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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Probably a touch sappy, but yeah, interesting. Another allegory for humanity's overcoming its differences.
  2. M'Kyuun
  3. M'Kyuun
    Hasbro are some shady SOBs for this. I suspect they figure that a repaint of their so-so Dinobot wouldn't sell well, so to get their money's worth from the mold, they're packaging it with a more G1 faithful Mirage (b/c the Siege version left somewhat to be desired, especially in car mode), as they know all of us G1 completists are going to want a proper G1 Mirage to fill out the roster. It's good business, I guess, but that doesn't mean I like it. The worst thing about this situation is that there's no guarantee that a separate single release of Mirage will happen, at least not in his Mirage colors and deco, so I feel like I'll have to suck it up and pay extra for a fig I don't want to get the one I do. Where fans come first...yeah right.
  4. M'Kyuun
    All things considered, if Hasbro has indeed taken on the burden of designing actual transforming figs for WFC, they've made marked improvements since their old Pretender days. WFC has had its share of hits and misses, but I think it's fair to say they've scored more hits overall. I've been pretty pleased with the line so far as it has fed my desire for faithful G1 updates in the main line. Too, I tend not to be as picky as some, although I do have a modicum of standards. Stuff like Astrotrain and Ultra Magnus didn't make the cut. I'm hoping they'll do better in the future. Ultimately, the most ideal scenario would be for third party to reenter the CHUG scale fray and, at the very least, tackle those characters for whom the official releases left us wanting. There seem to be no takers, however- Hasbro's legal Kung-Fu is mighty. I don't blame them for protecting their IP, but it's sad to not have the same options we've been enjoying for MP and legends releases.
  5. M'Kyuun
    The upcoming large scale R2-D2 looks like it has those 3-wide cylinders forming the details in the upper leg joints, so that'll be another source for them soon. The set's due to release on May first, although I'm sure the site will be jammed up again. Concerning IDEAS, since few of the latest submissions have involved space or mecha, my interest has been nil. Right now they're asking folks to submit flower and Minecraft ideas, neither of which are very appealing to me. Too, LEGO has a vote to determine the theme of their 90th anniversary set, and Bionicle appears to lead the vote. I don't think Bionicle should have even been a contender given that it didn't debut until 2000 when the classic themes of Town, Castle and Space, introducing the minifig, really drove the success of the brand until its decline in the late 90s, early 2000s. Bionicle certainly played a major role in buoying the company during that time, along with Star Wars, and I think it has earned its own place of honor for that. But personally, I think a 90th anniversary set should be firmly set in the brick which made LEGO successful from the start.
  6. M'Kyuun
    I'm a fan of IDEAs and have bought a number sets, but despite getting bombarded almost daily by email notifications of new projects, I seldom visit the site. I decided to check it out this morning to see what's new and if anything piqued my interest. The quick answer is no. It seems like anymore the only projects that gain any real support are buildings of one nature or another. I can appreciate the artistry put into them, but honestly, the majority don't really interest me. Space interests me, but none of the current space projects have any real momentum, and many of the better looking projects, IMHO, are essentially modern updates of classic sets. I was further dismayed to discover that there is no mecha theme, although I believe there once was. This should be the platform that takes mecha beyond what LEGO's sets are capable of offering in terms of techniques, as sadly, no new parts are made for it. I wish they were, though, as the Voltron set may have benefited by having new joints. But LEGO doesn't seem to have any interest in producing more robust and articulate joints, as they continue to use the old Technic joints (44224,44225) most notably used for AT-AT and large mecha legs joints since 2003, as well as the same family of ratcheting joints developed for the Exo-Force theme in 2006. The small, but highly useful ball and socket joints developed for the Mixels sets, debuting in 2014, are the only new joints LEGO has developed since, but given the growing number of mecha sets across various themes they've been producing, one might think that they'd be inclined to improve upon and expand the joint palette. The reality is apparently otherwise. I digressed a bit into my common 'no new joints' complaint, but my original intent was to vent my frustration concerning the lack of representation on the site for mecha builds. It's even more poignant now with the situation between HG and BW having reached resolution, as Macross builds may finally be realized on the platform, and there have been a few over the years that I would have bought. Len_d69, the fellow who designed the Voltron submission that became a set, has a number of sweet Macross builds (VF-1, SD VF-1, SD VF-25, and most recently, a VF-1 cockpit). I'd be down for all of these as official sets. The question is, where would you submit it, as there's no ready category, not even a generic sci-fi theme. Anyway, as a big fan of mecha, and LEGO mecha by extension, it strikes me as a notable omission in the list of themes, and I'm curious if any other LEGO fans here who frequent IDEAs have noticed it.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Cool- looking forward to it!
