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At last, we're down the last figure in the first 2026 wave of Age of the Primes, the one you guys are actually waiting for... Deluxe-class Blast Off. Combiner Wars gave us not one, but TWO takes on Blast Off, and pretty much from the draw Age of the Primes Blast Off shows them both up. The design is much more G1 cartoon-accurate, with the purple bib, flared forearms, purple booster feet, etc. He's even got the silver eyes and purple forehead of the animation model (to my personal dismay, but a boon to those seeking strict adherence to Sunbow). What's more, despite largely sharing his engineering with Vortex, the fact that he doesn't have a ton of helicopter tail hanging awkwardly from the back of his arms makes him feel cleaner and more solid than his fellow arm. Looking at my photos, you might surmise that my biggest grip with Blast Off is his colors... like, why are his shins and torso brown instead of gray? The simple answer is that, much like my review of Magic Square's Blast Off, my phone's software seems to have blown out the colors. Magic Square's isn't as light in hand as my pictures made him, and AOTP Blass Off is a darker brown with a brown-tinted gray, not a reddish brown with a gray-tinted brown. Maybe someday I'll get a better camera and light box, but that seems like overkill for reviews that are really just forum posts. Instead I'll just nitpick that he doesn't have a tail on his back (given that the tail is actually pegged into his leg, all we needed was a slot on his back to partsform it to!), and that the tiny molded wheels near his ankles aren't bigger, up higher, and gray. Blast Off comes with a pair of guns that are, I guess, fine. I mean, they're cartoon accurate enough, aside from the fact that there's two instead of just one. So Blast Off's head is on a ball joint for swiveling but fairly limited tilt in any direction. His shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, his elbows bend 90 degrees, and his wrists swivel. His waist swivels, and his hips can move 90 degrees forward, backward, and laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His toes have some downward tilt, and his ankles can pivot nearly 90 degrees. His grip on his pistols is a tad loose for my liking. The problem seems to be his fist holes are a little large. There are also 5mm ports available on his forearms, on the wings on the sides of his legs, in the boosters on his heels, and in the boosters on his toes, and his guns plug into the ports on his wings and arms snuggly. His transformation is pretty simply, and very similar to Vortex. Push his head into the empty space behind it. Turn his wrists 90 degrees inward, then turn his biceps 90 degrees outwards so all the shuttle bits line up, then his shoulders use flaps to break away from his torso and fold up over his head, where they'll tab together. Double hinge the top of the cockpit from his back over his forearms and the front half is done. For the rear, tab his legs together, open his shins up, and collapse his legs over his thighs. Fold his toes down, then fold out his wings and vertical stabilizer and you're done. It may be simple, it may borrow a lot of engineering from Vortex, but Blast Off's shuttle mode is pretty good. The shape is right, and as I've mentioned previously four engine bells instead of five is cartoon accurate. The only thing I can really criticize is that the purple from his arms near the front of the shuttle should run all the way back along the lower half of the fuselage all the way to about where the Decepticon badges are on his wings. That would make the sides of the robot mode purple, though, and perhaps more importantly, it'd leave a lot more purple on the side Bruticus' arm than you might expect. I suspect the main reason, though, is they ran out of budget for paint. Blast Off's guns plug into the 5mm ports under his wings in this mode, so a desire for symmetry likely explains why he has two guns instead of just the one. His fists are actually still available under the nose as well, but the fit is so loose that they keep falling out on my copy. Plus, they stand out a bit there, which means that the flip-out front landing gear in Blast Off's chest won't reach the ground. I keep mentioning that while Blast Off doesn't share any parts with Vortex, he shares a lot of the same engineering as Vortex. And while I liked that Vortex had a lot of cartoon elements like his forearm guns and the nacelles on his shoulders, the inelegant way they handled the tail boom on his arms made him a little mid in my book. Blast Off, by contrast, is very good, right up there with Brawl for me and quite possibly the best post-Siege combiner arm Hasbro's delivered. Honestly, I think he's a pretty good toy and a solid representation of the character even without the combining element, so he gets a strong recommend from me.

