nhyone

Although I don't collect CHUG figures, I still got these. They are very G1, has few hollowness and is greebleless.

Sadly, I got a pre-yellowed Cyclonus cos I didn't check carefully.

The last such request was from 2017, let's see if anyone still have these cards.

Wanted for Part 1:

TV-11, M7-3, M7-27, M7-32

I'm also considering SP-2 (Basara & Mylene) or SP-2G (Basara & Mylene Gold). I have one SP-4G (Valkyries Gold) that I can trade for it.

Wanted for Part 2:

No. 2, 12, 22, 36, 40, 44, 46, 48, 53, 54, 55, 56, 65, 71

Special: 74, 76, 77, 78

I have one 79 and two 80 if anyone wants to trade.

I have some (but not many) spare cards for part 2, in case anyone is looking for them.

I'm in Singapore, but I have a shipping-forwarding address at Portland, Oregon. Payment by PayPal.

On 8/13/2020 at 5:50 AM, anime52k8 said:

I like how it has a specifically car-shaped cutout insinde so you can technically carry the stuticons in the trailer

 

There doesn't seem to be room for the door to close, though.

On 6/21/2020 at 9:49 AM, mikeszekely said:

So I was pretty disappointed with Matrix Workshop's upgrades for Earthrise Hoist.  So I ordered Nonnef's.

Shouldn't this be in the official thread? Should be of more interest to people who collect official toys.

Fillers are very nice (I can't stand the figures with gaps), but they are expensive to get kit by kit. If only someone makes one kit for the entire line...

9 hours ago, Tking22 said:

Glad I waited on reviews, the leg thing is atrocious, it's a ticking time bomb like official MP Hound, money saved, bullet dodged. I read replacement screws are out in the wild, you can only get one if you have a single broken leg though, apparently you can't request an extra screw just in case the other leg falls off too, that's a bummer. 

You should be fine as long as you avoid the first batch. It only affects part of that batch.

12 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

And while I don't think his engineering is as bad as its reputation I do wonder if it's a tad more complicated than it really needed to be.  That makes it a bit difficult to really recommend Wardog.  There's something about him that just screams, "I'm a placeholder!"  If there's one thing that Wardog's really got going for him it's that FT's doesn't look like that slam dunk to replace him that we expected it to be.

Wardog is complicated for 2015.  Maybe the designer went on to work on the FansToys movie bots after that. 

I got Wardog for its tank mode. I never thought of him as Warpath.

Other than Sheridan's broken leg, I don't think there has been other complaints about the figure? At least the waist can swivel.

10 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Not sure if I'm going to bite on the NA Soundwave, but I appreciate the info. I prob would go for two cassettes, anyways, as they're the main reason I'd buy Soundwave. Love me some TF cassettes. I really want that Ravage.

I don't think MST has mentioned what tapes come with Soundwave.

I think the bundled tapes will be Buzzsaw + drone (for blue one). The others will be in a separate tape set.

On 5/8/2020 at 6:25 AM, M'Kyuun said:

As for the Seekers, I watched vids of both New Age's and Magic Square's Seekers, and ultimately went with the NA. TBH, I think the intakes are more real world F-15 accurate on the MS, but as a total package, the New Age design cinched it. I do have to say that MS's Megatron looks pretty sweet from the proto pics, cleaner in bot mode than NA's, and I may snag one of those, too, if reviews are positive. 

According to ShowZ, there are two options for MS' Soundwave, as a cheaper option comes with one cassette, and the slightly more expensive version comes with two (about a $4 difference)...

I like the NA seekers until it comes to the lower legs. I don't like the look of the two-step thruster shin vent, and that the rear wing is folded onto the side of the leg and makes the leg multi-color.

For Soundwave, one is blue, one is black. Make sure you order the right one! (Blue one comes with two tapes.)

On 5/9/2020 at 12:51 AM, technoblue said:

I do like her alt mode. But alas, I think Arcee is turning out to be like Hot Rod where only that alt mode is looking to be accurate.

