All Activity

The good news, you have a second change at getting MB Providence if you missed out the first time. The bad news, it's a Club Tamashii Members release – so difficult to source. The only difference between this and the OG release is a new stand support for the Dragoons. Would have liked to have this option the first time around.

It's a Club Tamashii Memebers release, so it's probably going to be difficult and pricey to get one.

Ooh, tempting. Just a reskin, but at least it's pretty different. Wonder if this means the Max version will be released as well. Is there any information on pricing? Did some Googling but couldn't find anything.

https://tamashiiweb.com/item/15546/

Yorkville Smiles offers trusted Dentist Toronto ON, with personalized treatments, advanced technology, and a welcoming environment. Whether you need preventive care, cosmetic dentistry, or restorative solutions, our experienced team is dedicated to your comfort and oral health.

Theater-scout primed in mahogany and ready for some painting. Going to brush lacquers on this kit since I had so much fun with that Ma.k. Most of the parts need to be relatively “finished” before the main body can be assembled, puttied, sanded, painted etc…

I mean, we're talking about a franchise where a space shuttle orbiter becomes the arm of a robot that uses a Jeep Willys for a leg (in the cartoon, I am aware that the toy was actually based on larger the XR311). Trying to reconcile alt mode scale in G1 is a pathway to madness. But like I keep saying, the real problem is the relatively thinness. A car just of room underneath and inside to stuff robot parts, or chunkier parts that are easier to translate directly as robot parts. As big as an F-15 is (and comparatively thick for a fighter), it's roughly 40% thinner than a Datsun 280ZX (which is pretty sleek, as cars go) when you compare their relative length or width to their height. A lot of Kawamori's designs end up with large intakes and engine nacelles that are a thicker than a lot of modern fighters, and Macross series since they started using more CGI have featured Valks that are a lot skinnier, especially in the arms. And like I said, Kawamori has the luxury of working backward from Fighter, and from VF-1 to VF-11 to VF-19 to VF-25 to VF-31 a lot of the transformation elements are pretty similar, with the big evolution seeming to be how they scrunch up the cockpit and nose. I'm not saying this as a critique of Kawamori's work, I'm saying that Takara was first constrained by using real-world aircraft then double-whammied by Sunbow replacing the Diaclone mecha designs with Floro Dery's character models, which (especially in the first season) often deviated wildly from the original designs. When you start with a toy that had kind of weird proportions and arms that were half part of the fuselage and half add-on fists, turn it into a cartoon with more humanoid proportions and normal, blocky arms, then turn it back into a toy that has to be faithful to that cartoon, something's bound to give. And, I mean, yeah, I think it's definitely possible, with enough parts and engineering, to have a totally accurate F-15 turn into a totally Sunbow robot. I agree that designers could make better use of what the plane actually has and translating that into what the robot needs. But at even a $50 Leader price? On a toy that still has to meet US safety standards to be sold in Walmarts, and very likely doesn't have a license from Boeing even be all that accurate in the first place? Last I checked even Newage charges more for a toy that's half the size. And it gets even worse when they have to do it as a Deluxe that also has to be a part of a Combiner. Like I ultimately said, Has/Tak's jet Transformers are far from perfect, and I do get how that can be frustrating for someone so into aircraft... but I gotta be realistic about what they can and can't do with a $20/$35/$50 trying to capture the nuances of an often poorly-animated 40-plus year-old cartoon. ...newer Transformers media, though, doesn't quite have the same excuse. The guys who worked on the Bay films could have worked backward from an F-22 the way Touch Toys did with the J-35 and given us a cool Starscream, instead of the mess of scrap that we actually got. But they didn't. But even then, there's the matter of budgets... SS Starscream? Best they could do on the budget at the time (was that release all the way back when Voyagers were $25?). The MPM, though, that was proportionally thicker and far messier? No excuse. So... like Bumblebee and Cliffjumper? 😄 Shifting gears a bit, I know you're a big fan of the tapes in general and Dr. Wu's specifically. Make sure you check out the 3P thread.😉

