M'Kyuun

9 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I noticed this too, but I would just chalk it up to general KO imprecision.  I wouldn't be surprised if it was related to the check locking tabs, and their relative size.  Everything's just a little off compared with the originals.  It's not enough to make it fall apart (mostly), but things just don't fit quite as well.

I look at this way: so long as Harmony Gold exists, this is very likely the closest representation of G1 Jetfire we're ever going to get, and I think they chose a good base for it. As a KO, it's going to have its flaws and inaccuracies, but overall, they're not so egregious, in my experience with my copy, to ruin the toy for what it's supposed to be. I keep mine in battroid with FAST packs on and it looks pretty amazing standing next to my SS86 Ultra Magnus. Some of the deco is off, unfortunately, but there's enough intact livery from the G1 toy to make it instantly recognizable, and I can live with that. Should Toyhax put out a sticker set for it, I'll likely bite, but for now, IMHO, it looks pretty sweet upon the shelf.

12 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Watched a few more episodes of Dandadan, because the neighbors are still setting off fireworks like 4th of July wasn't a week ago. 🙃

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Can I please, please, pretty please just have a romcom with these two dorks without all the supernatural baggage?

They have great chemistry, which IMO is honestly the best part of the series.  The supernatural aspect of it is trying really hard to be weird in a way that feels very reminiscent of One Punch Man, but it's not particularly exciting or interesting.  If it were just these two geeking out over the paranormal it could be a top-tier romcom.  Instead it's a pretty mediocre shonen anime with a pair of particularly amusing main characters.

Watching them agitatedly fuss in class because they want to geek out together is goddamn adorable.

 

 

 

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My feeling was the opposite, TBH.  I felt the pre-timeskip Attack on Titan was where the story peaked.  The oppressive atmosphere of the walls, the apparent hopelessness of the Survey Corps's cause, and the ontological mystery of the physics-defying Titans made for a frankly compelling dystopian narrative.

The one-two punch of cheap shots that was the Survey Corps developing a near-foolproof weapon to destroy Titans with almost no risk and then revealing that literally all of the worldbuilding up to that point was a lie was a real narrative copout.

WRT the post-timeskip's problematic content... the main problem is that the symbolism there isn't so generic that it applies to a bunch of different countries and societies.  It has a bunch of very specific, very blunt references to that time in German history the Germans don't like to be reminded about.  Marley is putting on the reich real hard, and not just in their love of zeppelins, battleships, and the pickelhaube.  Everything about how they treat the Eldians is ripped right from that nasty part of Germany's history in a very profoundly unsubtle way.

The problems come in when the story doesn't stop there and use that as a symbolic way of showing that Marley is capital-E Evil.  It reverses it, and presents what Marley does as largely justified because the Eldians really are just THAT ridiculously evil.  It's not just that the Eldians had The Most Evil Empire in History that killed several times the entire world's population before it fell.  Many Eldians want to restore that evil empire and go back to being genocidal oppressors.  There's even a bona fide Eldian deep state which controls Marley from the shadows and is driving its own genocidal expansionist tendencies with the Titans power.  The Paradise Eldians launch a coup against their own king, set up a military junta, then have a second coup to install a second military junta because the first one wasn't genocidal enough for their tastes, then attempt to kill literally everyone else in the entire world.  It hits peak horrible with the reveal that all three Eldian leaders in the series think genocide is the only answer... the only question being whether they're trying to save the Eldians (Eren) or save the world from the Eldians (Zeke and Willy).  

That Eren just rolls with the idea that he's predestined to Kill 'Em All is pretty freaking weird on its own.  He had a vision and immediately decided to chuck his moral compass in favor of mass murder and even overthrow the government to ensure nobody would stop him.  The idea that he's sympathetic because he didn't want to do it but believed he had to is a load of organic bovine fertilizer... and the ending is super awful because not only is he Easily Forgiven by his former friends, the Eldians haven't changed one bit and are still a threat to the rest of humanity.  

Considering the Eldians are strongly associated with a very real ethnic group that was and is the subject of discrimination because of similar conspiracy theories... well... it all reads in screamingly poor taste.

