Jump to content

M'Kyuun

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    5230

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by M'Kyuun

  1. 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?
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. M'Kyuun
    So Meteor's up in the air, I gather.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Nice pics, Kuma. I lament that I didn't get all three of the original Seekers when these initially came out. I waited and managed to score a copy of Skycrow(Skywarp), and I have Meteor(Starscream) PO'd, along with their version of Thrust, but I'm wondering if either of these is going to come to fruition. I've been waiting on Thrust for over a year. Anyway, I prefer these figs to Takara's latest MP, and continue to hope Maketoys will come through.
  10. M'Kyuun
    Except I have the toys and bad memories, like some form of entertainment PTSD, to remind me otherwise. Moreover, I have a hard time seeing the Bumblebee Movie as anything other than a prequel to the '07 film, albeit with a few nods to G1 courtesy of Travis Knight. Otherwise, the look of the Cybertronians still leans well into the Bay aesthetic, Bee still has his stupid mute-speaking through the radio schtick, he's treated more like a dog than an intelligent being on par with Charlie with his 'humorous' antics despite being shown as a competent warrior in the opening scene, and the waffling comments by Lorenzo Di Bonaventura concerning whether it was stand-alone or prequel. It was obviously intended to be a straight-up prequel, but with The Last Knight performing poorly, Knight was able to make some changes, like the opening Cybertronian scene, to separate it a little from bayformers. But too much of the Bayformers influence remains to erase the original intention of the film. The redeeming quality of the movie is that it has heart, you feel for these characters, the Cybertronians are treated as characters rather than props, and it has a coherent story that even a kid can follow from start to finish. in short, it proved that the G1 look could work for the eponymous characters, it doesn't have to be convoluted to tell a good story, and if you let someone who's a Transformers fan direct, the film will be the better for it.
  11. M'Kyuun
    To be fair, I don't think Bay is solely responsible for what characters did and didn't appear in his films, as I highly doubt he knew any of the characters well enough to pick and choose. Rather, I'm inclined to think that task fell on the scriptwriters' shoulders, and Bay worked loosely off the scripts, interjecting his own special brand of lewd and puerile humor, frenetic shooting style, lack of cohesive storytelling, and obdurate indifference to what made Transformers good in the first place. While the Bay films continue to have their defenders, I'm heartened to see any number of younger folks on Twitter and TF forums who've discovered and enjoy G1, some esteeming it better than the Bay films. There's hope yet for the future.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Me too! "Worst gunner ever" Good stuff.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Well, from Hasbro's POV, the Bay films made them truckloads of money, likely more than they've ever seen from any other property, and they know there are still fans, so from a business stance I can understand their reluctance to move away from it entirely. Instead, I think it'll be a far more gradual distancing as the fandom dies down, and we'll get more stuff like Bumblebee, where we see slight changes to the aesthetic to bring the characters closer to G1, in that particular case. But the transformations will likely still be CG artists' inventions with no mechanical sense to them whatsoever, not to mention a different transformation every time for the same character. How they accomplish the beast modes for the new film, or even how they're approaching the animal aesthetic, remains to be seen. Since they hired the same effects people who worked on the live-action Lion King, I think it's fairly safe to assume that the beast characters will look like natural animals, otherwise, what's the point? I make no bones about how much I absolutely abhor the Bay films. In my estimation, Bay should have been dropped from consideration the moment he told the producers he had no background with Transformers. I think the films prove that point succinctly. Moreover his brand of humor wasn't a good fit either, IMHO. However, I'm aware that, sadly, the Bay films are the G1 for kids born in the late 90's onward, so their nostalgia is going to be stronger for those films than any other continuity in the franchise. My hope is that those kids grow up and discover what came before, and even if they'll never develop the same attachment that Geewunners have, they'll recognize things in those old stories that ring truer than anything that Bay did. As for the present, and this beast-centric film, I can only hope that the director is a huge Beast Wars fan, and that at least some of the heart and humor of that show makes it into the film. Garry Chalk, Scott McNeil, and David Kaye reprising their roles would be a huge boon to the film, too. Yeeesss.
