M'Kyuun

I wish her hands were in sheaths, much like Prowl's, that rotated 180 deg to form the spider leg and hid the hand in spider mode. The rest of her was well designed, and then they just got lazy with her arms.

Moreover, due to the amount of fragmentation of the vehicle's panels and such, no toy will ever match the CG images, so I give Takara a nod for what they were able to accomplish, although there's always room for improvement. Now that the designs for the characters from the first movie are complete, I'm sure the toy offerings for those characters will be superior to the old, and the new charactes' designs will suffer the lack of complete designs and time constraints, but still give us a few decent toys. I hope Blackout gets a better toy..I was pretty disappointed with the Voyager version. And for those who like the Raptor(I don't), I hope Starscream receives a better more accurate sculpt without massive undercarriage, skinny nose syndrome. Other than the possible toys, I'm pretty meh about the second movie. The first had a few cool scenes, but the cheesy humor, focus on Sam, and sparsity of the bots made it groanworthy for me. I'd almost rather see it done FF:SW style with much much more focus on the title characters, but still preserving a sense of realism.

QFT! The Binal-Tech/Alternators, with some small tweeks to increase poseability, was what I hoped would be the look for the movie. G-1ish enough to please the fans, but still transforming into licensed vehicles with features(steering, opening doors, hoods, etc). Just on its own, the Alternator line cranked out some pretty nifty toys...many of them more complex than Yamato's Valks, IMHO. Grimlock's infernal arms come to mind.

The first movie wasn't what I'd hoped it'd be, but I think it could have been much worse had it been handed to a different director. Bay loves cars, explosions, and frat humor, and that's what we got. From reading the previous posts, I gather TF2 is taking the same road, using Allspark fragments to animate new minions. As an aircraft mechanic, it's fine in a cartoon, but just uses a little too much Pure F 'n Magic for me in a live action movie. I wasn't crazy about the whole scanning business in the first movie, either, as it borders more on magic (yeah, I know, nano-technology..but it's a sci-fi shortcut that's easily overused and abused). That said, I'm ok with he bots possessing the tech to scan something and reformat, but to place a magic crystal on a pre-existing machine and its becoming something alive and capable of shifting its atomic structure so radically just seems a stretch to me in a live-action movie. It's a writer's shortcut, and a way to introduce new characters, but I don't care for the approach personally. For those who like Bay's take on the franchise, great for you, and I hope you get as much enjoyment from the second. I'll see it expecting more adventures of Shia and S7 with a few more cameo appearances of the Barely Recognizeable Transformers. Having seen a few of his movies and interviews, I get the feeling Bay was one of those 'too cool' guys in school who made fun of the kids who bought and played with Transformers, and now he has to turn a 180 and make a movie about something with which he has no personal connection or familiarity, and probably not just a little loathing. So, cover it with glorious car shots, immature antics and dialog, explosions! Lots of em!, and, best of all, glamour shots of Megan, and maybe, with all that distracting everyone, nobody will notice how he dodges any prolonged scenes or character development of those yucky robots. I noticed, but more Megan isn't a bad thing, either. We need a spring break shot of her at the beach; Shia can stay home and play with his robo-buddies.

Due to the way it slides, I don't think it goes completely flush. Mine was like that out of the box, and after I transformed it. It's so thin and close to being flush, though, that it's not really to noticeable. Overall, this thing is amazing in fighter mode. i had some trouble hiding the hands as well, but a little fiddling with the fingers made it fit better and allow the covers to mostly cover them. It's a very small issue, and one I won't cry about. I do wish the feet were a tiny bit bigger to give it more support in battroid, but I'm cool with it as-is, b/c clown feet would look pretty odd jutting out the tail.

Quirk with the toy, I think. The belly plates could have benefitted from a small lock at the anterior position, as that's where mine splits the most. There was more gap in mine straight out of the box than after I'd transformed it to battroid and back. If there was was a little clip and indent type lock, mine would hold perfectly; as it is, there's not much gap now. My biggest beef is with the hip joints; they're just a little too loose to support anything more than a standing pose on mine. Hope everyone else's are stronger. I'd almost rather they make the hips ratchet, although poseability would be a bit more limited.