 

As always, you make excellent points, and I certainly can't refute the obvious similarities between the Marleyans and their attitudes and treatment of the Eldians as a direct echo of Nazi Germany. I fear that in my focus on Eren and Zeke, I lost sight of Willy Tyber and his importance to the story, a shortcoming in my overview that now seems glaring in retrospect. However, as much as I enjoyed the first part of the story centering around Pardis, I still enjoyed, I think in equal part, the latter part of the story involving Marley and the wider world, as it informed the viewer of what lay behind what's been happening to them the previous five years or so as well as adjacent machinations and goings-on in the present. I don't think the totality of the story would have been as satisfying had they only focused on Paradis, as equal parts fun and depressing it is, without providing some back and adjacent story to answer the whys and whos of what lay behind the sudden titan infestations, who Grisha Jaeger really was, where did Annie, Reiner, and Bertholdt come from and why were they there, etc, etc. There was a plethora of questions raised in the first couple chapters and had they just ended the series like that without providing answers, I personally don't feel like it would have been as satisfying overall. I can understand perhaps taking the Nazi similarities a bit too far, but this wasn't exactly a tame show that strayed from harsh realities, and I found the comparison apt.  Your mileage obviously varies, as well as that of a larger portion of the fandom, but the obvious parallels didn't bother me. 

As to Eren being easily forgiven, I agree. He was an a-hole of the first order and deserved to be vilified for the monster that he became. I think Zeke's and Willy's plan, although terrible, too, was at least possibly coming from a place of contrition. It's a shame that Mikasa didn't pop out of her spell and kill Eren when he told her that he'd hated her most of their lives- whether he actually meant it or was just saying it to create distance between himself and her, the bastard had it coming. Alas, it came too late, but I thought it poetic that Mikasa was the one to deliver the coup de grace, even if she STILL felt affection for him. He got off too easy. The show is definitely a study, perhaps a dark caricature, of real history, some of the absolute worst of humanity's capital-E Evil, to borrow your phrase. To my mind, however, we must always be reminded of that evil lest we repeat it, be it in literature or art, and as an artform, I think anime is an apt vehicle, although perhaps it needn't be so blatant. The Japanese have their own demons to bear from WWII and it's notable that they weren't portrayed at all harshly compared to the Marleyans who symbolize the Nazi Regime. Indeed, they were merely portrayed as simply opportunistic money grubbers, with Azumabito showing a little contrition for how her people have acted. Make of that what you will.

1 hour ago, mikeszekely said:

Credit where it's due, two G1 combiners and the promise of getting some toys of deep lore figures like the Thirteen Primes has me more primed (pun intended) for the brand than the flagging waves of Legacy.  But boy are they stingy!  I had to check my notes, but wave 2 has no Leader-class figure (unless you count G2 Grimlock as wave 2 and not wave 1), only three Deluxes (one of which is a package refresh), all of which we're still waiting on, and two Voyagers.  One was Heatwave, who came out a month ago.  The other is just hitting stores now, and that'd be Sky-Byte.

While I don't know that Robots In Disguise is all that fondly remembered, as it was hastily thrown together to fill a gap between the cancelled sequel to Beast Machines and the more Hasbro-involved Armada, the show still holds a place in my heart because I was so excited to see that, after years of Maximal gorillas named "Primal," Optimus was a Autobot truck again.  It took a few episodes, but we got Decepticons, too, including Scourge, who'd go on to kick off an endless parade of evil black Optimus repaints in the West (even if Black Lio Convoy technically did it first).  But the Predacons weren't all bad, and I (and countless others) developed a fondness for a certain poetry loving try-hard fishing for praise (pun intended) even as his boss only had eyes for the new guys.  Indeed, Sky-Byte was popular enough to warrant a toy in Generations back in 2014, an appearance in the Cyberverse cartoon and a few toys in the accompanying toyline, and he's slated to appear in the new Cyberworld line.

As for as Age of the Primes goes, this is a pretty great rendition of the character.  He's got a lean, athletic build and aside from missing highlights on his shin details and a little blue on his inner biceps he's very cartoon accurate.  Speaking of accuracy, he retains the shellformery nature of the original toy, which gives him large shoulder pads and a large chunk of shark for a cape.  But it terms of both accuracy and overall design, I rather prefer it to the Generations toy's attempt to integrate the shark head into the chest details.

Side note, in the above picture you'll notice a large square hole in his forearm.  Please note that Sky-Byte's arm is actually turned around, and that square (necessary for his alt mode) should be on the inside of his forearm, not the outside.

Sky-Byte comes with a little missile launcher.  Unlike the original toy, it doesn't actually fire any missiles.  It's been awhile since I've seen the cartoon so I'm not sure if it's accurate or not, but I'd have appreciated some paint on the missile tips nevertheless.  As for the sprue, it contains his shark fins, but you have to cut them out yourself.

