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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Saw it yesterday, and thought it yet another strong entry in the MCU. I gained a strong admiration for Panther's character as he was portrayed in the 2011 cartoon The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, a thoughtful, rational, morally straight guy of few but poignant words who was prone to look before he leapt. He was a great counter to most of the team, esp Thor and Hulk, who are habitually rash. Anyway, I hoped some of that characterization would come through, and while Boseman's take isn't as generally philosophical or reticent, two movies in, I think he's a great choice for the character. Above all, I think the plot served the character well- he ran the gauntlet of human experiences in this film, and came out the other side victorious, doubtless with a few scars inside and out. It was a great character-building film, and I'm looking forward to his next outing in the Infinity War. Enjoyed the traditional African Tribal music in the score- good stuff. Always reminds me a bit of the Lion King opening, which never fails to give me goosebumps. Whoever said they were distracted by Killmonger's hair- me too! As bad guys go, he was ultimately a pathological thug, but at least his pathway to that point was explained in a way that makes sense, to me anyway. I try to empathize with his circumstances and wonder how they would have affected me at a young age. Anyway, I think he had one of the better backstories for how he became a bad guy, even if he came across as an arrogant punk to me every time he was onscreen. He was over the top sometimes, but not like Andy Serkis, who chewed every bit of scenery he was in like it was taffee. Guy enjoys his job. I thought the scenery and settings were gorgeous. It's one of the prettiest Marvel films. Loved the integration of traditional thatching on some of the modern buildings in Wakanda- just some lovely scenery there, as well as much of the styling. I'm curious to see how they follow up on the ending sentiments of the film. If only Wakanda really existed.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Kuma, is that one of the FoC/WoC Dinobots? Love the ankle articulation there; I wish FT had found a way to accomplish better foot articulation, as it's difficult to get most of their dinos into any kind of walking pose that'll hold- feet are just too big and there's no fore and aft ankle pivot, just minimal A-stance. Nice looking fig, although the black paint job throws me off- variant or the regular scheme? Anyway, lovely figure, beautiful photography as always. Giga makes some lovely Dinos; if I hadn't started down the FT path, I'd likely have a shelf full of GigaPower Dinos. I think either way you go between these two companies, you're getting a good product. I love my FT dinos, but I confess that I prefer some of Giga's aesthetic choices. I enjoy the photos of these guys, as I'll probably never get a chance to see them in person.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Huh, I only glanced at it, too distracted by transforming it. I'll have to take a second look. But yeah, kinda wish it was paint or tampo. The toys themselves are pretty neat, though. Want the rest.
  4. M'Kyuun
    My sentiments exactly.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Got my MMC Ocular Max Remix condors and Furor (Rumble) yesterday. Both are pretty awesome, but their take on Rumble is especially impressive. If you're a fan of the Cassette bots, I highly recommend. Interesting note on Furor; he comes plain with enclosed decals for a more accurate cassette look. Wish he was painted like the condors, but still nice that they come with the figure.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Ok, so by way of follow-up, I got Shuttle nd Missile-Tank yesterday. The latter is about as nigh perfect as you can get with a small transforming toy. His double missile rack, made by his arm transformation, can rotate a full 360 and raise an d lower for omnidirectional targeting. brilliant little bit of additional engineering that didn't have to be there, but I'm oh so glad they did. Like Battle, MT does not have any wheels on his faux treads, so imagination and a frictionless surface are required for optimal experience. Bot mode is nice and tight across all joints, and he has the standard articulation. The only difficulty I have with him is in separating the leg halves in bot mode- they're very solidly held in place and it takes a bit of effort to untab them (three tabs). The tail stabilizer just fell off one of the silver missiles while I was transforming him, so something else to be aware of. They're only held on by fiction- no tab, no glue. The missiles need to be removed for transformation to allow the hands to rotate into the forearms (they even attached a small hinged flap to cover the hollow arm in bot mode), and the missiles have attachment slots at center and about a cm aft of center, depending on mode. Overall, fantastic update, great toy overall- one of the best figures in the line, IMHO. Shuttle Robo- So this is the figure I