M'Kyuun

Due to release in March. Preorders up on the LEGO Shop. Interesting note: Joe Kyde, who designed LEGO Optimus Prime, designed this set. Compared to the previous excellent Tallneck, this set is geared for younger builders and yet still retains enough detail to make the machines easily recognizable. Looks like fun! Parts hounds and MOC builders like me will likely be excited for this new clip piece. I've been wanting something like this for a very long time, so I'm excited. I POed two copies just to have the second set for its lovely new parts.

FWIW, I tried a number of finger/thumb configurations and nothing was working. Every time I tried closing the panel with the rotating bit, it would push the hand such that it blocked the panel from closing. I know the hands were tucked in there when I first transformed it, so obviously they fit somehow, but I just wasn't having any luck, so I just removed them both and everything went together as advertised. I didn't plan on keeping it in fighter; I just wanted to go through the exercise of transforming it. I definitely wish they'd done some things differently, as the YF-21 doesn't really have that complicated a setup. Bandai needlessly complicated the backpack with that repositionable grey panel, the blue chunk of aircraft spine that needs to tuck through, the lack of natural stops or soft locking points for the shelf/intakes, and of course the need for an external brace to bear the weight of all that backpack in lieu of good engineering. I sound salty, and perhaps I am a little--disappointed more so. However, I do like the look of both modes, but especially battroid. I just never liked the look of Yamato's battroid with those skinny legs, so, despite its numerous warts, I'm satisfied with how the DX looks and the fact that it's stable. That said, I'd still love to see, in light of Bandai's release, what Arcadia would do with a new take. Given their demonstrable passion for Macross, and the lessons learned from the 1/60 and now Bandai's DX, I think it's safe to assume it would be an impressive release.

I wasn't aware of that; if anything, I always thought Europe and the UK would benefit from their proximity to Denmark, not to mention personal and professional ties to the Kirk Christiansen family in Billund. I know there were a number of airplane sets exclusive to European countries in the 80s and 90s, and I always just assumed that our neighbors across the pond enjoyed not only the range of sets available here in the Western Hemisphere, but additional sets as well in both themes and as exclusives. I'm sorry to have been so wrong and puzzled that the opposite seems to be the case. Anyway, I hope the rumor proves true and we get a minty fresh version of the Renegade to display next to our 10497 Galaxy Explorers, and it's available globally.

I very much appreciate the compliment. I have thoughts about doing a small excavator at some point.

Supposedly, there's another Blacktron set coming as well. Speculation is that it might be an update of the Renegade. That'd be fine, but if I had my druthers, I'd prefer an updated Blacktron II Aerial Intruder or Spectral Starguider. However, since we already got an updated Invader, oddly renamed to 'Cruiser', as a GWP, having the larger flagship from Blacktron would make for nice continuity. It would be most excellent to have that upsized to 1.5 times the original's size with design stylings mirroring those of the 10497 Galaxy Explorer. I'm not sure where I'd put it, but it would be a must-have regardless. If the rumors are true, I hope Mike Psiaki, 10497's designer, has a hand in designing it, too. Mike's an absolutely brilliant builder.

Whoa, first I've seen this. Looks great! Space is and has always been my favorite LEGO theme and I'm excited to see the transition of City Space from grounded semi-realistic stuff like shuttles and rockets to this more futuristic sci-fi direction. Apparently the 2024 Space sets must have hit home with fans to see a continuation of the theme in 2025. I'm all in.

Considering this guy is also a deluxe, that Devastation Prime is alarmingly poor. My only gripe with Legacy United G1 deluxe Prime is the lack of paint apps to pick out his OG toy's sticker details, which at least are nicely molded in. One of these days I'll have to remedy that omission. Perhaps I'll do the same for my SS86.

Even more good news for me, as most of my valks see GERWALK only once during their inaugural transformation. After that, I'll on rare occasions go from battroid to fighter and back, but most of the time, my valks are dust collectors in the truest sense. I don't mess with them much, but I sure do love looking at them. GERWALK is my least favorite mode (I consider it a mid-transformation step more than an actual mode, but it's a Kawamori/Macross thing). I remember commentary about the DX YF-19's heels being different, and not in a good way. At the time, I was glad I'd bought the Advance, as the only other difference was the dual opening cockpits, which I could live without. When Bandai announced their YF-19, and I saw how similar they were, I remained content with the Advance as my YF-19 placeholder. Lovely beastie, she is.