  8. M'Kyuun
    Wow, talk about a straight ripoff- that melody is nigh the same as Toni's. TBH, Delta left so little impression on me, including the music, that I had no recollection of this song. I still like a number of songs from Frontier, especially Ranka's Aimo. The valk designs and the fact that this installment featured valk on valk fighting were the only takeaways worth mentioning, and about all I remember from the series. There was something about a girl band too, but pfft- Valkyries!
  9. M'Kyuun
    Likewise. I just watched Turn A last year for the first time and enjoyed it immensely. As long as it's a well-written, engaging story set in the Gundam Universe, I think they'd be better off creating their own characters, as it'd give them more creative freedom and prevent the holy hell of fan indignation if they screw something up with existing characters, story, etc. Anyone know if Tomino-san is involved with the Netflix project?
  10. M'Kyuun
    I think if Delta had come before Frontier, it would have been better received, as it was better, at least in terms of animation, than M7, but not nearly as good as Frontier with its better, well, everything. Frontier spoiled us; it's going to take another show like it or Plus to be satisfying to the majority of fans, I think, myself included.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Concerning MP Skids' development, there's an interview with Kojin Ono, the designer of both the G1 toy and this new MP version. It looks like a Google translation, so not the best, but decipherable. And I stand corrected; @lechuck was correct in that this was a recent design purposefully aimed to meet a lower price point/less complex transformation.
  12. M'Kyuun
    'Bargain bin' and masterpiece are oxymoronic given the context that these figures are intended to be their best possible interpretation of the characters. Of course what 'best' entails is subjective. I prefer the Hasui approach, which meant more surface detail and real world car details translated over to the bot mode. But I also love articulation, and appreciate their attempts over the past few years to incorporate as much as possible into the figures. Except when it hinders the look of the character as in Arcee's odd shaped chest, which totally spoiled her for me. Well that and her unseemly backpack, but I digress. I get what you're saying, though, and you may be correct. I'm partial to my theory, but I claim no evidence, and if this is in fact just a cheap attempt to make a quick buck on a lesser character, well, I wouldn't be surprised, and I'd happily concede that you had it right all along. Regardless of its genesis, I don't think it's a bad looking fig , although the reduction in articulation is immediately apparent. Like you said, it's about on par with a commander class toy, and priced accordingly. I wonder if this is going to be the new norm? If so, then engineeringwise and in terms of articulation, it's a serious step backwards.
  13. M'Kyuun
    That's how I see it, too. He's priced like MP was priced almost a decade ago (when Hasui was head designer), and shares the the more detailed but not as articulated design traits. I get the sense that this was designed back then, but shelved before release, and Takara decided to pull it out of mothballs to test the waters and see if the old style would sell amidst the bland but highly articulated toon-centric designs of recent years. My spider sense also says that'll be a big fat yes. I'm in for a copy. Too, I don't recall ever seeing Skids in the toon. I probably missed those eps as I quit watching the show with any regularity into season 2, as I wasn't crazy about the direction they were taking it after the excellent first season. As such, I'd just catch the random ep here and there, and if there was a continuity, I wasn't aware of it. Anyway, all I knew of Skids was that I liked his car and bot modes (wasn't crazy about his arm design, though), having looked at the toy in the store on a couple of occasions. I never owned the G1 toy though. The Binaltech version was my first Skids toy, followed by the 30th anniversary Generations toy. I passed on Savant, and I'm glad I did as the Takara MP looks pretty good, and it'll be nice to finally have a G1 Skids in my collection.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Thanks.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Likewise for the Bayverse designs. Soundwave's is one of the better ones, IMHO, and NA did a tremendous job here. Edit: Just watched a vid of the transformation. At approx MP scale, it's an incredibly complex piece with more moving parts than I care to contemplate. The result is beautiful in either mode. Hat's off to NA. This makes me wish they'd tackle figs in proper scale for which the official toys left us wanting, like WFC Astrotrain. I'd love to see this level of engineering put into a voyager or leader scaled version of Astrotrain. Or a downscaled version of FT's Thomas. I just want a decent Astrotrain for my CHUG collection. A good Blitzwing, too, while we're at it.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I stand corrected. Thanks!
