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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    For my tastes, Transformers, and transforming toys in general, appeal from all aspects, not just one in particular, which is why the FT offerings just aren't appealing to me. MMC grabs my attention, as I'm a longtime fan of their products (more of my 3P MP collection are MMC toys than any other) and I'm enamored by their all-in-one engineering, which is the pinnacle of what I desire in a combiner, but also on the merits of the aesthetics of both the bot and vehicle modes. IMHO, they're knocking it out of the park, even if the toon look isn't my particular fancy. It is, however, the trend, alas, and I grudgingly accept it. That said, while it's a close race, I think I'm even more taken by X-Transbots' Constructicons. Every figure that they've released thus far has been beautifully executed. There's a part of me that would love to replace, or accompany my old ToyWorld Devastator, and if I had to choose between XTB and MMC, I'd have a hard time making that choice. I'm very reluctantly passing on these, as I simply don't have space for another MP scaled combiner, but we as fans have some impressive options before us. The only actual bummer is that they're not all designed to work universally with one another, as being able to pick and choose from amongst the three companies' toys based on preferences would be grand. However, we're still spoiled for choice and that's a good thing. Ultimately, I'm an articulation fan, and I'd probably go with MMC just for the cumulative number of boxes they check.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Regarding Astrotrain, I wouldn't mind a heavy retool that addressed the major i8ssues with his alt modes, namely the entire unfinished upper aft section of his shuttle mode and basically the entirety of his locomotive mode which was just a hot mess from start to finish. His bot mode was the only thing they got right with that figure, and I hope they're able to do him justice with this new release. Mech Fans Toys did it far, far better at legends scale, so one would think Takara could do at least as good with a leader budget. As to Shockwave, his G1 gun mode was far enough removed from reality that I never understood the need to deviate or change it. I hope this new toy does the character justice as well and that he's pretty-darned close to the G1 toy in both modes. Takara's Overgear stuff is mildly interesting thus far. I've no intention of buying either, but the fact that they seem to want to do their own proprietary take on Transformers apart from Hasbro is interesting on its face. I get the sense that Hasbro saddles them with far too many restrictions and a line like this allows them some freedom while remaining on-brand. I'm curious to see what they do with it over time. I wonder how they'd go about realizing Jetfire. Would they attempt to do an SR-71, or, like Blackout, opt for an entirely different sort of airframe (than Bayformers), albeit a large one, say, perhaps, more like the B-!B? Or perhaps something completely fictional "based" on a real aircraft. Time will tell, I suppose, depending on the success of these initial figures.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Powerglide, Warpath, and Seaspray were such annoying characters. I understand that they wanted to make them colorful, but the over-the-top-ness of the voice acting just lost me, even as a 13-14-year-old who loved the first season and really wanted to like the second.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, thank Primus for that. 🙄 It's a nice inclusion, but for me, it's attention to nigh pointless minutiae (let's face it, that episode wasn't the best the series had to offer) when the overall vehicle mode is suffering terribly. If they made car modes as bad as they make jets, the fandom would go apesh!t. I feel like the lone voice of dissent, but I call 'em as I see 'em. Takara just sucks at making jet alt modes. Add 'ol onomatopoeia-spouting Powerglide to the list.
  5. M'Kyuun
    SSSHHHH...Quiet! Someone from Mattel might be lurking these boards and you're giving them terrible, terrible ideas!
  6. M'Kyuun
    I'm not a car guy thus Hot Wheels have never really been my jam. However, I do like the aesthetics of some cars and I've always admired the ceaseless inventiveness and creativity of the folks behind both Matchbox, originally a British company, and Mattel's Hot Wheels. (Mattel bought matchbox in 1997) Obviously this is a toyline ripe with potential for media, especially given the range of variety and styles amongst the various vehicle designs over the years, from extremely fanciful to modern and realistic. IMHO, I don't think live action is the way to go, but rather animation. The IP is well-suited for both racing and intrigue, ala Speed Racer, which would make for a great formula. I'd love to see Mattel partner up with the likes of Production IG and produce a well-written show that focuses as much on characters as plot, as well as the use of many of Hot Wheels' designs over the years to great effect. that's something a non-HW guy like me could get into. Guess we'll see how the live action movie goes, but I suspect it'll be lowest common denominator fodder, rife with cheese, middling acting, vacuous plot, and likely short on some of HW's more fanciful and out-there designs which could far better be rendered and utilized in animation. I'd rather see a more mature series (thinking along the lines of Gargoyles, Tron: Uprising, or even more mature anime fare). Given its nigh 58-year history (and Matchbox's even longer history), there are a lot of older fans of this franchise that would be served by a mature and well-developed story and characters, moreso IMHO than a dumbed-down movie aimed at kids.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Sorry to hear of the furnace troubles, especially at this, the coldest, time of year. I'm happy to hear that you're once again cozy and warm. Sorry, too, to hear you missed POs; I can relate, even if today was one of those seemingly rarer occurrences when I was aware of them and able to benefit. Glad you were able to secure preorders on Amazon- at least we have options in that regard, most of the time anyway. Anyway, cheers to a working furnace and the promise of new toys!
