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M'Kyuun

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Everything posted by M'Kyuun

  1. M'Kyuun
    Samus' suit, while not overtly feminine looking, was still complementary. The heavy armor pack for the VF-25 isn't. Matter of opinion, but this is bulky, busy, and unappealing next to .
  2. M'Kyuun
    I feel the same way, along with obscuring the beauty of the valk. It's like this plus with guns and thrusters.
  3. M'Kyuun
    QFT. It's a shame, but yeah some of those armor bits can be super fiddly with only a tentative attachment to the valk- looking at the big thruster units on the VF-19 Advance's wings. Those damn things fell off with a glance. so yeah, they're cool for display, but not so much for play, unfortunately. It makes you long for the sturdiness of the old 1/55 VF-1- not the most accurate thing, but it could be handled without much fear of things breaking or falling off. I think Bandai was going for that with their first DX VF-25 release, but folks today, myself included, are more collectors/displayers than folks who play with their high end toys, so the preference is for more screen/lineart accuracy over retro chunky munky playability.
  4. M'Kyuun
    I only own own three VF-25s, all renewals: Alto's 25F, Ozma's 25S, and Michael's 25G. Of these, I only bought Super Packs for the 25G, which I have on display with the 25S. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough room in the Detolf, so Alto's 25F is snug as a bug in its box.
  5. M'Kyuun
    I think I'm a bit of a lone dissenter in that I don't really care for the massive Armor Pack on the VF-25. I love the 25's lanky proportions, so if I choose to armor it at all, I go with the Super Pack, which leaves most of that beautiful battroid mode bare. I still feel the same way towards the VF-1- I never cared cared at all for the GBP armor, but I love the look of the FAST Packs. Unlike the GBP, I think it's cool that Kawamori designed the Armor Pack to transform with the VF-25; that was always a huge shortcoming, IMHO, of the old GBP armor.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I was messing with my copy over the weekend and realized to my dismay that the same tab was broken on my copy, too. The peg is broken off flush, and her chest stays in position ok, so I'm just going to leave it alone for now, but it seems to be an oversight in the design with so many breaking. Mine was probably broken before I realized it, but I remembered reading about it here, and checked mine-sure enough, broken. Interesting bit of rumor. I wish Brawn was 86 instead of SS- kinda over the live action designs, at least as they exist right now with their heavy Bayformer influence. Strascream is interesting, although I have a feeling instead of a better designed figure, it's just going to be voyager ER Screamer with a cape, crown, and pauldrons to justify the leader price point. If so, no thanks. I hope the 86 Insecticon rumor's true, especially if they're done at deluxe scale. I like the legends versions a lot, and Primus knows we waited a long time for them, but it'd be nice to have them in an upscaled form to match the rest of the WFC minibots. Honestly, at this point, they could pretty much abandon the legends scale for all but stuff like the cassettes, and I wouldn't be too upset about it.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Woah, those shipped some time ago. I've had mine for a month now. If you got it directly from Hasbro Pulse, that seems like an ominous oversight, or a lost in transit sort of issue. He's in a big box, so kinda hard to misplace him. Anyway, I think Hasbro would be easier to deal with than one of the third party sellers , and certainly better than Scalper-bay or Scalpazon. I wish you every success. Honestly, if I didn't already have Fans Toys Phoenix, which is already a really nice take on Skyfire (I too wish they'd bring back the Skyfire name to designate the toon likeness from the VF-1 Jetfire toy), I'd be pretty bummed at this news. At this point, an official MP Skyfire would be cool, but I also fear it would be plagued with all the layers of folding panels and such that, IMHO, mar the looks of the most recent spate of MP figures, not to mention a complete lack of detail to match the toon. I'm pretty happy with the WFC toy- it's big, beefy, detailed, more accurate to the toon in bot mode than Phoenix, and brings enough articulation and accessories to the table to make him one of the standout toys in the line. I'm also glad he's part of the mainline, as the bulk of my TF collection is mainline, and he's a dream toy that I never thought we'd get officially.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Probably a touch sappy, but yeah, interesting. Another allegory for humanity's overcoming its differences.
