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The Phamplet that will be issued during the concert in May. Concert costume on that day! Collab with Animate on promotional material! Also recently her younger sister got married (no picture of her unfortunately) https://www.animate.co.jp/gratte/21966/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJtQhdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHvENWl9qynd9HZ8bkhMxia_p4BeKp5eLw2vvouwvMgy9q86jNXkgy3uBf1Q5_aem_4IPjJ3FMXvhjl7RfgHFmrg

I think he's been fine as Devastator for a long time, but taking them apart for some of these recent reviews made the flaws in the individual bots stand out. And it's not like you can ever have too many Devastators.

Honestly, I think I like my decade old toyworld Devy more than Fans Toys version.

Looking good. Where did you source the CDR Woody Owens?

That's cool. Did you print the parts?

Great looking group of ships @megatron-uk! Have to say the Thuverl-Salan is my fav, though if they had gotten the bow right on the flagship, that would have been! As for the enormous 'rivets,' I'm just going to call them apertures for recessed turrets.

Until MMC starts releasing their Constructicons, the main competition to X-Transbots is going to be Fans Toys. So, this would be their Scrapper, Gehry. If Fans Toys had released Gehry when the only "MP" competition was ToyWorld I think we'd all be pretty satisfied. He's a big boy, made of the sort of quality materials people have come to expect from Fans Toys with just about every surface painted. He's super cartoon accurate, too, with the green lumps instead of wheels on his shoulders and the shins that are smooth boxes unblemished save for the simple round bits just below the knees. Gehry's problem, though, is that he's not coming out alone against the decade-old ToyWorld set, he's come at very nearly the same time as X-Transbot's Ground Bite. Traditionally I think these sorts of matchups have favored Fans Toys... compare their Cyconlus, their Seaspray (2.0 for FT), their Blaster, their Perceptor (2.0 for FT), their Cliffjumper, their Trailbreaker, etc, and FT has come out ahead (although not always ahead enough to justify their prices). This time, though, I'm inclined to argue that Ground Bite looks a bit better. Objectively, I think the purple FT chose is a tad too red, and he's a bit too wide. Subjectively, the plain sculpt is maybe a bit too Sunbow for me, leaving Gehry a bit lifeless. Oh, and there's also the backpack. FT seems to have over-engineered the shovel to shrink it down in the name of... what, cartoon accuracy? I went back through a couple of clips of Scrapper in the cartoon, and his shovel wasn't so narrowed. And so much of that condensed mass is just random dangly kibble flaps. Then there's the fact that his front wheels are stuffed into his butt. I'm not necessarily holding it against him, but Gehry comes with fewer accessories, too. You get a big green chunk of... thing. You get his trumpet, and you get his gun. On his own, Gehry's articulation is a bit sub-standard, which is even worse when you compare it to Ground Bite's above-average articulation. Gehry's head is on a hinged swivel with almost no downward range and about 45 degrees of upward tilt. HIs shoulders rotate and move 90 degrees laterally. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend about 60 degrees. His wrists swivel, but no bend. His thumbs have a ball joint at the base and a single hinged knuckle. Each of his fingers are individually articulated with a hinge at the base and a hinge at the middle knuckle. He technically does have a waist swivel, but what you see in the above image is the maximum range you're going to get out of it because the wheels in his butt completely obstruct it. No ab crunch, either. His hips ratchet forward a little over 90 degrees, but backward only about 30 degrees. Lateral movement is a friction joint, and it's also limited to about 75 degrees. He has a limited thigh swivel, and his knees bend 90 degrees. His feet tilt down and slightly up, with about 45 degrees of ankle pivot before you have to fold down his heel to clear the edge of his leg. He can hold his gun and trumpet much the same way most MP-style figure do, with tabs on the accessories that fit into slots on his palms. I'll note that the tab on the trumpet is such that you curl his fingers through the loop under the keys. That's actually movie-accurate. While there's no storage for his weapons in robot mode, if you're worried about it there is storage on his back for the big green thing. Transforming Gehry's legs is pretty straightforward, perhaps even more so than Ground Bite. Enjoy that part, though, because the rest of the transformation is