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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    I'm surprised Pulse still has those figs. This far out from release and they're already sold out on most of the Earthrise figures. I waited too long to order Prime, but I figured they'd keep taking orders at least until February. Guess not. Just checked Amazon, and they didn't have Earthrise Prime at all. I can find deluxes at my local Wally, but voyagers are extremely sparse, and I've never seen a leader or larger there. Target's usually my go-to locally for the voyager and leader stuff. I can't recall seeing Siege Jetfire at all at any of my local Targets, so apparently they carry nothing larger than leader. Pulse has become my go-to for a lot of new figs, and some of the exclusives, so I was pretty surprised, and not just a little annoyed, that they were already sold out on most of the Earthrise stuff. That said I have Starscream and Grapple PO'd, so at least that's two less voyager figs I have to worry about trying to find in the wild. Speaking of Pulse, I ordered Apeface from them, and he came today. Not really crazy about the way the back panel is supposed to tab his legs together to form the ape chest/plane fuselage. It's a finnicky and tenuous connection that leaves a bit to be desired. As you said in your review, Mike, he's really boxy, which doesn't serve either alt that well, but the ape mode is definitely the better of the two. It is what it is, I guess, and I'm glad they did an update; I just wish it was done better. I'm hoping Snapdragon isn't too far behind; he was always the better of those two, anyway, and if they do an update, I hope it gets more love than ole Apeface.
  2. M'Kyuun
    I liked TRoS, but seeing all its warts laid out in such a comical fashion is both funny and disheartening.
  3. M'Kyuun
    I often hear teachers say, "If I only reach one person, it was worth the effort". My job here is done.
  4. M'Kyuun
    We have the CFM56 high bypass engines on all of our Tankers at Fairchild; bleed air's not the issue so far as the environmental issue. Due to all the fuel tanks directly below the floor panels, there's no floor heat; it all pipes in from the ceiling, so during a flight, your feet , and anything else you lay on the floor, freezes, but your upper body roasts from the heat pouring down on you. As soon as we're wheels up on a long trip, everybody scrambles to the highest ground they can find to sleep, be it on top of the baggage palette (that was my usual spot), on top of equipment crates chained down center isle, etc. I've made the trip across the pond on jump seats, and by the time you arrive , you're pretty cold. The old P&W J57s (water burners) you make reference to have long been retired- the turbofans are by far better in all respects. Other than the heat issue, the KC-135 is a nice ride.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Well, unless another radical advancement happens to improve stealth characteristics, this is the basic shape of things to come. Still not as pretty as the YF-23, but really, what is?
  6. M'Kyuun
    Condolences for your loss, Mike, and thanks for the review. FT did a fair job at translating the F-16, although I can't judge them too harshly for the boxiness of the undercarriage, as that's just the nature of just about every aircraft, especially fighters, in the Transformer universe since the 80's, and certainly true to the Aerialbot aesthetic, such as it is. TBH, I wasn't a fan of them back then, and I'm still not much of a fan, at least of maintaining the 80's design philosophy. I'd love to see the Aerialbots receive the same kind of engineering that Unique Toys have been applying to the Bayformer figs, and actually make accurate looking aircraft that unfurl into these boxy bots. Heck, I wouldn't be bothered if some license were taken to make the bots less boxy, as that's really just a holdover of 80's limitations. So, I'm still waiting for that 'perfect' set of Aerialbots to come along, and then I might get excited, as I like all the aircraft involved, especially the Harrier, the F-15, and the Concorde. Given the state of toy tech, and the rate that it continues to improve, the more I believe it's an achievable goal, and I hope one of these companies is up to the challenge. Props to you, good sir, for your proper references to aircraft bits. I wasn't aware that the protuberances on the wingtips were static dischargers, so I learned something as well. I worked on a base with F-15s &F-16s for three years (I worked on B-1B Lancers at the time, just down the flightline from the 16s. Crazy loud little SOBs when they start their takeoff runs. We used to joke about hanging F-16s from the bombers' wings as guided missiles). F-16's are so cute.