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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    I don't know if contributing to a Chinese toy company furthers the CCCP's agenda, although I get what you're saying in principle. I'm not at all a fan of the Chinese government or their shady practices, but as to the talents of the Chinese people, there's no question. The Japanese may have invented the transforming toy, but over the last decade or so, Chinese toymakers have dominated the market with their many third- and fourth-party companies as well as the add-on/upgrades markets. While I confess to being tempted, I'm likely not going to buy this; that said, I felt it was worth posting simply as a showcase of what can be done with a modern jetformer, as this should be the standard and not the exception. It's still not the standard even among most 3P jetformers, but my hope is that this will inspire the other companies, Takara included, to step up their games. Takara's MP-52 is a travesty writ large in comparison, just shameful. As for Kawamori, he's been looking down his nose at all these other companies making crappy jetformers since 1982. Too bad more companies didn't follow his long and venerable lead.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Just discovered this today. This is an excellent example of how a transforming jet should be executed. Bit involved, and the weapons bay partsforms, but otherwise, it's a brilliant bit of engineering resulting in a cool looking bot and a jet mode that looks realistic from all angles with little to give away its transformative nature.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Digits crossed that there are improvements, but at this stage I doubt it. Gonna get it anyway. 😜
  4. M'Kyuun
    Well, at this point, I think we all agree that this doesn't share the same level of polish as their VF-19 Advance/ YF-19. From my standpoint as a battroid guy, it fixes the main issue I had with the Yamato- the too-thin legs. However, it still has issues that could certainly do with tweaks, but at this point I think we're getting what we're seeing. Is it better than no YF-21 toy at all? IMHO, yep. Edit: Sometimes it helps to read what you've written to ensure you're expressing your thoughts properly. Initially I didn't. Fixed.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Just toys in general. Many Transformers toys these days have this kind of detail in panels and even in some of the hollow areas in arms and legs where they're conserving plastic. I love detail, especially molded detail, so it's a practice I welcome. Of course, if the toy is crap but has a ton of nice detail, it's essentially a gilded turd, so there's always that situation. 😄
  6. M'Kyuun
    This has to be one of the nicest compliments I've ever received for any of my LEGO MOCs, and I thank you most kindly. Getting back OT, I hope Bandai makes some sort of PO announcement soon. Warts be damned, we've waited far too long for a new YF-21 and overall, as I've said since this thing was frst intro'd, I'll take it as-is if only b/c the battroid proportions look better to me, at least so far as the legs go. That said, I'd be thrilled to no end if Arcadia tweaked the nigh-perfect Yamato design to have thicker legs that look more proportionally correct even if it means the jet has a slightly fatter back end; that's a concession I'll take all day long.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Massive thanks to each of you for your compliments. More than most, your knowledge and passion for Macross adds weight to your praise, and I'm touched and humbled. I hope I inspire. @rematronIf you ever have an opportunity to go to BrickCon, a huge AFOL organized LEGO convention now being held at the Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue in the fall, I generally attend every year and bring all my transforming LEGO models. It'd be my great pleasure to meet a fellow MWer and perhaps show off a MOC or two. 😁 Means a lot to me. My VV-1 is a custom design with obvious inspiration taken from the V-22 Osprey. I worked on realizing it for about a decade, but that helicopter cockpit piece became the nexus around which I was finally able to bring my vision to physical fruition. I consider it my magnum opus. As such, compliments are especially meaningful and you have my gratitude.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Wow, thanks! Really kind compliment.
