M'Kyuun

Visored and visor-less figs did overlap, especially in 1987 when the final wave of visorless sets released along with Futuron and Blacktron, and likely spent several years on the shelves together, as sets generally enjoyed a longer shelf life at that time. LEGO's yearly production was but a fraction then of what it is today, and sets remained available for longer periods. It's a point that long haunts me with regret as I didn't pick up nearly as many sets as I wish I had, especially in the 90s when I had enough disposable income as a young Airman to splurge on a nice set from time to time. I was pretty frugal back then, though, and let a lot of opportunities slip by to my eternal regret. So far as collecting, different strokes; our own @mikeszekely, along with collecting Transformers toys across the board, specifically collects Optimus Prime figs. Some folks love the Seekers or different versions of Soundwave. Collecting runs the gamut, and the collectors have their reasons for collecting broadly, as I do, or specifically collecting this character or that. I have a preference for G1 Prowl, and I have a few versions of him in my collection, although I don't take it to the extreme that other collectors do. Regardless, it's a hobby and if it's harmless and brings joy to the collector, more power to them I say. At least those toys are loved. I have likely a couple thousand LEGO sets in my collection at this point across many themes stretching all the way back to those '79 Classic Space sets. I never had a Dark Age, as I collected continually, although minimally at times, since I was about 6 or 7 years old. I'm 52 now, and I'll never give up LEGO as a hobby. It's an intrinsic part of who I am, as is my love of transforming robots, and mecha in general. I'm just happy to be living in an era where both are very popular and abundantly available. As our interior space diminishes with each acquisition, however, my wife is less than enthused, and admittedly, it's becoming a point of frustration for me too. Alas, it's every collector's conundrum: running out of space.

I'm glad you got some small measure of enjoyment from the book. Having grown up with Classic Space from the beginning, its impact, and thus enjoyment, is far greater for me. The nostalgia factor is certainly a huge part of that, as my collection was rather small as a kid, and though I've managed to pick up a few sets over the years, there are still many I don't own and would eventually like to find, or re-find, to add to my collection. To have a consolidated collection of nice clear photos of all those sets along with background, of which I vehemently wish there was far more than what was provided, makes for a valuable resource and just an enjoyable perusable to have at hand. I very much wish more in-depth interviews, and just more interviews period, had been conducted with Jens Nygaard Knudsen while he was with us. We see so much stuff written about guys like Steve Jobs, but here's the guy who was absolutely central to LEGO's success from the 70s onward creating and influencing major themes, inventing parts, the minifig itself, and numerous innovations and improvements through the several decades he worked at LEGO. It's not hyperbole to say LEGO is the most successful toy company in the world today in no small part due to his contributions. And yet, there seems to be so little info about him, especially in his own words, and that frustrates and saddens me. I digress. I complain, but honestly I'm glad this book exists. I hope it's received well enough to inspire a second volume covering the rest of the Space themes from '92 to the present City Space sets, which are leaning hard into that sense of exploration that so characterized the original '70s & 80s sets. If it happens, I'm down for a copy.

For whatever reason, I never saw Robotech (nor Voltron) on tv as a kid; almost certainly, the Macross Saga portion would have captivated me. I was TDY in England in the early 00s and the BX (Air Force's version of a convenience store) had the entire RT series to rent. I still hadn't seen the og SDF:M at this point, so I went in with tempered expectations having known all the vitriol it received from Macross fans. I managed to finish the Macross portion and got a couple eps into the Southern Cross portion, but SC was losing me with its lackluster mecha and story. Let's face it, Kawamori's VF-1 set a pretty high bar and SC seemed a serious downgrade despite its supposed existence in the future relative to the Macross portion. At that point, I quit, so I didn't see the majority of the SC portion or any of the Mospeada portion. I ended up buying the ADV Macross Saga DVD set, so I've at least seen the og show as it was intended. The voice work, including Mari Iijima reprising her role as Miss Macross herself, Lynn Minmay, was decent. I've also seen Mospeada , which I enjoyed. While I'm sure Robotech would have had an incredible impact on me as a kid, I'm thankful that I didn't see it until later in life, and that I have seen the original shows, which IMHO, are superior to the edited versions that were cludged together to make RT. That is, except for Super Dimension Calvary Southern Cross, which I've not seen and honestly have no interest in seeing- the mecha designs are less than inspiring, and that erodes the appeal for me. Yeah, I'm a mecha snob.