May'n will be in Edmonton, Canada this weekend (8th to 10th) for Animethon!! Accompaning her is JUNNA from Macross Delta and Hidetaka Tenjin, illustrator for many gunplay boxart especially for Macross and Star Wars (Only on Friday) . If you are in the neighbourhood, do drop by! https://animethon.org/guests

It's a fair price, especially with an OLED screen, but I'd recommend budgeting for a RAM upgrade to go with it. Aside from a short weekend trip I haven't really traveled lately, definitely not like I used to pre-COVID. I'm glad I upgraded my desktop when I did, but I'm not really sure I even need a laptop anymore, at least not for the time being. For what little gaming-on-the-go I do these days (mostly just sitting for 45-90 minutes while my daughter is in her dance class) my ROG Ally X is handling well enough.

Part of the problem is that Takara & Hasbro shrink the jets so that the robot modes will all be roughly compatible. However, most jets are much larger than cars. The F-15 is over 63 feet long, roughly 5.5 to 6 feet tall from the bottom of the forward fuselage to the top of the canopy, 18 feet tall from the ground on extended gear to the tops of the vertical stabs, the fuselage from intake to intake is about 9 feet wide, it's nearly 43 feet from wingtip to wingtip, and the C series, likely the inspiration for the Seeker, weighs 27,000 lbs empty. It is a big machine, much larger than the average car. If they scaled TFs with fighter modes appropriately, most would need to be leader scale relative to deluxe and voyager scaled cars. Larger planes, like Silverbolt's Concorde mode, would have to be upscaled tremendously (and, I realize, unrealistically) to scale properly with the average car bot. Scaling definitely makes a difference, but I must point out that Takara rarely uses the forward fuselage to form any part of the bot and it usually just hangs off the bot's back as so much kibble. Same with Concordes or SR-71s- all that lovely long fuselage which could be made to encapsulate arms and part of a torso, but they never use it as such. Considering all of Kawamori's valk designs which approximate real world aircraft, and all of his variations in planform and transformation schemas, I think the problem lies with Takara's exceptionally narrow approach to designing transformable jets and less with their proportions. They can make very small cars and motorcycles transform with well-integrated robot parts in the alt modes, so jets should offer far more real-estate, and thus creative options, to utilize towards realizing a robot mode. Too, look what Touch Toys is accomplishing. I realize we're well beyond the scope of what Takara and Hasbro can produce at their budgets and other limitations, but still, they're pulling off some impressive engineering. On the other end of the scale, I think Newage came up with a brilliant schema for their Seekers. I love how they used the chest intake bits to form part of the lower forward fuselage, thus eliminating that bit of kibble for a more accurate F-15. It's still not perfect, as the legs don't have the proper taper to the augmenters, the intake ramps aren't quite the right shape, and parts of the arms protrude from the belly. However, unlike pretty much every official Seeker except MP-03 and variants, the bottom of the forward fuselage reaches to nearly the base of the inlets, which is accurate to the real jet. I hate it when they put a foreshortened forward fuselage on their jetformers- it's analogous to making the entire cabin section of a car only half of its normal width.

Yep, the chorus sums it up nicely. Haven't heard that song in a long time so I appreciate the reminder.

