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I have finally finished that mini Nadia resin figure. It's real tiny, so the closer I get to it, the more the flaws become obvious. I'm also working on a sofubi of Priss from Bubblegum Crisis.

@Papa Rat Good call on the magnets for your Monster! By the way, if you're careful, they will still work just under the surface. That way you don't have to cover them with anything. Concerning your Talgeese: As a Sci-Fi judge for my club's last show, we dinged stuff like seam lines, rough paint, decals that were not blended well into the finish, or silvered decals (air gets underneath and it looks silvery). Stuff that will help you, adding detail bits, adding more scribing details/panel lines, and being consistent with your paint scheme (wear should be even across the model or rust, just not here and there). You should be able to get a a hold of the judging rules. If not, I'll see if I can find ours. Honestly, you should be able to walk into a show and have a good idea of where you stand. You know if you did a good job or not. At the very least, it's a lot of fun and a GREAT learning experience. You will see A LOT of awesome models and good ideas to borrow from. Who's hosting the show? If they are IPMS based, their rules are pretty much the same across the board. @Cheese3 Your paint shading looks good on that model and helps build size (for something so small). @derex3592 Good help is hard to find; I'm glad you got some! 😄 Sorry your Seymour-Johnson decal got jacked up. That squadron must of had a special deployment to Australia or something, maybe with a special paint scheme it sounds like? - MT

The ending of Killer of Killers

Kirishima is best bear boat!

I really like the new base mode's use of the silver matrix and blue blast as a water fountain. Gives it a little dash of charm.

Might be a bit larger scale than the pilot figure included, but does look pretty cool standing next to the Queadluun RauI’ll have to get her in hand to do a good comparison I think. But then again I bet someone will beat me to it

Got his doctorate in mad science at this point. Well, chemistry, but close enough.

Pretty sure horse shoes have to be fairly spot on so they don’t break their legs

I saw a video on YouTube in which a modeler used Lego ball joints for his Imai/Bandai Monster kit. Somebody sent me a link to that video and the result looks great. (I think it could have been the builder himself, but I can't remember.) I cannot recall the name of the channel, but maybe you can find the video through a search. I'm also finding that Japanese model builders can provide a lot of great information too on modifying these older kits to really make them look much better, less stiff and more stylized. Your work on that Gerwalk is fantastic

I remember when 40k used to have a lot of absurd fun before it was just grim dark all the time

Why was this moved...? How does this thread make sense for it?

R.I.P. to a true musical pioneer, Sly Stone:

I would assume this is just built like the 0s which had none of those issues, but time will tell!

Was just about to post all the wave 3 stuff, but I got scooped. Fireflight got screwed, looks like a new head and colors on an otherwise unchanged Slingshot. Skydive is obviously a retool of Air Raid, but at least they remolded his wings and tail. Venom looks cool. Alpha Trion is interesting. The face is the younger face from "War Dawn," which kind of makes sense if this is supposed to be Trion when the other Primes were kicking around. It rather compliments the SDCC Scourge retool, rather than replaces it. The alt mode appears to be based on concept art for the IDW series Transformers: Ironhide. Do I want to buy another Slugslinger and Sandstorm just to get Sandstorm's cartoon face...? I looked to see if there's anything unexpected going to be announced for Studio Series tomorrow, but I think the Takara leak already covered it (Megatron, Scavenger, Elita One, Starscream, and Widowmaker. Maybe Mixmaster, if we're lucky, since I think he's actually farther along than Scavenger.

Hasegawa 1/72 VF-1J Max and Milia.

What's that old saying? "'Close' only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades."? Oh I'm not saying they have to be more serious. Being grim all the time is no fun at all... unless you're Warhammer 40,000. No, what I mean is that they have to focus on developing and telling compelling stories with interesting and well developed characters. They're not going to be able to squeak by with just a never-ending stream of fanservice references to past shows and movies like they're trying to do in Ahsoka.

New pics.

Although it’s a fantasy naval anime, Arpeggio of Blue Steel is one of the best anime I’ve ever seen. You might actually cry in one of the episodes. This anime is definitely about the ships, some of which were actual WWII naval vessels, but with a power up twist. This anime is from around 2013. You will not be disappointed. I’m surprised it’s not more well known.

fwiw, here again was what Mr,K's reasoning was for the change (as I originally posted back in dec/2024) : https://x.com/Mrk_arcadia/status/1872055674877948344 web-translated:

I guess a ton of stuff's been announced in the last couple of days? I guess for me the highlights are Neverwinter Nights 2 Enhanced Edition, Persona 4 Revival, Marvel Cosmic Invasion, The Outer Worlds 2, Onimusha: Way of the Sword, Mecha Break, and Deadpool VR.

