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I think I’m still more of an og Battlestar Galactica or Buck Rogers fan, but I do also love Miami vice,A Team, Airwolf, 80’s Magnum PI and a couple of others that I have a hard time picking favorites from as far as live action.

Yeah, back when it came out video games graphically weren’t a whole lot better than pong. The other thing is the effects were simple, but done in a way to try and make them believable in a realm for a computer at the time without trying to look too realistic. Kinda like if you look at it, you immediately understand that they are not in a real world and that they are inside a program. Things have come so far tech wise that the new one sorta looks like any other sci fi world. I think that’s why people were so impressed with the original at the time and kinda like warm to the new one. I like both, but it’s kinda like watching ghostbusters and then watching a decent ghostbusters sequel. Or the og Jaws and then any other shark based movie. The og still has that time and place excitement, while the sequel kinda has a been there done that a few times kinda feel.

I watch this video to kill my nostalgia for the 1980s, lol.

Personally I was fine assuming that the Transformers on Earth transformed into vehicles because Teletraan-1 mistakenly thought those vehicles were the dominant life forms on Earth, and beastformers were just what happens when Transformers scan some other life form for their alt mode. Though, I suppose that does raise the question of how they came up with their alt modes on Cybertron... I digress. The point is, Minicons came from Micronus, and Beastformers come from Onyx Prime. Onyx Prime's first appearance, to the best of my knowledge, was the Covenant of Primus. And again, to my knowledge, he's really only appeared in two other places, IDW comics and a design for Transformers One. The latter two sources obviously drew on the Covenant for inspiration, so they all have certainly design similarities like wings, digitigrade legs, and head that looks like he's wearing an animal skull for a helmet. The brown colors are pure Covenant, as IDW and TFOne both depicted him as primarily blue (I assume TFOne was based more on the IDW design, while there was an in-universe reason for the shift in Onyx's design...). I think it's fair to say that Age of the Primes Leader-class Onyx Prime is still sporting a somewhat original design, though. Here he's a bit more organic than other depictions, with faux fur on his shins, the insides of his elbows, and the joints of his wings. He's also sporting a tail, which I'm not entirely sure he had in other versions. In any case, I quite like the design. The wings, digitigrade legs, and hooves give off devilish vibes (even if Onyx was actually described as being a good friend and loyal ally to the other Primes). Onyx's relic is called the Triptych Mask, an artifact that supposedly gave Onyx the ability to travel the spiritual world and appear in dreams. It's heavily implied that the brown thing on the left is supposed to be the Mask, but I would think the mask is actually the aforementioned animal skull helmet... that is to say, his head. He also comes with a pole and his tail. Onyx's head is a hinged ball joint. He lacks much downward tilt, though he's got adequate sideways tilt, and he can look up quite a bit but the further up he looks the more his head sinks into his chest. His shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers (molded as a single, curved piece) are hinged to open and close. His waist swivels, though his butt flap and loin cloth are attached to his upper body. His hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and over 90 degrees laterally, and his thighs swivel. His knees, due to being digitigrade, are a bit different. His knees bend 90 degrees, but they don't straighten all the way. Even if they did, his true ankle range from about 90 degrees forward to just shy of straight. Down from his ankle, at his foot, there's no up/down tilt but he does have around 75 degrees of pivot. The "Mask" fits onto the end of the pole to make a spear that he can wield in either hand. I forgot to grab a pic of it, but those tabs on the spear can plug into slots on his wings to store the spear on his back. His tail can either be plugged directly into his butt, or flipped 180 degrees and plugged into his butt flap. Now, the thing about Onyx is, in the Covenant, he's built like a centaur. That is, he has four legs and a horse-like lower body with two arms on a humanoid upper