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Yeah...adding an additional set of tailfins to the front kinda feels like something AI would do.

YUP! You can easily trace that back to "Disco Beaver from outer space"!

OK... this is pure HBO, lol.

Ah yes. In hindsight the context clues are obvious. "Hasegawa Death Stranding kit," oof.

I went into the basement today and looked at my never ending stash and had that tingling. That tingling you get in your fingers when you want to build something. So I touched the boxes and was like … wait a second. I went upstairs without a box and checked the top of my shelf. There are still three kits that are in the works and need finishing. “okay mister; no new kits until theseいう are done.“ is what I said to myself. So yeah, these still need finishing. I can get an easy win with the F-14. It only needs decals and then done. I decided to not add ordnance. I`d never be fully satisfied no matter how I do it. The VF-171 needs masking and then airbrushing metal and black highlights. After that decals. The VF-1 needs priming. So I did that. Primed most of the VF-1 parts today. I will be adding decals to the F-14 later today. Wish me luck Edit: I just saw a weird brown box saying „RC Boat“. I was intrigued … looked inside. Another forgotten project discovered again. Well … I obviously get distracted easily. Another one to finish then.

There is always some or lots of toys that when you were a kid you didn't have the opportunity to have cause several reasons, for me G1 Grimlock is one of those toys so I put down my Preorder immediately, there is something about that golden chrome and design that make it look so classic and timeless, literally all the G1 dinobots have this original awesome classic look, I hope they release each one of them, I will be happy to POd all of them like this one, and yes a re-release of MP Grimlock or MPG I would be so happy to POd as well

This movie looks like it was made for streaming. The story (so far) is copied from Avatar but with that childish twist so as not to scare the kids. Hopefully it won't flop, even though it looks like it will.

Thanks! It's definitely a series that grows on you... If you think that Takara had a 20 year span on their 1/24 V.O.T.O.M's Line, and they don't really have much to show for it! They basically got stuck in a Doggy dog world and did some fantasy re-coulours and changed a couple of parts here and there but that was it, For Bandai the are getting close to the two year mark with six releases and only one repeated unit, but the future is really brisk with the 3 new Mechs announced in December! at this pace in 20 years you'll need a new house to have room for everything 🤣 It's the diversity of mechs where Bandai is already in the lead at this scale! 😉

I was looking through some of my older collection photos and most of these figures have moved on.

I ultimately didn't get anything Votoms, but this is a nice group pic.

ROFL! I'm a bit ambivalent about this release. This shade of green is not my fav color, and if I'm a bit more uncharitable, I'd say it looks like one of those KO robot toys back in the days that's obviously based on an IP but frankenstein-ed with supposedly cool elements from other IPs. The forward canards are hilariously large.. But I do acknowledge this can be fun and I can get behind what the designers are presumably going for in this line. Might get this as an impulse purchase later on.

Thanks! I’m learning that most of these FSS builds call out for some fancy paints. Lots of pearl shimmery stuff and gloss. I’m still on the hunt for that elusive Gaia Star Bright Gold but settling for a mix of basic Mr color gold with some clear orange mixed into it. I’m having a blast experimenting with freestyle paint mixing. Feels similar to my kid making a “potion” out of random household materials and food coloring. lol

As long as you can learn something, and it looks like you learned a lot. Great build and the paint looks smooth

Thanks so much. It was fun, but full of learning opportunities aka PAIN down the final stretch. hahaha

Looks really nice. Very cool

@MechTechThanks so much. Means a lot. 😊 Fished up my second 1/100 IMS MH. This one is the Schpertor. KOG. I also got a couple pointers on taking photos on my phone. Not too shabby. I love the design. There are a few other versions of this build that I may visit someday.

It will be the second release in the line.

My affiliate link for those that are joining me in grabbing this one! https://www.hlj.com/toyr-se-afc-01x-delta-legioss-delta-tkt08283?utm_source=scorchedearthtoys&utm_medium=affiliate

🤣Aww man, I'm not sure if you knew how funny that was!

