M'Kyuun

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.

14 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

You know what's better than a two-pack of Studio Series torso-forming Commanders?  How about finally getting the MIA Age of the Primes torso-forming Commander the same weekend?  That being Commander-class Silverbolt.

Among the Combiner Wars torsos I always thought that Silverbolt was probably the best, but side-by-side with the new one really hammers home how off it was.  The torso and forearms straight up have better proportions.  The deco is also much more cartoon-accurate; the CW toy might have been copying the G1 toy with the red chest going straight across and the all-black shoulders, but AotP Silverbolt's white shoulder wings and red vest with white in the middle is more accurate to the cartoon.

I'm a bit disappointed, though, that with all the budget a Commander-class affords it's still not totally accurate.  The Autobot badge on his right collar is something you'd expect on the G1 toy, but the cartoon has nothing on the red and a big ol' badge right in the middle of all that white.  Less obvious infractions include missing gold on his lats and knees, and missing red on his hips.

Like the limbs, Silverbolt is less a robot that turns into a plane and more a robot with a plane on his back.  I know it's going to be cause for some complaints, but for better or worse, it's cartoon accurate.  You can fold the wings back, like the G1 toy (and how a lot of 3P versions of the character are depicted), but per the Sunbow art they're not actually supposed to be.

As a Commander who's slightly smaller than an earlier Voyager release, much of Silverbolt's budget went toward accessories.  He's got a gun, a larger cannon, plus large chunks of arms, legs, and torsos for his combined mode.  And, just like Menasor's bits turned into Motormaster's trailer and Devastator's bits turned into Long Haul's trailer, Superion's bits do stuff too.  Whatever you're doing with them, though, you're going to start by folding in the knees and toes on the legs and sticking them together, then accordioning the arms up (very much like Menasor's) and sticking them on the sides of the legs.  This forms what I call "the brick" (though at this point I'm tempted to call it the port-a-potty).

Silverbolt's articulation is not too shabby.  His ball-jointed head can look up and tilt sideways a fair bit, though downward is pretty limited.  His shoulders rotate and move laterally 90 degrees.  His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend a little over 90 degrees.  No wrist swivels.  His waist does actually swivel, but he's limited to a little under 45 degrees in either direction due to his backpack.  His hip skirts can hinge up, allowing his hips to move 90 degrees forward on a ratchet, about 45 degrees backward due to his backpack, and slightly over 90 degrees laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees seem to bend 90 degrees, though using a tranfsormation joint will effectively make his knees double-jointed and able to bend 180 degrees.  His feet can't tilt downward, but due to his transformation they can tilt 90 degrees up and pivot 90 degrees.

Silverbolt is meant to hold the small gun in either hand.  When he's not wielding it, a tab under the barrel can plug into a slot on either side of the fuselage on his back.  Side note, I wish the little wings on the gun were bigger.

For use with Silverbolt's bot mode, take the brick and stand it up (so that the Superion fists are at the top).  Take the torso piece, fold the chest down, make him do a split, and turn the legs so the openings for the combiner ports are facing the same direction as his crotch.  Tabs on the brick will plug into Superion's thighs.  Then, take the cannon and use a pair of tabs to clip around the cannon, mounting it to the top of the brick.  Now you've got a kind of fortified gun emplacement.  I guess.

It might sound weird, but AotP Silverbolt's transformation is less like the G1 toy or Combiner Wars toys, and a bit more like Kingdom/Legacy Blaster's.  You open up Silverbolt's chest and fold his head into it (while folding out Superion's), but you also fold his arms into his torso as well (once you've folded in his fists and bent his elbows backward).  This will leave little bits of his forearms sticking out of his sides.  Fold his feet up, turn his thighs inward 90 degrees, then use his hips and upper knee (transformation) joint to bend his legs around to his torso.  Those bits of forearm sticking out of his sides will slide into a gap in his calves.  Once the robot parts are effectively a rectangle, you can lock the wings into tabs on his legs, double-hinge the forward chunk of the fuselage over Superion's face, and rock the tail back into place.  Finish it off by opening the cockpit section and folding out the nose.

