M'Kyuun

This guy's version is more detailed and colored to match it's inspiration. SK's version is, for all practical purposes, a maquette, designed for testing the mechanics and basic aesthetics. While i'm sure SK could build a much better representation of his valks, LEGO is his tool more than his creative medium, which is fine by me. LEGO is quite simply an excellent constructive medium. While this isn't the cleanest transforming model I've seen, it captures the basic essence pretty well. LEGO, admittedly, is not the easiest medium in which to create transformable mecha...I have a laundry wish list of parts I wish LEGO would make to ease the burden. So, I'm generally impressed when anyone attempts it, and very, very impressed, if not envious as hell, when the final models are clean, feature a complex transformation, and become articulated robots. There are some great models floating around the internet. Many can be found on Brickshelf, with a bit of searching. Some links: http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=377751 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=340720 http://www.brickshelf.com/cgi-bin/gallery.cgi?f=298826 Note: My avatar is a pic of a transformable LEGO VF-117 created by GLA-GLA, one of the finest and most enigmatic of LEGO builders. He is well known in LEGO circles for his mecha. He has built several Macross models. His variable Konig Monster was notably exceptional for its clean look and accuracy.

Looking at Leader Jetfire, and TF1 Starscream, not to mention nearly every other Tf with an aircraft alt, I have to wonder why Takara can't, or won't, design a kibble-less aircraft Transformer, but they can make damn near any land vehicle with no or nearly no kibble. Kawamori has spoiled me when it comes to transforming aircraft. I was hoping for a really well done SR-71, even in the movie aesthetic. I should have known better to raise my expectations. I dig the shape of Jetfire's legs, but, on the whole and like 95% of the movie figures, I don't like it. The only movie figs I intend to buy are Leader Prime, Starscream (much improved over the original, but the hands sticking out the back in alt really stand out), and Sideswipe.

Got Animated Wasp last night, and I like it alot. While his transformation is very simple, he's a good homage to the original despite his dark green coloring and angular sculpting. I actually like him better than the original (which I don't own b/c I didn't like the aesthetics). I actually had no interest in getting this version either, but with a little spousal prompting, bless her heart, I grabbed him. I was actually looking for Samurai Prowl and Wreck-Gar, but alas, my part of Washington state is ground zero of interminable suck when it comes to finding new Transformers. Watched Transwarped this weekend, and minus one or two little things, thought it was great. So many cameos, and Judd Nelson reprising his role as Rodimus. Lots of win that I hope translates to lots of toys. I never thought I'd like this series, or its toys, as much as I do, but I'm going to miss it when it's done. Whatever follows, I hope it's comparable, and produced domestically, with perhaps some of the same team behind Animated. GI Joe is getting a more mature version, with death and killing depicted. I don't remember what it's going to be called, but I'd be happy to see a more mature take on Transformers (similar in tone to Clone Wars), but without anything Michael Bay related. Classics, or something new; perhaps Transtech?

It'd be great if Hasbro would give talented folks like this a limited contract to mass produce their designs, or buy the rights to mass produce the designs themselves, as freelancers often produce toys or models rivaling, or bettering, the official products, as well as producing items not officially released. I know Takara has given such contracts to these guys http://jizaitoys.seesaa.net/category/4822805-1.html for the duration of Wonderfest. Their version of Powerglide is all around win, and makes Has-Tak's look all the worse in comparison, IMHO.