Yeah, same here. Not a big fan of that horizontal blue bar across the main opening piece though.

I purchased mine while in Japan years ago. You would be surprised that you may still be able to find one in store over finding one online. I check through Market Place/Ebay (AU) all the time and I have never seen any of my figures been re-sold on the open market. If I do seen something like your are asking I will message you. Cheers!

Bummer! I'll keep an eye out. Fun pics, thanks for sharing.

It looks like both of us have sold off our Takatoku Vending Machines over the recent years.

Hey @Urashiman that GWH Tomcat is a very nice kit! (one of the best around until the 1/72 Tamiya F-14 came around). I loved how it gave the option for down flaps, slats and even spoilers. Too bad the rear RIO coaming is too narrow and you really have to build it with the canopy closed. Your weathering is looking amazing!

And chance you have the Takatoku vending machine still? I sold mine and I miss it.

Watched a slightly older movie that kinda flew under our radar from the long forgotten year of 2022. The Contractor with Chris Pine. I think it’s best to totally skip it. The acting for the most part is fine for the kind of story it is and the action isn’t bad, just that there’s a few problems that are highly frustrating about the movie. It’s basically about a guy from the military that had a pretty bad leg injury and has had to take pain killers and steroids to try and keep his career going. He eventually gets booted out for drug use and that creates a lot of drama at home. That bit of the story isn’t so bad, but the filming is constantly done with shaky cam during these slow depressing scenes and kinda was making me feel sea sick. He’s got an old war buddy that helps him land a job with a military contractor that tells him everything they’re going to do is legit and they’ll always take care of them, of course that’s obviously not true, but when they finally start doing their mission things go south and they’re stealing a mcguffin that is the most mcguffin of mcguffins that I’ve seen in a while. So most of the team dies other than Pine and his buddy that are both hurting. Eventually Pine gets the buddy runnning to an unsure extraction while resting up for the rest of his escape with the mcguffin. So then the story takes a turn and now the people that were supposed to help extract him are trying to kill him and the movie never ever explains why they are trying to kill him and his buddy. Supposedly the boss pays the families big checks anyway even to the people that die and so money isn’t the issue. And I thought maybe they didn’t want witnesses, but then it turns out that when he gets back stateside that his buddy was fine. So then the witnesses thing isn’t really there either. He then makes his buddy cry and they go after the boss I an average action movie type scene, but even after dealing with the big boss nothing really gets explained about why they wanted him dead so badly they’ve risked even more high paid mercenaries lives. They even kill a guy running one of their secret safe houses for no real reason either. Also the shaky cam stopped somehow before the mission started for unknown reasons and I don’t remember it ever returning. Kinda glad they killed the first camera man at least, cause that guy was terrible at his job, hopefully the paid the camera man’s family well for his loss. I do feel like if there was a bit more work put into this movie it could’ve been a fairly good action film , but weird film styles and bad writing. And the reason they were sent to destroy or steal the mcguffin was because it was some goofy tech that seems to cure birdflu of all things and the company that hired them didn’t want competition with their treatment medications. Like I’ve said, the action wasn’t bad at all, but really was the only stable piece of the movie.

I wish the wingtip guns and front canards were optional/removable. If they're gonna put hardpoints all over the damn thing, why not make the weird bits optional?

Oh definitely. It has a look of something designed at the tail end of the 80’s or possibly even something of today. And it has a super stylish simple onesie under the armor. It’s both tough and snuggly

I would like to help you, but a lot of these items have gone over the recent years. All of the Mospeada/Megazone 23 items have been sold off. The VF-1S production cel that is framed has also been sold. I kept one of the Takatoku Conversion Kits, one of the smaller S.D.F.1 toys and the Macross phone cards with coins.

