M'Kyuun

I think a lot of us can relate to that; toys were always important to me as we were not well off so I didn't have a large or complete collection of anything, and I cherished what I did have. Transformers and building blocks were my two favorite things (not much has changed over the last 40 years except for the volume of my acquisitions. 13-year-old me would absolutely piss himself if he could see what I have now). Oddly enough, the scale thing often hits me more when I'm out on a walk and encounter the odd LEGO piece that a kid has dropped on the sidewalk. LEGO has been an integral part of my life for most of it; I handle it or see it every day and yet when I encounter a random piece it in the wild it always seems so small, like it's smaller than it really is. It's a weird perception, but in that analogous comparison I can completely understand @26662's amazement at how small the G1 toys were compared to today's main line and SS86 figures, and all the more diminutive compared to MP.

Are the thighs on G1 OP and UM's core made of die cast? It's been a very long time since I handled that figure and I don't recall. However, that would account for my mistaking them for being chromed, as they're pretty shiny in the pics. I was thinking, too, that there may be a moveable panel to allow for more forward knee travel, but I couldn't make it out if there is. There could also just be more clearance in the leg mold to allow for the thighs to swivel forward a bit. Regardless, I'm thinking the pics show the extent, or very close to the full extent of thigh forward motion. If it could kick up higher, I'm thinking they would've shown it for the 'ooh, ahh' factor.

Interesting, if simple, solution. As I surmised, the knees act as the armored form's hip joints. I wonder if the previous poses represent the limit of hip articulation forward or if the legs can kick higher. I don't have my reissue of G1 OP handy to see how much forward bend his knees have, but then the ML core's feet and calves have been modified so it's entirely possible the knees have as well to affect greater pose ability. The armatures holding the core's thighs in place are concerning for the potential to scratch or rub off the chrome.

I was never into G.I. Joe anywhere near as much as Transformers, but I did watch the show, almost on a daily basis in fact, even as background noise, after school. I thought the Joe toys were incredible, but I only owned a handful of figs and the only vehicle I owned was the Dragonfly helicopter. I still have it, but my Wild Bill's rubber band dry rotted a long time ago and he rests in pieces somewhere in my collection. Anyway, I thought a crossover was a cool idea until Hasbro decided to do Megaron as the HISS Tank, a vehicle I dig, and the end result was far from spectacular. Bee was better. Kup's better executed than the others, but IMHO, the greatest hindering factor is making the vehicles become established TF characters instead of tailoring the transformations to suit bespoke characters. I've argued before that not everything related to Transformers needs to be Optimus, Megatron, Bumblebee, Starscream, etc. I get why, but I point out how abysmally bad they turn out as a result whereas creating a new character to fit the vehicle and creating a more efficient transformation schema to fit the vehicle-to-robot conversion is the optimal solution. Anyway, while I like the concept of Joe/TF crossovers, the execution thus far has been less than appealing, alas, but my wallet and too-full shelves thank me.

I appreciate what they were going for, but I prefer the original spherical Death Star set that they released. I like the Imperial Shuttle they made for it, although the nose gives me bull terrier vibes. 😄 I made my own for the OG DS playset.

I agree, and I think that's the point. Kavalier is inherently unlikable, purposely so, and his arrogance is ultimately going to be the downfall of his little fiefdom. His number two, Evil Daddy Warbucks, is also cruising for some karmic takedown. The male IT guy is one of the few truly decent people working for Prodigy. His wife the therapist, who seems old enough to be his mother, also seems like she has the hybrid kids' interests at heart, although she also seems to be more comfortable towing the company line. The engineer's mate certainly seems like he's more than a bit on the slow side beggaring how he would have ever qualified for the job. This show, for all intents, is about monsters and I guess, rather than being creative, the production is falling back on the old 'people make dumb decisions in horror films' trope to ensure that said monsters get their chance to do what they do thus upping the body counts and the gore factor. I rather enjoy both in sci-fi and horror, but it's always more fun when, as @Seto Kaiba mentioned, the protagonists make smart decisions, do everything correctly within their power, and still fall prey to the monsters. Stupid or negligent protagonists offer easy prey and in turn erode the menace and cunning of the monsters hunting them thus lessening the whole experience.