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Not a clit , per se, but there is a strategically placed slot suspiciously reminiscent of external female reproductive anatomy. Could just be coincidence.... She has a rather well sculpted bum, too. As I said, her very feminine depiction is none too subtle. It makes little sense within the context of her being a mechanical entity (TF's often mentioned 'rolling off the assembly line' in the original show, thus negating any conception that some form of sexual reproduction was , or could be, involved. To my practical mind, that's the only plausibility- they're built, not born). However, dudes like T&A (and some women, too), and this is definitely intended to appeal to those who like that sort of thing. I'm not into sexualized robots myself, but there are other redeeming qualities of this fig that I like enough to warrant getting her, and a potential Windblade, who'll likely share the same attributes. As a straight male who thinks the female form is most agreeable, I can live with the aesthetic choices. Sexualized bots is definitely a thing- it's all over DeviantArt, which kinda gives a little credence to the first part of the site's name. You're almost guaranteed to get a few examples when Googling any fembot from Transformers. And some male bots. I don't get the fascination, but it's out there. Such is the world we live in. A little scary if you give it any real consideration....
  8. M'Kyuun
    So yeah, this is Nicee with Shockwave's noggin. I wonder if that's going to be an odd extra with the final release, if they have an actual separate fig in the works, or if they're just having a bit of fun? This pic reminds me again of the amazing sculptwork, D-cups notwithstanding. I'm hoping she'll come with optional smaller chesticles- not a fan of big boobs, regardless of who or what bears them.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Eh, the novelty of femmebots with anthropomorphic curves doesn't really excite me as much as the level of engineering brought to bear in a femmebot. I have MMC's Arcee, which I think does a good job of capturing a feminine appearance with a satisfying transformation that results in a fairly accurate approximation of her animated car mode. She's not without her concessions, but on the whole, a pretty good figure. Arcee's a tough one to do, so a fig that turns out this well, especially with the excellent levels of articulation achieved and minimal kibble (especially compared to HasTak's Generations figure) is worthy of merit. I also have Big Firebird's Nicee PO'd, and it's overtly sexualized, which isn't to my taste exactly ( as a robot, I'd rather it was more subdued, but I get what they're going for. So be it), but I really like the overall styling, the mechanical details (like moving hydraulic cylinders at the joints), a possible hideaway gun feature similar to Robocop's, and a good car mode that has it's own style and yet is unmistakably Arcee's. It's a good looking toy so far, and I fence-sat for awhile before deciding to go ahead and get her. I probably won't display her with the rest of my MP collection, as MMC's Azalea is filling the role in that display, but I'll likely make a spot for her on my desk somewhere. I'm also looking forward to Big Firebird's rumored Windblade in the same style. Was about to post when Anime52's post popped up. Sexywave Looks suspiciously like Big Firebird's work (speak of the devil). Will have to do some research.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I'm still slowly making my way through Macross 7. I'm up to ep 17, and while the main story about yet another group of humanoid aliens attacking our intrepid space colonists from Earth is alright, the attempt at rehashing Minmei vis a vis Basara is more annoying than entertaining. Moreover, I can't stand any of his songs, especially the utterly stupid "Planet Dance", which they play ad nauseum in just about every ep. Ep 17 introduces "Remember 16", which is the first Basara song I like in the series. I hope going forward, that becomes the prominent song, b/c the rest are just terrible. Mylene's "My friend" song is so much better, but they don't play it often. Anyway, I get the sense her role is about to expand, so hopefully her songs will be more prevalent going forward. As an aside, I think it's funny how the 'concert hall' effect is used just about every time Basara or Mylene sings, even when they're singing acapella. I also can't help but notice the lack of a harmonica player in Fire Bomber despite the fact that harmonica is played so prominently in the abhorrent "Planet Dance". I guess, after all the impressive music (Thanks Yoko Kanno) in Macross Plus, my expectations for the music in Macross 7 were somewhat high. I'm not taking the letdown well. Loving all the variable fighter action, though. I'm familiar with the majority of variable fighters from M7, so I fully expected to see VF-19s from the onset, since the YF-19 won the competition in Plus to replace the old VF-11. Seeing VF-11s going into battle as the main battle force, accompanied by the more elite VF-17s (which get their asses kicked with regularity as well) was a nice surprise. I like the VF-11, so it's nice to see them in action, even if it's only briefly before getting blown to smithereens. Given the prominence of the Fz-109 Elgarsolns as the main enemy mecha in M7, I'm surprised that no toys have ever been made, AFAIK, anyway. Experten's VF-14 garage kit is the closest thing, but still not quite the same as having a nice high end 1/60 scale toy. Anyway, I have to say I'm enjoying Macross 7 more than I thought I would, and more so than Delta, which just really didn't grab me. The original SDF: M, Plus, and Frontier are my favorite entries so far in the series, but M7 is slowly shaping up to be an enjoyable interlude between Plus and Frontier, Basara notwithstanding.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Agree. As Transformers go, this one is pretty lazy. I think they bet more on the novelty of a female Dinobot , and everything else, including effective engineering, went out the door.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Yeeeessss! Just saw it today, going in spoiler-free, and enjoyed it. A few scenes brought a tear or two. And while some things raise questions (where did all those Sith come from?), it was a fun movie that answered all the major questions raised in Force Awakens, gave us a few last moments with OT characters, and ended on a high note with a likeable heroine who I hope gets some follow-up in one form or another. Unlike some fans, I don't mind that JJ played it 'safe' with the story. The basic tenants of SW have long been good vs evil, family differences, roguish characters who blur the lines, but are still, at heart, good, spaceship battles, a plethora of creatures and droids, and one Force that binds them all together. This film gave me that, and, given the direction TLJ took, managed to bring the story back to where Force Awakens left off. JJ has his detractors, and I guess if you don't like his style, then you'll never be satisfied, but I liked the Force Awakens, and TLJ felt like such a detour from where TFA was heading, that it just seems jarring in retrospect. The only thing I recall liking from that film was the Hammerhead Cruiser smacking the crap out of a First Order Star Destroyer. I can at least watch TFA and TRoS without cringing every five minutes like I do watching the Prequels. I tend to mellow on stuff over time, but I still find them pretty terrible. I will concur with an earlier statement (I forget who said it, so apologies) that TRoS would have provided more coherency had it been the basis for the entire new trilogy and broken up into more films to tell the story. Or even if it had been made into two films, as there is a lot of jumping around in this movie, but it didn't bother me. It all came together and made sense in the end. And that's all I really required of it. Good film, and a good sendoff IMHO. Just watched Jeremy Jahn's Spoiler vid a few posts back, and I have to agree with his observations. I still like TRoS, but , summing up, this film was basically trying to cap off the trilogy and do damage control from TLJ in 2.5 hours, where the story would have been better served as two films. Jeremy's critique of Rey and her abilities is spot on. I still like her as a character, though, and the fault lies more in the writing than in Daisy's performance.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Reminds me of the designs for the DICE, or Dinobreaker, series, especially the red one . I never knew there was a n all-moto combiner, either. It is Japanese, so not surprising. It had to happen. Pretty neat.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Go! Mighty Orbots! There was a Japan-only release of the Mighty Orbots based on the God Mars back in the 80's. Good show for its time, with some of the best animation.
  15. M'Kyuun
    I'm probably in the extreme minority here, but I never cared for the look of the SDF-1- just never appealed to me. I prefer the looks of the Battle 7 (Macross 7) and the Quarter (Frontier), and I wouldn't mind smaller transforming toys (about the size of a leader class TF) of both, just to have representations of them that don't take up a ton of space. The valks, though, have always been my draw to Macross, and to that end, I'd just like to see more of those come from Arcadia. My old Yammie Plus VF-11 has held up quite well over the years, so I'm not really feeling the need for a replacement, although I can understand it if some folks out there who never got one , or who just like to refresh their collections, want a new version. Personally, I want them to delve into uncharted territory and produce some of the valk designs that have never been made in toy form before.
  16. M'Kyuun
    That's good scaling, although he'd be literally hard pressed to fit in the slave mode's cockpit. That Garland is so pretty; can't wait for the Proto to release.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Regardless of the whole romance story and the typical Tom Cruise inner turmoil schtick that became a hallmark of many of his movies throughout the 90's, Top Gun was one of the best recruiting vehicles ever made for the Navy. Jets are cool, and the movie did a good job of glamorizing the fighter pilot life. I'm not sure it'll have the same effect on today's generation of young men and women, as they're more interested in the next version of iPhone than jumping into a fast plane. Moreover, I think today's youth are a little more savvy than we were in the 80's, due to social media saturation, Google, and Wiki at their fingertips; I assume more kids are aware that only a small percentage of people ever see the inside of a cockpit, and the vast majority , regardless of branch, end up working on the ground. As a hydraulics specialist in the Air Force, the only time I ever flew was when I went on TDYs , and later in my career, deployments to nowhere noteworthy or glamorous, packed into a KC-135 (with a really crappy environmental system) along with about twenty or so peeps, and several palettes of cargo. It made for a long, uncomfortable ride across the pond. So, if any of you guys reading this are aspiring jet jockies, know that it's a tough career to get into, but if you make it, the fact is, the military accommodates you very well. It's a good life, and it's a powerful, nigh requisite, stepping stone to achieving rank and greater positions of authority in those services that fly. If you can't be a pilot, go medical, finance, or personnel (non-ers, as we in the aircraft world cheekily call them)- avoid CE, aircraft maintenance, and security forces, where long thankless days in any conceivable weather are your destiny. There's a reason you don't see movies about the latter three.
  18. M'Kyuun
    FT's Thomas just looks mazing to me. Blitzwing has always been my favorite triple changer, but over the years, Astrotrain has grown on me, probably b/c of his shuttle mode more than anything, but I like the look of his bot mode, too, and FT nailed it. From all the pics I've seen, they did an excellent job on both of his alts, within the context of maintaining a nice marriage of toy and toon that that's pitch perfect to me. Their minibot figs are all looking good to me, too. Phoenix and the Dibots are my only FT figs to date, but Thomas is almost certainly bought, and their Brawn and Warpath are looking good to me, too. Gonna have to make some room in the ole Detolf. Props to FT for the hand gestures of their Stunticons and the Aerialbot dude- nice bit of humor there while showing off the hand articulation. Little disappointed that MMC's cassette figs are taking a backseat, but I understand; TF fans love their combiners. I prefer the cassettes, but I'm in the minority, methinks. I can wait. I just hope they don't cancel them in the interim. I'll also give your dedicated site for reviews a thumbs up, Mike. It'll give you freedom to be more expansive with both pics and writeups. Good luck! The pics on TFW from SGC seem to be very focused on TW and Unique Toys with some legends stuff and a couple others thrown in, but not much else from third party. Does anyone know of links to other pics from the con? I tried Google, with zero results.
  19. M'Kyuun
    FT's Astrotrain, Brawn, and Warpath have my interest. I haven't seen those pics posted on either TFW or Seibertron; I'll have to do some more looking around. While I don't collect a whole lot of legends stuff, I'm always interested to see the engineering these companies are pouring into these things, especially Magic Square and New Age, since both seem to be trying to make accurate G1 toys at that scale. Iron Factory kinda does its own thing, and I think a lot of them are adorable, but they just don't check the accuracy box like MS and NA. I own NA's Prowl and Cosmos, and MS' s Huffer, which is a really nice figure, although he doesn't really scale well with CHUG legends. But, he looks really good, nonetheless. MMC have been rather silent concerning those Autobot cassette figs since they unveiled them some time ago. Waiting patiently. If I had the room, I'd consider their Bruticus, as the engineering is hitting all the right notes with me, I absolutely love the integrated combiner parts, and Bruticus happens to be my favorite combiner. I already have Toy World's Devastator, and I just have nowhere to put another team of these combiner guys. I need a second house just for all my collectables, but I can't afford that, so I need to chill on the acquisitions. I always appreciate the amount of work you put into your reviews, so yeah, keep 'em coming. Vid reviews are nice to see the engineering in action, but photo reviews give a closer critique of the details and paintwork, so both are valuable to me. While the Aerialbots haven't interested me since I was a kid (I think the blocky aircraft modes just ruined them for me), I do appreciate that these third parties are trying to make better jet modes for these guys. They're still not perfect, but better than anything official.
  20. M'Kyuun
    After watching your Fewture review, I went back and watched your Arcadia review. I'd liken the comparison between a Hasbro CHUG figure (the Arcadia) with a MP figure (Fewture), such is the extent of detail and complexity involved in the latter. I love the detail of the Fewture, but I think I prefer the simpler transformation of the Arcadia. I find as I get older, I'm less inclined towards all the small fiddly bits that need to be aligned to get the bigger stuff into place. Too, the Arcadia skews much closer to the lineart, and I like the chunkier Slave proportions. Both are beautiful toys, but the Fewture by far outclasses the Arcadia in just about every other area.
  21. M'Kyuun
    It's easy to criticize HasTak, but they're designing a mass retail toy on a fixed budget intended for children ages 8+. Third Parties are under no such constraints, and generally intend their products to be bought by adult fans with a fair bit of disposable income, not to mention the skill and dexterity necessary to manipulate their far more complex mechanisms. Apples and oranges, my friend. I'm a little dismayed that just about everything on display is either Bee Movie or Bayformer related, with the notable exception of the Prime figs, and some of the Iron Factory guys, which are, like the majority of their figs, G1ish, albeit very stylized. I guess the G1 teat is about milked dry, if you'll excuse the vulgar analogy. It's funny that Animated, although received mostly positively after folks got into it, just hasn't had the toy love since the original line. I'd love to see an Animated Omega Supreme fig from one of these third parties, since HasTak seem to have no intention of revisiting the theme. I'd love to have a Slag and Sludge in that style, too, just to round out the team. Zeta's Bee looks really nice. So does the Aoyi Prime. Great time to be a collector if you've got the finances and the space for all these things. Space is my biggest hurdle, so I tend to enjoy the majority of these figures vicariously via reviews. I hope all this COPPA stuff doesn't put a kibosh on vid reviews, as they're my window to a lot of this stuff, and it'd be a terrible loss if it went away. I doubt I'm alone in that sentiment.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Well, I'll give Toy World props for tackling a triple changing Shatter; it's honestly not too bad, but not great either. the car just looks odd, like the sides are made of a single sheet of cardboard with no panle lines for doors. The harrier is far better than the dedicated Harrier mode of the HasTak version, but, due to the triple changing nature, still not perfect. It's missing its main gear, which come out of the belly just aft of the aft Vernier nozzles, but has the mid-wing outriggers similar to the American AV-8B Harrier. I guess most folks won't notice, though. I wonder if those Transformer: Prime figs transform. No alt modes are shown, but that doesn't necessarily mean they don't. Bumblebee Movie Bee looks good, esp that bot mode. Looks better to me than any of the official toys thus far.