M'Kyuun

I feel ya, @Scyla. I used to enjoy collecting the line, and excitedly looked forward to new reveals like everyone else. It was was fun to play the guessing game of which character was next, until they started just doing revisions of already done characters with only the infrequent previously unmade character tossed in from time to time. Since they started the line in 2003, there remain a great many omissions just from the original first season cast, let alone the other two. Why we got Tracks ahead of Trailbreaker, Mirage, Cliffjumper, Brawn, Gears, Huffer, the Insecticons, the rest of the Dinobots, etc, is anybody's guess. I'm grateful for third parties who provided these and so many more characters over the years. To whit, I've not had much in the way of QC issues with my third party figs, who well outnumber the official figs on my MP shelves at this point. I've been lucky. To be fair, I've fortunately not been the recipient of QC issues with my official MP figs, but then again, I rarely handle them, so they may exist and I'm unaware. I can't recall any that stand out. Sorry to hear of all your issues, Scyla. It's enough to sour your enthusiasm for colleting when toy after toy has issues.

Always interesting to see modern interpretations of the old toys/ toon designs. Makes you wonder how things would be now had they taken a more toy faithful approach, like Gobots, in rendering the characters.

I'm not a big fan of the cell shaded look, but credit where it's due, Lek is incredibly talented, and he certainly elevates these figs he paints to an even greater artform. I find it challenging to do simple paint jobs, so this level of talent is astonishing.

I've never been in the position to handle MP-44 in person, but I'd love the opportunity if it presented itself. I think Takara do an amazing job with their engineering. That said, there are things about it that I didn't care for, both aesthetically, and in the transformation process, that had me looking elsewhere for a replacement for MP-10. BTW, I fence sat for years on MP-10 b/c there were things about him that I wasn't crazy about, too, but at a much more reasonable cost, I eventually got a copy, and he's a cool toy despite having some proportional issues. The engineering of that toy for the time was brilliant, though. Anyway, MP-44. I'm not a big fan of faux parts, and I didn't like how the cab wraps around the robot chest like a second skin. I just don't see the necessity. I also, and this is a very subjective, didn't like his fuel tanks in truck mode. They just didn't look right. I also didn't like the lack of the grey/silver stripe running around his cab. That's a salient feature of the character, and damn the animation for omitting it. The huge backpack was also a turn-off, and I'm not crazy about the inclusion of electronics, especially when the majority of spoken phrases are the Japanese VA and not Peter Cullen who originated the animated character as well as the live-action character. I chose Magic Square's Light of Freedom for my Optimus, and I remain very happy with that choice. It improved on all the areas where MP-10 was deficient while presenting a pretty toon accurate bot mode. The only negatives I have are the fiddly nature of his mirrors during transformation, and the lack of a connection point for MP-10's trailer. The latter seems a major oversight to me, but whatever. I display him in bot mode, and MP-10's trailer has been in storage for years, so not really an issue. I thought TE did an incredible, if highly novel and inventive transformation, especially their ability to reduce the trailer hitch section of the cab to a more realistic proportion. Ultimately, however, I liked more things about the MS version, and I've no regrets. Now I wish MS would give Doomsday, their brilliant legends class Megatron, the MP treatment, too, as I like the look of it better than MP-36's origami torso. FYI, in doing quick research to jog my memory about Light of Freedom, and to spare myself a trip downstairs to retrieve the real thing, I ended up on @mikeszekely's 2019 review on the TFW2005 boards. Fun to read through it again after a couple of years.

Glad to hear it, man. Hopefully it'll stay that way! If it strums the heart strings, it's doing its proper job. Yep. It's the cover for the faux canopy in bot mode that becomes, IIRC, part of his backpack. Agree on the gear; due to the Seeker's design, it's nigh impossible to put the mains where they should be (top of the thigh), so putting them in the feet proved a good compromise. MP-3/11's gear came out of the knees, and were laughably miniscule, although closer to accurate positioning, but they didn't look very good. On an otherwise relatively accurate looking F-15 mode, those little gear kinda stuck out like a sore thumb. Not a problem with the new Screamer. I'll find my way out.

