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First, a quick reality check. Most OEMs develop a common platform for multiple markets and rebadge as necessary for different trim levels. Second, another reality check. Brand "nationality" is mostly BS. Pretty much every large OEM is using parts developed and manufactured all over the world and the only thing that makes that brand belong to a specific nation is where final assembly takes place. The era of an automaker's development being localized to a single country is long since over and most cars are as multinational under the hood as your average Star Trek cast. Third, a point of fact I can't really blame you for not knowing. The Hornet/Tonale program was not brand-specific or region-specific during development. It was a single program developed as a common platform for multiple markets and brands. It's quite inaccurate to say that's "attempting to sell an Alfa Romeo as a Dodge". As to why we don't see more of them... well... they made the mistake of having the Hornets built at Pomigliano d'Arco alongside the Tonale version. 🙃 Only in the sense that final assembly does not occur in the US, to be frank. It's only really a "European" engine in the sense that initial production was in Termoli. That's not where it was designed, and it's not even the only place it's built. This also contains a lot of inaccuracies. The main factor slowing adoption of EVs in the US is a lack of charging infrastructure and the woefully neglected state of the US electrical grid. Western Europe and China's more cosmopolitan provinces don't really have that problem, which is why EVs have been much more readily adopted there. EV adoption is only accelerating in developed nations, and the US's temporary regression is not going to have a substantial impact on the growth of the EV market because pretty much every OEM is by default developing for global sales and that means still having to comply with emissions regulations in South America, Europe, Asia, etc. It just means a temporary reduction in the number of EV options on offer in the US. Those emissions regs will get tightened again, and we'll see more electrification because that's the most effective way to improve the efficiency of these systems. Bro, I think you may want to dial the arrogance down to a more reasonable level and recognize you are attempting to BS someone in the industry. 😜 Clearly you DO need the explanation, because almost nothing of what you've said has been correct thus far. You missed my point completely, I'm afraid. As I explained previously, there are company standards that are internal to a single OEM, but there are also government standards and international standards for which compliance is not always optional. Every OEM selling in America has to comply with FMVSS, for instance, or they will be prohibited from selling their cars in the US. It doesn't matter if your car was made by Chevrolet or Dodge or Ferrari or whoever there are hundreds upon hundreds of applicable standards (many of which are non-optional and government enforced) in its design. They do not "each do things their own way" in most things. Standards governing things like the pitch and depth of screw threads have been a part of the industry since the 1910s. Every conceivable part of the car has at least one, and often far more than one, applicable government or international standard involved in its design. They're still on the road because, well, combustion engines are a mature technology that hasn't really changed much in the last sixty or so years and older models from before the advent of computerized control are a lot simpler at the cost of being a lot less efficient and safe. See the above about a lack of infrastructure... which is more a government problem than an EV problem if we're being honest with each other. There is a very definite problem in that it does take quite a bit longer to recharge an EV with a 480V or 800V battery than it does to just pop a nozzle in your fill door and pour out some 87 octane. That's one reason why electric vehicle standards are evolving as fast as they are. The search for a better, faster charging system to get that time down to around the same level as just hitting up the gas station. With Teslas, of course, your main problem is going to be that goofy J3400 connector that only works with Tesla-branded chargers. Unless you're bringing one of their adapters (a device that bears an unsettling resemblance to a bit of equine anatomy), you're kind of hosed in a lot of places where Tesla doesn't have a presence since most public chargers are the older J1772 design that isn't compatible with Tesla's charging inlet. If you're stuck using the Level 1 wall-wart... yeah you're going to spend a small eternity charging your car's battery because that's sub-2kW charging. Believe you me, I am intimately familiar with the technical limitations of EVs... I am literally spending my workdays inventing ways to overcome them. 😜

Hoping for a good recovery for you @pengbuzz!

