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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    NA did a great job on him, from engineering to paint finish. The only negatives I have are: -only 90 degree bend at the knee - no fore and aft ankle pivot (but it does have 180 degrees of in-out rocker) However, the bit that the foot attaches to can be untabbed, which allows the foot to pivot forward. It's a cheat, but it can be used without really affecting the integrity of the fig. -no separate hinged heel to make up for lack of fore/aft ankle pivot, which would help with dynamic poses. -no main landing gear- just nose. Otherwise, it's a beautifully executed Cyclonus; both modes are brilliant and accurate to the toon. the metallic purple finish is lovely to behold, and the articulation is very good, certainly adequate to a wide range of poses. I wish his ankles had some intended fore and aft, as mentioned, but it's not insurmountable. Of the legends Cyclonus figs on offer currently, this is the best, IMHO. Can't go wrong getting him, IMHO.
  2. M'Kyuun
    I've got her POed. The face looks a bit iffy from these pics (little blurry), but the engineering is superior to anything official, and similar to what we've seen from MMC and Fans Toys so far as folding up her car bits into a compact set of shoulder pods for a more kibble-free and animation-accurate depiction. At legends scale, this is pretty impressive. AFAIK, Dr. Wu is the first one to make a G1 legends Arcee, and he set a pretty high bar, IMHO. That articulation is incredible. Just boggles my mind how far these toys have come, from the POV of a 13 year old kid in 1984 when these transforming robots erupted on the scene with so much promise and potential and cool factor, but the toys on offer were disappointing in their simplicity and lack of articulation. I kinda envy the kids of today who've benefitted from all the innovations and improvements made to these toys by folks like me who wanted better as kids, grew up, and made it happen, officially or non. Glad TFs had the impact they did, and that I'm around to benefit from those innovations too.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Got a couple new legends figs this weekend: Magic Square's MS-B35 Blues (Jazz) & NewAge's The Warrior Tyr (Cyclonus).
  4. M'Kyuun
    This is truly some of the best news, if only just a rumor for now. And they couldn't have picked a better set to homage: the galaxy Explorer is iconic to Classic Space. I only acquired the Galaxy Explorer as an adult, although I drooled over it a great deal as a kid, pouring longingly over the little toy brochures that came with each set, wishing and hoping. While I did have a slew of smaller and medium sets and one or two big sets, the grand old Galaxy Explorer wasn't among them. Like many a Classic Space fan, those old sets hold a great deal of nostalgia for me; the aesthetics, the play features, and the sci-fi and quirky elements of those old sets ignited my imagination and desire to build, and still do. I hope this rumor is true, I hope the thing becomes one of their best-sellers proving to LEGO that Classic Space is still just as popular as ever, and that their long reluctance to produce original space themes comes to an end. There's room in our hearts and on our shelves for something besides Star Wars.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Early LEGO Transformers 10302 Optimus Prime model revealed (brickfanatics.com) What we could have gotten compared to.... What we are getting: While the sketch was pretty good, it definitely left some room for improvement, and fortunately it was refined in both modes to the set we'll be getting in just a little over a week's time. I'm very excited for this. My only lament is that we'll never get an analogous G1 Megatron/Walther P-38 to go along with it due to LEGO's no real-world weapons stance. That may also exclude a tank mode, unless they go with some sort of futuristic sci-fi gun or tank, harkening back to Classics Megatron's Nerf-like gun mode to circumvent US gun laws. In any case, I'm glad we're getting Prime, and I hope more brick-built Cybertronians follow.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Nice BtS look at upcoming products from 52Toys's Beastbox line. I'm so down for that chameleon, butterfly/moth, and the more robotic looking Doberman (w/ visor instead of anatomical dog's head). I may spring for the meerkats, too- they're executed far better than the penguins, which had virtually no articulation. I love it when developers give some insight to their process, and this was pretty interesting.