Man, I love that optimism, but I think that ship sailed and went over the horizon at this point. I was invested in the story, and felt they were just really starting to get their groove when Cartoon Network, as they've done with so many other quality toons, cancelled it ostensibly in favor of the poorly done LEGO Chima. Love LEGO, love Ninjago, but Chima was just bad-wife and I agree. Anyway, I hoped that the creators would continue the story, much like Avatar: TLA, in graphic novel form, as I felt they still had stories to tell in that universe, and I would have been happy to read them as opposed to nothing at all. AFAIK, they never did anything more with it, though. I highly recommend the Avatar books: beautiful art throughout, they complete a number of stories left dangling by the animated show, and the writing is on point capturing the spirit, energy, and characters of the show. That's interesting. I like that show, although the editing bugs me sometimes as I think they take stuff out of context for humor's sake, and I think they could go more in depth on some topics, but for what it is, I enjoy it. I wasn't into to many toy lines as a kid; mostly LEGO, Brix Blox/LocBloc, Transformers, a few Joes, and a few Star Wars figs. I loved the M.A.S.K. stuff, but never owned any of it. I found a Condor in excellent shape, minus the driver, in an antique shop and scooped it up. I remember holding that sucker in my hands as kid and putting it back, and the decades of regret that followed, so now my little Condor sits on my desk where it emanates joy from its lovely green hull.😍 I'm digressing badly. I've not done any research on the Nacelle Company; indeed, I wasn't even aware of them despite watching The Toys That made Us, but I assume they're a bunch of guys in their 40's or so with truckloads of nostalgia for the plethora of goodness we had in the 70s and 80s (poor kids today). That can be good in a 2011 Thundercats, Netflix Voltron way, a little left of good in a J.J. Abrams sort of way, or not good at all in a Thundercats: Roar sort of way. Let's hope for the first option.

Funny how all these 80s properties keep coming back to life. I never got into Silverhawks as a kid, but I'd be willing to give a new show a watch, especially if it was done, as Keith says, like 2011's Thundercats, which I enjoyed and lamented the premature cancellation, or like Netflix's Voltron.

