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M'Kyuun

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Everything posted by M'Kyuun

  1. M'Kyuun
    I was watching Jang give his opinions on the sets, as he has a keen eye, and often points out things that I may have missed. Looking at the Bat Mobile Base (the tractor-trailer), he drew a nice allusion to the old Highwayman and Street Hawk shows, both of which I watched as a kid. I'm not sure if it was intentional on the part of the designers, but a case can be made at least for similarities to the Highwayman. Ah, the Eighties. Thanks. Yeah, I'm always on the lookout for trans-yellow. Sadly, they didn't follow suit with the canopy on the cockpit for the Bat-buggy thing that comes with the Joker trike. I initially thought the Bat-buggy was the Arkham Knight Batmobile, but sadly, upon closer inspection, it's not, darn it! I do like how they used the canopy piece, in black for the first time, as fenders and the engine cover at the rear. Great use of that part. It would have been a cooler feature if that lifted to reveal a rocket thruster in the back. Missed opportunity. Looking forward to getting both of these Bat-tastic sets. Oh, and there are two additional capes for Batman in the Bat Mobile Base- the stock cape, a new 'flying cape' (looks like McGuiness' cape from Batman Beyond), and a cape where the bottom scallops curve to one side a little to give a 'swoosh' appearance. Nice to have those options after having the same basic cape since 2006. And, hopefully we'll get some Batman Beyond sets in the latter part of the year.
  2. M'Kyuun
    The best thing they said in there is that it's apart from the Bay films; hopefully that is an all-encompassing statement. The G1 cartoon, IIRC, gave snippets of the OP/Megatron origins. I definitely remember there being an Orion Pax story. Kinda curious how they're going to approach it, and from what continuity, if indeed they base it on a prior story.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Sucks to have catastrophic failure in the middle of a demo; kudos to the guy for just pressing on as if nothing had happened. Sorta looks and sounds like Dick Cavett; no wonder he quit toy demos to be a talk show host; people usually don't suddenly snap in half when you're talking to them. Never was a fan of the Hovertank; looked like a flying brick to me. It's even more egregiously bad after seeing the beautiful VF-1 doing its thing.
  4. M'Kyuun
    I'm down for that Bat tractor-trailer, which echoes the trucks from previous Agents sets. Not a bad thing, IMO. There are a few mecha in the upcoming Ninjago line that appeal, especially the bull mech and the rhino mech (don't recall the set names offhand). The Fire-Stone mech looks interesting, too. At first I thought maybe they finally made a new hip joint, but frustratingly, no; they're still using the old AT-AT leg joint. They made a new lightsaber hilt with an elongated center section that will fit in a 1x2 plate with clips, with a bar receptacle at either end. I've been wanting a part like that for a long time, so I'm glad they finally made it. Too, the Bat tractor-trailer comes with the 8x6 bubble canopy and the large windscreen in trans-yellow. That'll make Classic Space fans happy. There's a Helicarrier playset coming, too, but it's pretty disappointing. The UCS Helicarrier, which I passed on, was done accurately, but at micro-scale, just didn't appeal. I was hoping for a Helicarrier done the same way the Star Wars capital ships are done, but this thing looks like a shoebox with wings attached. Screen accuracy was discarded in favor of a working mechanism to rotate the four fan blades, which sit well above the wings, rather than being enshrouded within, and look awkward. Not the best. There's a small ship that comes with it, but it sure doesn't look like a Quinjet. I would have loved a chibi Quinjet, especially after building the little TIE Fighters in the Death Star and Vader's Castle, and the sweet little Slave I in the Bespin Playset. Yeah, I'm bummed. I'll probably get it anyway, but there may needs be some modding involved to make it gooder.
  5. M'Kyuun
    I'm 48, and grew up watching Looney Tunes. As a teenager, the satire and self awareness of the humor began to dawn on me. Even in the late 70's, early 80's, some of the stuff in there had no relevance to me (parodies of Cagney, Lorre, Bogart, and other stars of the 40's and 50's). My folks weren't movie watchers, so none of these people were known to me as a kid. It wasn't until I was in my twenties, when I started renting classic films (Thank you, Blockbuster. RIP), did I begin to understand and appreciate some of the caricatures in Looney Tunes. Of course, the slapstick, visual gags, catchphrases, etc all appealed to me from a young age, even if I didn't understand all the references made. One of the greatest aspects of the show was their decision to score it with classical music. My parents' idea of high culture was country music, so LT was my introduction to classical music, for which I'm ever grateful. And yeah, Mel Blanc was the best. It takes a team of VA's today to do what he did virtually by himself. I saw a documentary on Mel; he almost wasn't the voice, but his persistence paid off. All these years later, and he's still considered the pinnacle of his art.
