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  1. Past hour
  2. mikeszekely
    While waiting for Amazon and Pulse to get off their butts and fulfil my command for preorders, turns out the Big Bad Slow Toy Store of all people got some stock. So I commanded them to to send me my third two-pack this month (also gave them money). Now, can I command your attention for a bit? I have a review for Commander-class Hook. I was looking at the animation model for Hook, and I don't envy anyone trying to make a toy of him. Combiner Wars Hook figured sticking the wheels on his forearms was enough and didn't copy the weird triangle elbows of the animation model. Nor did it copy Hook's weird cartoon hips. The real tricky part, though, is that the animation model completely abandons the truck parts on the fronts of the G1 toy's legs, except for a lump on his left foot with a wheel and a window. Despite the lump obviously being the cab, aside from the purple window his legs are silver from his hips down. Combiner Wars Hook was like, "nah," and reversed his lower legs, so the cab is on the back of his leg instead, and made his legs green from the knees down. Studio Series Hook looks to "correct" some of Combiner Wars Hook's details by making them more cartoon-accurate. Hence, his torso becomes devoid of color that isn't purple, aside from the cartoon-accurate green on the collar... although, as near as I can tell, his chest actually should have kept some of the black. And silvery plastic was used for Hook's shins and feet to better color match the silver of the cartoon. But, perhaps because the same Takara designers that worked on Combiner Wars Devastator are the same guys doing the Studio Series ones, some mistakes are carried over. The cab's still on the back of his leg instead of the front. He still doesn't have the weird hips. He does have an accessory... forgive me if we're not justifying the Commander-class price point yet, but I promise the other guy has a ton more. For Hook, though, it's just this one gun. Hook's articulation isn't the best, but it actually is an improvement over the Combiner Wars toy. His head swivels and can tilt down some, and up/sideways very slightly. His shoulders swivel and can move laterally 90 degrees; the "shelves" above his shoulders are hinged now and can move up to give you more clearance. He has bicep swivels now, and double-jointed elbows that get around 130 degrees of bend. No wrist or waist swivels, though. His hips go about 90 degrees backward, and a little over that forward and laterally. His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees. His feet have some upward tilt due to how he transforms, and 90 degrees of ankle pivot. Hook holds his gun just fine. And in a move I kind of like, his boom is only attached via a 5mm peg. This means you can remove it and plug it into the port on either forearm if you want to use it like a weapon. Of course, it naturally goes on his back, and with it there you'll find a 3mm peg that you can use to store his gun on the boom on his back. It a move that's probably not all that surprising to anyone who's already mess with Studio Series Scrapper, Hook's transformation is basically the same as the Combiner Wars version. You still shift his backpack up and tuck his arms into his sides. You still rock his calves up over his thighs, fold his shins up under him, and tuck his feet flat. You don't even fold in his hands now (for this mode), and you might notice that the SS toy carries over the the CW toy's practice of shifting the control cabin for the crane over, so it's not straight behind the driver's cabin. Another thing I'm disappointed to see, given that the big change from Combiner Wars (other than scale) is that Hasbro is embracing partsforming, is that there's still a massive, inaccurate lump in the middle of the truck where Devastator's head is attached. Why didn't they just partsform it, too? While I feel my complaints are pretty valid, as they're largely things that are NOT cartoon-accurate, I have to at least admit that it's at least better. He's now got nicely-painted silver rims, and no random black bits in either cab. The truck's surface is textured like it's got skid plating, and the purple stripe and purple end of the boom are cartoon-accurate (though the hook itself should be purple). Although Hook's crane deck doesn't swivel, since it's just pegged in the crane itself can swivel. And, although that's about the extend of it, the boom can also extend. In both of those ways SS86 Hook is, again, an improvement over the Combiner Wars toy. As for weapon storage, the gun can again simply be pegged onto the boom. As I alluded to, Hook is a lot like Scrapper. Both are, in a number of small ways, improved from their decade-old Combiner Wars versions, but both ultimately use nearly identical engineering and thus carry over a number of flaws from those older toys, and do so at a smaller size. So it's like, yeah, Hook is better... but is he better enough to warrant an upgrade if you already have the Combiner Wars toys? Naturally, some of that is going to come down to the combined mode, and we've got to wait until the fall to answer that question. But, perhaps some of that will also come down to the fact that Hook is packed with another Constructicon...
  3. Today
  4. djivaldi7
    Yes.
  5. Cheese3
    Finished gwazine and defender!
  6. Test_Pilot_2
    In the cabinet together now... waiting for the day the third form is made into a high-end.figure.
  7. Yesterday
  8. Big s
    I’m probably gonna have to check it out on my own. I showed my lady the preview and she seemed very unimpressed. I thought she’d be more excited since she was really into Lost and I figured since that guy was in that show that she’d at least give it a shot.
  9. Big s
    It should be good, but there’s always a way to screw things up
  10. TangledThorns
    Half-way through DUSTER on HBO Max. Fun retro-like series and Josh Holloway is great as usual. Recommended.
  11. Negotiator
