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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    There's lineart, and it's pretty easy to find if you Google 'Konig Monster'. However, there's no explanation as to how the cannons would have dual functionality beyond pure frikkin' magic. IMO, it was nothing more than an aesthetic design choice to satisfy the GERWALK and shuttle modes with no thought as to how it would function in reality. It's more a case of 'looks cool' than F=MA with regards to Newtonian laws. But, if you really want to examine it with an eye to practicality, then one has to ask: 1. What is the firing mechanism, and what kind of ammo does it use? 2. How does it reload, if it even does after the first volley? 3. Where is extra ammo stored so as to feed into the cannons? 4. If the aft section are engines, how are they buffered so as to be protected from the forces generated from firing the cannons? 5. Why would you put compact engines on the aft side of large cannons to begin with? 6. Would it even be worth the trouble of designing such a system if, by necessity, said engines were so small and compact as to produce negligible thrust? I'm sure there are better questions than these to be asked, but as a practical guy with aircraft maintenance experience and some high school physics, this design is silly, but looks pretty cool on a big sci-fi robot. As for the toy itself, I'm a little disappointed that Bandai didn't design the two small lateral feet to swing aft so that the destroid could stand per the lineart with the engines off the ground, rather than resting its weight on the engine flaps. That's one thing Yamato got right on theirs, and it looks better.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Finally, it came today. The tracking never updated past its arrival at LA on the 4th, so I was starting to become concerned, until the postman knocked on my door this afternoon. Mine came in a pretty interesting slap together box with enough packing tape to last two Christmas'. But I digress. Out of the box, my copy looks to be in excellent shape, with no stress marks to be seen anywhere. It did have a bit of a sheen, so I tamped it with a soft cloth to soak up any residual release agent. So far I only converted it to GERWALK, which was full of clicky joint goodness. The ratchets and die cast were used to good effect in areas where structural integrity and stress is of concern. It's night and day in comparison to the Yamato Monster in terms of joint strength, and ability to hold a pose. Shuttle mode is solid, and I like how they molded the groin flaps to cover the gaping hole under the shoulders to make the shuttle much more streamlined. I wasn't crazy about the nose art, but in hand, my eye is drawn to so many other aspects of the thing that I barely notice it. IMO, Bandai did an amazing job translating this into a rather impressive toy. And like the other Frontier toys, the tampo is copious, and the paint apps well done, at least on mine. Very glad I got it.
  3. M'Kyuun
    I was at Target today; no third wave CW figs at all. It takes a while here, too.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Mine's been in LA since the 4th, with no further updates. I figured on its being delivered today, but who knows. Great service they provide, esp when you paid extra for it.
  5. M'Kyuun
    One of the best sci-fi novels I've read. Watney's narration is the greatest strength of the book, and I assume Damon will be doing voiceover throughout in order to capture the feel of the novel. The trailer doesn't really show much, just let's you know there's a ship and some people are walking on Mars. I hope Ridley captures the essence of the book; I mean it's Castaway on Mars, only with a really smart and really funny castaway. If Ridley can translate the loneliness, isolation, and desperation, along with Watney's singular humor throughout, then I think it'll be good. I have high hopes.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I saw it with my wife last Saturday, and we both enjoyed it. The principals all played their roles brilliantly, the special effects are often so well done as to be un-noticeable as such, the dialog amongst the characters was always poignant and propelled the story. As most sci-fi in the A.I. genre, it's a cautionary tale, but the setup, i.e.sessions, and intimate setting lend a certain tension and credibility. I could see this scenario playing out realistically, although I'll concede that the first true A.I. to pass the Turing test will most likely be designed at one of the premier labs around the world with more than one person's input, and will probably occupy more realestate than Ava's little blue brain. The heavy reliance on dialog and ideas over action may not appeal to everyone, but I like movies of this sort, as they generally leave you thinking 'what if?' I hope to see the emergence of at least a rudimentary A.I. within my lifetime, and hope that said Intelligence is free of sociopathy...just rainbows, happy thoughts, and an undying love of transformable mecha.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Unless Takara produces an official version to rival it, then yeah, demand and prices are going to increase. I'm going to be patient and see. If Takara takes note of the popularity and sales of Apollyon, then that may be the impetus they need.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Perhaps, but I'm more inclined to think that the added $15 isn't as much X-Transbots as BBTS. X-Transbots said they were including the extra repair items at no additional cost, a cool move on their part for keeping faith with their consumers. I think BBTS sees the demand and charges accordingly.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Out of curiosity, I consulted the original lineart, and as Yeti mentioned, it's a single turret with an adjacent targeting lens. I also pulled up a video of Frontier with Canaria transforming from bomber to destroid, and the nose turret is the same. So, your toy is good to go!
