Californium

Nice review. After hearing more and more about it I think it's likely I'll keep mine in the box and maybe sell it in a few years time. Maybe they'll come out with a larger Legioss at some point that has better QC and deals with some or all of the bugs in this version. Doesn't sound bad. Just doesn't sound alltogether great either.

I plan on painting mine. I like the blue Legioss head design and its layout of the main color, but not so much the main color itself. I plan on replacing the blue with a dark RAF green sort of color. Some other minor changes. Remains to be seen if I'll actually get around to doing it though. I've got several other models to work on and I tend to paint at a glacial pace.

gee, it's almost off topic at this point, but I have to point out that Starfire looks like a muppet in that pic.

Um, ain't he the one who's been spending the last few years making three stooges movies in color? Quick, somebody look for vampire tuna bite marks on his neck... Something smells fishy.

I've never been a fan of Grimlock, cartoon or comic version. And I tend not to like silver on the new mustangs. Especially with bright red seats. What's more, he looks like any knee articulation won't mean much; and walking on seat cushions is a bit...odd. Just the same, he looks great. Maybe the best looking alt yet. Can't wait till this thing arrives... .... Of course, at the rate Hound is showing up, it'll be well into next year... (Damn those vampire tuna, with their sharp little white incisors and their little red and black capes.) 2 questions though. First, what's up with the inverse black widow emblem on his crotch? Second, I noticed he has some highlights airbrushed onto his shoulders and abdomen. Nice effect. Have any of the other alts had that? I wonder if it will make it onto the production version.

Don't forget freak storms, methane bubbles, wormholes, giant squids, rogue whales and Rodan. It's amazing anything makes it over. Edit: I forgot to mention ghost ships, mermaids, and schools of vampire tuna.

get ready for suck.

I always assumed the claws, lack of VTOL vent and other changes were largely a way of simplifying the design to streamline production as well as simplifying the training that pilots would have to undergo. All so they could shorten pilot training time and speed Legioss production up quite a bit. Not sure how much sense that makes though. I like the idea that maybe they were trying to toughen the things up for close combat, though finding better ranged weapons so that close combat could be avoided would be a priority for me. How much did the invasion fleets know about the Inbit? Did much recon ever make it back to Mars Base? Or were they always starting from scratch with little or no knowledge about what wiped out the previous fleet?

Not Junk. They are real kits; not for those who just like to snap bandai kits together in one afternoon. Some of them, the ones from the dougram line at least, tend to be molded in two or three colors at the most, and in any case won't look good without paint. They also generally need to be glued together. While the engineering isn't as nice as that found in many more recent kits, it tends to be solid and impressive just the same. Some of the 1/72 scale dougram kits in that line are especially nice, and even seem to outshine the 1/48 scale kits in the same line as far as detail and quality. At least that was my expirience with the one Revell called "Gartan." (I forget the Dougram name.) All things considered though, unless you are a fan of the original series and can't find a more modern kit of the subject, you might want to look elsewhere if you just want a kickin' robot.

But if it's that way the canopy might have to slide back (that might look cool) or slide and then hinge, because the angle of the break would keep it from just hinging up and open. Unless they just straighten that seam/break out a bit. I don't suppose there's any animation or sketches of this thing opening? Anyhow, I'd bet it's a moot point cause Toynami will give the shadow a regular canopy. Which isn't great but not a big deal either.

I don't begrudge them the standard shoulders, as I don't think the "real" shadow shoulder design would work with the transformation. ...At least, not without painful disfigurement of the intake sections. Or maybe just uglifying fighter mode a bit. How much you wanna bet they completely miss that the canopy is shaped differently on the shadow? (For that matter, how does that thing open? I don't see a convenient seam.) Which is too bad, cause it's a nifty streamlined look compared to the classic canopy-break. edit: not sure how that canopy is supposed to open, but if they do modify it to look accurate there, I imagine they could easily make the entirety of the canopy hinge open, rather than having any break.

Thanks to Effect and buddhafabio for letting me know what the revenge is for... Was that old conflict (1000 years ago) the one documented in those old republic comics? I vaguely remember a comic stroyline which impressed me and included a jedi who looked something like a hornless triceratops. Good title. Leagues better than the ep1 or ep2 titles at any rate.

Revenge for what, exactly? Are they upset that the Jedi were so easily played?

...Maybe amidala got taken by the tuskens in ep2, if they still need that genocide scene that is... he saves her, killing wildly in the process. She in largely unconscious and asks no questions. He volunteers and admits nothing. No need to. Black and white. But it's keeping the two sides seperate that gets him in the end, he has to choose and chooses poorly... But that whole thing should probably have been replaced by more advanced storyline. You know, to move things along so Lucas needn't rush ep3 or make an ep III I/II (3.5) to make things flow. Edit: About the Y-wing... Just Gerwalk. The Y-wing doesn't need a battroid mode. It's just that cool. I could imagine a few gerwalk mode Y-wings running circles around an ATAT. Literally, of course.

