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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Yep- the broken -up chests aren't lost on me, but like you say, on such a tiny fig, I think it'll be less noticeable. Like you, the engineering grabs my attention; it's incredible what both NA and MS are accomplishing engineering-wise at these small scales. Heck, I'll throw Iron Factory in there too. They have their own style apart from slavish G1, but they strike a good balance between license and likeness that sets them apart and makes their figs interesting. I don't own any (yet, but I've got a few of their upcoming figs PO'd), but I've been looking at Kuma's pics and reviews for years with admiration for what they do. Kuma's talent for bringing the best out of these things doesn't hurt.
  2. M'Kyuun
    WFC Skyfire is a great figure, but I think he's great within the context of the main line; even upscaled with possible tweaks, he still wouldn't measure up to Phoenix, IMHO. FT did a truly incredible job on that figure, which has the look and feel of a MP toy that I don't believe the WFC figure could ever capture. Too, and more importantly, Phoenix's transformation is virtually seamless- great use of the arms to form the forward fuselage. Just a beautiful alt mode. But, YMMV.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Yep, from Pulse. I've been ordering as much TF stuff as I can from them since I have a Pulse membership, and it all ships free. They seem to be getting stuff out relatively timely, if sporadically; i.e., when a new wave of POs starts, I'll PO all the figs I want in a single order, but they ship individually at different times rather than as a one big shipment. I can't imagine what that costs non-members in S&H, so in my mind, that alone justifies the cost of membership. Getting first dibs on specialty figs is nice, too. Concerning Galvatron, not feeling that cannon mode at all, and the proportions of the bot mode aren't thrilling me, either. The TR version looks better to me across the board. I wonder if the feet can rotate up to the back of the cannon, as it'd be an improvement, methinks. As for Rodimus, his Winnebago mode ain't the best, but I like the base robot mode enough to get him. The alt mode would have been spot-on with just a few tweeks. Oh well. Shrug. This is looking nice. It's the first MP that's grabbed my interest in a couple years, and in color, the feet don't bother me near as much as they did on the unpainted sample. It's a nice feeling to be excited for MP again. I never thought they'd do Skyfire, like ever. I'm still quite pleased with my Fans Toys Phoenix, and Takara has their work cut out for them to better that figure, even with its having a few years on it. If they manage to nail the aesthetics, without venturing into a sh!t-ton of unnecessary panel-forming nonsense that breaks up the sculpt, and give their version crazy insane levels of articulation, I might be swayed. As it is, Phoenix is a great take on the character, and he already occupies a fair amount of real estate in my Detolf. At this point, for my collection, I'm not sure there's room or a need for another Skyfire. They're going to have to really wow me. Skyfire's a brow raising choice, especially when there are any number of other more prominent characters still to do in the MP line. They really need to work on buttering up Porche so we can finally have Jazz. Too, there are still a bunch of G1 minibots who need toys, Insecticons, a full range of Dinobots (although I love my FT dinos), Blaster and his tapes, Trailbreaker, Mirage, the Constructicons, etc. If it turns out well, though, hopefully that'll usher in more larger scale MPs down the road.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Honestly, Zeta's engineering is far, far more on point and what I would have considered ideal from HasTak, but as it is a one-of-a-kind figure, and one I could afford in dollars if not in space, I opted for official over Zeta's. I'll say up front that I'm not too thrilled with the massive amount of panel-fu involved and the dearth of actual robot involvement in the transformation. For $600+, Haslab Unicron should be a shining beacon of engineering prowess, but in that regard, it's an overwhelming failure. I would have happily traded all the gimmicks for a better transformation. Alas, it is what it is, and I've made my choice. I hope its presence will sway me once I have it in hand. Speaking of which, Fed Ex shows it being delivered today, but tracking shows it still in transit somewhere in California, so looks like it'll be few more days before I have him in hand. Typical Fed Ex. I do, however, have a FE delivery today of Kingdom Dinobot, I believe, so it's still a good day when a toy arrives on the doorstep. I'm pretty happy with the Kingdom BW figs so far, especially Megatron, whose T-Rex mode is incredible, one of the most poseable animal alt modes I've seen thus far. I wish the whole line was to that standard.
