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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    So, after a good hour or so of cussing, placating, pondering, trying, and retrying, I finally persuaded my VF-19 Advance back into fighter mode. She's a tricky little beast what with all the multiple detentes and such for its various modes, plus armor accommodation. The armor kept falling off throughout, and so I just left it off except for the grey intermeshing pads on the shoulders, which is fine, as the naked 19 is one of Kawamori's most beautiful fighter designs. Throughout, despite my growing frustrations with getting things to line up, I couldn't help but marvel at some of the beautiful engineering in this toy. All the folding bits in the chest to allow it all to compress and allow the inner thighs to maintain a semblance of solidarity (except from the rear) is brilliant, as are the folding panels on the legs. It's been so long since I handled it that I'd forgotten just how clever the various solutions are throughout. That said, although the transformation can be a bit trying at first, the feeling of fulfillment is worth all that blood and sweat, and she makes for one gorgeous fighter. I implore any new owners of the YF-19 to take the time to do the transformation and really gain an appreciation for how much thought and engineering prowess is showcased in this toy; as much as I love my Arcadia YF-19, Bandai has them beat leaps and bounds in the engineering dept. More than ever, I hope they're developing a YF-21.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Yes, they have excellent customer service. I've had missing or damaged parts in sets before, and they've replaced them no questions asked. Go to www.LEGO.com , scroll to the bottom of the page, and in the lower left corner under Customer Service, select Replacement Parts. Be prepared with the missing part's part number, which can be found in the parts list in the instruction manuals. Once submitted, it'll take 1-2 weeks for it to show up. Prob less than two weeks since you're on the east coast. Anyway, sorry to hear you're missing a part. There's nothing so frustrating, esp when building a set with a lot of cool factor or anticipation behind it. I just got my copy a couple weeks ago, and it's a really fun build, and a beautiful display piece. I'm still bummed that it's articulation is so limited, but was pleasantly surprised to see a lineup in the instructions of concept models, and every one of them attempted leg articulation, often at the cost of the overall aesthetics. In the end, they favored a more screen accurate look at the expense of articulation. I understand the tradeoff, but for an articulated mecha fan like me, it's bittersweet. Anyway, contact LEGO, get your part(s), and finish building your Voltron! Edit: Almost forgot, LEGO has the Overwatch license, and the first wave of sets have been revealed: https://www.thebrickfan.com/ I've never played the game, but as a space and mecha fan, I'm liking a lot of what this line is offering thus far. Some interesting and long-wished-for new parts showing up in some of these sets as well. I still wish LEGO would produce their own space themes, but since Star Wars and now Overwatch have spacy stuff, it evermore seems a forgone conclusion. Still a little hope on the horizon with the second LEGO Movie, which looks to be quite spacy.
  3. M'Kyuun

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    Thanks Bolt! Ah, been so long I forgot that those parts push in to allow rotation of the hips. Now that I'm re-educated, I'll have to put my Advance through its paces tomorrow. It's been awhile since I had it in fighter mode, and I've been itching to transform it. In my failed attempt this morning, I was still appreciating some of the design and engineering touches Bandai incorporated into this toy; IMO, one of the coolest Macross toys I own. I have high hopes there's a YF-21 in the works. I think some MP-36ish compressing leg mechanism would serve well to give it chunky legs and a thin profile in fighter. Edit: Also wanted to thank HardlyNever for his helpful comments, as well. If I forgot anyone else, my sincerest apologies, and my thanks.
  4. M'Kyuun

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    The VF-4 has one of my favorite battroid modes; it's unique. I like it so much I built fully transformable version of it from LEGO, taking a few liberties with shoulder articulation and coloration. If you squint, you can see it in my avatar. I can't blame anyone for favoring its fighter mode, however, as it's a thing of beauty.
