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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Both of these looks amazing. For train fans who aren't necessarily Harry Potter fans, this presents a perfect opportunity to own a LEGO version of the Jacobite Steam train in Britain. The Fishing Store, while beautifully done, didn't really appeal to me. But this lighthouse does. I have nowhere to put it though, and a piece like this needs to be displayed. I wonder if they've changed the mold for the heavy ratcheting joints; my older joints are stronger than the recent ones. I've had a copy of 4483 AT-AT on display for years with all four legs having a slight bend fore or aft of straight, and most with the knees bent slightly as well. The thing is rock solid. I bought the 2020 AT-AT set (75288) and placed it next to my 4483 AT-AT in a similar posing position with legs only slightly bent at hips and knees. After standing fine for months, it just collapsed one day without provocation. The legs just gave way. I couldn't believe it. In other sets I've got since containing those joints, the detents just seem softer, requiring less force to move from detent to detent. If LEGO purposely redesigned the strongest joint in their inventory to be weaker, I'm at a loss as to why they'd do that. Anyway, that's been my impression. And yeah, the gearing mechanisms allow for some nice dynamic posability, but at the cost of playability in lieu of strength. I've seen pics of your VF-1. Incredible work- I doubt folks here understand the scale you were working in. It's a shame that in all these years, LEGO has yet to really make much in the way of improvement or advancement in their large joint system. The new disc joint that they developed for Optimus is a game changer, but it's still only as good as the old joint half to which it's married. It's a long overdue improvement to a system of limited joint options. Still room for more improvement IMHO.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Y'know, if they made a really good G1 Megs that turns into a decent Walther P-38ish pistol and molded the whole thing in bright orange, I'd buy it and repaint it. I thought the omission of core class POs was odd, too. I kept refreshing, thinking maybe they were just late additions or maybe the site was slowing down from being overloaded with ppl submitting their orders. Well, hopefully they give us some sort of advance notice before putting them up for PO, at least the Premium Pulse members. Curious to see what they've got up their sleeves for PulseCon. I'm going to be at BrickCon, a LEGO convention, the same weekend, so it's going to be a juggling act to try and keep up with new TF stuff.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, it'd be an improvement over CW leader Megatron, but still not G1 Megs. I want the pistol alt mode, but as you say, US gun laws put heavy restrictions on toymakers. But you can go buy an arsenal of AR-15s. The irony is not lost on me. Got my POs in on Pulse- other than the Cosmos situation, I'm a happy TF fan.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Actually, those stamps were pretty sharp looking, esp the Dinobots. not a stamp collector, per se, but as a unique TF item, it's cool. Not gonna get them, but I don't have an issue with it either. I'd be down for USPS to do a similar thing. BW Inferno looks amazing. Loved his character, and this fig does everything right. "For the Royalty!" Down for SS86 Ironhide: not without its warts, but it's a vast improvement over the ER version. Wish he had his back cannon from the third ep of the first season pilot mini-series, and wish his loinplate was segmented. The one-piece deal is outdated and looks terrible. It's likely pinned and will make it more difficult to mod, but hopefully 3P will find a way. Gonna have to paint on his yellow stripe, too (or do the inevitable Toyhax application) Not a Bayverse fan, but I have to say that Hot Rod looks promising. As Evan mentioned, it's rare for so much of a bot's car parts to inform the bot mode in Bayverse, so this one was easier to design, and benefits from it, IMHO. That Lambo mode. 😍 Core class Rumble. Cool that they redid him, but it doesn't look like he's going to have elbows. I'd rather have elbows than the pile drivers which will remain in the box. Pointblank- Although I never had him, he was my favorite of the Targetmasters as a kid. I loved his car and bot designs, and I'm glad to see him get an update. Core class Wheelie- Such a meh character, but I'll probably get him just b/c. Legacy Deadend- I'm already two deep for a new improved Menasor- like Pokeman, gonna catch em all. Those feet are weird, tho. So, so wish they could find a way to make a proper G1 Megs for SS86. Seems a huge omission to have all the other characters, and then this void. Funny that no 3P has stepped in to fill that gap, either- such a surefire opportunity. For my money, I'd love an upscaled Magic Square Doomsday at voyager scale. That would be glorious and fill a huge hole in the current roster.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Hasbro Pulse TF fanstream about to start.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Right?!!! I can see the legs forming a portion of the sides of the car. The heel becomes the big intake right in front of the rear wheel, which itself is encapsulated by the ankle TF: Prime-style. 😍 The scabbards become part of the hood, and of course the shoulders form a goodly portion of the rear of the car. It all makes me giddy, as it's so well-executed. It doesn't look like it transforms in either bot mode or car mode, so the fact that it does is so deliciously alluring. And both modes are beautiful. 🤤 So, so tempted. I'm not even in it for Drift, as I have little familiarity with the character. Rather, it's the toy itself and how good it looks and the appealingly puzzling nature of the transformation that sings to my soul, or spark, as it were. 😉 Damn my small-house, big-collection situation!