I'm an E-7 in the Air Force, so financially, I'm doing ok. I have a guaranteed paycheck for the next 3 years, unless Pres. Obama disbands the military. I bought a house near base last fall, so I'm working on building equity, and I've always been a saver. Toy-wise, I have an eclectic collection of Macross, Transformers, LEGO, Evangelion, and other assorted figures. LEGO makes up the bulk of my toy spending, followed by TFs. I rarely buy repaints, so once I have a particular toy, I'm happy. That goes for Transformers and Macross. I buy copies of alot of LEGO sets, esp the Star Wars sets. Unfortunately, LEGO sets this year have seen a hike in price, so I'm being a little choosier. Macross wise, I intend on getting a VF-11 to finish my M+ collection. Minor flaws aside, I'm pretty happy with my Yammies ( I have about 14, including the Konig). The only breakages I've had to date were: the left leg broke off my 1/72 VF-11 non-fast pack(like many others), and a piece of my VF-19's right inner bicep around the hinge broke. I fixed both toys and they are fine now, packed away somewhere. For those of you hit hard, I wish you the best. I'll be at the mercy of the civilian market in three years, as I have no intention of staying past twenty on active duty. Besides, at the rate we're going, the USAF will revert back to the Army Air Corps again by the time I retire.

Excellent figure, all the way around. Sad that Animated is going away; for me, it was the answer to everything wrong with the live action movie, and I liked the toys better, despite their cartoony look. I, too, hope we get a few more third season toys, and that the Arcee toy is not cancelled. Dear God, I hope Animated is not replaced with a live action movie based animated show. A Universe Classics show would be cool.

As do I. Smallish tailfins don't really bother me. This thing won't have shopping cart casters for main gears, and battroid is pretty much kibble -free. Overall, it looks pretty good. I'll be getting one to round out my M+ collection.

I hope that TFA goes the route of Ben 10, redone and set a few years into the future, hence Sari's older form. The storytelling can take on a little more maturity. Not a bad thing, IMO. I'd be happy for the show to continue a few years into the future. They're just starting to create a new mythology for the franchise, and so far, I like what they've done with the story and characters. It'd be a shame to quit now.

Animated is win, again. I'll echo the "finally" for a G1 representive Arcee toy. I wish her car form 's wheels weren't covered by the fenders and that it was a bit more rounded, but overall, I think it's awesome. Yay for Ratbat. I'm looking forward to the toys that come , esp since the show will end after season 3. As someone (sorry, I forgot who) mentioned a few posts back, BW and TFA are , IMHO, the best TF shows. G1 was ok, but I only liked the first season; it became really silly after that and I stopped watching....cosmic rust, Decepticons drunk on energon, Seaspray, Warpath's obnoxious onomatopeia, Kremzeek..nuff said. Movie Prime definitely looks more like himself with the new mold, although I imagine he has a ginormous backpack to hold all the kibble. Still, it's pretty cool to see the spread leg stance in a small pic thinking it's a CG pic, only to realize it's the toy upon enlarging. Kudos to the designer. I like Mudflap and Skids, but what's up with the cartoonishly goofy faces? Overall, the toys look decent with good poseability throughout, but those heads need replacing. Sideswipe looks pretty good, but his feet beg the question of stability. The neo-F-35 jet, Breakaway, isn't too bad...I kinda dig the head in the cockpit area. It has more of an Animated feel to it. Also reminds me of the 3 super-deformed transforming planes (Egg-something or other) back in the 80's where the whole cockpit lifted up to reveal eyes. I have the F-15, and I still get a kick out of it. Starscream, whose original toy I eschewed, looks much better this time. One would think the designers could have hidden the hands in jet mode, and brought the legs together a little more in bot. Overall, though, an improvement. Not caring for Devastator; I'm not a gestalt fan, but as mentioned, there were quite a few produced over the years that were quite well done. With all the talent and technology available, not to mention experience at Hasbro and Takara-Tomy, this design is disappointing. Then again, if the movie designs are the creations of ILM and the producers, with little input from either Hasbro or Takara, then I can forgive them. In the first movie, IIRC, the designers chopped up the image of the vehicle and placed the parts helter-skelter on a robot frame, until the look was finalized. Thus, they're not designed as transforming robots. Although I'm still not crazy about the movie aesthetic, I think the toys strike a decent balance most of the time. Where I think these things succeed is that they are pretty true to their licensed alts, have unique and sometimes unorthodox transformations, and still have a pretty high degree of articulation. Unlike alot of fans who judge whether or not they'll buy a toy by how much they like or dislike the character in the show/movie (which strikes me as funny, but whatever), I judge the toy buy its own merits, esp the movie toys. Of course, I compare the toys to their various media, but overall I generally like the toy for what it is, and articulation is usually my biggest concern. That said, the movie toys are ok, but I'll be glad when the movie hysteria dies down and Has-Tak can get back to what's really important...Universe Classics!