was really anticipating, although I knew from pics and reviews, that he had a lot of panel-forming going on, and he does. Due to that, he doesn't 'feel' as solid in shuttle mode, although he doesn't fall apart either. He holds together well, but there's just that element of flex and give to him due to all the panels that kinda feels flimsy. Speaking of panels, one of the hinged double panels on my copy's hip wouldn't clear to fold on itself the full 180 degrees; a little sanding remedied the issue, but I stressed the panel a little in my initial efforts to fold it- just a caveat. As for joints, everything below the waist on mine is tight- the heels, which form his two exhaust bells, are so tight they squeak when rotating them for transformation-a real PITA due to the confines. However, they're on ball joints and will likely loosen over time. The left knee on mine is looser than the right, and tends to give way under the weight of the die cast which form the OMS pods; the right knee on mine is perfectly tight. The waist is on a ball joint, and mine's got good friction and holds the upper body without flop. The shoulders are the floppy joints on mine, but only seemingly when butterflying his arms. The rotation up and down is tight, or tight enough at least to hold his gun up at any level without drooping. However, I've had both arms pop off their ball joints while trying to untab them and slide them over the flight deck section, so that may have contributed to weakening them-tight tolerance clearing that flight deck. My final impression is that's he's fiddly and, due to his wings and the folding panels on his hips and knees, quite kibble-y. The ball jointed waist may prove to be a weak point in the future-probably not the best choice. Mine's still tight, so we'll see. The shoulders are the weak points on my copy, but fortunately if they become too floppy, I can add a drop of superglue. I'm a little bummed that they didn't put landing gear on this guy- there's room, and it would have made for nice ground presentation. I forgot to mention that his rifle separates into three parts, all of which stow within his shuttle mode unobtrusively, although the barrel can be seen when looking at the business end of his shuttle mode. Speaking of which, for the OCD among us, you'll probably not dig the fact that Shuttle only has two main engines instead of three, and their orientation is very high up behind the OMS pods where the RCS engines should be. Just a little FYI. Despite the flaws, I still like him, but not as much as Missile Tank, who is a clear winner for engineering, and just an overall solid toy. Looking forward to more of these figs.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Well, since the MP line is targeted at the Japanese market, and that's the direction that Takara themselves continue to travel, I'd say that that's where the demand for the utmost toon look originates. I still prefer a more detailed look to my MP figures- I thought Prowl was damn near perfect, except that he didn't have the complete toy deco (Thanks Reprolabels/Toyhax), which he should have had out of the box, IMHO. My fear now is that MP figures with blue windows and nearly no deco at all will become the main release, and we'll have to wait for a second release with a little more toy detail added. It still boggles my mind why they'd choose the bland, inconsistent cartoon look over a more toy centric look. I thought they struck a good balance between both with the early MP releases, and judging by just about any other Japanese figure and robot line, high detail is the preference. Like many, I think Hasui and team had the right idea. For those who haven't seen it, Predaking's coming: http://news.tfw2005.com/2018/02/17/toy-fair-2018-power-primes-titan-class-predaking-images-358792 First impression is that they're all voyagers, but the bot modes appear to have better articulation than the Constructicons. As with some of the other animalistic figs in the PotP line, a couple of them have small thin limbs that are just there for the animal mode contrasting with bulky limbs that become arms for the bot, and they're all chunky, cubish looking animals similar to the G1 toys. I'm digging Abominus more. Having Hun-grrr in hand, he makes a good torso, and because his arms become the gestalt's thighs (with nice ratchets), it looks and works better than Grimlock's torso mode. I wish they'd made a slider or trapeze for his thighs to disappear into his lower legs for torso mode- would have been a better solution all around.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Not yet, but the day is still young, and it continues through to tomorrow. One caveat, LEGO may be producing it, but they're being very judicious about what they're releasing to the public at TF this year. So, unlike previous years, they're not allowing pics of summer sets. I think it's going to be very limited as far as what is disclosed, and we may only see a few new sets for which official disclosures have already been made and sets that are already out. Sucks. IMO, it's a strong measure being taken to limit the number of knock-offs, especially in China.