decidedly less enjoyable. A frankly unnecessary amount of the transformation is spent expanding his shovel and arranging the shovel's arms. Then there's his own arms, which spin apart so that you can kind of wedge his shoulders into the front of the alt mode but stick his forearms along the sides. The wheels move from his butt to the space his shoulders vacated. If you just look at the part of the loader made from Gehry's legs it's fine. The detail is pretty simplified, but that's kind of how the cartoon was even if it's not my preference. Likewise, the roof over the open cab is more cartoon/toy accurate than Ground Bite. But that's all the nice things I can say, because everything else is a mess of random parts smashed together in a way that's neither cartoon accurate, toy accurate, or realistic. Lumps of arm kibble lay along the sides, lumps of shoulder kibble cover the front, there's no details in the "cockpit" for a driver, the arms connecting the shovel are just kind of there, and the shovel itself is covered in seams and gaps to facilitate the again largely unnecessary robot mode shrinkage. It does, at least, roll. And the shovel can be raised to about this height. Alt mode weapon storage is as simple as plugging a tab on the underside of the loader's rear into a slot on the side of the gun. The green hunk of kibble can plug onto the top of the rear, with a shovel-looking piece reaching down into the void that's supposed to be the driver's cabin. I'm not sure why you'd actually want to store it in either his robot or his alt modes, though, aside from the fact that you really don't want to lose it. Yesterday, I said that Ground Bite makes for an excellent Scrapper due to his robot and loader modes, but I expressed some concern over the leg mode. Suffice to say, Fans Toys took the opposite approach. All the complaints I had about Gehry's robot and especially his alt mode seem to be sacrifices in the name of his leg mode. Because, yeah, XTB went the usual route of standing the loader up on it's front with the shovel as the toes and his robot arms as his heels, but FT used Gehry's thicker robot arms to connect to the shovel. This in turn lifts the loader higher, which makes his robot legs form the Devastator thigh. The cabin flattens across the top, giving the cartoon-accurate square on the knee and semi-hiding his front wheels, while the back wheels fold inside his robot legs. Meanwhile, some flaps change position on shovel blade to give him the two-toed look. That green chunk we've been just sort of dealing with in his other modes becomes a vital part of the leg mode, as the bulk of it forms a cartoon-accurate angled heel, with the shovel-esque part reaching to sit between his robot shoulders to form a uniform bit on the front of the leg. The result is a leg mode that fairly accurately captures the wonky Sunbow animation model, for better or worse. In leg mode, it looks like Gehry has a just under 45 degrees of ankle pivot, no up or down tilt, and just under 90 degrees of knee bend, and he feels solid as a brick (save for a flap in the shovel where a tab broke off). I don't have any real concerns about the combined mode here, and somewhat interestingly, it's actually easier to flip between robot and leg mode than robot and loader or loader and leg. In the battle for your shelf, I think Ground Bite is pretty definitely the better Scrapper. However, I did say yesterday that I think a lot of people care more about a Masterpiece Devastator than a Masterpiece Scrapper, and on that note Ground Bite's greatest weakness is Gehry's greatest strength. So if you want a Masterpiece Scrapper, skip Gehry and get Ground Bite. But if you don't care to transform your figures and you want the best Devastator, well, the tables have turned and you might want to pass on Ground Bite and grab Gehry and the other Fans Toys Constructicons. If you're curious what I personally plan to do, I think I may continue to pick up X-Transbots' Constructicons (assuming their Long Haul get's a reissue) based on how good they look in their robot and alt modes and how (surprisingly) solid the QC and engineering is. Based on my experience with Gehry (and from what I've seen of their next release, their Scavenger) I think Fans Toys' bots are just too expensive to have such compromised robot and alt modes, so even if their Devastator turns out great I'm out. I'm looking forward to MMC's Constructicons. Based on their track record with Bruticus and Defensor I'm expectingly delightfully clever yet fun transformations. I think they probably won't have better robot or alt modes than XTB, or a better Devastator mode than Fans Toys, but are the most likely to average out the best across all three modes.