lowest priced 5070 laptop i've seen. Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 10: 15.1" QHD+ OLED 165Hz, Intel Ultra 7 255HX, RTX 5070, 16GB DDR5, 1TB SSD $1337.49 SPECS: 15.1″ WQXGA (2560 x 1600) OLED with aluminum lid, 16:10, 165Hz, <1 ms response time, 100% sRGB, 500nits, VESA True Black 600 Certified, Dolby Vision support, TÜV Rheinland Certified, X-Rite Certified Intel Core Ultra 7 255HX Processor (E-cores up to 4.50 GHz P-cores up to 5.20 GHz with Turbo Boost, 20 Cores, 20 Threads, 36 MB Cache) Windows 11 Home 64 NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Laptop GPU, 8GB GDDR7, 128-bit, 115W (incl. 15W boost), up to 798 AI TOPS, 4608 CUDA Cores 16 GB DDR5-5600MT/s (SODIMM) 1 TB SSD M.2 2242 PCIe Gen4 TLC 5MP with Dual Microphone and E-Shutter 24zone RGB Backlit, Eclipse Black - English (US) 80Whr Battery Starting at ~1.9kg / ~4.1lbs Ports: Left: USB-C® (USB 10Gbps) with Power Delivery 3.0 65W-100W & DisplayPort 2.1 USB-C® (Thunderbolt™ 4, USB 40Gbps) with DisplayPort 2.1 (Models with part number 83F0) USB-C® (USB 10Gbps) with DisplayPort 1.4 (Models with part number 83LY) USB-A (USB 5Gbps) Ethernet (RJ45) Right: 2 x USB-A (USB 5Gbps) Headphone / mic combo E-Shutter Button Rear: HDMI 2.1 Power-in

I sold my Legioss to help make money and room for my Tread. Always liked it better. No plans on getting another. Although this Tread is so nice I might get another of these if we get different versions. I love it though, very nice piece.

While I love Dr. Wu's Micromaster-sized Extreme Warfare line, I've been a little more lukewarm on his tapes. His version of Squawkbox was a so-so Beastbox and kind of crappy Squawktalk that combined to make a pretty awkward robot. His version of Slamdance fared a bit better, but between tepid reviews and the fact that the G1 toy never released in the US I opted to pass entirely on Dr. Wu's Decibel. Perhaps they'd have quirks if they didn't have to have to worry about getting both an alt mode AND a combined mode out of a tiny rectangle? Still, it's nice that the good Doctor is covering those late G1 cassette combiners, because who knows when Hasbro would get around to it? It took them how long just to get a version of Buzzsaw out there, and we're just now getting Ramhorn (but only as part of a Target-exclusive package). And speaking of tapes Hasbro's not getting around to, we're still missing two that weren't just part of the US G1 toy line, but characters that had screen time in the Sunbow cartoon. So I'm turning to Dr. Wu once again for Brutality and Slaughter, his version of Slugfest and Overkill. Both figures are lacking the cassette decals the G1 toys had, though there's a case to be made that it makes for more cartoon-accurate "robot" modes. Then again, I think in the cartoon Overkill's biceps, thighs, and tail were white instead of blue, and like most Decepticons he had his eyes colored red in the cartoon, so they're still more toy-colored than anything. Brutality is very similar to G1 Slugfest, with the most obvious difference being that his legs are more on his sides that directly under his belly. Slaughter, meanwhile, stays mostly accurate to G1 Overkill but I feel enjoys an overall better shape and proportions than the G1 toy (ignore the fact that his tail is upside down, I fixed it later). While the early Siege tapes ignored (or in Laserbeak's case, half-heartedly integrated) their accessories, accessories are kind of the good Doctor's specialty. So naturally, this pack comes with all of the weapons needed for both bots. Brutality doesn't enjoy a ton of articulation. His head and tail can bend up, due to transformation, but it ways that break the sculpt. His head is on a swivel, though, so he can tilt his head like he's confused. All four of his legs are on ball joints that allow them to swivel at the hips as well as provide some lateral hip movement, but that's really it for him. Well, it's not like the Siege tapes had the best articulation, either. Brutality's weapons have tabs on the sides that fit into the channels that the sliders for his dorsal plates use. Slaughter, meanwhile, got all the fresh engineering and has much better articulation as a result. No neck swivel, but he can look straight up and tilt his head down until his chin touches his chest. His jaws open and close. His shoulders are on ball joints that swivel and give him about 90 degrees of lateral movement, plus he's got hinged elbows that bend from 90 degrees the anatomically-correct way to 90 degrees the wrong way. His hips are also ball joints for swiveling and some lateral movement, but not a ton, plus he's got a hinged knee and a hinged digitigrade joint. And if all that wasn't enough, his tail actually has a pair of hinges as well, which don't have a ton of range but still allow you to get a little bit of side-to-side curl. Slaughter's weapons have peg holes that plug into small pegs on his sides. Brutality is one of the most convincing tapes we've seen so far, due to all of the molded details on both sides. I think he can afford this luxury due to his pretty simple engineering; his head, tail, and dorsal plates transform exactly like the G1 toy. Really, the only difference is that there's a flap on either side that reveals a gap. His legs hinge into that gap and tab together before folding the flaps back down to cover them. Slaughter is where all the engineering went. His tail rotates 180 degrees and his head folds onto his back, then his entire body splits down the middle. His limbs arrange themselves along the sides, with holes in his ankles pegging the legs in place using the same pegs the guns do for dino mode. Finally, his tail splits down the middle and the halves re-fold at the edge of the "tape." I'm using that word in quotes because he resembles a tape less than even Siege Ravage, with one side largely a white expanse of hollow gaps and the other clearly dinosaur limbs. I'm not going to judge too hard, though, because that's been pretty par for the course not just for Wu but for Hasbro. No one seems to care if they actually look like tapes, so long as we've got little rectangles that fit inside Soundwave and Blaster. Wait... do they fit in Soundwave and Blaster? For the most part, yes, though Brutality is cutting it close. Aside from being right at the limit on height and width, he's one of the thicker boys. I was able to work him in there, but I'd be worried about getting him stuck with the door closed. End of the day, I think these are my favorite tapes that Dr. Wu has done, at least so far. Uncompromised by a combining gimmick, these guys focus on being the best dinosaurs you can get out of tiny rectangles. For Brutality that means fairly basic, very G1 engineering, but I'm not going to complain because he nails the look. And for Slaughter we get a dinosaur mode that beats the robot/animal modes of just about anything Hasbro's done so far, and if the tape mode's a bit messy that's still par for Hasbro's course. And at around $25 after shipping they're priced right around what Hasbro would charge for two Studio Series Core-class tapes, so what's good enough for Hasbro seems like it should be good enough here. So yeah, if you're a fan of Soundwave and want to complete his collection of tape-bot minions, Brutality and Slaughter do a very good job filling Slugfest and Overkill-shaped holes in your collection, and I'd give them a recommend.

