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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    Which is why I, a Geewunner, can't understand the appeal that these old toys still hold for collectors. I suppose they have an old school charm to them, but even when I was collecting the odd TF toy in my mid to late teens, I felt more disenchantment with them than anything else. I longed and hoped fervently for toys resembling what we now have through MP, the main line stuff since the Combiner Wars Trilogy, and all the G1 third party offerings. I envy the kids of today, as they're getting the toys I imagined and longed for as a teenager- they just don't know how spoiled they are, so comparisons like these really do drive home just how far Transformer toys have come since 1984. Honestly, though, I'm happier that these things are out now when I'm an adult with disposable income enough to afford this hobby. As a kid, I didn't have much in the way of cash flow, so had these been the reality back then, I wouldn't have had the means to buy too many of them. So while I do envy the kids of today for the improved quality in the toys of their generation, I'm happier still knowing that, unlike most kids, I'm equipped to pick and choose what I want for my collection. It was worth the wait.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Binged Kingdom today: as for the voices, more of the same slow stilted deliveries, especially Prime, and to a slightly lesser degree, Megatron. Some of the VA's try to sound like the original VAs, and some don't try at all and don't sound even close (Ironhide come to mind immediately). Ron Perlman, a veteran, gives a good performance as Primal; he doesn't sound like Garry Chalk, but he gives a good line delivery, and gives the character gravitas. There's little in the way of the sense of humor from Beast Wars here. Kingdom Megs ends a couple statements with 'yes', but it's not played to the same tongue in cheek manner as David Kaye's original performance. Story-wise, they brought the overarching plot to a decent conclusion. I thought the CG models were fine, and on the whole, I thought it was a good looking show with a lot of atmosphere. The voice work and writing holds it back from being great. Some of the dialog is pedantic, cliched, or odd (why would Cybertronians ever use any form of the word, 'damn'?). Too, the writers fall back on a lot of metaphysical mumbo-jumbo concerning the Allspark, and to a lesser degree, the Matrix. While a little metaphysics is ok to add an air of mystique, I think those elements should be kept mysterious while the focus should be more on a straight story with good old greed, ambition, and psychopathic indifference on the parts of the Decepticons to achieve power and authority, with some Machiavellian plans at play, and the Autobots trying to preserve their peaceful way of life in light of Megatron's ambition. The Ark was cool. I noticed they rendered it with all five engines and the aft quarter panels complete and filled in, unlike the toy. The rendered hands looked better than the toy's dishwashing rubber gloved look. For all the buildup, though, the way they used him was a bit underwhelming. Transformations were pretty minimal and rarely depicted on screen, although the old transforming sound effect is employed to indicate that it's happening. I guess, since the renders are based on the actual toys, making them transform like the toys on screen would have been too expensive or too laborious to render accurately (they should have hired Polesdru to do stop-motion of the toys and used those as templates). Anyway, for a show about transforming robots, they don't transform as often as you'd think. Too, gone is the 'too-much energon' excuse for the original BW characters' alt modes. No other beasts are shown, either, as a reason for disguise, although at the same scale as the regular Cybertronians who take on vehicle alts, they would dwarf the real animals. So they exist purely as nostalgic callbacks and reasons to make toys, but make little sense in context. I could probably keep nitpicking things, but I won't. If you've slogged through the first two seasons, you'll want to watch this season just to tie it all up. Even with the slow pacing and awkward voice acting, the story is coherent across all three seasons and comes to a nice conclusion, with a loose string to form the basis of the next iteration. If you haven't watched it, or just couldn't hang after an ep or two, this offers nothing new or better. I haven't watched Cyberverse, but I'm beginning to feel like I missed out. I enjoyed Prime, so I imagine I'd like that, too. At least the voice acting was better. I think Optimus is the worst, with his extremely stilted delivery, over-enunciation, and lack of contractions, his delivery consistently sounds very unnatural, and diminishes the appeal of such a storied character. I think they're building up to the next chapter with Galvatron, or some semblance thereof. Not sure, but I'd wager they're going to move into Unicron Trilogy territory, which would make sense given how it wrapped up.