  7. M'Kyuun
    This guy looks amazing. The elbows sit a little too low in bot mode (more like a combo wrist/elbow), but otherwise he looks pretty darned faithful to his toon incarnation. This is one of the best beast modes of any of the Legacy/Kingdom figs thus far. I hope they do a real-world inspired striped-knee paint job. As far as anatomical accuracy goes, the cephalothorax is bit too humped at the front end, with the primary eyes a little too wide-set, and the chelicerae are woefully too small. The pedipalps are ok; it would have been nice if the small claw part could swivel to blend with the large part to present a more unified and realistic palp. Tarantulas have two large movable spinnerets at the tail end of their abdomens, and the bot mode's knee pads seem to fill that role, although they're mostly obscured by the storage of his gun's anchor-like projectile hanging out back there. Overall, though, it's well executed (love how the leg mount area blends nigh seamlessly with the carapace- beautiful sculpt work) and I daresay, a bit creepy in its uncanny realism, purple coloration notwithstanding. I've always had a fascination, and a wee bit of reluctant fear, of spiders, most arthropods really. I love to observe them, from a relatively safe distance. I can never bring myself to handle them, though, despite my rational brain whispering that I'm neither prey nor predator to them, and pose little threat warranting aggression. So, figs like this and other arthropod toys provide me that 'safe' option to handle these wonderful and amazing leggy, flying, crawling, biting, stinging critters that comprise the majority of our world's inhabitants. I thought this fig would be a voyager based on the size of that tarantula mode, but he's deluxe. Too, it would have been the path of least resistance and maximum savings for Has/Tak to recycle Blackarachnia's mold and retool it to try and emulate a tarantula, the reverse of the original toys, but they didn't and I'm glad. Kingdom BA's spider mode is ok, but it definitely has its concessions, especially her very noticeable bot shoulders under the cephalothorax. Moreover, the two spider species have very different shapes to their bodies, and subsequently, not even a major retool of BA's mold would have really produced a believable tarantula. I'm really glad they didn't chintz out. Pics shamelessly borrowed from TFW2005 of Prime vs Prime's review
  8. M'Kyuun
    My legends collection is very scant and piecemeal, only buying a fig here or there based on aesthetic preference and whim. Scale's not as important to me as much as how each individual fig appeals, so I have a mix of MS, NA, and IF figs now. Generally, the ultra-toon look is not my preference, although I'm not averse to getting a more toonish fig if it appeals. NA is obviously going total-toon with their Dinobots, and the result is very smooth and rounded, and while I think they did an excellent job in what they set out to do, I'm willing to wait for Magic Square to show their take, because you know it's coming. I hope they went in a more toy-based direction with lots of detail and more angular surfaces. I really don't need a legends set of Dinobots, but they've long been some of my favorite characters from the original series, and a small team faithful to the look of the G1 toys would sure look nice on my desk.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Wow, man! looks great! I'll echo your sentiments concerning Studio's collision detection. The hinge tool sucks, too, but I digress. Good job with said angles- not easy to do. 👍
  10. M'Kyuun
    Vangelis was incredibly talented; I really enjoy his style of compositions, heavy with electronic instrumentation and atmosphere. He enriched the world with his music. RIP
  11. M'Kyuun
    I appreciate the review, Kuma. This fig passed under my radar on first outing, and I only just recently really took notice of her, likely due to a Twitter post. Anyway, it was enough prompting to go look at some additional pics and eventually get her new version POed. As to the face, like you, I'd prefer stoic, and I think every fig should come with that as the default, with any additional faces as extras, but it is what it is, and as smirking faces go, it's subtle enough that it honestly doesn't bother me. The fig itself is pretty damned impressive for its very dedicated-action-figure-esque design- to look at her on first glance, you'd be hard pressed to expect she transformed. This, like their Azalea, is a fembot done right, minimizing alt-mode kibble in bot mode while maintaining a lithe feminine shape as well as delivering a satisfying and effective alt mode. It's excellent. I'm generally not a fan of Cybertronian alt modes, but there has definitely been a great deal of improvement in that area, from official to non, in creating more complex and believable alt modes. Eris' tank mode is a pure thumbs up. It looks great, it's functional (LOVE those moving treads- such a rarity, so I tend to favor those toys that have them), and the transformation is unexpected, effective, and cool. Definitely looking forward to getting her in-hand. Too, that IF Seaspray 😍. I never was much of a fan of the character, but I like his design, and this interpretation, with IF's signature style, looks fantastic to me. Got him POed, too.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I don't actually believe aliens wiped out the Roanoke Colony; more than likely, they probably were absorbed into one of the local tribes. It makes the most sense, given their rather dire situation. And if they rejected any help from natives, then it likely spelled their doom and they were wiped out either by starvation, disease, or hostile relations with the natives. However, the Roanoke mystery lends itself marvelously to a Predator story.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I've seen any number of shows focusing on Roanoke (I think it's ok to name it at this point) and her lost colony, and the directions that different teams of archaeologists, or amateur archaeologists, are taking to discover the truth of what happened is interesting. I wish them every success. mysteries are fun to ponder, but it's cool when great detective work wins the day with definitive proof, and y'know, this has been an enduring mystery long enough. With the tech and knowledge, we have today, it's time for a qualified answer. True crime is better b/c it's real. The supernatural isn't, and watching people reacting overdramatically to nothing drives me insane.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I wonder why they didn't paint the recessed areas of the feet gold to match the OG toy. That's the thing that really grabbed your attention, and it seems a pretty big omission on this toy. Even more curious when this has a voyager budget.