Other than her chest, is there any part of her bot mode that is used in car mode?

This is just like Haslab Unicron. The alt mode can look good cos it is single-purpose. (Just hang the whole thing off her back.)

Earthrise is looking very good for G1 toon fans!

I have no interest in Hasbro mainline, but I'm considering buying some ER figures!

Modern take and aren't overly-greebled like Seige!

On 1/19/2020 at 10:43 PM, tekering said:

Incidentally, a company presents itself to the public using "PR," and "marketing" is how they present their products.  

"Propaganda" concerns social or political ideology, not toy robots.  

If it were directly from the company, it is marketing.

In the first video, at 4:04 onward, the reviewer described the First Devastator War between TFC and MT. At that time, TFC was 'king' and MT a contender. TFC came out with Hercules first. MT realized fans wanted G1-style and announced Giant. It was a huge hit. To fight back, TFC had to introduce an upgrade kit to make its figure more G1. MT took this opportunity to turn online fans against TFC. 'Virtually overnight', everyone turned away from TFC and towards MT. TFC never recovered from this loss in reputation. A new king was born.

I remembered Spencer mentioned in his Bobby Skullface interview that MT was very concerned about its image online. In the early days, companies were more prone to using 'fans' to raise the company image.

This could be why NewAge refused to sell new legs separately for its Agamemnon (Megatron). But then MMC doesn't care and sells its Assaultus upgrade kit so expensively. I wonder what's the reaction in Chinese forums today.

I can tell you straightway that, watching some of his reviews, this reviewer does not like MMC -- mainly due to its high pricing.

On 1/19/2020 at 11:46 PM, Kuma Style said:

Thank you very much. There's a lot of personal bias towards this company having worked with them and their designs being such a favorite that MT/FPJ were legitimately the only reason I kept collecting for a few years after official classics went to hell and it's really unfortunate to see.

The reviewer wrote this sort-of like a historical 'documentary' (from what he knew) and has an earlier video talking about FPJ: 【变百科】史上最悲催第三方, 物极必反的FPJ

(The saddest 3P in history, the peak and decline of FPJ.)

Basically, he said FPJ kept wanting to do its own thing after it got recognition from Transformers fans, but they weren't buying into it, so ultimately it just faded away.

On 1/19/2020 at 11:46 PM, Kuma Style said:

I understand "changing times" but I really wish that they would have stuck to the classics scaled lines that  gave them the popularity they had in the first place on top of not having fallen so much in terms of quality control.

I think there's no more room for 3P in CHUG, that's why they had to move on.

The whole 变百科 is worth watching.

Two-part series on UniqueToys:

【变百科】江东自古怀才俊，一朝乘雷便化龙

Its beginnings and early challenges. Its greatest work (to date) Ragnaros (Bruticus) was upstaged by TW's Armageddon and they had to rush it out. [Now we know why the limbs weren't as refined as the legs.] In the end, UT found it was tricked when TW finally revealed it was using the pants approach.

【变百科】跃龙门的小鱼变锦鲤，运气确实是实力的一部分

UT refocused on movie stuff and collaborated with DX9 to overcome its weakness in aesthetics. The last part shifted to DX9 and he said DX9 had an ace up its sleeve, but he left it as a cliffhanger.

On Legends:

【变百科】弑神三部曲第一章：昙花一现的神，口袋中的战争

The very first 3P Legend figures were the VIP three Datsun brothers by ARK Studio. (Its designer was well known as 'the god of scale'.) It was not successful. DX9 saw the potential and followed with its ace -- its War in Pocket series. UniqueToys joined in the fun. Good times did not last. Both were forced to stop due to over-KO'ing. One particular KOer was especially lethal. UT 'died' first, leaving DX9 to fight alone. But even DX9 found it harder and harder to 'live'. DX9's last WiP was Dutch (Optimus Prime) as a send-off, and it was KO'ed too. The lethal KOer was revealed to be MFT. And MFT was allied with the designer of ARK Studio.