  3. M'Kyuun
    1.) When they're speaking 2.) Most likely Japanese, but I don't the think the animation followed actual lip movements. I can't say with any certainty, as I don't speak fluent Japanese. 3.) I watched it in English on Netflix.
  4. M'Kyuun
    Read the comic. Y'know, it's just silly enough to be made into a show, sponsored, of course, by Taco Bell. Gotta admire the amount of effort here just to advertise some spicy fries with cheese on them.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Hopefully they can find legit jobs doing the same sort of thing. There's definitely a market for transforming toys, and those toys don't necessarily have to be Transformers. I'd welcome another property or franchise based around transformable vehicles, especially if it had some good media to go along with it. But, I'm a toy guy, so that's never been the main driver for me; I buy 'em b/c they exist and they appeal to me. I've always found it funny when folks only buy toys of the characters that interest them. I generally go the opposite- I buy the toys that interest me regardless of the character or whether I care about the character. If the toy is cool, that's all that matters. Anyway, as I said, it's a terrible waste of tremendous talent if these folks just retire from designing transformable toys. There's room for more, especially at the level they were doing it.
  6. M'Kyuun
    The Carbotix is really nice, but that's a lot of ducats. Looks like they kept the squarish proportions of Green Lion. Probably necessary for the room required to hide the legs. I love that feature, but not enough to canx my PO for the much more reasonably priced SOC. I'm happy with second best. @Syro Sorry for your loss.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Given that Dan Akroyd, the guy who came up with the idea in the first place and wrote/co-wrote the first two films has a writing credit on this movie, it's coming from a pretty reliable source. Ivan Reitman's son is directing; I'm sure Jason had his father's counsel to lean on, and hopefully his great sense of humor, to maintain continuity in look and feel. And by revolving the plot around the late Egon's grandchildren, there's a nice tribute there to the impact Harold Ramis, RIP good sir, had on the original films. Looks like they've got a good cast in place, both originals, and new, to carry the torch. I'm looking forward to it.
  8. M'Kyuun
    To go slightly askance, GitS: 2045 is kind of a slow starter, at least for me. The story gets better, but you have to slog through those first few eps. The sole American on the team lives up to the American cliche: loud, arrogant, stupid, and incompetent. It's slightly annoying, as is the throwaway character. Anyway, the mouth animations bugged me the whole way through; they just looked bad. The story was ok, but SAC did it much better, IMHO. As to the new Blade Runner, I think they would have been further ahead to play up the noir aspects, if any, that the show might offer. That's always been the atmosphere of Blade Runner, and the trailer feels more like an ep of Kung-Fu: 2070 than an offshoot of Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.
  9. M'Kyuun
    I never like the Bayverse designs for Megatron, and I wasn't even aware they did a Galvatron (I thought this was another iteration of Megs, but I guess, in a way, it is). Anyway, while I don't like the designs at all, I've been tipping my hat to Unique Toys since they started this series of figures for their incredible engineering. Design work this well done beggars the question of, 'why isn't Takara designing on this level?'. If this isn't masterpiece level engineering, I don't know what is. Actually, I do: In my estimation, UT are doing it better. I wonder then, if they're quitting the Movieverse figs, are they turning their attention to another part of the franchise, or quitting altogether? If the latter, it seems a terrible waste of talent. Too, if the latter, it'd be nice if some of the guys behind these toys found employment with Takara. I doubt it, but what a resume, right?
