M'Kyuun

No problem, Kuma; credit where credit's due. You've not only got a great talent for photography, but also a great sense for how to shoot your subject. Hasbro could learn a thing or two from you when doing their product shots. There's definitely an art to posing an articulated figure, and whether or not folks agree with your preferences, ultimately one can't argue that you make these lumps of plastic and die cast look pretty damned good.

That was an impressive episode, if for no other reason, it defied expectations, including my own, for how much stress something made of LEGO could withstand. Tyler and Amy have been consistently good throughout, never really having a weak build, and yet they've only placed first once, IIRC. I think they'll be one of the last teams competing. Christian and Aaron surprised me by having some issues over the last couple of eps, especially the previous city one. Both strike me as very accomplished builders, and I'd put them in my own top 4 (Tyler & Amy, Christian & Aaron, Mark & Boone, and Flynn & Richard). Tonight's ep has them building stuff inspired by an ad lib completed by children, which provides the subject matter for the builds, and then , as I understand it, the kids are also judging the final models. Should be entertaining.

Alex Jones, better known by his online handle Orion Pax, built a beautiful collection of M.A.S.K. vehicles, as well as the Boulder Hill Gas Station, which also, like the toy it's based on, transforms into battle mode. He built these about a decade ago, so I'm surprised they're just now getting coverage. Most of these models are done so well that, at first glance, one would assume them to be the old Kenner toys, and only reveal themselves as LEGO MOCs upon closer inspection. I can't really give them greater praise than that. As his nom de guerre suggests, Jones also has a pretty expansive collection of Transformer MOCs, a number of which he revisits for rebuilds or updates as new parts come along. His Transformers are decent, but most suffer in one mode or the other due to their transformable nature. LEGO's not given easily to building a mechanical transforming bot; I give him props for the effort. Looking through his gallery before posting, it looks like he's done some updated TF builds. Pax is a big fan of pop culture, especially 80's American, and many of his builds reflect it. Anyway, I'd highly recommend checking out his gallery- it's worth it.

Agree. Tekering's pics are great. You know there were giggles aplenty among the stunt crew leading up to this, and afterwards, so long as no one got hurt. That would have been an awesome stunt to watch. Man, the 80's was great for super vehicle shows. I wish they'd bring something like that back. I was getting excited over the prospect of Hasbro reviving M.A.S.K., but I think they just limited it to a comic book run and nothing more was done with it. Such a shame- if they could do with it like Netflix did with Voltron, it could be good show with lots of merchandising potential.

I was touch and go with the WFC/FOC game designs, but the Dinos were cool. That's a nice looking team there, Tekering. I still have my Hasbro FOC Grimlock up on the shelves somewhere. They did a nice job on the bot mode, but the dino mode leaves much to be desired, especially that atrocious tail. DX9 definitely did it better.

Ah, the IDW inspired mold. I don't consider that a G1 homage per se- way too many liberties. I have both Trailbreaker and Hoist from that line, and I like the toys; I just don't consider them G1. That legends class fig is much closer to the G1 design, albeit greatly simplified. The Earthrise figure is pretty dead-on, down to the panels behind the arms. I'm looking forward to the Trailbreaker version Even though we just got a set for PotP, I hope we get an all voyager, or even leader, scaled set of Dinobots for Earthrise. The PotP ones were ok, but pretty heavy on concessions to allow for the combining gimmick. I'd love a set in this line with some properly scaled and well articulated dino modes, as well as really good bot modes.

