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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    I already bought Lio Convoy (Leo Prime) in his original colors, so I'm passing on Nemesis, although I prefer the painted pupils and I think it looks pretty sharp overall. However, one copy of that mold is all I need, and I'm overall satisfied with LP. I think the original WfC game Bee/Cliffjumper mold (I have Bee) was superior to this new fig, especially the look of the upper torso. The arms & head are more accurate, but everything else is just off. Regarding the Nemesis, I was surprised that they made her a fembot, but pleased nonetheless. The bulbous forearms are an unfortunate artifact of the shape of the ship's hull; if they could shift back to form elbow armor, giving the impression of her having thinner forearms, at least partially, her look may have been improved. Regardless, overall, I think she looks fine. I don't, however, care for the look of her weapons, especially the tiny little stabilizer-cum-axes, which look ridiculously undersized. The boarding ramps, while a neat feature, don't look like they actually extend far enough to reach the Ark if you sat the ships side-by-side. Guess we'll see. I like that the lower stabilizer can fold flat, but honestly, a stand that attaches to it and holds the ship upright would have been preferable for display purposes. I'm sure third parties will come up with solutions. The only other thing they mentioned today that excited me was SS86 Brawn, but it looks like we'll have to wait until next month to PO him. I'm patient. Wait, what?!!! Is it a new more G1 accurate mold or just a rerelease of the crappy Kingdom Earthrise mold? Google's no help.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Preorers are up on Pulse for this morning's Fanstream reveals. Kinda irritating that they continue to make up Junkion characters that nobody asked for but still no Omnibots nor Ramhorn nor Steeljaw. They even made Devcon, a throw-away character from one ep of the toon w/ a crappy bot and alt mode. I just want some modern updates of the Omnis in the main line- nice lookin' bots with nice alt modes and, like Tracks, a third weaponized vehicle mode- they seem like no-brainer figs, so why are they continually ignored?
  3. M'Kyuun
    This guy came yesterday, and what a looker! Admittedly, I'm not a fan of the ultra-toon detail-less bot modes which have become vogue both officially and unofficially, but regardless, I still find this fig quite appealing. I'm sure Toyhax will have some solutions to the lack of detail in the near future; Jazz is a perennial favorite, so I'm sure they're expediting a set even as I type. Jive's poseability is pretty standard for both MPs and even many official Generations figs these days. Notably, his head is mounted on both a swivel and an internal hinge allowing him to look up at about an 80 degree angle. He has both a waist swivel and an ab crunch that allows for about 30 degrees of arc, but only when the waist is neutrally forward; twisting the waist obstructs the upper torso limiting the ab crunch. Digression- I hate the term 'ab crunch', but since it has become the parlance of reviewers to describe the waist bend, I use it too, although I cringe internally as I type it. Moving on, the elbows are single-hinged and only bend about 95 degrees. The ankles have a rocker of about 20 degrees and no real fore or aft pivot although you can unlink the toe from the heel plate which will allow the toe to bend about 10 degrees up and about 3 degrees down relative to the heel which stays parallel to the ground. As poseability standards continue to progress, I hope a fore and aft ankle pivot becomes the next big push, as I think that omission is more limiting than ankle rocker in terms of trying to achieve dynamic poses. I found the transformation a wee bit on the unpleasant side for the extreme tightness of some parts that make you feel like you may break something in the effort to manipulate or separate them, and for the tight quarters and fiddly nature of the leg transformation which essentially has you turn the back end of his car mode inside out. The transformation itself isn't difficult so far as understanding what needs to go where; the agony comes in the form of all the resistance in carrying it out. However while the journey to either mode is fraught with frustration, the end result in either direction manifests itself in the beautiful bot you see in the pic, or an equally lovely Porche 935 sans the more involved racing livery of either the G1 toy or the real car for toon's sake, of course. (Sorry, I neglected to take a pic of him in his car mode this morning before transforming him back to bot mode. At the moment, I just don't feel like converting him back for the sake of a couple photos. My apologies for being the laziest of reviewers). Here's a pic I liberated from Bing images: The car doors are mounted on an extremely tight double hinge ensconced behind the very narrow bit of fender behind the front wheel and it's a nail-biting exercise to extend them. Why that joint is so tight when it only supports the doors is beyond me. It certainly didn't need to be, as the doors are only plastic and quite lightweight. Tabbing and untabbing the roof from the legs is another too-tight situation that warrants fear of breakage. There are also several panels throughout that warrant the use of a spudger, a tool I have yet to procure; I used a pair of tweezers, being careful not to scratch anything. While it's a fiddly bit of labor to achieve, the car mode is rather lovely to behold; I wish it had more of the actual livery with sponsors and such, but as I mentioned, Toyhax will no doubt have us covered. I'll feel a bit of regret if in fact Fans Toys releases a toy version later on, but for now I'm quite pleased with this fig, transformation woes notwithstanding.