M'Kyuun

Good question. There's been some contention as to how the new system works, and I'm not altogether sure myself. In the old system, points were awarded whole dollar for point, but they've changed that now to where the points awarded are only a fraction of the dollar amount of the given price, a change I don't particularly like. There are also other awards given as well, in lieu of point matching the price, but I'm not sure what those entail, as the only thing I want are the points to put towards further purchases. There's more info on their VIP site.

The Fiat looks to have been done by Mike Psiaki, AFOL cum LEGO Designer, who also did the VW Bug, the DB-5, the Mustang, and many more. The VW Beetle is a really nice set, definitely recommended. I doubt I'll get the Fiat, as I'm not really a big fan of the car, either, but if the Stang and Beetle, which I own, are good examples of what to expect, you won't be disappointed. Correction to my earlier post: Pierre Normandin was the designer for the Expert Creator Fiat. Just wanted to give proper credit.

Ugh, that's terrible application, and those foil stickers are notoriously difficult to remove without tearing them. Sorry, man. I paid a visit to one of the Wally's in my area yesterday, and they had the Soundwave and Astrotrain G1 reissues , the first I've seen, but I didn't pick any up. I still have my G1 Soundwave on my CHUG shelf, and I've no interest in a G1 Astrotrain when there's a new one out that has articulation. Speaking of which, they also had Earthrise Astrotrain, but I can't get past the poor alt modes of that figure so I left him on the shelf. I wish they'd had Prime, but Astrotrain was the only Earthrise fig they had. But that marked the first appearance I've seen of Earthrise in my area, so I have a glimmer of hope that more will start popping up.

Hey Lexomatic, I'm sorry you didn't make Cascade this year- it was a record breaking show, both for the number of builders (over 500), and spectators (I don't recall the number, but it was the most they've ever had). Lots of amazing MOCs on display, and on a personal level, I had three wonderful encounters with folks who knew what Macross was and recognized my models. One, very surprisingly, was a girl, probably in her early twenties, who bubbled over with enthusiasm for mecha, and visited my stuff twice. There were also two older folks, a man and a lady, not together, who knew my Macross stuff. Such encounters, I've found after doing these shows for about a decade, are rare indeed, and I was pleasantly surprised and happy to share my joy of both LEGO and Macross with them. One thing of note to those who downloaded the Studio file for the Variable Glaug; the back cannon uses a 1x2 plate with rounded corners and open stud holes (35480) where the cannon attaches to the ball peg. I used 1x1 round plates with an open stud to represent it in LDD and forgot to change it when I updated the build in Studio. Thought I'd let you know. I also wanted to let folks know that the ball joint of the old maxi-fig hand (part# 3614) is slightly larger than that of the Mixel ball joints, and thus stresses the socket. A couple great guys who build small scale Transformers and use these parts extensively (IXRollOutIX and Starscreamer on YouTube) clued me in to this fact this past weekend at Bricks Cascade, so my thanks to them for the info, and my caveat to all who intend to use these parts in concert with Mixel joints. Going forward, I intend to store my Variable Glaug with its arms and toes removed to preserve the Mixel sockets.

Chances of that becoming an official LEGO kit are zero so long as the Harmony Gold situation exists. Moreover, it looked to me like some parts were modified. That said, it's absolutely the best LEGO rendition I've seen, just brilliant work. My hat's off to Mr. Chan; I'm humbled by what he's accomplished here.

Ah, I'm not a comics reader, so some of these references are foreign to me. Wikipedia set me straight. While I'm here, shameless plug: If anyone's in the Portland, OR area this weekend, Bricks Cascade, a huge LEGO convention featuring MOCs by hundreds of AFOLs, including yours truly, from around the globe, will be taking place at the Oregon Convention Center both Saturday and Sunday. There will also be a number of contestants from LEGO Masters there, so you'll have an opportunity to meet them as well. It's a fun time, and so many of the MOCs are just awe inspiring. I invite you to come be a part of it.