  5. M'Kyuun

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    I keep all my valks in battroid all the time for display. I favor battroid, with fighter a close second; I'm generally not too crazy about GERWALK, the SV-51 being the exception in my collection. The great thing about these toys is that they are transformable, so if I get the urge, I can pull it out of the case, put it in fighter for awhile, test its aerodynamic efficiency about the house, and then restore it back to battroid once more for display. I envy the folks with both the cash flow and, more importantly, space, to buy multiples for simultaneous display options. So, I got one of those itches to transform my VF-19 Advance today, and I ran into the same issue you had with your YF-19- the legs will not pull out to allow them to be swung down into fighter position. I pulled on them pretty hard, not hard enough to break anything, but certainly harder than it should take to extend them out from the body. I had your unfortunate incident in mind the whole time. I read something about loosening screws, but looking at my Advance, I didn't see any screws in the crotch area that would allow for loosening/disassembly to allow for better man-handling or even possible lubrication. Any clarification would be helpful. Incidentally, I only transformed my Advance once or twice when I first got it upon initial release, and it has remained in battroid ever since. I'm curious if there's some kind of corrosion that causes it to become 'sticky'. I don't recall having this issue when I first got it.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I doubt it; those struts can take some punishment, and I didn't see him blow any tires. If he'd blown a strut, there'd be a sizeable puddle of hydraulic fluid and the plane would list slightly. Honestly, that was a relatively soft landing, considering the situation. If anything, there may have been some excessive torsion upon touchdown which would potentially cause deformation of the scissors. Given how smoothly he continued to taxi, I'm guessing it held together alright.
  7. M'Kyuun
    https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/downtime/tui-pilot-absolutely-nails-sideways-landing-in-40-knot-crosswinds-at-bristol-airport/vi-BBOlQLn?ocid=spartanntp In twenty years of working in aviation, I've never seen a landing like this. The Air Force tends to be very, very safety conscious, so winds of this velocity most likely would have meant a diversion to another location. Watching the vid, I get the sense that this is routine at Bristol. Pretty amazing.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Masterpiece is their apology for all the craptastic toys they put out in the 80's; apology accepted, mostly. I remember getting Prowl, my first Transformer toy, with both the cartoon and the lovely boxart fueling my anticipation. The bubble burst pretty quickly once I started messing with him, and the trend continued for most of the other TF toys I owned. I still think Soundwave was one of the better toys, though, and the cassettes are still awesome.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Nice haul, Mike. Other than the cassettes and Jetfire, these old toys aren't really for me, but I get it from a nostalgia angle. Bringing things up to the present, there was a display of the War for Cybertron: Siege figures at NYCC this past weekend and pics are popping up on the various TF sites. I pulled the link from TFW2005: http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/10/04/nycc-2018-transformers-siege-figures-high-res-on-display-images-373346 Hasbro's milking G1 hard in this line, at least in their bot modes. Alt modes seem to be all over the place. They're supposed to have a war-torn look, but to my eyes, many of them look like they've been held next to a candle just a little too long. Starscream is interesting, as they went with a tetra-jet alt; however, he's basically a bot under a plane, as both his arms and legs can be seen hanging under the jet. Not much of a Transformer when 50% of the bot isn't involved. They finally made a Reflector, consisting of three deluxe figs; from the pics I've seen, they weren't displayed in their alt mode, but the bot modes are based off the toon look. Pretty stoked for these guys; been waiting a long time. I just hope they actually turn into a camera and not some weird space vehicle. Soundwave can dispense pseudo-cassettes from his chest, although they look smaller and less complex than the G1 cassettes. Soundwave turns into some sort of space barge. I'm generally not a fan of Cybertronian alts, as more often than not, they look like robots doing yoga, or the alts are so far removed from anything relatable that the transformation is moot. I see a bit of both in this line, not to mention lazy transformations where bits of the bot stick out like a sore thumb rather than being integrated into the transformation. Megatron's feet, for example- ok tank mode with big robot feet sticking up from the back. That's fine for the preschool line, but at $20, I think the Generations line should be more refined than that regardless of the aesthetic. I love the G1 look of the bots in Siege, but most of the alt modes are pretty off-putting to me. It makes me hope there'll be a follow-up line that puts them back on Earth.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Not feeling that at all- too busy. I wish they'd rerelease the VE-1; it's really the only version of the VF-1 I'd spend money on at this point. Maybe the VT-1, too. Other than the SV-51 they've got in the works, I'd be happy to see them take a crack at the YF-21, with lessons learned from the Yamato. Like everyone else, I'd like to see them get a license to do a VF-5000, or a VF-9, or VF-14, or a Variable Glaug. It'd be nice to have some variety outside of Plus, 7, and the VF-1 ad nauseum.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, I saw that on one of the how-to vids for swapping the shoulders around. Intriguing, I must confess. For what it's worth, the arms on mine tab in fine in bot mode; I only get resistance when I have the hood all snapped together. Ah well, as long as I can get him into car mode, I'm happy. Glad the fix worked for you, though. Nice to have options.