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Given how utterly atrocious Ravage turned out in both Siege and ER forms, and as much as I'd like Ramhorn and Steeljaw in this new size, I have no faith that a Has/TT version will even approach mediocrity. At this point, I'd rather Dr. Wu just went through the whole catalog of cassette minions and made them all with better articulation. Credit where it's due, Has/TT did a pretty good job with Eject, trans-plastic notwithstanding, and with the new improved core class Rumble, except for his unfortunate lack of elbows which I hope some third party will eventually remedy. I really, really wish they'd kept to the standard real-world micro-cassette scale from G1 and MP; I get why they changed it for this line, but I don't have to like it.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Between his work on Batman:TAS, Spiderman and His Amazing Friends, and Gargoyles alone, he made a sizeable impression on a lot of people, myself included. Huge talent, and my life has certainly been enriched by his writing. He leaves quite the legacy for all of us fans he touched, and so much greater the loss to family and friends. RIP
  6. M'Kyuun
    I've never heard of the Soviet Dark Star project, so I greatly appreciate the mention and the link. Interesting stuff. Still doesn't change my mind about G1 Skyquake though. 😄 Concerning Prowl, I've got the Evo version coming, but without a single doubt, the Animated design is vastly superior. Alex Kubalsky is one helluva designer. I'm not sure why Has/TT felt they needed to change the proportions so dramatically; he was meant to be a thin gangly ninja, not, as you say, Paul Blart. 😏 Alas, I got him anyway, and he's due on my doorstep next week. Prowl, IMHO, was one of the best toy designs in the entire Animated line, and I wish they'd done more to replicate it for Legacy. However, I have both the original and the Samurai versions, so I'm good. I recently bought this fig despite already having, and loving, Fans Toys' Phoenix. With both in-hand, my preference remains for Phoenix. However, Skyfire is a character that I never expected to get the MP treatment, and given the differences, I caved. Honestly, no regrets, although I agree that the backpack is a bit fiddly and a number of the ratchets, especially the ankle rockers, could have been much improved with a greater number of detents for a much-improved range. Coming from an aviation background, I adore the landing gear on the MP which look far more realistic than those on Phoenix. I prefer Phoenix's chest and waist sculpts even though they're inaccurate; they just look better to my eye. I also love beyond words the use of Phoenix's arms to fill out a portion of the fuselage so seamlessly in lieu of other Skyfire toy designers' penchant for hiding them in the backpack, including Takara. That's some cool engineering and it's not lost on me even if the end result, once again, isn't perfectly accurate to the animation. And that's where Takara's Skyfire makes the difference; it is incredibly accurate to the animation, especially in bot mode. The hands are a bit odd, though, as the thumb is stuck at a particular angle instead of being able to rotate at the base, a limitation that makes some poses look awkward. And though it's animation accurate, I don't like the backward angle of the thighs when he's standing perfectly erect; it just looks odd to me, and I find myself wanting to bend them forward so they appear more perpendicular to the ground, but then you're putting him in an even more awkward looking pose, so there's naught to be done but accept that that's the way he was designed. Again I prefer what they did with Phoenix as well as Generations Skyfire (Jetfire) in this regard. The MP has no shortage of accessories, with 3 articulated minifigs, his gun, 3 swappable faces, 3 interchangeable faction plates, a stand and adapter, and a couple blast effects parts- it's a nice assortment that adds to the play value of the fig. The minifigs, in particular, are fun to interact with his jet mode, to which they're properly scaled. Overall, Takara-Tomy did a pretty fair job on him. Some articulation points leave somewhat to be desired, but the overall aesthetic is pure Sunbow toon, and he's still an impressively posable figure, especially at his scale. IMHO, he's a win for TT and for fans.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Prior to this figure's announcement, I had no awareness of G1 Skyquake or any of his recolors; the design was completely foreign to me. Contrarily, as a Prime fan, I was very aware of Skyquake and Dreadwing from the series, whose toys I initially greeted with great anticipation and equal disappointment for the egregious concessions in jet mode, specifically the all-too obvious pelvis halves which ruined the jet mode for me. I passed on those toys in hopes that something better would come along. Admittedly, I'd hoped that 'better thing' would be a leader class toy during the Prime run, but I've found it in Legacy Skyquake regardless of the additional G1 homages. Right up front, I'm not at all crazy about the G1 toy except for its overall shaping being vaguely reminiscent of the SR-71. Legacy Skyquake, like Prime Skyquake before him, certainly adheres more to