  5. M'Kyuun
    OH, those look awesome! I wish NA's scale was closer to CHUG legends. For their size, though, they look great. Old Skool alts FTW!
  6. M'Kyuun
    Those big ships have a lot of presence. I don't have it, but I do have the original, and after watching the Designer video, it was a huge upgrade over the original. I just don't have room for these monstrosities. My v2 UCS Millennium Falcon is still sitting untouched in its box years after I bought it b/c I have no where to put it. Eventually, my wife and I'd like to move to a bigger place (b/c I have way too much much stuff for the current house), and then I'll be able to build and display it properly. That said, I'm totally down for the new Shuttle Discovery set. That and the associated VIP set will be mine on the first.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Just a quick interruption of the Galvatron talk to say I've gotten a shipping notice for a 14lb package from Hasbro due to land on my porch on Thursday, requiring a signature no less. Suffice it to say, it's Unicron. Thought I'd mention it for those of you who also bought a copy to be on the lookout. Given the size of this thing, it's probably good to have a space cleared for it before it arrives. I've got a corner of my man cave ready.
  8. M'Kyuun
    What's wrong with using a little classic inspiration for Galvatron?
  9. M'Kyuun
    Got a new haul in yesterday. This line continues to be enjoyable on the whole. I wish some of the figs had better articulation, but they make up for it in cool styling. The Chinese Dragon in particular is impressive for sculpt, articulation, and engineering. It's a fantastic toy in that it begs to be played with. The origami involved in the transformation is impressive, as this is the longest MB/BB toy in the line, and it seems impossible that it could fold into a 2"x2"x2" cube, but it does, and it's a satisfying feeling to both fold it up, and then unfurl it. The resulting biomechanical dragon is a thing of beauty. This toy was the result of a collaboration with an artist named Yuki Tsuboshima who makes his own transforming toys out of metal that generally convert from one animal to another with very clever engineering. Based on how well this turned out, I hope they do more collaborations in the future.
  10. M'Kyuun
    How truly sad for those people. I'm not the rosiest guy on the block , and I have little patience, but I endeavor to not let my negative emotions color the entirety of my views or my overall experience. Life's too short, and there are too many good things in it, to waste on dissatisfaction, anger, and discourtesy. Better to focus and reflect on the good.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Galvy's not looking too bad. Like Mike, I generally prefer a neutral expression, unless they do an apropos little sneer or smirk for a character like Starscream. But this looks good so far. Just pulled my TR Galvatron down from the shelf and transformed him to cannon mode for the first time in probably a year or so. Other than the headmaster gimmick and the crappy pop-up face mask, I think it still holds up as a decent take on the character. Some folks may not like the additional jet mode, but I do and I think they executed it with minimal compromise. I think the folding barrel mount is more compromising than the cockpit/support bar in cannon mode. Referring to "that site which must not be named", man-children is an apt description, with a heavy leaning on the childish side. It's amazing how quickly nearly every topic devolves into puerile loss of emotional control and subsequent hate mongering, flaming, and name calling over something so arbitrary as toys. It's disconcerting, even frightening to think that these people may hold jobs, like EMT, police, or teachers for example, where controlling emotion and being rational is necessary and the loss of control could be detrimental to themselves and others. Anyway, I tend not to participate much in those boards, as they often spiral into hostility, and I'd rather celebrate my hobbies and , generally, look at the positives. The way I see it, if your hobby just consistently pisses you off, maybe its time to find a new one.