  12. M'Kyuun
    At this point, I think the enlarged eyes are a forgone conclusion. It's a little jarring, but I'm thinking I'll get used to them watching the film; it'll be part of her character, and it's a nod to her anime roots. I can live with it. I'm hoping it doesn't end up being another GiTS; while I thought it was ok, it just wasn't that engrossing. I'm hoping that the writing and plot offer more in Alita.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Hmm. Got mine yesterday, and the arms don't tab in very well on mine, either. I'm a bit resistant, as it seems like quite an oversight for all of them to have the shoulders misassembled. My POTP Brawn came with two left thigh pieces, but I figure that's a human error one-off; however, to have a whole batch of a toy be misassembled seems fishy. My own two cents is that it is assembled correctly, but that tolerances weren't just so in the correct configuration, as with any number of TF figs over the years, and it just happens that inverting them has the unintentional bonus of providing the necessary clearance for the arms to tab. My theory, anyway. I'm curious to see if Has/Tak will release any kind of acknowledgement of the issue. In the meantime, although my copy's arms don't want to stay tabbed very well, I can still get it into car mode with a minimal of fuss, so for now, his shoulders will remain as they came. Another issue I have with mine is that the car fender on the right shoulder does not like to stay tabbed-in in his Punch mode. I wish they'd made those shoulder ball pegs just a bit longer, as Punch's shoulder mobility is severely hindered with the fenders tabbed; untabbing them allows them to swing about, so the issue became a serendipitous boon to achieving greater arm movement. I also wish they'd found a way to give him actual toes in either bot mode, as his feet look a little odd as-is. Overall, despite the tabbing issues and other minor nitpicks, he's a pretty decent update to the original (which I had as a kid), and one I've been awaiting for a long time. I love the car mode they created for him (the original was a Pontiac Fiero), and both bot modes are close enough to the source to be recognizable while still imparting today's level of detail and poseability. Is he worth $25 as a deluxe? not really, but given that this is a character that seldom gets updates, I was willing to bite the bullet, likewise for POTP Grotusque, whose original I also had as a kid. Nostalgia is a powerful influence. Just the same, I'm not a fan of exclusives, as they're just a way of taking advantage of the fandom.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I've gained a heightened respect for Unique Toys; Challenger is an incredible feat of engineering. I vehemently dislike the TLK Prime design; in bot mode it has no semblance whatsoever to a Transformer- remove the red and blue and those stupid flames, give it a new paint job, maybe a new head, and you could drop it into any sci-fi show as a general mech and few would be the wiser. So, to take a design that had nothing indicative of transformation and have it come out as well as it did in truck mode is an impressive feat. There are so many moving parts in this figure, and the alignments, some curved, are remarkable for their precision. Really just a stellar job; I think Challenger is a good handle for it, not just for the folks who buy it, but also for the design team who figured it all out. Always enjoy Wotafa's reviews; his enthusiasm is infectious, and although I don't know what he's saying, he still gives a clear review with a well done transformation.
  15. M'Kyuun
    JBO- did your Punch/CP have an issue with the arms tabbing? In anticipation of receiving mine (it's late, just got an update this morning), I've been reading up on him over on TFW and on Seibertron, and apparently the ball pegs that form the shoulder joints were installed upside down thus preventing the arms from tabbing in properly. https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/how-to-fix-your-transformers-prime-wars-trilogy-punch-counterpunch/42039/ Anyway, nice to talk about something other than Bumblebee.
  16. M'Kyuun
    And therein lies the problem; if they're going to reboot the series, then divorce it entirely from the Bayverse, and start fresh. I enjoyed those scenes, as the G1 depictions are pretty spot on to how I wish they should have been done from the start. At least they're recognizable- in the Bayverse, nobody knew who was who until they slapped a name on them, except perhaps Prime. I'm ready for a hard reboot. I don't even care if they use the G1 designs, per se, but just the prevailing look of Transformers over the last 30+ years of toys, toons, and comics, Bayverse excluded. New Transformer-esque designs wrapped in a good story with good characters (many of them the eponymous sentient mechanized beings we all love) would be a nice refreshment of the movie franchise. I think Knight is paving the way, but he's still tied to the Bayverse, and as long as that remains, I don't think he or any other director will have a chance to make the Transformers films us old guys would like to see, or that they want to make. The light I see, though, is that Knight, and perhaps other directors to come, have a connection to Transformers from childhood, so I have hope that the spirit of the old show will come through, even if we're still seeing the Bayformer design aesthetic.
  17. M'Kyuun

    BANDAI DX YF-19!!