As with the robot mode, Silverbolt's jet mode is both an improvement over the Combiner Wars version but not quite there.  Like, it's a lot closer to a Concord than whatever the CW toy was, but the proportions, nose, and wings are altered just enough to be legally distinct.  A robot with a jet on his back still winds up being a jet with a robot underneath; in that regard, the rectangle that Silverbolt squeezes himself into is actually a more compact than the CW toy, plus Superion's antenna kind of give me VF-1J vibes.  However, his feet are an eyesore.  I think it might have been better if they swiveled and sat on top of his shoulders instead of on the sides (though they way they work winds up integral for combined mode).  Or, if you look at the Sunbow art, there's black and red nacelles sticking out from under and past the front of his wings (likely a misinterpretation of the G1 toy's chest and shoulders).  If the feet could have turned 90 degrees somehow they might have passed as those nacelles.

You might have noticed that Silverbolt's hip skirts have molded wheels on on them.  The front landing gear unfolds from the back of Superion's head, and his pistol plugs into a port under the nose.

Pull the torso of the gun emplacement, and lay the brick part flat.  You can leave the torso in a split, but turn the thighs back around so the front is at the front.  Plug Superion's but into a the clips you used to hold the cannon on, while tabs on his thighs plug into slots on the fists.  Fold the back clip down and plug it into a pair of square notches on the brick, then fold the chest backward over it and tab it into the brick as well.  fold the barrel under the cannon, turn it over, and bend the rear slightly so that a peg hole lines up with a peg on the brick (actually Superion's back clip).  Lastly, fold out the little wings on the sides.  You've now got something that at first kind of reminded me of a fancy airport terminal, which would have worked well with the Aerialbots.  Heck, a ramp or something might have emulated the G1 toy's base mode.  But, no, Hasbro apparently decreed that combiner kibble must be a trailer, even for planes...

So we fold out a pair of red clips.  Lift Silverbolt's wings, and the red clips grab onto his thighs while a pair of tabs plug into his butt.  Fold the wings back down and they tab into the edges of the brick.  For this mode, you're technically supposed to split and fold down Silverbolt's tail (a feature that was designed just for this mode, since it doesn't need to do so for robot or combined mode).  I guess the cannon is the tail now?

Let's be clear, the idea of a Concord or really any jet hauling around a big brick of kibble, even a big brick with wings, is a bit absurd, and I prefer my airport terminal idea.  That said, I don't hate this as much as I thought.  There's more wing, the Concord neck sticking off the front, and some Superion chest kibble on the back, but if you ignore that and squint this "super mode" gives me Ark vibes.  Maybe this is Silverbolt's Cybertronian mode, then?  Regardless, there's no law that says you have to connect the kibble to Silverbolt, and if nothing else it's a convenient way to keep all his kibble in once place.

I'll do a review of the combined Superion mode when the other two Aerialbots are released.  For now, I actually really like this Silverbolt.  On his own merits, yes, he's still a brick of a robot under a plane that turns into a robot with a plane on his back, but that's inherently going to be a thing when you're working from the blocky G1 toys and Floro Dery's Sunbow designs (and before anyone brings up Maverick, just no- he's still a plane with a ton of robot kibble underneath, but one where they ridiculously over-engineered the transformation to try to spread the robot out flatter for minimal gain at the cost of humps on the dorsal fuselage and limited robot articulation, which I don't think is actually an improvement on any level).  But he's still a good robot with a plane on his back, and an improved jet with a robot underneath.  The combiner kibble doesn't really do anything for me in either robot or jet modes, but it's at least consolidated and read when we do combine him.  He gets a recommend from me.

