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May'n showing how much distance she travelled this year!

@derex3592 all your hard work is paying off. It’s looking great! 👍

Great reviews so far. Depending on timing my wife and I plan to see it on NYE for a day date but its over 3 hours long and if we can't swing it we'll probably see Anaconda instead, lol. https://www.ign.com/articles/avatar-fire-and-ash-review

Yeah, but it's from the current comic book, apparently. At least it seems to be a separate kit, so you can skip it. The fusion cannon is the big fix for me, but I kinda want those gap fillers. Not sure if I'll get the full A kit or just the W.

Early Sunday morning l finished up the hardest PE for the Texas. The rear observation tower and radar screen. I'm glad I saved this until last because I had been dreading it. All the techniques I had taught myself and utilized up to this point came in handy to get this part finished up with only minimal stress... LOL 😂. So at this point I still have a lot of little diddly PE to finish up but it's all rinse and repeat stuff I've done before so it's just a question of making time to sit down and do it.. (42 - 50cal guns / quad 50s /baskets and such, and the two aircraft cranes) Other than that, it's down to dropping down a million little plastic parts on the deck and before you know it..... It's gonna be time to start painting this bad boy!

AC7 was... well it wasn't Assault Horizon at least. It was not good enough to keep my interest till the end. there I said it. The plot, the DLC nonsense.. I'm not holding my breath with 8, will wait for it to be out awhile before I decide to take the plunge.

That gun handle attachment just looks stupid. And is it me, or does the original shoulders look better than the bulkier ones on the upgrade kit?

Oh yeah fun will be had, I saw the rivalry between this and the second Mortal Kombat movie is picking up, that first reboot movie was just okay, I'm looking forward to Street Fighter far more then MK2.

This is the way.....

Thanks, that one jumped out at me as well. I have half an idea for a B/D/G style head and/or a two seater trainer version, but those will have to wait until I get through a few other things. In the meanwhile, updated the google link to add the 24F model for anyone who wants to play with it. Enjoy! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1MEqAULkJDzBoGyFBrgRHBX7C7_ZVdfcg?usp=sharing

I wish to have @Zeliard's skills and patience to detail mine up. Speaking of details, I really oughta install them little thingies on both my original and this reissue. btw, the reissue's styrofoam casing is different.

Really nice markings

http://www.encycstra.net/blog/famitsus-first-interview-about-ace-combat-8-with-kouno-kazutoki-and-shimomoto-manabu-an-english-translation Found a decent english translation of said Famitsu interview.

The Flash. Ice. Rocket Red Brigade. Superman.

How do those work? Are they pre-printed cards and the artist signs them? Or are they drawn by hand? I've only ever seen an old picture of Miyatake signing a bunch of pre-rendered cards (the only one I own) I assume there are both types, how do you tell which is which?

Frost Bite Blast Shimo.

FACGN spells Hiya Toys. I've never posted about a Male MUTO.

Magnaguard.

Transformers Generations Legacy Skids.

Hello Fellow Macross fans, I'm new to shikishi collecting and was hoping for some opinions on this one by Mikimoto. https://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/c1211283534 Any thoughts on the authenticity of the signature and or the art? Your opinions are appreciated. Thanks!

I never could have imagined the armor could be even mounted on the leg like that. I mean they had to take the thing out of the box to shoot it for the display right? There is some sort of reference!? Looks like its about to install some some laminate flooring.