Got mine today. Mine's pretty tight; the hip ball joints could stand to be a tad tighter. Transformation was pretty straightforward and not too complicated...the 21, IMHO, has the least complicated transformation scheme of Kawamori's valks. Like all my Yammies, I never cracked the instruction packet, and still transformed it from fighter to battroid in about 25 minutes first try. Everything lined up well and snapped into place on mine. The gunpods are well designed and fit so well in the new, beefier hands..I damn near giggled. The head's pretty limited in it's rotation, but it's just cool that it does. I rotated the seat manually going to battroid, and it rotated back automatically when I returned it to fighter. I still haven't looked at the fast packs...will check them out this weekend, along with the stand. Lessons learned going back to fighter: make sure the arm swing bars are all the way rotated; mine are not quite all the way in, but I still managed to make everything fit. Also, make sure the little fore and aft side panels which cover the the arms are deployed; I had everything positioned and snapped tight, then realized the side panels were still folded in their battroid positions. Doh! Fortunately, nothing broke and I was able to position them correctly and finish the transformation. She now sits proudly next to my other Yammies. I wanted to display it in battroid, but it topples a bit too easily, so until I dig out the stand, she'll grace my living room in fighter mode.

Don't feel bad, I live in Spokane,WA and nobody has them here, either. Where in western PA? I'm originally from Ridgway in Elk County.

I'm not as well read on aircraft as David, but I've spent some time around aircraft. To my knowledge, most aircraft do not have variable intake covers, nor permanently mounted covers at all, with the F-117 being the only exception that I'm aware of. the F-117 has a permanently mounted permeable mesh cover over the intakes to reflect radar and hide the fan, but the downside is that they restrict airflow making it a subsonic plane. I've seen the B-2 up fairly close, and did not notice whether there were intake covers or not, but I don't believe so due to the "s" ducting to prevent the fan face from giving a radar return. There are some aircraft, most notably the F-15, whose intakes, or ramps, are variable, but not covered. Actual intake covers are separate from the aircraft and must be removed before flight(hence the red tags), then reinstalled after to prevent foreign objects from entering. Kawamori's intake covers are a fictional, yet realistic detail, since his valks are intended for space flight(no air means no need for an intake) and transform( the covers protect the intakes from foreign objects as well as lend a nifty aesthetic to the battroid). I doubt we will ever see intake covers permanently attached, as the possibility of failure would potentially choke the engine at best, or break off and become ingested, endangering the aircraft and pilot. Hope this helps.

QFT. Heck, the Classics seeker design seems arthritic and blocky next to Classics Mirage. Wish they were all made like him, with double jointed knees, elbows, and ball jointed toes/feet to allow better stability in all sorts of stances. Of course, the YF-21 is a different class of toy altogether, and from the pics, it looks gorgeous; very sleek, very accurate to Kawamori's designs, skinny legs notwithstanding. There had to be a tradeoff, and, though I'm a battroid guy, I can definitely see the need to keep everyting slim in order to prevent the chunkiness of the 1/72. In Macross, they're variable fighters, so the fighter should be the primary focus. Just my $.02 It's amazing, and depressing, that the shipping and import taxes on overseas products costs much, much more than the products themselves. I keep hoping Bandai will bring its considerable resources to bear and establish its legal ability to produce and sell the Macross Frontier products in the US at much lower cost. It's a dream, just a dream.

Well, his wouldn't be the first "cheat" in a toy's transformation. Animated BB's roof(chest) in bot mode is deco since the roof of his car mode actually becomes his calves. Sentinel Prime's chest is also a stylized deco to resemble the front of his truck mode, which actually becomes his back, and his legs actually become the bed of the pickup and look quite different from the way they're drawn. This show, probably more than any other TF series, takes alot of liberty in proportions and transformations, although Beast Wars took alot of artistic license, too. The toys are pretty damned impressive though, the majority of them looking extremely close to the artistic renderings. Anybody know which came first, the art or the toy designs for Animated?

Yes, but they continue to sell these things at outrageous prices b/c they know somebody out there has alot of disposable income, no sense, or both. Ha! I say this on the heels of forking out $259 for a YF-21 (from HLJ). Guess my hypocrisy knows no bounds.

The Walmart in Spokane did carry MP SS; I got him at the Wally on Wellesley Ave. I never saw him at the Wally in the Valley. Transformers have never not been the toys for me! Ha Ha And LEGO, but that's an addiction more gripping and powerful than the purest coke made from the finest, hardiest coca plants in Columbia. Anyway, I'm sorry you weren't able to score MP SS. but, you're a lucky dog for finding the TFA toys so early...my envy overrunneth.

