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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Colin Firth's character was the best part of Kingsman. I liked the movie, but Colin's protege left little impression on me- honestly, they could have killed him in the first 20 minutes, and I think I would have enjoyed the film more. I didn't care for Sam Jackson's character, either, so I'm glad they killed him irrevocably. They should have kept his ass-kicking attache alive though- she was a scene stealer. Anyway, the return of Colin gives me hope, as overall, I enjoyed the first film, and hope the sequel at least as good.
  2. M'Kyuun
  3. M'Kyuun
    That's a really nice looking Megatron. Since I already forked for MP-36, I'll skip this guy, but I look forward to the inevitable reviews. Looks like a more traditional transformation.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Don't worry, there'll be recolors of this guy, at least a Diaclone version, and a toy colors version, so there's a good chance an MP-38 Megs might yet be released. And if, not, not really a big deal to me and , yay, new mold! Personally, I'd like an all new Seeker mold, where the neck area is mounted lower than the upper lip of his chest intakes. That particular detail has bugged me about the current Seeker mold since it was released. Speaking of that, this mold is now over 10 years old- that's a lot of milking time for the mold. Time for an update.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Reminds me of Running Scared w/ Paul Walker...different plot but same kind of tone.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I got my Soar from an ebay seller, and the extra head assembly was in the packing, so I completely missed it when I pulled the box out (the packing was completely made of styrofoam perfectly fitted to Soar's box, and then wrapped completely in thick yellow packing tape. It was actually some of the best packaging I've ever seen). Anyway, I did the swap once I did find it, but haven't swapped the knee parts yet. I'm trying to be careful with the plastic ones, but if they do end up breaking, I'll go ahead and install the metal ones. I'm a rarity, as I prefer the look of TT's Shockwave over the 3P offerings. I wish he'd been a darker shade of purple, but overall, it doesn't bother me. Anyway, I thought Shockwave was pretty well done. In his case, I prefer the animation design over the G1 toy. Of course, opinions vary dramatically over this figure, and I can respect that. I'm glad the third parties veered away from the cartoon look, as the differences between the various versions should give everyone what they want, within reason.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Considering that he has to transform into a MP-10 scaled robot, they did a pretty good job overall of getting the shapes and proportions close. I wouldn't expect it to be exact, as it would be nigh impossible to do and make the robot mode as well without more sacrifices. Too, in this instance, I'd rather the robot mode got the most attention design wise.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Well, even though Constructor is my Devastator of choice, the vehicle modes are simplified, a little too much like the G1 Constructicons. I'm thinking primarily of their Bonecrusher and Scrapper, both of which would have benefited from full cabins to make them look more realistic. It's ironic that they went so far as to make rolling treads on Bulldozer, but then only gave him a convertible awning for an operator's cabin, when the latter posed a far less engineering challenge. Burden, who comes with his own quality issues (which I hope are fixed when they release the boxset this summer), is the best modern version of G1 Long Haul, IMHO. Quality issues aside, where I think they missed the mark to really make the figure shine is in the lack of functionality of his vehicle mode; how difficult would it have been to design a small set of panels to which the rear wheels would attach? These panels could be mounted at the knee and made to lock to the backs of the thighs, enabling the dumper to function as it would on a real dump truck. It seems such a missed opportunity, as nearly all the Constructors have at least some functionality in their vehicle modes, and that would have set this version above the rest for having that extra functionality. My opinion, but it bugs me when I think if only.... Until owning their Dinobots, I had only word of mouth to go on for Fan's Toys' reputation. Now that I have three figures in hand, I think I'm going to experience a bittersweet feeling when FT finally reveal their Constructicons. I'm too invested in TW, and one MP scaled Devastator is enough (both financially, and due to ever shrinking space restrictions). But, I'll bet they're going to be nice.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Wow, pretty extensive review, Mike. It's cool to see all of them together for comparison's sake. Ultimately, I went with Toy World's Constructor, as I like the G1 aesthetic they were going for, and, if I'm really being honest (I am), they had me with the rolling treads on Unearth and Bulldozer. I have their Scavenger, Bonecrusher, and Hook, and I love how solid and chunky they feel in hand. I have the full 6 figure set PO'd, and I can't wait to have them all. Along with 3P Constructicons, I've also started collecting 3P Dinobots, and I went with Fan's Toys Iron Dibots. Thus far, I have Sever (Snarl), Grinder (Grimlock), and today I got the blue version of Soar (Swoop). Every one of these figures is a treat to behold, and even to transform. There's a fair bit of innovation involved, and the results are really clean bot modes with a lot of die-cast heft, great articulation, and spot-on G1 aesthetics in both modes. In Soar's case, I wouldn't have minded their taking a little license to better integrate the arms into his ptero mode, but FT really were going for the G1 look, so his arms just kinda hang at his sides and give his dino mode a really boxy look that echoes the original toy ( actually, the original toy's arms tucked into the body a little for a little streamlining). I wish they'd allowed the arms to tuck in at an angle to give his pteranodon more of a V shape, but it is what it is, and it makes up for the boxiness with wing , head, and leg articulation. These are the only FT figures I own thus far, but I'm quickly understanding the high regard that many collector's have for them and their products. Very solid, and two of my Dibots have even had inspection stickers on them! One last thing, my copy of Soar came with a mis-assembled neck piece that wouldn't sit flush. Also included in the box was an extra properly-assembled head and neck assembly in a little bag. I guess the inspectors look for known issues and insert the necessary fix-it parts in the box. It was the work of several minutes and my Soar was back in perfect order; this is how a company should address quality issues. Very impressed with this company and its products thus far. Can't wait for Stomp and PF Cesium (their new Slag mold).
