head can look up nearly 90 degrees, and the mouth can open about 30 degrees. The tail has three swivel joints allowing for some expressive left and right swishing. Bot mode has all the standard pose ability, including ankle rockers. He also has double jointed elbows for 180 degrees of bend, single jointed knees that extend well past 90. Paint and tampo are crisply applied and look amazing. Being partial to Sludge, the only Dinobot I owned as a kid, I love this figure. Freyr is no slump, either. As well as sporting an excellent range of articulation throughout in bot mode, his transformation skews towards the G1 toy where the arms collapse on themselves, the chest collapses upwards and inwards, and then the arms further collapse inwards giving his ptero mode a slimmer body. he's still somewhat brickish , but it's not as bad as it could be if all those things didn't collapse to thin him out a bit. Overall, he looks great in both modes, and again, I'm glad I got him. New age is killing it with their Dinobots and I'm excited to get their takes on Slag and Snarl when they release.

I'm catching it on Sat the 18th with the wife. I seldom go to downtown Spokane (parking is expensive), but as it happens, the mall with the theater playing Transformers just got a LEGO Store last year, so that and eating somewhere where we don't usually frequent are additional draws. Kinda wish they'd come up with some new animation for this instead of just playing a few eps of the old toon (as much as I love it), but I guess we have Transformers One to look forward to in the fall. I hope it's good.

I doubt they were referencing other toys, as Lucasfilm would provide them with reference materials, not to mention they look grey in the films, and LEGO was still fairly isolationist in its approach to media. The OG Kenner TIE was white, and that would have made more sense to me than the blue and black which never matched the Kenner toys or how the actual filming models looked onscreen. Again, I just chock it up to LEGO's weird choices. However, I remember that Action Fleet TIE; I like that color as a way to distinguish it, besides the forked wings, from standard TIE fighters. Almost wish they'd made the current TIE Interceptor set (75348) a similar shade of blue, but they went with standard light bley.

CW from top left: New Age's Freyr (Swoop), Rhedosaurus (Sludge), Herbie (Bumblebee), and Vanishing Point (Cliffjumper).

Alas, all good things... Such a good show. Looking forward to how they wrap it up.

For its day, it was an impressive model. There were virtually no curved or rounded bits back then and most of the System scaled TIEs were essentially cubes with panels. That they were able to coax a somewhat ballish cockpit section for that model really elevated it above the smaller sets. The blue and black color scheme always made me scratch my head, but it may have come down to the cost of the colored plastics. This was back when LEGO was struggling financially, and I've heard over the years that black was the cheapest color for them to produce, so maybe that was a factor. But then again, they did the Millennium Falcon and AT-AT sets in grey, so who knows? It was just one of those weird LEGO decisions from the past. Fortunately, they're much more concerned with accuracy these days and they've got the financial wherewithal to do pretty much what they want.

Wotafa's reviews always evoke a smile or a laugh. I don't speak Nihongo, but his enthusiasm and presentation carry the message clearly. This is a guy who really likes toys and has the personality and skill to show them off in a light and enjoyable manner regardless of language. Gotta say, Takara did a good job with OG Wheeljack. Sure, his bot mode is a little compromised to fit all those panels, but in this case, I'd prefer all the panel-fu over his just being a big shellformer where the entirety of the vehicle mode maybe split into two parts and folded into one another. This guy's engineering took ingenuity and manipulating all those leg bits to form his boxy Cybertronian hover-van mode is satisfying. Love, too, how, like the toon, his arms form the front of the vehicle. They didn't need to add his shield, or his little propellers, but they did to complete the scene, and I appreciate that. The proverbial frosting, though, is being able to fit OG Bee, after folding the outer bits of his hull, fully into Wheeljack's vehicle mode. Again, they could have just phoned this fig in, but they went the extra mile to bring him as close to the animation as possible at this size class and I think they did an admirable job. What he lacks in accuracy in bot mode he makes up in sheer fun factor, play experience, and nostalgia. I think most G1 fans will be happy to have him. I surely am.

