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M'Kyuun

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Everything posted by M'Kyuun

  1. M'Kyuun
    Who could you possibly be referring to? My SS Grimlock came today, and I like it a lot. Definitely a step in the right direction for the mainline, with hopefully more Dinos to follow. I like vid reviews, but there's definitely value to pictorials, especially when they highlight certain aspects and make comparisons. Mike does a commendable job with his reviews. As to the smoked plastic chest piece, I'm glad they at least made it transparent, but yeah it's too dark. The box art depicts Grimlock with a transparent yellowish chest piece and neck pieces for his dino mode, both of which look good. Unfortunately, they eschewed the transparent parts altogether for his T-Rex neck, and used the smoky plastic for his chest which is too dark to discern his Autobot symbol except from up close, and barely then. It's an odd choice. I'd love for third party to make the neck pieces, too, although it would requiire making the internal bits as well as the trans outer pieces. But it's one of those features I always loved about the G1 toys, and it's a little disappointing to see that this figure was intended to have it, but for whatever reason, it was dropped. I thought the legs were the most interesting part of the transformation, although, with really tight double joints used to articulate the cowlings, it is a pain to get them positioned. I dig the engineering, though. Spiderman and His Amazing Friends was more my jam than X-Men back in the 80's, although I enjoyed it, too, and it was my introduction to that world, and remained my only connection to it until the live action movies came along. That said, being aware of the X-Men's Blackbird and its stylistic departure from the Lockheed SR-71 that inspired it, all things being equal, I would have rather they made X-Pants more faithful to the comics/live action version. That said, despite being a huge fan of the SR-71, I passed on Bayformer Jetfire due to how heavily compromised that toy was in jet mode. X-Spanse , while sporting a few changes, as Mike mentioned, from the actual Blackbird, is closer to the source and far less compromised. Indeed, he's fairly clean in jet mode for a Hasbro jetformer, a rarity. For that reason, more than my passing affinity for X-Men, I bought him. Initially, I thought the mixture of X-Men character attributes was off-putting, but upon reflection, I think it works, as he's more of a general representation of the X-Men rather than a specific character, and I imagine that was Hasbro's intention. He's a much improved retool of Jetfire, but as Mike pointed out, he retains the superfluous and annoying back flaps that hover just behind his head. It would have been nice had they found a way to either get rid of them or fold them into the backpack. This isn't Hasbro's first foray into Marvel-Transformer crossover toys, but IMHO, X-Spanse represents a minor upgrade to the previous toys, at least in articulation. Glad I got him.
  2. M'Kyuun
    It might be a little foreshortened, but all the salient features are there, even the sawtooth at the winglet. From nearly every angle except from directly below, it captures the look of the F-4 without compromising bits of bot sticking out to ruin the illusion. As robots in disguise go, and more poignantly, as robots that turn into jet fighters go, this thing is quite accurate and a solid win. Do they get everything right- honestly, I'd need a side by side with a dedicated F-4 model to really find the flaws. I've been up close to the real aircraft, and this impresses me for how accurately it captures the plane. If one gave it an official AF or Navy paint job, would anyone be able to tell this was a Transformer at first glance? I don't think so. This makes me wish, somewhat, that Zeta would do Shatter, concentrating on her Harrier mode. One of the things that bugged me was how incongruent in mass the alt modes were for the two main Decepticon protagonists in the Bee Movie. Just b/c anything can be done with CG doesn't mean it should, and something like Shatter's situation with two very different alt modes that really don't mesh well practically, should have been given more thought and perhaps fleshed out with practical models to ensure a better fit. After all, this whole franchise is driven by the toys, so it would seem to me that Ha/Tak would have a vested interest in making sure these things are workable for the eventual toys. Guess not. Alas, I've been waiting and hoping for an accurate Harrier Transformer, and the SS version was terrible. If Zeta goes for it, I have hope.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Jeez. All I can do is shake my head with incredulity. The DVD incidence- really unforgivable from professional delivery people. At least I can take some small comfort in knowing I'm not their only victim. USPS is usually pretty good here, too. Today, however, my Magic Square Megs and Soundwave (I caved) showed up and the box looked like an accordion. ShowZ are great about putting the plastic corner protectors on, but they didn't save the outer box this time. To my surprise, however, neither of the actual product boxes sustained damage beyond maybe a little bit of denting. The toys, thank goodness, were in perfect condition. I've only ever had one major issue with USPS- I sent two large boxes of stuff from PA to my WA address, about $200 worth of stuff, and neither of them ever showed up. USPS sent the paperwork salvaged from one of the packages to my sister in PA, and by the time she sent it to me, the routing number or whatever was out of their system, so I couldn't even file a claim. Total loss. I wasn't too happy.