The movie designs are hit and miss for me; while many don't look like Transformers at all, there are a few that sorta do. The toys look more like Transformers than their on-screen incarnations, just b/c they have to really transform, so the toys are generally more appealing to me than the CG renderings. Not too spun up for the second go-round. I expect more of the same, and unfortunately, Bay's vision and my own are contrary. I'll see the movie out of morbid curiosity, b/c I'm a kid at heart, and aesthetic aside, it's neat to see a real car become a robot and move around. I still like what was done in the Citroen commercial years ago better than any of the last movie designs, and that thing could dance, pun intended, circles around Bay's skele-formers. I agree that this round truly resembles recent years' Bionicle sets. Devastator is ...different than I expected, but exactly what I should have. I'm not against making the things alien, per se, but if you're going to attach a well-known and much loved brand name like Transformers, at least make the characters look like their namesake...make them recognizeable as such. I doubt any fan would associate first movie Megatron, Frenzy, or The Fallen as Transformers without having seen the movie or read current news of the second. I wouldn't, and I love this stuff. That's really my beef in a nutshell, along with plot, humor, writing, lack of character development, too much Shia, Sector 7, pointless hacker subplot, etc, etc. I liked the parents, oddly enough, and Peter Cullen is and always will be Optimus to me. I hope, like the Hulk, some other director will take on the franchise in live action and take it in a different direction. That's my positive comment after the rant.

While I don't presume to speak for other fans, personally I'll take a modern articulated homage to a G1 toy over an original G1 toy. The only two classic G1 toys I have bought in reissue are Prime and Soundwave. Both of them are still MISB, and i'm one of those guys who's compelled to emancipate his toys from their plastic and cardboard prison and transform them at least once. Fortunately, I own an original soundwave, and I've had plenty of opportunities to transform G1 Prime, so both of these guys are packed up. That said, I have a majority of the Universe Classics line, and most of the TFA line, and consider these to probably be my favorite lines, followed by Binaltech, and a select few movie toys. Well designed bots that become licensed vehicles are amazing to me..it's what I envisioned as a kid, finally realized 20 years later. I'd love to get a peek at Transformers toys 20 years down the road, given that the franchise is still around.

I agree; most typical American shows aimed for a young audience eschew blatant violent death scenes. From the movie, I gathered this show was going to be poorly written with a lot of uber-cheesy "Skyguy" and "Snips" back and forth, no grit, and very simple plots. While the plots are still simple enough for kids to follow, I'm glad to see it is a darker toned show with politics, diplomacy, betrayal, and yes, murder, shown. After all, the Separatists are evil, and they're shown as such. Someone mentioned Battle of the Planets; I knew it as G-Force, and it was one of my favorite shows when I was 4 or 5 years old; perhaps I'm twisted, but I loved the fact that people died, and died badly in some cases; it felt more real to me, and to this day, after watching a lot of f##ked up stuff , I've yet to have a nightmare. But people are different, so I can understand the concern. I have no kids, so I don't tend to think as a parent. I am glad, however, that CW is not the new G.I. Joe, where everything is wrapped up neatly, everyone parachutes out, or otherwise escapes to fight another day; that's not how war is, and I'm glad the producers have taken the approach they have. To be fair, there is a parental warning on Cartoon Network, esp for the eps with harsher scenes of violence or death. A similarly themed show concerning smugglers might actually be interesting, with the occasional interaction of a Jedi (maybe hunting down our anti-hero protagonist). It'd be a welcome change to have good guy with a lot less scruples than the sqeaky clean Jedi.

