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M'Kyuun

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Not knowing sucks. And..the uncertainty potentially puts more coin in third party competetors' pockets. Collectors are an impatient, twitchy lot. The first Megs was indeed subpar and disappointing on the heels of MP-01; but given that the designer only had two weeks to design him, he did a pretty good job relative to the constraints. Hopefully Takara learned their lesson and afford the designers more time for the MP stuff.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Looking forward to this review as well. I'm dubious as to whether Takara will even attempt a new Walther P38 MP Megatron, or just fall back on reissues of the original subpar design, or fill the void with Generations Leader Class Megatron. Apollyon looks like a tough act to follow aesthetically; if it turns out to be solid with good joints and such, I'll probably get a copy.
  8. M'Kyuun
    I'm always interested in the different portrayals/predictions of our future interactions with A.I., so I'm interested to see this. I liked Chappie, as the basic premise is realistic; a new A.I. would likely be analogous to a human child, and thus the product of his 'parents' teachings and behavior, as well as his environment. To that end, I think Chappie expressed that well. I don't think it was in the same league as Blomkamp's first two films, but it was still ok. Unlike Chappie, where the eponymous character is obviously a robot, Ex Machina promises a more psychologically interesting trip down Uncanny Valley with a realistically human android, who just happens to be an attractive female playing off a male character. Cue weird sexual attraction and an emotional roller coaster ride.
  9. M'Kyuun
    I also feel the original movie was better than Legacy. I could have lived without Jeff Bridge's 'everything is groovy' Zen stoner vibe. I've only seen a couple eps of Uprising, but it already feels far superior to the movie that inspired it. The writing is great, and they nailed the look and feel of Tron, while elevating the action. If Disney hired the guys who produced Uprising to do Tron 3, I'd have far greater anticipation.
  10. M'Kyuun
    It's always cool to hear about enabling spouses, or better yet, spouses who are equally into nerdware. My wife isn't into any of my hobbies, except a little LEGO and anime, but she always talks me into buying something when I'm contemplating buying it at the store. She's a keeper. Having not seen either Arcee or Chromia anywhere, and fearing I was going to lose the chance to get them at even close to retail, I got both from BBTS for about $37, incl S&H. Money well spent. Both are excellent figs, and fortunately, my Arcee is the open hand version, which looks better IMO. The only drawback to that is that the grips on both of her guns are pretty long and sit well high b/c of a lip of plastic along the inside bottom of her hand. I could sand it away so the guns sit normally, but I'm afraid it would weaken the hand to the point where it may crack over time. The alt modes of both are great. Love Chromia's Tron-ish Cybertronian bike mode...great extensive retool of Prime Arcee, also a good fig IMO. This is high praise, as I generally disdain Cybertronian alt modes. Arcee's car mode looks spot on, and both of her guns can be stored in her alt mode, a practice I wish they'd continue on all TF toys. After nearly 30 years of waiting for an official G1 Arcee, Takara did a great job; she's not perfect, but close enough for me. Highly recommend both figs.
  11. M'Kyuun
    I never cared for the character, but the fig looks good. I have the original to compare; they took serious liberties simplifying the various sticker patterns. I like how this guy's little stabs and missiles are integrated in the trunk area. I wish the front wheels would fold flat in flying mode; I think it'd look better. Preordered through HLJ.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I've enjoyed this series the whole way through. I thought it had a much stronger pilot than the The Clone Wars...all the 'Snips' and 'Sky Guy' crap became cringeworthy rather quickly. Anyway, Filoni and crew have mastered their craft over the years, and at this point I think they've got the look and feel of Star Wars down. The Rebels finale was great.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I saw it, and liked it. I thought it an interesting plot point to bring the eponymous main character under the immoral influence of Ninja & Friends, rather than his "maker". The social commentary says more about Joberg as a modern day/near future dystopia than any tolerance message concerning Chappie. The visuals are awesome; Weta Workshop does some amazing work. Really makes me wish the live action Evangelion would have been realized, if only for the visuals. Anyway, I love Blomkamp's style and mechanical designs, and while I still like District 9 best of his films, this was still good sci-fi. And Sharlto Copley is a damned good actor.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Truly a sad day for his family, and for the millions of extended family members who were entertained and inspired by his talent, wit, intelligence, and charm. Thanks and farewell, Mr. Nimoy.
