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M'Kyuun

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Everything posted by M'Kyuun

  1. M'Kyuun
    I've never been a big fan of UM, although I think it's interesting, from a design standpoint, that they chose to make his cab and trailer become the character rather than going the simpler route of wrapping the trailer around a white MP-10. If I was interested, however, I think I'd prefer the latter, since I have yet to procure MP-10, and the playability is arguably better when you can separate the two elements of the character. Hopefully, they'll rerelease OP at some point. Once UM is released I hope Takara gets back to producing the rest of the season 1 characters, esp a new improved Megatron. I'd also love to see them produce the entire line of cassettes in MP form...love those things. As for Generations toys, I was hoping that Hasbro would reveal their upcoming Arcee figure at BotCon, but still no pics. It doesn't inspire hope for a fig that's supposed to be released in a couple months. She's long overdue a proper fig that hearkens to her G1 look. I wish Alex Kubalsky was still working for Takara; I'd love to see his design for Arcee.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Saw it with my wife this weekend. Great movie. Eyes got a little moist a few times. I like how they matured Hiccup's character. Also, despite a certain major event, Hiccup's worldview is much more upbeat and positive than the first film, which I hope will translate to the third sequel, b/c you know it's going to happen.
  3. M'Kyuun
    As of now, it's still under review. I have a feeling that it either won't get made b/c of all the HG licensing stuff, or it will be a Japanese only release. Either way, I don't foresee this being available to the Western Hemisphere. Oops, I posted before watching the vid. It didn't make the cut.
  4. M'Kyuun
    The S gets my vote for best, with the G a close second. The G I have; still hoping for a rerelease of the S.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Those clip pieces have gone through more design changes than any other due to breaking so easily. I've had a couple casualties myself. I still snap parts into them, though. The newer ones are a bit beefier.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Cliffjumper and Teletraan-1 no more. Sad news indeed. RIP, Mr. Kasem.
  7. M'Kyuun
    The robot arms in my set are pretty loose too, compared to older versions. I have noticed, however, that certain parts have been reworked to decrease their clutch; the lever pieces, for instance: They used to be really tight, which made it a royal pain to remove them without inflicting damage to the base. All the levers I've had in the last few years have all been really loose. In a way, it's nice because you can adjust them much, much more easily than older versions, but they pop off really easily too. Since 5-8 yr olds need to be able to take these things apart, I guess that drives reworking the clutch power on some of their elements. I still find some of my older parts that are so tight I can barely get them separated, esp the old technic friction pins which had friction ridges that ran the length of the connectors on either side of the separator ring. Those things were TIGHT, and nigh impossible to remove once ensconced within certain parts without damaging or destroying one or both. I'm curious as to why the movie version of Kitty's hold down was so elaborate; the droid body does the job, and I actually turned mine over so the stud is facing up. It holds her down just fine, and the stud makes it easier to open. As for seating the figures under her octagon trench area, I haven't had any issues, as long as I remove Emmett's Piece of Resistance and lean him a little forward. The octagon closes flush with both Wildstyle and Emmett at the controls. I like the way that underbelly looks without all the Technic clutter, as well as the all-plated nose. I'm not too crazy about the round brick and cone design; it looks meh, ok from the top, but from the side it looks terrible. If I end up getting a third copy, I may have to do some modding. I'd like to give it a cargo bay instead of the extending wings. Anyway, I look forward to seeing what you guys come up with in the mods department.
  8. M'Kyuun
    I saw it with my wife on Saturday and we both liked it. Pretty good movie overall. Loved the humor throughout.
  9. M'Kyuun
    I went to TRU yesterday and picked up the Grimlock 2-pack, with the recycled Energon and Voyager AoE Grimmies. I missed out on the Energon toy way back when and always wanted a copy, despite all the negatives I've read about it over the years. I had no interest in the AoE toy, since I don't like the look of Bay's designs, esp the dinobots. Well, my tune changed a bit with toys in hand, transformed, and posed. I prefer the overall look of the Energon version, but the toy's quality left somewhat to be desired. OTOH, the AoE toy is tight and very articulated in both modes, and the bot mode is kinda striking. The t-rex mode is ok, but having seen pics of the other versions, I think this is the best looking one. I had no plans of buying any AoE toys, except possibly Evasion Prime, but I kinda like this figure after all. I could live without all the spikiness, though. I thought for a second about picking up that Kre-o Grimlock. They did a really nice job on him, even if he doesn't transform. Those Kre-o figs are cool, too. I wish they'd found a way to make these things transformable and still look good. It's possible: http://orionpax.de/23/index.php/showroom/gallery/45/KREO-vs-LEGO-Transformers Scroll down through his Showroom; he built Bruticus and Soundwave, as well. This is what Kre-o should be putting on shelves.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Amazing. That's one hell of a talented builder.
