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It’s the one he borrowed to stop those odd space whalers

I don't remember seeing this in the anime/movie/OVAs. Can someone refresh my memory? I can only guess it was Basara's ride in Dynamite 7 and I simply forgot.

Anyone else getting this one? Kinda glad that she hasn't arrived yet, as those MASK preorders at BBTS have my wallet preoccupied...

Man, I had to dig a bit to find this topic. Is it just me, or has 3rd party stuff been waning a bit in popularity since Hasbro's stuff has (mostly) improved? Or is it just that everyone's migrating to Legends, but no one talks about it? And now, when I am gonna talk about 3P stuff, it's 3P stuff to upgrade Hasbro's stuff. Because, yeah, I finally shipped my stash from The Chosen Prime, and it's mostly upgrade kits... starting with DNA's DK-51 kit for Legacy Nova Prime. Let's start with this image... this is Nova Prime as Don Figeuroa designed him for early IDW. For some reason, a lot of fans saw Siege Galaxy Upgrade Optimus Prime and thought, "hey, that'd made a good retool as Nova Prime!" (Perhaps due to a digibash of the original Cybertron Optimus making the rounds). I'm not sure I agree... Galaxy Upgrade Optimus isn't a particularly good Cybertron Optimus, let alone Nova Prime. The colors, plus the new head and chest, do a lot of the heavy lifting, but the new wings are too small, he's still got Optimus' ladder guns, and he's just entirely wrong from the waist down. So what's DNA giving us, and can it get us closer to the comics? The most obvious thing are new wings, but we've also got a sword, a pair of rifles, some filler panels, new fists, a new crotch, new shoes, and some parts I'll call Big Chunk and Little Chunk. The new fists are the only parts that actually replace anything, and the only parts that require a screwdriver. Remove these two screws on the inside of the forearm, and the inside of the forearm will come off. Swapping the fists is as easy as sliding the old ones out of the mushroom peg socket and sliding the new ones in, then putting the forearm back together. The new fists are slightly larger, which does make them a little more proportional with the armored mode. But the real improvement is that each finger is a separate part now, molded into a curve and pegged at the base. Because they're permanently attached, they're the only parts in the kit that go with the base robot, so if you haven't yet go ahead and armor him up. Now for the crotch. There's a pair of tabs on the back of the piece, they go into these slots on the original crotch. Grab Big Chunk, and split it in half. There's a tab that fits into the small gap between the core robot's leg and the armor booties. Just wedge that tab in there as snug as you can. Grab the shoes. While it looks like there's a clear top and bottom, we actually want to spin the toes so they're facing up, but the waffled part with the black peg on the long piece is also facing up. This peg plugs into the peg hole on the soles of Nova's booties. As near as I can tell, it doesn't matter which shoe goes on which foot. These filler parts are familiar to anyone who bought DNA's upgrade kit for GU Optimus. The ends fold down and they slide into the hollow side of the ladders/guns. If you're looking at the backside of Nova you'll notice a peg hole on the back of his wings. There's a corresponding peg on the DNA wings, as well as some tabs that wedge into the waffles. Finally, Little Chunk gets wedged into Nova's backpack. It doesn't really matter which side. Little Chunk plays a more important role later. For now, though, you'll notice the square-shaped indent on Little Chunk... you want that facing outward. The DNA sword has a pair of clips that plug into that square, allowing you to store the sword on his back. And here's our completed Nova Prime. The new crotch is much better, and the shoes give him more comic-accurate toes and arguably improve his proportions. The new hands aren't as necessary, but added articulation is appreciated. I do like that the fillers help hide the hollow sides of the ladders, but I'd just as soon do away with them entirely, since they're not accurate to the comics in the first place. Big Chunk gives him knee pads that are a bit more comic accurate, but they aren't as secure as the rest of the kit, and they don't really make up for the fact that the rest of his legs are very clearly still not a truck cab. I could take or leave the sword; he didn't have one in the comics, but extra weapons are still cool. Nova didn't