  10. M'Kyuun
    I'm starting to come around to that way of thinking, too. But, there's also a difference between a fairly complex transformation where everything transitions smoothly, and one where tolerances are too close or too tight, and that complicates the process far more than the transformation itself. MP-36 falls into the latter category. His transformation really isn't that difficult (the arms are the most difficult part for me), but the close tolerances and resistances just make this thing a nail-biting experience. I don't mind a challenging transformation, but it's best when the designers make allowances for parts to clear enough for other parts to rotate and move as needed. I'm gonna call out XTransbots here: Eligos has a pretty straightforward transformation, i.e., it's logical and makes sense. But, for whatever reason, the panels that go around the head and the panels on the backs of the legs , all of which need to swing open to allow other parts to move by or through them, have very limited hinge movement so that there's barely clearance. It's frustrating and I don't get why they didn't design the hinges to allow for more travel. On my copy of MP-36, the final rotation of the arms into their pistol mode positions causes them to rub, and it gives me an uneasy feeling. But for fun, I've really cottoned to the RiD figures and a number of recent TR figures just to grab and idly transform. Fun toys, as they should be.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Thor's prob my least favorite Marvel hero, so I've been ignoring the trailer for this up until now. Everything about this looks cool. The "friend from work" line is pure gold. Looks like it's going to be chock full of humor, and when it's done like this, I'm all for it. Great cast in this movie, too. Looking forward to it.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Internationally, they should just rename the size classes tall, grande, and venti; that would alleviate all confusion.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I tend to concur; I don't want to support HG in any way. However, getting back to the topic at hand, Kitz Concept's SD VF-1, I find myself a bit tempted to get one of these. By all appearances thus far, it's a nice little figure, and one of the best looking SD VF-1 designs I've seen. I dig it a lot. I wouldn't mind Focker's Strike Valk in all its FAST Pack glory. Sitting on the fence....
  14. M'Kyuun
    Derex, sorry I missed your earlier post; been away from the computer for several hours. My copy didn't have any plugs installed at all- pristine and sealed from the factory. I haven't even bothered removing the silencer from its tray, as I'm rue to scratch up Megs' barrel. It's really the one big misstep with this toy, that attaching the silencer will almost certainly cause damage. No intended feature or accessory should cause damage by using it in the prescribed manner, and certainly not at the asking price for this figure. I hope Takara are addressing it for future releases. The rest of us will have to content ourselves with the box pictures if we don't want to scratch up our toy. And while I could get a modicum of use out of it by assembling his big gun from it and the stock, I really feel no compunction to do so. Maybe someday I'll get a wild hair, but 'til then, it shall remain in the tray. I concur- in hand, just a great figure to pose, play around with, and display. Whoever first came up with the idea of interchangeable faces deserves some serious kudos; they've revolutionized the doll/action figure industry, enabling the user to change the emotional state of their figure to really illuminate its character and personality. I tend to stick to neutral faces, but I think the option to change expressions is an under-sung feature. Against my general practice, my Megatron is laughing while pointing his fusion cannon at whatever passes before him. He was worth the wait, IMHO.
  15. M'Kyuun
    I agree with your assessment of his finish; after all the internet griping, in hand, he has a really nice finish, a sheen, if you will. IMHO, the best thing about him is that, despite having to incorporate all the engineering for transformation, he's still an excellent action figure, with an impressive range of articulation. I don't find his transformation to be fun; it's a process, and a lot of tolerances are very tight, at least on mine. I transformed mine into his gun mode and back last night, second transformation, no instructions, and it was still tricky in spots, esp the upper arms. I'd recommend transforming him at least once for the experience, though. Those legs are just brilliant, but the way the rest of it folds to become a gun is really quite a feat of engineering, and worth transforming once to appreciate the design.
  16. M'Kyuun
    And Takara's version has a different hood/chest piece with the engine detail replaced by a smooth orange area, and it also appears to eschew the folding nose, which reveals his abs on the Hasbro version. Takara left it out to make their version look more G1, or it appears that way to me, as I can detect no break lines to indicate that the feature is still there. otherwise, yeah, they're pretty much the same toy with color differences.
  17. M'Kyuun
    He's standard deluxe class. I have the Hasbro version, so this should give a sense of scale.
  18. M'Kyuun
    This looks like a fun little set. Can't say I'm too crazy about all the Devastator parts hanging awkwardly from the individual bots, but in a Legends sized set, they did a nice job capturing the look of both Constructicons and Devastator. Thanks for the review, Mike. There's something really appealing about small figures like this; I'd love to see Has/Tak make a series of chibified figures.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Good man. With logic like that, you're going places!