  9. M'Kyuun
    As a vocal critic of most jetformers, given that this triple changes, and that the car mode looks incredible, the jet mode isn't as compromised as we often see in single alt mode jetformers, which speaks to the level of engineering. Obviously, it's not perfect; those intakes are wider than the chines, hang too low with an obvious gap, and just don't really look like intakes, TBH. From the side, it suffers, and it's a shame they couldn't find a way to improve it. From the bottom, the car bits are obvious destroying any illusion. However, I do like how everything packs up compactly on the bottom; it's a shame they didn't make it all snug up closer to the bottom of the plane, but, considering its nature, I give props for making it as good as they did. It's a cool concept, reminding me of Binaltech/Alternators Ravage, who converted into a licensed Jaguar and didn't have to contend with a second alt mode. IMHO, the designers did a pretty good job overall, and even the jet mode looks ok, especially, as most do, from above.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Cheers from eastern WA! 😄 On point observation regarding the 21's design. Of all his valks, this is the only one I can think of that's essentially a shellformer. And yet, even with that additional cheat, the design still suffers from an inordinate amount of animation magic to achieve its proportions between modes. This is the line art for the leg transformation. as you can see, the legs are indeed supposed to turn laterally for storage in fighter, but as you can also see, the lower legs are visibly shrunken to fit them within the confines of the aft fuselage. I never understood why Kawamori-san even bothered with the belly plates, why he didn't just tuck the legs in battroid config up into the engine nacelles, or why he didn't have the lower legs, turned sideways, feature some sort of panel fu to lessen their width and to cover more space on the bottom of the plane. Any of those options would have been better than those abominable belly plates. I hate those things with a passion. Note that he doesn't give a very clear idea of how the arm armatures work either; it's more suggestion than a clear mechanical design. This thing was fudged from the word go, all to have it be reminiscent of the Queadluun Rau, which I can appreciate given Guld's Zentraedi lineage, but the design approach was uncharacteristically hamfisted. It's little wonder that proportions tend to be an issue for toymakers. FWIW, I doubt Yamato's will ever be surpassed in its fighter mode- it's simply gorgeous. but then, that was obviously the primary focus of the design, and they executed it very well. I wish they'd compromised the thinness of the fighter just enough to allow for larger legs, but they didn't. I'd still welcome a retool of that design with larger legs and hopefully more robust hip joints. That, IMHO, would be a nigh-perfect YF-21 toy. I'm a battroid guy, so Bandai is winning me over with their version, even it, too, has its warts.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Considering that Kawamori-san still does his designs by hand, my thinking is that it likely would have turned out the same way. CAD existed in the mid-90s when he did the M+ designs, but he's a traditional artist who seems to prefer drawing by hand. Given that a number of his designs have been translated into toys, I don't know if he draws with that in mind, but as you said, even with Frontier and likely Delta, there's still some animation magic involved, and likely always will be. In that regard, I give props to Yamato/Arcadia and Bandai for translating those drawings into fully functional transforming toys. Having translated Kawamori-san's Variable Glaug, VF-4, and VB-6 Konig Monster into fully transformable LEGO models, I understand the challenges involved.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Doubtful. I've always thought it a waste on other YF-21 toys/models not to use those large engine bays to store the legs in fighter mode; it just makes more sense to me to do that than to lay them on their sides despite that being the way it's done in Kawamori's very skewed lineart. This valk design, more than most, relies heavily on animation magic to optimize it aesthetically from mode to mode, and I have zero issues utilizing cool engineering solutions, or just what's given in the design itself, to make the whole work more elegantly and aesthetically.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I wish the hips sat just a little lower in battroid, that the forearms were a little longer and thicker, and that they employed a more attractive elbow joint. However, overall, I think it's a pretty decent looking YF-21. I love the leg foreshortening solution (ingenious, indeed) and the halved belly plates in battroid/GERWALK. The backpack is a bit thick, too, but if the thing can hold itself up without the hip joints just going floppy, that'll be a win over the Yamato. Likewise the more appropriate leg proportions. There are other minor proportional issues, but they don't bother me as much as they do others here. Def will get a copy when it goes up for PO. Hopefully, like all the other recent Macross valks, this one will have availability through US e-tailers. It's been a long wait for a 1/60 YF-21 option besides the Yammie, and I hope this thing at least has effective joints to make up for some of its other shortcomings.
  14. M'Kyuun
    I think Evan is mitigating a bit when he says they made WfC game Starscream's canopy "slightly" larger than the game art; it's notably quite larger than it should be compared to the game art, and to the OG toy, which was more accurate. I may still get a copy, but the canopy is too big and the wrong shape and the wings look too small. Evan explains that the canopy was enlarged to accommodate the head, which beggars the question of why they didn't follow the OG's transformation schema to keep that forward fuselage looking more accurate to the game art.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Not surprised in the least😄, and knowing you're a Prime collector, I'm sure Big Convoy is on your eventual 'want' list. Hmm, interest piqued, especially for the Mini and the triple-changer. I believe there's a rumor that we're getting G1 Sandstorm, so that's my expectation then. We haven't had a proper triple-changer of that character since the T30 Generations fig back in 2013, which, of course, was a heavy retool of the IDW-inspired Springer figure, arguably one of the best triple-changers Has/Tak has ever made. Apropos of nothing, Joe Kyde was a designer at Hasbro who worked on T30 Springer; he would later work for LEGO and design the Optimus Prime set. Ah, ok, I misheard or misinterpreted what Mark and BMac were saying about it. In that case, easy pass, money and space saved. Oh no, not in SS86. Sorry if I gave that impression. As part of Legacy, though, yes. I have for Omnis at some point given that Evan Brooks also mentioned an interest in doing them during PulseCon, IIRC. I figure if the designers are interested in characters enough, they'll eventually convince their superiors to let them realize them as toys. My digits are doubly crossed. Well, out of that entire list, only WfC Starscream holds any interest, and only minor interest at that. For the most part, I wasn't too jazzed for the majority of the game character designs; I like Bee, FoC Prime (my fave of all the game designs), and the Dinobots. I didn't bother getting the new Legacy WfC Bee, as I prefer the original fig over the new one, and I never really cared for the WfC Prime design, although I'll admit the Legacy fig's bot mode looks pretty nice. I bought Thundercracker back in the day, the only WfC game Seeker I own and I think it's an ok fig. I like its Macross VF-1-ish transformation, where the arms tuck between the legs rather than just hanging out alongside the fuselage like most of Has/Tak's crappy jet modes. I'm curious, not really in a good way, to see how the new fig differs in its approach. Folks are already complaining about the size of its canopy, so I'm guessing it's not going to be seen as favorably as Bee or Prime . I'm curious about the transformation schema and whether or not they hid the arms like the OG toy. Shouldn't have to wait too much longer, and with that, I'm off to bed. A pleasant good Saturday morning to all!