I can't speak to others' experience, but in my own as a mecha anime fan, more in line with Full Metal Panic, Gundam, Aldnoah Zero, Macross, etc rather than super robots, I never really noticed the prominence of the groin thrust, or as in this shot, just a prominent groin area, in hero shots. Maybe they were there and I just didn't register, but your photos always emphasize it. In fact, I learned of Masami Obari, whose heroic posing of mecha has become a trope in anime, from you. To be honest, it doesn't do much for me, but everyone likes what they like. Transformers and shows like Battle of the Planets were my earliest introductions to mecha, or mecha-like designs, since the Transformers aren't, by definition, mecha (although their Diaclone originals were), and while there certainly were heroic scenes, I just don't recall them being to the Obari level, if that makes sense. I just did a little research before writing this, and was surprised to learn that Obari-san animated Optimus Prime's transformation scene and Megatron's ship in the original three-part opening to the first season, so I was familiar with some of his work without knowing it until now. Along with mecha, he also does hentai. A Freudian shrink would have a field day analyzing that correlation. Anyway, even if it's not exactly my cup of java, Kuma, knowing where it comes from and how ingrained it is within the fabric of the mecha genre helps me to appreciate it as part of the artform, and thus in your photos, which always elevate your subjects beyond the mere toys that they are. You give them a life-like quality, and certainly a large part of that is posing, so I would encourage you to keep sharing your pics, even if some of us don't get it. I received my Earthrise Hoist, Wheeljack, and Cliffjumper today, and all three are really nice updates to their G1 originals. There's a nice mix of toon and toy in these guys that I appreciate. Cliffy is a nice update, although the back 1/3 of his car mode part-forms. It's a concession that I don't agree with, but it's what they did, and fortunately it tabs onto the bot mode to make a nice conformal backpack that doesn't look like tabbed on kibble. The car mode, too, looks good- a nice, more realistic, take than his chibi original car mode, which I'm fine with. It makes him fit in with the rest. I love that they included his big cannon from the first episode, as well as his car skis from that other episode. Hoist, again, is a nice update, and I think the first G1 homage in the mainline since the original toy. A few of the joints were a little loose on my copy (his one knee is almost to the point of floppiness right out of the package), so something to be aware of. But I love how much it captures the look of both modes so well, and the tow deck is functional, although that's partly so he's compatible with all the interlocking ramps HasTak are incorporating into so many of these figures. I'm noticing the drawback to these snap-on plastic tires as his one wheel doesn't like to turn as freely as the others. I miss the rubber tires of the old toys. Unlike the original toy, who had one fist and a tapered cannon in lieu of a second fist, ER Hoist comes with two rotating fists, and his cannon is a separate piece that pegs quite securely into either of his fists. It's huge, completely covering the fist, except from the bottom, but is sculpted to kinda conform to the arm. It's molded in orange, a disappointing departure from the original toy, which had a chromed cannon. Even silver would have been better than orange. The other nitpick with the cannon is it doesn't really naturally fit anywhere on the truck mode, and looks obscenely obtrusive anywhere you peg it on. Finally Wheeljack. My fave in this batch. HasTak did a nice job making his car mode reminiscent of the Lancia without making him a Lancia. The transformation is similar to the original toy in the way the arms and legs form the back and front of the car mode, respectively. His upper torso spins 180 deg and the underside of his spoiler halves form his back wings. They just look tiny. It may or may not be to everyone's taste, but it works well enough for me. There's a simple elegance to it that I appreciate. There's some nice racing livery tampoed on him. He comes with his shoulder cannon, albeit shrunken, so that it can double as a hand gun. Not crazy about that, but there it is. I had an issue with one of his wheels barely turning; I popped it off, scraped away the overspray (his rims are painted orange), and now it spins much better. HasTak separated his windshield at a square cut just above the waistline for rotation, so that's a departure from the original. However, in car mode, he has the rounded front edge to the windshield supplied by two trans-clear bits that attach inside the legs. These things pop off like crazy when handling this guy. They're mounted on a split peg, similar to the wheels, so they can rotate as part of the transformation. But the tolerance on mine is rather poor, and they just come off every time I try to rotate them. Fortunately, they just snap back on, but i think this is a clear case where a screw or a rivet would have been a better solution. Having recieved ER voyager Starscream last week, one thing that stood out to me was that all three of these deluxe figs have rotating fists and waist swivels whereas SS does not. The Earthrise Seeker mold is a bit disappointing for its articulation omissions, especially when compared to its far superior Siege counterpart. That thing should be the benchmark across the line for articulation. So far, this line is turning out to be the poor man's MP for G1 figures- they hit enough of the right notes to resemble their G1 original characters/alt modes, even if they're not licensed vehicles. For pricing purposes, I can forgive that if the trade-off is a decently reminiscent alt mode with a well articulated bot mode that captures a good balance of both G1 toon and toy. To that end, I think the line's a success, and I hope they keep churning them out. I'd love to finally have a complete G1 inspired set of Generations figures, especially all of the first season characters, who are near and dear to my heart. Moreover, avoiding the licensing means Jazz is a likely candidate in this line, and that's a good thing.