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, that's quite involved, but interesting. Got a little bit of a YF-21 vibe with how the shoulders rotated out. Anyway, enormous kudos to Zeta for nailing the F-4 mode, and for figuring out how to get that bot mode so screen accurate. It's an impressive figure. The one thing that bugs me about the robot mode is that there appear to be four instances of landing gear forming the toes on a plane that has standard tricycle landing gear. That's what happens when CG happy artists with no knowledge of aircraft design these things. I didn't notice if this had a tailhook- even the Air Force versions had it.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Good review, Mike. I was expecting my copy today, but it didn't come. Tracking showed it about two hours south of my location today, but after checking tracking just now, it's at Troutdale, OR with delivery pending. This has become SOP with FedEx this year. I'm not sure if that's a Covid thing, but I've had any number of packages come within spitting distance, only to be rerouted the day of projected delivery with a pending ETA. Kinda frustrating. I was really looking forward to getting this Grimlock figure, and your review is just one more confirmation of how well he was done (the screw holes in the dino head are a bummer, though). The nitpicks are few and relatively insignificant compared to Grimlocks past, and it only whets my appetite for more Dinobots at this level of scale, design and quality.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Ah man- egg on my face. I've seen that drone in person at the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in Oregon and at the AF Museum in Dayton, and I should have been more mindful. Thanks for pointing it out. Fixed.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Yep! I've watched this beauty come and go like twice now- wasn't gonna skip it a third time if I could help it. It doesn't help that folks like Kuma fan the flames of regret with great pics, vids, reviews, and just general conversation in the thread extolling the virtues of this thing. No idea where I'm gonna put him, but I figure I've got until August or so to figure it out. At least I think that's the projected release. I don't mind the wait- kinda need the time to get things sorted around here. It's bad enough that Unicron could show up anytime, and I really have nowhere to put him at the moment, except on top of the divider wall between my kitchen and living room, where my cat will probably knock it off.
  8. M'Kyuun
    World's first supersonic unmanned combat drone All we need now is a flyoff between competing variable fighters and a rogue AI named Sharon. Oh, and Yoko Kanno to write the theme music.
  9. M'Kyuun
    The combining peg was a double-edged sword, so to speak; practically speaking, it performed pretty well given the amount of weight that it generally had to support. However, in a deluxe sized figure, it was so voluminous in comparison to the rest of the figure that all the transformation mechanics had to be designed around it, which caused simplification and repetition of the transformations throughout the line. In a voyager scaled fig, they could do more with the transformation, but with a larger figure, the joint has to support more weight, so there's a tradeoff. I'm not sure how they could improve on it. Whatever they end up doing so far as the combiner joints go, I hope they're up to the task, as it sounds like we may be getting leader class torsos and voyager class limbs, which will require some strong tolerances. It's a good challenge for Takara, and I hope they come through with something innovative and dependable.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Thanks for the link- Got one!
  11. M'Kyuun
    Thanks Mike. PM me if you snag one. That's very good news if true. Compared to WfC standards, I don't think a rerelease of CW/PotP toys would go over well. Even if they only did one combiner a year at WFC levels of quality, it'd be worth it. I hope the rumor's true. I also hope they get around to doing a much improved set of Constructicons. I have CW Menasor and Bruticus, and I'm not sure I feel I need to replace them. It would depend on just how much improved they really were. I bought a couple of the CW Aerialbots, but I thought Silverbolt was an atrocious toy, and the limb bots, too, left somewhat to be desired. If they were to bring their A-game to the table and design them all with convincing jet modes, I'd be down for picking them up. After seeing MP-52's travesty of an alt mode, I'm not holding my breath. The space in the back, as well as the ability to open the hatch for access, makes me think a Diaclone recolor with the transforming scooter is already in the works.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I have yet to see a single retro-Headmaster in my area. I was going to get Brainstorm, but with no signs of these things in stores, I've given up on it.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Yep, those are the winglets, and mine are installed swept forward. Honestly, it doesn't matter which way you install them; they mount so loosely that they are easily knocked off. It's the only flimsy element of the toy; everything else is pretty solid. the connection to the two panels that just kinda hover behind his head is a potentially weak spot for breakage, as the base rotates and can be inadvertently sandwiched between bits of the backpack; if it's not sitting flat and one attempts to squeeze the backpack together, it could possibly break. It's an unfortunate holdover from the Jetfire design that has no function and just looks odd. I wish they could have found a way to redesign it for X-Spanse. Figure King posted some greyscale pics of the upcoming MP Skids. I shamelessly copied the pic from TFW2005, where there's a bit of discussion about it, mostly complaints. One thing that was pointed out was the return to lackluster articulation after a spate of MP figs with a focus on improved articulation. Given the seemingly backward approach to the articulation and the extent of detail on the bot mode uncharacteristic of the plain Jane toon direction, my theory is that this is an old, possibly Hasui-era design that Takara sat on and only now decided to produce. Like I said, just a theory. But the change in direction is notable for its departures from what has become the standard for this line over the last few years. This looks like a step back in time to me. Regardless, seeing detail on a bot again is a good thing.