  11. M'Kyuun
    I ordered the new Creator Mixer set, and decided to go ahead and get a second Spaceship! for parts, which will come in handy for a project I'm working on. The movie's due out on DVD/Blu-ray on the 17th, IIRC. Can't wait.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I saw it with my wife on Friday, and we both enjoyed it. As Disney films go it was a bit darker fare, and told a good story. It gave a far more valid and believable reason and pace for turning than did Lucas' prequels. The three fairies were a bit much at times, but they were the comic relief, and while cheesy, not as much as a lot of other films. Angelina Jolie owned. It was a pretty film, thanks to the copious CG.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I've only read Starship Troopers and The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. TANSTAAFL!
  14. M'Kyuun
    About Acidstorm over Sunstorm, I agree. The green and black looks sharp, red and yellow not so much. Since I have the Kawamori redesign of MP Starscream in both his greenish-grey and Walmart red and white schemes, and Thundercracker, iirc, in the same mold, I passed on all the new MP seekers in their original, non-hip armor molds, despite the fact that I greatly favor the original design over Kawamori's. I'm holding out for the rest of the original '84 Autobots, and hoping for a new, improved Megatron. And since they're making Ultra Magnus, I hope they'll give us a MP Cyclonus at some point. The Classics version is nice, but just doesn't capture the sleekness of his alt mode very well. I also hope they'll make the rest of the cassettes, Autobot and Decepticon. There was always something intrinsically cool and appealing about those. Almost makes me wish we still used cassette recorders...no, not really. The transforming thumb drives that came out a couple years ago were a step in the right direction for modern toys, though.
  15. M'Kyuun
    The MSRP is pretty standard for a set this size. While the piece count doesn't quite make the highly favored $.10/piece ratio, one has to consider that there are quite a few large pieces in the set, three unique minifigs, Astro-Kitty with two printed parts, and Benny, who has a unique helmet and torso print, and only appears in two sets. There are also three 2x4 slopes with the Classic Space logo printed on them. Moreover, the final product is a rather large Classic Space inspired ship ( about 18" long) with a number of features and an extending wing function with spring loaded put-your eye-out-from-across-the-room shooters. All this will draw in the kids, but LEGO knows that there are plenty of adults like me who salivate over something like this, fueled by nostalgia, empowered by disposable income, drawn inexorably by a hobbyist's fanatical need to have it...in multiples!
  16. M'Kyuun
    They were only featured on the Galaxy Explorer and the Space Cruiser, which were the two largest ships in the original blue and grey space theme. Given Benny's ship's size, they'd be apropos, but as you said, not essential. They're easy enough to add, if one wants. Not coincidently, a number of parts used for the substructure are black and yellow, with a few yellow and black parts visible externally. I just realized another minor gripe; the little wingtip ships' instrument panels sit at the figures' feet, but the clip parts used to affix the blue cheese slopes offer an excellent but unused opportunity to put some levers there for the figs. I used one of the extras that came with the set, and it worked perfectly. Three more would've provided actual controls for both ships. Actually, the lack of controls, or controls that are far beyond the figure's reach, seems to be a common factor in a lot of sets these days. I've been slowly accumulating Classic sets, and one thing that strikes me in most of them is the abundance of controls, usually both computer and something for the fig to put his hands on. Since my days as a wee lad, that particular detail has always thrilled me, for some reason. Having worked on aircraft, with a knowledge of cockpit layout, the lack of controls in sets always strikes me as a serious minus.