I’m totally skipping it, but if you do get around to building it, make sure to put some updates in the workbench section, especially if you put in the light pac

Not so long ago, Hasbro took Armada Optimus Prime, a large toy but one notorious for poor articulation even by the standards at the time, and gave us a modern version. That version was smaller and missing most of the gimmicks of the original toy, but it looked good and it definitely had better articulation. This year Hasbro is again updating an old Optimus Prime toy with poor articulation, but this time they're doing it at the Titan scale. This here is Age of the Primes Star Optimus Prime. Since I first discovered it I've loved the design of Star Optimus (or Star Convoy, as it were). He had enough of the traditional design beats- chest windows, tummy grill, red torso, blue helmet and lower legs, face mask, and antenna ears. But he was amped up on '80s/'90s Japanese super robot anime energy. He was bigger, with a little extra gold and black added to his normal color pallet, a maedate-style crest on his forehead akin to a Gundam, smokestacks swapped for double-barreled shoulder guns, leg wheels swapped for tank treads, and a prominent gold star on his chest. I loved the design so much that I bought the 2005 reissue, and despite the toy's lack of articulation (it's seriously a solid brick with arms that swivel at the shoulders and bend at the elbows, that's it) I loved the gimmicks. With Hasbro running the brand more tightly in modern times my hopes for a modern version were dwindling. In 2019, Takara retooled Power of the Primes Leader-class Optimus, replacing the Sunbow Orion Pax with a "normal" Optimus Prime, then retooling the combined mode into something slightly resembling Star Convoy. If the "evolutions" intent with the regular release was to show Orion evolving into Optimus Prime, then this figure showed Convoy evolving into Star Convoy. But the robot didn't have great proportions, the chest windows were wrong, the star wouldn't stay in place, and the alt mode was totally G1 Optimus, not Star Convoy. Around the same time, MMC released Stellarus Convoy, an impressive unlicensed figure with good articulation that mostly captured the heroic proportions of the manga, but lacked the gimmicks of the original, suffered from QC issues, and it still had a less-than-accurate alt mode. Fast forward to the present, and Hasbro's decided to crank out figures of the Thirteen Primes, aka the thirteen original Transformers created by Primus. Knocking out characters like Prima and Solus, who pretty much only exist as lore, not a problem. But what about the Thirteenth Prime? Canonically, the Covenant of Primus made the Thirteenth Prime Optimus, who chose to be reborn as an ordinary Cybertronian in the Well of All Sparks, hence becoming Orion Pax. It was not a popular take; I love Optimus as much as the next guy, but to me part of his story is that he's just a regular guy who becomes a leader because his courage, conviction, and compassion causes him to take a stand against against Megatron's tyranny. He's special because he's not special (something that the Transformers One film did a good job conveying). And we have a ton of new Optimus Prime toys. Hasbro's solution to coming up with a toy, then, is to take an obscure Japanese manga-only version of Optimus, update and mass release it, and let you decide if it's literally an upgraded "ultimate" form of Optimus Prime or something else. And aesthetically, man did they do a good job! The new Titan hews very closely to the original toy, but tweaks the proportions to make them a bit more heroic, gives him better hands, and cleans up his solid, undetailed back. My sole complaints are the bit of trailer panels on the sides of his legs, and the lack of gold on his pelvis. His antenna are even hinged, and can range from nearly straight ala the original toy to more exaggerated, manga-esque positions. As a Titan, Star Optimus is giving up far less than Armada Optimus did. On the right, we have all of the original toy's accessories, minus some ramps. And on the left, we can see that the new toy has them all- the crawler vehicle (that becomes Prime's calves), the black truck, a small Hot Rod, the little turret (which doesn't separate from the base like the original did), and his rifle. But on top of all that, Titan Star Optimus also comes with six blast effect parts, the Zodiac orb, the Silver Matrix, and a bullet. The two yellow ones are the multi-segmented ones that first came with Siege Jetfire. The orange ones are the multi-segmented one with two extra tips that came first came with Siege Omega Supreme. The blue one, though, I believe is new. Obviously, one big improvement with this toy is articulation. His head swivels, and he can tilt his head down but not up or sideways. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and more ratchets allow them to move a little short of 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his ratcheted elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel. His thumb is fixed and his finger are all molded together in a permanent curl, but they are pinned at the base so he can open his hands. His waist has a ratcheted swivel. His hips can go backward 90 degrees, laterally a little over 90 degrees, and forward just under 90 degrees due to interference from his hip skirts. All that motion is ratcheted. His thighs swivel. His ratcheted knees bend just a little shy of 90 degrees. His toes tilt downward, due to his transformation, and his ankles pivot about 60 degrees. The base of the turret gun folds up so that Star Prime can hold it like a pistol via a 5mm peg. The Silver Matrix can be held like a hilt, with the blue effect part acting like an flame blade. It's a neat idea, but it looks way too small for him. Unlike the original toy his shoulder guns are not permanently affixed. Rather, they are attached via 5mm pegs which means he can also hold those in his hands. The barrels can move up and down. His regular rifle can also be held in either hand, using both a short 5mm peg but also a tab that fits into a slot on his wrist to help lock it in place. The extra support is helpful because the Silver Matrix (a gimmick invented for the 2019 Generations Selects release, BTW) has a peg on it that allows it to plug into the barrel of his rifle. The folded-up turret gun then uses a peg to plug into the hole on the Matrix. This combined weapon is an homage to the Big Bang rifle, the name for when you took the rifle of the Generations Selects toy, split it in half, and mounted its Silver Matrix between the halves. You may have noticed in the previous pic that the bullet fits into a groove in the rifle. Once it's installed, I see no reason to ever remove it. Likewise, if you open up Star Prime's chest there's a little pedestal with an round indent and a peg hole. The Zodiac orb fits in there, and can stay there through transformation, so I see no reason to remove it. When Titan Star Prime was first revealed, I know some people saw that Hot Rod and thought, "What, why is his wing on his legs? That looks so bad it makes the Core-class version look better!" I think what those people didn't know is that this Hot Rod, despite being roughly Core-class in size, is a direct homage to a Micromaster Hot Rod that came with the original toy. It copies elements from the Micromaster, like the engine on the back of his head, the wings on his legs instead of his back, and basically the same transformation. The big difference is that the exhaust pipes and engine are are painted silver, and the chest details are paint instead of a sticker. Well, that and a bit more articulation. His shoulders are ball joints so they can swivel but also move laterally about 30 degrees. He's got elbows now, and they're ball joints, so they act as bicep swivels in addition to bending 90 degrees. His hips are ball joints that can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and about 60 degrees backward. His hinged knees bend nearly 180 degrees. Although this release doesn't come with any accessories specifically for him, he does have 3mm peg holes on his fists and he can hold Core-class accessories like the sword that came with that version of Hot Rod without issue. Note that the instructions specifically say that Hot Rod can sit inside Star Prime's chest. He doesn't lock in place, and his legs stick out and prevent his chest from closing back up, though. In alt mode Hot Rod can fit into the trailer of the little black truck, same as the original toy. However, the black truck does NOT have the spring-loaded launching gimmick anymore (and, oddly, swaps the orange door for a gray one). It's not all bad, though. The truck has picked up some new gimmicks. For starters, there's two 5mm ports on the top and one on each side (plus a peg on each side), allowing you to mount weapons like the turret gun, his shoulder guns, or even his rifle. Two, the cab (which has a 5mm peg on the roof now) comes off, and two gun barrels fold out from underneath. This, too, can be plugged into one of the ports on the trailer or carried as a pistol by Star Prime. The crawler rolls on wheels, now. It no longer has working treads or a battery so it can roll on its own. But, it does split in half now, so it can stay on Prime's calves without mucking with his articulation. Transforming Star Prime is somewhat similar to the original. In both cases the chest opens so the head can fold inside, the turrets swivel 180 degrees, the shoulders rotate forward 90 degrees and the elbows bend backward, the arms disconnect from his sides and fold up over his head, the waist swivels 180 degrees, and the toes fold down. In both cases the backpack folds down to fill in part of the trailer. The key differences are that the rear wheels fold out from inside the chest instead of behind the arms, the fists fold in with the grill on the other side instead of the grill being molded onto is fingers, his front hip skirt folds open to fill in part of the trailer, and the panels on the sides of the legs hinge up to fill in the rest. Both still mount their rifle and turret onto the trailer, though the bottom of the turret stays folded onto it instead of attaching to the rifle. In alt mode, the new Titan Star