the traditional fighter shape, even if the Legacy fig's jet mode is a bit chunkier and less sleek than his Prime namesake's. I love how the arms tuck away Macross-style (I am a Macross fan after all), and how the pauldrons and legs form the majority of the jet's fuselage, the retracting landing gear, the well-proportioned forward fuselage (which is oft too-small, especially height-wise, compared to the rest of the fuselage in most jet-formers). Although the jet mode is more sci-fi-ish than real-world, it addresses rightly many of the things that are often fudged or omitted in most jet-formers and I simply adore it. Not even the gap between legs and pauldrons gets me down; so much of the major stuff was done well that I can simply overlook it. YMMV, of course. My copy is due to me next Monday, if Fed Ex comes through, and I can barely wait; this is one of my most anticipated figs for '23. I appreciate the tip about the backpack; definitely a point of interest. I too wonder about the swivel on the cockpit, as, given the amount of planning that goes into these toys, I highly doubt it's superfluous. The fact that, with a few modifications, you can rearrange his transformation to more closely resemble the Prime robot mode, I imagine we'll see something similar done if indeed a Dreadwing repaint is coming. Let's be honest, it's more a case of 'when' than 'if'. The change in arrangement, too, would help differentiate the two figs beyond just a mere color change. I hope that's what they do. For Skyquake, I agree with Mike's 70-30 Prime/G1 comparison; my hope is that if they do a rearranged version of Dreadwing, it'll skew closer to 90/10 Prime/ G1 in its overall design and style. I'd say 100% Prime, but that's simply not realistic at this time. Maybe in another decade or so. To the heart of the matter concerning G1/ other continuity chimeras, I too would rather they just made straight updates to the other continuity figs, especially my beloved Animated, whose design style was so unique and cartoonish and very un-G1 with its real-world inspired vehicles and gadgets. I'm an unapologetic Geewunner- First season is my TF bible and I will love it 'til the day I die. That said, not everything needs to be G1 or G1-ified; part of the strength of the brand, much like humanity, is its diversity and variety, and instead of trying to gel everything into a vanilla version of G1, I'd rather they simply celebrate what made those non-G1 continuities great by updating them as they were intended to be.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Cool history, both of the toy itself and your personal history with the toy. I'm inclined to think the 'blue' part of the name has some associative meaning regardless of the toy's actual colorization, as you said (blue skies). Perhaps it's in a long-forgotten interview somewhere. At this point, it's the name that has stuck and we can only indulge in conjecture and be happy that he's getting yet another modern toy.
  9. M'Kyuun
    I wondered the same thing and just chocked it up to the Japanese custom of giving things odd English names. Triple Jim is a weird name for a bot, too. The 'Triple' part makes sense, but using a common English name like Jim sounds odd. I guess we're too used to names that are more descriptive of personality or characteristics than actual proper names. Thanks Bob Budiansky! I'll take names like Optimus Prime, Jazz, Prowl, or Hound over John, Rick, Bob, or Bill any day. 😁
  10. M'Kyuun
    Totally agree. I think it's one of the best-executed triple changers I've seen. I haven't been too interested in the other MR figs by this company, as I have Action Toys' versions, which I like better, but Triple Jim may warrant a purchase. Hopefully we'll get some in-hand preview vids to get some idea about the transformation and quality of the fig.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Nice review, Mike. Anticipating my copy's arrival; I'm also hoping they can make a good Wheeljack. I liked your musing here: "It was an oddity of that first episode of the G1 cartoon that all the characters on Cybertron looked exactly like would when they woke up on Earth with their new Earth alt-modes. I'm not sure if the animators thought our young brains were too mushy to figure out that they were the same characters if they changed the obvious car parts on the robots. Or, more likely, they didn't have the time budget to invest in whipping up new Cybertronian robot-mode character models, so they just made a few sci-fi-ish looking vehicles with no thought for how they'd transform, figuring it's just a short scene in one episode that everyone would forget about after the cast got their established Earth modes. It's not like nearly 40 years later someone would try to actually make toys with the regular robot character models that actually transformed into those one-off Cybertronian alt modes, right?" I doubt anyone at the time foresaw the popularity of this franchise when it was beginning or the amount of scrutiny, by adult eyes no less, that the Sunbow toon would receive beyond a few years' time, and certainly not 40+ years' time. Animators should keep that in mind; your work may live on longer and in greater view than you expect, so do it well.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Horizon: Zero Dawn was my introduction to Lance Reddick, and then recently his performance as Albert Wesker in Netflix's Resident Evil series. His performances in both made me an instant fan. For family, friends, and fans alike, I think we're all agreed that Lance is lost to us far too soon.