  12. M'Kyuun
    I wonder if that second pic, distorted as it is, is mistransformed for how short the back end of the cannon looks. Well, with leaks making their way out onto the web, it likely won't be long before official clear pics are released. Or one of the usual early-appropriating reviewers gets a vid up. Thanks for sharing that pic, Mike. More fuel for speculation, anticipation, or perhaps indignation.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Poor choice of backdrop for Galvatron's cannon, but whatever. That angle definitely warrants shots from other angles to get a better overall sense of the thing, but an odd pic is better than no pic. I figure they're going to prioritize bot mode, although there were some inaccuracies there already, and do what they can with the cannon, which enjoyed a generous amount of artistic license going from the G1 toy to the animation model, and also from the animated bot mode to the animated cannon mode. That said, as much as I'd like to see Galvy's cannon mode supported on thinner struts, as long as they stick to using the bot mode arms as the struts, which is, ahem, canon, it ain't happening. Anyway, curious to see the rest of him.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Galvy's just not radiating the same level of refinement as many of the other figs in this line. Just from this pic alone, I think I prefer my TR Galvatron. I hope the Ark is part of the reveal on the 8th or 9th. Very curious to see how it looks. If it turns out well, and I'm already liking the artwork from the Kingdom poster, then he'll be my first Titan figure. It's probably wishful thinking, but I hope he has some playable interior that'll accommodate legends or micromaster scaled figs. More likely though, he'll come with more useless nonposeable slug figs.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Sad news. RIP Yaphet, and thanks for the good memories.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I recently got Netflix, so I've been checking out their anime. I finished the first seasons of Pacific Rim: Black and Ultraman. PRB was alright, nothing really noteworthy, enjoyable in its simplicity. I vaguely remember seeing the original Ultraman as a youngster, so seeing the original Giant of Light version stirred a memory or two. The new Ultraman, or men, as it were, has more in common with Iron Man than Ultraman. No giants- all the aliens are at human or slightly larger than human scale. Too, like Star Trek, the vast majority of aliens look like humans with weird heads. If you're looking for a giant Ultraman tackling kaiju and choju, look elsewhere. Ultraman is mediocre fare.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Some new reveals would be nice, as well as some new preorders opening. I doubt much will change with Sweep; maybe the face sculpt or some paint apps. Y'know it's going to be a very inexpensive change, if indeed they change anything.
  18. M'Kyuun
    For $600, I wish Takara would have employed more actual engineering to Unicron, like Zeta did, rather than just throwing their hands up and making it one big panel-former with naught but the arms as part of the planet mode. I bought one, but if I'm being honest, I prefer Zeta's approach far more. A little something to brighten your day- a pretty good looking bunch, methinks, although there are a couple in there who are begging for a WFC style makeover. My cinematographer, KC, taking a break between shots.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Initially, like most kids who grew up with G1, I was a little skeptical about organic beast modes rather than mechanical alts. mechanical animal forms would have appealed to me more, like the Dinobots, Insecticons, etc. I was a big fan of Zoids toys, so had they gone that direction design-wise, I'd have been fully onboard from the onset. I can't remember now if I encountered the toys first or saw the show, but I'm leaning towards the toys. My first BW toy was Polar Claw. In fact, yeah, it's coming back to me now. I picked him up before seeing the show, and I was intrigued by the polar bear alt, and really intrigued once I got to messing around with him and discovering all these play features, not to mention ARTICULATION! After the first two seasons of G1, I kinda slowed down on collecting the toys, as the show no longer appealed to me, and the toys were moving further away from realistic alt modes, which was the major factor that appealed to me from the beginning. So from the late 80s into the mid-90s, I did very little TF collecting, and my lasting impression was of those old nigh immobile bricks from the 80s. I remember picking up a small jetformer with ball jointed limbs sometime in the 90s and thinking it a revelation. Moving on into Beast Wars, these were much more complex toys with excellent articulation by the standard I had grown up with. Still I didn't buy many of the original cast figs- in fact, I think I only have Megatron and Primal, but both of those toys were impressive for the time. Heck, Primal is still impressive for all the gimmicks they managed to cram into him. Once