I tried my hand at getting Mixmaster at Target yesterday, it showed 4 were available, sadly, looks like all 4 were taken. It even says today, limited stock 3 available but it just doesn't seem to be updating correctly and no one would look in the back room. Could confirm though there's a peg and a tag for him! I'm not gonna worry about it though, I have him on pre-order on BBTS, he'll be apart of my loot and I"m sure available in the coming weeks. My Skydive did show up, so that makes Superion's legs finished. I guess I'll take the win on that one.

Thanks; much appreciated. Thanks; neither did I.

Cracker Barrel is a brand based in the south eastern US. I seem to sit an the most northern of its locations in the Mid Atlantic area, and nothing really north of Texas in the Central US. with possibly a few locations in the SW US. outside of that, I am not surprised if you have not heard of it. right.. which is why they back peddled faster then anything else. Obviously not most people.. I don't expect this brand to last forever but alienating an established brand for people who don't go there.. great idea! fail This is a car thread not a Cracker Barrel thread.. my reference is still valid.. back on target. No its not... maybe its the failure to grasp this that makes the point. Dodge is an American Brand.. its not European.. putting EVs aside attempting to sell Alfa Romeo's as Dodge is doomed for failure. I don't see alot of Hornet's.. why is that? 1 reason is that the people who want a Tonale will go the Alpha Romeo route.. And most people know its not an american car. The hurricane, is an engine that stellantis has had some major issues with, and on top of the fact that putting a European motor in an American Muscle car.. is another fail. And finally onto EVs the market in the US is already saturated at this point, maybe its all the rage in Europe but that is not natural. EVs will live and now die because the only way to push EVs is to force mandatory compliance with unelected bureaucrats making arbitrary rules. Thank god for Cheveron deference and Trump torpedoing Cafe standards.. but that is another topic. Count me in on the Luddite team if it means we can get vehicles that act more like cars and trucks, and less like smartphones.. I think you might need to lower the gas on your gaslighting.. I also don't need an explanation on what a Technical standard is. so pulling this right out of the weeds.. again.. I didn't think I needed to explain that Chevrolet and Dodge are different companies each manufacturing a product that is the same but also different. Outside the commonality of a combustion engine (ie runs on gas) they each do their own things their own way. But what I can explain is that these cars are 56 years old and still on the road. Here is some homework for you.. EVs.. take one from outside of your City and drive anywhere to another state that involves rural anything. You might have some luck in the NE US, but outside of the major cities your gonna get into trouble. Add temp extremes like cold or excessive heat and its gonna be even worse. EVs are at best local only vehicles so long as you live in or near metropolitan areas. Meanwhile I can borrow my neighbors 92 Honda Prelude and go from coast to coast with a couple of tanks of gas. Not that he would let me mind you.. but its a feat impossible with the current lack of infrastructure and EVs on the market. Real world example time.. former employer chose to purchase 10 Tesla Model 3s for sales and fleet use between the Major cities in the mid Atlantic, NYC, Philly, Baltimore, DC.. etc. Worked great until that footprint started to expand further south and west. I can give you one example of taking one from Baltimore, to Philly, and then west to Pittsburgh and eventually Columbus was a bust. We ended up swapping the vehicle to a standard Accord in Kingston because the charging would have added an additional workday in travel time. This was 2022.. the gaps in charging station locations was pretty readily apparent which limited where we could travel. PA Turnpike anyone? And finally with all that said.. I don't even have a disklike for EVs.. I just recognize their limitations and without some major remedies easy pass.

