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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    That's an interesting point; while HBT is a finite resource that they need to beg, borrow, and steal (often the latter), missiles seem to replicate magically and infinitely, as I can't recall their ever looking for spare ammo. Infinite ammo has been a trend in tv and movies forever, though, so I give it a pass.
  2. M'Kyuun
    He was the same age as me, so that's sobering. And I'd also venture to say he was probably in better health; my addiction to sugar means I have a forever-gut, high cholesterol, and somewhat high blood pressure. When it's your time to go, there's little argument to the contrary. I enjoyed Grant on Mythbusters; he was uber-nerdy and loved his robots, trying to put them to use whenever he could for a scenario. He seemed a genuinely good human being, of which we shall never have a surplus, and his loss is a loss for all, but especially for his family and close friends, to whom I express my deepest condolences. The world dimmed a little when Grant's light went out.
  3. M'Kyuun
    I just watched Mospeada for the first time recently. I never saw RT, so I went in with a clean slate, so to speak. IIRC, the Inbit were looking for a new home at the urging of a Light force (a bit of Yin and Yang going on here), and they sensed the Dark force in humanity, hence their aggression. But yeah, they were basically terraforming the Earth while conducting experiments on various lifeforms, including dinosaurs, to determine a suitable form in which to live on Earth. My understanding was that the Inbit were energy creatures who had to artificially produce a body in which to live, be it mechanical like the Crabs, or biological. No surprise, they determined that the human body is the most suitable, b/c y'know, hubris and storytelling. My own choice would probably be a shark (apex predator with very long history on a planet that's covered in water). Anyway, they're essentially trying to restore Earth to its natural state, and fighting the humans along the way. But, apparently the Inbit attended the Stormtrooper Academy, as they rarely hit anything they shoot at. Then again, accuracy is a challenge for our intrepid band of human protagonists as well- it takes an Itano Circus for Stick to take down one fairly close range Inbit in one scene, and he actually laments using all his missiles on one enemy. It must have been an in-joke to the producers that this hardcore military guy can't shoot for sh!t. The characters were ok, but nothing to really write home about. Ray was probably the most likeable, given his carefree personality, although he was assigned the role of "Peeping Tom" pervy dude. Always gotta be one. Yellow - IDK- he/she made for a good distraction when the others needed to pull off a clandestine mission, and in his more philosophical moments, I liked him. I think he was also the most proficient fighter in the group as well. Mint was annoying. Jim was serviceable. Stick, appropriately named b/c he had one shoved firmly in his ass was a stereotypical hardcore single-minded military dude, all mission, little substance. Houquet was the typical tough chick with a soft heart. Aisha was an interesting character that didn't get near enough exploration- it would have been a neat turn in the show had they presented the second half through her perspective and thoughts. Alas, no. She was essentially a human pet. Solzie was the sterotypical alien chick who falls for a human dude, but I did like how they showed her character taking a bit of time to change her mind about fighting humans- she wasn't an immediate convert to the human cause. The appropriately named Battlar was Stick on the Inbit side, a two-dimensional kill-em-all military type with little substance beyond. The Ride Armor started out as the driving gimmick , but towards the middle, and more so towards the end, the Legioss takes more precedence, and finally the Tread makes an appearance toward the last few eps. As a toy commercial it did a pretty good job of showcasing the Mospeada and Legioss, as there are plenty of battle scenes to show them off. As a narrative, it's a bit slow-going when they're not in battle, as it's mostly about the band of unlikely heroes traveling from town to town looking for fuel (HBT), tangling with other humans, and making their inexorable way from South America to North America to find and destroy the Inbit home base, Reflex Point. There were a few cool ideas, but honestly, it doesn't feel like they were trying to make it anything more than what it is- a fairly bland us-vs-them tale with some cool mecha thrown in to sell toys.
