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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    In the beginning, yes, but a number of UCS sets that have been released have been playsets, much like the Death Stars (10188, 75159), the Ewok Village (10236), and the Assault on Hoth (75098), to name a few. They are expensive playsets, but playsets nonetheless, and the building techniques employed are similar to what you'd find in a standard System set. I'd imagine LEGO started releasing these sorts of sets under the UCS banner as a way to make playsets that would ordinarily be too large or ambitious in a standard sized set, the largest of which usually come in at 2000 pieces or below and top out around $150 on the shelf. I personally don't take issue with it (I love my Death Star), but I'd imagine there are still some AFOLs out there who'd prefer the entire line be geared towards a more mature builder with greater experience and disposable income than the standard kid.
  2. M'Kyuun
    I fall on both sides of that coin, as I buy a lot of sets, build them, and store them back in their boxes (b/c I like the sets), as well as buying sets or Bricklinking parts for MOCing. I don't buy sets as a financial investment, although I do have a number of unopened sets that I've bought over the years for parts and have just never opened. No plans to sell them, though. I agree with your sentiment about the adult hoarders who sell toys at exorbitant prices out of pure greed; they greatly diminish the enjoyment of collecting within any given hobby, prohibitively so in some cases, i.e. the UCS Millennium Falcon. Over the years, I've been slowly acquiring 80's and early 90's era LEGO Space sets, and I've been gouged here and there, so I definitely empathize.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Wow, nice find Wm Cheng. That's a gorgeous model. I wish LEGO models such as this and their creators got more attention in the mainstream media, as it not only shines a light on the artistry involved, but also helps mitigate the stigma that LEGO is just a toy, which I believe deters some folks from delving into the hobby. Granted there are far more adults in the hobby than most would suspect, but we are still relatively few in any given population.
  4. M'Kyuun
    A third party Soundwave scaled to fit the CHUG line complete with all the Decepticon cassettes would definitely garner attention. I recently bought TR Blaster, and while he's a really good homage to the G1 toy, the facts that he's a headmaster and that he doesn't have cassette bots considerably lower the enjoyment I get from him. I haven't bought his Soundwave repaint, but the situation is the same, and my G1 Soundwave remains on my CHUG shelf until a better design comes along.
  5. M'Kyuun
    The matte gray of the official doesn't bother me either. The inaccuracy of the upper torso is really the only major thing I dislike about him (the black waist area looks a little too large proportionally, but not detrimentally). Because they didn't use the forward chunk of the gun slide as his upper torso, which really is part of Megs' iconic look, but instead filled that area with most of his transformational origami and slapped a faux chestplate on him, I find the upper torso to be his weakest area visually. Due to his un-traditional transformation, he looks to have a lot of moving parts that need to come together to form large areas, a situation that can become problematic if well placed tabs and locks aren't used judicially.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I PO'd MP megs, but between him and Despotron, I think Despotron is overall the better looking of the two overall. I'm hoping to snag him on a sale, but I admit he's well-priced for a figure this size and complexity. I jumped the gun when POing MP Megs, and overpaid, IMO. Usually I'm patient and look for better pricing, but I was paranoid that MP Megs was going to suffer the same availability issues as a new Bandai valk, so I pounced on the first available PO through a site that doesn't allow cancellations. Life's lessons can be expensive. Anyway, it's nice to see new pics of the official toy revealed- still wish he had a more G1 transformation with the upper body, but it's moot at this point. Hopefully he's a solid toy. Recently caved and picked up Delta Magnus- cool toy.
  7. M'Kyuun