  9. M'Kyuun
  10. M'Kyuun
    Hasbro are some shady SOBs for this. I suspect they figure that a repaint of their so-so Dinobot wouldn't sell well, so to get their money's worth from the mold, they're packaging it with a more G1 faithful Mirage (b/c the Siege version left somewhat to be desired, especially in car mode), as they know all of us G1 completists are going to want a proper G1 Mirage to fill out the roster. It's good business, I guess, but that doesn't mean I like it. The worst thing about this situation is that there's no guarantee that a separate single release of Mirage will happen, at least not in his Mirage colors and deco, so I feel like I'll have to suck it up and pay extra for a fig I don't want to get the one I do. Where fans come first...yeah right.
  11. M'Kyuun
    All things considered, if Hasbro has indeed taken on the burden of designing actual transforming figs for WFC, they've made marked improvements since their old Pretender days. WFC has had its share of hits and misses, but I think it's fair to say they've scored more hits overall. I've been pretty pleased with the line so far as it has fed my desire for faithful G1 updates in the main line. Too, I tend not to be as picky as some, although I do have a modicum of standards. Stuff like Astrotrain and Ultra Magnus didn't make the cut. I'm hoping they'll do better in the future. Ultimately, the most ideal scenario would be for third party to reenter the CHUG scale fray and, at the very least, tackle those characters for whom the official releases left us wanting. There seem to be no takers, however- Hasbro's legal Kung-Fu is mighty. I don't blame them for protecting their IP, but it's sad to not have the same options we've been enjoying for MP and legends releases.
  12. M'Kyuun
    The upcoming large scale R2-D2 looks like it has those 3-wide cylinders forming the details in the upper leg joints, so that'll be another source for them soon. The set's due to release on May first, although I'm sure the site will be jammed up again. Concerning IDEAS, since few of the latest submissions have involved space or mecha, my interest has been nil. Right now they're asking folks to submit flower and Minecraft ideas, neither of which are very appealing to me. Too, LEGO has a vote to determine the theme of their 90th anniversary set, and Bionicle appears to lead the vote. I don't think Bionicle should have even been a contender given that it didn't debut until 2000 when the classic themes of Town, Castle and Space, introducing the minifig, really drove the success of the brand until its decline in the late 90s, early 2000s. Bionicle certainly played a major role in buoying the company during that time, along with Star Wars, and I think it has earned its own place of honor for that. But personally, I think a 90th anniversary set should be firmly set in the brick which made LEGO successful from the start.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I'm a fan of IDEAs and have bought a number sets, but despite getting bombarded almost daily by email notifications of new projects, I seldom visit the site. I decided to check it out this morning to see what's new and if anything piqued my interest. The quick answer is no. It seems like anymore the only projects that gain any real support are buildings of one nature or another. I can appreciate the artistry put into them, but honestly, the majority don't really interest me. Space interests me, but none of the current space projects have any real momentum, and many of the better looking projects, IMHO, are essentially modern updates of classic sets. I was further dismayed to discover that there is no mecha theme, although I believe there once was. This should be the platform that takes mecha beyond what LEGO's sets are capable of offering in terms of techniques, as sadly, no new parts are made for it. I wish they were, though, as the Voltron set may have benefited by having new joints. But LEGO doesn't seem to have any interest in producing more robust and articulate joints, as they continue to use the old Technic joints (44224,44225) most notably used for AT-AT and large mecha legs joints since 2003, as well as the same family of ratcheting joints developed for the Exo-Force theme in 2006. The small, but highly useful ball and socket joints developed for the Mixels sets, debuting in 2014, are the only new joints LEGO has developed since, but given the growing number of mecha sets across various themes they've been producing, one might think that they'd be inclined to improve upon and expand the joint palette. The reality is apparently otherwise. I digressed a bit into my common 'no new joints' complaint, but my original intent was to vent my frustration concerning the lack of representation on the site for mecha builds. It's even more poignant now with the situation between HG and BW having reached resolution, as Macross builds may finally be realized on the platform, and there have been a few over the years that I would have bought. Len_d69, the fellow who designed the Voltron submission that became a set, has a number of sweet Macross builds (VF-1, SD VF-1, SD VF-25, and most recently, a VF-1 cockpit). I'd be down for all of these as official sets. The question is, where would you submit it, as there's no ready category, not even a generic sci-fi theme. Anyway, as a big fan of mecha, and LEGO mecha by extension, it strikes me as a notable omission in the list of themes, and I'm curious if any other LEGO fans here who frequent IDEAs have noticed it.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Cool- looking forward to it!
