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Scyla

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  1. Scyla
    I too think it is a good idea to have them. However since they where a last minute addition the implementation of the horizontal stabs is lacking at best and they don't integrate well into tank and robot mode.
  2. Scyla
    Thanks for the review Mike, I think I have to get Guardia now because MMC didn't show anything about their Ocular Max Defensor on TFCon. This is a weird thing because it was the first image of the line that was show. Sadly also no news on the OX Insecticons. I also got no news about replacement pieces for my Backdraft which got me thinking if I really should wait for the OX Insecticons or if I should go with the FansToys one. I really hope Backdraft is just an outlier and not the new norm.
  3. Scyla
    On a second thought. Now that a VF-22 is in Macross Delta I wonder if Bandai will release a VF-22ADVANCE later on. Could we tell if the VF-22 in this episode was blue with a yellow trim?
  4. Scyla
    I think the horizontal stabilizers where a last minute addition to the toy. I don't know why maybe due to fan demands. That is why they don't integrate very well. It seems DX9 just constructed a ball-joint with a fin on it as the simplest solution.
  5. Scyla
    I think the chances are low that Bandai will release a Battle class capital ship. We can estimate that sales for the Quarter where quite low if we take the discounts and numbers of sales the Quarter took place in as an indicator of sales numbers. I think this was due to the quality of the toy and the general unappealing design of the Quarter but I think the data Bandai took from it was that capital ships don't sell in general. However if Bandai green-lights a DX version of the Macross Delta Elysion that sells well I could see them do a take on Battle Galaxy and Frontier maybe even a renewal Quarter. Depending on how well the TV SDF-1 did that Megahouse released recently they could release more Macross ships in that line. Which would not be what I want but at least it would be available. Arcadia on the other hand could do a Battle 7 in 1/3000 scale if they still have the license for that. Before Yamato went under they showed concept drawings for a Battle 7 design so this could still be something they are working on. However the way Arcadia operates now would probably price out a majority of the market if you look at the MSRPs of their recent releases. If they could reissue the Yamato 1/3000 SDF-1 at a competitive price and it would sell well it could bolster their confidence of releasing a Battle 7. I personally doubt it though. TLDY: If the Macross Elysion is getting a DX release and does well sales wise I could see Bandai releasing more DX capital ships from Frontier. Arcadia not so much.
  6. Scyla
    3rd party news from TFCon: http://news.tfw2005.com/2016/07/16/tfcon-2016-dealer-room-pics-318891 I dig the MMC Trailbreaker:
  7. Scyla
    I liked the episode (Battroid-action yay). I dislike the new opening *boo*.
  8. Scyla
    I share the feelings about the thickness of the plastic. Somehow it feels like MMC tried to shave off the material on the parts and see how far they can push it before it leads to problems. The Reformatted bots feel all super solid, even if they have delicate parts like Cynicus or Azalea. It could be that with thicker panels for the parts that make up the back of the fire engine the toy would tab together more solid. Maybe this is an unfair assessment on my side. Maybe the design of the toy prevented thicker panels. However it just feels so different to all the other releases so far. Even different than Sphinx. As an example most of the die-cast on him are structural parts (which is my favorite use of metal in toys) that are used to move one part of the toy to another. On Backdraft there are just massive junks of die-cast in the feet and front of the fire-engine while the joints and transformation armatures are plastic. This could all be due to the fact that Backdraft was designed by a different designer and Backdrafts design doesn't have the same transformation style that Sphinx has but still. I would have preferred a solid metal ankle joint to pieces of die cast in the toes. I really like the design and the transformation on Backdraft but I think Sphinx catered more to my likings. I tried to get some replacement parts from MMC directly so we see what comes from that. I will do an update to the toy once I got them in (if ever).
  9. Scyla
    From what I remember buying HotToys dolls figures from Sideshow will often include a bonus item like an extra head or an accessory.
  10. Scyla
    It was the expected calm episode after the last few action packed minutes. Odd docking maneuver by the Elysion though.
  11. Scyla
    Stellar episode. The lack of Battroid-Mode fighting action is concerning.