Flame Toys' Arcee is a nice-looking kit, but it's inability to transform removes the very thing that gives the franchise its appeal to me. I won't be giving up my Azalea, who remains, IMHO, the best transforming Arcee figure in existence. If Hasbro ends up doing a better version of Arcee to make up for the terrible Earthrise fig and the just ok SS86 fig, I hope they take major design cues from Azalea. Sounds like Hasbro is tapping into their Gobots repertoire a bit. Shame they can't make a limited contract with Bandai to actually use the og designs. Takara have worked with Bandai in the past on Zoids and Gundam, so in the very limited context of recreating Gobots based on the Machine Robo toys, I wonder if they'd have an objection? I'd like to see that collaboration. I was hoping the upcoming leader Soundwave would be a completely new mold, hopefully returning to the og micro-cassette scale of G1 with updated and improved cassettes, but disappointingly, I guess not. Netflix Soundwave is ok, but there's definitely room for improvement, and I was pinning my hopes on the rumored leader toy. Hopes dashed.

Thanks, Mike. I may end up missing this one, as I have to take my mother-in-law to an appointment at 9, and upon return, my pup will surely need to go out, and he's not always quick in getting about his business given his second-long attention span. Never knew what a pain raising a dog from a puppy was- never again. My saving grace, however, is that any POs arising from the stream usually don't go live until an hour or two later, so I'll hopefully still get the opportunity to get them, especially if Gears or Origins Wheeljack are included. Zero interest in Armada Tidal Wave, who's apparently the star of the show today.

What time is the fanstream? I didn't receive an email.

I like it, too. Rather reminiscent of the YF-23 "Grey Ghost", which of course influenced the YF-21's design as well as the aircraft competition subplot in Macross Plus.

BBTS is charging $350, plus $4 S&H. Amazon may be charging $20 less for the valk, but what's their shipping cost like? I'm thinking BBTS is looking pretty fair, as most of the other e-tailers are likely to be in the same ballpark, especially once shipping is tacked on. The only negative thing about BBTS is that they seem to take longer than other stores to get their stock. I'm curious to see what the US Gundam store will price it. If it's in the $300+ range as well, it's a notable contrast to the DX YF-19, arguably the more popular of the M+ valks, which has a current PO price of $250. All things considered, however, it's a bit surreal after years of midnight madness to score a Macross valk to see these toys now available, sometimes for weeks, on American stores' inventories. Dream come true.

Likewise; at least I know I've got a copy w/out fuss. I was going to try Ami-Ami, but my new puppy chose PO time to have to go out and in the few minutes I was outside w/ him, it sold out. BBTS has $4 flat rate shipping, so although I'm being gouged on price, I won't be double-gouged on S&H. Ami-Ami has a disclaimer saying S&H may be very high, and it's possible I'd end up paying as much or more after paying their shipping rate. Too, the PO on BBTS has been up for hours, so it was a much more leisurely stress-free option, even if my wallet is smarting a little. The pain is ameliorated a little by the certainty that I have one POed without having to desperately look for another site that may sell out in seconds. The availability of Macross toys in US stores is the one positive from Big West's deal with the devil.

So Ami-Ami have the DX YF-21 listed on their site, but POs won't go live until 11 Jan at 1100 Japan time (I'm assuming Tokyo time specifically). That comes out to 6PM tomorrow for me. Since we're no longer limited to Japan-only stores, I'm hoping we'll all have a fairer chance of scoring a copy without all the previous midnight madness shenanigans. Since Macross is still not widely known outside of the Robotech context here in the States, I'd like to think that the POs will stay open a bit longer for this in domestic stores should we fail in getting a Japanese PO. The degree of markup is my concern at that point. They kinda have us by the bollocks when it comes to Macross releases. 😒 Then again, S&H from China and Japan can get expensive, so nothing really gained nor lost either way.

You're correct; I was mistaken. But my feelings towards 'delimiter' mode remain the same. 😉 Meh! I like my YF-21 limited!😁

Regarding high-speed mode, macht nix to me; I will never put my copy in that config. I never did it for my Yammie, either. Yeah, it happened in the anime, but it's really an outlier mode that never really meant much to me; mine will stay in battroid, as I've waited a long time to have a YF-21 with a proportional b-mode, and I'm digging how this fig looks.

So, about what time is the madness going to happen? I'm going to try to score a copy from one of the Tamashii links (Amazon, BBTS, Entertainment Earth). I'm hoping the markup won't be financially crushing, but this is a Macross release so....