Good points. Moreover, I'm willing to bet those engines can rotate for yaw maneuvering. She's a lovely bird, and I hope it proves practical enough for production. I'd love to take a flight in it, if it's not cost prohibitive. If they could hinge those wings to fold up, they could fit a lot of these things at airports. But, more moving parts means more stress, more maintenance, and greater risk of failure over time. It's always a tradeoff. Ooh, the Victor's a pretty neat looking aircraft. I wasn't familiar with it, so did a little searching. For a 1950's era bomber, it has a futuristic look to it, very forward thinking. It'd be a cool candidate for Kawamori to turn into something variable. But then, so would the new Airbus demonstrator. (we need an enthusiastic drooling emoji)

Nah, man, just the trailer. I didn't watch the full trailer immediately, but came back for a second viewing after I typed my response, hence my "started watching" comment. Once the series starts, I'll likely give it a few eps to temper my opinion. As I said, the voices throw me off a bit, but once I get used to them, I'll be able to enjoy the show for what it is more than what it isn't. To that end, I envy people new to Transformers watching this, as they have no precedent by which to compare or judge, whereas I have 35+ years of nostalgia telling me that everyone should sound like their G1 selves. It's not fair, but it is what it is. It's hard to divorce my expectations from what I grew up with and cherished. All part of being human, I guess.

So while Transformers are garnering more Toy Fair attention this year, decidedly with good reason, LEGO unveiled a few new things. First, the aforementioned Razor's Crest set from The Mandalorian (scroll up the page for posted pics). I've not seen the show yet (I want to, but I'm not paying extra for Disney just to watch one show), so I can't judge how well it's done. I've seen some excitement about it on the various LEGO blogs, so I'm guessing it's well done. There's also a UCS scaled model of D-O from The Rise of Skywalker. Moving on to Minions: The Rise of Gru sets. Here's a link to pics courtesy of ToyArk. Having bought some of the previous Mega Bloks Minions sets, sadly, these LEGO sets are a few steps backwards. The best ones are probably the fully brick built Minions which have an opening hatch at the back to store stuff that's, I guess, indicative of that particular Minion. The three Minions featured as brick built models are Kevin, Stuart, and Bob. Moving on, LEGO's releasing the twentieth series of their Collectible Minigures in blind packaging, and these things are always fun to collect, although I personally dislike the blind packaging, which necessitates feeling bag after crinkly bag for extended periods of time in the LEGO aisle to try and get the ones you want, I don't mind walking around with a LEGO set under my arm, but there's something about standing there feeling through bag after bag that makes me feel conspicuous and icky. Another new set that they revealed was this: Not sure if this is from some continuity, but it seems a very odd choice for a Spiderman set. I guess Spiderman's cool, Venom's cool, and hey, why not a venom-ized T-Rex just for fun. It does look like fun, if I'm being honest, but a bit out of place in the superhero theme. There are also a handful of new Minecraft sets. I'm not a fan, but good for those of you who are. Anyway, it's the weakest showing for LEGO that I can remember. There were Ninjago, Technic, City, and other sets on display, but the majority of those are already out at retail, so I didn't highlight them. These were pretty much the new reveals this year, and honestly, I find it all a bit underwhelming. Nevertheless, I thought I'd share. Cheers!

Yeah, they're atrocious, but she needs something to hold up all that backpack. I'm curious about those rectangular forearms, as they don't seem to integrate into the car mode, so why?