Brilliant review as always, Mike. Whilst my criticism of Takara's approach to jetformer designs hasn't changed, what I can say is that they're consistent in their approach and they delivered what most fans want, a toy that looked like it walked right out of the Sunbow toon. Beyond my less than ecstatic view of Silverbolt himself, I can't say that I like the implementation of his combiner kibble in the least whereas in the cases of Motormaster (by all means the best implementation, I think most would agree) and Long Haul's questionable winged battle trailer I take a less critical view. I think your idea of turning it into a terminal or some other stationary accoutrement not attached to the jet itself would have served far better. I get why, but in this case, further compromising an already compromised Concorde wannabe with a giant ugly add-on pancake does not make for an appealing jet. At all.  For me, however, it's neither here nor there as I'm passing on the entire team for lack of appeal. I'm just grumbling to grumble b/c I'm old and that's what us old fogies do- offer unpopular, unsolicited opinions free of charge. You're welcome. 😄

I will levy an extra criticism that Silverbolt doesn't have rotating wrists. That, at minimum, should be standard at this class/price point, but really he should also have hinged fingers like SS86 Prime. 

Despite my dim views on the Legacy Aerialbots, I'm still going read your review on Superion. Overall, I think they've done a pretty good job with the combiners thus far, and while I opine that they've leaned perhaps a little too much on the frame system, I can't argue the vast improvement in stability that it offers compared to the Combiner Wars gestalts. If I was only into the combined forms, I'd likely get these guys, as I could overlook the egregiously compromised jet modes and just enjoy the giant hunk of articulated plastic before me, but such is not case, and I would always notice the inaccuracies and imperfections thus eroding my enjoyment. I'm hoping there'll be a better legends scale team at some point. MS did a great job with their Bruticus, so hopefully their Aerialbots aren't far behind and their jet modes are at least marginally more accurate to their RW counterparts. I digress, but anyway, I image Takara's Superion will deliver another show-accurate combiner and I'll check out the reviews in spite of my leanings.

On 6/28/2025 at 5:59 PM, JB0 said:

 Even a giant portapotty!

That'd impart a whole new interpretation of Long Haul's, erm, dumping capacity. 

20 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

Who is, of course, Commander-class Long Haul.

Where the the first three Constructicons were slightly improved but pretty similar to their Combiner Wars cousins, thankfully, that's not at all the case for Long Haul.  I don't think that saying Long Haul was the worse of the Combiner Wars Constructicons is a particularly controversial statement.  He had a huge upper body with dinky little arms and thick-but-stumpy legs, and a weird transformation that made his shins part of his bed but had him wearing the majority of it like a cape. 

Studio Series Long Haul is still a thicker boy than the skinny cartoon model, but with proportions that are more swole than "giant baby."  With black arms and no silver anywhere but his face his colors are more cartoon accurate, too.

There are some flaps on his back, but nothing like the Combiner wars version.  If we're being technical the animation model doesn't have the wheels on his legs; I do wish they had hinges to fold against his calves, but it's far from the worst thing ever.  It kind of feels like nitpicking to even bring it up, but then again I could just be cutting him slack because he's such an improvement over the CW version.

I mean, look at this!  Opening his front is a necessary step in transforming him, but the designers went the extra mile and included some molded engine details that they even painted silver.

Long Haul comes with a pistol that's, oddly, in two parts, a green handle/receiver and a black barrel.  I've also decided that the rest of the accessories in the box are also Long Haul's; you've got Devastator's hips and thighs, the center portion of his chest shield and the two wings (which do, by the way, have tabs that fit into slots on Scrapper so you can have the flying loader mode), and Devastator's forearms/hands. 

The Devastator parts all fit together in a non-Devastator fashion.  Lift the hip skirts and move the thighs into a sitting position, where you can then tab the skirts into the thighs.  The kibble on his butt will wrap around under the thighs and between the knees.  Then the center of the chest shield uses a pair of tabs to plug into the hip skirts, while the wings fit onto tabs on the sides of the thighs.  The fists fold into the forearms, then pegs that fold out the backs of the hands plug into peg holes on the top of the kibble wrap.  It's like a little trailer.  I wouldn't say I needed his combiner parts to be a trailer, but it's a handy way to keep them all together at least.  In fact, I think my only complaint is that there's nowhere to store the Devastator gun parts that came with Scrapper on the trailer.