  16. M'Kyuun
    Gerald's Game I've seen (and read), but yeah, I neglected to add Midnight Mass to my previous post. I'm planning on watching it, too. Seems Mike Flanagan has a real talent for translating written works, taking elements from various stories by a writer, and incorporating them in a compelling and fitting manner. I think it'd be interesting if he did something Lovecraftian or based on the works of H.G. Wells, although horror seems to be more to Mr. Flanagan's interest. Still, I'd love to see him venture into sci-fi. Speaking of which, I'll recommend Tales from the Loop on Prime inspired by the artwork of Simon Stalenhag. I was unfamiliar with Stalenhag's work until stumbling upon this show, but the latter intrigued me sufficiently to research the former, and I found both to be quite enjoyable. While the directors/production team did an amazing job of realizing and implementing elements of Stalenhag's art throughout the episodes, it's the depth of the human stories told throughout the show that make it stand out still in my mind. I highly recommend giving it a watch. On a side note, Mr. Stalenhag has published other art, and I'd love to see a continuation of this series if the prod values and writing remain on par.
  17. M'Kyuun
    I'm a Stranger Things fan, so I POed a copy of the Surfer Boy Pizza vanformer. It's a bit of a weird crossover (I actually would have expected them to do Hopper's truck, but IMHO this has more personality). love the packaging they did for this- great presentation. $44 is a bit steep for a deluxe fig, but 'exclusivity' has its price. 😒 At least it's an original mold. As a BW fan, I'm also down for Silverbolt when he's eventually available. I never cared for the Fuzors overall, but Silverbolt was such a standout character in the show that he's a must to put alongside Blackarachnia. I like dinosaurs, but I have no familiarity with BW: Neo, so my interest is a little low for Magmatron. I do think they did a pretty amazing job on those dino modes, though. The bot mode is kinda so-so to me, but I appreciate what was required engineering wise to make him a three-part combiner. It's a given that a Big Convoy fig is coming, so that's cool for fans. Sounds like the upcoming titan class fig is likely coming from Neo as well. Looking forward to revelations from London Comic Con this weekend. Hopefully SS86 Swoop will be among them. I'd love to see Omnibots revealed, but I'm not holding my breath. There are still a number of G1 Minibots MIA in the deluxe upscaling, so Gears, Windcharger, Powerglide, and Seaspray are welcome additions. A new improved SS86 Seeker with a more accurate F-15 mode would be great, too. I'd love a Fall of Cybertron game version of Optimus in voyager scale (still love my little deluxe fig from years ago, but an upscaled and hopefully more detailed version is most welcome). I'd also love an improved G1 Mirage fig in Legacy, as the WFC fig left somewhat to be desired. Til then, my beloved Classics Mirage is filling the void, just as my nigh-perfect Classics Hound is filling that position. While I think the Legacy Hound mold is really well done (and I wish Target would just release the damned thing already!!!), I still have a preference for the Classics fig- it was just so brilliantly executed that it always remains in my mind as the Hound to beat. Anyway, I hope there are some pleasant surprises coming in the G1 and Animated realms.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Agree! My wife and I just watched it last weekend and we both really enjoyed it. I'm definitely planning on watching the other Mike Flanagan shows on Netflix based on the works of classic horror writers: The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor. In the meantime, I just finished watching Mech Cadets on Netflix. Given the rather generic title, I expected another trope-ridden, poorly written anime-wannabe show, but it was much better than I thought it'd be. The animation looks a little shaky/stilted at first, to me anyway, but seems to smooth out as I watch it. The show definitely has some good representation with the majority of the characters of non-white ethnicity and well animated as such. Too, the voice cast is