  15. M'Kyuun
    I've said before that I'm not a big fan of Armada, but I really dug OG Override's car mode. Her bot mode suffered the worst of the concessions. I feel like this toy reverses that, with a far improved bot mode, but an iffy car mode. I wish they'd somehow managed to keep the wider rear fenders in car mode, while using some clever engineering to pull them in to make her bot torso narrower. They didn't, and so the car tapers to a narrower profile at the rear instead of flaring wider than the front as the original car mode did. Alas, of all the Armada figs, Override was the one I was hoping would receive an update, and here she is. As updates go and my reservations aside, the one thing that I'm glad they adhered to is her bulbous angled front fenders formed by her legs and feet. For me, that's an essential part of the car's look, and I'm quite pleased to see it carried over from the OG. Override may be the only Armada update I end up getting; I'm glad she turned out as well as she did. Edit: I was corrected on Twitter that Override was actually a Cybertron character, not Armada as I had assumed. Alas my ignorance concerning the UT is manifest.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I thought it was another girl, but on second look, eh, it might be a dude. Regardless, I'm more interested in taking it back to the Predator hunting native people, going old school, if you will. They certainly wouldn't have posed nearly as much challenge as a team of highly trained military operatives armed to the teeth with automatic weapons, explosives, and 'Old Painless', especially if the Predator uses its full arsenal. He already had a leg-up on Dutch's team; how much more so against half naked natives armed with spears, slings, and bows and arrows. I'm curious, then, if this is supposed to be set during the early Mezo-American/ South American indigenous period? I can picture an ending where the Predator finally takes down the toughest or most cunning warrior in the tribe and looking up from his, or possibly her, new trophy, sees sails on the horizon. They could do another story about a Predator doing his thing on the North American east coast taking out a number of Europeans settling on a certain island in what will become N. Carolina. Mystery solved! 😜
  17. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, now this gets back to the heart of what made the Predator so intriguing in the original film as well as following Anna's description to Dutch's team concerning her people's history with it. Kinda wonder if this is going to be a female Predator hunting these female warriors. Seems the PC thing to do.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Another great character actor lost to us. RIP, Fred.
  19. M'Kyuun
    I saw this over on Twitter- brilliant reuse of that mold. I also saw someone's custom Terradive (can't find the pic now), as well as this custom Bayformer Vector Sigma. If Hasbro is smart, they're taking notes. Man, I'm trying not to get sucked into the legends rabbit hole too far, but dagnabbit!, they just keep pumping out awesomeness that often rivals or betters the main line and MP stuff. My soul cries out for it, but my left brain whispers, "you have no more room for this s##t!". If they do Dinobots and they're on par. it's gonna be a mighty internal wresting match between logic and lizard to resist getting them.
  20. M'Kyuun
    I have it POed, but I'm still waiting for it. I don't think any of the US sellers have it in stock yet. Love the Harrier, and there are so few decent transforming versions of it. This one is pretty well done, so I'm getting it and the F-16, another jet that seldom gets a decent transformable toy. This one's bot mode looks pretty sweet, as well. Dream Star did good with all the limb bots' jet modes. They're not perfect, there are concessions, but compared historically to other TF jets, these are among the best I've seen. That gave me hope that finally we'd get a Silverbolt with a clean and fairly accurate Concorde alt, but no- it's the same old block-o-bot dangling obtrusively under a Concorde treatment that nobody seems to be able to improve upon. They can do crazy origami for any other vehicle, but not a huge streamlined jet. It makes no sense to me. There's a lot of fuselage and engine on this bird, so why not make use of that real-estate to integrate the robot into the alt instead of just folding it up into a giant cube that hangs off the bottom of the plane? Gah, frustrating!
  21. M'Kyuun
    I never got the Hybrid Style; the bot mode wasn't bad, but that truck mode was all sorts of wrong. Part of the appeal to me has always been the ability to change into a believable alt mode. Granted I've a number of them now that have Cybertronian alts or just weird alts, but for the most part, if a TF is supposed to turn into a real world vehicle, licensed or not, I expect it to look like said vehicle and not be all misshapen and obviously compromised. It's why I take such umbrage with most jet TFs, as they're generally so far from accurate with all sorts of egregious concessions and bot kibble hanging out. V2 does tend towards Sunbow, but IDK, I don't mind it at this scale. Too, I believe the articulation is improved over V1. Anyway, I also chose Magic Square's Light of Freedom over MP-44 for all the same reasons you listed. So I have a less toony Prime for my MP collection, and I'll have a more toony one for my seemingly and reluctantly ever-growing legends collection. Can't help it, though- some of these things just blow my mind with how well they're designed and engineered. IIRC, MS' Jazz is on his way to me now. These things are more addictive than opium. Need my fix.