I decided to transform mine to fighter and back today, and gotta say, @PointBlankSniper, yours and others' critiques aren't wrong on many counts. The gear is a huge question mark. Of all the issues this thing has, that was the easiest one to fix, as they absolutely had to know that there was no ground clearance with guns or packs installed and with a few design changes, they could have both given the struts enough length for ground clearance regardless of FAST pack configuration/gun installation and proper canon stowage with the wheels facing down. Too, those transformable gunpods are pretty big and I almost wonder if a separate team from the core toy team designed them and, after doing no crosschecking for compatibility, discovered that they prevented the gear from proper ground contact too late into production to make any meaningful changes. Or they knew and just didn't care enough to try. I'm using the molded gun holding hand for my copy's gunpod , so I removed it and flattened the fingers out on the left hand. However, no matter how I moved the left hand, I couldn't get the surrounding panels to secure- the hand was always in the way. So I removed it, and the panels all closed and secured nicely. Not sure why I couldn't get the panels to close with the hand attached as that's how it arrived and the panels were secured just fine out of the box. And yeah, I rotated the little blue bit inside the panel first, but it still wouldn't close. Fishing that blue spine block through is a bit of a pain, but I finally got it. Finally, I had trouble getting the forward pointy bits of the engine nacelles to slide up into their battroid position. After consulting Anymoon's transformation vid, I was able to get it to slide north into place, although I'm still not quite sure what was blocking it from moving initially. Anyway, while it's far from the worst or most difficult thing I've ever transformed, it's not really fun, either. It's a bit finnicky, somewhat unpleasantly so in some places, but not so bad in others. I still love the foot stowage solution and those big bulbous lower legs. I still think it looks pretty good in battroid, even if I feel a pang of disdain over the need for the external brace to keep its saggy backside in place. Regardless, I doubt I'll be transforming it again anytime soon. I have plenty of toys that are much more enjoyable to transform, and I generally don't mess with my larger figs anyway, mostly out of fear that I'll ham-handedly break something. For now, the DX does a respectable job of filling the void next to my DX VF-19 Advance in my Detolf, completing my Macross Plus display. And yeah, I know the Advance was technically in the Macross Frontier movie Sayonara no Tsubasa, but its resemblance to the YF-19 is close enough to function as my YF-19 stand-in in my Bandai valk collection.

Man, I always miss sales. TBF, however, like the previous '89 Batmobile, this was high on my LEGO Batman want list. and I did not hesitate to get it ASAP. I'd love to see them do the Arkham Knight Batmobile with all the functions intact. Like the Tumbler, it's one of the Dark Knight's more notably unique rides. I'd love to see the Speed Champions Team tackle some of these Batmobile designs with a greater eye towards scale and accuracy. That, I think, would be a pretty impressive collection. On the subject of Speed Champions, I'd also love to see them branch into sci-fi and anime designs like the Spinner or the Mach 5. It'd make for an eclectic but great looking collection of vehicles from various media. I recently finished a MOC and thought I'd share a few pics. Apologies in advance for my poor photo skills. The cab has limited articulated steering and the bed can, of course, tilt up to nearly 90 degrees. Transformation is fluid without parts-forming, and the mecha is fully articulated including a waist swivel which is not readily apparent in these pics. Sharp-eyed folks will notice the proton pack detail behind the cab; I bought a few of those printed tiles and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to use one for detail. In total, this represents about a month's worth of work designing, accruing parts, and finally building the model. I'm rather enamored with it, and I dig the mecha's unusual proportions. For some reason apropos of nothing, Cruel Angel's Thesis often played in my head while I was working out the final bugs of the design. It doesn't look at all like an Eva, but there was some subconscious inspiration regardless. Hope you enjoy.

Yeah, but ya know, having grown up watching the show, it's close enough to fool me if you told me otherwise. Whoever they tapped to do it, he's pretty close to the mark. I wish the messages were more like "Michael, I'm sensing danger ahead" or ,"turbo boost engaged" followed by the turbo boost sound effect. The screeching tires effect is ok, but the turbo boost was really the draw. "Thank you, sir" is really apropos of nothing and a bit lame, as phrases go, considering his capabilities and the references that could be made instead. Despite my criticism, however, he's one less crossover wishful realized, and the fact that he has lights and sounds for the first time (it would've been cool to have the siren for Ecto-1) in a crossover figure opens the door for future releases to receive similar features. At the end of the day, I get to hear KITT say a few lines, hear and see his scanner cycle, and get to turn him into a pretty decent looking robot, all things considered. Too, they did a far better job with weapon storage than most releases, so I'll give them props for that as well. So, my hood panel indeed snaps decisively flush into place without the need for excessive force. Sounds like tolerances are a bit here or there for this fig. The back shoulder hinges indeed "thoop" into place as well. The shoulder fender hinges also "thoop". Despite all these requisites being met, there is still some form of resistance to the hood plate going down flush into its alcove to lock on that grey tab. I have to press very hard to get it to want to go down to where it's flush and the grey tab overlaps the slot in the hood plate, but once I release said pressure, it pops right back up to where you see it in my picture. Perhaps something is pinned just a hair off and it's causing the resistance; I don't know. What I do know is that it doesn't function exactly as advertised, but I've at least got it to a point where it's holding together whilst moving the shoulders, which is an improvement over my initial transformation results. I can also remedy the problem by holding the hood section with one hand while moving the arms with the other insuring that any torsion from moving the arms is negated thus preventing that tenuous abdomen tab from loosening any further. I chock it up to some assembly error where a pin was drilled off from the mark by a mm or two or some similar scenario that created a tolerance issue. It's inconvenient and annoying, sure, but not so egregious that it ruins the figure for me. I keep working that hood tab into place with every subsequent transformation so hopefully whatever the source of resistance, it wears over time without breaking the figure. I plan, as I do with the vast majority of my figs, to keep him in his bot mode, so hopefully time and the environment will help it to hold together. I can move the arms now without the hood coming undone, so even though the tab is somewhat tenuous, it's doing its job now and that's progress. 👍

