Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0

Posted this at TFW2005 about Human Alliance Bumblebee: Just got my hands on this bad boy and I have been fiending for this damn thing ever since we saw images up late last year for it(wait was it last year?). Anyways, the first thing that surprised me was that Sam is smaller than I expected. Barely 2" tall if even. The next thing was the amount of articulation that Hasbro crammed into him, my first impression was "how in the hell?!". Brilliant! Would have been cool to have elbow joints. Anyways I wish this thing had ratchet joints or detents for all robot mode joints, and a more secure connection for the battle mask. Otherwise, this definitely is the ultimate Bumblebee for me. The lack of a right hand does not bother me, it's got a ton of playability and detail, the addition of a driver figure kicks ass, articulation actually surpasses that of all movie deluxe Bumblebees, it's very sturdy, the size is great, and it strikes a great balance between detail and playability. Hell I wouldn't be surprised if this ended up being the Transformer of the year. I hope Hasbro continues this line even after the movie ends, and branches out to G1 characters, planes(YES I'M CRAZY), and completes the cast of car Transformers from the movie. I was excitedly anticipating this figure for a very long time, and still managed to be surprised by it. Oh and while I liked how it is the closest thing to a movie Alternator so far, it is also significantly durable than most Alternators. Also, the yellow thigh panels that are seen over the thighs can be left on the sides, in fact, doing so frees up hip movement more as the panels do not hit the abdominal area. Best movie Bumblebee so far, unless Hasbro finds an excuse to tool up a Masterpiece version, or a new version if a sequel is greenlighted. For now, and for a long time to come, this is the definitive Bumblebee. If you want a Bumblebee that has high durability yet colletor's appeal, don't buy thje $100 Ultimate Bumblebee, buy the Human Alliance version. As much as I dislike how the Sideswipe Human Alliance figure has small legs(ruins the balanced look), after handling this Bumblebee, I eagerly anticipate any, and all upcoming figures from this line. It's really that damn good. I think Skids will kick ass.

The last 2 times I ordered from HLJ with EMS shipping resulted with getting the products within 5 days from day of order placement. It might have been much quicker had I not done it on a weekend(seems like they take Saturday and Sunday off).

Same here, in my experience, they only take long during holidays(word of advice, don't order something during any holiday, or celebrations like golden week!).

The shoulders do look a bit too wide, despite being able to compress inwards more(due to the double jointed shoulder hinges). It doesn't look as bad in person as it does on the net though.

It isn't, Hasbro said at Botcon that the 3rd is a repaint of either Arcee or Chromia. I think it will have some new parts, judging by the revelation today: 3rd ROTF Fembot Revealed I hope it has new parts. Hopefully the combined form is cool, Chromia turned out alright, could have been better. After handling voyager Megatron more, it is definitely a must buy. He and The Fallen are the best voyagers so far(though Mixmaster might be as well, but I haven't bought him yet). Voyager Megatron has better articulation than the leader version, and not just on the arms. You can get voyager Megatron in far more dynamic poses. The gimmicks are implemented well, no huge right arm with extremely skinny left arm, I don't mind the green, and he looks maniacal. The leader is more imposing for sure, but the voyager isn't bad, in fact I can see more people preferring it to the leader version. It's more fun to pose and tinker with.

Same here, he was just pointing out that this latest reissue is a sign of things to expect when the BBOP comes out, as revisions were made since the last reissue. The improvements sound good.

HLJ sales go extremely quick, I learned that the last time I saw the YF-21 there.

Ironhide and Prime were listed and rumored initially but I don't know if it was an official listing. A lot of us were skeptical because they were listed at the same price as Bumblebee and Prime would definitely have to cost more and be significantly bigger for an ideal Human Alliance figure. The only ones confirmed are Skids w/Mikayla and Arcee bike(nontransformable I think, smaller than the deluxe), Sideswipe with Epps, and Barricade with Frenzy. I like the idea of Barricade with Frenzy, Barricade needed a better figure, but why not Jazz as well? His figure from TF1 was one of the worst! Range of motion was very limited especially on the knee joints, the lack of actual forearms was disappointing, and overall the best thing about him was the look in robot mode, I didn't mind the bulkier look at all. Handling the figure was a completely different story. I hope we get Mudflap in the human alliance line too, Skids and Mudflap might suck as characters but their figures so far are pretty good.