the line moved into BW: Metals, with robotic animal alts, I started buying a bunch of figs, and that continued all the way into Beast Machines, whose design aesthetic I really dig to this day. The point of this whole diatribe, beyond deep diving into happy nostalgia, is to say that I wasn't honestly very impressed with the majority of that first wave of core BW figs, i.e. the show character figs, so I owned few of them. I think I own more non-show figs from that time. Time has not been kind to those toys, IMHO, so my desire to pick them up after all these years has, if anything, evaporated altogether, especially when the Kingdom and MP figs are arguably better. That said, there is certainly a case to be made for the draw of nostalgia and a desire to own the things of our past, especially childhood. To that end, as I said, I'm happy that Hasbro's rereleasing these figs again. I also get the argument for keeping them the same as original. It's all about preserving happier, more innocent times and keeping faithful to what appealed to us then. That is an absolute fact, especially in the Hasbro universe. however, in this case, I'm not so certain. Yep. Hot Rod/Rodimus just didn't really grab me as a character in the Movie. I liked his alt mode, but the character didn't make much of an impression. And then his interference gave Megatron the opening he needed to finish off Prime. Even the Winnebago mode seemed a serious coolness downgrade from a tractor-trailer, which still holds a lot more appeal to me than an odd looking camper van. That said, I like Transformers, and transforming mecha in general, and the importance of HR/RP to the story of Transformers is canon, so I've come to embrace the character from that POV. I've skipped all the MP versions of HR/RP, but I have the Classics, the PotP, and SS86 Hot Rod, who, IMHO, is the best official version of the character made to date. Kingdom Rodimus , aforementioned flaws aside, is shaping up to be the best RP fig made to date, and I'll be adding him to my collection. I hope your theory about the rotating panel proves true, and that his car form can squeeze into the trailer a bit further, but at this point, I doubt it. That bot mode looks incredible, though, and as that's my preferred mode for display, I'm not getting too plussed about his stretched camper look. Oh, how I long for Slag and the other Dinos, especially if Kingdom Grimlock is the standard. We've waited a long, long time for the Dinobots to get proper updates in the main line, and it makes me so happy that Grimlock turned out so well. It definitely gives hope for the rest. One hundred percent agree about Kup, Blurr, Cyclonus, and Scourge. All very well done. Also agree about HR's shoulders- it's the one glaring flaw of an otherwise excellent toy. Galvatron is a tough nut, I think. I have the original toy, and there was some serious massaging of his design from toy to toon, which makes him an unenviable challenge for toy makers. Galvy benefitted from a lot of toon magic as well, so, again, it's just another level of difficulty for translation into a functional accurate three dimensional form. I applaud the many third party companies who've tackled it and emerged with decent representations. Heck, I even like the Titans Return version, even with all its compromises. But, it's hardly a G1 accurate attempt, so it remains to be seen what level of ingenuity HasTak bring to the table with what I'm assuming will be another entry in the SS86 line. Like RP, Galvatron never made as strong an impression on me as Megatron, both from a character and alt mode perspective. I vehemently despised his portrayal in the cartoon, and I didn't particularly like Frank Welker's voice for him either. (Sorry Frank, still love ya, man.) But, like Rodimus, he's part of the story now, so I've come to embrace him as such, and like all the G1 figs that are getting updates of late, I wish Hasbro and Takara-Tomy the very best success at creating a solid accurate toy that's fun, satisfying and wows us a little with its ingenuity.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Good info, Mike, thanks for sharing. Y'know, for their time, the original BW toys were pretty good. With all new figs coming out in the Kingdom line, I'm feeling pretty satisfied on the BW front, but for the folks that would like an opportunity to pick up a few of those old toys, I'm glad that Hasbro's rereleasing them, especially with toon accurate decos (which we didn't get back in the day). As for Rodimus, good to hear that he's scaling properly with OP, as he should. Doesn't fix the crappy fit of his car/trailer combo, though. I was thinking of just skipping the Pulse Premium membership, but with Kingdom and the SS86 carrying on, I went ahead and renewed mine too. Speaking of SS86, I got Kup, Blurr, and Jazz today. Kup surprised me with his complexity. All three feel like solid figs. I still wish they'd found a better solution for Jazz's clodhoppers hanging out the back of his car mode, but the rest of the car looks good, if a little devoid of deco. I'll probably get the Toyhax set to spruce him up a bit.