  10. M'Kyuun
    Yep. Most fecal of them.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Mine shipped on the 28th, and just showed up in LA on the 4th. I figure it'll be delivered Friday or Saturday.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Ask Anubis; I was just quoting his post. But yeah, that looks suspiciously like Quakewave.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I had the same thing happen to one of my 171s, although it was my fault for using too much force. Anyway, I dremeled out the area where the rotation joint had been, and J-B Welded a piece of ink pen reservoir tube to serve as a new rotation point. I'm going to use a piece of styrene with a hole drilled to allow for a small nail to pass through and hopefully make it more solid. I let the Weld cure overnight, and it holds the tube, but didn't chemically bond with it. For the next part, attaching the styrene and nail, I'm curious if any of the modelers out there know what will adhere to the reservoir tube? PM me if you have any questions/solutions. Thanks.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I hope the delay means Bandai will produce extras, so that I can snag a marked up copy at N-Y. I was one of aforementioned who stayed up, and completely missed the 2 second window while my screen was refreshing. crap like this sucks the joy out of an otherwise cool hobby.
  15. M'Kyuun
    That's a good wife. I've got a good one, too. She's an enabler. Well if the big green guy only comes in a gift pack, I guess I won't be adding any new Constructicons to my collection. More money and space for something better. Probably a valk.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I like the stunticons, too, and I was pleasantly surprised at the variations in transformation compared to the Aerialbots. If I have a complaint, it's that the undercarriage of a couple of them sits too low and at least one wheel doesn't touch the ground in car mode. I've checked to make sure all my tabs were done and everything is where it's supposed to be, but still it doesn't seem like the wheels were positioned low enough to give good clearance. The first time I saw Alpha-Bravo, I immediately thought Vortex repaint. I'm sure Hasbro will milk a number of these molds, with slight variations/paint jobs throughout the CW series. It makes sense economically. And yeah, Hotspot will quite likely be repainted into Onslaught with back guns. I'll probably pick up the Protectobots, and I'm looking forward to Bruticus, my favorite Combiner. I hope he looks good. I think they did a fair job on the Protectobots, although Hotspot's firetruck mode looks a little oddly stretched and the basket at the end of his ladder is way oversized and looks a bit odd in black. It would have looked better had they made it white and smaller to look more realistic. When the Constructicons were announced, I was pretty excited for them too, until I saw the pics. Most of the individual bot modes suffered terribly in the design process. The third party folks did a far better job than Takara, IMHO. I'll probably just get Bonecrusher and Scavenger, as they're the only two that look decent to me.
  17. M'Kyuun
    I've noticed the same; Generations are always the least stocked line at any store I go to. Movie toys take up the most shelf space, esp all the 1 and 2 steppers, then RiD toys, and just a few CHUGs. I don't know if Hasbro is just underproducing them, or retailers are ordering lesser numbers of that line, but they are increasingly harder to find with each passing year. I think scalpers are partly to blame, too, those soulless opportunistic bastards. There's an especially hot corner of Hell for them, where they are crushed for eternity under the weight of all the toys they tried to greedily hock for well over MSRP. RiD doesn't really grab me, although I have bought Drift and Grimlock. Drift is a pretty nice little figure. My Grimlock suffers from the loose ratchet in his right elbow, and the plastic there is stressed and cracking. I'm going to have to remove the pin and glue it down. Quality has suffered since Hasbro started trying to make these toys cheaper, from lots of hollow areas, much simpler transformations requiring less parts, minimal paint apps, and now these little universal ratchet joints that cause the toys to break when they unseat. I have probably close to a hundred TFs on my desk, ranging from G1, Binaltech, CHUGs, Animated, Prime, F/WoC, Star Wars TFs, Bayverse, and now a couple RiD figs. I collected Generations and Prime simultaneously, and I really didn't see much difference in quality of materials, build, or complexity between the two lines. I can't say the same for RiD...and I hope that lessening of quality doesn't bleed over to the main Generations line, excluding the Deluxe/warrior class Combiner Wars figs, which are pretty simplistic and feel kinda cheap to me, too.