Prime is very faithful to the original, but there are some choices that could have been a bit better. For one, because his legs are actually legs and he's missing the large butt flap that the original crawler docked into, some of the detail under the trailer is missing. Two, the top of the trailer is a little gappier due to being made from his pelvis and not a big kibble backpack. Three, his torso is totally red plastic, so there's a red section at the front of the trailer (just behind his shoulders and above the rear wheels) that should actually match the trailer's gray and include the blue stripe. But perhaps worse of all, the trailer doors are a waffled mess, lacking the details of the original toy, including the silver stickers with the door numbers. The doors do open, though, and they even have those bits on them to connect them to stuff like Siege Prime's trailer shield, the Earthrise modulators, or some of the other Titans. Like the truck itself, Prime's leg/trailers lack the spring gimmick of the original toy. Actually, you can't even drive the truck straight in! The edges of the opening are too narrow, and there are squarish protrusions with peg holes on the floor. To install the truck, you have to open the front of Prime's shins, then the truck plugs down into it, with the square bits fitting into notches on the bottom of the truck. This locks it in place. The Silver Matrix use a peg to plug into one of the peg holes in the other leg. My first thought is that there's plenty of room in there, I can toss his blast effects and turret gun in there, too. However, there's two issues with that. One, the friction on the door, which is essentially his heel, isn't super strong, and the weight of the loose accessories can actually push it open, causing them to fall out when you're manipulating him in bot mode. Two, even if you can find a way to tighten that up, pivoting his ankles creates small gaps that stuff can fall out of anyway. If you plug the Silver Matrix into the lower port you can use it to kind of pin the turret gun and blue effect part in such that they can get down to the door/ankle gap. As for the rest of his effect parts, I've got a box filled with just effect parts I've inadvertently collected since Siege, so the orange and yellow ones can just go in there. It is a little disappointing, though, that with so much space in his legs they couldn't find a more effective way to store his accessories in them. The original Star Convoy toy didn't stop at big robot and big truck. Like so many big Transformers at the end of JG1, Star Convoy had a base mode. It's not super complicated; you basically lifted his back butt flap and removed the crawler, then his legs and pelvis could swing up. Turn the torso 90 degrees, open his chest, open up the legs, attach some ramps the crawler and hook it onto the other side. The turret gun gets stuck on the crawler so Hot Rod can use it, but the rifle stays in his hand. Like the truck mode, the new toy is very similar but also slightly different. His hips move like he's sitting, but his pelvis doesn't move, leaving the torso a little higher and the chest unable to reach the ground. It also means his legs don't stick out as far to the sides. His heels leave archways that weren't present on the original toy. There's no butt flap, so the crawler winds up closer to his body and doesn't stick out so far in the front. This is exacerbated by smaller ramps on the crawler. But, on the plus side, those ramps are actually on the crawler. They're not separate parts that I had to dig out of the box in my closet. Prime's head also hinges forward, sort of obscuring his face and making it slightly less (but still extremely) obvious that a chunk of the base is just robot torso. While I do have a few minor gripes with Star Convoy (and maybe some of them, like the ugly trailer doors, could be fixed with a third-party upgrade from DNA or someone), this was one of my most anticipated releases for the year and he doesn't disappoint. He looks amazingly good in bot mode, he's much closer than any other attempt in alt mode, and he actually has the base mode and gimmicks like the black truck, the Micromaster Hot Rod, and the detachable crawler that were so cool about the original toy. His joints are solid, he's got actual articulation manga-esque proportions. It's literally everything I love about the original toy but better, not a half-arsed attempt like the Generations Selects toy or a great robot but still lacking in other ways reimagining like Stellarus Prominon. What's more, while he's a big boy (even bigger than Stellarus), his smaller size compared to other Titans actually makes him so much easier to handle. I'd go so far to say that not only is Star Prime the best version of this character, he might very well be my favorite Titan-class release ever. Now, I get that as a JG1 character he doesn't have the widespread appeal that a Sunbow character might, and that $150 is still a big ask even if it is cheaper than several previous Titans, but if you have any interest in this character at all this is the version to get. Highly recommended.

Martian Man Perry