Heh, I was so entranced by the luggage on her back that I didn't even notice the missing paint apps. It pains me to see the front of her car folded over when all it would have taken is a little linkage to, at the very least, allow it to become her chest. In lieu of lazy engineering, the least they can do is polish the paint work for the final. Guess we'll see. I'm still fence-sitting on getting Doubledealer. I appreciate that he's a triple changer, and, honestly, before doing some research on Saturday, I wasn't aware of that fact, and the new ER figure does a better job than most concealing it in truck mode. I think the front of the truck mode is downright ugly, though; the G1 toy looked nicer in that regard, which shouldn't be the case at all. Moving on to his bird mode, I wish , when these various beast modes pop up, that HasTak would move away from making the animal bits, like DD's bird head and wings, look organic, while the rest is a big blocky chunk of machine. It looks uncanny, like a nasty science experiment. Just make everything look robotic, albeit with good sculpting, like Zoids, or any other robo-beast stuff that's out there. I also discovered in my reading that he can carry a cassette in his chest. Not sure what that's all about, but it's an interesting feature, I guess. Seems more apropos for Soundwave or Blaster, though, who, incidentally, are conspicuously MIA in their Earth modes. I hope they're coming- Soundwave at least. I didn't get the Siege version b/c that afterthought of an alt mode didn't tickle my fancy one bit. Speaking of Soundwave, I wonder why they shrunk the cassettes instead of making them compatible with the originals and the MPs? Gah, some of the crappy decisions they make for this toyline just exasperate me. Once again, here's a case where a third party could step in with a CHUG scaled figure that improves on the official's shortcomings. I appreciate HasTak, so don't get me wrong. They started and have been feeding my addiction for robots that turn into stuff for over three decades, and I love them for it. But their stuff has been all over the place in nearly every line concerning engineering, sculptwork, scale, paint, materials, decals, aesthetic choices, choice of alts, and oh yeah, did I mention engineering?! Siege and Earthrise are no different in that regard; the toys range from stellar to WTF? across all these and more areas, and it just makes me scratch my head as to why there's such an inconsistency across the line, like there are three bosses giving approval for final designs: one with high standards, one who's ok with mediocrity, and one with virtually no standards at all, and depending on which boss oks the final, that's the kind of toy you're gonna get. It's a little maddening, especially in a line that has been pretty darn good in most areas in the majority of figures. One craves consistency, and it's just not there. It doesn't help, either, when we've been wonderfully spoiled by third party figures, who, without the budgetary constraints of HasTak, often create figures that rival or flat out crush the official competition. But, still, Takara have proven over and over that they can make a really good figure within budget, but the inconsistencies remain. It seems to me that the design direction is turning 180 degrees, where the old philosophy was more concerned about transformation and damn the articulation, whereas now the articulation seems to be the greater concern, at least with some figs. I love articulation, and that was always my beef with TFs growing up in the hobby. I fear my criticism is coming back to haunt me, as more and more, HasTak are returning to their old parts-forming preferences when they can't or won't be bothered to find an engineering solution to a transformation system, and in this day and age, my feeling is that both should be on equal standards, and those standards should be ever upwards.

Looking through NY Toy fair pics and came across this. Less than elegant but the 'hoverboard' does attach. That's a backpack worthy of summiting Everest. Wish they'd tried a little harder with this figure.

The demand for Earthrise is undeniable. I waited too long to order ER Prime on Pulse, and now they've been sold out for a couple months. It's pretty bad when the manufacturer's own store sells out and doesn't readjust for demand. Ebay and Amazon is filthy with overpriced ER Primes, and sites like Target and Wally don't even have him listed, although they have other ER stuff. I'm kicking my self for not POing him as soon as Pulse listed him. Lesson learned. This wouldn't be an issue if there was more availability in my area, but the Wally's here seldom carry anything over voyager scale, and while Target carries leader class, it's hit and miss. I've been to a couple Targets in my area, with no ER stuff at either one. I'm rue to order from any of the collectible retailers, as I think it'll still be possible to pick him up without a markup. Eventually, Target will get him, and hopefully I'll be able to snag one for MSRP. I miss the days when TFs were well stocked everywhere, there was no secondary market full of insanely marked up toys, and there was no need to stress over whether or not you'll ever even see the stuff at retail. Def takes a lot of the fun out of collecting.

'Preciate that link; canxed my Snapdragon on Pulse and got him PO'd for $20 on Target. I also PO'd Smokescreen and Arcee to get 50% off one of them. I actually ventured to my nearest Target in hopes of scoring some Earthrise, specifically Prime, but they didn't have Earthrise stuff at all. They did have several leader class Siege figs on sale, but none that interested me.

I'm a fan of RWBY and GenLock, so I'm willing to give this a look. I started watching it, and wasn't immediately grabbed, admittedly, but I think that's more of the old G1er in me opposing any other voice coming from Prime or Megatron. Heck, I wish they'd gotten Jeff Bennett to do Ultra Magnus, as he nailed the Robert Stack voice for Animated. Anyway, once I mentally divorce myself of that preference, I'll try to watch it with fresh ears and eyes. Rooster Teeth have proven to me that they can write an engaging story with good dialog with characters that you come to care about. They're adept at both humor and seriousness, so I think the show's in good hands.

Likewise. I finished it off last night. Lucky 13 struck a chord with me (I'm a retired AF aircraft mechanic), and Zima Blue was just a great story, and I liked the animation style. I may have to check out more of Alastair Reynolds' writings, as both Zima Blue and Beyond the Aquila Rift are based on his short stories, and both were standouts in this series, IMHO. I hope there's at least another season or two of these. Their short viewing time makes them a great time filler, and also easy to binge.

