Chindenathus

We had Psycho too. The funny thing is that in the animated series, his name was Dr. Z (they even stuck a funky monocle on him, too).

No that was Herr Fiend:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herr_Fiend

Which was a Porche.

The Classics Rodimus was very close to the "Dome":

http://www.tfu.info/2006/Autobot/ClassicsRodimus/rodimus.htm

What a shame.

I thought "Paranoia Agent" was unusually brilliant

and a fine counterpoint to FLCL.

Satoshi Kon, may you find the joys in the hereafter

that evaded you in the world of the living.

I too got 'Peg' on friday and am very pleased with the design.

Blurr is going to so 'rock' with this mold.

Tamashii Web has posted a ton of new images here:

http://tamashii.jp/t_item/t_item.php?eid=00027

There is quite a bit of technical design images.

I am most impressed with the nose turret and the

deployable stabilizer for "gerwalk".

Just figured I'd share.

And this review is for "WARBOT: Defender (Aka: Classics Springer)

The review is regarding this fellah right here:

http://www.tfsource.com/products/view/product_id/984/

I got mine from the link above and he is on my desk as

I type this. Fan Productions kind of blew me away with

their "City Commander/Classics: Ultra Magnus" trailer

a while back but this is the first standalone figure and so

far in my opinion their best product to date.

Packaging: It is rare that I am surprised at how well an item

is packaged. This is one of those rare occasions. The

box is in a clear plastic carton and then the toy is entombed

is a clamshell sitting in a cardboard tray. The post would have

to get very deliberate to damage this product on it's way to you.

It doesn't hurt that also the box is very nicely designed and

printed.

Design:

>Robot Mode: In robot mode he evokes a good ballance

/of G1 "Toon" style and modernized Classics (Universe,Etc)

/look. He is broad shouldered and tough looking with out

/being a total brute. Sort of a well thought out blend of bulk,

/strength, and efficiency that a good soldier robot would need.

/The figure is very, very poseable and as some have noted is

/flexible enough to holster and draw his pistols. Which is one

/heckofa' feat. Speaking of pistols...

>>Weapons/Accessories: "The Defender" comes with the

/following armament: 2 pistols and his Sword/Rotor.

/The Sword is well executed with a chinese broadsword

/style blade(s). It is made of the same plastic as the tires and

/pistols which is a bit transluscent. A lot of folks are worried

/about how thin these pieces are and I can see where they

/are coming from. I have already concluded that mine will

/not be left displayed with his sword in hand just to be on the

/safe side. That said, it looks good in his hand and capable

/meteing out some punishment. His pistols are an example

/what I hope to see in the Impossible Toys TRNS-1(Arcee).

/They are well detailed and appropriately deadly looking.

/All of his weapons stow and/or deploy in all three modes

/fairly effortlessly. The folks at FanPro thought it all out.

>A/M: Armored Car: His armored car mode is a good

/mix of brutish and functional. It looks like it could take

/on most terrain fairly easily. In someways it reminds me

/of some of the future combat vehicle concepts from last

/decade. The pistols can be mounted forward in this mode

/and add some menace to an already tough looking ride.

>A/M: Helicopter: In helicopter mode which has a pleasantly

/thorough transition from his armored car configuration. The

/Defender looks like a bulky "Combat in the year 2000!"

/version of an Apache combat helicopter. The rotor spins

/freely and the pistols are pegged into the front sponsons

/to give this mode the same "business" look that his terrestrial

/combat form has.

Quality: The die-cast metal is nice, and the plastic is of higher

quality than some of FanPro's earlier efforts. The paint job is

as close to perfect as you will see in the third party market.

All he needs is an Autobot insignia and he's pretty near

perfect.

Value: This where it gets a bit less positive. You need to

ask yourself, "Self. Do I really love Springer $90 worth?"

Because after shipping that's pretty much what this fellah

costs. If you say "Yes" then jump on it before he is on the

path to oblivion...

Here is my review on Dark Shyfire:

This review is about this figure:

http://www.tfsource.com/products/view/product_id/895/

Packaging: It is a B/W recolor of the Henkei Jetfire box

for the most part with the appropriate images of the figure

on it. Nothing to brag about but it looks decent.

Design:

>Robot Mode: This is the fourth time I have bought this

/mold, and frankly there are no surprises. Which is good

/because it is an awesome mould through and through.

/The new paint scheme is very nice and sinister looking.

/With some purple autobot symbols he would make an

/impressive "Dark Glass" Jetfire.