  12. Scyla
    I have to state that I'm super picky when it comes to fit and finish. I constantly ranting about Takara being unable to paint a white surface on colored plastic because it is not a smooth surface or they aren't able to design sprue runners where the gate marks are not visible on the toy. Others just seemingly scrub it up with the explanation that Takara is not Bandai of Japan. Backdraft has a lot of those issues. Here an overspray there a not cleaned well gate mark which stem all from manufacturing and not the design of the toy. The only issue with the design is that the legs don't have enough room in the back of the fire engine because the wings are too wide everything else is great. A major part in my disappointment of the figure is that Sphinx and to a lesser extend Jaguar are almost perfect renditions of what I have in my mind as a Masterpiece Transformers toy. Had Sphinx ratchets in his pelvis joints and locking front wheels in alt-mode he would have been a perfect design. Fit and finish on Sphinx was immaculate too with the smooth white surfaces, all the crisp tampoo printing and the excellent painted red pin-stripe that runs along the edges. I thought Backdraft would be a continuation of the quality Sphinx set out but sadly he is not. [edit 1:] If these issues are a deal breaker to you I'm not sure Takara can produce a better product since there QC if often very spotty. Im happy with Backdraft since he fits much better into my MP collection than Inferno. He just has not the finish that I'm expecting from a MMC product. [edit 2:] I've added a few images with issues I have on my copy. Those are the most glaring ones but similar (but smaller) issues are all over the place diminishing my enjoyment of the toy greatly. As I said I have one of every mold from MMC and even with their earlier stuff these where never issues. Their Hearts of Steel Cyclops has small cogwheels picked out with paint and they are all cleanly done. I don't know what happened with Backdraft and I hope this is not the beginning of a trend.
  13. Scyla
    So I've opened him up and transformed him back and forth. I'm not gonna lie, Backdraft has issues. One smaller issue is that it is a red toy. The red color has different shades of red and it is all over the place. I give Takara a lot of crap for their spotty paint jobs but MP Ironhide is done very very well. Now onward to the messy stuff. Sadly the factory was not up to the job assembling Backdraft. The fit and finish of the toy is not up to MMCs usual standards. I don't know if they switched factories or payed their usual factory less money to keep the price down but it is bad. I think the design of the toy is sound with maybe the exception of some areas of the toy that are too thin thus not having the solid feel while handling that other MMC products have (mostly their Reformatted line). So back to the factory. The toy has ugly sprue marks all over it. Either they weren't cut off all the way or they cut to much away resulting in junks of plastic missing. Paint overspray is all over the toy where the masking was not done properly. The toy has good sides to. Articulation is ace, the joints are ratcheted where they need to and the transformation is easy and fun. Everything fits together well in robot mode and cleans up amazingly well. The chrome color they uses is stunning to look at. Final verdict: I really hope this is an outlier from the MMC releases and there was something wrong with the factory they contracted for doing the molds and assembly. I hope it is NOT the beginning of MMC trying to reduce manufacturing costs to a minimum and outputting sub par product from now on. I would have payed more for the toy so it doesn't have the issues it had. I have all the MMC releases beginning with the Knight Morpher Annihilator and I have to say this is one of their weakest releases when it comes to fit and finish. Sorry MMC but you messed up. I still love you and eagerly awaiting Carnifex. There is much to love about Backdraft but compared to other MMC releases it is a letdown.
  14. Scyla
    Mine arrived today. I haven't had time to check it out but maybe I can give an update during the weekend. [edit:] Mini review of Backdraft here: http://www.macrossworld.com/mwf/index.php?showtopic=36937&p=1288853 Long story short: there is much to love about Backdraft but he is one of the weaker releases from MMC when it comes to fit and finish.
  15. Scyla
    Well we all want a VF-2SS but not this VF-2SS.
  16. Scyla
    The question would be if there is a norm for a collector. I've got the impression from looking at collection images (toys as well as other collections) that people tend to group items together i.e. here is my G1 toy shelf, here is my MP shelf etc. From that I extrapolated that collectors would like to have a consistent displays i.e. the the MP Optimus prime next to MP Ratchet fit well together (which they don't imho). A good indicator would be that the 3rd party companies try hard to ape the style Takara for their MP Transformers. I could be totally on the wrong track here tough. And while generalizing is sometimes a bad idea I'm really curious if there is a common mind-set that dives a majority of collectors.
  17. Scyla
    The major problem I have with the new look Takara is going for is that I have MP-10 till MP-21 (even up right before MP Ironhide) that go for a different design. I don't say that a slavish G1 cartoon focused MP line couldn't work or that MP Inferno is a bad toy (on the contrary I love what Takara has achieved with the ladder) but for me consistency in the lines I collect is one of the most important things and I'm confused that others don't feel the same way. Imagine when the Metal Build Destiny Gundam has the stylized look it was actually released in and MP Strike Freedom Gundam looks like the animation model. That doesn't go well together in my opinion. I can imagine a collector type that goes for only one toy from a line that is the most iconic (i.e. MP-01 or MP-10) where it doesn't matter what the other toys in the line look like. But I can't imagine that type of collector goes for Inferno as the most iconic G1 Transformer.