body. The clearest picture of Onyx has him rearing up on his hind legs, though, and IDW artists missed that detail and wound up drawing him as bipedal (though again, this is retroactively explained), and since TFOne copied IDW that version was also bipedal. So AOTP is bipedal, because that's easiest, right? Nope. Centaur mode is included. Officially, you push his face up into his mask, lift his loin cloth, and uncoil the front legs from his chest. His upper torso rocks back so the front legs can reach the ground. This is my favorite mode, and (aside from keeping the mask open) how I'll likely display him. My only real complaint is that his shoulder pads didn't shift in some way to cover the shoulder joints that were previously hidden under the front legs. Articulation in this mode is mostly the same. I didn't mention the wings before, but they have a limited up/down range where they connect to his back, and a hinge to spread them wider. There's also a hinge to move them front-to-back for flapping. I think a swivel would have been nice, but not having one isn't the end of the world. Without the front legs blocking them, those new exposed shoulder hinges give him some front/back butterfly joints. He loses his waist swivel. His front legs can swivel 360 degrees, as long as you move them out laterally enough to have the clearance. And they move nearly 180 degree laterally before his arms start getting in the way. They also have thigh swivels, knees that don't quite straighten but get 90 degrees of backward bend, and digitigrade ankles that can go from nearly 90 degrees forward to 90 degrees backward. His hooves don't pivot, but they can fold downward. And guess what? You can remove his tail, and split it open. One of the tabs that holds it closed actually fits into slots on the insides of his fingers, allowing him to hold it like a bow. Using the same tabs on the spear's shaft that attached it to his back, you can attach the spear to the tail like an arrow. I think I'd honestly be happy enough if they'd stopped there. Bipedal robot with a centaur alt mode works for me. But Onyx is actually a triple changer. From the centaur mode, lift his head up so it tucks into his chest, then hinge his chest armor up and over it. Fold the beast head from his back over his head so it tabs into his chest. Straighten his torso back out, then use the butterfly hinges to bring his shoulders forward, rotating at the biceps and wrists so that his arms still make some sort of anatomical sense. And her we have Onyx's real alt/beast mode... some kind of six-legged horse-dragon chimera. I don't hate it... but I don't know that I love it, either. In my mind, it's an interesting concept, but probably the weakest of his modes on a figure where I was already content without it. The only new articulation to bring up is the beast head. It's on a ball joint, with some limited ability to tilt up, down, left, right, and swivel into a sideways tilt. The jaws can also open. The instructions have you store the spear by removing the "mask" and plugging it onto the side of the pole, then plugging the pole onto his butt. Why not just plug it into the wing? Because, fully unfurled, the wings actually don't leave enough clearance. You can only store the spear there if you keep the wings tucked in. Speaking of options, what if you don't want a six-legged alt mode? I mean, it was good enough for Odin's horse, but maybe Liege Maximo is the only Prime you want having a Norse influence. Hasbro's got you covered. You can shift his shoulders back out into their regular robot position, then wrap the middle legs back around his torso. Still works! As one of the newer, less-developed Primes, and one with a bestial robot mode, a bestial alt mode, and a bestial in-between mode, I think Onyx might not appeal to the "just give me the G1 cartoon" crowd, especially as his Leader price tag makes him less of an impulse buy than a Deluxe like Alchemist or Micronus. That said, the winged centaur of the Covenant was always kind of an out-there design, and I love the way the team brought that design to life. I think he's a pretty cool figure, definitely one of my favorite Primes* so far, and I'd recommend checking him out. *And for those who haven't been keeping track, we're up to nine of the Thirteen now. Deluxe-class Quintus Prime and Voyager-class Amalgamous Prime were announced for the first 2026 wave at SDCC. While not officially announced, I'm hearing that the remainder, Voyager-class Nexus Prime and Leader-class Liege Maximo, should be out by summer 2026.

