M'Kyuun

+1 I actually like the color scheme, especially the darker green, and I like the AWACS aspect. The lance makes little sense, and the canards are ridiculously too big, but I could live with them. I don't care for the aft wing beavertails- they just don't look good and add nothing to the other two modes. Moreover, while I dig forward swept wings, these seem like they're in the way in Soldier mode. It'd be cool if, like the Sentinel, they were on armatures that let them swing back a piece. For now, I'm skipping both releases, although the Omega appeals to me more at this point. I am curious to see what other variants they roll out in the future. I own neither an Iota nor a Zeta version of the Legioss, so perhaps I'll snap up one of those when they're available. While I'm in for a Pose+ Eta, which looks like it's also being geared towards playability, it's a huge toy with an equitable price tag and I think it'd be nice to have a smaller, less wallet-killing yet playable Legioss toy to mess about with. It's funny- we've been starved for Legioss toys for decades, and now suddenly we have three options for good, to really good versions of it. Got up the courage to transform my Sentinel Eta last night with the help of @jenius' guide. (Thank you!) Mine's a first edition, with all the issues thereof. I had some trouble trying to get the legs to slide fully forward into the chest cavity for fighter, but eventually I got it, barely. It was resistant. The shoulders are a PITA to snap into position- they just do not want to align or snap in very easily. I managed it, but not without a lot of finagling and a touch of cussing. Gotta admit, though, she's a beautiful bird once you've expended the labor of getting there. I'm usually a fan of realism when it comes to aircraft, hence Macross' appeal, but I've always loved the look of the Legioss- it's just a great sci-fi plane design. I'm so glad we have some good toy options now.

Takara Tommy Mall Live Shopping: Toys & Goods Mail Order│Takara Tommy Official Mail Order Site "Takara Tommy Mall" They talk about the Toyrise Alpha at 48:18. Be advised, the video lags or just stops quite often. If the blue and yellow one is a proper product and not a test shot, it appears that the landing gear are too short and the thing rests on its chest. It also appears like the feet can be spread a bit and the heel position altered to look like the OG design.

Quoted from @Mog "But yeah, we can still criticize the design choices made." Oh, we will!😄 This is Macrossworld, after all, and not just a few of know our stuff about aircraft or transforming toys (thereof). Plus, a little nitpickery, such as the good Captain's, is kinda warranted if only to emphasize the level of derp in the design. As to "Lancer" there, everyone's toy barometer of tolerance reads differently, so if you like it, get it, be happy, and show us pics of the darned thing! Let our remarks of snark and derision be so much chewed bubblegum under your shoe- scrape us off and rejoice in your silly toy!

You bring up a good point: fashion. Most of us are here for the hard sci-fi stuff: ships, weapons, mecha and robots, futuristic vehicles, buildings, landscapes, and technology. But fashion is another aspect of sci-fi that makes a statement and adds to the world-building. In Megazone 23, everybody's living in (what they believe to be) 1985 Tokyo (conveniently, the year it was released). The fashion follows and reflects what was popular in at least America at the time. Love those leg warmers! 😄 Bubblegum Crisis ('87-91) takes place in 2032, not far removed from where we are now. Their outfits would still be passable today, mostly. Not sure what the hell Linna's wearing. Ugh! But what about Logan's Run (1976) which reflected the era's free love and widespread drug use. The fashion is definitely adjusted to fit the characters and the roles they play in that particular future society. I'm sure we've all seen sci-fi where the apparel isn't too far off from the current, and then we've also seen sci-fi where the apparel definitely made a statement adding to the look and feel of the world. Fashion is often overlooked, by me as well, but there are times when it definitely adds to the atmosphere. Star Wars and Star Trek come to mind for their very different wardrobe choices and how they complement the world aesthetic in each.

Well I concur, but I also look at these particular affected sets in the perspective that they are aimed at young children (ages 6, 8, and 9 respectively). The problem, of course, is the costs of these sets. Already, you're dealing with the Lucasfilm markup, but then the additional cost of the new technology makes them a hard pill to swallow. For AFOLs/TFOLs who are more advanced in their tastes and building ability, these sets, admittedly offer little bang for the buck, with simpler builds and low piece counts. If kids are interested, I feel bad for the parents, grandparents, aunts, or uncles buying these for them due to that high price tag. And if the kids lose interest after five minutes, like many do, it'll be a monumental waste of money for a so-so gimmick. It's a shame that LEGO didn't introduce this technology in a homegrown theme like Creator or Friends where costs could be minimized by virtue of the lack of licenses. The smart tech would have affected prices, sure, but perhaps the financial impact wouldn't be so severe. That said, I wouldn't judge the entirety of the year's success based on one new technology. LEGO has plenty of very successful themes, and if the January wave is anything to judge the rest of the year by, I foresee another successful and profitable year for them, as they can afford to absorb some amount of loss through experimentation. Friends was an experiment, too, after multiple failures, so I wouldn't write anything off yet. Who knows, SMART Play may end up being a roaring success, especially if they unveil AFOL oriented applications of the technology later in the year.