Addressing your left arm issue, mine was also popping off yesterday when I transformed it the first couple of times trying to move the arm to clear the fender to swivel it out. I think the issue was due in part to the tightness of the rotating fender piece. I transformed it today and managed to do so without popping the arm off for the first time after about three transformations total. It's progress. Well scratch that. I just tried transforming the upper body to prove the point and that left arm popped off twice on me. It's definitely not on there as tight as my right shoulder, which has yet to pop off once. I can manage to stow the arm without popping if I keep my index finger on the wheel and my thumb on the shoulder and move it carefully into position. If I try to do it by just grabbing the arm, it pops, at least the left one. The right shoulder seems more forgiving. I'm thinking it's probably a slight mold issue between the ball and the socket. Anyway, once attached, the shoulder seems snug, which I can live with. Knowing that it's sensitive to how and where it's handled, I'm hoping to avoid popping it off too many more times to prevent undue wear. I generally don't handle my toys much, anyway, so I think it'll be ok for the long run. I put batteries in it today and played through its various sounds and messages with the wife, who also grew up in the 80s, although she was only about three when Knight Rider first premiered in '82. It brought smiles for both of us, although I think the nostalgia runs deeper for me, as I was about eleven years old when KR first turbo boosted into American living rooms and brought us along for the ride. Like most 80s kids, I ate up shows where some sort of souped-up vehicle was the primary draw, and KITT was no exception. Never was crazy about the "buddy' stuff or The Hoff, really. It was always about the car and the tech. Bonnie the lovely technician was rather pleasant, too. 😁 I've since been able to get it to 'lock' in, but it's not the definitive 'snap' that one would wish for on such a crucial tab. As you can see in the pic, the grey tab is somewhat slotted into the black hood piece, if only barely, and it will neither stay all the way down flush nor center without great force applied from above. I don't know what's acting upon it to prevent it from going down nice and flush and wanting to stay that way, but at least this is better than what I was able to achieve after my first transformation. Thus far, it seems to be holding together to where I can move the arms without the hood section just flipping up from the shoulder friction. It's tenuous at best, but so far effective.

Got my copy of Agent Knight today (earlier than projected, thank you very much, Amazon Prime) and I cannot get the central bit of his hood, which folds inwards similar to the ER Datsun design, to snap into place within the grey part of his abdomen. The back hinges softly snap into place, but without that front one anchoring it all together, any arm movement just flips his chest up a bit (the shoulders' ball joints, thankfully, are quite tight), but without his abdomen snapping securely, I have to hold down the front of his hood while making any arm movements. It's a bit of a bummer but there certainly could have been worse issues. I haven't had the opportunity to get batteries for him yet, and while I generally abstain from doing so with electronics in my toys, my nostalgia runneth over and I just want to see and hear that sensor and hear KITT's voice, whether it be William Daniels or a voice actor doing a decent imitation. So far as his transformation schema goes, @JB0 gives it too much credit even as a low budget Alternator or Binaltech, of which I own quite a few from back in the day. Those toys were more complex, featured at least partial vehicle interiors with apropos details, opening hoods or bonnets with engines (generally the folded weapons), steerable front wheels or all wheel suspension in the Jeep Wrangler's case, and in most cases opening trunks or boots. Alas, as a line of licensed vehicles, the bot modes oft suffered, especially in articulation and poseability, but they had a complexity of design that predated and was characteristic of early Hasui-era Masterpiece. Agent Knight is much more in line with current mainline Transformer carbots: his upper body transforms similarly to the Earthrise Datsuns' and the lower half like the WFC or ER Sideswipe's mold. It's a very straightforward transformation, especially if you've handled either of the aforementioned figures. I don't ding it for its simplicity, as it fits with the other crossovers thus far, at least the ones I own. It's a niche collectible sort of thing that taps into 80s nostalgia, and I'm happy that Hasbro has pursued the line, even if some, like the X-Men's Blackbird, left a little to be desired. I hope we eventually get an '89 Batmobile and Airwolf in this line. I'd take Blue Thunder, too. And though it's a more recent design, a Tumbler would be really cool, too.

I know Mr. Todd's work, or I thought I did, primarily by his eponymous role in Candyman. I never realized how much of a presence he had in Star Trek, and I know that I've seen his performances in at least a couple of the series from the 90's into the millennium. He was also Dreadwing in Transformers: Prime, one of my favorite TF series, and yet I didn't remember his performances in anything except Candyman. Realizing the scope of his talent and influence throughout media that I've enjoyed immensely in my life, I tip my hat to Mr. Todd with gratefulness for his many contributions, and by all accounts, for just being a humble and pleasant human being. Gone too soon. RIP.

Glad I checked in- I recently switched banks, and although I changed my info on Amazon to reflect, they still cancelled my Agent Knight due to incomplete payment. After checking, sure enough, my card info is there and correct. Go figure. Anyway, reordered it as a "Buy now" option and it went through without a hitch. Should be here next week.