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Or a Bright slap

I think if I could find a Galen Erso for a good price I would pick it up. The Storm Trooper with the Cherry Blossom design is another favorite. The Hot Toys Anakin/Darth Vader (Sith Apprentice) Artisan Edition went for 160,000 yen through Mandarake. Too much money for me.

Most likely the Zeta Amuro colorway. That's just a shield swap... maybe slightly different wing binder shape? I would be down for Zplus C1 though kinda doubt it since the Ka Signature line has those so filled out.

I wonder

hmmm, alright. Will try to transform it again. Thanks for the tips.

Probably started off with something like a couple construction companies making massive wagers against eachother using less than legal or down in the dumps citizens to make some cash or just to blow some cash on the desperation of these down in the dumps refugees. They probably just would say the suit was stolen and if anyone gets caught they’re on their own. It probably then kinda blew up into something bigger with illegal betting on their viewing platform. At that point then it probably became a bit easier for the junkers to get involved either by actually stealing the suits or rebuilding trashed ones. I almost like the standard Guncannon and the Gundam 01 that got destroyed in episode one. The gelgoog has absolutely no resemblance to a gelgoog and just looks like a junky gm. Looks like next week they’ll have some Doms and maybe those won’t be so bad. So far still nothing that makes me want to buy the merch

Anyone ever tried to get a wing off? On a related note, I swear my landing gear doors used to close flush, but now the right one won't stay down. The gear itself just won't go *all the way down*--only by like 1mm, but it's enough to keep popping the door open/up.

No, just starting; I need to super-detail this, and I also need to go over it panel by panel with pics of the actual studio model.