  15. M'Kyuun
    Wow, talk about a straight ripoff- that melody is nigh the same as Toni's. TBH, Delta left so little impression on me, including the music, that I had no recollection of this song. I still like a number of songs from Frontier, especially Ranka's Aimo. The valk designs and the fact that this installment featured valk on valk fighting were the only takeaways worth mentioning, and about all I remember from the series. There was something about a girl band too, but pfft- Valkyries!
  16. M'Kyuun
    Likewise. I just watched Turn A last year for the first time and enjoyed it immensely. As long as it's a well-written, engaging story set in the Gundam Universe, I think they'd be better off creating their own characters, as it'd give them more creative freedom and prevent the holy hell of fan indignation if they screw something up with existing characters, story, etc. Anyone know if Tomino-san is involved with the Netflix project?
  17. M'Kyuun
    I think if Delta had come before Frontier, it would have been better received, as it was better, at least in terms of animation, than M7, but not nearly as good as Frontier with its better, well, everything. Frontier spoiled us; it's going to take another show like it or Plus to be satisfying to the majority of fans, I think, myself included.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Concerning MP Skids' development, there's an interview with Kojin Ono, the designer of both the G1 toy and this new MP version. It looks like a Google translation, so not the best, but decipherable. And I stand corrected; @lechuck was correct in that this was a recent design purposefully aimed to meet a lower price point/less complex transformation.
  19. M'Kyuun
    'Bargain bin' and masterpiece are oxymoronic given the context that these figures are intended to be their best possible interpretation of the characters. Of course what 'best' entails is subjective. I prefer the Hasui approach, which meant more surface detail and real world car details translated over to the bot mode. But I also love articulation, and appreciate their attempts over the past few years to incorporate as much as possible into the figures. Except when it hinders the look of the character as in Arcee's odd shaped chest, which totally spoiled her for me. Well that and her unseemly backpack, but I digress. I get what you're saying, though, and you may be correct. I'm partial to my theory, but I claim no evidence, and if this is in fact just a cheap attempt to make a quick buck on a lesser character, well, I wouldn't be surprised, and I'd happily concede that you had it right all along. Regardless of its genesis, I don't think it's a bad looking fig , although the reduction in articulation is immediately apparent. Like you said, it's about on par with a commander class toy, and priced accordingly. I wonder if this is going to be the new norm? If so, then engineeringwise and in terms of articulation, it's a serious step backwards.
  20. M'Kyuun
    That's how I see it, too. He's priced like MP was priced almost a decade ago (when Hasui was head designer), and shares the the more detailed but not as articulated design traits. I get the sense that this was designed back then, but shelved before release, and Takara decided to pull it out of mothballs to test the waters and see if the old style would sell amidst the bland but highly articulated toon-centric designs of recent years. My spider sense also says that'll be a big fat yes. I'm in for a copy. Too, I don't recall ever seeing Skids in the toon. I probably missed those eps as I quit watching the show with any regularity into season 2, as I wasn't crazy about the direction they were taking it after the excellent first season. As such, I'd just catch the random ep here and there, and if there was a continuity, I wasn't aware of it. Anyway, all I knew of Skids was that I liked his car and bot modes (wasn't crazy about his arm design, though), having looked at the toy in the store on a couple of occasions. I never owned the G1 toy though. The Binaltech version was my first Skids toy, followed by the 30th anniversary Generations toy. I passed on Savant, and I'm glad I did as the Takara MP looks pretty good, and it'll be nice to finally have a G1 Skids in my collection.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Thanks.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Likewise for the Bayverse designs. Soundwave's is one of the better ones, IMHO, and NA did a tremendous job here. Edit: Just watched a vid of the transformation. At approx MP scale, it's an incredibly complex piece with more moving parts than I care to contemplate. The result is beautiful in either mode. Hat's off to NA. This makes me wish they'd tackle figs in proper scale for which the official toys left us wanting, like WFC Astrotrain. I'd love to see this level of engineering put into a voyager or leader scaled version of Astrotrain. Or a downscaled version of FT's Thomas. I just want a decent Astrotrain for my CHUG collection. A good Blitzwing, too, while we're at it.