  7. M'Kyuun
    So, I nearly had my hands on a copy of Cosmos at my local Wally this morning, but b/c I dallied a bit, I didn't get there right at 6 when they open, but a few minutes after. Those few minutes were enough, apparently, for someone else with the same idea but better execution. I talked with the lady who stocked the Velocitron figs, and she said she'd put two Cosmos out that morning. Both were gone by the time I got there. The good news is I know they're getting them; the bad news is that there's no rhyme or reason when they get stock in, which means I'd have to be on their doorstep at 0600 every morning until I finally snag one, and that's just ludicrous. I did, however, manage to get a copy of Clampdown, so a minor victory. Not the prize I so dearly sought, though. Not happy at all with Hasbro for creating this BS situation. At the very least, I hope it was collector(s) like me with a passion for the hobby and not some POS scalper who got those two copies. Alas, the hunt continues.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Man, that's a beautiful take on Drift. The transformation looks involved, and the car mode is awesome. Tempted, but I really have nowhere to put him. Prob just enjoy this one vicariously.
  9. M'Kyuun
    The new Samurai X Mech (71775) has knees, as did Zane's Titan Mech (71738) released last year. The knee function is limited, but at least it's there. But in general, LEGO eschews knees due to instability, or so they claim. In point of fact, the majority of their joints lack the requisite strength to keep from buckling under any appreciable weight, so they just omit them to avoid the issue rather than introduce improved joints up to the task. Anyway that Grendizer looks really good. It's not my cuppa, but for those who dig super-robots, it'd make for a cool shelf piece if produced.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I wish you every success in tracking them down, and at reasonable prices.
  11. M'Kyuun
    I thought some of the latter ones you mentioned were part of the Walmart reissues a few years back. I remember seeing some G1 Mini-bots, but as I don't collect G1 toys except cassettes, I didn't pick any of them up. Anyway, best wishes in your continuing search to complete your collection.