  8. M'Kyuun
    I POed Powerglide, b/c I like his overall design, but as usual, his jet mode suffers the slings and arrows of Takara's carelessness. Would it have killed them to put those engine stalks on hinges so they actually sit above the wings as they should? It would've helped greatly, too, if his entire robot chest could rotate 180 so that the narrow end faced forward in jet mode. As it is, the chest ridges poking out of either side of his fuselage look terrible and they can't be unseen. I've been pretty impressed with most of the updated, upscaled Minibots thus far, but I should have checked my expectations when it came to a character who becomes a jet. I don't even see a way that an upgrade kit could fix its inaccuracies, more's the pity. gripes aside, I'm glad I got him POed as, of this post, he's sold out on Pulse.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Got Powerglide, TFA Ratchet, and TFP Smokescreen. I wanted TFP Cliffjumper, but he didn't appear with the other preorders initially and sold out within minutes, so I missed out on him once again. I thought about getting Swerve, too, as I own no toys of the character, but his alt mode looks odd with the too-small tires and those cavernous wheel wells. Just so, I'm happy with my Gears fig. Seems Hasbro severely underestimated the demand for Cliffjumper. I like that mold and thought this a good reuse. Moreover, I own no TFP Cliffy toys, and I liked how this one turned out so I was rather elated that he was going up for PO on his own instead of in a pack. Edit: I caved and got Swerve anyway, despite my initial misgivings. I was thinking of getting TFP Cliffjumper at one of the other etailers, but once you factor in the high cost of processing and shipping charges, not to mention $6 sales tax for WA, I'm paying almost twenty dollars over MSRP and quite frankly, it's just not worth it. The free shipping is the primary reason I've stuck with my Pulse membership, so it grates a bit when POs sell out within moments of being posted or I miss them altogether. edit2: I POed Cliffjumper through Walmart for $24.97 + tax, and free shipping since I ordered a PS5 game too. That's even better than Pulse.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I find it rather unpalatable that they didn't include the requisite minifig with this. The chintzy old 80s robot build just doesn't equate. I'm curious if the head can accommodate a minifig should one buy the set and want to put one in there. Anyway, by now, with many AFOLs, many of them Classic Space fans, working as designers at LEGO, the knowledge that LEGO Space fans generally look forward to any opportunity to collect retro Space figs in their original or new colors is a given. This is a bit of a middle finger in my humble opinion. I'm glad they did the set, but that particular omission leaves a sour taste.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Those are are distracting, but not so nearly as much as the huge feet hanging off the end of his hitch deck. For all the other clean origami they pulled off, it seems nigh absurd that they just folded the feet in on themselves in situ rather than folding them into the legs for a more realistic-looking truck. On the whole, though, it's a nice looking Prime figure. I like my Magic Square Light of Peace better; IMHO, it's the best MP scaled Prime figure yet released. I wish they'd upscale Doomsday, their legends scaled take on Megatron, to both CHUGL and MP scales. I'd be down for both without a second thought.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I'm looking forward to this new retro-take. Although I'm a reader, for some odd reason I never got into comics or Manga by extension. I'm sure, just as comparing reading a book to a TV or movie adaptation, the Manga offers more in the way of, well, everything. From what I've read about the Manga, prompted by commentary here, the TV and movie adaptations of GitS certainly have been cleansed of their more sexual material. I'm sure this new film will follow suit (to make it more general viewer friendly and avoid an X rating) which is fine, if not preferable. After the excellent SAC series, I look forward to the stories, characters, philosophical musings, gory death scenes, cool robots/mecha, and general tone that the franchise has become known and loved for. I don't need or want it to devolve into hentai regardless of the original manga.