I'm guessing there were probably financial factors as well for keeping the book to a certain length, as he likely had a budget to observe. My hope is that this one will sell well prompting a second volume to finish off the rest of the Space themes, including 2024's return of Sci-fi Space sets across a multitude of major themes. The Spyrius robot is indeed cool. I wish they'd done bots as minifigs from the beginning, as the brick-built robots, while they had their charms, were generally quite limited in their articulation. While the minifig is rather anachronistic and limited itself, it's still superior to the alternatives and just fits better IMHO.

1978 and on is my Classic Space; I was there for all of it, and I still remember looking longingly at the little folded brochures featuring sets from across Town, Space, Castle, and later, Pirates as a kid. Space, of course, was my favorite theme, but I also liked some Town stuff, mostly construction. Castle was cool, but I never had any as a kid, and with limited funds and limited choices for birthday and Christmas gifts, Space was almost always my choice of LEGO sets. I got a few nice Technic and Model Team sets in there, too, though. I, too, hope Tim Johnson continues this book as a series, breaking them down by eras. To answer your question, "Why stop at '92?", according to the author, it was the last year of only classic smiley faced figs, and as an aside, Jens Knudsen moved to a different department in '93. Tim Johnson said in an interview that deciding at what point the cutoff would be was a tough decision, so the last themes with all smiley faces seemed a good point. I'm with you, though; when Blacktron arrived with those cool mysterious black visors, I was over the moon for them. As helmets and visor colors changed from theme to theme, I was totally on board for all of it. More than that, though, I was blown away by the UFO Zotaxian minifigs with their extremely complex and detailed printing (especially for the time) and those fantastic alien looking helmets. They remain some of my all-time favorite minifig designs to this day. LEGO minifigures SP042 UFO Zotaxian Alien - Blue Officer (Commander X) | Brickset As to how well the book covers the various themes, it does a set-by-set photo with a very brief expose' from 78-92 highlighting major features of each set. It also touches on concepts that never made it to production, sets that were in the final production stages that, for whatever reason, were never released, interviews with a number of designers and other LEGO employees with insights generally regarding Mr. Knudsen's personality and such. Mr. Johnson also employed some license, creating a small action narrative for each set just for additional flavor. I'd have preferred more info on the sets themselves, but I'm sure there are fans who enjoy that sort of thing. In some instances, in crafting his narratives, he used info from advertisements and other production materials, so not everything is entirely made up by Tim- there's a kernel of legit history here and there. And because Mr. Johnson is a connoisseur of LEGO parts, he dutifully highlights various parts that were developed or introduced in Space themes from '78-'92. As FOL who has always been excited by the addition of new parts in the inventory, it's a welcome addition to the book that I personally enjoy and hope he continues should there be another volume to follow. I hope so. I think all these sets have merit, some great backstories, and each represents an entry point into LEGO Space themes for one generation or another. I think those stories need to be told and all of those themes and sets need to be celebrated in like fashion.

Lucky you! I've been to two Walmarts and neither has any 2024 stuff out yet, although the one down the road from me looks like they're getting ready to do a reset in the LEGO aisle, so I'm guessing they'll have them stocked by week's end. My wife's going to get me the two large sets and I'll likely get the rest, minus possibly one for birthday fodder. I was hoping my Wally would have at least that polybag, but no. What they did have, however, was a Technic polybag of a Mars rover, complete with working suspension. Pretty neat little model, I must say. My wife also got me a newly released coffee table book called LEGO Space 1978-1992 by Tim Johnson, founder of newelementary.com, a blog focused on LEGO parts. There are some interesting interviews with various designers concerning the development of early Classic Space themes, mostly centered on Jens Nygaard Knudsen, creator of nearly all the 1978 sets as well as the inventor of the minifig and general overseer of LEGO Space for years. Alas, no direct interviews were conducted with Mr. Knudsen, as he sadly passed in 2020 from ALS, and judging from what others have said about his boundless imagination and creativity, it's a huge loss to fans like me who were craving a deep dive into the creation of all these wonderful space sets that have had a lasting lifetime influence. It seems incomprehensible that more interviews weren't conducted with him while he was still with us, as his influence was dominant in the 70s-90s, and continues to this day, as many of the parts he designed are still in use, and sets like 10497 harken back to the original line of Space sets that released in '78 introducing the world to a bunch of nifty blue and grey spaceships and minifig astronauts to interact with and build stories around. However, I am thankful that a number of designers from the 70's and onward who worked with Jens and knew him personally have shared some of their memories in the book. IMHO, those anecdotes and memories only whet the appetite for a more profound conversation with Jens himself, but in his absence, his legacy speaks volumes.