Sky-Byte's head appears to be on a ball joint that can swivel and look up, but lacks any real downward or sideways tilt.  His shoulder pads are hinged to wiggle up and down, and actually just pegged on so they can swivel to show more of the inside or more of the outside.  His shoulders swivel and move laterally, though a tad shy of 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend 90 degrees (forward and backward).  Both his normal wrist and his claw wrist swivel.  The blue and white fins on his claw can open and close, too.  His waist swivels, though you're a little limited by his kibble cape.  His hips can go 90 degrees forward and laterally, and close to 90 degrees backward (again, the kibble is a factor).  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little over 90 degrees.  His toes can bend downward due to his transformation, and he's got about 60 degrees of ankle pivot.

You can peg the missile launcher into Sky-Byte's normal hand.  When he's not using it, you can store it by tabbing it to the roof of the shark mouth on his cape.

As for his fins, they end in pegs and you can also put them into his normal hand to act like bladed weapons.  Otherwise, you just peg them into the kibble on his back; it's where they belong in alt mode anyway.

Speaking of alt mode, transformation is mostly straightforward with a few interesting bits.  His backpack lifts up to line up with his head, which pulls away from his body, and you're like 25% there already.  His shoulders detach from his chest and swivel up into the area where his head was, but they use sliders so that the arm with the normal hand is under the arm with the claw.  His feet fold down and tab together, then his shins fold back over his thighs, the backs of which lock into his back kibble.  His shoulder pads swivel around to cover his face and upper arms, while the panels with his pectoral fins spin and shift to fill in the shark's sides.  Finally, bring the shark's head down and lock it into place.

Again, AotP Sky-Byte is much closer to the cartoon than the Generations toy, though with a bit of the original toy mixed in.  Like you've got the cutouts in his dorsal and pectoral fins that were often colored as solid in the cartoon, and more emphasis on the mechanical details than the cartoon, but without all the colored circuits and wires of the original toy.  He's got cartoon-accurate eyes, not the weird bug eyes of the Generations toy, and (best of all, if you ask me), he's fairly straight, not permanently curved like a dolphin doing flips at SeaWorld.  

That's not to say that he isn't posable, though.  Having his arms stacked and his elbows bending both ways as the tail means that he's got a joint for bending his tail to either side.  His jaws open, and there's a dedicated joint that allows his head to bend down, with some molded detail to keep his body solid.

Speaking of jaws, he can store his missile launcher in his mouth.  While you can leave it in the roof of his mouth if you want to keep it stored but out of site, he's got slots to tab it into his bottom jaw like the original toy/cartoon.

There's not a lot to complaint out here.  Sky-Byte doesn't have a ton of accessories, but what he has is appropriate and stores well in both modes.  He looks good in both modes, solid and cartoon-accurate.  He's decently articulated in robot mode, and even has some head and tail articulation in shark mode.  What more could you want?  I think the only thing working against him, at least in these parts, is that he's from a lesser-loved Transformers show.  If you're G1 only, well, Sky-Byte's not it.  But if you're even casually a fan of RiD or the character/toy, this is a fantastic update that's sure to please, and a major upgrade over the old Generations toy.

I have little interest in getting this fig, but Takara put some effort into it and it shows. 

8 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

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Attack on Titan started out as young adult dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games... what it evolved into after the timeskip is what put so many people off it.

The whole post-timeskip arc is shot through with some very blatant and very troubling creative choices with specific historical resonance that make the whole affair feel like it's a racist parable at times.  There's a lot of discussion about those points online, whether it's intentional or simply an attempted critique of fascism that didn't stick the landing is left as an exercise for the reader/viewer.

The series was always going to have a downer ending, that much was clear from the outset.  Isayama went way too far with it, IMO.  Not only is everyone in the story a miserable bastard from the outset, the post-timeskip story that reveals the true state of the world outside the walls ultimately does everything it can think of to make Eldians the root of all the world's evils and show that the world's hatred and fear of them is completely justified.  At the end, not only has Eren become a complete monster without even questioning his supposed destiny... the Eldians haven't learned a damn thing and are just going to do it all again as soon as someone finds the Founding Titan until an opposing nation finally wipes them out for good.

 

 

 

 

28 minutes ago, Tking22 said:

Looks gorgeous, truly superior, I'm in! I hope we get a Megatron eventually, tank form alt mode obviously like the new Studio Series figure, but I'll take it!

It would have to be a non-realistic sci-fi tank or else it would violate LEGO's internal rules on producing modern warfare machines.

