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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    PO'd PS-04 Azalea. Still think Rouge has the upper hand aesthetically, but this seems like a better toy, and it still gets a lot right. I'm scratching my head over the telescoping look of the shins; if it was actually part of the transformation, ok, but it's not and they could have been sculpted with a smoother look. Alas, not a dealbreaker, nor is the sparcity of her cockpit, although I think they could have tried just a little harder to clean it up. Unless she just turns out to be a lot of fun to transform, she's going to spend 99% of her time in bot mode anyway, so I'll just stop griping. I also ordered Ater Beta- that car mode is just awesome to my eyes; unlike most of my TFs, he'll probably spend more time in car mode, as I just love the look of it so much.
  2. M'Kyuun
    It's enough when you can put one 1/60 VF-1 next to a MP Seeker, but matching all three color for color is just showing off! Cool pic. They scale pretty closely, which is a little ironic to me, as the VF-1 was inspired by the F-14, which is larger than the F-15, and yet the VF-1 is quite a bit smaller by comparison. I'm guessing the VF-0 is much closer in size to the F-15.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Not many of us get to touch so many lives, or leave such a lasting legacy of creativity and hope. Mr. Lee had the stuff of heroes, and he'll be missed.
  4. M'Kyuun
    "I've still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission, and I want to help you." "Stop, Dave." "Will you stop, Dave?" "Stop, Dave" "I'm afraid." Definitely one of the best and most iconic voice acting jobs in cinematic history. RIP, Mr. Rain.
  5. M'Kyuun
    That Wei Jiang version has a lot more going on than the old deluxe, and probably still more than the upcoming Studio Series, as nice as it looks. I'm not into Bayformers so much anymore, but I will say that this is one of the more interesting and unique designs to come out of the Movieverse. It's some cool engineering to get such a large and wide bot out of a narrow vehicle. I dig all the panel origami to form his shoulder armor.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Oh lordy, I'm trying to ignore that right out of existence! But, yeah, you're right. So, to clarify, I want something totally divorced from what's come before, but still retains enough of the classic look of Transformers to be recognized as such (and no shardy bots!). I don't mind if they change the look, as I enjoyed Animated very much, but keep it aimed for the 10 and up crowd. Did I cover all the bases?
  7. M'Kyuun
    Makes me happy, too. I'd like to have a nice compliment of very G1 Generations figs, at least first season. The Prime Wars Triligy lines provided nearly all of the minibots, so a number of boxes already checked for me. However I'd still like a new Huffer that actually looks like Huffer, and a decent Cliffjumper. And more cassettes- always more cassettes. After they finish with this series, though, and they get all the G1 stuff done, I want them to do something completely new, completely divorced of anything that has already been done. All new characters with their own stories. The only thing I hope is that it's set on Earth, or if not, at least the alt modes are relatable, similar to how Animated was done.
  8. M'Kyuun
    It's been years since I last transformed Classics Prime, so in keeping with the topic, I felt compelled to reacquaint myself before posting. IMHO, it still stands as a pretty nice take on the character, albeit a little panel-formery. Still, it looks good in both modes, has good articulation, and both of his weapons transform along with the figure. Even if the smokestack gun does look a little odd (it would have looked much better for both modes had they made it round instead of square), it and the wind vane all come together to make a nice more streamlined cabover truck. I like it. I don't handle my toys all that often, so my copy still has tight joints all around, the smokestack pegs in firmly, and in both modes, everything is solid. It's a fun transformer toy, and shouldn't they all be. Jumping ahead, Siege Prime gives me hope for a pretty definitive G1 homage in the Generations line when they produce Earth alt modes for them. As I said, I see this line becoming the poor man's MP. Beast Wars was a shock for most of us TF fans, especially those of us who grew up with G1, and there was a lot of resistance and invective hurled at it. I was skeptical, and it took me awhile to really appreciate it. Moreover, I was in the military at the time, and went on any number of TDYs, and thus relied heavily on my VCR (yep, I'm old) to try and keep me caught up on the show. I often missed episodes, and so the story from my POV was a bit patchy. Years later, I bought the DVD sets nd was able to watch the show in its entirety, and I gained a newfound appreciation for it- it was such a well written, well voiced show that the alt modes didn't matter as much. They embraced the it in the story and in the writing to good effect, and it has since become one of my, and my wife's, favorite iterations of Transformers.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Nice review, as always, Mike. I think they nailed the look of it in both modes, but if I were in the market, UT's would get my vote simply for the ability to swivel the trailer, which IMO, every modern take should do, as the unitary design of the G1 toy was more a matter of toy design limitations in the 80's. Moving on to Quietus, I'm looking forward to your review, as I'm curious to see how it stacks up to Xtransbot's Eligos, whose aesthetics are the bees' knees, but whose transformation I find to be a PITA. And speaking of Fans Toys, they're making a MP scaled set of Stunticons, and pics are up of their Motormater, and IMHO, it looks nigh perfect. http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/11/03/fans-toys-ft-31a-roadking-masterpiece-scaled-motormaster-prototype-375793 Ever since the 80's, I've been intrigued with tractor-trailer designs where they remained connected for transformation, and MM's transformation was always unique in how the cab forms the feet. I'll be looking forward to reviews of this guy just to see how the engineering pans out. Scrutinizing the pics, it looks like the cab feet are a cheat, which is a little disappointing, but getting the cab and trailer to transform into a cohesive bot is still a pretty good feat.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Me too, although it still looks pretty good. If they eventually do a VE-1 Elint Seeker, I'm down for one. Love the crisp paint and panel lining. I hope they eventually do a Legioss. I have the Toynami Legioss, and I love the sculpt, but due to its myriad deficiencies, it's a terrible toy. I think these guys could make one that looks as good, if not better, with superior engineering and materials so that it could be transformed and manipulated without fear of crumbling.
