RFT

are you talking about alternators ,mustang grimlock, or the energon T-Rex Grimlock?

Kaido Battle is top-drawer stuff. I've got KB2: chain reaction and love it- My AE86 Levin is feared across the passes as the quickest way down a mountain short of jumping off the side. and for going up, I've got my Impreza station wagon.

new entry 1/60 1 Strike 1S

I don't think red meister or yellow tracks are coming out as alternators at all- I'm pretty sure they're going to be BT-only. The prevailing theory about the red boxes on the TF board I spend most time on is that the red boxes are indeed G1-homage (as is the rest of the line) to the fact that G1 autobots came in red packaging, and decepticons in purple. I'd expect that when Alt Swindle turns up, he'll be in a purple box.

cheers for that link- good lord, we did build some beautiful aircraft in the 50s and 60s. and the whole TSR.2 story pretty much sums up why we don;t have a serious military aerospace industry any more. when I was an engineering student at manchester uni, one of the early bits of lab work we did for solid mechanics was messing around with an ex-TSR2 flap from one of the ones that had been used as target practce...

speaking as someone else with both an alt and BT smokescreen, I'd have to say the "no chipping" thing isn;t quite true for alt smokes- at least not mine... My about 7 months old now, and has been transformed many times, and he is losing a lot of the tampo work on the windows (driver name and "subaru" banner on the rear windscreen) also the yellow stripes up the side are chipping to white at the trailing edge of the rear doors. also, I find on the alt, the fact that he's just a flat blue makes him look very cheap next to the BT (Mine's a 2004 Smokes GT), which has a very deep, metallic blue. that's not to say the BT is perfect, the panel fit on the alternator is a lot better- on the BT, the boot/trunk won;t shut properly. my BT swipe has a similar problem compared to my alt swipe (i doubled up as HLJ had a sale on the BT)

all the sources I've seen are quoting that it's a 50-50 split between red and white.

this is a good point- without wanting to take things off-topic, Takara's Binaltech TFs are really well packaged in this regard. The packaging retains usefulness for transporting the figs safely. Yamato's (from what I've got) is also very impressive for this, as the inlay trays are held together without tape, just moudled clips in the tray. Personally I don't like the robotech MPC bookstyle packaging, as it doesn't seem to relate at all to the toys within. Takaras TF collection reissue line is also done in a bookstyle way (opening flap on the front of the box,) and seem more in keeping with that particular line. these are really nice to own. personally, though, I think yamato should stick with the way they're doing it- big boxe aside, they show the toy off well, have a decent feeling of quality to them, and are designed in a way that it's easy to put the toy back in the box safely if I want. that's pretty much everything I want from a box for a toy...

on 1/60s the older ones that were sold without the super packs can't take them. I think once they did the supers, all subsequent releases had the holes, as the moulds were changed and couldn't be put back. you can quite clearly see whcih have the holes without opening the box. I hope Kevin doesn't mind me linking to these pics: 1A Max- note legs/engine nacelles have no holes in upper surface 1A CF. note the 2 holes in the white portion of the top of the same nacelles 1/48s: they all take the packs, I think.

Well, it is the applicable patent for jetfire... or rather was. according to that scan, the patent was granted in 1984 for 16 years. does that mean anyone can make them now?

no, it exists. It's real. What's currently up for debate is whether it's going to be a proper relase in the main alternator line, or a convention exclusive. Lookie Here

3 theories: 1: Hasbro's licensing deal with mazda meant the toy had to be out by a specific date in the states that doesn't apply in japan. 2: Because the BT is availabe in 2 colours (red and white), there's a longer production lead time, as unlike Smokes, where the only variation is tampo work, meister's entire paint job is different, which will probably require them to do all the whites, then all the reds, before casing them up. 3: Dropping Smokes GT into the schedule earlier this month might have taken the planned slot for meister, so BT meister got bumped back a few weeks.

Thanks! I'm seeing if I can find a UK supplier, but failing that, that's great.