The first time I transformed him he seemed tight, but he's fine now and I haven't seen any cracking. It would probably be a good idea for me to take him apart and take a look, but I'm too lazy right now. Also, busy... because I still have to review the rest of the set! It's no secret that the HasLab is Omega Prime, and to make Omega Prime you also need Ultra Magnus. So... here's Ultra Magnus. Magnus is, at the best of times, kind of an awkward, leggy dude, and at first glance there's not a ton of difference between the new and old figures (the big color difference is largely due to my Magnus coming from the Costco reissue during the run of Transfomers Cybertron). Same ugly shoulder joints, same way-too-long legs. His torso is a bit more filled out, though, and the head looks a lot better with an improved sculpt, white face, and colored forehead crest. Like Prime, Magnus doesn't have the batteries and voicebox, so his backpack's smaller, and he's rocking massive heels for improved stability. That said, it leaves his legs even emptier in the back than the original. In Magnus' box, he just comes with his own Matrix. You can open his super hollow chest and plug it in there. Note that while Prime has one Matrix that he has to move between his core bot or his armored chest, Magnus gets a Matrix of his very own. Magnus' other accessory is Bluebolts, and Bluebolts gets herown box. Now, Bluebolts is interesting to me because the original always struck me as such an awkward weapon. The new one, which has the missiles but not the firing gimmick, has some pretty drastic molded differences but she's picked up some new gimmicks. For starters, he has a robot mode now! As near as I can tell, her head (and gender) are based on the End of G1 Universe manga Takara created to help promote some of their MP redecos, starting with Dark Amber Leo Prime. A blue version of Kingdom Skywarp (the Airazor retool) appeared in it, and they chose to name the character Bluebolt as a reference to Beast Wars Silverbolt and the whole Bluestreak/Silverstreak thing. When writer Hayato Sakamoto realized the name previously went with RID Magnus' weapon, he came up with a backstory that essentially made the one in his manga an upgraded form of Magnus' weapon. Note that while the manga hasn't officially gendered Bluebolts, the art often depicts the character in traditionally feminine poses, which has in turn caused Hasbro designer Evan Brooks to say that he's going to refer to Bluebolts as a "she" going forward. Good enough for Evan, good enough for me. Bluebolts' head is on a ball joint with fairly limited tilt forward/backward/sideways. Her shoulders swivel and move laterally about 90 degrees. Her biceps swivel, and her elbows bend over 90 degrees. She doesn't really have hands, but the weapon barrels and the red bits at the ends of her arms both swivel. Her waist swivels. Her hips can go 90 degrees forward and backward, and well over 90 degrees laterally. Her thighs swivel, and her knees bend nearly 180 degrees. Her feet can tilt up due to transformation, but not down, and her ankles pivot under 45 degrees. Ostensibly, the missiles use tabbed fins to plug into slots on Bluebolt's back, but they are basically a long 5mm tube and can plug into 5mm ports, including her own gun hands. The tips have the smaller nubs for Siege effect parts. As much as I do like Bluebolts, she's a Weaponizer, which makes her more accessory than separate character. She breaks down into two arms, two legs, two missiles, and her torso. Magnus' head is on a ball joint that can tilt up and sideways a bit, but lacks any downward tilt. His shoulders swivel and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees. Like Super Mode Optimus, his hands are basically identical to the original toy's, so they scan swivel and fold forward, with a curled 5mm peg on a hinge for a thumb and curled fingers on a hinge. No waist articulation. His hips can ratchet forward 90 degrees but can't really move backward at all. They can ratchet over 90 degrees laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend probably about 120 degrees. His feet don't have any up/down tilt, but he does have about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Because Magnus doesn't have traditional hands with 5mm ports he can't hold most weapons. IIRC, Bluebolts had transformations that put one barrel forward and the other plugged into the side of his forearm on the original toy. With this version, only Blue Bolt's legs are needed, so Magnus can dual-wield. Her shoulder pegs plug into 5mm ports on the front of Magnus' forearms, while the red bits swivel down to sit in his hands as if he were holding them. As for the rest of Blue Bolts, if you transform her legs like you would for her normal alt mode but swivel her torso down 90 degrees, her torso fits into an empty spot in Magnus' backpack with her shoulder sockets locking into grooves. This gives Magnus a kind of back cannon. Magnus is also compatible with the stands, and this is where the adapters finally come in. You slide it onto the taller peg, and you wind up with a pair of pegs pointed in one direction (toward the back of the stand. These pegs will plug into a flap behind Magnus' butt. Just like Prime has storage for his pistol on his backpack, Magnus has storage for Bluebolts. You have to start by yanking her apart. Then open Magnus' chest and lift up the flap with his head. On the underside you'll find a 5mm peg. This peg plugs into a spot on Bluebolts' back, with her butt facing up and toward the front. Her torso helps fill in the emptiness that is inside Magnus. Bend her knees, and they can plug into the side of Mangus' legs, while a peg on the inside of her leg goes into a port on the inside of Magnus'. With the legs in place, pegs near the red part of Bluebolt's arms plug into ports on the sides of Magnus' legs so that Bluebolt's arms cover her own legs and fill in Magnus' calves. The missiles, which were actually a later edition to the design, simply jam into a second 5mm port and point at each other on Magnus' calves. In broad strokes Magnus' transformation is extremely similar to the original toy. There's one significant change, though. Instead of Magnus' legs disconnecting at the thighs, his abs and pelvis come off with his legs. They then split in half, and his lower torso has to fold into his legs with his thighs. In place of his pelvis and hips under the cab is mostly empty space, save for a brand new flap the original toy didn't have. As with Prime, the result is a truck that is basically the same size as the original and trades problematic rubber tires of the