M'Kyuun

Well, anytime a toy is upscaled, the strength, durability, and range of the joints are always a greater concern. Too, the use of diecast, which, for some, gives the impression of greater quality given the increased heft (I think I prefer more plastic with judicious use of diecast where sturdiness is a major factor). I like the look of the Pose+ and the increased scale certainly allowed them to do much more with the figure than Sentinel's little 1/48, which I still consider an excellent toy overall. However, my display space is exceedingly low these days and I wouldn't know where to put such a large figure if I got it. That's a personal issue, but anymore, I'm looking to smaller scaled toys like the HMR line over 1/60, which is my preference. However, I've been rather impressed by just how many features Bandai has managed to cram into the HMR figs, and Sentinel managed to cram a lot into their Legioss, so even at these smaller scales, a lot of these toys are proving quite impressive for how much can be built into them. I still wonder, with all the other built-in stuff Bandai manages with the HMR Valks, why they don't just integrate the retractable landing gear, too. Seems like something completely feasible. As to Toyrise, I'm thinking these aren't going to be too far removed from Transformers quality. While I don't mind their taking some liberties, I think there's a fine line between just right and too much. I've already mentioned my dislike of the high heels, or ballet shoes- it just doesn't look right or good. Moreover, I don't think the feet retract into the leg in fighter, so there's a lot of foot hanging out back there. And just like their Legioss, if they're taking liberties with one design, it's apparent that they'll do likewise in the event they choose to do a Tread. I wouldn't bet on the connecting mechanism, or connection itself, to be a very elegant thing, either. While a playable Legioss sounds fun, from what I'm seeing, I wish the execution was better.

Honestly, I thought this was one of the weaker sets, the jet more than the car. While I like the passenger jets, which benefit greatly from the large specially molded cockpit and fuselage parts, anytime they do a fighter-style jet, they all still look like 80s-90s designs to me. There just hasn't been much evolution in design, which is unfortunate. I understand and support LEGO's non-RW military vehicle stance; however, it sure would be cool if they didn't have that stance and they did a line of fighters with Speed Champions level of design. OR, do a fictional line of more sci-fi-ish fighters inspired by RW designs. My Macross fixation is speaking- I vehemently wish they'd do a Macross line. I'd LOVE to be a part of that design team if it ever came to fruition. For now, I'm happy to support Lendy Tayag's VF-1 on Ideas. I hope it gets the go-ahead for production, as I'm in for multiple copies.

I thought I'd POed it when I POed the upcoming BvS and The Batman Batmobiles, but after checking my order status, nope. Ah well, my sister gifted me a LEGO gift card for Christmas, so the spousal unit and I are headed to the LEGO Store on Thursday to scope out the new sets. I'll likely pick up the Delorean along with a couple other new Speed Champion sets. I may have to pick up one or two of the new City Great Vehicles as well. A former Speed Champions lead now leads the City line, and his goal is to impart more functionality into the City line while still maintaining or improving the aesthetics of the sets. I was wondering, especially given the working engine pistons in this year's bulldozer set. That was a surprise and certainly beyond the level of functional detail I've seen in a City set, so I'm quite pleased with this direction. My hope is that eventually they'll start integrating retractable landing gear into their aircraft sets, a bit of RW functionality that has too-long been omitted.

I'm having a hard time liking the Toyrise take. I hate the arched feet, and I can't understand why they don't have the upper part of the foot angled forward like the original design. Moreover, from what I can infer from the pics, it doesn't appear that the feet retract into the legs, so all that oversized foot is just hanging out back there. As a toy, with playability being emphasized over slavish toon/lineart accuracy, honestly, I think this is done pretty well, other than the feet. Kinda sucks that the leg panels don't open to reveal the rocket launchers, but this looks to take a note from Transformers with weapon storage essentially coming down to just tabbing them on wherever via 5mm ports. Not my personal preference, but it is what it is. This AWACS version seems a little busy to me, but I like the blue one ok. I'm curious if the feet can be spread like the OG design instead of being bunched up like weird high-heel shoes.