Fortunately, FedEx seems to be running unaffected by all the precautions and shutdowns. We have the highest number of fatalities thus far in the country, although they're all on the western side of the state. AFAIK, we have no cases here in Spokane...yet. That said, precautions and shutdowns are in effect here, too, so hopefully preemptive action means prevention, and it never gets a foothold here. Anyway, as long as FedEx is making deliveries, my Transformers should keep coming from Pulse as they're released. Hopefully, you'll get your copies in short time as well. Moreover, hopefully, the FedEx drivers are practicing good hygiene as they go about their rounds. From my understanding, the virus can survive for up four hours in a cough droplet, so that's a rather long time, and plenty of opportunity for spreading to occur. People just need to be informed and mindful, practice proper hygiene (as they should anyway), and avoid panicking. The species survived the bubonic plague when nothing was known of microbiology, so we have the upper hand in this time. Best we make use of it.

It's incredible how a microscopic organism can have such a far-reaching and devastating effect on human affairs. As businesses and schools across the country shut their doors for a temporary hiatus to try and combat the spread of Coronavirus infection, so too are the folks at Hasbro. This definitely won't help their distribution, which is already questionable at the best of times. Alas, I'm glad that their leadership is looking out for their people rather than the bottom line, and I vehemently hope everyone emerges from this thing unscathed. Good health to us all, here and around the world.

You'll have to share some pics after you've given Prime his makeover, Mike. I have the same issue with Toyhax/Reprolabels in that they include a number of labels I'll never use, but I'm still paying for if I get a set. I wish they'd do minimal sets that just cover basics like tail lights, etc, and maybe a specific character sticker like ER Prime's trailer without all the extras. Alas, it is what it is. Got my ER Starscream and Grapple this week, and Monday I'm expecting Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, and Hoist, all from Pulse. I kinda gave up on finding these things at retail, so I've got everything PO'd. Screamer's a bit disappointing next to his Siege counterpart, which eclipses the ER figure in the articulation dept. I think HasTak just phoned that one in. Grapple, OTOH, is a pretty nice figure in both modes, with all the articulation we've come to expect in the WFC line, and his vehicle mode's crane is functional as well. I wish it had one more extension built in, but that's just being nitpicky. Overall, he's a really good update to the G1 character. I do believe he's my first toy of the character in all these years of collecting, so I'm glad I picked a winner. I'm looking forward to getting the next three, as this line, for the most part, is what I've been wanting from the mainline since G1- detailed, fairly accurate, and well-articulated figures of those original characters within a lower price range that are just fun to grab off the shelf and transform without worrying about the fragilities and complexities of the MP figures.

And regardless of the placement or severity of bodily injury, there must be copious oral bleeding amongst the human(oid)s. Big yes to sunglasses wearing alien, yet suspiciously human looking, dudes controlling MG. No other genre of movie, except parody, gives such license to employ liberal cheese. Some advantage must be taken.