I still find the first movie disappointing; a Transformers movie should focus on the title characters. I wanted to like the first one, but I disliked more than I liked. If the entire movie had maintained the same tone as the beginning, with the attack on SOCCENT, eliminated the hacker and Sector 7 elements, eliminated the many lame and sophmoric attempts at humor, eliminated Frenzy, and eliminated Sam altogether, the movie may have been better. Too, Prime and the Autobots speak English through monitoring the web; how did Megs speak it upon awakening?; more poignantly, why would he, since he has naught but disdain for humans? Overall, the movie was terrible, IMHO. Nothing about it, beyond Peter Cullen's voice, made it feel like Transformers to me. Having said this, the new trailer looks to deliver more of the same from the same team. I was hoping some stuff would change due to feedback, but they've established this as the new look and feel of the franchise with Hasbro's blessing and support. I still think they could have used an aesthetic closer to Binaltech, with minor design changes to allow for more poseability; at least they'd look like Transformers. I think the movie would have been better served if it had started on Cybertron, like the original series, with some background and character building, prior to arriving on Earth and continuing the battle, with an older more mature human character as a guide and friend to the bots, and a wary human govt as well as the Decepticons as rivals. The human govt's trust could be earned; the Decepticons defeated, but not destroyed, could retreat strategically, allowing perhaps, a glimpse of new Decepticons arriving, or being built, ala the Constructicons, as a lead in to the second film. For those of you who think the first movie rocked, cool. I hope you like the second one ttoo. I'll give it a watch, b/c I'm a glutton for punishment that way, but any enthusiasm I had for the first is, sadly, gone. I love the whole transforming concept, and while i'm not crazy about the designs, there's still something appealing to see these things rendered in a live action film. ROTF could serve the fans , too, with an R rating and a gratuitous, no plot value whatsoever nude to semi-nude shot of Megan Fox. Just saying.

Great job! Really gives the 51 a more authentic Russian look.

lol...that's too funny. No disrespect meant towards you, Yellow; I just like the image. I still need to watch "You Are Not Alone". I thought NGE was a pretty good series up until the end; while I get the overall metaphysical hokum, the village idiot in me would rather see more smash and bash by the EVAs. I prefer the "Death and Rebirth" and "End of Evangelion". Asuka has some shining moments.

Dude, small world. I grew up in Elk County, PA..very much "Pennsyltucky" up there. I'm stationed out here in Spokane at Fairchild AFB. It's better than the PA podunk. That Defensor is Amazing. And I'm not really a big fan of gestalts. Great work from a damned talented guy.

You're from Spokane too? JK We're pretty hick, but not that bad. On topic, I've been to 2 Walmarts and Toys-R-us, who usually get stuff before Wally and Target, and they're all still carrying the last wave of T-Formers, both Universe and Animated. Third world countries get new stuff before Spokane. I've been eyeballing Henkei Cyclonus; to me it looks much better than the domestic version, and I've yet to own a Henkei. Suggestions on stores?

The Classics/Universe is really an answered prayer for me, for the most part. I picked up some Armada and Energon figs, but ultimately I've been waiting and hoping for a release of G1 toys with modern poseability, and that's essentially what we've got. And, at $10 a pop, they're cheaper than most of the originals, which retailed around $13 in the 80's. I have nearly all the Classics, except the triple changers and Jetfire, the designs of which i didn't care for, and I'm pretty happy with them overall. I've never bought any of the Henkei versions; they seem hit or miss, but I'm happy enough with Hasbro's versions. I wish they were all more like Kubalski's Mirage, which was about as perfect IMHO as you can get in both modes. I'm looking very much forward to Hound/Ravage (which looks better to me all around than even the BT Hound, which itself is a damn nice version, despite the poor shoulder poseability), and Cyclonus. I had mixed feelings about Animated in the beginning, like alot of people, but I picked a few up, liked them alot, and just continued. I'm pretty happy with most of them, although like anything, there are a few that I wish were better. I just remember what bricks transformers were in the 80's and it makes these new toys seem much better. If Hasbro/Takara-Tomy did rerelease a Universe Unicron, I'd like to see a new toy that transformed closer to the animation, has a completely round planet mode, about the size of Primus, or DS Vader. Even better, Unicron's a character that would make a good MP; if it was engineered to transform as closely to the animation as possible, had great poseability, some neat features, and matched the animation aesthetic in both modes, then that would truly be a masterpiece worthy of the series, worthy of the name, and maybe worthy of the hefty price tag that came along with it. And btw, i do have Armada Unicron and found him to be, I dunno, subpar. I thought about getting Primus, but didn't. Alot of things i want more.

