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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    VF 4 Gerwalk rescue approach

    From the album: LEGO VF-4

    Another pic taken for BrickCon. I wanted to show the GERWALK being useful, so I made a two-shot scenario showing the little hazmat dude in need of rescue, with the VF-4 swooping in, and a second shot flying away with dude in-hand, Minmay style. This was shot in a nearby field, with the surroundings providing a nice background to indicate desolate isolation for the hapless hazmat guy. As before, the model was attached to a stick, which I edited out in Paint, the poor man's Photoshop.
  2. M'Kyuun

    VF-4 Battroid

    M'Kyuun posted a gallery image in Macross Models

    VF-4 Battroid

    From the album: LEGO VF-4

  3. M'Kyuun

    VF-4 Battroid

    M'Kyuun posted a gallery image in Macross Models

    VF-4 Battroid

    From the album: LEGO VF-4

    While looking for different backdrops to use for my BrickCon placard, I saw this fence surrounding the power supply for the park near my house. It was really windy that day, and she fell over once or twice while I tried to shoot a useable pic without my hand in the picture. We both survived the experience, although I think my blood pressure probably spiked a bit.
  4. M'Kyuun

    VF-4 in flight

    M'Kyuun posted a gallery image in Macross Models

    VF-4 in flight

    From the album: LEGO VF-4

    I took this pic in a field near my house one beautiful day last summer (2014) to use for a placard for a display at BrickCon, a large LEGO convention held each year in Seattle. The model itself was attached to a stick made of clear technic pieces, and my wife dutifully held it up against the sky for me to photograph. I don't own Photoshop, so I used Paint to eradicate the stick. It was my first time editing a photograph, and I think it turned out ok...she actually looks like she's soaring.
  5. M'Kyuun
    I can't argue with their pricing shenanigans, but I have NY to thank for a goodly portion of my valks. They've come through for me a number of times when I couldn't find a particular valk anywhere. Also, they always pack my stuff well with lots of cushioning in the box. HLJ just puts the item in a box slightly larger than the item and stretches a piece of celophane over it. Fortunately, I've never had anything damaged, but it seems lacking for a fragile item.
  6. M'Kyuun
    There's lots of anime related stuff I'd love to see in official sets, but the hard truth is that most of the anime featuring that stuff has mature content well beyond LEGO's target consumers. Moreover, LEGO generally licenses movies/tv show properties that have global appeal, which is why Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, Superheroes, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, Simpsons, and now Scooby-Doo have/are getting sets. Since Mattel have bought Megabloks, they've been making sets from more mature licenses that LEGO won't touch. If anyone is going to make building sets based on anime, they'd be my first guess. Although, Diablock, a non-LEGO compatible building system, had an Evangelion set.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Personally, I like the look of the add-ons; wish he'd been designed to look more like this in the first place. The feet are a little big, granted, but it doesn't bother me. Usually I'm not into add-on stuff, but if this is priced rreasonably, and improves the tank mode, I may have to get a set.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Eriku, I can see where a really fidgety transformation can be a turnoff, and the Leader class toy is a pretty good representation of G1 Megs in robot form, with a nice looking tank mode (rolling treads ftw). I wish they'd have engineered his turret to retract fully and to rotate up and down in tank mode, as well as giving him a little more ankle mobility, although that would have entailed a couple of additional joints to accomplish. I hmm'd and haw'd over getting him, decided no, was on my way to checkout, and then turned around and got him anyway. Glad I did. The promo pics show the worst angle for his legs, which was my biggest turnoff. In person, he looks pretty good, quite imposing really. However, he's decidedly not in the MP calibur, and I'd really like a new improved MP G1 Megs in scale with all the other recent MPs. Apollyon is the best representation thus far, and the involved transformation is pretty much a given to accurately portray both of his modes. I don't think Takara can make it any simpler. My biggest concern/gripe about Apollyon is the use of ball joints for the shoulders; a multi-hinged joint on a ratchet would have been a far better solution to improve articulation and strength of the joint over time. Ball joints are great on a small toy with little weight, but on a toy this size, that right arm will be a floppy mess after 6 months. I doubt it'll be changed for v1.5, but hopefully any other QC issues will be fixed so I can fork over my $150.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Actually, LEGO Ideas already passed on it, as it came under review either last cycle or the cycle before. They didn't really state the reason, but I'd assume Harmony Gold was probably part of the rejection. Too, because it so closely resembles a modern warplane in a relatively obscure anime that deals with mature themes, it was probably deemed not a good fit by LEGO's standards. I'd imagine the designers liked it, though, esp Mark Stafford, who's responsible for the majority of mecha designs found across most of LEGO's action themes since 2006.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I think I'll do likewise. I'm also hoping in that timeframe, Takara will bust out their MP version, giving those of us on the fence a choice between this and a new official version. It probably won't happen, and I'll probably get Apollyon 1.5 out of frustration, but I can hope.
