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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Um, ok. Not sure what's up with chibi Motoko, but the new Tachi looks cool, minus the flotation device attached to its butt. Shame the joint work isn't as smooth and seamless as the art work depicts on the Lil' Major. Those huge elbows, gappy hips, and unnatural looking knees just throw off the look of the figure.
  2. M'Kyuun
    I also get the vibe that some contestants were chosen maybe more for their tendency towards drama than for talent. Of all the contestants, I was only familiar with Boone Langston, Mark Cruikshank (the Bearded Builders), due to my convention attendance, and Tyler Clites from looking at his stuff for years online. Tyler is a very accomplished builder, so he, at least, was chosen for his acumen. The Beards are also good builders in their own rights (I've seen their stuff firsthand). The rest of the teams were unknown to me. Sam Hatmaker rubs me the wrong way; I get the sense that he was chosen for his unconventional dress/hair, but perhaps also b/c there was an inkling of his snotty attitude. I looked him up, and while he's a professional toy designer, his LEGO portfolio is not really that impressive, especially when compared to his partner Jessica Ragzy Ewud, who has exhibited her builds in numerous venues, and sells her LEGO art. Between the two, my sense is that she is the far-more accomplished builder. But he's a jerk, and that garners attention. Also in the drama category is Kara, the older lady with the big hair, who seemed to have a weird facial expression almost every time the camera trained on her. I didn't get the sense that she or her partner were very accomplished builders. Out of all the builds last night, Tyler's was really the only one, IMHO, that could just stand alone as a really cool MOC. It looked amazing, and it was almost sad to see such a nice MOC get destroyed. But it smashed beautifully. I think, and I hope, that he'll be among the finalists, as he's one of the most talented AFOLs I'm aware of, and I hope this venue gives him greater exposure, as I think he'll produce some impressive stuff on the show. Christian and Aaron, IMHO, are a force to be reckoned with, as well. While their build last night wasn't really the best for the 'smash' category, it was a beautiful build on its own- outside of the box thinking with a really neat structure . If they'd filled that crescent with a big orb, or the like, filled with lots of little multi-colored bits, I think it would have helped their standing. Still, when I see that level of technique brought to bear, then I'm impressed. Obviously, I'm enjoying the show so far (can you tell?) I'm looking forward to the rest of the season and all the challenges they throw at these guys, and all the varied approaches these teams take to meet them. As to Lexomatic's observation about techniques: While it'd be cool if they delved deeper into that, as it would appeal greatly to those of us in the hobby, given that they're trying to appeal to a broader audience, i.e. those who don't build, or just build casually, or just buy LEGO for someone else, I can understand why they go more for the personal drama over the technical aspects of LEGO building. It can get dry, especially if you start talking L units, and geometries, and nomenclatures, AFOL terminology vs official LEGO names for colors and parts (Light Bley vs Medium Stone Grey, slopes vs bows), etc. The mention of SNOT was cool, but only quickly mentioned before moving on to Will Arnett's antics, Flynn's emotional breakdown, Kara's facial expressions, Sam's and Jessica's dysfunctionality, and pretty much a pointless visit from Mayim Bialik, other than to just have someone famous on the show. I know some upcoming special guests, like Terry Crews, are known for building LEGO as a hobby, so I look forward to having some folks with LEGO experience come on and share their views/enthusiasm.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Still, they're not as bad as those on the YF-21. It's why I prefer the shorter plates of the in-development Bandai DX, but I digress. I wonder if the Revoltech folks are prohibited from making this thing transformable, as that would step a bit on Takara's toes. It'd be cool if Takara made a fully transformable MP level fig of this, as a one-off. I'd be tempted. Personally, I've always thought an aircraft alt would be more suitable to the Eva, if one was to reimagine it as a transformable mech, especially with those large shoulder armor bits- nice little winglets.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Considering the rate at which this disease is spreading, it's not surprising that it's affecting all areas of Chinese society, to include manufacturing. My perspective is that I've waited this long for my third party toys, and I can continue to wait. I'd rather see progress in controlling or eradicating the disease to restore wellness to these people. For their sakes, and for the rest of the world, I hope there's some solace soon.