  14. M'Kyuun
    This. As long as they become anything else but people, I'm happy. The Pretenders was a dumb idea dreamt up by Hasbro b/c they'd parted ways with Takara, and at the time, couldn't figure out how to make a toy transform the way their Japanese counterparts could. But they could figure out how to put a robot in a gummy plastic shell. Let's just stick to non-human alt modes, otherwise, as Thom says, it's just Terminator. I don't recall their ever saying exactly how the BW characters were able to synthesize the necessary organics to achieve their beast modes, or at least the organic coatings that somehow merge when they transform. It was pure sci-fi magic, and when I watched it, I never felt I needed a plausible explanation. Just like I don't need to know how a tractor beam works, FTL engines, lightsabers, or the transporters in Star Trek. They just do, and I can accept it in the context of sci-fi, esp if the story around said sci-fi gadgets and tropes is a good one.
  15. M'Kyuun
    That looks pretty decent, and it'll be the first time, AFAIK, that they've ever released this version of Bee. Shame that half his car mode is on his back and he has a faux chest. Alas, that's become the unimaginative solution for a lot of TF figs over the last few years, and will remain so so long as Hasbro keeps its iron grip on the direction of the franchise. I wonder if Takara would have done it differently, given their design it first, assign price later approach. Anyway, glad we're finally getting this version, warts and all. A Batmobile Transformer would have been awesome. I always thought Animated Lockdown, Animated Blurr, or the Prime Vehicon would make for nice Batman crossovers. Apparently, I'm not alone: Oh, and yeah, and Earth mode Hound would be nice. Classics Hound is still one of my all-time favorite toys, though, and it was so well done that in my mind, it's still the toy to beat in mainline. A simple retool of Siege ain't gonna cut it, but that's what we'll get, no doubt double packed with a Beast Wars repaint on Amazon, if they do make an Earth version.
  16. M'Kyuun
    Something like that, but more along the lines of a solar flare for Awake, IIRC. Back OT, I'm hoping they'll reveal the art direction for the beasties in the new movie, as that'll give us a hint as to how the toys may turn out. My guess is they'll follow a similar design path as Beast Machines with streamlined, techno-organic beast modes that inform the bot modes. If they went a more Zoids-like look with the beast modes, I'd dig it from a toy perspective, as I love the Zoids aesthetic, but it's not right for a Beast Wars homage. More worrying, however, is how they write and present these characters, as Beast Wars was full of cheeky humor that worked great for the cartoon, but might not translate to live action, and really, that was a huge part of the show's charm. My earned cynicism with Hollywood's homages and their constant need to stray from what made the original subject great makes me wary of this film. Fortunately, I'll always have BW and BM on DVD to assuage my sorrow and disappointment. Personally, if I had to introduce these characters into a modern world already populated by Cybertronians who have taken on alt modes resembling human machines, I'd approach it in a similar manner as to how the Insecticons were introduced in the G1 toon, living for millennia apart from humans, having taken on forms based on the wildlife and adapting to feed on organic materials. Having had only their small group for company for such a vast period of time, they'd be socially awkward around these younger Cybertronians who've since arrived on Earth, who don't use organic materials for fuel, and who have forged a relationship with the indigenous population. There's a lot of room for character development in a setup such as this, and to see the modern world through the eyes of these 'old souls' who've lived in harmony with nature for untold centuries since the dawn of humanity, who they assiduously avoided, would offer a different perspective that we haven't seen since the old Beast Wars toon.
  17. M'Kyuun
    So would I. That's incredibly well done.