  11. M'Kyuun
    I want to like it, but it looks off to me. The shape of the thigh is too smooth, like the VF-1, instead of having that nice characteristic bump above the knee. The forearms look too large to me as well, and the seam line almost makes half of the arm look like a FAST pack add-on. The elbow and aft upper thruster joints look overly large, and the knee joints are exposed. There's more I see, but those are the things I see at first glance. I have to echo Wm Cheng's sentiment about a lack of sleekness...the old Bandai model got more things right aesthetically. I'm glad someone's attempting to make the VF-2, but I also hope they'll read the criticisms and adjust their design accordingly. Like alot of folks here, I'd like a nice VF-2 toy.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I agree about the Legends class figs; good little figs with decent transformation schemes, rather faithful G1 aesthetics, and articulation that's nearly on par with most deluxes. Concerning Cosmos, I picked up the new Legends one, too, and he's a pretty cool little fig. I wasn't going to get him, since I have I-Gear's UFO, but I like the Legends class one enough to put him on my CHUG shelf. I love the new Insecticons, and hope that they'll make Kickback to round out the team. I don't follow the comics, although I'm aware that many of the CHUG figs are taking cues from IDW designs, so I passed on Swerve, and just Finally found Gears at a local family owned sporting goods and toy store here in Spokane. Neat little fig, although i wish the head was on a ball joint. Alas, just happy to have finally found him.
  13. M'Kyuun
    That looks more like Kreo or K-Nex than a standard Transformer.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I feel your pain...availability of the Generations Classics toys is ridiculously sparse, while RiD and AoE toys choke the pegs/shelves. Usually Tankor is the token Keeper of the Generations Peg in my area. However...the stars must have aligned for me last Friday, as I had some things to pick up at my nearby Wallyworld and whilst there I ventured habitually to the toys. Lo and behold, three pegs almost full of Combiner Wars deluxes, and I believe they had one copy of the green and purple Leader Megatron. So, I piciked up the three remaining Stunticon Deluxes that I needed. Favor continued to follow me as the new TFs weren't in the system yet and the cashier requested price check: $7. Now, I used to work for Walmart and I don't like theft or deceit, so I told the cashier that they were $14.96 and that they were underselling them. He just went with what his boss told him, so I paid $21 for 3 brand new Stunticons. Too bad they didn't have Motormaster. But Luck was with me still, as my spousal unit needed something from the store and I offered to drive us to my old store (not the one I visited earlier), which I knew to be the best around in terms of stocking toys. So, straight to the TF aisle, I see Voyager Prime, and right behind him, one Motormaster. I've never owned a complete large combiner in the 30 years I've been collecting these things, and I've always liked Menasor. Now I have him, and while he's not perfect (the all purpose hands/feet suck as much as anything can), he's still pretty cool. I'm hoping Bruticus turns out at least as well, as he's my favorite combiner. Devastator is my second favorite, but judging from the Toyfair pics, the individual Constructicon bot modes took a serious backseat in the design process, and I'll likely only pick up Scavenger and Bonecrusher. Such wasted potential there for such an iconic character; I was hoping Has-Tak would shame the 3rd party guys with their version, but sadly not even close.
  15. M'Kyuun
    I imagine they'll milk this mold with at least a couple repaints, and hopefully, a reissue of the Dyson scheme. At this point, I'm pretty pleased with my Arcadia as my M+ 19 of choice, so it wouldn't break my heart too terribly if availability, or lack thereof, forced me to buy a color variant. The Dyson scheme is still my favorite, but if they did a low vis or a Nova scheme, either of those would be great. I'm really curious to see the differences in design choices between Bandai's and Arcadia's YF-19.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Nope.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Great topic! I remember seeing all three of these when I was a kid, which is remarkable since I grew up in NW PA where we just didn't get alot of stuff. Being on a rather fixed income at the time, I only got the F-15, and it sits on my desk even now. The plastic on mine has yellowed quite a bit, but it's still relatively tight and transforms well. I still have the missiles and external fuel tank, all with chrome intact. The F-15 also had a unique T-rex-ish transformation that I've never seen repeated in all my years of collecting. Pretty cool little toy. All three designs were clever, but I think the 15 had the most poseability, and that was my deciding factor at the time. I'd love to see Bandai rerelease these, or even updated versions of them, along with some new planes (a Flanker, Berkut, and a YF-23 would be awesome, just to name a few). I also have an affinity for egg planes, which started with these toys, and having them transform is the icing on the cake.
