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Yep, could have been more equipment! Added the banners... That the parachute backpack has a top hatch to show the parachute is a cool gimmick! 👍🏻

I've been disgustingly jealous of these stunningly-accurate Combaticons, but the wonky colors on "Space Shuttle" are a deplorable misstep. How did they get everything else so right, only to stumble at the finish line...? 😓

That's an expensive options kit!

Weapons option set & Stand.... Release July 2026 8,800 yen (incl. 10% tax); 8,000 yen (excl. tax) I honestly would have preferred no stand but more weapons but the 3D Logo is a cool gimmick! 🤗

Bandai just released the official information for the Hi-Metal R Scopedog Melkia (Melquiya) version & weapons option set to release in June & July 24,200 yen (incl. 10% tax); 22,000 yen (excl. tax)

I just started the Blurays! Thank you Gil Gerard. Many lifelong happy memories from the 4th grade. RIP.

Oh, I stopped pretty much right after episode 3!😁 The rest was just boring.

https://www.kicksgenerationtoys.com/products/tamashii-nations-hi-metal-r-vf-19p-excalibur-macross-zola-planetary-patrol-diecast-figure?_pos=3&_sid=b00c4a90c&_ss=r $140 here - lowest I've seen in the US so far. Not including shipping, but no tax if you're outside of Washington state. Still, frankly too pricey for my taste for a HMR, although I sucked it up and got the 19P at preorder. I wouldn't be surprised if the price on Amazon drops even more if you're patient.

Wait until you see the “plot twist” coming a mile away from the second batch of stories with Cad Bane.

