Matt Random

I enjoyed it although there wasn't much of a plot. There were a lot of cute moments and plenty of action although I do agree that some of it seemed to be there simply for the sake of having action. I could have done without the annoying Sector7 guy. His gags just seemed out of place. I enjoyed seeing the military air hardware.

Does the standalone FP set come with the extra set and lil' rubber guy? Didn't Yamato say that they fixed the tight joint on the fighter neck?

I finally mustered the courage to open my Shin 0A. A careful examination has shown that I have a prestressed 0A. One shoulder has a stress mark on it. I'm not too worried since it doesn't look like it will get any worse and I did loosen the screws just to be safe. It does seem to me that the ball of the joint isn't perfectly round since I can feel varying resistance as I move the arm. I also noticed a stress mark just forward of the air brake. This probably happened when the airbrake panel was pushed into place. The transformation went OK although I had a heck of a time getting the part of the swing bar near the legs to bend 90 degrees in order to fit into the nose. The tip given a few posts back of pushing the shoulders out by going through the back panel is a great idea. Overall, the Shin 0A seems like a bit of a step back compared to the CF 0A. The paint is sloppy. The white on the landing gear bay doors bled to the outside surface. There is a gap in the gray piece that wraps around the right bicep. There are very large mold sprue marks on the fingers. I also had a heck of a time getting the part of the swing bar near the legs to bend 90 degrees to fit into the nose. On the positive side, this is the first Zero I've gotten where the backpack thruster slider is nice and snug. I'm thankful that I don't have any major problems and I can live with the small problems.

I guess I don't have to worry about ordering those replacement parts now. This is depressing since I really like the Zero design and would love to have a durable version of it.

It looks nice but I'll be waiting a long time before I pick this one up. Way too many tiny parts for Yamato to get it right the first time.

I'm thinking the Shin 0A doesn't have POM shoulders since the replacement parts from HLJ are entire 0S arms. I'm thinking the assembly line was already changed over for the 0S version 2 when they started using POM. I wouldn't be surprised if only some, or maybe none of the 0S reissues have POM.

I bet the purple will come out in the robot mode kind of like how the red and blue does on SS.

I was thinking it was about time that we saw some more MP Skywarp. It will look nice with my MP Starscream. I have no interest in the Hasbro SS since I've never found his colors appealing.

Don't forget the that oil companies have a hand in all of this. Looks like the replacement parts would fix the problem I have with my 0S. I can no longer retract the right hand since the hand will pop off and the wrist will stay in the forearm when I try to pull the hands back out. The only way to get the wrist back out is to take the forearm apart and I haven't been able to devise a way to fix it. So, if you want to use the parts on either of the 0As you need to disassemble everything and add the shoulder to the 0A? I guess the new shoulder parts from HLJ are more of an upgrade rather than a replacement. Hmm, $30 for upgraded shoulders makes the $60 for the YF-19 FP set not seem so outrageous.

I prefer the MP colors. The red and some of the white on this looks really cheap. I'd prefer an anime accurate Skywarp. I wonder what the MP will look like. We haven't seen anything excepts for the tiny pictures when the news first broke.

I have no desire to spend more money on replacements when the Shin 0A is supposed to have the correct part to begin with. Yamato has known about this problem for a while so there is no reason why it wasn't corrected for the Shin 0A. This is what bothers me - Yamato just can't be trusted. Now it is up to the fans to devise tests to determine if the Shin 0A and the replacement parts use the correct material. Anyone have some good solvents and a spectrometer?

This is why I'm loosing interest in Yamato. The prices are in a steep climb and the quality is in a downward spiral. I was OK with questionable quality when the toys were $60 since I wouldn't be out too much if something broke. I'm not so willing to take the chance on a $200 toy. The development cycle on these things is long enough that Yamato should be able to notice a problem. How could they not notice the rag doll looseness of the Roy 0S or the ridiculous tightness of the YF-19 nose when they were approving the test shots? I'm also getting tired of the bad information out there that seems to come straight from Yamato. "Yeah, that is the official VF-0A color scheme. All the VF-0As were SUPPOSED to be that color in the animation." <pause while everyone buys the VF-0A>. "Here's the correct Shin type for you. Oh, and this one has the shoulder problem fixed." <pause while everyone buys the Shin VF-0A>. "We were kidding about that POM. Do you want to buy some over priced replacement parts that are made of POM? snicker, snicker"

Thank you for the info. I was able to take a look last night and I noticed that Shin's blast shield is plain gray with no skull marking. In a lot of scenes Shin's and Roy's planes looked to be the same color. Things move so fast that it is hard to get a good look and pausing doesn't help much since the lighting and shadows are always changing.

I'm a bit fed up with Yamato's escalating prices and questionable quality so I plan to downsize my collection. I want to keep one VF-0A but I don't know which. I prefer the color on the first version although the shoulder stories scare me even though I haven't experienced this particular problem. Has there been any confirmation that the Shin 0A has improved shoulders? My VF-0S is a floppy mess but I'm keeping it since I love all the printing on it. I wish the Shin 0A had the skulls printed on it assuming that would be accurate the anime.

I'm looking forward to getting Ultimate BB and all I have from the line so far is Leader Prime and Voyager Ironhide. UBB has a great looking car mode and is the only transforming BB in the line that is GRAY and yellow. UBB has a fairly accurate robot mode aside from the chest. The arms and legs look to have all the correct panels. I like the light-up eyes as well. I don't care about the animitronic features. I'd prefer clear windows, although, I suppose the electronics are a fair trade off for the interior and clear windows.

Any one have the link to that guy molesting, er...transforming Ultimate Bumblebee? I looked back through the thread and couldn't find it. Never mind:Link

The cab and hood of the truck hangs off the back of the robot mode. You can see good pictures at tfkenkon.com. The Leader Prime also has quite a bit of stuff hanging off the back of the robot.

I'm only getting one Prime so I picked the one that appealed to me the most. I went with LP but I have to admit that VP (Robovision version) looks good in bot mode and looks like a fun toy. 1. I really like the colors on LP. The dark blue is great and the gold really makes the truck mode. There is too much red on VP for me. The movie Prime has a lot of blue on the upper body that isn't present on VP. 2. The truck mode on LP is full of detail and is really convincing. I don't mind that the side window isn't transparent since the shade of blue is close to the front windows. The truck mode of VP looks a little squished with the back wheels being too close to the cab. 3. Although the VP bot sculpt is more accurate to the movie, I don't like the use of the faux chest. I consider it to be built-in part swapping. I prefer that the actual alt. mode parts are used to form the robot. 4. It doesn't look like the bots use hand guns in the movie. Seems like the arms morph into cannons. The LP arm cannon is a neat gimmick that captures this element of the movie characters. 5. I like ball jointed ankles.

Anyone know when the Ultimate BB will be out? Seems like it would have made sense to put it out with the initial merchandise when the movie hype is highest among collectors. I can't see a $90 toy being a big seller for kids even at Christmas. Is BB made of plastic or metal? The body panels in some of the toy fair pictures almost look metal.

I picked up Barricade today after seeing the robot mode in the WM 2-pack. The car mode is great. The black wheels that are so common in the movie line actually work fine on this one. The transformation is simple but fun. It would be nice to have an automorph that pushes the head up a bit similar to what Ironhide has. The robot mode has a nice 'monstrous' feel to it. I like the huge hands. I'm disappointed in the articulation. There is a lot of articulation but I can't seem to do much with it. I absolutely hate the hair-triggered gimmick. That thing is constantly firing off! I like Frenzy. It it is a nice addition that adds to the fun. Now that I have leader Prime, voyager Ironhide and deluxe Barricade I see that the scale on these is all over the place. Prime is HUGE. Barricade looks tiny even compared to Ironhide.

I had the opportunity to play with Starscream. I wanted to like it, but just couldn't. The legs and arms hang off the bottom of the plane. The feet and head hang off the back of the plane. No robot in disguise here. The automorph is fun, however, the rest of the transformation is mostly just folding wings and fins out of the way. The robot mode just isn't interesting. It reminds me of a kite with stubby little legs and huge arms. I picked up a Ratchet which turned out to be broken. Ratchet is better than Starscream. The vehicle mode is really solid. The transformation is interesting. Basically, you turn the truck inside out. Ratchet doesn't have the windshield and cab roof hanging off the back of the robot like many TF do. The windshield actually splits in two and ends up flush with the lower back. The cab roof ends up sandwiched in the middle of the robot. The automorph is disappointing. Flipping the feet out extends the knee portion and flexes a panel that ends up on the inside edge of the leg. The robot is solid and blocky. The thing that really bothers me about Ratchet is all the exposed screws in robot mode (three on each shoulder, some on the chest and I think some on the legs). This is due to the inside-put transformation. I've now played with Leader Prime, Voyager Ironhide, Starscream and Ratchet. Prime is good and Ironhide is great. Ratchet is OK. Starscream is poor. None have ball jointed heads and I think that Prime is the only one with ball jointed ankles. I've thought about getting Jazz but am afraid I'd be disappointed so I'll probably just pass. I think now I'll just wait on the 08 BB.

I finally opened Leader Prime. It is a really fun toy. The gun gimmick is a lot of fun to play with. Slide a lever and part of the gun flips around and a couple more barrels slide out of the forearm. Prime will still be armed with the barrels even if you chose to remove the big missile launching part of the gun. I can't stop playing with the automorph gimmick in the chest. It is even better once you get him out of the box since the panel that covers the head is also involved in the gimmick. The transformation is most complex I've seen for a mainline transformer. Lots of folding a twisting. The lg transformation is neat. The actual legs and feet go to the front of the truck and the kibble that hangs off the back of the legs goes to the back of the truck with everything staying connected together the whole time. There are plenty of pegs and notches. The automorph on the feet is a two-stage process that is nicely executed. The truck mode is huge! Ironhide looks tiny beside it so I can't imagine how small a deluxe would look. The truck is full of details and looks to be quite accurate to the real thing. The paint job is very nicely done. I like the flame deco. Chrome or silver paint would've been nice.

I wish that Ironhide had a ball jointed neck so that I could tilt the head back in addition to everything you've suggested above. A lot of the movie designs have an animal or insect like quality. Ironhide really reminds me of a bull and that look lends itself to aggressive poses. Why do so many of these figures lack ball jointed necks? Barricade has no neck movement at all! Leader Prime should have ball jointed hands - or swivels at least. There is nothing complex about how the hands transform so I don't see why the articulation is limited. Actually, a lot of movie figures have what I'd call short cuts in the design. They almost seem rushed. I wonder if Hasbro had a really aggressive schedule for the toys due to the movie designs being finalized late or something like that. Or maybe Hasbro just stretched the design team too thin with the Fast Action Battlers, the pull back stuff, the little Hero stuff, the roleplay stuff and the various other side-lines.

I think that the Ironhide picture on the box has the shoulders flat since the prototype used probably lacks the springs. I don't mind the floating shoulders. The angled look is what first caught my eye on this toy. I don't like that you have to rely on the springs to keep the shoulders at the proper angle. One side on mine likes to sag. I've had some success using the doors to keep the shoulders in a specific position. I picked up Leader Prime, Robovision Prime and the TRU Blackout/Scorponok pack yesterday. I'll probably return them all and get Leader Prime on Amazon since I can get if for $10 after using some rewards certificates. Leader Prime looks to be the most fun and well worth $10. I like the silver on RV Prime but I don't like the bright blue and lack of gold on the truck. I was looking forward to Blackout. I'm much less interested now that I've seen him. The robot mode seems small and I don't like the color.

Yes, the ghost is very light weight. I had no problem getting my 0A to stand up straight in battroid mode. The ghost holds quite well in that mode even though it just kind of dangles there. The only mode that concerns me is gerwalk mode since almost the entire weight of the ghost is sitting on the extended tailfin/backpack section. I'm probably just being paranoid. I have no problems removing the top panel now that I filed down the bottom side of the edges. I really like the ghost now that I've time to admire it in my display.