  9. M'Kyuun
    M.A.S.K. is one of those properties that I think would make a good tv show with high production value. Do it on HBO or Netflix, make it a little grittier, and I think it could be more successful in that format as opposed to movies, as their movies thus far have all been schlocky. When you have a large cast of characters, it's difficult to introduce them all and make them all meaningful to the story. Moreover, M.A.S.K. would work well in a format similar to the X-Files where there's an overarching story, and a number of stand-alone episodes that serve to expand characters and maybe contribute to the larger story. Properties like M.A.S.K., G.I. Joe, and Transformers all have a pantheon of characters, so it's very limiting to build a movie around a large cast and cobble a story together trying to involve them in a way that showcases their particular skills, not to mention their personalities, and include an iconic vehicle or bit of hardware her or there. TV's the perfect venue, IMO. Not really sold on the Bumblebee movie; I like that he's a bug, but it reeks of Bay, and thus far I've had no interest. I'll peek at the eventual reviews around here, but I suspect it'll be more of the same, which will only cement further my relief and happiness that Bay's out.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Nice display, Kanedaestes. https://www.brothers-brick.com/2018/02/17/lego-unveils-marvel-76105-hulkbuster-ultron-edition-available-march-3rd-news/ I've been hoping for a set like this, and it explains why the Ideas submission was passed over. The only red flag for me is, looking at the hip connections, this thing has no fore or aft movement of the legs, so from the waist down it's a statue that can do a variable static A-stance. I can't understand why they won't develop some new ratcheting joins for these larger mecha. Frustrating. Still gonna get it, but that limitation will always bother me.
  11. M'Kyuun
    As for the Bayverse, I don't think any of the writers stood a chance of having their material, no matter how well written, of ending up well on screen once Bay convoluted it with his 'vision'. From the onset, it was clear this guy had no connection with these characters, and as such, they were relegated to becoming props, or one dimensional characters who lacked any substance to make you like them, let alone care about them. I had a low opinion of Orci and Kurtzman after seeing one of the Bay movies they wrote (I've seen the first, third, and fourth, and only bits of the second b/c it was so bad I had to change the channel). So, when it was announced that they'd be writing Transformers: Prime, I cringed. Eventually, I sat and watched an episode, and then another, and found myself really enjoying the show. I realized then just how much of an impact the director has. In different hands, the live action movies may have been much different with the same scripts. It's all academic now, and I'm glad that era is over. As I said, I hope the next iteration is handled by folks with a personal stake, and they go for a more traditional look of the characters so that they look like Transformers, and that they are treated as characters with quirks and flaws and personalities that make them feel real. If I had my way about it, I'd make it a requisite that any new director had to watch BW, G1 first season, Animated, and Prime, as these all succeeded in making these 2D representations become three-dimensional 'people' to whom you could relate. As for the blue window debate (first world issues), most of the time, I think smoked works, as it occludes the robo bits within but still looks realistic. Or, as Mike pointed out, use clear in car mode, and engineer a second set of folding windows of the preferred color for bot mode. Best of both worlds.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Yay! let it die. I just hope the next iteration isn't worse. I do hope this opens the door for writers and directors who are actual TF fans to make these movies, and hopefully they create a solid storyline for good continuity between films and make the TFs the stars, rather than incidental to the human stories, as much as possible. Return to more classic TF designs- not skeletal shardy things. No more psychopathic Prime and his band of not-so-merry Bots. They won't do it, but I'd even welcome a whole new cast of characters, with just references made to the originals, or set it in the distant past before Prime and Megatron, and lead up to their introductions. There's a lot of territory they could explore, and it's a good opportunity to do a complete reboot from the ground up- heck show how they first developed their transforming ability. It doesn't have to be G1, but it would be nice to see Autobots who are friends and comrades trying to take the moral high road against Decepticons who are more ethically challenged and focused more on power, and explore where these paths may lead. I love my Ver. 1 Prowl and all the repaint variants (Bluestreak, Silverstreak, and Smokescreen), but I'm not digging this, or really any of the even more toon accurate paintjobs. Less detail for the same or greater price as the original doesn't enthrall me. MP Prowl is already about as perfect as a toy like this can be. The only thing that would make him better is if they found a way to give him AI and speak with Michael Bell's voice.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Why do I feel that this was change for change's sake? Regardless, I'm getting it. I'm curious to see if the inside changed as much as the outside.