  10. M'Kyuun
    Appreciate that. I wouldn't have known that connection to the song; I figured they chose it for irony's sake, but apparently Brian Wilson can add clairvoyance to his list of talents.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Well, at least there's progress. From what I gather on these Pulsecon events, it sounds like a number of these toy designers are fans as well, so I do think they try to make good figs. I think they're often too constrained by budget, but since they're sitting very well financially from second quarter earnings, hopefully the Transformers budget will get a much needed infusion of cash. Anyway, I'm happy to hear of the things they are doing, and remain hopeful for the rest. Curious to see how they approach combiners without the big bulky connector joint that the CW figs were all designed around. Honestly, I didn't mind that approach, but I get the sense that those connectors were expensive to produce, and thus the rest of the toyline suffered due to both the requirement to build the toy around the joint, but also b/c that joint ate up so much of each toy's budget. A new approach will hopefully yield better combining figs that aren't as simple or compromised.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Oh, I hope so. And while they're at it, a new Magnus fig with a white Earthrise Prime as its core. And a new Astrotrain with alt modes that don't suck. And a new Blitzwing. And deluxe Insecticons. And a new improved Devastator. And Blaster with his cassettes. And Perceptor. And the rest of the Dinos. Did I miss anyone? Seriously, though, I think the majority of fans were pretty disappointed with the reuse of the Siege mold and the poorly executed partsforming roof, not to mention those awful feet hanging out the back that just ruin the van from behind. I think if they'd at least turned the roof bit into something resembling the G1 toy's tread-sled, it would have been more satisfying from a nostalgia POV. But, they let that opportunity slip by. Although I paid the exclusivity tax for both ER Ironhide and Ratchet, I'd gladly go in on a new improved mold that fixes everything wrong with the ER Vanette Bros. I'm guessing SS has a slightly better budget than the main line, so hopefully they'd use it to the fullest to better not only the ER figs but also the rather lackluster MP figs as well. Hopefully it happens, and they're not insanely difficult to PO.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Just mentioned to the wife this evening that this looks like it'd be a cool show on its own. They definitely spent some money to hire decent animators. There's also a strong Pacific Rim vibe to the commercials as well. It's an odd, but cool choice for advertising fast food. I'm not even a fan of Taco Hell, but I dig their commercials. I really liked the Nacho Fries series of commercials they did a few years ago with James Marsden, and the more recent one with Stranger Things' Joe Keery- "You don't consume me! I consume you!" After those mini-bits of hyperbolic cinema, the next logical step was anime. Next, they need a Shinji Ikari surrogate getting all angsty about huge odd creatures, which are certainly not Angels, taking his Nacho Fries, necessitating his piloting a large humanoid that isn't an Eva to get them back.
  14. M'Kyuun
    This could have turned out much worse. I can forgive the leg kibble for that well done alt mode. Glad they finally made this guy in the main line. Now we just need Wheeljack in his space truck alt mode and we can recreate those first scenes from the original show. Never had G1 Sideswipe, but I did, and still do, have Red Alert. He's still in good condition as well, along with Tracks. Sorry JBO. So Hasbro are doing very well financially in this second quarter of '21, with $1.23B in revenues. Hopefully some of that goes towards product improvement in the TF line and in fixing their terrible distribution issues. With so much cash on hand, why do they even need Haslab?
  15. M'Kyuun
    Excellent. First I've ever heard of a company firing someone for supporting the practice, but hopefully not the last. These people should not be encouraged.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Amen, brother.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Vangelis definitely created a unique sound which, along with the visuals, created a beautiful yet bleak mood for the film. I honestly don't recall the music from 2049, although I own it and have seen it a few times now. Guess I need to watch it again. The comparison with GitS and Alita is apt (haven't seen enough Appleseed to compare). The only thing in the trailer that gives it away as a Blade Runner tie-in is the Spinner landing scene. Otherwise, it could be any action movie with a female martial artist. Hell, it could be Kung-Fu, the Animation. They simply don't create the right atmosphere, IMHO, although they're trying with all the Asian sign imagery. But the music played a large part in the original for setting the mood, and that's lacking here. All things being equal, if I get a chance to watch it, I will, at least to give it a chance, as trailer material is often choppy and out of context. Seeing a full ep will give a better impression of how they approach the world.