Very nice! The detailing looks so good, especially the sections of slightly different shades of green. I fell in love with these kits when I learned about them. I have one of each assembled with base colors but awaiting details. Funnily enough I also used some Vallejo Mecha color on mine. I might take some inspiration with how you handled the detailing if you don’t mind! The nupetiet has a really flat nose in this rendition, but it is what it is. Old kits are gonna be old… I’m just glad these kits exist in the first place.

I skipped the MGS E-Wing. I'm enjoying all of the TIE variants and I hope a TIE Avenger gets released.

Star Wars TVC Aurra Sing.

Sounds good. These should be the right size I hope.

Rumors say the Switch 2 goes up for pre-order in the US either the 21st or the 30th. 30th makes more sense as there's also a rumor the peripherals go up on the 30th as well. 23rd in Canada.

Hey, those are looking great ! Nice job ! I love pulling old models out, it's always inspiring! Those would be craters!

I've never thought about this before, but those ship kits have rivet detail along the 'panel lines'. Those would be some ENORMOUS rivets.

I appreciate the effort in calculating the actual number of pixels X*Y used as a measurement for acceptable picture sizes to post(it is pretty funny and ingenious )but the forum software is not that smart. We can only put constraints on width and height with simple limits. Otherwise someone could post a 10 pixel wide pic but have it 190000 pixels tall and still be accepted...and that would involve a LOT of vertical scrolling to get to the next post Shawn

I hadn't originally looked much at the big E-Wing when it came out, since the price turned me off hard, but when I found the Micro Galaxy one on Amazon the other day (and grabbed a pair to repaint/mod), I found the link to the big one as well (emphasis on big), and decided it was enough of a discount to grab. I know a lot of reviews are unhappy with the lack of weathering on it, but that honestly bothers me far less than the derpy nosecone they slapped on the thing. It's not inaccurate, but it gives me the distinct impression that the designers running the franchise really just have no idea what the term "aesthetic" means. Otherwise though, I really do like the new design overall. The original always seemed too skinny to work, and I think the overall changes to the wings and shape work well. This thing also has probably the best landing gear I've seen on any Star Wars toy, hands-down, each strut completely covered by a multi-door enclosure. Of course the first thing I did after opening it up was to take it apart, and this E-Wing may be the most custom-friendly toy I have bought in decades. Ten screws, and the entire toy came apart, in the sense that every part I would reasonably consider customizing was just snapped or slotted together, and came apart with minimum pressure. No glue to be found, except a couple of small dabs on the nosecone, which I was able to pop easily with a screwdriver. So, now the fuselage looks like this: And the work can begin. I'm debating on what shape to go with though. The old EU nosecone was entirely flat on the bottom, and longer, but also more angular. I do want to curve it a little more, but I'm also kind of tempted to see how a more X-Wing-ish cone would look.

I don't think there's anything deep or significant there. Char doesn't have any choice but to play the long game in GQuuuuuuX. His revenge plan progressed at the brisk pace it did in the prime Universal Century timeline thanks to the actions of the White Base/Pegasus crew creating opportunities for him. The ship never landed on Earth under Federation control, so Char was never able to manipulate Garma into the suicide run that killed him in the prime timeline. Dozle ironically still died at Solomon, but under different circumstances. Without the White Base crew turning the tide against Zeon on Earth and in space, Zeon's forces were not put on the defensive the way they were in the prime timeline so Degwin never opened the peace talks that prompted Gihren to assassinate him with the Solar Ray, so Kycilia never had to execute him for regicide, and thus Char never got his opportunity to assassinate Kycilia in the ensuing confusion. GQuuuuuuX's Char is a Char who never got a plausibly deniable opportunity to bump off a member of the Zabi family until the Second Battle of Solomon, where he tried to allow Federation forces to drop the fortress on Kycilia's base at Granada.

Ah, makes sense.

I bet Magnus will be expensive, but I'd be interested in both of those.

https://news.tfw2005.com/2025/04/16/rumor-missing-link-grimlock-ultra-magnus-coming-536765

Next was the single Thuverl-Salan. I have to admit that aside from the flagship, this is probably my favourite of the kits. Yes, it's simple, but it's molded nicely, the surface detail is there and because of the way it is designed, there is absolutely no fitment or filler/sanding issues (again, like the flagship it has the recess running the majority of the circumference). Very simple assembly - two hull sections, a couple of thruster/vent parts for the rear, 3 little turrets and the sensor/antenna addons: Main hull painted in the flat 'Mecha Dark Green' as used for all the other kits. Recess done freehand in black: A few hull panels picked out in slightly contrasting green, and a few grey highlights. External pods added: Original waterslide decals applied: Panel lining added once more, using Tamiya black panel line ink: Enamel washes and pastel weathering, then a final coat of satin varnish:

Next up is the Queadol-Magdomilla. So far I've only finished one of these - the other still needs to be assembled. I think out of the four models this is the most awkward. The separation gimmick is neat in concept, but the execution is fairly poor and leads to some compromises in the assembly. It's fiddly and ends up being like a single-piece turtle shell with a small ship poking out the front that isn't really big enough to have much detail. It would have been a better model had they not bothered incorporating the split design. Also. The fins/antenna. Urgh. That gave me so much anxiety cutting them out. They're tiny and very, very fragile. Fortunately, this one, like the Nupetiet-Vergnitzs doesn't have much of a visible seam between the two hull sections - most of the join in the front is hidden when docked, and the rear hull is almost turtle-like in the way it wraps around. So not a lot of repair/filling/sanding work to be done here. Front section assembled. A number of parts don't really fit very well here. Fortunately unless you plan to display it undocked, most of the ill-fitting sections will be hidden: Rear section. This is very simple: Front and rear sections docked and primed: Main flat colours added: Panel lining added and waterslide decals applied: Enamel washes and some weathering pastels:

Ya, it looks like the landing gear is simply moulded in white. I bet dollars to donuts they’ll paint them silver lol!

TMNT Cartoon Shredder.

Playmates Retro Mutant Module.