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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    What scale is this Arcee? It takes a giant dump on Hasbro's, so if it's in deluxe scale, I'm interested. If it's legends, still looks really good, although paying leader to commander scale prices for legends sized figs becomes taxing on the wallet, and I'm trying hard not to fall into the legends pit of no return. If I had never started collecting before now, I probably, for the sake of scale, would have gone almost exclusively with legends, as the engineering on these things and the presentation is often as good, and sometimes better, than what we're getting with CHUG and MP scales, and I'm pretty enamored with the legends figs I've bought so far. But, I've been collecting now off and on since '84, with CHUG as my primary collection, so that's my main focus, and I wish third party would work in that scale again. We need someone compensating for the occasional crappy official releases. FT's Trailbreaker looks great. I have MMC's, and I'm happy enough with it that I don't feel I need to replace it. But In both modes, I think FT captured the toon look really well, and just pulled off a really visually appealing figure. It's not shown in any of those pics, but I'm wondering if those panel seams in the hood over the front tires indicate a pop-out gimmick.
  2. M'Kyuun
    If it's the lights you're concerned about, I think you needn't worry. Bandai haven't put lights in any of their DX toys, and I don't see why they'd start now. Electronics complicate the toy and drive up prices, and they seem content to eschew them, which is my preference as well. If it's the Basara soundtrack, I don't want that with Any DX.🤮
  3. M'Kyuun
    I've not seen The Boys, not even a trailer, so I have nothing for comparison between it and Legacy. I didn't even know it was Disney, but The Mouse certainly has the larger pocketbook to fund these shows. Still, I thought JL looked good enough for what it was and the story it was telling. Mark Millar, the creator, seemed to happy with it as well. I didn't mind the characters. I thought Duhamel, Bibb, and Daniels all did a fine job with their characters. Their daughter was a bit of a brat, but putting myself in her shoes, I can see how the expectation of being 'better' b/c of the hero thing would get overly preachy and stifling. Perhaps I'm a bit myopic, but Anyway, for what it was, I thought the show was decent, certainly no worse than anything on the CW, which tends to pander more towards the teen/early 20s crowd. JL had a little more maturity to it than that, IMHO.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Well, hopefully by release time, Bandai will have figured out its strategy for marketing Macross in the West, and the days of the Midnight Madness will recede into dark history. That's overly optimistic, but hey, I can dream.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Honestly, I didn't mind the chunky connectors so much, although it pretty much forced the robot be designed around it which led to simpler transformations and other compromises. It was a matter of function over form. Devastator and a new Bruticus at voyager scales, or more complex deluxes, would be nice. More solid figs and better G1 accuracy would be the ideal.
  6. M'Kyuun
    This Macross stuff is an emotional roller coaster.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Nice to know. No dates announced yet beyond sometime this fall. Hopefully, there's an all voyager scaled set of Constructicons coming for Kingdom/Generations.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Likewise. Perhaps my standards are low. I did grow up in the 70's and 80's, so compared to what I grew up on, even today's low pro tv looks pretty damned good to me. This was decidedly not low pro, but moving on. Anyway, I enjoyed the first season. I didn't think it did much new, but I did like the moral quandaries it presented and the story of how they got their powers was interesting, although it took awhile to get to it. Shame there won't be another season; I would have enjoyed it, I think.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Aw man, I was riding an enthusiasm high. Hope restored!
  10. M'Kyuun
    There is hope! This proto exists; it's not a render. It's been exhibited at least once at some event, otherwise these pics wouldn't exist. In my mind, that's justification enough to know that Bandai have given serious thought and effort into designing this rather troublesome valk in a transformable toy form. Perhaps they're still working out bugs; there were criticisms on this board following the release of the pics initially, and they likely have their own nitpicks with the design internally. Plus, the pandemic may have stalled progress for a time. But, they know, just as the fans know, that there's a need for a more balanced YF-21 toy that appeals to both fighter and battroid camps. Of all the valks, this one poses the greatest challenge due to how Kawamori designed the legs, and cheated the ever living sh!t out of the design on paper to make it look good across all modes. I can deal with a slightly fatter fighter with a slightly stubbier nose if that means the battroid has more complimentary proportions. This proto looks amazing to me; it's not egregiously compromising the fighter mode to achieve a really good looking battroid; no mean feat. Anyway, knowing that they've invested this far into a YF-21 toy makes no sense if they don't look to carrying it to fruition. There's demand, and they've already done the YF-19, so within their own toy library, there's a hole that needs filling. Like I said, fan nitpicks; hopefully they're taking their time to work these things out. Since there's no movie or tv show whose schedule they need to meet, they have the luxury of time to work out the kinks, and hopefully that's what they're doing. It would be nice, though, if they'd throw the fans a bone, even a little one, to keep hope and excitement up for this. Social media is a fantastic and free medium for companies to gauge demand and interest in their wares. Bandai should put something out on FB, Twitter, etc about this thing and then sit back and watch the reaction. I'm betting it'd be good overall. Even critiques like yours indicate a level of interest and given enough common complaints, lets them know where to concentrate improvements. It's free QC.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Yeah, that's beautiful. Just release this, and take my money.
  12. M'Kyuun
    It's lower on my list of favorite valks to be sure, but hailing from Macross Plus, probably my favorite of the Macross series, and with its YF-23 inspiration, I definitely have a soft spot for it. Too, with the integration of Zentaedi Quaedluun Rau elements, it's unique amongst the library of valks for so prominently incorporating them, as the YF-21 complements its half-Zentraedi pilot. The YF-21 relies , more than most, on a lot of animation magic to change the proportions of various elements to present a more ideal look depending on mode. It's one of the most challenging valks for toy/model makers due to this fact. That and the stupid belly plates are the things I most dislike about it. So, I was pretty impressed with how well the battroid and fighter modes looked on that proto- far more balanced than the Yamato, which absolutely favored the fighter mode. To its credit, Yamato made a beautiful fighter, but at great expense to the battroid. I'm a battroid guy, so it didn't sit well with me, although I bought a copy b/c it was the best version of the YF-21 to exist at the time. Kinda still is, unfortunately. But the unstable and disproportionally skinny legs bugged me so much that I finally took it off display and put it back in its box years ago. So now there's a hole that needs to be filled, and since I display my valks in battroid, I want a nice looking 21 to round out the M+ crew. I'll also mention that along with giving their B-mode well proportioned legs, Bandai also foreshortened the belly plates in B-mode so that they're more flattering and less in the way. Hope that stays if Bandai intends to release a 1/60 YF-21. Seems they've already done a fair bit of work, with a full on transforming proto, so it'd be a shame to throw away all that investment.
  13. M'Kyuun
    It's a bit deflating that the last post here, by me, was back in February, with Bandai a no-show with progress on this thing at Wonderfest. Said lack of progress, or news of any kind does little to inspire hope. Man, I really want a transforming YF-21 with a well-proportioned battroid. They could have just released the proto as shown, and it still would have looked miles better to me than the old Yamato.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Hey, the one good angle of this thing in fighter. Ok, I'll stop now.
  15. M'Kyuun
    You make adequate arguments and I don't like it! Fair points, all, Mike. Even AT's shuttle mode, which should bother me to no end, but doesn't. Right now, I think NewAge are the company to beat for achieving the best looking F-15 while maintaining the Sunbow proportions for their Seekers. I wish they, or a fourth party, were willing to upscale them to MP size- I could finish my first season MP Seeker collection.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Concede on both points. For the sake of the combining feature, the Aerialbots had chunky legs, and unfortunately, it seems no-one , even with current tech and engineering, has found a solution to minimize those legs in fighter. If MMC take a stab at them, I'm curious to see what they'll come up with, or if they'll just roll with fat jets like everyone else. Bayformers at the beginning were a huge learning curve for Takara; they struggled with the complexities, the lack of cubic shapes, the techno-organic natures of the things, and most importantly, the mechanically impossible transformations. I can forgive flaws amongst the early toys from '07, and actually, despite their various issues, I still thought the majority were fun toys. Come RotF, they were hitting their stride with advanced and complex transformations, odd shapes, and figuring out cheats to replicate the nonsensical CG models and transformations. Yet, despite all the progress they'd made in their engineering approach, they still foundered when it came to jets, and continue to do so, for the most part. You'd think they'd reach out to their old pal Kawamori for guidance; there are few in the business more qualified. Unless you count third parties, but we know they won't go there, so.... I think the amount of undercarriage on MP-52 vs MP-03/11 is even more insulting. They were able to craft a decent looking F-15, and while the bot mode was a bit blocky, it was still recognizable. Had they kept the rotating chest intakes (a brilliant idea), eschewed the need for a faux cockpit, done some unique engineering to collapse the lower legs to a more accurate shape befitting an F-15, I think the final result would have been a Starscream truly worth the Masterpiece mantle. As their highest end toyline, MP should reflect the best engineering and both modes should be balanced and accurate, especially when the alt mode is a licensed vehicle. I'm not sure what they were using for reference material, but F-15s don't look like that. It's sad when then did it better fifteen years ago.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Mike, I think you and I are fated to have this dance for eternity. To prove my point, I will always turn to Kawamori's valk library. And now we have TFC Toys producing very streamlined transforming real-world Chinese aircraft in their Craft Series. The Machine Robo line in the 80's did a good job with their aircraft modes; it was the robot modes that suffered back then, ironically. Action Toys did a very good job with their take on Eagle and to a much lesser degree, Blackbird Robo, IMHO, and I hope they take a stab at Harrier Robo before they quit the line. I'm sure there are more out there, but these are all examples of taking real world jets and making them work without egregiously compromising the aircraft mode for the benefit of the bot mode. Kawamori, at least in part, designed the G1 Seeker, and oddly, it doesn't share the real world smoothness like most of his other jet designs. One wonders how the line may have gone had he done so from the beginning. I think what further compromised jet toys was a combination of the limitations of toy tech, incorporating jet-bots into combiners, necessitating squarish proportions for stability, and the need to simplify the bot designs for the animators. Since everything else was drawn in a very cubic manner, jetformers were no exception, and unfortunately, the practice was sustained despite the advancements made in toy tech and design over the years. While Kawamori's designs became more refined, Takara failed to evolve in their design approach, and so we have stuff like all the Bayformer jets, especially Jetfire, pretty much every Blitzwing toy, every Octane toy, the CW jets, every Silverbolt ever, MP-52, the Classics Seeker and the ER Seeker by extension, etc, etc ad nauseum. There are far, far more examples of poorly done jetformers than not. Funny that they can make a pretty decent helicopter, though. Anyway, I think the line of demarcation in our thinking is with producing a streamlined jet and trying to get a blocky 80's robot out of it. That's a tougher nut, and one that requires a combination of compromise and good engineering to accomplish. I look no further than NewAge's Seeker- it presents a very streamlined profile that's fairly accurate in fighter, but transforms into a beautifully executed Sunbow bot mode with full articulation and no need for faux parts at legends scale. It's a little work of art. However, looking at third party attempts at Aerialbots and such, no-one seems able to make the transition from streamlined jet to blocky robot successfully, which is a