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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Got my Max Sterling today- pretty much what I expected- a little floppy in fighter, esp with FAST Packs, but overall a pretty neat little figure. The kneecap covers on mine are really tight, making GERWALK a little challenging. Fortunately, they're made from a soft rubbery plastic. To get a nose down look, I finally had to untab the intakes from the frame and just pose him. The ball joints are tight, so it holds a pose well. I wish they'd made a way to tab the arms in fighter, but with the gunpod pegged in, they stay in place pretty well. Anyway, for it's few flaws, looks, presentation, details, and overall articulation on an SD figure are really well done IMHO. KC also included a set of four of the boxy rocket launchers in a separate little ziplock. The overall loadout for this little guy is pretty impressive if you get the FAST Packs. Glad I did as they're done really well, and as Stampeed mentioned, they have removable covers revealing some nice painted engine detail. To me, on a figure like this, that's the extra mile. So, really pleased with it. Wish I'd scored a VF-1S, but I'm happy with the one I do have. Recommended if you like SD valks. I hope these guys do an SD Legioss, and perhaps a 1/72. My Toynami looks nice, but I dare not touch it for fear of something crumbling.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Um, not feelin' the song, but the girls are cute. The "live" performance looks badly lip-synched to me. Guess I'm getting too old for this stuff. I'd still rather hear Rie Fu sing 'Life is Like a Boat' live over all this choreographed stuff. Or BoA belt out 'Every heart'. Still love both of those songs.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Honestly, for what's really more of a novelty figure, I'm not expecting the quality of a Bandai or Arcadia valk, or even HM. For the price, though, these are some nice toys; the use of die-cast is appropriate for balance and strength, the panel lining is a great addition, as well as all the accessories, not to mention it has the best sculpt of all the SD VF-1s I've seen over the years (granted I've never handled any of them). Moreover, I doubt anyone is buying these for their collectability; I may be wrong, but this sort of thing just doesn't seem to fall into that niche. These things are made to be played with, as just by their very nature, they're cute and fun, and beg to be messed with. I know I'm kinda excited for mine to arrive, supposedly Tuesday, so just a couple more days. Robotech or no, pretty sure I'm gonna love it.
  4. M'Kyuun
    LDD version 4.3.11 is available, although AFAIK, only 4.3.10 installs from the LDD webpage. To get 11, right click the download button, copy the entire url, and then manually change 4_3_10.exe to 4_3_11.exe. Should look like this: https://lc-www-live-s.legocdn.com/downloads/ldd2.0/installer/setupLDD-PC-4_3_11.exe Restart LDD, and in view, select Extended. You should have the expanded palette including most of the 2017 new elements. Hope it works for you. Cheers! Credit to Eurobricks user loading.... for the info.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Mine shipped this past Sunday from HK and it's due to arrive on Tuesday, so a little over a week, and I chose the faster of the two shipping methods KC offered, since shipping was free either way. Moreover, I live in WA, so it doesn't usually take too long for packages to get here by USPS once they clear customs in CA. I'm actually surprised it's taking this long, honestly; I had expected it to come yesterday, until I checked tracking. I've ordered a few things from BBTS in the past, and I can't remember its taking that long for packages to reach me; then again, it's been awhile, and I do more business with TFSource, who are based in Vegas. BBTS are based in Wisconsin, so location may play a factor, as well as, as Jenius mentioned, shipping method.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Popped in here on a whim, and saw The Greatest Showman above, so I thought I'd give it a listen. I don't watch The Voice, so I was unaware of Loren Allred. I'm aware now- wow. Sometimes curiosity pays off.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Not to take away from Chronocidal's amazing work on his uber-UCS X-Wing, but.... As a follow-up to my comments regarding LEGO's Tracker I https://shop.lego.com/en-US/Tracker-I-75185 , I recently built it's nemesis from LEGO's Star Wars Freemaker tv series, the protagonists' ship The Arrowhead. https://shop.lego.com/en-US/The-Arrowhead-75186 While this set was pretty much a straightforward build, unlike the more innovative construction of the Tracker, I still found it an enjoyable experience, and the final model is sleek , lovely from any angle, highly swooshable, and has room inside for all three Freemaker siblings and their reprogrammed battle droid. I feel the need to mention that the youngest of the Freemaker clan actually comes with the Tracker I as a prisoner, so both sets are needed to have a family reunion. As far as the designs of both ships go, AFAIK, both originated within LEGO, although I'd imagine, as in the past, everything needs to be approved by Lucasfilms. But it doesn't elude me that these are two really nice designs that, IMHO, eclipse many of the recent Episode films' designs. Thought I'd share my impressions, since they're not part of the main SW lore, they might slip under the radar. Worth the money, esp since both are now on sale at Wally.