Getting back to Long Haul himself, it's not just his looks that have improved.  His articulation is much better as well.  His head is hinged, so he can't really look up or tilt his head sideways, and he can only look a little.  His head does swivel, though.  His shoulders rotate and move slightly over 90 degrees laterally.  His elbows are ball joints, so he can actually bend his elbows forward 90 degrees and not just waggle them sideways, plus the ball joint doubles as a bicep swivel.  No waist swivel or wrist swivels, though.  His hips can go forward, backward, and laterally 90 degrees, and his thighs swivel.  His knees are interesting. There's a joint behind the red panels that you can use as a knee that bends over 90 degrees, with a skinny "thigh" behind the truck bed.  However, Hasbro seems to have intended that as a transformation joint, and gave him another, separate hinge below the red panel.  That one, due to the tires on the backs of his leg, gets less than 90 degrees, though.  So why not use both, and get nearly 180 degrees of bend?  Lastly there's his feet, which don't tilt up or down but do have 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Long Haul holds his gun without issue in either hand.  He lacks any other storage for it in robot mode.

SS86 Long Haul's transformation is a bit closer to the G1 toy than the Combiner Wars toy.  His head tucks into his chest, but you have to open it to make room, and his chest folds up.  His legs fold around to become the truck bed.  And his arms tuck underneath, but they fold up in an unusual way with the fists pointing backward instead of toward the front.

Long Haul's alt mode is pretty good.  There's a bit of a gap between his feet and backpack that don't quite sell the idea that the "hood" over the cab is actually part of the bed, and there are gaps along the sides where his shoulder joints have to fit through.  Speaking of the bed, it doesn't look like he'll be hauling all that much since they're full of robot leg.  But his arms are tucked away nicely, and the cab, grill, lights, and smokestack details are all cartoon accurate.

There's a little space between Long Haul's legs, and you can capture a purple hook on the trailer in that space so Long Haul can pull the trailer.  Again, not something I necessarily needed, but it's at least some attempt to integrate Devastator's parts.  As for his own gun, you simply plug the handle into a 5mm port on either side of his bed.

I'll cut right to the chase... yes, I recommend SS86 Long Haul.  He's such an improvement over the Combiner Wars version that he justifies the entire Commander set, and then with Long Haul and Hook at this scale you might as well buy the other four- two of whom aren't out and I haven't even reviewed yet.  Yeah, Long Haul is good enough to make you replace all your Constructicons.  But should you actually replace Devastator?  Unfortunately, we're going to have to wait for Mixmaster and Scavenger before I can answer that.

Long Haul has always been my favorite of the individual Constructicons, followed by Scavenger, both of whom I owned as a kid. They were the only Constructicons I owned, however, which means I waited decades before buying Toyworld's version making them my first and only complete set of the team to date. That'll change by the end of the year, and I'm happy about that. While they have their warts, the SS86 toys overall have been pretty well executed. I wish more of the vehicle functionality was present among the various team members. A non-tipping bed has always been my biggest gripe for nearly every version of Long Haul, including my TW version, since the original G1 toy and unfortunately the trend continues with this guy. I'm also afraid that SS86 Scavenger's boom deck isn't going to rotate either, a downgrade from his G1 toy if so. I do, however, love how closely this Long Haul skews aesthetically towards his G1 toy, and I like the arm solution even if it does leave some ugly black openings on the sides of the front, which really affects the cab side more than the exhaust side. Shame they couldn't make a hinged panel to cover that, but oh well. The highly noticeable gap between his pretty obvious feet and the extended cab guard is also another unfortunate holdover from the G1 toy, although the original did a better job of hiding it. I wish they'd deviated from the OG design and incorporated that into the feet so that the bed at least looked like one solid piece. On the whole, though, this take on Long Haul is a definite improvement over the CW version, and that makes me very happy. I'll be happy to have him in hand.

