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I wonder if they'll do a cannon fodder brown version next? I'd love to see a 1D trainer.

2026 is slowly trickling in, I guess. I'm sitting on one Studio Series figure, since he's a repaint/slight retool, to cover in a Repaint Roundup. While we wait, we can talk about Age of the Primes Leader-class Big Convoy. Big Convoy (who, oddly, is named Big Convoy on the Hasbro packaging despite Lio Convoy being renamed Leo Prime), is a figure I've wanted in my collection for awhile. I think that's partly because I love it when you take an "Optimus" style head and slap it on a design that's mostly red and white (or light gray) and reduces the blue to an accent color... like Lio Prime before him, G2 Optimus and G2 Hero Optimus before them, and Fire Convoy/RiD Optimus after them. Of course, there's also the fact that Magmatron was a 2024 Commander release. I confess, though, to mostly being familiar with Big Convoy through clips of the Beast Wars Neo anime, which was drawn to make him look as heroic as possible (though I'd never really noticed how asymmetrical his arms are)... ...and I kind of forgot about the fact that a lot of the Transformers from this era were kibbly shellformers. Big Convoy is no exception; his own head is almost crowded out by "shoulder pads" made from large chunks of his alt mode head. The bits of mammoth on his forearms and calves are unmistakable, but I'll let slide for being fairly unobtrusive. His hip skirts, though, are mammoth legs that just stick straight out behind him. Like, how's this dude supposed to lay down on his recharge slab at night? He comes with a good number of accessories. He's got a little pistol that I don't believe the original toy did, and I have no idea if he ever used in the show. He's got two red hooks called "Mammoth Hakens" that the original toy did have, a Matrix that the original toy had, and a big ol' piece of mammoth kibble that the original had. So... Big Convoy's head is a ball joint with a limited up/down/sideways tilt. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees, and dedicated hinges that give him butterfly joints. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist. If you can work around the kibble, his hips can get just about 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. His thighs swivel, and there's an additional swivel just below the knee, though it's primarily for transformation. His knees bend 90 degrees, and though he lacks up/down tilt on his feet he does have nearly 90 degrees of ankle pivot. OK, lots of gimmicks to get through. So, he can of course hold his gun or the Mammoth Hakens in his hands. There are also 5mm ports on his forearms and shoulders where you can attach accessories like the Mammoth Hakens. Not pictured, just because I forgot at the time, the mammoth legs on his hip skirts can swivel around so they're pointing forward. There's molded details on the bottom, as well as 5mm ports for blast effects, because they're supposed to be hip-mounted cannons. When he's not carrying them, the pistol can plug into a 5mm port on his back. As for the Mammoth Hakens, if you open the kibble on the sides of his legs you'll find 5mm ports on the white parts where they can plug in. This is basically where they went on the original toy, except instead of merely being pegged it they were spring loaded and could be fired out of his legs like missiles. Speaking of, the armature holding the mammoth kibble on his back can rock back, and the kibble itself is hinged. You can move it just to get it away from his head, but you can also swivel it to reveal painted, non-firing missiles underneath. The tusks on the back kibble are removable (indeed, they're not installed in the box). They just plug onto pegs on the kibble. There are also pegs on the mammoth kibble under his forearms, allowing you to plug the tusks in there like melee weapons. Not that he needs them... the kibble can open to reveal "Mammoth Tonfas" you can flip out. Then there's the big chunk of mammoth kibble that was an accessory. Well, there's a 5mm peg on it. You could plug it into his arm like a shield... Or, using a 5mm port near the peg, you can plug it sideways onto a 5mm peg on his pack. The peg itself is on an armature that moves out a bit to help you get the clearance to get it around the other mammoth kibble on his back and hips. I think it makes him look busy and back heavy, but I suppose it's