On 7/8/2025 at 2:26 PM, sh9000 said:

Soundwave.

Nearly a month late due to the release schedule, but this is my birthday ask for my wife. I didn't think Bee was all that well done, but this looks on par, if not better, than Optimus. Loving those cassettes! I'm really glad Optimus wasn't a one-off. However, should they choose to do more Decepticons, Megatron and the Seekers are off the table unless they do Cybertronian alt modes due to LEGO's no-modern-war-machine policy. Megatron already falls afoul of American toy gun laws. Reflector would be pretty neat, though, as would the Insecticons or Constructicons, should they stick with G1 first season bots for these sets. More Autobot carbots are surely welcome.

On 7/8/2025 at 7:12 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Lots of people took issue with the series after the timeskip.  It became... problematic... in all kinds of ways.

Yeah, a lot of folks did take issue with the ending where...

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Eren is more or less treated as not responsible for murdering most of humanity even though he did and the Eldians are still a nation of genocidal dickheads.

 

Having finally completed our Blu-ray collection for Attack on Titan earlier this year, and with my wife's having a long weekend due to the holiday, we binge watched the whole thing finishing today, and wow. This is really an impactful series, lushly animated, extremely well-written, and very-well performed by the English voice cast. We'd started watching it years ago when it premiered on Cartoon Network, but we'd missed eps here and there and I believe we only saw it up to S3, so a full watch was in order. Anyway, we were hooked back then and have been wanting to give it a full watch, so I'm glad this weekend provided an opportunity. It definitely did not disappoint. It's one of those rare shows that stays with you mentally and emotionally for some time after you've finished it.

I've read that some fans took issue with the ending, but I thought it offered a satisfying and thought-provoking ending that speaks to human nature. My wife and I both served in the military, so the camaraderie between the characters was very relatable. I'm not a big believer in preordination or fate, but IMHO the way those elements were used within the narrative, especially with Eren's story, offered perspective and in flashbacks, really interesting glimpses at characters' reactions and choices that would affect events. Overall, a tour de force of character-building, narrative and plotting, world-building, and social commentary, not to mention the sheer beauty of the artwork and use of music throughout. To say the least, I recommend a watch.

8 hours ago, sh9000 said:

I like it.  Looking forward to Bruticus, Defensor, and Computron.

As am I, honestly, despite my criticism of the frame system. 

On 7/2/2025 at 9:02 PM, Chronocidal said:

I can't say whether or not that might have been the case with my recent order, since I didn't actually take stock of everything once I got it.  I'd counted up the numbers I needed, and then rounded up, or added extras of parts I know I use a lot of, so I wasn't concerned about having enough for the project itself.  All told I ordered over a thousand parts, so I didn't really feel like counting them all.  

I sincerely wish they would work out something better than the complete lack of tracking they give for standard parts orders.  I'm thankful my parts arrived before I left on vacation, but there was literally no way to know when or how they were coming.  No details on delivery service, no estimate on date beyond "within about 40 days," it didn't even show up as a package in my USPS informed delivery queue, it just appeared in my box one day in a plain paper envelope.  If I'd known that ahead of time, I probably would have used a third party through Bricklink instead.

Yeah, the indeterminate window for standard parts deliveries can be frustrating. I dislike that they break them up into bestseller and standard categories in the first place, but then they also charge $7 service fees if a minimal number of parts isn't met, and that goes for each category, so you can end up paying $14 on top of what you're paying for a smaller order. I'd rather my money went towards actual bricks, so I always wait to order when I've got a project requiring, or potentially requiring, enough parts to exceed the service fee limits, as was the case with this last order. The numbers of parts compared to actual numbers I ordered were so random and excessive at times that it raised my antennae. I've never had such an odd experience before with their online Pick-A-Brick. I appreciate the free extra parts though. I'm curious if I'm going to have the same experience with my standard parts. Guess we'll see.

22 hours ago, Scyla said:

They really should have found a way to inset the leg robots further into the frame but doing so might interfere with the knee joint. Or they probably starred by reusing the Menasor frame and couldn’t make it work in the allotted budget.

Or, now bear with me, they could've taken the extremely radical step of making the leg bots actually become the legs by virtue of their collective forty-plus years of experience designing transforming toys.  I figure if they can pull it off with the Constructicons, they can pull it off with other combiners, too, especially if the knee joint is part of a large partsforming waist and thighs, at which point the knee just needs to slot into or otherwise enjoin with the leg bot.