Maybe they can lampshade this in a later episode with Una growling "Don't remind me about that one!!"

Hahaha.

Looks like a fun game.

I did like it and the resolution. That was a nice twist. As for the hair, maybe it was a turban..?

Being trapped inside is fairly common, as are the safety protocols not working, but usually how it plays out is that some outside force somehow screws up the holodeck and the main characters have to stall for time while folks outside try to fix things or otherwise escape the holodeck through irregular means. I don't recall any offhand that required the characters to explicitly finish the program. I'm no style guru for sure... but that new hairstyle they tried out in "Shuttle to Kenfori" definitely has a lot of people saying it's not the right look for the actress. A lot of folks seem to think it looks less like a wig and more like some kind of weird hat.

That’s the odd thing is that no matter how packed the boxes are in most cases everything still fits easily in the boxes after construction

That’s such a great design. Might have to order one. 🤤 I Don’t know too much about Wave, but I loved the couple FFS kits I built. I appreciate the box to be large enough to accommodate a completed model “with some dismantling if possible like removing arms, legs etc…” for safe storage until a proper display presents itself.

The first half of Wednesday Season 2 is out and I am enjoying it as much as the first one!

Malfunction in that they are trapped inside, have to complete the program and what they are doing is effecting the rest of the ship kind of way. Which is weird in that I prefer Janeway's original look with her hair down as well. Must be just a quirk of mine about women's hair. And I guess I could squeal about SPOILERS, but if they are teasing it even if I am choosing to remain not so.... oh well.