As for the kibble trailer, while I'm not opposed to making it look utilitarian for use with Long Haul or one of the other team members, I don't like that it required the use of two large folding panels to form a sort of tonneau cover for the thighs only to become an industrial sized butt plate for Devastator. If I had my druthers, I'd just rather they let the thighs be thighs and omit the superfluous panels and accompanying wheels. I will, say, however, that at least the wheels match Long Haul's, complete with silver painted rims, and that helps to sell it as a purposeful accessory for Long Haul. However, the big purple wings on the sides and the black missile pods made up of Devy's arms kinda ruin the illusion that this is just a piece of construction equipment. but at least it's storage! 🙄😄

One last niggle: I wish he had the dual back wheels like the OG toy.  Dump trucks, by the laws of nature, should have dual back wheels. It's also the rule of cool, and probably in the ancient Sumerian texts, the Egyptian hieroglyphs, Archimedes' treatises, and somewhere in the Bible. " Before thou hitcheth thine ox unto thy dump cart, maketh certain to affix dual wheels to each side" or some such verbiage. Probably in the Proverbs; they say Solomon was a smart dude. 😜

8 hours ago, MKT said:

 

I agree at this size everything just manages to hold together, and the same engineering at larger scale will not work.

Once the SAP packs are on in Fighter, it teeters into handling nightmare territory, as the lack of arms tabbing into anything will drive one slightly crazy trying to align them symmetrically whilst trying not to bump other parts off position.

Other than that, the plastics feel strong and Bandai made a good choice designing a central metal frame holding most parts together.

Agree. Regarding the SAP, I had some trouble getting it to wrap around the back jet boosters in fighter and GERWALK modes. I finally managed to get it to stay on, but it didn't give that satisfactory feeling of being completely secure. Today I transformed it from G mode to battroid, and that antenna finally broke. Fortunately, Bandai must have been aware of the issue (those parts really should have been made of metal for durability) and gave us two extras, so that problem was remedied. Anyway, once I got the thing into B mode, the SAP went on perfectly, no issue. Ironically, I figured I'd have a worse time in battroid, but nope. Even with all that weight, it stands and poses like a champ. 

Having been handling Macross toys for 20+ years, I was a bit surprised that the arms just float in fighter mode without any method of securing them into a "proper" position. Like I said earlier, it's purely up to the handler's discretion how high or low those arms hang, and subsequently the legs by din of their tabbing into the arms. The legs don't have a hard tabbing point either, merely tabbing, just barely, into the arms, which leaves a lot of room for interpretation. I try to keep the arms up as tight as I can under the body so the legs follow suit. I keep enough space for the wings to sweep freely without hitting the legs, and that looks right to me.

Everything regarding the build does feel good. The central metal frame was indeed a smart decision. The knees, too, benefit from some metal parts, so this toy, far more than my VF-4 or VF-0D, lives up to the "high-metal" name. Screws don't count.

8 hours ago, sh9000 said:

Thanks @M'Kyuun.

Welcome. Cheers!

7 hours ago, Chronocidal said:

I'm glad they actually made a decent representation of this one, but I don't think you can really make this design any bigger without the weight of the design itself fairly well ruining the experience.  In the realm of sci-fi designs, this one works out just slightly better than the floating/detached nacelles
in the most recent Trek designs.

The backpack on this one bugs me though.  I'm not sure if it's actually supposed to close?  It just seems to be stuck permanently detached/opened somehow. 

I'd love to see one in 1/60 if they could get the limbs stable (maybe some kind of sliding lock that would hold them in place?), but I'm not expecting anyone to take that gamble. 

While I don't think it's an impossibility, I do think that this particular design is very well served at this scale where smaller metal hinges can be utilized to bear the weight of the entire toy. On a larger scaled toy, common sense and physics dictate that more robust joints will be needed, and as those joints become larger, so too does their obtrusiveness as they impact aesthetics and the overall mold. This toy was executed very well. It's not perfect, but what is?  I'd still love to see companies like Sentinel, Moderoid, or Arcadia tackle it. Heck even a company like Touch Toys, with their proven track record of innovative transforming aircraft, would likely produce a pretty good toy. Since Macross II is pretty much the black sheep of the franchise, I doubt they'd take as much issue letting other companies outside of Bandai make toys or models of it.