【变百科】弑神三部曲第二章：河森正治的精神续作如何中道崩

MFT is revealed to be backed by Machine Boy (a big organization with vast experience with 4P/KO Transformers). MFT planned to dominate the Legends market by having both original designs and KO'ing its competitors: DX9, UT, MST and even IronFactory. It went with Legends+ scale for a few reasons.

Hot Soldiers was supposed to be its original brand, led by ex-designer from ARK Studio. The reviewer explained why HS started at 03. But HS products weren't very well designed, despite what its designer may think. It accumulated at HS-09 Big Yellow Bee (Bumblebee), which received harsh criticism due to its open back. The designer hit back with a number of points, one of which was that "no one is capable of making a 6cm Bumblebee". And this would be his undoing.

Where was the DX9 WiP designer? Where was the UT designer? They were not idling, but were sharpening their swords to challenge MFT once more.

【变百科】弑神三部曲第三章：黎明前的天际必将赤红如血

What is the relationship between DX9 and New Age? It's too long to explain [his words, not mine], but New Age is undeniably DX9 WiP designer. ("It's him!")

New Age's first release was a 6.0cm Bumblebee. It had good looks, good transformation, good material and was well-made. It made NA famous overnight. And it was also a slap on HS designer's face, who once claimed it was impossible ('no one is capable of making a 6cm Bumblebee').

This was extremely significant because it showed 'the god of scale' was not infallible after all. Previously, his word on scale was taken as gospel.

With NA-H1 Flipper (Bumblebee), NA established a new Legends- scale. MFT would not be able to dictate the Legends market. NA went on to do very well.

When NA came out with the Datsun three brothers, MFT released their own using updated VIP design. It was supposed to be HS-17, but later branded as Iron Trans. Only the designer knew why.

Flipper was KO'ed by KBB and UI. Due to popularity of MFT, many people thought these were original designs. The reviewer had no heart to tell them the truth when he saw people playing happily with these. Some were aware of MFT, but not NA. The irony of being original.

At one time, Jizai announced they were going to KO NA Ratchet/Iron Hide, but then they dropped it quietly. The reviewer speculated Jizai wanted to buy the blueprint from NA (common practice in 3P; this is 'KO' to the outside world), but NA didn't want to sell.

[Followed by a short review on Agamemnon (Megatron), Insecticons and seekers.]

The DX9 WiP designer who was once 'beaten to near death' had come back. But where was his Legends ex-companion? Was he still a friend, or was he a foe now?

【变百科】弑神番外篇（序）：如果我是DJ你会爱我吗？当长毛变秃头的时候…

An intro of Magic Square designer. He was a former DJ and had no formal training in design. But he loved combiners and tinkered with existing combiners to improve them or create new ones. His work was noticed by 3P companies and he joined Unique Toys. Ragnaros was designed by him. After that, he left and set up his own design studio, Magic Square. And one of the first things he wanted to do was Menasor, something he was not able to do in MP scale in the past. He revealed the fourth version of his Menasor in the 2019 Shanghai Toy Show.

What this tells me: (i) we will see Legends Menasor. This is a given since the last reveal; (ii) I don't think we will see any MP-scale figures from MST any time soon. His focus is on Legends.

[Note: from his other reviews, I gather the reviewer is a friend of the MST designer.]

On 1/21/2020 at 9:04 AM, slaginpit said:

And people wonder why I dont use TAOBAO 

Are you perhaps thinking TaoBao is full of scammers?

I think ShowZ made a mistake, that's all.

I have sellers on TaoBao sent me the wrong things on two occasions. One of them is even the manufacturer itself.

9 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Not sure I'd agree with that.  Utopia was pretty well-received, IIRC, and it seems doubtful that they'd undertake another expensive city bot (Pandinus) if Utopia hadn't proven worthwhile.  Plus, MT seemed fine until late 2016/2017-ish.

Utopia was the start, Despotron was the end.

Up to that point, it was all rosy for MakeToys due to a combination of exoticism ('Japanese'), premium (priced extremely high), niche (the right products) and online propaganda campaign, especially against its main competitor TFC.