  5. M'Kyuun
    I was fairly proud of my four shelves of CHUG, with a bit of Prime and Bayverse thrown in, but Tekering's collection is more like a well curated museum. Most impressive. That's a collection that would be fun to wander through, just marveling.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I need to give Voices of a Distant Star a watch; it's on my list. Just finished my first viewing of Macross 7, and it took me awhile, but I came to enjoy it. The three Encore eps are great, lots of tongue in cheek humor. Still have to watch M7: The Movie, Dynamite, and FB7, but overall, once I settled into the story and characters, and kinda figured out Basara's deal, it grew on me. Still don't like Planet Dance, though. What I can say is, it feels like a Macross story, as all the familiar elements are there, but it has a lighter tone than pretty much all the rest of the Macross series, although it's closer to Delta than the rest, in that regard. I liked it better than Delta- that one just didn't grab me. But I liked the toys.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Sarcasm at its finest. Although the topic of this thread can pretty much be summed up as , the sh!t you guys say keeps me coming back. Def far more entertaining than RT itself.
  8. M'Kyuun
    A little anxious to see progress? Me too.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Reminds me of my favorite version of Scourge. Leagues better than his 'flying boat' alt. Beautiful plane; commercial aircraft haven't seen much innovation, fuselage-wise, since the ill-fated Concorde, in terms of basic geometry. Lots of improvements in materials, manufacturing techniques, and all the stuff under the hood, so to speak, but most just boil down to being tubes with wings. A lifting body design is interesting, both for its shape, but also for its potential flight characteristics. According to the Wiki, they are "inefficient at low speeds", which beggars the question of whether this is intended to be a supersonic aircraft. I hope so. With the current state of tech, subsonic commercial carriers should be an anachronism. Looking at the pics, however, those look like high bypass turbine engines, similar to those on most subsonic planes, so I'm thinking no. It's a lovely bird, regardless, and I hope they find success with it. I always thought some of the 50's commercial flying wing ideas were pretty cool, where passengers were seated throughout the wings as well as the central fuselage. With all the research and practical application we have now, I'm surprised the idea hasn't resurfaced in a more ambitious form. It'd be an interesting entry into the commercial realm for Northrop, and perhaps spark similar innovation from Boeing. My hat's off to Airbus for at least going this far with a 'new' concept. This Flying V concept is currently undergoing testing. It's beautiful. More about it here.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I grew up watching Wild, Wild West. I'm not a fan of Westerns, per se, but the 'James Bond set in the old West' approach, with a bit of steampunk (before steampunk was a thing) thrown in made it a cool show. The Will Smith movie did it poor justice, although they get points for the steam operated giant spider mech. Anyway, Mr. Conrad was the real James West; he brought a coolness to the role that made the show engaging. That's my lasting memory of him, and it's good. RIP Mr. Conrad.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Well stated. Azalea's not just a good representation of G1 Arcee, but a fun Transformer toy. As a lot of these companies strive towards more complexity, sometimes for complexity's sake, the result is a toy that's frustrating and unpleasant to transform. MMC usually do a good job in this regard. While her car form isn't 100% accurate, it's still pretty darn close, the tradeoff minimal, and the engineering very well done. The fit of the fender in fender to form her backpack, and the staggered look of her calves are really my only two major gripes. +1 for not liking the backpacks on MP-44 or MP-45. At least Prime's folds up for decent presentation; V2 Bee's is a disorganized looking mess on a character that should have no backpack if staying true to his G1 toy or animation models. MP-45 stands out in my mind as the weakest design in the series thus far, with too many concessions to bot mode. I hope this is an exception to the rule, then. Arcee needs some fixing.