    Bandai DX VF-31

    M'Kyuun replied to UN Spacy's topic in Toys

    Got one through Ami-Ami- first time I've ever scored a valk during Preorder madness. Going to bed now. Best of luck to all.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Thanks, Mike. I'll hold onto the three I have, and likely just shell for the box set. $400 for all 6 with improvements is a good deal. Any idea about when the box set is going to be released?
  9. M'Kyuun
    I wish I'd known that Toyworld were going to release the whole set as a boxset with fixes, as I've already bought three of the figures. At this point , Burden and his fixes are really at the top of my concern/want list, as he seemed to have the lion's share of issues. I have Unearth, Bulldozer, and Allocator thus far, and I think they're great, even if my Bulldozer came with a poorly pinned right heel and a small crack on his right ankle joint right out of the box. I was not impressed with their service, or rather lack thereof, since having never received a response from them upon notifying them of the issues back in September. Nevertheless, of all the third party offerings, this set with its very G1 inspired figures appeals to me greatly, and despite the issues with Bulldozer, I love handling these chunky guys. Having never owned a complete G1 Devastator, I 'm really looking forward to completing the set and assembling them into Constructor. MikeSzekely, do you know if the individual Constructor figs are going to be sold with fixes, either installed already or in the box?
  10. M'Kyuun
    Indeed, 2016 will be remembered as a year of remembrances for departed icons. Farewell, Ms. Fisher.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Well, Bayformers are inherently flawed by design, as there's no realistic mechanical logic behind the rearrangement of the various bits of vehicle upon the bot framework except what looks good to the digital artist. As a former aircraft mechanic, I'm unable to reconcile the various apologetic arguments as to the Bayformers realism- they look to me as exactly what they are, pure digital fantasy creatures. And that's also at the root of difficulty for anyone, Takara or third parties, who wish to make figures based on those designs. I still wish they'd approached the transformations closer to Binaltech, which were far more mechanically feasible transforming figures that turned into real world vehicles. I'm not against non-anthropomorphic designs, but in the case of the motorcycle sisters in ROTF, the old adage about polishing a turd comes to mind. I commend Takara for actually turning out some descent Bayverse figures over the years, most notably RotF Leader class Optimus Prime, which has engineering on par or exceeding most of the MP figures. I have a sizable collection of Bayverse figures, actually, despite generally abhoring the movies, and not being a fan of the overall look. The engineering in some of those figures is really impressive, though, and that's what appeals to me. Moreover, I don't think the Animated designs would have been as well done had TT not greatly expanded their engineering repertoire on the Bayverse figures previously. As for 3P news, I'm surprised that no other Arcee figs have been announced; I'd love to have a MP quality figure of her, and thus far, Toy World's just ain't scratching that itch. Edit: Posts about Terraegis popped up while I was typing my reply above. Anyway, I still have my copy PO'd, as I find it the most appealing of the offerings. But, news like this is bit off-putting. I'll agree with the sentiments about Sphinx- the bar is set high with this figure, and from all the Backdraft, and now Terraegis, reviews, it seems like there's been a steady decline in MMC's quality. It's a shame, but I'm going to try to stay positive and hope that I get a copy without serious flaws. Color differences, if not extreme, I can live with, but cracks and broken parts just aren't acceptable for the asking prices.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Treatment, I see what you did there... Fortress Maximus is beastly. Heh, just noticed, he's too big for the box, so they take his arm off to stuff him in there. Cool. Kurisama, you're most welcome. I love concept stuff, too- art, protos, etc. Always interesting to see what goes into the things we like.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I believe it's an internal design book at Takara. A member at TFW2005 calling him/herself Cheem the Rup provided the scans.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Nifty. Looks like a pretty involved transformation. Wish that whole upper torso matched the CAD better. That CAD is lovely.
  15. M'Kyuun
    I never thought of it as a beret, so much as weird simulated robo-hair. Anyway, that's not the figure I was thinking of when I made my criticism; I'd forgotten about her, to be honest, even though I used to have her standing guard on my desk. The figure I was thinking of was this: http://www.seibertron.com/transformers-toys/gallery/revenge-of-the-fallen/arcee/1834/1/ That thing was pure atrocity.
  16. M'Kyuun

    Bandai Sv-262 DX valk

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    Ditto. I like to see new designs and transformation systems. I've actually never cared for the Saab Draken, preferring the look of the Viggen, but I can set my bias aside due to how well Kawamori was able to translate it into a valk. I'm also hoping that the VF-54 will come to fruition (that's the 104ish design, IIRC), and that it will have a different transformation, too. No such thing as too many valk designs.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Recently ran across RiD Windblade at the Wally down the road from my house, the first and only time I've seen the toy anywhere in my area (Spokane, WA). I've seen the reviews, mostly negative, but out of impulse or curiosity, I got her. I'll say up front that I've personally liked the overall aesthetic of her bot mode over the Generations toy ever since pics of her emerged (Toyfair or BotCon, I don't recall). Out of the package, I stand by my initial opinion; she has a nice Animated look about her that I really like, and she's just a fun little figure to pose and play around with. Her jet mode leaves a lot to be desired, primarily b/c they just don't do anything with her arms-they just lay along the jet's fuselage looking every bit like...arms. It's a lazy design that seems to have become a bit of a trend with jet TFs, but at least some of the other toys retract the hands and maybe recess the arms a little into the jet mode. Not Windblade. For some strange reason, they gave her a small set of canted flight controls which sit just before her primary horizontal stabs(mounted to two separate panels which fold in the center and serve to cover the gap between her legs in jet mode). The small set just seem superfluous to me. The biggest irritation, though, is the giant scabbard, which is fine in bot mode, but on a small jet, there's nowhere this enormous thing is going to integrate, and so it's just tabbed centerline onto the bottom of the plane, which only has retracting nose gear that subsequently can't extend b/c the scabbard is in the way. It's just a sh!tty design, and it makes me wonder why they can't find ways to integrate arms and weapons( and add retractable main landing gear to aircraft alts). They were doing a pretty good job of it several years ago with the Generations figures, but lazy design seems to prevail of late. RiD Starscream, while he makes an nice looking jet, depending on the viewing angle, again makes me wonder why they don't try to integrate arms. With SS, he has these enormous pauldrons that would have worked sublimely as intakes and served to cover most of the figure's arms in jet mode just by adding an additional hinge to each pauldron, but no. As such, the pauldrons stick out away from the fuselage directly under the wing leading edge, which kills the sleekness, and the arms just peg in on the sides. At least the hands fold out of sight on this figure, and the weapons are small enough to look complimentary in both modes. The RiD line has been a mixed bag- the toys are simpler and targeted at a younger audience, but some of the characters and even some of the transformations are fun and interesting. Bisk stands out to me as being pretty unique (anthropomorphic lobster dude into a sporty car), as well as Thunderhoof, who becomes a farm tractor. In all my 30+ years of collecting TFs, I can't recall ever seeing another figure who transforms into that alt, and the Takara paintob looks lovely on him. I haven't watched the show, but many of the toys catch my attention for one reason or another.
  18. M'Kyuun

