motley

the only difference i see is the shield mount, this one has it off to the side of the arm, instead of off the back of the arm for the regular version. the shoulder armor is noticably redesigned, and much of the body armor is now segmented, presumably to reduce weight. its pretty, but i'm not so fond of the new shoulder armor. and like everybody else has said, the Hi-nu is much better.

the I-men are not especially posable, think lego figures, as that's prety much what they are. banpresto valks are one of those love/hate toys. i personally love mine.

i think the problem is that bandai america is using tv ratings to decide what products to bring over as opposed to sales, and granted the AU shows get much higher ratings than the UC shows. but, toywise the UC figures sell better than the AU figures hands down. UC gundam also has an older audience that's not able to watch the broadcast shows as easily as the 12-year olds, but guess who has more money to spend?

hasbro has released pics of alternators Silverstreak, who we'd seen pop up on HLJ as streak. and its a remold too, not just a repaint. http://www.hasbro.com/transformers/pl/page.../dn/default.cfm

its probably that it was more stable without the legs. the cannon is shell firing, and the story goes that zeon never really figured out how to correct for the recall. parking it with the rest of the fixed defences makes a lot of sense. and since the zaku cannon was designed as an anti-air unit, its just about as useful fixed as it is running around in the jungle, especially against tanks and feddie MS. i'd also say its a fixed unit just because of those cables running into the open cockpit, that's not normal at all.

judging from everything we've heard so far, hasbro's been very adamant that the alternaters are going to be all plastic short of a few screws and pins. i personally prefer the diecast, but the american transformer fan base seems to prefer their toys cheap and plasticy. the first link you posted only deals with the MP prime, which other than the smokestacks, packaging and paint apps is going to be the same as the takara version.

oh, i agree with you. i probably should have written it "triple changer" instead of normally. the jet mode is pretty weak, though the boat mode should be better judging from the picture. still not a great figure in my book. especially since the design of the robot mode borrows so heavily from certain other franchises. the legs are essentially a gundams, and other parts clearly channel macross plus, though that might be a bit of design compromise. the heads not very tf-ish either.

mirage is a triple changer, if you look carefully there's a powerboat under that ungainly jet thing, and provided all the missile launcers drop down, it won't be too bad, though its still not all that great. Arcee looks pretty good, the red energon bit and the weapon are removable, though there's still some motorcycle kibble there, they hid it pretty good behind the weapon in the pic of the alt mode. energon looks to be a mixed bag, not nearly as all around sucky as armada, but still not great. arcee's the best looking toy i've seen out of the line so far, figure's she's a basic.

in the armada show, the mini-cons are simply explained as a seperate race of robots, presumably created to be slaves for the regular transformers, they certainly don't get treated much better. in the next show they're adding a couple new factions that are essentially smaller versions of each side(for the return of the basic size toy), though their role seems closer to that of the minicons, ie helpers. like the original show, armada is a commercial with a thin layer of plot. probably about the same as G1, but without the horrible real world political incorrectness of the 1980s and the cold war. instead we get transformers pokemon, really, or at least for the first quarter of the show. then they start introducing the new characters and the plot line returns to the fight between the decepticons and the autobots, though unicron shows up offstage. the overall effort is much like G1, where parts of the show seem well thought out, but poorly excecuted. G1 really sucked as a show, but i think the backstory played out better, and i liked the characters more. armada has sucky characters all around and lame toys. at the time the G1 toys were great, even though they were bricks, now though the nostalgia factor is the main thing they have going for them. armada isn't the worst cartoon out there. it seems to have really improved for the last episodes, but its still not ever going to be a great cartoon. personally i liked beast machines more. though, i'll second the recommendation for the comic book. i've heard it takes the story and tweaks it for a more inteligent audience.

why does it have to be turkey? i had ham. and honestly there are more different ways to do a "traditional" thanksgiving turkey than you might well imagine. and you'd probably be surprised how easily you might convince your family to try something different.

ah, i can see that. they both appear to be a bit self-parodying as well.

yeah, energon optimus. blech. i'm really not liking what i'm seeing of energon, though i'm sure some of the toys towards the end of the run will be better, much like armada. i've acquired several armada toys now, along with a bunch of minicon sets, and while my overall impression is that i've really wasted my money, there are a couple figures i do like. i just wish armada megs was capable of a decent base mode, he's really almost there. fortunately we have binaltech and alternators, where two of the three figures announced look great so far. too bad about sideswipe.

actually no. macross 7 is equivilent to turn A gundam. G gundam is the gundam version of macross 2, along with X, Wing and Seed, where the parent company made a sequel without bringing in the original creator. as for a new macross series, i'll just be happy to see one. macross is one of the better mecha anime's out there, but its seen fairly little development over the last 20 years. so a new show, in whatever form it comes in will be apreciated. the thing to remember, though, is that the reason macross is different from your standard mecha anime is that Kawamori doesn't approach the show from the standard angle, and never has. so i would expect that whatever show follows Macross 0 will be completely different from all the shows and OVAs (though i think we can expect singing as a major plot component)

once again, that's an RPG reference, non-canon. check the compendium. VF-11

not yet. the earliest we can expect him and sideswipe is late next month, if not january, though i think they'll want to get this out for X-mas shopping. i'm a little saddened that we probably won't be seeing sideswipe or sunstreaker as lamborghini's (well actually a lot, i like the Murcielago, and sideswipe was a favorite as a countach), and ironic as given that sideswipe's japanese name is lambro. but i'm less saddened at the loss of the beetle for bumblebee, instead i think they should do him as a Mini. its got the right general shape, the headlights are the right shape, and honestly i've never really liked the new beetle.