  18. M'Kyuun
    What's not to like about a licensed F-14 Transformer whose transformation closely resembles that of the VF-1, which itself was inspired by the F-14, on a Macross forum? If this was Has/Tak's way of thumbing their nose at Harmony Gold, then I'm all the happier it exists. Along with the original Jetfire, it's one of the best jet-formers ever produced. Both you and @David Hingtgenhave suggested the XB-70, and given that the rest of the Aerialbots are military planes, the bomber would have been the more apropos alt mode, not to mention the large boxy engines would have have served to hide a big boxy robot more naturally. Or the B-1 Lancer, for that matter, which has a design closer to the Concorde. Funny they didn't go with the latter option, as they weren't too concerned about licenses for all these vehicle modes back in the 80s, and the B-1B was the new hotness in American bombers, with the first B-1B arriving at Dyess in '85. A supersonic bomber leading the charge for the rest of the Aerialbots would have been pretty kickass.
  19. M'Kyuun
    FT seem to be known for their lackluster articulation, even among recent releases, which seems odd. I think they concentrate more on transformation engineering, and a lot of what they've been putting out seems overly complex. I watched Emgo's "Just transform it' vid, and there are a lot of moving parts involved, beggaring the question if all of them are absolutely necessary. I love what they did with sandwiching bits of the bot into the fuselage, moving the shoulders back, turning the arms into the engine nacelles. All of that is brilliant, and works towards the good of the alt mode. It's by far the best Silverbolt Concorde I've seen. I even like how the wings fold onto the legs, thus reducing the leg profile in jet mode, and I think the concession of using the forward parts of the wings to simulate the full wings, per the G1 model, is a forgivable concession. Overall, I see far more good about the design than bad. Despite its faults, I think it should serve as a template for every and any company producing a transforming aircraft with similar design traits to eliminate the bot under a plane syndrome that's become the standard for the last thirty-plus years. FT dared to do it differently, and the result was worth it, IMHO. I'm joining the club.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Scyla, HUGE thank you for that link. I can die happy now. 😍 That is how you do a proper Silverbolt, and any other aircraft of a similar profile. Serious and much deserved kudos to their engineers for making it all work and really doing the utmost to preserve the sleekness of the Concorde mode. I was vaguely aware that FT made a Superion, but as my interest in combiners is on the low end, generally moreso for the Aerialbots b/c of how butchered the plane modes usually turn out, I never paid attention when these things hit market. While it looks like a PITA to, ahem, convert😉, one can't argue with the end result: a very blocky G1 accurate Silverbolt that turns into a sleek Concorde where the vast majority of the bot is integrated into the plane, as it absolutely without question should be forever and always until the end of reality as we know it. Happy sigh. Unfortunately, I missed the boat when this guy was reasonably priced; $259 is the best price on ebay, plus $100 shipping. Too much. For now, I'm just ecstatic knowing this thing exists, and that it's possible. As for Dreamstar's Silverbolt, I agree. I'm doubting that those feet on their Superion are part of the leg bots; they look like ground servicing vehicles to me, which is apropos. I looked at pics of their fully combined Superion earlier, including a back shot, and it doesn't appear as though the leg bots attach to armatures, a la a number of Menasors out there, that extend from Silverbolt. SB is pretty much the head, torso and the thighs. I wish they'd taken inspiration from FT's Maverick, as I really dig the aesthetic they're going for, and a streamlined Concorde with that bot mode might've pushed me towards getting my first full Superion.