cartoon-accurate. Also, like the toy and cartoon, the kibble can half-heartedly transform into a large cannon, the aptly-named Big Cannon. The new AOTP version even has a fold out stand to help him keep it up that the original didn't, but on the other hand it doesn't have the firing missiles the original did. With the new stand, I can't help but think that it reminds me of the Hyaku Shiki's Mega Bazooka Launcher in Z Gundam. Finally, there's his Matrix. The butterfly joints allow him to bring his fists together so it can peg into both of them, like he's holding the Matrix out in front of him. When he's not holding it, you can flip open the front of his chest and plug it inside. It's an interested detail that the space behind the chest hinge is molded to look like Optimus Prime's tummy grill. OK, finally we can transform this guy! To do that, spin his head around and push his "ears" in. Take the back kibble and swivel 180 degrees, so the missiles are pointed straight up, and then fold them toward each other so they tab together. Fold them back, then use the red armature to fold them forward again over his robot head. Rotate his forearms so that the mammoth kibble is facing you, then use the transformation hinges in his shoulders to bring the entire shoulder joint behind his back, with his arms pointed straight back for now. Swing the mammoth legs on his hip skirts around, then fold the skirts up so the mammoth legs plug into the spaces his shoulders just vacated. Fold his heels in, open the kibble on the sides of his legs, then open the white part and fold his feet inside before closing the white part back up. Swivel his legs BELOW the knees, so his shins are facing each other, and tab them together. Bend his knees 90 degrees the wrong way, then use the hinged ball joint to swing the leg kibble around and inward to fill in the side of the mammoth. If you did it right, it'll tab in to two places on his side and one on his leg. Bring the small panel on the kibble around to fill in the top of the rear leg, then bring is arms down so that the peg holes on his forearms lock into pegs on the back of his waist. Bring in the big cannon to fill in his butt, back, and the gap in his head, open his ears, and you're done. In an effort to be more cartoon accurate Big Convoy eschews the two-tone fur of the original toy for a uniform brown, and he's got white eyes with painted pupils instead of green. Aside from the usual hinges, seams, and occasional visible robot kibble, he looks fine. I'll note that, while partsforming the tusks isn't strictly necessary, to have tusks that curve out-to-in in mammoth mode but also curve upward in robot mode you'll likely want to swap the right to the left and vice versa. The tusks and Big Cannon are part of his alt mode, then. The Matrix can just stay in his chest. As for the rest of his accessories, the leg kibble that turns into the mammoth's sides have a pair of 5mm ports each. You can plug one Mammoth Haken into each side, then plug the pistol onto one side so it's partially covering the Mammoth Haken. And... well, that's about it. The Front legs are hinged at the shoulders so they can move forward, but not backward, no swivels, no knees, and no ankles. His trunk has a quartet of hinges to give it some articulation, and his tail is hinged at the base so it can range from pointed straight down to pointed straight out his back. His ears can flap. And that's it for alt mode articulation. His head and rear legs are totally immobile. What's more, because the actually cannon doesn't swivel on the mammoth kibble the way the original toy's Big Cannon did, he can't do Mammoth Tank mode. The barrel of the Big Cannon is always in his butt, and can't come out of the head. Big Convoy is one of those toys that feels hard to judge. In a lot of ways, it's true to the cartoon and original toy... even when that means reproducing the flaws of the original design and delivering a shellformer with too much alt mode kibble. What's more, while Mark Maher and Tomoki Tatsumi clearly put a lot of effort into retaining gimmicks like the Mammoth Hakens and the Mammoth Tonfas, the inability to do Mammoth Tank mode feels like a step backward. I think Prime afficionados and hardcore fans will appreciate having this character in Generations scale with good articulation and many of his accessories will want him despite his flaws, but I think the G1 crowd or more casual US-only Beast Wars fans will find him a tad disappointing.