  15. M'Kyuun
    The Helicarrier is a cool model, and the microfigs were a nice touch for scale, but I was hoping for a more minifig scaled ship. I realize something like that would be pretty big, but they made the UCS Milennium Falcon, and it was huge: over 5000 pieces, the largest production set to date. There's a new hull piece coming out in the 2015 Divers sets that I think would make a good starting base for a Helicarrier playset. I'm thinking about giving it a try, at least in LDD once it's added to the pallette.
  16. M'Kyuun
    False advertising; the Devastator boxart depicts the original G1 toy, esp Mixmaster.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Congrats and welcome back to the Macross addiction!
  18. M'Kyuun
    I've issued a few expletives of my own over the years with various TF toys across a number of lines, but probably moreso with the movie toys. But, I like figuring them out, so I stick with it. I also know to put them down and come back to them later if they frustrate me to the point of wanting to launch them across the room. That said, I've managed to figure out and transform all of my TFs, and Valks, for that matter. I always try to transform them without instructions, and I have a pretty good success rate. The enjoyment I get out of them is seeing how Takara varies the transformation method from toy to toy, and also solves engineering issues. The Binaltechs were great for this, since they had to look like their real world vehicle modes, include steering, often opening doors, hoods, trunks, and at least the driver's and passenger's seats. That the bot modes came out as well as they did is pretty impressive. But knowing that they've accomplished this level of engineering in the past makes me look at current toys with just a bit of disappointment and disdain. I'll take your word on the craptastic nature of Hasbro's instructions. I've only consulted them for a handful of toys and they provided enough instruction for me to get the job done. But then again, I used to work on military aircraft, using a lot of tech manuals; as such, I found my TFs to be relatively easy to sort out. Anyway, I'm sorry to hear that you've had issues; after all, they're toys, and they're meant to be fun and enjoyable. When they they fail at that, for whatever reason, it's a bit upsetting. I know the feeling.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Good luck! Pics of CW Menasor are up at TFW2005. http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/generations-classics-44/generations-combiner-wars-menasor-in-hand-images-182163/ Not too bad, but Dragstrip's robot arms look pretty awkward just hangin' out. You'd think with all these years of experience designing TFs Takara would be able to find more elegant solutions to issues like that. But then again, Hasbro wants uber-simplicity, so we get kibble instead. I love Transformers, but stuff like this just makes me jaded, esp when Takara have proven that they are capable of far, far better, but are mandated to design for America's lowest common denominator. Mean, but true.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Well, I finally have a spot of good news: I found CW Powerglide and Bombshell at one of the two Targets in my area. They actually had two Powerglides, so hopefully another frustrated TF collector like me will get it. Still, the CHUG stuff is pretty rare here. I'm so hoping the Arcee wave isn't done yet, or that the stores, for whatever reason (like perhaps all the pegs being clogged by non-CHUG shelfwarming TF stuff) just haven't stocked them yet. After 30 years of waiting, I just want my damned copy of Arcee, and a copy of Chromia. Knowing the popularity of Arcee, and the very likely high demand for a G1 accurate toy at long last, I would have thought Hasbro would go out of their way to promote this toy with retailers. Apparently, as with most of the CHUG line, they don't care. I concur with David H.'s statement about Hasbro overcompensating for parents' wishes for non-complex Transformers; Once you reach a point where the toy no longer lives up to its namesake, what's the point? The shelves are testament to the fact that kids are thinking the same way, b/c the 1, 2 steppers and non-transforming toys are not moving, not even on clearance. The puzzle of figuring them out is half the fun. Now, I do have to say that some of the Bayverse toys were probably a bit over engineered for 10 year olds; heck, even with my 30+ yrs of experience, I sometimes had to dig out the instructions for a few to make sure I wasn't going to break them. But the CHUG line from the start had a good balance of complexity, aesthetics, and articulation for a mainline aimed at 8+ kids. Mostly, I think they're still doing a good job on them; however, these CW toys are almost comically simple, esp the jets. Will that stop me from buying them...nope. But first I have to find them.