On 5/14/2025 at 2:35 AM, MKT said:

Hmmm I prefer if Transformers were Macross-fied, rather than Macross being Transformer-ed.
Make the jets more sleek all around, rather than hanging more kibble & random bits underneath. 

Seconded. Takara could learn a few things by studying Kawamori's design approach. Alas, since they've been taking the same terrible lazy approach to jets for over forty years, I think both the designers and the vast majority of the fandom have become indoctrinated to the idea that robots that transform should be blocky and that those blocky robots that turn into jets should also have an element of blockiness to the alt mode, or should have arms hanging off the sides, barely if at all integrated or disguised as such, with kibbley, uneven, and virtually never smooth, sleek, or aerodynamic lower fuselages in the least. I've mentioned before how Maverick, certainly one of the best looking jetformers in jet mode that Takara has ever made received a great deal of criticism for its robot mode. Given that it takes a number of cues from the VF-1, it just struck me how the same fandom could love Jetfire but heap invective on this figure when the similarities in design are so apparent. Too, fans complained about how skinny or lanky it is b/c they're just so used to seeing a chunky bot with a heavily compromised jet mode that anything that doesn't fit that mold, so to speak, just doesn't compute as a Transformer. Unless there's a sea change at Takara in its approach to jetformers (much like the one that Alex Kubalsky introduced in the early 2000s with his general design approach, still used today), I think we'll just keep seeing more of the same from them and Hasbro by extension.

I'm glad I discovered Macross in the 90s; it's been my refuge for excellent transforming plane designs all these years. Touch Toys is impressive for some of their recent releases as well. I have their J-16  (fully licensed) and man is that thing gorgeous with some very impressive engineering, form, and functionality. It hides its transformable nature more effectively than any other transforming jets I own, including my Macross valkyries, if only by a minimal margin in some cases. One caveat, however, is that the valks all have pilots in their fully detailed cockpits whereas the J-16 has neither. In all other respects, however, it's a remarkably realistic and nigh seamless design.

4 hours ago, sh9000 said:

New Superion pics.

What purpose do the leg bots even serve besides being snap-on calves? I guess they're just trying to mimic the fronts of the leg bots with the frame, but it's kinda crummy that you don't even need the actual bots to affect the same appearance. Shame that they didn't put the plane bits out front on the G1 toy and in the animation, but history is written and here we have it in plastic.

28 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

If you look at the Japanese prices he's closer to $120-130 in his home country (which was on the high end of doable for me). Prices in the States tended to be a little more; those importers have to pay for shipping from Japan before they ship it to us, after all, but this seems like a pretty hefty markup. I'm REALLY not trying to be political, but that's tariffs.

Well, you're not being political by stating a financial reality. And yeah, that is a significant markup. I'm happy to pass on it. I'm quite satisfied with my Yamato Blazer Valkyrie and YF-19, both gorgeous and uncompromised. If I want a Fire Valkyrie, I'll get the HMR.

4 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I wasn't going to buy it anyway, but that price is mildly insane. 

Like I said earlier, if they turned it into a regular crossover release at a voyager or deluxe scale and pricepoint and just gave us the plane, I'd happily grab it up. But what they're asking for what you're getting (I wonder how much of that $200 is wrapped up in that stupid trailer?), hard no. I think they're going to price a lot of fans out.

Change of topic. I'm working on a MOC and ordered a bunch of parts from LEGO's online Bricks and Pieces Hub as I've done many times before. The bestseller portion of my order came today and it was complete except there was only one of a piece for which I'd ordered two. Not a big deal. but here's the kicker: out of 36 different parts in the order, nearly every one had extras thrown in. and not just like one or two, although that happened with a few, too. Some parts had up to twenty or more extra pieces thrown in and in cases of matched pairs, the numbers of extras were generally highly incongruent. For example: I ordered 10ea 1x2 tiles with a wedge cutout both left and right; what I received: left 26 parts, right 16 parts This pattern repeats for a number of paired parts in the order. I'm not going to complain about extra free LEGO, but this is a highly unusual occurrence, and I have to wonder the meaning behind it. LEGO's a good company, but I've never known them to engage in this level of or method of altruism nor have I ever had this much discrepancy, albeit largely in my favor, between what I ordered (and paid for) and what was actually in the bag. I have had an extra here or there, as these are all hand-picked parts by real people, so mistakes happen, but usually they're pretty good about matching the orders. Anyway, my only complaint, being an entitled American, is that the incongruency messes with my inventory, as I generally always order paired bits in equal numbers and this is going to throw me off in the future unless I make another order to shore up the lesser numbers of those pairs. First world problem, I know. I'm grateful for the extra bits, but I'm really curious what's behind it. Perhaps there's a disgruntled employee or one who feels LEGO is too expensive and fans should get more for their buck. or maybe one person started picking the bag, went home, and another resumed picking without taking stock of what was already picked. Anyway, since that's only half of my order (the standard parts have yet to come), I'm curious if the same phenomenon is going to reoccur or if it will be a normal order matching what I ordered and paid for. Has anyone else here had this happen? I'm also curious if this is an isolated incident or if other folks are getting surprise orders, too.