I did found a Macross cel for about $50. On that "M" auction site. It was a scene from Miss Macross scene time stamp 22.21. That blonde chick who lost to Lynn,

At the TN store in Akihabara. Hard to tell from the pic but the 17S is tiny next to the 19. Bandai truly did just recycle the 171. Battroid

Let the Star Wars begin.🫠

https://www.kitzconcept.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=159

The full pic set.

i'm going to try and get those exclusive parts in arena.

Damn. Wish they went and just did his VF-1J first, but this makes me hopeful of that.

The arena is great for quick credits and to see updated renditions of wanzers of the main characters from previous FM games. The survival simulator was quite a time bandit for me. The are wanzer variant parts and weapons that can only found in there. What sucks is that they cannot be used in a "Hard" mode playthrough, IIRC.

At this stage, I'm pretty much keeping D+ just for Macross, Clone Wars, Rebels, Bad Batch and SW movies 1-6.

so I tried the Area battle mode in the simulator area. I bet my entire savings 1440 and lost it all a few times. Once i finally won, I only received 100 increase for my money. Sorta disappointed. I thought i'd double my money betting it all.

Glad you like it. The reason I ended up going into so much detail is I really wanted to capture a proper explanation for why horizontal stabilizers don't seem to have ever been a part of the concept, from the first drafts in late '79 and early '80 clear to the finished product in '82, despite it being based on a real aircraft. (For a lot of its development, it was a VERY different aircraft that seems to owe a lot to the X-24B, Gundam's FF-X7 Core Fighter, and the G-Fighter.) EDIT: In his designer's note book, Kawamori notes he was very fond of Thunderbird-2 and built in in papercraft as a kid... which is also, perhaps not coincidentally, a lifting-body design with an unconventional twin boom tail.

Three Zero are not messing around pumping these out! Ben Dixon VF-1A incoming. https://www.threezerohk.com/zh-hant/product/vf1a-veritech-ben-dixon/?fbclid=IwY2xjawO1fUZleHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF4NlJUZnZuYzBWN210SGYxc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHn_uiiwUHLx3_2otjDvkNyLNwKvMdOmwfqpL5LflTUt1GNSJDATjSQvINLWQ_aem_aMLdbG2Az898VB4wh0kOIQ

$50k US? I have a few older saved off auctions from YJ, wonder if I have the original anywhere. Recall anything from the title of the auction?

I bought stuff from Amiami and other Japan-based store using EMS all the time, by the time it arrived in my country the local post office already took over everything including custom and delivery. It's not something to blame the store for

Yeah, it’s become fairly useless. They really need to make some serious changes over there, they just don’t have anything anymore

I think outside of Kawamori, one of my favourite mechanical design people has to be Ikuto Yamashita. His work on the Yukikaze OVAs is excellent, nails the otherworldly alien insect look of these (in-universe) AI generated fighters while still maintaining ancestral design elements to current day aircraft for that touch of groundedness. Also, he did the EVAs from Evangelion, incredibly iconic in their own right.

Awesome! I was looking for a "simple" answerd but you wrote the entire Wikipedia page! Thanks man!