    meh. I'll make room for a skystriker when ever that happens.
  12. Dangard Ace
    Definitely not revealing “not SnowCat”.
  13. Tking22
    Yeah the VF-2 is a crazy design with a lot of anime magic going on, this scale serves the design well. That said, I'm sure a company more competent then Evo Toy can make a better, bigger scaled VF-2, the Evo Toy figure wasn't bad because the VF-2 design, it was bad because the Evo Toy figure was just bad.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I didn't own the previous version, and I suspect the new tab is an improvement. It was nice and secure when I transformed it, so it does its job. The box art was specially done, likewise the stand, but I prefer to let the toy speak for itself. I think this is the perfect scale to execute this design; any larger and challenges are going to arise with striking a good balance between getting strong multiple joints to support the legs and their becoming too large and ungainly. I'd still love to see Arcadia take a stab at it, what with their history of innovative solutions, but as it stands, I think everything balances out about as well as it can with the HMR. The VF-2SS is just a neat looking design and I'm really happy to finally have a nice toy.
  15. davidwhangchoi
  16. Seto Kaiba
    Eh... it should be pretty damn difficult for Bandai Namco Filmworks to screw up Hathaway's Flash Part II. After all, Hathaway's Flash is an adaptation of the vintage light novel by Yoshiyuki Tomino himself that was penned at the peak of the Universal Century. This isn't some half-assed fanservice-a-thon with an inconsequential plot like Unicorn or Phenix Hunt. This is a story written back when Gundam had a soul and a message.
  17. jvmacross
    Yeah....the image/video posts out of HK are slim to none as well....maybe it was a very limited batch that got released....I think KC had posted that it was just for the initial buyers of the PO for the Regult w/gluu-gers...the "Adam" fig with the Metallic paint...the waiting continues....
  18. grogall
    One observation which I hope Bandai fixes before production starts is the front barrel part of the G-BATM-04 Catapult Launcher should actually be the turquoise colour of the FATTY, wich it actually was in the prototype stage! But for some reason they changed it to black in the final version!? should be changed back! But one thing that is really cool is the panel that's under the FATTY's seat is also present on the model! 😉
  19. Big s
    I’m pretty sure it’s just rough test shots, the last time around they had some stuff to show that they fixed up a little and I’m hoping that’s what they’ll do here hopefully, you never know until it’s finished, but I really liked the first movie
  20. Tking22
    The slightly longer head tab seems to be the only real difference between this and the original release, so I think I'm good and can pass on this, cool box I guess?
  21. MKT
    Not a purchase, but someone gifted me a little Amiibo Sonic. It's a KO, but I'm pretty happy with it just as a little reminder of the Megadrive / Genesis gaming days.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Mine just arrived, a day early no less! I've been wanting a good toy of the VF-2SS for a very long time, and I've skipped every release until this one. In hand, it's a beautiful piece with a great deal of articulation, even the doors on the leg packs, which makes the point of making the landing gear partsform seem ludicrous by comparison, but IIWII. Anyway, compared to the HMR VF-4 and VF-0D that I own, this is a bit fiddlier and fragile. The legs tab into the arms in fighter, but the arms themselves don't tab into anything, at least that I could see or saw in the instructions, so they basically hang there by din of friction and your calibrated eyeballs to set them in the approximately appropriate positions. The left arm pauldron falls apart extremely easily on my copy and I may have to figure out the best place to add a touch of glue to keep it together without affecting its functionality. Those things are very small and easy to lose, especially when they're just hanging off the bottom of the plane and could fall off with the merest provocation. Thus far, I've only played a bit with the battroid, checking out the articulation (the knees are particularly involved) and then transforming it to fighter. In doing so, I was more acutely aware than ever before how much inspiration this took from the VF-1 and the intention by the Macross II creators for this to be its successor. While I believe in canon that role fell to the VF-4, a righteously awesome design in its own right, the VF-2SS indeed feels like an advancement of the original Valkyrie (VF-0 notwithstanding 😉) while being its own unique design. I think it's beautiful and I'm so glad to finally have a pretty accurately designed and well-articulated figure of it in my collection. After addressing that pauldron, I'll probably attempt to attach the SAP bits and get her all armored up. Word of caution- those head antennae are really, really thin and fragile. despite having a plastic spacer in the box around the head to protect them, one of mine was ever so slightly bent so I moved to bend it straight and though I didn't break it, it felt like it gave a little too much and I'm rue to touch it again if I can help it. Fortunately, it comes with spare antennas, but I'd rather not break the ones I have so I'm trying to manipulate them solely at the base as much as possible. Probably goes without saying for most of you, but I'll put the caution out there anyway. To quote Stevie Wonder, "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?"
  23. sh9000

    sh9000's collection

    Images added to a gallery album owned by sh9000 in Macross Collections

  24. sh9000
    Bandai 1/65 VF-17D.
  25. sh9000
  26. sh9000
    Tank gun.
  27. sh9000
    Haslab GI Joe Classified Cobra Rattler.
  28. Seto Kaiba
    Finally, some competent storytelling.
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