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I think you'll like him, and I look forward to your thoughts/review. I messed about a little with him after I posted, and due to his double knee joints, which are both rather stiff ratchets, I was able to position his knees such that he can stand tall and proud without falling over backwards. I found those knee joints a bit of a pain when transforming him back into his plane mode. I couldn't remember exactly how his thighs needed to be positioned, and so, pride be damned, I consulted the instructions. The joints throughout my copy are all pretty tight, so while that's ultimately a good thing, it also makes it challenging to manipulate things during transformation. Nothing a little patience and persistence can't overcome. One caveat- the little winglets on the engines just snap into their mounts , but both are easily detached inadvertently on my copy. They could have used some pins to keep them in place and give some strength (they have to rotate at the root). Not the best, but in my short experience with the figure, those were the only bits on the whole toy that seemed flimsy. Compared to his original mold mate, RotF Jetfire, the jet mode cleans up quite well, with virtually no kibble under the forward fuselage. He does have some ro-block syndrome under the main fuselage, but the large engines go a long way towards hiding it, and it looks compact from the side. From the bottom, all is revealed and made all the more obvious due to the light blue and yellow coloring. Pretty typical. I still dig him, though. Hope the same for everyone else who got him.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Grimlock and BW Megatron are on their way to me from Pulse, ETA Monday. It's a beautiful day here in eastern Washington, and I took a stroll across town to my favorite coffee stand. When I returned, there was a Target box on my step. It turned out to be X-Men X-Spanse. Bear in mind I never had RotF Jetfire, of whose toy this is a major retool, but I managed to get him transformed without consulting the instructions. It's not the best figure in the world, but as a crossover fig, it's not bad either. I like the engineering of the legs- they're the most interesting part of the transformation. Since the majority of his plane mode ends up-surprise!- on his back, it would have been nice had they had some additional heel support and some fore and aft rocker for his feet. His toes can rock up and down, and his heel, which is the exhaust augmenter, is on a ball joint with very limited motion. But with all that weight on his back, there's a bit of necessity to bend him forward at the waist a little to keep him from tumbling backward. His heavily modified blue SR-71 mode is ok. I'm a plane guy, so the concessions are far more glaring to me than they probably are to most Trans-fans. Suffice it to say, like most of Hasbro's jetformers, his best angle in jet mode is from above. From the sides or the bottom, it's pretty clear this is a robot attempting to disguise itself as a plane, with lackluster results. I could pick it apart ad nauseum, but I won't. I will say it's not the worst jetformer I've seen or even owned. It has retractable gear, and even though the mains aren't enclosed when retracted, and aren't in the right place on the aircraft, the fact that it has retractable gear at all gets points from me. One other niggle I have with the alt mode is that it's far closer to the real SR-71, due to their licensing it from Lockheed, than the very stylized Blackbird from various X-Men media. What's ironic about that is that the comic representation is on the box. I wish they'd followed suit with X-Spanse's alt mode, as I've always liked the look of it, and it would have been cool had they attempted to sculpt the plane mode to be closer to the original source. Alas, they didn't, but I'm happy to have a passable representation of the Blackbird within the Transformers Universe. Excelsior!
  16. M'Kyuun
    To my eyes, what should have been an improvement over the Studio Series toy fails, at least so far as truck mode goes. The SS did a better job of making the hitch deck cleaner and more proportional- this looks stretched with obvious robot leg armor just hanging out. Easy pass for me. This is shaping up nicely. I hope it's not the victim of the QC issues that seem to have plagued MP releases of late, as this may be the first official MP I buy since Sunstreaker. I still wish they'd designed the feet closer to how XTB did theirs, and I wonder if that windshield is going to collapse closer to his back, but otherwise, Skids is looking good. I 'm totally digging Takara's take on the shoulders, which are accurate to the G1 toy. The well-detailed bot mode is not lost on me, and I hope the pendulum is swinging more in this direction with future releases. I passed on Savant, but I have to give XTB props for managing to squeeze in seats and a dashboard, as well as a folding scooter in the back. Takara obviously didn't do either. The scooter was actually part of the Diaclone release, but Hasbro dropped it for some reason when they co-opted the toy into Transformers. Anyway, this is the first I've felt anticipation for a MP fig in a while, and I hope it doesn't disappoint. Looking forward to some colored pics of this guy. They probably won't, but it'd be cool if they chromed his weapons.