You bring up a good point: fashion. Most of us are here for the hard sci-fi stuff: ships, weapons, mecha and robots, futuristic vehicles, buildings, landscapes, and technology. But fashion is another aspect of sci-fi that makes a statement and adds to the world-building. In Megazone 23, everybody's living in (what they believe to be) 1985 Tokyo (conveniently, the year it was released). The fashion follows and reflects what was popular in at least America at the time. Love those leg warmers! 😄 Bubblegum Crisis ('87-91) takes place in 2032, not far removed from where we are now. Their outfits would still be passable today, mostly. Not sure what the hell Linna's wearing. Ugh! But what about Logan's Run (1976) which reflected the era's free love and widespread drug use. The fashion is definitely adjusted to fit the characters and the roles they play in that particular future society. I'm sure we've all seen sci-fi where the apparel isn't too far off from the current, and then we've also seen sci-fi where the apparel definitely made a statement adding to the look and feel of the world. Fashion is often overlooked, by me as well, but there are times when it definitely adds to the atmosphere. Star Wars and Star Trek come to mind for their very different wardrobe choices and how they complement the world aesthetic in each.

I dunno, I love Mospeada mecha, but the forward swept wing Legioss with a strap-on radar dish, decked out in Greenbay Packer colors is not making me sing Lonely Soldier Boy. It's such a weird choice for a first release, but I truly hope this line takes off.

Agreed. He was (is?) a talented artist. In addition to what you wrote, there was one other thing that struck me way back when about his work: the fashion design. For example the consistency in the clothes worn by the two characters in the manga above—they're different, but one gets a sense of the in-universe fashion trends. Even though he didn't go into as much detail about them as say the weapons and mecha, they greatly added to the world-building in his manga.

