M'Kyuun

Never was a fan of MOTU, so I've no dog in the race, as it were. However, I think it's fair to say that, like all fans, they deserve a good film to carry on the legacy of the brand (at least we TF fans got Bumblebee, which was just good, not great). As such it's disheartening to see the negative inclination of the comments here. That said, I'm at a loss as to how Jared Leto continues to get work, as he seems to carry the Touch of Death to anything he's in.

It's a well-done set. Unfortunately, it's designed with hips that only rotate outwards for transformation, but it does have knees. I modded my copy to give the legs fore and aft movement. The opening chest function is butter and never gets old. Here's my mod:

I got the Long Haul kit (I forget the designator). I wish they'd make a kit with only their more articulated arms for Bonecrusher, Mixmaster, and Scavenger, as I'd jump on that in a heartbeat. Bonecrusher and Mixmaster, especially, could use those arm upgrades.

I'm happy with my first issue and won't be double-dipping, but It's a great figure, and there's an excellent argument to be made that it's the best official, and perhaps just simply the best ever, version of the character in toy form. That said, as mentioned earlier in the thread, while his bot mode is nigh perfect (needs better shoulder engineering), his vehicle mode is definitely his weakest and could use some work. But it still stands as one of the best figs thus far to come out of the SS86 subline.

These extinction films do so very little for me. Too much bombast, too much stuff happening too quickly, overdramatically, and unrealistically. They're pure spectacle, and not in a good way in my eyes. So very Hollywood. 😏

I understand nostalgia, but why would you ever want the old one when the new one looks like this? There's just no comparison.

I've long advocated for Silverbolt to be a B-1. the XB-70 would be cool, too, but the B-1 has far more in common with the Concorde, is an active military aircraft (I used to work on them- no picnic for hydraulics techs), and has plenty enough real estate to easily hide a robot in disguise. We can agree to disagree. I dig the B-2ish alt mode that Don Figueroa cooked up for Megatron. I see where you're coming from with the B-1, but honestly, I'd rather that alt mode choice went to Silverbolt. Moreover, the B-2's not exactly quiet - granted it's no B-1 in full burner on takeoff- you can feel that in your chest from 2-300 yards away, but it makes some noise. Likewise. I've just about quit on MP scale due to my severe lack of space. I'm running out of space for my mainline stuff, and there's still more coming that I want and will get, like the rest of the Combaticons (Bruticus is my favorite combiner). That said, if they start dipping once again into IDW designs and Megatron is on the table, as I mentioned, I wouldn't mind seeing his update upscaled to voyager or leader scale. I know those labels now refer more to budgets than actual sizes, but most of us have been in the game long enough to understand my meaning.

Yeah, I'm a bit fatigued with the same handful of characters getting iteration after iteration. however, when introducing a new line apart from others, it would be refreshing, IMHO, to introduce all new characters, but they just seem to want to stick to Prime, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, and a few other main or popular characters. I get it, but I think we're well beyond time for some fresh characters with their own personalities and stories. I still very much like the old deluxe IDW stealth bomber Megatron, which was well done, but I'd welcome one at the voyager or leader class scale/price point.

That's impressive recollection. I struggle to remember what I bought let alone where I bought it a week ago. My memory was always terrible, but when you accumulate as much crap as I have, it kinda gets lost in the fog of time. Regarding G2, I can't say I feel a sense of FOMO. I far, far prefer the color schemes of the G1 toys- I never was a fan of gaudy color schemes- pastels and such. Yuck!😄 I applaud Takara, and Hasbro by extension, for doing something different. That said, I'm just not moved by the Timelines stuff. However, I wouldn't mind a Grimlock that turns into a Mark V tank (actually, I'd rather it was its own character without having to conform to Grimlock in any way shape or form, but it's already a thing). That said, I'm sure these will find an audience, especially among Japanese collectors whose history they embody. For those fans who complain that all Hasbro does is rehash G1, this is something new and different and definitely not G1, and that's a good thing, IMHO, even if it doesn't strike a personal chord.