  12. M'Kyuun
    That last sentence. 😆 Yeah, lots of Technic pins, but the final ship, ahem, is a brick. Seriously, though, it's very sturdy. And I love both how the edges look and the technique used to achieve it. Good stuff. Although I found the set impressive, it didn't strike me as complicated as you found it. Then again, I build transforming mecha, so my gauge is a bit different. But I thought building in that incline was a brilliant technique that gave the ship a lovely rake and sense of aerodynamics that it really doesn't need in space. But, one can infer that these ships can operate in atmosphere, and the shaping helps. That's my view. Regardless, it's a beautiful update to an already lovely design, and I'm still beyond thrilled that TLG released it as part of the 90th anniversary promotion/celebration. It's far more fitting, IMHO, than Bionicle, which itself just had a birthday. LEGOLand Town, Castle, and Space were the first themes to introduce the new minifigure in 1979, and really launched LEGO to great success. Town has since become City and has remained evergreen, but Castle and Space have both waned over the last decade, so I think it was appropriate to homage those two early themes so critical to LEGO's early success in grand style. They didn't disappoint on either front.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Didn't know that either. I remember her most from "Six Days, Seven Nights" with Harrison Ford. I remember her speaking about Ford's physical stamina and barely being able to keep up with him despite his being nearly 30 years older as they climbed hills and such during the shoot. Funny- I don't remember much about the film, but I've always remembered this particular comment from an interview with her. Sad loss. Even sadder is that she was only two years older than I, far too young. RIP
  14. M'Kyuun
    Nope- it's your set; do with it what you will. You're not wrong; trans-clear parts weren't really used in those early space sets. In the case of the buggy in question, the original didn't have a light at all, but a grey airtank piece. In 10497 we get a spare black airtank instead of a proper light bley one, and instead of mounting on the front of the little rover, it's stored in one of the light bley cargo boxes built into the sides of the ship. So, in point of fact, LEGO themselves deviated from making a 1:1 representation, and that's overlooking the omission of baseplates and the little comm station. In short, make your mod and be happy about it!
  15. M'Kyuun
    Good review and commentary, Mike. Agree heartily with both. They did a great job with Cosmos, nitpicks aside. Unfortunately, most of us fans are left enjoying him vicariously for want of stock at Wally & Pulse. Very poor marketing decision for all the reasons you enumerated.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Or Powershot. 😉
  17. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, but since Dead End is engineered to be an arm bot, with all the corresponding pegs and tab for body separation that Wildrider likely doesn't share, Wildrider will be the obvious retool/repaint. I'm not sure if they made these guys all swappable as limbs, since they just tab on to a frame- seems like something they'd normally do, but in the interest of serving the toon faithfully, I'm not certain. Got my Motormaster today, and in his combined mode, he's a beastly fig, although 2/3 of his huge commander class box was just air due to the cardboard filler. For space-saving purposes, I wish they'd just tailor the box to fit the fig, regardless of the size class. Anyway, he's a pretty satisfying take on the character, and while I'd prefer the limb-bots actually formed the limbs, knowing the concessions of that design direction from Combiner Wars, and in the interest of producing a sturdier combiner, this works well. Dragstrip is the only other Stunticon I own so far, and the tab-on separation gimmick when he attaches to the arm works really well (and it's pretty satisfying in its own right). Compared to his ungainly and stooped CW counterpart, the stability, joint strength, and posture of Legacy Menasor is far superior. Very solid- no movement of the joints, even with his arm extended with Dragstrip attached, gun in hand, and a bit of light shaking. Definitely an improvement. Looks great and rather imposing, as a Decepticon of his stature should. As is the case with combiners, now I'm anticipating with greater zeal the eventual arrival of the other three limb-bots.
  18. M'Kyuun
    Meh, I'm not really down with parts-forming. I say that, but I just got the upgrade kit for The Ark that fills in his sides. Alas, I prove my own hypocrisy. Anyway, I'll take Deadend as-is and just grumble about the terrible feet design. 😊 I think the rest of him looks decent though, and his car mode is pretty spot-on.