  13. M'Kyuun
    To paraphrase Newt, "Valkyrie Hunter D, he doesn't feel guilt b/c he's just a piece of plastic". Sorry, couldn't resist the Aliens reference.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Thanks for the news, Mike. Concerning tracking POs, I've got a notebook where I write them down under various retailer headings. I find the number of POs I'm submitting have continued to decline, especially since my Hasbro mainline collection is mostly complete at this point, and much of the TF expanded universe doesn't interest me. Moreover, I've about run out of space for more toys, so I've become far choosier with what I buy. I do need to invest in more shelving, that's for sure.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Didn't take long for Hasbro to crank out repaints of SS86 Prime and Megs. No interest personally, but for those who are, I lament the inaccurate hole in Prime's grill rather than his left side for the shard damage. These look like very low effort money grabs to me. I'm happy with the OG releases.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Thanks for posting pics. I hadn't seen these, so I thought @renegadeleader1 was referring to something else. These look very simplistic and remind me of the City Missions sets from a couple years ago. Still, these look like they invite creativity and building one's own creations versus just building a single main model, and that gets down to the core of what LEGO's all about. I tend towards the more refined City Space and old Space themes, but I get what they're going for and hope it finds an audience.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Although none have been announced for first quarter, I'm hoping sometime this year we'll get more City Space sets, especially since they're embracing sci-fi in the theme now. I'd love to see Space offshoot and become its own theme again allowing City Space to remain grounded in reality, as it always has. But, I'm just happy to see sci-fi in official LEGO Space themes once again after a decade plus.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Those are kinda cool, but not cool enough at that price.
  19. M'Kyuun
    I like transforming toys, but these and Hasbro's Bot-Bots do little for me. I dig the idea, but the execution is underwhelming. These got me to thinking, though, I remember getting a transforming locket sort of toy for my sister when we were kids. I couldn't remember the name of the line by rote, but some Google-Fu did the trick. They were called Sweet Secrets by Hasbro. I got the bird for her, likely b/c it was unique amongst the rest and had more of a Transformers quality to it. Not sure what she ever did with it or if she even remembers it now. These came out in '84, so I'm thinking Hasbro was trying to apply the popularity of one transforming theme for boys to a girls' line.
  20. M'Kyuun
    While I'm not a model building expert-far from it-, I think it'd be cool if Moderoid would or could get the Macross license and go hog wild on all of Kawamori's pantheon of transforming mecha, even the variable police craft from M7 or the Octos from M0.
  21. M'Kyuun
    I used needle nose pliers to gently push those tabs down into their slots and only then was I able to get them to engage as they should with, what I would assume, especially after seeing the ease at which it was accomplished in a couple transformation vids, undo force. I haven't untabbed them yet to see how they'll re-engage, but as I generally display my bots in bot mode, I feel no immediate compunction to try. As it is, the torso is locked solid and I can pose it however I wish without the worry of it coming undone and going all PEZ dispenser on me. I'd recommend the pliers approach to get your copy's torso to lock as well. Of course, despite all the other plentiful die-cast in this thing (it's a frickin' brick in your hand), those panels with the L-tabs are just plastic (go figure) so exercise care. I haven't tried the toothpick trick, but I'll keep that in mind. I used my fingers and managed to get them to seat somewhat in the palms so they're not just hanging in there loosely, but y'know, with all the other clever stuff they pulled off, would it have hurt to put those shields around the grips on hinges so they could swing out allowing unhindered access to the hands for leverage? SMH I can't speak to XTB's stuff to any great extent, but first issue Eligos was my second XTB toy (after Apollyon) so that should tell you something. 😄 Gawd that thing is a PITA to transform, and like so many other Eligos owners, the tabs on the piece that go around the cockpit broke on mine the first time after I tried to disengage it to go back to bot mode. I still like the look of Eligos, but I've no burning desire to ever transform him again. That said, I was a little dismayed that XTB was the only game in town doing Omnibots, but I bit the bullet out of pure desperation and FOMO. I think they're nice-looking toys, but they're still XTB with PITA transformation stuff (needlessly, IMHO), weird design decisions, etc. However, the car modes are gorgeous, beautifully painted and detailed, as well as all the G1 sticker details in the bot modes. On their faces, they're beautiful toys- they just have their finnicky bits to contend with. FWIW, I think their Constructicons have all looked amazing thus far. I'm not buying them, but I do think, out of all the current contenders, I like theirs the best, and that's saying something b/c MMC's got skin in the game, all-in-one, no less which is my fancy, and I think I still prefer the overall look of XTB's. Too, their Long Haul, to wit, is the ONLY Long Haul toy ever to have a proper dumping bed. You'd think by now that would be a standard feature for the character, but no. That seems like such an easy thing to design, especially given all the crazy clever origami these companies manage otherwise. Go figure. Anyway, I'm glad to finally have some updated Omnibots, and overall, I'm pretty happy with how they look and handle, Fioravanti's (Overdrive's) awful leg transformation notwithstanding. That said, I'd love to see some other leading contenders, including legends makers and Tak/Has, jump eagerly on that bandwagon. More Omnibots FTW!!!!