[My translation of the review, start]

Utopia was supposed to be MT's crowning achievement, except... Hasbro came out with Titan Metroplex. To compete, MT had to slash price by 50% (1,250 yuan [~US$210 then]) and engaged in massive online propaganda. But this time, the massive price reduction upsetted early adopters and the propaganda was too heavy-handed and turned the fandom off.

After this, its two Headmasters didn't take off. Its long-delayed Pandinus was finally released, but production was rushed and didn't catch flaws in design. Its next few products, including Defensor, also suffered from low production values. MT was declining product by product. To compensate, it went overdrive with its online propaganda. But it didn't work as well as in the past because 3P standards had improved and it caused backslash instead.

MT then turned its attention to Masterpiece, starting a new RM line. But it didn't go smoothly, because it encountered competition at every turn: Gundog (Hound), Visualizers (Reflector) . It then tried a Targetmaster (Contact Shot), but it didn't catch on. Its next RM Downbeat (Jazz) sold okay, but fans were price-sensitive or held out stubbornly for official MP. The next RM Hellfire (Inferno) was supposed to be a home-run, then MMC OX revealed Backdraft at 500+ yuan, but ultimately both were pushed aside when MP-33 was revealed. The price crashed from 800+ yuan (~US$122 in 2015) to 300 yuan, upsetting early buyers.

MT did not lose heart. It switched its main online propaganda channel to Weibo and confidently introduced Despotron (Megatron), with its polished design, at 900+ yuan (~US$140 in 2016) with a marketing campaign to match. It was quickly undercut by DX9 who went from announcement to release of its Mightron in one month at a price of 500+ yuan. MT went all out to market its Despotron, and it seemingly worked, until a screenshot of MP-36 showed up. It was like a nuclear blast in the fandom. MT was forced to reduce its price to 700+ yuan, but it was too late. MT had lost its last shot in regaining its glory days.

In hindsight, it was obvious why DX9 rushed out its Mightron at a low price -- it was not due to MakeToys as it so proudly thought.

MT then changed direction and started a new CD line. The first two were slight tweaks to official designs to save design cost, but they suffered from production and material flaws. It tried to play its 'Japanese' origin again, but fans found embarrassing linguistic mistakes and called its bluff.

Today, MT even has to resort to crowdfunding for a Meteor repaint. How the mighty has fallen.

[end]

This covers about 70% of the second video. There are several parts I don't know how to translate accurately and hence skipped. The speech is very well done. (The script must have taken some time to prepare.)

Speaking of MakeToys, I found this Chinese reviewer talking about the history of MakeToys:

【变百科】人靠衣装马靠鞍, 史上最会包装的第三方 (The 3P with the best marketing)

【变百科】卸下伪装狰狞的嘴脸, 第三方巨星陨落之路 (The fall of a 3P mega-star)

From Dec 2018.

The rise and fall of MakeToys

According to him, MT's first misstep was Utopia (2014). After that, nothing seemed to go right for MT.

tl;dr

Don't expect MT to bounce back any time soon.

On 1/15/2020 at 12:33 PM, mikeszekely said:

XTB seems to be using a style that will appeal to a lot of older MP collectors, with a cartoony robot but a very realistic truck mode.  The designer was definitely looking at a real Kenworth K100, and he seems to have copied a lot of little details down to a little vent over the air intake for the turbo (thanks, David) that's on one side of the grill and only one side of the grill.

XTB is able to get an ultra-accurate front of the cab because that is its sole purpose. It hangs off the back in bot mode. I would be more forgiving if it isn't so big.

This is quite a common theme for XTB and their big backpacks. Their upcoming Springer looks like he is carrying a backpack too -- but then it could be inherent in this design.

On 1/16/2020 at 1:45 PM, mikeszekely said:

Not long after a few other online retailers began putting up preorders for some Maketoys stuff, including some old Maketoys stuff.  If I had to guess, Maketoys was liquidating whatever inventory it still had on hand.