Concur. The vast majority of the Machine Robo line had very good looking aircraft modes; it was the robot modes, much like Diaclone, that suffered due to limitations in tech, and the design philosophy, in the early 80s for most transforming toys. the transformation gimmick was the selling point, the alt modes chosen for their 'cool' factors, and the bot modes brought up the rear end of the design process, focusing more on durability and stability, with very minimal articulation. So glad the times have changed. I didn't get a DX Bike Robo, but I'd definitely be down for a DX Eagle. I don't consider the YF-21's B mode garbage. I'm not really a fan of GERWALK, as it just looks like a mid-transformation step to me, but Kawamori likes it and it has become a Macross staple. So be it. Anyway, I'm a battroid guy, so I'll just say that up front, even though I'm also a fan of aircraft of all kinds, with a soft spot for jet fighters. That's why Macross appeals to me so; it has very realistic, albeit fictional, fighters which are often heavily inspired by real world jets, that transform into pretty nice looking robots, for the most part. The real problem I have with the YF-21 is the liberal amount of artistic license Kawamori took to give each mode idealized proportions which makes it very challenging to translate it into a three dimensional form. I agree with your observation that the majority of Macross fans are in it for the jet modes over the battroid. I was supremely bummed when Yamato's VF-4's shoulders couldn't pivot; how the hell is a combat machine supposed to fight when it can't raise it's arms beyond a little less than 90 degrees perpendicular to it's body? That's why my LEGO version has multiple joints at the shoulder, but I digress. Anyway, my Yamato VF-4 remains in battroid along with all my other valks. I'm in the minority, I guess. but it's my shelf, and damn if it doesn't make me supremely happy every time I look at it.😍 I can't speak for other fans, but that's never been my expectation, although mine is probably the loudest voice here critiquing the lack of accuracy. It's obvious that the majority of Transformer fans, judging by the reception of the heavily-toon inspired design direction, want these guys to look like they stepped out of the cartoon. The issue I take is that they can accomplish that and still create a realistic ground vehicle mode, but when it comes to a jet, all bets are off, and the sole focus is on the robot mode. MP-3 and 11 had a more balanced design, trying to present a more accurate F-15, but of course, the bot mode was blocky, the forward fuselage pivot was mounted too high, and the stabs didn't tuck away to at least give the legs a smooth look. MP-52 addressed all those things and more in bot mode, but the F-15 mode was far more compromised. With all their accumulated experience and talent, I don't understand why they couldn't have applied a little more engineering to try and clean up the F-15 mode. It didn't need to be perfect, but as it is, it's worse than its predecessors. I expect, and want, better from Takara, especially for $250. To my eyes, Maketoys did a better job, and NewAge did a better job than both. I've never really compared them; they're apples and oranges to me. By premium, I think most people denote a general expectation of high quality materials, design, engineering, durability, and presentation. The order of priority is subjective, of course, but I think we can all agree that if we're paying more than a $100 for a toy, at that price it's higher end, relatively, and the quality of that toy should be commensurate, i.e., it shouldn't feel brittle, shouldn't have cracks and stress markings (nor develop them with moderate non-aggressive handling), should have a reasonable level of workmanship and functionality without failures. Both Macross and Transformers MP toys, which are arguably 'premium' by general definition, have fallen victim to various and sundry QC and material deficiencies, so despite their higher price tags and general acknowledgement as being premium toys, they're not immune to human fallacy nor the shortcomings of materials and paint. As to whether or not the post Hasui spate of MP toys is more premium than their predecessors, I think it's completely subjective based upon what each fan wants in a MP toy. It's obvious which you favor, and that's fine. My own preference is for a more, to borrow your term, hybrid approach which eschews faux parts, and carries the real world alt mode detail into bot mode. I also like mechanical detail, especially if it's faithfully recreated from the original G1 toys, like the internal details in Prowl's shins. I wish they'd painted those to match the OG boxart, but you can't have everything. I'm just glad it's there- fascinated me as a kid, and that fascination has never diminished. I don't care for blank panels, which is an artifact of the simplified art direction for mass-produced hand-drawn cell animation. Had they the CG capabilities of today, the toon likely would have looked more like the WfC series. Alas, naught to be done for it. Anyway, IMHO, more detail is better, and I think that the majority of us who favor the Hasui era designs feel the same. What I value most about the current MP toys is the move to incorporate high levels of articulation into the figs. That's wonderful so long as it doesn't compromise the fig. MP Arcee's chest sculpt was a compromise to give her forward butterfly joints, but it made her chest shape inaccurate and unsightly, IMHO. Too, her backpack is a huge jumbled mess. MMC did it better on both counts. Azalea may not have the same level of articulation, but butterfly isn't that important to me, and the way MMC compressed her backpack is far more efficient and accurate to the animation. Obviously, we all want different things from these toys. Takara is definitely hitting the toon-centric niche hard, and it's paying off for them, as there are a lot of fans who want their bots to look just like the animation models. Most of those fans seem willing to overlook compromises to alt mode to get that perfect bot capture. I get it, but that's not what I want. At least not that fanatically toon accurate. A good balance of detail, especially detail belonging to the alt mode, married with salient characteristics of the toon models is what I want. It just so happens that Hasui got closer to that than the post-Hasui era. This sums up my views, as well. Let the realistic details of the alt mode and the toy details of the G1 toys inform the current MP toys, while capturing the salient features of the animation models in bot mode, with today's levels of articulation and engineering. Recipe for perfect MP figs, IMHO. Good points. I like your argument as to what 'premium' entails. Most of us have discovered in this and other toy hobbies, that no matter how 'premium' the toy may be, ultimately it's the product of human minds and hands and things can and do go wrong from time to time. I have an old Yammie YF-19 whose arm just decided to fall off from a crumbled shoulder one day. I hadn't touched the thing in probably a year- it just stood on display. Fortunately, my brush with QC issues has been far less than many others I've encountered here for both TFs and Macross. Knock on a California Sequoia. Anyway, like @technoblue, my robot delights aren't just limited to TFs and Macross; I'm a general all-things-that-transform kinda fan, leaning more towards vehicles and such, but I've recently discovered 52Toys' Mega/BeastBox toys, and I'm hooked. I've been enthralled by machines that transform into other things since watching Battle of the Planets as a wee lad, and that fascination hasn't diminished one iota over the last 40-odd years (just turned 50, BTW- half a century under my belt. Don't look it, and certainly don't feel it. Toys keep me young at heart and mind). Agree with your assessment about Takara's position among the fandom, and despite not being the biggest fan of the current approach, I think it's the correct one for their market (Japanese TF fans). Takara doesn't care about the West- Online retailers do, though, so that's where the vested interest lies. Thank goodness for third parties! options are good!😉 FWIW, I hope everybody who got MP-52 gets a good copy with no issues. Nothing sucks worse than getting that anticipated toy and finding flaws, great or small. Best wishes, healthy toys to all! Cheers!