  4. M'Kyuun
    I like how that hobby mat is perfectly reminiscent of the old G1 background. Every time I see it now, I hear the intro/outro music between commercials.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Thanks Mike. I asked the same thing in a PM, so disregard. We have a Hobbytown here in Spokane, so I guess what I'll do is take Optimus for a trip to the store and try to eyeball a good match for the legs. I thought the Tamiya you used was pretty close, though. I'll let you know if I find a better match. I like being able to store it directly on Optimus, though, and it's just one of those niggling things that you know they could have done better, but didn't. Because they hate us. Edit: After giving it a bit of thought, I'm guessing the secret leader figure will be Ultra Magnus in his Earth truck mode. I'd be down for that, as I didn't like his Siege alt mode at all. His bot mode was lovely, though. If they can make his cab look like ER Prime's, with Siege's bot mode, that'll be a good a marriage.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Good point, but in truth, I absolutely love Earthrise Prime. It's glorious. I thought the butt wheels would bug me, but that niggle pales in comparison to all the rightness of it. The transformation mechanics are extremely well done and unique, the aesthetics, minus a few paint apps, are spot on, and in hand, it's a joy to both transform and pose. It's better than what I had hoped we'd finally get if Hasbro ever did a G1 faithful Optimus in the Generations line. I love that we got a trailer with it, as well, even if it's not completely faithful to the G1 toy. It's close, and we're incredibly fortunate to live in a time when any number of third parties are producing upgrade kits. Even with its minimal warts, this is going to be a difficult toy to top. I won't be surprised if, a decade from now, we're still talking about and making comparisons to Earthrise Prime. Which makes the contrast to Earthrise Arcee all that more glaring. The disparity is such that it feels like two different entities with vastly differing levels of engineering prowess designed these toys. Optimus was designed by their 'A' team, Arcee was designed by the janitor.
  7. M'Kyuun
    I'm thinking about cancelling my Earthrise Arcee and ordering Elita-1 instead, as I prefer T30 for my Arcee. I don't think I have an Elita-1, so it'll do. Hey Mike, what blue paint did you use for you Earthrise Prime? I've been trying to find your review, but that was so many pages back, I couldn't find it and gave up. Anyway, It's a pretty good match, and I'm thinking of doing some painting on mine as well. I installed my Nonnef upgrades, and I'm kinda torn about it. The bits over the wheels and the swing out stanchions, minus the parts-forming feet, are all done well, and all that dark blue in line with primes legs in truck mode just looks right. I wish the trailer hitch attachment had been made tighter at the hitch point where it plugs into Prime's legs, and looser where the trailer attaches to allow for a more natural rotation. As it is, the hitch sits down too far into the legs and catches, which prevents the trailer from turning at all. It's easily remedied by a rat file, but it's a bit of an oversight that Nonnef should have caught when he was, I assume, taking measurements for the design. Honestly, I don't understand why HasTak placed the hitch point so close to the cab when they've got almost the whole length of the leg to work with. In the real world, there's generally more space between cab and trailer to allow for a good range of rotation. I was looking forward to putting the Roller together, but holy moly, those tolerances between connection points are crazy tight. Too, the finished Roller is a bit too big (I get why- the Titan Master compatibility), but it just looks off. Too, Nonnef didn't put much effort into detailing Roller. And, Roller doesn't roll. The outer walls of Roller's hull are too thick, and prevent the wheels from spinning. They spin fine before putting those side bits on, so it's a measuring issue on Nonnef's part. It's fine as a filler for now, but I may have to look for an alternative. I may just get Hasbro's set from Pulse, which also has a more proper looking gun for Optimus. I don't know why they couldn't have made a better looking gun with a double hinge to compact it in truck mode, but I think they get a perverse bit of pleasure out of making things almost but not quite right for these things. It's insidious.