Ok, now that TFOne is out of the way... it's G1 the rest of the week, baby! We're bouncing back to Age of the Primes first, and it's Deluxe-class Sureshot. Why start with Sureshot? He's barely even G1, but I want to save the best stuff for last. He was barely in "The Rebirth," and even in The Headmasters he was a bit player. He arguably has the most fiction in the Marvel G1 comic. Fortunately, his appearance across all three late G1 mediums is pretty much the same (his JG1 head was a bit closer to the toy, with little ears and regular eyes instead of shades), which makes it pretty easy to point out that he looks pretty good, for the most part. He had more of a pelvis in his fictional appearances, which kind of makes me wish they'd done his hips a bit differently, and his shins have a ton of greebles that I could have done without, but his head and torso are pretty spot-on (for US G1) and the colors are all in the right places. Hasbro did move his tires from the sides of his legs to his calves. While this is arguably not US G1 accurate or toy accurate, I think this vibes ok with The Headmasters. Now, I couldn't find a good image of his backside in the cartoons/comics, but based on the G1 toy, the back is where things are getting different. There are wheels on his back still, but they're higher up on his back where the G1 toy's were basically on his butt. The G1 toy also had a backpack made from his engine and spoiler, but what we have on the AOTP toy is a backpack that's his alt mode's nose. The spoiler's still there, but it's moved to his shoulders. I'm not sure it was the best choice. As a Targetmaster, Sureshot comes with a gun that looks about right. The barrels fold back, then the whole thing uncurls to reveal Sureshot's partner, Spoilsport. Aside from having a black face instead of a red one he looks about right, but like Peacemaker he has no articulation, plus his back side is super hollow. And to be honest, I don't know how I feel about that. One the one hand, I've never been a big fan of the Targetmaster concept. I mean, all of the -masters are kind of dumb in US G1, but the JG1 idea that the actual Transformers are the heads and they just drive vehicles that turn into larger robot bodies for them to pilot kind of worked. Especially because the Headmasters all have little cockpits for their heads to ride in. But the Targetmasters need to be a gun for the robot to shoot, but also a gun to plug into a port on the alt mode. And if they're going to be guns all the time, who cares how bad the robot mode is? But at the same time, we had a pretty decently-articulated Targetmaster in Nightstick all the way back in 2008. But I digress. Sureshot's head is on a ball joint with very limited ability to look down or tilt sideways, but it swivels and he can look straight up 90 degrees. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little more than 90 degrees. No wrist articulation, but his waist swivels. His hips go 90 degrees forward, and just shy of that backward due to his backpack getting in the way, not the joint itself. His hips spread laterally over 90 degrees. His thighs swivel, but only about 45 degrees out, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet have a very slight downward tilt, tons of upward tilt, and about 45 degrees of ankle pivot. Sureshot can hold Spoilsport in either hand, plus he's got 5mm ports on his forearms, under his feet, on the outside of his knees, on the back of his legs just below the tires, and on his back. Technically on the backs of his shoulders, too, because his spoiler is just plugged in. Despite all those ports, storage for Spoilsport is achieved by plugging notches in his heels onto two small tabs on Sureshot's backpack. I'll also note that unlike Peacemaker, Spoilsport does not an extra 5mm port on the back. It's my guess that Peacemaker had it because they originally wanted to include the JG1 gimmick where the Targetmaster attached to the wrist instead of being held, and retained it even after Pointblank was reworked due to being over budget. Then they didn't even bother trying to include the gimmick here. And they probably figured early that they wouldn't have the budget for such a gimmick because Sureshot has a very ambitious transformation. Swivel his forearms so the holes on them are facing forward, and rotate his waist 180 degrees. Use the hinges inside his torso to pull his head, chest, and shoulders away from his back. As you do, you'll need to rotate the stuff you're pulling away, then use the hinges to line up the bottom of his chest with the top of his back. Make sure when you do that the orange part of the armature with the two tabs is flat inside his chest. Turn his head 180 degrees and pull it down a little, then his shoulder untabs from his side and starts to swing outward. As you do, the shoulder assembly will also fold back, with the desired result being the tops of both shoulders tabbing into the top of his chest with the spoiler lined up, then you can tilt his head up into the space between his shoulders. Fold his feet up so that they tab into his shins, fold out the wheels on his calves and get them out of the way, then combiner wars-style shift his lower legs up over his thighs. Now you can bend the waist back, so the legs tab into what's turning out to be the underside of the vehicle. Bend his elbows 90 degrees so that notches near his wrists plug into tabs on his heels, then you can plug the wheels into the 5mm ports on his forearms. Finally, take his backpack wheels and swing them around so the nose of the vehicle is in place. The resulting car is a bit sleeker than the G1 toy, and the raised detail on his hood is red instead of orange, but both of those things seem to match his character models. Rather than just having exposed hinges he's got a molded red grill. There's a bit more orange on the nose, as the front spoiler and axle are one. He's got his spoiler, but there's no engine, no real space for one, between the wings, and rather than having his forearms curl up on top of his biceps to form the top of the rear, his shoulders are the top of the rear and his forearms just dangle on the back of the car. They don't even bother to hide is wrists! I think changing his arm transformation might have been necessary to slim the car down; the G1 toy's cockpit sticks up much further than this version's does, and there's at least molded venting on his forearms. But, I really wish they'd have designed his hands to fold into his (largely hollow) forearms so they wouldn't be visible, and I wish instead of limply plugging the halves of his spoiler into his shoulders that they'd given him a proper engine/spoiler (though, it couldn't have been a backpack... maybe it could have been tucked into his chest?). In any case, he rolls without issue. There are 5mm ports alone the sides of the car, but Spoilsport is meant to plug into the 5mm port on the hood in front of the cockpit. Which, again, it's kind of dumb that Spoilsport needs to be a gun for Sureshot's robot mode but also a gun for Sureshot's alt mode... like why even have a gun that transforms? Credit where it's due, this is an ambitious figure with a brand new mold for a character that hasn't had a new toy in nearly 40 years, and while I have some gripes and wish they could have executed some things a bit better, Sureshot's a pretty good figure overall, definitely a big improvement over the retooled Siege Ironhide that was poor Crosshairs. What's more (although you do have to go back a little before Siege to Titans Return and Thrilling 30), he's the last of the '87 Targetmasters to get an update, with just Quickmix and Landfill to round out the '88 cast left to go (though I'd like a Stepper/Ricochet from the SS86 Jazz mold, please). Unless you're a strict Season 1/2/3 (or stricter season 1/2/Movie) collector only, Sureshot's worth a look.