Gray on gray looks great. The shades and patterns you used actually make it look more serious than the 31A. The wing now looks much cleaner and simpler than the dog teeth delta wing in contrast. I can only think of some minor refinements to try. I think just the hard black on top of the head just stands out a little too much, in a way where you can't tell if it's a painted surface or a giant gap. I'm thinking the calf's brown gray or the feet's dark gray might work there. And maybe unify the canopy's mascara to the same shade if you change it. The stabilizers could be a place to try some simple shapes and division of grays. The outline thing doesn't quite match what you have going on with the overall plane, especially with the underside of those stabilizers being plain. I think that small and irregular tapered trapeziod with a thin line on the chest is a styling you can try on the stabilizer and maybe spread around to other parts if you want to experiment with more patterning. Kind of like sparse tribal markings in small areas. Maybe the legs could use some. Maybe as like for like juxtaposition, steal the 31A's chaos logo to replace the star, just to see how it looks lol

I’m still hoping for you to fully recover soon. Didn’t realize things went that deep

Você poderia disponibilizar estes modelos pois link site não esta funcionando. Você poderia colocar este modelos google drive.

Best of luck to you. Hope you have a full recovery. ♥️

UPDATE: Still waiting for my arm to heal; the skin is mostly closed, but the veins and the tendons in my wrist were damaged. My PCP is sending me to a couple of specialists to check the extent of the damage.

I agree, but unfortunately it’s not the overseas stores at fault over things. It’s something that’s unfortunately also creeping on a lot of stateside places of many retailers of different products due to either parts of products made overseas or the entire product made overseas. I do hope things change soon, because everything seems to be getting pricey these days

I guess that’s why I haven’t heard of them until recently. I’m old, but not that old yet.

Yup or contact the proxy service/site you purchased from to see if they can do something for you.

@RavenHawk, I'm not sure which state you reside in but depending which (in this case most) BBTS also charges state tax (which is also another consideration). I'm guessing you're aware of this since you have probably frequented BBTS more than I have (which has been nil in the last 6 years for me). Tariffs is a ton of crap because we already get charged state sales tax for most states... so tariffs are pmuch doubling up on taxing. Opps, strayed off topic cause it hurts the wallet. Back to the main programming.

https://www.toyark.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=78304&d=1757097008 32nd HMR CF VF-1A.

https://www.knowheretoys.com/Pre-Order-Ramen-Toys-New-York-Comic-Con-MAKINA-LABS-The-Shark-Clear-Action-Figure-Our-Exclusive_p_12203.html

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madoverlord/macross-ii-lovers-again-alus-edition/posts/4476351 Update # 36.

Sigh, once again, agreed, I just want my Kaki TV 1A. One day, someday....