Impressive work, @F18LEGIOSS2. I haven't the wherewithal to produce my own toys whole cloth like this (which is probably a good thing b/c I barely have room for all the toys I own that other companies have produced). The closest I come is designing my own transforming mecha with LEGO, a completely different approach, and one that's nowhere nearly as refined or complex. I wish you continued success on this project. Thanks for sharing the process with us; it makes the final result all the more impressive for all the work we see being put into it.

I don't mind that color scheme. However, I don't like the fugly beavertail behind the wings. I think it would've looked much better had they just continued the angle of the trailing edge all the way in to just behind the arms. Those canards are ludicrous. 😄 Not at all a fan of the giant jousting lance, either, but then I've never been much of a fan of melee weapons with mecha. It seems to me if you have the tech to build a mecha, the weapons should be equal to or surpass that technology, so clubs, swords, axes, hammers, etc, no thanks. Give me energy weapons or those that fire projectiles. I do like that these are being made to be playable- more toy than collector's pieces. However, from what I've seen, I'm not crazy about the foot design nor the apparent lack of a retracting mechanism for them in jet mode. They did an admirable job elsewise capturing the look of the Legioss, so it boggles why they'd make such a departure with the feet. Anyway, props to Toyrise for making Legioss, er, Alpha toys that are indeed meant to be played with. As for me, I'm gambling, most expensively, on the Pose+ scratching that itch, as it, too, seems to be made with easier handling in mind. It offers quite a bit more than that, but then it should for the asking price. It's a very faithful capture, building, IMHO, on the advances manifest in the Sentinel Legioss, and that's what I want on my shelf. I am curious, however, to see a review of the Toyrise Alpha, especially to see if, in fact, the feet can spread to achieve a normal Legioss standing pose. If so, I may have to nab one of their variants down the road as it looks like a fun line with many a liberty taken. If they did a low-viz, I'd definitely be interested in that.

Well, SS MTMTE Hound is yet another PO I had no idea about and missed on Pulse and Target. I really wish Hasbro would send some kind of notification the day before POs go up for members- it's the least they could do since we're paying for the privilege.

I've not read any of Shirow's GitS manga, but I'm not surprised by the content judging by the GitS film or by the Major's meager apparel in the first season of SAC. Shirow obviously likes the ladies as near to nekkid as possible. His mechanical work is brilliant, though, and I love breakdowns, so that aspect of his work is appealing. It's commendable that he shouts out his inspiration as well. As to Moebius' work, there's much to love. The nigh-dreamy atmospheres his works evoke invite you in and make you want to visit. That's an impressive accomplishment. Some of his landscapes incorporate a bit of the everyday in them, which imparts a hominess, as well. That's a very appealing aspect I also like about Simon Stalenhag's works- a mix of the everyday with sci-fiction elements blended seamlessly. Thanks, and I'm happy to see it bearing fruit. I figured we're all a bit nerdy here and there ought to be a centralized place where we can just post cool sci-fi stuff. Moreover, as an international fandom, there are sure to be artists and artworks that those of us across oceans or even across borders have never seen or been privy to by virtue of geography or a lack of popularity outside of the artists' regions. Hopefully, this will be a place for them to be become better known and appreciated.

Well, I think the sounds will vary, and I doubt kids, or adults for that matter, will ever stop vocalizing engine sounds, pew-pews, etc. I still do it at 54, and I've no intention to quit. As to the useless stuff, I look back at all the little fig bases for Dimensions (I've got a Tupperware container full of those figs and the little builds for that game), and the myriad brick separators that I've attained over the years. Granted the separators are useful, but at this point, I have a lifetime supply of them already, and 20-30 more years of buying sets and accumulating more separators.