I'll just leave it alone.😄 I couldn't have come up with a more apt description. I think that was the direction Hasui was pursuing, and I'm super happy that MP Prowl got made under his watch instead of the current team's. I have no issue with taking the better aspects of the toon and incorporating them into a toy, but to try and copy the blandness and other idiosyncrasies of a poorly animated show just takes the approach too far. I wish they'd done a spin-off line like Studio Series to channel the toon-centric philosophy, and let Hasui and his team continue the MP line as it was.

I concur. I admire Technoblue's optimism that another more balanced MP Seeker will come along, but, with the current toon-centric bot philosophy driving the designs, and Takara's general indifference towards aircraft alt accuracy, I think we've already gotten the best we'll ever get in a balanced F-15 Seeker. The thought just struck me; what if the same level of compromises were to show up on any other characters' alt modes besides the Seeker? Would those, too, be acceptable? I somehow doubt it. The fandom is willing to forgive egregious compromises to aircraft alts, but what if Hound had a serious lift to accommodate all sorts of odd shapes under his vehicle mode with like a mm of ground clearance. Or a potential Jazz, for that matter. Would that be acceptable? Never had a problem with how he looked, but as a thirteen year old, I wasn't quite as critical. There was soooo much license employed in that show; anyone who bought the toys and then watched the toon had to feel some form of disenchantment with both. The toys had a lot of great real world detail that was ignored by the simplified and often inconsistent animation. The toon gave an idealized version of the characters that contrasted with the compromises necessary to make the toys work. The toon characters had full body articulation; the toys seldom had any below the waist, and often stationary heads. Some had no elbows. Then there were Ratchet and Ironhide- night and day from toy to toon (Thank you for that, Floro Derry) I think Kawamori designed the vanette bros for Diaclone, IIRC. Not sure what he was smoking that day, but I'm glad Derry redesigned them to fit the show. Their toon likenesses being inventions almost completely divorced from the toys is another of those odd compromises that has affected how the toys are envisioned over the years. To me, that was MP-03, and then MP-11, exactly as you said. Takara could have taken some design cues from those toys and applied them to MP-52 to make a better alt mode, but the emphasis of that design was clearly to achieve the most toon accurate Starscream bot mode possible, and all else was afterthought. When Takara invited Kawamori to help refine the already designed MP Seeker, which would become MP-11, he took a similar approach as he does with his valks and concentrated on getting the F-15 mode as close to accurate as possible, fudging some of the design by turning it from a C to an E model, and giving the bot mode hip scabbards, and changing the shpe of the legs and feet to better approximate the F-15's aft fuselage. So yeah, that toy evolved from very F-15 accurate to more of a compromise, with the blocky G1 legs equipped with stabilizer supports mounted on sliders permanently attached to the lower legs. I think with a little better sculpting to try and capture the shape of the toon leg, they could have achieved a better balance back then. It still wouldn't have changed the cockpit's too-high hinge, which set it and the head too far above the shoulders, but it would have been a step in the right direction. Maketoys did a really good job of making good compromises between the bot and alt modes, and I was hoping that Takara would improve on that design, but they went way overboard for bot mode toon accuracy. As I see it, as long as Takara stays the course with their current design philosophy, I don't entertain much hope of a better balanced MP Seeker any time soon. Maybe in another decade or two when perhaps some of the current designers are retiring and new guys are coming in, but at that point, will G1 even have relevance? I dunno.