I just need to do some fine tuning & touch up, then it's time to re-assemble!

It’s an Awsome display piece. I think this hobby is never about the awards, but about the fun. Although if you do win, that’s a real bonus. Let us know how things go

Thank you guys! @Thom That's sad they made scoops without the scoop! @F18LEGIOSS2 "We can rebuild him, we have the technology"😁 Looking good! @tekering That diorama looks great! Nice details and layout too! @pengbuzz Here's praying for a first place ribbon!!! - MT

@tekering looks great! The use of paper for that “sheet metal” is brilliant. @pengbuzz Wow! Best of luck to you.

UPDATE: revisited my 1/720 CVN-65 Diorama; this is going to our regional fair to go on display in the crafts and collections competition: It gets delivered to the tomorrow and will be on display there until the 29th! Hoping I will get at least some recognition; historically with every model contest I EVER entered, my work has NEVER been recognized or won anything.

@MechTech continues to impress with his mechanical engineering! I'm calling the Mos Eisley diorama done. I reprinted some parts at a larger scale to give the derelict Dowager Queen a sense of forced perspective. The twisted bits of metal hull clinging to the frame is just painted paper. The "sand" is about 50% baby powder. 😉 These two kitbashed figures are based on extras seen in the background during the 1976 Tunisia shoot. Several more are still in progress. Oh, I'm not the multitasker you are, my friend... I can only obsess over one project at a time. 😅

Target's Geek Out site launched their Transformers stuff. For me, it's a lot of nothing. There's Earthrise Sunstreaker (the original release, not the one with painted windows from the box set), and there's Gigawatt if you missed him the first two times he was released. Of more interested might be Earthrise Thrust, since he was a Target exclusive before and sold out pretty fast. Still a Target exclusive, but here's your second chance... Also did a little digging into Soundwave. Can confirm he's still compatible with the previous Siege Micromaster/Studio Series Core-class/Dr Wu tapes, and he's got the room to store just one at a time. Really hard to say for sure until I have him in hand, or until someone posts a clean direct comparison instead of guessing from shots with Alchemist or rulers, but it does look like SS86 Soundwave is about a quarter of an inch/0.6cm taller than the Siege/Earthrise/Netflix/Legacy version.

Yeah, these new pics got me all excited. I still wish they did the extra art detail, but they did an awesome job of doing the anime style here

As the new baseball season begins, she really hyped up!

Does this mean the stuff that's supposed to come out the end of September and October got pushed back again?

It is. I had to cancel my order for the time being though until Japan Post resumes shipping to the U.S. The fees through DHL is insane.

I'm old enough to have seen Tron in the theater, one of only a few films I saw in the theater growing up, and it was impressive. Visually and narratively, it was absolutely unique. All the smart-ass comments landed, the characters were likeable, especially Flynn, who, much like Han Solo, outshone the eponymous main hero of the story. Even the CG was extraordinary, as it imparted an uncannily realistic look to the scenes in which it featured, and with CG being a relatively new phenomenon in film, it stood out as something special. We take it for granted now, but back then my 11-year-old self was left wondering what did I just see? There was truly an otherworldly, magical quality to it that was fresh and unique and cool. It's a shame we haven't really felt that about movie effects since '93's Jurassic Park, which amazed me all over again with its incredibly realistic CG effects. So much of Tron has become iconic today, but one must remember that it was all one big experiment dreamed up by Steven Lisberger and it didn't really gain traction with fans until years after its initial release. But thank goodness it attained a cult following which kept it relevant, as it's one of those landmark films that pushed boundaries and laid the groundwork for further innovation in visual effects. Incidentally, the Tron producers were cheated out of an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects b/c the Academy felt that CG was cheating, despite all the intense work that went into creating those effects on rather primitive super computers. In my mind, they won it deservedly. Next to the original Tron, IMHO, the animated Tron: Uprising is the second-best entry in the franchise, if only b/c it builds on what came before. It was an excellent show, well-written with well-fleshed out characters, a handful of good baddies (Lance Henriksen always delivers), and cranky old Tron himself, reprised by Bruce Boxleitner, added a bit of grit and a tinge of darkness to the character. Disney, in its infinite wisdom, cancelled it after only one season, of course. I would have loved to have seen at least one or two more- it exemplified what I want to see in a Tron show or movie. That said, I'm lukewarm for Tron: Ares. I'm not the biggest Jared Leto fan either, and I'm not sure how I feel about the digital world coming into the real, as I think there are far more interesting things that can be done visually and narratively in the digital, and that was sort of the point with the first two films. Nearly anything is possible in the digital realm, and I think that's a far more interesting world to explore than our own with its many limitations. I'll very likely go see it, but with tempered enthusiasm. If nothing else, judging by the trailers, it'll at least be pretty. And Gillian Andersen, speaking in her native British accent, is in it. To quote Frohike, "Scully's hot". 😛

Miami Vice was one of the best parts of the Wedding Singer!

I thought that KC had demo prototypes at a previous event, but when I went searching it looks like they had them for the Tomahawk, Defender, and Phalanx but not the Spartan. Here's a photo where you can see the three. Guessing you all are right and they still haven't prepped one yet.

^ Unfortunate. I hope Arcadia gets back on track soon.

I’m ready!

Looks nice !

We have visuals!

A friend of mine had never seen any of the Tron movies, so I had him come down to watch the first two. Personally, while I can see how the original film would have been really impressive back in 1982, but the pacing of the actual story felt really off. This isn't to say that Legacy's plot was any better, and it's a less creative film overall, but it moved at a better pace and the sights and sounds were greatly improved. As far as Ares goes, I don't have a lot of hope for it. The plot seems a little dumb, and I'm really not a fan of Jared Leto. But I caught previews for it in 3D, and when the Recognizer is flying through the city it looked pretty awesome. So I think I'm going to make same buddy go see it in 3D with me.

I'm only really a fan of the original 82 movie. I didn't really enjoy Legacy to be honest. So for Ares, I think I'll wait until it's on D+ before watching it.