That looks more like a Duplo fig with a few System parts attached to it (the yellow buttons, the ears, and the arms, which I believe, were first used in the Nexo Knights theme). Not my jam in the least, but good for all the Mario fans out there. The simplistic build and large figures make me think these are going to fall into the 5+ sets, which is nice for the younger Mario fans among us. While I understand the marketing strategy behind obtaining these popular IPs, I so wish LEGO would resurrect their space lines and maybe do Exo-Force 2, with improved joints. I'm royally fatigued on Star Wars sets, basically on Star Wars period, and would definitely enjoy some homegrown space adventures, with a healthy dose of mecha action thrown in.

Given that Godzilla and Kong are both 'good guys' among the kaiju clan, it seems inevitable that the two would cease hostilities and team up against the baddies. The premise of the two of them exchanging a few blows is fun, though. Referring to the aforementioned Kong's weaknesses compared to Big G's strengths, I figure they'll capitalize on Kong's superior agility and the fact that he can pick up a large structure and wield it like a baseball bat to help him avoid Godzilla's atomic breath and land a blow or two before going all Riggs and Murtaugh on the bad guys. I've done zero reading up on this movie, but based on the comments above, the mention of Mecha-Godzilla making an appearance suddenly makes this a much more exciting film. I'm really curious to see how they update the old design and pit it against Godzilla and Co. Plus, everything is better with mecha in it.

The cross of Christ compels me to mention his awesome performance as Father Merrin in The Exorcist. But in all his roles, he lent a certain gravitas and sense of authority to his characters without being cheesy. Always a joy to watch his performances. RIP, good sir.

Fighter designs are always so impressive for how much stuff they pack into small areas. It makes them a royal PITA to work on, but you have to admire the folks that design and build these amazing machines. A tip o' the hat to the maintenance folks that keep them flying.

Wow, impressive work. My buddy plays KSP all the time, and complains of the hours invested just making a custom spaceship capable of flight, and then I see this. I know my friend has a bunch of mods for his, most to make it more realistic, and I get the sense that the mods here are more skins, structures, and such, and to hell with physics. Still, it's pretty to watch those things fly and transform like they did in Plus. Makes me wish there was a decent Macross game we could actually play here in the States.

I wasn't aware of the TT boxsets at the time, or I may have considered getting them, if they weren't too outrageously priced. It's not like their transformations are really anything to write home about, but the novelty of them is what draws me to them, I think. I think they fit fine along with those third party legends figs, if just a bit chunkier, as most of HasTak's legends are. Given their ingenuity, I almost think I'd rather have a set of these guys made by NA or MS, depending on which tickled my fancy more. I wouldn't be opposed to a little license taken to make the vehicle modes look better. I think the animal ones work better, but again, I think third parties could make their alt modes look sharper with some creative engineering. Thanks for sharing the info, Tekering.

The Seacons are available on Pulse right now. I was POing Wheeljack, Cliffjumper, and Hoist, and decided to browse around and see what else might strike my fancy when I came upon the Seacons on the last page, IIRC. Honestly, none of them look that great to me, especially the squid dude, which looks like a Quintesson face placed flat on the back of a bunch of nondescript mechanical stuff with a few tentacles thrown on for good measure. I'm not familiar with the G1 figures, and haven't been sufficiently moved to research them, but I'm assuming, much like the Terrorcons, that these guys were more fantasy creatures loosely based on real creatures, in this case sea creatures. IMO, it's kind of a missed opportunity to make more realistic robo-alts of real sea creatures, as those I would have been all over if the bot and combined modes were good. Heck, if just the bot and animal modes were good, I'd probably buy the lot of 'em, as the combiner aspect isn't as important to me as the overall quality of the individual bots. As they are, however, just not my cup o' java. But I know you're a big combiner fan, Mike, so I hope you're able to score the whole team, and thus check one more Combiner off your want list. I'll check out your review when you do.