  11. M'Kyuun
    +1 for Classics Prime's folding smokestack gun; it's one of the best examples of incorporating the weapon into alt mode. After 30+ years, obscured or incorporated weapon storage in alt modes should be a forgone conclusion, but unfortunately it isn't. And yeah, Classics Prime's wind vane gun was doofy and indeed remains a backpack on mine to this day. Points for creativity, though- at least it did something. Siege Prime looks like he suffers from external gun storage syndrome, too; I wish they'd have found a way to sandwich it between his legs or under his cab. Not much of a disguise when you've got a big gun attached to your roof or fender. Speaking of gun size ( ever bemusing Freudian topic), I hadn't really noticed Siege Prime's, as my focus is almost always on the figure itself, and I just register the basic shape, especially if it's an iconic G1 weapon. Although I prefer guns to melee weapons in my robot toys, guns, real or imaginary, generally don't interest me. That said, I had to take another look, and yeah, I guess it does look small in the picture, but I also consider the angle at which the pic is taken in bot mode. In his truck mode, it looks properly large proportionally, to my eye, anyway. However, if one owns PoTP Prime, they can always steal his gun (it's almost as long as a deluxe is tall). A little overcompensation, but if it makes you feel Prime-ier. Shrug If, and when, this line does make Earth landfall a few waves down the road, I wonder if they'll make the trailer for Prime; as useless as I generally find Prime's trailer to be, a toy as G1 as this has promise to be would feel incomplete to me without it. With all the figures breaking up into armor parts for the other figures in Siege, I could definitely see that being an option for the trailer, or its becoming an exo-suit for Prime, which would be a much cooler use of the trailer than a towable repair station.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I don't play the game, but after watching the shorts, this would make for a really cool tv series. Gotta agree with your sentiment that a Macross series like this would be great.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Gotta agree with Balt on a number of things he noted, that this is the best mainline Prime we've gotten in a long time (Classics was decent, but this figure has superior aesthetics and articulation) and that there's definitely a noticeable improvement in the overall quality and most notably, complexity, which is a welcome change, especially when compared to the mostly simple designs from Combiner Wars. While I'm not a fan of the battle damage paint, either, the paintwork itself is the best I've seen on a figure in some time. I plan on picking a few of the Siege figures up (probably not this Prime, though), but my sights are set on the Earth mode alt versions of these toys that will most likely follow. I'm glad to see the investment Hasbro has in this line, and I hope it does well.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I 'd like him to go with my Prowl, but what you said. Too much other new stuff I want in lieu of a recolor, even a nice recolor of a well-made figure. Plus Christmas is coming, and three of my family members have December birthdays, so my toy spending takes a backseat.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Apologies for any offense. The folks at Seibertron.com said he was Chinese, and I assumed they knew better than I.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Somebody should have pointed out the VF-14 to the folks at both ILM and Takara and said make it close to this. Edit: Chinese reviewer Kevin Liu posted a review of upcoming Studio Series Dropkick from the Bumblebee Movie. https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/transformation-video-for-transformers-studio-series-22-dropkick/42336/ This is the only SS figure I intend to get, and the review cements my opinion. The transformation is pretty neat, although I wish they'd found a way to hide the hands better in chopper mode. He has a little kibble, but nothing obnoxious. I'm still glad they eschewed trying to squeeze his car mode into the figure and just concentrated on making a decent AH-1 Cobra.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Alex is one of my favorite builders on MOCPages. He designs a lot of Transformers, and it's a point of pride for him to make them all minifig compatible. His designs tend to be fragile, however, often relying on tentative connections. What his models lack in solidarity they make up in aesthetics and functionality. his Legioss is the best I've seen, and I'm aware of at least two others (Eric Duron and Tyler Clites also have transforming Legioss models floating around on the web). Mazinger, good luck reverse engineering Alex's Legioss. He has a number of pics showing the internals of the leg and how they collapse, which should help. You'll have to let us know how it turns out.