  17. M'Kyuun
    OK, I knew a 3P company was releasing Seekers that looked pretty similar to the official MPs a few years back, but I couldn't remember who it was. I bought a few of the original Kawamori-tweeked Seekers (Greenscream, Wally exclusive Starscream and Skywarp, IIRC). I intially wanted to pick up some MP-11 figs, as I preferred the more show/toy accurate depiction, but ultimately, I hated the high placement of the head so much that I never bought another official MP Seeker. When the MT version came along, I was intrigued, but as usual, I fence sat through the first releases, picking up Skycrow on a rerelease. I have Meteor and their version of Thrust on PO, but given the way things have been playing out with them, I'm thinking those releases might not happen. I'm hoping that when MP-52 drops, folks will be selling off their MT Seekers relatively cheaply, and I can get Meteor and their Thundercracker then. However, the MT Seeker's a pretty good fig, and a lot of folks like me prefer it over MP-52, which is going to drive up the demand, especially if MT's throwing in the towel. I'm hoping the market will be flooded with MT Seekers, but I fear the reality is that a lot of folks are going to hang on to them, and the ones that do sell are going to go at an unpleasant markup. Dans le monde des jouets, c'est la vie. Kuma, you really know how to make a guy feel the ultimate non-buyer's regret. Great pic of a cool figure, as usual.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Surprised no one else has posted this yet. Zeta has a MP Seeker in the works. It looks a lot like MP-11. Not really feeling it. Still hoping that MT are going to rerelease their Seekers, but their silence of late isn't very promising.
  19. M'Kyuun
    The one thing I have going for me so far as Voltron goes is that my wife was a fan, and even had a couple of the Lions, as a kid, and she enjoyed the Netflix show. She complains all the time about how much room all my stuff takes up in the house these days, and she's not wrong. So to answer the question of where am I going to put Unicron, not to mention a potential DX Voltron, I'm not sure yet. I was planning on building a big shelf next to my four CHUG shelves, but given the diameter and the weight, I think I want him on more solid footing. So, I'm going to have to do some much needed rearranging in the mancave to create some room in the corner for him. That's about the only viable solution I see right now. We were eyeballing a house that's yet to be built in my area, as there's still time to make certain changes to the house, like adding a third garage stall (for my crap), but the property sits right next to a raceway, and the noise levels would drive me crazy in the summer. I keep hoping a similar property further away from the raceway will become available, as we're about due an upgrade in square footage.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Terradive is a cool fig, and yeah, one of the better jetformers they've done over the years. Breakaway is a decent F-35 until you look at it from any angle but straight down. Fun toy, though, except when trying to monkey with his head inside the cockpit. I still wish they'd done more to streamline his legs in fighter mode. I initially liked '07 Dreadwing, which resembles a Flanker, but I couldn't abide his lack of proper hands. Until now, I never realized his exhaust augmenters could open. As hands go, it's a 'meh' solution. His fighter mode is pretty decent, compromised only by the bulbous legs protruding down along his lower centerline, which I imagine a lot of folks probably just pretended was an oversized MK-84 or a big cruise missile tucked under there. His bot mode was wonky, but I still kinda dig it. Part of me wishes I'd picked him up now. Dirge from RotF was a pretty nifty neo-Harrier. His bot mode was bit unorthodox, and not the most appealing aesthetically. His upper body transformation reminds me of BW Megatron for how the arms form the cockpit and backbone of the jet mode. I kinda dig how they designed his legs, as they were more integrated into the shape of the jet, and the feet are the intakes turned 180 and cut at steep angle. I point it out only because many of these live action movie toys forced Takara out of their typical cube-focused design aesthetic, in large part due to Alex Kubalsky's influence, and we started to see more unusual angles and rounded edges involved in the transformations. It's fun to look back on some of these old figs. I still have a few of them up on the shelf.