also ethnically diverse to match their characters. While the main story arc revolves around the typical mecha vs kaiju dynamic, the main draw of the show has to do with the relationships between characters and their motivations. There's a little more to it than that, but I don't wanna spoil it. Anyway, I thought the writing and delivery of the dialog was really well-done with a decent, if a bit overused, plot. I hope it gets a second season. After finishing Mech Cadets, I started watching another new release on Netflix, an anime called Pluto, which I'm really enjoying. Again, superb writing, interesting characters, and an interesting plot all conspire to make it a compelling watch, IMHO. I'm only three eps in (eps are about an hour long) and I'm hooked. My understanding is that it takes place within the Astro Boy Universe, but it seems to be its own thing with characters animated in typical realistic style rather than the toony AB style. It's essentially a murder mystery set in a world where robots are quite advanced, some nigh indistinguishable from humans, where seven of the most advanced robots as well as human advocates of robots are systematically being killed in a particular fashion and one of those seven robots is the detective assigned to the case. Great watch so far.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Mine arrived today, a day earlier than expected, thank you Fed Ex. I mentioned my anticipation for this fig earlier, and overall, he exceeds expectations, especially in bot mode where he really shines. The wide arms don't bother me at all. My gripes are primarily for the vehicle mode- ground clearance isn't the best on my copy, as some of the wheels float; the lack of integrated storage for his guns despite having a large alt mode with options for the designers beyond just pegging them onto the outsides of the forearms; unpainted fuel tanks and exhaust pipes; extremely limited turn radius for the cab (they did a much better job with the CW version), top deck is pretty narrow compared to Autobot cars, and forward part of lower deck, i.e. the accordioning panels that form his shoulders, is also too narrow for most of the Autobot cars to pass through limiting the trailer's overall carry capacity. However, being pragmatic, the bot mode was the obvious focus here, and in virtually all aspects, Has/Tak nailed it. The only real negative I have is the lack of ratchets in the shoulder abduction joints; while the flexion joints have nice strong ratchets, the abduction joints are merely pinned which provide far too little friction to maintain the arms' poses. It's a crappy oversight in an otherwise incredible figure. I'll also say the instructions have really small illustrations and I initially missed the part where you position the double knee joint for trailer mode, so things on the trailer weren't lining up for me. I figured it out and then consulted the instructions for verification, but I'll admit it had me stumped for a minute. Despite a few warts, I think this will go down as the best official G1 version of the character for many years to come.
  20. M'Kyuun
    I'll preface by conceding that I've never been much of an Ultra Magnus fan, at least the character. I thought the G1 toy was significantly hindered, like most of them, in the articulation department, and he just never really appealed to me. However, I love his alt mode, and I thought that was the best feature of the G1 toy, i.e. his ability to haul 3 or 4 Autobots on his trailer, as well as the tilting upper deck for realistic loading. Skip ahead to the post millennial years, and I was one of the few who liked the MP-22 mold, although I got the Delta Magnus recolor simply b/c I prefer its color scheme. I very much like, and own, the Combiner Wars version (I like the stylistic IDW touches), and the brilliant SS86 version is enroute as I type, ETA Wednesday, but it's FedEx so I'm not holding my breath. I think SS86 UM is arguably going to be the definitive G1 update for some time; Has/Tak delivered a really polished figure, based on @mikeszekely's excellent review, as well as other reviews I've watched on YT. I'm definitely looking forward to having him in hand and messing about with him.
