M'Kyuun

I picked up both Whirl and Rhinox yesterday at TRU. Fortunately, I had a 20% off coupon. Anyway, my Rhinox has a loose hip joint right out of the box...looser than the knees, so he has to be posed very carefully or he'll fall over. Pretty crappy QC. Whirl came with a sticker sheet accounting for nearly all the markings, including the red stripes on the props. Pretty cheap, Hasbro. I did like that one of the stickers has the pilot's name: William S. Hardy, AKA Wild Bill. Overall, both figures are pretty good. I agree that the G1 Whirl's heli mode was better, but this one is close enough for me. The bot mode has some pretty good poseability overall, the feet being the weakest area, followed by those tong hands. Fortunately, Hasbro realized tongs are for steak, and don't do so well with pesky gun grips, so all the weapons plug into the arm or snap onto strategically located snap-points, including the landing skids. Unfortunately, the vulcan cannon that should plug into the heli's nose has a second non-folding handle that extends down well beyond the level of the skids, jacking the nose into the air. It's one of those little details that would have added to fig with only minimal change. Once you apply the stickers(the guide in the instructions suck), and reconcile the weird knees and aforementioned limitations, he's a pretty fun fig to pose , and looks pretty good, IMHO. If you're a Beast Wars fan, I doubt we'll get a much better Rhinox. Overall, they nailed the aesthetics of the character compared to his on-screen appearance. His weapons stow into his Rhino form as well, a practice I wish all TFs shared, esp the MPs. For what we pay for these premium figs, is it too much to ask that the weapons be designed to fold and stow in their alt modes? I digress. The issues I have with my copy are: left leg hip swivel rotates almost freely without any friction. The knees are loose. The left bicep, which collapses slightly inward to hide the bot mode's elbow, slides freely without friction. Pros: looks great in both modes. Decent articulation. His guns spin by pushing a little button, and collapse slightly to stow in beast mode. Overall, I don't regret my purchase, but I do wish Hasbro would step up their QC.

A friend of mine has 3 Magnetizers, 2 copies of all the other M:Tron sets, and a small army of M:Tron figs, plus enough parts to build a fourth Magnetizer if he wanted. I'm pretty happy with my one Magnetizer..I've wanted one for a long time, and recently got it at a good price. I concur it is one of the all-time best sets.

One of LEGO's best sets. I wish they made many more sets in this vein. As an added bonus, there is a sticker on the Viper fighter with the word NNENN with a snake(viper) printed on it. It's a tribute to the late Nate Nielson, an extraordinary and prolific builder who popularized the Vic Viper throughout the adult LEGO fan community. Unfortunately, he was involved in a car accident and passed away. Members of the fan community have continued to keep his Flickr account open, showcasing his many models, as well as holding the Novvember Viper building contest every year as a tribute to his memory and work. As for my own recent LEGO additions, I finally obtained a Mega Core Magnetizer, and I must say it is an impressive set in all respects. I also have a copy of the Blacktron Message Intercept Base coming from the same gentleman. Space aside, I bought my first official Architecture set, the Eiffel Tower. The model is one of the most impressive I've seen in this series, and the box art really sells it...just beautiful. It's a nice little build that captures its subject sublimely, and is unmistakable near or far.

The books were great...Mr. Larsson was a talented writer. The Swedish films were well done, as well as the American version. As is typical with American movies, the sex is toned down to appeal to the Puritan in all of us.

