Alex

As in the headlights of the MH had the headlights, the chest sensors and a third side that looked as if the headlights had revolved upwards into a covered position. The Beagle only has headlights and the side with the chest sensors.

I know that they swivel. I mean that you cannot cover the headlights in bike mode. The MH and CM can both do that.

Metal content seemed to be very little. It has a nice heft to it, but the sample I held, I couldn't find any large areas of metal (as per MP-01). The heft.......somewhat like MP Megatron.

I really get the feeling that they were planning on making this a lot less of a parts-former than it eventually became. As I mentioned, the fighter mode hip and under-belly cover could have very easily been jointed to achieve this. The sculpting on the fighter mode crotch piece makes me think that it was abandoned mid-way. Also, the rather unsightly way the Battroid crotch piece has been bolted to the under-belly plate also gives me the feeling that they changed it at a later stage.

I have a feeling it's just a place holder. Y'know. I finally realised what's.....off...about the Beagle. The ability to have covered headlights (present on the MH and CM). Kind of a small detail, but something I miss.

Saw a sample of MP Grimlock lastnight. Only got to handle robot mode though. I wasn't overly impressed but it is a nice representation of the character. It's quite big in robot mode. I don't know why but it felt a lot bigger than MP Convoy. Could be the broad shoulders atc. If anything I thought the mold wasn't sim ple enough. They've gotten rid of the two halves of the tail hangiung off the lower legs as we've all seen in pics. It does make transforming it a more complicated proicess but it just looks off. It poses well. Can hold some very nice menacing stances. It also balances quite well on one foot so that gives more options. The ickle dino arms also pose well but felt a little too floppy. I see some nail-polish in this toys future. Didn't see any of the accessories aside from the gun, which is nicely detailed. Overall, nice for the money but it kinda felt like any of the other Power-Ranger-esque toys on the shelves.

They saw fit to include two different types of grasping hands though. Pointless. I'm proberly going to mod the fighter mode crotch piece since it has the detail already sculpted into it even thoiugh it is not intended to be seen. All that it needs is a small hinge (and a little paint) and it will eliminate the need for the legs to be taken off between fighter and battroid. Gerwalk is another story though.

And i'm actually ok with that

I don't wanna be That guy but you could have put this in the previous thread and you can edit posts instead of posting three times in a row. (^-^)b

I was checking out some of the parts this morning and it would have been entirely doable (even mod-able) to have the crotch piece NOT be a swappable piece. Even the noce cone could have easily have been made to do this. On a plus note, I have to say That the Gerwalk on this is far better than the kit and DX a s you can leave the wing roots attached but still angle the legs into a nice A-stance.

Same price they're going for over here. Which is the same price as a perfect transformation 1/72 WITH fast-packs. The SAME price fer cryin out loud

Good call on the design time. The problem is that they've tried to retain as much transformation as possible in the tortso which has required such a large number of swappable parts. The torso actually transforms almost exactly like the DX and kit. I would have preffered larger pieces and less of them. Having a transformed torso, a gerwalk torso and a fighter fuselage would not have been a big issue for me.

Nice. The die-cast content of the Aoshimas is just total overkill. The underarms always sag giving him the impression of a person who has lost a lot of weight very, very quickly. I wonder if by "re-tooling" they also mean adding more articulation. Just the ability to do an actual A-stance would be great.

Someone said that the legs do not lock on their 25. Mine are just fine. It does need a little squishing together of parts to lock though. Seriously, this line is just ridiculous. I was quite annoyed lastnight as I had lost the piece that is needed to lock the shield to the back-plate in fighter mode. Found it later though. it had slipped out of the CLOSED box IN the plastic tray. Seems that those pieces will go walk about no mattter how careful you are. I wanna be unbiased but this is a pretty badly conceived toy.

Kinda cheap that they didn't include one. I fully expected there'd be one. For 5000en there is just no reason NOT to include one.

It's already quite a thin post and it's quite difficult to push in and take out. I'm afraid of doing anyhting that might snap it.

There's a little shop near me that only sells like 5 different things at a time but they're usually the hottest items. He has like 50 of each and they sell like hotcakes. The fighter mode has flat wings for a start. Something neither the kit nor DX has. And it has a couple of well hidden posts to lock the parts togehter and some clever male-female sculpting that locks the legs to the arms. It all just works and locks together quite solidly. It has really nice, sleek proportions in this mode. It looks just like the animation model in person.

I picked up one of these guys for 2000en yesterday. Lowest i've seen them for in other places was 3780. First thing's first. The parts-forming is just friggin annoying. There are a good two dozen left-over parts to keep track of in any one mode. The fighter mode is really nice though. Quite tight and locked together. The landing gear is actually quite nice and detailed but watch out for the rear landing gear. I snapped off one of the little pegs pulling them out. It still attached but minus one peg. The rifle needs to have the handle removed and an extra part attached to fit underneath. Speaking of which, you get an opned and closed rifle. (say hello to my little friends!) Battroid mode is actually quite weak. In build and execution. The hips become very loose after the first few transformations. Not the actual ball joints on the legs but the ball-joint that attaches the crotch piece to the waist. I like the inclusion of extra rubber head-lazers though. I can see the plastic ones snapping easily. What i was not impressed with was the lack of open palm hands. As it is you have four sets of grasping hands, two fists and two stored hands for fighter mode. Kinda limits rifle posing options. The ankles have very little motion aside from back and forth. Nicely detailed though. Overall, I wouldn't say this felt like a 5000en toy. For 2000en it's great. Fighter mode is arguably better than the kit and DX. Battroid is floppy below the waist and the lack of open palm hands is annoying.

I really hope that they don't do any VF1s. It's getting Gundam-level ridiculous at this point with all these VF1s. Free up releases for things like the 19Kai.

There's already a dedicated thread for this. Also, this is the, wrong forum

Precisely ONE retailer in Akiba had the VF100 today. I passed on it. It looks so under-whelming. Cheap too for the 5000 price tag.

Having ordered the Toynami Beta i'm curious to see pics of the 1/72 Gakken. Can anyone post images (if they have them) of this toy?

I suppose I could just take the plunge. I just ordered the Toynami Tread for like 30,000en so I wasn't in the mood for anymore cash spendings. Gah. I'll probably end up getting it

Folks at sakuraya told me March 25th.

UGH. 5040en. I forgot it was so high. Not sure about that then.