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Thanks for posting these pics

After three years shelfwarming, new Avatar product was the last thing I expected to see. 😯

Doesn't matter if you're talking Target or Walmart, all the stores around me are the same story- a buttload of unsold Transformers One, some Devastation Optimus Primes and SS Q, and if you're lucky maybe a Bonecrusher or two. Amazon, fortunately, has come through with the rest of the current wave of Age of the Primes. Minus package refreshes, that's just a pair of Deluxes for me, starting with the one you guys are most likely to be interested in- Vortex. For me, Combiner Wars Vortex was kind of a dud. I mean, I get that they were going for toy colors, but even then the purple instead of pink,, blue shoulders, gray combiner peg, and weird yellow missile arms didn't really capture that for me. Age of the Primes Vortex, though, understood the assignment. Cartoon colors? Check. Cartoon details like the weirdly round forearms, intakes on the shoulders, and mostly-black shins? Check again. Too bad some of that black didn't end up on his toes, though. While I've seen some third parties do some impressive engineering to get to a cartoon-accurate Vortex, it's clear that was maybe a bridge too far for Hasbro in a Deluxe-class figure that taking some cues from Hasbro's recent stabs at the Aerialbots and Stunticons. To that end, some compromises had to be made, mostly in his arms. It looks like half his hand is missing, while the backs of his forearms are absolutely loaded with kibble. I find the kibble a little extra annoying, simply because it doesn't really lock into any position and keeps getting in the way. Vortex comes with a trio of guns, the designs of which are again pretty cartoon accurate. The only note I'd make is that they should be mostly blue, with just the barrels of the smaller guns black. Vortex's head is on a ball joint and can tilt up, down, and sideways a little in addition to swiveling. His shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally, his biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. No wrist articulation. Depending on how you're posing him, you may find that the intakes or the tail kibble hampering your ability to pose his arm. His waist swivels. His hips can go forward and backward 90 degrees, and laterally over that. His thighs swivel, his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet have some slight upward bend, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. For cartoon accuracy the small guns should plug into ports on the outsides of his forearms, and he holds the larger gun in either hand. All the guns use 5mm ports, though, as does his main rotor, so there's nothing stopping you from having him dual-wielding the smaller guns, sticking the main rotor onto his forearm like he's Bayverse Blackout, and stowing the larger gun on his back. Transforming AotP Vortex's lower half should feel pretty familiar... fold the toes down, open the shins, fold the thighs into the lower legs, close the shins back up. The upper body, though, takes cues from the G1 toy, where the arms fold up around his head to make the tail, with just a few added steps to line up the intakes. The resulting helicopter is mostly good. Cartoon accurate blue stripes on the nose, intake/exhaust nacelles, four main rotor blades, etc. My main gripe is that while his legs, back, and arms do a pretty good job of being a helicopter, his head and the front of his torso do not. His head and chest are just kind of an awkward block, which could almost be passable were it not for a gap between his legs and chest where his waist is tapered in. I get why they did it (better-looking bot mode), but would it have killed them to stick a flap on him that could have folded out to fill that gap? You have options for weapons storage. The instructions suggest using tabs on the sides of the guns, and sticking the smaller ones into slots just below the shoulder hinges with the barrels pointing backward (though there's no reason they can't point forward), and using one of the similar tabs on the larger gun to plug it into either side of the nose. It also seems like the small guns were actually meant to go on the helicopter's chin, though. They're not identical; one has the tab on the left, the other on the right, and you can arrange them so that the 5mm pegs touch with the tabs facing upward, and they'll plug into matching slots under the chin. For cartoon accuracy, though, the smaller guns should plug into the 5mm ports on the tail boom. Then ideally you'd want the larger gun, or at least the barrel of it, on the helicopter's nose. I guess the designers gave up here, though. Using the tabs, you can plug it into one of the slots on the chin, or you could even plug the 5mm peg into one of the combiner ports on his shins, but both of those options leave the barrel off-center well below the nose, so low that it interferes with Vortex's ability to sit on his molded, non-functioning wheels. AotP Vortex is a lot like the Aerialbots and Stunticons that came before him... much more cartoon-accurate and a major improvement over the Combiner Wars version, but still severely hampered by a limited budget for engineering. I suspect, for a lot of collectors, being a little better than Combiner Wars Vortex will be enough, as long as the combined mode is better. And while we're a ways off from next year's Commander-class Onslaught and seeing how Bruticus will work, based on their work on Menasor and Superion I feel comfortable telling you that you should get ready and pick Vortex up.

re-enabled registration, and I do get emails again S

New pics.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/TRA-GEN-RETRO-INSPIR/14909118469

I only had a small break this am and did not have time to do the merge

Looks good. Mask on.

Colonel Quaritch and RDA Banshee.

https://ramentoy.com/products/item-tms02-techno-horse

Could this be just a thread for the mail away offers found in Nichimo kits, or other mail away for that matter? Your thread does carry a very broad range of information.

Kamen Rider V3.

Marvel Legends Gamerverse Psylocke vs Thanos x2.

I’d like to see a 1/20 battroid, but I really don’t have anywhere to put it, but I’ll gladly get the 1/72 gerwalk

The IMAI 1/720 scale Theater-Scout Quel-Quallie arrived. I’ll be starting this very soon and wanted to document more of this build since besides a completed model I haven’t seen much of this online and may be of interest for people. Here a few shots of the box and its contents. Excited to dive into it.

No, I tried scratchbuilding my own some time ago, and it died. I posted it here on Macrossworld, and was quite perturbed abut it. :(

could be fun. who knows!

The first 3 seasons of Gemstones are solid gold. The season 4 opener is probably the best the of the show, then it gets a bit over the top silly and cringe at times (Uncle Baby Billy for sure) but gets back on track and wraps up nicely. Overall, it's a great series and Danny McBride has definitely proven he's a creditable actor, writer & director. I look forward to his next projects.

They’ve got a Gerwalk in 1/20. Would love to see a swap - a Gerwalk in 1/72 & their Battroid in 1/20!

I would have been tempted if that set of Skylark pins had come in some original point-of-sale display case...of course, the price would have reached a "bend over" level...

Awesome. At least you are in one piece, look what happened to me (C3po - TESB).

Does anyone adhere to the thread topic contents anymore? https://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/topic/48119-macross -magazine-for-anime-and-hobby-fan-ariiimai-bookletsnow-with-more-bandai-and-nichimo/

Finally took photos of my completed mini Nadia figure. This is said to be 1:15 scale, and it comes in all one piece, making painting a bit difficult. What made it more difficult is when some paint lifted off. I've since become more aggressive with cleaning resin parts. As always, pictures are in the photoset for this build on my Tumblr feed: https://stevethefishdotnet.tumblr.com/post/789663998048108544/kaiyodo-secret-of-blue-water-115-nadia-mini-resin

$500 USD adjusted for inflation today is approx $900 USD . 804,098 Yen approx $5K USD That has beat the sh#t out of inflation for that recent sale. Nice 👍

That's a thick Omni!