  19. M'Kyuun
    I didn't even pick up on the retool aspect. So far, Dragstrip is turning out to be the best of the Stunticons, followed by Motormaster (who's due on my doorstep today). I intend to keep Wildrider's hood together when I get my copy. I don't understand why they bothered making it expand; it's not faithful to the original toy or toon, but just a 'feature' they added for no good reason that does little for the fig, IMHO. As you say, breakdown will likely be another retool, but hopefully without the pointless expanding hood. I wish we'd hear something from Hasbro addressing the egregious and short-sighted shortage of Cosmos figs. Out of all the Velocitrons, they had to know that Cosmos was undoubtedly going to be the most highly desired fig in an assortment of otherwise repaints, as would any update of a G1 minibot be. I hope they don't rinse and repeat if they ever decide to finally give Gears, Brawn, and Windcharger their own deluxe updates. I don't see how they benefit from the rabid exorbitant scalping on the secondary market, so I'm going to give Hasbro the benefit of the doubt and call it myopic oversight. If the former, it's downright evil. Either way, it blows for us fans who just want the damned toy for our collections without sacrificing organs. I really feel for the kids, and parents of those kids, trying to find these things in stores; the adult collecting market has made buying toys a nightmare for us in the know of all the various avenues to procure them. Most parents, grandparents, etc are not that invested or knowledgeable, and it has to be heartbreaking for them when they can't find this or that fig for their kids. It shouldn't be this hard to find retail toys in stores, but this is our reality. Greedy people suck.
  20. M'Kyuun
    I like gadget-formers, but that Canon-bot just ain't doing it for me. That said, I think the Reflektor repaint works better than the Prime, but honestly, Reflektor is a traditional character whose camera mode is comprised of three bots, and I think this would have been better served as its own unique character. I get why- recognition sells. But, if all Hasbro ever did throughout TF history was rename every single new character after an existing character, it'd be a much smaller universe. Anyway, it's another left-field Transformer toy, like the tennis shoe and the baseball hat figs, and to me it looks like a camera with arms and legs tacked on Mr. Potatohead-style. I know it transforms, and I want to like it, but it looks wonky to me. Alas, if you like it, and you can get your hands on a copy, then that's fantastic. I hope it proves a fun and unique addition to your collection. What the heck is up with his feet? Not a bad looking fig otherwise. His car mode looks great. I wish Aerialbots fared so well.😢
  21. M'Kyuun
    You should buy yourself some plastic crack every now and again. I promise, it's not addictive. 😈 Mwaahahahahahahaha!
  22. M'Kyuun
    I'm down for SS86 Ironhide and the eventual Ratchet. I dig the engineering, the much-improved alt mode, and the all-inclusive transformation. I don't dig the huge protruding hinges (double hinges would've been an improvement), the mismatched color blocking between red plastic and red painted translucent plastic, the overuse of silver around the bumper (part of the front is supposed to be red), the crappy hands and single piece loin-plate (C'mon, Hasbro, what gives?- voyager budget and still these shortcuts?), the omission of his back cannon (although there's really nowhere to plug it in if it did come with), his somewhat lackluster articulation, and the lack of his yellow stripe. Having seen what they're able to do with a voyager budget for other deluxe figs, the bar was a bit higher. This had the potential to be a knockout fig. I guess the cost of plastic, and perhaps molds, is still nigh prohibitively expensive. There does seem to be a high number of moving parts/pin hinges, so I guess that's where the majority of the budget went. I wish they could've painted the entire fig so the red was uniform. I may just have to do that myself, as well as give him his yellow stripe. Swung by Wally today and saw Velocitrons Burn Out, Road Rocket, and Blurr. Of course, no Cosmos or Clampdown, the two I'm interested in. Not sure what Hasbro was thinking when they short-packed Cosmos- he's going to be scalper-bait from here on out unless Hasbro rectifies the situation. Grrrr!!!!
  23. M'Kyuun
    Enjoy, and thanks for the kind words. Leg godt!
  24. M'Kyuun
    You're most welcome. Happy building!