5 minutes ago, Chronocidal said:

Youch, $200 for 1500 parts is pretty steep.  Those prices are feeling pretty high across the board actually, maybe they're just using a ton of really large parts?  Might pick up the AT-ST eventually, but probably not going to rush to it.  I might burn my VIP points to pick up the Shuttle Carrier 747 at a heavy discount in a few weeks.. mostly because i want to rebuild it.  

I've been reworking my KingsKnight shuttle heavily for the past couple of weeks after taking a few measurements and realizing the scale could be a bit better for true 1/110, but it involved completely redesigning the main body and bay doors.  Still working on the OMS pod design, but it's getting there, and will probably take a few photos soon.

LEGO was already an expensive hobby, but the recent price hikes have been pricing fans out of the hobby, from what I've read. As for myself, due to space limitations and also the higher prices, I've cut down substantially from just three or four years ago. I'm also more apt to wait for clearances. At this point, the only UCS sets I think I'd buy are the Imperial Shuttle or the Republic Shuttle, although, TBH, given my space limits, I think I'd rather have them both at regular minifig scale albeit done very well. Alas, I'm thinking the Imperial Shuttle set we got in 2015 (75094 is probably the best version we're ever going to get at the regular minifig scale). The current trend is to downsize all the large vehicles even more than they were before which really limits interior space and features like landing gear and such. I love set 75094 and I have a copy on permanent display; it was also a really good parts set, and I have an extra copy for that purpose. The nose was a bit too angular and I'd love to see them release a set where the nose is more rounded and has the fins under the nose within that curvature like the filming model. No official set has done that...yet. I could MOC it, I suppose, but I've got other stuff I'm working on and I'm lazy.

As for your shuttle project, I'm always impressed by your talent, dedication and meticulous approach. I wish you every success with it and look forward to seeing WIP and finished pics. 

Contrarily, I love the entire nose section which no official LEGO model has gotten right. The whole thing, though, is brilliant. 

Some new sets have been revealed for August. 

Among them this new V-19 Torrent (with trans yellow windscreen sure to excite many a Classic Space/Blacktron fan) is a bit smaller than its 2008 original, which actually brings it closer to proper scale as it appeared in Tartakovsky's Clone Wars. The design is a bit different, reflecting how it looks in recent animated Clone Wars related shows, but I like it and have hoped for a release like this. Sadly, it doesn't appear that this model possesses gearing to allow the wings and central foil to rotate into flight/landing configuration like the OG set did, relying instead on ball joints. Disappointing, but I'm still gonna get it.  567pcs,; $65

While the LEGO SW team seems to be leaning heavy into the Clone Wars with the August wave, once again there is no new Republic Shuttle set. The last and only other minifig scaled set came out in 2009 and it is in dire need of a modern update. For some reason, even though it featured heavily in the excellent Bad Batch series, no set was forthcoming then either. It's such a great design and its omission is curious and dismaying.

LEGO's 2009 release. Definitely could be better.

there's also a new MTT coming. Like the majority of minifig scaled sets, it's been shrunk a bit compared to previous releases. I still have my 2007 MTT which is, IMHO, the best version that they've released. I like the colors of this version but given that the prices have risen on SW sets in particular, and all LEGO in general, I'll likely be skipping it. That droid rack looks a bit off. 976pcs, $160

LEGO's continuing their homegrown animated SW series Rebuild the Galaxy this fall and they've got another oddball release to accompany it. Behold the Force Burner Snowspeeder. Of note, that canopy will likely appeal to Blacktron MOCists. It's also a new mold which makes me think a regular Snowspeeder is likely not far behind. 349pcs, $55

Back to Clone Wars. there's a new, also shrunken, Republic Juggernaut (Clone Turbo Tank) coming. 813pcs, $160

There's also a new miniaturized version of Jango Fett's Slave I similar to Boba's version released in 2021. Notably, this is the first minifig of Lama Su, the Kaminoan Prime Minister.  707pcs, $70

And finally, the set that will likely appeal to a number of you guys here, a new UCS AT-ST. 1513pcs, $200  For reference, the previous UCS AT-ST, released in 2006, had 1068 pcs and originally sold for $80. Thanks to the addition of innumerable new parts over the last 19 years, the finer details are executed far better on this set, as they should be. I still wish they'd imbue these things with appropriate articulation, but I get why they don't.