  14. M'Kyuun
    That would be great, Mike. Just PM me on the payment details. If you have Paypal, that'd be great. The gesture alone is most appreciated. Terrorcons- for some reason, I erroneously said Predacons in my previous post concerning Rippersnapper and Hun-grrr. However, I guess Predacons have been teased by Hasbro at one of the cons- just the wings were shown, so it's possible we may see a resin or even a near-production copy of those guys at NY Toy Fair this weekend.
  15. M'Kyuun
    went to my local Wally this morning to pick up the usual odd and end and to see if they had any of the PotP wave 2 figs, and walked away with Hun-Gurr (after about 20 minutes of mulling), Tailgate, Battleslash and Roadtrap. The latter two were who I really wanted, along with Moonracer and Rippersnapper (they had no wave 2 deluxes), and I didn't think I was going to be able to buy them as they weren't loaded at all in Walmart's system. However, a CSS came to my rescue, took me to an unoccupied cashier, and had her do a dept override, allowing me to bring my legends class figs home. So on to the figs- Hun-grrr wasn't really on my list, and out of the box, I think he could have been better with a few minor changes. Alas, he is what he is, and I got him simply for the fact that the last time I held a figure in my hands (TR Blitzwing), I put him back, and haven't seen him since, and now I want to get him. So, to eliminate that future dilemma, I just said 'F-it' and got him. At least now, once I get the other Predacons, I'll have the whole team to combine them. Anyway, this is one of the rare occasions where I think the G1 figure's alt looked better than the update. But, this new figure makes up for that with articulation- lots of it, and I always value the bot mode over the alt- well, nearly always. The feet, which of course become his double dragon heads, can pivot fore and aft as well as rocking in and out, giving him some really great potential for more extreme poses. Moreover, the upper and lower jaws can articulate independently, so the feet can adjust to uneven terrain. The rest of the articulation is pretty much par for the course except he has no waist swivel. He comes with no gun- just the two pink combiner feet which have gunlike protrusions in the mold. The feet-guns can attach to his bot forearms, which become the bulky lower back legs. I put them on him, they somewhat cover the awkward look of his bot arms trying to be animal back legs. I wish they'd made them attach at the shoulder, as I think that would have served the look better. What he really needs is a set of beefier front legs and a bit of Wierdwolf's leg transformation applied to the arms to give him a more realistic animal look. Alas, it is what it is, and since Hun-grrr is pretty low on my list of interesting characters, I'm not too plussed. Onward to Battleslash and Roadtrap, who, for those who don't know, combine to form Battletrap. As updates go, this one is pretty well executed, IMHO. As legends sized figures, both are a bit more complex than we normally see at this scale (Normally I eschew the instructions with a healthy dose of smugness, but I had to humbly consult on both of these). Of the two, Roadtrap in his truck mode makes for the more convincing alt over Battleslash's chunky helicopter. Unfortunately, two of the wheels on my Roadtrap are too tight and only spin on carpeting or some other surface with sufficient friction, and the clearance is very minimal for Battleslash's rotor, which snags on his cockpit every time I try to spin it. Those qualms aside, in bot mode, both are well articulated for figs of this size, Roadtrap enjoying a bit more up and down foot articulation due to transformation. The majority of limb joints are ball joints, while trans-joints are generally pinned. Combined into Battletrap, he stands almost as tall as a standard deluxe ( just a few mm shorter than PotP Jazz, for comparison) He locks