Ok, last one before we put them all together. MD-07 Space Shuttle, aka Blast Off. I suppose, after four of these guys, we kind of know what to expect, right? Cartoon accuracy, clean design, etc. And don't get me wrong, I do think he's got better proportions, especially in the biceps, pelvis, and on his purple bib. But... he's kind of a bit too light, isn't he? Looking at him on my desk, I don't think he's as bad under normal lighting as he appears in my photos, but he could definitely stand to be a few shades darker across the board. What's weird is when we look at him from behind, if the brown on his back was used for all of his brown parts, that'd be great. Tone down the red in his purples, and darken the gray a bit, and he'd be just about perfect. Like MMC's, he's even got the extra tail on his back. I do have to note that some of the gray on his forearms isn't totally cartoon-accurate, but they turn into parts that are supposed to be gray on his alt mode, same as MMC (which is why they also used gray there). And, while not my preference, they went with the cartoon-accurate purple forehead and gray eyes. Again, this one's between Magic Square and MMC. Zeta and Unique Toys just aren't in the same league. Oh, almost forgot... if you're looking at the wing on the side of his leg in those side profile pics and thinking "that looks a bit unfinished," it's because it is. I didn't realize until after I'd edited my pictures and wrote the first four reviews, but Space Shuttle is missing the filler part on that wing. The other side is fine, and you can see the lines that match the animation. I've sent in a support ticket, but fortunately it doesn't really affect anything. Blast Off comes with his gun, naturally. We've also got the pants, in toy-style blue, and both combiner hands. So... no alternate head with a brown forehead and purple eyes? Bummer. No gun for combined mode? Bummer. And no cartoon-style gray thighs and Blast Off chest? Not a bummer for me, but I know people wanting that cartoon look will be disappointed. I have it on authority, though, that Magic Square will be releasing a separate upgrade kit with new feet, pants, chest plate, ears and tips for the ends of Night Tracer's back guns done in a more cartoon-style and colors. But still no combined mode gun.😒 Articulation is still strong on Space Shuttle. His head is on a ball joint with a swivel, which means downward tilt until his chin touches his chest, slight sideways tilt, and the ability to look almost straight up. His shoulders swivel and move laterally 90 degrees on the correct side of the swivel, with transformation hinges on the other side getting him nearly 180 degrees of total lateral movement. His biceps swivel, and his elbows bend slightly over 90 degrees. His hands are the same as everyone but Munitioner, with a wrist swivel, backward wrist bend, ball joints at the base of all digits, and a second pinned knuckle in the middle of each finger/thumb. His waist swivels, and he's got a hinge for a little under 90 degrees of ab crunch (no back bend). He's got the drop down hips, so they can can move 90 degrees backward and laterally and a bit more than that forward. His thighs swivel, and his double-jointed knees bend about 120 degrees. No real foot tilt, but his ankles pivot 90 degrees. Space Shuttle's gun has a tab on the handle that fits into a slot on his palm, which sounds almost exactly like the other members of this set, but there's a difference. The tab on the gun is lower on the handle, and the slot is lower in his palm. Somehow, this seems to make a big difference, as Space Shuttle is the best of the five at holding his gun. Space Shuttle's transformation is kind of like Tornado's, in that the upper body isn't particularly complicated (though a bit wild, how his torso opens up), but his lower legs are the apparently typical Magic Square "explode the leg into a bunch of panels that basically turn it inside out" thing. I think, aside from being a bit light, he compares favorably with Magic Square on proportions and color placement (hard to tell from the control art, or even some episodes, but some other episodes do suggest Blast Off has two shades of brown). The windows on MMC's are more like an actual space shuttle's, but Space Shuttle's window matches the cartoon. I think Space Shuttle also has an edge of Zeta and Unique Toys; Zeta's has the most realistic details but is too fat, and Unique Toys looks like the grafted the front of an orbiter to the back of some other aircraft entirely. There's a little extra gray on the bottom between the nose and wings, but that's the sides of his robot chest, so I guess a call had to be made (correctly, IMHO). There's gray paint on the vertical stabilizer that MMC's was missing. Speaking of MMC, you'll note that Space Shuttle again has four engine bells, two big and two small, vs the five (three big and two small, not counting maneuvering thrusters) on an actual orbiter. A sad blow against realism, but as I mentioned way back when I reviewed MMC's Blast Off, four actually matches the cartoon. No real gimmicks hear like an opening cargo bay or anything. His gun's handle folds in, leaving a little peg that plugs into the top of the orbiter. Amusingly, there's a small landing gear that folds out from the nose, but that's it. He rests on those big chonky faux wheels on his shins... in other words, the fake landing gear on MMC's Blast Off is used as the actual landing gear on Space Shuttle. By this point you could probably guess what I'm gonna say... great-looking robot, lots of articulation, mildly annoying transformation to a good alt mode that happens to trade some realism for more cartoon accuracy. MMC's Blast Off is still good, but if you don't have a set of MP Combaticons (or if you're using Zeta's, like a lot of people seem to) then Space Shuttle is the one to get. In fact, I'll just come out and say that Magic Square made the five best MP Combaticons. But did they make the best Bruticus? Stay tuned...

Amazon USA has this down to $159, which still feels pretty steep. Anybody recently seen a better deal anywhere else?

Watched Underworld today and really liked it. At least until I realized that Ventress and the young Jedi kid were only in it for the first three episodes. Got half way through four before I realized their story was done. That was disappointing.

Finally saw Minus-One the other day, and loved it. I think they could have done better on Godzilla, mainly is mechanical-like stride, but that was pretty much it. Looking forward to what they do in this one!

That's nice and intense paint work @wm cheng. Really smoothed out the kit's faults. Finally got the gear bay painted up, after the clear gloss coat ate the first white coat away. Had that happen a couple of times now, Got out the Alclad gloss to move past it. Now detailing the cockpit and getting it ready to be installed.

For those on the fence, the Blu-Ray is Currently 89.99 at Crunchy Roll. -Regards

Well for season opening, I felt that was rather luke warm.