  23. M'Kyuun
    I stand corrected. Thanks!
  24. M'Kyuun
    Yep. I look at it the same way. As such, I'm pleased that Grimlock turned out as well as he did, and hope the same holds true for Slag. Interesting and practical. It bodes well for those of us collecting Generations wanting to complete the team- finally! I'm down for all of them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC G1 Slag's lower jaw was die cast, hence it's white color in the toon, which pretty much was their generic way of portraying all things shiny and metallic. It most likely would have been easier to use his robo 'bib' as the lower jaw, like the original toy, and they actually complicated the transformation by using a gold jaw that needs to tuck away in bot mode. A grey or silver metallic jaw wouldn't have bothered me a bit, as that's pretty much how Slag has been in toy form since the beginning. And yes, PotP Slag followed the traditional transformation of his chest plate cum lower jaw. I didn't know that Grassor used a substitution, too. I have FT Cesium, and he uses the old bib to jaw design.
  25. M'Kyuun
    @technoblueThanks for the reply, and for expressing your reasons. We both agree on the use of white plastic representing metallic or chrome bits on the original toys. It was an understandable compromise for animation, but I vehemently wish the practice hadn't carried over to the toys. So far as a paucity of paint apps, it's unfortunately the state of doing business for Hasbro, for the most part. FWIW, I'm fine with the paint apps on Grimlock. Would more be nice? Always. But I think they got the apps relevant to his onscreen appearance, and since this is a Studio Series release, it's to be expected. Hopefully you're right and these Dinobots will be rereleased under a different banner with more paint apps, but I'm not taking the chance of passing these up now only to find that there are no rerelease plans (although history shows that Hasbro is always quick to capitalize on repaints). I couldn't find a good full body still of Slag in dino mode from the Movie, but I did find one from the toon. It's interesting to see what carried over from the original toy, and what carried over from the toon in this new toy. While I'm not sure why they couldn't figure out how to use his chest plate as the lower jaw per the traditional transformation, the solution they opted for looks good, so it's not a huge deal. The underside is a mess, though, especially that back lower underbody; those structures are his robot feet, but it would have been nice if they weren't hollow and ugly looking from the bottom. It's a neat bit of engineering, however, to give him more height and fill out his legs in bot mode, while foreshortening his dino mode's body. And then there's those oh so tiny back feet. It's a concession, but geez, third parties have made Dinobots with collapsing legs that didn't resort to that. It's like he he was the victim of Japanese foot binding. Poor Slag. I'm not a big fan of the obtrusively large white structure on his back behind the frill, but that's how it was drawn in the animation. Compared to the original toy, SS86 Slag's looking a bit blocky as well. Since you mentioned it, I'm also curious as to whether there will be a second release of these new Dinobots with more G1 toy accuracy. Grimlock's box promo shots show him with his translucent neck cover with mechanical bits within like the original toy, so perhaps they're coming. If they went all out and chromed the bits or at least silver painted the originally chromed bits and put all the sticker based details on them, as well as all the translucent coverings, I'd be ecstatic. It's not like Hasbro's averse to repaints and rereleases, and the fact that they made a version already with the translucent coverings demonstrates that at some point, the original toy deco was planned. If they do release them in G1 toy deco, I'm gonna regret getting these more bland Movie decoed figs, as I don't need two teams of the same toys, and I'd much prefer toy deco, especially if they do release them as exclusives with better paint apps, decals, and the translucent bits. I find stuff like Wheelie and Daniel to be absolutely superfluous, and so, in my indifference, tend to forget about them when I discuss the figs that have them. However, I realize that many folks like them as part of the whole toy experience, and I'm oft remiss to acknowledge them in my conversation. The missing teeth on Grimlock are a mystery that I hope the Hasbro designers will expound upon at some point. I'm sure there was a reason, but I'm at a loss as to what it would be. I've never been a big fan of swords with robots, so that wasn't a big deal for me; however, swords have been part of the Dinobot toy arsenal from the beginning, so I understand folks' desire to have them included. Again, if they do toy versions of these guys, we'll probably get the swords with them. And all the other good stuff.
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