  18. M'Kyuun
  19. M'Kyuun
    None of the Bay films make it on my 'good' list- foreign dog crap on my lawn has more value, as it at least serves a nutritional factor for the grass. Bay's Transformers films are empty spectacle devoid of passion or knowledge of the subject matter, whose only positive is that they make the featured cars look good. Bay started out as a commercial director, and that's how scenes of cars and women feel- like they're products to be salivated over. I continue to question his selection to direct movies based on a franchise for which he had absolutely no association. It certainly shows. I wish they'd tapped Travis Knight from the beginning, as I think the trajectory and content of the films would have been radically different, and based on Bumblebee, and the juggling he had to do between making it a prequel and a stand-alone as the producers waffled, far, far better than any of the soulless Bay films. As it stands, it's both prequal and semi-stand-alone, as the Bayverse elements are unfortunately inescapable. I fear the same will happen with Rise of the Beasts, as Hasbro seems reluctant to let go, and Bumblebee's success emboldened them (IMHO, the Bee Movie was successful not b/c of it's Baylike qualities, but for stuff that eschews everything 'Bay' like the Cybertronian scenes and the heart put into it by the actors/writers and director). Not sure if Hasbro sees it that way, but as long as they can milk the Bayformer teat, they're gonna try to drain it dry. More's the pity for those of us who've been in it since 1984 and love the true premise and characters that started the whole thing. As an aside, I have seen Awake on Netflix, and it was a decent sci-fi pandemic film where people lose the ability to sleep, with very rare exceptions, and the resulting mental decline creates havoc and terror as only humans are capable. Good performance by Gina Rodriguez as a mom trying to keep her kids safe.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Dismayed that it's still being tied to the abysmal Bayverse, at least by timeline, although I suspect it'll share more ties, just as Bumblebee did. I was hoping that the new spate of films would break entirely from Bayverse to establish their own look and feel, but I get the sense that Hasbro's playing it safe by keeping everything live action anchored by some degree to the Bay films. For the record, I liked Bumblebee; it's the only live action TF movie that I like, that I even consider watchable, but it's not without its flaws, and ultimately, it still shares a lot of aesthetics with Bayverse, especially Bee's face. But it was a step in the right direction so far as taking more care to treat the Transformer characters as such rather than just one dimensional props. As a Beast Wars fan, I'm quite wary as to how they're going to take these characters that existed in a time period long before modern humans and only had interactions amongst themselves, mostly, and put them in a modern day setting. Are they going to be much smaller so that they needn't mass shift when transforming? What will be the purpose for their having taken on beast modes, especially if said modes aren't organic in nature, with the purpose of protecting them from some environmental factor that can harm them otherwise? Having them be obviously robotic creatures appeals to me, but it beggars the question of why when there's no apparent reason to do so, and it doesn't exactly work as a disguise. However, they may just recycle the reasoning for the Dinobots' construction by the Autobots in the toon as a way to build up their ranks with stronger warriors against the Decepticon threat. I could buy that, but I would hope there'd be a little deeper reasoning than just that. Anyway, I'm finding it difficult to be excited about this, especially when they're already linking it to Bayverse.
  21. M'Kyuun
    Just got back from seeing it (in the theater, finally!), and I thought it was just as good as the first one.
  22. M'Kyuun
    That you did him a solid by getting him a copy early is commendable, man. And you can't be held responsible for factory mistakes. Hopefully Hasbro's on top of it and getting it corrected for future copies (like mine).
  23. M'Kyuun
    Great review, Mike. You're totally on point with your observation that the bot mode gun mount would have served the cannon mode far better if it was tucked up by the crotch. I saw a solution on Twitter using several of Nonnef's 5mm port adapters, albeit with one sanded down to fit the screw hole in the crotch, that allows for that piece to tuck away nicely. Unfortunately, I can't find it now to link it. My copy of Galvatron is PO'd with Pulse, so hopefully mine will benefit from the updated shoulder fix, as Pulse seems to take longer to get stuff out, even when it's already appearing in brick and mortar stores. While I still like the TR version, it has some compromises, and this one was certainly designed to more closely fit the G1 toon model. I had initial reservations, but had to concede, after a vid review or two, that it was a decent fig, with some minor flaws. I do wish instead of having his feet rotate down out of the legs as they do in cannon mode, he would have had the more handle-esque support bar like the OG toy and the TR fig, via its tacked on third mode's cockpit. All things considered, it's arguably the best official Galvatron toy to date, and I'll be happy to pair him up with the exquisite Cyclonus and very good Scourge as you did.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I wasn't thinking of that, but now that you mention it... Pretty darn cool how that thing retracts into the fuselage. Little safer than being a door gunner. Next thing you know, they'll be equipping this thing with a 105mm cannon like the gunships carry. Not sure if the Osprey could handle the recoil from that thing, though. The 40mm cannon would probably be ok. Nothing like mounting artillery on a hovering platform.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Oh, I have a couple Bayverse Bees- I just don't have any BumbleBee Movie Bee figs. I like the design, but I just never felt compelled to bring it home. I think the Bee Movie Prime fig was pretty well done, and I really like Dropkick, but then I've been a helo fan since my preteen years, so getting an official AH-1 Transformer was a delightful surprise. I like the transformation engineering on that one. Not for everyone, but I dig it. Kinda like Maverick: an F-14 with a wickedly similar transformation as the venerable VF-1. Pretty cool, and I hope it galls HG to no end.
×
×
  • Create New...