  8. M'Kyuun
    The Zeta does look good (love the antenna on the head), but I think I'll hold out for the Iota, as I like the dark green and it has a completely different head design, with an antenna to boot. Head antennas are cool, what can I say. By the time the Iota releases, hopefully all the bugs that are present with the Eta will have been long addressed. IMHO, as I've stated before, I think it's a foregone conclusion that Sentinel very likely designed the Legioss and Tread simultaneously in anticipation that their Legioss would be a good seller. The issues with it thus far have been minimal by comparison with many other high end toys over the years, and on the whole, it's a very solid release. By anyone's standard, it's by far the best Legioss toy ever released. So, I'd say be patient, let Sentinel address the issues with the Eta, wait for the Zeta to release, and if sales are good for the Zeta, I don't think it'll be long after that Sentinel announces a Tread for the Eta. Just my two cents, but I have a feeling that's probably how it's going to go.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Well, y'know, we're not limited by 80's technology or mindset anymore, so why not put the faction symbol on a flip-able panel so it's facing appropriately regardless of mode. Seems a simple enough solution to me. In all honesty, I've never really noticed which direction the logo was facing on my Seekers; my focus is always on the engineering- what they did right, what they could have done to make it better. That's usually the main area of criticism for me. In the Earthrise vs Siege comparison, the bot mode for the Siege toy exceeds that of the Earthrise by a fair margin. It's toy de-evolution at it's most disappointing. Actually, no- T30 Arcee to Earthrise Arcee is the most egregious case now. Beyond disappointing; it's downright depressing.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I'm usually of the same opinion, as my local Walmart gets TF stock in very sporadically and often with significant periods of time elapsing between stockings. That said, they have gotten all the Earthrise deluxes, and a few of the voyagers (they never carry leader or bigger) enough times over the last 6 months or so for me to have gotten them. They now have the Netflix display, with all the regular second wave figs as well as the Netflix repaints, and they've had them for awhile now. In fact, this is the longest I've seen them keep mainline TFs on the shelf in years, no exaggeration. I'm assuming the same for the next round of Earthrise Wally exclusives. I'm hoping they'll stick around a little longer. At least it gives folks a better opportunity to get them. My area is pretty hick, and in the last decade, I've never once encountered another adult TF fan in the aisle, although I did come across a LEGO scalper once. I suspect there are TF scalpers making the rounds, but my hope is always that kids or older fans like me get them first. Got both the Coneheads and the Autobot 2-pack (Ironhide & Prowl). Once on Amazon, I just typed the names of the characters into the search box, and they pop up. Good luck! So who's gonna be selling Thrust to complete the Coneheads?
  11. M'Kyuun
    Mark, the product guy in the livestream seemed, um, artificially giddy. Had a good laugh when they did the voices for the Movie clip. So, I'm glad to see Earthrise Bee, Ironhide, and Soundwave (tapedeck) coming, as well as the inevitable coneheads. I thought they said awhile back that Bee was going to be his own mold apart from Cliffjumper, but he's not. He's a heavy remold, and I'm think the partsforming was utilized so they could slap different back ends on to them with no additional engineering. Ironhide, too, suffers the partsforming trend, but he does look good in both modes. I hope the van roof/shield can fold up and attach to his back. Prowl looks great- can't wait. The Datsun Bros design, by none other than a certain Kawamori, has always been my favorite from G1, so I'm happy to see it done well for Earthrise. I like the Siege mold, so getting two variations that are similar, but with enough tweaks to differentiate them, tickles my fancy. Much like the first wave of Netflix redecos, I've no interest in the second wave, either, except Bee and Soundwave. I have no guesses for the unknown leader pack. I'd be through the moon if it was a gun Megatron, but we all know that ain't happening. I guess the exclusivity issues are going to continue as a regular part of doing business. I guess it's good for Hasbro from a financial POV, but on the collector side, it sucks. I'm not worried about POing the Walmart exclusive figs, as my Walmart seems to have good stock of the last wave right now, and they're warming the shelves. the Amazon stuff is what I'm worried about.