Sorry to hear. I was very surprised at how underwhelming the figure turned out, the satellite mode looked like it used minimal transforming, the fighter mode even less, but overall I did not expect it to be this disappointing. Range of motion is excellent, as are the clear parts, but other than that, aside from being Soundwave, I don't really see anyone wanting to buy this. I'm planning to buy the movie color version, I think G1 colors can work well, but in Mixmaster's case, it could have been much, much better. Most of the G1 repaints on movie figures aren't as good as regular movie deco.

Actually, Mudflap, along with the other figures in his wave such as Ravage, Canon Bumblebee and Interrogator Barricade are already out.

There's a lot more to it than that. Bear in mind, some of the test shots that end up on Ebay were throw-aways from various factories, and there has been cases where quality control was much higher on a final production figure compared to a pre-production sample and test shot. Yeah and when were those molds tooled? At a time when petroleum did not cost as high as it got last year. The target market for Alternators was collectors. The target market for ROTF toys is kids. Had it been the other way around, we'd get much more movie accurate ROTF toys. The best comparison for ROTF toys would be to other mainline toys, not collectors items like Masterpiece and Alternators. Let's compare Energon Megatron to ROTF Megatron. The former is much more simple, less detailed, and it's gimmicks did not require as much intricate engineering. Same sizeclass, and if the economic situation wasn't as bad as it is presently, ROTF Megatron would be $40 much like Energon Megatron was. ROTF Megatron is also bigger, uses more plastic, and is more detailed. The comparison from collectors items to kids toys has been made, however where collectors items cost high due to complexity and exponentially more intricate, smaller pieces, kids toys get their cost from gimmicks and tooling needed for it. Sure Alternator Smokescreen is much more detailed than ROTF Megatron but why should Megatron cost less when it is much, much bigger and uses up way more plastic? ROTF Prime definitely does. Speaking of standouts, others IMO, include Skids, Mudflap(hate the idea of these 2 purposely written in as idiots who could), The Fallen, and voyager Megatron. Soundwave has completely sold out in some areas, but I think it's because its Soundwave. In my opinion, the figure isn't terrible but it's the worst ROTF deluxe so far. Even for Sounwave fans, I find it hard to recommend. Freaking Ravage turned out to be a better figure! RAVAGE!

Bad enough that the entire arm can fall off. If you catch the crack early, the super glue trick could fix it(letting super glue seep into the crack, and while it dries, constantly move the hinge so that the glue does not fuse the pin to the hinge). Yamato's band-aid to this problem was to use a pin with no knurling(knurling on pre-VF-1MAX releases was one 1 side of the pin). So VF-1S Focker to VF-1D have knurling on 1 side of the pin, however the breakages from the VF-1A Hikaru onward are nowhere near as prevalent as the Focker breakages. A few Hikaru 1A breakages, even less 1J, and so far, none reported on the VF-1D. No breakages reported so far on the VF-1 Max's.

Got my hands on voyager ROTF Megatron, best Megatron figure so far from the movie lines.

Have the remnants of one, neighbor broke mine over 15 years ago. Confirmed false 2 days ago, MSNBC even confirmed it last night, but the other sites are just having fun with it.

Holy hell that KO is ugly!

Considering that the factories for both Transformers, and KO products, as well as nearly the entire toy industry are based in China, how is this surprising at all? If someone really wanted to, they could make KO Yamato's but the amount of tooling needed to make a repro mold is most likely more expensive than something like a $6 Transformer with far less parts. Same reason you don't see Masterpiece bootlegs yet, too much money to tool up a reverse engineered mold for the high amount of small pieces.

New Pics

Get the upcoming reissue of Roy.

Did you see "Iceman: The Later Years" on SNL? The funny thing was, Val Kilmer reprised his role as Iceman!

It might not even fit 2 of them on there.

Completed toy Mighty Wings>Danger Zone

...and one Admiral's daughter!

That's painted.

Get the 21 and wait for a VF-11 repaint(most of us are itching for a Ravens paint scheme).

It would need the F110's for that though.