Exactly my response. I need Night Tracer. Damn you, Mike! 😤

After dealing with MMC's Defensor, Mecha Invasion's Devastator, Dream Star Toys' Devastator, heck, even Hasbro's own Superion and Devastator in recent months (years?), it almost seems like the norm is for the bots to be released in some kind of random order where you wind up having to have most, if not all, of the figures before you can begin combining anything. So it's kind of refreshing that Magic Square worked from the ground up. That's right, MB-05 is Night Tracer, their version of Onslaught. Daaaaaaang. Yesterday I suggested that the gap between Munitioner and MMC's Swindle wasn't so huge, but I think even MMC's most ardent fans will admit that Onslaught was the most-heavily compromised of their Combaticons, arguably of all their combiner figures, due to the all-built-in gimmick. Then here comes Night Tracer, casually strolling onto the scene and basically nailing it. Much better proportions than MMC's, with cartoon smooth shins, a nicely tapered torso, a pelvis that isn't faking it with part of the waist, etc. And in a case that's turning out to be pretty typical for Magic Square, he does it cleanly. Like MMC, he's even got the cartoon-accurate green/brown on the outsides of his arms. Pointing out that Unique Toys was a bit stylized is beating a dead horse, but I think it's worth pointing out that prior to Night Tracer I'd have actually suggested that Zeta had the best Onslaught. But Zeta has its own issues, like the massive shoulders, oversized back cannons, Popeye forearms, and lots of panels that are kind of just folded up and stuck in places. Night Tracer doesn't need any of that! He's so committed to looking like the cartoon that he's the only one of the four to copy the cartoon's odd decision to stick a bunch of wheels on his forearms. UT turned theirs to the back, but all three of the previous releases seemed content to treat the two-forearm-plus-one-bicep-per-arm placement as an animation error and went the toy route of one on each forearm and two on either side of the torso, but Magic Square looked at the animation model and was like, "yeah, we can make that work." I may have spoken too soon on combining these guys early, though. Night Tracer comes with his gun, and a big old chest plate for combined mode... and that's it. And before you ask, no, Onslaught does not turn into the entire torso, head, and chest of Bruticus. We're gonna need some more parts for that. But in the mean time, Night Tracer's head is on a ball joint connected to a swivel. So he can look down until his chin touches his chest, up about 75 degrees or so, but unlike the previous two he's actually got a little sideways tilt, too. His shoulders swivel, and they move laterally on a ratchet just over 90 degrees on the correct side of the swivel. If you need more, there's a transformation joint on the other side of the swivel that will get his arms straight up. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend maybe 120 degrees or so on a single hinge. His hands are like Heavy Gunner's, wrists swivel and bend backward, every digit is an individual unit that connects to the hand via a ball joint, and every digit has one additional hinged knuckle. His waist swivels, and he's got the double-hinge that gives him almost 90 degrees of ab crunch or back bend, though unlike Prime and the previous Combaticons the hinges feel a tad loose on Night Tracer. His hips are again of the drop-down type, reaching backward 90 degrees and forward a bit over that on ratchets that feel a tad loose for my tastes, and laterally 90 degrees of sturdier ratchets. His thighs swivel. His knees are double-jointed and bend nearly 180 degrees combined. As with the hips, they're kind of loose ratchets, though, with a bit of play that makes him prone to tilting backward when you're posing him (not helped by the weight of the backpack). His toes bend up but not down, and his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Again, above-average articulation but he's let down a bit by tolerances. Compared to the preivous two, Night Tracer might actually have the easiest transformation. You gotta get the actual front wheels, fenders, and headlights out of his forearms, and get his arms up over his head. Then you move the turret out of the way to unfold the rest of the cab from on an inside his back, forming the roof, sides, hood, grill and the middle quartet of tires. With the front half done, rotate the waist 180 degrees and then the back half has the usual Magic Square annoyances... the knees have to be in just the right position, then the lower legs splay open into an array of panels that rearrange themselves into the back half of the truck. But of the three, I think he's had the least amount of flipping flaps. This is another case where I like a lot of the realistic details like wing mirrors, wipers, etc on both MMC and Zeta, and the big green hinges on the sides of MMC's truck are actually on the cartoon model. But, with the arguable exception of Unique Toys' big gap between the truck and trailer, they all did pretty good in truck mode. Guess it's hard to screw up a long, nearly flat rectangle with a hint of cab and AA guns. Overall, not a ton to complain about. You've got the sorts of details you'd expect, like the grill with the fins on it, two windows on the front, two windows on each side, the scoop in the hood, camo splotches, seven wheels to a side in the correct placement with a trio of green boxes between the middle and rear pair. But I guess this is where I have to nitpick minor discrepancies. As I mentioned, the green hinges on MMC's Onslaught, unsightly though they might be, and he's got smaller lights under his headlights that aren't on the animation model. Night Tracer can roll, and the entire turret can swivel and elevate a little. The barrels can move up and down independently inside the turret, also. Fold in the handle of Night Tracer's gun and you'll find a little hole you can use to peg the gun on top of the turret. The remainder of the trailer beyond the turret is too short for Munitioner or Heavy Gunner to catch a ride. All-in-all its a very serviceable, very adequate truck mode, but we already had very serviceable, very adequate truck modes. But it's not about truck mode, is it? Because after three prior Onslaughts, each with their own flaws in robot mode, Night Tracer comes along looking just about perfect and he's got great articulation to boot. There's simply no competition. Maybe one of the other sets will deliver a better combined mode, and if you only want one set and you care most about the combined mode then sure, maybe you want to wait and see how that shakes out. But Night Tracer is, hands down, the best MP-style Onslaught by a significant margin, and as such gets a strong recommend from me.