>>Weapons/Accessories: This figure has delivered in this

/department in spades once again. He has the same 'kit'

/as his predacessors and it still looks awesome on him.

/One thing of note; his shoulder guns have hinges instead

/of the breakaway tips which is an interesting change.

>A/M: Jet-fighter: It is an F-14 in swingwings only.

/The new deco shines pretty well here. I like the new

/detailing. it's very simple and effective. Beyond that

/nothing new to mention.

>A/M: Aerospace Fighter: Essentially the above alt-mode

/with all the wargear applied. It looks like a combat work

/horse as it should and with a little effort it is packing more

/heat than most transformers could dream of. This "Guntastic"

/quality of this design is one of it's finest points.

Quality: There is both good and bad to point out in this area.

put bluntly, the tooling is getting tired and the extra play in

some the joints brings this to the fore. It is an excellent toy

but it looks to be time to retire this mold before things get

ugly and disappointing.

Value: In my opinion this item was overpriced from the

start. The deco is really nice, but not "4X shelf price"

nice. If you have money to burn, by all means, but I would

not consign myself to eating Ramen for a month to get it

I am stoked about this conversion kit to change the new mg Zeta into a Zeta II (1/100):

http://www.hobbyfan.com/product_info.php?products_id=8249

I like how it integrates the original kit including it's mega cannon into the Zeta II's Methuss + Zeta C1+

styling.

This one didn't catch my eye till it was too late:

http://www.kotobukiya.co.jp/item/page/pk_a...h_c/index.shtml

I'll willing to pay $80+ for it (along with S&H).

PM me if you can get your hands on one.

Geez.

EVEN the Chunky Munky VF-1 from the 1980s looks better than a modern Transformer. It's just THAT GOOD a design!

Pete

The problem I've always had with this criticizm is that the VF-1 is/was not ever made to look like an actual jet.

It's an homage to the era of design the F-14/F-15 were part of. The Chunky Munky and thereby Jetfire look

damned good because the design is both simple (with swingbars) and yet elegant. I applaud His Froatiness

on his robot skills, but The old Valk is pretty unique critter in and of itself.

BEWARE!!! The Headless VF-22S! LOL

I was in mid transformation back to gerwalk mode and the face just unclipped itself...

Those images have me thinking my VF-22 should be be piloted by LEGION...

(It was the mask/face in hand that had me thinking of the image below.)

"Dear Lord,

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the Lord John's soul to keep.

See him safely through the night,

And wake me with 1/32 Legioss light.

Amen"

Can I get an Amen my brothers?

Amen!

I have had dreams of the old 1/32 kit project from back in the day.

Dry dreams mind you...

I recently preordered a VF-27 kit at BBTS and am looking forward to it in Nov/Dec when they send it out

to me. I wonder just how sticker happy that kit will be. HFH knows the others were fairly decal happy

designs.

I like the VB-6 and all, but doesn't it seem like the feet are a little small relative to the torso? And the cannons arent quite as wide as I thought them to be.

Looks a little different from this

>>>VB6 Comparrison Images<<<

Nevermind, some comparing between the pics and the RD VB-6 looks completely different. The frontal knees are completely different, and the hind portion is different too. The torso is indeed too big, and the cannons are too small and short. Even the side turbines on the torso are misplaced and too small. This can either be for the sake of Bandai's kid-friendly philosophy, or the necessity to make it transformable, but it sure as hell isn't accurate.

Ugh. Someone make a gerwalk only VB-6 or HWR already =/.

Has any noticed just how much anime magic the VB6 has between modes in the old artbook/game it came from?

The "Design Differences" are caused pretty much due to nothing on it can magically shrink to be smaller in

the mode it isn't prominent. the nose and wings are distorted for flight mode, the feet and cannons for gerwalk,

and the head, arms, and legs are emphasised in battroid. The "Koenig Monster" has some of the heaviest

anime magic in the Macross continuity. This is why when a company tackles the design, I applaud their efforts

and prepare myself for the "shortcomings of the fruits thereof. No VB6 design that has all three modes without

serious partswapping will be lineart accurate.

MP Prime has a major cop-out in that his entire back half of vehicle mode has zero resemblance to a real truck. And the back half of the cab isn't much better.

If you made an MP Prime and mandated that the vehicle mode actually look like it should, bot mode would be quite different.

ROTF Prime emphasizes truck mode, MP Prime emphasizes bot mode. The G1 toy blows away MP Prime when it comes to vehicle mode.

Except for G1 prime wasn't truck accurate either in the places you mentioned.

The grill and headlights lined up better though that's for certain.