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Y'know, I'm sure the folks at Takara keep an eye on these third party products, especially those they have yet to attempt, and having the benefit of such good examples as Rouge and Azalea, who balanced the bot and alt mode looks very well, with good solutions towards minimizing the backpack (which is an unavoidable necessity in her case), one would be inclined to think it would outshine all the third party offerings right out of the gate. It saddens me that that's not the case. I want an official Arcee, but I want it to be better than the third parties' offerings. So far, Takara impresses with her car mode, which is by far the most animation accurate, but they kinda dropped the ball with her bot mode, so far, and that's really disappointing from a company who should be producing the ultimate versions of these characters, bar none. I hope venues like Wonderfest generate feedback, and that Takara are watching that fan talk to inform further improvements, b/c as she is now, this isn't the best G1 Arcee figure IMHO. But I want it to be, and I hope they make fixes before final.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Instead of the Hargun, which is a parts-former, I wish they'd do some of the other fully transformable designs featured in the booklet that came with the Proto-Garland. But for the guys that want a Hargun, good for you. I hope it turns out as well as the PG, as it's still pretty cool looking.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Nicee's cool, I dig the design, as both of her modes look good, but she's clearly heavily stylized, and not really the G1 version that we're comparing. TW has probably the nicest looking bot mode between Ox, FT, TT, and TW, but they just gave up on the alt mode. It's a shame, b/c the front of their alt mode, short of the exposed tires, comes closest to the art out of the third parties. Takara nailed the car mode, but the bot mode pays the price with that very disorganized and non-compact backpack. The Ox version has probably the most compact backpack. The turned 'lights' don't really look right though. Usually Takara do a good job on faces, but I didn't like the face sculpt for MP Hound, and Arcee just looks bad. What's going on with Takara? It's like they fired all the really talented artists and hired the Japanese equivalent of Rob Liefeld.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Yeah. If they fix what ails the bot mode before release, it'll be win-win. Either, way, unless it's really terrible, I'm pretty much down for a copy. Regardless of the whole fembot controversy, she was a cool character who was ignored for about thirty years, so now that she's finally starting to get figures, I'm pretty pleased. I hope Takara put their A team on this.
  16. M'Kyuun
    So this is the best current pic of MP Arcee, and due to the angle and the reflections from her display case, it leaves much to be desired. However, the current controversy on the TFW boards concerns her too-low chest and over-long collar. Too, she looks to have a substantial backpack containing most of her car mode, which looks really good (the car, not the backpack). Her bot mode looks like it needs some work , but it's early, and hopefully the chest issue is due to mistransformation or loose joints in an oft manipulated prototype.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Nor mine. My local Wally has two Transformers in its TF section, and both are Studio Series Starscream. The pegs are all delineated and tagged, but they're all empty and have been for some time now. Not sure if it's an ordering thing on Wally's part, or a distro issue with Hasbro, but it's dismaying to see all that emptiness every time I go in there. Yeah, I'm beginning to lose hope of that character getting an official MP. But then again, given both the design direction and the recent QC issues with the MP line, I'm kinda ambivalent about it. I think I would have preferred a MP Jazz when Hasui-san was lead designer. Shame it never happened. Totes. While neither Rouge nor Azalea are perfect, both do an admirable job, in different ways, of capturing the character. I chose Azalea, and I think it's a brilliantly done figure, with a smart and easy transformation, a decent car mode, and excellent articulation. Just a well done toy of a character that's challenging to do without becoming a kibbly mess, or a shellformer. Indeed the bar is set high.