When Transformers stop transforming, then what's the point. as someone else said, if you favor bot mode, go for the eventual Revoltech...at least you'll have a decently sculpted figure with a lot of articulation. If you like the vehicle, buy a model or high end die-cast toy. All of bay's designs from day one have been CG smoke and mirrors. Things like tires, split apart, one half here, the other half there, and so forth. There's no set transformation scheme to any of them, and the very make up of the things makes them unrealistic, unfeasible, magical creatures that morph rather than transforming in the mechanical sense. That's why I wish they'd designed the toys first, ironed out mechanically feasible transformations, and made the on-screen versions closely match the toys. Instead, the toys are huge cheats. Some of the car bots have 8 tires throughout their bot modes, because the tires in the movie break up into sections and end up in different places all over the bot. I'd rather they had gone the Alternators route...at least the cars used for filming could have been altered to actually fit the look of the toys, rather than cheat like hell on an impossible transformation. I really wish Bay had quit this franchise after the first three catastrophes. It is apparent to me that this guy has no knowledge, feel, or attachment to what made the franchise great to begin with. He's in love with his own vision, which to my long time fan's eyes, is merely loud and void of charm, character, dialog (esp the Decepticons, who have no personality in Bay's films and exist as mere 1 dimensional caricatures), or decent plotting. As much as I like a lot of the actors in the upcoming movie, it is the eponymous characters that I want to see, with Megatron artfully, brilliantly creating a scheme, sending out his Decepticon troops, who actually talk to each other and make whatever observations , snide comments, or personality indicative motions requisite to their characters, while Prime and crew concern themselves with figuring out Megs' plan and stopping him, with a little bit of help from the humans. Moreover, Prime is closer to Megatron's personality in Bay's movies, rushing in to kill them all indiscriminately. I simply find the live action movies to be soulless, frustrating, unlikeable parodies made by an arrogant former car commercial director with absolutely no connection to his subject matter. Wow, sorry for the rant. I usually try to stay positive, but I feel this time around we're getting a double-whammy, where the toys and their inspiration will be composed of the same brand of suck.

Great work, Herve. Those fighters bear a resemblance to the VF-4, minus the shoulders and legs.

Always amusing to me when someone on the boards buys one of these expensive high end transformable toys, and then never transforms it. For those fighter mode guys, I think I'd be more inclined to save a little change and buy a high grade model. I own about 20 valks, going all the way back to Yamato's 1/72 clunkers, and I've transformed them all, because that's what they're meant to do, and b/c I love transforming toys. To not transform it is like buying a high performance car and leaving it permanently parked. Defeats the purpose of owning the thing, IMHO. So Scyla, when you get your SDF-1, I hope you'll share some pics...in both modes. Otherwise, you're only enjoying half the toy, and for the ducats you'll drop on this thing, you need to at least re-enact the Daedalus Attack and do some imaginary pin point barrier action.

I know it's heresy on these boards, but I never thought the SDF-1 design was all that great. I like it in the show more for its role, its impressive size, and its capabilities, but as a transformable mech, I think it leaves a bit to be desired. I like the Quarter a little better, if only for its more pleasing aesthetics. As for wishes, I'd be interested in a Variable Glaug, a new YF-21 with improved battroid, the Octos, and a VF-2ss. I know the last one is pure mist and wish dust, but I'd love to see their take on the design. I'd just love to see anybody produce a procurable transforming toy or model of the BG-5C Fatman. Cool design looking at the art, but transformation of the waist and legs looks a little magical. Maybe someone from Experten is reading this....

Sorry, Star Saber doesn't do anything for me. I wouldn't mind MP Cyclonus, though.

For whatever reason, I can't edit my previous post. Anyway, I agree wholeheartedly that the ground mecha are in need of the triple mode treatment. A tank is a good alt choice, esp since there aren't many ground attack vehicles in Macross.

Hence my winking smiley face. The original forms for both VB-6 and the Variable Glaug are what normally constitutes GERWALK for all other variable mecha in the Macross universe. That's why they have the best GERWALK modes, IMHO. However, I love how he took these formally non-transforming mecha and gave them a 3 mode conversion. both are really cool designs, and I hope someone makes the VG at some point. It's a too cool to ignore, and would fill a void in the enemy mecha toy lineup.

Although not true valks, the VB-6 and the Variable Glaug get my votes for best GERWALK modes. Of all the valks, the SV-51 really embodies an avian predator in GERWALK, which fits with the bird theme running throughout Zero, and is the most fitting GERWALK of any valk. The VF-1 and the VF-0 by extension, have decent GERWALK modes. The flip-up backpack on the VF-1 and VF-0 is a great design.

Kids come up with some funny stuff, and sometimes remarkable. A friend has a 13 year old daughter who built a working candy dispenser that uses a simple slide to input a nickel. When the slide is pushed in, her machine takes the nickel and dispenses a gobstopper. It's small and can only hold a few gobstoppers, but the mechanism can be used continuously just by moving the little coin slide in and out. She even put a translucent red tile on the slide to indicate the end of travel. I asked her about the Friends sets; not for her. Needless to say, I was impressed by her ingenuity. I'm gonna have to sing, "Everything is stinky" next time my wife is using the facility. Love is bliss.