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Hope the anime's good but if not, eh. I'm more curious about the M.O.E.V. toys. I imagine Bandai will likely make the merch for this film.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Ugly???! They're adorable. I'm expecting my Max Sterling w/ FAST Packs version any day now; it'll be my first SD VF-1 and I'm pretty excited to fiddle with it. I'm not plussed about helping HG, but then again, I've bought a few Toynami products over the years. I still think their Legioss has the best sculpt, even if the quality is iffy at best. At least reports of the KC's VF-1s have been positive. If you'd be so kind Stampeed, I'd be interested in your impressions of the toys.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, unfortunate name, but everything else about her is fortunate.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Ambitious. If you end up building it with real brick, she's going to be a heavy beast. Looking good so far.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Looks interesting. I have no familiarity with the comics, so it's all fresh to me. Just from the trailer, the young protagonist looks like she carries the movie well. Nice to see Zoe and Imogen in there, too. It has a Harry Potter feel to it, not necessarily a bad thing, as I liked the Potter films. Worth a look so far. It already looks better than BFG to me, and that was a cute film.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Visited my TRU a couple weeks ago, and upon inquiry the cashier said they're safe; moreover, they're going to be making some improvements in the store, so that me happy. They're the only TRU on the eastern side of WA (we lost the other one, also here in Spokane, about ten years ago and they turned it into a Babies R Us. My thinking is, can't you sell baby paraphernalia in a TRU and still keep all the toys? Alas, it's history, and also on the closing list. As the girl I spoke to said, the Spokane Valley store sees customers from Canada, Idaho and eastern WA, plus it's in a good location. So I'm glad we're holding on to ours, but I definitely feel a pang of sadness for all the folks losing theirs. We lost Hastings, a books and multimedia store a year or so ago, and we still feel that loss. It had great atmosphere and was a haunt for college kids, and we hoped it'd be saved, but it wasn't. However, TRU is a global iconic brand, and I hope with some good leadership, a strong financial plan, and cooperation from all the various toy makers, they can make it prosperous again. We're losing too much stuff like this, it seems. It's like losing Saturday cartoons again and again.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I hope wave 2 starts showing up soon, as I'm looking forward to completing my Dinobot team. I really, really wish Takara had invested more time and engineering on Volcanicus' hips, rather than just using Grimlock's hips, or knees, if Grimlock's legs are splayed to widen V's stance. The knees make more sense to me, as their position in combined mode looks more appropriately proportional to me, but then you face the issue of the gestalt's hips rotating at an angle. It just seems like it could have, and should have, been better executed. Looking forward to getting Moonracer, another nice new fembot who looks entirely unique, albeit a little shellformery. Both of the deluxe jets look like CW holdovers-meh. Black Cheetor looks cool, but I'm gonna pass. There were some issues with that figure that could have been done better. Glad they made him, and I do think he looks amazing, but I'm not crazy about some of the tolerances and how his cat whiskers are smashed out of shape in robot mode due to the small cavity the cheetah head fits into in bot mode. Edit http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/01/25/takara-legends-lg-58-clone-bot-set-lg-59-blitzwing-lg-60-overlord-package-images-357253 Takara is selling the Autobot and Decepticon clones in nice little boxsets; I wonder if Hasbro will eventually release these here. I know they've sold one of each at Walgreens, but what's the point of that? So, I've been holding out hoping that they'll see an eventual stateside release, hopefully together as they should be, as their original G1 toys were. Hasbro's marketing and distribution just make me crazy, and it doesn't help that they're keeping their early Toyfair displays unreleased to the public. Hopefully, it'll be a different story at the NY Toy Fair. Anyway, as much as I'm tempted to pay double US prices for a couple Legends class figures, I'm going to exercise restraint, as it seems that all these Takara exclusive figs eventually get a US release- thinking deluxe Groove from CW, and now the upcoming US release of Blast Off. Not sure if anyone remembers them, but with all the G1 homages, I'd love to see the Omnibots (three mail order Autobots, Downshift, Camshaft, and Overdrive, with flip out weapon gimmicks) get some modern toys. I only had Downshift, so to be able to have all three with modern engineering would be fantastic.