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Bittersweet news: I like BW, and I don't mind their making BW in Generations scale, but I'd much rather they continued Earthrise until they've completed all the G1 characters before moving on to another branch of Transformers lore. I suspect there are going to be more folks upset than happy about this. Given how the fandom, for the most part, has embraced this line, it seems a rather obtuse move by Hasbro. If I was their marketing guy, I'd tell them to milk the G1 teet until naught but dust emerged.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Oh, for the love of Primus! They have way too many bots yet to do from G1, and possibly even G2, to segue into Beast Wars. Gotta admit, I like that poster art, though. But no! Finish G1, then do whatever. Concerning the Quintesson Pit of Judgement , it's a cool idea. I'm not really all that plussed for it, but YMMV. At first I thought that was a plastic backdrop- that would be pretty cool. The scale looks really wonky to me between the figs, but it may just be due to the smallness of the backdrop. You could almost fit Hot Rod or Kup in the pool with the Sharkticon, one at a time, though. This is the shallow end. Hopefully the next wave of Earthrise will be shown tomorrow. Fingers crossed for a tape deck Soundwave.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Jenius has a talent for selling these things, doesn't he? You might almost consider it, dare I say, genius. ducking and running away...
  15. M'Kyuun
    For a Hasbro release, it's revolutionary, certainly better than the usual obvious robot under a partial jet fuselage that they have been peddling as a standard for decades. This has tones of a Kawamori design, definitely taking strong cues from the VF-1. I wish the shoulders sat higher, but it is what it is; I can accept it. The grey could be a bit darker and more opaque, and the weathering done much better, but I'm trying to focus on the positive, and in my eyes, this is a design aesthetic I would like to see more often in Transformer jets. I'll echo the desire to see a Skystriker repaint. @Mikeszekely- I looked up Alternate Universe Prime out of curiosity; I didn't realize that was black redeco of Earthrise Prime. Funny they didn't call him Nemesis Prime, but yeah, I get it's a reference to the death scene. I was aware of the toy, but not the name they gave it, hence my confusion. If I didn't already have Perfect Effect's black redeco (and slight remold) of their Jinrai, I'd likely get the Earthrise redeco, as I have yet to own a Nemesis Prime.
  16. M'Kyuun
    That's 0630 here. I usually get up around that time anyway, but I'll have to remember to check out Pulse. Thanks for the heads-up, Mike. And yeah, hopefully the '86 SS figs will be revealed, and hopefully they're as good as we hope they'll be.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Dark Forces was awesome. That and the original Armored Core were what got me into gaming. I grew up in the 80's, but none of those games really interested me; what would become early first person shooters was what I had in my head as the perfect game. I never played the original Castle Wolfenstein, but IIRC Dark Forces used the CW engine. I put a lot of hours into Dark Forces, and it's sequel. I still remember the part where you had to sneak past the Scout Walkers, and sniping all the Trandoshans standing guard. Good times!
  18. M'Kyuun
    That's what I had in mind, too. A theatre set with actual moving pictures, or just scenery for something like a play, would be neat.