My 1/72 non-fast pack VF-11's leg came off on first transformation. A small screw and some super glue fixed it. A small piece of my YF-19's right arm cracked and broke off (around the hinge pin where it attaches to the shoulder), so that only one of the 2 halves forming the inner arm were holding it on. I glued both halves together better(they were spreading apart out of the box) and glued the small broken off piece back. The arm held poses better afterwards and held together very well, even around the hinge pin. I have a first edition VF-0S and , knock on wood, have had no breakages. My 1/48 VF-1S backpack hinge has held up well, although I only kept it posed with fast packs for a month or two before packing them away. Overall, comparatively, I've had good luck with my Yammies. I don't really play with them, but leave them posed for a couple weeks then repose.

Haven't posted much on this, but now that pics are up, I'll chime in. First, based on the pics, the prototype actually looks longer in the torso area to me, making it look leaner and closer to the lineart than the final (probably perspective). In neither pic is the crotch angled as much as the lineart, which changes the look and profile of the thing noticeably, as well as the much pointed out too-high attachment point for the legs. The ankles are a tad bit longer than in the art, but it's quite negligible to me. The main gear doors' hinges do look terrible...I'm surprised no one mentioned it earlier, as they stuck out to me immediately, along with the shamefully lazy landing gear. The low position of the legs in fighter is very noticeable, too; it breaks up the smoothness of the upper fuselage too much and just looks less than good. I think Bandai made some definite tradeoffs to make a more durable toy than Yamato makes. I'm not sure what the pricepoint of the VF-25 is expected to be (same as typical Yammies, i.e. abt $200 USD, or a little lower, catering to a larger younger, poorer fanbase?) I think this is a good toy to sell around $70-80; it's a good toy, by which I mean a high end toy but still something you could buy for your 13 year old cousin to play with. Graham, you're more in the know than I, but that's my feeling about this as I imagine Bandai wants to test the waters and they're hoping this will be on toy shelves at Toys-R-Us (at least in Japan) to reach a larger consumer base. That seems like good business to me rather than making a much more intricate, nearly model-quality collector's toy that only fans with a little too much disposable income, such as myself, can afford. I don't doubt that Bandai can or could make something on par with Yamato; I just don't think that's their business goal. Then again, I just ate a big dinner so in a couple hours I really will be full of sh!t. To be fair, I'm not as enamored with the VF-25 as I am with Kawamori's other designs. The VF-27, although very similar, looks better to me as well as the VF-171. I don't like the crotch design, and I think the lower legs are too curvy, making them look more like folded robot legs in fighter mode than most of the other valks. I think the legs look fine in bot mode, but I don't like the way they look viewed from underneath in fighter. I guess the same could be said about the SV-51, but there's just something so awesome about that design..it's prob my favorite valk, followed by the Zero and the 19. It's so ugly it's beautiful, and very unique. As for the VF-25, I'll hold out for reviews before I commit, but I'll be more excited when Bandai announces they'll be making a VF-171.

Been away from this thread for a few days, so I was pretty excited to see the new pics...until I actually saw them. Yeesh. The shots on pg 15 look really good..I'd be happy with a toy like that. The Tamashii pics on pg 1, if they're an indication of what we're really getting for a 1/60 scale, then, like alot of you guys, I'm pretty disappointed in Bandai. It looks to be of lesser quality than most Deluxe Transformers. Hopefully this isn't the real deal. If so, I'll wait a few years until Yamato finally gets the license.