Interesting; that's something I've never seen before. It's similar to the retractable spoilers used in the B-1's bomb bays. Without them, I've been told, the bombs will 'float' in the bay rather than dropping out, such is the very streamlined airflow under the B-1's belly. I'd never given much thought to the wind's effects on bullets, especially since few modern American jets have their guns mounted in the nose, relying instead on side mounted Vulcans. Having them in the nose like that seems primo for aiming, but at the risk of having ejected casings striking the canopy. Apparently airflow over the nose is also a concern.

I concur, although I did pick up all the bots for Bruticus (my favorite combiner), Menasor, Abominus, the Dinobots, a couple Aerialbots, and a few others here and there. However I skipped on the vast majority of the main bots figuring something better would come along - and now we have Earthrise, so glad I waited. I skipped on TR Sky Lynx, since half of him was missing (the Lynx). Although I've never had much affinity for the character, I can't deny that his various components are pretty cool, and I especially like his combined 'Apatosaurus' mode. I'm glad, once again, that I eschewed the TR version, as the upcoming Earthrise is probably the best version I've seen, and I'm glad they gave the Lynx an additional base mode, as it looks apropos with the shuttle. I think this figure will be remembered years down the road for its execution. I wish Astrotrain had gotten that level of love. Like Mike said, there was a noticeable uptick in quality moving from CW to TR and PotP for the majority of figures. Between that and the variety of characters being done, notably many who hadn't had a toy since their G1 days, both TR and PotP are stand out lines. I do wish, though, that some figs like the Autobot and Decepticon Clones, hadn't been exclusives. I wanted those guys, but all I ever saw was a pack of one Autobot and one Decepticon Clone together without their pairs. I thought it was poor marketing. Moreover, they were pretty expensive for legends scale figs, but I never understood why Hasbro didn't put them out at retail in boxsets together so you could get the Autobot set and the Decepticon set like the originals. Just odd marketing in my mind. I keep hoping they'll get rereleased in matched pairs at retail. Not holding my breath, though. Those are some figs that I wouldn't mind seeing Newage or MS take a shot at, as they'd most likely be far more detailed, complex, and articulated than their official toys, and since they're already legends scaled, they'd fit, more or less, with my CHUG stuff. I keep waiting for HasTak to do the Omnibots, as they seem to be doing all the other exclusive bots from the 80's. I'd love to have official updates to those guys in the Earthrise line. They were arguably cooler than the Powerdashers, who we've previously discussed having received well done updates in the TR line. I still have my G1 Downshift, the only one of the three I owned, and I'd love to have a modern set of these guys complete with 'armored car' modes. Hear me, John Warden!

Great review, Mike. Looking back, Titans Return was a really good line, giving us these well-updated Jumpstarters, the Monsterbots, and the other trio of a shared mold, Triggerhappy, Misfire, and Slugslinger, as well as quite a few more G1 updated figs that were done well. Not every figure was a gem, but the line stands out to me more for the number of figs that received good updates, many of them the first since the original toys. HasTak seemed to have caught on that G1 still reigns supreme in the hearts and minds of many a Transfan, and I imagine that had no small part to play in their going extreme G1 with the current WFC trilogy. Since G1 was my introduction to Transformers, it shall always be first place among the varied stories and toylines, and I welcome the current spate of mainline updated figs. (Got the ones I want all PO'd now- not taking chances with the precarious availability in my area). I'm curious what part three of the trilogy is going to entail- a return to Cybertron with yet more Cybertronian alts? I hope not. I'd prefer a continuation of the Earth alts, giving us as many updates to G1 figs as possible, as it may be another decade before we see such a line dedicated to G1 updates. Give us everything, and then move on to something new and fresh. I wouldn't be opposed to a whole new continuity set apart from Prime, Megatron, and their respective bots. G1's great, but after 35 years, it's time for something new IMHO, as long as it has nothing whatsoever to do with Michael Bay. Animated turned out to be a great experiment, so something akin to that, maybe not as cartoony, would be great. Maybe take a page from Macross- set it on a giant Earth ship hundreds of years from now where Cybertronian and Earth tech has been combined, and TFs work side by side with their human compatriots to explore unknown space. Adventures ensue with a whole new cast of bots and a few adult humans who aren't obnoxious. I'd watch that, and hopefully the designs would be cool and inspired, and the toys done well in capturing them. Whatever follows WFC, I hope it's cool.