  19. M'Kyuun
    My thinking as well, but I'm hoping all the initial stock sold out, and the international retailers will receive rereleases with fixes. In a perfect world... Disposable income, but not loads of it. Like some of the other guys posted, I've become choosy about what and how much I collect. I'm not a completionist, which helps greatly when there are umpteen variants of the same toy for sale; I usually get one of a mold, unless there are interesting differences between releases, or the toy is well done enough to warrant a few repaints at the retail price. I collect primarily LEGO, Transformers, and Macross, in that order. I've recently discovered the Beastbox toys from 52Toys, so add that to the pile. I also pick up the odd figure here or there, like the Legioss, or Arcadia's Proto Garland, which fall into the category of long-sought after figures that finally got a quality toy. I've long been very good about budgeting, so I keep an eye on what I'm spending so as to never go overboard. It's a matter of discipline, and sometimes sacrifice. Most of the time, though, I'm able to get the stuff I want.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Love the 'Lo-Tech' logo on the bottom of the console tv. The tv does look like a fun build- it's a great function. Actually, the whole set looks like it would be fun to build; I'm just not interested in Nintendo. I hope that side-scroll function finds its way into a smaller set. It would be perfect in a theatre set.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Man, I love my Macross Design Works book, and have oft lamented not having a follow-on to cover the designs since 2001. Hopefully, some of the other Japanese e-tailers will have it available for international shipping. Like so much Macross merch, I'm guessing this'll be elusive for anyone outside of Japan. Not that it matters, and I know the Macross Design Works didn't have any, but has Kawamori-san ever included pics of his LEGO sketch models in any of his Macross design books? LEGO has been a lifelong hobby for me, so from a personal perspective, it'd be neat if those pics were included. His sketch models have become an important part of his design process when figuring out the transformation mechanics of new valks, and I think it'd be fantastic if he included pics of those along with his artwork.
  22. M'Kyuun
    For those in the know, do you think that the stock that comes to the American retailers will be intial issues or reissues? Just curious, as I orderd mine through TFSource, and it wouldn't hurt my feelings one bit if we ended up getting reissues with some of the known issues fixed. I don't expect that's the case, but it's a nice thought.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Watching the motorized functions reminds me of the Cargo Plane they did a few years back. Excellent set. I'm totally looking forward to this Osprey set- they did a great job on it. I think I'll be scanning that sticker sheet- pretty useful looking stickers. I believe you're correct, based on a very similar MOC I've seen. I think he did a different game, but the idea's the same. If this is an IDEAS set, it may just be the same fellow. Anyway, the effect is really neat. It's definitely a crowd pleaser at conventions. I've never been a Nintendo fan, so no interest here, but as an idea for a set that has both excellent modeling (can't even tell that Nintendo's LEGO until you see it up close), and very clever implementation of a mechanical function, it's a great way to celebrate the popularity of Nintendo in a unique way.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Nope. Honestly, I don't even know what that is. I didn't bite for DX Bike Robo, but I'd have been down for a DX Eagle. The Machine Robo jets were always better designed than the Transformers, and they were all based on real world aircraft. I so badly wanted Harrier Robo (Royal-T), but it seems like Action Toys are done with the line. Shame we never got Supercar (Turbo) or Blue Jet (Fitor), as they had protos of those guys from the beginning. Mike, you and I have the same idea if we win the lottery, although I'd split my factory between doing much sought after TF characters, and maybe a custom or two, as well as making a lot of the parts that LEGO can't or won't, and they are legion.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Well I'll be dipped in flour and southern fried; that's one of the best looking jetformers HasTak have ever made. The shoulder connections look like they're out of whack; hopefully that's just a mis-transformation. This is quite reminiscent of Macross designs; I wonder if they called Kawamori for a favor. already got my PO. Shout out to @Mikeszekely for pointing me in the direction of Amazon to score Earthrise Prime. He came today, and what a nice figure. I didn't get the Siege version, as I didn't care for the weird Cybertronaian alt mode they gave him, and I had faith that Earth alt modes were coming eventually. I had a bit of flash under one of the windshield panels that I had to trim a little, but now both sides are virtually seamless. I wish Hasbro would move back to rubber tires; those plastic things don't roll for crap. I tried sandwiching the gun part way down between his legs in truck mode, rather than pegging it in per the instructions, and it fits snugly while also allowing he trailer a full arc from stack to stack. I'll never understand why they put the trailer connection so close to the cab when you have all that leg back there. Anyway, Nonnef's kit arrived today, so I'll be installing that, and the little connector will help with the spacing. The trailer is really small, almost comically so, but I'm just happy that they included it at all. Enough typing- gotta go do some fixin'.
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