I was wondering how the legs of the inner bot were going to line up with the armor, but it appears that the inner bot's knees will bend forward in line with the armor's hips. I'm curious what sort of attachment points they're using to keep the inner legs in place. I'm thinking they either limited the thigh movement to what we're seeing here to allow the inner bot's lower legs to remain somewhat in parallel with the armor's thighs or those thighs can continue moving forward leaving the inner bot's legs just kinda dangling behind them having reached their limits. Regardless, this is a challenging bot to approach with the ML methodology, and I give Takara mad props for accomplishing what we're seeing in the pics. If I was buying this, the armor's knee joints, pins connecting two relatively thin panels, would give me a bit of concern over long term durability given the top-heavy nature of the figure. However, again, I have to tip my hat to Takara for imbuing this with the level of articulation they've achieved here and yet keeping both bot and alt modes looking virtually identical to the OG toy. It's an impressive bit of problem solving and the execution is quite well-done. I'm assuming the buggy dude came with the OG Diaclone toy, as I'm not familiar with its coming with OG UM. I didn't see it 'til you said it! 🤣 Honestly, not one of the better bits of box art.

Ironically, she and deluxe Alpha Trion, who I picked up at Target on impulse, are the only two TFOne toys that I intend to get thus far. Elita One was the only TFOne fig that I purposely ordered b/c I liked the look of the design enough to plunk a few ducats down. A3 was a little disappointing in his beast form, but I like the bot mode. For all these beast moded figs that use the back legs , at least from the knee down, to form the rear legs of the creature, I wish they'd add an additional joint that places the back leg to the animal's side allowing for complete 360 rotation of the hind quarter instead of just keeping them awkwardly in line with the rest of the robot leg. As for Elita, I think the level of engineering is fine given the size of her alt mode and the fact that she's on a deluxe budget. Could she be better, sure, but not unless they reinvent her on a higher budget with more complexity.

Wow, that's some next-level cosplay. I'm not even a fan of the Ride Armor, but I certainly appreciate the culmination of talent and craftsmanship that this represents- just extraordinary!

You're not wrong, Mike. I've long been a fan of MMC's work, and with this being my first glimpse at their all-in-one Constructicons, my bias is rewarded. This most certainly has to be the most challenging of combiners to do as an all-in-one given the amount of partsforming required on the original set and pretty much every set thereafter regardless of scale. MMC takes on the all-in-one challenge and I applaud them for it. If I didn't have so many life expenditures, or potentially pending ones, I think I'd be inclined to go in on this set to replace my old Toy World Constructor. Right now, I'm just looking forward to completing my Hasbro Devastator and I'll likely look at add-on kits for it to make improvements, so that'll be the extent of my Devastator expenditure for the foreseeable future. I'll enjoy this set vicariously via reviews, though. Cheers to those of you who get it, as I think you'll have a banger on your hands.

I'm not so sure that Kirsch is interested in catching Morrow; I think Kirsch is playing on his own team, as I don't think he likes being condescended to by Boy Kavalier (Stupid name. It's more like a descriptive phrase than an actual name). I think on some level he cares about the hybrids, certainly more than Kavalier does, but being more analytical than sentimental, I think the Morrow-Slightly situation interests him from a point of gaining knowledge or perhaps some position of power or leverage over his maker. I'm just waiting for his Soundwave moment: "Kirsch superior, Kavalier inferior!" 😄 Yep, but Kirsch is not telling anyone, which points to a probable agenda. And yeah, on an island that one would assume would have the absolute state of the art info security and monitoring systems in existence, created by the world's smartest douchebag, Morrow's ability to avoid detection by all but Kirsch, whose sole ability to detect it remains mysteriously unexplained, shoots a huge hole in the presumptive infallibility of said douchebag and his technological wizardry. But then again, so does psychologically unbalanced Nibs, as one would think the super-computer brain would be equipped to deal with errant thought patterns and such, but hybrids with flat affects wouldn't make for good tv, I guess. LOL. I'm enjoying the show, but it requires tabling a lot of WTF issues. It's apparently getting great reviews now, but I wonder how it'll hold up under the microscope of time.