  22. M'Kyuun
    Yes. No. I'll agree to disagree. The Feios looks like a flying pancake. Moreover, it has smooth, unbroken lines whereas the Xiwanshe design is broken up, with a great deal of obvious layering effects across its surfaces. It would be, by virtue of design, very prone to drag. The Xiwanshe is a good sci-fi design, but unlike Kawamori's generally more grounded valks, impractical. Potentially, although I'm thinking Kawamori would smooth out all the rough edges and layering effects. I like the design, I'm just looking at it from a view to aerodynamics. However, anything will fly with enough thrust behind it. regarding the DNA kit for Alpha Trion, I like the look of those wings in flight mode, and they make for a nice cape in bot. I'm not going to spend the money, but I do think this meets the criteria for a proper upgrade, as it enhances any number of aspects of the figure, which is already pretty good, IMHO. Oh my, yes! I'm waiting on my copy to arrive, but FINALLY, a complete set of Omnibots! As much as I have to grudgingly agree, Downshift being the only one I owned as a kid and still my favorite, I think the poorly named Camshaft takes the prize as their best overall design amongst the three. XTB needlessly complicated the leg design on Overdrive, making it a tentative and frustrating process to transform, IMHO. YMMV, of course. I feel there's something off about Downshift, but I can't quite pinpoint it. I like it, but I have that feeling. Ironically, Camshaft was always my least favorite of the three, but I think XTB did their best work with this guy. The bot proportions are really good, and his car mode, as do all three, looks amazing. Camshaft's G1 toy arguably had the worst weaponized mode, and that follows with this fig despite XTB's attempts to update it and clean it up a bit. IMO, anyway. Still, it does the gimmick as it should. I'll be happy to have him in hand to place alongside his two partners. Now Takara, and Hasbro by extension, needs to crank out some Legacy Omnibots. We've waited far too long for official updates. edit: After I finished this post, I checked my mail only to find my copy of Camshaft waiting for me. Great looking figure! So happy to have all three at long last. Nevertheless, two complaints: first, the back of the car that swings under the upper torso has two L-shaped pegs that basically drop down into slots in armatures and the near entirety of the upper torso is seemingly only held in place by gravity. I tried squeezing down on them to see if they'd engage a little more firmly, but they don't seem to. That means the torso instantly disengages and pops up like a PEZ dispenser with any amount of handling. I even watched a couple transformation vids and it appears I'm doing it right, so if your experience is different, correct me please! BTW, the torsos in both vids seemed to tab firmly unlike my fig, so IDK what I'm doing wrong. Second, by virtue of the shields around the guns' grips, I find it almost impossible to get any leverage to allow the pins on said grips to insert into the slots in the palms. All I can do is try to close the fingers as tightly around them as I can and try to avoid bumping them lest they pop out of the hands and go flying. Edit 2: I used a pair of needlenose pliers to push those L-shaped tabs into their slots, at which point they engaged. It just surprised me that I needed those, as they don't just drop into place and lock on mine as I've seen in other vids. I have to squeeze the armatures inwards, too, for proper alignment. As those pegs are only plastic, I'm rue to just push down with any force, as I fear breaking them off. I already broke one of the seat bits on Overdrive when it got stuck in place and I had to use some force to get it to move. Just so, I'm leery to apply force to anything.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Points to Takara for their inventiveness, which is still exciting to see even if the final results thereof don't enthrall me, as these do not. I'd rather have seen the budget go towards producing a more G1ish Mirage for Legacy or perhaps some Omnibots. And though they just rereleased the Earth mode Hound, let's face the fact that it doesn't skew at all towards the prevailing cartoon look at all. In fact, it doesn't really look like the G1 toy beyond the front of the jeep forming his chest. As with Mirage, too many liberties taken beggar for more faithful figures to follow.
  24. M'Kyuun
    BBTS has Swoop for $55.99, Skids for $20. Gears is available for just under $35 on this Amazon site. happy hunting!
  25. M'Kyuun
    You're the best, Mike. As it happens, I'm finding your post in retrospect, as I saw it on Target while eating my lunch and just finished my PO before popping in here to find your post. I'm grateful still, as I rarely see these preorders until it's too late and it's a comfort to know you've got me covered.
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