  20. M'Kyuun
    That's dedication, Mike. The Dino combiners are more interesting to me than most of the others- just the novelty of them and the inventiveness applied to keep them looking close to the classic Dinobots while still combining is intriguing. I've never been into combiners that much- pretty much Devastator and Bruticus are the ones that I like. Thanks to CW, I have Bruticus, and thanks to ToyWorld, I'll have my Devastator in a month or two, barring any delays. Regardless, I'll peek in on your upcoming reviews, as I usually do, and wish you the best in your endeavors to collect and review all these combiners.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Which path, marriage or LEGO? Go with the LEGO, man, go with the LEGO.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Haters gonna hate.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Thanks! I have parts of it in early development in LDD, but not the whole thing. I free built the majority of it. Here are two files containing early work I did on the VF-4. Fair warning, it's a mess in these files, with parts floating all over the place. You're the second person who has requested an LDD file for this; at some point, I'll have to sit down and see if I can make a complete file for it. LDD can be a harsh mistress where many moving parts are concerned, not to mention tolerances, but I'll have have to give it a shot. To be honest, I'd love to see what this would look like in canon colors, so making the design available for others to build would likely yield at least one "official" version. Personally, I don't feel like scraping the parts together to make another one, and if I did, I'd want to make too many changes. Just how it is. I have two or three other projects in the fire, so I'd rather work on something new. Anyway, I hope these prove useful, at least in some small capacity. If you have any questions, feel free to email me at mcquownw@hotmail.com. I appreciate your interest. small vf-4.lxf vf-x.lxf
  24. M'Kyuun
    Just got my copy, and it survived a full transformation to pistol and back without anything breaking. My copy has a number of folding panels that are very tight toleranced, and feel like they're going to break. The plastic hinge that pins to the base of the barrel was extremely tight; the base is die-cast and the double hinge to which it's pinned is plastic, and in the course of rotating it into pistol position, the little nubs intended for ratcheting suffered a bit of extensive wear after just one transformation. One other nitpick on mine is that the neutral face sits off center in the helmet, and I 'm not sure why. I removed and reinstalled it to see if it had been put in crooked at the factory, but no, there's an obvious offset. I'll have to try the other faces to see if there's possibly a deformation in the helmet. It's not the end of the world, but still- crappy. There's definitely an order to transformation, or things can get in the way prohibitively. I broke out the instructions going to pistol, as some things that looked like they needed to move, or that I knew needed to move from having watched vids, were very reluctant, and I wanted some assurance. I eschewed instructions going back to robot, and after one transformation, the overall transformation system can be figured out fairly well. It's not the most complex TF out there, but there are a few intricacies, mostly in the upper torso and upper arms. The legs are engineering gold, although the mechanism for narrowing them is tight on mine making it more difficult than I'd like. This would have been a good place for a spring-loaded mechanism, IMHO, as manipulating those leg panels to go back to robot position had me feeling very apprehensive. As an action figure, he's awesome; my hat's off to Takara for endowing such a complex transforming figure with an extraordinary range of articulation throughout. I'm pleased with that particular direction in the MP line, as I've always felt that the robot should be the primary focus and then the alt mode; after all, they're robots in disguise. Granted, the alt should still be done well, and thus far I think they're doing a good job with that balance. To that end, Megatron succeeds; his alt isn't as seamless as most of the previous figures, but he resembles a Walther P 38 well enough to get the job done. Lets face it, though, nobody's displaying Megatron in gun mode; Takara know it, and poured most of their efforts into making a really solid action figure. I'm pretty pleased with him, and encourage folks to at least transform theirs once; it's a satisfying journey once you know what goes where, however toleranced it may be. I pulled a few gangsta poses with mine, and then went back to bot mode. Given the ingenuity involved and the overall look and feel of this figure, I think MP Megs 2.0 was worth the wait. Happy to add him to the collection.
  25. M'Kyuun
    So I'm curious, for those among you collecting Generations figures, are you finding them in brick and mortar stores? I just did a sweep of four different big box stores and none of them had any warrior class figs; one had a few legion class, and one or two had a slew of the little Titan Masters, and a couple had a Voyager fig or three. I remember a time when the pegs were generally full of TFs, but nowadays, they seem pretty scarce, esp warrior class, which are all but absent in just about every store I go into in my area. There are still a bunch of Wave 3 warrior class figs at my local Walmart, but they got their shipment in after Christmas, after the nice $10 sale was over. Now they're shelf-warming, and no new stock will be ordered until they sell the current stock, which are back to their $15 price point. I don't know if this is an issue on Hasbro's part (distribution), or the stores', but it's becoming nigh impossible to collect these things when nobody is carrying them- the pegs are there, they're marked, but nothing's hanging on them. There's a certain satisfaction in finding a desired toy, bringing it home and tearing into it- immediate gratification, I suppose. I used to enjoy toy hunting, but for the last few years, it has become an exercise in futility and disappointment. Anyway, I just got home, and my frustration is still fresh. Needed to vent where my frustration is likely shared.
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