Ok, time to put together Devastator! Start with everyone in their alt modes. For Scrapper, make sure the little clip on his shovel is in place and lift the shove up. Pull out his arms, rotate them 180 degrees, then push them back in. Bend the elbows to make the heel. Now pull his right leg away from the left. For Mixmaster, fold the heels down from the underside of the cab, then fold in the other flaps. Unhook his hands from the cab. Rather than shift the entire cab the way most Devastators do, just grab the front of the cab and double-hinge it into the top of the cab. Open the mixing drum. Get Long Haul's trailer and turn in into pants mode. Slide the right thigh sideways into Scrapper's left leg, then close his right leg around it. For Mixmaster, use the groove in back of the truck to slide him forward onto the left thigh, then close the mixing drum back up. Speaking of Long Haul, fold his legs back, and fold the roof up. Tab his heels into the roof. Pull his arms out, rotate his forearms 180 degrees, and then curl his arms up. His forearms will tab into the biceps, and then the entire arm will tab into the side of the truck. On the underside you'll see a big gap with Long Haul's face peaking through it. This gap fits over the purple block at the top of the pants. Long Haul's knees will fit into grooves on the flap on the back of the pants. On Hook, fold out the Devastator head part way, and pull out the feet/shin flaps. Pull the to halves of the vehicle apart and fold them over, then lock them together by folding the head the rest of the way into place. Fold his feet/shin flaps back into place. Now the trick is to make sure everything you need to connect is oriented right. Fold out the arm connector from the crane deck, and the torso connector from Hook's chest. Open Hook's front cab, fold out the other connector, and close it up. Bend Hook's right arm 90 degrees at the elbow, but leave the other one straight. Now line everything up... the chest tab goes into Long Haul's cab, and Long Haul's smokestack goes into one of Hook's feet. Tabs on Long Haul's arms go into Hook's other foot and a slot on his chest. Hook's bent right arm plugs into a slot on Long Haul's roof flap. For Scavenger and Bonecrusher, untab their leg treads. Take the center block and fold it outward. Now put the leg treads back. They'll tab back into the combiner ports, but for extra stability there's a flap on the inside of one leg on each bot. Fold it down, then bend the foot of the opposite leg up so that it pegs into the flap. It should be pretty obvious that the ports on the arm bots slide down over the connectors we folded out of Long Haul- just make sure you push down until they click. You're not quite done, though! The rearward tread on each arm bot has a slot that fits into tabs on Long Haul's arms. All of these connections make Studio Series Devastator feel much more solid than the Combiner Wars version. Now we just gotta do the rest of the partsforming. Fold out the fists, and spin them so the hollow side is the back of the forearm. You'll notice a peg inside, and a tab on the lip near opposite the fist. Line up the tab and peg with the slot and peg hole on the blocks dangling from Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Note that it's obvious which side of Scavenger they plug into, but make sure you've got Bonecrusher's turned so the forearm pegs into the hollow side. The easiest way to attach the chest armor is to first open the front of Long Haul and clip the shield onto the part you just opened. Then close it back up, and the top of the shield tabs into Hook while the sides of the shield tab into the treads on Scavenger and Bonecrusher. And there you have it, folks... the third official Devastator toy in 40 years. Like his constituent parts I think it's very difficult to capture a truly Sunbow accurate Devastator... Bonecrusher's treads can't magically turn purple, Scrapper can't magically turn into a weird I-shaped block with a shovel and some scaffolding, and Mixmaster's grill can't magically vanish, after all. But improvements have definitely been made. His hands are now correctly purple, he's got the purple at the tops of his thighs and (subjectively) I think his overall proportions are better, even if he's much smaller than the Combiner Wars version. Improved, but not without flaws. Much has been made of how his lower legs don't really line up with his knees. Officially, it was a design decision so he could stand straight up without Scrapper and Mixmaster banging into each other, but would it really have killed them to just make the hips slightly wider? Or, so what if they bang a little? Modders have already started whipping up knee parts that bring the legs back in line, and the slight A-stance doesn't look bad. I think the next biggest complaint is the backpack. I'm not sure why they didn't design Long Haul's legs to sit up a little higher, maybe hide some of those transformation joints on the back of Hook. I also don't know why they didn't make the flaps on the pants part fold up a bit more. It's not the prettiest, but ultimately not the worst thing ever. It's not like Sunbow Devastator didn't have a (purple) backpack. Of more minor complaints, there's a visible hole just above the shield where Hook's head is hiding. Hook's head doesn't line up perfectly with the shoulder flaps, hence the gap. I really don't know why a flap couldn't have been built into the shield, or onto Hook's shoulder flaps, to cover it. I'm also not a fan of