together really well and they did some neat engineering in Roadtrap to align a swingarm trans-linkage with his hip ball joint to allow it to become the kneejoint for the larger bot. Both rotate at the same axis, and give some necessary friction to the knee and structural integrity to the combined mode leg. It's lovely. Battleslash's legs simply form Battletrap's arms with no cool engineering involved, beyond the transformational origami to get them from a hip to shoulder orientation. The final product, though, is a really fun little figure with a lot of poseability, even a waist swivel courtesy of Roadtrap's head forming the connection point. From a nostalgia POV, I barely remember the G1 toys, as they were so incredibly devoid of poseability; this figure is a worthy successor, and despite the concessions to alt modes, esp Battletrap's almost chibi neo-combat helicopter mode, the fun factor of this little guy makes up for it in spades. One caveat, following the recent trend, neither Battleslash nor Roadtrap come with guns. I'm wondering if Hasbro are omitting them for cost cutting, or if it's an attempt to scale back the 'war' aspect of these figures in light of real world events affecting kids. Of the new Dinobots, only Slag and Sludge have guns, and out of all my legends class figs from the last 2-3 years, including the Insecticons and Gnaw, only Seaspray came with a gun, of sorts, despite the fact that nearly all of these characters have had guns in previous incarnations, and in the old cartoon. Digression aside, seeing how Battletrap turned out, I hope they make the other Duocon, Flywheels, at some point, as well as releasing both sets of Clones.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Well, MMV- I have Bike, Eagle, Battle, Blackbird, and Concrete, and none of them are floppy per se (by that I mean if you pick them up by a limb, the other limbs literally flop about, there's so little friction). Mine can all hold a pose over months of time without drooping, although I pose mine fairly conservatively. Blackbird is my favorite and gets the most handling, and his joints are holding up well. I will say, however, that Concrete is the least solid in bot mode due to how he transforms- some care is required, and occasional readjustment. He's my least favorite of the bunch, anyway (I got him b/c I thought his transformation was neat), so I don't handle him all that often. But, I haven't really had any issues getting him to hold a pose, so his joints are up to task. ---just to test the theory, I just held each of mine by one arm and rotated it all around; every one of them maintained its pose no matter its orientation. Anyway Kuma, I'm sorry to hear that your figures are floppy; it's especially disconcerting, as I just had Shuttle and Missile Tank shipped, and will likely have them at the end of the week. I've been looking forward to both, especially Shuttle, and hope he and Missile Tank aren't floppy, too. If so, it'll be my first bad experience with them. As for the blast elements included with DX Bike Robo, I do believe that those are specific to Cy-Kill. Cool gesture to include those and the Cy-Kill faces.
  17. M'Kyuun
    I always liked that scene from Sherman Dam in the original 3-parter. To me there was always something endearing in all the automotive related puns and metaphors that peppered many of the Autobots' language throughout the first season. In the Sherman Dam scene, Hound cautions Spike about almost flooding his engine after nearly drowning trying to save Hound following a tussle with Rumble on the riverbed. Love it. As for the Ocular Max cassettes, I say keep 'em coming. Given the level of engineering brought to bear thus far, I'd like to see what they do with the combiner cassettes, but I also want Ramhorn, Steeljaw, and the dino cassettes, too (all of them, including the Japanese only releases, which also combined). They're like Pokeman- gotta catch them all!