  21. M'Kyuun
    DX Voltron is such a beautiful toy; I've passed on it twice, but dammit, I'm so tempted. I just don't know where I'd put this guy- no room. Classic Voltron is, well, classic, but I wish that Bandai had done the toys for the Netflix show- a DX version of that design would be awesome. I have the smaller of the Playmates Voltron toys that can still separate into the lions, and while it's a fun toy to play with, it leaves somewhat to be desired in materials and articulation. I wish there was a high quality offering. Just finished watching the Netflix show last night, and I thought it was great. I wish the same team had done the Siege/Earthrise Transformers show. I'm a fan of Rooster Teeth's RWBY and Gen:Lock, so my hopes were high. Somewhere along the way, the ball was dropped.
  22. M'Kyuun
    The J-20 is such a good looking fig; I'm trying not be tempted, but so few jet-formers ever look this good. These are the first bot pics I've seen with the wings closed, and I prefer that over their splayed look. It's a cool feature, but I think they look better solid. I did bow to temptation for the helicopter fig, and I'm totally down for the Flanker. I'm hoping they show protos of the Flanker soon- the art looks gorgeous, and of course, the Flanker is a beautiful jet. I may not agree with Soviet ideology, but they can sure design a pretty fighter.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Bumping Wanda for a moment, as I saw on Twitter that a live action Big Hero 6 is in the works in some form or fashion. I saw some folks speculating that it'll be part of the MCU, which will be a notable departure from the look and feel of the Disney movie, but more in keeping with its comic roots. The Disney film was my introduction to that universe, so I'm a bit biased towards it, and wouldn't mind seeing it done in live action (hopefully with a an actor of Japanese descent in the lead role). However, if they do go the MCU route, I'm curious how they'll work BH6 characters in there.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I couldn't have said it more eloquently. In all fairness, I liked the animation direction, which used a lot of CG to make the characters look sharp. The designs themselves, overall, didn't grab me, and the few eps I suffered through turned me off to the series altogether. If I had to choose between watching RiD/UT or the Bay films, I'd pick the former, although I'd consider watching either as cruel and unusual forms of punishment. I will say, however, that the return to non-critter alt modes was refreshing, as much as I love BW. BW owes a great deal to the writers and VAs who brought the characters to life; I think the show would have been completely forgotten, as well as the franchise as a whole, had it not been for how engaging and fun it was. It is to Transformers what Bionicle was to LEGO back in '03 when they were facing bankruptcy. I have to part ways with Mike when addressing Animated. Initially, I was skeptical of the animation direction, and was quite dubious that any sort of functional transforming toys could be made from it. However, I warmed to the animation, and IMHO, I thought Takara did an impressive job of translating that toon look into toys. Like most TF toylines, they're not without their concessions, and perhaps I'm more forgiving b/c of the extreme nature of the source material, but Animated was and remains one of my favorite toy lines in the history of the franchise. I still lament that we didn't get a fourth season, and the toys that would have accompanied it. The show itself was great, with lots of G1 references, some great humor, a refreshing take on the characters and story, good writing, and a number of enjoyable cameos (Al Yankovic and George Takei spring to mind). Oh and that transforming Ark- so hope that that will get made at some point. Prime was really well done, too. Given that Orci and Kurtzman were the writers and the bot aesthetic borrowed noticeably from Bay's monstrosities, I wanted to hate it from the onset. But, I gave it a chance and found it to be well written and the designs grew on me. I still hate that they made Bee mute- f##k Orci and Kurtzman forever for introducing that unforgivably stupid trope into Transformers. Prime turned out to be an interesting toy line, what with the mostly superior First Edition figs and then the later retail figs of a number of the main characters. The show itself gave a window into how the live action movies may have turned out under a different director, as Orci and Kurtzman proved , to me anyway, that they could tell an engaging Transformers story. It's still one of my favorite TF series.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Although the triple changers outside of Springer, Astrotrain, Blitzwing, and possibly Sandstorm really don't interest me much, along with Tidal Wave, Broadside could be thrown in there, and possibly a Six-Shot. I'd be down with UM done at commander scale; that would give them the budget to make a really good figure. Despite being a lukewarm fan of UM, I hope it happens, and happens the way the designers seem inclined. We're sure to get a better toy if the designers themselves are personally invested. I've zero interest in the UT stuff and purely Japanese Transformers, but if they eventually do make them under the Kingdom banner, then I'm happy for the Western fans who never had an opportunity to get the original stuff. If they're tapping every vein of nostalgia, and I think they should, all TF fans should get updates of the toys they love. It's win/win for us and Has/Tak. I wonder if Polesdru gets some kind of kick back from Hasbro or Takara? His stop-motion vids are great PR for them. Cyclonus is an exceptional figure in the WFC trilogy. i just hoped it wouldn't suck, but they exceeded my expectations with how well he was executed. If only every fig in the line was on par.
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