Right there with ya...I discovered this place 2 years ago when I took my wife to Waikiki. I actually went to MechaHawaii first, run by Sean Akita, which was a pretty awesome store in it's own right, and he was very cool. But Toys 'N Joys was just crammed from wall to wall with Japanese toy goodness. There was so much stuff that boxes of Japanese Transformers were stacked on the floor as well as the shelves and pegs. My wife was suffering from strept throat, bless her heart, but went along with me and suffered the whole time I was gawking at all the stuff I wanted but couldn't possibly afford, let alone afford to ship back to Spokane. I bought Binaltech Prowl and a few of the Microman Aliens/Predator and Batman figs from Sean. If ever in Oahu, these two stores should be on your must-see list.

Saw the new pics of the '09 lineup. There's some nice stuff coming out. Hound looks even better than his BT/Alt counterpart, and I can't wait to see final pics of the newly designed Ravage. Blurr looks amazing in both modes. Cyclonus is an amazing homage...he does look bumpier than his sleeker original, but the overall figure captures the look and feel of the character so very well that I don't mind. He looks to be a better toy than Galvatron, at least. Inferno is an enigma..his alt mode is very realistic and looks great; his bot mode manifests G1 blockiness, as well as a passing resemblance to G1 Prime, that makes him a good Classics toy. However, for some reason that I can't quite put a finger on, he just doesn't grab me like alot of the other toys in this line. On a different note, I forget who mentioned it in another post, but I fully agree that Robot Masters Starscream was a great toy, and was much sleeker and more faithful to the G1 toy. I wish they had used that design, with the inclusion of knees, to create the Classics seekers. Aside from MP: SS, it would have been the best looking jet TF in alt mode, and his bot mode would have been pretty much spot-on without the samurai-style stab mounts hanging off his hips. Hope Hasbro/Takara keep this line alive for quite awhile longer.

I'm still on the second chapter (Raxus Prime, which sounds more akin to Transformers than SW, but I digress) and I think it's a fair game. There's nothing really new beyond the amplification of certain force abilities. I.E., push, grip, and lightning are amplified ridiculously, but he can't force jump for sh!t. The camera is a pain at times. Only certain things can be gripped and manipulated, although other objects, such as the detritus laying about on the junk world, move if your character walks over them; you just can't move them with the force. Too, if you're standing too close to a grippable object, the blue force-ueable mark disappears. The target lock does not work well, at least for me, so I just do my best to hurl stuff and hope I hit what I'm trying to aim for. The biggest complaint I have is that your character cannot move while using force grip...due to the "concentration" required. Asinine, if you ask me, since he can push objects while moving. Anyways, using grip exposes you to enemy fire; I think the creators would have made the game more enjoyable if your character at least took a defensive posture with the lightsaber to deflect some of the enemies' fire. After all, manipulating your environment with the force was one of the top selling points of the game; they didn't tell you it's suicide unless you use it behind cover when facing a a large number of enemies. Though I've been playing games like these for years, I have no skilz, so I'm not too plussed about the length, as all these games take a long time for me. I have a goldfish memory, so remembering all the confounded combos is a challenge all its own. Some of the moves are pretty cool, however. The writing seems decent so far; it's better already than the Clone Wars movie, although I realize CW is for kids while FU is more mature in tone. The voice acting is decent as well as the dialog. It's not too hammy, and already there is good use of the graphics and pauses to show "conflict" in your character during the cinematics. I'm enjoying the game, but I'm looking even more forward to seeing how the story draws out. I was going to read the novelization, but I decided to hold off until I played it through. I've read that there are two possible endings, which usually always involves choices in the game and makes it a bit more replayable. Personally, I think they should make a jedi game along the same lines as Deus Ex, where one has a group of choices through out the game in various situations..light-up the ole lightsaber, or massage the enemy's will. T'would be a fun game, methinks. In the end, your conduct in the game will determine your affinity, allegiance, and path in the game.