Nice stuff @tekering @Big s yeah… I feel you. decal time. For the Macross F-14 I got „cheap“ Chinese decal reprints. Cheap not because they where cheap, but because of the print quality. I am only going to use the macross related decals, the rest will be done by GWH decals. I drenched those decals in mark setter strong over and over again. It really took a lot of time for them to properly sink into the panel lines. Really sturdy and thick transfer foil. I might wanna go the sand down approach… but… maybe not. then while apply the decals on the vertical stabiliser, I notice I forgot to airbrush the black stuff behind the wings on the fuselage. Will do that tomorrow. The decals ate too much of my concentration. edit: picture with better light and less blurrrrrrrrr

I definitely get that problem. I have more than a few kits that are off waiting in dark corners to be opened and a few that are ready for paint and just waiting for some real free time to get that big step going. Hopefully I’ll have a few finished projects soon Oh nooooo!!!! I’m sorry to see that happen. Gotta be a bit of a highly frustrating setback. Hopefully you can get things finished on that beautiful kit

I ended up pre-ordering Ben’s -1A from BBTS. I couldn’t stomach the DYRL price tag for a “just nice to have” character. The ThreeZero figure looks amazing. Huge fan of having the sensors visible behind the green lens in the head.

…yes, it tis’ have been ordering kits for years and no issues whatsoever until late summer 2025. No biggie there are other vendors it’s just inexplicable is all.

Takara Tommy Mall Live Shopping: Toys & Goods Mail Order│Takara Tommy Official Mail Order Site "Takara Tommy Mall" They talk about the Toyrise Alpha at 48:18. Be advised, the video lags or just stops quite often. If the blue and yellow one is a proper product and not a test shot, it appears that the landing gear are too short and the thing rests on its chest. It also appears like the feet can be spread a bit and the heel position altered to look like the OG design.

AAAAARGH!!! I hate when that happens! I recommend that my resin kits (heck, ANY resin kits) be scrubbed with an old toothbrush and rubbing alcohol prior to painting. Thoroughly. It's a very effective degreaser. Also, if I don't remove the masking right after painting, I will lightly run a sharp blade over the mask line and peel the tape diagonally to avoid it pulling up paint. I'm sure you know this Ted, but others may not, and if I can save them a few tears, so much the better.

Well if you're interested in having a few more things move on; you have a few items I've been hunting for in those pictures!

That's weird. Mine are still in place.

Seriously! FWIW, I solved the "improved maneuverability" issue like 20 years ago by incorporating thruster nozzles (static and dynamic) in key locations so the Legioss would have full nose-authority even at zero airspeed. Peeps gotta try harder.

Also gotta love this part of the "lore"(?). Like: you know what is super aerodynamic? A huge a** radar disk. Lol. The Omega is good re-interpretation of the Iota legioss but this one is just a complete train wreck.

Quoted from @Mog "But yeah, we can still criticize the design choices made." Oh, we will!😄 This is Macrossworld, after all, and not just a few of know our stuff about aircraft or transforming toys (thereof). Plus, a little nitpickery, such as the good Captain's, is kinda warranted if only to emphasize the level of derp in the design. As to "Lancer" there, everyone's toy barometer of tolerance reads differently, so if you like it, get it, be happy, and show us pics of the darned thing! Let our remarks of snark and derision be so much chewed bubblegum under your shoe- scrape us off and rejoice in your silly toy!

All football teams need their own Legioss! Fox loves their robot football player so there's precedent.

That would be a pretty cool crossover 🤪

Don't be too hard on yourself tekkering; resin is notorious for doing this crap! I had a resin Ambassador-class Enterprise in the 90's (before Ertl issues theirs) that no matter how long or how many times I soaked it in bleach and hot water and scrubbed until my fingers were sore, the paint would just slip right off after drying! Krylon, rustoleum, etc for primer, none of it made a difference! Even a couple of years ago with a resin mod kit for my Ertl-issue USS Reliant, the paint had issues and smelled like mold release after extensive scrubbing and soaking in harsh chemicals.