  21. M'Kyuun
    They more often than not give too much away, leaving little in the way of surprises. Too, I've found some trailers to be more enticing than the actual films. I feel that way about The Creator, for which I had a strong enthusiasm although the film left me feeling somewhat underwhelmed, at least story-wise. The visuals were lovely, though. Kudos to ILM and Weta Workshop.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Alas, what could have (and probably should have) been. Until you mentioned it, I hadn't ever really noticed that the G1 toy didn't have feet. I was always so fixated on those ugly hollow legs that it escaped my notice. So again, Legacy fixes that, even if it's a compromise. I honestly don't mind that as much as the clearly visible bot head in beetle mode. Really wish they'd made some sort of moving covers to remedy that. Of the three, Bombshell, despite his extensive retooling, still got short shrift budgetarily and design-wise. 🙁
  23. M'Kyuun
    I haven't received my copy of Bombshell yet (Wednesday, per tracking), but having looked at the prod pics and a couple reviews, including yours, @mikeszekely, overall I'm happy with the fig. But as you pointed out, it's not without its flaws. I don't do as many color comparisons as you do, so I'm oft ignorant of those differences between original toy, toon, and the current iteration. Ignorance is bliss, I suppose. As to the yellow eyes, I think I prefer them painted fully yellow, as I think the black hinge truncating it was an artifact of not being able to paint hinged bits where the paint would scratch off. IMHO, Legacy Bombshell's eyes are how they were always meant to be. Referring to the legs, I too wish they'd had the budget to retool them to closer resemble the rounded legs of the original toy. However, that said, my greatest fear was that, in keeping with the close mimicry of the previous two Insecticons to their G1 counterparts, Bombshell would end up with open hollow shins, which is something I never liked about the OG toy. All they would have had to do is give the OG a waist swivel to turn those legs around for a better presentation. So, I prefer the retool direction they ended up taking, as Legacy Shrapnel's legs at least present well. My two biggest gripes with Bombshell are the noticeably visible bot head and tiny barely-there insect leg nub on his shoulder. While the Insecticons were never the most accurate of robo-bugs (those would likely be the Beetras toys that were later used both as Deluxe Insecticons and in the undersung Convertors toy line), even the G1 toy did a better job of representing all six legs. As to the head, if they could have squeezed a little more out of the budget to make those protrusions on his shoulders slide or double hinge to cover the head in beetle mode and then back to their current position for bot mode, that would have been fantastic. A slightly longer insect leg coming off his arm would have made him look more insectile and less like a box. Truth be told, now that all three Legacy Insecticons are out, I find I'm far fonder of the legends class trio that came out during the TR/PotP era for their more accurate insect modes. I kinda wish that those toys would have influenced these Legacy figs, similar to how a number of 3P figs ended up looking like their G1 counterparts only with actual insect legs. Alas, no. Despite my complaints, I'm glad they released the G1-esque Insecticons in this line; I guess like everyone else, my expectations were a bit too high, but it's still nice to have them as my CHUG collection slowly edges closer to having all the G1 characters represented well, well, for the most part anyway.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Maybe it's the angle, but the forward fuselage looks a little foreshortened between the back of the canopy to the intakes. The forearms look a bit too skinny as well. The elbow joints are still inaccurate and kinda ugly. Overall, though, the battroid is more proportionally appealing than the Yammie with its too-skinny legs. I'm thinking any hope of their having fixed any of these or other criticisms since 2019 is false hope at this point. It does a lot of things I like, but it still has its warts. All things considered, I'm still interested.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Too, they could rehash SS86 Ultra Magnus into Goliath- that'd make for a hell of a Gen Select pack- KITT, KARR, and Goliath. Super expensive, but for fans of both KR and TFs, worth it to have KITT and two of his most formidable foes. Yeah, that would've been good timing. If such a thing was actually in the works, even just KITT by himself, I'm sure something would've leaked by now. This fandom can't help itself. The sentient thing notwithstanding, a Pontiac Trans Am, the ubiquitous cool sports car of the 80s middle class, would make for a cool alt mode. If they could figure out a way to give him some semblance of an interior, i.e. his tricked-out "Darth Vader's bathroom" console, that would be really cool. Now a scale fig of a well-permed Hoff, I could live without. 😄 Knight Rider was always about the car for me. I watched Dukes as a kid, but I kinda lost interest after awhile. Even by 80s standards, it was full on melty cheddar. The General Lee was cool, especially the jump shots of which, similar to KR, there were usually two per episode, but in today's America, the associations with the Confederate flag are such that it would likely meet with protest. I think that one's better left to history. I'm thinking SS86 is the nominal platform in which to realize a new set of Constructicons; it seems to benefit from a better budget, and since Devy was prominent in the siege on Autobot City, and individual Constructicons in other Movie scenes, it makes sense. I'd prefer they were done in voyager scale, as deluxe would be a bit small for construction vehicles when compared to other deluxe car bots. Even at voyager, they'd probably be about the same size as Ironhide, so still kinda small for a construction vehicle, but about right when combined comparative to the Dinobots. Personally, I don't want teeny weeny construction vehicles, and I think Devy can be excused for being larger than the other combiners by the very nature of his constituent parts' alt modes. I think the same for Superion- jets are big, much larger than cars, and I'd love to see that reflected in any eventual toys. I'd love to be on that design team. I'd do everything humanly possible to deliver streamlined realistic jets, eschewing the unforgivable trend of just tacking plane bits on a boxy robot and calling it good. After 40 years, there should be some advancement in engineering and taste. Alas, any hope I have of Has/Tak's making such improvements is akin to pissing into a hurricane.
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