  13. M'Kyuun
    LEGO Star Wars: The Mandalorian 75361 Spider Tank, due out in Aug '23. As a mecha fan, a Star Wars fan, and a fan of Masamune Shirow's various arthropod-inspired mecha designs, this thing hits all my sweet spots at once. I've long lamented the omission of an official LM-432 Crab Droid set. Said droid was first seen in The Revenge of the Sith and made appearances in several Clone Wars episodes, and has yet to receive a set. This Spider Tank will likely have to suffice, but suffice it does. One could easily craft a custom Major Motoko Kusanagi fig and it would not look the least out of place with this model. Preorders are already available in the LEGO Shop, and I've got mine. Also of note in this set is the new Dark Saber blade for the Mandalorian, which seems to be the main draw for a number of bloggers, calling this set the "$50 Dark Saber set". While it's cool that LEGO made a new blade element for that purpose, I honestly couldn't have cared less if there were minifigs included: I'm all about that sweet mecha. Alas, while I'm on the topic of minifigs, there's a new improved Bo Katan fig included as well. The new hairpiece captures Katee Sackhoff's appearance better than the previous minifig, IMHO. In other LEGO news, LEGO has recently revealed a number of upcoming Indiana Jones sets covering scenes from the original three films. Among the original leaked pics of sets, A Temple of Doom set has since been held back from release with no indication whether or not it'll be released in the future.
  14. M'Kyuun
    That's well done.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Likewise, with a few exceptions. But with space at a premium, and the engineering and aesthetics rivaling or exceeding that of many of the official MP figs, a legends scale collection would have been preferable over the long run. Alas, I don't think anyone, especially me, back in the early days of legends scale ever thought they'd reach the state of sophistication and polish that they have, primarily because of Magic Square and New Age. That bit of competition, too, ensures that they continue to innovate and bring interesting figs to market. Too, in almost every case, there's one company's version that I prefer over the other's, so having that choice is fantastic. I tried avoiding collecting legends, but in spite of my reluctance, I've amassed a tidy little collection of them from various companies including the aforementioned MS, NA, as well as Iron Factory and MFT's Blitzwing. Some of these characters are so well-realized that I just want to have them for how good they are. Fortunately, I've never been a completionist, and I have self-control sufficient to still limit what I buy otherwise there'd be no room in my house left and I'd need an intervention and an ebay account to pare down. That said, I preordered New Age's Powerglide yesterday and I just had MP Skyfire delivered today, so maybe the problem's worse than I thought. 😇
  16. M'Kyuun
    As with the Bay films, it's best to divorce all G1 association with the characters in the live-action films, as the respective directors are going to do whatever they feel like doing with them. I'm glad Travis Knight gave us the opening scene in the Bumblebee Movie, as that's the closest the characters have been depicted to their G1 selves since the beginning of the live-action films. I wish they'd been like that from the beginning, but alas, no. If RotB is any indication of the look of future films, adherence to G1 is going to continue to be of little consequence as the directors continue to follow Bay's pattern. As such, my interest is nil, and the toys will continue to suffer from the impracticality of the CG designs. 🙁
  17. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, he is, and poor FoC Prime, cool toy that he is, is tiny by comparison. Too, Bee was a bit fidgety to transform, as I recall; he's on my shelves somewhere but I haven't messed with him in quite some time. Anyway, I think I'm gonna pass on these three and hope for some FoC love, at least a new voyager scaled Prime. Looking at vids of the 2010 WfC Prime, in some ways it hewed closer to the game, and had a rather intricate transformation. Looking at the new fig, a lot of the complexity of the upper torso and arms is simplified with what looks like the majority of the truck's front end sitting upside down on his back to beef up the overall silhouette of his chest from the front and likely forming an awkward looking backpack. I think the new toy's robot mode has some nicer overall proportions, at least from the front. I wish his back tires were larger to fill the wells better, and a bit rounder looking on the outside edges. The '10 toy does both and makes the truck look better for it. For reasons that aren't apparent, they buried his shin vents in boxy looking enclosures that aren't accurate to the game art or the '10 toy, which did it better. The toy's a mixed bag, improving some things over the '10 toy, but taking a step backwards in others. IMHO, if you have the original, you likely already have the superior toy between them, but if not and the WfC design appeals, this will be a good fig to fill that void.