All Activity

Perhaps the removable cockpit can be swapped with a drone compartment.

Looking closely to these renders I notice they share some parts with the new desgin. I wonder if they will actually come as toys or Takara only used them as templates to make the modifications over them.

Great new developments! Has anyone speculated as to how the landing gears are stowed away or they part swappable? I don't know why the cockpit is detachable and the inclination of it being a focused feature leads me to believe it may improve the overall aesthetic profile in armo soldier? Who knows other than the sleuths that may have some insights to this most anticipated release.

I was never into G.I. Joe anywhere near as much as Transformers, but I did watch the show, almost on a daily basis in fact, even as background noise, after school. I thought the Joe toys were incredible, but I only owned a handful of figs and the only vehicle I owned was the Dragonfly helicopter. I still have it, but my Wild Bill's rubber band dry rotted a long time ago and he rests in pieces somewhere in my collection. Anyway, I thought a crossover was a cool idea until Hasbro decided to do Megaron as the HISS Tank, a vehicle I dig, and the end result was far from spectacular. Bee was better. Kup's better executed than the others, but IMHO, the greatest hindering factor is making the vehicles become established TF characters instead of tailoring the transformations to suit bespoke characters. I've argued before that not everything related to Transformers needs to be Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, etc. I get why, but I point out how abysmally bad they turn out as a result whereas creating a new character to fit the vehicle and creating a more efficient transformation schema to fit the vehicle-to-robot conversion is the optimal solution. Anyway, while I like the concept of Joe/TF crossovers, the execution thus far has been less than appealing, alas, but my wallet and too-full shelves thank me.

2 from me. It’s Takara so I’ll need them in hand before committing to buying more.

I get the feeling that he was a much lower employee, something more like a janitor. He had a conversation with his family on the screen about becoming an apprentice, and I kinda get the feeling that the actual engineer felt bad for him and took him under his wing as more of a favor cause he felt sorry for him

The little dude wandering away is an awesome touch

True, but as you stated, not as CMO.That makes me wonder if the stage is being set for his stepping down from that position.

Done!

yeah. i think EZ or MLV is forward swept version of TLEAD.

Interesting, one of the Treads in that pic has forward swept wings.

So, on that website, they are teasing MLV Series, EZ series and AB-01 series (which is the Tread).

That is such a big tease. I am officially getting more and more excited for this line with each new info dump.

He's still serving on the Enterprise during Kirk's tenure as captain, in fact. He's originally a minor TOS character, appearing in one episode of the show's second season ("A Private Little War") and one episode of the show's third season ("That Which Survives"). So he was still on the Enterprise in 2266 and 2267, albeit not as the ship's chief medical officer the way he was under Pike. Edit: in some of the non-canonical expanded universe material from before the current regime, he remained a part of the Enterprise crew clear into the late 2280s, making the transition to the Enterprise-A as well.

I wonder how many more of these questionable moments of "judgment" (or lack thereof) are going to be tolerated before M'Benga is either reassigned or otherwise canned? I know if McCoy started acting like this, Kirk would at the least have had severe questions about his fitness as CMO.

also, top view

official video from Takara and Another Genesis page with some details https://www.takaratomy.co.jp/products/tsparkofficial/toyrise/legioss/

Neverland does seem to be fairly light on armed security, yes. I'd assume that has a lot to do with it being a secret research facility on a private island. We're not exactly sure where, but given that it's a short flight over open ocean from "Prodigy City" (former Bangkok) it's probably in the Gulf of Thailand or Riau archipelago. Based on the map we're shown, that's pretty much the heart of Prodigy's territory. They control East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Oceania, the southern half of Africa, Greenland, and Iceland. Neverland's most probable location is pretty well encircled by other Prodigy territories. Having a large security force present would tend to undermine the secrecy aspect of it too, since you either have to keep them there and ship in large quantities of food and various supplies or rotate them out to other postings periodically, increasing the chance of leaks. The best defense is never being a target to begin with, after all. Though yes, the wisdom of that strategy is likely in question now that the island is home to a variety of different extraterrestrial murder monsters. Well, yeah... that's kind of the point I think. They even put his carelessness in his name. He is almost literally named "Arrogant Brat". 😆🙃

Hmm.........I'm wondering if some of the 3mm hardpoints placed all over the Takara Toyrise Legioss toy are designed to used for connecting to a future Tread release?