  18. M'Kyuun
    For variety, I wouldn't have minded its being more tannish than olive, but either is appropriate for a military machine. I'm just glad it's not brightly colored like alot of Kawamori's other designs. NY already has my money; just waiting for the shipping notice.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Well, I think Bandai and Hasbro are sharing their market strategy: determine what your consumer base wants the most, dole it out meagerly, and overload the market with all your other products about which consumers are "meh". On topic, I'm not really sure what the flaws of the first Bandai Konig release were, but I'm hoping that in the intervening years they've made some fixes for the upcoming release. That seems to be Bandai's modus operandi. I still have a soft spot for my Yammie (he's standing tall on my desk), but judging from all the pics/vids I've seen, Bandai looked at everything Yamato got wrong and fixed it for their version. I'll be happy to have both.
  20. M'Kyuun
    I must be going blind in my semi-old age. Thanks Offswitch, and Jenius, of course. Ok, so the improvement (singular) that I saw was actually on a different blog: http://robotjapan.proboards.com/thread/16410/bandai-dx-damashii-koenig-monster?page=5 However, they point out that the renewal will have screws in lieu of pins in the arm joints, which will hopefully be more durable. Sorry for misleading; my memory leaves much to be desired, and I was jumping about perusing various sites for info on this thing yesterday. My excitement got the best of me when posting.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Thanks, Jenius. That's about right, since these were up for preorder thru Nov/Dec. Having not seen or heard anything for at least two months, I was hoping it wasn't going to devolve into vaporware. I did some more snooping around the web and discovered the Suprememecha blog. Cool stuff on there...anime models, toys, and such. As it happens, they have a 4/2015 release date for the Monster as well, so that's a good indicator. I'm really starting to anticipate this thing. The blog also points out a few things Bandai fixed from the first release, so that makes me happy, too. Improvements FTW.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Anyone have a guess as to when this thing is supposed to release? I've been looking around the web, including Bandai's Japanese site, to no avail. I PO'd thru NY, and they don't have a projected date either. Just hope Bandai makes enough/NY ordered enough to cover all their preorders.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Not bad. They sit on the battroid better than the official packs, and overall look better. Did you scratch-build them? Nice panel lining as well. I wish there was a more valk-ish way to store the main gun under the jet's fuselage. Otherwise, I love this figure, and your improvements make it look all the better.
  24. M'Kyuun
    The Good: I just finished the second of a three book trilogy (5th Wave, Infinite Sea, and yet to be released The Last Star) , by Rick Yancey, about an alien plot to wipe out humanity via various waves of destruction. The books are aimed at young adults, as the protagonists are mostly teens, but as with all war books and movies, heavier themes are ever-present throughout. I found both books to be good reads, recommended. As with most YA sci-fi these days, this has already been picked up by Columbia Pictures to be made into a series of feature films. The Bad: The casting: as with the Major in the upcoming GiTS movie, Ringer, a major female character, of Asian decent with jet black hair, is being played by a white blonde girl. Why, Hollywood? I've seen Asian actresses in other films, so I know they exist...unless they were CG, like the dinosaurs in JP.
  25. M'Kyuun
    That's the best transforming representation of G1 Megatron that I've seen; they did a great job, and hopefully the quality is there in materials and engineering to make this a gem. That said, looking at the inside ankle area, it does look a bit airy, and I hope that single little linkage to which the foot attaches is metal. There's a lot of Megs being held up by that little piece. I'm curious to see the full range of motion in those shoulders, as not one pic they've shown really shows anything dynamic; I hope it's better than the official MP Megatron, and that ratchets are employed liberally. Throughout. Can't wait to see how this thing transforms. My hat's off to XTransbots for solving the skinny leg challenge.
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