Well, to really appreciate the scope of toy options available to us, one needs to consider both official lines (Hasbro's main line, i.e. currently "Age of the Primes" under the Legacy umbrella, and Studio Series, which is a slightly more premium take, or supposed to be, on characters as they appeared in various media), Takara's Missing Link line which reengineers the G1 toys to feature full articulation and improved complexity all while retaining the look of the OG toys in both modes, Takara's own lines which recreate figs from the Japanese TF shows, the MPG line( formerly Masterpiece), their own releases of Studio Series and mainline toys, oft with better paint apps than their American versions, and other independent lines like their current Wild King show/toys aimed at younger kids. Additionally, there is Robosen, who's producing high-end, sophisticated, fully motorized, self-transforming, walking, talking Transformers. They currently represent the pinnacle of technology as its applied to our favorite Robots in Disguise, even featuring phrases recorded by the original voice actors. They come at a significant price tag, but they're astounding achievements and really cool additions to one's collection. They're a bit out of my price range, but they represent everything that I oft dreamed of in a "perfect' Transformers toy. Lastly, we get to third party companies who've been serving the fandom for about two decades now with figures both faithful to source and with a range of liberties taken in virtually every scale, from legends (slightly smaller than official main line) to Masterpiece, with varying levels of complexity, detail, 'animation accuracy', etc. there are also companies like Blokees, who make non-transforming model kits of popular TF characters, companies like ThreeZero, formerly ThreeA, who make high-end incredibly detailed non-transforming TF figures. I'm likely forgetting a few, but these are the ones that occur off the top of my head. Lots of options for the intrepid Transformers fan. As for the combiner frame system, I'm of two minds: yes, it imbues the gestalt with much greater stability than the poor Combiner Wars figures, but at what point does it simply become an easy crutch to lean on in lieu of better engineering. They didn't use a frame for Devastator, which proves they can make a combiner without it. Granted, Devy has large partsforming bits to complete the gestalt, but aside from the mad all-in-one wizardry of MMC, the vast majority of combiners, official and non, have relied on partsforming bits to accomplish mashing a bunch of smaller robots into a big one. It's an acceptable concession, and one I think most of us, even the most ardent no-partsforming critics like myself, have come to accept, if grudgingly. It's simply the most practical and economical way to achieve the combining gimmick. Hasbro's frame system is a similar tactic, love it or hate it. I'd prefer they used it more sparingly, allowing the limb-bots to actually be the limbs instead of accoutrement on a frame, but I get the reasoning behind it. If there's a cheap and easy solution, Hasbro will find it, although Takara does most of the heavy design work, so it's a good bet they're more to blame for the heavy use of the frame in lieu of more creative engineering solutions. Macross, alas, is such a niche franchise, especially on this side of the Pacific, largely due to Harmony Gold's litigious shenanigans over the last nigh-40 years, damn them. The subsequent rarity of toys, especially high-end toys like Yamato/Arcadia's, cause availability and pricing to put them out of reach of many a fan. It's the sad reality of Macross fans everywhere, unfortunately. I was hoping that Big West's and Harmony Gold's agreement as well as Disney's airing of the majority of the various Macross Series would spark a renewed interest in the franchise in the West, especially a heightened desire for the toys, but that hasn't happened. Thus the anemic status quo remains. I'm thinking he will be able to pull off that pose and probably poses more dynamic than that. They're just teasing us right now. I want to see that list done, too, especially the Datsuns (I want Prowl in the worst way), the cassettes, some of whom, like Ravage, are in desperate need of a good update. FWIW Fans Toys did a pretty good job with their version of Ravage for Acoustic Wave, both of which are pretty peak. I'm really curious how they'd approach the van brothers, as the Diaclone toys just never really fit in well with the rest of the Diaclone car bots, which makes their inclusion in the TF toyline, which seemed to cherry-pick the best looking of the bunch, oddly questionable in retrospect. We have Floro Dery to thank for the much-improved bot modes in the animation. However, Missing Link is all about improving the G1 toys as they were, warts and all, and it remains to be seen how or if they'll attempt to do something with them. We definitely need Soundwave, Megatron, and the Seekers as well. I'm most curious to see how they'll improve both of the latter. I want a fully poseable G1 Megatron.