I got the three MakeToys figures I wanted over the years (Meteor, Downbeat, Visualizers). I may have desired a few more, but I find their products priced too high. I feel the same way with MMC.

FansToys is expensive, but you feel it's worth it.

7 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

And it looks like I'll have Gravestone before Capone, despite Capone shipping over a month ago.

DX9 has the worst luck when it comes to their big releases.

It looks like none have made it to USA yet, including the US retailers?

Is it that it shipped at a bad time (first week of December) or it was flagged for inspection?

On 1/2/2020 at 9:09 AM, DewPoint said:

I think our best bet for the video quality you are looking for is to try to find a LaserDisc copy of the movie.

I think there is no need to go so far back, just the DVD will do.

2016 Bluray: current state of the art, with some sharpening in out-of-focus parts.

2012 Bluray: remastered with little or no grain. (Did I remember correctly?)

2007 HD remastered DVD: progressive, but very grainy. (The grain can be removed easily.) It has a warm color, IIRC. There is an unrestored non-anamorphic version on Disc 2. You might prefer that for old school look.

1999 Perfect Ed DVD: window-boxed and interlaced. It looks nice if properly deinterlaced. This is old-school enough, IMO.

On 1/2/2020 at 12:09 AM, mikeszekely said:

I'm not pointing that out to be critical, mind you. I'm just lamenting that I myself don't have a network of like-minded collectors willing to loan me stuff. My reviews are limited to just what I buy.

And that's the issue with most 3P Transformers reviewers: very few can get or afford the full range of figures.

Some reviewers are fun to watch, but they put out reviews (that I'm interested in) so infrequently. Vangelus definitely falls into that category.

optibotimus took a lot of flack for asking people to donate to him in Oct 2015, but he could just be ahead of the curve.

His video: 

I just checked his channel and he still seems to be going strong.

OTOH, there are now more Chinese reviewers -- uploaded to YouTube from other sites. Sign of the times, I guess.

She also has childbearing hips.

VCD is super low-res. 352x240.

You can find torrents of the blu-ray rip easily.

On 12/13/2019 at 7:25 AM, mikeszekely said:

Unique Toys does an amazing job of taking a robot that doesn't look like it should transform and getting it to transform.

It is amazing, but because the two modes are so different, my primitive mind doesn't register it as a Transformer.

I think for Transformer to be look like it transforms, the bot should show some parts from the alt mode.

On 12/3/2019 at 9:55 AM, Seto Kaiba said:

Since everything's digitally-animated these days, I dunno... maybe they can re-render stuff in 4K the way they'd do a new transfer from original reels.

For digital stuff, only if they re-render and not merely upscale. That might be enough for me to double-dip some Pixar movies.

For older stuff, even for Studio Ghibli movies and DYRL, I think 1080p is enough. But then I don't have a 65" TV.

On 11/4/2019 at 9:01 AM, isamu said:

Hi guys. Is there any news of a 4K BD release of DYRL on the horizon any time soon? What resolution is the existing current Bluray release?

The current blu-ray is already blurry.

Is there any point going 4K for anime?

A look at the cost.

DX9 cheap: $70 x4 + $130 (Capone) = $410

(Assuming the last two bots are discounted to $70, which may not happen.)

DX9 normal: $100 x4 + $160 = $560

FansToys: $105 x3 + $180 x2 = $675

XTB: $40 + $60 + $70 + $70 + $130 + trailer = $370 + trailer

If the trailer costs $100, then XTB will cost $470 in total. Not the $300ish some are expecting on outset.

On 10/27/2019 at 6:35 AM, mikeszekely said:

If they'd made it around the same size as the HasTak Titan I'd have bought it in a heartbeat.

By Titan class, do you mean 18" or 24"?

18" is no-brainer for me, but I even have to think at 24".

I'm not ruling FT-40 out now, but 40+" is really no joke. If I could spare money/room for just one such Behemoth class (we need a new name!), It won't be Fortress Maximus. Probably Metroplex, in city mode 99% of the time.