  18. M'Kyuun
    The more I see of these Siege figures, the more I hope that an Earth alt mode series is next in the line, as this is supposed to be just a part of another series of interconnected lines. Gotta say, they're definitely ticking the nostalgia box with the bot modes in this line, although I can take or leave some of the Cybertronian modes (Sideswipe, Prowl, good; Prime and Ultra Magnus, terrible). But the bot modes are shaping up to be what I think many of us thought, or even hoped, that Classics would be when it was first announced. I think many of the CHUG molds we've had over the years were really cool, even if they weren't slavish to the G1 models. This line looks to be closer to the poor man's MP, getting much closer to the G1 bot modes than any main line since the originals, MP excluded. I dig it, and look forward to an Earth alt line, especially if they continue to keep the bots so faithful to both toy and toon, a nice middle ground that I wish the MP series had maintained. After they're done with this series, though, I hope they get the G1 out of their system, and do something like they did with Animated, a new design aesthetic ( just no shards attached to skeletons, please) married to a really good story, with all new characters. No more Optimus Prime, no more Bumblebee- a completely fresh cast with their own story. I get that both of those characters are synonymous with TFs, but I think, creatively, it would be nice to see something new and different than just another rehash of Prime and company fighting Megatron and company. A story set at the turn of the century would be fun, seeing our intrepid team adapt to the Industrial Revolution. I think it'd be interesting if these characters started out factionless scientists with a small security team on a survey mission, with a rift forming between the two as to priorities. I think it'd be neat if the scientists created the Insecticons as an experiment to help aid farmers, but as time wears on, the Insecticons become greedy and uncontrollable. Ideas like this would be cool to see- explore some of the lesser characters, or create all new ones. It's time for another Beast Wars or Animated to change things up.
  19. M'Kyuun
    They would have to be logical mechanical designs, which they are not; they were designed purely from an artistic POV, slicing and dicing the alt mode and attaching the parts willy-nilly without any thought as to how these bits would all actually move into their positions on the bot's frame. They never transform the same way twice, as each transformation generally occurs from different angles, and since there is no established mechanical method for transformation, the artists simply arranged the various bits in ways that looked cool to them. Moreover, I doubt any thought was given as to these things having 'internals' necessary for life, or functionality, except where it mattered to the story. As a former aircraft mechanic, I've never liked the Bay designs, as they were completely divorced from any mechanical reality, the sci-fi aspect of their transformation aside. Granted the G1 designs made little sense where mass shifting, having full interiors, and other such reality conflicts occurred, although there are any number of TF toys that have managed to incorporate at least partial interiors, which is always an impressive feat. In short, don't go looking for logic where it doesn't exist; Bayformers are pure CG magic. Nice to see Azalea getting some exposure. I was very much intrigued by Rouge until the horror stories of her difficult transformation, and MMC's take was number two on my radar for a MP scaled Arcee. For some reason in my gut, I doubt that Takara will produce an official version. Hope I'm wrong, but she'd be an easier figure to produce from a non-licensing perspective. From an engineering perspective, she obviously poses some challenges if one wants to accurately portray both of her modes while avoiding making her a shellformer. While FT and MMC both achieved that goal, and I think Rouge takes the prize aesthetically, Azalea is close enough for my tastes if she's not as fiddly.