  15. M'Kyuun
    As a huge fan of the original, I honestly didn't mind the 2014 film, although one needs to go into it with the mindset that it's not Verhoeven's Robocop. Murphy's humanity is at the core of both films, just done in different ways. A film that picks up directly after the original would be interesting, although I highly doubt it'll be Weller in the suit; a cameo would be nice, though. But given the span of time, just about all the main characters will need to be recast with younger actors: Weller's 70, Nancy Allen is 67, Dan O'Herhily (The Old Man) passed away, etc, etc. Given that this will in all likelihood be populated with fresh faces, trying to recapture the feel of the original will be the challenge, methinks. Not to mention all the satire, over-the-top blood and gore, the language, the sleazy "I'll buy that for a dollar" guy, and on and on. There are a lot of elements to the original that made it unique when it came out and have made it a classic. Moreover, in a world now used to seeing lithe action heroes, Robocop's slow stride may be a bit off-putting to today's audiences, but it's a part of the character which came about due to the difficulty of moving in the suit. The original was almost scrapped because of it, but fortunately, The one change I do want to see from the original's sequels is the characterization of The Old Man as a bad guy. The impression I've always had from the first movie was that he was a good guy, albeit shrewd. But he was no Dick Jones.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Some great ankle articulation they pulled off with this figure. It's a shortcoming of the FT figures. Guess that's the tradeoff between taking license and keeping faithful to the 80's designs. This looks like a fun bot to play with, while the FT's dinos are better for display. It's why options are great - sometimes it's just fun to play, and to me, it makes a nice looking robo-stegosaur to boot. Thanks for sharing, Kuma. If you end up getting the rest of the team, I look forward to your exposes on those as well.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, kinda surprising that the Shuttle wasn't chosen as a nice follow-up to the Saturn V. I don't think the stand-alone gantry has enough appeal on its own; it would have to be accompanied by some sort of spacecraft, which would raise the price dramatically. The F-15 would have been cool, but I get why they wouldn't do it, as grey rebuilds would start popping up everywhere, or folks would just start arming it with missiles as-is. Human nature is pretty transparent when it comes to any kind of war-making paraphernalia. I'm not interested in any of the next round models, although I have to admit that all three of the seaside buildings are lovely; just not really my cup of tea, as they say. What I'm waiting for is Voltron. I'm hoping against hope that new stronger ratcheting joints need to be designed to make it work. If not, I'm still thinking it's going to be a pretty damned cool set, one of the best official mecha sets by far. And, I'll finally have a Go-Lion Voltron. Feeling optimistic.
  18. M'Kyuun
    I wonder if that's a Harmony Gold issue, or something else. Either way, shame for HLJ, but good that you were able to find it at a better price. I'd highly recommend buying directly from KC directly, esp since shipping is free and most of their SD valks are on sale for better prices than you'll pay through an online retailer. I already have 2 Arcadia 1/60 VF-1s, which fills my quota for now. The only other VF-1 I'd really like to own is an Elint, just b/c of the unique packs, so I hope Arcadia will do a rerelease. However, if Kitz Concept released one, and reviews are good for their 1/72, I'd accept that as a decent alternative. Scale's not a real big deal to me. If it was, I'd have quit Transformers, LEGO, and Macross a long time ago.