    Bandai Sv-262 DX valk

    M'Kyuun replied to seti88's topic in Toys

    Going OT, but I'll agree that the X-32 has a lovely silhouette from directly above, her only flattering angle. From any other view, it's an eyesore. I'm not sure what they had in mind for changes, but in my mind it was always going to look like a fat legless bullfrog about to swallow an insect. IMO, the YF-23 was the far more aggressive looking aircraft with its flat, thin profile, and Northrop was really pushing unconventional design with the wing shaping and use of an all-moving V-tail in lieu of a conventional vertical and horizontal stab configuration. The YF-22 was chosen because pilots favored the more conventional setup, despite the fact that the YF-23 exceeded the YF-22 in the accomplishment of the Air Force's two primary goals: supercruise speed and stealth. In other words, the YF-23 was what the AF wanted performance-wise, but they chose the inferior design for its conventionality. Of course, this is an oversimplification, and many other factors were involved, but from everything I've read/heard, the flight control configuration won them over. OT, I'm surprised AmiAmi are still posting POs for this thing this far out. Is anyone else? Just curious; I managed to get one through AmiAmi on one of their earlier PO reopenings, so I'm happy. I'm just wondering if there's more stock to be had this time around, perhaps b/c Delta wasn't as popular as previous Macross installments and sales are reflecting that. Anyway, I'm glad, and hope that everyone who wants one manages to get one. I wish every Bandai Macross release had this many opportunities for POs.
  19. M'Kyuun
    The whole Animated line was great- both the cartoon and the subsequent toyline. I also had serious reservations when the preliminary pics were shown, but it turned out to be one of my all time favorite toylines, and most of my collection is on permanent display. I can't hang with you on the Bayformer Arcee design- it was abysmal at best, IMHO. But, the world would be a dreadfully dull place if everyone felt as I do, and I'm glad you get some value from the design. Coming back to 3P, I was hoping Toy World's Arcee announcement would have opened the floodgates to at least one or two more MP styled figures by now (b/c it seems like these guys all decide to tackle the same character simultaneously, or they have the designs worked out well ahead of time and just wait for one party to throw down-then character deluge!).
  20. M'Kyuun
    Not so much a poorly designed character, per se (I think Sue Blu did a great job giving her a voice and personality), but indeed a very poorly designed Transformer. There was far too much emphasis on making her anthropomorphically proportionate to a slender human female rather than adding on those bits and pieces requisite to actually becoming a car. Animation magic was employed liberally with her character, and I can certainly understand and sympathize with anyone attempting to make a figure that's faithful to both of her G1 modes. As I said, I think the Generations figure was well done, and the car kibble on her back a necessary sacrifice to get as close as possible in that scale to both of her G1 modes. In a MP scaled figure, I think it's possible, with a little imagination and a lot of plastic origami, to get her closer to both modes and still maintain a decent G1 aesthetic. I'm surprised that Toy World even released that pic, as I would think that a WIP shot. Anyway, the gauntlet is thrown, and I hope other 3P folks bring their experience to the table, as I'd love to own a G1 Arcee that lives up to the MP name. I think Derrick Wyatt's Arcee design for Animated was a nice re-imagining of the G1 character design, and the toy, while not perfect (wish those shins had been filled out better to match the animation), it translated far better from ink to plastic than the original. I also like TF:Prime's Arcee design, although I was a bit bummed that they changed her alt mode to a motorcycle. Still, I have both figures from the line, and both are pretty well done toys that do a good job matching her animated appearance, mostly. Neither is perfect, and don't even mention scale; however, just comparing her toys to the animation, IMHO, Has/Tak did a good job.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Toyworld's trying their hand at a MP styled Arcee: http://tformers.com/toyworld-tw-m06-leia-unofficial-masterpiece-scale-g1-arcee-painted-prototype-images/30560/news.html IMHO, they nailed her bot mode, but after they got the look of the front of her car mode right, they stopped trying on the rear. I'd have expected more effort, esp on a MP styled figure. The Generations figure sill stands as the best looking G1 Arcee toy to me, even with all her back kibble.
  22. M'Kyuun
