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M'Kyuun

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  1. M'Kyuun
    A little hope is better than no hope at all. Thanks, Mike.
  2. M'Kyuun
    Ooh, perhaps a reserved and dignified "Squeeee!" is in order? Agree on the Tron Lightcycle- timing's great for a nice crossover.
  3. M'Kyuun
    Right there with you. I say this looking at my gorgeous Yamato 1/60 Blazer Valkyrie and YF-19. That's a design you just don't mess with.
  4. M'Kyuun
    I still have interest in certain crossovers: I'd like stuff like a Spinner, a Batmobile (Tumbler or '89 or Arkham Knight), perhaps a Light Cycle, the APC from Aliens, and Airwolf, just to name a few off the top. I think all of those are iconic enough to get the crossover treatment. One caveat, however: I'd want them to be their own characters apart from any others in the associated shows or films. I know that wouldn't happen, but that's my personal want. If that really is a ML tease, then I think that spells good news for potential buyers, as just a white Optimus is only half the package. I think buyers will have to accept a lot more concessions compared to previous releases for it to work. For me personally, it'd be worth the departures from the G1 toy, which was primarily a big red slab, for it to work as armor, and it would obviously have to break up into bits and partsform onto the various apropos body parts. That would work for some fans, but not all.
  5. M'Kyuun
    Actually, I like the photo as-is, with Screamer as the central focus against the sky. My comment was a bit of snark aimed at Has/Tak's usual focus on making the top of the jet look nice while the underside usually looks like a blocky bot or has visible arms hanging off the sides or worse.
  6. M'Kyuun
    While I'm far more a fan of jets than vintage single engine prop-driven aircraft, cartoony or not, a well-done plane alt mode in the Transformers universe is such a rarity that it deserves to be called out as such; in spite of its minor flaws, this is a step above their usual blocky-bot wearing-a-few-plane-bits-and-calling-it-a-plane modus operandi. The kibbly nature of the bot mode, an unfortunate concession, feels as though it could have been managed better. Not everything is perfect with the alt mode either, but between the two, I think the majority will say the plane mode fared better. Despite my liking both the car and the plane, I passed on this set due to preservation of space and a lack of interest in the Sonic brand. That said, I feel that overall execution was done pretty well and despite the various niggles Mike pointed out, I think it achieves the goal of offering a couple characters and their vehicles in a unique way. I'd still like to see a Batmobile repaint of Sonic's car. The plane, too, could prove useful as a repaint/retool, perhaps as a Batman villain or some other character. Both seem ripe for repaints/retools and rereleases.
  7. M'Kyuun
    I still think this has a neat car mode that says "Batmobile" to me, albeit a bit cartoony. I'm not at all into Sonic so I passed on this set, but I recall this and his partner both having good alt modes. What really impresses me from a noteworthy perspective is that both of these are individual new molds. We have long-time established characters that don't even warrant that treatment, so that stings a bit. Anyway, the alt mode of his partner is of particular interest to me and I'm looking forward to the next review.
  8. M'Kyuun
    Got his good side.😁
  9. M'Kyuun
    I was thinking the same thing. All I really wanted were two longer forearms with retractable hands for Bonecrusher, but I'm impressed by how much better his torso appears and by the range of gained articulation. Upgrade in the truest sense. I'm fine with Bonecrusher's stock feet, so the slippers 😄 will stay in the box along with the bugles. I was fine with the hollow bits on Scrapper, but it's nice that they're including fillers for him in the same kit. I have to smile at the presumption that if you have one fig, you're going to have the other one too. 😁 The fillers for Scrapper's calves seem a bit superfluous as they don't really fill the hollows but merely add another couple mms of plastic to their interiors. I hope the new piece that attaches directly to Bonecrusher's shovel has a tight joint as well as a well toleranced tab otherwise his shovel is just going to fall off of his chest. It's not a bad idea to impart some articulation, but the downside is having his chest fall off all the time having lost its anchor to his groin. Nevertheless, I want this kit, if only for those replacement arms. I'll try the rest to test their efficacy, but I have a bad feeling about Bonecrusher's chest. Casting about, it appears that it's a TFSource exclusive for now. I don't want to pay their markup, so I'm waiting to see if TFSafari gets it.
  10. M'Kyuun
    I believe that is exactly the intent. I don't know if a real incident took place as impetus, or if it's just urban legend, but I recall such a story from when I was a kid and over the years repeated. I'm too lazy to employ Google Fu, but suffice it to say, I think the intent was good but the execution a little heavy handed compared to how relaxed the laws are regarding real weapons.
  11. M'Kyuun
    Concerning Wally supplying SWAT, I was being facetious, but you get the point; it's all a bit ludicrous in perspective. And while I think we definitely have a problem with guns in our country, somehow I think they've gone just a little overboard when it comes to regulating toy guns. At the very least, the collector's market should be something separate, as most people aren't going to go around brandishing something like MP-36 to commit their crimes. Doing so itself should be a crime in my book- awesome toy abuse- minimum 20-year sentence with hard labor- book 'em, Danno! Toys are my life, so perhaps I'm a bit biased. I never gave much thought to the variety and strictness of laws from state to state, but I can understand if places like Cali and NY have far more stringent laws as I assume they have, per capita, far more crimes committed with firearms within denser populations. Still, toys, man! Alas, I step down from my ineffectual soapbox.
  12. M'Kyuun
    Makes sense. In Megatron's case, the box is excessively large for the figure and, being practical, I called it out. My criteria differs. My sole focus is always the core figure, how well each mode is executed. While there's no explicit promise of fidelity to realism, Studio Series is generally considered to be their premium retail product line, although they don't always deliver on that expectation. However, just like SS86 Prime, there's a heightened expectation for SS86 Megatron to be the 'definitive' version for lack of a more apropos descriptor. He fails that already by not turning into a pistol. I care not one whit about a small handheld version of him in gun mode when the figure itself should be the gun- it's a superfluous accessory that will remain in the box along with his energon mace and any effects parts. So, given that a gun is not an acceptable alt mode by din of US laws and child safety regs, a tank is a dismayingly acceptable substitute alt mode. The expectation then is that being Studio Series, we'll get a convincing tank with a bit more polish and refinement than the usual run-of-the-mill mainline figure with a similar alt. They did do a great job of crafting his bot mode to look like his G1 toon self without tank kibble ruining the effect. They also did a great job turning his legs and upper torso into a convincing tank base. They only needed to do something more with his scope to make it blend with the arms to affect a more convincing turret, one more bit of transformative origami but I'm guessing that's where either the budget or their supply of care simply ran out, perhaps a bit of both. To me it feels like they got to within 85% of excellence and just quit. The hard part of his design was already solved: achieving a kibble-less G1 Megatron bot mode that conceals the tank bits well. They solved the challenge of converting his gun-grip legs into tank treads convincingly. While the arms are quite a bit blockier than RW tank turrets, I think disbelief could have been better suspended if the obvious giant gun scope sandwiched between those giant grey blocks somehow transformed to blend with and compliment the rest of the turret. I'd rather the budget went to that particular bit of engineering/molding than to any accessories. Since his fusion cannon is an intrinsic part of his character, I don't consider it an accessory. I just wish they'd put forth that extra effort to make the scope form a convincing part of his turret. Hopefully, third parties will rise to the occasion with some interesting solutions. I've still never really handled the G1 Snarl or Slag toys. I believe I saw Swoop somewhere and messed about with him. I bought Sludge as a kid, and I later received my wife's brother's G2 blue Grimlock when he gave it me. Not even sure how or why that came to be. Anyway, I now have a full set of FansToys Dibots ( my first full set of Dinobots-I was so happy!), all six Combiner Wars Dinobots, all five SS86 Dinobots, and all five toy-decoed Newage Dinobots complete with chrome paint, G1 decal tampos, and the lovely clear plastic bits- pure joy and what I wish we'd gotten with the SS86 Dinos.
  13. M'Kyuun
    That's about 2/3 more box than necessary, but it looks nice. It's nice to have the plastic windows back, even if they're not the most environmentally friendly of options. I still think it sucks that we can't have a Megatron that turns into a gun and yet you can go buy a small arsenal at your local Walmart, including enough AR-15s to outfit a SWAT unit. I digress. I'm glad Newage took the plunge and gave us Romulus; I wish more third-party companies would follow suit giving us options for our CHUG collections to either fill voids like G1 Megs or give us better versions of characters than we've gotten officially. I wish Takara would make a proper G1 Megs for the non-US market; it's not fair to punish fans outside of the US for our laws regarding toy guns. Likewise for Shockwave. I'm planning on getting this guy, but I surely hope that there will be some nice third-party solutions to render his scope a far more believable part of his turret. As is, it almost seems an afterthought compared to the care taken to engineer his legs into the tank's base, which looks great, IMHO. That turret, however, dispels any illusion and that seems antithetical to what the Studio Series is supposed to be in terms of quality, alas. I hope there will be options to fix it. Regarding the upcoming Venin (Venom) Deluxe Insecticon fig, I've never really looked at the original toy all that closely so I did some research and I'm thoroughly impressed at how well they captured the original toy. The fact that they could do unique tooling to create that character so faithfully and yet they resorted to retooling Shrapnel into inaccurate versions of Chop Shop and Barrage, and Kickback into an inaccurate version of Ransack rankles a bit.
  14. M'Kyuun
    Thanks for the info, Mike. SDCC is still over a month away, and with all the reviewer reveals, I would have thought they'd do the official SS86 Megs reveal sooner rather than later, if for no other reason, to take advantage of the momentum. Moreover, I'd guess they'd have something bigger to show off at the Con. Anyway, I wish they would project these things to allay conjecture and help fans to plan for PO days. I got Venom, Micronus Prime, and Alpha Trion through Hasbro Pulse (gotta make that Premium fee pay for itself). I was at the doctor's office trying to do it by phone and I was having a heck of a time trying to use Paypal, my usual payment method. I ended up just using my card and finally got the order to go through. I fully expected Venom or AT to be sold out quickly, but having just checked the site, all three of the figs I POed this morning are still available. Had I known that that would be the case, I would've waited until I got home, but you never know with these things. Anyway, when they finally put SS86 Megatron up for PO, I fully expect it to sell out very quickly, so I'm hoping it falls on a day when I have nothing scheduled. Digits crossed.
  15. M'Kyuun
    I'd be even happier if they gave Ransack his own mold that was closer to the original toy's, as a Kickback repaint just doesn't quite capture the look. That said, they likely won't do that so at the very least, I'm hoping for the Kickback repaint rerelease to complete the roster. And thanks for the YT info. I watched it, but they didn't cover SS86 Megs, which I think was the main draw for a lot of fans for today's stream. So I'm hoping the stream to adresss that, and subsequent POs, will be soon.
  16. M'Kyuun
    I'm assuming the Studio Series stream will be on Hasbro Pulse's YT channel at 11 AM ET tomorrow morning. Please do correct me if I'm wrong. I don't wanna miss that one. Like many, I was expecting SS86 Megatron to be officially revealed /go on PO today, but since I'm going to be at an appointment right when POs go up, I'm kinda glad it's another day. I do, however, want that Venom- he just looks fantastic! I have all the other recent Deluxe Insecticon releases except Ransack, so not too bad. I'm hoping Ransack will get his own release at some point for those of us who didn't buy the multi-pack. Micronus Prime has my attention as well, as I dig motorcycle Transformers, and a monocycle (that works) is a pretty darn cool and unique alt mode. I also like the rider/bike- guy w/ armored suit thing that they did. All those things speak volumes of mecha coolness and I'm down for it. Onyx Prime is a pretty cool looking fig as well, although I'm probably gonna pass on him. I'm on the fence concerning Alpha Trion; I don't necessarily care for his alt mode, but it is based on concept art from way back, and I like that he comes with the Covenant of Primus, even if I have no real familiarity with it. I like that the book actually has a few pages with details. That's a cool, apropos accessory for the character, and we so rarely get accessories that aren't some sort of weaponry.
  17. M'Kyuun
    I liked what they did with Chase, but I thought Heatwave missed the mark by too much, so I passed on him. I would've liked to have had the Prime Cliffjumper repaint of Chase, but he came in a pack with other figs I didn't want, so again, I passed. Hopefully that particular fig will get his own release in a year or so. As to the other Rescuebots, I consider each on its own merits at how well the update captures the original toy, but I've no burning need to have them in my collection. For me, they're more of a curiosity than anything. Thanks for the review, as always, Mike!
  18. M'Kyuun
    Not at all into One Piece, but cool for those who like it. Too, new sets and new themes always bring the potential for new parts, so that aspect interests me. So wish LEGO would get a Macross license, even if it means likely no VF-1 due to HG. All those other valks would be fair game, though. Realistically, however, I think we'd be far more likely to see a Gundam license given its global prevalence. I'd be down for that, too.
  19. M'Kyuun
    Man, it figures that the fanstream is on the 10th; I'm getting laser surgery on my eye at the time of the stream. Fortunately, i should be home by the time POs go up.
  20. M'Kyuun
    I've been looking for Soundwave, but on my most recent visit to Target, they had no Earthspark stuff to speak of. There's another location I may have to try. The only other Earthspark fig I entertained a fancy to was Chaos, but again, I never saw him in the store. I can't remember seeing Jawbreaker, either, for which I had a mild interest. The Earthspark stuff isn't as interesting to me overall as the G1, Prime, or Animated figs, so if I miss out, I don't really feel like I missed out, if that makes sense.😄 That said, Soundwave is more interesting to me than these others, so I would like to track him down. Mayhaps I'll have to resort to using one of the e-tailers. Edit: So I just returned from walking the pooch and decided to cast about on the interwebs for Soundwave. There are five stores within about a 60-mile radius listed on my Target page and not one of them has him. Perhaps we just haven't gotten stock on this side of the country yet. Ebay prices are typically exorbitant, TFSource doesn't carry him or Hashtag (or really much of anything Earthspark), so my guess is this really is pretty much Target exclusive and until my stores start stocking him, assuming they will, I'll just have to remain vigilant on their site.
  21. M'Kyuun
    It stands to reason, since they're tackling all the other combiners, that they'll eventually do Defensor and likely move on to do both Abominus and Predaking. Heck, if they're feeling ambitious, they might even do a CHUG version of Raiden. At the very least though, with Bruticus a sure thing, Defensor is not far behind. Since I passed on the CW version of Defensor, I'm curious to see how they'd turn out under this new approach. I hope there'll be less mold sharing, and more new molds, as it'd be nice to see Blades get his own mold since he was a Huey whereas Vortex's alt was the larger Kaman Seasprite. They're somewhat reminiscent in overall shape, though, so I imagine Hasbro will just go the repaint route. Anyway, with an unknown commander slot, and with all the various continuities' characters that could occupy that slot, it's anybody's guess. A little mystery in life is good, though. Conjecture is fun. When I mentioned Blackout, I was referring to Animated Blackout whose toy was never released here in the States, and whose toy goes for a small fortune now on the secondary market. Derrick Wyatt definitely took heavy inspiration from the Bay character, translating him in his own particular style, and I really like it. Actually, I agree with you that Blackout and Barricade were two of the best Bayformers character designs. I'll throw in Brawl, too. I bought the leader class SS Blackout from a few years back, and it was a really well-done figure. Unfortunately, the hands were molded in an odd position and couldn't be rotated, That shortcoming was fixed in a slightly retooled rerelease, but I didn't feel the need to double dip. Anyway, this is what I want by way of update in the Generations Legacy , etc line. I doubt it would be a much better toy than the original, but at least it would be an opportunity for folks like me who missed out on the original to get a facsimile while flipping the bird at all those greedy SOBs on ebay selling the original toy for exorbitant prices. I would hope he'd at least get the voyager treatment, though I'd happily pay leader price for something really well-done.
  22. M'Kyuun
    As misery loves company, I'm heartened that it wasn't just me, as I have a tendency to have difficulty getting things to work smoothly with some of my transforming toys, and it erodes confidence especially after watching some reviewers do it effortlessly. I always have a feeling of inadequacy despite 40-plus years of messing with these damnably awesome things. To that end, hopefully our conversation here will prove helpful to other recent owners of Fugu's Jetfire, especially if, like me, they're hindered with a touch of self-doubt. As of right now, I entertain no plans to ever remove those Packs again, so I likely won't find a need to employ your fix. However, this being a KO and with even high-end toys being subject to stress breakages and other unfortunate calamities, there may come a time when I need to disarm him and do some repairs at which point I'll gladly heed your advice. Thanks for the encouragement! I appreciate your advice and guidance; there are many reasons why I love this site and these forums, but the humanity behind the screens, the kindness and sense of shared joy and experience and helpfulness among the members makes it a virtual home. Thanks for that.
  23. M'Kyuun
    You're such a tease, Mike. You know me- I want that titan to be Animated Omega Supreme. I'm still hoping they'll dip further into Animated and give us a Blackout update. Honestly, they need to do all the characters and do them faithfully to Derrick's style without the G1 mixed in. I'm keeping my expectation low, though. Animated still has a following, but beyond Hasbro's latest meager dolings, nobody has really capitalized on it. I think it's an opportunity lost. I'd be curious to see Newage or Magic Square dip their toes into Animated waters at some point in their legends lines, and to see both upscale more of their legends figs to CHUG scale. I'd love to have Magic Square's take on Ironhide/Ratchet at CHUG scale, the best take thus far by any company. And IMHO, their Doomsday is still the best version of G1 Megs ever realized in plastic. I've pretty much stopped collecting MP scale, with minor exceptions, but I'd love to see what MMC would do with Animated- my god would those be amazing figs.
  24. M'Kyuun
    I've been lukewarm on the show and the toys, though I've got Twitch, Thrash, and Nightshade thus far, Nightshade being my favorite of the three. I was intrigued by this take on Soundwave from the initial revelation, and my interest has only piqued further thanks to your review. I'm hoping Pulse will get him soon for preordering. The only thing this guy is missing is some sort of chestborne minion, and given that his chest faces the ground in alt mode, optimal for payload delivery, the omission of said minion, perhaps a drone that turns into a bat, bird, jaguar, or little blue dude who likes to shake things up is notably disappointing and dismaying. I totally agree with your suggestion of exhaust vent details in the backs of the thighs, as that would have looked great for both modes. Perhaps there'll be an add-on kit that does just that. While he's not the most svelte aircraft with all of that obvious bot kibble on his underside, he's still better than most and we don't get many flying wing alt-moded TFs. I wish he'd been larger and more refined with perhaps some retractable gear and the aforementioned chest minion, but as-is, he's a neat take on Soundwave, much like his Prime counterpart, within the annals of Transformers media. As you also mentioned, the placement of the feet, which would have looked better had they rotated 180 to let the tops of the feet form rounded shapes on the underwing, perhaps as conformal fuel tanks, and the inability to recess the hands are minuses against his alt mode, but he does still present a thin profile and I like that his shoulders form part of the plane as well as the unfurling of the legs into wings, a la Mindwipe, as you mentioned (one of my favorite transformation techniques in a flying alt mode in recent history). Overall, he's a pretty solid entry, especially in the Earthspark line, and one of the more unique and fairly well executed aircraft alt-moded bots to come along in a while. IMHO, he's better than all five of the abysmal Aerialbots put together and I happily await my opportunity to get a copy.
  25. M'Kyuun
    So my repair was successful. I ended up buying two packs of different sized wire nails. One was pretty close, but I had to file tit down to make it thin enough to fit. But fit it did. Getting the old one out was a pain; I was using a pin vice to try and tap it out. It's located in such a difficult area, as it moves and there are obstructions aplenty, but obstinate persistence won the day! I only did the one shoulder as the other side's pin seems to have enough grip on both sides of the joint to remain together and functional, so I'm going to leave it for now. I loosened the screws on both shoulders to ease the tension on those joints. I armored him up today and the arms are holding solid thus far, so 👍. I noticed the leg armors don't snug as nicely around the legs as the Yamarcadia ones do, as there's a gap between the leg stabilizers and the indent in the armor that's meant to cozy up against them. The gap seems to be worse on my copy's left leg than the right, but neither snugs up as tightly as it should. I can press them into place, but they just sag back again. I scratched the paint on his backpack a little trying to get the large back thrusters into place. It fought me a bit, but again, persistence paid off and a second attempt got the central frame to slide all the way into place so the large tabs on the Packs could plug into the backpack. I haven't put a set of packs on one of these 1/60 VF-1s in some time. In fact, the last one for me was the VE-1 Elint Seeker about three years ago, and I don't recall its being that difficult. Anyway, it's done and overall, it looks pretty darned good. I received the trans-red covers for the FAST Packs, and while I appreciate the inclusion and their ability to show off the glorious innards of the Packs, I prefer the opaque red ones for optimal Jetfireness. This toy is all about nostalgia, after all- from the original G1 packaging to the attempt to match a goodly bit of the original toy's paint and stickers (wish they'd committed to going all the way with paint and tampo as it would've been worth an additional twenty-thirty bucks to not have to deal with blasted stickers), this thing was directly targeted right at us greying old Transformers fans, and I'm here for it in celebration! A decade ago, I never imagined that so many holes in CHUG, especially pertaining to first season, would be filled, but between Has/Tak's mainline offerings over the last few years and third-party offerings like Newage's Romulus and Fugu's Jetfire, there's not much left wanting for a complete first season collection. We just need HasTak to come through with a Windcharger and, oh how I wish, some Omnibots and that would be a nice cap on the collection, especially if Hasbro is serious about scaling back their toy production. I hope not yet but should that day come when they stop making Transformers toys, I'll be content with my collection. I'm thinking third party would be all over that void anyway, so we'd still be bombarded by new takes on old characters into perpetuity, and for that I say, "Thank the Matrix".
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