  18. Scyla
    The issue I have with the FansToys version is that it seems to follow Takaras trend with smoothed out surfaces. At least that is what it looks like form the initial renders. I'm not a fan of those and would prefer if the 3rd party companies follow the path MP-10 laid out. That is also why I'm totally jazzed for Backdraft who should be here any day now and not so much about the official Inferno. Maybe the MP mold will look better as Artfire with more paint apps but now he just looks very plane. I was very impressed with Gewalts transformation. There are a couple of things that I don't like. The head showing in tank-mode, the tank barrel having no place in jet-mode and the look of the torso in bot-mode. They should have integrated the nosecone better to give the torso a better proportioned look. And while I like the idea of the panels that form the upper abdomen they also give Gewalt a non-aesthetically pleasing look. In addition they seem to not peg safely into the chest at least on the test shot peaugh reviewed.
  19. Scyla
    Some crazy scientists build a Pacman maze with bacteria as gaming tokens: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=127&v=GvZm9EXqrdU
  20. Scyla
    I never gonna transform my VF-0A ever again!!!
  21. Scyla
    Boo... bring on SoC Gurren Lagann!
  22. Scyla

    Bandai DX VF-31

    Scyla replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    I really hope Bandai ramps up the production values for those. Since NY gets caught by customs more often than not their mark-ups are getting expensive.
  23. Scyla
    I greatly dislike the official MP Inferno not because he seems to be a bad toy but because I can't deal with all the inconsistencies over the whole line. If they could stick to the design cues they set out with MP-10. Every releases after MP-21 looks like it could be from a different line. MP Inferno looks like a great toy, the transformation of the ladder is ingenious, but he doesn't fit in with the rest of the cast. In my opinion MMCs Backdraft is a much better Inferno when you are planning to display it together with MP-10 - MP-21. I don't understand why Takara let this inconsistencies happen. I thought the great success of the new MP line after Convoy was that you can have a whole line of toys that can be displayed together on a shelf where MP-1 till MP-09 sought out to give the ultimate representation of each character without keeping the other releases in mind. The new MP line seems to do far better revenue wise, so why change a winning formula? Secondly there is another thought I have that doesn't seem to come up elsewhere. To me having a licensed and real looking vehicle clashes with the cartoon aesthetic. If a Transformer has not some sort of made-up alt-mode the vehicle will have many small details because that is how the real thing looks. On most Transformers those details will be shown prominently in robot mode as well (see Infernos chest). You need to have more details on the other robot parts so that the greebles of the alt-mode parts blend in better. If those details stem from the G1 comic or the toy or are made up doesn't matter but they help to bring the figure together as a whole, make them look complete. On MP Inferno the chest made off the Mitsubishi Fuso fire truck clashes with the rest of the robot mode and Takara is well aware of this thus they included more cartoon accurate chest pieces which will look vastly out of place in alt-mode. Having to swap out parts between to modes to change from a real-life aesthetic to a cartoon-aesthetic is something that is hard to stomach for me. I have to stress that I don't think that a more cartoon focused Transformers MP line is bad but than you can't have real life alt-modes. The design pillars set out by Hasui to blend the real-life vehicle with the cartoon model and toy and add a heroic stature to the robot-mode is the best way to blend all the different forms of the G1 Transformers together. The revamp of the MP line created a vision of the character I have in mind when I think back in nostalgia to the idealized Transformers of my childhood. Looking at the G1 toys, cartoon and comic now they can't keep up with the image I had that long in my mind.
  24. Scyla
    That is neat. I might have to order it. Hopefully S.H.Figuarts does one that goes well with their Turtles. Even a webshop exclusive is ok for me as long as he is super pose-able.
  25. Scyla
    If Takara don't announce an MP Megatron soon I will probably go with Despotron. One being that I need an MP Megatron in my collection and two I have the desire to see what Maketoys does with that aesthetic. The bots that the releases till now never struck my interests but their take on Megatron looks good. I'm actually less ok with 3rd party companies homaging other IPs than Transformers but I don't know how I can rationalize that for myself without sounding like a hypocrite. When it comes to 3rd party items I prefer the re-imagining stuff to the slavish G1 MP style because there I think that more original ideas come from the companies. Engineering, design and aesthetics are mostly influenced by the designer and not the original IP. Sure MMCs Leo Dux is a black and yellow and red lion that transforms into a robot with a lion head as his chest and a faceplated mouth but he is clearly not G1 Razorclaw. Not the toy, not the comic nor cartoon character. The closest thing I could find was the IDW incarnation. The 3rd party Gundam is clearly the Strike Gundam and the 3rd party Krang is clearly Krang, there is no beating around the bush. With transforming robots at least they came up with a their own transformation scheme. So while it is probably still pretty close to IP theft I think the Gundam and Turtle stuff is much closer to that. On the other hand it is a crying shame that there is no good Shredder toy from the 80s TMNT series. I'm still sounding like a hypocrite am I not?
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