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Or it just doesn't lock very well. But yeah, the barrel should sit higher, and it is too small compared to the slide section. Just the same, even if it's not fixed for v1.5, if I end up getting him, he'll very seldom be in gun mode. Robot mode is the selling point for this figure. And yeah, why would you handle food and then touch your expensive toy? I always scrub like I'm going into surgery before handling my toys, esp my high enders. I'm OCD about clean hands.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Congrats on a mostly successful toy hunt, emphasis on hunt. I managed to find all the Stunticons, except Blackjack who I've yet to see, in my area between two different Walmarts in one day. I kept waiting for the Apocalypse, b/c that never happens; usually it takes months of searching to find all the figs in a particular wave. I've still never seen Arcee or Chromia in stores. I ordered them through BBTS, b/c after almost 30 years of waiting, I was getting an official Arcee figure one way or the other. Both are great, and I'm glad I ordered them.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Interesting thought, but what reason would they have to limit a release of that particular valk? I'm thinking that Yamato considered popularity of the valks before sinking money into producing them. The VF-4 had all of about 3 seconds of screen time in FB 2012, and made an appearance in the Macross games. It's certainly no VF-1, YF-19, or YF-21 in terms of general recognition, although in hindsight it was on the want-list of alot of invested Macross fans. Knowing they were nearing the end, Yamato really had nothing to lose by producing it as a web exclusive. I wonder if they even made enough to cover the production expenses. Given the aftermarket on the VF-4, I'd say Arcadia could still make a nice profit from rereleases and repaints if they chose to do so, if the molds are still in good condition. I'd say choice vs risk is Arcadia's only limiting factor. Someone needs to start a global petition and put it on their site; that might be the incentive they need.
  21. M'Kyuun
    While the motorized ones are neat, I think I'd prefer highly poseable models at this point. I'm looking forward to getting the Blade Liger, as it'll be my first Zoid model, and judging by the promo pics, it's going to look amazing.
  22. M'Kyuun
    I'm fine with that. Filoni and Co. had their work cut out for them to repair the damage Lucas did in the Prequels. They succeeded in making Anakin a strong yet conflicted character; I felt he was portrayed far better in the CW series than in any of the Prequels. If there was one misstep, it was Jar-Jar. They had a perfect opportunity to make his character older and wiser and overall more palatable, but they kept him perma-stupid and grating. I'm guessing Lucas wouldn't let them change his character. Or his annoying speech pattern/diction. I've never given much thought to where the Rebellion got their ships and equipment, or what ships were used for what. I just enjoy the ride, b/c I doubt Lucas or ILM were thinking tactics when they put a ship in any given scene. I think it was more for variety and good visuals; too much of one ship is boring, so throw more ships into the scenery to break up the monotony. But it's entertaining to read all the conjecture.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Looks sharp. I was just eyeballing the HMM Shadow Fox over on AmiAmi. That is a badass looking Zoid.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I'm thinking it'll be another Aeon Flux. Or just another generic cop movie where the protagonist just happens to be a cyborg, that being the token factor tying it to GITS. They'll divorce themselves of all manga, movies, and tv shows to preserve "creative vision", Westernize it entirely, change the think tanks into spindly Bayesque looking bipedal mechs, and pretty much make a movie that is Ghost in the Shell in name only. My prediction, but I hope I'm wrong.
  25. M'Kyuun
    I'm thinking the same; it's a high grade Zoid with improved movement, light, and sound effects. It's cool, but I don't see the poseability, and if it is posable, one wonders why they wouldn't demonstrate that in the video, as that'd be THE feature to set it apart from previous versions. I don't see why it couldn't be done, though; design it so that 2-position retractable pins in the legs snap into the rotating cams for walking. If the leg and hip joints are ratcheted, or have good detents for walking position, then all you'd have to do is pull the pins and get to posing. That's how I'd do it, anyway. Honestly, the only refinement I see is with the coloring of all the details on the master grade. However, I'd imagine parts fit and detail in hand is noticeably better than the old kits. Did you have to paint the wolf, or did everything come pre-colored?
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