OK, it's here... the moment some of us have been waiting for. An Ortegas episode. We've been waiting for her to get some proper character development for almost three entire seasons now. It's about time they got around to her. So we're doing the usual formula... Oh hey, an overt TOS reference. The ship the Enterprise is due to rendezvous with is Captain Decker's USS Constellation, the same ship and captain from TOS "The Doomsday Machine". Well, in fine Star Trek tradition that shuttlecraft is a writeoff... This is actually really well done. This is what I come to SNW for. So, hey, another TOS reference. The same one from "Arena", actually. Kinda widens the existing plot hole though. More shots of Ortegas's quarters... this time models of the Enterprise and Shenzhou, as well as replicas of the Quimbaya artifacts (sometimes erroneously claimed to be ancient airplanes). Really well done. Honestly, worth waiting for both as a character-focus episode and an excellent reversal of course on the show's main antagonist.

I think I was always the wrong audience for the Transformers X G.I. Joe line. I mean, I love Transformers, but I wasn't really into G.I. Joe as a kid, so to me they were kinda of expensive, kibbly, cheap-feeling toys with fairly simple engineering that were too big to scale with my other Generations figures. And although I thought Soundwave turned out pretty decent, Megatron and Bumblebee were bad enough that when Kup was announced instead of a more beloved character I decided to pass. But then Amazon had to go and put him on sale (or is it clearance?), so... Well, my complaint about the size stands (kinda), and the head sculpt is somehow worse than the Studio Series toy. I'm not totally sure why he's green instead of blue, either, since the majority of those green robot parts are hidden in alt mode. Colors aside, though, the feet, thighs, arms, and head are definitely very Kup in sculpt, and he's give got his abs and belt. What's more, while he is a bit thick and he does have big chunks of tread hanging from his significant backpack, there's not a lot of obvious plastic-saving, cost-cutting hollow spots visible on his person. And, big backpack aside, he's seems a lot less kibbly than the previous three figures in the line. For accessories, Kup comes with a pair of missiles, a pair of guns, and two retro G.I. Joe figures. Sgt. Slaughter I know, he was everywhere when I was a kid. St. Slaughter comes with a stand and a baton (but what's the whip-like bit at the tip?). I think the other guy is Leatherneck, who comes with a stand, a rifle, and a backpack. Kup's articulation isn't too bad, acutally. His head's on a ball joint that allows him to swivel and provides a limited up/down/sideways tilt. A transformation hinge at the base of the stem gives him a ton more downward tilt. His shoulders rotate on ratchets, and can move laterally over 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees. His wrists swivel, as does his waist (on a soft ratchet no less!). His hips swivel forward 90 degrees and backward a little less than that due to his backpack getting in the way, on a ratchet, and over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees on a ratchet. His toes can tilt downward (due to his transformation), and his ankles can pivot 90 degrees. Kup can hold the guns in either hand, though the round base looks a bit weird. The missiles store on rails on the inner edge of the tread kibble on his backpack. The guns can also store back there by plugging them into peg holes near the missile rails. You have to remove the accessories to get them out of the way, but you can fold open Kup's backpack to reveal a computer. The backpack only opens to 90 degrees, and the inside has a quartet of those little pegs for Joes' feet, so Sgt. Slaughter and Leatherneck can ride back there. The instructions for transforming Kup are a bit confusing, but once you know what you're doing it's pretty simple. Rotate the arms at the shoulders so he's pointing straight up, then fold the fists inward. Turn the biceps so that the fists are now pointing forward. Pull the front of his torso away, unclip his shoulders from his collar, and open the flap behind his head. Spin the head 180, lift the backpack a bit, then shift it so that the panel his head is on rotates and you can fold his head into the gap under the panel you opened. The backpack should line up with his torso so that the rivet sits into a notch near the tampoed star on either side. Fold the flap back down, and cover it with the second flap that rotated out with when the head folded in. Get the treads out of the way, and the arms should fold right through the gap and under his backpack. The tread kibble needs to rotate on the black armatures so that the armatures can swing forward and line the white fender up with the bit that you already made from his arms. If you did it right, tabs on the forearms will lock into the the inside of the tread. Fold open the little bits of kibble on his shins, then bend his knees forward the wrong way about 90 degrees. Push the lower leg so that it detaches from the knee and hinges around to the outside... the treads on his legs connect to the treads from his backpack, the bottom of his shins continue to form the fenders over the treads, but don't push everything together too tightly yet. Double-hinge the front of the treads up from the backs of his legs and into place. Open the two flaps next to his tummy grill, then spin his tummy 180 degrees. Use the hinges to push the front of the torso into place as the vehicle's nose, making sure to line up the tabs on the nose with the slots on the front of the fender. If you have everything lined up, the fenders will push in tight with those little kibble flaps filling int he gaps between the nose and the backpack. Again, not really into G.I. Joe, so I had to look this up... but this is the Tag Team Terminator, or Triple T. Apparently, this is Sgt. Slaughter's personal vehicle, and was originally the only way to get Sgt. Slaughter v2 in 1986 (though he had a v1 release that year and v2 would get a standalone release the following year). Hasbro did a really good job recreating the original Triple T toy... aside from a few extra seams and an Autobot badge, the only really noticeable differences are that you can't see through the gap between the treads and the fenders, and Kup's forearms are a little visible from the rear. Kup retains most of the functionality of the original Triple T as well... as near as I can tell, the only thing he's really missing is that you can't open the engine cover. But the missiles plug onto tabs on the treads, and the guns plug into ports on the sides of the seat where they can swivel, like the original toy. One Joe can sit in the seat, like the original toy, where he can hold the joystick, like the original toy. He's still go the foot pegs on the treads, like the original toy. In lieu of the engine, you can again open the rear to reveal the computer that was in Kup's backpack, and to give more Joes places to stand. One more gimmick the original toy didn't have is storage for Sgt. Slaughter's baton and Leatherneck's rifle and backpack. I said I wasn't the target audience for this line. Maybe Joe fans who just wanted cheaper vehicles weren't into the line, either... there was an Optimus planned for the line, but from what info I had it was supposed to be out late last year, and is very likely canceled. I think it's a shame, because I kind of get it, this line was less about being good Transformers and more about taking the original vehicles for the original 3.75" G.I. Joes and making them Transformers. For all my gripes about the robot modes, the alt modes were always good. And it's even more a shame, because they were apparently just starting to hit their stride. Kup is, easily, the best of the line. He doesn't just nail the alt mode, he's honestly a pretty dang good robot, too. I'd say this is the first one I'd genuinely recommend as a good Transformers toy.