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    I don't own the new YF, but I have the Advance, and although I haven't handled it in quite some time, I do know that when I first got it, I transformed it full through all three modes without incident, and I've kept it in battroid ever since (fave mode). That said, I don't recall feeling any trepidation towards transforming that particular toy, certainly not as much as the SV-262 (the wing joints are a major PITA on that bird). Agree that the heels on the Advance look better. The only real gripe I had about the Advance was the bulging panel under the chest- still don't understand why they didn't give it a nice gentle upwards curve. I see they fixed that for the YF- good. Heartfelt sympathies to Onnasake; something like this simply shouldn't happen with a $300 toy. I realize he used a bit of force, but that tells me things with the toy probably weren't toleranced well- I've certainly run into it, but this is why every toy should be put through a couple transformation cycles as part of the QC process before being packaged, so the owner doesn't end up with an unbalanced, overly-tight high end toy. Just my two cents. Coming from an aircraft maintenance background, we would never repair something without testing it before signing it off, but I think, as a point of pride and craftsmanship, the same should be true for these expensive mechanical toys.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Well, I'm starting to see a glimmer of hope for this movie, both for the revelation of these new images, and by Travis Knight's talking about his love of Transformers from childhood. So, there's a chance he'll convey that with the Transformer characters in this film. Bay had no ties to Transformers when they hired him; Hasbro gave him a crash course in the lore for some familiarity, but basically let him do his own thing with it, which is why it was Transformers in name only and bore no resemblance to what we grew up with, knew, and loved about the franchise. I'm hoping Knight will change that. Still, if Knight was going to bring his movie closer to the G1 look and feel, why keep the Bay version of Bee's head? Give him a proper face and let him talk. I don't think anyone likes mute Bee, or the speaking through the radio BS they've been running with all these years. I certainly don't, and to make your title character voiceless when he's in all other ways a technological wonder just makes no logical sense. It's good that Knight is trying to inject some feels into this movie, especially between Bee and the girl, but I hope it comes out more reminiscent of Spike's friendship with Bee in the original show, where they were on equal footing. I hope Bee's more than just a pet in this film. True friendship doesn't seem to be something that Bay understood/understands, as all his characters , human or bot, just seemed to be antagonistic, demeaning, rude, and uncaring towards everybody. Not really the Autobot way.
  19. M'Kyuun
    RIP, Sarge.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Me too...this is a change for the better, at least aesthetically. Hoping they get the personalities down, too, with some decent dialog. Anyway, it's starting to look much closer to what I always wanted in a live action TF film.
  21. M'Kyuun
    There's certainly an antisocial aspect to Leon's character, and he's almost singularly focused on his work, with little attention given to much else. In those respects, his behavior could be likened to that of autism, in general. However, I think the intent was more towards his being the cliched absent-minded professor. All the characters in this show are clichés, really; Leon aside, they all follow typical anime character themes. The absent-minded professor theme has been around for a long time and is pretty universal. The show doesn't break any new ground from the eps I've seen thus far; it's unremarkable, beyond being pretty, mildly enjoyable, with some cool mecha, even if the battles aren't that remarkable either. It feels like the typical 80's half hour advertisement cartoons- lots of cheese, cliched characters, technospeak, and yes, a very Power Rangers-esque baddie. What's missing is the merchandise- where are all the toys and models of the mecha? I'd like to have a few nice toys of these things.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Eva Unit One? You're giving JP way too much credit. Leon & Co are saving a city; Shinji stopped Instrumentality. That sounds so nerdy.
  23. M'Kyuun
    While Bee Movie Bee hasn't grown on me yet, I'll give Takara credit for cramming a lot of stuff into a small space. Seems like there are more moving parts for both articulation and transformation mechanics in the Studio Series compared to the Generations deluxes of late. I guess that justifies the $20 price tag, although I'm increasingly finding the price tag on deluxe figs, and moreso voyagers, to be a bit high for what you get. I wish the engineering was more complex on voyagers instead of less, or at least a improvement in articulation over deluxes, as it should be.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Thanks for the pics, sh9000. Those are the only clear pics I've seen of the JP mecha designs. I wouldn't mind having toys, and I imagine Bandai would be the company that makes them, but as far I know, there are currently no toys or models out there. I imagine they'd sell on their own merits, though, being variable mecha designed by Kawamori. His writing leaves somewhat to be desired at times, but the guy can sure design a cool transforming mech.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Cute vid. As much as I'm pretty much over Bayformery stuff, the MP version of Bee Movie Bee looks intriguing, much better than the Studio Series. I'm already down for Studio Dropkick when he finally releases. Still hate the Bayformer Bee face, though; I wish they'd changed it, given him a faceplate or at least a mouth like the rest of them.
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