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lechuck

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  1. lechuck
    My very first ThreeZero DLX Siege Optimus Prime came in this week and I must say that I am impressed with the product. I figured not many have bought into this product, so thought I would share a quick review... That battle worn appearance in sculpt and paint work is just bonkers how good it looks. From the outside Optimus is mostly plastic with the exception of the die-cast feet. But there is still a lot of heft to him, because metal is used everywhere internally for structural integrity. It could be a full endoskeleton, but definitely metal along the crucial articulation points. Speaking of which, the articulation is great - head goes all directions, double-hinged shoulders that can pivot inward, beautifully smooth torso and ab-crunch movement, bicep swivel and deep elbow bend, hands are on a ball joint, there is a drop-down mechanism at the pelvis for hips/legs to moved forward nicely, thigh swivel and double-jointed knee bend and the feet can be placed in any position you want. There is an integrated light-up feature (requires two LR44 batteries) for Optimus that will make the eyes, windscreen and the cab roof lights illuminate. Size wise the figure is about 25-26 cm tall or slightly bigger than MP-44, a bit unfortunate as I would have liked to mix this guy in with the other MPs. For accessories ThreeZero packs in a couple of different hands, Optimus' signature gun, the Siege axe and shield and a adjustable stand. As for complaints... I suppose my biggest issue is related to the light-up gimmick or better said dead eye syndrome. I wish ThreeZero would have provided a second head with painted eyes, because I normally don't keep toys like these continuously lit up. Also getting to the battery compartment and on/off switch is not quite as elegant as I would like, it requires removing the back plate and then removing a screw to finally remove the head. I could accept doing that for the batteries once in a while, but the switch should have been placed somewhere outside. That being said, ThreeZero have understood that without the usual transformation gimmick their robot toy must deliver a USP that can offer a different kind of substantial value to the potential buyer and personally I think they have achieved it. This is a great product worth spending on if this type of toy is your thing.
  2. lechuck
    For an early prototype the engineering looks promising. Feet have room to move and pivot and the knees are separate pieces, so hopefully deep knee bend. Unlike Phoenix the thighs have the correct proportional length and the hip-joints are not constantly in plain sight, arms are closer to the body. Also some nice attention to details like the slanting shoulder line and the trapezoidal shaped forearms. Hopefully the transformation is more intricate and not just sliding and swinging giant sections of the toy around.
  3. lechuck
    Hard disagreement with your assessment, if anything the alternate robot parts and compression of alt-mode helps with proportions and the overall robot silhouette as well as fills in void spots in different areas, which in turn grants space to implement a better range of articulation. This is a higher degree of engineering to get it all right, it is not just sticking it in the backpack as you put it. The alternative approach of quickly extending, unfolding and realigning chunks of alt-mode just leads to unsightly robots – wide chest, protruding belly, limbs being too long or short and larger void spaces and gaps like we have seen with most of the Hasui-hybrid era. Have a closer look at Skids, the shoulders sit too far apart from the main body, arms are too thin and the outward-up movement has been shifted to the shoulder wheel-pauldron thingy instead of naturally coming from an axle joint at the body - because keeping with the actual alt-mode front car facia and lower engineered sophistication will dictate and enforce such unbalance on the robot mode. Don't get me wrong, I am not against some part of the actual alt-mode being used for the robot, as long as it doesn't ruin appearance/proportions or limit the versatility in articulation.
  4. lechuck
    Make no mistake, MP Skids is Takara bringing their A-game at making an absolute bargain bin Masterpiece Transformer, bereft of so many things on so many levels. The gap between regular retail Transformers and this MP is not very big, it could probably pass as a leader or commander class Skids toy in Hasbro's line. It's ironic many in the fandom complained about supposedly unwarranted high MP prices and yet 70 - 80 dollars for this MP Skids is suddenly great deal. I would have preferred to pay more for a better engineered robot toy that provides a richer engagement and experience. Your best bet is probably to order it from Amazon (US site). I did a quick check and could not find it yet, but it should eventually become available for ordering.
  5. lechuck
    Recently picked up the Code Geass Resurrection movie and need some insight (no spoilers please). Is it necessary to watch the three prior movies because they change things up or can I jump in from the TV series ending?
  6. lechuck
    Woah! Skywarp looking good, nice semi-gloss paint/plastic black with a fitting tone of purple/lavender. Shame it's TT Mall exclusive again. Can't wait to get this new seeker mould in hand.
  7. lechuck
  8. lechuck
    New coloured images of Skids and new character Reboost (?) More importantly though - it seems Takara has tweeted that MP Skyfire is on the way! Really hope it is the actual him and not Jetfire or some other derivative of him.
  9. lechuck
    Anyone have experience shopping Transformers at Mandarake? What does the specific condition "Opened, package damaged" imply, is the plastic tray still sealed and only the tape on the outer box been opened? Only purchased unopened or tape resealed from them so far and have obviously fared well with that type of condition.
  10. lechuck
    Initially I wanted to preorder Mk. V, but decided to play the waiting game to see if we get a Silver Bullet Suppressor.