  18. M'Kyuun
    That was my thinking; they probably get two workdays to complete their projects, allowing time for lunches, and personal time when they're not filming, and a good night's rest. I can attest, even as a casual builder, that MOC building can be draining both mentally and physically. These guys are on the spot with a very finite window in which they need to meet some difficult challenges, so rest and refueling is a must. Same goes for the production crew, who often put in 14 hr days on set. That becomes a grueling pace- done that on deployments, and it starts to take a toll. I know what you're saying, but honestly, even if you have an online presence, if you have no interest in LEGO, chances are you'll never come across it in your searches, and even if you do by chance, the uninformed may not recognize it as such, especially some MOCs that don't look like LEGO because they're built studless, or nearly so. I've been in the hobby a long time, and I've seen a number of MOCs that had me fooled, or at least required closer scrutiny because the parts used, or techniques didn't look like LEGO, or the build was done so realistically that it looked like a photograph of a real object. I submit this incredible MOC by Mike Doyle as an example. What's really amazing about this model is that it was his first or second MOC. I wish I had an iota of that kind of skill. Anyway, folks not in the hobby and who don't follow it have a generalized idea of LEGO as the iconic brick, either a 2x2 or a 2x4, and have an expectation of LEGO built stuff looking blocky. Heck, I'm still amazed by what's possible with it when I go to these conventions, and by so much of the incredible stuff people post on Flickr and such. And even by sets. So many of the designers creating current sets are former AFOLs who are now working for LEGO. That's a good thing for us fans, as that's a hell of a talent pool.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Just watched LEGO Masters- for a long time AFOL, there's a lot to love. while I'm not familiar with judge Amy Corbett, Jamie Berard is a bit of a celebrity within the community. He's a Design Lead for Creator, specializing in many of the Expert Creator sets. He designed the Café Corner, which started the whole modular building theme, the Winter Toy Shop, which started the Winter Village theme, as well as the Ferris Wheel, the Sydney Opera House, and many more. Guy's just an amazing builder, but he's also a really good speaker/presenter, which is a talent he's employed for LEGO's many Creator Videos explaining behind the scenes stuff about new sets. Definitely an excellent choice for judging a competition like this. Some extraordinarily talented folks in this first episode. I'm familiar with Tyler Clites, who goes by the handle "Legohaulic". He's the guy who built the egg drop. I'm also familiar with Boone and Mark, as I've seen them in person at LEGO conventions here in the Pacific Northwest. In fact, I'll likely see them at the end of the month for Bricks Cascade in Portland, OR. Hoping I'll get the chance to congratulate them on making it to the show, and wish them luck. I'm looking forward to some of the builds, as I always champion any venue that really demonstrates the potential of LEGO, as even today, I think a lot of people are locked into the thinking that it's just a bunch of 2x4 red, yellow, and blue bricks, b/c that's what they had as kids. I hope some of the builds down the road get into techniques, like making stuff like this, or this, or this, where the focus is more on the artistry of the build over movement. Lots of potential for a show like this, and the fact that Australia, and Britain, I believe, have already had LEGO Masters shows gives them a tried and true blueprint to follow for the American take.
  20. M'Kyuun
    There are 28 pages, the first 14 are comic, followed by 7 pages of lineart showing various features of the Proto-Garland, some of the actual toy, some not, and then 5 pages of Garland evolutionary flow chart with numerous illustrations, then 2 pages showing illustrations of the Hargun. The inside cover has pics of the Garland, the grey proto for the Hargun, and the Proto-Garland toys, and the inside back cover shows pics of the Hargun and Transport grey scale models for upcoming toys. Sorry, no pics.
  21. M'Kyuun
    I'll always remember him from Saturn 3. He had quite a good run,; we should all be so fortunate to have so many years and so many experiences. RIP Mr. Douglas.
  22. M'Kyuun
    I see some folks are downloading my VG file. Just wondering if it's working ok for you guys.
  23. M'Kyuun
    When I worked on the B-1, from '99 to '02, we never used the hardpoints, as they were never installed for START compliance. Often, on long missions, the aft bay, IIRC, was fitted with an internal removable fuel tank, while the forward bays carried ordnance. Still, sixteen 2000 lb bombs can do an astounding amount of damage, especially when they can do precision strikes with the JDAM. I got to see 'guncam' footage of some of those strikes. In one, we watched as they brought the entire face of a cliffside crumbling down to block a cave entrance believed to be used by Al Qaeda. We also saw pics of runways on Afghan airports that had had bombs dropped dead center every couple hundred yards to prevent them from using air power against us. Its both awesome and frightening what we can do with our weapons systems today, and god knows what we're holding back in secret 'just in case'.