the way Mixmaster's forearms just kinda dangle off the back of Devastator's leg. Unlike Menasor, who had a chunk of leftover trailer and Stunticon pistols, weapon storage was designed for Devastator. Bonecrusher and Scavenger officially use their own alt mode storage for their own rifles, while Mixmaster and Scrapper's plug into the top of the backpack (just ignore that I mixed up Scavenger and Scrapper's rifles). Hook's can plug into the side of his boom. As for Long Haul, the reason part of his gun is green is because you're meant to plug it into Mixmaster's bumper, and you're supposed to the think it's the green toe seen in Sunbow art. The problem I have doing thigs this way is that the toe is off-center, and Bonecrusher and Hook's guns are going to visible from the front (Scavenger's shovel kinda hides his). Fortunately, there are more peg holes on the sides of Long Haul's legs, on Scrapper's feet, and on Hook's left arm. It's possible to plug all of the Construticon's guns on the back of Devastator and out of sight. Devastator's head swivels, no tilt. His shoulders can swivel, and his right arm can move 90 degrees laterally (his left is just a little short). His biceps swivel. Both elbows can only bend about 45 degrees. His wrists swivel, and his fingers (which are molded as a single, permanently curled part) can open. His waist swivels, but only about 45 degrees in either direction before his back kibble hits his waist. His hips ratchet forward 90 degrees, backward about 45 degrees before his butt flap gets in the way, and laterally (on a friction joint) just under 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, and his knees ratchet 90 degrees. Ratchets in Mixmaster and Scrapper's waists give him about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. All-in-all, I don't think his articulation is that much different than the Combiner Wars toy, but because he's smaller and so much more solidly built I find that he's much easier to get into dynamic poses. That being said, I think Scavenger and Bonecrusher also really needed ratchets in the shoulder swivels. Devastator can hold his own gun by plugging the 5mm handle into ports built into his hands, though on my copy (and others, I'm hearing) the connection is pretty loose. One last thing to discuss is scale. I hate to open that can of worms, but I know a lot of people who are happy that Devastator is now closer in size to Legacy Menasor and the old four-Deluxes-and-a-Voyager combiners from Combiner Wars and Power of the Primes, but I know just as many people who think that the Combiner Wars toy scaled better with individual characters. So, here's Devastator with a few Optimus Primes (SS86, Devastation, Dr. Wu, NewAge, and Hasbro's Core-class). Now, here's the official scale chart copied right out of The Ark (so, not any of the various fan-made charts out there). On the very bottom line we have Prime roughly crotch-height to Devastator, and wouldn't you know it SS86 Prime is roughly crotch height to Devastator. But, on the first line, Megatron is only about knee-high to Devastator. Assuming Prime is the same size as Megatron (though, if you compare Megatron to Shockwave on that same line then Prime to Shockwave on the third line you might expect that Prime is half a head taller than Megatron), then Devastation Optimus or a 3P Legends-scale figure might scale better. When you actually played the Devastation game, though, Devastator seemed even bigger still. Which makes me think of the episode "City of Steel," when Devastator was climbing the Empire State Building while clutching Prime in one hand. I think you could make a case for the Core-class toy being the right size for that. All of which leads me to a somewhat unorthodox conclusion... scale is whatever you want it to be. Personally, I never liked Devastator being so much bigger than the other combiners, so much so that I actually bought a downsized KO of CW Devastator. SS86 works better for me. And if I want Devastator to loom larger over Prime than SS86 Devastator does over SS86 Optimus, then I have other options for Optimus. So, yeah. Ultimately the gestalt follows the same pattern as his constituent parts. SS86 Devastator still has plenty of flaws, but enough improvements were made in aesthetics, scale, and especially stability that I think it's well worth replacing the older Combiner Wars version. Just remember that it's ultimately still a mainline toy, not a mini-Masterpiece.

I used Evergreen styrene. It can be found easily in model shops. The tube’s outer diameter didn’t match the size I needed, so I wrapped and glued a 0.4 mm thick styrene strip around it in a spiral to build up the diameter, using thick Tamiya Cement.

A TV Kakizaki would be my #1 to round out the vermilion squadron. It seems unlikely but I'm holding out hope! An M&M release seems like a no-brainer and I'm confident we'll see these eventually. It might be a few years though!

Thanks! I’m loving the print and it’s a very relaxing project to experiment with transparent layers, pushing and pulling shadows etc… Yeah I’m stuck in vintage model land. I might have a problem. Thanks for sharing the journey you have been on. The end results so far are great! Any updates to share on the USS Cygnus?

Resin powder, to be exact. Actual sand looks more like gravel at this scale. 😉

Gonna wait and see what DNA might cook up.

All I want is a TV Kakizaki (or canon fodder since they are close enough for my needs) and Max and Miria VF-1J with matching supers.