I appreciate what they were going for, but I prefer the original spherical Death Star set that they released. I like the Imperial Shuttle they made for it, although the nose gives me bull terrier vibes. 😄 I made my own for the OG DS playset.

I agree, and I think that's the point. Kavalier is inherently unlikable, purposely so, and his arrogance is ultimately going to be the downfall of his little fiefdom. His number two, Evil Daddy Warbucks, is also cruising for some karmic takedown. The male IT guy is one of the few truly decent people working for Prodigy. His wife the therapist, who seems old enough to be his mother, also seems like she has the hybrid kids' interests at heart, although she also seems to be more comfortable towing the company line. The engineer's mate certainly seems like he's more than a bit on the slow side beggaring how he would have ever qualified for the job. This show, for all intents, is about monsters and I guess, rather than being creative, the production is falling back on the old 'people make dumb decisions in horror films' trope to ensure that said monsters get their chance to do what they do thus upping the body counts and the gore factor. I rather enjoy both in sci-fi and horror, but it's always more fun when, as @Seto Kaiba mentioned, the protagonists make smart decisions, do everything correctly within their power, and still fall prey to the monsters. Stupid or negligent protagonists offer easy prey and in turn erode the menace and cunning of the monsters hunting them thus lessening the whole experience.

The reason for that big gap after the back of the cockpit is due to the shoulder sensor being stored under there.

I like what Toyrise has done to the rear of the cockpit. The official design has always looked awkward to me. I already put my Sentinels in storage, but I think I recall there being a giant opening (in the one unit I inspected) at the rear of the cockpit instead of a solid panel. That's nonsensical if I'm right. I need to take another look at them.