    The only thing I see on Downbeat that I don't like is the lack of mechanical detail on the silver part below his chest. Even the Generations figure from a few years ago has it. I love that they included his arm winch; I just wish it didn't snap over his hand, but that his hand could retract and the winch attach flush. Minor nitpick on what is otherwise shaping up to be a really nice unofficial Jazz. I like how they designed him to have his wings out or stowed. As noted, this is shaping up to be the Jazz to beat. Hopefully a preview from Chosen Prime is forthcoming soon. I appreciate the early look, even if they are only working with test figs. It gives a good idea of what the final will be like, enough, IMHO, to justify a PO. Edit: posted right after David's comment. If that is the way the rear of the car transforms, it makes this thing like 99% spot on, but that gap is hard to ignore.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Oh, that's nice. In a way, I kinda miss the front wheels perched above the shoulders like the G1 toy- it made his transformation distinctive from the Fairlady bros. Given the popularity of Jazz, I'm really surprised that TT didn't follow up with him after Prowl. Ah well, fertile territory for the 3P folks 'til an official version is announced. BTW, what's with all the "ab crunch" fervor these days. I guess it's cool that they can do it, but really, I have no need of a robot that can do a Michael Jackson pelvic thrust.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Interesting that you mention that; I'd never really given much thought to aircraft, more specifically fighters, as requiring licenses. The F-14 and F-15 are nigh ubiquitous throughout many toy and model lines, as well as many other aircraft. These are, of course, proprietary designs to their respective manufacturers, but it seems as though their likenesses have been used for decades with impunity. I wasn't aware that Lockheed required licensing for the use of the F-22's, and most likely the F-35's, likeness. It makes sense, esp when film-makers want to use them, and the films are going to generate merchandise based on those designs- it's a nice double-dip for Lockheed. However, this is the first I've heard of an aircraft manufacturer seeking fees for licensing a design; I've only heard of car manufacturers requiring licensing, and having some hand in approving final designs, at least with TFs. This conversation brings to mind the recent Action Toys Machine Robo figures of Eagle and Blackbird, the latter of which I've been, ah, testing flight parameters tonight while watching tv. Bet neither of those guys have licensing.
  25. M'Kyuun
    MP Inferno showed up today. Beefy fig with some nice ratchet joints throughout. I actually thought there might be a little die cast in him when pulling the plastic tray out of the box, such was the heft, but no. Just a lot of red plastic. It's a point of pride for me (I lead an extraordinarily dull and fruitless life) to transform my transforming toys without instructions, but I got a little hung up trying to determine how to peg the arms in, and consulted directions. The Sunbow love is readily apparent in the instruction manual, as there are several stills from the old cartoon to illustrate various accessories and features. Anyway, with the arms successfully tabbed, and the figure fully transformed, I had a nice bulky chunk of red robot in front of me, looking somewhat plain, but still kinda cool. Inferno was never really a character that stood out to me, but, having no Inferno toys in my collection, I figured this was the one to get. His plainness owing to TT's slavish devotion to the Sunbow animation is well-known and discussed often, so I won't comment on it further except to point out that his alt mode is a real world fire truck. As such, I would think that tail lights are kinda important on an emergency response vehicle, and that those details would be required as per licensing. Guess not, to the detriment of the alt mode. Some other flaws I noticed on mine were paint not matching in some areas, and the left forearm on mine doesn't want to close flush very well, leaving a quite noticeable little gap. It's a first world problem to which I can adapt and overcome. The good: he's big, beefy, with really nice solid ratchets, a lot of accessories and some nice features lifted straight from the cartoon. Lack of tail-lights and aft bumper aside, he makes a nice looking fire truck with a short extending ladder and extendable outriggers(nice realistic touch). The folding ladder design is pretty slick, and the final bot is very clean. Overall, I'm pretty happy with him. In the back of my mind, though, I think MMC's Backdraft scores more points overall for what I'd like to see in a MP figure. As with all these toys, however, YMMV.
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