really use any weapons in the comics, that I recall, but I do rather like the new guns. The star, though, is definitely the wings. They don't just make his wings bigger and more comic accurate; each of the four segments has a swivel and a double hinge, giving you a lot more freedom in posing them. I supposed, technically, you could still keep the holdover leg guns from GU Optimus (which themselves were a holdover from Siege Magnus, where they were meant to mimic the blue hinges on the sides of RID Magnus' cab)... maybe have the sword stowed on his back, the old guns on his legs, and the new rifles in his fists. But the new rifles are really meant to replace the old guns; they have pegs on the "magazine" that allow you to plug them into his legs. And, as we'll see in a minute, there won't be room for both the new guns and the old in alt mode. And to get to alt mode, you can leave the new fists and wings attached, but everything else gets pulled back off. So transform the core robot into his cab mode, but leave off the arm bits with the bumper and tires for a minute. Instead, get Big Chunk, put the halves back together, and attach it to Little Chunk like so. Us the peg on Little Chunk to plug the combined Chunks into the peg hole on the front of the cab. Now, take the arm parts that turn into the bumper and front wheels and attach them into the sides of Little Chunk. Get the shoes and turn the toes so that the waffles and black pegs are on the same side. Fold in the peg that goes into his soles, and fold out the peg in the toes. Use those pegs to plug the shoes into the peg holes just above the front wheels. This will help fill in the gaps that Hasbro created but moving the wheel parts forward made worse. And yes, the shoes are a little unsecured. We'll get to that. Put the trailer pieces together basically the way you normally do, and begin to attach it to the cab. Before we fold in and attach the wings, take all the segments and swivel them 180 degrees. Take the the bottom one (formerly the top) and fold in back in on itself. Now you can fold the wings in and attach them to the hooks on Nova's legs as you normally would. With the wings in place, you can now take the second-from-the-bottom wing segment and push it down over the shoe part. You might have noticed the little tabs on the sides of the shoes; they go into the bottom of the wing segment, which helps secure the whole thing in place. As for the remaining segments, the second-from-top tabs onto the segment we tabbed onto the shoes, and the top one tabs onto the second-from-the-top one. Now a few finishing touches. The new rifles plug onto the peg holes on the leg armor. You may have also noticed tabs on the hip skirts of the crotch piece. Use them to sandwich the crotch above the shoulder parts at the top of the booties. There's a peg hole at the bottom of the crotch, and you want to make sure it's pointing toward the front of the truck. We can plug the handle of the sword into the hole, and the sword will sit nicely between the ladders on top of the truck. Nova Prime's alt mode never properly appeared in the comics, but we have Don's concept art for it. Legacy Nova Prime was never really in the ballpark. The DNA kit does at least give him a long nose cab, and it helps cover the gaps in the original toy. It'd be a stretch to call it accurate, though. And I guess that's the dilemma... Legacy Nova Prime was a mediocre retool of a mediocre retool. While DNA's upgrade kit helps, it's kinda like putting lipstick on a pig. With Age of the Primes Hasbro's giving us toys of the original 13 Primes (aka the first 13 Transformers created by Primus, but I kind of hope they don't start there. I'd love for them to do the entire Lineage of Primes (aka the line of every Transformers to carry the Matrix from Prima to Optimus/Rodimus, which varies by continuity but I'd accept as Prima, Nova Prime, Nominus Prime, Zeta Prime, Sentinel Prime, Optimus Prime). I still hope for a brand new, comic-accurate mold for Nova. I've seen no sign that we're actually getting that wish, though. For now, Legacy Nova Prime is all we've got. Even with the DNA kit Legacy Nova Prime is still farther from the mark I'd like, the knee pads aren't super secure in bot mode, and the wings and shoes feel a little rickety in truck mode. That makes it a little hard to recommend the kit. However, I think the upgraded wings are what ultimately make me say yes, I do recommend this kit. They're bigger, they're much more accurate, and more dynamic. Just don't expect any miracles.