Our thoughts and prayers to you and Mrs Pengbuzz! Good things happen around this time of year, so I hope you get your fair share. Thanks for the update. Some more slow progress (it will slow even more as the holiday activities pick up I'm afraid). So much pre-prep work on this kit before I can even to the fun part of painting! Ended up having to cut off and rebuild all the canard and rudder pins as they are so weak and don't go very far inside, so I had to glue up some solid plastic inside the holes to re-drill the holes so they go deeper and can grab better. So many little things to do like internal braces because the kit just "squashes" the middle of the airframe when glued together or leveling up pieces so they sit flush, I hate work that you never even see when finished! Looks kind of cool with a much lower profile canopy or as a drone unit 😛 So many gaps to fill and sand! masking the canopy inside and out (has the same internal black brace as the F-35 uh). More tiny masking! Sanding around the intakes and getting that tail serrated engine area to fit was a bitch. But its starting to look more like a plane. After a lot more sanding with the spot Mr. Surfacer primer highlighting all the spots that still need more work, after a few tries/days, I get it pretty smooth to a point ready for paint. This is my most hated part; sanding and more sanding, but I've learned the hard way that if I skip out this step and race towards the paint, the next step highlights all the mistakes. After I thought I had addressed all the seams and I sprayed everything with the primer - it showed me there were sink marks all over the place in areas not even close to the seams. I hadn't seen sinks marks on models for 20yrs or on non American kits 😛 I don't even normally primer the entire model, but I am glad I did with this kit. I ended up filling all the depressions with Mr. Surfacer 1000 brushed over and re-sanded smooth. I think I got most of them. They have the colours reversed in the instructions, the light grey is called out as the Mr. Color number for the dark grey and vice versa - luckily I caught that before I started to paint. I should own stock in Tamiya Masking tape, I'm going through quite a lot of it - it really is the best stuff for not pulling paint up with nice sharp lines. I then masked the Spinter Camo pattern which I love. Ended up a bit dark (a little too contrasty for my tastes from all the reference photos), but this ended up working out even better than I had hoped. The next stage I was going to try to replicate that metallic sheen you see in all the newer stealth F-22 & F-35 greys. This was going to be my test bed to lightly mist Alclad Dark Aluminum over the camo so both the lighter grey and darker grey gets the metallic sheen. It ended up lightening the entire model and tying together the two greys really well. Now I know to exaggerate the camo pattern on my F-22 & 35s. The Alcad was the smallest metallic particles I could get in paint, and its not bad, works better on the lighter grey than dark, but really changes with the angle you view and with the light source. Sometimes it looks too light, and sometimes it looks too dark - weird but its more like the photographic references. I was worried that the masking tape might lift the really fine misting of the Alclad, but luckily it didn't - again this Tamiya stuff is worth every penny! Again more masking for the lighter carbon edges of the scheme. Can you tell I'm paranoid with overspray 😛 I'm learning masking for these 5th gen stealth fighters are going to be a bitch! I'm trying to paint most of the details on as there's a very limited decal sheet that was supplied, but also all the photo references has shown me a very clean aircraft with very limited data stenciling. After 2 weeks, here's where I'm at. I've sprayed everything with a gloss coat in prep for decals. I'm really liking the sleekness and lines of this aircraft, I thought it was kind of awkward but maybe because I've been looking at it for too long.

Best wishes for you and yours. Hoping you can get a little cheer in these tough times. Definitely a tough thing to go through during the holidays, hopefully she’ll be out soon and getting well

Looks like that lady was already crapping her pants

With the way things are going, yours is the better path to enjoy FM5.

Loved the show, first season at any rate, and it is liking losing a piece of my childhood.

I'm not crapping on it, I'm crapping on the crappy trailer. The job of which is to get people interested in seeing more.

I am watching Digimon Beatbreak. I am really starting to hate tomoro and gekkomon, I wish they would both stop whining so much. It is getting on my nerves.

For Gil; the vocal version of the Buck Rogers End Title Theme ("Suspension"):

If anyone was curious, I found out the problem. After cutting away at the back of the head with an x-acto blade, I was able to pry the head apart with a thin spudger with good leverage. Anyways, here's what the inside of the head looks like. The culprit was excess flash on the washers. These washers rotate along with the head laser and then get jammed when they hit the bumpers. Thankfully the washers are easily removable and plastic, so filing them down with sandpaper is easy. Now that the excess flash has been filed down, I don't have to worry about snapping the head lasers when rotating them around. Hope this helps anyone who encounters the same problem Fugu FG-01 Jetfire. I don't normally buy bootlegs, but I don't see anyone ever making on official version of this toy since it'd be a licensing nightmare.