Yeah, I've seen MOCs that do the ball section better, but I think they're trying not to copy anybody else and put their own stamp on the design, not to mention make the build experience more interesting. However, as it's a display model, I'd prefer they just went with what looks best. I have the OG set still in all of its blue and black glory (still wonder what they were thinking going with that color scheme for TIEs for years when light and dark grey existed), and my need to collect everything LEGO Star Wars cooled off years ago. I wish there was a LEGO lending library where you could check out a set just to build it for the experience and then return it. But maintaining the integrity of the sets would be extraordinarily difficult even if you kept the sets in-house. Sure, I could buy the set, build it, and then sell it, but what a hassle. I'm better at buying stuff than selling it, which is why I own so much crap. 😄

I've played most of the Fallout games since Fallout 3, and it captures the look and feel of those game very well. Kudos to the location scouts for finding so many real-world derelict and dilapidated places to film. In Fallout, the environment is as important to the game as any other element, and they did an exceptional job of capturing those areas and set pieces in the show to resemble game environments. Ella Purnell does a great job as a cheeky adorable Vault dweller who leaves the safety and naivete of her vault on a quest. Aaron Moten, in turn, gives an enjoyable performance as a member of the Brotherhood of Steel with his own issues. Not to be outdone, Walton Goggins chews the scenery in both his pre-bomb life as a popular actor, and post bomb life as a ghoul bounty hunter. Moreover, just like in the games, the Vaults hold secrets and surprises. My wife and I watched the first six eps today, and we're planning on finishing it off tomorrow. My wife has never played the games, so I give her a little bit of backstory as we go along, but she's into the show regardless due to the strengths of the storytelling, the incredible visuals, and well-acted roles across the board. Def hope this gets another season or two. It's fun to visit the Fallout universe in this format.

I wish I could be so enthusiastic, but I have no expectations for this at all. Nevertheless, I'm curious to see the trailer if only to get a feel for it. I hope it's good.

Classics are classics for a reason; there are qualities to those films that have had an effect on people that have made them extremely popular for various reasons and that are difficult to recapture in an update or a reboot. The simple answer to reboot madness is to do original stuff and leave the classics alone. Sequels are another category where sometimes less is more. I wasn't aware of a Jacob's Ladder reboot. That's a film that I never would have even pegged for reboot material. The original gave a pretty haunting look into the life of a post-Vietnam veteran's dealing with delusions from what we today would call PTSD and likely exposure to all the chemicals we dumped both for defoliation and psyche-ops. Tim Robbins gave a great performance. No need for a reboot.

Interesting. I'm guessing they're going with a tank mode, as a pistol at that scale would be ludicrous except in the hands of someone with gigantism. (Sadly, Andre's no longer with us). Moreover, there's the old chestnut with gun restrictions. I'm still curious to see what they pull off. Robosen have proven themselves extremely adept at doing what seemed impossible- making Transformers toys that can move autonomously and transform on their own. As I get older, more and more I get to see what was once sci-fi become reality. Fantastic!

I'm with David; I think Takara took inspiration from large American military helicopters while not actually copying any of them directly. I looked to see if the Japanese had any large choppers in the JDF from which they may have drawn inspiration but turned up only American helicopters like the CH/MH-53. I read the Wiki which claimed CH-53, but the SH-3 Sea King is another good example for inspiration. Comparing Sandstorm's G1 and Legacy chopper modes to both the CH-53 and H-3, notable bits, like engines, are missing from Sandstorm; the shape of the pontoons is incorrect for both SH-3 and CH-53; the large horizontal stabilizer is missing; the vertical stabilizer is too small and incorrectly shaped to match either RW chopper; the SH-3 has 5-bladed main and tail rotors while the CH/MH-53 has a 6-bladed main rotor and a 4-bladed tail rotor; the shape of Sandstorm's empennage and tail differs from either RW chopper; the number, size, and placement of the windows differ from either RW heli. In short, Sandstorm is a caricature inspired by large American helicopters. The latter is an assumption, as I haven't done a deep search to look at all of the world's large helicopters circa 1984 to see if there are better candidates. However, as the Japanese have exposure to America's military by virtue of our bases on both Honshu and Okinawa, as well as our military partnership with Japan, their direct exposure to our aircraft is likely to be the main inspiration.