  11. lechuck
    I keep seeing and reading this everywhere anytime someone wants to bang on the modern MPs. Where or what in your opinion is this supposedly general lower quality that has manifested itself with Takara's latest MP releases? Yes, I acknowledge the plastics on Hound were breaking and the quality is not good, but he has to be considered an outlier in the bigger scope of things. Since then we have had Tigertron, reissue MP-39, Spinout, Arcee, Leo Convoy and Black Convoy and there have been no reports of greater quality issues with them. There will unfortunately always be that one toy that was assembled early Monday morning with misalignments, paint issues or even broken pieces, but that is not evidence of something fundamentally wrong in the MP line. As for Skids... looks decent I guess, but that's part of problem. Nothing here that is pushing the limits or where you could see Takara going for that excellence type of mentality. I could be wrong, but the prototype doesn't bode well when it comes to articulation either - lazy and limiting implementation like during the Hybrid/Hasui era, that would be a big disqualifier for me. As it stands, I think I might sit out the pre-order and wait for AJP to have a sale. Crazy times, I actually want to pre-order a MPM over a MP Transformer.
  12. lechuck
    There is also some new prototype images of MP Skids
  13. lechuck
    Metal Structure or Metal Composite? I would rather have better articulation instead of bigger size. But I agree that Metal Builds tends to be a bit more stylized with the robots, so I share the concern that aesthetically it might not be convincing.
  14. lechuck
    This would be my first MPM if it turns out to be BB Prime. I just hope it scales nicely with MP-44.
  15. lechuck
    The Expanse is truly quality Sci-Fi, just a bit unfortunate that the first half of season one has sluggish pacing. Actually I am bit surprised that this show is so under the radar on MW, I don't think there is even a dedicated thread for it!?
  16. lechuck
    What a waste of money. If you want a proper Star Convoy, then get MMC's Stellarus Prominon. And I say this as someone who has yet to buy into any 3P offering.
  17. lechuck
    Return of Mullet... sorry Superman. Incoming October next year according to Medicom. https://www.taghobby.com/archives/504084
  18. lechuck
    For those that still need TV Fast Packs, Bandai is selling another round of them starting tomorrow 16:00h local time. https://hobby.dengeki.com/news/1121591/
  19. lechuck
    This feels like an amalgamation of the previous two MG Hi-Nu Gundams to me. Anyway looking forward to getting my grubs on MG Gundam MK-V
  20. lechuck
    Awesome work!
  21. lechuck
    Not really seeing this superiority everyone is claiming with Azalea, a decent try but by no means light years ahead of MP-51. She looks like she has been given stilts as lower leg replacements, feet are too simple almost like door stoppers, unsightly knee-bend due to the knee-caps not moving properly, the back of the legs are not very clean, hips seem strangely disconnected to the crotch, chest sits in the right place, but then it is ruined by not tapering properly into the abdomen area and having a rounded appearance instead of stronger canted edges, she is also missing a proper collar piece and her face design is neither here nor there. From straight on Azalea gives me this wooden marionette design vibe. MP Arcee is not perfect, but I can tolerate her flaws better. There is no need for Takara to use 3P as a template for their MPs.
  22. lechuck
    Seems to have gone unnoticed, just realised that Bandai is doing Hi-Metal R for Dragonar!
  23. lechuck
    New Legioss Armo Soldier articulated kits being done by Wave, only 11 cm tall. Aramaki supposedly had a hand in this. https://www.taghobby.com/archives/494486
  24. lechuck
    Like me, I believe there are plenty of other fans out there that consider the robot mode the primary aspect in Transformers and not alt-mode accuracy. That might work for other franchises like Macross, but I think is wrongly applied to Transformers which is rooted in sentient robots with distinct personalities. Personally I think Maverick is a terrible looking robot and prime example of what happens when the priorities are set wrong. Ugly silhouette and proportions Undefined long tube-like legs High-heel looking feet Ill-defined waist, abdomen with belly syndrome and a torso piece that does not even sit flush Low hanging shoulders Terrible plastic colour and paint application Main wings just hanging out Vertical stabilizers just hanging out No amount repainting into Macross Valkyries, Leader-1 or whatever will save this thing or make it look good. And the same basically goes for Gigawatt, a giant square block tacked on to a pair of legs that Hasbro had lying around - zero effort.
  25. lechuck
    Yatte yaruze! Sentinel's Dancouga is a great quality toy. Appearance, proportions, articulation, die-cast parts, heft and paint - it all goes together nicely. Weak point would probably be the smaller bots - Eagle Fighter, Black Cougar and Land Liger they are kind of "meh". But lets be honest nobody is buying this for the individual robots - it is all about the combined form. Currently can't decide if I like TV or OVA wing pack to go with Dancouga. I gave Black Wing on his back a try - not my favourite combination, but was surprised that it does not cause stability issues (Black Wing also has die-cast). Personally I would recommend this over Bandai's SOC version anytime, it's more expensive but well worth it.
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