  21. M'Kyuun
    The rest of Dreamstar Toys' Aerialbots: Credit to Show.Z for pics. Wow- great shaping on that empennage! If only the Seekers looked so good. F-15 mode looks good from above, but loses some fidelity on that underside. Credit for accurately placing the mains, though. Funny that they're extended, but not the nose. Still, it's pretty flat, and worlds better than MP-52. No bot pics available on the site, and I couldn't find them anywhere else. Fairly clean underside. Again, the mains are positioned accurately, and are extended, but not the nose. No bot pics for this guy, either. IMHO, one of the most challenging fighters to craft into a transforming bot due to its small size and tubular shaping. This is a remarkable effort, probably the best I've seen in my many years of being a transforming robot fan. The mains look off on this one, but I hope I'm wrong. Love how clean that underside is, though. Even more impressive is that it becomes a relatively chunky bot without all that chunkiness turning the fighter into a cube, or an F-16 shaped hang glider. Def on my radar, Pun not intentional, but what the heck. The one disappointment out of the bunch. I was so vehemently hoping this would be as clean and integrated as the rest, but this Silverbolt joins a long roster of robots hanging out under a Concorde, or the odd SR-71. I know I'm gonna get an "I told ya so" from @mikeszekely, but I remain steadfast in my belief that a fully integrated transforming Concorde is possible where the plane itself forms the bot rather than a big block o'bot hanging out underneath. Not this time, sadly, but hopefully within my lifetime. I just want that one fleeting moment of vindication. Anyway, while I'm not interested in collecting them all, I like the design approach and aesthetic. It has Bayformer's complexity without the nonsensical and decidedly unrealistic placement and shaping of aircraft parts in bot mode. I'm strongly reminded of Sci-Figure Industries' Lumitent and Fiery Thunderbolt helicopter. I wouldn't be surprised if the same folks (TFC Toys) were doing these, too.
  22. M'Kyuun
    I don't want to discourage you from transforming him. It's a bit of work, though, both for the number steps, and due to how strongly some of the large planet panels lock together. There's effort involved. Set aside a few hours to take your time and go through it. The resulting bot is pretty cool to behold in person, and worth the effort, IMHO. Better than just looking at a big orange and blue basketball. Good luck!
  23. M'Kyuun
    I stand corrected on both counts. Yes. It's big, with very stiff ratchets throughout. If you've watched any vids, he's a bit involved to transform. I've only transformed him to robot mode, his having come in planet mode. I've thought about transforming him back to planet, but then I look at all those panels on his legs and think, 'another day'. Bot mode is my preferred mode for display, anyway, so the urge to go through another cycle of that transformation is fleeting. Did you have any other questions?
  24. M'Kyuun
    Agree with that aesthetic; I dig it. And too, a shame that they don't transform. Unfortunately, Hasbro keeps the transformation gimmick locked up and won't let any of their licensees try their hands at it. IMHO, it would make good business sense to allow it, as it diversifies your overall portfolio, and that particular gimmick is still an essential to many Transformers fans, myself included. Maybe they're afraid of being shown up. 😏Given what third parties have been up to for the last decade, it's a legitimate fear. Anyway, it wouldn't hurt my feelings if a third party copied the basic look and created fully transformable versions. I wouldn't mind a transforming Windblade in that style. Still waiting on Big Firebird's take. Their Arcee (Nicee) is a beautiful figure (looking at her on my shelf with a happy sigh). "Transform and roll out", not "Convert and roll out". The Convertors converted; Transformers transform. Been that way since 1984. I was there, and I had both. Still here! Still have both! I can't recall an instance when they said 'convert', rather than 'transform', to indicate changing form in the old show, or any TF show, since. They 'Maximized!' and 'Terrorized!' in Beast Wars, but that's a whole different ball of wax. Transformers transform; the name says it all, and the gimmick is why Hasbro purposefully chose the name, although they were initially worried some folks might think they were electrical transformers. Time and sales proved otherwise. The term 'transformer' has also taken prominence as the general term for any robot that changes shape here in the US. I build transforming mecha from LEGO and exhibit them at conventions. People don't ask if they convert, but if they transform. That's my experience. In Japan, they deform, as that's what henkei, Takara's chosen verb for transformation, translates to. 'The Deformers' just doesn't have the same ring, though, does it? Unless you're Transmutate.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Almost got me. I saw this in my email, but didn't see the smiley faces at the bottom, and I was readying my rebuttal. I was hoping you were being facetious, but one never knows with this fandom. A little levity is good, though.
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