  19. M'Kyuun
    I wish they'd still had the VF-1S on sale, as it would have been my preference; however, in the interest of changing things up and getting a VF-1 in a color scheme I don't own, I went with the Max Sterling. I like how the FAST Packs are two-toned- nice touch. Anyway, for anyone on the fence, Kitz Concept has their SD VF-1s on sale, all with free shipping. here's the store link: https://kitzconcept.hk/ I sat on the fence for quite awhile , but I like egg-planes and SD versions when they're done well. After looking at pics and reviews, I'm pretty impressed overall with the proportions of these guys, and the perfect transformation they were able to execute, with one caveat: there is a removable plate that goes around the neck to help hold the chest and back plate in place. I don't know if it's there just as an extra assist, or if it's necessary to keep it from devolving into a sloppy mess. Either way, it seems a small price when the rest is done so well. I've been wanting an SD VF-1 for some time, so these guys have had my attention ever since this topic appeared. Guess it was just time to plunk down some cash and get one. I still kinda regret not getting the SD VF-25 when that was out, as it seemed like a cool little figure, too. Ah well. 'preciate the heads up concerning weight and the stand. Mine will likely spend most of its time in battroid, but if I get a wild hair to change up and display it in fighter with missiles firing, then it's good to know what to expect. As for the size thing, usually toys of this nature are small- I've got the SD Roadbuster Mugen Caliber repaint, and it's pretty small. Like these VF-1s, I wish it'd come with a second smaller head that could be incorporated into the transformation, but it didn't. However the last time a toy surprised me with its size, it was FT's Phoenix, which I knew was gonna be big, but it's surprisingly so in hand. Their Dinos are pretty good sized, too, but I understand Giga's are even bigger- wow. Also, Toy World's Devastator (Constuctor) when assembled is massive.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Couldn't resist the chibiness- ordered the Max Sterling with FAST Packs.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Well, I agree that Takara, as well as other makers of transforming toys in the 80's, were operating on the cusp of what was possible with given technology, materials, affordability, etc. But I think the toys also need to be taken on a case by case basis; as you pointed out some toys, like the F-15s with their separate hands, and any number of other figures exhibited cheats that perhaps could have, and have been since, designed to eliminate the need for those cheats. However, the innovative nature of the toys' transformation gimmick can't be ignored, and since it formed the focus, license was taken to that end. Moreover, I can also point out examples of transforming toys from that period that in fact did have decent articulation ( Shockwave most certainly, 1/55 VF-1 (Jetfire), Megatron could swing his legs fore and aft as well as position his hips due to the transformation linkages, I owned a few non-Transformer bots that turned into insects that generally had articulated legs that could rotate fore and aft, as well as Bandai's Scramble Egg SD F-15 which, despite it's unconventional robot mode, had a lot of ratcheted articulation). I'm sure there are more examples. However, for the Diaclone/TF toys, since transformation was the gimmick, all other considerations were secondary, and I think they were designed to be solid from the waist down to simplify manufacturing and ease transformation for little kids. So yeah, I think some designs were lazier than others, but within the grand scheme of TF toys, most shared the same shortcomings where articulation is concerned, and a few where cheats were employed to achieve transformation, and that was just the standard. It's also important to remember that these were solely targeted at kids without consideration of an adult collector consumer base who critique every little thing about every release, so shortcuts could be taken without fear of scathing YouTube reviews and angry fanrants on numerous blogs. It's an interesting time we live in, in which toys are now the playthings of adults as well as kids ( I didn't know of any adults growing up who collected toys), and with that adult sensibilities are brought to bear, which I believe, has had to have had some influence on how these things are designed. Maybe. I still wonder sometimes. As far as laziness being carried forward, IMHO, most jet TF designs today are still extremely lazy, as the bot just lays strapped under the jet fuselage, or