  22. M'Kyuun
    "Origami and fake parts"- had a good chuckle at that, but it's so true. Looking at this figure, it's so damned impressive how far design has come in just a decade or so, especially at the legends scale. Anybody remember Hybrid Style Optimus by Kawamori? Yeah, I try to forget it, too. I've got Magic Square's regular V2 Optimus POed with Showz. Hoping it'll release soon. Your pic only whets the appetite.
  23. M'Kyuun
    The Optimus Prime review is up on Brothers Brick, the culprits for yesterday's early leak. The reviewer is a big TF fan who knows his stuff, which is refreshing compared to some of the other reviews I've read. Quick Disclaimer: I've met a number of the Bros Brick members (both guys and gals) and they're a good lot w/ a great respect for The LEGO Group. They're one of the most popular LEGO blogs with a long-time relationship with LEGO, as well as major sponsors for BrickCon in Seattle. While I don't know the facts, per se, IMHO their too-early posting was a miscommunication, as, unlike a lot of other reviewers jockeying to get their reviews up first, they tend to very stringently observe TLG's wishes concerning all things LEGO over being first or getting the most views. OK, on to the set. For me, a lifelong LEGO fan since the tender age of six, and a Transformers fan since about twelve, the marriage of these two properties is by no hyperbole a dream come true. I've longed for LEGO Transformers for almost forty years, and it's a bit surreal that it's actually happening, but I'm elated that it finally happened within my lifetime. So, my bias is certainly overwhelming in this instance. On to the good stuff: So, IMHO, the set looks pretty darned good, all things considered. I've seen many an Optimus MOC over the years, some good, some ok, and some, well, you know. By that standard, this is a good showing. I'm actually impressed that it turned out this good as a first Transformer release. Lack of knees notwithstanding, it's pretty well articulated, especially the arms, transforms without partsforming, captures all of the design cues of our favorite red and blue Autobot leader, and while it hues closely to the G1 toy's design, it throws in some additional complexity to the transformation. It also presents well in truck mode, which in my experience, isn't the case in the vast majority of MOCs. So, on the whole, a great effort by LEGO. It's not without its flaws: the face looks odd, mostly I think, b/c of the bracket creating too much space between the eyes and the mask (which is a dedicated new piece made for this set), the aforementioned lack of knees (which hopefully will lend themselves to modding), and the thin unsightly midsection (which harkens back to the G1 toy). Hopefully some modding can fix all of these, but even with the warts, I'm impressed by how well this turned out. So, as a transforming mecha MOC builder myself, parts are always of paramount interest to me when anything creature or mecha/robot related is released, and Optimus brings some awesome to the table: These parts debuted in the Tallneck set in dark bley. They're a godsend for their compact form. Prior to that, all we had were this and larger variations of the same. The only other alternative was this retired piece from the early 2000s. This new 1x2x 1 1/3 clicky-joint brick is, with no exaggeration, a game changer. Dare I say, hallelujah! Another new part of note is this light bley Technic disc joint. This is the part I vehemently hoped and prayed for when this new beefier black rotation joint was introduced earlier this year, itself yet another godsend for mecha builders. Someone at LEGO loves us with this new spate of heavier duty joints (which I've been clamoring for for the last decade or so). Prayers answered. I hope these things turn up in tons of sets, and I hope a few of them are other Transformers characters. If you didn't bother reading the review, one interesting tidbit concerning this set is that the LEGO designer, Joseph Patrick Kyde, once worked for Hasbro in the Transformers Brand. It doesn't get much closer to the source than that. I hope he'll be involved in bringing us more Cybertronians in LEGO form. I'm ready!
  24. M'Kyuun
    If you build a mini-Stargate, you'll have to post some pics. This thing is based heavily on the G1 OP toy, with some exceptions: the fists fold somehow to stow during transformation, the front panels of the truck fold into the body, the grill & bumper section is jointed so that it can form a taper from the chest down to the groin, and the chest contains a Matrix, which leaves no room for a minifig, at least not in a sitting position. If you remove the Matrix, I think a minifig would fit in there laying down, but that's not really the ideal. Even though he can't accommodate a minifig, I wish he at least came with Spike, but my hope is that there's a G1 Bumblebee in the works that will come with Spike, and that they can figure out a way to actually fit him in the car mode (no pressure, LEGO). Alas, this is LEGO, and I'm sure this kit is going to see no shortage of mods to 'correct' its various shortcomings. At the very least, I want to give my copy some proper knees.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Nope. They swivel at the knee, and the hips are jointed, the ankles tilt, but unfortunately, likely for the dual reasons that the thighs slide into the lower legs and for stability, there are no knees. I intend to remedy that shortcoming posthaste when I get mine.
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