M'Kyuun

Picked up RTS Tracks and Jazz here in Spokane, Wa. Great homages to the originals, esp Jazz. Tracks' legs only bend about 30 degrees, and hopefully, if the preliminary shots of his Wheeljack remold/repaint are any indication, the new inner leg pieces will allow for better poseability. Finally found Dirge at Target after giving up on finding him, so now I have all three Hasbro Conehead Seekers. Terradive, beyond his nasty orange color scheme, features a refreshingly different look and transformation than typical jet mode Transformers. Cool fig, I have to say. Still looking for Highbrow...haven't seen him anywhere, and I dig the retro Transformers. Plus, he's a P-38...love twin boom aircraft. I have the scout class classic hotrod and bi-plane figures (terrible with names)...both are great little figs. Looking forward to upcoming Perceptor, Wreck-gar, Scourge, and Lugnut figs. Having pulled out my original Jazz and Tracks figs for comparison to their new incarnations, I can't help but revel in how far toy technology has advanced, or how spoiled kids are now. The original car TFs cost 13 bucks a pop and they were bricks. Ok, they had die-cast...so they were solid heavier bricks, but bricks nonetheless. I'll take the new over the old anyday.

The mold is looking great, but I'm just not crazy about that red and yellow color scheme, nor the face. If anybody's feeling frisky w/ Photoshop, it'd be neat to see a Blazer scheme.

Agreed...wish Takara had stuck to their original, more accurate, design; that, to me, is the whole point of the MP line..to represent the original characters in a large detailed scale, with special attention given to the bot mode. I realize Kawamori designed the original F-15 seeker, that he's an icon in Japan, and that it was probably an incalculable honor to let him have his way with the MP mold, but I'd much rather have had the more g-1ish mold, chunkines and leg mounted stabs intact. I envy the skill and tenacity of those willing and able to do customizing work. I lack both, and so can only gaze with wonder. It's certainly a form of compulsive masochism, this damnable internet.

While I give kudos to Yamato for having the guts to make this years ago, Bandai trumped it in spades. I have a question: Do the hips move forward and back in battroid? If so, I'd love to see some more dynamic poses in battroid with the legs positioned as if it's taking a step forward preparing to attack.

I've been studying those Rodimus pics (slow night at work and I'm by myself with another 10 hours to kill.) Some observations: the lower legs form the front fenders of Rodimus Prime's uber-winnebago, while the shoulders form the front fenders of Hot Rod's car, so the transformation should be interesting from just that alone. I looked at the Rodimus/HR bot pics..the only difference I see is that Rodimus' legs are positioned a few millimeters lower at the hip. Supposedly there are two swappable faces, but I don't see a difference in the posted pics. From the animated pics, Hot Rod should have a more rounded face with few angles, and Rodimus' face is more angular and faceted, to give a more adult impression. I don't see much difference in the placement of his spoiler in these pics, either. The articulation on this fig is impressive, to say the least, as a MP fig should be. While I don't see much difference in the bot modes, I think they nailed the vehicle modes pretty well. Hot Rod even has an interior...more than what I would have expected. Now he just needs to come with a little Daniel fig with his jetboard, and a fishing pole for Hot Rod. One area I wish they'd taken some license is the trailer. The original was pretty boring, and it looks positively archaic next to Hot Rodimus, esp in terms of engineering. This would have been much cooler had they re-imagined it into a sort of rotating howitzer platform with a seat for Rodimus, with the base folding out to become support legs. I still have to wonder what about a space-winnebago struck the designers back then as being cool, esp for a young hero character. Maybe if he was covered in floral designs, had molded dreads, and a perma-doob hanging from his lips, and a Matrix reconfigured into a peace sign hanging on a chain, inciting his fellow Cybertronians to gather together until "all are one", there'd be some relevence to his alt mode. My friend had Rodimus back in the 80's, and even as a huge TF fan at 14, I remember thinking he was pretty crappy. For me, Hot Rod in either mode is the more desirable option. That he can grow a couple millimeters and rock the space camper is just icing on the cake. My $.02