Wow...that's a lot of one set. Yep, I've seen the varied space theme Magnetizers, and they are very cool. I've seen that in a number of different space sets, where a model from one theme is rebuilt in the style of another. The Solar Snooper was always one of my favorite sets, and is one of only a couple in my collection that never got cannibalized. I still like to pull it out every few years and rebuild it, test it's rolling parameters, inspect the potential zero-G capabilities, all out of purely scientific, tactile, and observational motivations. Even the zooming sounds I produce vocally are to challenge the plastic's integrity when bombarded by sound waves.

Or horde it for yourself and just get her some generic doll to lose interest in after 20 minutes. Obviously, I don't have kids. I have LEGO, Transformers, Valkyries, and peaceful happiness instead.

As much as I want a regular Uni-Kitty fig, the rest of the set just seemed like a mish-mash and didn't interest me. It is cool for the variety and colors used, but the overall set, compared to what they could have given us from Cloud Cuckoo Land, just seemed lackluster. I may bow to impulse for it, but I'm pretty much holding out for Space Kitty. On the nostalgia front, I finally caved and ordered an M-Tron Mega Core Magnetizer set from Bricklink, complete, in good condition, w/ the original instructions,box and insert for $125. All in all, not a bad price for a vintage well-kept set of this size with the box. The box is torn, I guess, but that's why tape was invented. I've wanted this set ever since it came out in '90, and I recently made a friend who has 2 copies of it in his LEGO room. Seeing the awesomeness of the thing in person was the final nudge I needed to commit. Chomping at the bit for my invoice.

A lot of AFOLs have really good jobs, lots of disposable income. As far as procurement of parts, I've noticed that European stores seem to have a greater abundance of hard to find parts, especially retired parts. But if you're willing to pay the shipping...

Moko's Eva Unit 1: https://www.flickr.com/photos/legodoumoko/8681046404/ While this is just plain awesome, the rest of his photostream is full of great stuff.

Wow, Twilitech and porn stars. These are dark days on the forums. As much as I'd love to see Macross become more prominent in American pop culture, I really hope this never gets made. I don't want HG to achieve any form of success whatsoever from this license, at all, ever. I hope that within my lifetime, they will become financially incapable of holding the license and fold, taking Robotech with them into the annals of cartoon history, opening the door for the true Macross Series to be made available and uninhibited internationally. I figure they had their moment 30 years ago. Time to let go.

Although I don't care for GERWALK in general, I have to agree with Exo that the SV-51 has a cool looking GERWALK. But then again, it's badass in all 3 modes.

I 'm probably alone here, but I think it's pointless. It looks like it got stuck mid-transformation. Moreover, everything for which GERWALK is used can be accomplished by the battroid mode, so why not skip the intermediate step. Just my humble opinion.

Scyla, the hip mechanics are virtually the same as the VF-19, i.e. the fore and aft swivel attaches to the body, and the thighs attach perpendicularly to those swivels, allowing for the legs to swing laterally in and out. It's a great design, IMO, as it's much more solid than ball joints which inevitably always become sloppy. The differences are that on the YF-19, the small leading edges with small intakes that rest above the main engine intakes are on a swing bar and move to rest behind the thigh in battroid. They attach to the fore/aft swivel. The other difference is in the size of the leg position lock. It was large enough to use a finger on the VF-19, but very small on the YF-19 virtually necessitating a small tool of some sort to press it.

For the Japanese speakers among us, I'd assume that folks throughout Japan are blogging about the new YF-19. Are the same complaints cropping up there as well, and do Mr. K and his team look at them to gauge the reception of their new products? If I ran a business, I can think of no better way to get a brutally honest assessment of how well I've done than perusing the unrestrained comments, praise, and criticisms of my consumer base. I'm curious if any of these observations are getting back to Arcadia, and if they take any of it seriously enough to affect future products.

Best of luck to you, Mommar. Sincerely. As far as the YF-19, once assembled, does anyone know if these things are transformed through their various modes to actually check fit, tightness, paint, etc, for quality? Given the relatively low production numbers, it'd be nice if every piece was given a test run at the factory before being boxed up. Too much to hope for? No issues with plastic quality. All my YF-19's issues are engineering/design based. Except for lack of tampoed intake markings. That's just laziness or excessive frugality on Arcadia's part. Stickers suck.

Wow, that's some seriously sh1tty customer service. I hope you're able to find a resolution, without resorting to dishonesty. Think I'll stick to HLJ. They did right by me a few years back when I had an EVA figure come with 2 left knee pieces. I contacted HLJ, and received the right piece in the mail, at no cost.