  6. M'Kyuun
    If only this had been the route taken in 2007. Aside from Bee's pacifier face as an obvious Bayformer holdover, this whole sequence is full of awesome. The '86 Movie Theme fits the action here, too. Almost makes you wonder if this is what the ILM guys were listening to when they created it.
  7. M'Kyuun
    Summer sets are nearly upon us. More pics can be found on Brickfan.
  8. M'Kyuun
    For its size, that's an impressive dragon mode. Beast modes are often wont to, ironically, suffer from a lack of articulation, so the range on display here is excellent. It looks quite proper on all fours. 'Preciate the show & tell, Kuma.
  9. M'Kyuun
    That's interesting, but it makes sense. These companies manifest an impressive level of artistry and engineering in their products, so while I understand it's largely a passion project for them. for many involved it was never intended to be a full time gig. Moreover, it helps the individual folks build a portfolio towards seizing legitimate jobs utilizing these skills. If I was a company like Takara or Bandai, and I saw these independent projects being made at the level of competency that we've seen from any number of third party companies over the years, I'd be looking for these folks when it came to hiring. Transforming toys are still a pretty niche market, so the number of people capable of doing it, and doing it well, is likely small, relative to the average body of artisans skilled in modeling and engineering. It's unfortunate for us, the fans, when these third parties dissolve or call it quits, but one has to remember that these are people who need steady paychecks to live, and if their endeavors in the Transformer realm stop being profitable, then the decision to quit in lieu of a stable living is the necessary choice.
  10. M'Kyuun
    While I've never bought any other LEGO clones beyond Mega Bloks, I'm always interested in new or interesting parts that these other companies make that LEGO can't or won't. Just a cursory glance and I can see at least nine custom parts on this model. Some of those studless slopes and tiles. Yum!
  11. M'Kyuun
    First I've seen these. Some nice looking Creator sets, for sure. I'll definitely be getting that rover. Man, you must have really good eyes, b/c I can't make out squat on that astrofig torso. I hope you're right though. The rover looks pretty much like an amalgamation of designs, but still current or near future. I like the Vic Viper alternate build- always nice to see that design crop up in official sets. It's also a nod to the late Nate Nielson, AKA nnenn, a very prolific builder who popularized the ship with many of his builds. Anyway, it's space, although if I had my druthers, I'd prefer a sci-fi theme rather than a one-off. Beggars can't be choosers. I tried the link to the same effect. Looks like he removed the link or it broke. Fortunately, I had it saved on my PC. y-wing.lxf
  12. M'Kyuun
    I agree that Star Wars is getting stale. There are no remarkable ship designs to come out of any of the last three movies, so they did toy/model makers no favors. Subsequently, the OT designs, and to a lesser degree, Prequel designs, just keep getting rehashed ad nauseum, and at this point I have enough X-Wings, Snowspeeders, Y-Wings, A-Wings, etc, etc to feel satisfied. There's a rumor that an AT-AT set might be coming out this summer, and being my favorite vehicle in SW, if it's well done, I'll get a copy or two. Otherwise, my interest, and my SW LEGO purchases have dwindled. It's a great time for LEGO to do their own sci-fi/ space line. The last one they did was Galaxy Squad in 2013. Nexo-Knights was discontinued last year, making Ninjago the only homegrown sci-fi/fantasy property, excluding the Elves sets, that LEGO has going currently. Something spacy would be most welcome. I wouldn't mind an updated Exo-Force, with better mecha designs, either.
  13. M'Kyuun
    Frontier was good on all levels, and the VF-25 has become one of my favorite valk designs. I couldn't get into Delta as much; the overall tone and dialogue seemed to target a younger audience compared to Frontier, and the plot didn't grab me as much. As always, the valk designs were cool. I have rewatching Frontier and Delta on my to-do list, since I've only seen each once. Zero was ok; the Sv-51 was the best thing to come out of that anime, as well as giving us a glimpse of a younger Roy Fokker, ever the big brother and lady's man. I just watched 7 recently, and it took me a while to get into it. It took about 20 or so eps before I started coming around to liking Basara. I still think "Planet Dance' sucks, but I cottoned to a number of his other songs. The plot is decent- it checked all the Macross requisites: music, love triangle, alien invaders, and transforming jets. Compared to Macross Plus, its predecessor in the Macross Saga, the level of maturity overall is dialed down a little to appeal to kids, as this was a tv series. A lot of beautiful valk designs came out of this series, so for that, I'm grateful. I recommend watching Encore and The Galaxy's Calling Me, as well. Enjoyable side stories that impart some background.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Classic Space is awesome. I just got copies of both of those last year. I had the FX Star Patroller as a kid, but it got parted out to the four winds for MOCs when I was still a teenager, so I felt it was time to get another for display and play. I never had the Cosmic Cruiser, but always wanted it, so I finally got one, and it's a simple but neat little ship. Even in their simplicity, there's a clean and lovely look to so many of those old sets. As much as I love all the new parts and techniques that have come out over the years, those classic sets still make me happy. I've been aware of the orange astrofig and the minifig book for some time now, but never thought to post it. I wish it was coming in a set instead of a book, similar to the green astrofigs in the IDEAS Exo-Suit, but I'll take them anyway I can get them. $40 for a minifig is a bit steep. Yet another missed opportunity to give us a modern CS set. It's kind of a sneaky move, as, like me, a lot of AFOLs are going to buy this just for the minifig, with no interest in the book itself. I've lived the history of the minifig, and I have thousands of the little buggers at this point, so I don't need a visual representation when I have the real things.
  15. M'Kyuun
    Here's a link to the video: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacie-11/24035746299/in/dateposted/ And, here's a link to the guy's Flickr. His LDD instructions are available on the top-most picture of the model. Like Chronocidal said, embedding the video above broke it, for whatever reason. My apologies.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I didn't bother with the last UCS Y-Wing, as I have the previous two, and the Y-Wing was always a 'meh' design to me. This thing though. He even put the LDD instructions on his Flickr; I'm just too lazy to source the parts, but I think the model is sublime.
  17. M'Kyuun
    Understandable, under the circumstances, but disheartening, nonetheless. I've got one of their coneheads PO'd, and I hope it makes it to production, but it seems like a dicey prospect at this point. For a company already struggling, this pandemic couldn't have come at a worse time. 'Preciate the insights, Kuma.
  18. M'Kyuun
    I'm surprised that you're a CHUG fan, Kuma, as your tastes , based upon your photographic subjects, tend more towards high end super robots and Transformer figures. Not a dig at all; to the contrary, I apologize for having made the assumption, and I'm glad I'm in good company. The Hasbro mainline has been the mainstay of my collection since '84, and while I like some of what HasTak are doing with the current WFC lines, they're still hit and miss. What I want from third parties now is a really good G1 Megatron that turns into a Walther P-38, Astrotrain, and a good set of Seekers at the CHUG scale, as Earthrise didn't give us good versions of any of these. I'm sure I could think of more, but I'm willing to wait and see what else they roll out over time. I'm hoping for a Walkman Soundwave at the very least (with corresponding cassettes). That third parties seem to have abandoned CHUG scale, for the most part, is indeed unfortunate. I see what they're doing with legends, and it's incredible. Upscale some of those figures to appropriate CHUG sizes, and a number of holes in my collection would be filled. I ordered a set of New Age's Seekers and their Megatron today, as it's been a pretty slow year for purchases thus far, and having seen so many positive reviews, decided I'd go ahead and snag 'em before they become unavailable. I'm not a legends collector, per se, but I have their Prowl and their Cosmos, which I like, so why not.
  19. M'Kyuun
    I wish Maketoys would return to making CHUG scaled figs; aside from Hasbro/Takara, no one else is making toys at that scale anymore. I'd love a simplified voyager scaled Meteor from them to fit in with my CHUG collection, which has long been my primary collection of Transformers. While they're at it, they could make a good Astrotrain to make up for the crappy Earthrise version. If I were a third party company, I'd want to seize on the lack of competition in that scale, since everyone else is doing either MP or legends scaled figures. I didn't pay much attention to a lot of these CHUG scaled combiners back in the day, but that's a pretty nice looking Defensor. I like how the elbow joints are specific to the gestalt, rather than just using the the arm bots' hips to do the job. It's a shame they're a little weak; you'd think they would have put ratchets on those., especially given the size.
  20. M'Kyuun
    Don't forget about IDEAS; there are a number of projects based on classic space themes. IMHO, many of them are worth supporting, as that's about the only avenue to getting a potential classic space set. In this case I'm referring to all space themes from '78 into the 90's. I've recently supported a number of sets in the hopes that lightning will strike a second time, since we already got the CS themed Exo-Suit through IDEAS. I bought five copies of it, and I'd likely buy more than one copy of any other CS themed set they ever released. The recently released Classic Pirate themed Barracuda Bay IDEAS set is very well done, and gives me hope that eventually a classic space themed set in the same vein will reach the 10K mark and see production. Digits crossed. Disney is going to milk the Star Wars teat as long as they possibly can; it's a long-term investment for them. Too, even if the numbered movies have fizzled, the side stories are carrying the franchise in different directions by varying mediums and by different creative teams, with success. So, it's not going away anytime soon, but I don't think any of these side stories have had the same weightiness as the numbered films, as it concerns LEGO tie-ins. In time, we may see some fatigue effect sales, and hopefully that'll provide an opening for LEGO to consider doing some homegrown space stuff. I just hope it's within the next 20-30 years so I'm still around to enjoy it.
  21. M'Kyuun
    I was thinking the same about those trans yellow dishes. I'm kinda over Star Wars, too. That said, and I'm contradicting myself here, I 've seen neither the Mandalorian nor the last season of the Clone Wars cartoon, but I want to see both. The Clone Wars was really good, and the Mandalorian looks interesting from the little I've seen. I think the spin-off stories have become much more interesting than the major films. I like Force Awakens, but TLJ, and then JJ's cleanup effort in Rise of Skywalker just made me wish they'd leave that part of the universe alone. In the right hands, the offshoots are just done better. I thought Rebels was fantastic, and that ending was sad and fulfilling all at once. Just some excellent SW storytelling. But, the OT has been done to death over the last 20+ years that LEGO has had the license, and being a sci-fi nerd growing up in the age of Classic Space, I yearn for their homegrown sci-fi space themes. For whatever reason, they just don't seem interested in doing it, although, IMHO, there's room on the shelves for both SW and an independent Space/sci-fi theme.
  22. M'Kyuun
    Nice case, Kuma. First time I've seen Uni-Metal Prime; looks like they took some design cues from MP-10. Nice.
  23. M'Kyuun
    In the USAF, we have an Egress backshop that specializes in maintenance, removal, and installation of ejection seats at the field level. Crew chiefs often assist in the removal and installation, but it is a dangerous bit of business. I've seen pics of the aftermath of an occupied seat having ejected inside a hangar, and it's unpleasant. The ACES II is designed to propel the rider approximately 300 feet straight up very rapidly, so there's an enormous amount of thrust being generated by those rocket motors. I've sat in them numerous times, having limited work experience on the F-15, and about three years on the B-1 Lancer, and the first thing you want to do is make sure the safety pin is installed to prevent any unwanted trips. The fact that the ejection sequence seems to have failed, going by comments (I didn't read the article), is a huge red flag. If the pilot was able to land the plane due to his seat not firing, it's good that the plane was salvaged, but the larger issue is that a critical crew safety system failed. Had it been a real emergency, the pilot would have been lost. We can always build another plane.
  24. M'Kyuun
    Same boat; concerning transforming toys, characterization means little to me if the toy is cool. Bayformers Jetfire had a double dose of bad. The Action Toys version pretty much shares the same transformation, albeit with a few changes to allow for the improved articulation. besides size, the other main difference between the Machine Robo toys and Transformers was that, in general, more of the alt modes were used to form the robots without hidden arms and such. Gobots wasn't the best show, but I liked how the transformations mirrored the actual toy transformations, unlike Transformers that usually fudged them. Yep. That's why Kawamori's designs work, in most cases. Some of his transformations can be a little dodgy, but overall, he designs his mecha with an eye to engineering that could realistically work, at least in a toy. I think Takara do a fantastic job with ground vehicles, everything from motorcycles to big trucks. Jets seem to be their Achilles heel, for whatever reason. Kawamori designed the original Seeker mold for Diaclone, which is why I think it managed a modicum of accuracy in jet mode, and continues to be one of their best jet designs. I often wonder why they take so much care with preserving the alt modes of cars, but jet alt modes nearly always fall to concessions for the bot modes- a very unequal balance of priority. I'd love to see an interview with them addressing that dichotomy.
  25. M'Kyuun
    Last night was the season finale of LEGOmasters, and it was a good cap to an enjoyable season. The three finalist teams of Marc & Boone, Tyler & Amy, and Sam & Jessica are given 24 hours to build whatever they want, and the winning model will be showcased at LEGOLand New York. In LEGO news, LEGO has announced the next UCS set, and it will be the A-Wing Fighter. I know there are probably a lot of folks cheering this, but the A-Wing never really stood out to me as particularly interesting, as far as ship designs go. I'm still holding out hope for a UCS AT-AT, an ETA-2 Interceptor, or a redo of the Imperial Lambda Shuttle. Two things of note concerning the A-Wing are a new cockpit canopy piece, and four 6x6 dishes in trans-yellow, which will make Classic Space builders happy- we'll take anything in trans-yellow, especially if it can be used as a canopy or window of some sort. Those things will likely sell out quickly on Bricklink.
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