To an extent, I feel like that's a product of the design's evolution and what was The Style At The Time. I'm going to tell a bit of a story here, but stick with me... there IS a method to my madness I promise. Back in the 1970s when Shoji Kawamori was still a student attending middle and high school in Yokohama, tailless delta wing designs were very popular as a futuristic fighter design in contemporary science fiction. 1974's Space Battleship Yamato made extensive use of them with iconic designs like the Cosmo Zero and Black Tiger throughout the 70s. The Battlestar Galactica pilot that hit Japanese theaters in 1978 had the Colonial Viper. And of course Mobile Suit Gundam had designs like the FF-X7 Core Fighter and a great many background designs like the Flymanta, Flyarrow, and Dopp. That seems to have informed some of his earliest design works in the period that led up to the creation of Super Dimension Fortress Macross after he joined Studio Nue. If you look to the earliest of the designs credited as having evolved into the VF-1 Valkyrie - the "Flight Suit" flying powered suit - the design draws obvious inspiration from the Martin Marietta X-24 "Flying Flatiron". A tailless delta lifting body design that was used to evaluate reentry and unpowered landing approaches that would be used in the space shuttle. (One of the sister designs from the lifting body program, Northrop's M2-F2, appears to have been the inspiration for Miyatake's "Superbird" that evolved into the QF-3000E Ghost.) The design for the Flight Suit later evolved into the larger "Breast Fighter" and began to take on some of the aspects of the VF-1's final design like the cannons mounted on the head, but was still more fantastical and super robot-y. That version replaced the Flight Suit's vertical stabilisers with canted winglets at the wingtip similar to the Core Fighter's, but lacked both a vertical and horizontal stabilizer. That version also gained some outward-canted fins on the lower legs similar to the VF-1's. That design would then be polished a bit further, keeping a lot of the Breast Fighter's transformation but adopting a silhouette based on the F-14. The canted winglets simply moved backwards onto the legs to become the tail to facilitate the adoption of the F-14's VG wing, and then inboard onto the beavertail when the "backpack" became a part of the design. There was already plenty of precedent for "ruddervators" via designs like the Fouga CM.170 Magister and CM.175 Zephyr, so using that as a substitute for a horizontal stabilizer that would otherwise make the transformation messier was probably a desirable solution. The transitional design between the Breast Fighter and the early F-14-based VF-1 drafts looks like it might have become an early version of the F203 Dragon II and MiM-31 Karyovin. Sky Angels (1984) directly acknowledges (from an in-universe perspective) that the reason the VF-1 Valkyrie lacks a horizontal stabilizer is because the engineers who designed it had not been able to find a good way to securely store it when the Valkyrie transformed. It goes on to explain that the aerodynamic issues caused by its removal are compensated for by the large vertical stabilizers, ventral fins, thrust-vectoring nozzles, and wingtip roll-control thrusters. Variable Fighter Master File: VF-0 Phoenix (2012) explains the lack of horizontal stabilizers as a design concession to improve stealth performance. It weaves an interesting narrative around the Grumman Super Tomcat-21 proposal, claiming that both the Grumman Super Tomcat-21 and McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II programs were dummy projects which were used to camouflage appropriations for a top secret US Navy stealth fighter program codenamed "Shadow Cat" that was launched in the wake of the US Air Force's unveiling of the F-117 to other branches of the service and was cancelled in the 1990s before it could get past the mockup stage. The idea was revived in 2001 as part of the restart of the F-14's production for the UN Forces because it shared 75% of its parts with the existing F-14 and a completed Shadow Cat was rolled out as the F-14++ Advanced Tomcat, which would be used as a starting point for developing a practical VF prototype due to its structural similarities to Stonewell Bellcom's E303 design proposal.

I first saw "Star Fleet" on Showtime cable, and was immediately taken by it. Years later I learned Brian May did the theme

Yeah, we have the HBOMax/Hulu/D+ bundle and D+ gets the least amount of attention since the end of the Andor series.

I approached it sort of like I was painting one of my Warhammer 40k joytoy figures. I mainly used some citadel and vallejo paints, For the blue surface areas, I lightly stippled Macragge Blue and Calgar Blue with a large round drybrush. Airbrushed some Tyran Blue shade paint which is a darker blue with random movements to help give a bit of a mottling effect. Used some Eshin Grey on the intakes to dirty them up a bit. Panel lining was done with Tamiya black panel line accent color. A very highly thinned flat black was airbrushed on for some post shading along panel lines and to give more depth to recessed areas. Selectively applied edge highlights were done by dipping a brush into some Fenrisian Grey, brushing some off on a texture palette and running the side of the bristles of the brush along the edges or with the tip of a 0 size brush in places where that method is not viable. The thruster vanes were painted using Vallejo's metal color line using gunmetal grey and steel and edge highlighted with silver. To seal everything in, I airbrushed Vallejo's Satin and Ultra-matte polyurethane varnishes. Doing the satin first and then selectively with the matte in certain areas. Unfortunately I didn't think to take any in-progress pics.

I had a very limited knowledge of it having seen pics or models of the purplish-bluish mecha over the years. Irecognized some insectile qualities in that mecha alone, but prompted by your suggestion, I checked out a review/synopsis on YT. First, I wasn't aware that Tomino san was behind it, or that it was one of the first isekai anime. Beyond that, concerning the mecha design, most definitely insectile. Pretty cool.