The backpack on mine closes fine so long as the long double-hinged panel within is situated properly depending on the mode. Perhaps check that hinge to make sure it's not getting jammed up on something. I do find it odd that it has no latching or tabbing mechanism to keep it securely closed. Like the design itself, this toy is an oddity amongst its valk brothers and sisters.🙂

14 minutes ago, sh9000 said:

Most stores are selling it for around 13000 to 15000 JPY but Mandarake had an unopened one listed for 8000 JPY so I ordered it.

Good catch! Hope you enjoy it!

8 hours ago, Tking22 said:

Yeah the VF-2 is a crazy design with a lot of anime magic going on, this scale serves the design well. That said, I'm sure a company more competent then Evo Toy can make a better, bigger scaled VF-2, the Evo Toy figure wasn't bad because the VF-2 design, it was bad because the Evo Toy figure was just bad. 

😄 Yeah, there was a lot to be desired with that figure. The cringe was strong with that toy, and it only grew cringier with every new review. I suspect a lot of fans bought it out of desperation, just that desire to finally own a fully transforming toy of it. I won't lie; I had my eye on it initially, but right outta the gate, there were issues, inaccuracies, niggles that weren't resolved (kinda like Bandai's YF-21, but I bought it anyway- so much for will power 😜). I did pass on the Evolution Toy VF-2 though. It just didn't come close to matching the level of quality or design that we were used to from Yamato/Arcadia or even Bandai. Admittedly, as you said, it's a challenging design to accomplish in a functional toy. The team that designed the HMR earned their kudos for making everything work as it should mechanically (other than landing gear- SMH) which means there are a lot of moving parts on this little toy. Not only did they nail the functionality, though, but the aesthetics are largely uncompromised, AND they included the SAP, with its own functional bits, as an independent piece that can snap on to the plane unlike a lot of earlier toys and models. If I have one complaint, and it's minor, it's that the HMR fixed pose hands are always a bit too large for the figures generally dwarfing the retractable hands that also come with them. They're an unfortunate bit of necessary partsforming, like the gear, if you want to take full advantage of the figure. I wish there was a happy medium where the retractable hands were just a tiny bit bigger and capable of holding the weapons. It's but a small grievance, as I'm quite impressed with all three of my HMR valks and the levels of mechanical functionality they enjoy as compared to their larger more expensive counterparts. With my available display space all but gone, I welcome these smaller alternatives to the 1/60 scaled toys and hope Bandai will continue to develop other valkyrie designs in the line. 

11 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

I just don't know how, on a Hasbro budget, you do that without making his arms more turret-shaped or his pistol barrel more tank gun-shaped. Like, yeah, it'd make for a way better tank mode, and would probably look great on an updated pseudo-G1 Megatron from IDW or something, but it'd make those elements less cartoon-accurate in bot mode. For me, who thinks Megatron's real alt mode is the pistol accessory, that's not a compromise I'm comfortable with.

Such is the challenge that Hasbro and Takara face with these toys; everybody wants something different from them.  A little bit of beveling on the arms or having some beveled elements fold out of them to give the turret a better shape would have been fine, but yeah, budget. I just think it looks like two different teams designed the top and bottom of that tank with different levels of realism in mind. It looks jarring to me and it beggars some better engineering. I know that the bot mode was the priority, and to that extent, they pretty much nailed it- Megs looks great.  However, since they can't legally make him a gun and a tank is going to be his alt mode pretty much from now on pending changes to our laws, I have an expectation that the tank mode will look good, or at least passable as such. That turret fails. I don't hate the toy, but I sure do wish it had turned out better.

I'm curious to see what third parties will cook up for this guy to address the turret issues. I can live with the fat round arms, unrealistic though they may be, if they can do something about the obvious scope and gun barrel to make it more passable as part of the turret.