  18. M'Kyuun
    And I thought Jaguar was awesome; the poseability of these guys is incredible even by today's standards. I've got their Rumble (the purple one, of course) on order, along with the condors. Can't wait to get them. As I've mentioned in the past, the cassette bots have been among my favorites within all of the Transformers pantheon, and I hope they continue to make the rest of them. The only drawback to them is that, because of the scale of their cassette modes, they don't fit in MP Soundwave, or any bot for that matter. If they make a Soundwave that these will fit in, that'd be interesting. However, I'm happy just having the cassettes with their highly articulated bot modes. Thanks for sharing the pics- definitely whets the appetite for more.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Nice update to their small version, which is itself a nice figure except for the head mold, which hinders head movement. The DX fixes that, and the inclusion of Cy-Kill faces is nice for the Western folks who knew these guys as Gobots. I hope they do Blackbird with improved aircraft proportions over their small version, and with a full set of retractable landing gear.
  20. M'Kyuun
    I watched it aired live on the Science Channel, and it was an exciting launch. However, landing the support rockets simultaneously has to go down as one of the most impressive accomplishments in history; I can't imagine how awesome it must have been to see it in person. It's a wonderful and necessary update to the technologies we were employing during the Shuttle era, which relied primarily on 60's and 70's tech, with some 80's tech thrown in. So it's nice to see science fiction becoming reality once again. I wish Mr. Musk and his team every success, as it's looking more and more like Man's future in space exploration is solidifying with their efforts. At the same time, NASA's role seems diminished in this new race to become spacefarers, and that's bittersweet. They used to be at the forefront, synonymous with amazing achievements and technologies brought to bear in space and aeronautics, and other than renting out their launch pad, just don't seem to have the involvement as they once did, or at least not the media exposure. Unfortunately, space telescopes, interstellar satellites, and Mars rovers just don't capture the attention like they once did, despite being enormous technological achievements, not to mention a little endeavor called the ISS. It's a bit sad that the public at large doesn't get excited about these things anymore; I like watching the NASA Channel and Science Channel when they have scientists who are involved with these programs come on and talk about the information being gleaned- to see their excitement over new discoveries is cool. I wish I had the mental wherewithal to be a part of it, but I don't; I can only enjoy it vicariously, and keep hoping that smart driven people will continue the journey.
  21. M'Kyuun
    I have the original Millennium Falcon Transformer, which also split into Han and Chewie, and it was neat for what it was, but it lacked the sharp detail of this new mold. Great improvement to the Falcon's exterior, and Chewie's bot mode looks awesome overall. Han's is so-so; it doesn't really scream Han to me. I think the original did a better job with Han. Anyway, cool update that looks like it employs some nifty transformation. Han looks a little kibbly next to Chewie, though. Guess it can't be helped. Edit: Suddenly, Sunstreaker's looking pretty svelte. Baby got back...pack. Some in-hand pics of the PotP wave 2 deluxes popped up on Seibertron.com. https://www.seibertron.com/transformers/news/in-hand-images-of-power-of-the-primes-sludge-snarl-rippersnapper-moonracer-and-blackwing/40628/ Still looking forward to completing the dinos, as well as picking up Rippersnapper and Moonracer, even if she is channeling Quasimodo a bit there.
  22. M'Kyuun
    I wish they'd do a VE-1 Elint Seeker- that'd be cool. Congrats on your limited edition. Fun little toys.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Looks interesting; I'll definitely be checking this out. I'm thinking it'll be a little grittier than Supergirl, since they're much looser with language on SyFy. Glad they're telling this story and not rehashing Kal-El's adventures for the umpteenth time.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I was thirteen when Transformers came on the scene in '84. I was just blown away by the concept of real world vehicles becoming these 'good' looking robots (they had decent proportions and weren't all wonky) watching the promos leading up to the show. It was a life-changing moment; transforming mecha has become my single greatest interest ever since, and that was actually fueled much earlier by G-Force's mecha, esp the centipede mech which could disassemble and reassemble. When the promos ran, I thought Prime was a combination of his cab and trailer; I was a little disappointed to find out he wasn't- but then there was Motormaster, who was cool in concept, not so much the toy. A couple of the third parties have done a decent job on him, though. Anyway, I guess being older, I generally wanted a little more maturity in my shows, and I've always felt, and still feel, that the first season, especially the introductory three-episodes, had a maturity and gravitas to the writing and plotting that just wasn't seen in too many cartoons at the time. It lost that from second season onward, as the writers were given carte blanche to write whatever just to keep the show going and advertise those toys. So I pretty much stopped watching Transformers with any regularity, and there are likely still episodes I've never seen, and many I did but don't remember b/c they were so corny. From time to time, Gobots would be on, and I'd watch it for as long as I could take it. Crasher was cool, so I liked it when she featured, and Coptur, because he was a helicopter and I was fascinated with them at the time. The one element of Gobots that I loved, and preferred over Transformers, was that the transformations were animated to copy the toys, almost exactly. I thought that was awesome- Transformers was so fudged; they may as well have had them do a Tasmanian Devil twirl. Actually, they did in TF:A- just remembered that...too funny. VCR's were a revolution unto themselves- totally changed how you thought about watching tv, and opened up a whole new world of watching movies. We never went to the movies, and my interests were diametrically opposed to my parents', so when we finally got one in my early teens, I loved it. Man, those were the days. We thought we had it good!