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Our 'newest' fighters, the F-22, and her baby sister, the F-35, are over twenty, and 14 years old, respectively. As tech progresses, the time period for development seems to expand, and it's especially visible when looking at military hardware. It's crazy when you consider during WWII aircraft companies could pump out a new aircraft, from concept to full production and flying missions in a matter of months. Now the same process takes decades. Concerning software, that's one area of improvement that's continuous throughout a military, and I'd assume commercial, aircraft's operational life. I worked on KC-135s with 50 years of service, and they still would receive the odd upgrade here and there. Likewise Vietnam era MC-130Es at Hurlburt Fld, which I'm sure have been retired to the Guard at this point. So yeah, black boxes, and other add-on electronic tech continue to find their way into aging aircraft. Back on topic, Tom Cruise seems to be a rather accomplished pilot; he was already multi-engine certed, and learned to fly a helicopter, which he did solo, for his last MI film. So, I tip my hat to the man, as he has demonstrated, in my mind, the competency to take a fighter for a spin. I very strenuously doubt they'd allow him to fly an F-18 solo- quite an expensive and sensitive war machine to put in the hands of a novice (compared to highly trained Naval aviators, who rank in my book as the best in the world) just to make a film. So, I'm thinking they used twin seaters for the shots of Tom in the plane flying. That's not to say they didn't give him stick time; I've known AF folks who got to take incentive rides in fighters, and they were allowed to fly the plane for a bit, and these are non-pilot maintenance folks, so an experienced pilot like Tom would have little trouble conducting himself professionally in that situation, methinks. I'm kinda curious what kind of story they're going to cook up; I guess they could always go after some fictional Middle Eastern group , but given the eponymous title, and Tom's hubris, I'm thinking it's all about Tom.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Your first comment is correct. When the govt makes a contract with the manufacturer, it's for 'x' amount of aircraft and 'x' amount of spare parts, and you're talking about thousands to millions of parts, test equipment for many of the high end parts, special tools, training, technical literature for test/inspection/repair, not to mention money paid to subcontractor higher end maintenance for those things that can't be rebuilt or repaired at the field level. The rabbit hole for a new piece of equipment is deep and labyrinthine. Add to that politics, and then you see the agreed upon number of acquisitions fluctuate, usually lower, to much lower, than initially agreed upon, which serves only to raise the cost of each unit. Additionally, if the aircraft in question is intended to be a multi-Service aircraft, then each branch contributes it's own requisites to a growing list, and the manufacturer has to somehow try to meet all those demands. I'm currently reading about the development of the Osprey, so while I have tangential knowledge from working on military aircraft, the book delves much deeper into the process than my meager experience offers, and these are some of the issues which accompany the process. Once an aircraft contract is met, and all spare parts have been produced, that's usually it for inventory. In many cases, all tooling is destroyed, and the only recourse for introducing spare parts into the supply system is to retire a number of aircraft and cannibalize as much useful stuff off of them as is feasible. However, sometimes something like a fuel or hydraulic line will burst, one that's incredibly difficult to make, and Logistics will order one removed from a plane in the boneyard to either use outright or to use as a sample for the sheet metal folks. Same goes for skin panels, and other structures of a nature that make them difficult or impractical to remove for preservation. Concerning the sky-genitals, I believe it was our Navy folks here in WA that did that bit of artistry. Naturally, I think somebody complained b/c people love to be offended even when they're not. It's harmless and funny- have a laugh and carry on.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Thanks! According to BBTS, it was projected to release this month. Guess that's not happening. All things being equal, if they need more time to put finishing touches or address quality issues, I'm more than happy to wait. At the prices these things go for these days, I'd just as soon give the companies time to work out the bugs instead of issuing lemons. That Fewture Garland is a beautiful piece. I think the stylized sculpt works, especially the angle of the legs in bike mode to give it that swept back wedge look. I prefer the larger legs of the Arcadia, though. Too, while metal content feels good in the hand, all it says to me is greater wear over less time in the joints, so I think I prefer the higher plastic content overall for durability. Once the Proto-Garland releases, it'll be my first Garland toy, one I've been waiting for for a long time. I just want it to be as polished as it can possibly be.
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