That's your prerogative, and in so doing, I wish you every success and it turns out well. Absolutely. Unfortunately, we, meaning me, don't all have skills with painting or decaling, so factory applied paint and tampo are extremely welcomed, especially on a high-end toy that costs several hundred bucks.

Right? I'll bet it even said a 'Buckbeak-like creature' in the script and the SFX folks were like F-it, we're not even gonna try to come up with something different. So blatant. The spider girl was done really well, though, and it's lamentable that more wasn't done with her- imagine how much more interesting she would have been as an allied fighter than Doona Bae's two-dimensional cyborg Jedi with a witch's hat.

While the Unicron Trilogy isn't to my taste, as they continue to plow through the various characters, my guess is they'll eventually give this guy the upscaled fig he deserves. Honestly, he's not a half bad sci-fi jetformer, certainly better than many we've gotten over the decades. I'd be curious to see how a voyager or leader scaled fig turned out. Got a few deluxe figs from Pulse yesterday, including Animated Bee, and man is it a shame they didn't allow for the front halves of his car to swivel 180 degrees to become his toes instead of his heels. Would've been a great improvement to an already good update. The size differential between this fig and his original deluxe figure just makes you realize how much less plastic they're working with at almost three times the price from those 2008 toys.

While Bandai may go a bit overboard with their tampo, IMHO it's a far cry better than the absolute minimum tampo that Yamato/Arcadia does. Their YF-19 V3 original release didn't even have intake markings, which is an essential marking on the majority of valks. I think it came w/ decals to supply them, but so many markings that should have been tampoed as a matter of course weren't. So complain and remove them if you will, but I'll take mine with its full complement of tampoed markings, thanks. I think it makes it more visually appealing. Even my wife thought Bandai's DX YF-21 looked good, and she couldn't care less about my Macross toys.

Looking forward to picking up all these new space sets. Space is back and I'm elated.

Certainly so. FYI, the real-world inspiration for those paddles was likely Rockwell's MBB X-31, a cool plane in its own right.

Regarding Rebel Moon Part Deux, more of the same. The highly trained military fighter teaching a peaceful village how to fight in an expedited time frame to combat a superior military force trope is so overused. Sometimes it's done well, but I don't get that sense here, as everything seems rushed in these films. I get that it's the nature of film to often rush things b/c the production team is dealing with a very finite period in which to tell their story; however, given how rushed and shallow the first film was, I don't think there'll be much improvement on the second go. That said, I'll watch it, but not with the same expectation I had for the first. I like the flying mech carriers and the mechs themselves; definitely vibes of the LAATs carrying the AT-TEs into battle in Attack of the Clones, one of only a few things I liked in that film. The LEGO set was pretty cool. Finally got to see Lamb, a 2021 movie starring Noomi Rapace that looked weird and intriguing from trailers I saw in the theater. AFAIK, it never showed locally, and I've been waiting for it to show up on ShowTime or HBO during the holidays when we get it for free, but I've never seen it playing. However, Prime, to which I'm subscribed, finally got it and I was pretty excited to see it. Indeed, it was weird, a bit of a slow burn film, but well-acted considering the odd circumstances at the center of the film. It may not be for everyone, but I dug it.

These days, the smaller Hi-Metal toys, often with swappable parts, are going for what the DX toys went for just a few years ago. Inflation sucks, but that's our reality. Plus, with so few Macross toys being made period, companies can charge what they want, especially for higher end toys and fans are going to pay it for lack of alternatives and scarcity. I'd much prefer to pay Bandai's old $160-80ish for a DX toy, but as Sanity says, that boat has sailed. All we can hope for is a favorable exchange rate when the PO goes live.

LOL, pretty apt description. I was excited for this, but I found it a bit too boilerplate, derivative, and hokey. The scene where the dude has to tame Buckbeak just seemed downright pilfered. While I thought Sofia Boutella did a good job in her role, little development was given to the other fighters she's gathering to fight the Galactic Emp...erm, the Motherworld. The whole film is replete with cliche, overdone slow motion, and tropes we've seen again and again. No new ground is trodden here....