original toy for plastic ones. There's also some pretty significant differences in the molded details, but I'm not clear on why. Like, what was their inspiration? It's clearly not the original toy. But the cartoon is even more simplified, where the HasLab version is just busier. As with the original toy, Bluebolts can plug on top of Magnus' truck mode. There are pegs near the front of the trailer that plug into ports on the bottom of Bluebolts. Thing is, I kind of recall that Bluebolts sat on the back of Magnus's trailer in the cartoon, and I seem to recall that Bluebolts could ride on the front or back of the trailer on the original toy. There are some sideways peg holes on the back of HasLab Magnus' trailer, but I'm not sure how you'd use them to secure Bluebolts without untabbing her arms. Anyway, it was apparently a big deal for the Takara side of the HasLab team to make sure that Magnus' trailer can open up. The ramp on top can fold down, and with it folded up there's just enough space for most Deluxe cars to tuck in and still have room to close he door. This, right here... this is the gimmick that they felt was more important than scale. Me? I'd have 100% ditched the ability to cram the not-very-good Legacy Sideburn into Magnus' trailer and made Magnus smaller if it meant scaling Prime down so his non-super mode was no bigger than SS86 Optimus, but oh well. It is what it is. Much of the transformation to Omega Prime is pretty much the same as before. Magnus' legs scrunch up into shoes in the same way, and Prime's feet connect to them in the same way save for an additional peg that secures the side of the shoe to Prime's leg. The arms transform the same way, even going so far as to replicate the handshake gimmick where Magnus' thumb plugs into Prime's fist. Then, of course, the rest of Magnus fits on top of Prime. But that's where things get different. For starters, Magnus' pelvis and hips aren't Omega Prime's abs, as they're now folded into the shoes with the rest of his legs. Instead, there's a flap that hangs down from Magnus' cab to make Omega Prime's abs and pelvis, with Magnus' chest tucked up behind it rather than forming the pelvis. Since it's just a flap, the sides of the cab open and the front of it double hinges up and backward, reducing how much his chest sticks out. Magnus' backpack and wings sit a bit higher on Omega Prime's back, and there's some space in Prime's backpack for Magnus's biceps to tuck into. Aside from tucking Magnus' arms into the backpack, there's slots under Omega Prime's head that grab tabs on top of Optimus' body, clips under the ab-flap that plug into Optimus' chest, and a tab on Magnus' backpack that plugs into Optimus' backpack. So once again, the result is a better proportioned, significantly sturdier combined mode. The Omega Prime head is on a ball joint and can tilt a little up, down, or sideways. His shoulders, biceps, elbows, waist, hips, and knees are the same joints on Optimus and have the essentially the same range (though the Omega Prime shoulder and chest armor can interfere with his shoulder swivel). Omega Prime's hands swivel. There's a hinge that folds the thumb over the palm, and two hinges in the fingers (which are all molded together. The front of Omega Prime's feet can fold down due to transformation (which breaks the sculpt), and his ankles pivot 45 degrees. Just like the original toy, you can turn Bluebolts upside down and use pegs on her feet to plug into the top of Omega Prime's backpack. He again doesn't have 5mm ports in is hands, but there's some on the backs of his hands and on all four sides of his forearms. There are also pegs on the outside of his forearms and legs. There's no mention of it in the instructions, but supposedly Omega Prime was designed with a deliberate fan mode in mind, and rumors suggest it involves sticking the leftover bits from Optimus' traileronto Omega Prime. Omega Prime can use the stand, and he attaches exactly the same way Super Mode Optimus does. And that finally brings us to the last box, Omega Prime's Matrix Blade. I get that it's a thing from the cartoon. I get that it was an accessory that came with Japanese "Special Clear God Fire Convoy" and Encore releases. But, seriously, what are we supposed to do with it? In theory, there are a trio of tabs in each of Omega Prime's palms that fit into the numerous notches on the handle. In practice, the thing is too big and heavy. Gravity pulls it off the tabs. And remember, aside from the lateral shoulder movement, none of the joints in Prime's arms are ratcheted. His elbow joints and shoulder swivels droop, and his wrist spins around as gravity inevitably pulls the heaviest part, the blade, back to the ground. You're pretty much confined to posing him like I have, with one arm straight out and the hand holding the sword at just the right height for the pommel to touch the ground and help support the blade. Like Optimus, Magnus is clearly improved over the original toy, but still copies so much from the original toy that I can't help but feel like they didn't improve enough. Also like Optimus, he scales poorly with other Generations figures for the sake of a car carrying gimmick that I'd have gladly given up in favor of better scale and more improved engineering. I love the new Bluebolts, though, and the Omega Prime mode seems to have the most changes for the better, resulting in a much sturdier, more stable, and better proportioned combined mode. I have to confess, I'm simultaneously quite happy with Omega Prime while also being oddly dissatisfied. On the one hand, HasLab Omega Prime fixes a lot of the problems the original toys had. There are improvements to articulation, improvements to the joints, improvements to the transformation, and improvements to the connections that make the Super Mode and Omega Prime modes especially sturdier and better proportioned, and again I love the idea of making Bluebolts a Weaponizer. Give that this set, with its improvements, with two stands, with Cerebros, and with a transforming Bluebolts cost a little less than the Encore reissue of the original Omega Prime it's a pretty good deal that gives you the best version of Omega Prime to date. But on the other hand, while this feels like a great update of the original RID toys, for me it doesn't really scratch that itch I have for a true Generations version of RID Optimus or RID Magnus. The scale is off, and the aesthetic just isn't there. He's not really a Masterpiece, either, but I do find myself thinking maybe he'd go better with Fans Hobby's Scourge and MMC's Ruination than with Legacy Sideburn and Legacy Towline.