TFA Jazz went straight to the top of my must-buy list from the first moment I saw the pics surfacing. My mind hasn't changed. I'm really digging the entire TFA line, as these things all have style and character, accurate sculpts to the animation, high degrees of poseability, interesting transformations, and the majority have very little kibble. Helicopter Megatron has the least inspired transformation so far, IMHO, nearly as lazy as Classics' Jetfire arms just hanging there. Megs' arms are bent, but still just kinda hang there. His legs have a cool transformation. I wish they'd carried it the rest of the way and integrated the cockpit better into the robot mode instead of the old backpack routine. However, i love his bot mode, and I still like the look of his chopper mode, so my addiction will win this time too. i wonder if releasing the TFA and Classics (Universe) lines so late in 2008 will hurt sales of the Movie Pt 2 toys, as most of the toys will most likely be repaints of the already established figs with maybe a few new characters thrown in. Designing a better concept Camaro BB will be difficult. TFA is almost through it's second season with still no toys on the domestic shelves. Personally, I find the TFA figs, characters, and story far far, far better than the Movie's ...the movie aesthetic, while ...interesting...just isn't very reminiscent of the Transformers I've known and loved since 1984. TFA and Classics is for people like me...this generation of kids can have Bay's and ILM's CGI delights( yes, I do have a number of the Movie toys, which, in all fairness, I think were done pretty well considering the transformations were all pure f@cking CGI magic and different in every scene depending on angle of shot). What the movie toys did for us collectors, however, was really make the designers think outside the box and create some cool, different, if sometimes frustrating transformation schemes, which have been carried over to the other lines, so Yay! for that.

AND the Starman I also agree with Bandai maing a spec figure; if they can do it for Eva... The thing I like best about Iron Man, besides the cool armor, is the fact that he's Marvel's answer to Batman, i.e. a genius who trains himself to use mind, body, and technology to fight crime, except Stark has no qualms about using various projectile weapons to kill, and he can fly. Beyond that, their public personas parallel quite well.

counter-clockwise for me, no matter whether I look at her head or her feet.

SilverStreak and Sideswipe look good, but then they're repaints of molds I already like. I wish Sideswipe had a different head and leg transformation to set him apart even more than just the chest. Ironhide looks cool, very G-1ish in bot mode. His truck mode looks like a Chinese puzzle box with all the seams. I don't care, though..he'll be mine. :)Silverbolt...well, he looks like his G1 inspiration. He's a typical slightly-folded-robot-under-an-airplane-fuselage design..utterly craptastic and lazy. Whilst I don't care for Powerglide's new incarnation, at least he has a decent transformation scheme. TFA Ultra Magnus & Sentinal Prime look great. SP's toy looks better than his cartoon version IMHO, more T-formerish with the wider lower legs. From the cartoon, I thought his legs would tuck up in the truck mode YF-21 style and not be a part of the vehicle. Glad I was wrong. Swoop looks good in both modes, but his wings are pretty darn small for a pterodactyl. BB repaint is OK, but I think I'll just get his all-yellow version out of pure shameless nostalgia.

I've been collecting LEGO since I was about 4, which is approx 32 years now. But I really started building up my collection around '99 when LEGO acquired the Star Wars license and now I collect across alot of themes. Speaking of SW, I've been collecting the odd fig, vehicle since '95. I also have quite a few T-formers, some SOC and Kaiyodo Evas, abt 11 Yammies, a Chunky Monkey, an original Jetfire, and a Bandai VF-17 and VF-19. There are other odd figs in there too, but the bulk of my collecting is LEGO and T-formers, with one of each new Yammie Valk (b/c they're so darned pricey)

QFT The Gobot line featured alot of different aircraft from different time periods, and the jet/plane modes were generally very well done. Although I veered more towards the Transformers, I did have have a handful of Gobots or Gobot knockoffs, and I remember thinking they were pretty cool..smaller than T-formers, but the vehicle modes were pretty detailed. The submarine guy was cool..still have him around here somewhere. It's almost a shame that Hasbro acquired the line and license, as I wouldn't have minded seeing an updated line to todays articulation standards in the same scale. Something about small, intricate toys, esp transforming toys, that I really find fascinating.