I'm sure this has been asked several times before, but searching for "stand" or "display" doesn;t bring up useful results that I can find- Where can i get one of those perspex, 3-pronged display stands? I should be getting my first proper yamato valk this week (a 1/60 strike from V-E, as a toe-dipping exercise), and I'd like a nice stand to show it off in fighter mode, and I don't like the look of the Yamato one...

I've got tracks as well. Vehicle mode looks great- the seam in the middle is pretty tight, is it's not overpowering to the look of the thing- the main problem is that the rear tyres are too narrow, but you hardly see it. Transformation is fairly easy, apart from the legs. it's a job to get them to unfold properly, as there's quite a positive lock to hold ereythign in the right place for vehicle mode. this is even harder to deal with in the robot-car direction. once in robot mode, posability of exellent for the arms, less good for the legs. the legs can move over quite a range, but the feet don't, which restricts things somewhat. the other problem with posing the legs is that with all the bodywork hanging off them (ald also the fact that the doors are attached to the body, not the legs), means there's a lot of fiddling usually needs to be done to move all the body peices out of the way when posing.

I thought the TF names were a marvel invention, then retrospectively applied to japan, where ina couple of cases they picked different ones... making "jazz" arguable more original than "meister" (as the diaclone toy was just "porsche 935 turbo")

There's quite a lot of discussion of this over at seibertron.com. basically the later Alts are beginning to filter through to stores in the US, but it seems to be rather slow. if you go to the head Here- the seibertron toys forum and look for sighting threads. there are a few of them.

why so rude about hasbro/takara? They've proved with the Binaltech and alternators line that they can build fantastic robots out of a car. why shouldn't they be able to do the same with a plane mould? RM starscream is also a really good plane-robot TF and if he was on a larger scale, I'm sure he could be done with as much articulation as a yamato valk. the toys of 20 years ago are no reflection on the current capabilities of the companies ni question. the G1 toys were, usually bricky and primitive compared to now., and this applies to the cars as well as the seekers. If Has/tak can update the cars in such an impressive manner, I see no reason why it can't be done for the seekers. though presonally, I still liek the G1 figs, even for all their primitive nature....

I think that picture is a photoshopped version of an unpainted prototype- hence the airbrushed look in a couple of places... like the "open" pic...

I doubt that would be the problem. after all, they did reissue Jazz, didn't they? so if those decals would be a problem, they'd just change the text again. From what i've read- the problem with a wheeljack reissue is that the moulds are rumoured to be in a very poor state. however, they said that about Soundwave and Hound...

My suspiscion is that sideswipe was originally designed in the "modified" way (hence the shoulder missiles), but had to get changed in testing because that joint was too weak. I keep meaning to mod mine. I don;t mind the similar transformations, as long as I get a good-looking car, and a good-looking, nicely posable bot, the journey between the two modes is less important. FWIW, Hound and Meister do actually transform reasonably differently. I think the reason the general scheme's been used a bit is that it does give good results, without too much stuff hanging off the back. Even on the streak/smokes remoulds, there appears to have been both a bit of tweaking here and there to make transformation back to car a bit easier by loosening off a lot of the joints, and also they've really done a nice job of remoulding- even doing a lot of parts they could very easily have got away with not doing. There's also the theory that the front of car being the chest is liked by manufacturers because it means the "face" of the car doesn't get altered. The reason porsche declined a license was not apparently to do with "war toys", but because the nature of TFs requires splits in the bodywork that wouldn't neccesarily be there. Keeping thos splits away from the front of the vehicle probably helps persuade otherwise reluctant manufacturers. so yeah- I dont; mind continuing with similar transformations as long as they keep getting improved. the amount of posabiliuty meister's going to have looks fantastic.

where's that pic from?

That would be cool. Though I did just buy a skids yesterday. as for picking up a Takara #0 convoy- it's probably ebay only. though you might get lucky if you check HLJ's transformers section daily- they occasionally pick up a couple.i

done my own research- it's the 220.

Kawamori Aibo Variant? Me and the wife have an Aibo (ERS-311 "Latte"). which is the kawamori one?