Rodriguez, Cameron, and Co. should have been gearing up for the sequel immediately following the original. It stands, IMHO, as one of the best anime adaptations in a very short list thereof, and with all that a film of this nature requires, it would have been awesome had they actually been shooting scenes in anticipation of a sequel. I'm glad to hear that it hasn't been shelved or forgotten, but there doesn't really seem to be any real momentum either. That said, I loved the first film and I hope there's a second to give some sense of completion to the story. As to Alita's eyes, I thought they looked a bit much in early photos, but in the film, I thought they worked for the character. I thought her overall design was excellent- visible joints, the overlarge eyes- it sells the point that she's not exactly human but looks human enough to be acceptable in human society. And in her world, she looks downright normal, if boringly so, next to some of the other cyborg monstrosities running about. To, it's a nod to her animated look. Anyway, at least there's some hope for a sequel now. At the rate they were going, I was afraid it'd be more like the Star Wars sequels where all the main actors are in their 60s or 70s.

Regarding playability, IMHO, it's superior to the old Yamato. The Yammie's strength is its gorgeous and extremely accurate fighter mode; beyond that it's not a very good toy to handle, especially its battroid with the too-skinny legs, loose ball-jointed hips, and tiny feet, all which contribute to making it rather unstable and difficult to pose. Contrarily, what the DX sacrifices in accuracy and concessions, it makes up in tight joints throughout making pose ability not only possible, but fun to experiment with. I display my valks in battroid mode, so this was a welcome figure for my display since retiring my Yamato to its box years ago. Anyway, congrats on the acquisition and I hope you enjoy it!

The very interesting thing about a 40+ year old franchise is the varied points of entry into fandom and collecting. I consider myself fortunate to have been there at the beginning- just the amazement of experiencing this whole concept of realistic vehicles and things turning into nifty looking robots, as well as the story being told through the animation, not to mention through the bios included with the package art. It was such a well-done roll-out for the toys, as all that info made them feel like characters and I think that was the real brilliance to Transformers in those early years and why it maintained longevity. Prowl was my entry toy, and he's still one of my absolute favorite TF designs. I'm ever grateful to Hasui-san for the gorgeous MP figure, a dream come true for me. I also consider myself fortunate to have experienced Saturday cartoons. There was just something cool about it, as there was so much choice, even with the limited channels back then. I was always checking out the TV Guide to determine what shows I could watch (pre-VCR days), as I had to channel hop back and forth between the three or four networks we had to catch my shows. It was a different time, but I look back upon it fondly. I still remember a lot of the G1 commercials, and a lot of them have been preserved via YouTube and such, but I was out of the loop, I guess, when it came to G2, as I have no recollections of the commercials from that time. Likewise, I only vaguely remember the toys. I still had my G1 stuff, but as I've mentioned over the years, my interest in G1 pretty much started and ended with first season, as I felt that the show became much sillier in S2, losing the more focused and mature storyline of the first. I had pretty much lost all interest in the show come seasons three and four, and to this day, I've not watched either in their entirety, nor do I wish to. First season is where I live and breathe when it comes to G1 Transformers, with a little S2 bleed over when it comes to the toys. After that, Beast Wars, Animated, and Prime remain my favorite entries in the franchise, both shows and toys. Transformers: Robots in Disguise, which directly followed Prime, was also pretty good, so I guess I can include that, too. Bad voice acting choices made the WFC series unenjoyable for me, and while I tried to get into Earthspark, it just didn't grab me like previous series. I need to sit down and start it from the beginning and watch it straight through, I think. I'm still pretty peeved that deluxe Earthspark Soundwave, arguably one of the best toys in that line, never released in my area, and he goes for way too much on eBay and the like. Grrr