2 hours ago, mikeszekely said:

While waiting for Amazon and Pulse to get off their butts and fulfil my command for preorders, turns out the Big Bad Slow Toy Store of all people got some stock.  So I commanded them to to send me my third two-pack this month (also gave them money).  Now, can I command your attention for a bit?  I have a review for Commander-class Hook.

I was looking at the animation model for Hook, and I don't envy anyone trying to make a toy of him.  Combiner Wars Hook figured sticking the wheels on his forearms was enough and didn't copy the weird triangle elbows of the animation model.  Nor did it copy Hook's weird cartoon hips.  The real tricky part, though, is that the animation model completely abandons the truck parts on the fronts of the G1 toy's legs, except for a lump on his left foot with a wheel and a window.  Despite the lump obviously being the cab, aside from the purple window his legs are silver from his hips down.  Combiner Wars Hook was like, "nah," and reversed his lower legs, so the cab is on the back of his leg instead, and made his legs green from the knees down.

Studio Series Hook looks to "correct" some of Combiner Wars Hook's details by making them more cartoon-accurate.  Hence, his torso becomes devoid of color that isn't purple, aside from the cartoon-accurate green on the collar... although, as near as I can tell, his chest actually should have kept some of the black.  And silvery plastic was used for Hook's shins and feet to better color match the silver of the cartoon.  But, perhaps because the same Takara designers that worked on Combiner Wars Devastator are the same guys doing the Studio Series ones, some mistakes are carried over.  The cab's still on the back of his leg instead of the front.  He still doesn't have the weird hips.

He does have an accessory... forgive me if we're not justifying the Commander-class price point yet, but I promise the other guy has a ton more.  For Hook, though, it's just this one gun.

Hook's articulation isn't the best, but it actually is an improvement over the Combiner Wars toy.  His head swivels and can tilt down some, and up/sideways very slightly.  His shoulders swivel and can move laterally 90 degrees; the "shelves" above his shoulders are hinged now and can move up to give you more clearance.  He has bicep swivels now, and double-jointed elbows that get around 130 degrees of bend.  No wrist or waist swivels, though.  His hips go about 90 degrees backward, and a little over that forward and laterally.  His thighs swivel, and his knees bend a little under 90 degrees.  His feet have some upward tilt due to how he transforms, and 90 degrees of ankle pivot.

Hook holds his gun just fine.  And in a move I kind of like, his boom is only attached via a 5mm peg.  This means you can remove it and plug it into the port on either forearm if you want to use it like a weapon.  Of course, it naturally goes on his back, and with it there you'll find a 3mm peg that you can use to store his gun on the boom on his back.

It a move that's probably not all that surprising to anyone who's already mess with Studio Series Scrapper, Hook's transformation is basically the same as the Combiner Wars version.  You still shift his backpack up and tuck his arms into his sides.  You still rock his calves up over his thighs, fold his shins up under him, and tuck his feet flat.  You don't even fold in his hands now (for this mode), and you might notice that the SS toy carries over the the CW toy's practice of shifting the control cabin for the crane over, so it's not straight behind the driver's cabin.

Another thing I'm disappointed to see, given that the big change from Combiner Wars (other than scale) is that Hasbro is embracing partsforming, is that there's still a massive, inaccurate lump in the middle of the truck where Devastator's head is attached.  Why didn't they just partsform it, too? 

While I feel my complaints are pretty valid, as they're largely things that are NOT cartoon-accurate, I have to at least admit that it's at least better.  He's now got nicely-painted silver rims, and no random black bits in either cab.  The truck's surface is textured like it's got skid plating, and the purple stripe and purple end of the boom are cartoon-accurate (though the hook itself should be purple).

Although Hook's crane deck doesn't swivel, since it's just pegged in the crane itself can swivel.  And, although that's about the extend of it, the boom can also extend.  In both of those ways SS86 Hook is, again, an improvement over the Combiner Wars toy.  As for weapon storage, the gun can again simply be pegged onto the boom.