Joe Meno, AFOL, friend, and most notably the creator and chief editor of Brickjournal, an AFOL based LEGO magazine, elucidated on the properties of the new "smart bricks". Here's a quote from his Facebook page: Did some reading on the LEGO Smart Play system (nope, not at Vegas to see it - and won't be at New York either for Toy Fair to see it) and have some thoughts on it. The first thing to note is that the system is not targeted to AFOLs - it's specifically pointed at kids. The system is basically a very tricked out Light and Sound System from the 80s (I think) that got sized down to a 2x4ish brick. It looks 4 plates high, so it's a touch larger than a brick. It's an action/reaction system using minifgures and tags that has the potiential of lots of interactivity on a certain level. The tags are on tiles and specialized minifigures with RFID chips, which is pretty clever - that places memory on the tiles, which reduces the overhead of the smart brick. The smart brick is a slave to the tags - it has some basic startup functions at the start (shake to activate and blinky LED to indicate activation) but needs the tags in the minifigures and tiles to react. The actual chip is less than the size of a stud, which is pretty impressive on a tech scale, considering there's a accelerometer and a processor to load the tag info. There's also a light sensor and a speaker in the brick. This appears to be a closed system, so hacking may not be allowed. That would be a reflection of target market. However, the other implication is that all the hackable areas would be in the RFID. Memory, firmware...it could all be done in the RFID. This makes it easy the brick to stay relevant for years - it's the tags that get updated. The interaction shown was dogfighting or lightsaber duels, which is okay, I guess. Would like to see other ideas, especially for groups. The set seem to expect individual play. But the wierdest thing is the charging pad. It's not LEGO compatible. That makes NO sense. A user has to place the brick into this tray on the charger plate to charge....why couldn't the charger be a piece or baseplate? That is a trip in design process.

I mostly avoided the TFOne toys- to wit the only ones I own are Elita 1, Prime Changers Alpha Trion, Starscream, and Airachnid. Of the four, Airachnid is my favorite. Her alt mode is odd, but I like it. She's a hard design to make into a toy, especially at deluxe scale, and I think Takara did an excellent job, all things considered. Got my copies of SS86 Thundercracker and Windcharger today. I struggled a bit with the leg transformation on TC- I wasn't getting those internal bits to snap into the inner shin in jet mode, and thus the nacelle covers weren't closing fully, and the wings weren't lining up right. I fussed with it for a while, reading and rereading the instructions. Finally, I consulted a random reviewer's transformation vid and I noticed his just clicked nicely into place. So I fussed a bit more with it and finally found the sweet spot. Overall, it's a nice fig. It's still a far cry from the clean F-15 I wish it'd become, but it looks nice and I'm glad they changed up the transformation a little bit from the Classics/WFC figs. I wish they'd been able to rotate his chest bits into that huge hollow area to minimize the jet's side profile, and make the feet snap in flush to the legs instead of having the toes hanging out. I have other niggles as well, but I'll just leave it at that. IMHO, he at least looks marginally better than the latest MP Seeker in jet mode. Windcharger's not the best of the upscaled deluxe minibots, but I'm glad he's finally here. He's still a good-looking figure, but all that roof kibble doesn't tab very securely at all and with my copy's knee joints being very tight, the feet unfurl almost every time I try to change his pose. Too, as others have pointed out, the mostly hollow interior feet cavities are a bit of an eyesore. Again, despite his flaws, I'm glad, after what seems a very long wait, we finally have him.

True. My younger self had no idea about the dark side of that flag and what it symbolized. The show was just stupid goofy fun, typically 80s.

Admittedly, I own a copy of Chariots of the Gods, which I bought many years ago and read only that once. I've watched numerous eps of Ancient Aliens, and my wife and I like to laugh about some of the outlandish stuff they all come up with. However, I never noticed the subtle, or perhaps not so subtle in retrospect, racial demeaning of certain cultures while leaving others out in their alleged necessity for "otherworldly" assistance in creating their monuments. I appreciate your enlightening insights. Suddenly, it all eaves a bad taste in hindsight.

He posed interesting questions, but rather than allowing credit to go directly or indirectly to aliens, the results of his books and tv offshoots, archeologists should be more fired up than ever to find scientific solutions to the hows and whys of ancient constructs. One thing's for certain, ancient humans were far more capable than we like to think they were. I do enjoy all the globetrotting on "Ancient Aliens" as I've been introduced to far more ancient sites through that show than through traditional historical programs, which is disheartening given the scale and sheer numbers of monuments around the globe, and the spurious nature of AA.