  21. M'Kyuun
    And the Russians can barely afford to fly the Blackjack.
  22. M'Kyuun
    I love their Alpha sculpt, but the materials and quality of their toys just doesn't stand up. If they made vast improvements in both these areas, I'd be willing to shell for more of their products. That new Voltron looks good to me; I never watched the show, but I like a well designed toy, and so far this puts a nice emphasis on the individual Lions, as well as the combined form. I'm curious whatever happened to Mattel's Voltron Force toys, which were seen at SDCC 2011, IIRC? I thought the cartoon sucked, but I loved the new look of both the individual Lions and Voltron. I never saw it in stores, and there's little info about them on the internet beyond SDCC. I was looking forward to making that my first Voltron. I'm guessing the show tanked, and the toy prospects followed suit. Tis a shame that marketability of a show and its related toys hinge on the success of both seemingly in equal parts. They are separate entities to me, as far as my spending habits go, but I guess I'm the exception rather than the rule. the same fate killed the Thundercats reboot a few years ago. Loved the show, but didn't really care about the toys. The toys didn't sell well, and the show got yanked. Again, it's a shame the show couldn't stand on its own merit.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Combiner Wars stuff has been rare in my area as well, but I finally found some deluxes at Walmart; picked up Dragstrip, Firefly, and Skydive. They had Alpha-Bravo, but I think I'll wait and pick up the eventual Vortex repaint. These guys are pretty simple, but fun. I like the linkage used for the jets' leg transformation; it's more stable than Dragstrips' traditional sliding mechanism. No sign of Powerglide or Bombshell yet. I have yet to see Arcee or Chromia, for that matter. All the figs I want are sold out on the Hasbro online shop. I think they're taking a page out of Bandai's marketing strategy playbook: make something that is going to have huge demand, produce low numbers, distribute unevenly. With the cheap production quality, higher prices, and greater difficulty finding the Generations toys, Hasbro is rapidly leaching the joy out of collecting Transformers. No wonder My Little Pony has become their number one product; they're too busy overproducing Bayverse toys, 1 and 2 step changers, and seemingly ignoring or underproducing the CHUGs, which seem to sell out faster than any other product line, at least in my area. Tracks is ok; they did a good job on him and I'll likely get him, but I'd much rather have Ironhide and a new Megs comparable to Apollyon. I'd love to have all the first season G1 figs in Masterpiece.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I was just perusing the official Constructicons pics, and all but Bonecusher and Scavenger look like they're the products of about 20 years of design regression. Scrapper has no elbows, Hook and Mixmaster's lower arms are tiny and barely hanging on by a small linkage, and Long Haul's bot mode barely resembles his G1 look, as well as having stubby forearms that hinge laterally instead of fore and aft like normal elbows. I really wish they'd put in the engineering to make the individual bots better, at least with the minimal articulation that's become standard for each figure. I was planning on getting the whole set, but I want and expect better, esp with these figures who've been long overdue a modernized design to bring them up to today's engineering standard. Such a letdown, but more money to spend on the Protectobots and Stunticons, who all look to have superior designs. Also disappointed to see that Cyclonus is a retconned Silverbolt.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Saw it today. Honestly, I didn't find the young lead all that charismatic, but Colin Firth owned his role as a Bond-ish sort. I liked Sam Jackson's bad guy from Unbreakable more than the character he plays here, but he was ok. His henchwoman was far more interesting when doing her thing. Overall, I thought it was a cool movie, with just enough self-knowing cheek, a multi-digit death toll, and some cool spy movie clichés to make it fun and enjoyable.
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