the arms are just folded alongside the body with little attempt to incorporate them into the transformation. To that end, I actually like the transformation of the arms on the old G1 F-15, as they were at least incorporated into the fuselage. Granted the hands were a cheat- yeah, pretty sh!tty, but it is what it is. There was a G1 inspired Starscream in the Robot Masters line http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Starscream_(G1)/toys#Robotmasters in which the arms transformed in a similar manner to the original toy, which I thought was pretty awesome, and I wish was employed in a modern toy. CW Jetfire stands as one of the best official jet designs in recent years, although he suffers from a lot of backpack-it is. But his arms are integrated! And, though he's technically more spaceship than jet, I feel compelled to point out how well Fans Toys' Phoenix integrates those huge arms into his alt mode- warm fuzzies when I transform him. Anyway, I've blabbered enough. Interesting turn of the topic, though.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Since these are robotic versions of dinosaurs, with a lot of stylistic license thrown in, plus a necessity for transformation, I'm willing to overlook certain inaccuracies. Unless they're really wonky, or start looking like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, I'm not too bothered by license. The G1 dinos themselves weren't exactly accurate, and the toys used cheats (looking a Sludge's forearms tucked neatly under his chest in dino mode). Of course, with standards and expectations being what they are, nobody'd buy a modern toy that employed such lazy engineering. But we sure gobbled them up back in the 80's. Which makes me wonder why folks still shell for those old toys. Nostalgia didn't improve their engineering. Thirteen year old me was envisioning toys akin to what we have now back in the 80's, as just about every TF purchase was an exercise in disappointment, esp when the boxart sold a far more dynamic picture of the enclosed toy. So as a fan of the G1 look, but not the G1 toys, the buffet of G1 inspired toys being offered is a long-held wish come true. I wish I could afford more of them, but I get more meaning from the ones I do buy b/c I have to be choosy. My FT dinos and Phoenix are hands down some of the coolest TF toys I own, and I keep them where I can see them all the time, as they never fail to delight me.
  23. M'Kyuun
    G1 and Beast Wars for me. Speaking of which, I got my Sunstreaker yesterday, and I'm really impressed with the articulation. He does have a sizeable backpack, which everyone wishes was smaller, but it's not, and honestly, it doesn't get in the way of anything so.... As for his butt plate- it's actually pretty small and the shape of it is at least complementary- again, it's unobtrusive. Having fun changing up his poses. Putting him alongside his brother showcases the evolution in articulation, and makes me hope for a MP Sideswipe Mk II in the future. At the end of the day, I'm glad I waited for Takara's, as I think he's a damn good figure, upstaging both third party offerings.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Having only fossils to examine, it's a difficult, nigh impossible, task for paleontologists to form any definitive conclusions as to the purpose of anomalous structures. The theory that seems fitting to me is that they perhaps aided in regulating body heat. just as well, they could have simply been for mating- maybe they changed colors. Who knows. They look cool, though, especially on robotic versions with all that yummy chrome. I'm just a general fan of dinos, so all the various iterations of them from all the various parties strike me as cool. I like the Exo Realm version of Snarl (thanks, Kuma!)- I think their Swoop looks awesome, too. I'm not overly critical on most things- I grew up with G1 TFs, and those things had virtually no playability outside of the transformation, so all these recent versions offer nice articulation, and even combining functions. All good things.
  25. M'Kyuun
    GCC did an admirable job with the IDW design for Prowl. Not really a fan of the design myself, at least not as Prowl, but I can appreciate it purely as a transforming figure. As far as Cybertronian modes go, at least this one looks believable and relatable. Over on TFW, some in-hand photos of Giga's Sludge (Graviter) have been posted. Gotta say, it looks lovely. http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/01/18/hand-images-gigapower-graviter-masterpiece-sludge-356871 If I was more financially inclined, I'd spring for a set of these, too.
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