  24. M'Kyuun
    NA did a great job, although they do a pretty good job with most of their stuff. I have their Harry (Prowl) and their Max (Cosmos), and both are really nice little reps of their characters. I haven't gotten any of their Seekers, but those and their Megatron both look awesome. But y'know, I expect a little better from a company that's been doing this for almost forty years. I wasn't crazy about the Siege Seeker, as the legs under the plane just bugged me. But when I saw Thundercracker on sale, I picked him up on a whim, and while I still don't like the leg situation, in hand it looked better than in pics. (Why is that? Unconscious justification? I don't know.) But the transformation is pretty cool, and the bot mode has excellent articulation, especially in the legs and feet. I remain quite impressed with it, and held out hope that the same or better levels would be brought to bear in an eventual F-15 version. And then they dump Classics Seeker 2.0 on us, with even less alt mode accuracy than its predecessor. I don't understand why Takara seem to have so much trouble designing a decent transforming aircraft, when they do such a great job with land vehicles. Yeah, I'm pretty disappointed. Again, I wish third party would produce improved CHUG scale figs, or do improved KOs of the figs that have glaring flaws, like Astrotrain's crappy alt modes, and the new Seeker's crappy F-15 mode. I'd happily give them my money for improved versions.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Ah, dude, sorry to hear that. I'm definitely going to be more cautious with that, as I was trying, lightly, to get more upward extension of the toe for posing. Fortunately, I didn't break anything. But I hope you're able to get replacement parts, or a replacement of the entire thing, as it sucks to drop $200+ on a toy only to have it break almost immediately after opening it. Looking at the pics, I notice everyone's able to get that forward windscreen piece to sit flush in Slave mode- mine sticks up just a couple mm, and I have no idea what it's catching on. The gold painted insert that tabs underneath it fell off almost immediately as I was beginning to transform it the first time, but I tabbed it back on and it stayed put through the rest of the transformation. It sits flush in Maneuver Craft mode. I think I'll have to put it through another transformation and hopefully everything will sort out, or the problem area will make itself known. I usually eschew instructions, but I followed them with this guy, as I didn't want to break some hidden part, or what have you. I'm glad I did, as I didn't even notice the hinged panels on either side of the neck, as they fit so well, you can barely discern a seam. It's gorgeous workmanship, no doubt. I stumbled a bit over getting the crotch piece extended, too, so again, even with instructions, I had to backtrack a little. As I get older, I find my pride in such things eroding, especially as my toys continue to get more expensive and fragile. I'm really pleased with it, after having waited for decades to finally have one in hand. That said, I'm a little disappointed with how limited the hip movement is on mine- barely any lateral movement, and I don't want to force it. I wish they'd made the hip sockets extend out of those upper thigh parts just a little to get more range. I was trying to do the kneeling pose that's pictured, and having tough time getting that to work. I don't know if I just don't have the legs extended enough, but I can't get a deep enough knee bend to make it work satisfactorily. Again, I'm leery of forcing anything. While the detailing of these new figs is just amazing, there's truly something to be said about the durability of the old 80's toys, especially the old Chunky Monkey. Not the most accurate representation of its source, but dammit, you could seriously play with that thing without much fear of breaking it. Again, best wishes to you, UN Heffy, on a positive resolution. Update: I determined that I installed the little plate under the windshield upside down. Once I reinstalled it correctly, it flushed up nicely. I was also able to achieve the kneeling pose by adjust the calf guards down, which provided the necessary space for the knees to bend. Doubt anyone cares, but I thought I'd post it anyway. Cheers all!
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