I kinda dropped out of TF collecting during the G2 era, and while I was back in the US for the latter part of G2, I didn't really become interested again until some of the small ball-jointed jets started appearing (the Cyberjets). I bought the orange-tiger-striped F-14ish one, but I've always wished I could have gotten the black F-117. Anyway, Beast Wars was what pulled me back into TF collecting- just a different direction, something new, and the level of articulation astounded me (bots with hip and knee joints!!!!). I laugh now in hindsight, as they were still pretty limited, but frame of reference is everything. While my druthers would be for vehicle/inanimate object alt modes, or robotic animals like the Dinobots, the show sucked me in and I became a fan. All this is to say that G2 doesn't really register on my radar as my interest had waned and, yeah, so far as I can remember, the toys at the time didn't appeal to me all that much. I honestly have very little recollection of the early 90s so far as Transformers goes. Those little jets are the things that stick out to me more than anything. Imagine that.😉

Ugh, the gaudy color schemes are the biggest turn off for me concerning G2. I'm happy with my G1 versions. Cool for those who like G2, though.

I actually own a G1 Jetfire that I bought at a second-hand toy store in Pittsburgh nigh twenty years ago before vintage Transformers really became sought after. I believe I paid $120 for it, still with its original box with styrofoam insert and all accessories. Unfortunately, the stickers were not well placed and in attempting to remove one of them from the inner leg, to my extreme horror and dismay, the paint came off with it. I had a set of Reprolabels that I was going to apply, but after that paint came off, I just put it back in its box and it's been in storage ever since. I also, roughly 20 years ago, bought an actual 1/55 rerelease VF-1A, IIRC. So, to answer your question, I like the Chunky Monkey; it's an anachronistic toy now, but when I bought the aforementioned toys, we still didn't have many good VF-1 options, and to Takatoku's credit, it was a solid toy with decent articulation even at that time, let alone in the 80s. Heck, I still treasure my G1 Soundwave and his cassettes, and I kept him with my CHUG collection until I bought Netflix Soundwave just a few years ago. I still keep my G1 cassettes on display, as I think they're still superior to the WFC/Legacy/SS86 cassettes. They may be flat, but they make for more convincing cassettes and the animal modes still have better articulation than the modern HasTak versions, not to mention looking the parts better, IMHO. I LOVE the cassette minions, be they Autobot or Decepticon, and IMHO, the new shrunken versions represent glaring failures among the otherwise overall well-done modern official G1 updates. I pin my hopes on Dr. Wu to hopefully remedy that situation. To clarify my stance, I don't hate the G1 toys; they were a new, cool idea, and the execution was a bit primitive. With Diaclone, it seems to me that the vehicle modes were the primary focus (making them look like real-world vehicles) and the robot modes, being the gimmick, were done as well as they felt they needed to be to get the point across. I doubt they thought we'd still be talking about them and collecting them 40+ years on. They were made for kids, and most toys have a pretty short shelf life in kids' attention span. It just so happens that we got hooked by the story that Marvel cooked up for them and the rest is history. I was thirteen when Transformers debuted, so already a little older than the target audience, but still in range. But I loved robots and sci-fi. the transformation concept was earth-shattering to me- robots were already the coolest thing on Earth, but robots that could change seamlessly into realistic looking vehicles and stuff like the Walkman and its cassettes, which also could transform!- I was enrapt from the get-go. Likewise with Gobots, but I found the cheesiness of the toon coupled with the lesser complex toys less appealing than the TF toys and more mature toned toon. (speaking of first season). However, even at thirteen and on into my later teens and early twenties, I was disenchanted with most TF toys due to their limited articulation, primarily, and simplicity. Like most TF fans today, I wanted my bots to look, mostly, like they did on tv, albeit in my case, with a little more surface and mechanical details carried over with or from the alt mode. Articulation has always been my sticking point, and while they're getting better, I'd still like to see stuff like wrist rotation, ankles that pitch fore and aft, and opening hands (like they did with SS86 prime and Megs) become standard points among all size classes. Doubt it'll happen, but I can hope. In the meantime, I'm pretty happy with where we're at right now with the Hasbro mainline toys including SS86. We need better cassettes (can't foot stomp that enough), a new improved Astrotrain with complete and realistic looking alt modes, as well as a new Blitzwing that manages the kibble better for better tank and jet modes, especially the latter. Takara is notorious for making crappy jet modes, so that's a big ask and I hope eventually they'll actually come through.