Welcome back to the fold! The toys have come a long way, and for the most part, the SS86 line has been delivering the toys that I think the majority of us have wanted from Hasbro/Takara since the 80s. I've been in the game since it all kicked off in Sept '84, and I'm thrilled that they're finally making figs of the G1 characters that are a balanced mix of toon and original toy, although they tend to skew more towards the animation aesthetic, which seems to be what most fans want. But yeah, we're eating well, as the saying goes, and while it took them about thirty years too long to get around to it, I'm glad they're doing it now while the G1 generation is still around to enjoy them. You picked a good time to come back to the hobby, as G1 fans have never been so well served. Cheers and enjoy!

I was hoping for a showcase of the articulation, which is kinda the point of this line, but I guess they're milking the anticipation for all it's worth. Anyway, the hips are now separated from the rest of the red slab and that separation is cleverly hidden behind UM's WWE belt. Moreover, there's clearly a hinge visible behind his shin plate that corresponds nicely to a knee joint. Needless to say, I'm sure Takara succeeded in imbuing the fig with at least a modicum of leg articulation and they did an excellent job of hiding the changes necessary to pull it off. Honestly, I wouldn't have thought they'd tackle this fig, at least not yet given the number of first season bots that have yet to get the ML treatment. However, this is a nice flex of their problem-solving capabilities and talents, as this guy poses more problems to be solved than the average car-bot. While I'm not yet invested in the ML line, from both a G1 fan's POV and an engineering POV, I enjoy seeing how Takara approaches each toy to give it the articulation that so many of us, like me, wish they'd had originally. Many of those old toys are going to prove challenging, like UM here, and I'm excited to see how they solve the obstacles that each toy presents while maintaining the look of the OG toys. I hope Megatron is on the to-do list. And Prowl. And Soundwave and his cassette minions, who could all do with some updated engineering since the MP fig.

I was just the opposite; the original Ultra Magnus did little for me; I like the white Prime fig, but the armor was so limited in bot mode that it never really appealed to me. Honestly, the character never really appealed that much to me. I like the all-in-one engineering of the SS86 and MP figs (I bought MP Delta Magnus instead of Ultra Magnus b/c I dig his color scheme more, too), although I'm not opposed if they make an Ultra Magnus fig in the future who splits into a white Optimus and his trailer forms armor. As to my aforementioned concessions, I don't think the cab part would need any additional engineering beyond that of Missing Link Convoy. The trailer, OTOH, simply can't transform the way the G1 toy did; it was essentially a big red slab that the white Optimus stood behind. To realize the character better and afford him the articulation that is the hallmark of Missing Link, concessions will have to be made to make the trailer become functional, wearable armor which means it will be difficult to make it look just like the unaltered G1 toy, also a hallmark of Missing Link. That's what I meant by concessions. I simply don't see how they can maintain the look of the G1 toy and impart leg articulation while making it wearable by white Prime. I'm curious to see how they approach this fig, as it poses challenges that previous figs didn't, and it'll give some indication as to how they'll approach other challenging figs in the future. I think the Zs are a no brainer, as they can squeeze four or five repaints/slight retools out of that mold and they essentially need only to articulate the legs and head. The Seekers will pose more of a challenge since the arms relied on partsforming hands and were fairly short, and the legs, as they are, are also a bit stubby proportionally, and didn't extend like many of the other G1 toys. Moreover, the wing rotation joint sits at hip level which will prove a challenge for Takara if and when they decide to tackle the design as a Missing Link entry. I'd be interested to see how they solve the various challenges.