The main problem with the Clan Battles is that they don't make sense in the context of the setting the way Duels in The Witch from Mercury do. G-Witch's Duels were mock battles with detuned weapons held as a way for the Benerit Group's various defense companies to demonstrate their latest products in combat and benchmark their rivals latest developments. Junking a few MS's in a student pissing match or for sport is small potatoes for companies who control the economy of the entire solar system. GQuuuuuuX's Clan Battles... well... the Pomaranians and some other clans are refugees living in illegal tenaments in Side 6, who nevertheless somehow have the kind of money necessary to buy the equivalent of a fighter jet on the black market and keep it fully fueled, armed, and operational. It's an illegal sport, and even with the illegal gambling on the events it doesn't quite make sense how civilian randos can manage that. The lack of a story hook is perhaps its biggest weakness. It's leaning real hard on its "What if?" storyline, but that's not enough to make it interesting.

TBS Director Orson Krennic.

TMNT (Archie Comics) April O'Neil.

Official Trailer.

Honest Trailer.

Season 2 Episodes 4-6 Declassified.

Marvel Legends X-Force Nightcrawler x2.

so beautiful i wish i could have it!

Halfway through watching episode 4 and can already feel myself losing interest in this show.

If that center panel isn't sitting flush, there's probably something under it propping it up. There are a couple of folding panels and a battroid support under there, so make sure they're all collapsed correctly.

didn't think it was terrible. The only thing I have issues with in this series is the need for these clan battles which is just like WfM's lil dueling system and the character designs not matching up to the rest of the animation. Still though, I'll never buy the kits just like how I never bought the mercury or reconguista kits.

Thanks so much. I like the look of the white and will probably omit the red on them. The small black band looks nice in that last pic.

Here’s a pic of the underside gear up and a 1A with those basic missiles. It’s jut from a quick search though and I’m sure you could get more pics in a simple google search I’d double check though because I don’t remember the backs of the missiles being so red Macross is such a weird one to try and find consistency in colts and other details found the dx version of the weapon set. It’s definitely closer to what I remember

Over a year since the original scheduled release date, about a year and a half since the preorders first opened. I thought that their recent offerings of new preorders like the VF-0 here was a good sign that they were over their production delays and ready to ship these, but I guess not. It's been what, three, going on closer to four years since they've actually released a figure at all?

Once Upon a Witch's Death and Catch Me at The Ballpark are pretty unremarkable again this week. The Apothecary Diaries is heating up, though, so there's that.

@Big s thanks for the tip. In the manual they are black. @Thom no figures in this one. 😢