As am I, honestly, despite my criticism of the frame system.

Very slick, well done! As a fun fact, some of the very oldest Macross setting materials mention a VF-1 Wolfpack in the UN Forces during/after the events of the original Super Dimension Fortress Macross TV series. It's implied to be a continuation of the famous US Navy squadron, which survived the war and was subsequently assigned to ARMD-10 Haruna alongside the VF-2 Bounty Hunters. (There was also a set of Wolfpack decals for the Yamato VF-0 toy, though by that point VF/SVF-1 had since been established to be the Skulls.)

I must admit, i want one now.

Early preview of the 4K Steelbook.

Superman and Krypto.

https://www.amazon.com/TAMASHII-NATIONS-Excalibur-Planetary-Hi-Metal/dp/B0FCZS3BF2 Listed on Amazon. If the price greatly drops then I'll order one from there.

I guess I was being generous by saying it looked like an outdated video game cutscene

Looks more like a video game...

"It ain't that kind of setting, kid." Star Wars doesn't run on that kind of logic. Not yet, anyway. Stories set after the sequel trilogy might have to, but only because The Last Jedi gave the First Order the technology to track a ship through hyperspace. The Rebels in Andor don't have that problem. Knowing a place's name isn't enough to actually get you there, you need coordinates. If your destination is uncharted, you're SOL (as seen in Skeleton Crew, The Bad Batch, etc.). Jumping to hyperspace is a de facto clean getaway. Ships can only be tracked between star systems by spaceport logs (in legit travel) or by installing a physical tracking device on the ship that can be detected, disabled, and/or removed as happens often. All that really needs to be done to keep the location of secret bases or facilities secret is to wipe the navigational computer's memory, a security measure we see implemented several times. (This is also one reason droids get periodic memory wipes.) The way interstellar travel works in Star Wars is massively, MASSIVELY convenient for the rebels. There is one example of the kind of security you're talking about, but it was for an Imperial program even more secret than the Death Star in The Bad Batch, and since the waypoint was fixed the secrecy was compromised fairly easily anyway. That is multiply acknowledged in Andor. Not only is that the reason that Luthen recruits/coopts a key member of her staff to serve as an ad hoc protection detail, it's also why the rebellion needed to urgently extract her from the Senate and get her offworld after her speech. She Knows Too Much and can't be allowed to be arrested by the ISB. I disagree that keeping that secret would mean instant doom. After all, there are plenty of politicians who are privy to classified knowledge about black sites and top secret plans who manage to keep that sh*t under wraps in the real world. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, et. al. were, as directly acknowledged in-series, basically counting on wealth, status, and public perception of them as upper-class twits offended by the very thought of violence to remain beneath suspicion as anything other than possible rebel sympathizers. Whether those plans could've been studied anywhere is doubtful.

That Machinen Krieger knock off looks like a SAFS had been working out. At least the knock off is designed for right handed people.

Vertex Nebula does incredible work! I've printed all of his SDF-1 models at 150%, but I haven't had the time to finish any of them yet.

I think they’re both degreasers for the most part and have heard that both products work about the same, although I can’t say that I’ve used either one. The last time I had a chrome kit was way back in the early HGUC gundam line with that old gold chrome Hyaku Shiki. Resources weren’t as easy to find at how to do the stripping process back then and I ended up doing things the hard way, by lightly sanding the entire surface to make it just gritty enough to take paint. I personally wouldn’t recommend going through that much trouble when much easier methods have been found

Wow this new season in awesome. Bunny Senpai s2 started and it was great. My Dress up darling s2 started and was awesome. City the Animation started. This is the closest we will get to a Nichijou season 2. I watched the 1st episode of game center girl. It was so cute. There was so much English spoken. Nice to hear normal English. Amaki Sally an American does a great job. I am still waiting for Shield hero to start. No Rory Mercury. A new cast.

Yeah, too much cg and not enough frames to make up for the look. This might have been forgivable if it was a late 90’s video game cutscene, but it’s 2025 and they could have done much much better

I've heard of it, but I know LA totally awesome is safe for plastics; not sure about purple power.

B5 had an entire episode (granted not one of their best, or even a very good one) that followed a couple of maintenance men around the station.

No they are not - anyone with any idea where Yavin 4 is should be kept on Yavin 4 or going no futher than a collection point where they pick up and pilot other starships to Yavin from those collection points. Anyone going anywhere else should have no idea where the rebel base is, only the collection points. As for the spoiled rich politicians, sure they could all say they have to know where the base is - but in any realistic universe at all that would have meant instant doom to keep that secret. Star Wars could get away with bad logic like that(*) since as Harrison Ford reportedly said to Mark Hamill "It ain't that kind of movie kid". Andor was trying to be that kind of series. (*) - Leia should never have had the Falcon go straight from the DT to Yavin, they could have had those plans studied anywhere and the Empire would not find the Yavin base (which Leia knew they were doing from her own dialog).

Looks like the average price for the Fire Valkyrie brand new on Mandarake and Jungle are around 8000 JPY. Not bad.

I like it. Looking forward to Bruticus, Defensor, and Computron.

Exosuit.

Bad Plan. Sunday Dinner.