The enlarged legs look better to me, too, Canuck, but i imagine the fighter would would suffer serious fatass syndrome with the bigger bell bottoms. I can live with the scrawny legs, if only, unlike T-formers which are robots that transform into stuff, these are fighters which transform into robots, the emphasis mostly on the fighter. On this note, isn't it odd that Has-Tak can make some pretty darned good land vehicles that transform into some pretty good robots(esp over the last 3 or 4 years), but just cannot make a sleek fighter, MP Starscream( SK's design) and the Robot Masters Seeker designs being the mere few exceptions. The Classics Seeker design was OK, but the entire forward fuselage, much like almost every T-former jet to date, is too small when compared to the rest of the jet. Massive undercarriage seems to curse the rest of the T-former jets...maybe it's glandular. As much as i loath the fugly F-22 ( yes, i think it's a boxy, diamond shaped turd with vectored thrust, esp when compared to the sleek and beautiful YF-23), i thought, given the attention to detail on the licensed Movie toys, that Movie Starscream would be on par with Kawamori-san's Starscream in terms of the jet's accuracy. As we all know, it was not to be, although every other licensed vehicle, including Blackout, are very accurate in their vehicle forms. The kicker is, Takara is a Japanese company who have even worked with SK over the years, no doubt have heard of a little thing called the Macross Saga and have seen the plethora of toys and models, and yet cannot take a few hints from Kawamori's How to Make a Sleek, Realistic Fighter and Shed that Unwanted Energon Belly While Enlarging Your Embarrassingly Small Cockpit handbook. One can only shrug incredulously and, perhaps, shake the head, wondering what coulda been.

I have 2 1/48 VF-1 Valks that I bought and shelved without transforming, but I also have one that I keep out at the ready on my Valk shelf in the living room. The 1/48 is the only Yammie of which I've ever bought copies.

That's cool, but I don't know how you can just put it on a shelf unmolested...they are so much finger crack to me. I swear my YF-19 whimpers in the night if I don't pay it some attention after a few days.

I'm looking forward to getting mine from HLJ..got the spot cleared and ready next to my YF-19. Although I like the YF-19 better, the 21's resemblance to the YF-23 earns huge cool points with me. I never cared for the 21's battroid as much, although it's still a really cool design considering its intentional Zentraedi Armor aesthetic. The belly plates seem like so much kibble that I wonder why SK didn't just make the legs fit flush into shaped holes along the ventral surface in fighter mode. If they flushed up, they'd be non-obtrusive and the guns could attach directly to the outside lower legs or at the knee, rotating 180 deg in Battroid for a "gunslinger" look. The lower bell-bottom of the leg could be slightly more emphasized, looking more like flared nacelles on the fighter. Just my random thoughts. I fear the glaring eyes of the Disciples of His Utmost Froatiness may fall harshly upon me for my blatant blasphemies. I'm also curious why some of you pay the $200+ for a Yammie, transform it once, and shelf it forever in the mode of choice, esp those who really vehemently dislike one mode or the other. For example, if I really hated the battroid of the YF-21, or Yamato's take on it, I'd be more willing to spend that money on a model of the fighter and commission a skilled modeler, or try my own hand if I had skilz. Is it just the coolness of Knowing you can transform it if so desired, or you're a completist, or Yamato is the shiz, or just b/c it's really the only toy of its kind right now and that gives it value now and in the future? For my part, I shell my hard-earned ducats for these b/c I love transformable mecha, esp with realistic alt modes and high articulation, and SK's variable aircraft are still at the top of my list in terms of realism, aesthetics, and engineering. And Yamato, IMHO, have set the bar high, the many past flaws and self detaching limbs and backpacks notwithstanding. Anyway, i thought I'd ask after having read various posts over the years of people buying these and seldom or never transforming them...like a handjob from Jenna Jameson, seems like your paying full price for half the pleasure. My $.02 -M'Kyuun

Given the sleekness of the fighter mode, I think Yamato did well capturing the look of the 21's B-mode without compromising one or the other too much. The legs look skinny in the pics, but I'll be happier to judge proportions when I can turn it this way and that and stand it next to my 19. For what it's worth, it's a pretty damned good looking toy as is, and I can overlook the slim legs for what it contributes to the fighter. I just hope the joints are solid and it balances well enough to pose a bit.

I saw Robotech for the first time back iin the late 90's and thought it was pretty good(the Macross section, it sucked after that), but what really got me was seeing early pics of the then unreleased 1/72 YF-19 and some other pics of the Plus Valks in a Japanese hobby magazine in a comic book store. I bought the Macross Plus OVA on VHS and I was an instant convert.