I like the cartoony styling of Cyberverse Arcee, although it looks like she carries her entire car mode on her back. Sigh. When it comes to Arcee, seems like all the engineers were out on smoke breaks. That's one funky looking Grimlock- not crazy about it. Thunderhowl, however, looks interesting, at least from that angle.

Hey Mike, I appreciate the heads up about the earthrise stuff availability on Pulse. Got my POs in. Concerning the figs, I'm rather pleased with how Snapdragon turned out; he looks good across all modes, so a nice update. Thanks, HasTak. Po'd that sucker straightaway. I went ahead and PO'd Runamuck b/c I wasn't sure if he was going to be an exclusive, and though I have no connection to the character, he looks like a decent take of a character rarely , if ever, done as a toy. I also got the cassette dudes. Yummy. I hope there's an ER Walkman specific Soundwave coming, too. Those cassettes need a home. PO'd Sky Lynx, b/c, of everything shown thus far, it looks the most impressive to me. Brilliant update. I think I'll wait and try to find Arcee and Smokescreen in the wild, as I usually have decent luck around my area with deluxes. Voyager and larger, not so much. Doubledealer is a character I'm not at all familiar with, so I had to look him up. I have to say, the G1 toy had me kind of excited, especially for that rocket transport mode. Then I saw the ER update, and the hollow front end of the truck mode, and just the odd shaping of the front fenders, has me kinda dubious. It just doesn't look that good to me. The back of the truck looks great (love that the rocket can be positioned for launch, as well as those outriggers), and the bird mode looks ok, as well as bot mode, so I'm hesitant. I should probably just bite the bullet and get him, b/c I sense future regret if I skip him. Ah, decisions. The Quintesson transformation is, um, creative. I think they did a great job on the Quintesson itself though, as the face sculpts look crisp. Yeah, it's just a render, but hopefully the actual will be done pretty close. Just the same, I never really had a desire to own a Quintesson, so I'm passing on him. The Allicon looks more like a Cyberverse figure than an Earthrise, given the startling lack of sophistication in its transformation. Just poorly done. Shame, b/c I believe this is the first time he's ever been offered in the main toyline, and they basically phoned it in. Pass. Looking through the Studio Series stuff, I kinda dig that Scrapper, although I'm not crazy about his 'hands'. The leg design is cool, though. I clicked on Blitzwing while I was ordering up my ER figs, and was pretty disappointed to see that tragic jet mode they conjured up for him. Like Mike said, they can get all these expensive licenses for sports cars, but won't pay to use the likeness of an F-4? Sigh. That Cliffjumper looks pretty good- recognizeable, and the Cybertronian car mode reminds me of the War for Cybertron game Bumblebee design. Not a bad thing, IMHO.

Just wanted to post this: Jens Nygaard Knudsen, inventor of the LEGO minifig, main designer of Classic Space, early LEGO trains, and much more passed away on 19 February. He was 78. What a legacy he leaves.

I fear for the future of my species. Thrilling 30 Arcee's hips formed the rear fenders of her car mode, and her chest formed the nose, for lack of a better term, which I think is a practical and satisfying solution for Arcee's transformation. Azalea mirrors that design, albeit with covers that slide over her thighs, but fold into her front fenders to form her shoulder pods. Good solution for a lithe figure. I do think that the big rear fairing on T30 was unfortunate, and could have been engineered a little differently to minimize or eliminate it, but it is what it is. If Takara had eschewed the folding abdomen panel on T30, or cut it off at the waist line, then they could have given her waist rotation, as all her back kibble attachments are north of her waist. It's a woulda, coulda, shoulda bit of head-scratchery. The birthing hips are an unfortunate tradeoff on T30, but MMC were able to slim down the hip line marginally, and Fans Toys' Rouge's hips are perfectly aligned to her waist, giving her a very organic look, although her hips come apart and rearrange for car mode, IIRC. But for perfect transformation on a deluxe sized fig, I'm willing to accept wider hips. It's all subjective, and based on what each of us prioritizes. For me, it's transformation above all, but for others, aesthetics. In ER Arcee's case, I wish they could have found a better balance. But I must agree that ER Arcee is a better looking figure than her T30 predecessor, and indeed, the upcoming MP. The cost is her transformation, which I disagree with. Nonetheless, I'll still likely get her, as she'll have nice shelf presence. Hopefully today we'll get to see folks handling her at Toy Fair to give a better picture of how her transformation works and whether that big chunk of car can integrate with the bot mode better than a so-called hoverboard. Mike, you're so on point when you mention Unique Toys. What those guys are doing for Bayformers is nothing short of revolutionary in engineering terms. I wonder how they'd approach a G1 Arcee, or a Windblade.