  17. M'Kyuun
    Yep. I look at it the same way. As such, I'm pleased that Grimlock turned out as well as he did, and hope the same holds true for Slag. Interesting and practical. It bodes well for those of us collecting Generations wanting to complete the team- finally! I'm down for all of them. Correct me if I'm wrong, but IIRC G1 Slag's lower jaw was die cast, hence it's white color in the toon, which pretty much was their generic way of portraying all things shiny and metallic. It most likely would have been easier to use his robo 'bib' as the lower jaw, like the original toy, and they actually complicated the transformation by using a gold jaw that needs to tuck away in bot mode. A grey or silver metallic jaw wouldn't have bothered me a bit, as that's pretty much how Slag has been in toy form since the beginning. And yes, PotP Slag followed the traditional transformation of his chest plate cum lower jaw. I didn't know that Grassor used a substitution, too. I have FT Cesium, and he uses the old bib to jaw design.
  18. M'Kyuun
    @technoblueThanks for the reply, and for expressing your reasons. We both agree on the use of white plastic representing metallic or chrome bits on the original toys. It was an understandable compromise for animation, but I vehemently wish the practice hadn't carried over to the toys. So far as a paucity of paint apps, it's unfortunately the state of doing business for Hasbro, for the most part. FWIW, I'm fine with the paint apps on Grimlock. Would more be nice? Always. But I think they got the apps relevant to his onscreen appearance, and since this is a Studio Series release, it's to be expected. Hopefully you're right and these Dinobots will be rereleased under a different banner with more paint apps, but I'm not taking the chance of passing these up now only to find that there are no rerelease plans (although history shows that Hasbro is always quick to capitalize on repaints). I couldn't find a good full body still of Slag in dino mode from the Movie, but I did find one from the toon. It's interesting to see what carried over from the original toy, and what carried over from the toon in this new toy. While I'm not sure why they couldn't figure out how to use his chest plate as the lower jaw per the traditional transformation, the solution they opted for looks good, so it's not a huge deal. The underside is a mess, though, especially that back lower underbody; those structures are his robot feet, but it would have been nice if they weren't hollow and ugly looking from the bottom. It's a neat bit of engineering, however, to give him more height and fill out his legs in bot mode, while foreshortening his dino mode's body. And then there's those oh so tiny back feet. It's a concession, but geez, third parties have made Dinobots with collapsing legs that didn't resort to that. It's like he he was the victim of Japanese foot binding. Poor Slag. I'm not a big fan of the obtrusively large white structure on his back behind the frill, but that's how it was drawn in the animation. Compared to the original toy, SS86 Slag's looking a bit blocky as well. Since you mentioned it, I'm also curious as to whether there will be a second release of these new Dinobots with more G1 toy accuracy. Grimlock's box promo shots show him with his translucent neck cover with mechanical bits within like the original toy, so perhaps they're coming. If they went all out and chromed the bits or at least silver painted the originally chromed bits and put all the sticker based details on them, as well as all the translucent coverings, I'd be ecstatic. It's not like Hasbro's averse to repaints and rereleases, and the fact that they made a version already with the translucent coverings demonstrates that at some point, the original toy deco was planned. If they do release them in G1 toy deco, I'm gonna regret getting these more bland Movie decoed figs, as I don't need two teams of the same toys, and I'd much prefer toy deco, especially if they do release them as exclusives with better paint apps, decals, and the translucent bits. I find stuff like Wheelie and Daniel to be absolutely superfluous, and so, in my indifference, tend to forget about them when I discuss the figs that have them. However, I realize that many folks like them as part of the whole toy experience, and I'm oft remiss to acknowledge them in my conversation. The missing teeth on Grimlock are a mystery that I hope the Hasbro designers will expound upon at some point. I'm sure there was a reason, but I'm at a loss as to what it would be. I've never been a big fan of swords with robots, so that wasn't a big deal for me; however, swords have been part of the Dinobot toy arsenal from the beginning, so I understand folks' desire to have them included. Again, if they do toy versions of these guys, we'll probably get the swords with them. And all the other good stuff.
  19. M'Kyuun
    OMG that's funny! This would be perfect if Mel Brooks was directing.