IMNSHO Michael Bay and this guy: Ehren Kruger are the folks to blame for the shortcomings

of the second film. Bay is remarkably incompetent at paying attention to detail or script/plot

flow. Kruger has bit of a rep of royally screwing up/rewriting scripts that other people

wrote. These two together did a marvelous job of taking Tf2 (which is chock full of eye candy)

and producing slick product but if one actually pay attention to anything other than explosions

or Fox's assets holds together worse that Jetfire's rusty carcass. After seeing Star Trek there

no way in hell I believe that the serious lack of focus in TF:ROTF is Orci and Kurtzman's fault.

Amway. They get all their sh*t from Amway.

BTW, the updated HISS tanks looked pretty cool. Glad they updated the clear glass canopy into something a little more armored and fortified.

I am not kidding when I "say" this...

In the Joe-verse one of Cobra's legit fronts is called "ARBCO" and it is infact the Joe-verse's version of "AmWay".

I got my Red and Blue Metal Composite Zetas and they are pretty awesome.

My Blue one has a problem though. The "pitot tube" like sensor was busted on delivery.

It fell off when I picked it up from the tray. Any pointers on how to get this fixed

and/or replaced? The part I am talking about is circled in the image below.

http://robotjapan.proboards.com/index.cgi?...mp;thread=14299

Looks pretty schweet to me. I'm digging the Blue version over the Red.

Of course, that begs the question of why Bandai's such a fan of shiny plastic? I much prefer the matte plastic that Yamato uses in its products.

The "matte" plastic you mention is molded with a micro texture that makes it chaotically reflective

thereby; matte. This is all well and good till you rub it with anything as harder or harder than a

fingernail. If this happens it is near impossible to buff the scratch out because it makes more of the

plastic shiny.

The way I see it is. if the only thing folks find to complain about is the plastic's texture then the price

of these these two are money well spent. If you like the Zeta Plus series designs that is.

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers...tml#post3419701

Yeah folks don't grasp so well how titannic any jet fighter is. I like the pic below

it gives a good example of the scale issue between Optimus and Jetfire.

I just finished watching R2 of "Code Geass". It felt a bit lost during the third quarter,

but it ends pretty well. Admittedly the ending felt a bit rushed/strongarmed but

I chalk that up to them having more plot than they could fit in the time constraints.

I found it to be a damned sight better that the end of Death Note which I really

enjoyed until the last 5 episodes or so.

Scaplers? In my neck of the woods? I'm lucky to meet other people who even know how to get on "them thar interwebs."

Probly' them thar' stock employees taking advantage of their position.

I'm from the part referred to during the election by (I think) both sides as "Penntucky.

Wow, that's beautiful. I had the original Defensor back in the day.

I don't recognize the motorcycle. What series was that originally from?

It's a heavy rebuild of Armada/Energon Sideways

http://www.tfu.info/2002/Autobot/ArmSideways/sideways.htm

Well, I hate whoever decided that the stores in my area needed stacks of Cheetors while I haven't seen a single Cyclonus.

You mean the scalpers who bought all the Cycloni and Hounds...

The case Cheetor comes in is a mix of the three.

Nope. Don't have to give it up if I don't want to. I haven't broken any of MW's rules, so it's fair discussion. If I have a dissenting viewpoint I am entitled to say it now matter what a noob like you says.

Part of growing up is learning to adjust one's frame of refference to the facts before them:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-56...apped-back.html

Goodbye: The former pilot was launched from a plane at 8,000ft

After one last wave to the watching crowd, Rossy dipped his wings as he prepared for the piece de resistance,

a manoeuvre he hadn't tried before...He flipped onto his back and levelled out again, executing a perfect

360-degree roll that even a bird would find impossible.

"It's like a second skin," Rossy said later after landing on the shores of Lake Geneva.

"If I turn to the left, I fly left. If I nudge to the right, I go right."

With his first big test under his belt, Rossy, 48, is ready for bigger challenges: he plans to cross the English Channel

later this year, before attempting to fly through the Grand Canyon. To do this, he will have to fit more powerful jets

to allow for greater manoeuvring. The four Germanbuilt model aircraft engines he currently uses provide 200lb of

thrust each, enough to enable the 110lb foldable carbon wings, and Rossy in his 120lb flying suit, to climb at 200ft

a minute. "Physically, it's absolutely no stress," Rossy said.

Scroll down to watch Rossy in action...

The bold part and a basic grasp of physics proves you wrong.

If anything can climb higher that it's launch altitude it has acheived powered flight.

See the left hand. I dare say I may have new avatar soon: