Jump to content

M'Kyuun

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    4771

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Everything posted by M'Kyuun

  1. M'Kyuun
    Well, you're not wrong. I didn't care for it back then either, but b/c I didn't know anything different, I was was far more accepting. And, it's not like we really had anything much better to compare to. I think we were spoiled throughout the early to mid 2000s, as most TF toys in the mainline had 'perfect transformation'. Articulation was usually dicey, though. I'm not sure why there has to be a tradeoff. If anything, we should see an evolution in design moving away from all the 'undesirable' traits of toy design in the past. I think they call it 'progress'. That would be my goal as a designer; to eschew and improve upon what has already been done. As someone who has been a fan of toys, transforming robots in particular, I would always be trying to create the ideal versions of these things. I've tried to do so with my LEGO Macross MOCs. My VF-4 has shoulder rotation and some limited butterfly motion at the shoulder because it makes no sense to me to have the shoulders stationary on a combat machine. It also has waist rotation.. My VB-6 has waist rotation and ankle tilts, as well as retractable gear in shuttle mode. In short, I tried to impart a few little improvements that never appeared on the official toys. That's the sort of progress I'd like to see in the main line. But, Hasbro's all about 'budget first', whereas Takara seemed to try to make the best toy they could and consider pricing afterwards. But Hasbro's in the driver's seat these days, with a firm hand on the franchise. Don't get me wrong, I think the majority of the WFC has been pretty good, even back to TR and PotP. We got a lot of G1 love from these lines, and I'm extremely grateful. But stuff like ER Arcee and Ironhide, and even Cliffjumper/Bee just shouldn't happen these days with all the advancements. It's jarring when you put Arcee next to Sideswipe, Wheeljack, or the Datsun Bros. It's like two different companies designed them- one that's competent, and one that's not. Anyway, I've ranted about this too much. It's obviously the direction they're taking, sadly, with more frequency. I'll take what enjoyment I can.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Been too many years since I watched the original show, so I'd forgotten about the skull plate. The wrist communicator- that was the hotness in the 80's; today he'd probably have a Bluetooth in his ear at all times. In my head version, Michael's comm gear would be built-in. Funny they never sprayed the bullet-proof stuff on Michael's leather jacket. IIRC, in the original pilot, KITT was made from some super-alloy. Later in the series, they just sprayed the super sauce on whatever to make it indestructible. I believe that's how they made Goliath indestructible. Then we got KITT 2.0 with his super pursuit mode (which looked like ass, IMHO). YMMV The real question is, what kind of car would KITT be in the future, as the Pontiac Trans Am is a bit of an anachronism by today's standards. There are a few cool concepts on the interwebs. The more I give thought to a possible film, I think I'd like to see Chris Nolan's take on it.
  3. M'Kyuun
    I hope it's not more exclusives; I still haven't been able to get the Target Seeker two-pack, or ER Soundwave from Walmart. I set up to receive notifications of availability, and I've heard nary a peep from either retailer. It irritates me to no end that these are main characters, rather than side characters. Anyway, I'm hoping once September comes, which seems to be the street date for Target, maybe availability will improve. Thanks for posting that, Mike. I'll have to see if I can catch 'em when they broadcast. So I watched the review of ER Ironhide and Prowl. Pretty egregious use of parts-forming for Ironhide; it's not as bad as Arcee, but the entire roof, along with side front windows, pops off to become a giant riot shield that I somehow don't recall ever being a salient feature of IH's character, like ever. As another poster, either here or on the TFW boards mentioned (IDR), I'd rather they'd at least made an effort to turn that into his battle sled, a la the G1 toy. As Prime vs Prime said in his review, ER Ironhide would have been better served with his own mold, rather than this clumsy reuse of the Siege mold. I guess HasTak have just given up on putting effort into these things and parts-forming is ever more the way forward. Making weapons parts form is one thing, but whole chunks of vehicle is just unacceptable. What if you lose one of those chunks?; You can never transform your figure again completely. It's anathema to the point of these toys. It's already a chore to even try and find Transformers anymore, be it online or in stores. They complicate the scarcity and the benefit to scalpers with their exclusivity shenanigans, thus eroding the joy of trying to complete a collection. Once they give up on the transformations altogether and just make them all shell formers like Arcee, I think I'll call it quits on Hasbro. Hopefully third party will rise to the occasion.
  4. M'Kyuun
    I never wanted my figs to look like they did in the cartoon, per se; rather, I wanted them to have the articulation, first and foremost, and maybe share some of the idealized anthropomorphism while keeping all the real world elements of their alt modes, as well as other molded details in their bot modes. I think that's the look Hasui-san was aiming to capture when he was running the line, and I was good with it. In the toon, the bots were always drawn misshapenly, disproportionately, inconsistently, plainly, and often with all sorts of other errors that make using those images as a basis for a premium line a terrible idea, and it amazes me how many people embrace it. I believe the last G1 MP I bought was Sunstreaker. Since then, every subsequent release has had elements of its design that I just didn't care for, and I've turned to third party to get figs much closer to what I want in the MP line. The CAD for Starscream isn't alleviating my disenchantment with Takara's design philosophy, and I'm hoping Maketoys will rerelease Meteor and Lightning. I just have a feeling that MP V3 Screamer is going to be $200+ of disappointment.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Honestly, I always thought the original concept was lacking in that you had this marvelous feat of technology driven by an ordinary man, if you can call the Hoff ordinary. I'd love to see the concept reimagined in a more Cyberpunk setting, where not only the car is highly modified, but also the driver, similar to Jensen from the Deus Ex games. Maybe not as extensively modified as that, but certainly with some enhancements that give him some advantages over the majority of bad guys. Or go full cyborg. Either way, make it clear that that level of technology is rather restricted, and that while many people have implants, most of them innocuous, at this point in time, Michael Knight is a bit of a singularity for all his capabilities. And give the writing more gravitas and dial down the cringeworthy cheese. A good writer can instill humor without resorting to cheesiness.
  6. M'Kyuun
    Indeed. I don't get it.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Logically, one would think a toy company would instantly discount a poorly animated show from the Eighties due to its gross inconsistencies and errors throughout, and instead produce official base models to work from for the sake of consistency. Guess Takara, and Hasbro by extension, haven't figured that out yet. I wish they'd get over their toon centric kick, at least in the MP line. I dig all the detail they're putting into the WFC line. Nice to know they still know how.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Well, even in the Bumblebee Movie, he essentially had two personalities; in the opening on Cybertron, he's a brash, mature, and competent warrior; thanks to plotting, he conveniently experiences amnesia, and becomes a meek, childlike, emotionally needy bot who only resumes his former personality when he's fighting. I realize Travis Knight wanted to make him accessible to audiences as a buddy character, but I think they handled that relationship far better in the characterization and dialog of G1 first season between Spike and Bee (and Hound) without condescending to making the Autobots meek and puerile in Spike's presence. Spike himself was portrayed with more gravitas, considering he was a teenager. Then again, he was working with his father on an oil rig, which is no place for incompetence. I think rendering Bee mute throughout nearly the entire movie also helps to dissociate his actual maturity. Too, the slapstick living room and beach scenes don't help. I find it difficult to associate the Bee from the movie's first few minutes to the Bee we see in these and other scenes where Bee is portrayed in a more clownish light. I will forever harbor a grain of disdain for Orci and Kurtzman for their galactically stupid idea of making Bumblebee mute; it seems to have become the favored method of portraying him for no good reason. It's annoying and pointless, and speaking via the radio even more so. That Yolopark hyperarticulated Bee Movie Prime is crazy expensive, especially for a non-transforming figure. No interest here, but if you've got the disposable income, and it floats your boat, more power to ya.
  9. M'Kyuun
    Great review, Mike. One correction: JBO mentioned the lack of the verniers on the nose, not me. I acknowledged all the molded detail, much of it stylized (for instance, SL has a hatch on both sides, whereas the actual orbiter only has one on the port side), as well as the inaccurate OMS pod shaping. But, at least it has the suggestion of OMS pods. With scalloped leading edges, misshapen OMS pods, and huge grey hinges interrupting the blended wing, the obvious departures from real world accuracy spoil any attempt at believability. That said, I don't think Takara was under any illusion either, in spite of using the official NASA logo, and just went for it when designing all the sculpted details. I think the toy is better for it. I have been a fan of Sky Lynx neither as a character nor a toy since the 80's. He just never really appealed to me. But this toy does so much right. I've never paid attention to third party Sky Lynxes, so to my eyes, this is the best version of him. Or at least the best official version. I'm looking forward to getting him.
  10. M'Kyuun
    HasTak did a lovely job with Sky Lynx. The only real improvement I would have liked is for the toes on his bird feet to be able to spread out. It would have helped with posing and balance, not to mention it would have looked more natural. They took a bit of license with the shuttle mode, but it's still recognizable as such, and I like the sheer amount of detail they put into it, even if all the details aren't real world accurate. By all accounts, it's a good figure in hand, and I'm patiently waiting for my PO to be fulfilled.
  11. M'Kyuun
    I've got a copy PO'd with Target, but if ER prime is any indication, they probably street dated it for 1 Sept. Toy Galaxy pretty much summed up my frustration with buying toys these days. Rated R for language.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Man, I forgot about the soundtrack for the '86 film. Definitely a high point, especially "Dare" and "The Touch", not to mention all of Vince DiCola's background music, the awesomeness of which has faded nary one iota in all these years. Great stuff! Prime and Animated also took the animation style in different directions, and the toys were pretty sweet as well. Both broke the mold, so to speak, and enriched the franchise in different ways. Very good ways, IMHO. After they're done with WFC: ER and Kingdom, I hope they make another departure from the 'norm'.
  13. M'Kyuun
    I disagree with the '86 film being the best; even when I saw it as a kid, there were any number of things I didn't care for, and still don't, about it. Overall, I enjoy it, and there are any number of remarkable things that came out of it, too. The most noteworthy things are the verbal exchange and fight between OP and Megs, which has been quoted ad nauseum ever since, Unicron (in a world of transforming robots, what can possibly outcool a transforming planet that eats other planets for energy? ), the world-building, the introduction of Cyclonus (biased- love his design), "Soundwave superior", and other funny moments like this. I never cared for the Quintessons- they were so out of left field, and without any prehistory, they just didn't seem to fit. However, the whole mock trial was intriguing, and gave us a cool action scene with Kup and Hot Rod taking on the Sharkticons. Slag''s "'Scuse me" towards the end of the Quint scene still makes me chuckle. On the whole, I still think Beast Wars is one of the best Transformer shows. They did a brilliant job of character building, the VAs gave phenomenal performances, and the dialog was generally very well done throughout. Too, most eps are just enjoyable for what they are. And Dinobot's last episode still brings a tear. Personally, I'd rather my bots turn into vehicles or mechanisms of some sort, but alt modes aside, everything else about BW was top notch, and unless Hasbro feels like taking another big leap into the unknown, I doubt we'll ever see anything like it again. Transformers: Prime, written by Kurtzman and Orci, the scribes for Bay's abysmally loathsome films, turned out to be an excellent show, despite my initial prejudice b/c of of who was writing it. Eventually, I began watching more eps, and found that, while they did keep annoying traits like Bee's inability to talk, and Prime's oft pedantic delivery, and annoying humans (Miko), overall, the show was great. Animated was a love letter to G1, but in many ways, to me anyway, better, in most regards. I never cared for the G1 cartoon beyond first season, and as I said, there are things about the '86 film that just didn't grab me either. But, everyone likes what they like. I'm just glad that Transformers as a brand is still relevant 35 years on. It's such a great concept- the whole puzzle aspect, with two toys-in-one (sometimes more). Marry that to good character and world-building, a cool backstory, and you've got a winning combination.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Good points; lots of history in the brand at this point, so there are lots of options for them to cherry pick. Just binge watched the series, and overall, I liked it. It's got a good story that mixes in all sorts of references, I like how they portrayed the characters (I'm trying very hard to divorce it in my mind from G1 and let it be its own thing), and I like the gritty feel of it. I haven't watched Cyberverse or the Machinima series, so, other than the WFC game, this is the most action I've seen taking place on Cybertron prior to their leaving for Earth. It followed the basic G1 story, but fleshed it out quite a bit, too. I do kinda wish they'd adhered to the G1 backstory for Starscream and Jetfire as scientists. I always liked that. The only negatives I have are the stilted dialog deliveries, and the forced enunciation, both of which sound un-natural. The VA for Prime was most notorious for it throughout, but a few others did likewise, and I have to assume that was the voice direction they were given. Personally, I'd prefer more natural speech. Anyway, it was an overall enjoyable series, and I'm looking forward to Earthrise.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Now that we're full circle and we have both crew and capsule back, the way forward is looking very promising. I wonder how many other countries, in light of the successful amalgamation of government and private resources brought to bear, will follow our lead. It's really a shame that ideological, political, and theological differences divide us globally, as it's rather daunting to think what we as a united people could accomplish. Alas, I'm proud to see that NASA logo on this ship.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I hadn't noticed the LE hinges until I went back and reread some the latest posts with full attention. I don't see how they're going to hide those, unless they act as clips for the underside part of the wing, and fold away in jet mode. Still, even if that's what's happening, there needs to be a recess or a tab somewhere on the upper LE for it to latch on to. Either way, the LE is spoiled, figuratively and aerodynamically. Like Chronocidal said, it's a livable solution just to have the tail booms fold up onto the back, and have the stabs fold accordingly for flatter stowage. It's not the prettiest, but it gets the job done without compromising the look of any of the other structures. This looks like another case of overengineering for the sake of it. I really hope that's not a fake cockpit; there's absolutely no reason for it. I can live with it for a character like Sunstreaker, where the dimensions of the windshield vary greatly between car and bot modes, and the concession offers a better version of each. But the Seeker design, like so many of Kawamori's variable jet designs, is built around the entirety of the plane becoming the robot, and if companies like Maketoys and New Age can pull it off without resorting to fakery, Takara should be able to do likewise. I feel my cautious enthusiasm for this slowly ebbing away.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Looks promising. So is Cartoon Network actually going to broadcast it, or are you going to have to pay for a subscription to Crunchyroll to watch it? CN don't have the best record when it comes to animation.
  18. M'Kyuun
    That would be an elegant solution that, in my mind, would eliminate the need for a voluminous backpack. From the CAD, I don't think that's the direction they took. I'm thinking stuff sandwiched under more stuff, with even more stuff sandwiched under that. It's the Takara way. Digressing from Starscream, I took a cue from @mikeszekely and did some customizing of my Earthrise Prime. Instead of the Toyhax labels, which I'm still deciding whether I'm going to get, I opted to spray OP and his maintenance droid, and hand paint the rest of the details. I took Op for a roadtrip to Hobbytown, where I and a couple associates tried to eyeball match the color to ER Prime's hands. We settled on Tamiya TS-51 Racing Blue, which in reality is a smidge darker than the color used by Takara. Had I to do it over, I'd probably go with Pearl Blue, as it looked a little lighter. However, it's pretty darn close, so I'm not losing any sleep over it. It has a nice metallic sheen to it, and for the most part, despite my lack of experience spray painting, I managed to do a fair job on it. However, close inspection will reveal areas that got a lighter spray, and there are a few droplet marks on the bottom of one of the legs and feet. I sprayed some paint into the cap and did a little touch up by hand, but it pales in comparison to handiwork of many our fellow members. I ended up painting the canopy on the maintenance droid twice, as the acrylic mixture I was using wasn't laying down very smoothly, and after I finally had it where it was satisfactory, my hand accidentally brushed up against it and made a slight ripple. I made a valiant effort to fix it, but it was beyond helping. So I wiped it off, made a new mixture, using two different paints, and tried again. the result is what you see in the pic. It's still not as nice as a spray job, but it's the best I could do by hand. Fortunately, if I do end up getting the Toyhax labels, the acrylic paint wipes off fairly easily with a wet rag. I generally don't bother customizing my Transformers, but I felt that this figure could really benefit from it, especially after seeing Mike's and another custom on the TFW boards. This definitely entailed the most masking I've ever done for anything. It was an exercise in deliberate tedium, but I believed the end result would justify the labor, and it did. I wish my painting skills were better, but I gave it my best effort, and while it's not as crisp as I'd like, it looks better now than it did before my labors. I have to live with the mistakes, but I'm pretty sure I won't be losing sleep over it. Anyway, I thought I'd share a couple pics.
  19. M'Kyuun
    It'll be nice when Takara gives us proto shots as well as a couple different views of the alt mode to kinda see what's going where, and how much of this guy's alt is going to end up on his back. I forget who mentioned it (sorry, but thanks for the observation) that both sets of stabilizers are part of the backpack in order to clean up the legs. That's fine I guess, if they can compress them down. Still, as I pointed out, ole Screamer's looking a bit thick from back to front, with a fair bit of backpack, that extends below his crotch (don't like that), and a beer gut courtesy of his protruding canopy. I would think they can do better, but, again, a drawing doesn't equal a working prototype so far as visual appeal. It may look fantastic. I hope so. Looking at the arms, it does look like there are linkages on the null rays. If they just swing into place without being removed, I'm all the happier for it. Perfect transformation, baby!
  20. M'Kyuun
    Yep, the Fallout games have been doing this at least since Fallout 3 (never played the originals), offering multiple endings based on player choices. I assume this will do something similar, albeit in a more limited form (how many choices can they offer in a 1.5-2 hr film? There has to be some linearity to the story for cohesion). It's an interesting way to present the story, though. I'm willing to give it a watch. I've long felt that DC do a far better job with their animation than Marvel. DC tend to tell grittier stories, I think. All the way back from B:TAS, to Justice League, I thought they did a great job with writing the characters, choosing really good VAs (and VA directors- Cheers, Andrea Romano!), and addressing the not-always sunny interpersonal relationships between the characters. It made for really compelling storytelling that found an audience with adults as well as kids, a mean feat back in the 80's and 90's when it wasn't cool to be 'nerdy', and especially not cool to be an adult indulging in such things as toons and toys. I was flipping the bird to convention even then. I'm proud of my nerd cred!
  21. M'Kyuun
    Honestly, given that articulation , as well as toony smoothness, top the requisite list for Takara's MP line, I wouldn't be concerned about waist swivel or ab crunch, or knees and elbows capable of bending well beyond 90 degrees. While I'm not a big fan of the absolute Sunbow aesthetic, I absolutely love and laud the new direction Takara has taken in regards to articulation in the MP line. Growing up with TFs that had no articulation below the waist, and often minimal articulation above, articulation, or the lack thereof, has long been one of my major peeves with Transformer toys. Although I've been steadily moving away from official MP figures for the last few releases, it's the one positive that I can point to consistently. It seems to come at a price though, as concessions to sculpt are made to allow for buttefly joints and such. I'll reserve actual judgement once we have a fully colored prototype to gawk at. I really want this to be a good figure. I have holes in my collection begging to be filled, and it has been awhile since I last bought an official MP toy. Already, many of the issues with the first two versions have been addressed, especially the fuselage/head sitting too high in relation to the intake ramps in bot mode. I hated that about MP3/11. So, now it's just a matter of waiting until Takara decides to tease us with some actual proto shots. I'm being cautiously optimistic about this one.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Likewise. They took a few liberties with The Killing Joke that had folks up in arms, and changed the identities of the antagonists in Gotham by Gaslight and Hush. The latter bugged me, as I was pretty excited for Hush. It was still a good movie, overall, but changing Hush's identity just didn't sit right with me. I guess they did it to keep it fresh for the fans? I would have preferred they stuck to the comic as-is. I think the same sentiment applied for most fans of Killing Joke. Anyway, I've never been much of a comic collector, but for some reason, IIRC, I bought an edition of Death in the Family. I have no idea where it is now, as over the years, as most folks do, I've accumulated a lot of stuff, much of which is boxed up and secreted away in every available nook and cranny of my little house. I have a whole box of Iron Man comics, and it's likely packed with them. I digress. DitF is the only Batman story with which I have a connection through the comics, so I'm looking forward to seeing how it turns out. I liked how they spun Jason's story in Batman: The Arkham Knight. Honestly, though, they already told Jason's story in Under the Red Hood. The difference here is that, like the original comic, they're giving the option to the viewer, interactively (Jason Todd's fate in the original comic was decided by a telephone voting system), to decide Jason's fate. Kind of a neat throwback, I guess. It's an interesting way to present material that's generally linear; now you can watch it multiple times making different choices.
  23. M'Kyuun
    Full sketches of MP Starscream V3, thanks to Transformers Never Die on FB.. He's looking pretty thick from front to back; his intake ramps are completely behind his head, and his cockpit canopy extends out like a beer gut. The trapezoids on his shins are flat and too wide. (I hope at least they'll include optional shin thrusters). There's a lot going on on his back, so it's tough to make out, but par for the course with recent MP figures, he's got a MT. Everest summit-worthy backpack. I was hoping this would rival the Maketoys, as I only have Skycrow, and was holding out to see if Takara would make a new Seeker. Well, they have, and I've got a bad feeling....
  24. M'Kyuun
    Nope, those are light trans-blue 2x2 slopes, PN 3039. They've been showing up in a quite a few sets over the past few years.
  25. M'Kyuun
    At least he has plates, and tail spikes, even if they're not asymmetrical. Here's a colored shot. Fortunately, those colors aren't final. I like the colors they used for the longnecks, especially the Brachiosaur. Some tan and dark green would look nice. Back plate arrangement notwithstanding, I like the overall sculpt, especially the neck and head. I was afraid it might be more like Snarl, with the head just tacked onto the body. The legs look like they're single piece units with no articulation. That's my pet peeve. I hope it at least has the ball jointed ankles like their Triceratops, but it doesn't look like it.
×
×
  • Create New...