  20. M'Kyuun
    The G1 toy's cab didn't tilt, nor do the cabs on IGear's and Magic Square's takes. I'll have to transform my Cubex Huff, but I don't recall if he had a slight tilt to his or not. Anyway, the tilt that appears on some toys but not all seems to be an artifact of the hinged nature of the cab and the method of locking the cab in truck mode. On some, like Kingdom Huffer, when the cab is placed in truck position, the locking method, or resting surface, is a tad too low, hence the backward tilt. Personally, I think it's unintentional, but it is noticeable. I agree. Some of the choices made by the animators to include details that were unflattering or toy-ish still haunt the toys of today when designers could choose to omit them. Huffer is definitely a marriage of both toy and toon, which is something I like, but in this case they could have left those faux hinge pylons off. Likewise for those stupid wheels on Astrotrain. Ha, sorry to give the wrong impression! I think Huffer's a good fig. He has a few nitpicks, but overall, it's obviously Huffer, I like his proportions, I like his deluxe sizing, and his truck mode is pretty decent. He even has taillights, which I wouldn't have expected. I wish they would have hidden his hands, given him a smaller gun that could store inside his cab, and made his feet flaps orange, but none of those things are so egregious that the fig is ruined for me. I wouldn't have bought him if they were. I have clearer memories of Airazor. From an engineering POV, turning a humanoid form into a bird isn't the easiest thing. While her bot chest in all its bright orange glory is clearly visible in falcon mode, as well as her particularly large rear end (for a bird) with golden arrowy things attached, the overall profile, especially the way the legs were designed to give her reverse knees and wings that allow for a great range of flapping and folding, as well extending outer wings, is very birdlike, and it appeals to me greatly. The transformation per-se isn't going to win any awards, but it gets the job done, and I'm at least glad that they hid her hands. TBH, I'm not sure what they could have done better short of eschewing her show accurate bot colors and making everything the same brown color as her bird bits. The nature of Transformers, especially the beast mode inclined, is wrought with concession and compromise, and it's a pretty subjective thing to each fan as to how much compromise is acceptable . Maybe it's because I have a jones for Huffer that I'm inclined to be more critical of the new fig. The engineer in me looks at these things from the POV of how do you go from A to B, and try to keep the salient features of the alt mode in question. Looking at Airazor in that way, I'm impressed by how well they captured a birdlike profile while endowing her with a great deal of articulation in that mode. For some reason, I don't notice the robot kibble as prominently as I do on other figs, and she's currently one of my favorite entries in the Kingdom BW line. What compromises do you mean? Grimlock was done vey well, minus a few teeth. But he has a good range of articulation in his T-Rex legs, due to their being his bot mode arms, and even his little T-Rex arms have an elbow, which is more than I expected, TBH. His head rotates, looks up and down with over 90 degrees of arc, and his mouth can open and close. About the only thing he's missing from the old MP is a moving tail, which I can forgive easily. He's very G1 accurate in his styling and details. Slag looks to be following suit, borrowing from both toon and toy versions in a good marriage of both. He has the proportions from the toon with the transformation of the toy, albeit modified to allow the back legs to ensconce within the bot legs if so desired. I'm assuming the option to leave them hanging out will be possible. the only nitpick I have with Slag is the use of white or light grey plastic to represent the chromed bits on the old toy. It's a shame that toy companies have all but abandoned the use of chrome, and I get that they're just following the toon color palette for depicting metallic colors. But it just looks wrong to me, somehow. I think I'd prefer them done in silver instead; at least it'd give that shiny impression of being metallic in lieu of chrome. Deep Cover: I got the legends selects version- I like the clean black 'paint job" with the tampoed police badges. It looks sharp. I passed on the Walmart Deep Cover, knowing that my black version was enroute to me (at the time; I've since received him and he's hanging out next to me as I type). I also like that he came with a gun and his missile launcher. Why didn't all the Sideswipe variants come with the gun? Dammit Hasbro! Anyway, another repaint of a good mold in the line.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Perfectly put. So, I'm a big fan of Huffer's design. It's not elegant, it's not heroic, but something about it speaks to me. His personality was never the draw either- pessimistic and whiny, he did not a heroic character make. Still, we like what we like and sometimes we can't even pinpoint what it is that we like about it- we just do, and that's Huffer to me. So as Mike pointed out, this is the first dedicated G1 Huffer toy since the original little fella back in '84, and he was long overdue an update. Has/Tak have the fortune of having numerous third party toys to look at in terms of updating his engineering, and to that end, the solution they went with is simple but effective. I don't however, like the little bit of shoulder joint that flips out and sits directly behind and nearly touching his front tires in truck mode. Surely, with nigh on forty years of experience designing these things, they could have made an armature that's unobtrusive, but