I see no contradiction there. His darkness could be a basis for a cunning duplicity built into his disposition. He's already a teenager, the whole slavery thing made him darkish, but amidala chick reminds him of mom and brings out a more comfortable area of his persona. No need for stalkerish tensions. He has a few friends, and he has a world he sees as full of enemies. He develops a starkly black and white view which means that once he breaks with the jedi, that break is complete and stunning. Also, he should have lost the pod race, and been so pissed about it that he lept out of his pod cursing and threw his helmet against the ground so hard it cracked. Then Obi decided to abrogate their promises and they get anakin AND his mom off the planet. (Bluring further Anakin's views of right and wrong, even though Obi tried to explain that they were only doing what was absolutley needed... This also shows Obi's character an NOT being all about black and white decisions... Obi appreciates the grey areas. Anakin's interpretation is not so nuanced.) But at some point during the droid attack at the end Anakin sees his mom get shot. She dies. (Why wait till episode two?...) I'm thinking it happens in the hangar bay as he's getting in a naboo fighter. She yells at him not to go or some such... He turns around to see her blasted by some droids that roll in. He swings the fighter around an blasts them, then gets out and goes to his mother, but she's already gone. Angrily, unthinkingly, he heads back to the fighter. He never gets the thing into space. Just flies over the battlefield strafing with a vengeance, demonstrating an all too natural skill while jinking at low altitude. The naboo fighter pilots are more professional, and can take out the droid control ship on their own. They are the Royal Guard after all, and should be highly trained, even if they are largely just for show. (though I would have made the droids fully autonomous. No droid control ship to attack. have them take out droid reinforcements that were about to make a second massive attack drop instead. Or something...) anyhow...

I'd been hoping to see brand new Y-wings since the prequels were first announced. Nice and shiny with streamlined panels covering up some of their tech-guts.

I agree that that fighter looks too small and eclectic. Is the wing even thick enough to hold R2? or are his droid feet dangling from the underside? (poor R2)

The link to Carl Hoff's Tread toy is on the MW main page. Open it and click on the link for Gakken Tread. Macrossworld, more than just the forums...cough, cough. Graham Really? hmmmm. I'd forgotten that was there. (the main page AND the tread pics...) Thanks Graham.

The more I look at tread/beta lineart, the more I thnk that thing just can't work in 3d. Some parts do a lot of morphing or vanishing from mode to mode. And then complicate things by adding the legioss connection? The cockpit size seems like it would have to be a bit too small and... I don't know... Anyone have any detailed lineart of a tread transformation? How did that super-rare tread toy work? any Links? did it have all 3 modes? Could easily be wrong, but I think any tread toy would have to look rather different from the lineart in at least two modes in order to transform and link up. So long as the thing retained a kickin' mospeada style, I wouldn't mind radically different shapes and details in some areas. However, I doubt Toynami would be willing to joust with their own rabid fans over Tread designs. They'd be more likely to just say it can't be done and move on.

Since last Tuesday when the Navy was abolished. Ashcroft told Cheney it was nasty to have Seamen.

Of course, the photo they didn't use because of red eye shows that it's the girl who is the "shaman," not M. Night. I hate it when they skew otherwise valid documentaries toward the conclusions they expect while throwing away contradicting evidence. Also, I heard the interviewer guy got footage of M. Night transforming into a Zamboni when he thought he was alone in the woods, but that the footage mysteriously went to static in the editing room, and they didn't think a static filled screen with what sounded like an old-school Transformers sound effect would be too convincing. I have to agree with them there. Sure wish I could see that footage though.

I heard it transforms into a Zamboni.

I really wish they had flared the sensor eye on that green one more. The head sculpt on the red legioss doesn't quite look right to me either, but I'm not sure why.

I got no problem with JB. But JB as GL? F WB.

That doesn't sound to promising to me. Sounds like they have some reservations about the beta design and might be setting the fans up to be let down easy--just in case. If so, perhaps it's because they are having difficulties with the way the beta and legioss fit together. Not so much how they connect using the tread's docking boom, but how the edges of each mate together, especially when the legioss is in fighter mode. (there always seems to be a little anime-magic going on along those edges...) How tall/wide should a 1/55 scale beta be? I doubt it would be that big with a legioss that small. No taller than the vf-1 MPC...? Anyhow, not sure if I would get one, but I do hope for a tread. Especially if it mates nicely with both fighter and soldier mode legioss.