  25. M'Kyuun
    At the risk of bogarting this entire thread, I have another review for you. as I mentioned in my 10497 review, I had designs on using my second copy of the set to build one of the semi-official alternate builds, also based on 1979 Space sets, and also designed by Mike Psiaki. I followed through, spending the lion's share of my yesterday well into the late evening toiling away on not only the ship, but a few side MOCs. The design I chose to do was 10497_01 which is intended to be an update to set #924 Space Transporter as it was known in Europe, or set #487 Space Cruiser as it was known in the US. I don't own a copy of the Space Cruiser, so I'm afraid stock photos will have to do. Group shot with (L-R) 10497_01, 497, and 10497, or maybe less confusing, Space Cruiser 2.0, Galaxy Explorer, Galaxy Explorer 2.0 (GE2). For the remainder of the review, I'll use these terms. As you can see, the Space Cruiser is about the same size as the original Galaxy Explorer. It follows many of the same design cues as the GE2, as the original Cruiser shared similar cues to the Galaxy Explorer. I love the slightly elevated position of the copilot, as well as the inclined fuselage/canopy. To me it just looks very sleek and aerodynamic. While I'm not the biggest fan of stickers, in this instance I wish LEGO had included a set of stickers for "LL924" and "LL918" to correspond with the alternate models. Both alternates use the printed LL928 bricks prominently, but I'd like to have a proper LL924 on this ship, which I intend to keep permanently. Note the carryover of the brick-built white downward arrow from the GE2. Such a great detail. being a much smaller ship, Space Cruiser doesn't have a living quarters, and those double windows serve a purely aesthetic function. The Space Cruiser also shares the same retracting landing gear design as GE2. I like the asymmetrical antennae on this model. The original had a single antenna, replicated here by a 6-stud long bar w/stop inserted into a 1x1 round brick. The fit of that bar is rather loose; it doesn't fall out, having more friction at the very end than where it sits flush with the stop, but there is a little slop so that it can move side to side a little bit. They really should have put a few light bley 1x1 round plates with open studs in the set to give it a firmer base. Alas, no. This bit of nondescript cargo differs from the white cargo box that came with the original Space Cruiser. In my mind, it's some sort of generator utilizing similar tech to the engines, but honestly, imagination prevails and aside from the two light bley containers w/flip-down doors, the function and purpose of the remainder is up to the builder. If Mr. Psiaki has offered an explanation, I'm blissfully unaware. Another notable omission from this update is a forklift to facilitate handling of the cargo. Having a plethora of leftover parts after completing the Space Cruiser, I embraced the challenge of building one using only the leftover parts. Due to the four-stud wide design of the original cargo build, I had to modify it so that my forklift, whose forks are spaced 6-studs wide, could pick it up, as seen in the previous pics. I replaced the half cylinder piece with some angled bricks to try and maintain the rounded look of the container while putting some 1x1 red and white cylinders within to simulate tanks of some sort. I put a tap in there too, as a way of interacting with it and providing a hint of functionality. I also added some side runners to provide a lifting surface for the forklift. Fortunately, the cargo bay is 6-studs wide, and the modified cargo fits perfectly. Incidentally, that grey and blue bit sticking up is the locking mechanism for the cargo doors. It needs to be lowered to near horizontal prior to closing the cargo doors so they can pass under the large tail stabilizers. Once the doors are in closed position, you simply press the lock down and all is secured. After finishing my forklift, I still had a lot of parts left over, so I decided to try and replicate, still using only parts from the set, something akin to the white cargo box from the original set. With a goodly collection of parts left over still, I built a little depot for storing cargo. In summary, by not having the numbered bags to go by, but having to pick the parts out of a rather large pile brought back the nostalgic feel of the pre-millennial sets before part call-outs on every step. It made for a longer build time (I don't organize or sort my parts out - I just dump and build), but enjoyable all the same. Forging into MOC territory with the forklift, cargo, and depot builds well into the evening was fun and freeing, if that's the right word. I've long been a MOC builder and tying myself purely to the parts available in the set put a fun constraint on realizing these additional builds. I hope they prove inspirational to anyone else attempting the same. As to the updated Space Cruiser itself, if you like the design direction of 10497, and desire an updated 487/924 for your collection, as I do, this is definitely a beautiful and complimentary model. IMHO it makes a great companion piece for the GE2, and if nothing else, provides for a fun build experience beyond the primary model. Cheers and keep clicking those bricks!
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