That boom box mode is kind of a stretch. I haven't played the game yet, so I'm not sure if he actually assumes a boom-box mode officially, but I'm inclined to say, "why would he?" other than as a fan-nod to the original character. Millions of years before the boom box was invented....before he sided with the Decepticons, Soundwave, in a prescient move that would echo across time and space, transformed into a radio, and in true Macross style, laid down the beats in a futile effort to make his fellow bots, "give peace a chance." While I like my MP Grimlock (Hasbro version), I have to say that MP Prime still epitomizes what the MP line should be, IMHO. Granted his truck mode suffers, but in his bot mode, he is pure awesome: big, hefty, lots of die-cast, full of nifty features and details, extremely well articulated for such a large figure, and pretty spot-on with his robot mode. MP Megatron is pretty cool, but he's overly complex with a lot of kibble, hindered and limited articulation, and a lot more license taken with the bot's look. The MP seekers stray quite a bit from their G1 look, and I wish that Takara had used or released seperately, their original, more G1-esque F-15C styled seeker. Picked up my first HA fig: Jazz. The original Deluxe was absolute crap; this toy makes up for it in spades. Although I'm not crazy about Bay's bot aesthetic, there is enough of G1 Jazz in this fig to make me like him. The toy has decent, not great, articulation, matches his movie incarnation pretty well, and features a retractable visor( nice surprise). The motorcycle/ weapon is alright..points for creativity and for adding additional playability to the set. I didn't bother taking Capt Lennox out of his plastic and rubber band cocoon, but he does have some pretty good poseability for such a small figure(shoulder, hip, and knee joints allow him to sit in the car or assume a rider's position on the bike). Although he lacks proper seats for the Lennox fig, he does have a center console and a steering wheel. I got a little Alternators vibe from him. Overall, a pretty decent fig.

Also, the VF-25 was so designated to mark the 25th anniversary of Macross. The model we haven't seen is the VF-26. So far, my Brera VF-27 is holding up fine. The metal bars to which the shoulder attach are a little loose, but they can still be adjusted and posed without too much trouble. I wish Bandai had designed the slots further back, as the metal bars don't tab in when the chest is angled down. Overall, though, a pretty solid toy. I've grown used to its chunky style. Still, if Yamato was ever to pick up the license and make a skinnier, more accurate version, I'd definitely consider it. I'd really love to have an accurate 1/60 Michael's VF-25.

Slightly OT, IMO, most of the valks lose their sleekness and realism in the lower leg/aft engine section. The YF-21 and VF-22 are about the most realistic looking valk jet modes from front to back that I can think of. The VF-11, VF-1, and VF-0 have pretty passable jet modes too. The SV-51's bell bottom legs and tri-toe augmentors, and the VF-25's anthropomorphically stylized lower legs really stand out to me as stretching believability. The VF-27, sharing traits from both SV-51 and the VF-25, along with its unusual wing mounted engines, makes it really stand out as bizarre. I never got a submarine vibe from it, though. Kawamori is pretty careful to design the forward fuselage to approximate real aircraft, but the rear section of his designs tend to stray from reality to favor the battroid. Just an observation, which in no way diminishes the unique quality of Kawamori's designs as some of the most realistic transforming mecha out there. Ultimately, they are what draw me most to Macross.

I also thought the 27 looked odd with the, IMO, superflous wing mounted engines. Guess that's what gives it a leg up over the 25; well, that and its ridiculously huge rifle. Both pilots are nearly matched with metro-sexual prowess, but Brera's cyborg body and his valk's magenta paint scheme give him an edge over Alto. Wow, I'm surprised the SV-51 took the lead here. It's not a traditionally pretty bird, and the 25/27 designs are arguably sleeker, if sleek is to be taken as "more aerodynamic". The SV-51's battroid clinches it for me, though.

Looks good. Not crazy about the Kai's paint scheme; I'll hold out for a Blazer or maybe some other non-canon paint scheme down the road. Design-wise, however, I prefer the VF-19's design over the YF-19. I think the Kai's and the YF-19's wings look better in battroid than the "F" and "S" models, even though I dig how the latter's wings look in fighter. If they make a VF-19F with white stripes, I'll bite. I'm not too crazy about yellow, and the white "pops" more with the blue and dark grey, to me, anyway. I've never been a fan of G-mode in any valk. To me, they all pretty much look like a mid-transformation glitch...a plane with arms and legs. Kinda silly, IMO. Hope this will maybe pave the way for a VF-17.

I chose the 51 as well. While the sv-27 is arguably sleeker in the fighter mode, I prefer the SV-51's unconventional battroid, and the more rugged look of the fighter. Also, points to the SV-51 for having VTOL capability, even if it wasn't realized on Yamato's version (the chest piece raises in fighter to expose the lift fan.) I have to agree with everyone who believes that the YF-21, by virtue of its YF-23 inspiration, is the sleekest of all the valkyries. It's a beautiful design, at least in fighter. Not as crazy about its battroid.

I was a bit skeptical when TFA images first started circulating as well, but the show was a nice surprise, and many of the toys I count among my favorites. So, that said, I can live with the design aesthetic as long as the writing and humor are different from Bay's movies, which I find hard to believe given that Orci and Kurtzman are writing this. I know they are capable writers. They wrote the latest Star Trek movie, which I enjoyed, and found the dialog and humor well suited to the characters. Hopefully, Prime's director will attempt to create his own story and view of the characters apart from the live action movies. I thought TFA succeeded in this, putting a new spin on the characters, giving them a radical new look, and yet still spicing the show with G1 nods for us guys that still remember the original show.