  21. M'Kyuun
    I ended up getting Magic Square's Soundwave, as I prefer their take on the cassettes and I wanted a Soundwave in which they'd fit. While MS's is a solid representation, there's something about the more rounded attributes of NA's sculpt that appeals to me over the MS. MS delivered a cleaner bot mode, though, and their cassettes have far better articulation, and being a big TF cassette fan, MS was the clear winner for my preferences. Both MS and NA did a better job than HasTak for keeping their transformation mechanics close to the G1 toy, unlike the recent Netfix Generations Soundwave fig.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Looking at the stock pics, there's physically nowhere for the spoiler to go, and if there was a way to push it in further, then why wouldn't they do it as a final version? Not sure where some of these rumors arise, but they're built on wishes rather than substance. I wish the cab pushed in further, too, but I'm a realist, and I've been collecting these things long enough to know that Has/Tak often make compromises for one reason or another that affect accuracy, aesthetics, etc. While the WFC line has proven to be a really good line overall, it's not immune, and Rodimus' combined alt mode appears to be another concession. Unfortunate, but not so egregious that I'm going to pass. The bot mode, at least, looks to be well done. It's already shaping up to be a more accurate representation than PotP Rodimus, which left somewhat to be desired. As to the Kingdom RP, I could easily live without all the accessories in lieu of a refined base toy, i.e. bringing it closer to source in vehicle mode, and perhaps a reduction of scale by one for pricing reasons. I'm not the biggest Hot Rod/Rodimus fan, so paying more for him than for Optimus, especially when Rodimus' trailer doesn't offer the same range of playabilty as OP's and the combined vehicle mode on this toy is obviously off in a few areas, doesn't please me the way ER Prime did, and still does. Mike, any word on the expected PO availability date here in the US? I'll likely get most of mine through Pulse, as usual. They may take a little longer to get stuff out, but they've proven reliable, and I like buying straight from the source. I appreciate the list, BTW. Nice to see what's on the horizon (didn't realize the Ark was this close to release- very curious about this guy).
  23. M'Kyuun
    Doh! I didn't realize I was in the wrong thread. Ah well- human. Totally agree.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I was always of the opposite opinion, and was happy that Takara made MP Ultra/Delta Magnus an all-in -one, as well as the Combiner Wars figure. But with MP Delta and CW UM hanging out on my shelves, my preference is beginning to shift toward a two piece UM. Dreamwave's cover, and your splendid recreation of their cover really sell the idea of of a two-part Magnus figure. So far as CHUG goes, ER Prime is such an excellent figure that I'm totally behind Hasbro's designers in wanting to make a UM based around a white ER Prime. Hopefully it'll happen. So, after all the wailing and gnashing of teeth that ensued when the bot and car modes of Kingdom Rodimus were leaked sans trailer, we didn't have long to wait before, surprise of surprises, Rodimus' trailer was revealed. There was an attempt made by a fan (I think it's on Twitter) to try to show this fig in scale with ER Prime by using the 5mm ports as a size guide. If his Photoshop work is accurate (I'm not going to try and track down the pics, but they're out there), then this is going to be a really big figure. Too big, really. I'm thinking Hasbro went commander class for the budget, but the resulting toy, IMHO, is going to be out of scale with his fellow WFC figs, and that's unfortunate, if the comparison pics are anywhere near accurate. I wish they'd gone leader class like Prime. Rodimus' trailer was never exactly a complex feat of engineering, and I daresay it's smaller than OP's, and has fewer moving parts, so the move to make Rodimus in commander scale is a head scratcher, which leads me to think it was strictly for the budget. And for that budget, the final product leaves a few things to be desired. First, his base car mode should slide further back into the trailer, and the break in the exhaust pipes running up the side is obvious and unsightly. I like the proportions of the G1 toy: However, in all fairness, the G1 toy's base bot didn't turn into a fully realized car, but was a cab with long legs sticking out the back. The proportions of Kingdom Rodimus' space Winnebago looks stretched, and it loses some of its visual appeal to me. I do applaud the effort to give him a fully realized car mode separate from the trailer, though, as well as trying to make it different from Hot Rod's car mode. I think they were successful in that respect. I still prefer a moe compact combined mode. Too, the back wheels of Rodimus' car mode can be seen along with the trailer's and it looks weird. Again, with a commander class budget, these are the kinds of unsightly details that I wish they'd put forth more engineering towards fixing before going to final. Mixed bag, this fig.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Incredible job, Mpchi! A capture that well done deserves a reference.
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