  20. M'Kyuun
    None of the Bayverse designs were given to any realistic transformation mechanics. Moreover, anything that segments into many smaller pieces is going to have noticeable seams everywhere, as we've all seen on any number of TF toys (MP-36 anyone?). Aircraft have obvious seams everywhere, both for panels, and in areas with numerous moving parts, like landing gear bays, and any number of structural members or linkages to connect them. So, when the '07 movie was coming out and they were boasting about the 'realistic' transformations, where these large chunks of vehicles separated and somehow dissolved into the shardy chaos arranged all over these skeletal bots, my reaction was one of incredulity and disappointment. Plus, they were ugly, and didn't look anything like Transformers up to that point. That Takara was able to make working transformable toys at all from these illogical CG creations is a testament to their innovation, talent, and imagination. I keep hoping that a top-to-bottom reboot will happen, and that eventually more mechanically feasible designs will grace the big screen. The Bumblebee Movie just picks up where Bay left off, and uses a similar design aesthetic, so all this talk of 'reboot', at least so far as the look of the bots is concerned, is just talk. I do hope that Travis puts more focus on the Transformer characters, but the feeling I get from the trailers is that it's basically a girl and her (big yellow transforming) dog, featuring Bee as the Lassie of this generation. So far as squeezing a bot into any shape of aircraft fuselage, Kawamori has been doing this for decades, creating clean, realistic looking aircraft that transform without resorting to strapping a bot under a plane, or having limbs hanging off obviously. Takara have worked with Kawamori (he designed the original seekers, and reworked the MP seeker mold), so it's surprising that they don't take his cue on more of their aircraft designs.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Sorry to steal your thunder, Mike. But, glad you're getting the whole '07 cast. As I said, I think that Bonecrusher looks rather respectable, but I've just lost interest in Bayformers. I have a healthy collection of them from over the years; so many of them were incredible little feats of engineering. I figure the period between 2007 to 2012 or so was really a kind of golden age for TFs, so far as complex engineering, high parts counts, and fair to decent paint apps go. We got Classics, Movieverse, Prime, and Animated in this timeframe, not to mention the new MP line, and any number of these toys still resonate with me. The thing is, and I know from hands-on experience, planes are bigger than cars, with the exception of the F-16, which can double as a key fob. I jest, but the F-15, the F-14, the F-22, the SR-71, etc are large machines with a fair amount of fuselage that could contain a folded robot within its profile, especially if accordianing joints and some creative origami is applied. They managed it with Leader Jetfire, the MP seeker mold (love or hate it, it does a good job of squashing the bot into an F-15), The B-2 Bomber Megatron (which took a little license, but still enfolds the bot into the plane rather well), the recent Powerglide figure, Prime Soundwave's drone mode, etc. I'm sure there are other decent examples, but for the most part, the engineering for most TF jets ranges from lazy to not even trying, as you said. I absolutely hate the trend of just having the arms hanging off the jet, or just compressing them somewhat along the fuselage instead of finding a solution that incorporates them. It would never stand on a ground vehicle, so why do the fans live with it on jets? I don't know, but it bugs me.
  22. M'Kyuun
    For those interested, A Studio Series Prime (slight remold to combine with Jetfire), Jetfire, and Bonecrusher have been revealed. http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/10/26/transformers-studio-series-optimus-prime-and-bonecrusher-official-images-374864 Bonecrusher looks good, a nice update to the 2007 toy. Jetfire- 36 steps to transform into a robot under a jet. I'll never understand Has/Tak's design dichotomy between ground vehicles, which generally fully conceal the robot within the confines of the vehicle's shape, and aircraft, which generally have bits of robot hanging off, if not the entire bot hanging off the bottom. To that end, Thank you, Kawamori-san, for your lovely valks. I wish Has/Tak would take notes. I've no interest in any of these guys, even if Bonecrusher looks to be a really nice update. My interest in Bayformers has all but evaporated, and as of right now, the only Studio Series figure I'm looking forward to is Dropkick from the Bumblebee Movie. I can't recall there ever being an AH-1, at least in deluxe or bigger class, in the last 30+ years of TFs, and the bot mode looks more akin to regular TFs than Bay's typical shard-bots, so I'm kinda excited to get a copy when it comes out. It's getting some flak on the TFW boards for not being a triple-changer as he is in the Bee Movie, but I'm kinda glad they just focused on the AH-1 mode, as it looks purty good to my eye, and trying to give him his car mode would have entailed too many compromises, especially at the deluxe scale.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Impressive display. I remember back when LEGO released the UCS Lambda Shuttle there being mentioned that the designers borrowed ideas (for both sail and wing rotating mechanism) from an AFOL, which was an interesting admission at the time. Nice to finally see the guy. Despite my huge anticipation for a UCS Shuttle, when it finally came out, there were too many things about it that bugged me, and I didn't get it. What I wanted (still want) is this, or as close a facsimile as possible. He got the gear, the smooth simultaneous wing rotation, and the nice curved front of the shuttle's cockpit, none of which the official model achieved. I'd be down for a new UCS Shuttle with Power Functions and improved shaping, much like they did for the new Falcon. The palette has grown by leaps and bounds since the last UCS Shuttle set, so it'd make the designers' jobs that much easier realizing all those complex shapes, not to mention internal gearing. And while they're at it, it's high time for a UCS AT-AT.
  24. M'Kyuun

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    My gushing over the Advance aside, I can't argue that it's a bit of a chore to manipulate, and that a simpler toy, like Arcadia's 19, or just a good ole VF-1, is plain fun to mess with and still yields fulfillment. The engineer wannabe in me just loves solutions like those employed in any number of Bandai's valks, the Advance most notably, but what looks cool to the eye doesn't always translate as such in the hand. It's a tradeoff- a finickier toy with more inherent fragility yielding an arguably more accurate toy across modes, or a simpler, more robust toy that still does an admirable job conveying its modes with a higher fun-factor (and less anxiety). I like both options, but mileage varies.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Check out the white angled slopes on the Gibraltar starting with the printed ones just aft of the canopy- new and much desired for achieving a consistent slope along an angle. The curved windshields in trans green are nice, too. The base gun parts are new as well.
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