I remember Robotix, both the show and the kits. I couldn't get into the former and never had any of the latter. That said, the toys looked cool, and back then anything involving robots or robotics was cool to me. Except the show, ironically. I had Zoids under both the Zoids and Robostrux brand names. I know I found some in stores throughout the 80s, 90s, and into the millennium, but I think I probably got one or two, especially my copy of Radox, from Sears or JC Penny catalogs. We didn't have TRU near us, but we did have a few dept stores which carried toys, but my mom didn't drive, so the catalogs were her go-tos for a lot of my toys at Christmas and birthdays. I still have this guy packed away in a box somewhere. I probably have 20-30 Zoids/Robostrux kits, mostly the small to medium ones, with Radox, IIRC, being the only large one I own. Well, my Kotobukiya Blade Liger will be on the larger side if I ever get around to building it. This toyline definitely struck a chord with me for both the engineering involved, but also all the mechanical details. How can you say no to robotic dinosaurs and insects, especially when they're done this well? This is definitely new to me, an American. Despite being slightly more cosmopolitan than the vast majority of my countrymen due to my military travels, there are always new things to learn which is why forums like this are such a fantastic medium. Those are some interesting designs, and the artist appears to have taken inspiration from 1950s and 60s aerospace designs like the XB-70 Valkyrie and perhaps some of the Gemini/Apollo stuff, with some artistic flare, of course. Neat stuff! Thanks for sharing! Love that ship in the center, a nice precursor to the NASA orbiter. The spherical tanks, the opening cargo bay, and the long extended forward fuselage impart a sleek yet utilitarian aesthetic that makes for a believable craft. I'm not crazy about the yellow color (b/c yellow is a horrible, horrible color), but everything else is groovy.

Just finished Leviathan on Netflix. As an alternative Dieselpunk pre-WWI history, I thought it was pretty decent. I liked the main characters, especially Dylan/Deryn Sharp. I thought it a bit odd that only Dylan, a Scottish girl posing as a boy to join the British Navy, and all the Brits speak with the appropriate accents. Neither Alek, an Austrian prince, his two advisors/minders, nor the Germans, nor the Serbians, including Nicola Tesla (who was raised in Austria), mischaracterized a bit, IMHO as a bit of a flamboyant megalomaniac, speak with appropriate affectations, but simply speak with American accents. Anyway, the series spans three novels by Scott Westerfeld, so obviously, from my gleanings on Reddit, there are characters and plotlines that were removed to decant it down to the essentials for the anime adaptation. However, the anime piqued my interest enough that I may seek out the books, as I liked the overarching story. I read Westerfeld's Uglies series years ago and enjoyed those, so I'm keen to give these a read as well. My wife has a couple of weeks off for the Christmas/New Year holidays, so I'd planned on a long overdue rewatch of GitS: SAC S1 and 2, which we started after Leviathan. I remember it was a good show, but damn, what a good show. I've never read the manga, so I can't speak to it, but of all the incarnations of the Major and Section 9, this series is the pinnacle for me, and I own Arise and have seen SAC 2045, which didn't impress me nearly as much as the first two seasons. We're about halfway through S1 and we're both looking forward to continuing the adventure!