Hasbro's tepid to non-existent desire to promote and expand the domestic market for the premium toy line of its most lucrative franchise seems a bit counter to business 101. Hasbro knows there's an audience, certainly a far greater audience in the West than in Japan for Transformers, so it makes little sense that they haven't worked out a strategy to ensure these things see domestic releases, as well as appropriate CS. But, maybe Takara want autonomy over the MP line, and have it that way contractually. Sucks for fans outside of Japan, as you have to deal with middle-men, even Hasbro in this case, which always raises prices, not to mention all the S&H issues, and uncertain support. It's a sucky situation that seems to have no favorable resolution any time soon.

Lek has mad skilz. Not sure I'd spend my time and labor on such a lackluster toy, but he can do as he likes. Referencing @mikeszekely's post above, as far as preference, I'm in the same boat, more or less. Paint, heft, and presence are all nice, but unlike Skully, who's all about display and creates elaborate dioramas to showcase his collection, my display preferences are much simpler and tasteless😄, as I have little room, only two Detolfs, which necessitates a bit of cramming to get them all in there. But I'm the only one who has to look at it with any sort of appreciation (my wife couldn't care less), and I know what I've got in there, and it makes me happy. If we ever manage to get a bigger house, I'll get more cabinets and refine my display a bit (spread them out more for better posing options). But I value engineering and a cool transformation sequence more than heavy paint or lots of die cast. Like any number of us Trans-fans, my patience with overly complex transformations wanes as I get older. I thought we were supposed to mellow as we age, but that's not happening with me, and I find that as the years pile on, I prefer more straightforward transformations. Intuitive, if you will, although that's a subjective and over-used term. Hasbro's mainline stuff falls nicely into that bucket, which is probably why it remains the core of my TF collecting. Stuff like MP-36 Megatron can be fun, but I know if I transform him, I'm probably going to need an hour or so, as I very seldom transform my MP figs, and both he and MP BW Megatron are fairly complex and require a bit of time, especially when I'm doing it by rote, and strong memory has never been one of my talents. In fact I have yet to transform my BW Megs back to T-Rex after transforming to bot mode out of the box, so daunting, and potentially frustrating, it seems. Someday I'll take the time. As to the seeming decline in QC with Takara's latest offerings over the past few years, I hope they root out the causes and fix them. They're charging premium prices for QC laden products, and that simply shouldn't be the case. I do wonder, however, since they're primary market is Asia and Japan, are they even aware of QC issues on this side of the pond? Is that something they pay attention to, or are we in their blindspot? I think that goes far more towards the aircraft side of things, obviously, although I imagine car guys get a little worked up if a licensed car has compromises. But Takara have become very skilled at producing cars with few external compromises in the body shells. They may occasionally have a hinge or a pin hole that's noticeable, or a little bot kibble underneath, but they've become very good at doing cars. With bigger vehicles, like trucks, trains, planes, and space craft, all bets are off, and let the crazy bot kibble, large hinges, odd shaped panels and such- lets just say enormous creative license- become the defining characteristics of these alt modes. One would think that the goal, a badge of pride, you might say, would be to refine the alt modes as well as the bot modes for a well balanced toy where both modes have good visual presence regardless of angle. The bottoms of cars can be excused, as we rarely see them, and I doubt even the most die-hard car guys care if bot bits are visible so long as they're not peeking out or ruining the profile of the car itself (like G1 Sideswipe's feet, for example). OTOH, aircraft are viewed from all angles because they fly. More often than not, it's the bottom of a plane you see as it flies overhead- I live near two airports, so I'm well aware. Thus it would be logical to try and make the plane modes look better from all viewing angles, but sadly, that has never been the philosophy at Takara. They approach planes as they do cars, with the lower fuselage open to all sorts of compromise which essentially ruins the alt mode from any viewing angle except straight down. I'm not sure why the fandom has been so accepting, but they are and have been, and I fear, shall remain so. I think it'll take third parties stepping up their engineering to make more realistic jet modes for Takara to change their strategy, but I doubt even that looking at this Starscream. They actually took a step backwards in engineering from MP-03 to MP-52 so far as creating a more accurate, less compromised F-15. Yeah, the bot mode was chunky and decidedly un-toonish, but couldn't they have found a middle ground, employing some of the techniques, like the rotating chest intakes, from MP-03 to this new iteration to make both modes better? That's what Masterpiece should be, IMHO. When you don't give a sh!t about the alt mode, and it's not even close to realistic or accurate, what's the point of the transformation? Not much of a disguise. As far as Macross is concerned, we were spoiled from the onset by the cleanliness and realism of the VF-1's design. Fortunately, Kawamori continued that philosophy with the vast majority of his valks. But Kawamori is an aircraft enthusiast, and I think his design philosophy was to create the plane first, and design the robot elements out of that to preserve the realistic profile of his fighters. Some of his other aircraft designs, like the VA-3 Invader or the FBz-99G Zauberguerin aren't quite as refined or realistic as his jet fighter designs. I'm ok with that- I like sleek fighters, and Kawamori delivers.

Heck make it three if the Maketoys design is appealing and/or you just like collecting Seekers. There's no Universal Law that says only product from one company may adorn your shelves at a time. Options are nice, and I enjoy collecting varying takes on characters. If Takara makes any changes for their further releases, I hope it's to address and correct, if possible, some of the cracks and joint issues. Neither should be an issue with a $250 toy. They need to police their factories and take greater strides with their QC measures, as these issues seem to follow most of their MP releases of late. Surprised FT haven't at least revealed a Seeker design, even if it won't release for another 5-7 years. I still tune in to Skully, although I don't watch all his vids. Likewise with all the other reviewers I watch. I must say, though, I like Skully's presentation style, although he's not the best source for gauging transforming toys, since he frequently has trouble with transforming them, and due to his more often than not transforming someone else's toy on loan, he's rue to be too forceful with stuff. Understandable.

Not what I was thinking either. When I saw the engine bells, I couldn't help but laugh. Rocket powered, baby, yeah! Who says space ain't sexy?

An excellent point. I wasn't even thinking of sun damage when I posted, but yeah, big no-no. Thinking laterally, what if they made a separate solar panel that ties into a base via a lengthy cord, which then plugs into said toy to achieve the electronic effects? You still get the effect, no batteries required, and the toy is safely out of Sol's fiery gaze. If they made that the standard for all toys with electronics, standardizing the connection points as well so the stands could be universal, it'd be a nice boon to the collectors market. If only I was a wiz with electronics, but I'm not.

It's a shame they haven't developed an unobtrusive way to use solar power for toys that have electronics. I'm not a big fan of electronics in toys, as I just don't care about lights and sounds, and all the little wires are fragile points of failure, batteries leak, they raise the cost of toys, etc. No electronics means no worries beyond the standard loose joints, scratched paint, and stress cracks, which are enough of a headache with these pricey little gobs of plastic without throwing wiring issues or leaky batteries into the mix.

Just watched Skullface's review of MP-52, and it didn't fare well. My own subjective critique was primarily with how junked up the F-15 mode is with all the undercarriage, especially the faux canopy cover. I don't understand why it needs a faux canopy to start with, but that cover is just terrible looking. Bobby's copy had a lot of loose or inconsistent joint issues, which was a bit alarming to me, as I've seldom had egregious joint issues with my MP figs. Then again, I don't think I've bought an official MP since the first release of MP-36, as they've all had too many compromises or other things going on with them that I just didn't care for. It's sad, b/c like everyone else in the fandom, I always looked forward to the next MP, and I'm merely indifferent to them now. That said, I do have MP Skids on PO, and given its Hasui era looks, I'm looking forward to it. But this Starscream just turned me off from the get-go. I think the robot mode is beautiful, except the head looks a little too large to me. But as far as capturing the toon look, Takara nailed it. But a MP in my mind should strike a better balance between bot and alt modes, and in that respect, this toy is an utter failure for the numerous and obvious compromises to F-15 mode. If the joint issues that afflicting Bobby's copy are endemic, that's a huge black eye to both the folks that bought this toy, and Takara for putting out such a shoddy product. It's not a good thing when this at legends scale is of an overall better design and quality than this That's my takeaway from the reviews I've seen. I also think the Maketoys Seeker is a better design, and at MP scale, it will remain my choice for my MP collection. If the NA Seeker was ever upscaled to MP scale, though, I'd be sorely tempted to make them my MP Seeker of choice. Just a great design.

I have batteries in a few toys, but if I have my druthers, I'd prefer they keep electronics out of them. It's a pain to try and remember to remove the batteries for long term display.

Just saw this on Twitter and clicked in here to see if it had been posted. Beat me to it, Mike. Anyway, this one hits the old nostalgia button for me too, as I still have my old G1 Galvatron, and I always dug the color scheme of the toy. This is a really good translation, overall. I hope those are tampos; HasTak's thin foil decals are notorious for rolling, tearing, or just falling off. I wish they'd given him the black gun like the original instead of recoloring the silly Revenge guns. From the very beginning, there were serious inconsistencies between the toys and their screen likenesses, in no small part due to Floro Derry's contribution to the series and Transformers: The Movie. My first disappointment was the stark differences between Prowl the toy and his lovely robot depiction on the boxart. That, and the very limited articulation of the toy line, gave me a sense of disappointment from early on, so by the time I got Galvatron, those translative differences between toy and toon gave me more of a sense of disenchantment than anger. Anyway, this is a pretty nice homage, although I'm not sure I feel like double dipping on this mold. It strums the heartstrings, but with my shelves all but full, and The Movie colored one PO'd, not sure I need another.

Definitely made a huge blip on our pop culture radar. Superman, in my mind, will always be synonymous with Mr. Donner, although his directing resume goes all the way back to1960, helming tv episodes in many well known shows from the era before moving onto film. Although he's made numerous well-loved films, most poignantly to me, he and Christopher Reeve made Superman real, and paved the way for today's superhero films, for which I'm enormously grateful. RIP

Pretty cool fig, but not without its nitpicks. Dem hands- not sure how they could look at those horrible things and high five on a job well done. They look like gardener's gloves. Shheesh! Hopefully, for the sake of Primus, some third party rescues us from the terrible design of these mediocre mitts and graces us with some proper mechanical fully articulated hands. Please third party, please. How hard would it have been for them to just mold holes in the hull and give us a set of little cannons on a sprue so they could rotate? Seriously, those things just invite being played with, and Hasbro cheated us of what could have been a cheap and simply implemented play feature. For a toy company, the obvious eludes them. I still think, with a little more thought and engineering, they could have devised some sort of folding panel system to cover those enormous leg holes. I seriously thought they left something out or mis-transformed it when it was first revealed, but no- just Hasbro at its most mediocre. As to the good; I think there's more good to redeem this guy than bad. Sculpting is really nice and it looks like the G1 Ark, minus the two rear bulbous sections on the sides and the fifth engine bell. It has a mini flight deck courtesy of Mainframe, who also transforms into a rather well done, if slightly undersized (relative to voyager and larger deluxe class figs) Teletraan 1, complete with Sky Spy Drone (Explore, Explore!) and the two golden discs which were sent out famously in the Voyager Space Probes, and one of which later developed its own intelligence and captured the Starship Enterprise. Crossing the streams here; I digress. Mainframe also transforms into a decent looking robot mode that's actually pretty svelte, considering the level of panel-fu involved to achieve his Teletraan 1 mode. Anyway, the inclusion, and triple changing nature of this guy to give us more of the G1 experience is appreciated. While mileage may vary as to the effectiveness of it, I certainly appreciate the effort. I think they missed a golden opportunity to make the Ark's chest pop open purposefully to disgorge Mainframe similar to Soundwave's cassettes. You can still pop it open, but it's basically untransforming him to do so. Woulda been a nice additional touch, though. This guy has strong ratchets throughout, like nearly every articulation joint. I love me some ratchets, so I'm profoundly heartened every time I here that staccato sound of pose holding goodness. The ankles and neck are both very limited, though, which is all the more notable considering the high range of articulation of nearly every other joint. At the very least, it would have been nice if the big guy could look up, and especially, down. Ah well...Hasbro. If it was too good, it'd become the expectation, so flaws are essential. Honestly, I would have preferred better head articulation over the extending ramp, which is a cool feature, BTW, but essentially useless, as nothing will really fit in there except perhaps one or two of the cassettes, and anything other than the crappy slug figures that have been coming with these large figs would be grossly out of scale. So the ramp is nice, but moot. The ability to look down on friend or foe would be better, IMHO. Extending landing gear is always, always appreciated, and his do the job nicely, even if they're a bit chonky looking. But they give him admirable ground clearance allowing for the purposeful use of the purposeless ramp. The thought was nice, though, Hasbro.Filling in those knee slots woulda been nicer, though. Just sayin'.😏 So, after watching PvP's fantastic review, which like most of his unapologetically effusive and positive reviews (still think he's on the Hasbro payroll), I'm inclined to think that One, PvP's vid reviews are prime fodder for a drinking game- just take a sip after the repetition of the adjective of the day, and Two, despite a few flaws, the overall toy continues to appeal to me greatly, and while his bot mode may or may not be for everyone, I love it, and I will keep him displayed next to Unicron once my copy arrives. Cheers all.

Never gave it much thought, but it's true; there's nothing constraining them. Too, Hasbro and/or Takara established both MP and legends scales, so why stick religiously to the former, and yet deviate all over with the latter? I guess every company has its reasons, but it does seem odd not to stick to a universal scale, as it makes product more marketable than not. Too big or too small, and you may put your product out of consideration , regardless of how well crafted it is, simply b/c it doesn't fit.

NA tend to have their own scale which is smaller than most of the other legends figs, 3P or official, which makes mix and matching problematic, depending on the figs you buy and from which companies. Magic Square seems to scale better with other legends, except NA. Too, I think more of their figs have cleaner sculpts, better engineering, more pinned joints and less ball joints than NA, although I prefer certain NA figs over MS, such as the Seekers. Both make fun figs though in my experience.

Yep legends, although a rather tall legends (almost to the top of Magic Square's Megatron's upper torso). Hasbro's Thrilling 30 Arcee is about 13cm to the tops of her car fenders in its backpack form, so at 9.8 cm, Wu's Arcee would only come up to 'nipple' level of T30. I don't have WfC close at hand, or I'd do a quick measurement, but as Mike said, I'd guess she's about 13-14 cm as well. So Wu's Arcee might fit in with CHUG if you just accept her as being really small comparatively. I've worked with adult women under 5', and I'm only 5'2" myself, so who am I to be biased against short members amongst my Cybertronian figures? If I'm being honest, though, I wish they were making her in deluxe scale- sure would be a welcome improvement over the very poorly executed WfC toy.

Thanks for the shoutout, Mike. I'm still messing with my old RotF Jolt fig. I'm still impresed by the engineering of this thing, and just the sheer number of moving parts between the transformation mechanics and the articulation. The transformation itself is wonderfully unorthodox, relative to pre-Bayverse, and if I can give one tip of the hat to that universe, it's that it forced Takara to really step up their engineering and creativity to come up with ways to make these things mirror the look and complexity of their rather inventive CG counterparts, for better or worse. Out of that learning curve, we got Animated and Prime, both of which took departures from the old blocky robot looks of yesteryear, and had more complex toys to mirror those looks as well. After that, it seems HasTak took a reversal, really dumbing it down for the CW triliogy, although improving with TR and PotP, and pretty much staying the course with the WFC line. Not saying WFC isn't good, or even any number of the TR and PotP toys, but the engineering just isn't on the same level as it was for Bayverse, Animated, and Prime. Studio Series for the Bayverse stuff still comes closest, and MP is over the top with its engineering, at times, IMHO, to the detriment of the fig. YMMV. Anyway, the new Jolt looks interesting to me, so I think I'll pick him up. I've kinda washed my hands of Bayverse, but every now and again something comes along that intrigues me. If I like what I see in a review, I'll give old grey and black Jolt a blue doppelganger to hang out with. Agree about changing up something on the Sweeps to differentiate them from Scourge beyond swapping an open hand with a fist. Lame. Some color change, even subtle, would be nice. I'm surprised marketing back in the day didn't pick up on the fact that they were essentially identical to Scourge and at minimum, have different faces on them or different color variants. Hasbro loves to milk a mold through repaints and variants, so given this was their army builder fig from the Movie (along with the Sharkticons), it should have been a no-brainer.