Little late in replying, but the short answer is, prior to your post, nope. All the same, it's parts-forming, which I dislike, and it doesn't fix the inherent engineering problem that stems from the design of the toy itself. Moreover, it does nothing for the train mode, which suffers from the front end, including the first set of wheels, being obnoxiously narrower than the rest of the locomotive. It just looks all sorts of wrong, and I can't abide either alt mode for its combined crappy engineering. My hope is that some third party will produce either a heavily modified KO of this toy fixing both the shuttle and train issues, or, preferably, just make a new toy from the ground up that does everything right. And though it may gull David, I don't care if it comes with a tender, so long as it fixes what ails the official toy. Given the quality of the majority of the WFC line thus far, this really should have been a home run toy; I've been waiting patiently hoping for it to come, and my expectations were exceedingly high that , finally!, we were getting the G1 update in the mainline that we've been hoping for. That it misses the mark by so wide a margin is severely disappointing. Anyway, that's $50 that stays in my pocket until something better comes along.

'Preciate the kind words, but 'mad genius' may be a bit too much praise. The VG is my most tenuous build, the result of my trying to balance both form and function. It's not my preferred method, but given space restraints along with a need for numerous moving parts, especially in the middle section between the forward fuselage and the engine bays, I opted for maintaining the movement within the confined space rather than bulking it up in order to brace it with brackets. While I was at Bricks Cascade, I let a fellow builder transform the Glaug, and he gave me some feedback about weak connections as well, so perhaps I'll go back and see what I can shore up reasonably without changing the external dimensions or appearance. To that end, I take no disrespect from an honest critique. Moreover, one of the driving reasons for my posting the Studio file was to see what variations those of you who choose to build your own would make to the design. I consider it a template- what you do with your own copy is up to you, and I hope you'll share the results here. I'd love to see them. In the end, I may have to borrow some of your innovations, as my talents are meager. Looking forward to seeing your final design, Lexomatic. Good luck! Edit: Concerning the LEGO SDF-1, there was a Macross precedent, as a VF-1 was submitted to Ideas a few years ago. It reached the requisite 10,000 votes, but was not produced. Most of us in the community believed it to be the licensing issues. LEGO could do an Asian release, and possibly a release in Britain, since the courts have sided with BW over Macross licensing there, but I'm not sure if they'd want to expend the effort for such a limited market. I also submit the question of whether the SDF-1 is recognizable enough to justify making a large model, as Macross is still rather niche outside of Japan.

Not sure fighting armed criminals in a car with an exposed engine is the wisest choice, but ok. They tapped Colin Farrell to play Penguin- at 5' 10", he's a little tall for the role methinks. OTOH, I think Zoe Kravitz will make a good Selina Kyle. I like Batman, but I'm just not feeling the excitement for this film as I did for the previous Nolan films, which, IMHO, set a pretty high bar.

The old system, exactly as you described, was simple and easy to apply. Moreover, it offered the flexibility of choosing how many of your points you wanted to use on any given purchase, and double VIP points were opportunities definitely worth taking max advantage of. I haven't used the new system yet, although I continue to accrue points. But the gift card system is odd and , as you said, awkward sounding. I'm not sure why they felt they needed to fix something that, from my POV, wasn't broken. Now every purchase is only worth about half the VIP points, so it takes longer to accrue enough of them for a large purchase, which is what I always use mine for. They paid for half of my UCS Millennium Falcon. Anyway, at least now I know what to expect when I finally do decide to redeem some points on something, so much appreciation for taking the time to let us know, Chronocidal.