I stand corrected with appreciation. I'd forgotten that Cameron, like Ridley Scott, was a talented artist in his own right (he actually drew Jack's portrait of Rose in Titanic), and based the Terminator on a dream he'd had. I wish I could dream so grandly or draw...at all. I'll amend my comments to say that Stan Winston and his talented team were geniuses at translating directors' ideas into two- or three-dimensional reality and often times animating them. More often than not, they provided the magic behind 'movie magic' and film history is the better for their work. I was completely unaware of Kenner's MegaForce but Coleco's StarCom was an impressive toy line even by today's standards. Like you, I never owned toys from either line, although I did have a handful of Micro Machines, the toy line Kenner was competing with (poorly IMHO) with MegaForce. Galoob had them outclassed from the get-go. Touching back on StarCom, I think, Like MASK and some other retro properties being revived, I think StarCom would be an excellent contender for resuscitation. Moreover, as a LEGO Classic Space fan (we'll have to talk about those designs in a moment), as LEGO is moving to incorporate more tech into their sets, and with their recent move towards sci-fi in their City Space sets, I'd love to see them create sets in the spirit of StarCom with friction motors and such powering little elevators, platforms, and doors, as well as extendible wings and other features. I think something like that would add an additional dimension of playability, as well as function, to the extremely successful play pattern they enjoy through the construction medium. Returning to LEGO Classic Space, and just LEGO Space thereafter, LEGO delivered a plethora of futuristic and sometimes outlandish sci-fi vehicles and playsets from 1978 with the initial batch of sets including the iconic Galaxy Explorer until 2013 with the loosely Starship Troopers inspired Galaxy Squad line, the last of the independent original sci-fi Space themes. Two distinct features set these sets apart from previous LEGO sets and set them on their path to immediate success: the introduction of specialized elements (often designed for cross-compatability with their other two intial themes, Town and Castle) and the iconic Minifigure. Although he had some heavily supervised help from his small team, Jens Nygaard Knudsen almost singlehandedly developed the first wave of 1978's Space line as well as inventing the Minifigure that would impart a much greater level of interactivity and playability with the sets. As sci-fi designs go, there are thirty-five years' worth of original designs to unpack, and the recent 2024 City Space sets which have fully leaned into sci-fi designs as well as the inclusion of aliens, two firsts in Town/City's long history of grounded Space sets. A quick snapshot : 1978's Galaxy Explorer, 1981 Starfleet Voyager, 1982 Mobile Rocket Transport, 1983 Galaxy Commander, 1986 Alien Moon Stalker, 1987 Futuron Star Defender 200, 1987 Blacktron Battrax, 1987 Blacktron Renegade, 1987 Polaris I Space Lab, 1987 Futuron Monorail transport System (the holy grail of many a Space fan), 1989 Space Police Spy Trak I, 1990 M-Tron Mega Core Magnetizer, 1991 Blacktron II Spectral Starguider, 1991 Aerial Intruder, 1992 Space Police II Solar Snooper, 1993 Ice planet 2002 Deep Freeze Defender, 1994 Spyrius Lunar launch Site, 1994 Unitron Monorail Transport Base, 1996 Explorien Starship, 1997 Robo Force Robo Raptor, 1997 UFO Alien Avenger, 1998 Insectoids Sonic Stinger, 2001 Life on Mars Recon Mech RP (notably LEGO's first true humanoid mecha sets and first non-minifig aliens), 2007 Mars Mission ETX Alien Mothership Assault (notable for the awful alien figs), 2007 MX-71 Recon Dropship, MT-61 Crystal Reaper, MT-201 Ultra-Drill Walker, 2009 Space Police 3 Container Heist, Hyper Speed Pursuit, Galactic Enforcer, Raid VPR (a Vic Viper inspired build, inspired by the ships in Gradius made popular by the late great NNENN), Undercover Cruiser, Lunar Limo ( featuring LEGO's first and only pimp-inspired minifig😄), 2011 Alien Conquest Tripod Walker, Alien Mothership, Earth Defense HQ, 2013 Galaxy Squad Hive Crawler, Space Swarmer, CLS-89 Eradicator Mech, Vermin Vaporizer, 2022 10497 Galaxy Explorer (LEGO's 90th anniversary), 2024 City Space sets, all featuring sci-fi or futuristic designs akin to the old Space sets of yore, and finally, Friends Space, also leaning into sci-fi design. I hope this trend continues with City Space, or that the sci-fi element splits off once again into its own subtheme. Holy cow, how could I forget Zoids?!!! I have a small army of those kits that I've accumulated and built over the decades, starting in the 80s when they first premiered. My Kotobukiya Shadow Fox still stands guard on my desk, and I have an unbuilt Kotobukiya Blade Liger that I bought about a decade ago sitting under my desk that I need to put together. Definitely one of the coolest robot lines, especially given the ability to swap weapons and accessories. The early kits were notable for their motorized movements, although I prefer the non-motorized highly articulated kits that emphasize posing and display. Great mention, @F-ZeroOne! I'll note, too, the old Mego Microman toys circa 1979. One in particular that I owned was the Hornetroid, which had a manual flapping-wing mechanism, closing front jaws (using a fig to push in the tongue- brilliant!) an opening cockpit that could seat a Microman figure, folding landing gear, and removable weapons. It was such a unique and playable toy that it still holds a fond place in my memory.

Much thanks for the mention, and yeah, I felt that most of us here are sci-fi nerds and there really wasn't a place that I was aware of to just share and talk about general sci-fi designs. I figure, too, we'll all learn about designs we've never seen before being an international fandom in one lovely place (Thanks Shawn and Graham!). For example, some of the British sci-fi designs mentioned by @F-ZeroOnein the above post were completely unknown to me-- now my horizons are a bit broadened. The thread did its job. As an American lad growing up in the 70s and 80s, I was also introduced to anime at a young age with stuff like Battle of the Planets, Starblazers, and Speed Racer, moving on to Pole Position, Mighty Orbots, Bionic Six, Ulysses 31, and stuff like Transformers and Thundercats. I never saw but was aware of Voltron and Robotech via the good ole Sears and JC Penney's catalogs. Man, those were the days! 😄 There was, in retrospect, quite a bit of imported anime in those early days and I wasn't aware of a number of them being Japanese shows until I was an adult. It just never really clicked, I guess, but OTOH, there was always something about those shows that made them stand out from American animated shows- more mature themes, for certain, even after sanitization, but just the art style and the attention to details, especially concerning mechanical details, that just weren't there in most American animation. I've curated a pure hatred towards Harmony Gold, but credit where due, the late Carl Macek and folks like him did us all an enormous favor by appreciating the awesomeness of anime and bringing it to Western shores. For that, much gratitude. Ah, the old Mechwarrior games and art. I believe I had a Mechwarrior game at some point for PC, but that was probably 20+ years ago. Anyway, once Transformers and Gobots came on the scene, followed by other transforming robots flooding the scene, the mecha designs from Mechwarrior never really struck a chord with me. Even within Macross, the non-transforming mecha like the Destroid Tomahawk and Spartan never did anything for me. Likewise the Zentradi Regultss and Glaug, although I like how the Regults hop about like birds instead of running. Contrarily, the Varible Glaug and Konig Monster are two of my favorite Macross designs. For me, it's all about transformation. That said, there are robot designs I really dig that don't transform. Chief among those is the glorious ED-209 from Robocop. For me, it is the pinnacle of movie robots, and just a phenomenal design in and of itself. I love it. I know everyone knows what it looks like, but I'll abuse any excuse to post a pic of this beauty.😍 Kudos to Craig Hayes for one of the most iconic designs in sci-fi and film histories. "You have 20 seconds to comply". The T-800 Endoskeleton by Stan Winston. The late great Stan Winston was a design and engineering genius, and his Terminator design has long stood as one of my all-time favorite sci-fi robots. It's as brilliant as it is terrifying (in the best way possible). RIP Mr. Winston Oh, Harmony Gold was definitely trying to reap, or perhaps rape is the better term, what they could from Macross. There are no coincidences where mecha likenesses are concerned.