shame with all the advancements that have been made with engineering and Panel-Fu. Maverick was done very well, but the design reeks of the VF-1, its obvious inspiration. But Maverick is a good case of a recent jetformer that was far better executed than most. It's a good direction, and one I hope they continue to follow. Heck, I'll even toss X-Spanse on the heap of goodies- he's certainly not accurate, as he still has a lump 'o robo on his lower fuselage, but at least its compact and streamlined to follow the lines of the wings. He would have made a better Concorde, XB-70, or B-1 Lancer, as they could have formed that undercarriage into his engines and it would have been apropos to those designs, but I do like how the engines were done and most of his robo undercarriage is succinctly packed into a complimentary shape, unlike the original RotF Jetfire toy from which he was retooled. That thing was a flaming hot mess.🤮 But as transforming SR-71 toys go, next to Action Toys' Blackbird Robo, I think he's probably the second best transforming Blackbird I've seen, even though he's blue, has different wings and cockpit, and a big yet shapely tumor on his lower fuselage. I can forgive it, but I can't unsee it. 😉
  18. M'Kyuun
    Looking forward to the review, Mike. I'll probably get Jolt, but I still like the RotF Sideswipe toy better than this one, at least from a detail POV. The RotF version had the faux actuators at the hips that speak of pure robot joy, had a lovely sculpt, good paint apps, and was also the roofed version of the Corvette, which I prefer. I'm not sure I'm feeling the need to get another version. As for the JP set, I agree that Tyranocon ( such a bland name; makes one crave the inventiveness of Bob Budiansky and Denny O'Neil) could have used more color to differentiate her from Grimlock. At minimum, some additional color to break up the solid black and red spaces would have been nice. I also noticed the use of ball joints for JP93's elbows and found that to be a step back from current WfC standards of pins and screws for joints. I get the sense this is a heavy retool of a CW fig. Ball-jointed elbows and hips don't bother me as long as they have good tolerance, although those elbows do stick out like a sore thumb after all this WfC goodness. What went through my mind when I saw this guy was why couldn't they have designed Ratchet's and Ironhide's legs in a similar manner to blend the feet seamlessly into the vehicle mode. No sense dwelling on what coulda/shoulda been. I think they cheaped out on the figure itself so they could fit that intensive paint job into the budget. They did a great job with that aspect anyway, or at least in this test shot. Final product may vary, after all. Oh, and 'JP93'. Sheesh. I get it, but it sounds more like a Star Wars droid name than a Transformer. How about something like Siteseeker and Tremor?
  19. M'Kyuun
    Time for a little detour from MP. While I utterly detest the Bay films, and am not the biggest fan of the Bayformer aesthetic, some of the designs hit a sweet spot with me, as my modest Bayformer toy collection can attest. Two characters that I thought were rather cool were Sideswioe and Jolt, and Hasbro has just announced Studio Series versions of each based on their RotF appearances. News and pics courtesy of TFW2005. I recalled Jolt as being one of the more interesting deluxe toys, and pulled my grey and black DotM version down to do comparisons with the new fig and attempt to transform him after quite a few years of guarding the shelf. Still a pretty neat Transformer figure, and impressively complex relative to what we've been getting for the past five or six years. The parts count, and number of moving parts is quite high for a deluxe scaled figure. It's a shame that Hasbro works within such a confined budget these days, as seeing these old toys and the level of complexity involved, lack of hollowed out bits, number of moving parts, and complexity of transformation make the stuff that has come since feel all the more lacking by comparison. While the old DotM fig is still a good fig, the new SS version is a bit more accurate to the CG model, especially the feet and the chest details. He is also burdened with non-accurate kibble like the folded panels on his hips and the weird way his front fenders hang out on his back. The DotM toy was cleaner in both these respects. I believe my copy of RotF Sideswipe is packed away, and I didn't feel like searching through boxes to find him, but I do recall thinking his design was interesting. I've never seen RotF in its entirety, and as I recall, never saw any of Sideswipe's scenes, so the toy is my only connection to the character. He has a beautiful alt mode, and the skater-like bot mode with big blades on his arms make him stand out from the rest. In other news, the Amazon exclusive Jurassic Park crossover pack that's been teased has been announced. It's a pricey set at approximately $114 with free shipping, but the Kingdom BW Megs mold is one of the best beast modes I've ever handled, and AFAIK, the JP truck is an all new mold. Both look good to me, so I got one on PO.
  20. M'Kyuun
    To be fair, the original Seeker is most likely based on the F-15C version, and MP-03's alt is an F-15E. However, the conformal tanks which give the E series its slight bulge along the sides do not affect the silhouette in profile. It's more obvious looking straight on at the nose. I didn't mind Kawamori's changing the original MP Seeker to an E series, as those tanks helped to hide bot bits along the flanks. The new MP suffers from the semi-hollow biceps sticking out quite obviously, made all the moreso by the red area surrounding it. It's like a bullseye saying look at the f'd up bit right here. It's a universal truth. It seems to me that the majority of Transformers fandom is far less critical of dicked up jet modes than they are of flawed car modes. Perhaps it's because they seldom deliver a nice looking jet alt without its being terribly compromised proportionally and with excessive kibble, and fans have simply grown so used to it that even a fairly passable looking jet looks great to them. I'm not one of those fans. I come from an aviation background, having worked on and around aircraft for twenty years in the Air Force. Heck, I've sat in an F-15 (never got to fly in one though😪). I made double sure those ACES II safety pins were installed- didn't want to be another messy statistic. Anyway, lackluster jet modes is a huge frustration for me, especially when I see the care they take to try and nail every nuance of a licensed ground vehicle. I don't expect a perfect capture, but they could certainly try a little harder. Because jets will always and forever be cooler than cars. NewAge did a remarkable job. I say this looking at NA's Thunderctacker in jet mode mounted on his stand on my desk. They did a notable job keeping the bottom fairly streamlined. It's not perfect, as it still has to present in bot mode, but as compromises go, they did an admirable job. The other part of what makes it so good is the engineering to collapse and enfold the chest bits nigh seamlessly into the forward fuselage. It's brilliant, and works beautifully, while stripping off a lot of the usual undercarriage that mars many a Seeker toy. The only kibbly bits that extend down are the outside fairings for the forearms, but they're shaping at least complements the whole, and they're not so obtrusive as to affect the overall streamlined and accurate lines and proportions of the jet. And the robot mode looks fantastic, with well executed toonish proportions and G1 toy details. Just an excellent set of figs. Takara could have learned a thing or two by studying these things.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Like wise, the alt mode. I think MP should have a better balance between modes, but the focus was obviously on the bot mode here, and the F-15 mode suffers terribly for it. MP03 struck a better balance, but its bot mode left somewhat to be desired, especially with the neck section above the intakes. Always hated that. Still need to watch the vid to see the full transformation. I dozed off watching it yesterday, and never finished it. Ok, watched it. I like the arm transformation, as it hides the blue forearms and eschews just tucking them in to the sides that virtually every one making Seekers has done. I also like the weapon transformation, and the fact that they needn't be parts-formed. The head looks a little too big to my eyes, and although I generally find Takara's face sculpts to be excellent, this one doesn't look right. I can't put my finger on what's off, but it just looks off to me. I still don't understand why they needed the faux cockpit, as the real thing folds and sits right behind it. Seems superfluous to me, and b/c they need to hide it in fighter, ruins the smooth transition from forward fuselage to mid fuselage, all of which should be nigh parallel to the bottom of the intake ramps. I included some comparison shots of MP-11's fighter mode to show the differences between old and new molds. MP-11 was fairly close to source, not perfect by any stretch, especially in the lower rear fuselage, and the placement and length of the mains, but the size and shape of the Seekers' legs as they appeared in the show has always been contradictory to the real F-15. So too the integration of main gear, as they should properly extend from the waist/high thigh region of the bot mode, and that leaves little room for containing them. Having them extend from the knee on MP-11 situates them fairly accurately; it's just a shame that they couldn't be longer, or the bulk of the leg reduced and streamlined to more accurately reflect the real aircraft. As for MP-56, it's rife with inaccuracies that should be obvious by comparing to the actual aircraft. I don't think Takara even tried- it was all about that Sunbow looking bot mode, and the fighter mode was just an afterthought.
  22. M'Kyuun
    If that's what they truly think, well no. Garry and David Kaye still have a friendly sparring between their BW alter egos at Christmas every year, so in the minds of fans, they still have the spark, pun intended, that made those characters, and their performances, iconic and beloved by fans. I didn't really follow the Michinima series, so I never even saw the eps with Primal. No disrespect to Ron Perlman, but as Peter Cullen is Optimus Prime, so Garry Chalk is Optimus Primal, and though other people may take on the mantels with time, those guys made the characters who they are, and I'll always feel that way. Likewise Frank Welker and David Kaye for their G1 and BW Megatron performances respectively. Special mention to the late Chris Latta for creating Starscream and Cobra Commander- oft imitated, but never duplicated.
  23. M'Kyuun
    I like Ron Perlman and all, but his delivery as opposed to Garry's are very different, and I fear something is certainly lost there.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Ya know, having been here for as long as I have, and also knowing that the level of smart-assery is off-scale high in these parts, one would think I'd be a little more judicious in how I phrase things. Got me good, @Chronocidal.
  25. M'Kyuun
    So Meteor's up in the air, I gather.
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