Oh, one more. LEGO's been knocking it out of the proverbial park over the last few years with their Creator animal sets and this one looks to continue the trend. Not sure how many Transformers fans there are here, but this totally gave me Rhinox vibes from Beast Wars. Now they need to make a gorilla that can ride on his back.😁

3 hours ago, danth said:

Orguss tank mode?

That was my initial impression, too, but it wasn't a good one. 😄 I'm not a big fan of the Orguss mecha anyway, but they are what they are and if that was the inspiration here due to its relation to Macross, it's a bit of a miss IMHO. I think they were just trying anything to shoehorn that stupid trailer/stage accessory in there to justify a higher price. I would have been far more impressed had they figured out a way to transform him so that Prime's chest at least forms a somewhat passable truckish looking front end, but I'm guessing they didn't even try.

16 minutes ago, anime52k8 said:

I kind of like how incredibly stupid the combined trailer mode looks.

Different strokes, truly. Personally, not a fan, but glad you dig it and if you order it, I hope it brings a smile for, if for no other reason, just how ridiculous it is.

2 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Hasbro/Takara Tomy please bring back the Transformers Collaborative line to cars from popular TV shows and movies.

I doubt it's dead. Basara Prime is on the Takara side of the fence, although it wouldn't surprise me if Hasbro had it on Pulse for a very limited time. Anyway, I'd say the crossovers are popular with the majority of fans (I have absolutely no evidence or stats to back that claim, but merely my own interest level and the fact that they've been making these for some time now, and with budgets tight, I doubt they'd invest in stuff that they think is going to fail or has no track record of success). With a Tron film around the corner, I think they'd be very smart to have a lightcycle in the pipeline. Even if the movie tanks, Tron has enough of a fan following to make such a release profitable, methinks. I'd certainly buy one. I want a Batmobile, too, or several, as well as Airwolf and maybe Blue Thunder. I think the former helicopter has a better shot than the latter and that's fine; I'd buy it! Anyway, there are still IPs to plunder for crossover figs so I doubt Hasbro's done doing them.

8 minutes ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

https://news.tfw2005.com/2025/07/01/takara-tomy-synergenex-series-macross-7-x-transformers-basara-convoy-official-stock-images-541197

 

OMG. It's an abomination!

Gotta LOL looking at comments here and elsewhere on the interwebs concerning Basara Prime. Some things just should not be crossed. Looking at the general shapes of Prime and the VF-19, these things are so incongruous that no amount of wonky engineering can satisfactorily merge the two. I will concede, however, that the fighter mode, especially in light of Takara's usual fare, turned out better than I expected. However, I imagine one need only turn it over to be confronted with blocky Prime's chest where the actual VF-19 is all sleek complimentary contours. The addition of Hot Rod's retrofitted trailer is pure money grab; it's superfluous, adds nothing to the core character, certainly does not a good combination make so far as a ground vehicle, and exists purely to increase the price of the figure. The only way I'd ever consider getting it is if it was sold at retail as a voyager or deluxe minus the trailer. It would make for an interesting oddity among my other crossovers, but I imagine this is going to be much more expensive and exclusive, so I'm going to pass.

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Maybe, maybe not... but considering how live action anime adaptations usually do, nobody is going to go into one banking on getting a sequel green-lit.  

Even One Piece, the 800lb gorilla of shounen anime, played it safe by opting to make each live action season a single complete story arc from the manga so that the story wouldn't be left hanging if Netflix didn't renew it for another season.

That's a good approach; as much fun as cliffhangers can be, they sow only disappointment and even resentment when there's no follow-up.  Those harsh feelings are only intensified when the show's actually enjoyable and the cancellation seems unwarranted or unearned.

Regarding your earlier comment to my comment about the LA Ghost in the Shell, I'm going from memory, which admittedly does not serve me well. I think I own it, so I may have to give it watch to refresh my memory as to how bad it really was. 😄 I own Akira as well, and I've not watched it in years; I might have to watch that, too, just as a refresher. It's still a visual masterpiece of hand-drawn art.