apparently not. And speaking of those front tires, again as Mike indicated, they are of the snap-on variety and they pop off nearly every time I transform him b/c of how the armatures to which they attach need to be rotated into place. It's a nuisance, but I see no way to remedy it. Those tires should have been pinned; it would have made all the difference. In truck mode, his cab has a slight backwards lean, and apparently its endemic, as Mike's copy does the same. It doesn't affect anything, but it is noticeable, and kinda gives the impression he has a bent frame. The blue pylons on either side of his head are meant to be reminiscent of the hinges on the G1 toy to rotate his cab, but it's superfluous and unnecessary on a modern toy where the hinges attach to his back. I wish they had just omitted them entirely. Kingdom Huffer is a chunky fig, and I personally dig the proportions they went with. The bulky arms and legs give him a squat but strong look, and indeed, according to his original bio, Huffer is extremely strong, which is an asset to his job as a construction engineer. The head design is nigh on exactly as he was drawn, with perhaps a bit of a five-head instead of fore. Doesn't bother me. The stock black hands don't look quite right, and even in the box photos, he's shown with matching silver hands. Alas, likely budgetary restraints at work. I decided that black was not the new silver, and applied a little Tamiya aluminum paint to his hands and the bit of bicep above the elbow, which is molded in the same light silvery-gray as his legs and foot flaps. I kinda wish the foot flaps had been done in the orange plastic, as it would have matched the toon and toy better, but it's no deal-breaker. Likewise his silvery-gray thighs, which should match the light blue on his chest. Honestly, I prefer them as they are. Yeah, this. Like I said, almost forty years of experience and this is the best they can come up with. Like Mike said in his review, the arms are plenty thick, and by now the expectation would be to rotate them fully into the arms, but no. Moreover, if they;re just gonna leave them hanging out like that, the least they could have done is mount the hands on ball joints so you could get a lot of additional articulation from them. Again, no, not even wrist swivel. I've little use for the riot shield; if you're going to give Huffer an additional accessory besides a gun, make it a tool or some sort of welding accessory. Huffer, like Wheeljack, was always portrayed as more of a builder than a warrior. Onto the gun; this thing is huge, and I was thinking of the pulse rifles from Aliens when I first unboxed it. Mike's comparison with Halo is better. I don't recall Huffer ever brandishing such a bulky bit of hardware, and indeed, for storage purposes in truck mode, I wish they'd shrunk it down and made it tab inside his cab. I didn't realize that the gun split apart, as it fit together so seamlessly. I was curious about the side rails on the back of his truck mode in the box photos, and after finally consulting the instructions, realized my folly and fitted out my fig's truck mode. With a hinge on that shield, they could have made him a small dumper bed. Opportunity lost, Hasbro. There needs to be a resigned slowly shaking head emoji for me to place here. So, after waiting a small eternity for this guy, I'm actually pretty pleased with him. He's not perfect, as Mike and I have pointed out some of the flaws, but in every way that counts, he's Huffer, and I'm really happy to finally have an official figure in my collection. As to my comment yesterday where I said that between Huffer and Airazor, Airazor is the better figure, I stand by that assessment after a day's worth of messing with each of them. Airazor got more love than Huffer on the draft board, and it's noticeable in hand.
  22. M'Kyuun
    That's my general feeling about BW's desire to expand to the Western market. They've never needed it, and at this point do they even have an interest in pursuing it? Moreover, I don't want HG grabbing a piece of that pie. They've earned my disdain over the decades by being a roadblock to Macross, except for their own subpar offerings, and I can't just forgive and forget. While I'd love BW to bring Macross in all its merchandising glory to the US, I honestly don't see it happening, or happening in the way that most of us would like.
  23. M'Kyuun
    I'm in agreement with upscaling that fig to voyager, or even leader scale to go with the rest of my CHUG collection. It's sad when when a little legends fig upstages a leader class toy to such an extent. Hopefully, there'll be a KO at some point- I'd be tempted, as Astrotrain is still a void in my CHUG collection.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Got Airazor and Huffer today. Of the two, I'll just say for now that Airazor is the better figure. I'll wait until Mike's Huffer review to give my thoughts.
  25. M'Kyuun
    I saw an advert for Entertainment Earth, and I just PO'd a copy from Pulse. He's going for $90, which is relatively low for a MP car-bot. I'm guessing that maybe he's an older design reminiscent of the Hasui era that didn't get released due to their new slavish toon design direction, and now they decided to release him after all to gauge interest in the old aesthetic. Just typing out loud; I have no evidence. Kinda how it feels to me, though. What I do know is that Skids looks pretty good to my eyes, and even if he is a little limited in the articulation department, relative to the releases over the past few years, I'm ok with it for the overall aesthetic. It just looks nice, uncompromised by all the folded panels that seem to characterize the recent heavily toon-inspired MP figures.
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