For sure! Sucks that it's not an option, as you get a set of free stickers to address the paint/deco omissions on the stand-alone toys. Despite their 'everything Transformers unified' agreement with Hasbro, Takara's still finding small ways to treat their fans better.

Merry Christmas, one and all!

I love Lendy's designs. His chibi Vf-1s are cool, too. Supported this and hope it reaches 10K in record time and then gets chosen. This, I believe, will be the third VF-1 submission to Ideas (I believe Lendy had one before this a few years back), so it's time it got the greenlight. FYI, Lendy also submitted the Voltron model that got made into a set.

Another designer I'd like to highlight is Junji Okubo, better known as Izmojuki. He became known to me via his myriad 'vertical tank' designs for the 2002 Steel Battalion XBox game. I've never played the game, sadly, but I've been in awe of the designs since, so much so that I use them as my wallpaper on my PC to this day. Sadly, only a few of his designs were ever translated into toy or model form and I never managed to pick any of them up. I'd likely be in for a few if Moderoid ever turned their sights towards doing them. I love the heavy realistic industrial aesthetic he applies to his mecha designs. Just beautiful!

I totally agree with your view that the earlier designs with more surface detail are preferable to the smooth ship design the eventually went with. However, one needs to consider the times, and if the entire ship was a CG construct, it would've been easier, I'd think, for them to render it all smooth than to try to incorporate all the patterns (which resemble the gyri and sulci of the brain. Wonder if that was intentional?) I always thought it a cool design, nonetheless. The Eagle from Space: 1999 is such an iconic design, and definitely worth a mention. I've always loved the real-world utilitarianism of it. I hadn't given any thought to the Nostromo when I started this thread, but it's an absolutely brilliant design- monstrously huge, utilitarian in the extreme, replete with structures that imply large scale storage- the fact that it is an ore refinery in space was not lost on the model designers, and I think it speaks to that quite elegantly, even if the ship itself doesn't fit the traditional description. I appreciate the info and backstories to some of these designs as well. I discovered the work of Swedish designer Simon Stalenhag a couple years ago via the Amazon Prime show, Tales from the Loop, which built a series of stories around his artwork. It's a dark and gritty show, and I loved both the stories and the way they so faithfully brought his art to life in the show. I wish The Electric State had been done as well, but they went for a completely different vibe focusing more on humor. It didn't work as well, alas. For me, Simon's allure is the way he paints odd and otherworldly technologies, images, and objects into everyday mundane scenery; that juxtaposition is appealing, and Simon's an impressive artist to boot, so the photo realism of his work makes an impression. I hope to see more of his work influence sci-fi in shows and film, as it strikes a chord.

I like a good WotW retelling, but reports at the onset were that this was a massive stinker so I stayed away. Someday curiosity may get the better of me, and I may just watch it to see just how bad it truly is. I've watched some sci-fi and horror clunkers in my time so I may suffer it out of boredom, curiosity, or both. Not today, though.

Too funny. The spousal unit and I started watching Foundation, and while it departs from the book in a number of ways, I'm enjoying it. We' started S2 last night. It's definitely spiced up from the far more stoic Asimov storytelling style, and one of the main characters, Salvor Hardin, is a bit of a sci-fi special Mary Sue with her abilities. Still, overall, I'm enjoying it. I wish they'd adapt The Robots of Dawn into a miniseries. I read it when I was around twelve and it has always stayed with me. Seeing how Foundation is being realized, especially with another humaniform robot named Demerzel as a main supporting character, I'd love to see it become an offshoot show.