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Can't say I'm really feeling any of these. I never cared for the WfC version of Prime (Love the FoC version though), and I have the Generations WfC Bumblebee fig, which I like better than this new version. I think the torso and leg designs and proportions look better. The new fig has more screen accurate arms, but that's about the only improvement I see over the original toy. Still, It's a nice surprise that they're going back and redoing these figs, esp for folks who missed out on the original toys. Personally, I hope they do FoC, and make a proper voyager scaled Prime. I do have to say, though, although I'm not fond of the WfC Prime design, that new fig looks amazing.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Scalewise across the board, I think Has/Tak have been doing a pretty fair job. The Seekers, if we're considering their alt modes, should probably be leader scale, as the F-15 is a large jet, certainly much larger than the average car. But of course, that would make their bot modes out of scale, so choices. The extraordinary amount of mass shifting and variable scaling in the old toon left a lasting and not-so-practical influence on the toys over the years and I think they're doing their best to try to find a good balance. It's not an enviable position to be in, especially with so fickle, opinionated, and vocal a fandom and the ubiquitousness of social media upon which unruly fans oft unleash their umbrage. There's just no way to please everybody, or meet every individual's personal leanings on this or that aspect while adhering to their own standards of safety, design, budget, etc. Trust me, there are plenty of things I'd like to see or see changed too, but I have a greater appreciation for the obstacles the designers face thanks to their sharing a lot of behind-the-scenes info on Instagram. I tend to reign in my criticism a bit more now, and honestly, I try to be positive anyway, as I'm just glad that Transformers are still popular and we're finally getting the G1 toy updates in the main line that I've been dreaming about for decades.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Man, I was all-in until you mentioned arm guns; I'm a fan of bots with hands to hold a weapon, not have the arm be the weapon. JK, about the all-in part, not the arm weapon part. The latter's true. This set doesn't really appeal to me at all. However, I'm rue to be down on a toy simply b/c it doesn't meet my personal preferences, which are likely a little more sophisticated than your average 8-12 year old's. There are likely adults out there who have fond memories of these toys, just as many G1ers have fond memories of the G1 toys, despite their limitations. I try to keep the 'toy' aspect in mind when judging these things and hope that somewhere, there's a kid, or a big kid in many of our instances, who adores these things warts and all. So, Chefatron already has Legacy Armada Prime in hand. Legacy Evolution Commander Class Armada Optimus Prime In-Hand Images & Video - COMPARED! (tformers.com) I'm not a fan of the entire UT, so my interest is very low. However, I know this is a highly anticipated toy for many, and judging by Chefatron's comparison shots to earlier toys, this one looks to be the best version yet, as it should be at the commander class budget, and by virtue of being a new release. Granted it doesn't auto-transform like one of the previous versions, a pretty neat feature even if it rendered the combined mode's legs immobile, but it does offer a fairly clean combined mode with a sizeable backpack, but otherwise no kibble to interfere in posing, which IMHO, is the best you can ask with this sort of fig. I hope Legacy Armada Prime fulfils the longing of many a fan, and just turns out to be a really good toy.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Guilty. I should have given more consideration to the whole of Transformers contemporary to Go! before making my statement. Too, in retrospect, standards are still across a range, as the mainline stuff definitely seems to receive more budget and consideration than those toy lines that are targeted at younger audiences. I shouldn't have generalized.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Ignorant to the majority of Japanese TF lore, shows, and in this case, toys, I appreciate your reviewing these guys. I'll concede they seem a bit dated by current standards, but as older toys go, they at least seem to have decent articulation. I even kinda like Jinbu's design, although it is a bit cluttered towards the tail in jet mode. If Hasbro in the spirit of Legacy all-inclusionism were to homage these toys, I think your suggested figs would be pretty close to the mark, eschewing, of course, the combination feature. I have to say though, as obscure as these toys are on Western shores, I'd be three shades of pissed if they got toys before the Omnibots who've been primed, no pun intended, for updates for nigh 40 years.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Love the design, hate the colors. Hoping this thing is issue-free, and they follow it up with the lovely 'B' series. Been some time since we had a new valk design to add to the display, and this one was high on the list, along with the Variable Glaug, VF-9 , and the VF-14. Oh yeah, and an improved YF-21 w/ good overall battroid proportions.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Kinda reminds me of the SB10/10 Starwing from Macross Plus , with a little Quinjet thrown in there. Really nice looking design. 😍
  25. M'Kyuun
    Looks like they're taking a similar design direction with the legs as Has/Tak leader Slag's. Not crazy about the ultra-toon smoothness, though, but that's the popular direction. Can't wait til it's not.
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