  17. M'Kyuun
    I wish they'd knock off all the MP-10 repaint BS and just reissue him in his regular colors. I missed the boat first time around, and I won't pay the going rate, since there will most likely be a reissue sometime in the future.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Well, LEGO's all about shooting mechanisms now, and the wings extend to reveal a second larger set of shooters. If you were to remove all the mechanisms required to make the wings slide and hard mount the wings permanently extended, then you could build in some walls and a couple cargo doors. The rear would require a bit of redesigning, but it looks feasible to me with very little effect on the rest of the ship. My own inclination, if I was to mod a copy, would be, in addition to a functional cargo section, to make the entire ship forward of the cargo box separate. If the wings are hard mounted in the extended position, there's a nice bit of space aft of Astro-Kitty's section to add some engines. Retractable landing gear would also be a consideration. I'm not sure if I'll ever mod this with real bricks, but once someone adds it to the growing library of official sets in LDD, I may try modding a virtual copy. It'll be fun to play around with. If my virtual mod comes out alright, then I might consider getting another copy and trying it out. Mine's sitting atop my printer, as I've nowhere else big enough to display her. She's a sleek ship; kudos to the designer(s) for getting the sloped look from front to rear just right. About all that's missing are the yellow and black stripes on the wings. As fixes go, that one's easy.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Finally got a copy, and it is beautiful. I agree with everything that's already been said in the reviews. I wish they'd eschewed the extending wings in favor of a cargo compartment with ramp. The aft section has a 10 stud wide interior...lots of room to store whatever, if it was to be modded. My only other gripe is that the Octan and CS logo decals are not shaped like the tail planes, so eyeballing them to make them match takes some time and patience. On such a prevalent piece of Spaceship anatomy, skewed stickers will be noticeable, and I imagine once this is retired, finding a set of Benny's tails with straight stickers will be like discovering gold. I wish the tails had been printed, and the CS and Octan logo decals had been included as extras, since these are probably going to become highly sought and expensive on Bricklink. I'm looking forward to a flurry of CS MOCs using those stickers as livery. I'll probably use them myself on something, once I get a second copy.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Awesome. Good for you! I wish we had a LEGO store here in Spokane. They have two over in Seattle. Anyway, I made the trip to my local TRU on Monday; they had most of the new summer sets, but no Benny's Spaceship. One of the saleswomen even checked the computer for me. I 'm going back this weekend; hopefully they'll have it.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Control panels and things of that nature, which have wide usability, I wish they'd print. I also wish they'd print clear parts...if you screw up a sticker, then you end up with crease lines, dust, bubbles, adhesive lines, etc, which shows through and ruins the look. The more specialized prints I can understand as stickers. I am happy that we get 4 Classic Space stickers with Benny's ship; I'll be scanning them and reproducing them at will. Rufus did a good review over on Eurobricks. I can't wait to get mine.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Nope for me too. I gave Movie cab-over Prime a second's thought, but I'm going to pass. I'm holding out for more Generations and MPs. From what few previews I've seen, this new Bay movie looks like his previous TF films. No thanks.
  23. M'Kyuun
  24. M'Kyuun
    If they had designed the nose to hinge further back on the lower fuselage, the leg swing bar could have been shortened so that the waist attaches in line with the neck, rather than sitting so far forward. Not sure if the way they did it is exactingly according to SK's design, or just a mechanical necessity for whatever reason. Either way, it doesn't look right to me. Even with all the folding going on with the SV-51, Yamato still managed to get everything to line up pretty well. As for the shoulders attaching slightly aft of the neck, I think that actually gives a more aggressive look , so long as it's not too far back. I also like how he designed the shoulders and canards to rotate and overlap. However, the upper chest covering the canopy was better realized on the VF-4. It's a valk, and I want to like it, but there are too many things about the design that, to me, are just off, including the big dispenser. To those who do like it, great!, and I hope the toy is awesome.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Just joined the party and checked out those pics and the video. As someone else mentioned, this shares a lot of torso transformation cues with the VF-4. I'm curious how they get the nose back into fighter position, since it looks like the waist is in the way...it was out of frame just as he was about to maneuver it. I forget who pointed it out, but I agree that the hips sit too far forward in battroid and ruin the alignment, which spoils the whole aesthetic, especially when viewed from the side. On the VF-25 the upper torso should tilt forward so that the hips and the head are in line. I suppose you could do the same with this, but then it'll always look like it's suffering back pain. I haven't really been a fan of this design from the beginning, and seeing the actual toy just cements my opinion. Not one of Kawamori-san's better designs, IMO. However, for those of you who like it and end up getting one or more, I hope it's a great toy and you're satisfied with it. Post enough pics of it in all kinds of dynamic and flattering poses, and I may find myself regretting not getting one.
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