As I alluded to, Hook is a lot like Scrapper.  Both are, in a number of small ways, improved from their decade-old Combiner Wars versions, but both ultimately use nearly identical engineering and thus carry over a number of flaws from those older toys, and do so at a smaller size.  So it's like, yeah, Hook is better... but is he better enough to warrant an upgrade if you already have the Combiner Wars toys?  Naturally, some of that is going to come down to the combined mode, and we've got to wait until the fall to answer that question.  But, perhaps some of that will also come down to the fact that Hook is packed with another Constructicon...

I think this guy turned out pretty well. On the whole, I've been pleased with these as opposed to the CW toys, both designed by Hasui-san, despite the similarities in transformation mechanics between the two sets. I think the aesthetic changes to bring these closer to the G1 toy and toon looks make them far more palatable as well as obvious improvements to the articulation. I do wish they'd made the entire crane deck spin (I very much like functionality to be preserved in my transforming toys, so it's rather disappointing when they take shortcuts, especially when the G1 toys were capable. These should be upgrades in every sense IMHO) and tampoed the warning stripes on the boom like the G1 toy. Ah, well, Toyhax will have us covered for that and a hundred other things we didn't ask for.

I get the sense that Scavenger's boom deck won't rotate either, as it's not shown doing so in any pics, nor was it shown in the fanstream. The G1 toy could do it, though.

1 hour ago, Tking22 said:

The slightly longer head tab seems to be the only real difference between this and the original release, so I think I'm good and can pass on this, cool box I guess?

I didn't own the previous version, and I suspect the new tab is an improvement. It was nice and secure when I transformed it, so it does its job. The box art was specially done, likewise the stand, but I prefer to let the toy speak for itself. I think this is the perfect scale to execute this design; any larger and challenges are going to arise with striking a good balance between getting strong multiple joints to support the legs and their becoming too large and ungainly. I'd still love to see Arcadia take a stab at it, what with their history of innovative solutions, but as it stands, I think everything balances out about as well as it can with the HMR. The VF-2SS is just a neat looking design and I'm really happy to finally have a nice toy.

Mine just arrived, a day early no less! I've been wanting a good toy of the VF-2SS for a very long time, and I've skipped every release until this one. In hand, it's a beautiful piece with a great deal of articulation, even the doors on the leg packs, which makes the point of making the landing gear partsform seem ludicrous by comparison, but IIWII. Anyway, compared to the HMR VF-4 and VF-0D that I own, this is a bit fiddlier and fragile. The legs tab into the arms in fighter, but the arms themselves don't tab into anything, at least that I could see or saw in the instructions, so they basically hang there by din of friction and your calibrated eyeballs to set them in the approximately appropriate positions. The left arm pauldron falls apart extremely easily on my copy and I may have to figure out the best place to add a touch of glue to keep it together without affecting its functionality. Those things are very small and easy to lose, especially when they're just hanging off the bottom of the plane and could fall off with the merest provocation. Thus far, I've only played a bit with the battroid, checking out the articulation (the knees are particularly involved) and then transforming it to fighter. In doing so, I was more acutely aware than ever before how much inspiration this took from the VF-1 and the intention by the Macross II creators for this to be its successor. While I believe in canon that role fell to the VF-4, a righteously awesome design in its own right, the VF-2SS indeed feels like an advancement of the original Valkyrie (VF-0 notwithstanding 😉) while being its own unique design. I think it's beautiful and I'm so glad to finally have a pretty accurately designed and well-articulated figure of it in my collection. After addressing that pauldron, I'll probably attempt to attach the SAP bits and get her all armored up.

Word of caution- those head antennae are really, really thin and fragile. despite having a plastic spacer in the box around the head to protect them, one of mine was ever so slightly bent so I moved to bend it straight and though I didn't break it, it felt like it gave a little too much and I'm rue to touch it again if I can help it. Fortunately, it comes with spare antennas, but I'd rather not break the ones I have so I'm trying to manipulate them solely at the base as much as possible. Probably goes without saying for most of you, but I'll put the caution out there anyway. 

To quote Stevie Wonder, "Isn't she lovely? Isn't she wonderful?"