The twist in Sonnie's Edge was pretty cool, too. I didn't see it coming, but I enjoyed it. Aquila Rift was cool. I had a feeling it was going to be something like that. Memory wipe please. Fish Night ended so abruptly; I expected there to be more-

I've stated the same opinion in a previous post. It's very odd that a retail figure would have better overall sculpt, especially in the face, and better proportionality, than a high end MP. At least the MP transforms, whereas the ER figure doesn't look to have much in the way of transformation at all. Without the pesky challenge of making parts of her become the car, they were free to sculpt a nice action figure and just attach the forward fenders to her back. I don't like that decision, but it is what it is. Lots of mixed reactions to it on Seibertron and TFW2005 going both ways. It is a nice looking Arcee, but I fear sacrificing the transformation in lieu of part/shell-forming her will become more of a trend, which is contradictory to what Transformers are supposed to be. At this point in the toyline's evolution, nothing short of perfect transformation should be acceptable. Not sure what the hubbub on Twitter's about, but having seen how things can escalate on the TFW boards, some folks really need to learn some restraint and practice a modicum of courtesy. A little goes a long way.

Nope. Binge watched up to ep 12 "Fish Night" today. Sonnie's Edge, When the Yogurt Took Over, Beyond the Aquila Rift, and Shape Shifters were all good, but the stand out to me was Good Hunting- beautifully animated with a great story. I could watch a whole series based on that episode alone. Looking forward to finishing the series and hopefully more seasons down the road. Great forum for filmmakers to create interesting sci-fi short films.

Y'know, those things you mentioned about Sky Lynx should have "pushed my buttons" as well- shuttles and big cats, and dinos, oh my! Alas, I've seen the light, and given all that the Earthrise version offers, I'll almost certainly snag a copy. That Windblade model's interesting. I like the look of the broken panels- just a neat mechanical look, although I'm not sure if it's really right for the character. Regardless, it's a non-transformable model, which greatly erodes its appeal for me. I'll wait to see what Big Firebird crank out for their Windblade. If it's anything like Nicee, it'll be beautiful---and transformable. Thanks for the Optimus review, Mike. I'm hoping to stumble across him one of these rare times when I visit Target. I've purposely gone to two different Targets in my area already, and they had zip for Earthrise. I've yet to see a single Earthrise figure of any class. Kinda irks me when I see TFW posting sightings in other countries when they're not even showing up domestically. Good for you for snagging one. I'm hoping Hasbro will roll out some of those figs revealed by Walmart's system at Toy Fair this weekend. The Allicon looks cool, and I'm really curious to see Snapdragon's other modes. I really, really hope he turned out well- I've liked the look of him since I was a kid, but I never had the original, so I have high hopes for this figure to be good. It's gotta be better than Apeface, anyway. Pretty low bar to exceed. Not too plussed about ER megs, which borrows a lot from the Siege figure. I hate how they did his tank cannon; I wish they'd just found a way to integrate his fusion cannon into the alt mode, and give it some up and down movement. It doesn't seem like a tall order to me, but apparently it is.

I recall the birds, but I don't remember ever owning any. Some were pretty cool, as I recall, but my memory of them is foggy. Will have to do some browsing to find pics for a refreshment. I had the VF-1 without FAST Packs, but I think I got it at a Dollar Store (my mom loved the Dollar Store). I had the Convertors version of this thing, from Orguss I believe. It was ok, but like most 80's toys, lacked articulation, especially in the legs. I also have the Mugen Calibur Convertors toy. It was mispackaged as the Gazette helicopter (Transformers Whirl), so I was a little disappointed when I got home and discovered it was a jeep. It's interesting how a number of these Convertors toys found their way into the Transformers toyline. Anyway, the 80's was great for all the transforming toylines that were available at the time; I wish it was still like that, but Hasbro have it essentially locked up, or there's just no interest from other toy companies to make a competing product, which is a bit confounding. A little research would indicate interest among consumers. Edit: here's a good site showing the various toys.