On 6/29/2025 at 1:41 PM, pengbuzz said:

I'll agree; One Piece does a good job at that for the most part. I just cringe anymore when it's announced a studio "has an adaption coming".

I remember reading a supposed version of "the upcoming Voltron movie" (yeah, the original was King of 100 Beasts GoLion) that made me glad it went back to development hell.I

Admittedly, I've never seen either the Japanese or the American versions of GoLion/Voltron, but I greatly enjoyed the Netflix adaptation. My perception is that it was pretty well received, but I don't know how fans of the OG feel. Except my wife who watched the OG show as a kid and then watched the Netflix show with me. We both enjoyed the Netflix show a great deal. While it's animated, I'd still consider this to be a Western adaptation of an anime.

On 6/29/2025 at 1:41 PM, pengbuzz said:

Praying they never try a live action adaption of Macross Plus*

 

Hopefully, never, ever, ever a straight adaptation. It'll be completely unrecognizable, kinda like 

16 hours ago, pengbuzz said:

"Stealth"? 

LOL. Yeah, it was terrible on so many levels. The abysmally stupid refueling dirigible thing just made me shake my head and wonder, "Why???!!!!" when we have a fleet of perfectly serviceable tankers at our disposal. I used to work on KC-135s- they're old but they still get the job done.

5 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Yet here we are, talking about it. 😆

Given that several news outlets that interviewed Stealth director Rob Cohen reported that he cited Macross as an inspiration for the film we can tentatively toss it on the pile of awful anime adaptations too.  It makes for an excellent example of what happens when a creative tries to rework an anime title for "western sensibilities" and ultimately ends up removing everything that made the original enjoyable or distinctive in the first place. 

It's a safe bet a similar fate would have befallen Akira, had Warner Bros not finally given up on it and let the license expire.

Just imagine... Akira, but Neo Tokyo is never named and is filmed in Toronto, the biker gangs aren't present at all, the Akira Project is instead being run by terrorists or Evil Russians because the military can't be vilified, Kaneda's played by Daniel Radcliffe with a spray-on tan and 30 minute subplot devoted to explaining he was adopted by Japanese immigrants, and Tetsuo's played by Chris Pratt or Jack Black because casting one of them is practically mandatory right now.

Unfortunately, Stealth got linked to Macross, which was one of the reasons I wanted to see it. That and it was a futuristic fighter jet movie, which also appealed. Too bad the movie was crap. Like, double flush just to make sure.

Seto, your description of how it may have gone under the WB is apt. Along with the aforementioned actors, including Pedro Pascal, don't forget Giancarlo Esposito as the American version of Col Shikishima. Add a couple good kid actors to play the Espers and voila, a Hollywood adaptation that likely, due to the Production's insistence on "creativity" would, despite the heavy star power, resemble Akira in name only, cost approx $200M, and totally flop at the box office b/c it made little sense to non-anime fans, was too convoluted, and strayed so far from the source that it pissed off anime and manga fans. In every way, it would miss the mark, tie-in merchandise would linger on shelves and get clearanced, and Blu-ray sales would be decent, but not great either.

Referring to the live action Ghost in the Shell, I don't think who they cast as the Major was as big a blow as the reworking of Motoko's origin. Moreover, I hated that they just called her Major, like it was her name and not her rank. Coming from a military background, it bugged me throughout the entire film. I thought they did a good job with Batou, and the mecha looked good. The action was good. The Major's origin subplot was the biggest headscratcher- it wasn't necessary- just give her a good case to solve and let her and Section 9 do their thing. Anyway, I thought it was pretty close to being a good LA adaptation. Alita still gets my vote for best, or at least the most enjoyable. Looking forward to the sequel.

9 hours ago, JB0 said:

I still say they should give up and recast Silverbolt as an XB-70, where a big block on the plane's underside is RIGHT.

Either an XB-70 or a B-1B Lancer. The Lancer makes more sense as s serviceable combat platform plus it shares numerous similarities with the Concorde. I'll never understand why they used a Concorde in a group of military fighters in the first place when the Bone existed. However, in terms of their completely ignoring a huge chunk of fuselage and just compacting the entire robot into an enormous rectangular cube on the bottom of the plane, it would certainly be closer to the XB-70 than either the Concorde or the B-1 and they wouldn't have to exert any additional effort at good engineering, innovation, or regard for accuracy in the least, as usual.