Y'know, I love helicopters and as well as she was realized she should appeal to me but somehow she doesn't. I picked up Magneus, and although I'm not the biggest fan of their Rock-Lords-esque exteriors, I dig him. I love his color scheme, monochrome though it may be, and the overall design of both of his modes. Shard's chopper mode is well-executed (as I mentioned above, Has/Tak have no problem cranking out a decent looking chopper, but ask them to do a fighter and, in the majority of cases, prepare for disappointment). Even her bot mode is decent, although that tail should have either folded up or found some utility as a weapon. I think the two-tone green color scheme is the greatest detractor. i get what they were going for, but a robot cum chopper laden in Kryptonite isn't the best look, IMHO. I didn't order her, but if I happen upon her in the wild, I may pick her up, especially if I haven't bought anything in awhile when I see her.

I never cared for the Fuzors, but due to the writing and awesome super-cheesy but noble characterization Scott MacNeil delivered, I became a fan of this guy. That said, I never bought the OG toy, so when this fig was revealed, I was onboard. In hand, he doesn't disappoint, and I have a companion for the oft reluctant but ultimately charmed Blackarachnia. Along with Silverbolt, Legacy United Sandstorm occupied most of the room in the Hasbro Pulse box. I'll leave the in-depth review to Mike, who does a far more admirable job of it. he comes in bot mode, as most do, and well, he's definitely G1 Sandstorm. Right up front, I dig him. The old Thrilling 30 fig was an interesting retool of T30 Springer, arguably one of the best triple changers Hasbro has ever delivered. However, T30 Springer's translation to Sandstorm gave us a cool VTOL mode, but a rather questionable buggy mode due to the extreme size difference between front and rear tires. and he didn't quite scratch the itch for a G1 accurate toy. This achieves that, IMHO. Unfortunately, there's really no storage for the cage in bot mode. However, the main rotor hub can be extended up for chopper mode or pushed down into his back for bot and buggy modes. If you extend the rotors, you can slide the cage under the rotors and carry it like a backpack with little to no effect upon the rotors. With every triple changer, there's usually one alt that takes the brunt of the compromises, and in Sandy's case, it's the buggy. However as compromises go, it still presents pretty well, at least from the front and sides. Move to the back, however, and the heli tail , poorly disguised as a ludicrously small spoiler, as well as the heli nose halves, are rather apparent, although the nose halves are sculpted well and rotated to blend with the fenders. As compromises go, it's not so egregious as Astrotrain's unfinished shuttle mode nor Blitzwing's half a folded tank hanging off the bottom of his jet mode. If those cockpit windows could somehow be turned red, they would have made good tail lights making for a more believable back end to the buggy. Chopper mode works a little better IMO. Sandstorm is another t-changer whose alts are severely off-scale to their RW counterparts. Likely inspired by Sikorsky's CH-53, a beast of a machine which I've seen up close, but sadly never got to fly in, the alt modes for both the G1 and Legacy toys capture a decent likeness. It's a passable representation that at the very least, puts to shame the vast majority of jetformers Has/tak have cranked out over the nigh 40 years of the franchise. Takara, for whatever reason, can make a pretty decent helicopter alt, as they've proven many times, and I wonder why they can't do the same for fighters. As both an aviation fan and a Macross fan, it's frustrating. My only niggle with the heli mode is that I wish they'd incorporated a set of retractable main gears into the arms for accuracy's sake. Unfortunately, due to how he's designed and due to his triple changing nature, there's really naught to be done about the huge back buggy wheels serving as his nose gear. As Mike pointed out, too, having the rest of his windows painted black would have been nice. Overall, though, nice copter mode. Anyway, in the accessories department, Sandstorm benefits more than most, as he comes with a rifle, a pistol, a working winch, and a cage, which gives the helicopter mode something to do in terms of utility and said cage doubles as a protective cage over the buggy's engine. It's fantastic realization and implementation. I'm down for accessories like this, even if there's little to no storage or use in bot mode. Overall, pretty neat figure, def one of the better triple changers, and overall a win for fans for how well it skews in all three modes to the G1 toy. It's a good update, and I hope Blitzwing and Astrotrain, via SS86, get theirs too. We already know Springer's coming, and IMHO, the Seige toy was nigh perfect, so it remains to be seen how and if they can improve on an already good fig.