  25. M'Kyuun
    Similar circumstances on my end, down to my dad's also being laid off for about a year, although as a factory maintenance worker and a good welder, he still managed to get jobs here and there. I digress. Anyway,I had Coptur and Dive-Dive (a knock-off, actually, that I got for a b-day, and still have sitting on my desk today). My toy interests were split between LEGO, Diablock sets (an Japanese building system that was similar but incompatible with LEGO, but I liked it nonetheless) and Transformers. Of these three, TFs constituted the minority share. By the time I graduated high school and entered the AF, I had about 20 or so Transformers. From as far back as memory serves, I have also loved pretty much anything 'robot', especially if there was transformation involved. The only anime I was familiar with growing up were G-Force (Battle of the Planets, or Gatchaman) and Speed Racer from a very young age (early 70's), then Mighty Orbots, Ulysses 31, Galaxy Rangers, and Pole Position in the 80's. I never saw Voltron; I saw the toys in the ole Sears and JC Penney catalogs, though. But, having no idea what they were, I didn't really develop an interest in it until much later, and then purely b/c they were cool mecha. Thinking back, I believe Robotech toys were in those catalogs, too, but again, I never saw it growing up or I would most definitely have been hooked. Alas, as a kid my only association for the VF-1 was Jetfire, but I remember very clearly seeing cheap knock-off toys of the VF-1 everywhere (still have one from the Dollar Store somewhere.) I still remember seeing Jetfire on the shelf at Fisher's Big Wheel (Mike might recognize this store), a dept store we had in PA, and sadly leaving it there b/c I couldn't afford it. I later found out some neighborhood kids had Jetfire, so I got to play around with him briefly during a visit- bittersweet memory, that. They were rough on their stuff, so it probably didn't last beyond a year or so. My only brush with G1 Megatron to date was in HS, as I was giving a ride to someone in Band, and there was a school play practice happening that day. As it happens, they needed a gun prop, and someone had supplied them with- Megatron! So, I managed to get my eager grubbies on it and transform it through a full cycle before reluctantly handing it back. As for Gobots, I remember in the beginning not being too impressed with them, but by the second or third year they were out, they were looking better and better with more complex transformations. But finances being limited, I stuck to building blocks and TFs, as well as the odd toy here and there. I became the proud owner of a transforming set of binoculars we won at an auction; many years later, I learned that it was a Diaclone . Pretty cool. I still have it somewhere. So, back to topic, since I didn't have many TFs or Gobots as a kid, I'm really pleased that Action Toys picked up the MR license, even in its limited form, as these were some neat toys that have been begging for updates for a long time. I have Bike, Eagle, Concrete, Tank, and Blackbird so far, with Shuttle and Missile Tank in my pile at TFSource, and I hope they'll continue on with as many characters as they can under the Revenge of Kronos title. For those with fond Gobots memories, I hope Action Toys will find a way to get a broader license, as there are a lot of figures I'd personally love to have updates for, especially all the aircraft.
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