From the early pics of Bumblebee holding the Hub sign, I got a strong sense that these were going to be simplified Bayformner designs, with a blatant movie aesthetic overall. Sadly, I was right. I see no WFC influence here, and only the rounding out of the characters, with more contours in the armor and such, hint at any Animated influence. I hope the humor isn't like the movie as well. Honestly, the show hasn't started yet, and I'm already losing interest. Still haven't seen bayformers 2, and seeing the pic of the bot with glasses and hair makes me hate the third one already. They're robots...why would they have hair or glasses? Just straight up f'n stupid. Been reading the comments at TFW2005 regarding the Prime footage. The fandom over there, with one or two exceptions, seem to gobble up anything TF related regardless of how mediocre, or just plain bad, it is. For my two cents, I like CG renders, and this looks pretty. Bee's transformation seemed almost stop motion at the beginning with parts there, then just gone or rearranged. Really long fall to the ground with overexuberant closeups in air. Lands, and gives a Decepticon a right hook. As a teaser, there's no storytelling...more of a, 'look how pretty and movie-esque this looks' vibe. Curious to see how the toys are going to compare to their animated counterparts. One thing that is cool about CG is that the actual transformation sequence of the toy could be employed in the show, for consistency. Guess I'm the only one who hates the horns on Cliffjumper's car mode. Maybe on a big white caddie...not on a classic muscle car. I'm not a fan of Cybertronian alts, as they generally look like crap. TFA Cybertron Prime and Ratchet are two excellent exceptions. TFA Megs, OTOH, still makes me wonder which end is the front and what is it supposed to be? I do like that the majority of the characters in Prime become Earth vehicles, grounding them in reality. To me, that was always the essence of Transformers anyway... disguise on a foreign planet. I hope that there is no hint of Bay's movie beyond the aesthetics. I'd love to see this as an alternate, stand-alone series, with more intrigue, spying, and use of alt modes for which they were intended. Obviously, if the trailer is any indication of the series, Bee's over-the-top drive over the bridge to assault a couple Cons minding their own business in broad daylight, precludes any of my hopes for the series.

Seconded on its being more poseable than I originally thought. I'd love a closeup of that hip joint and some pics showing full range of motion. Smart choice attaching the kneecap to the thigh. I'm also wondering if all those small joints throughout the arm are somehow ratcheted to alleviate the sloppiness that plagues Yamato's. Looking forward to a review, but looking more and more like a winner.

I understand and agree with your point about utility. However,many aircraft TFs preserve the cockpit, esp Starscream toys, for that iconic look. The Monster wouldn't be far off, either, and on Bandai's design, the whole cockpit rotates 90 deg and the head is mounted to the other side, ala Lugnut or Bulkhead from TFA. I personally like that design better than the fold under cockpit and head mounted too far back design of the Yamato Monster. I'd just like to see what Takara would come up with if given the chance. It'd be neat to see a new perspective, and knowing that Takara can design very complex transforming toys, I think they could produce some amazing Macross stuff. I like designs that keep the cockpit intact, and don't forget that a number of the original TF toys were originally piloted mecha, including Grimlock, Slag, Sludge, the seekers, and even Prime.

I meant from an engineering perspective...Takara has proven with the Binaltech, Materpiece, and live-action movie-based lines that they can create pretty solid toys with innovative engineering, and still retain poseability, while transforming into real world vehicles. Granted, they've made some crappy designs, as well. But looking at a TF as complex as MP Prime, or ROTF leader class Prime, the transformations are much more complex than the Monster, which really is not that complex at all, on the whole, and both Primes have great poseability for all their complexity. Sorry to hear you had some lemons. I've had no problems with any of my MP or BT toys.

When it came to flying, the whole show was full of inconsistencies. While the adult fans of cartoons and anime is well recognized today, back in the 80's it wasn't, and so the writers didn't give two shits about science, consistency , or any established rule or characteristic from a previous episode, b/c I guess they didn't think kids would remember stuff from one week to the next. They wrote what they needed to make the ep work, and damn the pesky laws of physics and whatever came before. "Can you transform?" "I..I don't think so; I think my linkage is busted." Great stuff. I ate this poo up as a kid, though. Still brings a smile. The Power Snore Combiners just don't appeal. Nothing worse than gaudily colored, way-oversized weapons, even if those weapons transform too. The main toys don't look bad, however, at least Huffer retains an iota of his original self. Actuall, I'd love a nice Universe Scout-class homage to Huffer. Agree too, on nasty colors used to denote connection points and such if they clash with an otherwise decent paint job.