pretty much just the diecast vs plastic, though hasbro seems to have forgone the metal flake plastic and any attempt at painting more than just the decals. there are also apparently a couple duarabilty issues on the alternaters smokescreen, its reported that the hood pops off easily during transformation. but yeah its essentially just painted diecast vs unpainted plastic.

well not so much. there's been only one release so far, a second wave was announced right after the initial release, and they showed off the figures in the pic i posted up above. wave two so far is going to include Jazz, Prowl, Thrust, a more cartoon accurate Optimus Prime, Megatron, and Red Alert. there is also one chase figure announced. but judging by the initial release that means that prime's trailer and megatron's add on gun parts(barrel extension and stock) will be chase units and the chase figure will probably be a repaint. the options for the repaint include more seekers, thundercracker is most likely, but ramjet and dirge are outside choices as they feature another, different, set of wings from both starscream and thrust. smokescreen or bluestreak repaints of prowl (minus the sirens) are also possibilities. i'm honestly surprised that red alert wasn't a chase figure. i'm sure there are other options borrowing from the show and various full sized exclusive repaints, like the gold jazz, the many sideswipe/red alert repaints or the other myriad starscream repaints since Tracks, Skids, and Hot Rod didn't make the cut for wave two, we can probably assume that they'll be part of wave three.

it turns out the die-cast bit is not a mistake, though you'd be hard pressed to notice. prime for example has diecast feet, as does sideswipe, shockwave and starscream. that would presumably also apply to skywarp, though i don't have one to test. i was told that bumblebee had diecast as well, but i'm not finding any. also, as far as i can tell, its only the feet that are diecast, though i've checked most of the painted parts on my set, though i don't have ANY of the chase figures so i can't check the trailer.

from what i've gathered so far, takara's third binaltech release is going to be a silver/bluestreak repaint of the smokescreen WRX mold, which should be out sometime early 2004. so hound would be released a month or two after that. as for tracks, the assumption is that he's the new c6 corvette, which hasn't even been officially displayed yet, so odds are that we won't see even the prototype until january or so when its debuted. its unclear when the alternators versions of hound and tracks will be out, though march is the speculated date.

while die-cast would be heavenly, i think its a mistake on the part of the retailer. as for the missing characters, i for one, can wait for hot rod, though its a shame about tracks and skids. especially since what we're getting in return is 3 repaint/remolds. unless they're including the trailer with this prime i'll be extremely pissed. red alert is ok, though i'd have prefered a new mold and let the repaint be a chase figure. i'd feel much the same about thrust, if i he wasn't my favorite seeker. the next question will be about the 1 reported chase figure, specifically whether or not its a seperate figure or if its the add on parts for megs' gun mode like we were shown way back when the second batch was initially announced. the only really good news from the confusion is that we know that they already have 3 potential figures for a wave three.

its paper. the trailor that is. so it is a prop, but it may yet turn out to be a prop you can build yourself.

plus it's sporting hasbro's name and logo, and all the text on the box is in english. the battle scarring is pretty skimpy, which is good, but damn the short stacks. i really don't care what color the gun is, it just looks good, though the details are more apparent in the grey.

hasbro has released pics of the next NEW alternators toy, Hound. Hound robot mode Hound jeep mode presumably this will be the third alternators release with the corvette toy presumed to be Tracks the fourth, though HLJ is listing what appears to be a blue/silverstreak repaint of smokescreen as the third Binaltech toy. more shocking than anything though is that hasbro actually managed to release this before prototypes showed up on E-bay.

the reason bandai seems to emphasize the AU figures is that the AU shows were far more popular than MSG, and i suspect the UC OVAs as well. i'd say there's a disconnect between the people buying the toys and the people watching the shows. which i don't find surprising in the least. and as for CN not airing Zeta, from what i gather they'd have to cut so much stuff to even fit it on their late night shows that it wouldn't be worth the bother. oh, well, i'd rather buy a box set and watch the subtitled version when i have the time than trying to fit a bad dubbed version into my schedual.

the FA-78 is definitely tied up in figure limbo with the Zeta line. same goes for the next two figures in the Arch Enemy line. the figures are obviously ready for the shelves, and what they've shown of the Zeta line has been out for the asian market for quite some time, with the exception of the MSV Gundam Mk III. but the domestic MSiA market has really tanked of late what with the overused battle scarred figures and the not short packed enough G figures, its rumored that walmart is going to give up the line like they did the figure and vehicle sets. Zeta itself is still in limbo, we know its getting a dvd release next year, with the box set presumably to be available from the start, but its getting no TV time, and SEED is instead planned for a second or third quarter release, along with a "Relaunch" of the gundam franchise. so we may not see Zeta or F-91 until after SEED debuts. the lack of MSiA of late is probably due to a fevered attempt to get a SEED toy line ready for the US, as SEED's ADMSiA line is definitely not suited to the US market.