I held out on the VF-25 too, b/c of its many problems. I got a VF-27, and I have no regrets...pretty nice toy, the crotch not locking out into anime correct position being its only major flaw. I got the 1/72 VF-25 model, and it suffices for now, to present an accurate representation of the VF-25 until Bandai goes back to the drawing board, or Yamato gets the license. Shame the VF-171 has gone completely ignored. It wasn't the hero mech, but still pretty neat in its own right. looking forward to see the final results/ review of Bandai's DX Konig Monster.

Your logic is impeccable, sir. I'm with you, large robots are cool in and of themselves; however a non-transforming transformer is a contradiction and pointless. Thrust is a must! I'm liking about half the The WOC designs, basically those that look like real vehicles. Much like Animated , Megs makes me ask, wtf is it? BumbleBee, the seekers, the unnamed decepticon jet in the lower left corner, Air Raid, plus most of the car mode bots look good. I know these are supposed to be their alien forms, but usually alien alt forms just look like ass when they're not tied in some way visually to a real vehicle. More to the point, the reason they transform is for disguise, so why would they need to transform on Cybertron if there are no human sized robots to drive them around and no generic vehicles with which to blend? It's a fantastic concept for a toy or game, and made perfect sense the way it was presented in the original series, although they didn't really use the diguise motive very well. But a bunch of robots on a robot planet turning into vehicles their own size would be like humans turning into hairless human-sized monkeys...sure it'd be cool, but not much of a disguise...we'd all stand out to each other. We'd just be great tree climbers with a jones for bananas and ant fishing.

Tampo's fine for me, as I don't handle my toys all that often...I find a pose I like, and leave it until I get tired of it, or just want to transform it. The size is fine by me as well..2cm is not a deal breaker. My concern is whether it will have better engineered linkages and joints allowing for both poseability and solidarity. Yamato's is pretty floppy, esp in the knee area, and hip poseability is almost nil. the Monster is not that complex in its transformation, and a seasoned company like Bandai should be able to create solid ratcheting joints for a toy this size, esp in the Chogokin line. I know I'll catch hell, but I'd actually like to see what Takara-Tomy would do with the design, esp after the work they've done for the movie franchise. After creating a toy as complex as MP Prime and ROTF Leader Prime, I think the VB6 would present little challenge to those folks.

The side toes don't look like they can angle back, so the monster has to stand on it's exhaust flaps. At least Yamato got that right. Hope the actual toy can balance better in both G and B modes. No special version for me, either. I hope the legs lock together better than they appear by this pic. I'm assuming the thing was hastily transformed for the benefit of snapping off some quick pics. I hope that's all, b/c thus far, it looks to be a step up from Yamato's in nearly all respects.

Hit Girl made me think a plausible live-action Gunslinger Girl could be made with girls of the appropriate ages. Of all the characters, she definitely stole the show. I also didn't mind seeing the bad guy give her a beat down...he's the bad guy for a reason, and given that she single-handedly killed off all his henchmen, administering the righteous hand of slap that mini-bitch down was called for, if you're a bad guy, that is. I have to agree that the tv ads are a little misleading, mostly in respect to McLovin. While I get what the director was going for with KickAss's character, it seemed a bit unfulfilling to see him get owned continuously without improvement (ending notwithstanding), while the scenes with Big daddy and Hit Girl doing their thing were , on the whole, pretty damned cool. Not much of a Nick Cage fan, but i loved the stilted way he deliverd his lines when he suited up. Thought the movie was pretty good all around. I'm not over-analytical. It does a good job of showing the reality of being a hero-wanna-be, while also giving you a couple movie heros with all their less plausible abilities. Overall, pretty enjoyable.

I like the show, and the way it pokes fun at a littl bit of everything. The racist comments and commentary are applied to both black and white...if anything, I see them poke more fun at black stereotypes than white. It's a comedy satire and I take it as such. Half the problem in America is that people have very thin skin these days, and are easily offended. There are far worse real things going on in the world to get upset about than a cartoon intended to make fun of American racial stereotypes. Moreover, if it offends, it's your right to change the channel. God bless America and our awesome Constitution.

Follow this link, and scroll down a bit. http://ngeekhiong.blogspot.com/2010/02/spe...hogokin-vf.html

Possible. I hadn't given it that much thought, but you may be right. Either that or Scottish kids were in short supply for the casting call. I thought it a bit odd to hear Scottish Vikings, although they did conquer a fair bit of the British Islands. Historically retroactive influence going on there.